From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V10 #45 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Tuesday, June 7 2011 Volume 10 : Number 045 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] IndieWestFest ["Douglas Stanley" ] Re: [loud-fans] IndieWestFest ["Joseph M. Mallon" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 08:08:22 -0700 From: "Douglas Stanley" Subject: [loud-fans] IndieWestFest This past Saturday, I took a drive to Ventura, CA to take in the inaugural "IndieWetFest" at the fairgrounds. Over 30 bands on 5 different stages, headlined by likes of Cracker, Redd Kross, and CVB. While these folks surely interested me, I went primarily to see my new favorite band "The 88". If you haven't heard of them, I highly recommend them for fans of British Invasion-style power pop, yet they are thoroughly modern. The show opened at 11am and they did a real good job of having great bands playing throughout the day - not all lumped toward the end. One of the early slots was taken by a band I'm slightly familiar with, "Taylor Locke and the Roughs". Taylor is from the band Rooney, and the new outfit is not wholly unlike Rooney, but perhaps a little more muscular. They remind me of Tommy Keene - just well-crafted songs played impeccably. The band is really tight and Taylor is an amazing guitarist. They're all rather young and I think they'll be able to appeal to a wide audience, especially in light of the fact that they are extremely camera-friendly. I think there's going to huge space that's going to need to be filled soon as kids who grew up listening to the likes of "The Jonas Brothers" and "Drake and Josh" (all very power pop-oriented music for those of you who don't have 12-year-old daughters who listen to it) graduate to more grown up music. Bands like TLATR should end up filling that void. "The 88" was as amazing as could be expected. I'll let them speak for themselves here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSp2-nEKDYw Next up was "The Muffs", who I know nothing about. However, nearly every musician on site was eagerly awaiting their set, so I figured they might be something special. IDK, I didn't get it. Just lo-fi, minimalist rock played poorly. Now, I'm certainly able to appreciate the minimalist aesthetic like, for example Half-Japanese. Jad Fair may not be the most technically proficient at his instrument, nor may he have the finest command of his singing voice, but he tries as hard as he can and his enthusiasm carries the day. On the other hand, you have someone like Stephen Malkmus who can fire off amazing songs without even trying. Kim Shattuck of The Muffs seems to take the worst from both - not really trying and not seeming to care. That was my impression. I'm obviously missing something. The next act I wanted to see was a gentleman who goes by the name "Bleu". I've heard a couple of songs off his latest disc and liked them quite a bit. The fact that Taylor Locke and his group were setting up with him certainly added to my anticipation. I was not disappointed. Bleu can do it all - from sensitive love songs, to layering looped tracks to create a wall of sound, to full-out rockers when backed by TLATR. I can't imagine anyone on this list not loving him. Definitely the high point of the afternoon for me. I really didn't know anything about him, but since reading up on him, he has a rather impressive resume (depending on how impressed you are by Selena Gomez, I suppose). Obviously, there were a lot of other bands to take in as well. Some were great and some weren't as interesting. Most notable were "The Ettes" (lo-fi done right), "Cornfed Project" (imagine if Lemmy was from Alabama), "He's My Brother, She's My Sister" (folky Decemberist-style retro/hipster/goodtime music), and "We Govern We" (dreamy and Silversun Pickup-ish). Of course, Cracker was Cracker. Unfortunately, the turnout at the festival probably wasn't what the organizers had hoped for. I don't know if there will be another one, but I hope it becomes a yearly event. I had a blast as I'm sure everyone there did. How could you not? Hanging out by the beach listening to some of the best music played by some people who not doubt are going to be huge very soon. I went there to see to see my new favorite band and came home with several new new ones. Doug S. http://www.tlatr.com/ http://www.the88.net/ http://www.bleutopia.com/ http://indiewestfest.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 08:44:38 -0700 From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] IndieWestFest On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 8:08 AM, Douglas Stanley wrote: > The show opened at 11am and they did a real good job of having great bands > playing throughout the day - not all lumped toward the end. One of the early > slots was taken by a band I'm slightly familiar with, "Taylor Locke and the > Roughs". Taylor is from the band Rooney, and the new outfit is not wholly > unlike Rooney, but perhaps a little more muscular. TLATR performed at the Scott/Paul Myers joint readings at Largo earlier this year, doing credible versions of "We're An American Band" and "Day After Day". Both songs were produced by Todd Rundgren, the subject of Paul's book. Very good band. - -- Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V10 #45 *******************************