From Gapers Block: This site is having a funny contest:combine a band name with a book name, and the wittiest ones get posted with potential for prizes.

Examples:
The Black Heart of Darkness Procession
Harry Potter and the Half-Bloody Valentine Prince
Beowulf Parade
Chromeo and Juliet

Hilarious! And fun to think about during a particularly slow period at work, which I'm currently experiencing. Let's see what I can come up with.

How about . . .
A Clockwork Oranges Band?
Wuthering Hawthorne Heights?
Animal Collective Farm?
To Kill a Mocking- Andrew Bird?

And more:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxie 500
I Am Good Charlotte Simmons

This controversial interview with Godsmack from Arthur Mag has been the talk of the music message board for the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd post it here for futher discussion. Basically, the writer sets up Sully Erna of Godsmack into thinking he was about to be interviewed about their recent album, then uses the opportunity to attack him and the band based on the fact that their music is being used in military recruitment commercials. The concept is an interesting one, taking a popular band to task for their decisions and whether or not they are capable of backing up those decisions, but I'm not sure if it was executed very well- sometimes the author just seems to be needlessly ambushing the guy for his own political and journalistic agenda, and his arrogance really comes out in his questions. What's the point?

Frog Eyes/Sunset Rubdown pictures

Sunset Rubdown
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

I've uploaded pics from the show last Thursday. There are 21 in total. Enjoy!

Last night's Frog Eyes/Sunset Rubdown show at Schubas was incredible. The venue was full, but not sold out, for Sunset Rubdown's set; the show kicked off when Spencer got behind his keyboard and said, "This song is a Wolf Parade song, but before that it was a Sunset Rubdown song" and proceeded to play a stripped down version of "I'll Believe in Anything," just him and the keyboards, while I proceeded to drop my jaw in disbelief and amazement and possibly wet myself; I was totally unprepared for something that f***ing AWESOME. I still can't believe he started out the show with the original version of Wolf Parade's best and biggest song. The song quickly bled into "Snakes Got a Leg" as the rest of the band joined in (made up of a drummer and a guitarist who switched on and off between songs and a cool-looking female who added additional sound effects, bells and backing vocals) and the next 45 minutes of music were pretty unreal. Spencer put on much of the same humble, passionate, super-intense performance behind his keyboards that I loved when I saw Wolf Parade, eventually picking up this ratty looking mini-accordian held together by duct tape for the epic "The Men Are Called Horsemen There," which made for a great visual spectacle. They also played a brand new song that was possibly, dare I say it, better than anything I've heard of theirs yet! I noticed that they are now playing some Pitchfork festival pre-party at the Metro July 28, and I feel sorry for anyone who did not catch on to this band before last night, because the Metro just can not provide the intimacy of Schubas that I feel like watching this band requires.

After Sunset Rubdown's set, the ongoing trend of recent Pitchfork Best New Music picks overshadowing the headliners they tour with continued as the crowd shrank substantially. Which is really too bad for those people who left, because if they knew better, they'd realize that Frog Eyes and Sunset Rubdown are very similar bands who actually share members, and Frog Eyes put on a hilarious and equally intense performance, somewhat fueled by singer Casey Mercer's self-deprecating angst that spilled forth between each song. First of all, nothing about Casey screams "rock star." He looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman- more specifically, the creepy, Lara Flynn Boyle-stalking Hoffman of Todd Solondz's Happiness, because Casey is creepy, let me tell you. When he's yelping and howling during his bizarre and exciting songs, his bright red face scrunches up and his whole body seems to tremble as he's pounding away at his guitar. When the song was over, he'd either regale us of some ridiculous tale that made no sense or poke some serious fun of himself ("You're old and no one wants to see you play!") or Spencer ("Why don't you go back to Wolf Parade!"), but he'd do it in this really high-pitched, evil whisper. Meanwhile, his band seemed to sort of look around nervously in the background, as if they weren't used to seeing this behavior on a daily basis.

But when it came down to it, beyond all the theatrics, Frog Eyes' sounded really great, and the brand new song they ended with was weird and ambitious and fantastic, giving me high expectations for their next album. They eschewed the encore (!!!) and instead just took a dramatic bow before leaving the stage.

Best show I've seen so far this year.

I'll upload my pictures from the show this weekend, which should turn out pretty well considering I was right up at the stage.

So I finally got around to checking out that "Crazy" song by Gnarls Barkley. With all the hype, I guess I just assumed it would be another one of those hot dance/rap tracks that everyone goes crazy for in the clubs or whatever, but it's actually a pretty chill soulful song. I like it almost as much as their killer press photos. There are even more on their myspace page, though you can only see them if you're a member (but really, who isn't a member these days?)

Here's a great article in today's New York Times that talks about how great Chicago is. Ok, it's technically about Chicago environmental initiatives in a special "Green" section they have today, but it still fawns over Chicago the entire time (and rightly so!). (note: you might need to register to see the article, but registration is free, so there's no reason not to be able to read the NYT for free online).

While it's cool that Chicago is going to be the site of so many great festivals this summer, it's becoming obvious that every band is making a festival their Chicago stop on their summer tour. As webzines like Pitchfork and tinymixtapes report summer tours in droves, it seems every Chicago date has "Lollapalooza" next to it. It looks like this summer will be relatively dry as far as good shows go!

Here's the blog of a band named "The Best Thing Ever," who just went on a tour of public bathrooms. Hilarious pictures ensue.

There's an incredible amount of great new music on the show this morning, thanks to a sampler I got in the mail featuring tracks from the forthcoming Walkmen and Black Heart Procession albums, among others. Hopefully my last show of the spring will have recorded well so it can be available for download tonight. This week we're sponsoring a "mini" pledge drive focused on people who have never pledged before, so feel free to head over to the WLUW website and donate. While you're doing so, feel free to say I'm the reason you listen to WLUW! ;)

The new Sunset Rubdown (Shut Up I Am Dreaming) and Streets (The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living) albums have finally arrived in my mailbox! So far, the new Sunset Rubdown is exactly as I expected it to be, which means it's pretty great. "The Men Are Called Horsemen There" is unreal, and I can't wait to see how it comes across live when I see them this Thursday with Frog Eyes at Schubas. Spencer Krug is an incredibly passionate and captivating performer, and I assume he'll also be making an appearance as part of Frog Eyes as well. The new Streets has it's highs and lows; a few of the songs are quite cheesy and/or sound too much like past Streets songs, but when it's good, it's great. See: "Prangin' Out," "When You Wasn't Famous."

Next purchases: Danielson's Ships and Beirut's Gulag Orkestrar. Both of which I swear I was planning on buying before the Pitchfork reviews came out. Really.

Sigur Ros

Sigur Ros
Originally uploaded by Nicolemc99.

I've posted photos from the Sigur Ros show on the photoblog. A full review will appear on Radio Free Chicago Monday.

Conan was good times yesterday, even though we waited 3 hours in the rain/cold to get in. We were seated in the back of the main floor and listened to the sounds of Interpol, the Gorillaz, Wolf Parade, the Clientele, Maximo Park, the Von Bondies, and other indie favorites that some Conan assistant producer must be into. Conan was a little hard to hear over the crowd's endless cheering, but funny nonetheless. A highlight was new character "The Sears Tower in Sears clothing," which later bodysurfed over the crowd. John Mayer wasn't too bad actually- he played a couple jazzy numbers instead of his crap pop fare, which leads me to believe that jazz/blues is his true calling and stuff like "Your Body Is a Wonderland" just got him the big bucks.

Also, while we were waiting in the rain, the Masturbating Bear came over to say hi!

DJ Lazer is leaving the Internet forever just because.

Expect a poetic return...

Technical difficulties with the webcast meant Tuesday's show didn't record. We've been told that the webcast will be improved this summer, so hopefully that will end the issues I've had recording over the past year.

This afternoon: Conan O'Brien!

Here's an interview with Neko Case in the Onion, where she says that "Star Witness" is about the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago.

I saw Sigur Ros last night! More details and pictures to come. Since I was out late, I didn't get around to putting up yesterday morning's show, so that'll hopefully be happening tonight.

Meanwhile, the Franz Ferdinand singer is writing a book about food.

5/9 PFFR show notes:
-I played a track from a great new band called Beirut, which is actually the work of a 19-year-old boy. Kids these days.

-I love it when you know a certain track is going to get people calling in before the song is even over. Today’s was Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” You may know her as the singer of Frou Frou, that band with that one song that was on the Garden State soundtrack. This song is far better. Download it for yourself for free here (you may have to watch a 15-second ad first if you’re not a Salon.com member)

-Today’s show is chock full of reminders that the WLUW indie rock prom is this Saturday. I had a high school teacher call in asking for more details, as many of his students weren’t going to their own high school prom and may be interested in this one. I’m going to guess that might be a general theme of the night.

-I lied last week when I said this was going to be my last show until fall; I was roped into doing one more show next week to help out with the pledge drive (a small-scale drive targeting new members only). You have one more opportunity to listen before my summer hiatus!

Oh, my lucky brother! He's currently studying abroad in Europe, and while traveling through Amsterdam, he sent me this picture:



Andrew Bird sighting in Amsterdam!

Goshdarnit, the musical guest on Conan this Thursday is John Mayer!!! Wilco is Friday and Common is Wednesday, but I'm stuck with John Mayer. As long as he doesn't sing "Your Body Is a Wonderland," I guess I'll survive.

Radiohead tickets . . . PROCURED! And very luckily, it seems, as most people I've talked to were denied by ticketmaster. The shows must have sold out in 10 minutes.

Now THIS is hilarious. (Friday hilarity day!)

Watch this trailer for Mel Gibson's new movie:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/apocalypto/large.html

About 3/4 of the way through, you'll see a fast-cut montage with a monkey screeching in it. Pause the trailer right after the monkey screeches, then use the frame back button in the player to move back a few frames. You'll know what's so funny when you see it.

My tinymixtapes email is constantly flooded with press releases. This one struck me as particularly funny:

We are very excited to be working with the legendary band Soul Asylum, who are releasing their latest record “The Silver Lining” on July 11th. Soul Asylum will celebrate their third decade as a band with this release - dedicated to the late Karl Mueller (bassist) who passed shortly after recording “The Silver Lining.” Replacing Mueller is Tommy Stinston of Replacements fame. After an 8 year hiatus, the band still sounds fantastic and their songwriting is as strong as ever. New photos and a great bio here: http://www.wiredset.com/media/soulasylum/

Seriously, Soul Asylum is back? Hilarious!

I'm really digging the new Calexico album, Garden Ruin. As every reviewer has pointed out, they've phased out the mariachi part of their sound to focus on the folk/country rock aspects, and it works well. I like the mariachi thing they had going, but I can see how it would get old. They still have some worldier sounds making their way onto the album, and some of the songs are just stunning. Big thumbs up, I'll probably add it to the recommended section of the website this week.

Here's some neat things John Vanderslice had to say about internet zines and blogs in a recent interview (see the entire interview here):


Q. Because that's how I found out about you and your music, from other bloggers. Many of them spoke highly about your shows, so it made me curious. How do you feel about blogs compared with the mainstream music media?

A. Oh man. This is my experience. On Pixel Revolt, I got a review in Spin. It was the first time I'd ever gotten a review in Spin, and we got a letter grade of "C." And I also got shit-tons of reviews on internet only sites, from Pitchfork on down. We got a really good review on Pitchfork. And usually when you get a really bad review, your hardcore fans write you and say, "Man, fuck this guy," and when you get a really good review, your hardcore fans write you and say "Oh wow, this was insightful or interesting, this is great, you should be excited."

When I got the "C" letter grade review in Spin, I heard nothing. Not from anybody. No one ever said anything to me. But whenever I got a good review from somewhere like Tiny Mix Tapes I would get emails about it. It was very clear to me then that all that print media shit doesn't matter anymore. It totally does not matter. I mean, no offense to Spin or anyone like that, but people right now, hard core music people that pay attention, they're online. The big national glossies just don't have that kind of impact anymore. I guess. I mean this is all anecdotal, I can't back any of it up, but the way people find out about us and find out things about us, it's all bloggers. It's all online 'zines. Whether it's Drowned in Sound or Tiny Mix Tapes or Largehearted Boy, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, the list goes on and on.

You know, it's weird, if someone posts something on Metafilter, I look on my website and all of a sudden, we're getting like 25,000 unique visitors in one day, you know. And we got a review on Pixel Revolt in Rolling Stone. And the day that that review came out, there was no bump whatsoever. And that was a good review. And we got no bump in traffic on the website. That's insane. I can look at where people are coming from and who's searching what, and what method they are using to get to my site. After that I was like, "Fuck paying a publicist to work your record, lets just email all the bloggers and send them a record or some MP3's."

A band will come up to me and tell me "Oh my god, we're getting a record review in Rolling Stone and what I want to tell them is, 'Listen, who cares, it doesn't mean anything.'" What means something is that a blogger with credibility has his or her own fan base, you know what I mean? People follow bloggers because they understand their aesthetic framework and what they like and their sensibilities.

I forgot my iPod at work today, so I finally got around to listening to Ryan Schreiber's radio show on WLUW from 2-4PM. He obviously has first access to a lot of new music, so I heard tracks from upcoming Sufjan Stevens and Matt Friedberger (of the Fiery Furnaces) albums, but most exciting was a song off the Sunset Rubdown album that came out this week (Wolf Parade singer Spencer Krug's other project, who I'm constantly fawning over if you're not a regular reader of this blog), which was fantastic. I cannot wait to a) get the CD in the mail, and b) see them open for Frog Eyes on the 18th.

Here's a really interesting story from the Washington Post about Pitchfork. It includes a interview (and picture) of it's founder, where the name came from, Schreiber's current feelings on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and an quick interview with Travis Morrison, the singer of the Dismemberment Plan whose solo album got a 0.0 (so you can blame Pitchfork for the fact that he's working as a computer programmer and not a rock star).

I'll hold back on my opinion of Proms in general to give the details of the WLUW Indie Rock Prom that's coming up. From the marketing director:


The Empty Bottle Presents: The WLUW Indie Rock Prom
Saturday May 13, 2006 at the Logan Square Auditorium 2539 N. Kedzie
Featuring: The National Trust, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Life During Wartime
DJs, and WLUW's own Erik and Ali of Think Pink.

Hosted by DJ Wondertwins. There will be costume contests for every era of dress
we see, and even some for categories we might not be expecting! Rumor has it
that we will also be raffling off tickets to several upcoming shows, or even
summer festivals. We will also make sure to have a big bowl of punch to quench
any prom-goer’s thirst for the true prom experience, a table of flowers for
those forgetful types who didn’t come prepared with a corsage, and last but
definitely not least, is a Polaroid station, complete with patterned backdrop,
so that everyone can take home a memory from the unforgettable night. The
event, a benefit for Chicago’s favorite community radio station, 88.7 WLUW,
begins at 8:30 PM Saturday, May 13th, ending when we’re all too tired to go on!

Admission is $15 for singles, $25 for couples, and can be purchased through
www.emptybottle.com. Check out the website at www.wluwprom.org

Only two more radio shows left before I take a hiatus for the summer (but will hopefully appear sporadically as a sub). I'll be back on at the same time in the fall, however, 6-8 AM Tuesday mornings!

Radiohead tickets for the June 19 and 20 shows at the Auditorium Theatre go on sale at 10 AM this Saturday*, May 6. Expect them to be sold out in approx. 10 seconds.

*Silly me!

When did Thax Douglas become the Camera Flash Police at shows? Saturday night at the Wrens/Tapes 'n Tapes show at Schubas, he appeared to be watching the crowd the entire time for the occasional flash, ready to pounce and ask the offender to please turn it off because it's "annoying." Not as annoying as Thax constantly pushing his way back and forth through a sold out audience. If Schubas didn't want people using flash, they'd make a policy and have the bouncers tell people to stop. The venue is brightly lit enough anyway that you hardly notice the flash, and it's small enough that flash can actually make for a good picture. Too bad I forgot my camera!

Other than that, the show was great- Tapes 'n Tapes put on a nice little performance, although I think "10 Gallon Ascots" didn't quite kill the way I'd hoped it would- the chorus is so anthemic, it needed to be louder and more passionate. "Insistor" and "Cowbell" were great, though. All fears that the show might be overrun with people there just to see the latest buzz band were quashed as the crowd was definitely a Wrens' crowd. I'd seen the Wrens put on a great show at Schubas two years ago, but somehow this time around they were even better, with more energy and new versions of songs. They opened with an awesome version of "This Boy Is Exhausted," with just two guitars and vocals quietly introducing the song before the rest of the band took the stage to finish it up big. The songs drew mostly from The Meadowlands, making me wonder if they have new material on the way or if they just wanted to please the audience with the favorites. The between song jokes were hilarious and they poked fun at their age ("yeah, back when I was like, 30"), their skill, their popularity, etc. Great show- I'll probably write a longer review later this week, because I felt like there was a ton more going on then I've hinted at thus far.

Conan tickets: PROCURED! Now let's just hope for good guests on May 11th.

Tapes 'N Tapes: moving up in the world, from self-releasing their album to XL Recordings. Not too shabby.

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.