does anyone remember the roots picnic?

I do somewhat. Dayna and I went to that shit a week ago but kept it a big lazy secret until now.

I'll set the stage. It was a billion degrees and a couple thousand drunk and sweaty people were all crammed on a glorified parking lot called Festival Pier in Philly on the smelly ol' banks of the Delaware. We got there late, missing The Cool Kids, Deerhoof, and probably a few other hip acts that ?uestlove loves, but we got in free through my domestic connects so we weren't sweating the sweaty (mid-day) part of the schedule.

Santogold didn't play because of a "scheduling issue" so she and the Roots played a surprise show at the TLA the night before, but only after the Air Guitar Championship wrapped up. The performance we saw was outdoors and the sound was iffy but they put on a great show, as they always seem to do in Philly (notably better than their 45 minutes at Rock the Bells on Randall's Island in NYC last summer). They ran through their usual grab bag of old hits, one of their patented we-can-play-any-hit-from-any-genre-and-make-it-as-good-if-not-better-than-the-original medley, as well as a bunch of cuts off their new Rising Down LP (which we've decided is good but nowhere near a classic, due to its reliance on boring and repetitive refrains).

After the Roots we caught Diplo and his Mad Decent crew spinning and spitting in the air-conditioned blow-up tent while Gnarls Barkley set up. Being somewhat fascinated by Diplo, I much enjoyed his set and was disappointed when Cee-Lo, Danger Mouse, and company finally came on. In regards to the Round Mound of Sound (see video below), before the show we were somewhat perplexed by their headliner status, as we couldn't imagine anyone thinking of Gnarls Barkley as their favorite band. A good portion of the fans stayed after the Roots to see about them, but the crowd (including us) began to peter out after a few songs, as Gnarls wasn't doing much to prove our skepticism wrong.

It was time to eat a popsicle and go home, so there is not much more to tell. Except this one last piece of advice. Now, granted, I am completely biased. But, if you are making a bucket list of musical acts to witness before you end it all, I would humbly recommend these two events:

1. Bruce Springsteen in an indoor arena in either Philadelphia, New Jersey, or New York.

2. The Roots, indoors in Philadelphia.

Both of those happen at least once a year because Bruce and ?uesto cannot not be on tour. So get to it!

Continue reading...

spring weekend musings, a week late

Laura Buckman (bdh)

It's been a week since Spring Weekend at Brown and I thought it was high time (today's 4/20, ba-dum-chsh) one of us wrote something about it, since all three contributers to this bloggy blog were there. I recommend the Brown Daily Herald's summary of the weekend; it has a bunch of good photos, some attendee interviews, and what you really want to know: the figures on how many people were carted off by Emergency Medical Services.

It's a decent and pretty comprehensive article, so I'll use it to compare and contrast our (mostly my) take on the performances.

It characterizes, I'd say correctly, the Vampire Weekend set as "clean and smooth, if uneventful." It's no secret we love VW around here, so we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during their set, and the setlist was pretty similar to the previous times we'd seen them. They played the entire album, as well as live staple "Ladies of Cambridge" and a really good, new, still untitled track, which again reinforced my faith that their second album won't be a total letdown. The sound for the set wasn't great -- at times you could barely hear Ezra's guitar, other times his voice, others Rostam's keyboard. The more general problem, I think, is that the crispy guitar doodlings that drive most of the songs aren't suited for venues like the hockey rink at Brown University (the threat of rain moved all the shows indoors). That said, "A-Punk" rocked pretty hard.

Moving on. I've probably listened to The Cool about five times all the way through, so I don't profess to be any sort of Lupe expert. Or a huge fan for that matter. His lyrics are by far the most impressive part of his records, while his beats and hooks are often much less imaginative. It is hard not to compare him to KanYe, his more established Chicagoan counterpart, who somewhat facilitated his rise to stardom. And as I'm sure you know, here at DAA our love for KanYe is rivaled only by our love for VW. So when scrutinized on the Ye Standard, Lupe's lack of infectious KanYesque beats and impossibly catchy choruses outweigh the edge he holds over Ye from a lyrical standpoint. That said, the man puts on a good show. I commented to Dayna during the performance that I'd never seen a rapper be as sharp, energetic, or enthusiastic as Lupe was. It reminded me of videos I'd seen of the Beastie Boys in their heyday, but that was three guys and this was just Mr. Fiasco and a side-kick who's main job was, as you might imagine, to emphasize the last few words of every one his main man's lines. One fan's take was quoted in the BDH article: "Lupe was the shiznits." Seriously, you printed that? He definitely put on an impressive show, though, and Dayna and I are going to see KanYe in Boston in May so we'll see if Ye brings that kind of energy to his live shows.

Now for the Saturday shows. Fact: Girl Talk can really rock a party. Opening for M.I.A., DJ Gregg Gillis had the crowd of 3,000+ in the palm of his hand, and left us wanting more. There was a constant procession of students flooding the stage to dance around the sweaty, shirtless Gillis as he hunched over his laptop, mashing up a myriad of mostly recognizable samples, old and new. If you've seen Girl Talk before, I doubt it was much different than this set, though this one probably had a lot more people at it.

And now the main event: M.I.A. The biggest issue I have with the BDH article is that it portrays M.I.A.'s act as a nearly flawless crowd pleaser. This is completely different from what I myself experienced, and what most people I asked thought. The article makes it seem as though the sound volume was the problem, but this, I think, isn't entirely right. The gun shots and air-raid sirens were incredibly loud, washing out her vocals and the music, but even if the levels had all been right, there were still way too many fucking gun shots and air-raid sirens! M.I.A., your two best songs are arguably "Bucky Done Gun" and "Paper Planes" (two of four songs Diplo produced for you, who you've since broken ties with romantically and professionally, good luck with that), and you pretty much destroyed all the novelty of one of them ("Paper Planes") by using it's trademark gunshots in every other song, and between every song. I don't know if it was all your scarfed dj's decision but you definitely didn't put a stop to it. Those interviewed by the BDH thought M.I.A.'s performance was great, while nearly all of the opinions I heard or overheard were along the lines of "M.I.A. sucked balls," and though I'm somewhere in the middle, I'm definitely closer to the latter. Rumor had it that you were sick last weekend so maybe you thought the skull-rattling gunshots would help clear your sinuses but whatever the reasoning was, please rethink it soon or else my first time seeing you will be my last.

As always, feel free to leave your opinion. Continue reading...

the place is called jerky's, we should've known better

If you're ever thinking about going to see Diplo spin at Jerky's bar in downtown Providence FORGET ABOUT IT HE'S NOT COMING.

Ten of us trekked through the snow, sleet, and slush at least an entire mile tonight just to be told that Diplo had canceled his gig at the retardedly/aptly titled Jerky's in the PVD. The cancellation was announced on the radio, we were told. Because that's what you do before you leave to go to a show. You check on the radio. For future reference, musicians/recording artists/djs of the world: if almost a dozen Brown students can get it together to make it down that effing hill on foot, you should be able to get it together to drive your automobile to Rhode Island from wherever you're coming from (like Philly if you're from there like Diplo is hollaaaaa).

I have a headache from all the MGMT I've had to listen to tonight so goodnight. Continue reading...