Rock Music

Let me be frank: music festivals are awful. They are magnificently unpleasant. All of them. There is almost no other way to spend $350+ and have a worse time, other than maybe flying coach to the Midwest three days before Christmas. That being said, this will be my sixth year attending Sasquatch. My first S’quatch was in 2006, and I went consecutively for the following four years. The 2010 festival was, barring Massive Attack’s STUNNING performance, such an abysmal waste of three days that I, during the dark, rank, exhausted drive back, swore I would never, ever go again. Ever. Going to Sasquatch is like getting waxed: after enough time has passed since you last had your hopes and dreams ripped out through your bleeding follicles, you forget the pain and gloss over the memory. Soon enough, you’re back on the table, writhing in agony, wondering what the hell you were thinking. And, so, two years since I last subjected myself to the dirty, loud, hot, overpopulated nightmare that Sasquatch has become over the past five years, here I am with a four-day pass and a rough schedule of bands to see. Now, before you point your grubby little hipster fingers at me and call me a naysayer or a cynic, I will admit that music festivals have their advantages, Sasquatch especially so. Yes, it’s expensive, but I would probably end up paying close to $350 to separately see just a quarter of the bands that will be playing. Yes, it’s an overcrowded swarm of humanity, but, as an introvert, I would rather condense all the over-stimulation of multiple shows into one intensive session from which I can then spend the rest of the year recovering. Yes, it’s hot and cold and dry and wet all at the same time, but I defy you to find a more beautiful backdrop to lounge beneath for four days. There’s also something I find incredibly satisfying about making it through a weekend of Sasquatch—sporting sunburns and bruises like badges of honor, recounting harrowing tales of drunkards and overturned HoneyBuckets to gape-jawed friends, and then, of course, those moments when you hear a song you just saw performed live and immediately relive the vivid connection between musician and audience that only blossoms during the extraordinary kind of sets that are somehow so commonplace at Sasquatch. Sasquatch is instant misery and latent bliss, generous suffering and hard-earned ecstasy. It’s something you dread and pine for, all at the same time. However, not all the evils of Sasquatch are necessary ones, and I will concede that my personal Sasquatch experiences did, for the most part, improve each year as I better learned how to prepare for and navigate the festival. So, out of both the kindness of my black, merciless heart and the hope that, for some of you, reading about your own douchebaggery might jar you into self-awareness, I have constructed a list of Do’s and Do-Not’s for your immediate absorption and strict adherence, punctuated by small samples of what kind of musical greatness to expect this weekend. You’re welcome. 15 ways to make your (and my) sasquatch experience not absolutely terrible: 1. DO NOT take a dump in the floor of a HoneyBucket. First things first. This is one of the main reasons I swore off Sasquatch after the 2010 festival. I walked into not one, not two, not three, but FOUR (quatro) HoneyBuckets in which someone had wiped feces (caca) all over the interior. Mentally, emotionally, I can’t even begin to ponder the process of completing such a task. But, nonetheless, someone(s) found themselves inspired enough to attempt it, and dedicated enough to succeed. Now, I understand that there are, imaginably, mitigating circumstances which might excuse, if not explain, how an individual might suddenly find themselves exploding with poop. And even if there’s no medical reason, and you just suddenly felt the inescapable need to not defecate like a human being for a moment, all I ask is that

The finest things we experience take their own time to truly evolve. A fine wine, for instance. It matures for years, cultivating its unique aromas and tastes. And some bands do much the same—they follow their own muse, creating masterpieces instead of churning out an onslaught of half-conceived albums. Ra Ra Riot, the former baroque-pop darlings, reflect this refined maturation process. Two years after the release of their captivating album The Orchard, they return to us with a lineup change and a new album, Beta Love. We had the opportunity to discuss the venture into electronic elements with bassist Mathieu Santos.  You’ve just released the newest album, Beta Love, and it’s a bit of a departure from 2010′s The Orchard. What do you think shifted the band’s sound? I think a lot of different things. The biggest part was that we knew we wanted to approach the writing and arranging of this record differently. When we first started as a band, we had all these different instruments at our disposal, and at first, it was a strength of ours, but I think over time we sort of got into this rut. We learned how to write and arrange together so well that we just approached the songs in the same way; we were always adapting the songs to the band. It was like, “Oh, yeah, what’s the violin part going to be? What’s the cello part going to be? What’s this? What’s that?” We just started doing the same thing in every song, I think. When we approached this record, we wanted to listen to the songs once and say, “What does this song need?” Just let it develop more naturally. We also wanted to embrace things we might have been too self-conscious to embrace in the past, like a lot of the electronic elements or the thematic elements. Shortly before we started working on the record, we had a lineup change, which shakes things up. We let a lot of the decision-making happen in the studio as opposed to figuring it all out beforehand. There was a lot of spontaneity and improvisation in the studio, which also helped shape the music. Is it necessary to continue to experiment with the band’s band sound? Yeah, absolutely. Not really that it’s necessary, but it’s more natural. There’s a bunch of us in the band. As we’re all changing, inevitably as individuals and getting into new and different things, it’s only natural that the band is going to reflect those changes. It’s unnatural for anything to stay the same for a long time. It wouldn’t be any fun for us if we were just doing the same thing over and over again. Any time that we get together, we’re excited to see what’s going to come out of it and what new things we can accomplish. From where would you say the inspiration for this album came? There was a lot of eighties pop, you know, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson, Phil Collins…a lot of new wave stuff and electronic music like Devo and Kraftwerk. Dennis Herring, who produced the record, also had a huge influence in how it sounded. He was introducing us to things while we were there, particularly R&B and house music. So, there was a lot of stuff floating around. I was listening to a lot of jazz fusion. What prompted the decision to work with Dennis? We did the last record, The Orchard, on our own. We produced, recorded, and engineered it entirely ourselves, which we wanted to do. It was a fun and unique learning experience. We learned a ton in the studio and had a lot of fun making it. So, I think when it came time to make this album, we thought, “Well, we did that. Let’s see what a real pro, hands-on producer can bring to the table.” We had it sort of narrowed down to a short list, and Dennis was on it. And he was actually the first person we’d met; we were huge fans of the records he’s worked on in the past, and he had a diverse list of clientele, which was appealing to us. It was just a really great first impression. We

Yesterday, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum members got a first look at our new Rolling Stones exhibit, Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction, and we love this fan photo from the evening, shared using the hashtag #rockhallsatisfaction The exhibit opens to the public this Friday! http://rockhall.com/exhibits/rolling-stones-50-years-of-satisfaction/

The tireless and must-see Ty Segall will release his sixth solo album titled Sleeper August 20th on Drag City via vinyl, CD, MP3 and cassette. The announcement video for Sleeper features a montage of Segall sleeping in various places wearing a t-shirt with the words “couch potato” on the front. How very ironic. Today, a similar second video of Segall being awoken (this time in a tour-ready flannel) by a menacing voice warning him that it’s time for tour has been released and this time, it announces Segall’s summer tour plans. Check out the dates and the tour release video below. TY SEGALL 2013 TOUR DATES Fri. July 19 — Paris, France @ City Sounds Festival ** Thu. Aug. 1 — Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst Atrium * Sat. Aug. 3 — Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Sun. Aug. 4 — Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Sat. Aug. 24 — Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest Tue. Aug. 27 — Austin, TX @ Mohawk Outside Thu. Aug. 29 — Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Fri. Aug. 30 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Sat. Aug. 31 — Chicago, IL @ Logan Square Auditorium Mon. Sep. 2 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall ! Wed. Sep. 4 — Monterey, CA @ Golden State Theatre ! Thu. Sep. 5 — Oakland, CA @ New Parish ! Sat. Sep. 7 — Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s ! Sun. Sep. 8 — Boise, ID @ Neurolux ! Mon. Sep. 9 — Reno, NV @ Holland Project ! Sat. Dec. 1 — Camber Sands, UK @ ATP Festival ** solo performance * w/ Daughn Gibson, Mike Donovan, William Tyler ! w/ Mike Donovan ^ w/ Mike Donovan, Old Light Ty Segall’s new album, “Sleeper,” is out August 20th on Drag City.

We had to take a break for a day or two from the Daft Punk fever pitch that has invaded LMB HQ but there was some news yesterday that we can’t pass on covering. Rolling Stone ran an awesome cover story, remixes were announced for Random Access Memories, and they put a bonus track on their Japanese release for the album and it’s pretty rad. Read on, fellow robots… Daft Punk: All Hail Our Robot Overlords [Rolling Stone] Rolling Stone’s latest cover story is damn good; kudos to Jonah Weiner on laying this bad boy down. Not only did he break that the Kanye West track, “Black Skinhead,” debuted on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, is likely the Daft Punk collaboration which they spoke to him about while he was putting together the cover story. My @rollingstone Daft Punk story, out soon, broke the Kanye collab news and indicates DP worked on Black Skinhead: twitter.com/jonahweiner/st… — Jonah Weiner (@jonahweiner) May 19, 2013 And the article is fitting tribute to the hype surrounding the entire release, and it sums up a very succinct picture of how calculated and coordinated the duo in Daft Punk are, even if they appear a bit aloof about it all and purposely rebellious in their pursuit of the ultimate dance groove. The story about how they did their commercial release at Coachella is just incredible work. Definitely a must-read if you haven’t gotten your copy in the mail yet. “Today, electronic music is like an audio energy drink,” Bang­alter says. “Artists are overcompensating with this aggressive, energetic, hyperstimulating music – it’s like someone shaking you. But it can’t move people on an emotional level. It’s a way to feel alive, but?.?.?.” “It’s not deep, it’s surface,” de Homem-Christo offers. “Maybe it’s the difference between love and sex, or eroticism and pornography,” Bang­alter says. Random Access Memories Remixes Announced RunTheTrap.com was the first we saw to run with this: the duo came out on record stating that they would be doing remixes of their own music. “We’re working on some mixes ourselves,” Bangalter answered. “So yes, there will probably be Daft Punk mixes of Daft Punk. Usually we never mix ourselves, that’s something we feel we’re interested in doing this time.” You’ve got to assume other producers are going to be brought on, and based on what the duo had to say about Skrillex a few months back, I’m personally crossing my fingers to see something like that go down. Not to mention a Panda Bear remix of “Doin’ it Right” — GAH! “Horizon” Bonus Track on Random Access Memories Japanese Release Finally, if you’re a music fan in Japan then you were one of the lucky ones to get Random Access Memories with a bonus track that was not present on the US release. Thankfully the internets always win, and the track is freely floating around right now and definitely worth hearing. If you want to break away from the flock at your next DJ set, make sure you drop “Horizon” and not one of the obvious tracks like “Get Lucky,” because the “Get Lucky” remix is the first one that Daft Punk will put out and I’m sure we’ll all think it’s sick when it drops anyway. RAM on.

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day was one of many rockers to pay tribute to Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, who died on Monday at the age of 74 in Rosenheim, Germany where he was being treated for bile duct cancer.Read Full Story

As loyal concertgoers—in whatever area you may be in—we all have our favorite clubs, and along with that, our favorite bartenders. They know “our drink,” and are a key part of the concert experience for many of us. Paul Rondelli was that bartender for many people in the DC area. Paul was a longtime bartender at the 9:30 Club. The guy in the hat, the guy with that smile. Ask anyone who knew Paul, and one of the first things most people would mention is his smile. Sadly, Paul was in an auto accident on his way home from work at the 9:30 on April 29. He was surrounded by love and support in the ICU for several days while the doctors tried to assess and heal his injuries. Unfortunately, the brain damage was too severe, and Paul died on May 5, 2013. Paul left this world as a superhero, however, and because he was an organ donor, he impacted the lives of up to 100 people. Paul is survived by his wife Kate, as well as a 4-year-old daughter and a 5-month-old son. There will be an event to celebrate Paul’s life on Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day) at the 9:30 Club. THE DETAILS | The celebration of Paul’s life will be from 4-8 pm at the 9:30 Club (815 V Street, NW). This is a free, family-friendly event. Kids are welcome. There will also be a cash bar and light fare. This event will also help to raise funds for Paul’s family. There will be t-shirts for sale, and all money raised by the sale of the shirts will go directly to the family. Additional donations can also be made at the event. We will be making a memorial scrapbook for Kate and the kids at the event, so if you knew Paul and have any pictures, please feel free to them to add to the scrapbook. If you can’t make it to the event but still want to show support to Paul’s family, Paypal donations can be made to melissa@307knoxrecords.com. The Facebook event page for Paul’s Celebration can be found here. Advertise here with BSA

Brooce: Sunday headliner We’ve teamed up with Hard Rock Cafe to give away Hard Rock Calling festival tickets! We’ve got two pairs of weekend tickets up for grabs to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Black Crowes, Paul Weller, Miles Kane, Kasabian and more take the stage for one incredible weekend of rock. Hard Rock Calling takes place Saturday June 29 and Sunday 30 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. Hard Rock Calling continues Hard Rock Cafe’s commitment to hosting memorable live music events. Hard Rock owns the world’s greatest collection of music memorabilia, which is displayed at its locations around the globe. www.hardrockcalling.co.uk / www.hardrock.com Go here for the chance to win weekend tickets to Hard Rock Calling. HARD ROCK CALLING FESTIVAL LINE-UP SO FAR SATURDAY JUNE 29 KASABIAN, PAUL WELLER, MILES KANE, KODALINE, THE CRIBS, KLAXONS, TRIBES, DARK HORSES, TWIN FORKS, THE WEEKS, ELIZA AND THE BEAR, SYD ARTHUR, MY PRESERVER, STEVE CRADDOCK SUNDAY JUNE 30 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND, THE BLACK CROWES, ALABAMA SHAKES, DEAF HAVANA, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT, NEGRAMARO, JOSH DOYLA, CODY CHESNUTT, JOSH RECORD, CROWNS

Review by robbob — Time to turn?It seems so.Until X we had the traditional modern us symphonic prog rock ...still with Neal Morse impromptuBut now ...an important change in vocals participation...Ex Enchant voice is good ...and Enchant was quite a good heavy prog band...but...It seem Enchant ...and in a little less matter ...Darwin s Radio ..was imported..So then this band is not yet one of the most important symphonic prog rock bands of the us..This is no more symphonic prog ...this is a heavy prog rock band in the line of Enchant and Darwin s Radio...I really didn, t like so much this changes...3 stars

Review by Sean Trane — Almost 4.5 stars really!!!After the first RW documentary, the same warriors embarked on a riskier but more fascinating crusade, this time focalizing on the RIO movement, axing it story on the Once Upon A Time In Belgium project, which saw RIO kingpin Univers zero, Present and newcomer Aranis join forces for a mega 17-musos feast lasting about an hour at 2011 RIO-Festival in Carmaux in the mid-south of France. Yours truly was present at that yearly festivity, as is relatively often the case, but as usual chose to avoid camera attention. The documentary presents a fairly chronological order of the foundations of the RIO movement in 78, starting with the major bands' previous works prior to the chart's signature. In some ways the spirit of the RIO movement's DIY attitude and labour showed the way for the modern prog realm to count only on itself to make things happen. Perhaps a bit strange (but not so much), is that the historical perspective starts with the French band Magma, who was never considered a RIO member. Of course, the documentary moves to UZ's Daniekl Denis' passage in the French band and the halcyon days of the band. As you'll easily guess, a consequent part of the next dozens of minutes are spent investigating Henry Cow and Wyatt, Samla, Etronfou and Stormy Six's respective works and history. Then moving on to the movement's second wave of admission in the circle with Bears, Zoyd, Aksak, Present and a few others, until we reach the modern era, to include Sleepytime Gorilla, Aranis, Yugen and others. The documentary does fail to speak about the USA side of things, first with The Muffins and then with the 5/Plague/Totemist galaxy of things.On the interview side, we're of course seeing most of the familiar and unavoidable faces of then and today's scene, beit musicians, producers, festival organizers and label owners; plus a bunch of notable nobodies (minus yours truly, despite being a nobody as well) just giving the barren enthusiastic opinions or knowledge. So we get a fairly wide-encompassing spectrum of the RIO past and current scene, wide enough to foray in Zeuhl and Canterbury scenes as well. Should the RW crowd do another rockumentary, I'd guess that they'd investigate these two small genres that were born on their respective side of the Manche/Channel. As for this seconf instalment, I found it more interesting than its predecessor, despite my knowing a fair bit of what was presented. One of the main improvement I found on this second episode, is that there is a lot less communal self-satisfaction that I had detected in the first "chapter".