2010 Cleveland Concert Season Playlist

Well the snow is melting, the Indians are almost through with spring training, and the Cavs are getting ready for the playoffs. Spring is here, and with it comes a whole slew of bands and musical artists coming to the Cleveland area. My spring/summer concert lineup is filling up fast. There's a lot of good acts touring this year. Here's what I plan on, am considering seeing, or would like to see if I didn't already have plans:

April 4 - Julian Casablancas - House of Blues Cleveland
April 8 - Fanfarlo - Grog Shop
April 11 - Wilco - Carnegie Music Hall, Pittburgh
April 13 - The Hold Steady - Beachland Ballroom
April 13 - Wale/K'naan - House of Blues Cleveland
April 30 - Yeasayer - Grog Shop
May 5 - Frightened Rabbit - Grog Shop
May 11 - Pearl Jam/Band of Horses - The Q
June 9 - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - House of Blues Cleveland
June 10 - She & Him - House of Blues Cleveland
July 20 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Drive-By Truckers - Blossom Music Center
July 26 - Kings of Leon - Blossom Music Center

That's my schedule. What's yours? Are you going to any of these shows too? Am I leaving out a group that I simply MUST SEE live?

I leave you with my Summer Concert playlist featuring all of the artists listed above. You'll find it on the right sidebar under my Twitter feed. Give it a listen, and feel free to create and share your own similar playlist in the comments. I love discovering new music, and we all need something to listen to to make it through the work day. Read more!

Hey! Welcome Back! How Was Your Summer?

Sooooo .... just like my buddy Calvin here, I lost track of time over the summer. My "summer break" from the blog accidentally lasted longer than I expected. I'm going to blame the weather. It's tough to recognize that summer is over in Cleveland when it's sunny and 70 like it was this past weekend.

So now that I've been gone long enough to have lost my entire audience, I am back from the dead! I have a laundry list of topics to talk about, and sorry Simpsons fans, it will probably not involve anything in Springfield. I never intended this blog to become a Simpsons fan site. I was simply posting random facts on days that I didn't have time to write anything substantial. A few dozen posts later, and I'm receiving 800 hits a day from Scotland so 2 arguing towns can determine who can claim to be the birthplace of Groundskeeper Willie. I like the Simpsons as much as the next guy, but that was never the audience I intended to attract. So I'm going to tone the Simpsons posts down a little.

There is a lot of other cool stuff I want to share with you this week though, including the best music of 2009 debate, adventures in product placement, and Christmas Ale. In the meantime, play around with "Let Them Sing it For You." It's a fun way to send a message by stitching together random song lyrics. It's like sending a musical ransom note, instead of spending all that valuable time cutting out magazine letters. Feel free to e-mail me one @ johndaviddrake@gmail.com. Stay tuned.

P.S. How did you spend your summer vacation?

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