Some Upcoming Music to be Excited About

So, this time the lovely folks at Pitchfork put together a list of Spring releases, and I captured some of my favorites below. Click HERE to see the full list.

4/6
Doves: The Places Between: The Best of Doves
Dr. Dog: Shame, Shame

4/13
Arctic Monkeys: My Propeller 10"
Four Tet: Sing 12"
Freelance Whales: Weathervanes
MGMT: Congratulations

4/17 - RECORD STORE DAY
Beach House: Zebra 12"
Bloc Party: Silent Alarm
Bon Iver/Peter Gabriel: Split 7"
Bright Eyes: Fevers and Mirrors
CocoRosie: "Lemonade" b/w "Surfer Girl"
Crystal Castles: "Doe Deer" 12"
Deerhoof: Apple O'
Deerhoof: Green Cosmos
Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica
The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come
Pavement: Quarantine the Past
Simian Mobile Disco: Attack Decay Sustain Release
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4/20
The Apples in Stereo: Travellers in Time and SpacePlants and Animals: La La Land

4/26
The Dead Weather: "Die by the Drop"

4/27
Frightened Rabbit: Nothing Like You 7"

5/4
Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way

5/11
CocoRosie: Grey Oceans
The Dead Weather: Sea of Cowards
Sleigh Bells: Treats

5/18
The Black Keys: BrothersThe Depreciation Guild: Spirit Youth
LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening

6/8
The Chemical Brothers: Further
Deer Tick: The Black Dirt Sessions
Delorean: Subiza
Here We Go Magic: PigeonsNada Surf: If I Had a Hi-Fi
Rooney: Eureka
Sia: We Are Born
Tokyo Police Club: Champ

First Acts of Pitchfork 2010 Confirmed!

Tickets go on sale at noon today, and Pitchfork confirmed the first list of artists to perform (as if I needed any added incentive to buy the tickets?!) I think you can tell which artists I'm excited for :)

Friday
Modest Mouse

Saturday
LCD Soundsystem
Raekwon
Here We Go Magic

Sunday
Pavement
St. Vincent
Lightning Bolt
Sleigh Bells
Cass McCombs

You can buy tickets HERE $40 for a single day pass, and $90 for a 3-day

I plan on checking out all these artists asap, so my excitement level will likely only increase dramatically. Oh happy day.

According to the awesome blog Consequence of Sound's Pitchfork Festival Outlook, other artists anticipated include Neon Indian (yay!), Real Estate and The Smith Westerns.

Recommended Song of the Day

US

8/28/09: Ice on the Sheets, by Ugly Casanova

Listen to it HERE

Wow. Ok. I just discovered Ugly Casanova and I instantly loved them; anyone who loves Modest Mouse would. The only reason a Modest Mouse fan wouldn't love them is because they're too similar to Modest Mouse... or so I thought.

To paraphrase my understanding from Wikipedia, in '98 when MM was touring they met a guy named Edgar Graham, aka "Ugly Cassanova." Supposedly this guy wrote really good music, played some of it for MM, and, being the pretty insanely-reclusive guy that Edgar was, he up and disappeared forever. So, in an effort to bring Edgar out of hiding, the lead singer of Modest Mouse, Isaac Brock, put together a band and recorded some of his songs. His efforts failed and Edgar was never heard from again.

Except- we later learn that due to Brock's heavy lisp and his consequential embarrassment from it, Brock made this Edgar guy up so he could escape constant interviews. He's a tricky one, that Brock.

Enjoy!

Tracy :)

Recommended Song of the Day + Modest Mouse

Issaquah, WA

8/25/09: Tiny City Made of Ashes, by Modest Mouse

Listen to it HERE

SO, Modest Mouse was fabulous. And while I am now a BIG fan of Aragon Ballroom and am convinced it would be my perfect wedding reception location, it. was. warm. UGH. (You may not know me in the flesh, but I am ALWAYS cold, so that is a big statement.)


As I've mentioned before, the only reason I did not feature Modest Mouse for my recommended artist/song of the day prior to this is because I could not narrow it down to just one song. Well, I decided on Tiny City Made of Ashes, of their album The Moon and Antartica, because it was SO FABULOUS live. I'd previously never even heard it! Ennnjoyyy!!!! :)

They put on a great show, full of songs spanning many of their 10ish albums. They opened the show with King Rat off their newest album, No One's First and You're Next, which was an awesome move as it got the crowd dancing immediately. (If you haven't seen the disturbing, Heath Ledger-directed video for that song yet, check it out HERE)

While they didn't play Float On (pro or con, you decide), I was happy they played the first ever song that introduced me to Modest Mouse, Satin in a Coffin.

When they closed the night, the crowd cheered as expected for an encore, and my God did MM make us deserve it. As I tweeted, definitely one of the longest, loudest encore provoking sessions I've ever been a part of. And while I'm inclined to complain about the length because the heat was nearly unbearable, I'm often irritated with bands who "end" the show, stand on the side of the stage for 20 seconds, and walk back on waving to the crowd. Ok, if you're going to do that, then don't "end" it, just keep playing. From this perspective, I appreciate MM's diva-ness. I'm not sure how long we cheered, stomped, yelled and clapped for, but as the crowd started tiring out the band teased us by flickering the lights to keep us going. When they finally came back out, they went right into Paper Thin Walls, which was awesome.

All in all, a great show! I nearly died in the heat, and when trying to get out of the venue, I nearly killed at least 8 people.
But I survived, and gained a new determination to listen to MORE Modest Mouse albums, MORE often. I LOVE goooooooood music.

Tracy :)

Click HERE to see my clip of Modest Mouse's performance of The View

Some Good Upcoming Chicago Shows

SO much good music playing in Chicago soon. :)

Click their pic to buy

8/20/09: Coltrane Motion at Double Door, FREE
8/21/09: Verona Red at Reggie's Rock Club, $15 <-- Rock 4 Autism benefit!
8/25/09: Modest Mouse at Aragon Ballroom, $29.25

8/26/09: Empires, Big Science and Pet Lions at Schubas, $10

8/28/09: Nine Inch Nails at Aragon Ballroom, $55
While I only know one NIN song, I love that one song SO much, it was my inspiration for starting this blog.

8/28/09: Loyal Divide at Beat Kitchen, $8/$10

8/29/09: Mucca Pazza at Bottom Lounge, $12

Also, some upcoming September shows I'm really excited for include Royal Bangs, Matt & Kim, and YACHT. :)

Recommended Song and Lollapalooza Day 2 Recap

Sweden

8/8/09: Let it Fall, by Lykke Li

Listen to it HERE

I really like her whole album, Youth Novels. I very much encourage you to check it out. I'm serious. Youth NovelsYouth NovelsYouth Novels



Lollapalooza, Day 2

SO happy it didn't rain again! It was warm and beautiful and I LOVED it :) I decided to try the LP33.tv thing one more time, so I started my morning at the press tent. This time, I even roped Chris Balzer into it.

My first stop was Ezra Furman (Chicago, IL). And while the music was certainly good, I spent most of their show in the shade lathering on sunscreen and ordering a cheeseburger for breakfast. Delta Spirit (CA) was the first act on my list of must-sees. They were awesome! I'm officially a fan, and big thanks to @Labatt205 for the inspiration :) Here's a clip of their performance:

From Delta Spirit I went right over to Langhorne Slim. I was SUPER excited to see him, as I love his song "Rebel Side of Heaven." I captured a bit of that song on video, which you can see HERE.

From here Chris and I did our LP33.tv stints, both failing miserably at trying to say "LP33.tv." I headed over to the XRT Relax and Recharge area and Chris visited the ADIDAS shoe van-thing. Again, you'll see it when I run for office...

I headed to Gomez (Southport, UK) next, against my own advice, but on the insistence of others. Again, I don't remember what it was that turned me off to Gomez, but for some reason I regretfully tagged along. (I was OK not going to Chairlift because I have tickets to see them with Micachu & the Shapes soon at Schubas) Thankfully, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them! I need to add them to my current "Need to Listen to" playlist so I can hear more, and maybe soon you'll see them featured on MPD!

Following Gomez we hiked to Arctic Monkeys (England, UK). I met up with some friends for this, so I didn't really concentrate on their show. I was hoping to pay a bit more attention to them, as I like several of their songs, but oh well.

I caught Santigold (Brooklyn, NY) from the TV on the Radio stage. She was fun! I was impressed, and had no idea she'd been touring for the last two years. Lolla's show was her first show back in the states after her tour overseas, and the last show of her U.S. and overseas tour - so a big night for her!

TV on the radio (Brooklyn, NY) was a HUGE surprise. Sure, I liked them. Sure, I featured them. But goodness people, these guys are FABulous! A whole new level of respect and admiration for TVOTR. I left their show a few songs into it though, to try and get a good spot at Animal Collective (Baltimore, MD) (one of my top 3 shows to see). I failed horribly at this mission. It's sad and embarrassing.

I stood for an hour at the wrong stage. Yep, completely wrong stage. In retrosect, all our questioning of "what's taking so long?" and "why are those people next to us dressed like Jesus and the Devil?" makes more sense once you realize we were up front at Tool's stage! UGH! Uuuuuuugh. I suck at life. :(

Anyway, I caught 1.4 songs of Animal Collective's set, and all 1.4 songs were AWESOME. I'm SO sad I missed it, and SO happy we realized we were at the wrong state when we did, or I would have been in for a ruuuuude awakening when the band came out.

After Animal Collective, I did watch 15 minutes of Tool (LA, CA) (from a distance far, far away from the stage) and then closed out the night with Yeah Yeah Yeahs (NYC) at the other end. Truth be told, I don't remember much of their set. I was ready for bed.

The quick replacement of the Beastie Boys with YYY got me to thinking, who would be on my dream Lolla line-up? Some of my line-up actually was there, including Of Montreal, Passion Pit, Animal Collective and Friendly Fires. Others I'd add would include The Faint, Semi Precious Weapons, Bowie, Paul McCartney, Calvin Harris, Arcade Fire, The Blow, Hard-fi, No Doubt, Muse, Hot Chip, Yeasayer, Ha Ha Tonka, Verona Red, Modest Mouse, Paul Simon, Radiohead, Moving Units, and The Black Keys. OOOOOOOrgasmic. :)


Here are some more random pictures from Lollapalooza Day 2:

Next up, Day 3! :)

Tracy :)

To hear artists from Lollapalooza Day 2 that I've featured on MY blog, click the links:

Delta Spirit
Los Campesinos!
Santigold
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Joe Pug
Chairlift

IF you like...

Modest Mouse, you'll probably like Lazy, by Architecture in Helsinki

Listen to it HERE

AIH