actual crowd going to Central Park Thursday night (photo via Sasarella)

Stormy weather forced the cancellation of a concert by the Black Eyed Peas that was to take place on the Central Park Great Lawn on Thursday night for an expected audience of 60,000.

The concert's pre-show was canceled, and the main show's starting time was delayed twice due to the storms moving across the city, stranding thousands of fans on the streets of the Upper West Side. The gates were finally opened at 7:45 p.m., but about half an hour later, as lightning continued to streak across the sky and a light rain spattered the lawn, the concert was shut down.

Also scheduled to appear were Taylor Swift, Carole King, Tony Bennett, LL Cool J, [Deborah Harry] and others. [NY Times]

Continue reading "Black Eyed Peas Central Park concert cancelled"

FF photos by Joseph Xu

DOWNLOAD: Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23 (new MP3)

Final Fantasy @ P4K

Final Fantasy played the Pitchfork Festival on July 18th, which is where the photos in this post are from (check out his Mayhem t-shirt). About a week later he played the Hillside Festival at Guelph Lake in Canada during a storm (probably not a good idea)...

A few songs into his bravura one-man baroque-pop set, the skies filled with thunder and lightning as rain began to drench Pallett, who continued shredding his bow fiercely across his violin.

As stagehands covered equipment with plastic, and organizers frantically tried to cut him off, Pallett kept playing the appropriately dramatic 'Lewis Takes His Shirt Off.' "One more minute," he yelled, as sheets of water hit him full force.

The stunned (and soaked) crowd broke into wild cheers as one minute turned into two and Pallett sped toward the song's big finish like a man possessed -- until the stage crew finally pulled the plug. Still, his heroics had already created Hillside's most memorable moment. [Spinner]

Video from that moment below.

This November he (Owen Pallett) heads out on tour to open up for The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle), who will be playing as a full band (though there is a much shorter string of Darnielle solo dates too). The trip ends with a pair of NYC gigs on December 1st and 2nd, when they respectively visit Webster Hall and the Bell House. Tickets for Webster Hall go on AmEx presale today at noon; general sale starts Friday, August 7th at noon. Bell House tickets are on sale today at noon.

The occasion for this tour is a new record from The Mountain Goats, enigmatically titled The Life of the World to Come, which comes out October 6th on 4AD. All song titles on the new album are Bible verses. John says,

The album was recorded between April and June: first at Electrical Audio with Brandon Eggleston; then at Sonic Ranch with John Congleton; and finally at Baucom Road with Scott Solter. Scott also mixed the entire album at Baucom Road. The band is still Jon Wurster, Peter Hughes, and me; Owen Pallett did string arrangements & played on the Electrical session.

I guess the obvious question is going to be: "John, have you had some sort of religious awakening?" and while I guess lots of people might want to be coy about answering that, that's never really been my style, so: no. It's not like that. It's not some heavy-narrative-distance deal either, though, and it's not a screed. It's twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of. More than that I'd want to wait to say until some people have heard it, which won't be long.

One track "Genesis 3:23" is posted above. The verse in question there, "Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken," may aid in your listening. Album art & tracklist, with tour dates, the FF Hillside video, and FF@P4K pics, below...

Continue reading "Mountain Goats - new Bible album, MP3, 2009 tour dates w/ Final Fantasy (who played Pitchfork & Hillside in a storm) "

Big Valley Jamboree - sunny on July 31, 2009 (Taylor and Kevin)

Big Valley Jamboree - knocked over toilets on August 1, 2009 (Taylor and Kevin)

"Family has identified Donna Moore of Lloydminster as the woman killed at the Big Valley Jamboree after the festival's main stage collapsed during a severe thunderstorm Saturday.

Moore's son, Mike Tebbe, spent Sunday together with family and said he was not prepared to talk about his mother yet.

Moore was a huge country music fan who was at the festival for the weekend, said friend Warne Noyce.

"She was pumped to go to Big Valley. It makes me sick to my stomach because she was such an awesome lady," he said. "She was hanging out watching music with people she loved."...

...Stage speakers fell on Moore, crushing her, after a wind gust of about 100 kilometres per hour toppled stage scaffolding." [Calgary Herald]

The final day (Sunday) of the Camrose, Alberta festival was cancelled after the tragedy. The next band set to play on Saturday when the storm hit was Kevin Costner & Modern West (yes, that Kevin Costner).

NYC had their own storms this weekend too, causing chaos and cancellations for outdoor music, but luckily no tragedies.

Videos from Big Valley below...

Continue reading "1 dead, 75 injured when storm causes stage collapse at Canadian music festival Big Valley Jamboree (videos)"

view from the APW ferry - July 31, 2009 around 4pm (Emily Meyer)

during Fleet Foxes @ APW - July 31, 2009 around 4pm (Trey Many)

All Points West is underway. The rain has held off so far, but looks like a big storm is on its way. Fleet Foxes are playing on the main stage as I type this with The National up next. An early afternoon highlight was Seasick Steve (who also played a set at Mercury Lounge the other night).

The All Points West festival is dominated by young bands. But one of the best early sets came from Seasick Steve, a sixtysomething journeyman bluesman with a big gray beard.

Steve, who has received a lot of media attention in the United Kingdom over the last few years, appeared solo, accompanying his gruff vocals with simple but propulsive guitar riffs, and stomping out a beat with his left foot. He did sing one tender ballad, directed to a young, female volunteer from the audience, who sat beside him. But mostly this was raw, almost primitive blues in the tradition of Hound Dog Taylor and John Lee Hooker, and the crowd ate it up.

"Boy, there's enough of us here to fill a bar. So we're gonna make it a bar," he said.

He played a few different low-budget guitars. One was made out of a cigar box. Another had only three strings. [NJ.com]

Hearless Bastards, Shearwater, Eugene Mirman and Telepathe have all already played as well. Seasick Steve has another show coming up at Southpaw. Videos from Mercury Lounge below...

Continue reading "APW is underway, but check out those clouds!"