A Skin, A Night

The National is just finishing up with their movie, A Skin, A Night. The film is a documentary about the making of their most recent masterpiece, Boxer. The film is being released on May 20th and I believe you'll be able to purchase it at their website. Along with their documentary, they're also releasing an EP called The Virginia EP which will be released the same day as the film. I just got an early copy of it and it's quite excellent. Another success by The National. Check out the trailer for the film below.

I'm jealous

I'm very excited to be going off to college next year, but there are certainly many things I will miss about Chicago. For starters, I'm extremely jealous of evryone who will still be in Chicago this fall because there is a FREE Andrew Bird concert in the lovely Millenium Park. It's on September 3rd, which is sadly only a few weeks after I will have left for Bloomington (I'm going to Indiana University next year by the way). Just thought I'd let you all know. It should be an excellent show. I saw The Decemberists there last year and it was stellar.

Lollapalooza 2008!

The line-up was just announced this week and I must tell you, it is stellar. I'm thrilled to be going this year. I just hope times don't conflict. Here it is:

Headliners: Radiohead,Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Wilco, The Raconteurs
Other acts: Love and Rockets, Gnarls Barkley, Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Cat Power, Lupe Fiasco, The National, G. Love & Special Sauce, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Explosions in the Sky, Brand New, Gogol Bordello, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Dierks Bentley, Okkervil River, Amadou & Mariam, Blues Traveler, The John Butler Trio, Girl Talk, CSS, Battles, Jamie Lidell, Butch Walker, Mates of State, Spank Rock, Brazilian Girls, Chromeo, Duffy, The Kills, Rogue Wave, The Go! Team, Mason Jennings, The Gutter Twins, Yeasayer, Grizzly Bear, MGMT, The Weakerthans, Booka Shade, Santogold, Black Kids, Black Lips, Louis XIV, Dr. Dog, Nicole Atkins & the Sea, The Ting Tings, Kid Sister, Office, The Cool Kids, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Whigs, Manchester Orchestra, Foals, Uffie, The Octopus Project, Cadence Weapon, Ferras, De Novo Dahl, Noah and the Whale, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, K'naan, Serena Ryder, Newton Faulkner, Your Vegas, "Eli ""Paperboy"" Reed & The True Loves", Steel Train, Bang Camaro, The Blakes, Tally Hall, White Lies, Magic Wands, Electric Touch, Innerpartysystem, The Postelles, The Parlor Mob, DJ Bald Eagle, Krista, Ha Ha Tonka, Witchcraft, We Go To 11, Sofia Talvik

The underlinings don't mean anything. I was just too lazy to type them up so I copy and pasted the list from Wikipedia. Which had some underlined and some not. I hope you find the list as satisfying as I did.

Mr. Bird never ceases to amaze

Andrew Bird hasn't been touring around too much lately if you haven't noticed, but that doesn't mean he's not hard at work. Mr. Bird has been hard at work on his next album and writing about the songwriting procces for the New York Times! Now that's rather impressive. I just leanred about his endevour in the latest newsletter. Here's the direct quote from Andrea (the wonderful lady who keeps us all informed about what Andrew is doing)

As I have mentioned, Andrew is hard at work in the studio on his next album. He is writing about the songwriting process for the New York Times and received his very first NYT byline today for his first installment for the blog “Measure for Measure” … Read all about it here: http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/ - and check back there every few weeks for more updates…

If you didn't know, Andrew Bird recently released a new EP titled Soldier On. It's quite exceptional. I'd highly reccomend picking up a copy.

Summer is on the horizon

Even though there is still traces of snow on the ground, it is clear that summer is in the distance. Two things brought this to my attention: the fact that everyone is sick (more a sign of spring coming which will then be followed shortly by summer because we all know how short Chicago springs are) and that lineups for summer music festivals are being announced. As you hopefully noticed below, Lolla has begun the long process of announcing it's lineup and releasing tickets and now the next best festival has begun to announce their lineup as well. Of course I'm speaking of Pitchfork. Last years Pitchfork was amazing (although I'm told it was nothing compared to the year prior). Here's the initial lineup (there are always add ons)

Friday, July 18:Pitchfork Music Festival and All Tomorrow's Parties present Don't Look Back

Public Enemy performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back+ more, to be announced

Saturday, July 19:

Animal Collective

!!!

Vampire Weekend

Dizzee Rascal

No Age

Atlas Sound

Fleet Foxes

+ many more!

Sunday, July 20:

Spiritualized

M. Ward

Boris

Extra Golden

El Guincho

+ many more!

Just like last year, this year features a wide gamut of genres and is three days (it used to only be two days). The first day is fashioned off of last years by which I mean they're bringing back classic groups (last year there were three so I imagine they'll do the same this year) to perform their opus magnums in their entirety. The first artist to be announced for this day as you can see is Public Enemy. That should be an incredible experience.

I'm unfamiliar with many of the other bands which will mean I'll be doing a lot of research between now and July 18th (the first day of the festival). I have faith in Pitchfork so I assume that many of the bands I haven't heard of will be stellar, but at the same time I am a little disappointed. I wish there were a few more big names, but on the other hand I love festivals so much because I get to find new music. My disappointment is certainly premature though because many more bands are yet to be announced.

As far as the artists I do know, I'm very excited for them. This short list would include Public Enemy, Animal Collective (who I was recently introduced to), Vampire Weekend, and M. Ward. I've seen !!! (yes, that is a band and it's pounced by saying any three one syllable words but most commonly known as Chick Chick Chick) before and I was unimpressed. The music just wasn't interesting to me. Despite the robust amount of energy and stage presence, I didn't enjoy them, but I may end up checking them out at the festival just because they may have changed in two years time.

I forgot to talk about the actual acquiring of the tickets. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (or rather today) Wednesday March 12th at 12 pm. There are three kinds of tickets that you can purchase. They are three day passes ($65), two day passes which get you into Saturday and Sunday ($50), and individual day passes ($30). I personally recommend the three day pass because this an incredible music festival and I guarantee you will find something you like every day. Even when you're not listening to music there are always fun little things to do like shop through the booths selling vinyls, get free stuff, and eat delicious food.

We'll just have to wait and see what else those amazing fokes over at Pitchfork can come up with. I must say I'm certainly excited. This should be a definite event to look forward to for any music lover who lives in the Chicago area or is willing to make the trek up to the Windy City. I hope to see you there!

Girl Talk (3.0)

Here's a little break from Girl Talk live performances. My friend who I'm going to the Girl Talk show with brought this video to my attention. Apparently there is a local Chicago tv show that basically is hosted by this odd socket puppet and involves kids dancing. Here's a link to the website. In this episode, the sock puppet interviews Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) at this year's Pitchfork. At the end, a bunch of kids dance to one of Girl Talk's songs. It's very odd and the kids look terribly awkward. It gave me a little chuckle so I hoped maybe it would do the same for you. Thanks Bae!

Girl Talk (1.0)

So in 4 days the greatest concert of my life (hopefully) will occur. The line-up is as follows: Lord of the Yum-Yum, Dan Deacon, and GIRL TALK! I saw Dan Deacon and Girl Talk back to back at Pitchfork this year and let me tell you, I didn't think it could get better then that, but this time around there is no chance of it getting cut short due to an out of control situation because it's at The Metro and the Metro security knows how to get things done. Also, it will be my first +18 show. I think the simple fact that it's at The Metro makes it spectacular; it's the perfect size. Basically, it's going to be a giant dance party-bonanza-shindig-rave. Much like I did for the Rage Against The Machine concert I attended earlier this year, I will be posting only Girl Talk posts every day with new videos of performances of other fun things. Now you might be wondering "Kevin, the show is sold out. Why must you torture us so?" Well my answer to that is that hopefully after you see all these spectacular Girl Talk videos, you'll possibly dig him even more and next time around you'll make sure to get tickets right away. I hope you enjoy this week of Girl Talk and maybe I'll see you at the next show (unless you have tickets for this time around in which case let me know and I'll look for you). I'm going to start this thing off with a video of the show Girl Talk played last New Years Eve (06-07) at The Hideout in Chicago.

Bloc Party

I stumbled across Bloc Party while reading Spin magazine a few years back right after they had just released their debut album, Silent Alarm. The article made them sound interesting, so I figured I should check them out. I listened to a few tracks off the album and I wasn't really impressed, so I just forgot about them. Then earlier this year, they released their sophomore album, A Weekend in the City. It was well received and everyone was saying good things about it, so I decided to give them another listen. Boy was I happy I did. A Weekend in the City is certainly one of the best albums of the year (as you can see in my top 20 albums of 2007 list). It may look like it's ranked a little low, but that's just because everything above it was stellar. I may actually reconsider it's rank though because it was quite excellent. After picking up Bloc Party's new album, I also decided to give Silent Alarm a second chance as well. When I listened to it for the second time around, I was highly impressed.

Bloc Party only has two full LPs out currently, but they have released countless remixes and EPs. They even released all of Silent Alarm in remix form with remixes done by bands such as Ladytron, M83, Death From Above 1979, Fort Tet, and Mogwai. Their most recent example is their Flux EP which contained the single Flux, a remix, and a b-side. Bloc Party is currently in the process of recording their next album, but no release date has yet been announced.

The over all sound of Bloc Party is a kind of dance-pop meets post-punk with a dash of indie and art-rock. They may sound very confusing and that's because it is. There isn't a very good way to describe Bloc Party's sound and that's why you should just give them a listen rather then try to have me list the many genres them encompass in their splendid music. I guess the most basic description would be stellar music with splendid dance beats forming the backbone. I saw them for the first time earlier in the fall at the Hideout Block Party (it was Bloc Party at the Block Party!). The show was pretty good but not as amazing as I had expected. Click here for the full review. I will certainly see them again though the next time they're in town. Again, I just recommend checking them out and making your own judgements. To assist you in this, I have posted the video for their most recent song Flux and an old single from their first album Helicopters below.

Death Cab For Cutie: New Album

BIG NEWS!

Benjamin Gibbard

"I just don’t feel like we really have anything to prove other than to ourselves, just making an album we really enjoy"

That's right, Death Cab For Cutie is coming out with a new album. The rumor is the new album will be released May 2008. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited.

Top 20 Albums of 2007

This is my take on the top 20 albums of this year. It's not fancy or anything because I'm not very technologically savvy, but it gets the job done. I originally planned on having the titles and album covers together, but that wouldn't work, so the titles are listed first then the albums in corresponding order. Also, just know that I didn't get around to listening to every album that came out this year, so there may be some that you are surprised that didn't make my list. If so, tell me. I'd love to hear about other good albums. Here it is.

1. Marry Me - St. Vincent

2. Boxer - The National

3. Armchair Apocrypha -Andrew Bird

4. In Rainbows - Radiohead

5. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon

6. Cassadaga - Bright Eyes

7. In Our Bedroom After The War - Stars

8. Sky Blue Sky - Wilco

9. Spirit If... - Kevin Drew

10. Phantom Punch - Sondre Lerche

11. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? - Of Montreal

12. Keren Ann - Keren Ann

13. The Fragile Army - The Polyphonic Spree

14. A Weekend in the City - Bloc Party

15. 23 - Blonde Redhead

16. Icky Thump - The White Stripes

17. Living With The Living - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

18. Myths of the Near Future - Klaxons

19. Costello Music - The Fratellis

20. RoadKillOvercoat - Busdriver

Keren Ann

I was first introduced to Keren Ann by a friend who invited me to go to her concert. I had never heard of her so my friend provided me with some songs and I checked out her other material and was intrigued. At the end of the night, I was much more then simply intrigued; I was blown away. She was magnificent. She now ranks among my all time favorite artists.

She has a total of five albums with her most recent self-titled album having been released earlier this year. Keren Ann grew up in France and thus her first two albums were entierly in French and were only released (to my knowledge) in Europe. They were released in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Her first U.S. debut, titled Not Going Anywhere, came out in 2003 and is my favorite. Her follow up to Not Going Anywhere, titled Nolita, is excellent as well and is partially in French which adds a little something extra because I think her voice sounds even more gorgeous in French. Her most recent album sticks to all English, but has a different twist. Instead of just sticking to her soothing, slower melodies, Keren Ann has decided to throw in some rougher tunes that are focused on the heavy electric guitar. I must say I'm more partial to her older stuff, but the new songs are certainly interesting.

For all you lucky Chicago folk, you now have the ability to expierence the magic that is Keren Ann live just as I did last year. She has recently announced a show at the Lakeshore Theatre, which is where I saw her lst time. It's the perfect place to see Keren Ann because it's small and intimate. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Lakeshore Theatre ( I know I wasn't last year since not many shows get booked there), it's in Boys Town about a block away from the intersectio0n of Clarke and Broadway. You can get there via the El. I highly recomend checking her out and going to the show. You can bet that I'll be there. I've posted her video for "Not Going Anywhere" (obviously off her album titled Not Going Anywhere).

Vampire Weekend

These fine young fellows are some quality up-and-comers. Trying to describe them is difficult though. They have been described as a "blend of Afrobeat, New Wave, and indie pop" and influences that they have cited include everything from popular African music to western classical music. They describe themselves as being "Upper West Side Soweto". The only real way to figure out what they sound like is to simply listen to their music.

Currently they only have an EP and their single Mansard Roof (both digital and vinyl) out, but their self-titled debut album is being released January 29th. You can stop on by their website by clicking here to stream one song and download another. Since I work for the street team that promotes them, I got an early copy of their album and I must say it is superb. It's original and the most interesting blend of different sounds I've ever heard. I'm not quite sure yet, but I think Oxford Comma (which you can stream at their website) is my favorite song on the album.

Vampire Weekend is playing a show at Schubas on December 11th, but it's sold out. I'm quite glad for them that they sold out their Chicago show. If you like what you hear at their website, I highly recommend picking up their album when it hits stores in January. I posted a video of Vampire Weekend performing Oxford Comma live below.

St. Vincent

I hadn't heard of St. Vincent until I saw The National a few months back and she opened for them. Boy am I happy she did. She is a spectacular indie songstress (yes, that is a word). If you hadn't guessed, St. Vincent is her the moniker she uses on stage. Her real name is Annie Clark.

She has toured/opened for quite a few excellent acts and she has played on tour with The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. She actually got her start when she was touring with Sufjan in Europe and decided to release an EP called Paris is Burning. As for her role with The Polyphonic Spree, she was with them for their most recent album Fragile Army and she toured as a member of the group for their Fragile Army tour. I believe this would include their performance at Lollapalooza this year.

Although she did have guest artists play with her on her recently released debut LP, she plays everything by herself live. She does this through a looping system much like Andrew Bird (although he has began to use 2-3 other people on tour). This in it's self is the mark of an excellent music artist as it requires masterful timing and the ability to play multiple instruments. Speaking of her recent (July 2007) debut LP, entitled Marry Me, it received top notch revues essentially across the board. I have posted the video for the single, Jesus Spends, I Save, below. This is the song that St.Vincent played that hooked me. If you like her, she's playing a show coming up in Chicago (refer to sidebar for more info). I know I'll be there.

Matador and Beggars are some hip cats

Not too long ago I read about Beggars Group needing help in Chicago with their street team on Under The Rotunda. I decided to check it out and I've now joined their street team. It's a pretty sweet deal. You get free promotional stuff and you can win some special edition things or merch by just promoting great bands. The record labels that are a part of Beggars Group are Beggars Banquet, XL, 4AD, Matador, Mantra, Mo'Wax, Too Pure, and Wiiija. Some excellent bands on these labels include:

Cat Power, Stephen Malkmus, The New Pornographers, The Ponys, Yo La Tengo, A.C. Newmen, Belle & Sebastian (Matador)

The National, St. Vincent (Beggars Banquet)

Vampire Weekend, Devendra Banhert, Ratatat, RJD2, The Raconteurs, Tapes n' Tapes, Thom Yorke, White Stripes (XL)

Blonde Redhead, The Mountain Goats, M Ward (4AD)

If this sounds like fun to you, send an email to ClaireTaylor@Beggars.com and she'll inform you with more details.

Thanks Keith for the info!

Wu-Tang Clan?

Yes, it's true. The Wu-Tang Clan has just announced a show at the Metro. I just thought it was funny. It could acutally be a fun/interesting expierence. Several of my friends saw RZA (one of the members of the clan) at Pitchfork and said it was a great time. It is pricey though. Tickets are going for $42 in advance and $45 at the door. I won't be going, but I just thought I'd put it out there. Here's a video too.

R.I.P. Blood Brothers

Love em' or hate em', The Blood Brothers recently announced that they have broken up. I know there are many of you out there who may rejoice at this news, but it made me quite sad. They were unique and poetic. I only got to see them live once, but it was one of the most spectacular shows I've seen in my life. It was on Halloween last year and I will never forget it. There was just so much energy and actually a high level of musical talent. I say "actually" because many people only hear the screaming and never listen to the instrumentation behind it all. I still recomend checking the Blood Brothers out if you haven't heard them. I've posted a few videos below in their memory.

Feist

For those of you who don't know Feist, she's a excellent indie singer who has gotten a lot of attention recently thanks to her most recent single "1 2 3 4" and the fantastic video that goes along with it. I don't want anyone to be left out, so I've decided to post the stellar music video. If you like "1 2 3 4" you should check out some of her other stuff. Give it some time though. When I first checked her out I didn't think much of her, but she's certainly grown on me. Hope you like it.

RADIOHEAD!

IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN RAINDBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!

...is stellar. It's solid gold in music form. It's heaven cut up into 10 mp3 files.

Rage Against the Macine (1.0)

Rage Against The Machine was one of my first loves as far as music and my love for them has only grown over the years. Sadly, I never got to see them live before they broke up...until now! When I found out they had reunited and were going to play a show in the midwest, I knew I had to be there. I got my tickets to their Alpine Valley show the second they went on sale. I'm more excited to see them then I have ever been to see any band...ever.

Alright, so if you haven't heard of Rage Against The Machine, I highly recomend checking them out. I will admit that they aren't for everyone. If you're politically conservative, they are most definitely not for you. Also, if you can't stand anything more aggressive musicaly then, say, Belle & Sebastian, Rage isn't for you. Despite their hard, aggressive sound (which I like) their message is a valid one. If I were to put them in a genre, I would have to call them political alternative rock. I personally think they're the folk musicians (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, etc.) who protested the Vietnam war of today. Their music is intensely political and really get's their message across.

As far as Rage's politics, they're most certainly not all talk and no action. They do more then their fair share as far as organizing and participating in protests and other dissident activities to keep the government in check. Here's a few websites (both official and unofficial) that talk of thier activities and them in general: http://www.ratm.com/

http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/media.htm

http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/

As for why this entry has the little "(1.0)" added to it is because I decided that along with my regular entries this week I'll be posting videos of Rage up until the day of the concert. All of their music videos are incredible and the live footage that I've seen looks amazing as well. I'll start this thing off with my personal favorite video, Sleep Now In The Fire. I hope you enjoy these Days of Rage (if anyone caught that pun in reference to the Weathermen, I'm impressed).

Jesus and Mary Chain

Yet another band I'm late to discover. I was reading an article in Spin magazine about all the bands that were reuniting this year. They listed Rage Against the Machine (who are certainly one of my very favorite bands), Spice Girls, Smashing Pumpkins and Jesus and Mary Chain. I was suprised to see this, to me, no name band amongst several well known bands. This perplexed me, so I checked them out to see what they were like. My next clue that they were something big was that they were one of the headliners at this year's Coachella. The first song that I came across by them was Just Like Honey. I immedietly fell in love with that song, so I decided to purchase the album with Just Like Honey on it (which was coincedently their magnum opus), Psychocandy. Unfortunately, many of the songs on Psychocandy were not like the amazing song Just Like Honey. Most of the songs are filled with large amounts of distortion which kind of ruin those songs for me. However, the songs that aren't filled with an overabundance of distortion are quite amazing.

As far as The Jesus and Mary Chain's genre goes, they were one of the quintessential bands of the little known shoegazing genre. Shoegazing was "big"/at it's peak in the early 90's, but originated with in the early 80's. The genre got it's name because the bands would often stand on the stage, motionless (besides obviously playing their instruments) while staring at their shoes. An example of modern shoegazers (or nu-gazers as they are called) is the Silversun Pickups. The Jesus and Mary Chain (whose music is in no way religious oddly enough) would somehow manage to rile thier crowds in riots despite thier shoegazine music. At times they would play shows with their backs turned to the audience and never speak to the audience. Although trashing one's instruments after playing a show (ex. when Pete Wentz throws his bass into a bunch of drums and storms off in anger) is almost cliche now for any "bad ass" band, The Jesus and Mary Chain were among the first to do this, which contributed to their mass riots.

While this scottish group of shoegazers may not be for everyone, I would still recomend at lest checking out Psychocandy or 21 Singles (a sort of best of). I'm quite excited to hear what they will sound like now that they've reunited (they've announced that they're back in the studio).

Here's the video for my favorite song by them, Just Like Honey: