Moe.down 2010 with Taraleigh Weathers

Review: Wanderlust by Jhanna Dawson Photos by Dana Nollsch

Squaw Valley, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics, is nestled in the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas in California. In the winter it is home for countless numbers of skiers, snowboarders, and lovers of all things snow. But in the summer time, this world renowned ski resort becomes one of the most beautiful places on earth with it’s stunning views of Lake Tahoe, color popping wildflowers, and mild summer temps. It is during this time of year that Squaw Valley hosts the Wanderlust Festival, a gathering of music, yoga, food, vendors, and good vibes.

This was to be my first year attending Wanderfest, and I was really looking forward to taking in the experience. Being a resident of Reno, NV, which is just down the hill, I enjoy going to Squaw in the summer time, but I knew with the high energy of yoga and music intertwined, this was going to be one of the highlights of my summer.

I arrived early, before 8am, and it was clear the night before had everyone up late enjoying the many music options that were offered and what makes Wanderlust such a huge success. I wandered around, with the village to myself, enjoying the peaceful quiet and crisp morning air.

I headed over to the gondola and caught a ride up to high camp, where several of the first yoga classes that morning were being held. At an altitude of 8200 feet, high camp gifts us with panoramic views of the valley below, and Lake Tahoe just off in the distance. There were two groups doing different styles of yoga, in two separate areas. Further up, Wanderlusters who chose to participate, could hike up a single track trail and join in on the morning meditation, featuring Garth Stevenson playing his bass (which he hiked up to the meditation spot with).

Without actively participating in any of the groups, I silently sat down, took some photos, and could feel my blood pressure lower, and my vibration levels rise. It was the perfect morning.

By the time I rode the gondola back, and got down to where the main festival was being held, the number of people had greatly increased. People of all ages were walking in with their yoga mats, instruments, bicycles, bota bags, and more. It was a treasury trove of different types of music, yoga, and festival lovers to be sure.

The marketplace (Kula Village) held many options for everyone’s buying pleasure, informational pursuits, and culinary treats. The merchants were, as one would expect at a Wanderlust Festival, approachable, knowledgeable, and friendly to sit and chat with.

The festival itself was spread out like a maze, with little nooks and crannies of fun activities for adults and children alike. This year, it included an area especially designed for kids, which included the gift of yoga, henna tattoos, hula hoops, and more.

Other options for Wanderlusters included Speakeasy Talks, where people could sit and listen to some leaders in various industries, wine tasting, an art gallery, or a walking meditation on one of the many hiking trails Squaw Valley has to offer.

While all of these options that are offered to Wanderlusters, I have to say that my favorite area was the Tea House, a large nomadic like tent that offered quiet and meditative respite to many weary souls. Here, one could come in and sit on wicker stools around a small table and either not say a word, or partake in the wonderful conversations taking place. Whichever one chose, the table, with a gracious hostess, was clearly a place of reverence. Every person sitting at the table was quite aware of the ceremony taking place and treated it with great respect and gratitude.

On a side note, the volunteers were fantastic at the event. All of them that I interacted with were friendly, helpful, and having a great time. I know some of the people who volunteered and, while they said at times it was a hard job, they loved having the opportunity to do it, and to contribute to the energy of the festival.

Overall, Wanderlust was an amazing experience that should be on everyone’s festival calendar for next summer. The people who gathered to partake in all the festivities were truly of a common conscience, which oozed of peace, fun, joy, healing, and creativity.

The intention of the creators of Wanderlust was to create an environment that invited people to “escape the mundane and dwell in the extraordinary.” They succeeded to say the least!

For more photos go to Dana's Facebook Page

Camp Bisco in the Words of Katherine McNamara

The Search for Health and Happiness at Camp Bisco

The splendor of camp is in its simplicity. What is an orch? What is a theme? What is a festival? Sometimes the best recipes have the least ingredients. I’ve seen them all… and somewhere between the faux Kerouac bus photo ops and the artfully calculated tripping forests that have sprung up like trendy weeds on the circuit something gets forgotten .(Although the carnival at Waka certainly a sparkling optical attraction the best ride I took was crawling underneath the stage during the bass nectar set with my girl Cate – looking out onto unsuspecting front row of rolling heads, sitting in the dirt, inhabiting the barrel of the drum) So maybe that’s just me; a preference for the quick and the dirty, the raw and the unaffected. .

What do we need? Good tunes, good folks and a plot of land for a few short but well honed days. So when I am asked to write about the healthy and happy elements of a well acknowledged drug romp that is only a shadowy vestige of the politically idealistic hippie movement of old… I have to wrack my brain if I want to be honest… and although I’m prone to dramatic exaggeration, my speech may be flecked with lies, I try to mostly walk in the light of the truth. We’re a long way from Woodstock – figuratively if not geographically – they were trying to alter the world, we are trying to alter our perceptions and escape it for a little while. Blah blah blah. So I’ll just focus on what’s going on inside that fort cause face it – that’s why we come.

And whats going on inside the fort is what is happy and beautiful, if you can let it be in its

Communal convulsion that drips into perpetual spasm; that ticks like a leak and rivets to a beat – maybe this is how we can describe good electronic music. Camp Bisco 9 fell into festy orbit with all the trappings of the best electro line up round the rotation this summer. Not to say that camp didn’t cook up some good rock and roll as well – and of course no tinkling bouncy thumpster can steal the thunder from the main act. Only real thunder upstaged the biscuits in this (albeit die hard) opinion. So the music was right – telepath took the stage on Saturday, scrambled off then on again while bisco closed out one of the best day time sets I’ve seen (this isn’t an article about music but that mr. don into pat & dex …. Even on time sounded good) aeroplane, eskmo, rusko, future rock – I’ll repeat myself and leave it at that – shit was right.

Now people are the second reason you come to camp. Look around. These are your friends. And for a few days at least these nuts along your camp site’s peripheral are your people, if only because you to hit the same scene. I tend to like the campers - everyone from dudes in skirts to tree thuggers to high school grads down for their first rodeo. Although I will admit that this year will be remembered for an insane amount of robbery – stories are all over the place - one lady I know who by karma’s laws ought to have been exempt… But such is life. Lock up your shit.

So forget the scoundrels cause you can never shut them out, and anyways you better focus on your folks who will help you when the badness comes… in whatever form it takes. Cause we’re all outlaws and I’d venture to say that we like it that way. I know I stick with the people who will allow me to expound on my future Indonesian adventures while rolling around in a muddy pit. We would be fools to deny the dark side of Camp Bisco, and perhaps health and happiness appear brighter by contrast.

The real beauty in a situation as strange and ripe as Camp is the alien inclination to interact with some stranger who (to you anyways) is little more than a well weathered yet simultaneously prolific patron of what makes the bottom of this barrel look so deep. There wasn’t even half as much rain as last year. But in Bisco land, when it rains it pours… and here we are flailing and flapping down in the muck and somehow convincing ourselves and the world what we’re doing is called ‘dance.’ In this alone I think we make a pretty good team. So despite the innumerable mocks and mark ups from the resilient, repugnant crop of seedy spunions, you never have so much fun in your life as the few fleeting days you spend getting as weird as you can with them. Well done campers.

By Katherine McNamara

Review: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at Higher Ground 7/26

Me at the show
Krissy feeling the love
The band hung out with the fans after the showThey had us all sit down for a campfire song
Families were feeling to love



Their merch is so awesome. I got a t-shirt

I had been looking forward to this day for a long time. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were here in Burlington playing at Higher Ground! I have had many dance parties to them and it was fun to have a dance party with a sold out crowd and the music really being them and not a recording. The band doesn't only give you a show, but they give you an experience. People were feeling the love so much that a couple actually got engaged on stage! Their sound is kinda like when you are at a festival late night and people start jamming...but they are actually great! You can't help but feel joyous and that you are lucky to be a part of something so cool.

Here are some quotes from the fans at the Higher Ground Show.

"So good I don't even know what to say." David T Euler of Burlington, VT

"It was awesome! It looked like an Urban Outfitters Tent Sale." Ashley Lipton on Burlington

"We are very excited about tonight's show. We heard about the band when they played at Metronome and we wanted to have them play here. We found they seem to attract many different kinds of people. It seems that people are looking for something different and this is it. They appealed to everyone and made them happy! Nothing pleases us as much as a group of really happy people." Kevin Statesir owner of Higher Ground

Photos and Review by Taraleigh Weathers

To see when Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are playing by you check out their website by clicking here!

Taraleigh Shows You Why Nateva Rocked

The Flaming Lips Ignite Nateva Music & Camping Festival with Spectacular Performance

The Flaming Lips Ignite Nateva Music & Camping Festival
with Spectacular Performance
STS9, Crash Kings, Grizzly Bear, She & Him, Drive By Truckers and More Highlight Saturday Line-Up at New England's Premier Music Festival

OXFORD, MAINE (July 4, 2010) - On the second day of the inaugural offering of the Nateva Music & Camping Festival the powers-that-be blessed the sight with an absolutely gorgeous summer day. Weather is hard to call in this neck of the woods. Perhaps an easier prediction would have been that the Nateva line-up of music would blow around with an eagerness to brush against so many genres.

This ideal could not have been more beautifully illustrated than by the Flaming Lips. From the bombastic opening of confetti cannons and an ad-hoc dance squad of guys and girls in fantastically orange ensembles, one could be forgiven for thinking that they'd lapsed into a time of easy air travel and readily recognizable rhythms.

Frontman Wayne Coyne was forthcoming in his Nateva love. He called out the volunteers and the workers who made the port-a-potties, "clean enough that I'd put my ass on them."
Working from a set that drew from the band's eclectic catalog, the Flaming Lips proved, once again, that they might be America's most durable band. If the instantly recognizable, "Jelly," was not sufficient proof of the band's wonders with a hook, then the plaintive cries of "Yoshimi" worked to remind listeners of an ever evolving act.

The Lips were preceded by the throbbing beats of STS9 (who also got a Flaming Lips shout-out). With an anxious crowd waiting for the headliner, STS9 delivered a beat and synth heavy set that called at points on three keyboards, and the loops that go with each, to dance with guitar. It's not easy to serve salad when the masses are screaming for steak but STS9 put enough meat into their set to warm up the masses wonderfully for the Flaming Lips.

Earlier in the day, Grizzly Bear turned out to be the wildcard on the Main Stage as tuned in hipsters stood transfixed by their "Elephant Six Collective" approach to avant rock, while far too many others hurried to the dinner bell. Those who weathered their stomach's callings caught a smart, and at times surprisingly aggressive, set. Many who didn't see this set will one day claim that they did.

Of course, She & Him didn't come as an easy act to follow. With their sound fleshed out by two backing singers/instrumentalists, a rhythm section of bass and drums, and an additional guitarist, M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel had plenty of room to stretch out. While Ward's work as a solo artist, and in such collaborations as Monsters of Folk, has cemented his credibility, Deschanel is a newly discovered treasure of a performer.

Whether behind a Wurlitzer organ that Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers described as the "Spooner Oldham Special," strumming a ukulele, or simply belting out a killer like, "Sentimental Heart," Deschanel can flat out sing. The cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" showed that they know their roots but She & Him can confidently move in the current day in style.

Hood should, and does, know a thing or two about performing and his Drive-By Truckers blew doors in a set slated to start at 4:20. Fresh off a support gig for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, they delivered solid hooks via ringing guitars in a manner perhaps best mastered by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. They even dedicated, "Girls That Smoke," to She & Him and "anyone who tours in England when it's cold."

The Crash Kings may have been the nicest surprise of the big stage performers with their catchy, "Saving Grace," mining solid guitar hooks and vocals that reached the same neighborhood that Hot, Hot, Heat and Wolf Mother have occupied.

With two nights down it seems that a true personality is emerging in this event that we now collectively call, "Nateva." Friendliness emerges at virtually every turn here, and with one more night, it's your call to go make a new friend. There's only one day left. This is the spot.
Today's lineup features Festival headliner Furthur, George Clinton & P-Funk, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Max Creek, Zappa Plays Zappa and more.

Summer Camp Companions: Sensational Melodies, Famoe.ly, and Sustainable Initiatives

Has anyone noticed this “spinning in infinity” trend that festivals seem to be taking on? I don’t know about you, but I’ve sensed a shift from original to mainstream with most. More time and energy are spent booking the poppy diva’s of rock n’ roll over adding personal touches that make the fans feel like they are physically kept in mind (not just bank rolls). Grrrrr. Not very thoughtful of the fans and mother earth are we? Well, I certainly don’t speak for all, because moe. definitely knows how to throw a festie - I couldn’t have asked for a better virgin experience at Summer Camp.

Being that it was the festival’s 10th anniversary and moe.’s 20th year playing together, it seemed like the boys were going all out! But, as the weekend came closer, I did hold some suspicions that the festival would take on a “business as usual” approach rather than a “green” one. They had an all-star lineup (no diva’s really, maybe just Dweezil) which, by the way, fulfilled all the womps and ween-toon-teen-toon’s you could handle. And, there were 11,000 moe.rons by Thursday night’s pre-party, which was already surpassing the 2009 totals. Even though there was a lot of growth and momentum behind 2010’s planning, I was pumped that by the end of the weekend I was still able to uncover integrity within Summer Camp’s community.

While the music and its fans were comforting my mind on Thursday night, there was still a minus sign in my dancing shoes equation, which equaled unexceptable. My soul could not allow my body to dance peacefully (without picturing piles of waste entering a landfill) until I knew that my womping grounds were being treated right and that my body would be able to receive the sustenance it needed throughout the weekend. So, on Friday morning I took out to turn my minus into an equal sign, and was generously given an informative tour of the festival grounds with Samantha Phelps of Jay Goldberg Events. She knew just where I belonged, which was the Soulshine Tent.

Here I found like-minded folks who shared the same passions in life: music, art, and awareness. Unlike the negativity of the dude who was off-setting peoples’ ambitions to change by screaming, “Everybody spilled the oil!” all weekend, these do-gooders were all about sending the message through positive interactions. Change of Atmosphere, a main sponsor of the event, had James Gooch heading activities and events at the Soulshine Tent.

When I got there, they had just finished Primitive Dyes: Spicing Up Your Wardrobe, where partakers learned how to make natural dyes with wines, fruits, and other everyday wonders. Anyone for a tie-dye party this summer? I also found out that the tent would be leading AM/PM yoga classes by Heading OM Yoga, Build Your Own Compost Workshop with the University of IL Extension Program, 10 Reasons to Eat Local Discussion, The Hidden Dangers of Kid’s Meals, as well as Share Your Souls Shoe Drive, Rock the Earth Mobile Phone Drive, Conscious Alliance Food Drive, and various other incredible activities, discussions, and performances. I was sincerely impressed with the non-stop education that was being offered to the audience at the Soulshine Tent. Oh, and did I mention one of my favorite performances was held under this tent. Uh-huh, acoustic set with Chuck Garvey of moe. and guest Danny Barnes who was pickin’ away at his banjo!

After my tour of the grounds, I set off to see the first afternoon moe. set and I left early, for church. No, this church was not offering afternoon services or Mumphries. Vaccinations for Saturday nights killer back-to-back x2 Umphrey’s and Moe. sets. Summer Camp’s Greening Coordinator would be filling me in on all their sustainable initiatives and giving a tour of the Waste and Sorting Center. Vanessa seemed like a busy little bee. This respectable lady had a lot of responsibility under her belt and I think she pulled through with great success. The obvious "big idea" behind her job was to off-set the festivals carbon footprints.

First, she informed us of the 200 plus Green Teamers, who had volunteered to help collect and sort the insane amount of trash that would be created over the four festival days. Camper's were provided with garbage and recycling bags at the gate, as well as color-coded bins that were spread through the campgrounds for recycling, compost, and garbage to help alleviate some of the Green Team’s work. Next, we went outside and met the most beautiful old ladies ever! These ladies were the founders of Old Hippie Recycling and they set up the on-site sorting facility and waste transportation; fortunately one of two composting facility’s in Illinois was just 15 miles away. These pretty hippies and the Green Team worked effortlessly all weekend sorting the trash into the three groups, all while smiling!

Vanessa also informed us about the biodiesel generator’s that were used for all the electrical needs. Together with Caterpillar engineers, the generators were approved to use B20, which is a fuel mixture made of 20% biodiesel. Another side-note, was that all vendors were required to use biodegradable plastic-ware. Although this was a great step forward on Summer Camp’s part, I felt like the vendors could have done some more promo with it. The various times that I had purchased food from vendors, I was never informed that they were compostable or how to dispose of them. Maybe informative signs for vendors to display or more pressure on vendors to inform their patrons, just an idea. I’ve also gotta say that I was not enthused by the food being offered. Although a good portion of vendors were traveling from within 50 miles of the campground, I was happy that I had brought most of my food to the festival. Not because the food being sold didn’t taste good, but there were not very many health-conscious choices. On a more positive note though, Summer Camp would like to offer some sort of a farmers’ market next year. Whoot!

So, here's what I think. Summer Camp is headed in the right direction. As their third year of officially going GREEN, they have undertaken a lot of projects which have helped to take giant leaps in reduction and to become as earth friendly as possible. Now, I think the biggest next-step is, YOU. If you’re anything like me, since you were a child you have never been able to deny the feeling of void when good times are coming to an end. As festivals come to a close, I’ve always thought that if we could eliminate that picture of imploded tents, broken sunglasses, and miscellaneous useless items thrown across the campgrounds, that we might be able to dodge that feeling.

Well, until moe.down limbo is over, I hope everyone is conscious about the food they are packing and the products they vote for as the festival season continues. Lets try to be as mindful as possible of the environment. Pay your fine, do your time.

See ya'll at moe.down!!

Bee well,
Courtney Lang