{a rare Popfest sight - an empty 40 Watt, by Rich Guiterrez}

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Athens Popfest is always the best week of the year for indie pop nerds, and this year was no exception. Think five days straight of raging shows, surrounded by so many old and new favorite bands and your "camp buddies" you only see once a year + 100 (or more) degree heat and southern humidity + cheap booze + insane nerdery. All I can really say is that it was epic, for so many reasons. Here are a few highlights.

Top five favorite bands:
1. Go Sailor
There was kind of no way that this wasn't going to be my favorite, as I'm a die hard Go Sailor fan, but their set was amplified by me and about 20 other die hard Go Sailor fans screaming along every word to every song. You just can't buy that kind of camaraderie and sense of community. At that moment, Go Sailor were our Beatles. We spent the whole set singing specific favorite lyrics to each other and jumping up and down and dancing our asses off. I consequently spent the rest of popfest without a voice. It was totally worth it. Their whole set was recorded and is on youtube, but here's my favorite song of the set "A Fine Day For Sailing". (That's us in the background.)

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In all this hubub of getting ready to leave for popfest, I keep forgetting that one of my all time favorite bands, The Apples In Stereo, are playing! I've been so focused on learning about all of the bands that I didn't previously know about, just so I wouldn't miss something by accident, that it's hardly registered that Friday night will close out with the wonderful stylings of Elephant 6 legends. When everyone gushes about their undying love of Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control and all related projects of those bands, all I can think about is how much I love the Apples (OK, I've probably just lost friends for admitting that on the internet).

I'm pretty much a sucker for anything that rips off the Beatles and 60's psych-pop well, and Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo does it better than anyone. While his love songs are often about space (and sometimes time travel), it still feels incredibly heartfealt. While the new Apples stuff delves way more into an ELO territory, it's still completely amazing and his pop genius still shines through all the vocoder. I'll have to stretch beforehand to make sure I can dance my ass off all night.

There are too many Apples favorites to pick just one, but this clip of perrenial live favorite "Ruby", which generally features guest vocals by whatever friends are there (in this case, TIG favorites Poison Control Center and Fishboy), completely embodies the true spirit of Athens Popfest (though it was not recorded there): playing music with and for your friends and other like-minded folks. It envariably ends up in a crazy dance party.

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at 40 Watt

With Bunnygrunt, Cars Can Be Blue, Little Birds, Panda Riot, Roky Erickson, That's My Daughter, and Tom Gorrio.

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at 40 Watt

The Athens PopFest ruled... a helicopter shirt dance AND Daniel Johnston AND Japanese Pop AND horns? YES!

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at 40 Watt

I missed the day shows (Atlanta traffic sucks big time and it took 7 hours to pick up a friend at the airport!), but no mind, the night shows more than made up for it.

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at 40 Watt

That Ted Leo a smooth mofo! His flawless set took the fest up a notch with as he oozed with enchanting conversation and cool-kid moves.

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Good morning from sunny and warm (approx 100 degrees F) Athens, GA! Here's a recap of last night's show.

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