Day two rolls over San Francisco in a wave of hazy clouds and sputtering rain.  We arrived at Treasure Island right as Ra Ra Riot was closing out their set.  They finished rambunctiously with  a mash up of high energy dancing and choppy staccato strings.  For some reason – once again – I had the sudden urge to get garlic crab fries, but I resisted and made my way over to catch Superchunk.

Superchunk (above)

Their lo-fi sound layed over the grey day fit rather well, but Mac McCaughan’s wavering tenor made the set a little too chill for me.  I contemplate scoring a fresh pressed espresso, but the line is ridiculously long, so I duck into the Silent Disco and dance myself awake to Moldover’s ecletic jams.  Now that I am awake, I drop my headphones off and run over to catch the last half of Papercuts’ set.   The sun begins to peek out from behind the clouds as I wander over, but it is not enough to excite me about Papercuts.  They felt like a farely standard indie pop band.  This suprised me – everyone had been gabbing about how the band’s sound and style related to the sci-fi fun of The Zombies.  Their set was quick, and people began to fade away to score a good spot to catch She & Him.

She & Him (above)

She & Him opened with an upbeat collection of songs.  Zooey’s voice faded in and out throughout the whimsical set, while M. Ward shot line-drive guitar riffs at the crowd with an intensity that made you shiver.  The definite highlight of their set was when M. Ward walked forward and played a serious catchy, quick cover of “Roll Over Beethoven.”  After their set concluded, I jumped over to the craft tent to rest my legs on its wonderful collection of couches.  Monotonix went on not to far from us. My back was to them for the first fifteen minutes of their set, so I thought they had technical difficulties – all I was hearing was nothing but an occasional muted drum and random snatch of lyrics.  When we got up to go score a cup of coffee (the line had vanished, something about garlic crab fries…), I realized there were no tech problems.  Monotonix’s singer had been tossing trash around the crowd and rearranging the band after every song so they were playing in the audience.  Their set was terrible, and it received little response.  Thankfully Broken Social Scene was on next.

Broken Social Scene (above)

Broken Social Scene sheer number of band members took up much of the main stage.   Their full sound seemed to spread perfectly over the crowd, which danced and bopped their heads to BSS’ clear instrumentals and unique song structures.  I got to hear Lisa Lobsinger sing my favorite song “Anthem for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” for the first time live – that was sweet.  The band closed with a bang and some crowd surfing from lead singer Kevin Drew.  Surfer Blood was next – they must have been excited to begin, because they started even before the applause for Broken Social Scene ended.  Surfer Blood was a lot of fun, as their power pop choruses created pockets of dancing throughout the crowd.  I stole out half way through the set to score a good spot for The National.  Singer Matt Berninger was in good form that night.  He balanced joking and singing painfully beautiful songs so well that it felt good to hurt.  The National had the best set of the festival, in my opinion.

Belle & Sebastian (above)

I broke away to grab a drink and a bite to eat before heading back to catch Belle & Sebastian.  San Francisco was ready for Stuart Murdoch’s return, and as he bounced onto stage full of energy, the audience erupted in applause.  The band opened with “I Didn’t See it Coming,” the first song from their new album, and its bubbly energy moved like pop carbonation through the crowd.  The rest of the set was a ‘best of’ Belle and Sebastian set, drawing hit songs from their discography.  They closed with “Sleep Around the Clock” and everyone went back to the mainland for drinks, bringing an awesome end to a wonderful two days on Treasure Island.

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So I land in San Francisco late Friday. My friend Jono – who will be my roomie and festival partner – meets me on the Mission. We decide to catch dinner, and over sweet potato fries and Sangria, we discuss Treasure Island. I’m excited about the lineup. Both days are pretty well segregated in musical styles: Saturday has a lot of indie related, buzz-worthy groups like Die Antwoord, LCD Soundsystem, and Miike Snow, and Sunday’s lineup reads like a collection of festival favorites, such as Belle and Sebastian, The National, Broken Social Scene, etc. “It allows both days to feel different,” I tell my buddy, “That will make things seem more memorable. Plus the area is so small and the acts can only go on one at a time, so we won’t miss out on one act to see another.” We agree, pay our bill, and head out.

The next morning, the weather is fantastic, so we decided to walk (we were unsure if there would be bike parking – surprise, there was!).

After a quick journey across the bridge, we find ourselves surrounded by a crowd of people singing along with Die Antwoord. We manage to catch the last three songs in their set – they were surprisingly good. Riding the crowd’s feel-good vibes, we float through the festival and check out the vendors, ferris wheel, giant light up pink flamingo, pirate cove, and Silent Disco. Chk Chk Chk (or !!!) strolls onto the main stage as we wander over. All around us, people are hopping in place and snapping photos. All at once the guitars pick up, filling the air with snappy body moving riffs.  Right as the crowd reaches a fevered pitch, singer Nic Offer appears on stage and kicks off the set. The next fifty minutes fly by in a haze of dancing, high fives, and funky basslines.

I need a moment to catch my breath, so I head over to the Silent Disco. Before I enter, I come across a giant revolving disco ball pirate skull – eye patch and red bandana included. I don’t hear anything coming from the Silent Disco area, so I almost turn around and leave. But then I realize the appropriate name of the mini-party; the DJ’s are broadcasting their beats to the audience through synchronized, wireless headphones. Sliding on a pair, I wedge into a group of kids all dancing to Zach Moore’s remixes. When the beat slows, I return my headphones and head over to catch the last part of Four Tet’s trippy set.  His spacey arpeggios seem to hide underlying subliminal messages telling me to ‘Relax’ and ‘Buy garlic crab fries.’ I buy garlic crab fries, they are delicious.

Kruder & Dorfmeister sound like a lot of fun, but I need a break. I head over to the craft tent and make friends with Larry Smith of Six Word Memoirs. I write my own memoir, as does my buddy, who had left earlier, and now has wondered back over with more garlic crab fries.

As I consider buying another round of garlic crab fries, Kruder & Dorfmeister close to a great response, as Little Dragon takes the stage. Little Dragon marks the first of two popular Swedish performers representing Scandinavia at Treasure Island. Yukimi Nagano’s voice seems impossible clear and delightfully soulful, carrying through the late afternoon air.  We dance as atmospheric electronics drone under Nagano’s voice as keyboard tones rise leisurely above it. Great set.

Deadmau5 is next – the crowd had been building for his show since the beginning of Little Dragon’s set. Deadmau5’ (aka Joel Zimmerman) set is fast and fun, backed up by an awesome light show. The crowd’s energy never falters as Joel moves between energetic stitches and strangely dark vocal instrumentations that strangely remind me of Sigur Ros and Hopelandic. I duck out a few songs early to catch a good spot in the Miike Snow crowd.

Wiggling my way up to the stage, I duck underneath this seven foot tall guy.  (Side note: people have been secretly sneaking up behind and snapping photos of themselves beside him all day.) After a few technical difficulties, Miiike Snow opens with a cavalcade of lights, fog, masks and awesomeness. The crowd gets bathed in synths flowing  from the stage as the band barrels through “Black and Blue” and “Silvia.” As the last note slips from the speakers, me and my buddy sneak out of the crowd and proceed to dig ourselves as deep as we can into the waiting LCD crowd.

Along our way we pass groups of hipster teenagers strung out on sugar, sound, garlic crab fries, and who knows what else. Behind us chains of people are struggling to penetrate the crowd’s density. We find a spot, and then settle back as Mr. Murphy takes the stage looking rather dapper in an all-white suit. LCD Soundsystem opens with “Dance Yrself Clean,” letting the song’s slow but persuasive build-up bottle the crowd’s energy. Murphy gives that bottle a good shake, and releases it halfway through “Drunk Girls,” as the audience roared so loud it were reported to have been heard all the way across the bridge. LCD Soundsystem closes to a long drawn out round of applause, successfully bringing an end to day one of Treasure Island.

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Fixing the Charts by Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! is an Eddie Argos Art Brut concept band.  Helping Eddie is Dyan Valdes of the Blood Arm, who does her part in both playing the synthesizer and softly rounding out the pliant vocal soundscape. Together, their creation is a tootling rush of trumpets and hand claps backed up by lambent guitar lines that fizz through historical and witty lyrics.Eddie’s and Dyan’s voices are straightforward and sometimes dead-pan.  However, their frill-less singing forms a foundation that supports the sound heavy melody accompanying them without crossing into an over minimalist delivery.  “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N (You Know I’ve Got A)” is a funny but pervasive response to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” that earned it playback with my repeat function.  “Creque’s Allies,” the album’s opener, left me disappointed at first – it felt self-aware and smarmy, like a Wes Anderson film without insight.  After a few listens, though, the cadence and cool vocal delivery penetrated my first impression, which finally warmed me to the album.  Fixing the Charts’ downside is that it ‘ difficult to listen to more than four songs in a row. The singers’ voices make the songs feel repetitive and the constant witticisms and allusions to other songs quickly grow old.

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The Swimmers is a four piece band from Philadelphia, whose first album Fighting Trees, released in 2008, caught a lot of positive attention.  Running hot on their debut, The Swimmers return with a catchy, quick and very 60’s British album titled People are Soft.

The Swimmers – What This World is Coming To

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The Swimmers took a new direction for their sophomore album and built a home studio to produce People are Soft themselves.  This majorly effected the style of the album,  producing songs sounding eager but not hurried, with darkly refined sound-capes that call to minds such bands as The Kooks, The New Pornographers, and The Kinks.  I found my album favorites were “Save Me [From The Brightness]” and “To The Bells.”  Both were songs that possessed a clear amalgamation of sound and were balanced with great vocals.  The only song I had qualms with was “A Hundred Hearts” –  mostly due to it feeling like something The Virgins would produce if they were trying to make British rock.  But other than that, I’m a fan of The Swimmers’ sophomore effort.

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Florence Welch is the founder, writer, and creator of Florence + the Machine, a British indie rock/art rock band whose debut album Lungs came out on July 6, 2009 in the UK.  After selling over 100,000 copies and receiving much critical acclaim, the album has finally found its way over to our home soil.  As Welch’s first album, Lungs surprisingly managed to possess a grand marathon of faculty oft reserved for the masters or the mad.

Florence + the Machine – Kiss with a Fist

The album’s sound is hard to place, as it thunders with rock ‘n’ roll while jazz overtones underlie the largeness of the sound – all the while swerving between punk speeds and slow lilts.  What brings the music together, however, is Florence Welch’s voice.  It is a wondrous voice, an impossible voice, made up of all things powerful and true, soft and sweet.  There are very few albums that I can’t stop listening to, fewer that I can’t believe my luck in finding – this is one of them.  As for the songs I preferred the hurrying suddenness of Dogs Days are Over, Rabbit Heart, and Drumming Song.  But, the softer and more Roberta Flack sounding You’ve got the Love is wonderful, and the drum driven Cosmic Love is to not be overlooked.  Get this album.

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Hot off the release of her latest album, Beauties Never Die, electro-pop Norwegian artist Sissy Wish refuses to limit her sound to a single genre.  Her album combines rock stylings with pop sensibilities – this translated superbly to an energetic live set at Cicero’s last month.  Before her show, ELEVEN spoke to Sissy Wish about American audiences, the music police, and defining European pop.

Sissy Wish – DWTS

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

I got a couple questions, first question, Sissy Wish, are you talking about Pippy Long stocking from Astrid Lindgram’s novel?

Sissy Wish:

Yeah well, you can call me Pippy Long Stockings but she is like the strongest and most secure girl in the whole world, Sissy Wish maybe means something else.  There is a different book from Astrid Lindgrams where he is like a tiny little boy, unsecure boy – Sissy Wish is something like that I think.

This album is a distinctive departure sound-wise from your last two albums, it seems like your last two albums are guitar heavy while this album has a more poptronica sound.  Would you say that’s right?

SW:

Yeah.  Everything is happening naturally, when you start to make music you’re not…trying to do things differently. Before, I really wanted to get more help to find my sound-scape.  Now, I think its more fun to do it myself.

Now your from Bergen, and I know Bergen is a very big artist city – did it have a large influence on your album?

SW:

Ohhh, kind of, I think, all of us are like helping each other out, we collaborate a lot with each other, and that’s why I think you get inspired by the other musicians around.  Also we are lucky in Bergen because we get a lot of funding… so we don’t have to do what the music industry tells us to do.  You can do whatever you want to do first, and go and show people how amazing you are afterwards.

I came across you while listening to Anja Garbek.  I was listening to her on Pandora radio, and it led to you.  Do you think that what she does is inside your music and an influence in your sound.

SW:

Yeah – that’s why I started to make music, she has been my biggest inspiration.

Something I want to know – what’s your take that as you get more popular, the public is going to see you as part of that European pop project?  You get bands like Peter Bjorn and John, I’m from Barcelona, Lykke Li – all these happy positive energy sounding bands coming out of Europe. Do you think you’ll be grouped into that, and would that be a good or bad thing?

SW:

Whatever!  [laughs] I think its cool, people are always looking for references all the time, and you can’t do anything about it.  I love to come up with references when people come to clubs and perform, and it includes music with bands everywhere. I think its cool and people need to make up their own decisions about stuff, and that’s fine.

Now you’ve been to the states three to five times.

SW:

Yeah.

So when you create a set list for a show where you can’t control the venue’s atmosphere or size, what goes into creating your set list?

SW:

We think about the venue we had the day before.  We just talk about what we want to play, and we don’t have a clue about the venue sometimes.  Maybe the P.A. won’t work as well as last time we played there.   That’s the chances we have to take, and that’s what makes me the most nervous about playing these shows.  Because you never know – the P.A. can break down in the middle of a concert and its already happened a couple of times [laughs].

Music has changed because of technology available to consumers.  Do you think, overall, that this glut of technology that has come out is beneficial to music by creating opportunity for people who might not have otherwise had the chance to create and play music?

SW:

I think so.  It’s the people’s choice, and I think people are nagging too much about how bad it is because people are losing their jobs. That is awful, but I think you have to think positive, to take action against what’s going on.  It’s a new world for everyone and it scares a lot of people and it’s just a challenge. We need to think forward.

When you were here last, the American climate was different, different president and financial situations.  When you come onstage, do you notice any changes in the audiences from last time?

SW:

When we toured last time it was really close to the…Volge!?

Ich spreche Deutshe?

SW:

[laughs] When we played in Minneapolis a year ago, really close to the election, people were really curious about what we felt since we were from a different country.  People wanted to talk about that when we there last. Except that the people attending our shows are really enthusiastic all the time, and that is why keep coming back.  Also people here are not music police.  We have a lot of music police in Norway.

I didn’t know about that – tell me about it!

SW:

Well when you play in Norway sometimes, the show starts really late and people are drunk and they act like they are Superman – that they ‘know’ what kind of music you should play and they act like they know best.

Yeah we call those snobs.

SW:

You don’t meet those in the U.S. I meet all kinds of different people and everyone is enthusiastic, and that’s why we like being here!

When I watch videos of your shows the energy at your concert reminds me of the energy at a Girl Talk concert, everybody is dancing.  Is that the energy you like going for?

SW:

Before, we were six people in a band, and I had a lot to hide behind. And now, we have a lot of stuff instead, and it is only two people on stage.  And it makes me aware that it is important to make a connection with a crowd that is standing down there, because when everything is in front of me I need to move around and just make the sound-scape of the music come out.  Because I think the music is best combined with my energy.

One random quick question – then we’ll be done.  What do you like better a hand held mic or a mouth mic?

SW:

Physical is best, of course!

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