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| Des Moines’ 80/35 Festival Announces Partial Line-Up Posted: 07 Apr 2009 12:21 PM PDT After the inaugural 80/35 Festival successfully kicked off last year with headliners The Flaming Lips, Des Moines’ 80/35 Festival is back with a new, fresh line-up. This festival celebrates artists and the people that support them and this year’s festival takes place July 3 and 4 in Western Gateway Park in Des Moines, Iowa. The line-up includes bands of all genres and sizes such as: Floodplane, Cleo’s Apt, Beati Paoli, Josh Davis Band, House of Large Sizes and Girl in a Coma. Headlining the festival are: Matisyahu, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Harper and Relentless 7, and Public Enemy. This is Public Enemy’s original line-up and Stephen Malkmus’ first time to Des Moines. More bands are expected to be announced in about two weeks. It is speculated for further announcements to include bands routing from Milwaukee’s Summerfest. Tickets are currently on sale at $70 for a two-day pass and $35 for a single day. 80/35: website Related Posts |
| Little Brazil @ The Waiting Room, Omaha NE Posted: 07 Apr 2009 11:36 AM PDT Putting out an album is like having a baby. So for Omaha indie rockers, Little Brazil, it simply makes sense that when you put out an album called Son, that you treat your CD release show as if it were a baby shower. Little Brazil transformed the dark bar that was hosting their concert into a party complete with balloons and a blow up stork. They handed out confetti poppers to the audience to use when their set started. Though the new album deals with some heavy and dark issues like separation and suicide, the atmosphere in the Waiting Room was pure, unadultered fun. In fact maybe too much fun: I got mooned! Opening for Little Brazil were some of their closest musical friends. Omaha friends Noah’s Ark Was the Spaceship started the show followed by Kansas City rock group The Life and Times. After that were the phenomenal Eagle*Seagull from Lincoln, Nebraska. These guys (and gal) are my favorite secret of the Midwest. They have a full-length coming out in the fall and I have no doubt it will be fantastic. Each member of the band is multi-talented, switching from keys to guitar to vocals. With Carrie on violin, they often are compared to The Arcade Fire, but I think they have developed their own sound unique from Arcade Fire. Set List: Confetti poppers welcomed the Little Brazil to the stage. This band has long been one of my favorite Omaha groups and don’t know if it was just time or the special occasion, but they were 10,000 times better than the last time I saw them (and they were already good live). Landon Hedges’ vocals sounded so much more at ease on the new songs, as a band they were tighter, and the facial expressions of drummer Oliver Morgan were even more hilarious than ever. For a few songs, Morgan’s bandmates in Landing on the Moon joined Little Brazil to add keys or backing vocals. Though it was a cohesive set, the new songs like “Nicholas” and “Perfection” really stood out. After the band had played “Gold” with an explosive instrumental section, they humbly departed the stage. An audience member grabbed the microphone saying, “Little Brazil. Calling Little Brazil, you’re wanted back on the stage.” The band quickly returned for an encore and Hedges dealt with the unexpected microphone situation saying, “Guess we don’t get time to breathe. Here’s another song.” After playing a three-song encore, the band hung out for awhile and talked with fans and shared some drinks. Many came for a concert, but got a party as well. This is the way CD releases should be. Set List:              Little Brazil: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| White Lies and Friendly Fires with the Soft Pack @ Black Cat, Washington D.C. Posted: 07 Apr 2009 09:15 AM PDT On a chilly Tuesday night, Washington was treated to a musical doubleheader beyond compare – two of Britain's hottest bands, White Lies and Friendly Fires, supported by the SoCal band the Soft Pack. Most bands wouldn't choose to start a North American tour here – which made the opening date of the "NME Presents Tour" in D.C. all the more special. I first heard the Soft Pack's "Nightlife" a while ago on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio's alternative station, 6music. In February, they played on Mark Riley's evening program and I was impressed with their short set then. And now I would get to see them before my very eyes. Live, they did not disappoint - their raw rock sound complemented singer/guitarist Matt Lamkin's gritty vocals well. I think Brian Hill has to be the hardest working drummer in the business – never before have seen a drummer stand for an entire set. Well, he wasn't standing exactly - he was beating the heck out what appeared to be a very tall drum and kicking something else with his feet. They got the crowd going before the two heavy hitters yet to come. Set List: Friendly Fires is a dance/electropop outfit from St. Alban's, England. Members Ed Macfarlane (vocals), Edd Gibson (guitar), and Jack Savidge (drums) met in school in their early teens and have since been playing together for years. Fast forward some 9 odd years later and they have a solid, self-titled album and have become darlings of the British indie scene seemingly overnight. For stage presence, you can't beat Ed Macfarlane; who would have guessed that the mild-mannered English boy you saw lugging around and setting up his electronic wizardry would soon transform into an unstoppable, singing, strutting dance machine from the first note of "Lovesick"? A couple of times I was a bit worried that in the process of giving us his all, he might trip on the edge of the stage (falling into us) or throw his back out – but he just fed off the crowd's energy, dancing inexhaustibly around the stage if the world was going to end tomorrow, crooning into his mike. Singles "Jump in the Pool", "Skeleton Boy", and the wistful "Paris", along with the boppy "In the Hospital", were crowd pleasers. Infectious, funky beats from Gibson, Savidge, and touring bassist Rob Lee, fitting like a glove with Macfarlane's soaring vocals about love and escapism, got gig goers moving and grooving to the rhythms. The overall effect was intoxicating. And that's all you really want from dance music, isn't it? Set List: Coming in second on the BBC "Sounds of 2009" poll is a lot to live up to. Then again, this is White Lies we're talking about – the first act in 2009 to have an album debut at #1 on the UK charts. Hours before, the post-punk band had taped an appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman”, where they played their dark masterpiece "To Lose My Life" on a stage covered profusely in roses. While the Black Cat wasn't as opulent, I'm sure the crowd's excited cheering at a glimpse of the band through an open curtain was a world apart for them. The stage was set up dramatically as their music, with extensive lighting rigs and a smoke machine. At times, it looked like drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown would be completely engulfed by the smoke. But no matter. This band came to rock out, and rock out they did, with Lawrence-Brown's solid drumming, Charles Cave's bass lines and backing vocals, and the booming vocals of lead singer/guitarist Harry McVeigh. The gloomy chorus from "To Lose My Life" of "let's grow old together (and die the same time)" shouldn't make the song so catchy but yet the song is good ear candy. The same goes for the surprisingly upbeat closer "Death". Set List:               By the time the evening ended, the crowd left the show sweaty and in a jubilant mood. Can't get any better than this in March in D.C. White Lies: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Pomegranates - Everybody, Come Outside Posted: 07 Apr 2009 07:45 AM PDT On Everybody Come Outside, Cincinnati quartet Pomegranates combine the lush euphoria of Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips with the uplifting rush and kindergarten classroom exuberance of Funeral-era Arcade Fire. Unsurprisingly, the result is a beautiful, exciting, uplifting and surprisingly unpretentious album, supposedly about "a man who leaves home, only to be abducted by a time traveler," according to their MySpace page. Luckily Pomegranates don't hold too strictly to the plot, instead focusing more on conveying on Everybody, Come Outside an overall feeling of exhilaration and unadulterated joie de vivre. Pomegranates sound huge on Everybody, Come Outside, and they manage it without ever straying too far from the usual drums-guitar-bass-vocals setup, with maybe some piano here, an organ bit there, some synth, etc. A shit load of reverb and echo on the interplaying guitars makes them sound like bright clouds of sound; somebody's been studying David Friedberg's work big time. Elsewhere, drummer Jacob Meritt's simple, but powerful drumming/pounding gives Pomegranates' sound the epic backbone it needs. The album's "plot," as mentioned before, isn't overtly expressed for the most part, but a strong theme of journeying out into the world and taking advantage of life and the moment is readily apparent. On opener "Everybody, Come Outside", the vocalist shouts out through a loudmouth: "the time is now/ the time to rebuild/ the future calls/ there's more than holding walls." On "This Land Used To Be…" the story of the protagonist who leaves home is told in the first person: "I packed up my things/ traveling overseas/ without my family." The song also boasts the album's best chorus, with (what sounds like) a female vocalist (brought in; the band is all male) lusciously exclaiming, "All my dreams/ are coming back to me." Everybody, Come Outside's first quiet song amidst all its restless excitement, "Piano", is a lullaby based around a sweet organ melody and gently pinched jazz chord voicings on guitar while the singer implores the song's subject, "sail away with me/ to another place/ sail away with me/ across time and space." Again, it's all about the journey for Pomegranates. Themes of space and the meaning of life also abound on "Corriander" and "Tesseract," and "Jerusalem Had A Bad Day" tosses in some religious imagery. Again, Flaming Lips debt is running high, but if you're gonna steal, steal from the best…And hope Wayne Coyne doesn't come asking for royalties. The album's 13-minute closer, "Acoustic," suitably closes the ambitious song-cycle with another quieter, (believe-it-not) mostly acoustic song that turns into a lengthy ambiance piece. A white wash of synthesizer grows louder, while the acoustic guitar in the mix fades until at the last Pomegranates arrive at a state of stationary bliss. What can I say, it's a pretty good way to end a pretty good album. Everybody, Come Outside will be available on April 14th on Lujo Records. Tracklisting: Pomegranates: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| SXSW Scraps @ Various Venues, Austin TX Posted: 07 Apr 2009 06:52 AM PDT So I survived my first year at SXSW. I learned that it is possible to live off a diet of alcohol and Zone energy bars. I learned that it is almost ridiculous to make a schedule for SXSW and the best things happen when you are being spontaneous. I learned if you act important enough, you can get into almost anything–backstages included. I learned it is possible to get sunburn in Texas even if you had spent most of your time inside venues. I learned that it is a good idea to carry a power strip, water and batteries in your bag. With all these lessons, I think it is safe to say with all these lessons that my trip to Austin made up for my skipping a week of classes. I can’t wait to go back next year. By now you’ve seen many of my individual show reviews from the debut of Tinted Windows to the possible finale of Explosions in the Sky. Soon you’ll start seeing some of the many interviews that Joshua, Jessica and I conducted at the festival. But before the interviews I wanted to share a segment I like to think of as “SXSW Scraps”. Essentially, the PopWreckoning team saw a lot of shows and took a lot of photos. I didn’t think I could do some of these bands justice with full reviews, but I still thought we should share the photos. In “SXSW Scraps” you’ll find many band photos. Jess and I caught some of Omaha’s Beep Beep in the Radio Room. Then Josh snapped a few shots of Brooke Waggoner, who played piano as a part of a mostly string quartet. I saw legendary Daniel Johnston in the equally legendary Emo’s. He had security on either side of the stage and he was tone deaf, but he was classic. Josh caught some of The Elms. We all made sure to see Kevin Devine play an electronic set with The Goddamn Band. The new songs sound brilliant and we were beyond impressed. I wandered off on my own and caught The Kin play on the top floor of a hotel. It was really sweet when the guys went out into the middle of the audience and made everybody gather around for a ballad. At a small bar called Jackalopes, several of us PopWreckers gathered around a too-small stage for Kitch and the catchy Miniature Tigers. Another time, I found myself at some harder rock shows featuring Louisiana’s The Vettes and Mother’s Anthem, which you may know better as a side project of Blue October’s guitarist. I caught some of my favorite artists that I learned about from TV commercials: Landon Pigg and Lights. I also found myself checking out some of my favorite aussies, Youth Group, whom I became familiar with through their cover of “Forever Young”, which they did play. If you haven’t had the chance to check out Von Bondies, I recommend you do. Though they have a male lead singer, they have two rocking females in the group. Finally, Josh and I snapped a few shots of the phenomenal New York Dolls. I felt a little out of place without a leather jacket, but I’m glad I got the chance to see these rock legends. In addition to leftover band photos, we snapped a few random shots and pics of the street. In these photos, I’ve included a picture of the fascinating port-a-potties, which Austin is kind enough to designate for males and females. In the Convention Center, we found a pile of legos and people were pretty crafty with what they made of them. You’ll see the busy 6th Street that was filled with people, vendors and even more bands that couldn’t fit in the venues. The streets were pretty wild. One day, while I was waiting in line, a pillow fight broke out. That’s right. A pillow fight. Feathers were everywhere. Here, you’ll even find your PopWreckoning editors walking to the festival. Finally, you’ll find a few pictures of our unofficial mascot Gig Pig. Basically, we have a little pig figure that we took to shows and a few bands played around with. So here they are–these are the leftover photos, or the scraps, if you will. Enjoy. SXSW: website Related Posts |
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