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This is the second post of my two-part series from the recent Treasure Island Music Festival held on September 16, 2007. It features the always exciting Austin band Spoon, who played just before Modest Mouse on Sunday’s schedule. I love these guys. Their songwriting is real, their approach to rock ‘n roll defies simply being called an indie band, and best of all, their live shows are worth every penny spent on tickets. In fact, this is one of those bands that must be seen live to truly appreciate. And that’s why you’re all in for a special treat with this one because the band has been gracious enough to let me release the recording for your listening pleasure (for personal, non-commercial use only). So, if you didn’t make it out to Treasure Island last month, you can still listen to Spoon’s entire set from the festival! I’ve provided links below to the MP3s, but you can also stream and download the CD quality source (16-bit) directly from the Live Music Archive. And don’t forget to support these guys by buying their stuff and seeing them live the next time they roll through your area.

 Black Like Me [3:36m]: Play Now | Download
 Anything You Want [2:35m]: Play Now | Download
 Don't Make Me a Target [3:52m]: Play Now | Download
 They Never Got You [3:52m]: Play Now | Download
 I Summon You [3:54m]: Play Now | Download
 The Ghost of You Lingers [5:05m]: Play Now | Download
 Don't You Evah [3:49m]: Play Now | Download
 I Turn My Camera On [2:59m]: Play Now | Download
 The Beast And Dragon, Adored [3:56m]: Play Now | Download
 The Underdog [3:46m]: Play Now | Download
 You Got That Cherry Bomb [3:21m]: Play Now | Download
 My Mathematical Mind [2:50m]: Play Now | Download
 My Little Japanese Cigarette Case [3:02m]: Play Now | Download
 Quincy Punk Episode [2:50m]: Play Now | Download

This is the first post of a two-part series on my coverage from the first annual Treasure Island Music Festival. I was given incredible access to the two-day show that took place on September 15th and 16th, and it was surely one of the more memorable gigs I’ve done in a while. This first post features a ton of photos from acts such as M. Ward, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Built to Spill, Gotan Project, Thievery Corporation, and DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. The venue couldn’t have been any better, with gorgeous views, sunny skies, and only a light wind all weekend long, how could you go wrong? Between the stellar location and the enthusiastic crowd, the musicians clearly picked up on the good vibes the Bay Area had to offer. Saturday had a slightly more hip hop, DJ, and electronic feel, while Sunday was intensely indie rock.

Highlights from the first day included the fantastic duo combination of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, who not only spun strictly 45 rpm records from their collections for the entire show, but even found time to relax and have a beer mid-set on stage (see photo below). Now that was hilarious! And did I mention their rendition of Metallica scratched out on toy record players and mixers strung around their necks shoulder bag style? Crazy stuff! But for me, the capper for the night was clearly Thievery Corporation, who played a long set and featured numerous talented vocalists who rotated on and off stage throughout their performance. They seemed to flow effortlessly from ambient to hip hop to reggae to world and back again — it was truly inspiring. And given how impressive their performance was, I’ve also included a short one-minute video clip of a memorizing sequence from their set. So, please enjoy the included media from Part I of my Treasure Island series.

Part II will feature photos and a complete audio recording of Spoon’s set from Sunday night!

 Flash 8 Video [1:30m]: Play Now | Download

Here are a few photos from the 2007 Bumbershoot Festival that was held in Seattle on September 1, 2007. I’ve included a few photos and a video clip of the band Honeycut, who were representing for the Bay Area scene, as well as a few scenic pics I made while walking around the festival.

 Flash 8 Video [2:27m]: Play Now | Download

Well, if you’re into live music, it’d be kind of hard to make it through NoisePop 2007 without hitting up at least one show from San Francisco’s own 15-year running indie music festival. For me, I had the chance to photograph The Donnas play a kick-ass set at Bottom of the Hill on March 2, 2007. This was the band’s original stomping grounds, and they delivered and then some for the local crowd! They played a stretch of their classic originals, a cover of Judas Priest’s After Midnight, then threw in two brand new songs from their upcoming new album, and ended with an energetic version of Take It Off.

I had photo creds but it was pretty obvious I didn’t need them considering that there must have been 20+ people filming and recording the entire show out in the open! Rather than try to describe the in-your-face girl power rock these chicks dish out, I slapped together an awesome “fan mashup” from two videos I found on YouTube and my own source from the last song of the night. Please remember that I started with YouTube-quality clips here and the second camera doesn’t come in until 30 seconds into the song, but regardless, it’s still a pretty killin’ video now that all three sources have been tightly edited together. So, I highly encourage you to give this live mashup a look, not only because The Donnas rock, but also because it’s a great example of fan-created media!

 iPod/Quicktime Video [3:01m]: Play Now | Download
 Windows Media Video [3:01m]: Play Now | Download
 Donnas Audio [3:01m]: Play Now | Download

All I can saw is WOW! We just got back from Seattle where we visited some of our family and enjoyed what was out our eighth trip to the annual Bumbershoot Music & Art Festival, which is held and around the Seattle Center area of the city. The weather was some of the best we’ve ever had at that time of the year. It was clear and sunny every day, and the temperature was just right, not too hot or too cold — but absolutely perfect! And no rain, yeah!

We spent almost the entire day on Saturday running around the festival. We got to sample a bunch of great bands, see some of the art, and we even attended some of the roller derby events, which was hilarious. Amazingly, San Francisco had a team in the series, so we went to see their first game — totally classic! As for the music, it reflected the diversity of the fans and Seattle in general. There was a little bit of everything from jazz to world beats to reggae to indie rock to mainstream pop and hip hop. There were so many stages and so many performances happening simultaneously throughout the day that it seems impossible at times to even agree on a game plan. So, we just marked a couple of things we definitely wanted to check out, and then we just winged it from there.

Through the graciousness of the festival organizers, this seemingly no-name Bay Area blogger was lucky enough to have scored photo credentials, which as it turned out weren’t needed at many of the stages, but came in handy on more than one occasion. So, a major thanks goes out to Bumbershoot for the Bay Area hookups. I ended up taking a load of nice photos (see below), and had a complete blast all day. After our Bumbershoot adventures on Saturday, we then had the opportunity to spend Sunday afternoon on the Sound swimming and boating on my brother-in-law’s oh-so-sweet 1952 Chris Craft.

Overall, our experience in Seattle this trip was as fun as ever, but it went by way too fast. We wished we had one more day at the Festival. There’s no doubt that Seattle has a touch of that same stuff that makes the San Francisco Bay Area such a great place to live — so we just couldn’t help having a good time. If you ever have the chance, you should definitely take a trip up there sometime, and better yet, make sure you do it when Bumbershoot is in full swing, you won’t regret it!

You can check out all of our Bumbershoot photos below or via this Flickr Slideshow. Thanks!

Blondie

Laura Veirs

Rogue Wave

Derby

Po’okela Street Band

Nolo

Alejandro Escovedo

Roller Derby: SF vs. Minn.

Bumbshoot 2006