Concert ticket retailer Live Nationis offering $20.00 concert tickets now through May 20th as part of its Kickoff to Summerpromotion.
There are many good shows on sale, including Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Steely Dan, Weezer, Black Sabbath, Florence and the Machine, Garbage, Duran Duran, Rob Zombie, Jane’s Addiction, Kool and the Gang, and dozens more.
Granted, these $20.00 tickets aren’t prime seats, but seeing Steely Dan for only $20.00 to sit on the lawn in general admission is pretty good. Get them while you can.
Keep your mind open.
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Punk legends The Misfitsare reuniting for Riot Festthis year. It’s the first time the original members will have performed together in nearly 34 years.
Early bird discount tickets for Riot Fest have been selling fast, meaning the prices keep going up as each tier sells out. The Misfits are the only band announced so far, and it will only cause tickets to sell faster. This will be the one of the biggest gigs of the year, so don’t miss it if you get the chance.
The annual Austin City Limits Music Festival has announced its dates and lineup. The festival takes place in downtown Austin, Texas over the course of two weekends, and some bands play both of them.
Headliners this year include Radiohead, Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar, LCD Soundsystem, Willie Nelson, M83, Cage the Elephant, Two Door Cinema Club, LL Cool J, Foals, and Die Antwoord.
Tickets for the first weekend are already sold out, so don’t wait for weekend two tickets if you’re interested. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people who didn’t get to see anyone during Levitation Austin this year go to this festival to make up for it. Tickets and hotel rooms will go fast.
Keep your mind open.
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Lollapalooza Chicago has released its daily schedule of bands over the course of the four-day weekend July 28 – 31st.
Four-day and single-day tickets are sold out unless you want and can afford to buy VIP ($2,200 weekend / $650 single day) or Platinum Package ($4,200, no single day tickets) tickets. Thursday night’s headliners are Lana Del Rey, the Last Shadow Puppets, Flosstradamus, and J. Cole.
Friday night’s headliners: Major Lazer, Ghost, Martin Garrix, and a little band called Radiohead.
Saturday night’s headliners: Disclosure, Vic Mensa, Hardwell, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Sunday night’s headliners: Ellie Goulding, ZHU, Die Antwoord, and LCD Soundsystem.
I’ve been meaning to pick up A Place to Bury Strangers’ 2009 album, Exploding Head, for years. I have no excuse other than it was never for sale on CD whenever I’d see them live. I love the band, so shame on me for taking seven years to pick up this fine record.
The opener, “It Is Nothing,” displays Oliver Ackermann’s (vocals and guitar) love of My Bloody Valentine. His guitar sounds like he’s playing it upside-down and backwards while his vocals seem to be coming from the bottom of an empty pool. “In Your Heart” is one of my favorite APTBS tracks. It has the stabbing guitar chords, chugging synth beats, lyrics about screwed-up relationships (“Don’t say you’ll be with me again. There’s nothing there, it’s dead.”), and David J-like bass I love from their songs, and it slays live.
Tribal drumming grounds “Lost Feeling” as Ackermann pleads with his girl to come back to him, but he knows he’s not even on her radar. It’s like a great lost Bauhaus track with even more blaring guitars. “Deadbeat” is nothing but, as it has some of the hardest, slickest beats and bass on the record. It’s an instant mosh pit creator, so be careful where you play it.
“Keep Slipping Away” is like early Cure but with more reverb, heavier amps, and not as much moping. “Ego Death” is heavy goth rock with a chorus that might knock you out of your boots. “Smile When You Smile” is equally heavy and a bit creepier. “Everything Always Goes Wrong” could be the theme for every Three’s Company episode by the title, but the sound of it is better for a modern Euro-horror film.
You’d think the title track would be loud enough to make your head explode, but APTBS wisely flips it around to make it a catchy industrial track with almost a dance club bass line and vocals free of reverb. The closer is one of their hardest and loudest live tracks – “I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart.” As fast as it is on the record, it’s twice the speed live.
Don’t be like me and wait seven years to add this to your collection. It’s essential noise-psych.
I’ve returned to WSNDfor my summer shows. I’ll be on most Sunday nights at midnight EST until 2am. I spin a lot of variety, so you’re sure to hear something you’ll like. The show streams live at the station’s website, or you can hear it on 88.9FM on the dial if you’re in the South Bend, Indiana listening area.
Here’s my set list from last night’s show:
Brujas Del Sol – Ships in the Distance
Bad Religion – Ad Hominem
Helmet – FBLA II
The Kills – Goodnight Bad Morning
WALL – Cuban Cigars
Betty Davis – Is It Love or Desire
Soledad Brothers – Let Me Down
Prince – Baltimore
Beastie Boys – Futterman’s Rule
Elvis Presley – Blue Moon of Kentucky
Shonen Knife – The Perfect World
Shone Knife – Cookie Day
Rustie – Paradise Stone
Case & Slide – Perception (Vocal mix)
Possum Kingdom Ramblers – Godzilla
Vaadat Charigim – Ein Li Makom
Gary Wilson – I Wanna Lose Control
The Night Beats – Rat King
The Night Beats – Power Child
Earthless – Violence of the Red Sea
The Blind Owls – The Girl Is Mine
Klaus Johan Grobe – Ein Guter Tag
Imarhan – Tahabort
Strange Lot – Into the Night
Golden Dawn Arkestra – Sama Chaka
Thanks for listening. I’m back on the air April 22nd.
I’m happy to report that fun post-punk music is alive and well thanks to New York’s WALL (Vanessa Gomez, Vince McClelland, Elizabeth Skadden, Samantha York). Their four-song EP is a jolt of lightning to everything drab coming out of your radio right now.
“Cuban Cigars” is a middle finger to rich douchebags full of skronky guitars and visceral lyrics like, “These guys they got the money, only once they’ve been to the laundry.” It’s one of my top singles of the year so far. “Fit the Part” is a great mix of X (sing-along / shout vocals), Buzzcocks (beats and guitar), and Circle Jerks (attitude). “Last Date” could be an early Devo track, but it’s really more of a paranoid freak-out fueled by McClelland’s Gang of Four-influenced guitar. Just when you think they’re all about post-punk madness, along comes “Milk,” which is neo-psychedelic rock (Post-psych? I should trademark that term.) with slightly reverbed vocals and building instrumentation that is perfect for tripping or getting ready for a fight.
This EP is a shot across the bow of modern rock. WALL have put up a metaphoric version of their namesake and dared anyone to scale it. It’s covered in spikes, barbed wire, fuzzy amps, and four New York rockers atop it ready to stomp down anyone who even tries to climb up there. They can’t release a full-length album soon enough for my tastes, and the sake of the world.
[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums over a year old that I haven’t heard until now.]
Groove Armada’s Vertigo is one of those records that I’ve been meaning to pick up for years but kept forgetting to seek out whenever I was in a wrecka stow or visiting an online music sales site.
It’s a masterpiece of late 1990’s techno, house, and lounge. The opener, “Chicago,” is a perfect anthem for late night clubbing in the Windy City – fat beats, luscious synth grooves, and kinky guitar. “Whatever, Whenever” starts off sounding like something from a grindhouse horror film trailer before rapper M.A.D. slides in with smooth rhymes to save us all from whatever horror was about to pounce on us.
“Dusk, You & Me” is one of the best make-out songs of 1999. If Roddy Lormiar’s trumpet doesn’t get things moved into the naked zone, you only have yourself to blame. I don’t know if the “63” in the title of “Pre 63” refers to the year 1963, but you could put this fly song of heavy bass, playful flute, and crisp beats into any early 1960’s Euro-crime film or sex comedy.
“If Everybody Looked the Same” weaves a great use of a sample from A Tribe Called Quest through a song about bigotry. “Serve Chilled” is perfectly titled, as it’s great for relaxing after late night parties. “I See You Baby” is the opposite, however, and will get the party jumping again as soon as you start it. I mean, the chorus is “I see you, baby, shakin’ that ass.” What more do you need?
“A Private Interlude” has great scratch work from Dominic Betmead. “At the River” is weird, almost sounding backward at some points, and creeps out of the speakers like something from a bad print of a Fellini movie. In other words, I like it. “In My Bones” is a sweet house track about how a good groove gets inside you and can only escape by taking temporary control of you. It has some of the best synth work on the record and probably is one of their best “unknown” hits.
“Your Song” isn’t a cover of the Elton John tune. It’s a funky track with sexy vocals by Sophie Barker. “Inside My Mind (Blue Skies)” is a song you’ve probably heard in dozens of movies, TV shows, and commercials and not realized it. It’s ambient lounge grooves instantly put you in a mellow state of mind. It’s impossible to be depressed during this song. It chills you out like few songs can. The album ends with a saucy remix of “I See You Baby” by Fatboy Slim.
It’s a solid house music record. Pick it up if you’re looking for some good late night grooves for your next party.
Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world (and still one of the few pushing the envelope and daring to not be pigeonholed), have announced their as-yet untitled new album will be released on May 8th in digital formats and in physical formats on June 18th.
The band surprised everyone by erasing their entire Internet presence for two days and then returning with the new single “Burn the Witch.” Two days later they released the single “Daydreaming,” which has a video directed by film director Paul Thomas Anderson (for whom Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood has scored multiple films).
Radiohead are playing multiple festival dates in the U.S. and around the world starting this summer. They always put on an excellent show, so don’t miss them if they’re near you.
Aussie legends Midnight Oil announced on May 4th that they are reuniting for a tour in 2017. In case you don’t know “the Oils” (as they are sometimes called) are one of Australia’s greatest bands and easily one of the most politically charged / Stick-it-to-the-Man bands of the last 30 years. Lead singer Peter Garrett even went into politics after the band split up to further their causes for Aboriginal Australians, economic equality, and environmental action.
They haven’t announced tour dates or locations yet, but this will be a must-see show. My wife and I have seen them twice, and both shows were excellent. We got to meet some of them after a show, and they were all good lads.
They’re offering a free download of a live version of “Forgotten Years” (one of the hits off the classic Blue Sky Mining album) through their website to celebrate the announcement, so grab it while you can.
