[Updated (twice) with more info!]

Talk about the magic of Twitter…

I was about to shut my computer down to go grab dinner when this tweet came across my screen:

birdmonster Yuma. Download and enjoy. http://www.filedropper.com/05yuma

The song is apparently the 5th track off a new CD (LP? EP?) from the boys called Blood Memory, and it pretty much kicks ass. Check it out:

Birdmonster, “Yuma”

According to some further digging by the So Much Silence blog on Twitter, it appears that Blood Memory is an 8-song mini-album. And, according to the band’s website, it’s coming out on September 22nd via the Fader Label.

And that just made my September a whole lot better.

As usual, my picks in bold. And, yeah, I was a huge Living Colour fan back in 1989, so I’m giving them a bold this week.

Sunday, 8/30
Birchmere: Teena Marie [sold out]
Black Cat (back): The Scare, Cold and Come of Age, Black Shade
DC9: The Nine
Red and Black: Elaine Lachica, In Heaven and You
Velvet Lounge: Anthony Pirog’s Sextet, Franck Vigroux

Monday, 8/31
9:30 Club: Rock the Bells
Birchmere: Teena Marie [sold out]
Black Cat (back) Ear Pwr, Toro Y Moi
Galaxy Hut: Title Tracks, More Humans
Merriweather Post: Killers, Wolfmother
Velvet Lounge: Head Molt, Chris Grier, 2 1/2 Teeth

Tuesday, 9/1
9:30 Club: Badfish
Birchmere: Living Colour, GrindCity
Black Cat (back): Celebration, Zomes
DC9: Solillaquits of Sound, Flex Mathews
Iota: Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys, Eilen Jewell
Jammin’ Java: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Red and Black: Blacklist Royals, Rehab for Quitters, Used Up

Wednesday, 9/2
9:30 Club: Apoptygma Berzerk
Birchmere: Peter Frampton
Black Cat (back): Pygmy Lush, Little Gold, Des Ark
DC9: George Karos, Kuschty Rye Ergot, Child Ballads
Jammin’ Java: David Dondero, Luke Mitchem
Red and Black: Mow! Benefit w/ Pup Tent, Olivia Mancini
Velvet Lounge: The Dustys, The Howlies, Royal Chains

Thursday, 9/3
9:30 Club: The Wallflowers
Birchmere: Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
Black Cat (main): Coco Rosie, Katie Stelmanis
Iota: Helo
Jammin’ Java: Flex Mathews, The Franchise Players
Red and Black: Celeste Starchild, Sketchbook
RnR Hotel: Hatebreed, Cro-Mags, Worlds Collide, Bad Luck 13
Velvet Lounge: Papashake

Friday, 9/4
9:30 Club: Alice in Chains
Birchmere: Maysa
Black Cat (main): The Slickee Boys, Girl Loves Distortion
Comet Ping Pong: Peru Peru
Iota: Brooke Waggoner, Denison Witmer
Jammin’ Java: The Sketches, Dennis Manuel
Red and Black: Nunchucks, The New Up, Billy Woodward
RnR Hotel: Throw Me The Statue, The Brunettes, Nurses
State Theatre: Mac McAnally
Velvet Lounge: The Bees Knees Labor Day BBQ

Saturday, 9/5
9:30 Club: The Big Fatback
Birchmere: Maysa
Black Cat (main): !!!, Pivot
Iota: The Waco Brothers (early 4pm show)
Iota: The Bottle Rockets, Phonograph (late show)
Jammin’ Java: No Compromise, The War Within, Lucky 28
Merriweather Post: Counting Crows, Michael Franti
Red and Black: Evan Samuels, Toll Carom, Metrorail
RnR Hotel: CTC, Seamonsters, Black Dog Prowl, Velvet
State Theatre: Sztywny Pal Azji, Don’t Panic
Velvet Lounge: Woman, Religious to Damn

Great show from These United States tonight. Really wish I’d seen these guys earlier. Good news is that I think they’ll be in Chicago a few days after I move there, so I can see them again soon.

So I have an absolute shit-ton of pics from last night’s Flaming Lips and Explosions In The Sky show, because for the first time ever last night BabyStew actually had two different people taking pictures. There was me, of course, and there was also guest-photographer Ryan Little from the excellent Tereu Tereu.

Ryan had interviewed Wayne earlier in the week for the Fredericksburg newspaper of record and managed to get ahold of an official photo pass for the show, and he offered to let me borrow his pictures for the blog. And for that, I am in his debt.

Anyway, from the several hundred photos that we took last night, I’ve sifted through the good, the bad, the ugly (the latter two categories consisting almost entirely of my own photos, natch), and figured I’d post some of my favorites here. Before we get there, though, I suppose I ought to share some very quick thoughts/impressions about the show:

All due respect to the Lips, but the night absolutely belonged to Explosions In The Sky. I can’t hide the fact that I’ve never been a huge post-rock fan, and have never considered myself a huge fan of EITS, but their live show was absolutely fantastic. Intense, emotional, and just overwhelmingly huge. I tried to talk to Ryan right after they finished their set, and he literally needed a full 2-3 minutes to let everything sink in before he could verbalize anything about the set.

The only downside? They only played for about 35-40 minutes. They could have played for another couple of hours and I wouldn’t have minded one bit. I need to see them again, and soon.

The Flaming Lips were The Flaming Lips. The set was essentially the same as what they played at Pitchfork Fest last month, which shouldn’t be a surprise because… well… the band isn’t known for varying its sets. But it was still a good time, and the new songs – especially “Convinced of the Hex” – are really starting to grow on me.

Stardeath and White Dwarfs were OK. Nothing really to write home about, but they’re still pretty young and they’re certainly learning at the feet of the right band. And their re-working of Madonna’s “Borderline” is still pretty cool.

And now some pics… clicking on any should let you Lightbox your way through the set.

The Flaming Lips




Explosions In The Sky

Many more pics and discussion tomorrow.

Flaming Lips

Explosions In The Sky

Stardeath and White Dwarfs

Woah. How in the world did I not know about a movie with George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor and the dude that played bad-ass Secret Service agent Aaron on 24?

Everything about this movie looks awesome, except McGregor’s accent, which is pretty awful.

Thanks to @thejuiceisgood for pointing me to Punch Drunk Critics.

Benjy Ferree

The Aquarium

¡Carlos, I’m Pregnant!

If you needed any further proof that the FOTL guys are smarter, funnier and cooler than all of us, check out their new interview with Dirty Laundry.

Phew!

I was wondering when, and if, we were going to get another Whigs headlining tour before the band went into the studio for album #3. The band has been touring non-stop with the Kings of Leon over the last six months or so, and I kinda assumed that once that was done they’d close up shop for a bit and head to the studio.

Lucky for us, though, the band has announced a ton of brand new headlining dates for the late Fall, with Nashville’s The Features, including stops in both Chicago and DC. Tickets for Vancouver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Chattanooga are apparently on sale now, and the rest go on sale this Friday.

Oh, and if your city isn’t on this list, don’t fret – there are still a bunch of open dates, so I would expect more shows to be announced soon.

Whigs/Features Fall Tour Dates
10/28: Boston (Middle East downstairs)
11/5: Nashville (The Cannery)
11/6: Chicago (Bottom Lounge)
11/7: Minneapolis (Triple Rock)
11/10: Denver (Bluebird Theater)
11/13: Vancouver (Media Club)
11/19: Los Angeles (Troubadour)
11/20: Las Vegas (Beauty Bar)
11/21: San Diego (SOMA sidestage)
12/4: Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)
12/5: Chattanooga (Rhythym & Brews)
12/10: Washington, DC (Black Cat)
12/12: Philadelphia (North Star Bar)

Hmm… so do I go to CMJ in October or Fun Fun Fun Fest a few weeks later instead? Odds are I can’t do both, but I definitely want to do one. And today’s lineup announcement for the latter has me thinking seriously about a trip to Austin.

I mean, the lineup for the Black Stage alone is enough to get me go – Jesus Lizard, Gorilla Biscuits, D.R.I., Nightmarchers, Mika Miko and motherfuckin’ Danzig. I mean, really… wow.

And the other stages feature the likes of Mission of Burma, Lucero, Times New Viking, Destroyer, Shearwater, Dead Confederate, Strange Boys, Todd Barry, No Age and much, much more.

This is not an easy decision.

Fun Fun Fun Fest goes down on November 7th and 8th in Austin, TX, and early bird tickets are available now for $67.50 for a regular weekend pass, and $135 for a “pretty important person” pass, which gets you exclusive viewing terraces, shorter food/beer lines, and more.

I’ve been raving about Vandaveer’s latest album, Divide & Conquer, to pretty much anyone who would listen over the last month or two. Thankfully, you can finally hear the album for yourself, as it comes out TODAY on Supply and Demand Records.

And while I strongly recommend that you head over and buy it immediately, if you’re one of those people who like to try before you buy, the fine folks over at MBV have made the entire album available for free streaming. Listen to it here.

The band (Mark and Rose, I assume) are headed out on the road in support of the new album starting tomorrow. Be sure to catch them if they’re coming to your neck of the woods.

Vandaveer U.S. Tour Dates
8/26: Portland, ME (One Longfellow Square)
8/27: Winooski, VT (The Monkey House w/ Anders Parker)
8/28: Brooklyn (Union Hall w/ These United States)
8/29: Philadelphia (The Fire w/ The Spinning Leaves, others)
9/1: Pittsburgh (Club Cafe w/ Emily Rodgers)
9/2: Morgantown, WV (123 Pleasant Street w/ The Overcoat & Juna)
9/3: Detroit (PJs Lager House w/ Matt Jones)
9/4: Chicago (The Hideout)
9/5: Madison, WI (The Project Lodge)
9/6: Indianapolis (The Vollrath)
9/7: Lexington, KY (CD Central in-store show)
9/8: Newport, KY (Southgate House w/ Daniel Martin Moore)
9/9: Lexington, KY (The Green Lantern)
9/10: Louisville, KY (930 Listening Room)
9/11: Nashville (The Basement)
9/12: Birmingham, AL (Bottletree Cafe)
9/14: Atlanta (The Earl)
9/15: Asheville, NC (BoBo Gallery)
9/16: Roanoke, VA (Kirk Avenue Music Hall)
9/17: Charlottesville, VA (Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar)
9/18: Richmond, VA (Gallery 5)
9/19: Washington, DC (Comet Ping Poing)
9/24: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center Millenium Stage)

I meant to mention this show in the most recent This Week in DC post but completely forgot. So as a make-good it gets its own blog post.

Benjy Ferree
The Aquarium
¡Carlos, I’m Pregnant!
University Cafe
409 William Street
Fredericksburg, VA

Show starts at 8pm. See you there?

R.E.M. is set to release its brand new live album, R.E.M. Live From The Olympia, on October 27th via Warner Bros. The album is a 2-CD set featuring 39 songs from the band’s 5-night run at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin back in 2007, including early versions of many of the songs that would eventually end up on 2008′s excellent Accelerate album.

A lot of folks who are bigger R.E.M. fans than I am like to refer back to the band’s Olympia shows as a “rebirth” for the band, seeing them shift from the more introspective, down-tempo songs of the previous few albums (I’m lookin’ at you, Around The Sun) to the much more upbeat, loose rock and roll of their early years. As such, the album should be a pretty interesting portrait of a band rediscovering itself. Or at least that’s the theory.

Here’s the first video from the album, a live version of “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” shot by Vincent Moon and Jeremiah.

Oh, and you can also listen to live recordings of “Driver 8″ and “Harborcoat” here.

Living Well Is The Best Revenge

Have I mentioned Brendan Benson’s new album, My Old Familiar Friend, on the blog recently? I honestly can remember. Assuming I haven’t, though, let me say this now – it’s the best thing he’s done since Lapalco, and I’ve been listening to it daily for the last few weeks. If you haven’t picked up a copy for yourself yet, I suggest that you do so forthwith.

(via Brooklyn Vegan)

In one of the better pieces of music news that I’ve heard in recent months, Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and Jets To Brazil fame has confirmed via Facebook that he has a new band.

But wait a second, you might say – didn’t I just write pretty much this same post back in January about his new band Thorns of Life?  Well, yeah, I did. And apparently that band ended very, very quickly, just about the time that the band had a very unproductive recording session with J Robbins.

But news came today via the Thorns of Life Facebook page and the City Sound Inertia site that Blake has a new band called forgetters (no “the”, no capital “f”, according to Blake). The band is a 3-piece featuring Kevin Mahon from Against Me on drums and an unidentified as yet bassist named Caroline.

No word on any new shows or music yet, but those of us who consider ourselves fans of Blake and the music he’s made over the years can breathe a sigh of relief that he’s still making music. And the world’s a better place for it.