The ominous clouds threatened to make this a very wet Pitchfork Festival but luckily for poncho-less people like myself, the rain stayed light and then abated completely by about 2:30pm. So, I got the best of both worlds - no terrible threat of dehydration and no Radiohead-like washout. I also decided that for the most part, at least on Saturday, I was going to try to catch bands that I hadn’t seen before and didn’t know as much about, eschewing bands like Fleet Foxes, No Age and Vampire Weekend that I’ve seen and reviewed before for acts where I’d only heard good things about them, but had failed to check them out earlier. This proved to be a rewarding way of attacking the various stages and made for a very enjoyable Saturday.

Titus Andronicus

I started this trend of catching bands that I’d never seen and didn’t know as much about with New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus. The first thing these guys did was bust out a cover of Pulp’s “Common People,” knowing full well that highlighted act Jarvis Cocker would not do so in his set later that night. The cover sounded sprawling and drunkenly off key but immediately went into a four guitar thrash. Patrick Stickles clearly took a couple of notes on stage presence from the school of Les Savy Fav as he stuck the mic cord in his mouth, climbed up the side of the stage and waved around a big yellow flag. I knew this was going to be a good day. The music itself filled the raucous discordant garage niche that I think The Ponys were supposed to fill last year and Titus Andronicus added a nice side of anti-establishment to go along. Stickles said that he was so glad to be in such a large place full of people who shared a common interest and are all friends since on Monday we’d all have to go back into the real world, where nobody is our friend. Cheers to that, mate.

Caribou

Why the hell have I not been in love with this material for years? I seem to remember back when Dan Snaith was going by Manitoba, listening to a song or two of theirs and dismissing it as not my style. I am now understanding why this was a grave error in judgment. Caribou were stunning. Despite not playing “Irene,” to the chagrin of some in the audience, Caribou played a set that was both intensely powerful and just wistful enough to keep our rapt attention. The best parts of the set were when Snaith put down the guitar and stuck himself onto a second drumkit, facing the first right in the front of the stage. The only complaint about their set has nothing to do with them. The rain stopped about halfway through and until Snaith commented, “I think the sun is coming out,” those of us in the audience had to deal with a tropical rainforest-like wave of humidity for about ten minutes which was fairly miserable. It was also forgettable due to the beauty that was occurring before me.

Dizzee Rascal

In my prior Pitchfork experience, the Balance stage tends to be the stage that time forgets. So while the Aluminum Stage (the huge one) and the Connector Stage (the pretty large one next to it) run on a tight schedule, the Balance Stage (the far off one that used to be under a tent) can run as much as a full set behind and as such, we had to leave the hyperactive and noisy Fuck Buttons after only three songs before getting into position for Dizzee Rascal. Dizzee Rascal apparently has a top single in the UK and wasn’t about to be treated like anything less. Which is to say, when the sound wasn’t up to his standards, he yelled, “This ain’t no folk shit!” to the sound guy until the knobs were adjusted correctly. He then proceeded to give us a set showing us why he is top of the pops over in England. His beats were great and he had an easy time getting everyone to raise their hands in the air, yell out like they just didn’t care and dance like no one was watching. Because no one was watching…all eyes were on Dizzee and whether or not anyone actually knew the words (which most people did), he made it easy to sing along.

Had I actually stuck with this plan of seeing acts that I hadn’t seen before, I would’ve just stayed at the Connector Stage all day, and one act where I regret not being in the center of the action was !!!. I’ve never quite understood their appeal and I only sort of like the two albums of theirs that I have but the live show blows their studio work out of the water…at least as near as I could gather from the jumbotron. While part of me wonders just how much speed this band is on to be able to move like that…another part of me doesn’t really care because the audience looked like they were having even more fun than the band.

The Hold Steady

Of course, the reason I didn’t go see !!! was to check out The Hold Steady who I’d thoroughly enjoyed on their tour with Art Brut back in November. Since then, they’ve recorded Stay Positive, from which they played a few tracks which work very well into their previous catalog of well told anthems from bars, high schools and the wrong side of the tracks. Craig Finn is a hell of a storyteller on the album, and in person he moves about with such urgency that it’s hard not to be swept up, especially as he ends his songs with this beatific smile. He smiled during the happy songs and during the sad songs and at the end he said that there’s so much joy in what they do…and he thanked us for being a part of it. They also came back for an encore (”Charlemagne” in case you were wondering) and although it was cheesy that he told us that we were all The Hold Steady, it was still a beautiful thing to hear since it was obvious that he really meant it.

When I told PJ immediately from Union Park that I was missing Jarvis Cocker to get myself into position for Animal Collective, that was only half of the truth. I couldn’t have gotten to the Connector Stage if I had wanted to because after The Hold Steady set, I could move forward. And that was it. I couldn’t move sideways and I couldn’t move backward. I was stuck like a sardine in a tin can for a good hour before Animal Collective even started their show. But I was temporarily able to get a good view on the jumbotron of Jarvis Cocker and some of the sweet moves that he could do onstage. He didn’t play any Pulp, but he did do “The Cunts Are Running the World” and he gyrated spasmodically on the stage close to the end in a manner that made me wonder if he was really into the music, or really having a seizure.

Animal Collective

Animal Collective was one of the major contributors (along with Public Enemy) in getting me to make the trip out to Chicago. i was told both that they were utterly fantastic live and that they were terrible live and just a bunch of noise. Actually…they’re neither. Animal Collective’s material is very fluid. They rarely stop the music to either talk to the audience or tune their instruments and for the most part, what we heard from onstage wasn’t exactly what we’ve heard on their albums either because there have been changes in what sample they’ve used, instrumental improvisations or additional lyrics in spaces where there might otherwise be a failed witty joke. So basically, much of their live show relies on the strength of their material and their skill as musicians rather than their stage presence. As such, this was not a set that would change minds and anyone who went into the set feeling ambivalent about Animal Collective probably stayed that way. Still, it was hard not to get caught up in some of the dreamier moments of the set.

For starters, Panda Bear has a phenomenal voice. Yes, anyone who has listened to Person Pitch or even Sung Tongs is probably aware that the man can sing but there’s a significant difference in what he sounds like on studio releases and what happens when Noah Lennox opens his mouth live onstage and this pitch perfect tenor reverberates in midair. Unless he’s turned to the side to play the drums, he tends to stay stationary but I couldn’t help but be moved when the second song that they broke out was his own “Comfy in Nautica.” Everyone in my little area had arms pumping in unison and although I’d seen that song solo…it was still very overwhelming.

Still, it seemed to me that the set was carried by Avey Tare. He’s not the most dynamic of frontmen but when he got into the moment he brought everyone else with him. The most intense pit of people that I got caught in wasn’t for Public Enemy, nor was it for Les Savy Fav or HEALTH. It was during “Peacebone.” The minute that sample started up, Avey Tare started grooving, the crowd went up for grabs and I think I broke parts of my feet in that group of extremely happy jumping people. Also, for the record, he actually can change his voice that quickly from normal singing to earth-shaking shriek to falsetto and back again. I was impressed. Except for moments like “Comfy In Nautica,” whether he meant to or not, Avey Tare commanded the pulse of the audience, determining whether they were relaxing or bouncing. After finishing off with a version of “Fireworks” that lasted about ten minutes, I thought the crowd was going to riot when he said, apologetically, that they really did have to get off the stage thanks to city ordinances and a couple of festival organizers had to come onstage to assuage the frustrated crowd.

It’s always such a pleasure to work on the Daily Graboid and find a week full of great releases, which happens to be the case this week after a rather lackluster previous week (the reason for no Graboid).

A few highlighted albums include Brendan Canning’s solo debut Something For All of Us, The Avett Brothers’ Second Gleam, Bodies of Water’s A Certain Feeling, Benji Hughes’ double album A Love Extreme, CSS’ sophomore follow-up Donkey, Paul Weller’s 22 Dreams, and a band Pablo posted on just the other day - Pas/Cal’s Raised on Mathew, Mark, Luke & Laura.

The Avett Brothers :: Second Gleam
MP3: “Murder in the City”

Azeda Booth :: In Flesh Tones
MP3: “Ran”

Benji Hughes :: A Love Extreme / full album stream
MP3: “I Went With Some Friends To See The Flaming Lips”
MP3: “You Stood Me Up”
MP3: “Why Do These Parties Always End Up the Same Way?”
MP3: “The Mummy”

Black Kids :: Partie Traumatic / full album stream
MP3: “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You”

Bodies of Water :: A Certain Feeling
MP3: “Under The Pines”

Brendan Canning and Broken Social Scene Presents… :: Something For All Of Us
MP3: “Hit The Wall”

Buffalo Killers :: Let It Ride
MP3: “If I Get Myself Anywhere”

The Clientele ::  That Night a Forest Grew
stream songs on their myspace page

CSS :: Donkey / full album stream
MP3: “Rat Is Dead”

Dr. Dog :: Fate / full album stream
MP3: “The Ark”
MP3: “The Old Days”

¡Forward, Russia! :: Life Processes / full album stream
MP3: “Spring is a Condition”

High Places :: 03/07 - 09/07
MP3: “Head Spins”

Lackthereof :: Your Anchor
MP3: “Last November”

Low vs. Diamond :: Low vs. Diamond
MP3: “Heart Attack”
MP3: “Song We Sang Away”

The Loved :: Everything, Anything, Nothing
MP3: “Lydia/Spinning”

Nina Inch Nails :: The Slip
MP3: “1,000,000″

Pacific! :: Reveries
MP3: “Hot Lips”

Pas/Cal :: Raised on Mathew, Mark, Luke & Laura
MP3: “You Were Too Old For Me”

Paul Weller :: 22 Dreams
MP3: “Push It Along”

Windmill :: Puddle City Racing Lights
MP3: “Tokyo Moon”

Pas/Cal is a band that I’ve rediscovered every summer for the past few years. Someone would make a summer mix, I would download it, and suddenly I’d have a new favorite song for sunny days. But, I’d look for an album, and with one nowhere to be found, I’d forget about them. The next summer, it would happen all over again. I was able to see that the had a few EPs, and they were great, but I wanted to hear their quirky pop for a full album. Well, years later, the band is still together, and this week their first full-length, I Was Raised On Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura, came out.

To cut to the chase, the album is 50 minutes of pop heaven. The songs are catchy and melodic, yet can take 180 degree turns at the drop of a hat. It’s like these guys absorbed the entire history of pop music, from the Beatles to the Shins, and used it all to make their own sound. And Pas/Cal does pop pastiche really well- I’m talking my year-end list really well. So, check it out, because I have a feeling this is a summer album I’m going to return to long after summer is over.

MP3: Pas/Cal: “Glorious Ballad of the Ignored”
MP3: Pas/Cal: “You Were Too Old For Me” (via Stereogum)

Calexico have always gotten bonus points from me for being from Tucson, where I lived during my high school years. Oh yeah, and because they make great music too… Here’s the first song they’re sharing off their upcoming album, Carried to Dust, which is due September 9 via Touch and Go. From the sounds of this track, this album will continue that desert sound that Calexico do so well… Enjoy!

MP3: Calexico: “Two Silver Trees”

For anyone who, like me, is in Utah, one of the best things going right now is the Twilight Concert Series. In downtown Salt Lake there is a free concert every Thursday night, and the selection ranges from the Roots and De La Soul to Andrew Bird and Broken Social Scene. This last Thursday night my wife and I hopped on the light-rail train, and headed up to SLC to catch Andrew Bird and Josh Ritter.

First up was Idaho singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. Despite the seriousness of most of his music, he was probably the happiest guy I’ve ever seen on stage. Seriously, the guy couldn’t stop grinning. He ran through favorites from all of his albums, some remaining toned-down and acoustic like on the albums, while others were converted into all-out rockers. His band was great, adding to the songs while still keeping their essence, and they even did some random mid-song instrument changes. And, as icing on the cake, his bassist had one of the best mustaches I’ve seen in a while. I was kind of worried before the show that he would be overly serious and that it would be a slow set, but he even had the old guy with the long white beard next to us dancing to the music.

But, of course, most of us were mostly excited to hear the great Andrew Bird work his onstage magic. He came out alone, and with his violin and his pedals, he started looping over himself until the music grew to a hypnotic wash of noise. In just a few minutes, the crowd was left in awe- seriously, one person should not be able to make all those sounds by himself. The violin, the guitar, the whistling, the singing- it was all great. One of the most amazing things about his live show is how everything is so different than his albums. He treated his songs like jazz standards, and with his band (which included Martin Dosh on drums) held steady while he improvised on his themes. He looped plucked strings, harmonized with his own whistling, and even changed up his vocal melodies. Anything could come at any moment, and it was all good.

The second half of the show was the real treat. As he played “Imitosis,” people started dancing in the pond, and when things slowed down, like in the encore performance of the “Water Jet Cilice” most of us just stood in silence. He closed his set with “Tables and Chairs,” and it was pure bliss. If you have yet to see Andrew Bird live, you need to go, and bring your friends, parents, and dog. They’ll love it too.

I know, I know…I haven’t been here. I’ll save you the thousand excuses and just go straight into some good Pitchfork Festival coverage to make up for it. Having been a year ago, I’m now familiar with the stage layout and prepared to have a blast, potential rain notwithstanding.

Mission of Burma

I missed the beginning of performance of Vs, which is one of the Mission of Burma albums that I’ve spent less time with, but having seen Mission of Burma before, I knew that I was in for a set full of blisteringly intense rock and roll fury. I got it, and nobody was enjoying that fury more than the guy standing behind me. Personally, I love when I see someone so into the music that they’re reminding the band which song comes next on the lineup. Mission of Burma actually did forget this twice. Their banter was as clever as their lyrics, and they quipped that they knew we’d settle for no less than the Definitive Edition of Vs. and after “Learn How,” drummer Peter Prescott joked that this was the song they used to let him, “sing.” It was, er, sung, very forcefully and along with “Eintstein’s Day” and “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate,” provided the highlights for that set.

Sebadoh

Sebadoh distinguished themselves from the other two acts on the stage as being the only one not to endorse Obama. At least they didn’t as long as I was watching them. I left halfway through their performance of Bubble and Scrape to stake out a good performance of Public Enemy. The second band from Massachussetts on the bill, they said that they grew up listening to Mission of Burma and aren’t terribly sure how they ended up playing after them. I can’t say I know either. They’re a good band, legendary even, but they weren’t really doing it for me, Bubble and Scrape isn’t an album I’ve spent any time with, and I wasn’t won over enough by their performance to attempt to do so in the near future. Their overly long pauses and less than witty attempts at banter in between songs didn’t help. Public Enemy’s beat makers The Bomb Squad started testing out their turntables on a different stage and getting very loud shouts of “Bomb Squad, Bomb Squad” before Sebadoh had even finished their set and honestly, I felt bad for them, but I feel like this was the overarching sentiment of the crowd.

Public Enemy

After a warm-up of reggae and dub inspired beats from The Bomb Squad, the first act I’ve witnessed who have actually used so much bass that my nose shook, Public Enemy took the stage. Flava Flav (who actually missed “Bring The Noise” made two promises to the audience over the course of the set. The first was that they wouldn’t half-ass their performance, that they would deliver a show and the second was that they would wear us out. They did both and did it brilliantly. Although he wore the clock around his neck, Flava Flav decided to forego the huge colorful hat and sunglasses for more subdued t-shirt and baseball cap and this was really the first time since all of his VH1 sublebrity fame that I was able to see him again as an artist instead of a punchline. In fact, the one time he brought up his reality TV fame, he got booed. However, this set wasn’t about Flav’s VH1 fame.

It was about something bigger. They proclaimed their messages of peace, righteous anger and hatred of war as Chuck D moved like an evangelist over the crowd. Their fervor grew throughout the set. I was sweating bullets by the end of “Don’t Believe the Hype” and the crowd really hit their stride by “Terminator X,” (who by the way, retired in 1998.) Before they’d finished performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Flava Flav was told that they had twenty minutes but that he’d go for another hour and twenty minutes…or at least until they cut the sound. They did in fact, stay on for an additional fifty. After finishing off “Party For Your Right to Fight,” the band did what they apparently do for their non-Don’t Look Back shows…a medley of old stuff and new stuff all pieced together as one. As soon as they started “Welcome to the Terrordome,” the place really went up for grabs and they went through everything from “911 is a Joke” to their first single to the song they performed last year on Jimmy Kimmel for the group’s 20th anniversary. Flav even did some beats on the drums, and their current DJ a few scratches on the turntables. Chuck D was an image of perfect spitfire the entire night and had complete control over us. We’d throw our hands in the air. We’d stick up a middle finger and yell “Fuck the war.” We were all under his command. And I, personally, was so worn out from their set, that I didn’t even bother looking for an afterparty. Stay tuned for more.

Click the image above to watch this thing of beauty.  The late-era Smashing Pumpkins that plays over the trailer works surprisingly well.  Too bad the same song was used in Batman and Robin.  Hopefully this film doesn’t meet a similar fate!  Man, 2009 can’t come soon enough!

*Update*
Apple has the trailer up in glorious quicktime!

Click the cut link to watch the embedded video.
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Trying to get this up as quick as possible, since I have to get to work in a few minutes.  Rich over at Cable & Tweed posted this bit of delightful news that i’ve honestly been waiting for since the release of the Magnetic Field’s latest release Distortion.  The band will finally be making their way back to Atlanta at the Symphony Hall at Woodruff Arts Center on October 17, as they’ve announced a short stint of U.S. tour dates.   Pre-sale for tickets has already begun as of today via http://magneticfields.musictoday.com/ with general ticket sales starting on July 18.  Ah! I’m so excited about this!  Here’s the full list of dates below:

10/10 Minneapolis, MN - State Theater
10/11 Madison, WI - Capitol Theater
10/13 Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
10/14 Austin, TX - Paramount Theater
10/15 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
10/17 Atlanta, GA - Symphony Hall @ Woodruff Arts Ctr.
10/18 Raleigh, NC - Meymandi Concert Hall
10/23 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Jersey Theatre
10/24 Columbus, OH - Southern Theatre
10/25 Philadelphia, PA - Merriam Theater
10/26 Washington, DC - Lisner Auditorium @ GW Univ.

It feels like it’s been a while since i’ve mentioned anything guitar-pop related, so here it is making its triumphant comeback in the form of The Bank Holidays - a quartet from Australia that I discovered through a great indie-pop compilation I downloaded from Knut of Eardrums (which i’ll mention more of below).  This song has been playing constantly since I initially listened to it, as it’s a surprisingly catchy - and fitting - song for the summer with its boy/girl harmonies and simple melody.

Apparently, they’ve released two EPs from 2004 and 2005, before releasing their debut As A Film on Lost & Lonesome Recording Co. last year.  I highly recommend you check out these two tracks off the album below, especially “Folded In Half” - as it’s a perfect summer time song.

MP3: The Bank Holidays :: “Folded In Half”
MP3: The Bank Holidays :: “Oh Daylight”

**************

I mentioned the indie-pop compilation that I discovered The Bank Holidays on, so here’s a little bit more information in regards to that.  One of my favorite bloggers, Knut over at Eardrums, released a couple of free & legal digital Summer Compilation albums on his site.  I’ve listened to it a couple of times during a few hour-long drives to and from the airport; and there are some wonderful discoveries to be had while listening to this.  I highly recommend downloading both Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, because who doesn’t love free music?  You would be crazy not to!

I’ve been catching up on all of the new Of Montreal goodness over at You Ain’t No Picasso, as Matt has been serving the internet well with all of the news regarding the forthcoming record titled Skeletal Lamping, which is due out later this year.  As you can see from the newly unveiled artwork for the album above, it seems that nude is the way to go this year in regards to album art.  Official tour dates have been announced as well, including an Atlanta date on November 8.  Check out the rest of the dates for yourself after the cut.

MP3: Of Montreal :: “Disconnect the Dots”
MP3: Of Montreal :: “So Begins our Alabee”

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