It was hot.

It was very dusty, and the air smelled of a combination of BBQ & b.o.

There was a tree frog infestation and Cicadas the size of kittens.

It was the sort of place where you’d accidentally bump into Neil Young fiddling around trying to get a ‘78 Eldorado  to start, or run across Florence Welch ankle deep in sand sipping on lemonade under a parasol.

It was Bonnaroo Music and Art festival, nestled on 700 acres of prime Tennenessee farm land deep in the heart of Coffee County & for 4 days 80,000 strong showed up to celebrate this unique festival’s 10^th anniversary. 

Far removed from the down town luxuries of Chicago’s staple Lollapolooza, and bigger & longer than Indio’s Coachella, Bonnaroo featured 305(by my count) performances on 11 stages over 4 days, not including the dozens of free movies at the air conditioned Bonnaroo Cinema or the unlisted surprise performances by bands for small groups of passers by.

My Bonnaroo happened almost entirely by chance.  About a week before the show, I was offered an extra ticket and a the opportunity to go down with 2 hard working rock photo journalists, the very talented Michael Hurcomb (Twitter: @michaelhurcomb) and the superhuman, bourbon loving Jess Watt (Twitter: @jesswattcanada), both of whom were festival vets and tried their best to prepare me for what was in store. 

The Music

 The musical line-up for Bonnaroo was anchored by a some of the biggest names in music from the last 50 years, everyone from The Black Keys, Arcade Fire and Eminem to Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples and Wanda Jackson.

Talking with many of the other festival goers over the weekend, my experience was typical,  I saw a total of 4 full sets (NOFX, Arcade Fire, The Sheepdogs & Eminem).  And I saw them only because I planted my feet and fought the ADD that comes over you, always wanting to follow the party, moving stage to stage, seeing as many of the other sets as possible.

The typical day at Bonnaroo starts like this;  8 am you wake up sweating in your tent to 35-38 degree heat.  You take stock of your campsite.  Water, beer, anything you can smoke and sunscreen are the most valuable commodities (forget about ice…really, it’s not much of an option).

 Depending on which part of the tent city you’re calling home, the hike to the festival grounds could take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.  You can join in the communal shower for $7, but the lines are long.

 The music gets underway around 1:00 inside the side stages which are giant barns with the walls cut out and the floors covered with fine sand.  There’s a free waterslide, a fountain most people used to clean themselves in in the middle of the grounds, and shopping aplenty. 

 By 4 pm the 2 main stages are in full swing, and the day is as hot as it gets, with people huddled in groups under any shady spot they can find.

 When the sun sets, the energy picks up as the temperatures go down.  People who have been hiding all day are out in full force.

After dark is  also when the  biggest names on the bill come out to play.  Buffalo Springfield (“Hello Bonnaroo!  We’re from the past!!”), Eminem, My Morning Jacket, Primus and Arcade fire all benefited from prime spots between 8:30 and 11, playing to huge crowds, happy to both being seeing their musical heros, and happy to be getting their second wind out of the fryer.

For many, the real parties at Bonnaroo started after midnight.  Friday night featured Lil’ Wayne taking the stage at 1:30 in the morning, followed on the side stages by Pretty Lights and Ratatat, who finished their set with the sun creeping up and many scurrying back to their camp sites to get a few hours sleep.

Saturday night was more of the same, with the most anticipated after hours set being Gogol Bordello.  The festival guide had their set going from “2:30 am until…”.  Gogol had company though, with String Cheese Incident doubling their expected 2 hour set list, playing until 4 am to a crowd being eclipsed by a giant floating inflatable dinosaur and a human moth. 

The People

Bonnaroo is as much about the people who go as it is about the music, From the 4 girls who made the 26 hour drive from Winnipeg to see Florence & The Machine, to Matt and Ashton, 2 kids from Baltimore who were volunteering 26 hours over the 4 days just so they could go see Henry Rollins on a free ticket.  Even the bands seemed in awe of the gathering, Arcade Fire’s Win Butler acknowledged the irony that songs he’d written to be ‘played in front of about 20 people’ were being played in front of tens of thousands during their 90 minute headlining set on Friday night.

Bonnaroo was a weekend where rock, hip-hip, country, rockabilly and bluegrass all lived together in one place.  Where the lines between genres were ignored in favour of  the simple love of live music.

While not for the faint of heart, Bonnaroo 2011 was an experience like no other….and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for 2012.

Ryan Lalonde

@rylalonde

If you’re a Pearl Jam fan, you know all about the reissues, the big Labour Day event in Wisconsin, the Canadian tour and the documentary director Cameron Crowe is putting together.  And there’s more.

When that film comes out in the fall, (apparently on PBS on October 21), a soundtrack and a book will be released at the same time.

The blurb from the publisher says “[A]esthetically stunning…[the] definitive chronicle of the band’s past two decades.”  It will come through Simon and Schuster.

There must be so many things rolling around in that head.  How else would you explain that even though Billy is 300 pages deep into writing his autobiography, he feels he’s only about one-third there?

The working title of the book is God Is Everywhere:  From Here to There and is described as a “spiritual memoir.”

His deal is with St. Martin’s Press.  They want it published next year.

Music has long been used to inspire, rally, educate, criticize, anger and, yes, complain.  The protest song as a long and very rich history.

A new book, 33 Revolutions Per Minute:  A History of Protest Songs by Doiran Lynskey starts with “Strange Fruit,” the haunting anti-racist song made popular by Billie Holiday in 1938 and continues through to Billie Joe Armstrong’s ranting against the Bush administration with American Idiot.  It also covers the era before pop music got into the protest game with southern spirituals and folk music.

Check out the book here.

So you’re a songwriter and you have dreams of making it big.  But for whatever reason, you just can’t seem to write music that connects.  Maybe you need some coaching.

FutureHit.DNA is a book by Jay Frank that dissects a song into the elements that music fans apparently crave.  Here’s the blurb from the website:

“Future Hit.DNA provides a road map to the digital landscape, outlining 15 points that must change in a song if the artists, songwriters and producers of tomorrow want a chart topping hit. For the first time, Future Hit.DNA actually dissects the elements to a hit song based on the technology that delivers the music. It shows how technology has always led the way hit songs are written from campfires to car stereos. The book provides the blueprint to the subtle changes that need to be made that result in little difference to music fans, but big differences in that song’s placement on the charts.

“The new digital world also opens up many more opportunities for artists and songwriters to earn money on their music than ever before. While examining the methods for tomorrow’s hits, Future Hit.DNA shows how these changes can result in larger royalty checks. Songs can now earn more money than ever, as long as the creator knows the tricks.”

Interested? Go here.

If you are from Toronto and love music, then you know The Bovine Sex Club. If not, then the next time you are in Toronto, I highly encourage you to visit this awesome rock n’ roll bar which has been a staple on Queen Street West for 20 years now. ..there’s no other place quite like it in the city. The staff are friendly, the beer flows like wine (yeah that’s a Dumb & Dumber reference, what?), and there’s always a band or a DJ providing tunes. I have many a story of doing interviews or seeing shows at this place… as such in celebration of the Bovine’s 20th Anniversary, I went down to my favourite venue, for a chat with it’s owner, Darryl Fine. 
Ch-ch-check it out!   Some cool tales about U2, Billy Talent, and QOTSA.

The Bovine’s anniversary series kicks off this Saturday and runs right through to Canadian Music Week….it will be jammed with great bands, & special guests to celebrate 20 years of the Bovine …here’s a few appearances you can expect over the next month: The Flatliners, Saint Alvia, Hunter, Damn 13, Suicide Girls, Barn Burner, The Video Dead, and Black Lungs to name a few.
For more bands and info, check out www.BovineSexClub.com here.

Congrats on 20 years guys, here’s to another 20! *raises Guinness glass*

PS. Yeah I know the mic is a little hot off the top, my bad :S

1. Coldplay will release their fifth album and it will be an important release for the band. As different from their previous releases as Viva la Vida was, I think it was as slick an affair as could ever be produced and in a way, it was as far as they could go in a certain nice, but ultimately safe, direction. The next album will either meet expectations set by the last one, which will probably relax everyone’s expectations for the next seven years or so of the band’s career, or it will be something spectacular in its very own way.

It’ll be awesome if the album finds the band trying new things while the focus remains on what people have always loved about them (the songs and the basic elements that make up their sound). Based on what’s been revealed—that there’s a concept and that they’ve been experimenting with instruments including the acoustic guitar—I think I’ll be pleased.

2. When Beady Eye (the last lineup of Oasis, minus Noel) release their debut album at the end of February, all doubt as to the band’s potential without big bro guiding them will be put to rest, as long as people are listening fairly. On the two tracks that they’ve released already, our kid sounds energized, the band sounds inspired, and the tracks sound fresh and different.

It’ll be awesome if Liam can hold it together enough on tour so that people aren’t hesitant to buy tickets.

3. CD sales will get worse and worse. Come on, pick your jaw up off the floor.

It’ll be awesome if music is sold in new ways… ways like this, which is in a convenient digital format and that also might satisfy the need that some people have to own a physical product. Any number of creative vessels for music—physical, strictly digital (maybe with some kind of “badge” and/or perk), or a combination of both—might start popping up, and one or two of them might actually catch on in a big way and sales of music will get a boost… this is all before a cloud-based service takes over the world over here, of course. Once that happens, I think that every new service selling music to own will have a tough time picking up steam.

4. Soundgarden’s 2010 output will pale in comparison to what they put out in 2011. B sides albums and a live album are things that I’d bet on, and an album or two of previously unreleased studio tracks wouldn’t surprise me at all. We might have to wait until 2012 to get an album of newly recorded material, but this archival stash will be a massive deal for fans and, judging by the quality of “Black Rain,” we’ll all be satisfied with what’s unearthed.

It’ll be awesome if they co-headline a tour with Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, with Temple of the Dog opening. I’m quite sure Matt Cameron can handle that.

5. the popularity of both “Glee” and competitive singing shows will actually increase, as will the number of competitive singing shows.

It’ll be awesome if the popularity of the shows results not only in sales of their own cover versions—yes, I’m being polite—of songs, but increased sales of the original versions of the songs and increased interest in and education about the artists that originally wrote/recorded them. More people getting into more music is a good thing. Note: that’s not to say that this hasn’t been happening to an extent already.

6. While underground electro scenes continue to be heavily populated by artists making music in obscure subgenres, Aphex Twin will become the electronic music artist of 2011. Richard said that he’s working on six albums, and I’m thinking that a brand new studio album should be among his first new releases as the last one under the Aphex Twin moniker came out in 2001.

It’ll be awesome if there’s a collaboration between Aphex Twin and Trent Reznor. I can draw lines between their respective paths—which have crossed before, remix-style, btw—and this is what I want to happen. Now.

As long-awaited as any Massive Attack album has been (released about seven years after the previous full length and about 12 years after the last one that Daddy G was involved in), and it’s anything but disappointing. Every track here has its own strange, clear-eyed, chilled out, sometimes haunting power, with every sound seeming to have been chosen carefully and definitely fitting perfectly. 3D and Daddy G handle some of the vocals and of course there are some guest vocalists, all of whom sound like themselves while leaving me thinking that they wouldn’t have turned in a vocal performance quite like that if they hadn’t worked on this specific project. In other words, both core members and guests/collaborators are of Massive Attack while working on a Massive Attack project.

The Acacia Strain: Wormwood

The band’s fifth full length is some very heavy music with vocals/lyrics that sound like pure hate, disgust, and rage. This became my #1 angry album of the year when it came out in July, and nothing ended up knocking it out of that position. Click here to read my full album review.

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Not only does everything here sound great, Kanye’s complex character really comes through. Sometimes he’s funny, sometimes he’s unsure and/or insecure, and interestingly, his ego is always a factor and it’s never a drawback, but rather an element that helps the album work as a whole. There are tons of guests/contributors, all serving the tracks whether they’re in the spotlight or they’re singing along. The bottom line is that there’s a lot of variety and everything about this album is as big as Kanye’s personality.

Eamon McGrath: Peace Maker

There’s something special about this Toronto-based artist. He writes great songs that incorporate elements of blues, punk, and folk, he can hold one’s attention whether he’s alone with an acoustic guitar or he’s noisily rocking out with a full band, and he makes music with honesty, expressing timeless thoughts and feelings in accessible poetry. It’s simply hard to imagine anyone not connecting with this music. This, his 26th (or thereabouts) album, is a great place to start.

God Dethroned: Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross

This is the follow-up to the also excellent and also WWI-inspired Passiondale album, which came out last year. To describe this new one using cinematic terms, I’d say that the riffs establish the setting and the situation, the lyrics and the vocals move the plot along, and the melodic solos are expansive shots that give perspective on the actions occurring. If that description makes me sound a little pretentious, listen to this music and then read that sentence again.

Gorillaz: Plastic Beach

I love the fact that there’s a recognizable “Gorillaz sound” even though their genre/style is hard to precisely define. This, their third full length, is very much a Gorillaz album and it very much works as an album (not that songs don’t also work fine on their own). As far as guests/collaborators go, there’s everyone from Lou Reed to Snoop, and what I said about Massive Attack and collaborators at the top of this list applies here. Also, there’s a theme of sorts, the presence of which makes the album that much stronger but that doesn’t have to be noticed for the album to be enjoyed.

Immolation: Majesty and Decay

The band’s eighth full length is as heavy as you’d hope for a death metal album to be, with creative songwriting that’s far above average.

Killing Joke: Absolute Descent

The first full length in 28 years from KJ’s original lineup is absolutely essential for anyone who is a fan, who used to be a fan, or who hasn’t become a fan yet—really, it wouldn’t be a bad place to start. This is very relevant, powerful post-punk, and I recommend the special edition that comes with a disc of KJ covers by bands as diverse as Metallica and Econoline Crush.

Hail Of Bullets: On Divine Winds

A death metal band whose members know their stuff regarding both how to write songs in the genre and how to play their instruments. This album, their second, is about the rise and fall of the Japanese empire and the tracks are long, shifting, and frequently grooving, with song structures, a sound, and tones fitting the subject matter.

Atheist: Jupiter

Their first album in 17 years includes a little more than half an hour of kick-ass technical metal. Each of the eight tracks is interesting and enjoyable by itself and the album works better than you might expect when taken as a whole. I don’t know if it’s what most fans were hoping for, but I think it’s pretty great.

Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit

if I had to file this, the band’s fourth album, under one genre heading, it would probably be “doom-y blackened folk metal.” That having been said, this doesn’t sound like your grandpa’s old fashioned backyard doom-y blackened folk metal jamborees. No, this is six tracks of evenly paced, melodic, sometimes atmospheric doom-y blackened folk metal with vocals that are sometimes delivered in a whisper, are sometimes just (more or less) spoken, and are one time sort of bellowed. This is more than an hour of music that will either make you fearful of the frozen forest or make you want to head into it ASAP.

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Option Paralysis

There’s a lot here that will appeal to anyone who’s liked what DEP has done up to this point. There’s mathcore, there’s melody, there’s screaming, there’s clean singing, and more, plus shifts of varying extremity within the well-constructed tracks. Some of it might be a bit jarring and the experimental nature of it all might surprise new listeners, but every band member is at the top of his game here and this is one rewarding listen.

These are the albums that occupied my headphones the most over the course of 2010.

1. Deftones – Diamond Eyes

This album probably won’t make a lot of “top whatever” lists, but Deftones are still putting out relevant, passionate music. Despite their bassist Chi Cheng being in a coma since November of 2008 due to a serious car accident, the band was able to regroup and hammer out their best album since 2003’s White Pony. Sergio Vega of early 90’s post hardcore band Quicksand picked up the bass in Chi’s absence, and they rattled off Diamond Eyes in a couple months, practicing the songs to perfection instead of relying on protools. The result is an album that has all a Deftones fan could want from this band: straight up dirty chugging metal riffs, bloodcurdling screams that could wake the dead, Chino’s signature soaring singing style, bizarre Velicoraptor type howls and shrieks, to sexy bedroom type whispers with bass lines and keyboards that swagger. The album is surprisingly optimistic and fantasy based…allowing the listener to take a journey of their own when listening to the record. To put it simply, Deftones went through some serious shit the last couple years and put out an amazing record in response.

Favourite Tracks: Royal, You’ve Seen The Butcher, Prince, Rocket Skates, Risk

2. The Flatliners – Cavalcade

It genuinely saddens me that this record hasn’t shown up on more “top whatever” lists…especially up here in Canadaland. It’s solid front to back…but everyone is too busy talking about all the great “indie” albums that came out this year instead. This was an important record for The Flats, especially considering the expectations placed on the band after the release of their last record The Great Awake, which got them significant air play in Canada. Right off the bat, the first track “The Calming Collection” sets the pace…basically punching the listener right in the face…but also setting up the Great Depression theme that rolls throughout the record. Chris really takes his vocals to the next level, and you can really hear how much the band has grown…Shithawks for example is arguably the heaviest we’ve heard The Flats too date…yet it’s followed by the track Monumental, which should’ve been a radio hit across Canada over the summer…that’s how catchy it is. Oh, and there’s a bunch of killer cameo appearances on the record as well…which as a fan of music, is always enjoyable. Nice work fellaz…this record would’ve been my #1 if not for Deftones. Darby knows what’s up.

Favourite Tracks: The Calming Collection, Here Comes The Treble, Shithawks

3. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasty

Honestly, I really really REALLY wanted to hate this album based on Kanye’s extreme douchebaggery alone. That said, the minute I heard Runaway for the first time, I was instantly curious. A day later, my boy Shep hooked up a copy of the album at work…i put it in the computer and started listening…and no joke, by the end of the first track “Dark Fantasy” I was immediately hooked. How do you redeem yourself after publicly being such a dink? You open up your album with a RZA beat that sounds like it could’ve been a track off Wu Tang’s 36 Chambers. I guess the big thing for me on this album, is that Kanye actually goes back to rapping…he lost me completely with the autotune albums…and although autotune is present here…it sounds more like, as I think pitchfork put it, “like a dying cyborg”. The track Power is epic…Monster features all kinds of great cameos, along with So Appalled…I mean even Elton John & Gil Scott-Heron show up on this record. It’s subject matter is dark at times…Kanye basically wearing his heart on his sleeve…but the whole “boo-hoo I’m Kanye” thing is easily disposed of by the time Chris Rock shows up for a HILARIOUS rant on “Blame Game”. Like I said, I wanted to hate it, but after one listen, was completely sold. In terms of hip hop, Kanye just left everyone in the dust. Bring on the haters.

Favourite Tracks: Dark Fantasy, Power, Runaway, So Appalled, Hell Of A Life, Blame Game

4. Helmet – Seeing Eye Dog

I was a little sceptical when I found out Helmet had released a new album…being a long time fan, the last 2 records they put out didn’t really hit me at all…but Seeing Eye Dog sound like Helmet of old. That said, they definitely have some experimental moments… the ambient sounds of “Morphing” for example could be on a film score to a Tim Burton film…I have never heard Helmet do something like this before, and it almost makes you want them to do an entire record like that…Fantomas style. “And Your Bird Can Sing”, although not my favourite track on the album, has Helmet sounding like Oasis or The Beatles. But what really pushed this album into the top 5 list for me was the return to form…crunching, chugging, bad ass Helmet riffs paired with Page Hamilton’s growl. Song’s like So Long, Seeing Eye Dog, Miserable & So Lost remind you why Helmet influenced so many band’s before them. It’s nice to still have these guys making new music.

Favourite Songs: So Long, Seeing Eye Dog, Miserable, So Lost

5. Tony Sly – 12 Song Program

As a fan of No Use For A Name, and that infamous first acoustic split Tony Sly put out with Lagwagon’s Joey Cape back in 2004, I’ve been looking forward to a full length solo record. Fat Mike of NOFX told me a while back that 12 Song Program was going to be the best release on Fat Wreck in 2010, and I’d have to agree with him (aside from The Flatliners, Cavalcade). Minus NUFAN, you can really hear just how great of a songwriter Mr. Sly is…I know it’s a bit of trend for punk guys to pick up acoustic guitars these days, but Tony does it so damn well. At times uplifting, at other times somewhat melancholy and introspective, the album explores a range of emotions. I guess the album cover really sums it up…it’s a perfect little record to put on quietly in the back ground, pour a pint, and just listen too.  Also, Im a sucker for strings.

Favourite Tracks: Capo 4th Street, Via Munich, The Shortest Pier, Already Won, Toaster In The Bathtub.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Tim Barry – 28th & Stonewall
DeadMau5 – 4×4=12
The Sainte Catherines = Fireworks
The Blacklist Royals – Semper Liberi
Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here
Fear Factory – Mechanize
Against Me! – White Crosses
Flogging Molly – Live At The Greek Theater
Smoke Or Fire – The Speakeasy
Shad – TSOL
Suuns – Zeroes, QC
Alkaline Trio – This Addiction
Diamond Rings – Special Affections
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

Now try this sample chapter.