Out the Other

Bonnaroo Preview: MGMT

This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I'll be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers. 

It's an awesome thing that the world is full of second chances.  Specifically here, I'm talking about musical second chances - like the fact that you can always give an album another listen, and that a good chunk of the time another opportunity will come around for you to see a band play live. Of course, that's not always true, but with up-and-coming indie-ish acts, it's a little more likely.

Bonnaroo Preview: Elvis Perkins in Dearland

This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I'll be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers. 

I'm glad that some of these previews will give me the opportunity to write about artists I've been meaning to write about recently - like Elvis Perkins in Dearland.  The band's self-titled album (the follow up to Perkins' gorgeous Ash Wednesday, which I picked up immediately after seeing Elvis Perkins for the first time at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2006) came out back at the beginning of March, and while I featured it on my show at the time, I've really been listening to it a ton lately, and meaning to write about him.

Bonnaroo Preview: David Byrne

This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I'll be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers. 

Let’s kick off this set of previews with one of the musicians who – next to only maybe Bruce Springsteen – I’ve been listening to for the majority of my life.  It’s true – I think I’ve been listening to David Byrne (via Talking Heads of course) since I can pretty much remember listening to music.

Who's going to be at Bonnaroo this year?

First up - I AM!!!  Yuppers, last week I got confirmation that my press application for Bonnaroo was approved, so for the first time in the nearly six years I've lived in Nashville, I'm FINALLY headed down to Manchester in June to check out this year's festival!

Anyway, if you're a long-time reader of OtO, you probably remember the days when SXSW wasn't the only music festival I attended every year - my annual trip to Austin actually used to coincide with the Austin City Limits Festival, which wrapped up the summer and nearly coincided with my birthday each year.  You might also remember how much I love projects, and the fact that for the two years I had a blog AND was going to ACL, I previewed all of the bands playing the festival. In fact, in 2009 I even started a handy little side-blog to compile and present the previews.

You can totally guess where I'm going with this... right? 

Today I'm launching Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I plan on previewing all of the musical acts performing at this year's Bonnaroo Music & Festival.  I'm doing this for two reasons - #1, because I love you guys; and #2, because when I hit a big multi-stage festival like Bonnaroo, I like to know what my options are. And since I'm guessing most of us haven't heard of a good chunk of the lineup, it's best to familiarize ourselves before we pack up our tents and head to Manchester, right? So I've got you covered.

And lest you think I'm completely bonkers, I am DEFINITELY soliciting help when it comes to writing all these previews, and I already have some guest-bloggers lined up to help me tackle this project. And I might be looking for even more - so drop me a line if you're a music writer/friend who would be interested in contributing.

I'll be syndicating a good chunk of the previews right here on Out the Other, so you'll get regular reminders of what I'm working on (after all, this may be 95% of what I'm working on for a while). But please, go check out the Bonnaroo preview page whenever you want - you can even subscribe to it!

Shuffle's been good to me today

Once in a while I'm too lazy (or sleepy, or mildly hungover) to decide what to listen to.  And once in a great big while, shuffle totally comes through for me and delivers a bunch of tunes I haven't heard in a while. Big winners today:

The Dodos - "Winter" (from Visiter)
Vampire Weekend - "I Stand Corrected" (from Vampire Weekend)
Bag Raiders - "Shooting Star"
Miracle Fortress - "Have You Seen In Your Dreams" (from Five Roses)
Harry Nilsson - "The Beehive State" (from Nilsson Sings Newman)
Gomez - "Ruff Stuff" (from In Our Gun)
Fatboy Slim - "Right Here, Right Now" (from You've Come a Long Way, Baby)

This and that

If you've been following the twitter lately, you're already 100% in the loop.  But here are a few updates of note:

• The second Road to Bonnaroo 8 off 8th is going down tonight at the Mercy Lounge - How I Became the Bomb, And the Relatives, Reno Bo, Pico vs. Island Trees, Mike's Pawn Shop, Protomen, AutoVaughn and KS Rhoads are on the bill.  It's going to be a TOUGH competition this time around, so get there early and vote for the band you think deserves to play Bonnaroo.  Word is you don't have to be there for all 8 bands to vote this time, just the one you're voting for. 

• A podcast of my SXSW panel, Bloggers Are Now In Charge, is now available via the SXSW website.  (download the mp3) I listened and only cringed at my rambling a few times, so I guess you guys can check it out too.  Be nice!

• M. Ward is coming to the Cannery Ballroom on Tuesday, July 28! SO excited about this one.

• The Tits are throwing a release show/party for their new album on May 7 at the Basement, and Howlies and The Clutters will be joining them on the bill. 

• Awesome Hotpipes news - the song "The Future Is Where We Belong" will be featured on the season finale of Gossip Girl, which will air on May 18.  Here's hoping Chuck Bass and Nate make out to it. HOTpipes, indeed.

• Remember when the concert calendar said that Delta Spirit was playing the End this Thursday?  They aren't.  It was a typo.  But that frees you up to see the Non-Commissioned Officers, How I Became the Bomb and And the Relatives instead!

April 20 show preview - The Non-Commissioned Officers!

It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who regularly listens to or reads Out the Other that I am SUPER psyched about the official release of the Make-Out With Violence soundtrack, which is finally available.  On top of that is the awesome news that The Non-Commissioned Officers, the band that has been performing tracks from the soundtrack live for the past few years, will be playing a soundtrack release party this Thursday, April 23 at the Mercy Lounge.  And how do we celebrate awesomeness at OtO?  By having guests on the show, of course!

Tonight at 7 p.m., Eric Lehning - who wrote the soundtrack with his brother Jordan, fronts the Non-Commissioned Officers and also stars in the film - will join me in the studio for an hour of Non-Com goodness.  We'll play as much of the soundtrack as we can in the hour, plus chat about its creation and the band's future plans - because word is they're officially out of "retirement" and set to be a real band.

I have NO idea how I'm going to fit all of the songs I want to play into one hour, or even begin to narrow down the two disc, 44-track album, so I might just leave the song selection up to Eric tonight.  Since I scored a copy of the soundtrack at SXSW last month, I've been listening to it rather obsessively, and it will easily rank high on my list of favorite 2009 releases - song after song after song becomes a new favorite.  And if you saw the film at this week's Nashville Film Festival, where it took top honors and the Non-Commissioned Officers won "Best Music in a Feature Film," I'm sure you'll agree that the soundtrack and score seem intrinsically linked to the film once you've seen it. The songs so effectively set a mood that every time I listen I'm immersed in that eerie, summer hazy feeling of the film, whether it's via the more ambient, instrumental bits of the score or the poppier tracks that have been effectively soundtracking my own life of late (I really listen to them that much).

Okay, enough rambling, on to the tunes:

"Ride"
"Addy's Piano Nocturne No. 1"
"Frozen Tongue"

Like I said, the soundtrack is available now and you can order a copy online for only $15. Or, you can come on out and pick one up at the show this Thursday - How I Became the Bomb and And the Relatives are also on the bill, so you know it's going to be a great, great show.

Tune in at 7!

Record Store Day Lineup!

Here in Nashville, we have two great events going on for Record Store Day - on 8th Ave at Grimey's, and over in East Nashville at The Groove. I already went on and on and on about the exclusives on this  week's show, but now let's talk about the bands you can see for free tomorrow.

At Grimey's:

noon - The Avett Brothers
12:45 - Stardeath & White Dwarfs
1:45 - Michigan City Vandals
2:30 - DeRobert & The Half-Truths
3:15 - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
4:00 - Charlie Louvin
4:45 - Del McCoury
5:15 - Royal Bangs
6:00 - The Ettes
7:00 - Mute Math

At The Groove:

1:30 - Coolout w/ Mia Calderon
2:30 - Shoot the Mountain
3:30 - Coolin System
4:30 - Hotpipes
5:30 - Dave Cloud
6:45 - The Tits
7:30 - Red, White, Blue
8:30 - Cotton Jones

I would definitely recommend hitting both at some point tomorrow - unfortunately I'll be headed out of town so I won't be able to hang out all day (but really not unfortunately, because I'm going to see Wilco in Knoxville), but I'll definitely be dropping by Grimey's in the morning/early afternoon before I hit the road. 

Playlist - April 13 - Record Store Day!

Okay kids, tomorrow's the big day - Record Store Day, that is.  And this week's show (with a few bonus new release tracks) was mostly a celebration of the exclusives and early releases that will be available tomorrow in celebration of the holiday.  Haven't listened yet?

Stream the April 13 edition of Out the Other

I do a lot of chatting about all the musical goodies that are out tomorrow during the show, so definitely check it out.  In the meantime, you can check out a full list of exclusives over on the Record Store Day website while you listen.

And here's the playlist (with a few bonus mp3s):

1.  Wilco - Handshake Drugs (A Ghost Is Born)
2.  Elvis Perkins in Dearland - I'll Be Arriving (Elvis Perkins in Dearland)
3.  Talking Heads - Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town (77) (mp3)
4.  Papercuts - Future Primitive (You Can Have What You Want)
5.  Woods - Military Madness (Songs of Shame)
6.  Metric - Help I'm Alive (Fantasies)
7.  Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For the Others (Live on KCRW 7") (mp3)
8.  Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees (Fake Plastic Trees)
9.  Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (77)
10.  Wilco - A Shot in the Arm (Summerteeth) (mp3)
11.  Talking Heads - Tentative Decisions (77)

And here are two tracks I didn't get a chance to share on the show.  The first is an old Cold War Kids track, a live version of which will appear on Live at Fingerprints, the 5-song EP the band is releasing tomorrow.  The Black Keys track is a Captain Beefheart cover that comes from a compilation called Covered, A Revolution In Sound, and it will appear on a split 7" tomorrow, the flip side of which will be the Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs covering Madonna's "Borderline."

Cold War Kids - "Expensive Tastes"
The Black Keys - "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles"

And your friendly reminder - GO BUY THIS STUFF TOMORROW AT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORE.  That's what Record Store Day is all about, after all.  I for one will be trying to score a copy of that sweet sweet Grizzly Bear 7" at Grimey's tomorrow before I head to Knoxville to see Wilco.

By Request: Gigax Mix

Soooo as most of my friends know, one of my favorite things in the world is introducing people to new music - which is basically why I'm both a DJ and a music blogger, of course.  But for friends, that tends to go a step above and beyond - I love to make personal recommendations, and share music, and make mixes that I think people will like based on their taste.

While at SXSW last month, my friend Jason Gigax (the tour manager for OtO faves How I Became the Bomb) and I started chatting - and I'm sure there was lots of drinking going on so I'm fuzzy on the details, but I think the gist of it was a conversation about new music, great bands at SXSW, and me offering to share with him some things I think he'd like.  Last week he sent me a note with some of his favorites, and here we are today with what I'm pretty sure is Out the Other's first officially published, made-to-order mix.

Just so you know, I went off of a list of favorites that included:  The Unicorns, Aqueduct, Built to Spill, Nick Lowe, OMD, Broken Social Scene, Hidden Cameras, Magnetic Fields, Arcade Fire, Crystal Castles, Figurines, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Ra Ra Riot, and the Make Out With Violence soundtrack.  I chose some things that would appeal to a fan of those acts, some songs by artists that are standby OtO recommendations, and a good handful of brand new stuff I've been digging on lately.  Hopefully both Jason and you guys will dig it.

So here you go - the Gigax Mix.

[ download .zip ]

1.  Elvis Perkins - Doomsday
2.  White Rabbits - Percussion Gun (mp3)
3.  Doves - House of Mirrors (mp3)
4.  Handsome Furs - Evangeline
5.  Phoenix - 1901
6.  Maritime - Calm
7.  Empire of the Sun - Walking On a Dream (mp3)
8.  Elbow - Grounds for Divorce
9.  Menomena - Wet and Rusting
10.  Errors - Mr. Milk (mp3)
11.  The Dodos - Fools
12.  J. Tillman - No Occasion
13.  Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader
14.  Does It Offend You Yeah - Dawn of the Dead
15.  Professor Murder - Free Stress Test
16.  Yeasayer - 2080
17.  Thee Oh Sees - Enemy Destruct (mp3)
18.  Delta Spirit - Children