Amidst the hubbub and growing excitement over the lineup for Dover’s Firefly Music Festival many fans have over looked the fact it’s an inaugural event. To coincide with the birth of a festival this week’s #Tuesday Top 10 celebrates tracks from the first albums of groups highlighting Firefly’s roster.
10. Cold War Kids
The Beach Boys might be back together but the good vibrations probably won’t reach this California four piece. When given the option of a sad Cold War Kids song or a happy one don’t be fooled. There are no happy CWK songs.
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9. Silversun Pickups
You can pretend to be a rock god by covering the Silversun Pickups in your living room on Guitar Hero, or you can let them do all the hard work on stage. Your choice, but don’t pull a Hanson by mistaking Brian Aubert’s silky, high-pitched vocals for a woman’s.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/35389451″ iframe=”true” /]
8. Heartless Bastards
With a name like the Heartless Bastards you probably expect an edgy, early nineties rhythm heavy dirge sound. Like Thom Yorke said in “Karma Police,” “This is what you get…” And when you add a bad ass female lead singer like Erika Wennerstrom you can’t go wrong. The Heartless Bastards have proven crowd shy in the past, but we’ll see how they do in front of 30,000 screaming fans.
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7. Michael Franti and Spearhead
Michael Franti is a poet, peace activist, and flow artist. Take a break from all the guitar fuzz and check out some funk.
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6. Cake
As far as live shows go, no one has done more to insult and generally piss off fans than Cake’s John McCrea. Despite the prima donna antics of their frontman, we can’t deny Fashion Nugget’s impact on the American airwaves and the nineties in general.
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5. Passion Pit
Rock ‘N Roll is fine and well, but damn it if I don’t just want to dance sometimes. If any of Firefly’s group is going to get your feet moving it’s bound to be east coast electro pop quintet Passion Pit.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/49081390″ iframe=”true” /]
4. Black Keys
Don’t all the best groups seem to come out of nowhere? This makes Akron, OH natives the Black Keys the perfect headliner for a festival taking place in the middle of nowhere. With their raucous mix of southern blues rock, sixties soul and dripping distortion the Black Keys have risen like cream to the top of the summer festival circuit.
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3. Jack White
It’s debatable which is hotter, Jack White’s guitar licks or temper, and I get the feeling he’s gonna treat Dover to the sonic equivalent of Jason Stollsteimer.
2. The Killers
Saturday night headliners the Killers have had a career to be envied and their success is in large part due to an arena rock sound, incessantly addictive hooks, and sing along chorus lines. The only real surprise will come if mass hysteria doesn’t ensue during their two hour set.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/4528784″ iframe=”true” /]
1. Modest Mouse
For a band that has managed to pull massive success from the jaws of certain obscurity Modest Mouse’s addition to the Firefly lineup as surprise guest should come as anything but.
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