OMG OH DEAR GOD THE TREASURE ISLAND FESTIVAL FOR 2009 IS GOING TO BE AMAZING!!!1111!

Okay,  outburst over. Here’s some explanation:

Saturday (Electronic/Dance day):

You might think we’d get really excited for another chance to see Girl Talk, Dan Deacon, and The Streets. Well, we are pretty excited. Dan Deacon’s shows are otherworldly in a very surreal, hipper-than-thou way that’s entertaining beyond anything you could expect. Girl Talk doesn’t need explanation, Greg’s just the man to run your party, period. And The Streets? Mike Skinner may be getting older, but his hooks are still pretty damn great, even if a lot of his lyrics nowadays just sound like a guy describing whatever he’s passing by in his car. MGMT is headlining the day, and while we enjoyed their earlier shows with a more classic rock, lower-key feel, we’re sure they’ll move the crowd in whatever electro-dance fashion they deem fit. Oh, and local San Jose buzz-band The Limousines will be opening the day, and they rock pretty well too.

And… here’s why Saturday isn’t even that exciting:

Sunday Lineup:

The Flaming Lips - Pure psychedelic joy. What better way to end a weekend than with flying saucers and a bearded acid-casualty savant in a bubble?

The Decemberists - Honestly, they’ve been getting notably better with every single album for the last decade. How the hell does a band DO that?

Beirut - Indie boy wonder is the perfect anachronism for modern music, love it.

YO LA TENGO! - Sonic Youth and Pavement may get the indie godfather award on a more regular basis, but Yo La Tengo is simply one of the best bands you’ll ever see live, plain and simple. Whether hitting up their newer material or plumbing classics from their back-catalog, YLT has an unmatched mastery of dynamics and subtlety, not to mention you can watch Ari go nuts for 20 minutes as the band jams out on “Pass The Hatchet, I think I’m Goodkind”. Yes.

The Walkmen - the best country band who you never knew was a country band. Last year’s You & Me was a Scene favorite, and it’s safe to assume the band’s set at this show will match very well with watching the sun set from the middle of the Bay.

Bob Mould - you remind me of my old high school bio teacher, except you helped invent the underground. Will he be DJing or rocking out this show? Hard to predict, as he’s gotten more and more interested in his turntables these last few years… We wouldn’t mind just *one* cut from Zen Arcade though… pretty please?

Spiral Stairs - The Scene’s always been more of a shameless Malkmus worshipper, but if anything, we’re just more excited to see him take the stage as a solo artist under his old Pavement moniker, rather than as The Preston School of Industry. Not to be mean, but if you’re doing older cuts, could you please please do Date With Ikea rather than Hit The Plane Down? Just a small request, really.

Sleepy Sun - All your acid/psychedelic rock needs bundled into one insanely cool young band. We at The Scene don’t want to pitch these guys too hard at our readers… let’s just say if you don’t check them out immediately and watch ‘em live, you have something extremely wrong with you and you should end your life asap.

I hope we’ve done a semi-coherent job at conveying our excitement. Tix go on sale July 14; go get ‘em, Tiger.

Also, the Super Furries are streaming a bunch of new tracks on their Myspace, including some pretty effin’ sweet tracks with titles like “Crazy Naked Girls” and, get this, “The Very Best Of Neil Diamond”. Sweet…

Check ‘em out here: http://www.myspace.com/thelimousines

Even if it may sound a bit like lots of songs you’ve enjoyed for the past 2 years, well, you enjoyed those songs, didn’t you? Then you’ll enjoy these, so quit complaining.

Here ya go, now go have yourselves a great, beautiful, first *real* week of Spring: http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/stephen-malkmus-and-the-jicks-captain-of-the-puzzle-gang-concert/20030557-6729.html

But we don’t really *have* to go… We GET to go to this show. This is because Jack Conte is one awesome dude. This wunderkind has been rolling around the country with a one-man performance rig that at times approaches Rube Goldberg if he was into MIDI, and now we hear he’s got an entire band, which should be nothing short of delightful. Oh, and did we mention this? Go watch it. Oh and this too. He’s a bit of a youtube hero, and definitely a friend of the Scene.

It all goes down at 9pm, Monday 3/16 at  Elbo Room in the Mission on Valencia between 16th and 17th. Bring your fixie and your hip snobbery. PBRs are $2, of course, because it’s hipster-town. The Scene says go.

Really if you have a brain you should also already have a ticket to this show! (cuz it’s sold out)

DJ Knightlife will be there too. Afterparty goin’ down at Popscene later that night too… see you there you damn dirty hipsters.

- Comes onstage with his laptop, on which he’d just written a loose setlist. He complains about having to use complex apps to write out this setlist, and laments “what the hell happened to AppleText?” Audience calls out for Powerpoint, Excel, etc., someone yells “Nerd!” he laughs and replies “Yeah, nerd!”

- Opens with Pavement live favorite b-side Harness Your Hopes. This is a very good sign for the evening.

- Looks like he may be stoned and is having a great time. The house is packed with what are obviously hardcore Pavement fans making constant requests for rare tracks

- Spends his long set covering every range of his career, from Real Emotional Trash all the way back to Summer Babe and Shoot The Singer. Particularly beautiful cuts include Range Life, Fin, Heaven Is A Truck, Pink India, Starlings in the Slipstream, and encore-closer Here.

- It seems he hasn’t played some of these songs in years, as he struggles to remember certain verses and progressions. It’s all in good fun though, such as when he stops playing Vanessa From Queens after forgetting the 2nd verse and apologizes to the audience with a knowing smirk on his face. In front of this loving crowd, Malkmus can do no wrong; every word and movement from him is gospel, pure and absolute.

- Audience members sing along throughout, but never (thank god) annoyingly so.

- Audience requests are taken regularly, although demands for “1% of One” and “No More Shoes” are met with a “how the fuck am I supposed to do that without a band?” smirk. At numerous points, Malkmus apologizes for not being able to end songs well, since instrumental codas from originals are regularly replaced by random acoustic guitar noise and feedback on certain pieces. Nobody requests a Spiral Stairs song, especially not Hit The Plane Down, which would have been… strange on solo acoustic guitar.

-  Okay, here’s the real juice: returning onstage for his encore set, Malkmus proceeds to break into a seemingly spontaneous cover of “Love Train”. We aren’t kidding. He sings falsetto and gets really into it. So does the entire audience, clapping and singing along. This is a moment packed with humor, absurdity, cathartic release of emotion, intelligence, and humility in the face of adoring fans. In other words, a summary of Pavement’s entire career. Perfection through the art of roughness. Beauty in sound always through natural conveyance of emotions, songs, and lyrics. A pile of gold found on an old crusty seat on the subway. Too many ways to describe the awesomeness.

Point in closing: Stephen Malkmus has been one of the most important voices of music in the past 2 decades, and continues this legend merely by showing up at gigs and being himself. His work seems effortless, his happiness contagious. The Scene loves you S.M.; without your work, we wouldn’t even know what indie rock is.

The location: The Copper Rhino, a club that features $2 jack + cokes and stripper poles, but unfortunately all stripping is from volunteers only.  The Scene could not recommend more. Check out here: http://www.copperrhino.com/