Bowerbirds plan tour

I just got into Bowerbirds like, five days ago, and I've already played their album through about 20 times. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. The vocals remind me a lot of Andrew Bird or Jeff Buckley, but placed over a very organic blend of acoustic guitars, accordion, and bass drum.

Feb 28 2009 8:00P | Bull Dog Alley w/David Karsten Daniels & The Reconquista | WASHINGTON, Washington DC

Mar 26 2009 8:00P | Canopy Club | Urbana, Illinois

Mar 27 2009 9:00P | University of Wisconsin w/ Daredevil Christopher Wright & The Wars of 1812 | Madison, Wisconsin

Mar 30 2009 8:00P | Bilikin Club | St. Louis, Missouri

Mar 31 2009 8:00P | Jackpot Saloon | Lawrence, Kansas

Apr 1 2009 7:00P | The Mill (Mission Creek Festival) | Iowa City, Iowa

Apr 3 2009 8:00P | Court Square Theatre (MACRoCK) | Harrisonburg, Virginia

Apr 25 2009 8:00P | Rock & Roll Hotel w/ Bell | WASHINGTON, Washington DC

Apr 26 2009 8:00P | First Unitarian Chapel w/ Bell | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Apr 27 2009 8:00P | Mercury Lounge w/ Bell | New York, New York

Apr 28 2009 8:00P | Monkeytown w/ Bell | Brooklyn, New York

Apr 30 2009 8:00P | TT The Bear’s Place w/ Bell & Sarah Rabdau | Cambridge, Massachusetts

May 1 2009 8:00P | Il Motore w/ La Strada | Montreal, Quebec

May 1 2009 8:00P | Il Motore w/ La Strada | Montreal, Quebec

May 2 2009 8:00P | The Drake Hotel w/ La Strada | Toronto, Ontario

May 4 2009 8:00P | Schubas w/ La Strada | Chicago, Illinois

May 5 2009 8:00P | Bear’s Place w/ La Strada | Bloomington, Indiana

May 6 2009 8:00P | The Southgate House w/ La Stada | Newport, Kentucky

May 7 2009 8:00P | The Rocket Club w/ La Strada | Asheville, North Carolina

May 8 2009 8:00P | Local 506 w/ La Strada | Chapel Hill, North Carolina

MP3: In Our Talons (I've played this song about 12 times a day for the last 4 days)

Ben Folds announces tour

Ben Folds is back on the road, for no specific reason that I know of, no new album coming soon, but it will still be fun. I've seen him six (?) times, I probably won't be able to make this one though.

Feb 22 2009	Valarium- Knoxville, TN
Feb 23 2009	Orange Peel- Asheville, NC
Feb 25 2009	Durham PAC- Durham, NC
Feb 26 2009	N. Charleston PAC- Charleston, SC
Feb 27 2009	Tabernacle- Atlanta, GA
Mar 1 2009	Ovens Aud.- Charlotte, NC
Mar 17 2009	Music Hall- Omaha, NE
Mar 18 2009	Val Air Ballroom- Des Moines, IA
Mar 19 2009	Eagles Ballroom- Milwaukee, WI
Mar 21 2009	Murat Theatre- Indianapolis, IN
Mar 26 2009	Wellmont Theatre- Montclair, NJ
Mar 27 2009	Boston College- Chestnut Hill, MA
Mar 30 2009	Univ of Mary Washington- Fredericksburg, VA

Wilco announces Milwaukee dates

Rejoice, Wisconsin! For Wilco is coming. Twice. They just announced two shows at the Pabst to kick off a few dates in the U.S. before going over to Spain.

Dates:

April 14th - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst
April 15th - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst
April 16th - Bloomington, IN
April 17th - Athens, OH
April 18th - Knoxville, TN
April 20th - Athens, GA
April 21 - Asheville, NC
April 22 - Birmingham, AL
April 23 - Oxford, MS
April 25 - New Orleans, LA
May 23 - Tenerife, Spain
May 25 - Malaga, Spain
May 26 - Madrid, Spain
May 29 - Seville, Spain
May 30 - Oporto-Braga, Spain
May 31 - Lisbon, Spain
June 1 - Santiago De Compestela-Galicia, Spain
June 3 - Donostia, San Sebastian, Spain
June 4 - Barcelona, Spain
June 11-14 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
July 22-25 - Detroit Lakes, MI - 10,000 Lakes Festival
August 21 - Erfurt-Hohenfelden, DE - Highfield Festival

Official site

What I Missed: Department of Eagles

What I Missed is a new series devoted to music from 2008 that I for whatever reason neglected to pay attention to until now. The first installment is dedicated to Department of Eagles, and their 2008 release In Ear Park. The band was formed in 2001 by Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear). You can probably connect the dots yourself, but what led me to this band is Rossen, as I love his work in Grizzly Bear so I quickly obtained what I could of his other projects. I don't usually fall in love with specific guitar tones, but Rossen's guitar in Grizzly Bear is one of a kind, and his vocals are the perfect compliment to lead man Ed Droste.

In Department of Eagles, Rossen takes on the lead role and it pays off very nicely. The music is very similar to Grizzly Bear, but In Ear Park has more melodic, theatrical qualities - taking the texture of Grizzly Bear and applying it to more conventional structures. There are more suite-like songs, with more specific sections and themes than in Grizzly Bear, and I think some songs reach more grandiose heights - a few songs have the tendency to start off quiet and suddenly lurch into a bigger, off-tilt section (Phantom Other, Classical Records).

Be sure to check out In Ear Park if you haven't already.

MP3: Phantom Other

Official website
Buy In Ear Park here

Grizzly Bear!! Cover art!! Tracklist!!

Big day for Grizzly Bear news. Above is the newly revealed cover of Veckatimest, to be released May 26 on Warp Records. And we have a tracklist!

01 Southern Point
02 Two Weeks
03 All We Ask
04 Fine for Now
05 Cheerleader
06 Dory
07 Ready, Able
08 About Face
09 Hold Still
10 While You Wait for the Others
11 I Live With You
12 Foreground

Thanks to Pitchfork for the info, who will have an interview with Ed Droste next week sometime.

Feist "1234" on Letterman

My recent Grizzly Bear kick led me back to this video -- Feist doing "1234" on Letterman back in 2007 with an indie all-star backing choir -- members of Grizzly Bear, the New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, The National, and Mates of State fill in behind Feist to add claps and backing vocals.

If this isn't one of the finest late-night performances ever, then I don't know what is.

And...yes, it was awesome

No words needed. Although, was it just Thom and Jonny? I didn't see the other guys.

Tonight - Radiohead at the Grammy Awards

Thanks to YANP for the tip - Entertainment Weekly posted about Radiohead's rehearsal for the show tonight -- they are performing "15 Step" with the USC Marching Band behind them. Sounds awesome.

From Entertainment Weekly:

“At 9 a.m. they did a rough run-through with crew and directors clustered on stage, after which Yorke politely asked, “Can you make my voice sound a little less shiny? I like the idea that I’ve got to belt it out over these guys, you see.” Between takes, he beatboxed a bit into the mic; the band kids sat on the risers and mostly just grinned in disbelief. Yorke wandered down to the lip of the orchestra pit and asked a nearby stage manager, “Is it okay if I stand here?” Sure, said the guy, “but just so you know” — he gestured to the floor beneath Thom’s feet — “this is a wall that comes out of the ground.” Thom took a step back. “All right! Here we go! Standby!” said another stage manager, and the wall did indeed come up. The band members stirred with excitement. A stand-in who was not Gwyneth Paltrow began reading the intro off the teleprompter, and by the time she got to “Nominated tonight for Album of the Year…” the wall had lowered again to reveal Thom making a my-head-is-exploding gesture to Jonny, I assume because even Thom Yorke still gets jazzed about the Grammys. And then a snare drummer in the front row counted things off, the bass players raised their sticks, and the awesomeness began.”

The Grammy Awards start at 8 pm ET on CBS.

Coldplay blogs about new album

Yeah, yeah, I know. You, my average Come On Chemicals reader, probably aren't the biggest Coldplay fan, rabid and eager to hear any new news of the 'Play (yeah, I did). Viva La Vida won me back a little bit, but I'm still bitter. But I saw that they put up a long blog about the new recordings, and there were some interesting tidbits. They're teaming up with Brian Eno again, which clearly can't hurt. I found these parts interesting:

"Regular readers will remember that whilst we were in Miami a couple of months ago, Chris spent some time in a studio putting down new song ideas. Well, for the past couple of weeks, the fellas and Brian Eno have been working their way through these sketches.

When I say "the fellas", there is one person notably absent from these sessions. Chris has been banned from the studio for these first two weeks. Now, before the rumour mill cranks its way excitedly into life, this does not indicate any kind of split in the camp. This is an experiment of Brian's (a phrase I feel I may have a hard time not over-using as the project progresses). Rather than have Chris's demo recordings come in fully-formed, leading the songs in a particular direction, Will, Guy and Jonny are constructing their own musical underpinning with little idea of what Chris had in mind. For many of the tracks, they hear nothing but the vocal track."

I like this kind of experimentation, so who knows, maybe something good will come out of it. But, let's get real here, it probably won't.

Read more at their website.

Live Bootleg: Grizzly Bear 8.14.08

Yes, I know, I just posted about Grizzly Bear, and I promised myself I'd wait for the next major update, but I just got this bootleg off of YANP, and it's just too good to keep to myself. A high-quality live recording, this is from a show in Boston, and it has 4 of the new songs on it - "2 Hud", "Fine for Now", "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others." This is one of the better live bootlegs I've heard, so check it out.

ZIP: Grizzly Bear 8.14.08 (98 MB)

New Coldplay b-side

Thanks to Stereogum for this one. Drummer Will Champion takes some vocals on this one - "The Goldrush"

Bonnaroo lineup announced

I do declare, it looks rather good. If only I had the money.


Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish (2 Shows)
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello Solo
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov’t Mule
Andrew Bird
Band Of Horses
Merle Haggard
MGMT
moe.
The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon Iver
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury Band
of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed and Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez
Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under the Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal. The Man.
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross