"Superfly Presents and A.C. Entertainment are excited to announce the initial lineup for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The 11th annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 7 - 10 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2012 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.Tickets for the event will go on sale on this Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12 noon EST exclusively at bonnaroo.com."

Radiohead, Beach Boys, Phish, Little Dragon, SBTRKT, The Antlers, Bad Brains, Laura Marling, St. Vinent, Tune-Yards, Flying Lotus, and many more are playing Bonnaroo this year. Full list below...

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2012 lineup announced"

Kathleen Edwards at The Long Center in TX in 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

Kathleen Edwards, who released her Justin Vernon-produced LP, Voyageur, last week, is about to kick of a tour in support of it, which includes a Chicago show this week. She just expanded her tour to include a number of spring dates in the US and Canada. The Canadian shows have all been announced, though many of the venues she'll be playing on her US dates are still TBA. However, she has announced that her NYC show will take place at Webster Hall on April 28. Tickets go on sale Friday (1/27) at noon with an AmEx presale starting on Wednesday (1/25) at noon.

Voyageur is no longer streaming on NPR, but you can now stream the entire thing at Kathleen's website.

All tour dates, video of her 1/17 Letterman appearance, and footage from a recent private CBC Studio show, below...

Continue reading "Kathleen Edwards announces tour, playing Webster Hall, played Letterman (video & dates)"

Megafaun at Bowery Ballroom in 2011 (more by Ryan Barkan)

Megafaun are heading out on an extensive international tour this year, starting with a European run in February and then coming to the US in March and April. The tour hits NYC on March 17 at Highline Ballroom with support from William Tyler, who also opens a few of the other US dates. Tickets go on sale Friday (1/13) at noon. All dates are listed below.

Megafaun's Phil Cook is one of the guests, along with Justin Vernon and Norah Jones on Kathleen Edwards' Vernon-produced full length, Voyageur, which comes out this Tuesday (1/17). You can stream the entire album on NPR.

Phil and his brother/bandmate Brad Cook were in a pre-Megafaun band together called Amateur Love. Their album, It's All Aquatic, is being reissued on Justin Vernon's new label, Chigliak Records, which is an imprint of Jagjaguwar. According to a post on the label's website, which has since been removed, Chigliak will release albums that were "never commercially released" or "locally released and never put on vinyl," in addition to new recordings. So far the label is set to release the Amateur Love album, and albums by Sarah Siskind and 12 Rods. Check out an Amateur Love video below.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "Megafaun announce tour dates; Justin Vernon starts label; Kathleen Edwards streaming new LP"

photos by Tim Griffin

To complete this Gayngs trifecta (Polica HERE, Marijuana Deathsquads/Har Mar Superstar HERE), we though we'd report that Kathleen Edwards recently teamed with her tourmate (and Gayngs member) Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon) for the new Wapusk 7" (out 9/27 via Zöe/Rounder). Justin produced the record and sings backup vocals on the new version of the title track which you can listen to at Pitchfork. The previous version of the song was recorded without Justin for the National Parks Project.

Bon Iver & Kathleen Edwards have been touring and played a sold out show at the 2000+ capacity theater The Long Center in Austin, Texas on 9/14. Pictures are on this post. The tourmates have since parted ways on the road (Other Lives have joined Bon Iver), but will reunite for a set of European dates on October that will include Pitchfork in Paris.

All dates and more pictures from the Austin show, below...

Continue reading "Bon Iver & Kathleen Edwards collaborated on a 7" (listen), played The Long Center in TX (pics)"

Bon Iver at Prospect Park last week (more by Amanda Hatfield

Bon Iver has a video for the second single off his incredible self titled album, "Holocene." The video was directed by Nabil Elderkin (Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Common) and premiered today on National Geographic. Nabil spoke of the Icelandic countryside in which the video was shot:

That place is the most magical place in the world, it looked like Mars to me, so I always wanted to shoot there. When Bon Iver gave me the reigns on this video, I knew it had to be filmed there.

Bon Iver is also releasing the track as a 12" single b/w a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Come Talk To Me." The 12" will be released September 6 via Jagjaguwar. Check out the single's artwork and the video below.

In related news, rumors continue to spread about the possible collaboration with James Blake following a very vague tweet from James that mentioned the "Fall Creek Boys Choir." Still no updates on what the collaboration is going to be, but the Fall Creek Boys Choir appears to be some a cappella recordings done by Justin Vernon a few years ago.

Video, artwork, and all dates below...

Continue reading "new Bon Iver video, one day closer to Fall Creek Boys Choir"

The Rosebuds at Prospect Park last week (more by Amanda Hatfield)

The Rosebuds, who just opened two incredible shows for Bon Iver in NYC as the last two dates on their tour together, have a few more shows announced that happen later this year. No tour has been announced yet, but we know that they'll be at Hopscotch in North Carolina, Pitchfork Paris and a NYC show on October 12 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for the NYC show go on sale Friday (8/19) at noon.

Pitchfork Paris, taking place October 28th & 29th in France, is being co-curated by Bon Iver and the lineup looks like this so far:

28 OCTOBRE : 16h00 - 5H00
APHEX TWIN + PANTHA DU PRINCE + EROL ALKAN + WILD BEASTS + CUT COPY + WASHED OUT + REAL ESTATE + MONDKOPF + ICEAGE

29 OCTOBRE : 14h00 - 22H00
BON IVER + JENS LEKMAN + STORNOWAY + KATHLEEN EDWARDS + ROSEBUDS

Tickets are on sale.

Kathleen Edwards also plays shows with Bon Iver in September. All Bon Iver & Rosebuds dates, and the video for "Woods" (by Rosebuds) below...

Continue reading "Rosebuds playing Bowery Ballroom & Pitchfork Paris (lineup)"

by BrooklynVegan Mike

The time has arrived to crown another Polaris Music Prize winner. Last year's Canadian award was met with mixed response as relative unknowns (outside of Canada) Patrick Watson beat Arcade Fire, Feist (my pick to win), and seven others for the top spot.

This is the most open field in the brief history of the award. There are no big acts, though Stars certainly has a large following. Most of the artists on the shortlist have been playing since the beginning of the decade or longer. Coincidently or otherwise, the two youngest artists on the shortlist, Shad (27) and Basia Bulat (24), are two of the favorites this year. With that said, there will be no real "upsets." I can see any of the nominees walking away with the prize. It seems the award has positioned itself more to elevate someone then legitimize a popular artist's success (past losers include the aforementioned Arcade Fire along with Broken Social Scene, and Wolf Parade).

Like last year, I will go over the ten nominees in order of who I think has the best chance of picking up the prize on the 29th. We start with who I think has the least chance...

Continue reading "The 2008 Polaris Music Prize is about to be awarded"

words by BrooklynVegan Mike, photos by Ryan Muir

The shortlist for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize was announced last week.

a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.

Unlike previous years, there are no "heavyweights" among the nominees. Stars is the biggest name on the list that also includes The Weakerthans and Black Mountain, but by no means do Stars tower over the other nominees like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and Feist did in years past. Except for maybe Stars, this year's shortlist is a collection of artists who haven't crossed over yet, but who have a good following and heavy rotation on college and CBC radio.

Crystal Castles, Born Ruffians, Destroyer, and Sandro Perri are conspicuously absent from this year's shortlist, although they did make the original 40-album long list. I think they should have also made the final cut. As we approach the awards, I will once again give my two cents on who I think will win, looking to avenge picking Feist over Patrick Watson, last year's eventual winner.

Basia Bulat also made the shorlist this year. Basia Bulat opened for Devotchka at Terminal 5 in May. Ryan took some pics that we haven't posted yet, so here they are. More of them and the entire 2008 shortlist, below...

Continue reading "the 2008 Polaris Prize shortlist, pics of Basia Bulat"

photos by Chris Graham

Destroyer

Fleet Foxes

M.I.A.

The Sasquatch Music Festival went down in Gorge, Washington this past Memorial Day Weekend. More pictures from day one below....

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2008 - day 1 in pictures (Saturday May 24)"