All Points Yes!
Venus Zine’s official guide for Jersey City’s All Points West Festival
By Jake Giles
Published: July 27th, 2009 | 2:20pm
As the summer festival season moves full speed ahead, unleashing a fiery storm of all-day musical goodness, the prospect of planning a schedule becomes as daunting as Michael Jackson news coverage. Take the All Points West festival, July 31 to August 2 in New Jersey: with a menu featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case, and Lykke Li — having to pick one over the other feels like picking favorite children. Thankfully, Venus Zine is here to make your music death-matches a bit easier.
Venus Zine’s official All Points West picks for FRIDAY, JULY 31:
Erika Wennerstrom sings with a swagger in her voice, sounding like she could croon you to sleep and kick your ass in the same night. As front-woman of the Ohio trio Heartless Bastards, the band is responsible for some of the best gritty alt-country to emerge in the last decade. Their newest release on Fat Possum, the 11-track The Mountain, is loaded with the same raw flavor plus a few new instrumental additions to give the band its fullest sound to date.
Heartless Bastards play the Bullet Stage at 1:00 p.m.
It’s hard to talk about music from 2007 without mentioning The National’s Boxer album (Beggars Banquet). The at times sparse and other times jangly guitar–packed affair topped many best-of lists and garnered a devoted following for the Brooklyn-based quintet. Baritone lead singer Matt Berninger comes armed with a voice that travels the range of menacing, sexy, and sensitive.
The National plays the Blue Comet Stage at 4:50 p.m.
With a headliner like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, you can’t afford to drink yourself silly before the main event. Newly adopting an electronic element to accompany their power punk-pop sound, some would argue that the band has never sounded better than on their latest release, It’s Blitz (Interscope). Hearing live translations of new songs like “Zero,” “Heads Will Roll,” and “Hysteric” will be worth sticking it out. Plus, one word (and a letter): Karen-O!
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs play the Blue Comet Stage at 7:30 p.m.
Venus Zine’s official All Points West picks for SATURDAY, AUGUST 1:
Annie Clark, better known to those lucky enough to know her as St. Vincent, just released one of the best records of 2009.Actor (4AD) is a cinematic, multi-layered affair inspired by Clark’s film favorites and enriched with lush harmonies and orchestral underscores. Besides, anyone who can come up with a song title like “Jesus Saves, I Spend” is worthy of more than a minute of your time.
St. Vincent plays the Bullet Stage at 6:05 p.m.
If you haven’t experienced “the voice” in person, make Neko Case your priority on the first day of August and second day of the All Points West Festival. Case recently released her strongest effort to date, a storm of an album she’s appropriately titled Middle Cyclone (Anti). A force of nature herself, Case has the perfect, louder-than-bells voice that will reach festival-goers miles from the stage. Not to mention, seeing Neko Case live is a 2-for-1 deal, as hers and backing vocalist Kelly Hogan’s stand-up routine is just as entertaining as Case’s tales of folklore, heartache, and mother nature.
Neko Case plays Bullet Stage at 7:20 p.m.
Let’s be honest: the stereotypically dreamy sound of indie rock can grow stale after a full day’s worth. Thankfully, you’ll have the Ting Tings to administer a healthy dose of ass-shaking, drum-heavy pop to blow out your lighter and move your hips. The Brit band duo comprised of Katie White and Jules De Martino have been igniting clubs and garage parties with their freshman effort We Started Nothing (Columbia) since its release in 2008. Their set will be the hot spot for those who need a break from airy voices and acoustic strumming.
The Ting Tings play the Queen of the Valley Stage at 10:35 p.m.
Venus Zine’s official All Points West picks for SUNDAY, AUGUST 2:
Don’t get confused — you’re not listening to a video game soundtrack. That’s probably one of La Roux’s underground club hits bouncing from left earphone to right. With a number one single and heavy critical buzz hovering over lead vocalist Elly Jackson’s faux-hawk from the future, La Roux has to prove that their punk synth-pop has the same pull live that it does on the dance floor.
La Roux plays the Queen of the Valley Stage at 6:20 p.m.
People should be required to thank Sweden every day for their musical imports. One of their latest and greatest is the small-in-size, but enormously talented Lykke Li. Currently at work on the follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut of alien pop, Youth Novels (Atlantic), Lykke Li will play drums, sing through a vocoder, and maybe even whip out a Beyonce cover if you’re lucky. She’s one of those artists who brings the best elements of her studio recordings and amplifies them in live form.
Lykke Li plays the Queen of the Valley Stage at 7:35 p.m.
Look no further than “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend” as sunny summer anthems for years to come. The duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden are collectively known as MGMT, formerly The Management. Still riding out their smooth groove–infested debut, Oracular Spectacular (Sony), Goldwasser and VanWyngarden make music that feels like you’re looking through a kaleidoscope while laying on a sandy beach. What better way to close a summer festival than that?
MGMT plays the Bullet Stage at 9:35 p.m.
Issue #44
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