Published , guide_festivals_us_09
Cover photo by Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor
 THE VICE GUIDE TO FESTIVALS
When Vice approached me about writing a guide to music (and arts!) festivals, the rollicking extravaganzas were the last thing on my mind as I mulled over the ugly prospect of pitching reviews of shatterproof phone receivers to American Jail or o...Read more |
  PATRICK CARNEY (BLACK KEYS)
Patrick Carney apparently approaches music festivals like Norman Mailer did backyard cookouts. When he's not weathering the unwanted teenage jock-style revenge techniques of delusional 30-somethings in Rite-Aid Halloween costumes, he's all sorts of things, lik...Read more |
 MIKE CONTE (EARLY MAN)
Early Man will have all of this thrash metal revivalist bullshit erased from the radar within two years, mark my words. Mike Conte writes the catchiest and grade-A-best heavy metal around, and if you readers could hear him do a "music executive" impersonation,...Read more |
 CARL NEWMAN (NEW PORNOGRAPHERS)
Though this interview, or shit-shooting session, lasted almost two hours and covered everything from Wal-Mart to text-messaging, festivals were discussed intermittently and Carl Newman could slaughter any smartass's snarkiness with a friendly, funny, and razor...Read more |
 BRITT DANIEL (SPOON)
If you don’t like Spoon's terrifyingly hookful pop now, bet that your kids look at it like you do the Beach Boys or early Pavement or the Smiths or some such pop-song Book of Genesis. Spoon's leader, Britt Daniel, has spent a great deal of time in front of mas...Read more |
 PAUL F. TOMPKINS
The somewhat recently minted host of VH-1's Best Week Ever!, Paul F. Tompkins has lived, breathed, and studied stand-up comedy like it was a lifelong doctorate degree ten times over. Therefore, he's the funniest stand-up comedian alive. I just wanted to...Read more |
 CLINT CONLEY (MISSION OF BURMA)
Playing bass and writing half of the songs for Mission of Burma, Clint Conley is one of the select few in the early-80s who indirectly created your record collection. Clint wrote a little ditty called "That’s When I Reach For My Revolver." There will always be...Read more |
 NEIL HAMBURGER
Due to an untold eternity in the field of entertainment journalism, I correctly assumed that shithole-traversing, Fox's Red Eye slice-and-dicing comedian Neil Hamburger would deliver the most insightful answers when confronted with the inquisition angle...Read more |
 STUART BRAITHWAITE (MOGWAI)
Mogwai are inadvertently (sort of) responsible for this whole artist-curating/ fan-curating craziness that's swept festival-land. Though it's sweet that Stuart incorrectly perceives the front-loading of festival schedules with industry-created garbage to be ma...Read more |
 JONATHAN DONAHUE (MERCURY REV)
For almost two decades, Mercury Rev has pioneered virtually every style of weird, widescreen, or noisy pop music that other bands have dumbed down and taken to the bank. Veterans of the UK's boutique festival circuit that brings us All Tomorrow's Parties, Dona...Read more |
 MAC MCCAUGHAN (MERGE RECORDS, SUPERCHUNK, PORTASTIC)
When Mac McCaughan unconsciously combined the Buzzcocks, Hüsker Dü, and early Dinosaur Jr. to create Superchunk in the late 80s, then formed the Merge label to release a few 7-inches by friends' bands and his own, he probably wasn't thinking...Read more |
 DAN BOECKNER (HANDSOME FURS, WOLF PARADE)
Bizarrely, Dan is the only Canadian interviewed in this guide. That can't possibly be the case, wait... oh yeah, Carl Newman! Still, he's the only Canadian in these pages that reacted to seeing Royal Trux and Doo Rag on the second stage at...Read more |
 FESTIVALS A TO Z
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES
It would come as no surprise if ATP were in talks with NASA about ATP: The Moon. After all, the world is ending, and this private country club of fans, bands, and organizers will need to be saved. Plus, where else can you go ...Read more |
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