Meg & Dia dropped by the station and talked to DJ Volta yesterday. They discussed touring with Angels and Airwaves and writing a blog for Alternative Press. Listen to the podcast to hear their thoughts about the importance of bathrooms to the touring experience and more. Meg and Dia will be performing with Angels and Airwaves at the Palladium on Sunday night.
Check out this hilarious interview with the members of Monty Are I! They talk to Lyra about everything from groupies to polar bears to gatling guns. Listen to this podcast to hear them discuss living together, star wars, websites, and more.
Listen to an interview with Nick Ghanbarian and Anthony Raneri of Bayside. Ghanbarian and Raneri discuss being back on tour, birth certificates, death certificates, their previous album “The Walking Wounded”, and where they are headed both musically and lyrically. Check out the podcast for their full interview with Lyra.
The Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival is pleased to announce that Widespread Panic will now close the 2008 festival, headlining the main stage on Sunday evening, June 15.
In the wake of the Allman Brothers cancellation, Widespread Panic will fill the void as heirs to the great southern jamband tradition with what is sure to be an epic and unforgettable festival finale.
Jack Johnson has chosen to move from Sunday evening into the slot vacated by the Allmans, joining his friends Pearl Jam on the main stage Saturday night. Jack will perform beginning at sunset, to be followed by Pearl Jam’s closing main stage set.
We’re also excited to note the additions of Les Claypool, Superdrag, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Adele, Grand Ole Party, and The Postelles to this year’s festival line up.
For the complete Bonnaroo line up and more information about The Allman Brothers Band cancellation, visit: bonnaroo.com
The big names at the festival include: Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs and Death Cab for Cutie. The festival is from June 12th to 15th in Manchester, TN. Click here for the press release, or click here to see the full lineup.
Silversun recently finished a new video for their single “Little Lover’s So Polite.” Enjoy the view of Los Angeles as the band glides through the city. And apparently young children spend late nights and early mornings roaming, and flying through, the deserted streets of downtown LA? Hey, whatever, the video looks sick. Check it out here.
And while were on the topic of new band media (and band names referencing a particular valuable metal), Silverchair now has a new… game? Apparently! What arm wrestling has to do with Silverchair, I’m not entirely sure, but the game’s fun. Take a few minutes away from that pressing work you have to do (or MySpace/Facebook browsing) and check it out. Click here to play the game!
As soon as I saw that Manchester Orchestra would be stopping by the Living Room to play a WBRU Cheap Date on the 31st, I knew I was going to be there. I’ve gone to some lengths to see this band in the past. When they played with Annuals at Great Scott in Boston in December, I navigated the Green Line alone for the first time and stayed up all night in my sister’s living room doing work afterwards, still shaking my head about how good it had been, and smiling about getting to meet a couple of the guys after the show (we talked about the South and the Red Sox). Needless to say, I wasn’t missing out this time.
I got down to the Living Room in time for Deer Tick’s set, and let me tell you, I don’t know what it is about all the bands with “Deer” names, but there is one thing that they seem to have in common: you may not know exactly what’s going on, but you know it’s good and you want more of it. After getting things off to a slightly honky-tonkish start, singer John McCauley soon made my night when he sang the “national anthem:” a gloriously slinky version of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” complete with suggestive head motions and dancing around the infamous pillar on the Living Room’s stage. They closed their set with a request—their own song “Diamond Rings 2007”—and the best tribute to the 50s you could ask for—your great aunt’s favorite slow dance, Santo and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk,” into a rollicking rendition of “La Bamba.” My rockabilly soul was in a good place.
Rolling up to what I’m ashamed to say was my first show at the Living Room, I knew I was in for a treat – Saosin in an intimate venue with a sweet atmosphere. My sister managed to accidentally spit Powerade all over the bouncer, but it was cool, and we still got in to see Armor for Sleep. They had a little trouble getting the momentum going, but things picked up when they played their big hit “Car Underwater,” the crowd joining in for an overemotional sing-a-long (“I didn’t care that you left and abandoned me / What hurts more is that I would still die for you”). At first I thought they played it too early, but they managed to keep the energy up with their more up-tempo songs.
But Armor for Sleep was not the reason I was there. I was there to right a wrong. The last time I tried to see Saosin (at Projekt Revolution) I missed them, despite leaving one of my sister’s friends behind and speeding all the way there. Not again. After I got into an argument with some scenester chick about whether the name Saosin came from Chinese or Irish culture (I won; former frontman Anthony Green says: “…it’s a Chinese proverb from the 15th and 16th centuries. It means ‘small heart’”), Saosin took the stage, and opened, perhaps to my surprise, with an old song, and then kept them coming, much to the crowd’s delight.
Lead Singer Cove Reber struggled early, often deciding not to reach for the high notes, and sometimes being off when he did. He seems like he really needs to prepare and focus on a line ahead of time if he wants to hit it right. He came on strong by the end though, the high notes at the end of “Voices” were spot on. The guitar work was as tight as it was in the studio, and drummer Alex Rodriguez’s token wow-how-does-a-human-being-play-that-fill drumming was rocking as usual.
Sleep Through the Static, Jack Johnson’s first album since he provided all the music for Sing-A Long and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006, is also Johnson’s first album not to be recorded in his home state,
The album opens with ‘All at Once’, which sets the tone of Sleep Through the Static with lyrics like “All at once/The world can overwhelm me/There’s almost nothing that you could tell me/That could ease my mind” and “Sometimes it feels like a heart/Is no place to be singing from at all”. But despite these lyrics, the track is one of Johnson’s best forays into darker territory on the album.
Listen to an exclusive interview with Saosin! DJ Volta asks the band about their feelings on crowd energy, the making of their concert DVD, and their “Vacation-Tour ‘08″ Hear Saosin discuss their future plans and more in this podcast from WBRU.
Hot Chip’s third album, Made in the Dark, is mostly a continuation of their sophomore album, The Warning, but departs from its predecessor with more electronic sound and style, mixed with more slow, chill songs. The album begins with the slick electronica sound of “Out at the Pictures,” with a cool stutter style to the chorus that keeps your head bobbing. Next up is the first song released from the album, “Shake a Fist,” which came out back in September of ’07. I was a little surprised; the track was relatively repetitive, despite a departure from the norm by adding a brief monologue-of-sorts midway through the song. The first single actually associated with the album is the third track, “Ready for the Floor,” which brings the album back up to a steady pace. With a rough-but-cool intro leading into a light beat and melody, the song is a standout on the album.
A few other songs are standouts, if for nothing more than being different. “We’re Looking for a Lot of Love,” is a chill, relaxing song with a good melody and no overemphasis on electric sound. “Made in the Dark” follows a similar train of thought, as do “Whistle for Will” and “In the Privacy of Our Love,” though the latter has a tight little synthesized bit at the end to finish off the album. “One Pure Thought,” on the other hand, jumps out at you – just like “Ready for the Floor” – and keeps your head bobbing along with the beat for the whole track. A light melody mixes with a heavier grind through the middle of the song, with enjoyable results.
WBRU’s Cheap Date concert series kicked off, in every sense of the word, with a great show by Monty Are I last Saturday (1/26). The cold could not keep the masses from lining up well before the show began, and there were even a few surprises for the BRU Crew as they were giving out prizes to the faithful fans. People were making impromptu games out Mike and Ikes and storage bins, and an artistically gifted fan even drew a Monty Are I banner before the doors opened. And Pancake, if you’re reading this, we would love to have footage of your sick freestyle.The opening bands all have strong local roots, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are unfamiliar to anyone outside of Rhode Island. The first band, JumpJump Juliet, played their first show with their new, fourteen year old lead singer Viana Newton, and it was a little apparent that the band lacked the experience of the other acts. The lead vocalist, guitarist, and bassist moved liked sliders on a mixing board, but they made up for uninspired stage presence with some solid music. Even the crowd, which wasn’t as receptive to the band after the first few songs, was hooting and hollering by their last song, which was easily JumpJump Juliet’s best both instrumentally and vocally.
If Lupo’s wasn’t full before JumpJump Juliet started playing, it was packed by the time Leah Stargazing took stage. It was apparent that there were some people who came out just to see this band, as the band received several effusive call outs while they were changing sets. This is a band that knows how to put on a show. Leah Stargazing pulled no stops in their stage antics, headed by lead vocalist/guitarist Jordan Fielding and bassist Brandon Fielding. No stage box was safe as everyone not tied down by a drum kit leaped around without abandon, and the crowd loved it. There were many good songs in the six song set, but “Eulogy” and “Pretty Petty Baby” were standouts.
I made the trek down to Club Hell last night to see Steel Train, who currently is headlining their own tour. To cope with the freezing rain and heavy winds, I filled my head with the melodies of Steel Train’s most recent album, Trampoline, in hopes of an energetic concert.
I made it in time to catch the tail end of Paper Rival’s set, having missed Stealing Jane’s set entirely. Their decent performance was interrupted on a few occasions by technical difficulties, delaying a show that was already running quite late. They had the musical talent to make for a good show, but the depressing tone of the music, vocals especially, and the entirely lack of subtlety in the drumming detracted from the performance.
Next up was Person L. A beautiful first song led into a solid set, marred by intermittent, out-of-place, sort-of grungy songs. The percussion and guitar were composed eloquently together and flowed in and out of melodies and crescendos, meshing well with the keyboard, bass and vocals. They finished the set with a song with an entirely different sound, “Goodness Gracious,” which killed.
The show was already running really late. Person L had to cut their set short, and only played the last song at the request of Steel Train’s drummer, Jon Shiffman. Steel Train didn’t take the stage until shortly before the show was originally intended to end, and more technical difficulties delayed the start of their set for another ten minutes. We waited as Shiffman and bassist Evan Winiker fooled around, vamping and making jokes. Finally, they decided to start, despite an obnoxious hum from the amps and loud noise from the bar next door.
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