Just got this update from Righteous Babe. What a great collection of songs, and for a great purpose...
ANI FEATURED ON FREE BEST OF BONNAROO CLIMATE CHANGE COMPILATION
Our friends at HeadCount and the NRDC Action Fund put together a Best of Bonnaroo compilation featuring “Fuel,” recorded live at Ani’s 2009 Bonnaroo performance, to encourage action on climate change. Ani joins Wilco, Jack Johnson, My Morning Jacket and more in donating a live track and best of all, you can download it FREE! Visit www.musicforaction.org to get your copy, while you are there you can also email your elected officials to encourage them to pass legislation to cut global warming, build a clean energy economy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Participate in change! Reward yourself with free music!
The Pitchfork Music Festival will hit Union Park in Chicago July 16-18. And this year's lineup is seriously amazing. We've got the reunited Pavement! Holy shit! Not to mention indie godheads Modest Mouse, James Murphy's dance-punk juggernaut LCD Soundsystem, Wu-Tang Clan master chef Raekwon, St. Vincent, Lightning Bolt, Cass McCombs, Sleigh Bells, and Here We Go Magic.
All that is only the beginning. This year's Pitchfork Music Festival will feature more bands than ever before and a longer day of music on Friday.
Tickets go on sale at noon Central time today at TicketWeb. Single-day passes cost $40, and three-day passes cost $90. (There are no two-day passes this year.) Keep watching this space for more details.
Here's the three-day lineup so far:
Friday, July 16:
-- Modest Mouse
Saturday, July 17:
-- LCD Soundsystem
-- Raekwon
-- Here We Go Magic
Sunday, July 18:
-- Pavement
-- St. Vincent
-- Lightning Bolt
-- Cass McCombs
-- Sleigh Bells
In case you missed the Lilith Fair announcement... This lineup isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've starred some intriguing and respectable choices. There are also some names here that I've never heard and I'll be excited to check them out. Right now, the closest stop is Chicago. Hmm... are there 2 festivals in Chicago for me this year?
We are thrilled to share with you the first round of artists confirmed for Lilith 2010.
Old Crow Medicine Show: Old-time music for a new age
By Dan Kane
At first listen, Old Crow Medicine Show could be one of those backwoods combos that would sometimes venture out of the sticks near Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Heck, there’s even a guy named Critter.
The five-piece acoustic band includes fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar and upright bass, and lots of close vocal harmonies. Words like alt-country, Americana and bluegrass are routinely used to describe Old Crow’s sound, but band member Ketch Secor prefers “old-time music.”
For all the band’s vintage trappings, there’s an energy and attitude that is borderline punk rock. And Old Crow’s lyrics, often tongue-in-cheek, regularly celebrate extreme living.
A song titled “Humdinger” on the latest Old Crow album, “Tennessee Pusher,” includes this colorful verse: “Naked horseshoes without care, body surfing on a river of beer, all the neighbors are saying their prayers, we’ll lift our glasses high in the air.”
Old Crow Medicine Show will appear in concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Kent Stage as part of the 43rd Kent State Folk Festival. Tickets, $30, are available at www.kentstage.org.
Secor, who sings and plays fiddle, harmonica and banjo, talked about the band in a recent telephone interview from his Nashville home.
Q. How does your live show compare to your records?
A. The live show is real high-energy, and we put a lot of passion into what we do. Acoustic music sounds best on the stage, and there’s a whole visual component to delivering it. It’s a very physical event playing violin the way I play it. Playing banjo the old-time way means you have to beat on it. When you play this kind of music, you’ve got a whole wave of history you’re dragging onstage with you.
Q. Your music sounds very traditional, but then there are these lyrics about meth, coke, weed and assorted wildness. I imagine that surprises some people.
A. There were some festivals we played when we were coming up where there were some great conservative elements and a lot of gospel music, and we sort of learned to tailor our show for those venues. But, you know, there’s always been a mischievous element to this kind of music. They called it the devil’s music for good reason. That song, “Cocaine Habit,” that we do is 85 years old. People like us because we’re outside the box — and you can sing along to it.
Q. The lyrics of your songs are terrific, so vivid and often funny.
A. Thank you. We learned a lot about songwriting from Gillian Welch, who has an uncanny knack for storytelling. The thing is, you’ve just got to keep writing songs, even though the great ones might have all been written.
I'll be going two nights in a row, and specifically taking a day off to stay in Kent to recuperate and prep for the second night. Aww yeah. Here's what I'm attending.
In case you didn't notice, the new Lilith Fair website is up and the initial cities have been announced (Chicago is the closest). I wish I could be more excited about this, as I was for the first iteration, but it's not looking good. The logo alone is unappealing.
This was another amazing year at Pitchfork. For my third year, we were a trio... my roommate as well as Ken from Brooklyn. Neither Andrea or Ken had been to Pitchfork and I think I can speak for them and say they had a GREAT time as well. It's hard not to when you're surrounded by great music, amazing people watching, phenomenal beer & food. All in a festival that's not too expensive and isn't too large. The hardest part to deal with this Festival is knowing that you just have to give up on some good music for other things. You get used to it... sort of like how I have to just briefly gloss over the events of the weekend - it's just too much (for you and I).
Day 1 - Saturday
As you've probably already heard me lament, I missed the Kid Cudi / Asher Roth show on Friday night. But it was entirely worth it. We hit the road and made good time to Chicago. As usual, we stayed with our gracious hosts, Sal & Chris in the Gold Coast. On Saturday morning Andrea insisted we hit the Bongo Room for breakfast. Wow. Best. Breakfast. Ever. We still made it in time to see Plants & Animals. They had some good songs, but I couldn't say the same about Fucked Up, though it seemed like so many other people liked them. Then hit some Pains of Being Pure at Heart, which sound very much like their name, but not for long before going to see some Bowerbirds. Then we discovered the problem with the B stage. If you can't get close, the sound sucks, which was the case for the Bowerbirds. Headed back over to the PABPAH. Took a break and heard some Final Fantasy from the distance, who I wasn't really excited about, but who Andrea just loved. Saw some Yeasayer which impressed me more than I was expecting, but then I migrated over to check out Lindstrom. Now that was some GREAT dance music. I wanted to stay and wait to see Matt & Kim, but they were running late. Just as I was about to ditch them for Beirut, they began. Watched for a little bit, but I was already in the bad-sound area. Beirut was great! I hadn't had much experience with them, and not sure I'm a fan of their recorded stuff as much as their live performance. Ended the day with some corndogs and The National.
Day 1.5 - After Party
This was a Pitchfork first. Hanging out with the cool kids means you get to hear about the cool after parties. We hung out a little bit around Wicker Park before heading over to this after party, which was in this random building on some random side street. The fucked up kids out front encouraged us to go in and assured us there was plenty of coke and something else... Maybe there was. We walked up a couple flights and entered this "apartment" that was T-RASHED. A band was playing and they were selling $1 PBR cans. Just a wild mix of people, music, beer, and probably a lot of illicit substances. I really have no idea if they had a landlord, but I'm sure they couldn't be happy. I also couldn't imagine waking up in that place the next day. Still, it was a blast.
Day 2 - Sunday
Another great breakfast, this time at the Wishbone. Unfortunately we didn't get an extra ticket for Ken, but he was able to hang out and explore Chicago for the first time. He dropped us off just in time to see Frightened Rabbit, which was definitely one of the bands I wanted to see this weekend. We got called away early because Rebecca was hanging out for Press access to Blitzen Trapper, who has become a new favorite of mine. So we decided to listen to the rest of the FR from the other stage and get a good spot for Blitzen Trapper. They only solidified their spot as a favorite after that performance. We took another break to look around, but was back to the stages to see the Thermals. I've seen them enough, so I wasn't really excited, and it seemed like we just couldn't find a good spot to hang out. I suggested we head over to DJ/Rupture, and I'm so glad we did. Andrea and I first hung back and were just loving the beats he was putting down. Finally we couldn't take it any more and had to move closer. I think Andrea had a spiritual moment. One of the most impressive parts was that I didn't see a laptop on stage with him, but did see the 4 turntables he was workin'. A definite highlight of the weekend. We walked around, got some amazing food, heard the Walkmen from a distance, then headed over to see M83. We kinda hung back because we were getting tired, but really liked what I heard. We ended with some Grizzly Bear (which for some reason, I just can't get in to), and watching some of the opening of the Flaming Lips show before we headed out. Whew.
Of course there are many better photos out there if you're interested. In particular, check out Rebecca's (who had a press pass). Seriously, these are amazing:
Don't forget to be checking out RCRDLBL for a bunch of Pitchfork Music Festival artist downloads all week! I've never heard M83 before, but I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Have you heard of this guy M83? Oh, right, he’s huge. Essential listening if you’re going on a cross-country road trip and scrolling through your phone to dial up ex-loves.“We Own The Sky” has got me fantasizing. That staccato blink, that planetarium spring, that slip and slide chorus—man I hope Pitchfork sets up an enormous dome where he’ll shoegaze on Sunday under the cover of celestial explosions, star belts and chocolate milk fountains.
