Interesting. Pitchfork has finally reported on the Intonation festival going on this summer, but somehow turned it into a news report about the Pitchfork festival, making that two Pitchfork festival news stories posted this morning.

This Clap Your Hands Say Yeah concert review is hilarious, and right on. You don't realize how much you appreciate the polite, older crowds that usually come with underground/indie bands until you go see a band on the cusp of the mainstream, where people talk through the bands, high-five, yell "wooooo!", try to mosh, make silly homemade shirts for the band, etc.

The WLUW Record Fair is next weekend, April 8 and 9, and I'll be DJing again this year from 2-3 PM in the "third gym." I'm not sure where the "third gym" is in the Pulaski Park fieldhouse, but I'm sure it won't be hard for you to find me. More information on the website!

Another Spencer Krug side project?!?!?! Can it be true? Hooray! This one's with Dan Bejar of Destroyer and Casey Mercer of Frog Eyes. Man, those Canadian's love their supergroups.

I uploaded a couple of pictures from the National show Friday on the photoblog; sadly, my positioning and the poor lighting made it hard to get anything really good, but I posted what I could. You can go back to the photoblog set from the National/CYHSY show for better shots of the National and the crazy spazziness of the singer, Matt Beringer (Schubas is much, much easier to take pictures in). Anyhoo, it was nice to see the National get a sold-out show on their own merits, rather than on the coattails of a buzz band of the moment. The National has been struggling on the indie circuit for years now, and it's great to see the band finally get it's due. That said, there were still an amazing amount of people talking during their set and a very random crowd made up almost entirely of people over 6'4" in height (men and women, I swear- apparently the National caters to the freakishly tall demographic) and a few silly fratboy-types who actually high-fived between songs (and reached over several people to do so). Still, the band put on their usual impassioned intense show made up mostly of songs from their latest album Alligator, again skipping over two of their arguably best songs, "Karen" and "Friend of Mine." I was pleasantly surprised to hear them play the gorgeous "Wasp's Nest" from the Cherry Tree EP, a song recently featured (sort of) in Syriana (playing in the background at a bar George Clooney was drinking morosely at).

I should also mention the openers The Cloud Room, another Brooklyn band that has an interesting back story and one incredibly poppy song that Pitchfork deemed "the smash that wasn't", "Hey Now Now." Sadly, none of the rest of their music lived up to that song, not even the one apparently about Elenor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, which we learned after the singer told a too-lengthy story about trying to talk to her about doing a song together only to realize she wasn't listening to a word he was saying. Meh.


Looking ahead: Ladytron at the Metro April 21, The Wrens w/ Tapes n Tapes at Schubas April 29, Sigur Ros at the Civic Opera House May 9, Frog Eyes and Sunset Rubdown at Schubas May 21.

Well gee, do you think Art Brut might be playing the Pitchfork music festival?

The Constantines have been added to the Intonation lineup! This greatly pleases me, as I've been trying to see the Constantines live for a couple of years now, but every time they've come to town I've had a conflict. Now there will be no excuse not to see them.

I caught the National this past Friday at the Double Door, my thoughts and hopefully a couple of decent pictures tomorrow . . .

Did you hate your high school prom as much as I did? Relive the magic with the WLUW Indie Rock Prom, May 13 at the Logan Square Auditorium. The National Trust will be the house band, with us DJs going crazy with the prom decorations and the punch table. Maybe this will be the great prom night you (I) never had! Or maybe it will end with your date dancing the entire night with someone else, while you drink punch with the headgear-sporting geeks by the bleachers. It's even $15 for single tickets, $25 for couples. Didn't we leave the horrors of adolescence behind? More details to come!

Ah the Onion and it's clever use of indie rock puns.

More bands added to Intonation, including Annie, Dead Prez, Tyrades, the 90 Day Men, and High on Fire. Quite the eclectic lineup this is proving to be.

Hmmm, this review makes me want to seek out the new Mates of State, cutesy cover and all. I'm a fan, though I didn't seek out the last album because I figured they were all going to start sounding the same. I'd be interested to see how they may have evolved.

Conan is coming to Chicago in May for four days! But you have to watch his show on March 28 to see how to get tickets. Stay up until 11:30+ on a Tuesday night? I may need to recruit help, because this is a must-have.

Some speculation as to what to expect from the next generation of the iPod, which will undoubtedly completely replace the current video iPod that's barely been out a few months. My iPod is starting to feel like a relic, with its black and white screen and lowly 40 gigs.

I think the Mates of State have officially exceeded their cuteness quota.

Phew! Just got back from a fun but exhausting weekend in New York, just in time to get up early tomorrow for my show in the morning. I'm clearly insane. Expect tomorrow's show to be a bit shorter as my DJ trainee takes the mic for a small portion of it.

The Lollapalooza lineup is out, and it's sort of intimidatingly huge. Lots of bands from last year's Intonation lineup, including Broken Social Scene, the Hold Steady, Andrew Bird, the Go Team, the Ms. I think this means we can expect virtually no good tours this summer, since every band ever is making their Chicago stop at one of the big three festivals.

Save the dates: April 8 and 9 is the annual WLUW record fair at the Pulaski Fieldhouse. The details are still in the works (bands, DJs, vendors, etc.), but it should be a good time for all. More info at the record fair website.

According to tinymixtapes today, the Intonation lineup is slowly growing, unsurprisingly with a few Vice bands. The article is right, it sure is easy getting bands for a festival when you partner up with a record label. Now expect Chromeo, the Stills, Lady Sovereign, the Boredoms, and Jon Brion.

Jack Black just got married to Decemberists violinist Petra Haden's triplet sister. Funny.

Lots of great new music this morning from Neko Case, Calexico, the Magic Markers, super-buzz band the Arctic Monkeys, Belle and Sebastian, and more more more. Now if only we'd get the new Liars album in the studio . . .. Next week I'll have a DJ trainee take over for a piece of my show (30 minutes or so?) so he can get some practice in, but otherwise you can expect more of the same!

Intonation pre-sale tickets are now available at a discounted $25 price for the two days (as opposed to $35). Even though only the headliners are announced, I think the Streets alone are worth the price of admission at this point (new Streets album comes out this spring, woohoo!). Hopefully the late June dates will mean the super-hot Chicago weather won't quite have kicked in yet!

Intonation (read: NOT Pitchfork) Fest now has tickets and headliners: tickets are on sale Monday at the Intonation website, and the headliners are: The Streets and Bloc Party. I'm sorry, did someone say the Streets? SOLD! Looks like the new "curators" are Vice Records, with additional sponsorship by KEXP.

Meanwhile, Pitchfork added Spoon, Yo La Tengo, and Tapes and Tapes to their lineup.

My mind has been blown by this. Type in your city, and the site streams songs by bands coming to town in the near future. What could they come up with next.

Sigur Ros tickets for the May 9th show at the Civic Opera House go on sale tomorrow! Sadly, you gotta get them through Evilmaster. How cool will it be to see them in an opera house though?!?! I missed them in September and highly regretted it, so here's my chance to make things right.

This is cute- Fred Armisen as Steve Jobs on SNL promoting the new iPod Micro, Pequeno, and Invisa. Ha.

I've come down with the flu and will sadly not be able to do the show tomorrow morning, how frustrating. My roommate and fellow WLUW DJ Megan Timmons is graciously filling in while I'm bedridden. Thanks!

Apparently music writer Nick Sylvester, Senior Associate Editor of the Village Voice and Associate Editor of Pitchfork, has been suspended from both for making up fake quotes in a cover article for the Voice. More at gawker.com.

Ah, festival announcement season is upon us. Here's the first 6 (of 36) bands to be announced for Pitchfork's shindig:

Mission of Burma
Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Mountain Goats
The National
Jens Lekman
Hot Machines

Can I just go on for a second about how much I love Spencer Krug's voice? I listened to Sunset Rubdown briefly this morning, didn't have time to decide what I thought of the music itself but was quickly reminded about how his voice gives me chills. It's so weird and wonderful, and listening to it now makes me think of how fabulous he was to see live. I hear it and can't concentrate on anything I'm doing. If only Wolf Parade would tour again soon . . . I rarely want to see a band twice when touring for the same album since the sets are always exactly the same, but Wolf Parade is definitely an exception (Menomena was another exception- speaking of, they need a new album (a real new album, not the score to a dance performance)).

In a completely unrelated side note, I can't believe how messy I am at work. I always eat at my desk, and I think I'm giving reports to people with food stains all over them. I'm such a mess!

Looks like Lollapalooza is doing their ultra-cheap presale again this year, with 3000 tickets available for $45 before they release the lineup March 16. I'll probably hold off this year, with three festivals going on in Chicago this summer, I'm concerned about just how much talent there is to go around.

Now that I have lots more time on my hands to explore new music, I picked up an album and EP based solely on their connections to bands I love- Clogs, which is a project of the National's violinist and guitarists and is supposed to be really pretty instrumental "post-rock" music, and Sunset Rubdown, which is a side project of Wolf Parade singer Spencer Krug that has a full-length coming out in spring that I can't wait for. I haven't gotten around to listening to either, but I have high expectations. Both bands are coming to Chicago in May (Clogs with Belle Orchestre, an Arcade Fire post-rockish side project, and Sunset Rubdown with Frog Eyes, another band Spencer plays with- side projects abound!).

This story came with my monthly Wisconsin Business School Alumni newsletter. I found it funny.

Wisconsin MBA Student Wins Grammy

A first-year MBA student at the UW-Madison School of Business has won a Grammy Award. Derek Kwan, an MBA student with the Bolz Center for Arts Administration, won a Grammy in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.