Sunn O))) and Beyond

Chicago Innerview piece on Sunn O))) from the May issue and a link to a Southern Records podcast. They spell their name two different ways ("sunno)))" and "SUNN O)))") on their website and by now I think everyone knows that it is pronounced simply, "sun." These guys are weird. And I like weird.

MP3: Sunn O))) - "It Took The Night To Believe"

Pearl Jam: Verizon Center Pictures

PJ Pictures

From last night's show are up at TenClub.net.

We. Fucked. Up.

We got an email from mikejonze at The Camera As Pen last week and he politely informed us that we were hotlinking to a lot of other sites with our posts (particularly mp3s). I just read the e-mail today and wrote him back apologizing and thanking him for filling us in. We aren't the sharpest tools in the shed when it comes to computers (and blogging for that matter) and I quickly cleaned all of the posts on the main page and will continue to clean all of our past posts to ensure that we aren't hotlinking to other blogs. I am chalking this one up as a learning experience. It motivated me to set up an ezarchive account (note Radiohead, Camera Obscura, and The Rakes posts below) thus encouraging people to hotlink to us and in turn, provide us with some of the pain that we have been placing on others. Thanks again to The Camera As Pen for hooking us up. Apologies to anyone else out there that we were hotlinking to.

Wondering what a show with Boris and Sunn 0))) would be like?

This recap from Swanfungus is absolutely hilarious. Boris (whose album Pink is making an early run on InMyTree's best of 2006) and Sunn 0))) played the Avalon in NYC last night and here is an excerpt:

It was a sheet of noise that continually knocked us backwards. The stage was littered with two rows of 4x12 cabinets. boris' guitar/bassist guy played through a sunn model-t with an 8x12 sunn cab, PLUS an ampeg 8x10 cab. the female boris guitarist played through an orange amp with two 4x12 orange cabinets. the drummer's set wasn't even mic'd, he was just that loud and fierce.

sunn o))) had four guitarists (including opening act oren ambarchi as guest guitarist), a moog player, a bassist, and boris' drummer invoking the spirit of the gong. the stage was literally a wall of amplifiers stacked about as high as the second tier of the club. just volume, volume, volume. so disgustingly good. oh yeah, and the druid costumes were hilarious...but kinda in a sad way. also, an hour of sunn 0))) is about a half-hour too much sunn o))).

You can find pics on the site too. Also, from BV, Boris is playing a free show tonight in NYC.

If that's not enough, the two Southern Lord bands are releasing an album together called Alter in October.

Madonna Back Again

Although not nearly as dramatic or newsworthy as the whole 'I'm going to crucify myself' deal, there's a story here of how Madonna recently lashed out at a fan in the middle of a Vegas show for not dancing. This is fairly reminiscent, yet definitely a bit worse, of when we saw Arctic Monkey's frontman Alex Turner dime out a fan for yawning during their SNL performance. Whatever blows your hair back, celebrities.

Another story here about Madonna's demands to have the air conditioning completely shut-off for her performances @ MGM Grand. The article is actually pretty interesting and doesn't make Madonna look like as much of a bitch, by showing a history of similar requests from famous performers.

We Are Wolves Tour

We won't catch the DC show because of our duties to another canis lupus, Wolfmother. But here are their dates...

01/06/06 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
02/06/06 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
03/06/06 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
04/06/06 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
05/06/06 Pittsburgh, PA @ Garfield Artwork
06/06/06 Washington, DC @ DC 9
07/06/06 Baltimore , MD @ Ottobar
08/06/06 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
09/06/06 New York City, NY @ Canal Room
10/06/06 Boston, MA @ Great Scott

MP3: We Are Wolves - "Little Birds"
MP3: We Are Wolves - "La Nature"
MP3: We Are Wolves - "Vamos a la Playa"

Late Night Music Tonight

ABC
12:05 a.m. Jimmy Kimmel Live: TAKING BACK SUNDAY

CBS
11:35 p.m. The Late Show With David Letterman: KT TUNSTALL
12:37 a.m. The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: DAMIAN MARLEY

NBC
11:37 p.m. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno: KANYE WEST, TWISTA, KEYSHIA COLE
12:37 a.m. Late Night With Conan O'Brien: ALANIS MORISSETTE
1:37 a.m. Last Call With Carson Daly: TAYLOR HAWKINS & THE COATTAIL RIDERS

The Eraser Leaks a Month Early

According to Gigwise, Thom Yorke's solo effort has leaked a month early. I probably don't understand half of what transpires when an album is completed but why do record companies even bother sending out copies to agencies if it's basically guaranteed to get leaked (and then complain about it afterwards)? Can't they just put it a vault and wait until the deadline to send out hard copies and audio files? If anyone understands this, please fill me in.

Pearl Jam @ Verizon Center, May 30th

Pre-Opener: Don't Be Shy (Cat Stevens cover, solo acoustic)

Set 1: Release, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Animal, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Low Light, Unemployable, Grievance, Even Flow, I Got Id, Present Tense, Better Man, Inside Job, Wasted Reprise (Boom Gaspard keyboard intro), Life Wasted, Why Go, Rearviewmirror

Encore 1: Man Of The Hour, Masters Of War (Bob Dylan cover), Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Come Back, Alive

Encore 2: Comatose, Leash, Fuckin' Up (Neil Young cover), Yellow Ledbetter

Pics should be posted on PJ's website as soon as they are available. You can view tour pics and setlists here, in the meantime.

The Rakes, Camera Obscura @ Black Cat

Recently announced shows at the Black Cat for July...

FRI JULY 7 - THE RAKES $12 mainstage 9:30 (on sale 6/2)
MP3: The Rakes - "Terror"
MP3: The Rakes - "Retreat"

SUN JULY 9 - CAMERA OBSCURA, GEORGIE JAMES $12 mainstage 8:30 (on sale 6/2)
MP3: Camera Obscura - "If Looks Could Kill"
MP3: Camera Obscura - "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

Ten Club Seats

Just an FYI out there for people that are Ten Club members and wondering what the scoop will be for their tickets. I have been a member for maybe four years now (about 7 or 8 on and off) and my seats were 11 rows up in the middle of Section 121. They were outstanding seats. I would be willing to bet that 112, 113, 120, and 121 were all Ten Club, but it might have been more than that and, of course, every venue will be different.

QOTSA @ Sasquatch Music Festival

Our good friend (and loyal MD subscriber) Ryno took the opportunity to check out Memorial Day Weekend's Sasquatch Music Festival @ The Gorge in beautiful Central Washington. Taking some of the lessons learned from our recent Coachella experience, Ryno endured 3 days of amazing shows and sleeping under the stars, amidst a hail storm, torrential downpours, and rolling Han-Solo. Although we are still waiting for the full scoop, he did drop us a quick line about the QOTSA show...

QOTSA was worth the weekend. They played nothing new and it pretty much sounded like the live cd except for a couple changes in the order, and instead of saying 'hey cocksmoker eat a bag of dicks,' he just told the security guards to quit being gay and kicking people out. Fortunately all the oldies are still goodies in their case and it was quite moving.

Good to hear Josh Homme is still being...Josh Homme.

Nada Surf @ iTunes

Something at iTunes worth checking out is a Nada Surf acoustic set at KEXP that features a cover of The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out."

PJ Highlights

How about "Fuckin' Up" dedicated to Dick Cheney? Or "Masters of War" with the whole band plugged in? Fuck. What a show. These guys know what they are doing...in no particular order: "Leash," "Corduroy," "Do The Evolution," "Alive," "Elderly...," "Animal," "Severed Hand," "Unemployable," "Come Back," "Lowlight," "Evenflow," "Why Go," "Rearviewmirror," "Betterman," "Present Tense," opened with "Release." It was awesome, almost 2.5 hours on the dot. The best part of the show was being there with the First Lady. Hands down. Her first PJ show and she loved it. And she borderline talked smack about U2 (her favorite band) afterwards. Top caught Eddie doing Cat Stevens' "Don't Be Shy" before My Morning Jacket came on...that must have been ill...

Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura's new album, Let's Get Out of this Country, isn't out until June 6 but they're already getting a nice buzz from blogger circles. You can admire their Scottish accents at any of these fine venues:

07.04.2006 * Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
07.05.2006 * Montreal, QC @ La Sale Rossa
07.06.2006 * Boston, MA @ Great Scott
07.07.2006 * New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
07.08.2006 * Philadelphia, PA @ Northstar Bar
07.09.2006 * Washington, DC @ Black Cat
07.11.2006 * Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
07.12.2006 * Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
07.13.2006 * Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone
07.14.2006 * Dallas, TX @ Gypsy Tea Room
07.15.2006 * Austin, TX @ Emo's (Outside)
07.17.2006 * Tucson, TN @ Plush
07.18.2006 * San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
07.19.2006 * Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
07.20.2006 * San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
07.22.2006 * Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
07.23.2006 * Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
07.24.2006 * Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club
07.27.2006 * Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
07.28.2006 * Chicago, IL @ Logan Square
07.29.2006 * Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
07.30.2006 * Newport, KY @ Southgate House

Rock KIlls Kid Acoustic MP3s

Rock Kills Kid has released some exclusive acoustic tracks from a few of their album tracks.

MP3: Rock Kills Kid - Paralyzed (Acoustic)
MP3: Rock Kills Kid - Hideaway (Acoustic)
MP3: Rock Kills Kid - Midnight (Acoustic)

You can also catch them on the East Coast at these spots:

6.20.06 - The Recher Theatre: Towson, MD
6.21.06 - Warsaw: New York, NY
6.22.06 - Theatre of Living Arts: Philly, PA
6.24.06 - Pearl Street: Northampton, MA
6.25.06 - Axis: Boston, MA

The Week Ahead.

*As sad as it is that Snow Patrol won't be making it to the 9:30 Club on Wednesday, nothing is going to dampen the week I have ahead, beginning with My Morning Jacket & Pearl Jam tonight at the Verizon Center. Here is Pearl Jam's recording/camera policy for this year's tour. I will be surprised if I am in the first 20 rows in Pearl Jam Ten Club seniority, but if I am, I will probably be rocking the flash anyway (although a lot of my best pics lately have come with the flash off). Here is the skinny on how long it will take Ten Club to have the mp3 and flac available for download (2 days).

*With PJ and My Morning Jacket tonight, Radiohead & The Black Keys on Friday, And then Boris, Growing and Thrones on Sunday night in Baltimore. I feel like a kid in a candy store. Glide magazine published a piece a year ago or so on The Tower Theater, where I will be catching Radiohead. It was built in 1927 with 3500 seats and currently seats 3119. I am looking forward to an intimate night with Thom Yorke & Company. As for Boris, that article that JK posted has me extremely fired up. As does the album, PINK, which has been the soundtrack to the weekend that was.

Snow Patrol Postpone ATL, DC Shows

This just in from Snow Patrol...bad news for Metro D. We've been looking forward to this show for quite some time. Second show for us that's been cancelled or postponed due to voice problems (Subways); lucky for us we hit up Hard-Fi before they ran into their voice issues. I like that Snow Patrol acknowledges that they typically engage in 'getting messed up' every night. But the whole 'i've been in the gym every morning and eating right blah blah blah' is a little hard to swallow...

Hello all

Ive some bad news.

Were going to have to postpone the shows today, May 29, in Atlanta and Wednesday, May 31st in D.C.

We are trying to add these shows in at the end of this tour. Failing that we are back to do some radio shows in mid-August and we will schedule them there.

The reason for this is my voice is in pieces. You may have seen us on Good Morning America this morning and if you did youll be aware I barely scraped through it and that was only one song.

When we began the Eyes Open tour in Feb of this year I was told by my doctor a few days before hand that I had laryngitis and it would be best if I took a week off to recover. I told him I didnt have a week as we had shows pretty much every day. All the gigs so far have been a struggle for me. Unfortunately now I can barely hit any notes. My entire upper range has disappeared into a whisper.

Some of you may come to the conclusion that this is because were a party band and were out every night getting messed up. Yes we like a drink. I however have taken it reasonable easy since Feb in that department and I havent been drinking on this US tour at all and Ive every intention of not partying for the duration of it. In fact Ive been in the gym every morning and eating right.

In short Im taking it very seriously. The simple fact is that my voice is worn out.

I am doing everything possible to get it working again. I am seeing a specialist in New York tomorrow who hopefully will be able to help. Ive even agreed (horror of all horrors!!) to see a voice coach.

If there was any way to sing two full shows and do a full days promo in Atlanta and D.C believe me I would. The reason why the two shows have been affected is to give me four days to recover.

We refuse to cancel gigs which is why we will do everything in our power to find available dates (when we too are available) in those venues for the not to distant future.

I am so sorry for this to all of you who have bought tickets especially those of you who have travelled long distances to these shows. Of course we will make sure that these tickets are still valid, as I say they arent cancelled theyre just postponed. Well give you the info for the new shows as soon as we know.

Lots of love, gary.x

Back in the Mix

Happy Memorial Day. I'm back in NYC after a relaxing long weekend in Charlottesville with the fam. Traveling through DC, I was forced to listen to DC 101 because I forgot to bring cds for the rental. I'm still laughing at how poor their music selection is. Is DC 101 now just a 90s rock station? I think the most recent song I heard during my drive was Boulevard of Broken Dreams. How have they completely missed the boat on new music? They even played old songs from bands that just released albums (PJ, RHCP, etc.). Pure comedy that a DC institution in music could be this bad. Yet another pathetic effort from ClearChannel.

Anyway, I read a very interesting article over the weekend on Sunn 0))), BORIS and their record company Southern Lord Recordings, randomly, from the New York Times magazine . I think you'll be very surprised by it.

Sam Roberts Band: Tour Dates

Jun 12 2006 8:00P Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
Jun 13 2006 8:00P Iota Club and Cafe Arlington, VA
Jun 15 2006 8:00P World Club Live Philadelphia, PA
Jun 16 2006 8:00P Higher Ground Burlington, VT
Jun 17 2006 8:00P T.T. The Bear's Boston, MA

We are going to have to make a call on whether we do Birdmonster or Sam Roberts on June 13th. I'd rather not have to make that call...

MP3: Sam Roberts Band - "The Gate"

Tune your run?!?

Ever wanted your ipod Nano to be your running coach? Your personal trainer? To have your shoes talk, and your Nano listen? To have your Nano function as a...timer? Yeah me neither. But, with a new partnership between Nike and Apple, using special* running shoes with special* sensors, and a special* receiver for the Nano (*expensive), can make all that happen.

Read a couple business articles about this last week...all in all, the target audience for this set-up is so incredibly small, nobody's expecting this to be a money-maker or something that will change the world of sports. On the other side, the name association/brand recognition they'll get when matching the swoosh and the apple icon together could be a decent payoff. Something else that was mentioned, which is a bit more practical, is a line of Nike workout clothes that have special ipod pockets and areas to hide the headphone chords. On the itunes side of the house, they're looking to create work-out playlists, athlete-chosen playlists, and athletic podcasts. Most of these products mentioned have yet to be released.

Paper Airplane Pilots

Consider yourself warned. There is some highly addictive indie pop/rock below. Delectable melodies, contagious hooks, and some solid songwriting. These guys have been getting a lot of buzz in the Land of Michael Barrett, aka Chicago, playing Chicago Innerview sponsored gigs and building a lot of buzz. They are bringing the love east this summer:

June 15th The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
June 16th Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
June 17th Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
June 18th Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY
June 20th The Grey Eagle Tav. & Music Hall Asheville, NC
June 21st New Brookland Tavern, West Columbia, SC
June 22nd The Earl, Atlanta, GA

MP3: Paper Airplane Pilots - "Prove You're Alive"
MP3: Paper Airplane Pilots - "The Way It Goes"

MySpace
Official Site
Buy Paper Airplane Pilots - THE HISTORY OF FLYING

Odds & Ends

*Johnny Cash's PERSONAL FILE earned an 8.5 at The Fork.

*This is worth the read, discussing music recommendation and discovery tools.

*Fluxblog has an awesome interview with, get ready, Andrew Beaujon, author of a book on the Christian music scene.

*Boris, PINK, is my favorite album of the year so far. Seriously. This is unreal. "My Machine" is the best calm-among-a-storm song I have heard in a long time. I might be making the trip to Baltimore. Here are reviews from both sides of the coin: TinyMixTapes, 2/5 | Pitchfork, 8.7

Band Of Horses

These guys are killing me. Nothing in Baltimore or DC. Forcing my hand on another Cannonball Run to the City of Brotherly Love. The only song that has captured my imagination and addiction more than "The Funeral" has been "Farewell" by Boris, which happens to be blowing out my eardrums right now. Band of Horses have a fairly extensive tour kicking off tomorrow that will head just about everywhere but here. Here are their upcoming (somewhat local) tourdates:

06-15 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
06-16 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
06-17 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
06-18 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw

The whole scoop from Pitchfork. I Guess I'm Floating has some great Band of Horses tracks from their live set at KEXP.

The Walkmen @ 9:30 Club, May 26

Last night was great. A little more than I even expected. I don't have enough time to put it all down here, but have a listen to the mp3 that is courtesy of National Public Radio We will post individual mp3s up as soon as someone more technologically advanced than we dissects the monster mp3.

MP3: The Walkmen @ 9:30 Club (64 MB)

So Much Silence has the whole show broken down into individual songs.