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.)

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Tags: Adam Green, Bamboozle, My Morning Jacket, NIN, The Sauce, The Week That Was (and Still is), Tim Fite

This week marked the 14th Anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. The world still awaits the "next" Nirvana.

("Spring is here again, Reproductive glands")

Lollapalooza (Aug. 1-3) announced its line-up this week with a trio of headliners that are reminiscent of the fesitval's glory years in the 90's--Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails.

This week the organizers of Coachella announced that Prince will be headlining the final day of the festival, which will be taking place April 25-27.

The Breeders are back with a new album and tour. Gotta love the recent productivity of Kim Deal!

This Saturday Gnarls Barkley will be the live musical guest on SNL.

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Tags: Coachella, Gnarls Barkley, Lollapalooza, Nirvana, Prince, The Breeders, The Week That Was (and Still is)

Since Saturday Night Live's musical acts don't take the stage until after midnight, indie veterans Wilco officially began our week of music (Wilco's Jeff Tweedy pictured left). The show was also hosted by Ellen Page (Juno), and as we all know the film's soundtrack gave lots of love to various independent recording artists (ahem, Kimya Dawson). What am I trying to say here? SNL threw the indie folk a bone this week!

On Monday, Nine Inch Nails released their brand new 36 track album (whoa). No lyrics though--it's all instrumental. You can buy the whole thing here for $5. If you want artwork, liner notes, and whatnot, you'll have to wait until April.

On Tuesday night the Beastie Boys played a benefit show in NYC, gearing them up for two festival performances this weekend. Good times!

The Godfather's of Goth, Bauhaus, released their new, and apparently "final" album this week. If there's one thing I learned while working in the music biz, it's that the words "never" and "final" don't necessarily mean the "last".

This week, Gnarls Barkley's "Run" video had to be re-edited for UK television stations. The clip contains strobe effects, which failed the Harding Test--a procedure that determines whether or not televised images may trigger epileptic seizures. This isn't the first time a video has failed the Harding Test. I believe The Horrors' "Sheena is a Parasite" also suffered the same fate.

My heavy rotation album of the week was Muse's Black Holes and Revelations. I guess I'm subconsciously getting ready for their upcoming live CD/DVD release in April.

Here's my video pick of the week. It's the Thermals with "Returning To The Fold." No diss on The Thermals, but my first pick was The Last Shadow Puppets' brand new video "The Age of the Understatement." However, their label (Domino) has yanked it off the web, waiting to give it a proper premiere.

Is it me,or does Hutch Harris (lead singer) have a little Stephen Malkmus in him?

Concert picks this weekend:

Langerado Festival (Clewiston, FL)
March 7 (Matt Pond PA, The Walkmen, !!!, The Roots, Built to Spill, Beastie Boys)
March 8 (Arrested Development, Ben Fold, Medeski Martin Scofield & Wood, R.E.M.)
March 9 (Shout Out Louds, Minus the Bear, Ani DiFranco, of Montrael, The National, Phil Lesh)

Strike Anywhere
March 7 (Virginia Beach, VA)
March 8 (Columbia, SC)
March 9 (Orlando, FL)

Justice
March 9 (Baltimore)

To perfectly book-end the week that started with Wilco playing SNL, Vampire Weekend (pictured left) will be the musical guest on this week's show.

Also, don't forget to change your clocks this Sunday morning (March 9). We lose an hour of sleep (sigh), but think of all the daylight we'll get in return (!).

Next week I'll be in Austin, TX covering SXSW. Stay tuned...

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Tags: The Week That Was (and Still Is)

The week started off with the Academy Awards. I had Juno in my Oscar poll for Best Picture, but damn it, No Country For Old Men, swooped in and took home the award. I was one of the many people who thought the first three-fourths of the film was phenomenal, but found the last quarter a bit confusing. I zoned out when Tommy Lee Jones was giving his little speech at the dinner table, cause I thought it was just a set up scene for a big shoot-em-up grand-finale. I didn't realize that was going to be the end of the film. Big ups to Javier Bardem though for winning Best Supporting Actor. He did manage to scare the crap out of me.

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Tags: The Week That Was (and Still Is)

Ah man, President's Day on Monday was crazy! I dressed up like Grover Cleveland and went couch shopping. Nothing like a President's Day Sale to start off the week!

On Tuesday, we were blessed with new releases from Mike Doughty, The Raveonettes, The Mountain Goats, and Morceeba. Later that day, IFC.com re-launched, yey! One of the brand new features is this blog that you're reading right now.

My favorite album of the week was Hot Chip's Made in the Dark. You got to blast this out of a decent stereo though. Your tinny-sounding laptop speakers will not do it justice. The breakdown two minutes into "Shake A Fist" is my favorite recorded music moment (thus far) of 2008.

Here's a little video to gear you up for the weekend. It's a song called "Gilt Complex" by the group Sons & Daughter, pretty good, huh?

Concert-wise, here's some goodies this weekend:

Foo Fighters/Serj Tankian/Against Me!
Feb. 22, Binghamton
Feb. 24, Detroit

The Hives
Feb. 22, Vancouver
Feb. 23, Seattle

Super Furry Animals
Feb. 22, Ithaca
Feb. 23, Boston
Feb. 24, New York City

Have a good weekend. Oh before I go, here's my can't miss Oscar picks--Juno will win for Best Picture, Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men) will win for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Ratatouille is going to steamroll the competition in the Animated Feature Film category. Much apologies to Alison (who does the film blog here at IFC) for creeping into here territory.

For all you music fans who also dabble in college basketball, don't forget about the big #1 Memphis vs. #2 Tennessee game happening this Saturday night.

Once again, good weekends to everyone!

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Tags: The Week That Was (and Still is)