Year in Music 2008

I shot video at most of the shows I went to in 2008, so I thought I'd make a compilation of some highlights. There are three things that I realized by looking at the videos:

1. I have gotten pretty good at finagling decent positioning at most shows
2. Bald guys tend to stand in front of me
3. I LOVE living in Austin. I am so inspired by the talented and creative people that I have seen over the past year, and I am honored that many of them are my friends.

The video is 16 minutes, so if you've got a little time to kill, I'd love it if you'd take a look. Features Wilco, Son Volt, Old 97's, Ben Folds, Fastball, Spoon, Okkervil River, Kanye West, Nick Lowe, Jon Dee Graham, Paul Minor, Mario Matteoli, Andrew Duplantis, Lil Capn Travis, Vampire Weekend, Swell Season, M. Ward, Foo Fighters, Brent Adair, Neal Mehta, Phil Dutra, Carrie Rodriguez, Summer Wardrobe, the Steps, the Mother Truckers, Future Clouds and Radar, Hayes Carll... and more!

Have a Happy New Year!

BTW, the new Texas Music magazine is on sale now with writers' picks for top TX CDs of the year. Here are my picks, all of whom are represented in the video:

Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity
Brent Adair - Ostrich
Hayes Carrl - Trouble in Mind
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
The Steps - The Steps

Last Day of Lolla

The final day, and I'm exhausted. But, the whole festival was fun. Here are my pix from Sunday. Like ACL, Lollapalooza is a good chance to see bands you love as well as those you may not have seen or heard about before. I wanted to catch a glimpse of both headliners, NIN and Kanye West. Looks like both were strong shows. There was a huge crowd for Nine Inch Nails. I stayed near the back, looked like a high energy performance.

Then, I had planned to drop by Kanye West before I left the park. Not as crowded as NIN, but still several thousand people out there. I was able to make it up reasonably close to the front, so I decide to stick around for most of the show. Wow, was that a great performance. He's got lots of charisma, the light show was amazing, and people there were really into it. I definitely want to catch another of his shows again. Dear ACL: book Kanye West to headline next year.

Tally Hall - quirkly band from Ann Arbor, they all wear different colored ties. Reminded me of Barenaked Ladies, Weezer, They Might Be Giants.

Nicole Atkins and the Sea

Iron and Wine, another TX act

Tally Hall is interviewed in the Dell Lounge. Sad to say, but the Dell Lounge saved my iPhone. I had to run in there and get online to find out how to unfreeze the thing.

Love and Rockets

The National

Some images from Nine Inch Nails show.

Approaching AT&T stage for Kanye West.

Many of the stages featured people doing sign language. They danced and sang the lyrics while they signed!

The End!

So, that's a wrap from Chicago. Now for something completely different: the AEJMC conference. I'll be blogging that at cindytech.wordpress.com, but I doubt the pix will be as interesting.

Lolla - Day 2

Day 2 was great. I learned the layout of the festival, figured out how to walk across the grounds maximizing shade, and took a much more laid-back pace than Day 1. It is really best to view it as two festivals, each side. Just focus on one or the other. It is a good mile between each of the main stages. But, the park is beautiful, Buckingham Fountain and the Chicago Skyline all around. It was a little cooler, breezy and was a perfect 60 degrees by the time Wilco took the stage at 8:30pm.

Here are the things I saw on Saturday:

Dr. Dog

Whole Foods at the Green Store

Mason Jennings

Gutter Twins

MGMT

Explosions in the Sky (from Austin), didn't know they were an instrumental group

Okkervil River, also from Austin. They rocked. Love their sound, cross between Spoon and the Cure. Definitely something to watch in the future.

Jeff Tweedy on the big screen, very intense

Wilco rocked, best show I've seen from them. Dear ACL: Wilco definitely needs to headline in the future. Check out their fancy, sequined outfits. Tweedy's first words to the crowd: "We've been doing a lot of sewing."

Lollapalooza - Friday

Greetings from Lollapalooza. I made it to Chicago by noon yesterday, and got to the festival around 3pm. After checking in at the media area, I attempted to catch a bit of Jeff Tweedy's kids' set, but didn't make it in time. I heard that he played some regular Wilco tunes, Hummingbird, I'm the Man Who Loves You, Heavy Metal Drummer. Would have loved that. But, the big Wilco show is on tap for this evening.

So, back to the festival...Grant Park is GIGANTIC. It is easily twice as big as the area at Zilker for ACL Fest. It takes a good 20 minutes to go from one end to the other. There were probably, I'm guessing, about 100,000 people there. It was pretty hot yesterday, felt as hot as ACL...my luck...Chicago's first heatwave of the summer.

AT&T service was crap in the park. Couldn't get any Internet connection, although the park supposedly had open wireless. 3G didn't work either. Phone calls and texts were spotty, too. I had hoped to be able to post more photos right from the fest.

Stages are very crowded. I couldn't get close to anyone, but will try a little harder today.

Louis XIV

Duffy

Gerri is happy!

Gogol Bordello from afar

Mates of State

Lots of shady areas in Grant Park, but no folding camp chairs. They had a few of those chairs like they had in the Heineken area (Basecamp) last year. I spent a lot of time sitting on the ground.

Cat Power throws some paper to the crowd...set lists? People seemed pretty excited about it.

Raconteurs

Does It Offend You, Yeah interviewed in the Dell Lounge.

CSS, crazy Brazilians.

Pics from Radiohead. I have never seen a crowd as big at any outdoor festival.

Ready for Day 2!