Monsters of Folk is Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis. The musicians recorded a number of songs together some time ago (before Mystic Valley?). Now it appears that the long-rumored, long-awaited album is on the verge of release, or at least that's what I'm led to believe by monstersoffolk.com. There's no clue or indication on that one-page website who will be releasing the album (The domain is registered to Micah Taylor). Saddle Creek Records, however, has confirmed that it won't be releasing it. Will it be on Merge? Team Love?

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I've had a quandary lately deciding whether or not to go to specific shows, especially if I can't get to the venue before 10:30. Here's the problem: I have no idea when the band or bands that I want to see will hit the stage. I don't want to go there, drop my $5-$8-$10-$15 only to find out that the band I wanted to see played at 9, and I missed them.

Generally speaking, websites rarely have a show's band-order correct, mainly because often the decision concerning who's going on stage when (i.e., the band order) is made by the bands on the night of the show. So the band you think is opening may get slotted to play last, or the so-called "headliner" might play second, and so on. It's especially a problem with local-band shows (traveling headliners generally are always last).

Assuming others have the same problem, here's what I'm going to start doing with my Twitter feed: When I arrive at a show, I'll find out the band order and who's already played (and who's about to play) and Tweet that information to my followers. It's something venues should do, but they either don't have time or don't want to discourage people from coming out ("Oh, Box Elders already played? Forget it then.").

So if you haven't already, go to my Twitter page and follow me. In addition to band order and set times, you'll also get Twit pics from most performances along with some live comments.

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Speaking of shows, the legendary Sly & Robbie will be at Slowdown tonight with Heavyweight Dub Champion. $25, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, Chicago art-noise band Eyes is playing at The Saddle Creek Bar with El Diablos Blancos. $5, 9 p.m.

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