Ted Leo @ Siren Fest (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

So the rumored headliner for the Sunday, August 1st Pool Party at Brooklyn Bowl isn't a rumor any more. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will be headlining the free show - their second in Brooklyn in as many weeks. Also on the bill are two of Brooklyn's own, Darlings and ArpLine. The venue reports that doors are at noon, show at 6pm. It's not clear if the show is taking place outside, but it has been billed as a "block party" up until now.

Jelly also has music at the Rock Yard the day before, with Skeletons Big Band, Priestbird (do you remember what they used to be called?), Family Band and PC Worship.

Future Pavement opener Thee Oh Sees opened the bi-weekly venue on Saturday, July 17th. Download their set, recorded by Newtown Radio, here.

Ted Leo videos and the flyer for Saturday's Rock Yard show, and the flyer for the block party happening in Philly this weekend, are below...

Continue reading "Ted Leo confirmed for 'Pool Party' (1 of 2 weekend Jelly gigs)"

by Andrew Frisicano

St. Vincent @ Pitchfork Fest in Chicago (more by Kate Gardiner)

David Byrne and Annie Clark are collaborating on music for a future Housing Works benefit. There's no date set for that, but Asphalt Orchestra will be debuting a version of one of the songs they've been working on...

A few months ago we had [Here Lies Love arranger] Tony Finno arrange the horns, and we performed one of the songs -- tentatively titled "Who" -- at the end of Annie's show at the Rose Room at Lincoln Center. Now, having been approached by the Bang On a Can spinoff Asphalt Orchestra, with the help of [Asphalt saxist/producer] Ken Thomson we've adapted another song called either "Two Ships" or "The Movie" for their group. This will be an instrumental version and we'll do a vocal version later. [David Byrne]

Asphalt will perform that song on Wednesday, August 4th, at the first of five free shows the avant-marching band is doing around the Lincoln Center as part of LC's Out of Doors Festival. Locations and times for the band are below.

In addition to that piece, they'll be debuting a commission by Yoko Ono; other songs in the group's repertoire include commissions by Tyondai Braxton of Battles and Stew & Heid Rodewald of Passing Strange and BAM Next Wave 2010. The 12-piece will release a seven-track CD of its material on August 3rd through Canatloupe Music. That includes a blisteringly dissonant song by Swedish metal band Meshuggah and an intricately-arranged version of Bjork's "Hyper-Ballad." There are a few more typical "ra-ra" maching band songs on the album too (Zappa in particular is already quite melodic and pompy), but the band focuses on getting unusual sounds out of the limited instrumentation. Live, they move in unique coordinated patterns, so the experience is individualized to the space and where you stand.

As an aside, this Saturday at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival is going to be particularly amazing, with the "Detroit Breakdown" lineup of Mitch Ryder, ? and the Mysterians, The Gories, Death and more.

St. Vincent has her own free show this weekend, at the Central Park SummerStage Sunday (8/1) afternoon, with openers Tune-Yards and Basia Bulat.

A video of Asphalt Orchestra doing that Meshuggah song on WNYC, and their schedule, plus a video of Annie doing a nylon-string version of "Actor Out of Work," are below...

Continue reading "David Byrne & Annie Clark collaborating for Housing Works, Asphalt Orchestra playing a song (and some shows) "

by BBG

Black Milk at SXSW (more here)

Black Milk will team up with his uber-buzzy mic controller Decon label-mate Freddie Gibbs for a show at SOBs on Tuesday (August 3rd, tickets). The show will double as a record release party for Gibbs, as he readies his new EP Str8 Killa due that same day (git it) and accompanying (requisite?) mixtape, available for free download HERE. In addition, Gibbs has pounded out a new video for the lead single from Str8 Killa, "National Anthem", available below

The eight-track Gibbs EP also features a song called "Oil Money" that features guest spots by Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids, Chip Tha Ripper, Bun B & The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. Download that track free HERE or HERE. Read more about the THREE Black Keys shows that just happened in NYC here, here, and here.

Freddie's older The Miseducation Of Freddie Gibbs Mixtape is free HERE.

Black Milk's new LP Album Of The Year is due on September 14th, and the beat god (and damn fine MC) dropped a video album trailer for that LP today. View that below along with the album's tracklisting, some other video and full Freddie Gibbs tour dates...

Continue reading "Freddie Gibbs giving away new mixtape, celebrating new EP @ SOB's w/ Black Milk -- MP3s, video, dates & the Black Keys"

Keepaway on Governors Island in June (more by Andrew St Clair)

Kurt Vile @ Bowery Ballroom in January (more by Vincent Cornelli)

tonight in NYC
* DJA-Rara @ Josie Robertson Plaza
* Furthur @ Nokia Theatre
* Darius Jones @ Roulette
* Jon B @ Springfield Park
* Blockhead @ Brooklyn Bowl
* The Gories, Jimmy Ohio @ Maxwell's
* DJ Questlove (late) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Soft Black, Ivana XL, Lacrymosa @ Pianos
* The National, Suckers, Kurt Vile @ Terminal 5
* Rope, The New Colossus, Radical Dads @ Union Pool
* Blind Benny, Dan Sartain (early) @ Mercury Lounge
* Chromeo, Holy Ghost!, Telephoned @ Bowery Ballroom
* Mother of Fire, Up Died Sound, Bow Ribbons @ Zebulon
* Gary War, Amen Dunes, Coconuts, Prince Rama @ Coco 66
* The Lemonheads, The Candles @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Broadway Danny Rose (film) @ The Elevated Acre at 55 Water St
* Sisters, Knight School, Nude Beach, Giant Peach @ Silent Barn
* Javelin, Keepaway, I Love Monsters @ Rocks Off Concert Cruises
* Ansanm (In Love We Stand): music of Haiti @ Damrosch Park Bandshell
* Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Preservation Hall Jazz Band @ City Winery
* Innumerable Forms, Naughty Girls, Mammoth Grinder, Longpigs @ The Acheron
* Pretty Good Dance Moves, Rumanian Buck, Bambara, Ego Puppets @ Glasslands
* Fixed w/ Trouble & Bass, Breakage, Zombie Disco Squad @ Santos Party House
* George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes @ Seaside/Asser Levy Park

The Gories are reunited and here.

Interpol, who play a New York in November, play their new song "Barricade" on Letterman tonight.

Kanye West dropped some new verses off his forthcoming album, not titled Good Ass Job, at the Facebook offices on Tuesday. He did the same, with different material, at Twitter on Wednesday. That video is below.

Keepaway, who are playing a boat today, took a boat to Governors Island when they played the Converse Gone to Governors free concert series back in June. While there, they hooked up with Show Cobra Film who recorded the exclusive session (not on stage) that you can watch for the first time below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: The Sword - Tres Brujas (MP3)

The Sword at SXSW (more by Samantha Marble)

The Sword will kick it into hyperdrive in October following the release of Warp Riders, the band's new LP due via Kemado on August 24th. Webster Hall gets the look on October 16th and you can get your tickets via AMEX presale on 8/4 or regular sale two days later. Full dates are below.

Produced by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, etc), Warp Riders is the band's first foray in to concept album territory, "a psychedelic space opera that explores temporal themes of death and rebirth." Word. But does it kick out the jams? Judge for yourself with "Tres Brujas", available for free download above.

Full tour dates for The Sword, as well as some videos, are below.

Continue reading "new Sword MP3 & 2010 tour dates (Webster Hall) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Avi Buffalo - What's In It For? (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: CFCF - Big Love (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Grass Widow - Shadow (MP3)

This weekend is The Big Takeover's 30th Anniversary celebration: two nights of shows at the Bell House put together by Jack Rabid who has been publishing the 'zine since 1980. Jack's one of the most passionate, informed music fans I've ever met and he's put together a pretty stellar line-up of artists, most of which will be familiar to regular BT readers.

Friday night (7/30) is headlined by San Francisco punk legends The Avengers, and Seattle's Visqueen, and the first performance in 16 years by Flower (Ed and James Balyut's pre-Versus band). Plus the L.A. punks Channel 3, the Libertines U.S. (from Cincinnati) playing their first-ever Big Apple show, and Jack Rabid's band Springhouse.

For Against

Saturday night (7/31) is even more action packed. Former Chameleons frontman Mark Burgess headlines, performing acoustic and with a full band; legendary Lincoln, NE post-punk shoegazers For Against, playing their first East Coast show in 15 years; and Springhouse performs again, this time doing their 1993 album Postcards from the Arctic in full. Also: Former Nerves/Beat singer Paul Collins, a rare U.S. appearance by ex-Mutton Birds frontman Don McGlashan, onetime Newtown Neurotics singer Steve Drewitt (first-ever U.S. show), and the Posies' Jon Auer. Also also: The Sharp Things, The Sleepover Disaster (first-ever East Coast shows) and The Curtain Society.

You can still buy two-day passes for $40 as well. (Individual tickets are $25.) If you've never read The Big Takeover, well you should really recitify that. Each phone book sized issue (twice yearly) is packed with in-depth interviews, reviews and essays, the bulk of which is still written by Jack. The magazine's slogan is "Music with Heart" and he means it, man. The 30th Anniversary issue (#66 if you're keeping track) is just out with Spoon on the cover. Like always, it's a great read.

Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo play the Seaport Music Festival on Friday, their only New York appearance this go-around. Their self-titled Sub Pop debut is an impressive collection of shimmery, folky guitar pop that has stayed in constant rotation on my stereo since March. Live, Avi Buffalo put a little more muscle into the tunes. Front man Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg is a Doug Martsch in the making. (You get a sense of it on the LP's seven-minute jam "Remember the Last Time.") Dude uses like 15 pedals and is a pretty serious shredder. I thought they were great at South by Southwest. Yes they are barely old enough to buy cigarettes (not that they should be smoking!) but that just means Avi Buffalo haven't even hit their stride -- which is exciting.

Opening is Canadian multi-hyphenate wunderkind (and Sub Pop labelmate) Chad Van Gaalen who hasn't made a new record of his own in two years but has probably stayed busy being an illustrator, animator, and producer of Women. Unlike last Friday, weather looks to be idyllic Friday (sunny, high of 84) -- should be a lovely early evening on the pier.

CFCF

Despite the preponderance of reverbed garage, twee indiepop and '90s era slackerdom in this column, I do listen to a fair amount of dance music though I'm not really a club-goer. One of my favorite albums of 2009 was Continent, the full-length debut from CFCF, aka Vancouver beat-maker Michael Silver. It's an ambitious disc of instrumental, yet highly melodic dance music without even a trace of chillwave. (Though there's definitely some Balearic in there.) It's ridiculously catchy, and you may find yourself singing overtop tracks, making up your own lyrics (Well I do anyway.) Annie, Roisin, Robyn, etc... may I present your new collaborator?

You can download CFCF's great cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love" at the top of this post -- the only vocal track on Continent. Silver, who is also an in-demand remixer (on the new HEALTH album for instance), is in town this weekend for a bunch of DJ gigs. You can hear him spin Friday night (7/30) at Cameo Gallery with Jacques Renault and Lovefingers, and then the PS1 Warm Up on Saturday (8/31), where Animal Collective also DJ, plus live performances from Prince Rama and Blondes.

Grass Widow

If you're going to Prospect Park for Sonic Youth on Saturday, do get there early and catch Grass Widow as it's their only NYC show for now. The San Francisco trio's new album, Past Time, is out August 24 on Kill Rock Stars. It could use a few more choruses but gets by on the band's very distinctive sound. You can download "Shadows" from the new album at the top of this post and watch its lovely animated video at the bottom of this post. Grass Widow are teriffic live -- it will be interesting to see them on such a big stage. If you can't make it, they'll be back in September for two shows (Sept. 27 -28, venues still TBD). All tour dates at the bottom of this post.

---

And some daily picks of things not otherwise covered above:

THURSDAY, JULY 29

The Music Slut has been blogging away for five years and they're celebrating on a boat! Specifically, the Rocks Off Concert Cruise ship and they've put Javelin, Keepaway and I Love Monsters aboard it. Boat leaves at 7pm, don't be late. Happy birthday, guys.

Coco 66 has a night of bliss-out drone, noise, old synthesizers, psychedelic freakouts, and tribal chanting all in celebration of the release of Amen Dunes' new album, Murder Dull Mind, which is out on Sacred Bones. Also playing Gary War, recent Paw Tracks signees Prince Rama (who are at PS 1 Saturday), and Coconuts. Open vodka bar at 9PM till it runs out.

Over at Silent Barn, you can catch locals Sisters whose debut album, Ghost Fits, is out in September on Narnack Records. Also playing: Knight School, Nude Beach, Giant Peach.

Meanwhile at Union Pool, there's CYHSY offshoot Radical Dads, Rope and The New Colossus.

continued below....

Continue reading "The Big Takeover, Avi Buffalo, CFCF, Amen Dunes, Grass Widow, Ducktails & more in This Week in Indie "

Corin Tucker on "Jesus Etc.": On the One Beat tour, I remember driving, and that's all Carrie [Brownstein] and Janet [Weiss] would listen to [laughs]. My god, that record played over and over and over again. We would just drive to the next show and listen to that record. We all loved it, and we didn't always agree on what to listen to in the van.

Pitchfork: Was there anything else that all three of you would agree on?

Corin: We all liked to listen to Led Zeppelin. We would just go through the whole catalog [laughs]. We all liked that. We all liked Belle & Sebastian. [5-10-15-20]

Sleater Kinney's Corin Tucker will be touring with Sara Lund of Unwound and Seth Lorinczi of Golden Bears (aka The Corin Tucker Band) in support of Corin's debut, 1,000 Years, due October 5th on Kill Rock Stars. A picture of the band is below.

They hit the road this October. The trip includes a Tuesday, October 26th show at Bowery Ballroom with Portland's Hungry Ghost. Tickets are on sale. All dates below.

Corin talked to the Portland Mercury about the sound of the new record...

How would you describe the sound of the record, particularly in comparison to Sleater-Kinney?

I think some of the songs are in the ballpark. It's definitely my voice and my songwriting style. But like I said, it's different instrumentation on some of the songs and a different collaboration. Seth's producing and arranging things, so that's different, too. It may be more traditional with some of the arrangements. [via Sleater-Kinney.net]

That's the cover above. All tour dates, tracklist and some Corin solo videos are below...

Continue reading "Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker releasing an LP, touring (dates)"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Film School - Heart Full of Pentagons (MP3)

West Coast shoegazy indie-rock band fronted by Greg Bertens, Film School, have a new record coming out, Fission, due August 31st on Hi-Speed Soul. The first single off that, "Heart Full Of Pentagons," posted above, opens with a nervous drum-machine beat and quickly grows into a wistfully epic Stars-esque burner.

To accompany the LP, the band will play a full tour this fall, opened primarily by Brooklyn's The Depreciation Guild. Those bands play two NYC shows, one at Glasslands with Home Video on September 30th (on sale now), and one at Mercury Lounge on Friday, October 1st. Tickets for Mercury Lounge are on AmEx presale now. General sale starts Friday at noon.

The new album's cover and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Film School announce tour in support of new LP (MP3, dates) "

Gil Scott-Heron @ Central Park SummerStage in June (more by Andrew Frisicano)

Gil Scott-Heron still has another SummerStage show coming up, his second of the season, set for August 5th in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park. But that's not his only NYC appearance - Gil will also be playing B.B. King's on October 7th. Tickets are on sale.

As for his other tour dates, Gil plays a festival called Blue Balls Festival in Switzerland July 30th, and has a few other European festival shows coming up as well.

Some clips from Gil's self-deprecating pre-set monologue (similar to what he did at SummerStage) from a London show a few weeks back and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Gil Scott-Heron adds another NYC show & other dates"

words by Kim Kelly, photos by Markus Shaffer

Kim Kelly, no longer a Philadelphian, made the jump to the concrete jungle known as NYC in between her stints on tour with Zoroaster (check out her tour diary part 1 and part 2) and upcoming van-adventures. Welcome her to town, and check out this report she filed from the 7/27 High On Fire melee. -BBG

The Music Hall of Williamsburg is super close to Public Assembly, which is the only way I managed to find the damn place - you can't play the "black t-shirt game" (i.e., follow someone with a band shirt or long hair to find a show) in Brooklyn, 'cause too many hipsters have embraced the longhair lifestyle. Regardless, it's a cool (if labyrinthine) venue, and big enough to hold a packed crowd of High On Fire fans. Presented by Osiris & Bowery, tonight's show kicked off with some old-school thrash, courtesy of brand-new but Fenriz-approved Brooklynites Natur. I honestly wasn't expecting to like these guys at all, but was pleasantly surprised by their high energy vintage thrash attack (replete with epic NWOBHM-style vocals!). Dudes were having a killer time up there, and their enthusiasm was infectious judging by the madly thrashing hashers down the front.

Unearthly Trance brought things down several notches with their murderously heavy, bastardized doom ("God Is A Beast" was simply MASSIVE). They ran into some technical trouble midway through their set when a bass head went kaput (after intrepid photographer Markus Shaffer pointed out that the stage monitors were, uh, smoking), but luckily managed to borrow one from Natur. UT then plowed through the rest of their dark, angular, and menacing black/grind/death/doom compositions and unleashed some new material off of upcoming opus "V"(due out on Relapse on September 28th). Sounds like it's gonna be a beast. Check out a new song at their myspace.

High On Fire came out with guns blazing, tearing into their crowd-tested, stoner-approved brand of Motorhead-meets-Melvins metallurgy. Indomitable frontman Matt Pike and the lads hauled out a fair share of chestnuts from earlier albums like "Devilution", "Blood from Zion", and "Hung Drawn & Quartered", ending (pre-encore) with the title track from their new jam, Snakes For the Divine (full setlist below, though no "Blessed Black Wings." What the fuck, dude?). Pike roamed the stage like a boozy, shirtless gypsy, flashing his trademark gap-toothed perma-grin and swinging his axe like the pro he is as the crowd hung on his every grizzled invocation. After ambling offstage for a couple minutes, the trio returned for a thunderous encore of "Bastard Samurai." Even if you don't listen to their albums, it's impossible to deny the sheer power and sonic excess of a High On Fire show. They're one hell of a fun live band, and nowadays that counts more than any number of record sales.

More pics from the show, with two of the setlists, are below...

Continue reading "High on Fire, Unearthly Trance & Natur played MHOW (pics) "