R Stevie Moore at SUNY Purchase in 2011 (more by Kellyann Petry)

Inhumanly prolific "godfather of home recording" R. Stevie Moore will be in NYC this weekend for a show at Cake Shop on Sunday (5/6) with The Pendulum Swings and Ry Crane. He'll be performing with a full band featuring members of Supercute! (who feature a member of the Trachtenberg Slideshow Players).

This past February, R. Stevie Moore released Ku Klux Glam, a 61-track collaborative album with Ariel Pink. The whole album is available to stream on bandcamp. You can also download it for $27 or order the double CDR at his website for $25. A 19-track version is available on iTunes. A double LP is coming soon. Theophilus London is thanked in the liner notes.

All dates, album artwork and tracklist below...

Continue reading "R Stevie Moore released a 61 track album with Ariel Pink, playing Cake Shop and other dates"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo & Josh Darr

Twin Sister

Pitchfork Fest Day Three (Sunday, 7/17/11) was the day to go if you were looking to dance. The last day of the fest was pretty heavy on the electronic music with Cut Copy, Toro y Moi, HEALTH, Baths, Darkstar, and for something way chiller, How to Dress Well. The third day provided lo-fi masters Kurt Vile, Ariel Pink, and Deerhunter, and complete opposite ends of the hip hop spectrum with the abrasive and utterly offensive Odd Future and the this-must-be-from-another-planet rap of Shabazz Palaces. Day three was also the one chance to see a metal band (Kylesa).

Sunday was headlined by TV on the Radio. TVOTR, like Fleet Foxes who headlined the day before, have a wildly impressive double bill at Williamsburg Waterfront in September. Theirs is with Broken Social Scene on September 8. Tickets are still available.

Twin Sister played Sunday, and you can catch them for free in McCarren Park this Wednesday night (7/27).

Pictures of OFWGTKA's set are HERE. Day Two HERE. Day One HERE. Pics from the rest of Day Three are below...

Continue reading "pics from Pitchfork Fest 2011 -- Day Three"

Head over to Other Music now to get your tickets for tonight (6/3). Listen to Ariel express his love for NY in a video from last night's show at Irving Plaza, below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink played Irving Plaza... playing Santos tonight"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Dam-Funk - "Don't Give Up" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Fright Night (Nevermore)" Dam-Funk Remix (MP3)

Dam Funk at Fun Fun Fest (more by BBG)

Dam-Funk will team with his live band Master Blazter (Computer Jay & J-1) to play a funky Memorial Day party aboard 'The Queen Of Hearts' as part of a Rocks off Boat Cruise on May 30th. Joining Dam-Funk will be the silky smooth vocals of Steve Arrington (of Slave, who has been known to collabo with Dam-Funk, and who will also have a full band), Bryant K, and Beautiful Swimmers. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale. Flyer below.

The boat show happens one day after Dam-Funk plays B.O.M.B Fest which is one day after he plays the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. All dates are listed below.

Dam-Funk recently released an unreleased and unmastered "Don't Give Up", a remix for the Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti track "Fright Night (Nevermore)", and a new mixtape (culled straight from vinyl... atta boy). All tracks are either downloadable above or streaming below.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is scheduled to play Irving Plaza on June 2nd with Silk Flowers and R. Stevie Moore. Tickets are still available for the show which happens right before The Roots Picnic in Philly.

Continue reading "Dam-Funk remixed Ariel Pink, playing a boat w/ Steve Arrington after B.O.M.B. Fest & other dates"

by Bill Pearis

I absolutely hated Cake Shop, which opened around this time back in 2005, the first few times I went. Not the idea of the place, which was fantastic: part coffee shop, part record store, part indie rock venue. More the practicality of the place. The inclined floor meant that you had to (and still do) have to be in the first few rows of people to see anything. I was used to the clear sightlines of Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom and Knitting Factory. What the hell was this?

But the place became hard to avoid if you went to a lot of shows. The people booking seemed to get really good shows, and some surprising ones. And they clearly loved '90s indie rock and Flying Nun. I think it was the in-store with The Bats back in March of 2006 that finally warmed my heart to Cake Shop. It was around this time as well that I learned that if you wormed you way to the front of the downstairs room, not only could you see, there is an intimacy and connection with the bands you don't get at many other "legit" venues. Some of my most memorable shows of the last few years have been there.

While the record store has given way to more couches, Cake Shop remains one of the places in the city to catch emerging talent -- and cool veteran artists almost no one else would book. As previously mentioned, the venue celebrates its 6th Anniversary on Saturday night (5/7) with six bands for six bucks. Headlining are The Beets whose new album, Stay Home, is another fine slab of protopunk folk rock, this time slightly less murky. The guys, who managed to get themselves featured on the Howard Stern Show recently, are heading on tour with Eternal Summers soon and all dates for that are below.

Also playing are New Zealand's Surf City, whose sound reverberates with their country's indie rock past. They are maybe the most Flying Nun sounding NZ band never to be on Flying Nun. The new album, Kudos, is worth checking out. (They're here recording another.) Then there's Conversion Party whose anthemic pop stylings should be more popular (seriously these guys are good). If you can't make it Saturday, they play Cake Shop's sister venue Bruar Falls tonight (5/6).

More bands playing: Holy Shit who is San Francisco artist Matt Fishbeck (and sometimes Ariel Pink). At their website you can listen to what is certainly the only electro cover ever on Felt's "Final Resting of the Ark." Still more: reclusive Faunelle (dreamy, gothy synths) and poet Ariana Reines.

Holy Shit also play Monday at Glasslands with John Maus.

Beets tour dates below...

Continue reading "Happy Birthday Cake Shop (happy tour Beets) (Holy Shit)"

by Marley Lynch

R. Stevie Moore @ Knitting Factory in 2007 (by Leia Jospe)

Talk about eccentric. R. Stevie Moore opened his show at Brooklyn's Cameo Gallery on April 14th wearing a white linen suit over a short-sleeved hoodie imprinted with neon skulls, rubbing a towel over his belligerent grey hair and moaning wordlessly into the microphone. And it only got weirder from there.

Fans who came to see the 59-year old original seemed to know what to expect. They danced to his experimental songs, laughed nervously at his semi-articulate digressions, and played along with his rambunctious antics. Indeed, they seemed pleased with Moore's delivery of his pop, punk and prog rock songs, which were backed by attractive Brooklyn band Tropical Ooze. Instead of being just plain bizarre, the concert was ultimately mesmerizing and inimitable; it offered a window into Moore's mysterious world, the man hailed as the "Godfather of Home Recording" who remains lamentably unrecognized.

The son of Bob Moore, revered session bassist who played with the likes of Elvis Presley and Patsy Cline, Moore Jr. grew up in Nashville and learned to play the guitar, piano, bass, and drums as a teenager. This self-sufficient method also extends to his production - the DIY stalwart writes, plays, records and mixes all of his music. He has now released over 400 genre-crossing records over a course of 32 years. Can you say prolific? If you'd like to delve into this indefatigable music catalogue, you can find it on a variety of domestic and international indie labels, as well as much that was released through Moore's own Cassette Club which then became the CDR Club.

Moore's releases are enough to send any record store employee into a head-scratching frenzy - what bin should they be placed in? This question is simply impossible to answer as his music captures an incredible range of styles and influences. Present are the sounds of the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, 10cc, Talking Heads and the Ramones. Moore is also a lo-fi movement pioneer, long before it became popularized by bands such as Pavement and Guided by Voices.

The tightness of last week's performance is even more impressive when you consider the diverse and formidable material Tropical Ooze was faced with learning (also keep in mind the challenges of working with a musician as idiosyncratic as Moore). On "Irony," an appealing, poppy song, his characteristically nasal falsetto was expertly backed by T'Ooze's gentle guitar twangs and melodic keyboard strokes to create a funky, danceable groove.

Towards the end of the show, Moore stormed offstage along with his band, only to return on his own - "totally unrehearsed the way you like," he assured his audience with a creepy giggle. Tenderly fondling his guitar, which was covered with a peeling sticker of the Virgin Mary, he delivered a solo acoustic session. His diffidence was only betrayed by his wailing lyrics: "Mama I'm at the top of my game // They all in the palm of my hand // What do I do now?"

If you did not catch him at Cameo, Moore will be back in the Big Apple on June 2nd to open for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza. He is currently raising money for a world tour, so curious non-New Yorkers (as well as NYC dwellers) should donate at his Kickstarter Campaign to be sure to take advantage of his rare forays out of the recording studio (also known as his living room). His value as a live performer is seriously underrated, and he definitely doesn't leave his audience bored.

photos by David Andrako

Here are a few things that happened on Coachella Day 1:

• it was hot.
• lots of celebrities, like Coachella regular Danny Devito, were walking around
• The Black Keys, Kings of Leon and the Chemical Brothers were the big headlining acts of the day (all on the main Coachella Stage)
• people wore funny outfits, and sometimes NSFW outfits.
• people sinned.
• Lauryn Hill started late, but not too late (aka she still got to play).
• Cee Lo showed up very late, apologized, but acted mad he had to play a short set. He used that anger to give his set-closing hit "Fuck You" context.
• Odd Future predictably drew a huge crowd, and were joined by Pharell.
• Odd Future's set resulted in a possible broken nose (again)
• There were 20 arrests
• Paul McCartney was there, and along with Usher, stood on stage during Afrojack's set.
• YACHT played
• Many other people played, and lots of other stuff happened too, as you can see in the pictures below...

What were your highlights of Coachella Day One? Are you there or watching the stream?

Photographer David Andrako managed to catch 18 acts and other random stuff in between on Friday. His pictures from the whole day continue below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2011 Day 1 in pics (Chemical Brothers, Black Keys, Robyn, Interpol, Cee Lo, Crystal Castles, Sleigh Bells & more)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Tickets are now on Live Nation presale (password = "concert") for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti at Irving Plaza on June 2nd. Presale ends at 10PM tomorrow (3/31) and tickets go on regular sale on Friday (4/1).

The show is two days before Ariel plays the 4th annual Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, PA. There he'll meet up with The Dismemberment Plan, Nas, Man Man, Wiz Khalifa, and many others. Tickets are still available. Ariel's only other date at the moment is Coachella which is much sooner.

Ariel Pink played The Rock n Roll Circus under the Big Apple Circus big top in January (a day after the "unruly" Japanther). Another, long lost set of pictures from that show are below, along with the list of dates...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink will play NYC before Roots Picnic (and here are some more pics from that circus show)"

Guided by Voices @ Irving Plaza, New Year's Eve (more by Chris Gersbeck)

"As previously announced, the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival will be taking place on Friday, July 15th through Sunday, July 17th at Chicago's Union Park! Tickets went on sale on March 4th, and, as predicted, three-day passes sold out in a record time of 24 hours! That said, eager prospective festival goers should fear not, as single-day passes are still available for the totally reasonable price of $45.

And now, without further ado, the newest additions to the 2011 Pitchfork Festival lineup! Friday will see the addition of Guided By Voices and Neko Case; Saturday's lineup will feature No Age, Gang Gang Dance, G-Side, and Chrissy Murderbot; Sunday's stellar lineup now includes The Fresh & Onlys, Radio Dept., HEALTH, Shabazz Palaces, Baths, How To Dress Well, Kurt Vile, and Twin Sister. Stay tuned for more bands still to be announced in the coming weeks!"

Continue reading "Pitchfork Fest expands lineup (Guided by Voices & more)"

by BBG

The recently reunited Death from Above 1979 have posted rehearsal footage of "Little Girl" from their LP You're a Woman I'm a Machine. While that's fascinating enough, what's more fascinating is the way that video ends... an all black screen that reads "3/19/2011 1:00AM", a date and time that happens to fall right during SXSW. One question is whether they really mean 3/19 at 1am (Friday night) or actually mean 3/20 at 1am (Saturday night)? They probably mean Saturday night, especially since I doubt they're advertising the MSTRKRFT SXSW show that happens Friday night at the same time. Is DFA1979 cooking up a comeback show for Austin? No concrete answers.

Assuming it is Saturday night at SXSW, and that it is a show, then it's unfortunately at the same time that their old label Vice is having their annual late night party which this year will feature an awesome lineup of Odd Future, OFF!, and Thee Oh Sees. That is, unless it's happening at the Vice party, though nobody I asked at Vice seemed to know anything about it. Vice's party starts at 12 midnight and RSVP is currently open.

Vice's Official showcase goes down two days earlier (3/17) at Club Deville with Davila 666, OFF!, Black Lips, and a special guest headliner who I'm willing to bet is the Raveonettes (who will be in Texas and are signed to Vice). Vice is also involved in the noisey.com show featuring exclusive performances from Bun B and Ariel Pink that goes down in Austin one night later.

All DFA1979 dates, a Vice flyer and the mysterious video, below...

Continue reading "DFA1979 post mysterious video, Vice announce SXSW shows"

by Andrew Sacher

The godfather of home recording, R. Stevie Moore, who recently moved back to his hometown -- Nashville, Tennessee, has announced his first ever American tour. He's coordinating the tour with Ariel Pink (who cites Moore as a friend and mentor) (though it's not clear if Ariel is playing any of the dates) and his booking agents. Moore will be backed on tour by the 3-piece band, Tropical Ooze. The cities and dates for the tour are still tentative, but R. Stevie Moore plans to start his tour in NYC on 6/19 and end in Brooklyn on 7/14. His Chicago date is 6/23 which means he won't be at the Pitchfork Festival though Ariel Pink will be. More details to come, but the full list of dates is below.

In addition to the tour, R. Stevie Moore is also performing at and hosting SUNY Purchase's annual Culture Shock Festival on April 15/16. This is the first time in Culture Shock history that the event is featuring a guest host. The full Culture Shock lineup hasn't been announced yet, but it has been announced that the side stage will be headlined by emo revivalists Algernon Cadwallder on Friday (4/15) and the breezy Long Island duo Small Black on Saturday (4/16).

Meanwhile R. Stevie Moore is working on a new album that he funded/is funding through Kickstarter. You can still donate if you want though he's already reached his goal, started recording and released a song. Listen to that song, watch his Kickstarter video and check out all dates (cities and dates only), below...

Continue reading "R. Stevie Moore recording his new album, planing a tour, hosting Culture Shock 201l"

"the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival will be taking place on Friday, July 15th through Sunday, July 17th! Tickets will officially be on sale today at 12 PM CST, with single-day tickets for $45 and three-day passes for $110! If last year was any indicator, three-day passes will sell out in under a week (last year they sold out in FIVE DAYS!), so be sure to get your tickets ASAP!"

Continue reading "2011 Pitchfork Music Festival - initial lineup & tickets"

P.S. 22

"Because English singer-songwriter Dido, who is nominated with Rollo Armstrong and A.R. Rahman for "If I Rise" from 127 Hours, was not available for tonight's show, the producers have recruited Florence Welch from Florence + the Machine to appear with Rahman. Welch is coming off a standout performance in the opening number of the Grammys.

Along with the best original song nominees, tonight's show also will feature the P.S. 22 Chorus, an elementary school chorus from Staten Island, N.Y., who will make a joyous musical appearance singing "Over the Rainbow," according to The Hollywood Reporter." [BAM's Blog]

P.S. 22 recently posted a newer cover of Ariel Pink's "Round And Round" (newer than the one they posted in January). Check that out, and a Katy Perry cover they did at an Oscar press conference (they're going to sing with Katy Perry on Oprah on Monday), below...

Continue reading "Florence Welch & P.S. 22 on the Oscars (Dido couldn't make it)"

review by Rachel Kowal, photos by Erez Avissar

How to Dress Well at a church

"I'm sure you're all here to see How to Dress Well," joked the one-man opening act Autre Ne Veut as he walked on stage Friday night (maybe you also caught him Saturday at Pianos). But even if his frank assessment held a bit of truth, the mysteriously anonymous Brooklyn artist certainly caught the attention of the audience by his first move: stripping down to just a black tank top and underwear. (ok, so he was actually just changing his pants, but really - who does that on stage?)

Autre Ne Veut's set-up was pretty bare bones - just a guy singing karaoke style over 80s-fab beats and melodies and stumble-dancing around a smokey stage. Judging from the bemused expressions in the room, I know I wasn't the only one perplexed and bemused by the over-the-top performance. He may not have played any instruments, but the anonymous Brooklynite was constantly on the move - crouching down on stage, dangling the mic over his head, jerking back and forth, and swiveling hips in time to the music. "I feel a little like I'm watching a Paula Abdul video," whispered my friend Sarah. So true.

Near the end of his set, a little fan club of dancing girls formed at the foot of the stage. A couple of people even picked up the votive candles from the stage and began to swing them over their heads as Autre Ne Veut repeatedly sang the line, "You'll be dreaming about me." Even after he had concluded his set (with the requested song "Wake Up"), he stuck around on stage to dance when the house music (Prince's "Kiss") came on. How perfect.

In between sets, people milled around the small room of the church, sharing beers and exchanging stories as more people filtered in from the snowy Greenpoint streets
.
"I usually try to only play shows at Best Buy and Brooklyn Bowl, but a church will do" said How to Dress Well's Tom Krell near the beginning of his set. And he was right - a church did seem to be an apt setting given his soulful falsetto (Antony Hegarty meets Usher) and the air of reverence emitting from the crowd.

Krell may have had "a little bit of a cold," but it didn't seem to hinder his performance. From his perch on the dimly lit stage, he easily captivated the sold-out crowd with his distinct combination of lo-fi bedroom pieces and R&B slow jams. Much of Krell's live show may be based on samples, but the result is no less arresting.

After playing nearly the entirety of his debut album, Love Remains, Krell returned to the candlelit stage for just one more song. "Don't tell anyone about this. I could get sued," he hastily confessed. To the delight of the crowd, he concluded his set with an Ariel Pink cover - "Fright Night (Nevermore)" (or by his dubbing, "Friday Night").

--

Speaking of Ariel Pink covers, if you were wondering (like I was at first), why I didn't include the now-everywhere-on-the-internet Ariel Pink cover by Staten Island's PS22 in the post I did about PS22 on Friday, well it's because the very-bloggable video wasn't actually posted to PS22's YouTube until later that day. If you haven't seen it yet, you can now watch it below.

Also below are more pictures and videos of both acts at the church (including a shot of HTDW's setlist), video from a show How to Dress Well played in Toronto since then, and more tour dates...

Continue reading "How to Dress Well played Church of the Messiah w/ Autre Ne Veut, covered Ariel Pink (just like PS22) - pics, review, videos"

DOWNLOAD: Steven Drozd - "Born" (MP3)

Tibet House US Benefit 2010 (more by Chris La Putt)

No word on how a giant vagina entrance, a bear suit, Wayne Coyne in an inflatable ball, Hulk hands and similar props will work at Carnegie Hall, but The Flaming Lips will join recent addition Taj Mahal at the 21st Annual Tibet House US Benefit Show on 3/3. The two join a veritable all-star lineup that includes Michael Stipe, The Roots, Patti Smith with Jesse Smith & Michael Campbell, Angelique Kidjo, James McCartney, and of course curator Philip Glass. Tickets for the concert are on sale via Carnegie Hall, while tickets for the concert and a fund-raising dinner are on sale via Tibet House directly. (Note: Do not expect a full set by any band - they usually play 3 songs each at the most, with a few collaborations and group sing-alongs).

In related News, Wayne Coyne recently talked to Spin about some of the Lips' plans for 2011...

First up, the band is heading to New York to cut tracks with synth-pop artist Neon Indian and longtime producer Dave Fridmann, and they're hoping to release the results on the fly. "We're going to do two or three songs with him and that shit should be ready to go pretty quickly," says Coyne, who posted a demo of a potential collaborative track earlier this week. "I have a couple of tunes that he's heard and we'll just do that shit and fix that up and fuck around together."

Coyne adds that he'd love to do similar collaborations with Deerhoof and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "I think everybody would be up for doing something. But a lot of it comes down to us fitting into their schedules. I can always sneak in on their thing."

Finally, Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips recently dropped the score for The Heart Is Drum Machine, a documentary that examines music and human attraction to it. The twelve-track mostly-instrumental LP features tracks like "Born" (downloadable above, streamable below) and a cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man" featuring none other than Maynard James Keenan of Tool/A Perfect Circle. The film also features Drozd, Keenan, & Wayne Coyne, alongside appearances from Jason Schwartzman, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, Juliette Lewis, Spoon's Britt Daniel, George Clinton, and many others who all discuss their personal connection to music. The Heart Is A Drum Machine is out now on DVD and the soundtrack is out now on iTunes.

The soundtrack tracklisting, the film trailer, and that song stream are all below.

Continue reading "Flaming Lips & Michael Stipe playing Tibet Benefit, Deerhoof playing Europa, Heart Is A Drum Machine score out now"

photos by Andrew Boyle

Ariel Pink, who is among those playing Coachella this year, made his network television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon the other day. If you haven't seen it yet, the video from that, with a new set of pictures from the show Ariel played under a NYC circus tent, is below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink Fallon video & more Japanther circus pics"

photos by Chris La Putt

Ariel Pink

I'm pretty sure the Big Apple Circus is considered a humane circus, so hopefully that means they treat all those white ponies that ran in circles at Tuesday's show, really well. There were ponies, and contortionists, and Ariel Pink who caused a Kodak moment by climbing one of the tent's support beam things while singing, and there was Nick Zinner and Aska, and Amazing Baby and more at the second day of Lincoln Center's 'Rock & Roll Circus' which went way better than the first/Japanther night did. A full set of pictures from both days, with video of Ariel Pink and the ponies, continues below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink, ponies & the rest of the Rock & Roll Big Apple Circus @ Lincoln Center in pics & video"

Ariel Pink @ Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

today in NYC
* Circle Down @ The Stone
* Johnny Winter @ BB King's
* Slavic Soul Party @ Barbes
* Lauryn Hill @ the Blue Note
* Meta and the Cornerstones @ Joe's Pub
* Scott Kettner's Forro Brass Band @ Barbes
* Russell Lossing's Heavy Merge @ The Stone
* Jonny Corndawg, Liz Isenberg, Bed Pigs @ Union Pool
* Yellow Ostrich, Echo Kings, MAKr, Fools On Sunday @ Mercury Lounge
* Ariel Pink, Amazing Baby, Saint Motel, Aska and Nick Zinner @ Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell (Big Apple Circus tent)

Despite the drama that went down last night, tonight's Ariel Pink show is happening. If it does get cancelled, you'll see an official post on it. Otherwise assume it is on.

A selection of videos that recently made their way to YouTube, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

"The Rock & Roll Circus, a two-day, three-ring, musical extravaganza featuring Ariel Pink, Amazing Baby, Nick Zinner and Aska, Saint Motel, contortionist, acrobats, and more will kick off 2011 under the 40,000 square foot Big Apple Circus Tent at Lincoln Center on January 3rd and 4th."

"who else would assemble a bill like this but weird magic? three months deep and we're bringing our dream bill to brooklyn on new years. first weird magic event of this scale... we've got a 10k sq ft warehouse, fully secured. intense all-analog sound system. visuals, lazers and a/v installations (including some from this hologram wizard). we are flying ariel pink in from l.a. to grace us with a solo set the likes of which will probably only be witnessed once (we ourselves don't really know what to expect from him), with sets by outer limits recordings, autre ne veut and steve summers setting the vibe. after ariel we party til there's no one left, soundtracked by a selection of our favorite audio technicians (including footwork's finest, dj rashad, flying in from chicago). alongside our pals vibes and daily ghost, we welcome you to bring in twenty_eleven with us in the finest way possible. cosmic rebirth." [Weird Magic]

You can also get tickets at Desert Island for the Deerhoof show at Ridgewood Masonic.

And the winner is... (obviously) Kanye West. Pitchfork posted their annual much-talked-about list of the best albums of 2010. Much like Rolling Stone, SPIN and others, Kanye's new album topped the list. Pitchfork's recipient for best song of the year, Ariel Pink, landed the 9th best album. Wavves, who they dissed pretty hard in 2009, was given the #50 spot this year (Best Coast got #39). Metal was represented by Kylesa at #44 (BBG's #21). You can scan the whole list below...

Continue reading "Pitchforks Top 50 Albums of 2010 "

Ariel Pink backstage @ Webster Hall (more by Erez Avissar)

Ariel Pink wrote the best song in 2010 Pitchfork says.

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Dead Gaze - This Big World (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Velvet Davenport - Get Out (Feat. Ariel Pink And Gar War) (MP3)

Swimsuit

During CMJ, I caught grimy Mississippi noise-pop band Dead Gaze at a Shea Stadium show set up by the label Group Tightener (who are putting out the band's 10-inch). The group, a trio at the time, headed by frontman R. Cole Furlow's effects-processed vocals, played a set of fuzzed-out pop songs with elements of bluesy rock and grunge.

Their return to NYC, a Friday night set at Glasslands on 11/12 opening at the Blank Dogs' CD release show, was a more tempered version of that performance. They were a quartet now (previouly guitarist Robert Chisolm subbed in quite ably for the band's regular drummer, who couldn't make the CMJ trip), and the music seemed even more focused on Furlow's processed vocals, which shifted subtly but distinctly for each song. On some, his voice was akin to the nasally bark of Nathan Wavves, on others like the tinny impassioned delivery of Daniel Johnston (with breaks into falsetto that hinted at a skilled voice underneath).

Also at that Glasslands show was Swimsuit, a new-ish band from Michigan that features Fred Thomas of City Center/Saturday Looks Good to Me on guitar. Their jangly pop is all about counterposed vocal harmonies, with Fred's emotive voice alongside those of the female bassist and guitarist. All three lead their own tunes, and pitched in on one another's. A delightful exchange of riffs shuffled along their several instrumentals (which were hinted at a while back, when Fred wrote about Swimsuit's sound: "Did you ever watch that show Kids In The Hall? Remember the theme song? All of our songs sound like that.")

Fans of SLGTM's various incarnations will find a lot to like from the group, who plan to record a full-length this winter (their first 7" was for sale at the show). And speaking of Fred's post-SLGTM output, he recently posted a new album-length collaboration with that band's frequent singer Betty Barnes. It's titled Mighty Clouds and is currently streaming.

Adding another genre-shift to the Friday night bill was the delicately layered summer-of-love psychedelia of Velvet Davenport (who have an April 2010 Daytrotter session you can grab in addition to the MP3 above which features both Ariel Pink and Gary War). Blank Dogs' overdriven lo-fi ditties capped the night, but I unfortunately had to skip out before they began.

Videos of all bands at the Glasslands show and more, below...

Continue reading "Dead Gaze, Swimsuit & Velvet Davenport (in review & video) "

photos by Erez Avissar

On his records, [Ariel Pink] disguises himself in swaths of lo-fi tape hiss, but live he must get creative... His five-piece Haunted Graffiti opens with "Beverly Kills" from this year's major-indie debut Before Today and it is striking how close the band sounds to the record. Even with five people juggling Pink's self-made duties, details, and voiceovers, it is hard to imagine that learning this stuff was easy.

But as they continue into "L'Estat (Acc. to the Maid)," the details quickly succumb to the limitations of the [venue]: Guitar surfs and slides become difficult to catch, and all the tempo changes melt together. Some of the tunes that follow, like "Menopause," sound like songs by Yes. Luckily, the new-wave itch of "Fright Night" and celestial four-man chorus on "Round and Round" manage to poke through beautifully.

The co-headliners for this show, Brazil's legendary band, Os Mutantes, were an odd fit for this pairing, but being odd is the only thing that is ever fit them.

Pink's homemade productions race back to the '80s, '70s and '60s, but Os Mutantes, in the '60s themselves, redefined psychedelic futurism. Sérgio Dias and company do not disappoint on the Salvador Dali front, all dressed in caftans (save Bia Mendes in a short black jacket) with a flutist in tow, dabbing Tropicália rhythms with flourishes of English folk and opera betwixt drum breaks worthy of James Brown.
[Philadelphia Inquirer]

Os Mutantes and Ariel Pink have the night off tonight (11/15), but will play Montreal Tuesday before heading back in to the US by the end of the week. Both recently played Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin Texas as part of their tour together. All dates HERE. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Os Mutantes, Ariel Pink & Diva played Webster Hall (pics)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Big Freedia

The 2010 edition of Fun Fun Fun Fest is now complete. You saw pictures from the first night. We have lots of possitive things to say coming up, but for now here is a part two of our photos - all from day two aka Saturday (11/6). They continue below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 - Day Two in pics (part 1) - Big Freedia, Antlers, Wavves, Devin the Dude, Os Mutantes & more) "