Sounds Good: David Byrne & St. Vincent @ Crossroads, LFDF @ Bottleneck

Did all you music lovers catch the biggest release of the summer so far?

Jay-Z‘s Magna Carta… Holy Grail.

It features cameos from Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean, Rick Ross, and of course Beyonce.   And it was hyped by that movie-like three minute commercial during the NBA Finals a few weeks ago. A commercial that was sponsored by Samsung, who bought and gave away 1 million copies to some of its smartphone users, making the album platinum before it was even released.

Hey, no one ever accused Jay-Z of being an unintelligent businessman.  Heard the album?  If so, whaddya think?    

Thursday, July 11th – Saturday, July 13th

Lawrence Field Day Fest at the Bottleneck in Lawrence

This is Year Two of this homegrown festival of sorts, featuring mostly local DIY type bands that range from garage to pop to rock to well, just about every genre you can think of.  It’s super cheap at just $16 for all three nights of music and it’s all ages.  So you really have no excuse now.  Here’s the full lineup:

Full lineup:

THURSDAY
BaioWolf 11:40-End
The Travel Guide 11:00-11:30
Black on Black 10:20-10:50
Man Bear 9:40-10:10
Brain Food 9:00-9:30
Histories 8:40-9:00

FRIDAY
Radkey 12:30-End
Bloodbirds 11:35-12:20
Schwervon! 10:55-11:25
Nature Boys 10:15-10:45
Many Moods of Dad 9:35-10:05
JOCKS/Rooftop Vigilantes 8:40-9:25
Going to Hell in a Leather Jacket 8:00-8:30
Bad Kids To The Front 7:20-7:50

SATURDAY
Cloud Dog 12:00-End
Y[our] Fri[end] 11:00-11:45
Gentleman Savage 10:20-10:50
Pale Hearts 9:40-10:10
Millions of Boys 9:00-9:30
Monsoon Lazer 8:20-8:50
Scruffy and the Janitors 7:40-8:10
Something and the Whatevers 7:00-7:30

Friday, July 12th

David Byrne and St. Vincent at Crossroads KC

This odd couple got together a year or two ago, and to be honest, at this point it really doesn’t seem all that odd.  Both musicians like to experiment with unusual song forms and unconventional sounds.  They put out an album last year called Love This Giant that opens with funky horns set against a rock beat before it melts into an ethereal trip hop orchestral mish mash.  Rolling Stone‘s Will Hermes had this to say of their collaborative effort:

“(T)his LP is like a special-mention science-fair project: two brainy kids speaking in tongues that are fascinating even when they’re hard to follow. Working with a brass band and tandem guitars, the duo trade vocals, delivering hiccuping phoneme and wry kickers over shifty programmed beats. Yet for all the convention-dodging, the most satisfying bits – Byrne’s show-tune-y “I Am an Ape” and Clark’s New York City mash-note ballad, “Optimist” – are the most straightforward. Go figure.”