How about the Tweeter Center line-up instead
By WILL SPITZ | August 14, 2007
|
After spending more time than I would’ve liked trying to figure out what the “Download Festival” — an annual multi-city sponsor-saturated concert owned by Clear Channel — has to do with downloading, I decided to give up and just listen to some stuff by bands playing the Tweeter Center date this Saturday. It’s a pretty cool line-up of “indie” stars (Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), indie almost-stars (Neko Case, Wolf Parade, Band of Horses), college-rock faves (Guster), and local heroes (Bang Camaro, Apollo Sunshine).
Band of Horses, “The End’s Not Near”
Those who were never obsessed with The OC might’ve missed this little gem — a modest, pleasant cover version of a song by the New Year (whose drummer is Boston fixture Chris Brokaw) that appeared on the sixth and final Music from The OC mix.
Guster, “G Major”
It’s easy to see why everyone’s favorite Tufts grads opted not to include this unimaginatively titled song on their latest (and possibly best) full-length, last year’s Ganging Up on the Sun: it’s not good — a plodding, repetitive, melodically boring bit of filler to save for a B-side.
Apollo Sunshine and Mazarin, “Your Advice”
I haven’t heard much from the local boys of Apollo Sunshine since they started work on the follow-up to 2005’s Apollo Sunshine, but they recently posted this live track recorded in June at Bonnaroo with Mazarin frontman Quentin Stoltzfus — a cover of Stoltzfus’s fellow Philadelphians Blood Feathers. It’s a good song, upbeat and (somehow) languid at the same time. I’d recommend checking out the studio version, which is available at Mazarin’s MySpace page.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Down Boy”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have always been one of those bands I’ve really tried to love but just haven’t been able to. This song, from their new Is Is EP, follows that pattern. It has its moments — Nick Zinner’s Jack White–esque loud-ass guitar molestation right after the chorus — but in the end it goes nowhere. And Karen O still can’t write or sing a melody for shit.
Topics:
Download
, Chris Brokaw, Tufts University, Modest Mouse, More 
, Chris Brokaw, Tufts University, Modest Mouse, Jack White, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case, Apollo Sunshine, Band of Horses, Bang Camaro, Wolf Parade, Less 
