 "Photo: Richard Marks/ Greyhound")
It's sad when the best part of 2009's Loyolapalooza is A Cool Stick (besides the beautifully sunny day), a rap/reggae group composed of Loyola seniors. They have become well-known around the Loyola community for their show at Relay for Life and for their front man, Luke Obrien, and the overnight popularity of their YouTube video "I Love Knowledge," which now has nearly 44,000 hits and climbing.
No disrespect to A Cool Stick, I was very entertained by their set, and delighted by O'Brien's ability to rap, but student bands are selected to play college festivals to set the mood and get the crowd excited for the upcoming band, not to be the only good and worthwhile part of the entire day. The highlight for A Cool Stick's short, thirty-minute set was when they played "I Love Knowledge." Clever parodied lyrics and O'Brien's rap skills complimented the acoustic guitar and keyboards. It was hilarious when O'Brien got the crowd to stand up and chant, "take good notes" in unison. I think O'Brien could have a future in music-watch out for the English major from suburbia.
After A Cool Stick and before Augustana, students wandered around the quad, chomping down on hotdogs or hamburgers and sucking on snow cones to satisfy inebriatied appetites. Two members of the San Diego-based band, Augustana, wandered on the stage in front of Maryland Hall around 3p.m. Much to my surprise (and to the surprise of many of my classmates) Augustana played an acoustic, two-person set.
Unfortunately, Augustana isn't Simon and Garfunkel-when you're a one-hit wonder with minimal acclaim, an acoustic set is dreary and uninteresting, especially to a crowd of college students. And although their voices are stable and their songs decent (but not really), a full band would have been nice, but what do we expect for over ten thousand dollars, right SGA?
After Augustana left the stage after only 35 minutes, eager fans cooked in the 94-degree heat, anticipating Citizen Cope. Citizen Cope, or Clarence Greenwood, originates from Brooklyn, New York, and has been making music for over ten years and has three studio albums. His last album, Every Waking Moment, has been relatively successful and Cope has been touring off and on since. Rich and I got a chance to interview Citizen Cope before his performance.
I've interviewed many bands since I began working at WLOY Loyola Radio and I can honestly say that Citizen Cope was and has been, by far, the worst.
Not counting the non-existent Lupe Fiasco interview (a massage was much more important than giving a few words), Citizen Cope was uninterested and unenthusiastic.
Usually when I have the pleasure of interviewing bands, I have been able to stretch to the maximum time allowed as I find ways to improvise off of the artists' responses or their eagerness, but Citizen Cope seemed bored and tired. I usually expect bands to dive deep into certain questions, but with Cope, that was not at all the case.
When asked about a new album, Cope responded with "The new record is called The Rainwater LP and it's coming out in February of 2010."
When asked if there were any details on the new album, Cope responded with, "It's going to be like any Citizen Cope thing, you just got to hear it."
When asked about other bands that he's enjoyed touring with throughout his career Cope responded with, "I haven't really done a lot of touring with other artists, I've concentrated on being a headliner." He then went on to add that he had done some touring with Santana and it was "lovely," because "he's an ambassador for peace and music."
When asked the fun question, "if you were a wrestler, what would your name be and why," Cope had no response. The musician's creative mind must have been taking the day off.
Cope's quick and blunt responses were baffling, as was his random request for a bucket in case he got sick while on stage. I felt David Letterman interviewing Joaquin Phoenix, minus all the gum-chewing. Maybe I would have enjoyed Citizen Cope's set if I had been under the influence (like he appeared to be), but probably not. Here at WLOY, we pride ourselves in being knowledgeable about music, obviously imperative to the job. Maybe SGA would like to consult us in the artist selection process next year; we might just have something insightful to suggest.
Or, instead, Loyola University can overpay for another one-hit wonder has-been, just as Loyola College has done for the last three years.
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