M and I are busy as hell these days.   Luckily the release of the Fun^3 Fest schedule coincided with my night  off.  I can get some planning done.

Here is the grid schedule for the daytime stuff.  As a dyslexic person I can’t deal when people send me lists that look like  the one that arrived in today’s email. Now that I have a grid, I can see a few conflicts.  I hope the stages aren’t spread out too much.  The perk of Waterloo Park being so small was that I could hop between stages in a minute or so (depending on the how thick the crowd was).  (more…)

Yes, we grumbled about the move to Auditorium Shores.  Yes, we are concerned about the expansion and potential diluting of the brand. But did that stop us for buying early bird tickets?  No! Did it stop us from buying Friday early-bird passes? No! (Well M and 2.0 passed on those because they are being responsible tax payers and going to work that day.  I have decided to take a well earned day off).

Now that the preliminary grumbles are over, I can focus on the awesome.  1. Auditorium shores is much closer to my place.  I can bike there. 2. Friday’s list of bands is AWESOME! Passion Pit, CYHSY, Heartless Bastards, Public Enemy, Spank Rock, Big Freedia (I hope she is better by then), Franki Chan, and  Reggie Watts.  Dear Scheduling Gods,  Please do not put all of these bands on at the same time.

What’s on tap for Saturday and Sunday?  Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Joy Formidable, Neon Indian, Dan Deacon, Rakim,  Donald Glover, Architecture in Helsinki, Mates of State, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Diplo, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Henry Rollins.  I should also make plans to unglue myself from the stages to check out the amenities.

As we get closer I will put the grid schedule together and give you a list of essential things to pack.

“You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive. ” Florence and the Machine

This year, was definitely a year. Yenta said it would be my best year,  definitely a transitional one.  Moments were good, moments were bad, and some moments were down right craptastical.  Other than my family and friends, my only other survival tactic was too keep moving and not look back.  I probably lost some stuff along the way.  There were probably a few people that I didn’t keep in touch with.  I was probably less thoughtful than usual.

Last night I sat in bed thinking about what I was going to write as a recap of my year.  I had to mentally recap the stuff that I have chosen not to discuss on the interwebs.  That’s when the tears started.  I am not sure I am ready to write about the dog days of summer (some good, some really bad, all of it extremely emotional).

For those of you who have been reading along, you know I had a plan:

1) Sell my house before the end of summer. 2) Live irresponsibly in someone else’s property (aka apartment) somewhere in the numbered streets. 3) Leave the country.

Well, that didn’t quite happen as I planned. This is what happened as I flew by the seat of my pants.  1)There are people living in my house but I didn’t sell it.  2)I moved (twice).  I live near some numbered streets in the ’04. 3) My friends’ took me to Mexico for their wedding.

Ok, that’s as far as I am going to go now.  Here’s my year in lists.

This year in live music: SXSW 2010 ( City Riots, Best Coast, the DJs from the Hood Internet, Le Loup,  Typefighter, Sondre Lerche, Vivian Girls, Death Set,  :papercutz,  Oh Snap!, Rogue Wave, Miike Snow, Fucked Up, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings,  Hole,  Frightened Rabbit, Minor Mishap Marching Band , Mayer Hawthorn & the Country, Passion Pit (DJ set) , The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,  Broken Bells, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons ,Everybody was in the French Resistance…Now!, and  Diplo.) Miike Snow, Middle East, Mumford and Sons, Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club, Hood Internet, Flosstradamus, Pixies, Ratatat, Amanda Blank, Sleigh Bells, Interpol, Fun^3 Fest 2010 (Royal Forest (Formerly Loxsly), League of Extraordinary Gz, Butcher Bear and Charlie, Invincible, Devin the Dude, Slick Rick, Dominique Young Unique, Big Freedia, Man Man, Dirty Projectors, RJD2, Magic Kids, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, Black Nasty, Toro Y Moi, Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich and Fussible,Jean Grae, Pharoahe Monch, P.O.S., Washed Out, Deerhunter, The Hold Steady, and The Descendants)

This year in non-live music: Here’s to this year’s new albums: Forgiveness Rock Record-Broken Social Scene Miike Snow-Miike Snow, Broken Bells, Wake Up!-John Legend and the Roots, The Suburbs-Arcade Fire, Sidewalks-Matt and Kim, All Day-Girl Talk, Halcyon Digest-Deerhunter, Rubber Factory-Black Keys, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Entanglements-Parenthetical Girls, Mixtape vol 4 and Anatomy Magazine x The Hood Internet- Hood Internet, LP4-Ratatat, Treats-Sleigh Bells, xx-The xx, The Satanic Satanist [Deluxe Edition]-Portugal the Man, The Mountain-Heartless Bastards, Together-New Pornographers.

This year in Sewing: Treasure City Thrift Fashion Show

This year on the interwebs: I got a smart phone.  Here’s to more Twitter updates and Gowalla check-ins.

This year in Movies: This year I watched a lot on Hulu and other peoples Netflix.  I meant to go out but that requires $$. (theater) SXSW (The Runaways, Tiny Furniture, Canal Street Madam, Barry Munday, the Freebie, Kick Ass) the Social Network, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

This year in Books: Sadly not much time for reading this year… Goodreads Tropic of Capricorn, The Tipping Point, Middlesex, Kafka on the Shore.

This year in kicking ass- (New category because I realized I rocked it out this year): SXSW Crew Chief, Volunteer Coordinator for BluesShout!, Natural Disaster Planner, Refashionista, Fun^3 Fest Blogger, and Wedding Stylist.

Plans for 2011 (in no particular order):

1. Leave the continent
2. Quit my job (10 years of state employment is more than a person should endure)
3. Take on a massive design project
4. Read more
5. Spend less money/time on home repair
6. Master Indian Cuisine

Here’s to 2011 and the hopes that the Dog Days really in fact are over.

Fun Fun Fun Fest was in full swing when Snapcase hit the stage. The dying twilight and red light glow of the stage set the mood for one of the most prolific bands on the hardcore scene. For those of you that don’t know, Snapcase can be credited with spearheading the Upstate NY hardcore sound and capturing the attention of every teen to twenty something living in the late nineties punk/hardcore scene.

Snapcase tore through their set with a fervor befitting their reputation. Technical, looping guitar riffs floated over metronomic drums and heavy guitars. The breakdowns pulled me in and I instinctively found myself moving closer to the band with every photo that I snapped. Guitars were wielded above heads. Arms from the crowd reached out to accent the passion of their songs. It was a high energy, highly entertaining set and I’m glad that I got a chance to see them.

The whole experience took me back to the days when I had little else on my mind aside from girls and guitars. I looked at the faces of onlookers and it was pretty easy to spot the fans that grew up with this band. Their faces oozed nostalgia and it was nice to know that I was in good company. Part of me wishes that I still was a part of the hardcore scene. The camaraderie, the chaos, those dark upstate NY winters, it all stays locked in a corner of my mind. It is nice to revisit these memories and Snapcase served as the perfect conduit to do so.

I am still coughing up dust and remembering all the cool stuff that happened this weekend (and trying to purge some disturbing festival happenings from my memory). This marks my third (and hopefully not final) Fun^3 Fest.  Each year it gets bigger and better (But please don’t make it as big as ACL.  I am in favor of the 2.5 day, four stage festival.).

I’d like to give a quick shout out to the organizers at Transmission Entertainment for the following:

• Media Credentials (M and 2.0 were able to shoot the fest officially with their BACs and M got some interviews). Additional thanks to Austinist for making that happen.
• Amazing Bands. Ironically many of them are on the last two Hood Internet Mixtapes I downloaded.
• The witty festival guide by Misprint Magazine
• The grid schedule inside the festival guide
• The port-o-potty Labyrinth placed far AWAY from the stages (My nose had enough problems with the dust).
• All the amenities…Many of which I didn’t check out because I was glued to the Blue stage for two days. Next year I WILL RIDE THE MECHANICAL BULL.

Random Weekend Observations:

• One hipster cop short of spotting the entire hipster Village People
• Security breach near the “Green Room” by the Blue Stage on Saturday.
  
• Extra Security in the Blue Stage “Green Room” on Sunday
• Dam Funk rocking a keytar before RJD2 hit the stage.
• Hipster bandits
• A ton of Hipsterween Costumes.  What do the organizers think about that?
• Hipster Santa (reading poetry)
• Gumby Damnit!( Who was that person?)

And now for the extended recap of all the bands I saw this weekend (I apologize for not getting pictures of everyone.  Between the sun and the dust the little camera did all it could). (more…)

For me one of the stand out sets for me was The Antlers.  I won’t lie, I had heard of them but didn’t really listen to them before the fest.  Wow! I was way impressed.  I thought they put on a great show.  Here’s some pics I shot below, the rest can be found on my flickr.

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Sunday I had the pleasure of being back stage as well.  And again I’d like to thank the Austinist for our media passes, without them we wouldn’t have been able to bring you this coverage.

Once I sort of figured things out on Saturday, Sunday I hit the ground running.  I’m sure I shot more pics on Sunday.  The music all weekend was amazing.  This year I didn’t do as much research on the bands before I went as years past, but was just as happy.  I’m actually glad that I was so surprised.  I sort of knew what to expect, i.e. an awesome show, but nothing specific.  I kinda wanted to go on the crowd buzz to see what everyone was into seeing.

Sunday I saw a lot! I saw:

• Toro y Moi
• Delorean
• Kaki King
• Jean Grae
• Cults
• Best Coast
• Polvo
• Snapcase
• Washed Out
• The Hold Steady
• The Decendants

The two standout sets for me were The Hold Steady, and Cults.  I also really enjoyed Best Coast.  Here’s a few teaser shots till I can get everything else edited.

Yeah! What a blast, we had so much fun this year.  Well I know I did.  (Thanks to the Austinist for Media Passes) Here’s some teasers of the pics I took, more to come in following posts.

Some of my highlights from Saturday were:

• The Antlers
• Wavves
• Os Mutantes
• The Casualties
• Bad Religion

On Saturday, unfortunately I spent more time backstage getting interviews (which you can see in the next few posts) than I did really getting to see some of the bands.  Also this year being our first with an actual media pass, I needed to “get my legs” backstage a bit.

I got the opportunity to speak with both Darby and Michael from The Antlers.  It was a bit too loud to tape an interview with Michael, but I did take notes during the interview.

Also I got to interview Cody from Royal Forest.  He’s a friend of ours, and was it was lovely to speak with him.

Stay tuned kids, more Fun Fun Fun posts coming up!

Pharoahe says...

So day 2 started with an extra government issued hour of sleep.  Thanks.  My lungs were filled with dust and it took 2 cups of coffee to make myself functional.

I made it to the park in time to catch Magic Kids.  I’ve been meaning to check them out on several occasions.  [Thank you parking gods for making this possible.] My main reason for getting to the park early (besides the good parking space) was to check out Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s.  I hadn’t seen them in a few years and I was curious (more on that later).  Then it was off to my home stage (blue) for Black Nasty. The song on the Fun^3 website peaked my curiosity.

I dashed back to the orange stage for Toro y Moi only to find out it was his birthday (and the sound guy hated him).  I also found out that day 2 of Hipsterween was in full effect [Why did I not get the memo about the cat ears?].  I swear, I was one hipster short of finding all the Village People.  Gumby was having a good time but I was not.  I headed back to the Blue stage and caught the last part of Nortec Collective [Totally unexpected, Tejano Dance Music  and 2 iPads].

I decided to hang around the blue stage for most of the evening.  Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch tore it up.  I saw Gumby crowdsurf (stay tuned for video) during P.O.S’s set [I also fell in love with another head-bobbing dj.  Until he lit a cigarette.  Now I hate him.]  By the time Washed Out hit the stage I was a little scared.  It was REALLY crowded and I was wedged between the crowd and the railing.  It was time to go.  I managed to catch the end of Deerhunter’s set and I wished I made it there sooner [I decided to hit the port-o-potties sooner vs. later.]

I wrapped up my evening with the Hold Steady [and 3 songs from the Descendants].  I probably should have left after Deerhunter but I felt that I needed to stick around.  M and 2.0 were somewhere in the photo pit.

So that is my quick recap of the fest.  In the next few days you will see a lot more.  Interviews, photos, video, full write ups on some of the bands we caught, etc….  Why?  Because we love you [and we had media credentials].

Little Stolen Moments with Butcher Bear and Charlie

I survived day one.  I was on a mission.  A mission that involved gluing myself to the front railing of the blue stage for most of the day.  There were no bathroom or water breaks until AFTER Big Freedia hit the stage.  I would not be stopped by the ironically costumed (what’s with all the bear suits) hipsters.  I would not be sick. I wanted to be front and center for the trainwreck.  1) The amazing Freedia herself and 2) the response from the predominately hipster crowd (How does one dance in pants so tight you can’t really walk?).

I will give you the details later.  For those of you who know me, you probably got more than your fair share of tweets and fb updates.  I hope you enjoyed them.

Here’s is a snapshot of what I saw yesterday. Hi-res photos will be available later:

• Royal Forest
• DJ Nick Nack
• The League of Extraordinary GZ
• Butcher Bear and Charlie (with guests Little Stolen Moments)
• Invincible
• Devin the Dude
• Slick Rick
• Dominique Young Unique
• Big Freedia
• Man Man
• Dirty Projectors
• RJD2

Stay tuned for tales of the fest from M, 2.0, and the Jew.