Dylan Hill vs James Blake

Dylan and James Blake are similar because they both have charming British accents. While Dylan is not working in catering or skateboarding at the park, he can be found hanging out at his blog Dylan Hill Talks About Stuff For Some Reason. It is truly one of the best blogs I have ever followed, really, bookmark that and read it!!

1. Unluck

2. CMYK

3. Sparing the Horses

4. Tell Me Are You With Me

Danielle Bade vs Zola Jesus

I am quite partial to Danielle. The longstanding rumors of our relationship are, in fact, true. You read it first here on A Stare Like Yours on Blogspot Com! She is the Zola Jesus expert among my friends (they shared a class a few semesters ago, coincidentally) so I was happy to have her pick 4 songs for this project.

1. Sink the Dynasty

2. Clay Bodies

3. Sea Talk

4. Manifest Destiny

Adam Raimond vs DJ Shadow

I was looking forward to seeing what Adam had to say about DJ Shadow. In addition to one of them being a big fan of the other, both are tall white guys with facial hair so I consider them to be kindred spirits of some sort. I imagine Shadow will be playing a lot of his classics (though he has been moving in a different direction ever since endtroducing/preemptive strike), but we'll see what ends up happening. Safe to say his set will be awesome either way.

Adam provides commentary:

"I'm just going to pick songs from The Outsider to fuck around... nah not really"

1. Midnight In A Perfect World

"One of them is definitely Midnight In A Perfect World"

2. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2)

"Then it's kinda a tough one. I wanna put on either In/Flux or What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2), but not both because each are over like 13 mins"

3. Mashin' On the Motorway

"Then next I'll go with Mashin' On the Motorway b/c it's a good idgaf song. Then can I cheat on this last one?"

4. Boogie Down Productions vs. David Bowie - Jack of Spades vs. Let's Dance

"It was mixed by him. So- Reppin' the obvious, the really obscure, the under-appreciated, and then a good unexpected one."

Christian Widder vs The Radio Dept

Christian is fantastic because he goes to a lot of concerts in other cities and gives me rides all the time. In addition to helping me save on travel costs, he recently shaved his beard and cut his hair, which was pretty wild.

1. Heaven's On Fire

"Silly question but: when The Radio Dept plays Heaven's on Fire, will they use a prerecorded version of the Thurston Moore sample, or will Thurston Moore actually get up and recite the quote?"-Dylan Hill

2. Never Follow Suit

3. Pulling Our Weight

4. The Worst Taste In Music

Nick Pjevach vs TV On The Radio

Nick has some great Facebook profile pictures. He also likes TV on the Radio, and is awesome for providing reasons for his picks!

1. Wolf Like Me

What they will always be known for.

2. Ambulance

"Dum dum dum dun dum dum" (agreed!)

3. I Was A Lover

This video!

4. Lover's Day

"A song about sex that is explicit without making you feel dirty, now with woodwinds! (Or maybe I am the only person to like this song. If so, see "Will Do," because that will actually be performed live.)"

John Ash vs Deerhunter

John Ash is a true Dudebro. He was the first to chose 4 songs (last week at Pizza Di Roma). Let's hear it for John Ash!

1. Nothing Ever Happened

2. Hazel St

3. Cryptograms

4. Desire Lines

catching up - pitchfork 2011

Sometimes I get bogged down in doing listening homework before fests. Lollapalooza is always the worst (or the best) for this--there are so many potential future favorites that I don't recognize when the lineup's announced.

Pitchfork has been rolling out stellar lineups for a few years now. While no day of this year's fest touches the near-perfection of Sunday 2010, this year's lineup is full of my favorites. Recently, though, as conversations turn to the fest it becomes apparent that some of the bands I don't know too well (Superchunk, Neko Case) are some of the sets my friends are looking forward to the most. The opposite was also often true, but instead of just finding more about my friends' favorites one-on-one I thought it'd be fun to compile a list and post it here.

I've asked a few of my friends to pick a favorite band of theirs playing the festival. The challenge was for them to showcase the group using only 4 songs chosen to entice a stranger to the band. I've been really pleased with the responses I got--overall this has been a lot of fun to put together! I'll be rolling out posts until the fest starts. If you'd like to choose the 4 songs that best highlight a band's catalog, just send me your submissions and I'll put them up!

Edit: I've got 10 of these posts up now. Check them out!