Here are some acts I saw from Sunday. Good day, but long.
Dirty Projectors:
Weird multi-harmony off tempo math pop with lots of treble. Bizarre I know, but it was interesting to see this work live. Pretentious at times, but that's what you'd expect from a Yale dropout.
Apples in Stereo:
Simple pop, rather langweilig. None of the songs seemed to differ or go anywhere, and they were one of the acts that really did not fit for me. Now I don't know much of the Apples' material, besides this one set, but I still have no idea how Elephant 6 thought/thinks this band fits on their label (Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel). I would maybe recommend this band to some lame singer/songwriter fans from the east coast, like Boston or something.
King Khan and his Shrines:
Hot funky stuff. The band was surprisingly classic in sound for contemporary R&B, which usually sounds over produced and watered down. King Khan worked his MC character and the crowd well, and his backing band, full of horns and a very thick bass line, was quite torrential (in an exaggerated blues sense). Hokey at times, but extremely enjoyable. One of the only boogie times I had on Sunday.
The Dodos:
This stupidly named band was one of the only groups I had not listened to before the festival, and they were delightful. Rich acoustic/electric guitar sound accompanied by interesting and exciting rhythms added a novel explosive aspect to what looks like simple acoustic emo on paper. The guitar playing was exeptional, very clever and fast, which sometimes I felt was due, in part, to the man's ridiculously impressive axe. The vocal sounded like a poor man's Morrissey, which surprisingly worked for an outside show. The recorded music I've heard of theirs since is ok/good, but i really recommend this band live outside in the sunshine.
M. Ward:
All I can say for this one is BORING. Just like Cat Power last year, you need to listen to M. Ward alone in your room or at a club.
Spoon:
Usual Spoon, but with horns. Still haven't seen them inside.
All in all, this was a good day.
km
M. Ward Boring? More like soothing. But I must agree he doesn't really work outside. I knew every song he played, and he played them all very different from the album form. I think he was trying to step it up for an outdoor festival but came up a little short. I just can't agree with boring when his voice starts jirating through my body.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your Apples in Stereo assessment. Pretty lame. And they even played the song from that car commercial that I like.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find M. Ward boring, but I wasn't blown away either. I definitely would rather listen to his CDs.
The Dodos were a nice surprise. I think I'll be checking more of them out.
Did anyone catch any of Cut Copy's set?
Well I wasn't there to see M. Ward, but I have seen him at Park West and it was a great show.
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