Day 4 of North Side Fest. June 14th, 2009.

North Side was finally winding down, but there were some interesting things going on…after doing the normal Sunday morning routine, I headed over to Bruar Falls, but first was a stop at Academy that produced Zork’s Tape Bruise (I thought the first press was out of print, but this copy was on clear wax…I guess I win!).  If you get a chance to snag this Oh Sees album you totes should.  It is basically John’s 4 track recordings, and a cd of all of the out of print eps.  I was happy to find it, although the number of Oh Sees records I have is becoming exceedingly large.

I considered buying Enter the Vaselines, but didn’t…and then headed to see the Browns play.

When I got to Bruar Falls I was one of maybe 5 people there for the show…but more people trickled in slowly, and the Browns ended up playing to a decent sized crowd at 3 in the afternoon.  They were tight, and the singer played on the floor.  I caught them at Market Hotel sometime last fall, and I can say they have grown as a band quite a bit since then.  I really enjoyed their set.  They are making 90’s influenced indie rock…you can see bits and pieces of your favorite bands in their music, but at the same time it still feels fresh.  I haven’t picked up their album yet, but I have been digging on these tracks that found in the mp3-o-sphere:

[mp3] The Browns- “For the Saints”
(off of the 1928 Label Sampler. Out of Print)

[mp3] The Browns- “Two Of You”
(off of Family History.  Buy it here.)

Enter the Vaselines was still sticking around in my head, so I headed up to Permanent Records…and just as expected it was a couple bucks cheaper than the other shops in Williamsburg.  So I snagged a copy of it…and well worth it too.

I met up with klk at Studio B for a totally packed out performance by the Dodos.  I really enjoyed Visitor, and the first two times I saw the Dodos…but this time it wasn’t the same.  Maybe it was that I was in the back of Studio B, but they didn’t have the same effect.  The sound was boomy, and I just couldn’t get into it.  We left after about three songs, and headed to The Diamond…which was a good decision.  I am interested in hearing the new Dodos album when it comes out though.

I didn’t do much else for the rest of the afternoon except listen to my new Vaselines collection (which is totally awesome…thanks Sub Pop!).  I headed over to Shea Stadium a little later than I was planning to, and unfortunately missed The Gutsies, but I did catch most of Knight School’s set and I was very happy that I did.    Knight school totally rocked.  I’m not going to say much more about them because I’m going to dedicate a post to them soon…but be on the look out.

Next up was So Cow, and as ya’ll probably already know his record on Tic Tac Totally has pretty much been my obsession of 2009.  These guys were in California earlier that morning…traveled all day…showed up to Shea Stadium during Knight School’s set, and played about an hour later.  Even though the three men that make up So Cow were exhausted from traveling they still managed to play for almost a full hour, and killed it.  So Co is just one of those bands that doesn’t have an off night, or that was the impression I got from them seeing them play a hand full of times in NYC over the past two months.  I also caught them again at The Bell House the following night.  I’m a little sad that I won’t get to see them play for a while, but I’m sure they will be back.  Oh and if you didn’t already see, So Cow’s album got a rad review on Pitchfork! (buy it here!)

At Shea Stadium…someone threw a chicken at So Cow (my first gif!?!):

I forgot to mention (therefore I’m adding this after I originally posted this) that the So Cow show at Shea Stadium was just about the most fun show I have been to in NYC…everyone was dancing (literally), having a good time, and just happy to be there.  I was really glad that I got to be part of it.  The chicken was thrown, but it was in good fun.  A great end to the fest.

Lots of pictures of So Cow can be found here.

North Side Festival Wrap Up:

Overall North Side Fest was pretty cool, and I commend L Magazine for taking on something so ambitious.  It brought lots of great music to the neighborhood, and overall I’m sure it helped out local businesses by bringing large groups of people out at all times of the day.

I think it was a great idea for there to be North Side Fest Badges, but I just feel like it didn’t give the badge holder enough benefits.  And here is why:

• The Badge didn’t guarantee entry to all of the shows.
  • Only 20% of the venue capacity was reserved for Badge holders, and if you weren’t there in time you didn’t get in.
    • There was also no effective way for the festival to track badge holders coming and going
      • Statements like “No Re-Entry for Badge Holders” were common, and I felt that it just wasn’t a fair way to treat people who had invested money in the whole weekend.
  • This was the main problem.
    • In order to get your moneys worth out of the badge you have to jump from show to show (it’s just not cost effective if you don’t), and not being guaranteed entry is lame.
    • Even if a show wasn’t sold out to the public…if 20% of the capacity was filled by badge holders, no more could get in.  This created problems with buzz bands like Real Estate.
  • Also it was really hard to take advantage of the “free drinks” that were available…you had to try really hard, and in the end I only got two.
    • I would almost like to see more drink specials at venues, rather than free drinks or drink specials at non-venues.

All in all, I think people would be willing to pay more for a badge if it ensured that they got into the shows they wanted to see.

My last questions about the Badges is how do bands get paid?  I know that North Side Fest people are at all the venues to count how many badge holders enter…but how is this money distributed?   I assume money got thrown toward Real Estate from North Side Fest because the badge holder capacity was sold out…but what about smaller shows that don’t attract that many badge holders?  Is any money given to those bands?  It is in the music lovers interest to buy the badge, especially if they are planning on seeing lots of shows…and while I wasn’t a fan of SIN way of dealing with NSF…their flier did raise some questions. I’m not siding with SIN (they knew what they were getting into when they sided with North Side Fest to begin with), but it did make me wonder where the money from the badges went.  One would hope that some of your money from the badge purchase is going to the bands you actually got to see.

These were all thoughts that came up during the festival, and since I have a blog I feel that this is as good a place as any to air these opinions.  I think a little better planning could go into pairing bands with venues of appropriate size (ie Real Estate, The Van Pelt, and the Beets could have all used a larger venue).

These things will all be worked out with time.  I hope to see more national acts at the Festival next year (this year was a little bit heavy on the local, but there is nothing wrong with that…we have a great scene), but overall I congratulate L Magazine, and North Side Festival on a successful first year.   Lots of great bands played, and I felt that it was really good to see all of the venues, bands, promoters, and local media working together to make this happen.  North Side brought people out to Williamsburg and Greenpoint that might not normally venture into North Brooklyn to see bands play and be part of the festivities…we even got calls from friends asking what shows they should go too. because they wanted to check out a North Side event.  Basically what I’m trying to say is: YR doing a great job, and I look forward to it next year.

Links:

More on So Cow here.

More on Thee Oh Sees here.

More on Permanent Records here.

All of my North Side Festival Coverage can be found here.

This concludes my North Side Fest coverage until next year.  Now back to normal posting.

As we are getting further and further away from North Side Festival I am finding it slightly less relevant to be posting about it…so I’m going to try kick these last two (maybe three) posts out this week.

I had a busy Saturday June 13th: farmers market, going away picnics, and North Side Fest.  And I did pretty much everything I wanted to do too.

After the market and the picnic we headed over to Spike Hill, and caught Anamanaguchi.  I knew very little about them other than hearing their cover of Wavves’ “So Bored” which is actually really good (see below).  We got there right as they were taking the stage at around 3:30, and the first thing I noticed was that the drummer was wearing an Ink and Dagger shirt (something rare these days), then the bass player made sure his base was in tune by playing a Piebald bass line (just notes…and it makes me wonder where they are originally from).  Anamanaguchi played a 30min set of intense Nintendo fueled mostly instrumental rock.  They had video being projected behind them, and were very enjoyable to watch.  My only complaint was that someone in the crowd yelled out a song and they didn’t play it.  I understand when a band hits a level of popularity that they don’t play all requests, but I just felt that these guys are young enough of a band to fulfill the one request shouted at them.  They were entertaining…and I wouldn’t mind at all seeing them play live again.

[mp3]Anamanaguchi- “So Bored” (Wavves Cover)

Next up was Bishop Allen at Studio B.  What I have heard of Bishop Allen’s music I have enjoyed, but I have to say if it wasn’t for the North Side Fest badge I would not have payed the $17 cover charge that Studio B had to see them play.  We got there kinda early to take advantage of the free Heineken open bar, but sadly the 150 bottles of beer (yep there weren’t that many) that they had to give away were gone before we got there.  The crowd at the show wasn’t totally packed, but very crowded.  Bishop Allen put on a totally entertaining show, and engaged the dorky audience.  When I say dorky this is in an entirely different dorkiness than the crowd at Franklin Bruno.  All in all Saturday at North Side Fest has been fun so far.

Next up was a quick stop at home, and then off to see Woods at The Shank.  At the Shank I was finally able to secure my first free drinks of North Side Fest…two Colt 45s.  Gross, but it was free.  We got to see Woods play…they sounded good as always, but then again if it wasn’t at the Shank it probably would have sounded better.  I got some good pictures though:

A couple more photos from Woods’ set can be found here.

At the point it felt like the heat death of the universe had set in.  Cigarette smoke had filled The Shank from the sold out crowd that was there to see Woods, and temperature had risen so high that we had to get out of there.

We headed up to see The Van Pelt at CoCo66.  The cool night air was welcomed.  When we got to CoCo66 the capacity for badge holders had not been met yet, nor had it sold out for people paying to get in.  I showed my badge and walked into the room in the back of CoCo66…but that was as far as I got.  I could literally only take two steps into the room.  More people were trying to fit in, but the room was so packed that people just started to stand in the door way.  At this point I could only see Chris Leo’s face in a mirror on the wall, and I said fuck it.  It wasn’t enjoyable to be in there, and while I’m sure The Van Pelt were great…stopping at the Diamond for a good beer was better than standing in a room where you can’t see anything. Oh if I hadn’t already mentioned it…North Side Festival was full of shitty beer.

Now it was back to the Shank.  We caught Blues Control…a band that I have been grooving on since December…and as expected they were good, but again one of those bands that I think I like better on the record player than live.  I really enjoyed their set though, and am looking forward to the new album on Siltbreeze.

Blues Control:

After Blues Control we hung around the extremely hot, humid, and smokey  Shank until Kurt Vile.   I think I can safely say that The Shank is now my second least favorite venue in the city.   Because of the conditions inside we were hanging out in the park, and noticed that someone fell asleep on Leah’s bike:

The show started to drag on really long.  Kurt Vile played in the War On Drugs earlier in the evening (thanks McG)…and not all of the Violators were there for them to start playing at 1am.  Kurt Vile and the Violators finally went on at around 2:30am.  At this point I was exhausted from the heat, and the Violators turned Viles lovely psychedelic folk in droney noise.  I’m totally down with droney noise…but what I really wanted was for Vile to be cranking out the folk.  What I really love about Kurt Vile was essentially lost in the full band live format that preformed.  Not to say that they sounded bad, they did not…it’s just not what I wanted to see.  We stayed for about 20 or 25 minutes until we decided to head out.  I wouldn’t mind seeing the Violators again if I was in the right mood.  What it comes down to is that I long to see Kurt Vile solo again, but I’m not sure if that will happen anytime soon.

Links:

More on the Van Pelt here.

More on Woods here.

More on Kurt Vile here.

More of my North Side Fest coverage can be found here (including Day 1 and 2 wrap ups).

Day 2. Friday.

I had a schedule all planned out for this evening, and overall things went as expected (with one mishap).

We started the evening off with a wonderful dinner at Diner, and then headed to Pete’s Candy Store.  I was kind of asking myself: “If I have a badge why am I going to a free show?” but the answer was easy: Franklin Bruno.

Franklin Bruno played about a 45 minute set which included songs spanning his entire career (even one written for his band when in high school).  The crowd wasn’t huge, but extremely attentive.  Bruno holds a place in my heart, and his lyrics will stick in my head for ever.  And “no, I won’t wear that flag pin” either.  It really surprises me how few people know who Bruno is without out jogging their memories (even music writers), but that’s ok…Franklin, thank you for playing Pete’s it was a pleasure to see you preform.

Next up was Real Estate at Death By Audio.  This happens to be the mishap.  We took a little longer than we thought getting over to DBA, and when we got there we were told that the show was not sold out, that Real Estate was about to play, but no more badge holders were allowed in until some of them left.  I think this is a flawed system…how did the people at the door know if badge holders left?  I know I sure as hell wasn’t telling anyone when I left a venue.  Whatever…we moved on.

Next was Public Assembly.  Which I must say is a super strange space.  We walked in during Dinowalrus who I’m not sure I totally understand. Sat through Sisters…which wasn’t my cup of tea.  Then on the the main attraction: SCREAMING FEMALES!  As expected, after seeing them the week before, they blew out my ears, and made my eyes bleed.  Totes amazing:

Picked up the first two Screaming Females LPs (What if Someone Is Watching Their TV and Baby Teeth), and both happened to be on colored vinyl.  A delightful addition to the collection.

Since we had the badges we hopped on our bikes, and headed to Bruar Falls.  We got there right as The Beets were setting up around 1am, and that was our goal.  Honestly I have never seen Bruar Falls that crowded before…and I have been going there a lot lately.  The Beets played, and were really impressive. And graceful while undressing too (one of them took off his shirt in the coolest manner possible, almost theatrical).  They played the only song of theirs I knew too:

[mp3] The Beets- “Happy But On Our Way”
(via i guess i’m floating. off of The Beets Spit in the Faces of Those Who Don’t Want to be Cool (I think?).  Buy it here.)

The Beets were awesome considering no one should ever have to followed Screaming Females.  I’m looking forward to seeing the Beets again tomorrow when Screaming Females haven’t already set a benchmark for the night.  I really need to pick up that album…kind of can’t believe I don’t have it yet.

I have been covering some of these bands a lot:

More on Franklin Bruno here.

More on Screaming Females here.

More on Real Estate here.

Next up day 3, well maybe not next…

North Side Fest (NSF) pretty much made Williamsburg and Greenpoint explode this past weekend.  If I hadn’t already been aware of all of the happenings I would be asking questions like “Why the fuck is there a large group of people standing at Meserole and Banker wondering how the hell of get back to Bedford?”  But instead I was giving these people directions.

My NSF experience started by picking up a badge next to MHOW, and taking in the Heineken lounge (for bands, press, badge holders, ect) where gift bags and what not were being given away.  It wasn’t really the type of place I would like to lounge, but then again if I didn’t live in Greenpoint I probably would have found it to be a nice little stop during my days of music. And there was free beer.

After that I headed over to The Cameo to catch Ducktails and Julianna Barwick.  The Cameo is in the back of the Loving Cup Cafe…it is one of these random NYC spaces where it feels like you are walking into a secret club because you have to walk all the way though the cafe, past the bathrooms, and into a large room with a very high ceiling.  The room was black, cold, and had a crazy piece of art hanging above the stage.

Ducktails was as good as I thought he would be, and played for roughly 40 minutes.  A nice set of tropical noise to start the weekend.  While watching Matt Mondanile I realized that he basically plays in the same manner as many harsh noise acts I have seen…lots of pedals, electronics, etc.  Really pretty amazing.  I’m just glad that it was Ducktails rather than someone like Sickness (I have to be in the mood for that).  Also confirmed that the LP is not totally sold out yet, because he had them for sale.

It was actually a really great experience to see him play in such a cold room since his music gives me warm feelings inside.  Sensory overload.

Julianna Barwick followed Ducktails, and while being enjoyable I think that her music is something that I prefer to listen to on recording.  We stayed for half the set then headed to our next show.

(for mp3s of Ducktails and Barwick click here.)

Next up was Marnie Stern and Magic Markers…I’m not going to recap this, because I already did…if you want to know how this turned out click here for my post from last week.  Not fun…that about sums it up.

This was a slow start to the festival.  Only catching two bands on the first day…it picked up though.  Day 2 recap to come soon.

Last night was the first night of the North Side Festival.  It started off really well with a great set by Ducktails at Cameo.  We then headed over to Live at Shea Stadium to catch Marnie Stern and Magic Markers.

When we got to the show the guy at the door said that they were not accepting North Side Badges, and there was a sign saying that Marnie Stern canceled.  He also handed me this flier.

I have a lot of respect for what they stand for, and agree that all ages shows are very important (there are many all ages show promoters in Brooklyn and I think it is essential to the music community)…but on the other hand North Side Fest and L Magazine announced from the beginning that you had to be 21 years old to buy a badge.

A lot of the bands that are playing the North Side Fest also play all ages shows, and as far as I know the shows at the Shank and Death By Audio will be accepting badges and will be all ages.  Reserving 20% of the room for people that purchase badges is a small amount, and Shea Stadium is a big place….and I’m pretty sure that at least 20% of most shows are made of people over the age of 21.  The 80% of the space that was sold as individual tickets was enough to cover the guarantee of any bigger band playing the festival (i.e. Hold Steady).

I feel that Strength In Numbers new what they were getting into when the signed on to be affiliated with the North Side Fest (since their show was being advertised on the Fest’s website, and still is).

I really enjoy Shea Stadium, and think it is a wonderful venue… and I will still support any Strength In Numbers show that have bands I like playing. It just appears that they wanted to ride the publicity wave of the festival, and then take an ideological stance at the last minute (this is evident by the fact that they knew that shoes were being given away to the bands).

I feel that if you want to take a stance against the ‘over 21′ aspect of a festival throw a competing show like the Live at Shea Stadium show with So Cow on Sunday, or Todd P’s Un-Amplified Acoustic BBQ.

End Note. This is an independent blog.  I do it for me.  I’m not supported by any source other than myself, and have been promoting North Side because I’m happy that it is happening right in my backyard.  I support Shea Stadium, Todd P, Death By Audio, and the like in a similar way because I think they are doing good things.  When I post about shows on this blog it is because I honestly like the band, or I am interested in seeing them play.  I don’t post about mp3s that are sent to me unless I can say that I truly enjoy it.  What it comes down to is… I just don’t like when people advertise in a misleading way, and that is what happened in this instance with the show last night.  Also note that the flier above is the views of Strength In Numbers, and not necessarily the views of the bands that played or the people that run Shea Stadium.

Although this was a disappointment it’s over now, and I’m looking forward to tonight.

UPDATE: North Side Fest responds to the situation via Brooklyn Vegan.  Now all we need SIN to respond?

I have been talking about Real Estate a lot over the past couple months.  They have had several really wonderful 7″s come out, a great tour EP, and are gearing up for (I think ) two 12″s this year.  One on Mexican Summer and one on Woodsist.

Underwater Peoples, who released Real Estate’s first 7″,  just put out a really great label sampler and I just haven’t been able to get one of the Real Estate tracks out of my head (this track also appeared on their Atlantic City Express Way Tour CD-R).  “Beach Comber” has been pretty much been on repeat, and I’m having a hard time not making everyone I know listen to it.    The Grateful Dead influence is coming through strong on this song, and I think it really shows this bands ability to jam.  This band is one that brings good vibes, and when I hear them, and specifically this song, I feel like the summer is going to be infinite.

[mp3] Real Estate- “Beach Comber”
(via Stereogum)  Buy the Real Estate’s 7″s from Woodsist and Underwater Peoples (click though to buy)

The Underwater Peoples Comp has a pretty stellar line up including tracks a couple Real Estate (including “Beach Comber”), Ducktails, Frat Dad, Julian Lynch, and more.   Buy the Underwater Peoples Comp here.  It’s a CD, but it’s only $4.50…that is the right price for a CD.

Real Estate are also playing North Side Festival this weekend!

Tomorrow, June 11th:

These Are Powers @ midnight
Javelin @ 11pm
Real Estate @ 10pm
Air Waves @ 9pm
Organs @ 8pm
Death by Audio
Doors at 7:30pm
$10

More Real Estate tour dates can be found here.
More on Real Estate here.
Photo via The Trip Wire.

My recommendations for tonight:

• Ducktails (8pm) and Julianna Barwick (9pm) @ The Cameo

• Sharon Van Etten (9:30) @ Union Pool

• Magic Markers and Marnie Stern (not sold on Marnie yet, maybe she will do it for me live?  I’m guessing 11pm?) @ Live At Shea Stadium
  • Marnie Stern CANCELED!  This show does not accept North Side Fest Badges!!!! Lame.

Look for tweets from me here during all of this weekends’ festivities!

I was totally unfamiliar with this band until yesterday…and that makes me really sad.  My buddy, Mike, was looking at the North Side Festival line up, and was like The Van Pelt are playing?  At the time I didn’t realize who that was, and he was like it’s Ted Leo’s brother…Chris Leo.

I didn’t think much of this initially, but it sat in my head a couple hours…I remembered that two of the Leo’s, and not Ted, were in one of my favorite emo bands: Native Nod.  Now this isn’t the type of emo that people think of today (that combination of candy coated punk-core that has both pretty singing and screaming), but rather when emo actually meant something…I guess in simple terms a sub-sub genre of post-punk or post-hardcore.  Native Nod were contemporaries of Moss Icon, The Hated, Cap n’ Jazz, Heroin, and Antioch Arrow.  Well, some people might not say that but growing up in the south far away from where that music was happening…I feel that it is pretty accurate.

What truly made Native Nod unique was the singer, and that was complemented by the music perfectly.  Chris Leo’s vocals ranged from spoken word to adolescent screaming.  To this day their discography titled Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World is still an album I go back to when making mix tapes.  Listening to Native Nod brings be back to when I was younger, but at the same time I still find it timeless.

[mp3] Native Nod- “Tangled”
(from Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World. Buy it here)

The Van Pelt formed in 1993 and played music until about 1997.  The band consisted of Christ Leo, as previously mentioned,  Brian Maryansky (who went on to play in Jets to Brazil), Toko Yasuda (ex-member of Blonde Redhead, who also played in The Lapse with Chris Leo in the late ’90s), and Neil O’Brian.

This year they reformed and started playing out at a couple of shows including South By South West, another date in DC with Frodus, and this Saturday as part of the North Side Fest.

The Van Pelt remind me a lot of a matured Native Nod but where the adolescent screaming had been there is now singing (not knocking Native Nod at all, that is just how it is).  I have only been able to grab a couple of mp3s, but right now it looks like I might be ditching Kurt Vile for The Van Pelt.  Check it:

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “The Speeding Train”
(from the s/t EP.  But it here.)

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “His Saxophone is my Guitar”
(from Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves. Buy it here.)

[mp3] The Van Pelt- “My Bouts With Pouncing”
(from The Sultans of Sentiment. Buy it here.)

According to North Side Festival, The Van Pelt will play their first ever Brooklyn show (despite being from the New York/New Jersey area) this weekend! The show has also been curated by The Van Pelt.

This Saturday, June 11th:

The Van Pelt @ 11pm
The Holy Childhood @ 10pm
Ghost Gamblers @ 9pm
Coco 66
Doors at 8pm
$10

If you need a guide to the festivities check out my North Side Fest schedule here.