“What will the future bring? I can’t even wake up early in the morning…” That’s pretty much the way I feel during this (and every) finals week, wondering how, over the course of the last 15 weeks, things get to this point. The answer is, they just do (”they just do”= music + booze), and Head of Femur know this. That line is from “Isn’t It a Shame?” the closing track on their stellar recent release, Great Plains. The rest of the record is filled with a sound that is actually stripped down from their last record (could you go any bigger than Hysterical Stars?)yet still manages to convey the epic space–both internal and physically real–of their midwestern subject matter. It’s a rock/pop/prog exercise in representing the features of a featureless landscape; in short, it’s what we do everyday, set to music.
If you don’t know anything about HoF, here’s the scoop. They were Nebraskans transplantedto Chicago by the fall of 2001, and soon the trio of Mike Elsener, Ben Armstrong and Matt Focht had some songs on their hands. They end up signed to Greyday for their dubut, and end up on SpinART for their sophomore effort, the aforementioned Hysterical Stars. In the meantime they are touring with a gazillion people, Polyphonic Spree-style, with harps and bajos and who knows what else. The sounds, of course, are killer, and they take to road with my some of my favorite bands, like Arhcitecture in Helsinki and Andrew Bird.
And now, dear reader, they are passed along to us. “Stripped down” to a “more manageable” five piece (this is seriously what people are writing. Do you understand yet how HUGE this band’s sound is?), they take the stage at ICYC this Sunday with Des Moines’ Poison Control Center and Heavenly States. You’ll be there if you know what’s good fer you.
Download: Head of Femur - Climbing Up Fire Escapes
Last week’s post was all about Mother’s Day, so hopefully you found it in your heart to do something nice for your mom, or some mom somewhere. But in the “how did I miss this?” department, I stumbled upon this story while watching the Celtics-Cavs playoff Game 5 this evening: apparently Monday night during Game 4, LeBron James absorbed a hard foul which drew his mother, seated courtside, to her feet. As she approached the court, LeBron apparently then instructed her to, “Sit your ass down!” To get the real dirt, and a more educated opinion than mine (I couldn’t watch Game 4 due to a meeting I was attending), you’ll have to consult espn.com columnist Jemele Hill’s take on the situation 
It’s never a bad thing to wake up on Monday morning only to be greeted with some fresh tunes by one of your favourite bands ever. Such was the case this morning when I happened onto our friends 
Don’t forget that amidst your last weekend of pre-finals revelry, this Sunday is Mother’s Day, one of our most important holidays. Make sure you take time to remember your mom, or grandmother, or wife/girlfriend, or whatever. You totally should already have a card in the mail. If not, you can totally snag a sarcastic and hilarious card like the one here at 
Oh dude, is your head spinnin’ too? I’m having a really hard time with this. Okay, Film School, 
Get yr shoegaze headgear on. California rockers Film School roll through town this Thursday (May 8th) at the Picador, joined by Airiel and killer local acts Foul Tip and Birth Rites. We’ll do a proper preview of that show soon enough but we’d like to take a moment to introduce you to Film School, a band that we’ve been following for several years.
After taking a month off in April due to the Mission Creek Festival, this Saturday sees the return of our monthly series at the 
It is the first day of May, which is a veritable cause for celebration. As they say, April showers bring May flowers, so hopefully that little snow flurry that popped in to say hello on Monday is the last gasp of Old Man Winter as we wind down the semester and look forward to a summer. We also recognize that April showers bring final exams, but that’s not for another two whole weeks, so this weekend is undoubtedly a chance to relax and get jiggy one more time before you have to stuff like three months of knowledge into that cranium. If you get down like that.
