Austin City Limits, Day 2

Having slept for more than 3 hours, Editor in Chief Jessica and I found ourselves out the door and headed to the park in a somewhat timely manner. Pausing for only a moment at a local McDonald’s (ew, right?) [Ed. Note: fruit and yogurt parfait is delish!] for breakfast, we pointed our bodies toward the dust pit that was Zilker Park.

11:45-12:30 // Langhorne Slim // Dell Stage
As we shifted through the somewhat modest morning crowd, making our way towards the Dell Dome to get Jessica’s hair teased into the finest of “America’s Next Top Model” mode, we managed to catch a few songs from Kemado Records’ Langhorne Slim. Their mellow yet manic songs seemed to set the perfect soundtrack for what appeared to be the makings of a pretty calm start to a festival that would eventually peak into a frenzy at the hands of Beck. Yet, listening to these boys, better suited for a dive bar than a giant showcase, they seemed determined to hold their own regardless of the makeup of their surroundings. Scene be damned, Langhorne Slim gave the day their all, coloring me impressed. I fully expect myself to make an effort to seek out this band again.

Langhorne Slim, Photo: epochshot

12:30-1:30 // Old 97s // AT&T Stage
Since 1996, I have loved the Old 97s, yet have never been blessed with the chance to see them play. Needless to say, there was no way in hell I was missing there set at this year’s ACL. I must say I was rather pleased to experience how fluently their mix of alt-country twang and standard pop riffs carried over into their live act. Furthermore, watching Jess shake her ass in time to one of my favorite bands, having just discovered them, was one of my most coveted ACL experiences.

1:30-2:00 // Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed (interview) // Dell Dome
While waiting in line for the aforementioned teased out mess of a faux hawk Jess had to have, we got to overhear one of the many artist interviews that took place in the Dell Dome over the weekend. Jess was excited that we happened to be there for 50′s style rocker Eli “Paperboy” Reed, whom she had seen at Download: Philadelphia.

Eli "Paperboy" Reed

Following an extended stay in the Dell Dome, checking out some rad art by Mike Ming and making new friends (sup Andrea!), we headed back to the media area for a couple interviews. I must admit, I went into my interview with MGMT with a bit of apprehension. It has been stated pretty heavily and bluntly that these boys were moody, pretentious pricks who would have little to no issue with tearing you down if you rubbed them the wrong way. Turns out, however, those rumors could not have been more false. Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, simply sat and hung out with us, more or less, even opting to remain in conversation with us for nearly 20 minutes after the interview had ended. Sadly, the party had to be broken up in order for Jessica and I to hang with a different sent of boys, Electric Touch.

MGMT, Photo: Quiet Color

Local rockers Electric Touch were fabulous guys, who Jessica had seen play with The Airborne Toxic Event in Philadelphia not long before. She was excited to sit and chat while I wandered off to take full advantage at all the media tent had to offer. [Ed Note: Electric Touch are super sweet and fun guys.]

3:30-4:30 // Man Man // Dell Stage
Man Man easily had the set of the day, in my opinion. Honus Honus (nee Ryan Kattel) and company, decked out in white, shook their ass and won the hearts of all those in attendance. The crowd mirrored Honus on “Ballad of Butterbeans,” jiggling car keys and other noise makers in a manner that would make one think they were part of a Dr. Seuss book. Actually, Man Man’s set tends to remind me more of a trip to the circus than a day watching music. This is, however, not meant to take away from how musically talented and innovative this group is. It is nearly impossible to not get swept up into their infectious riffs, which hook you in, and keep you longing for more. Kudos to Man Man for being just catchy enough to become the only set on day two that we watched in it entirety.

Honus Honus of Man Man, Photo: Quiet Color

4:30-5:30 // Erykah Badu // AT&T Stage
On our way to catch dinner in the media area, Jess and I were lucky enough to catch a bit of the legendary Erykah Badu. I was really quite impressed by her abilities to belt out notes that I’m not positive most people could even reach. Her version of “Amazing Grace,” sung near the end of her set, was on of the most beautiful renditions I have ever heard in my life. It highlighted her abilities to speak to a crowd of people at Austin City Limits, who otherwise might never have had the desire to see her sing. I know I’m a convert.

Erykah Badu, Photo: Quiet Color

5:15-6:00 // Electric Touch // Austin Ventures
Known for their high energy act, Electric Touch did not disappoint. With guitars flying and bodies moving, these Austin boys burned their hometown to the ground, stealing the crowd from fan favorites, MGMT, who happened to be playing (loudly) directly to our left. And while, MGMT may be the critics pick, easily playing to 25,000 people, Electric Touch, with its crowd of 1,000 was easily your best buy.

5:30-6:30 // MGMT // AT&T Blue Room Stage
Due to their popularity, Jess and I were forced to watch MGMT from something like the 10,000th row away from the stage. So, while their sound seemed to be right on the money and the energy of the crowd appeared to be pushing toward a near frenzy, we hung around for “Time to Pretend,” before bailing to find a closer place to watch Conor [Oberst] (and fit in a tiny nap).

MGMT, Photo: Quiet Color

6:30-7:30 // Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band // AT&T Stage
While we had both already seen Bright Eyes, I had a feeling that Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band would be nothing like Oberst’s driving force of success. I was right. While I have always openly admitted that I find Conor to be a touch beyond emotional, bordering on manic and whining, I have also always credited him with being a genius. To me, the Mystic Valley Band not only confirms this, but solidifies it. With a bit of a Bob Dylan meets Ryan Adams sound to it, Oberst comes of a bit more aged and worn than in previous works. Furthermore, his live show remains tight and crammed with energy, making him a fairly difficult act to follow. Luckily for us, Beck was to follow him on the AT&T stage, and he’s not too shabby either.

8:30-10:00 // Beck // AT&T Stage
Opening with “Loser,” Beck straight up went for the kill from the very beginning. Follow that with “Devil’s Haircut” and “Timebomb,” and you’ve pretty much set the tone for a fairly kick ass set. Undoubtedly, the crowd, consisting of roughly 50,000 people agreed, as they gave their full attention to one slightly shy and awkward long-haired man. To my surprise, however, Beck was very crowd interactive, instead of offish and closed off, which I naturally assumed he would be.

Beck, Photo: Autumn DeWilde

However, torn between seeing a current legend in Beck, or a pair of established legends in Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Jess and I took the high road, choosing to catch half of both.

8:15-9:30 //Robert Plant & Alison Krauss // AMD Stage
I can think of a lot of artists I would love to shove together on stage, just to see what the results would be. Yet, to be perfectly honest, I am not sure I would have ever thought to place Robert Plant, formerly of Led Zepplin, next to Alison Krauss, easily one of the biggest names in bluegrass. However, there is no questioning that this all-star combination just gels. Their blended vocals compliment one another like I have never experienced before. Their rather beautiful set felt to be a fairly flawless way to end and pretty well planned lineup. I couldn’t have asked for more.

The duo were a bit cheated by the overpowering volume of Beck’s set across the park, but it did little to detract from the lovely sounds Plant and Krauss produced. Clearly annoyed at the competition, but laughing it away, Plant referred to Beck and company as “The Village People.” Not cool — twas the sound guy’s fault. We peaced out of ACL dancing to Beck’s “Where It’s At” before happening upon a ridiculous disco dance party outside of a random juice bar on Barton Springs Road, not far from the park’s entrance. Preferring sleep to disco inferno, we continued on our way, stoked for the culmination of one of the greatest festivals of the summer.

Stay tuned for Day 3!

Austin City Limits: website | day 1

Interview with: Tegan Quin of Tegan & Sara, Pt. I

I recently got the [lucky] chance to chat with Tegan Quin of the Canadian pop duo, Tegan and Sara. As a long-time fan, the pressure was on NOT to a). come off as a total fan girl, and b). give the same, tired interview. This didn’t end up being much of a challenge at all, as Tegan and I cultivated a rapport straight off the bat. We talked about artists the twins have worked with, politics, and how to navigate the hurdles of being famous. In fact, we talked for so long that her publicist blew up both of our phones for the last fifteen minutes of our conversation, something neither of us realized was going on until after the fact because neither of us answered our beeps. Oops. Here’s part one:

Dese’Rae Stage, PopWreck(oning): The “Call It Off” video just came out. I like that the newer videos seem conceptually really simple, but they use a lot of colors and patterns.
Tegan Quin: Yeah. Sara really likes to do complicated videos and you get treatments from people and they give you these huge concept videos. Our songs are so short, it’s tough to stuff that in. I feel like it’s a waste to spend $100,000 on a video. The director who did this video, Angela Kendall, she also did The Making of ‘The Con’ and put together the It’s Not Fun. Don’t Do It! DVD we put together a couple of years ago. She’s amazing and a really good friend of mine. The whole day she kept spazzing about the smallest things and I kept being like, “Nobody’s gonna see it, it’s only gonna get played on YouTube. No one’s even seen a video on television in ten years.” I kind of think that is really how we feel. We still feel like videos are art and we make videos because they’re part of our catalog; they’re part of something we see as another way to explain and project what we were thinking and feeling when we were making the record. But, I mean, when it comes down to it, how much do we need to spend on that? The first video we did for this record was like $75,000, which is nearly as much as we spent on the record. And it’s like, for what? Does it really sell records? I don’t think it does. I think it’s cool. I think maybe it helps to create an image for a band, but I’m not sure for a band like us, it helps our record. So I love the “Call It Off” video because it was simple and inexpensive and it looks great and we got to help out Angela Kendall, who’s an amazing director and does great videos.

Photos: Autumn de Wilde

PW: You guys got to work with one of my heroes, Autumn de Wilde [a photographer known for her work with Elliott Smith, Rilo Kiley, Beck, and the Raconteurs, among others]. Tell me about that.
TQ: Autumn’s amazing. It’s very rarely we work with female photographers. They just hardly ever shoot us, for whatever reason. It’s like, female producers and engineers, there’s just not a lot of them–or at least, up in that world. It was amazing. When we found out about Autumn, I mean, obviously I recognized a million of her photos, but we met her probably like six or seven years ago the first time and a million times since then. Chris Walla [guitar, Death Cab for Cutie] is also friends with her, and when we were in Portland making the record, we were talking about, “Oh, we gotta do the art work soon. We gotta do photos.” Chris was like, “You should use Autumn,” and we were like, “Yeah, fuck, we’ve never had an opportunity to use her.”
He was like, “Oh, yeah I’ll call her and get her to fly up here and we can shoot photos at my house.” I was like, “That’d be great,” so we called her up and a week later she showed up and shot the photos and was amazing. She’s so tall and we’re like midgets, so she basically sat on the floor and shot us all day, which was hilarious. She’s amazing, her daughter’s amazing. They’re really tall and talented. I can’t wait to work with her again. I love that she only shoots with film, which is obviously an expensive way to shoot in this day and age, but she’s so good it’s not like it’s a waste. And we got so many photos—we got 20 times the photos we usually get from a photo shoot, so it was incredible.

PW: I was on a bus yesterday, on the way to shoot Melissa Ferrick in Philadelphia. I finished up A Wolf at the Table and I was sitting there sobbing.
TQ: It’s an incredible book.
PW: I wanted to know if you were a fan of Augusten’s [Burroughs] prior to doing the first Spin Liner Notes event with him.
TQ: Yeah, absolutely. Well, the reason why I had agreed to write the song—I mean, I would have probably done it anyway. I mean, I’m a slut, I’ll do anything, but I was a huge fan and Sara was like, “You should take this one,” so I got the e-mail before Christmas asking if I was interested in writing a song for his book. I was like, “Absolutely.” It was also a selfish thing because I got to read the book three months before it came out. So, I read it a couple times and wrote the song and it was really difficult because I’ve never really written about anything but myself. We started e-mailing afterwards. He was really moved by the song. He’s fascinating. His books are identical to the way he is in person and e-mail. He’s not emulating anything other than himself, so it was incredible to finally meet him after six months of communicating via e-mail and text–to actually be able to sit there and have a conversation with him and then to share a stage with him for an hour and a half. He was so funny and it was really amazing, so yeah, I was a huge fan. I owned all of his books and I’ve read them a million times. I think he’s so funny and an incredible visual writer. It was great to meet him. Yay!
PW: He’s totally one of my favorites. Love him.
TQ: Me too.

PW: I know you had a side project. Are you still doing that?
TQ: I am, yeah. I started sending songs that I hadn’t used that weren’t really Tegan and Sara-like to this guy, Hunter Bergen, who plays bass in AFI a couple years ago. Since then, we’ve collaborated on probably another ten or fifteen songs and we’ve talked a lot over the past year about what to do with them. You know, should we put them out? Should we tour? Should we sell them to other people? Should we give them away? Should we put them on MySpace? What do we do with them? We’re still deciding. We had some preliminary talks with some bands. We’re thinking about being more like a writing team, but eventually all the songs will see the light of day. I’m not sure in what form or who will be singing them. They’ll definitely get out there. It’s nice to work out songs and do stuff with someone else. I’ve been making music with Sara for 14 years, so it’s nice to vent in another form and I’m also emotionally less attached to the songs. I feel like I’m learning a lot while writing with someone else because I’m able to take feedback and criticism in a way that I can’t with my own music.

PW: That totally makes sense. So, I read something about a new album next year?
TQ: Yeah. Two or three times during the demo-ing process, we make a CD with lyrics and send it out to this collective of people whose opinions we really appreciate. They give great feedback and we try to eliminate excess [tracks] that we don’t think are gonna make it to the next stage and we kind of move forward ten songs or whatever and start writing again. So, we just did that last night–made the list and burned the CDs and sent them out. We’re gonna tour and get some feedback and start writing again. My goal is to make a record next spring. We’ll have the summer to get the video made and the press done and the pictures taken and put a record out right away in September. We’ll start touring and not do the long lead-up. I don’t think that’s necessary for a band our size anymore, you know? We’re not Mariah Carey. We don’t need six months to lead up to a record and get singles out there and try and get a million downloads on iTunes. We just need to get new music out there and keep trying, so hopefully everyone will be hearing new Tegan and Sara by next summer.
PW: That is awesome and fast and I love it.
TQ: Yeah. I mean, I’m projecting, but once you get past September, it’s really hard to release a record, so we’re gonna try to do it really quick and I think that’ll be possible because after this US tour, we’re pretty much done.

PW: Speaking of, I noticed that the second New York show is the Amnesty International ‘Small Places Tour’.
TQ: Yeah.
PW: I have no idea what that is.
TQ: I don’t know what it is either, but— (laughs)
PW: Hey, at least you’re honest.
TQ: …but obviously you know what Amnesty International does and the Small Places Tour–I mean, I’m not exactly sure if there’s some specific thing about it. We just approved it a couple days ago. Basically, they just take a cut of the money and put it towards Amnesty International. They take artists from all over the place. It’s not like a tour with two bands going out and touring the US. They’re gonna get tons and tons and tons of artists all over the world in different venues to contribute a percentage of their merchandise or the ticket from the show to Amnesty International. So the tour is kind of like a play on that. It’s not actually a tour, it’s just a whole bunch of artists on their own tours contributing. We’re gonna contribute our profits from the second night’s merchandise to the tour.
PW: Cool. Good deal.
TQ: Yeah, it’s gonna be great.

PW: This song has actually come up a couple of times with a couple of different artists I’ve interviewed. I’ve seen five or six bands cover it at this point, but I wanted to know why you decided to cover “Umbrella.” It seems like a lot of my friends are like, “Fuck that song, it sucks,” but honestly, it’s one of the only pop songs I can think of right now with a positive message.
TQ: It’s a great song. I love the production. I love that kind of music. It’s something we would never do, so I really appreciate it. You know, from a completely different perspective, just hearing it. Riri [Rihanna] is so hot and when we were covering it, no one had really covered it yet, so we weren’t doing it to be ironic or for any reason other than we thought it was great. It wasn’t a huge song yet. It was big, but not huge. It hadn’t taken over the world yet. I just thought it was a great song. First of all, I think she’s a really good role model. She’s smart and intelligent and has a huge part in what she does. I love that she plays with her sexuality and she’s not a a traditional hot pop star female with the long hair and big boobs and, you know, she kinda dresses like a tomboy from time to time. She really plays with this kind of lesbian look with the short pixie hair cut and the tattoos. I just think it’s really cute and fun and hot and I think it’s a great song, so that’s why we were doing it. Then it got to the point where people were calling for it before we’d even started playing and I was like, “We gotta stop playing that song.”

PW: So, do you guys write everyday as a practice?
TQ: I like to play music as much as possible. Some days, like today, I won’t get to and I definitely feel like it’s an addiction. Sometimes I forget that I’m not just writing songs to write songs, that I need to put a record together and they need to be the best songs I’ve ever written and I need to stop pushing them out so quickly and let them sit inside and gather speed and stuff.
But yeah, Sara really likes to write and blog and get out there and we definitely have a million different ways and forums to do that. When we go out this fall, we’re going to shoot another show like we did before when we were making the record and touring (Backstage Bilingual and Trailer Talk). We’re gonna do a political show while we’re out. We’ll shoot a backstage show about the elections in Canada and the US which are both coming up, obviously, and they’re huge, huge topics of conversation in our world and we’re both obsessed. So, we’re gonna do that. We’re always trying to do stuff to get ourselves out there. I think we’re more than just a band. We’re at this point where we’re personalities in our own little world—at least in our heads. We’re gonna work on a book for the new year and continue writing the record so there’s definitely a schedule of writing, working, talking, music-making.

PW: I wanted to know, because you guys do spend a lot of time in the US, how the current political climate affects you.
TQ: It’s terrifying. The idea of John McCain and Sarah Palin getting in makes me rethink my whole life. I’m just kind of like, “Can we really go down to the states and tour another four years with a government who’s fundamentally against who we are as people?” That’s really tough for me. It used to bother me, but now it’s actually affecting me.
Emotionally, I feel really upset—panicky, almost. We just dissolved Parliament in Canada and they’re calling a new election. It’s so confusing. The show, I swear, the political show we shoot this fall, should be called, “You Think Your System’s Confusing, Imagine What Ours is Like.” It’s so difficult, the way it’s set up. It’s just so confusing. I’ve lived here 28 years and I feel like I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m like, “You can dissolve Parliament?” Anyway, the US, comparatively–I feel like, no matter what happens, the way our government is set up is really different. In America, it’s a popularity contest and it’s literally left or right and it’s really hard for me to swallow. It’s hard for me to understand. I just can’t imagine over the last few years, how on earth you guys would collectively come together and allow them to run the country. It’s so horrifying to me, it makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t imagine why a gun loving, anti-gay, anti-choice—I just don’t understand how it’s happened. It seems like a nightmare to me. It just feels like time is going by so quickly. I just feel so upset and like I wanna go smack the Democrats around and be like, “Hurry up, get it together! What’s happening?” I just feel so upset about it, so I definitely feel like there’s gonna be a lot of venting on-stage. But who am I venting to? I’m preaching to the converted. I say that, but I was just in New York and I was venting on-stage and went off about how I wanted to sleep with Sarah Palin, like, you know, antagonizing. This girl came up afterwards and was giving me a piece of her mind, ripping me a new one about how she was a Repulican and how I didn’t understand and blah, blah, blah, and I was thinking–this is a 25 year old girl at a Tegan and Augusten Burroughs show in a book store raising money for an AIDS organization. It was like, “Who are you? Why are you at our show?” So I say that I’m preaching to the converted, but I’m not. And obviously, with the way that our fans are, after every show there are a million YouTube videos, so I’m hoping that we can make as much change as we possibly can with what power we have. We put the Rock the Vote widget up on our MySpace page and they were saying that, out of all the bands that did it, more people came from our page to register to vote than anywhere else. So I know we have a really progressive, alternative, excitable young audience, but I think that they actually do have a lot of power, so we’re definitely gonna try and use that voice as much as we can in the next couple of months to inspire people to wake up. I thought people were awake and then I was in New York when they announced Sarah Palin. I was just like, “Oh, God.” Like, “Oh no, this is going to be so stupid. ” This whole thing is awful.
PW: That woman is terrifying.
TQ: Terrifying, terrifying. The confidence and the patronizing attitude and the whole thing is so insane. My mind is blown. I’m having a hard time articulating what it is that bothers me more. So horrifying.
PW: I feel the same way. I’m a gay woman and I’m terrified to live in my own country.
TQ: Yeah, absolutely. You should be. Everyone should be. I was watching John McCain on The View when he was talking about how they were going to elect people to the Supreme Court who were going to follow the Constitution as it was written and Whoopi [Goldberg] was like, “Can you say that again? Should I be worried? We amended the constitution for a reason. Are we going to have slavery again? Am I gonna be a slave?” People should be that outraged that he’s saying that. It is unfathomable that we would be taking steps backwards at this point in America. We’re already so backwards, how can we go any further? We’re like, two steps away from going back to slavery, it’s true. I just don’t understand. At the same time, you have Barbara Walters being like, “How many houses do you really own?” And I’m like, “Yeah, Americans are stupid.” Barbara Walters is an example of the complacency and the obsession with fame and fortune, rather than someone’s actual belief system and what that actually means on the whole, in comparison to the way the rest of the world is run. What Americans claim to hate so much is exactly what they are. It’s incredible to me. So anyway, blah, blah, blah.
PW: I totally agree with you. I’m gonna change the subject, though.
TQ: Dear God, I could talk forever about it.

Stay tuned!

Note: The views expressed herein are those of the author and artist being interviewed and not necessarily those of the publication or record label which they represent.

Nine Inch Nails – Oracle Arena, San Francisco

20 years have passed since Nine Inch Nails have burrowed into our heads with Pretty Hate Machine and Trent Reznor still seems to be just as angry as he was then. Since NIN didn’t tour the US behind Year Zero they had 6 albums of new material to pull from; the four disc Ghosts and the freebie The Slip. The newly retooled lineup seems to have a new life; with former Beck musical director Justin Meldal-Johnsen helming the low end and Axl Rose‘s guitarist Robin Finck stalking the stage like Aaron North during a seizure.

About halfway into the concert, an LED backdrop was lifted and the band delved into tracks from Ghosts in an acoustic format. With Meldal-Johnsen playing upright bass, drummer Josh Freese on a mini kit and Reznor manning a marimba; they displayed mastery of their instruments as well as the art of dynamics. The screens of LED’s were washed away by a flashlight shifting back to the rock setup and the sensory pummeling resumed. Arena shows lack intimacy and sincerity yet, somehow, this band manages to avoid the cliche and keeps the fans engaged throughout the two hour set. If you have a chance to see this show I highly recommend it, the visual aspect is groundbreaking and the music speaks for itself.

Setlist:
999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
Corona Radiata
The Warning
Vessel
5 Ghosts I
17 Ghosts II
19 Ghosts III
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
31 Ghosts IV
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
\\
Echoplex
God Given
Hurt
In This Twilight

Nine Inch Nails: website | myspace | virgin mobile fest

Beck To Play Hollywood Bowl with Father

Photo: Autumn DeWilde

Beck‘s sold out September 20th show at the Hollywood Bowl will mark yet another milestone in the multi-platinum Grammy winner’s long and storied career. In addition to being Beck’s biggest ever hometown headline engagement, the show will now commemorate the first time he and his father arranger-conductor David Campbell have performed on stage together, when Campbell conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings as they accompany Beck’s performance.

David Campbell’s work appears on more than 400 gold and platinum albums. Over the course of his career, his work has received no less than 50 Grammys and two Oscars. As a performer, he has played on historic sessions with the likes of Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and Carole King, while his arrangements can be heard on music by everyone from Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and the Rolling Stones to Cat Power, The Mars Volta and of course on several of Beck’s albums.

Although Campbell has written string arrangements on most of Beck’s albums, Septmeber 20th will be the first time father and song will have performed together.

Beck: Beck: website | myspace | Modern Guilt review
David Campbell website

Outside Lands Festival, Day 1

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was the site to the inaugural Outside Lands Festival this August 22-24. The headliners were Radiohead, Tom Petty and Jack Johnson along with Beck, Ben Harper and Wilco filling out the bill. Golden Gate Park isn’t accesible by car or BART *(Bay Area Rapid Transit) so the only option was to park from afar or take the MUNI from the closest BART. I had to walk over a mile just to get to will call and the park is over 1,000 acres. Needless to say I was somewhat overwhelmed on how to navigate among the six stages with no additional press access to several of them.

I was looking forward to catching Black Mountain but I heard most of their set while waiting in line to get my credentials. What I did witness was pummeling drums combined with weaving guitars and organ. To me, they sound like Zeppelin and Sabbath meeting up with one of the Beach Boys‘ sisters.

Next up was political South American rocker Manu Chao. Chao and company sing in Spanish, French, Portugese and English while melding rock, folk and punk into their songs about injustice and freedom. He’s been winning fans over in the US since opening for Rage at last year’s Coachella as well as headlining Lollaplooza in 2006. There isn’t a dull moment on stage when this band is playing, they were the most energetic groups of the weekend.

I didn’t get to shoot Beck because there wasn’t any access for press on the stage he was playing. Trying to get through 10,000 people isn’t an easy task so I resorted to getting everything squared away for the next band.

Taking the stage at dusk, Radiohead became the first performers to play at night in Golden Gate Park. Traveling with their “green” light show, they lit up the whole park up with their near flawless set. Aside from a couple minutes where the sound cut out, the band had the crowd of 50,000 in the palm of their hand the whole set.

Setlist:
15 Step
Reckoner
Airbag
There There
All I Need
Nude
Talk Show Host
National Anthem
The Gloaming
Videotape
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Idioteque
Karma Police
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Just
Exit Music (for a film)
Bodysnatchers
//
Pyramid Song
You And Whose Army?
Paranoid Android
Fake Plastic Trees
Everything In Its Right Place

Stay tuned for Day 2

New Music Tuesday!

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Have Another Ball review
Beck Modern Guilt review
Albert Hammond, Jr. ¿Cómo Te Llama? review
Hit The Lights Skip School, Start Fights review
Son, Ambulance Someone Else’s Deja Vu
Greg Laswell Three Flights from Alto Nido stream
Paper Route Are We All Forgotten EP
Chromeo Fancy Footwork

Beck – Modern Guilt

There’s nothing to feel guilty about if you find yourself loving the new Beck album Modern Guilt because it really is a great album.

The album kicks off with the ambient track “Orphans.” Combined with the haunting vocals of Cat Power and thought-provoking lyrics like “I stand beside myself so I’m not alone,” Beck sets a beautiful, but eery mood that lasts throughout the album.

The airiness of the vocals, reminiscent of Radiohead, form a tension with the distorted effects and constantly changing tempos. This tension causes the listener to slightly cringe, but become ensnared in the delicate balance of this combination. By the end of the album, Beck brilliantly recreates in his listener the feelings of helplessness and guilt that he sings about on the album.

This tension is especially apparent on “Walls.” A track where the repetitious sound of the descending notes mimics the effect of falling walls, while Beck chillingly sings over the cool bass line, “Hey what you gonna do when these walls are falling down, falling down, on you?”

Although Beck’s traded in his signature acoustic guitar for this electronica-laden sound, this is one of Beck’s strongest releases to date. He still shines lyrically as is shown in lines like, “I’ve been drifting on this wave so long, I don’t know if it’s already crashed on the shore.” His multi-instrumental talents are also present in full force as the instrumental layering of drum effects, strings, keys and trumpets builds with each track. Beck’s techniques are the same, but he manages to create a completely different sound than before.

Modern Guilt is released by Interscope on July 8, 2008. This is not an album I would miss. Although it doesn’t deal with happy subjects, it will still make your ears happy.

Tracklisting:
01. Orphans
02. Gamma Ray
03. Chemtrails
04. Modern Guilt
05. Youthless
06. Walls
07. Replica
08. Soul Of A Man
09. Profanity Prayers
10. Volcano

Tour Dates:
Aug 21 – Grand Sierra Resort and Casino / Reno, NV
Aug 22 – Golden Gate Park / San Francisco, CA
Aug 24 – Les Schwab Amphitheater / Bend, or US
Aug 27 – Royal Theatre / Victoria, BC, Canada
Aug 28 – Orpheum Theater / Vancouver, Canada
Aug 30 – Bumbershoot / Seattle, WA
Sept 19 – San Diego Street Scene Festival / San Diego, CA
Sept 20 – Hollywood Bowl/ Los Angeles, CA
Sept 27 – Austin City Limits / Austin, TX

Beck: website | myspace
Interscope Records: website

Written by Bethany

New Beck Track from forthcoming “Modern Guilt”

With the July 8 release of Modern Guilt rapidly approaching, Beck has made two additional tracks from the album available online. In addition to the previously released “Chemtrails,” the new songs “Orphans” and “Gamma Ray” are now streaming at iLike and MySpace. “Orphans” and “Gamma Ray” are among the songs featured in a special video trailer for Modern Guilt available exclusively at Amazon.com/Music.

In addition, presales for Modern Guilt are now running at Amazon.com, iTunes, Insound.com, and Best Buy. iTunes presales include an instant download of “Chemtrails,” a video for “Gamma Ray,” and access to preferred seating concert tickets via Ticketmaster.

Finally, Beck has created a website for the new album at ModernGuilt.com. This site includes information on the new album, tour dates, and the latest Beck news. Be sure to check out the Tags section for new buddy icons and desktop images as well as links to tell your MySpace and Facebook friends about Modern Guilt. Beck will be adding clips of each track so check back daily!

Beck: website | myspace | Modern Guilt website

*Photo: Autumn DeWilde

An exclusive custom-created video trailer for Beck‘s Modern Guilt is up now at Amazon.com/Music.

Conceived, created and even edited with 100% creative input from Beck himself every step of the way, the Modern Guilt trailer is equal parts video mixtape and black and white montage that recalls classic film works from Warhol to Klein to Truffaut, all imbued with Beck’s own unique visual identity–not to mention exclusive advance snippets of the record.

Modern Guilt will be released July 8 on DGC.

Beck: website | myspace | watch Modern Guilt trailer

Beck New Album Title, Release Date Confirmed

Beck‘s new album Modern Guilt, produced with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, will be released July 8th on DGC Records in North America and July 7th on XL Recordings in the UK and Europe.

The new album contains 10 new songs, and with the exception of last year’s Grammy-nominated, digital-only single “Timebomb”, Modern Guilt is the first new material Beck has written since the prolific stretch that produced 2005′s platinum Guero and 2006′s universally acclaimed The Information.

Modern Guilt is a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor. Musically, the album’s ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse’s shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration.

Tracklisting:
01. Orphans
02. Gamma Ray
03. Chemtrails
04. Modern Guilt
05. Youthless
06. Walls
07. Replica
08. Soul of A Man
09. Profanity Prayers
10. Volcano

Tour Dates:
8/22 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Festival
8/24- Bend, OR – Les Schwab Amphiteater
8/30 – Seattle, WA – Bumbershoot Festival
9/20 – Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Bowl
9/27 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival

Beck: website | myspace
Danger Mouse: website