Vampire Weekend ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Vampire Weekend pissed off a whole field of fans this past weekend at Marymoor Park canceling their set after making the crowd wait over an hour for an announcement, which then came from some unlucky manager and not the band themselves. Concert goers on Twitter and blog commenters wanted Vampire Weekend’s blood. (No pun intended, but it stays.) So how does the band make up this grave disappointment to local fans?

They announce two make-up shows in the coming month (September 22nd and 23rd) at The Paramount Theater and they tap these guys for their opener, for both nights:

The Head and The Heart ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Well played Vampire Weekend. And congratulations to The Head and The Heart, whose next gig always seems to be the biggest of their lives. We couldn’t be happier for them.

[Editor's Addendum]: After I got over my initial “holy cow, that is big news!” high I realized I already had plans to see The Head and The Heart on 9/23 opening for Fences at The Crocodile. So I emailed the band and they confirmed that they’ve had to back out of that show and that they are working on ways to make that up to fans who purchased tickets for it.

My Morning Jacket ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

From the beginning of Day One of Sasquatch! Music Festival, I felt like I was always engaged. The one-two mainstage punch of Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces and then Minneapolis’ Brother Ali, was just the right bolt of energy to lead into the festival. Unexpectedly throughout this traditionally rock and indie-rock weekend, hip hop garnered some of the biggest responses.

Though I hadn’t heard of her prior, the U.K.’s Laura Marling felt as if she fit right in the pocket of what’s happening in the Northwest’s female singer-songwriter scene, among emerging acts like People Eating People, Kaylee Cole, Kelli Shaefer, Hooves and Beak. She’s definitely someone who I’ll be digging into the past catalog of. Shortly after her set, bar none of my favorite bands currently, Portland’s Nurses, were back in the saddle. After a bit of a break they’re now focused on working on newer material they’ll be turning into the next wave of interplanetary space pop. To see a band who just last year at this time was existing largely at local house shows represented one of the many happy progressions the weekend was characterized by.

In 2008, the National were scheduled to play an early afternoon set on the Sasquatch! mainstage but due to border issues were rescheduled to the smallest stage late evening, in what was to be a steadily increasing rain. Frown. To see them this time around fill the billing they deserved under fair skies in front of a massive and appreciative crowd was a feeling of the world finally being in balance. Yes, I am shamelessly a National superfan, but it felt another tangible fulfillment of the slow progression toward greatness I’d been expecting to be more evident for some time now. Of a band having become a force unto themselves.

Vampire Weekend’s must faster progression to popularity was in full evidence as they followed the National on the mainstage, delivering probably the best set of the day. Their pairing with My Morning Jacket as headliners was curious, particularly given the high energy and quality of the set that Vampire Weekend gave to the crowd prior. MMJ’s fairly strong opening couldn’t offset the obvious difference in approaches of the two band’s and resulting reactions. My Morning Jacket’s songs came out plodding and introverted in comparison to Vampire Weekend’s quick, catchy melodies, and almost comical stage presence. I think someone might be challenging for default festival headliner in 2011?

Portugal. the Man ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

The National ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

More after the jump…

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Vampire Weekend ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Sasquatch was a weekend about progressions for me, and Vampire Weekend’s set at sunset on Saturday’s mainstage represented probably the most dramatic change I witnessed. The prospect of boat-shod Ivy-Leaguers easily commanding twenty odd thousand was, to be honest, not very rock ‘n roll. When front-man Ezra Koenig commented that he was happy summer was here so he could start wearing white shoes again, it was exactly the sort of goofy east-coast stereotype I expected to be fulfilled by the foursome. Despite this, with humor and hard work, the band managed to impress in a manner they’d yet to do in my eyes in two previous sets.

The spontaneous upper field dance party that started about three songs in and continued throughout, I would have never guessed this group inciting. Yet the sheer volume of enthusiastic young fans in evidence proved the sunset position the right billing. The band turning in the best performance of some I’ve yet seen in the past two plus years, shows they’ve now finally grown into a band worthy of the attention they’ve been receiving. More than just catchy songs, Vampire Weekend is now a great band. In fact it was probably the best set of the day. I say this somewhat begrudgingly, but with a new found respect.

And to think, I almost didn’t hang around to watch.

We just walked through the door from the Sasquatch line-up announcement party featuring Fresh Espresso, Atlas Sound, and Surfer Blood. More on the party soon, but here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: the line-up and it’s a doozie. We’ve bolded the bands we’re most excited about, as well as the (few) local bands who made the Sasquatch cut.

My Morning Jacket / Massive Attack / Pavement / Ween / Vampire Weekend / MGMT / Band of Horses/ The National / LCD Soundsystem / Tegan & Sara / Broken Social Scene / Passion Pit / Deadmau5 / She & Him / Public Enemy / Nada Surf / The New Pornographers / The Hold Steady / The xx / Dirty Projectors / OK Go / Drive By Truckers / Kid Cudi / The Long Winters / Minus the… Bear / The Mountain Goats / Quasi / Camera Obscura / Fruit Bats / Brother Ali / Midlake / Dr. Dog / Caribou / Simian Mobile Disco / City & Colour / No Age / The Temper Trap / Vetiver / Miike Snow / Portugal. The Man / Telekinesis / Mayer Hawthorne / Why? / Girls / Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / Wale / The Lonely Forest / Japandroids / Boys Noize / Yacht / Freelance Whales / Laura Marling / Patrick Watson / Past Lives / Cymbals Eat Guitars / The Low Anthem / The Very Best / Phantogram / Neon Indian / Nurses / The Tallest Man on Earth / Fresh Espresso / Mumford & Sons / Jets Overhead / tUnE-YarDs / Shabazz Palaces / Fool’s Gold / Morning Teleportation / Z-Trip / Dam-Funk / Hudson Mohawke / The Middle East / Local Natives / Avi Buffalo / Booka Shade / A-Trak / Yes Giantess / Craig Robinson / Rob Riggle / Garfunkel & Oates / Luke Burbank

More will be announced the closer we get to May and the Gorge, but that’s one hell of a start Sasquatch!

(Tip of the Hat to Travis Hay from Ear Candy who had this list up before anyone else)

Emily Haines of Metric ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

It takes balls to come on stage to the Carmina Burana. I mean really?! Who can do that in a legit manner without a heavy dose of irony? Maybe the WWF’s Undertaker can pull it off. But Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars? Not so much. Making everyone wait as if they are Queen or the Stones or something, the lights dim and the opera’s famous refrain drones on and on until it finally reaches it’s climax and Leto prances out and accentuates the peak moments with his guitar. Four minutes of buildup for that? The first two minutes of ’song’ were then peppered with “How You Doin’ Seattle!” and “I want everybody to Jump, just like this!” Dude, entertain me. Don’t tell me to jump. You need to earn that enthusiasm from me. At that point I had to walk out. I twittered “30 Seconds to … Beer garden.” Where I had a horrible 8.25 draft beer. I should have twittered “30 Seconds too long.” The night wasn’t all bad though.

Rachel Flotard’s Visqueen sounded at their best with massive speakers at their disposal. I remember seeing them hella loud on the Sasquatch main stage one year back and thinking “This band is badass!” It’s been a while, but with Flotard’s overflowing excitement, I regained that feeling. Lakewood, in the house?!?! Vampire Weekend, strangely in the second opening spot, sounded about as one would expect, and with an impressive number of radio recognizable hits they had no trouble filling the the pitifully short set with crowd pleasers like “A-Punk” and “Walcott.” The new song “Cousins” was the least pleasing of the set. It was rough. “Mansnard Roof” though, that is a damn good song. Other than Phoenix only getting 25 minutes too, the absence of “Horchata” was really the big disappointment of the night. I kid, I kid.

Phoenix launched their set with “Lisztomainia,” in my estimation, one of this year’s most gushworthy songs. Given the massive hype surrounding them I’ve been remiss in picking up their record Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and three songs in I was feeling stupid and stubborn on that count. Closing with mega-single “1901,” front man Thomas Mars took the opportunity to crowdsurf all the way to the back of the floor. Aside from the antics, and my love for “Lisztomainia,” “1901″ was the song of the night. Write a song like that Jared Leto, and you’ll never have to ask people to bounce again. They’ll just freak out all on their own.

Metric, whom we may have had a few hard words about in the less than ideal conditions of a blustery and wet Bumbershoot this year, sounded like a positively different band. With the benefit of a closed space and a top notch sound system, one can really appreciate the nuances of distortion and the waves of feedback they are trying to portray, something completely lost without walls or when at the mercy of a festival sound setup. This is another band meant to be backed by massive stacks. Emily Haines is a magnetic stage presence, an eye catching mix of alluring front woman and furious rock n’ roller. She’s always in movement, always living the songs, and that kind of performance is just as important as what the lyrics and music communicate. Considering the kind of example she sets, I’m beginning to understand why so many are taken with Metric.

Being at a Muse concert brings me back to the early aughts. College. It’s been a while. For a band who normally play’s arenas, this long sold out show in a much smaller room was a special affair for the obvious mass of Muse fans in the room. (They’ll be back to their normal environs at Key Arena with Silversun Pickups April 2nd.) The unwritten rule of uncool about not wearing a shirt at the same show you are bought it at was apparently suspended, much to Muse’s glee, who had a walking t-shirt model at every turn. Around the back of the thickly congested floor, moms with candy cane earrings corralled their young-in’s who couldn’t drive, the bunch of them often short enough that they were relegated to attempting to see from the back, ending up having to rely on the big screens to see anything at all.

For a three-man band (plus a sometimes keyboardist), Muse sound positively gargantuan. The trademark custom guitars with wave modification modules built into the body are just one of the many things that mark this band as larger than your average bear. Matthew Bellamy doesn’t need to say a damn word to the entice the crowd into movement, he entertains us with his bona-fide licks and pinpoint control of his feedback.  He’ll then take a gothic turn at the piano. Had they chosen one of the most recognizable and dramatic arias as their entry music, I would have at least conceded that maybe they’d earned the right to do that. If anything though, their show proved Muse doesn’t need dramatic entry music. Or entry music of any kind. Muse is a band that needs no introduction at all.

Metric ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Metric ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Flickr: Metric at the 107.7 Deck the Hall Ball 2009

[Editor's Note: This is our new column Hype of the Week, curated by the one and only Jason Josephes. It is true the Jason is the booker at the Blue Moon Tavern. It is also true he was writing about music with Pitchfork before people knew or cared about Pitchfork. He's got opinions, and he's not afraid to say them out loud. -josh ]

Hype of the Week examines a song currently dominating the blogwaves and weighs in with one opinion on whether the attention is deserved, or just a load of bull.

So Vampire Weekend has a new song out. I must admit that I’m not too familiar with the band, except for a few articles that complain about these young white kids copying the music of darker skinned people. Gosh, that’s never happened in rock and roll before! Their self-titled 2007 debut release was a big hit in indie rock circles. Accolades from Rolling Stone and Spin followed, along with a support slot touring with The Shins. If that wasn’t enough, no lesser an appropriator of Africana than Peter Gabriel covered their single “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” last year.

I’ll admit to missing out on all of this when it went down. I don’t think I’ve heard a note of Vampire Weekend until today. Today, only because I’ve been asked to listen to them. See, a second album is on the horizon with a January release date and lofty expectations for the NYC-based band’s sophomore salvo. Anyhow, they have a new single out called “Horchata” that caused Pitchfork’s Ryan Schreiber to tweet “Fucking “Horchata”, jesus. I can’t get this song out of my head. Who knows a quality exorcist?” Is that a compliment or a curse? Let’s find out by listening to it five times in a row.

FIRST LISTEN: You know that song from documentaries on Africa they play when the birds all scatter at once and the camera flies over the majestic plain? The chorus of voices and all that jazz? The giraffe silhouetted against the sunset before the camera cuts to the indigenous people washing their clothes in the river and the women dancing and waving stalks of wheat? Yeah, that’s the chorus to this song. It puts me this much closer to my lifelong dream of a musician saying “My influences are PBS and Michelob Light.”

SECOND LISTEN: OK, so no need to bring Michelob Light into this. I’m not trying to cause a scene. However, it turns out that horchata is not a made-up word, but is “the name for several kinds of traditional beverages, made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts.” Well, I guess it’s better than yet another song about weed. I pay more attention to the verses this time out. Lots of precious xylophone commentary and low-key bubbles of beats. I can already see the Volkswagen commercial – indeed, the middle section of the song is perfect for displaying how the seats fold down to make more room for groceries, the kids (backseat DVD screens!) and mom wryly smiling before pulling the car out onto the open road. It’s not an inappropriate image, for the whole soundtrack hones in on universal truth-type lyrics like “Here comes that feeling that you have forgotten.” Indie rock, meet mid-life crisis. (You know, American Beauty used a xylophone in its score, too. Just saying.)

THIRD LISTEN: After five minutes of research, I now know that people compare these guys to Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. I don’t hear it. Sure, they’re aping the icons’ previous advances on African music, but it’s too clinical. I don’t hear much heart and the intrusive drums on the PBS refrain sound cold and mechanical. However, I’ll say it’s interesting to hear lead singer Ezra Koenig head down the song’s homestretch with the line “You understood so you shouldn’t have farted.”

FOURTH LISTEN: OK, according to a lyrics search, the line was “You understood so you shouldn’t have fought it.” Not what it sounds like to me, but given the faux-British vocal inflections and the rest of these lyrics (“In December drinking horchata, I’d look psychotic in a balaclava” for instance) I’ll concede that it would be a long way to go to stick their landing on a whoopee cushion. Then again, the aforementioned Paul Simon wrote some humdingers back in the day. For example, “These are the days of lasers in the jungle.” Made no sense when he dropped that on our heads in 1986, but then the next year, the sci-fi action classic Predator came out, and what did we get? Lasers in the jungle. Maybe this means next year Bruce Willis will be kicking ass while drinking ground sesame seeds. Yippie-ki-yay, Brooklyn hipsters.

FIFTH LISTEN: What’s really annoying are these words that I don’t know. What’s Arancita? A type of sparkling beverage according to Ol’ Lady Internet. It is not, as I suspected, a nonsense word meant to fit the rhyme scheme. Balaclava is a word I know I’ve heard but need to look up. Ah, here it is – a hat. So we have two beverages and a hat and pincher crabs and “lips and teeth to ask how my day went.” And in the end, it all sounds and seems so… slight. This song checks in, rolls around on the bed, and leaves within four minutes. It’s like how I could never finish reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest because of those stupid pictures of the brooding author wearing a bandana. THIS is the future of literature? And sure, that’s a cheap cop out – it’s not like the bandana was the one who committed suicide. So either my ears are broken or the Vampire Weekend crew read The Tipping Point and figured out how to move these units of sound. Since it’s all a matter of individual taste, this writer considers Horchata to be a bandana that you can’t take off.

Pretty much the day one crowd :: Photo by Josh

Now, lets get this straight, the Block Party and I have had a pretty long, pretty drunken relationship over the last three years.  2006 introduced me to free Carlo Rossi tent and the idea of doing various substances in a shit-reeking port-a-potty.  2007 saw a slew of other, er, substances and an attempt at starting a riot outside the completely over-capacity Girl Talk show - a near-riot quickly quelled by several half-drank, lukewarm beers taken from an undisclosed location.

And 2008, wow, 2008 was the year of, er, hazy recollection.  A series of memories loosely connected by the feeling of cold Pabst tallboys in my hand, the sensation of utter claustrophobia, and the gentle tug of needing to be somewhere at some vaguely defined time.  Within this clusterfuck of sensations there was also, at times, music, some good, some not-so good, and some so crowded with bandana sporting hipsters that I fled.

Sadly, I’m going to have to consult a schedule to even have a chance in hell of remembering what I saw over the course of both days, but, nonetheless, thanks for reading.

What I Remember From The Capitol Hill Block Party: Day One

1.  I’m kind of in love with Truckasaurus.  It isn’t really the kind of music that I’d play on my personal computer at home, or like seek out rare copies of their original EPs or anything, but live, these guys are sort of gangbusters.  At CHBP, they nestled in to the darkness of King Cobra, and just turned it on, blasting the crowd’s collective hair back with wave after wave of sonic fuzz, and absolutely head-rocking beats.  My question is this: what’s the point of group electronica?  I mean, I understand someone has to twiddle the knobs and in the case of Truckasaurus, someone has to loop the Chuck Norris-barfing clips, but what are they other chaps doing?  I mean do they each get their own separate electronic noise to play with?  Please, I’m serious, I need answers.

2.  At this point, two things happened, first I suddenly realized how oppressively crowded this place was.  It had to be because of the presence of hipster-God Girl Talk and the hugely popular Vampire Weekend, but nonetheless, it pretty much stunk.  You couldn’t get anywhere without literally battling your way through an army of 16 and 17 year old tight-jean wearing punks.  No offense to this children of the Devil, I used to be one myself (sans tight jeans), but lord if it didn’t push me off the streets and in to just about any bar I could find.  Thus the second event happened, I got very very drunk, and from there things got blurry.

What I could see of Girl Talk :: Photo by Abbey

3.  I know I saw at least part of Girl Talk.  I remember the briefest image of a skinny white long-hair, perched behind a mess of wires and electronics, but after that all I remember is glitch-infused rap music and a swarm of young folk shaking their collective ass-things.  My one hazy observation: Girl Talk played all the tracks off his albums, which I do not understand.  If you’re a bad ass DJ who can chop it up like no white man alive, why wouldn’t you completely turn a whole new set of songs on their head?  Seems a little pandering for an artists seemingly so creative.  But what do I know.

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Das Llamas ::: Final Set at 9:45 Friday at the Cha Cha  ::: photo by abbey

Not that it’s a completely unusual feeling, but this Friday can’t come fast enough for me. It’s not the work week or deadlines that has me dreaming of the weekend, but rather the packed and promising line up for this years Capitol Hill Block Party.

Here are my recommendations and the schedule I will be following on Friday:

Black Eyes and Neck Ties opening my CHBP ::: 4pm at Neumo’s ::: photo by abbey

4:00 pm  - Black Eyes & Neck Ties- Neumo’s Stage
4:45 pm - see if there is any of Common Market’s set left to catch - Mainstage
5:00 pm - The Pharmacy - King Cobra
6:30 - Menomena - Mainstage
7:45 - Thee Emergency- Neumo’s Stage
8:30 - Champagne, Champagne - King Cobra
9:00 - The Dodos - Neumo’s
9:45 - Das Llamas(Last Set Ever) - Cha Cha Lounge
10:45 - decide between dinner and Vampire Weekend
12:15 - Lesbian - King Cobra 

Menomena ::: 6:30 pm Mainstage ::: photo by Josh  

There will be many many more bands announced in the coming weeks, but here’s what this years line-up is looking like: 

Friday July 25
Vampire Weekend
Les Savy Fav
Girl Talk
USE
The Dodos
Jay Reatard
Akimbo
Pwrfl Power
Past Lives
Black Eyes And Neck Ties
Champagne Champagne

Saturday July 26
Surprise guest!!
The Hold Steady
Chromeo
Kimya Dawson
Darker My Love
The Butchers And The Builders
The Hands
Vallela Vallela
The Physics
Man Plus
Little Party And Bad Business

Pretty sweet! We’re also really excited about King Cobra being added as an Official Stage at this years party. They have a great stage and best of all, since the blockparty is in late July: air conditioning!

Starting tomorrow Sound on the Sound has a solid few days of one great show after another!

Tomorrow, we wouldn’t dream of missing our friends from San Diego, The Antiques, perform at The Comet. We’ll be relaxing with beers watching all you guys packed over at the Vampire Weekend show. If you didn’t catch the last Antiques show in Seattle, and we promise, you didn’t–because we were just about the only folks there–you’d be a fool to miss them tomorrow night. Last year I stumped the guys by requesting a song they had never played live, save the time they’d recorded it. They were total champs and played it anyways, making my night.

Thursday we’ll be at The Blue Moon to enjoy Shy in Sunshine’s first live performance. Shy in Sunshine, is 2/5ths of the Hopscotch Boys, led by Sneezy Waters Jr. If we weren’t long promised to attend the Shy in Sunshine show, we’d be over at the Sunset celebrating with H is for Hellgate and enjoying a few new Hellgate tunes.

On Friday we’ll be celebrating the wonder that is The Wig Fits All Heads pr and it’s phenomenal leader, Ashley. Another Wig Bash–another excellent line up. Friday’s Seattle show will be at The High Dive featuring Das Llamas, Shim, Hockey, and Bird Monster. Sound on the Sound is a proud sponsor of the event, and you should be seeing a little love this week for a couple of the bands who are playing.

And lastly, on Saturday, hell could open up and devour Earth, and I would STILL find my way to see Iceage Cobra’s Official Return to Seattle show at the King Cobra. I am hoping the King Cobra stage, which I haven’t see yet, will have a few design elements to make the following shenanigans possible.