When we first mentioned the lineup for this year's Bamboozle, which is taking place from May 18-20 in Asbury Park, NJ, it only included Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Skrillex, Blink 182, Incubus, and Mac Miller. The generally lame festival has since revealed more artists including a surprising number of not-lame artists like the reunited Promise Ring (their first East Coast date announced, hopefully an NYC show to come?), Hot Water Music, Bouncing Souls, A$AP Rocky, Action Bronson, and Murphy's Law. Take that, Warped Tour.

Tickets for Bamboozle are on sale now. Updated lineup below...

Continue reading "The Promise Ring playing Bamboozle (Hot Water Music, Bouncing Souls, ASAP Rocky & Action Bronson too)"

a Sasquatch 2011 patron (more by Josh Darr)

The new year is approaching, and while you're making last minute plans and thinking up your resolutions, you can also start thinking about what festivals to attend in 2012. Here are some updates on next year's US festivals (not in any particular order).

SXSW, which is taking place from March 9-18 in Austin, with the music portion form March 13-18, has already announced a bunch of bands. If you register before January 13, you'll be able to save a bit.

New Orleans Jazz Fest is taking place from April 27 - May 6. The lineup includes The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Reunion, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Foo Fighters, Bon IverMy Morning Jacket, Feist, Janelle Monae, and others. The full lineup is below. Tickets are on sale now.

Sasquatch is taking place this year from May 25-28 in Gorge, Washington. 4-Day passes will be on presale through New Year's Eve, and general sale starts February 11. New for 2012, "Patrons who purchase a 4-day festival ticket will be allowed re-entry from the Festival grounds! This will not apply to any other ticket, only the 4-day pass."

Bonnaroo will be taking place from June 7-10 this year in Manchester, TN. Presale tickets have sold out but tickets will go on sale to the general public in the coming months. Also check out a Spotify playlist of the Bonnaroo staff's favorite songs of 2011.

Coachella, will take place over the course of two weekends this year (April 13-15 and 20-22). Other than a fake lineup poster that has been floating around, no artists have been officially announced yet.

Noise Pop will be celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2012 from February 21-26 in San Francisco. So far the lineup includes Archers of Loaf, Built to Spill, Big Freedia, Surfer Blood, Grimes, Bleached, John Vanderslice, Ume, and others. Check out the full list below.

Austin City Limits is taking place from October 12-14 in Zilker Park in Austin. Souvenir 3-day passes and early bird 3-day passes have sold out but regular 3-day passes are on sale now.

Lollapalooza will take place in 2012 from August 3-5 in Grant Park in Chicago. Tickets will go on sale this spring. As BVChicago mentioned, Lollapalooza is also taking place in Chile and Brazil this year.

Bamboozle, now in a new location, is taking place from May 18-20 in Asbury Park in New Jersey this year. So far the scary lineup includes Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Skrillex, Blink 182, Incubus, and Mac Miller. 3-Day wristbands are on sale now.

Bumbershoot is taking place from September 1-3 at Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. Tickets are available and Bumbershoot are currently having a holiday sale where single day tickets are half off (originally $150, now $75).

NYC's own Governors Ball, which took place at Governors Island in 2011, has been moved to the bigger Randall's Island and will take place over the course of two days, June 23 and 24. Like last year, there will be no overlapping sets. Compared to the others listed here, this is not quite a big "festival", but unlike anything else listed above, it does happen in NYC. Artist announcements and tickets are coming soon.

Current NoisePop and Jazz Fest lineups below...

Continue reading "2012 Music Festival Roundup (Jazz Fest, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Noise Pop, ACL, Coachella, Bamboozle, SXSW, Bumbershoot & more)"

"Playing Fordham's Spring Weekend w/ @birbigs and so far what I've learned about the youths of today is they still love flip flops and cargs." - Max Silvestri

'Only mgmt singing my fav-song-of-the-moment, Congratulations. Nbd.' -mickiemyheart

MGMT went from Fordham on Saturday (5/1) (where Max Silvestri and Mike Birbiglia also performed), pictured above, to the Bamboozle in Jersey on Sunday...

[After Girl Talk was] MGMT, the glam-prog outfit whose new album Congratulations is being met with confusion from some corners. It's certainly not as immediate a listen as the group's keyboard-spangled Oracular Spectacular, but it is a somewhat bewitchingly strange pop album. At one point a man canvassed the crowd handing out 3-D glasses, which seemed appropriate both for the red-and-blue beams surrounding the band and for the pillowy, proggy songs they rocked from the new record. MGMT brought back the doubters by closing their set with the sugar-coated "Kids," and as fans' camera phones were held aloft, they lobbed a question at the next headliner: "Hey, Weezer, are you playing this song, too? It's our song."

As it turned out, the answer was "yes," although it wouldn't be answered until much later in Weezer's set...It was during the first encore (which was introduced by the band replicating the drum and guitar solos that open Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher") that "Kids" was brought out and interpolated with Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," not to mention a blonde wig on Cuomo's head. While the borrowed bits of other songs delighted the crowd, Weezer opted to end the night and the festival with "Buddy Holly," demonstrating they still have plenty of firepower from their own catalog." [Rolling Stone @ Bamboozle]

MGMT will be be on Letterman on May 11th. And they're playing Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, August 17th. Tickets go on sale Friday at 9am. I wonder how many, if any, show they'll add. Can they beat Vampire Weekend's three? Peter Gabriel plays his second show at the venue tonight (5/3).

The MGMT show comes at the end of the band's summer-long tour of North America (the May/June secion of which will be opened by Tame Impala). They also have European dates from September to December mapped out. All tour dates and videos are below...

Continue reading "MGMT played Fordham & Bamboozle, playing Radio City "

photos by Ryan Muir

The Joy Formidable @ Union Hall

"The Joy Formidable is the first band signed to Black Bell Records, the label founded by Passion Pit's synth player/sampler Ayad Al Adhamy. The band will release their Black Bell debut, an eight-song EP titled A Balloon Called Moaning, on May 4.

The EP was recorded in the band's home bedroom studio and was entirely self-produced. The Joy Formidable has sold out multiple UK tours throughout the past year and supported several standout bands including Editors and The Temper Trap. After touring the UK with Passion Pit, the band was invited to join them as the opening act to their shows at New York's Terminal 5. Additionally, the band played two stateside headlining shows at Brooklyn's Union Hall and New York City's Pianos, both of which sold out." -PR

The UK band, now on a short tour (all dates below), played Bamboozle on Sunday, a sold out show at Mercury Lounge the night before that, and the Truck America Festival the day before that. Earlier this year, as mentioned above, they visited NYC for some shows including one at Union Hall in Brooklyn with Jaguar Club and Ravens & Chimes. Pictures from that show, with the tour dates, below...

Continue reading "The Joy Formidable played Union Hall (pics), Bamboozle, Truck Fest & Mercury Lounge (where they play again soon - ON SALE)"

"Enjoying this sketchy $10 burrito while remembering how awesome Minus the Bear is #bamboozle" -heylisachiu

Minus the Bear played the Bamboozle on Sunday at Meadowlands in Jersey. Tonight, Monday, May 3rd, they'll be playing Bowery Electric (doors at 9pm), a much smaller venue that also recently hosted "secret" shows by Foxboro Hot Tubs aka Green Day and Devtochka. Everest open. Tickets will be on sale today (not sure what time). are on sale.

We also have two pairs of tickets to give away. Info on that is below.

Minus the Bear's new record, Omni, comes out May 4th on Dangerbird Records. It's currently streaming online, and you can download a track at the band's site. Its first song is below too.

Contest details, album art, all tour dates and more are below...

Continue reading "Minus the Bear playing a secret show tonight (win or buy tix) + more dates, new album stream, video & stuff"

Sharon Jones @ SXSW (more by Ryan Barkan)

tonight in NYC
* Baaba Maal @ Irving Plaza
* Queen Godis, DAM @ Southpaw
* We Are Country Mice @ Zebulon
* Milton, Tao Seeger Band @ 92YTribeca
* Patti Smith @ the State Theater (NJ)
* Here We Go Magic, Caveman @ Maxwell's
* Tanya Morgan & friends @ Crash Mansion
* Graham Parker & The Figgs @ City Winery
* Truck America @ Full Moon in Big Indian, NY
* Jim Staley, Ikue Mori, John King @ Roulette
* Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings @ Apollo Theater
* Hey Champ, Pink Skull (early) @ Mercury Lounge
* The Styrenes, Kohoutek, Home Blitz @ Death By Audio
* Antietam, Rope, Radical Dads, The Nadas @ Union Hall
* Gossip, Rye Rye, The Phenomenal Handclap Band @ Terminal 5
* Johann Johannsson, Lichens Lichens @ (le) Poisson Rouge
* Caves, Finding Fiction, Yvette, The Silver Seas @ The Cameo
* Wolff, Tyburn Saints, The Sights, Giant Cloud, Township @ Pianos
* Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Hahn Solo (late) @ Mercury Lounge
* Emily Roysdon w/ MPA (performance art) & Light Asylum @ The Whitney
* OK Go, The Booze, Eytan & The Embassy @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Diane Cluck, Golden Ghost, Prince and Pearl, TV Carnage @ Silent Barn
* Nihilist, TSS, Natur, Coin Under Tongue, Kendra Morris Band @ Bruar Falls
* Icy Demons, Soft Landing, Oberhofer, Steel Phantoms @ Secret Project Robot
* Crystal Stilts, 1990s, The Oranges Band, The Forgery Series @ The Bell House
* Tanlines, Keepaway, Memoryhouse, Light Pollution, Psychobuildings @ Glasslands
* La Strada, Cuff the Duke, Yukon Blonde, Beat Circus @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* JEFF The Brotherhood, Screaming Females, Little Lungs, Fiasco, Hop Along @ NYU Strawberry Festival
* She Keeps Bees, Raccoon Fighter, Spanish Prisoners, Hombres Nombres Shark?, Radio America @ Cake Shop

At the Whitney tonight, post-punk band Light Asylum plays the lower gallery at 7:30pm. Before that (6:30-730pm), Leslie Dick is speaking in the lobby gallery followed by a quick performance with DJ Spooky and Das Racist.

Caveman and Caves both play NYC shows tonight.

The pre-Bamboozle Hood Wink Festival happens today. Bamboozle Fest proper is Saturday and Sunday. MGMT also plays Fordham on Saturday. At Hood Wink, Motion City Soundtrack is going to be a NIN tribute band, Say Anything is the Misfits, Eye Alaska is Kanye West, Saves the Day is Weezer, etc...

"Adam Green's debut New York art exhibition, Teen Tech, has been granted an extended stay at the Morrison Hotel Gallery Bowery (313 Bowery, open daily 12-7pm). Originally scheduled to be open only April 23rd and 24th, the gallery has chosen to keep the exhibition up for an additional week. Teen Tech will now close on Sunday May 2nd with a party at the gallery from 4 to 6pm, which will be open to the public; more details will be announced shortly."

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

MGMT @ Coachella (sta.helena)

MGMT, who recently performed at Coachella, are playing Fordham's Spring Weekend concert this Saturday, May 1st (12:30pm; 441 East Fordham Rd, Bronx) along with Average Girl and Penrose. The show is closed to non-students, but you can have a friend there (or a Craigslist creep) sign you in as a guest.

The band plays Bamboozle, which runs Saturday and Sunday in NJ. And they'll be on Letterman on May 11th, where they'll do a webcast-only set to be broadcast online earlier that night.

MGMT were on Saturday Night Live on April 24th. Videos from that and their full tour dates are below...

Continue reading "MGMT playing Fordham before Bamboozle and other dates ++ SNL videos "

Kevin Devine

Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band play for-donation tonight (1/27) at Brooklyn Bowl. Those who give more than $5 will get the band's new split 7-inch with Manchester Orchestra, "I Could Be The Only One," which is streaming below. Also on the bill are the rarely see Scott Matthew, and Linfinity. Any money collected goes to Yele Haiti (which in turn buys Wyclef a new boat... I'm kidding!) (that's not even what the controversy is about).

Speaking of the desire to hear more of the beautiful voice of Scott Matthew, you can also catch him at Rockwood Music Hall four times in February. Those dates are listed below.

Linfinity, the six piece NYC band whose debut album Martian's Bloom will be released by American Myth Recordings on April 27th, also has other upcoming shows including a "Dylan solo set" at Union Hall on February 3rd (flyer below), and SXSW.

Kevin Devine & Co. have plenty of tour dates coming up, including a European tour in February and March, and sets at Coachella and Bamboozle Fest. Girl Talk and Weezer were already part of the lineup for that (happening May 1-2 at Meadowlands), and more were recently announced including MGMT, Matt & Kim, Minus the Bear, Drake, Wale and Ke$ha. That lineup, all tour dates, and Kevin's new single are below...

Continue reading "Kevin Devine playing free show tonight w/ Scott Matthew, updated Bamboozle lineup & other dates "

Girl Talk @ Pool Party Summer '09 (more by Tim Griffin)

Girl Talk's label Illegal Art is offering all of the Girl Talk albums, and their entire catalog, as pay-what-you-wish downloads. Not all of the label's back catalog is up, but there is a release schedule (below) for the yet-to-be uploaded (including Girl Talk's debut Secret Diary). The label is also offering Gillis's 2006 break-out album Night Ripper for the first time on vinyl on December 8th.

With that news is also the news that Gregg Gillis will be at Meadowlands Sports Complex on May 2nd. That's the second night of the Bamboozle fest, which is being headlined by the recently-sidelined Weezer. Either the festival is becoming more diverse or the artists are appealing to a bigger fan base. The headliner for night one (consistent with what we know about Bamboozle) is Paramore (at least I think they are one of the headliners). As previously mentioned, tickets are on sale Friday.

Girl Talk's other upcoming US show is a sold-out New Year's Eve gig at Chicago's Congress Theater. He plays Australia and New Zealand this January. All dates and the Illegal Art Pay What You Wish release schedule are below...

Continue reading "Girl Talk playing Bamboozle (and other dates), pay what you want for Illegal Art"

the bus crash

The lead singer of the rock band Weezer was involved in a bus accident Sunday that left him and another passenger in an upstate New York hospital.

Rivers Cuomo, 40, complained of rib pain and was transferred, along with one other passenger, to St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam, New York.

Cuomo's wife, daughter, and a fifth passenger on the bus were uninjured. The bus was traveling from Toronto, Ontario, to Boston, Massachusetts, for a show Monday night at the Agganis Arena at Boston University. [CNN]

Luckily Rivers and his family are ok (relatively speaking), but according to a statement on Weezer's site, "the rest of the December Raditude Tour has been cancelled". Their full statement and more pictures from the crash, below...

Continue reading "Rivers Cuomo injured in bus crash, December tour dates cancelled, but Weezer playing Bamboozle 2010"

"If this is the world we helped create," guitarist James Suptic said, after looking into the crowd at a reunion gig, "then I apologise."

The Get Up Kids were either second- or third-wave emo, depending on who you ask. What is certain is that they formed in 1995, released four albums, broke up in 2005 and reunited last year. And yet their earnest, heart-on-sleeve punk pop inspired much of the more theatrical late-noughties emo boom.

"There should be a How to Be a Pop-Punk Kid Starter Kit with bands like the Get Up Kids, so kids would know whose shoulders bands like us are standing on," Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz told Alternative Press in 2005. "Fall Out Boy would not be a band if it were not for the Get Up Kids."

"Honestly, I don't often think about the state of emo," Suptic told Drowned in Sound. "We played the Bamboozle fests this year and we felt really out of place. I could name maybe three bands we played with. It was just a sea of neon shirts to us ... the punk scene we came out of and the punk scene now are completely different. It's like glam rock now."

While acts like Fall Out Boy pay tribute to Get Up Kids, the feeling isn't mutual. "If a band gets huge and they say we inspired them - great," Suptic said. "The problem is most of them aren't very good. What does that say about us? I don't know. Maybe we sucked." [Guardian]

The Sounds are playing an invite-only, new-album-preview party at Santos Party House in NYC tonight (4/30). I have some tickets to giveaway. If you want them, email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Sounds). Include your first and last name. And like Janelle Monae, The Sounds are also touring with No Doubt this summer. All dates below...

Continue reading "The Sounds - 'secret show' tonight & other 2009 tour dates"

by Black Bubblegum

The Bronx

The Bronx have announced a pair of NYC area shows including The Bowery Ballroom on 4/20 with Trash Talk and Maxwell's on 4/22. Tickets for Maxwell's go on sale on 2/11 at noon while Bowery goes on sale 2/13 at noon.

The Bronx are currently touring around Europe, ultimately linking up with Fucked Up and Rolo Tomassi for a brief tour of the UK and then their US tour. One of those US dates, April 5th, is part of the Bamboozle Left Festival in Irvine, CA... an otherwise lackluster festival of mallcore, deathcore, and psuedo-emo feturing headling sets by a reuniting Get Up Kids, (gulp) Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, and (lord help us) 50 Cent. Full lineup below.

Why even mention Bamboozle Left? Well, besides The Bronx, Kevin Seconds (who has some NYC shows, and a few others... Deftones will make their return to the stage at this show, but with a new bassist...

Continue reading "The Bronx announce tour dates, Deftones' have new bassist"