Thanks to Vans, Glaceau and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Jelly NYC summer pool parties kicked off with a bang and not a whimper yesterday. The setup at Williamsburg Waterfront came complete with outposts from Roberta’s Pizza, The Meat Hook and live entertainment provided by bro’s playing dodge ball and drunken kids dancing.

First up was Denver's Pictureplane, going on just about the time that The World Cup was ending and providing a pleasant soundtrack for revelers allowed into the park after a long wait outside the gates along Kent Avenue.

Next up was New York's own Fang Island. Take teen comedy movies from the early 1990s and fast-forward to the end where everything works out, the kid gets the girl and accepted to college. Listen to the music playing in background, then throw in a little of the late Paul Simon African stuff that Vampire Weekend does, and you get the gist.

Why?, the brainchild of Yoni Wolf and his brother Josiah, played next. Since the release of the 2008 record Alopecia, the band has been enthusiastically embraced by the indie mainstream, yet remained loyal to its label, Anticon, a Bay Area based collective which has, in the last decade, set the standard for avant-garde hip-hop. If it weren’t for the slight hip-hop twang to Yoni’s speaking voice, and his tendency to finger-point through his flows, one could easily forget that Why? is a hip-hop act. Josiah’s drumming style is a stunning amalgamation of genres that was intense to watch. The finished product is wholly unique and points to possibility that hip-hop as a genre might have an interesting future.

The headlining spectacle, Deer Hoof and Xiu Xiu playing Joy Division's Unknown Peasures in its entirety was just what one might expect, enjoyable, in that dark, “I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside” kind of way. Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu did don all black and did his best Ian Curtis impression instead of trying to put a Xiu Xiu twist on the songs, a good choice. Deer Hoof’s usually explosive mini-singer seemed bored on guitar, mostly producing feedback, but the bands drummer looked like some kind of martial artist, pounding the skins with Kung Fu intensity. As promised Unknown Pleasures was played from beginning to end, the highlights being, “Disorder,” and “I Remember Nothing,” which included the sound of wine glasses being smashed and crunched in a metal bowl.

If the pool party were Deer Hoof and Xiu Xiu just doing their thing, it wouldn’t have been worth the fuss. But mutating them into one big Joy Division cover band with Why?’s support, was worth risking sunburn—and with free coconut water, an afternoon well-spent.

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