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Although my first impression was "This is very good, however it has been done by them before", I no longer think that is a bad thing. Unlike previous efforts this is their first purely ballad based album, vs. their typical mix of anthematic rock and ballads. Although the move was quite obvious, especially going from Alligator to Boxer, I am not disappointed by it, as I was with Boxer upon my first listen. On the first few listens, this album affects me much more differently. Unlike High Violet and Boxer, which were both heart breaking, Trouble Will Find Me is tragic, but more in a heart broken and continuing on with one's life. In many ways this reminds me of Take Care by Explosions in The Sky, where there previous efforts sounds like music to go into a battle, Take Care sounds like a soundtrack to the aftermath. Trouble Will Find Me (imho) has that same atmosphere to it: It is the calm after depression, the eye of a hurricane in many ways. You can't feel positive afterwards, but you also are not rattled like their previous efforts. Honestly, if this was just a better mastered version of High Violet, I would be very happy, however there is so much more to this album. I will definitely be giving it a few more listens.

I did not write it, because I am not the funny. One day though, one day.

Best explanation of Margaret Thatcher for us 'Mericans: Hey guys, glad you could make it tonight! Tonight's a rather special night, because we've got a new player joining - oh, is that the door? That must be her now. Yes, James, her! What do you mean you would've showered if you knew a girl was com...is that smell preventable?? Look, I know we've never had a girl play with us before, but trust me, it's important. You'll find her no less of a decent player! Everyone, meet Maggie! She's going to be playing a lawful evil elf fighter. I've rolled her up a good build - high constitution, high strength, high charisma, though I had to put her dump stat on wisdom - but that won't matter for a fighter. She's starting with the leadership, power attack and iron will feats, and has a great backstory of hating dwarves. Right, let's start. I'll just fill Maggie in on where we've got to - the party just did a massive dungeon crawl. Their armour and equipment are in pretty bad shape, but they did find this artefact - the National Economy. It's an interesting item, because when given to a dwarven village to use, it actually generates gold - over 1000 per day. You agreed the dwarves get to keep 100 gold from that for the work they do, and you get the other 900. Pretty cool eh? So, you're sitting in the tavern, and suddenly a dwarf ambassador from the village comes in. He's suggesting that since the dwarves are doing all the work on your artefact, they should be entitled to a higher percentage of the gold. What do you guys do? Ah, Maggie, I see you're getting into this quickly! So you're telling the dwarf to... go screw himself? Well OK...roll...oooh, looks like the dwarves have decided to stop working on the artefact at all! What're you going to do now? Wait it out until they break? That seems fair enough. They're not getting any money if they don't do the work, and they need it more than you do. Although a few of them do want to work it seems, cause they badly need the gold...roll...hmmm interesting, it appears that the non-working dwarves are blockading the artefact to make sure that no one works at all. Wow Maggie, you're really getting into this! Okay, so Maggie's sent a message to some old elvish acquaintances to ask them to go and attack the dwarves. Hang on...roll...it seems the elves won't do it unless you pay them. So wait a minute, you want to sell the artefact to the elves in order to pay them to stop the dwarves blockading it? Doesn't that seem a little...no? You'll never see the artefact again...no, OK, Maggie seems to be insisting... Right, I can understand why the rest of you are angry at Maggie for selling off your most major asset, so I guess you now get to decide what to do with her. Hang on guys - let her speak! I'm just going to pass this note to her... So, Maggie, you're choosing to reveal what I wrote - you're saying that there's a tribe of orcs in the Lands of Falk that you need to deal with, and the party can put off voting you out until after that? You're saying that they attacked you first? You do realise that's a complete... Wait, you guys are going along with this?? But you have no money and your armour's ruined.... Fine, fine, go and attack the orcs then! ---some time later--- Well, I'd like to say I told you so. Your cleric's nearly dead and you didn't really beat the orcs properly. You have no money, and you're responsible for the death of an entire dwarven village. I hope you're happy with yourselves. Yes, by all means take a vote to see if Maggie can ever come again? Yes I thought so. Goodbye Maggie. I wish I could say it was a pleasure. Right, who's for pizza?

"Madchester": As typos go, I believe that is one of the more awesome ways to describe The Stone Roses.

I have mixed opinions about this TED talk, and how she justifies her actions. I think it is amazing that she has such a tremendous emotional connection with her fans, but given how she talks about that connection, it feels like she is more into business than art. I cannot get past the lingering feeling that she is taking advantage of her fans, which is a fine line when it comes to making a connection. As a tremendous Weakerthans/John K. Samson fan, I understand what it is like to feel that connection with an artist, especially when they portray themselves as one of the crowd. When the Weakerthans had a member of the audience come on to stage and play, I thought it was amazing; When John K. Samson asked for a beer from the crowd and did cheers with everyone before going into a song, I was ecstatic. So what makes the Weakerthans any different in my mind than Amanda Palmer, since I would personally be honored to have them stay at my place? To be honest, I think it is the background events that really affect my opinion of Amanda Palmer. If she were to ask local musicians to play with her during concerts, I would not be so bothered; if she were to stay at fans' homes for free, I would have shrugged it off, however she raised $1.2 million for her most recent album (10x what she was requesting), before even releasing it. She is not some poor, struggling, indie musician, and this does not even consider that her husband is also successful. She could have easily supported her tour with the money from tickets alone, much less the $1 million left over from her current kickstarter, but instead she stayed for free at an undocumented immigrants house, and it is fair since that daughter loved Amanda Palmer's music? Personally, I have mixed opinions in regards to using kickstarter to get an album out, especially if you are a well known artist, however it was all of Amanda Palmer's actions that makes me feel that she is taking advantage of her fans, as opposed to connecting to them. There is nothing wrong with making money off of y our music and accompanying merch, however Amanda does it in a way that is exceptionally sleazier than even Jay-Z (does anyone remember Occupy All Streets).

Isn't this the 5th or 6th time they have kicked him out of the band?

Great name, meh festival. The National and The Walkmen are definitely worth seeing, but I refuse to fund Fun. or Matt & Kim.

This album is outstanding (on the first two listens). It sounds like The Men grew tired of being a modern indie band, so they became an early 90's one instead.

The lineup itself is great, however it is so similar to Coachella, that is it disappointing for those of us that live close enough to go to both. I already have plans to go to Coachella, so I have no reason to go to Sasquatch (which in 2009 - 2011 I did), since all the medium to smaller acts are the same. For those who live too far away from Coachella for it to be reasonable, yes, this is great. For the few of use that live in the Bay Area, this is just one less festival for the year.

If you don't think of an RHCP concert as a musical experience, but instead a live documentary of a man whose struggles with tourettes is only further exacerbated by his drug problem, the show becomes worthwhile.

I am so goddamn jealous of you for being able to go to Treefort. I keep trying to figure out a reasonable way for me to get to Boise and stay there without spending $500+ on tickets and airfare. With that in mind, I can definitely see where you are coming from, and I was more complaining for selfish reasons, in that I would love to go to Coachella and Sasquatch. I really hope you get to go to both festivals, since they are unique in comparison with each other. Also, Matthew Dear is amazing live, and if you go to Treefort, you will also get to see Shigeto. In the words of The Prestige, you live for the both of us now.

Not going to lie, I found the line up pretty disappointing. Not in the fact that there are a lack of great bands, but instead how similar the line up is to Coachella. I used to look forward to Sasquatch's lineup since it was a completely different festival (at least from 2009 - 2011), but the past two years have been a pretty big let down. With that in mind (as someone who is going to Coachella), some of the different bands are pretty amazing, like Built To Spill and Fang Island, there are just not enough differences for me to consider going to both. Hopefully Outside lands will have a more unique line up.

So I do the $20 a show count: I count the number of shows that I would like to see, multiply that by $20, and see if that number comes out 1.5 - 2x higher than the ticket price (considering bands will most likely overlap). The $20 number came from me doing a basic average where I would most likely pay $50 to see Modest Mouse live, $35-$40 to see Grizzly Bear, and $10 to see bands like The Cloud Nothings. So I average it out to $20. Understandably, Coachella is more than just a music festival, it is a complete camping experience, which makes it much more worth while. For festivals like FYF, Treasure Island, and Outside Lands, you are going for the food and music, Coachella is about the 3 days of partying in the desert along with the music. It is a lot of money, but for me, one of my favorite vacations I take each year.

Although the headliners are not my thing on Sunday, I am really excited to see Cloud Nothings, White Arrow, DIIV, JEFF the Brotherhood, Smith Westerns, Dinosaur Jr., and Tame Impala live, along with Grimes, and James Blake. Sunday is more about the "smaller" bands (by Coachella's definition) then the headliners.

I completely agree. I was not as excited about the big acts this year, but after going through the list, there are 2x more bands that I am interested in seeing than there were last year. Also, really excited to see Modest Mouse and Stone Roses live. Sure, This is no Radiohead/Bon Iver/The Shins trifecta, but it is still a great lineup.

O RLY?! I wish I knew about that, it would be awesome to see them live.

Os Mutantes? Have they done anything since the 60s?

At first I was not so excited about Foxygen's change in style, going from Their Satanic Majesties Request to something more Dylan (not the biggest leap, but still noticeable), however this song really won me over. Definitely excited to see them in a month with Unkown Mortal Orchestra.

A Perfect Circle is also an exceptionally strange choice

Also, how could anyone forget Telstar Ponies' I Still Believe In Christmas Trees

Has Sufjan written any Christmas songs? I mean Seven Swans is religious, but it is not particularly Christmasy. On a more serious note, Mogwai's Christmas Song is amazing and should be here.

I really thought PS I Love You's Death Dreams was completely underrated. Along with that: The Henry Clay People - 25 For the Rest of Our Lives Dusted - Total Dust Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It Port St. Willow - Holiday Dignan Porch - Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen Delicate Steve - Positive Force The Babies - Our House on the Hill

I really do not get the fascination with Mac DeMarco. The album is not bad by any means, but it does not stand out to me. Beyond that, self indulgence is the best indulgence.

Ahhh, I totally missed it, he deleted everything. Either way (no offense to either), everyone's top 50 list is similar, so having the same top 3 songs is not all that surprising.

Arguably Father John Misty is the same way: He released (at least) 3 albums as J. Tillman beforehand, and was the drummer of The Fleet Foxes.

For those who don't want to go artist by artist: 50: BIGG JUS - MACHINES THAT MAKE CIVILIZATION FUN 49: HELM - IMPOSSIBLE SYMMETRY 48: HALEEK MAUL - OXYCONTEEN 47: THE XX - COEXIST 46: PURITY RING - SHRINE 45: ROBERT AIKI AUBREY LOWE - TIMON IRNOK MANTA 44: TRIAD GOD - NXB 43: CARTER TUTTI VOID - TRANSVERSE 42: SCHOOLBOY Q - HABITS AND CONTRADICTIONS 41: COCAINE 80s - EXPRESS 0G EP 40: BAT FOR LASHES - THE HAUNTED MAN 39: BLACK BREATH - SENTENCED TO LIFE 38: MIGUEL - KALEIDOSCOPE DREAM 37: LE1F - DARK YORK 36: GUNPLAY - BOGOTA RICH: THE PREQUEL 35: YOUNG SMOKE - SPACE ZONE 34: LORENZO SENNI - QUANTUM JELLY 33: ALTERED NATIVES - TENEMENT YARD VOL.3 32: DEON - MUSIC FOR KEYBOARDS VOL.1 31: NAS - LIFE IS GOOD 30: SUPREME CUTS - WHISPERS IN THE DARK 29: RICARDO VILLALOBOS - DEPENDENT AND HAPPY 28: ARIEL PINK & R. STEVIE MOORE - KU KLUX GLAM 27: SCOTT WALKER - BISH BOSCH 26: GRIMES - VISIONS 25: MAIN ATTRAKIONZ - BOSSALINIS & FOOLIYONES 24: THE INTERNET - PURPLE NAKED LADIES 23: HEROIN IN TAHITI - DEATH SURF 22: FUTURE - PLUTO 21: DEAN BLUNT & INGA COPELAND - BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL 20: SILENT SERVANT - NEGATIVE FASCINATION 19: LANA DEL REY - BORN TO DIE 18: WILEY - STEP FREESTYLES 17: I:CUBE - M- MEGAMIX 16: FRANK OCEAN - CHANNEL ORANGE 15: SAND CIRCLES - MOTOR CITY 14: JULIA HOLTER - EKSTASIS 13: MADTEO - NOI NO 12: JEREMIH - LATE NIGHTS WITH JEREMIH 11: ACTRESS - R.I.P 10: WOLFGANG VOIGT - RÜCKVERZAUBERUNG 6 09: SWANS - THE SEER 08: TERRENCE DIXON - FROM THE FAR FUTURE PT.2 07: JAM CITY - CLASSICAL CURVES 06: HOW TO DRESS WELL - TOTAL LOSS 05: SPACEGHOSTPURRP - GOD OF BLACK 04: HORRID RED - CELESTIAL JOY 03: COOLY G - PLAYIN ME 02: LEE GAMBLE - DIVERSIONS 1994-1996 / DUTCH TVASHAR PLUMES 01: KENDRICK LAMAR - GOOD KID, M.A.A.D. CITY

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory for best album, The Henry Clay People - Twenty-Five for the Rest of Our Lives is a very close second Also, St. Vincent holds the top ranking for Indie Crush, though Claire Boucher is getting up there.

There are too many Beatles albums to choose from. Honestly, I love Help, especially songs like "I Just Saw A Face", which was exceptionally uplifting given the rest of the material on the album. Beyond that, Abbey Road is the obvious choice for me, with songs like 'Something' and 'Here Comes the Sun', and of course the Medley at the end. So perfect.

Ranking Neil Young's best albums is nearly impossible, given his stylistic changes, much less given how expansive his discography is. I for example agree completely with After the Gold Rush, Rust Never Sleeps, and On The Beach being in the top, however I would easily rank Zuma ahead of Tonight's The Night (although it appears many here would disagree with that). As for ranking after the ones you mentioned, I would say Come a Time, Ragged Glory, and (wait for it) Greendale. Yeah I said it, Greendale. Maybe it is because I got into Neil Young right around the time Greendale was released, but I really cannot give a reason why I have such a soft spot for it. Songs like Sun Green are just so awesome, it is hard not to love it.

Apparently Radiohead were not in love with the album either, mentioning disappointment with the length and certain songs not fleshing out ideas well enough: Members of Radiohead have admitted regrets about Hail to the Thief. In a 2006 interview with Spin, Yorke said, "I'd maybe change the playlist. I think we had a meltdown when we put it together. 'There There' is amazing, and '2 + 2 = 5' is good, but as Nigel says, I wish I had another go at it. We wanted to do things quickly, and I think the songs suffered. It was part of the experiment. Every record is part of the experiment."[65] In 2008, O'Brien told Mojo: "We should have pruned it down to 10 songs, then it would have been a really good record. I think we lost people on a couple of tracks and it broke the spell of the record." In the same interview, Colin Greenwood said: "I didn't want three or four songs on there, because I thought some of the ideas we were trying out weren't completely finished (...) For me, Hail to the Thief was more of a holding process, really."[66] I do not know if they think it is their worst, but they are not in love with it either.

Those are all fantastic, I would add Worrywort, True Love Waits (does that count?), Fog (Live b-side), and How Can You Be Sure

So although they never made a bad album (Pablo Honey is still great, it is just easily their worst), Radiohead was not too happy with Hail To The Thief, feeling that they did not flesh out some of their experiments enough, or appropriately cut some songs. It is not a bad album by any means, but I would have ranked KoL above PH and HTTT

At first I was bothered by the premise, but to be honest, this is still better than any sitcom idea I have come up with. The best I have so far is called Two and a Half Jews, with the tag line "A cut above and a cut below". It would be like the Big Bang Theory, except with more Jew jokes. Our serious episode would not wrestle with subjects like pregnancy, STDs, rape, or physical abuse, but instead the Holocaust; yeah, you heard me Whitney, you can't make anything sadder than the Holocaust. The episode where we jump the shark is when the characters circumcise an adult against his will. Instead of getting acts like Explosions in the Sky to score out television show, we will settle on Black Ox Orkestar. Given the above is the best I can come up with, Smells Like Teen Spirit sounds amazing, especially that one scene where the kid will become overly stressed in regards to finances, and he receives sage advice from his "Indie" Parents, who he recognizes are more wise than he originally gave them credit for.

The White Stripes went into non-existence on their own terms, and the fact is that Jack White sells out almost all of his shows. Out of all the garage rock bands from that era, I would say that The White Stripes are the most revered. The Strokes on the other hand surprised everyone by just fading away. Sure, they just came out with an album a little over a year ago, but they never became the powerhouse everyone thought they would.

He is touring for this album under the name SurferJohn. I really hope he changes his name to this or Sufjam

So although I do agree to a point, I think independent bands have a much greater chance to surviving today than even 10 years ago. No longer do they have to worry about distribution of their album with Spotify and iTunes ($300 something per year if I am correct), and there are many more outlets to be heard on including Pandora and Last.FM radio. Furthermore, it is much easier for smaller bands to have their music played in commercials and television shows than in the past. Think about it, even shows like How I Met Your Mother plays songs by bands like Real Estate (after their first record). I think the issue is this: There is a lot less money in album sales. Forget pirating, the other issue is that people just don't buy albums as much anymore, they buy singles. Beyond that, in a society where we consume art, music, and movies at an unprecedented rate, smaller bands that don't have any mainstream appeal are sadly forgotten instantly. A few weeks from now, no one will be talking about Shields, until it goes in P4k's top 100 albums of the year, in which it will be forgotten again by most of these outlets. It is not because Shields is bad, far from it, the album is amazing, but rather the people who listen to Grizzly Bear are more likely to be looking for the next big thing. Where these indie bands get a break is appealing to a slightly more mainstream audience: people who don't want pop, but also aren't always looking for the next big thing. This is how bands like The National and Sufjan Stevens exploded (the latter more obviously): They had their songs played on television, and got fans that did not care that the album came out a year or two ago. This is not meant to be an insult towards people who read Stereogum or P4k, since I am one of you, but rather stating the obvious: There is a much higher chance that I will listen to a newer album that everyone is raving about, than one that came out 3 - 5 years ago that my friends (who don't read Stereogum) talk about all of the time. The truth is, that mentality has been around for a while. Jeph Jaques, when asked why he never writes comics about classic rock bands, or 90s indie bands, said that "With all of the music out there, I just don't have time to listen to albums that are 5 - 10 years old".

Correction: The following line "he main demographic for Grizzly Bear knows of the album immediately after being released, having people come to it 1 year, or even 3 years later saying “Holy shit, have you listened to Yellow House”. " should read: The main demographic for Grizzly Bear knows about the album immediately after being released. Although they may listen to it for months or even years, few people come to the album years later saying “Holy shit, have you listened to Yellow House”, as they would for bands such as The Flaming Lips (I first heard The Soft Bulletin 5 years after it was released). To add on to my previous point: If you look at a lot of Pitchfork's top albums from 2003 - 2006, very few of them are mentioned today, especially those in the top 10. Being popular on Pitchfork may help place you in the short term, but that does not mean that you will have the lasting effect that keeps people coming to you, not like Wilco's Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, Flaming Lips Yoshimi, etc. This does not mean that Yellow House, Veckamist, or Shields are not as good of albums, but rather they don't have that semi mainstream appeal that Sufjan Stevens, The National, Bon Iver, or Arcade Fire.

This is completely true. Although there is no question that illegal downloading does affect small time artist like Grizzly Bear, they really are nowhere near as big as the people think they are. As I mentioned yesterday, Veckamist's first week sales were 33k, versus Mumford and Sons first week sales for their current album being 600k. Although 33k is very respectable, especially since they placed 6th on the Billboard this week (meaning sales might be close), it is still not a top seller. This however is only one small figure to consider, considering albums like Nevermind debuted at 144 (selling 23k in their first week). The real problem in my mind (which happens with a number of small time BNMed music) is that a month after the album is released, nobody talks about it. People who listen to Grizzly Bear are more likely (in my mind) to be constantly venturing out, looking for new music. The main demographic for Grizzly Bear knows of the album immediately after being released, having people come to it 1 year, or even 3 years later saying "Holy shit, have you listened to Yellow House". Some do, but sadly, I think that bands like Grizzly Bear, Deer Hunter, etc. don't have enough mainstream appeal to have people discovering those albums later. The best case I can make for this thought is the following: The National's Boxer was not an instant hit (68 its first week on the Billboard charts), however between 2007 and 2010, their songs were played on 10 different TV shows (3 finales), and they started gaining a certain mainstream appeal. That mainstream appeal is not the same group of people who purely listen to da Beibs, but rather 20 -30 somethings who are looking for music to express their generation, while not reading Pitchfork or music blogs everyday. They want something accessible while not overly poppy. Think about Sufjan Stevens' Illinois. The album's 1st weeks sales were not exceptionally better than Michigan, however as more people heard the album, and it started being played on television, it exploded. No longer was Sufjan Stevens for just the indie crowd, it also went for people who were in their 20s and looking for something accessible that is not on pop radio every day.

Stealing is part of it, but to be honest, even if you triple Grizzly Bear's sale of Veckamist (33k albums sold in the 1st week) it is still only 1/6 of Mumford and Son's newest album's first week sale (600k). Before I get massively down voted, I am not saying this has anything to do with quality of music, but rather how well known these bands truly are. You have to remember, bands like Arcade Fire, who sell out arenas, still confused many when they won a Grammy. Sure Veckamist leaked, (and that is why I tripled their first week sales), but even then there are limitations on how well a band can do without any radio play, televisions spots, and not playing any big festivals. I think it is tragic that a band a great as Grizzly Bear cannot get more recognition on their skills alone, however I think album sales are only one small part of being financially successful as a musician.

As you stated, touring seems to be the best way for any musician or group that is not in the main spotlight (One Direction, Beiber, etc). Sure, selling your music to commercials does help significantly, but obviously not enough to make you wealthy. Rolling Stone had an amazing interview with the members of The Black Keys regarding this issue and they brought up a great point: When they were struggling to make ends meet, they had no issues selling their songs to commercials, and even television shows. However as they began to gain more recognition, they spent their time concentrating on touring more, putting out records more frequently ("Riding the 15 minutes"), and started refusing spots on commercials. With all of that in mind, I have to wonder if time between records and amount of touring does have a strong effect on their current situation. Don't get me wrong, great art takes a long time, and I have been pleased with everything they have made since Yellow House, however that album came out 6 years ago, and they only have 2 other albums in between. Sure, The Black Keys have only released 4 albums during that time, but they began releasing more albums, and touring more frequently as they started gaining more mainstream recognition. If Grizzly Bear were to release more albums and start touring more, I believe it would help their financial difficulties tremendously. Understandably that is a lot to ask, but it is sadly part of the game now.