Monterey Music Summit 2008 preview

                                   Photo Credit: Monterey Music Summit
While it isn't exactly there yet quantitatively, this nice multi-genre modern music festival, set to take place in the Laguna Seca County Recreation Area nestled in Salinas, CA, is shaping up to be quite like the Monterey International Pop Festival of 40 years before. I call this a "modern" music festival because, much like Monterey Pop, it's hard to pin down the stylistic center of the festival. Perhaps the biggest name here is Snoop Dogg, but he doesn't really come close to representing this festival. MMS is just in its infancy though; organizers should be praised for the number of major acts they've been able to pull together in just the second year.

Friday, May 30th, bounces from the straightforward hard rock of Juliette & the Licks to the multiphonic chants of the Tibetan Monks to the massive beats of The Crystal Method, to give you some sort of substantial idea of the variety of the first day. It ends with Sound Tribe Sector 9, who seem to be on the road 24/7 in 2008 (with Rothbury and Wakarusa in store for them later this summer). It must be said that STS9 possibly sums up the sounds of the first day the best, what with their equal usage of loud and soft dynamics, loads of drum tracks and filters and live instrumentation, though their sound is still much more akin to the Crystal Method than anything else. Perhaps their headline spot is also the result of the strong local support- they're based in nearby Santa Cruz.

Saturday, the 31st gives us The Crystal Method again, but perhaps settles into a general rock groove more than the previous day. However the day is still spiked by the likes of Filthy Gorgeous Burlesque, which is kind of a global all-star burlesque troupe, the bluegrass fusion band Hot Buttered Rum, and funk-reggae outfit Slightly Stoopid. The motif of pop singer-songwriters at the festival, started with Friday performer Paula Cole, builds with sets by Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida and the bookish Sara Melson at the beginning of the day, while perhaps Superdrag, another early performer, would probably also be heavily anticipated by some of those who came to see Juliette & the Licks.

The headliner tonight is Snoop Dogg, and while he's the only hip-hop artist at the festival, Snoop tends to transcend genre and be a master MC for all occasions and venues-- whether you're a fan of the very old ("Gin and Juice") or the very new ("Sexual Eruption"), you probably consider at least one of Snoop's songs a classic, no matter whether you're a big hip-hop fan or not. Thus, the organizers should be heavily commended for reigning him in, even if this means that the festival has to rely on a perhaps excessive number of local up-and-comers to fill out the rest of the days here. And by excessive, I only mean that the festival's financial base could have handled taking on a bit more major out-of-towners like Sunday's Taking Back Sunday and Coheed and Cambria.

Sunday, June 1st is definitely the rockingest of all, though there are some major deviations in the form of Ky-Mani Marley, the proper rapper of Bob's kids, drum'n'bass maestro Dieselboy with MC Messinian, and an Afrobeat collective called Albino! In addition, Filthy Gorgeous Burlesque and the Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour are each back for a second set on Sunday. The day definitely belongs to pounding skins and amp-stack fuzz, starting with South Africa's biggest-selling rock group Just Jinjer and ending with the emo-metal medley of Coheed and Cambria and Taking Back Sunday. In between will no doubt be some sweet long jams courtesy of Tea Leaf Green and New Monsoon.

It's Taking Back Sunday's headlining spot, or Coheed and Cambria's lack of that spot, that has me most intrigued when scanning the lineup for Sunday. Both have released albums more than a year ago (in TBS's case, more than two) that went to the top 10 of the Billboard charts, and both are cooking up albums to be released around the winter of 2008 or 2009-- about the same crowd draw, right? If you want to get nitpicky, TBS's newest, Louder Now, went to number 2 while Coheed went just to number 6, but then again the latter also have the advantage of the newer release. It just makes me wonder if the organizers and both bands just flew out to a conveniently located city, went to the nearby Marriott and flipped a coin to see who would headline on Sunday.

While there may be an abundance of standard rock and pop riffage to be heard in Salinas, that's surely not all there is to expect. And in the nights in between each of the afternoon-and-evening-long journeys through the festival's myriad modern (and Middle-Age in the case of the Tibetan Monks) styles, you can sleep easy knowing that organizers are striving to make the event 100% carbon-neutral through the selling of Nalgene bottles for use at free water dispensers, organic t-shirts, rebates for green vendors, and other strategies.

One-day tickets jump from $49 to $69 on Saturday and Sunday, and buying for the long haul saves you about $12 (depending on shipping charges), at $169. Camping sites are available, but will run you anywhere from $60 to $185 depending on how many people you want to bring along and whether or not you bring an RV. If you're planning on going down to sunny Monterey, then click here, to order tickets.

-- By Ross Moody