text by Brendan Casey
photos by Johnny Galvan
Desert Daze 2019 has come and gone, leaving only memories of Zig-Zag papers, Devo hats and assorted pool floaties in its wake. The 8th iteration of the festival was another successful notch on the belt for founder (and JJUUJJUU member) Phil Pirrone and the whole Desert Daze crew. Aside from some minor technical squibbles for a few acts, the sunshine and good vibes seemed to set the tone for the whole weekend. And truly, it would take a lot of work to have a bad time when you’re posted up on a lake, sipping a beer and listening to a dope Turkish psychedelic band.
Various bands and festival goers alike all noted not only the truly idyllic setting for such a gathering but also the general relaxed and positive attitude of the crowd. It helped that the grounds were spaced out enough where no point of the weekend ever felt too overrun or hectic. Not to say that there weren’t massive crowds for certain bands throughout the day, but that the weekend never tipped into the chaotic state that festivals can be prone to. And if at any point you needed a break from the music, you were always one pool donut and a frosty brew away from taking a float break.
Now, at this point in time, psychedelic music has fractaled into a large variety of subgenres and it’s up to the listener to decide with rabbit hole they feel like excavating further. “In many ways, every decade now has a reference, it’s own psychedelic sound, so it’s kind of even more timeless now. We’re fortunate to be able to put our own spin on it,” said Temples’ bassist Tom Walmsley. The UK band played a strong set on Saturday night, hitting all the right benchmarks of the classic psych sound while updating it with more modern hip-hop style drumming at points. I talked to the band briefly before their set.
“I don’t even know what wave of psychedelic we’re in at this point, it’s been 50 years of it. But I think it’s interesting that for as long as the genre’s been around, a lot of the bands still keep going back to the same 60’s source material, you know? It’s not like they’re going oh yeah, we’re only into 80’s or 90’s psych. What are you guys trying to bring to the genre that’s new?”
“I think it’s knowing what things to take, what things to use as inspiration,”
“It’s funny you say that about the 80’s stuff cause you’re right, they were probably trying to do the 60’s thing but because of the recording methods everything sounds so….”
“So fuckin’ 80’s?”
“It doesn’t sound good. There’s a few 80’s bands that sound good and that have stood the test of time.” — James Bagshaw, singer and rhythm guitarist
Of course one band that has stood the test of time is Devo, who delivered what may have been their last set ever (we’ll see how that plays out). The performance was hotly anticipated with the iconic red Devo Dome hats omnipresent throughout the weekend, including one sported by Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts during their own killer set.
There was even a giant Devo Dome placed on the beach with festival goers clambering up it for photos throughout the festivities. Pretty much every band that we talked to had Devo on their list of groups they wanted to see and the set didn’t disappoint.
All the hits that any fan would want were played, an appearance was made by Booji Boy and Mark Mothersbaugh went off into a story about Trump getting his arm chopped off while getting out of a helicopter. Though the species may have devolved since Devo first kicked off, the musicianship and bizarr-o charm of the band hasn’t.
Another of the acts that was on a lot of people’s lips was Altin Gün, the Turkish psych band. The group started as a fun side project but has since picked up a lot of steam and also quite a fan base along the way. Like many of the ‘classic’ Turkish psych bands, they play covers of traditional Turkish folk songs but ramp up the wah-wah and the overdrive for their own inventive interpretations.
“In the western world they call it psychedelic rock but where I’m from we call it Anatolian Rock”
“The whole idea was that when those guys started in the late 60s, early 70s taking those traditional songs, they were all influenced by the Beatles and all that stuff. They just wanted to electrify the whole thing.” — Merve Desdamir
I noted that that has almost become a genre in itself, taking some countries traditional sounds and chords and melodies and adding a heavy dose of Beatles to it. “Totally, and not just Turkey,” replied Merve “Did you get a chance to see W.I.T.C.H. last night? Everybody just blended at the time, even though there was no internet, there was just a cultural exchange.” That kind of cultural exchange can lead to all kinds of interesting creative avenues.
Merve herself had been singing in bands before Altin Gün before a mutual friend linked her up with a band. They all got together and the chemistry was immediate. I asked if she had ever sung in Turkish in a band before this (she’s from Istanbul). “No man! I never thought I’d be singing in Turkish, it’s very unexpected.”
That is one of the joys of music undoubtedly, the unexpected being brought to delightful fruition. Another of the bands we talked to that enjoy swimming in the unexpected is KVB, a Goth/Post-Punk band that had recently re-relocated back to the UK after a good while in Berlin. The band played a fiery set that used their albums as a launching pad to further wring out a deeper fury from their songs. Although they are a two piece, they were able to bring a fully filled out sound to the beach stage. Plus, a dearth in members can mean surplus in opportunities of the unplanned.
“Because there’s only two of us we can travel to places very easily, so we often get invites to play shows in strange places,” said Nicholas Wood of the group. KVB had recently done a tour through China. I asked how the process was of arranging it all. “It’s a lot easier than getting the American Visa,” laughed Kat Day.
“For China, you just have to assemble your lyrics, translate them into Chinese, make sure you say nothing bad about China, religion or the Dalai Lama or drugs. And it’s really exciting there now cause the whole crowd is filled with really young people and they’re so excited about music and they’re making their own music as well. And the crowd is 70 percent female. And they’re going wild.” — Kate Day
In addition to shows in Malta, Tazmania and other locales that are usually not as accessed by artists, KBV usually goes to Russia once a year if they can swing it. “Moscow is fantastic. We played a weird techno festival, it was bizarre, they didn’t have the proper license and the police turned up when we played, they shut down any alcohol sales and it was sponsored by alcohol companies and we were walking around with beer and some Russian comes up with blood on his face and he starts talking in Russian to us.
I didn’t know what he was saying, I think he just wanted to know where the beer was and then this guy in a boat turns up, he says ‘Hey do you want a ride’ and we all get in this random Russian guy’s boat and we start going down the river Volga and we start thinking, ‘Wait, what are we doing,’ but he ended up being super nice and just took us for a joyride and he was really proud of Russia and saying how much he loved his country.”
Later on we talked to Los Angeles four piece Kills Birds who also had a motley wishlist of tour spots. Of course, Japan and Europe were on there but guitarist Jacob Loeb noted,
“I just want to bring this to the midwest. I want teenagers in the midwest to hear this music and the band.”
It’s not hard to imagine pent up teens flailing to the anxious clanging hooks of Kills Birds. The music bursts with angst and catharsis, something the band channeled into the recording of their self titled debut. They had already recorded the album once two years prior, but tensions and dissatisfactions with the final product brought their momentum to a rather extended halt. A happenstance one off show a good while later reinvigorated the group and that night lit a desire to do the album again and do it right.
It didn’t hurt that producer Justin Raisen also came into the green room after the set and wanted to produce them. The result was a debut album recorded in a rapid fire eight hour session. “The thing about the whole ‘eight hours thing’ is funny cause it’s true but it’s more like eight hours plus everything that brought us to that moment,” continued Jacob.
“But for us as a unit we were fucking ready to make that album and it sounds that way. We had nothing to lose, we’ve been fucked so bad by whatever the music industry is or whatever, been chewed up by that and we were like fuck it and Justin was right on that tip.”
I found it quite interesting that the band often writes with the lyrics first by singer Nina Ljeti and then the band assembles the music to fit that. “When we sit down and write, we understand each other in a very specific way,” said Nina. “The way our music comes together, you can only kind of do that if you’re literally trying to translate words on a page, even the spaces between the words on the page,” added Jacob.
Other highlights from the weekend included Stereolab playing their first announced North American show in a decade. They brought their Krautrock trance to legions of excited fans who remained hypnotized throughout the set. The Locust started out dealing with some technical issues, but whatever frustration that caused was only funnelled into a punishing set that whipped up a cloud of limbs and dust.
Pussy Riot was also a major curio for a lot of attendees. I can’t think of another band that could generate so much hype and yet have all those present not really able to name a song, yet ready for whatever would come. Although they too had some extended technical issues, the crowd was on their side and by the time they launched into their positively bonkers set everyone was with them.
By the end of Sunday night, everyone was certainly slowing down to a degree, but fortunately there was a still a triple punch left. Khruangbin, the Houston Texas psych favorite cast their soundscapes across the lake and had everyone swaying along. At the end they closed out with their classic marathon of instrumental 90s hip-hop covers.
The one act that really knocked me out for the weekend was Moses Sumney. Whether it was the nine piece band including horns and strings behind him or just the gravity of the performance, the whole crowd was enraptured by the darkly cinematic groove put on by Moses. At one point a looper pedal wasn’t working, so Moses decided to improvise a new hook for the song via strings and drums to fantastic effect. It was a homecoming show for Moses being from that area and he definitely came back as a force to be reckoned with.
Of course, the other big name for the weekend was Wu Tang Clan. Closing out Sunday night with their iconic ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” album, the band took the stage at 11:35 and quickly knocked the sleep out of everyone’s eyes. By the time they were in their flow you could hardly throw a blunt without hitting a Wu sign.
Near the end of the set, the RZA took a heartfelt moment to thank Desert Daze crew saying, “We’d never heard of this festival but we thank you for inviting us out to hang with you by this beautiful lake and enjoy music together.” They then covered Come Together (with a slew of added weed smoking references, of course) and then had Khruangbin come out to jam out to a few more tunes. A fittingly surreal and awesome close to a long weekend.
It’s hard to pull off a festival that not only flows well, has a beautiful location, isn’t overcrowded and most importantly is chock full of unique and incredible acts. Though successful on all of the above, it’s really the latter where Desert Daze excels. While they deserve some feet-up time, I have no doubt that Phil Pirrone and the Desert Daze crew are already thinking of how they can out do it next year. I don’t know what will rival Wu-Khruang in Desert Daze 2020 but I’m sure it’ll be outstanding.
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