john roderick is funny
I’m not one for covering festivals I’m not at (ahem brooklynvegan), in fact I’m not totally taken in by festivals[1] in general, but I’m not above linking to some good writing. John Roderick, of the Long Winters covers Bonnaroo for MSNBC and it’s pretty funny stuff. (Though not as hilarious as his coverage last year for CMJ.)
I’ll confess up front that I cannot possibly understand Ween. For years they seemed like an elaborate prank, like eventually they’d say, “Ha! We were just kidding the whole time. We’re actually Yale cultural studies majors trying to determine how ludicrous a band could be and still have a following, and we’ve determined that there is no limit. Thanks for participating.”
They’ve been mating Frank Zappa’s scatological humor with everything from jazz to country for, what, 20 years?
[1] As I mentioned in my festival summary earlier, festivals tend to be expensive and far away, they involve camping with a bunch of people I don’t know and seeing acts in spaces with way too many people. I could fly across the country and go to Bonnaroo, sure. I could see the Flaming Lips and maybe eight more bands I want to see with 60,000 people and camp out. On the other hand, I went to 11 concerts this March for the grand sum of $98. None of the venues had more than about 600 people (and in fact, some had as few as 50) and fully seven of them were in the great-to-amazing range.
