The full-length Ladytron review is up now on Radio Free Chicago. Expect another review and more pictures next week from this Saturday's Wrens/Tapes 'N Tapes show!

The Gilmore Girls to the OC: I see your Death Cab for Cutie and raise you a Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo.

Last night I dreamt that Sufjan Stevens was in town, and we were hanging out. Actually, I think I was listening to his music and he magically appeared, or something. In my dream, he was the coolest, funniest guy ever, a total blast to hang out with. We saw a poster for some upcoming Metro shows, and he saw one of the lineups and was like, "Christian music? Who'd want to listen to that!" all poking light fun at himself and all. What a cool dream version of Sufjan. I have a feeling he's not quite that fun in real life.

I was out late last night and didn't get a chance to post the podcast for yesterday's show, so expect it up sometime tonight.

Woohoo, the new Streets is in the studio! And the song I played was excellent. Also featured in this morning's show: Sigur Ros, perfect for the rainy Tuesday morning dreariness, and a great, funky track from Jamie Lidell, who I'd heard much about but had yet to seek out until now. The podcast will be up late tonight or tomorrow.

This is funny, ridiculous, and sort of sad. My humps!

Ladytron w/ the Presets, 4/21/06

Ladytron
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

The PFFR photoblog returns with last night's Ladytron experience. I dug openers the Presets, an Australian electro-goth duo clearly influenced by Joy Division/New Order, the type of stuff the Faint has been trying to do and succeeding only on occasion. After a short break, Ladytron's four disgustingly beautiful members came on stage joined by an additional drummer and bassist and proceeded to play almost robotically. This fit their sound very well and I almost expected it, though it did get boring at times. I think frontwomen Mira and Helena are Bulgarian fembots of some sort (in weird priest/nun-like clothing, judging by the picture above), which again, makes sense considering their robo-sound. Thankfully, the band broke this convention for the encore, when they began to show a bit of emotion and get the audience involved with some dancing, handclapping, and an extended electronic jam of "Seventeen." Ladytron's set leaned heavily on songs from their latest, The Witching Hour, including highlights "Destroy Everything You Touch," "Sugar" and "The International Dateline," but they still pleased the crowd with older hits like "He Took Her to a Movie," "Playgirl" and the aforementioned "Seventeen."

A full review is forthcoming (probably to be published on RFC and/or tinymixtapes), so stay tuned for more!

Ladytron tonight at the Metro! A report over the weekend, along with some pictures, if the Metro will allow it.

Metromix is sponsoring the second annual "Rock 'N Vote" contest, where local bands send demos to the Metromix music staff, who then choose their 10 favorites, which will battle it out online as Metromix readers vote on their favorites. The top four acts get to headline a free concert at the Metro. Not a bad idea; more info here.

I feel like it's time to make over my blog template, but I'm having difficulty picking one because I'm averse to change. I want to keep it simple, but at least have things like an archive, which I still don't understand why one doesn't show up here. I wonder if there's somewhere on the Internet that has blog templates other than the Blogger standards? It's funny, I can quit jobs at the drop of a hat, but the idea of changing my blog template is incredibly difficult to me. Go figure.

Version Fest >06 is coming up, starting this Thursday, April 20 and running a monstrous 17 days of art, music, activism, DIY, etc. That's seriously insane. I'll avoid copying and pasting 17 days of bands and workshops, so get more info at http://www.versionfest.org.

It was requested today that I play Camper Van Beethoven's "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and Camera Obscura's "Shine Like a New Pin" back to back. I think I'll have to listen again to the recording tonight to try to find the enlightenment in the pairing.

Word on the street is that my blog was mentioned in the latest issue of UR Magazine. I need to pick up a copy for confirmation, since it's not online!

The new Neko Case album is puuuuuurdy.

Lyrics from "The Frontier Index" by the Silver Jews:

A robot walks into a bar
orders a drink
lays down a bill
The bartender says, hey we don't serve robots
and the robot says, oh but someday you will

Awesome.

More acts added to Intonation, including former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard. I wonder if he'll still be able to suck down bottles of Jack Daniels on stage in the Chicago heat and sun? I'm going to guess- probably.

It looks like the Streets and Lady Sovereign's stop at the Intonation Festival is part of a tour they're doing together this summer. That's a pretty killer matchup. I find British hip-hop so much easier to digest for some reason (though calling the Streets purely "hip-hop" is a bit of a stretch).

What about that Pitchfork story, however, is "exclusive?" Can a story about tour dates truly be "exclusive?" Interviews are exclusive, stories that any ol' website can report on by looking at a band's website are not "exclusive." Maybe they mean they are just the first to report on it. Once we posted a tinymixtapes news blurb about some random tour that said "exclusive" as a joke, and Pitchfork's news editor actually emailed us requiring we take it off because they had already reported it as "exclusive." No sense of humor over at the Fork, I guess.

According to Pitchfork, Radiohead's June 19 and 20 shows will be at the Auditorium Theatre. I've never been there, is it huge? I've seen Radiohead 3 times, but never indoors.

Meanwhile, the new Radiohead album is in the works, and Thom says its "scarier than OK Computer." Sweet.

The webcast was down this morning, so I'm trying my hand at burning the show and uploading it from CD tonight. Hopefully that will be as easy as I think it should be, and the show will be up for downloading within a reasonable time :) . Some highly anticpated albums are finally in the studio and got airtime this morning, including the new Pretty Girls Make Graves, Mates of State, Band of Horses, Spank Rock (featured song quote: "I ride that like Kelly Bundy") and controller.controller.

Here's a cool new website that promotes touring bands that come to the midwest by having the bands stop by their studios while on tour to record a couple songs that are posted on the site. It's a pretty impressive list of bands they've done and have in the pipeline:

Catfish Haven
The Impossible Shapes
Erin McKeown
Drakkar Sauna
Harry and the Potters
The High Strung
Jason Forrest
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Hockey Night
The Donkeys

Coming up in April:
Wilderness
Parts & Labor
Casey Dienel
The Living Blue
Voxtrot
Irving
Tapes N Tapes
Essex Green?
Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos
The Deathray Davies
The Ms

Coming up in May:
Midlake?
Frog Eyes
Sunset Rubdown
Two Gallants
Koufax
Cordero

I really want Harry and the Potters to come to Chicago, I can't think of a cooler band concept.

In honor of Liz's comment that she hates the name Band of Horses but is looking forward to hearing the CD, let's go through some good bands with bad names:

Pulp
13 & God
Neutral Milk Hotel
Ms. John Soda
Mountain Goats
Death Cab for Cutie
I Am the World Trade Center
The Heavenly States (good name) used to be called Fluke Starbucker
Girls Are Short
Clem Snide
Earlimart

Those are just off the top of my head, I'm sure I'll think of more.

From Radio free Chicago today: This is freaking AWESOME.

Didn't they just get re-married like, five minutes ago?

I finally got the new Band of Horses debut in the mail (mighty cheap from Insound.com, I might add). All the reviews claim them to be the Shins meets My Morning Jacket, which is pretty much exactly right. I'd say 40% Shins (mostly in the vocals), 60% My Morning Jacket (the guitars and the general sound). More listening needs to be had of course, but on first listen I'd say it's pretty good.

Due to some organizational issues, it turns out the WLUW Record Fair's infamous 3rd gym is not going to be DJ-operational this weekend, so alas, my musical tastes will not be on display this weekend. I'll still be at the WLUW merch table from 1-4pm, however, so feel free to stop by anyway and say hi! Then tell the DJ in gym 2 how much better I'd be :)

Celebrity gossip is really more the domain of Liz's blog, but People.com has some real gems this morning I had to share:

WTF?!?!?!

This guy needs to get out and meet some women he doesn't work with

I heart Catherine Keener

Playing some Built to Spill on the show this morning is really getting me excited for the new album, You In Reverse, which comes out next week!!! There's a great song from the album up on their myspace page, and I can only hope the rest of the album is as good. It's a bummer that they had to cancel their upcoming dates due to Doug Marsch's eye surgery, but they're coming back in September to the Metro, so never fear.

I've been listening to the new Liars album, and I'm still not sure what I think of it- it definitely needs more time to sink in. It has proven to be much better listening on the stereo than on headphones or in the car. The last song on the album, however, is totally different from the rest of the album and totally beautiful- "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack." It's not dance-punk or weird tribal music, just a slow, sad ballad. Very purdy.

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.

Someone pledged a whopping $240 during my show this morning! So all my begging was not for nothing. The drive continues through Friday, so you still have time to call in or pledge online. If you do, when they ask you why you listen, tell them it's because of Nicole, the greatest DJ ever. In fact, if you call in today, you get entered into a drawing for 2 tickets to see the Smoking Popes, Robert Pollard, AND the Strokes, as well as a free dinner for two at the Heartland Cafe (as you'll hear me say again and again, if you download the show later tonight). So if you win, you can take me! Or, I'll be answering phones Thursday night from 8-10pm, so feel free to call in then too.

Ah, how about that. I was almost hoping they wouldn't review this album at all.

I often say how I generally have no problem hearing my favorite indie songs on commercials, UNLESS it's a Hummer commercial (damn you, Ratatat!). Apparently, that's the reigning feeling in the music biz, too.

Tomorrow's show should be fun- expect a Tuesday morning dance party while we ask you to donate money to WLUW as our February pledge drive comes to a close this week. Check out WLUW.org to see the pledge gifts we have to offer and to donate online, or listen up and call in tomorrow morning to help me reach my hourly pledge goals. One of the gifts with any donation over $35 is a CD marker/cleaner/opener, and it's pretty freakin' cool if you ask me.

Here's a new show to be excited for- The Wrens with Tapes 'N Tapes @ Schubas, Saturday April 29!

I noticed that Pitchfork had stopped linking it's reviews to insound.com and started linking them to something called "ampcamp.com." I was wondering what on earth that was, and now it's been revealed: it's Neighborhoodies new incarnation of their online music retail biz. Interesting.

The Onion AV Club is doing a cool new regular feature where they ask a few important people to put their iPod on shuffle and tell them about the songs that come up, no skipping. This week's got David Cross and Isaac Brock. I'd be scared about some of the random tracks that would come up if I was asked to do this- I just know that amongst all the awesome stuff I have on the Pod, it would be the "Build Me Up Buttercup" and Mariah Carey's cover of "Against All Odds." Yes, I have both of those songs.

Wow, this buzz band lasted all of two minutes.

Lots of people are talkin' up the new Destroyer album, including Pitchfork and the Salon.com music critic, many going so far as to compare him to Bob Dylan, for reasons I'm not quite sure I understand. I've tried to get into Destroyer with little avail, including being totally underwhelmed by his live show opening for the New Pornographers (though I did heartily enjoy the increasingly drunken performance Dan Bejar later gave with the Pornos). I feel like there's something I don't quite "get" about Destroyer, and maybe if I could figure it out, I'd be a huge fan too. I think I need a Destroyer fan to explain to me what the appeal of his music is, and since Salon is posting a free download from the album over the next three days ("the three best tracks" he says), I'll give them a try and see if they stand out over everything else I've heard. If I still can't get into it after that, it'll be time to give up.

Meanwhile, Kevin Federline looks on the bright side of life.

Matt Le-Khac reports James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem cock-blocked him on Friday at the Optimo concert. He claims he was having a nice conversation with keyboardist/vocalist Nancy Whang before it was interupted by Mr. Murphy. I was at the concert with him and saw all the players in the story but did not witness the reported incident.

Maggie O'Meara reports a Madison girl convergence. Will this overdue PFFR reunion finally result in the destruction of our accursed enemies, the MisFits? I have had enough of Pizzazz's constant attempts to upstage us.

Stars w/ the Elected

Stars
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

My time away from the show scene definitely showed last Friday, after having to go back home for the tickets I forgot and leaving my earplugs at home. But this was definitely a great show to kick start the new year. Sadly, after attempting to take a picture of the Elected early on, the Metro Nazi bouncers told me that picture taking was not allowed that night by the request of "the talent." Ok, seriously? So I was able to get a few pictures discreetly from the back, but not as many as I would have liked.

The Elected is the side project of Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennett, the smallest man in indie rock. He definitely tried to make up for his small stature with a killer moustache and a big, big voice. Their music is country-tinged pop, and was a nice warm-up for Stars.

I've been a Stars fan for a couple of years now, but this was my first time seeing them live, and they did not disappoint. Singers Torquil Campbell (who looked just like Richard Linklater) and Amy Millan were adorable and charismatic, and with the help of the Metro light system and great sound, they put on a really good show. The band was energized and excited to play, and it really made a difference to the audience. They ran through virtually all of their best material from their last two albums, Heart and Set Yourself on Fire, wrapping things up with their first "hit" of sorts (and my favorite song), "Elevator Love Letter." Pure pop bliss.

Gwyneth Paltrow = Yoko Ono?

Jake Ryan or Lloyd Dobler?

Looking for something to do on Friday? The actor who played Pedro on Napoleon Dynamite is DJing at the Apartment! Which you can file under the WTF?!?! file.

My coworker has announced her distaste for the font Comic Sans ("It's just unprofessional," says Deb). Luckily, there's a website that feels her pain: bancomicsans.com. This website is hilarious.

Radio Free Chicago night at the Big Horse this Saturday!

Also, check out the special Valentine's day mix tapes we put together over at tinymixtapes- there's something for everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day! This morning's show was a ton of fun; I always love doing the theme shows because they bring in the callers. Tapes 'N Tapes got a good reception, probably because it rules. I also played a song off the new Belle and Sebastian, which I must say I heartily enjoyed.

Next week I'll be off while I take an exam, but I'll be back Feb. 28 with a special Tuesday morning dance party to celebrate the upcoming WLUW pledge drive, which starts next Monday and runs for two weeks. Pledge everyone, so I'll still have a show next year!

Lollapalooza update: it's going to be 130 bands (more than twice of last year) over THREE days, August 4-6, and will stretch as far north as the Petrillo Band Shell. Hopefully that will minimize the sound bleed!

The big Valentine's Day show is tomorrow, and I've got much of my playlist ready and raring to go, a mix of love is great/love sucks songs to get you through the morning, no matter what your take on V-Day is.

Tapes 'N Tapes: this is my first great album of 2006. Good ol' quirky indie rock just like I like it, a la Modest Mouse, Wolf Parade, and the Starlight Mints, completely lacking in pretension and bursting with joy and youthful exuberance. Haven't stopped listening to it all day.

Tapes 'N Tapes: the Menomena of 2006.

Hot WLUW news:

We're happy to announce that Ryan Schreiber, founder and managing editor of Pitchfork Media, will be launching a new radio show with us, beginning next
Wednesday. The show will be called 'Distortions,' and will air Wednesdays from 2-4 PM. The focus of the show will be new music -- mostly advance material.
There also will be some music news, and as the show develops, possible live appearances by bands.

I think it's high time I met him! I think I'll have to tune in online to see what it's about.

One of my (older) coworkers just asked me how, if I listen to music that isn't on commercial radio, do I find out about music?

I told him the Internet, and the radio station.

Then he said he's not that into music. He's so cute :) .

Looks like local duo The Like Young have been signed to Polyvinyl, which should perfectly fill the void the Mates of State left when they switched to Barsuk (every label needs at least one super adorable married couple singing quality pop tunes with harmonies. Worry A Lot was definitely one of the better local releases of last year (or was it 2004? I got it last year in any case) and I'll be interested to see what their next album sounds like, now that they're moving up in the world.

Speaking of, I wonder what the new Mates of States album will sound like as well . . . I haven't been as up on my twee lately. Should I get the new Belle and Sebastian?

I saw the video for the Strokes' "Juicebox" the other day and I had to turn it off half-way through. I thought it had so much potential when I saw David Cross was in it (as an obnoxious commercial radio DJ who introduced them as "Stroke" and their song "Juicy Juice"), but the video just got gross and raunchy (guy vomiting out of a cab, girls making out) and the song did absolutely nothing for me- it was some sort of weird attempt at rocking really hard or something. Sad.

Here's an interesting interview with the National that touches on their tour with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and how they dealt with having half the crowd leave in time for their set every night. They're coming back to the Double Door (alone) March 24, and I'll be glad to see them without a bunch of jerks talking in the back. That album is so amazing.

Also, can you guess which two band members are brothers?

You have GOT to be kidding me! I've been looking forward to this show for weeks!

Of course, considering her history, I shouldn't be so surprised, right?

Looks like the Rolling Stones' totally tame Super Bowl half-time show last night was still time-delayed and actually censored due to "sexually explicit lyrics." Seriously?

My Google home page quote of the day:

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

-Hunter S. Thompson

This Tinymixtapes news story is hilarious: apparently Ariel Pink is asking for people to sign up to be his backing band in each city he is touring in. There's no auditions or anything- just the first to email him gets to be his band, and they'll meet up the day of to "practice." Judging by the time I saw Ariel Pink open for the Animal Collective, this probably won't have much of an impact on the music, since I had no idea what on earth was going on anyway. After checking out the Ariel Pink website, it sounds like he'll be doing the first half of the show solo and the second half with the "band of the day," who have to supply their own instruments and amps. He's got a Schubas date coming up February 18- it could be you!

The Village Voice's Pazz and Jop poll, the final and supposedly most definitive year-end best of that compiles ballots from 795 music critics, is finally out, with Kanye on top. Following close behind is Sufjan and MIA.

I mentioned last week that I'd be helping out at Radio Free Chicago while Brad's in LA. Feel free to check it out this week for a couple of posts about some upcoming events going on in Chicago.

And so the summer festival lineup releases begin. Info for Bonaroo the yearly joining of jam and indie:

The fifth annual three-day camping and music festival will be held on June 16-18, 2006, on the same 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. Tickets for the 2006 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will go on sale Saturday, FEB 11, at 10:00 AM Eastern Time through Bonnaroo.com. For more information, go to Bonnaroo.com:

Radiohead, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Beck, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Death Cab for Cutie, moe., Bright Eyes, Buddy Guy, Damian Marley, Ben Folds, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Matisyahu, G. Love & Special Sauce, My Morning Jacket, Cat Power, Medeski Martin & Wood, Nickel Creek, Gomez, Atmosphere, Blues Traveler, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Dresden Dolls, Son Volt, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Rusted Root, Devendra Banhart Band, Mike Doughty, The Magic Numbers, Seu Jorge, Dungen, Andrew Bird, Devotchka, dios (malos), Marah

Apparently the Great White manager is pleading guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter for lighting the pyrotechnics in that nightclub blaze awhile back. I'd say he should be convicted on 100 counts of being extremely odd-looking. That's quite the chin he's got going.

Ah, the real Coachella lineup is finally up:

Saturday, April 29:

Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Ros, Common, Damian Marley, Atmosphere, Carl Cox, My Morning Jacket, Ladytron , Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tosca, Cat Power, Animal Collective, Hard-Fi, Derrick Carter, Devendra Banhart, She Wants Revenge, The Walkmen, The Juan Maclean, Audio Bullys, Imogen Heap, Lady Sovereign, Deerhoof, The Duke Spirit, Editors, stellastarr*, Lyrics Born, Matt Costa, The New Amsterdams, The Zutons, Platinum Piped Pipers, White Rose Movement, Chris Liberator, Colette, Joey Beltram, Hybrid, Wolfmother, The Like, Living Things, Nine Black Alps, The Section Quartet, Infadels, Youth Group, Shy FX & T Power, Infusion

Sunday, April 30:

Tool, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, Paul Oakenfold, Scissor Sisters, Matisyahu, James Blunt, TV on the Radio, Sleater-Kinney , Mogwai, Coheed and Cambria, Gnarls Barkley, Coldcut, Phoenix, Digable Planets, Amadou & Mariam, Little Louie Vega, Mylo (DJ Set), Seu Jorge, Wolf Parade, The Go! Team, Kaskade, Metric, Art Brut, Dungen, The Dears, Jamie Lidell, The Magic Numbers, Los Amigos Invisibles, Jazzanova, Michael Mayer, Mates of State, Gilles Peterson, Gabriel & Dresden, The Subways, Minus the Bear, Be Your Own Pet, Giant Drag, Kristina Sky, The Octopus Project

I'm stealing this video that Annie posted on Liz's blog because it's so unbelievable. I actually haven't been able to watch the whole thing because I'm at work and I don't think I could control myself.

Recently, I have crossed paths with the electro punk feminist Le Tigre-ous band, Fur Cups for Teeth. During their live show this past Saturday they dressed up as figure skaters. It was very pleasing. The show was part of the after party for a human bobsled race called the Idiotarod. One team, composed of friends of mine, competed in the Idiotarod with an "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" mine cart theme.

Later that night I attempted to gain access to a lesbian party in Brooklyn. After proving that I knew not one but three people already in the party I was allowed entry for 5 dollars. "Short Round" felt awkward when a "lesbian" with a bull ring began to get a litte too friendly with him.

Follow-up: I had mentioned earlier that Pitchfork and the Intonation organizers split ways and are trying to run two separate festivals, one named Pitchfork, one named Intonation. The rumor is now substantiated, and here's a more official rundown of the situation from Jim DeRogatis.

I saw Syriana this weekend. I always enjoy when indie songs randomly make it into big movies; I always wonder who the secret fan is. In this case, the National's "Wasp's Nest" was playing in a bar George Clooney was drinking at in one scene. Great song.