Saw the Plastic Constellations last night in a some random Ukranian Village basement for $3, BYOB. It's been a couple years since I've seen basement show, so it was definitely due. Even though you couldn't really hear their vocals, they totally rocked out and I love them. The played lots of new stuff that sounded really good, and were I able to hear the vocals, I know they would sound even better! Totally worth it for $3.

Yeah, I'm now queen of random musician sightings. Two weeks ago it was Dave Matthews watching my friend's band play, and last Friday I saw Vanessa Williams (in Seattle to sing w/ the orchestra) go into the restaurant that I just left. I'm quite hip, I'm afraid.

Hey, looks like Clear Channel is selling off their concert promotion business! Now we won't have to have any more "Fuck Clear Channel" tours from Bright Eyes and Sage Francis.

AC Dancing2

AC Dancing2
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

Animal Collective last night was AMAZING. I got right up front to enjoy the weirdness- they left the animal costumes at home this time, but the dancing- oh the dancing. They started off real quiet, playing a couple of really beautiful slower songs before launching into the all-out freak fest with the flailing and the tribal dancing and the strange animal noises. I really liked their last album, Sung Tongs, which is probably their most accessible album. However, they played relatively little from it, and they were so fantastic, I didn't mind at all. After the show I marched right on over to the merch table to buy an older, more experimental album of theirs called Here Comes the Indian. Animal Collective puts me in touch with nature. If only they'd played longer than an hour.

As you can see, the pictures I took are up now on my photo blog. A review on TMT and here will be up shortly, once I've figured out how to better put the experience into words.

A few more bands have been added to the Lollapalooza lineup, including the Ponys and Trail of Dead. I will give TOD one more chance to impress me after two somewhat failed attempts- that means they should actually play something from Source Tags and Codes, and not make us wait an hour to start playing. Otherwise it's three strikes!

There's still like, 20-30 bands left to be added- hopefully we'll get some more electronic acts.

Tonight: Animal Collective @ the Empty Bottle, 7:00. I still have a +1 available if anyone reading this wants to jump on at the last minute; otherwise, it goes to whatever random person walks in the door when I do.

Then of course, Radio Free Chicago Night at AliveOne- I go on at 11:00. Haven't totally decided what I'll be playing- it depends on the atmosphere, I guess. The only thing that's for sure: there will be new Single Frame.

New New Pornographers album this August! All hail! TOUR! TOUR! TOUR!

I feel like last year was a big year for debut albums- Junior Boys, Arcade Fire, Joanna Newsom all in my top five. So far this year it's been all about anticipated new albums by established greats- Decemberists, Spoon, New Pornographers, Caribou/Manitoba, Sleater-Kinney, even Built to Spill's putting out their first album in like, 4 years or something this fall! Is it sad that a top 25 of 2005 is already starting to materialize in my mind?

This just in: David Cross and Death From Above 1979 are DJing at Sonotheque Friday, June 10. DAVID CROSS PEOPLE. Tobias Funke. Mr. Show. I know it's not for another month and a half, but this is worth marking your calendars for NOW!

****DANCE PARTY ALERT****

As WLUW's spring schedule comes to a close, so does the Perfect Face for Radio- the last show of spring will be Friday, May 13. Summer and fall information will be released shortly, so stay tuned to find out when you'll be hearing the PFFR in the future.

To celebrate our first Thursday of freedom for some time, Megan and I have a hot weekend of dancing planned May 19 and 20, beginning with the LCD Soundsystem/MIA show at the Metro Thursday night, continuing with the LCD/MIA afterparty with Diplo at SmartBar after the show, and culminating at Crobar Friday night to the hot beats of Fischerspooner and Brazillian Girls. This is a rare opportunity to see me willingly dance, so take advantage, take Friday off from work, and say hi to two of your favorite (and well-rested) WLUW DJs!

Pitchfork reviewed the Andrew Bird show that I'll probably never get around to reviewing. It pretty much sums it up.

The lineup for the Sixth Annual Chicago Outdoor Film Festival has been released. For those not in the know, from July 12 to August 23 they screen movies in Grant Park every Tuesday evening. Roger Ebert chose this year's lineup:

July 12- Citizen Kane
July 19- Annie Hall
July 26- My Darling Clementine
August 2- E.T.: The Extraterrestrial
August 9- Night of the Hunter
August 16- The Hustler
August 23- Star Wars

A quick reminder that I'll be DJing at AliveOne this Wednesday night. More info at www.radiofreechicago.org; I also got it listed at everyone's favorite Chicago blog, Gapers Block. DJ fun commences after a listening party for the release of a new Stereolab box set, which will be previewed starting at 9pm.

Edit: Upon returning to Gapers Block, they've not only added it to the events calendar, but in the main blog as well! Sweet.

A few more bands added to the Intonation/Pitchfork festival July 16-17, which the 'Fork noted in this article about summer festivals. The lineup so far is now The Decemberists, the Fiery Furnaces, the Wrens, Broken Social Scene, DFA79, Out Hud, A.C. Newman, Magnolia Electric Co., Four Tet, Xiu Xiu, Andrew Bird, the M's, and the Go! Team, with more still to come (new additions in bold).

Does anyone else find it a bit unnerving to see Pitchfork continue to report about an event that they are putting on themselves? I mean, not that any of their news items have ever been based on journalistic objectivism or anything, but still, how can you put on a festival with a bunch of bands that you want people to see and continually hype it up on your website, and then try to review their albums objectively in the meantime?

I guess I won't complain too much if this festival actually runs without a hitch and I get to see all of the above bands for less than I'd pay to see one at the Empty Bottle. But I'm still skeptical.

Appleseed Cast3

Appleseed Cast3
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

My flickr.com photo blog has now officially begun with my pictures from Party in the Park this weekend! Here's Chris from the Appleseed Cast. The AC pics are much better than the Trail of Dead pics due to the fact it was, you know, light out.

I've put a link on the sidebar and in the pictures page to my photoblog, which will be continually updated with pics from all the billions of shows I go to each week. The link on the pics page shows a few thumbnails of the last few pictures I took. I'm still working on learning all the features of this program, so hopefully more cool stuff is to come!

Ah, Lollapalooza, I knew you would not disappoint:

The Pixies
Widespread Panic
Weezer
The Killers
Dinosaur Jr.
Cake
Dashboard Confessional
The Arcade Fire
Billy Idol
Death Cab for Cutie
Digable Planets
Liz Phair
G Love and Special Sauce
Blonde Redhead
The Black Keys
Kasabian
The Kaiser Chiefs
The Bravery
The Walkmen
Louis XIV
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Z-Trip
Los Amigos Invisibles
M83
The Dandy Warhols
Tegan and Sara
VHS or Beta
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Soulive
Ambulance LTD
Shout Out Louds
Blue Merle
The Warlocks
DeSoL
World Leader Pretend
The Redwalls
The Changes

and many more . . .

Tickets are now $85 for the weekend, which is still, in my opinion, a great deal.

Lollapalooza: general tickets go on sale tomorrow, and the lineup will be released! Here's what they have to say:

The press conference is scheduled for 10 AM Friday in Chicago where the lineup will be revealed. We can't tell you right now, but expect a diverse load of talent that will bust your mind with some indie stars, classic icons, a reunion or two, mash up, and more. Check the Web site a little after 10 AM for the full list.

And even though Perry Farrell is just a "consultant" on the festival, he's still involved:

Listen for Perry in and around Chicago Friday where he will be visiting radio stations telling everyone about Lollapalooza 2005. Listen to WXRT and Q101 Friday morning and WCKG Friday during lunch.

Confirmed bands so far: The Killers, the Kaiser Chiefs, Widespread Panic and Dinosaur Jr. I'll post the full lineup tomorrow.

I'm still forging ahead in my struggle to fully embrace hip hop music. There are plenty of albums that have hip hop tracks or hip hop influences that I like and love, but in the grand scheme of things, the process has been a slow one. My enjoyment of Dizzee Rascal led me to check out the Run the Road compilation, a sampling of songs by British grime artists. I have to say, I like it more than any other hip hop I've tried to get a handle on. I think it's the combination of the beats and the British accents. The best tracks on it, in my opinion, are those with female MCs- Lady Sovereign (who is a somewhat shocking 17 years old), No Lay and Shystie.

In more Spoon news, they seem to be doing some special free promo shows before their big tour in June. At Andrew Bird, I was give four free tickets to see them May 2nd at the Metro, sponsored by Jack Daniels. He didn't just give them to me though- I noticed them on a table off to the side and had to ask about them. The Annex's website in Madison also has a date (May 8) for a free Spoon show that only people who win tickets through WMAD or the Annex can attend- also for free. I checked out their website to see if they had any details about these free shows, and the only related message I found was:

Are you a resident or do you have plans to be in the Chicago area? There's this show that Spoon is doing in Chicago May 2 which will be closed to the public. If you'd like to go (for free) please email dana@constantartists.com with "Chicago tickets" in the subject header. The first 75 emails will get a pair of guest list passes to this show.

Mmmmmmkay. I wasn't planning on seeing them, but since the new album is so great and since it's, you know, free and "closed to the public," I guess I'll just have to go. If anyone needs a ticket, I have three extras . . .

An interesting article about Spoon and their new album (which rules).

Well doesn't this sound like a fun event:

HEROES OF WICKER PARK
A FREE PUBLIC CELEBRATION & ART EVENT IN THE PARK
THIS MAY – TWO WEEKENDS ONLY!

HEROES OF WICKER PARK is a FREE art event using puppetry, movement, music and history to celebrate the park at springtime. Site-specific art installations will be on view throughout the afternoon. The performance will take place at 7:00 PM in the park, beginning with the entrance of a large-scale mastodon puppet. Part walking tour, part outdoor theater, this FREE event takes place in WickerPark, 1425 North Damen Avenue.

Dates: May 14, 15, 21, & 22, 2005
Price: FREE, no tickets needed

Thanks to an excellent suggestion by Brad K of radiofreechicago.org, I'm going to finally make use of my digital camera and start a concert photo blog to document all the of shows and musical events I go to at this hot new website called Flickr. It's all the rage these days, and I always like to be on the forefront of internet technology (see: podcasting). I got out of the habit of taking concert pictures after moving to Chicago, and it's time to get back into it. I may start with Trail of Dead at Party in the Park in Madison this weekend; otherwise, Animal Collective will definitely be worth seeing in photo form. Stay tuned for more info!

The Ravinia summer schedule is up now on their website, with lots of pop acts featured amongst all the classical: Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris, the Beach Boys, Ben Folds and Rufus Wainright, to name a few.

Also, as if I haven't talked about Andrew Bird enough, he's coming to Madison Saturday, June 25 at Cafe Montmartre. I cannot think of a better place to see him at- definitely a vast difference from the 1100-capacity Metro he played at this weekend. If you're in Madison that weekend, go, go go!

Correction: I had accidentally wrote the Trail of Dead in-store was on Thursday, the 22nd. My bad, it's Friday, the 22nd. I need to be careful about posting on 4 hours of sleep.

Other Reckless in-stores this week:

Josephine Foster- today, April 19, Wicker Park Reckless
Crystal Skulls- Saturday, April 23, Lakeview Reckless

Check it out: a fake poster from the set of the OC when Death Cab for Cutie plays at the Bait Shop. Very strange.

See it for yourself, this Thursday at 7, when they play two songs from Transatlanticism and one from Photo Album.

Help save Arrested Development!

Andrew Bird on Saturday- excellent as always. He gets better and better every time I see him, and having a drummer this time around made for a nice touch. Girls throughout the venue were swooning (yes, me included). I don't think I give the Metro enough credit for being a decent venue; even though it's bigger than I would like, the sound is always good, and it's pretty easy to get a good view from almost anywhere. I might write it up for TMT, if I get around to it- though I do have a slew of shows coming up that I've committed to reviewing, including Animal Collective and Of Montreal.

This Friday, April 22: . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead will be doing a free in-store performance at Reckless Records on Broadway at 5:00 PM. If you actually get off work earlier than 5, unlike me, this would be a fabulous way to spend your Thursday late afternoon.

I was just added to a special list of women-run podcasts! Scroll down to the P section to find me.

I don't even know where to start with this story.

Mark your calendars: I'll be DJing at the April edition of Radio Free Chicago night, again at AliveOne, April 27. Adding to the fun of the night will be a Stereolab listening party to start the night off. I'll probably DJ after 10, since I'll be coming over from the Animal Collective show.

Show is done and up! You can imagine my excitement when I came into the studio this morning to find the new Spoon album in rotation. Oh, how I've waited for it. I'm about halfway through it at the moment, and it is pretty darn good- definitely a progression from their past albums, fuzzier guitars, a little more chill maybe. They're coming to the (large) Vic Theatre June 11, which makes me so glad that I got the chance to see them at the (small) Double Door last December.

Here's a nice article that goes into detail about hearing loss from things like, oh, rock concerts. And an interesting test they suggest:

"Before going into a noisy environment, change the car radio to an all-talk station. Close the car windows and decrease the volume until it is barely audible. If there is difficulty hearing the station upon returning to the car, there has at least been some temporary hearing loss."

Looks like I'm on the list +1 for the Animal Collective show, Wed. April 27 at the Empty Bottle at 7:00 PM. At the moment, I'm going alone- so if anyone is interested in picking up my "+1" let me know. If you don't know Animal Collective, you should. We'll call it "tribal campfire pop" and from what I hear of their live show, we can expect masks, animal noises, and chanting. Seriously, they're supposed to be awesome.

If the mention of the Plastic Constellations also made you take note, you should know they're playing at a house party in the Ukranian Village Friday, April 29, and directions and information can be found on their website. It's been awhile since I've been to a serious basement show, and I think TPS will be the ideal band to relive the experience with.

WLUW also got a nice little shout out on Tinymixtapes today for a new story about the Intonation Music Festival. I know one of WLUW's long-term goals is to get the kind of national exposure that college/community/internet radio stations like WFMU in New Jersey and KEXP in Seattle get, and hopefully being attached to a Pitchfork-curated festival will help that along. And, in turn, help me and my show and podcast along :) .

Lots of good shows this weekend:

Friday, April 15: Sole w/ Pedestrian and Dosh at the Abbey Pub
Friday, April 15: Shellac at the Bottom Lounge
Friday, April 15: Death from Above 1979 w/ controller.controller at the Empty Bottle (early and late show)
Saturday, April 16: Out Hud w/ Hella, Pony Up! and Magneta Lane at the Empty Bottle
Saturday, April 16: Shellac at Martyr's
Saturday, April 16: Decibully w/ Owen and The Snake the Cross the Crown at Schubas
Saturday, April 16: Andrew Bird w/ Archer Prewitt and Clyde Federal at the Metro

I'll be at Andrew Bird and DFA1979. That is, if DFA is up to it- they cancelled last night's show in Madison due to illness.

Looking ahead, I realized I'll be hitting four shows in a row at the end of April: Animal Collective on the 27th, Of Montreal on the 28th, Plastic Constellations on the 29th, and Dizzee Rascal on the 30th. All four are bands/artists I've never seen but have been dying to, and three of them had albums in my top 25 of 2004. Should be a great and exhausting week. FYI: I will be taking the week off from my radio show that week for the Of Montreal show. Hold the tears back if you can.

Ahhhhhh, good ol' Tori. Has Dave Matthews made any albums in the past four or so years since I stopped listening to him?

Meanwhile, if you use CTA to get . . . well, anywhere in the city, sucks to be you! Yargh.

I went out last night to see a friend's band play (Triple Door, Seattle), and Dave Matthews was sitting at the table next to mine....I didn't say anything, but how fun/obnoxious/uncomfortable would it have been if I had gone up to him and told him that I lost my virginity w/ the Crash CD playing in the background when I was 17. At least I know what to say next time I see him....we shop at the same grocery store, there might be a next time.

Salon.com has a free download of a song from the upcoming Spoon album, which I'm very excited for. I think I might actually purchase it.

If you aren't a Salon member, you might have to watch a 15-second commercial to get access to the page. But it's worth it for a free Spoon song, I'd say.

Here's something interesting, Coldplay's first single will first be released as a cell phone ring. Yeesh.

Oh, Nicole...I don't think you'd ever have a problem unloading 100 buttons. Buttons are sweet. Everybody like them. I like them.

Some Andrew Bird fun to get everyone excited for the CD release show at the Metro this Saturday:

Here's a live show he did on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show.

And Jay Ryan of the Bird Machine has full-sized posters of the drawings he did for Mysterious Production of Eggs. I think I just may have to purchase one! They come individually or as a set. Though I think buying the entire set would be a sign that my AB obsession has gone a bit too far. I'm thinking either "MX Missiles," "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left," "Opposite Day," or "Sovay."

I've added a new album to the recommended section- The National's Alligator. It's just good ol' indie rock, for fans of Interpol, Spoon, that kind of thing. I dig it. Check it out.

Meanwhile, I found a decent deal on 1.25" buttons, but I have to buy 100 of them. 100 stickers is one thing; I can just plaster those all over town and hand them out at WLUW events. But 100 buttons? Those might be harder to unload. I'll mull it over a little longer.

I found a good website for making cheap stickers. So be on the lookout for simple black and white stickers that say "The Perfect Face for Radio" and have the website on them. I'll plaster them around town and put them out at WLUW tabling events.

Mini-buttons, however, are not so cheap. Unless of course, I want to buy like 3,000 of them. I'll keep looking though, because "PFFR" buttons would be pretty sweet. Hmmm, maybe I should get a PFFR merchandise section up on here and sell them . . .

Only in New York, will there we a tsumani releif benefit aid party djed by DFA records while Fischerspooner djs ACROSS THE STREET. I spent most of the night dancing at the DFA party and heard some of the boys from the LCD soundsystem spin the amazing Soulwax remix of "Daft punk is playing at my house," for the first time. They mixed it into "Rock the Casbah." Got to admit, they are much better musicans then djs.

By the way, Nicole, now that you know who Casimir Pulaski is you are an official citizen of the Chicagoland area. Congratulations!

Saw Magnolia Electric Company at Schubas yesterday. Again made the mistake of hoping to hear two songs, especially two songs off of an older album that wasn't even under the same name (Songs:Ohia they used to be called). But I saw a tracklist from a Magnolia show earlier this year where both "Farewell Transmission" and "Riding With the Ghost" were played, so I had hope, even though I knew they'd be playing mostly stuff from the new album. Anyhoo, I got one of the two, so I'll have to hope "Farewell Transmission" will get it's time on stage at the Pitchfork festival this summer (if thousands of indie kids don't riot and tear down the Pulaski Park fieldhouse for not being able to get in due to the killer lineup and small park). Overall though, they sounded extremely good. Jason Molina did not look how I'd expected him to look, even though I'd seen pictures. He was about 5'2", 5'3" MAX. Small man. But he does have quite the voice on him.

Listening to Magnolia Electric Co. now (the 2003 Songs:Ohia album that they eventually changed the name of the band to for whatever reason), the new album isn't as good, though it's not bad. If you like blues-y folk rock though, Magnolia Electric Co. (again, the album) is a must-have. Or just download "Farewell Transmission," it's an unbelievable song.

I should also mention the opening band The Coke Dares, which was just made up of members of Magnolia. They were the funniest thing I'd seen in awhile, all of their songs were between 11 seconds and 1.5 minutes long, just raw rock that didn't make any sense with ridiculous titles, and the hilarious singer said "Thank You" after every "song" before anyone had even clapped. They were fabulous.

Just got back from the record fair- lots of fun stuff, I bought a couple CDs for five bucks each (The Like Young and the Album Leaf) and got a guy to commission a piece of art for me (the one I wanted sold before I could go back for it, so he told me he'd make me another one- it's a little oval painting of a weird anthropomorphic bunny). My DJ set went over quite well, mostly due to the fact I went after some guy who played all classic rock, so I got a bunch of people coming up telling me they appreciated the "change of pace," to put it nicely. I decided to go with "edgier" electronic, dance, and hip-hop music; Hood, Junior Boys, Royksopp, Les Georges Leningrad, RJD2, DJ Shadow, etc. I also had a High Fidelity moment when I put on LCD Soundsystem's "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," and as our Program Director pointed out, you could noticably see everyone's heads start nodding, and about five people came up and asked me who it was. This sometimes led to the question of who I am and when my show is on. I think it's time for Perfect Face for Radio fliers, stickers and buttons.

Also on Pitchfork today: the tracklist for Sufjan Steven's next album, Illinois. Check out those song names. I just learned who Casimir Pulaski was a few weeks ago.

OH MY GOD.

From Pitchfork:

First Acts Revealed for Pitchfork's Intonation Festival

As previously reported, Pitchfork is curating the first annual Intonation Music Festival in Chicago. It will be held on Saturday, July 16 and Sunday, July 17, at Pulaski Park. The event will feature up to 24 acts, including a DJ tent courtesy of Biz3. We are proud to announce the initial group of artists will be:

Confirmed artists:
The Decemberists
The Fiery Furnaces
Will Oldham (special DJ set)
Broken Social Scene
The Go! Team
Four Tet
Magnolia Electric Co.
The Wrens
A.C. Newman
The M's

The gates will open at noon each day, and there will be no advance tickets (which means no dealing with the evils of Ticketmaster or scalpers). Admission will be $10 at the door and certain proceeds will go to benefit the Chicago Park District's after-school music programs.

I think this pretty much proves the kind of pull Pitchfork now has in the industry that they can get the caliber of bands they are getting for a measly $10 for a freakin' after-school music program benefit.

I'll see Pulaski Park for the first time tomorrow, but I hope it is big enough to support all of this. I don't want to have to line up at like, 8 am just to be turned away at the "gate."

After some technical difficulties and verbal slip-ups (including some inadvertent sexual innuendo about podcasting), today's show is up now. Hope you like the Decemberists . . . enough to hear the same song twice, haha.

Looks like the Lollapalooza pre-sale tickets went in about 80 minutes, so if you didn't get them yesterday, you'll have to wait and pay full-price when they go on sale later this month.

Well I guess this is one way of going about it . . .

Apparently there's a band in San Diego named the Perfect Face for Radio. Kind of a dumb name for a band.

And holy shit, the amount of bandwidth being used on my site just doubled in the last day or two . . . people are podcasting me! Huzzah!

Woohoo, I'm now listed in Digital Podcast's directory in the radio section! I'm right next to the listings for all the Air America shows, and I've apparently had 11 people click on me so far!

Now I just need ipodder.org to get me in their directories, that's the king of podcast directories. One step closer to becoming an internet radio sensation . . .

I've gone ahead and purchased a Lollapalooza ticket for only $44 w/ surcharges. Now hopefully when the lineup is announced on April 22, it will be worth it, though for that low a price for two days in Grant Park, even one good band would make it worth it. The rumor mill has dropped potential headliners as Beck and Weezer, but again, take that for what it is; purely a rumor.

More tinymixtapes fun: as Articles Editor, I've started a series of monthly group writing efforts on the part of the TMT staff. We started off April with a group mix tape, of course.

My Hot Hot Heat review is up now on TMT. I think it may have come off a little bit harsher than I meant, but I'll stand by it.

The Office has the best line last night from Jim, the cute young guy at the sales office.

After the boss asked him to pick a company health care plan for the employees:

"Every time Michael tries to give me more responsibility, I always say no. Because right now, this is a job. And if I move up in the company, that would make it a career. And if this was my career, I'd have to jump off the building."

Sigh.

Podcasting is a go! You'll notice little "XML" and "FEED" buttons on the homepage and show archives page. The address these link to is the one you should copy and paste into your ipodder program (the same one I just posted). Now just set ipodder to check for new podcasts on a regular basis, and every Friday morning the show will be automatically downloaded for you!

Or you can continue to just manually download the programs each week. There's something for everybody!

***PODCASTING UPDATE***

Since I've been having so much trouble figuring out how to podcast through blogger, I decided to just google up someone who is blogcasting themselves, email them and ask how they did it. So thank you, Dave Smith at the York Podcast (see, helping me out warrants you free publicity!), a blog about the York, England music scene. Here is what I believe to be my podcasting feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PerfectFaceForRadioPodcast

I'm going to test it tonight with ipodder to see. Feel free to try it out if you get a chance.

Just another reminder about the WLUW Record Fair going on this weekend at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse in Bucktown. It's $7 ($5 with the online ad) to get in and buy all the vinyl you want from dealers around the midwest. If you don't have a record player, there'll still be lots of CDs, posters, 'zines, and art for sale, plus DJs and live music from bands like Canasta, Colossal, Lesser Birds of Paradise, Morning Recordings, and Sleep Out (ft. members of Driftless Pony Club!). Saturday also features a Self-Publishing Fair, with 'zine readings, an independent media skillshare, and more. I'll be DJing in the "north room" from 12-1pm on Saturday, probably rock music, but we'll see what the mood is. Megan's DJing from 2-3pm in the "south room" on Sunday.

Death Cab on the OC

The lineup for Milwaukee's Summerfest is slowly making it's way out, and I'm slowly adding it to the concert page. It's June 30 to July 10 this year. One of the things I've always enjoyed about Summerfest is showing up and guessing what types of bands were playing that day based on who's milling around. There's always the country day, the punk day, the 80s metal day. Anyone interested in heading up there for Hall and Oates on Saturday, July 2?

So I just saw the video for Bright Eyes' "The First Day of My Life," off of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, which is probably the best song on the album. Pathetically, the video has me fuckin' tearing up like a baby. It's really cute, and everyone knows I hate mushy love shit, but somehow it still got to me! Maybe my cynicism is softening with age. Actually, that's probably not it :) .

Damn, the April Fools jokes are running rampant across the internet. www.gapersblock.com is having a field day. It took me about 2.5 seconds to realize this after I read the story on how SXSW is moving the shows to Chicago clubs for next year, but will have a shuttle bus from Chicago to Austin for the conference portion.

Meanwhile, local commercial rock station WXRT is claiming it is now "Listener-Supported," and has a link on the website to hilarious gifts you can get for "pledging your support." I heard them claim that from my co-worker's radio and was very confused, but now it is all becoming clear.

The Lollapalooza website is up and running, with plenty of fun details except the lineup. Apparently this year it will include "music, art, invention, light, sound and robots." Robots! Also, 5 stages and 70 bands over the two days. And from April 7 to 14, tickets will be on sale at a special price of $35 for both days, which seems a bit surreal. I'm hoping that an artist list will be up by then, but for $35, it seems almost too good to pass up. There has to be someone I want to see among 70 bands.

This would be a great weekend to make that summer trip to Chicago!

Our cable was out early this morning, so I wasn't able to record the show via the internet. I burned a copy onto CD from the station, so I'll convert that to mp3 and upload it later this evening.

In the meantime, check out tinymixtapes today . . . don't forget what day it is . . .

THE NEW SINGLE FRAME IS IN AT WLUW!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to burn it, give it a listen, play a song on my show, and report back . . . gosh I hope it's good . . . and I hope a tour is in the works . . .

They have a killer new website, by the way.