Pierce the Veil Interview
30 Seconds to Mars in Boca Raton!
One of my all time favorite bands 30 Seconds to Mars played a beautiful outdoor amphitheater called Sunset Cove on Easter night. Though the show was quite short by most concert standards, 30STM did not fail to entertain. Standouts songs were This is War, Close to the Edge and the show’s closer Kings and Queens. Jared Leto was the magnificent frontman who orchestrated the show which was complete with a man and a women signing the songs for the hearing impaired. Through various songs, fans were invited to come up on stage and sing and the band sans Jared Leto met fans outside at the merch table after the show.
Back from the Wanee Music Festival
by Jody Vining
Any seasoned music festival veteran knows that large-scale events that gather thousands of people in one place to camp out and enjoy a weekend of music bring with them a certain level of discomfort. From massive traffic jams that leave you stuck in your car for up to 8 hours (I’m looking at you, Bonnaroo), to scorching heat, and long lines for portapotties, beer, food, and security – music festivals have a way of inducing as much pain as they bring enjoyment.
However, this past weekend I attended a music festival that will forever change my perception of what a music festival can and should be: The Wanee Music Festival at the beautiful Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. This fest essentially removes most of the negatives that come along with the typical music festival and amplifies everything that makes a music festival of this size so much damn fun.
As we pulled up to the festival on Thursday morning it was clear things at this event were going to be different from our prior experiences. Traffic was light getting in, and we would soon learn that’s because we were late to the party. Even though the festival “officially” started Thursday morning, music acts had started playing as early as Tuesday. This allows people to arrive a couple of days early, find a choice camping spot, and get the party started a little early – it also ensures there won’t be any of those hours-long waits to get in to the venue. Instead of being lined up in a field to camp behind our cars, the staff at the SOSMP directed us in to the park and told us we could camp wherever we wanted. We drove through and realized this party was already in full swing – folks we talked to along the way to what would be our campsite had already been there for days.
After driving around the expansive music park for a little while, we settled on camping along the banks of the extraordinarily scenic Suwannee River. While setting up our camp, the sound of a large group of people hooting and laughing could be heard echoing across the bank of the river – so we obviously had to check out what was going on. After walking a few minutes down the river trail, we found a large beach with dozens of people laying out enjoying the sun, swimming in the river, and enjoying a massive slip and slide built from camping tarps and an intimidatingly high rope swing tossing festival attendees in to the dark Suwannee River water. That’s right – a river, a beach, rope swings, and a slip and slide. This festival is definitely VERY different. We were already having a blast, and hadn’t even made it to the stages yet.
A short walk down River Rd (the main road that runs through the park) brought us to the main venue at the Wanee Music Fest: The Peach Stage. This is a large stage with a giant field that provides great sight lines and plenty of room to set up blankets and chairs. We saw incredible performances at the main stage from Widespread Panic, The Allman Brothers Band, rock legend Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, DJ Logic (with a guest appearance by John Popper), and loads of other incredible acts.
However, one of the biggest surprises for me, was the smaller venue at the festival: The Mushroom Stage. Set amongst the oak trees and covered by a natural canopy of trees and moss, this natural amphitheater is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen live music performed. The ambience and intimacy this venue provides seems to bring out the best in the acts that perform at it. Popular acts like Keller Williams, John Popper, Hot Tuna, and Galactic brought the house down while less familiar acts such as Big Gigantic and the Soul Rebels certainly made a bunch of new fans.
When it was time to pull the stakes and depart the SOSMP – I found myself really not wanting the leave. The people that attend this fest are some the of the warmest, friendliest music fans I’ve ever met, and the setting is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. If you’ve never attended the Wanee Fest before and you enjoy music festivals you should definitely check this one out next year. But be warned: it might ruin all other music festivals for you.
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Noah and the Whale Contest
Enter info@sweptawaytv.com to win an autographed CD booklet from Noah and the Whale! Two random winners will chosen on 4-15-11!
The London band Noah and the Whale are set to release their third album, Last Night On Earth, on March 15h via Island Def Jam. The band’s first album since 2009 will feature ten brand new tracks, including the infectiously melodic first single “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.”
Lead singer Charlie Fink set to work on the album in January of 2010, holed up in a synagogue in East London. Beginning with a few melodic fragments, a sketch for a 10-minute song that resembled Lou Reed’s classic “Street Hassle,” and a set of lyrics that were begun on a train from Wales to London, something special eventually came into focus, something markedly different from the songs the band had written before.
The continued maturation of Noah and the Whale has been a pleasing thing to follow — from the joyous burst of their debut, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, through the lovelorn sobriety of The First Days of Spring, it now reaches a kind of fruition on Last Night on Earth.
Last Night On Earth was co-produced by lead singer Charlie Fink and Jason Lader [Julian Casablancas, The Mars Volta] in Los Angeles. The album features backing vocals by Jen Turner from Here We Go Magic and gospel vocals by the legendary Waters Sisters, who famously provided backing vocals for Michael Jackson’s untouchable hit “Wanna Be Starting Something.” Elsewhere, the record features Adam MacDougall of The Black Crowes on Moog and Rhodes, and legendary percussionist Lenny Castro.
Fink notes that the album has a strong cinematic element to it, influenced by Fink’s experience of directing the short film that accompanied The First Days of Spring. “Film is such a different writing process, it infiltrates the way I write songs,” he explains. “And a lot of them I imagined as scenes — ‘Tonight’s the Kind of Night’ I imagined as this guy running away from home and getting on a bus…”
Fink also notes that the lyrics of the album were heavily influenced by poetry. Last year, he read the work of Frank O’Hara for the first time, falling in love with the poem Having A Coke With You. Speaking of new song “Just Me Before We Met,” Fink notes “I wanted [that song] to have a feel of that, or a tempo. Just the notion of it. Having A Coke With You is I think a very romantic poem, and that’s the only outwardly romantic song on the album, and so I wanted it to have the same approach.”
The album’s title is also a nod towards Charles Bukowski’s poetry collection The Last Night of the Earth — Fink says he was attracted to the sense of “loser’s pride” in Bukowski’s work. “In my head,” he says, “there is a link between Lou Reed’s Berlin, and Bukowski’s poetry.” The track “Life Is Life” is another Bukowski reference, its title tipping a hat to his poem The Laughing Heart — a poem whose final lines seem to sum up this record quite perfectly: “Your life is your life,” it runs. “Know it while you have it. You are marvelous. The Gods wait to delight in you.”
Last Night On Earth Track Listing
1. Life is Life
2. Tonight’s The Kind of Night
3. L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
4. Wild Thing
5. Give It All Back
6. Just Before We Met
7. Paradise Stars
8. Waiting For My Chance To Come
9. The Line
10. Old Joy
Upcoming tour dates:
Mar 15 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
Mar 21 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Mar 22 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
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