City Approves Wilco Show in Downtown Lawrence

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Read more here.

Concert Announcement: M.I.A.

05/14/08 Liberty Hall, Lawrence

Love her or hate her, you gotta admit M.I.A. is a pretty intriguing figure in modern music. Her albums are critically lauded but somewhat polarizing with a lot of the music fans I have talked with. Regardless if you are a fan don't miss this show (her live shows are said to be outstanding) unless you'll be in St. Louis that night seeing Radiohead or down the street seeing Wilco. She'll be playing at Liberty Hall in Lawrence on May 14th.

M.I.A. Myspace

Wilco to play in Downtown Lawrence?

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I hope this actually happens, read the story HERE.

Concert Announcement: Ween

07/13/08 The Crossroads, Kansas City

If you have ever seen Ween play live before then you already know. If you haven't seen Ween live before, do yourself a favor and check this show out, they are fantastic. If you don't like Ween, then I don't trust you.

Ween Myspace

New Music: Plants and Animals, Dead Confederate and Why?

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Posting has been pretty scattered here recently but it's not because there's been a lack of good new music. Here are a few albums worth checking out that are available now or coming out soon.

Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue

Yet another band with a great debut album and a ton of potential from Montreal. Plants and Animals remind me a lot of Blitzen Trapper, in that they are able to vary styles and influences from song to song while sounding cohesive. Really there is something here for almost everyone, country-psychedelic-hippie-prog-folk-guitar-rock might be an apt term. Plants and Animals debut album comes out next Tuesday March 25th. (TIYL: Blitzen Trapper, Broken Social Scene, Neil Young, Arcade Fire)

Plants and Animals Myspace

Dead Confederate - Dead Confederate EP

Although this EP came out in 2007, I am just catching onto this band now. I have heard them compared to other "indie" bands that share their Southern heritage (Dead Confederate are from Georgia) like My Morning Jacket or Band of Horses but I don't think they sound much like either band. If anything Dead Confederate have more in common with bands like Black Mountain or The Black Angels. This is just a five song EP (you can get it through Amazon or iTunes) but they are reported to have a full length album out sometime in 2008.

Dead Confederate Myspace

Why? - Alopecia

The Anticon label and their roster of weirdos has come a long way. If you aren't familiar Anticon began in the Bay area as an "avant-garde" hip-hop collective. They are responsible for one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time, Deep Puddle Dynamics, which was a one-time album whose members were/are: Sole, Doseone, Alias and Slug (from Atmosphere). Anticon is responsible for some brilliant stuff (Themselves, Cloudead, Sole's Bottle of Humans) but recently their hit-or-miss catalog has been mostly misses. Just when I thought Anticon and it's members have became irrelevant Why? and Doseone's band Subtle (Subtle isn't on the Anticon label but Doseone is a founding member) have taken the indie-rock road. Why?'s most recent album, Alopecia, is a truly brilliant, beautiful mess. If you can get past Yoni Wolf's unique voice then there you may a lot on here enjoy, as long as you like your music on the weird side.

Why?'s Myspace

New Music: The Roots

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The Roots have been one of the most consistent groups in Hip-Hop for the last 15 years now. Every album they have released has been truly unique and enjoyable with 1999's Things Fall Apart being one of the better Hip=Hop records of all-time. Their 8th full-length studio effort, Rising Down, will come out on April 29th on Def Jam Records and if these two videos are any indication, they will continue their streak.

75 Bars (Blacks Reconstruction):



Get Busy (Featuring Dice Raw, Peedi Crakk and DJ Jazzy Jeff):



The Roots Myspace

Show Review - Holy Fuck/A Place To Bury Strangers

03/08/08 The Record Bar, Kansas City

I've noticed recently that I am absolutely horrible at anticipating the size of the crowd at shows I attend. Many times I think a show will be packed but when the band starts, the place is half full (The Hold Steady @ The Bottleneck). More often than that I'll expect a show will be sparsely attended an it ends up being extremely crowded (Battles @ The Record Bar, Midlake @ The Jackpot). This is one of those concerts that I expected to be a full house, with both bands having a good amount of buzz surrounding them. Opener A Place To Bury Strangers hails from New York and got a favorable review from all things Indie "trend-setter" Pitchfork. Holy Fuck are a Toronto band who also have been the darlings of Pitchfork and bloggers alike. I thought for sure that there wouldn't be room to move, but The Record Bar never seemed even close to selling out or filling up. At least there was plenty of room about five people deep from the stage. I had been sick all weekend before and after the show and in retrospect I probably should have skipped it, but this double-bill and the fact that I hadn't been to a show in a good while sucked me in.

If you have read anything about Brooklyn's A Place To Bury Strangers then you have probably read about how loud they are. I can attest after last night that they are indeed, loud. Or at least they use more effects & distortion pedals than most bands which in turn, makes them seem loud. Either way they were definitely entertaining. APTBS wear their influences on their sleeve as I was constantly thinking that certain songs or parts of songs sounded just like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain. If APTBS can work out their own identity on future releases and shows, they could be a consistently great band.

Headliner Holy Fuck was a Grade A dance party. Although the pairing with A Place To Bury Strangers seemed odd on paper, both bands brought such a primal and raw show it easy to see similarities in the two bands. Seeing the two keyboardists for Holy Fuck dance and bob to the rhythm as they are constantly pushing buttons and keys and tweaking knobs was really a lot of fun. A show is always a better time if you can tell the band is having fun as well. If Holy Fuck continues to play shows like they do it may only be a matter of time before they knock LCD Soundsystem from their Dance-Punk throne.

A Place To Bury Strangers Myspace
Holy Fuck Myspace

*The above photos courtesy of someone else (they aren't from the KC show)

Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP

spaceI have been listening to Fleet Foxes new EP Sun Giant pretty continuously since I downloaded it from Sub Pop a few days ago and it is truly a captivating five song collection. Seattle's Fleet Foxes caught my attention initially with the comparisons to My Morning Jacket (in my opinion, the greatest rock band around) and there is no denying Robin Pecknold's vocal similarities to MMJ's Jim James. At first listen, I thought I might be listening to a lost My Morning Jacket EP, but after repeat spins you can really tell Fleet Foxes have their own identity.

You can only hope that this EP is a sign of the great things to come when their full length, Ragged Woods, comes out in June. There may not be another band that has been able to blend easy listening style classic rock (America, The Band, Fleetwood Mac) with a more modern chamber pop/folk feel to it (Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear, Joanna Newsome). Fleet Foxes and bands like Midlake are obviously influenced by certain genres and time frames but they don't so much ape the sound of that era as use it as a template for something new and truly wonderful. The song 'Mykonos' is the first song I think I have ever thought sounded like the band America, and that isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, the song is utterly incredible and ends with one of the most beautiful pieces of harmony these ears have heard in a long while. This is another band and record that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Don't forget that Fleet Foxes will be coming to Lawrence to The Jackpot Saloon opening of another Jeopardy of Contentment favorite Blitzen Trapper on Saturday April 12th. That might end up being one of the best shows of the year so don't miss it! Check the full list of recommended shows here.

Fleet Foxes Myspace
Blitzen Trapper Myspace

New Playlist

I finally updated the playlist at the bottom of the page. I tried to include most of the bands mentioned here the past couple of months. Enjoy!

Concert Announcement: Margot & The Nuclear So and So's

05/14/08 The Jackpot Saloon, Lawrence

This relatively unknown and under-appreciated band from Indianapolis may not be unknown much longer. Late last year they signed the Epic Records of the strength of 2006's The Dust of Retreat. Their first release for Epic, Animals!, is due sometime this summer. They will be coming through town on May 14th and they will be playing at The Jackpot, the same venue they played back in late 2006. I was lucky enough to be at that show and they are a really great live band and this should be a fantastic show.

Margot & The Nuclear So and So's Website
Margot & The Nuclear So and So's Myspace

Wilco on SNL

If you missed Wilco playing on Saturday Night Live last weekend like I did here are the videos of their performances.

Hate It Here:



Walken (With Jeff Tweedy in the Nudie Suit!):