This Friday, Dallas-based music blog Gorilla Vs. Bear hosted their third annual festival at Granada Theater. Local music fans flocked to the historic venue to watch Booty Fade, Empress Of, HAERTS, Blue Hawaii, and Danny Brown share the stage. We talked to the crowd to see how the night's festivities went.
Edgar
What brings you here tonight? Dope music. Booty Fade, Danny Brown. All the cool people.
What did you think of Booty Fade's set? Man, they're doing it, they're doing it. It's Dallas club music, and they're bringing everybody together, no matter what.
Do you read GvB? I haven't, but I came out to last year's show. That was a sick lineup. I'm a huge Glass Candy fan, I'm a huge Cromatics fan. And then on top of that, I got to see Twin Sister, I know Kendrick Lamar sampled them on "The Recipe". And to hear that song live was the best part. I like last year's lineup more, but this year's different. I'm not really up to par with a lot of the bands on the bill except Danny Brown, but it's a good turn out. There's a lot of people here. Everyone's having fun.
Are you from Dallas? I'm a transplant, I'm a California transplant, but I've been out here for five years. I like it, I love it. It feels like home. It's different. Great music, great people, everyone's out to have a good time, and that's what I'm about.
Jesus
What brought you out tonight? Danny Brown, I've never seen him before. He's a crazy dude, I just want to see his wacky antics on stage.
Are you expecting any onstage blowjobs tonight? Maybe. I mean, I'm not going to be giving any out.
Where did you get your shirt? I went out to Las Vegas for work, and I went to a Wal Mart and I wanted to find the tackiest shirt I could find. Then I wore it for three days.
What do you do? I'm a marketing assistant. It's not as cool as it sounds. I got to go to Vegas and other places, but I just do all the stuff that nobody else wants to do.
How does Dallas compare to the other cities you've been to? Dallas is tight, I love Dallas. I'm not from here, I'm from Fort Worth. But I like coming out to Dallas, it's a different scene. It's very waspy there, and in Dallas it's like, I can wear this shirt out and everyone's like, "Hey, nice shirt!"
Do you read Gorilla Vs. Bear? No. I mostly read hip-hop blogs.
What kind of hip hop do you like? Right now, I really love Danny Brown obviously. Action Bronson, who's gonna be here next Saturday, that's gonna be tight. Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar.
What did you think of Kendrick's "Control" verse? It was a cool verse, but I'm honestly a bigger fan of Jay Electronica... people say that he's more of like a myth than an actual rapper, because he doesn't put shit up. So anytime you hear stuff by him, it's cool.
Ify
Who are you here to see? Empress Of, and I've seen Danny Brown before, but he's awesome, he's such a fun rapper. And Blue Hawaii.
What'd you think of Empress Of? She's so amazing, she's younger than I thought she would be... Super powerful voice. I liked her a lot.
Do you read GvB? I actually didn't learn about it until this week. A friend of mine posted a Facebook status about this event, and I love coming to the Granada. I just moved back to Dallas, but I went to high school here at Lake Highlands, and I would come here all the time to see shows... I keep up with other music blogs, but I had never heard of this one before.
What blogs do you read? Pretty Much Amazing, Pitchfork, Stereogum, sometimes Brooklyn Vegan.
Bonner
What do you do? I'm an advertiser, you could say. I'm a brand planner at The Richards Group.
Have you been to GvB Festival before? I did, it was either last year or the year before, but I don't remember which one. I was in Austin for a while... I went to school at UT for four years.
How do you think Dallas' music scene compares to Austin's? Well, they're very different, but they're not so far a part so a lot of the shows that come through Austin will stop in Dallas too. So I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything. But Austin just has a different vibe and they have more festivals.
Do you read GvB? Yeah, not as diligently as I used to. But I've been following this blog since high school, for like seven years now. So kind of like, an embarrassingly long time- but it's awesome! It's a good source for me. I would find an .mp3, download it, then go find a way to download the rest of them from some sketchy site or something. It is one of the last .mp3 blogs and now I have Spotify, and that's pretty much all I use. It's like the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Patrick, Isabel, Sawyer
What brings you out tonight? I: We love Gorilla Vs. Bear! S: Work. We live in Austin. P: I work with Transmission Events and Fun Fun Fun Fest. We do a lot of work with Gorilla Vs. Bear and we came out to support them, we're big fans as well.
Who are you looking forward to seeing? I: Danny Brown! P and S: Empress Of
What'd you think of Empress Of? I: I liked it alot. S: They've played at my club twice, I work at The Mohawk in Austin. I love them.
How do you think this lineup compares to previous years? I: I think it's a lot different in the sense that it's more eclectic, which is good. I haven't heard of a lot of the bands, so it's good to see new music.
What's the weirdest thing you've seen tonight? I: I saw a couple make out for like 30 minutes straight during Empress Of.
John
What brought you out here tonight? One of the guys from Zorch, who I haven't seen since last month, texted me and said he was coming out and he had a ticket for me. Gorilla Vs. Bear is good stuff usually, and it's Friday night!
Who are you looking forward to seeing? Danny Brown.
What'd you think of Booty Fade's set? I mean, Will's Will [Rhoten, aka DJ Sober), you know? It's timeless. He pulls all these old songs, but then you realize it's just, I don't know. He's awesome. It's Will!
What'd you think of Empress Of? Is that the girl who was just dancing around up there? Yeah, she was excited to be on stage. Why did they have a drummer?
How do you think this lineup compares to the previous two? Last year was hard to beat. Had more meat. Danny Brown's good and all, but I had him two years ago opening for Das Racist and I just don't think he's at a headliner level yet. This should be like that Too High To Die tour with Action Bronson & Trash Talk. But the thing that Gorilla Vs. Bear is good for is that most of these bands are going to be big in about two or three years.
Amanda & Jasmin
What do you do? J: I'm a Pre-K teacher and a bartender. Two completely different fields. I love it, I love the babies. It's like, I deal with their parents at night. A: I work at a daycare, with little tiny babies. Infants.
What brings you out tonight? J: This is our third Gorilla Vs. Bear. We love it. I try to keep up with the blog, but I work about 60 hours a week, so blogging is something I have to really catch time for. I like to work on cars too, but that's in my spare time. Design is my passion project. I like to have my hands in a lot of different pots. I don't believe that the jack of all trades is a master of none, he's a hustler.
A: I check Gorilla Vs. Bear like my bible every morning, so I had to come for the third one.
What other blogs do you read? A: I check the hip hop blogs like Nah Right, Culture Kings and all that. I try to keep a broad perspective. I like that Ad Hoc that came out of the guys who were doing Pitchfork, Weekly Tape Deck.
What do you think about this lineup compared to the previous ones? J: The lineup is phenomenal. Oh my god, HAERTS... they were crazy. That catsuit! Yes! Their music is phenomenal. If they were an American band, I'd follow them, I'd be a groupie.
Have you seen Danny Brown before? A: No, I missed him at 35 Denton. I was volunteering, and I missed his set. So I want to see him because his videos feel like a live show, I want to see that energy on stage.
Tell me about your outfit. J: My entire outfit cost me about $15. I get my frugal side from my mother. I don't know what I'm going to wear when I go out. My top feels one way, my bottom feels another, and the shoes and accessories say okay, we're gonna make it work.
Anja
What brings you out tonight? We moved from Austin recently, we just moved to Lakewood. We love Gorilla Vs. Bear, we heard them on XM Radio when we lived in New York, and then we moved here and we didn't know they were in Dallas! We just moved to Dallas a month ago, and we were in Austin before that, and then we were in New York for 11 years, Brooklyn.
How does Dallas compare to Brooklyn? You know what, I never thought I would say this, but I think it's a little Austin meets a little Brooklyn. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm pleasantly surprised. It gets a bad rap, it gets a really bad rap. I don't know why... I think Austin's overrated.
Anja's Husband, Mike, not pictured: In the Breakfast Club, there's Ally Sheedy who is weird and has like, dandruff. Austin used to be like the weird girl with dandruff, but if you parted her hair, she was pretty. Austin has become Molly Ringwald. Austin has become the hot chick, who knows she's hot... we lived there 20 years ago.
Who are you hear to see? Empress Of. She is so talented. And she played the new song at the end -- it was fabulous.
Do you have kids? A four year old, and a seven year old.
What kind of music do they like? Oh they like the music I don't like. They like Katy Perry, Disney Radio, Selena Gomez. I try to keep em away from it, but they hear it through their friends. I don't want to say, "You're not going to listen to that fucked up shit." What are you gonna do?
Caroline
What brings you out tonight? Drinking, and friends. And I've been wanting to come to this fest for a few years and I never have.
Do you read GvB? I don't actually, but I have friends who are into all the Dallas blogs. I keep with with Dallas art magazines.
Which ones? I follow THRWD and Glasstire. I'm majoring in Fine Art at UNT.
When's the last time you were at The Granada? The last show I saw here was Passion Pit a few years back, we were like right up front and it was so much fun.
Tell me about your Brooks & Dunn shirt. I am a country fan, but nothing recent. Like, nothing recent. All the classic stuff. My parents and I were watching the AMA or the CMA Awards the other night, and it was Carrie Underwood, singing like a Guns N Roses song, and it was so angering. It was like, I'm sorry, that's not country, and you look like an idiot. That's the state of country music today.
Julie
What brings you out tonight? I love listening to new bands. I love the vibe of everybody coming together collectively as artists and doing something that's new and innovative.
How has the show been so far? I saw HAERTS. It was really, really good. Their last few songs were fantastic. It was crazy! Anybody who can rock a catsuit like that, and kill it on stage- gorgeous!
Are you from Dallas? I'm from San Antonio originally, I've lived in Dallas for ten years. I'm a Greenville rat, basically.
What are some of your favorite shows you've seen here at The Granada? I've seen everything from Texas country here, to Imogen Heap, to Bob Schnieder, to you name it. Peter Torque from the Monkees. I love music with a message, music with a story behind it. That's what so cool about coming here and really being intimate, you feel like you're up there with the artist on stage.
Danny Brown has quite a different message than those artists you named. Yeah but I like it. I like it a little dirty. I like the blue.
Jared What brought you out tonight? Danny Brown, and Gorilla Vs. Bear. It's a great blog, and I've followed them for a few years now. They usually put on a pretty good show. They're usually on top of music. They're always putting out a mix or putting someone on whether its a band, a group, an act or a video. It's pretty interesting stuff.
Have you seen Danny Brown before? Yes I have, twice.
How was he tonight? It was very good. I think a lot of what makes a good Danny Brown experience is the crowd. Dallas crowds are pretty good, but I saw him at Coachella this year and the whole thing was a madhouse. This doesn't like, compare to that. It's a different environment.
What about the other acts? I saw Blue Hawaii, I really liked them. I listened to them back when the lineup was announced, just one song. But they really surprised me with their sound. It was really cool. It's like a deep house sound with vocals. I'd describe them as like a trance-y Grimes. She has those great loops, and almost seems like she could do it herself. But at the same time, that guy was over there just twisting knobs nonstop. It's an acquired taste.
Amelia
How was Danny Brown's set? It was amazing, it was a little insane. I really like his laugh. You know the beginning of the Afroman song "Colt 45"? That's what it reminded me of.
What did you think of the rest of the show? We missed Booty Fade, but It was okay, it was so-so. Blue Hawaii was kind of disappointing. They kinda ruined the vibe we were feeling. HEARTS was cool, I really liked Empress Of, they had sort of like a Grimes kind of vibe to them. I don't know, it was weird. It was a weird mix. I like that [Gorilla Vs. Bear] brings obscure acts and exposes them to Dallas, and I really liked Danny Brown, I thought that was an interesting pick.
