Reptar @ Austin City Limits 2011 - Photo by Wesley Hodges
One of a kind
One of the most exciting new bands to come across my radar over the past couple years, I’ve been following Athens, GA’s Reptar since sometime last year when a friend passed along their Myspace (remember Myspace?) link along with a few of their tracks from a roughly-mixed EP that included “Context Clues,” “Houseboat Babies,” “Phonetics” and a nasty mic-check freestyle (I take you to the grocery store and teach you a little bit/about buying organic groceries and shit). Despite it sounding like a rough basement house party mix, I was so blown away by their novel sound that I immediately started nagging all my like-minded friends to pay attention to this funky-dancin’-dinosaur-band-that-could. Luckily, big-shot producer mastermind Ben Allen (Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion)) also took notice READ MORE
I just noticed that we got a request for my TV on the Radio photos from the Pitchfork Music Festival, so I thought I’d post those along with my other remaining photos, and try to wrap things up with some comments about my experience this past weekend.
We’ve already posted photos from most of my key highlights of the weekend, including Battles, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, and Deerhunter. Battles — now stripped down to a core power trio — seriously tore things up during their Friday afternoon slot, freaking out some of the P-fork crowd by offering up a genre-bending display of electronics, effects-pedal pyrotechnics, and driving beats. Animal Collective also delivered another one of the more challenging sets of the weekend, playing only a few of their “hits” and instead focusing entirely on new material. At times, I’ll admit it was almost too much for me, but I dig their audacity to come out hard with the new material, and I found some of the new tunes to be entrancing and very interesting to my ears. I can’t wait to hear how some of these end up sounding on an official studio release. Another big highlight for me was Fleet Foxes, who took an entirely different approach from AC, hitting on all the key tunes from their last few releases and practically putting on a spiritual revival for the indie-folk congregation. And I already mentioned my take on Deerhunter’s set in some detail, but I was also thoroughly impressed with Cut Copy, who put on all-out dance party with what I can best characterize as a throwback to 80s new wave mixed with euro synth pop (as it happens, they’re Aussies).
Which brings me to the first of three trends I took away from the festival as a whole… READ MORE
Sonically, this was one hell of a hypnotic show. Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear, also of Animal Collective) served up dense layers of guitar and vocals, while special guest Peter Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) added processed synths and samples and manipulated sequences. The two mostly performed a track-by-track version of Tomboy, Panda Bear’s latest album, which was mixed by Kember. At this live concert, recorded at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y., the two musicians never visibly acknowledged the audience — I think Lennox said “thank you and goodnight.” There was no encore.
Here’s a look at some of the stuff we posted today amidst following along and reading other stuff via Twitter. We’re going to be amping up our coverage via our Twitter feed and our Facebook page in the very near future so make sure you’re following us in both spots. Happy Monday, ya’lls.
Latest post: Widespread Panic – The Wiltern – 7/14/11 – Photos, Videos, Set List & Review http://bit.ly/r2DB9D#
This one will probably get pulled pretty fast so I’d definitely recommend jumping on this video while it’s still alive. It’s a solid Animal Collective performance front to back if you ask me.
Animal Collective headlined the first day of the Pitchfork Music Festival and Whitperson was there to get photos after seeing the band twice this week, once earlier in the week when they played in Brooklyn. The stage design was awesome looking and something that made an appearance earlier in the week as well. You can also watch the entire rip of the Pitchfork webcast that’s still up on YouTube (which I’m watching right now). This is the setlist of new songs that the band has been perfecting on the road, likely for their next album… READ MORE
Some kind fellow has already uploaded the Animal Collective show from the Great American to the Internet Archive, and the sound is pretty good for an audience source so it’s a good new download for your iPod if you want to hear the latest and greatest from the band. It should give everyone a sense of what sort of sounds the band is experimenting with for their new album (when and if that should happen) and what type of set they’ll be playing for the Coachella crowd.
Collection: AnimalCollective Band/Artist: Animal Collective Date: April 13, 2011 (check for other copies) Venue: Great American Music Hall Location: San Francisco CA
01. [new song 1]
02. [new song 2]
03. Did You See The Words
04. [new song 3]
05. [new song 4]
06. [new song 5]
07. Brother Sport
08. [new song 6]
09. [new song 7]
10. [new song 8]
11. We Tigers
12. Summertime Clothes
Encore:
13. [new song 9]
14. [new song 10]
The band plays the main stage at Coachella tonight at 9:45pm.
Here’s the full list of artists by day now set for the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival; I’m really kicking myself for not snatching 3-day tickets right away. Single day tickets are still on sale, though, but not likely for much longer now that the artist list is really filling out.
Friday, July 15:
– Animal Collective
– Neko Case
– Guided By Voices
– Thurston Moore
– Battles
– James Blake
– Das Racist
– Curren$y
– tUnE-yArDs
– EMA
– Gatekeeper
Saturday, July 16:
– Fleet Foxes
– DJ Shadow
– The Dismemberment Plan
– Destroyer
– No Age
– Gang Gang Dance
– Zola Jesus
– Twin Shadow
– Toro Y Moi
– Woods
– Cold Cave
– Wild Nothing
– OFF!
– Julianna Barwick
– G-Side
– Sun Airway
– Chrissy Murderbot
Sunday, July 17:
– TV on the Radio
– Cut Copy
– Deerhunter
– Superchunk
– Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
– OFWGKTA
– HEALTH
– Kurt Vile
– Yuck
– The Fresh & Onlys
– Radio Dept.
– Baths
– Kylesa
– Shabazz Palaces
– Twin Sister
– How to Dress Well
– Darkstar
Animal Collective continued on with their California tour today after rolling through San Francisco last night ot play the Great American Music Hall. Anticipation amongst the crew was especially hyped given that a few of us had time to digest the show we saw on Sunday night in Petaluma, and last night’s show delivered the [...]