Concert Notes: Titus Andronicus Ends Tour in NYC; Nick Cave, Fleetwood Mac Announce Tours; Another Sandy Benefit; More

Some concert notes from the (near) past and the future:


* New Jersey's Titus Andronicus rocked Webster Hall Sunday night to wrap up its Fall tour. It was tough to get good photos, with the band members in constant motion (especially frontman Patrick Stickles). And fans were stage-diving throughout the show; a few times, there were four fans on stage at the same time. This is only my second time seeing the band, and as before, they delivered a great, high-energy show. They played a good mix of songs from their three albums, as well as a couple of fun covers: the Dave Clark Five's "Do You Love Me" and the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar."

Hardcore band Ceremony played before Titus and revved the crowd up (and Stickles wore the band's t-shirt during the Titus Andronicus set). See photos below and at the bottom of the page.

Titus Andronicus at Webster Hall Sunday night.

* Tickets are still available for Wednesday's WFUV Holiday Cheer benefit concert at the Beacon, featuring Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, Shawn Colvin, special guest Steve Earle, and Lake Street Dive.

* Pitchfork is presenting a Hurricane Sandy benefit Dec. 14th featuring The Men, Widowspeak, Lust for Youth, and Waxahatchee. More guests will be announced later. The show will take place at St. Vitus in Brooklyn; tickets are $12.

* Fleetwood Mac will tour next year, playing 35 dates beginning in April (including Madison Square Garden on April 8th). Some sources say a new album is in the works, too. (via Pitchfork)

* Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are headed out on tour, too, and will do two nights at the Beacon March 28th and 29th to support their upcoming album, "Push The Sky Away." Sharon van Etten will open on the U.S. dates. A presale will be held Dec. 5th from 12 Noon to 10 p.m. (promo code: CAVE) before the general public sale on Dec. 6th at 10 a.m. (via CMJ and MSG)

* Arcade Fire tried out some new songs in a Montreal club show over the weekend, performing under a pseudonym. Expect a new album from them late in 2013. (via Spin)

More Titus Andronics photos:

Music Notes: Lucinda Williams Headlines WFUV Concert; Civil Wars Cancel Tour, Hear Prince Demos & New "Twilight" Soundtrack

A couple of musical items today, and a couple of sets of music for streaming.

* Lucinda Williams will headline this year's WFUV Holiday Cheer concert. The annual benefit for the Fordham University radio station will be held December 5th at the Beacon Theatre.

Other guests will be announced later, but this concert usually gets a good lineup of acts that the station's listeners will be familiar with. Tickets are priced at $40 to $120 and will go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. Or you can try the presale that started today (see the code to use at the WFUV announcement).



* What's going on with the Civil Wars? The Grammy-winning folk duo abruptly cancelled its world tour and then posted a cryptic note on its website and Facebook page, using terminology that made the development sound like a divorce:

"We sincerely apologize for the canceling of all of our tour dates. It is something we deeply regret. However, due to internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition we are unable to continue as a touring entity at this time. We thank each and every one of you for your amazing love & support. Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013.  —Joy Williams & John Paul White"

People are scratching their heads over what's going on. Maybe a disagreement over how much commercial success to reach for, or venues to play, or how much touring to undertake? One factor may be the fact that Williams is a new mother—and that her husband is the duo's manager.

* Want to hear some demos and rarities from Prince? Check out Duane Harriott's show yesterday on WFMU. See the playlist and stream the show using several different options.

* Speaking of streaming, you can listen to the entire soundtrack for the forthcoming "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" at Pandora. The soundtrack—which features contributions from Feist, Green Day, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Skrillex, and more—will be released Nov. 13th, three days before the movie. (via Consequence of Sound)

The Year's Best Tunes? Here's a Whole Bunch of "Best Music of 2009" Lists...

The end of the year is a time to reflect on the best (and sometimes worst) music of the past year. And in the case of 2009, it's also the end of a decade (or not, as some would argue), so there are a lot of lists tallying up the best of the '00s, or aughts, or whatever the hell this decade is to be called.

Here's a sampling of some best-of lists of the year and the decade, from music business sources and the general-interest press.

* L.A.'s KCRW considers the top 10 live performances that took place on its flagship program, Morning Becomes Eclectic.

* Also, KCRW's music librarian, Eric J. Lawrence, offers a preview of music forthcoming in 2010.

* At another one of my favorite radio stations, New York's WFUV, the DJs and staff weigh in on their favorite songs and albums of the year.

* MTV, which now seems more of a reality TV network than a music channel, surveys the best music (and artists, and films, etc.) from 2009 (which they have dubbed "The Year of Gaga")

* NPR Music, which produces a number of fine music podcasts, live concerts, and more, offers several lists detailing different staff members' favorite music of the year.

* The Dallas Observer reviews the year in Latin music.

* Time magazine's top 10 albums of 2009.

* Entertainment Weekly's 10 best albums of the decade

* Amazon.com lists 88 "Outstanding 2009 Albums You Might Have Missed." Looking through the first page of the listing, I can honestly say I've heard of only one or two of these albums/artists. Will have to check them out.

* Rolling Stone gives its picks for the best albums and songs of the Aughts... I mean, 2000s ... you know, the still-unnamed first decade of the 21st century.

* NME magazine offers its 50 top tracks of the year.

* And Idolator lists the top-selling songs and albums of the year at iTunes, along with its editors' picks.

Onward to 2010...

U2 Rocks Fordham's Keating Hall - PHOTOS

Bono and Adam Clayton. WFUV Photo 3/6/09
Unless you've been living under a rock-free rock, you know that U2 played an early set for one of those TV morning shows... except that the venue wasn't Rockefeller Center or Bryant Park, but Fordham University. The school is understandably proud of the event, and sent an e-mail that has all anyone would want to know about the gig. You'll find U2 photos from the Fordham gig as well as links to stories from sources ranging from People magazine to Rolling Stone to a Fordham student's article. You'll find plenty more photos at Fordham's U2 photo gallery.

I'm not sure why Fordham was chosen for the gig (maybe the Irish band liked the idea of playing at a Jesuit college that has educated so many people of Irish heritage over the decades?), but I think it's an excellent choice. It's a beautiful old campus, and Keating Hall has a glorious old-world Gothic style to it. Not to mention that Keating Hall is home to an excellent radio station, Fordham's WFUV, and it's appropriate to have a band playing in from of the building that houses the station.

Best CDs of 2007 ... It's That Time of Year Again

I've never really been into creating lists of the top 10 (or whatever) CDs of a given year, because any number you choose is going to be totally arbitrary. And with some years having an abundance of riches and others being pretty thin, the quality can vary widely from year to year.

So while I won't be picking a certain number of best CDs, I do offer my votes to a variety of online lists, so that the CDs I like best can be tallied in the totals. One of my favorite radio stations, New York City's WFUV (90.7 FM), lets you choose five CDs and three songs. So here's what I put down on my WFUV list, along with other favorites... keeping in mind that that the 10th CD I put on the list may be as good in my eyes as the number 5 CDs.

WFUV makes the task easier by providing a list of the CDs that game out in 2007, fallling into the station's broad category of Americana/folk/singer-songwriter category. And I have to note that although I'm a big music fan, there are many acclaimed CDs that come out each year that I just haven't heard enough of to consider them for a best-of list (or a worst-of list, for that matter).

Here's a list of some of my favorite CDs of 2007:
Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
Brandi Carlile, The Story
Bruce Springsteen, Magic
Feist, The Reminder
Jonatha Brooke, Careful What You Wish For
Kelly Willis, Translated from Love
Kim Richey, Chinese Boxes
KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic
New Pornographers, Challengers
Suzanne Vega, Beauty and Crime
The Donnas, Bitchin'

I'm sure I'll be adding to this list in the days to come as more CDs come to mind. What are your favorites?

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in 2007, as in the previous two years, many of my musical discoveries were made through podcasts, from the CBC Radio 3 podcast to Morning Becomes Eclectic to the live concert downloads offered by All Songs Considered.