If you don’t have a party to go to on Friday or even if you do, think about ditching it and checking out the Smashing Pumpkins instead.

The Pumpkins will be performing at the Newport Music Hall on Friday, October 31. Doors are at 7PM. This is a special acoustic Halloween performance so keep that in mind.

While the show is sold out, my boy, Jake, got tickets this morning for only $90 (originally $40) . Always remember to check out TicketStumbler for the lowest price on tickets.

The Newport Music Hall is general admission and has a great balcony that also fills up fast, so if you are going, I would recommend getting in line around 6:30.

What better day of the year to see the Pumpkins than on Halloween? I’m super jealous that I won’t be able to attend, but hopefully I can get a good review out of Jake.

So you may or may not have heard yet that Radiohead is doing a bit of a Latin American tour in 2009. Not all the dates have been confirmed yet, but they are locked in for shows in Mexico City on the 15th, 16th, and 17th of March.

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Well it only gets better. Sigur Ros will be opening for Radiohead for all three of their Mexico City performances. I repeat, SIGUR ROS WILL BE OPENING FOR RADIOHEAD IN MEXICO CITY.

Hot Damn! Peyote anyone?

Everyone has a bucket list, myself included. Mine isn’t all too lengthy but in the top five of my “Must Do Before I Die” List is to see Madonna live in concert. This weekend I crossed it off my list. Since I was about eight years old I had been asking my mom to take me to see her. This was to be expected as the first song I ever sang as a child was Papa Don’t Preach, but I never ended up talking her into taking me. When Madonna announced her tour this year, I was ready and with no excuses in my way. I bought four tickets, called up two great friends and my mom and told them to meet me in Chi-town. It was time to do this.

Madonna is my absolute favorite performer so lets just put the bias out there. If you’re looking for a comprehensive criticism of the show, you came to the wrong place. With any other concert, I would hope to provide you with that kind of Fox Newsesque coverage, but it’s just not gonna happen here. The air conditioning was turned off. That’s my complaint. There you go.

Everyone is a critic and I’m no exception. I’ve been checking out her concert reviews for months now. Most of them are overrun with personal rants about how Madonna is old, washed out, and an untalented hack. If it’s not that, it’s verbal diarrhea about her divorce with Guy Ritchie or her Kabbalah sessions with Alex Rodriguez. Oh wait, Madonna stole another African baby from his poor father? Word.

Let’s address that all right now. For one, this was not a concert, it was a performance. It is important we make this clear and necessary distinction. Troupes of dancers, complex choreography, cars rolling out onto stage, a full boxing ring with fighters, light shows, screens with music accompanying graphics, costume changes… this woman puts on one hell of a show. Love her or hate her, no one could leave that packed United Center without saying it was a sight to see and extremely well rehearsed.

It’s no secret that Madonna turned fifty this year. I know, let me hear you say it, “Oh my god, she’s so old.” She’s FIFTY, folks! And unless you too can double-dutch, dance, and sing flawlessly simultaneously and look amazing doing it, you should probably get off that argument. Let’s see how we are all doing when we are fifty. I for one am just hoping to have a retirement account and if I can still pull off a mean Soluja Boy, well then double bonus.

The same goes with untalented. Listening to Madonna on the radio will never give you the scope of what she is capable of. Not only can she dance, but she can play a righteous guitar. Several times throughout her concert she picked up her guitar and hammered away at some amazing power cords all the while hanging off the side of the stage and throwing in the audiences face. She even asked for some requests. I was on my feet the entire time with my hands in the air. I didn’t even have time for my $10 Lemonade Vodka which ended up on the floor.

“But she’s such a pain in the ass!” Sure she has a lot of drama in her life, but she’s Madonna. She does what she wants and waits for no one. This comes at a price. Especially if you have a vagina (there, I said it). Last week she dedicated a song to “the emotionally retarded.” This week she pretty much let it go. She made a comment about how the queen will overtake the king which was in context with the rest of the show, but we all knew what she was getting at. Eyebrows were raised in true Madonna fashion. Regardless of all the drama going on in her life, she showed up, gave a great show, and provided us with our money’s worth (unlike some other “diva” who shall be remain nameless as to not further her month long, concert cancelling headache) Her career will always be the forefront in her life and god bless her for it. All the bullshit aside, this is what she does, and she’s great at it.

Sticky and Sweet is her latest tour and her shows were selling out the day tickets went on sale. People are now fetching as much as $7,500 per floor seat at some of these major venues. My tickets were originally $55 each, but I ended up paying $120 each the second day they went on sale. If there is one person that doesn’t hate Madonna, it’s the ticket broker. Where would they be without her and Mylie Cyrus?

Her set list was impeccable and the crowd was more than approving. Hitting all the old hits like Vogue, Like a Prayer, Music, Borderline, La Isla Bonita and bringing out songs from her new CD, Hard Candy, including my new personal favorite, The Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You. In line with a performance and not a concert, there was no encore. When she walked off stage the screens came up with “GAME OVER” and the lights in the arena were flipped on. Her last set was dedicated to social change. Worldly images of people all united through the common good of humanity and then a shout out for Obama as if we were going to get out of there without a plug. An encore would have been nice but it didn’t matter because the crowd was satisfied as it were. There were certainly tears coming from my eyes.

For me, my bucket list isn’t shorter now, just revised. Hopefully she’s got at least one more tour in her because I will be shelling out the dollars to get close next time. Call me crazy, but she’s totally worth a $500 ticket. This is the Material Girl after all. Respect.

By Meg Sullivan

TV on the Radio (TVOTR) is on a mountain (no pun intended) climbing mission and with each album, they are getting closer and closer to the top. The five-piece experimental group has been making progress the past seven years with four studio albums and a couple of EP’s. It’s hard to quite explain their musical style as their elaborate sounds tap into jazz, punk, electronica, indie rock, and even some hip hop.

TVOTR’s brand new album, Dear Science, is a strong contender for my personal favorite album of the year, and I won’t be surprised when I see it make many other year-end best-of lists. Dear Science is TVOTR’s fourth studio album and is the follow up to the highly praised Return to Cookie Mountain (2006). Dear Science left me awed after the first listen and completely breath taken after the third. This album is a growth from its predecessor keeping the roots of complex layers of sound, but making the compositions more polished. The songs are more approachable with catchier melodies and while very complex, there is more of a clear separation between the lyrics and music. This album has an unsurpassed heartfelt passion, and I still no matter after how many listens, get chills to the eerie piano rich song Family Tree.

After listening to this album straight through on average I would guess four times a week, I decided there was no way I could miss their live show while they were on tour with this CD. TVOTR played at The Riviera Theater to a sold out crowd on a cold Wednesday night. The matured audience consisted of mid-20 to mid-30-year-olds and luckily not one annoying high-schooler was in sight. They brought energy to the show and there seemed to be quite a few very loyal fans in attendance. The show gradually began with the lead singer whistling the whole intro to Young Liars to get the night started.

Half of the set list consisted of songs from Dear Science, from the new single Golden Age to the highly electronic Crying to one of my personal favorites Shout Me Out. The new material live had a lot of depth and was enjoyable to hear in a more raw form. Katrina Ford (TVOTR contributor and from the band Celebration) along with a cadre of local brass players joined the band on stage to introduce these new songs and put a twist on the old. While I may be obsessed with this new CD, I’m still a fan of their older work and I must say that seeing Wolf Like Me live had more energy than I could ever have anticipated. The song builds you up and brings you down and back again creating a whole new level for emotional excitement. Everyone in the theater was captivated by this song, jumping up and down and singing all the “howling forever” chants at the end.

Dispersed with a mix of old and new material, TVOTR covered all the basics. They ended things with a three song encore, though at only running a fast moving hour and twenty minutes, I wanted more. Regardless it was a knock you off your seat show with great vocals, loud guitars and even introduced local brass players. The show made me appreciate Dear Science for a couple of more reasons and gave me an excuse to listen to it even a few more times.

I am one of those people who create playlists for every single occasion. I constantly struggle with not what to put on the mix, but what to leave out so it isn’t ridiculously long. So what I do is make a huge playlist and then weed it out from there. This train of thought is a great way to evaluate a playlist, album or in this case soundtrack. For the first Survivor: Playlist entry I would like to examine the soundtrack to the new movie, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

This soundtrack has been rather controversial as hipsters and new-to-music-sceners are all looking at it. It is full of relatively obscure bands ranging from rock to pop melodies. Comparisons to this soundtrack have been made to the Garden State soundtrack, but I believe this album surpasses Zach Braff and The Shins. This is a solid album with some new and some already established indie artists. As far as movie soundtracks go, this one is for sure a keeper.

15. Chris Bell “Speed of Sound”: This is a simple melancholic song, typical to many other male singer/songwriter songs. It’s somewhat depressingly beautiful, but also pretty easy to forget.

14. Paul Tiernan “How To Say Goodbye”: Made mostly of vocals, this song has a minimal use of instruments. The chorus is too slow and is composed of different phrases to say goodbye, i.e. “so long”, farewell”, and “au revoir” I’ve never heard of this guy before and probably for a reason.

13. The Dead 60s “Riot Radio”: The Dead 60s are a Ska Punk band from England. There is a nice retro rock to this song as a foot tapping baseline keeps you somewhat hooked throughout.

12. Richard Hawley “Baby You’re My Light”: Romantic tunes are usually inevitably cheesy and this one is just that. I can’t explain it but somehow Richard Hawley does a good job of winning me over.

11. The Real Tuesday Weld “Last Words”: The Real Tuesday Weld is known for making jazzy cabaret-style music. “Last Words” is full of subtle electronic beats, that are interesting but in my opinion don’t really always fit to the other elements of the song.

10. Army Navy “Silvery Sleds”: Here lies the most radio poppy song on the soundtrack. You have probably heard it in a lot of the movie trailers. It has a California feel and sounds like it came straight of a soundtrack of the OC. If that’s what you are into, you’d enjoy it!

9. Devendra Banhart “Lover”: Devendra is a folk rock musician that I have appreciated for awhile. “Lover” is more of a head bopping anthem that makes you want to sing along. It’s full of his surreal lyrics that helps him stand out above other folk singers.

8. Mark Mothersbaugh “Nick & Norah’s Theme”: Here lies the only non vocal track to the soundtrack. This pop theme song is written by the talented Rushmore and Royal Tenebaums score composer. I find it quiet interesting and can see how great it probably fits in the movie.

7. Bishop Allen “Middle Management”: Bishop Allen is an American Indie rock group with punk and ska influences. This one may also be familiar to you if you have seen the trailers on TV. It’s, quick, catchy and has attitude.

6. Takka Takka “Fever”: These guys who were noticed when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! invited them on tour in 2006 have done well for themselves since. They now have two EPs and two LPs and hopefully this soundtrack also helps them immensely. “Fever” is a light, somewhat poppy song with a raw feel that I have always loved about Takka Takka.

It’s hard to pick one standout track from this soundtrack as there are a handful of great tracks. But I will try to rank those top five tracks anyways.

5. We Are Scientists “After Hours”: “After Hours” is the new single from the rock band We Are Scientists. This song is a rock piece that you can dance to and is sure to always be a crowd pleaser. After listening to “After Hours” it really wants me to get more into We Are Scientists.

4. Band Of Horses “Our Swords”: Band Of Horses is one of my favorite bands and let me start off by saying this song should probably be at the top of this list. The only reason it is not is because it has been around for awhile now and I have heard it so much that I am more excited about other songs. Band Of Horses is a band wrapped in southern reverb, similar to the likings of a band like My Morning Jacket. Most of their songs, like this one, are slower than MMJ but are always classically beautiful.

3. Vampire Weekend “Ottoman”: I love these boys. They are cute, entertaining and most of all make feel good music. This was probably the most anticipated song on this soundtrack from the buzz band Vampire Weekend. “Ottoman” is the first single released after the group’s debut album that has everyone talking. Vampire Weekend is full of quirky beats a playful keyboard and is sure to always put a smile on your face.

2. Shout Out Louds “Very Loud”: The Swedish indie rock band Shout Out Louds has been around for a few years and is now starting to get the credit they deserve. “Very Loud” has a great hook throughout as it begins slowly and then gets louder as the title suggests. I find this song perfect for any occasion and never gets tiresome.

1. The Submarines “Xavia”: And The Submarines are the sole survivor here. They are an indie pop band from California who are relatively new as their first album was just released in 2006. They are composed of two main male musicians but in this song bring in a female guest singer. The collaborative male and female vocals on this song as well as the easy going spirit are the main reasons why I enjoy it so much.