ACL Festival Day 3

Providing the entrance soundtrack to the final day of Austin City Limits Music Festival was Sound Tribe Sector Nine. STS9, a super spacey phsychadelic trance outfit from Santa Cruz California, is a six piece synth heavy band that has interested me more than any other band in what you could call the electronic jam genre. Having seen them a couple times before in Minneapolis, I wasn't too disappointed to miss them, but it was nice to hear them from a distance and have some cool tunes to accompany the walk into the festival.



The first band we saw on Sunday was one of the best surprises the weekend had to offer, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. I had seen Grace's name around before but never heard her music, and what I had read about her had been overhemingly positive, so we thought it was worth a shot. Grace plays keyboards and guitar, and is quite a musician on both instruments. She was at times literally jumping up and down while playing the keys, she was so overcome with the spirit to move. And although she had a perfectly capable (read: bad-ass) lead guitar player, she still stepped up to the front of the stage frequently to strap on a guitar and rock. Did I mention she can sing? Well she can. She can fucking rip. She has a really cool, big bluesy voice for a skinny white girl, and the way she commanded the stage was downright sexy. Between the singing, guitar playing, dancing and all around rocking, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals made me a fan almost instantly and I am really excited to see her open for Gov't Mule on Halloween at the O'Shaughnessy Theatre.

heres a brief video i took of Grace and her band-the quality is not great, (turn down the volume) but at the end she does this awesome jump while shredding some geet.







We had to leave Grace's dynamite show a little early beacuse Ziggy Marley was playing on the smallest stage of all, the Austin Kiddie Limits Stage. As the name suggests, this was a stage for youngsters, but there were no Teletubbies or Barneys here. They had about the first 50 feet roped off for a nice sit down area for parents and their little children, and there were hundreds of kids around, doing things like getting their faces painted and getting punk rock haridos with painted mohawks, learning to be an M.C., playing around with instruments, and doing breakdancing workshops. Contributing to the abundance of kids was the fact that children 10 and younger got to go to the festival free with their parents, making it a very family friendly atmosphere.

Ziggy was scheduled to play a quick 15 minute set but ended up doing more like 45 minutes or so, and it was a spectacular, intimate, acoustic performance, with everyone being very hush hush and couteous of the youngsters' first taste of the blessed reggae music.












After Ziggy played, Paul Green's School of Rock All Stars played a set, with about 10 or so little teenage prodigies blasting away on guitars, drums, and vocals. Paul Green started the first school of it's kind it Austin, where kids and teenagers learn the finer points of rock and roll. A couple of them were very very impressive, and some of them were clearly no older than 13. They played Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Megadeath, and some originals too. This little kid was sitting next to us, grooving and clapping his little hands.







He kept smiling at Brianna, until I yelled "Quit lookin at my girlfriend you little punk!" His mom gave me a mean look, but the little brat decided to wise up and keep his eyes to himself.


Bloc Party and Lucinda Williams played at the same time, which casued one of surprisingly few scheduling conflicts for us all weekend. Bloc Party is an English band (the fourth immensely popular English act at ACL) that plays English indie rock with a bit of an arty feel. Although it was fun to see a gay, black, British man greet the Texas crowd with a friendly "Howdy y'all!", somehow they were not all that exciting live and we quickly decided Lucida was where it was at.



As we neared the stage Lucinda was on, we heard a lazy, slow cover of "Riders on the Storm", and knew we'd made the right call. Lucinda was wasted, that much was clear. Her singing was a little slurred and she was super chatty between songs. Apparently this is not uncommon for Lucinda Williams. Another reason it was obvious she was tipsy was her rant against the war in Iraq. Of course, she didn't actually say Iraq, referring instead to the "fighting overseas" or some such nonsense, but it was obvious she was talking about Iraq. Now don't get me wrong, you don't have to be drunk to publicly take a stand against the war, but you could tell she was a tiny bit unsure of herself as she tiptoed around the subject, and the alcohol was giving her a little extra courage. Before she played a song called "Get Right with God" she called out Christians who support the war, saying that it was an immoral and unchristian war, and then she encouraged Christians to themselves "get right with god" and help stop said war. You could sense that a lot of people in the crowd were not thrilled with this political banter, and one guy nearby us (perhaps jokingly?) yelled, "Stick to the music!"

It was the only mention of the war from any of the performers, (even though it was not a direct mention) and it was great to see someone face that contentious issue, knowing that some of the people in the audience would gripe about it.
The crowd over at Lucinda was much older and whiter than that of Bloc Party, and I felt like her anti-war tirade would have been better recieved and even celebrated by the younger, more diverse Bloc Party fans. In any case, she put on a good show, despite not playing "Passionate Kisses", which may be my favorite song by her. She strutted about the stage dressed in all black with a cowboy hat on, while occasionally playing the keyboards that sat front and center stage.





Regina Spektor, the cute and smiley 27 year-old who was born in Moscow drew so many teenage girls than I thought I may be at a Justin Timberlake concert. There were seriously thousands of little girls huddled around, and this was without question the most packed show of the weekend. Athough she was on one of the biggest stages, it was nearly impossible to move anywhere in the thick crowd, and our usual method of advancing toward the stage on either side was not effective at all. She has a really cool, unique voice and all the little kiddies were singing along with big smiles on their faces.




My Morning Jacket was on the big stage next, and Jim James was rocking a crazy long white wig for the whole show. Common was a last minute addition to the lineup, as Rodrigo and Gabriela cancelled, so we got to check him out for a bit. I really like Common, hip-hop needs more intelligenet artists like him.

Ziggy Marley was, for some absurd reason, booked on the tent stage, one of the smallest stages at the festival. There were thousands of people in that small space. It was, along with Ms. Regina Spektor, the only mismanaged stage debacle of the weekend. We were glad we got to see him earlier in the day, because it was way too crowded and we couldnt get close to the action. As his set went on, I was surprised at how familiar I was with his orginal material. He, like his brother, did some of his father's legendary songs, but Ziggy can draw from a lenghty musical career and moreso than Stephen is his own performer. Songs like "Love is my Religion", "Dragonfly", "True to Myself", and "Rainbow in the Sky" are Ziggy's own fantastic songs. I own his "Draonfly" album, and it is spectacular.




Bob Dylan was hands down the biggest show of the weekend, and it was the very last. Every other stage went dark as the legend had nearly all of the 65,000 people in attendance clamoring for spots to sit. Older folks had staked out their spot with their folding chairs hours beforehand, and young parents with babies excitedly awaited Bobby D to start. We saw one cute lil guy in a stroller wearing a "Baby's first Dylan show" t-shirt. Booby D started off his set with "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35", and also played classics like "It Aint Me, Babe", "Watching the River Flow", "Tangled Up in Blue", and "Highway 61 Revisited". He also played some newer tunes like "Thunder on the Mountain" and "Workingman's Blues #2". "Like A Rolling Stone" and "I Shall Be Released were the songs he wisely chose for the encore.

At the beginning of the show, his voice was so hoarse, and his lyrics so unintelligible that I thought he may have been intentionally trying to thin out the crowd so that he could really get down to business and rock with his real fans. And, while he started out on the guitar, he soon moved over to the right side of the stage, where he played piano for the remainder of the show. I had seen him do this before, in 2002 when he toured with The Dead, but from what I understand he usually doesn't play the piano. As the set went on, his voice seemed to get looser and he seemed more relaxed. The guy is a living legend at 66 years old, although some people like to complain about his voice, I think we are lucky that he is still tourng at all.




Bob had capped off a fantastic weekend of music, and the festival had impressed Brianna and I to no end. We saw about three dozen or so awesome acts play at the festival, and a couple more at local nightclubs to boot. There was 140 bands at the festival, so even with all we saw, there was tons more action that we missed. Before we left Austin a couple days later, we had the chance to check out Stevie Ray Vaughn's larger than life statue sitting in a beautiful park next to the Colorado River, and visit a small gas station turned bar where Janis Joplin played some of her first gigs. Austin is an incredible town, and I would highly recommend it to any music fan.

ACL Festival Day 2

The Ike Reiily Assassanation is a band that, whenever possible, doesn't hit the stage until after midnight, so when I saw that the IRA would be performing a noon set at ACL, I was both thrilled and appalled. Granted, the other bands slated to play the days bigger slots probably had more fans than the Chicago five piece group, but Ike's brand of rock and roll is faster and more rowdy and more deserving of late night billing than most. So, being a smaller fish in a pond of...well, whales, Ike's band was relegated to an all too brief half hour set to kick off Day 2 of ACL.

Arriving at the festival just before noon on Saturday, there was already a crowd of a couple hundred dedicated and excited fans hovering around the Ausin Ventures stage where the IRA would soon tear through a handful of songs. There we sat waiting in the hot sun for them to start, and when the band started it was apparent that these were tried and true Ike fans. Many people sang along, and after the set flew by, the band was out in the crowd socializing with old freinds who made the trip from the Chicago area and meeting old fans for the first time who said things like "I saw you guys for the first time in New York a few years ago and have been a huge fan ever since." We were hoping we'd get to spend some quality time backstage with the one band we had connections to at the festival, but alas, the IRA had their first ever gig in Mexico that very same night and couldn't stick around. So we said our goodbyes and dove into some shade.

After a little break from the sun, we saw a bit of the set from former Mavericks frontman Raul Malo. The Mavericks were a pretty cool honkytonk country band with a bit of a Latin flavor. My favorite songs by them were "What a Cryin Shame" and "Oh What a Thrill". Unfortunately, he didnt play either of those songs. But, he did cover a Dwight Yokum number called "It only Hurts Me When I Cry". Very uplifting indeed. This was really cool because I had seen Raul's voice compared to Dwight's before, and Mr. Yokum is one of my favorite country artists. He also sang that "Besame Mucho" (kiss me much) song that Sanjaya sang on American Idol. Sadly, that is the only way I know that song, which I probably should not admit, but it's true.

Again, the diversity of bands at this festival was astonishing. This particular act drew out thousands of older country music fans and their children. In Fact, this was by far the most kid-friendly festival I have ever been to, and not only did parents bring their youngsters, but they allowed their tweeniebopper kids to go to the festival also, as there were thosands of fresh faced youngsters wandering around in packs.

The legendary Soul Stirrers were next on our agenda, and they were absolutely fantastic. Hailing from a small town in Texas, the band has undergone many lineup changes since they started out around the year 1930 (not a typo!). They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and are the only Gospel quartet that can boast of that honor. Once fronted by the late great Sam Cooke, this is a band that had Christians and athiests alike praising the power of music. Soul, gospel, faith and emotion came togehter masterfully when Willie Rogers, the current leader of the Soul Stirrers belted out "A Change Gonna Come" after paying tribute to the man who wrote that brilliant preotest anthem, Sam Cooke. Rogers displayed more soul in his singing than anyone I had ever seen, and it was inspirational to be in the prescence of a group that has had so much impact and positive influence on several generations of muscicians. Another highlight from their set was when Wille Rogers left the stage to start a train of fans around while leading a rousing rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In".





Stephen Marley, the second son of Bob, was already playing on the main stage when the Soul Stirrers finished. He has got to have one of the biggest, most genuine and contagious smiles of anyone I have ever seen. Maybe it was all the Ganja being openly smoked throughout the crowd, but the energy surrounding the stage and the music was overwhelmingly optimistic and positive. Stephen sang some of his fathers most poignant and well known reggae classics like "No Woman, No Cry", "Jammin", and "Could You Be Loved", along with lesser known gems like "Punky Reggae Party" and "Duppy Conquerer".

Back over in the Revival Tent where the Soul Stirrers had just played, New Jersey bluegrass outfit Railroad Earth were sawing away on fiddles and various other stringed instruments. Packing the tent to the gills with their east coast take on bluegrass, RRE is a really fun band to see and were the one band I had already seen earlier in the year, at 10KLF back home in Minnesota.



Next we very briefly watched a very old and tattered looking Steve Earle, but it wasn't all that great so we moved on and tried to get a good spot for what was our most anticipated show of the day, Arctic Monkeys.

When the White Stripes, who were scheduled to be Saturday night's headliners, cancelled at the last moment due to Meg White's "Acute Anxiety", we, along with thousands of other fans, were very disapointed, but with so many other great bands playing, it was easy to get over that and instead focus on what we would be seeing. Arctic Monkeys were origianlly going to be palying head to head against Muse, another English band that is far bigger overseas than they are here. Unlike Arctic Monkeys though, Muse had played the ACL festival before, and had impressed the important people enough that instead of playing their set at the same time as Arctic Monkeys, they were invited to fill in for The White Stripes on the Main Stage a couple hours later. What this meant for Arctic Monkeys is that there really was no other significant act playing at the same time, so by default thousands of extra people came to see what all the fuss over these young lads was about, altough it was clear that many of the people in the crowd had never even heard of Arctic Monkeys. "Where are they from?" one young man in the audience asked another. "England?" his buddy responded unsurely.

Allow me to ever so briefly recap the Arctic Monkeys rise to international (but not American) prominence. Following what many called a "deafening buzz" on the internet about the band, their debut album sold an unbeleivable 118,000 copies in the first day and beat the Beatles to become the fast selling album in UK history. Since then they have continued to grow in popularity around the world, and when their second album came out in May of this year to critical and popular accalim, they were cemented as leaders of England's new school. Arctic Monkeys have been touring to support the new record, full of Alex Turner's clever wordsmithing and the unique sonic experience of thundering drums and quick, heavy guitar riffs, and this year they have headlined the biggest fetivals in Europe like the legendary Glastonbury Festival.

Back in Austin Texas, however, Arctic Monkeys were seen by many as a bunch of overhyped young foreigners, and not given much of a chance. I can symapthize a little bit. Their sound is so different from anything else out there, and the lyrics are so quick and insightful that they may seem pretentious, or just incomprehensible, to the uninitiated. Turner sings (or does he speak/rap?) with a strong accent and his British slang is often jumbled to make it difficult to decifer, but he is a genius of observation and has a very dry, fast moving sense of humor to go along with the pace of the set and songs.

Fresh from headlining Englands 35 year old masterpiece of culture, Glastonbury, it was clear that these young musicians were not used to this kind of uninterested, dissmissive crowd. Glasto, as its known overseas, sells out its 160,000 tickets in minutes, but here the energy level in the crowd was unbelievably low. Alex pressed on with the set and managed to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. It was almost dusk, and when the sun began to fade for the night, you could feel the collective sense of relief as it cooled down to a more comfortable temperature. "Can you cheer up a bit now, the sun's gone down?" Alex said, and I remarked that he was probably up on stage thinking to himself "What a bunch of cranky wankers!" Then without warning they launched into a song proclaiming "They say it changes when the sun goes down around here...".
These are some of the coolest picures ive ever taken, the way that the clouds were parting as the set came to a close, allowing the sun to break through and shed some proverbial light on the Arctic Monkeys, as if to illuminate their presence to the thousands of unimpressed onlookers. It was fantastic. I wished so much that everyone at that show could have felt the same way I did, like I was witnessing the landmark gig for the Arctic Monkeys in America. This was perhaps their biggest stage yet in America, for though they have played on SNL, Letterman, and have made other t.v. appearances, this seemed like it could be the breakout performance that had people in America buzzing about them.






Absolutley knackered after that intense show, it was time for a brief break before heading over to what would be another highlight of the weekend, Muse.


Muse just opened the new Wembley Field in England with a two night stand, and here at ACL, they rocked my fucking face off. More than any other band in recent memory, I was astonished at how cool they sounded, and they are only a three piece band. The stage show was equally mind-bending. It was face melting area rock complete with a full visual assault from two jumbotrons. There were colors floating from the stage as the band laid waste to thousands of unsuspecting fans who probably thought there was something of an ordinary rockshow in store for them. Maybe it was the blaring sun we had to contend with all day that had everyone feeling wiped out, but it looked like many of those people who were leaving the main stage long before Muse's set finished simply could not take the assault on the senses anymore. the visual effects were stunning. At one point I turned to Brianna and just to clarify asked, "They *are* bending time and space right now, aren't they?" I really wanna explore that crazy band and delve into them a bit, they were fascinating. These are not my videos, but they give an idea of what the show was like.





Whew, as I said, I was blown away by these guys and it was an awesome treat because I knew absolutely nothing about them going into the show and had no idea what to expect. We had survived another insanely hot day in Texas, and still had an entire day of music to go.

Austin City Limits Music Festival - Day 1

What a fantastic festival. ACL was held in Zilker Park, a huge, green, open space with an outstanding view of Downtown Austin surrounded by walking and biking trails and cool little streams that empty into the nearby Colorado river. There were, of course a whole lot of music fans of all shapes and sizes, from all over the country....and beyond. Seriously there were people from all over and a lot of young people, like babies young. We actually saw a t-shirt on a baby that read "Baby's First Dylan Show". Nice. The grounds were kept pretty clean all day long, despite a sold out crowd of 65,000 people each day. Reasonably priced ($2) water, plenty of shade, and decent beer (Heineken) made for a very user friendly festival.

The first band we saw at ACL was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. What better way to kick off a Texas music festival than with some good old fashioned jamgrass. We were treated to a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" and got to witness some furious pickin on the banjo from Bela.

Immediately following Bela were Peter, Bjorn and John, the swedish trio who have been all over indie radio with their song "young Folks" which may not sound familiar, but if you heard it you would probably recognize the extremely catchy whistling parts that will inevitably hang around in your head for days at a time.

Next, on a whim and a sense that you simply cannot go wrong with funk, we checked out Big Sam's Funky Nation. This 8 piece horn heavy band from New Orleans was the first surprise of the weekend. Big Sam was once the trombonist for The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and has also backed up big names like Widespread Panic, Elvis Costello and Dave Matthews. Neiter Brianna or myself had ever heard of these guys, but left huge fans of them, and that is one of the coolest things about festivals like this-with so many diverse bands, you are bound to pick up on something new and unique and leave with a list of things that need to furter explored.

After Big Sams funky set, we caught some of Joss Stone, the 20 year old bluesy British diva that is best known for her wildly different cover of the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl". Man, she is a sultry little thing. She pranced back and forth about the stage, flaunting her pretty little dress and newly darkened red hair. She was entertaining, but with so much else going on, we wanted to wander around and check out what else was happenin.


JJ Grey and Mofro's swamp funk on a small stage. Those guys tear it up, and were one of the highlights of the day.

M.I.A., the popular Sri Lankan hip hop/reggaeton phenomenon, just plain sucked. That's not something I often say. I can usually find some redeeming quality in a band, even if they are not the most enjoyable act I've ever seen. Not only was M.I.A. not enjoyable, her voice was even more annoying live and her stage show was lackluster. She had on a stupid tight red leather jumpsuit kind of thing, and paced around with a false sense of authority. She raps/sings/squeals ultra left wing lyrics, which I would of course normally find ultra charming, but she takes it too far by pretty much supporting terrorism. She is a darling of indie rock and must be stopped.

Spoon took to the main stage at 6:30, and although Brianna is a big fan of the band, they were not great live and before long we made our way over to England's Kaiser Chiefs.

Kaiser Chiefs are one of the most popular and hyped bands in the U.K. right now, and they deserve the hype. I was very unfamiliar with their music before ACL, and they are one of several bands that I will definitely be following up on. They were hard edged, rockin, loud, and extremely fun to watch. At one point lead singer Ricky Wilson climbed up on the speaker tower on the left side of the stage and got about 30 feet up there until, looking down, he decided he'd gone up far enough. He flew up that thing pretty quick, but took his time on the way down. Escaping injury, he dashed back to the microphone, only to trip when he leaped across the stage and sported a noticeable limp for the remainder of their set. Proclaiming in one of their songs that "Everything is Average Nowadays", the Kaiser Chiefs have had several top ten songs in England but have not caught on as much here.


Friday night's headliners were The Killers and Bjork. The Killers went on 15 minutes before Bjork and we saw maybe a half hour of the Killers, enough to catch the major hits "Somebody Told Me" "When You Were Young" and "Bones". The Killers are one of the first bands to gain recognition through the magical medium of "The O.C.", so they deserve mad respect. Plus they are from Vegas, which is pretty unusual. There were an awful lot of very young people at that particular show (again-O.C.), and it was extremely crowded, so it didn't take long to decide that Bjork was the place to be.

I do not claim to be very knowledgeable about the Icelandic pop princess, but I do enjoy some of her work, especially the crazy electronica stuff. Apparently most of what she played was from her newest album, Volta. She was her usual flamboyantly dressed self, and she bounced around the stage with more energy than you would think a 42 year old would have. Having released her first album at age 11, Bjork has been around for a long time, and knows how to put on a show. There were lots of lights and dancing, and a more seasoned crowd than the Killers drew. After every song, when the crowd would erupt with cheers and screaming, Bjork would humbly say "thank you", but it sounded more like "tink-q" that was cute. I would love to see her again, only indoors.



Day one was complete, and it was a success. We had managed to stay alive in the mean Texas heat and enjoy some awesome bands, and could hardly wait to go back again in a matter of hours.

Rage Against the Machine @ Alpine Valley 8/24

Come wit it now!!!



Those words, and the ensuing bad ass guitar work that followed, drew so much excitement from the crowd of bouncing, sweaty, muddy bodies that I thought for a moment that the whole place might explode. The mosh pits were the scariest I have ever seen. The energy that pulsated throughout that magnifcent rural Wisconsin ampitheatre was electrifying. Rage fans screamed along with every establishment challenging word. And that was only the second song. I had always wondered how exactly those turntable sounds were made. The ones that do, in fact, come from Tom Morello's guitar (the back of the faded red star t-shirt I bought proclaims "all sounds made by guitar, bass, drums and vocals")

Rage Against the Machine broke up in 2000, and although they have only played a handful of shows since, they seemed like had not missed a beat and played together brilliantly. This was the last stop of their ever so brief 6 show tour, and the only appearance not at a festival. Zack's fierce, passionate vocals tore through that crowd of 30,000 plus, and Morello's unique, anthemic riffs kept the place on their toes the entire show. This was as much a political rally as a concert. The only time I have felt so much political energy was at an anti-war march on the capitol of Washington DC to commererate the first anniversary of Paul Wellstone's death in 2003.

On the 6 hour or so drive from Minneapolis to the magical East Troy, WI, we discussed what the demographic of this show would be. Having seen Tom Morello's show (as The Nightwatchman) at the 7th St Entry last month, I assumed that it would be the same crowd, made up overwhemingly of young white men. This was by and large the case here as well, but there were more females around, and a fair amount of Latinos tambien.

Alpine Valley is a magical venue. It is without question the most beautiful place I have ever seen a show, and this was a beautifully show.


"They're scared of YOU!"







It started raining as we were entering the enormous parking lot and getting settled into a nice pre show buzz. The rain came down hard for a solid 45 minutes, never letting up for a second, then gradually went away, leaving everything soaked and covered in mud. The only time i have seen so much mud was at Phish's last stand in rural Vermont, when the show was nearly cancelled due to the ground being so saturated that cars could not safely drive into the venue. That show went on, however, and so did this one. Some normal entrances to the hill were completed blocked off and staffed by security warning people not to attempt to climb the hill, but some rage fans didnt comply. ("Fuck you I wont do what you tell me!") More than one person, including myself, made a feeble attempt to enter the concert through one of these blocked off entrances, but were defeated by slippery mud and steep inclines, and ended up covered in mud.

I heard more than one person say it was the best show they had ever seen. Not the best Rage show, the BEST SHOW THEY HAD EVER SEEN. I don't know that I could ever make that grand declaration, but I do know that this was, without question, one of the best shows I have ever seen. It just absolutely fucking rocked.

Sound Unseen : 7 Nights at the Entry

Last night Brianna and I attended what was my first ever Sound Unseen Film Festival event. The kickoff to the local music and film festival, which is taking place at several theatres all over town, was at the incredibly cool Riverview Theatre in *sexy* South Minneapolis. We saw a film called "7 Nights at the Entry", and it fucking rocked. Shot over seven nights (August 2nd-8th, 1981) at the 7th St. Entry of First Avenue, the film chronicled a dozen bands signed to Minneapolis' Twin Tone records, and it was a brilliantly put together documentary. Each band performed one song at a time in radical 80's fashion. Brightly colored shirts and ties were everywhere. Torn off sleeves, Elvis Costello eyewear, outrageous patterns, and classic 80's hairsyles were all in full effect.

My favorite of the bunch by far was The Replacements. It was the first time I had seen any footage of that quintesential Minneapolis band live, and they blew me away. Their energy was incredible. Their intesity was stupifying. I had heard tales of their reckless and sometimes train-wreck style live shows, as in here, where Brianna and Jim Walsh are quoted in a New York Times article:

http://paulwesterberg.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=generalpw&action=display&thread=1150781309

It's hard to imagine what the music scene was like here in Minneapolis when I was but a toddler, but this was a fantastic snapshot. For the first time, I was able to grasp, to hear and see even, what that "Minneapolis Sound" was. The Mats embodied it, and perhaps perfected it. Maybe they imperfected it, who knows. In any case, they are generally regarded as an important influence on just about every punk band that came along after them, from Minneapolis or not. Kurt Cobain, for example, was a big fan of The Replacements. The Mats were known to frequent the CC Club, and this album cover was shot at a house no more than a few blocks from where we live.



The other bands represented in the film were Husker Du, Fine Art, The Dads, Things That Fall Down, Hypstrz, The Neglectors, Rusty Jones & The Generals, The Situation, Wilma and The Wilburs, Stagger Lee, and Peer Group.

Several of them were absolutely great, others not so much. Stagger Lee, a trio of high energy rockabilly punk, was amazing. Wilma and The Wilburs were clearly big fans of Blondie, and they were great as well. Fine Art gets the award for most awesome 80's outfits and dancing. The Dads performed an outstanding super fast punk rock version of "Funkytown", and there seemed to be an underlying Talking Heads art school vibe to a lot of the music, which was pretty fucking sweet. It was a really cool film, and there are lots more intruiging things taking place as part of this festival that goes through Aug 28. check it out at soundunseen.com.

Matisyahu & 311 @ the Roy 8/12

Matisyahu, the first ever Hasidic Reggae superstar, can ryhme as fast as anyone out there nowadays, and his lyrics are more intelligent and uplifting to boot. He sings about his faith, to be sure, (he converted to the traditional and strict Hasidic sect only within the past few years) but his lyrics are not exclusively Jewish, even though he does at times rock the Hebrew. He conveys a sense of spirituality that people can relate to, even if they do not consider themselves religious, and I think that has a lot to do with why he has become so popular in the last couple of years.

Matis, which is the Hebrew translation for Matthew, came through Minneapolis with 311 as part of te "Unity Tour" last Sunday night, and although he was the opening act, I was just as excited to see Matis as I was about 311. He has non-faith specific lyrics that at times seem to be as much Rastafarian as Jewish. Old Testament imagery abounds, with Temples, Mt. Zion, fire, Babylon, and the struggle against opression all recurring themes in his lyrics. It is all very positive, which is what instantly turned me on to it when my youngest brither Colin gave me the CD "Live at Stubbs" (Austin TX baby!!). Unfortunately, a positive and hopeful message is a rarity in today's self-indulgent bling hip-hop culture. Matis is actually younger than I am and, oddly enough, is a former Phish tourkid. I remember reading a while back about his conversion, which was in part brought on by a feeling of emptiness and confusion associated with living on the road.

Out in the audience at the show, we happened to be right next to Mark Murphy from Wookiefoot, who was looking on in obvious admiration at Matis. I was about to ask him if he was gonna hop onstage and do a song with Matis, but I didn't. Turns out, Mark and JoJo (the other Wookie frontman) will be heading to Red Rocks outdoor ampithatre in Colorado to perform with Matis. Fortunately, one local artist did participate in the evening's show. Yoni, a very talented MC, of the fantastic but now defunct Minneapolis band Pleasure Pause did a verse or two on one of the songs, and he also threw down on some beatboxing and rhymes on the "Live at Stubbs" CD.

When Bri and I went to Lollapalooza in Chicago last summer (also early August), one of the shows we were most excited for was Matisyahu, and he did not dissapoint. it was clear then that he had established himself as a powerful voice in the music scene when thousands upon thousands of people showed up to his show one the biggest stage of the festival. here he is signing autographs after the Lollapalooza show. I thought that was a pretty fucking righteous thing to do. There were hundreds of kids waiting to get his autograph, but we just took his picture instead.



Here are the lyrics to Matis' first hit song, "King Without a Crown". It seemingly came out of nowhere, taking everyone by surprise, then it blew up on MTV2 and put him on the map.


"What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Moshiach now so it's time we start revealing

You're all that I have and you're all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I'm so hungry
You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there's no me
You're the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can't see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I'll stand on my own two feet
Won't be brought down on one knee
Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem's rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Hashem's rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin' up all through till twilight
Said, thank you to my God, now I finally got it right
And I'll fight with all of my heart, and all a' my soul, and all a' my might


Me no want no sinsemilla.
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!
Let the blessings come down

Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want God but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow
If you're drowning in the water's and you can't stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he'll throw you a rope
You're looking for help from God you say he couldn't be found
Searching up to the sky and looking beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze


Reelin' him in
Where ya been
Where ya been
Where ya been for so long
It's hard to stay strong been livin' in galus (exile) for 2000 years strong
Where ya been for so long
Been livin in this exhile for too long."



(Personally, I'd take the sinsemillia over the Torah, but to each Hasidic rapper his own.)







311 has one of the most loyal and serious fan bases of any band I have ever seen. My brother Kevin has been one of these fans for many years. In fact, Rage Against the Machine and 311 are his favorites, and I am lucky to get to see both of tose bands with him this very month.

I saw them once at the second or third 10,000 Lakes Festival, and once at The Roy Wilkins Auditorium when my brother Kevin had an extra ticket at the last minute. I was amazed at how much of their set I was familiar with-they have a lot of hit songs! Many that I could never tell you the name of, but most of the show was familiar to me, which was cool. Every time I have seen them, they do not take a set break, they do what I think is about the coolest goddamn thing you can do to give some of the band a brief break, whilst keeping the music going - a monstrous drum jam. Everyone but the drummer leaves the stage, then slowly returns to join in the percussive festivites. They really put on an amazing show. I espescially love their cover of The Cure's "Love Song", which was the first song my bro and his wife danced to at their wedding last month.

Patti Smith @ The State 8/6

Patti Smith is old school punk rock royalty, having made a name for herself at the infamously gritty CBGBs nightclub decades ago, and was tapped to be one of the final performers when that legendary spot closed for good last year. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this past March by none other than Zack De La Rocha.

Having a limited amount of familiarity with Smith's music was not an issue on this particular tour, as she recently released and album of cover songs that everyone is familar with. Still, I had no idea what was on that album, so that made for a fun night of "OMG, she's playing ??"

Patti Smith is a fantastic performer. I have seen few rock stars of her caliber that interact with the audience in such an easygoing, fun way. Perhaps it is because of all those times playing at CBGBs that she has no problem being shouted at from the crowd. This crowd though, I can only imagine, was far from what you would have found at CBGBs. The State Theatre was in an attentive hush when we came in midway through Bob Dylan's "Changing of the Gaurds", and she seemed to welcome some heckling (and/or life) from the mostly middleaged and older fans. At one point, when the band was tuning up and getting ready for the next song, and when Patti couldn't stall anymore with talk of her shoe size, one woman in the audience asked "Do you wanna rock and roll?"

"Do I wanna rock and roll??" she responded defensively, "You're the one watching me like you're in a fucking movie theatre!" With that, she left the stage, and I thought she was pissed. I don't think she was mad tho, because a moment later, Ms. Smith came strolling down the center aisle from the Theatre entrance, casually walking right past me and inviting her guests to get up and act like we were in fact at a fucking rock and roll show. I think that was the end of sitting down for the night. From then on, everyone was on their feet, acting like rock and roll fans and not moviegoers. (Btw, when we were outside the theatre, an old frined of Brianna's told her we had just missed Patti Smith waltzing in the front door of the place like everybody else.)



After a difficult to follow rant about a giant rat on the streets of Minneapolis last time she was here, and a story about how she drank a bunch of wine with her friend when she was real young and hearing the song for the first time, she did Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". Also played were The Doors' "Soul Kitchen", The Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider", Neil Young's "Helpless" and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter".


There was a Tribute(?) to Jerry Garcia, wherein she declared it to be "Jerry Week" because he was born 8/1 and died 8/9, and was always too stoned to know what day of the week it was, so he deserves a little leeway in the form of a nine day week. Apparently he gave her a guitar lesson once, suggesting "Get yourself a man who plays guitar and don't worry about it." No thanks to Jerry, she can and did play guitar on maybe half the songs, and rocked out with an electric guitar on her intense finale, "Rock and Roll Nigger"


My favorite part of the show was when Patti, surrounded by seven or eight other people on stage, covered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", super slowed down and prominently featuring a banjo player they picked up off the street sometime that very day. That song, and numerous others, also were boosted by guest performers Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, and Tony Glover, harmonica player extraordinaire and cohort of Dave Snaker Ray and Spider John Koerner.

The only Patti Smith orginals she did were "People have the Power", which I know only from Brianna's blog, and "Because the Night", which has got to be here most popular song. I know Bri was a bit disapponted with all the covers, but it was an excellent primer for me on Patti's style and infectious optimism about the ability of people to get together, love one another, communicate, and fucking start a revolution already.







The number that brought the house down:
Also Patti's Mom's favorite song:

Baby was a black sheep. Baby was a whore.
Baby got big and baby get bigger.
Baby get something. Baby get more.
Baby, baby, baby was a rock-and-roll nigger.
Oh, look around you, all around you,
riding on a copper wave.
Do you like the world around you?
Are you ready to behave?

Outside of society, they're waitin' for me.
Outside of society, that's where I want to be.

Baby was a black sheep. Baby was a whore.
You know she got big. Well, she's gonna get bigger.
Baby got a hand; got a finger on the trigger.
Baby, baby, baby is a rock-and-roll nigger.

Outside of society, that's where I want to be.
Outside of society, they're waitin' for me.

(those who have suffered, understand suffering,
and thereby extend their hand
the storm that brings harm
also makes fertile
blessed is the grass
and herb and the true thorn and light)

I was lost in a valley of pleasure.
I was lost in the infinite sea.
I was lost, and measure for measure,
love spewed from the heart of me.
I was lost, and the cost,
and the cost didn't matter to me.
I was lost, and the cost
was to be outside society.

Jimi Hendrix was a nigger.
Jesus Christ and Grandma, too.
Jackson Pollock was a nigger.
Nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger,
nigger, nigger, nigger.

Outside of society, they're waitin' for me.
Outside of society, if you're looking,
that's where you'll find me.
Outside of society, they're waitin' for me.
Outside of society.