He's pretty upset. He uses a lot of Caps Lock to emphasize his point. See below.
"NEVER SAY I DIDN'T GIVE MY ALL!"
"LET'S BREAK DOWN THE WALLS ON THIS TRUMAN SHOW"
He seems to put a lot of the blame on the festival organizers.
"IT'S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS!"
In response to his response, people are still hating on Kanye. See the comments section of this Rolling Stone post.
My take on this (just in case you were wondering) is that Kanye is very particular about how he wants to present the show, and I think in this case, it did not serve him well. I'm still not entirely sure that he understood what kind of performance people were expecting at Bonnaroo. I think he could have stuck to something simpler (i.e., without all the lighting effects, new song orchestrations, storyline, etc.) and the audience would have still been happy.
Maybe it's because I'm very biased toward Kanye, but I give him the benefit of the doubt here. (I expect this statement does not surprise anyone.)
Also, listen to one of my favorite tracks from Graduation.
Kanye West - Good Morning
Insert clever sign off here.
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UPDATE: Pun Spot contributor Gerard just pointed me to this article from CNN which gives a little more background and perspective from the festival's organizers.
So New Kids on the Block (a.k.a. NKOTB) has a new song.
New Kids on the Block - Summertime (This link is great. You get to see a lot of the older New Kids videos, as well, including my personal favorite, "Please Don't Go Girl.")
Somehow, I don't think the term New Kids on the Block is appropriate for this group anymore. Take a look at some newerpictures of these guys.
Believe it or not (you're more likely to believe it), New Kids was the first concert I attended. I fell asleep, but man that was a great concert. Also in attendance at that concert: my mom, my dad, my sister, and my awesome denim jacket. Just in case you're wondering, my sister had a matching jacket.
In related news, read this article from New York Magazine and the accompanying chart about the potential "Song of the Summer."
Saturday Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings 2:45-3:15pm Gogol Bordello 4-5 Cat Power 5-5:30 B.B. King 5:30-6 Ben Folds 6:15-6:30 Iron & Wine 6:30-6:45, 7:20-8 Zappa Plays Zappa 6-6:15,6:50-7:15 Jack Johnson 8-8:30 Pearl Jam 10:15-11 Parade Chromeo 1-2am Sigur Ros 2-2:15 Lupe Fiasco 2:15-2:16 Kanye West 2:30-3:30 (waited and then left) Chali 2Na 4-4:45
This day could have been SO much better if it weren't for Kanye. Kanye Sucks. One of my friends could not understand why Kanye was getting a bad rap (!). She thought the hate was overdone. I think she fails to understand that there are certain expectations of a performer, and even more, of a late night set, almost always considered must-see at Bonnaroo, regardless of their level of fame. To force an audience to wait 2 hours with no notice of delay and to force them to miss so many other fantastic things going on at the same time (among them, Ghostland Observatory) so that they can finally witness a weak 1 hour performance of not even all his best songs is a HUGE disappointment. Its almost devastating. Kanye Sucks. Its ironic that his glow in the dark show was actually finally held as the sun came up and tired, exhausted people left in droves as his average raps withered over booming bass and flying 'glow' sticks. He was lame as hell, his ego is unrecognizable, and his attitude and lack of respect are unfathomable. To not hate Kanye right now is to support his bullshit.
Anyhow, this day ended up fairly well, although not too close to the high bar set by Friday. I saw Sharon Jones by virtue of running into those girls from the first campsite while in line to charge my cell phone. They were heading over there and I had nothing planned (although now I hear that Little Feat was worth seeing - southwest jam rock). Jones was this little black woman with way more attitude than I could handle. Perfect for you upbeat soulful types. I'm looking at you, Pun. I then wandered some more before ending up at Gogol Bordello, of whom I am definitely not a fan (gypsy punk music.. see what I mean?). I probably should have gone to Mastodon instead (hard rock/metal). I also ran into Ivan, a friend from Rosslyn VA and some of his buddies, greened up and headed over to Cat Power. Unfortunately, her music was not doing it for us. Too slow and beautiful - Sigur Ros would suffer from the same treatment later. I guess I can't do slow and beautiful at a festival. Instead we headed over to BB King, who was as great as he was horny. In between loud, swinging songs, he talked about viagra and the pretty young things who didnt holler at him no more. He had an extended interlude about his boner at one point. Awesome. I left a little early, and Ivan and I wandered around from concert to concert at this point since there was so much going on. I caught parts of Ben Folds (utterly uninteresting), Iron & Wine (heavy reggae influence was great) and Zappa Plays Zappa (never heard Zappas music but this was really good stuff). Eventually, Jack Johnson came on and I checked him out for a few songs but understandably got very bored and left. I ate some stuff in preparation for Pearl Jam, who rocked incredibly hard. I am so glad I finally got to see them play. They played a bunch of my favorite songs including Animal and really played their hearts out. However, there is no question that Vedder sounds like he is going to die at any moment. As the night descended, I found myself at several non-performance dance venues including a DJ tent and a futuristic techno tent. I've never sweat more flailing. We also got caught up in an insane, random parade that took us throughout the venue and featuring fire-breathing men, half naked dancers, and a lot of tin cans. Chromeo kicked off the second nighttime dance party. The highlight of their show came when they launched into a cover of Your Love (outfield) and then followed that with Don't Stop Believing. Awesome. The party continued at Sigur Ros. just kidding, it was sad, droopy, moving, and absolutely the wrong vibe for my night. I heard a song and left. I've seen them before so it wasnt much of a loss. I also stopped by Lupe's tent for a second and was reminded of how terrible he is live and left. I tried to see Kanye but Kanye Sucks. I came back later to see him just for giggles. In the meantime, Chali 2Na of J5 had some sort of revival going on in his tent, which was fairly enjoyable. A bunch of us ended up just chilling at the campsite, ignoring Kanye and enjoying the sunrise.
Sunday Wendys 11:30-12:30pm Ladytron 2:30-3:45 Robert Randolph's Revival 3:45-4:15 Yonder Mountain String Band 4:20-5:15 O.A.R. 5:20-5:30 Broken Social Scene 6:20-6:30 Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, T Bone Burnett 6:30-7, 7:30-7:45 Death Cab for Cutie 7-7:30 Widespread Panic 9:30-11:30
The last day of Bonnaroo proved to be the most scattered and random. Many people left instead of staying for the concerts in order to make it to work on Monday. Many people who stayed were exhausted from the three days previous and spent the day recuperating. I took a $7 shower, made a short trip off-campus (for the first time) to Wendy's (the spicy chicken fillet and chocolate frosty were enormously gratifying), came back to funnel some beers, eat some stuff and go straight to Ladytron with a couple of greg's other friends from TN (having missed Rogue Wave). Ladytron showed up dressed completely in black and gave a very professional vibe. Their performance was fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing them again at the Outernational fest next weekend. They exchanged female lead singers but perfectly reproduced their sound with live synths and guitars, which I really didn't expect. After this show, I wandered for a little bit since I was unfamiliar with the shows playing. I passed by Jakob Dylan's tent but found the sounds uninviting. At another tent, I was pleasantly surprised by what I would later discover was Robert Randolph's Revival. This is officially my favorite discovery from Bonnaroo. The band really swung in a loud harmonic way with a lot of energy and poise. Highly recommended. Towards the end of their set, Randolph paused to lead the crowd in a "Kanye Sucks" chant. Immediately after this, the energy in the tent soared. I'm looking forward to checking out RRR's mp3s and LPs. As the boys from TN had left and told me they were going to O.A.R., I tried to find them at this point and wandered over to what I figured was O.A.R. - 4 country-type guys with mandolins, guitars, banjos playing bluegrass and fast-paced country. It wasn't until the end of the show that I discovered I was listening to Yonder Mountain String Band. Here was another unexpected surprise - these guys were great. I remember thinking that OAR sounded a lot better than I had remembered. My favorite song was one called Catch a Criminal. Both of these new bands had very positive, catchy vibes to their music that made them instantly likable. Next, I finally found OAR and was reminded of why I didn't listen to them. I left to find greg back at the campsite, refuel, and go see broken social scene. However, at this point greg was breaking down and so I decided to skip broken social scene (catching only KC Accidental.. but its okay, it sounded identical to the last time I saw them) and wander over to see Robert Plant with him. I wasn't really expecting any Led covers but heard at least one. I also wasnt expecting the duets with Alison Krauss to be so slow and moody. As beautiful as her voice was and as cool as it was to see Plant perform, we left to look around some. I caught the start of the death cab for cutie set, which I actually enjoyed somewhat, and a small part of the Pat Green show (but only because greg thought it was Al Green) before returning to Plant/Krauss in the hopes that they had picked up the pace. At this point, greg was ready to go home and so we tried to. We sat in line to leave the campsite for about an hour before we learned that the gates to the freeway wouldn't open until midnight. In this case, we decided to just go back, watch Widespread play, crash in the van, and leave in the morning. Widespread Panic was actually a fantastic live band to see - their jams were technically accomplished and actually really entertaining. When you think of a jam band, you think of floating, unguided passages of rambling guitar but these guys created structure and pleasurable sound out of walls of strong guitar solos. I did end up sleeping for 75% of the show but what I heard was really very great. It was a good way to close up what was most certainly my favorite weekend yet.
I took a road trip down to Manchester, TN from Wednesday afternoon until Monday night. Manchester is home to Bonnaroo which is home to my heart. Cheesy? Maybe. Amazing? Yes. Everyone must go to Bonnaroo. Brave the weather, get 10 shades darker, expand your consciousness, let go of your creepy inner self, get swept up in ridiculous parades in a place that resembles Six Flags on acid, meet crazy, interesting, funny people, and do a lot of other stuff that I didn't. But go to Bonnaroo. (The actual concert descriptions aren't terribly interesting but they do give you some flavor for what I heard)
unremarkable, perhaps because I went to the wrong shows. I caught most of the MGMT set, which was average and poor sound quality, and some of the Vampire Weekend show, which wasn't so bad. In fact, I liked them a lot more live than on mp3. Neither band is recommended for further listening until you're heavy into a strange blend of top 40 and college radio. I left VW early to check out Lez Zeppelin (all female cover band with or perhaps without lesbians), who I heard was supposed to rock pretty hard. I managed to get there right at the beginning and was immediately disappointed. Although I know that Robert Plant (also at roo) has a fairly high pitched voice, the female lead here had WAY too much of a feminine voice. It didn't work for me at ALL. I left after hearing about 2 songs and crashed.
For this first day, I was pretty lost. I didn't understand the venue layout, how to use the guide, or how to handle a huge festival in general. The people I was with initially were not the concert types (and more of the TN cornholing types.. you can look up cornhole if you want, but its a waste of your time. these were the most boring cool people ive ever met.. also one of them couldnt read properly) so that may have led me to miss Superdrag, Battles, Grupo Fantasma, The Sword, and Dark Star Orchestra.
Friday Fiery Furnaces 1:15-2:15pm Les Claypool 4:15-4:45 The Raconteurs 5:00-6:30 MIA 6:30-7:45 Chris Rock 7:45-8:45 Metallica 9:00-10? MSTRKRFT 12-1:30am Tiesto 1:30-3:00 Super Jam 3-3:30 The Disco Biscuits 3:30-4
By far my favorite day at Bonnaroo. There was a main factor that really elevated my mood but I won't talk about that here. I kicked off the day with the Furnaces (psych pop), a decent concert but not terribly compelling. Their remake of blueberry boat into something completely different from the album version was pretty disappointing. Watching the Furnaces meant missing Jose Gonzalez but that man seems like he'd be a festival snooze. However, Bonnaroo was doing this thing where they were crowd surfing cardboard cutouts of the artists throughout the audience as the artist played. This freaked out the furnaces and they said that the cutouts had to be destroyed. One of my friends ended up with the cardboard head of the female lead and made a mask out of it which he proceeded to wear backwards on his head throughout the festival. It was creepy. Next, I had meant to see Minus the Bear or Teagan & Sara (or even Stephen Marley) but having switched campsites so that I was no longer with the girls I had come down with or the TN kids, I instead met up with my new group - greg tidwell and his buddies from school and Philly. We ate some stuff and headed over to Les Claypool, whom I had no interest in. I would have rather seen the beginning of the !!! show but instead I saw Claypool, the bassist of Primus, try to sing in a V for Vendetta mask while laying down some incredible bass lines. His voice is like acid rain but the instrumentals were good. The day really took off when I hit the Raconteurs who were at the main stage. They deserve all the sold-out shows and hype they've gotten so far. Jack White was incredible and the music rocked hard. I left right before the encore, which turned out to be Level, my favorite song of theirs. However, leaving early turned out to be a boon as we were able to get into MIA fairly easily and get a good close view. This show was no show but a rave. MIA kept the crowd waiting a bit and got a DJ to keep hyping up the crowd, building and releasing the tension at least 5 times. By the time MIA actually took the stage and this ridiculous bass beat started vibrating, the crowd was going absolutely wild. She launched into Boys, Sunshowers, Galang, etc and didnt stop once. It was ridiculous. I missed Rilo Kiley as a result, but no big deal. Next, most people headed out to see Chris Rock perform. Some of his jokes were fairly familiar but the guy was on and maybe more edgy than usual. there were jokes about hilary taking over the same room bill got BJs in, how there are either guys dating girls who spit or guys who are in healthy relationships, obama jokes, and a whole lot of uncomfortable race jokes. Metallica took the stage next. They were corny as hell ("Do you want to hear THE OLD STUFF?? WELL WE WONT PLAY IT!... NO!...NO!...NO!..NOoo WE MUST!!!!" cue enter sandman).. however, it was obviously a show worth seeing at least for a half hour or so, especially with at least 50k people watching. We then left to get ready for what would turn out to be one of the craziest dance parties i have ever been to: MSTRKFRT (master kraft). We chilled and ate some stuff and then it began. I've been searching for youtube videos to communicate to you just how insane that show was, but I guess no one had the presence of mind to record it. The shows at Bonnaroo aren't a normal concert performance - musicians really bring their best stuff to destroy your mind. I'm glad I ordered the DVD for the festival though - hopefully MSTRKRFT is on it. I danced hard and then went over to Tiesto, who was OK. not too great except for when he remixed crosses and Jose Gonzales came on stage to sing it! and then teagan and sara came up to sing their song while he put a beat on that! very cool. I ended up wandering off as my buzz crashed, catching some of my morning jacket, some of the disco biscuits (where the lead singer ended up telling a story about a super trooper and the dankest weed in the world), and the last part of Super Jam, which is basically where random bonnaroo musicians come together and just jam together.. this jam featured the lead singer from gogol bordello and Claypool. I crashed at this point.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Please disregard the spelling and formatting "mistakes." This is Ajay's style.
Auto-Tune has taken over pop music. In the grand tradition of Cher (yes, Cher), artists everywhere are using this post-production fixer to create a different sound. Read the article by the New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones on this phenomenon here. Also, listen to an audio extra here. I won't go into the genesis and current use of this tool - the article does a good job of covering it.The newest incarnation is featured in Chris Brown's new song.
Chris Brown - Forever
The song is part of the re-release of last year's Exclusive.
First off, sorry to everyone who's been waiting for a new post. (Everyone being mostly my sister, the only loyal reader of the blog who is not also a contributor.) I started a new gig and was traveling, so I didn't have a lot of time to post. No more excuses. Here's a new one.
Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.
Wale (pronounced Wall-lay) is a hip-hop artist from Washington, D.C. This video is a take on one of my favorite songs / videos of last year, posted below.
Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
You'll notice a Seinfeld visual in Wale's version. This is a reference to his recently released mixtape, The Mixtape About Nothing. You can stream / download the whole thing here. I've only listened to a little bit of the release, but so far, I really like what I hear. Good beats, good lyrics, a lot of pop culture references.
The mixtape also features a song which was on the recently released Roots album. Video below.
The Roots - Rising Up (Feat. Wale & Chrisette Michele)
P.S. Wale's cousin played Chris Partlow on The Wire - quite possibly the best TV show ever created.
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