'thoughts in passing.'

As David curiously reported, I am not lost, I've just been enjoying my last few weekends in Buffalo, (weekdays each consist of 8 hours of mindless drone work embarassingly as an indirect death merchant for a company I will not name) before all of us at different weblog and WRUR reconvene at the University of Rochester.

'thoughts in passing.' is a new piece in which I will dispense many things that have been on my mind, or that I have forgotten to mention that I really meant to. Here goes:

Pitchfork Festival
Just to give an overall wrap-up in my view, I thought the festival was very well done. Barring a few overlaps that made me make some tough decisions (Futureheads vs. Matthew Dear, Matmos vs. Ted Leo, Devendra vs. Glenn Kotche vs. campout for Yo La Tengo, Diplo vs. Spoon, etc.), and a very annoying MC by the name of Tim Tuten, the water was well priced ($1), and the food wasn't terrible, when I found time to get some.

Three strange fashions that I noticed during the festival:

-big sunglasses, the least surprising of the three, were everywhere
-cutoffs, inspired by Tobis Funke?
-mustaches, inspired by Eddie Argos?

These are the things that keep me up at night.

Three of my favorite performances at Pitchfork, in no particular order:

- Matmos. Mind blowing. Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt owned the Biz3 tent with some of the most innovative electronic/experimental music that's around today. I had downloaded a few songs by these guys over the past few years, and never really got into it, although I was curious as to how it was recreated live. Simply amazing. With Drew Daniel holdin' it down for most of the electronic stuff, Schmidt and another fellow used creative instrumentation from percussion with dead roses, to blowing water in a bowl with a trumpet mouthpiece, to playing a small tuba-like instrument with a balloon in its bell, these guys totally blew me away.

- Art Brut. While David is still regretting his chance to rid the world of these blokes, the only person I could recruit to see them with me was Luke, who could only take half the set. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I like Art Brut, and they put on a great show. Coming on stage to AC/DC, Eddie sans mustace, and guitarist Ian Catskilkin looking like Nikki Sixx, the band rocked from beginning to end. Sorry David, but "Modern Art, makes me, want to rock out!"

- Jens Lekman. I was very surprised that he put on a very upbeat, enjoyable show. Joe, a fellow WRURian and author of no nino rota, saw him a week earlier in Rochester and said he was great. After seeing him for just a half-hour in Chicago I totally believe him. Backed by six Swedish blondes in white, Jens showed off not only his singer-songwriter skills, but also his witty Swedish humor.

I forgot to mention the two great local bands here in Buffalo that opened for The Hold Steady, The Exit Strategy and Semi-Tough.

The Exit Strategy had some great energy, as Mark Costantino's vocals reminded me of Daryl Taberski of Snapcase, and the band had a very rock oreinted style, with hints of Franz Ferdinand here and there.

Semi-Tough had a more alt-country/rock style, more similar to the band they were opening for. Danny Kutzbach reminded me of John K. Samson of The Weakerthans, and had some good lyrics. He was also probably the biggest Hold Steady fan there, jumping on stage asking for more each time the band left the stage, arguably being the reason they played TWO encores.

The dudes from Anathallo were at Lollapalooza and picked up some snacks for the road. They introduced me to the Larabar, a completely organic food bar that comes in some interesting flavors like cherry pie, banana cookie, ginger snap, lemon bar, cinnamon roll, and chocolate coconut. They were quite good.

I will try to survive my last two weeks of work, but they will be interrupted nicely on Sunday with a FREE performance by Bonnie "Prince" Billy at New World Record on Elmwood in Buffalo. Show review and pics will follow.