Year: 2008

Saturday’s lineup started with Balkan jazz/pop band, Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar, led by the world famous Serbian Trumpet player Boban Markovic, and his son, Marko. The group had already performed at Pitchfork’s preview night in Millenium Park where they were met with a great reception. An untimely rain shower saturated the ground at Union Park making for a grimy, sludgy mess. All of a sudden the numerous hipster girls in knee high rain boots looked like they had the right idea, instead of questionable taste in footwear. Many concertgoers still sore over not having been born in time Woodstock four decades ago smeared the mud on their bodies and faces (No wonder the port-a-potties got so disgusting so quickly!).

The post-hardcore Canadians Cancer Bats have just begun a massive tour that will keep them on the road until mid-December. This monumental tour will take the Bats across the US and through the UK to play numerous dates throughout. For the US dates, the Bats will be supported by metalcore icons Bullet For My Valentine and Bleeding Through. When they cross the pond the Bats will part with BFMV and Bleeding Through to meet up with Welsh post-hardcore peers, Funeral For a Friend.

On Sept. 16th fans of Tom Verlaine will be delighted to know that two of his critically acclaimed Warner Bros. releases, Dreamline (1981) and Words From the Front (1982) are to be reissued on Collectors Choice. From the ashes of Televison, Verlaine‘s critically acclaimed band, Verlaine emerged to forge these two great works. Of his nine post-Television albums, Dreamline and Front are often disputed as his best. With an all-star cast of musicians including former Television bass player, Fred Smith, and Bruce Brody of Patti Smith and The Pretenders, Verlaine‘s sophomore album Dreamline contains such hits as “There’s a Reason”, “Penetration” and “Always.”

“Oakland’s a little lawless. It’s got kind of a Wild West vibe.” Annihilation Time guitarist and founding member Graham Clise is describing his band’s home base. Although the five-piece band, which formed in 2001, originally hails from Southern California, its adopted city has proved to be a good fit. “You can pretty much do whatever you want,” Clise says. “The cops aren’t ever going to fuck with you unless you do something really crazy.

Los Angeles-based Bodies Of Water have been under the radar for most of their short-lived career. But they shouldn’t have a problem with that anymore. A Certain Feeling (Secretly Canadian), the band’s second full-length in just two years, finds the quartet where 2007’s Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink left off experimenting with song structure, utilizing a variety of instruments and becoming more and more sophisticated musically-speaking than many of their peers.

Savannah, Georgia-based Kylesa spent the past couple of months writing their new record and entered the studio on July 21st to begin recording. With an anticipated release date of early 2009 on Prosthetic Records (with a vinyl release around the same time), the album mark’s the group’s first release since their 2006 album, Time Will Fuse Its Worth.

In anticipation of his new solo record, oh mighty engine (to be released on July 29), Neil Halstead will embark on a North American tour hitting festivals and smaller settings throughout Canada and the United States. An mp3 from the record, entitled “Paint A Face,” is streaming below. Tour dates are also listed below:

Thankfully the afternoon’s rain showers ended before the gates to the Pitchfork Music Festival opened at Chicago’s Union Park, allowing Boston post-punk legends Mission of Burma began to play Vs. both dry and right on time.

To celebrate the release of their new LP, The Cynics are back with a slew of tour dates throughout the month of August in Europe. Already being regarded as the group’s best album since their classic Rock’n’Roll LP, the group is sure to draw fans in Spain, where the album was recorded, as well as throughout England and Denmark. Tour dates are listed below:

The long-awaited third solo album by Ben Folds will be released this fall on September 30. Entitled Way To Normal, the album was mostly recorded in Folds’ home studio in Nashville and features a variety of guest musicians including Regina Spektor on the album’s first single, “You Don’t Know Me.”

CSS made a strong impression on the international music scene by embracing a snarky and hipper-than-thou attitude that legions of music lovers lapped up eagerly. Songs that referenced Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez, and Death From Above became dance floor favorites with sleek bass lines and self-referential, pop culture-laden lyrics. It comes as a surprise then, while listening to the group’s latest effort, Donkey, to hear a collection of songs less eager to please and more set upon musicianship.