Pygmalion 2010 initial lineup revealed

Posted in MUSIC to Previews by Smile Politely Editors on Friday, April 23, 2010 at 2:05 pm

With no further adieu here's the initial list of bands performing at the 2010 Pygmalion Festival:

Roky Erickson with Okkervil River: Check out Doug's piece from last Friday here.

Cap'n Jazz: Several thousand words could and have been written on the bands Cap'n Jazz has either shared members with (American Football, Joan of Arc, the Promise Ring) or greatly influenced (Braid, The Get Up Kids, Algernon Cadwallader), but that isn't the reason you need to go see them. The size of Cap'n Jazz's rep isn't the reason they've been canonized in the punk mythos.

No, the reason they matter, that they're such an important band is the energy. Cap'n Jazz have captured, distilled and spit back out that same indescribable force that Coltrane tapped into in 1963, Minor Threat in 1980, Nirvana in 1989 and Arcade Fire in 2004 — to quote "Soria", it's just something I can't put my finger on. They just have that it. The small things are the reason Cap'n Jazz are legends — the crashing intro to "Little League", Tim Kinsella's voice breaking on "Flashpoint: Catheter", the falsetto "without you-ooh" in their cover of "Take on Me". Some would call it virtuoso, but whatever it is, it's the most exciting thing in music. That same energy remains alive and kicking to this day, and will come to Champaign-Urbana in the form of a ferocious and utterly memorable live set come September.

Caribou: This is an addition that we just learned about an hour ago, so bear with us. If you've never heard Caribou, the music pretty much defies categorization, but imagine if someone took big sixties pop, mixed it with disco, dub, trance then left it all in the sun for too long. The band's new album Swim has been getting near unanimous praise and it would be pretty hard to imagine too many top ten songs of 2010 lists that don't include "Odessa." And Swim was specifically written to be more dancey, so we can only imagine the live set follows suit.

Those Darlins: More than just rockabilly, Those Darlins mash up old time country, punk and surf rock sounding like they come from Nashville by way Detroit in 1978. This is pretty much guaranteed to be a great show.

+/– {Plus/Minus}: You might recognize these guys from the Wicker Park soundtrack, which they're all over. If not, here's a primer: they sound like a prog version of Headlights crashed their tour van into a giant bank of synthesizers, and their drummer has toured with Kelly Clarkson.

Owen: Hopefully, Mike Kinsella won't get stuck opening for someone like Japandroids again (an ill-fitted slot if there ever was one). But if he does, maybe the crowd will take a hint and shut the fuck up for once, so his phenomenal songwriting can be appreciated.

Cults: ...oh hey, it's a buzz band! Cults deserve the hype they've been getting though — their debut single "Go Outside" is an absurdly catchy mixture of early-60s jangle pop and production right off of a jj record.

David Dondero: You may have seen him opening for Throw Me the Statue last year at Red Herring (actually, maybe not — that show was horribly attended). Nonetheless, Dondero remains a cornerstone of the singer/songwriter scene. Plus, he basically invented Conor Oberst's whole disaffected suburban kid routine.

Colour Revolt: Playing dirty rock 'n roll steeped heavily in the blues with the occasional Cobainesque howl, this is what rock n' roll from Mississippi should sound like. And so it does.

All the Day Holiday: An evolving band thats sound keeps venturing farther away from their emo roots and into a more complex and mature sound. Vocalist Dan Simmons has an impressive set of pipes.

Pomegranates: The first time Pomegranates visited town, they were sandwiched between one of the best Headlights sets I've ever seen and one of the best World's First Flying Machine sets I've ever seen in an uncomfortably packed Void Room. They went home as the crowd's favorite act of the night — not an easy feat by any measure, especially on this campus.

Jimmy Gnecco: The primary force behind the band Ours, Jimmy Gnecco's soaring rock music has developed a highly devoted fanbase. In a Pygmalion lineup that's heavy with singers that can actually sing, Jimmy's vocals easily lap the field.

Common Loon: If you haven't seen these guys by now, you must be intentionally avoiding them — bad move. Common Loon toe the line between blistering shoegaze and ethereal dream pop to phenomenal effect. Plus, they do a sweet Madonna cover.

Elsinore: The sentiment for missing Common Loon goes double for Elsinore. Their live sets have been improving at such a steady rate over the last year that by September they might make your head explode. And by then you'll know the words to every song since Yes, Yes, Yes will finally be in your hands.

Jared Bartman: Jared Bartman has an uncommon gift for melody and arrangement. His music is so unusual that it shouldn't work at all — yet it does. Forget blowing away the rest of the indie-folk scene, he blows away the indie scene as a whole.

Butterfly Bones: Another band on the rise, Butterfly bones play sunny electronic pop that will get you dancing and likely put a smile on your face. Calling them a more rock-oriented Cut Copy might not be too inaccurate.

Lookbook: Lookbook are riding a wave of hype out of Minneapolis and into various computers around the world. Fortunately, their popularity isn't due to sharing a name with the hipster fashion mega-site — it has a whole lot more to do with their sultry vocals and infectious brand of electronica.

Santah: Here's another local band with a much-anticipated album (White Noise Bed) that will be out by Pygmalion. Santah will probably have logged some well-earned touring miles by this September, so expect songs drenched in a little more weariness, but still heavy on the off-kilter piano driven melodies.

So Long Forgotten: Loca/Chicago punk/indie/stuff band So Long Forgotten have been holed up in the studio lately working on the next album. Needless to say you should expect to hear a lot of new stuff during their Pygmalion set.

The Duke of Uke and His Novelty Orchestra: This idea just really, really shouldn't work. Tom Waits vocals? Bongo drums? Tuba? Gospel-style raveups? All present, accounted for and in full effect. The unorthodox mixture of genres is precisely what makes the Duke of Uke and His Novelty Orchestra one of the most engaging acts in town.

Take Care: The name may be new, but the faces are familiar. 4/5ths of Take Care used to play in Fireflies. While the antics (and tempo) have been toned down somewhat from the drunken post-hardcore of Fireflies, the band's mix of emo and post-rock is no less engaging.

Withershins: If you've seen Withershins live, you know what's up. No bullshit, just fast, melodic, distorted and loud as hell. Plus, has there been a better song than "Aeriel" to come out of Champaign-Urbana in the last year? We don't think so.

Grandkids: Grandkids have strong roots in the local scene (guitarist/vocalist Vivian McConnell is related to Stan and Mack from Santah). While they're still a young band, they showed a whole lot of promise when they played the quad last night, including a fantastic cover of Joanna Newsom's "The Book of Right-on."

Expect more announcements in the months to come, including a few more headliner-worthy acts.