Pavement are no strangers to cool contests, but this latest one definitely beats roaming around IKEA with Bob Nastanovich (no offense Bob/Sweden). Pavement will perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 9/23 and one lucky fan will be joining the band on guitar. To enter, upload a video of yourself covering one of the songs listed below by Wednesday 9/8 at 4:35 AM ET. You also have to live in the continental United States, since the winner will be flown out to NY for the occasion. A “panel of qualified judges” will pick five finalists; then we (the Internet) will vote on the winner.
The Deadheads have likely been following the news on this festival since we first announced it. The story goes that Furthur was the lynchpin for this inaugural festival and that they originally didn’t want to have anything planned, but when they went back to the promoter of Nateva Festival and said “sure, let’s try something unique and special for Fourth of July,” that’s how Nateva got its foot planted. Rounding out the lineup are festival mainstays The Flaming Lips, moe. and STS9 and a healthy dose of indie-rock crossover with She & Him, Grizzly Bear, and Passion Pit all set to make appearances as well. We’ll have not one but TWO photographers on-hand to shoot the festival, and we’re expecting some tweets from the festival from our man @FullerVisuals.
Up nestled in the mountains in Northern California exists a tiny village of like-minded, mature and dare-I-say family-friendly companions that get together every Independence Day to celebrate live music into all hours of the night. High Sierra Music Festival has perhaps the best reputation of any festival I’ve ever attended and this will be my second year up at the festival. With headliners on the bill that never I’ve never caught live — Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes, The Avett Brothers & more — I’m in for a treat of new-to-me festival sets from those types of bands, which always result in the biggest surprises of the weekend in any music festival setting. I’ll be tweeting as much as I can from the festival at @justinpward and our buddy @phortin will be leaving tonight to arrive there tomorrow. I’ll also be throwing updates (as always) on @livemusicblog. Make sure you follow along and drop me a line if you’ll be there!
I’m pre-naming the Atlanta run in anticipation of the Twitter praise that Phish will be receiving once they hit the stage in Atlanta on July 3rd for their first of two nights to close out the first leg of their summer tour. The band has been playing phenomanally well and has really thrown a lot of their critics for a loop with their song selection and unwillingness to stay predictable in any sense of the word. Do they jam too much now, or not enough? Can we complain about song openers like “Crowd Control” or “The Connection” when they’re also mixing in openers like “Fee” or “David Bowie?” If there’s one thing I’ve always loved about Phish, it’s that they’re unpredictable. Let’s hope that continues, and let’s hope the Fourth of July run in Atlanta brings the heat and humidity to the soundwaves as much as it’ll be happening weather-wise.
Sadly the final two events seem a bit overlooked in terms of what we’ve been able to cover ourselves, but it’s no less destined to rage if you’re a fan of the bands that are rocking elsewhere (i.e. not #1-3 above). Umphrey’s McGee and Galactic decided to team up for an event at Red Rocks and they’re bringing friends, hanging out in Denver the nights surrounding the Red Rocks show, and I’m sure we’ll see some fun festival-like collobration between these two live music powerhouses. In fact, not only do they plan on collaborating for some jams, they’re also going to cover a fan-requested song together during the July 3rd show. It’s likely too late to get a vote in that would matter, but any of those song choices should be an awesome superjam segment of the show. Drop us a line if you’re going to this.
Finally, if you just happen to be stranded in the Midwest and have no means to attend the big names in live music this weekend, don’t give up hopes that you won’t be able to see anything cool. In Des Moines, IA, the returning 80/35 Music Festival is bringing headliners to town like Spoon, Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, Railroad Earth and more. It’s definitely a smaller, more intimate affair and one of those festivals that you can likely walk right up to the front of the stage to see the bands you want to see. I’m sure we’ll see some good highlights come out of this assuming some of the bands can help to make this festival standout amongst the bigger guys in the room.
