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Nada Surf, Cloud Nothings, Hundred in the Hands, My Best Fiend, Guy Harvey, Averkiou & more in This Week in Indie

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Cloud Nothings – “No Future/No Past” (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Cloud Nothings – “Stay Useless” (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: My Best Fiend – “Higher Palms” (MP3)

Nada Surf
Nada Surf

The column comes early as it’s a busy week and there are lots of shows to talk about. First up, venerable NYC trio Nada Surf‘s new album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, is out today and the band play Bowery Ballroom this evening to celebrate. Tonight’s show is sold out but Nada Surf will be streaming the show live via their YouTube channel starting at 10PM. The band then head out for a good two months of touring and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

The band’s seventh album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, is another fine record in Nada Surf’s catalog of positive-vibe guitar pop, bolstered this time out by Doug Gillard who provides a lot of great lead work. This kind of music may not be in fashion right now, but it also never really goes out of style. And they do it really well You can stream or download the ebullient first single “Waiting for Something” at the bottom of this post and Spotify users can listen to the album here.

Cloud Nothings – ‘Attack on Memory’
Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

Also out today: Cloud NothingsAttack on Memory which, as Andrew noted a couple weeks ago, is much more sophisticated and agressive than the tuneful pop-punk the band have released in the past. They’re still writing catchy songs — check out “Stay Useless at the top of this post — but the shift is fairly radical, so much so that main man Dylan Baldi briefly considered changing the name of the band. (It’s not that radical.) It’s a very good album, and you can listen to it on Spotify and watch the brand-new video for “No Future/No Past” at the bottom of this post.

The album, you may have seen, got Best New Music on the ‘Fork yesterday, and despite this there are still tickets to be had for Cloud Nothings’ show this Thursday (1/26) at The Studio @ Webster Hall though I imagine not for long. Knowing how good the band are live (what a drummer!) I’m really anxious to hear these songs live. It’s a one-off show, but the band will tour starting mid-February including, need I say it, time in Austin for SXSW. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

The Hundred in the Hands – Bowery Ballroom Feb. 2011 (more)
Hundred in the Hands 

The Hundred in the Hands are playing their first show in a long time this Friday (1/27) at Glasslands, which will give us the first taste of the duo’s second album which will be out on Warp at some point this year. While they haven’t released any tracks from it yet, they are still updating the THITH Zine, the band’s culture zine that most recently interview artist Zander Blom. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the archives that’s worth checking out.

My Best Fiend
My Best Fiend

A lot of people will be at Glasslands on Friday just to check out THITH’s Warp labelmates My Best Fiend whose album In Ghostlike Fading is out February 21. My Best Fiend are not your typical Warp act, closer to the space blues of Spiritualized or My Morning Jacket (or Neil Young) than the electronic music that fills most of the label’s roster. The band have been plugging away in the Brooklyn scene for upwards of seven years and its good to see it pay off for them. You can download album-opener “Higher Palms” at the top of this post and you can stream “Cracking Eggs” (which features Light Asylum’s Shannon Fuchness) further down.

The Glasslands show also features duo Bikini who make unapologetic four-on-the-floor dancefloor fodder, and Bear in Heaven will be DJing between sets, hopefully not playing all the records at 400,000% slower than normal.

Guy Harvey
Guy Harvey

And finally we have Florida’s Guy Harvey, which is a band and not a solo artist and should not to be confused with Elbow frontman Guy Garvey which I did for half a second. The band are on tour with Gainsville residents Averkiou and hit NYC this weekend for two shows: Friday (1/27) at Cake Shop and Saturday (1/28) at Death by Audio. All GH/Averkiou dates are at the bottom of this post.

You may recognize Guy Harvey frontman Adam Perry from his moonlighting gig as an auxiliary member of Surfer Blood. There’s not a lot of Guy Harvey music out there to listen to, but both sides of a 2010 7” (streamable below) are ace, with a strong Flying Nun influence. If you liked the Twerps album from last year, give Guy Harvey a listen. Averkiou, meanwhile, make fuzzy, shoegazy pop not too far from early Teenage Fanclub. Check out a few streaming tracks at the bottom of this post.

Friday’s Cake Shop show is with Byrdsy locals Slow Country whose new album is a name-your-price download at their Bandcamp and is quite nice. Saturday’s show at Death by Audio also has underrated Brooklyn bands I’m Turning Into and Bright Lights. Either show is worth checking out. Or go to both!

That’s the main stuff for this week. Below are a few more picks, day-by-day, of shows not covered otherwise.

The Hairs
The Hairs

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24

There’s a TWII-approved line-up at East Village mainstay Lit Lounge — that is now booking bands I’ve heard of again — with The Hairs (new single out next month), Pigeons, and Gross Relations.

Friends have shown up on most of the “Bands to Watch in 2012” lists. Go watch them in 2012, tonight, at Cameo as part of a very solid bill with Phonetag and Spanish Prisoners.

continued below…

Wierd Flyer for 1.25.2012

WEDNESDAY, JANAURY 25

Those into the dark arts have a choice to make tonight: go see synthy Plastic Flowers play the back room at Public Assembly, with the likeminded Young Boys and Void Vision. Or go to Wierd night at Home Sweet Home for the angry dissonance of Pop. 1280. Depending on how early things start at Public Assembly, you could theoretically make both.

285 Kent Flyer

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26

Party it up at 285 Kent with MEN, Making Friendz, and Claire’s Diary.

Or head to Big Snow Buffalo Lodge for a night of worthy local indie rock, including such names as Shark?, Life Size Maps, I’m Turning Into, and Great American Canyon Band. Shark? just released a new single today, you can stream it below.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28

Real Estate, Black Dice, The Babies and more play Ridgewood Chinese restaurant K&K Super Buffet.

And that’s all for this week. Below are tour dates, videos and streams.

Nada Surf – 2012 Tour Dates
1/24 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom (Album Release Show)
1/28 – San Diego, CA – Bright Lights Concert Series @ 4th & B
1/30 – Los Angeles, CA – Amoeba In-Store
2/02 – Seattle, WA – The Tractor Tavern
3/20 – Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box
3/21 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
3/23 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
3/24 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
3/25 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
3/27 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
3/29 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
3/30 – Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
3/31 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
4/02 – Chicago, IL – The Metro
4/04 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
4/05 – Montreal, QC – The Corona Theatre
4/06 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
4/07 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
4/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
4/10 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

Cloud Nothings – “No Future, No Past”

Cloud Nothings – 2012 Tour Dates
1/26 New York, NY – Studio at Webster Hall
2/16 Chattanooga, TN – JJ’s Bohemia
2/17 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
2/18 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree
2/20 Orlando, FL – Backbooth
2/21 Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder
2/23 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s
2/24 San Antonio, TX – Ten Eleven
2/25 Austin, TX – Red 7
2/26 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace
2/27 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
2/28 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
2/29 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
3/1 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar
3/2 Los Angeles, CA – Echo
3/3 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
3/5 Portland, OR – Holocene
3/6 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
3/7 Vancouver, CA – The Media Club
3/8 Boise, ID – Neurolux
3/9 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
3/10 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
3/12 Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
3/17 McAllen, TX – Simon Sez
3/20 Nashville, TN – The End
3/21 Louisville, KY – Zanzabar
3/22 Cincinnati, OH – MOTR Pub
3/24 Montreal, QC – Casa del Popolo
3/25 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
3/26 Providence, RI – Fete Lounge
3/30 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
3/31 Washington, DC – Red Palace
4/1 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
4/2 Buffalo, NY – Ninth Ward @ Babeville
4/3 Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox
4/4 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick Lounge
4/5 Cleveland Heights, OH – Grog Shop
4/6 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s Tavern
4/7 Columbus, OH – Outland Live

Cake Shop Flyer

My Best Fiend – Cracking Eggs by mybestfiend

Guy Harvey/Averkiou – 2012 Tour Dates
Tuesday, Jan 24: Athens, GA @ Little Kings
Wednesday, Jan 25: Richmond, VA @ Cous Cous
Thursday, Jan 26: Illadelphia, PA @ Level Room
Friday, Jan 27: NYC @ Cake Shop
Saturday, Jan 28: Brooklyn @ Death by Audio
Tuesday, Jan 31: Baltimore, MD @ TBA
Wednesday, Feb 1: Chapel Hill, NC @ Limelight
Thursday, Feb 2: Atlanta, GA @ TBA
Friday, Feb 3: Gainesville, FL @ The Atlantic