Flight of the Conchords isn’t for everyone, but local fans of the comedy duo will be pleased to learn that they’re coming to town! Put May 7th on your calendar, at Bass Concert Hall. Tix go on sale February 6th (next Friday) at noon.
In other random music news, Ruby Isle has been doing some killer covers recently! We stumbled upon their take on My Girls from Animal Collective via Music Slut, and Colin Meloy himself linked to their cover of Rake’s Song from his Twitter account.
The lineup for Coachella was just announced, and it includes some insanely good artists: Amy Winehouse, Band of Horses, Beirut, Blitzen Trapper, Crystal Castles, Fleet Foxes, Gang Gang Dance, Ghostland Observatory, Girl Talk, Hercules & Love Affair, Leonard Cohen, Lykke Li, M. Ward, Morrissey, Okkervil River, Paul McCartney, Peter Bjorn & John, The Black Keys, The Cure, The Kills, The Presets, The Ting Tings, Thievery Corporation, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among a ton of others.
It is April 17,18, & 19, and tix are $269 for a three-day pass, $99 for single day. It sounds like the cost will be worth it, wow.
Can I just say ‘wow, she’s pretty’? Because, well. Also, pretty talented.
Via Stereogum
ETA: Until we get this blog into shape, embedding the vid here isn’t going to work, so follow the Stereogum link for the ‘Tonight’ video.
Death Cab for Cutie is coming to town! Spin Magazine talked about it this morning; apparently, those signed up with their online fan club get a crack at tickets two days before the rest of the world. If you’re not a member, that means you need to look out for tickets starting on the 30th of January. They play the Austin Music Hall on Friday, May 1st.
So this morning on Chillville, the bands were announced for the first edition of “Homegrown Live – Chillville Edition”, or “Homegrown Chill”. No matter what you call it, I can assure you that you’re in for a wonderful night. Local bands Govinda, OHN, and Shuttle Debris will be providing the entertainment at The Parish on February 18. Doors open at 8:30, and it is only $5 for over 21 & $8 for under. We have supported these three bands since the early days of Chillville, and are honored to have them play this ground breaking event. If that is not enough entertainment, then you will be pleased to know that The Parish is also hosting the final round of “The Fastest Bartender” competition. All of the Tom Cruise/Cocktail action will take place before the first band, and in-between sets. So come on over and join us for this fantastic event.
Artwork by Dan Allison Reid
War Child is an organization that helps to provide aid for the children of war-torn and poverty stricken countries. They also work closely with the music industry to help bring awareness through CD compilations, and their own download store. These artists include Oasis, Keane, The Prodigy, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Radiohead, Gorillaz, and today’s “catch of the day” artist, Hot Chip. On February 16 the latest charity album, entitled War Heroes, will be available for download. The new LP will be filled with tracks by Duffy, Lily Allen, and Beck (to name a few) doing cover songs from some of the most influential artists in the past 40 years. Hot Chip has decided to cover a classic song by Joy Division, who has had a big impact on their sound (that includes New Order as well). I saw them at Antone’s a couple of years ago, and they actually did a version of their own single “No Fit State” mashed up with New Order’s “Temptation” – it was very impressive. “Transmission” is the song from Joy Division that HC has chosen, and it is so fantastic that it would’ve (possibly) brought a smile to the late Ian Curtis. Enjoy!
Considering the lightning speed with which our society moves, I am noticing that, oddly, more and more of information is left to the inconsistencies of that most ancient of phenomena: passing along information through the oral tradition. To wit, we have at our disposal all this massive technology at our disposal that allows us to discover new musical artists. Through the years as someone with a broadcasting platform that entitled me to engage in discussions with promo reps from the music industry, I would count on those conversations for most of my information. Not the least of which is how to pronounce an artist’s name. But as more and more of those conversations now happen over email (or in the age of downsizing…not at all). I can’t tell you how long I have the pronunciation of Mum (moom) wrong. And I am still not sure if I’ve got Lykke Li right (it sounds like a great name for an Asian porn star). Actually, I just hopped over to this little thing called Wikipedia, which solves the aforementioned Lykke Li quandary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lykke_Li which I guess pretty much renders the preceding paragraph suspect at best.
Speaking of Lykke Li, she’ll be in town at Antone’s on February 19. I strongly suggest that you get your tickets now if you wanna go (and whether you know it or not, you DO want to go). Fujiya and Miyagi is another show that will probably sell out in advance. That’s at February 27 Emo’s. Andrew Bird is playing February 12th at the Paramount. Meiko is opening up for Joshua Radin Monday February 9th at The Parish.
Chillville is presenting the Submarines show at Emo’s a week from Tuesday (Feb 3). Their song “Peace and Hate” is one of my all-time favorite Chillville songs.
It was announced this week that Morrissey is coming back to town. He’ll be at the Bass Concert Hall on April 12th. I guess it goes without saying that there are more Mozzer/Smiths fans in Austin than Bass can accommodate. Tickets are $39.50 and $49.50 depending on how intimate you want to find yourself that night (and by now it’s common knowledge…the more Moz ignores you, the closer you should get.
All the television networks seem to be coming out of hibernation. I’m enjoying new episodes of Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Big Love and, of course, Flight Of The Conchords. My favorite “new” show is the United States Of Tara, starring Toni Collette and John Corbin and penned by screenwriter phenom Diablo Cody (Juno). That said, I think I am mainly going to rely on complete season DVD collections to do most of my TV watching moving forward. Everyone keeps telling me that I would really enjoy this show Breaking Bad, but I don’t want to get to the point where I am watching 30 hours of TV a week (which, sadly, would still put me below the average for Americans).
Oscar noms came out this week. I’ve seen most of the major films. Took in Milk this week (Mrs. Raydog liked it more than me…she says it’s a no brainer that Sean Penn should trump Mickey Roarke for Best Actor) and The Reader (and frankly I am sort of amazed that Kate Winslett grabbed a nomination for this instead of Revolutionary Road). I still need to see Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Rachel Getting Married and a couple of others.
