Lights On are here & touring (dates & MP3), Knitting Factory pairing bands w/ wine (tonight)

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Lights On – Red Flashing Lights (MP3)

Lights On

Anglophilic San Diegans Lights On are in town this week, playing three shows here in NYC: tonight (7/14) at Knitting Factory, Friday (7/16) at Cake Shop and Saturday (7/17) at Union Hall. They’ll also play Larry’s in Danbury, CT tomorrow (7/15) night.

Not unlike Foreign Born, the echoes of ’80s-era KROQ are all over the band’s tuneful debut, Here Comes the Ocean, which is out now digitally in all the usual places and on vinyl/cassette via their website. Echo & the Bunnymen is the comparison they get most often and it’s hard to deny, especially on the LP’s midtempo closing tracks “She Comes Walking Down Slowly” and “It Never Stops” which coulda come straight off 1987’s ‘grey album.’ The rest of the album is more energetic and not quite as influence-specific, but it’s very Velvet Underground ’80s sonic diaspora if you get my drift. The whole record’s pretty catchy stuff, and you can download “Red Flashing Lights” which reminds me a little of Sweden’s Mary Onettes.

Tonight’s Knitting Factory show is part of a wine event called Summer of Reisling that also has the Black Hollies, Nouvellas and Himalaya on the bill. $30 gets you into show and four glasses of this particular varietal, seven of which are on offer (it’s very similar to the new Vivo in Vino that Holly Miranda is playing coming up). If you just want to see the bands at Knitting Factory, it’s $15.

The Cake Shop and Union Hall shows both feature New Mexico (formerly Apes of Wrath) and the Cake Shop show is headlined by synth-rockers Kordan.

All Lights On tour dates after the jump…

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Lights On – 2010 Tour Dates
Jul 14 Knitting Factory Brooklyn, NY
Jul 15 LARRY’S Danbury, CT
Jul 16 Cake Shop New York City, New York
Jul 17 Union Hall New York City, New York
Jul 31 CASBAH San Diego, CA, CA
Aug 13 The Whistle Stop San Diego, CA