At 5:45 A.M., Bon Iver played a sold out, special event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (or as I now like to call it, “Hollywood Forever Ago”) in Los Angeles. Hundreds of people gathered on blankets and sleeping bags – some having gotten there at 11 PM the night before, one hour before doors officially opened.

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver seemed as awed by the setting as his fans, stating “Well, I think this is probably the weirdest thing any of us have ever done.” Even though Hollywood Forever is famous for showing movies on Sunday nights, Bon Iver seems to be the pioneer of a sunrise concert in this arena.

As the fog slowly cleared and daylight began to break, Bon Iver played an absolutely perfect set, hitting all of their songs. I have to believe even the dead people buried nearby appreciated the resonating beauty of his music, mostly from For Emma, Forever Ago, and some newer work. Justin made a disclaimer that unlike most bands, he would not be playing an encore. “We’re a young band still. We don’t have that many songs yet.” And sure enough a few songs later, about an hour and fifteen minutes after the set began, he said, “This is the last song we know how to play. I’m a little embarrassed”, before launching into a beautiful, eerie version of “Wolves,” with everyone joining in on the chorus. Hopefully this will motivate the band to release a sophomore album soon – this is the encore we have all really been waiting for.

– written by guest contributor, Lauren Isaacson.

DeYarmond Edison (Bon Iver and Megafaun) – Love Long Gone (via Rollo & Grady)

Bon Iver – Skinny Love

Bon Iver – For Emma

Ramona Falls is Brent Knopf, programmer, general Renaissance man and one third of the superb Menomena. The band takes its name from an idyllic waterfall somewhere in Oregon, which seems a fitting reflection of Inuits effortless, nearly organic beauty. I have passing cycles of musical ADD, fleeting affairs with different albums from week to week. This is the first album to stick in a while. For anyone familiar with Menomena, it bears Knopf’s signatures: fluid but hesitant piano leads, jagged guitar harmonics, a casual tenor delivery. The production is immaculate, encompassing an army of instrumentation, but never anything toward the superfluous. Every percussive blast, every guitar strum, every ethereal harmony and horn flare is precise. In this way Intuit touches on and expands the great parts of Menomena‘s Friend and Foe, hitting a solid pop sensibility with a flair for the insane. From moment to moment I’m hearing the harsher parts of Mount Eerie records, the more lofty parts of Flaming Lips records and something undeniably unique swirling in the ether.

The minute mark on opener “Melectric” hits with a melodramatic surge in instrumentation: mandolin backed by sparse piano, brutal kick hits propelling the visceral tug of Knopfs vocals: “Please, don’t give me false hope/you’re free to go.” At this point Intuit could go straight for the forlorn love epic and remain engaging, but it decides to go straigh rock n’ roll with the following track “I Say Fever.”

“I Say Fever” exemplifies Knopf’s mind for structure and pacing. It strikes humble beginnings on a post-apocalyptic western guitar groove, peppered again with fragile piano leads and a hesitant vocal delivery. It’s almost like he’s scared of what happens next: a neck-bending guitar breakdown, soaring vocals and fractured harmonies. I defy you not to throw your hands in reverence toward the sky when the chorus in “I Say Fever” hits. Reverence of what? I don’t know. Just shit in general, I guess.

As epic as the aforementioned gets, “Bellyfulla” is the song keeping me up at night. Intuit finds it’s most intimate moments in Bellyfulla’s sweeping harmonies, in the scattered yet gentle pacing of the acoustic guitar. Knopf drops metaphors speaking to a vague restlessness, while the strings fasten an ephemeral existence as they sweep to and from existence. It’s the defining moment many records hint toward but never hit, a type of resolution that people strive for but can’t find. After the darkness of “I Say Fever” and “Going Once, Going Twice” (where he laments “I’m desperate just to find a respite for my mind”) Knopf has found something in “more happiness than a body can hold.” Hell, I want that. And hell, I nearly find it in those harmonies.

From Intuit:

Ramona Falls – I Say Fever

Ramona Falls – Bellyfulla

MySpace | Barsuk | Amazon

Our friends These United States lost their laptop in Los Angeles that contains a few hundred demos of unrecorded songs. If you lead to its safe recovery, you just might find your name on the liner notes of band’s next album!!! (or in tUS frontman Jesse Elliott’s words: “You shall receive my first-born child, and perhaps even my second, depending on whether the songs are any good…”)

The internet community is able to do so much with a little group effort… Raise millions for Ron Paul, RickRoll everything, and even supply an infinite number of adorable kitten pics.. is this to much to ask for? Call up the kids, friends, relatives, whoever you know in LA, and let’s find their laptop and make history (if you can’t help in that way, Digging will help too!). Hooray!

Everything touches Everything (2009):

These United States – Will It Ever

Crimes (2008):

These United States – Honor Among Thieves

A Picture of the Three of Us at The Gate to the Garden of Eden (2008):

These United States – First Sight

myspace

I talk about Pretty & Nice a lot. (Like Here and Here.) It’s getting bad. But I’ve taken my obsession to something of a more dignified level. Recently, my friend Addison Post and I produced a video for the Boston Phoenix to showcase a new Pretty & Nice song. They wrote it for a new montly segment called “Homework” where the Phoenix tasks a Boston bands with writing and recording a song under unreasonable deadlines with a bunch of zany critieria. Check out the video here and stream the song below.

From the Boston Phoenix’s Homework Assignment:

Pretty & Nice – Massive U.

Next month we grade Hallejuah the Hills.

MySpace | Get Young |

If you are a fan of Beulah (like myself), and cry yourself to sleep every night over their break up (like myself), then I highly recommend you check out the song below by the band Bears called “Who Knows.” Pretty much everything about the song brings to mind Beulah, from the instruments, to the catchy vocals… even the lyrics are Beulahesque. It’s really great.

Bears are based out of Cleveland, Ohio and band members include Craig Ramsey and Charlie McArthur (Pat McNulty, Devon Coffee, and Sean Sullivan help out live). These guys have some solid music and I also really appreciate their senses of humor from the little bit I’ve seen roaming their site. You’ll be seeing more Bears on IndieMuse soon, but in the meantime, check out their Myspace.

(mp3) Bears – “Who Knows”

Here’s an acoustic video version of the song they just posted today:

myspace | site | itunes

On an unrelated note: Sorry that we have been on an unannounced hiatus recently. A long story short, IndieMuse was hacked into by a spammer, and it’s been a huge headache to clean up. Between cleaning the site up and other projects keeping us busy (more on this soon), we’ve had a hard time updating IndieMuse. We finally have the site spam free (I think), so we are now back in business. Thanks for all your support!

I’m a little late in posting this, but hell. I love the Dodos.

Earlier this week their new album, Time to Die, leaked to the internetz! In an effort to combat piracy, or something, Frenchkiss is streaming the entire album on TimeToDie.net. I’ve only listened once, but it seems to be a slightly more subdued affair than Visiter, maybe a cleaner, more touched-up return to Beware of the Maniacs. So far, “Longform” is killing it for me. It builds with the same optimism of “Fools,” falling into psyched-out guitar rants and a spastic finger-picking interlude. And of course, the percussion sections are huge and panning.

Check the full album stream of Time To Die here.

Here is the single from Time to Die, for your downloading pleasure:

The Dodos – Fables

Official Site | MySpace | Preorder Time To Die

(Photo credit: C Taylor Crothers)

As promised, here’s the Wilco show from Bonnaroo. For those of you that waited this long to check out Wilco (The Album) I hope that over the next few weeks we will realize why this band is truly coming into form. Like I’ve said before, The Album didn’t exactly pique my interest at first, there is something truly meta-Wilco about the project and the way the band is working in its current form. My close friend Dave Nyman even pointed out what I would call a “considerate” review of the new album that actually does the band a bit of justice. If anyone would be quick to call Wilco “old and boring” it would be our pretentious brethren at Pitchfork. Needless to say, I was surprised that the site took into consideration what the album stood for before doing the usual track by track bashing. The fact of the matter is, that as music becomes more personal, bands desire communication and growth over several works. Wilco has consistently proven that confidence is a large part of happiness. Even if that means we won’t be seeing the harrowing lonliness of Yankee Hotel Foxrot for a little while, you gotta be happy that the journey has become a bit smoother. This new album, their seventh, is entitled Wilco (The Album), and it’s a statement. It might be weird, but after coming this far, I get a huge grin when I think of Jeff Tweedy happy.

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Over the past few months, Deerhunter have creeped their way from casual divergence to mindless obsession. Cryptograms was daunting in its expanse, building sonic landscapes from pulsing bass and shimmering guitar. And the moments it coalesced – when it dredged solid melodies from the swirling masses below – hinted at the brilliance to come with Microcastle.

Microcastle gave Cryptograms the context I needed. The My Bloody Valentine guitar textures met sweeping pop arpeggios; Deerhunter formed sculptures from the malleable skeletons of Cryptograms. And with the temporally titled Rainwater Cassette Exchange, their recently released five-song EP, Deerhunter furthers their sound with tighter, more-buoyant pop constructions.

The title track opens with a waltzing pop reminiscent of songs half-forgotten, hailing from a time long ago when chocolate milkshakes and school dances were the epitome of social grace. But the buoyant exterior belies it’s intent, as singer Bradford Cox croons through a palpable haze: “Capture my heart and destroy me/destroy my mind and my body/invade me like a disease and conquer me.” His macabre desire for an all-enveloping, entirely devastating love is echoed through time, but novel in this setting: he wants what he’s had but not as he’s had it. And reflected in the music: they’ve borrowed a tune, but made it their own. (See: Neil Young, Joanna Newsom. Both have lots to say on this subject.) More after the jump.

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I’m on my way out the door, but I just heard a song I’d love to share with you. A short song by Philadelphia’s Grubstake. From what I understand, these guys are just about to release their fifth album and have a serious local following. Grubstake are huge proponents of dirty, folky blues. I can hear Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Woodie Guthrie, Lou Reed and the White Stripes all at once, just from their MySpace. They are certainly unattended on the edges, but no song has made me want to drive a truck so badly. No bullshit.

MP3: Grubstake – “Recession Blues 2001”

Alright, here are a few more, at random.

MP3: Grubstake – “Whispering Blues”

MP3: Grubstake – “Musicians”

Let me know what you think, or if you know anything about these guys that I don’t. PEACE.

Tags: Grubstake, MP3's, SotD

After this year’s Bonnaroo I can safely say that YES, Wilco is a touring band at its prime. The recently released Ashes of American Flags tour DVD gave me new insight into the workings of a group that, in my opinion, has overcome considerable struggle and years of obscurity to finally be standing strong at the peak of their art. After previewing the stream, Wilco (The Album) felt empty without Tweedy’s anxiety and experimental energy–it’s what defined masterpieces like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. Nonetheless, there are new, beautiful aspects of the band that shine bright this time around–in addition, the new album is also considerably different from Sky Blue Sky. In my obsession of what I consider to currently be “The Great American Band,” I’ve stumbled on a few blog-gems that I will share with you, leading up to the release of Wilco (The Album). First, here’s a few minutes of Wilco (at Bonnaroo ’09) courtesy of Billboard Music.

Recently, The LAist published an extremely insightful interview with Wilco guitarist (and “Guitar God”) Nels Cline. In the article, Nels is approached about the new Wilco album, due out in a week or so. He answers questions about Wilco’s songwriting process as well as thoughts on his own project, The Nels Cline Trio–an avant-garde jazz group. If for no other reason than to learn about a true artist and a dying breed, check out the article. There’s also a fantastic video of Nels’ part on “Handshake Drugs” as well as a link to Nels Cline’s list of his Top 200 Guitarists.

• [LINK] Read the article at The LAist

OneThirtyBPM wrote a post a month or so ago that covers all you’ll need to prepare for new Wilco, complete with track lyrics and live versions of many of the songs on Wilco (The Album). After listening to their new songs live, it is fantastic to see how they are adapted for the stage and it’s even more interesting to see how they’ve already improved on songs that haven’t even been released yet. It’s definitely a more time-consuming post, but it’s worth it. ZIP file included.

• [LINK] Read/Download the live/album preview at OneThirtyBPM.com

Finally, just a quick note on the June 30th release of Wilco (The Album), if you order from Wilco World before the album comes out you get a full 256kbs download on release in addition to the physical media. Also, if you pre-order, you can download the track “You Never Know” right away. This track, incedentally, is also going to 7″ for a limited time in honor of Vinyl Saturday (from the creators of Record Store Day). The 7″ will include “You Never Know” as well as “Unlikely Japan,” an unreleased Sky Blue Sky track–a precursor to “Impossible Germany.” Since we all love nerding out on b-sides and rarities… this is welcome. More info on that at Nonesuch Records.

Home | MySpace | NoneSuch Records | Hype Machine | AllMusic | Wiki

Pre-Order Wilco (The Album) NOW: The Wilco Store | NoneSuch Records | Amazon | iTunes | InSound

Don’t Worry, I’ll be posting Wilco’s show from Bonnaroo 2009 soon!

To end, I leave you with a Glenn Kotche interview by Nashville’s Lightning 100 fm. Kinda hard to hear, but it’s funny… just not ha ha funny.

Tags: Bonnaroo, kline, kotche, MP3's, nonesuch, tweedy, Video, Wilco