moe.down 11 @ Gelston Castle, September 3 – 5
While some things have changed this year at the 11th annual moe.down, some things will always remain the same. From the mayor of moe.ville to Al.nouncements, it sometimes seems like the past ten years blended together, but this year the move an hour down the road to Gelston Castle in Mohawk, NY shook things up for even the most seasoned moe.ron. From amazing sound magnified by the natural amphitheater to the light show on stage enhanced by beautifully glowing lanterns and spectacular firework show, the entire weekend played off of the beautiful surroundings of the Mohawk Valley. While the castle itself was a bit smaller than expected and all but in ruins, this site surely had many things going for it.
[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]
Musically, the weekend followed the standard moe.down set up with the host band’s handpicked favorites. With the new site this year, one of the biggest changes was a true second stage – named the Buzz Stage – which replaced the Beer Tent. As in past years, a few up and coming bands were given the opportunity to play multiple sets on the second stage which gave fans more than just a short taste of these stellar acts.
The Macpodz started things up for fans by keeping the funky jazz flowing on Friday, while Turbine – who also played a 5am stealth set among the RVs – took over during the day Saturday. Monkey Wrench, former tour mates of moe., had fun onstage playing to covers like Yellow Submarine and Escape (the Pina Colada song). Orgone, who was still unknown to most fans, took everyone by surprise with Fanny Franklin just bursting at the seams with enough energy to keep everyone moving and staying warm as the evening winds whipped up the hill.
READ ON for more of Carla’s thoughts and Jeremy’s photos from last weekend’s moe.down 11 at Gelston Castle in Mohawk, NY…
While we’ve seen sporadic live dates from Particle over the last few years, 2010 marks an important milestone for the techno-jam-rockers as they are celebrating their tenth anniversary. To commemorate
This year at Hidden Track, we concocted a little experiment for our year-end Best Albums of 2009 list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.
To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of around 100 nominees and populated it in a Google spreadsheet – essentially anything that anybody who writes for Hidden Track liked at all, made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently vote on the whole list (omitting anything unfamiliar) on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with 33 voters with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees; some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we eliminated anything that did not receive at least three votes, calculated the average scores, and sorted it. We took the top 25 scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2009. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.
Let’s check out numbers 20 through 16 and see what made the cut…
20) Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Key Tracks: Stillness Is The Move, Useful Chamber, Two Doves
Sounds Like: Art Rock for people that like Folk Rock, Talking Heads
Skinny: Is it possible that The Dirty Projectors made an art-rock jamband album? With just nine tracks, Bitte Orca covers a lot of ground with a handful of songs that wind their way past the five minute mark – employing schizophrenic twist and turns that include sharp tempo changes, odd time signatures and everything from hand claps to harpsichords. The band has also impressed the likes of David Byrne – who recorded a song with them for the Dark Was The Night compilation – and The Roots who jammed with them at show at Bowery Ballroom shortly after they appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.
READ ON for the next four albums in our week long countdown…
[Originally Published: May 19, 2009]
This three-chord ditty, loosely based on Hernán Cortés, is originally off the 1970 Neil Young & Crazy Horse album Zuma. The simplicity and shear length of the tune makes it a prime candidate for cover renditions, and more of then than not… guest appearances. Often times those sit-ins include Neil Young himself as Neil has played Cortez with two of this week’s contestants.
Fun fact: the original take had an extra verse at the end that was lost due to a problem in the studio. When Neil was informed of the glitch he simply responded, “I never liked that verse anyway.” Checking in on last week, moe. and Umphrey’s McGee are still battling it out in the Can’t You Hear Me Knocking Cover Wars, so head on over there and help settle the score.
The Contestants:
Built To Spill: Single. Double. No, Triple Guitars! This twenty-minute romp was recorded during the 1999 Keep It Like A Secret Tour. We’ve got a lot of distinct voices this week, but perhaps none more unique than Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch. Source: Live
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/builtcortez.mp3]READ ON to hear and vote on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Earlier this year Doug Martsch, the creative force behind Built to Spill, said in an interview that “There are plenty of Built to Spill records- no one is in a hurry to hear something new”. With a hugely impressive back catalog he is right and from the sound of his newest album There Is No Enemy, hurrying was one of the last things on the bands mind; they seem to be stuck in neutral and coasting.
With legendary rockers Aerosmith forced to cancel the remainder of their summer tour due to the severe injuries that lead singer Steven Tyler suffered after a fall from the stage
While Pitchfork may be known for their lengthy album reviews that usually contain so many obscure music references that make you wonder if they have a pool at the office,
Accolades don’t seem to stick to Doug Martsch. The singer, guitarist and songwriting force behind indie rockers Built to Spill has seen his share of praise in close to two decades with the band. He is often touted as one of the genre’s best guitarists, and the group has released six albums to critical acclaim – most recently 2006’s You in Reverse.
On the surface, with iPods selling in the millions, downloads becoming more and more accessible, and even the actual coining of the moniker, 'The MySpace Generation,' 2006 may appear to be a relatively quiet year for the album. But taken as a whole, it was actually another solid year for LP releases. Sure, there were less blockbusters and a few too many prematurely hyped 'next best thing' mp3s, but when we sat down to go over the piles of CDs, there were more than enough quality titles that had to be reluctantly voted off the island. What we ended up with was a list that offered a little bit of everything – a blurring of genres and styles, featuring artists who created definitive statements – easily identifiable as 2006, but timeless all the same.
With Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie, Built to Spill arguably round out the current top three of hard-working, indie-pop, Northwest-based bands. Though hailing from Idaho, Built to Spill has long held the affections of the Seattle music scene firmly in its grasp. Unsurprisingly, the first night of their recent three night stand at The Showbox showed them to be in top form.
