Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. cover Pavement

About a week ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s cover of Pavement's iconic "Summer Babe" made its way around as part of Starbucks' Summer Covers Series, which has been fairly hit-or-miss up to this point. The rendition is much more adapted to the group's style than the ordinary carbon-copies that have been produced before, all in front of the Chicago summer skyline - courtesy of the A.V. Club.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Summer Babe (Pavement Cover)

Wednesday Bears: New Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

News of a new record from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks has been humming around for a while now, but we got a listen yesterday to the band's newest material, "Senator."

The new album, Mirror Traffic, is set for release August 23 via Matador Records. It's the first new work from the Pavement front-man since 2008's Real Emotional Trash, after the indie rock legend toured with his former group late last year.

Head on over to Cause = Time for the tracklist and MP3 for "Senator." Or, grab it below.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Senator - MP3

Tuesday Bears: Surfer Blood premiere new song, cover Pavement

I didn't have enough time to post this yesterday, but Surfer Blood, who are blowing up in the best way possible, played a series of songs from their debut album Astro Coast for the Grand Rapids, MI based Halfway House Music.

The group also performed their new song "I'm Not Ready," a more refined, focus pop mesh that doesn't have anything to do with swimming, at least I think. Also, because Pavement is back (what other reason), the band covered "Box Elder." No video for the former though, only MP3. Sowwy.

Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes (Live on Halfway House Music)



Surfer Blood - Fast Jabroni (Live on Halfway House Music)



Surfer Blood - I'm Not Ready (Live on Halfway House Music)



Surfer Blood - Box Elder (Pavement Cover) - MP3

Tuesday Bears: Malkmus, Pavement on Colbert Report

I'm not sure it can qualify as a "while" because I can't remember the last time I actually saw all of Pavement anywhere on TV, now or 11 years ago, so last night's appearance on the Colbert Report was a bit of a surprise.

Before the group performed, "Gold Soundz," Pitchfork's recently decreed Number One Song of the 90's, Stephen Malkmus gave a quick, awkward and shortly-there-after completely irrelevant interview with Colbert, that didn't really answer the inquiry of why his songs are so ambiguous. Dammit, now it makes sense.

Pavement - Gold Soundz (Live on the Colbert Report)

Friday Bears: Jimmy Fallon's Pavement cover contest

Unknown to me, Jimmy Fallon has taken a quest to find the best Pavement cover from anyone willing to submit. In the sure pile of submissions, Motion City Soundtrack's lead-singer Justin Pierre put his own version of "We Dance," the lead-track off the group's third album Wowee Zowee.

You can check out the rest of the contest's submissions here.

We Dance (Pavement cover) - Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack

Tuesday Bears: Sasquatch! 2010 Lineup Announced

The lineup for 2010's Sasquatch! Music Festival in Gorge, Washington was leaked several hours ago with sources indicating that it's 100% official, with festival organizers likely confirming the list later today (as of now, has been confirmed).

The May 29-31 festival will be headlined by Pavement, who are also headlining Coachella and the Pitchfork Music Festival, My Morning Jacket and Massive Attack. LCD Soundsystem, MGMT and Public Enemy will also be on the bill, with more artists to be announced later.

Full Lineup:

A-Trak
Avi Buffalo
Band of Horses
Booka Shade
Boys Noize
Broken Social Scene
Brother Ali
Camera Obscura
Caribou
City and Colour
Craig Robinson
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Dam-Funk
Deadmau5
Dirty Projectors
DJ Z-Trip
Dr. Dog
Drive-By Truckers
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Fool's Gold
Freelance Whales
Fresh Espresso
Fruit Bats
Garfunkel & Oates
Girls
Hudson Mohawke
Japandroids
Jets Overhead
Kid Cudi
Laura Marling
LCD Soundsystem
Local Natives
Luke Burbank
Massive Attack
Mayer Hawthorne
MGMT
Midlake
Miike Snow
Minus the Bear
Morning Teleportation
Mumford & Sons
My Morning Jacket
Nada Surf
Neon Indian
No Age
Nurses
OK Go
Passion Pit
Past Lives
Patrick Watson
Pavement
Phantogram
Portugal. The Man
Public Enemy
Quasi
Rob Riggle
Shabazz Palaces
She & Him
Simian Mobile Disco
Tegan & Sara
Telekinesis
The Hold Steady
The Lonely Forest
The long winters
The Low Anthem
The Middle East
The Mountain Goats
The National
The New Pornographers
The Tallest Man On Earth
The Temper Trap
The Very Best
The xx
tUnE-YaRdS
Vampire Weekend
Vetiver
Wale
Ween
Why?
YACHT
Yes Giantess

Pavement, Modest Mouse Headline Pitchfork Music Festival

Pitchfork Media's 2010 music festival announced a portion of their official line up Friday, with recently reunited indie juggernauts Pavement and Modest Mouse headlining the Chicago, Illinois three-day festival.

LCD Soundsystem, Raekwon, St. Vincent, and many others including a long list of artists yet to be announced are performing July 16-18 at Chicago's Union Park. Good for them. What this means to me and anyone who ever reads Bears and Bullets knows that whatever happens at Pitchfork Music Festival will effect Lollapalooza, also held in Chicago in early August. Because of rules and regulations, any artist performing at one festival cannot perform at the other during the same calendar year. So for any devout Lolla-goers, scratch Modest Mouse, Pavement and LCD Soundsystem off your hopeful lists. Sigh.

Official 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival Lineup (as of Feb. 8):

Monday, July 16;

• Modest Mouse

Saturday, July 17;

• LCD Soundsystem
• Raekwon

Sunday, July 18;

• Pavement
• St. Vincent
• Lightning Bolt
• Cass McCombs
• Sleigh Bells
• Here We Go Magic

Stay tuned for more updates ...

Tuesday Bears: Return of the Bear .... Coachella Lineup Announced

Sorry for the overwhelming delay - with the computer going to Hell and moving around, I had to delay Bears and Bullets for the numbing two weeks. Thankfully, everything has been put back an order and I'm ready to return to the daily routine.

Indio, California's annual Coachella festival lineup has been announced, with with top-heavy oft-rumored acts Jay-Z, Pavement, Muse, Thom Yorke (solo), and Gorillaz headlining among others. The new poster (seen above) lists Yorke next to "????," which would incline to be special guests? A new backing band? We'll see.

Full Lineup:

FRIDAY APRIL 16: Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Deadmau5, Public Image Limited, The Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Benny Benassi, Fever Ray, Grace Jones, She & Him, Erol Alkan, The Avett Brothers, Calle 13, The Whitest Boy Alive, The Cribs, La Roux, Yeasayer, Lucero, DJ Lance Rock, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Proxy, Ra Ra Riot, Deer Tick, Wolfgang Gartner, Aeroplane, Iglu & Hartly, Sleigh Bells, P.O.S., Baroness, Hockey, Little Dragon, White Rabbits, Wale, Kate Miller-Heidke, As Tall as Lions, Jets Overhead, Alana Grace, Pablo Hassan.

SATURDAY, APRIL 17: Muse, Faith No More, Tiësto, MGMT, David Guetta, The Dead Weather, Hot Chip, Devo, Coheed and Cambria, Kaskade, 2Many DJ's, Major Lazer, Dirty Projectors, Gossip, Z-Trip, The xx, John Waters, Les Claypool, The Raveonettes, Mew, Sia, Camera Obscura, Tokyo Police Club, Porcupine Tree, Old Crow Medicine Show, Aterciopalados, Bassnectar, Frightened Rabbit, Dirty South, Flying Lotus, Corinne Bailey Rae, Pretty Lights, Shooter Jennings, RX Bandits, The Almighty Defenders, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, Craze & Klever, Zoe, The Temper Trap, Portugal. The Man, Band of Skulls, Girls, Beach House, Steel Train, Frank Turner.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18: Gorillaz, Pavement, Thom Yorke????, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul, Julian Casablancas, Plastikman, Gary Numan, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, MUTEMATH, Deerhunter, Infected Mushroom, Club 75, Matt & Kim, The Big Pink, Gil Scott-Heron, King Khan and the Shrines, Florence and the Machine, Yann Tiersen, Little Boots, Miike Snow, Talvin Singh, Ceu, B.o.B., Babasonicos, Owen Pallett, The Glitch Mob, Mayer Hawthorne, Local Natives, Rusko, The Middle East, Hadouken!, The Soft Pack, Kevin Devine, Paparazzi, Delphic, One EskimO.

Ticket's for the April 16-18 event officially go on sale Friday, January 22. For more details, head over to the Coachella Website.

Pavement Confirmations

Continuing with yesterday's story, the skepticisms about whether Pavement will actually reunite next year can really be put aside. According to Stereogum, the band will be reuniting for a "one-time-only tour in 2010."

Matador, also in the article, notes; "this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion." Next year's September 21 show at Central Park Summerstage still remains, but there is still no word whether there will be any festival appearences, but at this point considering the choice of words from Matador there are doubts.

Via Matador:

"A pre-sale begins at 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 18, 2009 (tomorrow). The password for the pre-sale is ZOWEE . The general on-sale is slated for 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 25, 2009. Please note that tickets will be available without surcharges from the Nokia Theatre box office in Times Square and from Earwax at 218 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg."

Ticket link here.

Wednesday Bears: A Real Pavement Reunion?!

Today's headline on Pitchfork's news feed reads, "Holy Shit: Pavement Reunion is Real!" finally giving hopeful fans word that isn't just a useless rumor. According to an unidentified source (Pitchfork, via Brooklyn Vegan did not reveal the name) 90's indie-rock pioneers Pavement will be performing a benefit show September 21 next year at Central Park Summerstage.

The Brooklyn Vegan article (since confirmed by Stereogum) posted yesterday states that, "According to reliable sources, it's finally happening in 2010! There will be multiple, possibly four, nights of shows at NYC's Central Park Summerstage in September of that year."

From there it goes on suggesting a possible tour, an appearance at next year's ATP NY Festival, and maybe Coachella in April, but nothing beyond the Central Park Summerstage has been anything close to confirmed yet.

Stay tuned in for more developments in the story.