Just wanted to say I found out there is an Island Camping Festival this Saturday, July 12 on Angel Island.  It's pretty much impossible to find any info on this secretive fest, but...



...I do know that amongst the performers set to entertain those at the campgrounds on the island are Michael Hurley, The Sarees, Lucky Dragons, Little Wings and maybe even Devendra Banhart!  Of course, the few camp sites on the island are long reserved, but if you can find a way, this sounds like the definite hot ticket for the weekend.  Hurley's songs alone were made for singing around the campfire, looking up at the stars.  It's gonna be an island jamboree!

San Francisco band Vetiver's latest album, consisting entirely of hand-selected covers, Thing of the Past, will be released today, May 6!  I spoke to frontman Andy Cabic about the recording of the album, the frustration of his first guitar, and his new obsession with the mushrooms in his backyard.


M.E:  What is your first musical memory?

Andy Cabic:  I have an odd memory of a large sunlit room with light hardwood floors, very reflective and bright, and a there being a step in front of me, and as I'm crawling towards it, Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" is playing.  I grew up listening to a lot of Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers and stuff like that, so...it's possible this was an early apartment of my parents’ or something, I'm not really sure.  It's one of those weird memories that feels like a dream and I'm not really certain of anything solid about it except for it's strength in my mind and how vivid the light and the scene are when I remember it.
 
M.E:  What was the first record that really blew your mind and made you think about making music your life?  What albums formed your young musical mind?

Well, I don't know that any one record made me come to a decision to make music my life.  I just sort of played music, and looked back one day and realized music had become my life and there wasn't a whole lot else I seemed able to do.  Whoops!

Michael Hurley played at the Cafe du Nord Wednesday night, so i busted on over there after my weekly Bravo reality tv date, and i made it just in time for his full set. 

Hurley is one of the last standing of the 60s folkies, and he's still playing out often.  i think in about the last 3 years i have seen him play maybe 5ish times?  oh, and though he is in his 60s he's still expertly writing ghostly, beautiful songs.   some of my favorites of his entire career have been on records from the last  15 years.  he's been recording since 1965!  despite the fact that most people associate folk music with serious, political topics, Hurley has always had his sense of humor intact and out front in his songs.

he's come back into fashion in these last 10ish years mainly because lately other artists have been giving him the shout-outs he's always deserved and have been covering his songs.  two of the more notable artists to champion Hurley lately have been Chan Marshall of Cat Power and Devendra Banhart.  (weirdly, Chan Marshall's Covers Album is practically a song for song version of Hurley's Armchair Boogie.)  a few years back i saw Devendra with Vetiver, Chris from Espers, Carrituck County members and Joanna Newsom covering one of my absolute favorite Hurley songs, "Be Kind to Me" at the Swedish American Hall, and they tore it up, made it the raucous and ramshackle-y number it's meant to be.

anyway, Hurley's a quiet, modest guy, but he is quite the renaissance man-- in addition to all his writing and touring, he creates the artwork for pretty much all his cds.