photos by Wei Shi

New Order / The xx / Danny Brown

Weekend 2 of Coachella 2013 continued on Saturday (4/20), and this time around we caught sets by New Order, The xx, Hot Chip, Danny Brown (who debuted a new Rustie-produced track, "Dope Song," during his set which you can watch a video of below), Action Bronson, Trash Talk, Janelle Monae and more. Pictures of Weekend 2 Day 2 are in this post.

In case you haven't been keeping up with our coverage, pictures of Weekend 2 Day 1 are HERE. For Weekend 1 pictures, check out day 1 (HERE and HERE), day 2 (HERE) and day 3 (HERE).

More Coachella Weekend 2 Day 2 pictures and the Danny Brown video below...

Continue reading "Coachella Weekend 2 Day 2 in pics (New Order, Trash Talk, Danny Brown, The xx, Hot Chip, Action Bronson & more)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Sigur Ros / Bat For Lashes / Spiritualized

"It was a mixed bag for veteran acts on Saturday. On one hand, The Evens, featuring ex-Minor Threat and Fugazi man Ian MacKaye, drew a respectable (and respectful) Gobi Tent crowd early in the day; the Descendents' influential melodic-punk found a fairly large following at the Outdoor Theatre under the stars; and New Order brought a solid throng along for its night-capping Mojave Tent performance (despite going up against headlining Phoenix and post-rock favorites Sigur Rós, among others). But reunited D.C. garage-soul outfit The Make-Up, underground hip-hop icon El-P and British ska survivors The Selecter played to some of the weekend's sparsest audiences in the Gobi Tent." [Las Vegas Weekly]

UPDATE: Pictures from Sunday are HERE.

Saturday photos are in this post and continue below...

Continue reading "Coachella Day 2 Photos (Sigur Ros, Bat For Lashes, Major Lazer, Descendents, 2 Chainz, Phoenix, Postal Service, more)"

Bat for Lashes, whose album The Haunted Man came out last year, will be touring the West Coast around her appearances at the two weekends of Coachella 2013. For those on the East Coast, Natasha Khan and her band will be opening for Depeche Mode on previously announced dates from August 22 - September 15, which includes both NYC-area shows: Barclays Center on September 6 and Nikon at Jones Beach on September 8. Tickets for those two shows go on Facebook presale today at 10 AM (password is "DELTA"). The general on-sale happens Saturday (4/6) at 10 AM.

All Bat for Lashes tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Bat for Lashes opening for part of Depeche Mode's 2013 North American tour, including NYC-area shows (tickets on pre-sale)"

Click it for the bigger poster.

Alt-J at Mercury Lounge in May (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Big day for award nominations. The Oscars announced theirs this morning and the Brit Awards just wrapped up their ceremony for 2013 nominations, with Emeli Sandé grabbing four and Mumford & Sons and Alt-J each getting three. All three of those artists were nominated for British Album of the Year, a list that also included Paloma Faith and Plan B. If you don't know, The Brits are basically the UK's equivalent of the Grammys, though nominees are all British apart from a few "International" awards.

Jessie Ware, Muse, and Adele each got two nominations, and single-digit noms went to Bat for Lashes, The xx, Richard Hawley and The Vaccines.

Mumford & Sons have two nights at Barclays Center in February and Alt-J will swing though town in March.

The entire 2013 Brit Awards nominees list is below.

Continue reading "2013 Brit Award nominees announced (Emeli Sandé, Mumford and Alt-J lead the pack)"

by Andrew Sacher

Today, we finally get the much anticipated list of Pitchfork's Top 20 Albums of 2012. They revealed Nos. 30-50 yesterday and spent the rest of this week posting Honorable Mentions and tracks. None of the albums that made the top 20 are surprising to see there (which doesn't mean they aren't deserving), but the surprises come from the albums that missed the list all together. Passion Pit got ROBBED! Twin Shadow too! And Wild Nothing! If you're looking for Converge or Baroness, you'll have to redirect yourself to Pitchfork's Metal list (though Pallbearer was in the main top 50). And we could've guessed that Nos. 1 and 2 would be Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar... but who took the No. 1 spot? Head below to find out and you can check out individual writer's votes too...

Continue reading "Pitchfork's Top 20 Albums of 2012"

Nite Jewel at LPR in August (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

Nite Jewel (aka Ramona Gonazalez) is a bit of a musical shapeshifter, having previously recorded lo-fi experimental pieces, performed with Linda Perhacs (along with Julia Holter), and performed a Kraftwerk album in its entirety, among other things. Just recently, she recorded a piano cover of Stevie Wonder's "Visions," which you can watch a video of below.

But on this year's One Second of Love, Ramona went for more of an overtly pop approach than her earlier work, and that interest comes across pretty strongly in her top ten songs of 2012 list, which you can check out below. Half of the list is made up of this year's big rap/R&B faves, and it also includes collaborator Julia Holter, Zebra Katz (whose video we just posted), and more.

Check out her full list and the "Visions" video below...

Continue reading "Nite Jewel covered Stevie Wonder, picked her top 10 songs of 2012"

by Bill Pearis

Pitchfork just posted their much anticipated list of the top 100 tracks of 2012. The #1 slot went to... Grimes! Whether you thought the whole of her album Visions was good or not, it was hard to deny the charms of "Oblivion." (Having that great video didn't hurt either.) Do you think it deserved to top the list? If not then what song should've?

You can check out P4K's entire hot 100 of 2012 below.

Continue reading "Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks of 2012 (Grimes' "Oblivion" is #1)"

by Andrew Sacher

FACT is still one of the best sources for cutting edge electronic music, and I always look forward to their top 50 albums of the year list, which they've just published for 2012. As usual, it doesn't only contain electronic albums.

This year's list has a good deal of indie rap (Haleek Maul, Schoolboy Q, Le1f, Main Attrakionz, Spaceghostpurrp) and it's the only non-metal list I've seen so far with Black Breath's Sentenced to Life (!). And of course, to compliment the dancefloor records, it's got its fair share of electronic-tinged indie pop, forward thinking R&B, and outsider experimental music.

Check out the full list below.

Continue reading "FACT's Top 50 Albums of 2012"

by Andrew Sacher

SPIN have revealed their list of the top 50 albums of 2012. It continues SPIN's trend of giving love to crossover punk and metal (which they've been pretty consistent with since naming Fucked Up's David Comes to Life their top album of 2011) with the inclusion of Baroness, Torche, Pallbearer, Cloud Nothings, and Japandroids, but rather surprisingly excludes the SPIN Essential'd Ceremony - Zoo and The Men - Open Your Heart, in favor of popular blowouts by Taylor Swift, fun., and Nicki Minaj. The list also shares its #1 and #2 with the two highest Pitchfork-rated albums of the year. And no Grimes.

The list begins with the Kanye-cribbed disclaimer, "Most critics' taste levels ain't at our waist level. Ain't nobody fucking with our clique." Check out SPIN's Top 50 LPs of 2012 list below.

Continue reading "SPIN names their Top 50 Albums of 2012 (Frank Ocean is #1)"

UK music magazine Uncut put out their list of the top 75 albums of 2012. The top ten leans pretty heavy on long-running '60s/'70s survivors who put out new albums this year, but plenty of the list-topping regulars from newer acts are on there too, along with a few interesting surprises (Sun Araw, M Geddes Gengras & the Congos!). You can check out the full list below.

Continue reading "Uncut's Top 75 Albums of 2012"

Q Magazine put out their Top 50 albums of 2012 list, choosing to do so in no particular order this year, making it more a pile than a list. Check out Q's picks in alphabetical order below.

Continue reading "Q Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2012"

Long-running UK music weekly NME has just published their Year-End issue and have named Tame Impala's Lonerism as album of the year, with Grimes, Frank Ocean, Crystal Castles and Alt-J rounding out the Top 5. Tame Impala offshoot Pond comes in at #7. Check out the entire Top 50 list below.

As mentioned before, Tame Impala just announced a 2013 tour, and will play Terminal 5 in NYC on February 19. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (11/30) at noon.

NME's Top 50 LPs of 2012 are listed below.

Continue reading "NME Top 50 Albums of 2012; Tame Impala 'Lonerism' gets #1"

The Fly is the "UK's most popular new music magazine," but if you haven't heard of it, its because it's a free monthly that doesn't really get international distribution. You can however read it online. The mag just released it's year-end issue and topping their Best Albums of 2012 is Sharon Van Etten's Tramp (which was just released in a Deluxe edition, a fine Xmas gift don't you know). Sharon narrowly beat out Grimes, whose Visions came in at #2. The whole list, in ascending order, is below and you can read what The Fly said about each album here.

By the way you can still get tickets for the December 15 show at Cameo that Sharon curated with She Keeps Bees and Speck Mountain and "Special Guest."

A list of the Fly's Top 50 Albums of 2012 is below.

Continue reading "'The Fly' magazine's Top 50 LPs of 2012 (Sharon Van Etten #1)"

It's that time of year already I guess. NME quizzed a whole bunch of artists about their favorite album of the year. Bat For Lashes chose Alt-J who recently won the Mercury Prize and who chose Polica as their favorite. That and more, if you can understand what they're saying, in the video, below....

Continue reading "WATCH: Artists tell their favorite 2012 albums (Bat for Lashes pick Alt-J who pick Polica, etc)"

NPR has got the streams of Bat For Lashes' new moody synth pop opus, The Haunted Man (listen), Titus Andronicus' very worthy back-to-basics successor to The Monitor, Local Business (listen), Sinkane's funky DFA debut, Mars (listen), and Pig Destroyer's grinding comeback album, Book Burner (listen).

Sinkane will be playing a number of CMJ shows including the BrooklynVegan day party at Public Assembly on Saturday (10/20). Stay tuned for the full BrooklynVegan lineups coming soon.

Pig Destroyer will be here for CMJ too.

Titus Andronicus won't, but their tour with Ceremony hits NYC on December 2 at Webster Hall (tickets) after a sold out show at Maxwell's (12/1).

Why yes, we have posted a lot of stuff already today. Here's some more

Mythbuster? More like Myrthbuster. TV personality Jamie Hyneman apparently abandoned his first born. Luckily, NYC has a history of taking your poor, your tired, and your mustachioed; baby Hyneman has taken up residence at the New York Aquarium. (confused?).

Shades of Scott Tenorman: Radiohead Fan Sells Cheating Girlfriend's Tickets Online, Gets Invited to Hang Out with Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul.

Morrissey is in NYC right now and appeared on Colbert.

Bat for Lashes now streaming 6 songs off The Haunted Man at The Guardian; and you can stream Tamaryn's album (via Gorilla Vs. Bear) at the bottom of this post.

Is Spotify's business model broken? Anybody pay for Spotify Premium? (editor's note: I do)

For those who like free stuff: We are giving away two tickets to see Menomena at Bowery Ballroom on October 11 on the BV Facebook Page as well as tickets to Dark Dark Dark and Emily Wells at LPR on 10/13 and to The Darkness at Terminal 5 on 10/21.

Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" "received more performances on U.S. radio and television than any other song in the BMI repertoire during 2011."

The Rolling Stones "are pleased to announce the WORLD EXCLUSIVE first airplay of the brand new single from The Rolling Stones, 'Doom And Gloom' will take place on Thursday October 11th at 8:15am. The single can be downloaded on the same day from iTunes."

Led Zeppelin were hanging out in NYC on the same day Pete Townshend was.

Toro Y Moi has announced that he'll release a new album called Anything In Return on January 21st via Carpark Records.

Hey arty types: design Richard Hawley's Guitar Skin!

I swear we're not making any of this stuff up.

More stuff below...

Continue reading "ALSO: Radiohead fan whose girlfriend cheated, Bat for Lashes, Tamaryn, Toro Y Moi, Adele, Pixar, cute baby walrus & more"

Miguel at MoMA PS1 in August (more by Leia Jospe)

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Brain Cloud @ Barbes
* Hot Tub @ Littlefield
* Ka'a Davis @ The Stone
* John and Scott @ UCB
* Jay-Z @ Barclays Center
* Miguel @ Bowery Ballroom
* Jarrod Spector @ Joe's Pub
* Dum Dum Girls @ Other Music
* Allen Toussaint @ City Winery
* CC Carena, Sugar Life @ Zebulon
* Stephane Wrembel @ Empire Rooftop
* The Campilongo Quartet @ Living Room
* Floating Action, Bird Dog @ Mercury Lounge
* Paper Route, Alexander Howard @ Mercury Lounge
* Bob Log III, Cheap Time, Ex-Humans @ Glasslands
* Tony Scherr Trio w/ Anton Fier and Rob Jost @ Living Room
* Public Forum Duet: Alec Baldwin and David Brooks @ Joe's Pub
* Ray Manzarek & Robby Krieger (of The Doors) @ Tarrytown Music Hall

If you missed Dum Dum Girls at Europa last night, you have another chance to catch them today, and for free inside Other Music.

The one and only Bob Log III is on tour with Cheap Time and plays a show in Williamsburg at Glasslands tonight. Stop by and have a boob scotch or two.

First Kristen left, and now 'Hot Tub' is coming to an end. Tonight is the FINAL HOT TUB WITH KURT BRAUNOHLER! at Littlefield and the guests are Eugene Mirman, James Adomian, Marcus Monroe, and Nick Turner.

Speaking of, did you catch the season 3 premiere episode of Bob's Burgers after the Simpsons last night? If you didn't know, Eugene Mirman is the voice of Gene Belcher, Kristen Schaal is Louise Belcher, and last night's episode had Kurt on it too.

Miguel's album, Kaleidoscope Dream, is out this week (10/2) and he plays Bowery Ballroom tonight. If you haven't already, you can stream it at NPR.

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NPR is also hosting the stream for the new Tame Impala album, Lonerism (due out 10/9 via Modular). You can also now pre-order the deluxe edition. The band's tour will hit NYC for two shows in November.

Pharoahe Monch posted the "trailer for DAMAGE off the forthcoming multimedia deployment PTSD presented by Pharoahe Monch & W.A.R Media. Damage is the 3rd installment of Pharoahe Monch's personification of the bullet. (1. Stray Bullet 2. When the Gun Draws)". Watch below.

Bat for Lashes made a video for the song "All Your Gold" off of her upcoming album, The Haunted Man (due out 10/23 via Capitol). Check it out below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

Yeasayer in Austin earlier this month (more by Tim Griffin)

We already posted lots of posts today. Here's some more, and some reminders too...

Yeasayer played Summerstage last night (9/12). We missed them but caught them in Austin where Dead Can Dance also recently played. How was the NY show?

As BV Chicago pointed out, Smashing Pumpkins frontman BIlly Corgan opened a tea shop outside of Chicago, and he played acoustic sets there today to celebrate.

Bat For Lashes is releasing her new album, The Haunted Man, on October 21. Back in July, she revealed the first album cut, "Laura," and today she's let loose a second taste of the album. Continuing a trend thus far of naming songs after women's names, this one's called "Marilyn." You can stream it below.

The final track on the new Lower Dens album, Nootropics, has become the inspiration for a new beer brewed by Stillwater Artisanal Brewing for their new Stillwater Sensory Series. The beer is called "Stillwater Artisanal, Sensory Series v.1 - Lower Dens" and will be out this November with a QR code on each bottle that leads to an exclusive video of Lower Dens performing the song when scanned.

The Walkmen, whose tour brings them to NYC for a show at Terminal 5 on October 18 with Dum Dum Girls (tickets) will play Conan tonight.

more below...

Continue reading "Also: The Walkmen, Pig Destroyer, Yeasayer, Bat For Lashes, Lower Dens, Billie Joe Armstrong, Billy Corgan & more"

Frank Ocean at Coachella 2012 (more by David Andrako)

Tyler, the Creator at Pitchfork Fest 2011 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Trash Talk at BV-SXSW 2012 (More by Greg Cristman)

today in NYC
* Mallu @ MoMA
* Kotorino @ Barbes
* Oren Bloedow @ Barbes
* Frank Ocean @ Terminal 5
* Kassa Overall @ The Stone
* Questlove @ Brooklyn Bowl
* The Dave Hill Explosion @ UCB
* The Universal Thump @ Barbes
* Kishi Bashi, Tall Tall Trees @ Joe's Pub
* Bomba Estereo, Il Abanico @ Webster Hall
* Milagres, Indians, Zulu Pearls @ Glasslands
* Slowdance (DJ set) @ Ace Hotel New York
* Tom Shillue's Funny Story @ Brooklyn Brewery
* Eternal Summers, Ex Cops @ Mercury Lounge
* Pedrito Martinez Group @ MetroTech Commons
* Soul Asylum, Joseph Arthur @ Bowery Ballroom
* The Dust Rays, Smoota, SORNE @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Poolside (DJ Set), Sean Glass @ Hudson Terrace
* Persephone's Bees, Bizi Gara, Psychic @ Zebulon
* Oberhofer, The Soft Pack, Royal Bangs @ Pier 84 CANCELLED
* Marshall Crenshaw, Bottle Rockets @ City Winery
* Milo Greene, Family Of The Year @ Mercury Lounge
* Skaters, Liquor Store, Neon Windbreaker @ Swat Bar
* Beach Day, Chalk & Numbers, Island Twins @ Cake Shop
* Prawn, Calculator, Caravela, Tawny Peaks @ Maxwell's
* Agalloch, Taurus, Musk Ox @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Alien Whale, Ms. America, Dead Stars @ Ding Dong Lounge
* Rebecca Pronsky, Zachary Cale, Woodsy Pride @ Union Hall
* Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Geko Jones @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Jeffrey Gaines, Jennings, E. Clayton West @ Highline Ballroom
* Trash Talk, DJ Leftbrain (OFWGKTA), "special guests" @ 285 Kent
* Murals, Indian Rebound, Treppenverter, The Split @ Cameo Gallery
* Zomby, Rusty Lazer (DJ set), Lemonade (DJ set), LE1F @ The Hester
* King Khan & The Shrines, Nicky Da B, The Everymen @ House of Vans
* Kings County Ramblers, Andi Rae Healy, Whale Belly @ The Rock Shop
Night Panther, Ghost Beach, Nicos Gun, N/A, Silya, The Blakes @ Pianos
* Uncle Monsterface, The Planes, Little, Big, Attack.wav @ The Grand Victory
* Jack Quartet, C. Spencer Yeh, Patrick Higgins, Jantar @ Secret Project Robot
* Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Asher Roth @ Best Buy Theater
* Little Howlin' Wolf, Wes Buckley and Allie Klein, Hurricanes of Love @ Union Pool
* Oscar DeLeon, Luis Enrique, N'Klabe @ Seaside Summer Concerts in Coney Island
* Law & Order, Porches, No One and The Somebodies, Frankie Cosmos, Cave Cricket @ Big Snow Buffalo Lodge
* Our Mountain, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, The Amp, Bones Howell, Osekre & The Lucky Bastards @ 929 XPO
* Le Rug, EULA, Rainbow Party, Michael Jordan & The South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band @ Shea Stadium

Trash Talk, who are on Odd Future records, play a FREE BV-presented show at 285 Kent tonight with DJ Leftbrain (of Odd Future) and "special guests." Odd Future's Frank Ocean plays a sold out show at Terminal 5 tonight and OF's Tyler, the Creator & Earl Sweatshirt play with Raekwon tonight at Best Buy Theater. The flier for tonight's Trash Talk show is below.

"Goldfinger" screens for free tonight in Tompkins Square Park.

"Clueless" screens for free tonight in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Speaking of free screenings, did you RSVP for our screening of "Celeste and Jesse Forever"?

Officially unelected Coney Island major Dick Zigun is giving his annual overview of the current state of Coney Island at the Coney Island Museum tonight.

Vol. 1 Brooklyn's 'The Greatest 3-Minute Punk Stories' is returning for a second installment tonight at Housing Works. Here's what they say about it and the full list of people who will be there:

For the first time ever, Vol. 1 is revisiting a Greatest 3-Minute story topic for a second time around. On July 26th we're presenting The Greatest 3-Minute Punk Stories 2.
Since we had such a fun time the first time around, we figured why not invited a bunch of people to get up on the Housing Works stage and tell stories that might or might not be about bad tattoos, bad hair dye jobs, bad tours, selling out, selling in, and/or having an emo phase in the mid to late 1990s. The event starts at 7 pm, is free and includes the following folks.

Ari Spool (Impose)
Michael Fusco (M+E Design)
Mishka Shubaly (Freshkills)
Syd Butler (Les Savy Fav/Frenchkiss Records/author of Who Farted Wrong?)
Maura Johnston (Village Voice)
Russ Marshalek (Silent Drape Runners/Flavorpill)
Alina Simone (Author, You Must Go and Win)
The Beets
Evan Smith Rakoff (Poets & Writers)
Jeanne Fury (Writer)
Matt Elkin (The So So Glos)
Ami Greko (Book Camp: NYC)
Jenn Pelly (Pitchfork)
Molly Neuman (Bratmobile)
Maria Sherman (Writer, WNYU DJ)
Alexis Fleisig (Obits)

Be our friend on Facebook too, and BV Austin's friend on Facebook and BV Chicago's friend on Facebook.

Follow BrooklynVegan on instagram.

Murals play their first of 4 NYC shows tonight.

Bat For Lashes have a video for "Laura," the single off of their upcoming album, which you can watch below.

Wilco was on Fallon last night (7/25) after playing their third of three NYC shows. They performed "Art of Almost" and then "Laminated Cat" as a web exclusive. Videos of both performances are below.

Balam Acab remixed N'Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" (yes!). You can stream/download that below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

Bat for Lashes returns this fall with The Haunted Man, her first new album in three years and the first new music we've heard from Natasha Khan since her duet with Beck on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack in 2010. It comes out October 21 and that's the provocative cover art above. You can stream the first released track from the album below, the stripped-down (no pun intended) piano balled "Laura." Starting Tuesday, July 24, if you pre-order the album on iTunes, you get an instant download of the song.

Continue reading "Bat For Lashes readies 'The Haunted Man' (stream a song)"

by Tim Griffin

Eddie Vedder & Beth Ditto @ Rock Werchter 2012 - 6/29/2012

"Rock Werchter is a Belgian annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Leuven, since 1973. It is one of the five biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe (the other four being Exit, Sziget Festival, the Glastonbury Festival and Roskilde Festival). The 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 festivals received the Arthur award for best festival in the world at the International Live Music Conference (ILMC). It can host 85,000 guests daily, of which 67,000 combine all four days, to add up to a total maximum of 139,000 different attendees." [Wikipedia]

Day two of Belgium festival Rock Werchter kicked off for me with the still-reunited, classic California punk band X playing on the main stage. I stayed for their entire, great set which means I missed Belgium band School is Cool who were playing on the other side of the park. Judging by the bubbles seen on several attendees leaving that stage though, it looked like missed a fun time. Other bands on the second day, of this festival that featured so many big names, included Pearl Jam, Lana Del Rey, Jack White, Deadmau5, The Gossip, Beirut and many others

I couldn't make it to every band on all three stages each day, obviously, but I at least have a good excuse for missing Mastodon: I was getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the fest (many thanks to FIAF and Rock Werchter for the hospitality - and WAFFLES!). They took me behind the fences and gateways, to get a glimpse all that goes on to keep things moving. The scale and logistics were pretty mind-expanding. Some bullets:

• Rock Werchter goes for 4 days at the end on June, but initial setup begins in early May.
• More than 8000 are directly employed by the festival, with thousands more as subcontractors.
• More than 25% of the staff are directly engaged in security and safety of the venue and audience.
• Most staff are sourced locally to ensure direct local benefits from the festival.
• Rock Werchter is practically a small town, with everything but a school system on site (medical services, residences, offices, supply depots, repair stations, food services (including storage and preparation), and even on site garbage sorting and recycling.
• Thousands of large steel road plates are used throughout the facilities to protect the ground from vehicle traffic, and thousands of square meters of field and audience areas are also similarly protected using plastic and wood flooring.

No pictures from backstage, but more from who was playing on the stages, along with Pearl Jam's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Rock Werchter 2012 - day 2 pics (Pearl Jam, Jack White, Gossip, X, Lana Del Rey, Katy B, Kreayshawn, Bat for Lashes, Wiz Khalifa, more)"

We try to keep tabs on various festivals around the world here on BrooklynVegan, many of which you'll eventually see pictures from. Today we focus on Belgium.

Pukkelpop goes down from August 16 - 18. That festival includes The Stone Roses, Bjork, Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Refused, Wilco, The Hives, The Shins, The Afghan Whigs, Lykke Li, Hot Chip, Feist, Flying Lotus, tUnE-yArDs, Chromatics, Cloud Nothings, The Tallest Man on Earth, Baroness, Ceremony, A-Trak, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, and more. The full lineup is listed below. Tickets for the festival are on sale now.

Rock Werchter, which falls a bit more on the mainstream side, happens in Belgium even sooner, running from June 28 - July 1. That lineup includes The Cure, Jack White, X, Mastodon, Garbage, The xx, M83, Metric, Amon Tobin, Skrillex, Perfume Genius, Bat For Lashes, Michael Kiwanuka, Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, Regina Spektor, Florence + the Machine, The Vaccines and more. Tickets for the festival are on sale now sold out.

The full lineups for both Pukkelpop and Rock Wercher are listed below.

Continue reading "full 2012 Pukkelpop & Rock Werchter lineups"

DOWNLOAD: Josh T. Pearson - Woman, When I've Raised Hell (WAV)

"The hubbub from upstairs regularly intrudes through swinging doors on an intimacy that requires leaning in, to hear Pearson's murmurs. Lift to Experience's thunder has been replaced by a man who stares straight ahead, fingers strumming his acoustic guitar in slow motion, his thumb barely grazing a string. Though his short set includes fearsome country songs about the infidelity and break-up torturing him on his new record, he doesn't let their oppressive mood capture us. Even "Country Dumb", epic pop of sorts, becomes a whispered sketch, as if all the worrying and honing has left skeletons and traces of songs." -[The Independent]

"I first heard of Josh when I listened to the Lift To Experience album The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads. It was around the time I started recording the first Bat For Lashes album, and I remember being so taken aback by Josh's haunting voice, preacher-like storytelling lyrics and guitar playing... Like a doomed angel singing over a desert storm." -Bat For Lashes

Josh's next shows after tonight are in Texas during SXSW. The heartfelt and haunting singer-songwriter whose new album I've had on repeat (Last of the Country Gentlemen will be released by Mute on March 29) plays four shows down there including a noon set at Swan Dive on Thursday, March 17th aka at the BrooklynVegan day party happening there that day (more details soon!). He also plays a show at Central Presbyterian Church. All Austin dates, and a whole bunch of European ones, are below.

Download "Woman, When I've Raised Hell" above. Listen to "Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ (piano version with Dustin O'Halloran)" and other songs with all dates, below...

Continue reading "Josh T. Pearson releasing 'Last of the Country Gentlemen' on Mute, in NYC NOW before heading to SXSW (MP3, dates)"

photos by Bao Nguyen

"Agh. Free Black Keys concert tonight at the Classic Car Club but lines were CRAZY!" - quiet soliloquy

"Fans have overwhelmingly expressed, in 354+ comments on The Black Keys Facebook page, that the band has "sold out" following an announcement that a new song, "Chop And Change", will be a part of the soundtrack for the third installment of extremely popular vampire movie franchise "Twilight".

The Black Keys' have sold out? Yeah, sure. If anything, they've finally just sold in on their own terms.

In most cases, the term "sold out" would be fantastic news to artists in regards to shows, books, CDs, etc. It simply claims that the artist/event is doing so well that they have run out of space or items and that it is pretty much exclusive and rare - a privilege, really. It's heartbreaking to the people who did not get a chance to be a part of it, but it does hint at success, which can obviously be rendered in many different ways. For people who appreciate "underground" or lesser-known works or talents, however, "selling out" is the worst possible brand that you can get from a fan - it pretty much means that you are now not good enough to be appreciated anymore, and that you are now "mainstream" or "too trendy."" [The Black Keys Fan Lounge]

No more Kin shows in NYC, but Chicago has one by The Dead Weather coming up. The Dead Weather (who also opened a pop up shop in NYC when their last record came out), along with Metric (who play NYC tonight/Sunday), Muse (who are taking Metric on tour), Band of Horses (who also open for Pearl Jam at MSG this week), Vampire Weekend and others, also appear on the new Twilight soundtrack. The full tracklisting and more pictures from the Kin show below...

Continue reading "The Black Keys played the Classic Car Club in NYC (pics), appear on the new Twilight Soundtrack (track list)"