What an incredible time. But I suppose I better start at the very beginning. After a lot of arguing, we decided on taking Dave's Alero on the 12 hour ride. We began the trip a little later then expected, leaving my house at about 7:00 PM. We then proceeded onto I-95 for the first leg of the journey, which took us into Virginia. Somewhere in VA, Staunton I believe, drivers rotated and I took the wheel for the next part of the trip. I began driving a car I never drove before at 2:00 AM on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit. That was pretty strenuous, thankfully almost no traffic was around. We hit a problem about halfway into my portion of the drive, where it began to rain incredibly hard. There was one other time I can remember when I was out in rain that hard, but I wasn't on a highway. It came suddenly and on the first curve in the storm I didn't slow down enough and momentarily lost control of the steering from the flash flooding that was happening on the highway. That was one of the scariest moments on the trip to me. After that it was much more relaxed and slower driving, until Mike took the wheel and delivered us to Manchester, TN.

We arrived at the line to get into the festival campgrounds, which was easily 4 miles long when we arrived, and growing longer. Coincidentally, a Sonic was directly across the street from where we entered the line. I had to take the opportunity to try their food, since I never have before and I don't see the possibility of going to one anytime soon. I ran over and ordered my food quickly, but as soon as the order was placed I got a call from Mike saying that we had just started moving rather quickly and I should be getting back to the car as soon as possible. I then waited for the food to arrive and started running down the line to catch up to the car. After running for about 3 minutes straight, I gave up and walked for another 5 minutes before reaching the moving car about a mile into the line. For all the work, I still think that the food was worth it. It reminded me of Zac's in some forms, but Sonic has larger burgers.

Skipping the rest of the wait and seeing all the beautiful VW buses in line with us, we passed the checkpoint and made it inside the campgrounds. Another 10 minutes of slow driving got us to our camp area, Camp Rusty Griswold. We then set up our tent and shade tarp, which got all of us sweating. We then ate some lunch on the grill we brought down, and headed down to the camp area. Thursday didn't have any bands we really wanted to see, so we got checked out the comedians. The first group we saw was Lewis Black with John Bowman and Finesse Mitchell. Lewis didn't do much of any new material, so I laughed but it could have been better. Finesse Mitchell did a good job though. We left the comedy tent only to get back in line for the next group, which was David Cross, Aziz Ansari, and Nick Kroll. They did much better than the first group, and they all had stuff I was laughing very hard at. We then left Centeroo, got something to eat, and went back to the tent to sleep.

Friday gave us a clue to what we would wake up to every morning at Bonnaroo, which was a pool of our own sweat. The fan didn't help much either, and we all ended up waking early. After a grumpy morning, we headed over to Centeroo and to the Something Else tent for air conditioned fun with jazz music. The two bands we saw, Doug Wamble Quartet and Robert Glasper Trio, did a very good job performing. I am not a big fan of jazz music, but I came out liking the music and seeing myself at home listening to it. After we got ready to face the heat, we went over to the main stage, the What Stage, to see Kings of Leon. I don't know their music but they performed well. After that, Dave and Mike went to see Lily Allen, but I had to go over and check out The Black Keys. Those guys did an amazing job performing, and they had much more enthusiasm and power live than I could have ever expected. We again made an early night by getting food soon after that and heading back to the tent.

Saturday was definitely the zenith of the entire trip. We again awoke to oppressive heat and sweat everywhere. We ate lunch at the camp area and passed time in the shade tent until about 3:00 when we finally headed down to Centeroo to see The Hold Steady. They did a good job, although I don't know much of their music. Next was Spoon at the same stage, which did an excellent set, which I unfortunately had to leave early to catch a good spot for The Flaming Lips at the Which Stage. I saw Franz Ferdinand perform during the wait, and they had a performed a good set as well. Once they left, I along with 50 other people rushed the stage to get as close as possible for The Flaming Lips. I made it to the second row, which was spectacular to me. Next came a 4 hour wait until they performed. The crowd made the most of the time by singing songs from the band ("She Don't Use Jelly" and a few others) as well as singing "Happy Birthday" to Kliph, the touring drummer, and some people in the audience. The Flaming Lips came on and went crazy on stage. It was the best night of my life to date. Here is the setlist:
Soundcheck: War Pigs

Race for the Prize
Tapsmir
Fight Test
Mountainside
Free Radicals
Yoshimi Pt 1
Yoshimi Pt 2
Vein of Stars
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Taps
Superman
Pompeii AM Gotterdammerung
She Don't Use Jelly
Do You Realize??

Encore 1:
The W.A.N.D.
What is the Light?
The Observer
Encore 2:

Moonlight Mile
3000-21 / Sympathy (Outro)

The song "Mountainside has not been played since Ronald Jones left the band in 1996. That was incredible. "Moonlight Mile" made me like The Rolling Stones all over again, too.

Sunday, it was quite a grueling stretch. The Which Stage had Wolfmother to The Decemberists to The White Stripes all in a row. We brought a full stomach and 8 water bottles, which was just enough to survive the 8 hours in the crowd. We made it late to Wolfmother, but they sounded a lot like they do on the album, which is a cool thing to see. The Decemberists I have never heard much from but they had a very well choreographed show, and it kept me entertained. The White Stripes topped off the day though. Their show (it was the first time I saw them live) had a fair share of new and old material, and I loved hearing "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" live. Some crowdsurfers intruded on my fun, but otherwise I enjoyed everything about the set.

We then left early to get a head start on making it home and sleeping in climate-controlled rooms and beds. What a great time. I'm already looking towards what to do for next year. If anyone reading this liked what they have read here (preferably if you know me), ask about next year's trip. I want to plan stuff as soon as I get a group that are dedicated to going.

Here are my pictures from the event. http://picasaweb.google.com/Mike.Krisac/Bonnaroo

Well, not all things can always work out as planned. The hunt for a bus has ended with us empty handed. We had made plans with the owner of the graffiti bus discussed earlier and decided to buy it. We got a friend and contributor to the bus situation to agree to drive and pick it up. But, we ran into a major miscommunication when the person to pick up the bus found out it was in New York City. The ad on Craigslist appeared in the northern New Jersey area, which apparently has an overlapping area with NYC. Upon noticing the situation, our friend, Eric, decided it was too far of a route and couldn't pull it off within the schedule of his day. Obviously we were now on bad terms with the owner, and I can only assume it was sold to some lucky person, damn them.

That was about the zenith of our search, with only rejections and bad timing for all other possible buses. So, unless fortune shifts into our direction for one time this summer, we will be holding off the search until next year, where all contributors will be more able to use the vehicle. The other assumption is that we should have more money by summer next year, so our variety will be increased from the bottom-of-the-barrel rust buckets that we originally could barely afford.

Bonnaroo, on the other hand, has been working quite successfully for us. The lineup that was announced has many names which we want to see, and even without a bus, we will be taking either Dave's or Mike's car, albeit much more tight. Dave and I have been arguing over multiple topics from where to camp to what to bring, but I know we can get some sort of compromise, and the only reason we argue is to voice our opinion so that we will make all of us get the most out of our festival. I want to keep costs to a minimum, and avoiding getting things that I know there are readily accessible alternatives to. The festival has also showed me to new bands that I haven't heard of before, which is a very appealing factor to me. The biggest two right now are Gov't Mule and The Black Keys, which the first is a jam band formed of the backup performers of the Allman Brother's Band and the other is a blues-rock duet out of Akron, Ohio which have the same mentality of The White Stripes. Both are now on my list of bands to see in the festival, and I am already excited to see them.

Since I haven't written much on my own stupidity, I'm deciding to expand this to a more broad idea. The plan I have currently is to have a weekly album review to show what I have been listening to, or what I really believe to be "good" music, although "good" is entirely subjective, especially in music. I have thought of what album I wanted to explain first, and I think I know which one to pick. Feel free to critique my ability (or lack of), since this is my first real attempt at anything like this.

Album Review:
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity

Members of the Elephant 6 collective, The Gerbils fail to disappoint in this beautifully done album. I was first introduced to the recording collective when I heard about Of Montreal from a friend, and instantly loved and appreciated the music they created. I looking into the group Of Montreal was affiliated with and found The Gerbils. I could only find the first album by them, Are You Sleepy?, which I enjoyed for it's lo-fi and twee pop. About one month later, I decided to buy an album off of Amazon.com, and I saw that I could get free shipping if I paid about the price for one more album. So, after some searching, I found this album and decided to buy it, without knowing the exact contents of it, which I try to stray from doing. I am very glad I have bought it. The first song on the album, "Are You Underwater," was an instant attraction for me to listening to the rest of the album. From the beginning I see a new direction that the band moved in, away from a twee pop sound and to a more well orchestrated and composed style which really works well for them.

Then, I notice the "songs" of the album are spread between these segues of about a minute or less, which usually perform a fantastic job of transitioning from one song to the next, creating what I believe to be a much more profound listening experience from beginning to end. And where the areas occur of a more jangling guitar sound, the song has much more cohesiveness than their initial work, which sometimes almost felt completely disjointed and working against the movement and tempo of the rest of the band. The singer, Scott Spillane, has a voice which distances some people from their work, has some tonal areas which could be improved, but overall this album is much more instrumentally powerful than anything, and I happen to like his voice.

So, all in all. I believe The Gerbils made a very solid album, with transitions and layered songs which keeps you listening over and over.

Rating: 92/100

Highlights: "Are You Underwater," "Lucky Girl," "A Song of Love," and all the transitions.

If interested in hearing or buying, Amazon's got you covered. Click here to hear The Gerbils' sophomore work.

Hooray for another semester of fun in Penn State. I'm sad to report that I have no moronic events that have transpired since last update worth mentioning, but I do have much information on future plans, including for the summer break. My friend Dave originally wished to go to Coachella, a music festival in California which takes place this year in late April. Unfortunately, I have classes until May, so I could not go on a trip, especially one all the way to the other coast.

I convinced him that the concert would be an impossibility, and I deferred the attention to another music festival, Bonnaroo. This one is in a much more accessible date (June 14-17) which set the idea that we would wait to see the bands that are going to play there and decide for sure if we want to go. We do have one other alternative, Lollapalooza, but we would rather go to Bonnaroo since the area is more open, and camping is allowed.

From that point, we tried to recruit some other people to the cause. We found a few, but only Mike was steadfast in the idea of going. Then a major tangent occurred in our planning. The consensus was that we did not want to take a trip just to the festival, where Dave then planned a nine day adventure, forming a circle which passes through Pittsburgh, Chicago, and a few others before arriving at Manchester, TN. The next agreement was that we did not want to make the trip in a car, which was probably driven from the fact that Dave's, Mike's, and my car are all pretty small (mine couldn't come close to making the trip anyhow). We planned to get an RV, but a couple problems faced us. First, we needed someone at least 25 to rent and drive the RV, which none of us were, and we could not get the kind of money needed to rent one. We found out that it would be better to just buy another form of transportation. And what else would you take to a music festival than a VW bus. So thus is our current position, and we are currently in negotiations for a vehicle, but waiting for a final response from the seller. It is a graffiti car and in not too bad shape.

In other news, I have been listening to the new Of Montreal album, which is a wonderful work, in my opinion. Now I like almost every band out of the Elephant 6 collective, and trying to find more on them. I suggest you have a listen to it, or at least find the new video from the album on youtube and watch