I (andy dunlap) WENT TO WHARTSCAE (FRIDAY n' SATURDAY)
IT WAS FUN
HERE IS A ROUND UP OF MY FAVORITE SETZZZ
ERIC COPELAND
I was extremely excited to see Eric Copeland put a solo set at Whartscpae. I saw Black Dice (the group Eric Copeland is apart of) about a year ago in Baltimore, and that show is easily up there as one of the greatest musical experiences of my life, just a pure mind melting noise rock experience. Eric Copeland's set at Whartscape was in the same vein of Black Dice in its style of mushing up various samples with noise rock tendencies, however this set was more drivin on the sample mushing and making things noisy and disorienting to the people in the audience. While this set wasn't necessarily the most ground breaking thing i've ever seen, it was still a lot of fun to mosh around with a super dazed whartscape crowd to the ass whack sounds Eric Copeland was creating
DJ YO-YO DIETING
Didn't know much about DJ-Yo-Yo Dieting beside the loose talk from my friend and fellow Witchmond contributor that he supposedly made sick tunes (basically not much was know). Was real pleased to see that this guy put on a very fun and very engrossing set of noise mush ups (not mash ups) that were very erratic and make you want to dance as well as fuck shit up a little bit. Also supposedly this guy is going on tour with Lil B // WTF?????? // I DONT UNDERSTAND LIL B // SOMEBODY EXPLAIN IT TO ME
TEENGIRL FANTASY
It was a real treat to be able to see Teengirl Fantasy put on a live set. I year back somebody in a music exchange gave me a copy of there CD-R release and I was extremely blown away by there sample driven mash up esc dance music. I wasn't sure if there music would come together live or not but I was defiantly willing to find out, and luckily they delivered as good of a live show as there studio material. Defiantly look into these guys if you haven't already, real solid dance tunes to the max.
ED SCHRADER
Ed Schrader set at Whartscape was defiantly one of the biggest surprises of the festival for me. I knew that he had a silly comedy talk show on youtube but i didn't know exactly what he was going to do for his set at Whartscape. Much to my surprise he put on a very raw minimal rock set was him playing drums and somebody else (not sure his name) playing guitar. The energy was that of early reatards music in which it was going for a very primal garage rock feeling. This set was easily one of the best of the night and i'm extremely excited to see this material get released in the near future (when talking to him later that night i think he said he had an album coming out in september, but i may be wrong about that).
PONYTAIL
I hadn't listened much to Ponytail in-till this summer when after seeing Dustin Wong open for High Places in DC (Dustin Wong is the guitarist of Ponytail). After seeing his solo live experience i was super in-groused in listening to more material he was apart of. Ponytails set defiantly lived up to the hype you have read on various music blogs and journals. They put on a very solid positive hyper energy rock set that is nearly impossible to not get sucked into. Sure during the set I was a little bummed by the dance technique of the people of Whartscape (mushing is super awful) but it was still a lot of fun to see these guys play live.
ARAB ON RADAR
(photo taken by bmoremusic)
Arab On Radar was definitely the set I was probably most excited about seeing at Whartscape. Found out about these guys in 2005 when i was starting to discover noise rock in general (Lightning Bolt, The Hospitals, etc) but I was super bummed to find out these guys were not a group any longer upon discovering them. However when I heard they were re-uniting as a band I was defiantly excited about the possibility of seeing them live, and luckily I got the chance to see them play. There set had a very unique energy that i didn't feel anywhere else at the festival, a real sense of anticipation was in the air for there set. For those who are curious these guys are still able to put on a great set. Furious noise rock with a super energetic front man spinning up the crowd into a frenzy of energy. Unlike most reunion sets this one didn't feel irrelevant at all, it truly seemed like these guys had ever broken up, they honestly didn't miss a step. Defiantly see these guys live if you have the chance, and hopefully they schedule to do some more shows soon (I think they only doing about 5 reunion shows this summer).
NARWHALZ
Was extremely excited to be able to see my friend Brian (aka Narwhalz) put on a set at Whartscape. Hadn't seen him play since he moved away from Richmond and was curious to see how his live set would sound. His set defiantly had to be one of the rawest and most interesting sets of Whartscape. Throughout the set Brian kept on yelling about how he was going to kill himself after the show and that how we was never going to play music ever again. His set was 10 minute blitzkrieg of noise and fucking the shit out of people. While Brian's theatrics were probably supposed to come off quasi lighthearted, but with the way he was acting (smashing lamps, throwing his body around, talking about his own death so lightheartedly) the set seemed to show the lack of direction that can be faced by this modern generation in the clearest way possible. Definitely the rawest and most powerful set i saw at the festival, but also probably the set with some of the best energy as well, I'm calling it something of a success.
SEWN LEATHER
Easily the biggest surprise as well as my favorite set of the festival was by Sewn Leather. Had heard of this guy a year back, got a hold of his record Danse Is Dead through illegal internet means, and while I was amused by his loose noise punk structure songs I wasn't super amazed by his album either. So when he started his set I was completely blown back about his absolutely mind blowing mix of tape based noise and pop songs being fucked and washed around in noise dance beats. The crowd went ape shit for this set, with lots of dancing and fun energy. There was nothing necessarily new in this set that hasn't been done before but it was easily the most fun and forceful set of the festival, and i'm definitely going to look into finding more of this guys material.
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OTHER THINGS I TOOK PHOTOS OF
IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
ADVENTURE
ALTERED STATES
CHILD BITE
DJ DOG DICK
FUCK BALTIMORE (seriously this city is lame)
MOSS OF AURA
PC WORSHIP
SOCIAL JUNK
THE SUPER VACATIONS
TEETH MOUNTAIN
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FUCK LIL B
FUCK LIL B
FUCK LIL B
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1 MORE THING
GO SEE NATURAL CHILD TOMORROW AT THE TEA BAZAAR
07-30-10
SICK N SICK GARAGE ROCK
JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD STYLE SHIT
U KNOW YOU WANT IT
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