Lollapalooza 2012 (more by James Richards IV)

After it was already confirmed that Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, The Postal Service, The National, The Killers, and Mumford and Sons were playing Lollapalooza 2013, a pretty promising leak came which appeared to potentially reveal the rest of the lineup, and it turns out that leak was real.

In addition to the previously mentioned artists, Lollapalooza will include Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Kendrick Lamar, Grizzly Bear, The Cure, New Order, Baroness, Beach House, Cat Power, Death Grips, Jessie Ware, Father John Misty, DIIV, Wavves, Alt-J, Hot Chip, Disclosure, Baauer, Palma Violets, Angel Haze, Band of Horses, Crystal Castles and many others.

Lollapalooza goes down in Chicago from August 2 - 4 in Grant Park. Single day passes go on sale Wednesday (4/3) at 10 AM.

Full day-by-day lineup below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2013 lineup announced (Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Postal Service, Cure, New Order, Kendrick Lamar & more)"

photos by Eric Townsend; words by Bill Pearis

Black Light Dinner Party / Murals, Pianos 7/27/2012

For those looking to see a bunch of newly-hyped bands from around the country in one place, Friday night (7/27) at Pianos was a good place to be, hosting Brooklyn's Black Light Dinner Party, Chicago's A Lull and Louisville, KY's Murals, and LA's Nightmare Air.

I was there early for Murals, a young six-piece whose ambitions are maybe just slightly out of their grasp at this point. While the core songwriting is folk pop not dissimilar to The Shins or '80s New Zealand, the songs suffered sometimes from overly busy arrangements or sudden stops. That said, when it comes together (and it did more than a few times), Murals are capable of bliss-out moments that are mellow but never dull. They are a new band with lots of potential, they just need time to figure it out.

I left after Murals to go see The Soft Pack at Union Pool, but our photographer stuck around for BV Chicago favorites A Lull, and Black Light Dinner Party who apparently turned Pianos into a full-on dance party and gave away copies of their vinyl EP to the pumped-up crowd. Photos of all three bands are below. He also stopped by The Living Room a few doors up Ludlow to catch Los Angeles' Family of the Year (who were in town after supporting Milo Greene at Mercury Lounge [7/26] a day earlier) and photos from that show are below as well.

Continue reading "Black Light Dinner Party, A Lull, and Murals played Pianos (pics); Family of the Year played The Living Room (pics)"

by Andrew Sacher

LA's Milo Greene (a 5-piece band, not a person) released their debut self titled LP last week (7/17) on Atlantic imprint Chop Shop Records which is run by Alexandra Patsavas (music supervisor to Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, and the Twilight Films). They're definitely of the Mumford and Sons/mindie folk variety, though less rootsy and a bit like a sober Arcade Fire. You can stream three tracks from the album below, along with the cover art and tracklist.

Milo Greene are on the road supporting the record, and they'll play a sold show in NYC at Mercury Lounge tonight (7/26) with Family of the Year. If you missed out on getting tickets to that show, don't fret. They'll be back in NYC for a show on October 25 at Bowery Ballroom with Lucius. Tickets for that show are on AmEx presale now and go on sale to the general public on Friday (7/27) at noon.

A list of all dates, streams, cover art and tracklist are below.

Continue reading "Milo Greene released debut LP, touring (dates and streams)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Givers @ Antone's

Givers made their television debut last night (6/14) with an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band performed "Up, Up, Up" from their new LP In Light which was released June 7th on Glassnote. Check out their TV performance below.

Givers are currently on tour and play Bowery Ballroom on June 16th with Pepper Rabbit and Caddywhompus, both of whom were added as openers on multiple dates of the tour. Tickets to the NYC show are still available. Updated dates are below.

The same tour recently brought them to Bonnaroo and Sasquatch and to Austin on June 8th when they played Antone's with Family of The Year and Caddywhompus. Pictures from the Texas show are in this post (though none of Caddywhompus). More of them, the Fallon video and dates, below...

Continue reading "Givers on tour w/ Pepper Rabbit (updated dates), played Fallon & Antone's (video & dates)"