My Top 10 Quiz

Name your top 10 most played bands in 2011:

1) Andrew Bird
2) Kelly Hogan
3) Neko Case
4) Hot Chip
5) The War on Drugs
6) Shearwater
7) Dirty Projectors
8) Tanlines
9) Divine Fits
10) Beirut

Now answer the questions according to the numbers:

What was the first song you've ever heard by 6?
I can't remember. Probably something off "Rooks" or "Palo Santo"

What is your favorite album of 2?
"I Like to Keep Myself in Pain"

What is your favorite lyric that 5 has sung?
"I'm a thousand miles behind with a…

My Top 10 Quiz

Name your top 10 most played bands in 2011:

1) New Pornographers
2) Fleet Foxes
3) Beirut
4) Bon Iver
5) Andrew Bird
6) Neko Case
7) The Decemberists
8) Destroyer
9) Arcade Fire
10) Iron & Wine

Now answer the questions according to the numbers:

What was the first song you've ever heard by 6?
"Hold On, Hold On"

What is your favorite album of 2?
"Helplessness Blues"

What is your favorite lyric that 5 has sung?
"And I was a cartographer of the tangles of your hair."

How many times have you seen 4…

Mon 6 Jun – Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays - Iron & Wine + The Head And The Heart

General statement about going to concerts. General statement about free concerts. General statement about “free” outdoor concerts. Tangent about how free shows are not technically free.

Statement about wanting to see Iron & Wine for a long time. Statement about how I could have seen him in 2009 but didn’t get tickets on time.

Statement about how Iron & Wine’s sound has changed with his new record. Broad statement about said record that really doesn’t tell anyone anything useful. Opinion about…

Mon 25 Apr – Arcade Fire with special guest the National

Pro-Tip for all up and coming bands. While in most instances, you should never limit your dreams, if your dream is to become the greatest live band in the biz, create a different dream. There is no way you will ever even scratch the surface of what Arcade Fire did last night.

(Full disclosure: This review will be highly biased because Arcade Fire is probably my favorite band.)

Let me begin with the National. There was a time in my life when I could have gone to see The…

My Top 10 Quiz

Name your top 10 most played bands in 2010:

1) Andrew Bird
2) Arcade Fire
3) The National
4) Neko Case
5) St. Vincent
6) Ra Ra Riot
7) Beach House
8) The Decemberists
9) Iron & Wine
10) Laura Veirs

Now answer the questions according to the numbers:

What was the first song you've ever heard by 6?
Can You Tell

What is your favorite album of 2?
The Suburbs

What is your favorite lyric that 5 has sung?
"I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron."

How many…

Wed 15 Dec – Andrew Bird

There are quite a fair amount of words in other languages that do not have an accurate English translation. Immediately, I tend to think of the Portuguese word “saudade,” a nostalgic feeling that carries a connotation of the desire of to rid oneself of the absence of someone, something or some place. It’s difficult for me to even explain (and perhaps I’m not even explaining it correctly) much less put it into a neat little English box. Certainly I’ve felt “saudade” before, but I’ve always been at a loss to name what I was…

Mon 25 Oct – LCD Soundsystem

Homeric Hymn to James Murphy

Sing Muse of the dulcet tunes of James Murphy,
who bringeth motion to my stone still limbs
and who causeth me to dance myself clean;
what shall I say, Muse, of the performance
he bringeth unto the weary people?
Shall I say that “Drunk Girls” is one of the best
songs of this year? Shall I praise his vocals
on “I Can Change,” his finest yet? Or Muse,
shall I note with my key strokes that Murphy,
more so than any more mine eyes hath seen,
causeth even the…

Tue 5 Oct – Ra Ra Riot, Chikita Violenta, We Barbarians

Ra Ra Riot’s newest record, The Orchard, won’t be competing for top album of the year and may not even make end of year lists. The lead single “Boy,” will probably not show up on Pitchfork’s top 100 songs of the year. A bad year?

Well, not really. Though the reaction to The Orchard has been tepid at best, Ra Ra Riot has two very salient things that many bands of their popularity do not have: first, the desire to try new things (more on that later) and a…

Sat 2 Oct – Local Natives, The Love Language, The Union Line

Abstract: Researcher attempts to uncover whether attending Beach House at Pitchfork Festival in July over Local Natives was a prudent decision by attending Local Natives at Chicago Metro later in the fall.

Background Information: The BBC has called L.A. quintet Local Natives the “Vampire Foxes,” hearkening to their perceived similarities to two bands fronted by Ezra Koenig and Robin Pecknold. Pitchfork Media has also called this band the “West Coast Grizzly Bear” and has awarded their debut album Gorilla Manor the coveted Best New Music appellation. Beach House,…

While Dave Matthews Band was playing about two blocks away at Wrigley Field, The Metro braced for a night of raucous indie rock from some of the Pitchfork music scene’s favorites. Each band seemed to have its own group of fans with the hipsters out in full force for Best Coast, girls in sparkly tops and leggings for Free Energy, and the USA chanters for Titus Andronicus. Even Male Bonding, the first band to play seemed to have some fans scattered through the crowd.

While on the subject of Male Bonding, I would have to say that while I haven’t…