Okay. This year’s Treasure Island Music Festival Sunday lineup boasts headliners Belle & Sebastian, AND it takes place on TREASURE ISLAND. And Surfer Blood are playing too. You know you want to go. And now you can, for free!
Leave a comment below explaining why a particular song by any Treasure Island Music Festival 2010 Sunday artist is particularly special to you, and you will be in the running to win two tickets to Sunday’s festivities. Mission Mission editors will pick the entry we like best, based on merit, so make ‘em sincere and fun to read. Contest ends two weeks from right this second.
If you’d rather just get tickets the boring way — by buying them — you may do so here.
UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: This contest is for tickets to Sunday only.
LCD Soundsystem. Seen them a bunch of times but I never hear them play “North American Scum!”
huh, that’s interesting. i have also seen them a few times (in berlin, germany) and they haven’t played “north american scum”, even though they hinted at it a lot! what’s up with that?
lcd soundsystem – all my friends.
cause it pretty much sums up growing old, mission-mission style.
get me away from here, i’m dying – belle and sebastian.
great song, the lyrics really get to me.
as for the sunday update, i’d have to say the national – fake empire. it was used a lot for the 2008 presidential campaign, and i think i’ll always tie it with all that sense of hope and emotion we all had then, and now.
The Sea and Cake – Too Strong
… because I am too strong for my own good. Small children scamper at the sight of me. I often find myself crushing things for no reason. I am a compulsive crusher, and not in a Biggie Smalls kinda way. In an Incredible Hulk kinda way.
Also, the song reminds me wasted summers in various suburban basements. Lame, but fond, memories.
But mostly, give me these tickets or I will crush you.
Thanks.
Apologies for the gaff.
*Not in a Big Pun kinda way. Faux-pas, huge one.
I have a sister who is four years older than I am. As such, I spent most of my younger years looking up to her, jealous of the coolness and the authority that her seniority made implicit. She went off to college just as I started high school, an uncomfortable transition made even more horrible by her absence. She’d send me mix CD’s filled with songs I beat myself up for not already knowing, and I’ll never forget how I’d hide in my room, missing just being with her, as I listened to Endless Shovel and, from there, all of Out of the Shadow.
Years later, I’ve learned well enough that my sister isn’t the beacon of inspiration I once thought she was. But still, when I hear that song, I think she just may be.
Rogue Wave – Endless Shovel
Monotonix
Look, I don’t even want the tickets, but have you ever seen these guys live?!?!?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmEHu-QAgNE
I accidentally saw them live in a small Midwestern in 2005 and it changed my life.
These guys are the epitome of rawk!
*small Midwestern town bar* that is…
I’m going to go with “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” by Broken Social Scene. At the time this came out, I was in kind of a bad place and spent a lot of time walking around SF listening to my Old Skool iPod Mini. I didn’t realize I even had this song and one day it came on and I was completely blown away by how beautiful and perfect it was. I actually remember, I was on Fulton Street, walking at my usual get-to-the-fire pace, when I stopped and listened to the rest of the song, looking back down the hill at where I’d come from.
Things got better, but I must have listened to that song 100 times during that time and it always made me feel better in some way.
Broken Social Scene: Cause=Time
Best song-hands down-to ride a bike to, way too loud, way to drunk, no hands, no helmet, air drumming down Valencia. Fuck the cause.
Hey there, this is my first time commenting, but I would do a lot for free Treasure Island tickets!
I heart Belle and Sebastian: it took a while for me to discern the incongruity between the upbeat music and the slightly messed up and fascinating lyrics in “Seeing Other People,” but once I had stumbled onto that easter egg, it just kept getting better. This song in particular has layered with meaning over the years, but has never lost its association with my shock of surprise and interest.
Thanks!
Not trying to win tickets or anything, but gee, I sure wish Belle and Sebastian were performing at the one October festival I am attending. Oh well! Maybe next year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9GRu_3hfpM&ob=av2e
Hi Friend by Deadmau5. Because I love my friends. Oh wait, you said Sunday
Belle & Sebastian – I Don’t Love Anyone
While the title alone clues you in that it’s a highly relatable song, it’s even more than that to me. It’s a pretty, relaxing song with almost bitter undertones in the lyrics. That kinda stuff knocks me out. The song is a wonderful remark on how someone can be apathetic, yet still make the observation that “the world is as soft as lace.” This song just makes me feel so comfortable.
2000, the innocent days…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwl3lGhOJa4
the sea & cake – the argument
b&s’ album “boy with the arab strap” has a sample of children on a playground simply enjoying freedom, laughing and screaming with sincere abandon as the music is softly and blissfully mixed in. the sound surely intends to mimic love mania, however, it drags me back to the moment on the playground where i shit my pants and suddenly, like wildfire, the whole playground knew, i remember the death of innocence, and the hardening of the soul. but, i’m certain that the tickets would help me move on.
This one is bomb.
the sea and cake – all the photos
i’ll never forget the sea and cake @ the great american music hall back in 2000 i think it was. i had been kind of in post-college-identity-crisis-funk or something and this song and show changed everything…”when you gonna make it right….will you try to stay” i needed a change and ended up moving to spain the following year. it wasn’t just the lyrics but the mellow energy and beautiful sound – it snapped me out of my funk and taught me that a show and song could completely shift a mindset for the better. i also like photos a lot.
When I heard Belle & Sebastian’s “The State I Am In,” it was the music for which I’d always been looking, even though I didn’t realize before I heard it. It just rang bells all inside me. That was ten years ago; the one chance I had to hear them, Jonathan Richman opened for them, but I couldn’t afford the $20 at the time.
the national….conversation 16
because sometimes i really am afraid that i’ll eat your brains
Surfer blood — “floating vibes”
honestly, missing them play live at amoeba last year (because i was called away to attend a wedding, i mean who gets MARRIED anymore? esp. when a band like that plays for FREE?)beat me up pretty bad.
So i had the next best thing, a couple of my musician buddies playing a cover of the song atop the roof of the Odd Fellows building in civic center at dusk on a rare warm summer evening. Christmas lights strewn around (in the most hipster fashion we could muster) as the single light source. Dancing to the fuzzed out shoe-gazer beats, whilst gazing out over the rooftops of the city that never quits; my fuzzed out brain first-time intoxicated with mushrooms (the kind not purchasable at just any market). it was the closest i thought id ever get to hearing such a masterpiece live. Not many expense paid second-chances come a long these days.~
belle & sebastian: anything from “if you’re feeling sinister”
when i was younger i fell in love with a german boy. i was so crazy about him that i flew myself to germany to see him.
how did it end?
“girls that like belle and sebastian just don’t work for me.”
fuck the german. thank you belle & sebastian, for keeping me single all these years.
Kruder & Dorfmeister have been fueling my sin-soaked dreams for nearly a decade now. Bug Powder Dust from the K & D Sessions have colored these dreams in a very peculiar and stoney light!
Mouthful of Diamonds by Phantogram will always have a soft spot in my heart. It might sound completely ridiculous to say that,
because it is an inaminate object..but music just seems to have that ability for me. This song is significant in my life for a very
sweet reason. Summer love. I had met Michael and we instantly connected. We were blissful young lovers. He had left to
Amsterdam soon after we met, & for the weeks that he was gone, he had sent me songs/poems etc. Mouthful of Diamonds by Phantogram was a song that I absolutely adored! I listened to it
on repeat while he had been gone..A constant reminder of this romance we had. Michael came back from Amsterdam and we reconnected. As we
drove through the streets of LA, a month or so later, this song played from a random cd and we instantly started
singing it to eachother(me, remembering ALL of the lyrics- typically). Later, we saw that Phantogram was going to play
at the Treasure Island Music Festival and decided to go! Well, everything comes to and end..and we are no longer together,
but I’m still going to the festival and looking forward to dancing around to this lovely, heart-clenching song.. Nostalgic and possibly even happier than before!
piazza the new york catcher — belle and sebastian
I grew up in new york, but now live in san francisco, this song always reminds me of moving here. It reminds me of a bittersweet time and missing people you care about.
So, when I was 15 or so, I was punk as fuck. My not-so-punk secret? I loved Superchunk. “Foolish” had just come out, and I listened to it endlessly, but wouldn’t dare let me hardcore friends know I was listening to such wimpy college rock.
AND, there was this cheerleader, who I had a major crush on. I skipped class and smoked pot across from where they practiced, and we always smiled and made eyes. But come on – what self-respecting teenage punk rocker would date a cheerleader? (remember, this was before Blink-182 made punk “cool”) So, obviously that went nowhere – I don’t think we ever even said a word to each other.
Flash-forward a few months later, people turn 16, get driver’s licenses, and slap punk rock stickers on their cars. I spy a Superchunk sticker on a truck in the school parking lot – and make a secret mission to figure out who else in my small town high school knew such an obscure (at the time) band. Turns out? It was the cheerleader.
So blossoming love across subcultural divides? Nope, I still never talked to her. But every time I listen to Superchunk I still think of how much high school sucked, and how hot she was.
And sadly, I’ve still never seen Superchunk live. 16 years later – will I finally get the chance?
so, broken social scene. all of it.
I saw them at Wanderlust last year with my bad-ass black eye, and it was awesome. made getting doored totally worth it.
And, winning a ticket to Sunday’s Treasure Island Music Festival would make being suddenly unemployed suck a lot less.
‘drunk girls’ by lcd soundsystem
the song title speaks for itself.
The city, being as magical as is, is suffocating at times. But in a sense, I am thankful for that. I took everything for granted.
I crave nature, traveling and music.
Its where I feel free.
where i become alive.
let go of all of my troubles and live in the moment.
I have never gone to this festival, and even though there are plenty of amazing words and music to listen to, I would do it all for this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVF4G0IpaME&feature=related
beautiful. makes me want to rip open my chest and let sunshine in.
oh, and did i mention i am a poor art student!?
so i was definitely going to use the “poor [grad = $100k debt] student” line, but looks like kari beat me to it. cheers girl. we should grab some happy hour pbr some time.
at any rate, sunday has FIVE of my fav bands playing (the national, broken social scene, belle & sebastian, she & him, and ra ra riot) so its hard to pick one song. i will, however, go with “racing like a pro” by the national.
the abridged version: a boy i fell scarily in love with introduced me to the band, and my obsession with them (and, actually, this song specifically) was only rivaled by my scary obsession with him. he ended up breaking my heart and sending me into a lovely early-life crisis. this song sort of optimized that wretched time of my life (have you heard it?), and i smile at the irony of loving this song despite its connection. BUT this whole ordeal was the impetus i needed to grow and apply to grad school and move my ass OUT OF LA and into the mission, which was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
so.. ipso facto.. the national brought me the mission?
<3 thanks mission/mission, you guys are the coolest just for giving *someone* the chance to go to this festival, if not me.
Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Sounds too cheerful to be about what’s it’s about, much suitable for the land of Mission Freaks and Folsom Street Fairs…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYZPTTgMGCk
plus it’s catchy and how can you not just dance like a 14 year old to this song? You’ll be humming it tonight…
The National is my favorite of all the Sunday bands. Their song “Slow Show” has the incredibly romantic passaage: “You know I dreamed about you / for twenty-nine years before I saw you / You know I dreamed about you / I missed you for / for twenty-nine years…” I happened to hear this lyric when my girlfriend at the time had just turned 29 years old. So I played “Slow Show” for her and said I always thought of her when I heard it. Big points.
Ever notice that almost all the songs on Boxer are pretty much about drinking, or at least mention drinking? “Put a little somethin’ in our lemonade, and take it with us.”
I’m interested in the Sunday lineup because of Ra Ra Riot; their song “Kansai” from “The Orchard” has this line “made me miss the imagination I used to have” that spoke *volumes* to my sadly perimenopausal brain.
I came to the band recently; a niece informed me that guitarist Milo Bonacci is my cousin Janie’s son Sad to say Milo & I have never met–I come from the tail end of a large family and was gone from upstate NY by the time Milo came around.
Isn’t that a terrible but perfect illustration of this modern, peripatetic life?
Sweetest Kill by Broken Social Scene
This is the song I seek refuge to when I want to forget about the world. When I have a particularly straining day I lock myself in my room and lay in bed and let Broken Social Scene take me away. Kevin Drew’s voice, the songs steady rhythm and haunting lyrics gives me this indescribable calm. This song internalizes the worn out feelings I hold towards life and numbs my mind to all the cluttering thoughts.
I love this song because, “All the time we get by trying to figure out our lives, like were fading.”
The particular song that is special to me is “To Play Us Out” by Deadmau5
The song its self is incredible sounding with deadmau5 using his 8bit signature sound that was actually sampled from old video games from Super Nintendo. I always thought those sounds affects would be good in songs lo and be hold someone’s actually doing it. The remix based on Bill O’Rielly’ s freak-out is not only funny because of the situation itself. But “To play us out” by definition is to play an artist so much(on a mass scale) they sell out; their is allot of accusations from old time fans (before he was doing the VMAs and songs with Brittney Spears) that he is in-fact, selling out. To address it at all how he dose is as if he’s saying it’s not getting to his head, at least that how i perceived it. I hope he keeps Doing it ridiculously huge and loud. I’ve never seen him live but am going to a few hours because I really don’t want to loose him going back on tour out of california!!
slow show by the national. this particular song is special to me because its both mine and my fiances song. it was playing during our first kiss and holds great meaning to us both. kinda cheezy, i know. =P
I lost my virginity to Belle & Sebastian (girlfriend’s choice). Later that night I blasted some Slayer in celebration. I would like to relive that night. Will totally play some Slayer when I get home from the show.
When I was 17 a friend pulled me aside at a party and slipped a mixed tape out of the front pocket of his blazer and set it in my hands. This was 2004. A boy had never extended any remote romantic gesture in my direction, let alone made me a mixed CD. Actual mixed tapes were obviously already archaic, but I happened to have a receiver with a tape player so that night I went home, placed the tape in the deck, and listened to it. Twice.
“String Bean Jean” was the last song on the mix. Despite being a big Belle and Sebastian fan, I’d never heard this b-side from “Lazy Line Painter Jane” (this is pre-Barman), and I rewound that song over and over, tapping my feet. To complete this disgustingly twee love story, needless to say I dated the guy for over a year. We drove through California on Hwy 101 all the way to Washington that summer and you bet I packed that mixed tape in my bag. Those were the good times of being young, getting drunk all summer and dancing in bedrooms until early in the morning before waking after two hours of sleep to get to my café job, sleeping four abreast in a full size bed, and driving upstate at night just for the hell of it on the little money I made just to swim in the ocean.
Despite “String Bean Jean’s” simplicity, it remains one of my favorite songs because it transports me back to that limitless point in my life of being young, reckless, and without direction. And isn’t that what the song is all about?
The chance is slim that they’ll play “String Bean Jean” at the show, as they rarely pull it out of their endless bag of tricks, but I’d be bummed if I missed the chance to hear it live.
Broken Social Scene – 7/4 Shoreline
The Tuscan autumn was warm and dewy that year, and I’d been in Florence for two weeks when my school took the train to Pistoia for the day. The town was crummy and unremarkable save for the medieval edifices in the old city center; the open air market sold cheap misshapen socks, shiny synthetic brassieres, and useless plastic toys further encased in plastic. I stumbled along the lumpy cobblestones with a few other girls I barely knew looking for the Real Italy among these meaningless wares manufactured in China. When I came across a stand selling small, hard licorice candies, I bought a pouch of them, and followed the group to an outdoor cafe where we got to know each other a little bit better over bowls of orecchiette with broccoli rabe pesto and platters of hard cheeses and salami. I didn’t know it yet but I’d fall in love with these American women over the next nine months, become sisters, and, with one, become lovers.
After lunch, bellies full of omnipresent purple wine, we made our way to an exhibit on Marino Marini, a Pistoian sculptor. The blonde I’d known through friends and a shared course our freshman year paused beside me at the postcard rack on our way out of the museum. Walking beside her, I discovered we had both purchased the same Marini painting of a naked woman framed by slapdash sanguine strokes. We boarded the train; our mouths couldn’t move fast enough to say everything we wanted to tell each other. “Have you heard the new Broken Social Scene?” I asked. She, a musician herself, had not. Wordlessly I handed her one of my ear buds and the two of us sat, shoulder scraping shoulder, our eyes locked on the scenery gliding by, and listened to the entirety of the album on our way back to Florence.
This is where history gets fuzzy, because she swears I secretly restarted the album when we reached the city so we could remain side by side, our arms linked as we listened to Feist’s voice breathtakingly break in 7/4 Shoreline. I’ve denied that to this day, though I must admit I recall pausing in front of a shop window to admire our reflection and saying nonchalantly to her that we would make a lovely couple. The album ended (for the second time…?) as we reached Santa Croce, and we rejoined our friends to smoke hash on its marbled steps. Buzzed on foreign smoke, I teased her for never having kissed a girl, and always the adventurer, she changed that right there and then.
We were together for three years. Last September, nearly four years to the day since our first train ride, I went to visit her in New York. As I waited for her in Tompkins Square Park, 7/4 Shoreline came bursting through my headphones unannounced.
She & Him – Take It Back
Just recently had a falling out with a girl very special to me and if I could hear Zooey sing this it just might make me feel better about it all.
Me and My Hand, by Broken Social Scene, is my jam.
Me and my hand,
We’ve been together
Since I was born,
Since I was in the world.
Seen the light go out,
Seen light come in
Me and my hand,
My true best friend
And my love,
My love -
Oh, my hand I’ve gotta give it up,
I always love you.
Here’s the story:
It was day 3 of 10 of my lovely girlfriend’s trip abroad. I was spending a quiet night lying alone on my bed, giving Broken Social Scene’s latest record, Forgiveness Rock Record, a first listen. As the final track on the record, Me and My Hand, blared on the stereo, I lied still and soaked in the simplicity and haunting beauty of the song.
After the song finished, I sat up, picked up the glass of gin that was on the nightstand, and looked at my right hand as it grasped the cup. As I studied my hand in all its glory, I realized just how deep the feelings I have for my hand are.
It has been my constant companion and sometimes lover, always there to help and comfort me. I thought of all the good times we have had and was reminded of the bad when I noticed the scars around my middle, ring, and thumb knuckles.
Like most things that are always there for you, you tend to take them for granted until someone points it out to you. Thank you, Broken Social Scene. After a few minutes of appreciation and deep thought, I turned track 14 back on infinite repeat, got out the expensive lotion, and paid my own homage to my hand.
Like the song, it was simple and hauntingly beautiful.
I’ve gotta give it up, hand… I always love you.
Sweetest Kill by Broken Social Scene
When I feel along and cry myself to sleep, this is all I need.
Shortly after meeting my future wife, she sent me a link to her MySpace page. I had woken up from a long sleep and clicked on the link. “We Are The Sleepyheads” by Belle & Sebastian began playing. It was my first time hearing their music. The echoey vocals, the guitar strums, the lyrics – I was in love. With the band and this woman. We got married five months later. That was four years ago. I still get chills every time I hear that song.
“She’s Losing It” Belle & Sebastian
Towards the end of graduating from college I starting having really bad panic attacks–horrible intense feelings that I couldn’t do anything. Leaving my house to go outside generally seemed like such a hurdle.
My roommate Jason was a cute twee boy who loved the album Tigermilk. The song “She’s Losing It” really struck a chord with me one day when he forced me to go out of the house. I kept singing the line “…from the first moment of waking up, she knows she’s losing it” over & over in my head like a mantra, hoping it would get me out of “losing it”.
Thankfully I’m better, but I’ll be damned if that song doesn’t still freeze me as a reminder of where I used to be.
It can only be a selection from Belle and Sebastian for me. Their signature musical style and Glaswegian grace is unsurpassable, and when they wiggled their way into my life years ago, it was with a cheeky wink and then an instant glare that shook me to my core, and forced the leaves off of my branches.
There isn’t much that I wouldn’t do to finally be able to enjoy the imagery that they provoke and to admire their calm and fluid musical gesturings in front of their physical presence. The days for enjoying Belle & Sebastian live are numbered. I recoil to think that I will miss this opportunity for musical and emotional satisfaction, all because my vile, shoeboxey and way-way-way-too-expensive Mission apartment has gobbled up any $70 investment for a concert. I can’t stop eating to justify seeing Belle & Sebastian, though I will most likely still try. Before doing so, I pray to the karma powers-that-be for a hand with a Treasure Island ticket inside to thrust downwards from the mist and find its way to me. It’s this Sunday; that’s five more days of hoping and remembering that stars of track and field are beautiful people.
O, Mission Mission! Are you that magical hand descending from the heavens? If not, I will plague Valencia Street this Sunday, moping out everybody. Send me to Treasure Island instead, where I can just mope in the roped off area with all the others to the dulcet tones of Belle & Sebastian.
“Fox in the Snow” by Belle & Sebastian.
This song gives me a boner. I’m not kidding.
The first guy/guy love I ever experienced happened when I met this dude in an AOL M4M Chat Room (remember those?). His screen name was a straight rip-off from this song, something like B0y0naB1ke.
The first time we chatted we spent an entire night listening to Bjork albums simultaneously and alternately typing in lyrics. I was in love. I was Indie.
We eventually met and he shared his Belle & Sebastian collection with me. Long, hot summers listening to Tigermilk, If You’re Feeling Sinister and Boy w/an Arab Strap(on). Hot. Sticky. Sweet.
That was 11-years ago. B0y0naB1ke was my first guy crush and I have Belle & Sebastian to thank of that.
Call-to-Action: Pick-me and know that you helped me get a boner.
This thread has become an ultimate sad-faced boner kill!
Ain’t nothing sad-faced about boners, Har-money.
Which was the winning submission?
“If She Wants Me” by Belle and Sebastian is an extremely important song to me. Two years ago, a girl played guitar and sang that song for me. She quickly became my girlfriend. We will be celebrating our two year anniversary in two weeks. I am thankful for that song, because it brought us together.
I fell in love with “Can You Tell” by Ra Ra Riot in the early stages of a relationship, and the lyrics were so true to life.
waking up every thursday morning this summer and stumbling my hungover ass to my best friend’s house to smoke a bowl & drink beers to chase away the sour stomachs/sour memories, and playing the whole in ghost coluers album by cut copy. if we’re talking bout a song specifically I always wanted to listen to far away…you always wanted to listen to hearts on fire. and the way i begged you to do a mash up of far away and the talking heads ‘once in a lifetime’…. still havent heard that track.
Long summer nights i spent holding my true love, playing music under the old oak tree, and pushing each other on the swing wispering cute i love yous in each others ears. I never wanted those nights to end….. Schools starting now will it ever be like those nights again? Beach House is special to us. Used to be by beach house is are life at the moment. When we see each other i can’t let go. i’m young and i’m a fool in love. This is mushy and makes me sad thinking those nights have come to a end. I’m not a chariety case that needs your sympathy ,but i will ask for one more of those nights. the song says “don’t forget those nights when it all felt right”. (i won’t)
“Lights and Music” -Cut Copy
I love this song so much because it reminds me of my best friends and I’s multiple late-night dance parties! Also, saw them play it at Coachella this year, which was the ultimate dance party for me and my group of friends that weekend. There’s no way any human can sit still while this song plays… unless you don’t know good music that is.
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