by BBG

I've had the pleasure of catching the crazy dudes in Double Dagger on occaision over the years, and it looks like I will have one more shot before they call it quits. Yes, Double Dagger is ending, but not without a string of select dates in late October that will include Death By Audio on 10/20 with AIDS Wolf and Zomes. The tour, which kick-off 10/12 and end 10/21, is bookended by two dates in their hometown of Baltimore.

Full statement and those tour dates below.

Continue reading "Double Dagger breaking up, announce final tour"

Evan Dando at The Bell House (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

Evan Dando & The Lemonheads have a few random upcoming dates scheduled. The Lemonheads will share a bill with The Canon Logic on April 28th at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Tickets are still available. You can also catch Josh Lattanzi of The Lemonheads at Bowery Ballroom on May 26 & 27 as part of the Bob Dylan tribute that will also include members of the Strokes, Hold Steady, etc, etc.

All other upcoming Evan Dando dates are in other countries at the moment, including a June 16th Evan & Juliana Hatfield show in Toronto for the NXNE festival which, like Brooklyn's own multi-venue festival Northside, recently expanded its lineup. Some of the other bands playing are in the title of this post. The rest are listed below.

All Dando-related dates and some videos below too...

Continue reading "Lemonheads playing shows, NXNE expands lineup (includes Descendents, Stars, Devo, OFF!, Juliana Hatfield, more)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Fergus & Geronimo - Powerful Lovin' (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Final Club - Tragic World (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Final Club - Hot Gaze (MEDIAFIRE LINK - ZIP)
DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - Underwater To (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - 4312 (MP3)

Gruff

Welcome to the first This Week in Indie of 2011. We are 12 days into this year and I have yet to see a show. If you add in the time before Christmas...this might be the longest I've gone without seeing live music in a long time. That drought will end for me this week, maybe tonight, but certainly tomorrow (1/13) as Gruff Rhys plays Rockwood Music Hall. I was a little worried this snow was to cancel his flight today, but he is currently on route to NYC as I write this.

Still no word as to who'll be releasing his new solo album, Hotel Shampoo, in the US but it seems likely someone will. Hopefully we'll get to hear a lot it live. As anyone whose seen him before -- either with Super Furry Animals or solo -- know, Gruff is an entertaining guy, who always puts extra effort into his shows. Highly recommended. Eleanor Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces opens. Show starts early -- 7:30.

I also just watched Separado!, the musical travelogue documentary about Gruff's quest to track down distant relative (and '70s caped troubadour) Rene Griffiths in Patagonia. Like Rhys himself, the film is charming, scruffy, funny and full of good songs. Still not released in America but you can order the UK DVD (if you have a region-free player or watch on a computer) or, if you live in Williamsburg, rent it from Videology.

Fergus & Geronimo

Fergus & Geronimo release their debut album, Unlearn, on Hardly Art next week, and are playing three shows this weekend in celebration: Friday (1/14) at Death By Audio (official official release party) with Final Club, Easter Vomit (ex Beets), new Captured Tracks signees Widowspeak, and Philadelphia's premiere surf band Dry Feet; Saturday (1/15) at Columbia University hangout The Ding Dong Lounge with Final Club; and Sunday (1/16) at Mercury Lounge with Tyvek. Xray Eyeballs and The Gaming Commission.

While it suffers from a slight case of identity crisis (droney psych, garagey rave-ups, organ-fueled soul), track-by-track Unlearn is a pretty solid record. Fergus & Geronimo are good at all the styles they dabble in. Check out "Powerful Lovin'" at the top of this post -- that shows off their soulful side. And while I haven't seen them play live in a year and a half, they were good then so I can only imagine they've gotten better.

Final Club

If your eyes didn't glaze over at the list of bands two paragraphs up, you may have noticed Final Club are playing with F&G twice this weekend. The two bands were Denton, TX neighbors before Fergus & Geronimo moved to Brooklyn late last summer. Final Club are here just for these shows. They are worth seeing in their own right: sneery, melodic indie rock with a tendency to lean on the tremolo bar which gives them a little Swervedriver vibe. Confident and loud.

You can check out "Tragic World" at the top of this post. And if you like that, you can download their Hot Gaze EP as well. Look out for their excellent debut album, Blank Entertainment, later this year. In addition to the two shows with Fergus & Geronimo, Final Club play a headlining gig at Death By Audio tomorrow night (1/13) with Bogan Dust, Clinical Trials and Laserdisc.

Tyvek @ BV-SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Also as mentioned above, Tyvek are in town this weekend. While many of their peers have moved on to mid-fi production, the Detroit band keep it live and murky on their new album, Nothing Fits. It also sounds as anxious, angry and alive as the rest of their material. In addition to the Mercury Lounge show on Sunday mentioned above, they play Saturday night (1/15) at Glasslands with The Beets, Eternal Summers, and Sweet Bulbs. That is a good show. Do note it starts early, 8PM for real, as the Soul Clap dance party starts at midnight. I'll be there.

I should mention that openers The Beets have a new album Stay Home that's just out on Captured Tracks. After last year's swell, cleanly produced "Locomotion" single, they too (like Tyvek) are back to the same intentionally shitty "production" of their first album. (Maybe slightly less shitty.) Which, again, doesn't hurt them at all. The Beets are good songwriters I think, and especially good lyricists. And maybe if they can ever get a drummer to stick around for more than a month they might go places. Or just stay home. There's also a new Beets single, "Time Brought Age," and both the LP and 7" feature the bands signature comic artwork courtesy Matt Volz.

Mister Heavenly

What else? Oh yeah, Mister Heavenly play Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (1/16) with Sun Airway and Little Shalimar. This extra super group just signed to Sub Pop, and the label would like you to know the band features Nick Diamonds (Islands/Unicorns), Honus Honus (Man Man) and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse). Of course most of the press so far has been about the group's sometimes bassist who you may know from his non-musical day job. I don't mean the banana stand.

Going to see a band because there's a famous actor in it is usually a dumb reason to go (see Dogstar, 30 Seconds to Mars , 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, etc)... plus Mr. Cera is not an "official" member of the band and he may or may not be playing with them on Sunday (note that both the label and the venue told us they don't think Michael will be there). Luckily the rest of the band is known in their own right, so mabye you should go for that reason. Unfortunately there's no recorded music to hear yet, but their few shows so far have been well-documented on YouTube.

That's the main stuff. Here's a few shows, day-by-day, not covered above.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12

Nashville-via-Ohio band Mona -- one of the BBC's picks for Sound of 2011 -- invade NYC this weekend, starting tonight at Rock Shop. They also play Mercury Lounge on Thursday (1/13) (with Devin Therriault) and Union Pool on Saturday (1/15).

Given the abbreviation of this column you're reading, I would be remiss not to mention that The Twees play The Studio @ Webster Hall, a record release show for their just-released EP. They actually don't sound twee at all. I would say Strokes-esque pop would get you closer to a description.

Quirky, occasionally proggy, pop band Steel Phantoms at Bruar Falls.

more below...

Continue reading "Mister Heavenly, Gruff Rhys, Fergus & Geronimo, Final Club, Tyvek, The Beets & more in This Week in Indie "

by Bill Pearis

AIDS Wolf

Thursday night was the first "official" day of M for Montreal (Wednesday was the unofficial start), which had us back at club Just Pour Rire, shuttling between its two stages for a diverse evening of music. From a programming standpoint, maybe a little too diverse. But it is one of the unique aspects of this fest, forced exposure.

The night began with the britpoppy psychedelia of Elephant Stone. Front man Rishi Dhir, who played in High Dials for a while, traded between bass, guitar and sitar, the latter of which is the band's most immediately distinguishing feature. Their songs are good too -- jangly psychedelic pop -- but it's certainly a trip to see Dhir sitting crosslegged on a platform playing this massive, cool intstrument. It's a nice, mellow start to the evening.

Next up was Marco Calliari, an Itallian Tom Colicchio (a musician too) lookalike who spent part of the '90s in thrash metal band Anonymous but now plays Italian folk music not too far off in style from, say, The Gypsy Kings. Calliari is an exuberant performer and his band is tight, but he's out of place of this otherwise electrified line-up. Also out of place: singer-songwriter Jason Bajada who was pleasant enough but didn't leave much of an impression.

Most everyone seemed in agreement that PS I Love You were the best band of the night. The duo from Kingston, Ontario are an indie Mutt and Jeff, kind of like the Pixies with a new wave back-end. Yelper-guitarist Paul Salnier actually pulls triple duty live, playing bass parts too via a Moog bass pedal setup which is pretty cool. Drummer Ben Nelson plays heavy on the high hat a la New Order's Stephen Morris which gives their songs danceability.  Their record, Meet Me at the Muster Station, is good but live PS I Love You are a force. As previously mentioned, they're touring and playing NYC next week with Holiday Shores (12/03 at The Rock Shop, then Pianos the next night). Go see 'em.

Bad sound marred the set from Black Feelings who I could tell I'd really like given proper circumstances. Like their name implies, the trio grind out dense, foreboding post punk (PiL, Big Black). They are intense live, but it was like the sound guy forgot to turn the fader up on the guitars and the mix was muddy in general. Not so on last year's self-titled debut (out on  Alien8 Recordings, also home to Think About Life, Duchess Says and others). They're also the kind of band better suited to grungy DIY spaces than fancier venues like this one.

Ditto that to Aids Wolf who are a defiantly acquired taste, even for those with adventurous palates. Entirely out of their element, the confrontational art-noise group settle into freakout mode that sound, to casual ears, entirely improvised a la Throbbing Gristle. (Anyone who's heard their records and then seen them live knows these three are insanely tight, serious musicians.) Chloe Lum spends most of the show with the microphone in her mouth. They are not boring but a little goes a long way and most of the room cleared out well before their set finishes. I'm told Gene Simmons, one of my fellow "international delegates" for the weekend, really dug them.

With the "official selection" finished for the night came the afterparty entertainment: Quebec City's Dance Laury Dance. who seemed super-psyched to have Simmons in the house. (He watched sitting from the balcony, like a mafia don, nodding approvingly.) Clad in denim and leather and testosterone, DLD are like Wolverine: The Band, with a sound and schtick somewhere between Motorhead and The Darkness. Ridiculous, but entertaining. Not that much irony here, either. The songs are a little more than riffs and slogans, which is fine, but when the band covered AC/DC their lack of potent hooks became apparent. Still, for pure rawk spectacle overload, they're something all right.

Still to come: Reports from Friday and Saturday. More blurry photos taken by me are below, along with PS I Love You tour dates and a Dance Laury Dance music video.

Continue reading "M For Montreal 2010 - night 2 in pics & review (PS I Love You, AIDS Wolf, Dance Laury Dance, Gene Simmons & more)"

DOWNLOAD: AIDS Wolf - "Teaching To Suffer" (MP3)

AIDS Wolf kicks off their North American tour TODAY (9/15) in Providence with a short string of dates with An Albatross that include a pair of NYC shows. Cake Shop gets the first look on Aids Wolf/An Albatross with Child Abuse and Forbes / Toung / Walter (as in Weasel Walter) tomorrow (9/16) and Death By Audio gets the second with Sightings and Vaz (2/3 of Hammerhead) on Friday (9/17).

The two month tour is in celebration of TWO LPs due this month via two different labels, March To The Sea on Skingraft and a remix album on Lovepump. Dig on the first track from March To The Sea, "Teaching To Suffer", available for download above.

Red Mass also plays that Providence show tonight before headling to NYC for their own shows Friday and Saturday. They then hook back up with Aids Wolf on September 22nd in Georgia.

All AIDS Wolf dates, and some video is below...

Continue reading "new Aids Wolf MP3 & 2010 tour dates "

In their disheveled attic studio, the members of Gay Beast don't talk mathematics. Early on, they don't talk much at all. Today, singer and keyboardist Dan Luedtke is busy screen-printing the inserts for the vinyl version of the band's latest spazz-rock collection, Second Wave. The process, it seems, is nearly as painstaking as creating an actual Gay Beast tune, minus the eyeballs-on-fire jitters their adrenal scores provoke...

City Pages: How did you become involved with your label, Skin Graft?

Luedtke: Our friends in AIDS Wolf are on the label. We were looking for a label, putting together demo packages, trying to do it differently this time, trying to be more proactive. They were going to sign two bands for '09. The label owner lives in Vienna, so there was a bit of a courting period, talking to each other on the phone.

Explain the new record's title, Second Wave.

Luedtke: Second Wave relates to second-wave feminism, and the songs include portraits of different feminists. Before this record, we did a split 7-inch about Donna Harroway. There's a song about Andrea Dworkin. For me there's an interest because I feel it intersects with queer politics a lot. We can look at what feminists worked on as a way to talk about personal politics and strategies for changing things. There is a lot of interest with the second-wave feminist era because there was a lot of idea creation happening. Modern, radical ideas, some of which were far-fetched and impractical. People wanted something so badly they'd make up new means for accomplishing it.

The noisy Minneapolis band kicks off a three night stay in in NYC, tonight (6/3), with a show at the Silent Barn featuring Satanized, Joe Lentini and Hot Guts. They'll be at Bruar Falls June 4th with Talk Normal and Body Type[s], and at the Market Hotel on June 5th with Titan, Child Abuse, NYMPH and Liturgy.

Gay Beast's Second Wave LP came out a few weeks ago, at the end of May on Skin Graft Records. Check them out for yourself. There's a video of Gay Beast at NYC's Cake Shop in 2006, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Gay Beast - making noise in NY this week -- 2009 tour dates "

photos by Lori Baily

AIDS Wolf

AZNightBuzz: You play with the U.S. Girls as well as some other great bands every place you visit. Who are you most excited about seeing?

Aids Wolf: Well, we've already played with U.S. Girls, Can't and Sightings, three acts we were most stoked to play with. We are also salivating for Love Tan, Mayor Daley, Puffy Areolas, PRE, Gay Beast, Shearing Pinx, Dead Machines, The Mayyors and Death Sentence: PANDA! We're really pretty excited for all our bills, playing with bands we are friends with and/or fans of is really important to us. Getting to see the bands we like is one of the things that make touring worthwhile.

Who are you listening to on tour?

Aids Wolf: Thee Oh Sees, Ornette Coleman, ZZ Top, Captain Beefheart, some sweet Balinese classical music, Babe Ruth, Ennio Morricone, Walter Wegmuller, U.S. Girl Meghan talking about eating meat and the sounds of Bob Gainey crying.

Death By Audio hosted Aids Wolf ,U.S. Girls, Sightings, Fiasco, and Talk Normal on Wednesday night, March 11th. That was before all or most of those bands headed from Brooklyn to Austin for SXSW. More pictures from the NYC show below...

Continue reading "AIDS Wolf, Fiasco, Sightings, U.S. Girls & Talk Normal @ Death By Audio, NYC - pics"

Aids Wolf (DAVID WALDMAN. KWC)

"We are a cult . ************************ AIDS Wolf are the preeminent Formalist/Unknown Wave quartet, formed in Montreal, 2003. They have released two full-length records on SKiN GRAFT Records and Lovepump United as well as numerous collaborations, splits and seven inches. The membership is Chloe "Deluxxx" Skum on flamejob scream, Yannick "NoNo" Desranleau on Total Downward Thunder, Myles "BOP" Broscoe on Electric Mountain Range and Alex "Kozz" Moskos on Split-Skreen Desert Guitar. The band works and lives in Montreal, where they are presently composing material for concept record on Canadian Prime Ministers and French Military Strategy circa 1759, working on a Throbbing Gristle cover and eating well. **********************"

Aids Wolf has left Montreal and are on the road for at least the next month. Currently on tour with Philly's U.S. Girls, the two bands will join Sightings, Fiasco, and Talk Normal for a Todd P/Michelle Panache show at Death By Audio in Brooklyn tonight (3/11), and then will make their way to SXSW where Aids Wolf have a ton of performances scheduled, at least one of which is being being promoted by Todd P. More details, all dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "AIDS Wolf - 2009 Tour Dates (NYC tonight, US Girls, SXSW) "

Photos by Joe Perez

Though Ryan only caught DMBQ and Matt & Kim at Danbro Studios on Halloween, I couldn't not post a picture of Ponytail's Molly Siegel looking amazing in her Kool-Aid Man costume.

Ponytail, Yeasayer and Graffiti Monsters are playing the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU on November 15th. Tickets are "$8.00 w/NYU ID (Available in Advance Two Days Time) $12.00 General Admission (Available @ The Door Day of Show)". (thx Brenda).

Members of Yeasayer were in the crowd when Ponytail played Music Hall of Williamsburg during CMJ. Yeasayer end a tour with two nights at the same venue in December.

Halloween photos of Aids Wolf below...

Continue reading "Ponytail - Danbro Halloween pics, an NYU show w/ Yeasayer"

Matt & Kim @ McCarren Pool (more by Ryan Muir)

Friday October 31st @ DANBRO BREWERY WAREHOUSE

:: TODD P / PANACHE BIG HALLOWEEN BASH

:: MATT AND KIM
:::: DMBQ
:::::: PONYTAIL
:::::::: AIDS Wolf
:::::::::: the HOMOSEXUALS
:::::::::::: SCREENS

[ DANBRO BREWERY WAREHOUSE ]
address info to be announced later... | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
ALL AGES | no phone | doors 8pm

Matt & Kim's first new song in two years is available for free @ RCRD LBL. More tour dates below...

Continue reading "Matt & Kim - 2008 Tour Dates & a new song"

Friday April 11th @ LOCATION TO BE EMAILED TO TICKET HOLDERS

:: ATLAS SOUND + secret longtime buds band
:::: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome WOLF
:::::: more guests tba

=================================================
==\/== ATLAS SOUND + SECRET BUDS - ADVANCE TICKETS ==\/==
=================================================
we're selling advance tickets to next Friday's ATLAS SOUND + secret
buds show. Only ticket holders will be emailed the location.
----> tickets go on sale @ 5PM SAT, 3/5 @ CINDERS GALLERY
----> [ 103 Havemeyer St @ Hope St - 718.388.2311 ]
----> location will be emailed to ticket holders @ 7pm night of show
================================================
==/\== ATLAS SOUND + SECRET BUDS - ADVANCE TICKETS ==/\==
=================================================

My first guess for "secret longtime buds band" was Black Lips, but they're on tour in Europe. Bradord is definitely "friends" with Grizzly Bear, but I don't know about "longtime", so my new guess is Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. I was also thinking maybe Deerhunter, though I'm not 100% sure why they wouldn't just say Deerhunter. Maybe it's because Deerhunter aren't supposed to play any other advertised shows before their next one in Brooklyn. Any other ideas?

I ended up seeing Atlas Sound twice at SXSW - first at the Pitchfork Party and then again the next day at Mess With Texas. Both were pretty good. Ryan Muir saw them at Mess With Texas too. More of his photos below....

Continue reading "Atlas Sound + secret guest Friday in Brooklyn, ticket info"

DOWNLOAD: Randall of Nazareth - Ballad of a Sorry Lonely Breaking Man (MP3)

Pennsylvania punkers Pissed Jeans are playing Knitting Factory in NYC on April 11th with Aids Wolf and 2UP. Tickets are on sale. If you can't wait that long, no problem - they are also playing Silent Barn in Brooklyn on Feb. 15th.

That MP3 on the top of this post is not Pissed Jeans, but it is related. It's off Randall of Nazareth's album that came out on Drag City towards the end of last year. Randall of Nazareth is the solo moniker of Randy Huth from Pearls and Brass, AND Pissed Jeans, where Randy replaced Dave Rosenstraus on bass. You may have caught Randall opening for Six Organs of Admittance in Philly the other day.

More tour dates below.....

Continue reading "Pissed Jeans - 2008 Tour Dates, Randall of Nazareth"