All the Devil’s Parties: Behind the Scenes at Treasure Island

I got there on no merit of my own.  My friend writes for a music blog and asked me if I wanted his other Press Pass. I said yes. I wanted a cool green wrist band.

The press tent at TIMF sucks. It is literally a tent with some tacky tables, five chairs, power strips and evidence of a last minute attempt to make it festive. It is nothing glamorous and oddly lonely. Everyone tapping away at their laptops. At one point three people standing around me were all facing each other but each looking down at their SLRs deleting photos in silence. Talk about introverts.

But backstage, that is where all the glory is. Romantic lighting. Couches. Free beer. Candy everywhere. It’s actually not that great, it’s just backstage. But at least there were refreshments, things to lounge on and people interacting.

I didn’t plan on doing any interviews, I just wanted to sit back and watch the interviews. Isn’t it better to be backstage just to be backstage than to be backstage working, be it as a reporter, musician, festival volunteer, etc.? Being in a band must sometimes suck. Three hours of sleep just off the flight from Tokyo? Back to back interviews with news conglomerates (that will write the same thing anyhow)? Video blogs?! And all you want to do is have a cigarette and chill out on the futons.

So I had some cigarettes and chilled out. First person I didn’t interview was Nic Offer. I had no idea who he was, but I thought it was cool that he sat down on the grass with us.  He said he wasn’t into technology, so I asked him to whom he wrote his last letter. He couldn’t remember; not one letter! I thought, well you must be using some kind of technology. (Nic, if you want to be my penpal, I am all for it). Later when I actually saw !!! perform I understood all of the questions and wondered how he could contain his energy for a whole ten minutes and not start thrusting his body around. A true entertainer, he is.

The next person I didn’t interview was Four Tet. He didn’t show up. Instead we saw him eating some kind of junk food before his set on stage. He missed out. I had a really good question to slide in: Do you practice yoga?

Later, I sat in silence while watching Kruder & Dorfmeister, who I kept referring to as Krufer and Dorkmesiter, talk rather intelligently about making electronic music. They really impressed me, or maybe it was just their Austrian accent…I lit a cigarette, Peter lit a cigarette, Richard lit a cigarette. Deep non-frivolous talk about downtempo. It was rather European.

I was looking forward to sitting around and watching the Broken Social Scene interview, but they canceled all their interviews last minute.

Then came Surfer Blood. We stood by the stage waiting for their PR person to contact my friend. I watched as some drunk girls easily got past the security guard so they could woo the band, which is cool as I am convinced none of them went to prom. I watched the band gather their gear and track over to the other backstage, and then we got the call that we were supposed to do the same. It’s weird to follow people that don’t yet know you, especially when you are going to interview them in the next five minutes.

Finally the interview happened. I was busy drinking a beer with another band member, I think (I can’t remember which one, even after some google image searches, once you are band you are labeled as that band, not as an individual). Then I asked the guy being interviewed what the ‘J’ and ‘P’ on his jacket stand for and he said it was his name, John Paul. I said, like John Paul the Second? He said, hey you’re wearing a beret like me (he wasn’t at the time, but I guess was earlier).

Later, I jealously watched them up on stage dancing with Belle and Sebastian. Some bands have all the fun, and not just backstage.

All the Devil’s Parties: A Gray Area

Click photo to go to article on SF Station

Dirty Sound System explore les influences psychédéliques dans la pop française

Ok, so I didn’t write that headline (because I don’t speak French).*

photo by erick beckman

Clovis Goux and Guillaume Sorge are two French selectors based in Paris. They get to eat crepes all day, so I am already a bit jealous, but they also run Dirty Sound System and probably prance around a room full of rare records and speak suavely to visiting ‘hip’ Americans who want to get in on the French psychedelic music scene. Their work, dj sets, and blogs have gotten them plenty of worldwide street cred.  I personally appreciate their superb curation of a wide range of music styles.  Check them out.

your new obscure music blog alain
finkielkrautrock

your new favorite thing to listen to while you put makeup on
dirty sound system – dirty french psychedelics fluokids podcast

your next itunes cd to rip online, somewhere…
dirty french psychedelics

your next anthem interview to tweet (and maybe skim through)
interview with dirty records

*yet I have lived with a French person, close enough to France to count.  That was an experience…let’s just say we are equally crazy women that make equally good crepes (using her family recipe, of course, with the secret ingredient as beer!); except she had amazing grandfather-made foie gras and I didn”t.