Monday, July 17, 2006

Hipsters in Heat aka Siren Festival | Osheaga Festival

Well, while Vermonters spent the weekend heat wave soaking in our favorite local swimming holes, the indie kids in NYC were catching all of the hot new bands out in Coney Island at the Village Voice's Siren Festival...in 95 degree heat.

The big names were Scissor Sisters, Tapes 'N' Tapes and Art Brut but it sounds like Serena Mannesh and Dirty On Purpose got a lot of attention too.

Here's a few links to some nice photos of the shows. Obie's photos. extrawack's photos. Fresh Bread's photos.

Check out performances by Art Brut here and here. The second one includes a nice little rant from Eddie Argos about Cat Stevens. And one by Dirty On Purpose here. And one from Tapes 'N Tapes here.

But don't despair our lack of access to big summer music festivals because as jds posted a few weeks ago, there is going to be a big one in Montreal over Labor Day Weekend. It's called the Osheaga Festival and will feature Sonic Youth, Wolf Parade, The Hidden Cameras, Clap Your Hands, Final Fantasy, Islands, Dinosaur Jr., Flaming Lips, The Magic Numbers and a bunch of other indie bands. Clearly, a stacked line-up.

Having said that, I'm still up in the air about whether I'm going to go or not. Labor Day weekend is a tough one. We always have a bunch of parties and activities going on. Plus, I'm not a big fan of hanging in a huge field all day waiting for truncated performances a hundred yards away when I know that if I wait for the band's club dates, I could see a full set in a more intimate setting.

Although Parc Jean-Drapeau looks like a beautiful setting for such a festival. By the way, I think the Google Map from Osheaga's website has it's marker in the wrong spot because, according to the map, the show is going to be in a parking lot under an elevated highway. I hope for everyone's sake, that marker is misplaced.

Two-day passes are available through Higher Ground for $80.

One final note...I'm liking Dirty On Purpose's Hallelujah Sirens LP. Yet another good Brooklyn band. I also like at the end of their set when they say "We're Dirty On Purpose". It makes an otherwise horrible band name kind of amusing.

Dirty On Purpose | No Radio
Dirty On Purpose | Car No Driver

4 comments:

K said...

Glad to see you updated the listening list. I was afraid/worried you were still listening to the Arctic Monkey's disc.

Flatlander said...

Ha! Yeh, that old list had gotten really stale. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping it current.

The funny thing though is that I'm still listening to the Arctic Monkeys disc. I was listening to it the other day and thinking how great it is. It's still my favorite disc of the year.

K said...

O RLY?

Flatlander said...

RLY!