Vampire Weekend, Feist, Grimes, Cloud Nothings to play Pitchfork
It looks like Vampire Weekend will be closing out this year’s Pitchfork Festival at Union Park in July. Pitchfork released its initial lineup of bands playing the annual three-day show in Chicago and the preppy boys are initially scheduled to headline Sunday, July 15. Feist is the top name Friday and Godspeed You! Black Emperor plays Saturday.
I’m a bit underwhelmed by the top of the bill but the list is far from being complete. I’ll be more excited to see Grimes and Cloud Nothings, artists who just released exciting new albums. Both play Saturday, July 14. Rounding out the Saturday schedule is Hot Chip and Liturgy. Sunday’s lineup also includes AraabMUZIK, Kendrick Lamar and the Field. The fest’s opening day, Friday July 13, features A$AP Rocky, Tim Hecker and Willis Earl Beal.
Tickets go on sale Friday, March 9 at this website.
Mount Eerie plans two new albums
Great news for fans of Phil Elverum, aka Mount Eerie. Elverum plans to release two new Mount Eerie albums this year, Clear Moon (out in May) and a follow, Ocean Roar (date TBA). Like all of Elverum’s albums, Clear Moon will be self released. He plans to tour Europe next month and the first of the two releases is scheduled to come out May 22.
Fan video:
Report: Women guitarist Reimer is dead
According to reports out of Canada, Christopher Reimer, guitarist for the great band Women is dead. There aren’t a lot of details at this point. The band had been on hiatus.
New video: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Check out this new video for Strangers are Strange from Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
La Sera drops new track, ‘Break My Heart’
La Sera, the side project of Vivian Girls’ Katy Goodman, is set to release a new album, Sees the Light, at the end of March.
Goodman this week gave us a glimpse of the album with the new song Break My Heart. Check it out below.
New music: Sharon Van Etten, Shearwater
I just missed Sharon Van Etten’s short set when she kicked off the 2010 Pitchfork fest. On Thursday, she begins a two-night stand headlining at Lincoln Hall to promote her impressive breakthrough album Tramp. The excellent Shearwater opens.
Van Etten made a powerful, heartfelt album with the help of producer Aaron Dessner of The National. The album includes forlorn slow ballads with some diversions (Serpents is a rocker and a standout on the album, while Magic Chords is a cool, almost jazzy number). Tramp is recommended.
I can also recommend Shearwater’s just-released Animal Joy. The album is actually much livelier than 2010′s The Golden Archipelago. Dare I say parts of this album actually rock? (The song Immaculate is a good example.) Yet Animal Joy is still full of dramatic flourishes, making this a pretty exciting album. Shearwater is one of those highly original bands that doesn’t always fit into a neatly defined category. And that’s definitely a good thing.
Breaking the Yearlings – Shearwater
Video from the show:
UPDATE: The Friday show is sold out.
New album: Field Music’s ‘Plumb’
Every Saturday morning, Chicago radio station WXRT features its Flashback program of four hours of music from one year. When I listen to the new album by Field Music, I feel like I’m listening to Flashback 1973 or ’74. It was in those years that adventurous FM radio stations (like XRT) played Genesis and other bands that ruled the euphemistically named progressive rock genre.
While prone to excess, one thing these progressive rock bands knew was how to build grand soundscapes.
What Field Music (Brit siblings Peter and David Brewis) successfully do on Plumb is harvest the best parts of that era’s musical style. The songs are short and the pace is brisk. The album clocks in at just under 36 minutes. Plumb wasn’t an immediately likable album for me (which is probably the opposite of anyone who likes this style of music). But for that reason, I think there’s more interesting things at work here. Plus these guys actually have something to say.
New music: Dana Buoy’s ‘Call to Be’
Dana Janssen, percussionist for Akron/Family, plans to release his own album, Summer Bodies, in May under the name Dana Buoy.
Janssen (or Buoy?) just released a song off that album, Call to Be. Reminiscent of Animal Collective, Janseen draws on African beats mixed with synthesizer.
Check out the song below.
Video: Diamond Rugs’ ‘Gimme a Beer’
Diamond Rugs is a band made up of two guys from Deer Tick plus members of the Black Lips, Los Lobos, Six Finger Satellite and Dead Confederate.
The band plans a self-titled album in late April, and, according to its publicists, some of the songs on the release are being previewed at 50 strip clubs across the U.S. No reviews yet.
Here’s a video of the guys performing Gimme a Beer. The song can be downloaded at this website.
New video: Black Keys’ ‘Gold on the Ceiling’
I’m still amazed at the Black Keys’ rise to superstar status. These guys are playing the freaking United Center in March! I do like the song Gold on the Ceiling off El Camino. (I have a feeling I’ll be sick of it soon enough, though.)
Ty Segall, White Fence collaborate on new album, plan tour
Here’s a collaboration I can really get excited about: Ty Segall and White Fence (aka Tim Presley) plan to release a new album, Hair, April 28. What’s more, these guys are heading out on the road together. The shows will feature separate sets and some songs played together. They hit Chicago’s Lincoln Hall May 10. That show also features Presley’s other band, the Strange Boys.
The Shins premier new song, ‘September’
The Shins just premiered a new song on Record Store Day’s website. September will be the b-side of a 7-inch release for Simple Song out next week. Check it out below.
Simple Song and September will appear on the band’s new album Port of Morrow, which is expected out next month.
Here We Go Magic unveils new song
Here We Go Magic just released a new song, Make Up Your Mind, the first track off a new album in May. A Different Ship is the band’s third album.
It’s a catchy song with a choogling beat. The release date is May 8.
M.I.A. flips off the Super Bowl
It happened so quickly that I bet a lot of people missed it. But M.I.A. gave the finger to the Super Bowl crowd during her half-time performance with Madonna Sunday. It sounds to me like the word “shit” also got through the censors.
New video: The Darkness’ ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us’
The Darkness is back and reportedly on the verge of releasing a new album. Check out the band’s rockin’ new video:
