Via Largehearted Boy, I found a really fun blog-style review of this year's Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. A friend of mine's tried to get me to go to this a couple times, but it's never worked out. You can't argue with the list of performers...rock, jam band, hip hop, etc...they've got it all in one shape or another.
Antonio Lopez has a lot of good things to say about My Morning Jacket in this article. For whatever reason or another, I have yet to check them out despite the fact that a) lots of people have raved about them, and b) they opened for Pearl Jam last month. You'd think that would be enough for my far-from-discriminating tastes, but it hasn't happened yet. Eh...what can you do...
Anyway, I couple good blurbs...first, a funny one...
[T]he Roo organizers think it's quite funny to fuck with poor kids who might be tripping out a little too much. There are over half a dozen stages, most of which have names like "That," "Which," "What," "This," and "Other." Seriously folks, that kind of stoner humor works when you're 14, but you are seriously messing with my sober mind. I've been here for almost a week, and every time I try to figure out the lay of the land, it's like Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first" routine. To make things worse, my pass has "Why" printed on it, and on more than a few occasions I've had some groovy kid yell at me: Why? Why? Why?Indeed. Why?
And then an insightful one...
Some highlights. I wandered into Cat Power's set. I was surprised by how good she was considering the first time I saw her was like watching a drama queen train wreck. Backing her was a full gospel band that performed an endless, but powerful rendition of her anthemic "Love & Communication" from her latest album, The Greatest. Gomez were really terrific, dynamically maneuvering between loud explosions of percussion and guitar noise, to quiet country and blues infused melodies.
During Gomez's set I had a small epiphany. Few recognize the contribution of country music to the greater cause of rock. If you listen to George Harrison's guitar work, you'll notice that his fingering, which is a signature of the Beatles' sound, is straight-up back-roads, woodsy southern-style fretting. Most bands these days, especially from England, have unconsciously processed this sound. The trend of '60s infused pop psychedelia and Neil Young inspired guitar whaling combined with the steel-peddle of early '70s Pink Floyd is the pervasive motif of contemporary indie pop (Gomez, Super Fury Animals, Supergrass), all of which would not be possible without country music.
With thousands of bands claiming Neil Young, Bob Dylan, or The Band as their primary influence, I'd say the country contribution would seem pretty obvious, but I doubt it's clicked with a lot of people. At this point, you can say that pretty much all music stems from Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie and/or Hank Williams (Sr., not "Are You Ready For Some Football!!" Jr.), so pretty much everything is either blues-based or country-based in the end...and really, country and blues are pretty much the same thing with different accents (and, for the most part, skin colors).
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