You were are not cool because you went to Camp Biso. This is a misnomer. Camp Bisco is a place to dance to trendy music while you LOSE your ego. It is a paradox and this is why it gets deep. You can not fuck with these Bikers who run ILCC have run their land they way they want and will continue to. There are too many cultures right now floating around for any to be cool anymore. All roads lead to Camp Bisco under the protective wing of the ILCC Angels, 1%.
A fragmented disjointed yet interesting essay follows, I write about what everyone else is afraid to on this Dionysian aquarian indulgence, for a good article on the music read Hidden Track
the NYC hip hop hippies came fresh and left dirty for the best party of the year. The Ill glass you see here is from Illadelph, D&G glass and many more which I will get details on later.
The Bikers had the place on lock, without a police officer in site the whole weekend. It was the nation state of Camp Bisco, where the law of the land were few but enforced with Machiavellian efficiency. Come in with your car and pockets loaded and as long as you had no trouble on your mind or in your eyes you were turned loose inside. Indian Lookout Country Club is a place were freedom rings and you might have to get ("educated") if you bring a bad ass angry attitude. This never happens though so is the reason for the long historic relationship between bikers and hippies. There was lots of exotics, to the point of saturation, it was laughable hearing about something every ten feet. One thing about ILCC is their is NO N2O because when the bikers actually want to enforce one of their few laws they DO. make sense? Three years ago Clean Vibes was in charge of running waste management at the festival. Anna B and crew are experts at this and have festival clean up and recycling to science. Last year they split the duties with Wormtown, who are affiliated with ILCC, this year there was no Clean Vibes and no recycling. A little reminder to realities of what this festival of indulgence has evolved into.
The Disco Biscuits played well, nothing really blew me away even though they are getting better in so many ways. I just feel they could venture more into experimental realms, seeing that they are such an adventurous band in other ways. Browny was going crazy on the golf cart on Thursday night he was speeding around looking for rolling papers. Unstead my buddy offered him rolls. He proceeded to purchase 5. The guy definitely has a post-show need for speed on the golf cart. Then Sunday morning he was spotted FLYING around camp looking for cigarettes. My friend had one in my hand and he about killed 2 people while trying to come over & bum a few, to no avail.
Camp Bisco holds a special niche in the festival pantheon, and every year gets more brave and creative with the bands the pic. A few years ago festivals started booking acts acts like Cat Power and Wilco at festivals typically based around Jambands, Langerado and Bonnaroo were the first to do this. These "crossover acts" are also at Camp but cross over to what? you could say electronic acts urban acts. I would describe it as Andre 3000 "power music electric revival."
It is centering more towards dance music and if you look at the scene it certainly is becoming an homage to Shiva, the hindu god of the dance, creativity and destruction (in legends Shiva smokes a lot of "Bang" or pot).
The Asher Roth set was fun just as in it was great to be able to see what a fraud he really is. I love the fact that hippies throw the best parties and have been doing so since the 60's, because of this we can get bands like Kanye West and Asher Roth and if they suck we can let them and MTV know. He was pretty much laughed offstage (I heard he was blowing beasters).
This year Andy Bernstein and the Headcount booth did something pretty smart, they had a sort of jeopardy game quizzing the party goers on politics, this an obviouse result of last years CNN debaucle at Camp Bisco.
Chad and Caren from Caren West PR did a great job holding things down, even when the rain started coming hard at the beginning of the NAS into Chromeo set, they were calm and collected and kept things moving. A great moment was when Nas finally took the stage (whats up with rappers always being late?) the rain just stopped pouring for five minutes before he busted into some old favorites from Illmatic and made it rain again. I like what he is doing mixing reggae and hip hop, and it was cool how he kept saying "fuck the radio." Rappers love it at festivals especially Camp Bisco, the weed, the women, its all good. Bisco this year was particularly interesting, I saw more black people at a festival then any other in my life, the ratio was about 1:80 rather then 5 at an entire whole festival. this could be that this year there were a number of African America performers including, Two Fresh, Kid Cudi, Nas and Damien Marley, Joe Nice, K'naan the list goes on. of course there is also the whole Trouble and Bass urban crew, which I have loved for years cause of my best buddy from home Ben Dietz aka Passions/Math Head. I pushed hard to get Trouble and Bass DJ's booked this year and MCP came through with AC Slater and Starkey, they would have got Math Head, but my buddy is a very moody artist and decided against it. Holy Ghost had some really cool lights even though the music was generic dance, there was an official dance tent this year banging electronica all night, it had a good ambiance and fun vibe. Joe Nice came through with the best electronica set, playing very mellow, chill meditative dub step. Barber is getting fatter and fatter. The two guys from LCD Soundsystem played, though they could not be formerly billed as LCD Soundsystem. They have a record label called DFA and the label Holy Ghost is on. Late night on Saturday there was a DFA dance tent all star kind of jam. What I really like about Bisco is that it breaths new life into the jamband scene, something we truly need, its bringing in new fans, and exposing them to jammy rock while at the same time exposing rock fans to electronica.
The Tractorbeam vs. Perfume wasn't all it was cracked up to be, it was supposed to sound completely different from the regular DB, Tractorbeam being their electronica alter ego and perfume being an alter ego that plays DB songs in different styles (I.E country, classic rock), Yet I didn't really hear that. It all sounded like jamming to me. I honestly think this band might be too spun out to really reach certain levels that the Dead and Phish reached at the height of their career (for about two years before hitting a drugged up stupor) The Biscuits on the other hand might have hit the stupor early and kind of plateaued, allowing for a longer run of mediocre music instead of a sharp peak into greatness and fall from grace the Dead and Phish had. They are very creative and unique, but the complexity of arrangements lack, once again this Hot Air Balloon solo from a few years back is one of the best guitar solos of all time. On a lighter note the former Biscuits drummer Sammy Altman came out to play on Sound One, a song that he wrote and one of the best and bisco songs with the most mass appeal.
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here is the setlist via fantasy tour
07/18/09 Indian Lookout Country Club, Mariaville, NY
Camp Bisco 8
other acts include STS9, Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Chromeo and The Orb
Set I: M.E.M.P.H.I.S.> Rock Candy, Frog Legs, Run Like Hell> News From Nowhere> Run Like Hell, Once The Fiddler Paid, Sound One
Set II: Sister Judy's Soul Shack, Caves of the East> Park Avenue> Caterpillar> And The Ladies Were The Rest Of The Night1> Save The Robots2
Set III: Save The Robots2> Hope3> Pilin' It High> Sabre Dance, Basis For A Day, Meditation> Hot Air Balloon4
Encore: The Very Moon> Mr. Don
1 inverted
2 dyslexic
3 unfinished
4 completes 7/17 version
This setlist is unconfirmed or incomplete
07/17/09 Indian Lookout Country Club, Mariaville, NY
Camp Bisco 8
other acts include STS9, Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Chromeo and The Orb
Set I: Rockafella, Strobelights and Martinis> Hot Air Balloon> Strobelights and Martinis> You and I> Hot Air Balloon1
Set II: new song, Floes, Mirrors> Minions> Orch Theme> Above The Waves2
1 unfinished
2 completes 7/16 version
(Thanks to workmans_comp for the texts.)
07/16/09 Indian Lookout Country Club, Mariaville, NY
Camp Bisco 8
other acts include STS9, Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Chromeo and The Orb
Set I: Morph Dusseldorf> Digital Buddha> The Great Abyss> Cyclone> Digital Buddha, Wet, Above The Waves1> Morph
Dusseldorf
1 unfinished
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