Sunday, August 12, 2007
If Wakarusa is Lawrence’s answer to Bonaroo, then North vs. South is our town’s version of the Pitchfork Music Festival. More than 70 acts spanning the independent rock, alt-country and folk scenes converge in Lawrence for three wild nights at three downtown venues. North vs. South mastermind Mike McCoy stopped by our podcast studio to offer his picks to click and discuss the evolution of the festival, now in its fourth year.
Featured tracks in this podcast:
1. Grand Champeen, "One and Only"
2. Charlie Parr, "I Wonder How Long ‘Til I Can Change My Clothes"
3. Kruddler, "Portland"
4. Meat Purveyors, "Liquor Store"
5. North of Grand, "Highway Man"
6. Grant Hart, "Think It Over Now"
7. Mike Nicolai, "Killer Ann"
8. Moonlight Towers, "I Sleep Alone"
9. The Service Industry, "Valhalla"
10. The Keep Aways, "Saturday"
11. 5head, "Goodie the Rat"
12. Wood Roses, "Bar Room Crie"
- Download MP3 for this episode (right-click and save)
- Subscribe to The Dog and Pony Show in iTunes
Photo by Richard Gintowt
North vs. South Festival organizer Mike McCoy.
No-fi highlights from the podcast
lawrence.com: Tell us about the inception of North vs. South. How did it come to be?
McCoy: My buddy Grant Johnson and I had thought about it for a long time because we toured a lot up and down I-35. We were sitting up at the Turf Club in Minneapolis one day and we were kind of bored and bummed. We wrote it out on a little cocktail napkin, and here we are 70 bands later. I still have the cocktail napkin.
What was on the cocktail napkin?
It was basically who’s better at what—like, The Magnolias vs. The Wannabees. They sound almost exactly alike in style but we were trying to pick out little pockets of performance and attitude. The more we thought about it, the more we started to believe that the scenes have more similarities than differences.
North vs. South Festival
- When: Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, 7 p.m.
- Where: Downtown Lawrence, Lawrence
- Cost: $2 - $15
- Age limit: 18+
Minneapolis and Austin?
Yeah, that’s generally the focus of the event, other than being based around a significant Civil War date here in Lawrence [that is, Quantrill’s Raid on Aug. 21, 1863].
So both of these cities obviously have enormous musical histories … Does it make you jealous at all?
I’m not all that jealous, because I get to go out and travel quite a bit. Lawrence has it’s own niche. It’s a bit smaller; a little more compact. Maybe it suffers from a little cronyism that you don’t find in a larger town, but you could say the whole country is suffering from cronyism right now. So I’m not sure that it really matters where you live, with the internets and all that.
Why did you want to get so deeply involved with these two scenes?
North vs. South Festival
- When: Friday, Aug. 17, 2007, 6 p.m.
- Where: Downtown Lawrence, Lawrence
- Cost: $2 - $15
- Age limit: 18+
I owe them a lot. I made two records in Minneapolis and I lived in Austin for about five years and made several records there. The people I’ve met in both places have embraced me with open arms, much like Lawrence has. I just feel like there’s a bigger picture than your everyday work-at-a-coffee-shop-or-kitchen job or wherever we’re all working to do these sorts of bands.
How do you decide which bands get in?
I think you gotta prove yourself in your ability to spout banter. It’s as much about socialism as it is about music. To give full credit to Baby Grant Johnson from The New Vintage up in Minneapolis—he’s pretty much responsible for the North side of things, so it’s not just my filter.
North vs. South Festival
- When: Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007, 6 p.m.
- Where: Downtown Lawrence, Lawrence
- Cost: $2 - $15
- Age limit: 18+
We definitely have a similar thread. I think we’re disenfranchised. We’re very American and we’re proud of our work ethic and we’re proud of our friendships. There’s a lot celebration—a whole lot of drinking.
What do you mean by disenfranchised?
The music industry really doesn’t treat American rock and roll people very kindly, especially not these days. There’s a lot of what the band X used to call “the unheard music” represented here. Grand Champeen certainly could sign a contract and go out and make 15-year-old girls cry if they wanted to. But they consciously choose not to do that … Music shouldn’t be bought and sold, it should just be heard.
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0 of 1 people found this comment useful.
Posted by chaungoloid (anonymous) on August 12, 2007 at 6:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
indieupyourass!
0 of 1 people found this comment useful.
Posted by Jester (Nick Spacek) on August 13, 2007 at 3:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
rockstarjournalist.podomatic.com
TWO HOURS of North Vs. South bands.
Get yo'self ready.
0 of 1 people found this comment useful.
Posted by OtherJoel (anonymous) on August 14, 2007 at 6:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Grant Hart is touring again? That should be interesting.
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