The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 06
“He’s a weird kid, and weird kids freak me out.” - Jemmye
This week’s episode contains footage from the only evening in which I crossed paths with the show’s cast or crew. It was March 13, 2010 and I was down on Frenchman Street covering the inaugural Foburg Music Festival. Just as The Revivalists were about to take the stage for their headlining spot at Blue Nile, the roommates stormed into the club followed by a production team fully-equipped with cameras, boom mics and light sticks. The whole lot of them posted up in the area of the venue that serves as the main thoroughfare to both the bar and the bathroom, and the roomies spent the better part of the first set with their backs to the stage, yelling in the ears of fame-balling strangers as a killer rock show raged behind them.
My interactions with the gang were thankfully sparse and mostly unspectacular: I let a PA know exactly where he could stick his request to “share” my barstool when he was looking to get a better shot, and when Sahar asked me what I was doing when I grabbed a plastic cup from behind the bar and filled it with the remainder of my bottled beer as I headed to d.b.a. to catch Rotary Downs, I let her know I was aware of how long she had been in New Orleans and found it hard to believe she was unfamiliar with the concept of a “geaux cup.” Maybe I shouldn’t have been so curt with Sahar, but you have to appreciate exactly how ridiculous she looked in that neon green cowboy hat.
Makin' Some Noise: Foburg Fest Recap
Here is my latest Groovescapes piece, about the inaugural (and undeniably awesome) Foburg Music Festival. For 3 days in March, I buzzed around Frenchman Street drinking cheap beer, eating lukewarm pizza, violating temporary smoking ordinances, and seeing some of the most exciting alternative rock New Orleans has to offer. A preview:
Every now and again, I want to hear a dapper gentleman with a vintage guitar croon the type of emotive electric waltz that Jeff Tweedy has been trying to write since 1996. I want to hear a bunch of college kids play a whacked out version of acid jazz that sounds like they’ve got Donald Fagen on keys and Thurston Moore on lead guitar. I want to hear a gravelly voiced singer unfurl a set of raucous, boozy narratives that one might expect from Craig Finn if he grew up in Paul Thomas Anderson’s version of the Lower Garden District.
I want homemade Theremins and electric ukuleles. I want disorienting timing shifts and ear splitting reverb. I want 4am Joy Division covers and the wanton destruction of guitars and bass drums. I want rock: diverse, innovative, imaginative rock. And at the first annual Foburg Music Festival – which commandeered ten of the best stages on Frenchman Street for three days earlier this month – I got rock.
As always, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the editor of the site, Aaron, who has an amazing ability to take a pretentious yet incoherent draft and make it, at the very least, somewhat palatable. Enjoy.
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The Matt & Jack Podvast, Episode #007
A lot has happened since the last time we were in the studio, and for the latest edition of the Podvast we try to cover as much as possible without sounding like total dorks. The first annual Foburg Music Festival descended on New Orleans’ Frenchman Street, and SXSW rolled into Austin. We give a brief overview of the the former, then Jack shares some fascinating insights about the latter.
And as much as we try to avoid political discourse, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about Health Care Reform and Sarah Palin’s new reality show, as well as get a few things off our chests in regards to gay marriage and evolution. If it makes you feel any better, we manage to touch on Surfer Blood, The Lion King, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Bill Maher, pizza, Jon & Kate Plus 8, sissy bounce rap and Planet Earth. Enjoy.
