[kebbie]

Who's going to be at FFM 2007 at Calvin College? I no longer work for the university, and I barely qualify as a member of this online community anymore... but I'll be there. Holy Moly! mentioned that he's in (and doing a workshop, which no one should miss), Jeff Rioux is speaking, and I know the venerable Andy Whitman will be playing the role of Simon Cowell.

Maybe we should have an A&F meet-up if there are enough people planning to make the trip? (And with a bill like the one they're working this year, how can you resist?)

This post has been edited by kebbie: 24 January 2007 - 11:43 PM

[Jason Panella]

I'll definitely be there. I was at the past (and only) two, and both were standout events during my life. I'm trying to get my friend Rachel (who did a workshop in '05) to come, but it's not working so far.

I'm definitely up for an A&F meet-up, by the way.

[kebbie]

I'll definitely be there. I was at the past (and only) two, and both were standout events during my life.

What?! Did I meet you? I apologize if I'm totally blanking here - I usually connect these sort of dots!

I hope Rachel can come this time around. I've only met her briefly a few times, but I like her music a lot.

[Jason Panella]

What?! Did I meet you? I apologize if I'm totally blanking here - I usually connect these sort of dots!

I hope Rachel can come this time around. I've only met her briefly a few times, but I like her music a lot.

I doubt that you met me, kebbie. I'm a shy sort in person, and basically stayed with the same pack of people the entire time (Ken Hef's son and the CINO people).

[Andy Whitman]

Who's going to be at FFM 2007 at Calvin College? I no longer work for the university, and I barely qualify as a member of this online community anymore... but I'll be there. Holy Moly! mentioned that he's in (and doing a workshop, which no one should miss), Jeff Rioux is speaking, and I know the venerable Andy Whitman will be playing the role of Simon Cowell.

Maybe we should have an A&F meet-up if there are enough people planning to make the trip? (And with a bill like the one they're working this year, how can you resist?)

Yes, my venerable self will be there, if I can get dese old bones to Grand Rapids, thereby staking my claim as one of the world's few arthritic rock 'n rollers. Just don't ask me to dance. My twenty-year-old daughter Katryn will be with me. You could ask her to dance, and she'd happily oblige.

I'm looking forward to seeing you, Kate, as well as Jason, Jeff, and Kevin, and any other A&F folks who happen to be there. And I'm excited about the conference itself, of course, which promises to be a great mix of thought-provoking ideas and superb music.

[Christian]

What's your current calling/job, Kate?

[kebbie]

Jason, I'm sure I met you if you were with the *cino people - Rob and Kirstin are dear friends. (They succeeded me in my job at Calvin.)

Andy, just for spite, I am now planning to insist that you dance.

What's your current calling/job, Kate?

I don't know yet if it's a calling, but I'm studying to be a public librarian. I'm in school for my masters, and I also work full time as a "trainee" at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

[Jeff Rioux]

I will be there, not speaking so much as being part of a panel discussion for student activities folks at other colleges. There will be much more exciting things to see and hear.

However, I double booked (I booked The Decemberists at Messiah March 31), so I have to fly back and miss all of Saturday. So can we do the A&F meeting sometime Friday?

I think we may be bringing a bus of people from Messiah.

[Jason Panella]

I will be there, not speaking so much as being part of a panel discussion for student activities folks at other colleges. There will be much more exciting things to see and hear.

However, I double booked (I booked The Decemberists at Messiah March 31), so I have to fly back and miss all of Saturday. So can we do the A&F meeting sometime Friday?

I think we may be bringing a bus of people from Messiah.

Man, Friday would probably be better for me too. I'm up for that.

And mucho love for Calvin and Messiah student activities; I'm one of several people trying to help Geneva College work more along those lines in regards to concerts and stuff. Hopefully it works.

[Holy Moly!]

I am super stoked for this conference and excited and flattered to be presenting a workshop. I'll be talking about the project of "engaging the broader culture," understood in light of big changes happening in the christian media industry and our current era of hip consumerism, liberation marketing, corporate entertainment synergy and faux-indie. My specific point of entry will be a critical discussion of Relevant Magazine and its parent company Relevant Media Group, based on 7 months of in-depth research for my undergraduate thesis. Adam Smith, current managing editor of Relevant will also be at FFM, so there's potential for some really interesting dialogue to take place.

Not sure what meet-up time works best for me as I've no idea when I might be presenting.

[Andy Whitman]

So ... can we have a quick show of hands from those who will be at Calvin College for the Festival of Faith and Music this weekend? I want to make sure I say hello at the very least; a meal and some real conversation would be even better.

[Jason Panella]

I'll be there!

[Persona]

I'm too broke with the recent move and no definitive job, but if anyone wants to come over for lunch or supper or stay on Sunday and go to Mars Hill, I live about twent-five minutes from the college and I will be in town this weekend.

-s.

[Edit] PS I have an extra bed in the basement...

This post has been edited by stef: 28 March 2007 - 10:08 AM

[Holy Moly!]

I'm in town already! Hanging out with some folks who run the Division Ave. Arts Cooperative. They're doing some great work. Today will be spent trying to edit down my powerpoint presentation. Might be going to Cual Pelicula this evening to see a Thai Western?!? Would love to meet as many of you as possible.

[Joel]

Let's hear a report. Was there a smackdown between Kevin and people from Relevant? Did Andy discover the next Nick Cave? Is Andrew Beaujon's head as perfectly round and smooth as it appears?

[Andy Whitman]

Let's hear a report. Was there a smackdown between Kevin and people from Relevant? Did Andy discover the next Nick Cave? Is Andrew Beaujon's head as perfectly round and smooth as it appears?

Nah. The next Radiohead, though. And yes, Andrew Beaujon's head is very shiny and round.

There's some discussion about the conference going on over here, although it's of a more religious/philosophical nature than musical. I'll get around to posting my thoughts about the music. But first I have to take a stand against irrelevance.

[Holy Moly!]

Let's hear a report. Was there a smackdown between Kevin and people from Relevant? Did Andy discover the next Nick Cave? Is Andrew Beaujon's head as perfectly round and smooth as it appears?

We briefly considered staging a fist fight. I wish I'd planned ahead better and brought some fake blood capsules.

As it turns out, Relevant managing editor Adam Smith is a great guy--we probably agree about much more than we disagree about.

[Andy Whitman]

Let's hear a report. Was there a smackdown between Kevin and people from Relevant? Did Andy discover the next Nick Cave? Is Andrew Beaujon's head as perfectly round and smooth as it appears?

All right, here's my take on the music I heard at the Festival of Faith and Music. I'd love to hear others' takes as well.

First, let me note that there was far more happening musically than I was able to take in. There were, for instance, various Asthmatic Kitty folks other than Sufjan Stevens (Danielson Familye, Half-Handed Cloud) milling about, and they may or may not have performed music at some point. If they did, I didn't see it. I also missed The Psalters, and I would have enjoyed seeing them. But here is who I did see:

-- Anathallo -- I don' t know much about Anathallo. They were on a Paste sampler a while back, and I was underwhelmed. I haven't heard any of their albums. But I quite enjoyed their performance Friday night. There were, at various points, about twenty people onstage, most of them members of the Central Michigan University brass ensemble. Most of the members of Anathallo proper sang, and their harmonies were lovely. The songs themselves were quite unconventional -- no verse-verse-chorus structures here -- and for the most part flowed seamlessly. At times the transitions were a little too abrupt for me, but the music surprised me at every turn, and they made great use of the whisper-to-a-wall-of-noise approach so prevalent in post-rock music today. Two or three guys ran energetically about, playing percussion, and one guy derived great pleasure by arching his back, swinging with all his might, and thwacking a very large gong. Lean into it, dude. I was impressed, and I'll certainly be seeking out more of Anathallo's music.

-- Sufjan Stevens -- I don't know. I enjoyed the concert on some levels, but I tire of all the busyness, both with the onstage props and in the music. I've seen Sufjan four times in the last couple years, and maybe I'm just feeling burned out. But I'd bet any amount of money that he's feeling burned out. You can hear it in the frayed vocals, the high notes that he can't quite hit these days, and in some of the dispirited between-song commentary. Take a break, guy. This was the last show of what had been a long, worldwide tour for Sufjan. He played for more than two hours -- the longest show he'd ever played, or so he claimed. And, to be fair, there were many wonderful moments. I love Sufjan's music, and he played a wide selection of material from Michigan, Seven Swans, and Illinois, as well as a couple surprise songs from the Christmas album and his NPR radio appearance. It's great stuff. I wrote about why Sufjan's Illinois album was the best album of 2005 in Paste Magazine, and I'd gladly do it again. But there was an element of forced frivolity in the concert Friday night that honestly left me slightly depressed. There is such a thing as trying too hard. And, so in spite of all the inflatable Santa and Superman dolls that were being batted around in the audience, contributing to what I suppose is spontaneous hilarity on a Christian college campus, I felt a little sad. I greatly preferred Sufjan two years ago at this same conference -- quiet, subdued, almost beatific, making hushed music that made me want to do cartwheels because it was so beautiful and transcendent.

Liz Janes, Son Lux -- After the Anathallo/Sufjan concert, most folks went to watch the Danielson Familye documentary. A couple hundred folks, including me, wandered over to the chapel, and heard some more music. Liz Janes, who is Asthmatic Kitty label head Michael Kauffman's wife, didn't move a whole lot, strummed her acoustic guitar (and occasional ukelele), and simply wowed me with her voice and her songs. There was a sweetness about her demeanor that reminded me of Victoria Williams. She sang the old Jesus Freak song "I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table," and followed that up with a cover of The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation." She sang original worship songs. She sang Weezer covers. She did an a capella, soulful field holler thing that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. She was, in a word, great.

Son Lux is the nom de mope of a guy named Ryan Lott, who was the winner of Calvin's Bandspotting contest. I liked Ryan’s songs a great deal when I heard them as part of the contest, and I liked them a great deal when I heard them live. Ryan is apparently the kind of guy who records his tortured songs in the privacy of his bedroom. And Friday night was his first live performance, at least under his Son Lux moniker. And he did just fine. Better than fine. His lyrics are simple and direct, but his piano work, tape loops, and electronica blips and beeps add great depth, and his angst-filled vocals remind me quite a bit of Thom Yorke from Radiohead. You can check out Ryan’s music right here. I think you’ll be impressed.

I missed Sarah Masen, who followed Ryan’s set. By that point it was midnight, I was operating on three hours of sleep, and the old, gnarled body was starting to shut down. Sarah (whose name I spaced on both times I encountered her in person over the course of the weekend; she’s got to suspect not only an old, gnarled body, but encroaching senility) is a very talented singer and songwriter, and I’m sorry I missed her performance. I’m hoping that she covered Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” as I’ve seen her do in the past. But someone else will need to comment on Sarah’s performance.

Neko Case/Emmylou Harris -- Saturday was filled with workshops and artist interviews (Sufjan, Neko Case, Emmylou Harris). The only music I heard was Saturday night, when Neko and Emmylou performed before a large crowd at the Calvin Fieldhouse. There were several fun non-musical moments at the gym-turned-concert-hall (the best was finding out that the pleasant, middle-aged guy I’d been chatting with for half an hour was Jim Wallis’s brother), but at 8:00 the lights dimmed (these Calvin folks are punctual; they have a thing or two to teach the rest of the world), and Neko came onstage and rocked the (field)house.

Neko, for the record, is deceptive. She sounds like Tammy Wynette, but she writes songs like Joni Mitchell. No cliched, heartaches-by-the number approach for this woman. She has a big, big powerhouse of a voice, her songs resonate on multiple levels, and she can kick out the jams with the best rock band. In short, she was fabulous, the musical highlight of the weekend for me.

Then, after a short break, Emmylou came on stage. And after about five minutes, I was shaking my head, realizing that I was a part of some sort of mythical concert pairing that seemed too impossibly good to be true: Neko and Emmylou on the same stage on the same night. Are you kidding me? I’ve seen Emmylou a number of times down through the years. But she was better – her voice surer and stronger, her band the perfect complement to that sometimes fragile voice – than I’ve ever seen her before. She performend songs from throughout her long career, with the songs perhaps slightly skewed toward the Wrecking Ball, Red Dirt Girl, and Stumble Into Grace albums. But there were some delightful surprises – a superb cover of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” (with a slight change in the lyrics to accommodate the Christian audience; I felt like I could cry, indeed ), a beautiful rendition of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer,” and a stunning a capella version of the old country gospel standard “Bright Morning Stars” that closed the concert.

It was a fitting ending to a wonderful day, and a wonderful weekend. I can’t wait to return. Can we do this again? Maybe next week?

This post has been edited by Andy Whitman: 06 April 2007 - 10:02 AM

[Holy Moly!]

She did that same lyric change on her recording of "After the Gold Rush" on the Trio IIalbum with Dolly & Linda as well. I blamed it on Dolly, at the time.

This post has been edited by Holy Moly!: 06 April 2007 - 11:17 AM

[Persona]

-- Anathallo -- I don' t know much about Anathallo. They were on a Paste sampler a while back, and I was underwhelmed. I haven't heard any of their albums. But I quite enjoyed their performance Friday night. There were, at various points, about twenty people onstage, most of them members of the Central Michigan University brass ensemble. Most of the members of Anathallo proper sang, and their harmonies were lovely. The songs themselves were quite unconventional -- no verse-verse-chorus structures here -- and for the most part flowed seamlessly. At times the transitions were a little too abrupt for me, but the music surprised me at every turn, and they made great use of the whisper-to-a-wall-of-noise approach so prevalent in post-rock music today. Two or three guys ran energetically about, playing percussion, and one guy derived great pleasure by arching his back, swinging with all his might, and thwacking a very large gong. Lean into it, dude. I was impressed, and I'll certainly be seeking out more of Anathallo's music.

Hi Andy. You'll find lots of love for Anathallo around here, but I have to personally check in to mention that I have practically crucified myself trying to come up with a decently worded description for the band's live performance. Here is the link to where I said that their "compositions are actually a little like old Queen songs. Like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as performed by a post-grunge rock band with way too much time on their hands and all their dads' friends' horns." And here is the link in which I labelled them as a "post-alternative pop group made up of what looks like band geeks from 10th grade."

I seriously love these guys even though it is rare these days that I put a spin on the one Anathallo CD I own.

-s.

This post has been edited by stef: 06 April 2007 - 11:34 AM