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Pants were optional at last night’s New York x New York indie rock trivia event, NY Mag’s first of the year and latest in a series that’s included karaoke with Michael Showalter and of Montreal, dinner with Man Man, and an art auction with Zach Galifianakis and Band Of Horses. Zach was again master of ceremonies and one-liners. Les Savy Fav were masters of costume changes. Trivia came in mutliple rounds, titled “’90s Indie Rock,” “NYC Indie Rock,” and “Round Three.” They weren’t hard. (”Which baby-faced band of Columbia grads recently played Satuday Night Live?,” identify this album cover, etc.) There was also a highly unfortunate final round of “Kanye Or Nay,” in which we were asked to perform the indie rock task of determining whether recited lyrics belonged to Kanye. Or, nay. That aside, Zach did a good job, being generally Galifianakis-y and showing off his “marijuana Santa Claus” coif:

Bound Stems made their Stereogum debut in a post titled, simply enough, “Chicago,” back in ‘06, on the back of their worthy Appreciation Night. They’re still dipping into and out of of their hometown’s signature fuzz-bucket style of indie rock, but the first single from the forthcoming sophomore LP brings verses with an unexpectedly beachy vocal cadence (seriously, unplug that guitar and sing it in the sand and it wouldn’t be hard to pass it off as Jack Johnson & the Special Sauce). It’s a really sunny place, wherever Bound Stems are writing from, even while they chant “he’s got one foot out the door.” It’s a decent lead track. We’re hoping the rest of the album sounds more like the b-section than the rest.

Yes, festival glut is real. But the upshot is an increasingly vibrant (and for bands, lucrative) festival circuit that increases the odds an insane multi-day lineup will be coming to a town near you. Treasure Island’s 2008 bill is fairly killing — the Raconteurs, Justice, TV On The Radio (Sitek, leave Scarlett at home), Tegan & Sara (so awesome at Coachella), Fleet Foxes, VMPRWKND — and wins on accessibility (San Fran) and sunsets (again, San Fran). The two day fest takes place on September 20th and 21st, so of course we’ll be seeing all of ’90s indie rock perform at the behest of My Bloody Valentine, but for West Coasters, this should be a lock. Besides the fest features “complimentary transportation to the island on bio-diesel buses” and is otherwise carbon neutral, so yay Earth. Here’s your prelim lineup:

You have the facts and you’re voting mostly yes to Narrow Stairs. The Death Cabbers celebrated release day last night, bringing their ode to being creepy “I Will Possess Your Heart” to the Ed Sullivan Theater. Whatever your response to the record, this is a knockout performance by late night indie rock standards: confident, good sound, fat pocket. Sans intro, it’s an economical take on the multi-minute jam (Death Cab probably wanted to play the album version but it’s only a 90 minute show). We liked ‘em at Coachella, but this is sounding powerful in close quarters. Besides Letterman likes it, so, score.

Make this advance track two from noted child-rearing bloggers/indie rock couple Mates Of State’s Re-Arrange Us. Maybe not as memorably melodic as the outstanding “Get Better,” but it’s not for lack of arrangement: “My Only Offer” builds bells, glockenspiels, horns on top of a simple two-chord piano figure, with Kori and Jason’s vocals swapping on the verses, harmonizing on the hook, hitting the callback/echoes later. All in all pretty pop, but the story here’s in the lyrics, two lovers maybe not so much in love, slogging through the dulled luster, trying anyway. The chorus: “Oh, It’s my only offer / stifled copies of myself / as someone else.” Gives a little more resonance to the melody, innit.

When we showed you Fridge bassist Adem Ilhan strumming-out dEUS’s “Hotellounge (Be the Death of Me),” we made sure to mention the UK-based multi-instrumental crooner is also covering any number of indie rock classics (a dozen to be exact) for his third solo record, Takes. For the finale, long after Bedhead and PJ, and Pinback, and the Pumpkins, he does a delicate cover of Low’s “Laser Beam,” which you first heard on 2001’s Things We Lost In The Fire. Time flies.

Mother’s Day is this weekend. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten. If you did, then hopefully you’ve done something great enough that your poor mom can get by on motherly pride alone. Like, for instance, over at emusic, there’s a dang cute feature where the mothers of some of our favorite indie rockers sound off on their favorite song by their kid and why they’re proud of ‘em. Each selection comes with a link to the song, so you can listen along while you wipe away those Hallmark tears. Actually, you gotta love the beginning of Hoy Fuck mom Michele Schulz’s response:

My son, Matthew Schulz is the drummer with ‘HF,’ as I lovingly call the band. The music is profound and mesmerizing. I’m a child of the late 60’s and 70’s music. I was there with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and Cream…

True hardcore. There are thoughts, too, from those who gave birth to Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Zach Condon, and Mary of High Places…

Since one ‘Gum staffer was born and bred in NJ (hey, Brandon, South Jersey represent), we figure it’s OK for us to weigh in on the Garden State’s new Hall Of Fame. Via AP:

The Hall of Fame exists only as a virtual entity now, but officials are raising money to build a permanent museum. The first class was chosen through an online vote after 25 finalists were announced in 2006.

All inductees must have lived in the state for at least five years, though organizers made an exception to that rule for Underground Railroad pioneer Harriet Tubman.

The inaugural class is 15 strong with people from various disciplines. As far as music goes, it’s Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra. You can see the rest of the pretty obvious list — Thomas Edison, Yogi Berra, Albert Einstein, Toni Morrison, Meryl Streep, Vince Lombardi, etc. — here. All due respect to the Boss and Old Blue Eyes, of course, but the official list got us thinking of New Jerseyians who’ve been especially important to us musically. We easily could come up with dozens (and dozens) if we cast our net too widely, so we opted to keep it indie: This means no Queen Latifah, Bon Jovi, Kool And The Gang, Fugees, Naughty By Nature, My Chemical Romance (ummm….). Maybe we’re splitting hairs, but we even opted against Thursday and the Misfits. Basically, if you were a kid in NJ, these are the bands you might’ve gotten to play your backyard hardcore matinee or indie-rock festival. Our inductees, in no particular order…

We didn’t like Tapes ‘N Tapes’ Walk If Off very much. To quote:

Here/there, they’re basically a hodgepodge of various groups — you hear a little Modest Mouse (everywhere), or Pixies (”Blunt”), or that band you can’t quite remember right now (everywhere), or Pavement. In these moments, it’s like you asked someone to define “indie rock,” and they opted to jumble together an assemblage of folks who did it better.

One of the few decent tracks “Hang Them All” just received video accompaniment, so snap together your cardboard rifle and head down to the 99¢ and 98¢ stores.

In Leslie’s Colbert Report interview we learn that she received dual-citizenship for doing that iPod commercial, she uses the word “spangliness,” she has indie rock “sewn up in [her] DNA,” and her pyrotechnics aren’t as impressive as Roger Waters’s pyrotechnics. Also, she looks Patti Smith-esque in a tie.

Feist also did a stripped-down, explosion free performance of “I Feel It All” (shockingly, there aren’t a bunch of indie rockers chorusing behind her), while Stephen stripped-down into her sparkling, blue “1234″ outfit.