Each week we highlight the new releases that we recommend. Below, find our picks for this week. Drop a comment and let us know what records you’re picking up this week.

La Sera – La Sera [Buy]
MP3: La Sera – “Never Come Around”
MP3: La Sera – “Devils Hearts Grow Gold”
Video: La Sera – “Never Come Around”

Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines [Buy]
MP3: Telekinesis – “Car Crash”

Yuck – Yuck [Buy]
MP3: Yuck – “Rubber”
Video: Yuck – “Holing Out”

Bright Eyes – The People’s Key [Buy]
Video: Bright Eyes – The People’s Key (full album stream)

The Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps [Buy]
MP3: The Twilight Singers – “The Blackbird and the Fox”
Video: The Twilight Singers – “On The Corner”

Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots [Buy]
Video: The Drive-By Truckers – “Everybody Needs Some Love”

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake [Buy]
Video: PJ Harvey – “The Words That Maketh Murder”
Video: PJ Harvey – “Let England Shake”

Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will [Buy]
MP3: Mogwai – “San Pedro”
MP3: Mogwai – “Pano Rano”
Video: Mogwai – “How To Be A Werewolf”

The Dears – Degeneration Street [Buy]
MP3: The Dears – “Blood”
Video: The Dears – “Omega Dog”

Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence [Buy]
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Trails”
Video: Asobi Seksu – “Trails”

[Drive-By Truckers play the Pabst Theater tonight for a special Farm Aid Eve performance]

By Jeff Kollath

While The National received their well-deserved accolades for playing at the Obama rally on campus and near-sold out show at the Orpheum Theater on Tuesday, another band also played two shows in Madison. Flying under the radar was Drive-By Truckers, who snuck into town on Monday afternoon, allowing band members to visit family and friends, and relax on a rare day off on this jam-packed four week tour. For a band as well-received and well-liked as DBT, there was very little buzz about the band’s first trip to Madison since 2007, their show at the Majestic Theater subsumed by The National and Obama, and devastating one-two punch for other goings on if there ever was one.

Taking on two shows in one day is not easy, but DBT front man Patterson Hood proved up to the task, honored to perform a short, but incredibly heartfelt and genuine acoustic show at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Joining Hood were keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (on accordion, no less), and special guest Kelly Hogan, played six songs in “Faces in the Sand,” the museum’s Iraq/Afghanistan exhibit, to a crowd of nearly 100. The crowd spanned from babies to senior citizens, Vietnam Veterans to Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans, and all were moved by the songs and the stories behind them. Much of the show revolved around the memory of Sgt. Mark Maida, a Madison native killed in Iraq in May 2005, and the inspiration for “The Home Front.” Mark’s memory continues to live on through the philanthropy of his family and their willingness to share their story of loss. The power of the event did not pass by Hood and Company as they too had to choke back emotion on several occasions. The show ended with Hood and Hogan’s beautiful harmonies on “Angels & Fuselage,” requested by Chris Maida, a Marine veteran, who, along with his brother, found a special, shared meaning to the song while the mobilized for the war in Iraq. It was clear that as the crowd filed out, they all felt they had seen something special.

The evening show at the Majestic  built upon the afternoon’s proceedings, opening with an intense “That Man I Shot.” Moving through a setlist covering songs from the previous two records, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark and The Big To-Do, the early part of the show culminated in Eddie Hinton’s “Everybody Needs Love” and a sparkling version of “Delta Dawn,” a cover of Tanya Tucker/Helen Reddy’s early 70s homage to an aged, jilted southern belle. Kelly Hogan’s vocals and John Neff’s pedal steel work sparkled as the rest of the band filled in admirably behind this country classic. After Hogan left the stage, Hood introduced “The Sands of Iwo Jima,” which was part of the set at the Veterans Museum. Hood forgot a verse during the early set, but he headed back to the bus, figured it out, and delivered a fantastic version that he again dedicated to his Great Uncle George, a WWII veteran. The remainder of the set was standard Rock Show material, ending with a driving and exceedingly crunchy version of “Hell No, I Ain’t Happy.” Following the usual encore suspects “Marry Me,” “Let There Be Rock,” and “Shut Up and Get on the Plane”, Kelly Hogan again hit the stage to sing backup on “Angels & Fuselage,” another holdover from the afternoon set. Dedicated to Mark and Chris Maida, and “the late, great Otis Redding,” this full band version was a sonic coup de gras, with feedback-drenched guitars and spacy keyboard loops. The band left the stage one-by-one without a word, just a wave goodbye, leaving drummer Brad Morgan by himself, pounding on a giant bass drum and the sound swirled around him.

AFTERNOON SET: The Home Front / That Man I Shot / Old Timer’s Disease / The Sands of Iwo Jima / Ray’s Automatic Weapon / Angels & Fuselage

EVENING SET: That Man I Shot / Three Dimes Down / The Fourth Night of Drinking / Get Downtown / (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So / This Fucking Job / Birthday Day / Daddy Needs A Drink / A Ghost to Most / Everybody Needs Love / Delta Dawn (with Kelly Hogan) / The Sands of Iwo Jima /  Panties in Your Purse / Santa Fe / Women Without Whiskey / Lookout Mountain / Zip City / Sink Hole / Self-Destructive Zones / Hell No, I Ain’t Happy; ENCORE: Marry Me / Let There Be Rock / Shut Up and Get on the Plane / Angels & Fuselage (with Kelly Hogan)

Download: Drive-By Truckers, September 28, 2010 – Madison
Previously: Drive-By Truckers – 9:30 Club, Washington DC
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Buy: Drive-By Truckers – Big To-Do

On Tuesday, September 28, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison will host Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers for a special acoustic performance in its galleries. Hood has long been a supporter of American soldiers and veterans, having written such songs as “The Sands of Iwo Jima” and “The Home Front,” which was inspired by the 2005 passing of Madison native Sgt. Mark Maida. Sgt. Maida’s personal effects can be seen in “Faces in the Sand,” an exhibit honoring Wisconsin’s men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The concert will start promptly at 3:30 (do not be late – you will miss the show) and is FREE. Space is limited, so arrive early (no advance reservations).

Drive-By Truckers will be performing in the evening on September 28 at the Majestic Theater in Madison. The show starts at 8:30pm with support from Henry Clay People. Purchase your tickets here. The band will also be in Milwaukee at the Pabst Theater on Friday, October 1 for a very special Farm Aid Eve performance.

Buy: Patterson Hood – Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)

By Jon Stone | @jwstone <– follow me on twitter for updates during the rest of the fest.

Grant Park was really lovely yesterday on the opening day of Chicago’s biggest music festival. The sun was out, but not too hot (most of the day). The crowd seemed a bit more evenly dispersed with the new acreage that the Lolla folks have opened up; the food was tasty (gyros and giganto- truffle fries for me, thank you very much), and I still drank three liters of water. Oh, and the music…

Here’s a quick rundown of my day:

Mavis Staples: I arrived at the north end of the park and into a swarm of dragonflies. They gracefully hovered just above the crowd gathered at the Budweiser stage and Mavis and her band played “The Weight.” Seems a bit weird, huh? But it sounded fantastic. She was joined on stage a bit later by Jeff Tweedy (who, as you likely know, produced her upcoming record) who played acoustic guitar and back-up sang on John Fogerty’s “Wrote a Song For Everyone” and also played back-up on the song he wrote for that new record, both of which are titled “You are Not Alone.” Mavis is such a classy lady and it was fun to see Tweedy in this context — she wished Jeff and his wife Susie a happy 15th anniversary. We all wished Mavis Staples a happy 60 years as a performer. What a career!

Drive-By Truckers: I caught about half of the Truckers’ set and enjoyed what I heard. I still haven’t arrived at fan status of this band — I’m just not familiar enough with their catalog. But seeing the band today and watching them interact with their fans was a large stride in that direction.

The New Pornographers: Carl Newman is a great front-man, but I have a bit of a thing for Neko Case (who doesn’t?), but as much as I like her solo work, I like her work with the NPs even more. They put on really great show yesterday, and Case didn’t disappoint (though she did wear a big sun hat through most of the set that made it difficult to see her face). She and Carl Newman joked back and forth about Gaga, Dan Bejar drank beer after beer, and they played a great mix of New Pornos tunes ranging from opener  ”Sing Me Spanish Techno,” to the new album opener “Moves.” Other highlights included 2003′s “Testament to Youth in Verse” and an amazing pair of interpreters for the hearing impaired. They seemed to know every word — fascinating to watch.

Dirty Projectors: This is going to be the one that I remember for the rest of the year, I think. I’ve been a fan of Bitte Orca for a while now, but the record has stuff on it that I figured couldn’t be reproduced live. I was so wrong. “Stillness is the Move” and “Temecula Sunrise” are complicated enough, but then the women in the band started doing this as the intro to “Remade Horizon.” My mouth is still gaping. I read some bad press of this performance on a famous Chicago publication writer’s blog, and I just flat out disagree. Not only did the harmonies during this performance mesh, but the band manages to do it while playing some of the most intricate guitar duets I’ve ever seen. To me, the complicated nature of the music is what makes it so amazing to see rather than just hear on the record. I will never pass up an opportunity to see these guys play again — like I said yesterday via twitter, it was like being at a prog-rock choir concert.

Jamie Lidell: Every once in a while I come across an artist that I I can’t believe I’ve never heard of because their work is such a perfect fit into my interests. Lidell fits that description perfectly. I’ve been jamming his records all week in prep for Lolla with exactly that thought. Lidell and his band take the best of Stevie Wonder’s 70s funk and revitalize it,  imbuing it with the modern sampling and laptop shenanigans that Lidell was first famous for. But looking like Jon Hamm with a beard and singing like he could have shared the stage with Mavis earlier, he had me absolutely captivated. A few songs in, and who should turn up? Pat Sansone! He doesn’t get enough of an opportunity to shake that tambourine with Wilco, so did some for Lidell as well. He also played the melodica on a few songs and is credited with production of a few songs on Lidell’s new record Compass. All this was to say that I am now a fan of Jamie Lidell. A big one. (oh, and also to say that I think its funny when Sansone shakes a tambo.)

The Strokes: Lady Gaga was the biggest draw on Friday. Evidence was everywhere. Girls with crazy hats, dudes in head-to-toe neon… it was a sight. It’s estimated that over two thirds of Friday’s attendees were Gaga-ing. I didn’t even make it over to that side of the park. It’s a long walk. The Strokes, regardless of the audience-split, put on a show. It was my first time seeing Julian Casablancas and his crew, and the first time anyone in America has seen the band play in something like four years. When the Strokes first hit it big, I was hesitant to jump on the band wagon — there were too many copy-cat groups and it seemed like it was all happening too fast. It seemed like a fad and I didn’t even listen to Is This It when it came out in 2001. Tragic, huh? A few years later I fixed all that — repented of my rash and judgmental ways (and also by then, the wheat had been separated from the chaff, copy-band-wise). Last night The Strokes proved to me once and for all (the rest of the audience didn’t need any convincing) that they  are the real deal: Blistering guitar work; incredible vocal range and sound; perfect pop/rock tunes.

Here’s the setlist:
New York City Cops / The Modern Age / Hard to Explain / What Ever Happened? / You Only Live Once / Soma / This is It / Vision of Division / I Can’t Win / Reptilia / Last Nite /(encore:) Juicebox / Someday / Under Control / Heart in a Cage / Take it or Leave it

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Saturday should be great as well. I’m looking at Stars, Dawes, Grizzly Bear, Deer Tick, Spoon(!) and Phoenix as my must-sees. Let me know if there is anything else I can’t miss.

By Jeff Kollath

At the 9:30 Club on Friday, Drive-By Truckers proved once again why they are one of the most incendiary live bands going today. Their energy, guitar solos, and Southern storytelling have made them legions of fans that sing along, head bang, throw their fists in the air on command, and yes, occasionally invade the personal space of those around them. The last time DBT played the 9:30, Patterson Hood missed the show with a 104 degree fever, giving the reins to co-founder Mike Cooley, who proceeded to get so intoxicated that he invited audience members on stage to sing a couple songs. Friday night’s show was INTENSE, as the band plowed through 27 songs, including some deep cuts from the back catalog, feeding off the energy of the sold-out crowd, and drawing from the fiery heat and humidity that has enveloped the DC Metro area all summer.

DBT is one of the few bands that actually make me want to get to the show early, as their pre-show setlist is a Memphis and Muscle Shoals history lesson, reinforcing the band’s roots and hopefully educating a few people about artists like the sadly underappreciated Eddie Hinton and the forgotten Arthur Conley. After a slow, slightly sloppy start, the show really hit its stride about 1/3 of the way through thanks to Shonna Tucker’s blast of vintage girl-group pop, “(It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So,” and to Mr. Cooley. While Hood is the most recognizable face and voice of DBT, to many, Cooley is the undisputed star of the group. His true-to-life songs about relationships and sex, rural isolation, Southern culture, and life on the outside are sung and played with ease and coolness that endears him to DBT zealots and casual fans. That, along with just enough sex appeal to make you question or not you’d leave him in a room alone with your girl, give him a magnetism that is hard to deny. In short, he is the muscle-car driving protagonist in ”Zip City” – he “ain’t got no good intentions.” Cooley did not disappoint this night either, leading the band through fan favorites like “Where the Devil Don’t Stay,” “When the Pin Hits the Shell,” “Panties In Your Purse,” and a very underrated track off The Big To-Do, “Get Downtown.”

When Hood’s light gray shirt became black as night with sweat, we knew the show must be drawing to a close, but, after catching a second wind and taking an audience request for “The Tough Sell,” Hood led the band through the autobiographical “Let There Be Rock,” closing the show with a sonic boom of arena rock guitar solos and lyrical hyperbole. After a lengthy encore break, the band returned for a seven-song encore (including a cover of “Everybody Needs Love,” written by the aforementioned Eddie Hinton), culminating in the explosive and eardrum shattering Jim Carroll-cover, “People Who Died.” Throughout the show, the house mix became louder and louder, and by the encore, the thunder from Shonna Tucker’s bass and Brad Morgan’s kick drum was chest-pounding. Walking out of the show, I felt like my body has been through a sonic mosh pit, sweaty, haggard, and devoid of energy. Certainly, the near 90-degree temps – at 1am, no less – didn’t help either.

Having not seen DBT live since late 2008 (a lackluster effort at the Riviera Theater in Chicago), and really having not been a fan of A Blessing and a Curse or Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, my interest in DBT waned over the last year. Yet, as I left the 9:30 Club, my feet throbbing, my head spinning, and ears ringing, I felt that same sense of satisfaction and joy I felt when I first saw DBT in 2004. This is a band that knows who it is, but more importantly, knows where it came from. The roots of the band, firmly entrenched in the musical heritage of Muscle Shoals and a hybrid of both the real and mythical South, are evident at every twist and turn. It’s unpredictable, and when a drunken, sweaty 300 pound behemoth is pressed up against you, it’s a bit scary, but if you go once, you’ll always come back, and you just might learn something along the way.

Set List: The Fourth Night of My Drinking / Where the Devil Don’t Stay / Drag the Lake Charlie / 72 (This Highway’s Mean) / The Living Bubba / Panties In Your Purse / The Opening Act / Get Downtown / (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So / After the Scene Dies / 3 Dimes Down / Hell No, I Ain’t Happy / When the Pin Hits the Shell / Your Daddy Hates Me / Sinkhole / Birthday Boy / The Tough Sell / Buttholeville > State Trooper / Zip City / Let There Be Rock /

Encore: The Flying Wallendas / Women Without Whiskey / Everybody Needs Love / Marry Me / Putting People on the Moon / Shut Up and Get on the Plane / People Who Died

The Drive-By Truckers return to Wisconsin with shows scheduled at the Majestic Theatre in Madison on Tuesday, September 28th and the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on Friday, October 1st.

Download: Drive-By Truckers – 7/23/10, Washington DC

Congrats to the Drive-By Truckers on signing to ATO Records. The band readies their 10th album, The Big To-Do on March 16, 2010. Patterson Hood is quoted in the press release describing the album as “very melodic and more rocking than anything we’ve done since disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera.” Great news, we’re sold. Expect the band to tour, as they always do, around this record. Here’s hoping they make up their canceled Milwaukee date from earlier this year.

The Big To-Do Track Listing:
1. Daddy Learned to Fly
2. The Fourth Night of My Drinking
3. Birthday Boy
4. Drag the Lake Charlie
5. The Wig He Made Her Wear
6. You Got Another
7. This Fucking Job
8. Get Downtown
9. After the Scene Dies
10. (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
11. Santa Fe
12. The Flying Wallendas
13. Eyes Like Glue
14. Girls Who Smoke (Bonus track – vinyl only)