Wassapp team,
One week later from the DC Trip (well, from me just, hopin' on the metro and headin' downtown), all seems to be back to normal. I'm just kickin' it, gettin' ready for this cool lil' weekend (lotta good college football comin' on this weekend so, I'm amp'd about that).
Well, looks like RAD (Recording Arts Day) & GOTH (Grammys on the Hill) were both big hits. It was cool gettin' to see the auction 'cause, that was kinda like a "fruits of my labor" type situation from internin'. And of course, it's always cool hangin' out w/ the IAB folks. We get down!
Cool situation...This Monday, I had an opportunity to sit in for the DC Grammy Chapter's Board Meeting (they keep me around since I'm, kinda a cool guy and all). Just kiddin'. At the meeting, we showed the board the IAB sizzle and I got a chance to just give a quick talk about how I felt about RAD/GOTH and I told 'em of our upcoming plans at CMJ. It was pretty wicked awesome (right, Christie?). They applauded the effort and affirm'd that it's gonna be a cool deal.
So yah, it's back to all the sharps, flats, and naturals for me. I gotta enjoy this last lil' bit of time in school 'cause, it's flyin' by faster than I can blink. But it's goin' well. I'll work on gettin' somethin' recorded and, let yall know how that goes. In the meantime, it's all about figuring out what & where I'm gonna work.
You cats keep on singin' the September song and, I'll be sure to keep yall posted. Stay positive and take it easy.
Have Peace,
B
P.S. Joy, YOU GOT YOUR SATELLITE RADIO SO, STOP STALKIN' ME!!!!!!! ;)
Hey,
Coming at ya from 100 degrees/100% humidity...going to Lollapalooza this weekend, thanks to the good folks at WTD...I will give everyone a full run-down as the weekend progresses...if i survive...until I see you all again, keep doin the do-ron-ron...
Matt
I know you all have wondered what it might be
like to inhabit a town run entirely by those who just can’t seem to get enough
of rambling guitars and minimal vocals, those who hold green as the most
important color, those who feel that tie-dye, home-sewn pants, and the
“unwashed look” can really stick it to the man. Well I am here to tell you that five days in the middle of Tennessee with 80,000 hippies was phenomenal.
Back in March, I put the Bonnaroo
lineup on my profile asking if anyone was interested in going, with the glimmer
of hope someone might take it seriously. Next thing I knew, Boze (Rachel Bozeman) was calling me saying “Let’s do
this.” She bought her ticket, I
coordinated the trip with a family trip to Saluda, NC. We sorted out the practicalities, and soon I was with the padre and step
mom in the soporific Saluda, population: next to
nothing. We spent most of the days
hiking in the NC mountains with my little cousins, and I did my morning runs
through near impenetrable forests down Pearson’s Falls Road.
Thursday morning, the padre and
my uncle Bill took me into Hendersonville to catch the bus. Let me tell you that
it’s very comforting to pull up to a bus station in a Suburban in the middle of
nowhere, North Carolina and find a man passed out, drooling against the
door. Following that, my relatives
decided it best to wait with me until the bus arrived. Ten hours, a bus change, and a cab ride
later, Rachel’s flight arrived in Nashville
and we boarded another bus—a shuttle that would take us directly to the 700
acres of music and camping glory. Boze and I started hiking from
the drop off site to meet up with some of her friends from Dayton,
and by hiking I mean walking 2 miles to their campsite, in the back corner of “Camp
Rusty Griswald.” I elected to pull my
suitcase/backpack on its wheels rather than carry it…because you know food is
freaking heavy. This earned me stares
and comments from some trust-afarians and maybe some legitimate hippies like
“are you headed to the airport?” No, and I have showered today unlike you,
thank you very much. We pitched our Camel tent—Made in Korea,
complete with broken zipper—changed, and hiked the mile and a half with Joel
and Gau to go check out polka-esque Denver
natives Devotchka. Travel fatigue led me
to call some songs the very technical term as “too bar mitzvah-y,” but all in
all the show was well done, but more entertaining were the stoners dancing with
their newly purchased glow sticks.
The next morning, I awoke at 5:30 to multiple sound checks. Over a mile away from the show, and we could
hear perfectly. That is sound equipment
you might want to invest in. By 7:30 the temperature in our tent had
officially reached a 1000°, so Boze and I breakfasted sunscreened up, watered,
and bug sprayed. At 11:00 or so it was time to journey to see Andrew Bird at
That Tent. That’s another thing those
cunning hippies did to confuse those who were maybe not so coherent—Abbott and
Costello style.
Main
Stages: What Stage and Which Stage
Tents:
This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent
Andrew
Bird was great, and then Rachel and I made the superb decision to cool off in
the fountain at the middle of Centeroo. Successful, and then we looked at the not-so-clear water coming out of
the top. We then worked our way to the
side barricade near the front for Ben Folds. His show, according to some uber-fans, was pretty typical with
piano-pounding and crowd participation directed by the man himself. He played staples like “Annie Waits,” “Zak
and Sara,” “One Angry Dwarf,” and “Brick” as well as new ones like “Jesusland”
and “Bastard.”
It was then time to wait, thirsty but with completely full
bladders, for my favorite boy from Omaha. During set change it became apparent that his
current love interest, Maria Taylor, would be playing drums, Mike Mogis would
be accompanying him on guitar, and he had wrangled in a bassist and a violinist. After opening with “Train Under Water,” Conor
played a great combination of old, new, and unreleased material including a few
old tracks I’ve never heard live like “Lover I Don’t Have to Love.” A few songs into the set—in incestuous indie
style—Conor brought out some friends (Jim James, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings,
and Gruff Rhys who played a Super Furry Animals song solo onstage. Only at Bonnaroo.
He eventually
ran out of songs on his set list, and told the audience that he had no idea
what he was going to do. Naturally, the
audience started yelling songs, and I chimed in when I felt it was appropriate,
asking for my favorite oldie involving a trip to see a girl in San Diego. Finally,
in true Conor tradition, and—as I will think forever—in response to my
requests, the rest of the band left the stage, and Conor played “June on the
West Coast” which maybe 1% of the audience knew then walked off the stage. It was perfect.
Ignoring our full bladders and exceptionally dry
mouths, Boze and I waited out the set change for the clear view from the
barricade for the next set. Ben Gibbard
& co. emerged and delighted with a perfect amalgamation of old and new
including songs from This Photo Album
as well as a good chunk of Plans. Low point, however, was when the couple next
to us grossly made out throughout “What Sarah Said,” turning a poignant song
into cheap porn. Ben even played a drum
duet. Following the set, we fed and watered ourselves in preparation for the
set of the night
After an hour of relatively unknown 50’s songs eschewed by
the tie-dyers and reveled by Boze and myself, Mr. Tom Petty wandered onstage. He opened with “You Don’t Know How It Feels”
and kept going through his hits. Midway
through the set, Petty introduced the Heartbreakers as well as the “little
sister” that had been following the band around for thirty years, asking her to
sing a few songs. Little sister = Stevie
Nicks. Wow. After a finale of “You Wreck Me” and “American Girl” it was time to
herd back over to This Tent. We spent two hours talking seated at the back of
the tent as Jim James bridged the gap between hippies and hipsters. Around 2am we went to see Common, and it turns out sound coming from the side of the tent
is awful. Who’d ‘a thunk?
Exhausted and 15 hours after we
left our campsite, the two of us walked back and crashed. The next morning was
very similar to the day before, and we left—this time with Joel and Gau in
tow—for the show. I split with them and
worked my way up to the front just in time for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. There were some stupid girls who thought
their hips and asses could prevent me from getting to the front of a show. To them I said, “Nay,” and made my way up
front. The show started, and the boys
from NY/Philly launched into all the songs from their
self-titled/self-produced/self-marketed debut with the traditional newbie
additions of a few b-sides and a few new songs. I clapped my hands the whole time until they ended with about 25 min
left in their set. I wandered around
Centeroo, caught a bit of Damien Marley, Rusted Root, and Gomez before meeting
up again with Boze.
We worked our
way through the crowd, definitely feeling the heat and lack of complete meals,
and eventually gave up hope of moving closer as Beck came onstage. His set was full of puppets (marionettes in
effigy), and exceptionally large stereo, a random dancer who looked like he
should be wearing a bike helmet and carrying the Book of Mormon, and dinner for
the band while Beck played a Lips cover (“Do You Realize”), the beginnings of
“Creep,” and “Lost Cause.” Oh and the puppets made a Bonnaroo mockumentary.
Only at Bonnaroo.
Boze set out
after that to reunite with the boys, and I did my best to fend for myself for
90 min prior to Thom’s appearance with only a Power Bar. No water. No energy
for me. Finally as the set began I was
able to make my way to about 75 feet from the stage surrounded by tall
uber-fans who were able to detail each upcoming song by the instruments that
were brought onstage, and even knew all the specs on the unreleased material. Colin,
Johnny, Thom, Ed, and Phil played everything I could have ever asked them to
including “Kid A,” “Idioteque,” “2+2=5,” and a song for my wedding—“Paranoid
Android.”
Following the
150 minutes of bliss—despite my desire to see the Dresden Dolls again, even at
2am—the four of us returned to the campsite and feasted on beef jerky, trail
mix, E-Z cheese, and Pringles (loaded baked potato, mind you) before passing
out in the tents. Sunday provided us
with a welcome break from the heat, and we packed things up, opting to hitch a
ride to the airport that night with Joel and Gau rather than pay $30-$50 for a
shuttle ticket. My only regret of the
day was deciding to skip out on The Streets, but I did want to spend time with
the guys and Boze. Bela Fleck was phenomenally talented, but by the time we hit
Moe, Rachel and I done with sprawling jams, and hiked back to the campsite to
finish packing. The boys returned, and
we left as Phil Lesh and his green-loving fans began an adventure together.
On the ride to the airport, Gau and I—the only
ones awake—somehow heard two different covers of “Baby I Love Your Way” (“Is
this Peter Frampton?”). Just our
luck. Rachel and I “showered” in the
airport bathroom, changed our clothes, and made beds near the baggage
claim. We were awakened at 4:30 by
Security Guard #1 telling us we would miss our flights. Thanks, jerk. Soon after, we tried to check in, but I was
unable to check my bags thanks to a 4 hour policy. Stupid United. We found some nice carpet across from the
Capitol Grille, and Rachel took another nap while I read and listened to The
Boy Least Likely To. Around 6:30, Security Guard #2 came, and after
acknowledging me, proceeded to kick Rachel’s feet as if she were a drunk or a
bum or you know, a dirty Bonnaroo hippie. “Wakey, wakey. Ya see, we’re fixin’ to do bizness here, and we can’t
have y’all sleepin here.” Fine. Jerk.
We’ll go buy breakfast. Finally, 8 hours later, I was passed out on a
plane—where I had been upgraded to first class—periodically awoken by the drunk
business couple across the aisle.
All in all, the
trip was one of the best concert experiences of my life, and was worth every
penny. Unlike most other music
festivals, at Bonnaroo, each act plays a full set, not just 55 minutes
(Coachella, SXSW) or 30 minutes (Warped Tour). Even with the extremely lax/non-existent security, there were no major
problems with the crowd that I heard of other than some heat exhaustion. The set-up completely trumped that of
Coachella where every bit of each person was carefully examined, resulting in
long lines and frustrated fans. Also,
the security concerning the 21+ crowd was non-existent, so fans did not have to
worry about missing their favorite acts because they were in line to get their
ID’s checked, so they could get into the beer garden. Festival organizers should take some tips
from those at Bonnaroo.
Keep rockin,
Christie
Folks, it's goin' pretty swell up here! I'm enjoyin' my internship up here (and I'm not just sayin' that 'cause yall sent me to the Grammys (I'm sayin' that 'cause yall sent me TWICE!!!)) I'm just kiddin'.
We had a really big board meeting today and it went well. I hate that the national chairperson wouldn't show up (had the flu). There was a cool showing though, and just so you cats know, I did get a small amount of facetime to put in a shameless plug for whatsthedownload.com. That was a cool thing. I hate I couldn't say more but, what can I say! I'm a lil' intern at a meeting w/ all the big whigs!
I think that's all I had to say. I hope you cats are doin' swell. This blog is like, one of my main ways for lettin' you cats know how I'm doin' and, for me to hear from everyone. Yall take it easy and keep doin' the thizzle and, I'll see you cats up here in my area this fall.
Have Peace,
B
Wassapp Team,
Man! It's been a while since I've heard from, anybody! I hope that you cats are doin' swell and that life is just, a legal download for everybody right now.
I'm doin' pretty cool up here in DC. So I started my internship today with the DC Grammy Chapter. (Thanks to everyone for all the prayers, support, and love. It's greatly appreciated.) I had a good time, and, I think it's gonna be a cool deal workin' there. I get to kick with Daryl the Man (even though I haven't seen him since the Roundtable discussion back in '05). Also, all of the folks in the office are really nice and really cool.
While in the office, I happened to catch a glance of this big poster of the What's the Download Interactive Advisory Board. I thought that was pretty groovy. Didn't get to pull it out and see the whole thing but, I think I'll get to check it out tomorrow.
For the record everyone, the office is pretty much around the corner from the White House so, location, location, location. We're in a building where, for lunch, I have a ridiculous amount of options (but, there might not be TOO many options since that ol' wallet tends to disagree when stuff like that becomes routine). We have a Filine's Basement in, well, the basement (it's like a TJ Maxx or Marshall's). It's a cool deal.
But yah, summer is about hot fun up here in DC. I think it's gonna be great and, I might be able to get in contact with some big time cats. Should be good stuff.
Also, I got really lucky and made it back to my dorm right before the mail room closed and got a box today from my Grandma. She sent a bunch of food (soups and hot chocolate and stuff (yah, I drink it durin' the summer as well). But most importantly, she sent BROWNIES son!!! So yah, I just have that good ol' Southern smile on my face right about now. Hope that you cats are doin' well as well. Take it easy and, have a nice day!
Have Peace,
B
Hey all,
Sorry it's taken me so long ot post on here, but this last semester of school owned me. Turns out taking three hardcore science classes can be pretty rough on your spare time. Now I have my soul back, and I have returned to my home state for another wonderful Rocky Mountain summer. Andy and I have big plans to rock out all summer, so things will be wonderful.
I don't have much in terms of music, but I will have an all around festival commentary coming up in the next few weeks as my festival tally chalks up to three (SXSW, Coachella, and Bonnaroo). That's right Brittany and Robbie, I'll be in Tennessee.
I should be better about posting now that I am not spending 25 hours working on lab reports or problem sets for physical chemistry. Hope all is well in WTDland.
Keep rockin,
Christie
Current listening: Destroyer "This Night," Art Brut, Less Than Jake "Anthem"
So I was in Amsterdam last week and while I was aimlessly doing the tourist thing and roaming the streets, I stumbled across a 4 story music "megastore" called Fame. But the 4 stories of music, dvds, and video games wasn't what really caught my attention (although I did end up spending way too much money on CDs there) The fact is their pricing system was really interesting. Newly released CDs were 10-17 Euro while older CDs were 5 euro. Now, these weren't used CDs, these were new CDs. All of them. But they were 5 euro. And it's so weird because in America, older releases are almost always more expensive than newer CDs. I don't know why that is. Maybe in Amsterdam they make all their money off of new releases? And in America, we're all about the first week sales so new CDs have to be cheaper so people will buy them? And the record companies makes money off of expensive old, catalog albums? To me, I think Amsterdam's pricing system makes more sense because newly released music is usually more desired than old albums. So in an effort to sell old albums why not make them cheaper? Just a thought...
-joy
As a music fan, I try to attend local venues to support
artists. Thus far, this month has been
no exception. At the start of the
month, I saw Kat Parsons, who has a beautiful voice, play at Molly
Malone’s. Kat’s equally talented
friend, Libbie Schrader played at the Troubadour. I bumped into Libbie while seeing another friend play at The
Mint, who has opened up for Libbie at Hotel Café in the past. I was disappointed that I was out of town
and missed my friend’s band, Moss Bluff play.
However, I will be in town to catch another friend of mine,
Reeve Carney, play at Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles. I highly recommend trying to catch Reeve play live. The last night he’ll play at Molly Malone’s
will be this upcoming Monday (April 17), there after you can see him on tour
with Johnny Lang. His brother, Zane,
plays in his band as well and both Carney brothers are extremely talented
musicians. Not to mention that his
piano player, Charles Jones is an amazing pianist and singer as well. If you plan on attending this Monday, arrive
early because the venue will be packed.
Wassapp again kiddos,
Don't have me feelin' like a square bein' the only cat to post a bunch. Yall know I have to hear somethin' from you cats to see how everything is goin' with ya as well.
Just wanna let everyone know that today (April 5th), I had breakfast (nice lil' breakfast too, and the ticket was taken care of (MY LUCKY DAY)) with the Executive Director of the DC Grammy Chapter, Ms. Shannon Emamali. It was so fun, and, I felt important and stuff! We talked about future Grammy engagements (and I'm gonna be talkin' at somethin' coming soon so, that'll be another "I feel important" moment). She was really nice and, we had a good time. At at a cool lil' restaurant call'd Old Ebbitt Grill (and it's cool, right across the street from the Department of Treasury (not to mention, right around the corner, literally, from the White House) so, that's wassapp). I had a good time and, it's definitely gonna be some good networking to come out of me working with the chapter. Not to mention, now that she knows I'm a vocal jazz major, she'll be able to put me in good company (or in a nice lil' position to set somethin' up).
Hope stuff is goin' well with everyone. Take it easy and, everybody keep doin' ya thing. Happy April.
Brian
Hey guys,
This is going to be short because I have to run to a study session for chemistry (lame), but I wanted to send along a link to an interview that breaks down the issues facing the industry in nice packaged little terms...it's from those crazy music nerds over at Pitchfork.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/weekly/06-04-03-live-at-the-witch-trials.shtml
Check it out!
--Christie
Current listening: The Subways "Young for Eternity" and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Show Your Bones"
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