Reportback from The 4th Annual Siren Music Festival:  The Fiery Furnaces and TV On The Radio were both great.  (And i was happy when the PA system played The Specials' "Ghost Town" right before the TV on the Radio set.)  Mission of Burma was fantastic.  They actually managed to play "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" second to last and not have the last song be anticlimactic.  And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead were drunk and out of tune and their stage antics stopped being amusing after a certain point.  Kinda wish i could have checked out the Blonde Redhead set, but it conflicted with Mission of Burma.  The songs they did well were great, and when the drummer climbed up on the speaker and jumped back on to the stage, that was pretty amazing.  But how many shows can you do until smashing your guitars after every set becomes routine?  ("Every gimmick-hungry yob digging gold from rock and roll grabs the mic to tell us he'll die before he's sold, But I believe in this-and it’s been tested by research - that he who fucks nuns will later join the church." - The Clash, of course)   Course, when the PA system started playing Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In It" right before the trail of dead set, that made me very happy.  Besides repeating the line from which this blog takes it's name, messrs King and Gill opine

Natural is not in it

Your relations are of power

We all have good intentions

But all with strings attached

Yeah, i know, there's something very dorky about liking a PA song more than an actual band.  And in the scheme of things, Trail of Dead weren't terrible, just kind of dissapointing.  Although much-hyped, Source Tags and Codes was a great album, and i'd heard great things about their live show from friends who'd seen them before.  And Mission of Burma were a tough act to follow (why the fuck weren't they headlining?)