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Vampire Weekend Fall 2009 Tour Dates, New Track Released

whitperson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:48:50 +0000

We know Vampire Weekend as the indie-hipster darling band of 2008, so it’s good to see the band finally busting out with some new tour dates and new tunes as they gear-up to release their second album, Contra, due out in January. The band just released a new tune, called “Horchata,” which is available as a free download on their site along with this little sharing widget:

So far, they’ve confirmed a smattering of tour dates, including a California run and an assortment of shows outside the U.S. Read on for the dates.

Vampire Weekend 2009 Fall Tour Dates

Oct 6 2009 @ Le National, Montreal, Quebec
Oct 8 2009 @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, Ontario
Oct 15 2009 @ King’s College , London
Oct 22 2009 @ Nouveau Casino, Paris
Nov 2 2009 @ The Art Theater, Long Beach, California
Nov 5 2009 @ Pappy and Harriet’s, Pioneertown, California
Nov 7 2009 @ Town Hall Theatre, Lafayette, California
Nov 8 2009 @ Catalyst Santa Cruz, California
Nov 9 2009 @ The Cellar Door, Visalia, California
Nov 10 2009 @ Downtown Brew, San Luis Obispo, California
Nov 12 2009 @ Chencho’s, Bakersfield, California
Nov 14 2009 @ VFW Hall, Lomita, California
Nov 17 2009 @ Tokyo Unit, Tokyo
Nov 21 2009 @ Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Even though these guys may have been a bit over-hyped, I still think their first album is really solid and listen to it frequently. It still sounds fresh and is just a perfect combination of original, African-tinged pop rock.

Anybody seen them live? I’ve not yet gotten a chance, but I’m curious how well their sound would translate to the live stage.

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Happy Happy Joy ‘Joy’ Release Date

Justin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:25:13 +0000

Even though the band doesn’t even care how we seem to react to it, I’m damn excited about the release of Phish’s latest album, Joy. You can stream it today on Spinner and JamBase, and you can buy the MP3 download from Amazon for $3.99. Go snatch it up and report back to us on what your favorite track is. I’m really surprised by how good “Twenty Years Later” came out, and really, I enjoy the whole album (yes, even “Time Turns Elastic”).

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Sights and Sounds: Marco Benevento Trio @ Carnegie Hall, 7/20/09

Justin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:51:45 +0000

Marco Benevento Trio (Seems So Long Ago Nancy) by The Royal Potato Family

It’s no secret that I have a total man-crush on Marco Benevento right now. This audio clip from the performance he did with his trio at Carnegie Hall is just a huge, stark contrast versus the show I saw at the Independent when Marco played to about 30 people just solo on a piano. I’ve always wondered how he preps for shifting between those types of shows.

My favorite part of the jam above is when the crowd totally jazz-claps after Reed Mathis’ bass solo. Good stuff.

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Honor The Dead: Stream 7/9/95 Today

Justin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:56:37 +0000

Today is a special anniversary for live music fans, but not necessarily a happy one. For me, July 9th has always marked my dad’s birthday and the day three days before my own birthday, so that always seems to be what I’ve focused on. But, I’m also reminded that 14 years ago today, the Grateful Dead played their last show ever with Jerry Garcia at Soldier Field in Chicago. I know some people that were there but that’s all about my only experience with this special night.

At any rate, I thought I’d queue it up and give it a spin today for fun. Maybe all of this California is finally wearing off on me, because I’m enjoying this quite a bit right now…

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Stream the New Bjork Live Album on NPR

Justin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:55:04 +0000

Bjork recorded a live album back in 2007 titled Voltaic following up on the release of her album, Volta, and NPR is offering up a stream of the album a week before it’s released.

Bjork, the 13-time Grammy nominee from Iceland, released her sixth album, Volta, in 2007. Before embarking on what would become a two-year-long tour to promote the record, Bjork and her band held a recording session at Olympic Studios in London. Voltaic collects those live-to-tape recordings, which includes selections from Volta and several previous albums: Medulla, Homogenic, Post and Vespertine. The entire album can be streamed now at NPR Music, where there is also a video of Bjork performing “Declare Independence.”

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Stream New Aptly Titled “Wilco (The Album)”

Justin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:47:33 +0000

If you’re like every single other person that proudly self-identifies as an indie rock fan, you’re probably streaming the new Wilco album that just got leaked today and also officially posted for streaming on Wilco’s website. I’m about halfway through it and already I’m digging it way more than I liked Sky Blue Sky.

Drop some comments on what you think of the album once you give it a couple spins.

Wilco (the album) [www]

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Tunes: 10-Year Anniversary of Bisco 4.9.99

whitperson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:41:11 +0000

Greetings LMB readers! Whit here…good to be back!

It’s going to take me a little more time to fully work my way back into the LMB fold, but I thought I’d better go ahead and drop my initial post so that I can get back into the swing of things. As I get warmed up, I’ll have to fill you in on a few of my thoughts and ideas on what I’ll hope to bring back to the table. But for now, I thought I’d offer a more timely post to let you all in on a side-project I have been working on lately during Live Music Blog’s downtime and get you setup with a legendary jam that happened ten years ago today.

For anybody familiar with my most recent contributions to the site’s podcast archive, you’ll already know that a while back I started up a funny little thing I called the Hippie Workout Mix. Though the name was silly, the basic principal was all business: splicing together high-energy concert recordings for a killer workout mix.

For a taste of what this is all about, you can check out any of the three archived podcasts I created (vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3).

At some point after LMB shut down, I got impulsive and decided to buy some domains. One of those turned out to be livemusicworkouts.com, playing off of the workout mix theme. Though it’s totally a niche concept, I really liked the idea of building out a larger archive of my favorite live workout mixes, individual tracks, and song segments.

The site is still very much in its infancy, but I hope to keep adding more tracks in the weeks and months to come. Overall, I hope LMW will become a kind of sister site to the larger Live Music Blog enterprise. With that in mind I also hope to encourage all of you to contribute and to make suggestions for tracks and shows to post. While you can always email me, I also have a dropbox at Sound Cloud where you can upload your suggestions. If you’re going to contribute, all I ask is that the tracks are decent quality concert recordings that make you move your butt. If you want to do some creative editing or add some commentary, we’re all ears.

Today’s LMW Feature: The Original High Energy Tracks: 10 Year Anniv. of Disco Biscuits 4-9-99

Although I have already covered this Disco Biscuits show on LMB, I couldn’t resist doing a 10-year anniversary post on the new Live Music Workouts site to celebrate one of my favorite high energy song segments. It’s just too good to not re-post:

Disco Biscuits – Above the Waves > Basis for a Day (ending), Live 4.9.99 [mp3]

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Tunes: Are You Also Frightened?!?

Justin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:37:47 +0000

Happy Monday, duders. I thought I’d start the week off with a small foray into a band I want to make sure we cover pretty heavily here on the site. That band is Animal Collective, a band you’ve probably already heard a lot of buzz surrounding already this year. No surprise there, especially considering that their Merriweather Post Pavilion release was extremely well received by the critics and fans alike. It was definitely something I listened to at least once daily for the last four months or so, so I guess you could say I enjoyed it quite a bit myself.

There’s something about this band that just immediately clicked with me once I saw this live video for “Brother Sport,” maybe right from the first vocals you hear out of Panda Bear as the video loads up. This music is just so insanely inventive to me, even if it probably is a ripoff of something else that’s already been done. Naysayers, be damned. This music sounds newer than anything that’s being put out these days, and the progression that this band has shown throughout their discography and live shows can not be overlooked. I’m only glad I just now discovered it before it’s too late.

One song you may not have heard much of if you only followed from the sidelines is the third track off the album, “Also Frightened.” To some it would seem that this would sound and feel like too much of an unconventional song and they might immediately just toss it off, but for some reason I found it to be the best on the album to me. Their arrangement on the album is definitely my favorite, and I think I liked it so much because I had heard some earlier live versions of the song — back when it was still called “Dreamer” — so I have a familiar taste in my mouth the first time I heard the album. But it was still completely new to me. That’s usually pretty impressive to pull off these days in the world of media over-saturation that we’re all navigating through blissfully.

So if you haven’t picked up the album, sample these earlier versions of “Also Frightened,” download the album, put on your headphones, huff a dozen whippits or so, and come back and comment and let us know how you feel. Let the buzz wear off first, though.

Animal Collective – Dreamer (live @ webster hall, 9.30.07) [mp3]

Animal Collective – Also Frightened (8/12) [YouTube]

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Coachella 2008 | Webcast and Music Sampler

whitperson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:00:00 +0000

If you’re not lucky enough to be catching Jack Johnson or the Raconteurs in the warm climes of Indio, CA this weekend, you can at least check them out in the comfort of your own home. The AT&T Blueroom will once again be webcasting the Coachella Vally Music and Arts Festival over the next three days.

Without being live on the scene, we can’t catch “the purple one” or Justin’s fav techno band, but the webcast will feature many of the other great bands from that killer 2008 lineup.

Also, don’t miss the nice little mp3 sampler of Coachella bands pieced together by the I am Fuel, You Are Friends blog. (tip of the hat to Some Dude at HT for the link)

Full webcast schedule after the jump…

Friday, April 25:
11:00 AM Breakfast with Jack Johnson
05:50 PM Jack Johnson
06:50 PM Redd Kross
07:40 PM Les Savy Fav
08:35 PM Architecture in Helsinki
09:30 PM Slightly Stoopid
10:25 PM Rogue Wave
11:15 PM John Butler Trio
12:10 AM Tegan & Sara
01:05 AM The Raconteurs
02:10 AM Serj Tankian
(all times are ET)

Saturday, April 26:
06:05 PM The Bird and the Bee
06:55 PM Man Man
07:45 PM Dredg
08:35 PM VHS or Beta
09:30 PM DeVotchKa
10:25 PM Hot Chip
11:25 PM Animal Collective
12:15 AM Portishead
01:10 AM Flogging Molly
02:10 AM Yelle
(all times are ET)

Friday, April 27:
06:00 PM Brett Dennen
06:50 PM Electric Touch
07:40 PM Shout Out Louds
08:30 PM Duffy
09:20 PM Manchester Orchestra
10:15 PM Stars
11:10 PM Spiritualized
12:15 AM Gogol Bordello
01:10 AM Metric
02:05 AM Love and Rockets
(all times are ET)

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The Whigs Remind Me to Rock | 2008 Tour Dates and New Album

whitperson — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:15:39 +0000

Nice. It’s about time we get some new music from the Whigs.

I recently got the latest copy of Paste Magazine along with their complimentary CD sampler. I failed to notice it at first but later discovered that the disc included a new track by the Whigs. Discovering this not only got me stoked to immediately give it a listen, but it also made me realize the band’s finally got a new album on the way. And it’s about time.

Although I never got sick of their debut, Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip, it was released way back in 2005. They’ve been touring pretty heavily since then, and when I caught their live show in spring of 2007, they were still playing those same tunes. They still rocked, but I kept thinking they really needed some fresh material.

Well, here it is. The Whigs are dropping their new album, Mission Control, this Tuesday (1/22) and throwing release parties this Friday (1/25) in Atlanta and Saturday (1/26) in their hometown of Athens, GA. They’re also slated to play Letterman (1/28), and they’ve lined up a nice U.S. tour for the early months of 2008. Like I said, nice.

Listen:

The Whigs – Right Hand on My Heart [mp3]

(you can also check out a few more new tracks on their MySpace page)

The Whigs have been compared to the Strokes, and they may have taken some inspiration from ATO label-mates, My Morning Jacket. But these comparisons may only be somewhat accurate, as their sound is grittier than MMJ and doesn’t have quite the pop-punk swagger of the Strokes. I really dig Parker Gispert’s distinct vocal growl, and their live set is pure energy. They write songs that tend to get stuck in my head — but in a good way. The vocals are raw, the hooks are solid, and they leave just the right amount of musical space for the songs to breathe.

Overall, the Whigs remind me that even in this day of complex, indie chamber-pop and drawn-out electro jamming, there’s still room for good ole’ three-chord guitar rock.

The Whigs 2008 Tour Dates:

01-25-08: Atlanta, GA. @ CD RELEASE SHOW @ The Earl w/ Wax Fang and the Sammies
01-26-08: Athens, GA. @ CD RELEASE SHOW @ The 40 Watt
01-28-08: New York, NY. @ Late Show with Dave Letterman
01-30-08: Chapel Hill, NC. @ Local 506 w/ the Sammies and Bull City
01-31-08: Baltimore, MD. @ 8 x 10 w/ Spinto Band and Plants and Animals
02-01-08: Brooklyn, NY. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Spinto Band and Plants and Animals
02-02-08: Philadelphia, PA. @ Johnny Brenda’s opening for Spinto Band w/ Plants and Animals
02-04-08: Buffalo, NY. @ The Mohawk (between Handsome Jack and Johnny Nobody)
02-05-08: Toronto, ON. @ The Horseshoe (small room)
02-06-08: Pontiac, MI. @ The Crofoot (small room)
02-07-08: Cincinnati, OH. @ Madhatter
02-08-08: Cleveland, OH. @ The Grog Shop
02-09-08: Chicago, IL @ Schubas
02-12-08: Minneapolis, MN. @ The Varsity w/ Wild Sweet Orange
02-13-08: Madison, WI. @ Majestic w/ Wild Sweet Orange and Midwest Beat
02-14-08: St. Louis, MO. @ Creepy Crawl w/ WAX FANG
02-15-08: Indianapolis, IN. @ Birdy’s w/ WAX FANG
02-16-08: Milwaukee, WI. @ Rave Bar w/ WAX FANG
02-22-08: Fayetteville, AR. -Majestic
02-23-08: Nashville, TN. @ Mercy Lounge w/ Spinto Band
02-26-08: Asheville, NC. @ Grey Eagle w/ Spinto Band
02-27-08: Charlotte, NC. @ Visulite Theatre w/ Spinto Band
02-28-08: Charlottesville, VA. @ TBA w/ Spinto Band
03-01-08: Lexington, KY. @ The Dame w/ WAX FANG
03-04-08: Omaha, NE. @ Waiting Room w/ Spinto Band
03-06-08: Denver, CO. @ Larimer Lounge w/ Spinto Band
03-07-08: Colorado Springs, CO. @ TBA w/ Spinto Band
03-09-08: Albuquerque, NM. @ Launchpad w/ Spinto Band
03-11-08: San Antonio, TX. @ TBA w/ Spinto Band
03-13-08: Austin, TX. @ Austin Music Hall supporting My Morning Jacket / Yo La Tengo (SXSW 08)

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