Junip played at the Crowbar in Ybor on June 18th with King of Spain and Helado Negro and let me be the first to say it was a great evening. The first band to play was a local Tampa ambient/experimental duo King of Spain. They played a relaxing but electro-folk sound that seem to get the crowd ready for an evening of notable music. What was even more notable was the bands choice to sell copies of their newEPPeeks on a cassette tape, but don't you worry they gave you a mp3 download code to go with it. Just in case your dad threw out his cassette player.
The next performer of the night was Helado Negro, who I hadn't heard of before but was willing to give it a listen. I'm glad I did because his live pa set gave an overall uplifting energy. I do have to admit that his vocals were in Spanish so for the most part I didn't understand a word he was singing, however with his vocal effects it made it sound soothing and it didn't really matter what he was singing.
Lastly, I want to give a big thanks to Eliana Rowe who was kind enough to allow me to use her images from the show. So if you get a chance check out Eliana's Flickr account to see more pictures of the show.
Before I begin I want to give a big thanks to Tycho/ISO50 Blog and FITC for giving me the chance to see him perform with his band in San Francisco. The FITC event was a private party so to be able to attend you had to attend the FITC Conference or be one of the lucky winners on ISO50's giveaway guest list spots. Although I didn't go to the conference I would have liked to have seen Scott Hansen's seminar on his background, processes, and theory's along with some walk throughs and presentations of his recent work. I did however get the next best thing and that was seeing the new band play out. Tycho's band did a great job of capturing the sound that is Tycho but also giving it a different yet more unique feel to the music. Each member of the band gave off the right energy and vibe to keep the crowd moving while satisfying our ears with great music. Overall I have to say that I was very satisfied by the end of the night with the performance and the presentation of Tycho's music and visuals. I hope that many of you will get a chance in the future to check out his band's set. Lastly, I want to give another big thanks to Raoul Ortega who I meet last night for allowing me to use his photos from the event. Raoul has done work with Dusty Brown and Tycho before so it was cool of him to allow me to use his photos. My camera was not taking the best of pictures last night, however, it did do a good job on the videos that I took which can be viewed below. I used my Samsung TL220 camera. If you want to check out more of Raoul photography which you should then check out his Flickr account and his Website.
The Outside Lands festival was a memorable experience with its great music, food and wine. The event which was held in the Golden Gate Park was beautiful with its surroundings and cultural feel that is San Francisco. Although, it seemed to have less people than expected it did not put a damper on the experience or the quality of the event. The organizers of this event deserve major props for its fast tickets lines, its ease of movement and with the placement of the stages. So many festivals seem to put there stages so close it's like listening to a train wreck.
On Saturday, thousands descended upon the heart of Golden Gate Park for a day of cultural experience from the food to the wine and finally to the talented musician's that made the festival rock. To recap Saturday's experience I will have to start with Bassnectar who dropped some of the sickest dupstep I have heard since seeing Dieselboy at Bonnaroo. Bassnectar, also known as Lorin Ashton, made sure his homecoming was remembered as large black objects were launched into the crowd during his 50-minute set on the Sutro Stage. The crowd was eating up the stage presence and the bass was wobbling the crowd into a dance fury of fist pumps and dance movements.
Then came the Tokyo Police Club who kept their stage presence with the assistance of the crowd. Who throughout the set assisted the band in different clap sequence to keep the flow of the music. The four band members also took their turns leading the crowd and making sure everyone stayed engaged at least until the next song came around. “Thanks for helping out,” lead singer Dave Monks would say with a smile. If only every band could show that kind of enthusiasm.
Finally came The Strokes who closed out the night with a bang. The return of this band and their stage presence was more than anticipated. The band just picked up where they left off and played like they never stopped. They got the crowed going with classics from their 2001 release of "Is This It" they then went on to play a collection of other great tracks from their other two albums. This was a great set to close out the evening for Saturday. Unfortunately I was only able to experience one day of this great festival but it was enough to satisfy my music hunger for the time being. I'm sure that next year will have more of the great same experiences that this year provided. See you next year Outside Lands.
I would have to say this was my first t-shirt exhibit show that I have ever attended. It was a successful one at that. They had an organized way of ordering your t-shirt while still making it easy for the ones who may have had to much to drink. The coolest thing about the t-shirt exhibit was that your shirt was pressed right then and there. The company that was used to print the t-shirts on site was Vertical Merch which they did a excellent job in printing out my t-shirt. The two t-shirts that seemed to be the most popular were 'Pale Horse' T-shirt gold ink and Julie West' T-shirt turquoise ink. The t-shirts that were on display can still be purchased at http://backinblackapparel.com/
Lastly I can not forget the best part of the evening. Scott Hansen also known as Tycho for his music and ISO50 for his design pseudonym. I got a chance to speak with Scott and I would have to say he is a very down to earth guy. He is very passionate about everything that he does and you can tell that by his work that he produces. Scott also had one of his t-shirt designs displayed at the exhibit and had other works of art for sale at his Tycho/ISO50 booth.
I have been a fan of Tycho since seeing him perform at Movement 2008 and when I found out he was playing in Tampa, Florida. I had to check it out. His performance was extraordinary not only is his mixing skills but also in his visual effects mixing. He was doing both at the same time on his slick Vestax vcm600 mixer. His music choices for the evening made my feet move. If you missed this event then you missed out on a good night of art and music. If you have not heard or seen any of Tycho/ISO50 work check it out at http://tychomusic.com/.
Junip played at the Crowbar in Ybor on June 18th with King of Spain and Helado Negro and let me be the first to say it was a great evening. The first band to play was a local Tampa ambient/experimental duo King of Spain. They played a relaxing but electro-folk sound that seem to get the crowd ready for an evening of notable music. What was even more notable was the bands choice to sell copies of their new EP Peeks on a cassette tape, but don't you worry they gave you a mp3 download code to go with it. Just in case your dad threw out his cassette player. 
