Jason Drake, better known as Cassettes Won’t Listen, is not a stranger to cease and desist orders. In 2008, Drake was served with a cease and desist order from the RIAA for his Guns N Roses/Ludacris mashup titled “Ludacris Democracy.” The release matched up the yet-to-be-released Chinese Democracy with Ludacris acapellas. Needless to say, GNR nor RIAA liked the idea. The mashup was removed from the internet, left exclusively to the savviest of internet searchers.
Fast forward three years later, and Drake goes out on a limb again, this time naming his new LP, brand new album titled KEVINSPACEY, to be released June 21st, only to ruffle the feathers of the award-winning actor, who proceeded to file a cease and desist. In an effort to avoid what could turn out to be a costly court case and ruling, Drake decided to rename the album, EVINSPACEY, which is set to drop on June 21st. Here’s are two advanced tracks from the album. Check back later tonight or early tomorrow for a brand new batch of Fresh Tracks.
“Perfect Day” – Cassettes Won’t Listen from EVINSPACEY
“The Echoes” – Cassettes Won’t Listen from EVINSPACEY
The Strokes performed a live, free outdoor night concert in Austin during SXSW 2011. Photo by Austin360.com
The music month of March 2011 was dominated by the build-up, and release, of The Strokes‘ first album in four year, Angels. The band appeared on Saturday Night Live and for South By Southwest, where thousands of concert goers converged at Lady Bird Lake in Austin for a free night show on the Auditorium Shores Stage across the river from downtown.
While not every critic was fully on board the love train of praise for the new Strokes’ album, the majority of bloggers, music writers, and fans, have welcomed the new release with great enthusiasm and reverence.
“Under Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes from Angles
Even though the buzz around the mid-February release of Radiohead‘s new LP, The King of Limbs, was still on-going well into March, there seems lately to be much more of a s0-so, even ho-hum, reaction to the new RH album. It’s still a superb record, but just maybe not a masterpiece.
Our initial review of King was that it was good, but not great – certainly not on the level of brilliance as 2007’s In Rainbows. Then, we kind of backed off from our initial impression, realizing that it takes many, many listens to get a fair view of a Radiohead album. And yet, since then, we’re just not jumping up and down on King, and we’re not alone. In recent weeks, the take-a-step-back view of King is more revealing, and less enthusiastic. Pitchfork‘s 7.9 review of King proclaims: “the band’s signature game-changing ambition is missed.” New York Magazine‘s music critic Nitsuh Abebe wrote: “The whole album’s very, very understated…Either you find it gorgeous or you don’t much notice it at all.” We’re sympathetic to both views.
Another big comeback in March was R.E.M. and their latest album, Collapse Into Now, with critics and fans alike calling it one of their best albums ever, and a welcomed return to the pop-rock formula that made R.E.M. an ‘underground’ college radio sensation in the early 1980’s, and before they garnered international acclaim for the 1987 hit song, “The One I Love,” from the top-selling album, Automatic For The People.
On Collapse Into Now, one song after another testifies to the fact that the band has not run out of energy or ideas. If you haven’t heard the latest R.E.M. album, we strongly recommend buying a copy – it’s brilliant.
“Discoverer” – R.E.M. from Collapse Into Now
As part of the new Music Month in Review series, we’re highlighting Best New Releases, Top Ten Songs, Fresh Tracks, Bands to Watch, SXSW 2011 Coverage, Top Tweets, your comments, and much more. Basically, this is a compendium of everything we published during March whether on the site or via social media.
Best New Releases, Vol. II – Wolf People, Kurt Vile, Starf*cker, One in a Googolplex, Jamaica, Buffalo Tom, The Sound of Growing Up
Week Three: Best New Releases – The Dodos, Lovett, The Idle Hands, J. Mascis, Joy Formidable, Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts, Alex Turner
Week Four: Best New Releases – The Strokes, Boat, Belong, Soundtrack of Our Lives, Dangerous Ponies, Algodon Egipico, Parenthetical Girls
Week Five*: Best New Releases – Broken Bells, Generationals, Peter Bjorn & John, Mountain Goats, Obits, Funeral Party, AFM, Secret Cities
* In March, there were five Tuesdays, the day most new releases officially drop.
Top Ten Songs of The Week for March 2011
Week One: No. 1 Song of the Week – “Queer Eyed Boy” – Rumspringa from Sway
Other top tracks in order were songs from David Lowery, The Notes, In These Woods, Generationals and more. Listen to all ten now.
Week Two: No. 1 Song of the Week – “Calyer” – Beach Fossils from What A Pleasure
Other top songs of the week came from Starf*cker, Jamaica, R.E.M., Wye Oak, and more. Listen to all top ten songs now.
Week Three: No. 1 Song of the Week – “Black Night” – The Dodos fromNo Color (Bonus Version)
The Dodos also scored the No. 2 spot, and The Strokes took No. 3 and No. 4. Get them all here.
Week Four: No. 1 Song of the Week –“Ego” – Thom Yorke + Burial + Four Tet
Taking the No. 2 spot for the week was The Strokes, followed by another Yorke/Burial/Four Tet track, Cults and many others – play/download all ten.
San Francisco indie trio The Dodos scored the top two songs for March on IRC. Photo via Spinner.
Top 20 Songs for March 2011
While we’ve been doing the weekly Top Ten Songs listings for 19 months now (and admittedly sometimes late; sorry), we thought it would be interesting to start providing the top twenty songs of the month, based on the number of times you and hundreds of thousands of others stream and download the songs that we publish in various posts and playlists for the month in question.*
However, unlike the Top Ten Songs of the week list, this particular list will include singles that are regularly posted on IRC, mostly via the regular Fresh Tracks (aka, advanced singles) playlist series , aka Advanced Singles. However, songs from other regular playlist mixes – like The S-25, Bands to Watch, Recent Releases We Almost Missed, to name a few – will not be included in the Top 20 Songs of the Month in order to keep the list focused on new releases.
“Black Night” – The Dodos fromNo Color (Bonus Version)
“Don’t Stop” (with Neko Case) – The Dodos from No Color
“Four Letter Word” – Beady Eye from Different Gear, Still Speeding
“L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.” – Noah and the Whale from The Last Night on Earth
“The Roller” – Beady Eye from Different Gear, Still Speeding
“Under Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes from Angles
“Jericho” – Jamaica from No Problem
“Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?” – Acid House Kings from Music Sounds Better with You
Fresh Tracks Mixes for March 2011
Each month, we try to run a couple to a few Fresh Tracks editions. The purpose of this particular playlist series is to highlight new songs just released. Most of the time, they are advance singles for upcoming releases, and therefore not the same as the weekly Best New Releases.
Other times, the Fresh Tracks mixes include songs that are not from an upcoming release, like ‘unreleased’ singles, demos, cover songs, sessions and live tracks, plus songs from special collaborations. But the majority are advanced singles from future releases. The three editions published in March include nearly 100 MP3s from bands like Ponytail, Wild Beasts, Generationals, The Strokes, Yuck, The Dodos, Fleet Foxes, Vivian Girls, Secret Cities, The Strange Boys, Thom Yorke with Burial and Four Tet, Natural Child, Thurston Moore, Cults and many others.
3/15/11: Fresh Tracks from Ponytail, Ken Seeno, Wild Beasts, Matthew Friedberger, Edward Sharpe, Let’s Say We Did, Vivian Girls & 1, 2, 3
Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes performing during SXSW 2011. Photo via Lastfm
SXSW Showcases and Bands – March 2011
With the goal of providing SXSW attendees and visitors who weren’t sure of which showcases to go with a mega-guide of recommended shows, as well as tons of MP3s for people who weren’t at SXSW, but wanted to hear music from some of the popular, and more obscure, bands and artists at SXSW 2011, we put together an exhaustive string of posts with band photos, profiles, songs, free samplers, and location and time of shows. We were happy to see a combined total of over 150,000 page views for IRC’s coverage of SXSW 2011. Altogether, there are something like 800MP3s for free in these four posts.
IRC’s Album Buyer’s Guide – Recommended March Album and EP Releases for Your Collection
Also you probably know, we recommend dozens and dozens of albums each month, most through the Best New Releases, In Dee Mail and Fresh Tracks series. At the end of each month, we’ll going to put together an Album Buyers’ Guide for all of you busy people that highlight our top picks for albums that you really want to have as part of your record collection or your MP3 collection.
Most of our recommendations have album title links that will take you right to Amazon where you can purchase a physical or digital copy (or both) in just a couple of minutes (or faster if you’re already signed in as an Amazon customer). We prefer Amazon because their album prices are cheaper than iTunes. Plus, with the free (up to five gigabytes) and brand new Amazon Cloud service, you can put the albums you purchase on Amazon to your cloud location easily so that you can access your music anywhere, anytime you want. Amazon is currently the only major music service offer cloud streaming for your Amazon music.
We’re including the lead single from each recommended release to help you decide which you want to purchase. You might also want to follow IRC on Twitter or Facebook as we send out recommended releases on a regular basis. That way, you won’t miss a thing, plus we include special, limited time sales frequently.
Unless otherwise noted, all prices listed below are for the MP3 download version; simply click on the album title to purchase.
“Greenleaf” – Generationals from Actor-Caster – $7.99
“Bloom” – Radiohead from The King of Limbs – Limited Time Offer: $5.99
“Under Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes from Angles – $9.99
“Black Night” – The Dodos fromNo Color (Bonus Version)
“Discoverer” – R.E.M. from Collapse Into Now (Deluxe Edition) – $11.99
“Windows” – Broken Bells from Meyrin Fields EP – $4.99
“Song for Bob” – Raised By Tigers from Reunion Parts – $8.99
“Esa Nena Nunca Regreso” – Davila 666 from Tan Bajo – $9.99
“Running With Insanity” – Alcoholic Faith Mission from And The Running With Insanity
“Proud” – Easter Island from Better Things EP – $4.95
“Bon Koum” – Sidi Toure from Sahel Folk – Jan. 25th
“Socialite Death Squad” – The Idle Hands from Life Is Beautiful
“Not Enough” – J Mascis from Several Shades of Why
“Giant” – Funeral Party from The Golden Age of Knowhere
“Lord Knows Best” – Dirty Beaches from Badlands
“Too Young to Be in Love” – Hunx and his Punx from Too Young To Be In Love
Also, browse around Amazon’s 100 Albums for $5.00 section. All choices were s as selected by the music staff. Trust us, there is a stunning amount of terrific albums crossing all genres and eras of music. That means you can get four MP3 320kbs albums for the price of one new CD.
Watch more of IRC’s favorite new music videos and subscribe to IRC’s new YouTube channel, IndieRockTV, which we are planning on giving some juice boosts to soon to offer more and exciting new video content, including band performances, interviews, IRC guest videos, animations and cartoons, indie film trailers, viral videos, festival sets and more. In the meantime, check out the various channels for some of our favorite music videos, including the just-ramping up 2011 music video playlist.
Every couple of months, our file holding free albums for download, starts to overflow, and so, we gather them up, check if the links are still working – and the music is still free – and publish them for our regular readers and new visitors to download. These are in addition to the hundreds of free and legal MP3s we post each month.
If you dig warm, floating synthesizer keys and dreamy soundscapes, check out the three-track EP, Empty House by FIRS. The EP was recorded in two days using an Ensoniq ESQ-1, a vintage, rack-mount Ibanez analog delay, and a floor tom on an 8-track. Also recommend checking out the debut LP, Man In Space.
The R&B and folk inspired music of Nijae Draine is interesting to say the least. Download her LPSpring Cleaning for free. The album’s title track is particularly good. The LP was released on March 9th.
Free 2011 Lujo Records sampler featuring new songs from Yourself & the Air, Bluebrain, A Lull, Pomegranates, Firs, John Lamonica, and more.
Check out Baby Teeth‘s free MP3 EP Boss – Originally released Jan. 21 – RIYL: R&B, Luther Vandross.
Note: check back in this section as we have a few more to add soon. April’s Music Month in Review will have a particularly large selection for this section.
IRC’s Most Popular Twitter Messages for March 2011
For those of you who follow us on Twitter, you know that we don’t use it to tell you what we had for lunch or other annoying, useless information. We send out Tweets to inform you of new posts and playlists mixes we published on the main IRC.com site, but we also send out many things via our Twitter account that you will only hear about on our Twitter feed, with frequent cross-posting to Facebook, which is a more preferred format by some segments of our audience.
Our philosophy for using Twitter is to try and make every Tweet we send out something worthy and relevant to most “music people,” if you will. As some of you may know – especially if you follow a lot of active Tweeters – you can easily miss Tweets that get inadvertently ‘buried’ but contain information or links that you would otherwise be really interested in. With that in mind, and for those of you haven’t joined on us Twitter, we’ve decided to add a section to the monthly review highlighting the Top Ten Music Tweets of the Month. We determine this by viewing our Bit.ly statistics and retweets. Maybe in the future, we’ll do more than ten, just depends on how this experiment goes.
March 6th (168) – Today’s mixtape: 25 Red Songs – http://bit.ly/red-songs
March 10th (113) – Best New Releases Part II: Wolf People, Kurt Vile, Buffalo Tom, One in a Googolplex, Starfuc*er, &more
March 11th (188) – @SpinMagazine offers free 33-song sampler of bands playing at next week’s #SXSW 2011 – http://on.fb.me/sxsw-sampler
March 14th (178) – Songs About Cars with Arcade Fire, Built to Spill, Iron & Wine, The Kinks, The Beatles, Snow Patrol
March 16th (705) – Get the free Tunecore SXSW 2011 Sampler
March 19th (220) – SXSW 2011 Bands Playlist Mix and Reviews for Days 2 to 5; Get over 75 stellar tracks #sxsw
March 20th (187) – Get 17 free new indie tracks from iTunes via this link from Spin magazine –
March 20th (127) – The Top 50 Dance Tracks – http://bit.ly/top-50-dance-tracks #dance
March 22nd (302) – Do you have room on your MP3 player for 500+ free songs from SXSW bands?
March 30th (110) – Hear Ye, Hear Ye – View Radiohead’s newspaper, The Universal, on your computer screen,
After a triumphant 2010, that included the release of their acclaimed debut LP, Weathervanes, Queen‘s popular indie band, The Freelance Whales, are keeping fans engaged into the waning months of 2010 with a new song, “Enzymes.” At first, it doesn’t really sound like the FW; the sound is more heavily infused with an indie pop sound coupled with a bit of darkness found in the nearly opposing lyrics. Good tune. What do you think?
“Enzymes” – The Freelance Whales, new single, released 10/15/2010
New Musical Project of Phil Kay and Idrisse Kehlifi
The next two tracks are from a new musical project that we’d never heard of until getting an email from the “band”. And now we’re hooked. Motorifik is a side project of Phil Kay, songwriter/producer of indie band, Working For A Nuclear Free City, and French songwriter Idrisse Khelifi.
The pair met in Manchester, England in 2006 during the recording of WFANFC’s second album. Kay was drawn to Khelifi’s direct style and pop aesthetic. Before long, Kay and Khelifi began writing and recording the music for Motorifik’s debut, Secret Things, due to drop next month.
According to Kay, “At the time of compiling the album, I was revisiting one of my favorite records, Nas‘ Illmatic. I was struck by how concise it was. So I forced myself to cut the album right down to the essence of what we were trying to achieve – a sort of twisted cinematic pop record.”
“Secret Things” – Motorifik from Secret Things – Nov. 9th
Also check out “Sleep Forever” via Spinner
New York’s The Postelles Debut Out Now; Co-Produced by Albert Hammond Jr.
The Postelles are a garage rock-pop band from New York City which has made a lot of buzz this year with their Strokes-sounding, guitar-riffing style. The catchy post-punk track, “White Night,” a lead single from their debut, got a good number of comments on IRC Facebook. Sean said the track ” has good 50’s-60’s rock sound with a modern retro feel”; Joshua said it reminds him of The Kooks and Amy said it’s a “super sellable single.”
Not surprisingly, The Strokes‘ band member, Albert Hammond Jr., “discovered” The Postelles, and co-produced their debut.
“White Night” – The Postelles from The Postelles – Oct. 12th
Austin’s Oh No Oh My Set to Release Sophomore LP
Four years after their widely praised debut album, Austin band Oh No Oh My, has completed recording for their sophomore album, People Problems, set for release in January on Koenig Records. Oh No Oh My collaborated with sound engineers Jeff Byrd (Spoon, John Vanderslice) and Brad Bell (Spoon, Meat Puppets) in recording People Problems, the follow-up to 2008’s Dmitrji Dmitrji EP.
The album was recorded in the studio of Spoon drummer Jim Eno and at Hoxmeier’s Sugarcube studio (named after the Yo La Tengo song). ONOM kick off a two-month U.S. tour on Thursday in Shreveport.
“Walking Into Me” – Oh No Oh My from People Problems – Jan. 11th
Pink Floyd Engineer Co-Produces LP
The band Scalding Lucy worked with Pink Floyd‘s legendary engineer of 27 years, Andy Jackson (left), to produce its new album, In The Sky With Diamonds. Despite the corny title of the album, there’s a couple good tracks in there.
The King of France‘s frontman Steve Salett will release a self-titled debut in March 2011 under the moniker The Poison Tree.
As a singer-songwriter, Salett has a feel that is apparently influenced by Leonard Cohen and Fred Neil. The album was recorded with a number of collaborators culled from the Elephant 6 styled Saltlands music collective Salett co-founded, including musicians Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) and Dawn Landes.
“Come On Come On” – The Poison Tree from The Poison Tree
Unsolved Mysteries Officially on the Radar
Unsolved Mysteries, who have opened for artists like Dan Deacon and Matt & Kim, have a new full-length album, Tragic Trouble, The album is a collection of warped pop songs with tints of The Radio Dept’s hazy electro, New Order’s synth-rock and the Cocteau Twin’s dream pop.
“Pen 15” – Unsolved Mysteries from Tragic Trouble
SeafarerBy Katy Betz
“Noise Floor” – Seafarer
New Songs from The Ascetic Junkies, Elizabeth Catapult, La Sera and Others
This next set of sweet new songs include tracks from The Ascetic Junkies, Elizabeth Catapult, Cock and Swan, La Sera and Backwards Quilt. Let us know in the Comments, on Twitter or Facebook what songs you like the most from this mix; your comment/review might just be included in our year-end lists.
“Get What You Want, Get What You Need” – The Ascetic Junkies from This Cage Has No Bottom – Nov. 16th
“Water From Wine” – The Ascetic Junkies from This Cage Has No Bottom
“Stash” – Cock and Swan from Unrecognize
“Georiga” – Yuck from band’s forth-coming 2011 debut
It was a big weekend for music in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past three days. The free Not Strictly Bluegrass Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary, featuring over one hundred artists on six stages in San Francisco’s beautiful Golden Gate Park.
The festival has been paid for (with sponsorship) by billionaire financier and philanthropist Warren Hellman as a gift to the city and people of San Francisco.
A personal thanks from Indie Rock Cafe to Mr. Hellman for all of the great times we’ve had, and plan to have, at the annual festival, which, as its name implies, is not just all bluegrass, and it has become one of California’s largest free annual events, drawing some 300,000-500,000 people annually.
SAN FRANCISCO – Hundreds of thousands of music goers packed into meadows and fields in the western section of the park to see performances from dozens and dozens of bluegrass and country bands, but many of the largest crowds were arguably for non-bluegrass artists like Conor Oberst, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Nick Lowe, Fountains of Wayne, among others.
For last year’s NSBG Fest, approximately 800,000 people attended, and organizers said about the same number came to this year’s festival. For anyone who was there, nearly a million people in Golden Gate Park does not sound crazy, and in typical San Francisco fashion, the crowds were a mix of all kinds of people who came together in the city’s oasis to have fun, enjoy great music and celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of one of the most remarkable cities in the world.
Also over the weekend, there were a number of buzz-worthy concerts, including The Flaming Lips, who played two sold out, back-to-back shows at Oakland‘s historic Fox Theater, and a triple bill at The Independent featuring The Drums, Surfer Blood and The Young Friends.
Friday night’s show was sold out for The Drums headliner as concert goers crammed into the medium-sized, old-theatre-like venue in the city’s center to see one of the hottest break-through bands of 2010, New York City‘s rock-pop quartet, The Drums. The band came out blazing, running through a number of their most popular songs like “Best Friend” and “Let’s Go Surfing”.
Frontman and singer Jonathan Pierce almost never stops moving on stage except when he takes the Iggy-Pop style forward stance, leaning towards the audience before breaking out into another romp on the back of the band’s mainly energetic, catchy sound.
Now back from Musicfest NW, it’s time to catch up on some bands that we’ve been wanting to tell you about. Today we want to tell you about five bands that you indie die-hards probably already know about, but many others don’t. These are five bands that made noise in the beginning of the year, but seem to have faded a bit. They are Airwaves, Dazzle Ships, Dana Falconberry, The Strange Boys and Dinosaur Bones.
Air Waves – Brooklyn, NY
Just days after returning from their debut European tour, Air Waves hit the road on a double-bill with Seattle’s Past Lives (featuring ex-members of The Blood Brothers). Earlier this year, when Pitchfork’s Guest List asked Dan Deacon what his favorite new band was; he said Air Waves: “Nicole Schneit is an amazing songwriter. The music she writes is like a favorite blanket wrapped around you. Drummer Dave Ferraro complements her songs well. “Shine On” is my current favorite song by them.”
Already in a short time span, Air Waves have not only made a name for themselves in Brooklyn, but elsewhere by touring extensively and sharing the stage with such notable acts like Cat Power, and The Rapture to name a few.
Playing a sold out show in LA and sharing a stage with Memory Tapes is a pretty big deal for an up and coming indie band that no one has heard of. In fact, it is a fairly impressive accomplishment in the saturated market of indie rock – which is more popular now then ever before.
That’s exactly what happened with Dazzle Ships, a musical duo consisting of Tyler Haran and Haiti De Leon. The pair set out to make music that celebrates the artists who influence them the most – David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Cocteau Twins, to name a few. Dazzle Ships make what they label “experimental pop music”; out of a phobia of doing the same song twice, they try to radically shift roles and techniques during their song writing process.
In March, the duo released their debut, Least Resistance seven-inch that was premiered on Stereogum.
“Least Resistance” – Dazzle Ships from7″ single
“Paradise” – Dazzle Ships
Dana Falconberry – Austin, Texas
Austin’s hometown girl turned respected musician Dana Falconberry has been called by The Austin Chronicle as one of the music city’s “most arresting female vocalists” and “most promising singer-songwriters” following the release of her LP, Halletts, featuring a full band which she has toured with successfully this year, including five shows at South By Southwest.
“Nightingale” – Dana Falconberry from Halletts
The Strange Boys – Austin, TX
So, yes, Austin bands are a common thread in this post – but that’s because the home of SXSW and ACL, is full of great bands, like indie southern rock, R&B country band The Strange Boys. They’ve been on the radar since the early part of the past decade. Last year, however, the band underwent some line-up changes, including the addition of two former members of the disbanded group Mika Miko.
Earlier this year, the band released one of their best LPs, Be Brave.
“Be Brave” – The Strange Boys from Be Brave
“Night Might” – The Strange Boys from Be Brave
Dinosaur Bones – Toronto, Canada
The best for last: Dinosaur Bones are “Hawaiian” indie pop rock band from Toronto, Canada who have busted through in the past year to gain a fairly solid following. In 2008, the band released their debut, self-titled EP, and garnered critical acclaim from media outfits and blogs like Billboard, NOW magazine, CityTV, Chromewaves, HOUR Weekly and others.
In late 2009, Dinosaur Bones entered the studio with producer Jon Drew (F*cked Up, Tokyo Police Club, the Arkells) to lay down the foundation for their long-anticipated debut LP, which was released February 1, 2010 – consider it a preview of what is to come.
“Royalty” – Dinosaur Bones from s/t debut EP (2008)
Thursday night was the big kick-off for the 10th annual Musicfest NW festival in Portland, Oregon. Indie bands and artists like The Thermals, Ra Ra Riot, Red Fang, Rocky Votolato, A. A Bondy, Justin Townes Earle, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Phantogram, and dozens more artists opened the little-known, five-day music festival.
Officially, the fest opened Wednesday night with a sold out crowd at Crystal Ballroom to see Panda Bear. The set included some new material from the upcoming LP, Tomboy, from the musician otherwise known as Noah Lennox of Animal Collective. Lennox operated his keys and boxes in the dark with a guitar strapped on while a modern day version of psychedelic images flashed and oozed on a large screen behind the stage.
“Slow Motion” – Panda Bear
After a near sleep-inducing few opening songs, Lennox fired things up, and the packed crowd finally got going with “Comfy in Nautica” and his new single, “Slow Motion”. But we heard many people in attendance, especially the youngest among them, complain that the show was “slow” and “boring”; perhaps they were expecting more Animal Collective than Lennox wanted to give.
The line outside Portland's Wonder Ballroom for Ra Ra Riot
On Thursday, the real first full day of the fest, there were shows at nearly a dozen venues across the city. Some venues were too far from the center of downtown to make it worth the round trip, but, nonetheless, the official schedule sports an extensive, and diverse (but definitely indie heavy), line-up to fill up five days of shows at nearly two-dozen venues throughout the downtown Portland area. The venues range from schools to theaters, saloons to clubs, recording studios to coffee houses, and city squares to ballrooms.
We were a little surprised that The Portland Tribune didn’t mention that Georgia’s one man band and synth pop student, Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, and Saratoga Springs, New York electronica, shoegaze duo Phantogram were opening for Ra Ra Riot’s show ;ast night at The Wonder Ballroom. The venue is quite a far distance from the downtown area, but worth the trip for some shows. For example, on Friday, Male Bonding, Surfer Blood and Black Lips will perform at The Wonder Ballroom.
The Thermals got the floor shaking at the Crystal Ballroom
After Ra Ra Riot – the Syracuse, New York indie band who have had the number one song on IRC for the past two weeks (“Boy”)- we headed back to downtown proper, and returned to the Crystal Ballroom to catch Ted Leo and the Pharmacists who will be opening for Portland’s hometown post-punk/alternative rockers, The Thermals. We predict the show will be sold out.
“Boy”– Ra Ra Riot
“I Don’t Believe You” – The Thermals
The buzz band of 2010, Surfer Blood, will rock the Wonder Ballroom Friday
Friday evening brings yet another maze of choices of bands and venues; we plan on catching as many shows as possible, including Male Bonding, Surfer Blood, Black Lips – all at The Wonder Ballroom, plus, Candy Claws, Astrology, Dan Mangan, Magic Kids, Okkervil River (or Man Man – hmmm, decisions…) Thee Oh Sees, and the late night/early morning show by The Builders & The Butchers at Berbati’s Pan, right up to 2.a.m.
On Saturday, September 11th, Portland’s famous Pioneer Courthouse Square will transform into one of the best venues of MusicfestNW’s five-day run. From 4pm to 9pm, the scheduled line up in order: Weinland, Blue Giant, and Laura Veirs. Closing out the night’s performances in the square will be Portland’s acclaimed native sons, The Decemberists.
“Wide Eyed, Legless” – Laura Veirs
“Oceanside” – The Decemberists
Afterwards, for the evening shows, we plan to catch The Globes, Unnatural Helpers, Akron/Family, Menomena, The Dodos and whatever else comes up; for example,
there was a last-minute show last night from Japanther.
Shows we won’t be able to see because we’re staying in the downtown area (we’ve seen all these bands before, anyways) include The Smashing Pumpkins (what’s left of them), Free Energy, Titus Andronicus, Suckers, Japandroids and so on. With the exception of the Smashing Pumpkins, we caught all of those bands at South by Southwest(lots of free MP3s)last March.
The Walkmen will open for The National at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Sunday
On Sunday, the last day of the fest, there are only four shows in Pioneer Square – Talkdemonic, The Helio Sequence, The Walkmen and The National. We’re hoping this weekend will bring some sunny, blue skies, but so far, Portland has been typically Pacific Northwest – overcast and mild.
From the ‘blogger’ perspective, MusicfestNW has a charm that is all it’s own, and part of that is because MFNW is not besieged by mainstream press people and hundreds of bloggers, local press, TV, and so on, like the big time festivals.
It’s not entirely clear why MFNW goes largely unnoticed, but it’s safe to say that part of it must be due to the fact that the music press focuses on covering the bigger fests, and after a summer of blockbuster festivals, and with even more festivals coming during the next seven weeks, including the amazing Austin City Limits (Oct. 8 -10); Voodoo Festival (Oct. 29 – 31), MFNW just doesn’t fit into most music press outlets’ schedules and budgets.
You can follow us on Twitter for lil’ msgs while we’re at the events themselves. Than back to regular programming next week.
Ah, yes, another Best New Releases of the week post as we chug on towards the autumn; yet another summer has zipped on by. While this week has some great new releases, it’s nothing compared to what’s coming up over the next few weeks. Armed with their new record, Everything Under the Sun, produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Fanfarlo) Jukebox The Ghost has perhaps our favorite new release of the week, followed by Interpol, The Thermals, Electric Sunset, Unicycle Loves You and so on. Enjoy.
“Empire” – Jukebox The Ghost from Everything Under The Sun
“Barricade” – Interpol from Interpol
“I Don’t Believe You” – The Thermals from Personal Life
“Soda” – Electric Sunset from Electric Sunset
“Moonlight” – Sunset from Loveshines But The Moon is Shining Too
“Like Like Like” – The Intelligence from Interpol
“Mirror, Mirror” – Unicycle Loves You from Unicycle Loves You
Wow, it’s the end of August, already. That’s straight up crazy. Do any of you feel like you lost a summer? Surely, for folks in many parts of the country, the cooler days of late August, and the coming autumn, are welcomed after one of the hottest summers on record. Here in coastal northern California, after a cooler summer than normal, the approach of indian summer is something to look forward to.
Anyhow, there are some great new releases this week, but not as many as previous months, and definitely not compared to what’s set to be released in September, so far. Make sure to check back for a huge mix of new singles from September releases we are looking forward to. Plus, later this week, there will be a new mix of Releases We Almost Missed, a mix of Numbers in Songs, and the last mega-MP3 mix of Indie Summer Songs.
Below are our favorite singles from new releases officially out this week, including Film School’s debut, Fission. Film School is definitely on-the-radar. With that in mind, we want to hear what you think about the band’s new single below.
Win a CD Copy of Film School’s ‘Fission’
To enter this give-away, just RT this post via Twitter or write a comment on what you think about the Film School track below. The winner will be announced and contacted by us after we do the draw.
In addition to Film School, today’s mix includes new singles from fresh releases by Brothers Young, TV Buddahs, Dominant Legs, Sonny and the Sunsets, The Clientele, and others. This is probably one of the few weeks this year where our top picks are bands that most people have never heard of, and as a result, has that ‘really indie’ aspect to it, which somehow makes it more pure and totally new.
“Heart Full of Pentagons” – Film School from Fission
“Good Deeds” – Brothers Young from Good People EP
“Jerry” – The Clientele from Minotaur
“Too Young To Burn” – Sonny and the Sunsets from Tomorrow is Alright
“Fun Girls” – TV Buddhas from TV Buddhas EP
“Sad Smile” – Bobby Bare Jr. from A Storm A Tree My Mother’s Head
“About My Girls” – Dominant Legs from Young at Love and Life EP
“Heaven Knows” – Carl Broemel from All Birds Say
“Psychic Chasms” (Anoraak Remix) – Neon Indian from Psychic Chasms (deluxe edition)
This is a new playlist that offers the non-restrictive type of playlist mix in which all of the songs have one thing in common: they are from sweet new releases from a variety of artists and bands that are not necessarily “big” in the alternative music worlds. All of the songs in this mix caught our attention in one way or another in recent months, and have since converted to keeper status.
We’ve arrived at the second to last mega-MP3 summer songs playlist/mixtape for 2010 as summer slips away, the days get shorter, the heat cools off, and people are planning fall activities; in the cafe, we refer to them as the Last Blasts mixes. Enjoy.
“Moonlighting” – Navajo Bixby
“Let’s Go Surfing” (Raveonettes Remix) – The Drums
With the new music coming in from all directions non-stop all year long, we miss great new releases when they come out for one reason or another. That’s what this playlist mix series is for – to save face. Haha. No, really, it’s just a focused way to say, “hey, there’s great, new music we almost missed, and you probably should hear.”
Check out sweet 2010 tracks from The Polyamorous Affair, Vehicle Blues, Clock Opera, Wartime Blues, Woven Bones, Icarus Himself, a split single from Band in Heaven and Weird Waves, a pair from new buzz band Jaill, plus singles from 2010 releases by rising band Living Days, The Golden Dogs, Alex Kemp, Mock and Toof, Christopher Smith, No Second Troy, and The Lucky Dip Escapade.
“Bright One” – The Polyamorous Affair from Strange Bedfellows – August 16th
“Changer”– Vehicle Blues from Changer EP – June 7th
“Go Oblivion” – Living Days from Make Out Room EP – July 21st
“Youth” – Wartime Blues from Doves and Drums – Feb. 14th
“Your Way With My Live” – Woven Bones from In and Out and Back Again – May 18th
“Digging Holes” – Icarus Himself from Mexico EP – August 16th
“Seen It Coming” – Icarus Himself from Mexico EP – August 16th
“Summer Bummer” – Band in Heaven from 7″ split single – August 18th
“Suicide Pact” – Weird Waves from 7″ split single – August 18th
“Moonshine” – Corey Booth Project from Hurry Up & Wait – July 8th
The What’s Hot Right Now mixtape series has been a huge hit with IRC’s regular readers and visitors from around the world. It’s been a few weeks since we did a ‘what’s hot’ mixtape. For those of you not familiar with this mixtape series, we analyze a number of aggregate sites – like Hypem.com and Elbo.ws – and our own stats to demonstrate which tracks – whether they are from upcoming or new releases – are the hottest on the web right now.
Chromeo, who we got to see at last weekend’s Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, dominates this list because the demand for their music is ginormous. Also, check out hot new stuff from Royksopp, Arcade Fire, The Vaselines (first new songs in two decades!), No Age, Panda Bear, Small Black and others.
“Don’t Turn The Lights On” (Aeroplane Remix) – Chromeo
Another big comeback in March was R.E.M. and their latest album, Collapse Into Now, with critics and fans alike calling it one of their best albums ever, and a welcomed return to the pop-rock formula that made R.E.M. an ‘underground’ college radio sensation in the early 1980’s, and before they garnered international acclaim for the 1987 hit song, “The One I Love,” from the top-selling album, Automatic For The People.
New York’s The Postelles Debut Out Now; Co-Produced by Albert Hammond Jr.
