Y-Rock On XPN

The Y-Rock “Booth”

eric — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:02:02 +0000

Tuesday night, Mancunian sweethearts James performed a terrific show at the Trocadero. Along with lots of tunes from their great new album, Hey Ma, the band played plenty of their best-loved classic songs, like “Say Something”, “Sit Down” and the iconic “Laid”. The show’s real highlight, though, was during “Born Of Frustration”, from 1992’s Seven (which happens to be my favorite album of theirs), when lead singer Tim Booth leaped up onto the stage speaker and climbed into the balcony. Through the magic of his wireless microphone, he sang the whole tune, war whoops and all, while seated on the balcony railing at the back of the theater. On his way back to the stage, Booth stood on top of the speaker for a good while, giving me the chance to snap this shot:

Some people will do anything to get close to one of our banners…

coolest picture ever

joey o. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:16:13 +0000

Stephen Colbert & Elvis Costello sing a holiday duet as part of Colbert’s upcoming Christmas special:

More info here: http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/a-colbert-xmas.html

All the black is really white, if you believe it.

joey o. — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:33:09 +0000

Last night’s Nine Inch Nails show at the Wachovia Center was the greatest visual spectacle I’ve ever seen in my life. Trent & the gang have crafted a mind-blowing light show, one that goes way beyond cool strobe light and effects, bringing in new LED technology and videos that interact with the music and the musicians themselves. Each song had its own intricate visual effects…sweeping outdoor footage during the Ghosts instrumentals (Trent plays the vibraphone! And a melodica?!), interactive effects for “Echoplex” and ”Only” (is that choreographed? Or more likely, someone controlling things via laptop….). Trent ‘wiping away’ the screen with a spotlight-as-paint brush! “The Great Destroyerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” with the laser-gun-effects battle-as-visual chaos (with the ‘blue screen of death’ making a blink-and-you-missed-it appearance!). It’s the only time I remember a crowd going “WHOA!” audiablly, multiple times during a concert, as a reaction to the visuals. Four songs in, during the blinding, sweeping lights of “March Of The Pigs,” my girlfriend turned to me and said, “There IS going to be a tour DVD right? Trent’s too smart not to put one out!” And yes Trent, if you’re reading, please put out a DVD of this tour. If you missed the Philly show, you MUST see what NIN has come up with this time. And if you live somewhere else NIN is coming to later this year, do yourself a favor and GO!

After Lollapalooza, our own Adam Blyweiss called the “Lights In The Sky” tour “one concert you must see before you die” and for once, the reality actually surpassed the hype.

Setlist after the cut…

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Lollapalooza in Review-za!

adam — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:37:41 +0000

My official Lollapalooza 2008 coverage has been up for a little while at mxdwn.com, including exclusive photography and an interview with Saul Williams.

I also have a Chicago travelogue, behind-the-scenes stuff, and more pictures on my LiveJournal, here and here.

Enjoy!

Radiohead @ Susquehana Bank Center 8/12/08

casey — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:26:35 +0000

I am bad at writing show reviews, especially when they are this good. But briefly here are some thoughts about last night’s Radiohead show in Camden:

Awesome. 2nd Row Tickets. Lots of lights. Where did they put those cameras? Loud. Soft. Civilized crowd. LOTS OF SONGS FROM THE BENDS!!!!!! and just a freaking amazing show…

Here’s the set list.

01. 15 Step
02. There There
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. The National Anthem
06. Videotape
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Where I End And You Begin
10. Faust Arp
11. No Surprises
12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
13. The Bends
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing Up The Walls
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. House of Cards
19. Lucky
20. Go Slowly
21. Just
22. Street Spirit

Encore 2
23. Reckoner
24. Planet Telex
25. Everything In Its Right Place

…but that was when I ruled the world.

joey o. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:26:15 +0000

Coldplay put on a very entertaining, but slightly brief, show on Friday night at the Wachovia Center here in Philadelphia. We arrived in time for Philly’s own Santogold, whose outstanding album sounded fun in a live setting, but would have played much better at the TLA or Troc instead of the arena-sized acoustics. But thus is the way of the opening act.

Coldplay have mastered the concept of playing arenas, as the band has a mini side stage, catwalks for Chris Martin to prance around, magical spheres featuring state-of-the-art projection technology and even popped up in the middle of the crowd at one of the concourse entrances for a two-song acoustic set. The band was in fine form, their set was a mix of crowd pleasers and the best of the new record, as expected. For a band that plays arenas and charges as much as they do for tickets, they should be able to play more than an hour and a half set at this point in their career though. The final encore was a nice, loose surprise though. And it must be said that with his silly jibes at Genesis and Fox News, Chris Martin is still one of the funniest frontmen around

Setlist:

Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Yes
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (side stage/techno version)
Speed Of Sound
Yellow
Lost!
The Scientist (Acoustic)
Death Will Never Conquer (Acoustic)
Politik
Lovers In Japan
Death And All His Friends
Green Eyes
The Dubliners (new song)

Y-Rockin’ Israel!

cat — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:38:06 +0000

Hello Y-Rockers,

Wow, we’ve had this blog for quite some time, and this is my inaugural post. I can’t believe what a slacker I am. Ehh actually I can.

I’ve decided to get off my bum to share a picture with you. A friend of mine recently took a trip to Israel, and he just showed me the pictures he took. I was thrilled and proud to see that in some of the shots, he’s wearing his brand new Y-Rock t-shirt! He informed me that there are now several elderly Israelis who are installing WiFi on their mules so that they can listen to Y-Rock all day!

Enjoy

Cat

The Thunder from Down Under

adam — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:16:09 +0000

All of a sudden there’s a market glut of great indie-dance coming not out of the U.S., Britain, or France… but Australia, of all places. This might have something to do with a cool little New South Wales label called Modular that most of these acts call home, but hey, keeping it in the family is cool, too.

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R.E.M./Modest Mouse/The National @ the Mann Center - 6/18/08

joey o. — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:31 +0000

Setlists! Video! Eddie Vedder and Johnny Marr!

(Sorry, I missed the National’s set, and I’m not sure where to find the setlist online…)

R.E.M. set list (with some commentary):
These Days
Living Well is the Best Revenge
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
Wolves, Lower (second time played on this tour…the band has been mixing in 4 of the 5 Chronic Town classics…)
Man-Sized Wreath
Turn You Inside-Out (first appearance from the second-hardest rocker on Green)
Imitation of Life
Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance (unreleased song! It was played during the Dublin rehersal gigs last summer and possibly recorded for Accelerate, but didn’t make the cut…this was the first outing of it since then.)
Ignoreland (staple of the entire North American tour, after not having been played EVER, despite dating back to Automatic For The People)
Bad Day
Hollow Man
The Great Beyond
Houston
Electrolite
Walk Unafraid
The One I Love
Find the River
Let Me In (another ‘08 tour staple, totally redone as a campfire elegy instead of the mournful feedbacky song it originated as on Monster)
Departure
Life and How to Live It
Orange Crush
I’m Gonna DJ

encore:
Supernatural Superserious
Losing My Religion
Begin the Begin (with Eddie Vedder!! I had theorized for weeks that he’d make a cameo, since Pearl Jam play Camden tonight & tomorrow and the bands are longtime friends. Apparently all of PJ was in the house, Eddie came out in disguise with glasses and a baseball hat and danced around like a happy fool when not rocking out.)
Fall on Me (with Johnny Marr…he started joining the band for the end of the encore about halfway through the tour)
Man on the Moon (with Johnny Marr)

Modest Mouse set list:

The View
Satin In A Coffin
Dance Hall
Fire It Up
Dashboard
Bukowski
Trucker’s Atlas
Here It Comes
We’ve Got Everything
Paper Thin Walls
Spitting Venom
> I Came As A Rat

And as a bonus, some video of Vedder on stage during “Begin the Begin” (after the jump):

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Beep boop beep: Radiohead’s “Nude”, as performed by your old middle school computer lab

TJ — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:43:39 +0000

Gizmodo has a terrifying video up this morning - a cover of Radiohead’s “Nude”, created by a gentleman named James Houston. Mr. Houston assembled his robot chorus out of an old scanner, a dot matrix printer, and an array of hard-drive speakers to give you an idea of what music will sound like when all the humans are dead.

Resist the tempation to close your browser after the first 60 seconds of this turns out to be nothing but a squealing 56k modem. You will be rewarded for your patience when the spinning disks and clunky flatbed scanner sync up to make beautiful music together. Not since Beck’s Gameboy Variations has anyone tapped our nostalgia for obsolete technology so effectively.