Should I be ‘nip slip’ M.I.A.?

Should I be a zany electroJungle JokerAlt Zebra?

Maybe I’ll be a freshman student at the University of Texas who just moved to Austin and is learning to experiment with ‘being alternative’.

[Photo by Tokyo Bopper]

Wonder if I’ll have time to make my ‘entity from an alternative underworld’ costume :-(

[Photo by Glam Canyon]

Guess I’m just gonna be ‘oops I crapped my pants‘ Justice

[Photo by Gade Mode]

HLP M3 YALL//////////

Please note that these videos are [HIGHLY RECCD], not only because you get to see John Norris’ never-ending-quest to be a lil alt, but because you want to understand what it’s like to participate in the revolution that is a geographically-contained creative renaissance.

Note: HIGHLY RECCT VIDEOS MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE IN YOUR RSS READER
************
Un-Earthed Location #1: A small American city called “Portland, Oregon.”

Did this video almost make your head explode, too? SRSLY. I rlllly hate Portland and any other ’second tier’ cities that claim to be culturally relevant by playing up the whole ‘alternative gimmick.’ There is an excess of shitty musicians who are Starbucks/Chili’s employees in every city, so I hate when a city’s personal brand revolves around ’sounding like they really mean it when they make their shitty music/attend their shitty, awkward concerts.’

I’d say Austin, TX is pretty good example of ’shitty city who is gimmickifying it’s underwhelmingly-alternative brand’, too. Most of the music in Austin, TX is more approachable indie fodder than the Portland concept crap, so I’ll give the edge to Portland when it comes to ‘moderately alt cities that major-city-alts-want-to-move-to-bc-they-think-their-life-will-be-simple, yet-authentic,yet-still-as-alt as they feel comfortable with.’ No matter what, we all need an alt-city full of alts to feel comfortable around without the high-cost-of-living that major metropolitan areas have. Don’t you feel like you have met a lot of people who have idealized Portland and Austin as ‘heaven on alt-earth’? Like they imagine settling down with a humble-&-emotionally-connected trophy alt who is done with his/her ‘partying phase’ and ready to start buying well-designed carriages for their newborn babies (lil alts).

Common traits of overhyped 2nd rate alternative cities:

• Perception of being ‘green’
• Perception of a bustling ‘local economy’
• A high ‘basically unemployment’ rate (this figure represents people who are over 30, but still have the jobs a 16 year old would have)
• An excess of corporate and independent coffee shops
• An excess of people with too many tattoos working in independent coffee shops
• An excess of coffee shop employees playing RLLY gimmicky ‘interesting’ music in coffee shops during their shifts/playing the albums of their friend’s band who sound exactly like _______
• Overhearing the ‘future plans’ of people who work in these coffee shops to start their own business in design/food/recordstore/boutique/other alternative biz idea.
• An excess of people in bands that have shows in an excess of venues
• An otherwise stable maintream economy which allows the alternative population to work in the service industry. While this usually happens in all cities, the minorities in the service industry are replaced by these aging alts.
• Overhearing all of these people talking about stuff that was cool between 2 to 40 years ago. They basically have a 2 year delay on ‘what is currently cool’ and usually just rely on ‘liking aesthetics/bands that are from before 1985.’
• A handful of decent bands, a few imitators, and a bunch of krappie bands that have tied their identity to their home city and guilt their friends into attending their show/post a lot of myspace bulletins to impressionable local-17-year olds.
• They attempt to assert their city-wide inferiority complexes by having excessive representation when it comes to liberal activities, particularly ‘marches.’ Examples include Gay Pride Marches, Anti-Racism Marches, Marches Against ‘The War’, and general Marches Against Stuff That Exists Because of Conservative People.
• These cities have significant populations of ‘cool dads’ and ‘free spirited moms’ by choice/believe in their personal images, as opposed to the real-city versions of these parents who are simply ‘participating in a gimmick which they have no control over.’
• A lot of these cities have a major university or a well-branded liberal arts school with a progressive identity which the ‘hip side of town’ feels like they need to cater to in order to keep up sales of vegan wraps, pizza-made-from-only-organic-ingredients, and interesting t-shirts.

N e ways. Do yall like these types of cities or what? Am I wrong? Should the Mayor of Portland ’show me around the alt side of town’ and then ‘take me on a tour of their business district’?

I think a lot of cities/hip communities within a city all have some of these traits. Did I miss n e traits?

[PLEASE NOTE: I DO LIKE STARFUCKER FROM PORTLAND, BUT I WILL STOP LIKING THEM WHEN PEOPLE START CALLING THEM 'THE NEXT MGMT' AND THEIR RCRD LABEL FORCES THEM TO CHANGE THEIR NAME. ]

[PLEASE NOTE: I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE GONE THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL PHASE WHERE I LISTENED TO A LOT OF THE MICROPHONES AND HAVE DECIDED TO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM PORTLAND SERIOUSLY IN ORDER TO FORGET THE PERSON WHO I USED TO THINK I WAS IN 2KNEVER.]

[PLEASE NOTE: I H8 95% OF THE PEOPLE I HAVE MET FROM PORTLAND. I THINK I JUST DON'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO THINK WHERE THEY LIVE IS ANY MORE/LESS INTERESTING THAN N E WHERE ELSE.]

******
Unearthed Location #2: A country called France

Can some one please explain the differences between the bands JUS-TICE and JEW-STEESE? If they are going to use an American world, I think they should say it like a proud American. “Justice” was a concept invented in America, so it doesn’t matter how.

N e ways, this video is s00 true. Those Frenchies are stealing our culture and selling it back 2 us. SOME1 NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. Our American alternative celebrities are letting us down. Also, the American government should ban foreign artists from utilizing our memes and media from the past in order to make money off their art. America should probably ally with Australia in the ElectroWar.

Journalists need to stop focusing on geographic locations, and start realizing that
we all live on the Internet. There’s no such thing as a ‘city’ n e m0re, yall. We’re all citizens of Blogville/the blogosphere/the memesphere/the information super fagway.

In conclusion, we need America to unite as a nation to create popular alternative music. Carles is doing his best to help the United States by working hard on the HIPSTER RUNOFF debut EP.

HRO is sooo mainstream. I can’t believe I still blg abt all of these mainstream bands that are alllll over MTV.

I’m just searching for authentic authenticity. :-(

Please note that these videos are [HIGHLY RECCD], not only because you get to see John Norris’ never-ending-quest to be a lil alt, but because you want to understand what it’s like to participate in the revolution that is a geographically-contained creative renaissance.

Note: HIGHLY RECCT VIDEOS MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE IN YOUR RSS READER
************
Un-Earthed Location #1: A small American city called “Portland, Oregon.”

Did this video almost make your head explode, too? SRSLY. I rlllly hate Portland and any other ’second tier’ cities that claim to be culturally relevant by playing up the whole ‘alternative gimmick.’ There is an excess of shitty musicians who are Starbucks/Chili’s employees in every city, so I hate when a city’s personal brand revolves around ’sounding like they really mean it when they make their shitty music/attend their shitty, awkward concerts.’

I’d say Austin, TX is pretty good example of ’shitty city who is gimmickifying it’s underwhelmingly-alternative brand’, too. Most of the music in Austin, TX is more approachable indie fodder than the Portland concept crap, so I’ll give the edge to Portland when it comes to ‘moderately alt cities that major-city-alts-want-to-move-to-bc-they-think-their-life-will-be-simple, yet-authentic,yet-still-as-alt as they feel comfortable with.’ No matter what, we all need an alt-city full of alts to feel comfortable around without the high-cost-of-living that major metropolitan areas have. Don’t you feel like you have met a lot of people who have idealized Portland and Austin as ‘heaven on alt-earth’? Like they imagine settling down with a humble-&-emotionally-connected trophy alt who is done with his/her ‘partying phase’ and ready to start buying well-designed carriages for their newborn babies (lil alts).

Common traits of overhyped 2nd rate alternative cities:

• Perception of being ‘green’
• Perception of a bustling ‘local economy’
• A high ‘basically unemployment’ rate (this figure represents people who are over 30, but still have the jobs a 16 year old would have)
• An excess of corporate and independent coffee shops
• An excess of people with too many tattoos working in independent coffee shops
• An excess of coffee shop employees playing RLLY gimmicky ‘interesting’ music in coffee shops during their shifts/playing the albums of their friend’s band who sound exactly like _______
• Overhearing the ‘future plans’ of people who work in these coffee shops to start their own business in design/food/recordstore/boutique/other alternative biz idea.
• An excess of people in bands that have shows in an excess of venues
• An otherwise stable maintream economy which allows the alternative population to work in the service industry. While this usually happens in all cities, the minorities in the service industry are replaced by these aging alts.
• Overhearing all of these people talking about stuff that was cool between 2 to 40 years ago. They basically have a 2 year delay on ‘what is currently cool’ and usually just rely on ‘liking aesthetics/bands that are from before 1985.’
• A handful of decent bands, a few imitators, and a bunch of krappie bands that have tied their identity to their home city and guilt their friends into attending their show/post a lot of myspace bulletins to impressionable local-17-year olds.
• They attempt to assert their city-wide inferiority complexes by having excessive representation when it comes to liberal activities, particularly ‘marches.’ Examples include Gay Pride Marches, Anti-Racism Marches, Marches Against ‘The War’, and general Marches Against Stuff That Exists Because of Conservative People.
• These cities have significant populations of ‘cool dads’ and ‘free spirited moms’ by choice/believe in their personal images, as opposed to the real-city versions of these parents who are simply ‘participating in a gimmick which they have no control over.’
• A lot of these cities have a major university or a well-branded liberal arts school with a progressive identity which the ‘hip side of town’ feels like they need to cater to in order to keep up sales of vegan wraps, pizza-made-from-only-organic-ingredients, and interesting t-shirts.

N e ways. Do yall like these types of cities or what? Am I wrong? Should the Mayor of Portland ’show me around the alt side of town’ and then ‘take me on a tour of their business district’?

I think a lot of cities/hip communities within a city all have some of these traits. Did I miss n e traits?

[PLEASE NOTE: I DO LIKE STARFUCKER FROM PORTLAND, BUT I WILL STOP LIKING THEM WHEN PEOPLE START CALLING THEM 'THE NEXT MGMT' AND THEIR RCRD LABEL FORCES THEM TO CHANGE THEIR NAME. ]

[PLEASE NOTE: I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE GONE THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL PHASE WHERE I LISTENED TO A LOT OF THE MICROPHONES AND HAVE DECIDED TO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM PORTLAND SERIOUSLY IN ORDER TO FORGET THE PERSON WHO I USED TO THINK I WAS IN 2KNEVER.]

[PLEASE NOTE: I H8 95% OF THE PEOPLE I HAVE MET FROM PORTLAND. I THINK I JUST DON'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO THINK WHERE THEY LIVE IS ANY MORE/LESS INTERESTING THAN N E WHERE ELSE.]

******
Unearthed Location #2: A country called France

Can some one please explain the differences between the bands JUS-TICE and JEW-STEESE? If they are going to use an American world, I think they should say it like a proud American. “Justice” was a concept invented in America, so it doesn’t matter how.

N e ways, this video is s00 true. Those Frenchies are stealing our culture and selling it back 2 us. SOME1 NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. Our American alternative celebrities are letting us down. Also, the American government should ban foreign artists from utilizing our memes and media from the past in order to make money off their art. America should probably ally with Australia in the ElectroWar.

Journalists need to stop focusing on geographic locations, and start realizing that
we all live on the Internet. There’s no such thing as a ‘city’ n e m0re, yall. We’re all citizens of Blogville/the blogosphere/the memesphere/the information super fagway.

In conclusion, we need America to unite as a nation to create popular alternative music. Carles is doing his best to help the United States by working hard on the HIPSTER RUNOFF debut EP.

HRO is sooo mainstream. I can’t believe I still blg abt all of these mainstream bands that are alllll over MTV.

I’m just searching for authentic authenticity. :-(

LEVEL 1
Bands That Played Really Well, and Could Have Been Appreciated More If They Were Given a More Favorable Time Slot. Since you never want to say a headliner was your favourite performer, these are the best bets.
1. Small Sins
2. MGMT
3. Zykos

LEVEL 2
These relatively bigger acts transferred to the festival format very well, probably inspiring a lot of downloads when people got home.
4. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
5. Final Fantasy

LEVEL 3
When Generation Y ends up turning 40, these DJs will be doing corporate events, much like a Fortune 500 company now hires James Taylor or Paul Simon to entertain at an annual conclave.
6. Girl Talk
7. Diplo

LEVEL 4
The Pitchforkability of these acts are off the charts.
8. Cadence Weapon
9. Bus Driver

LEVEL 5
DJs that were pretty solid, but are still working on their marketing and differentiation plans.
10. DJ’s Manny and Bigface
11. DJ Jester

LEVEL 6
These bands sounded good. I’ll probably hear even more about them in the next 18 months and possibly say “Oh yeah. I’ve seen them live. I REALLY liked them.”
12. Celebration
13. White Denim
14. Battles
15. Car Stereo (Wars)
16. Clap! Clap!

LEVEL 7
The bands that are well-established, performed well enough, but you’ve already had them ranked high in the past.
17. mates of state
18. Okkervil River
19. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
20. The New Pornographers
21. Of Montreal
22. Cat Power

LEVEL 8
These bands made me feel like I was at a festival in Austin, TX.
23. Explosions in the Sky
24. Don Caballero

LEVEL 9
These acts are worth mentioning. I hope they open up for some one that I really want to see in the future, so I can appreciate them in the same capacity.
25. Ocelot
26. Grand Buffet
27. Brothers and Sisters

LEVEL 10
The bands from the HardXcore stage that a lot of people were apparently there to see. I didn’t see them, but I’m sure they were important to a lot of people.
28. Murder City Devils
29. Against Me!

A solid lineup did well to fill up the 2 day festival. Small Sins was definitely impressive. It’s usually not my type of music, but they managed to transcend their ‘Early on the 1st Day’ time slot, putting enough energy in to the show to warrant the number one spot. Just the kind of band that you’d feel way more comfortable with so many people loving instead of Of Montreal.

[MP3s]
Small Sins It Keeps Me On My Toes
MGMT Electric Feel
Girl Talk That’s My DJ

Other more formal reviews:
Both Sides of the Mouth (Go there if you want some MP3s)
Party Ends!
Austinist – Day 1
Austinist – Day 2

If you’re wondering why the festival is historically significant, always remember this: FUNFUNFUNFEST 2007 will go down as the last memorable cultural event before American Apparel opens their first store in Austin.

Why FUNFUNFUNFEST is the best music festival in America right now?
1. Optimal Texas November weather made any wardrobe choice justifiable for people looking to wear their coolest ‘festival outfit.’ The decision is kind of like a mix between ‘going on a date’ and ‘going camping.’
2. The festival sponsors and producers matched the spirit of the festival. Sweet Leaf Iced Tea, Tecate Light, and Transmission Entertainment were better than seeing COCA COLA, BUD LIGHT, and a Fortune 100 sponsoring the festival. It doesn’t really matter, but it probably makes the general consumer feel more ‘authentic.’
3. The layout of the park is optimal for the 3 stage setup, and the ‘double stages’ made transitioning from set to set easy. Waterloo Park was made for FunFunFunFest.
4. A great mix of music for all types of music fans. Appropriate emphasis on Texan bands, with a healthy mix of popular indie acts, and even staying true to the South Texas hardcore-core demographic. Not many festivals stay this ‘true’ to their target market.
5. Austin’s local economy was fairly represented. Coffee shops, thrift stores, boutiques, and even pipe shops all had an opportunity to be a part of FunFunFunFest.
6. The image of the festival wasn’t overbranded, making it a laidback experience.

Here’s some pictures from Fun Fun Fun Fest.
Thanks to PARTY ENDS for networking me with these flickr photos.

The guitarist from Brothers and Sisters mixes the best of Ryan Adams and the guy who played Jim Morrison in Wayne’s World 2.

[Photo by ERIN HANSON]

The guy from I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness had the most memorable moustache of the festival.

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

If you went to FunFunFunfest to see Explosions in the Sky, there’s no way you ventured into the sea of black that was the HardXcore stage.

Of Montreal continues to be a crossover success to teens and sorority girls alike, reaching beyond fans of the ‘Let’s go Outback tonight’ song.

At FunFunFunFest, you could only drink Heineken, Tecate Light, or Sweet Leaf Ice Tea+Vodka. Final Fantasy dude opted for Heineken.

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

Do you think Final Fantasy is beta testing this shirt for American Apparel? Or was it just an error by the AA workforce in downtown LA?

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

The Mates of State guy lurked around the festival for a while. He was definitely the #1 candidate for ‘guy who looks like he’s in a band, but I can’t tell because he’s standing in the crowd like a typical festival-goer. He might just be some hip-looking guy who owns an independent coffee shop.’

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

This is modern festival culture.
[Photo by Patrick Dentler]

This was NOT the stage that Okkervil River performed on

[Photo by KEITH GADDIS]

FunFunFunFest’s ‘all-Pete & Pete-team’
The guy from MGMT

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

The guy from Grant Buffet

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

The guy from Clap! Clap!

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

Girl Talk continues to search for meaning as his life continues to get more and more absurd. At least he executed his vision that inspired him to pick the name “Girl Talk.”

[Photo by Davis Ayer]

Can you find the member of TEAM ZISSOU?

[Photo by Briana Purser]

The keyboardist from CLAP! CLAP! wins the ‘Man. That shirt really stands out, I wonder if he’s in a band. Oh. Phew, he’s in a band, not just some kid who wants attention because he wore a loud shirt’ award.

[Photo by KRISTEN HILLERY]

The bassplayer from White Denim (middle) looks pretty young. Maybe he went to the same music elementary school as Smoosh.

Car Stereo Wars. He’s like Girl Talk, except from Austin.

Greg Gillis has more chest hair than the entire army of kids on stage.

Diplo is not LIVINGSTRONG. He’s just wearing the mandatory Festival wristbands.

[Photo by KEITH GADDIS]

It was great getting to talk to San Antonio Spur Matt Bonner. I had the opportunity to let him know that he’s better than Brian Scalibrine.

[Photo via GorillaVsBear]

FUNFUNFUNFEST RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Build a better website for the next festival. Either FLASH it up or basic it up, but I didn’t find it to be incredibly functional in mentally preparing for the festival. People prepare for festivals like they prepare for their first day of school. I could have gone for some printable ‘how to plan your day out at FunFunFunFest’ PDFs. http://www.funfunfunfest.com
2. Come up with a tiered VIP
System. As Generation Y continues to age, we will continue to find ways to prolong our youth by starting blogs, taking pictures, and writing for publications. The biggest festival challenge of the modern world is figuring out how to ‘make people feel like they’re VIPs without diluting the power of actual VIPs.’
3. Dig some sort of underground portal/cave where the HardCore stage could have been placed. As opposed to hearing the constant drone of screaming, guitar licks, and double kick-drums during Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy dude could have ‘moved’ the audience to an optimal extent.
4. Move Girl Talk to the large stage instead of letting a security volunteer have a meltdown when a bunch of sweaty teens rush the stage. Most venues need to do their best to avoid becoming the “place where 20 kids died when the stage collapsed at a Girl Talk concert.” Here’s what the generational conflict at the back of the Girl Talk stage looked like:

FFFF was a well-executed festival. There were no fires, medical emergencies, or technical difficulties that often plague festival experience. You should probably try to make it to FFFF next year, because it is really going to hit it’s stride in the next 3 years.

Hipster Runoff sends personal THANK YOUs to:

• Party Ends!
• Allen Chen & Paige Maguire from Austinist.
• the GorillaVsBear Bros.
• Transmission Entertainment

Coming tomorrow, a comprehensive breakdown of the music.

Can you go wrong with cute girl voice plus dude on vocoder?

LAX has been through a few lineup changes, but their sound is definitely worth blogging about. Just for the sake of cross referencing, I could see people who are into Ladytron, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, or any thing else that sounds like “A house beat making love with synth.”

They’re probably my favourite Austin band.

MP3: L.A.X. – Come and Get Me

Visit LAX’s myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/dancewithlax

It’s a whole new Rouse since he moved to Spain, and you can tell that he’s pretty comfortable with his new life and the songs he continues to add to his catalog. Josh took the stage, took some time to tune, and just started to churn out his recent hits. I particularly enjoyed the acoustic driven “Carolina,” “It Looks Like Love” followed by “It’s the Night Time,” and of course, the sweet bass line in “Come Back.” Also, “Love Vibration” was a nice touch during the encore, since by then the crowd had downed enough premium beers to move past some of the awkward silences between songs early in the show. Secretly, I was hoping for him to perform something from “Under Cold Blue Stars” or “Dressed Up Like Nebraska.”

Overall, Josh Rouse is on top of his game. If you’ve been a fan at any time of his career, you should definitely see him. While it’s a shame that his career didn’t bring him the notoriety of a Damien Rice or John Mayer or Ryan Adams, it shouldn’t skew your appreciation for his music. If anything, it’s a great opportunity to see what type of music an artist will make when he’s able to function with complete control of his environment and creative direction.

And if you don’t believe that he is good, how about checking out Josh Rouse mentioned in John Mayer’s blog about a year ago:

This CD is KILLING me lately. By Josh Rouse, called Bedroom Classics Vol. 2. I’m not sure if it was really made in his bedroom, but it sure feels classic-y. I’ve been hearing this guy’s name for years, usually used when trying to equalize my success with his. Can’t argue with that attempt. I’ve had this CD for about a year now, and every time it comes on, I flip. Except before now my flipping went un-noticed by me. Ever flip like that? Anyway, I’m flipping on the outside now. I probably don’t even have the best Josh Rouse money can buy, but if that’s the case, more to my point. I want to tour with him. Booking agent man, can we tour with Josh Rouse?

Here are some MP3s from various points in Josh Rouse’s Career:
MP3: Josh Rouse – Hollywood Bass Player
[from "Country Mouse, City House" (2007)]

MP3: Josh Rouse – Winter in the Hamptons
[from "Nashville" (2005)]

MP3: Josh Rouse – Miracle
[from "Under Cold Blue Stars" (2002) This album is one of my favourites of all time.]

Visit JoshRouse.com
See what people are saying about the Austin show at the Josh Rouse Message Boards

Buy Country Mouse, City House at Amazon.

• The sound guys wouldn’t turn off the raggae when the band was about to go on, and each member tried to get the sound dude’s attention.
• Some guy who was tripping threw an empty water bottle that missed Panda Bear’s head by a few inches.
• The Band is still mourning the absence of Deakin?
• The crowd was ‘lame.’
• A girl standing in front of you with a FEELS tattoo

Does this make me cooler because I got in?

{ Courtesy of LensEnvy }

So in the modern world, it’s pretty easy to be a downer. With so many people, it definitely did have that feel of ‘the time that I went to see Death Cab after Transatlanticism.’

The truth is that Animal Collective is too good to let any sort of small crap that most ass holes get caught up in when they go to a show get in their way. It was really just an amazing show, where the music never stopped. Great sounds, visually stunning. AnCo was successful in that it ‘made us ask questions about what popular music is’ as we moved along to the tribal electronic hits. (Please note that as a member of Generation Y, it’s just important to evaluate the concert in terms of how it would affect me, and possibly change my life).

I didn’t get there at 6:00 PM to stand in the front so I could take sweet pictures during the show, so I wasn’t able to get a set list. From what I remember, they opened with #1… other highlights were probably FIREWORKS (which every one knew the words to), tentatively titled & blogged-about track “will to joy”/”Brother Sport”, and the closer was what show reviewers would describe as a “violent and stunning” rendition of “We Tigers.”

Other great songs were “Song for Ariel” which has usually been heard as a Panda Bear track, “Chores”, “Peace Bone”, “Am I Real” were all great. Everything they played was great.

But I’m just a fan, so what do I know?

I’m just some guy who is trying to “appreciate” music. Anyways, go see them. Get your tickets early, and go with your friends. If you don’t get your tickets early, buy them scalped. Have fun, because that’s what Panda, Avey, and Geo would want you to do. Stop being an ass hole and thinking so much. Oh, that’s just me and my group of friends, right?

HIPSTER RUNOFF GRADE:
10 out of 10 Person Pitches

MP3: Animal Collective – Am I Real?

• The sound guys wouldn’t turn off the raggae when the band was about to go on, and each member tried to get the sound dude’s attention.
• Some guy who was tripping threw an empty water bottle that missed Panda Bear’s head by a few inches.
• The Band is still mourning the absence of Deakin?
• The crowd was ‘lame.’
• A girl standing in front of you with a FEELS tattoo

Does this make me cooler because I got in?

{ Courtesy of LensEnvy }

So in the modern world, it’s pretty easy to be a downer. With so many people, it definitely did have that feel of ‘the time that I went to see Death Cab after Transatlanticism.’

The truth is that Animal Collective is too good to let any sort of small crap that most ass holes get caught up in when they go to a show get in their way. It was really just an amazing show, where the music never stopped. Great sounds, visually stunning. AnCo was successful in that it ‘made us ask questions about what popular music is’ as we moved along to the tribal electronic hits. (Please note that as a member of Generation Y, it’s just important to evaluate the concert in terms of how it would affect me, and possibly change my life).

I didn’t get there at 6:00 PM to stand in the front so I could take sweet pictures during the show, so I wasn’t able to get a set list. From what I remember, they opened with #1… other highlights were probably FIREWORKS (which every one knew the words to), tentatively titled & blogged-about track “will to joy”/”Brother Sport”, and the closer was what show reviewers would describe as a “violent and stunning” rendition of “We Tigers.”

Other great songs were “Song for Ariel” which has usually been heard as a Panda Bear track, “Chores”, “Peace Bone”, “Am I Real” were all great. Everything they played was great.

But I’m just a fan, so what do I know?

I’m just some guy who is trying to “appreciate” music. Anyways, go see them. Get your tickets early, and go with your friends. If you don’t get your tickets early, buy them scalped. Have fun, because that’s what Panda, Avey, and Geo would want you to do. Stop being an ass hole and thinking so much. Oh, that’s just me and my group of friends, right?

HIPSTER RUNOFF GRADE:
10 out of 10 Person Pitches

MP3: Animal Collective – Am I Real?

Here’s a pretty good video of Animal Collective live at the MIDI Festival in France playing ‘Will to Joy.’

MP3: Animal Collective – Will To Joy (Also Known as “BROTHER SPORT”)
MP3: Animal Collective – Walk Around With You

Buy Strawberry Jam at Amazon.