The seventh annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 12-15 on the same 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2008 lineup will total over 100 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days. Tickets go on sale exclusively through www.bonnaroo.com on Saturday, February 16 at 12:00 PM EDT.
Marco Benevento: Invisible Baby
“Bus Ride,” the opening track on Marco Benevento’s debut studio album Invisible Baby, is instrumental post-jazz done right. Huge, crashing drums, cavernous bass, thundering piano, and banjo blend together, gather momentum, and rise toward dramatic crescendo. It’s an urgent, passionate number from a trio maximizing its individual talents and firing on all cylinders. For Invisible Baby, that trio consists of keyboardist Benevento (Benevento/Russo Duo), bassist Reed Mathis (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey), and alternating drummers Matt Chamberlain (Critters Buggin) and Andrew Barr (The Slip).
Beach House: Devotion
On Beach House’s self-titled debut, the Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand captured the melancholy air of summer’s fade into autumn. It was a beautiful, bittersweet record and a promising debut.
With the duo’s follow-up, Devotion, Beach House conjures feelings of a different time and place on a wide scale. The volume on Devotion is low, undistorted, and the tone is sedate. Shadows of The Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star loom over the eleven songs. There are traces of Dusty Springfield’s blue-eyed Memphis soul, boosting these dreamy melodies with joyful sweetness.
The Apes: Ghost Games
Before Ghost Games, The Apes made concept albums—wild and fantastic epics in which the band imagined themselves as magical crusaders and conjured bizarre visions of twisted enlightenment. These strange tales were held down by the dark and murky pummel of booming drums, fuzzed-out bass or baritone guitar, and dense organ.
After the release of Baba’s in 2005, Apes singer Paul Weil quit the band to start a family. He was replaced by visual artist Breck Brunson, who quickly melded into the group before touring in support of Liars. On Ghost Games, Brunson’s cracked voice lilts into a spooky falsetto, and his staggered cadence complements the band’s huge sound.
Planes Mistaken For Stars: Mercy
Not for lack of effort, but Mercy is less than the sum of its parts. Don’t get me wrong: they cook with quality ingredients and a sure hand. It’s just that the flavor profile is confused. Like many post-hardcore bands that get stuck with the emo label, Planes Mistaken for Stars mix impressive chops, impassioned delivery, and uncompromising force to mediocre effect. The first track, “One Fucked Pony,” opens with churning, macho guitar play similar to that of the mid-90s indie group Juno. But then the vocals arrive. Gared O’Donnell’s fervent screaming often seems out of place, as if he forgot to split the difference between the music’s roots and its ostensible ambitions, which would lend themselves well to more melodic vocals.
Russian Circles Announce West Coast Tour
Recently announced are the tour dates for the west coast leg of the upcoming Russian Circles tour. Having just completed the recording of their album Station (Suicide Squeeze Records), the Chicago trio will tour the east coast with Dälek and the Young Widows, do a song or two at SXSW in Austin, then head west with the Red Sparowes.
Pogues + Billy Bragg = almost St. Patrick’s Day
If you couldn’t get tickets to see Billy Bragg with the Pogues on March 15th in NYC, not to worry: a show has been added for March 16th at the Roseland Ballroom.
Billy Bragg – 2008 Tour Dates
Jan 25 – Big Day Out – SOLD OUT Sydney
Jan 26 – The Metro – SOLD OUT Sydney
Jan 28 – Big Day Out – SOLD OUT Melbourne
Jan 30 – The Prince of Wales – SOLD OUT Melbourne
Jan 31 – The Prince of Wales – SOLD OUT Melbourne
Feb 1 – Big Day Out – SOLD OUT Adelaid e
Feb 3 – Big Day Out – SOLD OUT Perth
Feb 4 – Fly By Night – SOLD OUT Fremantle
The Poems: Young America
“Don’t stop thinking about good times” are the heartfelt lyrics that close out Young America, sung with joyful abandon. That sentiment runs deep throughout The Poem‘s Minty Fresh debut. The Scottish four-piece, which counts Scottish Top 40 hitmakers The Bluebells’ Robert Hodgens among its members (and includes rarely identifiable cameos from Isobell Campbell and Norman Blake), radiates pleasantness through each of the album’s 10 tunes. The placid pipes of Amy Ogletree and Kerry Polwart are eternally patient and mothering, guiding the melodies along safe, time-tested paths. Their instrumental cheer squad contributes rollicking piano lines and stiffly strummed guitars, which trade places with the digital plops of keyboards and Abbey Road-era horn charts throughout the course of the album.
Ska Lives: Big D and the Kids Table support Dropkick Murphys on Tour
Ska-friends and fellow Bostonians Dropkick Murphys and Big D and the Kids Table are headed out on tour through March. Big D recently finished their own headlining tour (they play about 200 shows a year), and are getting ready to start work on a new album for SideOneDummy.
Commentaries on the Golden Path: The War on Terror
Some people know where they stand. These humans see, know, and realize. They adore their own faces, and some mirrors are crystal clear. To them, there is purpose, there is meaning, and there is a determination to pour our collective natural environment into a specific ideological container. These visionaries have names like Wolfowitz, Zawahiri, Cheney, Bin Laden, Rove, Hussein, and Rumsfeld.
Witch: “Eye,” from New Album Paralyzed
Witch’s new album Paralyzed (March 18, TeePee Records) is amazing. We’re thrilled to be sponsoring their SXSW showscase with Graveyard (dates below).
[audio:http://teepeerecords.com/media/witch_-_eye.mp3]
Listen to: Witch, “Eye”
Roz Leibowitz
In artist Roz Leibowitz’s estimation, making art is about “being in [correct] alignment to the cosmic show.” However, her intricate pencil drawings and collages are not portrayals of a fantastical realm but rather depict a curious blend of vernacular culture relating to folk art and folk belief.