I like my Beats Fast, my Bass Down Low: Sasquatch '11 in review

Sasquatch 2011, the Northwest's mighty indie/electronic music festival, went off with a bang this last weekend in the Gorge. This year was a landmark tenth year for the festival, as well as the first year Squatch hosted 4 days of music. Your blogger was in attendance along with a riot of old homies, new allies, the Nutter & Cito, and some 30-50k awesome, glowing party people.

After checking around the interweb a bit, it seems there's neither an official estimate nor general consensus as to how many people actually attended. A lot of message boards are throwing around the 30-50k figure, claiming that the new banana shack significantly increased concert capacity, and that the hill was slammed with people much earlier than usual (which could have to do with the strength of the early day lineups). By far the most popular piece of speculation was what percentage of Sasquatchers were Canadians. The most conservative estimate I heard was 50%, the highest 70%. We'll never know, but to be sure, Canadians hit that festival in mind-blowing numbers -- and it makes sense when you factor in the exorbitant prices our northern neighbors pay to get loose on the juice (alc). So to all the Canadians I met: Win the Cup! and catch you at Shambalalalala-da-dah-dee-dah?

Before LCP gets to the actual music stuff, a few more quick thoughts on Sasquaa' logistics. Bathroom maintenance really elevated their game this year, LCP salutes you. Security at entrance also stepped up in a lame way, getting excessively vigilant with patdowns and bag checks. From what I saw of the pit security, they did a job well done. Last, I like the idea of the 4 day fest in theory, but the Friday lineup left a LOT to be desired: Death From Above hadn't played a show together in 5 years (and it showed); Foo Fighters lacked a lot of oomph (as LCP's newest music correspondent out of Eugene put it, "the new music they played is screamo style. They never would have become famous playing that..."); and Sasquatch cut some serious corners on Friday night's dance tent lineup by scheduling DJ Anali a 3.5 hour set (the longest of the festival).

Alright, now onto the main attraction, the sweet, sweet music.

Friday: Only saw Death From Above, The Foo Fighters, and DJ Anali. Of those, I would check out another DJ Anali show sometime. The super fast Bollywood beats were bizarre but delightfully tribal.

Saturday: The Ecology camp had a few false starts this day when attempting to leave camp. So we didn't get to check out Wolf Parade or Pink Martini as hoped. And though I missed Seattle Rock Orchestra due to the insanely early timeslot, I've got every intention of checking them out soon -- maybe even in their Seattle stomping grounds, if I'm lucky.

The rest of Saturday turned out ballerific, however: Matt & Kim put on what I thought was one of the best shows of the festival. They brought so much energy to the side stage and oozed confidence all set long. Plus, their penchant for covering catchy songs, like Biz Markie's Just a Friend, is pretty intoxicating. Finally, it was only fitting that they got to throw down Daylight as the sun was setting.

Glitch Mob followed in the Banana Shack (dance tent). It's hard to find the words for their set. Mind-blowing is a cop out, but it'll have to do. Videos give a more accurate representation of their unique electronic glitch hop style. This Seven Nation Army remix vid is stellar quality.

Next up, Sleigh Bells in the dance tent. The NYtimes has a chill little video about the band's meteoric rise to success in such a short time. Their set was short & heavy-hitting, a wicked combo of electronic and metal influences, with a sexy female leading voice.

Then Bassnectar dominated the late-night slot on the sidestage. His heavy dub-step wasn't really done proper justice by the Bigfoot stage's problematic PA system. I've been lucky enough to see Nectar 3x now, and this was by far the quietest show of his I've heard. Nevertheless, the dude unleashes face-melting dubstep everytime, all the time, no exceptions. Beats Fast, Bass Down Low!

Sunday, fun day:

Cold War Kids on the main stage started my day. I hadn't listened to much of their music, so I was stoked when they put on a dazzling performance. I guess that's what makes 'em rock-stars in the first place.

Flogging Molly on the main stage afterwards was good, not great, in my opinion. For me, it was worth checking out as a throwback to freshmen year of college though.

Gold Panda came next in the dance tent. Even though I wasn't a huge fan, the dance tent pulsed crowd energy in abundance. So it was a good time.

Post-GP, Flying Lotus threw down in the banana shack. I could immediately tell that Fly-lo was a G, tipped off by big aviators and a huge, unmistakably confident smirk. While it's hard to put your finger on what it is about his music, the effect is clear: Instant party. I only caught about half of this set because it overlapped with what would turn out to be one of the shows of the festival (at least for me)....

Yeasayer on the side stage! I had been highly anticipating this show, especially because I missed the Wilammette Valley music festival in early May, where Yeasayer headlined one night at U of O campus.  Seeing them at the Gorge made up for that, and then some. Aside from the band's natural genius, a couple things about this show converged to make it, by far, my favorite of Sasquatch '11: A) The band messed around with the beats per minute, slowing the music down slightly and giving it an almost dub step-esque feel at times. B) The crowd was crazy engaged, belting out the lyrics of those catchy choruses (my favorite shower karaoke). And above all, C) It was a dance party, and I had an awesome dance partner that night -- truly, all things are better with dance partners, eh. Turns out there aren't too many good videos of Yeasayer from Sqautch, so this one will have to do -- in fairness, personally shooting a video would have taken away from the brilliance of the moment for me, so I get it.

After Yeasayer, Modest Mouse had a lot to live up to on the side stage, where they delivered a tour de force performance. To make things better, right before the show started, my epic dance partner/friend finagled us (along with 4-5 people standing near us) a way into the pit by befriending the yellow shirted chiller John, and then answering his trivia correctly. Back to the music, MM effortlessly transitioned between classics like Dramamine and Ocean Breathes Salty & their new stuff, which I didn't really know but massively enjoyed. Here's a short clip of World at Large.

Finally, Ratatat rounded out the night. Your blogger had been waiting literally for years to see Ratatat, so this show meant a lot to me. In fact, Ratatat dominated my playlists for the last 4 years, when I was in college and used the music as a performance enhancer for studying and writing. The show was super fresh, the sound clean and crisp. All in all, the perfect finish to the night's music.

Monday:

The LCP crew got into the venue during the Guided by Voices crew (who know they were still playing music?) and set up shop on the hill.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis lit up the side stage next. The Seattle-centric, irish influenced duo really stoked the crowd's energy, delivering a great set.

Rodrigo y Gabriela (Roger and Gabi, ha), a pair of classically trained Mexican guitarists with a metal style, were pencilled into the next time slot on the main stage. As if their music weren't epic enough, during their set it started to rain and lightning struck in the distance a few times.

RyG were followed by a spot-on set from The Decembrists. At this point, your blogger was struggling to cope with the rain element (turns out baby alpaca is very far from a suitable rain shell) and a bit less focused on the music.

Finally, we copped a view of Skrillex (to quote a Sasquatch youtube video) "not only kill[ing]" but also "chang[ing] lives for the greater good of humanity" in the dance tent. :)

LCP dropped the ball after that, heading back to camp instead of seeing Major Lazer and Wilco (dammit!). Can't win 'em all, I suppose. Shows for another day. Till next time.....

hot off the fresh

LCP's sole reader (I know, we've really gotta step up the PR efforts, eh?) has been on my case for a fresh post. And so, here we are, back again.

I suppose we should start off with the requisite football updates, though I should warn you: Unless you're the type of football fan who enjoys eating a salad bowl-sized portion of warm, maggot-infested cottage cheese in a dank, bed-bug infested house where cats numbering in the double digits run around, lawlessly shitting on and scratching all your personal items, while you revel in watching English matches that are heavy on long-ball tactics and intermittent thuggery -- this weekend's results will have left a sour taste in your mouth.
 
 Man Citeh beat Stoke in the FA Cup final. I haven't quite figured out how exactly I feel about this result. On the one hand, I wholeheartedly despise Stoke, Ryan Shawcross, and Tony Pulis more than any other club, player, and manager. On the other hand, Citeh sucks too: Their success is the product of A) the gobs and gobs of money they've thrown around to acquire top-class players, B) a style of play that is so negative (read defensive, not cynical. I'll reserve the c-word those cu*** over at Stoke) and repetitive that one could draw creatively draw some parallels with Fox News (or, as Bend's Source Weekly calls it, Faux News), and C) a load of good fortune. So, in short, it's the lesser of two evils. And it's always gonna be pretty fucking difficult to out-evil Stoke.

The official LCP line, after further thought, is disregard towards City, enmity towards Stoke. Still, I guess what it is most perturbing is all the talk of the FA Cup signaling the beginning of Citeh's dynasty. I'm not saying it won't happen (realistically Citeh has more than enough oil money to drown out most EPL competition -- shit, they might literally be able to drown some of the smaller, low-lying clubs in actual crude oil. But talk of a dynasty based on one trophy, the FA cup at that, is a bit like calling Portsmouth a dynasty, based on their one FA Cup Trophy from 2008. And, erm, Portsmouth, you won't even find them in the top flight anymore.

Today, Arsenal played Aston Villa at the Emirates. The Gunners lost 2-1. Being an Arsenal fan is painful stuff at the moment. I haven't even mustered the courage to watch the footytube highlights yet.

And last, the Portland Timbers drew 1-1 against the Seattle Sounders last night. It was a decent result, considering that was the first point they've acquired away from home this season (at least, I think). Plus, despite this being the first derby between the local MLS rivals, you could tell there was no love lost between the teams or the fans. Lots of hilarious trash-talking also preceded the game, more from the fans than the players, awesomely encapsulated in this Wall Street Journal article: The Great Hipster Soccer Showdown

Ok, enough fills on footy for the day. Check back very soon (I'm hoping to get to it later on this afternoon) for some music and video links. Stay up, players.

Hooray for May Day!

Today I woke up *boilk* in the early morning to a hilarious text message from the Nutter. It read, "I'm not a gynecologist, but even I know these guys are cunts." He he he, ridiculous. But what does it mean? The hungover wheels in my head started to turn. The word cunt was used, so it was definitely referring to English football and therefore an Arsenal opponent. Yes, Arsenal were playing United (and they really are a pack of shite gapers). Since dark clouds have seemed to follow Arsenal and their results in recent weeks, I was trying to stay optimistic while fighting off doom and gloom thoughts. Then, I saw the result: Arsenal 1, Mancunster 0. Glorious. Pure gooner joy.

Not quite a hangover cure, but the absolute best way imaginable to start my May Day and Sunday morning. 19 odd minutes of highlights from the game can be seen here: Gunners outclass Bacon face and his goons. 

Today's heavyweight duel was also shrouded in controversy. The first and most egregious of which involved Vidic denying RvP a crystal clear goalscoring opportunity by cutting a cross out with his hand. There was obvious contact, yet the immobile center official and his incompetent linesman took no action.   There are two interpretations of the act, one cynical but more probable given the player's history, the other tender and passive: A) Vidic intentionally handled the ball, or B) It was an unintentional accident. 

 You can form your own opinion on that one; my mind is already made up. In any case, most everyone seems to agree Arsenal deserved a penalty. But, disturbingly, mainstream sportswriters and pundits have totally downplayed the fact that Vidic, whatever his intentions, deserved to be sent off. Manyoo should have played a man down for the last 60 MINUTES of the match, and Vidic would have been suspended from EPL fixtures 36 and 37 for receiving a straight red. 

Instead, we have to listen to unimpressive analysis bunk from people like Graham Poll. His review of today's officiating slams Foy for not sending off Gael Clichy for his perceived foul on Owen in the box, but mysteriously mentions nothing about Vidic deserving a red card. 

In other news, the MLS is setting an important precedent against reckless and malicious tackling after suspending Brian Mullan of the Colorado Rapids for 10 games for breaking the tibia and fibula of a Sounders player. Other leagues, especially England, would do well to follow the MLS's lead on this one.  The English FA has long allowed hatchet men (usually spun positively by the footballing media as honest and strong and competitors who embody the English style of play) to get away with near-murder on the pitch. In the past 3 years, for example, Arsenal have had two players, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey sustained career-threatening compound fractures of their lower legs in horrendous tackles (the tackle on Eduardo can be seen here at 40 seconds in; Ramsey). The Eduardo tackle was so graphic and disturbing that the English television refused to play replays of it after the fact. Both English centerbacks each only received a 3 game ban for tackles that sidelined Arsenal players for over a year, as well as potentially ending their young footballing careers. And those are just two among many, many train-wreck challenges that plague modern football. 

I can only hope the insulated, immutable Old Boys Club that is the English FA might take a cue from the MLS on this one. Moreover, like the Nutter suggested, maybe the innovative MLS will pioneer goal line technology in the near future, too. (It's something so very necessary -- as evidenced week in, week out in the EPL (not to mention the last World Cup!) -- and easy). The conservative FA regime, however, seems to get off on resisting change, especially if the idea is imported or 'threatens the Englishness' of the league. Perhaps we can trick them into choosing simple yet effective solutions by hiding them in a humongous bag of fried crisps with a label of Wayne Rooney in a union jacks speedo.

Eww, that's a scary thought.  

who does number 2 work for?

Buen dia a todos, 

LCP is back again. Since the debut, your blogger has been busy pirating his way down the Lower Owyhee with some spectacularly cool river people from Bend and Southern Oregon (specifically, the State of Jefferson). After 4 days and somewhere close to 50 miles of river, now I'm back in Central Oregon and working to get my personal life back in order. Everything is in limbo at the moment because I'm on both the job and housing hunt. But I won't bore you with the details of either. Suffice it to say, jobs are few and far between in this mountain/resort town, and housing is a veritable crap shoot. 

I've got a few links to stuff I've been reading on the interweb for you, mostly soccer related. 

First, and most sensationally, VW Venlo (a Dutch Club) has shocked the transfer world with a ten-year deal for a precious talent named Baerke Van der Meij, who is 1 and a half years old. Nope, that was not a typo; he is indeed 18 months old. Apparently Venlo knew he was the right toddler from them after getting a glimpse of this miniature Flying Dutchman's skills on youtube. He's clearly talented and at least as skilled as Eboue. I can't help but feel that Arsene dropped the ball on this one. Maybe, just maybe, Arsenal can swoop this highly rated youngster out from under Venlo's nose before he signs his first professional contract in 2027. 

Less tongue-in-cheek, this article on Jorge Perlaza interviews the new Colombian addition, one of the Timbers' main offensive threats. He's already netted twice this season, which means he is in a four-way tie for the team's leading scorer. Anyway, he's one to keep your eye on -- pacey and technical and hungry for success. 

Well, it seems my daily internet time at the library is about to expire. In the meantime, party on.

Song of the day, an German Schlager classic: Opus: Live is Life 

LCP's maiden voyage

Today Left Coast Prost (LCP) launches into the internet ether as yet another private and aimless (at least for now) blog. Since graduating from the University of Oregon last June, it has steadily dawned on me how little literature I produce in my post-college existence. Yes, I consume lots of information -- but 98% of that I internalize and never directly share with others. Being principally a consumer of information, LFP really stems from my personal desire to produce some content through sharing links, ideas, and experiences. 

I have certain hopes and expectations for LCP. From a personal standpoint, heeding the advice Jack Black gave me (not the rock-star, instead a good buddy - think Tazmanian Devil, but with much more intellect and energy), this blog should help me "Repeat to Remember, Remember to Repeat." Let's face it, even as a young 20-something, my memory is imprecise and incomplete.  Time distorts memory, and filed away memories, just like skills you don't use, are surprisingly easy to blur or lose.

But rest assured, LCP won't be just a personal time-capsule of anecdotes. I don't want to try to predict its form yet. To paraphrase that scene from the Social Network: "Why try to define it [facebook] when we don't even know what it is or where it's going?" Without promising too much, this blog pledges to be heavy on the subjects of soccer, beer, books, global news, the German and Spanish languages, and local culture. 

Well, with that introduction aside, that more or less wraps up the maiden voyage post. 

Last, I'll leave you with a song of the day. A naturally catchy song, this song especially resonates with me because I'm currently fun-employed and on the job hunt. Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6oYX1D-0w

He'll be at Sasquatch! Music Festival over Memorial Day Weekend, as will LCP. More on that later.