Popmatters does some Monday morning quarterbacking on Lollapalooza which would have been a doozy (hint: go see the Siren Festival in Coney Island instead).
In the postscript to his statement on the Lollapalooza Website, Farrell issued a cryptic message, "I am still looking for a shining moment or two for us this summer. I hope you will receive me when I call." In the interim, one can't help but think about what could have been. Imagine standing in a field enjoying a lineup that included OutKast, the Roots, Velvet Revolver, Morrissey, Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes, Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey, or some other variation to your liking. Organizers did an admirable thing in moving to include the jam band movement (String Cheese Incident) and its fans, but somehow they fell short with metal, up-and-coming, classic rock and hip-hop artists. As we wait to hear about the uncertain fate of a touring institution, the only certainty is that Lollapalooza 2004 is cancelled leaving an enormous void in the touring plans for many bands and their followers.
As the uncool kiddies say..."word" (except for the jam band thing - I was thinking Morrisey and String Cheese was when I was going to be taking my chill out break....).
Since I've been back in DC, I've been reading more and more of Sharon Zimmerman's reviews. She write sin the City Paper and Washington Post. Here (I hope this link works) she skewers the new Sonic Youth and here she bites a big chunk out of Robert Smith's ass (annoying registration required). I like the cut of her jib and is a welcome alternative (if these two papers can really be considered alternative) to Kiviat and Jenkins.
For starters, band leader Robert Smith -- he of the cherubic face and the fright-wig hair -- enlisted the services of an outside producer. Ross Robinson, a lifelong Cure fan and knob-twiddler of choice for such whiny metalheads as Korn and Slipknot, got the nod, and under his tutelage, the band -- surprise, surprise -- gets self-indulgent in a hurry.
The album's first track, "Lost," finds Smith in full primal-scream mode, belting out lyrics that should have stayed locked in his therapist's filing cabinet, while the band bashes away dutifully behind him. On "Before Three," Smith waxes pathetic about a childhood memory over music that's alternately mournful and menacing, and elsewhere, the titles of such percussive bellyachers as "The End of the World," "alt.end," and "Us or Them" give much of Smith's thematic game plan away: These tracks aren't songs, exactly. They're harangues.
Yes, yes, I'll get back to the project. In fact, my vacation includes pleny of down time here in DC. I am making a trip up to New York for awhile and won't be posting for a week or so.
Speaking of the Youth, here are their new tour dates post-Lalapoolooka implosion:
7/13 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
7/14 Seattle, WA Showbox
7/15 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
7/17 San Francisco, CA Fillmore
7/19 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theatre
7/20 San Diego, CA SOMA
7/21 Phoenix, AZ Marquee Theatre
7/23 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues- Mandalay Bay
7/25 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue (former Bricks)
7/28 Minneapolis, MN The Quest
7/29 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
7/30 Milwaukee, WI The Rave
7/31 Columbia, MO The Blue Note
8/2 Detroit, MI
8/4 Montreal, QUE Metropolis
8/5 Toronto, ONT Koolhaus
8/6 Ottawa, ONT Capital Hall
8/11 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
8/14 Boston, MA Avalon
8/15 Portland, ME State Theater
8/19 Raleigh, NC Cat's Cradle
8/20 Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
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