- Fleet Foxes are dominating the interwebs. Stereogum offered its praise, and Pitchfork put up a few videos on P4kTV. I prefer some home movies shot at Schuba’s:
- Howie Day is doing okay, if this performance from mid-July is any indication. Hopefully the new album is a bit of a return to form for him:
- As predicted, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals announced a small fall tour with nods to a new album due out “at some point” during the fall. I’m catching them at the BofA pavilion in Boston, but you should try to see them at one of the more obscure venues.
Also, in case you were wondering, Ryan is still culturally relevant and alive:
Regardless of varied judgments as to my cultural relevance, i am thankfully alive and exercising my joy in creating. i only hope anyone who hears, reads or sees any of my contributions will permit the work to speak where i cannot.
via the dot com
Dear Chicago – Ryan Adams & the Cardinals (7/29/07, Chicago Theater via archive.org)
- Sasha Frere-Jones has a piece in this week’s New Yorker with a near-perfect subtitle: “Coldplay’s expanding gas.” Settling comfortably somewhere between cautious praise and exhaustion, Mr. Frere-Jones hits Chris Martin and cohorts square on the head when he reflects on the band’s recent free concert at Madison Square Garden:
There Martin was, onstage in his Little Bummer Boy outfit, skipping around and waving his fists. Except the crowd wasn’t going wild, and the music wasn’t calling for a celebration. Though the audience was obviously delighted to see Coldplay appear, the energy in the room remained fairly controlled throughout the set, even dipping to indifference at points. Which made Martin’s moves seem that much more canned. It felt as if he’d done the entire show in a mirror, down to the self-deprecating wisecracks. In one of his increasingly suspect apologies, Martin told his American fans, “We come over here, we steal your women.” That’s right. If anyone in the audience had forgotten, Chris Martin is married to an actress named Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s American. Maybe you’ve heard of her. No? Well, did you know that “Viva la Vida” went to No. 1? No? It’s O.K.—Martin told us, by way of thanking us.
No, dude, thank you.
- Daytrotter has an interview with and the requisite perfect performance from Bon Iver. Please read and listen. Here’s a bit of their praise for Justin’s work:
If you hang a dirty, stinky shirt or pair of pants in a closet for long enough, they don’t stink anymore. It’s the same principle – in a way – that’s incorporated into the touching and heartrending work that Vernon wrote and recorded for For Emma, Forever Ago, a record that is as stunning in its natural grace and shape as any that’s come into this world in the last five years, maybe longer.
Also in the New York Times.
