Row Knows

Megafaun played the Iota Club & Cafe in Arlington, Virginia, last night and, if I could set aside my so-called objectivity for a bit, it was awesome.

Got there nice & early because it’s right across the river from my office and too far to go home first. So I had dinner in the area and rolled into the venue right as the band arrived. I had tweeted my request to tape earlier in the day and gotten an affirmative response so I checked in with the band and chatted with the club owner (whom I had heard was sorta tough on tapers but I found him to be very nice) and secured permission and prime position to setup. As the band loaded in and setup, I secured my mics to a pole about 6 feet from the stage, dead center, and about 7 feet high. I taped soundcheck then hung out and met the band. We chatted about a lot of different things including the Gayngs album (on which they all play and in support of which two of the band members will be touring in the fall. Gotta see that!) and an upcoming project for UNC involving Alan Lomax’s field recordings… Read More »

Pardon my giddiness as I blast this info to all media but I’m very psyched to hear, (via Pitchfork) that the media-eschewing, politically charged, Canadian, post-rock collective will be touring in the Winter.

They will first curate and headline All Tomorrow’s Party’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” in Minehead, UK. Then, according to the announcement on their website, they will play a “handful” of UK and EU dates followed by exactly nine US dates.

Here’s a little taste of what they do:

Last night, in Washington, DC, The Black Cat Backstage (the downstairs, more intimate room at the Black Cat) played host to a great night of music. Sharon Van Etten, who got such great press from NPRMusic during SXSW, opened for the North Carolina based freak folk band, Megafaun and those of us in attendance were definitely given a treat.

From the beginning of Van Etten’s set the crowd stood or sat attentively but with the standard opening-act-respectful-distance-from-stage buffer in place. That, until after the first song, Sharon cut to the chase and encouraged folks to gather close. Buffer broken, so began a well received set of original material (and one cover- see the clip below.) Van Etten’s voice shimmers in the room as she accompanies herself on a striking, red Gibson electric guitar. These, along with her strong lyrics and enchanting sense of humor as she chatted from the stage made it definitely worth arriving early to see and hear her perform.

Check out this brief clip that I shot of her covering Blaze Foley’s “Oooh Love”:

Megafaun came to the stage with no announcement or fanfare and proceeded to gush about being such fans of Sharon Van Etten and how they were thrilled to have finally seen her perform. (in fact, the moment she hit the stage, the trio bounded from the backstage door and into the crowd to watch.) My setlist notes are a jumble but they leaned heavily on the most recent release, “Gather Form & Fly”. I think the opener was “Kaufman’s Ballad” which, with it’s eerie harmonies set a great tone for the night. Read More »

As mentioned previously, The New Pornographers will be releasing their new album, Together on May 4. You can pre-order it today from Matador Records. Preorders come with a poster and a 7″ of the band covering three songs from the Detroit psych-pop band Outrageous Cherry. The first single, “The Crash Years” is available today via iTunes.

Before we get to that epic list of tourdates, here’s one of the tracks Outrageous Cherry tracks that will be on the 7″ for all pre-orders:

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During rowjimmy.com’s little “break” since Festival 8, there was a little thing that we like to call Phish Fall Tour 2009. Your lovable and reliable bloggers (sophist and rowjimmy) managed to take in a couple shows apiece and listen to the rest diligently. Someone’s got to do it, right? So now, we present to you a run down of the entire tour, night by night, for your entertainment and reference.

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