Whartscape 2008 is Coming

I've been pumping this Future Islands track off of their MySpace page for the last week or so. I can't get enough of the ramshackle exuberance. And that keyboard melody! It's like Jack Black making The D into a Rentals cover band.

[mp3] Future Islands | Nu Autobahn

Since it's listed on their MySpace, I am pretty sure Future Islands will be playing Whartscape again this year, even though they were not in the first round of artists announced yesterday. I covered the event last year for Pitchfork and even though I was dreading having to drive back and forth to Baltimore that entire weekend, I really enjoyed it. The lineup was made up entirely of bands that I had never heard of (aside from Dan Deacon) and they were all pretty incredible. Dirty Projectors were there, as were High Places and Double Dagger. I don't think they were on many people's radar back then. So yeah, I'm looking forward to the whole thing again this year.