Bad Brains will play Boston & Manhattan with H2O and then Brooklyn & Philadelphia with GZA. As you can see in the poster, tickets go on pre-sale Saturday. Lionize also opens the Philly show, and there's a show happening on 4/20 with GZA in a TBA city. Stay tuned for more info. All dates are listed with more info below....

Continue reading "Bad Brains announce East Coast shows with GZA & H2O"

"I was really surprised. I didn't know anything about it. I wasn't happy about it," Madonna told Seacrest of M.I.A.'s flipped bird.

"I understand it's punk rock and everything, but to me there was such a feeling of love and good energy and positivity, it seemed negative. It's such a teenager...irrelevant thing to do," she continued. "What was the point? It was just out of place."

Madonna's September 6th Yankee Stadium show sold out this morning, so they added a 2nd show. The new date is September 8th and tickets go on presale Tuesday morning...

Onsale to General Public
Start: Tue, 02/21/12 10:00 AM EST

Icon Lifetime Legacy Member Presale
Start: Tue, 02/14/12 10:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 02/16/12 05:00 PM EST

Icon Live Pass Member Presale
Start: Tue, 02/14/12 11:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 02/16/12 05:00 PM EST

Icon Live Pass Access Bundle
Start: Tue, 02/14/12 12:00 PM EST
End: Thu, 02/16/12 05:00 PM EST

Citi® Cardmember Preferred Tickets
Start: Tue, 02/21/12 10:00 AM EST
End: Thu, 08/16/12 10:00 PM EDT

In related news, though it wasn't that funny (but for the record), like "Lana Del Rey" before her, "M.I.A." appeared on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. M.I.A. was there to discuss her Superbowl Halftime incident from the week before. You can watch that, and "Bein' Quirky with Zooey Deschanel" from the same episode (Bjork guest appearance included), below.

Continue reading "Madonna adds 2nd Yankee Stadium show; "M.I.A." discusses middle finger on SNL (that Zooey Deschanel hosted)"

Now a three-time Grammy winner, Levon Helm, former drummer of the Band, took the award for best Americana album last night, with his record Ramble at the Ryman.

Unfortunately, Helm was unable to attend the awards show due to an undisclosed "medical procedure" which also forced the postponement of his February 10th show at the Wellmont Theater in NJ. He's also sitting out of the next Midnight Ramble. His site reads: "Levon will be undergoing a medical procedure that will necessitate his absence from the February 25th Ramble. We wish him the best and we know he will have a speedy recovery. We'll continue with the normal Ramble schedule with special guests joining the band." We also wish him the best and a speedy recovery!" The last Ramble happened on 2/4 (they've been on a break since).

Things are looking good though because tickets are already on sale for a makeup NJ show taking place April 6 at The Wellmont Theatre. All tickets purchased for the canceled performance will also be honored at the show in April. Levon's next scheduled show is March 2nd in MA. All dates are listed below.

Opening for Helm at Wellmont, is Deer Tick, who will also be headlining their own NJ show at The Stone Pony on April 20 (tickets).

All Levon Helm, and all Deer Tick tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Grammy-winning Levon Helm recovering from a procedure, schedules new NJ show; Deer Tick too (dates)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Shellshag & Screaming Females fans

NJ's Don Giovanni Records held their annual big showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Saturday night (2/11). Were you there? Here are some pictures. They continue below...

Continue reading "Don Giovanni hosted Screaming Females, Shellshag, Laura Stevenson, For Science & Black Wine @ MHOW (pics)"

Bjork in Queens (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Bjork has extended her NYC residency by one more show, in part to make up for the show she had to cancel, though the new show is at Roseland and the cancelled one was at the New York Hall of Science.

In appreciation of her fans' support Björk is adding one final show at Roseland Ballroom on March 5. Individuals who purchased tickets for the February 9 show will be offered these tickets first in a pre-sale to begin tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14th at 10 A.M. Tickets will be available to the public at 10 A.M. Wednesday February 15.

The next Bjork show is 2/15 New York Hall of Science. All shows are listed with more information below...

Continue reading "Bjork adds another Roseland show (cancelled show people will get first shot at tickets)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield, words by Bill Pearis

Veronica Falls @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

The last time Veronica Falls were in town, singer Roxanne Clifford was under-the-weather, making for somewhat subdued performances. Thursday (2/9), though, the band were in fine health and form, the best I've seen since Popfest 2010. (Best-sounding too.) Clifford and James Hoare attacked their guitars in a furious jangle -- The Wedding Present by way of New Zealand -- when not producing minor key harmonies, while the rhythm section of drummer Patrick Doyle and bassist Marion Herbain kept the pedal to the medal. There's nothing twee about this sound, loud and fierce, assured and pretty. In addition to most of their debut album -- plus their awesome cover of Roky Erickson's "Starry Eyes" -- we got four new songs, including the Primitives-esque "My Heart Beats" which was the real standout.

Veronica Falls' tour and labelmates Brilliant Colors also played, bashing out scratchy C-86 style indiepop and were fun despite equipment problems. I missed local openers Grooms, as I was seeing Cate Le Bon at Mercury Lounge (sorry guys) but photographer Amanda Hatfield was there for the whole night and you can click through for lots of pics from all three bands.

Veronica Falls tour with Brilliant Colors continues, with Bleached joining as well starting in Minneapolis on 2/17. All tour dates at the bottom of the pictures...

Continue reading "Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors & Grooms played Music Hall of Williamsburg (pics, review)"

Willie Nelson @ ACL Live in 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

Willie Nelson has a number of dates scheduled for the next few months including two in the NYC area happening on May 16 and 17 at Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Both shows are billed as "Willie Nelson & Family", and as you can see from one of his recent Austin shows, they truly will be family affairs. Tickets ($95.00, $75.00 & $45.00) go on sale Friday (2/17) at noon with a presale starting Wednesday (2/14) at noon. All dates are listed below.

In related news, if you were watching the Grammys last night, you probably know that a Chipotle commercial aired with Willie Nelson covering Coldplay's "The Scientis.t" You can purchase his cover of the track on iTunes and watch the video for the commercial (which has actually been out since August) below.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "Willie Nelson covered Coldplay for Chipotle, announces more dates, 2 NJ shows"

DOWNLOAD: Bear in Heaven - "The Reflection of You" (MP3)

Blouse at 285 Kent earlier this month (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Blouse (who was recently in NYC to play 285 Kent) and Doldrums have been added as openers to Bear in Heaven's upcoming tour. That tour culminates in NYC with shows happening on May 8 at Bowery Ballroom and May 9 at MHOW. Tickets for both shows are still on sale. All dates are listed below.

Bear in Heaven's new album, I Love You, It's Cool (due out April 3 via Dead Oceans) is still streaming at 400,000% slower than actual speed at the band's website. They recently spoke to VICE about it...

VICE:Are any of your fans who were drawn in by the pop sound bewildered by this experiment? How's the overall fan response?

Bear in Heaven: So far the response has been great. Bear in Heaven fans can handle our artistic leanings. I read one thing on Twitter where a person asked if we were printing the drone on vinyl. He wanted to know so he could buy a new shelf.

For a more apparent sample of the album, you can grab the track, "The Reflection of You," above or stream it below.

Speaking of Doldrums, he's one of the guests on Grimes' upcoming album Visions, which you can now stream in full on NPR. The album is due out on February 21 in the US via 4AD. Grimes plays three NYC shows on her upcoming tour.

All dates and stream below...

Continue reading "Blouse & Doldrums added to Bear in Heaven tour; Grimes' new album streaming in full"

Devin @ Public Assembly in 2010 (more by Leia Jospe)

The Brooklyn-based Devin, who recently opened for Suckers (also on Frenchkiss Records) at Knitting Factory, and, as mentioned, JEFF The Brotherhood at Maxwells, will be playing a free Valentine's Day show Tuesday at Pianos before heading out on tour with the Heartless Bastards. That tour hits Webster Hall on 2/24. Hacienda are also on the bill. Tickets for the Webster Hall show are still on sale.

The Pianos show is part of a 2-floor, free party that also includes downstairs sets by St. Lucia (part of their February residency at the LES venue) and Tiny Victories, and upstairs music by MNDR (DJ set), Make Out & Psychobuildings. Flyer below.

Devin's debut LP, Romancing, is out on April 10th, via Frenckiss who also released his 3-song EP at the end of 2011. The full album tracklist and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Devin announces LP, playing free NYC show w/ DJ MNDR, touring w/ Heartless Bastards (dates)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

The Kills @ Terminal 5 - 2/11/2012

"The Kills' show [Saturday] night at Manhattan's Terminal 5 was billed as a 10th anniversary concert, but the band hardly acknowledged the occasion over a 90-minute set focused mainly on material from their two most recent albums. There were a few surprises particular to this show: They were joined by four additional percussionists in matching black leather and red bandanas whose drumming was more ornamental than audible, and they revived the seldom-performed No Wow gem "At the Back of the Shell." But for the most part, this was business-as-usual for a band more invested in their present than their past." [Rolling Stone]

The Kills, no strangers to Terminal 5, completed their tour with JEFF the Brotherhood and Hunters at the big NYC venue on Saturday night. They also hit Letterman and The Standard while in town. The openers also played their own shows at Maxwell's and Death By Audio.

Here are the pictures from Terminal 5. More of them with the Kills' setlist, below...

Continue reading "The Kills celebrated 10 years @ Terminal 5 with JEFF the Brotherhood & Hunters (pics, setlist)"