Iâ??ve been putting off updating the blog for ages for the stupidest reason! I just had too many pictures; I was overwhelmed. Iâ??ve been dying to put up pictures from Roskilde and Pitchfork festivals, and my trip to Cape Cod and Iceland, both of which were equally amazing, beautiful and relaxing, and now I finally get to it. Things to get excited for in this post: a comparison of Roskilde vs. Pitchfork Festival, as that we them sort of back to back (and they couldnâ??t have been more different). Pictures of lovely landscapes. An MP3 of â??hot buzz bandâ?� that I totally buy intoâ??Vampire Weekend (I just canâ??t resist their songs and preppy New England attire; reminds me of carpooling in the late 80â??s in Bostonâ??in a good way that is). AND: THREE AMAZING DIGITAL CAMERA VIDEOS! Yup, itâ??s all that and more in this post, which will be largely image-based, but Iâ??m trying. Itâ??s just also demoralizing when everyone else is such a better blogger than you! We just got back from playing a few shows with our buddies (and supergroup) Deerhunter, and man does Bradford know how to blog. He knows his shit is the best, too. I mean who else does countless cover songs on request and update that often? Iâ??m too busy hanging on Cape Cod (should have invited the Vampire Weekend boys, since they have such a fixation with the area, but I didnâ??t know their music until a few weeks ago). Anyhow, itâ??s September now, we recorded our EP during August and are really excited about it. Itâ??s all meant to be a very â??funâ?� and smörgÃ¥sbord-type collection of songs. My favorite is how the mellowest song everâ??â?�Granndy Dinerâ?�â??runs into CSSâ??s electro-pop version of â??Knifeâ?�; somehow it works (I think?). Anyhow, mostly Iâ??m really pleased with the four recordings we did in August, especially that of â??Alligator,â?� which just sounds so insanely different it might as well be a new song. So enough random tangents; letâ??s start with pictures and videos.

So I begin with Roskilde vs. Pitchfork

I think this video really sums up Roskilde to me. You could NOT survive there without boots, and every band we saw kept arriving and asking us â??Do you REALLY need them?â?� and Iâ??d point them to the entrance and say â??Just try to walk around for ten seconds without them and see for yourself.â?� The mud stank like piss and shit b/c the porta potties were overflowing into the goop. Backstage was nice. There were grills at each respective stage and a really pleasant, less wet sitting area. The only annoying thing about the festival whichâ??CSS and Beirut and I struggled with all weekendâ??was trying to get from one stage to another that you werenâ??t playing at. All three of us were at different stages, and the festival allows access only to your stage on the day that you are playing, so when you want to visit other bands, you are just plain screwed unless you happen to run into them and they escort you. Luckily for us, we are good at sneaking in places, so we made it to CSSâ??s stage and got to enjoy their and Peter Bjorn and Johnâ??s sets; the latter Iâ??d never seen before. Hereâ??s a little shot of the girls getting pumped just seconds before they went on stage. Chris Taylor ate a steak on the side of the stage while watching. I have a picture of it, but I â??m not sure heâ??d want me to post it, but you can imagine. No utencils, just a steak and Chris, and CSSâ??s rocking out. It was an amusing sight.

Here are Lovefoxxx and Simon from Klaxons with their his-and-hers tats. That was really cute, but I couldnâ??t help but think to myself, â??Whatâ??s he going to turn those three Xâ??s into once they break up?â?� I guess Iâ??m jaded, but Iâ??m rooting for them!

I have a few more pictures from the festival of rows of porta potties, but I think Iâ??m going to skip to Pitchfork. How does it compare? Like night and day. First off Roskilde is about 100K people, maybe more? Pitchfork is 15K (I think). That makes things a LOT chiller, and one thing I realized about festivals is the chiller the better, for the crowd and the artists. Pitchfork takes the cake for most enjoyable festival in my book. It had tons of bands I love and enjoyed meeting. They had free Chipotle and beer, which everyone ate all weekend long. You could go to any stage and check out a band without any hassle from security; on top of that, it was sunny! Something was in the air that weekend because everyone I ran into there was just completely having the time of their life and not worried about letting it all hang out. Alcohol was a good friend to everyone that weekend. Just look below! Three out of the five of them are double fisting!

Was the festival playing a joke by putting us with Clipse? We were highly amused by that pairing in the dressing room. Our sound engineer Matt did a photo op with their Alizé. Later we did a shot with them and Girl Talk, which was funny, but itâ??s already floating around all over the place, so no need for redundancy.

Ty and Bradford.

Iâ??m hiding here because I look haggard from the night before. Jamie looks as dapper as ever and was as charming a man as he always is. Wish we hadnâ??t had to leave midday on Sunday and miss his set.

I had to include this shot b/c itâ??s really cute, but also super funny in a Hallmark sense. Angelic image of man with daughter who makes angelic music.

Ryan and Bradford before Girl Talkâ?¦

Moses from Deerhunter has the best t-shirt collection ever. This past weekend he was sporting another t-shirt that I was drooling over. I later found out it was made by the same guy who did this amazing dolphin bikini tee. I need to figure out who this guy is so I can spend all my money on his t-shirts.

So yeah, to summarize the Pitchfork Festivalâ??it was a sunny blur of awesomeness. Sure some complained about sound issues, but we had a good time and as far as outdoor concerts go (itâ??s not exactly the best setting for us), this one was ace! So letâ??s switch gears. Festival mania is over. After that everyone in the band was about to pass out from exhaustion. Weâ??d done Europe, then Feist tour, and about eight festivals criss-crossing the Atlantic, and at that point it seemed as though we just wanted to disappear for life. Thatâ??s when I took my cue and went to an island off Cape Cod with a bunch of friends for ten days and enjoyed total isolation. The house we were at had no electricity, just a bit of running water and a fireplace. Hereâ??s a bunch of pictures. I donâ??t need to explain much, other than it was great fun.

Oh wait, I should add, my mom got married! Very casually as you can seeâ??on a boat. So one day I left my friends and Chad, and I came to celebrate her second marriage. Hereâ??s a shot of the vows. Very salty New England, no?

We love to take night walks to the beach. Here is a shot from one of those adventures.

Our good friend Piera made these delicious desserts for us one evening.

In the middle of the ten-day trip, most everyone had to leave on Monday to get back to work, but Chad and I remained and were met by the lovely Owen and Patrick. They, too, were taking a break from touring, so we were treated to their company for a few days and a lovely rendition of â??Jesseâ?� by Owen on the piano.

If you havenâ??t seen Final Fantasy live yet, please do. I think his show with Cadence Weapon at the Bowery in November is going to be incredible. What a double bill!

After Owen and Patrick left, Chad and the beast and I had one night alone in the old spooky house. We mellowed out waiting for the second weekend of people to arrive.

And arrive they did, in the middle of a huge cloud of fog. They brought Kadema paddles, too, which are always popular in the lawn area.

Hereâ??s a final shot of the amazing lake weâ??d walk to to swim at. It was the most beautiful last day ever.

THEN CAME ICELAND. My Lord, I must say my camera and these pictures do NOT do justice to the intense beauty of this country. People always told me itâ??s incredible, but driving around the country doing the ring road was hands-down the most majestic, surreal, and intensely gorgeous thing Iâ??ve ever done. Itâ??s a shame everything is so expensive (a random bowl of tomato soup at a â??cheapâ?� cafe was 25 bucks) because visiting Iceland is something everyone should do if they can. Reykjavik is cool and all, but itâ??s really all about the nature there, as evidenced by these photos, which are about 1% as beautiful as it really was in person.

One bizarre total coincidence about our trip to Iceland was that Chad and I were there for Reykjavikâ??s Gay Pride parade, which we soon discovered was the biggest public gathering in Iceland every year. It was hilarious. Iceland itself I heard is only about 300,000 peopleâ??180,000 of which live in the capitalâ??and the parade pretty much attracted everyone. It seemed like all the gay people of iceland were IN the parade and that thousands of families and kids were the spectators. It was so different from the sometimes lewd NYC parade. This was for everyone. Kids were everywhere with rainbow flags painted on their cheeks, etc., etc. Itâ??s enough to make the religious right in America scream with terror, but it was really quite amazing. In the end it was more a time for everyone to have fun together and dress up, rather than a major political statement, which just says something about the liberal/progressive Icelandic people. I mean I caught tons of Euro bro-down, gel in hair, straight dudes at this parade with their girlfriends having as much fun as the dancing queens. Below is a video of a kid busting a move behind a float. I thought he was pretty rad, so I took a video

The whole reason we were able to afford staying in Reykjavik was because of the extreme hospitality of producer extraordinaire Valgeir Sigurðsson, with whom we were lucky to meet and befriend via Nico Muhly. Nico was there was well and did an amazing performance at the big church on the hill in Reyjkavik. This is the inside of it during the performance.

Here is the outside of it:

And here we have Nico, friend of Nico in middle, and Chad post-performance, getting ready to
enjoy a sunny night in town:

Below are just a ton of pictures from the trip. They speak for themselves. Thanks for reading. Hereâ??s that vampire weekend track Iâ??ve been enjoying so much lately!

Download Vampire Weekend - Bryn

P.S. Oh yeah, Beast is tired from all the activities this summer, too.