• Mike Landucci
• Edward Shelflife
• Dan Goldwag
• Brent
• Fortunate Hazel
• Jill Bliss

well i only attended saturday. not going tonight cause it's such a regular LA bill. i can see timonium, further, or nothing painted blue every other week in LA, and the latters not worth wasting time on anyways. SO, after that bit of negativity i'll say that last night was pretty cool. it was nice to meet arriana, dan sonorama, the shelflife crew, peter from germany (!), matt push king, and all the rest. my fave band of the evening was juniper who sounded like a cross between go sailor and boyracer. they were really noisy and good. allen clapp and autocallants were swell too.the crowd was very receptive and warm and cheery. all and all it was way cool and im looking forward to it next year!!

Hello!

Well, I'm slowly recovering from the festivities of the last two days! I just wanted to let everyone know that I really enjoyed planning and putting on the west coast popfest! It's definitely an experience I'll never forget, to say the least! :)

Special thanks to Jill for helping me vent my insanity through the evenings, Brian Gray for his sound board expertise in keeping the mic levels audible, Charles for doing a great job with the t-shirts, Brandt for throwing a great prepopfest party, Jessica for allowing me to plan this with her, Brent for being the M.C., Peter for his help delivering the goods to the east coast, all my friends who helped with the door and the shelflife table, all the bands who came out and those who shared their equipment, and everyone who came long distances to make this event such a wonderful time! It was great to meet everyone!

The best of luck to the east coast! I wish I could be there.

Take care!

Ed

A tip of the hat must go to Ed Shelflife for putting on such a great popfest! We won't forget the experience either. I always think of L.A. as being a vast pop wasteland where rock and roll bands seem to be the norm and for one brief weekend a small sidestreet in Pomona was turned into pop heaven!

It was great meeting and hanging out with all the list people I had never met before! We need to have twee/popfests out here more often...

My fave of the bands I saw were the Autocollants and Skypark! Actually all of Saturday night was absolutely incredible and the bands on Sunday were good too (but all of us were quite tired out by then)...unfortunately my jet lag from returning from the U.K. prevented me from hanging 'round for Allen Clapp and it sounds like I missed the best of the bunch :( and nobody would seem to let me forget that I missed it.

I'm so bummed I'm not gonna be at the east coast one also. I envy those elite few that are making to both festivals.

Indiepoppers of the world unite!

Cheers, Dan

Hello prepopfestparty infoseeker! Though I will not be in NY for your popfest, I was here in LA for ours this past weekend and I am still in awe. The bands on both nights were exceptional and the mixture of music on each night and between the two days was fabulous. There were a lot of poor coments circling about the 2nd night being too "LA" but, even so, everyone must agree that the organization of the event (thank you very much ED) and the crowd was the best that I have ever seen for any show!!! For all of you in the east I have only one thing to say: do not (I repeat, DO NOT) miss this show. Jill, who has helped in organizing both events, will not let any indiepop fans down.

As far as the bands, the autocollants played some great new tunes, #poundsign# is the best even without a bass player, skypark played some very spunky and wirey pop (I hear they will have a 7" on shelflife soon), and half string was my overall favorite. They are so solid from beginning to end and their live performance is powerful as well is their cd on ipr called "a fascination with heights". If you don't have this, get it if you see it because I have had a very difficult time finding this gem. Many of the bands playing on both coasts are on a comp cassette out on shelflife. You will only have 150 on the east coast so gobble them up, close your eyes, and let the music take you back to the memories of the best fest in the states!

Hope this wasn't too long.

brent

hello everyone, i'm back from california, and i've returned to a snowy(!) austin, texas. the popfest, was, of course, brilliant. the bands sounded great, my favorite being FKA oedipusaurus rex, who played fast and loose pop on a variety of instruments, some of which were certainly from toys r us.

half string, poundsign, allen clapp, skypark, and the autocollants i also loved, some bands i missed because i couldn't pull myself away from 1942 in the adjoining arcade, which was filled with video classics like battlezone, space invaders, and galaga, to name just a few.

the best part, however, was the company, and my only regret is that we didn't get to spend more time hanging out (of course, if i could wake up before noon...). my hosts, jessica in LA and arianne in SF, were lovely. i got to meet a bunch of popkids right off the bat at brant's party, match well-known names with new faces, make in-jokes about obscure pop, and dispel any myths about my having a long white beard, glasses, or any intelligence whatsoever :)

i don't really know what to say, except thanks to ed shelflife, arianne and jessica, the bands, the popkids who came, the haven, brant for the party, matt toi (sp?) in SF and arianne again, for putting up with me for such a long time, and showing extreme patience as i looked at just about *every* record in mod lang. i know i left someone out. last of all, for jill, and whoever else was on the phone, maybe we were in different showers, maybe we weren't. wouldn't you like to know!

-fh

just back in the sf bay area from my weekend trip to the la popfest, getting ready to return to ny for another edition this weekend...whew! brent was right though, it was fantastic! the east coast one shouldn't be missed if you can help it (check out http://pages.nyu.edu/~mas5815 for complete info)! so far we have 120 RSVPs each night, hurry and email yours to brian soon!

before i forget, many thanks should be heaped on ed for organizing the shows (great job! way to go! whoo-hoo, ed!) who deserves lotsa praise and sleep now that it's over, brandt for hosting the pre fest party (9PM to 8AM--wow!) and taking in stray popfest-goers, and dan g. for the use of his floor/chauffeured tour of la on sunday!

arianne's review of the weekend was pretty thorough, though she forgot to mention how a certain someone wouldn't take someone else's cherry or the two listers who were rumored to be in the shower at the same time (though they claim it was in different bathrooms)! ok, enough gossip! here are the bands i remember and love:

skypark! skypark! skypark! even though they were apparently missing a guitar player/vocalist they rocked (well, *popped*, actually) and are one of my new favorite bands! happy, poppy music with boy vocals and interesting guitar and drum bits. i've been assured that their first single will be out on the belmondo label in a few months. look for it and you will not be disappointed if your taste runs towards scandie or japanese pop!

autocollants! there has been several reviews of them already, but no one has mentioned the fact that they had a trumpet player in the line up! too cool!

#poundsign#! excellent poppy band! now i understand the hype that surrounds this band! i need to own their releases!

half string! they've been positively reviewed by others already, but i just wanted to add that their drummer rules! was her name added to that 'amazing girl drummers' thread of a few months ago?

fka oedipusaurus rex! speaking of amazing drummers, they rocked out on a toy drum kit i know maura would die for! other instruments included 3 casios, a banjo, a bull-horn, and various toys! the coolest and most entertaining pop band of sunday night! if i had a record label i'd release their album! i agree they do need a new name though ( fka stands for 'formerly known as')...

allen clapp and his orchestra! awesome! i can't be objective about these guys! i've seen every bay area show since they started a few years ago and am one of their #1 fans! they played a melange of old old songs, songs from 100% cor, and new songs which will be on their minty fresh album to be released in march! buy it! buy it! buy it! a tour is also being planned for later in the year, so everyone in the US can experience the fabulousness of allen and his band firsthand! they are searching for a new, shorter name though--any suggestions?

geez, didn't realize how long winded i can be. if you're still reading this you deserve some kind of medal! enough of this, i gotta go pack!

hope to see alot of you at the ny shows!

jill