After a hiatus of 5+ years, the Breeders will soon be releasing their long-awaited fourth studio album, Mountain Battles. Along with the new tunes, the band will be doing a U.S. tour and stopping at Chicago’s own Cabaret Metro in May. Check out “Bang On.“

All of what I’ve heard thus far has been pretty interesting. None of it has quite the majestic coolness of “Cannonball,” but I’ve still enjoyed it, and it will definitely help tide me over until my next chance to see the Pixies play. (Notice how I didn’t jinx a future Pixies album there? Oh God, does that jinx it?)

Not only does Kim Deal have probably the best female voice in alternative rock, she can sport a sweater with a collar like nobody’s business.

Barack Obama has led a remarkable campaign over the last several months and gained a lot of ground in parts of this country where skeptics said he would fail. Still, a lot of people have their doubts. This video answers even the toughest questions, and proves beyond any doubt that Barack Obama is the best candidate for the presidency.

So, some people are saying some pretty nasty things about the upcoming Local Music Awards, and I’ve found it quite difficult to understand why. I’m not sure if this is still a particularly heated issue, but I feel obligated to throw my hat in the ring even if the bell rang a few weeks ago.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here are some of the accusations/complaints being made towards WPGU and this humble awards ceremony by a select group of scenesters and musicians that happen to own computers.
1. The LMAs was arranged mainly to make a profit, at the expense of local musicians.
2. It creates competitive conflicts between bands.
3. WPGU doesn’t care about the local music scene.

How to address allegation #1.. First of all, yes, WPGU and The Buzz and The217 are commercial organizations. Unless you’re a homeless, nudist hunter-gatherer/cannibal you can’t really hold that against us. So, let’s take a look at how badly our evil, money-grabbing machine is screwing over local musicians. We’ve effectively sought them out, featured them on a website for over a month, and invited them to spend an evening celebrating the local music scene. Heinous! Even the most established bands should know the value of this kind of publicity, especially in an area with as much population turnover as Champaign-Urbana. Around 50 local acts are put in a better situation because of the Local Music Awards.

Regarding the apparent disruption of the harmonious balance among local bands.. Are you kidding me? Gather every drop of blood that is spilled between bands over winning a local music award and I’ll happily drink it. The truth is that just being nominated for an award is an honor in itself. A lot of amazingly talented musicians fell short of getting a nomination, and it’s important for people to realize that the bands up for awards were voted into that position over all of the other local musicians in their category. Bands can campaign for support, but I doubt we’ll see any Red Phone ads coming from anyone. There is nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, and the whole point is that every nominee comes out ahead.

Lastly, WPGU doesn’t care about local music. Now that I think about it, this is totally valid. That’s why we don’t ever play local music or ask bands into the studio. Right.

Actually, we play at least two local bands during every hour of normal programming. And I believe we’ve had three bands in the studio within the last two weeks. A huge amount of work has been put into the LMAs by unpaid employees who have at least some interest in local music. You simply cannot say that we’re not doing our part.

If you’re still morally outraged about the 4th Annual Local Music Awards, then DON’T come on April 3rd at 8PM at the High Dive. On the other hand, if you want to hear some good music, congratulate some of your favorite bands for all of their hard work, and have a fun evening in honor of our community’s great music scene, then please do.

We may be evil, but we know how to party.

Now that we’re well on our way into ‘08 the new music is starting to pour in. Here’s some of the latest music with which WPGU might tease your ears.

R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious - I was really surprised when I first heard this song. After the last R.E.M. release, I was expecting something far-reaching and overly political and self-important. It just seemed like the direction the band was heading. Thankfully, I was wrong. This song is great because it’s simple and catchy, basically like a lot of the songs that made R.E.M. R.E. Freaking M. It’s awesome to see the band continue to do what it does best. Tally up another one.

Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor - I’ll be honest. I’ve never been a big fan of Hot Chip. I’ll admit that I haven’t given them much of a chance, but I always thought bands like The Faint or The Postal Service or Daft Punk were a lot more approachable. You can probably tell I’m not terribly up on my dance rock. Anyway, this song makes me want to hear more from this band. It’s a lot different than what I’ve heard from them, and the song moves in lots of cool directions.

The Black Keys - Strange Times - This song rocks. With the White Stripes kind of sucking lately it’s a relief that the Black Keys are taking up some of the new-classic-rock-sound slack. The sound quality has improved quite a bit since the last record, as well. I’d say they’ve moved up from medium-fi to upper-middle-class-fi. The new album comes out in about a month, but I’ve heard tale that it’s already fallen victim to bloodless cyberNazi pirates and been leaked onto the interweb. Remember the days when we had to wait that extra month to hear all of our new music? Me neither.