So, I guess I may want a 3Day Pass Now
New Deathcab to be released Aug 30, according to
their website.
Thanks to
Welcome to the Midwest for the link to the mp3 of their new song
Soul Meets BodyWhat do you think?
Torn ACL
Talk about an injury!
Wilco playing at the same time as Franz Ferdinand? What to do?
So the
ACL schedule is up, and I'm torn in a few ways:
1. The afforementioned Wilco Franz Ferdinand dilemma.
(Although I already know I like Wilco more... but Franz Ferdinand have a new album coming out on Oct. 3, and I missed them last year...)
2. $105 is a lot of money to spend to go out in the heat when you have no a/c in your car.
3. The first two days have a combined number of 1 1/2 "must see" bands*.
4. Dude, it was SOOO hot last year!
What to do?
*I am using the most exclusively narrow definition of "must see" in this case. A "must see" band in this sense must meet three of the following four criteria:
1.) I have never seen this band in concert before (Thus excluding Deathcab from Day 2 and Spoon from Day 1 - although I would give at least one extremity to hear a rousing live version of "I Summon You" or "The Beast and Dragon, Adored")
2.) If I have seen this band before, they must have released a new album since the last time I've seen them (This keeps Spoon in the running for "must see")
3.) I would actually pay a significant portion of a one-day ticket price to see the bands on a particular day if they were playing in a club, rather than ACL.
4.) (This is a sub-point to #2) I would pay (or have paid) full-price for this band's album and STILL pay a reasonable cover charge to see this band at a club.
!ll!no!s
Last post about Sufjan Stevens' album
Illinois, I promise.
Today is supposed to be the official release date for Sufjan's new album, and it's out on
iTunes and
Asthmatic Kitty, but as I read on
Pitchfork, who
gave the album a 9.2 (the best Pitchfork review all year, according to
Stereogum), the album's release will be delayed until they work out the copyright issues with DC comics about putting Superman on the cover.
I got the one with the Man of Steel on the cover before the
eBay blood-suckers started closing in. Too bad I opened mine.
Just a few words about the album: Buy it. It's thick with multi-instrumental layers, a la Brian Wilson (but with less insanity). Sufjan writes songs with feeling, meaning, and pathos. He's a believer, and his faith comes through the music, but never in a heavy-handed way at all. He writes songs from the perspective of faith, but never comes across preachy or trite.
In "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," about the serial killer, he exhibits pathos and an understanding of sin when he sings, "And on my best behavior/I am really just like him/Look beneath the floorboards/For the secrets I have hid".
"Casimir Pulaski Day" plays out like a conversation between Sufjan and a friend with cancer, not glossing over the sickness, nor God's ability to heal, while also dealing with the sweetness and disappointment of life with a dying friend, "Tuesday night at the Bible study/We lift our hands and pray over your body/But nothing ever happens".
My favorite songs are probably these two and "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!" "The Seer's Tower," and "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!"
I really can't say enough good stuff about this album. Some of the songs have already made it onto the rarified air of my iTunes Top 25 Most Played. That's not an easy task for a CD I've had for just over a week in its entirety.
