New music is the best. It’s food for your brain, manna for your soul. All you need are open ears, an open mind and an open heart. Don’t let your taste atrophy away as you listen to those same albums from your sonically impressionable years (~ages 12 – 22) over and over, the ones you inevitably wind up fast forwarding through, even your favorite tracks, before they’re over. The new music doesn’t even need to be new, so much as it needs to be new to you. Explore what’s out there. Don’t be satisfied. Ever. A couple weeks ago I was talking to my mother’s 55 year-old cousin-in-law and he’s into Skrillex. To each his own, but that man is young at heart, my friends.

The following is a list of albums that have made their way into my heart this year, many will remain there indefinitely. Also, I like making lists and comparing things.

1. Dr. John – Locked Down [swamp funk meets garage rock]

You wouldn’t think Akron, Ohio would have much to offer New Orleans. But Dan Auerbach (producer; The Black Keys) is the best thing to happen to a Mac Rebennack (aka The Night Tripper aka Dr. John) album in 40 years. A return to form with updated production that preserves New Orleans with just enough gritty garage peppered across the album.

Key Tracks: Locked Down, Revolution, Eleggua

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Liars have just released their sixth album, WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”), another haunting excursion into a world inhabited by David Lynch and your neuroses. After traversing the globe in support of Sisterworld (2010), the band holed up for over a year, eventually taking over a building in Los Angeles as a place to incubate a new electronic sound that is a far cry from their early years in Brooklyn as noise-rockers unwillingly lumped into the dance-punk scene. Tonight they embark on a three week U.S. tour starting at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

A dark, moody, yet ultimately melodic and groove-laden band, they have spent a career redefining themselves from album to album while always retaining a distinctly Liars aesthetic. “Generally we go down our path and get engrossed in it, at some point we realize we’ve exhausted our current selves and sort of move on,” opines lead singer and de facto frontman Angus Andrew from Los Angeles, where the band has been re-examining their new live approach after a two week jaunt through Europe debuting the WIXIW material. “Our natural progression seems to be somewhat reactionary to whatever we worked on before.”

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Words: Jon McLennand
Images: Joel Berk

Wilco @ Coveleski Stadium, July 30

Approaching ten years since Wilco entered the studio to record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the band that took the stage at South Bend’s Coveleski Stadium on July 30 is the actualized sonic vision of Jeff Tweedy. Initially developed with the brilliant but troubled Jay Bennett, later perfected with producer Jim O’Rourke, the layered, atmospheric sound often contained studio arrangements that exceeded the band’s live instrumentation. Not until 2004 did the right personnel (and personalities) align, and they have since cruised along as a well-oiled machine, ascending to a point where there is little left unsaid and little left to prove.

Thirteen months since the release of Wilco (The Album), the band is making their final rounds before returning to the studio to write and record the follow-up, likely to be released on their own newly formed record label. Nowadays, they can do things how they want, and they’ll be doing exactly that at their own curated Solid Sound Festival next weekend.

Wilco is arguably The Best American Rock Band Of The Last Decade, but to me they embody something deeper. They are amongst those true friends, the fiercely loyal friends; the friends who listen with patient ears, understanding with disarming sincerity; the friends who help you navigate the dark hallways of life with a candle in one hand and your clutching hands in the other. What ever time may pass, what ever radio silence may come, they are never out of touch, never out of mind, never far from the heart, they remain as the whispering conscience nudging you on track before you backslide. It felt like one of those old friends walking through the pub doors after a prolonged absence as they took the stage last Friday.

READ ON for more from Joel and Jon on Wilco…

We’d like to welcome back Jon McLennand to the HT family. Jon, who puts together Umphrey’s McGee Podcasts, lays out the facts behind the demise of Vegoose. Without further ado, here’s the first Mind of McL…

The super-saturated festival market has taken another victim, as it looks like there won’t be a Vegoose Festival in 2008.

As the post-millennial music festival explosion rocked music fans from Manchester to the middle of the ocean, the promoters have been happy to provide us with ever expanding opportunities to spend a weekend watching music, at times with a new twist — the destination. The ripples of the Phish hiatus, which forced untold thousands of kids to search for something else to listen to, brought a desire for new acts to be introduced into the fold of the jam rock festival.

Following Bonnaroo’s lead, many jamband festivals began looking less like jamband festivals as the lineups diversified to incorporate acts from across all genres. The growing myriad of festival options, all seeking variations on the same formula, started looking the same. The ubiquitous Flaming Lips were earlier pegged on HT as a harbinger of the ill effects of the festival circuit. Who hasn’t seen Wayne Coyne’s white suit in three time zones?

READ ON for more of McL’s thoughts about the possible death of Vegoose…

For this week’s B List we would like to introduce our friend Jon McLennand. McL works as the Street Team Coordinator for Umphrey’s McGee, and also produces the band’s incredible podcast series. But don’t let those credentials fool you: McL listens to an incredible range of music from many different genres. Jon has turned me onto some incredible new bands over the past few years so I asked him to prepare a list of albums we need to hear. Take it away McL…

Now that the bombastic orgy of year-end lists has passed and we’ve turned the page to a fresh month in the new calendar year, it’s time to look ahead into what’s going to be tickling your ears in the coming months. There are some big names releasing albums this year that everyone will be talking about (Radiohead, Wilco, Modest Mouse), but there’s also a slew of acts just underneath the surface, on the verge of making their mark and stepping into a little bit of that primetime light.

So, I’m here to catch you up on music pre-2006, so that you can be ready for 2007. Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense in the future. Let’s look at four earlier efforts from bands poised to make their mark this year. To make it a ‘list’, I’m going to throw in a “debut” album released last week. That’s why we kind of had to be shifty with the title.

LCD Soundsystem and !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk) are the dance punk trendsetters. In 2007, they’re sure to storm major festivals across the globe, where I expect them to occasionally steal the show from some more established headliners. Dance punk certainly owes a lot to the spastic rhythms of the Talking Heads as well as the European club culture. Whereas LCD Soundsystem tends towards droning house rhythms and textures, !!! is more angled towards psychedelia with a pulsing rhythm section.

The Bees and Field Music hail from the U.K., an obstacle for some indie acts in propelling themselves into the US spotlight, even with their considerable songwriting talent. Both bands have an impeccable knack for melody and a keen ear for arrangements, which distance themselves from the pack. The Bees vintage soulful sound can drip with sexy horns or gently drift you into a trance with their hypnotic textures. Field Music takes the guitar pop of The Shins and XTC, and tosses in some clever arrangements and dynamics, as well as the occasional verse in 7/8.

Lastly, I take a look at The Good, The Bad & The Queen, one of the most curiously (mis-)matched “supergroups” to come along in a while. Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) is the brainchild, putting together a hodgepodge of musical styles and influences…Paul Simonon (bass, The Clash), Simon Tong (guitar, The Verve) and Tony Allen (drums, Fela Kuti) as well as the masterful Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, The Grey Album) manning the boards. It’s impossible …