Molly Crabapple is my new hero. When I emailed her to set up some time for me to meet her and watch her in action, she replied, “I’m pretty much ALWAYS working.” It’s true. You’d need to hire an assistant just to keep up with this girl. With this much success at age 27, its hard not to wonder how she got to this point.
It was Sunday afternoon and I set out to enjoy the last of the Northside Festival riches. Four days of music and art were drawing to a close and I was content with the events of the weekend. I fought my way through crowds, rubbed shoulders with indie music celebs, I saw more shows in four days than I have since SXSW and I’ve got a list of EP’s to download.
Surfer Blood opened for WAVVES who opened for Guided by Voices during Saturdays day shows at McCarren Park.
Most people in attendance were there to see Guided by Voices. I know this because the demographics were much more something you’d expect to see in Williamsburg’s southern neighbor, Park Slope; lots of old dudes and so, so many children. I totally wish I was one of those babies at music festivals with the hot pink ear protectors on my head and I bet if, god forbid, I ever birth such a thing I’m gonna drag it along with me. Maybe thats what outside day shows are for. Bring your kid to a music festival during the day and everyone will glance over and be like, ‘OMG, isnt that rocker kid so cute. And look at his mother! I hope I have that many tattoos by the time I’m a parent.’ Bring your kid to a bar at 1 AM and you’re likely to get picked up by social services.
It was day two of Northside Fest in Williamsburg and thunderstorms threatened to shut the main event down. But just before Yellow Ostrich went on the Steve Madden stage in McCarren Park, the clouds cleared and a double rainbow stretched over the Manhattan skyline, or at least that’s what I heard via Twitter. I had taken cover in a nearby bar and made it just in time to see the end of Sharon Van Etten as she played to a sparse, rain drenched crowd. The rest of Williamsburg poured in shortly thereafter, anxiously awaiting to see Beirut. The band had been relatively quiet since 2007 but with their release of The Rip Tide in August 2011, momentum picked up and they became a group everyone was talking about again.
It was the opening day of the third annual Northside Festival in Brooklyn and at every step of the way I couldn’t help but make SXSW comparisons. First, there was free beer at the press badge pickup and I was off to a great start. The festival is very definitely music heavy but is also featuring film and ‘Ideas’ showcases.
I saw a few shorts by NYC filmmakers at indieScreen, a beautifully designed small theatre three blocks from my house that I didn’t even know existed, before heading over to The Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch Gordon Voidwell and Theophilus London at the Northside Festival Opening Party. I have to say that Gordon Voidwell stole the show. That voice! Their style! The girl on the keys!
There is a new-old music trend a-brewing and its headquartered (surprise!) in the underground clubs and venues of New York City.
Coldwave is a term traditionally used to describe a group of European post-punk psychedelic experimental bands in the late 70’s and 80’s that you’ve probably never heard of. Taking notes from the Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and The Banshees, Coldwave draws inspiration from punk and goth styles and then chills everything out a whole lot. Think multi-layered analog synths, deadpan vocals and lyrics that would bring yo mama to tears and you’ve got the idea.
Danish electro-pop singer and songwriter Nanna Øland Fabricius, AKA Oh Land, was the topic of much buzzing conversation at this years SXSW. She played a handful of shows during the festival and then turned around and played a four night residency at NYC’s Charles Bank Gallery in Soho in tandem with an art installation by artist Eske Kath.
Backed by a string quartet, keyboardist and drummer, Oh Land performed a thirty minute set to a packed gallery on a stage surrounded by art similar to what appears on her album cover. The set was obviously a collaboration between the two Danes– Oh Land’s characteristic white balloons made an appearance (they are the backdrop for her video ‘Wolf & I’) but were modified with projections of faces, planets, ballet dancers (Oh Land used to dance before an injury ended her career) and other peculiar images.
Lets define the term “Supergroup”. Webster defines it very narrowly as “A rock group made up of prominent former members of other rock groups; also an extremely successful rock group.”
This definition would cover three of Mister Heavenly’s four members – Honus Honus of Man Man on keys and vocals, Nicholas Thorburn of Unicorns and Islands on vocals and guitar while Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer keeps time.
But how to place our fourth member? Did anyone even know he could play instruments? I guess he sang a little in Juno… Yes, thats right. Actor Michael Cera has picked up a bass and is touring with some of the most talented musicians alive.
Andy Bothwell, known to many as the MC ‘Astronautalis’, played a whole bunch of shows during SXSW 2011, and I was lucky enough to make it to the very last one. The show was held pool side at Metropolis Apartments. If you went to school or live in Austin, you’ve no doubt visited or at least seen the tacky, brightly painted complex– lets just say it’s probably not any musicians first choice venue.
So if you’re not from Canada, you probably haven’t heard of this band. However, if you are from Canada, The Dears are probably your favorite indie rock outfit on the face of this earth. They’ve put out a solid five albums since 2000 and their newest, Degeneration Street, dropped early 2011.
Their Wednesday night show was held in my least favorite Austin nightclub, normally reserved for the just-turned-twenty-one/kamikaze-shot-taking/street-brawl-starting crowd, but as soon as The Dears took the stage I forgot all about the petrified puke smell and was transported to a place where funk, rock, pop and electronic sounds live happily in a big music commune in the sky. We’ll call it funrock-electro-op heaven, for short.