Wilco Festival

[Northern Wish]

[color:purple]Because what the world needed was another festival....

WILCO festival announced!

Wilco debuts SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL, a three-day event of music art, comedy and more running from Aug 13-15 at the spectacular Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA.

SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL will play host to additional musical performances, a fully programmed comedy stage, interactive installations and exhibits (including the Solid Sound Stompbox Station, an interactive guitar pedal exhibit with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline; a concert-poster silk screening demonstration; a drum and percussion workshop by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche; and planned workshops by luthiers), plus film and video installations, DJs and more. Festival attendees will have full access to the entire, stunning MASS MoCA campus, which incorporates 19 galleries across 100,000 square feet. MASS MoCA, a retrofitted 20th century textile mill, is the largest center for contemporary and visual arts in the U.S.

Tickets for SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL go on sale this Friday, April 9 via wilcoworld.net and solidsoundfestival.com.

[bouche]

wow. that looks like fun.

an interactive guitar pedal exhibit with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline

[Tooly]

i should set up an interactive pedal exhibit, fuck knows ive got enough of them

[SaggyBalls]

Awesome!

Tooly: Do you have enough amps for parallel lines to trip yourself out in surround fashion?

[ReDD]

Does this not sound like the sickest thing ever, to y'all. A converted textile mill with 19 galleries and Wilco doing up guitar pedal and silkscreen poster demos.

[Northern Wish]

Apparently Lefsetz likes the idea (alot):

This is so right, even I'm dying to attend, and I'm not that big a Wilco fan!

1. Context

Major labels will ask who you sound like, they don't want anything unique, just something similar to what came before.

Now it's about creating your own context. No one has done this better than Wilco. They don't sound like anybody else, and have no desire to do so.

2. Hits

Huh?

You know that famous Wilco track, what's it called again, it was all over Top Forty radio...

Funny thing is most acts topping the hit parade couldn't stage a festival like this, no one would come, or certainly not past the first year.

It's about a body of work.

3. Fans

They're fans of the band, not the track. This is the way it used to be. And this is the way it's got to be again in order for the business to be healthy. We've got to go to the show to hear what the band has to say, not to hear the one big hit. Because if that's all you've got, you'd better provide plenty of production, plenty of distraction, to cover up the fact that underneath...there just isn't much.

4. Take Your Music Seriously

I'm not saying there can be no humor, no one took his music more seriously than Frank Zappa, and his music was loaded with humor. Not that the humor has to be in the material, it's about having a sense of humor, being able to make fun of yourself, especially in an era where everybody can make fun of you online.

Are you angling for music nirvana or fame? For cash or credibility?

Except for that misstep with product endorsement, Wilco never seems to be about the money, only the music.

5. Artist Development

Jeff Tweedy was in Uncle Tupelo. A band that wasn't truly revered until it broke up. Wilco experimented with various sounds, switched labels after being dropped, even made a movie solely for the hard core. It took the band a while to find both its sound and its niche. And with such a rich history, old fans are satiated and new fans can be enticed. It's about more, not less. It's about being in it for the long haul.

6. More

That's what fans want. Which is why this festival line-up is so great. Not only do you get Wilco, you get all the band members' side projects. You can wallow in Wilco! You don't trek across the country for only two hours of satiation, you get a weekend's worth.

7. Even More Than That

They called it the Woodstock Music & Art Fair. And Wilco's presenting comedy and art. There's three-dimensionality. Not just stand in the dust and heat and drink overpriced beers.

You can leave with a story more than I saw the band and they were great! You can have your eyes opened to what interests Wilco beyond music.

8. Location

Aren't festivals supposed to be held in a field, where you moo like cattle as the promoter rips you off?

To hold Solid Sound in civilized North Adams, at an art museum, not only demonstrates innovation, but respect for the band's audience.

Festivals have become smorgasbords. Have you been to a buffet recently? Everything looks really good at first, then you sample and overeat and wish you went to a regular restaurant. Because what you really want is one thing really good as opposed to a plethora of stuff you don't truly desire.

Festivals have become about the promoter, not the band. How can the promoter create a concoction of crap to the point where you want to go.

And on some level it works. But at this point, so many are tribal rites focused primarily on socializing and punching your ticket to hipdom as opposed to music. Most people who don't go to the Wilco festival won't care that you were there. How twenty first century. Where it's not about the masses so much as the individual. Not so much about everybody as opposed to the like-minded. Everybody at this weekend will be a Wilco fan. What a great place begin!

http://solidsoundfestival.com/

[YearsAlongTheSea]

And North Adams is a really nice town taboot...

[Northern Wish]

6.5 hours from Ottawa.

[bONES]

this festival sounds really cool to me

I like this statement

Festivals have become smorgasbords. Have you been to a buffet recently? Everything looks really good at first, then you sample and overeat and wish you went to a regular restaurant. Because what you really want is one thing really good as opposed to a plethora of stuff you don't truly desire.

...how true