I worship at the church of karaoke. The parishoners and I are there to confess and meditate, to feel welcomed by a community, to hear a good sermon or two, to perchance see someone speak in tongues and have the words of the Lord Bon Jovi be channeled through a mere mortal. And, of course, to have some drinks and venture to make complete fools out of ourselves.

Karaoke exists in a vacuum of taste, where anomalies and exceptions always seem to arise and mess with my preconceptions. Maybe, like me, this is the only time you can really tolerate a Billy Joel song. Maybe those two dudes doing Sum 41′s “Fat Lip” actually sound kinda good, or that girl who’s really giving it the old college try on “Since U Been Gone” elicits all this empathy, and dammit you can’t be mad because she’s having fun!

This list — boiled down, mind you, from literally hundreds of runner-ups — is an extension of that feeling that happens when you flip through the entire karaoke book and you don’t see one song you want to sing. After polling the staff and consulting some of my long-time karaoke buddies, these are the songs we all wish would be added to the karaoke canon that we personally have never seen before (we are excluding the deep cuts in Austin’s Karaoke Underground book).

And if it’s one thing most of these songs have in common, they’re totally depressing. Sorry. To make up for that, and in contrast to a lot of karaoke standards, a whole grip of these songs don’t require you to have a good voice. In fact, you could be totally tone-deaf and still do an absolutely kick-ass version of  The Fall’s “Totally Wired” because the song isn’t about impressing Cee-Lo and Adam Levine with pitch and tone, it’s about the performance. There’s plenty more like that on the list that I felt would always be fun — songs that don’t focus on notes as much as they do putting on a great show.

Don’t fret, choir nerds, it’s not all post-punk pogo-dance chant standards. There’s plenty of new vocal challenges all over the list, from tUnE-yArDs to Jeff Buckley to Dirty Projectors to Hasil Adkins. There’s a lot more. Who knows, there may even be another list further down the road. What songs would you like to sing at Karaoke that are never in the books? Let us know in the comments.

You can access the entire list on Spotify. Enjoy!

-Jeremy D. Larson
Managing Editor

Andrew Bird – “Fake Palindromes”

When to sing:  After a couple glasses of wine to keep the voice nice and velvety. It’s a short one.

Make sure to:  “Monsters?”

Animal Collective – “For Reverend Green”

When to sing: Get this out of the way early, but don’t lead with it. Avey Tare’s vocals on this are daunting, histrionic, and require full commitment or else you will be laughed off stage for singing Animal Collective at karaoke. No guarantees for that not happening anyway.

Make sure to: Differentiate between the two “Lucky child don’t know how lucky she is” parts.

Arcade Fire – “Keep The Car Running”

When to sing: Great lead-off song — not too difficult to sing, short and sweet, not too obscure, speaks for itself.

Make sure to: Totally go for it on the “Ohhhh ohhh” and punch the air on that final snare hit like a hero.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Can’t Hear My Eyes”

When to sing: When you want to sing  “Brandi” by Looking Glass, but you can’t quite remember how the bridge goes, or even if there is a bridge to the song.

Make sure to: Not have a catastrophic meltdown, but you should really be laying down on the ground and arching your back over the monitors.

Azealia Banks – “212″

When to sing: After midnight, after your confidence level has peaked,  after you contemplate that Azealia Banks isn’t even old enough to do Karaoke and put this song out.

Make sure to: Have this shit well-rehearsed, because the cadence of “Bet you do like to slumber, don’t you?” is not going to come to you when you’re reading it off the teleprompter. Good luck deciding on whether or not to drop the C-bomb. That’s on you.

Beat Happening – “Cast A Shadow”

When to sing: When the eyelids are heavy, and the 500 yard stare can be trained on not just anyone, but definitely someone.

Make sure to: Study/mimic Ted Leo’s performance of it at Underground Karaoke at Matador 21.

Best Coast – “When I’m With You”

When to sing: Right after you get back inside from smoking a joint in the ally and you tell that cute guy that “this next song’s for you.”

Make sure to: Ask the DJ if he can turn up that reverb.

The Black Keys – “10 A.M. Automatic”

When to sing: When you can’t quite put into feelings that guy’s t-shirt with a bald eagle on it.

Make sure to:  Put a little extra spit on those vocals like they used to do.

Black Lips – “Bad Kids”

When to sing: After a round of Jager, or Car Bombs, or Liquid Cocaine, and after you tell them you’re absolutely not going to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Make sure to: Get, like, seven people on the stage.

Bon Iver – “Skinny Love”

When to sing: When you roll up to Karaoke solo, after several drinks isolated in a cold corner of the bar, and only when the weight of the world is on your heart.

Make sure to: Sulk back to your chair when it’s all over, back to your “cabin,” as it were.

The Breeders – “One Divine Hammer”

When to sing: Directly before or after someone sings Pixies – “Hey”.

Make sure to: Remember that this song is wicked filthy — direct eye contact with crowd is at your own risk. (Dudes, ask if they have the Clockcleaner version — it’s arguably better.)

Bright Eyes – “The Calendar Hung Itself”

When to sing: There’s no real bad time to sing this, the preeminent emo song of them all, but it’s more about when you have wherewithal to sing Oberst’s lyrics.

Make sure to: Render everyone so awestruck they all want to buy you a drink at the end of it — you’re clearly not in a good place right now.

Built To Spill – “Car”

When to sing: A great opener, before you’re even finished with your first drink.

Make sure to: Close your eyes by the third “I want to see, movies of my dreams,” or you’re not doing it right.

Cibo Matto – “Birthday Cake”

When to sing: In the environment where this song is an option, everyone’s going to be OK with it any time, but it’s definitely one of those songs to play if your equilibrium’s altered to the point where pitch is “optional”.

Make sure to: Get all of Miho Hatori’s eccentricities and dialect, especially the way she says “birthssday cake.”

CYHSY – “The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth”

When to sing: When you are sure that this song will burrow into the soul of everyone watching – so, late in the night.

Make sure to: Slur each and every word, purposefully or not.

College & Electric Youth – “A Real Hero”

When to sing: After (or during) a big knife fight in the back of a bar. I don’t know if this song will ever escape its role as the soundtrack to Ryan Gosling driving off into the sunset.

Make sure to: Channel Bill Murray singing “More Than This” and you’ll be on the right track.

Das Racist – “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”

When to sing: When you want to comment on consumptive corporate consumerism to a bar full of drunk people.

Make sure to: Replace “Jamaica Ave.” with a local thoroughfare in your city to try to get the message to resonate with your audience.

The Decemberists – “Don’t Carry It All”

When to sing: When you don’t want to sing “You Don’t Know How It Feels”, but you actually kinda do. Here’s something that sounds almost exactly the same.

Make sure to: Partake in the same kind of theatrics that The Decemberists do on stage and pretend that you’re a whale and try to eat the audience. This will go over well.

Dent May – “Eastover Wives”

When to sing: When you want to sing “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” but you’re never sure which of the 12 versions they’ll put on.

Make sure to:  Dance your white ass off while you’re up there.

Destroyer – “Your Blues”

When to sing: When the idea of singing another Bob Dylan song seems completely “repulsive,” but you’re still not of the inclination to “sing exact notes.”

Make sure to: BYO condenser mic and hold it delicately between your thumb and index finger.

Dirty Projectors – “Stillness Is The Move”

When to sing:  Get this one done early in your set – that little run up to that really high note in the pre-chorus can’t be easy after 3+ drinks. Nailing this song will win the affections of the boy in the Owen Pallett tee.

Make sure to: Remember those quiet riffs Angel Deradoorian does at the end. If you bring those out, Owen Pallett guy will definitely buy you another glass of merlot.

Dismemberment Plan – “You Are Invited”

When to sing: When you feel the tenor of the evening has taken a turn for the worse and want to relay a message of acceptance, positivity, and sing one of the greatest damn songs ever.

Make sure to: Work the crowd and tell the story – be the light at the end of all of these barfly’s nights, especially the guy who just sang “Hurt” seemingly without irony.

Elliott Smith – “Waltz #2 (XO)”

When to sing: It’s not as huge of a bummer as, say, “Needle in the Hay” or “Twilight”, but for those who like bumming people out at karaoke, this should be your go-to bummer jam. Bonus points if you bring your mother along.

Make sure to: Nail the “and on and on and on” perfectly or Howard Sims will be there with his shepherd’s crook so fast.

The Fall – “Totally Wired”

When to sing: The obvious time is after you just did some coke in the bathroom but feel free to make it a joke song — change lyric to “tired”!

Make sure to:  Respect Mark E. Smith and add a supurflous “uh” after every phrase (“I’m totally weird-uh, to be wired-uh”).

The Flaming Lips – “Do You Realize??”

When to sing: Late enough and drunk enough so that you consider Wayne Coyne’s questions about universe. The precise moment this can happen varies greatly from person to person.

Make sure to: Really ask the question, every time. It’s not a rhetorical question, it’s incredulous! Grapple with reality up there.

Free Energy – “Dream City”

When to sing: When you want to sing “The Boys Are Back In Town” but the last time you did you got kicked off stage for trying to sing all three lines of the guitar solo by yourself.

Make sure to: Wear a leather jacket.

Frightened Rabbit – “The Modern Leper”

When to sing: After an unstable amount of whiskey, and after you overheard someone talk about Mumford.

Make sure to: Think about the Scottish accent, but man, don’t go all Groundskeeper Willie on it. Let it alone if you have doubts.

Fugazi – “Waiting Room”

When to sing: When you have two people who can do both Guy Piccatio’s and Ian McKay’s parts. Then, and only then, should you do “Waiting Room”.

Make sure to: Sing when you feel like the fever of the room is about at this level.

Girls – “Lust for Life”

When to sing: It’s such a short song (only a minute and 30 seconds of singing) that it needs to be early on when people might still be paying a bit of attention. No flare, just a great song.

Make sure to: Figure out how Christopher Owens does the half pouty/half whiney thing before you step up.

Gogol Bordello – “Start Wearing Purple”

When to sing: After your fifth shot of Stolichnaya, and only if you’re wearing suspenders.

Make sure to: Take off your shirt but keep your suspenders on. Also buy a round of vodka for everyone pre-song and toast the audience during the high note and you will be crowned King Gypsy-Punk for the rest of the night.

Grinderman – “No Pussy Blues”

When to sing:  When you’ve squeezed the last ounce of pathos out of  ”Just a Gigolo”, and you’ve just gotta lay down some real talk with the bar.

Make sure to: Never unclench your teeth throughout the whole song — that’s part one of the Nick Cave impression. This is part two.

Guided By Voices – “Tractor Rape Chain”

When to sing: When you think you’re as drunk as Robert Pollard would be.

Make sure to: Elucidate to the DJ (and audience) that the word in questions is (probably) referring to parallel lines made by a tractor in a rapeseed field. Or not — your call.

Hasil Adkins – “She Said”

When to sing: After some rye whiskey, moonshine, or corn liquor.

Make sure to: Not memorize the lyrics, but memorize how Adkins says the words, which will be no where near how they are supposed to sound. The whole thing will work better if you pronounce “head” like “hayee.”

Hunx and His Punx – “U Don’t Like Rock N Roll”

When to sing: Immediately after some group of moms sings “I Love Rock  Roll”. That would be great.

Make sure to:  Wear a bedazzled leather jacket. Pants optional.

Interpol – “Obstacle #1″

When to sing: When you’re wearing black suit, shirt and tie, and you’re totally ready to make the same note that spans over 50% of the song interesting.

Make sure to: Import Carlos D’s New York Doesn’t Really Care swagger.

Islands – “Rough Gem”

When to sing: After someone sings Whitesnake or Dokken or Aerosmith — when things are decidedly un-twee.

Make sure to: Play air piano on those three timeless piano plunks on the chorus.

Jamie Lidell – “Multiply”

When to sing: When you want to sing  Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat” but don’t want to hear anyone say “Why didn’t you do the Napolean Dynamite dance?”

Make sure to: Right after you fling your leopard-print suit-jacket on and take one last sip of your dirty martini. Study up on Lidell’s dance moves.

Janelle Monáe feat. Big Boi – “Tightrope”

When to sing: Two or three times a night is totally acceptable.

Make sure to:  Put in the version with the rap in it. I’m sure they have it, but you don’t want to get all “Waterfalls (No Rap)” on the mic. Also, put some voodoo on it, yeah?

Jay Reatard  - “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me”

When to sing: If you’re feeling like Jay, or if you’re feeling like a tribute to Jay.

Make sure to: Have a lot of fun singing a really, really dismal, depressing song.

Jeff Buckley – “Grace”

When to sing: On a night where you truly think that you can sing this. Which means you’re a ringer and you don’t really belong at the karaoke joint, or your liquid courage has overcome your actual talent. Also acceptable: on a $50 dare.

Make sure to: If nothing else, if you punt the riffing or that high G and make Buckley roll over in his grave, just make sure you hit the last little vocal riff — it’s just too perfect.

Jens Lekman – “The Opposite of Hallelujah”

When to sing: After a glass of champagne or two, when those bubbles start to go to your head and put a spring in your step. You’ll need it for those tambourines and handclaps.

Make sure to: Mime picking up a seashell to illustrate your homelessness. You can be the crab, too, if you feel so inclined.

The Jesus Lizard – “Seasick”

When to sing: Preferably after someone sings “Piano Man”, or something really just bad. Show them what bad really means.

Make sure to: Bow/curtsey gracefully when you’re done. Expect it to go something like this. If it’s not going like that, you’re doing it wrong.

Joanna Newsom – “Inflammatory Writ”

When to sing: When you’re wearing a flowery dress and want to be the first person to sing the words “poetaster” and “ululate” in a bar.

Make sure to: It’s got the swagger of a great drinking song, so hoist your stein and rock to and fro, and sing heartily about mollusks’ weddings and writers’ block.

Joy Division – “Transmission”

When to sing:  Because it’s not really a participation song and, depending on where you take it, more of a performance, doing this early in the night is advisable, odd as it may seem.

Make sure to: Not mimic Ian Curtis’ dance moves. You can’t do them, and may god help you if you get laughs. Totally cool to be inspired by Curtis, though.

The Knife – “Heartbeats”

When to sing: After everyone’s had enough clear, expensive drinks to get down to this sultry slow burner.

Make sure to: Not pick the Jose Gonzalez version and get all “Blower’s Daughter” on everyone.

Kurt Vile – “Freak Train”

When to sing: When you want to transfer your drunken ramblings from the bar to the mic. In fact, you could have never heard this song and as long as you’re all-in on the lyrics, it will be fantastic.

Make sure to:  Just walk right into a cab when you’re done singing because you shouldn’t be fit to drink anymore.

Lana Del Ray – “Video Games”

When to sing: It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you.

Make sure to: Everything you do, you tell me all the time.

LCD Soundsystem – “Drunk Girls”

When to sing: When you hear someone of any sex go, “Oh my god where did Chrissy even go?” and when you got a posse behind you to to shout “drunk girls” and “drunk boys.”

Make sure to: BYO Sennheiser 509.

Lush – “Ciao! (feat. Jarvis Cocker)”

When to sing:  When you’re sick of duets that only serve to profess two people’s Endless Love for one another and you want one that’s just full of bile and vitriol.

Make sure to: If you want, play the opposite emotion, like the audition scene from Mulholland Dr!

M.O.P. – “Ante Up”

When to sing: When the “Scenario” call-and-response just doesn’t seem hard enough.

Make sure to: Go so hard. If you’re not aggro-rapping like Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame, you will fall into another terrible hip-hop karaoke performance so ante up.

Mclusky – “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues”

When to sing:  When no one can see, or hear, and it’s the end of the world and you’re ushering everyone to their graves with the karaoke version of “Nearer My God To Thee”.

Make sure to:  Intone “sell me to wonderluuust” like Andy Falkous does.

Misfits – “Where Eagles Dare”

When to sing: After doing a “waterfall” with your group because you signed them up for this and they’re all going to…

Make sure to:  Huddle around the mic, arms around each other, and show everyone what a drunken group shout song really sounds like.

Mission of Burma – “That’s When I Reached For My Revolver”

When to sing:  Since it doesn’t have the bite that some of these other post-punk numbers do, you can sing it early and embrace that final chorus in arena-karaoke fashion.

Make sure to:  Not pick the Moby version. Ahh, that’s not a half-bad version.

The Mountain Goats – “This Year”

When to sing: When the taste of scotch is rich on your tongue, naturally.

Make sure to:  To do that little “ahha” thing before “listen to the engine whine.” And, make it through this night, if it kills you.

My Morning Jacket – “Gideon”

When to sing: Probably one of the hardest songs on this list, so you could really bring the place down if you’re aligned for it. If you got that high note, go for it anytime, and show that dude who just did “With Or Without You” what the deal is.

Make sure to:  Remember that you can hit the super high note like Jim James does live  – just scream that sawngun out.

The National – “Mr. November”

When to sing: This fall seems to be another perfect time, no?

Make sure to: Amble through the crowd really slowly, steadily stepping on tables and chairs, and if you run into a tiny girl in the bar, do this.

Neutral Milk Hotel – “Song Against Sex”

When to sing: When you want to sing “Too Drunk To Fuck” but you don’t have the drugs to take to soothe  your mind — you’re always sober.

Make sure to: To preface your performance by alerting the audience that there will be strictly be no video recording or photography of any kind. In fact, you should probably be doing that before every song anyway.

The New Pornographers – “Bleeding Heart Show”

When to sing: When you have a cast of at least A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, and Dan Bejar to join up for the “Hey la’s”, a crucial moment that cannot be left to the karaoke track.

Make sure to: Just give the guy who’s playing Dan Bejar a tambourine and a drink. He doesn’t need to be on stage the whole time.

Nick Lowe – “I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass”

When to sing: Such a great lead-off song, or you could win the night if you can get the DJ to give you a fast pass to the mic right after someone breaks a pint glass.

Make sure to: Bring your drink up there and then either pretend to drop it and laugh it off and wink, or throw it to the ground and stare directly at the audience and stand perfectly still until you are escorted from the stage.

Of Montreal – “Gronlandic Edit”

When to sing: To make an entrance upon arriving at the bar, as the beat is conducive to Night at the Roxbury-style head-bobbing and/or your own personalized moonwalk. With moves like those, you’ll get mic priority in no time.

Make sure to: Bring some friends in a boys’ choir to sing the high falsetto.

Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines”

When to sing:  At the peak of the night — only because I think this is one of the better karaoke songs. It’s got the makings of one of those “gather ’round, we’re doing ‘Lost Coastlines’” vibes.

Make sure to: Use the little instrumental break that everyone in the bar has to sing the “La, la, la la la la,” part that’s coming up. It’s such a perfect place to explain it.

Patti Smith – “Free Money”

When to sing: Be true to Patti and do it sober!

Make sure to: Not go all Natalie Merchant/10,000 Maniacs on this one — your melody rides the feeling.

Pavement – “Unfair”

When to sing: When you’re at a place on the Sunset Strip and you don’t want to sing “AEnima” again because no one really got it the first time.

Make sure to: Bring out those Malkmus histrionics and also let the DJ know that there really should be like every Pavement song in this book.

Peaches – “Fuck the Pain Away”

When to sing:  When the idea of singing “Closer” seems too dominant and chauvinistic, and you want something a little more coquettish and submissive, yet just as fucking graphic.

Make sure to: Go in knowing that you’re about to say “Fuck the Pain Away” 24 times, and pray for semantic satiation.

The Pharcyde – “Oh Shit”

When to sing: When you want to sing “Things That Make You Go Hmmmm” but you’ve got a team of tenors with you.

Make sure to: Just get a lady to sing Slimkid3′s verse because come on.

Pixies – “Hey”

When to sing: Directly before or after someone sings The Breeders – ”One Divine Hammer”.

Make Sure To: Interact with the singer of “One Divine Hammer”. This is your future wife, or at the very least you should start a band together.

PJ Harvey – “Words that Maketh Murder”

When to sing: When you’re pretty sure everyone’s either ready to go get eggs at the local diner, or you’re desperately seeking the attention of the guy or girl wearing brown and black in the corner next to The Addams Family pinball game.

Make sure to: Start loud, get soft, and then just sort of decide whether you want to finish loud or just repeat the harmonies or pass out.

Portishead – “All Mine”

When to sing: It’s such a James Bond-y torch song – the one that can bring you glory and fame – depending on your skill set.  After midnight, to be sure, and after you’ve told seven different men your seven different names.

Make sure to:  Ask if, just this once, you can smoke in here.

R. Kelly – “Trapped In The Closet”

When to sing: This for the KJ. If you’re ever a KJ, what you do is you learn the first 10 or so parts to this magnum opus and interpolate them throughout the night. This really is the best thing a KJ could do.

Make sure to: Pull out your beretta when things get heated.

The Rapture – “Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks”

When to sing: After the idea of impressing people with your voice has long since faded, and you believe you can entertain the masses by doing one simple thing:

Make sure to: Shake shake shake shake shake shake shake shake shake shake.

Regina Spektor – “Your Honor”

When to sing: Trying to explain to the bouncer that your belligerently drunk friend is just “fighting for your honor” and/or distract the bouncer by creating the first Regina Spektor-inspired mosh pit ever.

Make sure to: Grab an unsuspecting audience member to forcefully air-kiss.

The Replacements – “Bastards of Young”

When to sing: Right after a heated argument about what you’re doing with your life, or HBO’s Girls. The kind of performance you give will hang on how drunk you are — but that’s kind of the point with The Mats.

Make sure to: Tell the DJ that he should have literally every Replacements song in the book.

Rilo Kiley – “Silver Lining”

When to sing: You’ve been politely shot down by the fourth cute guy you’ve approached at the bar- is it your fault they’re all “seeing someone”?- and you want to show all those guys what they’re missing.

Make sure to: Not confuse it with “Dreams”. Trust me, those chord changes really sound the same, especially after one drink too many.

Rufus Wainwright — “14th Street”

When to sing: After a bottle of wine, and when you’re in any city with a gridded downtown, doesn’t matter how big.

Make sure to: Play up Wainwright’s slur if you have to and find that perfect three-glasses-of-wine legato.

Ryan Adams – “Halloweenhead”

When to sing: It doesn’t have to be October to chant this one across the bar. Be ironic, or find your inner Jack Skellington, and belt this out at Christmas shindigs everywhere.

Make sure to: ”Guitar solo!”

Scott Walker – “Jackie”

When to sing: When you can see the bottom of your first elderflower cocktail, and after you place a mint leaf behind your ear.

Make sure to: Indicate just as much, if not more, than Walker does in the above video. “My beard so very long and flowing” being one example of a shining moment for pantomime.

The Shins – “Gone For Good”

When to sing: A perfect song for an afternoon karaoke session, or one of your first songs.

Make sure to: Bring a friend who can do those harmonies cause they’re so breezy.

Silver Jews – “Punks In The Beerlight”

When to sing: Right before you propose to your burnout girlfriend.

Make sure to: Bring your punk up there with you.

Sleater-Kinney – “Dig Me Out”

When to sing: After you’ve grown tired of the same polite rebuffs you’ve been giving all night and want to transform your face into a giant “back the hell up off” sign.

Make sure to:  Furrow the brow, clench the mic, and curtsy at the end.

Sleigh Bells – “Rill Rill”

When to sing: When you want everyone to get up and sway together without singing “Time of Your Life”. Once that Funkadelic sample kicks in, it’s only natural.

Make sure to: Wear just one fingerless glove and a string of bullets, if you’ve got ‘em.

Spoon – “The Underdog”

When to sing: You’re sloppy, stained with kisses, and your high school girlfriend you haven’t spoken to in over a decade has just walked through the door.

Make sure to: Take a page or two from Tom Jones – dance, dance, dance with the horns!

The Strokes – “15 Minutes”

When to sing: That one night you decide to be bold and wear the leather jacket, despite the fact that your friends all joke around and call you “The Fonz.”

Make sure to: Stay focused, despite that dreamy guitar solo, watch for the changes, and try to keep up at the end.

Sufjan Stevens – “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”

When to sing:  When you’re sure that you can come back from it. This is for advanced artists only.

Make sure to:  …I don’t even know. I just kind of want to hear someone sing it and just live in whatever weird moment that it manifests forever.

Supergrass – “Alright”

When to sing: Someone’s brought up at least one reference to Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Jeremy Sisto, or anything having to do with 1995′s Clueless.

Make sure to: Really belt out “But we are young!”, especially if it’s your 30th birthday.

Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – “Insistor”

When to sing:  When you want to sing Violent Femmes, but you’d rather sing a song about being a badger. The song has a great arc to it, so it should take care of itself.

Make sure to: Add that big scream in the final chorus.

Television – “See No Evil”

When to sing:  Right after the girl who sang Patti Smith asked you, “So, what are you singing?”

Make sure to:  Turn in your best Tom Verlaine impression (sing everything just a little behind the beat), and bring a beer to drink during that killer guitar solo.

The-Dream – “Yamaha”

When to sing:  When you want to branch out from your Prince standards, and “Darling Nikki”.

Make sure to:  Wear your motorcycle jacket, and take some names, lil’ mama.

The Thermals – “Here’s Your Future”

When to sing: On the eve of any Catholic-related holiday.

Make sure to: Keep the nasal passages clear; otherwise, you’ll have everyone asking what Springsteen song this is.

Titus Andronicus – “No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future”

When to sing:  After a three-Jameson rocks, and you get the idea that the only way anyone will like you tonight is if you bring everyone down to your level.

Make sure to:  Plant some ringers in the audience for the “You will always be a loser” part, and if you get everyone singing at the end you’ll be a karaoke loser forever.

Tom Waits – “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You”

When to sing: When the night is squinting back at you, and there’s only about five people in the bar, and the bartender is wiping down the bar half-interested in what you’re doing.

Make sure to:  At the end, tell everyone to tip their bartenders.

tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”

When to sing: Like “Tightrope”, as often as possible.  

Make sure to: BYO face paint, and see if you can find a way to do that vibrato thing Merril does at the start of the second verse.

TV On The Radio – “Wolf Like Me”

When to sing: After a spirited conversation about what, ultimately, is the best TV On The Radio song.

Make sure to: Put in a good argument for “Wolf Like Me”.

The Velvet Underground – “Beginning To See The Light”

When to sing: When your night is striking a nice balance somewhere between Loaded and White Light/White Heat.

Make sure to: Just make up whatever melody/words you want during the verse.

The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”

When to sing: When you want to bring the sexual tension from “girl look at that cute guy” to “this is unbearable and I have to leave.”

Make sure to:  Not even attempt this if you can’t hit those high notes. Consult friends before singing and listen to them if they laugh at you.

Whiskeytown – “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight”

When to sing: When you’re drunk enough that your country roots start to show, but are still aware that you’re singing Ryan Adams.

Make sure to: Add that twang that Ryan Adams used to do.

Why? – “The Hallows”

When to sing: When you want to get back to the proto-hipster, and drop some fantastic white-boy rhymes on the mic.

Make sure to: Preface this song by “You’ve probably never heard of these guys” just for old-time’s sake.

Wilco – “Monday”

When to sing: After a couple of PBRs and after someone asks you if you know any country songs other than that Ryan Adams guy.

Make sure to: Infer that you do know more country songs, but few are as great as “Monday”.

Wild Flag – “Romance”

When to sing: I know it’s a new song in the canon, but really, when is there not a good time to sing this song?

Make sure to: Air-guitar throughout and slyly note to passersby that you saw Sleater-Kinney live before they split. Like, during the song.

Wire – “Ex Lion Tamer”

When to sing:  After you get done complaining about HBO’s Girls for the last hour and just want to grab everyone by the collars, and scream some metaphors in their faces. This is not an uncommon emotion.

Make sure to: Bring up a hype-man for the extra punch off from the mic when you sing the echo lines in the verse.

Wolf Parade – “This Heart’s On Fire”

When to sing: After about a pack of cigarettes into the night.

Make sure to: Leave absolutely all of it on stage.

Glasgow’s Belle & Sebastian are taking a breather after one exhaustive tour that saw them support last year’s Write About Love, but don’t let that get you down. Guitarist (and sometimes vocalist) Stevie Jackson returns in the band’s stead with (I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson, his debut solo effort. The 12-track effort is now available digitally through Jackson’s website, with a physical release to follow on October 24th.

According to Exclaim, the album includes material written as far back as 2006, though its mastering was only recently completed. Guesting alongside Jackson are The New Pornographers’ Kurt Dahle and John Collins, The Pastels’ Katrina Mitchell, and members of Belle and Sebastian, though frontman Stuart Murdoch remains noticeably absent. You can consult the tracklist, along with two cuts off the LP, below.

And if all that weren’t enough, the man’s decided to return to the road. Come November, he’ll be back to living from city to city, though it’s mostly a UK affair. Check out the dates after the jump.

(I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson Tracklist:
01. Pure of Heart
02. Just, Just So to the Point
03. Try Me
04. Richie Now
05. Dead Man’s Fall
06. Bird’s Eye View
07. Man of God
08. Kurosawa
09. Where Do All the Good Girls Go?
10. Telephone Song
11. Press Send
12. Feel The Morning

Stevie Jackson 2011 Tour Dates:
11/03 – Newcastle, UK @ Other Rooms
11/04 – Machester, UK @ Club Academy
11/06 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
11/07 – Birmingham, UK @ Glee Club
11/08 – Norwich, UK @ Waterfront
11/09 – London, UK @ Heaven
11/10 – Bristol, UK @ Thelka
11/11 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde
11/13 – Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms
11/14 – Koln, DE @ Luxor
11/15 – Hamburg, DE @ Gruenspan
11/16 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
11/18 – Den Haag, NL @ Crossing Border
11/19 – Gent, BE @ Charlatan
11/20 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
11/21 – Paris, FR @ Divan du Monde
11/25 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tut’s

Regardless of Lady Gaga’s lovey-dovey (not to mention gooey) thoughts on outer space, The New Pornographers‘ video for “Up in the Dark”, the fourth music video from last year’s Together, paints a far more realistic portrayal of the Great Unknown. Featuring giant spaceships, gritty working class folks, and subtitles (so arduous!), the tiny animated crew do a real day’s work by using lasers to tow a planet (not so arduous). At least it beats this.

Only 30 miles from the Twin Cities, SoundTown presents a feasible music festival option for Midwesterners who are expensive plane tickets away from live music hotbeds like Oregon, California, Austin, TX (which is practically a state), and New York. Though attendance was so sparse the ticket-sellers slashed prices from $50 per day to $25 in the week before the event and at times I felt ashamed of my Minneapolis brethren for not coming (only 30 miles? For 25 dollars?) to see The New Pornographers and Okkervil River, I kind of enjoyed feeling like an intrepid festival tastemaker.

They’re already planning the lineup for SoundTown 2012. I’m hopeful but skeptical that listeners will suddenly realize that SoundTown is a bargain. As Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit said, “We’re halfway between Minneapolis and Madison, two of our best rock and roll audiences on earth.” If the bands are already halfway there, surely Midwest music fans can do the same, especially when you can still tube down the Apple River and eat Foxy Falafel all in the same day!

-Harley Brown
Staff Writer

Friday, August 19th

Rustpocket – Summit Stage – 2:00 p.m.

Rustpocket was one of two bands to win Metromix Twin Cities’ SoundTown Showdown, and even though I arrived late to a tent with almost no one in it, I was impressed. “We’re the first band ever to play SoundTown!” they proudly proclaimed before advertising “free CDs for sale.” I can’t say I see Rustpocket breaking into the tight-knit Minneapolis music scene, but with their expertly executed shredding and anthemic choruses, I have no doubt they’ll succeed.

Charlie Parr – Metromix Stage – 2:30 p.m.

For a 12-string guitarist who plays with as much technical ability as guitar greats Leo Kottke and John Fahey, Charlie Parr had a remarkably diminutive stage presence. His between-song banter included a story about him and his son playing mini-golf after getting lost driving to SoundTown. He captivated the lawn-sitters and riled up the line dancers with old favorites like “Where You Gonna Be (When the Good Lord Calls You Home)”.

Zoo Animal – Summit Stage – 3:00 p.m.

One of several logistical problems at SoundTown was that the Metromix and Summit stages were far too close together. In order for a musician on one stage to be heard, the artist on the other stage had to end their set early. After Parr finished, everyone headed over to see Zoo Animal. Terse, irreverent singer and guitarist Holly Newson introduced the band with “We’re getting a little antsy, so we’re going to start with new material,” which they did for the majority of their short set. The band eschews religious labels even though Newsom writes many, if not all, her songs about her relationship with God. As always, Newsom transfixed with her stage fervor, thrashing and tossing her hair, and abruptly ran offstage after their last song.

Farewell Milwaukee – Metromix Stage – 3:45 p.m.

Once the thunderous applause for Zoo Animal died down, everyone trooped back over to the Metromix Stage to see six-piece Americana band Farewell Milwaukee (a seemingly popular local band name, with others like Farewell Continental and the Farewell Circuit). Their brand of country light, with low harmonies and plenty of acoustic guitar, didn’t particularly stand out from the other local acts; nonetheless, they played skillfully and the band’s set was perfect for a sunny afternoon on the grass before the rest of the action-packed day took off.

Apollo Cobra – Summit Stage – 4:15 p.m.

When I noticed that guy wearing the “I Fucking Love Kittens” t-shirt, I should have known he would be the frontman of ’80s hair metal dance band Apollo Cobra. Their outlandishly sexy set—which definitely sampled some riffs from “Heart of Glass”—sounded slightly out of place with the sun still up, but it entertained with funky bass lines and lyrics like “dance like a motherfucker.” And as the bassist sings, if “there’s a beat I like and a girl I like, let’s dance to this!” So I did.

Jeff Ray and the Stakes – 5:00 p.m.

“I know these assholes, and they’re really good.” That’s how Minneapolis folk/blues/country band Jeff Ray and the Stakes were introduced. With a harmonica, an acoustic steel slide guitar, what looked like a bongo, not to mention more traditional guitar and bass, they were truly “really good.” If there’s one thing Minnesota does well—some might say surprisingly well—it’s old-school blues. Unfortunately, I saw hardly any of their set because I wanted to make it over to Cory Chisel on the Main Stage.

Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons – Main Stage – 5:00 p.m.

I didn’t have high hopes for alt-country golden boy Cory Chisel after seeing his latest album, Death Won’t Send a Letter, in the discard bin at my radio station. But the native Wisconsinite, who cited Charlie Parr as an influence and grew up in North Minneapolis, charmed me. The stage’s security guard must have felt the same, because he brought Chisel a beer during new song “Guiding Star”. Even before Chisel dedicated the song to the burly, trucker-moustachioed man, his husky voice and the Wandering Sons’ dexterous playing would have been enough (for the many vocal female fans surrounding me, it was). The five-piece sounded much more soulful live than recorded, especially their song “Born Again”. The audience persuaded Chisel to perform the acoustic, gospel-like “These Four Walls”, a pitch-perfect end to SoundTown’s first main act.

More Than Lights – Summit Stage – 6:00 p.m.

More Than Lights is another band I initially had (still do, really) a difficult time getting my ears around, even though their orchestral, spoken-word hip-hop is beloved in the Twin Cities. On their first song, the band sang, not sampled, the choruses of Sublime’s “What I Got” and “Best of My Love” by The Emotions. Though they were sung with heart, I didn’t buy it. Local guest vocalist Alicia Steele stole the show with her throaty warbling and sassy dance moves. While other Summit and Metromix artists curtailed their sets to give their neighboring stage a chance to be heard, More Than Lights played until the end, which meant I had to miss local folk collective Roe Family Singers to catch Delta Spirit.

Delta Spirit – Main Stage – 6:45 p.m.

“Yeah! Somerset, Wisconsin!” Matt Vasquez yelled as he took the stage, good-naturedly mocking the sparse but enthusiastic audience. Without much further ado, Delta Spirit ripped through “Bushwick Blues” before Vasquez continued, “To be honest with you, I smoked pot today! It was great! God bless America!” The caliber of the performance and the band’s onstage banter reminded me why I’ve been wanting to see them for so long. Delta Spirit played a tight, raucous set, screaming and shredding like there was no tomorrow. Vasquez threw his guitar into the air after “Ransom Man”, letting it hit the stage on the third time; and guitarist Will (I know that because Vasquez coerced, and tuned, the audience into singing “Happy Birthday” to him) played a tambourine attached to a trash can lid for “Trashcan”. Delta Spirit played a new song, “Tear It Up”, and encored by covering country standard “Doin’ My Time” after singing the opening “Na, na na na na” salvo to classic football fight songs.

Jack Klatt and the Cat Swingers – Metromix Stage – 7:45 p.m.

I only caught a hot minute of Jack Klatt and the Cat Swingers’ set before leaving to see Sims at the adjacent Summit Stage (which turned out to be moot, because he was 20 minutes late. I’m guessing it’s because he wanted to give the Cat Swingers a chance to be heard.) The local, mostly ragtime, occasionally baroque blues-folk group incorporate a washboard and ukelele for an old-timey listening experience.

Sims – Summit Stage – 8:00 p.m.

I was looking forward to seeing Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree member Andrew Sims, aka Sims, as a solo act, since he released his latest record, Bad Time Zoo, to critical acclaim this past spring. Usually, he performs with the rest of the Doomtree crew, but this SoundTown performance served as a preview for his Good Time Zoo tour later this fall. With DJ and beatmaker Lazerbeak as his accompaniment, Sims started his set seemingly nervous, taking a while getting started and showing off his “dance moves.” He gained momentum as the set continued, playing newer songs “Bad Time Zoo” and “The Veldt” interspersed with older material. Unsurprisingly, the politically-minded rapper took a dig at Michele Bachmann, earning a unanimous roar of approval from the audience.

Ghostland Observatory – Main Stage – 8:45 p.m.

Ghostland Observatory was pretty much everything I thought it would be: earth-quaking bass and the best laser show I’ve ever seen (well, except for The Flaming Lips’ light show extravaganza, but we’ll get to that tomorrow). All their songs blended together into one long DJ set by Thomas Ross Turner, who donned a Count Dracula-like Chilean flag as a cape; but you could discern songs like “No Place for Me”, “Miracles”, and “Codename Rondo”. The lasers really peaked on the last song, starting and stopping, trance-like, with the spoken melody and the chorus’s repeated command to “listen.” Subtleties like the softer, funky ‘80s synth lines and Aaron Behrens’ vibrating falsetto were lost in migraine and/or seizure-inducing sonic and visual effects. Physically and mentally, I was forced to take a break before their set ended.

Roma di Luna – Summit Stage – 10:00 p.m.

Right before local darlings Roma di Luna took the stage, I found out that this show would be the group’s last performance. As soon as lead vocalist Channy Casselle took the stage without her husband, Alex, with whom she fronted the band, it slowly dawned on me why they were breaking up. Roma di Luna was understandably melancholy, eschewing their new, more upbeat material for old songs like “Plenty” off their debut, Find Your Way Home. Even though they are disbanding, Roma di Luna did debut a new song they’re “working on” called “Too Real”. Before the New Pornographers’ opening song drowned out Roma di Luna—I felt slightly guilty leaving for the Main Stage after Casselle said, “Now you won’t be able to hear us anymore”—her arrestingly creamy, round voice reminded rapt Minneapolitans how much we’ll miss her. That is, until we hear her recently announced new project, Polica.

The New Pornographers – Main Stage – 10:30 p.m.

A.C. Newman’s curmudgeonly stage banter and a noticeably absent Neko Case detracted from the New Pornographers’ usually effervescent pop. Don’t get me wrong. Songs like “The Laws Have Changed” and “Your Hands Together” still put a grin on my face (including Case substitute Kathryn Calder’s whistling, which I later realized may have been lip-synching), and the songs still sounded practically giddy live. It just felt like the New Pornographers were simply going through the motions. Granted, it’s not like the audience made things easy. After being pelted with glow sticks, Newman asked the audience how much they cost and said, “Let’s consume. Consume and prosper!” And then he brought up Minnesota versus Wisconsin, which I’m willing to bet contributed to the early mass exodus. Too bad everyone missed “The Bleeding Heart Show”, a highlight not even wayward glow sticks or age-old rivalries could diminish.

Saturday, August 20th

New Century Masters – Summit Stage – 12:45 p.m.

The New Century Masters’ jangly, guitar-and-keyboard-driven surf-pop was a great way to salvage an initially frustrating day that began stuck behind a lift bridge somewhere between Wisconsin and Minnesota. Despite the terrifically sunburned keyboardist not feeling well, New Century Masters played their first set with gusto anyway and ended by covering Syd Barret because, as the band said, “Who doesn’t love covers?”

Ghostmouth – Metromix Stage – 1:00 p.m.

Ghostmouth’s extensive sound check began even before New Century Masters went on, beginning each stage’s attempt to drown the other out. The other band that won the Metromix SoundTown Showdown, Ghostmouth adorned their stage with jack-o’-lanterns and their songs with fat bass lines and quick-fingered builds. Despite the band’s impressive technical ability, they didn’t play with as much enthusiasm as Rustpocket, who were clearly stoked to be one of the bands picked to play at SoundTown.

Phantom Tails – Summit Stage – 1:30 p.m.

One of my favorite local bands, Phantom Tails plays self-proclaimed “Deep Space Doom Funk,” which consists of hard, gritty synthesizers and drum machine beats backing vocalist Orion Treon’s jagged voice. They performed a few songs off their upcoming album but mostly stuck to their debut, Sounds of the Hunchback Whale. When they played dance-y headbanger “Oven of Romance”, the audience whooped its approval, to Treon’s pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the technician pulled the plug on Phantom Tails to give The Ericksons a chance to be heard.

The Ericksons – Metromix Stage – 2:00 p.m.

Even though both Summit and Metromix amped their sound in the tacit war between bands wanting to be heard, there was no way the soft, folk-y Ericksons would have been heard with another band playing in the background. Backed by a drummer, two sisters harmonized symbiotically and played electric and acoustic guitars. Though they cite the Pretenders as one of their influences, The Ericksons’ music hews closer to what it would sound like if Gillian Welch fronted Mountain Man.

Arms Akimbo – Summit Stage – 2:30 p.m.

The Arms Akimbo underwent a sonic rebirth after band member Nick Shaser returned from London and brought back an obsession with Britpop standards. Besides the uncanny Oneders resemblance on “You Want To”, you could hear a Clash-like brusqueness on “The Kids Still Love Us” and, obviously, when they covered The Beatles.

Solid Gold – Main Stage – 3:00 p.m.

Solid Gold remain one of those bands who have managed to successfully ride the coattails of their first full-length for several years—Bodies of Water, in addition to side projects like Gayngs and The Jah-hawks, a Jayhawks dub cover band—and they never fail to deliver live. Even playing during broad daylight, they coolly—with the exception of Zach Coulter rocking out on the guitar and his daughter, Birdie, who made an appearance grinning from ear to ear during the last song—grooved to signature, electronic, bedroom dance tracks like “Get Over It” and “Neon Rose”. In addition, they opened with the second Beatles cover of the day, “Norwegian Wood” (which also appears on Minnesota Beatles Project Volume 2). They also debuted some new songs like “Eat Your Young” from their forthcoming as-yet-untitled sophomore effort.

Joey Ryan and the Inks – Metromix Stage – 3:30 p.m.

I was surprised to see that Inks namesake Joey Ryan is also, apparently, the bassist for New Century Masters (although that’s how the Great Minnesota Music Collective works, I suppose). Even more surprising was that his wedding ring was conspicuously absent now that he was the center of attention as the lead vocalist. The band played mostly new material off Dennis Lane and closed with Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, owning the song’s high harmonies that fit in naturally with the Inks’ signature sound.

White Light Riot – Summit Stage – 4:15 p.m.

Despite their drummer suffering technical difficulties, White Light Riot surged through their soaring, epic rock and roll. Their minor chord-driven walls of noise sounded like Kings of Leon mixed with Colplay, which made for a compelling set even if all their songs sounded similar. Ultimately, there wasn’t enough staying power to keep me from Slick Rick (to be fair, not much could keep me from “La Di Da Di” and Doug E. Fresh).

Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh – Main Stage – 4:30 p.m.

A DJ began Slick Rick’s set with “Okay, this is hip-hop. Let’s go,” before “going back to hip-hop 101” with a mashup of the Beastie Boys’ “Brass Monkey”, “Be Faithful” by Brassman Scoop, and Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend”. Slick Rick’s extensive backing band took the stage before he arrived and did, in fact, perform “La Di Da Di”, “Mona Lisa”, and other classic samples to amp the audience. Before he began, Slick Rick admitted, “Sometimes I like the new school better than the old school.” Doug E. Fresh canceled at the last minute, so Slick Rick extended his set before quietly disappearing from the stage and leaving a rendition of Talib Kweli’s “Get By” in the hands of a guest rapper and his capable backup singers. In Doug E. Fresh’s stead, an as-yet-unnamed but supposedly 19-year-old preternaturally talented beatboxer—“I’d like to see him go up against Heatbox,” I overheard someone say after his uncanny imitation of Ginuwine’s “Pony”—performed between Slick Rick’s set and Okkervil River.

Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers – Metromix Stage – 5:00 p.m.

To prepare for Okkervil River, I headed back over to the other side of the festival grounds to listen to roots-y local band Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers. Maher, whose quietly commanding stage presence and voice resembled Bonnie Raitt, played slight, reverberating country tunes. “Aw, thank you,” she said repeatedly to an audience trickling in from the Main Stage, who lay supine on the sunny lawn before rousing themselves for barroom rockers White Iron Band on the Summit Stage.

White Iron Band – Summit Stage – 5:45 p.m.

With songs like “Whiskey River” and “Minnesota Song”, White Iron Band is from the Iron Range in northern Minnesota and proud of it, rocking out in cowboy hats and Carhartt overalls. “On the way down here, we stopped by the bar and drank some beers at 10:30, took some shots at noon, and now here we are.” The band’s brawling, boot-stompin’ drinking songs catered to an audience that already seemed to know all the words.

Pert’ Near Sandstone – Metromix Stage – 6:30 p.m.

With White Iron Band still creating a line-dancing mosh pit at the Summit Stage, lightning-fast, ragtime fiddlers Pert’ Near Sandstone had to wait until it was over to begin their set. Since they started at the same time as Okkervil River, I only had time to see their tap dancer practice his clogging moves before heading over to the Main Stage.

Okkervil River – Main Stage – 6:30 p.m.

“It’s an honor to be sharing a stage with Slick Rick,” singer Will Sheff said after Okkervil River’s opening waltz, “Wake and Be Fine”, off their spring release, I Am Very Far. With one reverb-heavy microphone and one regular one, Sheff faithfully rendered his tortured tenor in songs like “For Real”. The rest of the band, including world-class shredder, lead guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo, played an energetic but somewhat scattered set. The lack of focus made sense when Sheff removed his sunglasses and bassist Zach Thomas admitted he was a little high. Nonetheless, Okkervil River lived up to their proclamation of “Let’s fuck it up!” by riffing emphatically on “Rider” and “Black”. Before closing with “Lost Coastlines”, they covered the Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B”, which sounded even more sea shanty-like than the original.

Pink Mink – Summit Stage – 7:45 p.m.

After winning Minneapolis weekly City Pages’ coveted, critic-bestowed Picked 2 Click award last summer, grungy, female-fronted, punk rock quartet Pink Mink had gotten even better since the last time I saw them. With fast and furious time signatures and lyrics like “heavy metal cupcake / I’ll slap your handshake,” they more than held their own in hot-pink tights and sequined shift dresses. As I left the stage to catch DeVotchKa, Pink Mink finished with a Replacements cover, sending the already headbanging audience into a frenzy behind me.

DeVotchKa – Main Stage – 8:15 p.m.

In my humble opinion, DeVotchKa was the best act at SoundTown. Despite fearing a contact high from people lighting up all around me before The Flaming Lips, I continued to be amazed by Nick Urata’s pliant vibrato and whistling skills. The band’s deep understanding and creative interpretation of klezmer, Flamenco, and gypsy folk captivated this hardened journalist, who also definitely teared up during the opening bars of “How It Ends”. And then, DeVotchKa nailed an ominous, psychedelic “Venus in Furs”, which, like Okkervil River’s “Sloop John B”, seriously rivaled its original. By the time Urata threw his bottle of red wine up in the air and it splashed all over the stage, I could have gone home happy.

Heiruspecs – Summit Stage – 9:30 p.m.

Like Pink Mink, Saint Paul hip-hop group Heiruspecs were much better at this time of night than when I saw them during a daytime showcase in the spring. They, too, incorporated human beat box Muad’dib into a set that eschewed samples in favor of vocalist Felix’s old-school lyrics and flow. They roused Summit Stage’s biggest audience with tracks like “Get Up” and “I Know”, even though Twinkie Jiggles and his upright bass have been replaced with another electric bassist. Despite the band’s dynamic performance and the tent’s dedicated response, everyone emptied out during the last song to get ready for The Flaming Lips.

The Flaming Lips – Main Stage – 10:15 p.m.

Even 24 hours later, I still don’t know where to begin. The Flaming Lips‘ Wayne Coyne emerged with the rest of his band from a screen that flashed, at different points, a glowing, naked lady smashing a high-hat; eyeballs; animal mouths; and a live feed of Coyne himself. He climbed into his giant, inflatable bubble and rolled around on top of the audience. Smoke, confetti, and dust rained down on everyone; there were giant, inflatable aliens and butterflies and about 50 Dorothy look-alikes throwing their bodies around onstage. That’s in addition to a 10-minute laser show and a giant gong that lit up when Coyne struck it. As some other esteemed music publications have said, you really should see The Flaming Lips before you die.

They did not play The Soft Bulletin, opting instead for opening with grungy psych-rocker “Worm Mountain” off Embryonic, followed by arguably their first hit “She Don’t Use Jelly”. After more songs from Embryonic including “See the Leaves” and “The Ego’s Last Stand”, Coyne led the audience in an acoustic sing-along of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1”. And, yes, since this was the sixth live show the band has played, The Flaming Lips indulged the audience with some Dark Side of the Moon.

I must say, while I respect Wayne Coyne as a musician, genius, and semi-deity, I don’t appreciate his attitude. My enjoyment of The Flaming Lips experience was seriously curtailed by Coyne’s incessant hyping. “Come on, you fuckers! Comeoncomeoncomeon! It’s Saturday night! We have a giant, inflatable alien onstage. Isn’t that enough for you? We came all the way out here to play for you! Come on, motherfuckers!” punctuated his stage banter and even interrupted what would otherwise have been a stirring rendition of “Do You Realize?”. I left the show satiated but disgruntled. (That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to see The Flaming Lips again.)

The Culture of SoundTown

[nggallery id=254]

Set to run October 13th-16th, this year’s festivities leads with Weezer, Jane’s Addiction, and Big Boi. Other highlights include Cut Copy, The New Pornographers, Ghostland Observatory, Matt & Kim, Stars, Ra Ra Riot, Mute Math, Cold War Kids, Ladytron, and Manchester Orchestra.

The initial bill also includes The Airborne Toxic Event, Wanda Jackson, Betty LaVette, K. Flay, Toubab Krewe, Bear Hands, Royal Bangs, PS I Love You, Asobi Seksu, AWOLNATION, The Constellations, The Limousines, The Hood Internet, Grouplove, Free The Robots, Gary Fields, GIVERS, Bad Books, Motonpony, wallpaper., and JJ Grey & Mofro, among many others.

Expanding on last year’s set-up, DeLuna will now feature a total of six stages of music this year, with performances taking place on both the beach and the pool decks of the festival’s three high-end resort hotels (The Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach, The Hilton Pensacola Beach, and the Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach). Lifeguards, beware!

Both the Early Bird and Early VIP ticket packages are sold out. Currently, two packages are available for purchase: the VIP Weekend package, which goes for $800, and the Advanced package, available for a cool $149.95. For complete ticketing information, visit the festival’s website.

The countdown to Coachella 2011 is just three days, and while attendees are still waiting for set times to be revealed, those unfortunate people without tickets (or who have fake clasps) can begin planning their weekend. As it has been for the last several years, Coachella will be streaming a portion of this year’s festivities on the web. Update: The webcast schedule has been revealed! Among the many scheduled highlights: Kanye West, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Death From Above 1979, PJ Harvey, The Black Keys, The National, Big Audio Dynamite, Duran Duran, The New Pornographers, The Kills, Empire of the Sun, Lauryn Hill, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Erykah Badu, Broken Social Scene, Chromeo, Titus Andronicus, Ratatat, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

The whole thing will be streamed at Coachella’s YouTube channel, and you can check out the schedule below. (All times are PDT.)

Sunday
Channel 1
04:00PM – Wiz Khalifa
05:00PM – Nas & Damian Marley
06:10PM – Death from Above 1979
07:25PM – The National
08:30PM – Ratatat
08:55PM – The Strokes
10:30PM – Kanye West

Channel 2
04:00PM – Fun.
05:55PM – Fistful of Mercy
07:25PM – Duran Duran
08:35PM – Chromeo
09:45PM – PJ Harvey
11:10PM – She Wants Revenge

Channel 3
02:20PM – MEN
03:50PM – Angus & Julia Stone
04:45PM – HEALTH
06:05PM – Best Coast
06:55PM – Foster the People

All that being said, Record Store Day still kicks ass, especially since it gives you an excuse to buy records you probably wouldn’t buy on any of the other 364 days of the year. We’ve already detailed some of our early favorites — including exclusive releases from the Deftones, Ryan Adams, R.E.M. and 20 others — and now we present you with a few more options:

– Gorillaz will release their iPad album, The Fall, on 180 gram vinyl.

– Foo Fighters will follow up the April 12th release of Wasting Light with a special Record Store Day edition covers album entitled Medium Rare.

– The Cure will reissue their 1990 live album, Entreat, as a 2-disc LP, reports Chain of Flowers.

– My Morning Jacket will reissue three studio albums — 2003′s It Still Moves, 2005′s Z, and 2008′s Evil Urges — as 2×12″ picture discs limited to 500 copies each, reports Wax Poetic.

– Big Star will release a test pressing edition of their “lost record,” Third. Omnivore Recordings has pressed 2,000 copies for worldwide distribution, with five copies of the original test pressings included within the allotment.

– The New Pornographers will release a 7″ single of “Moves” through Merge Records. Limited to 500 copies, the single comes backed with an unreleased outtake  entitled “Drug Deal Of The Heart”.

Set for April 29-May 2nd during the city’s annual Memphis in May celebration, this year’s festival also sports Cee-Lo Green, Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, B.o.B., The New Pornographers, Sublime with Rome, Cake, Ziggy Marley, Cage the Elephant, Macy Gray, Amos Lee, Slightly Stoopid, Gregg Allman, Manchester Orchestra, Lucero, Lotus, J.J. Grey and Mofro.

Rounding out the bill are Jason Mraz, Lucinda Williams, Charlie Wilson, Betty LaVette, Ludacris, Tommy Castro, Godsmack, Buckcherry, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Lee Boys, Devon Allman’s Honeytribe, Kirk Whalum, Hubert Sumlin, Sick Puppies, Jimmie Vaughan, Amy LaVere, Magic Slim & The Teardrops, John Hammond, and Otis Clay.

As mentioned, tickets cost $69 and are available through Ticketmaster.com. VIP packages are also available. For additional details on the festival as well as all of Memphis in May’s activities, please visit the memphisinmay.org.

Set to take place over Memorial Day weekend (May 28th to the 29th), this year’s edition will be headed by Weezer and Snoop Dogg. Other notables include Wiz Khalifa, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Coheed and Cambria, George Clinton & The Parliament Funkadelic, The New Pornographers, Against Me!, Best Coast, Wavves, Titus Andronicus, Neon Trees, and State Radio.

But wait, there’s more: Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience, HEALTH, RJD2, The Cool Kids, EOTO, Portugal. The Man, Man Man, Dum Dum Girls, The Felice Brothers, Dam-Funk and Freelance Whales are also on the bill. Further acts include Holy Fuck, Daedelus, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Dan Deacon, 12th Planet, Free Energy, Woods, Real Estate, Nosaj Thing, and The Hood Internet.

It keeps going (told you they went big): Toubabe Krewe, ESKMO, Small Black, River City Extension, Big Freedia, David Wax Museum, Roots of Creation, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, and Walk The Moon round out the lineup. Also, as mentioned, they’re looking to get at least 25 local artists involved in the festival, and if you’d like to submit your band for a chance to play you can enter at their website here.

Pre-sale tickets are available for $89 GA and $299 for VIP. Pricing jumps to $99 and then $109 for GA once tickets go on regular sale at 6 a.m. on Friday March 4th, so get ‘em while they’re hot. All proceeds benefit Bring Our Music Back, Inc., a group committed to providing music scholarships, music enrichment and education programs, music and healing initiatives and community support and outreach. This year’s charitable initiatives include the formation of an Emerging Artists Scholarship Fun for WCSU. Check out the announcement video below, featuring the festival’s young creator, Frankie Bombaci.

There’s a lot of bands to be seen at this year’s South by Southwest, but the Austin-TX based extravaganza is also a film festivalm and its 2011 offering provides a few reasons to arrive early. Several music-related films have been added to this year’s lineup, including Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze’s 30-minute short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, and Joe Cornish‘s Attack the Block, which features original music from Basement Jaxx.

The festival will also feature a trio of must-see documentaries. There’s Diplo, the aptly titled documentary about DJ Diplo; Live at Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale, a film that documents the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and My Morning Jacket’s recent collaboration; and the Foo Fighters’ James Moll-directed documentary, which complements their forthcoming studio album.

There will also be screenings of music videos by Radiohead’s Phil Selway, Cee-Lo, The New Pornographers, and Zola Jesus, among others.

For a complete rundown of this year’s film lineup, click here. SXSW film runs March 11-19, with the music portion to take place from 16-20. For ticket information and all other necessary details, visit sxsw.com.

Proving that becoming one of Canada’s best exports isn’t easy, The New Pornographers’ video for “Moves” sheds new light on things that we never knew about the band. Directed by Tom Scharpling, the four-minute clip opens with a preview for a fictitious movie called Expectant Dads, then teases the “Story of the rise and rise of the New Pornographers” by suggesting that A.C. Newman embarked on his musical journey in a park where his first guitar was smashed to pieces by hockey stick-wielding bullies before overcoming the odds to become the leader of a band that “shook the world” then self-imploded.

It’s hilarious to watch the actors cast to play band members (Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac plays keyboardist Blaine Thurier) do things like cut lines of cocaine before sprinkling said cocaine on their pizza, but what’s even more funny is seeing Ted Leo in drag  Leo – who recently opened for the band in New York City – plays singer/multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Calder and can be seen wearing skimpy clothes while playing the accordion and drinking champagne.

The whole thing is streaming above, and while you probably won’t see any of that on The New Pornographers’ upcoming tour with The Walkmen, those dates are still listed below

The New Pornographers 2011 Tour Dates:
04/13 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre #
04/14 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater #
04/15 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre #
04/16 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre #
04/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom #
04/22 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue *
04/23 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
04/25 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
04/26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts *
04/27 – Iowa City, IA @ University of Iowa *
04/28 – Champagne, IL @ Canopy Club *
04/29 – Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note *

# = w/ Menomena
* = w/ The Walkmen

In late April, indie staples The Walkmen and The New Pornographers will join forces for a run of co-headlining dates across the U.S. The week-long trek begins in Indianapolis on April 22nd, with stops then scheduled for Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Iowa City, Champagne, IL, and Columbia, MO.

Along with their joint dates, both bands have other U.S. performances scheduled throughout the Spring. Find all confirmed dates below.

The Walkmen 2011 Tour Dates:
03/02 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack’s
03/03 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
03/04 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
03/05 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
04/22 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue *
04/23 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
04/25 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
04/26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts *
04/27 – Iowa City, IA @ University of Iowa *
04/28 – Champagne, IL @ Canopy Club *
04/29 – Columbia, MO @ Blue Note *
05/27 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound

* = w/ The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers 2011 Tour Dates:
04/13 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre #
04/14 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater #
04/15 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre #
04/16 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre #
04/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom #
04/22 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue *
04/23 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
04/25 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
04/26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts *
04/27 – Iowa City, IA @ University of Iowa *
04/28 – Champagne, IL @ Canopy Club *

# = w/ Menomena
* = w/ The Walkmen

Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Kings of Leon, and The Strokes will head this year’s edition, set to take place from April 15-17. Other confirmed acts include The Chemical Brothers, PJ Harvey, Lauryn Hill, Duran Duran, Bright Eyes, The Black Keys, Animal Collective, The National, Interpol, Big Audio Dynamite, Death From Above 1979, and Killers frontman Brandon Flowers.

Also on the bill are Broken Social Scene, Leftfield, Erykah Badu, Robyn, Cee-Lo Green, Nas & Damian Marley, Chromeo, Cut Copy, Elbow, Mumford & Sons, Neon Trees, Jimmy Eat World, Wire, One Day As A Lion, Wiz Khalifa, Best Coast, The Swell Season, Gogol Bordello, Fistful of Mercy, Menomena, Titus Andronicus, Cage the Elephant, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Ratatat, OFF!, CSS, Crystal Castles, Klaxons, and The Kills.

Even more: Empire of the Sun, Jenny and Johnny, GAYNGS, The New Pornographers, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Tallest Man on Earth, Yelle, A-Trak, The Twelves, Caifanes, Magnetic Man, Paul van Dyk, Raphael Saadiq, Ellie Goulding, Boys Noize, The Presets, Warpaint, Flogging Molly, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Lil B, The Drums, and Odd Future.

Three-day passes ($269.00), along with camping passes ($75.00) will be available Friday, January 21st at 10:00AM PST. VIP and layaway packages are also available. Visit coachella.com for more details.

“Huh. On Perfect Couples screeners, theme song was Kings of Leon. On broadcast, AC Newman. That was quick.”

Per HitFix.com TV critic Alan Sepinwall, A.C. Newman > Kings of Leon. At least when it comes to soundtracking theme songs for new NBC sitcoms. Below, you can hear The New Pornographer’s contribution to Perfect Couples, which premiered last night.

You can find the first part by clicking here. Keep an eye out for additional posts next week as well.

And be sure to keep checking out our site. As you can clearly see, December has gotten off to a great start. We intend to end it, and the year in general, on a high note.

– Consequence of Gorillaz, anyone? Damon Albarn and co. pretty much dominated our headlines this week, with everything from retirement rumors to new album details to, um, Olympic-related updates surfacing within a few days of each other. And I almost forgot to mention the new video with Snoop Dogg. And the scavenger hunt.

– Coachella doesn’t arrive until next spring, but we’ve already started our lineup predictions.

– Sir Paul McCartney made Saturday Night Live watchable.

– Robert Plant told us not to get our hopes up for a Led Zeppelin reunion anytime soon.

– Big comebacks: Jeff Mangum appeared in public, Godspeed You! Black Emperor performed for the first time in six years, and Rammstein delivered their first U.S. performance in a decade.

– Michael Jackson‘s new single, “the 2010 version of ‘Thriller’,” dropped.

– Peter Bjorn and John‘s forthcoming LP now has a release date.

– While we’re on the subject of Swedish indie stars, Jens Lekman wrote a song about stalking Kirsten Dunst.

– Heather Mills took credit for putting The Beatles‘ catalog on iTunes.

– Q-Tip clarified a few things about the upcoming A Tribe Called Quest documentary.

– On a sad note, Aretha Franklin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

– Judas Priest announced their final world tour. Ever.

– Pete Doherty is set to make his acting debut soon.

– Need tips for Bonnaroo? Well, you’re in luck.

– Raekwon‘s s new LP is allegedly due out next year.

– The Cars put out even more new material. These guys haven’t been this productive in a long time. Twenty-three years to be exact.

– Pearl Jam announced plans to host their own music festival.

– Want special-edition Daft Punk headphones? Okay, but it’ll cost you.

– The new Death Cab for Cutie album now has a title.

– R.E.M. jumped on the holiday single bandwagon.

– Watch this clip of Feist and Broken Social Scene performing “I Feel It All” together.

– Don’t watch this Kings of Leon video.

– Chris Coplan reviewed Ryan Adams‘ latest effort. Coplan also took on lists in the latest edition of Nod Your Head.

– Ted Maider shared his thoughts on deadmau5′s 4 x 4 = 12.

– Jónsi has finally made his solo debut. Find out what David Buchanan had to say about it here.

– Ted Leo and The New Pornographers played NYC’s Terminal 5. Alex Young and Kelly Staskel were there.

– We debuted our podcast this week, something we like to call Audiography.

– Derek Staples interviewed Gang Starr‘s DJ Premier.

– Harry Painter sat down with Thomas Ross Turner of Ghostland Observatory to discuss, well, lots of different things.

Really, Ted Leo is music’s most unappreciated man. His 15-year-plus discography is filled with one punk pop gem after another, all of which are defined by rousing choruses and clever narratives. This reality was fully on display Monday night, when Leo and his Pharamacists pumped out a 45-minute set spanning his entire discography. Old staples like “Timorous Me” and “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” were mixed in with future classics “The Stick”, “Even Heroes Have to Die”, and what is perhaps the best track off The Brutalist Bricks, “Bottle in Cork”. Yet the crowd seemed disinterested and even unappreciative, with one attendee heard saying, “all the songs sound the same.” Here in lies the problem Ted Leo faces: he is indeed a punk by heart and thus heavily restrained by a genre whose biggest criticism is that all its songs sound the same. But Leo and the Pharamarcists are much more than an ordinary punk band and once you get passed the oftentimes similar sounding melodies, you find an intelligent and honest 40-year-old still singing with as much intensity and earnestness as a twentysomething.

Neko Case might play the tambourine but she does not jingle jangle. With her unconcerned grey sweatshirt and tousled red curls, Case embodied the unaffected and casual demeanor of The New Pornographers during their set at Terminal 5 in New York City Monday night. Like their songs, the career band is warm and relaxed with each member knowing exactly what to do.

The set opened with “Moves” off of their latest album Together, and continued through 22 more songs from a mix of the band’s five albums. The set was generous but not surprising. The band plays to please and in response to one audience request, Carl Newman even joked that there are 12 or so songs you can always count on hearing at a New Pornographers show. He added that they should post the list of staples to their website so you know ahead of time not to bother shouting out “Testament to Youth in Verse” or “The Bleeding Heart Show”.

New songs like “Crash Years” or “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” held their own though, at home next to old favorites like “Mass Romantic” or crowd pleasers like “Sing Me Spanish Techno”, speaking to the band’s consistency on stage and on album. Newman again joked after a fan request, this one for “Fake Headlines”, saying the band didn’t really have to play the song to fulfill the request since it differed in only two chords from the previous song.

Their predictability though is a comfort rather than a weakness. Like Case’s worn sweatshirt, The New Pornographers are reliable and enduring, maybe not the band you play to rev up for a night out, but the band you slip back on the morning after while you drag yourself to work. The result is a concert without definitive high points, but one none the less solid and satisfying. The show doesn’t include an Arcade Fire-like howling anthem or a Bon Iver-like devastating weeper, but it will leave you evenly content and perhaps more prepared to face the reality of the approaching morning. That being said, Dan Bejar, who always adds a little variety to the show, was missed on Monday. His official excuse according to Newman was that he was off fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

The band themselves seemed to need a bit of the restoring encouragement of songs like “Adventures in Solitude” or “Up in the Dark”. In the middle of the show, Case vented about her recent misfortunes which include a house fire and turning forty. Drummer Kurt Dahle chimed in to one up Case; Dahle is 43 and recently lost his dog. Considering how her month was going, Case was a bit worried about her flight to London for the band’s show at Shepards Bush Empire on Thursday. Case and Newman joked back and forth about whose flight was doomed and who would land safely abroad—according to Case, the band all takes separate flights because they’re cheap. The band then played “Go Places”, a love song painfully hopeful against all odds. Afterwards, Newman called for something reaffirming which led to “Hey Snow White”. The whole thing lent the feeling of arriving home after a long day, where you throw your hands up and everything lands back down scattered between fighting and accepting whatever fortune you’ve been dealt.

The evening closed with an encore of “Challengers”, “Up in the Dark”, and “Sing Me Spanish Techno”, sending the audience out ready for anything. During the show, brightly lit letters spelling out The New Pornographers hung behind the band that were reminiscent of the sugary letters you peel off white paper and stick on birthday cakes. The whole show could be lamely summed up by those little sugar letters, that are sweet and sentimental but always with a little paper stuck on you can’t scratch off.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists setlist:
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone
I’m a Ghost
The Angels’ Share
Where Was My Brain
The One Who Got Us Out
Even Heroes Have to Die
Bridges, Squares
The Stick
One Polaroid A Day
Bottled in Cork
Timorous Me
The Crane Takes Flight

The New Pornographers setlist: (via)
Moves
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
It’s Only Divine Right
Crash Years
All the Old Showstoppers
The Laws Have Changed
Jackie, Dressed in Cobras
Miss Teen Wordpower
We End Up Together
Adventures in Solitude
Twin Cinema
Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk
Go Places
Hey, Snow White (Destroyer cover)
Your Hands (Together)
My Rights Versus Yours
Mass Romantic
Testament to Youth in Verse
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
Encore:
Challengers
Up in the Dark
Sing Me Spanish Techno

Gallery by Alex Young

[nggallery id=155]

Yeah, that’s cheesy, but true nonetheless. See, though the landmark independent label had reached it’s 21 year anniversary, the majority of fans in attendance were probably 21 when Matador Records started. Some, like me, drove from nearby cities of Los Angeles or Phoenix or Salt Lake City. But most seemed to have travelled much further, whether that be from the East Coast or from overseas. The price and difficulty of acquiring tickets weeded out much of the younger crowd, and though there were some people in their 20s <cough>, we were the minority.

What did that mean for the event? It meant that the crowd was excited but tame, knowledgeable but not competitive and drunk but not belligerent. There were no ambulances pulling passed out girls from the pit, no hydrating stations, and no smell of marijuana in the air. This last note was surely due to the fact that everyone could easily go to a hotel room to take care of their mind altering. Yes, only in Las Vegas could the marrying of venue with accommodations and a sprinkle of luxury and seediness have happened.

The most notably absent festival trademark was hippies. I didn’t see a single one! No, this was a festival made by and for Matadorks (not my term, a nice redhead said I could borrow it, though), and as every MC was made painfully aware, they only wanted to hear music and as much of it as possible.

Friday, October 1st

Guitar Wolf

Night one of the festival started late because of a flight delay, but I didn’t know this at the time. All I knew was the the Matador blog had made it clear the set-times were going to be strictly followed, so when I arrived at the Pearl minutes before the 7:30 p.m. scheduled start time, I was surprised to see the band hadn’t hit the stage yet. Of course, my big fear was that Pavement was going to be forced to reduce their set, a fear some fans took out on M.C. Jeff Jenson nearly every time he tried one of his between-band “comedy” routines (jokes from the M.C.’s over the course of the weekend focused on cocaine, Mark Ibold, and Bob Nastanovich being funnier than actual comedians).

But alas, Guitar Wolf did take the stage and the loudest band in Japan played a fun, but short set. I don’t listen to much Japanese punk, and their set wasn’t enough to make me reconsider this stance, but Guitar Wolf’s set played like an opener – it was short, got you fired up for the acts to come, and was mostly unremarkable. As far as the volume the band is known for, they didn’t seem too powerful up in the front, but I would discover over the course of the weekend that the Pearl has an amazing sound system, if you are in the right spots. In the front, the P.A. is designed to play past you, so most of what you are hearing is the stage volume, which meant the vocals seemed too low for most bands. Standing on the sides meant you would lose some part of the music depending on how the speakers were configured. But in the seats, the sound was of high quality and volume and I never had any complaints when I was back there.

Chavez

I’d always heard great things about Chavez, given them a listen multiple times, but never had them click with me. So I was surprised to witness them give the performance of the night. Their sound could be compared to Dinosaur Jr. in both the impressive guitar work and un-poilished vocal technique of Matt Sweeney. Sweeney has had the most distinguished career since Chavez last recorded in the mid-nineties, but guitarist Clay Tarver was the star on Friday night. While appearing as aging men onstage, Tarver managed to make the band young again with crisp solos and a revived passion that saw him raising his guitar over his head at numerous points, like a hockey player would hold the Stanley Cup. Sure they looked like your dad getting the old band back together in the garage, but Chavez proved that age really is just a number and 15-year-old songs can still sound fresh if you mean them.

Setlist: Top Pocket Man, Break Up Your Band. New Room, Unreal Is Here, Peeled Out Too Soon, The Ghost By The Sea, Pentagram Ring, You Must Be Stopped, You Faded, Flight 96

Fucked Up

Because I planned on seeing Fucked Up again later in the night, I took this set to eat some dinner and caught only the last bit. On record, Fucked Up are too screamy/hardcore for me, but I admit it’s quite the spectacle in concert. Pink Eye is a born-frontman, making connections with the crowd and getting every person in the venue to be invested in the set. He brought out his young son and gave the set a different spin, taking the aggression and putting a rounder tint on it. I would’ve skipped dinner if I knew that the later show was going to be all covers, but Fucked Up aren’t going anywhere and I will make it a point to catch their next local set.

Sonic Youth

Another weekend highlight, and about a billion times better than previous shows I had seen from them, which seemed to always be at the wrong time (as an opener for Pearl Jam, the day after they had their equipment stolen in Irvine). Though they have had Mark Ibold playing bass for them recently, Sonic Youth knew this was a party and played the show in their classic formation. Likewise, they played some absolute killer cuts and provided what might be the best single song of the festival, closer “Death Valley ’69″, which was spooky and inciting, giving Sonic Youth the fist-pumper that I always thought “Teen Age Riot” stood alone as in their catalog. Set openers “Tom Violence” and “Schizophrenia” were also tremendous, reminding us of just how good this band has always been. In fact, I might be alone in this opinion, but I think the set did lack by neglecting newer material, as it would have really tied together the set as a complete retrospective. After-all, they are Matador newcomers, and while it was truly a masterful performance, it did seem strange to fail to acknowledge The Eternal.

Setlist: Tom Violence, Schizophrenia, Bull in the Heather, Stereo Sanctity, Mote, The Sprawl, Cross the Breeze, (I Got a) Catholic Block, Shadow of a Doubt, Death Valley ’69

(Writer’s Note: As this is finished, I heard Steve Albini’s comments on Sonic Youth. So I take back everything I said. They suck and their set sucked and I’m way too indie to ever like them. Except when I produce records for major labels. Then, it’s just a paycheck, ya know? It doesn’t matter who signs it…Unless you are Sonic Youth.)

Pavement

Now, you will hear that Pavement were bad at this festival, that the two singers were obviously sick of each other, and that it was a poor end to an otherwise successful tour. I did not get any of that from their set. For one, they are Pavement. I don’t know if you expected them to totally change their demeanor because it was a special occasion, but it seemed like Pavement was almost more Pavement-y because of it. And secondly, I think I’ve heard this kind of report from just about every Pavement show on the reunion, like people are looking for a reason to think that they hate one another. Maybe I’m wrong, but I know they still have to visit South America. I guess that will tell us.

I lined up for Sonic Youth stage-right, because I knew that was where Malkmus had been positioning himself. Many other photographers had this same idea, but Malkmus came out and played “Grounded” with his back to us and facing the opposite side of the stage. After this song, they began changing something in the drums (Spiral Stairs also had some sound trouble, the beginning of a curse that seemed to take over that side of the stage, which some people attributed to Thurston Moore’s barrage of guitar noise) and Malkmus killed time by playing “Perfect Depth”, which was one of many rarer songs played this evening, including “AT&T” as an amazing closer that featured Malkmus leaving his voice on the stage with his reaching screeches.

Then Malkmus spun his microphone around, and began playfully posing throughout the rest of the set for the hungry crowd. As far a the reunion goes, it was a strange setlist (heavy on E.P. songs, Brighten The Corners) and offered less playfulness, but if there is ever a bright spotlight on Stephen Malkmus, I would hope that he would shy away from it. Maybe his band will always begrudge the man that right, but it is his right. Because without him, honestly, no one would care.

Setlist: Grounded, Perfect Depth, Stereo, Elevate Me Later, Shady Lane, Conduit for Sale, Starlings of The Slipstream, Box Elder, Unfair, Fin, Kennel District, Cut Your Hair, Two States, Gold Soundz, She Believes, Range Life, Stop Breathin’, Heckler Spray, Shoot The Singer, AT&T

Fucked Up Vs. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Though Chavez and Sonic Youth killed it, this after-party was the most fun I had all weekend. Now, I didn’t grow up listening to punk or hardcore, and in all honesty, I would never put Black Flag on for pure enjoyment. But I have a profound respect for the scene and what it meant, and both Fucked Up and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists may not be embraced by the punk scene, but they live its ideals everyday and preach its gospel to anyone that will listen. It was fitting these two would play a “versus” set, when really it was about unity and community, with both bands playing together when appropriate and genuinely enjoying themselves.

The setlists included tunes from other Matador artists (Leo covering Liz Phair, Fucked Up tackling a tribute to Jay Reatard, both with Mission of Burma’s “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”) as well as a wide range of punk-rooted material (Superchunk’s Job Wurster providing guest-Danzig duties on the Misfits’ “We Bite”, both groups jamming out “Rise Above” together, Fucked Up providing a ferocious version of Nirvana’s “Breed”, and Leo using his own material as a stepping stone for guest appearances from Sally Crewe and Tom Sharpling with “Bottled In Cork”). The affair felt intimate, but more importantly it felt like a party, which was the whole point, right? It was nice to see two bands, who notably were in town for the entire weekend, not lose sight of that.

Harlem

And Harlem kept the party going. Though the audience was not particularly large (it had to be near 3 a.m.), Harlem asked the now noticeably drunk crowd to move in close. Harlem put everyone at ease by hoping that everyone was as drunk as they were. They didn’t play like it, though, as they put together the standout set from the young bands on the bill. They even came with their own trio of dancing drunk girls who played cute and spilled their beers.

But Harlem, a band I expected nothing from, were pretty damn good. Despite their difficult set-time, they seemed enthusiastic and their sloppy , 60′s-inspired garage rock was suited for a smaller gathering anyway. It felt like a Black Lips show where the band didn’t ry to fight you. It was enough to keep me in the building for their entire set, though not enough to make me stay for more Guitar Wolf.

I always claim to never get star-struck, but it might just be because I am a little shy. Either way, if I saw a musician on the street, 99 times out of 100 I wouldn’t stop him to chat or shake his hand (noted 1% exception occurred recently while walking by Jason Lytle, stopping to tell him that I was a big fan and then accidentally insulting him by stating that his performance that night was much better than the previous show of his that I had witnessed). And I didn’t really speak to much of anyone besides random concertgoers, who tended to be in the music industry in some way, instead preferring to watch fans live out their dreams. From Ted Leo taking the time to meet fans after his late-night set to Mitch Mitchell walking out and giving autographs before the Guided By Voices finale, the artists knew the dedication and cost that the attendees had absorbed to be there and besides showing their appreciation for their label, also showed appreciation for the reason the label exists: the fans. Ultimately, I was reminded of those fantasy baseball camps where you get a base-running lesson from Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt helps you refine your swing. But, instead, you got to hug a New Pornographer.

There were plenty of other reminders of the appreciation throughout the weekend. Saturday night’s after-party featured free Miller Light. Throughout the weekend, the top level record and merchandise stores offered signing sessions from the artists; everyone from Sonic Youth to members of Pavement. And there seemed to be no backstage corridors, as I rode elevators with both Fucked Up and Superchunk. Indeed there also seemed to be a lack of artist hospitality, unless they were given comps at the food court. Or maybe some artists were so grateful they wanted to eat with the fans, too. Doubtful.

Even the merchandise was made to impress, with each attendee receiving a free tote bag that held a program, a Matador pin, and a special 12-inch vinyl. I’ll let you guys hunt for what is on it, but it’s cool. Lastly, seven different artists created posters for the festival, each limited to only 200 prints. Most were sold-out by the end of the weekend and I’m keeping mine above my bed until I meet a woman who can convince me to get something more tasteful.

From the event being inside a hotel, to the in and out privileges, being off the strip and even the parking at the resort, everything gleamed with convenience. Any gripes that were heard on the first day had been silenced by the last. Yes, Matador at 21 succeeded big time at being a crowd-pleaser.

Saturday, October 2nd

Girls

I have seen Girls quite a few times and think their debut album is just fantastic. That being said, the conclusion of their hump-day kickoff set left a sour taste in my mouth. After beginning the show by admitting that they barely squeaked in to the main event and showing genuine gratitude for being able to participate, singer Christopher Owens ended the show by pleading with the other founding member, J.R. White to return to the stage.

The set began with a nice wakeup-call with “Laura” and then seemed to be content to lull the audience to sleep with a number of slow songs. Sure the crowd was sparce, but I was surprised to see the band so subdued. This, though, appeared to be a trick, as the band finished “Hellhole Ratrace” with its typical noise-jam and was about to kick into “Morning Light” and “Lust For Life”, basically signalling a complete change in the set and finishing with wow factor, like a boxer applying the knockout while the opponent was unsuspecting. And it would have worked, which is probably why White was so upset when his guitar began having technical problems (yes, in the same spot as Stairs). And though he grabbed a tambourine from the drum kit to finish-up “Morning Light”, his momentary making-due was indeed momentary, as he threw the tambourine to the ground at the conclusion of the number and stormed off stage. After his pleas were ignored, Owens led the band through the concluding number and left the crowd to draw their own conclusions about the state of the San Francisco group. Please note that alleged band fights at this point of the festival equalled the number of reunions.

Come

Okay, reunions went back ahead, and for good. Come, like Guitar Wolf, was a band I wasn’t really familiar with and their set didn’t really change that. It sounded like Chavez meets Hole and had a few rabid fans, particularly the coked-up dude next to me who kept yelling “Boston”. But the set seemed to please those who wanted to be pleased, and I think that was the point of the weekend. Making new fans would only be a bonus.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Man, Jon Spencer must get a lot of ass. He does this cool dip and pop move that looks almost like the splits but isn’t, plus he has awesome sideburns and plays music professionally. The only thing that might deter the ladies is his seeming lack of a vocabulary outside the words “baby” and “blues explosion”. Sometimes he curses, too. But I have a feeling it doesn’t matter once they see the kneeling-dance-move-thingie. I’ve never much enjoyed The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on record, but live they are a force to be reckoned with; hopefully this comeback lasts a little while.

Perfume Genius

Talk about shit luck. I have been pretty vocal about Perfume Genius. I adore their debut album. But scheduling the duo performing songs of a deeply personal nature involving sexual abuse, drugs, and suicide was not appropriate considering the party that Jon Spencer tried to incite minutes earlier. The funeral-like silence was broken only when “Mr. Peterson” tells of the eponymous teacher’s jump off a building, which one listener in the back must have not seen coming, because he yelled “Holy shit” like a football fan after a punishing, blindsided hit. Unsuspecting or drunk witnesses were forced to muffle laughter, to varying degrees of success. It was perfect for Cat Power, who didn’t have to change the mood on her own, but Perfume Genius’ primary entity Mike Hadreas acknowledged the morose sheet that had wrapped the room by introducing the final songs as “party jams.”

I was still able to appreciate the delicate beauty in the songs as well as notice the two lovers silently admiring each other and occasionally staring at the other when the other wasn’t looking. I even had to hold back sympathy tears when Hadreas lost composure on two occasions. When do you see someone perform art about themselves that can move the artist to tears, outside of a creative writing class? By the time they reach a real audience, most artists are taught to bury the personal stuff deep to avoid these kind of situations. I’m sure glad we get to see Hadreas learn this for himself, because certainly he will follow similar raw talents, like Conor Oberst, away from such personal pieces as his craft matures.

Cat Power

So, Cat Power was my dinner break, but I have to note that she seemed in a way better mood than at Outside Lands. I watched her open with her version of “Satisfaction” and second-guessed leaving for dinner as the singer smiled and gave off confidence that simply wasn’t present as she hid in the corner of the stage in San Francisco. I hear mixed things about the rest of her performance once the full band arrived.

Superchunk

Somehow, I misjudged timing at my hotel and missed the opening chunk of Superchunk. Heh, see what I did there? Plus, fellow Los Angeles music guy Andrew Youseff planted doubt in my head, noting that Cat Power hates being photographed and demands personal photo approval, thus causing me to stay for her set to start and get a few shots in. Anyways, I digress.

On Saturday the combination of too much rock and roll, elevation change and not enough sleep due to feverish writing and well, being in Las Vegas finally hit me like a ton of bricks. But the Superchunk that I did catch completely kicked ass.

The group has to be in their forties, but play like kids, jumping and yelping like teenagers trying to impress a pretty girl at a battle of the bands. But I think what really made the Superchunk set so memorable was the new songs, which hold their own against the back catalog. “Digging for Something” and “My Gap Feels Weird” could be on current alternative radio if they were made by twenty-year-olds, but note that Superchunk is not trying make the music of today’s youth. They are simply making the same style of music that they have been creating for a couple decades. It’s not their fault that pop-rock finally caught up with them…or maybe it is?

Setlist: Throwing Things, Skip Steps 1&3, My Gap Feels Weird, Digging For Something, Detroit Has a Skyline, Seed Toss, Mower, Learned To Surf, Cast Iron, Slack Motherfucker, Precision Auto

Spoon

I had just seen Spoon perform their most important Matador release, the Soft Effects E.P.,  in Los Angeles, so I figured I knew what was coming for this set. Well, I guess technically I did, but it wasn’t the part of the L.A. show that I expected. Though they did open with “Mountain To Sound”, the set then went pretty much like the main Palladium set. Maybe time constraints came into play?

But it was a perfectly fine set that would have been more enjoyable if I had not just seen it two days prior. And if I wasn’t about ready to pass out. But they did give one surprise in their lovely tribute to Jay Reatard, a Matador artist who died earlier this year (and opened for the band this past New Year’s in Milwaukee). Their version of “No Time”, the single released in 2008 for the label, was low-key but apt and ultimately affecting, showing an appreciation not for Matador the label, but for the artists who make it a truly special entity. A shame that not everyone was there to celebrate.

Belle & Sebastian

I was dead tired and seriously contemplated bailing on Belle & Sebastian. Yes, I know they are one of my all-time favorite bands, but that should give you an idea how tired I was. But I am glad I stayed, as the opening sounds of “I Didn’t See It Coming” brought me back to life and soon I was circling the theater looking for camera angles once again.

The Scottish group has produced some of the finest work Matador has to offer, and of all the headliners, they are the most well rounded and most professional. They are also the only ones still recording new material, which affected the set strangely. I noted when recently reviewing their new album that Write About Love seemed like a continuation of Dear Catastrophe Waitress, ignoring their last album’s shifts. And the live show reinforces that, which included four tunes from Waitress while offering only one tune from The Life Pursuit and most other old albums. So with more than half the set devoted to some of my least favorite material and the rest featuring the songs you’d expect them to play, the set was not up to par with the performances they were pulling out in 2006.

But I won’t whine. The set was fun above all and Stuart Murdoch is one of the most engaging and comforting frontmen in business. He took some lucky fans on stage and made them dancers for two numbers, then gave them all gold medals for their trouble. He also threw footballs into the crowd, hitting the top balcony, and proving his worth as an athlete. The crowd was pleased and I left feeling better, but in no way up for the afterparty. My apologies to Esben and The Wolf, Cold Cave, and Dead Meadow.

Setlist: I Didn’t See It Coming, I’m A Cuckoo, Step Into My Office, Baby, The State I Am In, I’m Not Living In The Real World, Piazza, New York Catcher, Write About Love, Sukie In The Graveyard, There’s Too Much Love, The Boy With The Arab Strap, If You Find Yourself Caught In Love, Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying, Sleep The Clock Around,(break), Me and the Major

If I ended up leaving Matador at 21 no longer on the Guided By Voices fence, firmly planted on the side of support for indie music’s butt-rockers, Sunday would have been the clear-cut standout of the festival. Even with not being into the GBV set, Sunday only narrowly loses to Friday, if only because Friday had higher highs and less-low lows, while Sunday was a more consistent show. That, and the Leo V. Fucked Up was seriously a bizarre, once in a lifetime spectacle that made me not only like the artists involved more, but actually appreciate music more in general, if that were even possible.

And while I was going to reserve this space to talk about all the issues I had with the festival, aside from technical issues that occur at any fest, there were few to no problems. The M.C. on Friday sucked, and actually, next time go with no M.C.s, period. It just makes the fans impatient and costs you money. Dim the lights and have the band walk-on like everywhere else.

But even as I wrap up this article, the lack of controversy and the general reliability of the music veterans involved left little to write about. While so much of the event was good, very few sets left me thinking “I want to tell someone about that.” Not to play spoiler, but Yo La Tengo had a set I wanted to talk about, as did Leo in both his roles. Sonic Youth, Pavement, Harlem, and Chavez had interesting sets, but not quite as shareable. Perfume Genius and Girls had different struggles, but they fascinated me nonetheless. Otherwise, everything was pretty good, but not meaty material, as you will see most writers for this event use lists or gimmicks to avoid duller moments and focus on the 10 or so happenings that left a lasting impression.

That is not to say I didn’t fucking love it. I was thankful for every minute, except maybe the Spoon-sleepys that hit hard. And I’d go again in a second. But maybe last summer’s seemingly-endless parade of weekend outdoor festivals toughened me up and made Matador seem too safe and easy… No that’s not it. I think it was more humbling to be in the presence of so much talent and dedication and inspiring commitment to stay true to both your ideals and your business partners, that to criticize seemed to miss the point and to shower with hyperbole would be disrespectful.

Besides Interpol, who had scheduled overseas dates at the time, the label got most of their core to come out, as well as former members like Spoon and Superchunk. And even if it was just an obligatory appearance, no one made The New Pornographers show up two days early or newbie Ted Leo play every set that would have him. No one made Matt Sweeney stick around to jam with Guided By Voices or Pink Eye check out Kurt Vile on Sunday afternoon. No, these artists seemed like family. Sure, some of the members hate each other, but they still all show up to Thanksgiving. And this Thanksgiving, a couple thousand of us got in on the feast, too.

Sunday, October 3rd

Kurt Vile

After a solid night of rest, I made it to the matinee for Kurt Vile‘s surprisingly sharp set. First of all, I had previously seen Vile as a solo act and thought that was it, so I was prepared for a sleepy acoustic affair. But when the foursome of people, who may or may not actually have faces, performed, they gave credence to all the positive attention artists and critics bestow on Vile. I didn’t know any of the songs, can’t say that I am dying to listen to more of his music, but I wasn’t bored or pissed, which says a lot on day three of a festival.

Times New Viking

Now, people get down on Times New Viking for being noisy and abrasive on record, but this was the reason I made my way to the matinee. And though they do replicate the lo-fi distortion in the guitar tones and mic levels, the chief problem I have with this band is not the noise, but the volume. I hate how I can’t get their albums loud enough and if I even dared put one of their cuts on a mix, all hell would break loose in my car. This is not a problem with their live set, allowing the listeners to finally notice their songs are pretty great pop songs in the center. Pop songs with hissing and static and occasional feedback and fuzz. You know, the best kind.

Shearwater

If Girls had it rough with their turnout as first-band-on-stage on Saturday, Shearwater might as well have not even shown up, playing to maybe 100 people at the start. But that didn’t stop Jonathan Meiburg and his cohorts from putting their all into their set, which seemed like an abridged version of their show I had previously seen at Spaceland. The big difference was that they focused on their louder and more upbeat tracks, and unlike Girls, they didn’t wait until the battle was nearly lost to win over the crowd. “Black Eyes” is a confident opener, “Castaways” sounded great, and the one-two punch of “Rooks” and “Century Eyes” are enough to win over most skeptics. A solid set that too many people missed.

Setlist: Black Eyes, Landscape at Speed, Castaways, Corridors, Hidden Lakes, Home Life, Rooks, Century Eyes, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Uniforms

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Ted Leo was the MVP of the weekend. Though he only joined Matador recently, the man made his presence felt with the classic versus performance, a later jam with Liz Phair, an apparent killer karaoke jam, and one of the weekend’s best sets. I don’t know if it was a standard set for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, but from the opener of his most-beloved song, “Where Have All The Rudeboys Gone” to another duet with Sally Crewe for the extended ending of ‘Bottled in Cork”, Leo had the crowd feeling his enthusiasm for music. And that is maybe what the weekend was for him, not just a celebration of Matador, but a celebration of the little guy actually lasting, of achieving hard earned success and of doing things the right way rather than the easy way.

For the conclusion of his set, which featured an emphasis on Matador released The Brutalist Bricks, A.C. Newman joined Leo for a rendition of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label”, which saw Leo sitting on a monitor to really reach the crowd. He told a story that could have been taped as a commercial for the weekend, as it succinctly provided an explanation for why we were all there. I’d ruin it if I tried to recount it, but it involved Matt Sweeney and his introduction to Matador and how he had been on quite a number of labels and that Matador, like other indies, love music and love artists and provide an atmosphere for them to create. He then bolted into the crowd while Newman kept the song going from the stage, letting the crowd in on the lovefest.

And he has a point. But the point he didn’t make is that if you look at the Matador roster, while its list of up and comers are remarkable, like non-attendees Delorean and Magic Kids, in addition to the list of bands that have stayed with them for decades, like Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers, what’s really most impressive, is how the label can sign vets who could be on any label they want (and have seen many different labels throughout their career) but still choose Matador. Sonic Youth and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists prove that Matador does something that musicians respond to. We’d probably have to work for them to really understand it, but magic happens when Matador is involved, that’s for sure.

Setlist: Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?, Even Heroes Have to Die, The Stick, Me and Mia, Bottled in Cork, Woke Up Near Chelsea, The Ballad of the Sin Eater, I Love My Label (Nick Lowe cover)

The New Pornographers

I saw the Canadian power-pop supergroup over the summer in Los Angeles, but was there to interview Meric Long of The Dodos and didn’t get to write about The New Pornographers, one of my long-time favorites. I was disappointed in their enthusiasm and sound at the earlier date, but the Sunday set seemed anything but phoned-in. Like the Shearwater story, A.C. Newman’s story about “Challengers” being about meeting his wife was something that I had heard before, but what I didn’t know was that she was a Matador employee, but not for long as he joked, “No wife of mine will work for Matador Records”. Certain crowd members were shocked to see Dan Bejar join the group, seemingly high as hell, and deliver his barroom renditions of “Myriad Harbor” and “Testament To Youth In Verse” (introduced by Neko Case after a profession of love to Matador as “a song about Dan’s hatred”).

There were technical problems, with Case being too low in volume early on and Calder having the same issue when her moment to shine arrived during “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”, but the setlist was more than satisfying, including “Letter To An Occupant” and surprising opener, “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”. But most importantly, the band looked like they were having fun (they were also one of the groups that could be seen taking part in the entire weekend). If the New Pornos are anything, they are jovial jokesters onstage and it was nice to see that playfullness and joy still visible, and that the L.A. show was hopefully a fluke.

Setlist: The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism, Myriad Harbour, Crash Years, Sing Me Spanish Techno, Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk, Silver Jenny Dollar, Use It, Challengers, Testament to Youth in Verse, Moves, Letter From an Occupant, The Bleeding Heart Show

Yo La Tengo

I hadn’t really seen Yo La Tengo before. Well I had, but it was the last part of an opening slot for Bright Eyes and though I thought I’d catch most of their set, it turned out to be just one really long song (“The Story of Yo La Tengo”). So after opening with my favorite YLT jam, “Here To Fall”, guess what song began? Yep, “The Story of Yo La Tengo”. But, I can’t complain, because Ira Kaplan went ballistic during this jam and absolutely killed it. Kaplan is an under the radar guitar hero that will hopefully receive his due from the next generation of musicians who need not look farther for an inspiration and influence.

The rest of their set was a little more light-hearted, as they performed a cover of “Nuclear War” with changed lyrics, so as to include the employees of the record label. “You Can Have It All” was fully choreographed and fully ridiculous, but “Nothing To Hide” saw perhaps the strongest side of the trio: genuine rock band. The recent tune, with its mantra of “harder not faster” could some up the work ethic of the label; not looking for a quick check but hoping the hard work pays off. While it may not get you into arenas, it gets a couple thousand enthusiasts to fork over their savings for a recapturing of the last 21 years.

Setlist: Our Way to Fall, The Story of Yo La Tango, Nuclear War (Sung As Matador Tribute), Autumn Sweater, Mr. Tough, You Can Have It All, Shaker, Nothing to Hide, Sugarcube, Blue Line Swinger

Guided By Voices

Lots of people loved this set, and I’ll give it that it was enthusiastic, but it also felt a little over-bloated, a little dinosaurish, and mildly self-absorbed. Maybe it was the crowd, with the arena rock atmosphere and “G-B-V” chants that got me to question, or the fact that I still have no desire to revisit some of these classic albums after watching the set (unlike Superchunk or Yo La Tengo), but I didn’t really get the whole event. Guided By Voices seemed like old men trying to relive the past, where Chavez or even the less-than-sharp Pavement were able to find their youth on the same stage.

But I can’t really hold Guided By Voices responsible for me being unable to relate to them. The band is a year younger than I am, and many of the touchstones (Robert Pollards leg kicks, Mitch Mitchell’s non-stop theatrics) are long out of date, but I don’t think I am the target audience. Point being: the matadorks ate it up. The sign above the band read the “club is open” and the band turned the still-polished Pearl into any bar in America. Fans seem to think the setlist was amazing, for me the weekend was already over and I patiently waited for the men to fatigue and end early, which they didn’t, going well-over curfew once again (every night did!) and leaving the die-hards feeling that the year’s vacation was worth it. Now, how was it not possible to sellout The Wiltern on the next night? Though their fans are rabid, they are still few.

Setlist: A Salty Salute, Shocker in Gloomtown, Tractor Rape Chain, Pimple Zoo, Closer You Are, Buzzards and Dreadful Crows, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Cut-Out Witch, Hot Freaks, Lethargy, Weedking, A Good Flying Bird, Motor Away, Striped White Jets, Matter Eater Lad, The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, Gold Star for Robot Boy, Awful Bliss,14 Cheerleader Coldfront, My Impression Now, I Am a Scientist, My Son Cool, Echos Myron, Game of Pricks, Exit Flagger, Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy, (break), Johnny Appleseed, Smothered in Hugs, Don’t Stop Now (break), Quality of Armor, Some Drilling Implied

Gallery by Philip Cosores

[nggallery id=126]

In an instance of “this had to happen at some point,” Canadian indie darlings The New Pornographers had an upcoming show at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, canceled due to their politics. Just kidding, it was their name.

According to MLive.com, the band’s October 15th gig at the Calvin Fieldhouse Complex was axed after the college’s administration decided that the “irony of the band’s name was impossible to explain to many. The band’s name, to some, is mistakenly associated with pornography. Consequently, Calvin, to some, was mistakenly associated with pornography. Neither the college nor the band endorses pornography.” Because, who likes a multi-billion-dollar industry anyway?

In case you were wondering and we know you are, The New Pornographers actually derive their name from a 1966 Japanese satirical film called The Pornographers about a porn filmmaker whose business is being threatened by his family, rivals, and the government.  Turns out it’s an allegory for the state of Japan’s post-war economy, not about the naughty films your little brother loves.

If you already bought your tickets, head here to get info on a refund. Meanwhile, Calvin College is still “committed to the difficult, yet important work at faithfully engaging popular culture.” They sure are.

Well, at least there’s always Matador at 21. As always, stay tuned for more developments.

This year, the festival returns in style. (Not that it ever lacked in that department.) For one, there’s Lady Gaga and her $150,000 stage. Then there’s Graham Elliot, the festival’s culinary director and hometown savior to all foodies everywhere. And on top of all that, there’s the expansion of the festival itself, which now includes Columbus Drive and the remainder of the park, stretching all the way out to Michigan Ave. So, in sum, Perry Farrell certainly shined the right shoes and played his cards right. Someone should send him a letter. Or, just continue to clap really, really loud.

Regardless, if today’s any indication, he certainly “got the message.” People showed up willfully invested in soaking up every ounce of the festival; some decked out in their Gaga finest, others in their hipster best. The beloved “green man” (a la It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) even rolled up. It was an odd smorgasbord of folks, but altogether they got along. Some even held each other while singing. (Then again, The Strokes do that to people.) And while it’d be nice if the majority of the crowd realized Columbus Drive was open for passage, it never seemed too congested, maybe with the exception of sets by The Walkmen or The Black Keys. Think about it, when it only takes two minutes to get a lemonade or a grilled cheese – at the peak dinner hours, mind you – that’s pretty awesome.

How about this weather, too? It’s been a long time coming that Lollapalooza received some good fortune from above. No, not from god, calm down, just nature. We needed it; that is, if we planned on keeping things civil. Last year’s rain didn’t bring any smiling faces, it only manufactured wet, smelly concertgoers, who managed to get more drunk than necessary, and stumble on everyone – especially during a life-changing rendition of “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode. No, that last comment wasn’t personal at all. Not one bit.

Anyhow, so far so good, but we’ll break it down for you…

Friday, August 6th

These United States
BMI, 11:15 a.m.

It’s never easy having to serve as the opening/warm-up act for a bigger, more successful band. It’s even harder having to open a three-day music festival, but that’s what These United States had to do, despite little sleep. “We’ve been here since 6:45 this morning,” said lead singer Jesse Elliott, resembling a younger Chris Robinson. However, the Kentucky quintet was up to the challenge, with their alt-alt-country (no misprint), good hooks, and excellent beards. They played the smaller, shaded BMI Stage with the same energy the higher-profiled bands would play later. Currently in support of their new album, What Lasts, These United States played new songs (“Life&Death She&I”) and old (the relentlessly upbeat “I Want You to Keep Everything”) in equal measure, complimented by excellent lap steel work. The audience appeared to range from 15 to 50, but those who arrived in the tree-covered area paid good attention, with a few girls in tie-dye shirts actually dancing around. Mission accomplished, These United States. We hope to see you next year. -Justin Gerber

Photo by Cap Blackard

B.o.B
adidas MEGA, 11:30 a.m.

Having a #1 album and a couple #1 singles under his belt, B.o.B is most likely the biggest act to ever open a side stage at Lollapalooza. He clearly should have been playing at least a bit later in the day, but it didn’t phase him and Bobby Ray still kicked off the festivities with a swagger and energy all his own. Running through favorites from his breakout debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, B.o.B and his full band got the crowd jumping with cuts like “Past My Shades” and “Nothin’ on You”, while he slowed it down a bit and played acoustic on “Letters to Vietnam”. The crowd, which grew bigger and bigger as the show went on and more people filtered into Grant Park, was feeding off of his energy – waving their arms in the air, getting their shades out, and cheering and singing along like crazy. To cap off his show, he introduced his last song as his favorite song ever – then sent the crowd into a frenzy as he started to play MGMT’s ubiquitous “Kids”. And as a testament to his talents, he played that song better than MGMT themselves do it. - Carson O’Shoney

Photo by Heather Kaplan

Javelin
Playstation, 11:30 a.m.

“We’re from Brooklyn, New York, in case you didn’t get that memo,” Javelin‘s George Langford called from in front of the stack of neon boomboxes that backgrounded their lite, electronic jamz. One synth-drummer, one vocalist with a sampler and a kazoo of some kind, and the duo kicked out some strong, dance-friendly beats. Highlights included “Oh! Centra” (a sexy jam about…their “downstair neighbor”‘s cat…kinda) and the 80′s enthusiasm of “Moscow 1980″. -Adam Kivel

Wavves
Budweiser, 12:15 p.m.

Photo by Phillip Roffman

“Hey dudes,” Nathan Williams casually remarked, after stumbling out onto the Budweiser Stage. “Do you guys get high? That’s cool. We smoked out of a Bud Light can before this. I have early onset Alzheimers.” That should give you a fair image of the type of relaxed vibes Wavves put off early Friday morning. Under some choice rays, and in front of a healthy crowd (especially so early), the San Diego trio pummeled through their short yet punchy discography, with highlights including titular track “King of the Beach”, the Mountain Dew-sponsored “Post Acid”, and a brilliant closer of “No Hope Kids”. Sorry folks, no meltdown here. Only pure magic. Williams and Jay Reatard’s former band make for such a quaint combination, especially with drummer Billy Hayes, who provided hilarious quips from behind his kit, his aviators, and that glorious, glorious beard of his. Our favorite line? Too many to name, but we enjoyed this goldie: “This song’s from the Encino Man soundtrack.” To which, they broke out into “Post Acid”. Brilliant, just brilliant. -Michael Roffman

The Ettes
BMI, 12:30 p.m.

“Yeah, let’s do it!” And with that The Ettes led off their 45-minute set at the fairly crowded BMI Stage area. They may appear harmless, but once drummer Maria “Poni” Silver assaults the drums with no remorse, all misconceptions manage to fade away. Lindsay “Coco” Hames’ vocal stylings and the punk-pop guitar/bass work beg the question, “What if Peggy Lee fronted The Stooges?” Easy, Iggy fans. This Nashville band has a ways to go before reaching that high a status, but damned if they didn’t sound like they wanted to get there on Friday afternoon. The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach counts himself among their fan base, having produced tracks from the band’s Danger Is EP (“I hope you guys catch them later today,” said Hames). “No Home” was among the songs Auerbach produced, and played on Friday in nasty (pleasing) fashion. “Reputation” represented The Ettes’ surf-rock and fuzzed-bass best, forming a happy marriage with the overall lo-fi sound. The audience responded well, of course, the stage was set in a cool and breezy, shaded area… -Justin Gerber

The Walkmen
adidas MEGA, 1:00 p.m

Photo by Heather Kaplan

Hearing a crowd member mutter “They better play “The Rat”,” reminded me wistfully of the 2005 incarnation of this massive beast, back when The Walkmen was a little less massive, back when “The Rat” was only a year old. The new songs sounded great (upcoming Lisbon tracks “Juveniles” and “Angela Surf City” were upbeat, bright, and breezy), “In the New Year” and “Canadian Girl” from 2008′s You & Me sounded great, but everyone wanted “The Rat”. The band is sublimely consistent, constantly putting out more strong material, but nothing is topping that old fan favorite. -Adam Kivel

Jukebox the Ghost
BMI, 1:45 p.m.

Photo by Alex Young

Washington, DC based indie-pop outfit Jukebox to Ghost celebrated their biggest performance to date with a set mixing songs from their stellar 2008 debut Let Live and Let Ghosts, their forthcoming sophomore LP Everything Under the Sun, and even a cover of Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever”. No joke. In regards to the new stuff, danceable is certainly a worthy description as elements of synth reined freely throughout the packed BMI stage. But of course it was old songs — “Hold It In”, “Good Day”, and “Static” — which garned the most bodily movement, namely in the form of more than a few diehards singing along in toe. Jukebox fans travel well. -Alex Young

Mavis Staples
Budweiser, 2:00 p.m.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

The crowd around Mavis Staples lolled, some sitting in the grass, others swaying to the rhythm and blues legend’s powerful moans. But, when she called out the producer of her upcoming record, “Jeff Tweedy from the Wilco band,” a flock of Tweedy acolytes literally ran as close to the stage as they could. Tweedy intermittently strummed at an acoustic guitar while Staples hollered out classics, including her Staple Singers hit “I’ll Take You There” and a version of The Band’s “The Weight”. If nothing else, Tweedy’s presence alone should bring a much deserved larger audience to Staples’ amazing voice. -Adam Kivel

American Bang
Sony bloggie, 2:15 p.m.

Photo by Cap Blackard

Kid Rock tries to do southern rock. American Bang becomes southern rock. The attitude, the content, the hair, the clothing. Everything about them screams Skynyrd, and the audience screams for PBR. The music is all about getting laid and getting drunk, with “Whiskey Walk” and “Wild and Young” playing the main offenders. But is it a good time? Sure is. Lead singer/guitarist Jaren Johnston commanded the stage, alternating between standing on the drum kit and the speakers upfront. Unnecessary crowd-surfing and mosh pits managed to form before them, and a special thanks to the obligatory, drunk 40-year-old with the bucket hat, for acting one-third his age. But I digress. The band was in high (literally?) spirits throughout as the classic rock of “All Night Long” kept things a-truckin’. Johnston encouraged everyone to check them out at their after show, and “bring your girlfriends and your condoms.” Rock n’ roll, indeed. -Justin Gerber

The Big Pink
adidas MEGA, 3:00 p.m.

Photo by Lauren Guagno

Stepping onto the stage and shouting, “Lollapalooza!”, The Big Pink‘s Robbie Furze riled up an engulfing yet patient crowd, who had been staring at the stage with watchful, reserved eyes. Opening up with “Too Young to Love” didn’t change much of that, but when they followed up with a noticeably loud performance of “Velvet”, the crowd’s energy escalated with the song’s rhythm. However, the moment people seemed to be waiting for came during the set’s closer, a catchy tune which made the crowd jump and fall like “Dominos” excitedly through the end. -Lauren Guagno

Devo
Parkways, 4:00 p.m.

Devo‘s performance was easily one of the highlights of Friday. Devo has been performing live at festivals off and on for the past decade, but now, riding on the release of their first album in 20 years, anticipation is high. They started the show in their new outfits and gray face masks and opened with one of the new album’s finest tracks “Don’t Shoot I’m A Man”. The songs that immediately followed were a strong blend of old and new, favoring the new and this included the one lowest energy part of the show, a slower tempoed version of “Peek-A-Boo”. After a superb rendition of their classic, “Girl U Want”, having donned the new, blue energy domes, Gerry Casale announced “It’s 2010, and we’re here to fucking whip it again!” Their mandatory hit sounded as fresh and energetic as its first recording.

After a brief break, in which a video explained how pitifully small we all are by comparison to the whole of the Milky Way, Devo returned to the stage, but gone were their synth rock gear. Instead, it was the yellow-jumpsuited punk rock Devo that took the stage, guitars in hand. What proceeded was a superb punk show, as Mark Mothersbaugh tore limbs off his teammates suits during “Uncontrollable Urge” and the whole band shredded through a brutal breakdown for “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”. They closed with an uplifting rendition of “Gates of Steel” performed to an audience who appreciated what they were hearing, but strangely didn’t reciprocate with any dancing or thrashing. -Cap Blackard

Photo by Heather Kaplan

The New Pornographers
Budweiser, 4:00 p.m.

Photo by Alex Young

Without warning, The New Pornographers launched their set with the should-be classic, “Sing Me Spanish Techno”, and it was all good the rest of the way. By this time the sun was out in full-force, occasionally blotted out by a passing cloud, but what a glorious day for some glorious pop. A.C. Newman is the undisputed leader of this “supergroup”, but the enigmatic Dan Bejar makes his presence felt in other ways. Apart from coming and going during the set (as he is known to do), Bejar’s songs truly make the fans happy. “Myriad Harbour” and “Jackie, Dressed in Cobras” sound as though they were being played straight from the spinning vinyl, as the band played in near-perfect sync. Others had their moments to shine, from the always-welcome presence of Neko Case (beautiful duet on “Challengers” and the solo “Crash Years”) and Kathryn Calder (“Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”), but the band is Newman’s baby. Whether it’s on acoustic or electric, Newman stands confident front-and-center. He doesn’t hesitate to banter with his bandmates, especially discussing the fashion of the band (“Lady Gaga’s gonna have a way better hat than I do,” said Case). He is gracious (“Lollapalooza’s the best festival) and humbled (“You can’t not play in front of 40,000 people.”), and it’s with such confidence that he can lead the thousands of people watching into singing along at the climax of “The Bleeding Heart Show” as the set concluded. “Hey-la, hey-la!” -Justin Gerber

Dirty Projectors
Playstation, 4:00 p.m.

Photo by Cap Blackard

Dave Longstreth and company are all amazing musicians, but they also seem to genuinely be nice people. His polite “How are you all?” and “Your city even has a font named after it!” charmed, but keyboardist Angel Deradoorian’s tossing her bottle of water down to the security guards to give to a fan who couldn’t take the heat exemplified the band’s seeming good nature. The biggest reactions came for David Byrne collaboration “Knotty Pine” and Bitte Orca R&B ballad “Stillness is the Move” (it seems Amber Coffman’s vocals and demeanor get more swagger every time she sings the song), while longtime fans were treated to the likes of New Attitude’s raucous “Fucked For Life” and The Getty Address orchestra funk of “I Will Truck”. After rushing through an astounding set, the Projectors were called back onstage for an “encore” (they did have five minutes left on the clock, Longstreth explaining that “Brian [McOmber, drummer] must have rushed all the tempos”), returning with a transcendent, celebratory cooing of “When the World Comes to an End” as the crowd gave them a huge sendoff. -Adam Kivel

Photo by Cap Blackard

Fuck Buttons
Sony bloggie, 5:00 p.m.

One thing everyone should know by now is that Fuck Buttons are not for everyone. Their screeching cacophony can get so extreme that it scares people off. But at a festival like Lollapalooza, all types of music listeners check out all kinds of bands. Fuck Buttons are not a good band to casually check out at a music festival. But for some people, their music is bliss. Case in point – about ten minutes into their set, the couple in front of me in the crowd rose from their quilted blanket and exclaimed, “All it is is fucking noise!” and stormed away in a fit of confusion. By contrast, about five minutes later, a rather large dance circle started towards the back of the somewhat sparse crowd. No moshing, no aggression, just pure dancing. The point of the story is that if you don’t get it, you shouldn’t be at a Fuck Buttons show. But those that did get it were treated to a fantastically abrasive yet surprisingly upbeat show. -Carson O’Shoney

Matt & Kim
adidas MEGA, 5:00 p.m.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

Lady Gaga wasn’t the only Lollapalooza 2007 virgin making a much anticipated return in 2010. Playing to an absolutely ginormous crowd at the adidas stage — commercials really do wonders, the lovable Matt & Kim offered fans a trademark performance. For those not familiar, this consists of tracks off 2009′s breakout Grand mixed in between expressions of gratitude. (Here’s a drinking game for you: count how many times Matt & Kim say “you guys are amazing”). Still, there was time left over for a few deviations, such as a cover of Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend”, crowd surf by Kim, and a discussion about how jumbotrons make breasts look so much larger. Yeah, using the word fun would be an understatement. -Alex Young

Hot Chip
Parkways, 6:00 p.m.

Hot Chip‘s Lolla performance was a testament to their musical prowess. Their opening song saw guitarist Al Doyle playing steel drums before he picked up his guitar. By the time the show was over, everyone in the band had played one, if not more completely contrasting instruments from what they started with. Even the drummer at one point left his post to sing along and play steel drums at center stage. You could tell that they were having a ball. Absent from the band, however, was vocalist and synth player Joe Goddard, who was on “paternity leave” with his expectant wife. However, he joined the band virtually for his verses in “One Pure Thought”. Songs blended together and pauses were short. Despite this relative lack of communication, they still spoke to their fans. The crowd was enthusiastic – dancing and singing along throughout the set, particularly during the chorus of “One Life Stand”, the title track to their recently released fourth album. They closed with “Ready for the Floor”, which they dedicated to Lady Gaga, and set the mood for the costumed insanity that would soon grace that very stage. -Cap Blackard

The Black Keys
Budweiser, 6:00 p.m.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

It’s not too hard to dig The Black Keys. Their sound is straight up rock ‘n’ roll; the sort that broods, or shuffles, or shrugs. Dan Auerbach’s vocals compliment his own layered guitar work, in addition to Patrick Carney’s precise drumming. The combination’s worked for years. The two guys have fun with their own music, as do the fans. But, with their latest release, Brothers, they’ve sort of created a pickle. The simple, casual swagger of yesteryear isn’t half as interesting anymore as most of the tracks that make up their latest effort. Things now feel fuller… more complete, if you will. Songs like The Rubber Factory‘s “Stack Shot Billy” still rip live, but when the band pulls out newer material, as they did on the Budweiser stage today, the difference a couple more musicians make is more than obvious. Live cuts of “Tighten Up”, “New Girl”, and “Everlasting Light” reshape this band, opening some doors for Auerbach, and adding a highly constructive rhythmic bottom to their notoriously stripped down sound. Some can argue that approach takes away from The Black Keys’ trademark charm, but at the end of the day, great music speaks for itself. Chew on this: When’s the last time a band’s new material did that? Pretty impressive. -Michael Roffman

Chromeo
adidas MEGA 7:00 p.m.

Photo by Cap Blackard

As the sun started to set, the adidas MEGA stage turned into a killer dance party. Chromeo were geared for a good time – with their woman-legged keyboards and their identically-dressed backup vocalists, the Chromettes and straight from a Robert Palmer video. 2010 marks Chromeo’s second Lolla performance. The last was in 2008. “What do you say we make it hotter than it was two years ago,” Dave 1 asked, before diving into “Needy Girl”. The audience complied and danced wildly with all kinds of accessories and inflatables, beach balls, balloon animals, even launching their own fireworks. The set sampled heavily from the group’s previous album, Fancy Footwork (which the band confessed they call “faffo” for short) as well as a couple tracks from their first album, and three tracks from their forthcoming effort, Business Casual. Chromeo’s performance was also the site of what is so far Lolla 2010′s most epic crowd surf: Green Man from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia heroically riding an inflatable dolphin. Amazing only begins to sum it up. -Cap Blackard

Lady Gaga
Parkways, 8:00 p.m.

No act on the 2010 lineup created more controversy than Lady Gaga. Her inclusion created a ruckus amongst rockists who feel Lollapalooza has lost its way by handing one of its headlining slots to a Top-40 pop star. Meanwhile, Gaga fans retaliated by defending her as more than a typical pop star, and her set as a spectacle that needed to be seen by even those who did not care for her music.

When it came down to it, however, Gaga’s set was not quite as visually stunning as would have been expected. Sure, there were stage props, pretty lights, and all the love-it-or-hate-it theatrics her live show is known for, but the intensity of the performance paled in comparison to past headliners Kanye West and Daft Punk. As it turned out, that was just fine. The set contained just enough flair to keep people watching, without overshadowing Lady Gaga’s terribly underrated raw talent. At no point were her talents displayed better than on back-to-back piano ballads, “Speechless” and “You and I”. The tracks were a high point in a set that had gotten off to a rather slow start, perhaps partially due to opener “Dance in the Dark” being played in the early evening dusk.

But in the end Lady Gaga truly is a pop star and there’s nothing wrong with that, particularly when that star writes near-perfect pop gems.  She ended her set with four of her best songs, “Alejandro”, “Poker Face”, “Paparazzi”, and “Bad Romance”, setting off a dance party that sent all her little monsters home happy. -Michael Denslow

Photo by Heather Kaplan

The Strokes
Budweiser, 8:30 p.m.

As Jimmy Cliff finished singing over his band’s summery basslines, Chicago’s skyline came to life, just as the setting sun bled away. Thousands of attendees, some left over from The Black Keys, huddled around the Budweiser stage, which now sported intricate lighting just starving to be lit. Fans everywhere kept chanting at the shiny bass drum that read, The Strokes.

Photo by Cap Blackard

Fifteen awkward minutes later, in addition to a few “What the fuck’s” and some more chanting that just seemed desperate at this point, Queen’s “We Will Rock You” crumbled over the PA as the band schlepped onto the stage, with frontman Julian Casablancas riding back seat all the way up to the microphone. No introduction needed, the New York quintet picked up where our nostalgia left off, opening up with a gritty, raucous rendition of “New York City Cops”. A few songs in, however, Casablancas charmed us by screaming, “Chicagopalooza! …I’ve been waiting months to say that… ehhh whatever.”

Mocking and somewhat self deprecating, Casablancas never seemed to try too hard, which is pretty much how he’s always been. No surprise there. When he sighed and said, “Oh my god, I’m so psyched,” it felt very, very tongue in cheek. It’s sort of the attitude one expects from him. But, maybe he was enthused. After all, who gets to return after four years and headline a festival with no album and no new single? Pretty sweet deal.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

The set comprised mostly of greatest hits and a few golden eggs here and there (“What Ever Happened?”, “I Can’t Win”, and a stripped down “Under Control”), but what lacked in new material, made up for with some impeccable lighting. The aforementioned intricate lighting certainly came to life, especially on cuts like “Vision of Division” and “Someday”. The former turned the backing screen into a Star Wars-like first person shooter, while the latter celebrated games like Pac-Man, Tetris, or Pong. There wasn’t a dull moment in the crowd, either. Whether it was jumping up and down or screaming out guitar licks and lyrics, the crowd definitely left satisfied.

Yet, something felt awry. Where does this band stand? Is this merely a sugar high for fans? Or is this still a current act to go out and champion? When Casablancas, channeling his inner valley girl, shouted, “First show in the states for like ever… That’s all I got,” one couldn’t help but wonder if this is a band that will leave the stage and actually write new material… or just continue dolling out the hits. Something to think about, but for now, we’ll enjoy this dazzling stage show (and their respected solo careers, as well). -Phillip Roffman
——

Gallery by Heather Kaplan

[nggallery id=88]

Gallery by Cap Blackard

[nggallery id=89]

Gallery by Lauren Guagno/Phillip Roffman

[nggallery id=90]

As previously reported, the acclaimed independent label will be celebrating 21 years by traveling to Vegas and hosting one hell of a birthday party — aka a three day music festival at the Palms Casino & Resort.

Today, Matador unveiled the lineup for the aptly titled Matador at 21 and to say it’s epic would be a pretty huge understatement. Making the most of its current roster, the label has tapped the likes of Pavement, Belle & Sebastian, Sonic Youth, Spoon, Yo La Tengo, Cat Power, and, oh, Guided by Voices. Yep, the acclaimed Ohio outfit, which hasn’t played a show since 2004, will be reuniting for the festival. Plus, it won’t be just any old reunion — the “classic” 1993 – 1996 lineup featuring frontman Robert Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Dan Toohey Greg Demos, and drummer Kevin Fennell will be the ones playing.

Also scheduled to take part in the festivities are The New Pornographers, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Superchunk, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Fucked Up, Girls, Harlem, Cold Cave, Shearwater, Chavez, Guitar Wolf, and Kurt Vile. Even more names will be announced on July 5th.

Matador at 21 is set to take place from October 1-3. Ticket information has not yet been released, but I’m sure that won’t stop you from heading over to Expedia and booking a flight to Vegas once you’re done reading this article.

Upon cursory inspection, some conflicts that have been discussed seemed resolved here:

The National vs. Getting A Good Spot For Arcade Fire, Edward Shapre vs. Spoon, The Black Keys vs. Hot Chip vs. Jamie Lidell, and long-time Green Day fans can now rock out guilt free for 2 hours and 15 minutes and catch Phoenix at the HoB Sunday.

Of course, now new conflicts arise, namely: all Afershows on Saturday, August 7th. But, if this list doesn’t take some of the weight of your chest, I don’t know what will. Where will you be when the lights go out at Millennium Park?

Tickets for all of the shows go on sale starting Friday, June 25th at 10:00 AM CST at the respective venues. Tickets for the festival itself remain on sale here.

Update: The Precision Guiding Musicians featuring Hot Chip et al. has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.

Thursday, August 5th:
Devo w/ Dirty Projectors @ Congress Theater  7:30pm
Slightly Stoopid w/ Collie Buddz @ House of Blues  8pm
New Pornographers w/ Dodos @ Metro 8pm
Big Pink w/ Night Gallery @ Lincoln Hall 8pm
Cymbals Eat Guitars w/ Young Galaxy @ Schubas 8pm

Friday, August 6th:
MGMT @ House of Blues 10pm
Cut Copy w/ Dragonette @ Metro 10pm
The Walkmen w/ Warpaint @ Double Door 10pm
Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros w/ Freelance Whales @ Lincoln Hall 10pm
Wild Beasts – Empty Bottle @ 10pm
Rogue Wave w/ Gamble House @ Schubas 1opm

Saturday, August 7th:
Precision Guided Musicians featuring Hot Chip (Live), Rusko, Steve Porter, Ancient Astronauts, and Perry Farrell @ Congress Theatre 10pm
The National w/ Antlers @ House of Blues 10pm
The Black Keys w/ Morning Benders @ Metro – 10pm
Minus the Bear w Miniature Tigers @ Double Door – 10pm
Blitzen Trapper w/ Avi Buffalo @ Lincoln Hall 10pm
Gogol Bordello @ Subterranean – 10pm
Wavves w/ Harlem @ Empty Bottle – 10pm
The Soft Pack w/ Royal Bangs @ Schubas – 10pm

Sunday, August 8th:
Phoenix w/ Toro Y Moi @ House of Blues 10pm
Health @ Reggies Rock Club 10pm

– The New Pornographers’ Neko Case voices her NSFW frustration (via Vulture) after an audience member throws a CD at bandmate AC Newman during their recent gig in Boston.

Pardon the bad pun, but let’s hope fans keep “their shit” Together at future shows.

According to the Montreal Gazette, the 2010 award honors albums released from June 1st, 2009 to May 31st, 2010. The prize, whose potential winners are chosen by 200 Canadian music critics, went to Fucked Up last year. But it’s not just a fancy, schmancy award. Along with bragging rights, the winners receive a big fat check for $20,000. (Probably more money they’d make otherwise on the actual album.) Pretty sweet deal, all in all.

You can take a peek at the 40 nominees below. Just from a quick glance, stand outs include: The Besnard Lakes, Broken Social Scene, Caribou (who won in 2008), Frog Eyes, Owen Pallet (who won in 2006), The New Pornographers, Tegan & Sara, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Zeus.

As always, stay tuned to for the shortlist and the eventual winner.

2010 Polaris Prize Nominees:
01. Apollo Ghosts – Mount Benson
02. Bahamas – Pink Strat
03. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
04. Blue Rodeo – The Things We Left Behind
05. Brasstronaut – Mt. Chimaera
06. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
07. Basia Bulat – Heart Of My Own
08. By Divine Right – Mutant Message
09. Caribou – Swim
10. Jason Collett – Rat A Tat Tat
11. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (II)
12. Amelia Curran – Hunter, Hunter
13. Fred Fortin – Plastrer La Lune
14. Frog Eyes – Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph
15. Hannah Georgas – This Is Good
16. Ghostkeeper - Ghostkeeper
17. Holy Fuck – Latin
18. Karkwa – Les Chemins De Verre
19. LeE HARVeY OsMOND – A Quiet Evil
20. Greg MacPherson – Mr. Invitation
21. Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice
22. Misteur Valaire – Golden Bombay
23. The New Pornographers – Together
24. Owen Pallett – Heartland
25. Plants And Animals – La La Land
26. Radio Radio - Belmundo Regal
27. Justin Rutledge – The Early Widows
28. The Sadies – Darker Circles
29. Shad – TSOL
30. Elizabeth Shepherd – Heavy Falls The Night
31. The Slew – 100%
32. Meaghan Smith – The Cricket’s Orchestra
33. South Rakkas Crew – The Stimulus Package
34. Tegan And Sara - Sainthood
35. The Wooden Sky – If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
36. Hawksley Workman – Meat
37. You Say Party! We Say Die! – XXXX
38. Young Galaxy- Invisible Republic
39.Yukon Blonde – Yukon Blonde
40. Zeus – Say Us

Basically, the Canadian outfit, its label Matador Records, and a whole bunch of blogs, radio stations, and record stores have partnered together for the “Together Soundcheck Sessions,” which is a huge gigantic promotion that will see said band, label, blogs, and record stores giving a way VIP packages that feature such items as tickets to shows, access to sound checks, and opportunities to meet the band — yep, even Neko Case.

For more info on the whole promotion and how to win, visit Matablog. Below, find a listing of “Together Soundcheck Sessions” stops as well as the rest of The New Pornographers’ upcoming touring schedule.

Also, don’t forget the band’s latest LP Together is available now. Read our review here.

Together Soundcheck Sessions:
06/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House
06/22 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
06/26 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
06/27 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom
07/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Music Box
07/23 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
07/31 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox

The New Pornographers 2010 Tour Dates:
06/17 – Montreal QC @ Le National ^#
06/18 – Boston MA @ House of Blues ^#
06/19 – New York NY @ Terminal 5 ^#
06/20 – New York, NY @ Bell House
06/21 – Philadelphia PA @ Trocadero Theatre ^#
06/22 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club ^#
06/23 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club ^#
06/25 – Chapel Hill NC @ Memorial Hall at UNC ^#
06/26 – Atlanta GA @ Variety Playhouse ^#
06/27 – Nashville TN @ Cannery Ballroom ^#
06/28 – St Louis MO @ The Pagaent ^#
07/14 – Vancouver BC @ The Vogue Theatre ^”
07/15 – Vancouver BC @ The Vogue Theatre ^”
07/16 – Portland OR @ Crystal Ballroom ^”
07/17 – Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Pavillion ^”
07/18 – Oakland CA @ Fox Theater ^”
0 7/19 – Los Angeles CA @ Henry Fonda Theater ^”
07/20 – Los Angeles CA @ Henry Fonda Theater ^”
07/21 – Tucson AZ @ Rialto Theatre ^”
07/23 – Austin TX @ Stubb’s BBQ ^”
07/24 – Dallas TX @ The Showroom at Palladium ^”
07/25 – Tulsa OK @ Cain’s Ballroom ^”
07/26 – Lawrence KS @ Liberty Hal l^”
07/28 – Denver CO @ Ogden Theatre ^”
07/30 – Boise ID @ Egyptian Theatre ^”
07/31 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox ^”
08/01 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox ^”
08/04 – Madison WI @ Orpheum Theatre ^
08/06 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
09/05 – Stradbally, IE @ Electric Picnic
09/07 – Glasgow, UK @ Oran Mor
09/08 – Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge
09/09 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
09/10-11 – North Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/12 – Helsinki, FI @ Tavastia
09/14 – Stockholm, SE @ Strand
09/15 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret
09/16 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
12/09 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
12/10-12 – Minhead, UK @ Bowlie Weekender 2

* = w/ The Mountain Goats
^ = w/ The Dodos
# = w/ The Dutchess & The Duke
” = w/ Imaad Wasif

My newfound buddy obscurely stated one night, “Everyone is their own little Sasquatch.” This was easily the most accurate observation of the weekend. Everybody was partying their hardest, rocking out in an intimate location to some of the biggest bands of today, consuming vast quantities of alcohol, scouring the campgrounds for E, and just going all-out nuts. The vibes at this festival were rock out or go home. The Gorge was prepared for all of this, however, which is why Sasquatch has been able to maintain such success all these years. It’s thee Pacific Northwest festival, and they like it to run smoothly. If they keep bringing the same magnitude of artists back, keep the Gorge clean, and keep running this smaller operation in the same fashion, it won’t be long before blood is spilled over tickets.

But allow us to digress…

Saturday, May 29th

Laura Marling
Bigfoot Stage, 12:50 p.m.

This British youngster Laura Marling rocked the Bigfoot stage for an early afternoon mellow-fest with her stylish brand of folk. This was the perfect way for everyone at the Gorge to get into the spirit of listening to new and talented music, setting quite the bar for the remainder of the weekend. It was not hard to go into a trance while listening to her strong yet soft vocals, and coupled with the sunshine and a light breeze, it was the quintessential start to the festival. -Ted Maider

Brother Ali
Sasquatch Stage, 1:10 p.m.

Who else could spit truth with all of nature’s beauty looming in the background? Brother Ali’s furious brand of politically charged hip-hop ripped through the air for the daytime crowd at the main stage waving their hands in the air, like they actually did care about what he had to say. Aside from his down-to-Earth sociological observations, he and his DJ, Snuggles, did a beat-box tidbit about the kind of movies they watch on the tour bus, which seemed to include porn, Eddie Murphy, and the new Iron Man sequel. To finish it all off, Brother Ali spit the most honest verses about modern America, all without a beat to back him up. That’s as honest as it gets. -Ted Maider

Fool’s Gold
Yeti Stage: 1:20 p.m.

Afro-pop is one hell of a way to kick off Sasquatch 2010. Laura Marling offered a mellow welcoming as I passed by the Bigfoot stage, but as soon as I stepped around the corner to the Yeti state, I was blown away by the L.A hipster jam band. Fool’s Gold set the dance party standards at a high level for the rest of the festival with a beach ball flying, costume wearing, dance party, especially during the high-register guitar riffs in “Surprise Hotel”. You couldn’t help but join in. -Kacie McKinney

Mumford & Sons
Bigfoot Stage: 1:55 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

It was awesome to see such a large, well-deserved crowd for the British folk-rockers, Mumford & Sons. For a set full of ballads early in the day, there was a surprising amount of dancing and singing along with the tunes from Sigh No More. “Little Lion Man” was definitely a crowd favorite as everyone clapped and sang along and the banjo strumming by Winston Marshall and soulful vocals from Marcus Mumford during “Roll Away Your Stone” was a show highlight. -Kacie McKinney

Minus the Bear
Sasquatch Stage: 2:15 p.m.

The Seattle quintet shredded like nobody else as they tore through a set of fantastic songs. The only word to actually and accurately describe these guys was “relentless.” Each member of the band seemed to be in their own little musical world, and it seemed like between them, there was a lot going on. And nothing beat the “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse” that got the crowd to pogo like it was 2002 again. It’s clear, after quite a few albums, that Minus the Bear has perfected its style to go down as one of the purest and leading members of the modern rock scene. -Ted Maider

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Portugal.The Man
Bigfoot Stage: 3:00 p.m.

When I reread my notes for the Portugal. The Man show, they said things like “totalchaos” and “gnar psychedelic rock.” This should give you an idea of where my mind was at as the group played their bizarre brand of trippy art rock, complete with insane noise jams and a quick MGMT cover. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, while members thrashed their instruments around in the blazing hot sun, and shocked audiences all over the grounds. Clearly these guys and girls were on some other mental plane, and by communicating it through their music, they were able to take us there too. -Ted Maider

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Bigfoot Stage: 4:05 p.m.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Word travels pretty fucking fast in the modern age. When I saw this band at Coachella just a month ago, the crowd was big, but maybe about half as big as the crowd here (in Coachella to Sasquatch terms of course). You could hardly breathe as Edward Sharpe and company arrived late to play their six-song set of insanity. The band opened up with an uplifting rendition of “40”, as well as their newfound classic “Home”, which excited the crowd more than a trucker getting his Grand Slam at 4 am. This band is clearly killing it after just one album, and it will only be a matter of time before they become a stellar cult act. -Ted Maider

The Lonely Forest
Yeti Stage: 5:40 p.m.

Good to have a band playing in their home state and at their first Sasquatch ever. Up against Broken Social scene the crowd was small not even making it past the sound stage…but The Lonely Forest had a cult following that was shouting out song requests and soaking in every deeply personal love song. It was also fun to see John Van Deusen play the theme song to Intervention to a Sasquatch drinker at the Luke Burbank comedy show (not to mention, I got t0 help him look up some of the lyrics to the theme song when he stopped by the media area). -Kacie McKinney

Broken Social Scene
Sasquatch Stage: 5:45 p.m.

“We traveled 42 hours to play for you today,” Broken Social Scene informed us upon their arrival. And then the band proceeded to play like they had been waiting 42 hours to rip their hardest. The band’s unique style of guitar assault rock was perfect for the Gorge as the sun began to loom behind the clouds and the temperature dropped. But their music kept people alive as they hypnotized the crowd into an intellectually charged frenzy. Note: Three guitars are better than one. -Ted Maider

Photo by Kyle Johnson

I’m not sure how it’s possible to play an intimate set with 20,000+ people, but Broken Social Scene did it for the better part of an hour. Somehow they made a connection with everyone there, and they received the loudest cheers of the night. The lovely Lisa Lobsinger joined the band for the second half of the set, including her infectious Forgiveness Rock Record track “All To All”. They went on with the full band to play old hit after hit, “7/4 Shoreline”, “Stars and Sons”, and “Fire-Eyed Boy”. The best set at Sasquatch, hands down. -Winston Robbins

The National
Sasquatch Stage: 7:00 p.m.

You can refer to The National in one of two ways: The National or “the men of few words but great charisma.” A graying Mat Beringer and his supporting cast took the stage after a staggering performance by Broken Social Scene. A little to my dismay, I honestly believed that I had reached my Sasquatch climax during BSS’s earth-shattering set at 6 pm. I was a little sad that the night had peaked so quickly. I was so wrong.

The National restored my faith in the pending weekend only minutes after it had been shattered. They’re like a good wine, better with age. As anyone will tell you, the band’s latest installment, High Violet, is no joke. There seems to be no ceiling for just how high The National can go in the studio. Their live show is very much the same. Mat and his family and friends band took the stage and said very little, but kept us riveted throughout regardless. They moved through old hits from Alligator and Boxer seamlessly coupled with Violet hits. Highlight of the show: When Mat Beringer left the stage, jumped the fan restraining bar and trudged 30 yards into the crowd, all the while screaming the chorus of ”Abel”. Why this man is not consistently on the indie crush list for sheer awesome-ness is lost on me. -Winston Robbins

The Hold Steady
Bigfoot Stage: 7:30 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

Always have a drink in your hand and be ready to dance and you will be on the same energy level as Craig Finn when he belts out the party songs of The Hold Steady. I was expecting to hear more new material since Heaven is Whenever came out in early May but they played all the favorites including “Constructive Summer”, “Chips Ahoy”, and “Magazines”. They also slipped in a few from their latest effort. Up against The National, they had a small, but encapsulated crow. It was a good mix and a fun raging dance party – and an especially popular place for green man crowd surfing. -Kacie McKinney

Vampire Weekend
Sasquatch Stage: 8:30 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

The New York-based quartet walked out on stage to DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat”, which couldn’t have been a more humorous entry. The band, however, wasted no time whatsoever in cranking out the greats, as they launched into a high-strung version of “White Sky”. It was then that the whole crowd went ape shit and put out the most positive energy possible. Everyone jumped and sang out the words to songs like “Giving up the Gun”, ”Bryn”, and an electrically charged version of “A-Punk”. Not to mention they wove “Campus” and “Oxford Comma” together in a fashion that would make Jerry Garcia proud. It’s safe to say that Vampire Weekend ripped it Saturday night in a fashion that left everyone out of breath. -Ted Maider

Nada Surf
Bigfoot Stage: 9:00 p.m.

Many were still at Vampire Weekend, but Nada Surf was a fun alternative packed with nostalgic 90s hits like “Always Love” and “Blankest Year” and some from the new cover album If I had a hi-fi including Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silience” and Kate Bush’s “Love and Anger”. This was a performance I had been looking forward to for months and I was left satisfied, but not blown away. -Kacie McKinney

My Morning Jacket
Sasquatch Stage: 10:00 p.m.

The only people who were having more fun than the audience was the band. My Morning Jacket’s musicians never looked more triumphant in their headlining state, playing some of the best selections from their catalog (complete with a ferocious looking donkey on the stage front). Songs like “Dondante” tripped out the entire audience and eased them into a trance, while songs like “One Big Holiday” got the entire crowd into a moshing frenzy at the start of the show. As well as tracks like “Gideon”, “I’m Amazed”, and “Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream” to make this set list officially rad. In the time My Morning Jacket played, they assured the audience that they were one of the hardest working bands in America, and were clearly worthy of headlining a major music festival. This performance easily could have solidified their position as a contemporary music classic, and will be uttered around MMJ folklore for generations to come. -Ted Maider

Deadmau5
Bigfoot Stage: 11:30 p.m.

If you weren’t a Deadmau5 fan before this show, you certainly would have been afterward. That’s not to say I haven’t heard Deadmau5, because I own his albums and find his simplistic style of less-is-more fascinating. His live show, though, goes to show that the more-is-awesome concept works just as well. With a light show that can’t be beat, a style of electronic music that is currently dominating the modern airwaves, and a mask that will forever be associated with the Toronto mix master, it was the show of the night. People furiously danced under the stars as he cut tracks like “Ghosts N’ Stuff” and “Brazil.” At the end, the talented genius waltzed toward the ground and gave some of his fans a high five. I quickly ran over and shouted, “You’re the fucking man!” and he turned back to give a wave. I presume it must be hard knowing that you and your music are this awesome. -Ted Maider

Sunday, May 30th

Martina Topley-Bird
Yeti Stage: 1:00 p.m.

A progenitor of the trip hop genre playing her solo work on the most intimate stage at Sasquatch? Yes, please. Martina Topley-Bird took the stage in a red wedding dress (which we would see later as she took the stage with Massive Attack), looking beyond gorgeous with her amber skin and golden brown curly locks. Things didn’t go exactly as she’d planned with her set, and there were some definite technical errors, but she didn’t let that get her down. In her charming British accent, she explained with a wry smile on her face, “I’m sure you understand. It’s festival vibes. Everything can and will go wrong. I just hope no one’s filming. Oh great. There’s a man with a camera. You bastard…” -Winston Robbins

Local Natives
Bigfoot Stage: 1:30 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

For reasons we may never understand, Pitchfork succeeds. If P4k’s Best New Music is for you, you’re in for at least the next six months. About half the time, they’re right, which means about half the time they’re wrong. Fortunately for us at Sasquatch, they were right in their recent love of Local Natives. Word spreads fast, and as a result this was one of the biggest crowds at the Honda’s Bigfoot Stage. The time they were allotted was nearly long enough for them to play their entire debut album, but the songs that really got the ultra-hip audience going were “Camera Talk”, their cover of Talking Heads’ “Warning Sign”, and the strained, shouting chorus of “Cubism Dream”, which, for the uninformed goes, “I did it for you, I did it for me!!!” Tell you what, Local Natives, your set at Sasquatch 2010 definitely “did it for me.” -Winston Robbins

Luke Burbank
Rumpus Room: 2:00 p.m.

After a little talk with The Lonely Forest I had to go see what all the fuss was about with Luke Burbank – host of Too Beautiful to Live. He taught us all the game of getting iced… keep those Smirnoffs handy at your campsite because next time you hand one to someone they have to get down on one knee and chug it – it’s the rule. Within five minutes of being at the festival, The Lonely Forest iced him. And John Van Deusen came up on stage and sang the Intervention theme song to a participant in the audience that told everyone in the crowd his most embarrassing puking drunk story. -Kacie McKinney

The Tallest Man on Earth
Bigfoot Stage: 2:35 p.m.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

He literally looks like the tallest man ever while standing up on that stage all by himself, but you got to give Kristian Matsson credit for confidence. The Tallest Man on Earth’s set was basically the calm before the storm that was day two of Sasquatch. Matsson’s well-thought out poetry over his mellow and melodic guitar tones smoothed the crowd over as the clouds rolled in. As he stood there, staring out over 10,000 people and belting out his most personal sentiments, it showed that the Tallest Man on Earth could weather any storm – personal, physical, or meteorological. -Ted Maider

They Might Be Giants
Sasquatch Stage: 3:20 p.m.

They Might Be Giants‘ breed of comedic and strangely composed indie rock is able to still hold water after the group’s 20 plus years of existence. By playing songs with titles like “Racist Friend” and “Upside Down Frown”, they were still able to resonate with the population of the Pacific Northwest. The band themselves were appreciative of all the people who came to see them, even the sleeping people (me) in the back. Not to mention, they busted out sock puppets halfway through their set, and introduced them to us as The Avatars of They, who then sang for the next few songs. It was definitely a strange performance, filled with comedic interludes and kooky songs, but if it’s not weird at a festival than what’s the point of checking it out? -Ted Maider

Kid Cudi
Sasquatch Stage: 4:25 p.m.

“We’re all grooving and we’re all friendly at a Kid Cudi show,” the new breed of MC told the crowd when he took the stage Sunday afternoon. He was certainly right, because everybody was feeling real good suddenly. Everybody was on their feet and everyone was dancing like there was no tomorrow. Meanwhile, Kid Cudi spit his rhymes in his Anthrax t-shirt as his DJ laid down tracks that spanned a vast influence of beat composition. Kid Cudi was cutting it up that afternoon, and if you slept through that, then I am truly sorry. -Ted Maider

Tegan & Sara
Sasquatch Stage: 5:35 p.m.

You know what I like most about Tegan & Sara? Nothing is recycled. I have seen them four times over the course of the past two years, and not once has there been a joke used twice, no signature gimmicks to get the crowd involved, and no uniform costuming — which means they are always flying by the seat of their pants, and that deserves some serious respect. There aren’t many bands out there, however musically talented, quite as capable of that organic interaction with the crowd as T&S.

Given the short time they were allotted, they weren’t given much time to fool around showing off songs from their latest, Sainthood. They played mostly fan favorites from previous records; songs such as: “Where Does The Good Go”, “Nineteen”, “The Con”, and “Walking With a Ghost.” These girls are pros and they know it, they’ve earned every scrap of their success, and it’s fun to see reap the benefits. -Winston Robbins

The xx
Bigfoot Stage: 5:55 p.m.

It suddenly got very creepy where I was standing as The xx took the Bigfoot stage towards the end of the day. The clouds were dark and the songs were eerie as the vocals lulled everyone in the crowd into a numb stupor. The xx’s brand of steezy beats, thumping bass, and cryptic vibe got everyone hypnotized as the darkness of the night crept in to a style of music that embraced the nightfall. It’s music like this, that when seen live, takes you to a new level of mentality that is only achievable in a scenario like Sasquatch. -Ted Maider

LCD Soundsystem
Sasquatch Stage: 7:00 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

Did you think you could mosh to LCD Soundsystem? Neither did I, until it happened. LCD Soundsystem had, what I considered, one of the best shows of the weekend. James Murphy arrived on stage and wasted no time blowing minds left and right. His energy was insane as he screamed out the lyrics to “Time Has Come” and “Us v. Them”. Shortly after that, the band launched into the rowdiest version of “Drunk Girls” that left the crowd breathless from dancing, as well as “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” which was nothing short of a roller coaster ride. I couldn’t imagine anybody trying to sit down during this show. He got the entire crowd at the Gorge to stand up, wave their hands in unison, and chant out “All My Friends” as the band closed their amazing, jaw-dropping, almost inspirational hour-long set. -Ted Maider

Fruit Bats
Yeti Stage: 7:30 p.m.

I left the LCD Soundsystem to check out the Fruit Bats. As much as I was having a good time down on the mainstage dance floor I didn’t mind the peaceful break that Fruit Bats offered. The passion Eric D. Johnson puts into the vocals is worth the show. The Ruminant Band has definitely been a good thing for The Fruit Bats and they would have had more attention if not up against the best dance party of the weekend – and quite possibly the best dance party Sasquatch has ever seen period. -Kacie McKinney

Pavement
Sasquatch Stage: 8:30 p.m.

Photo by Christopher Nelson

Apparently, it was Stephen Malkmus’ birthday. Why didn’t I get a notification from Facebook? I clearly would have made a note to rock just that much harder, but it didn’t matter anyways, because Pavement came out with the full intention to have just as much fun as the crowd. It was possibly the most satisfying set Pavement could have possibly played, complete with shenanigans from Malkmus and Spiral Stairs. The band kicked it off with the most fast-paced version of “Cut Your Hair” which was followed by an epic “Trigger Cut”. The band played everything you could possibly have wanted to hear, including spectacular numbers like “Gold Soundz”, “Kennel District”, and “Shady Lane”, while the Pacific Northwest citizens lost their minds to seeing one of their favorite bands only mere feet in front of their eyes. -Ted Maider

Massive Attack
Sasquatch Stage: 10:30 p.m.

Massive Attack was by far the biggest name on the bill at Sasquatch 2010 and consequently garnered the biggest crowd. The masses came in throngs to see the trip hop legends perform for the first time ever at The Gorge, and few, if any, left underwhelmed. The theatrics were second to none as they took the stage on what was one of their last US dates. They came out soft starting with Heligoland bonus track “United Snakes”, while the screen behind them flashed 100 words a minute, all drug-related: melatonin, cocaine, mescaline, ketamine, THC, heroin, codeine, ecstasy, etc. And I firmly believe that over half the crowd in attendance was on one, if not more of the mentioned drugs, and I’m surprised they didn’t put the word “massive attack” on the drug list, because their music in itself can induce pleasurable highs. So in that sense, it was accurate of them to open with a list of drugs because everyone was high to a certain extent.

That same screen would become the backdrop of the ideas they wanted to express in words or numbers for the remainder of the two hour set. It went from a political rally, to a question of freedom using quotes and statistics (Arizona got shanked multiple times), to a full on quote fest fraught with thought provoking ideas. And while this may seem shameless and completely devoid of all subtlety, it worked given the atmosphere.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Of course we saw appearances by Massive Attack regulars Martina Topley-Bird and Horace Andy, as well as the boys themselves, 3D and Daddy G, and as they ran through the set, they each provided such a unique spin to the MA sound. It almost felt like a stage production with the frequent coming and going of musicians and the constant costume changes of Martina Topley-Bird. The set was fairly Heligoland top-heavy, with tracks like “Babel”, “Girl I Love You”, “Psyche”, and “Splitting The Atom”, but their classics received pretty fair attention. From “Teardrop” to “Risingson” to “Angel”, Mezzanine was well represented, as was Blue Lines with tracks “Safe From Harm”, and “Unfinished Sympathy”. All in all, it played like an incredible greatest hits, and it blew the minds of all who were lucky enough to witness it. -Winston Robbins

Booka Shade
Bigfoot Stage: 11:30 p.m.

The house duo from Germany known as Booka Shade opened up their electronic doors of insanity to the world on Sunday night as the closed out the entire show. The band tore it down, while ravers danced under the stars for a solid hour and a half. Even when the band tried to get off stage, the audience screamed for more, until the band finally obliged playing for another 15 minutes. This pleased the crowd immensely as the synth and drums duo blazed up that stage some more, keeping everybody in full-on party mode for just a few more moments. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wanted it to end. -Ted Maider

Monday, May 31st

The Heavy
Sasquatch Stage: 12:00 p.m.

Nothing like some English soul to cure that Monday hangover. Kevin Swaby’s voice was the perfect thing to ease everyone into the last day of the festival as they were enjoying their $8 lattes and $11 hair-of-the dog beers. Rockers with some funky horns and a soulful voice, you never know what The Heavy will cook up next. Songs such as “How You Like Me Now” (Featured in a KIA commercial) and the horns in “No Time” set the funky mood for the morning. -Kacie McKinney

Mayer Hawthorne & The County
Sasquatch Stage: 12:55 p.m.

In his suit and high-tops, Mayer Hawthorne used his falsetto voice and thick-rimmed glasses to channel Motown soul music. Most notably he channeled his former role as DJ Haircut and had the crowd singing Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” While I’m still questioning why he took five minutes to poll the audience about what kind of music they liked,  it was good music to sit up on the hill and get ready for the day ahead. -Kacie McKinney

Seattle Rock Orchestra
Bigfoot Stage: 2:20 p.m.

This Aracade Fire cover band was a hidden gem during the solid Monday main stage set. As I was getting closer to the stage I actually heard a person say “OMG Arcade Fire is playing!” as they ran over to the Bigfoot stage to watch the band play songs from Funeral. But what they saw instead was around 30 of Seattle’s best freelance classical and pop musicians tearing it up. One girl was even playing a teakettle and played it so hard it broke. -Kacie McKinney

Drive-By Truckers
Sasquatch Stage: 3:00 p.m.

The cowboy boots were in prime form for Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers. But the crowd seemed to be a mixture of the alt-country enthusiasts for the day and hipsters waiting to rush the main floor for Passion Pit coming up next. There were a few hollers from the floor and a few snickers from the Passion Pit crowd as Patterson Hood dedicated  “18 Wheels of Love” to the 18 Wheeler Peterbilt in the sky. -Kacie McKinney

Passion Pit
Sasquatch Stage: 4:10 p.m.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Many people around camp Sasquatch were chirping about the Boston group’s performance. Apparently, last year Passion Pit rocked the northwest while playing various tracks off their masterpiece LP, Manners, and this year they seemed to kick just as much, if not more, ass. “Make Light” at the beginning got the crowd into a dancing frenzy, and nobody was safe during their live rendition of “Sleepyhead”, as Passion Pit put all their energy into their keyboards. If you weren’t out of breath after the show, you clearly weren’t feeling it. -Ted Maider

Dr. Dog
Bigfoot Stage: 4:30 p.m.

Thank god Craig Robinson bombed it on the comedy stage because Dr. Dog got the crowd they deserved. I love watching people’s awe-shocked faces amidst a Dr. Dog performance. Working off of You may expect these guys to play a mellow little set, but you ain’t seen nothing until you see them live. -Kacie McKinney

She & Him
Sasquatch Stage: 5:20 p.m.

I’ve never been certain as to what exactly possessed M. Ward to collaborate with Zooey Deschanel. I had guessed that it must have had something to do with the never ending pools of blue water she calls eyes, but seeing She & Him live has changed my mind about that in a big way. It’s become very clear to me that it was their affinity for ’50s music is what brought them together.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

They busted out song after song teeming with nostalgic vibes and kept us all thoroughly entertained with their onstage antics and charisma. Zooey playfully introduced the band saying, “We’re She & Him, and him and him and him and her and her” referring to her backing band. And I must give credit where credit is due, Zooey’s got almost as much onstage swagger as the legendary M. Ward, who is known to drop jaws with his sheer coolness. Playing mostly songs from their newest installment, Volume 2, the highlights were “Don’t Look Back”, an elongated “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, and their cover of “Roll Over Beethoven”. -Winston Robbins

Band of Horses
Sasquatch Stage: 6:40 p.m.

Some people are simply just born to front bands. Julian Casablancas, Wayne Coyne, and Thomas Mars, are all excellent examples of individuals who quarterback their respective bands with absolute professionalism and perfection. As of May 31, 2010, I am officially adding Ben Bridwell to that list. Despite their latest installment, Infinite Arms, being panned by most critics (somewhat undeservedly), Band of Horses took the stage with the utmost confidence in themselves. And why shouldn’t they? They’ve released three solid alt-country albums to massive success amongst the indie community and they’ve somehow maintained their dignity in doing so (that’s an intentional jab at you, MGMT).

Photo by Kyle Johnson

“This band started in Seattle in ’04 and now we’re bringin’ it home for Sasquatch 2010,” Bridwell exclaimed. True to his word, they played hit after hit, playing only two songs from their latest effort. I guess they got the message from the critics, however inaccurate it may have been. Highlight tracks: “Is There A Ghost”, “Detlef Schrempf”, “Ode To LRC” and “Great Salt Lake” got the crowd moving, and reminded us all about just how much we love Band of Horses deep down. -Winston Robbins

MGMT
Sasquatch Stage: 8:00 p.m.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

I have never feared for my life more than I did while on the floor during MGMT (that says a lot). Between an eager and pushy crowd, untied shoes, a lack of air, gallons of alcohol sweat depleting from my body, and a face-melting show from the band, it was easily one of the best (and most anticipated) shows of the weekend. They dedicated their set to those who died in combat (it was Memorial Day after all) and then opened with their slow, and down-to-Earth number “Pieces of What”. However, they didn’t hesitate to shake it up with songs like “Brian Eno”, “Flash Delirium”, and “Time to Pretend”. To end it, the band played the most intense version of “Kids,” which the crowd sang the synth riff to accapella style as the band exited the glorious main stage. -Ted Maider

The New Pornographers
Bigfoot Stage: 8:20 p.m.

The best time slot The New Pornographers have seen (as Carl Newman pointed out “It’s weird to play in the dark”) proved to be well-deserved. And an engadged crowd was ready with an inflatable whale and glowsticks  that became part of the act throughout the show. This was the most engadged and talkative I had ever seen the band – and Neko Case was in prime form with her one-liners. Up against MGMT on the main stage,  Case jokingly told the audience that MGMT was sending a shuttle over soon to get us. And as soon as a large crowd left MGMT and booked it to the dance tent the band asked them “Hey, where are you going?” They played all the favorites including kicking it off with “Spanish Techno”and ending with an encore performance of “Letter from an Occupant”. -Kacie McKinney

Neon Indian
Rumpus Room: 8:40 p.m.

Alan Palomino has had a great year – that much is true. But it’s tough to realize why he’s had such a great year unless you’ve seen him do his thing onstage with Neon Indian. It’s simple, it’s catchy, and it’s fun to dance to, especially when you’ve poured all your energy into the past three days and this is the last act you will see. People went berserk for the Texan gone Brooklyn-ite’s hits. “Terminally Chill”, “Deadbeat Summer”, and “Should’ve Taken Acid With You” seemed to particularly get everyone rough and rowdy. And in a tent that is not very large, full to the brim with people, this can prove to be quite a fulfilling experience. -Winston Robbins

Ween
Sasquatch Stage: 9:30 p.m.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Everyone was super excited for Ween (most of these people appeared to be Canadian). It made me somewhat jealous, as my knowledge of Ween is slightly limited (my roommate used to play Chocolate and Cheese constantly), but when they started, it didn’t matter. Ween jammed hard in a way that the dudes from Phish would be overtly envious. While blasting through tunes like “Spinal Meningitis”, “Bananas and Blow”, “Bare Hands”, and “Take Me Away”, it was clear why so many people were jacked up about Ween. They are simply just a great band, with quirky/memorable songs that their fans love and know every word to. Why wouldn’t a band like this headline a major music festival? As I departed from Ween’s extravagant closing set, I knew Sasquatch had done me just right with all the music, which is why any of us go to these festivals in the first place. -Ted Maider

Special thanks to photographers Kyle Johnson and Christopher Nelson.

Titled Are You My Mother? (Seuss? Eastman?), the record was recorded in her childhood home with the help of bandmates Neko Case, Kurt Dahle, and Todd Fancey. Other guest spots on the 10-track effort include members of Frog Eyes and Ladyhawke. And though the collection will be released on August 10th, I wouldn’t count on a solo tour until The New Pornographers wrap their promotion of Together. Between this band, Broken Social Scene and Wolf Parade, someone should get a pool going about which supergroup stays active the longest. I got The New Pornographers.

Check out the tracklisting below and note that it is her first solo song-naming (you can tell). We also have the first track, “Slip Away” available below.

Check Out:
“Slip Away”

Are You My Mother? Tracklist:
01. Slip Away
02. Low
03. Castor and Pollux
04. Arrow
05. If You Only Knew
06. Follow Me Into The Hills
07. Down The River
08. A Day Long Past It’s Prime
09. So Easily
10. All It Is

Note: This press release includes a few choice quotes about the keyboardist and singer. Two were from typical magazines, and the last is pretty priceless:

“Kathryn Calder, who replaced (Neko) Case on vocals and keys, is incredibly charming and charismatic. Tonight, a photographer friend of mine blew a couple of rolls of film on her for this very reason.” – Craig Finn

Beginning Memorial Day weekend, the band will hit up cities in Canada and the Northern States, notably the state of Washington with an appearance at Sasquatch! Festival over Memorial Day weekend. In addition, The Mountain Goats will support The New Pornographers for a set of dates. This is the only time ever that I wished I called Saskatoon home.

Something we can all share in is is the June 1st airing of Dinner with the Band on IFC. If you have to ask why, then you probably did poorly on your SATs. And, you probably don’t own a TV, much less one with the service necessary to get IFC. Just sayin…

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.com.

The Mountain Goats 2010 Tour Dates:
05/30 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir *
05/31 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Festival
06/01 – Victoria, BC @ Element ^
06/02 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater ^
06/04 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux ^
06/05 – Missoula, MT @ The Palace ^
06/07 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall #
06/08 – Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Event Center #
06/09 – Saskatoon, SK @ The Odeon Events Center #
06/10 – Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick Centre #
06/12 – Iowa City, IA @ The Blue Moose Taphouse ^
06/13 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown ^
06/15 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater ^
06/16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge ^
09/08 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
09/09 – London, UK @ Koko
09/10 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival

* = w/ Sarah Dougher
^ = w/ The Beets
# = w/ The New Pornographers

Yep, only on J-Fal.

Check out clips of both Waters and The New Pornographers’ appearances below, courtesy of our friends at The Audio Perv.

And Mass Romantic spoke to me. Usually to fall in love with a group as deeply and completely as I did with The New Pornographers, there needs to be a lyrical connection to the poetry of the singer. Not the case with music of A.C. Newman (but strangely, the case with Destroyer, the band of The New Pornographers’ other singer/songwriter Dan Bejar). No, the love came from the all-hook melodies and catch phrases, the way each song could have eight different parts sung by three singers and all of them could get stuck in your head. It was a new kind of pop music, pop music that would never be popular but was more infectious than anything that was. If Mass Romantic were released today, The New Pornographers would be Vampire Weekend. But nearly 10 years ago, they were a mildly successful indie band who could barely come together for a single leg of a tour, with every album strongly rumored to be their last.

And the love only got better, with Electric Version, with The Slow Wonder, with Rubies, with Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, with Twin Cinema, not to mention the entire Neko Case and Dan Bejar back catalogue. I even loved Challengers, which I contest is grossly under-appreciated. The thing is, Challengers was the first album they made where every song wasn’t good, so it was easy to dismiss, but the album has about six excellent songs on it, which is better than MGMT’s career. Challengers also was the moment where everyone realized that maybe the best songs A.C. Newman was going to write, he already had. And when you’ve loved a band from the beginning, is there a more terrible moment than when the term “past their prime” enters the discussion? At least later, when you realize it’s true, you know it’s over. But not knowing if you will ever hear great songs from a band again, well, that is a terrible place to be.

But aren’t we all there right now? While in 2010 we’re able to see the blossoming of Vampire Weekend and Beach House, and the apparent peak of LCD Soundsystem and The National (very open to debate), this year may be remembered as the time a number of great indie bands reached their “moment of truth,” like a Hemingway story. These are bands, regardless of the depth of their catalog, that at some point were positioned so that every release is considered the height of relevance and another piece of the rock ‘n roll canon. The Hold Steady…Spoon…Broken Social Scene…Wolf Parade … the list is probably different for everyone, but I definitely asked this question while listening to the latest Spoon and The Hold Steady albums: “Is this the decline?” They are beginning the Built to Spill/Modest Mouse portion of their career, where the albums are still worth hearing, but not with the same anticipation as before. At least with The New Pornographers, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

And Together is pretty damn mediocre, for a record from this band. But don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad record, and actually, by any normal measurement it is pretty good. A.C. Newman’s B-game is better than most artists’ A-Game, and I leave room that this may be a grower, as their last two albums and Newman’s Get Guilty solo record were. If any difference jumps out at me immediately, it is how American the album sounds. The opening notes of “Moves”, the album opener, could be the guitar contribution from St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, and if they are not, well, they sure seem influenced by the lady. Perhaps Newman’s relocating to New York has influenced the sound and maybe there is a bigger difference between Canadian and American rock than we readily notice. Either way, the overall aesthetic  is consistent, more so than that of any of their other records, but whether that aesthetic is good is a different matter.

This sound continues on the first Bejar track, “Silver Jenny Dollar”, which like “Moves” is a fine song, but seems to emulate the breezy throwback sound She and Him are making popular. And though “Your Hands” packs the rock-and-roll punch, most of the other songs leave the listener wanting (but man, this song has really grown on me in the months since its release). The song “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” is so cutesy it’s almost twee, something the band never flirted with before, always keeping a careful balance between well-crafted duet singing and enough rock to keep you from puking. Maybe these are nitpicking criticisms, but the fact is they are hard songs to really have an opinion on. The songs are catchy enough while they are playing, but once they are over they leave your brain completely.

This album also lacks the killer ballad that had been a recent strength in A.C. Newman’s craft. “Valkyrie and the Roller Disco” is a pretty duet between Kathryn Calder and Newman (I think it is Calder?), but was I really supposed to see that Tom Cruise movie? I didn’t think that was going to come back to haunt me. Like, there are some movies, you just figure I’ll never see that and it’s no big deal because it has no social importance whatsoever. And now, this. “My Shepherd”, Case’s ballad, is a fine song, but it also sounds like it would be too much at home on one of Case’s own albums, which is a chief pleasure of The Pornos, hearing Bejar and Case make music they would never touch on one of their own records. Bejar, in particular, embraces this with his own songwriting, not giving the band his Destroyer scraps but rather his tracks that wouldn’t be good Destroyer songs. This includes album highlight, “If You Can’t See My Mirrors”, a song that is way too poppy for a Destroyer record, but shows the range of Bejar and why he is one of the most exciting songwriters living today. Bejar’s final offering “Daughter of Sorrow” would make a terrific album closer, like Challengers standout “The Spirit of Giving”, but instead we get a weaker Newman offering, the sentimental “We End Up Together”. It sounds like St. Vincent (like the album opener), giving the feeling of full circle when the journey around was not that fulfilling. And it’s about two minutes too long.

As if the all-star cast of the band wasn’t enough, the album features the aforementioned Clark, trumpet from Beirut’s Zach Condon, vocals from Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, and backing from The Dap Kings. This means pretty much nothing, with only Clark noticeable, but I could even be mistaken about that. My biggest gripe with Together, though, is that it just doesn’t hold up to the other work from the artists. Sure, it shows creative risks and I’ll be damned if writing this review hasn’t made me like the album more, but put it against any other work of these artists  and it just wouldn’t stick out of a lineup. So while The New Pornographers have crafted a decent and moderately enjoyable album, in the end I’m just left with the fear that the band’s relevance is fading and that I might not love another album from them again. And that pretty much blows.

Afters months of guesses and leaks and a week-long word puzzle, we finally know who will be playing the 2010 edition of Lollapalooza.

This year’s festival, set to take place from August 6-8 at Chicago’s Grant Park, will be headed by what is currently the first scheduled performance for the recently reunited, iconic grunge outfit Soundgarden. Legendary punk rockers Green Day, pop superstar Lady Gaga, influential indie outfits The Strokes and Arcade Fire, and French sensations Phoenix are all set to top the lineup.

Other notables acts include Erykah Badu, Social Distortion, MGMT, Devo, Cypress Hill, Spoon, The National, The New Pornographers, Wolfmother, Gogol Bordello, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, Hot Chip, Drive-By Truckers, Dirty Projectors, Metric, Cut Copy, AFI, and the legendary Jimmy Cliff.

As we scroll further down, names such as Mavis Staples, Minus the Bear, Frightened Rabbit, The xx, Blitzen Trapper, Fuck Buttons, Switchfoot, The Temper Trap, The Dodos, Jamie Lidell, The Cribs, and Raphael Saadiq can also be found.

The bottom tier of the lineup features up-and-comers like Mumford & Sons, Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Soft Pack, The Morning Benders, Warpaint, The Antlers, Freelance Whales, Jukebox the Ghost, and These United States.

Finally, this year’s bill will once again feature Perry’s, a dance-oriented stage. Among those scheduled to appear include 2ManyDJs, Empire of the Sun, Digitalism, Tiga, Felix da Housecat, Rusko, Flosstradamus, Wolfgang Gartner, Joachim Garraud, Peanut Butter Wolf, and a DJ set from Cut Copy.

As it stands now, the current 2010 bill looks like this:

Soundgarden, Green Day, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Phoenix, Social Distortion, MGMT, Jimmy Cliff, Hot Chip, The Black Keys, The National, Spoon, Devo, Cypress Hill, Cut Copy, The New Pornographers, Erykah Badu, Slightly Stoopid, Grizzly Bear, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, Wolfmother, Yeasayer, X Japan, Mutemath, Metric, Dirty Projectors, AFI, Mavis Staples, Matt & Kim, The xx, Drive-By Truckers, Blues Traveler

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Temper Trap, Jamie Lidell, Frightened Rabbit, Fuck Buttons, Deer Tick, Blitzen Trapper, Stars, Raphael Saadiq, The Cribs, Minus the Bear, Switchfoot, The Walkmen, Mumford & Sons, Wild Beasts, Rogue Wave, Los Amigos Invisibles, The Big Pink, The Dodos, Hockey, Cymbals Eat Guitars, B.o.B, Dawes, Warpaint, The Antlers, The Soft Pack, Rebelution, Balkan Beat Box

Wavves, American Bang, The Ike Reilly Assassination, Company of Thieves, Nneka, Harlem, The Constellations, Miniature Tigers, Mimicking Birds, The Kissaway Trail, HEALTH, Javelin, The Morning Benders, Foxy Shazam, Violent Soho, Royal Bangs, Neon Trees, Freelance Whales, Semi Precious Weapons, Dan Black, The Band of Heathens, Dragonette, My Dear Disco, Shawn Fisher, Neon Hitch, Skybox, The Ettes, Jukebox the Ghost, These United States, MyNameIsJohnMichael

Perry’s DJ stage lineup:

2ManyDJs, Empire of the Sun, Digitalism, Perry Farrell, Tiga, Felix da Housecat, Rusko, Erol Alkan, Kaskade, Flosstradamus, Wolfgang Gartner, Joachim Garraud, Mexican Institute of Sound, Caspa, Peanut Butter Wolf, Dirty South, NERVO, Cut Copy (DJ Set), Beats Antique, Steve Porter, Didi Gutman of Brazilian Girls, Ancient Astronauts, Ana Sia, Team Bayside High, Dani Deahl, FreeSol, DJ Mel, BBU Vonnegutt, Only Children, Lance Herbstrong

Additional acts, including the lineup for this year’s Kidzapalooza stage will be announced in the weeks ahead. The day-by-day schedule will likely be revealed in June.

Three-day passes are currently priced at $190 and can obtained here. Once that allotment sells out, the price will raise to $215. VIP passes and travel packages are also available.

Update: For those looking looking to get their scheduling freak on, it appears that Lady Gaga and The Strokes will be playing Friday, Green Day and Phoenix on Saturday, and Soundgarden and Arcade Fire on Sunday. Here is the day-by-day breakdown, which is TOTALLY UNCONFIRMED, per the Lollapalooza message board:

Friday, August 6th:
Lady Gaga
The Strokes
Jimmy Cliff
Hot Chip
The Black Keys
Devo
New Pornographers
Chromeo
Dirty Projectors
Mavis Staples
Matt & Kim
Drive-By Truckers
Jamie Lidell
Fuck Buttons
Raphael Saadiq
The Walkmen
Los Amigos Invisbles
The Big Pink
Cymabalks Eat Guitars
B.o.B
Balkan Beat BOx
Wavves
American Bang
The Constellations
Javelin
Foxy Shazam
Semi Precious Weapons
My Dear Disco
The Ettes
Jukebox The Ghost
These United States
2ManyDJs
Tiga
Erol Alkan
Caspa
Peanut Butter Wolf
Cut Copy (DJ)
Ana Sia
FreeSol
BBU Vonnegutt

Saturday, August 7th:
Green Day
Phoenix
Social Distortion
Spoon
Cut Copy
Erykah Badu
Slightly Stoopid
Grizzly Bear
Gogol Bordello
Metric
AFI
The xx
Blues Traveler
Edward Sharpe
Deer Tick
Stars
Wild Beasts
Rogue Wave
Dawes
Warpaint
The Soft Pack
Rebelution
Harlem
Mimicking Birds
Kissaway Trail
Morning Benders
Royal Bangs
Dan Black
Dragonette
Skybox
Mynameisjohnmichael
Empire of the Sun
Perry Farrell
Rusko
Kaskade
Wolfgang Gartner
Joachim Garraud
Beats Antique
Steve Porter
Ancient Astronauts
DJ Mel
BBU Vonnegutt
Only Children
Lance Herbstrong

Sunday, August 8th:
Soundgarden
Arcade Fire
MGMT
The National
Cypress Hill
Wolfmother
Yeasayer
X Japan
MUTEMATH
The Temper Trap
Frightened Rabbit
Blitzen Trapper
The Cribs
Minus THe Bear
Switchfoot
Mumford & Sons
The Dodos
Hockey
The Antlers
Ike Reilly
Company of Thieves
Nneka
Miniature Tigers
HEALTH
Violent Soho
Freelance Whales
Band of Heathens
Shawn Fisher
Neon Hitch
Digitalism
Felix da Housecat
Flosstradamus
Mexican Institute of Sound
Dirty South
Nervo
Didi Gutman (Brazilian Girls)
Team Bayside High
Dani Deahl