Marcus Mumford breathes life into his band

Something interesting that I learned while at the Railroad Revival Tour was that his girlfriend is the woman from Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps.  Her name is Carey Mulligan and her character in the movie is Winnie Gekko.  This realization came because she was with Marcus Mumford at the concert!  This led to me wanting to know more about Mr. Mumford.

I think that Marcus Mumford looks a little like Brendan Fraiser, but some think otherwise.

According to the ever popular Wiki and as usual take with a grain of salt:

Mumford was born on January 31, 1987 in Anaheim, California.  His family moved back to their native England when Mumford was six months old.  He attended King’s College School in Wimbledon where he met fellow band member Ben Lovett.  He went on to study classics in the University of Edinburgh but returned to London to focus on his music career after his first year of study. It was in Edinburgh that he penned most of Mumford & Sons’ debut album, Sigh No More.  He began his musical career playing drums for Laura Marling on tour, along with the other current members of Mumford & Sons. It was through touring with Laura and playing important gigs of his early writing they decided to set up the band in 2007.

Carey Mulligan is also mentioned in Wiki, but it only confirms that they are indeed still dating.

The Railroad Revival Tour 2011 in Tempe, Arizona

The Railroad Revival Tour came to Tempe, Arizona on April 23rd.  The bands that performed included: The Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Mumford & Sons.  The last I heard, 5,000 tickets were sold and that it was a sold out show.  The best word to describe the entire show is: hoedown.

It was a hoedown

This is the first “hoedown” that I’ve been to, but it was so much fun and the music was really good!  Thousands of people filled the dirt lot that was turned into an outdoor stage with food and drink vendors.  Indian tacos were being sold as well as sausage.

The people who attended the concert wore the modern plaid shirt and skinny jeans.  Others took the more traditional route and wore ragged pants and shirts, which fit in well with Edwarde Sharpe frontman Alex Ebert who wore nothing but long johns.

Ebert made several jokes between songs and spent some time with the audience and even got inbetween the crowd.  One of his jokes was: A termite walks into a bar and asks where’s the bar-tender?  This one took me a while to understand, as well as the rest of the audience, because no on laughed after he finished the joke.  Ebert had also gone as far as jokingly calling Arizona the occupied Mexico.  All of his jokes were clearly not meant to invoke any hard feelings and were purely for entertainment.

The highlight of the entire concert was Mumford & Sons.  As usual, they played popular songs with a few lesser known ones.  “Little lion man” and “The cave” were among the more popular ones.  Marcus Mumford, the lead singer of the band, joked about the people who were “too cheap to buy tickets.”  There were apartment complexes right next to the dirt lot mentioned earlier.  Groups of people were on the roofs of the apartments watching from the “cheap seats.”  Mumford said that the people were in the same boat as the band because the band didn’t pay for tickets either.

How to Survive at an Outdoor Concert

There are several things needed to not overheat in the summer at an outdoor concert:

1. Sunscreen — This is essential to protect your skin from harmful ultraviolet rays.  A sweat proof sunscreen would be the best choice for going to a concert, because you’ll be cramped in a tight spot with hundreds of other people.  A high SPF would be good, but which ever SPF you’re more comfortable with is also good.  I’ve heard different stories about the right SPF level and they are all over the place.

2. Water — Always carry a bottle of water around with you!  Staying hydrated is absolutely necessary to stay cool and alert in the heat.  I can’t even count the numbers of people I’ve seen pass out at concerts because they haven’t had enough water.  Also, alcohol will cause you to become dehydrated quicker in the heat.  Consume consciously!  Several concerts that I’ve gone to allowed one bottle per person, but they have to be sealed, so keep one handy.  If you freeze one before the concert, you’ll have a nice cold drink when you need it most.

Follow the jump to learn more about surviving concerts outdoors…

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley talks about the bands new album

Alternative Press has released an interview done with Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley.  To read the rest of the interview beyond what is shown here head on over to Altpress with this link.

For SUM 41 fans, it probably seems like Screaming Bloody Murder—the band’s long-awaited fifth album—has been in the works forever. It was early in 2009 when frontman DERYCK WHIBLEY revealed that the EP they had been writing and recording songs for would likely become a full-length, and in the time since then, the album was repeatedly pushed. Now that the follow-up to 2007’s Underclass Hero is about to be unleashed, Whibley says it doesn’t matter whether Screaming Bloody Murder lives up to anyone’s expectations—because it already exceeded those of the members.

Your new album, Screaming Bloody Murder, is finally set to be released on March 29. How long did the actual recording process take?
It took about three-and-a-half years. We never intended to “make a record.” It all kind of happened by accident. We just felt like if we have a song here or there, we just set up in my living room and record. Then, six months later, we would have another song. It was never really recording an album—it was sort of a “right timing” type of thing. After a while, we were like, “Oh shit, we have an album now.” I can’t really remember a lot of it because it took place during such a big time span. It was all recorded at different houses. It was really unpredictable.

So would you say it was more like a collection of songs than a traditional album?
That’s the way it was—a collection of songs. But luckily, [it turned out to be] very cohesive. It’s very much an album—more so than anything we’ve ever done. I don’t ever listen to just an individual song [from it]. I just play it from track 1 to 14. It was kind of just a luck thing the way it turned out.

For the rest of the interview please follow this link to the Alternative Press website.

Live blog about Neon Trees performance on Letterman

I just finished doing a live blog about Neon Trees performance on David Letterman.  You can find a transcript by clicking here. The band performed “Your Surrender” at the very end of the show.  They seem to have waned in popularity since their “Animal” days.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ “Janglin” and “Home” appear in 2011 commercials

After seeing Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in the Railroad Revival Tour, there were two things that I noticed…  Two of their songs are now featured in commercials on regular television.

The first is “Janglin,” it is featured in the 2011 Ford Fiesta commercial.

Continue after the jump to see the second commercial.

Arcade Fire play in Santa Fe

Arcade Fire performed at Santa Fe Community Convention Center Monday, April 18.  The tickets were sold out at least a week before the date of the event.  Ticket prices averaged around $50 and $1 from the price of the ticket went to help the victims in Haiti.

Eleven microphones and eight band members

The first thing I noticed while they were setting up the stage for Arcade Fire, were the numerous microphones.  There were also an array of instruments that needed to be tuned including the unusual hurdy gurdy.  Which is like a guitar that has a crank which rotates and strums the strings continuously.

Follow the jump to read more about the concert.

Interview/Audio & Waiting for the Arcade Fire show to start

Arcade Fire played in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.  Many fans lined up hours before the show and one shares his reasons for coming so early to wait in line.

Follow the jump to see a picture of the line outside of the convention center.

Cage the Elephant rocked Albuquerque’s Sunshine Theater

Cage the Elephant performed with Biffy Clyro and Sleeper Agent at Albuquerque’s Sunshine Theater April 12th.

The crowd waiting outside the theater was small compared to the lines when other larger bands play there. It didn’t look very promising until the doors opened and people started pouring in… it was a full house!

Top 10 Alternative Music Song’s Most Popular Lyrics for the week of Feb. 20th

The word cloud shown was created using the lyrics from the top 10 alternative songs for the week of February 20th.  When looking at My Chemical Romance’s song “Sing,” you’ll notice that the chorus contains sing six or more times.  This combined with the lyrics of the other songs make it the most used word in all of the lyrics.