Like setting out milk and cookies for Santa, ragging on Boise’s music scene is a beloved, longstanding tradition among local fans and musicians.
Circumstances in 2011 made our treasured, curmudgeonly pastime a bit more challenging.
2012 could be even tougher.
Cocteau Twins-tinged indie-pop act Youth Lagoon, aka 22-year-old Boisean Trevor Powers, blew minds on an international scale and stuck a Boise pin on the map. Youth Lagoon’s debut album, “The Year of Hibernation,” made year-end best-of lists from tastemakers such as Pitchfork and Spin magazine. Powers soon will go on a whirlwind tour that includes stops in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and London. (He’ll also gig in Boise in January.)
Closer to home, Radio Boise 89.9 FM finally got on the air this spring and provided a fresh outlet for local and regional music, as well as for musicians themselves. Several of them host shows on the listener-supported community station.
And here comes a taste of 2012.
There’s an audible buzz about a four-day Boise event in March with potential to inject energy into the market: Treefort Music Fest.
Plus, there’s the heart-attack-inducing news that an official showcase for Boise bands will be featured at this year’s South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. In a bill topped by still-powerful Built To Spill, which has been around almost as long as Powers has been alive, six local acts, including Youth Lagoon, are slated to perform. The others are Finn Riggins, the Bret Netson Band (Netson is one of Built To Spill’s guitarists), Hillfolk Noir and Le Fleur.
Is Boise’s music scene ... arriving?
“I think there’s a good energy generating in the scene right now,” says Finn Riggins frontman and Radio Boise host Eric Gilbert. “It just needs to be further built upon.”
The inaugural Treefort Music Fest will offer 20 to 30 bands each night at multiple Downtown Boise venues March 22-25.
Gilbert, the festival’s director and talent buyer, is definitely the person to lead the charge.
This is the man who penned an enthusiastic guest column for Seattle Weekly’s blog this year called “5 Boise Bands (Other Than Built To Spill) You Need to Hear Right Now.”
This is the optimist who, after performing at SXSW with Finn Riggins in 2011, vowed to bring back more Boise bands in 2012.
This is the guy who ends an email to me explaining how the Boise showcase at SXSW came to fruition with these words: “Love this town.”
(The showcase, he says, is happening with help from Built To Spill frontman Doug Martsch.)
Creative, hard-working idealists like Gilbert are crucial if Boise’s music scene hopes to climb a rung or two up the ladder. The timing of Treefort Music Fest, which occurs a week after SXSW, is no accident.
Last year, Gilbert organized a single-night, two-stage “Post-SXSW-Mini-Fest” at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City. He booked a handful of bands driving through Boise after their trip to Austin.
Treefort will take a similar, larger approach. With tons of musicians headed back West, Gilbert sees an opportunity to catch many of them in a moment that might otherwise just be a rest stop and a pizza.
If Treefort is successful, it will help: 1) convince booking agents that Boise is a viable tour stop; 2) introduce emerging bands to Boise music fans eager for new sounds; 3) provide exposure for local bands, which will comprise roughly 30 percent of the acts, Gilbert says; 4) generate money for Radio Boise, which is where proceeds go.
The main stage will be a heated tent in the Linen Building parking lot. More stages will be inside clubs such as Neurolux and the Reef.
Unless you follow new music closely — read Paste magazine or Pitchfork online — you might not recognize many bands.
But interesting acts will be there: Of Montreal, Typhoon, and Blitzen Trapper have been announced. Built To Spill also will play. Tons more eventually will be revealed. (Check Treefortmusicfest.com.)
Will Treefort become an annual festival for Boise? Gilbert thinks it’s possible. So expect lots of marketing soon via social media and Radio Boise. A free Treefort app — which will stream music from the bands — also is on the horizon.
Anything suddenly seems possible for Boise’s music scene. Bring on 2012.
