Holy shit folks. A new Radiohead album (apparently titled In Rainbows) is on it’s way in 10 days. You can only purchase it through their site www.radiohead.com. And get this – you determine how much to pay for it!
This was just published on their site:
“Hello everyone.
Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days;
We’ve called it In Rainbows.
Love from us all.
Jonny”
Headed to the promised land last weekend for the Wisco v. Iowa football game, which the Badgers won in pitiful fashion. I can’t remember the last time I witnessed such a fucking snoozefest. I felt like I was watching a High School game.
Fortunately the game wasn’t the only excitement in Madison that weekend. Mix the usual crowd of college idiots and the Iowa faithful in together and you’re bound to have an exciting scene. We kicked Saturday off by attending Barsche’s deep fry tailgate. His fryer requires 3 gallons (yes – gallons) of oil – or lard depending upon the occasion.
From there we wandered around until kickoff swiping beers where we could and waiting for the big game to begin.
A photo of the game just before Wisco scores their only touchdown of the first half.
From their we headed back to tailgating. Got a chance to catch up with my boy Lep who’s wasting his life away in Madison.
Make fun of the hair all you want – it will gone soon.
My brother was operating the camera at this point and decided to get creative and capture a candid nose hair moment.
I visited the Portage Theater for the first time last night to see Devendra Banhart perform with his tongue-in-cheek band “Spiritual Boner”. The Portage is an interesting place to see a concert. It operates as a traditional movie theater with soda, popcorn and Milk Duds. In other words – no beer. Fortunately I had been forewarned of this by a friend who had seen Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy perform at the Portage last year. Seeing as it was a Tuesday night I didn’t much mind.
Devendra was absolutely fantastic minus a run of about six consecutive lullaby’s in the middle of the set that nearly put me to sleep (a beer or two would have helped). He played a number of songs from his forthcoming album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon due out next week and from what I heard last night it should be another great Devendra album.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Andy Cabic (of Vetiver) on stage with Devendra. I really dig all of Vetiver’s albums but as of yet have not been fortunate enough to see them play. Some notable numbers from the night include ‘Heard Somebody Say’, ‘Little Yellow Spider’, ‘Long Haired Child’, ‘Be Kind’ and a sensational version of the Spanish-influenced ‘Santa Maria Da Feira’. The main unique element Devendra brings to his music is the use of syncopation and rhythm. Many bands today base their music on elementary rock chord progressions and it’s refreshing to see a performer break from that mold.
Devendra and Andy Cabic on his right
I got a chance to catch the sold-out Bill Callahan performance at the Lakeshore Theatre on Friday night. Callahan was touring in support of his new album ‘Woke on a Whaleheart’ and naturally drew most his performance material from it and his previous album (and my personal fav) ‘A River Ain’t Too Much to Love’.
I would have to say the show had it’s up and downs – not unlike many of Callahan’s studio albums. He played amazing versions of some of my favorites including ‘Bowery’, ‘The Well’, ‘Let Me See the Colts’ and ‘Say Valley Maker’. While he did play a number of songs from the new album, he omitted my two favorites – ‘The Wheel’ and ‘Night’. I guess with no piano on stage ‘Night’ wasn’t gonna happen and as for ‘The Wheel’ I imagine his use of vocal overdubs on the album makes for a difficult song to perform live. One number I was pleasantly surprised by was ‘Diamond Dancer’ which on the album seemed a bit out of place and uninteresting but in concert the song took on a much livelier nature and was the closest Callahan came to rocking out.
I brought my brother and CJ along and CJ was none to happy with the quiet nature of the show. He was out to party and people kept giving him the ’shush’ which only furthered his agitation. After the show we jumped in a cab and CJ felt compelled to yell out the window at all the patrons still lingering outside that they “all had no RHYTHM!”
Afterwards they dragged me to a few ridiculously shit-ass bars where we met up with Diddy and some of Newsman Dan’s boys.
Damn… between this new job and the night class I don’t find much time to keep up on this journal. I hit the Hideout Block Party last weekend to see both Bloc Party (the band) on Friday and Andrew Bird and The Frames on Saturday.
All in all the festival was a good time and a great price ($35 for a 2-day ticket). The Hideout showcased a slew of great bands including some I really dug that I had never heard of before. But on the downside they had two beer tents for the entire event and at best four food vendors. Needless to say the lines were fucking atrocious. Plenty of shitters though, they lined them up all the way to the stage.
Bill Callahan at the Lakeshore Theatre tomorrow night…
Bloc Party
Andrew Bird
PS. Got a new camera from my ‘rents for my otherwise forgettable birthday. I took these with it but I gotta admit I didn’t put forth much of an effort. Better ones to come.