Of Monsters and Men

Amanda’s SD Concert Calendar 5/28-6/3

Posted on by Amanda

Happy Sunday! It’s a long weekend for most people (Happy Memorial Day!) and it’s been a sunny and lazy one at that. I just finished eating some horrible food (I’m blaming my healthy eating habits this week. Moderation, right?) and am currently enjoying the activity of doing nothing. I’m sure that will change soon enough so I will enjoy this while I can. I suggest you do the same. And get out to some awesome shows this week! I’m looking forward to X-Fest most of all.

Monday: Party/Rest

Tuesday: Chasing Kings and The Darrows @ Soda Bar @830 $5
AND: Barcelona @ Griffin @8 $12
AND: K. Flay @ Casbah @9 $10/$12
AND: Greg Laswell @ Belly Up @8

Wednesday: Horse Feathers @ Casbah @9 $12/$14
AND: Gillian Welch @ Humphrey’s
AND: Everlast @ Belly Up @9 $20/$22
AND: Scott Mathiason and the Shifty Eyed Dogs @ Lestats @830

Thursday: Sugarland @ Cricket Wireless @730

Friday: The Duke Spirit @ Casbah @930 $20
AND: Vonda Shepard @ Anthology @730 $10-$42
AND: Jamestown Revival @ Lestats @8
AND: Skyline Union @ Griffin @9

Saturday: Steve Poltz CD Release @ Anthology @730 $10-$35
AND: Miss Erika Davies @ Tin Can @9 $6
AND: Aaron Bowen @ Lestats @830

Sunday: X-Fest feat. Jane’s Addiction, Garbage, Angels and Airwaves, P.O.D., Neon Trees, Grouplove, Eve 6, Of Monsters and Men @ Cricket Wireless @3 $15-$75
AND: SPF 949 feat: Santigold, Naked and Famous, Imagine Dragons, and Electric Guest @ Oceanside Pier Amphitheater @4 $20
AND: Mogwai @ Belly Up
AND: Tom Freund @ Lestats @830

Keep in Mind:
June 4th- Donovan Frankenreiter @ Belly Up @9
June 7th- For The Sender @ Lestats
June 8th- Cobra Starship @ SD County Fair
June 9th- Wayward Sons @ Belly Up
June 9th- Family Wagon and Terraplane Sun @ Casbah
June 11th- Pinback @ Casbah
June 13th- The Temper Trap wtih The Crocodiles @ House of Blues
June 14th- Motion City Soundtrack and The Henry Clay People @ Casbah
June 16th- Oyserfest feat. Vokab Kompany, The Silent Comedy and Little Hurricane
June 20th- NEEDTOBREATHE @ Birch Aquarium @ Scripps
June 21st- Hawthorne Heights @ Casbah
June 27th- Warped Tour @ Cricket Wireless
June 28th- Get Back Loretta @ Casbah
June 30th- The Nervous Wreckords and Maren Parusel @ Casbah
July 7th- Dead Feather Moon @ Belly Up
July 22nd- Alberta Cross @ Casbah
July 29th- Tenacious D @ SDSU Open Air Theater
August 2nd- Murder By Death and Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons @ Casbah
August 11th- Saint Motel and Italian Japanese @ Casbah
August 13th- Franz Ferdinand @ House of Blues
August 15th- Fun @ SDSU Open Air Theater
August 15th- The Dunwells @ Birch Aquarium @ Scripps
October 4th- The Black Keys @ Valley View Casino Center
October 4th- Florence + The Machine @ Cricket Wireless
October 16th- Bombay Bicycle Club @ House of Blues

Kristen’s SXSW ’12 Mix – Part 1

Posted on by Kristen

One of the things I love most about SXSW is the opportunity it provides every year to discover great new artists. The following mix reflects some of the bands and musicians I’ve added to my “watch list” as a result of SXSW 2012. Enjoy!

1. Of Monsters and Men – “Little Talks”

There is a reason why this group from Iceland is selling out venues around the country. I mean, how catchy is this song?

 

2. The Good Natured – “Skeleton”

Actually caught this band at SXSW last year, but I don’t think I remembered that until I was going through this year’s artist list and I recalled how much I enjoyed this group and this song

3. Avalanche City – “Love love love”

Everytime I hear this song, I smile

 

4. The Apache Relay– “Home is Not Places”

“Home is not places, it is love” what more needs to be said?

 

Listen! Learn! Love!

~ Kristen

Kristen’s LA Concert Calendar: 3/20-3/25

Posted on by Kristen

Just got back from the long drive from Austin, TX where we spent a glorious week immersed in the musical insanity that is SXSW. Check out our site for some recaps of our experience (http://www.localmusicnation.net/). Also, I did some coverage for High Voltage Magazine, so check that out as well (http://www.iamhighvoltage.com/festivals/). Due to overwhelming exhaustion, I have little sense of space and time but I made a to do list and at the top is “put out this week’s calendar” so here we go! (p.s. I am writing this wearing a bunny ears and a tiara…leftovers from some birthday shenanigans).

Some people may be all showed out after a week of non-stop concerts, but honestly, I’m already feeling some withdrawal. Fortunately this week is full of amazing musical opportunities, including some new SXSW finds like fiN, Morning Parade, and Marcus Foster. Here are my picks:

Tuesday: Ben Rector and NEEDTOBREATHE at Club Nokia (8pm)
ALSO: Harper Blynn at The Hotel Cafe (10pm)
ALSO: Of Monsters and Men at The Troubadour (10pm)
ALSO: The War on Drugs and Sharon Van Etten at The Avalon (8pm)
ALSO: The Driftwood Singers at The Satellite (9pm)

 

Weds: Tournament of Hearts, Satellite, Boyce Avenue at The Avalon (7pm)
ALSO: Paul McDonald at The Hotel Cafe (10pm)
ALSO: Of Monsters and Men at The Troubadour (10pm)
ALSO: Wicker at The Roxy (8pm)
ALSO: The Watkins Family Hour at The Largo (8:30)
ALSO: The Naked and Famous at The Wiltern (8pm)
ALSO: The Ting Tings at The El Rey (9pm)

 

Thursday: The Lumineers at The Hotel Cafe (9pm)
ALSO: Morning Parade, The Other Side of Morning, Zero1, Oedipus at The Roxy (7pm)
ALSO: Eddie Cohn at Genghis Cohen (9pm)
ALSO: The Ting Tings at The El Rey (9pm)

Friday: Brian Wright and Truth & Salvage Co. at The Troubadour (9, 10)…this is last Truth & Salvage show in LA before the band moves to Nashville
ALSO: Marcus Foster, The Lumineers and Whispertown Record Release Show with Buddy, Haim, Jonathan Rice, etc. (7, 9, 11)
ALSO: Juke Kartel and fIN at The Viper Room (11, 12)
ALSO: The Nervous Wreckords and Robert Schwartzman at The Satellite (9pm)

 

Saturday: Marcus Foster and Jesse Thomas at The Hotel Cafe (7, 9)
ALSO: Run Run Run at The Viper Room (9pm)
ALSO: Allen Stone at The Troubadour (10:15)

 

Sunday: Allen Stone at The Troubadour (10:15)

 

 

To Keep in Mind:
March 30th: All American Rejects at The Troubadour
March 31st: Tyrone Wells at The Roxy
April 1st: Charlotte Martin at The Bootleg Bar
April 4th/5th: Dan Layus (of Augustana) at The Hotel Cafe
April 10th: Neon Trees at The Troubadour
April 11th: Mike Doughty at Bootleg Theater
April 12th: Joseph Arthur at The Largo
April 18th: Dar Williams at The Largo
April 19th: Foxy Shazam at The Roxy
April 13th-15th AND 20th– 22nd: Coachella
April 24th: The Milk Carton Kids at The Largo
April 25th: Ben Kweller at The El Rey
April 26th: Jasmine Ash at The Roxy
April 26th: Zoe Keating at The Largo
April 27th: Ingrid Michaelson at The Troubadour
May 2nd: Cage the Elephant at The Mayan
May 3rd: James Morrison at The Avalon
May 8th: Snow Patrol at The Hollywood Palladium
May 10th: Jay Nash at The Hotel Cafe
May 11th: Imagine Dragons at The Troubadour
May 19th: Eric Hutchinson and Graffiti6 at The Troubadour
May 30th: Eve 6 at The Troubadour
June 3rd: Deas Vail at The Troubadour
June 5th: Ben Howard at The Troubadour
June 13th and 14th: Phantom Planet at The Troubadour
June 16th: Thrice at Club Nokia

 

~ Kristen

http://www.localmusicnation.net/

http://twitter.com/#%21/_localmusicnat

SXSW Recap: Friday 3/16

Posted on by Kristen

Today. Today was a good day. Nay, today was a great day! It seems that the severe lack of sleep and the intense physical pain of being on your feet all day that almost brought me down yesterday was nearly nonexistent today. Perhaps, my body is just adjusting to the sxsw schedule. As a result, spirits were high, adventures were had, new friends were made, and, of course, amazing musical experiences were around every corner.

Perhaps the good spirits stemmed from the fact that I got to sleep in this morning. We got up around 10:30 and made our way to the Motorola Moonshine Bar and Grill for a lovely breakfast of fried asparagus, spinach and artichoke dip, and a yogurt parfait. Of course there was also coconut water involved, because there is free coconut water at just about every event here (new trend?).

My morning musical selections were largely at Frye’s Showcase at Buffalo Billiards, with a brief interlude to the Paste Party where I was reminded of how much I enjoy The Lumineers. At BB’s, I got a taste of Tribes, my first Imagine Dragons set of SXSW, a lovely show from Honeyhoney, and a killer/blow your socks off/face melting experience with Dead Sara. The Dead Sara set marked the second afternoon mosh pit I’ve been involve with in the last two days (yesterday’s was Semi Precious Weapons).  Seeing them makes me so happy, but at the same time sad in the realization that they are soon to blow up and I’ll no longer be able to see them in such intimate venues.

Unfortunately, Dead Sara’s set started late and ended up conflicting directly with The Silent Comedy’s show at The Bayou Lounge. The upside of this was that it helped establish my afternoon plan of going over to Quantum Collective’s party on the Whole Foods Rooftop where we enjoyed eating Oogies popcorn (my fave popcorn brand) and dancing to Voxhaul Broadcast, The Silent Comedy, and Imagine Dragons. It was a little windy up on the roof and hats went flying during The Silent Comedy set, but the guys put on a great performance and sang us a new song.  A dance party broke out during Imagine Dragon’s last song…apparently this was filmed as we all had to sign waivers (who knows where an image of me looking ridiculous might end up).

After stuffing my bag with the delicious free snacks lying around (granola bars, pirate’s booty, popcorn, coconut water- of course) we headed back over to the east side for our evening. I rocked out to a couple songs from Bethpage Black before venturing to Stubb’s to see Ed Sheeran. Not only did I completely fall in love with this Brit and his tunes, I somehow ended up in the photo pit and was finally able to put to use my press pass on my camera. After Ed, I raced over to Rusty’s to catch a bit of Queen Caveat rock the main stage before heading to ND to enjoy Free Energy (one of the best dance parties in town!). My final planned stop of the night was the ATN Showcase at The Bayou Lounge to do some more dancing with Queen Caveat and Wicker. While there, I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in nearly 15 years. She is a huge fan of Wicker so seeing them and then meeting members of the band simply made her day. I don’t know what was more fun, seeing some great music or watching my friend talking to a fave band for the first time.

At this point, I thought my day was over. However, there was one more adventure to be had. I was walking back to the apartment when I heard a familiar tune hit my ears. I paused, turned direction, and headed towards the music. I ended up at Band HQ jumping up and down front row for Saint Motel. After their set was over, I chatted with a couple friends for a minute and headed home. Then I spent the next couple of hours recapping my day and catching up with my lovely roommates who had sxsw adventures of their own.  Now it’s time to get some sleep and do it all over again tomorrow. Here are some of the events I’m looking forward to for Saturday:

  • 10:30: Rachael Ray’s Party at Stubb’s featuring Imagine Dragons (11:30) and Of Monsters and Men (12:30).
  • Quantum Collective’s Whole Foods Rooftop Party featuring Allen Stone (12:30), The Lumineers (2pm), Ume (2:45), Graffiti6 (3:30), Rachel Yamagata (5:45)
  • 4pm: Semi Precious Weapons at The SoHo Lounge
  • 7pm: The Hotel Café Showcase at St. David’s featuring Rosie and Me, Erin McLaughlin, Elizabeth and the Catapult, Michal P Hinson, The Milk Carton Kids, Jesse Thomas, The Lumineers, Madi Diaz, FIrehorse, Whispertown, LP, Rachel Yamagata
  • 11pm: Maverick Sabre at The British Embassy (Latitude 30)
  • Late night at the Pure Volume House featuring Shiny Toy Guns (1:45), Electric Touch (2:30), Youngblood Hawke (3am)

 

I can’t believe it’s almost over…also, Happy St. Patty’s Day!!

Also, got some sweet swag today:

~ Kristen