Day three of Popfest provided a variety of great bands to see – a few that fulfilled expectations and a few that completely blew me away. Overall, I consider this day to be my favourite out of the four-day event, as later in the night there were a set of three bands, back-to-back-to-back (no, not homeruns!) that absolutely killed. So much so, that i’ll be giving each of these their own posts.
As we headed back to Little Kings once again, we were a few hours late trying to get some blog posts up, essentially just missing an Atlanta group who’s name seemed to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue as we arrived – Tendaberry. I can’t comment too much on them, since I completely missed their set – but, that isn’t to say that I wasn’t completely aware of the hype that had been building for them prior to Popfest. What kind of hype you ask? Take a look at Flagpole, which labeled them as “Most Likely to Be Called “The Next Black Kids.” Yeah, i’m not going to even touch that one. Here’s a few songs from their Am I Still Illmatic? EP, so you can judge for yourselves.
MP3: Tendaberry :: “Prophets”
MP3: Tendaberry :: “MC’s”
I was absolutely delighted to catch the next band to take the stage, Boston’s One Happy Island, as they were basically the first band I had seen so far at Popfest that could be considered legitimately “twee.” The band managed to hit all the right notes that an indiepop band should, with hand claps, a cow colored ukelele, melodica, and i’m pretty sure I saw a glockenspiel too. Three out of the four members traded vocal duties, but they would be wise to include more songs with the lovely voice of drummer Rebecca Mitchell. I think they currently have two EPs out on WeePOP! at the moment, so check those out.
MP3: One Happy Island :: “Temporary Tattoo”
MP3: One Happy Island :: “Florida, Dear”
I posted about the somewhat secret Fat Planet set in a previous post, so we can talk about a group that I saw at Flicker Theatre that I really enjoyed called Umbrella Tree. They’re a three-piece art-rock/pop outfit from Nashville that played with a very high energy, though I my eyes seemed to be caught entirely on guitarist/bassist Zachary, who was a ridiculously tall man. He also had a nice little quip asking the crowd if they knew of Zachary Gresham of Summer Hymns, since the two have the same name. Essentially, calling him out for a battle over name rights.
At this point, I fell asleep for the third day in a row at Flicker. I apologize to the other bands that may have performed.
MP3: Umbrella Tree :: “A Horse That Will Come When I Whistle”
MP3: Umbrella Tree :: “Make Me a Priest”
Making our way to 40 Watt once again, I was able to see Oakland’s Cryptacize, who quite honestly didn’t do much for me with their live performance. It’s nothing against them, it’s just the sort of music that I would want to listen to while laying around half-asleep somewhere. I was in need of some high energy, though, that would be provided in full later in the night.
MP3: Cryptacize :: “No Coins”
MP3: Cryptacize :: “Cosmic Sing-a-long”
I’ll cover this next set of three bands in individual posts, but I do want to mention this Fishboy anti-drug PSA – since Rich and I happened to catch Robocop on tv that very day (or was it the next day?) – which features Eric with Robocop himself. Unfortunately, I was way in the back during the band’s set so I didn’t get a good look of what was going on. Though, I did happen to buy two albums once I got home, so I guess that’s something.
MP3: Fishboy :: “Parachute (Using the Ghost of Buddy Holly As A)”
MP3: Fishboy :: “Taqueria Girl”
MP3: Fishboy :: “Half Time at the Proper Name Spelling Bee”
Previously:
Athens Popfest: Day One
Athens Popfest: Day Two
Additional posts you may be interested in:
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I think we watched Robocop the same day. I believe that’s why we missed Tendaberry. Is that right?
that sounds so horrible, but I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s ok cos Robocop is awesome.
“Let’s rob a bank, let’s go today before they close”
Love everything I hear from Fishboy.
Thank you for the great coverage of Popfest, hated missing it this year.
“that sounds so horrible, but I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s ok cos Robocop is awesome.”
Well, we had to do *something* to get rid of that awful Ghost Rider taste. Yech.