Free Album | Long Knives

Long Knives is one of my favorite undiscovered gems in the ocean of Atlanta bands. The man behind the music, Michael Kane, is celebrating his birthday today by giving away their record for free. If you're into stuff like Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Will Oldham, Elliott Smith, etc. you will probably really like this. In my opinion this guy is one of the best songwriters in this genre around Atlanta, and it's a crime that he isn't getting more attention. If you like what you hear spread the word.

DOWNLOAD: Long Knives - Long Knives

Monolith Recap

photo: Laurie Scavo

Our trip/show at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks last weekend was a lot of fun. In the chaos of packing and moving things from one backpack to another at the last minute I forgot my camera though, which I didn't realize until we were at the airport. I had planned on taking a lot of pics and vids, so I was pretty bummed about that. If you want to see some photos though, the Denver Post's Reverb blog posted some great pics and coverage from both days. Check them out here: Day 1 & Day 2. No picture can really convey how breathtaking the view/scenery is around Red Rocks though. The amount of work that must have went into carving out an amazing open air music venue in the side of those mountains is quite impressive. Of all the outdoor concerts I've ever seen this is by far the best place I've ever been to see an outdoor show.

The festival organizers were really nice and made sure we were taken care of. They provided us with a driver who picked us up at the airport and shuttled us back and forth from our hotel to the festival. Although our show was on Sunday, we arrived on Saturday to enjoy the festival and hang out. When we got there mid afternoon we went to get our credentials and immediately run into some of our buds from Colour Revolt who had just played earlier in the day. It was great to see those guys. They haven't really stopped touring since we came off a tour with them back in May and they did look a bit worn down from the road. Once we got our artist laminents and wristbands we aquianted ourselves with the layout of the festival grounds and found the artists tent where they were providing free food and drinks all day long. It was a nice little tent with tables setup inside and out with some sofas scattered around too.

Throughout the day I just walked around and checked out some bands and took in the scenery. It was a lot of fun. The first band I saw was Cut Copy, who really had the crowd bouncing. They ended their last song abruptly though after being told they were out of time by the stage crew. They seemed pretty pissed, as did the crowd. Ouch. Next up I saw A Place To Bury Strangers, who were playing at one of the underground indoor stages. They were fun, but loud. During the last song an extra wave of feedback was unleashed on the unsuspecting crowd and quickly cleared half the room, myself included. I caught some of Vampire Weekend's set. I can't really hate on them, which seems to be the hip thing to do lately. Their tunes were an ok way to take in the sun setting around the mountains. Watched a bit of Del The Funky Homosapien, who was sitting next to us and Colour Revolt in the artist tent for a while wearing headphones and banging out some beats on his laptop. Seemed like a cool dude. Walked in and out of some sets by other bands that I didn't know. Some good, some not. It started getting cold and rainy that night and of course we didn't pack accordingly. We ended up heading back to the hotel with Colour Revolt who crashed on our floor and watched the ridiculous Bear Grylls eat all sorts of insane things before crashing out.

We woke up early and enjoyed a La Quinta breakfast with Colour Revolt, who had to drive out early for a show that night in Witchita. Around noon our driver picked us up and we got to the festival to load in the little gear that we brought with us. Luckily they had a great backline with nice amps and stuff. It was weird being there that early. People were just starting to show up. Our show wasn't until a little later that day, so we just enjoyed some food and drinks in the artists tent until we played. The show went great. We just had a 30 minute set, so we banged out all the hits and a new song too. The crowd was great and we ended up selling a bunch of Snowden merch and signing autographs and stuff. Saw a bunch of bands throughout the rest of the day. Tilly And The Wall were a lot of fun. The Whigs had a huge crowd going nuts at one of the indoor stages. The Kills bad mouthed the stage crew and generally came across like they were pissed off about having to be there. Handsome Furs were supposed to play after us, but apparently couldn't get across the Canadian border. There was talk thoughout the day that TV On The Radio's bus broke down in Salt Lake City, but they rented cars and made it just in time for their set that night. It was great seeing them at Red Rocks. Last time I saw them was years ago at the old Lenny's on a Thanksgiving night after their first EP came out. There was maybe 30 people tops at that show. This show had a slightly larger crowd. :)

Even though they were plauged with some technical problems, the one act that seemed to sound the biggest at the whole festival was Justice. They closed out the festival Sunday night and were the only act that seemed to make full use of the mammoth soundsystem on the main stage. Throughout the festival when I was towards the back of the amphitheater watching bands on the main stage the sound would tend to get muffled and muddy, as is the case with many large outdoor concerts, but towards the back when Justice was on the sound was crystal clear. They seem to have mastered the art of making those huge soundsytems work to their advantage.

We actually got to share a van ride back to the airport with Justice the next morning, as our flights were both leaving around the same time. They are by far the nicest people we met all weekend. Xavier in particular was very chatty and talked to us about differences in NYC and Paris, diffrent recording software he uses, a big name artist they produced but later backed out on and other random bits of small talk. Throughout the festival in the artists tent we hung out in there were many bands hanging out that I didn't even know who they were but were acting like they were the coolest thing on the planet, and then there's Justice, the actual biggest act of the whole festival, and they turn out to be the most down to earth people we meet all weekend. After we got out of the van at the airport I thought they had already walked off as I was unloading our stuff from the back, but then I turn around and Xavier was just standing there waiting for me to finish so he could shake my hand and say bye before going off to catch their plane. What a cool dude, and how refreshing to see a band at their level who haven't let it all go to their heads. It was a nice ending to a great weekend at Red Rocks.