About.com Alternative Music

Pitchfork Music Festival Announces First Slate of Bands

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:00:29 +0000

Pavement, Modest Mouse, and LCD Soundsystem will be the headlining acts at this year's Pitchfork Music Festival. Staged over the weekend of July 16-18 at Union Park in Chicago, the outdoor-summer-rock-festival arm of the Pitchfork empire will again showcase an eclectic group of 'fork-endorsed acts.

Also announced as performing, thus far are: St. Vincent, Lightning Bolt, Cass McCombs, Sleigh Bells, and Here We Go Magic, with many, many more acts to be unveiled between now and July.

Pitchfork Music Festival Announces First Slate of Bands originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 08:00:29.

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Introducing: Magic Kids

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:00:15 +0000

Name: Magic Kids
From: Memphis, Tennessee
Story: For these young kids, old is the new new
Sound: Beach Boys by way of the Langley Schools Music Project

In 2009, a troupe of Tennessean teenagers named Magic Kids dished up one of the year's best pop-songs. Channeling the Beach Boys by way of the Langley Schools Music Project, "Hey Boy" delivered 135 seconds of pure pop bliss: cascading vocal harmonies, Spector-esque wall-of-sound production, tinkling xylophone, blasting saxophone, and sweeping string parts.

Proving they weren't just one-jam wonders, Magic Kids threw out another couple of killer cuts: the rollicking "Good to Be," which kind of reminds me of Danielson Famile, and the suitably sproingy "Superball," all twee keyboards and sad swipes of violin.

Musically speaking, it's a case of old is the new new: each song is hopelessly, romantically in debt to the Beach Boys, but the familiar chord-changes on display sound gloriously innocent in Magic Kids' hands.

On the back of such sterling songwriting, Magic Kids have just signed to True Panther Sounds, the impossibly hip imprint that's recently nestled into a cosy working relationship with indie behemoth Matador. The two New Yorker labels first started working together on the debut album for '09 breakout darlings Girls.

Coincidentally enough, Magic Kids are currently on the road with Girls (and with retrophonic Chicago rock outfit the Smith Westerns), and will play SXSW in March, before returning to Memphis and rolling tape on their debut album.

10 Bands to Watch at SXSW 2010
Listen: Magic Kids, "Hey Boy"

Kids Play the Darnedest Shows:
February 8: Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
February 10: Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
February 12: Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
February 14: San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
February 16: Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
February 17: Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space
February 19: Norman, OK - Opolis

Introducing: Magic Kids originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 08:00:15.

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From the Vaults Friday: The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966)

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:47 +0000

The Year: 1966
The Album: The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
Who It Influenced: Television, Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, the Butthole Surfers, Black Lips

Anti- Records —home of old renegades like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Os Mutantes&mdash announced last week they'd be releasing Roky Erickson's first album of new material in 15 years. Due out April 20, True Love Cast Out All Evil finds Erickson working with members of Okkervil River, and finds one of the legendary voices of underground music back.

The world was first introduced to a teenaged Erickson in 1966, with the mighty single "You're Gonna Miss Me." A minor hit for The 13th Floor Elevators in its day, the song had impossible staying-power: going on to become one of the most legendary and influential songs in the annals of alternative music. Though Erickson's band, The 13th Floor Elevators, invented the term 'psychedelic rock' and put it into practice by taking copious amounts of psychedelic drugs, they weren't couched in cockeyed flower-power rhetoric.

Instead, lead by the urgent, insistent tremors of Erickson's singing —a wail that would influence everyone from Janis Joplin to Iggy Pop— the Elevators played a striding, swirling, reverberated take on jug-band blues that still stands up nearing 50 years on.

Full review: The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

From the Vaults Friday: The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966) originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 08:00:47.

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Sleigh Bells Unveil First-Ever Tour Dates

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:22 +0000

You asked for it, now here they are. Noisy New Yorker pop duo Sleigh Bells are finally taking their act beyond the five boroughs. Currently in the studio working on their debut LP, Sleigh Bells are finally capitalizing on all their good, good buzz —the kind that made them one of my 10 Bands to Watch in 2010— and heading on tour.

First, they'll spend six Eastern seaboard shows supporting dancefloor-crushing Diplo/Switch collaboration Major Lazer, then crash the Coachella party, before, finally, heading out on the road with Yeasayer for a month.

Ring Them Bells:
March 28: Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
March 30: Carborro, NC - Cat's Cradle
March 31: Baltimore, MD - Bourbon Street
April 2: New Hyde Park, NY - Starlite Ballroom
April 4: Boston, MA - Middle East
April 6: Columbus, OH - BoMa
April 16: Indio, CA - Coachella
April 17: San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore Auditorium
April 19: Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
April 20: Seattle, WA - Neumos
April 21: Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
April 23: Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
April 24: Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
April 25: Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
April 26: St. Louis, MO - Gargoyle Club
April 27: Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
April 28: Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
April 29: Chicago, IL - Metro
April 30: Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
May 1: Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
May 2: Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
May 3: Boston, MA - Paradise
May 4: New York, NY - Webster Hall
May 5: Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero

Photo � Rob Loud

Sleigh Bells Unveil First-Ever Tour Dates originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 08:00:22.

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Owen Pallett Takes Heartland on Unending Tour

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:00:55 +0000

Owen Pallett, the Canadian violinst-turned-ambitious-songsmith who for the '00s recorded as Final Fantasy, has just issued his first album under his own name. It's called Heartland, it was made with Pallett commanding a Czech orchestra, and it tells a sustained narrative story of a farmer named Lewis, dwelling in a fantasy realm called Spectrum, and his relationship with an omniscient God-figure named Owen.

I spoke to Pallett about Heartland the other week; about the burden of the concept album, about the state of Canadian rock, about Destroyer lyrics. Pallett was on his cellphone, in a taxi in Toronto, on the way to the airport, where he was about to fly to Hamburg. Which is suitably symbolic, given it appears the Canadian is determined to spend the entirety of 2010 on tour.

In support of Heartland, Pallett will be playing solid 'til May. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, it's likely your city is on this list:

The Great Everywhere:
February 6: Guelph, ON - Sleeman Centre
February 9: Fredericton, NB - McCain Hall Theatre
February 10: Halifax, NS - St. Matthews United Church
February 11: Halifax, NS - St. Matthews United Church
February 12: St. John's, NL - Cochrane Street United Church
February 17: Kingston, ON - Sydenham United Church
February 18: Wakefield, QC - Blacksheep Inn
February 19: Wakefield, QC - Blacksheep Inn
February 20: Montreal, QC - Theatre Outremont
February 21: Quebec City, QC - Le Cercle
February 25: London, ON - Aeolian Hall
February 26: Brantford, ON - Ford Plant
February 27: Hamilton, ON - Lincoln Hamilton Centre
March 10: Lisbon, Portugal - Teatro Maria Matos
March 11: Lisbon, Portugal - Teatro Maria Matos
March 12: Aveiro, Portugal - Centro Cultural e de Congressos
March 13: Munich, Germany - Dachau Friedenskirche
March 15: Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
March 16: Prague, Czech Republic - Roxy
March 17: Leipzig, Germany - UT Connewitz
March 18: Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
March 20: Metz, France - Les Trinitaires
March 21: Lille, France - Aeronef
March 22: Amsterdam, Netherlands - De Duif
March 23: Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
March 25: Cardiff, Wales - Millenium Music Hall
March 26: London, England - Koko
March 27: Birmingham, England - Rainbow Warehouse
March 28: Manchester, England - The Deaf Institute
March 31: Oslo, Norway - Victoria
April 1: Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
April 2: Malmo, Sweden - Babel
April 3: Berlin, Germany - Hebbel Theatre
April 8: Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
April 10: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
April 11: Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
April 12: Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
April 13: Columbus, OH - Wexner Center
April 14: Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum
April 15: Washington DC - Black Cat
April 18: Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
April 20: Boston, MA - Institute of Contemporary Art
April 22: New York, NY - Webster Hall
April 25: Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
April 27: Atlanta, GA - The Earl
April 29: Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
April 30: Austin, TX - The Mohawk
May 5: San Francisco, CA - The Independent
May 8: Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
May 9: Vancouver, BC - The Vogue Theatre
May 10: Victoria, BC - Alix Goolden Hall
May 11: Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater

Photo � Ryan Pfluger

Owen Pallett Takes Heartland on Unending Tour originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 08:00:55.

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10 Bands to Watch at SXSW 2010, Starring Surfer Blood

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:00:51 +0000

"Not to sound arrogant, but I'm pretty sure we have a good record," says Jean Paul Pitts, 23-year-old frontman of fresh-faced indie-rockers Surfer Blood. And, well, he has a point. The Floridian outfit's debut disc, Astro Coast, is a killer collection of amp-rattling anthems; old-school indie-rock heavily influenced by The Pixies.

Surfer Blood are about to undertake a serious haul of tour-dates in support of Astro Coast, playing from sea to shining sea. In fact, their North American slate is so thorough they've lined up dates in places you may never have heard of, from Geneseo, NY, to Visalia, CA.

In mid-March, Surfer Blood'll be stopping in Austin, and, well, they're not the only ones. Thousands upon thousands of bands, band-lovers, and music-industry minions will endeavor to keep Austin weird when SXSW returns for another year of musical overload.

With the lineup close to completely cemented, I thought it due time that I put my neck on the line and recommended 10 Bands to Watch at SXSW 2010; a formguide not just for those four days in Texas, but for the rest of 2010. Read away!

Surfer Blood Cross Meridians:
February 3: London, England - Hoxton Bar and Kitchen
February 4: Kingston upon Thames, England - Hippodrome
February 5: London, England - KOKO
February 9: London, England - Scala
February 16: Orlando, FL - Backbooth
February 17: Deland, FL - DaVinci
February 18: Tallahassee, FL - Engine Room
February 19: Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
February 20: Nashville, TN - The End
February 22: Charlotte, NC - Snug Harbor
February 23: Morgantown, WV -123 Pleasant Street
February 24: Washington, DC - Dc 9
February 26: Hanover, NH - Dartmouth College
March 1: Philadelphia, PA - The Barbary
March 2: Allston, MA - Great Scott
March 3: Providence, RI - AS220
March 5: Montreal, QC - Il Motore
March 6: Toronto, ON - Sneaky Dees
March 7: Geneseo, NY - SUNY Geneseo College
March 8: Meadville, PA - Allegheny
March 9: Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
March 11: Bloomington, IN - the Bishop
March 12: Columbia, MO - Mojos
March 13: Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge
March 14: Oklahoma City, OK - The Conservatory
March 17-20: Austin, TX - SXSW
March 24: Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space
March 25: Claremont, CA - Pitzer College
March 26: San Diego, CA - Bar Pink Elephant
March 27: Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
March 28: Las Vegas, NV - The Beauty Bar
March 29: Isla Vista, CA - Biko Garage
March 30: Visalia, CA - Howie and Sons
April 1: Santa Cruz, CA - Metamusic
April 2: San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
April 2: Portland, OR - Doug Fir
April 4: Seattle, WA - Vera Project
April 5: Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret
April 6: Missoula, MT - The Palace
April 8: Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
April 9: Madison, WI - Der Rathskeller
April 11: Columbus, OH - The Summit
April 12: Ithaca, NY - The Shop
April 13: Buffalo, NY - Big Orbit Soundlab
April 15: Princeton, NJ - Terrace Club

Photo � Ian Witlen

10 Bands to Watch at SXSW 2010, Starring Surfer Blood originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 08:00:51.

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Introducing: Phantogram

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:05 +0000

Name: Phantogram
From: Saratoga Springs, NY
Story: Two humans, many synthesizers
Sound: Beat-rockin'ly dreamy

"Last night I had a dream..." signs Sarah Barthel, in a tiny voice awash with effects, quivering amidst the ripples and thrills of Phantogram's woozy sonic stew. It hardly matters what comes after the ellipsis, as Barthel's evocation of the 'd' word taps into something that'll be written about plenty when it comes to her band.

A duo from upstate New York consisting of Barthel and partner-in-crime Josh Carter, Phantogram make music that's routinely dreamy; vivid and evocative yet always distant and hazy.

Drawing on shoegaze (roughly the 10 millionth band influence by My Bloody Valentine, it seems), space-rock, dream-pop, abstract electro, and R&B radio, Barthel and Carter command banks of buzzy synths and armies of effects units, rock beats and dangle dewy guitars, and swap bashful boy/girls vocals amidst the whirring sound.

On February 9, Barsuk will release Phantogram's debut LP, Eyelid Movies. The duo'll spend February on the road in support of such, and should be particularly conspicuous for the rest of '10 with a first record this impressive under their belts.

Listen: Phantogram, "When I'm Small"

Phantoplans:
February 3: State College, PA - State Theatre
February 4: Allentown, PA - Crocodile Rock
February 5: Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
February 8: Portsmouth, NH - Red Door
February 9: Allston, MA - Great Scott
February 11: Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall
February 12: New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
February 13: Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
February 15: Washington, DC - DC 9
February 16: Columbus, OH - Treehouse
February 17: Chicago, IL - Schubas
February 18: Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
February 20: Toronto, ON - Drake Hotel
February 21: Montr�al, QC - Il Motore
February 22: Winooski, VT - Monkey House

Introducing: Phantogram originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 08:00:05.

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From the Vaults Friday: Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:16 +0000

The Year: 2004
The Album: Arcade Fire, Funeral
Who It Influenced: Fanfarlo, Broken Records, The Twilight Sad, the Kissaway Trail, the Airborne Toxic Event, Emanuel and the Fear, and, well, Coldplay

In all the editorial-piece handwringing over the colossal devastation of the recent earthquake in Haiti, R�gine Chassagne's anguished wail —as published in English newspaper The Observer— rang out above all others. In a piece of pointed, poignant writing, the Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist summoned both aching pain and mundane coping-mechanisms, personalizing a mass tragedy.

Above and beyond the tired tropes and empty platitudes so often trotted out in recent days, Chassagne aptly captured what is, in many ways, the global feeling: a sense of tragedy at a remove, a desire to try and do more quelled by the realities of distance. (Which is, of course, not to say 'do nothing'; in fact, do the opposite of that).

This, of course, isn't the first time Chassagne has written evocatively of her homeland, has been overwhelmed by a sense of home —both romantic and tortured; brutally emotional either way— whilst in exile. The highpoint of Arcade Fire's unstoppably-popular Funeral LP (one of the decade's best albums, PS) was, in fact, a song called "Haiti."

Whilst others were drawn to Win Butler's cried rock-anthems, bursting with Oberstian melodrama as they were, I was always drawn to Chassagne's songs. "Haiti" symbolized the LP's endemic contrasts —as study of life and death at once— by being seeming opposites at once; different things at the same time. A musical flood-of-tears for her "wounded mother [she'll] never sea," its funereal lament is delivered as jaunty Talking Heads homage, and sounds both robustly dancefloor-ready and like even a wisp of wind would send it floating away, scattered like seed on breeze.

Full review: Arcade Fire, Funeral

Photo � Hilary Leftik

From the Vaults Friday: Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004) originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 08:00:16.

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Watch Trailer for Animal Collective's Movie Oddsac

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:00:38 +0000

Animal Collective's long-awaited 'visual album,' Oddsac, has been shown to a select few this week at the Sundance Film Festival. But, for those not feverishly networking in the Utah snow, the film's trailer is now up online. And it's terrifying.

When I spoke to Animal Collective's headlamp-wearing knob-twiddler Geologist late last year, he said, of the movie: "For so long it's been in bits and pieces; it's been three years we've been working on it. But, hopefully, that's the next big project that we're gonna finish up."

Now, at the website for Oddsac, you can catch a taste of the audiovisual mayhem. The trailer plays something like Philippe Grandrieux directing the final reel of Fire Walk with Me, but who knows if that same sense of evil will be sustained for the entire running time.

Lucky audiences in New York (March 2, Visual Arts Theatre) and Chicago (March 17, Music Box Theatre) will get a chance to discover, at screenings hosted by director Danny Perez and unnamed members of the Collective themselves. These precede Oddsac's eventual DVD release, which will come at a thus-far-unscheduled point of 2010.

Watch Trailer for Animal Collective's Movie Oddsac originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 08:00:38.

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Pavement Unveils 'Best Of' Compilation

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:00:31 +0000

Just in case you've been in a coma the past six months: slacker-rock legends Pavement are treating 2010 as their own personal reformation party. They're playing everywhere: at Pitchfork Music Festival, ATP, Primavera, and Coachella, in Australia and New Zealand, and finishing six months of shows off with a grandstanding series of gigs at Central Park in New York.

To go hand-in-hand with Stephen Malkmus and Spiral Stairs sharing the same stage again, Matador Records have assembled a veritable Pavement Reunion Tour primer: a 'greatest hits' CD entitled Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement.

Of course, Pavement didn't really have any 'hits' in their day —not even "Cut Your Hair," really— but the nostalgia-friendly set features pretty much every killer Pavement jam you could hope for. And only one song from that dreaful Terror Twilight record...

Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement Track List:
1. "Gold Soundz" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
2. "Frontwards" (Watery, Domestic EP)
3. "Mellow Jazz Docent" (Perfect Sound Forever EP)
4. "Stereo" (Brighten the Corners)
5. "In the Mouth a Desert" (Slanted and Enchanted)
6. "Two States" (Slanted and Enchanted)
7. "Cut Your Hair" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
8. "Shady Lane/J vs S" (Brighten the Corners)
9. "Here" (Slanted and Enchanted)
10. "Unfair" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
11. "Grounded" (Wowee Zowee)
12. "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" (Slanted and Enchanted)
13. "Range Life" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
14. "Date w/Ikea" (Brighten the Corners)
15. "Debris Slide" (Perfect Sound Forever EP)
16. "Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse)" (Watery, Domestic EP)
17. "Spit on a Stranger" (Terror Twilight)
18. "Heaven Is a Truck" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
19. "Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17" (Slanted and Enchanted)
20. "Embassy Row" (Brighten the Corners)
21. "Box Elder" (Slay Tracks 1933-1969 EP)
22. "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" (No Alternative compilation)
23. "Fight This Generation" (Wowee Zowee)

Pavement Unveils 'Best Of' Compilation originally appeared on About.com Alternative Music on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 08:00:31.

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