The Sights and Sounds of Rothbury 2009

It’s been about three weeks since Rothbury, but it feels like ages — probably because I haven’t seen any live music since. Between that and a lower-than-normal intake of new music, I haven’t been very active here. Still, Rothbury was monumental enough to warrant one more blog post. It took me a while, but about a week ago I finally finished this audio slideshow. While at the festival, I took audio recordings using the iTalk app on my iPhone. My goal was to capture candid moments, most non-musical, all unplanned — and fortunately I did get a few good ones on tape. I’ll provide info on the audio tracks below if you’re interested. You’ll also notice that these photos don’t show the stages (with the exception of the fireworks images, which happened behind the Odeum and Sherwood Court stages). Now I have a week to prepare for the monster that will be Lollapalooza 2009!

Audio:
1) Someone playing guitar near venue entrance
2) Walking in a crowd towards the Odeum stage
3) People in Sherwood Forest at night
4) Someone playing a steel drum-like instrument in Sherwood Forest
5) MSTRKRFT put on Jimi Hendrix’s version of the National Anthem while the fireworks went off Saturday night

As it says in the credits, some photos are by Benjamin Slayter (slaytercreative.com), who was kind enough to grant me permission to use them.

Tags: festivals, rothbury, rothbury 2009

Video Clips From Rothbury 2009

Here’s a quick post with my collection of video clips from Rothbury 2009. Since my Rothbury 2008 video has acrued 11,800 views on YouTube (WTF?!), I thought I should upload this one right away. Unfortunately these were all taken on my crummy digital camera, and the final product is hard evidence that I should buy a Flip video camera as soon as possible.

However, the sound is decent, and you do get a sort of general feeling of what it’s like to be at this amazing music and camping festival. I am still depressed that it’s over…but even more so thinking that it will be about 360 days until I can go back!

Here’s the video. Please visit my YouTube channel for more. I should have an audio slideshow featuring photos and ambient recordings from around the festival (basically non-musical stuff, to compliment this one that contains mostly music performances). Enjoy!

Watch it on YouTube. (In case you were wondering, the last 1.5 minutes of the video is me sitting in a hammock in Sherwood Forest on Saturday night. Take a hammock if you go in 2010!!!)

Tags: festival, michigan, rothbury 2009, video

Happy Birthday America, From Rothbury 2009

I’m too stunned at the moment to provide any real perspective on Rothbury 2009. I’m also extremely depressed that it’s over. So for now, I’ll just say that it was fricking incredible and provide a photo slideshow.

It’s not that it was better than 2008. But this time I knew how to get the most out of it. I knew that the walk to/from my tent was far as hell, so I needed to limit myself to a max of two trips per day into the music area. I knew that wearing tennis shoes at night (when I’d be dancing or running around) helped decrease the inconvenient foot pains the next day. I knew that it would be impossible to see every band that I wanted to, but that seeing part of a performance is better than not seeing it at all.

What was different in 2009 was that I had a media pass this year and a mission to “live blog” the event. All of that went on the MichRadioArts account on Twitter (since Michigan Radio was kind enough to get me the media pass). However, those of you that are familiar with my work probably know that I didn’t want to cover the festival from the same entertainment perspective that most of the big media outlets take. I’m trying not to compile a top ten list, and I didn’t partake in any mundane interviews with artists just because I could. In general I want to reduce the noise that the Internet fosters around events like Rothbury, not carelessly add to it.

Soon I’ll have a collection of video clips of artist performances, as well as an audio slideshow featuring recordings of the crowd, fireworks, Sherwood Forest, etc. Stay tuned!

Tags: festival, michigan, rothbury, rothbury 2009

A Quick Rothbury 2009 Artist Breakdown

My Rothbury countdown says there are four days until liftoff, and that means I need to start working on my coverage. It’s my goal to provide a different perspective on the festival than you might find at other media outlets. Most of the Michigan media just don’t get Rothbury; they think it’s cool to have a big event in our state, but they’re upset that there aren’t more “radio friendly” (or even indie-hipster-friendly) bands. On the other hand, some media outlets and festival crowds only pay attention to the big jam bands. I mean, I have goose pimples over the String Cheese reunion show too, but why should other worthy artists get overlooked because of that?

And I don’t know about you, but I find the artist line-up page on Rothbury’s website impossible to read. It’s easier to grasp on the festival schedule pages, but I think that further context can be provided. The following is a concise attempt at just that sort of context. When I tried to sort the bands into some kind of manageable form, I realized what an incredibly diverse line-up we have at Rothbury 2009!

Don’t take it too literally though. I’m not trying to pigeonhole anyone, and obviously some bands could fit in many categories (i.e. – String Cheese Incident is a progressive bluegrass band, STS9 should probably be in Live Electronica, and many would just group Yonder Mountain in with the big jam bands). This is merely a quick guide intended to help those who are attending Rothbury, especially if you’re new to the festival scene. This is also my own borderline-OCD way of preparing. It will help me prioritize where to be at which times.

Audio: “Hold What You Got” by The String Cheese Incident, from Carnival ‘99

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Of course, when the time comes, I’ll probably throw it all to the wind and just wander around Double JJ Ranch, heading wherever I please. That’s part of the fun of music festivals: the unexpected! Discover new bands! Meet new people! Witness the extraordinary! Live and learn and love! The point is, Rothbury isn’t just another festival that happened to show up in Michigan. Rothbury is now one of the premier American music festivals, with an already stellar reputation that is scraping up against giants like Bonnaroo and Coachella. And we Michiganders should take advantage of it.

The Tripolee Domes at night - Rothbury 2008

I. Jam Bands:

The Dead
The String Cheese Incident
The Disco Biscuits
Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9)
Umphrey’s McGee
Gov’t Mule
Hill Country Revue
Underground Orchestra
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam

II. Rock/Classic Rock:

Bob Dylan and His Band
Willie Nelson & Family
The Black Crowes
Les Claypool
Zappa Plays Zappa

III. Bluegrass/Country:

Yonder Mountain String Band
Keller Williams
Railroad Earth
Son Volt
Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band w/ Tony Rice
Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys

Audio: “Stay” by Pretty Lights, an artist I haven’t seen before but I’m very excited about

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IV. Live Electronica:

Lotus
EOTO
Future Rock
LYNX & Janover
Pretty Lights
Lipp Service (Eliot Lipp and members of Pnuma)
Alex B (of Pnuma)
Big Gigantic
2020 Soundsystem
Break Science ft. Adam Deitch

V. Electronic/Mash-up/DJ:

Girl Talk
MSTRKRFT
The Glitch Mob
Chromeo
Shpongle DJ Set

VI. Indie Rock/Alt Rock:

Broken Social Scene
Man Man
Flogging Molly
The Hold Steady
Cold War Kids
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
The Parlor Mob
Sam Roberts Band
Wendy Darling
Rachel Goodrich

The Odeum Stage

VII. Acoustic Rock/Singer-Songwriter:

Martin Sexton
Brett Dennen
G. Love & Special Sauce
Guster
John Butler
Jackie Greene
Reed Thomas Lawrence
The White Buffalo
Ani DiFranco
The Ragbirds

VIII. World/Reggae:

Femi Kuti & the Positive Force
Toubab Krewe
Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley & NAS
Matisyahu
Toots & the Maytals
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Rebelution
King Sunny Ade & His African Beats

IX. Hip Hop/Rap/R&B:

Chris Pierce
Soulive
The Cool Kids
Quannum Allstars (incl. Lyrics Born)

X. Michigan Bands:

Four Finger Five
Steppin’ In It
The Hard Lessons
The Macpodz
UPDATE 7/8/09: Vox Maui, a band from Detroit’s east side, was playing all weekend long in an Epicenter tent near the entrance to Rothbury’s music area.

Tags: festivals, michigan, rothbury 2009, rothbury festival