The Past, Present & Future of Independent Music
MusicFest Northwest (a/k/a MFNW) is one of those regional music festivals that just sort of sneaks up and blows your mind. Sure, you could miss it and think to yourself, “No biggie.” But you’d be wrong. Yes, you could pass it by in favor of some mega-fest somewhere. But that’d just be unwise. While the faithful horde busily attended, recapped, lauded and/or guffawed their way through several of spring and summer 09’s biggest events, MFNW 2009 quietly shaped itself into one of the best booked independent music festivals of the season. For the third year in a row, (and for almost a week straight!), promoter Trevor Solomon and the Willamette Week newspaper hosted 25,000 attendees and more than 100 national and local performing artists around the greater Portland area. Logistically, my friends, this was no small fete.
On any given night at any one of the fest’s 18 participating venues, you could see artists like Om, Eluvium, Chairlift, Bad Brains, Avi Buffalo, Brother Reade, Modest Mouse, Dirty Three, Beach House, Explosions In The Sky, Love As Laughter, as well as the recently reunited Sunny Day Real Estate and the mighty Team Dresch… to name but a few…. As a principle sponsor of MFNW 2009, Incase hand-delivered product requests to participating festival artists and MFNW community participants (Hi Fasil!). As well, we sponsored the stage at The Holocene and community radio station KEXP’s remote broadcasts from the stage at The Doug Fir.
From the city’s coffee shops to its dedicated bike lanes to its positive neighborhood vibes to its great food and vital independent music scene, Portland always feels like a home away from home.Trevor, thanks again for putting on yet another great music festival. You and everyone involved with MusicFest NW should be proud. See you again next year. Enjoy the photos!
CMWC Results and Final Thoughts
Here’s the final CMWC update from our man Puck…
Well, 6 days and 5 nights in Tokyo…it was really fun. It took me 4 days to come down from the trip. I feel like I have to wrap up the CMWC before it’s too late, but there is so much more from Tokyo that I have to share. So, what did I get from Tokyo? Let see: 2 pairs of Japanese natural indigo dyed denim pants, two Japanese chambray shirts, hundreds of new friends, and proof of true love. (Yes, I asked, and she said yes.)
Though I had been to Tokyo numerous times, this trip was the first time I traveled through the city by bicycle. Was it easy? Yes! Tokyo streets are perfect for city riding. I’m no city planner, but it was very easy to navigate around and change lanes and directions, even though they drive on the left. The roads are in top condition: smooth, not bumpy with potholes like San Francisco. Cars know how to share the road with bicycles. My lady had never ridden a bike in city traffic, but she had no problem splitting lanes between cars and trucks going 40 km/hr.
Oh I almost forgot—CMWC results!!! Well, the organizer only had a chance to announce the first 3 men’s and women’s finishers for the main race.
Here the breakdown: out of 380 racers that came for qualification, 60 men and 10 women were in the main race.
Main Race: Men’s
- Juri (Tokyo)
- Shino (Tokyo)
- Stevie (Zurich)
Main Race: Women’s
- JoJo (Stockholm)
- Yuki (Tokyo)
- Christina (Chicago)
Fixie King: Jumbo (Copenhagen)
Sprint: Men’s: Alex Forolettii (Canada?)
Sprint: Women’s: Alex’s girlfriend (forgot her name)
Skid: Men’s: Jumbo (Copenhagen)
Skid: Women’s: Sarah Murder (San Francisco)
Backwards Circle: Daz (149 ROUNDS!!!)
Track Stand: I don’t know. Someone needs to fill me in on this. I left when the organizer decided not to let both men and women compete at the same time.
How about the two people that I followed throughout the event? Both qualified for the final. Fergus came in 15th, and Mr. Chas was DQed because he can’t read the rules. Actually, he finished the race, but had 3 packages left in his bag, so he was disqualified. :(
But you know what? Everyone was a winner.
CMWC Tokyo was well organized, perhaps a little too well organized for my tastes. I thank them for taking the time to organize the event. Turnout at the race venue was in the thousands each day. Bottom line is, I had a hell of a lot of fun. Thank you to Incase for all the Japanese denim garments I bought, thank you to all the friends that let me take pictures of you doing nasty move and funny faces. Thank you to my lady Jassy for booking the room, helping carrying camera equipment and being the prettiest girl in the show. I love you.
Next year: CMWC 2010 Guatemala—I’m going!!!!
Check out the entire CMWC 2009 Flickr set.
Previous CMWC posts:
AnOther Magazine and colette Bring Gareth Pugh Artistry to Incase
The capsule collection for AnOther | colette includes a 13″ MacBook Pro Sleeve and iPhone 3GS Slider Case ornamented with exclusive graphic artwork by fashion designer Gareth Pugh. The graphic is synonymous Pugh’s bold design sensibility, turning personal technology devices into statement pieces. Pugh’s fractal print cleverly intersperses stars within the graphic in reference to his signature star print featured in lining and on tees within his collection.
“Our partnership with AnOther Magazine, colette and Gareth Pugh demonstrates the relevance and complementary nature of fashion and technology,” said Damon Way, Incase Chief Brand Officer. “We all share a passion for forward-thinking innovation and have mutual respect for each other’s design aesthetics, which resulted in an unexpected partnership with a unique point of view reflected in the pieces we’ve produced.”
The highly limited collection is part of a collaborative project between AnOther Magazine and Colette, featuring a select group of favored brands and designers handpicked to create the six limited-edition products for this iteration of the project. All products in the series will be carried exclusively by select boutiques in major fashion capitals of the world—Paris, London, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles.
This capsule collection of Incase product for AnOther | colette will be available for purchase this week online at AnOther Magazine with availability following at select boutiques worldwide.
Trick Comp and CMWC Qualifications
Puck sent us another update with a TON of photos. Check them all in our CMWC Flickr set.
On Sunday, there wasn’t much going on at CMWC, but around 6 pm, people were meeting up for an alley cat and trick competition at Meiji Park organized by the W-Base crew. I think about 200 people were there, including lots of kids with BMX style track bikes.
Day 1 (qualification day) of the CMWC race event was on Tuesday. The venue is by the Fuji TV building on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. The race circuit is so big; I couldn’t count how many people were there, but I think it was in the thousands. There were lines of vendors selling almost everything bike-related.
Qualifications started around 10 am, with racers lining up and taking turns to ride the course. The racers were handed a set of 12 order forms and had to complete all orders accurately and efficiently. The racers had 2 hours to turn in all 12 order forms at the finish line and were judged on sales profit and time. The last racer came in about 5 pm.
There were also backwards circle and track stand competitions. The first day did not end until around 8:30 pm. The racers will find out f they qualify for the final day at the after party venue near Shibuya, where they will announce names and qualification rankings. I did not make it to the party; too tired.
Previous CMWC posts:
MASH Drag Race Format
Just like last year, MASH is organizing a race during the Interbike in Vegas.
Only this time it’s a bit different since the race will consist of three stages:
- Drag Race
- Alleycat
- Goldsprints
Who will win the individual stages and who will be the overall winner?
Meet up at the Cyclocross parking lot at 9:30pm.
CMWC Arrival and Registration
Puck sent us some details and photos from this weekend’s happenings at the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Tokyo.
I got into Tokyo on Saturday evening. The flight from SF was amazing. Japan Airlines is my favorite airline; they did not hassle me about the large bike cases I had with me, no question about what was in the cases, no large baggage fees. I think it is because I packed the box and did not go over the 50 lb. weight limit. I brought an Alex Moulton road bike and a Colnago track bike (Alex Moulton for my girlfriend and the track bike for myself). I am quite happy that I brought the road bike because in the CMWC race, track bikes must have brakes. The Colnago track bike doesn’t have brake holes.
We checked in at Westin hotel in Ebisu. Sunday, we got up real early to build up the bikes and hit the road.
We went to W-Base to meet Yohei. W-Base is a well-known track bike shop. Yohei used to be a messenger in San Francisco; he moved back to Tokyo last year and is now W-Base’s store manager. Of course, many people that were in town for CMWC showed up one after another while we were at W-Base. W-base is off Meiji Dori near Shibuya.
After that, I went to register for the race at B1 Building, also in Shibuya. The CMWC Tokyo registration team is very well organized. It’s located in the basement of the building. You walk down and come to the first table, where they check your name and accept your registration fees. They gave me a package that included a wristband for foot down competition, a race number sign to attach to my bag (my number was 69). Along the line, they took my picture to make my ID card, which I used to gain entry to various events every night.
Lots of people showed up at the registration office and flocked the whole street with messengers, boys and girls and their bikes, their bags and even their sleeping bags, sleeping on the street.
After the registrations we went to Club Asia to see the Goldsprint race. Club Asia is also in Shibuya. The party started at 3pm. Again, tons of people showed up and flocked the whole single lane street. By about 9pm, the whole street got even crazier because people would come out of the nearby bar.
Some other messenger groups, the San Francisco crew, were down the street hanging out in front of 7-Eleven. I thought that was funny: drunk messengers decided to pick 7-Eleven as their drinking base.
Lots of people from around the world showed up for the event. We got to meet Irish, Scottish, Finnish, Taiwanese, Swedes, French, Germans, and even Australians. Everyone was happy to be in Tokyo, share their stories, exchange cultures and, best of all, make new friends.
Previous: Incase Sponsored Riders at CMWC Tokyo
Incase Sponsored Riders at CMWC Tokyo
This weekend the Cycle Messenger World Championships are starting in Tokyo, Japan. We’re proud to sponsor Chas and Fergus, two San Francisco messengers, who will be competing in the championships. Puck will be going along to document everything and provide us with updates, which you can follow on our Blog.
Name: Chas Christiansen
Age: 24 years old
Location: I live in San Francisco
Hometown: Olympia, Washington
Day Job: I am a bike messenger for Special T Delivery
Race History: I have lately been to the ECMC and NACC (3rd overall and 1st in sprints) and the worlds last year in Toronto and NACC in Chicago (17th overall)
Most memorable messenger experience: My best messenger memory is when I had a rush job… turned out it was fresh breast milk that I was picking from a law firm and taking to the kid at his rich ass house up in the hills. Really had to get hot on that one.
Favorite bike blog: I check CycleZine.
Name: Fergus Liam Tanaka
Age: Old enough
Location: San Franfuckingcisco
Hometown: Dixon, CA
Day Job: Bike Messenger
Race History: win some, lose some.
Most memorable messenger experience: The day I was hired as a messenger… probably one of the happiest days of my life.
Favorite bike blog: what’s a “blog?”
Name: Puck Ananta
Age: 32
Location: San Francisco
Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand
Day Job: Mechanical Engineer, Photo Journalist, Blogger, Fakesenger and International jet-set!
Race History: NACCC San Francisco 2007, Registered to race CMWC2009Tokyo
Most memorable fakesenger experience: being let into building in downtown as courier…
Favorite bike blog: CycleZine, MASHSF, Prolly Is Not Probably and trackosaurus rex.
Good luck guys!
Grunge Days Revisited
For the second year in a row Incase is sponsoring Portland, Oregon’s MusicFest NW.
That Trevor Solomon puts on one helluva festival. Though I can’t quite recall the exact figure, he’s booked somewhere in the realm of 200 bands to perform at roughly 18 venues around the Rose City.
Last year’s standouts included sets by Awesome Color, TV On The Radio, Red Fang, Love As Laughter, and the reunited Polvo. This year? God only knows.
But this much we do know, the Bad Brains will be strappin’ it back on, which is more than enough reason to go. As well, you can see Dillinger Four, Frightened Rabbit, Frank Black, Avi Buffalo, Brother Reade, Crom (holy crap!), Eluvium, Om, Team Dresch (wow!), and dozens more.
We hope to see you there.
MusicFest NW
Sept. 16-20th, 2009
Portland, OR
Cases for every iPod user
Whether you’re playing games on your iPod touch, rocking out to tunes on your iPod classic or capturing video with your new iPod nano, Incase has a protective solution to house your iPod.
Our ever-expanding assortment of cases for the iPod family includes something for every user. Be on the lookout for new iPod touch cases just for gamers and an array of case styles and colors to suit your lifestyle.
For those of you enjoying FM radio and video capabilities with your new iPod nano, hold tight—we’re working to bring you the latest and greatest protective solutions for your new investment. iPod touch and iPod classic owners can check out our selection of currently available cases, which are compatible with the newly-released models, and look forward to new additions in the near future.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
FYeahFest Productions & Incase Present “Save Our State Parks” Outdoor Music Festival
Saturday, Sept. 5th, 2009
LA Historic Park, Los Angeles, CA
Despite the ominous cloud of smoke and ash rising out of the Angeles National Forest just seven miles north; despite the sun’s punishing rays and dust bowl winds; despite the long waits at the ticket window and food court; despite an extremely limited advertising budget and few sponsors; and despite the naysayers and the haters, the FYF production duo of Sean Carlson and Phil Hoelting ONCE AGAIN pulled off the seemingly impossible. This past Saturday, Sept. 5th, our friends produced arguably one of the best independent music festivals of the summer. From 1PM to 1AM, with performances by more than 30 acts spread across three stages, FYF’s Save Our State Parks outdoor concert at LA Historic Park quickly turned into the event of the city’s Labor Day Weekend.
Though they’d long crossed their fingers and hoped for 6,000 attendees, by the end of the night the box office had doled out more than 10,000 tickets. Think about that for a second and then think about how much loot goes into advertising other music festivals and sub-cultural gatherings. 10,000 people at a homegrown, independent punk fest supporting state parks? Seriously. Given that most people learned of it via word of mouth, (and Sean wearing a sandwich board at local shows, I am not kidding) this was a major and most unexpected coup. From the bands to the fans to the stage crews to the bartenders and production volunteers, Save Our State Parks came together through true community effort. As a principle sponsor of FYF, we are very proud of our friends and our community. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, attended and spread the word. And thanks most of all to the California State Parks Department for having faith in FYF’s vision for the event. A day spent inside LA’s Chinatown to Downtown corridor never felt so good. See you next year.
