I caught 128 minutes of Music Fest NorthWest

Sep708 , ,

I'm not sure if I've been living under a rock lately or what, but I was completely oblivious to the fact that MFNW was going on until last night, which happened to be the last day of the fest. My lameness caused me to miss Ratatat which makes me sad inside, and outside.

However I did make it to the Hawthorne last night around 9:15 and caught a couple awesome acts. Dykeritz was already going when we finally waltzed in, but I think we caught most of the show. I'd never heard them before, but they were great. There are eight people in the band, three of which played the keyboards, one "played" a gymboree, and the rest had normal musical instruments. For how many people were in the band they still seemed to play pretty tight and it was just a generally fun set. I will definitely be picking up their album and hope to see them again some time soon.

After that Copy came on and played his music off his computer and occasionally involved his keytar. All of his songs seemed to follow an identical formula, but they were fun and finally got the crowd moving. Good, fairly predictable, but completely awesome at the same time. His stuff reminded me a little bit of Ratatat.

Finally, Dan Deacon came on and annoyed the shit out of everybody with some instructed pointing, a bit of preaching about compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and his opinion on the Georgia/Russia conflict. He decided not to test the levels before his set which turned out pretty much exactly like you'd expect. We stayed for two songs, but couldn't take any more horribly mixed painful screeching sounds. The second song he played I barely recognized as the song that I've heard on KNRK a few times, but the sound was so bad it wasn't even worth it.

All in all it was a great time, aside from the segregated bar in the back of the room. I'll definitely make an effort to get out and see more of the shows. I recommend everyone retroactively make it to the shows.

••

Bloc Party, Intimacy

Aug2108

Intimacy

Bloc Party's latest, Intimacy, is available on their website.

It's ridiculously good.

••

The Brighton Post Authority - Toe Jam

Jun1208

Toe Jam by The BPA featuring David Byrn and Dizzee Rascal. David Byrn is the man. This video is amazing, please enjoy responsibly.

••

If I had a bucket list this would probably not have been on it

Apr608 , ,

[audio:http://joshuajenkins.com/wp-content/uploads/styx-renegade.mp3]

Let's do an exercise. Click the play button above. Enjoy the song. Now imagine a drunken monotone duet, consisting of one half yours truly, singing this song in a fairly packed bar having a karaoke night in Manhattan. You're just at the bar trying to have a couple drinks but these two obnoxious people are belting out the worst rendition of a Styx song you've ever heard, and apparently they don't really know the words despite the scrolling on the screen right in front of them. Finally they finish and you and the rest of the bar just sort of stare. No one claps. You move on. They don't.

 

••