This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Tuesday - The Script
• Wednesday - Miike Snow

Letterman

• Tuesday - Elvis Costello
• Thursday - Paul McCartney
• Friday - MSTRKRFT w. John Legend

Carson Daly

• Monday - Black Kids
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - Green Day
• Friday - Foxboro Hot Tubs

Pete Yorn - Ram's Head Live! (7/21/09)

All around quality show. Can't say I was all that surprised either. Pete Yorn's music isn't mind-blowing or experimental by any stretch of the imagination, but it's solid - and that's how I would describe the performance that he and his band put on. The whole feel of the evening was cozy - Ram's Head was, I'd say about 60-75% full so it felt more like an intimate bar setting. About halfway through the main set, the drummer came from behind his kit, sat down on a wooden box in the middle of the stage and whacked his hands on it for a few songs... the only thing that was missing was the campfire. Pete was fairly engaging with the crowd, which was cool. I think the only thing that was missing was "Undercover," which the LOML was a bit bummed about, but you can't win 'em all.

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Tuesday - The Script
• Wednesday - Miike Snow

Dave Letterman

• Monday - Levon Helms
• Thursday - St. Vincent

Jimmy Fallon

• Monday - Incubus
• Tuesday - Arctic Monkeys
• Friday - Julian Plenti

Carson Daly

• Monday - Brett Dennen
• Tuesday- White Lies
• Thursday - Ida Maria
  

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Wednesday - The Sound

Conan O'Brien

• Monday - The Fray
• Thursday - Regina Spektor
• Friday - Ben Harper & Relentless7

Jimmy Fallon

• Wednesday - Passion Pit
• Thursday - Jarvis Cocker

Carson Daly

• Monday - Adele
• Wednesday - Lykke Li
• Thursday - Ben Harper & Relentless 7
• Friday - Crystal Antlers

David Letterman

• Monday - DMB
• Tuesday - Silversun Pickups
• Wednesday - Elbow
• Thursday - Cage the Elephant
• Friday - DMB

Thom Yorke - "The Present Tense"

Thanks to Radiohead At Ease for the heads up and link to the audio of this, "Harrowdown Hill" and "True Love Waits" from his solo set at the Latitude Festival.

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Thursday - La Roux

Dave Letterman

• Monday - Spinnerette

Conan O'Brien

• Wednesday - Mat Kearney
• Friday - De La Soul

Carson Daly

• Monday - Ben Harper & Relentless7
• Wednesday - Cold War Kids
• Thursday - Nico Stai
  
• Friday - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
  

Pearl Jam to close the Spectrum down

Well musically, that is. Lot of memories from this place when I was growing up, but I think we'd all agree (at least those who know that the Spectrum isn't just a range of colors) that it's time to say goodbye to this lovable shit hole. It's not as bad as the Vet was in it's final years, but it's not too far off.

Pearl Jam is scheduled for Oct 28th and 30th as part of a short (warmup, I'd assume) tour in support of their upcoming album, Backspacer (Sept 20th). Tickets go on sale tomorrow bitches.

New music

• The National, "Ashamed of the Story I Told" (Polaris cover), Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (Sept 29th), P-fork
• Thom Yorke, "All for the Best" (Miracle Legion cover), same album, Stereogum
• Artic Monkeys, "Crying Lightning," Humbug (Aug 25th), Ultra8201
• Yim Yames (aka MMJ's Jim James), "Long, Long, Long," Tribute to (Geroge Harrison tribute out now digitally, Aug 4th hard-copy), Ultra8201
• Spoon, "Got Nuffin," Got Nuffin EP (out now), Ultra8201
  

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Monday - 3OH! 3

David Letterman

• Tuesday - Wilco w. Feist
• Wednesday - Paul McCartney
• Thursday - Grizzly Bear
• Friday - Metric

Craig Ferguson

• Friday - Ray LaMontagne

Jimmy Fallon

• Tuesday - Daniel Merriweather
• Friday - The Dead Weather

Carson Daly

• Wednesday - The Duke Spirit

2009 Wimbledon Champion

Yup, I'm looking at her titles...

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Tuesday - Ben Harper and the Relentless 7
• Wednesday - Franz Ferdinand

David Letterman

• Monday - Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band

Carson Daly

• Tuesday - M83
• Wednesday - Delta Spirit
• Thursday - Nico Vega

Conan O'Brien

• Monday - Death Cab for Cutie
• Tuesday - Andrew Bird
• Wednesday - The Hold Steady
• Thursday - Playing for Change
• Friday - Ray LaMontagne

Jimmy Fallon

• Monday - The Lonely Island
• Wednesday - Amadou & Mariam
• Thursday - Paul Simon
• Friday - Mos Def

The Thermals - Daytripping (Part I)

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Wednesday - Eric Hutchinson
• Thursday - Phoenix

David Letterman

• Monday - Steve Earle
• Thursday - PJ Harvey w. John Parish

Conan O'Brien

• Monday - Green Day
• Tuesday - Jonh Mayer Trio
• Thursday - Neko Case
• Friday - Incubus

Carson Daly

• Wednesday - Little Boots
• Thursday - Robert Francis
• Friday - NASA

Jimmy Fallon

• Monday - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Thursday - Asher Roth
• Friday - Keane

The price is right... especially when it's free

As the summer approached and various festivals were releasing details on their 2009 editions, rumors were surrounding the Virgin Mobile Festival - mainly whether or not it was even going to happen. Well it's happening on Saturday, August 30th, but with a few changes...

• IT'S FREE!!!!
• It will be held at Merriweather Post Pavilion (instead of Pimlico Race Course, where it had been since the festival started in '06)
• It will only be a one-day event
• IT'S FREE!!!!

That's right kids, it's free. Hell, even Ticketbastard is waving their infamous convenience charge if you pick up the tickets at Will Call. While it's not required, Virgin Mobile is asking attendees to donate $5 to youth homelessness through RE*Generation.

I don't think anyone would've been surprised if Virgin Mobile half-assed the booking. But I have to hand it to them, the line-up is pretty solid... Franz Ferdinand, Weezer, the National, the Hold Steady, St. Vincent and Girl Talk to name a few. And a dance tent to boot - count me in!

Tickets were made available this past Saturday and surprise surprise, they "sold" out fairly quickly. Soon after, posts started appearing on Craiglist - those looking to sell the free tickets AND others offering $$ (and other things) for extra tickets. Gotta love it.

For those of you who were unable to get tickets (like myself) you can certainly go the Craigslist/eBay route. Another option is to try back after the 28th. Those who ordered tickets and selected the Will Call option must pick-up their tickets between Aug 21-28. Unclaimed tickets will be released to the public after that.

Wilco Live Webcast - Saturday

Tune in at WilcoWorld.net (or the Wilco iPhone app for you up on technology) this Saturday, June 26th at 9pm EDT for the live webcast of Wilco's show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. Might have to have this on in the background while I'm filling up moving boxes...

Beck's Record Club

From beck.com:

We've been working on changes to the website for the last few months. We'll be adding new sections as they're ready. The first one to be added is called Record Club, an informal meeting of various people to record an album in a day. An album will be chosen to be reinterpreted and used as a framework. Nothing rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track will be uploaded once a week on beck.com as well as through the web sites of those involved with the project.

First up is Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico. Check out the website for their cut on the opening track, "Sunday Morning." Give it to Beck for coming up with a pretty cool idea.

New music

• Yim Yames (aka MMJ's Jim James), "Behind That Locked Door," Tribute to (Geroge Harrison tribute out July 7th), MOKB
• Modest Mouse, "The Whale Song," Autumn Beds (limited edition 7" out now), The Tripwire

This week's late night TV lineup

Jimmy Kimmel

• Thursday - Eric Hutchinson
• Friday - Phoenix

Conan O'Brien

• Monday - Pete Yorn
• Tuesday - Elvis Costello
• Wednesday - Wilco
• Friday - Adele

Jimmy Fallon

• Monday - Sonic Youth
• Wednesday - The Roots
• Thursday - Dinosaur Jr.
• Friday - Grizzly Bear

David Letterman

• Tuesday - MSTRKRFT with John Legend
• Wednesday - St. Vincent

Craig Ferguson

• Friday - Chairlift

Band of Horses - Ram's Head Live! (6/12/09)

I'm not really sure what happened here. The conditions were set for a successful evening - the LOML made a rare appearance with me, we've been looking forward to see BoH for a few years and it was our maiden voyage to Ram's Head in B-more. The night even started off on a few positive notes - got rid of our extra pair of tickets without a hitch and had solid dinner/drinks at the newly established J.A. Murphy's. Once we got to Ram's Head, the night didn't go in the crapper, but it sure didn't continue to get better...


First, the venue. It doesn't seem like a bad place to see a concert, but we didn't help ourselves any by showing up to the sold-out show about 10 minutes before BoH came on stage. We chose to head to the second floor and had to bob and weave the whole night to catch glimpses of the band.

Which brings us to BoH. They kicked off their set with three or four slow songs in a row (their set list looked similar to their NY show)... if I could have laid down on the floor and taken a nap, I would have. I'm not sure what I expected from these guys, but they didn't live up to it. They sounded fine but their choice of songs and lack of movement on stage didn't really give the crowd a chance to get into it. It was almost like they didn't want us to get into it...

TV on the Radio - 9:30 Club (6/9/09)

It's been a long time coming for me seeing TVOTR in concert. I had a ticket to see them at the 9:30 in'07, but crapped out for some reason (I still have the unused ticket). When they announced their first go-around of the states in support of Dear Science, I was bummed to say the least... but they were kind enough to include DC as a stop on their 2nd leg. I was more than a little anxious to hear how all of their sounds came across in a live setting. Plus I wanted to see Kyp Malone's afro and beard in person.

Lead man Tunde Adebimpe has what seems like boundless energy. He bounces around the stage and sings every line like it could be his last. The sax player was definitely feeling the music as well. Other than those two though, there wasn't much movement by the rest of the band... but you could still tell that they were giving it their all.

I found myself doing the same thing last Tuesday that I did for the first few months I listened to Return to Cookie Mountain - trying to piece all of their "noises" together instead of taking it all in as one sound. And with all of the different "noises" TVOTR makes, taking them in individually quickly becomes overwhelming (and exhausting). I had to remind myself on a few occasions that night to step back and just enjoy the experience. And once I was able to do that, it just made me want to see them over and over and over again, until I got it just right.