Northside Festival Day / Night 3: The Blind Shake, traumahelikopter, The Planes, Haybaby, The Meaning of Life, The Dead Milkmen, Clouder

The Dead Milkmen played Warsaw on Saturday.

McCarren Park, Bar Matchless, Warsaw

It was a beautiful day. CoolDaughter #1 and I enjoyed bagels after her swim practice, then CoolDaughter #2 and I headed over to the softball game. I pitched. She hit. Fun.

After we all got home, I got myself together and headed up to Brooklyn. Traffic was horrendous. It took me a solid two hours. Not fun.

Anyway, I found parking just fine and walked over to the outdoor stage set up in McCarren Park to catch Minnesota's The Blind Shake on the recommendation of Amy (a native Minnesotan herself) over at Little Dickman Records. I've got to remember to thank her the next time I see her. The trio did a crazed set of garage punk that I could see shaking Asbury Lanes sometime in the future.

It was the first thing I'd seen at the more festival-y setup in the park; and all of the festival-type things I can usually do without were right there: expensive beer, groups of people sitting on the ground to stake out their spots for later, that sense of being there but not really. There was a photo pit at the front of the stage to which my press pass -- I realized too late -- would have gained me admittance. I ended up taking shots from the crowd and testing out my zoom lens.

Also, there was a Keurig stand giving out iced coffees in the little K-cup flavor of your choice. The line was like 20 minutes long. Pass.

I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast with CD1, so I walked up to Bar Matchless where I'd seen Sharkmuffin the night before. It was a weird time, so the kitchen only offered wings (very good ones); but there was daytime music going on in the band room.

I headed in there and saw Dutch punk band traumahelikopter. They were impressive. After their set, I found out that they had flown over from The Netherlands just for the festival: four shows, then back home on Tuesday.

It was back to Matchless for the evening and the Hearts Bleed Radio showcase. I ran into a photographer / blogger that I've met a few times at Brooklyn shows, and we headed in to see the bands.

Hearts Bleed Radio founder Stephen Perry and his band The Planes opened. Their Fender-based indie pop was just my thing, sounding maybe a little Modest Mouse-y at times.

Haybaby followed and included three people I'd seen in other bands over the previous two days. Singer / guitarist Leslie Hong joined Piers for a song on Thursday night. Bassist Sam Yield also plays bass in Piers, and I'd just seen drummer Mike Lande with Sharkmuffin the night before. Haybaby's thing was dark, sometimes explosive, grunge-influenced rock.

I'd come to the festival to check out some of the bands whose stuff I've reviewed, so I was happy to see The Meaning of Life on the bill. They're impressive live, and Marta DeLeon's dark, smoky vocals are the highlight. Following their set, I headed back up the street to Warsaw to catch The Dead Milkmen.

I arrived just as the band were putting the finishing touches on their pre-show set up. They opened with "Tiny Town," Rodney Anonymous bouncing around the stage in his bowler hat, holding his mic out over the audience several times. The crowd went pretty crazy as The Dead Milkmen rattled off songs like "I Walk The Thinnest Line," "Leggo My Ego," "Nutrition," "Stuart," "Punk Rock Girl," and "Bitchin' Camaro."

The crowd surfing started a few songs in; and a couple of people made it all the way to the stage, knocking into Rod's equipment. He got understandably angry as it looked like some beer or water spilled on his expensive electronics. He left the stage for a few minutes as Joe and the rest of the band carried on. He came back, a little annoyed but ready to go. At one point, he noticed a pair of guys fighting in the crowd (There were several of these dust-ups), and said, "I'm from Philly. I've gotta break this up." He climbed down from the stage to do just that.

Finally, it was back to Matchless to catch another band I'd heard but never seen. Clouder played the last set of the night. Frontman Eric Gilstrap was down among the small-ish remaining crowd almost immediately, at one point executing a stage dive onto the small group of people (me included) at the front of the stage.

That was it for me. I'd decided to stay home for Father's Day, so my Northside experience was done. I'm not sure if I did it right, focusing on smaller bands and smaller venues and opting to skip some of the bigger acts; but I had a good time; saw some really good bands; met some really great people. I also got a sense, I think, for what's going on in Brooklyn beyond the bands we all read about in Pitchfork or hear on Sirius XMU.

Check out some of the bands I've talked about here. They've all got Bandcamp, Facebook, or Soundcloud sites. And I hope we'll get to see a bunch of them nearby soon.

Some pics.

Quick Hits on The Clydes and Clouder

Been Meaning to Mention These

I think it was my senior year of college. We were living on 3rd Avenue between 7th and St. Mark's. There was this really short window of time between late 80s alternative and 90s grunge when power pop had kind of a hold on things -- for me, anyway. I'm thinking specifically of records like Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend or The Cavedogs' Joyrides for Shut-Ins. I played the hell out of those records, and I think I even saw both acts in 1991 / 1992 (Matthew Sweet at someplace like Tramps or Lonestar Roadhouse and Cavedogs at Maxwell's).

I started thinking about those years today after listening to a couple of things that I've had on my radar for the last little while.

The Clydes, Generator (2013). This EP from the New Brunswick quartet fits squarely into that sound I was just talking about. Second track "Marigold" with its bouncing, infectious guitar riff and clear as a bell vocals, achieves that kind of Beatle-esque feel that I think runs through the whole genre (And anything containing an "All Tomorrow's Parties" Velvet Underground / William Gibson reference is okay by me.). Similarly, "Shaken Down" features the sounds of classic power pop -- even throwing in some Girlfriend-style soloing about halfway through -- along with lots of "na na na's" and a nice lovelorn outsider lyric with "Everyone just sings along. / I don't even know the song." Things get a little darker, more psychedelic on "Bleak Street," but the slick production is there.

Clouder, Sister Raygun (March 4th, 2014, Fleeting Youth Records). While I wouldn't call the sophomore release from this Brooklyn five-piece full-on power pop, some of the elements are there on tracks like opener "Dancing in the Proving Grounds," "Lady Retrograde," and "Western Wasteland." Things here, though, definitely come down on the darker, punkier side of the spectrum. Lead singer Eric Gilstrap bellows and emotes his way through every track, lending Sister Raygun some real character. "Lost in Reverie" and "Phantom Girl" feature traces of surf and have a harder edge that reveals some of Clouder's less poppy influences.


Both records feature polished production that had me thinking "power pop," even in the case of Clouder where it may have been a bit of a stretch. Both also took me back a bit, to that time I spent living above McSorley's and their free rye bread and mustard on one side and Kim's Video on the other. That's pretty much where I come down as a "reviewer:" What does a particular record or bit of music make me think about in the moment? Not sure if that's useful to you, but what I will say is that you should give both of these a try.