Black Dice at PS1 (more by Erez Avissar)

today in NYC
* Pastor's B. @ The Stone
* Alison Boniello @ Drom
* SuperBalls! @ The Stone
* Francine Reed @ Joe's Pub
* Chino y Nacho @ Irving Plaza
* Carrie Manolakos @ Joe's Pub
* One Direction @ Beacon Theatre
* Blip Festival @ Gramercy Theatre
* David Johansen @ Highline Ballroom
* Lazer Sword, Morri$, Helix @ 285 Kent
* Surfing, The Sanctuaries @ The Gutter
* Chrome Canyon @ Tribeca Grand Hotel
* Le Crunch w/ DJ Josh Styles @ Zebulon
* PS I Love You, Army Girls @ Glasslands
* Robin Aigner & Parlour Game @ Barbes
* Joseph Arthur, Jesse Harris @ City Winery
* O'Death, Tim Fite, The Amboys @ Maxwell's
* Life in Vacuum, Noxious Foxes @ Don Pedro
* The Virgins, Grand Rapids @ Mercury Lounge
* Notorious MSG, Shinobi Ninja @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Jordan Shapiro's Shanty Shakedown @ Barbes
* Echosuite, Analogue Transit @ Mercury Lounge
* Rooftop Films w/ Doe Paoro @ Open Road Rooftop
* Summer Thunder w/ Rocksteady Yeti @ Union Pool
* In One Wind, River Whyless, Aaron Roche @ Sycamore
* Shigeto, Shlohmo (DJ set), Braille (DJ Set) @ Glasslands
* R-tronixa, Winkie, Allies For Everyone, Bunny X @ Cake Shop
*Lucius, Snowmine, ARMS, New Myths, Starlight Girls @ Cameo
* Shelly, Jesse Scheinin Band, Tubby Love, Il Abanico @ Pianos
* Rorschach, Converge, Indecision, Xaddax @ Le Poisson Rouge
* The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Dan Potthast, Shinobu @ Webster Hall
* Black Dice, Extreme Animals, Call of the Wild @ Secret Project Robot
* The Due Diligence, Shivering Timbers, Uncles, Relatives @ Union Hall
* The Babies, Bad Indians, What Next?, Parquet Courts @ Death By Audio
* Underground Horns, PitchBlak Brass Band, Zongo Junction @ 92YTribeca
* Johnny Rabbits, Aquadora, Photon Dynamo (& the Shiny Pieces) @ 929 XPO
* Bastards Of Melody, Radio Barons, The Successful Failures @ The Rock Shop
* BRC Orchestra Salute to Don Cornelius & Soul Train @ Brooklyn Academy of Music
* Ami Dang, Lil Miss Fuckface, Starfawn, D. Gookin, Samuel Sleepyhead @ Big Snow
* The Eclectic Method, Amber Coffman (of Dirty Projectors) (DJ Set) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Shapes, Newport Reds, The Bennys, The Static Jacks, Beast Make Bomb @ Shea Stadium
* Freshkills, Unstoppable Death Machines, Violent Bullshit, Filthy Savage @ The Grand Victory
* Artillery, Deceased, Prime Evil, Sectioned, Dimentianon, Day of The Beast, Midnite Hellion, Sacrificial Blood @ Saint Vitus

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Black Dice play the Secret Project Robot "Spring Kick-off Garden Party Gala Event" in their yard, with Extreme Animals, Call of The Wild. It goes from 3PM - 7PM and is $12 to get in. The flyer is below.

It's the first of Union Pool's free Summer Thunder series. Today it's the Rocksteady Yeti DJ crew, spinning dub, reggae, dancehall and everything in between.

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"

by Bill Pearis

AVC: What do you think your songs are about?

CE: For as long as I can remember, I've always written about anxiety and loneliness, because those are the two common themes in my life. But recently a friend of mine was really insightful. He was like, "Well, your songs aren't really depressing at all. They seem to be all to be a struggle for survival more than anything." I guess that's the underlying note.

AVC: "The Power" seems to be explicitly about that.

CE: That song was born out of futility. I had a 20-month-long breakup. We were together for about three of those months. You know that scene in Brokeback Mountain where Heath Ledger is like, "I wish I knew how to quit you"? It's kind of that, in a song.

AVC: The two-piece band has seemed to have a comeback, from The White Stripes to Japandroids. Why do you think they're so appealing?

AS: I mean obviously, the dynamic between two people is considerably different. These days, for most bands, money is a huge issue, and it's a lot easier to tour as a two-piece.

CE: Even numerically it's appealing; people just generally prefer two of anything. The onus is on us to create a music experience that is comparable to a proper band. I just bought a bass pedal so I can make the guitar sound like a bass whenever I want it to.

AS: Yeah, I'd never thought about that before.

CE: But it's a beautiful thing, there's a male-female dynamic. I don't want to be filthy, but it's kind of like the intimacy of having sex versus the extravagance of being in an orgy. Sure there's more energy going around, but nobody is getting the full experience. But when it's just two people...

AS: Everybody's getting off. [AV Club Toronto]

After spending time in various Toronto bands, Andy Smith and Carmen Elle started colaborating in 2010, settling on the name Army Girls. With a spare but charged sound powered by Elle's emotion-filled vocals, they remind me a little of Dutch band Bettie Serveert. Last year they released their debut EP, Close to the Bone, which was produced by Fucked Up's Ben Cook. You can stream it below.

Army Girls are currently on tour with PS I Love You. That tour comes to NYC this weekend, hitting Mercury Lounge tonight (5/25) (tickets) and Glasslands on Saturday (5/26) (tickets), and Army Girls are worth showing up early to catch. Neither show is sold out. All tour dates with PS I Love You are listed below.

Continue reading "check out Army Girls who are on tour w/ PS I Love You (playing NYC this weekend)"

Eric Cutler of Autopsy

Bullet belts, flip flops, studded gauntlets, chicken suits... yep, its Maryland Deathfest time again. Though it was milder this week, in true MDF fashion the first of the four day Baltimore music festival (on 5/24) kicked off with high temperatures, humidity and unrelenting sun, making for a strong contrast to the pitch black indoor room at Sonar. Luckily, escape from the sun also meant catching some of the best heavy music out there.

The day started with sets by Extermination Angel and Die Pigeon Die, both of which I missed unfortunately, so the "opening" set by Needful Things was a fierce blast of grind that was a great perk-me-up for the rest of the day's activities. For the most part, a lot of the bands on Thursday I had seen in recent months: Eyehategod at A389 (dudes, please... we need new songs... the set is getting tired), Absu and Agalloch at Inferno, and Autopsy at Inferno and in Brooklyn. All delivered excellent, though familiar (to me) sets with the exception of Agalloch whose focus was on their earlier material (no Marrow of the Spirit here). Excellent way to cater to the crowd and make it special.

Of the remainder of the bands, Dying Fetus's death metal-slam style has never been my cup of tea but Rorschach... that's another story. Rorschach's unique noise/metal/hardcore sound was the clear winner for favorite set of the day for me, coming out with unmatched energy and playing their cover of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" as well as material from their Protestant/Remain Sedate release (which was available in exclusive colors just for this show)(wow). I remember being floored when I saw them at Santos and The Charleston way back when, but this might have been their best set yet. I could watch them play forever, but I'm guessing there's a short window of time left for this band... don't miss them. Rorschach pictures are HERE.

More pictures from Day 1 at Maryland Deathfest including Autopsy's setlist are below. Look for ongoing coverage from the festival everyday here at BrooklynVegan.

Continue reading "Maryland Deathfest 2012 Day 1: Needful Things, Absu, Eyehategod, Agalloch, Autopsy, Rorschach and more"

by Andrew Sacher

Siberian producer/singer Nina Kraviz is in North America this week and next surrounding her appearance at Movement Electronic Music Festival, which goes down in Detroit this weekend. While she's here, she'll play a NYC show on June 2 at a TBA location. The show is in celebration of Blkmarket's 6th anniversary and also includes Aril Brikha, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, and Talmur & Fahad. RSVP to blkjune2@gmail.com for more info and location, which will be announced the day of the event, and pick up tickets at Resident Advisor. The flier for this show is below. Nina will return to North America in the fall for more dates including Seattle's Decibel Festival with Actress, John Talabot, Maria Minerva, Matthew Dear, Dam-Funk, Julianna Barwick, Ariel Pink and more.

Nina released her self titled debut LP earlier this year via Rekids. It's a real moody, downtempo album that might sound a little better in your headphones on your walk home from the club than playing through the PA while you're there. The beats are well versed in deep house and minimal techno but with greater attention on the low frequencies of the UK bass scene than other recent deep house purveyors like Blondes and Teengirl Fantasy.

Though her production is impressive, the unquestionable standouts of the album are the tracks that prominently feature her voice. The reverb-washed vocals of album opener "Walking in the Night" show Nina sounding like a hushed Kate Bush. Whereas on tracks like "Choices" or "Love Or Go," she sings in a more chopped up fashion, emulating producers who rely solely on sampling the voices of others, in a manner we've seen thrive on everything from "Everything In Its Right Place" to "The Wilhelm Scream."

Nina released her second single from the album, "Aus," this week, which features three different remixes of the track in addition to the album version. Stream all four of those below, in addition to the album's first single, "Ghetto Kraviz," and two of its remixes. Nina also dropped an Essential Mix earlier this month. You can stream that below too.

Those streams, flier for the NYC show, and a list of all dates are below.

Continue reading "check out Nina Kraviz, playing NY next week"

by BBG

Merzbow at Le Poisson Rouge (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Greetings from Maryland Deathfest! I'll be reporting from the festival all weeked, catching some of the greatest metal bands today in downtown Baltimore over the four day weekend, so I'll keep it brief this week. If you aren't at MDF, there is still a multitude of great shows going on in NYC. Make sure to tune in to BrooklynVegan for the latest coverage from the festival, and enjoy yourself at the shows below!

If you didn't get tickets for the previously discussed Merzbow/Wold show at Saint Vitus on 6/4, you are in luck. Though the first performance is now sold out, they have added a second on that same night, doors at 10:30 and tickets are on sale.

More suggested shows and Rorschach live video are below.

Continue reading "Evillive (Merzbow, BBG's at Maryland Deathfest)"

photos by Joe McCabe

The Gossip played Terminal 5 on Tuesday (May 22), supporting their new, disco-ized album A Joyful Noise which came out the same day. Given the success of the Soulwax remix of "Standing in the Way of Control," it's a logical progression, and Beth Ditto has taken on the new role with the command you'd expect. Maybe you watched the show from your couch, as it streamed live from Bowery Presents's YouTube channel. There are video clips from that stream below if you missed in on Tuesday.

The band jet off to Europe soon for a tour and those dates are listed below. Check out more pictures of The Gossip's T5 set below, as well as openers Ssion and Creep (who got a little help from School of Seven Bells' Alejandra Deheza).

Continue reading "The Gossip, Ssion and Creep played Terminal 5 (pics, video)"

by Bill Pearis

The National at Beacon Theater in 2011 (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

The soundtrack to Game of Thones: Season 2 comes out June 16, a week after the S2 finale airs on HBO. It's mostly Ramin Djawadi's thunderous score, but does contain The National doing "The Rains of Castamere."

This probably doesn't mean so much to people who have only watched the series, but those who have read the books know it as one of the biggest hits in Westeros (#1 in Casterly Rock two years straight), sung by any minstrel worth his lute. (Minstrel songs, and lengthy descriptions of food are probably the two biggest omisions the series has made from the books thus far.) The lyrics are by Song of Ice & Fire (of which Game of Thrones is based) author George RR Martin, but the National penned the appropriately sorrowful music. You can stream it via YouTube below.

Maybe for the Season 3 soundtrack they can get Bon Iver to sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair." This Sunday is the penultimate episode of Season 2 of Game of Thrones, which was scripted by Martin himself.

Continue reading "The National perform "The Rains of Castamere" on soundtrack to Game of Thrones Season 2"

PS I Love You at SXSW 2011 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

today in NYC
* Carioca @ Barbes
* Dither @ The Stone
* Nass Gnawa @ Zebulon
* Casual Hearts @ XPO 929
* Dylan Fest @ Irving Plaza
* People's Champs @ Barbes
* Ski Beatz @ Le Poisson Rouge
* The Dig, Taurus @ Glasslands
* Xray Eyeballs (DJ) @ Manhattan Inn
* Lalah Hathaway @ Highline Ballroom
* Manitoba, The Naked Heroes @ Maxwell's
* Static Summer, Skaters, Threats @ Pianos
* Mike Doughty, Susan Justice @ City Winery
* PS I Love You, Army Girls @ Mercury Lounge
* Soft Spot @ Open Road Rooftop (Rooftop Films)
* John Butcher, Twistycat @ Issue Project Room
* LE1F, Big Baby Gandhi, Lakutis @ Knitting Factory
* Mason-Jam-Ja Band @ Brooklyn Academy of Music
* Stefano Scodanibbio Tribute Concert @ The Stone
* Psychic Ills, PC Worship, Ex Cops @ Death By Audio
* Nels Cline, Julian Lage, Kalabalik @ Le Poisson Rouge
* We Are Scientists, Kuroma, Beach Arabs @ Union Pool
* Traxman, Howse, Octo Octa, Naka Naka, Rezzie @ 285 Kent
* Deviated Instinct, Dresden, Koward, Nomad @ The Acheron
* Soltero, Phantom Buffalo, The Sanctuaries @ The Rock Shop
* The So So Glos, Lost Boy?, Life Size Maps, Big Ups @ 285 Kent
* Bok Bok, Kingdom, Rizzla, Rem Koolhaus @ Santos Party House
* Great Lakes, Frank Smith, Bright Brown, Scrapers @ Union Hall
* The Dearloves, Nathan Xander, Painting Soldiers @ The Gutter
* Hoots & Hellmouth, Tall Heights, Darlingside @ Mercury Lounge
* Dangermuffin, American Babies, Tall Tall Trees @ Brooklyn Bowl
* O'Death, Tim Fite, Gimme Drugs, Chris Lecompte @ Asbury Lanes
* Church of Misery, Rwake, The Gates of Slumber @ Cameo Gallery
* Pedestrian Deposit, Pregnant Spore, Decimus, C. Lavender @ La Sala
* that dog., Kurt Braunohler, Baron Vaughn @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Clear Plastic Masks, Lunic, Flyin Fisch, Isle of Rhodes @ Knitting Factory
* Amen Dunes, Gary War, Highlife, Francisco Franco, Woodsman @ Shea Stadium
* Bad Indians, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, Juan Wauters (of The Beets) @ Cake Shop
* BAIO (DJ), Autobot (DJ), Full Nelson (DJ) @ Le Bain at The Standard
* The Can't Tells, The Denzels, Big Ups, Deathrow Tull, Twitchers, Kung Fu Crime Wave @ Spike Hill
* Simian Mobile Disco, Michael Mayer, Lindstrom, JDH & Dave P, Alex English & Rekles @ Webster Hall

Your movie options for Memorial Day Weekend include Wes Anderson's latest exquisite whimsy Moonrise Kingdom and Men In Black 3, the latter of which has gotten surprisingly good reviews.

A Place to Bury Strangers and Blood Orange both released new videos, and they're oddly similar. Check them out below.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse released their cover of British national anthem, "God Save the Queen," with found footage of the queen herself. Check it out below.

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Have a great holiday weekend!

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

We Are Scientists at SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

As mentioned, Union Pool's free Summer Thunder series kicks off this weekend (5/26). Since we last spoke, the lineups and schedules for most of the series has been announced. This is what it's looking like so far:

BAM! SUMMER THUNDER BANDS ANNOUNCED! CHECK IT!
•MAY 26TH - ROCKSTEADY YETI DAYTIME BLOWOUT
•JUNE 9TH - RAIN MACHINE/ERIC COPELAND/SAWYER-YEH-WOOLLEY TRIO
•JUNE 23RD - TURING MACHINE/MIDNIGHT MAGIC/VIOLENT BULLSHIT
•JULY 14TH - SIGHTINGS/SMOOTA/LONEWOLF + BEN VIDA
•JULY 21ST - BUBBLES/TEEN/TEST HOUSE
•AUGUST 4TH - TO BE ANNOUNCED JUNE 4TH!
•AUGUST 18 - TO BE ANNOUNCED JUNE 4TH!

ALL START AT 3PM•ALL FREE•BUNCHES OF FREE BOOZE
SEE YOU ALL SOON!

This weekend's kickoff event is with dub/reggae/dancehall DJ crew Rocksteady Yeti and you can check out the flyer for the show below. Turing Machine and Violent Bullshit, who play 6/23 with Midnight Magic, just shared a bill at the venue last week (5/18). That sweaty sold out show was a record release show for Turing Machine's What Is The Meaning Of What LP, which is out now via Temporary Residence.

In addition to Summer Thunder, Union Pool continues to host other shows and tonight (5/25) they've got We Are Scientists, KUROMA, and Beach Arabs. The rather small show is their only US date before they head to the UK for a tour in July. Advance tickets are no longer on sale, but "tickets may still be available at the door." All WAS dates are listed below.

Other interesting shows on Union Pool's calendar include the previously discussed Leda (formerly Amy Klein and the Blue Star Band) show (6/1) and the Other Music Northside showcase on 6/14 with Nude Beach, Ex Cops, and The Everymen.

All We Are Scientists dates listed below...

Continue reading "Union Pool's Summer Thunder series lineup revealed, kicks off this weekend; We Are Scientists play the venue tonight"

Jonathan Coulton at Williamsburg Waterfront in 2011 (more by David Andrako)

Geek rocker Jonathan Coulton released his newest album, Artificial Heart (produced by They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh), last year and is continuing to tour in support of it this year. He kicks off a string of dates next month with John Roderick (of The Long Winters), who appeared on Artificial Heart. That tour comes to NYC for a show on June 2 at Gramercy Theater. Tickets for that show are available.

Artificial Heart features the track "Glasses," which a fan (Craig Clark) recently made a video for and Jonathan approves. Check out the video below, along with a list of all dates...

Continue reading "Jonathan Coulton is touring with John Roderick (dates); approves of fan-made video (watch)"