The Stateside Presents spring concert calendar is filling up faster than I can possibly ask for all these days off from work.

One of the newest additions surely will please the beard lover in all of us: Megafaun, who won over a packed house at Mesa Arts Center in September as the opener for Bon Iver, is coming back to the Valley for the third time in less than 10 months when they play the Sail Inn in Tempe on April 23. The guys seemed truly appreciative of the attentive crowd in Mesa, so it’s nice to see a return visit as a reward.

My wife swears the Bowerbirds/Megafaun pairing at Rhythm Room in August was the show of the year, and she still hasn’t stopped talking about Megafaun. It’s easy to see why, though: Aside from their kind/grateful on-stage demeanor, the guys put an intriguing experimental spin on their Southern-bred folk picking.

Tickets for the 21-and-over show are $10 and available here. Breathe Owl Breathe opens.

• Megafaun | The Fade
• Megafaun | Kaufman’s Ballad

---

In more concert news, Stateside Presents used Twitter to tease to a major show announcement on Monday:

“Shhh it’s a secret…a huge show will be announced on Monday!!! I’ll give you a hint…they are in Pitchfok’s top 10 albums of 09′! ;)”

That leaves us with nine educated guesses because I think we can logically take Raekwon out of the equation. Our remaining options are: Girls, Fever Ray, Phoenix, Bat for Lashes, Grizzly Bear, The Flaming Lips, The xx, Dirty Projectors or Animal Collective.

I’m going to eliminate Dirty Projectors because they were just here a couple months ago. The Flaming Lips, who performed at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival in April, would qualify as a “huge show,” but so, too, would Grizzly Bear, Phoenix or Animal Collective. Both Grizzly Bear and AC played in Tucson in 2009 but not Phoenix (the city). Phoenix (the band) hasn’t been here in at least two or three years. Guess we’ll have to wait til Monday to find out.

I just spent the past three days traveling to and from New York, so I’m catching up on some e-mail, the most intriguing of which is one from Sub Pop offering an mp3 from Retribution Gospel Choir’s forthcoming sophomore album 2, due for release on Jan. 26 (the same date for new Spoon … 2010 is gonna be good).

Led by Low frontman Alan Sparhawk, Retribution Gospel Choir also includes bassist Steve Garrington from Low and drummer Eric Pollard. But RGC is hardly the second coming of the slowcore stylings of Low. RGC is bigger and louder, an outlet for Sparhawk to push the volume and extend his range.

2 is available for pre-order on CD and LP at Sub Pop.

• Retribution Gospel Choir | Hide it Away

---

ALSO: We have winners in the Port O’Brien vinyl giveaway. They are: Hubert S., Shawn A., Kathryn M., Jeremy I. and Gabe S., all of whom have been contacted. Thanks to everyone else who entered.

Stateside Presents has unleashed a whole batch of upcoming shows, already filling up that 2010 calendar I don’t own yet.

Other than the St. Vincent show on Feb. 11, I’m most anticipating the Phoenix debut of young Scottish foursome We Were Promised Jetpacks on Feb. 23 at Rhythm Room. (Bear Hands opens the show.)

WWPJ put on quite a (loud) show when we saw the band in Tucson in September as the opener for The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit on the Fat Cat world domination tour. Now with a little seasoning as a touring act, it’ll be interesting to see how WWPJ plays on this second U.S. leg. There definitely was a tense/raw edge in Tucson – similar to what you’d hear on the debut full-length These Four Walls – that I hope hasn’t faded.

(Photo credit: Neil Thomas Douglas)

• We Were Promised Jetpacks | Quiet Little Voices

Here’s a video snippet I took of the band performing It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning in Tucson:

With Frightened Rabbit expected to release an album – The Winter of Mixed Drinks – on March 9 (album artwork abovve), I’m a little surprised the band didn’t offer anything new for its recent Daytrotter session, like the first single, Swim Until You Can’t See Land.

Not that I’m complaining. The four-song set includes three tracks off my 2008 favorite The Midnight Organ Fight, and the band even reached back to its debut, Sing the Greys, to dust off The Go-Go Girls.

• Frightened Rabbit | Good Arms vs. Bad Arms (Daytrotter session)

According to the band’s label, Fat Cat, here is the tracklisting for The Winter of Mixed Drinks:

01 Things
02 Swim Until You Can’t See Land
03 The Loneliness and the Scream
04 The Wrestle
05 Skip the Youth
06 Nothing Like You
07 Man/Bag of Sand
08 Foot Shooter
09 Not Miserable
10 Living in Colour
11 Yes, I Would

You can also catch tireless frontman Scott Hutchison performing an Oxjam set in Edinburgh for Off the Beaten Tracks.

I usually don’t make it a habit to run contests and such around here. But I’m making an exception this time because I think Port O’Brien’s newest, Threadbare, is an album deserving of reaching as many ears as possible.

With that, I can tell you I have five copies – FIVE! – of Threadbare on vinyl to give away to a handful of lucky souls. And I’m not really interested in making you jump through hoops to win. Just send me an e-mail to kevin@somuchsilence.com with something like “Threadbare vinyl” in the subject line by the end of this coming Sunday (Dec. 6) and I’ll pick five entrants at random.

Good luck and thanks for playin’.

• Port O’Brien | My Will is Good

Related:
I Used to Love H.E.R.: Van Pierszalowski (Port O’Brien)
Port O’Brien on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic

Not that Modified will be hosting touring acts beyond December – we’ve been discussing that a little – but St. Vincent had outgrown the venue anyway. Her past two shows there, including a stop in May, were packed – shoulder-to-shoulder with mostly sweaty/excitable young males, all of them surely professing their love for Annie Clark. (Hey, don’t look at me like that.)

For her Feb. 11 show in Phoenix, this time Clark will play in the slightly more spacious confines of the Rhythm Room. It’s a Stateside Presents show and tickets are $15. According to Pitchfork, the opener will be Wildbirds & Peacedrums.

I’m sure my wife will love this early Valentine’s Day gift.

• St. Vincent | The Strangers

Just a guess, but I’ve probably spilled more ink on Mayer Hawthorne than any other artist this year. I can’t help it – the modern Motown-style soul on his debut A Strange Arrangement is a refreshing change of pace, an album sure to elbow its way into my year-end favorites list.

Hawthorne and his band, the County, stopped by WXPN’s World Cafe for an interview and four-song session that included The Ills, now available on 7-inch.

Stones Throw made an mp3 available of the song from the performance.

• Mayer Hawthorne | The Ills (live on WXPN’s World Cafe)