Inside Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman's World Wide Rebel Songs

2011-09-02T23:42:00.000-04:00

Inside Tom Morello’s The Nightwatchman: World Wide Rebel Songs by FMQB Productions

2011-06-29T17:40:00.008-04:00

	EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
	Y-Not Session @ Kawari Sound (6/20/11)

GANG Song Premiere

2011-06-16T13:28:00.001-04:00

Y-Not Radio is proud to debut a brand new song from our good friends, Philadelphia's own GANG! They open for Marina & The Diamonds tonight at 8pm sharp at The T.L.A. Tickets are available here or at the door. For more info about GANG, head to gangtheband.com.

GANG - Only A Dream by ynotradio

2011-06-04T15:16:00.005-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, our good friends in East Hundred recorded a session for Y-Not Philly at Kawari Sound, featuring songs from their upcoming EP The Spells. Here's a video recorded at the session of them performing one of those songs "Fools, Kings & Queens." Hear the full session on Wednesday, June 8th at 11am and 10pm.

See East Hundred live at their EP release show on Saturday, June 11th at Johnny Brenda's, also featuring Turning violet Violet and Steve Goldberg & The Arch Enemies. Everyone who attends will receive a free download card for The Spells. Advance tickets are available here. Thanks to Justin Clowes for shooting and editing this video.

Lollapalooza Chile Report

2011-06-02T16:43:00.001-04:00

Back in April, our own Zeke, who has been studying abroad in Chile, had the opportunity to attend Lollapalooza Chile and he sent us back a report. It took a long time to get here (or we forgot to post it right away).

It was a beautiful weekend for Lollapalooza Chile, the firsttime the venerable music festival conceived and directed by Perry Farrell hasbeen produced outside of the United States. In recent years Santiago has becomea hub of sorts for a lively local indie music scene as well as a thrivingelectronica culture including artists like Ricardo Villalobos, Nicolas Jaar,and Miss Dinky. With this local talent, a sizeable indie rock fan base, and astable and prosperous democracy Chile was the obvious choice for a musicfestival that would attract music fans from throughout Latin America. Because Iam studying in Santiago, I had bought ticket to the festival a few months agoafter seeing the excellent lineup, with headlining sets by The Killers and Kanye West and sets by The Drums, The Flaming Lips, Chile’s Ana Tijoux and Los Bunkers, The National, Cat Power,Devendra Banhart, Fischer Spooner andCSS. The two days I spent in southernSantiago’s Parque O’Higgins, can only be described as distinctly Chilean.

DAY 1 (April 2):
My first day at the festival didnot start off well. While waiting for five hours in line at will call to pickup my tickets, I had the chance to talk with my fellow frustratedconcert-goers. Many of them had travelled from neighboring Argentina and Brazilto see the show, but there were fans from places as diverse as Columbia,Denmark, and the UK many of whom had planned their visit to Chile to coincidewith Lollapalooza. I finally got inside the festival at around four o’clock intime to catch the second half of the reunited Manchester band James’ set, during which they mainly played their hitsfrom the Laid album. Chileans have a strange, if understandableattachment to Britpop, which still dominates Chilean rock radio, so it wasperhaps understandable that an older and mellower James was called on toperform. After James, the ubiquitous Ben Harper played a jammy set under the hot fall sun that didn’t to hold myattention for long.

The National performing in Parque O’Higgins

The real highlight of the first daywas The National who took to the stagewith “Start a War” at 6:15 as the sun began to set. The band played songsmostly from their three most recent studio albums including crowd favorites“Mistaken for Strangers,” “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” and “Fake Empire.” The National isnot a natural fit for a festival setting (the deep baritone of lead singer MattBeringer and the band’s somber sound conjure up images of smoky wood paneledbilliard halls, but hey that’s just me) but they made the large venue seemintimate. Many in the crowd were unfamiliar with the band, but after talkingwith some people in the audience, they won over a lot of fans.

Unableto enter into the stage where CSS wasplaying because it was full to capacity, a problem that would happen againtomorrow, I instead opted to see Empire of The Sun, whose hour long set include at least 5 costumechanges and a lot of exotic wigs. Their nouveau-spacestation-electronica sounddoesn’t convert very well live, but the over-the-top theatrical aspects oftheir show kept me entertained in the lead-up to the final show of the night.

The Killers were an excellent choice for the headlining spotSaturday night, considering the international appeal of their immensely catchypower-pop. The band recently came off a long hiatus and are in the process ofrecording their fourth studio album. They were, alas, perhaps the biggestdisappointment of the day. Brandon Flowers sounded flat and half-heartedduring most of the set, especially during songs from their debut album. Thelack of energy onstage was palpable in the audience, and it seemed as thoughthe band was content to play the minimum amount of time possible. The Killerswere at their best playing songs from 2008’s Day and Age,especially during the grammatically challenged “Human.” Before their encore of“Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” and “When You Were Young,” Flowers thanked thecrowd and said that this was all they had left in them. After a short 80minutes The Killers left the stage and the crowd made its way home,anticipating another full day of Lollapalooza.

DAY 2 (April 3):

Thesecond and final day of Lollapalooza promised an even more tantalizing lineupof bands than the first. In the morning Spanish MC Mala Rodriguez played a lackluster set after a delayed start. Malawas followed by the Argentine band Todos Tus Muertos, formed in the 1985, who played an inspired set ofpolitically charged rock. After lunch, I headed over to the stage where CSS hadplayed the day before to catch Devendra Banhart. After queuing in line for an hour to enter the2,500 seat indoor stage, the crowd rushed the stage gates to enter. Afterremoving people by force from the overcrowded theater, the police closed thegates and didn’t let anyone enter because it was full. The carabineros onhorseback only let a few people enter during the rest of the day, and as aconsequence I was unable to see Cat Power, The Drums, or Cold War Kids.

Risking arrest to see Devendra

Not all was lost however, as The Flaming Lips took to one of the two main stages to perform aconfetti filled set that included aliens, Wayne Coyne in a plastic bubble,giant balloons, a giant bear, and Coyne’s broken Spanish. The band playeda kind of greatest hits set that included “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots,”“The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” and “Do You Realize???”. It was the most fun I hadduring the festival.

Wayne Coyne getting freaky

The day came to a close with Thirty To Seconds to Mars, whose set I only vaguely watched (yes, Jared Letowas wearing white pants) and which was repeatedly interrupted by crazed Chilean Leto fans clawing their way onstage. Jane’s Addiction followed with a ferocious set, which for manyChilean fans was the most anticipated act of the day.

Thefestival closed with Kanye West, theact I had most been looking forward to. Dressed in red pants with a calculatedamount of gold bling, Kanye brought out songs from all of his albums, but manyof the songs were from 2010’s excellent rock-hip hop album My Beautiful DarkTwisted Fantasy. Kanye’s show made it clear that he is at the top ofhis creative and performing powers. The show hit the emotional highs of “Power”and “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” and the lows of “Runaway” and “Heartless”. Itmay have been my own unrealistic expectations, but after the show finished with“Stronger” I felt weirdly unsatisfied. The show was in itself was a flawlessexample of showmanship, but the emotion that is so central in Kanye’s oftenintensely personal songs was missing.

The Andes mountains during sunset

And so Lollapalooza Chile came to a close after an excitingand sometimes frustrating two days of live music beneath the shadow of theAndes. And as for the band’s I missed at Lollapalooza Chile,there’s always Lollapalooza Chicago.

Random Observations:

The National’s leadsinger Matt Beringer repeatedly thanked Hans for “the wine and chocolate.” Theformer of which he greedily consumed during their set.

During her mediocre set Mala Rodriguez made an open call to Kanye, asking for him to callher to collaborate during his show later in the day. He didn’t call.

Jared Leto of Thirty Seconds to Mars chanted “uno, dos, tres, catorce!” to start offtheir set. This may or may not have been a conscious attempt at irony.

Kanye West made nomention of being in Santiago, Chile or anywhere else in the world during hisstage banter, which struck me as somehow strange, but also very Kanye.