The U Street Weekend Concert series in Washington, DC kicked off tonight with performances from artists Devotchka and Los Campesinos. Bands and artists including Junior League, The Speaks, Alice Smith, Bishop Allen and Yo Majesty will also perform this weekend at various venues in the nation's capital.

DeVotchka, a four-piece multi-instrumental band blending rock with eastern European influences, performed for a packed crowd at Washington, DC's legendary 9:30 Club. The opening act was Basia Bulat.



Los Campesinos!, the Welsh seven-piece indie pop-rock band, played the Black Cat with the Aquarium and Pash tonight to a pumped up crowd.

MP3: Los Campesinos - "Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s)" from the vinyl 7" recording We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives

Check out Los Campesinos official web site for more music, merchandise and tour dates.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

DC's own rock quintet, The Speaks, who are big in Asia, will perform at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night with opening artists Monako and Dreaming of Eden. The show starts at 6 pm and tickets are $12.

Bluegrass and country folk artist Junior League will play the Black Cat starting at 9 pm. Tickets are $10.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

R&B, soul and jazz singer Alice Smith, a local DC artists, will sound-off with her powerful voice and back-up band Sunday night starting at 7:30 with opening act Res. Tickets are $18.

One of Brooklyn's favorite indie bands, Bishop Allen, will perform at the Black Cat with the War on Drugs and Deleted Scenes. Tickets are a deal at $12. Doors open at 8 pm.

MP3: Bishop Allen - Rain - from the album The Broken String

This is the band's last U.S. performance before launching their spring European tour on May 23 in Gothenburg.

Check out Bishop Allen's MySpace page for more music and tour dates. Bishop Allen is widely known for their song "Click Click Click Click" , which was featured on a Sony camera commercial last year.

Lastly, the all female electro-rap jam band Yo Majesty will take the stage Sunday night at DC9. Opening band Innerpartysystem will open the show at 9 pm. Tickets are $12 a pop.

Labels: DeVotchka

With a catchy name and unique sound that combines indie rock-pop and Afro influences, New York's collegiate 'indie' sensation Vampire Weekend have managed to become one of the the hottest bands during the past two years, selling out shows, performing on Saturday Night Live and garnering a massive amount of buzz in the mainstream press and on countless music blogs.

But there are disadvantages of being so popular; there are music fans who absolutely love the band, and there are others who declare VW are vastly over-rated.

Live MP3: Vampire Weekend performing "M79" at SxSW 2008

Yet the soaring popularity of the band appears to be unabated. That can be a good and a bad thing, as we’ve seen so many times before. Nonetheless, I’d bet my Cadillac that many record labels are in a bidding war for these guys right now.

The band has toured relentlessly since early 2007, and there is no sign that they intend to take a break. In fact, VW are booked solid through the end of September when they will play at the famous Austin City Limits festival.

Here's Vampire Weekend's tour dates for the next four months. It seems as if they are playing nearly every music festival this summer, not just in the U.S., but worldwide:
If you'd like to see the band live, it is strongly recommended to get tickets once they go on sale, since tickets have regularly gone for double and triple the price on eBay and other third-party ticket auction sites.

One of the most interesting things about a band from New York City is that they have a number of songs about Massachusetts in their limited music repertoire ("Boston", "Ladies of Cambridge" and "Cape Cod Kawasa Kawasa")

The band describes their sound as “Upper West Side Soweto” - a reference to their early gigs playing at frat and literary parties for NYC social elites where people began to take notice of their unique blend of joyous indie rock infused with melodic Afro-beat rhythms.

Vampire Weekend's band members are Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, Rostam Batmanglij, and Chris Tomson. The group derived their name from a college film project shortly after forming in 2006.

Their first release, the EP Mansford Roof, caught the attention of music critics, including The New York Times. Word spread quickly about Vampire Weekend's unique sound and lyrics (the track "Oxford Comma" refers to a comma use in a list of three items), buoyed by the band's self-released EPs, which they recorded in locations spanning their Columbia dorm rooms to a family barn.

The buzz around Vampire Weekend reached a feverish peak in 2007; that summer, the band embarked on a seemingly endless tour in 2007, made several appearances at that year's CMJ Music Marathon, and eventually signed with XL Records that fall.

Since then, Vampire Weekend has continued to grow in popularity, evidenced by the fact that most of their shows for this spring and summer have already been sold out.

Some worthwhile VW links, including audio and video performances:

Vampire Weekend: Fresh blood on campus - UK Telegraph

See more Vampire Weekend on IRC including a special and exclusive video performance shot at San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop show on Easter Sunday.

Streaming Video Session: Vampire Weekend live on KCRW

Webs: Vampire Weekend's official website and MySpace page.

Labels: New York, Vampire Weekend

Hailed as the 'world's largest music festival', Summerfest 2008 organizers have announced the line-up for the 'classic rock' stage which will be located at the south end of Henry Maier Festival Park and sponsored by Milwaukee FM radio stations 97.3 The Brew and My 95.7.

Here is the line-up of artists set to headline the M&I Classic Rock Stage during late June and early July:

June 26 - 9:00 pm - Three Dog Night
June 27 - 10:00 pm - Think Floyd
June 28 - 5:30 pm - Daryl Stuermer
June 28 - 10:00 pm - Blondie (see video below)
June 29 - 10:00 pm - Dickey Betts
June 30 - 8:30 pm - A Tribute to James Brown featuring Bootsy Collins along with The Original James Brown Horn Section & Long Wilson, Bobby Byrd Band (featuring Mrs. Vicky Anderson Byrd), Escapism (featuring Venisha Brown), iCandi, Freekbass, Djizzle, ZienPlanet10
July 1 - 8:30 pm - Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo
July 2 - 9:00 pm - Creedence Clearwater Revisited
July 3 - 10:00 pm - Kansas
July 4 - 10:00 pm - Mountain
July 5 - 3:00 pm - The Zombies
July 5 - 10:00 pm - Cheap Trick
July 6 - 9:00 pm - Earth Wind and Fire

This is the official music video for Blondie's 1979 smash hit "Heart of Glass":

Labels: 2008 Music Festivals

Infusing elements of dance, hip-hop and funk, Spokane, Washington's one-band and DJ James Pants (born James Singleton) has released his debut album Welcome.

MP3: James Pants - "We're Through" from the album Welcome on Stones Throw Records

If you like what you hear, purchase Welcome from iTunes.

After meeting Stones Throw Records head Peanut Butter Wolf, Pants' recording of "Do A Couple of Things" was included on Wolf's compilation Chrome Children.

Pants has a penchant for recording humorous and fun mixtapes, which have been the catalyst behind much of his popularity in the indie music underground.

In 2007, Pants has released a 12" EP titled Kash and a follow-up single track "Murder" on Chrome Children, Vol. 2.

Recently, Pants has toured as a DJ with Peanut Butter Wolf and Jamie Lidell.

Labels: Indie Rock Labels

The video above features Wolf Parade performing "This Heart's on Fire"

There's always too many indie rock articles and items of news and never enough time to write about them. So, as an antidote, IRC has come up with the 'linkstorm' concept to deliver to you the best in what's happening in the indie music world. Enjoy.

Akron, Ohio's The Black Keys cover 70's icon Captain Beefheart in the song "I'm Glad" (via Stereogum). Get the MP3 while you can because it could expire at any time.

Vampire Weekend: Fresh blood on campus - UK Telegraph - See more Vampire Weekend on IRC including special performance from San Francisco's Easter Sunday show.

Adaline transcends singer-songwriter label - The Vancouver Sun

Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic with fresh taste of success - Melbourne Herald Sun

Bands to Watch For - Spaces For Morning - Princeton Record Exchange Blog - View Spaces For Morning's MySpace page.

Son Lux's Ryan Lott - Remember Me—But, ah, Forget My Fate - The Brooklyn Rail

Broken Social Scene - Canadian Indie Rock Army on Stage - Turkish Daily News


Bonus: BSS's Brendan Canning will release his first solo effort on July 22, 2008.

Labels: Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, Wolf Parade

The Dandy Warhols celebrated Cinco De Mayo yesterday with a CD release party in San Francisco; Deerhunter's lead singer Bradford Cox has released a free EP under the moniker Altas Sound; Culture Reject's debut album has hit the airwaves; the Gentlemen Auction Houses released an EP and is set to release a full feature album; and LA's duo project No Age has released their Subpop debut album.

Portland's indie trailer blazers The Dandy Warhols are back with a new album Earth to The Dandy Warhols (MySpace) which was launched yesterday at a listening party in a San Francisco art gallery.

MP3: The Dandy Warhols - "The World The People Together (Come On)" from the upcoming release Earth to the Dandy Warhols (via Stereogum) - Self Released

Michael O'Connell, the man behind the Toronto indie project, Culture Reject, has released his first official solo debut record. Read the Culture Reject review from the popular indie blog SixEyes.

MP3: Culture Reject - "Inside The Cinema" from self-titled debut on White Whale Records


Deerhunter singer Bradford Cox, known for his prolific song writing and on-stage antics, has released a new EP titled Things I'll Miss and is offering for free via his blog, containing five songs - three instrumentals and two full songs.

MP3: Atlas Sound - "My Car" from Things I'll Miss EP (via Stereogum)

Gentlemen Auction Houses' The Book of Matches EP is out today, May 6, and features two songs from the upcoming full album release, Alphabet Graveyard, via the band's new label, Columbia, Missouri's Emergency Umbrella Records.

MP3: Gentlemen Auction Houses - "The Book of Matches" from Alphabet Graveyard (Emergency Umbrella Records)


After garnering praise from The Los Angeles Times for a variety of indie releases last year, the L.A. duo No Age has completed its official debut release with Subpop Records.

MP3: No Age - "Eraser" from Nouns (Subpop Records)

Labels: 2008 Indie Songs

The Weakerthans, a Canadian indie band from Winnipeg, put themselves on the music map back in the late 1990's, and have been impressing critics and fans with subsequent, yet limited, releases ever since.

The band's latest album, Reunion Tour, released last fall, has received wide praise by the music press, bloggers and fans, making many top album lists for 2007.

Comprising an exciting mix of punk revival and melodic indie rock, Paste magazine hailed Reunion Tour as a collection of "songs of brutal beauty, little rock n roll vignettes that perfectly capture the malaise of the peculiar, disorienting times in which we live."

Here is the hit single music video "Civil Twilight" from The Weakerthans' Reunion Tour CD:


Propagandhi member John K. Samson left his former band and joined Red Fisher drummer Jason Tait and bassist John Sutton to create The Weakerthans in 1997. Later guitarist Steve Carroll and bassist Greg Smith joined the lineup.

The band, especially founder, John Samson, doesn't just record and play music; they are actively involved in promoting the fight against poverty and advocating for environmental conservation. Samson's 'day job' includes his publishing company, Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Reunion Tour was, in a sense, aptly named since the band's last release before that, Reconstruction Site, was issued back in 2003 on Epitaph Records.

MP3: The Weakerthans - "Plea From A Cat Named Virtue" from Reconstruction Site

MP3: The Weakerthans - "Aside" from Last and Leaving

You can listen to and download more music, plus watch various music videos, from The Weakerthans on their official web site. Also, check out The Weakerthan's MySpace page and Facebook profile to social network with the band, get tour information, connect with fans and stream songs.

The Weakerthans were the first band in the CBC Radio 3's R3-30 chart history to hit the No. 1 spot with two different songs in the same year - a cover of Rheostatics "Bad Time to Be Poor" during the week of June 21, 2007, followed up in November 2007 by another No. 1 song, "Civil Twilight", their hit single from Reunion Tour.

The band released their debut album, Fallow, to wide praise from music critics and fans in 1998, on the indie label cooperative, G7& Welcoming Records. In 2000, The Weakerthans issued their sophomore record Left and Leaving, followed a year later by the EP Watermark.

Left and Leaving was eventually named one of the ten best Canadian albums of all time in a Chart magazine readers' poll last year. Epitaph re-released Fallow and Left and Leaving in Canada on November 6, 2007.

Labels: Band of the Week

The above video is a promotional vid for the 2008 10K Lakes Festival in Minnesota.

With two months and three weeks left until the festival gates open for the 2008 10,000 Lakes Festival. The following artists have just been added:

Deep Banana Blackout
Lotus
Extra Golden
Papa Mali
New Primitives
God Johnson
Lynx
Ultraviolet Hippopotamus

You can purchase your tickets now before the May 15 price increase. Get the full details on camping tickets. Tickets for the four-day general admission and camping fee are now selling for $130.

The festival takes place on five stages starting Wednesday, July 23 through Saturday, July 26 at the Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

The 10,000 Lakes Festival official line-up features:

Phil Lesh and Friends
The Flaming Lips
Michael Franti and Spearhead
Leftover Salmon
Mickey Hart Band feat. Kimock & Porter
George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic [Late Night]
Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood
Slightly Stoopid
Dark Star Orchestra
WookieFoot
TR3 featuring Tim Reynolds
The Bad Plus
JJ Grey & MOFRO
Deep Banana Blackout [Late Night]
Lotus [Late Night]
Extra Golden
Bonerama
Papa Mali
EOTO
Panjea with Michael Kang
Everyone Orchestra
The Waybacks
Secret Chiefs 3
The New Mastersounds
Dub Trio
The Wood Brothers
Cornmeal
God Johnson
Family Groove Company
U-Melt
One Under
New Primitives
Kinetix
Redux
Lynx
Pert' Near Sandstone
The Rhinestone Diplomats
WBPN
Ultraviolet Hippopotamus
The Hue

Labels: 2008 Music Festivals