In honor of the massive, Kings of Leon/Walkmen show tonight at the A.J. Palumbo Center, I have decided to put up a video of Swedish songstress Lykke Li performing an impassioned version of KOL’s “Knocked Up” on Last Call with Carson Daly, courtesy of the folks over at Stereogum.  At the same time, I put this video up with a tad bit of contempt for the Fallowil faithful, as they roll into Pittsburgh at arguably the height of their success, fresh off a slightly embarassing cover story in Rolling Stone. Honestly, Lykke Li’s version is better, especially with the added sexual tension of watching her slink around on stage, grasping more than a handful of mic wires and going on about keeping her baby in almost a southern draw.  She does the pouty young girl thing better than anyone in the business right now, and its worth taking a look.

Mr. Andrew Bird, whose own show at the Carnegie Music Hall of Oakland is slowly creeping up on April 7,  gets to be the poster boy for Speed of the Pittsburgh Sound’s new, spiffier, more comprehensive concert calendar for April and May that has just been posted (and because I’m in a fairly euphoric mood after compiling all that concert data, I’ll post a couple tracks off Andrew Bird’s latest, Nobel Beast, down below).

It’s chalk full of small local acts, quality national tours, and massively huge arena shows that will no doubt cost an arm and leg to attend.  Some highlights include:  Andrew Bird (obviously), Kings of Leon with The Walkmen, TV on The Radio with The Dirty Projectors, and last but certainly not least, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.  It’s not easy to prioritize such a healthy concert calendar and with a new job on the horizon, I don’t see myself getting to as many shows as I would like.

There are also a couple shows I clipped off because I refused to keep any March dates present on the page and they would be: Antlers w/ Olympus Mons and Casino Bulldogs this Friday at the Brillobox, Meeting of Important People’s CD release party on Saturday at the Brillobox, The Gaslight Anthem w/ Heartless Bastards and Good Old War at Mr. Small’s on Sunday, and Handsome Furs w/The Cinnamon Band at the Brillobox next Tuesday.   For Pittsburgh’s music scene it’s business as usual, kicking ass and taking names.  Let’s hope the summer months can keep the city bumping.

P.S. If we don’t have your band’s gig posted on the concert calendar, feel free to email us at bowmanpatrick@ymail.com and we will add it as soon as humanly possible.

Andrew Bird – Fitz and the Dizzyspells

Andrew Bird – Effigy