The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Duluth

The Chart Show: Brandi Carlile eyes No.1 spot ahead of Cabooze show

  Play Now [1:04:00]

by Mark Wheat

July 09, 2015

brandi carlile - 1
Brandi Carlile performing in The Current studio
MPR photo/Nate Ryan

Brandi Carlile grabbed first place and the yellow jersey this week! Sorry, I've got Tour de France fever ... yah Tony Martin! She also takes an award for best choice of opening band, Iron and Wine, for a show at the Cabooze Outdoor Plaza this side of the train tracks come August!

Submit your Chart Show ballot this week for a chance to win tickets to the All Pints North Summer Brew Fest at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth, Minn. on Saturday, July 25!

Catfish and the Bottlemen, who are inducted to our Chart Show Hall of Fame for the very first time, were recently featured in the prestigious American Songwriter, described as one of the biggest British rock bands since Arctic Monkeys. 22-year-old songwriter Van McCann says he always dreamed of writing songs for big festivals. As a 14-year-old he knew it was precocious and desperately uncool. And he confirms the rumor that the band name comes from a street performer he met during his time in Australia. McCann and the band recorded one of their first U.S. in-studios at The Current back in February.

At No.18 are Desapareceidos, led by Conor Oberst, whose Payola is our Album of the Week. Mac Wilson describes their first record in 13 years "an exhilarating, exhausting experience, somehow managing to sustain a remarkable intensity for its full 40 minutes."

Beck is back with a new single at No.14, "Dreams". It has a dance-y, upbeat groove to it, unlike his last album. Continuing his dalliance with big beats, he's also on the new Chemical Brothers album, Born in the Echoes, which will be our Album of the Week next week.

The Staves are new at No.15. The U.K. sisters will be back in Eau Claire, WI next weekend where they spent time recording their new album, If I Was. They are going to stop by The Current to record an in-studio that will air next Wednesday evening. Sorry, the rest of the U.S., their only other date this year so far is Boston Calling with Bully (No.17), the Avett Brothers, Of Monsters and Men, Fidlar and more.

Another big festival is coming up for Heartless Bastards, up eight spots to No.12: the famous Newport Folk Festival which will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bob Dylan "going electric." The Bastards went the other way for us in a recent session. They brought Craig Finn with them to open their First Avenue show and he returned and reunited Lifter Puller last weekend to help some of his old mates celebrate their 21st anniversary.