Gilead Media Music Festival
April 28th and 29th, 2012
Electric Lounge & Lanes, Oshkosh WI


Saturday, April 28th

Darger + Plague Mother
I’m not generally a noise enthusiast, but this 15-minute collaborative set was closer to drone than harsh noise and it started the day off on a surprisingly pretty note. I enjoyed this set more than I anticipated, despite the phalanx of photographers standing between the crowd and the performers, taking close-up pictures of their shoes and shit. I’m sure everyone will be very excited to revisit those photos of Darger’s shoes.

Arms Aloft
This melodic punk band was…

Crushing the Cenotaph: Maryland Deathfest 2009
Fri 22 May – Maryland Deathfest VII
(written and soon to be posted on www.post-rockist.com)

A couple friends and I drove from Chicago to Baltimore in a car with leather seats and no air conditioning, blaring metal loud so we can hear it with all the windows open while doing eighty down the Pennsylvania turnpike. We took turns plugging our mp3 players into the tape adapter and playing songs from bands we were going to see that weekend that not all of us were familiar with ("What?! You really haven't heard the new Cattle…

Thu 30 Apr – Mastodon, Kylesa, Intronaut

"Fire in the Eye! A Review of Mastodon in Chicago, April 30th, 2009"
soon to be posted on www.post-rockist.com

Mastodon has evolved oddly. They began in 2000 as a death metal/hardcore/math hybrid with a healthy Southern rock influence and have since developed into a progressive metal band that has replaced its ample heaviness with psychedelic groove, Ozzy-esque vocals, and fantastical album concepts. Many fans who loved their first album Remission (which still sounds just as killer as it did in 2002, by the way) were put off by the shift since Mastodon's sound…

Sat 14 Feb – Meshuggah, Cynic, The Faceless

Meshuggah’s style is totally singular, instantly recognizable. These Swedes have been doing variations on a theme for almost twenty years now — counterintuitive, blocky riffs mirrored by drummer Tomas Haake’s ridiculous footwork, his hands playing much simpler beats framing the whole thing. And, of course, Jens Kidman harshly yelling sci-fi lyrics about pineal gland optics and the exquisite machinery of torture. Meshuggah stopped at the Rave for a traditional Valentine’s Day celebration - a big room full of dudes dressed in black listening to loud progressive metal.

I’ve been a fan…

Sun 7 Dec – Alex Chilton, Grant Hart

My introduction to the music of Alex Chilton was by way of his Scottish disciples, Teenage Fanclub. Pretty much every review of their work names Chilton's '70s band Big Star as the blueprint for every note Fanclub has ever played, so I sought out the influential Memphis power-pop band and their wonderfully jangly, satisfying albums #1 Record and Radio City. Chilton, who co-led the band with Chris Bell, had seen previous success with the blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops. That was all 35 or more years ago, though, and I'm not…

Sat 29 Nov – Yes

My friends give me a hard time when I go to see old bands. When I mentioned I was going to see Yes, I got the same response from them as when I went to see Steely Dan, the Zombies, Cheap Trick, and Rush in the last few years: "How old are those guys?" I think that question is kind of irrelevant – I belong to the school of thought that gives aging artists the benefit of the doubt. A once-great band always has the potential to be great again. At the very least,…

The Fiery Furnaces
"Blueberry Boat"

I think one of the reasons I love "Blueberry Boat" so much is its density. Each song has complexities, and especially the longer, more substantial songs ("Quay Cur," "Blueberry Boat," "Chris Michaels," "Mason City," and "Chief Inspector…") have so much to discover that each listen reveals new things I missed: little synth gurgles that I never really thought about, bizarre tempo changes, and even little jokes here and there (especially in "My Dog…"). The lyrics are somewhat puzzling, but they can be really clever and occasionally pretty poignant as well. I know most…

Wed 29 Oct – Yeasayer, Chairlift

Yeasayer with Chairlift
Turner Hall Ballroom, 10/29/2008

The press likes to make a big deal about Yeasayer's world music influences, but I think that's a pretty odd aspect to highlight from this exciting, diverse band. Apart from some pre-recorded parts that the drummer triggered from a sampler, Yeasayer sticks to the standard rock band instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards when they play live. And their songs are strong enough that they shouldn't need to be sold with some sort of high-concept band gimmick. This is not a band you can describe in…

Wed 15 Oct – Deerhoof, Au, Experimental Dental School

Deerhoof, Experimental Dental School, Au
Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee WI, 10/15/2008

For me, Deerhoof is one of the two most exciting, unpredictable, and reliably genius musical acts of the 2000s. (The other is, of course, my beloved Fiery Furnaces.) I'd never seen them before and they announced a show at Turner Hall, so I jumped on the chance and bought a ticket way in advance, knowing I'd probably go by myself, which I did.

The first opening act was a band called Au, a two-piece from Portland, Oregon. The…

Fri 10 Oct – Fleet Foxes, Frank Fairfield

Autumn is really the only time of year when I'd be excited to see Fleet Foxes live. Their self-titled debut record was released to much acclaim in June, but these are definitely not the sounds of summer. Just like Dungen sounds way better in the spring, Missy Elliott sounds perfect in the summertime, and PJ Harvey's album White Chalk is amazing on frigid winter nights, Fleet Foxes have the certified soundtrack of fall 2008.

The sold-out show at Pabst Theater was opened by Frank Fairfield, a purveyor of authentic backwoods folk…