2010 Free Press Summerfest Screen Print by Jermaine Rogers

This weekend, June 5th & 6th, The Blot will be attending Houston’s Free Press Summerfest, a indie rock music festival at Eleanor Tinsley Park. For a local, small music festival, Summerfest has a surprisingly strong lineup, which includes The Flaming Lips, Girl Talk, Bun B (of UGK), Slim Thug, Ra Ra Riot, Mix Master Mike, Medeski Martin & Wood, Stars, Kid Sister, Dead Prez, Detroit Cobras, Lymby System and Lucero. Best of all, a weekend pass only cost $25!


What’s even cooler is that Jermaine Rogers, one of The Blot’s favorite artists, was commissioned to create the official poster art for the Free Press Summerfest this year (seen below). Not only that, but Jermaine is being brought to Houston to exhibit his poster-art onsite at the Festival! I’ve gotten to meet Jermaine a few times and he is truly an incredible artist who enjoys interacting with his fans. If you’re in the Houston area, be sure to hit up the Free Press Summerfest this weekend and stop by Jermaine’s booth to see (and purchase) some awesome art.


The limited edition Free Press Summerfest poster by Jermaine Rogers will be available at the festival in very limited numbers, along with various other Jermaine rarities, including some prints not available for a while now. Jermaine’s tent will be prominently located near the main stage. Jermaine will be there and looks forward to seeing everyone who drops by. Tubes will also be available for all poster sales, and there will be arrangements for your purchases to be held for you until the end of the days show.

The Free Press Summerfest print measures approximately 30”x20” and is screen printed in brilliant pastel colors. This print has a signed and numbered edition of only 100 prints, but there will also be a couple of very limited variants that will available in even small quantities. A limited number of these prints will be held back for an upcoming online sale, including the Facebook Foil Edition.

2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival Lineup Poster

Last night when The Blot finally got a chance to look at this year's ACL line up I got so excited I couldn't go to sleep. What got me this worked up!?! Two words: Pearl Jam. Yup, you read that right, Pearl Jam is finally returning to the Lone Star state to headline the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Did you know its been almost 6 years since PJ last played a show here in Texas? It's a fact that has bothered The Blot greatly these past few years, but thankfully the drought ends this October 2-4, 2009 at Zilker Park in Austin, TX!


I've never attended ACL before, but you can rest assured I will this year. Although, now that weekend passes are $185 each I might have to settle with just going on Sunday to see Eddie Vedder and Co. It's a shame that weekend passes are so expensive because the 2009 initial lineup looks really awesome. It's definitely a huge improvement on last year's lineup.

2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival Line
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Ben Harper and Relentless7
Thievery Corporation - John Legend
Ghostland Observatory - Sonic Youth
Mos Def - Toadies - Flogging Molly
The B-52s - Lily Allen - Arctic Monkeys
The Decemberists - Coheed and Cambria
Andrew Bird - Girl Talk - Phoenix
!!! - Medeski, Martin & Wood
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Grizzly Bear - Reckless Kelly - Devotchka
Blitzen Trapper - K' Naan - Daniel Johnston
Asleep at the Wheel - Dr. Dog - The Knux
Click here to see the entire 2009 ACL Lineup!

2009 Coachella Poster and Line-Up

After seeing the official line up for the 2009 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, The Blot realizes the rumor of the decline of the three day music festival has been greatly exaggerated. The Blot was as turned off as anyone by the recycled lineups of last year’s music festivals, but Coachell seems to be making a concerted effort to turn things around. While headliner Paul McCartney continues the trend of festivals bringing in an established act from decades ago, it’s still freaking Paul McCartney! He’s a Beatle for god sake and I think it would be pretty cool to see him perform even if he is 20-30 years past his prime.


The other two headliners, The Killers and The Cure, leave a little to be desired for a big music festival’s closing acts, but I do love me some Killers so I can’t complain too much. Plus, the rest of this year’s Coachella schedule is pretty sick. It includes acts such as Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Amy Winehouse, Thievery Corporation, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst, Beirut, the Black Keys, Girl Talk, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Lupe Fiasco, Peter Bjorn and John, the Hold Steady, M. Ward and (surprisingly) Shepard Fairey!

What Fairey will be doing at Coachella is anyone’s guess. Maybe some live painting on stage while another act performs? You can check out the entire 2009 Coachella line-up by clicking on the Coachella 2009 line-up poster above.

The Coachella Music and Arts Festival takes place April 17th, 18th and 19th in Indio, California. It is recommended to purchase your tickets in advance, which you can do so directly from Coachella on their website here. 3 day weekend passes are $269 and single day passes are $99.

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals Available Now for Download

The internet is a buzz on the release of Girl Talk’s (a.k.a. Gregg Gillis) new album Feed the Animals. The DJ’s 2006 album Night Ripper was one of the coolest, most creative albums released that year and was in constant rotation on my iPod and in my home for a ridiculous amount of months. With his latest album, Girl Talk has decided to follow the Radiohead model by allowing purchasers to name their own price to download Feed the Animals, which you can do so here.


You can pay as little as $0.00 or as much as you want, but as an incentive Gillis is releasing the album in three different formats. Any price gets you “the entire album as high-quality 320kbps mp3s, $5 or more adds the options of FLAC files, plus a one-file seamless mix of the album, [while] $10 or more includes all of the above + a packaged CD (when it becomes available). (link) Anyway you look at it, it’s a pretty awesome deal.

For those of you not familiar with Girl Talk’s work, “he specializes in sample-based remixes, in which he uses at least a dozen elements from different songs to create a ‘new’ song.” (link) Surprisingly, neither Gillis nor his label, Illegal Art, have been sued from his use of samples on albums he sells. While many have speculated it is because he uses so many samples to create each new song that he really is creating new works of art, I am guessing it’s because there is not much money to get and most artists actually like his work. Night Ripper was amazing and from the reviews I’ve read, Feed the Animals is even better. As I type this, I’m heading over to the Feed the Animals website to download the album. I hope you do the same after reading this post.

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
01 Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
02 Shut the Club Down
03 Still Here
04 What It’s All About
05 Set It Off
06 No Pause
07 Like This
08 Give Me a Beat
09 Hands in the Air
10 In Step
11 Let Me See You
12 Here’s the Thing
13 Don’t Stop
14 Play Your Part (Pt. 2)