photos by Amanda Hatfield

"I am in a band with my sister called CocoRosie. We sing and dance and play instruments. In one sentence I can't seem to sum up anything. We are about to release our fifth album. We have been a band for 10 years." [Bianca to The Independent]

Cocorosie will head out on a month-long European tour later this month (dates below), but first they played a one-off hometown show at the Paper Box in East Williamsburg where they previewed songs from Tales Of A GrassWidow, their new album out May 28th. We have some pictures and a video from the Brooklyn show, along with their official video for new song "After the Afterlife". Check it all out below...

Continue reading "Cocorosie played new songs @ Paper Box (pics, setlist, video)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

messy Palma Violets craziness

Brit rockers Palma Violets brought their tour with Guards to NYC for their first of two shows here last night (5/9) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Orwells, who also open for that same lineup at Bowery Ballroom tonight (5/10), opened the show. Pictures of all three bands from the Brooklyn show are in this post.

Both Palma Violets and Guards are out supporting their respective debut albums, 180 and In Guards We Trust, and have been playing much of the material from those releases on this tour. The Orwells, meanwhile, have a new EP on the way, which includes the new Dave Sitek-produced title track, "Other Voices."

Tonight's Bowery Ballroom show is part of the Downtown Music Festival, and festival tickets that will get you into the show are still available. You can also catch Guards in NYC for free in June.

More pictures from MHOW below..

Continue reading "Palma Violets, Guards & The Orwells @ MHOW (pics)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Youth Lagoon / Magical Cloudz

Youth Lagoon brought his tour with Majical Cloudz through the NYC-area for shows at Maxwell's on Monday (5/6) and a BrooklynVegan-presented Brooklyn show at The Bell House last night (5/9). Pictures from the latter are in this post.

Youth Lagoon's been keeping his setlists heavy on the Wondrous Bughouse material but still found time to include some favorites from his debut like "17." Meanwhile, the magical Majical Cloudz continue to preview material from their upcoming Matador debut, Impersonator (which they were selling vinyl copies of the show) and were great as always.

Youth Lagoon will be back in NYC to open for The National at their Barclays Center show (6/5). Tickets for that show are still available, and we're also giving away a pair.

Majical Cloudz will be back in NYC even sooner for the previously discussed album release party at Glasslands on May 21 with Gobby and a "SPECIAL GUEST!" Any guesses on who it could be? Tickets for the release party are still on sale.

Majical Cloudz will get to NYC a day before that to do a free in-store at Other Music on May 20 at 8 PM. Other Music will have copies of their new album available that day too.

More pictures from the Bell House show below...

Continue reading "Youth Lagoon played The Bell House w/ Majical Cloudz, who play an Other Music in-store before LP release party (pics)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Brian Eno @ Cooper Union, 5/6/2013

The irony of seeing Brian Eno's An Illustrated Talk during the Red Bull Music Academy: his microphone didn't work properly. Can you imagine being the tech guy for this event and experiencing horrific sound feedback from the sound amplification device for one of the most innovative producers in music history?

"Feel free to experiment with the sound," Eno told the packed crowd at Cooper's Union in NYC.

The term "Renaissance Man" would be a cliche to describe the entity which is Eno, whose career spans from playing with the perennial band Roxy Music to creating visual ambient art. For an artist who has proclaimed to the press that he never talks about his past work, it was a treat to hear Eno....talk about his past work. Especially in the heart of NYC, being that Eno states one of his most fruitful artistic period was between 1978 and 1984, when he lived and worked in the Big Apple. ("I happened to be in New York during one of the most exciting months of the decade in terms of music.") - [The Huffington Post]

In addition to his self-generative art installation 77 Million Paintings, as part of the Red Bull Music Academy, Brian Eno gave "An Illustrated Talk" on Monday (5/6) at Cooper Union. Pictures from that are in this post.

He also sat down for a Q&A session as well, where he talked about 77 Million Paintings, "sympathetic and parasympathetic music," and a lot more. He's one of the smartest, most fascinating people in the world and any chance to hear him talk should not be passed up. Luckily RBMA filmed the whole thing and the entire 90 minute conversation can be viewed (or listened to) on Vimeo.

More "Illustrated Talk" pics below...

Continue reading "Brian Eno gave "An Illustrated Talk" at Cooper Union (pics) and participated in Q&A (video)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin; words by Bill Pearis

BMRC @ T5, 5/4/2013

I saw Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at Brownies around the time of their first record and the thing I remember most about that show was the band playing, basically, in sillouhette thanks to some airport-runway-grade lights backlighting their stage setup. Deaf and blind, that's how they wanted us. But it was a very effective visual element. A dozen years or so on and the band are playing much bigger places -- Saturday (5/4) at Terminal 5 on this tour that also hit Austin Psych Fest -- but BRMC still keep things relatively simple: black leather and demin, crunchy VU-inspired tunes, and lights aimed out.

Bass Drum of Death, who opened the show and played Death by Audio later that night, will be back in July. More pictures from T5 are below.

Continue reading "Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Bass Drum of Death played Terminal 5 (pics)"

photos by PSquared Photography

Boris @ LPR 5/7/2013

Japan's Boris finished out their second of two shows last night at Le Poisson Rouge (5/7) joining Stephen Brodsky (of Cave In) and Amen Dunes for the event. Unlike the nMonday's show (5/6) which was devoted to "classics," last night's performance focused on Flood and some of their more drone-oriented material.

Although Boris have moved on, you've got another upcoming chance to catch Amen Dunes when they play the BrooklynVegan-curated Red Bull Sound Selects show at Knitting Factory on Monday (5/13). Headliner is Foxygen and the show also has sets from LODRO and Prince Rupert's Drops. Tickets are $3 at the door for that one.

More photos from LPR and Boris' remaining "residency tour" schedule are below.

Continue reading "Boris played 'Flood' at Le Poisson Rouge with Stephen Brodsky and Amen Dunes (pics / setlist)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Little Boots @ MHOW 5/7/2013

Hesketh and her backing band (which included a live drummer and a pair of synth players) performed nine of "Nocturnes'" 10 songs. There was even a surprise performance of the bubbly non-album track "Headphones" ("I wear my headphones at the disco and nobody ever has to know!") that got a better-than-usual reception for a non-album track. It all culminated with the back-to-basics synth banger "Shake," which closed the encore beneath a sea of confetti (courtesy of openers Avan Lava, who stormed the stage with confetti guns). Still, Little Boots aren't ready to close the book on the major label days, including "Remedy" and another "Hands" track -- "Meddle" (an unlikely collaboration with pop producer Greg Kurstin and Hot Chip's Joe Goddard) -- in the encore. Both inspired as much intensity from the crowd's front rows as any if the set's selections. - [Billboard]

Little Boots (aka Victoria Hesketh) celebrated the release of her new album, Nocturnes, last night at a sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg. (Her tour hit LA last week.) It's been four years since her debut, Hands, and the crowd clearly hadn't forgotten her. It was a fun night all around with Austin's Feathers giving the evening a sultry start before AVAN LAVA blew the place up with thier glitter bombast set. Indie rockers who don't go to dance shows that often might recognize AVAN LAVA's Drew Citron as one half of Beverley (that features Frankie Rose on drums).

Before her MHOW show, Little Boots performed live for WNYC radio's "Soundcheck" and you can stream that, and check out more pictures from last night, below.

Continue reading "Little Boots played a record release show at MHOW with Avan Lava and Feathers (pics)"

photos by Jono Bernstein

James Blake @ T5, 5/8/2013

Last night's sold-out, all-ages show at Terminal 5 featured a musician who knows exactly what he's doing, but a crowd that didn't really know how to respond. The average music fan might only be familiar with Blake's self-titled debut record, and his most recent Overgrown. Both albums aren't necessarily what you'd put on at a dance party, but are rather made for those moments when you find yourself awake in the middle of the night, sitting on your couch, unable to sleep, staring at a lit candle or playing video games. - [Village Voice]

After appearing on Letterman the night before, James Blake's tour with Falty DL hit Terminal 5 lat night (5/7), the first of two stops at the Westside venue for the pair. They'll hit T5 again  on Thursday (5/ 9), While that show is sold-out, you can still get tickets to see both of them DJing at the Museum of Natural History on Friday (5/10).

More pictures from Terminal 5 are below.

Continue reading "James Blake played Terminal 5 with Falty DL (pics), will do it again on Thursday"

by Harriet Roberts

Peter Murphy @ Webster Hall, 5/7/2013

Last night (5/7), Peter Murphy returned to New York, playing a nearly two-hour set of his Bauhaus material to a sold out Webster Hall. It was part of his Mr Moonlight tour, Celebrating 35 Years of Bauhaus, which takes him throughout the US, Mexico, Canada and Europe. (He was in Austin a couple weeks ago.) However as girls sat on each other's shoulders taking photos of each other with Bauhaus signs, Murphy was quick to remind everyone that "We're not Bauhaus, we're us!" Otherwise his set was notably free of the usual between-song banter, which I wondered about until he dedicated an emotional "Who Killed Mr Moonlight" to his mother-in-law saying she'd passed away eight hours earlier.

The two support bands were Loudboy from NYC, apparently a nickname given to frontman John Andrews by Helmet's Page Hamilton, followed by Ours, a six piece who have supported Peter Murphy in the past and describe themselves as "an American based musical group led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Gnecco." Ours are also in the midst of an extensive headlining tour throughout the US.

More pictures from Webster Hall are below.

Continue reading "Peter Murphy celebrated 35 years of Bauhaus at Webster Hall (pics, setlist)"

by Caroline Harrison

Boris @ LPR, 5/6/2013

Japanese trio Boris finished night one of their two night residency at LPR last night (5/6, the night after playing Boston- pictures are HERE). Last night's sold out show, with support from Young Widows and Ornament (a member of Growing), featured "All Time Classics" spanning much of Boris's career. Tonight Boris plays Flood, as well as what they're describing as a drone/experimental set.

Ornament's brief experimental droning gave way to Young Widows' hypnotic compositions. The band grooves harder than most acts out there, layering trance-inducing drum patterns and buzzing walls of noise with irresistibly catchy post-punk.

The "All Time Classics" set was ripping, and smartly avoided most of the band's recent material. Guitarist Wata was as cool and composed as drummer Atsuo was frenzied and dramatic. The sound was loud and furious enough to justify the sale of the Boris branded earplugs available at the merch table. After trotting out crowd favorites like "Pink," "Hama," and "1970," Boris closed out their set with the fittingly titled "Farewell."

You can catch Boris at Le Poisson Rouge tonight, supported by Stephen Brodsky (of Cave In) and Amen Dunes, before the tour moves on to Cleveland and then to another two night residency in Chicago. Tickets for LPR tonight are still available.

Set list from night one and more pictures are below.

Continue reading "Boris played "the classics" at Le Poisson Rouge with Young Widows and Ornament (pics); play 'Flood' tonight"