6 posts tagged “music”

Going to the New Pornographers concert on Friday reminded me how much I love songs that build up slowly to a climax. Here are my favourite build up songs:

1. Bleeding Heart Show - New Pornographers (also probably in my top ten favourite songs of all time)
2. Wine Song - Cat Empire
3. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
4. The Mariner's Revenge Song - The Decemberists (this song is unusual in that it's the lyrics that create the climax, rather than the music. Colin Meloy is the most creative, articulate lyricist I have heard)
5. Kajra Re - from Bunty Aur Babli

Honourable mentions:

• Turn and Run - Neil Finn
• Come Downstairs and Say Hello - Guster
• I Am John - Loney Dear
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• John Allen Smith Sails - Okkervil River

Those are the ones that came to mind - I'm sure there's a bunch of good ones I've missed.

I found it a little ironic that a number of (supposedly environmentally-minded) Seattle people are planning to fly to New York to attend the Live Earth concert for global warming. Aircraft engine emissions, anyone? Duh :)

Btw, the concerts are being streamed online for anyone who wants to watch remotely.

The first sunny long weekend of the year in the US is Memorial Day (roughly equivalent to Anzac Day, I believe). For music lovers in Seattle, the Memorial Day weekend means Sasquatch - an annual outdoor music festival held at the Gorge, a natural amphitheatre about two hours' drive from Seattle that's a popular concert venue during spring and summer.

The two-hour drive to the gorge is pretty cool. Along the way you get to see the contrast in landscape between western and eastern Washington. Seattle is in a sort of huge protective valley between the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east, so for the initial stretch the scenery is lush and green and mountainous and the weather is overcast. Once you get past the Cascades though, things change quickly. Eastern Washington is flat and dry, clear and sunny, and you can see for miles and miles to all sides - what Americans would call "big sky country".

Next door to the concert venue itself is a huge campground which fills right up for big concerts and festivals like Sasquatch, when people flock to the Gorge from all over Washington, and even from neighbouring states and across the border. The atmosphere is pretty festive. We set up our tents between the two cars (Justin decided to mark our territory with garden gnomes and pinwheels), tapped the keg, and chilled out for a couple of hours.

We headed to the amphitheatre around noon, by which time it was already very hot. We were going through that water like... water. There were three stages, the bands we ended up seeing were:

• The Hold Steady

We headed back to the campsite buggered and very tanned around midnight. Maggi noodles have rarely tasted so good.

Woke up pretty early the next morning, not because I felt I'd had enough sleep, but because it was boiling hot inside the tent, and it was such a beautiful morning it would have been a waste to be inside. I went for a bit of a walk, had a bite, and made hot dogs for everyone when they woke up (cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast). Then we tried to make more of a dent in the keg.

The acts we saw on Sunday were:

Patrick Wolf

• Stars of Track and Field - we liked their album, but they were pretty meh live. We ended up falling asleep in the sunshine and waking up about an hour later to find a completely different band on the stage.
• Patrick Wolf - after discovering him only recently thanks to Sam, I was REALLY hanging out to see him. He is quite the showman, very charismatic and played all sorts of instruments. It was a fun show, and because it was on a smaller stage and he doesn't seem to be big at all in the States (even on an indie scale), I got to be pretty close. This was probably the highlight of Sasquatch for me along with Arcade Fire.
• The Polyphonic Spree - this band was kind of crazy. They had about 20 people on stage, I could only describe it as a rock choir. It was cool.
• Tokyo Police Club - good, but not particularly memorable

So - I'd been warned by my friends that every year, the weather goes a little crazy in some way at Sasquatch. Last year it was hail. Apparently it really, really hurt. Well, this year it was wind. Fucking ridiculous wind. Imagine a strong wind. Then imagine a strong wind blowing k's and k's down a wind tunnel (ie. the gorge) right to where you are sitting. In a mini skirt. Bone-chilling stuff.

The wind was so strong that they had to stop the music on the mainstage for a few hours so they could take down all the suspended lights and speakers, which were swinging dangerously over the stage. We tried to tough it out in the gale for a few hours, even going hobo style and sheltering in cardboard boxes, but then it just got ridiculous - once we'd gotten over the novelty of the cardboard boxes (which lasted for a while, I must say), we weren't even enjoying ourselves. We ended up sleeping in the air conditioned Xbox lounge just to get some warmth, which was lame. Most of our crew decided to wait it out for Spoon, but Sean and I had already seen them at Bumbershoot last year, so we passed and headed back to the campsite.

We came back to a disaster zone. Unsecured belongings flying around, tents nearly flattened by the wind, bewildered-looking campers wandering around trying to get their dishevelled campsites back into order. It was not looking good. One of our tents (which I'd borrowed from Jordan) was practically flat to the ground, and we spent about 45 finger-numbing minutes trying to rescue it. We finally gave up and made an executive decision that we would pack everything up, and drive home as soon as the others got back. It was just not going to be a fun night to camp out. It was only when we took down Jordan's tent that we realised the strength of the wind had ripped through the groundsheet and splintered one of the fibreglass poles! I'd never seen anything like it before.

So my inaugural Sasquatch weekend was cut short by one night, but it was still quite the adventure! I'll definitely be back next year.

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)
Inspired by Stephanie.  

1. Shakin' - Dandy Warhols
2. Robbers - Cold War Kids
3. Annie Waits - Ben Folds
4. Zephyr Song - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
5. What It Means - Mates of State
6. Why Worry - Dire Straits
7. Stand - R.E.M.
8. The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
9. A Widow's Toast - Neko Case
10. Where'd You Go - Mighty Mighty Bosstones

*gazes into crystal ball* Well, I see lots of interrogatives: "what", "why", "where"... it appears that many unanswered questions lie in my destiny...

Eh, who I am I kidding. It's glorified shuffle mode :)

This is pretty awesome news! I do wonder whether they will be able to recreate the original magic, but if anyone can do it Neil Finn can. It's not like he's dropped his game in the last ten years. Here's hoping they do a show in Seattle...

Excerpt:
Neil Finn is auditioning drummers and looks set to re-form Crowded House for a much-anticipated world reunion tour.

Finn, the superband's former frontman and songwriter, has joined forces with bass player Nick Seymour and they began auditioning drummers in Melbourne yesterday.

They need to replace founding drummer Paul Hester, who committed suicide two years ago.

Further auditions were planned in Los Angeles and Auckland, Finn's office spokeswoman Julia Connolly told New Zealand's Dominion Post.

"At the moment they're just working at getting the band together, so they need to find the right people.

"Something's formally coming out once the band is in place. But until there's a band there's nothing to say."

The confirmation follows speculation that Finn wanted to re-form the group and launch a 12-month world tour to follow the release of a solo album in March.

Catchiest song ever. (Listen at your own risk.)

Speaking of music, Modest Mouse's first single from their new album just got released online: http://www.monqui.com/files/music/m3u/modestmouseDashboard.m3u. I have to say I'm not so enthused. It just sounds so... generic. If it weren't for Isaac Brock's vocals, it could be any band, which is a pity because I like MM's unique sound.

And these are some upcoming Seattle concerts I am looking forward to:

• 27th Jan - Rocky Votolato
• 29th Jan - Cat Empire
• 2nd Feb - Trucks instore
• 15th Feb - Gomez / Ben Kweller
• 27th Feb - Snow Patrol / OK Go / Silversun Pickups (WOW. What a lineup.)