Hideout Block Party

The Hideout has finalized its lineup for this year's Hideout Block Party. Looks like it's all about Neko. Here's the full press release:

Hideout Block Party Expands Line-up
Just Added: Rhymefest, Giant Sand, Hercules and Love Affair DJ Set.

We are happy to announce the line-up for the highly anticipated 12th Annual Hideout Block Party. This year will be our most eclectic and international festival yet.

One-time Hideout bartender, Neko Case will headline both nights of our festival with two very different bands. On Saturday, September 20, Ms. Case will lead her own band, performing her critically acclaimed material spanning her career. She will also break out some new un-released material from her upcoming album, scheduled for spring 2009. This will be the only performance that Neko and her band will play in Chicago this year. On Sunday night, Ms. Case will make an increasingly rare live performance with her increasingly popular “other” band, The New Pornographers. This will be the only time this year that she has performed with them in Chicago as well. This is the first and only time that Neko Case has performed with both of her bands, back-to-back in the United States.

We will also highlight band members, and collaborators of Neko Case through out the festival. Kelly Hogan, Neko’s singing partner, and Tom Ray will open Saturday with their kid friendly band, Wee Hairy Beasties, followed by Neko collaborators and tour mates, Giant Sand, from Tucson AZ who will celebrate this summer’s release of their new album.

On Sunday, Jon Rauhouse, Neko’s banjo and pedal steel player, will perform with his Jon Rauhouse Sestet. This will be followed by Tom Ray, Neko’s bass player and his band Devil in a Woodpile, who will perform with recent Grammy winner Honey Boy Edwards, the oldest living original delta bluesman.

Saturday morning will begin precisely at 12 Noon with Plastic Crimewave’s Vision Celestial Guitarkestra, creating a circle of over 100 musicians, and assorted characters, creating a dramatic harmonious drone.

Other Saturday performers will represent four continents of the world. From Europe we will have The KatJon Band, featuring Kat Ex from Amsterdam, and Welsh ex-pat Jon Langford. Next up Hungary’s amazing Little Cow, U.K., rappers dan le sac VS. Scroobius Pip, legendary Plastic People of the Universe from Czech Republic, the incendiary (literally) Monotonix from Israel who will perform amongst the audience, followed by Vieux Farka Toure’ from Mali. Just for some psychedelic fun, we will throw in Canada’s Black Mountain. Meanwhile Drag City’s Neil Hamburger will host his Drunken Spelling Bee inside the bar.

Sunday will celebrate weird, raucous psychedelic pop with Oklahoma’s The Uglysuit, Georgia’s Dark Meat, and NYC’s Tim Fite. Of course there will be a parade by Chicago’s Mucca Pazza.

From this hilarious psychedelic circus we will then pay homage to the 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. Robbie Fulks will present for the first time his complete tribute to the King of Pop. Then Michael’s second biggest fan, Rhymefest, will perform material from his “Man in the Mirror” tribute CD. Be sure to dress like a scary night creature, for the culmination of this milestone in dance-pop the Hideout staff will lead the entire audience in the “Zombie Dance”

Now come the 21st century Kings of Pop, New Pornographers.

Enough? We will culminate this year’s Block Party with two on New York’s finest outfits. Ratatat will perform their full show, lights, smoke, projections, the works. This will be followed by a DJ set from uber-hot Hercules and Love Affair. What better way to celebrate the last day of summer, and welcome the first day of fall than by joyously dancing in the streets!

About the Hideout Block Party

From its humble beginnings in 1996, the Hideout’s Block party has grown into an, influential international music festival. In 2007 Chicago Magazine called the Hideout Block Party, “Perennially the Best Music Festival in Chicago.” Over the last 11 years the Hideout’s Block Parties have raised over $200,000 for various local charities. Organizations participating this year will include: Chalk for Peace, Rock for Kids, Future of Music, and Voter Registration. Charities to benefit are Tuesdays Child, Thomas Drummond Elementary School, www.Oscarmeyergardenproject.weebly.com. And Literacy Works

For more info check: www.hideoutblockparty.com or www.hideoutchicago.com

Sasquatch Day 1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfc/2532047351/
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99

I have to say, Sasquatch turned out to be one of the better festivals I've attended. The Gorge scenery was amazing (especially when compared to the arid, scorching desert of Coachella), the weather almost perfect (just a little rain during REM), the crowds well controlled and not overwhelmingly large, the bathroom and water lines reasonably short, and it was relatively easy to get in and out of the park by car. The stages were close enough to each other to get around easily and having only 3 stages (Sasquatch, Wookie, Yeti, har har) meant there wasn't too much overlap between bands I wanted to see (unlike Lollapalooza's overwhelmingly large lineup and stages all over Grant Park) . My only complaint was expensive food and drink ($12 for a beer?) and very few choices, but that's not entirely unexpected at this point. I would definitely go to this festival again, if not just for the amazing drive from Seattle to George.

Here's a rundown of my Saturday experience:

2:10 Beirut. My friend and I pulled into the park to the sounds of Beirut; not a bad way to start. We made it into the amphitheater just as they were wrapping up; funny how a band that can dominate the Empty Bottle stage with people can look so small from a thousand feet up.

3:15 Ozomatli. We didn't want to give up the cushy grass spot we'd secured during Beirut, so we were forced to sit through this set. Bleargh. Latin music and rap- not the best combo.

4:20 The National. Or not. Seattle native Rainn Wilson (!!!), aka Dwight K. Schrute, came on stage to let us know that the National would not be playing because they "were too depressed and arty." Actually, their bus had broken down in Canada, so they would be playing at 7:45pm on the "Yeti" stage, the smallest stage of the 3. A blessing in disguise, as I would later get to enjoy watching the National with hundreds of people instead of thousands. So in their place, Rainn announced that we would get to hear from Fleet Foxes, who had played earlier on the stage at noon (this announcement came only after Rainn performed an extended reading of the wikipedia entry on foxes from his blackberry). I had heard much buzz about Fleet Foxes from P4k and the like and was surprised to find they were more sit-down folk-y (lots of long hair) than the rock I was expecting. It was a nice performance overall and I'll probably make a point to check out their recent album before seeing them again at Pitchfork this July.

5:25 The New Porngraphers. Joined by Neko Case and Dan Bejar (who had just finished up a Destroyer performance on the "Wookie" stage minutes earlier), Carl Newman struggled through his trademark sound difficulties (remember when he played an entire song in the wrong tune at Intonation a few years ago?) but charmed his way through them regardless. "Myriad Harbour" was the highlight of the set, one of the few Dan Bejar songs I actually like featuring some of the best call and response work since "Don't You Want Me Baby." (Kidding). (Sort of).

6:30 Grand Archives. We finally took off from the grass to hit up the smaller stages, which had the benefit of audiences that were there to actually see the bands instead of lounge all day in the amphitheater lawn. We needed dinner, and the food area was conveniently next to the Yeti stage, so we ate our $7 pizzas to the sounds of Band of Horses alum Grand Archives. They sounded like, well, a poppier Band of Horses.

7:15 Okkervil River. One of the bands I was most looking forward to, I had to pass on seeing M.I.A. (my only serious conflict) so I could finally see Will Sheff spit all over the front row with his ultra-passionate vocals on the Wookie stage. A pleasant surprise was the addition of Charles Bissell of the Wrens as a touring guitarist. Will did not disappoint, and he and Okkervil River brought a ridiculous amount of energy to the stage. "Unless It's Kicks" was everything I hoped it would be and more. My friend deemed this band her favorite new find of the festival.

8:00 The National. The National made it to the Gorge just in time, and the audience got to experience a much closer view of singer Matt Berninger's ultra intense, verge-of-tears singing style and the awesome violin stylings of Padma Newsome. This is slit-your-wrists music, but someone forgot to tell the dude standing in front of us, who was dancing to the "beat" like he was at an all-night rave.

8:45 Modest Mouse. We caught the tail-end of Modest Mouse as we returned to the main stage. I've given up on Modest Mouse as a live band, so I wasn't too bummed to have missed the majority of their set, save for "Float On" and "Paper Thin Walls". Someday I'll get a time machine and try to see them in 2001.

10:00 REM. At this point it was starting to rain, so we decided to check out the beginning of REM's performance before heading back to the Econolodge. (Lots of people go to Sasquatch for the camping experience, but I can't think of anything I want to do less after a long day of festival watching than camp, so we slept 70s-motel style). I thought there would be a lot of excitement from REM fans with this performance, but I was surprised by how incredibly lackluster the crowd on the pavillion seemed to be about the show- there was virtually no cheering. With a fresh round of sound problems, I heard "What's the Frequency, Kenneth", a new song, and some old song we remembered being better than it was before we decided we were bored and wet. We weren't the only ones, as a steady stream of people made its way out of the amphitheater to their cars/tents.

We took off Sunday to do some wine tasting in the area and recover before returning to the Gorge for the 3rd and final day of the festival, and most importantly, the day featuring Flight of the Conchords. Check back in on Monday for a recap of day 3's lineup.

So Neko breaks her ankle and then I get the flu, so we both missed the New Pornographers/Okkervil River show last night. Huge bummer, as this was a show I'd been looking forward to for months.

Luckily for me, I'll be hitting up this year's Sasquatch Festival in Seattle over Memorial Day weekend, and both acts will be on the bill.

No Neko

Worst news ever! My excitement for this Sunday's New Pornographers/Okkervil River show has been slightly tempered by this news that Neko Case is leaving the tour due to an ankle injury :( . I'm guessing Carl Newman's niece Kathryn Calder will step in on her parts? I've seen her do so before and she has proven to be an able substitute, but still, it just won't be the same.

Summer Camp Festival

Well, this is one of the weirder festival lineups I've seen in awhile. It's the Summer Camp Festival 2008 at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, IL (outside Peoria) for three days in May. It would seem to be a typical jam festival with moe., Umphrey's McGee, O.A.R., STS9, and dozens more along those lines . . . then add the Flaming Lips, although that really isn't that out of place considering the jam kids' love for the Flaming Lips . . . but next, factor in the New Pornographers and Girl Talk for an extremely mild touch of indie rock flavor . . . and finally, Blind Melon for our 90s throwback of the fest! So random.