XX WHEW!

wow...that was fun! and exhausting of course but mainly fun!

amazing sets, amazing people, all kinds of amazing and recovery is in full swing over here.

i'll try to find an efficient way to share some pics, but i'll leave the recapping to folks like Pitchfork and the Washington Post and Paste and the Triangle Music blog....i'm sure there are others!

Aquarium Drunkard has weighed in...

Here We Go

Birthday week for Merge kicks off tonight...can't wait for this train to get rolling!

A nap would be prudent.

Transfiguring

XX Merge ain't the only music festival game in town this summer, and by town i mean North Carolina! yes we're gearing up here in the Triangle for this week, but a couple weeks down the road there's an awesome-looking festival happening up in the mountains, where it could be 10 degrees cooler than it will be everywhere else....Asheville is the home to the fabulous Harvest Records and their festival, Transfigurations, featuring Kurt Vile, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Books, and many more, should be amazing.

Seaport Rock / Dance Music

had a great, sweaty time at the Seaport on Friday night, Versus was awesome and the weather held off until just after we finished, leaving us to walk home in the rain with guitars, but at least we got the show in! great energy from the crowd in a strange (but cool in the end) setting.

Brooklyn Vegan has some pics from the show.

Someone is hoping that they found their tru love there as well! Hilarious and kind of charming actually.

flew back to NC Saturday in time for Merge With Motion at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, featuring dance pieces set to Merge music and it was really engaging and all over the place and great. hopefully there's some video from that show, a nice way to kick off what promises to be a crazy week....

Should Be Practicing

ok maybe we should be practicing for the show this Friday at the Seaport... instead we're spending some time at Overdub Lane in Durham with our pal Scott Solter, grabbing Jon between his many tours and TV appearances, which include tonight's Jimmy Fallon show with Aimee Mann!

There Are Some Magazines

yes, some magazines still exist in their real, hold-able, page flippable editions, printed on paper!

there's a great one that we've had a couple issues of lying around the office here which i finally picked up when i noticed HR of the Bad Brains on the cover, it's called waxpoetics and it covers all kinds of music in what it calls "the African American musical tradition." great stories about obscure records which will make you want to hunt them down, plus in depth interviews / features as well. good stuff!

This Is Happening UPDATE

here at the office everyone's just trying to get a little work done leading up to the big XX Merge festival coming up...well apparently we are all just a little uptight and needed some sweet tunes to lighten our load! so two ladies took it upon themselves to park their Jetta (i know it's a Jetta because there are giant ROCK THE JETTA logos all over it, along with pictures of one of the ladies) outside our office, set up a small PA (not small enough) and serenade the denizens of downtown Durham with some serious sub-Lilith Faire fare. i can't tell if they're advertising the singer lady or the car or the laptop the other woman is holding.

UPDATE ok so of course this was not accidental (that she was on our sidewalk) -- Karla Davis is trying to get signed! and apparently headed for Yep Roc after this. it's funny that people take the time and effort to go on sidewalk promotional tours but don't take 2 minutes to look at a record label's catalog or website before commencing the serenading.

You Should Be Dancing Yeah

it's summer in Durham which means the American Dance Festival is in town. it's a bit like Full Frame Film Festival in that there are a ton of great things happening and i rarely get to any of them, but we try. good article in the Times yesterday about choreographers at ADF this year exploring the meeting points of modern dance and ballet. Unfortunately Mark Morris' company is appearing on the same nights at XX Merge so we won't make it to that.

All kinds of dance will cross paths with Merge music at the Merge With Motion event July 18th at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Choreographers have created special pieces to accompany Merge music and will perform them to the recorded versions of songs by artists like Destroyer and Caribou, and there will be two works to accompany a live performance by the Rosebuds. Should be a great night! And a good warmup for the events to follow that week...TICKETS HERE

Happy 4th!

predicting the soundtrack to an excellent 4th of July here in NC:

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Jorge Ben - Africa Brasil
Prince - 1999
Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
REM - Reckoning
The new Clean album (Mister Pop)
Smart's Palace (Numero Group)
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Beg, Scream & Shout Box o' 60's Soul (Rhino)
(check this amazing clip of William Bell singing "You Don't Miss Your Water")
New Order - Technique
Jackie Mittoo - Keyboard King at Studio One

and in a nice bit of news to take to the weekend, the HELP committee has produced a health care bill containing the public option, at a lower cost than the CBO had predicted, and even our NC holdout Sen. Kay Hagan has signed onto it! the bill has some weaknesses, but it's a great start.

have a good one, everybody!

Music Sounds Good

when you listen to it:

Kurt Vile - Constant Hitmaker
Sparks - Angst In My Pants
Archie Shepp - Steam
Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship
Wilco - Wilco, the Album