Siren Music Festival
Today I went to the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, NY. I shot a few pictures of Coney Island and then the festival stage (see to the left). Anyway, the music was pretty good. For those not familiar with the Siren Music Festival- it is a showcase of up and coming underground bands. The Village Voice ( a local newspaper) does the festival every July since 2000. Their line-up includes 10-20 bands. They have 2 stages so I saw a few bands from each stage. I got to see The Rogers Sisters, Dirty On Purpose, Man Man, Tapes 'N Tapes, The Stills, and Art Brut. My favorite was probably The Stills. They sounded awesome and I have both of their albums so I was familiar with their songs. I also was intrigued by the band Man Man. This Philly based band was quite eclectic and experimental. Imagine 4 guys with facepaint banging on drums and playing all sorts of instuments. I even saw the guitar player break an instrument on stage while he was banging it. Tapes 'n Tapes had a good sound as well. I had heard good news on them and I was also considering dowloading their new album. The festival was a success I thought... So I also checked out the boardwalk while there too. I tried to get a famous Coney Island Hotdog, but after standing in line for 20 minutes without moving I opted to go with an alternate. Anyway, a good day overall.
The first picture is Art Brut on Stage and the second picture is Dirty On Purpose. The last two shots are of Coney Island. The famous Cyclone Roller Coaster is in the last one. One of the stages was right next to it. That would be a thrill to see the concert from the roller coaster...

Mute Math: In concert
One of the best concerts I saw recently was a band called Mute Math play at a small club in NYC. I hear of lots of bands and see many bands live, but this one stood out. I was suprised to see three of my music friends enthusiastically want to go see them again at my first concert seeing them. They definitely had "hyped" the experience beforehand. I was somewhat anticipating that we would see something good, but not great. Boy was I suprised! The best part of the concert was the lead singer, Paul Meany, knew exactly how to entertain and treat the crowd. One song that definitely stood out from the concert was a song in which they used pretty much anything on the stage to drum on. The song is probably best described as a tribal experimental jam. The band is probably best classified as experimental rock as they incoporate rhythms, noise, and dreamlike keyboard and guitar fillers. It was pointed out to me that the singer's voice sounds a lot like Sting which you can definitely hear on a few songs in particular. The band sound is probably something close to Radiohead. They are on a label called Teleprompt which was formed by the lead singer Paul Meany and keyboard player Tedd T. A lot of their CD sales have been done online or from their concerts. I am excited to see where they will go in the upcoming year or so. Check out their myspace page for info on them, their music, videos, blogs, and tour dates.. (http://www.myspace.com/mutemath)