The Darkness at Irving Plaza, NYC (more by Chris La Putt)

Last night (2/6), Irving Plaza was witness to call-and-response sing-a-longs with the audience, epic guitar solos played while riding a roadie through the crowd, and a trust fall into the congregation. And that was just one song. It could only be The Darkness.

This was the second of two nights at Irving, their first NYC shows in five years or so. (We have pictures from Saturday too.) It was also after that Superbowl ad thrust the band back into public conscious, but it didn't seem like anyone there had forgotten about them. This crowd -- which included Dee Snider -- was primed to rawk and frontman Justin Hawkins had them eating out of the palm of his hand. When he yelled "I wanna see some thumbs!" we instantly obliged. [BV]

Continue reading "The Darkness playing Austin and Dallas this weekend (dates)"

Reggie Watts in new Hot Chip video

As mentioned, Reggie Watts will making his way to Austin on his tour to play Scottish Rite Theater on May 26. That show has since sold out but since we last spoke, Reggie added a second date at the same venue one day later (5/27). Tickets for the newly added show are on sale now.

In related news, Reggie makes an appearance in the new Hot Chip video for "Night & Day" off their upcoming album, In Our Heads. Check out that video, along with a list of updated dates below...

Continue reading "Reggie Watts touring, playing 2 shows in Austin this weekend; appears in new Hot Chip video"

by Andrew Sacher

LA rockers Joyce Manor are about to kick off a short southwest tour which comes to TX for four shows surrounding Chaos in Tejas. Those shows include Rubber Gloves in Denton (5/30) and the previously discussed Chaos in Tejas show at Beauty Ballroom on June 1 with No Age, Ceremony, The Young and Gun Outfit (tickets). Screaming Females were supposed to play that show too but unfortunately had to cancel. They'll follow that with another Chaos in Tejas show at Scoot Inn on June 2 with Touche Amore, Japanther, Creem, Post Teens, and Hounds of Hate. Tickets for that show are on sale now. That show is the first on a three-date run with Touche Amore, which also includes a Lubbock, TX show at Jake's on June 5.

The band released their second LP and first for Asian Man Records, Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired, last month. When I first wrote about that album, I mentioned it's combined approach to both emo and indie rock. I'd also like to mention that it begs for repeated listens and despite consisting of 9 songs in only 13 minutes, each track has got a hell of a lot of individuality. In addition to their trademark pop punk blasts, we're given two raw acoustic tracks, the slow-ish jam, "See How Tame I Can Be," the punky jangle pop of "Bride of Usher," and a fun, but slightly out of place cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star." If you still haven't heard the album, stream the whole thing over at Punknews.

All dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Joyce Manor touring southwest, playing 4 TX shows (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Guided by Voices - "Class Clown Spots a UFO" (MP3)

Guided by Voices in Brooklyn in 2011 (more by Tamara Porras)

Late last year, Guided by Voices denied rumors of re-breaking up (they reunited in 2010) and quickly followed that with a new album, Let's Go Eat the Factory, which came out this past January. But it wouldn't be GBV's style to do a reunion album without one or two more the same year, right? They'll release another 21-song full length, Class Clown Spots a UFO, on June 12 and a third new LP, Bears for Lunch, should see a release this November. Rolling Stone recently premiered the title track from Class Clown Spots a UFO, a track that's actually been floating around in the band's repertoire for years and has been finished and re-recorded for the new album. Download that above, or stream it below, along with the album art and tracklist.

Guided by Voices will be playing the CBGB Festival in NYC this summer, and in September they'll kick off a tour with Detective which comes to TX for shows in Houston at Warehouse Live on 9/24 and Austin at Emo's East on 9/25. Tickets for the Austin show are on sale now.

A list of all dates, stream, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Guided by Voices releasing more albums; playing Houston and Austin on tour (dates)"

After teasing us with lineup additions day by day over the past few days, the full lineup of Austin City Limits 2012 is finally here. Check it out at BrooklynVegan, or below...

Continue reading "2012 ACL Fest lineup announced"

UPDATE: Check out the full lineup WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE BON IVER (the card was fake)

Bon Iver at an ACL taping (more by Tim Griffin)

ACL Fest has been revealing artists via lottery tickets who will be at this year's festival, which goes down in Austin from October 12-14. So far, they've confirmed Jack White, Bon Iver, Zola Jesus, The Black Keys, Black Lips, Alabama Shakes, A-Trak, Kimbra, Punch Brothers, Andrew Bird, Steve Earle, Childish Gambino, Delta Spirit, LP, Quiet Company, Freelance Whales, Barrington Levy, Esperanza Spalding, A-Trak, Gary Clark Jr., Bombay Bicycle Club, and Two Door Cinema Club.

This past Friday (5/18), we posted that Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing, due to a lotto ticket that appeared on ACL's Facebook page (and it's still there). CoS is however reporting that the ticket is a fake and the ACL publicist has confirmed the same to us. Does that mean they're not actually playing? Is there some kind of conspiracy going on????? (Does anyone even actually care?) ACL Mike says:

Flea and I discussed this, among and other things, and the truth? Well, I'm not sure if you can handle it.

An excerpt of our conversation:

Me: So Flea, what's up in October?
Flea: Hey buddy, we don't hang anymore, it's like we're drifting apart. What's up with THAT?!

The date would certainly fit in RHCP's schedule. Stay tuned for the full lineup announcement in less than 24 hours to find out..

photos by @griffinshot - Tim Griffin, words by Andrew Marinaccio

M83 @ Stubb's - 5/18/2012

M83 wrapped up their tour with I Break Horses in Texas this past weekend, where they played Stubb's on Friday (5/18). That tour also stopped in NYC about a week earlier. Pictures from the Austin show are in this post, along with a review of the NYC show.

M83's 2011 LP, Hurry Up We're Dreaming, saw their sonic trajectory hit a fever pitch; an album that dominated and defined 2011 by its impossible grandeur and expansiveness as a work more so than any of its smaller details (though perhaps it did help that it featured the best song of the year). Their current tour solidifies that they've harnessed their titanic sound and its incalculable amount of whirling, synth filigree. When focused, M83 can make any stage, be it at a sprawling outdoor festival set or boxy urban theater, explode.

The band's sold-out Terminal 5 gig in NYC (5/10) was an impeccably tight exercise in M83's soaring synth-pop theatrics. After the alien from Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's album cover came out to creepily glare at the audience for a minute or so, the shimmering rise of "Intro" began, as group mastermind Anthony Gonzalez stood centered and still on stage, hands cupped over his face. Call it reflection, pre-show acclimation, or prayer, but it set the intense, almost cosmically sacred gravity of their entire set. Conviction was Gonzalez's face-- the entire band's faces. This was pop with a mission to ignite whatever it touched.

And the music matched M83's countenance with as much color and power as they could generate. Their set primarily balanced between Hurry Up We're Dreaming and Saturday=Youth with tracks from Before the Dawn Heals Us thrown in for good measure. "Intro" gave way to unrelenting turns on "Teen Angst" and "Graveyard Girl," all clarified and piercing renditions with minimal deviation from their album versions. But there was little need for change--though the breakdown wedged into "Reunion" was welcome--for the band's latter-day work was already loud and lush, only demanding a setting spatially generous enough to accommodate their booming sonic textures. And their live presence cultivated just that: Keyboardist Morgan Kibby's usually wispy hush ascended to towering trills and belts, vocally steering "We Own the Sky" and encore "Skin of the Night," the latter's chorus further lifted by a by a volley of electric arpeggios courtesy of Gonzalez' hulking panel of knobs and wires.

Basses were beaten on "Bright Flash," distressed guitars furiously scraped away at during the coda of "Wait," and synthesizers chronically prostrated before throughout the whole affair, each song a furious race to reach a radioactive crescendo probably responsible for many a neon-drenched contusion by the end of the show. Not that the crowd minded much, entranced by the perpetual energy generator running molten red (and nuclear eggplant, and atomic green, thanks to tonally appropriate lighting) on stage. And it was hard not to embrace it, especially once the looping, digitized vocal chirp of "Midnight City," rang. The ubiquitous, dance-compelling pop anthem sounds miraculously inexhaustible in spite of itself almost a year into its initial release. At least, that appeared to be the consensus: the crowd upped its sway into a stomping, flouncing dance mob as it bleated the lyrics along with the band. "City is my church!" remains a favored idiom to roar aloud amid the tune's automatic, fluorescent urgency. Triumphant sax-solo relish remained intact and reappeared on the final song of the encore, "Couleurs," here ratcheted to a club-ready inferno that peaked in Gonzalez howling a distortion- wracked "New York!", eventually culminating in the entire band taking a knee (or gasping for air on their backs) beneath a storm of metallic noise.

A brief set by Swedish electro-shoegazers I Break Horses--their first in New York--began the night. Their thunderous, yet measured synth cycles swaddled Maria Linden's airy, reverb-distanced vocals, presenting a curious historic parallel to the main attraction. It wasn't too long ago that Gonzalez was writing similarly smaller, but lofty-in-spirit pop constructions.

And the latest: M83 scheduled to appear at ACL 2012.

More pics from the Stubb's show below...

Continue reading "M83 played Stubb's w/ I Break Horses, playing ACL (pics)"

photo via

Previously: ACL Fest 2012 lineup being revealed via scratch ticket lottery (Steve Earle, Delta Spirit, Punch Brothers & more so far)

David Lee Roth at MSG earlier this year (more by Chris La Putt)

Van Halen just cancelled a ton of tour dates including a 9/13 Austin show at the Frank Erwin Center that was supposed to go on sale today. However, their previously announced Texas shows which are scheduled to happen much sooner seem to still be happening.