John Butler Trio w/Tristan Prettyman 09/15/05 Madison Barrymore Theatre

9/24/05 Taj Mahal - Barrymore Theatre, Madison

I apologize for the lack of posting. I have a baseball game tonight, concert tomorrow, and a wedding on Saturday. Oh yeah, and my birthday squeezed in there as well.

Are you excited about the new My Morning Jacket album? Me too, It’s going to be called “Z” click here for some details.

Andrew Bird is playing Cafe Montmartre this Saturday, June 25th. Tickets are still available, and make sure to get there early to see Great Lake Swimmers.

More Cowbell has some tour dates for The Wilderness and (smog). If either are playing in your area make sure to check them out.

I added two new blogs to my list. Make sure to stop by and check out Funtime OK and Berkeleyplace.

A friend of a friend is the Laziest Man In America according to Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Go here to read the story.

Here’s a video of Wilco performing Love Will Keep Us Together.

Minneapolis based singer/songwriter, Mason Jennings has signed to a subsidiary of Epic-Sony:

MASON SIGNS WITH MAJOR

After several years of turning down major record-label interest, self-made indie-folk star Mason Jennings has been won over by Sony’s Epic Records. It took a big-name musician, not a bigwig executive, to get him to sign. The deal is actually with new Epic subsidiary label Glacial Pace, headed by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock. Mason went over well on tour this spring as an opener for Modest Mouse, which leveraged its indie past into a breakthrough career at Epic. Jennings is shopping for producers (more big names) and hopes to have a CD out next spring. (C.R.)

Taken from here.

A lot of bloggers are already starting to put up their top (fill in a number) lists for 2005. It’s cool to read and I love adding mine to their comment section (even if they change on a weekly basis). I thought I would buck the trend and put up 5 records that were complete disappointments to me thus far in 2005. Please feel free to leave a comment with your disappointing albums thus far, or tell me why you think my picks are wrong, wrong, wrong!

Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise First, let me say that this isn’t a horrible album at all. In fact, I listen to it, and don’t hate it. The problem is the music is so similar to everything on Michigan it feels like Sufjan got pressed for time doing all the Illinois research for his lyrics that he forgot to write new musical arrangements to go with it. I know I’m in the minority here and will probably be the only one that doesn’t think this album is solid gold, but I’m a big Sufjan fan, and this album just didn’t live up to my lofty expectations I guess.
EDIT: THIS ALBUM KICKS ALL KINDS OF ASS AND OWNS!!!!!!!!!(7/14)

The Decemberists - Picaresque Pretty easy this album pales in comparison to Her Majesty and Castaways and Cutouts. Not to mention that when I saw them here in Madison their show did absolutely nothing for me. That could also be because Okkervil River played first and did their share of face shredding and tearing the roof off the Barrymore Theatre.

Magnolia Electric Company - What Comes After The Blues I love Trials and Errors and I think Magnolia Electric Co, is just one of those bands that you will never truly capture their brilliance in the studio. Their live shows are amazing, and Trials and Errors captures them perfectly in my opinion.

Dave Matthews Band - Stand Up Not that I was expecting anything great from Dave and Co, but this is simply god awful. I really don’t understand how and why people are spending money on this stuff. I’ll be honest I liked the first song when I first heard the album, but it gradually gets worse and worse from there. I didn’t think anything could get worse than Dave’s solo work on Some Devil, I guess I was wrong.

Coldplay - X&Y The band everyone either loves or hates. I enjoy the company of a Coldplay disc amongst my friends who’s music collection and appreciation is a tad lacking. They aren’t a horrible band, but this was a total lack of musical effort on Chris Martin’s band. The songs are boring and don’t have the punch that certain songs on the previous two albums had. Even some of my aforementioned friends who argued with me excessively that the album was great have now conceded to me (publicly even!) that this album is rubbish.

Sun. July 31 High Noon Saloon presents
Okkervil River
9:00 pm / $tba cover

I saw these guys open for the Decemberists a few months back. These guys stole the show!

Pitchfork got around to reviewing the blog sensation Clap Your Hands Say Yeah self titled masterpiece. Tiny Mix Tapes gives it a glowing review, Stylus Magazine as well. This disc has honeslty parked itself in my head and I think it may be there for awhile.

Iron and Wine is Pollstar’s new Hotstar.

A new Flaming Lips live album can be found here.

Here’s a cool Sufjan Stevens interview via Gorilla vz. Bear.

9/8 - The White Stripes - The Rave, Milwaukee

Stereogum has an interesting topic today, “Worst/Most Embarassing CD You Ever Bought?”

Here’s Mine:

This wouldn’t be too embarassing had I not bought it last week

The queen got herself an ipod. (For my Charlotte and Emily)

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got hitched.

Here are some MP3’s from a band that is going to blow up. They’re called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Thanks to Matt for the hook-up!

Upon Us Is a Tidal Wave For Young Blood

In This Home On Ice

Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)

Jake just got a horrible performance review for his site, please be so kind as to pay him a visit.