DOWNLOAD: The Finches - House Under the Hill (MP3)

They only played a few songs, but I really enjoyed the Finches on that Thursday afternoon in Austin. The room at the Scoot Inn was dark, and their music was quiet and soothing. They seemed like such nice people too....

Continue reading "The Finches @ Scoot Inn, Austin, TX (SXSW) - pics"

Klaus is back, and just in time for April Fool's. Neutral Milk Hotel reunion pictures at the end of this post.....

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they didn't pay for this to be here - we just love them

UPCOMING IN NYC & ON TV

Go check out Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman, Todd Barry, and Pete Holmes tonight at Union Hall in Brooklyn (April 1, 2007). If you missed it, don't worry - Michael, Eugene and guests will be back next week.

Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal LIVE! --- Come to the UCBT and watch as Mike Birbiglia assembles his next CD/ DVD/intimate live show "Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal Live," a series of personal entries brought to life by special guests, and accompanied by the Christian acoustic duo God's Pottery - 4/3/07, 11:00pm.

Human Giant premieres on MTV this Thursday April 5th. 'Starting back up April 9th - Human Giant will be test screening new shorts at Crash Test at the UCB Theatre in New York on Mondays at 11.' Check out their feature in NY Magazine. Make reservations.

NYC sketch comedians The Whitest Kids You Know are on TV too. Have you seen their show on Fuse yet? Have you seen them live? They're at Pianos on the Lower East Side every Sunday night, and it's free.

AND OF COURSE THERE WAS SXSW

Comedy was everywhere at SXSW this year. There was David Cross' big shindig....

David Cross & friends @ Mess With Texas (SXSW) - Mar 17, 2007 (CRED)

Eugene Mirman & Aziz Ansari @ Mess With Texas (SXSW) - Mar 17, 2007 (CRED)

...And even a bit of Human Giant at the Brooklyn Vegan & Le Tigre sponsored NY2LON party....

Rob Huebel & Paul Scheer @ NY2LON (SXSW) - Mar 17, 2007 (SFW)

Aziz, Paul and Rob would have made more than two brief appearances at the NY2LON party, but Patton Oswalt ended up calling out sick from all of SXSW, and Aziz was offered the opportunity to take over as host of the competing Mess With Texas day party. Naturally he took it, and though his intentions were good, he ended up having trouble finding the time to run back and forth from party to party.

SXSW also saw Cross and Ansari playing Guitar Hero, Michael Showalter posing with girls, and Cross and Zach Galifianakis sitting on a panel where they discussed "Comedy on the Music Circuit", and where Cross dissed indie rockers and then apparently left half way through the panel (to get back to his own party I assume)? Read a review of the Mess with Texas party here, and read some SXSW comedy interviews at CC Insider, and check out the pornographic (NSFW) Human Giant pics at the end of this post.

NEWS TIME!

Hey, whatever happened to Eugene Mirman's Village Voice blog? I used to love that thing.

David Cross is in the most recent episode of the Michael Showalter Showalter. In it, he gets outbid on an apartment in Park Slope, discusses being ravaged by poison ivy, and flatly refuses to have any involvement in Michael Showalter's latest screenplay.

Who got Ricky Gervais tickets?

More views, videos, pictures, SXSW, NYC, and everything....below....

Continue reading "Klaus Kinski's Comedy Canon (04/01/07)"

St Vincent @ Antones, SXSW 2007 (CRED)

"Singer and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has signed to Beggars Banquet to release her debut album, Marry Me, on July 10 in the U.S. (with an August release in the UK). The 23-year old is a veteran guitar slinger in two musical armies, the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' touring band." [Pitchfork]

on sale, 2007
April 18 - John Vanderslice & St. Vincent @ Maxwell's (tix)
April 19 - John Vanderslice & St. Vincent @ Mercury Lounge (tix)

YANP has a SXSW review. All "Brooklyn Vegan presents" tour dates here.

DOWNLOAD: Fucked Up - Baiting the Public (MP3)

Fúcked Up play hardcore music. It's loud, and even they thought it was weird that they were playing it outside in the sun on that Thursday afternoon in Austin....

The show was definitely much less hardcore than they one they played later that week on the pedestrian bridge, but none of their shows were as hardcore as the one where Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) got up on stage and sang with them.

F'd Up's next NYC show is opening for Art Brut at Studio B in Brooklyn on April 18th. Over the summer they're doing a tour of the U.S. that includes three NYC dates. Those tentative dates below the rest of the pictures...

Continue reading "Fúcked Up @ Scoot Inn, Austin, TX (SXSW) - pics & Tour Dates & Keith Morris video"

Antibalas were the perfect ending to much planning and a long day....

More below...

Continue reading "Antibalas @ Habana Calle 6, Austin, TX (SXSW) - pics"

On March 9th Professor Murder opened for Matt & Kim at Bowery Ballroom. Todd Seelie (aka Sucka Pants) has been extensively documenting Matt & Kim's every move - you should check out Todd's entire Matt & Kim SXSW picture tour diary (Brooklyn Vegan/AAM day show included), and Todd's set of pics from Bowery Ballroom too - like this one...

Professor Murder don't play outside of NYC that much (no SXSW for them yet), so the fact that they're making the trip to Chicago to play the Pitchfork Music Festival on July 14th is pretty awesome. They're also playing the following shows:

Professor Murder, 2007 Tour Dates
Apr 5 @ Manhattan Room in Philadelphia, PA
Apr 6 @ Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland
Apr 16 @ Hiro Ballroom in NYC w/ Gang Gang Dance & Yacht (Rhizome Benefit)
Apr 28 @ Canal Room in NYC w/ The Rub (Shirts & Skins)

MORE STUFF
* RySpace has live MP3s from SXSW including one of Matt & Kim.
* Autopilot Films posted a Matt & Kim video on YouTube from the BV show.
* Palms Out Sounds has a Matt & Kim remix among other remix MP3.
* Pop Tarts Suck Toasted also has a review of the Bowery show.
* Matt & Kim tour dates at their Myspace.

Previously
* Streetlab remixes + Professor Murder opening for Matt & Kim
* Matt & Kim @ Studio B, Brooklyn, NY | pics

This guy Ronald doesn't like Bloc Party:

I'm sorry, but it's impossible for me to listen to these English newcomers without hearing the indelible mark of post-punk founders the Cure. I'm afraid what we have here is just the latest example of a U.K. band appropriating the sound of one of America's best. This is one bloc party RTC will not be attending — and I don't care if they are serving hamburgers.

VERDICT: ROTS

Kele scales the wall @ Stubb's, Austin, TX (SXSW) - March 16, 2007 (CRED)

In just a couple of days Bloc Party will be here in NYC, and people that don't already work or live there will be venturing to 175th Street (United Palace) for the first time. Bloc Party will also make an appearance on Letterman while they're here, and they'll be back in the area in June to play Asbury Park and elsewhere.

Mar 29 - The Late Show with David Letterman
Mar 30 - New York, NY @ United Palace Theatre
Mar 31 - New York, NY @ United Palace Theatre
June 7 – Asbury Park, NJ (Convention Hall)

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Bloc Party rot? new Tour Dates, SXSW, Letterman, etc"

DOWNLOAD: Shearwater - I Can't Wait (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea (MP3)

Shearwater @ Mohawk, SXSW 2007 (CRED)

"Shearwater were the only band I saw twice last week and who absolutely killed both times." [Chromewaves]

"Shearwater sounded positively triumphant at the Austin quartet's first SXSW showcase since signing to Matador Records." [Pitchfork]

Shearwater @ Emo's....

And Shearwater even blogged about SXSW themselves.

And from Shearwater's new label Matador:

On April 10, we'll be releasing a new, double-disc (CD and LP) verison of Shearwater's 4th album, 'Palo Santo'. One of 2006's most critically acclaimed long-players is not merely being reissued, but is in fact, reimagined, with 5 re-recorded versions done in December 2006, along with all new art and remastering of the original tracks. This expanded edition comes with an extra disc containing 8 tracks, some are demos of Palo Santo songs, some are previously unknown compositions, all adding up to a stunning companion piece to the album.

Disc one includes newly recorded versions of "La Dame et la Licorne", "Red Sea, Black Sea", "Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five", "Johnny Viola", and "Hail, Mary".

Castle Clinton National Monument, NYC, 2007
Thu 07/05 - Shearwater
Thu 07/12 - Ron Sexsmith
Thu 07/19 - Drive-By Truckers
Thu 08/02 - The Flatlanders

Check HERE for my growing list of free summer concerts in NYC. All Shearwater tour dates below...

Continue reading "Matador's SHEARWATER played SXSW, playing Castle Clinton + other 2007 Tour Dates"

Right before SXSW, the Langerado Music Festival took place in South Florida (March 9-11). Performers included My Morning Jacket, The New Pornographers, Stephen Malkmus, Cat Power, Explosions in the Sky, The Hold Steady, and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings...

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings @ Langerado, Florida - March 9, 2007 (CRED)

"We had a blast down in Florida and have finally settled back into "normal life. I've been to numerous music festivals and extravaganzas, and this definitely has found a spot on the top of that list. Here's why…" [Live Music Blog]

From Florida, Sharon Jones headed to Austin, Texas to participate in SXSW.

Brooklyn soul-funk phenoms Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings entered the SXSW pantheon after conjuring the spirit of James Brown and casting a spell over a crowd of five hundred last Saturday night. After witnessing Jones' sassy command of her audience, the rock bands in town might as well just turn in their distortion pedals. "That show was ten times better than the second-best show I saw all week," one jaded attendee declared. Comments on our EarBud blog about Jones' live video got the same reaction: Super fly. [East Bay Express]

Continue reading "Sharon Jones, Langerado, SXSW, United Palace, Isley Brothers"

Judging by the size of the crowd, the Fratellis turned out to the 'the band to see' at our (Le Tigre / Brooklyn Vegan / NY2LON) day show during SXSW last Saturday (March 17, 2007).

Possibly due to contract limitations though, the usually rocking trio ended up playing their whole set acoustic - even the drummer sat there with a guitar and sang along. Ends up, it was great.

I saw them again since then though - not-acoustic at Mercury Lounge (pictures later), and I actually had trouble getting into it that time....which still leaves me struggling with an internal love/hate relationship with the iPod commercial band.

Anyway, they're showing all the signs of being the next band out of the UK to blow up. In addition to a Brit Award, two quickly sold out shows in NYC (by the way, the Brooklyn show never happened), and mega-interest at SXSW, they've also got validation by The Who's Pete Townshend, who, in Austin to give the SXSW keynote address, got up and played a song with them at the SPIN day party at Stubb's...

The Fratellis & Pete Townshend @ Stubbs - March 16, 2007 (CRED)

...and the Fratellis seem to have also landed themselves a few opening slots on the upcoming classic rock punk Police reunion tour....

The Fratellis & The Police - Tour Dates
Wed 06/13/07 in Oakland, CA @ McAfee Coliseum
Thu 07/19/07 in Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
Sun 08/05/07 in East Rutherford, NJ @ Giants Stadium

So, expect to keep hearing about the Fratellis, even if they're too lazy to make it happen themselves. More tour dates below the rest of the pictures....

Continue reading "The Fratellis @ Habana Calle 6, Austin, TX (SXSW) pics, Pete Townshend, The Police & Tour Dates"