Polyvinyl Records' 15 Year Anniversary Show @ Pygmalion Music Festival: Champaign, IL 9/24/11

Hey, folks! This is just my "quick" review of the Polyvinyl Records' 15 Year Anniversary Show @ Pygmalion Music Festival in Champaign, IL on 9/24/11. This was a long, but fun day.

I left Springfield around 12:30 PM or so. Angie and Francesca stayed at home. Angie, mainly, because I know she would have absolutely no interest in watching a bunch of indie-rock bullshit bands all day, and Francesca, well...because she is 2 months old. God bless Angie for taking care of her all day. I owe you one! Anyhow, I pointed my vehicle towards I-72 East and started making my trek towards the Highdive in Champaign where the festivities were going down. I arrived in Champaign right on time -- about 1:45ish. My directions were spot on until I got into downtown Champaign and then I got lost. Good thing I had my smart-phone on me. The Highdive is located on some weird-ass fucked up street that takes some odd diagonal road to get up to it that is NOT clearly identified. I pulled up there around 2:00 or so after getting lost and started what ended up being 3 circles around the general area before I found a respectable parking spot. I wasn't sure if the metered parking required payment on the weekend, so I walked up the street where I parked and noticed none of the other cars paid the meter, so I decided I'd follow suit. The worst that could happen is my car ends up towed along with 30 or so others. We'd all be in that shit together, so I went with it. I later found out you don't have to pay the meters on the weekend, just like here at home. Cool. The festival was setup in a large parking lot behind the Highdive.

I went to Will Call and got my ticket and went inside. There were several tents setup selling various things along with the nice-sized outdoor stage. One was selling some homemade blankets or some shit. Some "earthy" folks doing all-natural things or what have you. There was also a tent with some very nice folks giving away free organic apples all day -- that was very nice! A tent selling you a plate containing a pulled pork sandwich, mac-n-cheese and baked beans for $7.00, a tent with some video game company premiering some new game they developed along with a Polyvinyl Records table with a bunch of merch from all of the bands performing that day. OH! There was also a booze tent that I hit periodically throughout the day that was serving 312 ale from Chicago and your standard spirits. All drinks were $5.00 no matter what it was.

Now...onto the bands:

When I walked into the festival, Joan of Arc was playing. Joan of Arc is from Chicago, IL. They started in 1995 following the breakup of Cap 'N Jazz, so I DO remember the name getting tossed around during my high school days. Honestly, I never bothered to dive into their music too much. I think I heard a tune or two back then and said, "Meh...". They were OK at this performance. Standard indie-rock stuff.

Next up was Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. These dudes are from Springfield, MO. They did an alright job. Kind of a more "poppy" indie rock band. The singer smiled A LOT and pointed at people in the crowd. They had one song about 3 missing girls from their hometown called, "Yellow Missing Signs". I guess these girls have been missing since 1992 and the case has been referred to as "The Springfield Three". You can read up more about it here. Ryan Dougherty (who ran into me earlier in the day) jokingly said, "This must be their "Runaway Train"...you know...like Soul Asylum." I had a pretty good laugh about that one. Before they started that song, the singer said, "This is our most serious song", and one of the other dudes in the band said, "It doesn't have to be. It could be fun." That kinda made me laugh. During the performance of this song, the singer kinda ripped open his sweater to reveal a shirt showing pictures of the missing girls. Their set was decent. It wasn't Earth-shattering for me or anything like that.

Next up was Asobi Seksu from New York City. They are referred to as "dream-pop" I guess. I would just say they had a very textured and effects-heavy vocal and guitar sound. As they setup the singer brought up a keyboard-synth-type-thing, and and I was like "Oh shit...here we go with a bunch of electronic bullcrap." They got started and the drums came in heavy, then there was this atmospheric synth thing going on. The guitar came in and was VERY effects heavy. Then her voice. Man...it all came together beautifully! Color me (surprisingly) impressed! Now, at first she had a thin-high pitched voice, but a couple of songs in she walked away from her keyboard and was belting it out with some real "umph" behind her voice. THAT hooked me! Along with the intensity of the music behind it...a recipe for perfection! The set was over before I knew it and I just kinda stood there blown away. I overheard a kid say, "Man...THAT was intense. Better live than on their record." This caused some hesitation with me. I asked myself, "Do I go with my gut and go buy a record from them? OR...trust this kid I overheard and let what I just experienced just stay with me? Can they effectively capture that level of intensity on a damn record?" It took a little of inner debate, but I opted to buy their new record, "Fluorescence". I listened to most of it in the car today, and although good, it certainly doesn't have the "punch" that their live performance did yesterday.

Next up was Owen from Chicago, IL. Owen is just Mike Kinsella from Cap 'N Jazz and, naturally, Joan of Arc. Just him and an acoustic guitar. Not much more needs said. He did a real nice job! Singer/Songwriter-type stuff. Well written songs with witty lyrics. Very enjoyable!

After that was Starfucker. I watched these dudes setup, and I know you shouldn't "judge a book by it's cover", but goddamn. Three keyboard synth-type things got setup and these dudes just OOOZED indie. Skinny jeans (which you can light me up on all you want, but do NOT fucking belong on a man. Period.), hair that they obviously took their time to get "just right" before leaving the house that day, BRIGHT colored pastel shirts, etc, etc...you get the idea. Just a little TOO stereotypical for my taste. I gave them a chance and they started up the first song and about half-way through I said to myself, "nope" and opted to take this opportunity to go to Jupiter's Pizzeria and Billiards right next door to the Highdive and get some dinner. I wasn't going to miss anything. Jupiter's is a nice little place. They serve pizza done up a little fancier than usual and also have a fairly respectable selection of beer. I opted for the Pesto Margherita pizza with pesto, mozzarella and provolone, sliced roma tomatoes, oregano and basil. Washed it down with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Good stuff!

I got back to the festival and the next band, Xiu Xiu was starting. VERY avant-garde band from San Jose, CA. I'm usually intrigued by the strange and unusual like this, but holy shit was this band fucking terrible! WAY too out there to really listen to and appreciate for me. ...and that's REALLY saying something. The singer sounded like he was trying to do an mix of Pavarotti and the singer from Midnight Oil at the same time. It didn't even sound natural. It was like he was REALLY trying to sound like an idiot. ...and the two dudes he had up on stage with him just kept randomly hitting electronic shit like keyboards, drum pads, and the occasional cymbal and other percussion instruments. No real structure to anything. Strange lookin' fellas too. Bad stuff. Sorry, guys.

Next up was Japandroids from Vancouver, BC (Canada). I may just have a new favorite band after watching these two dudes. It's just one dude on guitar and one dude on a drum kit and I swear to God it sounds like there are 4-5 people on stage. The guitarist runs his guitar through 4 amps and who knows how many pedals. Sounds like 2 guitars and a bass all going at once. HUGE sound! ...and the drummer, naturally, keeps everything chuggin' along just fine. As far as describing thier sound, well...they are just a rock band I guess. The singer said they are just two dudes who like to play punk rock, so I guess call them a punk rock band. EXTREMELY energetic and a lot of fun to watch play. These dudes REALLY impressed me and I picked up their record and a 7" after their set. Genuinely nice dudes that just love to play music together. Towards the later part of their set, their drummer's seat broke and he fell about a foot lower than where he should be sitting. They stopped, everyone had a good laugh about it, and they picked up from the chorus of the song and finished up. The singer said (as the drummer was getting his seat fixed), "If you ever wondered what it's like to be in a band...it's just like this kind of shit, man."

After Japandroids, were Deerhoof from San Francisco, CA. I've heard a lot of hype about this band, and after watching them perform, I would have to say it's more hype than substance. Lots of really spastic arrangements that didn't really hold my attention all that well. They were a little fun to watch, but not musically pleasing to me. Kind of like Xiu Xiu in the sense they were just a little too out there for my taste. The crowd seemed to love 'em, though and they certainly had enough energy.

Last, but not least, was Braid. The whole reason I made the decision to go to this thing in the first place. Braid split in 1999, but since has done one "reunion" tour in 2005 and recently released a new EP called "Closer To Closed" on Polyvinyl Records and did 2 shows (one in Chicago at the Metro and this one yesterday) for it. I first saw Braid in maybe 1994 at some dude's basement here in town with Ingot and Scout. They captured my attention right away at that show and are responsible for numerous nights of me ignoring my homework in my high school days and listening to their records instead. Their set was the perfect throwback to my youth along with the new songs peppered in. They opened with one of my favorites, "My Baby Smokes" off of their second record, "The Age of Octeen", and then went right into another great tune, "New Nathan Detroits" off of their final album, "Frame and Canvas" which has been hailed as one of the 10 best "indie-rock" records of all time. Often imitated, but never duplicated. They did a nice job of mixing in a lot of the old favorites and actually played all of the songs I wanted to hear along with "Hugs From Boys" which is probably my most favorite Braid song of all time. Great performance! That made the drive and all day standing around listening to random other bands well worth it. Age set in as I was walking out of the parking lot and back to my car. Not only was I surrounded by folks about half my age all day long in a "hip" college town, but I was sore all over from being on my feet all day. That's not gonna stop me, though. I'll continue to listen to my "juvenile" music and go to shows with the kids because that's my passion.

I took some cell phone photos of all the bands I watched at this thing, but this blog setup sucks and won't let me put the photos where I want so I am leaving them out. I was also going to go in and "pepper in" links to various stuff, but I know this blog doesn't have enough traffic for me to bother. SO...if you wanna check out more about these bands or Polyvinyl Records, just do a quick Google search and TONS of information will be at your fingertips.

When did we stop trying?

So...I have spent the better portion of my morning sitting in the living room having the "retard box" (television) rot my brain. Ang has tuned in to VH1 and now FUSE which is playing the "Top 25 Countdown". Between the two channels I have had the pleasure of watching grown ass women act like fucking children and listening to this garbage the media has the audacity of passing off as "music". First I'd like to talk about this "You're Cut Off" show I saw on VH1:

It's just like the rest of this "reality TV" bullcrap we have been force-fed by the networks for years. Nothing more than a bunch of overprivledged women forced to live together for a short period of time and letting the cameras roll to catch the drama that ensues in all it's glory. It's disgusting. This show takes a bunch of dumbass fake, plastic, etc...(you get the idea) ladies and takes away all of thier modern conveniences and privledges and "forces" them to see that there is more to life than just the "finer things in life". Ok, decent concept, but here's my problem -- it's just another show that does nothing but help fuel the crappy, selfish personas that our society has developed. GROWN women carrying on about meaningless bullshit. Yelling at each other about who talked shit about who, who did who, insulting each other's bodies and fashion sense, and god-forbid, who texted who what. It's fucking retarded and a waste of time.

Now I'd like to move on to the "music" I have heard this morning. Whoever invented that Auto-Tune device should be shot. No one tries singing anymore. They just waltz into a studio and speak the words that are given to them by some idiot and let Auto-Tune "correct" the pitch on everything, they throw some shitty beat over it that some asshole came up with sitting on the toilet at 3 in the morning, and then go on a media-frenzy with it fooling our mindless youth (not thier fault....I'll get into that later) that this is what's cool and what's hot right now and if you aren't into it, well...you're just LAME! There is absolutely no substance or point to the songs. Now, you might be saying to yourself, "Hey, Anthony, what gives? I've heard a lot of the "music" you listen to, and it's pretty pointless". OK, fair point. However, I'd like to you answer me this: Do you REALLY think we are going to see people talking about how huge of an impact on music Adam Lambert has left on us, or god-forbid Katy Perry or ::gasp:: Nickelback? Good lord, I HATE Nickelback. NO. 15, 20, 25 years from now, you will not see any artists going around saying how much of an influence any of these people had on them. It's all disposable "for the moment" garbage. ...and...the sad part is, this is all our youth has to feed on. Sure, bands like Black Flag or the Ramones wrote some pretty simple minded songs, but good lord man, they have influenced so many GREAT musicans and you STILL see the T-Shirts and re-releases, and tributes, and documentaries on these guys. I doubt we'll see artists 20 years from now talking about how influential Adam Lambert or Katy Perry was on thier songwriting.

We are a society SO much influnced by the media. So when our "youngsters" are constantly bombarded with this empty, sorry excuse for entertainment, they can't help that their lives in general have become so meaningless. I hate to continue to talk about how things were SO much better 20+ years ago. Wait a minute...scratch that. I LOVE to continue to talk about how things were SO much better 20+ years ago. People were more creative. We didn't have as many distractions from real life as we do today. I'm not knocking technology, I just think we've used it as a crutch too much and it has allowed us to become a lazy society. A lot of people just aren't interested in doing anything that involves any REAL effort anymore. It saddens me. It's like if you can't achieve it by clicking a button, or just can't get it in a matter of seconds, it's just not worth the "trouble".

When (and more importantly, WHY) did we stop trying? Let's stop being lazy and start "turning this mother around!" If nothing else, "do it for the kids!"

I know my little rant isn't going to do anything, but I just had to get this crap off my chest. I'm SO sick of this stuff!

Mayhem Festival 2010 breakdown...

So folks...I took the day off yesterday and went to the Rockstar Mayhem Festival in St. Louis at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater [the old Riverport for you "old schoolers" like myself] (well...technically Maryland Heights, MO...but you get the idea) with good friends Dan and Laura. Took today off too, and it's a good thing I did because man, am I drained! I had a great time and saw some really cool bands and met some awesome people. ...and I got a rockin' sunburn! :) It was hotter than Hades out there!!

For those of you who don't know, the Mayhem Festival started 3 years ago. It's an all day metal festival. Kinda like Lollapalooza used to be back in the 90's. It all starts in the early afternoon and goes all day until late night. Tons of bands who play all day back-to-back, dozens of vendors, record companies, etc setup througout the place. They even have this thing called "Metal Mulisha" which is a bunch of dudes who do motocross stunts and crap on thier dirtbikes. Pretty cool stuff. You can check out more about them here http://www.metalmulisha.com/.

We got there early and were able to hop ahead in line since Dan has his cell phone through Verizon. Sweet! As soon as we get in to the area where the Silver Star Stage and Jagermeister Stage are setup, the first band, 3 Inches of Blood starts playing. I really dug them...old school "viking metal". Good stuff! The other "side stage" bands were as follows:

Psychostick (comedy metal band from Tempe, AZ...actually quite funny!)

In This Moment -- Dan REALLY hated them. They were OK for me...nothing Earth-shattering.

Winds of Plague -- Just as horrible as they were when I saw them open up for Danzig during the 2008 "Blackest of the Black" tour. Not good stuff.

Shadows Fall -- Really good band...I dug them!

Norma Jean -- Good stuff...I liked them!

Chimaira -- Honestly, I didn't listen to much of thier set as we were heading into line for the Rob Zombie meet-n-greet at this time. More on that later. I saw 'em open for Danzig once too. They were just "OK" for me then, and just "OK" for me this time around as well.

Atreyu -- Pretty decent band. They actually covered "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi. Goddammit...I can't get away from that band even at at fucking METAL FESTIVAL!!! Arrrgh!!

Hatebreed -- Who doesn't like Hatebreed? Well, me I guess. They actually did a really good job. I'm just not into them, that's all. Another one of those bands I saw open for Danzig once. I didn't see much of thier set as we were doing the whole Korn meet-n-greet at this time. Again, more on that below.

So...about these meet-n-greets -- Super cool that they did this. Actually, if you wanted to, you could do meet-n-greets with ALL of the bands that played that day! They all had their own tents setup througout the venue doing signings and stuff at various times. I knew ahead of time that Rob Zombie and Korn were doing meet-n-greets and that you had to buy each band's new record at the Roadrunner Records booth and as long as you did, you got a guaranteed spot in line to meet 'em. So...as soon as we got into the venue, this was the first place we hit. ...AND...they had Rob's new record on VINYL and it was actually $5.00 cheaper than the CD. Go figure. If you know me well, you know how much I LOVE vinyl, so I totally snagged up the LP and skipped on the CD. VERY excited about that!!

So...we watch a couple of bands and then at 4:30 the man himself and his current bandmates all file into the Roadrunner booth and do thier thing. When I made my way up to get my record signed, I got a smile and a nod from Mr. Zombie and he greeted me with a kind "Hey, man...nice to see ya!". I shook the dude's hand and told him a simple "thanks, man". More behind that "thanks" than I'm sure he knows. What do you say to a person who has been a part of your creative life for so long? Everything from listening to the first White Zombie album, "La Sexorcisto" WAAAY back in the day and getting hooked immediately, to all of his crazy and inspiring artwork, to the movies he has created, etc. All I could really do is sum it up in just one word -- "thanks". It was all over in the blink of an eye. I walked away with my record signed by the entire band, and got to meet one of my "heroes". VERY cool!!!

After the Zombie signing was done, next up was the Korn meet-n-greet. Now, I'm not a big Korn fan, but Laura IS! So...she snagged up their new record (on vinyl as well!) and filed in line for that. I think 3 members were there -- Jonathan Davis (singer), Ray Luzier (drummer), and one other dude. POSSIBLY "Fieldy" (bassist)? She got to meet the guys and got her record signed, and after that we headed over to the main stage where our official seats were. Main stage bands were as follows:

Five Finger Death Punch -- Great stage setup and theme (anti-war, but VERY supportive of our armed forces). Just one of those bands I'm not all that into. They played well, and HARD. Just not my "cup of tea".

Lamb Of God -- I REALLY liked these guys!! VERY intense set and again carried on with a lot of anti-war stuff like Five Finger Death Punch did, but just as above...VERY supportive of our armed forces. VERY heavy stuff and VERY, VERY FAST!!

Rob Zombie -- Well...I probably don't need to say much here, as the name really says it all. It was truly amazing to FINALLY get to see this man perform. Incredible stage setup with clips from classic horror movies playing behind the band as they were performing, fire, huge robots, martians, and zombies walking about during some of the songs...just a really amazing set!!!

Korn -- FANTASIC stage setup. Picture is at the top of this blog. Jonathan's voice was incredible and the band was ON! Ray is an amazing drummer and had just an ungodly kit! My only complaint is that they did absolutely ZERO talking to the crowd. They just played. As they were finishing up thier set and went into the song, "Blind" (one of the few Korn songs I really dig), the skies opened up and it starting POURING!! We decided to take off towards the care before it got too bad, and well...we were just too damn late!

People, by the time we got to the car, all three of us were soaked from head to toe. It was like we all jumped into a pool with our clothes on. Yeah...that bad. Dan was worried about my seats getting wet. I told him I really don't care about that, and am more worried about just getting outta there before it got SUPER bad. By the way, Dan...the seats are just fine! We got out on the highway and it was pouring SO hard that you couldn't even see in front of you. Cars were doing 35-40 MPH. I was just following the red tail lights in front of me with no idea where I was really going. Once we edged into Illinois, the rain stopped and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.

All in all it was a SUPER fun day, and as long as the bands are good, I'd like to do it again next year! So, here I sit today with my lovely sunburn (actually it really doesn't hurt too bad. Looks worse than it really is) and my signed Zombie record, Zombie T, and Zombie buttons for the pup. Thanks again, Dan and Laura for those buttons! You might be asking yourself why the hell I'd give buttons to my dog. Well...he has a "punk rock hoodie" that my sister got him years ago. I try to grab a button at whatever shows I go to to add to it. He has quite the little collection so far. Yeah, I'm retarded, I know.

Later on people!

-Antwon