The lineup for APF 3 just hit about an hour ago, and once again it’s lookin’ pretty good, as expected. The Black Angels headline, of course, as they have the previous two. Full lineup:

The Black Angels – The Raveonettes – Pink Mountaintops – YaHoWa 13 – Spindrift – Warpaint – Indian Jewelry – The Vandelies – The Meed – Headdress – Ringo Deathstarr – Christian Bland and the Revelators – Daughters of the Sun – Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – The Night Beats – Shapes Have Fangs – Smoke and Feathers – Screen Vinyl Image – Black Acid – Ghost Songs

The festival happens at Austin’s good ole The Mohawk April 23 , 24, and 25. Bummed I’m not within a day’s drive in Austin to roll through for this, but stoked on seeing a lot of these dudes at SXSW next week.

Though I’ve given you just about all the info you need, you should go to their website anyway because it’s fun to zone out on. You’ll see what I mean.

MP3 :::
The Black Angels – Snake in the Grass
Indian Jewelry – Nonetheless
Warpaint – Set Your Arms Down
Ringo Deatstarr – Every Time

Sheeeeeeeit, guess I know what I’m doin’ on May 13th. I saw the Growing bros open for Mogwai in 2006, so I can attest – see them! They ripped open a hole in the sky approximately six meters above the crowd’s head. It was gnarly. Wasn’t sure if it was a portal or not, but I wasn’t about to find out – kinda like the theory that the post-mortem light at the end of the tunnel is actually a trick…

04-06 Brooklyn, NY – COCO66
04-08 Winooski, VT – Monkey House
04-10 Montreal, QC – Casa del Popolo
04-11 Toronto, ON – The Garrison
04-12 London, ON – Call the Office
04-14 Detroit, MI – Contemporary Art Museum
04-15 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
04-16 Madison, WI – Project Lodge
04-17 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
04-18 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
04-21 Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
04-22 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
04-23 Olympia, WA – Northern
04-24 Portland, OR – Berbatis Pan
04-26 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
04-28 Oakland, CA – The Parish
04-29 Santa Cruz, CA – Brookdale Lodge
05-02 Irvine, CA – UC Irvine
05-04 Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
05-07 Austin, TX – Mohawk
05-10 New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
05-11 Atlanta, GA – E.A.R.L.
05-12 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
05-13 Lexington, KY – Al’s
05-15 Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Artworks
05-16 Huntington, WV – Pleasant 123
05-18 Baltimore, MD – Floristree
05-19 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

No word on support yet, but I’m sure it shall rule as well.

MP3 :::
Growing – Hormone
Growing – Innit

POSSIBLY RELEVANT :::
[Photos + Video] Tortoise and Disappears – Headliners, Louisville – 2.11.10

MP3 :::
Disappears – Lux
Woven Bones – With You Alone

A Carbiou live show is a hell of an experience, at least circa the Andorra tour, and he’s coming to Louisville this summer with Toro y Moi. The show goes down June 8th at the quite intimate Zanzabar. Considering the double drumming extravaganza and brain melting visuals, it should be an utterly devastating show. Production Simple is responsible for delivering the goods, so thanks dudes.

Caribou with Toro y Moi
Tuesday, June 8th
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St., Louisville (map that shizz)
9 p.m. / 21+
Tickets on sale 2/26 at ear X-tacy, $12

MP3 :::
Caribou – Medium Sized Working Dog

The press conference ear X-tacy owner and charter member of the national Coalition of Independent Music Stores John Timmons assembled this morning at the store was a rather powerful pow wow. A few things solidified this. Though he kept his composure, Timmons was visibly broken up during much of his 20 minute statement. All the local media were there – the major network affiliates, Gabe Bullard from WFPL, LEO Weekly, Velocity, and countless bloggers – not to mention many luminaries of the music community, including Forecastle Festival founder JK McKnight, The For Carnation/Dead Child’s Todd Cook, and Lebowski Fest’s Will Russell. Though I didn’t realize until halfway through, Jim James, whose My Morning Jacket sold out Madison Square Garden on New Years Eve, was to my left with his wife and young daughter. It was fitting, as Timmons mentioned all the historic in-store performances that occurred at ear X-tacy, specifically citing My Morning Jacket’s live album Celebración de la Ciudad Natal, which was recorded in the store in the summer of 2008 to a crowd of 500 people.

But beyond all that, the moment that empirically proved ear X-tacy’s value in local and regional music (and in some cases, on a national level) was the Q & A. It was long, and the majority of it did not consist of questions – but testimony. “I’m not a member of the media, but I live here and I just wanted to say…” is what often followed when John called on someone to speak. While not all comments were necessarily relevant, it didn’t matter – each was evidence to how vital the store is to the community. ear X-tacy, for many, is the epicenter for Louisville music. There were very few questions because there’s not much to question. This press conference was a come-to-Jesus meeting, and Timmons laid it all out there.

ear X-tacy is not closing, but they’re not doing well, and they have no explicit plan. The purpose of today’s conference was nothing more than to let everyone know the truth, and how bad it’s gotten. “As the owner, I see this store completely different than others see it or our customers see it. I see what this store can be, and what’s wrong with it,” said Timmons. “The economy has certainly killed us.”

However, his own personal passion and the outpouring of support, including the  Save ear X-tacy Facebook group boasting 20,000 members, has solidified a strong effort to stay open. “The easy thing would be to turn the lights off and walk out next month,” said Timmons, “but this isn’t my store, this is all of ours, and I will do everything to stay open.” This included Timmons drawing money from his own retirement and staff not receiving any raises for the last three years – a decidedly unsustainable model, but one that kept them somewhat afloat. Timmons also said that ear X-tacy’s ThinkIndie digital store is a “money pit.”

Timmons did allude to the idea of possibly downsizing the store’s current 10,000 square ft. floor or moving to a different building. We’ve already seen this happen over the past few years, as ear X-tacy’s apparel and general ephemera stock took up the entire second floor, which is now used as storage. However, he was adamant about their general location. “We belong on Bardstown Road,” he said.

ear X-tacy’s value in the community is unequivocal, but Timmons shared one story that provides one of the most direct correlations. Before the store began reporting Soundscan, the general thought was that only soul and country music sold in Louisville. The store’s record sales actually revealed a much more eclectic market than what the cigar-chompers in New York gave Louisville credit for. From there, a wider spectrum of acts began routing tours through Louisville, demonstrating what Timmons called “the synergy between radio, the store, and the live show.”

It was shortly after that anecdote that Timmons shared his biggest and most passionate statement – a plea. “We don’t want a handout or a bailout or your money. We want your business.”

There it is. It’s not enough to do a pity purchase next week. It’s about changing your buying habits, and making a conscience decision to shop local, even at the sake of convenience. Since it’s somewhat naive to believe that the majority of people are as willing as they say they are to do this, there should be a restructure of some sort. John Timmons was vague about the future plans for ear X-tacy outside what he didn’t want to happen – moving, closing, et al. Perhaps this is our call to action to help, and I certainly have an idea that I will be throwing their way. What do you think? How do we save this staple of our music and arts community and make it sustainable in the digital age (by digital, I mean “entitled to get free shit”)? Let’s make this a collaborative effort, like any community worth its salt in any arena should do. Use the comments below to swap ideas.

In the meantime, find something you’ve been meaning to get.

UPDATE: Backseat Sandbar has the whole thing on video.

My birthday is August 28th. If you want to be the. fucking. champ., you can buy me and me lady passes to All Tomorrows Parties, which I want so bad in my life. They celebrate ten years this September at the delightfully creepy Kutshcer’s, and they brought in delightfully creepy Jim Jarmusch to pick his favorites to play.

A good list thus far… Explosions in the Sky, Sonic Youth, The Breeders, Fuck Buttons, The Books, Papa M, Aspe, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Wooden Shjips, The Black Angels, Vivian Girls, and more. Fucking killer. And of course, the Friday Don’t Look Back series continues this year with The Stooges, Sleep, The Scientists, and Mudhoney (who I saw a couple years ago at Chicago’s Double Door and, yes, they’ve still got it).

The rodeo goes down September 3 – 5 in Monticello, NY. More info at the ATP Festival site.

MP3 :::
Fuck Buttons – Flight of the Feathered Serpent
The Books – That Right Ain’t Shit
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Seer
Wooden Shjips – Motorbike
Vivian Girls – Where Do You Run?
The Black Angels – Dee Ree Shee

I’m attaching the press release below, so that you know what I know. But if this is at all a possibility, this is quite a bellwether warning for indie music retailers, as ear X-tacy is one the nation’s most recognizable and lauded independent record retailers – a name that often finds itself in the same sentence as Electric Fetus and Amoeba Records…

UPDATE: I will be attending this press conference and will be tweeting live on The Decibel Tolls Twitter

John Timmons, founder of the independent record store and owner for nearly 25 years, is expressing his concern for the survival of ear X-tacy, as we know it.  Timmons will announce details of the store’s situation during a press conference Friday, February 12, at 10:00am, at the store,1534 Bardstown Road.

With the 10,000-square-foot prime location’s lease about to expire in March 2010, Timmons is focusing attention on the realities of a dire situation and the potential impact of losing one of the nation’s top 10 record stores.  The absence of this local treasure would have a financial impact on the local media, especially public radio.  It would affect concerts, promoters, and leave a void on Bardstown Road in the Highlands, an area already severely impacted by the economy’s downturn.  The synergy of Louisville’s local businesses would be affected and the city’s music and cultural landscape definitely would be altered.  The dynamics of “keep Louisville weird,” a local movement founded by John Timmons, would suffer from such a loss.

“This is not about business.  It’s about something my customers have built and have come to expect.   It’s about a place to experience music,” Timmons said.   “Many tourists seem to make ear X-tacy a destination point as out-of-towners have learned about ear X-tacy through national exposure.  I think the store is a place that makes Louisvillian’s proud.  It’s been a community effort to build it and it’s going to take a community to sustain it.”

For a band that only put out a modest handful of singles twenty years ago, Black Tambourine’s unadulterated noise pop jams turned out to be one hell of a crystal ball. Circa 1989, I was in utero and members of twee gaze start ups Whorl and Velocity Girl had just recruited singer Pam Berry (whom I for some reason remember being much more attractive than in the above picture) to form a new project. It was an outlet to fuse together their obsessions with The Jesus & Mary Chain, the Ronettes, and efficient garage rock. Previously available as 1999’s Complete Recordings, this new anthology on their original label Slumberland contains six previously unreleased jams, including four new ones that the reunited band recorded for this specific occasion. There’s even a cover of my favorite Suicide song “Dream Baby Dream” and Buddy Holly’s “Heart Beat”. This is no carrot in the face of recession-weary completionists, it’s the perfect introduction for newcomers, and some long needed closure for fans. Also, Black Tambourine will now be available for the first time on vinyl.

Black Tambourine will be available in all it’s overdue glory March 30th on Slumberland Records.

MP3 :::
Black Tambourine – Black Car
Black Tambourine – Throw Aggi Off the Bridge

Here’s what I got:

Man or Astro-Man? has reunited, which is quite fitting seeing as 2010 is the year we make contact (via Arthur C. Clarke). They play their first show in over a decade at The Bottle Tree in Birmingham on March 6th, then move over the South By Southwest (March 17 until whenever they gotta shut the thing down), though no official shows at the festival have been confirmed. 1.21 JIGGAWATTS!!!

My boss just got back from the 4AD offices yesterday, and their word is, pending the final mastering, Ariel Pink’s debut for 4AD will be hitting in June. And we will be jamming the shit out of it for summer 2K10. Trenchant!

MP3 :::
Man or Astro Man – Adios Johnny Bravo
Ariel Pink –  Gettin’ High in the Morning

It’s been two years since Four Tet’s last full-length Ringer, where he made a stylistic hard-left into techno territory. Having spent his time since pursing seemingly polar ventures; touring with famed jazz drummer Steve Reid and a residency as a DJ at London’s Plastic People club, his new album There is Love in You seems to be a reconciliation of the two. The foundation is rooted in a pulse beat, with lots of warm hazy synths, but they are balanced by a sample palette reminiscent of his earlier work of sequenced and chopped harp, bells, and jazzy percussive overdubs. The new album comes out January 25th on Domino, but you can stream a promo mix of the whole album on Soundcloud up until then.