Kevin Bronson on September 5th, 2011

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[Buzz Bands LA and friends were out in force at this year’s FYF Fest. Part 4 of 4:]

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Twin Sister Ӣ Avi Buffalo Ӣ Cass McCombs Ӣ Pink Mountaintops Ӣ The Olivia Tremor Control Ӣ The Weakerthans Ӣ Yacht Ӣ Dan Deacon Ӣ The Dead Milkmen

Photo galleries: Concert photography by Scott Dudelson

Below, our capsule reviews:

TWIN SISTER

Highlights: As the first band to officially kick off FYF for the day, Long Island’s hypnotic popsters served up a fusion dream-pop and disco. Even after lead vocalist Andrea Estella revealed, “This is early for me,” she and bandmates Dev Gupta, Gabe D’Amico, Eric Cardona and Bryan Ujueta continued to breeze through a set that even touched on funk during some songs. Estella’s feathery vocals floated freely on the afternoon breeze, but the tunes on which Estella and Cardona switched off on vocals seemed to coax newcomers toward their stage the most – even after they applauded other bands who finally started to play.
Lowlights: Heavy chillwave vibes toward the end of their set only built anticipation for some hard rock later in the day.
Afterthought: “Lady Daydream” is much more enjoyable untouched by remixes.
– Seraphina Lotkhamnga

AVI BUFFALO

Highlights: If Long Beach’s Avi Zahner-Isenberg, the young guitar prodigy who arrived with a bang on his band’s 2010 Sub Pop debut, is feeling any sophomore album anxiety, it didn’t show. For his early set (just one hour later than their FYF debut two years ago), Avi was backed by a fuller (and new) lineup to test new and old arrangements. “How Come” and “Good I’m Wishing” stood out as new tunes (with some of Avi’s vocals surprisingly dropping out of his falsetto range), but even the sax couldn’t even drown out signature guitar solos in classics like “Remember Last Time.”
Lowlights: Supplying (and surprising) the crowd with a few rap verses on two of the new songs, a Darth Vader-helmeted friend helped Avi Buffalo cross over in to the hip-hop genre.
Afterthought: There’s a first time for everything. Kids will experiment.
– Seraphina Lotkhamnga

CASS McCOMBS

Highlight: If you woke up with a slight sunburn the next day, it means you made it to the FYF grounds in time for Cass McCombs’ early set. Judging from the crowd, which included Matt Aveiro and Matt Maust from Cold War Kids, a lot of you did. He and his supporting cast, including bassist Rob Barbato and keyboardist Will Canzoneri (both of Darker My Love), kept the vibe as warm as the afternoon. Fool’s Gold’s Garrett Ray even guested on bongos, and there was no shortage of new material – McCombs has released oen album this year, “Wit’s End,” and has another, “Humor Risk,” on the way in November.
Lowlight: There were some jammy moments towards the end of the set that got a little Allman Brothers Band.
Afterthought: McCombs ended with a shout-out to a fallen local favorite. “Just wanted to say R.I.P. Pescado Mojado in Echo Park. I don’t know if you heard. They went out of business. Loved that place.”
– Mary Kosearas

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS

Highlight: Steven McBean has the face of a man with a thousand stories. The Vancouver singer-guitarist (and frontman of Black Mountain), makes his collaborator-laden albums using a collectivist approach, but in the afternoon sun Pink Mountaintops was but a duo, and one that made enough noise that some of McBean’s sweetly disarming lyrics got buried.
Lowlight: Behind them on stage sat an empty drum set, and even though the duo were not lacking in sound, the unfilled seat behind them couldn’t help but remind you what was possibly missing.
Afterthought: This was my first introduction to the band and they did not disappoint.
– Mary Kosearas

THE OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL

Highlight: Elephant 6 lives. And, as an observer pointed out, “It’s nice to know that they’ve kept on living.” The Athens, Ga., sonic adventurers revealed last week that they were working on their first new album since 1999, and Saturday played a trippy set to crowd that included some who’d witnessed the legend and others who’d only heard about it. It was kitchen-sink psychedelia at its best, right down to 15-year-old “Green Typewriters” suite.
Lowlight: The band has so many moving parts that the sound suffered, either from the system at the small stage or OTC itself wanting to cram every nuance into a 40-minute festival set.
Afterthought: Kids, Olivia Tremor Control were wanky way before you were.
– Kevin Bronson

THE WEAKERTHANS

Highlights: Along with Cass McCombs, the Winnipeg, Manitoba, indie veterans provided a softer, Americana touch for the day. However, the strength of the Weakerthans is their folk rock infused with their punk roots. As the guitars chugged, John K. Samson’s vocals on songs such as “Aside” off of their highly-regarded album “Left and Leaving,” were a nice but gentle rush. Those who had never experienced the diversity of the Weakerthans most likely had their hearts stolen during this set which went off without a single hitch. To make this even more special, a stripped-down solo performance of “One Great City!” with Samson on acoustic guitar made for quite possibly the most intimately memorable moment of the day. When the Weakerthans frontman sang the first line, “Late afternoon / Another day is nearly done,” as sun was just setting, there was some beauty in the truth for once.
Lowlights: Hmm…. Is falling head over heels for a band (again) alongside everyone else a bad thing?
Afterthought: Big ups to FYF for this geek-out moment.
– Seraphina Lotkhamnga

YACHT

Highlights: Just for out-and-out fun, it was hard to beat Yacht’s set. The quintet’s chirpy, ironic disco was light and bright, like the band’s visuals, which included a projection of their signature triangle (with a happy face, of course) and other visuals – like the map that showed their “utopian triangle” of the western United States, the anchor points being the band members’ home bases of Portland, Ore., Marfa, Texas, and Los Angeles. Jonah Bechtolt and Claire Evans even interrupted the dance party to take questions from the audience, before ending their set with an exclamation point, a cover of the B-52’s “Mesopotamia.”
Lowlight: Apparently their working conditions were tough. Said Evans, “I feel like this fog machine is puffing weed smoke onstage.”
Afterthought: That horror-movie doll-baby somebody in the middle of the crowd kept hoisting scared the bejesus out of me.
– Kevin Bronson

DAN DEACON

Highlights: It’s no wonder Baltimore-based electro guru was one of the creators of the popular YouTube video, “Drinking Out of Cups.” This guy has always been abnormally interesting. In fact, Deacon’s incredibly detailed electronic compositions would make him seem like a mad man if he weren’t so genuine and interactive live. Deciding against using the stage, Deacon formed one of his infamous interactive circles on the ground – which immediately caused moshing while photographers went onstage to capture the chaos. With a green skull resting on top of a post of flashing lights, Deacon leaped into the middle of the crowd and led everyone in a countdown to pandemonium.
Lowlights: Deacon had to stop a few times to ask everyone to take larger steps back in order for the circle to work. “We got off to a rambunctious start and that’s OK,” he said. Unfortunately, the light show became secondary to the sea of bodies surfing the crowd waves, prompting Deacon to yell, “Yo! Why don’t we chill on the crowd surfing? This isn’t a f*cking Pearl Jam show.”
Afterthought: Metro riders passing by on the trains surely must have thought this was some kind of cult, because it definitely began to look like one during the “group interpretative dance.”
– Seraphina Lotkhamnga

DEAD MILKMEN

Highlights: The Philadelphia satirists, closing in on their third decade, released their first studio in 16 years back in March, but it wasn’t just the Dads in the audience who were eating up their snarky attitudes. “Thanks for staying up late,” vocalist and keyboardist Rodney Linderman said before adding, “If we all go to the afterparty and get laid, we’ll be up really late.” And with that, the mouthy veterans went head first into “Tiny Town” and “V.F.W..” Always politically charged, liberals in the crowd got a special treat during Linderman’s rant about Michele and Marcus Bachmann before introducing a new song titled, “”Marcus Bachmann Loves Those C***s.” It seemed to fit well in their hour-long set which also included “Methodist Coloring Book” sung by guitarist Joe Genaro.
Lowlights: Only if you were a Republican.
Afterthought: Dead Milkmen have never been dead. That Rodney Linderman is incapable of staying still.
– Seraphina Lotkhamnga

Photos of Dan Deacon and Kid Dynamite (above) by Oliver Walker.

Note: We missed a couple sets on this stage too. We’ll try harder next year.