The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, A pril 5, 2010 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, April 5, 2010 - 7A
Doing summer
festivals right
Japandroids in our garage
Canadian duo brings its youthful rock buzz to
the Blind Pig for first Ann Arbor show
By Sasha Resende I Daily Arts Writer
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summer. Or it's at least ing off anyone buta few sleep-
close enough to summer deprived fans.
worrying about music And without the transcenden-
I tickets selling out - the talist edge of on-site camping - a
day mass campout in Chicago's Grant
to Park, where Lollapalooza is held,
rk are would probably turn swiftly into
y gone, a mass mugging - these "inner-
e only . city" festivals feel like a far cry
roo from their Woodstock hippy roots.
left are While cramming eight people
0. But into a single hotel room for three
music nights in a row is certainly a bond-
ls are JOSHUA ing experience, it doesn't quite
iced, BAYER scream "community" in the way
weaty, that a rolling mass of tents, naked
casion- bodies and mud-bathers does.
lnourishing - I once It just seems like the mission
eat, drink, excrete waste statement of these festivals in
y personal space for eight general isnto exist as a sort of free-
t hours to get a good spot floating utopia for music lovers -
liohead at Lollapalooza - a safe, open space for like-minded
'e also miniature Meccas people to detach from society
sic fans. and exist for a few days inside a
re's something about seeing pseudo-anarchist fantasyland,
of people on a leviathan where outhouses are your lifeline
grass, flooding away from and people paint each other dif-
hour Pearl Jam show like ferent colors.
mian tribe of nomads, and But smack dab in the middle
the collective passion for of Chicago, as people flow into
rackling in the $6-chick- cubicle-like hotel rooms and hos-
o-smelling air. You feel like tels, this illusion evaporates. Sure,
part of a movement, though there's something otherworldly
done nothing all day but and uncannily "Lord of The
h, starve yourself and wan- Rings"-esque about watching an
gle-eyed between bands army of bodies throbbing under a
never heard of and bands giant rainbow-flashing pyramid
sole existence validated the during a Daft Punk show, regard-
eatingticket price. And the less of setting. But when those
f soaking in raw musical same bodies flood out into the
t from all over the stylistic streets of Chicago afterwards, it's
ee for three or four days hard not to feel a little depressed.
t is any audiophile's wet There's something so militaristi-
cally businesslike about it all, with
due to the mildly unfor- everyone swarming desperately to
fact thatthe only city the beat the rush and find a restaurant
bly economical Michigan that isn't already packed like sar-
us circuit travels tois dines in a crushed tin box.
o, and because Pitchfork's At a festival like Bonnaroo,
caters extensivelyto my there's no rush. You're just
tish, I've found myself dropped there for four to five
days, with nothing to do but wan-
der around and absorb music. And
.eWind City while there's plenty of music to be
e vfldy ityabsorbed at Lollapalooza, there's
sdepressing. nota lot of downtime to just walk
around and explore and cycle
through the endless cast of char-
acters. The whole day often feels
vely attending music festi- more like a mission than a jour-
the Windy City. And while ney, hustling from stage to stage
tlooza and the Pitchfork in order to squeeze in as many
Festival have both filled artists as possible. At Bonnaroo,
h much little-kid glee over there is no end of the day. For just
t few years, I'm startingto a taste of the festival's nocturnal
isillusioned with the met- appeal, there's an in-park after-
an setting. hours club called The Silent Disco
'ago maybe a beautiful where festival-ites can gyrate
a music festival - watch- together in the middle of the
sunset shimmering off an night, all while listening to the
uding grove of skyscrapers DJ's setlist on individual pairs of
ranting out to Explosions headphones.
ky is a fairly time-bending The funny thing is that, as
ne. But I can't help but much as I'm "inferiorizing" these
it, until I've gone to one of Chi-Town festivals, there's about
np-out, don't-shower-for- a 100-percent chance I'll choose
lays, middle-of-nowhere Pitchfork again this summer over
l like Bonnaroo or one of the more out-of-the-way
41a, I haven't truly expe- festivals. I would never pass on an
l the full essence of music opportunity to see Pavement live,
-ing. and Coachella feels some sadistic
:of all, it was incredibly need to unfailingly fall right in
ng to me how The Flaming the middle of finals week. But,
ala performance at Pitch- some day, I plan to round out my
:t summer was decapitated music festival resume. And then,
ender time of 10:30 p.m. after I've done that, I'll actually
Chicago noise ordinances. be qualified to have written this
hile, at Bonnaroo, which is column.
The best things in life are often
the simplest. This is particularly
true for Japandroids, a stripped-
down Vancouver
duo that eschewsJ
elaborate genre JaPandFids
titles in favor of Tonight at
good times and 9 p.m.
fast beats. The The Blind Pig
group will bring Tickets $10
its youthful rock
buzz to the Blind
Pig tonight, in support of its debut
album Post-Nothing, which was
released in April 2009 on Unfa-
miliar/Polyvinyl.
Japandroids's guitarist Brian
King talked to The Michigan Daily
as his band navigated the U.S.-
Canadian border on its way to a
concert in Montreal. The band's
current North American trek fol-
lows a year of constant touring,
and Japandroids will continue
through the spring and summer.
After a successful four-day stint
at Austin's South By Southwest
festival in March, Japandroids
has intensified its steady stream
of internet-buzz and undoubtedly
gained a new legion of avid fans.
Hopefully, the group's Ann
Arbor show will be better than its
last visit to the Great Lakes state.
"The Detroit show we played
last year was one of the worst
shows on the tour," King admit-
ted, "which is one of the reasons
why we're not playing there on
this tour and we're playing Ann
Arbor instead."
Although Japandroids's current
tour has been supported by label-
mates Love Is All, Brooklyn-based
psychedelic-rock troupe Bear In
Heaven will join the band for its
Ann Arbor stop - Bear In Heav-
en's only appearance throughout
Japandroids's entire tour.
"We were both playing Ann
Arbor on the same night, and
instead of trying to compete
against each other, we just decid-
ed to do a show together," King
explained. "That way people don't
have to pick whether they want to
see one band over the other."
All the better for Ann Arborites,
who can witness how Bear In
Heaven's electro-tinged jams
compliment Japandroids's rawer
guitar-and-drums sound.
When asked to describe his
band's aesthetic to the uninitiated
listener, King was refreshingly
simple.
"I think that we're just a garage
band," he said.
Although King's group doesn't
possess the British accents and
snappy proto-hipster outfits that
are normally associated with the
garage rock scene, Japandroids's
simple chords and minimalist pro-
Tonight will mark Japandroids's first ever show in Ann Arbor.
duction certainly fit the bill.
King, along with Japandroids
drummer David Prowse, doesn't
waste his time creating inventive
new genres to define his band's
sound. So don't expect them to be
tied down to no-fi, post-punk or,
God forbid, shit-gaze.
"There was this obsession with
having a totally unique genre for
your own band and finding some
way to describe yourself that is
different from everybody else,
See JAPANDROIDS, Page SA
present a lecture by
GRAHAM GRIFFITH
2009-2010 Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism
AMERICAN MEDIA'S GREATEST MISSES OF
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: A LOOK AT
JOURNALISM DURING PERIODS OF CRISIS
a 700-acre farm in Man-
, Tennessee, Kanye West
t onstage at 4:45 a.m.,
ours after his originally
Bayer submitted this column eight
hours after deadline. To call him
out, e-mail jrbayer@umich.edu.
A synth-happy trip to
the'80s on 'Head First'
By ARIELLE SPECINER
Daily Arts Writer
They say time travel is impossi-
ble, that one cannot travel back to
another dimen-
sion of time * =
via spacecraft,
hover boat, time Goldfrapp
machine, hot
tub, etc. Brits Head First
Alison Gold- Mute
frapp and Will
Gregory, better known as Gold-
frapp, defy those laws of physics
and transport their listeners to
another time: the '80s.
Goldfrapp's newest addition to
its five-album repertoire, Head
First, allows its fans to travel to
a time when cut-off denim shorts
were socially acceptable, MTV
actually played music videos and
mullets were, like, all the rage.
Head First melts together '80s
synth-pop beats with keyboard
melodies to produce an album
that evokes another generation
without ever leaving home.
The London-based electro-
pop band's antiquated influence
is present throughout its earlier
albums. After the band's previ-
ous mellowed-out album, this
concoction of out-of-this-world,
laser-beam sound effects and
keytar riffs draws in a different
crowd. Head First is a suitable fit
for club-goers and synth lovers.
The record opens with the
energetic track "Rockets." Elec-
tronic soundwaves flow through
the stereo as spacey dance beats
jump from chord to chord. Ali-
son Goldfrapp's feathery voice
(paired with her equally feathery-
teased, blonde bangs) coalesces
into the discotheque beats for a
Xanadu effect.
The songs, all peppy, poppy
and fun, coherently mesh into
an album of galactic, roller-disco
futuristic tunes. On "Shiny and
See GOLDFRAPP, Page 8A