THE ITHACAN

Festival Season: The Good, the Bad and the Ehhh

By Jared Dionne • April 28, 2011

With the release of Lollapalooza’s lineup on Tuesday night, all of the major festivals (with the exception of Austin City Limits) are set. And when you’re spending a sizeable amount of money to attend one of these bashes, you’re bound to have strong opinions on the lineup, as you should. The three major American festivals…

Total Dom-ination

By Jared Dionne • April 24, 2011

I’m kind of obsessed with this new band called Dom. They’re a fresh, young band coming out of Worcester, MA (pronounced wuh-stuh) whose music just makes you happy. If I had to compare them to anyone, I’d say it’s a mix of Passion Pit and Best Coast: raw guitar riffs, easy beats and a dude…

Tragedy Strikes TV On the Radio Amidst Tour

By Jared Dionne • April 21, 2011

This year was shaping up to be a big one for rock band TV On the Radio: they have just returned from a three year hiatus and their new album, “Nine Types of Light,” was released last week to favorable reviews. But it was announced today that bass player Gerard Smith passed away from lung…

Monarchy Dances in the Desert

By Jared Dionne • April 21, 2011

In between running all around Ithaca last weekend, I did have time to catch a few snippets of the Coachella Music Festival that was being broadcast on YouTube. For those of us that couldn’t make it to California, we sat back and watched as one of the greatest lineups in recent North American music festival…

Gloves Are Off: Beliebers vs. The Fabulous Killjoys

By Jared Dionne • April 17, 2011

People need to chill out, seriously. The Twitter world is in an uproar after a fan of the alt-rock band My Chemical Romance was beaten up by a horde of Justin Bieber supporters. Apparently an individual known only as “Shane,” was attacked by a group of seven Beliebers who broke his arm and shoved shards…

Wavves Crashing In

By Jared Dionne • April 16, 2011

The Bureau of Concerts today announced the final act for IC Kicks Back. California surf rock band Wavves (yes, two v’s) will be gracing the fitness center quad on the last day of classes. The band opened for Phoenix last October at their Madison Square Garden show. It was previously announced that indie band The…

The Smell of Teen Spirit

By Jared Dionne • April 14, 2011

I blame music for a lot of things in my life, but I never really made the connection to sex. I mean sure there’s “baby-making music” and all that good stuff (R.I.P. Barry White), but I never really thought about how music influences sexual behavior. Luckily, someone else was wondering. Turns out there’s this dating…

An Anthem For the Brits

By Jared Dionne • April 10, 2011

England is preparing to go all in for next year’s Olympic Games. Apparently, offers have been extended to Coldplay, Muse and Gorillaz/Blur frontman Damon Albarn to write the official anthem of London’s Olympics. When you give England a task, they do it right. I think this group brings a nice mix of musical tastes and…

2011: Coming Back and Going Out

By Jared Dionne • April 7, 2011

2011 has been a decisive year and we’re only four months in. It appears that this will be known as the Year of the Hiatus (a new addition to the Chinese zodiac). Let’s do a recap of those who have come back to the stage, decided to take a breather, or have gone to the…

Kings of Leon’s New Doc On the Block

By Jared Dionne • April 6, 2011

I really like bio-pics and documentaries, especially those that revolve around music. When I first saw It Might Get Loud, I fell in love. For those who may not know, the doc brings together Jack White (White Stripes/The Raconteurs/The Dead Weather), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and The Edge (U2). The three talk about how they…

Festival Attrition

By Jared Dionne • April 3, 2011

That didn’t last long. After a relatively successful inaugural event last summer, the Nateva Music & Camping Festival has been canceled. The festival was held last year in Oxford, Maine over the Fourth of July weekend. For a startup festival, it boasted a surprisingly impressive lineup with a mixture of electronic and folk acts. Some…

Hell’s Kitchen: LCD Soundsystem at Terminal 5

By Jared Dionne • April 2, 2011

You may remember me ranting about how I was unable to score tickets to LCD Soundsystem’s last show ever at Madison Square Garden tomorrow. Well, the band scheduled four shows at a mid-sized club venue called Terminal 5 in the Hell’s Kitchen section of NYC. These four shows occurred on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.…