Summer Festival Season is upon us my friends! From April to September, our beautiful, music-loving country will host various festivals featuring all different types of music and attractions. With fewer and fewer packaged summer tours left, the weekend (all-in-one-place) festival is all the rage these days.

(left: Things to do this summer: Toss around Wayne Coyne in a huge see-through ball)

From Coachella to Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo to Sasquatch, Treasure Island to Austin City Limits, there's a good chance you'll be hitting up a festival sometime this summer. To get you prepared, I've decided to throw a small pop quiz. You can catch the video simulcast on today's episode of Lunchbox (Noon EST).

Note: The text version of the quiz (below), has a couple bonus questions!

Does everybody have a No. 2 pencil? Alright, let's do this:

Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (left)
Another consistently good effort, would you expect anything less from Ben Gibbard and crew?

Duffy, Rock Ferry
She's gonna have a hard time breaking free from the Amy Winehouse comparisons. At least her hair's a different color.

We Are Scientists, Brain Thrust Mastery
A lot of these songs feel like they could be used for an ending to an 80's movie. Still one of the funniest acts in music today.

Bryan Adams, 11
Guess how many songs are on this album?

Cursive recently stopped by Daytrotter Radio Studios to record a short live session, which includes two new songs ("Let Me Up" and "Donkeys") and "Sierra" from The Ugly Organ (one of my favorite albums of 2003).

(left: Cursive, tightening up their new songs by playing live.)

In the age of free music (which I'm lovin'), you can download all three songs for free right HERE.

Cursive are about start recording their follow-up to Happy Hollow. Saddle Creek's answer to Dr. Dre, Mike Mogis, will be handling the early production duties. Apparently the band has 15 songs ready to go.

In order to get the new songs a little bit tighter, Cursive have booked three live performances in May and June (see below).

May 19, Omaha, NE, Waiting Room
June 3, New York, NY, Mercury Lounge (SOLD OUT)
June 27, Chicago, IL, Subterranean

A couple months ago, upbeat, fast-on-the-strum, indie trio, Born Ruffians, released their debut album Red, Yellow, and Blue. The threesome from Toronto recently made a video for their song "I Need a Life." In the clip, Born Ruffians prepare dinner while various barnyard animals peek inside the kitchen. At the end of the clip, we find the band mauled to death, never getting to enjoy the meal they worked so hard on.

Ouch.

(left: Not even a group called Born Ruffians can out-rough a group of wild animals).

It wasn't too long ago where we saw a pimped-out chicken lay the smack down on Colonel Sanders in Moby's "Disco Lies" video.

Both videos bring to mind other clips in which wild animals get their revenge on their human being counterparts. In Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows," the band becomes wall trophies for a pick-up-truck-driving deer, and in the Beastie Boys' "Triple Trouble," Sasquatch makes sure the Beasties pay for their hurtful words on the red carpet.

I gotta say, I'm loving the recently leaked Weezer song, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived." It's got ups, it's got downs, it's a musical journey (and the cheering crowd at the beginning even makes it a little epic--dare I say it's Weezer's "Bohemian Rhapsody"). I'm excited for the new album, coming out (legally) on June 24.

Thanks for the heads-up Smooth. You're lucky I don't sic the feds on you!

(left: This is my friend Jeff, who happens to be such a big Weezer fan that he got their flying =w= logo tattooed on his chest. When he went to boot camp, his drill sergeant gave him hell because he thought it was a white-power tattoo.)

The week began with another big festival, Bamboozle, which took place outside Giants Stadium's parking lot in New Jersey. My sister-in-law's brother, Ben, and his friend, Paul, were in town for the concert festivities, so on Friday night I picked their brains. I was glad to get the Bamboozle update, surprised to find out that Snoop Dogg would be headlining one of the nights, but honestly, I don't think I could have swung the festival. Two days of predominantly emo-driven music in a football stadium parking lot is an endurance test that I don't think I'm in shape for at this point in time (although I would have loved to catch the Bouncing Souls in action).

(left to right: My wife, Paul, and Ben reluctantly posing for an artsy picture I wanted to take of them during a late night tour of NYC.)

...could this guy in the latest Asics print ad be Adam Yauch's (inset), long-lost brother?

Experimental-deep-fried-southern rockers, My Morning Jacket, are on the verge of one of their most important years as a band. Following up their critically acclaimed album, Z, the band will be releasing their brand new album, Evil Urges, on June 10. Besides gracing the recent cover of SPIN Magazine, My Morning Jacket can also be found playing Saturday Night Live this weekend, May 10, as well as playing a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall and a marquee spot at this year's Bonnaroo Festival next month.

(above: My Morning Jacket at this year's SXSW in Austin, TX. Look at this live show, you can't tell me they shouldn't be playing arenas).

I sat down with My Morning Jacket's resident drum pummeler, Patrick Hallahan, to discuss the band's big year and the possibility of becoming rock's next arena-worthy act:

In the spirit of great rivalries like Red Sox/Yankees, UNC/Duke, Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan, and Morrissey/Robert Smith, lays the mini, music-video-channel rivalry between MTV2 and FUSE. For years I was part of the rivalry, batting clean-up for MTV2. I was Big Papi to Steven Smith's Derek Jeter (host of Fuse's The Sauce and Steven's Untitled Rock Show), Rowdy Roddy Piper to his Hulk Hogan.

(left: Later today, I will be stepping into what once was enemy territory.)

Over the years I have actually become friends with Steven, but we have never ever been on camera together. That will all change today. In need of a last second replacement guest (apparently someone dropped out earlier this week), I have been booked to talk about independent and indie-minded music on today's episode of The Sauce, airing at 6PM (EST) on FUSE.

I'm like a kid in a candy store, I just figured out how to upload video to my blog posts (!). I actually brought my video camera to few interviews I conducted earlier this year, and I would have posted the videos sooner, but at SXSW my camera broke when Saul Williams took it into his hands and delivered a short spoken word performance. I'm not blaming Saul, cause the camera had puttered out before, but I'm just saying it went down for the count after Saul's testimonial.

Anyway, Jonathan from IFC.com gave me some Jedi-video-blog training yesterday, and my good friend Jack is lending me his camera in the meantime.

Here's a backstage clip of Against Me! during their tour earlier this year. The band will be playing Bonnaroo in June, followed by a long stint on this year's Warped Tour. If you ever wondered how Against Me! stayed in such good shape, this should clear things up for you: