'); document.write('

Music Festivals

'); document.write('

Sasquatch! 2009: Gaslight Anthem, AA Bondy, Blind Pilot
'); document.write('
One of the best things about Sasquatch! is the ease with which we can move from stage to stage. I was able to catch a bit of these three shows:
The Gaslight Anthem:

Their punked-up Springsteen steez is easily more energetic than anything else happening this early in the festival. This is a lot of emotion to take before most people have secured drinking bracelets.
A.A. Bondy:

Driving in, Alan and I agreed A.A. Bondy would have been a great fit for the early morning hangover recovery set the way J. Tillman of Fleet Foxes soothed everyone last year. Bondy laid down some dusty, gentle southern sounds to a handful of quasi-hippies who looked on mildly stunned. He was good, but it looks like this was a day early.
Blind Pilot:

Blind Pilot are a 7,873 piece band (rough estimate-- I have trouble counting past four). They\'re one of several bands giving Sasquatch! a distinctly folkier flavor this year and, given the setting, this is probably a good shift. Good weather and an incredible view of the cliffs around the Columbia river lend themselves much more nicely to gentle strums than aggro riffs; at least during the daytime, anyway. People unashamedly yelped along in the first few rows of the crowd. We need more of that.
-- Jeff Reguilon
'); document.write('
Sasquatch 2009: A Playlist
'); document.write('

My fellow editor Alan Wiley and I will be heading to the gorgeous Gorge in (or at least very near) George, WA this weekend to partake in the glory of the 2009 Sasquatch! Music Festival, where we\'ll bring you all the gory details via the majesty of on-the-scene blogging (wi-fi permitting) . To get a taste of what we\'re in for, minus the inevitable sunburns, enjoy the playlist below; it features songs from most of the bands slated to play Saturday through Monday. In case you need some motivation to click the play button, there are even some free songs in there. Give \'er a listen and let us know if there\'s anyone whose Sasquatch! set you\'d like us to cover.

-- Jeff Reguilon
'); document.write('
I Love Paste!
'); document.write('
A love for paste is something you might normally hear from a first grader…but for grown-ups, Paste is a magazine offering “signs of life in music, film and culture.” What makes this magazine unique is that is comes with a free CD of approximately 20 new and emerging artists. Most artists are from the indie-side of music, offering, in my opinion, a similar style to those found on the Grey\'s Anatomy soundtracks (which themselves are amazing compilations).

Here are a few examples of songs included on the CD from the July 2008 issue of Paste:
- My Morning Jacket: "I\'m Amazed"
- Alejandro Escovedo: "Always A Friend"
- Amos Lee: "Listen"
- Aimee Mann: "Freeway"
- Priscilla Ahn: "Dream"
-- Darren V.
'); document.write('
Live from Nashville! Wrap Up
'); document.write('
It\'s 24 hours since CMA Music Fest ended and the stages have all been broken down. The artists and fans have gone back to their respective worlds, many of them not very far from the same streets of Nashville. As mentioned in the last post, we\'ll be posting more material from CMA Music Fest in the days and weeks ahead, including both one-on-one and press conference audio interviews.

There were a couple highlights on the last day of Music Fest worth mentioning here before signing off. One was the Randy Travis interview on his tour bus. He was so down to earth and willing to talk just about anything. I was impressed. The interview itself covers many topics, so look for the final version to be posted here close to the release of his upcoming album in mid-July. The other highlight was Dwight Yoakam at both the press conference (podcast coming soon), as well as his headline performance after returning to Music Fest a full 20 years after his last appearance at the festival.

Here are some photos from the last press conference, pictured left to right: Randy Travis, Sara Evans, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Dwight Yoakam.

Thanks all for following along with this year\'s CMA Music Fest blog. Until next year, enjoy the boot stomping.

--Lucas
'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: Matt Costa and Thao
'); document.write('
We\'re back for the final day of Sasquatch! and I\'ve got reports from two of the festival\'s four stages.

Matt Costa struggled with some frustrating technical difficulties sound-wise at the beginning of his set. His vocals didn\'t come through until the second verse of his first song and his keyboards had weird feedback issues. Plus, the between-set filler music played through his first ten minutes. Still, the crowd, which consisted largely of high school-aged girls, seemed to barely notice and stuck it out for the duration.

I hightailed it from the main stage to the Wookie stage to catch some music by Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down. This may be the first time any large group of hippies has ever totally vibed out to a band on Kill Rock Stars. The earthy melodies and Thao\'s Cat Power-esque wail surprisingly seem to do it for the Birkenstock set. It\'s hard to resist the charm of a song like "Swimming Pools," for hippies, hipsters and normals alike. Dig the brand-new video below:

I\'m off to interview the soulful, charming Jamie Lidell in a few minutes. Hopefully we\'ll have audio later in the day.

~ Jeff Reguilon
'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: Festival Etiquette
'); document.write('
I\'ll tell you who I didn\'t see on Sunday: the Kooks. It\'s disappointing, since they were one of the handful of bands I truly wanted to see yesterday, but if you\'re a band playing in the middle of a festival, it is not cool to hit the stage 40 minutes late-- especially if you\'re only slated to play an hour-long set. You\'ll either upset your fans with a short set, enrage the promoters by throwing everything off schedule, or anger the bands playing afterwards by eating into their sets.

I\'ve always felt like the Kooks sound like premature late \'90s nostalgia, which is far from a bad thing as far as I\'m concerned. Sadly, one of the areas of my expertise is Adult Alternative radio hits from the last four years of the last decade. I was particularly stoked on the Kooks because the quasi-hit from their last album, "Naive," sounds like the b-side to "Semi-Charmed Life." I\'ve never been sure if anyone else felt this way, but with the 1998-style jams from Kid Rock and Sum-41 playing pre-set, I got the impression I\'m not alone.

I got to hear more than I ever cared to hear. After 30 minutes, I walked away. Allegedly, they went on 10 minutes later, so I suppose it wasn\'t a complete disappointment for the fans who stuck around, but it was still poor etiquette.

~ Jeff Reguilon
'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: Tegan and Sara
'); document.write('
Sunday\'s highlight for me was Tegan & Sara\'s mainstage performance which kept the crowd energized and singing along to thier string of catchy, inspired songs. Playing cuts from each of their last three records: If It Was You, So Jealous, and my favorite album of last year, The Con, the Quin twins left no fan unsatisfied with their killer hooks and legendary stage banter (including dedicating a song to the neon green-bandannaed drunk guy in the front row). Highlights included \"The Con,\" \"Where Does The Good Go,\" and fan-favorite \"Living Room.\" Take a look at more up-close pictures we took from the stage after the jump. ~Alan Wiley

'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: J. Tillman, Blue Scholars, and Cold War Kids
'); document.write('
The wi-fi hath returned! Rejoice! Now I can tell you about the following bands live from the festival:
- J. Tillman is a busy man. Aside from playing two sets as the drummer from Fleet Foxes yesterday, he played an early solo set today to a throng of seated admirers. His soulful singer-songwritery soothed the listeners, who looked like they needed it. His set seemed to serve as a hangover recovery area. These people had clearly partied hard last night. Most of them looked zoned out like Marky Mark on the couch just before the drug-deal-gone-awry scene in Boogie Nights. Hopefully they were at least half awake, because they missed some decent jams if they weren\'t.
- I knew Blue Scholars, the Pacific Northwest hip hop group, were locally popular, but I absolutely didn\'t expect the crowd greeting them at the main stage to be so loud, nor so into it. I\'m hoping to get a chance to talk to them about the \'80s nostalgia in one of their jams and what it feels like to play in front of this many people, so stay tuned for that.
- Cold War Kids are faced with the difficult task of living up to the hype generated by their first album. They shared some of their new songs to an unfortunately unenthusiastic crowd. It\'s unfortunate foremost because they sounded fantastic, but also because the band itself was so enthusiastic. They looked more like they were throwing a party than a concert, while a handful of folks sang along and the rest watched on, barely interested until a wave of recognition washed over the crowd as the band started into \"Hang Me up to Dry.\" They didn\'t do themselves any favors by starting with new song \"Avalanche,\" which features a dirge-y, amelodic intro, was the wrong way to kick off their set. They\'re facing an uphill battle with this new record, but I\'m pulling for them.
I\'m heading off to see Tegan and Sara now. Look for more photos after the jump and keep it locked for more updates.

~Jeff Reguilon

J. Tillman, soothing the hungover.

Cold War Kids, rocking the eff out.

More Cold War Kids

All Photos by Matt Conlon
'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: Destroyer
'); document.write('
Canadian songsmith (and Amazon favorite) Dan Bejar\'s band Destroyer took over the Wookie stage slightly late but delivered a dense set of selections from his huge catalog of material. Fans were eager to catch one of the super-shy singer\'s two appearances--his other as a member of Canadian supergroup the New Pornographers, who incidentally played immediately following Destroyer\'s set at the other end of the festival. Take a look at more great photos we shot after the jump. ~Alan Wiley

Photos by Matt Conlon

'); document.write('
Sasquatch! 2008: Throw Me The Statue
'); document.write('
Seattle\'s Throw Me The Statue is one of the bands I\'d been looking forward to seeing the most at the festival this weekend. I\'d taken quite a shine to their densely layered debut Moonbeams and I was anxious to see how it would translate live. The band took the Yeti stage to a decent sized crowd and put on a short but wildly energetic set of their tightly constructed pop songs. The crowd seemed mostly unfamiliar with the band, but instant classics like the as-seen-on-TV track \"Lolita\" and my personal Summer jam \"About To Walk\" were standouts, while their lone cover, \"My Valuable Hunting Knife\" by Guided By Voices made the crowd go wild. Check out another photo of the band after the jump.
~Alan Wiley

'); document.write('