Thanks to staff photographer Kristin Wood for these great shots of this year’s fest. Click on the links for full galleries of some of this year’s most memorable performances.
Day One Gallery, feat. Vandaveer, These United States, Pieta Brown, 4th of July, Birth Rites, Wheelers, MC/VL, and Datagun.
Day Two Gallery, feat. Neva Dinova, Cepia, Oh Astro, Great Lakes Music, and The Western Front.
Day Three Gallery, feat. Cursive, Mayflies, and the Gglitch
Day Four Gallery, feat. Dan Deacon, Baby Teeth, Bird Names, and Porno Galactica
[Ed. note: trusty John Schlotfelt also took some snaps that I gallerized right here. Enjoy!]
[A dispatch from John C. Schlotfelt. See the photos here.]
Grinnell College’s Gardner Lounge almost couldn’t handle Menomena. The unassuming space which has played host to indie luminaries like Dismemberment Plan and Sleater-Kinney looks more like a venue for a dormitory battle of the bands than a stage for the blogger-lauded likes of Portland Oregon’s Menomena. (For Christ’s sake, there aren’t even stage lights, only standard fluorescent tubes breaking up the pattern of those oft-used white cardboard/foam tiles that decorate 98% of public ceilings.)
Continue reading ‘Review/Photos: Menomena w/Illinois, 11.16.07′
[Editor’s note: this is a dispatch from Sam Edsill, with photos by Kristin Wood.]
It’s a five-hour drive from Iowa City up to the Twin Cities, and in November, with nothing but bare trees and overcast skies to look at, it can be a grueling trip. But it is one well worth making when the payoff is a CD release show by Minneapolis pop quartet The Owls. Last Thursday’s release party for the group’s long-awaited new album, Daughters And Suns, had all the air of a family reunion, with nearly constant congratulations from the band’s old friends and relatives, and even a few home movies. It was the epitome of a feel-good show.
Anticipation for the group’s first full-length had been building since their 2004 debut EP, Our Hopes And Dreams, which garnered critical acclaim and a modest college radio success in the song “Air.” The Owls’ songs are pretty, with delicate harmonies and soft melodies reminiscent of earlier Belle and Sebastian records, or, as others have pointed out, the Velvet Underground. But many contain an undercurrent of dread, of a world spiraling out of control.
Continue reading ‘Review/Photos: The Owls in Minneapolis, 11.08.07′
Thanks to Mission Freak staff photographer Kristin Wood for coming to the Fourth of July / Death Ships show, leaving to get her camera when she realized no one else had one, and then coming back and taking some great shots. We’ve set up a new Photos page, which you can always get to by using the nav bar at the top of the screen. This weekend Kristin is on assignment up in Minneapolis, so be sure to check back next week for more of her pics. In the meantime, check out the gallery here.
