Land of NOD

So, this past weekend was something called the Land of NOD Experiment in my hometown of Jackson, Michigan.
It was the third year of the festival, however, it was the first year they put together something on a large scale.

The organizers have worked for years now with the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans every October.
They started as just a vendor there and have eventually worked their way up to producing their very own stage there every year.

All over the internet, I'm reading a lot of bad things being said about the Land of NOD this year.
Sure, it was a monsoon both Friday and Saturday almost all day long. You can't fault them for that.
It made the festival grounds a mess and drove out all kinds of mosquitoes and other nasty bug creatures.

Okay, those things can't be pinned on the organizers.
A lack of overall organization can be though. I'll give them that. The festival did seem in a bit of disarray.
Bands canceling last minute, un-announced schedule changes and no festival schedule at the grounds at all until Sunday all could have been prevented, or at least better conveyed to attendees.

If you look past those flaws, and keep in mind this was the first year doing a festival that big at that location, it was actually a really fun time with some really interesting people.

Myself, along with two of the bands I work for: Elliot Street Lunatic and Jetpack On! got to play this year.
That was an honor for sure. I feel bad for Jetpack On! though, as they played early Saturday, just after the monsoon rains ended.
Not really the fault of anyone but mother nature, but they played to a thin crowd.

Sunday was a bit better, and Elliot Street and I played to decent sized, enthusiastic crowds. I even got a few people to dance in the mud. Not bad.

Sunday also featured the two acts I was most looking forward to seeing: Of Montreal and Dr. Octagon.
I've loved Of Montreal since the first time I've heard them, and Kool Keith's Dr. Octagon persona is somewhat legendary, so I was interested to see exactly what the hype was all about. Neither act disappointed.

Dr. Octagon was a bit earlier in the evening, as the sun was going down, so it was HOT when they played.
I dug what they had going on, although their set was cut short due to technical issues that caused the start of the set to be delayed for a half hour or more.

Of Montreal was top notch. I read that this was kind of a practice show for them for their upcoming headlining tour for their new album "False Priest" that comes out next month. They debuted a few new tracks off the album, including one called "Sex Karma" that features the line "your look just like a playground to me". Yeah, pretty straight forward there.

They had an interesting set up with webcam quality cameras positioned around the stage, but instead of being stationary like some bands have started employing recently, theirs were dynamic and often followed wherever the best things on stage were taking place. The footage was then projected on two screens behind the band after being filtered through what can best be described as acid influenced visual effects.

They played a wide variety of songs from their last 3 albums and plenty off of the upcoming "False Priest" LP.
I was very happy with the songs they played and I was glad I was able to catch the entire set, as the only other time I had the opportunity to see them; at Lollapalooza 2006; I was only able to catch part of the set, as it overlapped with another favorite of mine, the Shins.

Color me impressed though.
Even with all the hiccups, the Land of NOD folks pulled off a fun weekend that was enjoyed by many.
Dancing and essentially standing in mud all weekend was more fun that it sounds.
I hope they have me play again next year if they return.

Here's some pictures (I only was able to snag pictures on Sunday, because I was not about to have my phone out in the rain):

Of Montreal



Kool Keith/DJ Qbert = Dr. Octagon

Listen to my new album "Lysergic Shorelines"

Listen to my new album "Lysergic Shorelines" in it's entirety.

You can also purchase it on cassette tape
(comes with free digital download) or you can just
get the digital version.

Both are $5 and come with a free bonus track -
a cover of "The Vowels Pt. 2" by Why?

Creativity

I feel very creative lately.

For whatever reason, for the past few weeks, I have wanted to do nothing but make music, play shows and even write a bit.
This is the first real burst of creative juices I've had in a long time. It feels good.

I'm finishing up my tape release as we speak. It's a 9 song LP called "Lysergic Shorelines" that features 6 songs that haven't been publicly released before and 3 songs that were on the "Two-r EP(s)".

I feel like this is finally a really good all around representation of the overall atmosphere I'm trying to create with the Galactic Vacationer tracks. There's a good mix of mellow, almost droned out, blissful textures with some upbeat, heavy hitting, IDM/breakbeat style stuff. Some of my favorite beats I've created so far went into these songs. These are the songs I really enjoy playing live too, as they get the crowd moving more and also allow me to get into them more on stage.

I even started singing in front of people by doing a cover of "The Vowels Pt. 2" by Why? I hadn't sang in front of people for almost 10 years other than joining Great Lakes Myth Society on stage at the Broadway Theater for "Across the Bridge". It was nerve wracking to say the least. Whiskey helped.

What it did though, was allow me to break through the barrier I had kind of put up. I had not really felt comfortable performing until that point. Now, I can't get enough of playing my music for willing ears.

Another fun, exciting endeavor presented itself lately too. I've been collaborating with Totally Boring on a few of my songs. He's lending some really great guitar textures to the beats and synth sequencing I had in place. These songs have turned out way better than either of us expected and one is featured on the "Lysergic Shorelines" tape.

Collaborating with another creative mind has also opened up some avenues for me that I had not explored in the past. It's nice to be able to play music and bounce ideas off of another person, rather than having to concoct a song from start to finish by myself. I like that collaborative process and in these few weeks since we've started playing together, there's definitely been a feeling that perhaps a full time band could form from these jam sessions. Andrew and Keith from the local band V are going to start sitting in on some jams and we'll see what we can come up with.

Lastly, I'm playing a really big music festival this weekend called the Land of NOD Experiment. Of Montreal, Tokyo Police Club, Dr. Octagon, Murder By Death and Eagles of Death Metal are all playing, just to name a few. It's weird that such a cool event is taking place in my hometown of Jackson, but I'm honored to be a part of it. I am playing Sunday afternoon at 2pm. Catch my set if you're there.

I'll leave you with a few of my new songs below. Enjoy!

Chicago and stuff

Lately I've been in a writing mood. I'm not sure if it's the mix of being enamored all over again with Bukowski or if it's the fact that I'm finally starting to get a grasp on what I want to do musically. Either way, words are coming easier these days and I've had this blog for almost year (or something) and I realize I've not done much with it at all. I'd like to change that, so I plan on writing at least an entry per day, or close to it.

Yesterday Nadia took me to Chicago. I say that because I definitely would not have gone otherwise due to the fact that my job only recently started having hours available again. Nadia's cousin is in town from Alaska though and they both insisted we visit Chicago while she is in the area. Needless to say, it didn't take much arm twisting, other than the fact that they said they'd pay for gas. Our friend Andrew also tagged along, as he'd never been to Chicago and everyone should get a little change of scenery from Mt. Pleasant every now and then.

We decided we'd leave Mt. Pleasant right after I got out of Rubble's on Friday night. We wanted to beat the traffic heading into Chicago, as we knew that with Pitchfork Festival there this weekend, things might be a bit busier than usual, and that is never good when we're talking Chicago traffic. We ended up leaving Mt. Pleasant around 2:30am on Friday. We put gas in the car and went on our merry way.

Things were going great, my car was running better than it has in a long time because I finally gave it a bit of a tune up with some new spark plugs and good thorough cleaning of the battery terminals as well as some new oil. Everything was a-OK. That's when my front tires started shaking rather violently. When you drive a '94 Escort, you kind of get used to the fact that when you go more than 70, it isn't the smoothest ride in the world, but this was not the normal vibration I'm so used to. This was bad. I went about another mile to see if it would go away, but it was getting worse. I pulled off at the Comstock Park exit just north of Grand Rapids. I got out of the car to find that my front left tire was starting to split and the tire was extremely hot to the touch.

This was around 4 in the morning mind you, and I know none of us were in any mood to be dealing with a blown tire. We just wanted to get to Chicago, especially the others, as they had never been before. It took about a half hour to deal with getting the destroyed tire off, put on the spare and get directions to the nearest Wal-Mart to try to get a new tire. Driving to Chicago on a donut was clearly out of the question and no one wanted to just go back home.

We found a Wal-Mart nearby on Alpine but sadly found out that the tire center portion was not 24 hour and no one would be around until 8am! Luckily there was an IHOP across the street to help us kill a little bit of the 3 hours we would be sitting there waiting for someone to show up so we could get a new tire and get on the road. So much for beating traffic and being in Chicago in time to see the sunrise on Lake Michigan. I've always seen the sun set on the lake, but in the handful of times I've been to Chicago, I've never been awake when the sun came up. I wanted a new perspective, but instead we were left with a Wal-Mart parking lot sunrise. Joy.

I will say this though: when we explained our situation to the folks in the tire center when they arrived, and the fact that we'd been there since between 4:30 and 5am, they worked quickly for us and we were back on the road by 8:30. Now let me educate you all on the fact that A) I normally just take the Amtrak to Chicago, I had only ridden in a car there one time when I was 13, so I definitely was not driving then and B) I have a slight nervousness about driving over large bridges. I think I get that from my mom. Anyway, driving into Chicago was all fine and dandy, and I found it amusing that even though I was going the posted speed limit or around 5 over, people were flying by me 20-30mph faster and then looked at me like I was the ass hat. I handled the Chicago Skyway bridge okay, I just tried not to acknowledge the fact that I was even on a bridge that looks like it could fall over at any minute.

The traffic once we got into the city wasn't actually all that bad, considering it was 10:30 on a busy Saturday, with the music festival going on and a home Cubs game at noon, I was actually surprised that there was only a slight traffic jam and delay where 94 comes back into 90 just south of the Loop.

We made it to where my friend said to park near Logan Square by about 11 and took the Blue Line downtown to Millenium Park to see my friends Sybris play at Pritzker Pavilion. If you've never been, it is one of the coolest works of architecture I've seen, and I've been to most of the major cities in the eastern US. It's a beautiful mix of wood and steel that vaguely looks like a bloomin' onion from a far. Seeing Sybris there was somewhat surreal, both for the fact that it was such an immense and amazing venue, and the fact that they were awake and rocking at noon, and outside the confines of the dark, dingy dives and venues they thrive in.

Sybris


At this point when the show was done, it was already getting extremely hot. The forecast called for 94 degrees, but I swear it was hotter. It was almost miserable outside. I showed the gang Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain, as well as "The Bean", you know, typical 'tourist' stuff. The heat was killing us and even while 3 of the 4 of us either walk or bike or both most of the time around town here in Mt. Pleasant, walking was becoming a serious burden. We decided it was time to seek something to do indoors and we also wanted to escape the busy part of downtown. We caught a train up to the Water Tower and visited the crazy 7 level mall there.

"The Bean"


Buckingham Fountain


I know, I know, a mall?! We're in Chicago, we're supposed to do things we don't do in around Michigan. Yes, that's true, but we mainly went for the A/C and because that place is really cool looking. Can't fault those reasons.

Anyway, once we cooled down a bit, and once I saw that the Cubs game was finished, we decided to head to Wrigleyville and more specifically, Strange Cargo. I love that store. I believe we decided it was a "hipster's paradise". Sure, I can agree with that. They've got really great shirts and things and I feel like everyone should visit it any time you're in Chicago. It did suck being so close to Wrigley though, not because of a crowd or anything, because it wasn't really that bad, but simply because I WANTED to see that game really bad. A day game at Wrigley. Against the Phillies. Being a geeky sports nerd, I salivated at the idea. Sadly much to my dismay when I found out we would be going to Chicago for sure on Tuesday and I looked up tickets for the game, all of the cheap seats were sold out. Typical luck.

Some crazy bongs we saw walking to Strange Cargo:


After we got some really bitchin' shirts at Strange Cargo (mine is green with the image of "The Dude" on it, Andrew got one of a giraffe hitting a gravity bong and Nadia got one that read "What are you looking at, dicknose?", made famous by Mac on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), we decided to achieve the other goal we set out to accomplish on the trip: eating Costa Rican food at Irazu. If you've never been, Irazu is this amazing Costa Rican restaurant near Wicker Park on Milwaukee. Get off at the Western stop on the Blue Line, it's like 2 blocks from there. Seriously, I'm not even really that big of a fan of "ethnic" foods, but this place is dynamite. Both times I've been, including this occasion, I left there desiring the ability to eat there more often. (someone should get on opening something in Mt. Pleasant)

Andrew's new shirt


Irazu


At this point, we were hot, sweaty and sore from walking around and enjoying the city all day. It was time to take some things back to the car and change shirts. We still planned on heading to Navy Pier in the evening for the fireworks they do every Saturday during the summer. We had one little detour to make though, and everyone but Nadia was in on the secret, but I wouldn't tell her where we were going.

Our friend Joe Hertler was playing a show in town at this house venue called Summer Camp. It's right by Logan Square and about 10 blocks from where the car was parked, so we headed over. My friend Nate, who runs Fusion Shows, was also there, as he's touring with his friend Koji, who is on a mini-tour in support of his latest release. I hadn't gotten a chance to see Koji any of the times he's came to Michigan, which I know seems crazy because he's here all the time. It was nice to see some friendly faces hours from home. The part that sucked though, is that the show was starting way later than advertised, which I should have expected, it was a house show after all. We sat around and chatted with everyone for a bit, but I was getting really tired and we still had a long drive home.

After some deliberation, we decided to forego the fireworks and a quick swim in Lake Michigan and head home before it got too late. We said goodbye to everyone and set out on the long journey back to Mt. Pleasant. 5 hours and some near doze off moments later, we were home, reveling the day we just endured. For better or worse, I showed 3 new people a town that everyone seems to fall in love with. The trip re-awakened my passion for Chicago and my desire to eventually settle down there.

For now though, I'll let those dreams and aspirations, as well as the taste of that Costa Rican food be my fuel to work hard and do my best to achieve those goals in the near future.