Mac Demarco @ CMJ 2012 (more by Tracy Allison)

Mac Demarco, whose second album, II, made more than a few Best of 2012 lists (including NME and Pitchfork), will be in the NYC area next month for a couple shows. He's been added to Ty Segall's Webster Hall show on February 1 that also features Ex-Cult. Tickets are still available to that one. Mac will also be playing Bard College the next night (2/2). Mac has no other announced shows at the moment.

Speaking of Ty Segall openers, BV Austin just announced that OBN IIIs will support locally in Austin, before heading out on a tour that includes them opening two California shows that Ty's new project Fuzz are playing.

Back in December, Mac played Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Holland and there's video footage from his set below.

Continue reading "Mac DeMarco opening for Ty Segall, playing Bard"

by Andrew Sacher

Parenthetical Girls at Glasslands on 12.1.11 (via Jonathan Graves)

Parenthetical Girls recently kicked off an east coast tour which brought the band to the NYC-area three times so far, for a Glasslands show (pictured above), an early show at SUNY Purchase (12/3) and a night show at Santos the same day.

I caught their set at Purchase, which opened with singer Zac Pennington crouched inside of a clear plastic box singing "Sympathy For Spastics" with little more accompaniment than light piano lines from keyboardist Amber Smith. While he was under the box, he fogged up the front of it and scribbled the word "metaphor" with his finger, the first of many semi-sarcastic tropes of the set (another great one being when he kicked over a pawn from the student center's giant chess set). Zac's other antics included running into the audience and different rooms of the student center. The band's hour long set was made up mostly of the material from their Privilege EPs, though they reached into their back catalog for a couple of songs and covered The Smiths' "Handsome Devil."

Parenthetical Girls will be back in NYC TONIGHT (12/6) at Shea Stadium with Sam Mickens (who was also on the Purchase show) and guests. Updated dates below.

Speaking of The Smiths, the box set of their complete discography is out now and guitarist Johnny Marr has been banned from driving for 56 days due to being caught doing 72mph in a 40mph zone and pleading guilty. He's also been fined £535.

All PG dates and a clip of Zach singing in the photobooth at Glasslands, below...

Continue reading "Parenthetical Girls played 3 NY shows, playing 2 more (dates)"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Mary Halvorson & Weasel Walter - Lapis Lazuli Nights (MP3)

Weasel Walter @ Bug Jar, Rochester, NY, 9/21/08 (photo by Joe Tunis)

"I'm hard-pressed to find contemporary free jazz that I can relate to. I want to hear really violent fucked-up free jazz records, and I don't hear anybody else makin' 'em, so I make 'em myself." -[Weasel Walter in L.A. Record]

Drummer/composer/improviser Weasel Walter is visiting Bard College Thursday (3/5) to give a video lecture on "the NYC No-Wave sound, complete with rare footage and audio from bands involved in the movement." (Walter wrote an introduction to Marc Masters's book on the subject, No Wave.)

He then comes to Zebulon in Brooklyn on Saturday (3/7) for a jazz improv gig with NYC guitarist Mary Halvorson. The pair played together during Walter's last NYC stint in September. Expect a disquieting, dynamics-filled set that touches on both Halvorson's melodic debut CD, Dragon's Head, and Walters's tension-heavy drums.

Among the releases coming from WW's ugEXPLODE label is a possible Walter/Halvorson/trumpeter Peter Evans CD-R, out this summer. From MySpace: "i'm toying with the idea of putting out some stuff of that trio from our previous gigs, but haven't discussed it with them formally yet. there was a lot of video shot of two of the sept. shows, and we may release some of that as well."

Hardcore/metal group xBxRx, which features WW on drums, is currently mixing its next record, which Walter described as "some improvised tracks as well as songs...sonically rich and varied. totally intense, as usual."

The Flying Luttenbachers project is disbanded, but the group's punk & avant-jazz-filled second album, Constructive Destruction, featuring Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, Dylan Posa, Chad Organ and Weasel Walter, is now up as a free download at ugEXPLODE.

All tour dates and live videos (including Sept 19, 2008 @ Zebulon) below...

Continue reading "Weasel Walter - a No Wave lecture @ Bard, Zebulon, other tour dates & free downloads"