This summer our old friend Matt Allen AKA The Ice Cream Man (the
man whose job it is to go around to music festivals all over America and give away free ice
cream) documented all of his experiences and you can now watch them online! All
32 “Road Trippin’ with The Ice Cream Man” videos are over at a site called
Babelgum.
The 6-minute videos are a cross between the ever copied “Take Away Shows” and short
diary style documentaries. Each installment has a handful of artists like The Flaming
Lips, Plants and Animals, Band of Horses or Broken Social Scene and usually the band
playing a song acoustically using a guitar that the Ice Cream Man carries
around in his truck. Matt also has a
wealth of musical knowledge and most of the episodes capitalize on that; if he’s
not talking about the history/relevance of the artist performing for the
camera he’s giving you a detailed guide to the festival he’s slinging ice cream
at – a circuit he’s been working in the States for the past 5 years.
If you
want to remember what was hot in the summer of ’09 in big name indie music –
this show has it all!
