Sunday, June 25, 2006

Bonna-review

Do You Roo?

Fantastic times at Bonnaroo last weekend. Here's what i managed to get to:

Thursday
(8:15 - 9:30) Comedy Tent: (Host Vic Henley) Morgan Murphy, Jon Reep, Tom Papa, Demetri Martin
(10:30 - 11:30) Devotchka

Friday
(2:15 - 3:15) Ben Folds
(4:20 - 5:30) Bright Eyes
(5:45 - 6:00) Robert Randolph & The Family Band
(6:15 - 7:45) Death Cab for Cutie
(9:00 - 11:00) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (listened from camp)
(12:00 - 4:30) Lyrics Born / Common (mostly unconscious for this one) / Blackalicious

Saturday
(2:30 - 3:30) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
(3:35 - 4:20) Elvis Costello and The Imposters featuring Allen Toussaint
(4:30 - 4:45) Rusted Root
(5:00 - 5:20) Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley
(5:30 - 7:00) Beck
(8:30 - 11:15) Radiohead
(4:20 - 6:00) Sasha

Sunday
(12:45 - 1:15) Andrew Bird (Sonic Stage)
(1:30 - 2:15) Rusted Root (Sonic Stage)
(2:30 - 3:00) Mike Doughty (Sonic Stage)
(3:15 - 4:45) The Streets
(4:45 - 5:15) Matisyahu
(5:15 - 6:15) Atmosphere
(6:20 - 6:30) Sonic Youth
(8:30 - 12:00) Phil Lesh & Friends (listened to this off and on from camp)

Tom Pappa was the highlight of a lackluster comedy tent experience - Morgan Murphy was absolutely awful. The rest of the weekend it was almost impossible to get into the comedy tent un less you lined up well before the start and i just wasn't down for that. You also couldn't get near the cinema tent for that US/Italy cup match oon saturday. there were at least 3000 people in line more than an hour before hand and the tent couldn't have held more than a few hundred.

Really impressed by DeVotchka on the first night I'd only heard 2 tracks from them ("Venus in Furs" & "This Is How It Ends" - both played) but their gypsy jamming was great.

Ben Folds put on a fine show in the evil Friday heat. Didn't get to his set till a bit of the way in so we was pretty far back but with the crowd singing along it was easy to get into the set. "Army" was one of the highlights.


Ben Folds - Army (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)

Wandered around Centeroo for a bit afterwards and returned to the Which Stage 20 minutes or so into Bright Eyes's set. Again the heat was nuts but Connor was havin a blast with his big cup of Tequila and a slew of special guests joining him on stage including Gillian Welsh & David Rawlings, Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals and My Morning Jacket's Jim James. I was on the fence about Bright Eyes before this show but i'm a fan now. Highlights include a horn-ed up version of "Lover I Don't Have to Love," a new track "Soul Singer in the Session Band" and the play-along with all the guests on "Sing a Song in the Morning." Check out these soundboard quality tracks.

Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have to Love (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Bright Eyes - Soul Singer in a Session Band (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Bright Eyes - Singing a Song in the Morning [ƒ Gillian Welsh, David Rawlings, Gruff Rhys & Jim James] (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)

Headed off to Robert Randolph for a few tracks before once again coming back to the Which Stage for Death Cab for Cutie. They were in rare form during this set - Ben Gibbard was all over the place and drenched in sweat just like the crowd (this caused some technical issues but...). He also has an 'issue' with a guitar stap that was pretty amusing for the crowd. The engergy was great as the sun set over Bonnaroo allowing the crown to dance some more especially late in the set when they went into a 9 minute jam during "We Looked Like Giants." At one point Ben is playing with his teeth and then (literally) tosses his guitar to John Roderick of The Long Winters (apparently there as a journalist), runs across the stage, hops on a drum kit, and proceedes to drum duel with primary drummer Jason McGerr. This show easilly surpassed their show in Camden earlier this year with Franz Ferdinand - though they didn't play "Marching Bands of Manhattan" at either one.

Death Cab for Cutie - Company Calls (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Death Cab for Cutie - We Looked Like Giants [ƒ John Roderick] (Live @ Bonnaroo, 6/16/06)

After this it was dinner and a nap time so we headed back to camp and listened to Tom Petty from there - you could here pretty well. we were planning on going back for the end of that show, which was scheduled to 12am but he ended just after 11. Instead we went to the late night hip-hop show at This Tent featuring Lyrics Born, Common & Blackalicious. Lyrics was funky as all hell and with the sun safely down everyone was shaking ass. I was drinking heavily (thank you Magic Hat #9) so i kinda passed out on the grass before Common came on. Luckilly the set ups between the 3 took longer than planned so when I regained consciousness Blackalicious had not yet gone on. I made my way toward the front of the tent and got down into the early morning hours.

This is getting pretty long (accidently deleted 1/2 of it once) and there are still 2 days and a new Roots track to get to so Imma break from the review till next post.

For more check this Rolling Stone article that mostly covers the indie aspect of the Roo.
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If you haven't heard yet the Roots have put the first single from their next set up on their myspace page. The track is called "Don't Feel Right" and the disc is Game Theory. It drops August 29th.

Here's a quote from ?uestlove in another RS piece:

"In this day and age, I'm kind of noticing that nobody in urban music really has the balls to just stop partying for one second," says ?uestlove. "I mean, partying is good and whatnot, and it's cool to get down, but I really think that 2006 called for a very serious record. This ain't the Debbie Downer record, or the political, save-the-world record, but this is definitely not the MC-based, battle-themed album that the Roots have been known for. This is our most serious record to date."

The Roots - Don't Feel Right
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A'igit thats it for now. Still got reviews of Radioheads epic set, Beck's puppet-fest, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Mike Douhghty, The Streets and more to come along with a Bloc Party remix and some mash-up fun.

Late-

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Bonnaroo Pre Show!!

Off to Bonnaroo Wed round noon for four days of music and partial consciousnes. Oh and its official - the show is sold out and no tickets will be availible at the gates. I've enboldened who I'm really there to see though Radiohead, Elvis Costello and Sasha are the big 3. Oh and they will be showing World Cup matches from the air conditioned cinema tent!!

Acts:
Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Phil Lesh & Friends, Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, Buddy Guy, Ben Folds, Common, Elvis Costello, Oysterhead, Cypress Hill, the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Sonic Youth, G. Love & Special Sauce, The Streets, Umphrey's McGee, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band, My Morning Jacket, Soulive, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Bright Eyes, Steel Pulse, Mike Gordon & Ramble Dove, Nickel Creek, Gomez, Atmosphere, Steve Earle, Amadou & Mariam, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, the Dresden Dolls, Son Volt, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Jerry Douglas, Rusted Root, Devendra Banhart, Donavon Frankenreiter, Mike Doughty's Band, Sasha, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the Magic Numbers, the Codetalkers, Bonnie Raitt, Bill Frisell, The Disco Biscuits, Bettye LaVette, Lyrics Born, moe., Dungen, Shooter Jennings, Damian Marley, Rebirth Brass Band, Robinella, Andrew Bird, Dumpstaphunk, Matisyahu, Steel Train, Blues Traveler, Jackie Greene, Devotchka, Randolph & The Family Band, World Party, Brothers Past, Blackalicious, the Wood Brothers, dios (malos), Toubab Krewe, Les Claypool, the Motet, Marah, I-Nine, Matt Costa, Balkan Beat Box, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, Medeski Martin & Wood,Tortured Soul, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Electric Eel Shock, David Ford, the Refugee Allstars of Sierra Leone, Seu Jorge.

Also Patton Oswald and Lewis Black among others in the comedy tent.

Yes I've looked at the shcedule and it will be impossible to see everyone i want to (Elvis, Rusted Root & Damian Marley for instance all overlap each other - though i'm most pissed of The Streets/Matisyahu overlap) but everyone knows technical issues come up that throw off nicely ploted out time lines so i'm hoping that the stars line up just right.

And yes, as you can tell by the bolds I'm not a jam band fan. Its just not my cupa. I refuse to twirl on the grass and thats is final.

Today is a selection of mp3s from some of those acts.
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The Streets - When You Wasn't Famous

Devotchka - Venis in Furs (Velvet Underground Cover)

Andrew Bird - Lull

Death Cab for Cutie - Title and Registration

The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost

Clap Your Hands say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (mislabeled as "Is This Love"

Blackalicious - Supreme People

Mike Doughty - 27 Jennifers

Bright Eyes - When the President Talks to God
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That should be good for now. Recap to come next week!

And if you can't make it the main show (Fri-Sun) will be

streamed live right here in both video and audio.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Olay, Olay Olay Olay, Olay Olay

Copa time and there have been some great matches so far - Argentina v. Ivory Coast and the German v Costa Rica especially. Brunner - hope you are havin a good time over there. Anyone else on the east coast taking a 2hr lunch tomorrow? Instead of Germany I'll be heading the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on Wednesday. Tickets are still availible for the event so if you wanna see Radiohead, Beck, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Death Cab, and many many more and camp out for a 4 day party then get your tickets and come on down.
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Mazarin - New American Apathy

More Philly sounds for you. After releasing 2 discs in 18 months it took almost 4 years for the third set from these psy-indie-posters to drop. This track is the first off that release, We're Already There. Its brilliant shining indie pop on the level of The Flaming Lips but also recalls the Chemical Brothers' more tripped out work with Beth Orton or more recently The Magic Numbers. There is an abundance of sounds swirling in the reverse direction. Lyricaly, the subject matter is similar to the Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. track from an ealier post. “Who wants to be oblivious? / The new American apathy / The news so safely keeps you occupied / With lies” Its a dreamy psychadelic rant against the American tendency for heads to be nicely burried in sand.

The Killers - Scratch Studio Instrumental

This track is a little April Fools joke from The Killers. They posted on their web site on 4/1 that they had a new track for their upcoming album (set to drop in the fall). Its really just a loungy, bossa nova instrumental of "Somebody Told Me." I think it might sound good on my summer burn mix! Oh, and the latest Rolling Stone says that this disc is better than Hot Fuss, if you can believe that.

The Decemberists - Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
The Decemberists - Engine Driver


Fall of '06 is shaping up to be great one for music fans - aside from The Killers set, The Decemberists aim to follow up my personal favorite disc of '05 Picaresque, with another collection of sea shanties and trubadorian laments. The second track is off that set while the first is from their debut full length Castaways & Cutouts from 2002. The new album will be their first on a major label - that hasn't changed Colin Maloy's crew in the slightest. In Colin's interview at Pitchfork he states there will be at least 2 epic, multi-part song cycles including one over 12 minutes and that absinth binges have been involved?!? Looks like the label people are really up for it though:

"So they came in, and we had strategically put together the two obvious singles that were both short and kind of poppy and fit in with the Decemberists idiom and played them for them. And they liked them. And they asked what else we were doing, and then we started playing the long proggy song cycles, and that's when they got really excited. So it was kind of a positive bit of reinforcement, that they actually support the fact that we're moving in a relatively strange direction."

Oh, the title is The Crane Wife and it drops the day after my birthday (party!) - October 3rd.
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Next update will be all aboot Bonnaroo then I'm off to the fest. Drop me a line if you're gonna be there and lemme know who your are most juiced about witnessing - mine should be pretty obvious as I've mentioned them in the last 3 posts now.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Giving Great Radiohead

Thanks to StayBeautiful @ the radiohead boards a recording of the Radiohead show in Philadelphia on June 1st has been made availible. I've done up a little cover thing with current RH graffix & fonts ect - kinda looks like space invaders & asteroid taking on the pope. Trax are encoded @ 64k and sound best in iTunes when applying the dance EQ preset (don't know if presets are standard across platforms though.) Some have said that night 2 was better but this night was damned good though only the second best head i've ever gotten. That title goes to night 2 at Liberty State Park in August of 2001. Enjoy!
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1. Intro

2. You and Whose Army

3. National Anthem

4. 2+2=5

5. Open Pick (New Track)

6. 15 Step (New Track)

7. Exit Music (For a Film)

8. Kid A

9. Nude (New Track)

10. Arpeggi (New Track)

11. Street Spirit

12. Pyramid Song

13. Myxomatosis

14. House of Cards (New Track)

15. Spooks (New Track)

16. Idioteque

17. Bangers N Mash (New Track)

18. There There

19. Airbag

20. No Surprises

21. Bodysnatchers (New Track)

22. Everything in Its Right Place

23. 4 Minute Warning (New Track)

24. Karma Police

And now a post head chuckle - SNAKES ON A PLANE + BONO STYLE!!


And here is another AudioBlog worth checking - Badminton Stamps 2 heads one from NYC and one from here in Philly - see we can get along, just not at sporting events. Next time some more local music and an April Fools joke 2 months too late.

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Less than a week till Bonnaroo!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Blame it on the Black Star

Radiohead have emerged once again from that small cramped little monster hole in england in which they reside. Went to their first US show on Thursday and their new material (they played 9 new tracks in the set!) is great. Its all over the place as far as the sound goes: breakbeats, jungleesque brit rock, alt rock, jazzyness. It feels like a return to Pablo Honey through the lense of what they have learned in the interveening 13 years. There is currently no release date set for their 7th LP - seeming called Xendless Xurbia (its on the tour posters and on the website) - as they are tweaking the tracks on their current tour which is in the US through the end of July followed by a month of festivals in Europe. So it looks like fall may be the earliest we will see it. They are headlining the Bonnaroo fest this year as well which will be quite a difference from the 1500 seat theater they played in Philly and I can't wait for that. Even if you have to pay triple face value for a ticket it will be worth it to see this tour - though hopefully they will swing back again next year after we've all memorized the new tracks. On another note Thom has a solo disc out next month called The Eraser. Set list for the show:

01 You And Whose Army
02 The National Anthem
03 2+2=5
04 Open Pick
05 15 Step
06 Exit Music
07 Kid A
08 Nude
09 Arpeggi
10 Street Spirit
11 Pyramid Song
12 Myxomatosis
13 House Of Cards
14 Spooks
15 Idioteque
16 Bangers And Mash
17 There There

Encore 1:

18 Airbag
19 No Surprises
20 Bodysnatchers
21 Everything In It's Right Place

Encore 2:

22 4 Minute Warning
23 Karma Police

Here is a video of one of the new tracks ("Arpeggi") from the show (good audio quality):



This is for "Open Pick", audio not as good:



O, and the Final song of the night, "Karma Police", again sketchy audio:



ok so mptrees!
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Psapp - Hi

New genre alert - you can now add "Clunktronica" to your list. This is the sound on London's Psapp. Its a kind of blips and beeps combines with bossa and bits of other beautiful live instrumental bobs. All mixed together to make a clunktronic stew! A bit Groove Armada, a bit Esquivel & a bit Combustible Edison. This is the first track off their second set, The Only Thing I Ever Wanted, which comes out Tuesday .

Youth Group - Skeleton Jar

Another aussie group but no revivalist tendencies here. They lean toward the indie side sounding clean and ernest like The Shin, The Stills, Phoenix, and Death Cab for Cutie. Great summer nightime drive song.

Trashcan Sinatras - Welcome Back

Literate Scottish rock in the vein of Doves, British Sea Power, Snow Patrol & Keane (all of whom they preceeded by at least a decade). You may remember their single US hit "Heyfever" off 1993's I've Seen Everything. This is the first single from their 4th album - released in '04 after an 8 year hiatus during which their style became huge. This is a soaring uptempo number that deals a bit tounge and cheek with their down time: "I hid my head in irrelevant books/tell me is that where catastrophe looms & everyone's alive/everyone's surprised." Unfortunately when I saw them last year the energy in their live performance didn't live up to the record. Maybe they just needed a few more pints?
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Auf Wiedersehen.