Although my first impression was “This is very good, however it has been done by them before”, I no longer think that is a bad thing. Unlike previous efforts this is their first purely ballad based album, vs. their typical mix of anthematic rock and ballads. Although the move was quite obvious, especially going from Alligator to Boxer, I am not disappointed by it, as I was with Boxer upon my first listen.

On the first few listens, this album affects me much more differently. Unlike High Violet and Boxer, which were both heart breaking, Trouble Will Find Me is tragic, but more in a heart broken and continuing on with one’s life. In many ways this reminds me of Take Care by Explosions in The Sky, where there previous efforts sounds like music to go into a battle, Take Care sounds like a soundtrack to the aftermath. Trouble Will Find Me (imho) has that same atmosphere to it: It is the calm after depression, the eye of a hurricane in many ways. You can’t feel positive afterwards, but you also are not rattled like their previous efforts.

Honestly, if this was just a better mastered version of High Violet, I would be very happy, however there is so much more to this album. I will definitely be giving it a few more listens.

Best explanation of Margaret Thatcher for us ‘Mericans:

Hey guys, glad you could make it tonight! Tonight’s a rather special night, because we’ve got a new player joining – oh, is that the door? That must be her now. Yes, James, her! What do you mean you would’ve showered if you knew a girl was com…is that smell preventable?? Look, I know we’ve never had a girl play with us before, but trust me, it’s important. You’ll find her no less of a decent player!
Everyone, meet Maggie! She’s going to be playing a lawful evil elf fighter. I’ve rolled her up a good build – high constitution, high strength, high charisma, though I had to put her dump stat on wisdom – but that won’t matter for a fighter. She’s starting with the leadership, power attack and iron will feats, and has a great backstory of hating dwarves.
Right, let’s start. I’ll just fill Maggie in on where we’ve got to – the party just did a massive dungeon crawl. Their armour and equipment are in pretty bad shape, but they did find this artefact – the National Economy. It’s an interesting item, because when given to a dwarven village to use, it actually generates gold – over 1000 per day. You agreed the dwarves get to keep 100 gold from that for the work they do, and you get the other 900. Pretty cool eh?
So, you’re sitting in the tavern, and suddenly a dwarf ambassador from the village comes in. He’s suggesting that since the dwarves are doing all the work on your artefact, they should be entitled to a higher percentage of the gold. What do you guys do?
Ah, Maggie, I see you’re getting into this quickly! So you’re telling the dwarf to… go screw himself? Well OK…roll…oooh, looks like the dwarves have decided to stop working on the artefact at all! What’re you going to do now?
Wait it out until they break? That seems fair enough. They’re not getting any money if they don’t do the work, and they need it more than you do. Although a few of them do want to work it seems, cause they badly need the gold…roll…hmmm interesting, it appears that the non-working dwarves are blockading the artefact to make sure that no one works at all.
Wow Maggie, you’re really getting into this! Okay, so Maggie’s sent a message to some old elvish acquaintances to ask them to go and attack the dwarves. Hang on…roll…it seems the elves won’t do it unless you pay them.
So wait a minute, you want to sell the artefact to the elves in order to pay them to stop the dwarves blockading it? Doesn’t that seem a little…no? You’ll never see the artefact again…no, OK, Maggie seems to be insisting…
Right, I can understand why the rest of you are angry at Maggie for selling off your most major asset, so I guess you now get to decide what to do with her. Hang on guys – let her speak! I’m just going to pass this note to her…
So, Maggie, you’re choosing to reveal what I wrote – you’re saying that there’s a tribe of orcs in the Lands of Falk that you need to deal with, and the party can put off voting you out until after that? You’re saying that they attacked you first? You do realise that’s a complete… Wait, you guys are going along with this?? But you have no money and your armour’s ruined…. Fine, fine, go and attack the orcs then!
—some time later—
Well, I’d like to say I told you so. Your cleric’s nearly dead and you didn’t really beat the orcs properly. You have no money, and you’re responsible for the death of an entire dwarven village. I hope you’re happy with yourselves. Yes, by all means take a vote to see if Maggie can ever come again? Yes I thought so. Goodbye Maggie. I wish I could say it was a pleasure.
Right, who’s for pizza?

I have mixed opinions about this TED talk, and how she justifies her actions. I think it is amazing that she has such a tremendous emotional connection with her fans, but given how she talks about that connection, it feels like she is more into business than art. I cannot get past the lingering feeling that she is taking advantage of her fans, which is a fine line when it comes to making a connection.

As a tremendous Weakerthans/John K. Samson fan, I understand what it is like to feel that connection with an artist, especially when they portray themselves as one of the crowd. When the Weakerthans had a member of the audience come on to stage and play, I thought it was amazing; When John K. Samson asked for a beer from the crowd and did cheers with everyone before going into a song, I was ecstatic. So what makes the Weakerthans any different in my mind than Amanda Palmer, since I would personally be honored to have them stay at my place? To be honest, I think it is the background events that really affect my opinion of Amanda Palmer. If she were to ask local musicians to play with her during concerts, I would not be so bothered; if she were to stay at fans’ homes for free, I would have shrugged it off, however she raised $1.2 million for her most recent album (10x what she was requesting), before even releasing it. She is not some poor, struggling, indie musician, and this does not even consider that her husband is also successful. She could have easily supported her tour with the money from tickets alone, much less the $1 million left over from her current kickstarter, but instead she stayed for free at an undocumented immigrants house, and it is fair since that daughter loved Amanda Palmer’s music?

Personally, I have mixed opinions in regards to using kickstarter to get an album out, especially if you are a well known artist, however it was all of Amanda Palmer’s actions that makes me feel that she is taking advantage of her fans, as opposed to connecting to them. There is nothing wrong with making money off of y our music and accompanying merch, however Amanda does it in a way that is exceptionally sleazier than even Jay-Z (does anyone remember Occupy All Streets).

Great name, meh festival. The National and The Walkmen are definitely worth seeing, but I refuse to fund Fun. or Matt & Kim.

The lineup itself is great, however it is so similar to Coachella, that is it disappointing for those of us that live close enough to go to both. I already have plans to go to Coachella, so I have no reason to go to Sasquatch (which in 2009 – 2011 I did), since all the medium to smaller acts are the same. For those who live too far away from Coachella for it to be reasonable, yes, this is great. For the few of use that live in the Bay Area, this is just one less festival for the year.

I am so goddamn jealous of you for being able to go to Treefort. I keep trying to figure out a reasonable way for me to get to Boise and stay there without spending $500+ on tickets and airfare.

With that in mind, I can definitely see where you are coming from, and I was more complaining for selfish reasons, in that I would love to go to Coachella and Sasquatch. I really hope you get to go to both festivals, since they are unique in comparison with each other.

Also, Matthew Dear is amazing live, and if you go to Treefort, you will also get to see Shigeto. In the words of The Prestige, you live for the both of us now.

So I do the $20 a show count: I count the number of shows that I would like to see, multiply that by $20, and see if that number comes out 1.5 – 2x higher than the ticket price (considering bands will most likely overlap). The $20 number came from me doing a basic average where I would most likely pay $50 to see Modest Mouse live, $35-$40 to see Grizzly Bear, and $10 to see bands like The Cloud Nothings. So I average it out to $20.

Understandably, Coachella is more than just a music festival, it is a complete camping experience, which makes it much more worth while. For festivals like FYF, Treasure Island, and Outside Lands, you are going for the food and music, Coachella is about the 3 days of partying in the desert along with the music.

It is a lot of money, but for me, one of my favorite vacations I take each year.

I completely agree. I was not as excited about the big acts this year, but after going through the list, there are 2x more bands that I am interested in seeing than there were last year. Also, really excited to see Modest Mouse and Stone Roses live. Sure, This is no Radiohead/Bon Iver/The Shins trifecta, but it is still a great lineup.

Os Mutantes? Have they done anything since the 60s?

A Perfect Circle is also an exceptionally strange choice

Has Sufjan written any Christmas songs? I mean Seven Swans is religious, but it is not particularly Christmasy.

On a more serious note, Mogwai’s Christmas Song is amazing and should be here.

I really do not get the fascination with Mac DeMarco. The album is not bad by any means, but it does not stand out to me. Beyond that, self indulgence is the best indulgence.

Arguably Father John Misty is the same way: He released (at least) 3 albums as J. Tillman beforehand, and was the drummer of The Fleet Foxes.