We wonder why you stop by. Really.
We’ve got a couple theories. One is that you use our website the way we (try to) use a music website: to hunt down good music, dodge the stuff that doesn’t get there. Save a buck or two. Make new discoveries. This works fine and well for things like CD reviews; we like to pick those apart for you. Go save that dollar.
Concerts, festivals: stuff like that is different. It’s already happened. That theory, why you’d like to read up on a festival that’s already happened, is a bit more complicated: shared experiences (if you went), relive those memories; something more technical, scientific (if you didn’t go), involving the brain’s mirror neurons, a vicarious kind of enjoyment. In either case, what kind of action can you take at this point? Other than waiting a few hundred years for time travel to become efficient and commonplace, and send yourself back to an expired music fest based on our recommendation?
(And no, time travel in any form still does not exist. Not even on the SyFy channel, bleh.)
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| We “Think” this is Rodin. Give us a moment. |
We don’t get why you’d want read up on a festival that passed, on our having a great time and tons of fun. We really don’t. “Shoulda gone last weekend” is the most we can do with a post – or three (or four) – of this kind.
And here we are still.
We want to cut to the chase first with this post. What did we get out of Newport? What do we get out of Newport – something tangible, something that maybe you can take, too? What we like most about the Folk Fest – when we’re not feeling curmudgeonly, alas – is when a new act catches us by surprise. The Oh Hellos, Hozier last year, especially (gosh! how he’s blown up!). We have a bunch of favorite acts that we know we have to catch, but this kind of festival is a great place to get introduced to new music. And we’d like to think this blog is kind of like that, too.
This is what we’re going to do after this post: hunt down some CDs. Try to check into NE concerts, too. Perhaps we’ll even get some coverage for the blog, let you know how they pan out for us. We’re definitely into checking out these albums:
-Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn
-The Suffers (definitely)
-Sam Beam and Ben Bridwell. We thought the “all covers” thing wasn’t going to get us, but it did.
-MADISEN WARD AND THE MAMA BEAR
-and The Ballroom Thieves, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (Sunday spoiler!)
These are the new albums we’ll be hunting out, and check the previous posts for stuff we’ve already covered, and hopefully given a thumbs-up to.
We’re breaking a bit of form, throwing away that old acoustic for a new electric, trying to give you something useful from this kind of blog post. Something that’s not “this is the best band ever to have banded” kind of stuff. You know us, we’re particular, we’re critical, this is what we do. If their performances were any indication of their albums, we’d have you check out those six bands.
In fact, let’s make that easier for you to sample them:
–Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn
–The Suffers
–Sam Beam and Ben Bridwell
–Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear
–The Ballroom Thieves
-and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats
Bam, links to their Soundclouds. Because we think you might like to check them out.
This is our post-Newport takeaway. This is really all that we have to offer here. We’re honestly not much about “this act was so cool, wish you were there” stuff, that kind of rub-your-face-in-it coverage. What we’re about, our philosophy is that this tiny tiny tiny blog is here to serve you, our readers, first and foremost, and hopefully we’ve done that here. We try to put our money where our mouth is. That’s the only way this kind of thing works.
So go out, check out our “Albums of the Year” and “Recommended” links below the banner. If you like those artists, go see them live, have them sign something for you. Get the heck off this blog, because, let’s face it, if you’re putting time into sitting on your bum over here, you’re not living a life worth living. Blog Philosophy, 101. Go out and make memories. We’re only a signpost that might not even be all that useful to you. Feel free to graffiti that post over, we don’t mind, no offense taken. Just make it sound cool, to paraphrase Wayne Coyne.
And go dance, too. Hopefully with a pretty girl (or hot guy). See you on the floor tomorrow for the last part of Newport,
-Mgmt.