We came, we saw, we sweated. San Francisco Outside Lands attendees were gifted with a heat wave, sans rash, for the first day of the weekend-long festival, and never before have we seen people more confused (the natives knew this was an oddity). Also, all the indie boys who decided to take off their shirts only upped the hotness factor, considering their torsos served as a light deflector and blinded everyone in sight. Holy whiteness, Batman.

With seven stages situated on two meadows and the main polo field in Golden Gate Park, we have to say that this year’s experience toppled last year’s (you know, where I cried a bunch and then scraped my elbow), with a million tents set up for food, photobooths, prizes, massages, wine tastings, free hugs, trampolines, and even a phone charging station. And while the smaller stages boasted a very impressive knit of indie, electronica, and even hip-hop acts, the main stage line-up felt slightly too 90’s. I do own Pearl Jam’s “Ten” on cassette tape though, so maybe I’m not one to judge.

Highlights include:
- the choice people watching we were afforded as we wandered around the site
- Silversun Pickups and Los Campesinos! slaying their sets
- running around San Francisco at night with no jacket on
- remembering how much we were in love with Incubus’s Brandon Boyd in 11th grade
- Throwing blue lacey underwear at Tom Jones

Day one, you ain’t so bad.

Autolux

Akron/Family

Los Campesinos!

The Dodos

Silversun Pickups

Tom Jones

While you are drinking Coronas and pretending you remember what Cinco de Mayo is really all about (and no, it is not actually about sombreros and cheap beer), you might want to pick up a copy of Akron/Family’s new album, Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, which is due out tomorrow on Dead Ocean Records. In preparation for the anticipated release, we decided to give you a blast of the band’s new track, “River” (just in case you are one of the few who didn’t already hear the album when it was leaked).

Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, is Akron/Family’s fourth full-length release, and even though the band is sans founding member Ryan Vanderhoof, the album still upholds the classic Akron/Family vibe, with its modern American-folk feel and sound. Despite such evolutions since their last full-length release, “River”, the second track off of the new album, exemplifies the fluidity of sound heard from the trio throughout the rest of the album, giving you an accurate representation of what you will be hearing from the rest of the new tracks.

The new album was leaked in February, but if you are one of the admirable few who resisted the temptation to hear the new material, then you have much to look forward to with tomorrow’s release.

Akron/Family – “River”

The line-up for San Francisco’s second annual Outside Lands Music & Arts festival has been announced. The three-day festival will take place in late August at the Golden Gate park, and headliners include Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, M.I.A. Dave Matthews Band, and… Tom Jones. (If that’s not enough to make you want to go by itself, than we don’t know what to tell you.)

The festival runs from August 28-30, and along with it’s diverse line up, the event offers some of the best food and wine in the California region, as well as providing various eco-friendly options — like recycling and a solar powered cell phone charging station — for concert-goers.

Along with the aforementioned headliners, other acts on the roster include Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, Mastodon, Built To Spill, Atmosphere, Deerhunter, Portugal. The Man and Matt and Kim, among a whole bunch more. Tickets for the Outside Lands Music & Arts festival go on sale this Sunday, April 19, at 10 a.m. Some of the proceeds for each ticket sold also go to a good cause, helping benefit San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department.

Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival Line-up
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Incubus
Black Eyed Peas
M.I.A
Jason Mraz
Ween
The Mars Volta
Thievery Corporation
Modest Mouse
Band of Horses
TV on the Radio
Dead Weather
Atmosphere
Tom Jones
Silversun Pickups
The National
Q-Tip
Brett Dennen
Built To Spill
Mastodon
Raphael Saadiq
Calexico
Os Mutantes
Midnite
JJ Grey & Mofro
Kinky
Deerhunter
Lila Downs
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
The Dodos
Bettye LaVette
Dengue Fever
Heartless Bastards
The Dirtbombs
Lenka
Akron/Family
John Vanderslice
Matt and Kim
Portugal. The Man
The Morning Benders
The Duke Spirit
Zee Avi
Blind Pilot
SambaDa
Ryan Bingham
West Indian Girl
Extra Golden

It’s hasn’t even been two years since Phil Waldorf left Misra Records to form Dead Oceans alongside Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, and in the past six months Dead Oceans has added four bands to its growing and increasingly impressive roster of artists. The latest to jump on board is Akron/Family, who previously recorded for Young God.

The band will release its still untitled fourth album, the follow-up to 2007’s Love is Simple, in April. The album will mark the band’s first studio recording as a three-piece following the 2007 departure of Ryan Vanderhoof to, apparently, join a Buddhist commune. Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Miles Seaton said the record is “not too heavy and not too clever.”

It started out being really inspired by American soul and West African music. We’re all still in love with American classic rock music, but [the new record] is inspired by many different directions. I’m really excited about the shifting voice of the narrative on this record. The lyrics, thematically, are shaped in this really organic and natural way around what is happening — something that is very real and true to us.

Seaton said it’s by no means a new Akron/Family, but that the album represents some extremes they haven’t before explored. The band will play some shows to celebrate New Year’s beginning December 28 in Boston, and closing out the year at The Knitting Factory in New York.

Akron/Family
Dead Oceans