YACHT Quicky, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the YACHT

Jon has a long love-hate relationship with YACHT. For the most part, that conflict arose from the severe impact the break-up of The Blow had on me. Jona Bechtolt went on to form YACHT, playing shows with some great opening acts for a couple of years (I saw them with Architecture in Helsinki and Vampire Weekend). Recently, Claire Evans joined the team and the duo produced See Mystery Lights, one of 2009's big surprises and certainly in my top ten for the year.

I decided to give the band another chance last two summers ago when a festival in Astoria was canceled and promptly rescheduled, very last minute for Portland. The first leg of the festival was on a sunny afternoon in West Portland, beyond the industrial district, on a cliff looking out to an expansive mountain range. The mood was oh-so-fitting for the local sound-bands that Jona was introducing. There was an incredible energy in the air, just pure love for music.

For the second leg, we all filled our flasks and headed down to an alley on the Eastside where the rest of the, much louder, bands played. I was there to see E-Rock and not so excited for YACHT but I stuck around because of the passion and willingness to contribute to the Portland community that Jona exhibited throughout the day. I figured, even if I don't like his music, this man is incredible.

And then he played some early versions of tracks from See Mystery Lights - it was whiplash.

The sun was entirely absent and the alley was dimly lit by the streetlights and a couple well-positioned shop lights. The music reverberated between the walls, creating something of a typhoon of sound. A man in a bar across the street began verbally harassing Jona before the crowd broke into a chant of "fuck off" sentiment while Jona and Claire brought us seemlessly into 'The Afterlife.'

Brilliant. Exquisite. This DFA Records oldie is certainly a goodie! I can't wait for the bands follow-up. Check out this mash-up I recently found: a mashup of 'I'm In Love With A Ripper' and Dominique Young Unique. Not everyone's bag of chips, I'm sure, but we all need a little delicious hip-hop mashers every once in a while. Yummy.

YACHT (OS)/(MS) v. Dominique Unique Young (MS) - I'm In Love With a Hot Girl

ALSO! The band recently announced something very big, which is described in thorough, weird detail in the following video. In brief, YACHT has added three new members to the team who will be known as The Straight Gaze. YACHT and The Straight Gaze will be touring with LCD Soundsystem in North America and Europe this year. Fuck yes.

YACHT & The Straight Gaze (PT. 1) from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo.