Rodrigo y Gabriela - Hanuman

Album: 11:11

If you’ve never seen Rodrigo y Gabriela perform live, you are missing out. Rodrigo and Gabriela are acoustic guitarists from Mexico, and the way they play is amazing. Similar to Yoshida Brothers, the duo just plays the instrument and don’t provide any vocal, but who needs vocals when they can play like that. Every track from the new album titled, 11:11 is dedicated to musicians that inspired Rodrigo y Gabriela. The first track on the album, “Hanuman” pays tribute to fellow Mexican musician, Santana.

Speech Debelle - The Key

Album: Speech Therapy

Mercury Prize is a music award given to best British or Irish album of the year. Previously winners include creative and successful bands like Primal Scream, Portishead, PJ Harvey, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and last year’s winner Elbow (amazing album, I should add). This year’s nominees included heavy favorites such as Bat For Lashes, Friendly Fires, Kasabian and La Roux, but the award was given to fairly unknown newcomer female rapper, Speech Debelle. Before the award was given, her debut album, Speech Therapy has sold less than 3000 copies. One of the singles, “The Key” was available for free download on Amazon MP3. It is definitely unique sounding. It’s definitely not a top 40 material, but I thought I should give it a chance.

Taking Back Sunday - Where My Mouth Is

Album: New Again

I recently saw Taking Back Sunday during Blink-182 reunion tour along with Weezer (that was fun). I’m not a huge fan of Taking Back Sunday and haven’t really followed their music, but I noticed that they sounded slightly different. After reading up on their bio, I learned that the lead guitarist had left. They still sounded good, but possibly not as loud. “Where My Mouth Is” is the second single from their latest album with the new guitarist.

The Used - Blood On My Hands

Album: Artwork

The Used has been making hard rocking songs since 2002. Their production keeps getting slicker and bigger. For this album, they tried to create a new genre called “gross pop” and worked with the producer Matt Squire (Panic At the Disco). The lead single from the new album released this month, “Blood On My Hands” is a hard rocking song.

Whitney Houston - Million Dollar Bill

Album: I Look To You

A lot of people were talking about this Whitney Houston “comeback” album, and lucky for her, the album, I Look To You took the #1 spot, which she hasn’t done since The Bodyguard Soundtrack. She performed live on morning TV show, but her voice failed to deliver. She blamed it on Oprah saying she talked too much during the interview a day before, and that’s why she’s not sounding that great. This track, “Million Dollar Bill” was produced by Alicia Keys, and although reminds me of wedding or cruise ship song but at least it’s doing fairly well on the R&B chart. What I want to know is if she will be able to generate any top 10 global mega hit from this album.

Bumbershoot 2009 (Sat)

Seattle’s biggest music and arts festival, Bumbershoot is returning again this year. The lineup tends to get bigger each year and no doubt that this year is another exception. I purchased the three day pass back on Christmas of last year for $60 before any lineup was announced. I always ended up going at least two days, so I figured I would just buy all three days for that price. That turned out to be a good call as I’m liking this year’s lineup. If you are planning on attending only one day, I would most likely choose Saturday for the dense lineup of musicians. This is my itinerary for Saturday 9/5.

	Katy Perry - Thinking Of You Album: One Of The Boys Considering that Katy Perry had a couple of top 5 hit singles on the chart, I would’ve thought that she would be one of the headliners. Instead, she will be opening up in the main stage. With hit singles like “I Kissed A Girl” and “Hot N Cold” as well as current, “Waking Up In Vegas” she should get the crowd going despite starting from 1:45pm. Katy Perry was also on the lineup for Summersonic this year, but had to cancel last minute due to illness. Hopefully she will show up for this one. This track was a ballad released earlier this year, but hardly received any airplay.
	The All-American Rejects - Real World Album: When the World Comes Down Oklahoman pop-rock band, The All-American Rejects will be taking the main stage following Katy Perry. “Real World” is supposedly their next single after a disappointing, “The Wind Blows.” They also performed at Summersonic last month and also held a free concert on the Navy base in Japan. They should get youngsters screaming with hits like “Gives You Hell”, “Move Along” and “Swing Swing.”
	Sick Puppies - You're Going Down Album: Tri-Polar Sick Puppies hails from Australia. They had a minor hit in 2007 with “All the Same” but I haven’t heard anything from them since then. The band consists of Shimon Moore, Mark Goodwin and Emma Anzai, who was not only labeled “female Flea” for her awesome bass guitar playing ability, but also voted as hottest chick in metal. Sick Puppies recently released their new album, Tri-Polar which is filled with hard rock songs. Hopefully I will get to see them perform a few of their songs after The All-American Rejects.
	Carrie Rodriguez - She Ain't Me Album: She Ain't Me I became Carrie Rodriguez’s fan after hearing the song, “Infinite Night” which was featured as the free download on iTunes last year. This former violin player sings bluesy songs, and has recently released a live album. Since she is basically playing the same time slot as Iglu & Hartly, I will have to split time between them.
	Iglu & Hartly - Whatever We Like Album: And Then Boom There are so many good musicians playing around this time slot, from Low vs Diamond, Carrie Rodriguez and the rapper Wale. But I will most likely check out this Californian surfer band, Iglu & Hartly. I love their hit single, “In This City” and also am liking “Violent And Young.”
	Matt & Kim - Daylight Album: Grand I had never heard of Matt & Kim until just recently. They are actually a married couple that plays and sings together. Something about their music reminds me of earlier Tegan And Sara. Maybe it’s the simple rhythm yet highly addicting music they create. This track, “Daylight” has been used on Bacardi commercial. I like the fun music video for this song. Also, worth checking out is the video for “Lessons Learned” where the two of them start stripping in middle of New York.
	Eric Hutchinson - OK, It's Alright With Me Album: Sounds Like This Eric Hutchinson is a funny man, but he’s also a musician. Actually he’s a really good musician and had a hit single with “Rock And Roll” earlier this year. That got him the spot as a the opening band for Kelly Clarkson this summer. I’m looking forward his laid back music. On the main stage around the time is Old 97’s, but I had never heard of them before, and didn’t particularly dig the 30 second samples I heard, so I will stick with Eric Hutchinson for that one.
	Sheryl Crow - Good Is Good Album: Wildflower I’ve been wanting to see Sheryl Crow live for over a decade now. Like most people, I got into Sheryl Crow after her first album which pushed out hits like “Leaving Las Vegas”, “All I Wanna Do” and “Strong Enough.” Although she’s never matched that debut success, she’s still managed to release a decent hit here and there in the past 16 years such as “My Favorite Mistake” and “If It Makes You Happy.” After looking into my mp3 catalog, I realized that I had at least one song from every album she had released, except for Wildflower. I guess this is a good time to add another one of her songs to my list.

Bumbershoot 2009 (Sun)

Sunday brings in mixture of indie rock musicians and hip-hop acts. All of the performers on the main stage this day have released 2 or more albums, and have tendency to appear on lots of summer festivals. Local hip-hop acts such as Dyme Def and Common Market will also be present, and so will the Canadian rap group, Swollen Members, but the highlight will probably be Jason Mraz closing the night. Here’s my review (or preview) of who I plan on seeing for Sunday, 9/6.

	Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds Album: Robbers & Cowards I saw Cold War Kids at last year’s Sasquatch, and am excited to see them again this year at Bumbershoot. “Hang Me Up to Dry” from 2007 turned into one of my favorite songs of all time, and I’ve enjoyed their latest album, Loyalty to Loyalty as well (particularly the track, “I’ve Seen Enough.” They will be the opening act on the main stage.
	Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll Album: It's Blitz! Yeah Yeah Yeahs has been busy this summer with tour and appearances in festivals. They even replaced Beastie Boys at this year’s Lollapalooza festival after Adam Yanch announced about his cancer. With their latest album, It’s Blitz!, they’ve moved into a new musical direction, but I still liked it. I’m looking forward to hearing songs like “Maps”, “Down Boy” and “Gold Lion” at the main stage.
	Swollen Members - Pressure Album: Black Magic I had never heard of this hip-hop group from Vancouver, Canada until a friend pointed out that she was only attending Sunday to check this group out. Looks like they have a lot of credentials such as winning Juno Awards (Canadian version of Grammys) for best rap recording for four out of five albums they have released thus far. It will be interesting to see what the best of Canadian hip-hop crew can showcase.
	Common Market - Black Patch War Album: Black Patch War EP Along with Blue Scholars, Common Market is one of Seattle’s favorite local hip-hip groups. Fronted by rapper, RA Scion, who has lived all over the world, including Zambia, and DJ Sabzi, who also makes beat for Blue Scholars, they have been active in Pacific Northwest since 2005.
	Michael Franti & Spearhead - Hey World (Don't Give Up) Album: All Rebel Rockers I’ve seen Michael Franti live, and I think he’s very talented and knows how to work up the crowd, but I was surprised to find that he was named one of the headliners over Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But in Seattle, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The radio and music video channels are starting to play “Say Hey (I Love You)” and he’s finally getting some mainstream attention. “Hey World (Don’t Give Up)” is a touching song from his latest album, All Rebel Rockers.
	Jason Mraz - If It Kills Me Album: We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things This singer-songwriter recently broke the ultimate record on Billboard chart. His song, “I’m Yours” has spent 71 weeks on Hot 100, which nobody in history of chart music has ever done, and that record could continue to expand as it is still on the chart today. I’ve heard that he puts on a great show, so I’m looking forward to seeing him at the Bumbershoot since normally I probably wouldn’t go see his live show.

Bumbershoot 2009 (Mon)

A lot of hip-hop and R&B acts will be taking the stage on Monday, but there will be some serious rock and roll as well. Here’s my review (or preview) of the artists I plan on checking out for 9/7 Monday at Bumbershoot.

	The Knux - Cappuccino Album: Remind Me In 3 Days... The Knux is not your ordinary hip-hop group. Formed by two brothers, they can play instruments as they used to belong in a highschool band. Their style has been compared to Outkast, and their live shows has been talked about from coast to coast. They will be the opening act on the main stage.
	Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body Album: The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) Black Eyed Peas are coasting through the chart as they recently destroyed Usher’s record for most consecutive #1 by an artist (Usher lasted 19 weeks with “Yeah!” and “Burn”. Peas are currently #1 for 21 weeks, and could extend it longer if “I Gotta Feeling” continues to stay at the top. With that said, Black Eyed Peas not being the headliner was the biggest surprise for this year’s Bumbershoot, but who’s complaining? I haven’t seen them live for about five years now. Now that they are more pop and dance sounding, it would be interesting to see how they would bring the music to the stage.
	Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Sugarfoot Album: Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! There is no doubt that Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears sound like James Brown. It’s one thing to be labeled as James Brown’s cover band or sound-alike, but Black Joe Lewis sounds really good. Unfortunately they are playing during the same time slot as Black Eyed Peas, but hopefully I can catch a bit of their show.
	Janelle Monae - Many Moons Album: Metropolis: The Chase Suite Janelle Monae met Outkast’s Big Boi and was featured on their musical project, Idlewild, which wasn’t too successful. But people still noticed Janelle Monae, including Diddy, who signed her to his Bad Boy label. She has only released an EP album so far, and her full debut album has been delayed several times. Hopefully with more touring, she will get to launch her career with a full debut album.
	Franz Ferdinand - What She Came For Album: Tonight What a treat. I’ve been wanting to see Franz Ferdinand since their debut album, but have always missed them somehow. I’m probably most excited in seeing them live out of all lineup. “No You Girls” is still getting a lot of airplays on the radio, and with three albums under their belt with several hits, they should have plenty of songs to play for the Seattle audience.
	Modest Mouse - Satellite Skin Album: No One's First, And You're Next I saw them live in the freezing rain at Sasquatch last year. Hopefully this time around I can actually enjoy their music (the forecast is calling for rain this weekend). Modest Mouse originates from a city called Issaquah, which is half an hour away from Seattle. They have recently released an EP with unreleased songs and B-sides. Included on the album is a track, “King Rat” which the actor Heath Ledger (played Joker on The Dark Knight), was in process of directing the music video before his unfortunate death. Seattle crowd would be excited to have local band such as Modest Mouse close this ceremony.