tiananmen square dance //

ASOBI SEKSU

The third and final day of the three day music festival Fun Fun Fun Fest began with Asobi Seksu’s set at the Orange Stage at 2-something in the afternoon. Hailing from NYC and featuring some pretty heavy Japanese influences, Asobi Seksu was a chance for me to get a good shot at hopefully seeing a good shoegaze show, as previous efforts had failed. There was that one time I saw The Twilight Sad after their terrible new album came out, so that didn’t count. Asobi Seksu (Japanese for “playful sex”) delivered nicely, featuring work from their newer effort Hush, plenty of offerings from their second album Citrus, and I imagine a healthy dose of tunes from their self-titled debut. I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the songs they played were familiar to me, and I also appreciated the fact that all of the instruments and vocals were mixed high and evenly. The band performed with plenty of energy, crammed as many outings into their short slot as possible, and gave me a renewed hunger and thirst for my quest to find and experience more good shoegaze shows. Though the reverb, delay, and wall of sound came through quite nicely for this iconic show, my only complaint is that fuzzbox just doesn’t seem to sound good live at all. That said, during the closer-cum-noise experiment, Yuki Chikudate put her mic down and took to the drum set, banging out a mindblowingly complex, bombastic climax. It kicked ass, but alas, Asobi Seksu’s bouncy, but dreamy set ended all to soon, and my girlfriend and I decided to skip out on Mates of State and use our stolen time to take a walk downtown for some good black and white shots with her vintage camera. Oh, and pardon the audio in the fan-made Youtube embed. Asobi Seksu shook it up that much.

Shortly after returning to the venue, we got some fantastic food courtesy of the Aquarelle booth, which was a great opportunity considering the prices at the actual French restaurant are sky high. God, was it heavenly too, but I’m definitely no gourmand. We staked out the Blue Stage with more than enough time to settle into a good spot to see Baths’ set, trying to not be allured by the final fifteen minutes of Austra’s nearby show. Austra’s entire aesthetic is kind of a turn off for me. It’s kind of a graduation from the classic “I am woman. Hear me roar.” musical movement into the more modernized “I am woman. Watch me be really weird.” musical scene. I think Austra is a witch house band, so that should be enough for you. The synth player was a bit of a siren, though, and their concluding song was pretty damn ghostly, so if any of you peeps happen to know the name of it, I just may give Austra a second go around.

The contents of the above video include more than just Baths’ performance, but whatever kind soul shot it stuck footage of him at the beginning, so thank you, kind soul. As you can see, the fellow was really getting into it. He played to a variety of different angles, mood, and tempos, all of which he played to whooping applause and knee jerk dancing. I had never seen a photo of Baths before, and I genuinely thought he was a black guy, based on the soulful depth of his vocal performance in his studio recordings. No, he has a cracker ass, and I just discovered that he’s only 21! Man, I feel like a flunky! He had a very warm stage presence, sweetly and shyly interacting with the audience between each song, sometimes instigating nostalgic games to play to the tune of his jams, other times embarrassing himself with his long-winded introductions to his favorite songs that he chose to perform for us. I have a sneaking suspicion that live electronic music shows are often little more than glorified manipulation of playback, but artists like Com Truise, Fuck Buttons, and now Baths have surely proven me wrong. This fellow turned his recordings into a veritable glitch-hop mixtape that would make any proponent of turntablism tear up, and he even danced in his own quirky way while feverishly pressing switches and twiddling knobs all throughout. The only song he played that I can name is “Maximalist”, which was a treat to see live, and his set overall was a very pleasant experience.

High on Baths’ laid back set, we once again decided to opt to skip out on someone. This time, we passed on Architecture in Helsinki, partly so we could get one last lap around the grounds in, and also because pretty much everything they’ve released since their debut has been shit. Once nightfall came, we parted ways, my girlfriend heading to see Boris, and me sticking around at the Blue Stage for Flying Lotus’ show.

As luck would have it, locating some footage of Flying Lotus performing “Massage Situation” was a walk in the park. What you see is the apex of the set, which was quite long, by the way, and we had to suffer through some Del the Funky Homosapien before Flylo even took the stage. Ugh. Flying Lotus cranked out some good jams, but after a while, they all started sounding the same. In addition to that, I didn’t have a good spot, due to the sheer numbers in attendance that speak to his level of popularity. Based on interviews I’ve watched and read, I’ve deduced that either the guy wants to create an aura of mystery about himself, he’s unequivocally shy, or he just has little to no personality. Whichever rings true, his stage presence was nonexistent, which could very well have been an albeit odd form of stage presence, granted. All he could seem to get out between sloppy beats was either the word “Austin” or “Flylo”, paired with some curse word over and over and over. It was good to catch the highlights of his set, but it was even better to call it a night early.

We wrapped up our fun fun fun filled weekend by stopping by the merch tent one last time (at which we had previously gone halfsies on a Dan Deacon shirt) and getting out of Dodge. I was tired and dirty, and I may have had my fill of the ever-growing and ever-corporatizing independent music festival, but I also have since felt enlightened, and my lust for life has been renewed. Here’s to good times, and here’s to Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011!

(Disclaimer: Let it be known that none of the above shots or shoot belong to me. They were borrowed, and all credit goes to the respective intrepid souls that captured said images and video.)

MP3 Download of “Maximalist”, by Baths (from Cerulean)

MP3 Download of “Massage Situation”, by Flying Lotus (from Reset EP)

On the second day of Fun Fun Fun Fest, we got up early so we could make Keep Shelly in Athens’ early set at 12:45. That morning, the streets were flooded with UT fans, who had deluged to the Austin downtown area for some big game (of which I will never understand the value). After finally finding a shady Jack in the Box at which to get a bite to eat, we grabbed a friend and headed to Auditorium Shores.

Keep Shelly in Athens was, by and large, the reason I attended Fun Fun Fun Fest on Saturday. This show was their very first ever show in the United States of America. Ever! It was really exciting to be able to show up and represent at the very front of the (albeit small) crowd for an independent chillwave band that had come all the way from austerity-torn Greece to play in America. Unfortunately, while enjoyable, their set was pretty humdrum. The lead vocalist was this cute, tiny little thing that spoke in very broken English and smiled every time I whooped. Her vocals sounded fine and fresh, but apparently most of the songs played were from their forthcoming LP via Planet Mu, so it was rather strange to hear vocals in every song. Among others, they played “Hauntin’ Me” and “Cremona Memories”, to the latter of which they apparently added lyrics after getting a full-time vocalist. The guitarist was fantastic, and the sounds were pleasant, but it just didn’t translate too well to the live venue, partially because the electronics were just mixed too low. All in all, though, I’m really glad I got to see them.

After seeing Keep Shelly in Athens, we fucked around for a little while, among other things, seeing a Saharan band that had been playing since 1979 called Tinariwen and trying and totally failing to enjoy tUnE-YarDs’ set. Really just kinda went for a friend, but, cute as the lead vocalist was, the band was pretty much a joke, in my opinion. I’m glad some legit hipster out there likes them. We made it to the Blue Stage just in time to hear Active Child wrapping up with “Playing House”, which was really awesome to see live.

We were really excited about seeing Dan Deacon. Though we were mostly only familiar with “Spiderman of the Rings”, his debut album, who hasn’t seen the viral video for “Crystal Cat”? His sound and aesthetic are so evocative and colorful that he was easily a shoe-in on our itinerary. He started with a fantastic little splurge of noise-joy, reminiscent of a cross between Fantômas and Gangpol und Mit. Two or three tracks in, though, he started having technical issues and started playing these bullshit crowd-pleaser games that a friend in attendance mentioned that he does at every show, nearly down to the word. That seemed a little trite to me, and it surely didn’t help that he elected to be on level with the crowd, as opposed to on stage, where the short folks like us could see him, so that was little anticlimactic. The final straw, however, came when some probably X’ed out dumbfuck decided to start crowdsurfing all over the place and just had to sail our way. We were not in the mood for antics. We just wanted to see a good show. My kickass girlfriend just let the jackass fall on the ground, but on his way down, he knocked my glasses off. For a split second, I realized that if someone stepped on my glasses, my entire weekend would be over, so I grabbed them up before that happened, grabbed my friend, and got outta there. Thank god nothing happened, or I probably woulda been kicked out for violent assault. Afterwards, Dan started having even more sound problems, so we blew his godawful set. Oh, by the way, in the above embedded Youtube video, you can see the little shit that couldn’t just take his Ritalin and enjoy the show. Seriously, fuck that guy.

M83

After skipping town on the biggest failure of the weekend, we geared up for good spots for M83’s show. Gracing our presence all the way from France, M83 was an act none of us were about to miss. In fact, for some of us, it was the entire reason they got up that day. We made sure we were relatively close and waited for the set to start.

Utilizing mostly work from their new double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 put on a show charged with energy and triumph. The sound of their new LP is very distinctive, in comparison to older work, in that Anthony uses a different method of vocalization. Gone are the largely whispered vocals in the vein of “Don’t Save Us From the Flames”, being mostly replaced with an 80s-esque shout and the occasional harmonization with his new female vocalist. The guitarist kicked it on stage like it was the only show he would ever play in his lifetime. The drummer battled it out for their nearly hour-long set to excellent effect. Anthony alternated between guitar and synth, crying out the refrains of his new magnum opus the entire time, joined often by the female singer, who too was glued to a keyboard. They played a plethora of songs from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, but in addition to that, “Teen Angst”, “Kim & Jessie”, and “Skin of the Night”, three that I was very, very happy to hear. All told, M83 was the best set that entire day, and my only complaint was that a couple of tall, rude French bitches stood right in front of us for the majority of the show after we kindly moved to let them get by. Le hmmph.

We rounded out the night by stopping by Neon Indian’s set, at which we couldn’t see shit, because he is massively popular in Austin.

Though I’m not as big of a fan of “Era Extraña” as I am of “Psychic Chasms”, the tunes from Alan Palomo’s new record certainly translate better to the live realm than do his earlier efforts. It has come to my attention that the debut album was never really meant to be reproduced live, which makes sense to me, due to how carefully crafted it was, what with all the audio mangling and tailoring going on all up in here. With that in mind, however, the few jams we did manage to catch were enjoyable. It was at the very least fun to hear Neon Indian perform, among others, “Deadbeat Summer”, “Psychic Chasms”, and “Polish Girl”.

Alas, though, we dreamt of attending Tera Melos’ Fun Fun Fun Fest Nites performance at Red 7 with Boris and Russian Circles, we were tired and filthy, so we ended the day early and on a good note, preferring to save our energy for the third and final day.

I must mention that if any reader knows the name of Dan Deacon’s first song, I would love to note it, so I can download it later. I cannot find a set list ANYWHERE

(Disclaimer: None of the above photos or video shoots are by my hand.)

MP3 Download of “Crystal Cat”, by Dan Deacon (from Spiderman of the Rings)

MP3 Download of “Intro”, by M83 (from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming)

Ay, folks. Sorry for the recent lack of updates. I’ve been out of town, and when I go AWOL, I have this awful habit of not updating or taking photos or anything. It’s not hard for me to go off the grid when on vacation because I’m that lazy. Anydangway, last weekend was the sixth annual three-day Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas, to which I attended for the fourth time. Starting today, I’d like to post some half-hearted reviews and personal opinions about each of the three days of the festival, one post to a day. Fun Fun Fun Fest started in 2006 at Austin, Texas’ Waterloo Park, and only drew about 2,500 people. Since then, the festival has been moved to a larger venue, Auditorium Shores, and attracted an estimated 15,000 people per day last weekend. Central to Fun Fun Fun Fest is the concept and value of independent music, and the provider Transmission Entertainment’s method of fleshing that out was to annually construct and run various stages simultaneously according to genre. For instance, both this year and last year, there have been four stages that show-goers could frequent at their leisure: the orange (and, arguably, primary) stage for indie rock, the black stage for punk rock and metal, the blue stage for electronic and hip-hop, and the yellow stage for stand up and various catch-all acts. Add in some merch tables, tents for local businesses, creepy corporations trying desperately to reach the hipster target market (Camel, Marlboro, Sony, Toyota), and great local food vendors, and you have one kick ass music festival. In my opinion, it is better than ACL, but because I am too poor to attend SXSW, I will not even go there. So I got my ticket early and went this year. This is what happened on Friday, November 4th.

PICTUREPLANE

Because I had a two-and-a-half hour drive ahead of me and had worked the night before, I showed up too late to see Cloud Nothings, which is unfortunate, because someone the next day told me that their set was great. That said, I did everything in my power to make Pictureplane’s set, going so far as to arrive well in advance in order to orient myself and find a spot. My girlfriend and I got into position well before the ending of YACHT’s set at the blue stage, which, despite official coverage, was awful. Of course, that could be chalked up to the fact that I don’t like YACHT’s music, but either way, they came off as being attention whores. Pictureplane sailed into Fun Fun Fun Fest at the tail end of his “Check Yo’ Ponytail” tour, along with Big Freedia and Spank Rock, so his stage was pretty well decked out in the most garish way possible. We were standing right at the front next to a speaker, so our hearing was unfortunately already shot by the time Pictureplane took the stage. He kickstarted with “Real Is a Feeling”, and the sassily delivered declaration, “Hi, my name’s Pictureplane, and I want you all to feel good forever.” Turning it up to 11 and piping in the scuzz liberally, Travis Egedy paced back and forth in his awful hipster attire, singing, tweaking, dancing, and grabbing his crotch like a real brother. To his left and right danced two very strangely clad figures whose genders were predictably masked (Pictureplane is gay.) until he rolled out “Post Physical”, in which the sirens’ faces were partially unveiled. All in all, it was a psychedelic and surreal experience, and it was the best set I saw all day. Highlights included hearing Egedy dedicate “Goth Star” to both Michael Jordan and extra-terrestrials, being told over bombastic electronics that I can do anything I want, and watching the aforementioned artist execute a Tobias Fünke-esque somersault onto one of the dancer’s mini-stage. A good time was had by all.

We decided to skip out on Russian Circles’ set for several reasons. We were still trying to find our footing at the huge new venue, they have played every goddamn year for years, and I guess I’m just kind of over post-metal.

We staked out Four Tet’s set, and my girlfriend got some good HDR photos of his surreal performance. Unfortunately, despite how chill his opener was, his set quickly devolved into the electronic noodling that Kieran Hebden is wont to do. After about ten or fifteen minutes of auditory nothingness, we moved on, which is a good thing because I hear Public Enemy started soundchecking really loudly over his set for about fifteen whole minutes. I also heard they were full on trying to get the audience all hyped about their upcoming set while Four Tet was still playing, which is incredibly douchey. I don’t give a fuck if it is Flavor Flav, the word around the internets is that level of rudeness had previously not been reached at a Fun Fun Fun Fest before. So, despite the fact that Four Tet’s set was, in fact, kinda droll, I just wanna say fuck Public Enemy. Thank you very much.

We rounded that short first night out with Passion Pit’s headlining set at the Orange Stage. As a casual Passion Pit fan, I was excited to see what kind of energy their show had to offer. Unfortunately, it was pretty disengaging. Apparently, they hadn’t toured in nearly a year, so perhaps they were just rusty. In addition to that, I have myself partly to blame because I turn into a whiny bitch when bands play music I don’t recognize, within reason, of course. Because I’m more familiar with their debut EP than I am “Manners”, the only thing I stuck around long enough to recognize was “The Reeling”, which they definitely executed to great effect.

Apparently, they played some really solid tunes after we left, which is a real shame, because that lead singer is one of the worst emcees I have ever seen live. Maybe if he hadn’t kept saying stupid, cliché shit between each and every song I would have been able to make it. Instead, we elected to head back to a good friend’s and get to bed early, since we had an early day Saturday.

By the way, if anyone out there in the blogosphere has any inkling of what the name of that first song Four Tet played is, please let me know. I really want it.

(Disclaimer: None of these photos or video footage was taken by me, by the way.)

MP3 Download of “Thee Power Hand”, by Pictureplane (from Thee Physical)

MP3 Download of “The Reeling (Miike Snow remix)”, by Passion Pit