Hopscotch In Review

Hopscotch: the Sequel

Only in its second year, the Hopscotch Music Festival took over twelve venues and a handful of city streets to bring more than 140 bands to the heart of downtown Raleigh, NC. When you throw that many people into the epicenter of North Carolina arts who are genuinely excited about musical culture, something happens that has its own frequency–its own tone–that breathes, vibrates, and jumps between every soul in attendance.

Canadian indie darlings, BRAIDS, crashed Hopscotch shortly into their North American tour. They just put out their first album, Native Speaker, in January to the acclaim of international voices like The New York Times and The Guardian, and even spent four weeks on the Canadian charts. The band sat down with rtm over Vitamin Waters to talk about their success. “We get a lot of Moms and Dads at our shows, actually,” says Katie Lee (keys/vocals). While the band has established a generous following at home, they’re also building plenty of fan base here in the States–the band packed out the Pour House on Friday night with a genuinely well-played show.

Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s vocals were feminine yet powerful, and Austin Tufts nearly played his drum kit into the stage with fervor something like that of a bronco. Taylor Smith (bass/samples/vocals) was less energetic on stage, yet commanded the attention of the crowd with the power of solid musicianship.

The worst thing that’s happened on their North American tour thus far? All I will say is that their tour van torpedoed an endangered bird–but the murder was completely accidental.

The Triangle

Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill–has always meant artistic community to any North Carolinian, and the atmosphere at Hopscotch was no exception. Rtm sat down with Maria Albani one afternoon outside Tir Na Nog to talk about her most recent release with Organos, one of her several projects based out of the Triangle. In less than ten minutes, at least a dozen people had stopped by to speak to Albani–all drawn to her friendliness and warmth, and all friends or fans of her art. Albani is one in a hub of dozens of talented musicians collaborating and sharing with one another in them there parts.

Joshua Carpenter, who drums for Schooner (one of Albani projects), was one from Albani’s community who sat in with us. Carpenter has just released a record, Full Flight, which he recorded on a 4-track. Full Flight may have been laid down on a 4-track and released on cassette tape, but still Carpenter hopes to avoid the stigma of lo-fi recording which he believes undermines a good deal authenticity. Guided by Voices may have made lo-fi “cool,” but they certainly weren’t meaning to.

As I leave the conversation, Albani hands me a record that is Organos’ latest release. The case is a simple card stock sleeve, painted and then linocut stamped–one of Albani’s originals. It reads “25/100″ in the bottom corner, and is signed by the artist.

Both Schooner and Organos are music for the community–a new brand of folk that invites artists and appreciators alike to join in the celebration of mixed media.

Luego put on a memorable set during the festival, bringing bright, throwback lyricism reminiscent of Paul Simon-esque, hopeful, self-aware musings on love. Their most recent release, Ocho, begs to be played behind a bunch of amigos enjoying PBR and a game of horseshoes. Frontman, Patrick Phelan, engages the audience despite his wearing wayfarers inside [clears throat].

Ben Sollee was also a Hopscotch favorite. Sollee’s southern influenced cello-blues lend themselves to live performance rather than recordings on account of their instrumental power and natural energy. His set was minimal–just Sollee on electric guitar or cello, and percussionist Jordan Ellis on drums, yet engaged a crowd of at least a hundred despite the afternoon heat.

Fun nugget: In 2010, Sollee took a “Ditch the Van Tour,” in which he and his band toured the country on bicycles. Yes, the cello rode too.

Let’s not forget about the hearing damage we sustained at The Flaming Lips on Saturday night. All I’m going to say is glitter cannons, dancing girls, and SPACE BUBBLE.