popwreckoning

Check out Brendan Benson’s new music video for the track “A Whole Lot Better.” It’s a psychotropic three and a half minute performance video that makes very cool use of a kaleidoscope effect and really emphasizes Brendan’s high energy live show. It also features his touring band-mates Brad Pemberton on drums (Ryan Adams), Jared Reynolds on bass (Ben Folds) and Mark Watrous on guitar and keys (The Raconteurs).

Brendan Benson: website | myspace | My Old, Familiar Friend review

It seems Zee Avi has outgrown the First Unitarian Church’s Chapel. I can attest to the because, despite having the 9:30 show cancelled after the 7:30 show sold out (9:30 tickets were honored at 7:30), I arrived just ten minutes after doors and was forced to sit on the chapel’s stone floor as all the pews were packed. Sitting on the floor isn’t a complaint — I’d lay on a bed of nails if that’s what it took to have to see Zee perform — but, listen up R5 Productions, I’d like to recommend either keeping the second show or moving down the basement next time.

It was a nice surprise when Philadelphia locals The Mural and the Mint took stage to open for Zee; I’d been expecting Patrick Keeler (Zee’s drummer, whom you may remember from such bands as The Greenhornes and The Raconteurs) to open, which, sure, had confused me because he’s a drummer, but I’d merely misread an email. It was a delight to have the no-frills native indie pop quartet grace the pulpit providing catchy hooks with the occasional lapse into cacophony. If front man Michael Kiley’s use of the ukulele isn’t enough to win you over (it should be), you can’t not love that The Mural and the Mint gives away all of their music for free. Head over to the band’s official page to score their debut record, Private Pockets, for nothing more than a suggested donation. Catch The Mural and the Mint on MySpace to sample some tunes and, if you like what you hear, please do donate even a small something so they can continue to make beautiful, sincere music.

A short standing intermission was rather welcomed during the set change as lower extremities took to falling asleep as my concert companions and I sat on the floor, but we were excited for Zee to take the stage. She was greeted with a burst of applause upon taking her seat on the pulpit. The set started off with some technical difficulties for her bassist which was more than worth the wait when the heavy, jazzy thumping finally resounded through the amp. With the voice of an angel, if you believe in such things, Zee kicked off the set with the jazzy “Poppy,” a eulogy about the deadly results of opium use; “My baby he don’t act like himself no more: / He lost that smile I use to adore. / He spend his nights slapping his veins / He lost that glow he used to have on his face.”

After a heartfelt cover of Interpol’s “Slow Hands,” the set took on a joyful tone as Zee performed “The Traveler,” a hook-filled song which she’s only performed live. “I Am Me Once More” brought back that beautiful jazz sound Zee excels at before she teased the crowd about performing “Honey Bee,” her only love song and crowd favorite. There’s so much beauty in the seeming simplicity about a bee rescuing its love from the mindless drones of the beehive: “Oh my darling honey bee / I’ll come save you / Even if it means I’ll have to face the queen.”

The remainder of the set was largely a party with a musical triumvirate of single “Bitter Heart” preceding “Just You & Me” and the Manglish (= Malaysian + English) “Kantoi.” “Kantoi,” Malaysian for “busted,” is a fantastically poppy song despite its unsettling subject matter of a woman catching her boyfriend cheating on her, but it’s not so bad since she was cheating on him, too. Ah, love.

Discontent with a short eight song set, the crowd demanded another from the petite Malaysian songbird. Fortunately, she obliged and played a song that has been stuck in my head going on three days, Morrissey’s “First of the Gang.” It needn’t be said that Moz is a legend and while he doesn’t have a reputation for being the sweetest fella, I can’t imagine he’d be at all mad at Zee’s sweet, delicate vocals doing eons of justice to this 2004 hit track. Taking another cue from Morrissey, Zee performed this as her solo encore song as Moz did at the end of many of his shows during his 2009 Tour of Refusal.

Last night, Zee Avi stole our hearts away.

Set List:
Poppy
Slow Hands (Interpol)
The Traveler
I Am Me Once More
Honey Bee
Bitter Heart
Just You & Me
Kantoi
//
First of the Gang (Morrissey)

Head over to Popwreckoning’s YouTube page to catch some footage of Zee during her previous stop through Philadelphia.

Zee Avi: website | myspace | @ webster hall
The Mural and the Mint: website | myspace

Chicago and Nashville-based Andrew Belle is a true working musician, playing a weekly gig at the famed Rockit club in Chi-town. Playing a mix of covers and original songs, Andrew finds his own unique voice in the songs. Here, we’ve got Andrew’s rendition of Bright Eyes‘ “First Day of My Life,” with more original and re-interpreted covers to come with the upcoming release of Sundays at Rockit.

Andrew Belle – “First Day of My Life” (Bright Eyes)

You may recognize Andrew’s voice from songs off his debut EP All Those Pretty Lights which were featured on TV and received nationwide airplay, including love from KCRW. Belle is now completing his debut LP, The Ladder, with Grammy award winning mixing engineer Vance Powell (The Raconteurs).

Fellow bloggers Saving the Set List say of Belle: “The first time I listened to singer/songwriter Andrew Belle I knew immediately that this guy was something special. His lyrics, his voice, and his hooks all work together to form something truly enjoyable and noticeably unique.”

Andrew will be playing some of his new songs when he hits the road (dates below) with Ten Out of Tenn, a diverse and unique community of artists making organic pop music in the shadows of Nashville’s slick commercial country music industry on the road supporting each other every night!

Tour Dates:
Sept 17 – Square Room / Knoxville
Sept 18 – Workplay / Birmingham
Sept 19 – Chelsea’s / Baton Rouge
Sept 20 – House of Blues / New Orleans
Sept 22 – Orange Peel / Asheville, NC
Sept 23 – Eddie’s Attic / Atlanta
Sept 24 – Visulite / Charlotte
Sept 25 - The Hat Factory / Richmond, Va.
Sept 26 – Iota / Arlington
Sept 27 – World Cafe Live / Philadelphia
Sept 29 – Cafe 939 / Boston
Sept 30 – Canal Room / New York City
Oct 02 – Grog Shop / Cleveland
Oct 03 – The Basement / Columbus
Oct 04 – Schubas / Chicago
Oct 05 – Radio Radio / Indianapolis
Oct 06 – Southgate House / Cincinnati
Oct 07 – Cannery Ballroom / Nashville

Andrew Belle: myspace

Brendan Benson. Jack White. Raconteurs. Fame. So now that’s out of the way. On his fourth solo album, Benson continues trying to escape cult hero status and graduate to indie (if not mainstream) stardom on his own terms, evident in his choice employment of producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Echo and The Bunnymen, but also Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional) to give him his most accessible sound yet. But asides from MOFF sounding noticeably smoother than his previous work, it’s business as usual for Benson, who once again crafts a resounding batch of retro-spectable pop nuggets, second only to his work on 2002’s Lapalco.

Chunky power-chords. Witty rhymes. Stylistic homage. That’s the broken down formula for all of Benson’s solo work. The title of the album is most likely a self-conscious Benson admitting that his music is not riding any waves or cutting edges, but that its merit lies in its simple, familiar but enduring quality. And the closer to familiarity Benson gets, the more comfortable he often seems. Opener “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” of course steals its title and chorus line from the classic Byrds song of the same name, but stylistically is a punk-y rush with big Cheap Trick-style chord smacks and subtle, placed use of Terry Riley-by-way-of-The Who synthesizer swirls. “Garbage Day” unabashedly nicks its dramatic string section from the back-pages of Motown, marrying it to a song with a metaphor so tongue in cheek (“And if she throws her heart away/I’ll be there on garbage day”) that it nearly comes off as parody. The song still manages to stand as one of the album’s highlights, with its re-imagining of a classic sound giving Benson focus while not restricting him from adding modern touches line a bobbing synth line towards the song’s end.

Hooks. Hooks. Hooks. Even in songs like the Posies-esque “Eyes On The Horizon” and the funhouse-mirrored “Feel Like Taking You Home” that begin with the softest and most formulaic riffs and rhythms, Benson is never at a loss at working in a chorus or development that redeems the song through it’s sheer mathematical “poppy-ness.” At times though, because his craftsmanship is so honed in the accepted pop tradition, his choice of changes come as overly familiar and too cushiony (talking to you, “Lesson Learned”). This weakness in Benson’s writing was responsible for seriously marring his 2005 album The Alternative To Love, though its reigned in for the most part on MOFF.

Brendan Benson – “Feel Like Taking You Home”

Brendan Benson vs. Jack White. For some reason, White Stripes vinyl has become ridiculously expensive. I have a copy of Elephant that I bought probably in 04/05 for something like $16.99. If you’re looking to grab a copy of the same album on vinyl today, you’re going to be paying over $30.00. Why? Because White has fashioned his albums so stylishly and differently from one to the next, they emanate dead sexy cool with all that red, white and black. Benson’s albums are not dead sexy cool, but friendly, familiar and reliable. If Jack White were your badass rockstar boyfriend, Brendan Benson would be the good friend that you tell all your secrets to. You might not feel any passion for him, but it’s sure nice to have him around.

My Old, Familiar Friend is available now from ATO Records.

Brendan Benson: website | myspace

For anyone who has been a rock n’ roll fan for all their lives, favoring the guitar as their instrument of choice, rocking out on the couch with an air guitar or closely touching stardom as a Guitar Hero, It Might Get Loud offers an exceptional and behind the scenes look at the electric guitar and how it has been held, shaped and molded by three prominent musicians of the past thirty years.

It Might Get Loud is a rock doc showcasing the electric guitar in the hands of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and The White Stripes/The Raconteurs/Dead Weather’s Jack White, and how each has utilized the instrument to shape the sound of their bands and define the use of the instrument as the centerpiece of rock. The title comes from a moment in the film where The Edge is about to shred some licks, warning us that “it might get loud for a second.”

Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim does an excellent job in keeping the story far removed from the history of the bands and their prominence in rock lore; i.e. he avoids the sex, drugs, history, the Robert Plants and the Bonos and focuses solely on the three featured musicians and their personal histories with the guitar, what inspired them and how they came to define their respective signature styles.

The film is centered around a small, unscripted summit that takes place on a sound stage in Los Angeles, where The Edge, White and Page three musicians meet together for the first time for a very cool jam session, showcasing their talents and spontaneity, all the while throwing back and forth chatter about how they develop ideas and discussing how they created guitar riffs for some of their classic songs. Each immediately falls into their appropriates space in history: Jimmy Page is clearly the Rock God and the most proficient, the idol to the other two; The Edge takes his spot as the ever creative sideman; and Jack White is the brash young new comer trying to prove himself, evidenced by an early statement of his in the film, “I’m basically going to trick them into teaching me all their tricks.” The doc also branches out into side chapters, focusing on the story of each musician, their beginnings and growth and how they manipulate the guitar to do what they want it to do.

Jimmy Page is the soft-spoken, English gentleman, distinguished and charming in his dialogue and demeanor. He takes us through his beginnings as an extensive and highly coveted studio guitarist, his start in The Yardbirds and finally his development in Led Zeppelin. We are given insight into his self taught hard rock techniques, a tour of his record collection and the sounds that inspired him as he sings a long to some of his favorite songs and air guitars the licks. We are then blessed with a tour of the country house in which the legendary Led Zeppelin IV was recorded followed by an impromptu version of “The Battle of Evermore” on his mandolin.

The Edge takes us back to U2’s roots through a tour of their old school, the room in which they practiced, and the concrete slab outside where they played one of their first shows. We then visit his studio littered with effects electronics, laptops, showing us just how he is truly a sonic effects architect, as Page describes him. He makes a poignant note in the film that is otherwise lacking in the documentary. He plays an incredible U2 anthem riff, and then unplugs everything to show that the actual riff is in fact bare bones, uninspiring and hardly worth note. It highlights exactly how he is able to turn that basic sound into something incredible, which shows why a guitarist himself is responsible for the sound on his instrument.

Jack White’s story takes us back to his Tennessee roots, how he prefers minimalism and despises the use of technology on such an instrument, all the while showing us that you need not more than a piece of wood, some wire, nails and a coke bottle to make an electric guitar. His intensity is displayed in concert footage whereby he strums the hell out of his guitar so hard that his hands bleed, red pouring all over his six string, while he continues to passionately drive the wires till the end of the tune.

The highlight of the film is the summit where the three meet, discuss and play and we note the personalities of all. Page steals the spotlight with his character and ability to play the guitar as an extension of himself, effortless, as if it’s another arm. The Edge is the modest instrumentalist, while White is the most aggressive bundled with the most attitude and urgency to show his worth. A smile inducing moment is that no matter how successful and prolific The Edge and White may be, when Page starts ripping out “Whole Lotta Love”, the other two grin like little boys, awe inspired by the Guitar God they have always idolized.

The film succeeds aesthetically as well, from featuring old concert footage, photos, and amazing close ups of various guitars, at smooth angles and vibrant colors, dents and bruises of love and use, broken strings and shining perspiration. It Might Get Loud is a light and insightful look at the electric guitar from three of it’s greatest handlers, that any rock aficionado or musician alike will take pleasure in.

Watch the trailer:

It Might Get Loud opens tomorrow, Friday, August 14, 2009.

It Might Get Loud: website | show times

For the longest time, I missed the boat on getting into The White Stripes until a year or so ago, but I came to rather love Jack White’s first side project, The Raconteurs, from the get go.  Their two albums demanded quite a bit of spins in my truck on late nights driving around town. Suffice to say when White announced this next project, The Dead Weather, I was rather curious and excited considering the lineup of this new band consisted of Alison Mosshart of The Kills, guitarist Dean Fertita from Queens of The Stone Age and Jack Lawrence, also of The Raconteurs.

With this new-found super group, expectations were high and the band does not disappoint. Vocal responsibilities fall on the shoulders of Mosshart who, as a part of The Kills, opened for The Raconteurs and filled in for White on a few dates last year when he was told to rest his voice.

After the conclusion of the tour and the spark of such chemistry, Mosshart and White got together with Lawrence and Fertita and booked some studio time to lay down a few demos. With the recording process being so fruitful, they decided to make it a full album and after three weeks in the studio with White behind the boards, Horehound was born. Mosshart’s voice on this record is full of soul, sex and grit, perfectly complimenting the band’s sound which shifts from blues to 70’s fuzz rock without a hitch.  After this release, which will go down as one of my favorites from 2009, I can only hope that this project was not a one-time deal and that more from The Dead Weather is still to come.

Horehound is available now.

The Dead Weather: website | myspace | listening parties & tour dates

The Dead Weather is a new alt-rock supergroup consisting of vocalist Alison Mosshart (the Kills), guitarist Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), bassist Jack Lawrence (the Raconteurs), and drummer/vocalist Jack White (of both the White Stripes and the Raconteurs). The band played several shows last month, including gigs at Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre and London’s Boston Music Room, to rave reviews. They also made a surprise appearance at the Glastonbury Music Festival on June 26.

Now the band is inviting fans to attend a listening party for their debut album, Horehound, at the following selected locations and times during the month of July. Horehound will be released July 13 in the UK and July 14 in the States. Starting in Washington D.C. on July 13, the Dead Weather will be on tour throughout North America the rest of this summer in support of the new album. They will also be appearing at the Austin City Limits Festival in October.

Listening party dates
Jul 6: Comet Tavern / Seattle, WA (@ 7 PM)
Jul 8: Numbers / Houston (@ 10 PM)
Jul 9: Thom Bar / New York City (@ 10 PM)
Jul 10: Ruby Room / Phoenix (@ 9 PM)
Jul 10: La Rumba / Denver (@ 9 PM)
Jul 11: Ravari Room / Columbus (@ 9 PM)
Jul 11: Stable Loft / St. Louis (@ 9 PM)
Jul 11: Rogue Bar / Phoenix (@ 9 PM)
Jul 11: Eclipse / Jacksonville (@ 10 PM)
Jul 11: Stanton Public / New York City (@ 10 PM)
Jul 12: Castle / Tampa (@ 9 PM)
Jul 14: Beauty Bar / Los Angeles (@ 10 PM)
Jul 14: Old Ironsides / Sacramento (@ 9 PM)
Jul 14: Propaganda / West Palm Beach (@ 9 PM)
Jul 14: Angels & Kings / New York City (@ 10 PM)
Jul 15: Clubhouse Jager / Minneapolis (@ 10 PM)
Jul 16: Popscene / San Francisco (@ 10 PM)
Jul 18: Ruby / Los Angeles (@ 10 PM)
Jul 18: Donhills / New York City (@ 10 PM)
Jul 27: Darkroom / Chicago (@ 9 PM)

Tour dates
Jul 13 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC
Jul 14 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC
Jul 16 – Terminal 5 / New York City
Jul 17 – Terminal 5 / New York City
Jul 18 – House of Blues / Boston
Jul 19 – Ottawa Blues Festival / Ottawa
Jul 21 – Olympia De Montreal / Montreal
Jul 22 – Kool Haus / Toronto
Jul 24 – Fillmore / Detroit
Jul 25 – LC Pavilion / Columbus
Jul 27 – First Avenue / Minneapolis
Jul 28 – Vic Theatre / Chicago
Jul 29 – Vic Theatre / Chicago
Jul 30 – War Memorial Auditorium / Nashville
Aug 17 – Ogden Theatre / Denver
Aug 18 – Depot / Salt Lake City
Aug 20 – Paramount Theatre / Seattle
Aug 21 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver
Aug 22 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver
Aug 23 – Roseland Theater / Portland
Aug 25 – Wiltern / Los Angeles
Aug 27 – Glasshouse / Pomona
Aug 29 – Street Scene / San Diego
Aug 30 – Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival / San Francisco
Oct 2-4 – Austin City Limits Music Festival / Austin

The Dead Weather: website

After relentlessly touring KC multiple times over the past year, Bethany finally caught up with Alt rockers Anberlin. Guitarist Christian McAlhaney, formerly of Acceptance, filled PopWreckoning in on life on the road and at a major label.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: You guys are one of the most popular alternative bands now, but it wasn’t always that way. What were some of the challenges of breaking into mainstream?
Christian McAlhaney, Anberlin: It is endless. Anberlin has been a band…some of these guys have been playing together for ten years. So anywhere from starting from zero and playing in front of absolutely nobody to touring in a small, cruddy van that doesn’t work to going to a Taco Bell and having just $10 to feed everybody and that kind of stuff, every step there were more and more challenges. I feel like we’ve been very blessed where there has always been a forward momentum and progression, you know what I mean? It is the same challenges that most bands that have been bands for a long time have to face.

PW: You used to play in another group that I really liked called Acceptance, what was it like coming over to Anberlin and do you ever miss Acceptance?
CM: It was a pretty seamless transition because Acceptance was very similar to Anberlin, just in the kind of music that we wrote and the kind of guys that we were. Just the way we looked at touring and the way we looked at life. Anberlin and Acceptance had a lot in common, we even toured together. I actually met them a long time ago and long before we toured with them. It was simple. Even as a songwriter, I didn’t have to change or anything and I kept writing the same kinds of songs that I was writing for Acceptance for Anberlin. I miss some of the, I miss the guys from Acceptance. It was an awesome part of my life, but I’m happier now than I was then. It was just tough for Acceptance. We had a lot of things that went wrong when we signed to a major label and that was just frustrating and it was a really dark time for the band. Just the other day in Milwaukee, I saw our drummer, he lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I’ll probably see the guitar player, Kaylan [Cloyd] in Seattle, and probably our old bass player Ryan [Zwiefelhofer]. Kyle [Flynn], who plays keyboards for Anberlin, also played in Acceptance, so it is good to have one of my good friends touring with Anberlin as well.

PW: You touched on the major label thing and Anberlin just released New Surrender on a major label. That was also the first for a lot of things: 1st without Aaron Sprinkle and on Universal. What did you think of that whole process after just coming from the Acceptance deal?
CM: When I joined Anberlin, they had just finished Cities. I toured for the first tour after they finished Cities and they let me know that they had been talking to major labels and at the time I was like, “Nooooo! You guys don’t know what you’re getting in to.” Even with what happened with Acceptance, that wasn’t all the major label’s fault. That was the time when record sales were really going down and internet downloading was really on the rise and they didn’t know what to do and people were trying to keep their jobs. Nobody wanted to be the one that took a risk that may have been a bad choice and lost their jobs, so it wasn’t necessarily all the label’s fault. Basically, everything that could have gone wrong for Acceptance went wrong with our label and it was kind of everybody’s fault: the band, the management and the label. So, I was a little leery, signing to another major, but with Universal, it has been completely different. You can tell, I mean there were a lot of jabtalkers in the industry, people in the industry that you knew were just full of crap and would just say these catchphrases and you’d be like, “What does that mean?” And they would say, “You’re a priority at the label,” and when you ask, “What does that mean?” They’d say, “I don’t know, that’s a good question.” So I’m like, “You said it. Don’t just blow hot air up my skirt.” You know what I mean? With Universal, the people we met at Universal were straightshooters and music fans. You find that there is always this stigma like “Ooh, big evil music label,” but you’ll find that most of the people that work at major labels are all the biggest music fans. After Acceptance, I could have gotten into the music industry doing that kind of stuff. I am just a dude that loves music and most of those people just love music, too. It is hard to combine art and business whether it is a major label or an indie label. Some of the crummiest things I have ever heard of have been indie labels screwing bands more so than majors. Universal has been great. Obviously, one of the main reasons we signed to a major label was that we knew they were good with radio. They had a good relationship with radio, whereas Tooth and Nail, didn’t necessarily have a relationship. They took “Feel Good Drag,” a song that was on a Tooth and Nail record and wasn’t even a single, they took that song and got it to number 1 on alternative radio. They got it to that platform and then people took it to number 1.
PW: It definitely has gotten a lot of play here in Kansas City.
CM: Yeah, it has been completely amazing for us. We can’t even believe it.

PW: Talking about “Feel Good Drag,” I notice some similarities between the chorus, musically at least, of that and another single, “Paperthin Hymns.” Was that intentional at all like as an homage or just a coincidence?
CM: I am probably the wrong one to ask because I didn’t write either of those songs, but I know that as a songwriter there are only 12 notes in a scale, so you find yourself stealing from yourself a lot.
PW: I had heard that sometimes as a band, you like to do tricks like that and I had a friend who had that would be within your all’s character to do something like that and reuse lyrics or passages.
CM: Oh yeah, totally, reuse lyrics or reference past record’s lyrics. One time Joey [Milligan] wrote a song that was basically the same chords of…What’s the first song off of Blueprints for the Black Market? “Readyfuels?” and he just reversed the chords and that was another song. So instead of whatever going this way, it was going the other way, you know? As a songwriter, you know where Stephen [Christian]’s sweet spot is and you know what chords and chord arrangements are proven for where his voice sounds really great. A lot of our songs have a lot of the same chords, but are just done a little differently, I guess.

PW: How difficult is it to translate that into, like I saw you play acoustic today, how difficult is it to transition your songs into that format?
CM: It depends. Some songs are harder than others. Like when you have a really heavy song like “Feel Good Drag,” for example, we just recently recorded an acoustic version of it. Originally when it was a single we were like, “Ugh, how are we going to play this acoustic,” because that is what people want to hear. Like when you go into a radio station and play acoustic, they’re going to want to hear the single, you know what I mean? Some songs translate a lot better than others and you know beforehand what is going to sound good acoustic and what is not.
PW: It sounded great acoustic.

Caitlin, PopWreckoning: On that note, any chance we’ll see an acoustic album any time soon? You guys sounded great today that way.
CM: We haven’t talked about it. But thank you. I’m not opposed to it at all.

PW: I know Stephen is kind of working on a side project called Anchor and Braille. Do the rest of you have any other side projects in the works or what will you do while he is doing that?
CM: That record is coming out next month, I think, the beginning of next month on his own label. He actually has his own label that it is being distributed through Universal. He is doing a tour, I think with Copeland, when we’re not touring. So he always puts Anberlin as priority number one. We’re going to have a month off after this tour, but I think that’s not conflicting at all. Side projects…Kyle, the keyboard player, and I, when Acceptance broke up, we both moved to LA and started a new band with the drummer from Acceptance. We were kind of writing songs and doing stuff. We’ll probably finish that and maybe release an EP like a thing like Stephen did and do our own label and release whatever. There are songs that I genuinely wouldn’t have used for Anberlin. Anything I write and I know would be good for Anberlin, I use for Anberlin. These were songs that aren’t really in Anberlin’s genre really.

PW: I know you guys do a lot of humanitarian work. Is there a project right now that you want to draw attention to?
CM: Stephen is really involved with Faceless. We support, I am always for any humanitarian thing. My sister, right now, she’s applied to do the Human Justice Mission, I think. They try to stop human trafficking. I guess it is really famous. My parents were trying to tell me about it. I guess there is like a whole CNN or something on it. We are all really for that kind of stuff. I would love to get to a point where if we were big enough and in a city for more than 12 hours, or however long we are in a city for, to like get kids involved and go to a shelter or soup kitchen and get fans and kids involved locally. A lot of times, people think I could never go to South America or that’s too much or that’s too big. Every place that people live there are people in need. I am always for that kind of stuff. It is out there if you look for it. There are a million different non-profits and that kind of stuff.

PW: Cool. You guys released a video called “Compound Lockdown,” which kind of was described as a response to people calling you sell-outs. Is there even a such thing as a sell-out anymore in today’s industry and why did you make that video?
CM: It wasn’t necessarily a response, it was just we were on Warped Tour and there was a tour bus on there called the John Lennon bus and it has a recording studio on there and all this different video editing stuff and they would have different bands come on there and they would do a day in the life. And we had this idea and we were like, everybody from Warped Tour that goes on there, their day is exactly the same. It is like, we got up, we’re going to catering, every day is the same and it wasn’t different. So they were encouraging if you guys have ideas or interesting content like recording a cover song, whatever. When recording Cities, they had extra time and Joey made all those beats and they all wrote fake raps just to be funny. So we were like, “We have all these songs. It would be funny to make a parody of a rap video.”
PW: It was really funny.
CM: It is funny because now there are so many scene bands coming out now where there is like “Scene rap” and I won’t name any names, but it was funny because we were making a big joke out of it and these people are serious about it. We were like “Really? OK. Awesome.”
PW: Yeah, it is weird. I would go to house parties in Omaha and every weekend they would have designated rap night and it was at a scene house that used to be famous for Saddle Creek and those sorts of bands, but now it is scene rap and they take it very seriously.
CM: Yeah, for us it was just something fun to do and we had it, so as for if there is a sell out…I think anytime somebody compromises their plan or integrity from when they started out to make money, that is selling out. I am not against band’s progressing or having one song sell for 20 years, but still.

PW: OK. That makes sense. We are getting kind of close to the 15 minute cut-off mark when your manager was coming back.
CM: He’ll be lenient.
PW: Haha, well for a final question to wrap it up, are there any up and coming bands you want people to know about?
CM: Hmm. What to say that nobody would know of?
Enter manager.
Manager: Hey.
CM: What is an up and coming band that we should tell people about?
M: An up and coming band?
CM: Yeah.
M: Nevershoutnever. Haha.
CM: Ugh.
PW: They’re from Missouri.
M: Sorry. I don’t have any, I’m a tour manager.
CM: My friends have a band in Seattle. The Shim. They’re awesome. They sound like Queens of the Stone Age or the Raconteurs. They rock and are awesome. They picked that name, they didn’t know what Shim was and what it meant and somebody told them and they were like, “That’s not what it means.” One of Kyle’s best friends is the bass player. So good live. Thunder Thunder. That’s Kyle and I’s side project. Tycho Brahe. Like the astronomer. My friend has a band in San Diego called Watch Us Burn and they’re pretty good and that’s a good friend of mine.

PW: Oh and before I forget, I’m supposed to name drop Dayna of Big Picture Media. What’s it been like working with Dayna?
CM: We just started. You are the second interview we’ve done through her. But she’s awesome, though.
CM: She’s great. Best publicist I’ve ever had.
PW: She has always been really good to us. Well, thank you so much.
CM: Of course. Thank you.

Anberlin: website | myspace | @ city market

Today sees the launch of Bonnaroo 365 on Bonnaroo.com, a program by which fans can relive the festival experience year round. Throughout the year, select performers from Bonnaroo 2008 will be streaming at no charge for fans worldwide to see for the first time or for those who were at the Manchester, Tennessee festival to re-live. All performance footage will be taken directly from the festival’s exclusive master tapes while the audio will be remixed from the festival’s pristine soundboard recordings.

The debut installment of the program launches today with The Raconteurs, whose furious and blistering Friday afternoon set is viewed as among the best of the 2008 event. Four of the songs will be available as free audio downloads – one will be available to everyone, while the other three can be downloaded by Bonnaroo Community members only (membership sign-up is free). The songs that will be available are: “Consoler Of The Lonely”, “Old Enough”, “Blue Veins” and “Top Yourself”. To coincide with the launch, select radio stations across the country will broadcast the entire set on Sunday, January 11th 2009. A set list and full list of stations is below.

This year’s Bonnaroo festival will take place June 11 – 14, 2009 on the same beautiful, 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville. The initial artist lineup for this year’s festival will be announced on February 3rd.

Set List:
Consoler of the Lonely
Hold Up
The Switch and the Spur
You Don’t Understand Me
Top Yourself
Old Enough
Store Bought Bones
Steady, As She Goes
Rich Kid Blues
Blue Veins
\\
Many Shades of Black
Level
Salute Your Solution
Broken Boy Soldier
Carolina Drama

The following radio stations will be broadcasting the Raconteur’s Bonnaroo 2008 set today:
KUFO-FM (Portland)
WXRT-FM (Chicago)
WZGC-FM (Atlanta)
WKRK-FM (Cleveland)
WPBZ-FM (West Palm Beach)
WRXP-FM (New York City)

The Raconteurs: website | myspace | @ uptown theater | @ lollapalooza 2008 | @ treasure island fest 2008 | @ austin city limits 2008 | live from bonnaroo dvd

Photo: Nick Davis

The end of the year always and never without fail means lists and lists of the best and worst that happened the previous 12 months. Everyone gets into it and thus, Popwreckoning can’t go without some lists of its own. First, and perhaps the most important, comes the list of 2008’s Best Albums. We had a couple ties so we’re going with more than the traditional Top Ten.

01. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
An overwhelming majority to say the least! Out very early in the year and still going strong. Check out our interview with MGMT!

02. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
A not too distant second, definitely another PW favorite!

03. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
Definitely deserving of a top 3 spot.

04. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Probably the buzziest band of the year.

05. She & Him – Volume One
Our love of both Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward knows no bounds.

05. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Another one of the most buzzed about bands this year.

06. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Classic. Amazing. Never any doubt they’d show up here, only thought they’d be higher up on the list.

tie 07. Beck - Modern Guilt
Another classic that we knew would make an appearance here.

tie 07. Santogold - Santogold
Santogold, destination Buzztown. Homegirl was all over the place.

08. The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
Popwreckoning’s Kansas City contingent is more gaga over these guys, and with good reason!

09. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
Both a fan of the album and the remixes.

10. The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Another solid act great on record and live. Check out our interview with front man Brandon Summers.

Runners Up:
Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell
Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger
Thao w/ the Get Down Stay Down – We Brave Bee Stings and All
The New Frontiers – Mending
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
Kings Of Leon – Only By the Night
Murder By Death – Red of Tooth and Claw
Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

What are your 2008 favorites and how does PW’s list stack up?