Country Flip/News in Brief

The Strokes are making a comeback appearance as a full group next year in June at the Isle of Wight Festival in England!

SXSW 2010 initial band listing is up on Stereogum, which includes our friends from London, Good Shoes. Their new LP No Hope, No Future comes out next month.

Animal Collective's Fall Be Kind EP is up and out digitally. Standout track "What Would I Want? Sky" is really fantastic and pretty straightforward for AC. Great hooks and lyrics, as usual. They're just not as buried. [hypem]

"On World AIDS Day, December 1, Live Nation will donate a portion of every ticket sold to its concerts in the United States to fight HIV/AIDS. All proceeds will benefit LIFEbeat, the music industry’s HIV/AIDS prevention charity in America."

Some new bands to try: Local Natives, The Hush Now, Thao with the Get Down...

Last Night: MTV VMA Party + Lifebeat - Kid Cudi & Phoenix

Yesterday Phoenix offered a half price ticket for their appearance at Terminal 5 for the MTV VMAs kick-off party / Lifebeat (Music industry against HIV/AIDS charity) benefit show / Beatles Rock Band plug event. The whole thing was documented on film and video.

Kid Cudi opened for a wild crowd:

You're looking at the rapper who intentionally puts feedback on his vocals.
The performance was alright, he was pretty good but really nothing more than an 'average' rapper- however, I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified to judge, since I'm really not a hip hop/rap fan at all.

Then Phoenix took the stage for a very short set (Kid Cudi ran over and they had to stop at midnight). Apologies for the repeat/poor pictures, as I was standing in pretty much the exact same place as their show at the same venue in June, it was darker than usual, and the band's got their show down to a science. They must be bored of their catalog after circling most of the world twice this year. Nevertheless, it was a great set and a lot of fun.

There was no bag check, so it was a little frustrating that there could have been some nicer SLR pictures, but stay tuned, because I've got tickets for one of their two Central Park shows and they allow larger cameras.

More Phoenix things: the drumstick from the June show and Mazzalai's guitar pick from last night! Now if only there was a setlist..

Creepy Empire State lights on the low clouds heading home.

PHOENIX TOUR DATES
Catch them play Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on September 24.