Check it out… www.mixwit.com.

Here’s my first attempt at greatness…

After hearing incredible reviews from the first few shows of Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark tour I was finally able to take it in for myself last night. It lived up to the hype. The three opening acts were excellent, with my only complaint being that Lupe should have been third instead of first because he really got the still filing in crowd going. Lupe had a ridiculous amount of energy and contributor Matt Santos sounded kick ass live. NERD kept the energy pumping, daring the crowd to not stand up and dance and even pulling some ladies from the crowd up on stage for a song. Rhianna made the female contingent happy (as well as this guy standing right in front of me who dances like Richard Simmons. This same guy was in front of me for LCD/Arcade Fire and he is a freaking riot) and she kept the momentum rolling ahead for Mr. West.

Kanye’s set was the most produced concert I have ever been a part of and it really made you forget that he was centering all of the attention no just himself and a mike. He seemed to be going full bore and went all out from start to finish. I finally had some killer seats for a show and was able to snap a ton of pics for your enjoyment (much to the dismay of the Pepsi Center security, who were not allowing any photos). Make sure and spend the cash to see Glow in the Dark if it’s coming through your city.

• April 29 Oklahoma City, OK Ford Center
• April 30 Austin, TX Frank Irwin Center

May 2008

• May 1 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Center
• May 2 Houston, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
• May 4 Atlanta, GA Gwinette Arena
• May 5 Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre
• May 6 Miami, FL American Airlines Arena
• May 8 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
• May 9 Raleigh, NC Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
• May 10 Washington, DC Nissan Pavilion
• May 11 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
• May 13 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
• May 15 Boston, MA Tweeter Center
• May 16 Hartford, CT North East Dodge Music Center
• May 17 Philadelphia, PA Susquehana Bank Center
• May 18 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
• May 20 Montreal, Que. Bell Centre
• May 21 Toronto, Ont. Molson Centre
• May 22 Detroit, MI Palace
• May 23 Chicago, IL United Center
• May 24 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
• May 27 Saskatoon, Sask. Credit Union Centre
• May 29 Edmonton, Alb. Rexall Palace
• May 30 Calgary, Alb. Saddledome

Next Wed & Th. nite Austin is gonna be straight bumpin big boiii. wed 4/30 is the kanye show and the following nite MIA/holy fuck (as prev mentioned) will do it at the sold-out la zona rosa. ur boys will def be there. btw – im curius how the kanye and lupe and nerd AND rihanna are going to break down stage time, just seems like a lot of acts and i doubt its gonna be a 5 hour show.. we’ll see

I leave you with a remix that has nothing to do with any of this, i found this shinichi guy while watching the movie babel – he had some part in a club scene – house music

The band is Digitalism – Pogo is the trk (Shinichi remix)

I read it was also in a pontiac commercial.. Advertising beats me to the punch again..oh well. it jams..

Lastly – ACL headliners suck this year, wherefore art thou Radiohead??

Yea, so this post is a week late. So sue me. The show rocked as expected. More production then I have ever seen from them and they played a great mix of their catalog. Don’t miss em if they come your way. Here are two videos I took from far away with my camera and their performance on Letterman last night.

Here are the rest of the dates on this tour:

The Black Keys 05/12/08 Mon 9:30 Club Washington, DC

The Black Keys 05/13/08 Tue 9:30 Club Washington, DC

The Black Keys 05/15/08 Thu Terminal 5 New York, NY

The Black Keys 05/16/08 Fri Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA

The Black Keys 05/17/08 Sat Orpheum Theater Boston, MA

The Keys will be back in Denver on June 28th as part of the SoCo Music Experience at Coors Field and will hit the festival circuit at Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and ACL.

(picture courtesy of Cause=Time)

austin band Brazos are squeezed in between Lemurs and The Steps(never heard of them) for a free show at the mohawk tonite at/10pm

B.S.P. Saturday,(4/12) Club De Ville, Austin,TX

British Sea Power . i’ve put up an old track from their more melancholy days. they are touring their new album “do you like rock music” -

The full lineup Lollapalooza 2008 has been released and at first glance it certainly looks like a clear winner in the “summer of a million festivals”. Ill be going again…

Radiohead

Rage Against the Machine

Nine Inch Nails

Kanye West

Wilco

The Raconteurs

Louis XIV

Love and Rockets

Gnarls Barkley

Bloc Party

The Black Keys

Broken Social Scene

Lupe Fiasco

Flogging Molly

Mark Ronson

Cat Power

The National

G. Love & Special Sauce

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Explosions in the Sky

Brand New

Gogol Bordello

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

Dierks Bentley

Okkervil River

Amadou & Mariam

Blues Traveler

John Butler Trio

Girl Talk

Your Vegas

CSS

Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves

Battles

Steel Train

Jamie Lidell

Bang Camaro

Butch Walker

The Blakes

Mates of State

Tally Hall

Spank Rock

White Lies

Brazilian Girls

Magic Wands

Chromeo

Electric Touch

Duffy

Innerpartysystem

The Kills

The Postelles

Rogue Wave

The Parlor Mob

The Go! Team

Bald Eagle

Mason Jennings

Krista

The Gutter Twins

Ha Ha Tonka

Yeasayer

Witchcraft

Grizzly Bear

We Go To 11

MGMT

Sofia Talvik

Booka Shade

Santogold

Black Kids

Black Lips

Dr. Dog

Nicole Atkins & the Sea

The Ting Tings

Kid Sister

Office

The Cool Kids

What Made Milwaukee Famous

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

The Whigs

Manchester Orchestra

Foals

Uffie

The Octopus Project

Cadence Weapon

Ferras

De Novo Dahl

Noah and the Whale

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s

K’NAAN

Serena Ryder

Newton Faulkner

M.I.A. is taking advantage of Holy Fuck’s momentum and teaming up for an 11-show pairing for about a month. the shows are scattered so keep up. I think the venue should commission myself to do all their upcoming poster art work.

Thursday, May 1 – La Zona Rosa

check below 4 the paper planes remix holy fuck put out awhile back.

When I heard that a new music festival was making it’s way to our little city in Colorado I thought maybe I was getting a little respite from having been constantly reminded that i was missing out on an amazing SXSW, however with the announcement of the details on the show and a majority of the acts I’m not sure I feel that much better…

The Mile High Music Festival is going to be headlined by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Dave Matthews, with other strong acts such as Andrew Bird, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Roots and Spoon. However, there is also a bunch of Top 40 crap like John Mayer, and Colbie Caillat that means the crowd is going to be a bit interesting. Nonetheless, it’s going to be a fun way to spend a weekend and I’m sure I’ll end up catching some shows on the fields surrounding The Dick.

Rockouts had a pretty eventful sxsw which consisted mostly of taking advantage of all the day parties. Except for Thursday nite which turned into a pleasant surprise when some guest DJ’s blew up our resident bar.

Long story longer, Wednesday evening I shot Hood Internet a message seeing if they might possibly be up for a guest slot DJ’ing at The Aquarium on Sixth after some unofficial shows. They obliged and patiently waited thru the previous acts which sounded like some guitarhero/rockband superstars playing covers from all over the map.

Once plugged in, Hood & Internet (aka Steve & Aaron) dueled it out on their apple book and surely grew tired of me forcing shiner bock & Jager on them while requesting poplock&drop it. we learned that you dont “bomb” jager in chicago. oh well, we like jagerbombs…and we had a rough day at work on friday too. Seriously a Big Thanks to the guys over at The Hood. They came through!!

6:15 – Just got word that The Hood Internet will be spinning at Aquarium tonight at 10:30. If you’re in the area, come stop by and say hi to KP and me, and check out the world’s greatest mashups.

5:30 – Tokyo Police Club just finished. They powered through a set featuring all the songs that made them famous (Citizens of Tomorrow, Nature of the Experiment), and gave us a sample of the new songs featured on their imminent CD. We were also applauded for our “impeccable rhythm”, which is always nice.

4:20 – My first Stills experience was everything I hoped it would be. Apparently they just finished recording their third CD, and they played us four songs off of it. Early fave is Eastern Europe, a song that they say is about “being fucked up in Belgrade”. I think we can all relate to that. Tokyo Police Club up next…

3:20 – I’ve caught two shows so far – Child Bite from Detroit reminded me of White Denim, but with better beards. After that, we caught the end of Shout Out Louds. They were pretty good, but I only got to hear three songs. Next up: The Stills – I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while.

Alright kids, it’s time to do this. Your boy Jon G is on the scene, headed over to Emo’s to catch some of the best shows that SXSW has to offer. Stay tuned for live updates throughout the day. Now, time for some Mexican food and free beer…

With SXSW set to kick off tomorrow, here’s a preview of the day shows you can catch on Friday. If you missed our Thursday Preview, don’t forget to check that one out too.

Red Eyed Fly – (starts at 11 AM, free entrance, free bloody marys and beer) – The Stills, Rogue Wave – As I mentioned in Thursday’s preview, The Stills are one of my favorite bands that I’ve yet to see. I was fortunate enough to catch Rogue Wave back when they toured with Guster four years ago, and was very impressed with their show. I bought their CD that night, but never thought it quite lived up to their live performance.

Stubb’s – (invite only, 12:30-6) – Vampire Weekend, Raveonettes, The Whigs – The star power is obviously high for this show, and for those people that have never been to SXSW, Stubb’s is my pick for best venue on Red River. If you can finagle an invite to this show, consider yourself lucky.

Cedar Street – (invite only) – Shout out Louds (12:45), Pigeon Detectives (2:15) – Cedar Street is the place to be at the start of the day. With Sweden’s Shout Out Louds and the UK’s Pigeon Detectives, you’re sure to get your day off to a good start.

Waterloo Records – (free entrance, free beer) – Sea Wolf (3:00) – Come stock up on those CDs that you can’t find anywhere else, and get some free beer and a Sea Wolf concert to boot.

La Zona Rosa – (12-5) – The Cribs, The Black Keys – I’m a huge Cribs fan, but I’ve yet to go to a good Cribs show. However, they sounded like they grew up a lot on their latest CD, so maybe that has transferred over to their live shows. The Black Keys, well, they should just be on everyone’s to-see list.

Volume Night Club – (free with reservation) – The Whigs (5:00), Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (3:00) – If you missed one of The Whigs’ other fourteen shows, catch ‘em here.

Mohawk – White Denim (3:00), Bowerbirds (3:30), Blitzen Trapper (4:00), British Sea Power (5:00) – There’s little doubt that the hotspot on Red River on Friday afternoon will be at the Mohawk/Club DeVille block. At Mohawk, you get a chance to catch White Denim in their native habitat, which is sure to be one of the most talked-about sets at SXSW this year. British Sea Power and Blitzen Trapper are another pair of bands on the rise.

Club DeVille – Peter Moren (3:30), Jens Lekman (4:30) – The powerful Swedish indie music scene will be on full display at Club DeVille, where Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn & John fame will show us if he can fly now that he’s not weighed down by stupid Bjorn and John. Also, DeVille seems like the perfect place to catch a Jens Lekman show in Austin.

Please note: this is not even close to an entire listing of all the bands that are playing at each venue, much less all the shows that are available. For a full listing, check out Showlist Austin (which also doesn’t claim to have a full list). If you know of another good show to check out, let us know in the comments.

Improving on the Radiohead model from late 2007, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have released their brand new 36 track instrumental collection Ghosts I-IV with an innovative (and label free) new payment system. Ranging from completely free for the first of the four “volumes” to $300 for a tricked out special edition complete with autographs and vinyl.

Trent says, “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective – dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.”

I picked up the free first volume on Monday and was really, really impressed. I have always been a NIN fan and think their best work is when they go mostly/all instrumental. Last night i purchased the full collection (for $5, I love this new way of buying music) and it only gets better. After what I thought was a slightly disappointing release with Year Zero, Trent and crew have gone and totally redeemed themselves! Welcome to the future.

Pick your method of choice on the Ghosts site and give it a listen.

There’s nothing like a day show at South by Southwest. For those that have never partaken, picture your favorite bars all opening at noon and serving free beer and free food while some of your favorite bands play (again, for free). By far the hardest part of the whole weekend (besides deciding to skip round one of the NCAA tournament) is figuring out whose free beer you’re going to drink. Luckily, your boy Jon G has come through with a handy-dandy guide to the SXSW ‘08 day shows. Here’s a list of the best day shows on Thursday (note: all showtimes are courtesy of Showlist Austin).

Red Eyed Fly (starts at 11:00AM, free entrance, free bloody marys and beer) – The Raveonettes, The Black Angels, Peel – Tough to beat the free booze that Red Eyed Fly offers. Also, Blackbird swears by the Black Angels, and I can vouch for Peel’s badassedness.

Emo’s – The Shout Out Louds, Tokyo Police Club, The Stills, Georgie James – This one might be worth it for Tokyo Police Club alone. They’ll be playing multiple times around the city during the festival, and are an absolute must-see. Adding The Shout Out Louds and The Stills, who I’ve been a fan of for a couple years but have yet to see, is pretty huge.

Beauty Bar – (12-6 – free entry, free beer, coffee, and food) – Two Gallants, Film School, Scissors for Lefty – The Bay Area Takeover, a showcase of San Francisco’s best upcoming bands. We’ve featured Two Gallants, and will be featuring Scissors for Lefty next week. They have been on heavy rotation ever since discovery.

The Parish – Shout Out Louds (1:30), Jens Lekman (2:15), Vampire Weekend (5:00) – I’ve promised myself that I would see Jens Lekman at SXSW, but will probably wait until Friday when he plays at Club DeVille. If you want to catch Vampire Weekend at a day show, you’ll either have to do it here or at Stubb’s on Friday (which is invite-only).

7th & Red River – (free show) – The Raveonettes (11:00), DeVotchka (2:30) – If you’re one of those people who can’t wait until after noon to begin rocking, make sure you start your day here. And have a michaladas for me.

Trophy’s – Land of Talk – I’ve never been to this place before, but Land of Talk is fantastic.

Please note: this is not even close to an entire listing of all the bands that are playing at each venue, much less all the shows that are available. For a full listing, check out Showlist Austin (which also doesn’t claim to have a full list). If you know of another good show to check out, let us know in the comments.

Underground LA hip-hop group Dilated Peoples roll into Denver this weekend for a Sunday night show at the Bluebird. Since it looks to be cold and crappy outside why don’t you head on over and check it out? Trio Rakaa, Evidence and DJ Babu are supposed to put on a hell of a show…

Hey kids, it’s your favorite sketchy music blog, trying to weasel its way back into your life. Sorry for the short absence, but we’ve now got a spankin’ new server all set up and ready to take this bitch up a notch. SXSW is right around the corner, and I’ll have day show previews coming soon…

For now, just to get back in your good graces, here’s a smattering of what I picked up in the AmieStreet.com free section. AmieStreet is a kind of social-networking meets iTunes site, where fan popularity determines the price of the song (ranging from free to 98 cents). You can recommend songs, and as they increase in value, you get money back into your account to buy other songs with. Yeah, pretty cool, that’s what I thought too.