We’ve been a fan of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson since he played the Monolith Music Festival a few years ago behind his awesome self-released album. If you thought that album was great (we sure did) it doesn’t even come close to the greatness of his upcoming new album, Summer of Fear (due October 20th).

It’s being correctly described as “a biting cross-section of Petty and Dylan, Pavement and Fleetwood Mac, delivering a eulogy to yesterday and the curtain-drawing promise of another day.” I know the guy has won my ear when my favorite track on the album (“More Than A Mess”) clocks in at over eleven minutes. Take a listen to “The Sound” below and see if he can win you over as well.

MP3: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – “The Sound”
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Buy: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Summer of Fear

People camped outside the Majestic Theatre yesterday to ensure an up close opportunity to the recently resurfaced Sufjan Stevens. It’s hard to cast your eyes across the interweb these days without noticing the chatter of Sufjan’s new material he’s road testing in select cities on a short run of tour dates. I chose to ignore the trickle of new material in video form in advance of the show, and instead let it greet me for the first time in concert. If you’re looking for some good audio/visual of the new material I’d suggest checking out “Impossible Souls from Castaways” and “Age of Adz from Castaways” – both of which made appearances in last night’s set.

Sufjan’s almost complete exit from the music business after the slightly unbearable success of his album Illinoise was an important disappearance in my opinion. As much as I grew to love that album, the album eventually hit critical mass, and Sufjan rightfully closed things down for awhile.

To say that Sufjan Stevens was in a good mood last night would be an understatement. Donning a Wisconsin t-shirt and a camouflage hat, he guided his band, complete with horn section and including Nedelle Torrisi of the opening back Cryptacize, launched into new number after new number. Most of this new material is long in length, I counted at least 4 new songs surpassing the six minute mark. On many occasions throughout the night Sufjan reminded the crowd that the night’s material was a work in progress. He earned the audiences patience by sprinkling in Illinoise favorites like “Jacksonville,” “Casimir Pulaski Day” and the super creepy “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” My favorite from that record, “Chicago” also made an appearance in the set as did “To Be Alone With You,” a gem from Seven Swans.

Overall, I walked away pleased with the night’s offering. I didn’t love all the new material as it tended to meander a little too much for my listening patience. However, a work in progress is just that. There are definitely some amazing songs amongst all the new material that was presented, and these live shows are the best way to trim them down and make them work. In the end, Sufjan fans have little to complain about. The material seemed very well received and whenever it is released officially, people will once again be eating out of Sufjan’s hand.

Discuss: Did you make last night’s show in Madison? What did you think of the new material? What were the highlights of the show? Drop a comment with your thoughts/reviews on the show.

The Avett Brothers release I and Love and You today. Last night they hit late night television for the first time, performing the title track from the new album on David Letterman. The Avett Brothers play the Barrymore Theatre in Madison on Wednesday, October 21st and return to Milwaukee next year for a show at Turner Hall Ballroom on March 6th.

Buy: The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

When it was announced that Bon Iver would play a sunrise set at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles I booked a flight pronto. The event ended up being one of the coolest musical experiences I’ve ever taken part in.

We arrived to Hollywood Forever a little after midnight. Armed with sleeping bags, pillows, beers, and various food essentials to help us make it to the 6am set time. When we walked in there was a huge projection screen on the mausoleum that was the only source of light in amongst the darkness and a source for our pre-show entertainment throughout the rest of the morning.

Once we had sleeping bags situated I took a quick stroll through the cemetery grounds, passing the Johnny Ramone gravestone along the way. I took advantage of some of the free coffee and pastries and headed back to settle in with my friends.

At the conclusion of the first Bon Iver DJ Set (which included songs from The Rosebuds, Rolling Stones, The Bad Plus, Captain & Tannille & Dr. John), the projection screen showed Bottle Rocket while I slipped in and out of sleep to the adventures of Luke and Owen Wilson. Another DJ set followed which was paired with Planet Earth (Jungles). Watching this roll across the mausoleum wall, paired with music from Sam Cooke, Paul Westerberg and Sade made quite the experience.

Around 5:30 the sound of Buddhist Monks filled the darkness, blessing the stage and audience. It was the such and incredibly cool experience to be laying down listening to the collective chants knowing that in only a few more minutes one of my favorite bands would be playing as the sun began to rise.

The sun never really rose yesterday morning, but it’s light reached through and allowed everyone to slowly see their surroundings for the past 6 hours. Anyone who’s seen Bon Iver perform live can appreciate the songs that make up For Emma, Forever Ago become larger and more rounded out. The album is thus the blueprint for a much bigger live performance. Megafaun joined the stage at one point during the set for a collective performance of their song “Worried Mind” which became the first sing-a-long of the morning. After playing nearly the entire Bon Iver catalog, the band launched into “Wolves” which, as you can probably expect, still elicits goosebumps at the recollection of the audience participation during the “what might have been lost” part.

Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon thanked everyone for coming and stated that he hoped they could do this again some day, then, a few short moments later, he said perhaps it would be best to never do anything like this again. Regardless of whether there is ever another sunrise performance at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the memory of this one will live forever with me and the couple thousand people who witnessed something that I definitely know these words could never truly capture.

Bon Iver DJ Set 1:

The Roaches – “Quitting Time” // The Rosebuds – “Blue Bird” // New Buffalo – “Emotional Champ” // Rolling Stones – “No Use In Crying” // Don Williams – “Say It Again” // D’Angelo – “Feel Like Making Love” // Wax Stag – “Short Road” // Slim Harpo – “I’m A King Bee” // Mississippi Fred McDowell – “Shake ‘Em On Down” // Bonnie Raitt – “Nick of Time” // AA Bondy – “I Can See The Pines Are Dancing” // James Booker – “On The Sunny Side of the Street” // Tammy Wynette – “Apartment #9″ // Aimee Mann – “How Am I Different” // The Bad Plus – “Flim” // Amateur Love – “Jailbreak!” // Captain & Tennille – “Muskrat Love” // Bill Callahan – “Jim Cain” // Julietta Venegas – “Algo Esta Cambiando (Live)” // Mahalia Jackson – “Didn’t It Rain” // Dirty Projectors – “No Intention” // Nina Simone – “Seems I’m Never Tired Of Loving You” // Dr. John – “Me – You = Loneliness” // Yo La Tengo – “Black Flowers”

Bon Iver DJ Set 2:

Arthur Russell – “A Little Lost” // Sam Cooke – “Steal Away” // Ibrahim Ferrer – “Boliviana” // Staple Singers – “Uncloudy Day” // Innocence Mission – “I Haven’t Seen This Day Before” // Vienna Boys Choir – “In Dulci Jubilo” // Lucinda Williams – “Minneapolis” // Paul Westerberg – “We May Well Be The Ones” // Sade – “By Your Side” // Judee Still – “The Kiss”

Update: Stereogum has photos + videos
Update 2: More reviews (with great photos) at Brooklyn Vegan + L.A. Weekly + Indie Muse

Here are the Wisconsin and Chicago shows we recommend you take in this week. Check them out below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list. This week’s recommended new releases includes The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You and Fool’s Gold – s/t – two albums we highly recommend!

Upcoming Wisconsin Shows:

9/28 – Bell X1 – High Noon Saloon, Madison
9/28 – Sufjan Stevens – Majestic Theatre, Madison
9/30 – Sea Wolf + Port O’Brien – Mad Planet, Milwaukee
10/1 – Monotonix – High Noon Saloon, Madison
10/2 – Mirah – Orpheum Stage Door, Madison
10/3 – These United States/Chris Koza Band/The Gentle Guest – Der Rathskeller, Madison
10/4 – The Gaslight Anthem/Murder By Death – Turner Hall Ballroom

Upcoming Chicago Shows:

9/28 – Grizzly Bear + Beach House – Metro
9/29 – Van Morrison – Chicago Theatre
10/3 – Fever Ray – Metro

Just Announced:

10/29 – The Very Best – Bottom Lounge, Chicago
11/27 – Ezra Furman & The Harpoons – Double Door, Chicago
12/12 – Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival (Bela Fleck/Dr. Dog) – Congress Theater, Chicago
12/13 – Bela Fleck & The Flecktones – Orpheum Theatre, Madison
12/31 – Chris Isaak – Northern Lights Theater, Milwaukee
12/31 – The Black Keys – Riviera Theater, Chicago
3/6 – The Avett Brothers – Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee

New Releases:

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You, Fool’s Gold – s/t

+Bookmark our Wisconsin and Chicago shows pages for all your concert announcements+

by Tyler Fassnacht

Now I consider myself an above average fan of Trail of Dead and an above average fan of the Secret Machines, so when I saw that their joint tour was making a stop at the Majestic, I figured that I should probably go.

The first band that played was a Milwaukee band, that just came out for this show, called Invade Rome, who I believe used to be called Freshwater Collins. They played rock with a tinge of gritty southern drive and some psychedelic influences. They played a solid set that got people active, which is exactly what an opening band is supposed to do. The band itself, in my opinion got a little repetitive and the singer often donned a falsetto that annoyed me, especially because he had such a good regular singing voice.

Up next was the Secret Machines, who promptly came out and opened with their first hit “Nowhere Again”, which set things off on a very good foot. The band played for about 50 minutes, which sadly only included one song off of my favorite album of theirs, Ten Silver Drops. Besides that, my only complaint was that at times their sonic assault of noise, became too muddied up to really enjoy, but for the majority of the set this wasn’t a problem. They played, and got a response like a headliner, so it was a very pleasant when I remembered that Trail of Dead were still up next.

The last time I saw Trail of Dead was actually at the Majestic, when they played a free show opening up for the cartoon death metal band, Dethklok, a couple years back. At that show the majority of the audience was there for some metal, so Trail of Dead did not get the respect they deserved. Thankfully this time the audience was there for them, and gave the band plenty of attention. The setlist was mostly made of songs from their new album, The Century of Self, and their widely regarded masterpiece, Source Tags & Codes. I don’t think a single person was disappointed. Whereas the Secret Machines made an ungodly amount of noise (probably the loudest three piece I have ever heard) using tons and tons of effects, Trail of Dead made equal amounts of noise through numbers and sheer energy. The six piece band included two drummers, a force that drove every song like an engine, two guitars, bass and keyboards. Each member attacked their respective instruments. Keys were banged out, guitar strings were broken several times and vocals were strained, and all in the most exciting and engaging way. It had been a while since I attended a concert where the band was so dedicated to actually making their performance visually entertaining as well and Trail of Dead did wonders by jumping around, throwing mic stands and instruments and climbing on speakers. The music swayed from hardcore to post-punk to beautiful, melodic tunes, all flowing together with ease. The band came out for the encore and ended the show with the first song they ever wrote, which finally stirred the below average sized audience into a frenzy. Just as I had hoped, the bands played great, making this definitely an above average evening.