All Points West 2009 Photo Journal part 6

All Points West 2009 Photo Journal part 5

All Points West 2009 Photo Journal part 3

All Points West 2009 Photo Journal part 2

All Points West 2009 Photo Journal

I'm sure most of you who weren't there heard about how it rained and everything was as Chris Martin eloquently put it on Sunday night, a "mud jacuzzi". Despite the fact that every time your foot would hit the ground the mud would swallow you up to a little bit above your ankle, and the resulting suction every time you tried to step forward made it incredibly exhausting and near impossible to "hurry" anywhere, it was an overall enjoyable experience. Despite the general awesomeness, one thing that I did not enjoy was the fact that they postponed the festivities for nearly four hours on Sunday, corralling hundreds of festival patrons in a dilapidated train station until the festival promoter's "cleared the area of mud", whatever that was supposed to mean. The delay resulted in me missing out on a number of bands that i would have liked to have seen, but they simply were canceled so as to maintain the predetermined time schedule. Oh well, there's always next year (hopefully).

All Points West

So this will be my last post until, well, I don't want to commit to date, so I'll just say sometime next week. I'll be going off to the All Points West festival in Liberty State Park in good old New Jersey, and I have to say that I am looking forward to it immensely. Despite all of the flak that the organizers of the festival got last year, I remain optimistic that this will be quite the experience. Even though Radiohead was the headliner last year, I have to say that upon comparing this years lineup with last years, this years lineup is much, much stronger overall. Anyway, I'm going to keep it brief and leave you with some mp3s from some of the lesser known bands that will be taking the stage(s) this weekend at All Points West, that should at least be on your radar.

mp3s:
PT Walkley - Somebody
Hey Champ - Cold Dust Girl
Ghostland Observatory - Vibrate
White Rabbits - The Plot
Black Gold - Plans & Reveries
Steel Train - I Feel Weird
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Mean Son of a Gun
Lykke Li - Tonight

All Points West 2009

So I will be in attendance at this years All Points West Festival, and to tell you the truth, I am pretty excited for it. I wanted to go last year (the main reason being I wanted to see Radiohead), however the plans I had fell through and ultimately I didn't end up going. No Radiohead this year, but the lineup for '09 is considerably stronger over last years. Many people attested to the fact that last years festival was little more than a two-day Radiohead show preceeded by hours and hours of no name opening bands, which to a certain extent, it was. I've been hearing horror stories about how the lines for the bathrooms are ridiculous and because it is being held at a state park, there are some rather strict alcohol limitations (most notably being the fact that folks 21+ get a bracelet with seven tabs, order one drink, one tab is ripped off, meaning a total of seven overpriced beers for something like ten hours). Despite these drawbacks, I think i'm going to have a good time, mainly because having lived on the east coast all my life I've never actually attended a large music festival, so it will be an experience to say the least. Whether it's a good or bad one, well, I'll let you know when I get back. For now, check out the lineup below, you can still get your hands on tickets!

Friday, July 31: Beastie Boys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (mp3: Zero), Vampire Weekend, The National, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Q-Tip, The Pharcyde, Organized Konfusion, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, Seasick Steve, Telepathe, Shearwater, Heartless Bastards, Flying Lotus, College Humor Live, Arj Barker, Eugene Mirman and Bo Burnham.

Saturday, August 1: Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello, Arctic Monkeys, Neko Case, The Ting Tings, Yelle, Crystal Castles (mp3: Crimewave), St. Vincent, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids, Kool Keith, Cage the Elephant, Chairlift, White Rabbits, Electric Touch, The Postelles, Black Gold, College Humor Live, Tim & Eric, Judah Friedlander and Jim Jeffries.

Sunday, August 2: Coldplay, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT (mp3: Electric Feel), The Black Keys, Elbow, Silversun Pickups, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory, The Gaslight Anthem, Etienne De Crecy, Lykke Li, Akron/Family, Steel Train, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, College Humor Live, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter and Todd Barry.