Another fall music
festival in Austin? I couldn't resist. However, I only attended the one day that seemed the most up my alley.
Event: Fun Fun Fun
Fest, Day 2
Venue: Auditorium
Shores
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 9 November 2013
Introduction:
FFF is a strange festival. It features three stages of music arranged
loosely by genre (roughly alternative/indie rock, punk, and
electronic/hip-hop), one stage/tent of comedy (which also featured
some music acts), and a skate park. And apparently a wrestling ring.
I mostly kept to the Orange Stage, ostensibly the alt rock stage, yet
headlined by M.I.A. Anyway, the weather was nice, and I still can't
believe how warm it is around this time of year in Austin. I learned
my lesson from ACL a month ago and I showed up much earlier in the
day, for which I was well rewarded. I saw six acts in full and four
in part before heading to one of FFF's late-night after-shows, which
I will cover in a separate post.
Bleached are a
somewhat traditional rock band hailing from LA, but unlike most of
the acts at the festival, the band is fronted by two guitar-slinging
women. One was the definitive lead singer and the other the
definitive lead guitarist. They were augmented by a woman bassist and
a male drummer. Both the lead guitarist and bassist also provided
backing vocals, and even though they were mixed rather low, the
combined vocals of the three women are certainly the band's strongest
suit. The music is perhaps a bit basic, but their energy and attitude
made it work. Similarly, the lyrics weren't always the cleverest, but
the delivery and the strength of the shared vocals made it sound
great. The band has a rather lighthearted and sunny feel about them,
which almost makes it feel like they are consciously playing up their
Southern California roots. However, they aren't quite so simply boxed
in, evidenced by offering a Damned cover in the middle of their set.
Merchandise,
from Tampa, tours as a five-piece although I think there are only two
or three core members. The band apparently arose from a thriving
local punk scene, yet reveal much deeper shades of post-punk and
psychedelic rock. With three guitarists (two electric, one acoustic),
they generate quite an abundance of sound, but they focus on letting
it all blend together in a rather spacey mix. The most obvious
touchstone I could think of was the
Chameleons, which is perhaps why
I enjoyed them so much. I almost get the impression that they haven't
heard of most of the 80s ethereal post-punk bands that they sound
like. Their approach is a bit more progressive and less pop-oriented,
even if both ideas came out of trying to stretch outside of the
limitations of punk rock. The vocals were indeterminate but the music
was incredible. I'm looking to buy one of their records as soon as
possible.
Chelsea Light Moving
are known best as the new band of Thurston Moore, once the
guitarist/vocalist of Sonic Youth. I was surprised to see the man
himself come out early to help set up and then soundcheck; he
apparently still stays true to some of his DIY/punk roots. Anyway,
after soundchecking and almost leaving the stage, Thurston was told
he had a minute before they were on, and true to his style, he just
bluntly asked the sound person if they could start early. Good thing
they did, because Thurston broke a string in the first song and again
later in their set, necessitating a few minutes' break both times to
remedy the situation.
Unsurprisingly, this
band sounds very similar to Moore's old band: they both play a sort
of noisy, alternative, seemingly careless but clearly cleverly
crafted avant-punk music. Unlike Sonic Youth, where the guitarists
used different guitars for almost every song, each one tuned
differently, this band's two guitarists held on to the same
instruments the whole time. To be fair, I don't think they were tuned
traditionally, but it did make the music seem less dynamic. As far as
the actual performance went, some jams were better than others. I
can't say I saw anything truly unexpected and thus I wasn't
particularly impressed. Thurston still plays a mean guitar, but his
guitarist accomplice, Keith Wood, mostly copied Thurston or played
simpler, rhythmic parts under Thurston's guitar. The bassist, Samara
Lubelski, was something of an enigma, revealing little of her history
as a guest violinist on many renowned indie records. I had high hopes
for this band but I was admittedly somewhat let down. I know Thurston
has more in him than this. It just didn't sound like anything new.
Geographer
performed as a three piece: a singer/guitarist/keyboardist, an
electric cellist/keyboardist, and a drummer/keyboardist. I couldn't
hear a note of the cello and I could barely discern the singer's
instrumentation. The mix was mostly just electronic samples, drums,
and vocals. Since most of the music at the festival was mixed
superbly, this must have been intentional, but it sure was an odd
choice. I would have loved to have heard more of that cello, and even
the singer's guitar/keyboard parts might have made the sonic palette
a little more diverse. The singing was really good, but the music was
a bit too simple and clichéd; there just weren't any surprises to be
found. Nonetheless, the band clearly has a following.
Television were
the reason I was there. Their setlist was as follows:
1. Venus
2. 1880 or So
3. Little Johnny Jewel
4. Prove It
5.
Elevation
6. Marquee Moon
Television has an odd history;
after reforming in 1992 and releasing a new album, they've continued
to tour as they see fit but release no new music. In 2007, they
suffered their first lineup change since 1975 when guitarist Richard
Lloyd departed amicably, replaced quite suitably by Jimmy Rip.
Recently, word has gotten out that this lineup has recorded a new
album, but they haven't played it live nor announced plans to release
it.
The band certainly
stuck with the tried and true. They played their debut single, four
songs from their debut album, and one from their 1992 album. Songs
from their second album, Adventure, were absent, as were their
traditional set of covers and any new material. Nevertheless, it was
a supreme pleasure to see them play some of their best material and
make it feel like it was still 1977. Lloyd was hardly missed, as Rip
played incredible parts and fit right in sync with Tom Verlaine.
Tom's voice was a little thinner and weaker than in his youth, and he
let Rip play more than his fair share of lead guitar parts, but when
he did play a solo, he tore it up. He doesn't even have to try; he
just spits out beautifully melodic and clever parts like they came to
him in a dream. I could have watched them for hours, but sadly I
barely got 45 minutes.
Deerhunter: I
have to admit I only saw part of their set and I wasn't paying the
best attention. (I was distracted by an amazing vegan Frito chili pie
burrito.) I remembered them as being more electronic, but maybe I was
thinking of
Deerhoof. At any rate, they played a somewhat spacey or
psychedelic noisy rock blend. It was good but fairly nondescript.
Unfortunately, it didn't stand out enough that I think I can truly
provide a full review and a fair score.
Sparks: I knew
little about them in advance other than their amazing song "This
Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and that one of my old
friends is a fan. I knew that they were somewhat absurd and
theatrical, and that the band has a knack for changing styles and
only maintaining a core lineup of two brothers, one on keyboards and
one on vocals. But that was about it. Sure enough, performing on the
smaller Yellow Stage reserved mostly for comedy acts, the band came
out as just the Mael brothers. However, they came out fifteen
agonizing minutes late, while I had to sit through horribly un-funny
recorded sketches by Sarah Silverman and Norm McDonald.
They are a terrifically
strange band. Older brother Ron sat at his keyboard with a
perma-scowl, looking straight forward and hardly moving. Younger
brother Russell was far more lively and flamboyant and naturally did
the vast majority of the talking. However, Ron did take the mic for a
spoken part in a segment of their opera The Seduction of Ingmar
Bergman. Although I only recognized their performance of their
biggest hit, I appreciated their wit and non-standard approach to
musical performance. Unsurprisingly, the tent was mostly empty by the
end of the set, but that could also be due their lateness causing
overlap with the start of the headlining shows.
Their set could have
been dangerously monotonous due to their limited instrumentation, but
the novelty and the quality of the singing and songwriting prevented
it from growing dull. While not great, they were rather fascinating
and at least reasonably entertaining. I enjoyed it. The best part was
their announcement that their Bergman opera is being adapted
for a film to be directed by Guy Maddin, an old favorite of mine that
I trust can do it justice.
They ended with an
extended monologue of appreciation from Russell and a short dance and
even a few words from Ron.
After Sparks, I wasn't
sure where to turn. None of the headliners interested me all that
greatly, so I figured I'd wander between each of them. First I saw a
few minutes of M.I.A., but the music seemed rather confused
and cacophonous at the time, so I figured I'd come back later.
I
wandered over to the Blue Stage to see Ice-T, where I caught a
guest performer doing a great a capella rap against economic
oppression. However, this was followed by Ice T asking some girls in
the front row how old they were, and then proceeding to explain his
desire to engage in sexual intercourse with these 16 year olds, or in
fact "anything that moves". I left the area immediately.
I then went to the
Black Stage to see the Descendants. They played a clever
anti-conformity song about refusing to be a statistic, but then
followed that up with several minutes of uninspired pseudo-punk
thrashing. The audience members took the opportunity to repeatedly
climb onstage and immediately jump back into the crowd to attempt to
crowdsurf. My enthusiasm waned and so I headed back to the start.
On my second go, M.I.A.
appeared in better form. I'm still not sure what anyone else on stage
was doing; there were about five people who came and went at random
and performed ambiguous tasks. One appeared to play keyboards, but
maybe not, and another was drumming, but I think most of the music
was more samples than not. At any rate, M.I.A. herself was in good
form and she was singing well. I happened to catch "Paper
Planes", most notable for someone like me due to the sampling of
the Clash's "Straight to Hell", but a great song in general
for the depth of the lyrics. I do wonder, though, how many of the
audience members miming gunshots along with the sound effects bother
to read into the lyrics. It made for quite a surreal crowd
phenomenon.
I left just a bit early
to try to make it to one of the late night events, which I will cover
in
my next post.
Scores:
Bleached: B
Merchandise: A
Chelsea Light Moving: C
Geographer: C
Television: A-
Sparks: B
Overall: B+
Final Thoughts:
I didn't pay enough attention to Deerhunter to feel comfortable
scoring them. Similarly, I didn't see enough of any of the headliners
to have a substantial enough impression. I can say that Ice-T did not
impress me, the Descendents seemed rather predictable, and I should
probably pay a little more attention to M.I.A. even if not everything
she does interests me. At any rate, I'm glad I went early and saw
some of the lower-profile bands, and my longtime favorites Television
did not disappoint me, so I had a pretty good experience all around.
[Edit 2013.11.13] P.S. The setlists for Chelsea Light Moving and Sparks have been posted online. Here is Chelsea Light Moving's (
source):
1. Burroughs
2. Sleeping Where I Fall
3. Groovy & Linda
4. [Unknown]
5. Empires of Time
6. Alighted
And here is the setlist from Sparks (
source):
01. Your Call's Very Important to Us. Please Hold.
02. How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall?
03. B.C.
04. Here in Heaven
05. Academy Award Performance
06. Those Mysteries
07. Good Morning
08. Falling in Love With Myself Again
09. I Am Ingmar Bergman
10. The Studio Commissary
11. Limo Driver (Welcome to Hollywood)
12. Oh My God
13. Nicotina
14. Popularity
15. This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
16. Suburban Homeboy
17. Tryouts for the Human Race
18. The Number One Song in Heaven
