Come anticipate Terrastock 7 with me (June 19th - 22nd 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky)

http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupID=105733670&Mytoken=276D62E9-390A-4FB7-A68000E6E7B2DB3455055014

^ terrastock info, for whoever's curious ^

Oh cool, and with a variety of confirmed names as well:

Kinski
Jack Rose
Damon and Naomi
Paik
Tara Jane O'Neil
Black Forest/Black Sea
Sapat
Windy and Carl
Major Stars
Pelt
Bardo Pond
Sharron Kraus
Mono
Marissa Nadler
Motorpsycho
The Linus Pauling Quartet
The Photographic
United Bible Studies

Lot of usual suspects but some good new names as well!

It is very likely that I will go to this!

YEAH YOU BETTER

for some reason i kept thinking that this was going to happen in early spring as it did last year but i'm glad it's in early summer instead - summer vacation! :D excited

I'm not sure I wanna make the trip for that lineup

Dear Terrastock,

Please coax Kendra Smith out of retirement.

Love,

Sleeve

I'm not sure I wanna make the trip for that lineup

that. feels like every other terrastock line-up with maybe a folk act switched out. also: mono! they're totally deadly dull on cd, i bet they KILL live.

Please coax Kendra Smith out of retirement.

What a great idea! Does anyone know if she actually IS properly in retirement?

Sweet Jesus, when will Kendra Smith make another album?

.

lineup seems so-so at this point, but I have many friends in Louisville and Bloomington that I need to visit so I am probably still going.

I notice that the new issue of Ptolemaic Terrascope (which I still haven't seen/heard) has a Kendra Smith track, so I will remind the lurker pool once again that she would be a superb addition (her last known public performance was Terrastock '98).

woo a new PT mag! and kendra! yeahh

Please remember, the line-up's unfolding all the time. It's pretty obvious that all the "familiar faces" are going to confirm first - a lot of them are friends, and we're all in regular contact with one another. For what it's worth, Wooden Shjips have just confirmed too. Lots more to follow.

in an alternate universe I might be in the same place at almost the same time

just got the new PT mag, looks good! Kendra tune is a live KCRW version of 'Temporarily Lucy".

Wooden Shjips = more incentive for me to go, I'm like 95% committed at this point.

And we're good to go

I like Ned's live reports. Bardo Pond "pretty much refuse to suck" sooo OTM.

Also v. v. jealous of Kinski, MV+EE, many many more.

Ned, Elvis, sleeve, can you guys say a little more about Ira/Georgia as Sleeping Pill? The Terrastock site said they wouldn't be doing YLT songs, I wonder if this was correct though. Any other comments?

Listening to the stream-of-consciousness-acid-lounge-improv of "Cornicopian Freestyle," (Jena Malone's) Shoe would not have been wildly out of place at Terrastock.

I really wish I were spending this weekend at the festival rather than holed up in Van Nuys without any a/c.

Man, what a final day. More coherent thoughts on the blog later.

indoor highlights -- oneida, jack rose, acid mothers temple guy's deafening closer
outdoor highlights -- bardo pond, simply saucer, mono, entrance, paik, the triode album they kept playing between sets

Okay, Sunday reviews and overall thoughts now up on my blog. Full photo upload next week after I'm back home!

I think I'll just put this here...

We caught a pre-Terrastock show in Bloomington on Wednesday night. Kohoutek opened, I think they just did a short set and didn't really get going, plus the acoustic guitar was mixed real low. Their drummer (same guy as was in Insect Factory) has some major improv chops.

Ignatz seemed like he barely spoke English, didn't recognize words in his vocals but everything coming out of his tiny guitar/mixer/amp/mic setup had this great decayed sound to it. Sorta reminded me of electric Jandek circa You Walk Alone (except solo).

United Bible Studies were the best thing I saw all week. According to the other Bloomingtonites that saw them at Terrastock later on, this set was better. Both their guitarist and I recorded this show and I hope to release it somehow since they have, like, no distro or records in this country. Their lineup is expanded from what is on their released CDs, with at least one additional member (the blonde pianist/singer). I have now listened to their one proper studio CD and it is superb.

Also playing at that Bloomington show was a really talented solo guy playing under the name of Norman Oak (or sometimes Poison Oak), he would fit right in on the rolling freak/psych/drone thread.

For various reunion reasons detailed upthread I missed everything up to the last minute of Oneida at the actual Terrastock.

Wooden Shjips were as good as I expected, nice guitar tone and you could really hear the electric squelches. They sold out of their singles comp LP before I could buy one!

Tara Jane Oneil turned in a very different set than I'd seen from her before, more electric drony and a lot less folky.

Kinski fucking rocked. Later on Sunday during the thunderstorm I briefly and foolishly took refuge under one of the tables at the back of the outside area, next to (I think) the bassist. "Wow, it doesn't rain like this in Seattle" she said.

Then on the 3rd stage we got to see a mostly acoustic jam with United Bible Studies people, Sharon Krauss, and others. Fine.

I though MV/EE were a bit better doing sub-Neil Young rock than stoned hippie duo jams, but I still fail to understand their prominence in this scene.

We went and had excellent barbecue with Mr Raggett, Elvis Telecom, and others. Upon returning we dealt with tent stuff and went to check out Bardo Pond. Formidable and gloriously loud and full - I understand there were sound problems earlier at the event but everything I heard throughout the weekend sounded fantastic.

Grails killed it, nice to see Portland bring the jams.

About halfway through Motorpsycho my girlfriend (who comes from a very different music background than ILM i.e. not a fan or collector) asked me "So, are all these bands TRYING to sound the same?" I conceded that she had a point given what we had seen on the outside stage so far.

I had really been looking forward to Sapat's set and was not surprised to find out that two of my more musically adventurous Louisville friends were sitting in with them (trumpet and standup bass, on the right). Although a couple of their tunes suffered from the "jam on one or two ideas for 4-5 minutes" problem, this was still one of my favorite sets that I saw. The classically trained singer was great as a surprise showstopper.

I had been up really late the night before and started to get delirious during Mono's set, but they seemed very enthusiastic. I didn't really get it but I was also talking to old friends. We were asleep by the time Kohoutek started, maybe Elvis saw 'em.

Laurie and I watched a 3rd stage set during Sexfist (who replaced Team Brick), from Ned I learn that they were an impromptu supergroup of sorts.

Rob Sharples seemed a little out of place doing straight introspective-sounding folkie tunes, but it sounded good early in the day. With excellent intuition, we skipped down the street and bought a blue tarp to cover our tent. Caught the end of American Revolution and it was the best-sounding 60's psych-pop revisionism I've heard in a while, I can still remember the tunes.

Insect Factory had another of my favorite drum performances along with excellent dulcimer (autoharp?) guesting by Mike Tamburo and a massive guitar sound.

Simply Saucer sounded great to me, really heard a lot of Beefheart in their dislocated guitar patterns. Then the rain poured down after maybe 4 songs. We went and got food, then caught the end of their second set. I never saw copies of their alleged limited CD, it probably sold out on Friday.

I wished I was lying down during Pelt's set, 40-odd minutes of rich raga-drone that I hope gets released some day.

An anonymous local friend of mine said he had walked out on Jack Rose three times, and after seeing the blatant Fahey aping on display I could understand why. Not bad, just a little bit too much the equivalent of a Nirvana tribute band or something.

About 2/3 of the way through the Entrance Band, Ned walks up. "This band is awesome!" I yell. "I've never heard of them!"

Ned gives me, in like 30 seconds, a total rundown of their origins, influences and contemporaries but it sounded kind of like "info info Dazzle Ships info folkie turned rock god info info Plastic Crimewave", classic Raggett moment. Turned out he was saying goodbyes so we did. Nice to meet ya Ned!

Entrance continue through a scorching electric set that really sounded great to me, plus the guy did a genuine hippy rap on stage about loving everybody, not trusting the gov't, and where he could score some weed.

Laurie and I got into a big discussion after Windy & Carl's set (which I quite enjoyed, being unfamiliar with them). Her take was essentially classic rockist without the condemnation, more like puzzlement. She found the slides too manipulative, intended to convey specific feelings that (in her opinion) should be the job of the music. She drew a contrast to the Nurse With Wound show we saw that featured projections, noting that those were more abstract and open to subjective interpretation, which she prefers. She also felt the technology to chops ratio was a little high. I love having the opinion of somebody with no music-geek background sometimes!

Paik were like some bomb going off outside. Finally somebody really put the smoke machines and strobes and outside volume levels to the test. Devastating.

Loved the Kawabata set although I have mixed feelings about volume abuse. My favorite part was the bowed section where he sounded like a cellist.

I have worked at a large long-running annual outdoor festival for many years, so from my view this was clearly a first effort. Given that, I thought it went really well. More food onsite would have been better (a fresh fruit stand in particular). The only really major issue that I had trouble understanding was the lack of a portapotty and handwashing station for the campsite, those are not that expensive and unless there was some legal reason they couldn't do it it's pretty inexcusable (and dangerous). Maybe the bathrooms in the center were kept open all night, I dunno. Also, I assume/hope those shower passes were $10 for the whole weekend, not per shower. Again, I dunno, we had friends in town and got clean there. The security guys were great and totally mellow. Everything I saw started on time and sounded good. So thanks Erica, Rob, Phil, etc.

An anonymous local friend of mine said he had walked out on Jack Rose three times, and after seeing the blatant Fahey aping on display I could understand why. Not bad, just a little bit too much the equivalent of a Nirvana tribute band or something.

This is utter bullshit. Your friend who 'walked out' is probably basing that on a John Fahey greatest hits CD he heard once, and most likely does not play guitar. Nirvana tribute band? Please.

Wrong about my friend. And you may think it's bullshit but I called it like I saw and heard it. However, I will take your outraged recommendation and give the dude a chance on record someday.

Jack Rose is in Pelt, too, ya know.

yeah, and I loved that! He was playing the hurdy-gurdy I think. I preferred it to his guitar.

also, we should all harass Pfork for failing to promote and cover this.

Was it underattended?
I always kind of thought the "secret society" vibe was part of the appeal.

Definitely underattended although I think they almost sold out of full passes. Both of the Lville weeklies had features but I don't know how much that helped. Seems like they probably broke even, but I guess we'll find out later.

That sucks. Really wish I could have gone.

i bought the last wooden shjips comp. i was standing next to the guy during pelt and asked where they all went. he said he had one more in his bag and i immediately handed him a ten bone
but I still fail to understand their prominence in this scene
there is still spill over love from their pioneering tower recordings stuff, particularly the genre-naming freak scene. but i walked out on them. they were the sub-nirvana tribute band for me. jack rose was awesome. my only complaint was that the banjo player was mixed too high. jack's tone is so warm i like it to wash over me. i agree with your g/friend's assessment regarding saminess. it would have been nice to hear more international variety. last terrastock featured some nice finnish fonal records bands. and in walking in late to oneida you might have missed the best show of the whole weekend, at least of the ones i saw. after they finished there was a rush to their merch table. when i got there one dude asked for one of everything, disc and vinyl!

Oneida rules.

damn! Will check their recs out.

particularly the genre-naming freak scene

What this thread don't know could fill Laurel Canyon. There's no Tower Recordings album called this

yeah, sorry. i meant folkscene

sleeve, if you caught the improv set on the merch room table, there was a little bit of the early tower recordings vibe going on. not enough though to give a real clear indication of folkscene though

who was that guy with the dobro/metal guitar? somewhat older fellow, played in that jam, did a solo set later? I liked him.

oh wait by "that jam" I meant the United Bible Studies one.

Port a Potties were by the Loading Dock outside the building for campers...some found it...some never ventured in that direction. But they were there.

We didn't break even....not even close but....it was an amazingly great weekend.

ok kinda close. The hotel cost was the killer.

and the guy with the dobro was Keenan Lawler....a local.

If I wasn't already paying for a wedding, a honeymoon in Costa Rica, and study materials for my ARE exam this summer I would have probably gone. If it's anywhere in the Midwest vicinity next time I will do my best to make it.

thank you for your clarifications and hard work, goo. I bet the bathroom info was on that sheet we got when we checked in that I never saw again.

so did the baptists take all the cheap hotel rooms?

Any ideas on where T8 will be? Hopefully gas will go down by then unless it continues to be near the east/mid-east coast.

I was a little disappointed by Jack Rose's set, actually. I think he's a great, great guitar player, and much more than a Fahey tribute, but the set was essentially just a bunch of old-timey songs performed in a straight forward way -- something I can see almost any day of the week where I'm from, and while it was a virtuoso performance, that style of music is (in my opinion) best played by some sloppy guys who just got off work, you know? I don't doubt his authenticity at all, I would just rather see him let loooooose.

Which brings me to one of my next point: all the bands were really tight! Now some people are into this, but I like some sloppy rock & roll myself. Plastic Crimewave was the first band of the festival to really take me there (actually I really enjoyed parts of local band Parlour's set -- it was just some jams, but the peaks were very high, I thought). And I did like MV + EE's set. There was a little too much stoned jamming, but at least they were high! Tower Recordings were amazing, and I think Matt Valentine is a real artist with some higher ideals, and if he wants to do some stoned out jams, hey, let's see where he goes with it. I'd also like to say I really loved Black Forest/Black Sea's acoustic set. It was very down-to-earth and lovely, and seemed like something I would see in one of my friends living rooms (this is a very high compliment). The quieter it got, the better it was! and there was some lovely drone. I also really liked Windy's third-stage performance.

Pelt, Oneida, Bardo Pond, Plastic Crimewave and Kawabata were the high-above highlights for me. Sapat, Simply Saucer, Entrance Band and Hush Arbors were great, too. The first part of Batoh/Espvall's set (the noisy one) was stellar. Their songs, for me, failed to come across due to sound problems (too distracting, couldn't get into it).

Any other campers get robbed by the junkie jam festival guys? They woke us at 8 in the morning Sunday, obviously casing the tent, and our, uh, parafernalias were missing later in the day. They got our friend Mark's shoes, too. Talk about some lowdown shit to steal...

aw man, that sucks!

Thanks for hipping us to that pre-show and the Bear's place gig. I'll be emailing with recordings soon.

junkie jam festival guys?

are you sure it wasn't the "neighbors" that Scott mentioned?

The neighbors who live in the woods, that is?

T8 is tentative 2010....possibly same place...no definites at this time but its on the table with a few modifications.

Cheap Hotel rooms were snatched by the Baptists and we barely got our bands rooms. That was the suck for sure...Many sleepless nights were had over that topic.

If anyone didn't make it but wants a tshirt....here ya go:

Terrastock 7 T-shirts

could you give us any info on the plans for the video recordings? I heard that somebody was trying to do a video documentary by handing out cameras to various band members. I assume the audio recordings belong to the bands.

Viva Radio asked to come and film the event for a documentary. The folks filming were the same folks who organized and documented the 77 drummers with the Boredoms. Haven't finalized all of the details, more terrastock meetings for me....yay but as soon as we know something definite...we'll share what we can.

awesome!

paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik paik p.s. paik

Those last three sets--Windy and Carl, Paik, Kawabata Mokoto--were tops. Just when I thought the fest had reached its limits we get Mokoto sitting calmly with a guitar in his lap turning our brains inside out.

hey, did anyone get a handle on whether the paik guys were cool with the bass player dismantling and reassembling the drum set? from where i was standing there seemed to be some serious friction up there

Massive Flickr pool for this...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/terrastock7/pool/

(xp) I didn't notice that. Drummer just made the same paranoid face he was making the entire set. I assumed it was just part of the show, the final antic to bring the curtains. That bass guy was sorta weird to me. I bought a few records and they accidentally gave me two copies of Monster Of the Absolute. I went back in to give it back and he was like, "Yeah they're not two for one", and couldn't gage how serious he was. (I was probably just tired)

hey, did anyone get a handle on whether the paik guys were cool with the bass player dismantling and reassembling the drum set? from where i was standing there seemed to be some serious friction up there

They were all at the hotel after-party on Sunday night and they were all cool (and brought a heroic amount of beer too!). Think it was all part of the on-stage destruction.

This group is only available to people who are signed in.

Rats.

T8 is tentative 2010....possibly same place...

aw cmon! Austin TX this time! you guys come to me, for once :P

If anyone didn't make it but wants a tshirt....here ya go:

also, can't tell from the picture -- are those shirts white? or an off-white/tan color?

Thanks for the pool link Elvis, attached my iPhone photos, main photos to be added next week...

Shirts are off-white/tan

Windy &Carl's set from T7 just showed up on the Kranky podcast:
http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=944&Itemid=58

:-D

I was thinking about that barbecue place yesterday.

Great spot.