Yellow Ostrich @ Mercury Lounge on 1/4 (more by David Andrako)

Once January (and Linfinity) disappears, LES venue Pianos will have some more residencies to contend with. One of those is for Yellow Ostrich who will be there every Thursday night in February. All four shows including the final night with "additional secret headliner" are on sale.

ARMS are the other band taking residency at Pianos (again) in Feb, and their four Wednesday shows are also on sale. They also have a secret guest listed on their final show.

Meanwhile, as Bill pointed out, you can also catch Yellow Ostrich at Shea Stadium this Saturday night (1/15).

Full Pianos lineups so far, below...

Continue reading "Yellow Ostrich & ARMS taking residency @ Pianos too"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

DOWNLOAD: ARMS - Heat And Hot Water (Birds and Batteries remix) (MP3)

ARMS

Grab another remix of "Heat and Hot Water" above. A set of pictures from the December 20th show at Glasslands continues below...

Continue reading "ARMS, We are Country Mice, Dead Stars & Iyez played Glasslands (pics & another ARMS remix)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Braids opened for the Radio Dept. at Knitting Factory last night and will do so again tonight at Bowery Ballroom, but one night earlier they played a show with Arms, Neighbors, and Emil & Friends at the more intimate Mercury Lounge. A set of pictures from that show continues below...

Continue reading "Braids, Arms, Neighbors & Emil & Friends played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (Green Go Remix) (MP3)

If you've got tickets to one of the Radio Dept. shows this week, be sure to get there early to catch Montreal's Braids, who I just saw play in their hometown a couple weeks ago for the M for Montreal Festival. I said then:

Braids use their voices more as another instrument than a conveyor of lyrics. There are points during their set when the harmonies meld with the band's stretched out grooves to achieve ethereal bliss worthy of The Cocteau Twins. Their set is better than the one I'd seen at Knitting Factory back in May, not to mention besting many of the "official selections" at M the following days.

Braids will be back in 2011, hitting the road with Baths and Star Slinger -- a tour that hits NYC on February 12 at Knitting Factory. All Braids tour dates below...

Continue reading "Braids in NYC for 3 shows, touring w/ Baths in 2011 (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: ARMS - Heat and Hot Water (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ARMS - Heat and Hot Water (Passion Pit remix) (MP3)

ARMS @ Mercury Lounge in July (more by Amanda Hatfield)

As previously mentioned, ARMS, aka Todd Goldstein and band, play a show at Brooklyn Bowl with Oh Land and many others tonight (11/8). Currently working on a new album in a studio in NYC, maybe ARMS will try out some new material at the gig. In the meantime, grab the brand new Passion Pit remix of "Heat and Hot Water". The regular version, which you can get up there too, is one of four tracks on ARMS' free EP (get it here) which was released earlier this year.

Todd Goldstein can also be caught playing a solo show at Living Room on November 11th, and that's it for now for ARMS. Passion Pit have a bunch of shows coming up though, including two at the end of the year at Wellmont Theater in NJ. All dates below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit remix ARMS (who are playing shows) -- MP3"

As I say every year, the Atlantic Antic is one of NYC's greatest street fairs and filled with music. This year's goes down this Sunday, 9/26, and has added an 'indie rock' stage...

Although the Antic is beloved for its cornucopia of global chow, from banh mi to custom-cured pastrami (the official slogan of the event is "Eat it at the Antic, Walk it off on Atlantic"), this year's iteration also includes a bounty of independent music and art, two of Brooklyn's most visible cultural exports.

The Roebling Inn (97 Atlantic Avenue, between Hicks and Henry Streets, Brooklyn Heights), a dark, vintage-inspired bar that opened in December, is hosting, in partnership with the music media company Future Sounds, the Antic's first stage exclusively featuring indie-rock.

"It was a no-brainer when we got the space," the inn's manager, Jason Furlani, said. "We knew we would do something for the Antic."

While part of the joy of the Antic is its spectacular diversity (on 13 other stages, visitors can take in Brazilian samba, Latin jazz, children's folk songs, Middle Eastern belly dancing, electric blues, string bands, South Louisiana Cajun music and more), Mr. Furlani and his partners wanted to pay specific tribute to Brooklyn's indie empire. Larry Little, the chief executive of Future Sounds, booked four emerging Brooklyn bands (Dinosaur Feathers, Shark?, Arms and German Measles) and one, Grandchildren, from Philadelphia. All share a penchant for fuzzy, nostalgic guitar. [NY Times]

The 36th Annual Atlantic Antic

Sunday, September 26, 2010 from 10am to 6pm, rain or shine
Atlantic Avenue from Hicks Street to Fourth Avenue
10 Blocks of Food, Festivities, and Fun Through the Heart of Brownstone Brooklyn...

Continue reading "The Atlantic Antic is Sunday, now with more indie rock "

Dr. Dog @ Terminal 5 in May (more by Tracy Allison)

Dr. Dog's free Beach at Governors Island show is happening on Sunday, August 15th. The openers for that show will be Eli "Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves and recent Domino signees Chief.

That gig is in advance of Dr Dog's October/November North American tour with Brooklyn's Here We Go Magic. No NYC date for that as of yet, but its currently scheduled shows are below. Here We Go Magic, however, does have a New York show, booked for August 11th Coco 66.

Dr. Dog singer-guitar player Scott McMicken has a solo show coming up at the Rock Shop on Sunday, August 22nd. Tickets are on sale. That's actually one of three solo dates he has planned with Springs, which is the musical name of Brooklyn's Mike Visser. Mike recorded a song with Scott as part of the Shaking Through Series, and a video of that is below. Springs also has a show with Sharon Van Etten at the Bushwick Starr on August 7th and a July 30th show at Arlene's Grocery.

Also coming up are some shows by Dr. Dog-related band Juston Stens & the Get Real Gang, the project of Dr. Dog's ex-drummer Juston Stens. Juston plays with TV Torso and Slow Animal at Death By Audio on August 25th, and then with ARMS and TV Torso at Mercury Lounge on Friday, August 27th. Tickets are on sale for the Manhattan show.

All tour dates, and video of Dr. Dog playing their single "Shadow People" on Craig Ferguson on July 2nd, are below...

Continue reading "Dr Dog & Here We Go Magic tour dates, Governors Island openers, Scott McMicken solo, Springs & Juston Stens too "

photos by Amanda Hatfield

"The Love Language put on a hell of a show at Mercury Lounge. Looking forward to seeing them again sometime." - Joe Saturday

DOWNLOAD: ARMS - Heat & Hot Water (Pepper Rabbit redux) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Love Language - Heart to Tell (MP3)

The Love Language @ Mercury Lounge

The Love Language headlined what was their record release show at Mercury Lounge in NYC last night (7/15). "Libraries" is out on Merge Records now. Opening for the North Carolina band were current Brooklyn resident (ex-North Carolina resident) Nightdogs (being billed as Tim Poovy), Silver Lake's Pepper Rabbit (Amanda's surprise hit act of the night), and ARMS (who you should know fairly well by now).

ARMS and Pepper Rabbit may have seemed randomly placed on the same bill, but in fact they go way back. Well, maybe not way back but Pepper Rabbit remixed ARMS' song "Heat and Hot Water" sometime before last night, and you can grab it for free for the first time ever right now above.

Pepper Rabbit are currently on tour with Candy Claws who they played Glasslands with one night earlier. More pictures from the Mercury Lounge show below...

Continue reading "The Love Language played an album release show @ Mercury Lounge (pics), Pepper Rabbit remixed Arms (MP3)"

photos by Amanda M Hatfield

AA Bondy / Dearland

Four shows total happened in Newtown Barge Park over the weekend, all as part of the 2010 Northside Festival. We posted pictures from the ones that happened on Saturday. Here's the pictures, and some videos, from the first of two shows that happened there on Sunday....

Continue reading "Elvis Perkins in Dearland, AA Bondy & ARMS played Newtown Barge Park - pics & video"

by Bill Pearis

a day by day Week in Indie-like guide to this week's Northside Festival...

The Hundred in the Hands

The Northside Festival is back for a second year, and I really do think the roster of bands playing over the next four days is pretty impressive: here's bigger bands, more out of town bands, more bands in general. More than plenty of good -- great even -- options to justify the $50 badge. (Most of us spend $50 in four days here anyway.) The bulk of the venues are within walking distance of each other, so why not make good use of the badge and hop around as much as possible.

For opening night (tonight, Thursday, June 24th), if you had to stay in one place the whole night, it's hard to top the line-up at Knitting Factory with DOM, Cloud Nothings and Wavves. It's sold out for tickets, but you can still get in with your badge as capacity allows. Wavves new album, King of the Beach, is going to surprise people expecting Nathan Williams to do more of the same lo-fi haze -- it's a ridiculously catchy set of tunes that drops the sludge and scuzz of his first two releases. Cleveland's Cloud Nothings are good too, much more rockin' live than their recordings might suggest, with a real basher of a drummer. I've yet to see Dom live, maybe tonight's the night. Dom also plays our showcase at MHOW on Saturday night.

Former Bell House/Union Hall booker Jack "Skippy" McFadden (along with the Gothamist folks) has put together a solid schedule of local talent at Coco66, with '90s-loving Mr. Dream, plus Pacific Theater, The Forms, Caveman, Bird of Youth, Luke Folger.

Elsewhere: The Hundred in the Hands are at Warsaw (10PM), opening for Au Revoir Simone (who have a new remix album coming out). THitH's new EP, This Desert, will appeal to folks who liked the dancier side of '90s shoegaze (Curve specifically comes to mind).

Austin's YellowFever, in town for the Voxtrot farewell shows, play Union Pool at 10:45PM. If you've never seen them, please try and correct that. It's a solid show overall, with Air Waves, Aa, Coasting and PC Worship.

ARMS, which is former Harlem Shakes guitarist Tom Goldstein's new band, >play their harmony-laden atmospheric pop at Bar Matchless at 10:30pm. If you miss them, they're also at Barge Park on Sunday.

And it should be a sloppy drunk night down in The Charleston's basement with My Teenage Stride, I'm Turning Into (2/3's of which are also in MTS, and they curated this show) and German Measles.

The full schedule is at Northside's site. More Northside suggestions as the weekend progresses. Stay tuned.

The Hundred In The Hands's new video for "Tom Tom" below...

Continue reading "Bill's 2010 Northside Festival picks (Thursday) "

AA Bondy @ Union Hall in February (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

" 'How Will You Meet Your End?' by A. A. Bondy - A dark musical tale that seems to reach out from another time, this is a song I can -- and do -- leave on repeat for long stretches. For both "So Cold the River" and "The Cypress House," I turned to this song often because I found its haunting lyrics and melody to be perfect tone-setters." [Michael Koryta]

A.A. Bondy then headlines his own show at Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday, October 6th. No opener announced yet. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon.

Much before that, A.A. Bondy has a NYC show scheduled with Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Arms (previously 'special guest') on Sunday, June 26th at Barge Park as part of Northside Festival. Tickets are still on sale for that. (He's also at the Newport Folk Festival this year.)

JBM (stage name of Jesse Marchant) plays a Bondy-less CD release show July 27th at Mercury Lounge (tickets) for his new album, Not Even in July, which comes out the same day on Partisan Records. Clips from that are streaming on the label's site.

A.A. Bondy played Toronto's Great Hall on June 18th as part of NXNE. A video from that set and all JBM/AA Bondy tour dates are below...

Continue reading "AA Bondy & JBM playing shows, some together (2010 dates) "

DOWNLOAD: The Love Language - Heart to Tell (MP3)

The Love Language @ BV Loft during CMJ 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

North Carolina' s The Love Language are gearing up for the release of their Merge debut, Libraries, due July 13th. A song from that is above. Around that release date the band will play a few small east coast headlining shows. Those include Mercury Lounge in NYC on July 15th with Arms, Pepper Rabbit and Tim Poovey. Tickets are now on sale.

Before then, the group will hit the road for another short string of dates, but this time as opener for their not-labelmates Camera Obscura (they used to be on Merge, but are now on 4AD). That includes the show at Grand Ballroom at The Manhattan Center on June 7th. Tickets are still on sale. All dates below.

For Record Store Day earlier this year, the band also put out a split 7-inch with their Merge label-mates Let's Wrestle.

On June 20th they're playing the Taste Of Randolph Street Festival in Chicago with Superchunk who also have two NYC shows and other tour dates coming up.

All Love Language tour dates, the new album cover and tracklist, and a video of frontman Stuart McLamb and producer B.J. Burton snowed in at the studio are below...

Continue reading "The Love Language releasing 'Libraries' on Merge (MP3), touring w/ Camera Obscura & alone - 2010 tour dates"

Dam-Funk And Master Blazter is playing Bowery Ballroom on June 12th. Tickets are on sale.

Tame Impala is playing Pianos on June 24th. Tickets are on sale.

Brahms is playing Pianos on May 1st (with ARMS / Bell / Aislyn & Wet Bandits aka Passion Pit DJs), May 25 (with Das Racist / Gordon Voidwell / Shadowbox & DJ Aaron Pfenning) and June 1st (with Class Actress / Tony Castles / Baby Alpaca / Cool Places Soundsystem DJ). Tickets for all three shows are on sale.

Das Racist also play the LES venue on May 20th. Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are now on sale for the Peggy Sue show happening at Pianos.

Peter Wolf Crier, Pocahaunted, Greg from Bouncing Souls, and other Pianos shows are on sale too.

Tickets are on sale for the Heartless Bastards / Peter Wolf Crier shows at Bowery & MHOW.

Tickets are on sale for a lot of Black Crowes shows at Nokia Theatre.

Tickets are on sale for the Vatican Commandos (featuring Moby) hardcore show at Mercury Lounge.

Swans and Danzig tickets went on sale.

Zola Jesus Glasslands tickets are on sale.

A Toro y Moi show at Glasslands is on sale.

Weezer & other Waterfront & Governors Island shows on sale.

Tickets are on sale for the Cass McCombs show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for two Empire of the Sun shows at Terminal 5.

Tickets are on sale for the Black Mountain show at Knitting Factory.

by Bill Pearis

There's a lot going on this weekend but the show I'm most excited about this weekend is The Wedding Present who are in town performing their 1989 classic Bizarro in its entirety. They'll do it at Maxwell's on Saturday night (4/10, Sold Out) and then Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (not sold out) (4/11).

I won't lie: you're looking at a Wedding Present superfan. Like a lot of Americans, Bizarro was the first album I heard and is near and dear to me for that reason. (1991's Seamonsters is my all-time fave, though.) Bizarro is the peak of their early sound -- jangle pop played hard and very fast -- ten bashers that climax with the nearly ten minute "Take Me!" that might be the band's most manic song ever. Magnet asked frontman David Gedge, who turns 50 on April 23rd, a question I was wondering about.

Magnet:There's a lot of frantic guitar strumming on Bizarro, songs like "Kennedy" in particular. Twenty-plus years later, how worried are you that you might need frequent breaks during the shows?

David Gedge: I'm not going to deny that it's a challenge! With Bizarro, we took the original idea of the Wedding Present--namely, to play songs as fast and for as long as possible--to its logical conclusion. As a result, it's a collection of fairly extreme recordings, and obviously, we've never played them back to back like this before. Rehearsals have been more like training sessions for a marathon, but I have no doubt that we'll get there in the end.

White Mystery

Guitar-bass garage rock duos are a dime a dozen, but White Mystery from Chicago stand out and not just because siblings Alex and Francis are flaming redheads. (If they ever need to change their name, may I suggest Firecrotch?) Alex, formerly of Red Orchestra, has a soulful wail that she lets belt out at top register. They're also less blues-y than many of their brethren -- even without the singing nobody's gonna confuse them with The White Stripes, Thee Oh Sees, etc. Their self-titled debut is a lot of fun. And you just know -- you just know -- they're gonna be good live.

White Mystery play Don Pedros on Friday night (4/9) with Girls at Dawn, Medication, Lil Daggers, and The Psyched. They'll also play Cake Shop on Saturday with QXBXRX, Zbornak, and the Richie White Orchestra.

In addition to Serena Maneesh, Here's a few more picks for tonight and Friday...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present, White Mystery, Mon Khmer, ARMS, Zaza, Light Asylum & more in This Week in Indie (part 2) "

DOWNLOAD: Choir of Young Believers - Action/Reaction (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Arms - Arms EP (SENDSPACE - ZIP)

by Gabi Porter

Choir of Young Believers...

Denmark's Choir of Young Believers were in town for a pair of pre-SXSW shows - the second of those was at Pianos on March 11th with NYC's own Arms (a band that features Todd Goldstein, formerly of Harlem Shakes).

The Pianos show was so good it gave me goosebumps. Choir of Young Believers remind me of a Zbigniew Preisner soundtrack. Really lush and melancholy, haunting melodies played with a kind of cathedral grandness. So many bands use reverb to cover up flawed vocals, but Choir of Young Believers use it to paint a giant soundscape for their music.

And ARMS might be my favorite NY band of the moment. They have such great songs, really dense full of lots of angsty minor keys, but instead of languishing in endless slow dance numbers, they keep an energetic pace. It's as if your doldrums decided to write a collection of anthems to celebrate being a little down at the mouth.

Choir of Young Believers go on to play SXSW, as do Arms, whose dates are below.

You can download a free copy of Arms' new EP above, and grab a track off Choir of Young Believers' This is for the White in Your Eyes, above. A video of the latter playing on KEXP with more pictures from Pianos, below...

Continue reading "Arms & Choir of Young Believers played Pianos in NYC - pics & more tour dates (SXSW) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Megaphonic Thrift - Acid Blues (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Good The Bad - 004 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pirate Love - A Kiss Hello (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Choir of Young Believers - Action/Reaction (MP3)

Casiokids

By now you hopefully you know that Norway's awesome Casiokids are playing our Brooklyn Vegan Pre-SXSW party, alongside Let's Wrestle, The Wave Pictures, Banjo or Freakout and WhoMadeWho. There's now also free PBR for an hour or two (exact details on that soon). And I'll be DJing in between sets. It's all very exciting, isn't it? There are still some tickets available -- only $8.

In that previous post about Casiokids, we mentioned a compilation of the band's 2009 singles called Topp stemning på lokal bar that was, as of that writing, only coming out in Norway. The band have since announced that they've signed to Polyvinyl in the U.S. who will release the album, complete with bonus disc of remixes just like in Norway.

The Knitting Factory show is actually one of three that Casiokids will be playing in NYC before they head to Austin for SXSW. They will also play Pianos this Saturday (3/13) along with Banjo or Freakout, Denmark's synth-rock quintet Spleen United and our Italian friends A Classic Education. Casiokids also play Littlefield on Sunday (3/14) afternoon for an all-Scandinavian party that again features Spleen United, plus Denmark's only surf/flamenco band, The Good The Bad, and The Megaphonic Thrift.

The Megaphonic Thrift are made up of members of Casiokids and The Low Frequency in Stereo and are definitely of the '90s indie rock variety (in this case think GBV or Dinosaur Jr.) that seems to be coming back into style lately. You can download their single "Acid Blues" at the top of this post. Their debut, Decay Destroy, just came out in Norway and is available here through your favorite digital store. I haven't seen them play yet, but BV caught them at by:Larm and said they were pretty good. Pictures from their February 18th show at Oslo club Sub Scene are below.

In addition to the Littlefield show, Megaphonic Thrift are playing Sunday night (3/14) at Bowery Electric and then on Monday night at Santos Party House for a Oya Fest / Oh My Rockness party with fellow Norwegians Pirate Love (High energy, Hives-ish garage) and Hanne Hukkelberg (orchestrated pop), plus The Depreciation Guild. Mind you this is the same night as our Knitting Factory show, so Megaphonic Thrift will play Santos then certain members will race across the Williamsburg Bridge to join their Casiokids bandmates in time for that set. It's all going to work out fine.

Pirate Love will be back after SXSW for a couple shows with UK garage act Thee Vicars. Catch them at Cameo Gallery on March 26 and Lit Lounge on March 27.

Spleen United @ CMJ 2009

The aforementioned Spleen United are also playing this Wednesday (3/10) at Union Hall with fellow Danes Choir of Young Believers. I caught Spleen United at CMJ back in October and they reminded me of the kind of band that 20 years ago would've been on Wax! Trax! or Play it Again Sam records -- the poppier side of goth/industrial. They've had #1 albums in Denmark I've since learned. With multiple percussionists, they put on a pretty good live show too.

Choir of Young Believers were also here at CMJ. Their debut, This is for the White in Your Eyes, is elegiac folk that gets the band compared to Fleet Foxes quite a bit but CoYB are a bit more instrumentally varied and grandiose than Robin Pecknold and co.  It really is a lovely record. The Union Hall show also features The Loom (who played that BV loft show during CMJ 2009) and Spain's The Right Ons. Choir of Young Believers also play Pianos on Thursday (3/11) with Brooklyn's ARMS who are worth checking out in their own right.

Choir of Young Believers

That's more than enough for one post. Below are videos, flyers and tour dates for some of the bands mentioned here...

Continue reading "Megaphonic Thrift, Casiokids, Choir of Young Believers & other Scandinavian bands playing SXSW, NYC, other dates"

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

No pedals, no wall of sound, no wash of blinding lights. All the hallmarks of an Asobi Seksu live performance were cast off during the New York band's sold-out, acoustic performance at Le Poisson Rouge on Friday night (1/29). "So, much fun, " said Yuki Chikudate. "But we like noise. We're not giving up our pedals yet."

For a bit over an hour, however, Yuki led her band through beautiful and at times haunting versions of songs that appear on last year's acoustic release, Rewolf. Most of the songs were taken from the bands most recent records Hush and Citrus. The evening also took on a bit of a storytellers vibe with Chikudate introducing many of the songs with anecdotes as well as some good-natured teasing of guitarist James Hanna's mustache. "Meh No Mae" was lush with pretty plinking of xylophone and "Gliss" was helped along by toy piano.

The most striking thing on the night was how clear and powerful Chikudate's voice is. Just another instrument during their full-on rock shows, yet when not battling reverb and distortion at every turn, her voice becomes the center-piece of every song as it did on "Blind Little Rain" with just Chikudate at the grand piano.

Songs that did not appear on Rewolf also found their way into the set. "We didn't get to record this but I'm glad we got to rearrange it for the tour," said Chikudate, as she introduced "Goodbye", one of the "louder" numbers of the evening. And for the encore - a cover of Donovan's "Celeste".

Todd Goldstein and his band, Arms, opened with a beautiful but all-too-brief set. The former Harlem Shakes guitarist has turned his attention completely to his solo project since the Shakes broke up this past summer. Goldstein no longer cuts a lonely figure as Arms, surrounding himself with a drummer and additional vocalist. This brought a richer sound to songs like "Shitty Little Disco" and "Tiger Tamer" off his excellent 2008 release, Kids Aflame. And set closer "Ana M" was gorgeous with its stirring outro of ahh's complementing the languid pacing. Goldstein admitted they'd tried to play the song at more traditional rock venues but the "kids" in attendance never paid much attention. "But you're all adults," he told the audience, "and you're sitting down."

More pictures from the show, with Asobi's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Asobi Seksu & Arms @ Le Poisson Rouge - pics & setlist"

Asobi Seksu @ Bowery Ballroom in Oct (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

"[Asobi Seksu's] Chikudate shared an anecdote with the [Seattle] crowd about going into the forest with her bandmates to do shrooms--an experience that went well until they found a bird with a broken neck. They ran it over with a car to save it from suffering and well, things just went down hill from there. "I started tripping the fuck out. I felt like the trees hated me," Chikudate admitted. On a more positive note, it was during that trip that they created the bittersweet love song "Thursday." Its easily the band's best song and when performed last night, in a slowed down and simplified state, it becomes a lustrous homage to French pop. Gorgeous."
[Seattle Weekly]

Continue reading "Asobi Seksu on acoustic tour (dates) - NYC tonight w/ ARMS"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Octagon - Suicide Kings (MP3)

The Octagon

I wrote at length already about this week's Serena Maneesh shows. Now here are some other daily picks to take you through the weekend...

Continue reading "The Octagon, Free Energy & more in This Week in Indie "

members of Passion Pit @ Pianos on NYE (drivemycarlye)

Member of Passion Pit played DJ at quickly-sold-out party at Pianos in NYC on New Years Eve. Tonight (1/8), they kick off their sold-out three night run of live shows at Terminal 5 in the same town. Each night has a different set of openers with Sunday being the official WTF member of the set...

Fri, 1/08 w/ The Rural Alberta Advantage & Joy Formidable
Sat, 1/09 w/ Joy Formidable & Arms
Sun, 10/10 w/ Tragedy: All Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees & Brahms

On Monday, the band will be in Brooklyn filming a video. In March they'll kick off yet another tour of the United States, starting in Buffalo. Those dates below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit DJ'd New Years Eve, play 3 NYC shows this weekend (w/ varying openers), add more 2010 tour dates "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Arms - Tiger Tamer (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Arms - Kids Aflame (MP3)

Arms (photo by Elizabeth Weinberg)

Normally, this is where a little bio of the band would go, but Todd pretty much does that himself in answering the first question of our end-of-year survey. We should note that his band ARMS open for Passion Pit at Terminal 5 on January 8 (sold out). So without further ado:

Continue reading "an end of 2009 interview w/ Todd Goldstein of ARMS & Harlem Shakes (RIP)"

SXSWeek 2010: March 12-21
Interactive: March 12-16
Film: March 12-20
Music: March 17-21

Continue reading "SXSW 2010 - dates & initial band lineup "

DOWNLOAD: Arms - Tiger Tamer (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Arms - Kids Aflame (MP3)

The face of Arms...

Arms (Todd Goldstein, guitar player of the defunct Harlem Shakes) will be playing a NYC CD release show at Pianos on Thursday, November 12th for his full-length debut, Kids Aflame, which is out now on Gigantic Music. Two songs from the record are posted above, with a video and info below. Goldstein debuted his three-piece band that fills out his bedroom-recorded album at CMJ this year.

Strange Glue: Have you been to CMJ before and what are your thoughts about playing such a vibrant festival?

Todd: I've played several CMJs, now - although I have to say i've never been to a CMJ show other than my own. I never have time.

SG: Is it just you performing the Arms set or are you joined by any other talented musicians?

Todd: It'll be me, a drummer, and a bassist/singer. The harmonies alone are worth the price of admission.

Also at the gig will be an acoustic set by Dave Monks, frontman of Tokyo Police Club. Monks will be playing some songs off Tokyo Police Club's forthcoming, second record, due in early 2010 on mom+pop.

mom+pop was formed in 2008 by Cliff Burnstein, Peter Mensch and Michael Goldstone. Burnstein and Mensch are the owners of Qprime, one of music's most respected management firms, with a roster featuring the likes of Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, Muse, Silversun Pickups, and The Mars Volta, among others. Goldstone is a veteran A&R exec whose most recent tenure at Sire saw him sign Regina Spektor and Tegan and Sara. In August 2008, he inked Joshua Radin as the first artist on the mom+pop label. Radin's album, Simple Times, released 21 days later on September 9, has since sold over 100,000 units and 400, 000 tracks. Other mom+pop artists include An Horse, signed to the label by Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara. mom+pop is a fully staffed label distributed independently by RED.

Dave Monks recently posted a cover he did of Harlem Shakes' "Strictly Game," as well as a new TPC song. Those and more Arms below...

Continue reading "Arms (ex-Harlem Shakes) playing CD release show (full band) w/ Dave from Tokyo Police Club (solo acoustic) ++ MP3s"

DOWNLOAD: Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game (Kids At The Bar Remix) (MP3)

Harlem Shakes @ Highline Ballroom in March (more by Ryan Muir)

About a month ago I heard the Harlem Shakes were on "hiatus" which usually doesn't mean much. Last night I heard that, like Pela, it's actually over. And just when they started to get some momentum going with a great new album. RIP.

Meanwhile, there is at least one still-active Shakes side project (which according to one commenter actually pre-dated the band anyway). Arms (aka Todd Goldstein) plays a free afternoon show at The Bell House in Brooklyn on October 3rd. Arms' full-length debut, Kids Aflame, currently only available on import through Melodic Records in the UK, will be released (with new bonus tracks) digitally through Gigantic Music on October 27th.

Continue reading "Harlem Shakes broke up "

photos by Tim Griffin

DOWNLOAD: Loney Dear - Airport Surroundings (MP3)

What is the story behind your pseudonym, Loney, Dear?

I felt like a lone music maker. The name implies that someone is noticing you. Right now it probably more a rest from something in the past, but has on the other side more moved into just being a name, and my own name. I'm pretty amazed by its strangeness every now and then. I wanted an odd name, just like I want the music to be.

Continue reading "Loney Dear & Arms @ Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY - pics"