First time, I did it for the hell of it
Stuck it on the back of my tongue and then swallowed it
Second time, things are getting easier
Blow me down, this wind's getting breezier
Third time lucky, maybe feeling fuzzy
Oh my god, we're getting hippy dippy
Four, six, seven, man I'm in heaven
- Super Furry Animals
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Oakland Weekender 2024
twitter.com/oakland_weekndr
The indie music festival Oakland Weekender is returning to Oakland this week: June 6-8, 2024.
The three-day music festival is taking place at the Thee Stork Club, in Oakland, San Francisco. If you decide to get the upgraded 3-night pass, it will come with an Oakland Weekender t-shirt, poster and a cassette tribute to The Velvet Underground featuring a cover song from each band playing the festival. It is totally worth it, you don’t get this kind of gifts from other more expensive music festival.
Similar to Popfest (which was held in Oakland, New York, Athens, and more), Oakland Weekender promises Slumberland or MicroIndie-type twee/indiepop bands, such as our favorite All Girl Summer Fun Band, who playing on June 6. We previously described AGSFB in April 2007 as “All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all-girl fun band… the band came into existence after Kim Baxter approached Jen Sbragia after a Softies show in Portland in 1998 with her music tape. That summer, they got together, and well the rest is history as they say.”
The other big name on the Weekender show is Lunchbox, playing on June 8th. The 30-year-old band was actually on a California tour in May to promote their new Slumberland album Pop and Circumstance (which was released on May 10, 2024). The new record is described as a mix of British pop, but with a Southern California pop sensibility.
Full lineup:
twitter.com/oakland_weekndr
The indie music festival Oakland Weekender is returning to Oakland this week: June 6-8, 2024.
The three-day music festival is taking place at the Thee Stork Club, in Oakland, San Francisco. If you decide to get the upgraded 3-night pass, it will come with an Oakland Weekender t-shirt, poster and a cassette tribute to The Velvet Underground featuring a cover song from each band playing the festival. It is totally worth it, you don’t get this kind of gifts from other more expensive music festival.
Similar to Popfest (which was held in Oakland, New York, Athens, and more), Oakland Weekender promises Slumberland or MicroIndie-type twee/indiepop bands, such as our favorite All Girl Summer Fun Band, who playing on June 6. We previously described AGSFB in April 2007 as “All Girl Summer Fun Band (or AGSFB), are just that ... an all-girl fun band… the band came into existence after Kim Baxter approached Jen Sbragia after a Softies show in Portland in 1998 with her music tape. That summer, they got together, and well the rest is history as they say.”
The other big name on the Weekender show is Lunchbox, playing on June 8th. The 30-year-old band was actually on a California tour in May to promote their new Slumberland album Pop and Circumstance (which was released on May 10, 2024). The new record is described as a mix of British pop, but with a Southern California pop sensibility.
Full lineup:
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June 6th - Night 1 • All Girl Summer Fun Band • Neutrals • The Smashing Times • Lightheaded • Artsick • DJ Poindexter |
June 7th - Night 2 • Poundsign • Seablite • Maria • Mo Dotti • Tony Jay • DJ Jessica B. |
June 8th - Night 3 • Lunchbox • Yea-Ming & The Rumors • Chime School • Kids on a Crime Spree • Lavender Blush • DJ Kid Frostbite |
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Vampire Weekend
vampireweekend.com
I had no idea that New York’s Vampire Weekend have gotten so big. They are playing the Armory in Minneapolis at the end of July, and this venue is massive (8,400 capacity!) In fact, demand was so high, the band even added a second night for the Armory, you can see them on July 30th or 31st (or both if you’re feeling dangerous).
We saw the band in April 2008 at the Triple Rock Social Club and wrote, “You know me, the more hyped a band is, the more they have to prove to me that they are worth all the buzz. Fortunately, I was impressed with them. They clearly know how to manipulate their audience ("this is a tall order, but could you guys ....") and the band played really well. The one downfall is that they are still very, very young (and I don't mean the way Ezra Koenig looks like he's barely 18 with his dashing good looks and polo shirt). They barely had enough material to make the show last for an hour. In fact, they played their entire debut album, plus two other songs. Of the two songs, one of them is untitled as of this writing - and it requires the keyboardist, Rostam Batmanglij, to pick up an extra guitar. This new song is actually pretty good, possibly the best song on the whole set... plus I was quite surprised with the way Batmanglij handled the guitar with ease.”
Ra Ra Riot will be support for this tour. The band released their first music in five years, a single called “The Wish”. The single was co-written and produced by their friend and longtime collaborator Rostam Batmanglij (Remi Wolf, Carly Rae Jepsen, HAIM), mixed by Andrew Maury (Madi Diaz, Tegan and Sara, Shawn Mendes), and mastered by Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar (Coldplay, Jacob Collier, Beck).
Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles adds, “Rostam and I have been longtime collaborators and have gotten to work on all kinds of different projects together over the years. It’s always something fun and exciting and new. When we got into his studio recently, we found we’d both been getting into fingerpicking – some folk stuff, like Fairport Convention, Joni Mitchell, Anne Briggs, Judy Sill, that kind of stuff. And so we just went from there. It started with a riff I had, super rough, with a sort of nebulous story, and he helped simplify the fingerpicking pattern and start molding it into more of a specific story and vibe. Rostam added some organ - Hammond B3 - and some mandolin, and Joey, his assistant, who’s studied Latin percussion, really added a lot of movement to it. Over the course of two trips to LA, we wrote, re-wrote and recorded the song almost in real time, and I think it’s something really new for us. To me, the song’s about the power of imagining a different world – not necessarily in a fantastic or escapist way, but in an empowering way. About manifesting these deeply held wants and desires. Having these powerful dream visions and trying to capture that moment before you fall deeply into dreaming. Rostam and I love working on songs that can read as both happy and sad at the same time and using that tension to amplify and understand the depth of these feelings and visions.”
We saw the band in Sep 2016, and said, “The group started with one of their earliest songs, 2008’s ‘Too Too Too Fast’ co-written by the band’s original late drummer, John Pike (but excluded early hit, ‘Dying is Fine’, which was about his passing). The taste of the new began with 2013’s ‘Binary Mind’ with vocalist Miles easily sliding between mid-range vocals to more falsetto as violinist Zeller at his left, led the added elegance with added strings. Closing tracks ‘Water’, which throbbed with electro-bass and ‘I Need Your Light’ which was also beat propelled, were both from the new album, produced on record by ex-Vampire Weekend keyboardist and longtime friend of the band, Rostam Batmanglij.”
Tour dates:
July 22, 2024 in Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theater+
July 23, 2024 in Lincoln, NE @ Pinewood Bowl Theater+
July 25, 2024 in Maryland Heights, MO @ Saint Louis Music Park+
July 26, 2024 in Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island+
July 27, 2024 in Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island+
July 30, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory+
July 31, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory+
August 1, 2024 in Milwaukee, WI @ BMO Pavilion+
+with Vampire Weekend
vampireweekend.com
I had no idea that New York’s Vampire Weekend have gotten so big. They are playing the Armory in Minneapolis at the end of July, and this venue is massive (8,400 capacity!) In fact, demand was so high, the band even added a second night for the Armory, you can see them on July 30th or 31st (or both if you’re feeling dangerous).
Vampire Weekend (03 Apr 2008)
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Ra Ra Riot will be support for this tour. The band released their first music in five years, a single called “The Wish”. The single was co-written and produced by their friend and longtime collaborator Rostam Batmanglij (Remi Wolf, Carly Rae Jepsen, HAIM), mixed by Andrew Maury (Madi Diaz, Tegan and Sara, Shawn Mendes), and mastered by Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar (Coldplay, Jacob Collier, Beck).
Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles adds, “Rostam and I have been longtime collaborators and have gotten to work on all kinds of different projects together over the years. It’s always something fun and exciting and new. When we got into his studio recently, we found we’d both been getting into fingerpicking – some folk stuff, like Fairport Convention, Joni Mitchell, Anne Briggs, Judy Sill, that kind of stuff. And so we just went from there. It started with a riff I had, super rough, with a sort of nebulous story, and he helped simplify the fingerpicking pattern and start molding it into more of a specific story and vibe. Rostam added some organ - Hammond B3 - and some mandolin, and Joey, his assistant, who’s studied Latin percussion, really added a lot of movement to it. Over the course of two trips to LA, we wrote, re-wrote and recorded the song almost in real time, and I think it’s something really new for us. To me, the song’s about the power of imagining a different world – not necessarily in a fantastic or escapist way, but in an empowering way. About manifesting these deeply held wants and desires. Having these powerful dream visions and trying to capture that moment before you fall deeply into dreaming. Rostam and I love working on songs that can read as both happy and sad at the same time and using that tension to amplify and understand the depth of these feelings and visions.”
Ra Ra Riot (27 Sep 2016)
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Tour dates:
+with Vampire Weekend
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Vacant Weekend
linktr.ee/vacantweekend
Manchester based trio Vacant Weekend announced their new release “Funny Dad”, available on May 31, 2024. This is the second track (after “Talk”) from the upcoming EP, due out this summer via Manchester indie label Cosmic Glue.
The song is described by the band as “the closest thing we have to a ballad…” they later expand, “It’s just raw emotion poured into sound, and that sort of thing is only able to happen in a room you really feel comfortable being vulnerable in - being friends for most of our lives, it’s a privilege we’re always afforded. After that, the lyrics just fit into place, they’re so sparse but it’s as if most of what needs to be said is already present in the music.”
If you’re in the UK, go check them out at one of these live concerts:
14th June, Newcastle, The Globe
16th June, London, The Windmill
17th June, Liverpool, Jacaranda
19th June, Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
20th June, Kendal, Glisky
21st June, Manchester, Low Four
linktr.ee/vacantweekend
Manchester based trio Vacant Weekend announced their new release “Funny Dad”, available on May 31, 2024. This is the second track (after “Talk”) from the upcoming EP, due out this summer via Manchester indie label Cosmic Glue.
The song is described by the band as “the closest thing we have to a ballad…” they later expand, “It’s just raw emotion poured into sound, and that sort of thing is only able to happen in a room you really feel comfortable being vulnerable in - being friends for most of our lives, it’s a privilege we’re always afforded. After that, the lyrics just fit into place, they’re so sparse but it’s as if most of what needs to be said is already present in the music.”
If you’re in the UK, go check them out at one of these live concerts:
If your band is coming to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, please email details to [email protected] with a good lead time. Thank you.
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