Grizzly Bear, Hipster Trends, and Baseball Update! / Plus, the LC's Conspiracy-Theorist Pick of the Week!

Hipsters, your day has come! Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is on the shelves and no doubt spinning on your turntable as we speak. But what's important is not what you think of it, but what Pitchfork thinks of it (In fact, one recent music blogger spent a lengthy post predicting Pitchfork's rating using a complicated mathematical system devised from their ratings of other recent important hipster albums by bands such as Animal Collective).

So what does Pitchfork think? They give it a 9 out of 10 and spend most of the review praising its "meticulous" sound, writing:

"...this little microcosm of imperfection indie rock's been working through lately could use a foil like Veckatimest, a record that, in searching for perfection through meticulousness, feels beautifully flawed and gloriously off-kilter without either side serving as the entire narrative."

Chip: "I'm glad you told me that Pitchfork liked it, because I sure can't tell from that review."

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When a band decides to play one of their "important" albums from start to finish during their live shows, hipsters always take notice. The Decemberists are doing it with their new concept album, The Hazards of Love. Sonic Youth did it recently with Daydream Nation. And this past Friday, They Might Be Giants (nerd-hipsters) came to the Beaumont in KC to play their masterpiece, Flood, in its entirety.

KC music blog Back to Rockville discusses the band's "cult" status, writing:

"The crowd at the Beaumont Club on Friday didn't necessarily constitute a cult, unless you think there's something aberrant about adults who act as uninhibited as 5-year-olds watching cartoons on Saturday morning."

Chip: "I do think it's aberrant. Completely and totally aberrant."

Richard: "The problem I have with Flood is that everytime I hear "Birdhouse in Your Soul" or "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" it gets lodged in my head for fucking weeks!"

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After their embarrassing three consecutive losses in last week's Big 12 tournament, you might have thought ("and hoped"--Chip) you'd seen the last of KU baseball for the year. Wrong. The team got a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they'll take on Coastal Carolina on Friday.

Cl.thier: "If they win, I'll be doing a special medley of baseball-related songs during my set this Friday, just to piss Chip off."

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If you live on the Eastside, there's a good chance you believe in various conspiracy theories and urban legends (mostly involving Sasquatches and chupacabras), and one of your favorite authors is likely Daniel Pinchbeck, who has extolled the pleasures of magic mushrooms and other psychotropic substances in Breaking Open the Head and whose new work 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoati, is described as an "extravagant thought experiment" centering around the Mayan prophecy that 2012 will bring about the end of the world as we know it, "the conclusion of a vast evolutionary cycle, and the potential gateway to a higher level of manifestation." (Amazon).

Pinchbeck will speak tonight in Larryville, but oddly enough the speech is not occurring at the Solidarity Radical Library or in the community garden on the Eastside. No, it's at Pachamama's, and Pinchbeck is sure to freak out the rich folks!

Here's the scoop from Lawrence.com:

"To be held in the Alton room. Also energy massages and readings. Yoga beforehand at 5:30p.m."

Richard: "There's simply no way I can miss this!"

Chip: "I'll stick with my Left Behind books when I need a dose of apocalyptic hysteria, thank you very much."