Bonnaroo Lineup Officially Announced: The Police, Tool, The White Stripes, and more! Tickets Available Next Week

It's out. Bonnaroo's lineup is, of course, sick. You can view it at the Bonnaroo website, or look here:

The Police • Tool • Widespread Panic • The White Stripes • Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals • Wilco • The Flaming Lips • MANU CHAO & Radio Bemba Sound System • The String Cheese Incident • Franz Ferdinand • Bob Weir & Ratdog • Damien Rice • Ween • Gov't Mule • Ziggy Marley • The Decemberists • Kings of Leon • Michael Franti & Spearhead • Wolfmother • Regina Spektor • The Black Keys • Galactic • DJ Shadow • Gillian Welch • Spoon • Keller Williams (WMD'S) (read a review of Keller's new album, Dream, here • Sasha & John Digweed • STS9 • Old Crow Medicine Show • The Hold Steady • Lily Allen • North Mississippi Allstars • Fountains Of Wayne • Hot Tuna • Feist • Hot Chip • John Butler Trio • Dr. Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys • Aesop Rock • The Richard Thompson Band • Dierks Bentley • James Blood Ulmer • Xavier Rudd • Gogol Bordello • Junior Brown • Tortoise • T-Bone Burnett • Mavis Staples • Clutch • Cold War Kids • Dr. Dog • Paolo Nutini • Brazilian Girls • RX Bandits • The Nightwatchman • The Slip • Girl Talk • Railroad Earth • Martha Wainwright • Rodrigo y Gabriela • Annuals • Tea Leaf Green • Sam Roberts Band • Elvis Perkins in Dearland • Charlie Louvin • Sonya Kitchell • Mute Math • Apollo Sunshine • Uncle Earl • The National • The Little Ones • Black Angels • Ryan Shaw • Lewis Black & Friends • Dave Attell • David Cross •

And more to be announced later! Tickets go on sale next week, February 23. They will start at $184.50. Once that batch is sold out, they go up to $199.50 and then $214.50. Oh, and $21.85 service charge per ticket.

Laura Veirs Prepares New Album, Saltbreakers, For Release March 26

Laura Veirs (who was featured on former Kill Rock Stars labelmates The Decemberists' track "Yankee Bayonet" on The Crane Wife) has released information that she will be releasing a new album called Saltbreakers on Nonesuch Records on March 26. The first single, "Don't Lose Yourself," is due March 19.

Laura and band will tour in support of the album from "late March through early June."

Veirs' previous album, Year of Meteors, was her second effort on Nonesuch and released to critical acclaim.

The Decemberists - Buffalo Tickets Available! Tickets Go On Sale Saturday For Selected Shows, Including Bethesda, MD

Tickets for The Decemberists are on sale now for Buffalo, NY.

For tickets in North Bethesda, MD at Strathmore (still not announced on Ticketmaster or Strathmore's site), or Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL, go here on Saturday, January 27 at 10 AM.

For the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, AL, go here Friday, February 2 at 10 AM.

For The Norva in Norfolk, VA, Raleigh, NC at Progress Energy Center, City Hall in Nashville, TN, Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, CO, or Orpheum Theatre in Madison, WI, go here Saturday, February 3 at 10 AM.

For Upper Darby, PA at Tower Theatre, go here on Friday, February 9 at 10 AM.

Decemberists Spring Tour Tickets Starting To Go On Sale

Another hot tour that tickets are going on sale for soon: The Decemberists. Tickets for the March 26 North Bethesda, MD show at The Music Center at Strathmore have not gone on sale, and the show is not even listed on Strathmore's site. And, seriously, is Colin Meloy that artsy and pretentious that they have to play in Bethesda at Strathmore?

Tickets for the Upper Darby, PA show at Tower Theatre, as well as Nashville, Orlando, and Denver will go on sale Saturday at 10 AM.

A presale for the Buffalo, NY show starts today at 10.

Tickets for The Norva in Norfolk, VA as well as the Madison, WI show go on sale Friday at 10.

Raleigh and Denver have to wait until Saturday, February 3.

Check for your tickets here.

Bonnaroo UPDATE: Pearl Jam, The Police, Bob Dylan? Official Lineup Soon!

As good as the Coachella news is, there's more: Bonnaroo has allegedly confirmed Pearl Jam as well as a comeback of The Police, and even a showing by Bob Dylan.

The other names reported are Tom Waits, Willie Nelson, Umphrey's McGee, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Black Crowes, Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire, Keller Williams, Hot Chip, America, TV On The Radio, Fountains of Wayne, Modest Mouse, Les Claypool, The Shins, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Toots and the Maytals, The Roots, The Decemberists, Of Montreal, Cat Power, Ozomatli, Perpetual Groove, Band of Horses, John Butler Trio, Nickel Creek, Medeski Martin and Wood, Lily Allen, Neko Case, The Hold Steady, Earl Scruggs, Charlie Louvin, Man Man, Grizzly Bear, Konono #1, The Slip, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Uncle Earl, Annuals, Beirut, M. Ward, Cold War Kids and Girl Talk.

The official lineup is expected on January 31 for the June 14-17 festival. Source: Stereogum

UPDATE: Stereogum indicates that representatives for a number of the artists, Big Hassle, claim there is no truth to the above. Right now, we'll have to stick to whether the artists are reporting the same or not.

UPDATE: Coachella 2007 - Rage Against The Machine Reunion (!!!), Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more!

Hold on to your seats, because Rage Against The Machine will be reuniting to headline at Coachella this April. Along with RATM, Bjork and Red Hot Chili Peppers have been confirmed, along with Crowded House as well as Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Air, The Roots, Willie Nelson, Interpol, and Fountains Of Wayne.

Expected to play but not yet confirmed are Jarvis Cocker, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, Hot Chip, Peeping Tom, The Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, Tiesto, Kings Of Leon, Travis, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Lily Allen, Kaiser Chiefs, Silversun Pickups and LCD Soundsystem.

FURTHER UPDATE: Now listed as confirmed are Jarvis Cocker, Lily Allen, The Good The Bad and The Queen, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Happy Mondays, Placebo, Hot Chip, Kaiser Chiefs, Travis, The Klaxons, The Fratellis, The Kooks, Amy Winehouse, and the Feeling, The New Pornographers, Ghostface Killah, Peter Bjorn & John, Junior Boys, Sparkle Horse, Tapes 'n Tapes, Rapture, DJ Shadow, Black Keys, Blond Redhead, Lupe Fiasco, !!!, Stephen Marley feat. Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley, Pharoahe Monch, MSTRKRFT, Spank Rock, Tokyo Police Club, Paul Van Dyk, Damien Rice, Amos Lee, Brazilian Girls, We Are Scientists, Circa Survive, and so so so so so much more. Source: Pitchfork

Tickets go on sale Saturday, January 27.

The Decemberists Announce 2007 Spring US Tour

Thanks to Pitchfork, you now know about The Decemberists' US Spring tour with My Brightest Diamond:

03-21 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Theater
03-22 Jersey City, NJ - Loews Theater
03-23 Boston, MA - Avalon
03-24 Boston, MA - Avalon
03-26 North Bethesda, MD - Strathmore Music Center
03-27 Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
03-29 Wellesley, MA - Wellesley College (students only)
03-30 Buffalo, NY - Center for the Arts
03-31 Grantham, PA - Messiah College
04-01 Norfolk, VA - The Norva
04-02 Raleigh, NC - Meymendi Concert Hall
04-04 Knoxville, TN - Tennessee Theater (no MBD at this one)
04-05 Nashville, TN - City Hall (no MBD at this one)
04-06 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle (no MBD at this one)
04-08 Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
04-09 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon
04-10 Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theater
04-11 Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theater
04-13 Louisville, KY - Brown Theater
04-14 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
04-15 Champaign, IL - Foellinger Auditorium (University of Illinois)
04-16 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
04-18 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theater
04-19 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theater
04-20 Madison, WI - Orpheum Theater
04-21 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
04-22 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
04-25 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater
04-26 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater
05-03 Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater
05-04 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater
05-05 Bellingham, WA - Western Washington University

Any Given Tuesday's Top 10 Albums of 2006

After much deliberation over whether to do a top 10, and much delay in deliberating over whether to do a top 10, here are Any Given Tuesday's Top 10 Albums of 2006:

#1: Cat Power - The Greatest

#2: Mastodon - Blood Mountain

#3: Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

#4: Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope

#5: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

#6: Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds

#7: Tool - 10,000 Days

#8: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

#9: Wolfmother - Wolfmother

#10: Hatebreed - Supremacy

Rolling Stone Names 50 Best Albums Of 2006

Click the title to see Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2006. Bob Dylan's Modern Times takes RS's title this year. I understand how America kowtows to Bob Dylan, and any other time I'd call BS on this one, but I can't say that I thought anything was necessarily better this time around. Actually, it's a pretty good top 10, but c'mon, is The Hold Steady really that good that they get #8, not to mention that they beat Mastodon? Blood Mountain shreds. The Hold Steady play bar rock and rip off Jack Kerouac in one giant cliche of an album. Cat Power is definitely top 10 material, and clocks in at #6.
The New York Dolls hit #11, in what must be the band's 11th incarnation, as band members drop like flies. Pearl Jam comes in at #13, which seems like a fair shake for them. Wolfmother at #15 is decent. That's my top-secret album of right now, as I can't get enough of this '70s metal redux.
I love seeing my girl Regina Spektor at #21! My personal bias would bump her up about 10 spots, but she definitely makes the list. Also, The Decemberists (#23), Justin Timberlake (#26), Tool (#38), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (#44), and Neko Case (#45) come in, deservedly so, regardless of where you think they fall on the spectrum.
Some sadly included albums were Lady Sovereign (#48, she's not that good), Sean Lennon (#41), Thom Yorke (#34, go back to Radiohead, like, now), and My Chemical Romance (#20, maybe in the top 50, but somewhere below 25 would be appropriate).

33 1/3 Book Series - Colin Meloy A Writer, Too

The 33 1/3 book series is a series of books about some of the best albums of the last forty years. I just stumbled on this series last night, and this morning I found that Colin Meloy of The Decemberists wrote this one about The Replacements' Let It Be.

Other titles include the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, GNR's Use Your Illusion albums, Nirvana's In Utero, PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me, and a ton more.

Stream The Decemberists From NPR; A Dose Of Rock History With Sutherland Brothers & Quiver

Building its cred with indie kids and at the same time creating middle-aged hipsters, NPR plugs away at 9:30 Club with streaming audio of last night's performance by the Decemberists. It's great to get to hear these shows, but I can't help but sense NPR's effort to get younger listeners keen to their programming, so that as age sets in, we start listening to talk radio and throwing out soundbites around the water cooler. Anyway, listen to the show. It's amazingly good. And Colin Meloy owns up to the fact that "you paid your money, and we entertain you." At least he knows who butters his bread.


Over the last couple days, I've been obsessively updating and tagging and perusing la la (if you sign up, tell 'em I sent you), and it occurred to me that I can find the obscure stuff that I've been searching for diligently, but not willing to break the bank on, like those guys up there. Yeah, they don't look all that cool in the picture by today's standards, and maybe not even by 1976 standards, but the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver made great records. My introduction to them was through my dad who, like me, freely engages in unabashed music snobbery. I learned from the best, as his taste in music really shaped mine. Of all that I'm grateful to dad for, an ear for rock and roll is high on that list. I can remember jamming to Slipstream on 8-track, which dad still has, that's how cool he is. I can remember going to the flea market and digging through stacks of vinyl looking for albums with him.


SBQ, as they're affectionately referred to on the internet fan sites, had one bona fide hit, "Arms of Mary", which hit #5 on UK charts. David Gilmour (yes, Pink Floyd's Gilmour) produced the B-side to that single. But "Sailing" became a #1 hit for Rod Stewart.

Regardless of the lack of incredible commercial success as SBQ, members such as Keith Wood went on to play keyboard for Al Stewart, Tim Renwick has played amazing guitar with amazing groups like Pink Floyd, Mike & The Mechanics, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, and had his own bands, including Wages of Sin and Lazy Racer. Tim Renwick is the utility man of rock guitar, and you can see an incredible bio of him here. Drummer Willie Wilson played drums on Pink Floyd's The Wall. The Sutherland brothers themselves continue to dabble, Gavin writing books and having made an album in 2000, and Iain composes, but doesn't appear to perform.

The SBQ Discography (Source: Peel):
The Sutherland Brothers Band (Island 1972). (Everything after this is with Quiver)
Lifeboat (Island 1972)
Dream Kid (Island 1974)
Beat Of The Street (Island 1974)
Reach For The Sky (Columbia 1975)
Slipstream (Columbia 1976)
Down To Earth (Columbia 1977)
When The Night Comes Down (Columbia 1978)

Now if those of us who are fans can only get the BBC to release those Peel sessions to us.

Decemberists Webcast From 9:30; Cobain Tops The King; Flash Concerts 2006

NPR kicks tail. The Decemberists will be broadcast from the 9:30 Club on Monday, October 30, and later streamed, here.



Kurt Cobain has bested Elvis Presley as the top-earning dead celeb, according to Forbes.com. This was Cobain's first year on the chart, and he raked in $50 Million from October 2005 to October 2006. The numbers are based on licensing deals for the artists' image or recordings. Chances are this will be Kurt's only time topping the charts, since the numbers are bloated because of Courtney's sale of a 1/4 share of the Nirvana catalog this year. Source: Billboard

Cingular Wireless is promoting free, limited admission concerts in 10 cities. To have a better chance to be a part of the festivities, participants must opt in to receive text messages, which will guarantee that you are inundated with spam before you might, just might, get the guaranteed invite to the show.

Billboard's Take On "Show Me What You Got"; HypeBot's iPod 5-Year Anniversary Opinion; Coming To You From NPR; Linda Perry Loves Courtney

Billboard reviews Jay-Z's new single, "Show Me What You Got", admitting that it's not the best he can do (clearly), but showing much love for what Clover Hope calls "the mighty horns", which we recognize from "Rump Shaker", and she credits as a Public Enemy sample but is actually and originally Lafayette Afro Rock Band's horn sample, if you wanna get accurate.
On that note, interesting how one day the song leaks on the internet, and the next it's in a Budweiser Select commercial. Hmmm....did the leak cause Jigga to scramble to make a video and release the single, or was the leak all part of the master plan?


Today on HypeBot a multi-source blurb on iPod (and portable MP3 technology as a whole) and its effect on the music industry. Is it over for album sales, and the beginning of a whole new world of 99-cent singles?



Keep your eyes on NPR for the following live/archived webcasts from 9:30 Club:
10/27 - Sean Lennon
10/30 - The Decemberists
11/03 - Joan Osborne
11/06 - The Black Keys
11/10 - Arlo Guthrie
11/20 - Cat Power

Watch out for Courtney Love's return with a new album next year. Linda Perry (formerly of 4 Non-Blondes, now a beloved producer with such works as Xtina's latest). According to Perry, Courtney Love is up there with Bob Dylan in terms of lyricism. Not so sure about that, but she's gotta get paid, so let her trumpet this thing all she wants.

Why Is NPR Suddenly Cool To Me?

Alright. So my wife, Kristen, loves NPR, and I always make fun of it (and her for listening to it). I love her. I don't have to love NPR. But this new partnership with the 9:30 Club and NPR's All Songs Considered is bringing out some good stuff. The Regina Spektor show, The Decemberists, even Sleater-Kinney.

Does NPR's new coolness have any relation to my love for Neil Diamond? Or Neil cover bands like Super Diamond that are going to be at 9:30 Club on October 13?

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Far from selling out as many fans were concerned the move from Kill Rock Stars to Capitol Records would be, The Crane Wife, produced by Death Cab For Cutie's Christopher Walla, benefits from the major label move, giving the group a big label sound without losing the independent style. Colin Meloy has become the literary giant of music, with all his apostrophes, "thees" and "thous", and not to mention five-dollar words like "arabesques." Lest we forget, there is a band here, not just Charles Dickens with a microphone. The musical epic "The Island: - Come And See - The Landlord's Daughter - You'll Not Feel The Drowning" will remind listeners of the broadly scoping instrumentation of the band. Vocal contributions from former KRS labelmate Laura Veirs on "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" do not fail to impress.

The despair and classic morose ambience of the past albums remain, but sound snazzier. There's no selling out here. That would require bringing the lyrics into the 21st century and losing the bouzouki (an old-world guitar-like instrument). The Decemberists are still an intelligent, yet accessible, rock group.

It can become quite easy to throw around words like "masterpiece" when one is wowed by the Decemberists' catalog and Meloy's verbiage. It's great to have popular music that displays an increased vocabulary. But the trap is in accepting such music as instantly classic. Worthwhile, for sure, but it's no Anna Karenina.

Regina Spektor, Decemberists, Ray LaMontagne at 9:30 Club in D.C.

Coming to rock your socks at The 9:30 Club are:

Regina Spektor - TOMORROW, October 3 @ 6PM....or catch her at Sound Garden on Wednesday, as mentioned in a previous post, since the show is sold out! Good for you, Regina!

The Decemberists - October 30 @ 7:30 PM - and buy the new album tomorrow!

Ray LaMontagne - December 11 - and buy his album at Amazon.com



Get Your Tickets to 9:30 Here

Stream The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife"

MTVu is streaming the new Decemberists album, The Crane Wife, on The Leak. If you like it, it's yours this Given Tuesday, October 3.

Source: Brooklyn Vegan