This year at Bonnaroo, I found someone’s schedule and got the secret pleasure of seeing the bands that person had outlined as their choices, which is something I’d never, ever do, for fear that my selections could be traced back to me, revealing to the world that I am a total wanker. So how does one approach the task of making ten — or even one — festival recommendation(s) to a total stranger? Plus, various festival videos, from cell-phone clips to golf-cart vision. Firstly, an instructional video on how to legalize weed — or make anything else happen — courtesy of a lone, joyful teacher, a fearless hill-dancer at Sasquatch ‘09. This is the only video that I did not shoot.
NOTE: Headcount.org will be at Camp Bisco once again, be sure to stop by their booth to register to vote, and discuss a few issues — maybe start NY’s petition to legalize IT?
When asking to borrow strangers’ schedules, I’ve noticed that sometimes before handing it over they’ll murmur a modest disclaimer about their selections, an unnecessary yet understandable timidity in their voices…After all, revealing one’s marginalia can potentially eliminate any credibility one may have. ‘Sort of like the aesthetic equivalent of opening one’s mouth and revealing their foolishness, rather than remaining silent and having at least one final shielding layer of mystery.
So I was extra careful to guard this program for fear of losing it and being blamed as a wanker – even by someone I’d likely never meet – for choices I didn’t even make. As if an invisible force of Judgment was constantly watching one’s music choices, but maybe that’s just my paranoia…but this apprehension about musical factionism doesn’t feel completely like paranoia, as I’ve learned at my YT page where I posted an interview with Johnny Rotten, after which non-stop bickering has broken out about the merits of Green Day, and whether Lydon is a hater or not:
I posted this Kings of Leon clip, after which Pitchfork supporters and haters, as well as UK haters on American crowds had at it — and not in a good way…
To put it bluntly, music is not always the unifying force we make it out to be—in fact, because music is so populist in its reach, it is truly the layperson’s religion, and as such it fuels more hateful battles than you’d expect, prompting me to point out amidst one online fray and in the video above, that music is the very thing that shouldn’t be turned into a schoolyard bully or a classroom know-it-all or a strict teacher; in fact, music should be the giving-of-the-finger to these very attitudes, but tragically, it has become more tyrannical than the tyranny it purports to topple…I was subsequently told by another commenter – seemingly rightly so, tho’ I can’t explain why—“This has nothing to do with you, whatever gave you the idea it did?” Which made me feel like I’d done my job posting that video. Someone else might say, “If I can just help one person discover a band I’ve done my job” – and that’s definitely righteous and true…but if I can get one person to remove me from the equation of presumptuous musical tastemaking and prognostication? I’ve done my job. ‘Though I do hate the hate I see online.
Suffice to say, when asked to select musical acts for a festival, I’m simply not comfortable doing so. To be certain, I have made recommendations, and do so all the time at festivals — and I’m always plagued with a minor guilt-slash-regret over what I may be preventing the person from experiencing, in a parallel universe. I also find it interesting how hungrily some folks solicit show suggestions and how stingily some folks guard them – they’re both filled with something that isn’t just passion for music, and though the former group seems far more forgivable then the latter, sometimes the latter feel they are guarding a subculture as much as a sound…so, music ownership by fans gets tricky…one thing that’s not tricky is that fans should be able to videotape shows, and I think that fan-casting should be growing beyond its current plateau.
INRE: my own listening plans, when I won’t be backstage doing interviews, I might or might not follow a pattern of showing up to every stage and filming, which is risky because by wandering through and staying for a few songs only, you often miss the special guests or you miss cover versions and sometimes encores with all of the aforementioned elements, though I often find – and I cover a lot of ground carrying a heavy-assed bag – and my own heavy ass – that if you’re swift of foot and can navigate concert swarm respectfully, you can get by pretty quickly. Golf carts help with this, and I’m always grateful as hell to the women and men who’ve given my sorry ass a lift. I’ve seen golf carts ’suped up with Jesus figures, Mad Max battle apparatus, Disco balls…
A true case where sticking around for the whole show meant catching the special guest of a lifetime:
Myriad memories from the day past and hopes for the night ahead swirl through the mind as the disco ball on the golf cart dazzles in night vision…corny, but true
One of those cover versions I was talking about: Tori Amos doing Nirvana’s anthem at Bonnaroo 2010
At the end if the day, it’s the unpredictable moments between moments that will really pre-occupy and constantly surprise me…the track an unknown DJ drops in the middle of the night as you mind-travel in your tent…the band you happened to hear while you were on line at the a) toilet b) pizza booth c) beer bracelet booth d) fill in the blank…
And it’s this discovery that makes me not want to presume to fatefully mess with the butterfly effect of your festival experience…
So, take Friday for example…will I see Wu Massacre?
Celfone vid: “M-e-t-h-o-d/M-e-t-h-o-d/M-e-t-h-o-d/M-e-/M-e-/M-e-/Hey!U!getoffamycloud…! Plus Brother Ali speaks on stage u-n-i-t-y-
Sure, but they’ll be my starting point as I head north towards Eskimo in the dance tent and then yes, I’m hitting the local stage then back through Dieselboy back toward The Album Leaf then to Thievery Corporation for a minute before I start to thread an evening groove that will take me through Major Lazer and the DBs with some really exhausting-but-worth-it walks between King Britt who dropped “I Love Music” at the Planetarium in NYC reminding me of that song’s old power, and Bassnectar who dropped “The Message” during a Texas dusk at SXSW two years ago kicking me in the gut in a way (again festivals are about chance and the moment) that I hadn’t been kicked by that tune in years, a gut-kick far harder than the anti-climactic Metallica and DJ Shadow sets that followed…Britt and Nectar will occur between Disco Biscuits sets — and the ‘Biscuits late night set mixed with irregular walks to the dance tents and through the night grounds — which are their own party — will make for the odyssey that is night time at Camp Bisco, or any festival….since I’m actually going to be backstage doing interviews during nearly every one of these shows, it’ll be the really late night stuff I’ll have the most free time for, if I can stay awake, as it’s just lovely to sip whiskey in the summer sun, or rain…
I haven’t thought ahead to Saturday yet, though it’ll be interesting to see Girl Talk close out Bisco before the Biscuits drive everybody home. You can read Girl Talk’s pre-Bisco interview HERE
This was one show I’m glad I stuck around for…pure poetry in blending the lyrics: “My neck/my back/lick my pussy and my crack” with the regal strings from “Bittersweet Symphony”
And if you’re enjoying where you are sometimes it’s better to not leave just because of the next show otherwise you can create that 20-countries-in-twenty-days vibe and miss out on some deep grooves.
Symbolically, I’m glad to see Orchard Lounge dropping the first diamond on the first track in the DJ tent on Thursday, as for me they were in fact the three-headed DJ that guided me through a few beautiful, solitary late nights – that actually happened in the course of one night, as I was shivering in my tent during an unusually cold snap.
NOTE to YOU: bring very warm things for the night time, as these are the hills of New York and it gets cold at night, like the deserts of Coachella or the Tennessee mountains of Bonnaroo –
So herewith, a few – well, seventy-one, to be precise — choices for Camp Bisco: the whole bloody schedule.
Discover for yourself…then let me know, okay?
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