Misc. Music Archives

DCist and Washingtonian have the details.

Thursday, July 24: Statehood
and
Thursday, Aug. 7: Julie Ocean
and
Monday, Aug. 11: These United States, Jukebox the Ghost

are all looking good to me.

I had a super-mega brilliant R.E.M. post all laid out in my head last night, ready to write during Game Three, when a big storm came through the area and knocked out the power to my building until after 11 p.m. So that will have to wait for another day.

In the meantime I will say this.

• R.E.M. was one of the first "indie" band I started listening to (along with Buffalo Tom, Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub). Everyone else on the tennis team listened to them so I figured I needed to check them out.
• One of the English teachers at my high school used to be R.E.M.'s tour manager. Echo & the Bunnymen too! Imagine the impact of that on a young leafblower.
• I have a photo pass for tonight. Yay! More Johnny Marr! Perhaps he will even venture out from behind the mic stand tonight. One can only hope.
• After seeing the set list from last night, I am super, super excited. "Harbor Coat" & "Orange Crush?" Yes please!
• I will be even more excited if they play "Life and How To Live It."

[mp3] R.E.M. | Cuyahoga (live)
[mp3] R.E.M. | Disturbance at the Heron House (Acoustic)
[mp3] R.E.M. | Tongue (live)

On the left, 16 Horsepower's Live, March 2001. Released May 6th, 2008. On the right, The Big Sleep's Sleep Forever. Released February 19th, 2008. D'oh.

16 Horsepower were really good back in the day. I used to rock out to "Black Soul Choir" all the time in college. The Big Sleep, however, are really good right now. They ruled when I saw them earlier this year.

[mp3] The Big Sleep | Bad Blood

Oh, Metallica, why can't you get it right? The band seemed to have learned somewhat from the dark days of the Napster debacle by offering fans online access to pre-release material and in-studio video footage, but now it has apparently unleashed another potentially damaging fiasco upon itself by forcing bloggers to take down reviews of their upcoming album.

Veteran U.K. rock act James has inked a U.S. deal with Decca Records for the release of its first new album in seven years. "Hey Ma" will be released Sept. 16 and will be supported by as-yet-unannounced North American tour dates.