AMERICAN PANCAKE: September 2011

FYF 2011 is now a fond memory. While some will argue that punk rock officially died once it became fashionable, the term punk has, over the years, become an umbrella term that includes a whole myriad of styles and at FYF, the punk aesthetic (at least) was present in all the acts. The music cut a wide swath of genres from the electronic dance pop of Yachts, the ambient post rock of Explosions in the Sky, the exquisitely sad shoe gaze folk rock of Cass McCombs, the indie pop of Mister Heavenly, the folk meets country meets post punk of Strange Boys,the wonderfully bizarro acid house styles of Dan Deacon and all type of punk / noise bands from Off to Tijuana Panthers, to Ty Segall to Death From Above 1979. Luminary (old school) acts- Dead Milkmen, Guided by Voices, and Descendents created a razor sharp buzz in the air.

Music festivals and I don't mix well because my indecisiveness haunts me like a bad tattoo. So while I decide to see Band A at a certain time, I will run into a friend who saw Band B at that same time and who will ramble on incessantly about how stellar they were and I will lament my decision to see Band A. This drives me insane (short drive). So while I will neurotically lament the bands I did not get to see, here are some brief thoughts on the ones I did see (in no particular order).

Tijuana Panthers played so damn early in the day that many of their fans were probably still looking for parking spaces or traversing down the hills of China town while they played their pure surf rock with added kick.

Cults having just arrived from the UK played their sweetly dark pop as pockets of girls in the crowd danced along. Brian Oblivion roused the crowd saying, "We just got off a plane from London about 2 hours ago. Europe fucking sucks compared to this" before plunging into "Never Heal Myself."

Ty Segall's set was explosive and just plain fun. He is one of those artists whose energy you simply cannot capture on record. You have to see him live.

Long Beach's Cold War Kids looked more like polished jet setters since the last time I saw them but still got down and dirty musically speaking.

Smith Westerns' Cullen Omori spent much of their set brushing his long hair out of his face as a So Cal wind seemed intent on blinding him with his own locks. They played a great set and Omori joked about the mushy factor of the song All Die Young.

Mister Heavenly sounded stripped down as a three piece band and played rather early in the day but the appreciative crowd swelled by the second song. Their pop sensibility reminds me a little bit of Crowded House (after copious amounts of recreational drugs).

Broken Social Scene played an anthem of a set befitting a stadium show. With their small horn section in tow, the band's barrage of sound stirred their musical pot until it boiled over. As their final song built to a crescendo they ended it with the exclamation, "Have a good life. Do something important with it."

Girls absolutely mesmerized and got some musical assistance from the brothers Weiss, Evan (Slang Chickens) and Darren (Papa) sitting in on guitar and drums.

Yacht not only churned out vocodor enhanced electronic dance pop but also presented an "About Me" slide presentation that was both charming and hysterical.

Guided By Voices, played two fisted rock and roll fueled by nicotine and the adulation of the crowd.

As I waited to catch the Descendents, my cam's battery took a stage dive into no power mode. I was able to charge up during their set but unfortunately was not able to capture even one song on video. I love the Descendents for forging their pop punk path back in the day and I hate them for probably being the sole reason that Blink 182 exists. Front man Milo Aukerman is an interesting character. I mean, how many punk rockers are also biochemists? I have always admired how he was able to meld the punk and nerd sides of himself. Catching the Descendents live is a rarity and their guitar heavy set powered up the huge multi-generational crowd. I saw both 14 year old kids and guys pushing 60 mouthing the words and posturing like they were going to start a fight.

The FYF Fest was the 19th stop on Death From Above 1979's tour. Despite obvious problems with the onstage monitors, Jesse F. Keeler and Sebastien Grainger made some glorious noise all the while stopping to take digs at the sound engineers in between the first few songs. At one point Sebastien asked, "How hard can it be? There are only two of us." and Jesse added, "Please, for fuck's sake, break the amps, we're the last band, it's fine." In the end it was damn fine. Death From Above 1979 played with such fury that I am sure that everyone in attendance hope that this reunion will be permanent.

Other observations: As the bands age range widened so did the crowd. I saw a lot of folks who could be grandparents. I also saw some young couples with small, small toddlers in tow or strapped to their bodies. This always disturbs me. Get a fucking baby sitter for god sakes! Just way too loud and dusty for the wee ones. Speaking of the dust, efforts to wet down the dust bowl type fields and cover them with barkish ground cover worked somewhat but the dust still kicked up and I saw my fair share of kids pulling out their inhalers as their lungs got irritated from it all. There seemed to be more food venues and more than one public water fountain which was a vast improvement over last year. The cost of the food was a little severe but that is to be expected. There were some really good eats. I had an amazing concoction of Angus beef over french fries with some wonderful spices and people told me the pizza was pretty damn good although everything tastes great when you let yourself starve until the point were you HAVE to eat. There were the usual suspects- hipster types sporting all sorts of inspired get ups so they would be surely be photographed by LA Weekly or the LA Times (and were), people as white as paper showing all that translucent pink skin who you know woke up on Sunday with 3rd degree burns and looking like boiled lobsters, the guys who get way to squirrely and topple over people who are sitting down, and girls (way too dressed up) wearing big ass platforms and trying to navigate uncertain terrain and the occasional gopher holes. Speaking of which, check out the little furry creatures I filmed in the VIP section (and check out the gopher as well).

At the end of the day, the founders of the Fuck Yeah Fest, Sean Carlson, Phil Hoelting and Keith Morris have to be proud of how their vision has blossomed into the LA behemoth of a festival that it has become. Kudos to Goldenvoice as well and the army of paid workers and unpaid volunteers who worked their ass off to show Los Angeles a good time.
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Adler Bloom

See more pics @ FYF 2011 Flikr page
See more videos @ American Pancake Live