by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Raleigh Moncrief - "I Just Saw" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Raleigh Moncrief - "Lament for Morning" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Baths - "I Just Saw" (Raleigh Moncrief Cover) (MP3)

Raleigh Moncrief

Raleigh Moncrief, who you may know as the engineer/co-producer of Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca or a touring member of Marnie Stern's band, also spends his time making electro-R&B infected indie pop under his own name. He released his first full length album of material last year, Watered Lawn, on the mostly-hip-hop label Anticon. The album goes back and forth between Grizzly Bear-ish clean guitars and vocal swells and blown out Brainfeeder bass drops. Grab two album tracks, "I Just Saw" and "Lament For Morning" above or stream them below, along with the video of the latter. You can also download/stream a cover of "I Just Saw" by likeminded artist Baths.

Raleigh Moncrief has an upcoming show in NYC happening on April 23 at Glasslands. Tickets for that show are on sale now. It's not clear if the show is part of a larger tour but Raleigh is based in California so presumably he'll be playing some other shows along the way.

Video and streams below...

Continue reading "Raleigh Moncrief schedules NYC show (date, MP3s & video)"

photos by Leia Jospe

Photographer Leia Jospe accompanied Anamanaguchi on a trip to Japan where they played Tokyo's own version of the Blip Festival along with Nullsleep and others. Her pictures from that October event are in this post (the above-pictured kitty included). Her pics from the most recent NYC version of the fest are HERE.

Anamanaguchi are currently on the road with BATHS, though they are not on the bill of the NYC show which happens at Bowery Ballroom tonight (12/2) with BATHS, Dinosaur Feathers, and Ki:Theory. Tickets are still on sale. Updated tour dates with more Blip Tokyo pictures, below....

Continue reading "Anamanaguchi played Blip Fest in Tokyo (pics), playing shows w/ BATHS (who plays NYC tonight)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 came to a close on Sunday night. It was another successful year for the well-rounded music fest, and the end of its first in the larger (and much dustier) Auditorium Shores. And though Ryan Gosling may have been the most talked about artist at the festival (Danzig was a close second), the real star was festival organizer Transmission Enertainment for putting together such a kickass lineup on four stages for three days straight (not to mention a mechanical bull) (and skate and bike ramp and tons of good food and vendors and merch and posters and wrestling) (and Turquoise Jeep).

After Hum and then a quick set of comedy by metal comedian Brian Posehn (he did his Slayer joke and one that involved Pantera), Slayer closed out the large Orange stage on Sunday (the other metal acts played on the slightly smaller Black Stage all weekend, but the Orange was the biggest and actually specially built to Slayer's specs).

Slayer wasn't the only wild headliner of the day though. In fact, that's an understatement. Trash Talk played after Henry Rollins did his set of spoken word in the Yellow Tent because Trash Talk had to miss their originally scheduled set on the Black Stage earlier in the week due to a family emergency. Thanking everyone for missing Slayer to see them (actually not true because it ended up Trash Talk was done before Slayer even started), Trash Talk started their hardcore insanity by pointing out that they were on the only stage with no barricade (the stage comedians usually played). Circle pits, stagediving, stage crowding, grabbing the mic, pumping fists (and skateboards) and just general craziness characterized the next 20 minutes or so.

The always controversial Odd Future drew their own giant and enthusiastic crowd to their headlining set on the Blue Stage, and Blonde Redhead closed out the Black Stage to a more intimate and chilled out audience (in the location that was metal, punk, garage and hardcore the rest of the weekend).

Here is our second set of pictures from the final day of the fest, including Asobi Seksu, the reunited Hum, We Were Promised Jetpacks (who just played NYC and one of our CMJ day parties), Odd Future, G-Side, Austra, Grimes, MNDR, Mates of State, Budos Band, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Architecture in Helsinki, Del the Funky Homosapien, Brian Posehn, Flying Lotus, Brody Stevens, Trash Talk, Henry Rollins, and more SLAYERRRR.

We previously posted pictures from both day 1 and day 2, and a second set by BBG day 1, day 2, and day 3

The rest of day 3, below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 -- Day 3 pics (part 2) -- Henry Rollins, Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Trash Talk & more"

Baths at Pitchfork Fest (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Baths is going on an international tour this fall surrounding his appearances at Decibel Festival, Moogfest, and Fun Fun Fun Fest. The dates (which are pretty spread out at the moment) include a short run of Northeast shows in late November/early December which ends on December 2 at Bowery Ballroom in NYC. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (9/9) at noon. All dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Baths announces shows, playing Bowery Ballroom (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: SBTRKT - "Wildfire" (Drumma Boy remix ft. Shabazz Palaces) (MP3)

Back in June, we announced the killer initial lineup for Moogfest 2011 (October 28, 29, 30). That lineup just got even better with additions including TV on the Radio, Special Disco Version featuring James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, St. Vincent, SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, YACHT, John Maus, Araabmuzik Baths, Zomby, Active Child and more. It was also announced that Brian Eno, part of the initial lineup, will be presenting Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings and "Illustrated Talks" as part of this year's fest.

The initial announcement also included Suicide, Tangerine Dream, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Austra, M83, Little Dragon, Passion Pit, Toro y Moi, Moby (full band), The Flaming Lips, Battles, CANT, Brandt Brauer Frick (who will be on a US tour that hits Glasslands), and more.

Speaking of CANT (aka Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear), he revealed the song "Believe" from his upcoming debut LP yesterday. Stream the track below. The album comes out September 13 on Chris' own Terrible Records. He's also got an upcoming tour surrounding Moogfest which includes a show on October 25 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

Speaking of SBTRKT and Little Dragon, Drumma Boy remixed the SBTRKT song with Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano on lead vocals. Shabazz Palaces is also featured on the remix (compare that to Drake's version). Grab the track above via Gorilla vs Bear. Shabazz wrote on Facebook today, "Besides the release of Black Up, I don't think I've seen one article on here create such a surge of activity as this Wildfire Remix has. Amazing."

Sampha, who sings live with SBTRKT and on his album, also recently released his own song, "Indecision." Stream the track below. Moogfest is one of the stops on SBTRKT's recently announced US tour that also hits Bowery Ballroom on October 31 (with Araabmuzik) and Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 1. Tickets for both shows are still on sale.

Little Dragon plays a BV-presented Record Release show at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg TONIGHT (8/16). The show is sold out, but if you don't have tickets you can catch them in NYC again on their headlining tour which hits Terminal 5 on October 14. Tickets are still on sale.

Song streams and full Moogfest lineup below...

Continue reading "updated Moogfest lineup, new CANT & a Shabazz Palaces/Drumma Boy SBTRKT/Little Dragon remix (MP3s)"

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo & Josh Darr

Twin Sister

Pitchfork Fest Day Three (Sunday, 7/17/11) was the day to go if you were looking to dance. The last day of the fest was pretty heavy on the electronic music with Cut Copy, Toro y Moi, HEALTH, Baths, Darkstar, and for something way chiller, How to Dress Well. The third day provided lo-fi masters Kurt Vile, Ariel Pink, and Deerhunter, and complete opposite ends of the hip hop spectrum with the abrasive and utterly offensive Odd Future and the this-must-be-from-another-planet rap of Shabazz Palaces. Day three was also the one chance to see a metal band (Kylesa).

Sunday was headlined by TV on the Radio. TVOTR, like Fleet Foxes who headlined the day before, have a wildly impressive double bill at Williamsburg Waterfront in September. Theirs is with Broken Social Scene on September 8. Tickets are still available.

Twin Sister played Sunday, and you can catch them for free in McCarren Park this Wednesday night (7/27).

Pictures of OFWGTKA's set are HERE. Day Two HERE. Day One HERE. Pics from the rest of Day Three are below...

Continue reading "pics from Pitchfork Fest 2011 -- Day Three"

photos by Amanda Hatfield and Timothy Griffin

Adventure (by Tim)

Braids (by Tim)

Braids and Adventure are on tour with Toro y Moi now. The three bands play sold out shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (4/10) and Monday (4/11).

As discussed and/or pictured HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, we threw a free, three stage party with M For Montreal at Swan Dive and Barbarella in Austin on Saturday, March 19, 2011.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, to all the bands who played and to Ramesh for DJing. Sorry to Bass Drum of Death for not getting to play due to some confusion. Thanks to the cast of Workaholics for stopping by and for doing some hosting (catch their show on Comedy Central now!). Thanks also to Izzoz, Sensible Portions, Honest Tea, VegAustin, Raw Revolution, NadaMoo, Firefly Vodka, Line 6, Korg, Vox, Blackstar, Nudie Jeans, and ASCAP. Thanks to everyone else that helped and to anyone I forgot.

A whole bunch more pictures from the whole day are below...

Continue reading "BV/M For Montreal Austin Day Party in pics (Braids, Adventure, Owen Pallett, Little Scream & many more)"

Guided by Voices @ Irving Plaza, New Year's Eve (more by Chris Gersbeck)

"As previously announced, the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival will be taking place on Friday, July 15th through Sunday, July 17th at Chicago's Union Park! Tickets went on sale on March 4th, and, as predicted, three-day passes sold out in a record time of 24 hours! That said, eager prospective festival goers should fear not, as single-day passes are still available for the totally reasonable price of $45.

And now, without further ado, the newest additions to the 2011 Pitchfork Festival lineup! Friday will see the addition of Guided By Voices and Neko Case; Saturday's lineup will feature No Age, Gang Gang Dance, G-Side, and Chrissy Murderbot; Sunday's stellar lineup now includes The Fresh & Onlys, Radio Dept., HEALTH, Shabazz Palaces, Baths, How To Dress Well, Kurt Vile, and Twin Sister. Stay tuned for more bands still to be announced in the coming weeks!"

Continue reading "Pitchfork Fest expands lineup (Guided by Voices & more)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

As some pointed out in the comments of the "Cold War Kids/No Age/Baths show moves to Terminal 5" post, "Your original tickets from Radio City will be honored at Terminal 5. For the inconvenience we will put $10 in the pocket of all paid ticket holders at the door at Terminal 5." Also, tickets are back on sale.

Baths just played a bunch of shows at SXSW including the Terrorbird Media Day Party at 501 Studio on Saturday March 19th. He actually played that one just hours after playing a noon set at the BrooklynVegan day party at Barbarella (that Misteur Valaire, !!! and Trail of Dead played right after him.) Pictures from that Terrorbird party are in this post, as is a video the AV Club made of Baths doing a great LCD Soundsystem cover with help from his tourmate Houses who also recently posted a separate tour diary video which is also below with a bunch of tour dates too...

Continue reading "Baths played SXSW, covered LCD Soundsystem, is playing Terminal 5 for $10 less than Radio City (dates, pics, video)"

Cold War Kids' March 24th Radio City Music Hall show has been moved to Terminal 5. "All tickets will be honored." Baths and No Age are still the openers.

If you happen to be in Austin, come see Baths play the BrooklynVegan Day Party at Swan Dive/Barbarella at noon today (3/19)

If you've been following along, you know that this is finally the NINTH and FINAL BrooklynVegan SXSW 2011 show announcement! This one happens on Saturday, March 19th in Austin, at both Swan Dive and Barbarella (they connect). It runs from noon-6pm and is 100% free. We are doing it with our friends from M For Montreal and it looks like this:

STAGE 1 (SWAN DIVE)
12:00 PM New Moods
01:00 PM Oh Land
2:00 PM Austra
3:00 PM Little Scream
4:00 PM Owen Pallett
5:00 PM Braids

STAGE 2 (Barbarella main stage)
12:00 PM Baths
1:00 PM Misteur Valaire
2:00 PM !!!
3:00 PM Trail of Dead
4:00 PM Mount Kimbie
5:00 PM Daedelus
HOSTED BY: the cast of Workaholics
DJs: Ramesh (of Voxtrot) & 70's Bush

STAGE 3 (Barbarella small stage)
12:00 PM Bass Drum of Death
12:45 PM Adventure
1:30 PM Versus
2:30 PM Malajube
3:15 PM Suuns
4:00 PM Weekend
5:00 PM PS I Love You

And this party will also have:

• FREE vegan Izzoz breakfast tacos while supplies last!
• lots of FREE snacks courtesy of Sensible Portions!
• a lot of FREE Honest Tea!
• FREE Raw Revolution bars to eat.
• FREE vegan ice cream from NadaMoo
• FREE Firefly Vodka cocktails all day (while supplies last.)
• more FREE DRINKS TBA.

• Our official microphone sponsor Line 6.
• and our backline sponsors Korg, Vox & Blackstar.
• our sponsor Nudie Jeans.
• and to ASCAP for sponsoring too.

To celebrate the BrooklynVegan + M for Montreal party, Nudie Jeans is also giving away 5 pairs of jeans (one pair for each day leading up to the party). For your chance to win, friend Nudie Jeans on facebook and send an email titled BROOKLYN VEGAN to nudie@wantagencyinc.com. For those at the party, we'll also be raffling off more Nudie Jeans you can win while you're there.

We're also happy to announce that, for the second year in a row, we'll be partnering with our friends at VegAustin to host a vegan bake sale for charity at the party. All proceeds will be donated to Compassion Over Killing.

Check out the flyer and stuff below...

Continue reading "BrooklynVegan & M For Montreal Free Saturday Austin Day Party lineup (3 stages @ Barbarella & Swan Dive)"

Daedelus at LPR (more by Chris Doss)

South by Southwest isn't the only major music fest that goes down in March. Ultra Music Festival happens a few days later in Maimi, and the now-sold out, three-day party features a giant lineup of electro acts, many who hit NYC right before or after.

Their lineup includes Duran Duran (who is also playing SXSW), Crystal Castles (who have a show coming up at Terminal 5), The Klaxons, (who play Webster Hall), Trentemoller (who plays MHoW soon), Cut Copy (who plays T5 in triplicate), Royksopp (who plays MHOW and Webster Hall), ... the list goes on and on and includes Daedelus.

Los Angeles DJ and producer Daedelus will play a Brooklyn show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 2nd. Tickets are currently on AmEx presale, and go on regular sale Friday at noon (3/10). Daedelus is also playing SXSW and many other places as part of the 'Magical Properties 3 Tour'. The full list of his dates and openers is below.

Daedelus's new LP Bespoke is due in North America on April 26th via Ninja Tune Records and includes guest appearances by Baths, Busdriver and many others. RCRD LBL has the track with Bilal. Check out the tracklisting, some videos and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Daedelus releasing guest-filled LP, touring (playing Brooklyn, SXSW, Ultra Music Festival, other dates)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Braids

[Braids] singer-guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston's voice had largely abandoned her by the time the band hit the stage [on Feb 18th at The Rock N Roll Hotel in DC], turning an elastic, emotive weapon into a meek croak. Early in the set she strained and failed to hit notes normally well within her range and, at one point, simply stopped singing to apologize mid-song.

Her bandmates soldiered on, playing dramatic and surging songs with interwoven melodies and shifting tempos. They are slowly unfolding, cinematic creations that consistently simmer, if rarely explode. Many of them swell and subside over the course of six or seven minutes, like tornado funnels that never wreak complete havoc by touching down.

Baths, the one-man project of baby-faced 21-year-old Los Angeles resident Will Wiesenfeld, opened his headlining set by telling the crowd he was getting over a cold and asked listeners not to hold it against him if he had to pause at some point to blow his nose. No handkerchiefs were necessary, though. Standing behind an array of samplers, keyboards and other electronic gizmos, he played glitchy dance songs with more immediately satisfying payoffs than anything in the preceding set. -[Washington Post]

True Womanhood and Houses (who replaced Star Slinger) opened the Manhattan show. Houses frontman Dexter (who played second) normally plays with his girlfriend and a drummer, but since they were asked last minute, only he traveled from Chicago. Their album recently came out on Lefse Records.

More dates HERE. More pictures from Mercury Lounge are below.

Continue reading "Baths & Braids & Houses & TW played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo, words by Rachel Kowal

Baths @ Knitting Factory

Star Slinger may have bowed out, but Saturday night's alliterative line-up still proved to be a delightful exercise in spacey electro-pop. The show began with Mikey Sanders' project, Blackbird Blackbird. Though he typically performs solo, Sanders had help from his friend Frank. Much like Baths, Blackbird Blackbird is heavily comprised of bass-heavy laptop samples that are skillfully manipulated by a series of knobs and faders and set to nice, clear vocals.

Sanders mentioned multiple times how "fucking stoked" he was to be playing over the course of his 20-minute set, and the audience responded to this enthusiasm by beginning to loosen up. Though the night was still young, it was clear that a dance party was brewing.

But before things got too frenzied, the dancers got a bit of a respite thanks to Braids' pleasantly dreamy set. After a long, meandering instrumental intro as the band and technicians ironed out some last-minute kinks, the lights suddenly changed and Braids exploded into the moody crowd pleaser "Lemonade."

Lead singer and guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston had a big smile on her face throughout the evening, despite her apparent illness. (She had thought ahead to bring a a steaming thermos and a Kleenex box on stage with her.) But even more notable than her upbeat disposition was her ability to hit every note - especially the high ones in "Lammicken." (At times, she looked a bit surprised when she nailed them, too.) When she finally confessed that she had "lost" her voice near the end of their set, she could barely talk. Luckily, the final song in the set called for some shrieking and audience participation.

When it was finally time for Baths, both Will Wiesenfeld and the sold-out crowd were ready to dance. "Ok. You guys want to hear music, I assume," Wiesenfeld began. "Let's do it!" As he began to play his first song, he turned to the sound technician a few seconds in. "Everything louder! Louder, louder, louder!"

It's easy to knock laptop musicians, but unlike some performers, Wiesenfeld is anything but dull. With his hands moving rapidly over dials and knobs, Wiesenfeld was a blur. He danced as much as physically possible, sending the key ring at his belt loop jingling wildly, which added yet another layer to the music.

"Oh my God. I love him already!" yelled a girl behind me during the first song. Everyone was gushing and in good spirits - it's hard not to be with lyrics like "It's a breezy, beautiful day." Meanwhile, Wiesenfeld was soaking up the love with a big grin on his face. "We're all friends here. I know all of you," he cried out at one point.

He was moving so much that he somehow managed to dislodge his glasses - twice. "I don't have any rock star things other than my glasses falling off, so that's peak. That's as bad ass as I get," he joked.

Following his action-packed set (which included a number of new songs), Wiesenfeld returned to uproarious applause for a one-song encore before admitting to the crowd and admitting, I don't have any more. I'm going to disappear."

--

The Saturday night show was over before midnight which is when Todd P took over for a late night party feating a set by John Maus.

Braids play again at Glasslands tonight (12/15), and then Baths and Braids continue their tour together at a sold out Mercury Lounge on Wednesday. More pictures from Knitting Factory below...

Continue reading "Baths, Braids & Blackbird Blackbird @ Knitting Factory (pics)"

Star Slinger

"five years ago, J Dilla passed away, aged 32... and his name crops up more than any other. There's a whole generation of musicians drawing influence from his soulful, psychedelic thump. One of them is Darren Williams, better known as Star Slinger. He's spent the last 10 months building an impressive body of work, from eccentric beat tapes, remixes of artists as diverse as Cocteau Twins, Deerhunter and Nicki Minaj and a saucer-eyed collaboration with Teams. Like Dilla, Star Slinger makes dense, weird music that's fun and accessible, beats that bare scrutiny and "tear the whole fuckin' club up."" [FADER]

Star Slinger was also supposed to play Glasslands in Brooklyn tonight (2/15). Instead you can head to the venue to catch Braids who were added a few days ago, and unlike the Mercury Lounge show, tickets are available. Geotic and Shigeto are also on the bill. Baths has the night off, but tickets are still available if you want to catch him when he opens for Cold War Kids at Radio City in March. All Braids dates below...

Continue reading "Star Slinger cancelled, but Braids added Glasslands show"

No Age at Don Hills (more by Leia Jospe)

In an impressive sweep of additions, both No Age and Baths will join on to Cold War Kids' upcoming show at Radio City Music Hall on March 24th. Tickets are still available.

The Radio City date is one of three NYC shows scheduled for Baths at the moment. The band is on tour with Braids all of this month and will play Knitting Factory on 2/12 (tickets) and Mercury Lounge on 2/16 (tickets).

The Cold War Kids recently dropped their new LP Mine Is Yours, and performed "Louder Than Ever" on Jimmy Kimmel last week (1/26). All tour dates for all bands and some videos (including No Age's new one for 'Fever Dreaming", and the CWK Kimmel clip) are below.

Continue reading "No Age & Baths opening for Cold War Kids @ Radio City (and playing other shows --- 2011 tour dates) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (Green Go Remix) (MP3)

If you've got tickets to one of the Radio Dept. shows this week, be sure to get there early to catch Montreal's Braids, who I just saw play in their hometown a couple weeks ago for the M for Montreal Festival. I said then:

Braids use their voices more as another instrument than a conveyor of lyrics. There are points during their set when the harmonies meld with the band's stretched out grooves to achieve ethereal bliss worthy of The Cocteau Twins. Their set is better than the one I'd seen at Knitting Factory back in May, not to mention besting many of the "official selections" at M the following days.

Braids will be back in 2011, hitting the road with Baths and Star Slinger -- a tour that hits NYC on February 12 at Knitting Factory. All Braids tour dates below...

Continue reading "Braids in NYC for 3 shows, touring w/ Baths in 2011 (dates)"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

Wild Nothing @ Irving Plaza

Way back at the beginning of CMJ, Times New Viking, Happy Birthday and Wild Nothing opened for Jenny and Johnny at Irving Plaza. This post has the pictures of those openers.

Since then Times New Viking played two more shows: Pitchfork's #OFFLINE Fest and our Friday day party.

Wild Nothing played a bunch too, including our Saturday day party (pics coming soon). If you missed them, and Baths who played a bunch of CMJ shows too, you have another chance tonight (10/28), courtesy of NYU. Wild Nothing, Baths, and Julianna Barwick play a show on the 4th floor of the NYU Kimmel Center, in the E&L Auditorium at 7pm. It's $5 for NYU students (who could buy tix in advance) and $7 to the public (who could not).

More pictures from Irving Plaza, and a video of Baths from their show at the Terrorbird show at Cake Shop, below...

Continue reading "Wild Nothing played Irving Plaza w/ Times New Viking & Happy Birthday (pics), playing NYU w/ Baths "

photos by Chris La Putt

""Nobody's been in my vagina for sooo long!" If you haven't been made aware of Marnie Stern's monotone hollers and fiercely angular guitarwork by now, then maybe you've just been purposely ignoring her. Again in the Cake Shop's sweaty, packed, and miserable basement Stern and her two bandmates gave the supportive crowd her thing just so - blast beats and rapid-fire guitar taps meet in perpendicular, with plenty of raunchy between-song banter from the infamously dirty-mouthed and adorable Stern." [City Pages]

Continue reading "Marnie Stern, Baths & more Terrorbird party pics, more Dale"

Matthew Dear @ MHOW in 2008 (more by Bao Nguyen)

As mentioned, Pitchfork will be hosting three days of shows at Brooklyn Bowl during, but-it-looks-like/probably completely unaffiliated with, CMJ this year (Thursday/Friday/Saturday CMJ week). "Brooklyn Bowl is located at 61 Wythe Avenue between N. 11th and N. 12th streets. The festival starts at 2 p.m. each day, with doors opening at 1 p.m. Tickets are $10, both in advance and day of the show." They're calling it the #OFFLINE Festival.

Based on the lineups and start time, it looks like each #OFFLINE day will be about a 12 hour show. No set times yet though, but the full lineups and ticket links are below...

Matthew Dear is one of the biggest names on the list (he plays Saturday), and it will be one of three CMJ week shows for Matthew. His first is Friday night at Webster Hall with Jamaica and Dominique Young Unique. His third is later on Saturday at Public Assembly for the FIXED/Making Time Party with Matthew Dear, Crocodiles, Holy Ghost!, Javelin, Gold Panda, Jamaica, and Kisses.

The FIXED/Making Time party starts after the BrooklynVegan party which is also happening at Public Assembly that same day. Just to be clear:

SATURDAY OCTOBER 23RD
* BrooklynVegan @ Public Assembly 12-6pm (free - more details TBA)
* FIXED/Making Time @ Public Assembly 9pm-late (tickets)
* Pitchfork @ Brooklyn Bowl 2pm-late (tickets)
* BrooklynVegan metal @ Union Pool 7pm-late ($5.00 or CMJ badge at the door)

We (BrooklynVegan) will also be at Public Assembly all day on Friday, October 22nd (details TBA), and at Music Hall of Williamsburg on the Thursday night.

All Matthew Dear tour dates (many of which we previously posted including a November show at MHoW), and the Pitchfork #OFFLINE Fest info, below...

Continue reading "Pitchfork announces #OFFLINE not-CMJ parties, Matthew Dear also playing Making Time & Girls & Boys parties (lineups) "

ML review by Rachel Kowal

DOWNLOAD: Brad Laner - Crawl Back In (Baths Remix) (MP3)

Baths @ Mercury Lounge on August 3rd (more by David Andrako)

It's kind of odd to go to an indoor show that starts when the sun is still up, but the Mercury Lounge's back room makes you lose your sense of time. The opener of the early show back in August was the one-man electro-pop act Baths, which is the project of 21-year-old Will Wiesenfeld. "Hi. Whoa! Sorry to scare you!" Wiesenfeld said as his voice suddenly broke through the soft chatter. "Hi New York. It's very sweaty here. I'm not used to it, but it's cool... I'm going to start playing music."

Baths consists of a laptop, a mixer, and vocals. Wiesenfeld projects the kind of lovable (but somewhat awkward) intensity you might expect from the 'hero' of a Judd Apatow movie. Though his work required him to be at arms length from the mass of knobs, dials, and buttons, he didn't let that stop him from some serious upper body dancing, and his energy was contagious.

After playing a handful of songs, Wiesenfeld began to talk over the concluding notes of a song. "This is going..." He stopped, and switched off the reverb. "This is going to be my last song. Stay tuned. Fol Chen is next... Oh!" he exclaimed, momentarily switching off his music. "And I'm Baths. B-A-T-H-S," he said excitedly, almost as an after thought.

When Fol Chen singer/guitarist Samuel Bing walked on stage in his bright red shirt and pants combo, the crowd snickered a little. But when the remaining four members of Fol Chen joined him - each wearing the same outfit (save Sinosa Loa, the sole female member who wore black tights to match the shiny black buttons of her red shirt), the reaction changed to something akin to amusement. "Matching outfits? Yes!" said one audience member toward the front of the room. Maybe I was just influenced by the White Stripes-like aesthetics, but the instrumental interludes seemed reminiscent of a tasteful soundtrack to an old sci-fi movie - playful, but definitely eerie as well.

In the studio, a significant portion of Fol Chen's music consists of samples, but their music translates well to a live setting. Their sheer weirdness mixes irresistibly with their alluring vocals, irrepressible beats, and 80s-tinged keyboard riffs. The frenzied drumming propelled the music and threatened to transform Fol Chen into a hypnotic martian marching band of sorts. (The brief addition of a trumpet for one of their songs only reinforced the image.) Everyone but the drummer - who was working up a real sweat - contributed backing vocals, but even he approached the mic for one song near the end of the set. Fol Chen was also joined on stage by Kárin Tatoyan whose cover of "In Ruins" appears on the band's "In Ruins" EP (as does a remix by Baths).

During the song "The Idiot," back-up singer (and recent New York-transplant) Patrick-Ian sang, "Everyone here thinks it's a joke," which seemed to be an interesting tag line for the evening given the borderline cult-like and somewhat ridiculous matching outfits, but joke or no joke, their music is worth a listen.

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We already posted pictures from that show (the above review got lost in my email) (until now). Baths, if you hadn't noticed or figured it out, are/is in fact playing NYC as part of his tour with Dosh and headliner El Ten Eleven. That takes place at Knitting Factory on Thursday, September 16th (tickets still on sale).

For an MP3, grab the free EP Baths appears on over at Heart Music Group's Bandcamp.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Baths - last here w/ Fol Chen (review), coming back w/ Dosh "

Stereogum listed the "40 Best New Bands of 2010". They have a lot more detail, but you can also check out their list, alphabetically, below...

Continue reading "Stereogum lists the "40 Best New Bands of 2010" "

photos by David Andrako

Baths @ Mercury Lounge

Fol Chen and Baths are in the midst of a two-show NYC stay (part of a very short run of shows together). The first gig was last night (8/3) at Mercury Lounge, where the pictures here are from.

Fol Chen was joined on stage by Kárin Tatoyan whose cover of "In Ruins" appears on the band's "In Ruins" EP (as does a remix by Baths). After the show Kárin tweeted, "Hello folks. Okay, another impromptu performace at Mercury Lounge with Fol Chen. I cant wait to get to perform for you guys again!"

Tonight/Wednesday the bands play Union Pool. Tickets will be available at the door. More pictures from Mercury Lounge (how was the show?) below...

Continue reading "Fol Chen & Baths played Mercury Lounge (pics) "

DOWNLOAD: Fol Chen - The Holograms (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Baths - Lovely Bloodflow (MP3)

Grab the above-pictured 5-song EP (which is actually give different versions of "The Holograms") for free at Fol Chen's Bandcamp page. Catch them on tour with Baths now. That includes the two BV-presented NYC shows happening tonight (8/3) and Wednesday (8/4). A flyer, all dates and more below...

Continue reading "Fol Chen here w/ Baths, on tour, giving away EP, other MP3s"