The 2nd International Body Music Festival
Back in elementary school, we here at Festival Watch used to be way jealous of all the kids who could make farting sounds with their armpits. Seriously: This was a big deal to us (and we’d like to point out that, had we the Internets plugged in at Casa de Festival Watch in 19diggity8, our social life might have been just a touch better).

Come to find out, one can make more than just novelty sounds with one’s body (sort of). If you don’t believe us, you should check out the 2nd International Body Music Festival, which will happen Dec. 1–6 at various locations in the San Francisco Bay area. Artists include D.C.’s own Step Afrika!, “accomplished” flamenco performers Fátima Moreno González and Silvia Moreno Gil, and beat boxer Kenny Muhammad, who—for good reason (please, please, please click here; the bit with the New York Philharmonic is kind of priceless)—also goes by “the Human Orchestra.” For those of you who feel like breaking out the ol’ cupped-hand-in-the-armpit trick for audience testing, there’s also an open mic. Venues and prices vary; tickets were, as of this writing, still available.
Read More “Festival Watch: Body Music Festival, What Is Music, SXSW” »

A semi-regular look at music festival news, rumors, and gossip

2009 Umbrella Music Festival: Our pals over at the Chicago Reader noted in their ’09 Fall Arts Guide that the Umbrella Music Festival “is eclipsed only by the Chicago Jazz Festival as the most impressive and adventurous jazz event of the year.” Since those guys seem to know what they’re doing, we’ll take their word for it. This year’s event—which, for the fourth turn of the calendar, “celebrates jazz and improvised music from Chicago and beyond”—extends over four days and includes performances from Matthew Shipp and a quartet that includes Tortoise’s John Herndon. But the clear highlight is a closing-night performance of compositions by Joe McPhee arranged by Ken Vandermark for a nonet which features both players. Tickets for events vary in price, but most (if not all) still seem to be available. The first night’s slate of events is entirely free.

Read More “Festival Watch: Umbrella, Troika, All Tomorrow’s Parties” »

A semi-regular look at music festival news, rumor, and gossip

CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival 2009: As college radio directors prepare to descend on New York City for their annual milking of the music industry-PR teat, we here at Festival Watch are left to wonder if we might have missed out on something by not signing up for airtime. We’re not talking about the opportunity to see more than 1,300 live bands (including   Broadcast, Pissed Jeans, and Rahzel). Nope: We’re bummed that we may have been denied, in the words of one former festival participant, a whole bunch of free NYC dinners. Sigh.

For those of you who can afford the $495 dollar ticket price (only $2.62 a band!), registration has been extended through 6 p.m. today. But we’re guessing that if you pay for the badge yourself, you don’t get the free dinners.

Unsound 2009: If you’re in the market for a festival experience that’ll probably cost you more than $500, we’d suggest you check out The Wire-sponsored Unsound festival. This, according to press materials, is a “[m]usic and art festival…with installations, panel discussions, workshops, film screenings and performances from Biosphere, Kode9 & Spaceape, Stars Of The Lid, Monolake, Omar-S, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Grouper, Ikonika, James Blackshaw, 2562, Untold, Deuce DJ Team (Marcel Dettmann & Shed) and more.” Honestly, it sounds pretty rad—and The Wire is an excellent go-to for culture you might have otherwise missed. Trouble is that Unsound takes place in Krakow. Poland. It’s a beautiful place, and we’d definitely suggest that you make the trip. But you’d need to get there by tonight. And, though the roughly 40 Euro admission price is totally doable, the plane fare it would take to get there will probably put this out of most of your respective price ranges.

Maybe we’ll see you there next year?

Read More “Festival Watch: CMJ, Unsound, Blip, Lollapalooza” »