Virgin Festival Line-up Announced

This looks pretty damn good to me. And how about that Bob Dylan sighting? Sunday kind of owns it. August 9-10.

Coachella Rumors: Eddie Vedder

This weekend's Coachella line-up may be a bit lacking when compared to the other big festivals this summer but the two "Sean Penn" time slots on Sunday are leading some to believe that could include Eddie Vedder (one time slot precedes My Morning Jacket). I have no idea where this started but here are some call outs.

Product Shop NYC
Merry Swankster
Red Mosquito

Buzznet Scooping up Music Blogs

Buzznet, a social community and media site, has been in the tech press quite a bit lately with their recent purchase of Stereogum and Idolator. Traditionalists will most likely have issues with this. Personally, I think it's a great success story for Stereogum (even if I'm not a fan of the blog). However, the latest news is sure to raise even more red flags. A $25 million investment from Universal Music Group? How can that not create issues with their reader base? Time will tell, I guess. Wired chimed in as well.

Eddie Vedder @ The Wiltern, 4.13.08

JQ's back from Iraq, healthy and out of his fucking mind. These are all good things. He was out in LA for a few days and while we were driving home from the madness of the most attended baseball game in history at the Coliseum (Sox-Dodgers) we passed by the Wiltern and Eddie's name was in black beaming down Wilshire. I told him about the Ten Club feeding frenzy, the same thing at Ticketmaster and then let him know that as a student I'm not in a spot to start dropping StubHub prices for a gig. Even if it is a rare solo gig from the frontman of my favorite band. Fast forward past some empty bottles of wine, crushed cases of beer and obscene storytelling that went each night into the next morning and JQ was off to LAX and back into the abyss of out-processing the Army. The next day a package arrives in the mail addressed to my fiancee and underneath are the three magic words: "Get Hot Time". Inside? Two tickets to Eddie's second night at the Wiltern. These are my friends. What more can I say? I call JQ and get this response: "You didn't think I was gonna get you a fucking toaster for your wedding, did you?"

***

He was still in his lab coat then. His guests retired off stage. The lights dimmed and Eddie leaned down into a suitcase and began howling into one of the mics. He set a loop, then grabbed another mic and began belting an accompanying vocal track. I was frozen there, in the back row of the Wiltern completely fucking mesmerized. I haven't heard "Arc" in several years. He took his time, and it might be the memory of the whole thing fucking with me...but I think we witnessed him twisting his vocal chords for a good four or five minutes. The voice of a generation. The voice of my youth. The memories of a dozen shows from Camden, NJ to Mountain View, CA.

And I would have been good right there.

But, I had the feeling, as he walked to the front of the stage, the curtains closing behind him, and shook hands with members of the crowd ("Arc" still careening about the room on a loop) that something was going on behind him.

When they opened the curtain up Jack Irons was sitting on the drums, Eddie introduced him and noted the next one would be a "big sing-a-long". They kicked off "Last Kiss", with the crowd chanting every word and then I thought...if it ends here, I am very, very good with all of it. Guests have made the rounds on the tour, Jerry Hannan helped out in Berkeley on the first night, while Mike McCready and Sean Penn jammed out on "All Along the Watchtower" on night two at Berkeley. So, we score some Jack Irons on drums and to be honest, I'm fucking overwhelmed.

But no one moves. Eddie remains seated, Irons exits stage right. Eddie starts talking about how lucky he feels to know some of the people he knows and he's not sure if these people are "smart because they are talented, or talented because they are smart". And all of the sneaking suspicions I had leading up to the show start to unravel. He has to be talking about Ben. He hasn't played "No More" yet, and Ben helps him out with the same track on the Body of War soundtrack, courtesy of PJ's Lolla performance last year. And. And. And. "I'd like to welcome to the stage Mr. Ben Harper".

Out of my fucking mind.

I'm in the last row at the Wiltern going completely fucking apeshit as my lady is jumping up and down in the same frenetic fashion. Ben dealt some crushing blows last year at Bonnaroo: SuperJam with John Paul Jones & ?uestlove, bringing out Ziggy for "Get Up, Stand Up" and then tearing through "Dazed and Confused" with Jones again during his own set. And here he is. Sauntering out with a lab coat of his own. Taking a seat and giving Eddie an unbelievable vocal accompaniment during "No More". I can barely take it.

And if you thought they were done there. You're wrong. A backdrop is revealed with a beautiful sunset and the entire gang comes back for "Hard Sun" as Eddie fired up a recording of the studio version and added violent riffs on his guitar while bouncing around the stage in an epic little sing-a-long that included two pipes on both sides of the stage gushing dry ice.

Eddie thanks the crowd and still the set isn't going anywhere. It's just getting adjusted by more people in lab coats. Two seats. A drumset. Eddie is bouncing around in his famous half-buzzed-possibly-cocked-bebop, towards the corner, then back to the mic. "I'd like to re-introduce Mr. Ben Harper and Mr. Jack Irons. One more." Hell yes.

Ben walks out with the Weissenborn and I am all kinds of ballistic because whatever is coming he's got the fucking Weissenborn...Eddie rips into the opening bars of "All Along the Watchtower" acoustic and as I'm tearing up, Ben hovers in gently with the lead and I swear...I swear...I'm lost...they repeat "two riders were approaching..." a number of times just to get enough opportunity to let Ben crush us...and then all together "the wind began to howl..."

Main Set
"Walking the Cow" (Daniel Johnson)
"Around the Bend"
"I Am Mine"
"Dead Man"
"Thumbing My Way"
"Man of the Hour"
"Setting Forth"
"Guaranteed"
"No Ceiling"
"Far Behind"
"Rise Up"
"Millworker" (James Taylor)
"Goodbye"
"Soon Forget"
"Drifting"
"You´ve Got to Hide Your Love Away" (Beatles)
"Picture in a Frame" (Tom Waits)
"Trouble" (Cat Stevens)
"Happy Birthday" for his Grandmother Margaret
"Porch"

Encore 1
"Society" (Jerry Hannan; w. Liam Finn)
"Throw Your Arms Around Me" (Marc Seymour; w. Liam Finn)
"Lukin"
"Arc"

Encore 2
"Last Kiss" (Wayne Cochran; w. Jack Irons)
"No More" (w. Ben Harper)
"Hard Sun" (Gordon Peterson; w. Ben Harper, Jack Irons, Eliza-Jane Barnes & Liam Finn)
"All Along The Watchtower" (Bob Dylan; w. Ben Harper & Jack Irons)

Lollapalooza Lineup

Radiohead Summer Tour Dates

When they get back from Europe, it will go something like this. (I still haven't stopped listening to In Rainbows...)

8-01 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
8-03 Indianapolis, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center #
8-04 Cleveland, OH - Blossom Music Center #
8-06 Montreal, Quebec - Parc Jean-Drapeau #
8-08 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West)
8-09 Jersey City, NJ - Liberty State Park (All Points West)
8-12 Camden, NJ - Susquehanna Bank Center #
8-13 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center #
8-15 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre #
8-19 Vancouver, British Columbia - Thunderbird Stadium *
8-20 Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre *
8-22 San Francisco, CA - Golden Gate Park (Outside Lands)
8-24 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
8-25 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
8-27 Chula Vista, CA - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre *
8-28 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl *

* with Liars
# with Grizzly Bear

Lollapalooza Headliners Announced

Courtesy of Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun Times:

Lollapalooza’s Austin, Texas-based promoters C3 Presents are not scheduled to make their official announcement of the acts performing at this year’s weekend-long music festival in Grant Park until Monday, but the Sun-Times has confirmed through industry sources all of the major artists.

Art-rock giants Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, the reunited Rage Against the Machine, Jack White’s side project the Raconteurs and hometown heroes Wilco and Kanye West will headline the main stages on Aug. 1-3.

The Raconteurs, Wilco and West will each be making their second appearance at the reinvented destination festival. Other repeaters among the more than 100 acts on this year’s bill are Gnarls Barkley, the Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, G. Love & Special Sauce, Blues Traveler and Mates of State.

Quite a few of the other acts — including many of the most promising — have earlier performed at Chicago’s two independently produced music festivals, Pitchfork and Intonation. These include Bloc Party, Cat Power, Stephen Malkmus, Girl Talk, Kid Sister, Office, the Cool Kids, Battles, the Go! Team, Jamie Lidell and Grizzly Bear.

Advance three-day passes are now on sale for a limited time for $190 (after which the price increases to $205) at www.lollapalooza.com.

For the full list of Lollapalooza acts, stay tuned to this blog!

I don't know what it is about Lollapalooza, but they have some fucking clout in pulling in the big names. Radiohead and Rage? Fuck. This puts Coachella to shame.

Re-Post: The National from Liberation cd

Seeing as how I just made reference to some of the potentially "new" songs that will be featured on The National's Virginia EP and then completely forgot that I already posted two of them back in November, I'll put them back up now:

MP3: The National - "Tall Saint" (demo)
MP3: The National - "Rest of Years" (demo)

The National: A Skin, A Night + The Virginia EP

I had just heard a rumor about this today and now I see that it's confirmed on Insound. It's out on 5/20. Very unexpected and definitely very exciting. From Insound:

This (A Skin, A Night) is a documentary about The National by French filmmaker Vincent Moon, who followed the group during the creation of their acclaimed 2007 release, "Boxer" (scanned over 116K). It's an insightful and beautiful glimpse into the band's creative process. The DVD is packaged with a separate disc, "The Virginia EP", which contains twelve tracks of demos, a cover, live versions, a radio session, and b-sides.

The Virginia EP tracklisting:

1. You Done it Again, Virginia
2. Santa Clara
3. Blank Slate
4. Tall Saint
5. Without Permission
6. Forever After Days
7. Rest Of Years
8. Slow Show
9. Lucky You
10. Mansion On The Hill
11. Fake Empire
12. About Today

I've never heard tracks 4-7. They may be new?


[Pre-order]

Nude Remix

This should be fun for you creative types out there (unfortunately, I am not one of them); assuming you are also a Radiohead fan. "To make remixing easy, the separate 'stems' from the song are available to purchase from iTunes. The 'stems' available are bass, voice, guitar, strings/fx and drums. You can mix them in any way you like, either by adding your own beats and instrumentation, or just remixing the original parts." So maybe it's easy, I don't know.

$5.94 at iTunes.
www.radioheadremix.com