Big names and regulars aside, there are a few bands I want to highlight on the just-announced Sasquatch lineup: Wolf Parade ("indefinite hiatus" rumors be damned), The Flaming Lips (performing "The Soft Bulletin"), Death From Above 1979 (now three reunion shows total), Guided By Voices (they're not done yet), and... Archers of Loaf (!). The full lineup of the fest that goes down in Gorge, Washington in May (Memorial Day Weekend), is below...

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2011 lineup announced (Archers of Loaf, Guided By Voices, Wolf Parade, DFA 1979 & "The Soft Bulletin" included)"

photos by Chris La Putt

The Acorn

The Acorn and Basia Bulat are about to end a North American tour together. That tour visited NYC last week for two shows. The Canadian band played Mercury Lounge on 9/23 and Littlefield in Brooklyn the next day...

"... the second Basia Bulat stepped on stage she just owned it! Her powerful but beautiful pipes had the audience right in the palm of her hand. Ms. Bulat's stunning songs were played beautifully by her stellar backing band. Basia Bulat is a diva in very good sense of the word!

The last band was another group of musicians that call Canada home, Acorn. Acorn rocked with their brand of well crafted infectious indie folk garage rock. Front man Rolf Klausener has an amazing voice and is charming and funny on stage and the rest of the band is really very tight and quite on point!" [Whatever...]

More pictures from the Brooklyn show, which also featured an opening set by Gold Lake, below...

Continue reading "The Acorn & Basia Bulat played Littlefield (pics)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Still shaking from the @basiabulat @tuneyards and @st_vincent show at #summerstage. Definitely one of the defining concerts of the summer! -Laura Rubin

St. Vincent at first seemed nervous due to a lot of technical difficulties with her band, but she quickly came into her element- perhaps focusing on Actor too much, Annie did not settle for just performing her songs, but reinventing them. She was absolutely exceptional, performing a sort of dance when she played guitar that was both a dance of rage and a parody of modern guitar solos at the same time as this spindly siren carries a pretty serious, Chuck Berry-esque guitar up to the front of the stage. She seemed lost in the world of her songs, a morose fairytale land of abstract orange hues and jagged shapes, but she brought something new out in her music with her reinterpretations- 'Your Lips Are Red' suddenly seemed almost like a Browning poem with its powerful jealousy and murderous themes.

The real highlight however, of this really quite exceptional set, may have been Black Rainbow- her impressive selection of band members (whom she recalled every name of, bless her) had starred and shone through several of her other hits. But with Black Rainbow the song just trickled into a dark, powerful musical marsh. You became weighed and yet uplifted by the powerful musical breaks, and it was... It was really something to watch. For all her nerves and sometimes awkward demeanour, St Vincent really performed today- but did so with a more rocky, almost Joplin edge to her music than she does on her albums. It was.... Divine. [Deliciously Apart]

St. Vincent headlined a free Central Park SummerStge show on Sunday, August 1st. She played with a full band with horns, as did opener Tune-Yards (who's playing the Rock Shop tonight)...

"The second Tune-Yards album can't come quickly enough. The existing recordings are very good, but don't do enough to showcase exactly how jaw-dropping Merrill Garbus has become as a live performer. I would go so far to say that she may be one of the greatest singers in the world today." [Fluxblog]

Canada's Basia Bulat was the first act of the day - she'll be back in NYC for two shows with the Acorn in September. The first is at Mercury Lounge on September 23rd. Tickets are on sale now. The second is one day later at Littlefield. Tickets are also on sale. All Basia dates are below.

More pictures & videos from the Central Park show, with two of the setlists, below too...

Continue reading "St. Vincent, Tune-Yards & Basia Bulat played Central Park Summerstage (pics, video, setlists, more dates)"

ACL 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

October 8-10, 2010 | Zilker Park, Austin, TX

"The Austin City Limits Music Festival began as a modest, two-day event and now, as it enters it's 9th year, has become a perennial American music experience. Taking place at the heart of Austin, Texas in the legendary Zilker Park, ACL Festival has grown to 3 days, 8 stages and over 130 bands."

Tickets go on sale today. The 2010 ACL lineup is below...

Continue reading "Austin City Limits announces 2010 festival lineup (Eagles, Muse, Phish, Strokes, MIA, LCD, Spoon, Gayngs, more) "

St Vincent @ Lincoln Center's Allen Room (more by Chris La Putt)

St. Vincent (4AD), Tune-Yards (4AD) & Basia Bulat (Rough Trade) will share a Beggars family bill at Central Park Summerstage in NYC this summer. The free show will take place Sunday, August 1st at 3pm, one week before The xx (XL) and Jack Penate (XL) play the same stage (and about a month after XL's Gil-Scott Heron plays there).

St. Vincent, Tune-Yards and Basia Bulat are all female-fronted acts. Four days later a similar phenomenon takes place, also for free, in Prospect Park when Metric, Holly Miranda and Joan as Policewoman share a bill.

The Central Park gig is one of three shows St. Vincent is currently advertising. Pitchfork Music Festival and Calgary Folk Festival are the other two. Tune-Yards on the other hand has a bunch of stuff before August including Sasquatch, the Roots Picnic, Glastonbury and a June 27th show at Hollywood Bowl with Goldfrapp, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club and Omara Portuondo.

All dates below...

Continue reading "St Vincent playing Summerstage (w/ tUnE yArDs & Basia Bulat), Calgary Folk Fest & Pitchfork (and other dates) "

words & photos by Chris La Putt

"You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories." - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

For the past couple of months Canadian singer/songwriter Basia Bulat and her band have travelled every nook and cranny of North America to promote her new album Heart of My Own. The stage is fronted by an autoharp and a pianoette - two rarely seen instruments. With a feverish wail, Basia recounts a tale of love lost and found in the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. The brisk spring wind tries to barrel through the door. Katz's Deli and the drunk Lower East revelers are a million miles away. She clutches the autoharp frenetically rocking back and forth to the drumming of her brother, Bobby. It feels like you've just opened a diary that's not been touched for over a hundred years. You're taken aback that heartache still feels like this. It's agonizing and wonderful at the same time.

Saturday night marked the last leg of Basia's North American tour. She'll be heading off to Europe next month and will be testing some new songs (at least one in Polish) for her upcoming album. Samuel Izdat (aka Gabe of Takka Takka), opened for Basia. Check out her future tour dates, the Mercury Lounge setlist, and photos from Saturday's show plus La Blogotheque's spectacular video of Basia Bulat's "The Shore", below...

Continue reading "Basia Bulat & Samuel Izdat @ Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics"

DOWNLOAD: The Morning Benders - Promises (MP3

Morning Benders...

Morning Benders, Shark? and Cuddle Magic all convene at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe for a show/CD swap at 6:30pm tonight (2/25). The event, hosted by Max Silvestri and The Hype Machine, benefits Housing Works and to get in you need $5 + at least 1 used CD (to trade).

The Morning Benders' new album Big Echo comes out March 9th on Rough Trade. You can check out a song from it above, or catch the band at one of their many upcoming dates, posted below. They'll be at Market Hotel with Surfer Blood this Saturday (2/27). The band will also tour to SXSW for shows that include the Rough Trade showcase at Emo's Jr. on Wednesday, March 17th with The Strange Boys, The Unthanks, Basia Bulat, Dylan LeBlanc and Warpaint. They'll be back in NYC for a show at Mercury Lounge on April 22nd with Minature Tiger. Tickets are on sale now.

A flyer for the HW show and all Morning Benders and Shark? tour dates are below...

Continue reading "CD Swap at Housing Works (tonight) & other Morning Benders tour dates"

DOWNLOAD: Fresh & Onlys - Invisible Forces (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Beach House - Norway (MP3)

Surf City @ Pianos/BV-CMJ Party 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Surf City was just one of the 'surf' bands that made a splash at this year's CMJ. Both groups (the other being Surfer Blood) are set to repeat the feat at SXSW.

Surfer Blood's tour takes a New York turn in late February, while New Zealand's Surf City hits NYC post-SXSW. They play a March 25th show at Maxwell's with Headlights (who play Bowery on their tour with David Bazan two nights earlier). Tickets to Maxwell's are on sale.

The next night, Friday, March 26th, Surf City play a late show at Mercury Lounge. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at noon.

Before both of those, Surf City will be on a bill with fellow New Zealander Bachelorette at Union Hall on March 22nd (ticket info TBA).

While in NYC, Bachelorette will also be playing at Cake Shop on March 20th before heading out on tour with Beach House from March 26th to April 19th (Beach House continue with Washed Out after that). Beach House celebrate their new record (and their 9.0 Best New Music) at Bell House tonight (1/26).

Surf City do make some pre-SXSW stops on their way to Austin too. One is in L.A. on March 13th with The Fresh & Onlys, who will also be in Austin March 17th-20th. In addition, Fresh & Onlys play Noise Pop 2010 in their hometown of San Fran, and tour with King Khan & The Shrines (with no NYC date unfortunately) in April. The track above is off The Fresh & Onlys' 2009 Woodsist album Grey-Eyed Girls - they have a new just-completed third record due this spring on In The Red.

All tour dates and a video are below...

Continue reading "Surf City, Bachelorette, Beach House, Fresh & Onlys and King Khan & The Shrines are playing shows, touring, etc"

DOWNLOAD: Basia Bulat - Go On (MP3)

Basia Bulat @ Bowery Ballroom, January 22nd (more by Chris La Putt)

She released her debut album, Oh, My Darling, in 2007; the disc received strong reviews and earned a spot on the 2008 Polaris Music Prize shortlist, where it eventually lost to Caribou's Andorra. Last year, Bulat travelled to Montreal and recorded 20-odd songs with Howard Bilerman, who produced her last album as well. The end result, Heart of My Own, comes out today.

"Oh, how I've done myself in," she sings mournfully on Sugar and Spice, one of the new album's cuts, but it's more like she's outdone herself on album No. 2, though Bulat is quick to point out that "two albums does not a career make. [National Post]

Canadian musician and songwriter Basia Bulat opened for My Brightest Diamond at Bowery Ballroom last Friday (1/22).

Almost immediately she'll be going on a non-stop tour of North America (SXSW included) in support of her new LP, Heart of My Own (out today, 1/26). A sole NYC show has been added to that, at Mercury Lounge on Saturday, March 27th. Tickets are on sale.

Blogotheque recorded "The Shore" off Basia's new album almost two years ago in San Francisco. With the record's release, they've finally put out the video, which was filmed by Nate Chan. That video, the album cover art and updated tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Basia Bulat album out, updated dates & a Blogotheque video"

photos by Chris La Putt

"Friday night's double bill at Bowery Ballroom was hard to beat. Toronto's Basia Bulat played a rootsy solo set, accompanying her powerful, penetrating vibrato with fierce autoharp and guitar. A real talent; here's hoping she brings her full band the next time she comes to town.

My Brightest Diamond, playing their first NYC show in over a year, took a more high-concept approach, filling the stage with white ladders and balloons; a young girl passed out balloon animals during intermission. Lead singer Shara Worden, who's been spending more and more time following pseudo-classical pursuits, was a commanding stage presence with her flamboyant attire and voice of operatic proportions. (Worden studied voice at the University of North Texas before being seduced by the rock siren.) Oh, and she played lead guitar, joined by Nathan Lithgow on bass and Brian Wolfe on drums.

Why this show (at $15 a ticket) had tickets available at the door while that talentless harpie managed to sell out four nights at Radio City says a lot about the state of our brainless culture."
[Feast of Music]

The good news is that Bowery Ballroom did sell out on Friday night, though it wasn't as packed as your usual sold out show (so still a bit of a crime). She's recognized by everyone from Sufjan Stevens to David Byrne, and she consistently blows away audiences every time she shows up (for instance at Dark Was The Night). She even has the ability to sell out Bowery Ballroom, but I think Shara Worden still may be one of the most underrated voices in NYC.

I ran to see My Brightest Diamond after the Dawn Landes show, and before I went back to Mercury Lounge to see an after midnight set by Serena Maneesh. Before running back to Mercury we asked Shara if she wanted to play at Music Hall on Saturday. The rest is history.

For Basia Bulat, Bowery Ballroom was her 2nd NYC show in two days. Her schedule also included a record release show at Professor Thom's on Thursday.

More pictures from Bowery Ballroom below...

Continue reading "My Brightest Diamond & Basia Bulat @ Bowery Ballroom in NYC - pics "

Bon Iver in a graveyard in Sept. (more by Darren Kim)

tonight in NYC
* Kid Cudi @ Irving Plaza
* Spoon & Mahogany @ Mercury Lounge
* Spacecamp, Your Nature @ Coco66
* Akoya Afrobeat @ Knitting Factory
* Questlove (DJ), Q-Tip (DJ) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* MNDR, Zambri, Tayisha Busay @ Glasslands
* Vetiver, Avi Buffalo, Inlets @ The Bell House
* Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) & Steve Kimock @ Merkin Concert Hall
* Darlings, Lonnie Walker, Motel Motel, Gunfight @ Union Pool
* Free Energy, Eastern Midwestern, pow wow!, Neighbors @ Pianos
* Signal Break, Sunshower Orphans, Mr. Dream, NT Trio @ Cake Shop
* Langhorne Slim, April Smith & the Great Picture Show @ Maxwell's
* Dub Is a Weapon, Bigga Mention, Rob Symeonn @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Vampire Weekend, Kwame Dawes (author) @ Barnes & Noble Union Square
* Lady GaGa, Jason Derulo, Semi Precious Weapons @ Radio City Music Hall
* Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Supercute, Julia Weldon @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Support Haiti Benefit w/ Lewis Black, Vernon Reid & Corey Glover of Living Colour, Rich Pagano & The Sugarcane Cups, Marshall Crenshaw, David Johansen @ City Winery

Vampire Weekend appear at Barnes & Noble tonight with Kwame Dawes. Expect a line.

Spoon announced that some tickets will be available at the door for tonight's Mercury Lounge show. Expect a line.

Lightspeed Champion is not playing Bowery Ballroom tonight.

Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver appears as part of the NY Guitar Festival tonight. You can catch him in Ohio in April.

Tonight's Cake shop show, put on by Music vs. Hunger, benefits Haiti relief. Questlove and Q-Tip DJ at Brooklyn Bowl for Haiti, too.

Various new videos below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

DOWNLOAD: David Byrne And Fatboy Slim - Please Don't (feat Santigold) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Basia Bulat - Go On (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy (Son Lux Remix) (MP3)

My Brightest Diamond @ Dark Was the Night last May (more by Natasha Ryan)

Although Shara Worden hasn't performed as My Brightest Diamond in New York over the last year, she has been far from idle. She collaborated with David Byrne on his upcoming release, Here Lies Love, worked with Clogs on Lady Walton's Garden, due out in March, played the role of the Queen on The Decemberists' newest album, The Hazards of Love, and toured with them and found time to perform with Laurie Anderson, Bon Iver, The National and St. Vincent as well. My Brightest Diamond also contributed their version of Nina Simone's renowned classic "Feelin' Good" to the celebrated compilation Dark Was The Night. [PR]

In addition to being her first NYC in more than year, My Brightest Diamond's Bowery show on January 22nd is a CD release party for her new limited-edition remix album Shark Remixes. According to her website, "Shara had so much fun on the short European tour this last December that she, together with drummer Brian Wolfe and bassist Nathan Lithgow, decided to keep the glow alive by playing in New York and adding Butoh dancing and clowns for fun." The record, which comes out on Asthmatic Kitty on January 26th, collects four "remix EPs" put together by remixers Alfred Brown, DM Stith, Son Lux and Roberto Carlos Lange of songs from MBD's 2008 album A Thousand Shark's Teeth. Album art and tracklist are below.

Opening the show is Canadian singer and guitarist/autoharp player Basia Bulat, whose album Heart of My Own also comes out January 26th, on Rough Trade/Secret City. A track from that album, "Go On", is a free download above. Her other tour dates and the song "Gold Rush" off the new record are below. Tickets to the January 22nd Bowery show are still on sale. We also have a pair to give away. Details are below.

You can also catch Basia Bulat on Thursday, January 21st, at Professor Thom's on 219 2nd Ave (between 13th & 14th). It's her record release party and she'll be performing an "intimate live performance" at 8pm. $1.00 beers at 7pm (while they last).

Shara Worden and Nicole Atkins are two of the many collaborators on David Byrne's Here Lies Love project with Fatboy Slim. The song "Please Don't," featuring Santigold, is above. Byrne will be one of the speakers at "Stories in High Fidelity: An evening of storytelling" at Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday, February 3rd. Also on hang will be Alan Light, Dan Kennedy and Jason Gordon, and music from Nicole Atkins. Tickets are on sale.

David Byrne has been speaking publicly a lot lately.Most recently at the Bell House on January 11th.

My Brightest Diamond's other upcoming shows include a performance with Clogs in Minneapolis on February 19th and 20th and Big Ears Festival, happening March 26-28 in Knoxville, TN.

All of the above-mentioned tour dates, ticket contest, and more info are below...

Continue reading "Basia Bulat, Nicole Atkins, My Brightest Diamond & David Byrne - upcoming shows (dates) & new music (MP3s) "

photos by Chris La Putt

It's with heavy heart that I send this news.
Tomorrow's Bell House show with Basia has
been cancelled due to visa issues :(

Basia fan Chris La Putt is especially upset about this, and reminded me that maybe now would be a good time to finally post those pictures he took of her on September 19, 2008 at Highline Ballroom. So here they are...

Continue reading "Basia Bulat's Brooklyn show canceled due to visa issues (so here are some pictures from 2008)"

photos by Chris Graham and Rae Holtsbaum

Basia Bulat on stage w/ Plants & Animals

"I'm not really sure what it is about this little folk festival in the city on the prairie, but they really have something special going on, and it's been going on for the past 40 years. It was my honour to host the very eclectic opening Friday night under cloudy but dry skies in downtown Regina."
[Grant Lawrence, CBC Radio 3 on Day 1]

The Regina Folk Festival took place August 7-9, 2009 in Canada. More pictures and reviews from the weekend below....

Continue reading "the 2009 Regina Folk Festival in pics & reviews"

by BrooklynVegan Mike

The time has arrived to crown another Polaris Music Prize winner. Last year's Canadian award was met with mixed response as relative unknowns (outside of Canada) Patrick Watson beat Arcade Fire, Feist (my pick to win), and seven others for the top spot.

This is the most open field in the brief history of the award. There are no big acts, though Stars certainly has a large following. Most of the artists on the shortlist have been playing since the beginning of the decade or longer. Coincidently or otherwise, the two youngest artists on the shortlist, Shad (27) and Basia Bulat (24), are two of the favorites this year. With that said, there will be no real "upsets." I can see any of the nominees walking away with the prize. It seems the award has positioned itself more to elevate someone then legitimize a popular artist's success (past losers include the aforementioned Arcade Fire along with Broken Social Scene, and Wolf Parade).

Like last year, I will go over the ten nominees in order of who I think has the best chance of picking up the prize on the 29th. We start with who I think has the least chance...

Continue reading "The 2008 Polaris Music Prize is about to be awarded"

words by BrooklynVegan Mike, photos by Ryan Muir

The shortlist for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize was announced last week.

a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.

Unlike previous years, there are no "heavyweights" among the nominees. Stars is the biggest name on the list that also includes The Weakerthans and Black Mountain, but by no means do Stars tower over the other nominees like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and Feist did in years past. Except for maybe Stars, this year's shortlist is a collection of artists who haven't crossed over yet, but who have a good following and heavy rotation on college and CBC radio.

Crystal Castles, Born Ruffians, Destroyer, and Sandro Perri are conspicuously absent from this year's shortlist, although they did make the original 40-album long list. I think they should have also made the final cut. As we approach the awards, I will once again give my two cents on who I think will win, looking to avenge picking Feist over Patrick Watson, last year's eventual winner.

Basia Bulat also made the shorlist this year. Basia Bulat opened for Devotchka at Terminal 5 in May. Ryan took some pics that we haven't posted yet, so here they are. More of them and the entire 2008 shortlist, below...

Continue reading "the 2008 Polaris Prize shortlist, pics of Basia Bulat"

photos by Ryan Muir

DeVotchKa are the true gypsies of rock n' roll, taking big hunks of everything, notably Mexican and Russian sounds, and putting it together for both thunderous and symphonic purposes. When backed by their string section, they are luscious, atmospheric. But when they are at their basic 4, they are whip-snapping, Moricone-rock connoisseurs. This dynamic can be summed up purely in lead singer/guitarist Nick Urata, who can serenade like a crooner before sending the crowd straight to hell. Mad professor of strings and various keyboards Tom Hagerman and drummer/horn man Shawn King administer their departments with the upmost duty, and Jeanie Schroder is a thumping, solid bass player when she isn't possibly the only woman who can dance around in a dress while playing a sousaphone. [Sonic Parthenon]

More pictures from last night's show at Terminal 5 (May 20, 2008) below....

Continue reading "DeVotchKa @ Terminal 5, NYC - pics"

editor's note: 2 things - 1) sorry this post is 2 days late. oops. 2) Largehearted Boy and Chromewaves are good people. I just don't agree with their opinion of Basia Bulat....

Of the new music releases this week, Basia Bulat's Oh My Darling is by far my favorite. Her debut album finally gets a US release tomorrow on Rough Trade, thanks to Frank at Chromewaves for not only pointing out this wonderful singer-songwriter, but for also continuing to champion this talented artist.

Other new releases I can recommend include Hot Chip's Made in the Dark, Dead Meadow's Old Growth, Jason Collett: Here's To Being Here, Lightspeed Champion's Falling off the Lavender Bridge, Nada Surf's Lucky, School of Language's Sea from Shore, and Sons & Daughters: This Gift.

If you have small children, consider picking up yet another fine kids album by They Might Be Giants, Here Come The 123s

Interesting reissues include a two-disc remastered edition of Paul Weller's Wild Wood, which includes one disc filled with demos.

What new releases you picking up this week? What can you recommend? Have I left anything worthwhile off the list?

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"

Miracle Fortress @ the 2007 Polaris Awards (CRED)

Miracle Fortress, Sunset Rubdown, Basia Bulat, Handsome Furs, The Acorn, The Besnard Lakes, Tokyo Police Club, Patrick Watson, The Weakerthans, Land of Talk and Neil Young are among the list of 33 hot Canadian bands this year. In related news, Jessie from Miracle Fortress recently left a message about their recent problem at the border....

Continue reading "2007's "Hottest Canadian Bands""