Summerfest, “The World’s Largest Music Festival” kicks off today in Milwaukee. The festival runs until July 9th, and features bands like Andrew Bird, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Mike Doughty, and many more. I’ll be heading to the festival tomorrow to check out Pearl Jam and Tom Petty and the following day to see Paul Simon.

I saw Pearl Jam for the first time at Summerfest in 1995, at the time they were my absolute favorite band in the world, and it still ranks as one of my most memorable concerts of all time.

Billboard.com reports:

Jason Molina, principal force behind acclaimed outfits Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company, has finished no less than six new albums, Billboard.com has learned. Secretly Canadian is currently planning to release all six, but only two this year. The first is a vinyl-only album, “Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go,” due Aug. 22.

“This type of release was inspired by Shellac, and with the numbers that we have sold over the years in this format, there are still a lot of people that appreciate this format,” Molina tells Billboard.com. “They like the presentation of ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’ material — I try to make songs that are ‘family’ like.”

“Let Me Go” was recorded over three days in Molina’s garage studio and unlike previous releases, this is “essentially all acoustic instruments,” he says. “I write a huge amount of material and throw most of it out. At times I will get in the studio and force myself to just write an entire front-to-back record and ‘Let Me Go’ is one of these. I felt it’s thematically and audibly eerie enough to keep their original recordings.”

The titles of the other five albums are “Fading Trails,” “The Nashville Moon,” “The Sun Studio Sessions,” “The Black Ram” and “Shohola.” “The Nashville Moon” was recorded by Steve Albini and mixed at Abbey Road Studios, while “The Black Ram” is a collaboration with Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker founder David Lowery.

Due Sept. 12, “Fading Trails” is a collection of songs from all of these recording sessions. On July 25, Magnolia Electric Company will kick off a short North American tour with Ladyhawk in Omaha, Neb.

Waking up Sunday morning in Chicago to a damp and dreary forecast brought me to the decision of checking out the city, taking it easy and waiting till the evening to head back to Union Park. The only acts that I was really interested in seeing were Robert Pollard and Bloc Party, and I was glad I made the decision to head to the festival and not head home because it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

Robert Pollard was one of my favorite acts from the weekend. Obviously familiar with his work in Guided By Voices, and liking his latest double album, I was anxious to see him for the first time in a live setting. Blazing through some of my favorite tunes like “Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft,” “I’m A Widow,” and “Dancing Girls And Dancing Men,” Pollard and his band greatly maximized their brief allotment of time with a ton of tunes, a ton of energy, and a ton of booze. At one point he held up and took a giant swig of what appeared to be tequila. That’s rock star at its finest!

Bloc Party was exactly as I expected them to be, high energy and fun. They played nearly every tune off Silent Alarm as well as a few new tunes they debuted from their work-in-progress new album. The rain softly began its decent onto the concert attendee’s during their set, but it didn’t faze them. If anything this concert reminded me how much I really enjoy this band. I’ve heard tons of people that don’t know where they stand with this band, and I’ll admit I was in that camp for awhile. Now I can easily say that I’m down with them.

I’d like to thank the folks at Intonation for putting on such a great festival. I think everyone in attendance thought the concert was well worth their money. I had a great time playing Domino’s inbetween acts at the ESPN Deportes tent, and came home with a bunch of new artists to check out.

VH1 will be airing Pearl Jam’s performance on Storytellers this Saturday, July 1st.  You can check out the commercial for the performance here, but if you’re a fan I would urge you to check out the most recent interview Eddie Vedder did with Rolling Stone as well as the exclusive feature interview.  Who knew Eddie tried his had at house music?

Perhaps my favorite part of the interview is Ed’s description of the opening track “Life Wasted” off the Pearl Jam’s new self-titled album:

I ask him about “Life Wasted,” on which he sings, “I have faced it, a life wasted/ I’m never going back again.” He closes his eyes as he talks about how attending a friend’s funeral can help you “realize what a gift this is, to be alive. When you leave that funeral, that drive is as important as any single stretch of road you’ll travel on. You’ve got a renewed appreciation for life. And I think that feeling can last through the day, through the week, but then things start getting back to normal and you start taking this living and breathing and eating thing for granted. I think that song is there to remind you, ‘This is that feeling.’ “

It’s Monday evening, and you’d think finally getting back to Wisconsin and in bed by 3:30am would be result of a great weekend. The weekend was incredible, so much fun, near perfect weather, good people, and great music. All that was a little fleeting when I woke up and realized I had slept through my alarm this morning, and was well on my way to being three hours late for work. The price you pay for a good time.

The Intonation Music Festival, in its second year and curated by Vice was held at Union Park in Chicago over the weekend and featured more than 25 bands. I have only one complaint that I’m sure will be echoed by everyone in attendance and that is the horrible introductions/skits that were put on between acts. I’m not sure if the individuals were: on crack, trying to be really really lame, or just dumb fucks, but it was absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever had to witness or listen to. So, if you’re part of the Intonation crew, you have my constructive critisism, now allow me to give you a big pat on the back!

The first act I caught of the day was Chicago’s very own 90 Day Men. Being completely unfamiliar with the band or their material, I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued by their sound. From the talks of people around me this band had apparently been on hiatus or not playing out together for a period of time, and this marked their first time playing in some time. I’m not sure of the truth in any of that information, but I am definitely digging their tunes on Myspace.

Besides sex, relationships, smoking marijuana, partying, and conscious or proverbial themes, much of Devin’s work is also light-hearted and comically self-deprecating.

Chromeo

The Stills

Mason Jennings took the stage at the Pabst Theater in quite a different light than his previous trips to Milwaukee. In fact, I can remember watching Mason play at the Vox on Prospect to about 40 people only a few years ago. The days of small venues has changed with Mason finally signing to a record label that he felt comfortable with, Modest Mouse frontman Issac Brock’s very own Glacial Pace, a subsidiary of Epic.

The first time I saw Mason Jennings was about 5 years while he was still holding down his weekly show at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. Despite signing to a major label, Mason’s sound has remained relatively the same, while continuing to draw larger crowds in bigger and better venues.

The concert opened with the new single, “Be Here Now,” a tune that draws its lyrical content from the Ram Dass book of the same title. While the concert highlighted the songs on his most recent effort Boneclouds, Mason and his band treated fans, both casual and fanatic, to an hour and a half set.

The obvious highlight of the night was Mason’s take on Neutral Milk Hotel’s “King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1.” Prior to beginning the song, Mason spoke about the power of hearing the album, and that track in particular for the first time, and how influential and moving it was. “Killer’s Creek,” the story of a motorcycle ride gone wrong, ended the main set of the performance and appears on my favorite Mason Jennings album today, Century Spring includes a high energy rocking outro that brought the crowd to their feet and prepared them for the encore and overall crowd favorite, “Butterfly” off his self-titled debut album.

Mason Jennings continues to evolve as a songwriter and performer. There is a drastic difference in his comfort and stage presence since first seeing him a half decade earlier in a small club. As his fan base continues to grow it’s assured that his album sales and tours will begin to gain momentum and accreditation of a much higher level.

Sufjan Stevens will play The Pabst Theater on September 25th. Tickets are not yet onsale, but I will provide more information as it becomes available.

OTHER GREAT UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE PABST:

8/14 - Tricky
9/15 - Allison Moorer/David Mead
9/27 - Calexico
10/29 - Citizen Cope

I was in Chicago checking out Intonation, while Jake was in Boston checking out Beirut. He was nice enough to do a review of the show for us…

Beirut played to a packed house at the Lilypad in Cambridge, Mass., a venue that apparently has some other function during the daylight hours that I couldn’t make out for sure. Coffee shop? Antique store? Small accounting firm? What I am sure about is that the place could barely fit the band and sound equipment, let alone the wrap-around-the-block line of three hundred hipsters plus their hair.

Apparently word gets around Boston when the next big thing makes the trip up from New York. This makes for a hot, sweaty accountant’s office and a long wait, but I thought it was worth it for the added buzz of excitement from the crowd. Not everyone felt the same, however, and due to long delays from a broken amp, many of the people had left by the time the doors opened. Still, there were more than enough to fill the place, and by the time the show was over, everyone had forgotten about the wait.

Beirut’s performance brings the joy of a wedding in Sicily (as remembered from The Godfather), plus as an added bonus every so often the whole band explodes into an infectious sing-a-long “whoa-oh-oh” chorus - not unlike a certain other band with classical instruments whose name may or may not rhyme with “Markade Mire. They certainly try to bring a similar amount of energy to the stage. Or corner of the room, if the show is at the Lilypad in Cambridge.

What I liked about this band when I first heard their album was not just the uniqueness of their European folk sound, but also the parts that Beirut has in common with other bands I love. Just beneath the surface of old-fashioned brass/accordion choruses are often layers of guitars, keys, or rhythms that add a modern, indy sound. In the middle of the set there were a few songs that were missing that feel and the show was bogged down a bit in the slower horn melodies, although in their defense it could also have been my own fatigue from trying to balance on a tiny stool at the back of the room.

Throughout the show, and especially in the finale, Zach Condon cranked out upbeat trumpet hooks that were the highlight of the night. If you were there, I was the guy that left whistling the last song all the way down the street.

You can’t help but dig the French for putting on The Black Sessions. In preperation for tomorrow’s Bloc Party performance to close down the 2006 Intonation Music Festival I’m happy to offer some high quality MP3’s below.

01 - The Marshalls Are Dead
02 - Positive Tensions
03 - Banquet
04 - This Modern Love
05 - She’s Hearing Voices
06 - Helicopter
07 - Luno
08 - Plans
09 - Like Eating Glass
10 - Little Thoughts
11 - Tulips
12 - Price Of Gas
13 - So Here We Are

See also:

The National - Black Sessions MP3’s
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Black Sessions MP3’s

Here’s a look back on this weeks haps on Muzzleofbees.com in case you missed anything. Have a good weekend, and make sure to stop back next week to check out my pictures and review of the Intonation Music Festival this weekend in Chiacgo.

I saw Radiohead in Chicago on Monday, and wrote about it and took a few pictures.

Are you ready for the new TV on the Radio album, because I sure am. Check out these MP3’s from the Open Muisic Session where the band gives a sample of some of the new tunes.

Get to know your blogger - Village Indian

Get to know your blogger - I Guess I’m Floating

I’ve really been digging the Alan Singley & Pants Machine album, “LovingKindness.”

The Lollapalooza schedule is out and looks fantastic.

Lily Allen covers the Kaiser Chiefs.