Why I love living contemporary

Okay, so let me get my bearings. This story needs orientation.

Front and center stage. To my left, some short, squat girl in a blue dress was grind-shaking her fists into my side, glancing up to me with some sort of drug-riddled excitement. To my right, some typical Bay Area darkwave kid a few years younger than me was popping his Commie-capped head back and forth to the rhythmic sirens and bass slaps. And in front of me, not twenty feet away, was the culmination of months of waiting. And it came in the form of a big, lighted cross.


There they are. Justice: The French band that took Christianity's symbol of redemption and salvation and twisted it into a beacon of their own design. They've crafted the fast-paced soundtrack of my life for the past year. I haven't been alone since.

This all happened at Treasure Island Music Fest 2008, a Bay Area indie wankfest that rivals Austin City Limits in terms of pretentious 20somethings oozing with cred. I flew out to San Francisco with my girlfriend, Cristina, to see Justice and the other top-billed Saturday acts that I've salivated over for a long time. TV on the Radio was there, performing tracks from their new album Dear Science. And those wacky Brits from Hot Chip were there, too, mixing things up for a spectacular live show.

The festival brought out your typical spectrum of San Francisco hipsters. Every group was represented, from the newest incarnation of goth shoegazers to the bright and flowing, handcrafted hippie culture. Instead of ridiculing them, though, I've lately been able to bottle and swallow my sardonic nature and instead just watch as they enjoy themselves in their own perticular way. Because anyone willing to endure the gauntlet of blinding wind and $7 glasses of Heinekin must have some common string with the rest of the concert-goers: We're all hypocrites, and we're all pretentious, and we all love music. And they all deserved to have fun.

Even if they're cannon fodder for really, really great jokes.

Pretentions aside, the festival crowd was aching by the time Justice took the stage. I was pressed up against the guard rail, grinding my teeth and trying my best to push back to keep my lungs open. Everyone was freezing despite the squeeze; coastal winds plus the semi-predictable nature of cool San Francisco nights equals zipped up black hoodies and frozen toes. I had to throw the concert T I'd picked up earlier over my white oxford. I looked incredibly out-of-place in a sea of pierced, gothed-out heads. A French reporter stuck a microphone in my face and started quizzing me on my thoughts about the band.

And when they did take the stage, hell broke out before a single beat let loose. Glow-sticks, water bottles, and concert schwag flew through the air onto the stage. A unified scream from behind me, then suddenly I felt like I'd been flattened against the guard rail. I yelled, too. My eyes bugged out and I saw them take to their throne.

Then,"Genesis."

I can't recount song-for-song how the entire night went, but they hit all my favorites. "DVNO," the Auto remix of "Stress," a souped-up mix of "Phantom," and a finisher of "One Minute Till Midnight," before an encore of "NY Excuse." Fucking incredible.

The night will be forever dog-eared in my mind. It was not only a spectacular musical experience, but it also possesses a certain personal duality. The concert was a culmination-- a culmination of months of waiting. I bought the tickets back in July and had been marking the days off my calendar like a little kid eager for his birthday to arrive. It was also a beginning of sorts. It was my first visit to the west coast and my first big trip with Cristina.

This past weekend was an awesome reminder that I still have a lot of world to see. And to write about.

I'm done mulling: 2008's Summer Song

But first, a few songs I forgot to mention yesterday-- a few covers that I found early in the summer. First was Charlotte Martin's cover of "Obstacle 1," which stands as both my favorite Interpol cover of all time and simultaneously my favorite song by a female vocalist next to "Maps." The other mention goes to Franz Ferdinand's cover of "All My Friends," which takes James Murphy's version and makes it fun. And I'm all about fun.

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for: The song of summer, 2008, is...

MGMT's "Kids," but you guys already knew that. You know I can't help myself when it comes to kids.

I guess I should justify my pick among so many good songs to the five people who read my blog. "Kids" passes all of the initial qualifiers with flying colors: it's Pitchfork-approved indie rock, it features a synthesizer, and it is markedly darker than its title might suggest. And MGMT somehow manages to straddle both popularity and the 20something faux underground like every other band I listen to these days. It's obviously a song I would like.

But why is it THE song of the summer? Or rather, why is it MY song of the summer?

I first heard MGMT back in, oh, February or March on one of those music blogs I frequent. The buzz around that time was promoting Oracular Spectacular as the best thing to come out of New York since that whole Vampire Weekend thing (remember them?). But as with most music that passes between my ears, I listened to their heavily-promoted single once and forgot about it for three more months.

Then in late May, with the summer quickly shifting into full gear, I gave Oracular Spectacular another listen and immediately bonded with one particular song. It wasn't the song I heard back in February ("Time to Pretend") nor was it the other single they'd been spinning relentlessly since then ("Electric Feel"). Instead I became addicted to the droning, deep synth that traces the obtuse beat in "Kids."

While the tune of the song lured me in with its classic meld of keyboard on drums, it was the lyrics that really hooked me. I truly am a sucker for reminiscing about simpler, more innocent times-- call it a byproduct of my rock&roll lifestyle. MGMT calls us heathens out for it in the first stanza of the song, drawing parallels between the way we act as kids and the immature behavior that some people (me) never seem to shake.

But the real reason that "Kids" speaks to me-- hell, the reason it's so pertinent to the summer-- are those first two words of the chorus. "Control yourself." You might as well define the summer for Kyle as a big self-control problem on all fronts. The summer provides all the free time and money I need to be bad. It presents me with... situations that require me to chose a degree of self-respect, or respect for others, over my own selfish desires. And in "Kids," they ask me to control myself at least four times.

I think the story of my summer-- one of unique opportunity, exercises in patience and self-control, and a deep appreciation of my own past-- stuffs the ballot box in favor of "Kids." So if you haven't listened to it yet, well... here.

The song that defines the summer, 2008

So I'm busy mulling over the biggest decision of the summer: Which song captures the ups and downs, the air-starved highs and the lung-crushing lows of these past few months? A quick review of my last.fm profile, compounded with feelings and multiplied by everything I can actually remember off the top of my head boils the summer selection down to these finalists...

Justice - Stress (Auto Remix)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
MGMT – Kids
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
The Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar
Whitey - Hahaha
Digitalism – Pogo
Alter Ego – Rocker
Simian – Never Be Alone
SebastiAn – Greel
MGMT – Time to Pretend
Interpol – Pioneer to the Falls

Here, I even built a Seeqpod playlist for the curious. Some songs have such significant meaning in one particular moment of the summer that they threaten to overshadow the songs that have been in heavy rotation all throughout the season. And while other songs were favorites that got a lot of personal airplay, they don't exactly encapsulate the feel.

So while I mull over this big decision with my trusty DR mower/decision muller, anyone got any good associations between this past summer and a track of choice?

Spoiling the intern

The view from my new office!