Dropped some cash on some rad concert tickets today. (Wait. I don’t talk like that.)

A few months ago, a colleague told me about this thing called “The Sasquatch Festival” up at The Gorge Amphitheatre in the great state of Washington.  I thought to myself..hmmm that sounds like fun, I wonder who will be there this year?  Well, they finally announced the lineup Monday, I scrolled through the internet to find the pre-sale password, and today I purchased a 3-Day pass to the event!!

I’m pretty excited as the day one lineup is particularly stellar, and this will be my very first big music festival.

5/29: Day 1: The National, Broken Social Scene, Mike Snow, The Middle East, My Morning Jacket

5/30: Day 2: Massive Attack, Pavement, Tegan and Sara, The xx, Midlake, Freelance Whales

5/31: Day 3: MGMT, Band of Horses, New Pornographers, Camera Obscura, Telekinesis

What do you think? Who wants to join?! Road trip, camping, hiking, drinking, live music? What more could you want!?

Music, Personal

Jónsi – Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Music

With digital downloads, online album previews, and just by simply not realizing an artist until after their album release, it’s pretty rare these days I get “stoked” about release dates.  But this Tuesday is one of those special occasions.

After previewing it online last week, I finally was able to purchase Motion City Soundtrack’s latest release, My Dinosaur Life at 12:01am this morning.  (Amazon Mp3 for a reasonable 7.99).  I have been anticipating this album for a few weeks, and let me just say it does not disappoint.  It is getting rave reviews from all around, and is a solid listen from top to bottom.  For the record it’s 2:55pm and I have already listened to it 7 times.

Some production notes include that is their first album on a major label and Mark Hoppus produced it.  Hoppus also produced 2005’s Committ This To Memory.  Some people read too much into the major label thing.  As long as they don’t change their sound too much, or completely sell out and write crappy music to sell records and get worthless Grammy’s (Green Day), I don’t really care.

But whichever way you spin it, there is no denying My Dinosaur Life is a great album.  Might even be Motion City’s best.  Favorite tracks include:  “A Lifeless Ordinary,” “History Lesson,” and “Stand Too Close.”  You can read a more thorough review of the album here, and right now you should go to Amazon Mp3 or your local record store and buy it!

Along with my emo guilty pleasure, there are a few huge albums coming out that I’m really looking forward to.  KCRW and NPR just started playing the first single from the Broken Bells, the collaboration between The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse.  This album doesn’t come out until March!  I don’t know if I can wait that long…

2010 Releases:

Motion City Soundtrack: My Dinosaur Life – 01/19
Spoon: Transference – 01/19
Two Door Cinema Club: Tourist History -  03/01
Broken Bells: Broken Bells – 03/09
Jónsi: Go - 03/23

Music

So I’ve been a member of eMusic, a digital music download service for about 3 and a half years now.  It is far more superior than any other kind of similar service out there.  I think I started out with a plan that was like 10 bucks a month for 15 songs, but have gotten a little out of control and am up to 50 songs a month for 20 bucks.  What I like so much about eMusic (as compared to iTunes) is that the songs are DRM free.  You can play the songs as many times as you’d like, and in as many computers, iPods, smartphones, etc. as you’d like.  Their selection definitely works for me; however they do not have many major artists.  So if you’re all about the Billboard Top 50, then go overpay for crappy music on over at iTunes.

So my point to all of this is, I don’t really want to put ads on my site.  For starters, I’m pretty sure only like 10 people grace the presence of this site anyway.  But, since I am such a fan of the product, I may from time to time put up a banner for eMusic.  If you sign up for the free trial I get paid!  Haha.   I figure I give them so much of my money I my as well try to get a little back.

Anyway, here’s the official jargon:

eMusic is the #1 site for independent music, with a library of over 4,500,000 MP3s. eMusic sets itself apart from other services by offering MP3s free from copy protection. This means that eMusic customers truly own the music they download. Our MP3’s play on any portable music player (including the iPod and Zune), can be downloaded to unlimited computers as well as burned to CD. Other digital music services either charge extra or do not offer the flexibility eMusic provides to their customers.

Music

I meant to post this about 3 weeks ago…

2009 was a great year for music.  I discovered a few great breakout artists, as well as stellar albums from main staples in my library.  As always, I’m all about supporting the artists, so I would recommend purchasing their music from eMusic or Amazon.mp3, or even better, catching a live show!

Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone may perhaps be the best album of her career.  It certainly did the best in sales. I’m happy to see her showing up on NPR, Amazon, Spin Magazine and others’ Top Album of the Year lists.  I cannot say this enough – Neko Case truly is the best female vocalist on the planet.  She’s just that good.

Telekinesis: Telekinesis
I saw this band open a Ra Ra Riot show at the El Rey.  I was absolutely blown away.  The lead singer is also the drummer, which made the show exciting to watch.  Subsequently, I saw the band, actually it’s a moniker for Michael Benjamin Lerner, play two more shows.  I chatted with Michael for a bit and he’s extremely modest and down to earth.  I think Telekinesis might get big within the next couple of years.  You can hear part of their song, “ Coast of Carolina” on a Ford Commercial.

Gregory Alan Isakov: This Empty Northern Hemisphere
My friend Tony introduced me to this artist, and what can I say – another guy that just blew me away.  Beautiful voice, catchy lyrics, and just overall well-crafted folk/country/indie.   Both his albums out are worth a listen.  He’s great live, too.  I saw him with about 50 people at a small club in Brooklyn.  Amazing.

Lily Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You
What a great pop album.  Very catchy, bouncy, and most importantly she writes about what she knows best – herself. In fact, NPR’s All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen got so obsessed with her first-person lyrics, he counted 195 references to “me” and  186 to “you” over the course of the album!

Metric: Fantasies
Wow.  Emily Haines and her Toronto friends put together this album and it is incredible.  It was in my rotation for about a month.  I did not listen to anything else!!  Gimme Sympathy just might be the best single of the year for me.

Say Anything: Say Anything
Say Anything.  Oh, Max Bemis, I love you.  I was feeling a little depressed, a little down, lethargic…and then I got this album.  Don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but I have been upbeat ever since!  “You can do better!  You can do better!  You can be the greatest man in the world!”

Other Great Albums:

The Noisettes: Wild Young Hearts
Cursive: Mama, I’m Swollen
David Gray: Draw the Line
Pearl Jam: Backspacer
Sea Wolf: White Water, White Bloom
Dark Was the Night Compilation

Came out in 2008 but I discovered them this year and they are awesome:
Rural Alberta Advantage: Hometowns.

Well there ya have it, my favorite albums of 2009.  Notably missing from this list are Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.  The rest of the ‘indie’ world is going goo-goo all over these albums, but I just don’t hear it.  Also, the most disappointing album – Davy by Coconut Records.  Couldn’t even get through it.

On the radar:  2010 is looking at some new albums from Frightened Rabbit, Alkaline Trio, Bayside/Anthony Raneri solo?, Spoon, among many others.  Not to mention SOMETHING CORPORATE’S first show in 5 years at Bamboozle Left.  See you there!

Music

Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom

Say Anything – Say Anything

Pearl Jam – Backspacer

Alkaline Trio – Crimson, From Here to Infirmary, Good Mourning, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire

Middle East – The Recordings of The Middle East

NPR All Songs Considered – Decade in Music

Artsy, Music

Today I listened to the latest podcast from NPR’s All Songs Considered. First of all, if you love indie rock you need to listen to this podcast. Every week. Well, not last week because Bjork was the guest DJ. This week’s episode was particularly great. The whole gang was there, making fun of each other’s musical tastes and discussing the importance (or non-importance) of record labels.

Being a music snob that I am, I certainly pay attention to record labels. When I was younger, I completely identified with Drive-Thru Records. New Found Glory, Finch, The Starting Line, Something Corporate, Senses Fail, Hidden in Plain View, Midtown, and even Dashboard Confessional. Virtually all the bands I listened to in High School were on that label. Now, I’ve moved on since the punk/emo/pop days…actually no I haven’t, but anyway, I’ve moved onto more folk/indie/female rock artists. Some labels I like to stick with are Victory (Bayside, Taking Back Sunday), Barsuk (Death Cab for Cutie), Merge (Telekinesis, Arcade Fire) ARTS AND CRAFTS! (Feist, Broken Social Scene, Amy Millan, Metric, Stars) Saddle Creek (Bright Eyes, Cursive, Tokyo Police Club, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Epitaph (punk rock, currently NFG and hopefully Bayside soon), Anti- (Neko Case) just to name a few.

Anyway, I was gonna go more into record labels, but I think the podcast and contributor Carrie Brownstein’s blog Monitor Mix pretty much covers it. I just wanted to share my favorite labels with all of you

Music

Sorry guys, another music related post.  What can I say, I’m obsessed and am still job hunting, so…yea…New Music Tuesday treated me pretty well yesterday.  I swung by Amoeba Records to pick up Dirty King, the highly anticipated follow-up album from The Cliks.  My former supervisor with the Red Wings introduced me to their music, and I have been following them ever since.  His buddy produced their breakout album, Snakehouse.  Along with that disc, I finally purchased Dark Was The Night – The Red Hot compilation which benefits AIDS research and survivors.  A stellar lineup – The National, Feist, Bon Iver, Ben Gibbard, and Grizzly Bear just to name a few, got together and created some beautiful music all to support one great cause.

Along with those, my friend introduced me to Gregory Alan Isakov’s new record, and I haven’t been able to put it down.  It’s one of those albums that paralyzes you – you can’t do anything besides close your eyes and listen.

Onto today…to keep myself from spending money, I ventured off to Venice Beach and attempted to bike to Redondo.  I made it!  I barely made it back, though.  It was round trip 30 miles.  For what it’s worth, Telekinesis makes for great beach bike riding music.

Hopefully my legs will be able to function tomorrow!

Music

Taking Back Sunday - New Again
Rise Against - Appeal to Reason
The Sounds - Crossing the Rubicon
Great Lakes Swimmers - Lost Channels
Good Old War - Only Way To Be Alone
Rainer Maria - Look Now Look Again
Cursive - Mama, I’m Swollen
NPR All Songs Considered - Neko Case Live; Fleet Foxes Live

Music

While catching up with a few good friends at my favorite coffee shop in Rochester, a stranger approached our table and asked us to listen to her band play.   So we went inside, found a table, and listened.   The last few times I’ve been to this coffee shop, the bands playing were either not that great, way too loud, or punk/hardcore which really just isn’t appropriate.  So I was shocked and delighted when I heard the sounds of Brittain Ashford.  The singer’s voice carried throughout the small space and wasn’t drowned out by the simple snare drum, bass, or other instruments (I don’t know what they are).  The band sang cute, folksy songs and I did not see a guitar the entire set.  I picked up the album after, which was self-produced and probably made in someone’s tiny Brooklyn apartment.  The handmade screen printed CD case was nice too.  So, if Brittain Ashford is playing at some small joint in your town, make sure to check them out!

Music