SXSW unveils its (giant) lineup

As reported on this blog two days ago, Bonnaroo's lineup was just announced. Today, the South By Southwest (more familiarly known as SXSW) Festival followed suit, and it's a big one. Here is the abridged version of the SXSW lineup (it's really, really, really long). If you want to see the complete, mammoth lineup, go here:

http://2008.sxsw.com/music/festival/alphalist/

But here is the lineup as diluted for your convenience and sanity by us here at Never Learned to Swim:


Aberfeldy, Akron/Family, A Place To Bury Strangers, Joseph Arthur, Asobi Seksu, Atlas Sound, Augustana, David Banner, David Bazan, Be Your Own Pet, Black Mountain, Blitzen Trapper, The Blow, Bodies of Water, Bon Iver, Bound Stems, Billy Bragg, British Sea Power, Cary Brothers, Colour Revolt, The Concretes, Constantines, The Cool Kids, The Cribs, Cryptacize, Destroyer, Devastations, Kevin Devine, DeVotchKa, The Donnas, The Drams, Dr. Dog, Jakob Dylan, Earlimart, Tim Easton, El-P, Caleb Engstrom, Fastball, Fatal Flying Guilloteens, Film School, Fleet Foxes, Foreign Born, Matthew Good, Handsome Furs, Ed Harcourt, HEALTH, The Heavenly States, Holy Fuck, Ice Cube, Brendan James, Joan of Arc, Greg Laswell, Jens Lekman, The Lemonheads, Longwave, Los Campesinos!, Mac Lethal, Madlib, Man Man, Meiko, MGMT, Raul Midon, Moby, Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth), Peter Moren (of Peter, Björn, and John), The Most Serene Republic, MSTRKRFT, My Brightest Diamond, My Morning Jacket, Nada Surf, Jim Noir, Office, Oh No! Oh My!, Okkervil River, Dolly Parton (yes, that Dolly Parton), People In Planes, Peter and the Wolf, Phosphorescent, The Presidents of The United States of America ("Millions of peaches, peaches for me..."), Joshua Radin, The Raveonettes, The Redwalls, R.E.M., Robyn, Rogue Wave, RX Bandits, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Sea Wolf, Shout Out Louds, Simian Mobile Disco, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Son, Ambulance, Sons & Daughters, The Stills, Kelley Stoltz, The Submarines, Tech N9ne, These New Puritans, This Will Destroy You, Tilly and the Wall, Times New Viking, Tokyo Police Club, The Tough Alliance, Two Gallants, Vampire Weekend, VHS or Beta, The Vines, The Von Bondies, The Weakerthans, White Rabbits, White Williams, Working For A Nuclear Free City, Yeasayer, Yo La Tengo


An overwhelming list, to say the least, but certainly no shortage of quality here. It will undoubtedly prove challenging (if not impossible) to catch every worthwhile act, but there are lots of different ways to have a good time.

Also, props to the SXSW team for not jumping on the Jack Johnson bandwagon.

Record Review: Nada Surf - Lucky

Rating: 0.2 / 10.0

So, Nada Surf, looks like you were hell-bent on making me look like a total asshole. You couldn't have released a record that had one good, quasi-memorable song on it? Would it have killed you?

Apparently, it would have.

The inappropriately-titled Lucky has it all: banal hooks, atrocious lyrics (spanning from clumsy political polemics - "Whose Authority" - to showcases of scientific ignorance - "Ice on the Wing"), ghastly arrangements, and impossible-not-to-forget melodies. Lucky is so god-forsakenly bland that it offends.

"Weightless" and "Ice on the Wing" (what the hell were they thinking with the brass section breakdown? I mean, really, what the hell were they thinking?), are especially disgraceful tracks on an album from a band that has never had a sound to call its own. And what the hell, I'll go out on a limb: I don't think anyone will write and release a worse track than "Everyone's On Tour" this year. And it's awful early, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

I guess my biggest qualm with Nada Surf, still, is that they have never - ever ever ever - had a sound that is in any way, on any level, unique. They embody dogmatic adherence to popular, current convention as perpetrated by those who don't know how to do anything else besides what they hear on the radio. For now, they've settled into aping Death Cab for Cutie (except on "The Film Did Not Go 'Round," where they hoped nobody who listened to this record had ever heard "Girl in the War" by Josh Ritter), but they, like an alarming number of other artists (I made the same criticism of Brooklyn's Blood on the Wall recently) bring nothing of their own to the table except their all-too-apparent lack of talent.

This album is a waste of your time. It's so boring, you won't even be able to fall asleep. Do not listen to it. I'm begging you. Unless, that is, you like music that is the sonic equivalent of a poorly made, pretty uncomfortable, pair of taupe pants. Its only redeeming quality is that it ends in less than an hour and that Matthew Caws doesn't have a disgusting voice and if you really focus on it, it's almost enough to take your mind off how piss poor the rest of the record is. Almost.


-PTC

Bonnaroo topples Coachella for "festival of the year so far"

As we were all too keen to point out last week, this year's lineup for California festival Coachella came up a bit short. We are glad to report that Tennessee festival Bonnaroo's lineup is pretty stellar, especially for those slightly less preeningly indie.

Big names: Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, Phil Lesh & Friends, Willie Nelson, Death Cab for Cutie, Bela Fleck, O.A.R., Rilo Kiley



Good names: Kanye West, My Morning Jacket, The Allman Brothers Band, BB King, Sigur Ros, M.I.A., Ben Folds, Iron & Wine, Talib Kweli, Broken Social Scene, Mastodon, Lupe Fiasco, !!!, Jose Gonzalez, Battles, Two Gallants, Vampire Weekend, Black Kids



Plus: David Cross, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis

Coachella does appear to have a better showing for dance music (e.g. Hot Chip and Justice), but Bonnaroo seems to have forgone booty-shaking in favour of the over-40 crowd. Overall a step down, like Coachella, from last year. There seem to be far fewer performers in quantity and the comedy section has declined considerably. They host David Cross again, but lost Demetri Martin and Flight of the Conchords. Possibly a good shot for anyone with an opportunity to go June 12-15.

Black Kids signed! (outside North America)

Jacksonville, FL blogger-darlings Black Kids have signed to Almost Gold for their future releases outside the New World. Negotiations continue for an American label, but if you just cannot wait, I imagine that it won't be too difficult to snap up a British import of forthcoming first single (and NLtS #6 track of 2007) "I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You". The Kids plan to head into the studio come March, with vague plans for a fall release.

The mailing list

Dear readers,

We are proud to announce the Never Learned to Swim Mailing List! For those of you who would be interested in receiving music updates from us periodically featuring review shorts, news about upcoming shows and tours, and other stories of the happenings in the world of indie music, feel free to e-mail us at neverlearnedblog@gmail.com with your name e-mail address.

-RJR and PTC