Black Kids - Athens Popfest '07

This year's Athens Popfest lineup has been announced (Roky Erickson headlining), which spurred the guy who taped a lot of last year's Popfest to get his recordings from it out to the public. Check out this thread for several recordings from Popfest 2007, including Daniel Johnston (backed by Casper and the Cookies) and Apples In Stereo frontman Robert Schneider's side project Marbles. Last year's Popfest proved to be the breakout performance for Jacksonville, Florida's Black Kids [myspace]. The strength of their infectous debut Wizard of Ahhhs EP and the buzz from their Popfest performance eventually saw them turn into US and British press darlings and signed to Columbia Records earlier this month, but it seems they are especially loved overseas, recording their debut LP in the UK while touring there. Starting in June they'll be headlining their own European tour, just played Coachella (pictured) and several festival slots in the UK, and going by those measures it's not hard to see a bright future for these guys, but it's well-deserved - those spoils are built upon a foundation of some solid music. Black Kids have a certain swagger - even at their most rocking there's an underlying laid-back disaffection, and it's a juxtaposition that works, a bit like it did for Pavement. Theirs seems to be a gentle rollicking soul overcome to bouts of dancing and tuneful yelping (and a few Isaac Brock-ish vocal phrasings). Not too hot, not too cold, juuust right, with breezy keyboards cooling the air throughout. So before their debut LP skyrockets their popularity to Vampire Weekend levels, now is a good time to go back and hear the performance that helped launch it all:

Black Kids
Athens Popfest 8/11/2007
Little Kings Shuffle Club, Athens, GA

intro
Listen to Your Body Tonight
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
I Wanna Be Your Limousine
Hurricane Jane
The Magnificent Seven (The Clash)
Look At Me When I Rock With You
I've Underestimated My Charm Again

Huge thanks to Lance [myspace] for recording and sharing this and all the other Popfest gems, and to Mick O for the Black Kids photo from Coachella last month. Below is last year's closing song, Daniel Johnston doing "Rock This Town". I don't think I'll be able to make it again to this year's Popfest, but someday I hope to go and see Athens, and one of the best underground festivals on the planet, and rock the town I've admired from afar for a while. Order tickets for this year's Popfest now if you have the means to go!

Daniel Johnston (w/ Casper & the Cookies, Elekibass) "Rock This Town" (Popfest '07)

I also love the coincidence that both the bands playing behind Daniel Jonston are the two main supporting backing bands of Keith John Adams. We need Adams and Johnston to get together for a duet to complete the cosmic musical triumvirate.