Friday, August 25, 2017

All of the Fests!! Pt. 3

Night Three // Two Shows!

After checking out of the hotel, getting some food, coffee and parking. We headed out to the 1-2-3-4 Go! Records for the third show of the fest. Booked as a Slumberland Records Showcase, I knew this was a MUST NOT MISS show.

Slumberland Records have been keeping it foolish since 1989 and have put out some of my most loved records. Their library consists of a murders' row of indie pop. Bands like Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl, Go Sailor, Henry's Dress, The Softies and newer bands like Veronica Falls, Tony Molina, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and especially my absolute favorite (and featured in a previous post) Terry Malts. It's a dream label and I can't believe I got to stupidly dance in the same space as Mike Schulman himself!

The line up was:

Kids on a Crime Spree

Real Numbers

Sea Lions

Terry Malts headlining

This was kind of a record release show as well for Terry Malts and Kids on a Crime Spree. They currently have a split called "Our Love" and I was able to pick up a copy from Malt Phil. Of course, I highly recommend picking it up. It's got some juicy jams to please for sure! Anyway, I didn't take not any pictures except for this one just before the show began.

I did however take a video of each band! Except for Terry Malts. I was too busy bobbing up and down to bother with video or pics during their set. Sorry NOT sorry. So here are the videos I took!

It was a great show and there was still one more show to go and we had to play it!

The Golden Bull Bar was the last spot of the fest and we were super lucky to catch some parking directly in front of the venue. Got there early and had a chance to just take some time to chill with friends and make new ones. The final fest line up went as such:

The Plastic Shoelaces

Arts & Leisure

Sci-Fi Caper (us!!!)

Lunch Box

Tashaki Miyaki headlining

Here are the videos I took of each band from the night.

It was a dreamy night. It was a dreamy weekend. All the bands were great. Everyone was so nice. I can't wait to see what the Oakland Popfest will bring next year and I'm gonna be there for it all. I can't thank Claude enough for keeping my little band in mind for this. I've left links all around these posts so please follow them and support the bands. They're all truly wonderful. Thanks for reading!

And how amazing is this flyer!? The artist behind it is Kiki Petiford. She's also the guitarist for Horrible Adorable. I can't wait to play with them at some point. It HAS to happen.

Next up will be the Fresno Zine Fest, follow the link to go to the FB event page for all the details. I'll be there taking pictures and selling my zines under "Pansy Pop". If you live in Fresno, come see me! Sept 2nd//In the Yoshi!Now parking lot//Starts at 12PM. C U There!

Monday, August 21, 2017

All of the Fests!! Pt. 2

Howdy howdy!

Back at it again with a new entry. This time I'm talking about the first Oakland Popfest!

San Francisco has an annual popfest as well but this particular one was organized by a long time online friend of mine. I had met Claude somewhere online in the very early 2000's. Either on MySpace or the Indie Boards. We both had a love for indie pop and had managed to keep in touch through various social media sites. Though we've always had mutual acquaintances and friend, we'd never actually met in real life. That was until day 2 of the 3 day festival. We're talkin' FOUR shows in THREE days! Not only that but all of the bands of the first two days were fronted by women and some of the bands were all girl bands! The last day had an early show that was a Slumberland Records Showcase at 1234 Go! Records. It was a super star indie pop line up. We played at the final evening show and boy was it a weekend to remember!

We sadly had to miss the first day of the festival due to work schedules. It was truly a bummer because there were so many cool bands playing and I wanted to see them so badly. It pained us all to miss them. The line up was:

BamBam! (Oakland CA)

Rat Fancy (Los Angeles, CA)

Horrible Adorable (Oakland, CA)

Gal Pals (Los Angeles, CA) and

Colleen Green headlining!

Doesn't that sound like a magical night?! I'm certain that it was and there was a lot of fun had by all.

We headed up to Oakland on Friday and found lodging at a Motel 6 which, to our surprise, had an amazing view of the docks and boats. It was quite lovely. We left early so that we could enjoy the day exploring Lake Merritt.

The day consisted mainly of walking around the lake, quality dog spotting, people watching and lounging about in the shade on the grass. It was wonderful. We were pretty tired when we got back to the hotel so we ordered a pizza and watched Good Will Hunting on HBO.

We then headed out to The Uptown Nightclub for a night of pop magic. We sadly didn't take the lack of available street parking into account and found ourselves driving about for a little too long until we decided to shell out some money for a parking garage. We just had to be sure to be back before 1 AM. This caused us to miss the first band, Pennywhistle Park who were reuniting for this fest. So, it was definitely a bummer to miss them. Another reunion was taking place that night with Dream Bitches who hadn't played in a few years. They were dream dream dreammy. But, so were most of the bands we saw throughout the weekend. I mean, this festival was an actual dream come true for me. Being a fan of most of these bands and then being able to share a bill with them? I can die happy. Honest. The line up was:

Pennywhistle Park (Alameda, CA)

Dream Bitches (San Francisco, CA)

Try the Pie (San Jose, CA)

Summer Twins (Riverside, CA)

Dressy Bessy (Denver, CO) headlining

I spent the entire night dancing like a peanuts character at the corner of the stage. It was GREAT! We had to leave immediately after Dressy Bessy's set because the parking garage was going to close. We made it juuuust in time.

Here's a short video clip of Dressy Bessy's last song of the night.

Hang in there folks! One more part to go. TBC.....

Also, special Happy Birthday shout out to my little broskee.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

All of the Fests!! Pt. 1

Ahoy hoy friends!

It's been a long five months since we've seen each other. And once again, oh so much has happened. Sci-Fi Caper has been lucky enough to play two very amazing fests!

I tried to be mindful of taking photos and video but truthfully, I wanted to live in the moment. Sometimes I'll whip my camera or phone out for some photos and video. I usually end up abandoning the idea and try to simply enjoy what is happening. More often than not, it all ends up on my snapchat or Instagram. Which sucks later, because then I'm left wanting to look back at more pictures or video of the day. It's a vicious cycle. I did however manage to take some snap shots here and there.

FUSS FEST 2017

Fuss Fest is the brainchild of my lovely friend Priscilla. She wanted to organize a fest that was truly inclusive of all femmes from all over California. Our city (Fresno) always seems to have a few fests every year but the one thing that always stands out (to us at least) is it's lack of inclusion when it came to women, trans, queer and femme artists. She, herself is an amazing artist and has organized so many cool events in Fresno. She is also responsible for creating the album art for "Star Stuff". She had asked us if we'd be interested in playing a really cool fest she wanted to organize and of course we were down! The more I began to find out about the fest, the more involved I wanted to be. Even if it was just as a volunteer greeting people at the gate, I wanted to be a part of this. I wasn't the only one, she also recruited a couple of super star friends of ours. Samantha Retton (otherXcore) has been booking shows, making zines and just being an all around good friend for years and I'm lucky to be able to call her one of my best friends. Rio is my whiskey soulmate, I love her dearly and she happens to help her family run Yoshi!Now which is where the fest was held.

Though it was an unbearably hot day, we all stuck it out. Every band, vendor and artist truly made the fest something special to enjoy. I spent most of my time hanging out by the stage and helping wherever I could. Again, I wish I had taken more pictures and video but I was having so much fun! Here are the couple of snapshots I had left on my phone.

La Sirena Cafe were my favorite food vendor of the day. They had such a lovely set up, you would have thought they had been doing this for years. So, I was very surprised to discover that this was their first time vending at an event. I can't wait to see them at this years Fresno Zine Fest in September. Vril (out of L.A.) had the most intense and enjoyable set. I think watching their set gave me a second wind and had me going strong through the rest of the day into the night. They were great. Though, ALL of the bands did a fantastic job. It was terribly hot but I never heard anyone complain about anything. Our beautiful friend Meera graced us with her presence and it was truly a treat to have her there. We shared some delicious veganized snacks, laughed and danced our way through the day. I love her so much. The night ended strong and we all went home EXHAUSTED. I can't wait to see what next year brings.

Next up is the Oakland Popfest! To be continued....