Middle Tier Rankings

The bad news, the schedule is not out yet. The good news, we still have another couple days to discover new acts on the lineup. I took the initial lineup based on billing, and created three tiers, the upper, middle, and lower. Since we all know the upper tier, I counted from the bottom. The lowest 30 are the lower tier, the next lowest 30 are the middle tier, and everything above that is the upper tier.

I've spent a couple hours listening to each band on the lineup (except that one band that doesn't actually have music), so this is my general impression and ranking of the middle tier.


1. Dr. Dog
2. Boys Noize
3. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes
4. Midlake
5. Brother Ali
6. Simian Mobile Disco
7. Portugal. The Man
8. The Hold Steady
9. Miike Snow
10. Caribou
11. Japandroids
12. Why?
13. Quasi
14. YACHT
15. Freelance Whales

The other 15: Laura Marling, The Lonely Forest, Wale, Girls, Mayer Hawthorne & the County, The Middle East, Telekenisis, The Posies, Fruit Bats, Camera Obscura, City & Colour, No Age, Temper Trap, Vetiver, Patrick Watson

Agree, disagree, hate, like, anything else?

Dr. Dog Live Review

Wonder Ballroom, Portland
Friday, April 23rd, 2010

"How do you spell happy?" I heard a stumbling texter shout this to his friend approaching the venue. The reply was not audible.

"One or two Ps" he again asked? How many Ps are in the word "Happy?" What a great way to get the night started.

Even though I've read about how great Dr. Dog is, I didn't start listening to them until about two months ago, and this was my first time seeing them live. So those old school Dr. Dog fans can roll your eyes at my commentary, and fast forward to the setlist, because you are not going to read anything you didn't already know. Did you know their harmonies sound like the Beatles?

Great musicians, high energy, and an unnecessarily cool light show. I say unnecessary, because it almost distracted from what they were doing on stage. They might still have a couple lights flashing during their daylight set at Sasquatch, but it won't be needed. The dueling guitars on a couple songs was a pleasant surprise, and something I overlooked listening to their albums. A prevalent piano is always welcome, although he was basically hidden from the crowd on stage. They also played over 90 minutes, which all bands should at least attempt if we're paying $20+.

One very minor complaint. Instead of screaming the screamer parts on Army of Ancients and Hang On, he instead sang them, which was a bit disappointing. Then I realized you can't really expect someone with a gargling yell to be able to pull that off live seven songs a night, a couple times a week.

Overall, this band puts on an outstanding rock show. There was nothing ultra spectacular, or extremely memorable, but they more than made up for that with their energy and stage presence. If you are new to the band, Shame Shame on you for missing out. If you've never seen them live, go see them at Sasquatch. I'll pay a large sum each time they are back through town, and would love to see them again at Sasquatch (although, if it means not seeing Zooey, sorry, Monday afternoon is pretty stacked).

I left the venue grinning ear to ear. Two blocks later, I passed the spot I initially heard the stumbling texter on the way in, so I decided to text a couple friends. "Dr. Dog made me very Hapy."

10:18 - 11:54
1. Stranger
2. I Only Wear Blue
3. The Old Days
4. Army of Ancients (with a Happy Birthday to fan intro)
5. The Breeze
6. Mirror, Mirror
7. The Ark (Highlight)
8. Station
9. The Rabbit, The Bat, and The Reindeer (Highlight)
10. Someday
11. Shadow People
12. Where'd All the Time Go?
13. The Beach
14. Unbearable Why
15. Hang On
16. From
17. Later
18. ???? I was getting accosted by a security guard here, blame him.
19. Shame Shame
20. My Friend
Encore
21. Jackie Wants a Black Eye
22. Heart It Races
22. Holy Moley??? (they said it was a song they never played, but several people cheered when it started)
23. My Friend (the other part)

Dawes and Dinosaur Feathers added, plus a new stage named Bigfoot?

So I noticed that the Seattle Rock Orchestra, Dawes and Langhorne Slim are slated to play the Bigfoot stage when clicking on their profiles on the Official Sasquatch! website. Is it possible that there is now a fifth venue added to Sasquatch!? More conflicts or more rock? You decide...

edit: Apparently Bigfoot is the new name for the Wookie stage, as pointed out on the Sasquatch! Message Boards. I wondered how long Sasquatch! would get away with it before George Lucas noticed he was not making any money off of the festival.

Passion Pit & Mayer Hawthorne Live Review

Roseland Theater, Portland
Monday, April 12th, 2010

Mayer Hawthorne and the County, this year's Dent May without the ukulele, playing 50s pop tunes. These guys are sharp dressers, and the interaction with the crowd was nice. One highlight came when Biz Markie's "Just A Friend" was used as the intro to "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," which was an outstanding transition. They will be a good show to kick back to in the early hours at the festival, but not a show you'll see people lining up to spend $20 to see. He played the part of the old school teenage heartthrob, and had his fair share of screaming ladies, so kudos to him. There were no live horns, so let's hope they make a ton of money and add that to their future shows.

Setlist:
1. I may have missed the first song, I was a couple minutes late
2. Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin
3. Make Her Mine
4. Maybe So, Maybe No
5. Shiny & New blending into I Wish It Would Rain
6. One Track Mind (into a song I didn't recognize)
7. Green Eyed Love
8. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out (Biz Markie song intro)
9. The Ills


Passion Pit was easily the worst performance I witnessed at Sasquatch 09, but I was going to get my $30 worth of entertainment, and the crowd provided it. It quickly became evident that the ratio of chemicals in a man's hair was directly proportional the amount of chemicals his date was wearing on her face. I guess I've been attending so many shows with hippies and hipsters, I sometimes forget the Chad & Sorostitute crowd exists.

How priceless is it when the crowd hears the first couple beats of a song, starts waiving their arms and screaming, then look at each other confused as the song progresses, leading to comments such as, "wait, I've never heard this song?" The bro-hugs when a radio song was played was also fun. I've had live musical moments when I wanted to hug everyone around me a couple times, but I wouldn't classify hearing Passion Pit's "The Reeling" near the top of that list. And seriously, what type of person goes to a Passion Pit show and screams, "PLAY SLEEPYHEAD" in between songs? They have created less than 90 minutes worth of music in their career. Do you really think they are going to skip any of the songs people like? The lead singer eventually said something along the lines of, "We wouldn't drive all the way out here from Boston, and not play Sleepyhead? Settle down, we're going to play another couple songs, then you'll get to hear it." The crowd erupted, as though they also feared it wouldn't happen.

I'm not bashing the crowd, just pointing out amusing observations. If the crowd during Passion Pit at Sasquatch is anything near this ball of energy, you are in for a treat, because overall, the crowd was packed full of rowdy Passion Pit freaks, jumping up and down and singing along.

Oh yeah, the band was also much better. After watching this show, it became clear why they were so terrible at Sasquatch 09. This band needs their lead singer to sound like how he sounds on the album. I love it when bands mix it up, but the annoyance of the singers voice quickly overshadows the catchyness of their music when he is improvising his tone and beat, and that is what happened at Sasquatch 09. To exaggerate how bad it was last year, the singer walked around stage quietly speaking the lyrics, often off beat, and randomly yelping. That is no longer the case. When his voice becomes another instrument, and goes where it belongs, it really lets the rest of their music shine, which eliminates the annoyance factor. His voice is unique, but it is nowhere near what makes their music so fun. Expect an enjoyable musical experience this year, and get ready to throw your hands in the air during "Little Secrets," because that song easily trumped Sleepyhead live.

Setlist:
1-13. Who Cares
14. SLEEPYHEAD!!!!!!!!!!

More Lineup Changes

Nada Surf and Public Enemy have switched days, with Nada Surf now playing Saturday, and Public Enemy playing Sunday. With all the recent lineup changes, expect three new adds, four cancellations, Soundgarden to be added, fourteen acts switching stages, three day passes to go back on sale, Soundgarden canceling, and the Yeti stage to change it's name, all occuring within the next 18 hours, spaced apart in 30 minute increments until the schedule eventually drops, and we all forget about the month of speculation.

Langhorne Slim Added to Sunday's Wookie

This makes ten acts currently scheduled on the Wookie Sunday, while they had eight last year. Interesting. What could this mean? A cancellation not yet posted? More future additions? Booka Shade going back to the Dance Tent?

They had already added an additional slot on the Wookie this year, meaning the stage will play later. Adding yet another slot means the stage would play earlier as well. If the Wookie will start earlier, and play later, why not do the same with the other stages, and add 14 more acts? It's sold out, that's why. I'm thinking we'll learn of a cancellation when the schedule is released.

Either way, it gives us another reason to keep looking for possible additions, because the amount of bands per stage per day is unbalanced now (and yes, there is only eight Wookie slots on Monday, but that day ends early, so they wouldn't add a nineth to play late).

CoS interview with Adam Zacks

Adam Zacks is the founder of the Sasquatch festival, just in case you missed that point somewhere along the way. For those of you Facebookers who can't believe the festival is sold out, he's the one to blame. Don't blame him for the high beer prices and subpar food though.

Check out the interview by Consequence of Sound here, or over there, whichever works best for you.

MGMT's New Album, Congratulations

A: Congratulations
Q: Statement uttered to stereotypical MGMT fan for making it through all of their latest album.

Isn't it fitting the title track is the last song on the album? It follows the album's most awkwardly rad song "Lady Dada's Nightmare." Picturing a room full of high school kids listening to this song with confused expressions and hands covering their ears puts a smile on my face every time. The preceding song, "Brian Eno," is probably the most danceable song, unless you call the Hippie Flail a dance. Outside of "Brian Eno" though, this album is going to be very unpopular with many fans.

After a few listens to Congratulations, I'm starting to think MGMT was a psychedelic electro-jam band all along, but accidentally hit it big with "Kids" and "Time to Pretend." Could they dislike their casual fan base more than a clam hates chowder?

It only takes listening to the first ten seconds of this album to realize they are talented musicians making interesting music. MGMT could put out an entirely instrumental album, and it would still be more interesting than 91.8% of the music being produced today. The drum beats are even notable on a couple songs. After not listening to Oracular Spectacular in several months, I couldn't recall if they even had drums.

If this album was created by anyone other than MGMT, there would be an entirely different type of buzz, and the album would be praised as a retro forward thinking classic (what's better than an oxymoron to make a point). As is, it could be the most polarizing album many of us have ever heard, in which people will either think it is the biggest pile of feces they've wasted 45 minutes listening to, or one of the more entertaining albums they can't wait to tell their friends about.

Damn you MGMT for drastically increasing my interest of seeing you at Sasquatch. I had guilt free wandering between other stages planned for that slot, but now I'm stuck as a mainstage camper. Maybe MGMT will do us all a favor, and play "Kids" first, so the greeks can head to the dance tent early. If not, I'm going to be torn by the Ween Live vs. Popped Collar dilemma. If you see a bored MGMT fan with a popped collar yelling "PLAY KIDS" in between songs, then see him getting choked by said popped collar, followed by ruckus and security intervention, come introduce yourself to me as I am being escorted out of the venue.

One Last Musical Addition/Schedule Release?

The Seattle Rock Choir replaces the Low Anthem to complete the lineup.

Many were salivating at the possibility of Arcade Fire being on the lineup this year, but that didn't happen. So why not get the next best thing (not to mention a cheaper alternative)? The Seattle Rock Choir will be reprising their tribute to the album Funeral, by Arcade Fire.

Be looking for the schedule soon. Last year it was released on April 9th.