Sounds Good: Wakarusa 2013 Lineup, Rev Gusto@Jackpot, Father John Misty@Bottleneck

I  can see the light at the end of the tunnel…

We’ve almost cleared the slowest time of the year for live music, so don’t worry.  Plus there’s obviously a ton of football in the coming days, so at least you can keep yourself occupied.

And if you try hard enough, you can almost feel the summer heat emanating out of a certain office in Lawrence – that of Pipeline Productions – run by promoter Brett Mosiman.  Mosiman just released the first of several rounds of artists for this summer’s Wakarusa – May 30 – June 2^nd in Arkansas – and here’s what we’re looking at so far:

Widespread Panic, Of Monsters and Men, Yonder Mountain String Band, Son Volt, SAVOY, and about two dozen more.  Check out the rest on their Facebook page.  So whaddya think so far?

Friday, January 4^th

Rev Gusto at the Jackpot in Lawrence

These guys have been riding a tidal wave of pub lately that included 96.5 The Buzz’s Lazlo playing multiple tracks and heaping praise on the relative newcomers to the local scene.  They’re a mix of stripped down folk and fuzzed out Strokes-ish slacker rock, but with enough pop sensibility to back a Prius car commercial.  Check out the ridiculously infectious track click-click and you’ll see what I mean.

Monday, January 7^th

Father John Misty at the Bottleneck in Lawrence

FJM – aka Fleet Foxes drummer Joshua Tillman – wears a lot of hats.  He plays guitar, drums, sings, and has released multiple solo albums as well as the FF stuff and collaborations with many other musicians from the Pacific Northwest, like David Bazan and Damien Jurado.  His most recent release, though, is probably his best to date – 2012’s Fear Fun – which was put out by Sub Pop if you’re counting.  So what makes this album different?  Well… here’s what the good Father told Liz Louche from Tinymixtapes.com:

“I got into my van with enough mushrooms to choke a horse and started driving down the coast with nowhere to go. After a few weeks, I was writing a novel, which is where I finally found my narrative voice…. It was a while before that voice started manifesting in a musical way, but once I settled in the Laurel Canyon spider-shack where I’m living now, I spent months demoing all these weird-ass songs about weird-ass experiences almost in real-time, and kind of had this musical ‘Oh-there-I-am’ moment, identical to how I felt when I was writing the book.”

Listen for yourself here.