Joshua Tillman has ambition. Not only has he been steadily putting out music at a near Darnelle-ian rate over the last five years, but these days he can claim to be a one of the most talented solo cats (better known as J. Tillman) you would probably never recognize on the street. Tack that onto also being a member of a critically acclaimed, bearded indie band you would also probably not recognize if they walked through Times Square in a Flying V formation: Fleet Foxes.

His new track, “Though I Have Wronged You”, is a breathtaking apology that seems to take you from bended knee to the river to the church all in one, never coming across nearly as cliche as that may sound. It’s an eerily quiet soulful ballad complete with some hand-claps at the end that make us wish we could just craft immaculately timeless pop songs when we mess up with our girlfriend (or whoever he’s apologizing to). No matter, this song is more than worth your next three and a half minutes.(Via: Vulture via Stereogum)

J Tillman, Though I Have Wronged You

MP3 Download

When Kurt Cobain signed with Sub Pop over a decade and a half ago and together they released the definitive rock album of the 90s, he was probably thinking locally. The money probably helped a bit, but ultimately dude was thinking “I really just want to be at a label that’s going to enter into a joint-venture with the largest shoe corporation in the world!” Alright, so maybe this wasn’t the direction Kurt or co-founder Bruce Pavitt saw the label going, but all kidding aside these things look kind of sweet. And hey, skateboarders listen to early Shins albums too. After all, what good does it do to be half-owned by Warner Brothers if you can’t get a skate shoe or two out of the deal. Sure, the two SP logos are a bit excessive. Sure, generic statement about indie rock being officially over and nothing being sacred anymore. We live in hard times. Cash is cash, folks.

(Via: Hypebeast via Daily Swarm)

We’ve been scrambling to keep you up-to-date as Glastonbury’s slowly leaked megaconfirmation after megaconfirmation in the past few months. But today’s full lineup announcement is something to behold, the headlining package of Neil Young, the Boss and a reunited Blur now propped up by a roster so behemoth and iron-clad, it’s equal parts intimidating and enticing. Also playing: Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, Jarvis Cocker, Regina Spektor, Maximo Park, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Pete Doherty, Q-Tip, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Streets, Ray Davies and and and and…

There will be mud.

Southern California’s Local Natives make it hard to draw comparisons. There are similarities here and there — Broken Social Scene and Fleet Foxes are among the contemporary names thrown around — but the Natives’ style is less erratic than BSS, more ballsy than the Foxes. Their harmonic style is indicative of the influence of hazy beach bums of 60s SoCal and Zombified Brit pop, while their percussion philosophy derives from somewhere more natural: a unifying connection between the five-piece developed over hours spent living together in their own guerilla hideaway in Silverlake, Calif.

I sat down for a little phone chat with the guys as they made the arduous journey from San Francisco to Portland. My grasp for the topography of the region is nearly nonexistent, thus making our teleconference, in my mind, just another hurdle for the group in what might be the toughest climb amidst a sea of switchbacks and sheer crags. Since this setting is always more interesting, I kept the image in my mind and forged on through the midst of cell reception woe. I hit them fast and I hit them hard, with the sort of tough grit that would make even Harry Callahan squirm. With half a day to drive from San Francisco to Portland at top speed, I tested out their mental dexterity while they navigated the treacherous mountain passes of Northern California. So after a minute or so of making sure our cell phones were indeed connected and working, my interview began with a real humdinger.

So how are you guys doing?
Kelcey: We’re doing good, on the road going from San Francisco to Portland. It’s a ten-hour drive, the longest drive on this tour we’re on right now. It’s a little brutal, but it’s all right… we started at 8 this morning.

I talked to (Tripwire photographer JENZ) earlier, said she had a little trouble getting into the show…
K: Yeah there was a little mishap with the list, a fuck up if you will, on our part. We tried to fill her full of drinks so that she could forget all about it.

That’s all right, she mentioned she’ll catch you guys again soon, opening for Ben Kweller?
K: Yeah, we’re opening for Ben in June, so we’ll have her out, it’ll be a great time.

Awesome, is that opening spot a result of meeting him down in Austin (at SXSW)?
K: Uh, well we met Ben in Austin, (through) his UK booking agent as well as his national booking agent. He brought Ben out to the show, and he really dug the music and had heard a lot about us and really likes the stuff and so he was stoked to throw us on a couple shows for him.

I was actually there at SXSW for a show you guys played where he showed up, at this little house party the last night of the fest.
K: Oh yeah, that was the place, yeah we saw him there.

How did the rest of SXSW go for you guys?
Taylor: SX was so excellent for us. It was really awesome, none of us had ever been before and we really got (thrown) into it because we had nine shows (over four days). So it was really intense, but we had a great time.

And you’d never been to Austin before that?
T: Well we had played Austin a couple times, but you know, that city is just transformed for SX. There’s like 2,000 bands and thousands of people and it’s really just like chaos for a week, which we really are akin to, we like that.

Nice. So you’ve got an album done, but no label?
T: Correct, yeah we’ve got an album but right now we’re just kind of shopping it around and talking to people.

Did that chaotic week help you guys out in the way of finding a home for it?
T: Oh yeah, it was really cool. I thought it was great to see the progression over, as I said, nine shows. I think it was the second to last show we played was one we added literally the day before, and that show was probably the most packed out of all of them. So it was cool to see this progression where you know, we made some fans early and there were some people kinda spreading the word about us, and so by that show there were all these people there checking us out, from the industry and not. So yeah, the dialogue has definitely increased a lot on pretty much all ends.

Ryan: It was really cool to meet people from the UK, too. That was a good opportunity for us to get to some people out there.

So hopefully sometime in the future a UK tour?
T: Yeah definitely, we just signed up with our UK and European booking agent, and he’s awesome and we’re really, really happy. We don’t have any firm plans yet but we’re already starting to throw out some ideas of dates and stuff and we want to get over there soon.

So it’s been a nice steep route you seem to have taken so far, you haven’t been together too long, correct?
T: Um, sort of, it’s been about two, two-and-a-half years in this lineup so not super new, but me (Taylor Rice, guitar/vocal), Ryan (Hahn, guitar/vocal) and Kelcey (Ayers, keys/vocal), the three of us met in High School. So we’ve been playing together, jamming for over six years. Then it was like everything really came together for us over the last year or so, really when we made our album, when everyone decided to throw all our eggs in the band basket and just go for it full time. We all (including Andy Hamm, bass; Matt Frazier, drums) got a house; we all live together in Silverlake and we’ve been really committed to this as our first priority. So that’s really relatively recent, but we’ve been playing together for a while.

Speaking of the album, the title is Gorilla Manor, is that right?
T: Right, yeah.

There has to be a story behind the name…
T: Well, yeah. So when we were writing the album we were all living together in a house, sort of sequestered ourselves, secluded away and it just kinda became the moniker for the place we were living, and we just came to identify (the house) with the whole process. Our band is really collaborative in terms of the songwriting process and so everyone is constantly throwing out ideas, and during this time (writing) we kinda felt like we found what was our sound and we found these threads that we felt unified us. So that’s kind of why we identified that with the album.

Well I have to say the few songs I’ve heard are excellent (I won’t go into my fan-boy-ish love for their track “Airplanes”). There’s a thoughtfulness to them, I can only hope that’s translated to the rest of the album.
T: Yeah me too. (Laughs.) Seriously, we’re very happy with it, which is actually saying a lot. We really tear all of our songs apart. As a result of the collaborative thing we work over things pretty hard.

And who did you guys get to produce the album?
T: We recorded it in L.A. in a place called Rancho Park with a guy named Raymond Richards, and he’s got an amazing studio in his house. It’s called Red Rockets Glare, and we made the album there over last summer, towards the end of summer. (To rest of band) Would we say he produced it? We kind of self-produced it, but I mean, he helped us a lot. He really is a master at all the tones and the fun toys that he has in his studio, and that was something that was really new to us. We had never done an album before, so he was so easy to work with. But we were really hands on in everything we did with the recording.

So any leads as far as what you might do with it?
T: Yeah we do, we’re talking with a lot of labels right now, but it’s all very tentative and superficial at the moment. Can’t really say much. But we’d love to find a home for it and have a goal to release around the fall so…

Awesome. Now the sound that you guys have, it’s very natural, your combination of almost tribal percussion, and the harmonies. Is that a result of your surroundings, something that naturally finds its way out, or is it something that you guys have made a conscious effort to emphasize?
T: Those two things are very much the kind of threads that we’ve found in a lot of our writing. Now way back when, we started out as a “guitar” band as most bands do, but now we spend almost all of our writing time, or most of it, on our vocals, the melody and harmonies, and also on the percussion. And I’m sure that has something to do with the area but it’s also mostly to do with our personal preferences and influences and who we listen to. You know, the 60s harmony bands is fairly evident, we’re huge fans of The Zombies, Crosby Stills & Nash for example, and we’re also huge fans of Animal Collective or Broken Social Scene, who really have that kind of strong percussive element that we’re drawn to.

I’m guessing Talking Heads is in there somewhere, seeing as you guys have that cover of “Warning Sign” out there and in your set…
T: Yeah we were actually just listening to that.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I actually find your version a little more enjoyable.
T: Oh man, wow.

I mean it’s a great song, but you guys have really taken it and made it your own. It’s almost a different song now.
T: Well, I always think, well we all do, that when you do a cover it’s way more fun to take something that’s not exactly your sound and try to make it your sound. So it was really fun to try and make these pretty three part harmonies out of these David Byrne yelps.

You should start a cover of the month club.
T: (Laughs.) Yeah, we’ve thought about it.

So the rest of this tour you’re headed up into Canada?
T: We are, we’re gonna try. We’ve got Portland, Seattle and then Vancouver. We’ve never crossed the border as a band, and we’ve learned that you have to get this immigration exemption thing from the venue and all this stuff. So we’re really kind of winging it and we really hope that they don’t charge us like $800. That would be sad.

Well at least it’ll be a fun attempt if you can’t make it. So what do you foresee, or hope to see happen in the next six months for you guys?
T: Well we already kinda talked about it, but releasing the album is a major goal of ours and the fall seems like a really good time for that. Other than that, just touring. We really want to be out on the road as much as possible. Hope to have a national tour with a bunch of dates and then go abroad. Like I said, we’ve got some dates we’re planning on.

Ryan: It’s been a dream of ours to go to the UK and tour and now all of a sudden it looks like that’s going to become a reality in the near future.

Have you guys done much touring nationally so far?
R: We’ve toured twice nationally. We went out to Chicago one time and then we did a month long tour to New York and back. Other than that, we’ve done two little West Coast tours. So we’ve done a fair amount of touring, but we really like it, we’re trying to do it as much as possible.

So how much longer do you guys have on the road today?
T: Six more hours, or something like that.

And with that I wished them luck on their way, a group of nice guys making nice music for the masses. The Canadians are going to love that.

At last, the Lollapalooza rumors are put to rest — Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon and (of course) Jane’s Addiction will be headlining this year’s festival, along with an impressive cast of supporting bands, Lollapalooza organizers confirmed today.

More than 100 bands/artists/DJs will take the Lolla stage this year, including TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Los Campesinos! and Passion Pit. This year’s event will also introduce “Perry’s”, a nightclub style stage featuring dance and electronic music. The DJs set to spin include MSTRKRFT, Bassnectar, DeadMau5, Animal Collective and Bloody Beetroots.

After selling out last year for the first time since Lollapalooza took roots in Chicago, ticket sales don’t seem to be lagging. Early bird discount passes went on sale at the end of March for $195. Regular priced tickets are $205, and of course if you’re not like the rest of us, worrying about saving $10 on a $200 concert ticket, you can always check out the VIP options at Lollapalooza.com.

Lollapalooza 2009
Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane’s Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santigold
Atmosphere
Dan Auberbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat For Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Green Cards
Carney
Thenewno2

Featured performers at Perry’s
Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
DeadMau5
Boys Noise
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)

Featuring Superchunk, M.I.A., Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Dr. Dog, Glass Candy and Amanda Palmer.


[Superchunk]

[M.I.A.]

[Fleet Foxes]

[TV On The Radio]

[Dr. Dog]

[Glass Candy]

[Amanda Palmer]

Coincidentally, on the eve of the final Touch and Go record release tomorrow, word comes to us that one of T&G’s biggest selling artist will join former label-alumn’s TV On The Radio as performers on Saturday Night Live this season.

Hot on the heels of Phoenix’s performance this past Saturday, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs will grace the iconic stage this coming Saturday, April 11. Along with Phoenix and TVOTR, this season has seen Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, Kanye West and Fleet Foxes all play the late-night sketch comedy show. Special note for the ladies, Zac Efron will be hosting.

After the momentous success of last year, All Points West is back for another go at the festival scene, and even though we won’t be seeing Radiohead back on the stage for another round of jaw dropping performances this year, the line up is pretty stacked, having Coldplay, Tool and The Beastie Boys headlining the three day event at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. 

The festival will take place on July 31-August 2, and along with the three headliners, MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gogol Bordello, Crystal Castles, and Echo & The Bunnymen are all part of the loaded line up. The festival is also taking a Coachella-like turn this year, axing the Queen of the Valley stage, and instead creating a tent to house comedy, DJs, and electronic acts, as reported by Brooklyn Vegan. 

If you went to the festival last year, you might remember the woes of traveling to and from the park, but don’t cringe too soon. This year the festival heads have tried to revamp the transportation system, to ensure more frequent ferry rides from Manhattan, and free Light Rail travel from Jersey-side travelers. One other major improvement has been made to the festival as well — the beer garden area will have shorter lines, more beer and will have views of the stage, so what more could you ask for? 

Tickets for All Points West go on sale on April 3rd, and further information about the festival will continue to be updated at the All Points website.

All Points West Music & Arts Festival line-up
Friday, July 31
Beastie Boys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, The National, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Q-Tip, The Pharcyde, Organized Konfusion, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, Seasick Steve, Telepathe, Shearwater, Heartless Bastards, Flying Lotus, College Humor Live, Arj Barker, Eugene Mirman and Bo Burnham.

Saturday, August 1
Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello, Arctic Monkeys, Neko Case, The Ting Tings, Yelle, Crystal Castles, St. Vincent, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids, Kool Keith, Cage the Elephant, Chairlift, White Rabbits, Electric Touch, The Postelles, Black Gold, College Humor Live, Tim & Eric, Judah Friedlander and Jim Jeffries.

Sunday, August 2 
Coldplay, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT, The Black Keys, Elbow, Silversun Pickups, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory, The Gaslight Anthem, Etienne De Crecy, Lykke Li, Akron/Family, Steel Train, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, College Humor Live, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter and Todd Barry.

In the wake of the ever increasing pool of festivals and the possible merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the idea of paying $200 to see live music during a recession resulted in our pockets slapping us back into reality. But to be fair, the Sasquatch Festival — presented by Live Nation and tickets sold by Ticketmaster — is one of the cheaper weekend-long festivals and the line-up could quite possibly be the best yet.

Of course, this has left us all wondering at what point does the festival circuit become too congested, leaving them all a bit redundant and watered down? Those who remember the 90s will remember that Lollapalooza took time off for this very reason. But we digress, the Sasquatch Festival will take place May 23-25 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA and features the just-announced-today-union of Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction as the festival headliners. But the rest of the line-up is what excites us and looks like this:

Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, Of Montreal, Explosions In The Sky, Devotchka, Peter Bjorn & John, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, The Avett Brothers, Doves, Calexico, Grizzly Bear, M83, Girl Talk, The Gaslight Anthem, The Walkmen, Chromeo (dj set), Deadmau5, Mugison, Sun Kil Moon, Airborne Toxic Event, Blitzen Trapper, Shearwater, BLK JKS, The Wrens, Tobacco, Monotonix, King Khan & The Shrines, St. Vincent, Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen, Blind Pilot, AA Bondy, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, The Dodos, Beach House, Arthur & Yu, The Submarines, Owl City, Viva Voce, James Pants, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Builders & The Butchers, The Dutchess & The Duke, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, Fences, School of Seven Bells, Death Vessel, Horse Feathers, Hockey, Point Juncture, WA, The Pica Beats, Loch Lomond, Vince Mira & more to come.

And the comedy line up includes:
Zach Galifiankas, Demetri Martin, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, God’s Pottery, People’s Republic of Komedy & more.

Ok, got that? Now, as for tickets, beginning on February 28 (on sale weekend only), a discounted 3-day festival pass will be available until March 1 at midnight at $154.50 for the entire weekend with single tickets costing $56.50. Beginning March 2 a 3-day pass will run you $199.50 and a single ticket $66.50 and if you wait until the last minute (and tickets are still available), starting May 11 the weekend pass is $229.50 and single tickets will be $76.50.

Oh, and Ticketmaster will have all your ticketing needs. Go figure.

Save seeing them live, Fleet Foxes can’t be enjoyed better than this — in the two years since Nigel Godrich’s music and film project From the Basement began, tons of our favorites have recorded live tracks in Godrich’s Maida Vale studios in London for the site and its TV program.

The show premiered in the U.S. in February on Rave HD, but you can catch the videos any time at From the Basement. Enjoy Fleet Foxes performing “Blue Ridge Mountains” below.

Ever since the collective frenzy we all worked ourselves into worrying what was going to happen to the world when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000, New Years have become cause for worry and constant concern. Now as that fateful date approaches again, we find ourselves asking — what horrors does 2009 hold? Luckily, former Sleater-Kinney guitarist and writer/blogger Carrie Brownstein has the answers for us via an extremely informative psychic/astrological reading.

Brownstein’s music and culture blog for NPR, Monitor Mix, featured a video interview this week with Andy Gehrz, an astrologer and pyschic who offered up her predictions on what kind of havoc 2009 would wreak on the music world. Other than the fact that this kind of stuff is just funny, because she seems to really believe what she’s saying, Andy seems to think some pretty serious business is going to go down in the next 12 months.

Among other things, Pitchfork is going to buy Rolling Stone, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco will have a mid-life crisis, Arcade Fire is apparently going synth, and The Shins have some sort of cultural responsibility to live out that involves finding lesser-known bands and taking them on tour. Very noble. Beth Ditto and some unnamed girl from Georgia with a lot of tattoos will both enjoy lots of success, and in case you were wondering, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is some breed of super Taurus.

But probably the most shocking predicition Andy made — she said other stuff about Lil Wayne getting a DUI and Kanye West making a political statement, but we said shocking — was when she suggested that Kris Novoselic and Dave Grohl will reunite Nirvana with a rotating cast of lead singers. As a tribute. Uh huh.

Check out the video for more very important predictions about The Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Vampire Weekend and others. And maybe it’s just us, but there is something quite entertaining about a 30-something, red-headed, glasses-wearing, white, female astrologer saying, “I have something to say about Lil Wayne.”

Andy Gehrz, Astrological Detective
Monitor Mix