OK, here’s who I’m looking at for Friday right now. Who am I missing, let me know, here’s the full schedule.
Cold War Kids (1:15 - 2:15) Brazilian Girls (2:15 - 3:30) Kings of Leon (3:45 - 5:00) Very excited about this one. Gillian Welch (3:45 - 5:15) I’d love to see part of this show, but with KOL at the same time it’s going to be hard. I’ve shot both of them, so I’ll prob stick with KOL.
The hardest part of my Friday: The Roots (6:00 - 7:30) The Black Keys (6:15 - 7:45) Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System (6:30 - 8:00) I’ve shot both the Roots and The Black Keys. I really want to see Manu Chao. I’ll probably miss The Black Keys in favor of seeing 2 of the 3.
Tool (9:00 - 11:30) Can’t believe they are playing Bonnaroo, can’t wait!
Late night, who knows but if I’m up late enough…
DJ Shadow (2:00 - 3:30)
Stay tuned for Saturday, gah what a clusterfuck at the end of the day before The Police.
OK, a little shameless self promotion. I’ve found a band down here in North Carolina. It’s called Early Morning Swim. A bit folksy, but we have some songs that rock for sure. The band is being reformed right now by the lead singer/song writer/acoustic guitar (Mike Musto) with all new members. I’m on drums, we just picked up a bass player (Angie) who will probably do some melodies, we are probably getting a new fiddle/violin player and another guitar player to play more lead.
Omar has put out a new CD “Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo” which you can download now from iTunes or get in stores on Wed. I haven’t heard it yet, but early reviews are saying it sounds alot like studio albums from Mars Volta, but a bit more ambient. Cedric also lends his vocals to a few tracks as well.
edit: You can now Pre-order here. You can also order the special edition CD/DVD version, which includes a 51 minute movie about the making of the album, a music video for the song ‘The Fragile Army’ and an autographed poster.
OK, so I haven’t been doing as many of these as I wanted to, so I’m hitting bands that sound fair cool and I might go check out, but are not big names. Hense, Cold War Kids. Besides having a kick ass name, they really sound really great. Hailing from Long Beach (I know, I know, not another CA band) they sound great band, have good lyrics and more importantly right now have a good time slot for me at Bonnaroo (Friday: 1:15 - 2:15 PM). They will definitely have an indy crowd there following them, I’d say they have more of a London folk, Tom Waits feel to them. Anyway, here’s some tracks…
If you where at Bonnaroo last year and tried to go see Lewis Black or any other comedians, you probably didn’t make it. The lines where 2 to 3 hours long and they turned away more people then actually go to see the shows. This year Lewis Black & Friends Starring: John Bowman, Lynne Koplitz, Finesse Mitchell will be play shows at 6:30 and 8:15 AND David Cross plus Aziz Ansari & Nick Kroll will be playing shows at 10:00 and 11:45. They will also be doing shows on Friday, but I’m sure the crowds will be alot larger. Dave Attell will be giving shows at the Comedy tent as well, but not until Saturday and Sunday.
The ten is air conditioned, it has chairs, it’s are great way to start off Bonnaroo by relaxing and laughing your ass off. I’m sure you’ll still need to get there early to make the shows, but what else are you doing on Thursday?
The only other show I have a little interest in seeing early is Ryan Shaw at 7:15, but I really don’t have to see him or stay for the entire thing. I will probably try check out The Little Ones, The Black Angels, Sam Roberts Band, Apollo Sunshine, and Clutch if I stay up that late. What’s everyone else’s take on Thursday?
The Beastie Boys have a new instrumental album, The Mix-Up, scheduled for release on June 26, 2007. Just hearing this one song, Off the Grid, reminds me of their instrumentals on Check Your Head and Ill Communication. There is no sitting still on this one. It’ll make you shake that ass.
Every once in a while I’ll come across a new band which is so good, that it surprises me that I haven’t heard of them previously. The Foundry Field Recordings is such a band. The band hails from Columbia, Missouri and was originally started by Billy Schuh. The band began under the moniker of Billy Schuh and the Foundry, before several name and line-up changes. They’ve released one album, Prompts/Miscues in 2006 and are scheduled to release a new singles/ep, Fallout Stations on June 5th, 2007.
The band has a sound that draws equally upon their influences, which includes Built to Spill and Guided by Voices. Some of their music reminds me of Radiohead as sung by the Shins. Either way, it’s a good thing.
Check out their video Battle Brigades from the album Prompts/Miscues.
iTunes announced today it’s Icky Thump pre-sale. What’s the big deal you ask? Well, you get a digital booklet, which I’m sure is the same thing you’d get in paper versino with the actual CD, but you also get an iTunes exclusive live track. You can order it here, this link will open directly into iTunes.
Oh ya, and freakin cool hats and I totally want one of those jackets.
Man, I really can’t wait for Bonnaroo. White Stripes, one of the bands I’m most excited to see/shoot will be there for the first time. I’m afraid they are going to be on the main stage, but I’m hoping the will be on the second stage so we can see them a bit better. Meg is going to be hard to see on the huge stage if not. That reminds me, have to get a folding step stool for shooting this year, get above all the other photographers and actually be able to shoot more of the main stage. Anyway, new video from the Stripes, this album is going to rock, can’t wait for it’s release (like right before Bonnaroo)
The Police are headlining Bonnaroo this year and just annouced, are giving away a free pair of tickets. Go. Enter. If you win them you can always sell them or I have a few freinds that would love to go, but just don’t have the money.
Ok, time for my ranting. I’ve always been a music lover. i try to stay a bit ahead of the curve, don’t try to listen to what everyone else is listening to and get a hold of new music when ever I can and let me friends know about it. Well, that’s what these time kind of exciting. The internet is changing music, whether big music labels what it to or not. They have been behind the 8 ball for a while, while the public wants their music in electronic format and labels against it. Apple, of all companies got them to give…a little. 99¢ for a song, around $10 for an album, normally. Apple really isn’t into this game for us, other then trying to give the user what we are asking for. That and sell their products.
That’s fine and well, hell the iPod has pretty much changed music, even if you don’t own one. They are pretty much the modern time’s Walkman. I’m sure something will replace it in 5 or 10 years anyway. (iPhone?)
Anyway, the labels still have one thing wrong, copy protection. Sure, they want to protect their copyright, I as a photographer understand that, but people will always find a way to copy music if they really want to. They are using same argument as when tapes first hit big. It’s going to kill music, whatever. Tapes didn’t kill the music industry and .mp3, .wma, or .m4a are not goign to kill it either.
But the internet, that might be a different story. But I don’t want to say the internet will kill music. Music will always be alive and kicking, just as it was before there was a music industry. The internet may just kill the record label as we see them now. Which I’m not going to complain about. Lets look at a few things.
*Myspace has more bands on it then one can count. You can listen to full songs for free, videos, learn more about bands right in one place. Bands on major labels and unknowns are all becoming more popular because of this and other social networking sites.
*Bands can now set up their own distribution and marketing online, without the “need” to sell actual copies of cd, bands can easily set up their own sites for users to pay and download their music. Myspace, websites and a little word of mouth goes a long way for a good band without a name to make a big splash. Without the middle-man-record-label.
*Home recording systems have gotten cheap, hell, I own a copy of Pro-Tools, which is what prob 90% of records have been mixed on. For under $1000, heck even $500 a band could really record and produce a deceit sounding album.
*Bands traditionally have never made much off of album sales, where they make most of their $ is touring. Look at the Grateful Dead, they really didn’t care about making albums in the studio, let their fans record and trade their music as much as they wanted. They became one of the biggest names out there. Fans followed them around for years and where hugely successful.
The computer and more so, the internet is changing music, the recording industry will not be the same in 10 years. It’s kind of exciting and I for one don’t care if the labels have to take a back seat to the actual performers.
OK, new band I’ve been giving a good listen to out of the UK. The gUiLLeMoTs, great indy sound. Creative and full of life. I really started listening to them because of show on lablogotheque’s Take Away Shows on DailyMotion. All the videos on there are incredible, though many are in French, but the music makes them worth it and the videos are really amazing. I’m really hoping my videos at Bonnaroo are half as good. Anyway, give them a listen, you won’t be disappointed.
OK, so I’ve added a little widget thing in the bottom of the right column of this page. It shows the last 10 songs Paul and I have played on our computers. I’m on top and Paul is the second one. It’s powered through a fair cool music site, Mog.
Mog is a fair well thought out site with some good programming behind it. My page is here and Paul’s is here. It’s all about music and people sharing new music with each other (not sharing as in file transfers, but sharing as in finding new music)
OK, o I have to plug a festival that celebrates one of my favorite movies. Lebowskifest! It’s on it’s 6th year and it’ sin of all places Louisville, Ky. Man I have to go, live music, bowling, white russians, costume parties, what could be better? One of these years I’m going to have to go.
