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2006:12:29:08:00. Friday. NO!: AMBULETTE (#201, DEC 9 2006).
This epic closer marked the end of the Fest for me. Hockey Night were coming up next, but it was already a busy end-of-semester weekend, and I didn't really need to stick around for Pavement-meets-Byrds until 9:30. This also meant not seeing the Joanna Newsom headlining show, which I was fine with, and which turned out to be a good thing, since it became such an uncoordinated mess. All in all, what I saw of this Fest was terrific -- nobody as exciting for me as Maritime and Rainer Maria, but good local acts, compelling established names and a great new discovery. Bring on the next one!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:28:08:00. Thursday. NO!: AMBULETTE (#200, DEC 9 2006).
There are a couple songs on Ambulette's debut EP that I think could be mainstream hits now that they're on a major label. One of them is the lead track, "Fall," and the other on is this song. It's actually a bit too big of a sound for the acoustics of the Rathskeller, which means that it doesn't sound perfect in this clip, but I think that's actually something that bodes well for it as a potential single.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:27:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: AMBULETTE (#199, DEC 9 2006).
The only act of the second night that I was really excited to see was Ambulette, the new band featuring Maura Davis of Denali. They'd existed briefly as Bella Lea before a dispute with another band led to a name change; since forming they've released one five-song EP, but the songs they played at the Fest (like this one) imply that a full-length is on the way. This song feels like something from a lost era where Billy Corgan came before Kurt Cobain, and everything's a little darker, more shimmery and more electronic. Indie rock remains recognizable, but just a bit different.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:26:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: THE BRACELETS (#198, DEC 9 2006).
The Bracelets' EP only has five songs, and this was one of the, I think, three new ones that they played during their set. The new stuff was generally more of the same, but it did tend to contain a bit more sonic expansion and experimentation than the songs on the record.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:25:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE BRACELETS (#197, DEC 9 2006).
The second night of the Fest ended rather infamously with 1000+ people waiting in three unorganized lines, then waiting inside the Memorial Union's Great Hall for an hour and a half to see Joanna Newsom, but it began quietly with a short set local shoetweezers the Bracelets. Like Sleeping in the Aviary, they're a band I'd wanted to see for a while but never got around to, so it was nice to see them get a chance to play for the folks like me who jump at these kinds of free shows. Their sound is interesting in that it recalls both late-model Luna and early-model Galaxie 500, but very stripped down and simple. This song is from their self-titled EP, a five-song affair. It fits well there, and it fit well in the short set they played, but I'm not sure if their slight instrumentation is enough to sustain a full-length. Without a more driving sound, or maybe stronger vocal harmonies, they're just sugary enough for small doses, but too saccharine for big ones.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:22:08:00. Friday. NO!: SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY (#196, DEC 8 2006).
The crowd had started to wind down and disperse by this point, but the band was still going strong. These two songs -- I'm not sure what they're called, but maybe they'll be on the bands upcoming CD, whose release party is on February 2 -- were just as energetic as the ones that opened the set, though by that time it was getting hard to stay awake. Night one of the Fest was a success, for sure, in no small part thanks to these guys' closing.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:21:08:00. Thursday. NO!: SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY (#195, DEC 8 2006).
Like jokes? A broken snare provides the opportunity for an extended joke to be told during this clip. Also, singer Elliott Kozel acquiesces to the crowd's demand that he begin disrobing for some reason. Then comes a cover of a spazzed-out tune from former local favorites Johnny and the Church Camp Rebels. Enjoy!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:20:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY (#194, DEC 8 2006).
Sleeping in the Aviary was one of those local bands that I somehow always kept missing. Until the Pop Fest I didn't even know what they sounded like, but I was excited to finally see them after skipping or missing probably half a dozen of their shows over the past couple years. Turns out that they're... hard to describe. Most of their material comes in the form of short, bright-sounding blasts of silly garage pop. This clip features two such songs in the span of a little over two minutes.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:19:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: WAX ON RADIO (#193, DEC 8 2006).
I could keep going on about the attention-hungry hipsters who jammed their way up to the front of the crowd, but instead I'll just tell you to dig the transition a few minutes into this clip as it goes from soft to full-on, pounding, heavy rock. It was a little too much for my camera's little mic to handle properly, but the quality is decent enough to feel what's going on. A big sound from these guys, and a joy to be there for.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:18:08:00. Monday. NO!: WAX ON RADIO (#192, DEC 8 2006).
The excited drunks from the Maps and Atlases set stuck around for Wax on Radio, also from Chicago. This leads me to believe that they were a cadre of Chicago-based scenesters. As annoying as they were, I can't really blame them. I was pretty jazzed about Wax on Radio, who are one of a number of bands vying to fill the alt-prog hole left by Cave In, and they do a pretty good job for the most part.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:15:08:00. Friday. NO!: MAPS AND ATLASES (#191, DEC 8 2006).
During the Maps and Atlases set, a distinct crowd of attention-seekers showed up and unfortunately spent a lot of time trying to turn the floor into a mosh pit. They seemed pretty loaded are were desperate to get people looking at them, to the point of frequently reaching up to the band for high fives, but the really weird thing is they appeared to know the words for at least half the songs. Maps and Atlases have one seven-song record out, and they haven't been around that long. Are these guys from Chicago? Math-rock fiends? Extremely intuitive? Dunno.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:14:08:00. Thursday. NO!: MAPS AND ATLASES (#190, DEC 8 2006).
Back when I worked a 9-to-5 job and first found myself with nigh-unlimited time to peruse the Internet for new music, I briefly dabbled in the Chicago post-rock/math-rock scene that was home to the likes of Tortoise, Joan of Arc and the Sea and Cake. This dabbling lasted for about a day. I imagine it would've lasted longer if Maps and Atlases had been around then. They actually sound much more like an amped-up version of Minus the Bear than any of those Chicago bands but they fit the scene well and seem to already be generating a bit of a following, based on how the crowd at this show responded to them.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:13:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: MASON PROPER (#189, DEC 8 2006).
I got a Myspace comment from one of the Mason Proper guys saying that he'd gone to Michigan Tech for a semester, which is interesting, although my immediate reaction was along the lines of, "Damn you, semester switch!" Anyway. One of the nice things about discovering an excellent, new, relatively unknown band at a live show is that they're usually playing first and the crowd hasn't gotten too annoying yet. Mason Proper were playing the first set of the Fest, starting at about 7:00 on Friday night, and though people kept trickling in throughout the set, the attention-starved hipster undergrads hadn't gotten there yet. It actually turned out to be one of the most overall enjoyable sets I've seen at Club 770, between the good band, the good lighting and the fact that none of the Union South sound equipment just decided to stop working suddenly. And oh yeah, these guys are going to be Important in 2007, I swear.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:12:22:23. Tuesday. MUSIC IN 2006: 45 POPS. Dig it:
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
2006:12:12:08:00. NO!: MASON PROPER (#188, DEC 8 2006).
Mason Proper are from the Ann Arbor area, which has at least as distinct a musical scene from Detroit's as Madison's is from Milwaukee's, but I think they fit well with the post-White Stripes rock sound that's coming out of Detroit. They're not as spazzy as Thunderbirds Are Now!, but they definitely are in that vein. The recommendations at Last.fm connect them to the Talking Heads and I think that's reasonably accurate. Also, check out that guy plugging and unplugging stuff in his Suitcase of Vintage Keyboard Guts. That's pretty cool!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:11:08:00. Monday. NO!: MASON PROPER (#187, DEC 8 2006).
And, we're back. Today I've got the first of 15(!) clips from last weekend's Madison Pop Fest. Mason Proper were the first band of Friday's Union South festivities, but they may have been my favorite of the whole affair. I'd never heard of them before this show was announced, but I think we all will be hearing a lot more from them soon. They apparently played Madison last year, but, according to the singer, "no one came," but I think this performance and their terrific new album will change that the next time they come back.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:12:05:23:00. Tuesday. THERE'S ALWAYS OTHER SCENES. I can't stop listening to the Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in America. I don't know if it's going to wind up at the top of my best of 2006 list (though it's certainly a contender) but goddamn if it's not all over the top of my best of November 2006 list. They've played the lead single -- "Chips Ahoy!" -- on TV already and they are riding high in the world of the indie rock blogosphere, but I fear there is simply no longer a major market for an album like this, which is the artistic equal to Born in the USA, among others. This is a record that could sell to huge segments of the under-50 population, if only they had a way to hear the fucker. Vagrant Records could make a million dollars by sending CD-R's with the first three tracks to every house in America.
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