popwreckoning updates |  |
- The Walkmen @ The Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland
- Kaki King’s “The Exhibition” in Photographs
- Lollapalooza: Saturday, Day 2 @ Grant Park, Chicago IL
- Andrew McMahon (Jack’s Mannequin) Fall 2009 solo tour
- Remix Monday: Gorillaz “Dare”
| The Walkmen @ The Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:37 PM PDT A couple years ago I saw The Walkmen for the first time opening up for The Black Keys and I was not very impressed. This made me worry going into the show because I recently have really enjoyed their new album, You and Me, and didn't want to be let down by a poor performance. The show started just about right on time with a decent amount of people in attendance, but not too many, so you could still move comfortably through the crowd. Coffinberry, the first of two openers played a shorter set but definitely no lack in quality there. The local Cleveland musicians surpassed my expectations and then some. It would be hard to lump them into just one or two genres but their music was just great and had a timeless quality to it. Next up Cass McCombs (above), named one of Amazon.com’s Best Artists of 2007, took the stage. Having never listened to his music before, I was rather impressed. With a very folk rock/alt country sound, they played a great set even though it seemed they were not very happy with the sound. Every few songs or even between songs one of the band members would be asking for something higher or lower in their monitor. They finished their set but I don't think they were very happy with the end result and I'm pretty sure I saw Cass flip the sound guy two birds and mouth what seemed to "Fuck You" and walk away.
They played the rest of the show without any problems and a lengthy well demanded encore that most fans I'm sure wished would have gone on until the sun came up. All in all it was a great show and an amazing night. It is rare that one opener would keep my interest long enough for me not to get antsy for the main act to come on but two has got to be some kind of personal record. If you have yet to check out any of these bands I recommend that you do. I promise it will be worth your time.
Setlist:  Related Posts |
| Kaki King’s “The Exhibition” in Photographs Posted: 11 Aug 2009 10:55 AM PDT I have to admit: I knew very little about Kaki King before I heard about this project. I knew that she was a classical guitar virtuoso, that one of my best friends in this entire world is mildly obsessed with her and, vaguely, I’m pretty sure I knew about her sexual proclivities, which is neither here nor there. However, when PopWreckoning’s very own Reni Papananias told me that she was working on a piece for Kaki’s Guitar Art project, I was forced to do my homework… mostly because Reni and I are in the midst of something I’d call a mutually adorational (I’m pretty sure that’s not even a word) art crush. Or something. So! The crux of the project was the suggestion that Kaki’s music is not simply an aural, but also a visual experience. With that in mind, she took 16 guitars donated by Ovation and sent them out into the world with the request that they come back as works of art based on her songs and, indeed, they did. The culmination of the entire project was “The Exhibition,” held at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Below, you’ll find evidence of what I was greeted with when I walked into the venue: a roomful of color; guitars deconstructed, reconstructed, and sometimes even still playable, strung up by fishing line for all to see. The night concluded with a brief show: Kaki played the guitar arrangements for a few of the songs represented and finished it all off by covering her hands in pink paint and going to town on “Playing with Pink Noise,” thus turning her well-known blue Ovation guitar into a work of art itself. I have to say, it was a pretty amazing experience. Even better? Several, if not all, of these guitars will go up for auction to support VH1’s Save the Music Foundation.
Kaki King: website | myspace | @ the slowdown| @ music hall of williamsburg | @ webster hall | @ grasslands gallery | @ bonaroo 2009 | gorgeous works of guitar  Photos by Dese’Rae Stage Related Posts |
| Lollapalooza: Saturday, Day 2 @ Grant Park, Chicago IL Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:59 AM PDT Saturday’s adventures could not begin without doing one vital piece of preparation: I checked weather.com. Sun and humidity was what I had to look forward to for the day. After Friday, that seemed like a good thing. After actually enduring it for a whole day, I almost wished for the rain back…almost. Being press has a few perks, so I started off at a Playboy party of all things. I dressed up in a cute dress and hoped that I wouldn’t look too out of place with my rather average breast size. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only non-Playboy girl at the party and the Playmates were all super nice. The party was a fantastic way to start the day. I received colored hair extensions from the in-house stylist, enjoyed a nice mimosa to start my day and had a delicious breakfast of a fancy brie cheese cracker creation while listening to the DJ stylings of DJ Mom Jeans–aka Danny Masterson, or as many know him: Hyde from “That 70s Show”. The place was all decked out with Twister and make out rooms, but the best feature of all was the great view of Grant Park from the top of the Hilton Hotel. Absolutely breathtaking. I made it into the park to catch a bit of Miike Snow and as the main singer pointed out, yes Miike Snow is a band and yes it is spelled with two “i”s and that isn’t changing. Miike Snow was a lot better than the last time I saw them, but I did lose interest when a slow number was played that just never seemed to end. They need to keep people dancing and fortunately they figured that out and bumped it up a notch for the final song. I passed by Ida Maria warming up her husky and bold voice at the Citi Stage. Her powerful vocals followed me as I walked to the other side of the park to see what would be my favorite act of the day at the Budweiser Stage: Los Campesinos. Los Campesinos just tore it up. The last time I saw them–and this was just a few months ago, mind you–they played to a small crowd of like 20 people in a tiny bar in Omaha. For an early set, they had a huge crowd that could have rivaled many of the later day acts and not only were these people there to watch them, but they actually knew them. I couldn’t believe how a crowd of half drunks managed to keep up with complicated clapping patterns that some of the songs called for. Lollapalooza had been the band’s first show on U.S. soil, so it was a bit of a nostalgic set and this was a bit of a step up from the last time they played. I was glad to hear a new song thrown in the set. Gareth Campesinos, lead singer, seemed especially surprised with the crowd they drew and the fact that the festival organizers gave them a whole hour for their set and even commented on how the band might have been speeding through their songs faster than they intended. The crowd didn’t mind and just continued dancing. If I hadn’t already concluded that Gareth’s bright red face as he jumped around the stage, the tribute to Elliott Smith in honor of what would have been his birthday this weekend, and the many talents of Aleksandra Campesinos as she sang and played keys were enough of a reason to conclude this was the best set of the day, “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks” as their finale cemented that view. As the crowd was participating by raising their hands to show “One blink for yes, two blinks for no,” Gareth decided to come out and join them and sing from the crowd. Now, the drop from the Budweiser Stage to get to the crowd is not a short distance and security looked a bit alarm about what to do, but some how the singer made it to the audience and even later back on stage during the big instrumental build-up. As if that wasn’t insane enough, once he was back on stage, the other guys set down their bass and guitar and they then took their turn dropping down like 15ft off the stage, over the barricade and crowd-surfing for the duration of the song. Completely insane, it has been great to see this band come into their prime. I just hope that Aleksandra’s departure after this tour doesn’t hurt their quality too much. After Slash came out as a special guest last year at Perry’s Stage, I thought perhaps something amazing like that would happen again. But after standing over at Perry’s Stage forever and watching him perform with Stripper McSlutterson only to bring out the “special guests,” I was kicking myself for giving up a spot where I could actually see Arctic Monkeys just to see him perform with DJs from earlier in the day on the last number. Lame. Arctic Monkeys brought out all their hits, but with the size of their crowd and not being able to even really see them, I figured I stood a better chance just watching their new live DVD. I tried to catch buzz act No Age on Citi Stage, but thought it too messy. I know the one guy is recently injured, but even being lenient for that, these blog darlings are no longer darlings of mine. I did not get their hype. Coheed and Cambria is a band that everyone should see whether that is their type of music or not. Anybody who can keep up that falsetto when bogged down by that much hair is simply a site to witness. I came across their set as they were digging into their Rockband-popular hit, “Wake Up”. Exhausted from my trek around so many stages, I chilled in the grass for a few Glasvegas songs. They sounded fine, but their performance was ho hum. I find a wee bit more energy to check out Santigold’s circus-like set. Shiny stage outfits dazzled in the sun and despite the heat and exhaustion that was settling in by this point in the day, it was hard not to dance to this set. I watched a little TV on the Radio, but they didn’t have anything new to add from the bajillion times I’ve already seen them this year. So I again trotted down to the other end of the venue to watch punk rockers Rise Against. I got distracted by Lykke Li on my way and actually found her entertaining despite the hideous black bag of an outfit she was flailing around in. Her gentle voice and sturdy beats made her a good pairing to hang with the likes of Santigold and other dance acts that had impressed throughout the festival. Rise Against surprised me with how many of their songs that I knew. I really thought I only knew “Swing Life Away”, which isn’t even a fair example of what they actually sound like. They weren’t my thing, but they weren’t bad. Animal Collective got the crowd jumping with their ethereal and trippy beats paired with colorful video imagery and lots of lights. I loved them, but I think the Tool fans hated them as their set started to go over their allotted time and into Tool’s. Tool finally said fuck it and took to the stage anyway. Industrial metal kept me surprisingly entertained for a few songs, especially with the bass lines. However, I soon decided to move on to see how the late addition headliners, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, were holding up. Considering that a majority of the people at the festival already had their tickets before they knew the YYYs would be there, Karen O and company drew one of the largest crowds yet. The tiny front woman with a big voice and even bigger stage presence did a good job feeling the shoes of the Beastie Boys. Even her lyrical flub during an acoustic version of “Maps” was forgivable and it kind of made the band all that more loveable. I think many would have said Saturday was a weaker day for the sets, but sticking around for YYYs was worth it. We tried to get into an after party with Santigold and Passion Pit, but apparently being told you’d be fine with an RSVP/VIP pass meant nothing when they still had a guest list. I suppose one night of sleep wasn’t too bad and at least waiting in line for the party I got to watch a cellphone video of Bassnectar, whom I had never really heard of, but people just could not stop talking about after Saturday’s line up. Based off the poor quality video that still made Bassnectar look bad ass, I’m kind of kicking myself for not being on this bandwagon already. Alas. Lollapalooza: Saturday in summary: Lollapalooza: website | schedule | set lists To be updated with pictures soon. Look out for further coverage of Sunday. And be sure to read our recap of Friday. Related Posts |
| Andrew McMahon (Jack’s Mannequin) Fall 2009 solo tour Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:09 AM PDT
Andrew has been in remission since receiving a stem-cell transplant from his sister. Sire Records will release Dear Jack this Fall. Tour Dates: Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2 | @ kegs & eggs KC  Photo: Bethany Smith Related Posts |
| Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:55 AM PDT An oldie but a goodie, “Dare” is a song of Damon Albarn's acclaimed group, Gorillaz, from their 2005 album, Demon Days. It was the groups first song to hit #1 on the UK charts and features vocals from the lead singer of Happy Mondays, Shaun Ryder. The original title of the song was “It's There” but Ryder's thick Mancurian accent made it sound like “It's Dare”, hence the name change. As much as I love this track, the remixes are far superior. .Gorillaz – “Dare” .DFA Remix .Soulwax Remix .Dave Aude Remix  Related Posts |
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