Vivian Girls @ Whitney in July (more by Anna Scialli)

NIN @ Webster Hall the other day (more by Bao Nguyen)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Amanda Blank @ Urban Outfitters
* Nine Inch Nails, The Horrors @ Terminal 5
* Heaven & Hell, Coheed & Cambria @ Theater at MSG
* Highline Piano Series: Phil Vassar @ Highline Ballroom
* My Teenage Stride, Surfer Blood, I'm Turning Into @ Silent Barn
* Vivian Girls, The Beets, Real Estate, Best Fwends @ Death By Audio
* Andy Friedman & The Golden Winners, Welcome Wagon, The Honeycutters @ The Bell House

Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath play the Theater at MSG as Heaven & Hell. Their first album in 17 years came out in April. Coheed & Cambria open.

Britney Spears is ALSO playing MSG tonight. amazing.

Queen Latifah's show tonight at the Nokia Theatre has been canceled.

Nine Inch Nails plays Terminal 5 with The Horrors tonight. They return to the venue tomorrow with Mew in the opening slot.

Vivian Girls kick off their N.A. tour with The Beets tonight at Death By Audio with Real Estate and Best Fwends. On the horizon, the Vivian Girls have a tenative Halloween show lined up for NYC.

You can also see Real Estate this Thursday at Insound's 10 Year anniversary party at the Brooklyn Bowl with Cymbals Eat Guitars, These Are Powers and The Drums.

The show tonight is your last chance to see Best Fwends on their current NYC run. They played with Das Racist at the Studio at Webster Hall, and at "Above the Auto Parts Store" on Saturday. A video from the latter show and a clip of the guys from 2007 are below.

Andy Friedman & The Golden Winners, Sufjan Stevens-produced band Welcome Wagon and The Honeycutters play The Bell House tonight. Welcome Wagon and Andy Friedman teamed up previously at a gig last December (at which Sufjan appeared) and one in January (where he did not).

Highline Piano Series contiunes with a performance by Phil Vassar.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

words by Lauren Mooney, photos by Stephanie F. Black

The Brooklyn church smelled like frankincense and was packed with folks in scarfs and sweaters and hats -- Andy Friedman & the Other Failures opened up the evening with rockabilly-tinged folk songs about drinking wine all day and going on road trips. The sense of heartbreak and longing for middle American landscapes was so much that Friedman broke a guitar string and had to borrow Welcome Wagon's for the closing numbers.

Then one of Asthmatic Kitty Records' latest creations got ready to take the stage -- the husband and wife team (Rev. Vito Aiuto and Monique) that make up Welcome Wagon are actually the pastor and wife of a congregation that meets at this same place on Sunday evenings. You can see why this church works in Williamsburg - they were the perfect combination of hip and genuine - if there is such a thing.

Sufjan Stevens played producer and came onstage first to make sure the stage was in order. And then the couple took the stage joined by many others - including back-up singers plucked from the choir and Stevens himself on banjo, guitar, backup vocals and triangle.

The most endearing thing was how the Reverend and his wife faced each other throughout the performance - and often broke into slight smiles. All the songs from the record were played - stopping every four songs or so to exemplify a real "welcome wagon" experience which consisted of giving away Monique-made cookies, the record and Polish sausage from Greenpoint. The winners were decided on who had moved to New York the most recently, who had traveled the farthest from the show and who had a Christmas birthday ("since you get gypped" said Aiuto).

Candy Stations added a warmth to the show by projecting visuals (flowers, stars and snowflakes) on big white balloons that hovered above the stage and twinkling white Christmas lights were draped over microphone stands. The highlight of the show (besides the unexpected giveaways) was the cover of The Smiths' "Half A Person." Morrissey's woe is me candor was turned into a joyous explosion of musical cuteness.

Welcome Wagon will be playing with Andy Friedman & the Other Failures again, at the latter's album release show at Southpaw in Brooklyn on January 29th. Tickets are on sale. More pictures from the last show below...

Continue reading "The Welcome Wagon, Sufjan Stevens & Andy Friedman played St. Paul's Lutheran (pics), next show is Southpaw (tix)"

DOWNLOAD: The Welcome Wagon - Sold! To the Nice Rich Man (MP3)

The debut album by The Welcome Wagon unveils a ramshackle sing-a-long enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev. Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored. This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group's repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of "sacred" song traditions: from Old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic Catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths). There are even a few originals. Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, pastor and wife stumble their way through an arresting catalog of hymns--hallowed and unholy--with the simple desire to know their Maker--and to know each other--more intimately. The result--due, in part, to producer/arranger Sufjan Stevens--is an awe-inspiring collection of hymns, pop covers, and originals that render soulful stunts from quiet skirmishes of home recordings. [Asthmatic Kitty]

Since we were already on the subject of Asthmatic Kitty releases that Sufjan is involved with that are coming out next week, I thought it was a good time to mention this one too. Welcome to the Welcome Wagon is out December 9th which is the same night of the release show at a church in Brooklyn...

Continue reading "The Welcome Wagon - Sufjan-produced album, release show"