Bonnaroo rant/BISB/Morning Benders
February 11, 2010
After some thinking, I have this to say about the Bonnaroo 2010 lineup: 1/2 good, 1/2 FAIL. Part of it is just my personal taste, but part of it is just plain WTF?
First the bad part: the headliners. The combination of Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, and Dave Matthews Band (the 1st 4 listed in the lineup, thus assumed to be headliners) is pretty weak compared to Phish/Springsteen, or Metallica/Pearl Jam, or The Police/Tool. As much as I hate Phish, they were a HUGE score for the festival last year, and IMO, they needed someone like the widely-rumored Paul Simon or Paul McCartney to really stand up the last few years. I don’t think Jay-Z, despite his legendary status in the hip hop world, can quite fill the shoes of past headliners. Stevie Wonder is awesome and I’m glad he’s playing but somehow I just don’t see him as quite headliner material. DMB has played Bonnaroo before, and of course will please the hippie crowd, but will also draw a considerable number of collar-poppin’ fratastic douchebags.
Now for the good part: the tent-playing (or maybe Which Stage-playing) mid-level indie acts. I’m more than elated to see She & Him, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Miike Snow, They Might Be Giants, OK Go, The Melvins, Neon Indian, and many more of the “indie rock” acts on the bill. Let’s just say that if I go to cover it for the Scene again this year, I will no doubt be spending most of my time in the tents.
In other lineup news, Vanderbilt’s Rites of Spring lineup came right on the heels of the Bonnaroo announcements, and the list is not surprising, though Phoenix and Passion Pit together make the lineup a tad bit stronger than past years, IMO. Headliners Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 and Drake fit right into the typical RoS formula of putting an up-and-coming rap star on one night, and a frat-pleasing, jam-ish act on the other. But this broad, please-all formula has worked well for the festival in the past, so I can’t blame them for doing what works. This ain’t no Pitchfork afterall.
As most Nasvhillians who pay any amount of attention to the local electronic/DJ scene already know, Justin Kase has been on the road for several months as a the DJ in Ke$ha’s backing band. He also ran a pretty cool, though sparingly updated blog called Blogging Is Serious Business. Sadly, though, he’s putting that blog on indefinite hiatus:
Touring kept me from updating recently, but now i just don’t have any interest to continue this blog. Never say never, but don’t expect anything new for some time to come.
What’s utterly flattering, though, is that he mentioned my blog, along with the obvious Nashville Nights, as an alternative for “your Nashville dancing fix…” Therefore, expect me to attempt to live up to that plug by bringing in a little more coverage of the DJ/electronic/dance scene beside my usual plugs for gigs at which I’m DJing. Don’t expect many mp3’s though, because A) Joseph at Nashville Nights has that very well-covered, and B) I don’t have the time or energy to devote to climbing the HypeMachine charts and getting labels/producers to send me shit to post. I will however, post a link to my last mix, just in case you missed it back in Dec. (Spring 2010 Mixxxx is currently in production for release next month.)
Finally, I was excited to this nicely-done video of the Morning Benders performing/recording the track “Excuses” for Yours Truly with about 50 of their best musician friends crammed into the studio, Phil Spector-style. In fact, as the singer Chris Chu talks about in the interview segment, the song is a bit of a tribute to Spector and his “Wall of Sound” recording method. They even wrote a cute little letter to him which you can read at Yours Truly. Here’s the video. (All of this via Gorilla vs. Bear and Pitchfork)
Some cool/cute videos
February 9, 2010
You’re no doubt going to be spending a lot of your internet time today following the “great unveiling” of the Bonnaroo 2010 lineup, and I have little interest in competing with that. Furthermore, I don’t have time to cover such a long, drawn-out process in the first place because this blog happens during small breaks, luls, and at lunch during my “real” job. According to the main Bonnaroo website, the place to keep up with the lineup unveiling (which is entirely up to the artists themselves this year) is Bonnaroo’s myspace page. They will start keeping tabs of the announcements at noon EST today. As of 10am the only artists I’ve seen are Weezer, Flaming Lips, Phoenix (weird because Bonnaroo doesn’t normally book acts 2 years in a row), John Fogerty, Jeff Beck, and Blues Traveler. That last one gave me a major flashback to watching Woodstock ’94 coverage when I was 13….
So, instead of focusing on the Bonnaroo craziness, I will simply post some interesting cute videos thanks to Yewknee’d:
Very cool time-lapse video of the snowfall in Washington, D.C. this past weekend:
A dog reacting to the Law & Order theme song: (Many many more here.)
Features afterpary @ La Paz/Majestico tracks
February 5, 2010
The big story today is also an act of shameless self-promotion. Tonight is the sold-out Features/Majestico/Cortney Tidwell show at Exit/In, and I’m DJing the official afterparty at La Paz along with Fan Fiction. La Paz is literally only 3 doors down Elliston from Exit/In, and given the fact that A) there’s NO COVER and B) well drinks/margaritas/wine are all $3 and PBR cans are $2, you’d be CRAZY not to come over after the show (if you’re going). Since the show sold out in one day due the rumor of Kings of Leon opening (which proved to be false), you may not have a ticket. In that case, I suggest simply coming straight to La Paz, because we kick things off around 9-10pm and you know the party will really get hoppin’ later on anyway. In case you hadn’t realized- this is the new incarnation of BFF. It’s simply whenever/wherever Fan Fiction and I DJ together. And trust me, we’re bringin’ the bangers. The resident La Paz DJ for whom we’re covering, Potamus, will be hitting the decks down in M’boro at SWAG, so if you’re in that neck of the woods and wanna dance, 527 Main St. is the place to be.
Speaking of Majestico, they’ve got 2 brand new tracks up on their bandcamp for free (unless you give your email address monetary value). Together they comprise the Bright White Lady single. What the hell are you waiting for? Go get them now. Oh, and there’s another great track called “I Like You” on there as well. These dudes might just be my favorite “new” Nashville band. (Via a star to sail her by, AKA the new blog from Andrew J. Smithson)
D. Patrick Rodgers of Nashville Cream did an interesting interveiw with Daniel Pujol as a part of this week’s Scene cover story “10 Artists to Watch in 2010.” Pujol’s answers are rather hilarious and quite cryptic at times, but that’s the main reason it’s a good read… You can also grab 2 free mp3s of Pujol’s solo work, which are hard to come by since most of his solo material has been released on cassette tape.
Other stuff this weekend:
Saturday is a major dilemma for sure:
Of Montreal/James Husband @ Cannery Ballroom vs. Girls/Magic Kids/Smith Westerns @ Exit/In…
Personally, I’ve seen Of Montreal 4 times and much prefer their mid-career material (Coquelicot through Sunlandic Twins). That, combined with my Scene photographic assignment will likely land me at Exit/In, because I haven’t seen any of those bands, and want to see all of them, especially Magic Kids.
On Sunday the party doesn’t stop, because Tristen will be at the 5 Spot, along with Murfreesboro’s The Only Sons, and Action!.
Have a great weekend!
Infinity Cat rules Elliston tonight/LOST timeline, etc…
February 2, 2010
First of all, if you’re a LOST fan as I am, of course you know that the final season premiers tonight. To go along with that, I give you two links of interest:
The New York Times’ timeline of a few significant events. This is pretty helpful in remembering the time scale we’re talking about here…
The real physics involved with the time travel of LOST. As an avid science lover/advocate, I have of course been pleased with the fact that the time travel involved with LOST is at least somewhat based on real-world physics.
Image via Nashville's Dead
Unfortunately there’s a great show that I’m going to miss out on due to LOST tonight, and that is the Infinity Cat Rock the Block at Exit/In. In case you’ve been under a rock the past couple of months, Ryan Bruce has revived Exit/In’s free tuesday night weekly series Rock the Block. It’s similar to the 8 off 8th series at Mercy Lounge in that it’s hosted by a rotating cast of local musicians/scenemakers/bloggers/radio show hosts/etc…. It differs in that the number of bands is entirely up to the host, however most of the ones so far have been in the 7-9 band range. Tonight’s is hosted by Infinity Cat records and has a killer lineup. So if you’re not going to be glued to ABC for 3 hours, Exit/In should be your destination, because it’s free.
Speaking of 8 off 8th… Mercy Lounge released the actual lineups for each of the 4 Road To Bonnaroo series today. See the full lineups at Nashville Cream. This is going to get interesting.
For your daily dose of eye-candy, checkout local vintage clothier Carmen Jaudon’s official spring 2010 lookbook. Photography was done by Bradley Spitzer and of course the styling was by Carmen. A good pairing of photographer/stylist indeed.
Speaking of lookbooks… I present to you Hipsters Have to Pee. Must be all those PBRs and soy lattes… (Via Hipster Runoff)
Happy LOST day!
NASA/Obama look to cancel Constellation program
February 1, 2010
As expected, today Obama submitted his budget proposal for NASA, which includes cutting the Constellation/Ares rocket program. Under the new plan, he wants to pursue commercial options for getting people to low-earth orbit, and focus NASA’s main efforts on exploring the rest of the solar system. This will no doubt meet some resistance in Congress and the Senate, but overall I think it will go through. I’m starting to agree with it more and more. The biggest reason is that companies like SpaceX will probably be capable of safely transporting our astronauts to the ISS much sooner than NASA’s Ares rockets could have (without a massive and utterly impossible funding boost). Read more details at Space.com and at Discovery news.
Now enjoy these two nice nuggets via yewknee’d:
Sky:
Magic Kids get signed/Monotonix singer injured
January 29, 2010
At a party in Murfreesboro several weeks ago I ran into an old acquaintance from college- Alice Buchanan. She’s from Memphis and had been in a band called Scandaliz Vandalistz which may or may not still exist… but when I talked to her she told me of this new band she’s involved with called Magic Kids that had just formed and were already gearing up for a tour with Girls. I was astounded at the speed of their ascent to label-signed status. As gorilla vs bear, Nashville’s Dead, and the Matador Records blog all report, they just signed to True Panther. Their quick emergence is not unfounded, though, as it’s literally impossible to deny the warm-fuzzy-feel-goodness of “Hey Boy.” It’s very summery, fun, and has the ability to turn even the dreariest winter day into a breezy summer afternoon. The first two bands that come to mind when I hear these songs are the Beach Boys and I’m From Barcelona. Grab two mp3s at Nashville’s Dead. Then just try to keep from putting them on repeat. I dare you. They’ll be playing at the Exit/In on Feb. 6th with Girls, and also hitting up SXSW in March. I’m sure they’ll be on my “must-see” list.
Monotonix singer Ami Shalev’s luck finally ran out at a show in Florida Wed. night. Though Brooklyn Vegan’s headline says he broke his leg, the statement from the band doesn’t quite make it that clear. Seriously dude, you should’ve expected this to happen sooner or later. You just can’t do crazy shit like that at shows without getting hurt eventually. Hopefully they’ll be able to resume melting faces soon enough.
As for this weekend, I’ll be attempting to get to the super-exclusive Clipse show at Phatkaps, but the snow/ice-gasm 2k10 may prevent it. The roads should be clear by tomorrow night, though, for the Wax Fang/How I Became the Bomb/Non-Commissioned Officers show at Exit/In.
And, given my post yesterday about the Mars rover Spirit, I must share this adorable comic from xkcd:
Snowpocalypse: Part Duex/NASA rumors
January 28, 2010
Here we go again. I recommend investing in Kroger stock this year, because they’re gonna get a big boost in sales in TN from all these “snowstorms” wherein a meteorologist utters the word “snow” and 75% of the population immediately clears the milk, bread, and egg isles. (Apparently people only eat french toast during snowstorms?) As usual, I’ve been monitoring the progress of the forecast and find it interesting that the NWS hasn’t issued the winter storm warning yet, only a watch. I’m sure the warning will come, but it’s kinda funny that they’re hesitating, no doubt because of the giant snow fail from a few weeks ago. (To be fair, some areas around the midstate did get something close to the forecasted amounts, though no one really got the full 2-3 inches that was initially forecast…) This system is a little different than the last one, however. This one will most definitely have enough moisture to generate the 3-5 inches, unlike the last system which had moisture “issues.” The big limiting factor with this system will instead be temperatures. Nashville will literally be right on the dividing line between having an ice/rain mix and having an all snow event. If this system decides to track just 50 to 100 miles further north than the models think it will, that will cause more warm air to advect farther north, and we’ll end up having mostly rain friday changing to a little snow on the backside fri. night into sat. morning. If it decides to track slightly further south, we’ll have all snow, but much less of it, and areas to the south of us could actually see more snow than Nashville does. This system has a little better chance of “success” in giving us a good ol’ fashioned snowfall than the last one, but I wouldn’t place any bets yet.
Big rumors abound in the blogosphere about Obama’s budget proposal due to land in Congress on Monday. The biggest rumor is that it will completely cutout NASA’s Constellation program, which is the rocket system currently under development to not only replace the Space Shuttle, but also put men back on the Moon. I reported many times on the progress of the Augustine Commission and its recommendations for how NASA should proceed given that its current “trajectory” was financially unsustainable. One of the options they proposed was to eliminate the Constellation program and let commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX takeover the duties of getting astronauts to the International Space Station and other low-earth orbit missions. I have a feeling that if the budget really does cut the Constellation funds, that’s where we’ll be headed next. Honestly I think it may not be a bad idea, because it would allow NASA to focus more on getting man further out into the solar system, and eventually to Mars. I tend to agree with Dr. Phil Plait’s (the Bad Astronomer) sentiments on the issue (as usual) but I’m not in total agreement with him that we should still go back to the moon. But then again, he’s the astronomer with a Ph.D and I’m not. For even more info, check out Universe Today. Check those blogs again on Monday afternoon, as I’d say they’ll be able to update waaaay sooner than I will once the actual budget info is released.
Skydiving from space/NASA Spirit rover stuck for good
January 27, 2010
Back in 1960, a man named Joe Kittinger did probably the ballsiest thing ever done by any human being. EVER. He jumped out of a balloon that had lifted him literally to the edge of space- 102,800 feet above sea level. That’s roughly 20 miles. Not only was it by far the highest skydive (space-dive?) ever, but he also set a record for the fastest that a human being has ever traveled outside of a machine. Because he was free-falling through such thin air during the first few minutes of his jump, there wasn’t nearly as much friction to slow his fall, which allowed him to free-fall at supersonic speeds. Yes, he was traveling faster than the speed of sound, with nothing but a pressure suit around him to keep him alive. I can’t think of anything more utterly badass than that. Now a couple of people are trying to break Joe’s record by jumping from an even higher altitude. Frenchman Michel Fournier and Austrian Feliz Baumgartner are both attempting to make these jumps this year, according to an article on Discovery.com. Some would say these guys are totally crazy, but I say they are total badasses, and envy them. Watch Joe Kittinger describe his experience in this video:
NASA’s Mars rover Spirit will now become a stationary asset. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2003, and successfully landed on Mars in 2004. They were only intended to operate for 90 days, yet amazingly they have lasted 6 years. The news that NASA has abandoned efforts to free the Spirit rover from the pit of sand in which it’s been stuck for the last 6 months is somewhat saddening, but in context, it really doesn’t matter at all. These rovers are quite possibly NASA’s 2nd greatest accomplishment, next to putting a man on the moon. We should only be thrilled that this amazing little robot lasted as long as it did. Its mission is far from over, however, as it can still do plenty of science sitting right where it is. Of course, Opportunity is still mobile and NASA continues to drive it around, exploring new territory. Who knows how long these things will last? I have a strong feeling the abrasive dust that now coats almost every inch of both rovers will eventually take its toll, but how long that takes is beyond me. For more check out this article on Space.com. Here’s a cool animated GIF showing the last few maneuvering attempts to free it from the sand dune:
Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger/Benefit show in M’boro
January 26, 2010
I’m not quite sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief, or still be worried about the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. I haven’t really had a chance to fully think the outcome through yet. But the news is: the merger is on, but with special provisions mandated by the government to prevent a full-on monopoly on the entire live music business. Basically, AEG Live will get to use Ticketmaster’s software, and Ticketmaster’s Paciolan ticketing and software services unit will be sold to a division of Comcast or another possible buyer. I guess the biggest worry here was that the merger would go on unchecked and that did NOT happen, so I guess we can all sigh a breath of relief… for the time being. More details at Business Insider.
There’s a pretty cool fundraiser/benefit show happening in Murfreesboro this Thursday 1/28/2010 for YEAH. (If you’re unfamiliar with YEAH, which stands for Youth Education through Arts & Humanities, please click on the flier to visit their website and learn more about their AWESOME program.) The show lineup is Shoot The Mountain, Hammertorch, and How I Became the Bomb, and there will also be Yazoo and New Belgium beers! (The beer part is a big deal because normally this space is alcohol-free because it’s an all-ages venue/hangout.) It’s obviously an 18+ event, and your attendance will help out one of the best local causes I can think of.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of local electronic/8-bit wizard Matt Pusti. We went to MTSU together and he was mostly responsible for my introduction to electronic music in general. Before that, I thought drum machines were evil and anything not made by a “real” instrument was terrible. I recently mentioned his newer, more experimental endeavor DAAS and was quite glad to see him getting back to producing that genre of electronic music. (His material before Makeup & Vanity Set sounded much more like the DAAS material.) His Makeup & Vanity Set project has been somewhat idle for a couple years, but that has just changed with the release of his new Jambox EP on Bandcamp. GO GET IT NOW FOR NOTHING MORE THAN YOUR EMAIL. This is apparently just a taste of the goodness to come on his next full-length, due out later this year. I will probably do an interview with him as my first “official” interview on here… one of more to come.
Weekend craziness/Meemaw/meteorites
January 22, 2010
Combined science/music post today. Not much time….
A meteorite about the size of a fist crashed through the roof of a doctor’s office in Virginia on monday. Reports say that it was traveling about 220 MPH when it hit the roof. There’s a common misconception that all meteorites hit the ground as a fireball and cause a crater. The truth is only the really big ones, about car-size and up, actually have enough inertia to keep up those kinds of speeds all the way to the ground. The smaller ones that reach the ground have long since been slowed by the friction of the atmosphere, and usually hit at speeds anywhere from 100 to 300 mph, depending on the size and weight. I don’t want to spend much time on this so go here or here for more info.
Now for the music.
I mentioned a while back that beloved Nashville scrap-punkers Meemaw decided to end their hiatus. Well, the time has come! It all goes down tonight at The End, along with Marj!, So Jazzy, and JEFF the Brotherhood. I don’t really know if you can quite call it an interview, but please do check out this gem of a video segment of them talking/playing a new song/goofing off over at Nashville’s Dead. Good times.
Unfortunately this had to happen the same night as a ton of other good stuff in town.
One of the aforementioned other things is the special edition of Happy Valley at the Cannery Ballroom, where I will be running the Generation Domination photobooth. It’s part of Mercy Lounge’s 7-year anniversary party, but unlike the other show upstairs, it will cost a meager $5 to get into. The FREE show upstairs will consist of The Non-commissioned Officers, The Ettes, De Novo Dahl, Apollo Up, and the two secret guests have now been revealed- The Features and Turbo Fruits. That has to be the most amazing lineup of local rock I’ve seen in a long time.
On Saturday Mercy is once again the place to be, as the last day of their week of free shows consists of Space Capone, How I Became the Bomb, Heypenny, Madi Diaz, Tallest Trees, and Armed Forces. This amazing lineup will be followed by the return of BFF, featuring yours truly and Fan Fiction of Nashville Nights on the decks, and we promise to keep your butt on the dancefloor till the wee hours.
In case you missed the memo, BFF was a weekly dance party held by me (Burgers) and Joseph (Fan Fiction) at Mad Donna’s in east Nashville. That location turned out to be not quite right for what we were trying to do, so instead of keeping BFF as a monthly staple, we decided to just let it be the branding we use whenever/wherever we spin together. There are two upcoming BFF-related events, the first of which I just mentioned, and the other is Feb. 5th at La Paz. More details are in the pipeline about that, but I’ll say now that it’s probably going to be the official afterparty for the Features’/Cortney Tidwell/Majestico show which just a block away at Exit/In. It’s gonna be a blast y’all.
Have a great weekend!
steve cross loves music and science 