Next up is from the red hot “Feed the Animals” album by Girl Talk. Some one has painstakenly took the time to put together the collection of music videos to sync in with all the tracks in one of his mixes. Now if someone could just make one continuous video to sync in with his whole album…Check tracks 2 and 3 out. Sparks sold seperately.

Lollapalooza two weeks baby!

Instinctiv.com wants to make your iPod or iPhone smart! They describe the features of their application this way: “The random shuffle was a cool feature when it first launched. But, let’s be honest, it left out the most important element: you. After all, your taste in music isn’t random-it’s instinctive.
That’s why Instinctive Shuffle was created. This smart new app goes far beyond the random shuffle and actually makes song recommendations to match whatever mood you’re in. So you can explore and experience your music in a whole new way.”
By skipping the songs that you don’t want to hear Instinctiv captures these decisions and learns from your preferences/choices. It sounds very similar to Pandora.com’s free music streaming feature but takes it directly to you and your iPod. I’m a fan of any tool that helps my music experience become a better one.
Instinctiv Shuffle™ is the first product by Instinctiv (formerly Predict Systems), a company dedicated to changing the way that consumers experience their entertainment.

But the main subject of this post is about Lollapalooza (which, by the way, I guess is in the MS Dictionary as it does not pull up on spell-check…funny enough) This year there is a whole host of after parties to attend after the festival has ended on Friday and Saturday. The biggest ones out right now are…

8.1.

Mates of State
w/ MGMT
Double Door
Ages 21+
Doors @ 10pm

Black Lips
Empty Bottle
Ages 21+
Doors @ 9pm

8.2

Broken Social Scene
w/ Yeasayer
Metro
Ages 18+
Doors @ 10pm

Bloc Party
w/ CSS and Does it Offend You, Yeah?
House of Blues
Ages 17+
Doors @ 9:30pm

Battles
w/ Foals and Magic Wands
Double Door
Ages 21+
Doors @ 10pm

For those of us interested in a lot of the bands at Lolla, these after parties look appealing. Broken Social Scene/ Lupe Fiasco scheduling conflict got you down? Go see Lupe at the festival, and catch BSS at the after show. Before you go buy your tickets let me point out a few cons. First of all, Lolla weekend is an expensive enough endeavor already, the cost of going to some of these after shows would require an increase in ones entertainment budget. But if you’re balling out of control, let me warn you that Lolla is a tiring three day event if you like to go out after the festival ends each day. It would take some serious music dedication to rock out all day and then go back at it at night. But to those brave souls I applaud. All tix go on sale the 6/21 at 10 am. Now if only Dierks Bentley had an after show…

To be fair, it wasn’t really the band’s fault to start with. The venue that Death Cab played at in Chicago is generally not an Indie band scene. Jay Spritzer Pavilion is an acoustically and aesthetically grand open air stage set in Millennium Park, right across the way from one of top tourist spots in Chicago, the Bean. The Pavilion allows for guest to come and spread out their blankets on the grassy promenade, whip out the Chardonnay and Whole Food’s Hummus or what not, and gaily listen to the sounds of whoever is playing on stage that night. With tickets priced at 10 dollars for the lawn seats, Chicago’s finest suburbians and local hipsters snatched up the tickets quicker then you can say “I-Pass” and told their friends and coworkers for weeks about how cool it was that the band they were going to see all of sudden had their songs on the radio and fancied themselves cultural for going to the park after work instead of home to watch “Dancing with the Stars”

Before I become hypocritical, everyone becomes a fan at some point. I began to like Death Cab after hearing “Photobooth” on one my brother’s mixes. In any occasion in life, there are very few people there in the beginning; probably less then 100 people saw Michael Jordan catch his first alley-oop pass, few probably read Robert Frost’s first poem, and no one remembers that Francis Ford Copolla thought Robert DeNiro was too ugly to be in the first Godfather. The point of this though isn’t to be the guy yelling “I was there! I saw them in ’93! I knew they were cool before you did!” (Interruption: Listen to LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge” for more on this sensation) No, the point is to look at its unattended effects, especially on our culture. People for the most part are bored, unhappy, and dissatisfied with their lives. Numerous studies show it, it’s even been a focal point of Barack Obama’s recent championing of the “Change” campaign in his election bid. Where does this come from? Crappy Jobs? People have had crappy jobs forever. I don’t think one of the dudes laying bricks for one of the Pyramids who died before it was ever finished probably thought his job was too sweet. There are obviously numerous explanations and theories, but I think at heart, people are not embracing things they truly enjoy. One of them is music. With record companies and radio shoving Nickelback down our throats, people lack choices. So the mainstream latches on to what is available to them.

This was on display at the concert on Tuesday night. With a vibe more reminiscent of a Cubs game, chattering, people watching, and gazing at the skyline all took precedence over the music. Odd sights were seen, such as two 50 year olds exuberantly dancing with each other to the song “Tiny Vessels”, a song about using a girl for her looks. It was also the first time a person with a baby perched on their shoulders blocked my view of the stage. Overall, there was a sense of confusion from the concertgoer , a sense of “What’s the big deal about this band?” and “Why isn’t he playing any of those Postal Service songs?” It was almost like watching someone play golf for the first time, duffing the ball all day, and wondering how this could be a fun game. This left the people who were true fans of the band and their music feeling like outsiders, a unique situation at a concert.

Which is all in all unfortunate for Death Cab, they deserve better then to continue to be hit with this onslaught of phony popularity they have been riding since their appearance on the O.C. Admittedly, their moving past their peak as a band judging by their old albums, but their new album Narrow Stairs, is a fine album. Tracks such as “Cath…” and “Grapevine Fires” are as good as any songs they have produced in their career. Hopefully they felt the vibe on stage themselves and will go back to playing in smaller venues and embrace the fans who helped them become the band they are today.

And by the way, the Cease to Begin album is very, very good…

About the album:
Here we go: it’s the official release of The Hood Internet vs Chicago. We’ve got 23 completely new jams for you, 24 if you count the intro. Some of the artists on here have been in Chicago for a minute, some are relatively recent transplants, and some have even moved away — but at one point or another, they called Chicago home. And yes, there are a few cameos from some non-Chicagoans, but seeing as they were already part of the track(s) in question, they’re like friends of friends, you know?

This past week, they did a great Doc on Death Cab For Cutie. Really well done and highlights what a truly unique, talented, and inspiring group they are.

Enjoy