Ra Ra Riot have spent damn near all of 2008 thus far on the road here in the U.S. They joined us in the Lounge back in late January for an extended Lounge Act session that included quite a few new tunes. Since that time, they played about 105 times during SXSW this year, hit the road with The Cribs, and now are finishing up a fairly lengthy North American tour with The Little Ones.

For those of you on the west coast who want to see Ra Ra Riot play live, this is going to be your last chance until the fall. The band are going to take a little bit of time off for the summer to rest before their debut full-length album comes out later this year. The next major tour for the band will likely be in September, but if you live in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, or Los Angeles you don’t have to wait that long.

We have 1 pair of tickets to giveaway to see Ra Ra Riot w/ The Little Ones in each of those four cities next week!

MONDAY MAY 12th — Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
TUESDAY MAY 13th — Portland, OR @ Towne Lounge
WEDNESDAY MAY 14th — San Francisco, CA @ Café Du Nord
THURSDAY MAY 15th — Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour

All you have to do to win is send an e-mail to: woxycontests@gmail.com

Your subject line should contain the city you’d like to win tickets for.
Example: Ra Ra Riot - SAN FRANCISCO

Please include your full name in the body of the e-mail so that we can pass it along to the band for their guestlist if you win. We will select our winners for all 4 cities by 12 Noon Pacific Time on Monday, May 12th. You will be notified via e-mail if you win and will be placed on the Ra Ra Riot guestlist for the show. It’s that easy!

Ra Ra Riot - Live On WOXY.com (January 2008 Session)
The Little Ones - Live On WOXY.com (April 2008 Session)

woxy.com presents Ra Ra Riot from Soft City Lights on Vimeo.

It was a big thrill having Okkervil River into the lounge last week. Will Sheff played three of the four songs solo acoustic for us during their session and our friend Kevin of Soft City Lights did a great job capturing this stripped down version of “A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene” from their most recent album, The Stage Names.

Enjoy the video below, and a download of the session as well…..

WOXY.com presents: Okkervil River from Soft City Lights on Vimeo.

Okkervil River - Live On WOXY.com

We’re big fans of the Canadian rockers TOKYO POLICE CLUB. We really liked their all too brief 2006 EP A Lesson In Crime, but I think it’s safe to say we fell in love last year when they released the single for “Your English Is Good.” That song was embedded in our brains for months and luckily the guys have seen fit to include it on their full-length debut. Elephant Shell which is hitting stores next week and is the band’s first release for the Saddle Creek label.

We’ve gotten our hands on a couple copies of the first pressing of the cd to giveaway here on The Futurist. This is a special 2-disc package that features a bonus EP featuring remixes from DNTEL, Los Campesinos!, Flowers Forever, The Good Life, and Field Music!

If you’d like to win, just send an e-mail with TOKYO POLICE CLUB in the subject line to: woxycontests @ gmail.com

Please include your name and an address you’d like us to mail the cd to if you win. We’ll draw our winners randomly on Friday, April 25th and get them out in the mail to 3 lucky Futurist readers. Good luck!

Tokyo Police Club - In A Cave

Tokyo Police Club - Graves from Mudry on Vimeo.

Stream Elephant Shell

The 2007 release from Project Jenny, Project Jan, xoxoxoxoxo, was one of the more well received albums we spun last year. It became a regular listener request and ended up at the #84 album on our 97 Best Of 2007 list. Check out this great video of the duo performing “Train Track” live at EAR Studios in Austin last month during SXSW.

WOXY.com presents: Project Jenny, Project Jan from WOXY on Vimeo.

See Also - Project Jenny, Project Jan Lounge Act Recap

The new album from Frightened Rabbit hits stores here in the US next week, The Midnight Organ Fight. But this is your chance to hear a new song early, as the band played “Head Rolls Off” for us down in Austin during SXSW last month. The good folks at PROJECTMILL and Soft City Lights again captured the event on video, view it below…..

WOXY.com presents: Frightened Rabbit from WOXY on Vimeo.

Want to hear some more new stuff from the band? Check out our Lounge Act Recap of their set right here….

Just when you think we are all out of SXSW 2008 content, we hit you with more. Enjoy this video of Sons & Daughters performing “The Nest” live in Austin last month…..

WOXY.com presents: Sons & Daughters from WOXY on Vimeo.

PROJECTMILL
Soft City Lights

Another great video from our time at SXSW to share on this Friday. It’s These New Puritans, doing their song, “Elvis.” Here’s hoping it helps get your weekend started right…

WOXY.com presents: These New Puritans from WOXY on Vimeo.

PROJECTMILL
Soft City Lights

Enjoy another great video today from Ed Harcourt, performing “Shadowboxing” during SXSW at EAR Studios in Austin. Thanks again to the good people at Soft City Lights and PROJECTMILL.


WOXY.com presents: Ed Harcourt from WOXY on Vimeo.

See Also - Ed Harcourt Lounge Act Recap

Why don’t we start the week off with another great video that our friends from PROJECTMILL and Soft City Lights did for us during our stay at EAR Studios in Austin? This is a really fun one to watch, featuring Lightspeed Champion. This might be one of my personal favorites, enjoy!

WOXY.com presents: Lightspeed Champion from WOXY on Vimeo.

View our other great SXSW Lounge Act Video Recaps.

Birdmonster played a great session for us last week during SXSW with loads of new material. But this video is a little extra footage that was taken outside the EAR Studios. Enjoy this video of “I Might Have Guessed”, out in the Austin sun.

WOXY.com presents: Birdmonster from WOXY on Vimeo.

PROJECTMILL
Soft City Lights