sweet summer melodic memories: pitchfork music festival twenty oh nine

With you all excited about this forthcoming Pitchfork, why not tell you, lusters, about my EUPHORIC 2009 Pitchfork?

I snagged a press pass thanks to my wonderful working and loving relationship with those studs at AIR 3 in Stirling, Scotland. (Check out some of their shows at http://www.air3radio.com/.)

Press credentials entitled me to photo pit time worth 3 songs, which usually resulted in a front row spot.

Honestly, I don't know how much you care about my opinion on a performance, so let me just fill you in on the highlights of my weekend. Interviewing Perrin Cloutier of Beirut and sitting on the side of the stage for Yeasayer's rain-filled performance (they couldn't have been more in sync with the crowd) would have made for an epic weekend alone, but the stories improve.


YAY! YEASAYER!


Perrin plays the accordion you hear (not really see). I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's really difficult to shift focus from the ever enchanting Zach Condon. (PS If you've ever heard the liner on PGU by Zach, guess who recorded that?) :)

Now to the GREAT stuff.

I ran into the festival grounds on the last day of the fest with sounds of "The Modern Leper" peaking over the Union Park fence. As the first song Frightened Rabbit song I laid ears on while in Scotland, the melody prancing over the Ashland traffic horns brought my spirit to the happiness I experienced in Stirling. I smiled with glee despite the crowd's complaints to my "excuse mes" to reach the photo pit. Ah, four Scottish-bred men, accents and all, only feet in front of me. Honestly, I was more excited of their nationality than rising status in the music world. After the show ended, I asked Scott Hutchison - Frabbit's frontman and backbone - for their setlist and an interview. In Scottish fashion, he graciously complied.

So there I was, a 20-year-old American sociology student sitting on a baseball-park-bench-turned-glamorous-backstage-sitting-room next to one of the largest musical geniuses to come out of Scotland since Belle and Sebastian. Scott had a happy, welcoming energy to him like a man who knew he was blessed, not only for his current circumstance, but thankful to be alive in this moment. His voice heightened when he discovered we had mutual friends, and he tilted his sunglasses in a librarianesque way to prove he wasn't joking when he told me he'd be a cheese maker or brew beer if he wasn't a musician. The man's not only a great musician, but a great guy. Give his tunes a listen, for the first time or for the millionth. myspace.com/frightenedrabbit


Scott the Scot


I'll end this post for now, so my head can tend to my fluffy pillow. Tomorrow, you're getting my most embarrassing moment EVA courtesy of the VIP section at P4K.




all this went down between friday, july 17 and sunday, july 19, 2009.