Friday Free-Style

Yes are doing a 40th anniversary tour and will be in Atlanta at the new Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park on August 4th. Tickets go on sale today at 10am so go get them.

La Blogotheque is really cool in case you didn't know, and here's the Black Lips sessions:

SPLIT BLACK LIPS #1 3 SONGS TIED
by lablogotheque

SPLIT BLACK LIPS #2 EVERYBODY'S DOING IT
by lablogotheque

Outkast's tour manager died of a drug overdose. Here's that new new Outkast:

Big Boi featuring Andre 3000 & Raewkon : Royal Flush


Atlas Sound has another hott track at his blog.

Apple is talking about offering unlimited access to the itunes library for a fee.

Lollapalooza early bird tickets are on sale now, but there is still no official line-up.

This year's installment of Camp Bisco July 17th-19th includes Disco Biscuits (3 nights), Snoop Dogg, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, MSTRKRFT, !!!, Lotus, DB, Amplive, and more.

Outside Lands Fest in San Francisco, Ca August 22nd-24th will include Radiohead, Tom Petty, Beck, Wilco, Primus, Regina Spektor, Devendra Banhart, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Black Mountain, Bon Iver, and more.

Chris Strawn of Atlanta's Brass Castle has a solo album, I Left My Hat In Hades, out now.

Andrew Bird is blogging for the New York Times.

Listen to Dirty Projectors cover Bjork's "Hyperballad" here.

The Flight Of The Conchords self-titled LP comes out April 22nd and you can see the tracklist here. Jam a track:

Flight Of The Conchords : Ladies Of The World


Stream the new Black Keys album here.

Fleetwood Mac plans to join the reunion club next year, possibly with Sheryl Crow. (?)

Emo kids are getting attacked in Mexico.

You can get the Die! Die! Die! show at The Earl last week from Have You Heard.

Girl Talk has a new album out very soon and will be in Athens, Ga at the Georgia Theater tonight.

Read about the new Of Montreal album here.

I didn't get any recordings of Bon Iver at SXSW, but others did, so go listen.

Nine Inch Nails will be at the Gwinnett Arena August 13th.

Southern Shelter has a show from Hardy Morris and Brantley Senn of Dead Confederate.

Pearl Jam is finally touring around the south a bit this summer, but not Atlanta.

Creative Loafing has a piece about Silent Kids.

Be Your Own Pet will be at the Variety Playhouse May 23rd. Universal cut three songs from their new album, Get Akward, because they were too violent. This is the same label that has released albums from Eminem, 50 Cent, Marilyn Manson, and Nine inch Nails. Obviously, Jemina Pearl could kick all of their asses. Check their new vid:




More new videos:

Phosphorescent:



WHY?:



Raveonettes:

Photos: SXSW Day 3 - 3-13-08 in Austin, TX

Bowerbirds










Jason Collett












Northampton Wools










Black Helicopter










Tall Firs










Be Your Own Pet












J. Mascis




Thurston Moore Band

SXSW 2008 Day 3: Friday

I started out my Friday trying to catch Bon Iver again because my camera ran out of batteries the night before right after they started and I wanted to get some videos, but I arrived at Emo's too late to get anywhere near the front, so i just enjoyed some more of their stuff and moved on to the next venue. I caught the end of another Kaki King set, wich was cool because I missed the very end of the set i caught Wednesday night.



After that it was time to catch Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. One of the guitarists had broken his amp, so they played as a 3 piece instead, and it really sounded to me like something was missing, so I left after a few songs.



After getting a great steak and brie sandwich at some weird biker bar, I went to see Evangelicals again. It was hard to hear the vocals in the particular spot I was in the night before, plus I really love this album, so I was very happy to catch them do another stunning show. That is another cool thing about this festival; If I want to see a band I love multiple times, it is no problem. Here is some live videos:







I stuck around to catch Cloud Cult next. Between this set full of new stuff and the tracks floating around the internet so far, I don't think I like the new material as much as I loved The Meaning Of 8 stuff, but they are still pretty good.







After that, we made our second attempt to catch Akron/Family. It was again a failure, and if there is one regret I will have about this fest, it is not seeing them. Although the party they were at had them listed in the biggest font, they played first. We did not figure that out until enduring a wanna-be Panda Bear act and some French dude who thought we was from the South with a puppet of himself. The upside was that the show was in a furniture store and they were serving free booze.





We dedicated the rest of the night to hanging out at the Ecstatic Peace party, Thurston Moore's record label. It was easily the best total party package of the fest so far. First we caught Northampton Wools, a noise project duo featuring Thurston. It was such an unbelievably awesome set, and there were only like 40 people in the room for it. If you can't tell from the alias I use on here, Sonic Youth is one of my favourite bands and living in Atlanta, I 've never got the chance to see some of the non-Youth stuff Thurston does live, so I feel so blessed to finally catch it.



The next band I caught that I really dug was Black Helicopter. They do good, hard stoner-rock, and I'm always a fan of that stuff.





The next great band I caught was Tall Firs. They were probably the closest thing to the Sonic Youth spectrum of all the bands I saw here, and they were damn good. Their newest album comes out Tuesday and their set was packed full of those tunes, so I'm pretty excited to hear it.





Next up was Be Your Own Pet. I had got their first album, and I had not really loved it, but they were so much better live than on record. Total old-school punk, thrashing around the stage like crazy. Nathan Vasquez's bass was stained with blood. The set got interrupted by a power outage, but it did not deter them as front-woman Jemina Pearl Abegg held a question and answer session for the crowd while the generators got refueled, and then they commenced the rock again.





The night kept getting better as J Mascis did a solo set. He blasted through his greatest hits and jammed out long and hard, ending with a 10 minute solo-fest. No matter how many times I catch him and in whatever incarnation, it is always a great show.



The night would end with Thurston Moore and his band (featuring Steve Shelley) doing a set comprised of pieces from his Trees Outside The Academy. It was everything I could have hoped for and more. There is really nothing I can say to describe how much I enjoy what Thurston does, so we'll just leave it at that. He did two encores, including a Velvet Underground song.



SXSW just doesn't stop amazing me. I have one last day and then it is over, so I'm gonna go live it up while I have the chance. Some time late next week, I'll post my Day4/Wrap-Up post. Biggie C has taken billions of beautiful pictures that will start showing up here soon and I still have a bunch of videos to upload, so stay tuned.