Subject: Florida Pop Fest Regurgitated...
From: Claire De Leon!

Hey Kids,
Nobody seems to be commenting on how wonderful the Florida Pop Fest was (or maybe it's included in subject headers that I'm not looking at) and how rad Michael, Larry and Nick are for organizing such an event. They definately deserve a round of applause.

Highlights for me include: Kincaid (who are always wonderful), Congratulations (has nothing to do with the fact that they lent all their equip ment to my band), Fourhead (the crazy drum and bass stuff just stood out soo much and he does it soo well)....there would be more but by the end of each night i was so exhausted from this cold that I could't enojoy the bands...there were a few bands that surprised me because I hadn't enjoyed their recorded output, like of montreal (great sixties stiyle pop) and masters of the hemisphere.

I was really happy that the three gainesville bands that played were such polar opposites because the Athens stuff blended together a bit (although it's all wonderful, but everyone appears to be in ten bands). I only wish that my band, Crush 22, played better. It's always a bad idea to play with bands that you idealize. I'm babbling again because of this stinking cold but I'd like to hear other's peoples thoughts on the Pop Fest...next year...gainesville?

thanks.
josh
ex-crush22
claire de leon! backer...

>Nobody seems to be commenting on how wonderful the Florida Pop Fest was
>(or maybe it's included in subject headers that I'm not looking at)

I think some of us are still recovering from it! ;-) I hope to see lots more peoples' takes on this event, which was just FANTASTIC, the kind of thing that I'll remember for ages.

What can I say? We managed to see every single band that played (except one, because TRAGICALLY we missed The Music Tapes whom I had most wanted to see on account of us thinking they were the third band the second night when they were really the first, and thus thinking we had time to eat Thai food first even though I overslept my afternoon nap, and so we wound up seeing bad karaoke of "Blue Bayou" at the Thai place instead of The Music Tapes, and I could just DIE) and SO MANY were really wonderful. I really did get some surprises and some bands I'm going to have to check out further (wish I could have bought more CDs). Elf Power were marvelous, a band I'd only heard mentioned before seeing them. Gritty Kitty, even though they were all sick, made a great effort and showed me EXACTLY why I like them so much - spirit and fun. The Silver Apples - not my style of music really, but great examples of the style they are, and very well received. Of Montreal made me want to travel forward in time & buy ALL THEIR CDS that aren't out yet to go with all their CDs that ARE out that I already have! ;-) (It was also funny when they called "All the Athens people" to the stage for the last song, and it seemed like it was practically everyone THERE!) (My husband joked that it may as well have been called the Athens Pop Fest.) The Mountain Goats (how does one guy get to be Goats? never mind) was OUTSTANDING, really stunning, had me standing there with my mouth hanging open. Seeing the singer for Racecar dancing around on stage made me smile so much; Forehead (or Fourhead?) made me wanna DANCE like mad; True Love Always had those excellent pure pop songs. I loved the sheer joyful nerve of Masters of the Hemisphere for agreeing to play at the last possible minute (and obviously having a great time), and they kept saying they hadn't practiced but I really couldn't tell! And never mind the modesty of Josh, Crush 22 were great, practically Heavenly-esque to my ears. And every good thing I'd ever heard about Neutral Milk Hotel turned out to be TRUE TRUE TRUE, they were marvelous, and a great climax to the Pop Fest: really neat songs, incredible sounds (Julian's saw! all those horns! wow!!!) great lyrics and just so clearly being delighted to be there playing (had their new CD been available, I would have bought it, believe you me) even though it was SOOOooooo late by that time... I'm probably forgetting some here, but the fact was I enjoyed just about every MINUTE of the Fest. I wanna go again next weekend.

>how rad Michael, Larry and Nick are for organizing such an event. They
>definitely deserve a round of applause.

They deserve that, a big hug, and a winning lottery ticket. One of each for each of them, that is. Big old hip-hop-style shouts-out also to Jeffrey of jeffreylist fame, Kim, dear sweet Julie, Gerald "Gerbil Hamster" Hammill, the Kindercore guys, and others we met from the indiepop list, and also to my childhood (well, sort of) friend Julian who I hadn't seen in YEARS and who was as delighted to hear about my happy life and romantic success as I was about his. :-) And also a great loving kiss to my husband Doug, who did far more than his share of the driving (I did half an hour on the drive home to Tampa, said "Oh, we better switch, I'm nodding off", fell asleep & woke up half an hour from home) and was just such super great company to share the whole experience with (even if we WERE practically the oldest popkids there, we're immature & still have fun). I hope *everyone* drove safely & got home OK (whether their home was hours or minutes away from the Cow Haus), and I hope *everyone* will be there next time such a great thing gets put together...

Layna (still sleepy but very happy)

I had a wonderful two days at Tally/athens pop fest. Thanks again to Nick for letting us sleep on his floor (seventeen of us) and putting together a magnificent fest. I won't comment on the athens bands since i live here, but crush 22 stood out the most to me (don't be so hard on yourself josh) out of the non-athens bands. I hadn't heard of them before but i heard that it was their last show, which stinks because they were really really good. The Silver Apples put on a very entertaining show, everyone took turns going to the side of the stage to get a look at Simeon's oscilator, Simeon. True Luv Always was really good too, better than the first time I saw them. I wish some of the bands could have played longer but hey, there were 15 of em.

Bren

>Nobody seems to be commenting on how wonderful the Florida Pop Fest was
i agree, it was wonderful and definately worth the trip. i'd like to say that all the bands were great, from the electronica of Fourhead to the acoustic bliss of the Mountain Goats, and i especially enjoyed the performances given by Of Montreal, the Masters of the Hemisphere, Racecar, and True Love Always.

i'm still recovering from the 20hr bus trip and regaining some of the sleep i traded for the piles of fun over the weekend (thankfully i took today and tomorrow off!!)

"Thanks" to Brain Gray for saving me from sitting alone in the corner and not meeting anyone and "Hello" to all my new friends i met over the weekend as a result.

brian

WOW, what a great show. i think that was the best 2 days i have had in a long time. i won't go into details, im sure some other people can do a better job of summing it up for ya

Luke

Nobody else seems to be offering many details so here I go:

The venue - The Cow Haus reminds me of an old lodge (like in the Flintstones where they wore the big buffalo hats). It's basically a square room with fairly low (7.5 or 8ft) ceilings and not-very-great ventilation, but I guess smoke will really get to you after 7 hours *anywhere*. Thankfully the place was carpeted and fairly clean because many of us felt compelled to rest the legs at times. The stage was only elevated around 1.5ft and looked big enough for 5 or 6 players fairly comfortably. I didn't contribute to the foosball/pool/pinball action going on, but the low price on soda ($.50) was comforting at times.

The sound - Better than previous Cow Haus shows I've seen, it was fairly well done though maybe a bit more even the 1st night and the volume level was about perfect with earplugs (it still hurt me to see these kids w/o plugs standing with an ear practically touching the P.A. speaker grills). When we came in Saturday they were playing the DAT recorded Friday night and it sounds perfect. There'll be a CD release of the show on Animal World Recordings, who also brought us the Gainesville-heavy "After the Divine Diving Insekt" compilation.

The turnout - Both nights were very comfortably populated, with seemingly equal parts Tallahassee, Athens, and Gainesville folks. I know when Of Montreal requested all Athenians on-stage at *least* a third of the audience skipped on up there. Of course there were small groups coming in from all over the place.

Now before I get to the bands I must explain this is *all* my opinion and probably had a lot to do with the wierd mood I was in both nights. I hadn't heard most of the bands and I guess I was expecting a lot less rock, guitar volume, etc. so...Friday:

ELF POWER seemed like an awkward choice to kick-start a popfest, but how many have *I* been to anyway? I guess they struck me as an above-average rock band (and a *loud* one at that) with some superfluous keyboards played on a little electronic toy horn deal. I suppose it was all done well and I guess the all-about-animals lyrical theme was appealing.

Considering nearly all members were sick, GRITTY KITTY played well their collection of nice, but not extraordinarily-exciting pop tunes. Well, I think I do remember a novelty "Rock Show" at the end.

KINCAID were the 1st to really get me in a good mood that night with an impressive set of spirited (I'll say slightly Holiday-esque) songs. They knew what they were doing when they poured on the catchy all-together-now chorus tunes near the end.

Um...the SILVER APPLES were quite an interesting pair (preset keyboards and drums) with songs that created the mental image of an electronic empire (something out of _Tron_:) with the singer as sort of an operatic overlord spitting melodramatic love themes to the masses. Though it was all very original and somewhat captivating, the middle of each song was treated to the same overly-long oscillator solo that *could* have done something melodic or even rhythmic, but did none of the above. Very memorable, though, was the frantically-paced drum&bass-y build up at the end. I though the drummer was going to explode any second!

TRUE LOVE ALWAYS were perfect to follow, releaving some of the stress of watching a drummer workout tape. Super, strummy, major7-ish brilliance with fantastic harmonies and falsettos all over the place. They were incredibly tight with grand smiles and oozing sincerity. All cheesiness aside, their performance was as sweet as true love itself.

OF MONTREAL seemed to be all about fun and the spirit of childhood. The opener was a mildly-jazzy, adorable keyboard/vocal introduction-to-the-show sort of thing and, being a rabid fan of melodies like this, it immediately pulled me from conversation near the back of the venue and I found myself standing on a chair all smiles. What followed was a great set of '60s- influenced, gumdrop novelty-ish songs bubbling with enthusiasm from each member. There were brief moments where it was all a bit over-the-top/obnoxious, but it was easily my favorite performace of the night, ending with all Athenians on stage singing a welcome home song for an animal whose species & name escape me:)

I do wish the MOUNTAIN GOATS had performed earlier, because by that time I was really feeling awful from the smoke and fatigue and couldn't stay for his complete, solo acoustic set. What I did hear was an amazingly-energetic set of geographically-intensive story-songs. He was quite the live performer and the crowd really ate it up.

For Saturday, I dragged my friend Burt along and I guess that wasn't such a hot idea because he knew almost no one there and didn't really talk to anyone new (more shy than myself!?) so I sort of felt like I had to entertain him the whole night. Eventually this, combined with sleep-depravation and smoke-inhalation, became physically & motivationally exhausting for me and so the second night I was really fighting to stay cheerful. I hate to be the one to cast a dark shadow on the event, but I guess every popfest can't be smiles & sunshine for everyone, ya know? Anyway, the Saturday bands:

The MUSIC TAPES had quite a setup with a TV with a spinning array of plastic speakers on top, banjo, drums with a plastic barrel in place of a tom(?), and some other craziness. In the beginning the big, smiling character on the TV sang a bizarre, but intriguing song through the spinning speaker array and the band backed him up. Then for the most of the other songs the fellow (with the TV voice) sang and strummed a distorted banjo. For some reason, by the end of their noisy set, the volume had grown so incredibly painful for me (w/plugs) that I had to hide in the back behind the pinball machines (am I just becoming a wimp?).

FOUR HEAD was Mike from Gainesville wearing a guitar and towering over a table full of electronics: keyboards, a reel to reel, a small computer, and a mixer. Ironically enough a lot of us sat down to enjoy the loud, but relaxing drum&bass stuff that started out sort of noisy but eventually became full of nice, poppy melodies and ended on an old-school breakdance beat. He introduced himself only with, "You'll probably hate this," but many will agree it added a great element of diversity to the whole event.

I'm probably too close to CRUSH 22 to be objective at all, but... They played their final(?) performance well, overcoming minor sound difficulties and providing the only soft, chimey double-keyboard pop of the festival. Being only their 4th(?) show, they didn't really appear too nervous and afterwards they even handed out around 50 free demo cassettes. Josh drummed in the thrift-store rock-star suit of green cordoroy and shades and, no, you didn't screw up! :)

I'm a little sad that last Friday's incredible CONGRATULATIONS performance (at the Hardback in Gainesville) was not captured on some sort of recording media, but even a slightly less-perfect performance by them, like the one given at popfest, is enough to rock our world. They deliver a big-fun, dancy set of jumpy/bouncy '60s-influenced pop songs with a less-juvenile/more-rockin' appeal than Of Montreal, who I found, at times, to be very melodically similar. Money problems (the usual lack-of problems) seem to be delaying the release of their two(!) full-length albums and I'm about ready to do anything to help get these things out (and in my stereo). Oh, did I mention I'm pretty biased towards them also?

As my friend pointed out, the GERBILS were sort of what you'd expect from the name: fuzzy guys with squeaky vocals:) I had to sit after Congrats and I just couldn't really get into their set, but they played for a relatively long time and only a few of us rock-n-roll wimps were not thoroughly entertained.

At this point my friend Burt fell asleep and I felt obliged to quickly take him home and come back. We went back and, being starved, I fine-dined on generic potato chips and onion dip thought about how big a jerk I was being at the show. I enjoyed Burt's well-lit, smoke-free apartment too long though because when I returned I'd totally missed RACECAR. From what I heard, I really would've loved their set. Did MASTERS OF THE HEMISPHERE also play before them? I'm almost sure I totally missed them, too. It serves me right though being such a party-pooper!

Coming from the cold outside into an incredibly smoky room didn't raise my spirits at all and, to tell you the truth, I'd never heard NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL and I had rushed back to the Cow Haus expecting a more Apples in Stereo-ish pop from them. Since there were so many people on stage I felt a little frustrated not being able to hear much besides Jeff's vocals & guitar very well and I started to feel like the songs were turning into big, repetitive, cabaret songs, to which everyone knew the words except me. I sort of felt like an outsider, or like they were singing songs in a language I didn't understand or something... I only made it 15 minutes into the set before returning to Burt's for some obviously well-needed sleep.

I'm hoping I'm not depressing you all before Valentine's rolls around, but I thank you for letting me share all this.

Steve Clay

The Florida Popfest...15 bands and over 15 hours of driving later, I can't possibly imagine a better weekend! Before I begin my story, I want to say thank you so much to Nick, Michael, and Larry for putting this on...unbelievable! I hope it was more successful than you ever imagined.
This was my first Popfest ever, so I hope to give an accurate account...

Well, driving from South Carolina, we walked in the door Friday night around 7:30pm to find Elf Power already playing. I really enjoyed the three songs I heard! They were definitely loud, but you won't hear me complaining. The second-to-last song was *so* good! Anyone have any idea what it was and where I can find it? I just absolutely adored the bit that I heard of them.

So begins my evening, running into Nick, whom I'd met before, but didn't even realize he was the same Nick that was putting on the show. Of course, I stuck my foot in my mouth by asking how long his drive was to the club, but he took it in stride and shrugged it off, just like a sweetheart would. I finally got a good look at the venue--The Cow Haus--and I must say that it is quite nice! Carpeting and a stage relatively close to the ground, and lots of floor space. I thought it to be a *very* appropriate setting for one of the best weekends of my life. I also had the pleasure of meeting Peter Handhorff (excuse my spelling), who two years ago inadvertently introduced me to the indiepop list (kind of like meeting a major influence in life), Brian Gray, who is wonderfully nice and fun, Jeffrey of Kickbright, the incredibly sweet Andrew, and the dear Becky and Luke, whom I felt wonderfully about dancing next to! And, please, I can't forget Layna, who was so adorably nice! And that ever-so tired but sincere Steve Clay, who had brought me a tape of some wonderful, wonderful things. And then there's the other person with a distance record--Brian Middleton, who rode a bus from Arkansas! I just wish there was more time to speak to you all.

Next up was the cutest sick band ever, Gritty Kitty. I have to say that Jon has the prettiest guitar I've ever seen, but anyways, they sounded great! They all were so hard on themselves, but I couldn't have heard a better set from them. The pure sweetness that they all exude was so endearing, and with the even purer sweetness exuding from their instruments, it was absolutely beautiful. If you haven't seen them, please do. You'll be so glad you did!

The third band up was Kincaid, and needless to say for those that went, they were GREAT! This is the first time in a while that I felt like I'd *seen* them! They seemed to be so into the moment that it was hard not to be swept up by their pop beauty. I still love the fact that these (now) five guys can make you dance or cry or laugh. MMR was great (and I really like Parachute), but I am so thrilled about this new album. Oh...and Andrew, Eleanor Roosevelt is a wonderful request! I heard Super Hawaii for the second time ever, but I must say that is my favorite song. Ever. Kincaid, you guys are great!

Fourth was the Silver Apples, but unfortunately, I didn't see them. As soon as Kincaid's set was finished, we (being four other people and myself) realized that if we didn't eat soon, our stomachs would devour themselves, considering that the last time we ate was somewhere around 10am. So I missed them, but I'm sure someone else can give a better review than me.

Fifth was Of Montreal, whom I have to say is absolutely AMAZING live. I've heard recordings and have not been too affected by them, but this...this was contagion. I absolutely adored their sound, their enthusiasm, their F-U-N! If I'm not mistaken, was Dottie also a part of Summer Hymns w/Joe Christmas? Anyways, I don't know really how to describe them except that the next few albums are going to be high on everyone's list.

Sixth was the VA band True Love Always, whom I had heard before via the Teenbeat single I had purchased three weeks prior to this weekend, and I have to say I did not know what to expect. I do want to say that the gentleman with the beautiful, curly hair was so incredibly nice! Anyways, I really enjoyed them so very much! They were mildly timid, and yet, I felt like I could devour every bit of music they ever put out. Very nice. Very, very nice! Also, you should check out their single...I've listened since seeing them, and it gets even better!

Last was the Mountain Goats, and I'll be honest, by this time, I was so exhausted that even the likes of Mr. Rogers himself would have seemed overbearing. So, I took a rest, and sat back to listen long enough to realize the intensity of that man. He had no pick, and yet, he strummed his guitar so hard! How he didn't bleed that first night, I have no idea. I think that if you've only heard him and never seen him, make sure to see him first *BEFORE* judging what you hear. There is so much life and energy and intensity behind every song. He's wonderful. For those of you who care, he's playing April 4th in Chapel Hill, NC.

So, the night ended with a short excursion to the hotel and a nice rest, to awaken to a nice bright blue sky and a chilly morning. So, the five of us (after watching What's Eating Gilbert Grape? BURGER BARN!) packed in the car and went music store hunting, at which time we ran into Michael and John(?) from the Mountain Goats buying strings before his in-store at Vinyl Fever. So, we madly rush to follow them through town, and make it to see him set up and get ready to play. Again, he was absolutely breath-taking. I must say that he's one of those musicians that you hope to hear a lot of songs you've never heard before, rather than hear the ones you have. This is something I cannot explain, but I do feel that he played a song or two I hadn't heard, and I was so drawn into his lyrics that I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. He was fantastic, and this time, bleeding. After he finished playing and we had found a few bargains, we left to explore the city some more before heading off to the show that night. We found a park, where that kite my mom threw in my trunk shortly before leaving for school this past Christmas break found itself useful. The weather was beautiful, the people were kind, and the kids there were so funny! So, we packed up again, for dinner and a little more window-shopping, and then, it was time for the night to start.

We get there to find Gumption and Flowchart were not playing, which deeply saddened me, but it just meant there were some surprises were in store for us. And surprises they were! Now, the exact order of the bands is a bit fuzzy, so pardon me if these are quite out of order.

THE MUSIC TAPES--So adorable live, with the use of the television, I was impressed. They are not exactly my cup o' tea, but for the type they played, I enjoyed it greatly!

CONGRATULATIONS--I *really* enjoyed these guys a *whole* lot! I thought that their music is so good to dance to, to really, really enjoy. The entire set was absolutely dance-a-billy. Check them out. Now. I also got a kick out of the movies played on the screen behind them. Great.

FOURHEAD--I was so extremely exhausted at the time he took stage, but I thought he was *SOOOOOOOO* good! I just wish I had the energy to get to it, because I really would have like to have seen that entire club hopping. He does some good dance-y stuff, and he even uses *real* tape loops. I could tell he put so much time and effort into it, and I thought he was the cutest thing. If you like dance-y stuff, look for him.

CRUSH 22--This was definitely the highlight of the evening to that point. I *really* enjoyed them *very* much, and I'm so sad to hear that they won't be playing anymore! Josh, you are way too critical, because I thought that it was wonderful. They play a good keyboard-y, sweet harmony kind of pop, and I wish that you'd inquire about them as much as possible.

MASTERS OF THE HEMISPHERE--Now, I have the Going on a Trek to Iceland single, and I've thought Sean (that's his name, I think) was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I didn't know it was going to be like this. I equate them with Kindercore's version of Holiday, like some sort of beautiful trio that reached heights farther than any other. I think of all the bands who played, these guys were the ones who exemplified everything that popmusic is about for me--innocence and honesty, personality and la-las, humility and harmony. I had to buy a t-shirt they had made that afternoon with paints and sponges cut with an X-acto knife. I think this is so much representative of who they are. I'm telling you, these three fellas are so incredible. Take a bow, boys. You're beautiful.

THE GERBILS--I thought they were really good, but just like the Music Tapes, this was not my cup o' tea. I think for what they play, they are very, very, very good!! Definitely more rocky than most of the other bands during the weekend's festivities.

RACECAR--Wow. Energy. Fun. 'Nuff said.

NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL--This is only the second time I'd seen them, and let me say, this was the better of the two times. Alright, I have a question...they played a song during their encore that said something about "Soft and Sweeeet..." If anyone knows what song this is and where I can find it, I'd really appreciate it. That, by far, is the most lyrically beautiful song I've ever heard. Ever. There's a few lines in there that absolutely strike me, and I found even this night that a tear had found its way down my face. I adore the lead vocalist's voice, and their drummer is, by far, the best I've ever seen. So much energy and life and noise and oomph. If you weren't dancing around, there must be something wrong because, I promise, this was soooooo great.

So, just as it began, it was over, and I felt really empty. I said my goodbyes and walked out the door, and somehow I couldn't figure out what was missing. So, as I shuffled my feet back to the car, I thought about my mellow hollowness inside my chest, and I realized even more that it wasn't anything I'd given; my emptiness remained from having something stolen. Staring at my shoestrings, it occurred to me: the part of me that was stolen was my heart. With every song and every new smiling face and every minute of the entire weekend, you all took a piece of me. How incredible this weekend was. I only hope I can be a part of something so magical again in the near future. Bless you all, and to those I met, please stay in touch.

La-la-la-la-love,
Julie

First off i have to give a huge thanks to larry,nick and mike for putting on a wonderfull festival, in which i could hear some of my favorite bands and meet some of my favorite list memebers as well. so thanks tons!

Although i arrived late and missed kincaid(for which i ll cry my eyes dry every night from here until the end of my life)i had tremendous fun in seeing all the other bands. My awards go to John Darnielle(sp)for a terrificly long lovely set, True Love Always for a pure pop set and to Of Montreal for the most fun set!!! Although I did nt stay Saturday night for the festival, i share everyone's amazement over Crush 22. I have seen them a couple of times, and every time I am amazed at how terrifc they are and how thankfull i am that i get to see them on a somewhat regular basis!!! And the same follows for Congradulations!! Oh well the high note for me was definatly getting to meet Julie, Peter, and Brian! So once again thank you thally crew for putting on that wonderfull event!

yours:
andrew

Mad props to Michael Wilkerson, Nick Underwood and Larry Bonk for bringing the idea of a FL popfest from fruitation to the wonderfulness it ended in. *Everyone* i talked with had a super-pop-pop-pop-fun time, myself included. You guys are lovely.

All of the bands were awesome. I was up front jumping around for every single performance. I was exhausted by the end of each night. My favorite performances were kincaid (can they do any wrong? they make me smile), Congratulations (i love these guys, some of the video they had playing was the inside my brothers apartment!), Masters of the Hemisphere and the Mountain Goats.

The "everything elses" of the weekend were awesome as well.... It was fun catching up with friends, seeing and meeting the whole FL crew and the out of towners all at once. It was neat being able to wander the Cow Haus and around town, randomly hanging out with the indiepop listies: Layna Anderson (she's so rad!), Julie Wadford, Andrew and the G'ville crew, Pete Hahndorf, the Athens kids and all the familiar faces from Tallahassee. It seemed everyone from the popfest were wandering the aisles at Vinyl Fever (the record store) saturday afternoon for record-looking and the jawdropping Mountain Goats in-store performance. My good friend Kim gave me a tour of the radio station (V89 FM) after Saturdays show and put me to work Sunday cataloging new CDs for the station (whateva! ;-)) after a trip to the flea market where i found a rad little ukelele. I even got to eat breakfast at my Grandmas (best food in town)!

I thanque everyone, the bands and people, for everything. It was a blast!

*
jeffrey *

After worrying for two months that this was the stupidest thing I would ever do, the popfest finally arrived and it went off pretty well, I think. The most difficult part was getting the entire city of Athens, Georgia loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported to Tallahassee, but once that was accomplished, everything was cake.

Let's put the thanks first since you probably won't make it to the end of this: Thanks to Amanda, Kristen, Layna, Ricky, Luke, and Ryan (and others, I'm sure) for their promotional efforts around the South. Thanks to the city of Athens Georgia for relocating your entire music scene here for the weekend. Thanks most of all to everyone who came and helped to make it so much fun for me, especially Peter Hahndorf (Germany, for god's sake!). Thanks to Larry and Nick for taking care of business at the end of the night so I could watch the Mountain Goats. Thanks to all the bands that came and really made the thing what it was, especially Racecar, who flew a member in for the occasion, and Masters of the Hemisphere, Crush 22, and Fourhead, who all filled in on short short notice. We couldn't have done it without all your help.

I thought I was gonna ramble but I'm not in the mood any more. Let's just say Friday was perhaps the most amazing night of music I have ever witnessed. Every band played marvelously, the show flowed smoothly, I couldn't have been happier. Saturday had some logistical problems (Flowchart and Gumption cancelling two days before the thing, a late start, sound man taking too long between bands, etc) but the bands were once again amazing and managed to save the evening.

I'm glad everyone had a good time. You made it so. Thanks.

michael

The florida popfest was a blast. sososo much fun. thank you nick for letting me and about twenty other people sleep on your floor. I'll admit that i wasn't too excited about it since i live in athens and have seen the athens bands (8 out of 15 at the popfest) enough times but it turned out that some of them played the best shows i've seen them play (of montreal and gerbils, maybe neutral milk hotel too.). as for the bands i hadn't seen more than 10 times, True Love Always, Crush 22, and the Mountain Goats were my favorites. We need to start a riot against Crush 22 breaking up.

bye sean

Hello everyone,
this is nick, i have not said anythin yet, so i will.
i want to thank everyone for coming, it was a blast. a big huge thanks goes out to all teh bands as well.

you all rule!
peter Hahndorf is teh coolest guy on the fAce of the planet!!!!!!!!!!!!
haha
everyone has already said all the great things abou teh 2 nights, kincaid were great, elf power, gk, masters, NMH everyone, oh yeah mt goats were great as well, everyone was awesome!!!

one thinsg though that was sad about the wekend was teh demise of teh four leaf clovers, all 612 member died on teh way to teh show, luckly boxer was able to anounce bands on teh first nigth, but some time between the end of teh first night and the start of teh second he too died, what a sad thing that was.

id liek to dedicate the fl popfest to teh 4 leaf clovers!

thanks to everyoen who helped us out, and thanks to those of you who came, you made it a very memorable event, and i want to do it again.

i heard of one in ny, ill se you all there. sorry im not saying more.

Julie, teh song you asked about by nmh is called "the areoplane over the sea" it is on teh new record.

ok, im going to go now, fl popfest was a great experience, i had fun and thanks to all of you for sharing it with me, i loved every minute of it.

Claire de leon is teh pop monoply!
haha

love you all
Nick

Hi everbody,

this is pretty late for a Popfest review but I just found some time to do one:

I had lots of time at my stopover in Amsterdam, so I took a train into the city and walked around for two hours. I haven't been there for some years and it's always nice, I even found some pop 7"es on a market but I didn't find a good record store.

the flight to Jacksonville via Memphis was too long, but the movies were good. On Thursday I drove to Tallahassee, which is not the typical Florida town I expected, pretty hilly and the typical small town capital atmosphere.

The base camp for all further Popfest activities was Larry's and Mike's apartment, it was great to see them again. We all were very excited about Tallahassee' free weekly entertainment magazine, because it had a Popfest front page: A girl waiting for a lift at a road to Tallahassee holding a sign saying "Tallahassee PopFest 98!", it also says "You Pop, I Pop, we all go twee pop" Inside it has a two page article about "Twee Pop", the Indiepop list and PopFests.

The Pre-Popfest party was fun, mostly local and Florida popkids plus TweeFest veteran Alan Bryden from Virginia and John Mountain Goat, who baked a pretty good loaf of bread for all of us while his guitar was lost somewhere on the way from Iowa.

Friday was the only grey day of my whole trip, the rest of it were beautiful warm sunny days just as you imagine them in Florida. They picked the right time, just between two major El Nino storms hitting the states. Anyway Alan and I went to a historical museum and a zoo, when we return the the PopFest HQ everybody was watching the "Pam and Tommy Lee" video, it hardly left the VCR for the rest of the weekend as more and more people came in, how twee is that :-)

Time for the actual popfest show, comparing it with last years pop-fests the list of bands didn't include many big "names" at least not thislisty ones. Someone even said it should have been called Indierock fest and being a pure pop guy I didn't expected too much, but I positively surprised. Other people already wrote quite a bit about the bands so I keep it to my favorites. I enjoyed a few of the Elf Power songs but disliked the rest for some reason. Gritty Kitty showed their potential of a fun live bands but the sickness of all the band members prevented this that night. Kincaid were great, much better than on record, very enjoyable. The Silver Apples on the other hand were pretty torturing for me, but True Love Always and especially Of Montreal brought my attention back to the stage. The Mountain Goat was pretty good at what he was doing, but he isn't really my cup of tea.

It was good to see Brian Gray at a popfest again, he missed out four in a row.

Saturday saw the big afternoon meeting at Vinyl Fever, a pretty good record store. John Mountain Coat did an instore show.

more about Saturday to come...

I didn't meet some of the listies which were there, which happened at every popfest and is always sad.

Pete