Treasure Island Festival, Day 1 - Photos, Review

Last weekend HAD stopped in at what is fast becoming one of our favorite San Francisco music traditions: the Treasure Island Music Festival. The festival is a compact outpost of musical goodness in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, and somehow it manages to have the feel of a huge festival and a small club at the same time. Needless to say, this is quite the accomplishment, and we were more than a little excited to get on with the 2009 lineup.



As is typical to the festival, the lineups had been split into a more "dance" day on Saturday, and a more "rock" day on Sunday. As such, we went first to catch a killer set from Passion Pit. After the energy and awesomeness of their set in September, we weren't exactly surprised to see them deliver in top form once again. That being said, it was nice to see the band solidify their live sound in our minds, and moreover get the crowd dancing with enthusiasm.



We quickly followed up with a visit to Dan Deacon's set. Deacon has fast built up a reputation for a high energy, crowd participatory set, and Saturday was no exception. Between a few well timed "dance contests", Deacon had the entire crowd dancing in short order.

From Deacon's set we moved on to catch The Streets. We've been huge fans of the band since their first record, and it always shocks us that they manage to be even better live. It's not that we don't think they have talent, it's just that the records are already great, so surpassing them is actually quite an achievement. On Saturday, they definitely had the crowd on their side, with the only notable exception being unable to convince the ladies to remove their tops. Nice try, boys.


From there we hit up the set that was probably the most crowd-anticipated of the day: Girl Talk. The band's infectious, mash-up jams are simply too much to pass up, and the crowd more than demonstrated their enthusiasm. In line with the band's sound, the stage setup consisted mainly of a DJ desk. Still, the simplicity was enough to inspire an on (and off) stage dance party that was completely over the top.

We closed out the night by hitting up MGMT's set - complete with fireworks, the band hammered through a set that covered the breadth of their debut record. While the set was definitely far more energetic and inspired than when we saw them opening for Macca, we have to say that the band still played it pretty close to vest. It's not that anything was missing from the set, more that it was just a very direct interpretation of the band's sound. That being said, we totally love that record to the max, so we were grinning like fools.

Closing out the night, Treasure Island continued to win our respect and admiration. Put simply, it's a totally killer festival that does everything right.

Stay tuned for day 2!

All photos by Brian Fong
Many more pictures at the HAD Archive

The Streets Continue New Tunage Onslaught Via Twitter

It appears at The Streets' frontman Mike Skinner has gotten it into his head to release a new track daily via twitter, and thus far he's living up to his promise. Today's track is "David Hassles", a tune based largely around a squonky synth sample, and more than a little reminiscent of Original Pirate Material's "Don't Mug Yourself". We're not quite as as into it as yesterday's entry, "Trust Me", but you also can't really argue with new free music daily, now can you?

mp3: The Streets - David Hassles

New Streets Track "Trust Me" Surfaces Via Twitter

While we share some of the skepticism that gets voiced about twitter, let it be known that it certainly has its benefits. For one, it's a great means of getting up to date news and passively checking out what others are up to. Moreover, it's increasingly becoming the source of exclusive content and news that then gets rehashed on the interwebs.

Case in point: today The Streets frontman Mike Skinner released a new track entitled "Trust Me" via his twitter alias @SkinnerMike. The track is an awesome dose of hip hop built over a solidly funky beat. To be frank, it's the best thing we've heard from the band in a while, and has some serious groove. Check it out.

mp3: The Streets - Trust Me

The Streets Cover Elton John

This is maybe old news for some of you (it's been out for a few weeks), but we thought that it had sufficient novelty to merit a mention. UK hip-hop act The Streets have put together a cover of the Elton John classic "Your Song" for a charity compilation. The song is streaming over on myspace, and as a fan of both artists it was tough to pass up. It's a nice cover in that it doesn't shamelessly ape samples, but rather is an earnest heart-on-sleeve cover version. If you're a fan of some of the "sweeter" Mike Skinner moments, a la "Too Late", then you'll probably enjoy.

The Streets - Your Song
Elton John - Your Song