Hindsight is 20/20 they say. Whoever they are, they seem to have a pretty good grip on reality. This last Saturday in Dunn Meadow at Indiana University an event to remember went down called Culture Shock. Basically it was a free music festival with all sorts of bands and all sorts of people and all sorts of dogs put on by IU's student radio station, WIUX. It was a good day to say the least. Now, if I were anything approaching a decently respectable blogger I would have posted about this event awhile ago, but of course I didn't. So, hindsight being what it is I would like to give you all something of a "greatest hits" of the day.
Found Objects:
Self described "Experimental/Pop/Shoegaze from right here in Bloomington could more accurately describe themselves as "noisy bangy melodic nonsense with laptops" but probably haven't yet because that simply doesn't look as good on paper. Also to be fair that could just as likely be a description of Apple Computers' headquarters as a two man band (give or take the word "melodic" depending upon your opinion of Steve Jobs and his posse).
All discussions of their relative genre aside, these guys were great. It's always impressive to see a band who doesn't fall into what I will describe as the "blog haus sinkhole" in which a band's smugness and relative level of boredom inducement is directly correllative to the number of laptops they use. Found Objects does a great job implementing all sorts of sounds with a mixture of loops, live instrumentation, and feedback, all while maintaining a respectable level of melodicism. All of this while putting on a thoroughly arresting show- I am a big fan of watching bands that you can really see how much they are totally psyched to be there and Found Objects are definitely one of those bands.
Originally I was going to include a metaphor about the band's sound here but have since thought better of it. Trusting me, you aren't missing anything, it was probably inane and barely related to the subject at hand.
Tremendous Fucking (aka TremFu):
This band, also from Bloomington, strikes me as one best served by brevity of description and an attempt to compel the reader to see them live if at all possible. Thus:
A little bit of Les Savy Fav. A little bit of Jesus Lizard. A whole lot of fun. Go see them live if at all possible.
CYNE:
Possibly the best rapper I had never heard of before this festival. I initially heard him from a distance and assumed that it was a recording- it sounded that good. Without going to deeply into a technical discussion of his style and ability and making myself sound like a fool, the lead rapper in this group was absolutely fantastic. In terms of sheer technical impressiveness he rivaled Lupe Fiasco. This is truly a group that I was glad I got to see and fully intend to check out some more.
Extra Golden:
Afropop? Yes! Are they awesome? YESSSSSSS!!! Did I dance throughout the entire course of their set? I must admit I did.
Destroyer:
Dan Bejar is a great songwriter, that fact is well established. He commands respect like no other with his tremendous output in the various entities known as Swan Lake, The New Pornographers, and of course his solo endeavors, Destroyer. Despite the tendency for his records to be filled to the top with all sorts of musical layers, he played a relatively low-key solo acoustic set. This is not to say however, that the songs did not translate well. Quite the contrary in fact. Until this performance I was never truly struck how much he sounds like Bob Dylan, but he doesn't do Bob Dylan in the Way Tallest Man on Earth does him. If Tallest Man on Earth has internalized the Bob Dylan from "Freewheelin'" era, Dan Bejar has similarly internalized the "Highway 61" era.
All in all, it was good day. I did get a sunburn under my eyes which was a little bit less than pleasant, but I got over it. I also had the chance to play with an inordinate amount of dogs which threatened to pull me away from the festival altogether.
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