Feist has added more tour dates to her already jam-packed summer schedule. The latest additions include a run of North American shows in June and July bookmarked by her appearances at the Sasquatch! and Pitchfork music festivals. She’s also confirmed to appear at Montreal’s Osheaga Music Festival on August 4th.

Peep the full itinerary below, along with the music video for “The Bad In Each Other”.

Feist 2012 Tour Dates:
03/21 – Paris, FR @ Le Zenith
03/22 – Lyon, FR @ Transbordeur
03/23 – Lille, FR @ Theatre Sebastopol
03/25 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
03/26 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
03/27 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Orpheum Theater
04/23 – Tucson, AZ @ TCC Arena #
04/25 – Marfa, TX @ Crowley Theatre *
04/26 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
04/28 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz Fest
04/30 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
05/01 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
05/02 – Asheville, NC @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
05/03 – Raleigh, NC @ Memorial Auditorium
05/05 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
05/07 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
05/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Academy of Music
05/09 – Washington, DC @ Strathmore
05/11 – Burlington, VT @ Flynn Theater
05/28 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
05/29 – Boise @ Idaho Botanical Garden
05/31 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks #
06/02 – Minneapolis @ Zoo Amphitheater %
06/03 – Madison @ Orpheum %
06/05 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Ann Arbor Summer Festival %
06/06 – Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center %
06/08 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music Festival
06/22 – Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Festival
06/23 – Saskatoon, SK @ Saskatoon Jazz Festival
07/04 – Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival
07/13 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Festival
07/14 – Pittsburgh @ Stage AE
08/04 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music Festival
08/08 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/10 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
08/12 – Helsinki, FL @Flow Festival
08/15 – Hamburg, DE @Stadtpark
08/16 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop
08/17 – Biddinghuizen, HL @ Lowlands Festival
08/19 – Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival
08/21 – Cologne, DE @ Tanzbrunnen
08/22 – Stuttgart, DE @ Freilichtbuhne Killesberg

# = w/ Bon Iver
* = w/ Timber Timbre
% = w/ The Low Anthem

Nestled inside Austin’s intimate 3,000-capacity Moody Theater, Bruce Springsteen led the E Street Band through a two-and-a-half hour set on Thursday night. Naturally, there were also a number of special guests – after all, it is South by Southwest. Following appearances by Tom Morello, Jimmy Cliff, and The Animals’ Eric Burdon, the band closed their set with a rousing cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”, featuring Arcade Fire’s Régine Chassagne, Win and Will Butler, Morello, Burdon, Alejandro Escovedo, Garland Jeffreys, Joe Ely, and members of The Low Anthem. Watch the footage below.

Stay tuned for our full coverage of both the show and Springsteen’s keynote speech.

As previously reported, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists are among the artists who contributed new material to the upcoming film Hunger Games. Now, as ArcadeFireTube points out, the soundtrack’s tracklist has been posted on iTunes and The Decemberists’ contribution, entitled “One Engine”, is already available for purchase. You can also stream “One Engine” below (via Hypable).

Spanning 16 tracks, the soundtrack also features Kid Cudi, Neko Case, Glen Hansard, The Low Anthem, The Secret Sisters, and Carolina Chocolate Drops, among others. For their part, Arcade Fire contribute a track entitled “Abraham’s Daughter”.

According to iTunes, the soundtrack will be released on March 20th, three days prior to the film’s release on March 23rd.

Hunger Games Tracklist:
01. Taylor Swift (feat. The Civil Wars) – “Safe & Sound”
02. Taylor Swift – “Eyes Wide Open”
03. Arcade Fire – “Abraham’s Daughter”
04. Kid Cudi – “The Ruler & The Killer”
05. Miranda Lambert (feat. Pistol Annies) – “Run Daddy Run”
06. The Civil Wars – “Kingdom Come”
07. The Decemberists – “One Engine”
08. Glen Hansard – “Take the Heartland”
09. The Low Anthem – “Lover is Childlike”
10. Punch Brothers – “Dark Days”
11. Secret Sisters – “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder”
12. Birdy – “Just a Game”
13. Ella Mae Bowen – “Oh Come & Sing”
14. Jayme Dee – “Rules”
15. Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Reaping Day”
16. Neko Case – “Give Me Something I’ll Remember”

So in addition to Vimeo’s still ongoing “Old Ideas With New Friends” series, which has already seen Bradford Cox, Cold War Kids, Cults, and The Afghan Whig’s Greg Dulli cover tracks from the great Leonard Cohen, there’s also a covers album of Cohen’s 1967 debut that comes included in the new issue of MOJO magazine. Contributing artists included Bill Callahan, Cass McCombs, The Low Anthem, Field Music, and ex-Fleet Fox’er Father John Misty, as well as Marc Ribot and My Brighest Diamond, who teamed up for a bonus track version of “Bird on the Wire” from Cohen’s 1969 album Songs from a Room. You can stream snippets of the entire thing below, or throw down £6.50 for a physical copy.

Cohen’s first album in eight years, Old Ideas, is out now. It was worth the wait.

Celtic music mainstays The Chieftains — who you may be most familiar with via their Sinead O’Connor collaboration “The Foggy Dew” — turn 50-years old in 2012. As an issued press release reports, the band is celebrating with a new studio album featuring collaborations with “like-minded musical visionaries and kindred spirits.”

Titled Voice of Ages, the record features contributions from Bon Iver, The Decemberists, Paolo Nutini, Imelda May, The Low Anthem, The Secret Sisters, and Lisa Hannigan, among others. In addition, T-Bone Burnett served as producer alongside The Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney.

Voice of Ages will be available beginning February 21st, 2012 via Hear/Concord. In support of the release, the band plans to tour the U.S. extensively beginning February 17th in Santa Barbara, CA and ending on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) in New York City. Check out their entire tour schedule below.

The Chieftains 2012 Tour Dates:
02/17 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Campbell Hall
02/18 – Aliso Viejo, CA @ Soka Performing Arts Center
02/19 – Tucson, AZ @ Centennial Hall
02/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Davis Symphony Hall
02/22 – Davis, CA @ Jackson Hall/Mondavi Center
02/24 – Athens, GA @ Classic Center
02/25 – Birmingham, AL @ Alys Stevens POPAC
02/27 – Edmond, OK @ Armstrong Auditorium PAC
02/28 – Forth Worth, TX @ Bass Hall
02/29 – San Antonio, TX @ Lila Cockrell Theatre
03/02 – Chicago, IL @ Orchestra Hall
03/03 – Cedar Falls, IA @ Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center
03/04 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orchestra Hall
03/06 – Carmel, IN @ The Palladium
03/07 – Kansas City, MO @ Helzberg Hall
03/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kimmel Center
03/10 – Newark, NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center
03/12 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Sandler PAC
03/14 – Boston, MA @ Symphony Hall
03/16  - Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center
03/17 – New York, NY @ Carnegie Hall
05/29 – Dublin, IE @ Grand Canal Theatre
06/01 – Brighton, UK @ Dome
06/02 – Bristol, UK @ Colston Hall
06/03 – Cardiff, UK @ St. David’s Hall
06/05 – Birmingham, UK @ Symphony Hall
06/06 – Sheffield, UK @ City Hall
06/08 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
06/10 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
06/12 – York, UK @ Barbican
06/13 – Manchester, UK @ The Bridgewater Hall
06/15 – Newcastle, UK @ City Hall
06/16 – Glasgow, UK @ Clyde Auditorium

Headlining the festivities are The Hold Steady, Okkervil River, The Felice Brothers, Vetiver, Wye Oak, Real Estate, Fruit Bats, The Low Anthem, Alberta Cross, and Richard Buckner. Also included on the bill is CoS favorite Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Delicate Steve, Au Revoir Simone, Citay, Bachelorette, New Villager, Ava Luna, Bird of Youth, +/-, Gary Higgins, Pearl & The Beard, and Barn Owl.

A complete list of the nearly 50 bands is available at our Festival Outlook page, and early bird weekend passes are on sale now. A resort lodging option and meal plan can also be purchased for those less interested in “roughing it” at the campgrounds. More information is available here.

The only way to understand Glastonbury properly is to take part in it. For three days, CoS Senior Staff Writer Tony Hardy breathed the Somerset air, battled rain, mud, and sun and managed to see the bands you can read about below. It’s really a snapshot but one that we hope gives you a flavor of the richness of the place and might encourage you to make the trip when the festival returns in 2013. That’s right, it’s taking a break next year while the London Olympics take center stage and the Glastonbury pastures recover from this year’s human invasion.

The first thing that greets you as you arrive at Glastonbury is the sheer scale of the place. Access to the site is smoothly efficient, depending on how many people are trying to get in at once of course, and then the view from the hill greets you. It’s a vast panorama of sprawling humanity; a sea of colorful tents, stages, big tops, insect-sized people, and once grassy fields turned to expanses of mud. As dark clouds gathered overhead around Friday lunchtime to dispel the morning sun, it looked daunting. Even a fest too far?

The festival is in its 41st year. Back in 1970, it cost £1 to get in and that included free milk from the dairy farm that plays host to the festival. The two-day event pulled around 1,500 people to see acts that included Marc Bolan, Al Stewart, and Quintessence (two points if you can whistle “Dive Deep”). In 2011, a ticket will set you back £195 (more than $300) and over 170,000 of them sold out in hours. The growing commercialism of the festival has given rise to cries that Glastonbury has sold out and now exists to take the corporate dollar from growing numbers of celebrities sporting designer wellies, posing for the paps and pitching up in their helicopters and Winnebagos.

Photo by Laura Page

The truth is somewhat different. True it’s increasingly a white, middle class audience; people who can afford to get in and purchase a range of festival-goer paraphernalia from fold-up chairs to tipis. And copious quantities of beer and cider to wash down ethnic and not so ethnic fast food. Yet the age demographic is much broader. While young people are predominant, you get families with babies and young children through to the odd octogenarian. Mums in their forties or early fifties enjoying a Mother’s Day treat with their college-age daughters are much in evidence and baby boomer parents are everywhere.

There are still vestiges of the Spirit of ‘71 when Glastonbury was a free festival, David Bowie was among the progressive rock, and folk acts that formed the core line-up and the very first Pyramid stage came into being. Dread-locked travelers, troubadours, green activists, performance artists, and all manner of eccentric exhibitionists are here in numbers. Some are involved in helping to build or set up the festival, or are performing on the fringes. You have to admire the organization of the festival, especially given the scale of it. For all the signs that may point in ever so slightly the wrong direction and lead you to dead ends, and the High School kids working on site who haven’t quite studied their own map well enough to tell you where the John Peel stage lies, the logistics are a thing of wonder. Bands appear on time, the sound systems are awesome, the security guys chat to you and ply the audience with fresh water, and there’s always someone around to help you.

Photo by Adam Gasson

You will find all things at Glastonbury and the weekend is very much what you want it to be. How you spend your time is dictated by whether you’re here for the music, or more for the experience. OK, we’d want both but the geography of the site allied to the effects of rain on earth puts breaks on those choices somewhat. There were over 2,000 acts performing on something like 60 stages across Glastonbury’s 500-acre site. These were some of them…

-Tony Hardy
Senior Staff Writer

Feature image by Laura Page.

Friday, June, 24th

The Vaccines – Other Stage – 2:50 p.m.

Photo by Adam Gasson

With a plethora of new talent to supplement the established and older guard at Glastonbury, post-punksters The Vaccines seemed a reasonable first stop on Friday. Getting on site through the ankle-deep mud had prevented earlier hoped for incursions into the further reaches of the festival site. Formed just a year ago, the band hit big over here with their debut What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?. The four-piece breezed through some accessible tunes with “If You Wanna” getting a wintry looking large crowd on its feet. (Not that they were exactly sitting down in the mud earlier.) Come to think of it, singer-guitarist Justin Young calls to mind Editors’ Tom Smith. Nonetheless, The Vaccines may be something of a one-trick trip, but it was a fun set and no rocket science was used in the making.

Andrew Morris – Mandala Stage – 3:30 p.m.

This year, the sound traveled a long way from the Other Stage, which was second only to the Pyramid in size and billing. Looking at the schedule it was going to be hard to find time to visit the hippy paradise that is the Green Futures. So I decided to listen to the last couple of Vaccines numbers while traversing towards the Mandala Stage (no misspelling as it has nothing to do with Nelson) to catch what I could of Andrew Morris’ set. Green Futures is like a large version of an English village fayre, has less people (and mud), and you can get a coffee for £1. The acts on the three stages dotted across the Futures can be hit and miss but are invariably endearing. Andrew Morris brought a touch of class to the proceedings with an assured set of songs, delivered with strident solo guitar and customary vocal passion and verve. A regular at Glastonbury, this guy needs to move up to a bigger stage right now.

Little Dragon – West Holts – 4:45 p.m.

Leaving the relative serenity of the green fields behind after a brief food stop, the walk towards the Pyramid Stage took you past some niche stages and into a fairly big open expanse, leading up to West Holts. This stage featured global music with the accent on the more chilled dimensions of dance music. It was also due to host some of the weekend’s biggest names across the spectrum, from Cee-Lo Green to Kool and the Gang. On stage at the time were Swedish ambient soul outfit, Little Dragon. The band created some sweet music on-stage with vocalist Yukimi Nagano showing off some odd, snake-hipped moves, and at one point she danced with a tablecloth over her head. At times, the bass synth threatened to advance the onset of tinnitus but overall the band came across as having more of a light touch than that with crisp percussion and soft grooves to the fore. An extended “Feather” and the end piece “Swimming” were stand-outs and the band fully deserved its warm reception by the end of the set.

Biffy Clyro – Pyramid Stage – 6:15 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Scots trio Biffy Clyro took the stage topless in a show of north of the border machismo, or they might just have been hot. Curiously a guest guitarist was also on stage looking out of place in a white suit. Hot or not, the crowd was slowly getting damper though in good spirits, showing that this band works off a strong grassroots base. Much of the set was drawn from their last album, Only Revolutions. “The Captain” was a particularly storming opener and got the crowd singing the choruses. Tattooed main man Simon Neil sings in a kind of mid-Atlantic drawl but his diction is clear and the rhythm section adds some strong harmonies. At Glasto, Biffy Clyro came across as rock archetypes yet dealt some anthemic tunes, played with passion, and worked hard to hold the audience. I snuck off though to catch the opening of Fleet Foxes thinking I had heard enough for the night.

Fleet Foxes – Other Stage – 7:15 p.m.

Photo by Adam Gasson

Wading through thick mud in wellies is hardly conducive to covering distances in a short time so it’s helpful that these two stages weren’t that far apart; not as good news for some of the more outlying stages, however. Fleet Foxes would have been ideally suited to a balmy summer’s evening but they did their best to disperse the drizzle with the chiming instrumental “The Cacades”, followed by a sublime “Grown Ocean”, and worked their way through a proficient set drawn from their two albums. There was a cry from the audience to turn the vocals up to which Robin Pecknold playfully twisted an imaginary switch on his chest. Whatever he did, it worked wonders. “Mykonos” inspired some chorus singing and the ever-growing audience really came alive during “White Winter Hymnal” with its contrastingly summery Beach Boy soundbites. The set died off a little bit from then on in terms of dynamics but it was still rich, accomplished stuff, savoured by the crowd and capped by the excellent “Helplessness Blues” to finish.

Radiohead – The Park – 8:00 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Around the time Fleet Foxes were starting to draw their set to an end, “mystery guests” Radiohead were kicking off theirs on the most southerly stage on the site, The Park, curated by Emily Eavis herself. We know how CoS readers love their Radiohead so you will find the full story and videos here.

Just to add to a feeling that someone had just spilt the entire cookie jar, Morrissey was also ready for action on the Pyramid Stage. It’s at times like these that you regret being bound by the laws of physics (and mud).

Mumford & Sons – Other Stage – 8:45 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Compensation was at hand at the Other Stage with the imminent arrival of the UK’s current favourite sons, Mumford & Sons. The crowd had been big for Fleet Foxes but was looking enormous for Mumfords. It was a reminder that with 177k people on site you get more than one massive crowd forming at any one time. Mumford’s set proved to be a triumphant homecoming. The sheer energy these guys expend and the passion they play with is an absolute joy. How often they must have performed most of these songs, drawn from Sign No More and with four newbies thrown in, and yet they sounded fresh and as vigorous as ever.

There’s an enduring humility about Mumford & Sons, as evidenced through their brief opening display of nerves: the way Marcus Mumford addressed the audience and how the whole band radiated the privilege and pride of playing live. Highlights? I counted 14 but “Sign No More”, “Little Lion Man”, “White Blank Page”, “Roll Away Your Stone”, and “Awake My Soul” particularly roused the passion of the throng that the band just fed from. Of the new songs, “Lover’s Eyes” came across as an immediate crowd pleaser with a majestic hymnal quality to it, a great build, and one hell of a sustain. Eventually, “The Cave” brought the house down at the end, inspiring such communal pride, singing, dancing, and crowd hugging as I’ve never seen before. Simply brilliant.

U2 – Pyramid Stage – 10:00 p.m.

Photo by Adam Gasson

Follow that. Well you could do worse than have U2 next on the agenda. Getting to the Pyramid stage from Mumfords’ gig and sacrificing Primal Scream in the process, wasn’t quite a breeze. I arrived late and missed an abortive attempt by direct action group, UK Uncut, to raise an inflated banner asking Bono and crew to pay their taxes! U2 had been criticised for moving its commercial operations to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax. The band were running through songs from Achtung Baby, with some urgency maybe trading off nerves with adrenalin. The music was greeted with enthusiasm from large pockets of the vast crowd but compared to Mumfords, no one nearby seemed to be having quite the time of their life.

Photo by Adam Gasson

Maybe this is a generational thing, or maybe it was the rain, but things hardly improved when Bono treated everyone to an accompanied rendition of “Jerusalem”. For humility, read sanctimony. Actually that might not be fair to the man but for me the set pieces in this show were not coming off. Referencing leylines alongside jetlag and engaging help from a space station astronaut to recite lyrics from “Beautiful Day” make it seem like the blarney has taken over. The Edge was on form, however, and “Where the Streets Have No Name” really hit the spot along with similar out-and-out classics like “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, “Beautiful Day”, and “With Or Without You”. Committed U2 fans seemed to relish songs like  “Elevation”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, and “Vertigo”, but U2 might have scored bigger with the less fervent members of the crowd if they’d kept a couple of the surefires back for the encore. The last three were a bit more “without” than “with you”.

SixNationState – Greenpeace Stage – 12:45 a.m.

Reprising tracks from their self-titled debut album and some new pipeline material, the entertaining London four-piece known as SixNationState delighted a small but enthusiastic crowd down at the Greenpeace stage. The brave souls who sloshed their way in pelting rain down to the small stage were rewarded by permission to sing and dance themselves silly. Opener “Keep Dancing” set the tone while frontman Gerry del-Guercio entertained with his energetic style and fine baritone voice. SixNationState has that rare ability to make an immediate impression even with unfamiliar songs.  The band trades in foot-tapping strong and simple melodies and deserves a proper crack at the big time.

Saturday, June 25th

Alice Gold – Other Stage – 11:00 a.m.

In her own words, Alice Gold trades in soulful, psychedelic pop and her first-up Saturday morning set alongside a sharp four-piece band blew away the cobwebs. Gold cuts a striking figure on stage in her black leather shorts, long boots, bodice bedecked with gold chains and a net material overcoat that could have come out of Stevie Nicks’ locker. Big blonde tresses flowing and slickly switching from strapping on a guitar to stage strutting, the singer breezed through songs from her debut album Seven Rainbows. Alice Gold operates at the rocky edge of pop and on first hearing her songs were intriguing enough to lead you to want more.

Photo by Shakeypix Images

Treetop Flyers – Other Stage – 12:20 p.m.

A spot on the Other Stage was the reward for Treetop Flyers, winners of this year’s Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition. The proficient five-piece ticks a number of current in-vogue boxes, not least for beards and close harmonies, but their songs are less contemporary, more of a throwback to classic Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Band. The brisk “It’s About Time” is a case in point. It’s all very pleasant listenable stuff and there is some nice flowing lead guitar drifting in and out at times, but some songs are in need of a cutting edge to strike home. Still, a promising set and one that’s well received by a gathering audience.

Yuck – John Peel Stage – 1:05 p.m.

The lunchtime weather was cloudy but dry and, with sun expected later on, the act of traversing the site was beginning to get easier. With so much mud around, though, the next band seemed an apt choice. En route to the John Peel Stage I was struck by how many young girls were into Yuck but maybe they were referring to glutinous brown stuff stuck to their flowery wellies. Yuck is an archetypical guitar band of the kind propagated by Glastonbury over the years. The band members appeared laid back on stage in that lo-fi slacker kind of way, yet the three boy-two girl line-up was visually interesting, and the band appeared suitably modest: “We’re not used to this many people.” This didn’t stop Yuck from delivering a storming, crowd-pleasing, riff-filled set, interspersed with some mellower moments, especially when they deployed the slide guitar. A packed tent leapt around to strong tracks like “Georgia” and “Milkshake” and more people assembled in the bog outside as the set progressed. The band ended with an extended version of “Rubber” and exited to a deserved ovation.

Jessie J – Other Stage – 3:00 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Rising UK R&B star Jessie J entered the stage on crutches after a recent fall and sat astride a huge gold and red throne to deliver her set. Wearing a surgical boot and one glossy welly, the singer’s show-must-go-on attitude was admirable even if her seat was a bit OTT. The strange black and white jumpsuit also made her look like an extra from Tron and if it had been a night gig, you’d have expected the outfit to light up. The sun came out as Jessie J pulled an enormous crowd who stuck around to hear hits from the singer’s debut record, Who You Are. Identity seems to play quite a role in her songs but the audience were more interested in the grooves. Crowd-pleasing moments came thick and fast from smearing mud over her face to show solidarity to inviting a little girl on stage to sing along to her ultra catchy single “Price Tag”. Actually she did really well and the main event wasn’t too bad either.

Charlie Dore & The Hula Valley Orchestra – Spirit of ‘71 – 3:40 p.m.

The Spirit Of ’71 Stage brought together several performers from Nick Lowe to Melanie who had appeared 40 years ago, in the days when everything came free. There were several acts I wanted to catch there – notably The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Robyn Hitchcock & The Imaginary Band – but they all clashed with the must sees on the schedule, so it was good to at least to stop by en route to the Acoustic Stage. The break was made even better by running into Charlie Dore and her marvellous bluegrass band. Dore has a gorgeous country-sweet lilt to her voice and the swinging “Pilot Of The Airwaves” followed by a heartfelt “Lone Ranger” were sheer afternoon delights.

Emily & The Woods – Acoustic Stage – 4:00 p.m.

Photo by Amelia Rose King

Emily & The Woods is 22-year old singer-songwriter, Emily Wood, with a capable quartet that includes her brother on guitar. Her first demo tracks were recorded with Laura Marling in the singer’s kitchen in two years ago and there are hints of Marling in the fragility of songs like “Eye to Eye” and “I Can’t”.  Vocally though Wood comes across as a less stylised Regina Spektor with a sweet girlish tone yet deceptive with an inner strength and a hint of rasp to it. Her songs are as strong as they are sensitive on an opening inspection, and with her dark eyes and pre-raphaelite curls, Wood can work an audience with the best of them. She showed a girlish pleasure in the warm response her set invoked and exhibited a sincere charm that will likely take her far. Great band too.

DeVotchKa – Avalon Stage – 5:10 p.m.

Next up was a first trip to the Avalon Stage, unfortunately quite a trek from the Acoustic. The sun was doing little to improve conditions underfoot, which a Racing man would still describe as heavy. The Avalon hosts a really eclectic collection of performers from across the globe and Barenaked Ladies no less had graced the stage the previous night. (Another one sadly missed.) Still, it was worth waiting to see an act as eccentric and compelling as DeVotchKa. The name may be familiar because the combo supplied the Grammy nominated soundtrack to that oddball comedy, Little Miss Sunshine.

The Denver-based group has played all over the world, opened for Muse in front of 90,000 in Paris, and remain veterans of Glastonbury. Guitarist-vocalist Nick Urata is an engaging, off the wall front man while the whole band mixes a wonderful cocktail of gypsy, polka, mariachi music, rock, and something close to punk rock. It’s not often you see a lady swopping the sousaphone for a bowed double bass between songs either. Or hear a guitar effect pedal create the sound of a manically manoeuvred electric saw. The music felt highly charged and had an enthusiastic crowd dancing wildly in the mud; indeed with a tad too much abandon for the girl to my right who had chosen the wrong day to wear white. Mere words can’t do this set justice so check out how it ended above.

Pulp – The Park – 7:45 p.m.

Around seven, it was about time for a break to enjoy a delicious light meal al fresco with friends camped in the dairy ground. This was an area of the site that still had grass between the tents and was conveniently close to The Park where Pulp was about to don the mantle as the Festival’s second surprise band. The hillside above the Park Stage was already filling up before I joined the throng. Lower down there were so many people trying to flood through the arches that provide the main route into The Park, that security had to turn punters away. Even supermodel Kate Moss was unable to charm her way backstage.

But to the main event. Pulp did not disappoint, engendering communal singing and adulation of a kind only to be matched by Coldplay later in the evening. You could hear the audience for miles, let alone the band, during a resounding “Disco 2000” and the inevitably fantastic closer, “Common People”. Several more were included from the Different Class ’95 vintage but it was equally rewarding to hear “Sunrise” from We Love Life with its meandering, deliberate build and brilliant soar away conclusion. Jarvis Cocker was urbanity incarnate in his between song patter and the whole band played with a confidence and verve that comes from having been there, done it and grown in the process. A triumphant set.

Back at the Pyramid Stage, Elbow was cooking up an anthemic storm as the sun went down. I realized I hadn’t been to the Pyramid all day and didn’t reach it in time to catch anything other than the end of the band’s set. Spies tell me it was one of the best ever so it is well worth checking out online footage.

Coldplay – Pyramid Stage – 10:15 p.m.

The great affinity Elbow enjoys with Glastonbury is closely matched by Coldplay’s own relationship with the place. Back to grace the Pyramid as headliners for a third time, the Brits stirred the expectancy in the crowd with a Star Wars style orchestral build. Then it was straight into a new song (“Hurts Like Heaven”), accompanied by fireworks and great roars from the crowd. Lack of familiarity means nothing, as the sound came off as urgent and classic Coldplay. In any case, impassioned communal singing was sparked immediately by “Yellow”, still a crowd-pleaser par excellence.

Like most things successful and British, Coldplay suffers its fair share of detractors. Those who accuse the band of plagarism, blandness, or causing the world’s economic crisis, failing to solve the Middle East question, or whatever, should have been simply standing in this field in Somerset. Rather like Mumfords’ the previous night, this was a performance that could be savored with pride. Mixing in new songs with the very best of the old, impetus was rarely lost. Even a stumble and start again moment during one of the newbies “Us Against The World” was taken in stride as though the band had been on stage in a small club. Throughout the set Chris Martin’s between song chat was sincere and self-effacing.

Mass crowd singing hit a peak with “Viva La Vida” which was followed by a really strong new song, “Charlie Brown”. For encores, “Clocks” and “Fix You” were quite magical and the recent underrated “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” worked just fine live and proved to be a fitting and popular closer. Snatches of “Viva La Vida” could be heard for the next hour as the enormous crowd dispersed on a collective high through mud that seemed to have unexpectedly got thicker. Though I doubt if many noticed.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Sunday, June 26th

Claire Maguire – Other Stage – 12:00 a.m.

Farm machinery, no doubt under cover of loud dance music, had clearly been deployed overnight to compact the mud on the main walkways and buoyed by a beaming sun in a cloudless sky, the brave few were even discarding their boots by Sunday morning. Not Birmingham, UK siren Claire Maguire though. She strutted on to the Other Stage at noon wearing studded thigh highs. The uber femme fatale look was completed by an ultra short black dress, a white jacket, and a vintage hat with net covering a goth toned face, framed with dramatic black locks and lit up by ruby lips. It was a big entrance for the time of day but Maguire has a big soulful voice, which she used to high kick into “Ain’t Nobody” off her debut album, Light After Dark. No doubt her voice is impressive but there was a bit of competition going on as the backing band came off rather loud, especially the synthesizers. All in all, it was a set that likely would have worked after dark rather than with the sun beginning to beat down.

The Low Anthem – Pyramid Stage – 12:10 p.m.

Photo by Shakeypix Images

I’d intended to catch some of the The Low Anthem on the Avalon Stage, feeling they might have worked better in more intimate surroundings. However, seeing them on the Pyramid stage, especially at this hour, was intriguing enough. Arriving just as they were pummeling through one of their more rockier tunes, “Hey All You Hippies”, I found them to be in fine fettle with Jocie Adams, adding a surprisingly potent second vocal to Ben Knox Miller’s assured lead. The Low Anthem comprises itself of four gifted musicians who swap and share instruments like candy, but Adams stands out as truly exceptional. Her clarinet in “Ohio” melts hearts, trumpet triplets really lift the anthemic “Boeing 707”, and her voice wraps itself sympathetically around anything she sings. All four are strong singers and harmonise superbly, as was the case on their cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird On A Wire”.

Sea of Bees – The Park – 1:30 p.m.

Photo by Tony Hardy

Sea of Bees is the curiously incongruous moniker of Sacramento, CA singer-songwriter Julie Ann Baenziger, who is accompanied by Amber Padgett. Visually the girls promise quirkiness with the androgynous look of Baenziger contrasted with Padgett’s conventional blonde honey. Baenziger takes the lead vocally and strums an acoustic forcefully, so tending to drown out her stage partner’s sparser electric guitar. Her voice is a bit reminiscent of Joanna Newsom, or at times Kate Bush, and has a deceptive childlike quality about it. Sometimes the styling is at the expense of diction. You sense that Sea of Bees has interesting tales to tell but you equally are drawn to the lead voice almost as an instrument. Amber Padgett added some sweet harmonies right up to the final song, which Baenziger took upon herself to see solo. Fascinating and could have stayed longer.

The Joy Formidable – John Peel Stage – 2:00 p.m.

The legendary Glastonbury scheduling came adrift for once as I’d hoped to detour to the John Peel en route back to the Pyramid for 3:00 p.m.. The plan was to catch some of The Joy Formidable – a band name that I always thought was one that Mr. Peel himself would have approved of. However blisters and leaden feet, combined with the Welsh shoegazing trio starting later than scheduled, meant that I only heard them briefly and from afar. My “spies” told me the Joy were indeed formidable, delivering a full-on energetic set. There is little instructive to be gained right now by watching this brief video clip but hopefully in time there may be something better in the right hand menu. You may even see TJF guitarist and front lady Ritzy Bryan end the show by flinging her instrument at a gong.

Laura Marling – Pyramid Stage – 3:00 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Rather like The Low Anthem earlier in the day, I had wondered how Laura Marling would work on the big stage. I shouldn’t have. Just like her songwriting the girl herself has really blossomed and, opening with “Devil’s Spoke” fronting a fulsome band, she owned the stage from the very start in her quietly modest way. Dressed simply in a plain white top, jeans, and flat pumps, with her straw coloured hair simply pinned back, she’s the English rose you would take home for tea with your mum. If they weren’t fans already, the immense crowd sweltering in the baking afternoon sun that now bathed the Pyramid arena took her straight to their hearts.

Marling’s 14 song set included a smattering of new ones from her forthcoming album A Creature I Don’t Know, and selected gems from her first two recordings. The newer material did not pale in comparison with her established songs but there were clearly some favourites like “Rambling Man”, “Alpha Shadows” and “Ghosts” that fully resonated. Closing with “I Speak Because I Can” you sensed that Laura Marling had signalled a coming of age that will elevate her to future greatness. She is already one of the very best of her generation and this was as good as it gets, and more.

Paul Simon – Pyramid Stage – 4:30 p.m.

Laura Marling followed by Paul Simon seemed like a troubadour double bill made in heaven. Simon took the stage with an extensive band line-up and got off to a great start with “Boy In The Bubble” despite murmuring about not being at the top of his game after a throat infection. It was a big production lit up by a blistering guitar solo plus some dazzling bass from Simon’s longstanding band member, Bakithi Kumalo. “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” followed but Simon played with the delivery and lost the dynamic of the song. The next couple seemed to exist in some lazy swamp-rock back alley and even “Hearts And Bones”, one of my favourite Paul Simon songs, was so laid back it just became lost in translation.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Maybe it was the intense heat lulling the audience or Simon’s own colic but the set slipped some, sliding away until it was woken up by a glittering version of “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes”, played close to the original and all the better for it. The crowd came to life and Simon continued in the same vein with “Gumboots”. He butchered “Kodachrome”, linking it with “Gone At Last” for his first encore, but pulled it back for the absolute crowd favourite, “You Can Call Me Al”, which again brings Kumalo’s miracle slap bass back into the limelight. Paul Simon is still a legend and everyone needs a long drink.

Show of Hands – Avalon Stage – 6:15 p.m.

Photo by Babs Firth

Sustenance supplied, a leisurely stroll back down to the Field of Avalon ensued. It was still roasting with only small pockets of mud left to remind you the entire site was awash on Friday. It was too late to catch Ron Sexsmith who was unfortunately billed soon after Paul Simon appeared but pleasure awaited in the shape of Show of Hands. The English folk duo of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, augmented by the double bass and vocal harmonies of Miranda Sykes, has built a fabled following. Quality vocals, strong harmonies, and multi-instrumental virtuosity make Show of Hands major players on the UK folk circuit. There was a strong political thread running through their song choices, both traditional and self-penned, as evidenced by songs as disparate as “Arrogance, Ignorance & Greed”, “Galway Farmer” and “Cousin Jack”. The band delivered a dozen songs that allowed plenty of audience participation and they left to tumultuous applause, with an encore duly demanded.

Kaiser Chiefs – Other Stage – 8:30 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

Kaiser Chiefs, the Leeds, UK five-piece had landed a near-perfect slot for themselves. The sun hadn’t set yet, there was a big crowd out there, and no one needed to head off quite yet to see Beyoncé. Not to mention, there was always Queens of the Stone Age to look forward to for people who wanted to stick by the Other Stage. Kaiser Chiefs are the sort of band that feed off the audience and having taken a two-year break from touring, there was a sense they’re bursting to get back out there. It came across right from the opener, an old favourite “Everyday I Love You Less And Less”.

Mixing in some old hits with new material from their innovative ‘pick your own’ release, The Future Is Medieval, the band kept the tempo hot and the crowd sizzling. Naturally, familiar songs like “Ruby” and the storming “I Predict A Riot” received the best reaction but the new stuff was accepted with near fervour. Kaiser played out with an interminable version of “Oh My God”. Just enough for the evening.

Beyoncé – Pyramid Stage – 9:45 p.m.

Photo by Jason Bryant

And so to the final act. Queens of the Stone Age v. The Streets v. Kool and the Gang v. pop royalty. At Glastonbury, there is at least enough audience to go round. So, Beyoncé, how was it for you? The lady was certainly not holding back at the start. Opening with her biggest hit, “Crazy In Love”, and rising up from the stage accompanied by fireworks, with her white clad female band joining in the lavish choreography, made you think that Barack Obama would appear any minute alongside Michael Eavis to announce world peace had been secured. Sadly not, but Beyoncé did follow with “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” in a rigorous workout between two other ladies with unreasonably big hair. Obama did make it on screen later though as images of civil rights protests were played over her cover of Etta James’ “At Last”.

There was no let up in what was an incredibly slick show other than perhaps a weird short guest appearance by ex-Massive Attacker Tricky, who seemed to be working off a different script. A similar bizzare moment was provided when Beyoncé went walkabout near the end of the show while still singing and being held awkwardly by a minder as she was serially pawed by the mainly female audience members lining up along the front of the barrier. The lady also pandered to rock fans with a not half-bad blast of “Sex on Fire”. In truth, she put on a great show, went down a storm with the audience, and dutifully shook booty in an almost frightening display of physical prowess. She seemed to enjoy the experience as much as the audience and came across as a real person, not some distant diva. So whatever the misgivings, Beyoncé rocks for sure!

Photo by Jason Bryant

The Culture of Glastonbury

Photos by: Adam Gasson, Amelia Rose King, Laura Page, and Shakeypix Images

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For the 2011 edition, set to take place July 7-17 across various indoor and outdoor venues in downtown Quebec City, festival organizers have tapped Metallica, Elton John, The Black Keys, Ben Harper, Girl Talk, Death From Above 1979, and John Fogerty.

Other confirmed notables include Dropkick Murphys, Omar Souleyman, Cut Copy, M. Ward, Cage the Elephant, Dawes, The Low Anthem, Marie-Mai, Wanda Jackson, An Horse, Duchess Says, Karkwa, Nortec Collective, Mexican Institute of Sound, and Buck 65.

Additional acts will be revealed in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, you can view all the currently confirmed acts on our Festival Outlook.

Advance sales of the festival’s Hydro-Québec pass will go on sale tomorrow for an early-bird price of $55 at greater Quebec City area Metro supermarkets. (Buy me some peas while you’re there.) Starting at noon on Saturday, April 30th, passes can be purchased online at the regular price of $65 (taxes and service included) on the festival’s website. Single-evening tickets are also available at $30 – taxes and service included – except for the Elton John and Metallica concerts.

Limited to just 1,000 pressings, the record will primarily be available at “mom and pop” record shops. A select number will also be obtainable through Daytrotter’s website and the bands’ respective sites.

For the unaware, Daytrotter Sessions are one-of-a-kind recordings laid down at The Horseshack located in Rock Island, Illinois. The studio invites bands to stop by as they pass through on tour to spend two hours creating raw, live tracks. The results are exclusive, original versions of the songs “as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive.”

The two bands met while touring together in the U.K., and the release is a joint venture between them and Daytrotter. As for the record’s contents, expect six songs from The Low Anthem’s recent Smart Flesh plus selections from Iron & Wine’s Kiss Each Other Clean, and fan favorite “Naked As We Came” from Our Endless Numbered Days. The Sessions are currently up at Daytrotter here and here, but only partially (only five The Low Anthem songs appear). Sure, listen to them at the site, but you know you’re still going to get that vinyl. Or at least try to. Peep the partial track listing below.

Iron & Wine/The Low Anthem Daytrotter Sessions Partial Tracklist:
Iron & Wine:
01. Tree By The River
02. Naked As We Came
03. Godless Brother
04. Glad Man Singing

The Low Anthem:
01. Apothecary Love
02. Dreams Can Chase You. . .
03. Ghost Woman Blues
04. I’ll Take Out Your Ashes
05. Maybe So

Peering through twilight at the not exactly over-lit stage, it was a relief when the action started. First up was Seattle six-piece The Head and the Heart. The band dispensed an energetic set full of spirited singing and strident strumming, filled out by decorative keys, solid bass and drums, and the occasional violin break. The trio of frontline singers led in turn by Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell blend well together, while the admirably named Charity Rose Thielen has an oddly endearing habit of pulling away from the mic as she ups the decibels. While not every song hit the spot, there were a couple of genuine high points. “Lost in My Mind” stood out as an exceptionally strong song, packed with full-on harmonies and sheer rhythmic intensity, approaching the likes of Mumford & Sons or even Arcade Fire. The episodic “Down in the Valley” also hinted that this was a band that is going to stick around.

The stage lights dimmed to the eerie side of gloom as The Low Anthem followed. They mixed songs from their latest album, Smart Flesh, and its predecessor, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, with a smattering of classic covers. The George Carter-penned “Ghost Woman Blues” provided an intimate opener with the band in a close huddle around a vintage mic, all comradeship and sweet harmonies. From this sparse and heartfelt opening they went on to perform a compelling set, illuminated by a remarkable standard of musicianship that collectively saw them swapping instruments after virtually every song. These guys can blow as well as pluck, with the gifted Jocie Adams and Mat Davidson much to the fore. Along the way they laid down some weird and wonderful sounds with dulcimer, clarinet, trumpet, voilin, saw, and even a bowed banjo at one point. Much was underpinned by fluid bass and thoughtful percussion, while the harmonium was often to the fore.

Photo by Anika Mottershaw

Approaching the midpoint of the set, a strange thing happened. The gentle meander of “To the Ghosts Who Write History Books” was delivered with some loud, unscripted, electric noises. The band spontaneously decamped to the midst of the audience to deliver an impromptu, unplugged set of three songs while sound men tugged at wires and worked knobs. Drums and bass player Jeff Prystowsky only reached the other three halfway through the first song, a cover of Emmylou Harris’ “Evangeline”. Mind you he did have a double bass to haul from the stage, so kudos to the man.

Rounding off with a raucous “Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild, Wild Women”, the band were received with rapture as they returned to the stage as people contemplated one of those “I was there” moments in live music. A cleaner sound resumed with a trio of pretty clarinetists led by Jocie Adams performing a version of Smart Flesh instrumental “Wire”, cutely renamed “Hot Wire”. Then followed the achingly beautiful “Smart Flesh” delivered by frontman Ben Knox Miller with tenderness and great power. Over the evening, the lead singer showed off a surprising vocal range – rich yet raw and stretching to a very able falsetto.

On a night of surprises, the band delivered a touch of audience-led magic at the end of “This Goddamn House” by getting people to call each other and set their mobiles to speaker mode, holding the sets close together to create differently pitched chimes that rang softly out across the hall. Chalk followed cheese as the upbeat cruiser “Hey All You Hippies” and a truly anthemic “Boeing 737” showed the louder side of the band before they returned to the intimacy of the foursome huddle for the last two songs. The evening came full circle as The Low Anthem encored with the excellent “Charlie Darwin” and a country version of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on A Wire”, with the four musicians grouped once more around the mic. Such purity of purpose is hard to find, and this band deals in it in spades.

Setlist:
Ghost Woman Blues
Ticket Taker
Sally Where D’You Get Your Liquor From?
Matter of Time
Apothecary Love
Home I’ll Never Be
Burn
To The Ghosts Who Write History Books
Evangeline
The Auld Triangle
Cigarettes, Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women
Hot Wire
Smart Flesh
This Goddamn House
Hey All You Hippies
Boeing 737
To Ohio
Love and Altar
Encores:
Charlie Darwin
Bird on the Wire

It what will be his first Canadian performance in a decade, Eminem will headline this year’s Osheaga, set for July 29-31 in Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau. Other notable acts include Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Death Cab For Cutie, The Flaming Lips, who will perform The Soft Bulletin in its entirety, The Tragically Hip, the recently reunited Death From Above 1979, and Bright Eyes.

A slew of indie favorites are also confirmed, including Kid Cudi, Ratatat, Beirut, Crystal Castles, MSTRKRFT, The Mountain Goats, Fucked Up, White Lies, Eels, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Shad, Twin Shadow, Smith Westerns, PS I Love You, The Joy Formidable, Tokyo Police Club, Jamie xx, Sia, Braids, Mother Mother, and The Low Anthem.

Rounding out the bill are Bassnectar, City and Colour, Sam Roberts Band, Bran Van 3000, Yoav, The Sounds, Hey Rosetta!, Anna Calvi, Lights, Robot Koch, Shad, Manchester Orchestra, Jimmy Hunt, Galaxie, The Luyas, Elephant Stone, High Dials, Passwords, Jesuslesfilles, and Typhoon.

A limited number of early bird passes (priced at $197.50 CA) will go on sale beginning Friday, April 15th. After that allotment sells out, the price will rise to $217.50 CA. Early bird reserved seating passes will also be available for $349.50 CA, with the final price set at $369.50 CA.

The daily lineup will be announced on Tuesday, April 19th, and single day tickets go on sale Thursday, April 21st.

As in years past, Osheaga will proceed its stand alone festival with the concert series, Osheaga in the City, featuring bands and DJs in some of Montreal’s legendary club venues. These shows will be announced shortly.

For all that, there are a couple of occasions when the band loosens up, and this adds to a sense of the unexpected. The rocky side comes out on “Boeing 737”, which opens akin to the ending of a Revere song and builds like a headache-inducing version of Arcade Fire on speed through percussive overdose. The lyrics reference 9/11, but it’s hard to make much out of the density of sound, which may be why there aren’t any other songs like it here. The room could only take one of them. It’s far from typical of the songs on Smart Flesh, so if you were to hear the track in isolation, it might give you a quite different impression of the band’s general oeuvre.

The wry “Hey, All You Hippies!” is the only other number that gets a fulsome treatment. It rocks along in country mode, filled out by keyboards, and recalls Dylan’s old mates, The Band, in structure and delivery. Elsewhere on the record, though, the mood is far more downbeat. The opening track, “Ghost Woman Blues”, is a suitably melancholic tale delivered with due gravity with precise four-part harmonies and a fine clarinet fill from Jocie Adams, the standout among the four talented musicians here. Like many of the songs that follow, it has an old-time legitimacy about it.

“Apothecary Love” is more of a straight country song with steel guitar to the fore and a Dylanesque harmonica break to match the Nashville Skyline vocal. It rings with age and authenticity. Death is a pervading theme on the album, with lyrics referencing ghosts, flesh, ashes, and even formaldehyde! Yet, it’s not a complete down experience, because there is also something cheeringly human about the comradeship that shines through The Low Anthem’s music.

It’s hard to listen to “Burn” without Ben Knox Miller’s disconsolate tones summoning up Leonard Cohen. Plaintive banjo, swirling organ, and that instrument synonymous with all things eerie, the bowed saw, contribute to the gloom-laden sense of regret leading to self-realization expressed in the song. Knox Miller takes lead vocal duties with fellow founding member, Jeff Prystowsky and new recruit, Mat Davidson, adding harmonies along with Jocie Adams. Knox Miller’s falsetto is particularly good on sparse beauty “Love And Altar”, while the crystal vocal accompaniment of Adams adds a seal to this splendor.

The Jocie Adams-penned instrumental, “Wire”, bisects the album, showcasing her sublime woodwind playing. It’s a serene piece, perfect for contemplation, but positioned where it is, it rather breaks up the flow. By contrast, it might have worked well as a gentle epilogue to the record. The title track is left to that job. Preceded by the hymn-like “Golden Cattle”, “Smart Flesh” plays out over seven minutes as a kind of summary of The Low Anthem’s take on life as the precursor to a lonely death through some starkly evocative observation and imagery.

There are plenty of reference points you might like to apply to The Low Anthem: Dylan, Tom Waits, The Band, Gram Parsons, and Leonard Cohen could provide stopovers. The past is also evoked by the use of traditional instruments – pump organ, saw, Jew’s harp, harmonica, and various woodwinds alongside guitars, keys, and percussion. But largely, Smart Flesh comes across as an accomplished work with an equal eye to the future.

After tapping She & Him, Jeff Tweedy, and Broken Social Scene for its initial launch, the St. Louis, MO-based LouFest returns in 2011 with an expanded and more diverse bill. Set for August 27-28 at Forest Park, this year’s festival will be headed by The Roots, TV on the Radio, Cat Power, Deerhunter, and The Hold Steady.

Other confirmed acts include !!!, Surer Blood, Das Racist, The Low Anthem, Dom, Ume, Sleepy Sun, Kings Go Forth, Troubadour Dali, Jumbling Towers, Old Lights, and Jon Hardy & the Public.

A limited number of discounted 2-day passes are now on sale for $59 via the festival’s website.

But for those who’d like to witness the bearded sounds of Sam Beam and personal, here’s your chance. Iron & Wine have just added another batch of U.S tour dates to take place between their forthcoming appearances at Sasquatch! and Bonnaroo. People out west are most lucky, with the leg set to launch in Missoula, Montana on May 29th and then run east through Omaha, Milwaukee, and Mineappolis, among other cities, before coming to a close at Bonnaroo on June 12th.

Up and coming Sub Pop act The Head and the Heart will open a majority of the newly added dates. A fan pre-sale will begin Friday, January 25th (with the exception of Indianapolis which starts at 10am on 2/24.). For more ticketing info, visit Iron & Wine’s website.

Iron & Wine 2011 Tour Dates:
03/04 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater
03/08 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
03/09 – Brighton, UK @ Corn Exchange
03/10 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
03/11 – Edinburgh, UK @ HMV Picturehouse
03/12 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
03/14 – Dublin, UK @ Olympia
03/15 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
03/16 – Gateshead, UK @ Sage
03/17 – Leeds, UK @ Metropolitan University
04/14 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre #
04/15 – Buffalo, NY @ The Town Ballroom #
04/16 – North Adams, MA @ Mass MoCA #
04/17 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground #
04/18 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
04/19 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
04/20 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live #
04/21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
04/22 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
04/23 – Savannah, GA @ Trustees Theater #
04/25 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club #
04/26 – Charlotte, NC @ Amos’ Southend #
04/27 – Richmond, VA @ The National #
04/28 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Carnegie Music Hall
04/29 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
05/28 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
05/29 – Missoula, MT @ Wilma Theatre *
05/30 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory *
05/31 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *
06/01 – San Francisco, CA @ Warfield Theatre *
06/02 – Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory *
06/04 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theatre
06/05 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown *
06/07 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom *
06/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue *
06/09 – Des Moines, IA @ People’s Court *
06/10 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue *
06/11 – Cincinnati, OH @ Madison Theatre *
06/12 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music Festival

# = w/ The Low Anthem
* = w/ The Head and the Heart

In an issued statement (via TwentyFourBit), frontman Ben Knox Miller described their choice of studio as “the main instrument for the whole record” before going on to describe the resonance in the space as chilling. The band experimented with various mic set ups, which Miller says “caught the sound barreling across the room.” The band brought in Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk) to mix the record, handling the production themselves. Additional mixing was done by Jesse Lauter (Elvis Perkins) in New York City.

Ahead of the release, the four-piece of Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams, and Mat Davidson are set to hit the road with Carolina Chocolate Drops next month. They’re also playing a pair of January shows in New York and Los Angeles, with the latter also featuring Iron & Wine. Tickets can be purchased via the band’s official website.

The Low Anthem 2010/2011 Tour Dates:
12/04 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse ^
12/05 – Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
12/07 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge ^
12/08 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theater ^
12/09 – Asheville, NV @ The Orange Peel ^
12/10 – Charlotte, NC @ The Neighborhood Theater ^
12/11 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theater ^
01/13 – New York, NY @ Lincoln Center – American Songbook
01/26 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wilern %

^ = w/ Carolina Chocolate Drops
% = w/ Iron & Wine

Since we last talked, the 2010 lineups for two of the city’s biggest summer concert series, SummerStage/Rumsey Playfield and Celebrate Brooklyn (the same concerts with which we told you about last week) have been updated. And let’s just say your studio apartment beneath the nail salon isn’t the only place that’ll be heating up in the Big Apple this summer.

While SummerStage already had a lot of big names filling out the whole ordeal, there’s been a few substantial additions, including Gil Scott-Heron, St. Vincent, The xx, tUnE-yArDs,  and more, all of which will be playing free shows. The likes of Hot Chip, Gov’t Mule, The Black Keys, and The Morning Benders will also be taking part in the SummerStage festivities, however, their respective performances will all come in the form of benefit concerts to support the full season of free programs. So, you’ll have to pay to get into ‘em.

It should be noted that while all the shows listed (which you can peep below) are at Rumsey Playfield, not all are SummerStage shows.We’re talking pretty much about the Cake, Ween, Coheed and Cambria, and Broken Social Scene gigs. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying your summer and a group of awesome shows, including some by some band Pavement.

And while the sheer number of concerts at SummerStage almost eclipses the shows we think you’ll dig when compared to the 2010 Celebrate Brooklyn event, don’t you dare skip out on a trip to Prospect Park. Kicking off the summer extravaganza is Norah Jones, and it only gets better as the degrees in the thermometer tick their way north. Expect free performances from Sonic Youth, The Swell Season, Metric, The Roots, and Ozomatli. Plus, Passion Pit, Rufus Wainwright, The National, and The Dead Weather will be performing ticketed benefit shows.

Find a complete list of SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn shows below. Special thanks to BrooklynVegan for the through pre-coverage. For additional info on SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn, head here and here.

2010 Summerstage/Rumsey Playfield Lineup:
05/16 – Leon and the Peoples
05/26 – Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, Torche #
06/05 – Living Colour w/ Ebony Bones!, Pillow Theory, and CX KiDTRONik (3 p.m.)
06/14 – Baaba Maal, Mamadou Sarr ( 7 p.m.)
06/15 – John Butler Trio, State Radio (6:30 p.m.) #
06/19 – Meshell Ndegeocello (NYC LGBT Pride Rally) (4 p.m.)
06/23 – Stanley Clarke ft. Hiromi, McCoy Tyner Quartet w/ Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Francisco Mela (CareFusionJazz Festival) ( 7 p.m.)
06/26 – Tinariwen (3 p.m.)
06/27 – Gil Scott Heron (3 p.m.)
06/30 – Def Poetry Jam ft. Carlos Andres Gomez and others ( 7 p.m.)
07/25 – Bassekou Kouyate, Fool’s Gold (3 p.m.)
07/26 – The Flaming Lips (7 p.m.) #
07/27 – The Black Keys w/ The Morning Benders (6:30 p.m.) #
07/28 – The Black Keys w/ The Morning Benders (6:30 p.m.) #
07/31 – Los Amigos Invisibles (3 p.m.)
08/01 – St. Vincent w/ tUnE-yArDs and Basia Bulat (3 p.m.)
08/04 – Hot Chip w/ Hercules and Love Affair, Holy Ghost! (6:30 p.m.) #
08/08 – The xx w/ CHairlift and Jack Peñate (7 p.m.)
08/11 – Gov’t Mule (6 p.m.) #
08/15 – Public Enemy w/ 7th Octave and Blitz the Ambassador (3 p.m.)
08/22 – The Specials (3 p.m.)
09/16 – Cake #
09/17 – Ween #
09/18 – Broken Social Scene #
09/21 – Pavement (7 p.m.) #
09/22 – Pavement #
09/23 – Pavement w/ Slothbear #
09/24 – Pavement #

2010 Celebrate Brooklyn Lineup:
06/09 – Norah Jones (Opening Night Gala) (8 p.m.)
06/29 – Passion Pit w/ Tokoy Police Club (Benefit Show) (7:30 p.m.) #
07/09 – Ozomatli w/ Fidel Nadal and Toy Selectah (Bud Light Latin Music Series) (8 p.m.)
07/20 – Rufus Wainwright (Benefit Show) (7 p.m.) #
07/27 – The National w/ Beach House (Benefit Show) (7:30 p.m.) #
07/30 – The Swell Season, The Low Anthem (Bud Light Music Series) (7:30 p.m.)
07/31 – Sonic Youth w/ Grass Widow and Talk Normal (7 p.m.)
08/03 – The Dead Weather (Benefit Show) (7 p.m.) #
08/05 – Metric w/ Joan as Police Woman and Holly Miranda ( 7p.m.)
08/07 – Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Budos Band and more (7 p.m.)

# = Ticketed show, aka it will cost you money. For tixs, head here for SummerStage and here for Celebrate Brooklyn.

Spinner reports that Rhode Island’s folk-rock heroes spent six weeks in their home state recording their latest effort at an abandoned pasta sauce factory in Central Falls.

The still-untitled LP is the group’s fourth and follows up 2009’s Nonesuch re-issue of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, originally released in September of 2008.

The pasta factory, which Ben Knox Miller described as haunted and somewhat like an airplane hanger, gave the band extra space to experiment with different microphone setups.

“The sound was unbelievable,” he said. “[The album] sounds like the space it was recorded in.”

In an interview with Straight.com, Miller said the quartet has plenty of material recorded and will “release ten or 12 songs.” He adds that they may hold 20 more songs to use as B-sides or “hoard like Neil Young.”

No word yet on which songs will make the cut, but our friends at TwentyFourBit have reported that on March 26th, Miller confessed to the crowd at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall that the effort would include the song “Apothecary”.

Still, Torrent rats can rest their sticky little fingers because Miller also told the audience that the album has merely been put to tape (Translation: Don’t expect any leaked copies of an un-mastered album to be floating around the Internets quite yet).

The Low Anthem, fresh off SXSW, is back in the midst of tour that runs through April.  The band has a block of empty dates in May and June, but it picks back up in late July to hit the festival circuit – including stops at the Newport Folk Festival and Germany’s Haldern Pop Festival.

If you’re unsure of whether you want to see this band or not, check out this performance of “This God Damned House” in an abandoned railway car by the Hudson River.

The Low Anthem 2010 Tour Dates:
03/31 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Café *
04/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room ^#
04/03 – Boulder, CO @ The Fox Theatre ^#
04/04 – Omaha, NE @ The Slowdown ^#
04/05 – Rock Island, IL @ Rock Island Brewing Co. ^&
04/06 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^#
04/07 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark ^#
04/10 – Toronto, CAN @ Church of the Redeemer ^
04/12 – Montreal, CAN @ Gesu^
04/14 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
04/16 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House *
04/17 – Northhampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall *
04/18 – Keene, NH @ Heberton Hall *
04/20 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club*
04/21 – Providence, RI @ Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
04/22 – Montplier, VT @ Bethany Church
04/23 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery
04/30 – Grantham, PA @ Messiah College ^%
07/22 – Floyd, VA @ Floydfest
07/31 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
08/12 – Rees-Haldern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, DE @ Haldern Pop Festival
08/15 – Leicester, UK @ Summer Sundae Festival
09/04 – Birmingham, UK @ Moseley Folk Festival
09/05 – Stradbally, IE @ Electric Picnic Festival
09/10 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival

*  = w/ Timbre Timbre
#  = w/ Nathaniel Ratecliff
& = w/ Nathaniel Ratecliff and Jason Collett (Broken Social Scene)
^  = w/ The Barr Brothers
% = w/ w/ White Rabbits

For one, joining the previously announced Pavement as the 2010 headliners will be My Morning Jacket and Massive Attack, both of which will likely be making their 2010 summer festival debut at Sasquatch. Other heavyweights confirmed to take part include Ween, Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, Band of Horses, The National, Public Enemy, Kid Cudi, and Passion Pit.

But wait… there’s more! Broken Social Scene, She & Him, The New Pornographers, The Hold Steady, Dirty Projectors, Drive-By Truckers, Minus the Bear, The Mountain Goats, Caribou, The xx, OK Go, The Long Winters, Quasi, and Camera Obscura will all also be taking part, as will Deadmau5, Simian Mobile Disco, No Age, The Temper Trap, Miike Snow, Why?, YACHT, and Neon Indian.

Still not done: You can also expect to see Fruit Bats, Midlake, Brother Ali, City & Colour, Portuga. The Man, Mayer Hawthorne, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Wale, Japandroids, Freelance Whales, Laura Marling, Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Low Anthem, The Very Best, Mumford & Sons, The Tallest Man on Earth, tUnE-YarDs, Fool’s Gold, DJ Z-Trip, Local Natives, The Middle East, Avi Buffalo, A-Trak, and Yes Giantess, as well as comedians like The Office’s Craig Robinson and The Daily Show’s Rob Riggle. Everyone who’s anyone? Duh.

Tickets, which you’ll need to attend, will go on sale this Saturday, February 20th via Ticketmaster.com. Three-day passes will initially go for $170.00, while single day tickets will start at $70.00. Camping spots will also be available then.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Sasquatch! 2010 bill, in alphabetical order:

A-Trak, Avi Buffalo, Band of Horses, Booka Shade, Boys Noize, Broken Social Sceen, Brother Ali, Camera Obscura, Caribou, City and Colour, Craig Ronbinson, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Dam-Funk, Deadmau5, Dirty Projectors, Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Fool’s Gold, Freelance Whales, Fresh Espresso, Fruit Bats, Garfunkel & Oates, Girls, The Hold Steady, Hudson Mohawke, Japandroids, Jets Overhead, Kid Cudi, Laura Marling, LCD Soundsystem, Local Natives, The Lonely Forest, The Long Winters, The Low Anthem, Luke Burbank, Massive Attack, Mayer Hawthorne, MGMT, Midlake, The Middle East, Miike Snow, Minus the Bear, Morning Teleportation, The Mountain Goats, Mumford & Sons, My Morning Jacket, Nada Surf, The National, Neon Indian, The New Pornographers, No Age, Nurses, OK Go, Passion Pit, Past Lives, Patrick Watson, Pavement, Phantogram, Portugal. The Man, Public Enemy, Quasi, Rob Riggle, Shabazz Palaces, She & Him, Simian Mobile Disco, The Tallest Man On Earth, Tegan & Sara, Telekinesis, The Temper Trap, tUnE-YaRdS, Vampire Weekend, The Very Best, Veviter, Wale, Ween, Why?, The xx, YACHT, Yes Giantess, DJ Z-Trip

First and foremost, there are a series of Haiti benefit concerts that have been put together. Perhaps the biggest of them is the telethon scheduled for this Friday, which will feature the likes of Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keys. Equally cool was The Red Hot Organization’s recent decision to send an emergency grant of $150,000 to Partners in Health to support the ongoing relief effort. Much of the money of the money that was donated came from the proceeds of last year’s indie-tastic Dark Was The Night compilation.

What’s more, a number of musicians are putting their talents to record for Haiti. As we told you earlier this morning, Jay-Z and U2 appear to be teaming up for collaborative affair. And then, there are two new compilation efforts, both which will offer unreleased material from some of music’s bigger names in exchange for charitable donations.

First and foremost, Dave Matthews Band, Slash, Lupe Fiasco, and Peter Gabriel are among the artists who have contributed to the Download to Donate to Haiti compilation, Rolling Stone reports. The album is part of Linkin Park’s Music for Relief, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception in 2005, Music for Relief has raised over $3 million for victims of multiple disasters across four continents and planted over 810,000 trees to help reduce global warming. Fans can pick up the album for free via musicforrelief.org, but are encouraged to leave donation.

Also worth nothing is Paste Magazine‘s Songs For Haiti charity drive. Individuals who donate to Haiti relief efforts will be given access to unreleased songs from the likes of Of Montreal, Ludacris, Cee-Lo Green, Avett Brothers, Hanson, Andrew Bird, Umprhey’s McGee, The Low Anthem, and some 200 others.

“Whether people donate through Paste or through another charity (just have to say where); all will have access to the vault of ‘Songs For Haiti’ MP3s. One hundred percent of the money contributed through the site will be spread equally among three charities active in Haiti relief: Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund,” Paste explains.

Head to songsforhaiti.org for more information and to download the songs. Seriously, new music for a tremendous cause? It doesn’t get much better than that.

Now in 2010, The Low Anthem aims to hit an even higher watermark with its first-ever headlining worldwide tour. The line-up begins in the UK with an already sold-out show at the Black Box Theatre in Belfast. (Their Dublin appearance, at Whelan’s in early February, is likewise fully booked. What’s up with The Low Anthem and Ireland?)

Late February will see the band back on North American shores for an exhaustive run of 39 shows. Highlights include a free show at the Kennedy Center followed by a club gig that night at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club, as well as another four days at South by Southwest.

The Low Anthem 2010 Tour Dates:
01/15 – New York, NY @ Abrons Art Center Festival of New Trumpet Music
01/27 – Belfast, UK @ Black Box Theatre
01/28 – Glasgow, UK @ Old Fruitmarket
01/30 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
01/31 – Groningen, NL @ Vear
02/01 – Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm
02/02 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
02/03 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club
02/04 – Dresden, DE @ Beatpol
02/05 – Ottersum, NL @ Culture Podium Roepaen
02/07 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy Birmingham
02/08 – Dublin, UK @ Whelan’s
02/09 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
02/11 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
02/23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
02/24 – Athens, OH @ Ohio University – Memorial Auditorium
02/26 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre
02/27 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
02/28 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
03/02 – Columbia, MO @ Missouri Theatre
03/03 – Midwest City, OK @ Rose State College
03/05 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
03/06 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
03/07 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
03/09 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Michigan Theatre
03/11 – Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center
03/11 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
03/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
03/13 – Carborro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
03/14 – Atlanta, GA @ TBD
03/15 – Nashville, TN @ Belcourt
03/17-20 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/22 – Santa Fe, NM @ Brewing Company
03/23 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush
03/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo at the Coronet Theatre
03/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theatre
03/26 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
03/28 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
03/30 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James Cathedral
03/31 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Lounge
04/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ State room
04/03 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
04/05 – Rock Island, IL @ Daytrotter Presents at Huckleberry’s
04/06 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
04/07 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
04/10 – Toronto, ON @ Church of the Redeemer
04/12 – Montreal, QC @ Gesu
04/14 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
04/16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House
04/17 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Ballroom

Having already been scheduled for an extensive US tour with The Low Anthem, Blind Pilot have just announced a string of 18 additional headlining dates that start up on November 13th at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont. The band will work their way down the East Coast with stops at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia and the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. After some shows in the upper Mid-West,  the tour will conclude with a performance on December 3rd at the Media Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. Blind Pilot will bring along fellow Portland recording artist Laura Veirs for this final leg of the tour.

Head on over to Ticketmaster to score some tickets in advance.

Blind Pilot 2009 Tour Dates:
10/09 – Astoria, OR @ Liberty Theater
10/19 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall &
10/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall &
10/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour &
10/24 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah &
10/25 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush &
10/27 – Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock at HOB &
10/28 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater &
10/29 – Austin, TX @ The Parish &
10/30 – Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon &
11/02 – Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder &
11/03 – Orlando, FL @ The Social &
11/04 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl &
11/05 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge &
11/06 – Asheville, TN @ University of North Carolina &
11/07 – Norfolk, VA @ Attucks Theater &
11/09 – Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle &
11/11 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat &
11/12 – Boston, MA @ Paradise &
11/13 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground #
11/14 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse #
11/17 – Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell’s #
11/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live #
11/19 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
11/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House #
11/21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe #
11/23 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark #
11/24 – Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio #
11/25 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall #
11/27 – Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot #
11/28 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater #
11/29 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge #
11/30 – Boise, ID @ The Linen Building #
12/02 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos #
12/03 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club #

& = w/The Low Anthem
# = w/Laura Veirs

Dropkick Murphys 2009 Tour Dates:

Boston’s Dropkick Murphys have mapped out a late fall U.S. and Canadian tour. Dates begin November 4th in Anaheim and will take the Irish punk rockers up the west coast and through Canada in the weeks that follow. So far, no east coast dates, but with a new album likely coming soon, those should be coming soon rather than later. Select tickets are available via Ticketmaster.com. Also on sale are all your necessary back to school items. Get those at dropkickmurphys.com.

11/04 – Anaheim, CA @ The Grove
11/05 – San Diego, CA @ Soma
11/06 – San Francisco, CA @ Fox Theater
11/07 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
11/08 – Bend, OR @ Midtown Ballroom
11/09 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
11/10 – Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory
11/11 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
11/13 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
11/14 – Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Event Centre
11/15 – Saskatoon, SK @ The Odeon Event Centre
11/16 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
11/19 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy
11/20 – Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
11/21 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros 2009 Tour Dates:

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros have sprinkled in a few U.S. tour dates around their upcoming festival appearances at the Monolith Festival, Musicfest NW, and Treasure Island Festival. For the better part of September, the Los Angeles based psych-folk collective will take its acclaimed, high-energy live show to a hodgepodge of venues across the U.S. Select tickets are available via Ticketmaster.com.

08/16 – Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge
08/17 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts
08/18 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
08/20 – London, UK @ The Lexington
08/22 – London, UK @ KOKO
08/23 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop
08/23 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival
08/25 – Berlin, DE @ Bang Bang Club
08/26 – Munich, DE @ Atomic Cafe
08/27 – Paris, FR @ Nouveau Casino
08/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
09/01 – Vienna, VA @ Jammin’ Java
09/02 – Cleveland, OH @ Case Western Reserve University
09/03 – Athens, OH @ Casa Cantina
09/05 – Milwaukee, WI @ Club Garibaldi
09/06 – Ames, IA @ The Maintenance Shop
09/08 – Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
09/11 – Lyons, CO @ Wildflower Pavilion
09/12 – Morrison, CO @ Monolith Festival
09/15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
09/17 – Portland, OR @ Musicfest NW
09/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10/03 – Pioneertown, CA @ Manimal Festival
10/18 – San Fransisco, CA @ Treasure Island Festival

The Low Anthem 2009 Tour Dates:

Fresh off a summer full of festival appearances, Rhode Island trio The Low Anthem will spend the latter part of 2009 in mostly intimate settings. The band has plotted out extensive leg for both Europe and the U.S. which will have the Anthem on the road from early September to mid-November. Joining them on the U.S. component of the trek will be Blind Pilot. Select tickets will be available via Ticketmaster.com.

08/14 – Richmond, VA @ The Canal Club
08/15 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
08/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Philadelphia Folk Festival
08/17 – Pittsfield, MA @ Word X Word Festival
08/18 – Block Island, RI @ Captain Nick’s
08/27 – Fall River, MA @ Narrows Center For the Arts
08/29 – Plymouth, MA @ Plymouth Waterfront Festival
09/03 – Dublin, IE @ Gaiety Theatre *
09/04 – Dublin, IE @ Gaiety Theatre *
09/05 – Stradbelly, IE @ Electric Picnic
09/06 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
09/08 – Newcastle, UK @ Cluny
09/10 – Oxford, UK @ Bullingdon Arms
09/11 – Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/12 – Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/13 – Isle of Wight, UK @ Bestival
09/15 – Munich, DE @ Atomic Cafe
09/16 – Milan, IT @ La Salumeria Della Musica
09/17 – Zurich, CH @ El Lokal
09/18 – Frankfurt, DE @ Broftabrik
09/19 – Cologone, DE @ Gebaude 9
09/20 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
09/21 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust
09/23 – Amsterdam, NL @ De Duif
09/24 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
09/25 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
09/26 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
10/02 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/15 – Providence, RI @ Avon Cinema
10/17 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
10/18 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
10/19 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall ^
10/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall ^
10/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour ^
10/24 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah ^
10/25 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush ^
10/27 – Austin, TX @ The Parish ^
10/28 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater ^
10/29 – Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock ^
10/30 – Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon ^
11/02 – Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder ^
11/03 – Orlando, FL @ The Social ^
11/04 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl ^
11/05 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge ^
11/06 – Asheville, NC @ University of North Carolina ^
11/07 – Norfolk, VA @ Attucks Theater ^
11/09 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle ^
11/11 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat ^
11/12 – Boston, MA @ Paradise ^

* = w/ Ray Lamontagne
^ = w/ Blind Pilot

All the more so when performed live, as band members Ben Knox Miller, Jocie Adams and Jeff Prystowsky — I am loathe to attach instruments to their names, as over the course of the evening each dutifully and beautifully played virtually every one of them that sat onstage, from clarinet to drums, electric bass to upright bass — create an aura of pensive, pristine, earthy joyousness. “To The Ghosts that Write History Books,” one of many songs off their recently re-released album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and their second number of the set, felt both uplifting and funereal. Same went for their next one, “This Goddamn House,” penned by band-friend Dan Lefkowitz and very Elvis Perkins-sounding in execution (that may be no coincidence at all, as both bands were borne out of Brown University) until its very end, when Miller whistled the song’s final mournful notes into a pair of cell phones that were on a connection with one another, adding an otherworldly, decidedly non-folk feel.

It took until about the sixth song for The Low Anthem to muster up a beat, but when it did, with an amped-up, hip-swinging, rollicking, electricfied cover of Tom Waits’ “Home I’ll Never Be,” the crowd reacted feverishly. If there is something problematic about The Low Anthem, it’s that the group plays odd music to go out and see. You don’t rock out to this stuff; you don’t even really sway to it, or even necessarily smile. But it does help that the band members are clearly enjoying themselves — even if Miller’s the only one who ever really says a word.

“The record is a bit obsessed with Charles Darwin,” was one thing Miller said towards the end of their set. Hopefully that means that the band will only continue to evolve, and to prove as life-affirming as they were Monday night.

———

After sharing its April tour dates with Elvis Perkins in Dearland, The Low Anthem begins a series of headlining gigs in May, hopscotching between the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, with numerous festival appearances on both sides of the pond.

Heaps of praise have been bestowed upon the band, particularly since its half-dozen performances at SXSW back in March, which grabbed the attention of the New York Times and BBC Radio. NPR chose the single “To Ohio” as a Song of the Day in January, and critical comparisons have ranged from Dylan to Waits, Simon & Garfunkel to Joni Mitchell.

Needless to say, it might be worthwhile to check them out this summer…

The Low Anthem 2009 Tour Dates:
05/13 – London, UK @ The Slaughtered Lamb
05/14 – London, UK @ The Slaughtered Lamb
05/16 – Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape Festival
05/18 – Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
05/19 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
06/06 – Coventry, RI @ Rhode Island Sustainable Living Festival
06/06 – Peterborough, NH @ The Thing in the Spring at Union Congressional Church
06/11 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music Festival
06/15 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
06/18 – Cambridge, MA @ The Brattle Theatre
06/23 – London, UK @ Union Chapel
06/26 – Glastonbury, UK @ Glastonbury Festival
06/27 – Glastonbury, UK @ Glastonbury Festival
06/28 – London, UK @ Hard Rock Calling
07/04 – London, UK @ O2 Wireless Festival
07/04 – Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli
08/01 – Newport, RI @ George Wein’s Folk Festival
08/08 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
08/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Philadelphia Folk Festival
09/04 – Stradbally, IE @ Electric Picnic
09/11 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
10/02- Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits