DOWNLOAD: Heavenly Beat - "Messiah" (MP3)

Xeno and Oaklander at BV-CMJ 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Brooklyn synth goths Xeno and Oaklander have an upcoming local show this week at Public Assembly on Friday (5/11) with Frank (Just Frank), and DJ sets by Bauhaus/Love & Rockets bassist David J, CREEP and Todd Pendu. (There's also an open Asahi beer bar at 9:30.) Tickets are still available.

Next month, the band will head to Austin for Chaos in Tejas, and upon returning home, they'll play another NYC show at The Studio at Webster Hall on June 11 with fellow goths Plastic Flowers and Religious to Damn and fellow electronic artist Autre Ne Veut. Tickets are on sale now. The flier for this show is below.

In related news, Martial Canterel (aka Sean McBride aka 1/2 of Xeno and Oaklander) is opening for Iceage at LPR on 7/22 with Dirty Beaches and RØSENKØPF. Tickets are still available

RØSENKØPF also plays Glasslands with King Dude soon, in celebration of a new record. That record has a song called "Light The Way" which has a video which you can watch below.

In addition to DJing the Friday Public Assembly show, David J is also DJing tonight (5/10) at Elmurst club Arena Queens. Besides his gigs in Bauhaus and Love & Rockets (and Porno for Pyros and The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy), David J has a long solo career as well, having released his eighth album, Not Long for This World, last year on Starry Records. You can stream some of it here.

In more related news, Plastic Flowers have a NYC show coming up at Glasslands on July 10 with Captured Tracks bands Cosmetics and Beach Fossils side project Heavenly Beat (who has a new song out, download above), and Psychobuildings. Tickets are on sale now.

Speaking of both Cosmetics and Dirty Beaches, Exclaim points out that Montreal's Grand Trine have broken up and member Shubhayan Roy has joined Dirty Beaches while Tobias Rochman has joined Cosmetics.

All dates, stream, and flier below...

Continue reading "more Xeno & Oaklander dates; Autre Ne Veut; David J the DJ; new Heavenly Beat MP3 & a RØSENKØPF video too"

DOWNLOAD: Azita - "September" (MP3)

Azita

Azita (full name Azita Youssefi) released her new album, Disturbing the Air, on September 20 via Drag City. You can grab the piano-led ballad "September" at the top of this post and purchase the album at the Drag City webstore.

She's kicked off a short US tour in support of the album last night in Baltimore. She plays NYC TONIGHT (12/2) at Secret Project Robot (their new location) with two all-girl bands, Open Ocean and FLOWN, which includes Caroline Reid (ex-Frankie Rose & The Outs). The flier for this show is below. She also plays NYC Saturday night (12/3) at Cake Shop with Mighty Moon, Cruddy, and Mister Melt. All dates are listed below.

The Secret Project Robot schedule also includes a few other interesting shows like tomorrow's (12/3) last Pendu Disco of 2011 with Autre Ne Veut and Black Marble. It also includes the Death by Audio Christmas Party on December 10 with A Place to Bury Strangers, The Immaculates, Evi Antonio, and DJ Edan Wilber.

All Azita dates and show flier below...

Continue reading "Azita on tour, playing Cake Shop & tonight @ Secret Project Robot (where A Place to Bury Strangers play next week)"

today in NYC
* Anika (DJ) @ Gallery Bar
* Supershow! @ Coco66
* Greg Garing @ Barbes
* Black Milk @ SOB's
* The Evil Us @ The Stone
* DJ Questlove @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Eliza Doolittle @ Joe's Pub
* Charlie Hunter @ Rose Live Music
* Roseanne Cash @ The Norwood Club
* Neil Young tribute @ Carnegie Hall
* Sarth Calhoun @ The Stone
* Piers Faccini, Nettle @ Zebulon
* The Weal and The Woe @ Barbes
* Free Blood, Lymbyc Systym @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Henry Rollins spoken word @ Joe's Pub
* Bouncing Souls, Strike Anywhere @ the Stone Pony
* Liturgy, Extra Life, Lichens, Chaos Majik @ Glasslands
* NewBorn Trio, Michael Sperone @ Issue Project Room
* Lindstrom, JDH and Dave P(Fixed) @ Santos Party House
* Nat Baldwin, In One Wind, Cuddle Magic @ Knitting Factory
* DJ Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito reunion w/ Lord Sear @ LPR
* Web Dating, Soft Black, The Vacant Lots, Howth @ Silent Barn
* Quiet Loudly, Golden Girls, Landlady, Dirty Fences @ Death By Audio
* Cottonmouth, April White, Subatomic Sound System @ The Bell House
* Yellow Ostrich, Mussels, Mammal of Paradise, HolidayHoliday @ Pianos
* Calvin Johnson, Astronautalis in Montauk (bus leaves from Bruar Falls)
* Titus Andronicus, Care Bears On Fire, Toy Sugar, Deux Chattes @ Mercury Lounge
* Nico Muhly, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sam Amidon, Bryce Dessner @ St Ann's Warehouse
* B Dolan, What Cheer? Brigade, Metermaids, Vockah Redu @ Studio at Webster Hall
* Bang on a Can All-Stars play Bryce Dessner, Karsh Kale and Nick Brooke @ Merkin Concert Hall
* Idle Warship (Talib Kweli & Res), Dead Prez, Ninjasonik, The Wellington Papers @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Golden Girls play Death by Audio tonight, and then Purchase on Friday with Screaming Females who play Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday.

Tonight at Carnegie Hall, the following artists do Neil Young:

Patti Smith & Jesse Smith • The Roots • Nada Surf
Cowboy Junkies • Juliana Hatfield & Evan Dando
Bettye LaVette • Shawn Colvin • Bebel Gilberto
Aaron Neville • The Wood Brothers • Keller Williams
Joan Osborne • Jakob Dylan • J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) • Glen Hansard • Mason Jennings • DeVotchKa
Ben Ottewell (of Gomez) • Pete Yorn • Joe Purdy
Larry Cambell in the house band.

"Tunnelvision" video from Autre Ne Veut's recent show at Pianos, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

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: Autre Ne Veut: "Two Days of Rain" (MP3)

How to Dress Well @ Glasslands in August (more by Erez Avissar)

"One of the lessons of this past year is that there's surprisingly fertile ground to be tilled between D'Angelo and Avey Tare. Between them, stripped-down R&B and arty, slurry, ritualistic avant-pop privilege a similar kind of guilelessness. Both modes do impressionism well, and both have no problem letting vocals veer into the moans and murmurs one might hear at a séance. Differences abound, of course, but so do signs of fruitful communion-- among them Autre Ne Veut. A one-man act from New York (he prefers to keep his identity secret), Autre Ne Veut shares qualities and a scene with acts like How to Dress Well, Games, and, less directly, soul-aspiring indie bands from Bon Iver to Yeasayer. But Autre Ne Veut has something special. For one thing, every song on his self-titled debut is a marvel, each in its own way. For another, the way he steers his voice toward the eccentricities and extremes of R&B sounds disarmingly logical, natural, and heartfelt." [Pitchfork]

You can also catch Autre Ne Veut at a more traditional venues, at Pianos in Manhattan, on January 29th with Zambri, Laurel Halo and Mirror Mirror. Tickets are on sale for that too.

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "How to Dress Well playing a Brooklyn church w/ Autre Ne Veut & other dates "