The Chart Show: Father John Misty enters the Chart Show lobby (at #1 with good margins)
by Mark Wheat
March 26, 2015
Happy spring! That can only mean one thing: it's time for The Current's March Music Madness! Get ya votes in for your Chart faves. Jack White, Sleater-Kinney (out after facing the Roots) and the Black Keys are all in the bracket and I predicted the Black Keys to win it all against the Rolling Stones!
Submit your Chart Show ballot this week for a chance to win tickets to see Caribou at First Avenue on Sunday, April 12!
Meanwhile Father John Misty won our weekly bracket as voters tried to win tickets to the first of his two sold out area shows at First Avenue on April 4. He starts his tour in Asheville, NC this Friday night. Spoiler alert: this great report of a warm up gig in Chicago might give the setlist away!
Alvvays were a big hit at SXSW playing the Pitchfork party to kick things off. They were in town Tuesday supporting the Decemberists at Northrop for a sold out show. The new Chart Show Hall of Fame inductees stopped by The Current to record in-studio before the big gig.
Courtney Barnett also made a big splash in Austin and performed on the Public Radio Day Stage there on Friday. I had the pleasure of listening to her new album, out March 24, and reviewed it for The Current's Album of the Week – it's stellar!
The first time I heard Django Django was at SXSW three years ago, and they mightily impressed me as the last band I saw of a very long day on my way back to the hotel. They haven't disappointed ever since, teasing the new album Born Under Saturn, which drops in May, with this first single. Check out the video for "First Light."
The highest new entry is from Modest Mouse, who headline day two of Rock the Garden this June. CBS This Morning had Modest Mouse as guests over the weekend. Isaac gave an interview and the band played three songs off their new Strangers to Ourselves.
Another Rock the Garden headliner, Belle and Sebastian, are back at #15. They just sold out a show in London at Somerset House, which when I was a lad was where you went to follow your family tree. It had all the records of births and deaths for the whole country! Now it has a killer lineup of shows for its summer series, plus PJ Harvey just recorded her new album in a glass box there! We might have to visit on our trip to London next month.
Florence took a tumble down the Chart this week but released another video for the new track "St. Jude." Passion Pit took a tumble, too. The man behind the project, Michael Angelakos, opened up about mental health issues that he's faced to Pitchfork.