Here is Broken Social Scene’s epically amazing new song World Sick, the first song from their new album Forgiveness Rock Record. The album is due out on May 4th.
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[mp3] Broken Social Scene – World Sick from Forgiveness Rock Record (2010)
Ladies and gentlemen, the opening track of Morning Benders’ new album BIG ECHO. The Morning Benders will be at the Independent on March 30, 2010. But tickets now!
Also, check out our Kuestionnaire with them a while back here.
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[mp3] The Morning Benders – Excuses from Big Echo (2010)
Lake Tahoe is in the Bay Area right? Sure it is…I don’t know I’ve only lived here for a year. It’s relivent enough to mention though. Wanderlust Festival is this weekend (July 24-26th) up in Lake Tahoe. The line-up includes Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Spoon, Rogue Wave, Mates of State, Girl Talk, Kaki King, Gillian Welch, Jenny Lewis, Michael Franti & Spearhead (eww), Amanda Palmer, Spearhead, Jai Uttal, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Mutaytor, The Honey Brothers, and The London Souls. The pictures of people doing Yoga are kind of freaking me out, but it looks fun nonetheless. Anywho, here’s this week’s schedule…
Today has veteran shoegaze act Trespassers William and Robert Gomez with The Theatre Fire at the Hemlock Tavern, sfSoundSeries presents avant-garde masters Milton Babbitt, Alvin Lucier, Olga Neuwirth, Matt Ingalls, and Hans Thomalla at the ODC Theater, and the mighty Judgement Day, TRICLOPS! and The Definite Articles rock out at the Bottom of the Hill.
Monday features Blue Öyster Cult at Slim’s and hip hop acts Awol One, Factor, and Ceschi at the Element Lounge.
Tuesday will be pretty packed with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girls, and The Champagne Socialists performing the Rickshaw Stop, electro-act Casiotone for the Painfully Alone will be at the Bottom of the Hill, and the ever-so amazing hip hop group Doomtree featuring Sims, Cecil Otter, Paper Tiger, Dessa, Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak, Mike Mictlan and Lazerbeak will be playing the Elbo Room.
Wednesday has synth-pop sweetie La Roux with io echo at Café du Nord, the Fake Problems show at the Bottom of the Hill is canceled, and experimental pop group Micachu & The Shapes keep it real at the Rickshaw Stop.
Thursday, The Weakerthans play The Great American Music Hall, hip-hop legends De La Soul hit up The Fillmore, and singer-songwriter iaWillm Fitzsimmons soothes The Independent.
Friday has of Montreal and Jon Brion at the Fox Theater in Oakland and reggae acts The Lions, Bedouin Soundclash and Rootbeer featuring Pigeon John hits up Slim’s.
Saturday has the reunited No Doubt, Paramore, and The Sounds at the Shoreline Amphitheatre and local indie pop act maus haus plays with Rainbow Arabia at the Bottom of the Hill.
I’ll be at ComicCon a majority of this week, but those are your recommendations for this week. Have fun!
Olga Neuwirth – Lost Highway
Trespassers William – Sparrow
Ceschi – Frank Purpose
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan
Day Three of the Outside Lands Festival involved no running around at all. I just stayed at the Twin Peaks Stage all day long to watch act after act perform wonderfully. I arrived early like I have for the rest of the days, however there seemed to be little more people than I expected this morning.
The first act of the day was ALO, or Animal Liberation Orchestra. A surfer rock band that has your typical happy-go-lucky lyrics about being true to yourself and all that sappy shit. I didn’t dig’em, but the meathead “bros” loved them to death. Surfer Rock is catnip for meatheads. They love it! Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Dispatch, G. Love, etc etc. They have a monster hard-on for surfer rock. One of the “bros” even had a t-shirt that said, “Do You Like My Pecs?” Lots of “Woos!” and “Yeahs!” coming from them. If you know what I mean.
Stars is that special kind of band. They play like a band that have been together for decades. There seems to be some sort of camaraderie when they play together. Plus Amy Millan is cute as all hell. This Canadian indie-pop band played songs from Heart, Set Yourself on Fire, and last year’s In Our Bedroom After the War. They were also chucking flowers into the crowd in between songs. It was quite a fun show.
Now, I love Andrew Bird. I love his records and his brand of jazzy neo-folk. But I had never seen him live before this day. Freakin’ Wow! This guy is talented far beyond the conventional singer-songwriter. Not only does he play nearly every instrument on stage but he can also whistle like nobodies buisness. While he plays the violin, guitar, and xylophone. If he swings by your town, don’t miss him. His records don’t do him any justice, you need to see this guy live.
Broken Social Scene was always that type of band I liked but never bothered to check out their live shows. So I figured now was my opportunity to see them in all their glory. They did not disappoint. Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and their band of misfits look like they are having way too much fun up there. There were times where you’d have up to 15 people on stage playing trumpets, trombones, five guitars, and all sorts of percussion instruments. There aren’t that many bands like this out there.
After talking with what seemed like the biggest Wilco and Jeff Tweedy fan on the planet, I had high expectations for Wilco’s performance. Well it was nothing short of brilliant. The whole band is such a genuine and likable group of guys who are extremely talented. Mr. Tweedy’s songwriting and Nels Cline’s master guitar work made this live performance a massive highlight at this festival for me and probably everyone else lucky enough to catch the magic of Wilco.
Jack Johnson, or like my friend calls him, Jack-Off Johnson; was okay. I guess. I honestly wasn’t paying much attention except when I was on line for an Angus burger. I took the opportunity to wander around the festival grounds one last time and see the shops and artwork that people had displayed. I bought myself a neat little Obama T-shirt that say “Forward” on it. Seems appropriate. Particularly with his recent Joe Biden pick. Anyway, I listened to a few of Jack’s songs that I recognized. Then I left to hang out with my friends who lived nearby.
Well that’s it. It was definitely the best festival I’ve ever been to. However I’ve only been to a handful. I did have to miss Kaki King, Sean Hayes, Little Brother, Beck, Cool Kids, and M. Ward. But all these acts will be around here soon enough. I mean come on, I live in the Bay Area for Christ’s sake! One of the best music scenes on the planet. And this festival proved that fact.
I bought tickets for this way back in March, months before I even moved here. As this line-up tacked on more and more amazing artists, I came increasingly excited about this festival. Plus I haven’t been to a festival since 2004, so this will be quite interesting. They aren’t letting anyone camp overnight. Which means I’ll be reporting that night about what went down and be posting a few pictures as well.
So this is the plan so far…
Day One – I’ll be arriving sometime around 3pm which is when the gates open. I figure I’ll scope the place out and see how long it takes to get from one end of the park to the other. Then I’ll grab a spot for the ever-so-awesome Black Mountain (5:30 – 6:10). If they play “Bright Lights“, I’m going to poop myself. Just a warning. This is where things get difficult; I love Beck (6:40 – 7:50)and I love Radiohead (8:00 – 9:55). Beck finishes his set five minutes before the mighty Radiohead. This would not be a problem if they were playing on the same stage, however, that’s just not the case. Beck is all the way on the other side of the festival grounds from the Radiohead stage. So it’s fairly obvious that if I stay for even a little of Beck’s set, I’m going to get a shitty spot for one of my favorite bands of all time. We’ll see how things work out, but one way or another I’m getting a good spot for Radiohead, no doubt. Beck isn’t the only act I’m sacrificing though. I have to miss the Black Keys, Lyrics Born, and The Felice Brothers. Whatever, I’m seeing f%$&ing Radiohead!
Day Two – This day is all about running around. Which could be both fun and frustrating. First up is the soul singer Goapele (1:00 – 1:40). I don’t know much about her, it’s more or so to get a good spot for dredg (2:15 – 2:55). dredg’s set has a certain amount of importance for me because they are fresh out of the studio and will no doubt be playing a lot of new material. And if anyone has been keeping up with their studio updates, this new record is going to be epic. This is where things get difficult. One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Sean Hayes (3:00 – 3:35), is off in this odd part of the park and once he finishes, Lupe Fiasco (3:35 – 4:20) goes on back at the stage were dredg played. I’m leaning towards missing Sean Hayes because I’ve seen him three times already and never seen Lupe Fiasco. But we’ll see. After Lupe I have an hour break for food and poopies. Then it’s off to Regina Specktor (5:15 – 6:05)! I’ve loved her music for so long and had to pass up her shows countless amounts of times, but not this time. I don’t know what I’ll do if she plays Samson. After her, I get to chill out and wait for Cake (6:50 – 7:50) on the same stage. A childhood favorite, so it’ll be interesting to watch. After Cake is Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (7:55 – 9:55). Another childhood favorite, it’ll be fun to see a legend at work and his ugly mug up on stage.
Day Three – An easy and less conflicting schedule. Pretty much everyone is on one stage for me. It starts with ALO (1:00 – 1:40) which I also don’t know much about, it’s to get a good spot for Stars (2:15 – 3:00). I haven’t heard the much of the new stuff, but Set Yourself on Fire is one of my favorite indie rock albums. After Stars will be the glorious Andrew Bird (3:35 – 4:25). I’ve heard great things about his sets, so this should be interesting. After Andrew I wander over to another stage to see The Cool Kids (4:25 – 4:55). They dropped off the M.I.A. tour last year so I missed them that time around, but hopefully they make up for it here at Outside Lands. After them it’s back to the same stage where I saw the other acts to watch Broken Social Scene (5:00 – 5:50). Then it’s Wilco (6:35 – 7:50) at the same stage. As soon as Wilco tears it up, I’m going to mossy on over to see Jack Johnson (7:40 – 9:10). Not a fan, it’s just that I paid over $200 for freakin’ tickets, so I’m getting my moneys worth!
So that’s it. I’m sure there will be weird shit happening throughout the day. Stay tuned tomorrow night and watch the webcast to see if you see my doofy ass.
Kata Rokkar is a place where you can download free mp3 from artists and bands that I currently love and listen to. They are only for sampling purposes and to influence you to go out and support these artists by purchasing their records and going to their concerts. If you are a record company or an artist that is displeased with a song being displayed, feel free to contact me and I will remove it ASAP. Thank you and enjoy!
