Morning Shorts: The Places Go West

Amy Annelle and her Places have a bunch of West coast tour dates in March, including one on the Oregon coast with psych-folk godfather Michael Hurley, plus one Brooklyn show with Castanets. She's playing several cities we've heard of and several we haven't. Regardless of which type you live in, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend an evening.

Noel Murray of the vaunted Onion A/V Club pretty well captured the wonder of the last Places album: "An angelic voice and an interest in dark, grainy visions of the American Nightmare…the Places' new Songs For Creeps runs through sprawling songs that nod at Will Oldham, Johnny Cash and Fairport Convention...Annelle captures the ominous, awesome feeling of storms rolling across the plains, with the sun periodically breaking through".

March 19th - Pioneertown, CA, Pappy & Harriets (with Bingo Dream Band)
March 20th - San Diego, CA, Kava Lounge (with Bunky, Roxy Jones)
March 21st - Lompoc, CA, Sugar Magnolias (with Le Petit Protest)
March 22nd - San Francisco, CA, Rickshaw Stop
March 23rd - Live on KDVS: Michael Leahy's Cool as Folk Program (12 pm)
Davis, CA, Delta of Venus (with 'Oogie) (9 pm)
March 24th - Portland, OR, Towne Lounge (with Zak Riles, Pseudosix)
March, 25th - Astoria, OR, Voodoo Lounge (with Michael Hurley)
March 29th - Brooklyn, NY @ Lutheran Church of the Messiah (with Castanets)

We interviewed Amy Annelle last fall, and you can read it here.

MP3: The Places - Just a Bum (Michael Hurley)
MP3: The Places - Half Right (Elliott Smith)
MP3: The Places - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan)

Pitchfork talks to Lou Barlow on the eve of the Sebadoh reunion tour.

"I always hear bands that sound like Pavement and Sonic Youth to me, but never Sebadoh. Whenever someone says like, "Oh, it really sounds like Sebadoh," I listen to it and I'm like, "No. What are you talking about?! It doesn't sound like Sebadoh." Like people were saying that guy from Snow Patrol sounded a lot like me. I'd actually met him a few years ago, and his friends practically pushed him on me, like, "HE SOUNDS JUST LIKE YOU!" And I'm like, "Uhh..."

Kirstiecat has some nice pictures and a set list from the Chicago Sparklehorse show. His set skews older (think Vivadixiesubmarinepilot and Good Morning Spider classics) so maybe he didn't like Dreamt much either.

Paste Magazine has the first review of the Innocence Mission's We Walked in Song, and awards 4 stars.

Eight days ago I mentioned a few reissues of semi-legendary Aussie band The Triffids. The back-to-basics one, that was recorded in a sheep-shearing shed, is In the Pines, and features future Bad Seeds and Grinderman bassist Martyn Casey. The sound is grounded in the doomier side of 80s alt, with a vocalist Nick Cave and Smoke fans will appreciate. "Kathy Knows" from In the Pines is the AmpCamp song of the day.

MP3: The Triffids - Kathy Knows