POPFEST! day three: eux autres, the secret history, pants yell!, and the radio dept.

The Secret History with The Radio Dept., Pants Yell!, and Eux Autres @ The Bell House, New York (May 16, 2009)

I used to keep a blog about live music, but the problem was always that I was months and months late with reviews. That seems to be happening here, too.

But, there also isn’t much to report about the third day of Popfest.

Eux Autres delivered a particularly sad performance, even though I am really fond of their music. Having added Yoshi from The Aislers Set, I was excited to hear some of their new material. The result was their usual brand of frantic jangly Pacific Northwest pop with boy-girl vocals, but there just wasn’t much exciting about the performance. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and attribute it to the fact that The Bell House was just too big of a venue for them. I am still excited to hear their new single, which you can order from their website.

Eux Autres


I was a little excited to see The Secret History, if only because Michael Grace, Jr. was so brilliant with My Favorite. But what happens when self-proclaimed indie pop stars get too full of themselves? Only bad things. Grace came off as an aged, pretentious idol, past his prime in more ways than one, but still living in his imagined glory days. (My Favorite wasn’t even all that popular!) Their Myspace even says that to snag their new singer, Lisa Ronson, they published a classified ad looking for “Female Voice/Tragic Cult Figure.” Please. At least their cover of The Smiths' "Reel Around the Fountain" was appropriate.

Pants Yell!, a band who delivered a really excellent debut EP, but whose previous effort, Alison Statton, was just bad, continued such a trend, giving an uninspired, completely bland performance. They come off as kind of whiny indie rock boys, not particularly endearing with pretty mediocre music.

There was no reason to stick around. My apologies to The Radio Dept., who I heard were a little better tonight from Kristine of Very Truly Yours, but there was no way it could have been worth the pain.

NYC POPFEST

(This has nothing to do with the post, but my mind seems to have split—I just love the puns.)


Okay, so I totally lied about updating the blog more, but quite frankly all I can think about is my thesis. So unless you want to hear all about phenomenological experience, the production of spectacle, and the turn in presence in art after 1960, there’s not much I can do.

But to get back on track (and to procrastinate writing the last six pages): NEW YORK CITY POPFEST!!

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of music festivals—they are usually in the summer in the scorching sun as I sweat buckets and get to watch mediocre bands from a distance. I mean, at least The Pains and The Vivian Girls are playing Pitchfork here in Chicago this year, but that is barely a consolation.

New York City Popfest is definitely something I can get behind, though. Pop shows at night, scattered around New York, what could be better? Oh, the fact that Cats on Fire, Liechtenstein, The Radio Dept., The Tartans, The Smittens, Eux Autres, The Ballet, and Very Truly Yours are all playing? Well… I guess.

I must admit, San Francisco Popfest is just as tempting, maybe even more given this will be a rare stateside appearance for some of my favorite Scandinavian bands: Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Champagne Riot, Northern Portrait, Pelle Carlberg, and Springfactory, not to mention what will possibly be TULLYCRAFT’S LAST EVER LIVE PERFORMANCE, but San Francisco is four hours away, and tickets to New York were just so cheap…

Bought my plane tickets, hotel reserved, Popfest tickets all secured, I am totally ready.

Now I just need for this stupid thesis to finish itself…