by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Dinosaur Feathers - Early Morning Risers (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hospitality - Betty Wang (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Acrylics - Molly's Vertigo (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Beach Fossils - Vacation (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Family Portrait - Mega Secrets (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Darwin Deez - Bad Day (MP3)

Cymbals Eat Guitars

It's hard to believe online indie record store Insound has been around for ten years. Actually it's just hard to believe 1999 was a decade ago, but the calendar says it's so. Insound is also based out of NYC, so we're lucky enough to be invited to their 10 year birthday party tonight (8/27) at Brooklyn Bowl featuring a hard-to-pass-up line-up of local talent: Cymbals Eat Guitars, These Are Powers, The Drums, Real Estate and at least one band yet-to-be-announced (sort of). $10 gets you in the door and there's free Brooklyn Brewery beer from 6 - 9.

Effi Briest

Another very good option in Williamsburg tonight (8/27) is happening at Glasslands, featuring Effi Briest, Mahogany, and Free Blood (but not Deradoorian). The all-girl Effi Briest are in the same spooky, rhythm-heavy realm as the Life Without Buildings or the Slits (and maybe just a little Siouxsie). They've got a split 7" with Telepathe that's out now and they're working on their debut album as we speak. Mahogany, whose new line-up now (nine-strong according to their Myspace) seems to have been nailed down with the addition of former Dirty on Purpose bassist DJ Boudreau, will hopefully be playing some new material as it's been three years since their fantastic Connectivity. Free Blood bring a surprising amount of heat for such a minimal sound, thanks to the chemistry between ex-!!! John Pugh and Madeline Davy. And rounding out the bill are (The) Tony Castles who share a member with Boogie Boarder and are about to hit the studio with Jake Aron (Chairlift, Yeasayer, Acrylics).

Acrylics

This weekend is the After the Jump Festival which happens Friday - Sunday at Gowanus art space/venue Littlefield. ATJ is a group of bloggers that puts on events throughout the year, but this is the third year for their multi-day event and every night is pretty solid featuring some of the best new bands in NYC and a few from out of town. The full schedule and flyer is at the bottom of the post but I'll highlight a few from each night.

Friday (8/28): I have yet to see sound-collage dance act Javelin but I do like their records and am curious to see how they pull it off live. It's also their last show possibly November, so get in while you can. You can also catchy buzzy Florida band Holiday Shores (more on them below), indie pop royals My Teenage Stride, and the beachy Dinosaur Feathers.

Saturday (8/29): Philly's Free Energy (not to be confused with Free Blood) are a lot of fun if you have no problem with early '80s stadium rock or silly outfits. Despite a feeling I should know better, their live show and giant hooks won me over. Also: the Tom Waits-meets-garage-rock of Wild Yaks and the clattering, poppy Drink Up Buttercup. The night ends as a dance party with just-added Ninjasonik and the wacky Das Racist.

Sunday (8/30): Two of my favorite new NYC bands are playing on the early side. I've written a little bit about Acrylics before, but I've caught them three times over the summer and have been more impressed each time. "Molly's Vertigo," which you can download at the top of this post gives you a good idea of their sound, which is sort of '80s-ish with a dusty Southwest vibe, which maybe makes them a bit like the Rosebuds or Mirage-era Fleetwood Mac. Vocalists Molly Shea and Jason Klauber nail the harmonies and they've got an excellent pedal steel player. They're on at 8PM, don't miss them. Right before Acrylics are Hospitality, who I've written about before, are very charming live and don't play often enough. I haven't managed to catch them since May and am hoping for lots of new songs Sunday.

You can still buy discounted $25 passes for the whole shebang until Friday (8/28) morning. Individual tickets are $10 are night. There's also free beer each night from 6 - 7PM. Again, the whole After the Jump Fest schedule is below.

Holiday Shores @ Pianos in June (more by Tim Griffin)

More weekend recommendations. Fellow Brooklyn blogger Chocolate Bobka has put together a solid show at Cameo on Saturday night, with four bands that genuinely compliment each other. My previously-mentioned qualms with their vocals aside, Beach Fossils are hard to dislike and a lot of fun live. I've also been listening to the Holiday Shores (who also play the ATJ Fest the night before) dreamy, melodic debut, Columbus'd The Whim, a lot recently. It's a nice end-of-summer record. Connecticut's Sore Eros are pals with Kurt Vile and Gary War; and Washington DC's Family Portrait are part of the Underwater Peoples scene... Real Estate comparisons aren't entirely inappropriate and you can check out their song "Mega Secret" at the top of this post.

And also Saturday, there's an early show (7PM) at Glasslands featuring Phantogram, a duo who, for lack of a better term, are kind of trip-hoppy but in a '00s sort of way (breakbeats but no John Barry or Morricone samples). Chilled, atmospheric, but still danceable. Their debut album, Eyelid Movies, is a pretty good listen. Also playing are Savoir Adore who I've probably written about enough lately, and Darwin Deez.

Full After the Jump Fest schedule, some Flyers and music videos below...

Continue reading "Insound Party, After the Jump, Holiday Shores, Effi Briest, Beach Fossils, Phantogram & more in This Week in Indie "

photos by Bao Nguyen

DOWNLOAD: The Drums - I Felt Stupid (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Drums - Instruct Me (MP3)

The Drums have a new video for their song "Let's Go Surfing", You can check it out below. That track is on their Summertime EP as well as their RCRDLBL single, both of which are out now.

As far as upcoming shows, the band will NOT be at Glasslands this Friday (August 14th), nor will they will at Littlefield on August 29th. They dropped off both of those shows. However, they will play the FIXED dance party at the Tribeca Grand on August 22nd. And the band is still on the solid lineup for Insound's 10 Year anniversary party August 27th at the Brooklyn Bowl along with Cymbals Eat Guitars, These Are Powers, Real Estate and one TBA. Tickets for that are on sale.

Beyond those, The Drums have a gig at Mercury Lounge with Action Painters and Kordan on September 22nd, and a CMJ show at Santos in October. Tickets to the Merc show are on sale. Those dates, the video, and more pictures from the show they played at Bowery Ballroom on July 29th, below...

Continue reading "The Drums - new video, Bowery pics & NYC show updates "

Kid Rock is playing the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function benefit at Terminal 5 on September 2nd. It's the show the Beastie Boys played last year. $100 tickets are currently on AmEx presale and go on general sale Saturday at noon.

Get well soon MCA.

Insound are celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a show at Brooklyn Bowl. The August 27th party will feature sets by Cymbals Eat Guitars, These Are Powers, Suckers, The Drums and Real Estate. $10 tickets are on sale.

The Drums and Suckers are both also playing shows at Littlefield that same week as part of "After the Jump Fest '09" - three days of shows at the new Brooklyn venue::

After The Jump Fest 09 (more bands TBA)

After the Jump tickets (single day passes $10, 3 day passes $25 - ALL AGES) and tickets for other shows at Littlefield are available at Littlefield's site.

TONIGHT @ LITTLEFIELD (8/7): Kaki King's Exhibition.

THE DRUMS TONIGHT (8/7): @ the Mondo Dance Party @ Don Hill's

Tickets are on sale for the Circulatory System show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets for the Ray LaMontagne show at Beacon Theatre go on sale Saturday at 10am.

Tickets are on sale for the Pelican show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

Chairlift play Bowery Ballroom on September 5th. Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are on sale for the David Bazan show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the Mastodon/Dehtklok/Converge/High On Fire show at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the No Age show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets are on sale for the Jay Reatard show at Le Poisson Rouge.

Tickets are on sale for the King Khan Halloween show at The Bell House.

Leonard Cohen MSG tickets are currently on pre-sale.

Tickets are on sale for the Great Lake Swimmers shows coming up at Bowery and MHOW.

Tickets are on sale for the Polvo show at The Bell House.

Tickets are on sale for the Lou Barlow show at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets are on sale for the Soft Pack show at Bowery Ballroom.

Kings of Leon Izod Center tickets were released.

Tickets go on sale Saturday (@ noon) for the Sunset Rubdown show at Grand Ballroom.

Tickets are on "Radio Presale" for the Gaslight Anthem show at Terminal 5. General sale starts Saturday at noon.

Thursday, Mountain Goats, Final Fantasy, Besnard Lakes, Amy Millan, Black Heart Procession and other tickets also recently went on sale.

No tickets necessary for the Moshi Moshi show at South Street Seaport.

by Andrew Frisicano

Free show series Roosevelt Live will happen this summer on Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk Commons. The shows, scheduled for Saturdays at 4pm, will feature mostly local acts. Scheduled performers include piano-fronted band Wakey Wakey, indie-rockers Frances, Brooklyn country dude Alex Battles (of The Whiskey Rebellion) and local comedy/stunt troupe Improv Everywhere.

Improv Everywhere is the group responsible for the No Pants! subway rides. It most recently pulled off an April Fool's Day stunt where the group showed up en masse to a random, underattended funeral to make it "The Best Funeral Ever." It turns out the whole thing was staged, a fact the CW11 piece on the stunt failed to note (videos below).

Another recent-news tidbit from the Roosevelt Live performers, Frances frontman Paul Hogan scored indie-doc Must Read After My Death, which played at Manhattan's Quad Cinema in February and is now available for download at Gigantic Digital. Frances also plays the 92YTribeca on Saturday, April 4th with The Subjects and Glass Ghost. (Tickets for that show are on sale.)

Frances' Roosevelt Live performance takes place on June 20th, the same day that music blogger collective "After The Jump" is planning a festival on the same island. No more details on that one yet.

Full schedule (and flyer) with videos from the above-mentioned acts (plus a Coldplay tracked video of Roosevelt Island) below...

Continue reading "concerts on Roosevelt Island in 2009 - Improv Everywhere, Alex Battles, After the Jump, Frances & more "

DP's Angel Deradoorian @ Knitting Factory (more by Ryan Muir)

Tickets are still on sale for the show Dirty Projectors and Dan Deacon are playing at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on December 11th. Last year Dirty Projectors played Knitting Factory on New Years Eve, and this year they might do it again, joining the bill that we already know includes Deer Tick, Deerhoof and Akron/Family, and maybe Crystal Stilts too?

Speaking of Crystal Stilts, they play their record release show at Less Artists More Condos tonight/Friday.

More New Years Eve shows are listed HERE, and a bunch of them just went on sale.

A beautiful video of Dirty Projectors playing in a big purple van in Paris, below...

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors playing New Years Eve @ KF too/ again?"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Chairlift - Evident Utensil (MP3)

Chairlift played a free show at the 92YTribeca last Saturday, October 11, but if you missed that, there are still plenty of NYC chances to catch the Brooklyn three-piece in the next week.

First, this Saturday night (10/18), a Bowery gig with dance guru Juan MacLean and a Holy Ghost (DFA) DJ set (Tickets $15).

Then the band plays a packed CMJ-Tuesday (10/21) with three different showcases: After the Jump @ Pianos (5pm), NME @ the Annex (7pm) and the Deli Magazine @ the Hiro Ballroom (9pm).

The band (friends of MGMT) will then take off with Yeasayer (who previously toured with MGMT) for a bunch of October dates before taking off on their own to Europe. In December they rejoin Yeasayer in DC and then open the first of two shows Yeasayer are playing at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The date of the Brooklyn show is December 5th. Tickets are still on sale. Tickets are also on sale for the December 6th Yeasayer show. No openers are listed for that one yet

Grab and an MP3 above, and check out Chairlift's song "Bruises," off their new Kanine Records album Does You Inspire You, in an iPod commercial (btw if you haven't heard of these yet, what a fantastic, fantastic product).

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "iPod commercial stars CHAIRLIFT - 2008 Tour Dates (CMJ, Juan Maclean, After the Jump, NME, Deli & Yeasayer)"

Why does the Mermaid Parade have to be the same day musicians are playing for free all over the city including punk bands on Governors Island and blog-approved bands in Brooklyn at the After the Jump Festival?

If you do go to the Mermaid Parade, consider also going to the ball afterwards.

DOWNLOAD: Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel) (MP3)

The MP3 up there is off Baltimore band Ponytail's new album coming out on June 17th on the We Are Free label - the home of Yeasayer and Indian Jewelery. It's Ponytail's second album and the title of it is "Ice Cream Spiritual".

Ponytail have five NYC shows coming up. The first is this Saturday night in the Knitting Factory Tap Bar (May 31) with WZT Hearts and Thank You who recently signed to Thrill Jockey. The second is at Manhattan DIY space Less Artists More Condos. The third is part of the After the Jump Festival. The fourth and fifth are with Chicago's Kinsella-family band Joan of Arc at the Knitting Factory and The Yard respectively. All dates below...

Continue reading "Ponytail - MP3 & 2008 Tour Dates (many w/ Joan of Arc)"

Health @ SXSW 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

After the Jump is throwing a party at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on June 21st. Health is headlining the show that also includes NJ's Titus Andronicus, Pattern is Movement and Project Jenny, Project Jan. Looks like a great bill, and tickets went on sale today.

Project Jenny, Project Jan are also playing Asterisk Art Space in Brooklyn Saturday night (May 9, 2008) and at Mercury Lounge with Mixel Pixel on June 5th. All tour dates below.....

Continue reading "Health tour dates/After the Jump/Project Jenny Project Jan"

Dirty Projectors @ Knitting Factory, NYC - New Years Eve, 2007/8 (CRED)

BV contributor Nick Masi was there, and he sent me this quick review:

They were great, of course. It was cool seeing them at Knitting Factory and Longstreth seemed to be in the best spirits I have ever seen him. They went on around 11:40 and played til about 12:20! That was the worst part of the show. I was kind of shocked. Especially because they didn't play "Rise Above." They missed the countdown, like everyone always does, but they made up for it. They stopped "Gimme Gimme Gimme" to do the countdown, and then went right into "New Attitude" to start 2008!

Dirty Projectors were also recently featured on NPR where the comments indicate they are as controversial there, as they are around here.

What sucks about this is that I already have plans. Dirty Projectors (and many others) are playing the 'After The Jump' New Years Eve party at Knitting Factory in NYC. One pair of free tickets goes to someone who....

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors playing New Years Eve, win tix"

Jukebox the Ghost @ After the Jump @ Studio B, NYC - Aug 25, 2007

Though I wasn't personally involved with this weekend's After the Jump festival, BV dance writer David Bruno ("Slap You in Public") & BV hip hop writer Undisputed Wes ("Sit Down Stand Up"), were. And though I only personally made it to the Friday pre-festival roof party, impartial BV-correspodent Filthy McMuffin was in attendance at the daytime portion on Saturday, and he said "Jukebox the Ghost and Goes Cube were the best". He left before Spectrum (the daytime headliner) though. How were they?

Spectrum @ After the Jump @ Studio B, NYC - Aug 25, 2007

More pics by Bryan Subinev (like those in this post) at Flickr. More Spectrum (Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom) tour dates below....

Continue reading "After the Jump Fest @ Studio B & more Spectrum Tour Dates"

We missed out on the events previews last week...So, this being the somewhat official last weekend of summer: here's a rundown of NYC area events this week.

Get out there and shake it in the sunshine wearing white pants and get ready for a (great) winter inside the club.

SATURDAY ATJ - day and night
I'm really proud to be associated with and playing at such a great event. If you haven't taken the time to read about the Bronx High School for the Visual Arts and their plans to beef up their music programs with the donations from the festival, please take a minute. Then buy a ticket and strap on your dancing shoes. Things are gonna get wild when the sun sets with The Virgins, Soulico, FREE BLOOD, and of course Riot in Belgium.

FRIDAY ATJ - on a roof
Friday Night Rooftop Musebox Kick-off Party with Luke Temple, Paul Duncan, Butane Variations, and DJ nonsense from me...which won't matter after you drink all the Free Beer.

SUNDAY AFTJ - on a boat while the sun sets
People Don't Dance No More (my party) + Finger on the Pulse are getting together to throw a wrap up boat party on Sunday at 6 pm. We have a super huge guest DJ duo joining us on the boat and we'll be cruising and grooving til 10 pm. Tickets should be on Ticketweb, but get to the boat around 6 pm and you should be fine. $15 is cheaper than a Circle Line cruise and you get to hang out with your friends, not your cousins from Ohio. All proceeds from the party are of course going to the kids, so spread the word and help pack the boat. Pictures from our last boat outing are here and here. Don't miss out on the last one of the summer!

CONTEST!
Email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: jump) for a chance to win one of TEN PAIRS of combo tickets to the After the Jump night party, and Sunday's Boat Party. Tell us which band are you most looking forward to seeing at ATJ (and your first and last name for guestlist).

ESCORT at PS 1
The show of the season at last year's PS1's Warm Up was definitely Escort. They are back again this year to glitter their way through new material and turn the sun into a giant discoball hanging over the courtyard. This is your last chance to dance at PS1. Next weekend goes to the rockers.

Other dancing to be done:

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ David Bruno (08/23/07)"

by David Bruno

As you may have heard by now, a bunch of fantastic bloggy folks (one of whom is writing this article) banded together to throw down for charity at Studio B on Saturday August 25th.

The After the Jump Festival is an all day affair, organized and curated by 20-plus bloggers here in NYC. A mythical performance by Spectrum (ex-Spacemen 3) is the capstone of the FREE daytime show, and then the night show starts off with bands like Free Blood (who feature a now-ex-!!! member), and then quickly turns into a full on rave. Put on some UFO pants and a smiley face shirt, and do the bang gang dance. Get your tickets here.

There's gonna be a Riot in Belgium.

I'm more than excited to be sharing the DJ booth with Australian DJ duo Riot in Belgium. Bennie and Joel are part of the rising wave of fantastic Australian dance music. It seems everyone down under is pairing up and making nutso rave tracks...

Together as Riot in Belgium, they are responsible for some of the most peaktime stormers of the past year. You've probably heard "The Acid Never Lies", or their storming hit "La Musique". I think I heard someone listening to it on the subway this morning.

You've also heard their remix work for Yelle, Surkin, Sneaky Soundsytem, K.I.M. (1/2 of the Presets), Headman, and soon Chromeo. Headman was so taken with the boys, that he released "The Acid Never Lies" on his stellar Relish Recordings label, and it's about to be re-released with remixes from Sinden and Relover.

Separately, Joel also puts out fantastic music with Tim from Cut Copy as Comets, and Bennie is part of the crazy Sydney based DJ collective the Bang Gang Deejays - WHO, are also touring the United States and playing a show or two in NYC very soon.

More info, music, and tour dates, below....

Continue reading "Riot in Belgium, After The Jump & Bang Gang Deejays"