Props to Phillip for putting on a second successful Riverside festival showcasing the talent in Riverside. I wasn't able to catch the entire festival, but I was able to catch The Snacks and my personal local favorite Helios Eye.
Helios Eye is incredible... It feels like some cross between a Sam Beam (of Iron & Wine) and Kurt Cobain demo tape made today. It has the folksiness of Sam Beam, especially with the banjo, with the raw emotional writing of Cobain at his best. The lyrics are decidedly dark with things like "there are sections of I-95 that make you want to take your own life." The flipside is that when Kevin, the man behind Helios, turns manic it's incredible. Even the darkest lyrics have some sunshine line as everyone screams along, "and I feel sooo dirty!" There's one song with particularly poignant lyrics that they closed with that I can't recall the words too, especially since my iPod is out of service and unfortunately I can't pull it up 'cause someone spilled coffee on the iPod (props to iPodResQ, btw, for fixing it fast and cheap). Stop into Inertia Books & Records and pick up his album "The Karmic Debt of the Bugs We Step On." Lo-Fi at it's finest, it was recorded in a Riverside kitchen and has the same acoustics of singing in your shower. It even comes with a handwritten letter to YOU, the consumer.
I didn't get to see Cory Knight because the city cut the power. Yay Jacksonville! They also had the power cut off when they arrived in the morning... you'd think the city would be doing everything they could to help people like Phillip who want to offer a free service to the residents of Jacksonville. Guess it would be a bit different if he were a developer.
Flickr photoset [more coming soon]
Tags: Treyopia Blueberry Festival Jacksonville Riverside Helios Eye Florida Music Festival photography
