Speech Debelle

Just like we'll do for Hardly Art on SXSW Wednesday & Thursday, BrooklynVegan will hand over Hotel Vegas (aka "Hotel Vegan" during the day) to Pop Montreal Friday night, for their official SXSW showcase.

We'll be there until around 6pm that day, but after that, Pop Montreal will host their showcase featuring artists Blackie, UN, Jef Barbara, Motzart's Sister, Duzheknew, Jennifer Castle, Cousins, and Tops.

Pop Montreal, the SXSW of Montreal, will also be hosting a day party on Thursday, at a venue that has yet to be announced. Of this, they said in a press release

At SXSW, POP Montreal wants to let you know that POP is Serious. Thursday, March 15th, POP will host a dayparty with FREE drinks for the first 150 people who show up.

Toronto duo Trust, aside from SXSW, are playing two shows in New York in March, and one in Chicago in April, and have their LP, TRST coming out Tuesday, Feb. 28th. The record being released via Arts & Crafts, is Trust's debut LP. The tracklist, and video for "Bulbform" are available at BrooklynVegan.

Speech Debelle's LP Freedom of Speech is out today (2/21) in the U.S. via Big Dada.

The lineup and set times for Pop Montreal's SXSW shows, with flyers, below...

Continue reading "Pop Montreal @ SXSW 2012 (1 day party, 1 official showcase)"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Loretta Lynn @ The Moody Theater on 2/17/2012

"Friday night at ACL Live, Loretta Lynn had a cold. Based on her sniffling and coughing it was a pretty bad one, but she didn't let it get to her. Maybe it tired her out a bit, especially toward the end, but for most of the night, the country music legend was just that, a legend, delivering a set to a crowd full of fans that probably would have been satisfied with much less.

One thing that's clear from last night is that Lynn is tough. Friday's show was originally supposed to happen last September, but Lynn had to reschedule because of knee surgery. She canceled some shows after that because of illness. Introduced as the first country music star to have a motion picture made about her life, the 76-year-old singer took the stage in a long-sleeve, blue sequined dress after her 9-piece band and her daughter Peggy warmed up the crowd. Lynn stood through nearly the entire hour-long set, something she hasn't done for every show on her current tour." [Austin 360]

Here are some pictures from show. More of them, with a list of all tour dates, below..

Continue reading "Loretta Lynn played The Moody Theater with Jim Lauderdale (pics & more dates)"

As you know, Hotel Vegas is turning into "Hotel Vegan" this SXSW, but only during the days. At night we'll hand the venue over to SXSW who will host official showcases on at least one of the venue's three stages. On Wednesday and Thursday that honor belongs to our friends at Sub Pop spinoff Hardly Art. Check out the lineups in the poster above, with more info and set times below...

Continue reading "Hardly Art hosting 2 nights of SXSW showcases @ Hotel Vegas"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Yelawolf goes out on a ledge @ Beauty Ballroom - 2/17

Pusha T of Clipse plays a Vice-sponsored show to promote the new movie "Project X" at Beauty Bar in Austin tonight (2/18). It's free with RSVP.

The days are ticking until Beauty Bar is gone forever, and though we don't know what will occupy the Red River space when it's gone, we do know that the brand will live on in the already-open Beauty Ballroom next door to Emo's East (at 2015 E. Riverside). Last night Beauty Ballroom hosted a hip hop show headlined by the extremely tattooed Yelawolf. It was packed to the rafters (which Yelawolf climbed). Here are some pictures from the sweaty show. More of them, with all of his upcoming tour dates (including Bonnaroo which went on sale today), below...

Continue reading "Yelawolf climbed the walls @ a packed Beauty Ballroom (pics); Pusha T plays Beauty Bar tonight"

Jucifer @ Union Pool in Brooklyn in 2011 (more by BBG)

Jucifer will bring their 60+ speaker backline to the Mohawk in Austin tonight (2/18), one night before they hit Super Happy Fun Land in Houston. Tia Carrera and Watching the Moon open what is one of two great reasons for metal fans to hit Mohawk this weekend. Sunday is Scott Kelly (of Neurosis) and his touring partner Eugene Robinson (of Oxbow), and Ancient VVisdom too.

All Jucifer tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Jucifer on tour, play Mohawk tonight; Scott Kelly & Eugene Robinson at the same Austin club on Sunday"

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue @ Moody Theater - 2/16/2012

Trombone (and sometimes 'Trumpet') Shorty Andrews & Orleans Avenue came and brought lots of brass (The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Austin Knights Brass Band) to ACL Live at the Moody Theater last night (2/16). Here are some pictures from the Austin show.

While this show was not a taping for the PBS show that tapes in the same Austin (City Limits) theater, it did happen less than a week before Andrews heads to DC to tape another show for PBS at the... White House!

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has been invited to perform at The White House on February 21st as part of the Black History Month celebration, In Performance at the White House: Red, White & Blues. Troy will be joining an all star cast including Jeff Beck, Gary Clark, Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Keb Mo, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, with Booker T. Jones as music director and band leader. The event will be taped for broadcast on PBS premiering Monday, February 27 at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings) and streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live , www.pbs.org/whitehouse and www.blackpublicmedia.org

In addition to his performance, Troy will also participate in a special education program earlier that day in The White House with Michelle Obama, Keb Mo and Shemekia Copeland. The artists will appear before an audience of students from across the country to discuss the Blues and take part in a Q & A with moderator Bob Santelli and members of the audience.

Continue reading "Trombone Shorty played ACL Live with a lot of brass (pics), taping a PBS special at the White House"

Red 7 (taken during Free Week) (more by Tim Griffin)

The club clears up some rumors. In their own words:

All of us here at Red 7 are flattered to know we're the occasional source of gossip. I mean, we get it. We closed down for a few weeks in December, threw in a couple of Playstations and some minor repairs, and now people are assuming we're leaving town just because Emo's moved off the block.

Well, I'm sad Emo's left downtown. A lot of us cut our teeth there, and it was a great venue that helped shape Red River. So was Liberty Lunch.

At the same time, our friends at Beerland down the street just resigned their lease (long live Beerland!), The Mohawk is in the midst of building out a fancy new viewing deck and our neighbors at Empire Automotive have really been stepping it up on doing more live shows than before. We're excited to see a combination of new blood and old veterans investing their time, money and talent in this district, and we're even more excited to be a big part of it.

We don't have any plans on going anywhere. We aren't moving South of the River, and we aren't closing our doors. Why would we? Red River is one of the most important neighborhoods in Austin, and we're fighting to keep it here for the long haul. Starting with re-signing our lease.

In the meantime, we've made some improvements to the facilities and programming and have a lot of great shows (and a few surprises) in store for you in the near future, so stay tuned.

Speaking of Red 7, Frankie Rose and DIVE just announced a show there, and Braid is playing there during SXSW. Cloud Nothings play there later this month.

Eleanor at Lambert's in 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces will be in Texas this March for SXSW (where she'll be playing solo). She'll then stick around for a week long "residency" (not 100% sure what that means) at Ballroom Marfa in Marfa where she'll be recording a limited edition 7-inch with Gory Smelley of Marfa Recording Company. She'll perform live in Marfa at Crowley Theater on March 24. Tickets for the show are on sale (and only $5).

She'll return to TX on her just-announced tour with Hospitality which includes Fitzgerald's in Houston (4/26), Korova in San Antonio (4/27), and an Austin show at Frank on April 28. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

All dates and more at BrooklynVegan.

DOWNLOAD: Digital Leather - Young Doctors in Love (MP3)

Yuma synth-rock act Digital Leather, who released their latest album, Modern Problems, earlier this week (2/14) via FDH, are wrapping up their short tour in Texas this weekend. Stream the whole release via Amp.

The band is set to play El Paso's M's Lips with Boring Boyfriends tonight (2/17) and conclude the tour tomorrow night at Austin's Beerland (2/18) with Dead Space and Brain Attack. To give you a taste of their performances, check out a live video for their Modern Problems cut, "Thrill is Gone," posted below.

The band also released the single-- and steady new album opener-- "Young Doctors in Love" this month (MP3 above). The album is band songwriter Shawn Foree's first release since the death of Jay Reatard, a musical influence and close friend of his throughout his college days and career. Claimed as being recorded "100% on tape, alone, in [his] home," Foree said he wrote Modern Problems as a "narrative process of grieving," reflecting such an experience's emotions and urgency.

Live video and dates below...

Continue reading "Digital Leather released an LP, playing shows this weekend (dates & full album stream)"