Music roundup

Music related things that are getting me excited in 2009.

1. The new Springsteen record leaked this week and not surprisingly its pretty damn good. Not as good as "Magic" or "The Rising" in terms of modern E Street Band projects, but good nonetheless. I still need some time to process it so I'll probably wait to post my review until its official release date of 1/27 - who knows, I may not really "get it" until I hear it on the Vinyl I buy from Music Millennium that Tuesday.

2. The new M. Ward is being streamed on NPR and is quite good. Two cool covers (two of my favorite tunes actually, "Rave on" by Buddy Holly and blues standard "Oh lonesome me"), great guest appearances and killer arrangements. Definitely will be picking this up in Feb.

3. First confirmed show of 2009! Lisa Hannigan at the Wonder Ballroom. Amber and I have a lot of work left to do to get to our 2008 concert total, 17 more shows to be exact.

4. Neil Finn's "7 world's collide" project seems to be progressing quite nicely. They have tons of awesome videos up. The CD and DVD will be must buys as all proceeds go to Ox Fam

5. I should have a great mix next winter, looks like theres a lot of good stuff on the horizon:

Likely releases:

Steve Earle's record of Townes Van Zant covers
Ryan Adams
Neil Young
Lucero's major label debut
Townes van Zant reissues
Ted Leo
Damien Rice
Art Brut (with Frank Black producing!)

Possible Releases
Pearl Jam (damn they take their sweet time making records)
Drive-By Truckers
Some Glen Hansard related project
The National

Not Anticipating
U2 - No Line on the Horizon (each time they record something do they play a game of who can pick the most pretentious sounding title?)

In 2009 I hope to see........

Bruce Springsteen (not likely, should be a short tour)
Pearl Jam (sort of a crapshoot there)
REM (not likely, looks like they're done touring the last record)
The National - finally (likely, I can't say why I just have a good feeling)
Ted Leo (likely, dude needs to get paid, and should have a new record)
Steve Earle (see above)
Damien Rice
Art Brut
Ryan Adams
Cr Avery
Pavement (might finally happen this year)