Oh yeah — and the band is coming back to the US this winter! Catch them at Terminal 5 in NYC on December 11 and if you’re up for it, head down to D.C. for a more intimate (and potentially better) experience at the 9:30 Club on December 8th. Full tour dates and on-sale info here.

MP3: Arctic Monkeys – Sketchead or zShare

MP3: Arctic Monkeys – Baby I’m Yours (Barbara Lewis cover) or zShare

Ida Maria Citi Stage Saturday 2:15PM >>

We’ve seen Ida Maria a handful of times this year in intimate venues such as Bell House, Music Hall of Williamsburg and Mercury Lounge so it was interesting to see what she’d do onstage at a festival in broad daylight.

At the beginning of her set I got the impression that she felt a bit constrained and tame waiting to bust out (see pic.) Once she loosened up a bit Ida released her signature growl and shriek, locking in everyone’s attention and awe. The absolute highlight of Ida’s set was when she dumped water onto herself before diving into a spectacular cover of The Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog.

Chairlift Citi Stage Saturday 3:30PM

Chairlift opened their set with the fabulous cover of Snoop’s Sexual Seduction and set the loungey seductive tone for their hour long set. There were a few sound issues but the trio powered through and delivered a strong set that served as yet another great platform for infiltrating mainstream.

<< Arctic Monkeys Budweiser Stage Saturday 4:30PM

My 3rd time seeing them in one week and I’m not sure i would’ve turned down 10 more opportunities to see them. Arctic Monkeys have matured and progressed in the ways every great band should and this set was an undeniable Lolla highlight for everyone who caught it. A.Turn and co.’s set was 10 min longer than at APW, so a more well rounded performance was able to take shape featuring the achingly epic 505 as set closer. The crowd went seriously bananas (read: crowdsurfing, moshing, pushing, flailing) and the band deserved every bit of excitement and enthusiasm hurled their way. [Jess]

Santigold Playstation Saturday Stage 5:30PM >>

Call me naive but I honestly didn’t think Santigold would draw in the immense crowd that she did on day 2 of Lollapalooza! Bon Iver played the Playstation stage the night before as well and surprised me with the number of people squeezed in to catch his set.

Santigold donned a gold jumper and gold sneakers to a huge crowd that ranged from ghetto to prep. It was pretty awesome sweating my ass off in Chicago with a bunch of strangers chanting “Brooklyn we go hard, we go hard!” in unison..if only they knew the half of it!

MP3: Basement Jaxx Featuring Santigold – Saga or zShare

Glasvegas Vitamin Water Stage Saturday 5:30 PM

Glasvegas’ crowd was surprisingly subdued, most likely due to the fact that the crowds were stalled across the park as the overwhelmingly large Arctic Monkeys crowd was leaving and the just as incredibly large Santigold crowd was filing it. Despite the serious festival gridlock, Glasvegas played a tight set as more and more fans trickled in to catch James Allan expertly belt out favorites like Geraldine and Daddy’s Gone. [Jess]

<< Lykke Li Citi Stage Saturday 6:30PM

I had to unfortunately leave the Santigold set a few minutes early in order to make it in time for Lykke Li. I saw her only one week prior at All Points West but I just can’t get enough of her captivating set. Her set from Lollapalooza was extra special in that she brought on Miike Snow singer Andrew Wyatt for the cover of Kings of Leon’s Knocked Up. It was a great and unexpected treat!

MP3: Miike Snow – Plastic Jungle or zShare

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Budweiser Stage Saturday 8PM >>

One week prior we caught Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ killer set at All Points West, so this time around it was all about singing and dancing our asses off. We found a comfortable spot and literally danced until we were (almost) dead, scaring bystanders! Jess said it best:  it was our own Saturday night dance party featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Indeed it was, and also a great prelude to another epic night out in Chi-town.

MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero (Erol Alkan Remix) or zShare

Arctic Monkeys at APW, 8.1.09

Arctic Monkeys were essentially our headliners for the second day of APW; we had no desire to see Tool, I had seen The Ting Tings many times before, and (I’m not gonna lie) I had been looking forward to seeing Arctic Monkeys all summer. It had been a VERY long time since I’d seen them live and I was more than curious to see if and how their live shows have changed.

I would previously have said that Arctic Monkeys aren’t much to see live. While the playing was deft and A. Turn™’s vocals were always sharp, they just never really did very much, apart from drummer Matt Helders, in the way of emoting or moving. The Live at the Apollo dvd can now be considered a time capsule of what kind of a live band Arctic Monkeys used to be — engaging and exuberant, albeit slightly stiff– because they are now a band that people will and should want to see, not just to hear the songs they love live, but to see an incredible performan ce

Maybe they went to rock n roll charm school or maybe they are a few years older and considerably wiser with lots and lots of hair to hide behind, but Arctic Monkeys played a seriously rousing and passionate late afternoon set at All Points West to a huge crowd who sang and danced along to every tune. New tunes like Pretty Visitors, Cornerstone and Crying Lightning translated well in a festival setting while old favorites like View from the Afternoon (for which Alex asked the audience to ” cast your memories way back…”) and Fluorescent Adolescent (reworked with a lovely new middle section) set the crowd ablaze.

Someone shot some amazing footage of this set and put it on YouTube: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (love A. Turn™’s shout-out to all the “LADIES!”), Fluorescent Adolescent, Cornerstone

Check back soon for our coverage of last night’s brilliant Arctic Monkeys gig at Highline Ballroom NYC.

MP3: Arctic Monkeys – Love Machine (Girls Aloud Cover) or zShare
MP3: Arctic Monkeys – When The Sun Goes Down (Justice Remix) or zShare

Crystal Castles at APW Day 2, 8.1.09

Checking in on Day 2 of All Points West. We saw many more acts today including: Arctic Monkeys, Crystal Castes, My Bloody Valentine, Cage the Elephant, The Cool Kids, Neko Case and Chairlift.

Luckily the day was beautiful and a lot of the mud solidified!  We’re realy impressed at how organized the festival is this year, perfect festival preparation for Lollapalooza next week!

Arctic Monkeys at APW Day 2, 8.1.09

As we did yesterday, I’m posting a few pics from the sets we saw today to hold you over until we do the big reveal. Hoping for another nice day tomorrow for La Roux, Lykke Li, Echo and the Bunnymen, Elbow, Gaslight Anthem, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, etc or it’s back to rockin’ the ponchos!

MP3: Crystal Castles – Vanished or zShare
MP3: My Bloody Valentine – When You Sleep or zShare

The larger than life video recently premiered online and saw director Richard Ayoade taking the helm once more after collaborating with the boys on their At The Apollo live dvd and directing videos for The Last Shadow Puppets. Watch the Crying Lightning video below as well as a making of the video exclusive from Babelgum (as well as the entire 76 minute film Live at the Apollo!)

This very afternoon the band will be performing tracks from Humbug in an exclusive Web Transmission at 4:00pm EST (9pm GMT) Watch it live here: http://webtransmission.arcticmonkeys.com/

Follow the Guardian’s live-blogging of the transmission here.

Check back for our coverage of Arctic Monkeys at All Points West this Saturday.

Watch out for the band’s performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next Tues, August 4th

MP3: Arctic Monkeys – Who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys? or Zshare

MP3: Arctic Monkeys – If You Were There Beware or zShare