Nightlife

Adventures in 2013 Music, Pt. 8:

• I hadn’t listened to any of their post-reunion albums before this one, so color me surprised that Guided By Voices’s English Little League—their fourth in two years, with surely more to come—is even at its worst compulsively listenable. At its best, as on Tobin Sprout’s cheesy and awesome “Islands (She Talks in Rainbows),” it’s even moreso, and touching to boot both for its lyrics and for the aging band’s earnest efforts. The hype has died down on this classic lineup’s 21st century return and their albums, including this one, have been coolly received. But good songwriting has the power to reverse that trend—just listen.
• Ducktails’s The Flower Lane has been the one album to get consistent rotation from me since the start of the year. It’s not perfect—frontman Matt Mondanile’s decision to close out on the tuneless “Academy Avenue” is particularly frustrating—but it is song-for-song my favorite album of the year, consistently catchy and smooth. It even includes an update on Destroyer’s own middling update on Prefab Sprout: “Under Cover,” he calls it. “Under…do you want to go under…the covers?” goes its lyrical refrain.

One thing I just realized: I have something like 450 gigabytes of music on my computer and zero of those gigabytes are backed up in any way, shape, or form.

And my computer doesn’t seem particularly stable. I’m imagining what would happen if it just shut down one day. Maybe I should do something about that. Thanks for reading.

Projected Governors Ball Schedule:

Friday:

• The four time slots from 12:15 to 3:00PM are filled by eight bands. I have heard exactly zero of them.
• Dinosaur Jr., 3:00PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage
• Best Coast, 3:45PM @ You’re Doing Great Stage
• The slot from 4:45 to 5:45 presents me with either Of Monsters and Men or Dillon Francis, both of which I think will leave me in search of a good sandwich some place else.
• Potential conflict here: Local Natives vs. Crystal Castles at 5:45PM. I’ll probably head to Crystal Castles (@ Skyy Vodka Tent).
• Feist, 6:45PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage
• Oh man, big conflict here: Erykah Badu (“& The Cannabinoids,” the website is telling me) vs. Beach House at 8:00PM. This decision might require some soul-searching. If I hear word that Beach House’s shtick can manage to translate into a great lives show—and if I feel assured that they will stick primarily to their fantastic Bloom album—I might have to go with them (@ You’re Doing Great stage).
• 9:30 is either Kings of Leon or Pretty Lights—oh boy. I might go with Pretty Lights (@ HondaSTAGE) just for the atypical experience, although to be perfectly honest I thought the Kings’s panned Come Around Sundown was a pretty good time.

Saturday:

• Once again, the first four bands from 12:15PM to 1:30PM are no-names for me.
• Wild Nothing, 1:30PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage. I don’t know much about this band but they do ring some sort of bell.
• Icona Pop, 2:15PM @ Skyy Vodka Tent. Ditto.
• Japandroids, 3:00PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage.
• Another conflict at 3:45PM: Fucked Up vs. Dirty Projectors. But I’ve already seen Fucked Up in a shitty hotel in the Catskills, and while I had a great time, the Projectors’s Swing Lo Magellan has been in my head for past year. I’ve heard their show lives up to the album’s promise. I’ll hit them up @ You’re Doing Great Stage.
• 4:45PM gives me either Divine Fits or Alt-J, which sounds like another early dinner trip to me. I’ve only heard middling things about Alt-J and especially their live show, so I might swing by Divine Fits @ Gov Ball NYC Stage and give them a shot.
• Azealia Banks, 5:45PM @ Skyy Vodka Tent
• Kendrick Lamar, 6:45 @ HondaSTAGE
• Animal Collective, 8:00PM @ You’re Doing Great Stage
• Nas, 9:30 @ HondaSTAGE

Sunday:

• From 12:15 to 1:30PM are more no-names.
• Haim, 1:30PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage
• Freddie Gibbs, 2:15PM @ Skyy Vodka Tent
• 3:00PM is either Portugal. The Man or Cold War Kids. I have no love for a band with a name as stupid as the former’s but not much in me for Cold War Kids either; I’d probably choose Portugal. The Man @ Gov Ball NYC Stage.
• Deerhunter, 3:45PM @ You’re Doing Great Stage
• Foals, 4:45PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage
• Yeasayer, 5:45PM @ Skyy Vodka Tent. Beirut is also playing a show at this time @ You’re Doing Great Stage, but unless told otherwise I’m going to assume his show isn’t enticing enough to merit a “conflict”. Then again, what can I say in favor of Yeasayer?
• Grizzly Bear, 6:15 @ Gov Ball NYC Stage
• This is where it gets tough to interpret the makeshift schedule posted by BrooklynVegan.com in lieu of the actual schedule posted by the festival, which just leads to a broken page. I think my next choice is between The xx and Bloc Party, a middling conflict if ever there was one. I would probably have to go see The xx @ You’re Doing Great Stage, although why they aren’t in the tent is beyond me.
• Kanye West, 9:30PM @ Gov Ball NYC Stage