Bonnaroo 2010, Part 2: Friday & Saturday
Friday kicked off with an acoustic set by Dr. Dog — a good start to any day. O&B favorites Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros put on a standout performance that had the entire crowd singing and foot-stomping along to “Home.” Unfortunately, their set was unusually short — clocking in at just over half an hour.
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Review: The National; May 23, 2010; Spreckels, San Diego
Photos by Natalie Kardos
It’s official: The National are a great band.
The Cincinnati group’s newly released LP, High Violet, is their third stellar album in a row, completing the astonishing trilogy they began with 2005′s Alligator and 2007′s Boxer. Like those records, High Violet finds the band in peak form, maintaining a calculated mastery of their material that begins when the needle drops and doesn’t let up until the final track fades away. Continue reading…
Social Studies to Teach San Diego a Lesson
The National show at Spreckels is over. The Frightened Rabbit has scurried away. Shout Out Louds are feeling hoarse and Freelance Whales — well, they’ll be back on Tuesday — but not until then.
Enter keyboard-driven San Franciscans Social Studies, who will play San Diego’s Soda Bar tonight. Their sound — something between St. Vincent and Fiery Furnaces — should be the perfect cure for your weekend concert comedown. Continue reading…
Poetic Memory: Red Wire Black Wire (List)
Red Wire Black Wire are originally from Connecticut but now call the hip streets of Brooklyn their home.
Drawing from a palette of new wave influences that includes Depeche Mode and The Human League, the six-piece use synth-heavy, melancholic rock songs to paint a surrealistic picture of life in the big city. The success of their first LP, Robots and Roses, has helped the band build up a solid fan base in New York. Red Wire Black Wire are currently preparing an as-yet-untitled EP of remixes and B-sides for release this year.
Lead singer Doug Walters recently gave us a peek at the music that has shaped his band’s sound. His Poetic Memory is below. Continue reading…
Fanfarlo to Open ‘Reservoir’ 11/24 at the Casbah
Does anyone remember an album called Funeral, released by a then-unknown band called Arcade Fire? I know you’re racking your brain to remember. Do you remember how you felt when you first heard it? The sheer jubilation you enjoyed when the anthemic chorus erupted and subsided, sending chills down your spine? Some might say this is a stretch, but I experienced that once again listening to the album Reservoir, by yet another unknown band named Fanfarlo. (more…)
San Diego Street Scene Releases Schedule
^^ TV On The Radio ^^
The showtimes for next week’s massive Street Scene festival have been released. People with great taste will have the agonizing task of choosing between staying at The New Pornographers’ show or defecting to TV On The Radio halfway through, and dance fans will have to choose between MGMT and Hot Chip, but for the most part things are spread out pretty well. The festivities start one week from today, so be sure to snatch up some tickets if you haven’t done so already.
Showtimes after the jump:
San Diego Street Scene Lookin’ Awfully Pretty
For the scant few who haven’t heard yet, San Diego’s annual Street Scene festival will once again be rearing its enormous head on September 19th and 20th.
The colossal all-ages event brings a whopping forty bands on four stages to downtown San Diego, including Beck, Spoon, TV On The Radio, MGMT, The New Pornographers, The National, Cold War Kids, Justice, X, and longtime Owl&Bear favorites/interviewees Man Man. And for anybody who feels overwhelmed by the sheer number of great bands performing and would like to introduce a little suckiness into their diet—and would like that suckiness to sound like Paul Simon vomiting—have no fear, because Vampire Weekend will also be performing.
Owl and Bear’s Top 20 Albums of 2007
Owl and Bear writers’ favorite albums of 2007.
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