Next year’s pilgrimage to Manchester, TN has been confirmed for 6/10-6/13. Tix go on sale 11/27. (And for what it’s worth, Pavement seem to be free that weekend.) Meanwhile, the future of Morrison, CO’s Monolith Fest is “looking very grim.” Lend a hand (of cash) at Kickstarter.
You Ain’t No Picasso continues his photo coverage from Monolith 2009 with the shots from the Girl Talk set. That reminds me…
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Animal Collective just announced some tour dates in Australia.
Pavement is reuniting to many tweets of enjoyment.
Umphrey’s McGee is playing in Las Vegas tonight and the weekly sits down with Brendan to talk about the band.
Forward Music Fest returns to Madison this weekend.
Yo La Tengo is getting the NPR webcast treatment tomorrow night when they play the 9:30 Club in D.C.
The Denver Post went to Monolith this past weekend and just put up a mega gallery. Stereogum also has a set of photos posted. Our buddy Chad went and got some great photos, as well.
Finally, if you’re not reading the best new blog out there these days, Fuck You, Phish, you’re seriously missing out on the best commentary on the band that I’ve read in a long time. I need to step up my game. Here are some recent snippets:
My asshat co-worker is back from Red Rocks and I only have one question: why the fuck couldn’t you jerk-off chewies just keep him? Let him into your Herpeville. My life would be so much less douchy. He would eat a dog.
The first thing he said to me sounded something like, “Dude-brah totally sparkle unicorn twist trey cock groove spun tweedle-dee-dee.”
Then he followed that up with, “Baq it tag it brah stellar epic set closer mist sunshine beard dose hook it up put it in her butt.”
I doused him with soap and walked away. (via)
And…
Phish has molested the following albums:
The Beatles: The White Album
The Who: Quadrophenia
Talking Heads: Remain in Light
Velvet Underground: LoadedSpecial mention: Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
I’d like to take a moment and discuss this last installment of DSoTM, in which Phish basically said to their fans, “Fuck you”. As I understand it, the DSoTM show happened in Utah, a state in which nobody actually lives. There was nobody at the show, so Phish busted out the Pink Floyd classic. Since I love Pink Floyd, I won’t make any mention of the drummers herpe-infested rendition of Great Gig in the Sky, but I have to say, thank you Phish for doing one single thing that was cool, and giving your phans the butt-reaming they deserve. (via)
Good times. Have a good Hump Day, dudes.
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Just for fun, I thought I’d throw together a big highlight video showing all the footage I got while I was at Outside Lands this past weekend. I could go through and give a play by play, but I’m not feeling too inspired by the idea that any of you really want to “read” about every thing I saw and heard this weekend. I loved pretty much everything I saw, so the video just sums up what I had the inspiration to tape as I was seeing it.
Outside Lands 2009 Highlights Video from justinpward on Vimeo.
Grab some popcorn and watch this bad boy. My editing skillz are for realz.
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Last Thursday night I got to see one of my favorite bands to see live, Holy Fuck, but the show left a little bit to be desired in my opinion. Maybe it’s because I had seen them like, five times the previous year and accepted the fact that their set would likely be pretty similar all along the way. Fast forward to a year later and I’m living in San Fran now, and it appears the band is pretty much playing the exact same set they’ve been playing for the past few years. For a fan like me, I guess I demand a bit more out of the artists I continually go see live, and sadly this band may have just dropped into the “maybe I’ll see them if it’s convenient” category of artists that I bucket in my head with my rampant over-critical nature.
That said, I had a great time at the show with my fellow band mates and got some good inspiration for some new melodies I should bust out on my next Bebot jam. They opened with “The Pulse” like they always do, but no one can deny that this is potentially one of the best set-openers ever written. When they got to “Super Inuit,” and raged through that, I mimicked the sample that starts “Lovely Allen” into my friend’s ear and the band followed me with the actual sample about 5 seconds later. Thankfully they did take an encore break and they came back with three songs that seemed to bring a lot more energy into the otherwise lifeless crowd.
The Bay Bridged went and got some good photos from the show.
If you’ve never seen these guys live, I think they’re a solid bet. Here are their dates on JamBase. They’re playing Bumbershoot coming up and then playing on Halloween at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago with the Disco Biscuits. Now that would be a hot show…
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I’m still collecting my thoughts from this weekend’s unbelievable set from The Mars Volta at Outside Lands, but in the meantime they’re still out on tour and I highly recommend seeing them if you can.
Sep 2 2009 Santa Barbara Bowl Santa Barbara, California
Sep 4 2009 Soma San Diego, California
Sep 5 2009 Dodge Theatre Phoenix, Arizona
Sep 7 2009 Cain’s Ballroom Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sep 8 2009 The Pageant St. Louis, Missouri
Sep 10 2009 First Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sep 11 2009 Congress Theater Chicago, Illinois
Sep 13 2009 Red Rocks Amphitheatre- Monolith Festival Morrison, Colorado
Sep 14 2009 Midland Theatre Kansas City, Missouri
Sep 16 2009 Palladium Ballroom Dallas, Texas
Sep 17 2009 Verizon Wireless Theater Houston, Texas
Sep 19 2009 Municipal Auditorium San Antonio, Texas
Oct 4 2009 Kool Haus Toronto, Ontario
Oct 5 2009 Metropolis Montreal, Quebec
Oct 8 2009 Roseland Ballroom New York, New York
Oct 10 2009 Electric Factory Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 11 2009 Sonar Baltimore, Maryland
Nov 29 2009 Sentrum Scene Oslo
Nov 30 2009 Cirkus Stockholm
Dec 2 2009 Vega Copenhagen
Dec 3 2009 Huxleys Berlin
Dec 6 2009 Vooruit Ghent
Dec 7 2009 013 Tilburg
Dec 9 2009 Playhouse Edinburgh
Dec 10 2009 Olympia Dublin
Dec 12 2009 The Refectory @ Leeds University Union Leeds
Dec 13 2009 ATP @ Butlin’s Holiday Centre Minehead
[via brooklynvegan]
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Now in it’s third year, Denver’s Monolith Festival has laid out its plan to lure the mountain west region’s indie minded music fans to Red Rocks for a noteworthy weekend of bloggable bands. Headlining the two-day festival are Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Mars Volta, with undercard notables including Girl Talk, of Montreal, M. Ward, DOOM, The Walkmen, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Frightened Rabbit, the Antlers, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Phoenix, Passion Pit, the Thermals, HEALTH, the Twilight Sad, Method Man & Red Man, Neon Indian, and others. One benefit of its relatively small size: there’s nothing on Friday, which means less days off work or bands to feel guilty about missing. And one benefit of its location: This all takes place at the picturesque and sonically resonant Red Rocks Ampitheatre. Dates are 9/12 and 9/13, single day passes are $52, two day passes run $95, and are on sale now at monolithfestival.com. Here’s the full line-up:
Sunday at Monolith was not really a full day. After watching my beloved Redskins — they won — and picking my buddy up at the airport it was nearly 6pm and our arrival to Red Rocks was marked by the setting sun. It was a sunny but chilly day for early September, but you can experience all four seasons in Colorado on any given day so I wasn’t complaining. The night was full of energy, there was nearly a full moon and the wind was moving a light fog down the venue from early evening until the festival closed. Read on for some more takes on the evening and a lot of photos.
We arrived at Red Rocks just in time to grab some food and get in the pit for Band of Horses. The South Carolina based group rolled out a nice mix of new and old — if Everything All the Time is old. They even treated the crowd to a few new songs that both leaned heavy on the country. I’m totally into them playing a more country feel because the genre is seriously lacking and they play it well.
Their show was really solid. Occasionally Ben Bridwell relies to heavily on the twangy side of his voice but overall I love his sound. They pulled in a piano player for the show who I believe is full time in the band now. Ryan Monroe accompanies Bridwell’s voice well and adds the much loved keys. The show was good and led well into the next group.
TV on the Radio had quite a time getting to Denver and I’m really, really glad they made the festival. Their bus broke down in Utah on a Sunday, which meant that getting it fixed was near impossible — there’s a lot of church going out there. By the time they got it fixed and were in Grand Junction it would have been impossible for a bus to bomb through the mountains safely. Instead of giving up, they rented alternate vehicles and raced to Morrison to make the show — amazing. What commitment.
The quintet rolled through an hour or so show with the ferocity and soul that I know them for and when they roared into “Wolf Like Me” the crowd return the favor with sensational enthusiasm. The song took its proper place in the evening’s mood with fitting lyrics like, “when the moon is round and full, gonna teach you tricks that’ll blow your mongrel mind.” This is the epitome of things falling into place.
The highlights for me were the first single off Dear Science, “Golden Age” and another track off the new LP, “Halfway Home”, which locks in on a serious drone-y jam at the end. The show here in Chicago at the Riviera near the end of October is one that I am seriously looking forward to; check these guys out on their fall tour, get the new LP and thank me later.
After a bit of a wait the festival headliners, Justice, came out to the ominous timpani drums that mark the beginning of the lead track, “Genesis”, off †. Moving between some serious production the duo pushed the crowd early and often. They really hit the skids though when something blew and the sound cut completely. The show stopped for about five minutes. They were cool about it — they’re cool, period – and the staff got the problem solved quickly but it was a tough blow to the continuity of a show that relies heavily on just that.
The last fifteen minutes of Justice’s show was exactly what I expected from them all night: heavy, distorted, move-your-body music. The final song, “We Are You Friends,” was awesome and left a great taste for whenever I get to see them next. The crowd kept singing the chorus for about five minutes after Justice left the stage, which was seriously cool. The festival overall was great and would recommend the event to everyone. But make sure you get in shape before because the stairs are a workout in that altitude! Take a look at some more photos below.
Band of Horses
TV on the Radio
Justice
A first trip to a historic place is always special. The first day of the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks was especially nice. A cool, sunny day highlighted the already picturesque venue all afternoon. Adding to the atmosphere was probably the best single festival day of music I’ve had all summer. There were no uninspired sets and the only hiccup was Cut Copy not being able to finish an already fire show.
We’ll get everyone a full review as soon as possible but until then here are the best photos of the day. Its easy to shoot at Red Rocks, everything has a background that could serve as its own photo and the staff are as nice as can be. Follow the jump for my highlights from Saturday and some great photos. Hope everyone who went Saturday had as wonderful a time as I did.
It’s hard to pick highlights from such a great day of music. I caught Foals, Blitzen Trapper, Cut Copy, Holy Fuck, Vampire Weekend, White Denim and Atmosphere. They all put on great shows but one really stood out. White Denim absolutely killed it. Playing inside the Red Rocks museum, they were having fun, jamming and playing with incredible energy. I was totally blown away and man, Justin, you were right. Check out the pics below from day one.
Foals
Blitzen Trapper
Cut Copy
Holy Fuck
Vampire Weekend
White Denim
Atmosphere
Hope everyone who attended had an excellent weekend. We’ll come back at everyone with a full review of what we saw and more photos from the whole festival.
I’m really happy I stayed in a bit this weekend and took some time redesigning the site. It’s totally funny timing, too. I remember reading a little interview with Scott from Hidden Track where he mentioned that they were going to be launching a new version soon, and no sooner had I finished off the core of the new design when I checked on my feed reader to see that they had gone live with their new design also. Totally accidental that we launched at the same time. But kudos, guys! Congrats on the launch!
Let’s see what else is going on.
Last but certainly not least, our man Andrew has been on the scene at Monolith Festival all weekend and he’s captured some seriously fantastic photos already. Give them a look and expect an update from him real soon.
