Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Spencer Ludwig: trumpet (/definitely in charge of hypeness and jumping)
Nick Merwin: electric guitar
Manny Quintero: bass
Channing Holmes: drums
The Tale:
L.A., 2008: Sebu posts a Craigslist ad searching for a music-writing partner. Ryan is the only one to respond. The pair start writing jingles for commercials, with a reasonable amount of success.
2010: They tire of writing songs about nasal spray for a living and decide to form a band instead. During a brainstorming session, Sebu suggests they name the band “Capital of Maine.” Ryan, realizing what a terrible idea this is, comes up with an alternative: “Capital Cities.”
-They write the future chart-topper “Safe and Sound.”
2013: People realize what their lives are missing--an anti-doomsday theme song--and finally give “Safe and Sound” the attention it deserves. -The band remakes the original self-made music video into an even weirder one that gets nominated for a Grammy.
-The band goes on a tireless world tour, while their single reaches #1 on the alt charts and #8 on the Billboard charts. The song proves it will be played in every commercial from now til the end of time. I’m sure the irony is not lost on its jingle-writing creators.
-This is also the year Capital Cities makes their Bonnaroo debut, playing at 1 am Thursday to an overflowing New Music On Tap Lounge.
2014: The band starts the year off right, performing on the CBS New Year's Rockin Eve special. The band continues to move up in the world (and the Bonnaroo lineup), and will also be playing Coachella, Hangout Fest, Outside Lands, and the South American Lollapaloozas.
The Sound:
Genre: Indie electro-pop. All happy all the time. If you don’t get up and dance to their music, you should maybe see a doctor… Or as Neon Gold Records puts it: "A sonic head rush. An easy, breezy, beautiful slice of effervescent electro pop." Similar Artists: There aren’t many similar artists, but think of some magical land of never-ending dance party between Fitz & The Tantrums and Disclosure.
Similar Bonnaroo Artists: Besides the two listed above, (and these are kind of stretching it): Chromeo, Chvrches, and Rudimental
The Collection: In a Tidal Wave of Mystery (2013) {Deluxe edition released March 2014}
Kangaroo Court EP (2014): most notable for its inclusion of their Stayin Alive cover
The Jams:
"Consider yourself warned, listening to Capital Cities is habit-forming." -Status
Safe and Sound: Everyone has probably heard this, but have you seen the video?? It’s pretty great. It got nominated for a Grammy. It won a couple of VMA’s… (I know, I know... So did Miley Cyrus. But still.)
Kangaroo Court: A good picture of the band's quirky creativity. They wrote and co-directed a 9 minute short to go along with this music video, which Darren Criss and Shannon Woodward star in.
Sold My Bed, But Not My Stereo (live): Watch for Spencer, the Trumpet Player/Hypemaster.
Center Stage (live): When they perform this song, they teach the crowd the "Capital Cities Shuffle"
Safe and Sound (Cash Cash remix): The band is known to end their sets by playing this remix and having a throwdown, sometimes jumping into the crowd to join in, encouraging everyone to remove clothing to spin in the air during the final breakdown.
They are also very into retro covers—from the Bee Gees to Pink Floyd to Madonna… And they play at least one cover in every set.
The Live Show: I’ve seen them live four times so far, one of which being Bonnaroo last year. They got off a plane from Germany and came straight to the Farm, where they had numerous sound and set-up issues but put on a fantastic show anyway. They always have energy and love interacting with the crowd. People are known to wear oversize Capital Cities glasses to the shows. Like these:
Personally, I can’t help but dance my face off to just about every song they perform. It’s safe to say there will be an excessive amount of jumping. When you have a band that will get off stage to dance with you, how can you NOT?
The Randomness:
-The band’s typical uniform includes vintage bowling-style satin jackets embroidered with “Capital Cities” on the back, as seen in some of the videos.
-All of the band members have an affinity for wearing crazy colorful socks.
-They take pride in being as weird as possible, case in point: their song “Farrah Fawcett Hair.” The lyrics are a long list of “good shit”--part funky electronic beat, part gospel choir, part Andre 3000 guest appearance, all of which is narrated by NPR news correspondent Frank Tavares.
-Their new single, One Minute More, was originally on the Iron Man 3 soundtrack, along with Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit, and AWOLNATION.
-Their trumpet player Spencer Ludwig and DJ Jason Stiegler and have a duo called Ludwig & Stiegler that sometimes does pop-up shows after Capital Cities sets. Jason has confirmed on twitter multiple times that the duo will turn up at Bonnaroo, so keep your eyes peeled for that magic.
-They LOVE Bonnaroo. (No other facts matter, really...)
The Last Thoughts: In case you can’t already tell, I adore this band. They like pushing boundaries and being creative in offbeat ways. Their music can always put a smile on my face. I’ve met them several times, and they’re very sweet and down to earth. They always put on a fantastic show, even back when no one knew who they were and only a few of us in the audience (of a half-empty venue) knew all their lyrics.
Hope to see you at their Bonnaroo set! If you see six idiots in the front row who can’t stop jumping, that’s me and my Roo crew. Come say hi!
***All non-cited info I heard from the band directly in person. (I once followed them around Florida when they did a bunch of small radio shows.)
Nice write up!!! I had no idea they met on Craigslist... Also still pretty bitter about missing them last year. I was just so tired though I had to tap in the middle of Alt-J. Hopefully I get to see them this year though! Fingers crossed!
10/19/14-Phantogram
11/29/14-New Politics, Bad Suns
4/17/15-Hippo Campus, Night Riots, The Mowglis
5/1/15-Penn State Movin' On Music Festival-New Politics, Passion Pit, Big Gigantic, Big Sean
6/11/15-6/14/15-Bonnaroo!
6/21/15 - Paul McCartney
6/27/15-Halsey, Imagine Dragons
Watched their performace from SXSW and it was great, yet dull due to the boring ass crowd there. Saw them at Roo last yr and again with Fitz on the Bright Futures tour, and both were awesome. CC and the crowd definitely feed off of each other and will be an awesome time. They're good shit
Nice write up!!! I had no idea they met on Craigslist... Also still pretty bitter about missing them last year. I was just so tired though I had to tap in the middle of Alt-J. Hopefully I get to see them this year though! Fingers crossed!
I know the feeling. I love alt-j but I had to go lay down in the grass halfway through their set in prep for Capital Cities. And then their set started like 45 minutes late because of all the sound issues. I barely made it back to camp at 3 am after the craziness that was Thursday.
Very nice... without reading this there is a good chance they wouldn't have been on my radar. However, now, unless they clash with one of my favs, I'm definitely gonna try and see them.
And on a side not, I had no idea the Dodger's Brian Wilson was in a band!
Post by livesbydryshampoo on Apr 6, 2014 12:07:06 GMT -5
Thank you! What a great write-up! Jesioneka and I were at their last show with FATT in Milwaukee this past fall and Sibu jumped off the stage and gave me a big bear hug. Then they had a silly string PJ fight and it was pretty much awesome.
