Northside Festival 2010

I was lucky enough to be invited again to play the Northside Fest,and this year was a great one! Northside is a festival for the blogs, so to speak. Baiscally any and all blogs who want to book a show during June 23rd and June 27th can be a part of this Festival. It's put on by L Magazine, and features hundreds of bands throughout Brooklyn. The majority of the shows are indie bands, but they also end with bigger acts like Liars, Titus Andronicus, Fucked Up, Les Savy Fav and others.

This year we decided to take advantage of our free passes (which get you into any Northside show for free!) and check out a show on Friday. Lucky for us our good friends Dinosaur Feathers were playing! So we ran out of work at 4:00 on the dot, and booked it to NY. After hitting some nice Friday traffic we made it to the badge pickup/Heineken Lounge to get our passes. Last year we walked away with free Roo's sneakers! This year was a bag of goodies, and a free Heineken.

After grabbing a bite at an all vegan bistro we hit up Public Assembly to check out the second of three Pop Tarts Suck Toasted showcases. The first band we caught was Shark?, and I'm very happy I finally saw them. I've been hearing way too much about them, but they were great!

We met the Dino guys, and their manager Mikey (who was lending us his couch so we can party in Brooklyn properly), and bought our first round of PBRs. Ahh, so nice to be back in BK! ha! We then went back and forth between the front and back room to catch The Sundelles, MiniBoone, and Les Vinyl.

We also finally got to see The Grates. Very nice peeps! I got to catch up with Ty, the guitarist, whom I hadn't seen in probably a decade! Dinosaur Feathers were great as always. They had some problems with the drum machine, which is weird, because they played Public Assembly the night before. Maybe it was a different sound guy. Luckily the played through it, and after the first song the levels evened out. I am really liking their new stuff! We got to talk to them after the show about their trip out west and their gig at Sasquatch.

On Saturday we drove to Glasslands where our band EULA was playing an early show put on again by Pop Tarts. It was a hot day in the city, and Glasslands bakes you like an oven!

We had a decent turn out, but just like last year we had something bigger and 'better' going on at the exact same time. This year: the World Cup! The US was getting kicked out right as we were going on. Regardless, we had a good time and played a kick ass set. I literally almost threw up as I was playing, because it was so hot!

Hopefully we will be asked again next year. Best of luck to Pat from Pop Tarts, as his blog has been pulled.

(Thanks to Edwina for the great pics! Check out her sites www.thisisnotaphotograph.com, www.flickr.com/photos/eatsdirt)

REVIEW

"This is Happening" LCD Soundsystem

Alot has already been written about James Murphy's 'last record'. And I admit I am way behind the mark on getting the album, but that's what happens when you still live in the burbs and literally none of the record stores stock anything that's not on the top 40 radio. So finally, here it is...

Awesome!
I know that it's not the most descriptive word, but it's the best overall word that I can think of to describe it. The other would be solid. From start to finish it's a record that is easy to listen to, and even easier to dance to.

Murphy and company are masters at not only playing great dance music, but have taken great notes from the past in how to properly record it. Murphy is a great producer. Probably even more so than he is an original artist (since most of what he records can be found in the late 70's and early 80's post disco era). You get the feeling of live instruments being put to tape, and the master Bob Weston does a fine job of mastering.

Now to the songs themselves. Track 1, 'Dance Yrself Clean' has a slower intro, then goes right into the groove at 3:00. The intro reminds me of a local CT band MT Bearington (actually the whole album does as well, to some extent). Lots of hand claps, and random percussion hits with group singing.

Next is 'Drunk Girls', which was the first single off the album. If you could bottle up a party, shake it up, and spray it all around a NY night club, it would sound like this! The title says it all. Drunk Girls are fun!

'One Touch', and 'All I Want' keep the party moving in the right direction. 'I Can Change' is one of the best on the album, although it sounds extremely familiar. Then again, LCD's whole repertoire has been lifted to some degree from the post-disco era anyways, so I've heard all these in one form or another. Again the production is top notch. Clear, crisp, but never sounding synthetic, even when using synthesizers. "I can change/if that helps you fall in love". Some sad lyrics for such an upbeat song. Great line!

'You Wanted a Hit' is my least favorite only because I pay attention to the lyrics, and these are Murphy's usual silly beat poetry style. The track itself is good though. 'Pow Pow' has already been reviewed here, but again it is the best track on the record. At 8:23 it keeps grooving through his seemingly non-sensical lyrics.

This is a great record to hear banging out of some good PA speakers at a loft party, or in your best pair of headphones. I hope to hear it this weekend at every party I'm at. I will be the first one on the floor!

If this is LCD's final record, it's a shame. Even though they borrow and steal their general style from those past, it's a great past to take from. Good dance music never goes out of style.