So the initial line up for the 2010 Sasquatch Music Festival is officially out now and it’s a pretty big one. The festival will take place May 29-31 at The Gorge in Washington state. It’s probably one of the most beautiful locations for a music festival, so if you can go, you should go. (Last year Decemberists fans had sex on a plateau!!!)
In the (short) tradition of AudioSuede providing topical and silly categorizing of the performing bands, there’s bands for everybody!
Bros: My Morning Jacket, Passion Pit, MGMT
Cocaine snorting hipsters: Neon Indian, Miike Snow
Gay guys: Girls
Rap fans who have never listened to Public Enemy: Brother Ali, Wale, Kid Cudi, Public Enemy
Soft spoken bearded men: The Tallest Man on Earth, Band of Horses, Mumford & Sons, The Middle East, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
The women who the bearded men want: She & Him, Vampire Weekend, The xx, Camera Obscura
People who buy glowsticks: Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, Deadmau5, Simian Mobile Disco, Boys Noize, YACHT
People who wish Modest Mouse or Built to Spill were there: Cymbals Eat Guitars
Super-group lovers: New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene
People who don’t like any other band at Sasquatch: Ween
[Ed.'s note: Oh yeah, and, as previously announced, Pavement are headlining. So, awesome.]
-Cooper Foyt
Details for the first Broken Social Scene record in five years have surfaced this week and all signs point to awesome. Between the meta-ostentatious title (Forgiveness Rock Record) and the beautifully crowded album art (courtesy of the always reliable Arts & Crafts label), I would have already been expecting huge things, but it’s the 7-minute long single that they’ve unleashed to the public that really does the trick. “World Sick” is beyond epic; it’s a sprawling, catchy, and delightfully bloated (but not overly so) anthem that blows everything the band and their solo/side project counterparts have done since their breakthrough You Forgot It In People out of the water. Maybe I’m being hyperbolic, but I don’t care. This record just might save the world from musical starvation.
-Chris Polley
When Vampire Weekend came out with their debut album in 2008 I put one foot on the bandwagon to see what all the damn fuss was about. After seeing them live I immediately decided they were the most overrated band of 2008. Realizing that they were an extremely young band, I did see small glimpses of hope and was eager to hear what came next for them. The video for their new single “Giving Up the Gun” off their new album Contra was released last week and the WTF factor is at a 10. The video stars tennis playing stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Lil Jon, Joe Jonas and Rza. Even though it’s probably the most random set of stars put together since Hollywood Squares, I have to admit that the song is pretty good.
-Felicia
YouTube launched a new feature last week called Disco, which is a “Music Discovery” and “Playlist Creation Tool.” The new search feature lists all of a band’s videos available on YouTube. You no longer have to sift through a ton of videos that have nothing to do with the band you want to find. The downside here is that the music discovery tool does not appear to work very well. In my testing, the related artists did not match very well with the original artist I had searched. Linking similar artists together is an exceptionally hard task, but other applications like Pandora do a pretty decent job. I imagine with Youtube’s financial backing, Disco’s music discovery tool will improve considerably in the near future. Right now, it’s an easy way to search for music videos, perhaps in time it will develop into something more useful.
-Daniel Wipert
Because we can’t seem to help ourselves with festival “news,” rumor has it that Lollapalooza’s headliners for 2010 have already been chosen. And while Lolla may have fallen off in its hipster cred, I hoped they would still have the decency to highlight some of the best in what’s new and worthwhile. Apparently, I should quit hoping for anything. The rumored (but apparently “confirmed”) acts (according to The Daily Swarm, which means absolutely nothing) are: Lady Gaga, Green Day, and Soundgarden. I repeat: Lady Gaga. Green Day. Soundgarden. One disturbingly-dressed pop star with an everyone-in-pop-music-sounds-exactly-like-this voice who thinks that “art” means “be batshit crazy for no reason.” One pop-punk outfit trying to pass themselves off as God’s gift to protest rock who, apparently, didn’t realize that Bush didn’t get elected to a third term and that yes, all their songs now sound the same. And one old-school rock reunion that, while they brought the house down back in the day, have been apart long enough that the destruction of grunge and its transformation into Top 40 balladry (Nickelback, etc.) has probably escaped their radar, thus tarnishing what would otherwise be an interesting act to see. These selections are made all the more loathsome (confounding, even) by the fact that the two rumored second-tier headliners are The Arcade Fire and The Strokes, two big time indie acts that supposedly have new albums coming out this year, to the excitement of pretty much everyone. Plus, have you seen The Arcade Fire live? If I were to ever pick one band to close out a festival and Radiohead wouldn’t do it, I would pick The Arcade Fire. Definitely over Madon-…sorry, Lady Gaga, The Cla-…sorry, Green Day, and Soundgar…den. Had it right on the last one.
-Christian Hagen
And now for this week’s Weekly Playlist!
Felicia – This week I’m listening to The Big Pink’s 2009 release A Brief History of Love. After missing their show here in Minneapolis back over Thanksgiving, I was glad to see they are coming back in March and was able to score tickets. I have to admit I’m not as into the full album as I am their radio singles “Dominos” and “Velvet.” The whole album has a very slow but gritty English feel, and I hope they can really bring it live.
Christian - I’m going to be completely honest, I just picked a track at random. I heard a Julian Casablancas song on The Current today, so I decided to look him up on Grooveshark, and damned if I didn’t find a hilarious cover of an SNL song.
Daniel – La Roux, “Fascination”
She pretty much ruled the UK last year, but she really has not found a large audience over here. This is my favorite La Roux track. Strangely, I have not seen this song mentioned in any of the positive press surrounding her album. I think it is nearly a perfect pop song.
Golden Silvers, “Arrows of Eros”
Speaking of UK artists who Americans have ignored, Golden Silvers have approximately zero buzz over here. They are not even that popular in the UK for that matter. I think they are on the cutting edge of an emerging trend. Let’s just say Hall and Oates will be a primary influence for many bands for the next couple years. Yacht Rock is a joke now, but it won’t be for long.
Cooper - “This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)” by Xiu Xiu
The relatively feel good track off of the excellent upcoming Xiu Xiu album Dear God, I Hate Myself. The song is an ode to the healing effect that music can have on the emotionally and physically wounded as well as lead-singer Jamie Stewart’s own “Thank You” card to the Moz. Amidst an album which is laden with images of sexual and physical abuse, this is an absolving and necessary track, but still has enough legs to stand on its own.