Monday Mash-Up

Snowden is playing a show next Saturday to make up for missing Corndogorama. It is supposed to be their last Atlanta show before going and making their next record. It will also feature Psychic Hearts and Bradford Cox of Deerhunter‘s solo project Atlas Sound. Yaher!

Akron/Family has a new album coming out September 10th called Love Is Simple. Remember they will be in Athens, Ga at the 40 Watt on September 15th and I highly recommend checking them out because they were one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. Check it out:

The new season of PBS’s Austin City Limits TV show begins in October and will feature Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, The Decemberists, Wilco, Regina Spektor, Explosions In The Sky, Lucinda Williams, and others.

The new Prefuse 73 album called Preparations comes out October 23rd.

Eddie Vedder’s anti-George Bush comments during the Pearl Jam Lollapalooza show got edited out of the webcast by AT&T.

Nine Inch Nails are working on a TV show based on their latest album Year Zero.

Cat Power is doing another covers album.

Amy Winehouse has got some drama.

Remember the Black Lips are playing the Clairmont Lounge Thursday night. Here’s a video for a track from the upcoming album:

Theree other good local shows this week include Slow Motion Crash at The Masquerade Tommorrow, From Exile at Lenny’s Wednesday night, and The Orphins and Moorish Idols at ISP Thursday night..

Beach House and Grizzly Bear are touring together, but unfortunetly nowhere near Atlanta. You out of town readers need to go see this if they are playing near you. Here’s the video for Beach House‘s “Master Of None”:

Ok, Here’s some new videos. New Devendra Banhart:

Chemical Brothers:

Bjork:

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 2

We arrived just in time for Califone, who was running a little late. They played 4 or 5 songs and they were pretty good. They had a horn section with them which was cool, but it seemed a little underwhelming. We went in close for Grizzly Bear and listened to Voxtrot from afar. I have to say that I don’t really like Voxtrot that much, I think they are over-hyped by the internets. Grizzly Bear, on the other hand, lives up to all the hype. Despite Chris Taylor having some issues with his ridiculously complex equipment setup, they put on the day’s best show. If you have not listened to Yellow House yet, do it now fool! I tried to catch the end of Beach House but only caught the last 30 seconds of “Master Of None”. By far this was the worst schedule conflict of the fest, especially for the bands themselves as Grizzly Bear and Beach House are both fans of each other. Next up we went to see Battles. They were very impressive. The former Helmet drummer John Stanier was rock solid and had a cymbal up really high so he had to reach up to hit it. It was gimmicky but really cool. The rest of the band used lots of looping computer programs to put together their songs piece by piece.

We skipped Iron And Wine to check out the festival grounds, which were expanded from Friday’s setup. They had a huge poster shopping area with almost 50 tents each selling handbills. After that we checked out Atlanta’s Mastodon. Their typical badass performance had a mixed reception from the pitchfork kids. Most of the people farther away were complaining and those that stayed up close were rocking out. There was even a mosh pit. Because it was so crazy up front for Mastodon, I was able to get front row and center for Cat Power afterwards on the stage as most of the other Chan Marshall fans weren’t so much into the Mastodon scene. It pays to like all kinds of music. I listened to Clipse from the front of the other stage and they were what I expected, decent for a live hip-hop show but nothing to get excited about. Cat Power came on with the Dirty Delta Blues Band. In this performance, Cat Power would not touch a guitar or piano. Instead, she would be leaning over the crowd singing songs from The Greatest, covers, and songs I didn’t recognize. I am not a big fan of the nu-Cat Power that is sober, doesn’t freakout, and does country/blues music and this was farther in that direction than the three times I saw her last year. It was still great to see her, especially as close as we were, but i don’t think I’m going to see her again live until she either starts playing old stuff again or does some new stuff that is not so conservative and, well, ordinary. We wanted to check out Girl Talk but the tiny staging area was packed out beyond belief and the sound system over there was not powerful enough to hear farther back. If I had one complaint about Pitchfork Fest so far it was the sound system problems, of which there were many, and the sound checks drowning out quiet parts of bands performing on the adjacent stages. We skipped Yoko Ono and went into the city to drink into oblivion. Here’s some pics from the day:

Live Review: Galactic, Cypress Hill, Beach House (5-12-2007)

Last Saturday night I went and checked out the Southern Comfort Music Experience being held for free in Centennial Olympic Park downtown. The show was free and 21+, two things I’m a fan of. The rainy weather during the day kept the turnout very low, so we were easily able to get front row for Galactic. As I mentioned before, we pregamed watching a Stanton Moore instructional video, and it was a great way to get ready for a Galactic show. This was the first time I had seen them without “The Houseman” doing vocals, which I had hated in the past, so I was looking forward to hearing them as an instrumental group. They came out and put on a great show. I’m very picky about which jambands I like, and these guys are definitely a group I enjoy. They do a great job of taking genres and styles that have been very played out and breathe new life into them. Near the end of the set, Hip-Hop artist Mr. Lif joined them on stage to do a few songs including one off of the upcoming Galactic “Hip-Hop” album that will feature collaborations with Lyrics Born, Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets) Gift For Gab (Blackalicious) and unfortunetly Lateef The Truth Speaker (man does he suck), plus many more. (There are reports that Charlie 2na will be performing with them at Bonnaroo) . Here’s some pics:

We decided to get out of the front to avoid the rowdy rednecks and the highly efficient and large security force for Cypress Hill. There was a slight downpour for a few minutes between sets, but it was the only rain we’d see. Cypress Hill came out with no elaborate stage setup as i had seen them use the first time I saw them, but they still brought the music full force. Despite a little new material from their upcoming album, the set was very “hit-friendly” and the entire crowd celebrated with billows of smoke.

I left near the end of Cypress Hill‘s set to catch Beach House at The Earl. I arrived with plenty of time to get up front and enjoy this great duo. They did some new songs, one i really loved, and perfect renditions of their self-titled album’s best stuff. I seriously recommend checking out their album if you haven’t, because it is beautiful. The boys from Deerhunter were next to me at the show and they seemed to be digging it too. They closed with “Master Of None”, probably my favourite of theirs. The lighting was even worse than last time so I didn’t get any really good shots, but you can always look at Biggie C’s photos of Beach House earlier this year at The Earl. I wanted to catch The Clientele, who was on afterwards, but it didn’t work out.

Galactic torrents:

Galactic 2007-01-26 Roxy Theater, Atlanta, GA

Galactic 2007-01-27 Roxy Theater, Atlanta, GA

More goodies:

Cypress Hill and Sonic Youth: I Love You Mary Jane

Beach House : Master Of None

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

!!! : Myth Takes

!!! (pronounced “chk chk chk”) are sort of a punk version of the Disco Biscuits. Aggressive rock meets funky disco dance music. This is a great driving album and you should scoop it up:

Buy Myth Takes Here

!!! Myspace

Beach House : Beach House

Since seeing them at the Earl on Sunday, I’ve been jamming this album hard all week. Beach House is Alex Scally on guitar and Victoria Legrand on keyboard and vocals. They play live with sampled drum tracks they recorded. Really chill stuff that certainly has a beachy aesthetic. Check it:

Buy Beach House Here

Myspace Page

Photos: 3-11-07 Beach House, Birds of Avalon @ The Earl, Atlanta, GA

(Click for larger photos)

Birds of Avalon








Beach House















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