Hope At Summerfest

July 2, 2017 Jerry King Comments 0 Comment

This is the 50th year anniversary of Summerfest. Held in Milwaukee it is a convocation of music lovers from around the world. The lake front is gorgeous. Participants are generally well behaved, no matter that thousands are present in the Maer Festival Park.

I existentially needed to be present at Summerfest this year as a respite from the meltdown of leadership and sustainable social arrangements here in Illinois. Illinois, Chicago is broke. It is too late to right the listing ship-of-state. We’ve been taking on water for a long time, even before I became a resident. Taking more than is reciprocated, the slight-of-hand shell game has been the norm in Illinois for a very long time. The state is broke, the piper must be paid. The knives are out in Springfield. A vote to approve a budget and raise taxes has yet to be taken. The end can only be Draconian.

Perhaps you can understand my longing for Summerfest, that interlude of Dionysian ecstasy. Dionysius has his wisdom about life, inherent in sharing good libation with others, and in the sublime marriage of lyric and tune by artists who “see” what some will never see.

You had to be there so I will not continue with a lame, inadequate description of the experience. I will share some text from Wikipedia about two bands that inspired us. The female vocalists for The Naked and Famous and MUNA were forces of nature.

The Naked and Famous are an indie electronic band from Auckland, New Zealand, formed in 2007. The band consists of Alisa Xayalith (vocals, keyboards), Thom Powers (vocals, guitars), Aaron Short (keyboards), David Beadle (bass) and Jesse Wood (drums).

The band has released three studio albums: Passive Me, Aggressive You (2010), In Rolling Waves (2013), and Simple Forms (2016). Since 2012, the band has been based in Los Angeles.

Xayalith (b. 1986) is the daughter of Laotian refugees, who was born in Auckland, and raised together with a younger brother. Her father introduced her to his native folk music and at the age of 13 she taught herself guitar. Powers had been playing in local bands since an early age after he had been taught to play guitar by his father.

For more about The Naked and Famous CLICK HERE

MUNA is an American electronic pop band consisting of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson. Based in Los Angeles, the trio met in college at the University of Southern California and began working together in 2013 after discovering their musical chemistry at a party, when Maskin and McPherson began playing together on guitars and Gavin added vocals. Gavin and Maskin were music majors, while McPherson double-majored in Narrative Studies and American Studies & Ethnicity.

All three members identify as queer. Initially wary of being pigeonholed as a “queer girl band”, they later came to embrace the opportunity to use their musical notoriety to help inspire younger people to be comfortable with their identities. Their songs frequently address issues of sexuality and gender. They describe one early song, “So Special”, as “an anthem for the slut-shamed girls of the world who have to assert their own value.” According to McPherson, “It would have meant a lot to me when I was, say, 12, to know of someone in a band and and think they were cool and know they were out.” McPherson added, “I am out and I feel safe being out because the three of us are a little army for one another. I don’t feel afraid to be myself. That makes me proud to be queer. That’s the whole point of why we do this. We want a safe haven.”