Silversun Pickups- Swoon

 

            Silversun Pickups will always carry around the stigma of being the new Smashing Pumpkins. Many love their music, others claim that is just a rip off. Either way, you have to acknowledge that this L.A. crew is making a show of it.

 

            The world was introduced to Silversun Pickups a few summers ago with their debut album “Carnavas” with the surprisingly mainstream single “Lazy Eye” and even more notable track “Well Thought Out Twinkles.” Their mix of glossy garage rock and high pitched vocals filled a void left by the then disbanded Smashing Pumpkins.

 

             I cannot help but think that Silversun Pickups are currently doing a better impression of the band than they are currently doing themselves, what with there being 1/4^th of the original lineup and Billy Corgan preoccupied with schmoozing with Live Nation executives, and there’s no shame in building upon the creation of another.

 

            “Swoon” picks up where “Carnavas” left off. There have been very few tweaks to their sound, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Their brand of fuzzed out garage noise is just hard enough to nod your head to and imaginative enough to not leave you bored.

 

            They kick off the album with the catchy “There’s No Secrets This Year,” the perfect launch to a fun record. The album slows down for a bit before kicking back up with the hazy “Panic Switch” that is sure to incite well-mannered moshing for years. “Sort Of” marches off with a progressive tempo and the noteworthy “Substitution” starts off slow before zig-zagging about, dizzying you with the swirling vocal and guitar.

 

            “Swoon” lacks the punch of the debut, but is overall a more well-polished product than its predecessor. We see them venturing off from the lustrous garage rock sound a little more, which is a shame because rocking out is what the band does best, but it makes for a unpredictable listening experience.

 

            In an age where musicians are more about being “artists” than making music, something is very refreshing about the straightforward music of Silversun Pickups. Complaining about the Smashing Pumpkins resemblance is misinformed, and if anything, I wouldn’t mind them attempting to sound more like their wayward big brother.

NMF Class of 2009 Awards

Most Likely to Succeed: Here Is There

            Playing to a criminally under attended morning crowd, the band made lemons into lemonade, shimmying through a powerful set filled with guitar solos and pulsing percussion. With their brand of boxed in chaos, and average age of 19, I am sure we will be hearing much more from them in the future.

 

Best All-Around: Mayola

            The most energetic set of the entire festival, Mayola blended the perfect amount of musicianship, showmanship, and local flavor. Bassist Antonio Laster’s crowd interaction made everyone feel like they were part of the show; what more could you ask for at a music festival?

 

Class Clown: Man Man

            Their loud, crazy, dysfunctional set left the crowd on the brink of insanity. Pounding, screeching, smacking, and thumping for a chaos-filled hour, Man Man locked in everyone’s attention like the most bizarre court jester there’s ever been.

 

Best Dressed: Of Montreal

            Of Montreal’s feathered shoulder pads, smoking suits, purple velvet, boas, and Coldplay-esque orange suit had the band making fashion statements galore. I have never seen anyone make a tiger mascot head look so chic.

 

Best Hair: The Uglysuit

            With long flowing locks, ponytails, feather swept bangs, and something that I can only compare to the mane of Sonic the Hedgehog, the Uglysuit not only blew the crowd away with their gorgeous indie pop ballads, but also with their impeccable hair. 

 

Most Likely To Make You Smile: Hush Hush, Commotion

            Blasting catchy honest power pop throughout the Sooner Theatre, Hush Hush’s solid set left the crowd grinning like fools, impressed with their old classics and remarkable new tunes.

 

Best Personality: Sugar and Gold

            Getting the crowd moving and grooving in the late afternoon, Sugar and Gold was the most pleasant surprise at the festival. Their cheeky, fun show was highly entertaining and was the perfect warmup to the chaos that was fixing to ensue.

Hot and Not: NMF 2009

Hot:

Witnessing 13 hours of amazing music

Jean cut-offs (to the knee)

Getting you and your girlfriend front row view of the Main Stage

Showing off chest tattoo with v-neck shirt

Witnessing Of Montreal in a massive crowd

Hippies dancing to Sugar and Gold

 

 

Not:

Complaining about Mister Roberts being closed

Jean cut-offs (to the upper thigh)

Getting you and your dog and/or infant front row view of the Main Stage

Showing off dragon tattoo with tank top

Driving your bike through massive crowd

Drunk frat guy dancing to Man Man

NMF Preview: The Pretty Black Chains

Kellen McCugan from the Pretty Black Chains talks about West Side Story, pulling the trigger, and even gives a disclaimer.

 

How would you describe your sound?

Everything that rock n' roll in Oklahoma is lacking: A drunken swagger, instantly catchy and infinitely clever hooks, loads of sweat and a live show that demands your attention! Quite simply put, the attitude with music to back it up!

 

Why should we go see you at Norman Music Festival?

We feel confident that once you see us play live, you will tell your friends how much fun you had seeing The Pretty Black Chains stick a fork in the socket of the Oklahoma music scene!

 

What makes your live show special?

One word: Energy. We've all been to far too many shows where artists get up on stage and try to be artists. THAT'S BORING! We play rock n' roll for people who like to have a great time. When we're on stage it's the most fun we all have collectively, and we like to give that back to our crowd. Every other excellent act in Oklahoma have been loading the gun, and we really want to be the ones who pull the trigger.

 

How’d you settle on the band name?

Yikes... We thought about it for about two months, then just picked three words we all liked and smooshed them together, throwing a "The" on the front for good measure!

 

What plans do you have for the future?

Work work work! We're booking our entire summer full of shows in Oklahoma as well as the surrounding Midwest. A day without doing business in our band is a day wasted!

 

What other bands influence you the most?

Where to start? The Libertines, The Raveonettes, Arctic Monkeys, Mando Diao, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, King Khan and The Shrines, The Cribs, The Horrors, T REX, thebeatlestherollingstonesledzeppelin, Blitz, and generally anything nasty.

 

Who else will you personally be seeing at Norman Music Festival?

Oh God...... Of Montreal of course, Man Man is supposed to be sick. Basically any and every Stillwater band possible. That town just has this knack to produce really creative and fun bands!

 

Any memorable concert/tour stories/moments?

We've only been together for four months, but we recently played a house party where we were asked to play a little quieter than normal. We agreed, and then turned up right before we started and went crazy, successfully shutting the party down in four songs. Zing! (Thanks Kevin and Zach!)

 

Best moment in band history?

Writing eleven songs in two months and continuing to constantly write.

 

Favorite Norman restaurant?

Pepe's, Blue, The Hideaway!!!

 

Favorite band as a kid?

You want to say something cool so you sound like you were a badass when you were younger. Lots of pressure! However, I was not a badass when I was a kid, so i'm going with the soundtracks to West Side Story, Oklahoma!, The Wizard of Oz and generally any Disney movie. I am not ashamed. (NOTE: This is just Kellen, no one else in the band shares this taste in music.)

 

DISCLAIMER: Coming to a PBC show will cause you to shake, sweat, drink, dance, and break everything around you. If you enjoy doing any of these activities we strongly suggest coming to the show at Coaches. Bring your friends. 

NMF Preview: The Uglysuit

Colin Bray from the Uglysuit talks about meeting Sigur Ros, loving life, and shaking what your momma gave you.

How would you describe your sound?

Cerebral opti-rock seems fitting, or so we've heard.

 

Why should we go see you at Norman Music Festival?

Depending on who else is playing, I might not say you should. Otherwise, if you like "happy feel good" music, come. Be prepared to be compelled to shake what your momma gave you!

What makes your live show special?

Feeling. Energy. Emotion. Joy. First and foremost though, letting go, giving yourself to your eardrums, and the sounds surpassing them.

 

How’d you settle on the band name?

It’s a story still being lived out.

 

What plans do you have for the future?

To try and do whatever we can to keep playing music, we're writing for a new album now. It’s exciting to be back in the process, which really the process is something that never ends. Also, we're hoping for shows and tours to keep happening regularly. We'll be working hard for that.

 

What other bands influence you the most?

That’s the hardest thing for us to answer. You can get answers ranging from every spectrum of music. Literally, anything from trance/house music, to Coldplay or Sigur Ros, to the Gorillaz.

 

Who else will you personally be seeing at Norman Music Festival?

Hopefully a lot of things. Other lives, Mayola, Man Man, The Mints, Of Montreal, of course, and more I’m sure.

 

Any memorable concert/tour stories/moments?

There are so many. Probably either pulling into New York for the first time. I'm driving (our full size conversion van and trailer) mind you. We pull into the Lincoln tunnel at like 4:58 pm, on a weekday afternoon!!! The traffic was so bad. Lanes went down from 7 to 2. We had to skip across 4 to make it. The dudes were all freaking out, we ended up making it, just a nice stressful happening in NYC. Quite funny, told them I had it.

Or our first show in Europe, Milan Italy to be exact. The people all totally shut up when as soon as we took the stage; we're used to places here, not that its a bad thing, but people party, loudly. Everyone there was focused on what was happening. We loved that very much.

 

Best moment in band history?

Some friends of ours saw Sigur Ros in Kansas City one night. The next night drove on over to St Louis, since it wasn't must farther, to see us play with Iron and Wine. They’re hanging out down the street from the venue we were playing and they run into 3 of the 4 members of Sigur Ros. We find out, go find them, and start chatting them up. They asked if we could get them on our list for our show; we laughed and didn't think they'd come. They were their before our set even started, and afterwards they came and hung out with us back stage for hours. That my friend was for sure, our greatest moment, I'm sure we'd all tell you many great things have happened, but that was amazing.

 

Favorite Norman restaurant? 

JUSTIN"S BAR & BISTRO!!! haha It’s a family business.

 

Favorite band as a kid? 

Pink Floyd

 

How was SXSW? 

Amazing. Exhausting. Met so many cool people. Saw so many good bands.

 

If there is anything else you want to say or add just go ahead!

Love life. Love people. Love music.

NMF Preview: The Separation

I spoke to David from the Separation about the band and.....well....just read for yourself.

How would you describe your sound?

"A Picnic For Your Ears."

 

Why should we go see you at Norman Music Festival?

It's FREE! It's outside during a a very brief time of Oklahoma weather where it's enjoyable to spend a day outdoors with your friends joyously drinking beer on Main Street. On top of that there's all types of music all around you. It's a great opportunity to be exposed to new music and for all the underage kids around to check out the bands that they usually would have to stand outside a bar to listen to. I also heard a rumor that David Boren was going bust out some percussion solos with Man Man.

 

What makes your live show special?

We all play atop magical unicorns.

 

How’d you settle on the band name?

Many centuries ago there was a band of 5 roaming minstrels that spread their joyous music to the masses. They had been tragically separated while traveling through the ancient forest of Dosho and killed one by one by an evil wizard who was jealous of their soothing sounds, damning their souls to the lower heavens and were forced to ride on the edges of rainbows for many, many years. This was their fate until the day that 5 magical unicorns saved the wandering souls and gloriously united them with our earthly bodies, proclaiming we should be called "The Separation" and to begin to spread joyous music to the masses once again.

 

What plans do you have for the future?

We will travel and play our music whenever and where ever our unicorns take us.

 

What other bands influence you the most?

Bauhaus and ELO or maybe Bill Joel and Quasi, depends on what mixture of drugs we're on.

 

Who else will you personally be seeing at Norman Music Festival?

Definitely Man Man and Starlight Mints. I've seen them both countless times but they are always a site to see. And pretty much everyone playing on the Opolis stage.

 

Any memorable concert/tour stories/moments?

Opening for Of Montreal at Opolis a few years back comes to mind. Seeing as they were one of our favorite bands we were very excited to play with and meet them. Come to find out they were all pretty heinous except for the new guy; There's nothing cuter than a mid-level indie band with the egos of a 1980's hair-metal band.

 

Best moment in band history?

We played one of our best shows opening up for Ben Kweller at Bricktown Ballroom. Being carried over the crowd at a sold out show by a mob of teenage boys and girls has to be one of the best moments for the entire band, especially Lindsay. Mmm, all those little hands. She got so many phone numbers that night; sorry kids, she's married now.

 

Favorite Norman restaurant?

Pepe's, hands down. The mix-meat Burrito Loco is the best; it's Emilio's specialty.

 

Favorite band as a kid?

Gary Glitter

NMF Preview: The Non

What makes your live show special?

 

We have a lot of energy, and we are pretty all over the stage considering we're an "ambient" rock band. We are probably fun to watch if you enjoy studying music and structures as well.

 

How’d you settle on the band name?

 

It wasn't hard. I think it was the first and only band name idea we've ever had.

 

What plans do you have for the future?

 

We're moving into a house this summer in Norman and are going to finish writing and recording our next album. After that, we're going to tour in August.

 

What other bands influence you the most?

 

We tend to be inspired by innovative music in general. Stuff that makes you think "how did anyone possibly come up with that?" is usually the kind of music that gets us really excited.

 

Who else will you personally be seeing at Norman Music Festival?

 

Man Man, because they terrify me and I think their music is nearly unbearable to listen to. That said, I think they will be great live for the same reasons.

 

Any memorable concert/tour stories/moments?

 

We had a tour with Ali Harter two summers ago that was fairly epic... as far as best memories, hmm. Probably staying with State Bird in Ohio. This band let us stay in their house at a trailer park dealership and we rode on our bellies on longboards. Tom hit a spike in the road and flew off and scraped up his chin really bad. He had to sleep vertically all night for some reason.

 

Best moment in band history?

 

Getting to play shows like DFest and playing in cities like Austin, Lawrence, and Chicago.

 

Favorite Norman restaurant?

 

I'm pretty partial to the Library. They have excellent pizza and the atmosphere is intellectual yet fun-loving and a little irreverent. Perfect for me.

 

Favorite band as a kid?

 

I definitely had a Sugar Ray phase