The 2013 Pygmalion Music Festival is slated to take place from September 26-28 at various venues throughout Champaign-Urbana, IL. Their initial lineup features The Breeders, Youth Lagoon, Major Lazer, Chance the Rapper, Foxygen, Daughter, Perfume Genius, Metz, On An On, Nat Baldwin, and many more, with a second artist announcement due in June. Three-day festival passes go on sale TODAY (Tuesday, May 7) at noon CST.

PMF 2013's initial lineup can be found below...

Continue reading "The Breeders, Perfume Genius, Chance the Rapper, Metz & more to play Pygmalion Music Festival 2013 (tix on sale today)"

photos by Sara Pieper

Passion Pit @ the House of Blues on 8/02/2012

On Thursday night (8/2) Passion Pit played a Lollapalooza pre-show at the House of Blues with support from Givers and Kishi Bashi. Were you there? How was it?

Last night's gig was one of the few unaffected by a string of recently canceled tour dates, which were pulled in order to give frontman Michael Angelakos time to improve his mental health. The group play Lollapalooza tonight (8/3) at 6PM on the "Bud Light" stage and are scheduled to DJ at Spy Bar on Saturday night.

More pictures from the House of Blues show can be found at BrooklynVegan.

Continue reading "Passion Pit, Givers & Kishi Bashi played the HoB (pics)"

Lollapalooza 2012 has revealed the full schedule for their 3-day festival, set to take place from August 3-5 in Grant Park. Check it out HERE.

A bunch of official aftershows have also been announced, happening from August 1-5. Here's a number of them (more TBA, including unofficial shows):

August 1
Alabama Shakes, First Aid Kit, Dry The River, Filligar @ Metro
Delta Spirit, FIDLAR @ Lincoln Hall

August 2
Passion Pit, GIVERS, Kishi Bashi @ House of Blues
Kids These Days, Overdoz @ Schubas
Dr. Dog, Kevin Devine, The Dunwells @ Lincoln Hall
Zedd, Gus K, DJ Gordo, DJ Torio @ The Mid

August 3
Bear in Heaven, YAWN @ the Empty Bottle
NERO (DJ Set), Die Antwoord, Anamanaguchi @ Congress Theater
Frank Ocean @ Metro
tUnE-yArDs, Washed Out @ House of Blues
The Black Angels, Night Beats @ Double Door
The War on Drugs, Milo Greene @ Schubas
Blind Pilot, Kopecky Family Band @ Lincoln Hall
Porter Robinson, Madeon @ The Mid
The Growlers, JEFF the Brotherhood @ Subterranean
Paper Diamond, Minnesota @ Bottom Lounge

August 4
White Rabbits, Dum Dum Girls, Oberhofer @ Cubby Bear
Doomtree, Naledge of Kidz In The Hall @ the Empty Bottle
Zeds Dead, Big Gigantic, Midnight Conspiracy, Big Chocolate @ Congress Theater
The Afghan Whigs @ Metro
Of Monsters & Men, Yellow Ostrich @ House of Blues
Trampled By Turtles, The Devil Makes Three @ Double Door
Childish Gambino @ the Vic
The Temper Trap, Poliça @ Park West
Gary Clark Jr., LP @ Schubas
Twin Shadow @ Lincoln Hall
Calvin Harris, Nathan Scott @ The Mid
The Big Pink @ Subterranean
Bombay Bicycle Club, Hey Rosetta! @ Bottom Lounge

August 5
Chairlift w/ Alt-J @ the Empty Bottle
The Walkmen @ Lincoln Hall

Kishi Bashi @ Metro last week (more by James Richards IV)

Of Montreal member/solo artist Kishi Bashi was just added as the opening act for The Barr Brothers' May 22nd performance at SPACE in Evanston, IL. Tickets are still available.

Back in December Bashi launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund 151a, his debut solo effort, which he promised would be released this spring. The record's official release date is April 10 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Head below to stream 151a in its entirety....

Continue reading "Kishi Bashi is opening for The Barr Brothers @ SPACE; take a listen to his forthcoming LP (stream)"

photos by James Richards IV

Of Montreal @ Metro on 3/28/2012

On Wednesday night (March 28), Of Montreal brought their current tour with Loney, Dear (or Lonely Dear as the marquee said before they doctored it) to Chicago's Metro for a sold out performance. Like all of the other dates on this tour, OM-member Kishi Bashi opened the show. A full set of pictures are in this post.

Of Montreal continue to tour throughout North America, reaching cities like New York, Boston, Philly, and Washington D.C..

The remainder of their 2012 tour schedule and a set of pictures from the Chicago show, below..

Continue reading "Of Montreal, Loney, Dear & Kishi Bashi played Metro (pics)"

Back in April artist David Barnes, brother of Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes, released a 128-page art book, What's Weird?, that consists of paintings and drawings from the last 20-years, including album covers and other designs for the band. The book was limited to 3,000 copies. Here's a few words from Polyvinyl, who handled its release:

After 20 years and countless paintings, the idea manifested itself for David Barnes to curate his first book. In his true D.I.Y. style, Barnes personally poured over hundreds of drawings and paintings spanning his career.

He picked and placed each piece to create What's Weird?--a book showcasing over 100 paintings, hundreds of sketches and doodles, and funny, interesting, insightful comments about the pieces written by Barnes--all providing a glimpse into his mind and unique creative process.

Over the past decade, Barnes has developed a cult following drawing portraits of fans in his unique style and achieved widespread recognition for his work as art director for Of Montreal (his brother Kevin's band).

Barnes' visual interpretations of the group's music has been manifested in the form of iconic album covers and theatrical live performances that feature skits along with elaborate stage sets and props.

Of Montreal hit SXSW this week for two performances: their label's showcase on Thursday, March 15 and Under the Radar magazine's day party on the 16th, where they'll play their album The Sunlandic Twins in full for the first time.

All 2012 tour dates, contest details, and some videos, below..

Continue reading "David Barnes released an art book; Of Montreal are playing Metro (win a copy of the book & tix to the show!)"

Susan Sarandon punishing a pig with Of Montreal in '10 (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Of Montreal are set to release a new record titled Paralytic Stalks via Polyvinyl Records on February 7th, 2012. Pre-order the album now. This coming spring they head out on an extensive tour in support of the album, which will reach Chicago's Metro on March 28th. Loney Dear (who recently played Schubas) and Of Montreal live-member Kishi Bashi will act as support. Tickets go on sale this Saturday (12/17), at noon CST.

Speaking of Kishi Bashi, he's also in the process of readying his debut solo LP titled 151a, for release this spring. Via Kickstarter, with 343 backers (at the time of this post), Bashi has exceeded his goal of $12,000 by $3,760! Stay tuned for a proper release date.

All 2011/12 Of Montreal tour dates, plus Paralytic Stalks' tracklisting and cover art, below..

Continue reading "Of Montreal visiting Metro on tour; Kishi Bashi readies solo LP"

words by Claire O'Connor

As evidenced by the poster above; Sondre Lerche, Nightlands, and Kishi Bashi spent this past weekend in Chicago. Together they played Schubas on Saturday (6/18), and then took the stage at Lincoln Hall the following night. Claire's review below, comes from their Schubas show.

Kishi Bashi opened the stage on Saturday night at Schubas to a welcoming audience. Playing songs off of his new EP Room For Dream; he quickly won over the hearts and ears of many as he looped his delicate, lush instrumentation. Bashi closed his set with the track "Manchester" and smiled as he sang "I haven't felt this alive in a long time/ all the streets are warm today/ read the signs/ I haven't been this in love in a long time..." With those words and that one song, Bashi transfixed the audience into wanting more.

Nightlands sandwiched on the bill in between Kishi Bashi, and Sondre Lerche, filling the stage with a 5-piece band - a far cry from the Philadelphia-based multi-instrumentalist; Dave Hartley's bedroom. Songs from Forget the Mantra took on new life; the once dreamy synths and vocal arrangements now carried punch and force as they came to the stage. Often reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, Hartley and his band played "300 Clouds" to an audience that ate up every echo, feedback, and bass loop.

Performing for a sold-out crowd, Norwegian; Sondre Lerche was enthusiastically welcomed to the stage. Touring behind his new self-titled LP, Sondre gave the audience both old favorites, and some newer ones too. Occasionally joined on stage by Nightlands' Dave Hartley (bass), and Kishi Bashi (keys, violin), Sondre crafted a night of great music and storytelling. The intense rhythmic drum patterns on new songs such as "Go Right Ahead", and "Domino" gave a distinct new feel to his music, while the old fan-favorite "Modern Nature" gave way to crowd sing-along's. With an artful melding of jazzy folk and punchy power pop, there's a reason he packed the house.

Sondre Lerche's current tour will continue until the 30th of this month. You can view all dates below..

Continue reading "Sondre Lerche played Schubas (review), and then Lincoln Hall"

Sondre Lerche is set to release his sixth studio album on June 7th via Mona Records. The LP was recorded with the help of Midlake drummer; McKenzie Smith, Jupiter One drummer; Dave Heilman, and co-producers Kato Ådland, and Nicolas Verhnes.

Two weekends from now, he'll tour through Chicago playing both Schubas (on the 18th), and Lincoln Hall (on the 19th) featuring Nightlands, and Kishi Bashi. Tickets are still available for both shows.

Head below to view all 2011 tour dates, and the track listing for Sondre Lerche (the LP).

Continue reading "Sondre Lerche releasing 'self-titled' LP, playing Schubas +++ Lincoln Hall"