Yes, blogging has been light lately, and yes, it may stay that way for a short while as I work on some other things. But this weekend I had an excuse as I headed down to Nashville to visit friends, toss the Aerobie, and attend this year’s Rites of Spring concert. One of the most amusing parts of this outdoor music festival is always Vanderbilt’s hopeless attempts at making sure that in a crowd of hundreds of undergrads only the ones over 21 are drinking alcohol. Chad describes our utterly pointless troubles with The Man here.
The low point of the concert was unquestionably Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, who had everyone within earshot commenting that they were one of the worst bands they’ve ever heard. It was amazing to hear how many people (Barzelay, for example) have said that their studio album is very enjoyable, despite their terrible live performance. The sentiment was so universal that I’m almost convinced it’s the result of an insanely genius marketing strategy: after enduring such a miserable hour of their live music, I’m almost tempted to buy the album just to see how they can possibly produce something good. Almost.
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, bartender, cocktail consultant, and magician in Portland, Oregon. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in the print or online editions of The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, The Oregonian, and other publications.
IM me and I’ll send you some CYHSY mp3s. I agree with Barzelay that the studio album is excellent, and was really disappointed when he warned that they blew live.
I’m so jealous that you got to go to Rites. Hope all is well.
Thanks. I downloaded a couple of the tracks off of Barz’s site. They seem promising, definitely better than their live performance.
As for Rites, there’s always next year. Did you know it’s a two day festival now?
Ah, well at least now I know it wasn’t a fluke. They absolutely fucking sucked. But great album.
You go all the way to Nashville for Rites but not up to PA to visit me. Tisk Tisk Jacob
Well, if Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! were playing in PA, mabe I would
Actually, there’s a good chance I’ll be in PA this summer.
Lafayette’s version of Rites of Spring is this weekend. But it’s only on Saturday. Not as huge as what happens at Vandy.