Project Heaven

The nice thing about a project like this is that there’s just no time for the types of things that can get in the way in a normal project. There’s no time for politics, no time for endless deliberation. I often use the phrase “it’s a marathon, not a race” but in these projects – it’s a race.

The difference in making these projects the best or worst experiences of your professional life is entirely who you’re working with, who you’re working for and the tone you set for the work together. I’ve had projects where everyone on both the agency side and the client side checked their egos at the beginning of the project and dove in to do the work as a single collaborative team. The agency/client division all but disappeared and everything was shared – both the failures and the successes. There’s laughter and there’s stress, and no one is in it alone. And at the end of every day, everyone can feel good about the time that was put in on the project.

Project Hell

The other type of project is where there’s no shared ownership, no sense of a collective team. People aren’t collaborating, they’re “put on the hook” for things – and are more often than not, they’re set up to fail. Every day is met with dread. Every day it’s own small failure.

Not a day goes by that I don’t feel lucky to work with the folks that I work with today – meaning both my fellow designers, writers and developers as well as the clients we get to help. It’s been a long time since I’ve had anything but that first type of project and I hope I never have to to back to an environment where the second kind is the norm.

But then again, there are a few acts I have no interest in seeing at all, for example: Jay-Z, Muse, Faith No More, Spoon, Pavement, etc.

But for the most part, the lineup looks pretty solid with bands I’ve seen before, enjoy and would like to see again. These include: Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear, Echo & the Bunnymen, Ra Ra Riot, The Raveonettes, Tokyo Police Club, Beach House, Yo La Tengo and King Khan.

This is where the difficult decision kicks in. At this point in my life, I’ve seen a ridiculous number of bands and attended more music festivals than is practical. I’ve been to Lollapalooza, Pitchfork and Coachella more times than I care to count. The more festivals and bands I see, the more difficult it is for something to really stand out from the crowd.

But all of that is in the past. What matters is what’s happening this year, what I can experience next. And Coachella is easily my favorite music festival, hands down. It’s not even a close race.

That said, if I’m going to make a big to-do about seeing a festival this year – will it be Coachella or the Brighton Festival in the UK? Coachella is a great event, but Eno is curating the Brighton Festival, which is sure to include some interesting events. In particular, a performance of Eno’s album “Apollo”.

Decisions, decisions.

Preorder David Byrne’s “Here Lies Love”.

Cooper is awesome.

Gotta be honest here — there are many days where I doubt I have the patience to be a parent. Being a parent of a infant/toddler is a bit like having a rude house guest that can’t speak — and who isn’t moving out. That said, Cooper is a pretty easy going guy. His language skills are picking up a bit, he recognizes a handful of letters and numbers and at this point, he knows how to use the iPhone better than my wife.

Work was good.

Things were good at work, even with the whole global economy collapse. Despite layoffs at many of the larger creative agencies in the area, we didn’t lose any staff due to the scaled back budgets at many of our clients. If anything, web work picked up a bit as budgets shifted from offline to online.

Music, music, music.

What would a year be without music? This year I flew to Australia to see Brian Eno perform live, which was one of those things I had high on my bucket list. I also saw Broadcast, Depeche Mode, The Breeders, Metric, Nine Inch Nails (twice!), Echo and the Bunnymen (in the studio!), Arctic Monkeys and more.

Lolla’s another matter, especially this year. Friday was cool and rainy and the next two days were hot and hotter. But enough about the weather. Let’s get into the music.

Best Set: Depeche Mode

I might be biased on this, but who cares. I love Depeche Mode and always have. I’ve seen them many times and it just never gets old. The set was heavy on the new stuff, but the new stuff is pretty solid and they played enough of the songs from my teen years to make me happy. They played “Policy of Truth”, “Never Let Me Down Again”, “Enjoy the Silence” and of course, “Personal Jesus”. My only complaint is they didn’t play longer than they did.

Best Set Runner Up: Lykke Li

Lykke Li put on an amazing set of songs from her debut album, Youth Stories. Interesting songs, cool instrumentation and vocals that remind me a bit of Kate Bush. The high point is that this delicate singer launched into a bass-heavy gangster rap cover mid-set that was both amazing and awesome. I’ll definitely see her again.

Worst Set: Lou Reed

I feel terrible writing this, because I have a lot of respect for Lou Reed. But the set was nearly unbearable for me. He doesn’t really sing these songs as much as he speaks them, which is his style I suppose, but it just wasn’t working for me. Add the obnoxious sax solos that reminded me of what I imagine to be a Billy Joel concert, the 10 minutes of Metal Machine Music and the fact his set went 15 minutes over – and it was all just unforgivable.

Worst Set Runner Up: Animal Collective

I had a feeling I knew what I was getting into, but I try and be open-minded about these kinds of things and a team player about picking the sets we see as a group. That said, there were no songs here – just droning, repetitive jam-sessions. And I typically like repetitive droning music, after all I love Brian Eno and Philip Glass.

Best Stage: Citi

Forget the big stages, they’re in the heat of the sun and there’s too many freaking people at them to get a decent view. The city stage has a variety of shaded areas nearby and it’s close to food and drinks. Plus, most of the sets at the Citi stage don’t suck. I saw Amazing Baby, Ida Maria, Lykke Li and Passion Pit at this stage.

Worst Stage: BMI

I want to like this stage, I really do. It’s in a fantastic location and if they had a single band I wanted to see it would have been great. Actually, they did have one band (Blind Pilot) who sounded pretty good on CD, but they were taking a while to get their set rolling and I was headed to the Arctic Monkeys (who rocked out). Seriously, BMI – get some hot acts at your stage and I’ll camp out there, but until then you’re dead to me.

Friday

Rain showers early then thundershowers for the afternoon. High 77F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Friday Night

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low around 70F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Saturday

Scattered thunderstorms and windy in the morning, then skies turning partly cloudy late. Hot and humid. High 92F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy. Low 76F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph.

Sunday

Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid 70s.

But not this year. This time I’m bringing my A-game, researching the early sets and showing up earlier to get the most of the festival. Here’s a few of the artists I hadn’t heart of before a few weeks ago, but that I might catch live.

Other Lives

Pretty mellow stuff, but with a distinctive sound. A bit like Andrew Bird – the string section fills out the songs and the tunes are understated in a way.

The Low Anthem

The Low Anthem has elements of Joseph Arthur (acoustic guitar and harmonica), Tom Waits (gravely voices) and Iron and Wine (nearly whispered vocals). Plus, they’re on the Nonesuch label, which means they have to be solid.

Living Things

A bit more of a straightforward rock band that I’m used to, but there’s hints (just hints, don’t get excited) of Nirvana here. Plus, after The Low Anthem I’ll be ready to rock the hell out.

Amazing Baby

I think Amazing Baby wants to be David Bowie when they grow up. They rock, they’re danceable – and it sounds like they’ll put on a vigorous live set.

Ra Ra Riot

I’m really looking forward to these guys – they remind me a little of Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire. This should be a solid set and I’m surprised they’re going on as early as they are.

The Airborne Toxic Event

These guys have really grown on me, but it’s gonna be a hike across the park and back for them. We’ll see if I’m that committed to catching their performance. They have solid guitar and synth hooks and edgy vocals too.

Ben Folds

Words fail when it comes to describing how much I dislike the music of Ben Folds. In the past, I’ve described him as a cross between Billy Joel and Elton John – except without the edginess and fashion sense. I once taught a web design class for a week in Milwaukee and the only live music playing all week was Ben Folds – so I went. I didn’t even make it through three songs. Just the memory of this show is making me queasy.

Los Campesinos!

I think “Los Campensinos” means “the suck” in Spanish. I’ve been listening to a few songs of their this week and it’s as if a kindergarten class on crystal meth got hold of a cassette recorder. The last time I heard something this awful was when Architecture in Helsinki opened up for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Vic. Architecture in Helsinki was so awful it actually made me a little angry and my friend and I nearly left in protest.

Anything Resembling Rap Music

No offense, it’s just not my thing. I respect these folks at artists but the genre just does nothing for me.

Rise Against

I like punk music, but hard rock just bores me. In my book, Rise Against falls into hard rock.

Animal Collective

This guys should be tried by a jury of their peers for the crap they put out and call it music. I saw them open for Mum a few years back and they just did a drum circle – for an hour. Faith and I were in such a sour mood by the time Mum took the stage that we only stuck around for a few songs.

Bassnectar

With a name like “Bassnectar” they have to suck. I haven’t heard them, but I’m feeling pretty confident in this prediction. Not like it matters, they’re playing against Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who are awesome.

Dan Deacon, Passion Pit

They’re both electronic, I’ve heard good things about them and I can’t seem to make it through an entire song by either of them. If I need some electronic music, I’ll see Crystal Castles.

Minimize Trips Across the Park

Depending on what the weather is like, making as few trips across the park may or may not be a priority. But if all else is equal, I’m siding on the closer band to make the most of my time at Lolla.

The Smaller the Stage, the Better

In previous years I think there were 3-4 of the smaller stages between the far ends of the park. This year, it appears there’s only two: BMI and Citi. When it doubt, I’m going for the smaller stages because you can get a lot closer and experience more of the show.

Guitars Win Over Keyboards

I love electronic music. Hell, I flew to Australia to see Brian Eno. But historically, electronic music is a bit less exciting live than folks with live drums, guitars and vocals. For this reason, if it’s a close tie – I’m siding with live instruments over DJs and electronics.

The question I’ve been asked the most so far is “was it worth it to fly 40 hours to spend 48 hours in Sydney for a concert?”. Yes, it was absolutely worth it.

Like I’ve said, I’ve been waiting 20 years to see Brian Eno live in concert, and this show was worth it. However, this wasn’t a show for everyone – of all the live performances I’ve seen over the years, this was easily one of the least accessible. The evening wasn’t full of “songs” as much as musical “themes”. Eno would write short instructions or stylistic themes on a screen for the band to read and improvise from. These instructions included “slowly and warm, like blood”, “extremes of pitch, high and low” and “ikebana noise club”.

Although I didn’t bring a camera to the show for fear of being prevented from entering, some brave soul did and posted some video clips to YouTube. Three cheers for YouTube! Below, I’ve embedded three of gethen’s videos from YouTube and included my comments on each of the evening’s performances.

Pure Scenius: First Show

Let me begin by saying that while I was excited about the show – I was a little nervous too. After all, I had built up some pretty high expectations for this and there was a strong possibility that an improvised performance was going to disappoint. The beginning was a little bewildering: for quite a while it appeared that everyone was doing something, but I didn’t really hear much happening.

Then disparate sounds began to build from The Necks, Jon Hopkins and Eno. The first third of the show felt like they were trying to find their way a bit, and then they happened onto a beautiful and minimal theme that’s captured in the video above. This theme built into a wall of sound that Eno referred to as “Ikebana Noise Club”. The crowd’s excitement at the end of the show compelled Eno and friends to do an encore of a song called “Pink Moon”, which was absolutely not a Nick Drake cover.

Pure Scenius: Second Show

I have to admit, as much as I enjoyed pieces of the first performance, large chunks of it were pretty dense and abstract. While I certainly wasn’t expecting “Another Green World” performed live, most of the first show was a bit further out in left field than I had anticipated. But any hesitation I had felt was quickly dispatched by the second show in which Eno’s sound was much more apparent.

In the second performance there were moments that brought to mind Music for Airports as well as “Sparrowfall” from Music for Films. Eno wrote the instruction “Two Pianos” which created the video segment above, which was an emotionally bare piece that honestly choked me up a bit. The second performance was everything I had hoped for from the trip and more.

Pure Scenius: Third Show

As the third show began, I was still buzzing from the previous performance. If memory serves me correctly, certain themes from the first two shows were used again, such as “Ikebana Noise Club” and “Two Pianos”, but because of the improvisational nature of the evening – the themes sounded entirely different than earlier.

The show slowly built in density towards a full on jam session with the entire band contributing fully to a funky, electronic groove complete with Underworld’s Karl Hyde reciting a breathless and intense spoken word piece over top (similar to Underworld’s “Born Slippy” or “Cowgirl”). For an encore, they played “Pink Moon” again from the evening’s first performance.