Cincinnati, OH festival Bunbury Music Festival is returning for its second year from July 12 - 14, 2013. The lineup was just announced and it includes MGMT (who were also just announced for Firefly Music Festival), The National (who were also just announced for Bonnaroo and have a huge Brooklyn show coming up), Belle and Sebastian and Yo La Tengo (who just announced a tour together, which includes a Prospect Park show), Camera Obscura, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Savoir Adore, Bear Hands, Oberhofer, We Are Scientists, Chairlift, Cake, Tegan & Sara, Tokyo Police Club, Devotchka, Those Darlins, Buffalo Killers, Sky Ferreira, and more.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Cincinnati festival Bunbury Music Festival 2013 lineup & tix (MGMT, The National, Belle & Sebastian, Yo La Tengo & more)"

Flatbush Zombies at Santos - 10/17/12 (via Frankie Castillo)

Flatbush Zombies packed Santos last night for the Noisey showcase with Children of the Night, The Underachievers, Bodega Bamz, and more. The show was a mad house and the line to get in was wrapped around the block. If you were there, how was it?

Since that show happened, the hip hop crew have been revealed as the special guest at tonight's MTV showcase at The Studio at Webster Hall (10/18) with Big K.R.IT., Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Le1f, and Killer Mike. Doors are 5:30 for what is sure to be a great show and tickets are still available. You can also try to get in with your CMJ badge. Set times are below.

For Killer Mike, this is an early show that he tacked on before he heads to Irving Plaza where his tour with GZA (performing Liquid Swords), Sweet Valley (Nathan of Wavves' beat project), and Bear Hands hits tonight. Since we last posted about it, that show's lineup has been expanded to include Haleek Maul (who also played the Santos show with Flatbush Zombies last night) and The Color Film. Tickets for that show are still available, or you can try to get in with your CMJ badge, or try to win a pair from us. Contest details are below. The show starts at 7 PM.

The Studio show is the first of two shows for Big K.R.I.T. tonight, who also plays the Cinematic/Ecko/XXL showcase at SOB's later on with Joey Bada$$ & Pro Era, Smoke DZA, Fat Trel, and others.

Contest details for the Irving show and set times for the Studio show are below.

Continue reading "Flatbush Zombies played Santos, playing the Studio tonight; GZA & Killer Mike's Irving Plaza show is tonight (win tix!)"

The full list of artists confirmed for the 2012 CMJ Music Marathon so far is below...

Continue reading "CMJ 2012 initial lineup announced"

DOWNLOAD: Sweet Valley - "Suzuka 9 Hours" (MP3)

GZA at MHOW in June (more by Ryan Barkan)

Wu-Tang Clan member GZA, who recently performed his album Liquid Swords in NYC, has just put together a pretty amazing tour. He's taking out underdog rapper of the year Killer Mike, Sweet Valley (aka the new beat project by main Wavves dude Nathan Williams and his brother Joel [aka Kynan]), and Bear Hands (who are currently on a tour with Fort Lean which hit NYC last week).

That tour kicks off in Buffalo this September and ends with a NYC show on October 18 at Irving Plaza, which is part of CMJ. Tickets for that show are not on sale yet but check Livenation for updates. All dates on the tour are listed below.

For Nathan and Joel Williams' Sweet Valley project, the tour will double as a support run for their debut beat tape, Stay Calm, which is due out on August 7 via Fool's Gold. You can stream two tracks from that release, "Malibu Games" and "Suzuka 9 Hours," below, the latter of which you can also download above. Nathan Williams will also be joining GZA on stage at the shows, and you may remember that it won't be the first time that Nathan and GZA unite.

A list of all dates and streams below...

Continue reading "Sweet Valley (aka Nathan from Wavves' new beat project) touring w/ GZA, Killer Mike & Bear Hands (dates & MP3)"

Brooklyn indie pop outfit Fort Lean are heading out on a tour with Bear Hands next month. But before they do that, we're happy to announce that Fort Lean, along with Hume have been added to the BrooklynVegan Northside Showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday (6/15) as part of a lineup which already includes Caveman and Frankie Rose. Tickets for that show are still available or you can also try to get in with your Northside badge. We're also giving away a pair of tickets in this post. Details on how to enter to win are below.

Fort Lean's tour with Bear Hands kicks off in Brooklyn on July 20 at Knitting Factory. Tickets for that show are available. It also includes a Hamden, CT show at July 22 at The Space with Surfer Blood, the day before Surfer Blood plays Maxwell's (7/23). Tickets for the Hamden show are on sale.

Fort Lean put out a single this past February for the track "Sunsick" b/w "The Precinct." You can stream those two tracks below or purchase a download of them at bandcamp. Those song streams, along with a list of all dates and contest details are below...

Continue reading "Fort Lean added to BV Northside Showcase, playing shows w/ Bear Hands & Surfer Blood (dates & streams)"

"The Festival will feature two stages of music per day, both located in the Nethermead Meadow. More artists to be announced. Performances start at noon and end at 8:30 pm on Saturday. Performances start at noon and end at 7:30 pm on Sunday." Announced music lineup for the two day Prospect Park food and music festival, below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga music lineup announced (and updated)"

We Were Promised Jetpacks at BV-CMJ (more by BBG)

Scotland's We Were Promised Jetpacks spent their Mischief Night (10/30) at Webster Hall in NYC. We invited the band's frontman Adam Thompson into a studio earlier that day to record a session for BrooklynVegan (stay tuned). He told us it was maybe the largest headlining show of their career so far. It was definitely their largest in NYC, and much larger than the show they played for us at Knitting Factory during CMJ. How was it?

Opening at Webster were Royal Bangs and Bear Hands who are still on tour with the Jetpacks. They're making their way towards Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest where WWPJP will play the fest while BH and RB will link up with Dom & Pujol for a FFF Nites set on 11/6.

Bear Hands return to NYC and headline Music Hall of Williamsburg on 12/16 with guest Fort Lean. Tickets go on AMEX presale at noon on Wed (11/2) and regular sale on Friday. Fort Lean will ALSO be at Le Poisson Rouge on 11/26 as part of the 2nd Annual Voidwell Homecoming Dance with Gordon Voidwell and his band, Emil and Friends, Emily Warren & The Betters and a DJ set from Aaron Pfenning (tickets).

All dates and WWPJ's new video for "Human Error", from their new LP In The Pit Of The Stomach, below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks played Webster Hall, Bear Hands add Brooklyn show (dates)"

photos by BBG

We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Knitting Factory

As you know, We Were Promised Jetpacks will HEADLINE Webster Hall on Sunday (10/30) with Bear Hands and Royal Bangs in tow as part of a string of US dates together. Tickets are still available. You can buy 'em or roll the dice and try to win a FREE pair. We're giving away one pair on the BrooklynVegan Facebook and another here. Details are below.

We Were Promised Jetpacks played our day party during CMJ one week ago today (10/20) and though we previously posted a full set of pictures from the day, a second set of pictures of WWPJ are here in this post. More of them with all dates and contest details below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks now on tour (win tix to Webster Hall!), played CMJ (more BV party pics)"

White Rabbits @ Escape to NY Fest (more by Dana (Distortion) Yavin)

Whoever books the now-annual Fashion's Night Out show at Rockefeller Center must really like Bear Hands. Like last year, Bear Hands will play the free 6-11pm gig on Thursday (9/8). This year they'll be opening for White Rabbits and share a bill with Lissy Trullie and DJ Keiichiro. Flyer below.

For White Rabbits it's one of only two upcoming shows they have scheduled, the other being Chicago's Cultivate Festival.

Bear Hands head out on tour with We Were Promised Jetpacks and Royal Bangs in October.

Continue reading "White Rabbits headline free FNO show @ Rockefeller Center w/ Bear Hands (dates)"

WWPJ at Governor's Island in 2010 (more by Andrew St. Clair)

We Were Promised Jetpacks are back with their second LP In the Pit of the Stomach which comes out October 4 via Fat Cat. The album was produced with Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, Interpol, The National). Lead track "Act on Impulse" is streaming and available for download on their website.

WWPJ will go on an international tour in September through November in support of the album. Royal Bangs and Bear Hands support the US dates. The tour comes through NYC on October 30 at Webster Hall. Tickets go on sale Friday (7/15) at noon with an AmEx pre-sale starting Wednesday (7/13) at noon.

All tour dates and album art below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks announce new album & tour w/ Royal Bangs & Bear Hands (dates)"

Bear Hands @ Stratosphere Sound, CMJ 2010 (more by Diana Wong)

Head to Brooklyn Bowl today, Oscar Sunday (2/27), first for the free COLLECT-I-BOWL Record Show, and then for the next edition of "Local x Local" with a free show by Bear Hands.

Bear Hands also have a not-free show coming up at Knitting Factory on March 14th with Johnossi and Dinowalrus. They leave right afterwards for Austin where they'll play what the Cantora Records Showcase at the Victorian Room at the Driskill on 3/17 with Reptar, Computer Magic, Secret Music, Superhumanoids and Slam Donahue. They're probably playing other parties too, but they don't currently list them at their site.

photos by Lionel Bergeron

"[Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.] played a short set of about 8 songs, most of them from their released EP from this year. They have a new album coming out this spring and it's just in time since they only have "like 3 CDs left," as the lead singer said during the show. They played a new track and it's definitely darker than the previous release, maybe they're spending too much time being depressed and lonely on the road...

...Live, they are quite entertaining. They dress in Nascar race suits and look like they're headed to get some "tires to the face" at a local track. They have some great lighted decorations that add to their fun showmanship. You can see it in "Vocal Chords" below, and it by far was my favorite song of the night.

Of course there were some entertaining moments when they invited some buddies to share the stage. They're definitely having fun with being musicians. [notes by spark]"

Continue reading "Bear Hands, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. & the Tony Castles played Bowery Ballroom (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: MAKE OUT - I Don't Want Anybody That Wants Me (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Reading Rainbow - Wasting Time (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Savoir Adore - Loveliest Creature (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dinowalrus - Phone Home from the Edge (MP3)

Make Out

We are in full holiday swing so things are finally, thankfully slowing down. Nobody's really touring till the new year, making things easier for shopping, holiday parties, marathoning TV shows, whatever. So it'll be a short This Week in Indie, but not without things to see. This is New York after all.

The lead story this week was going to be ex-Beta Band frontman Steve Mason playing his first-ever solo shows in NYC, but his North American tour has been postponed "due to an almost complete lack of interest. We try again next year after SXSW!" There's interest, Steve, it's tough during the holidays. Do come back. If you haven't heard his new album, Boys Outside, it's definitely worth a listen.

So what else? Thursday night (12/16) is the live debut of MAKE OUT, which is the new band from Jesper Mortensen, who was the Junior in Danish duo Junior Senior. (Remember them?) He lives here now and new band -- fronted by Leah Hennessy -- is big dumb '70s-ish glitter-trash rock, and you can download Make Out's debut single, "I Don't Want Anybody That Wants Me," at the top of this post. Might be fun live? It's at Mercury Lounge.

Saturday (12/18) is the Rock Lottery event at Knitting Factory. I love these sort of instant art type things (anybody ever go see  Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind?) and the cast of musicians who'll make up these ad-hoc bands is promising. Members of Golden Triangle, Liturgy, Oberhofer, Bear in Heaven, ARMS, Les Savvy Fav and many more will be grouped together at random, so the results will hopefully be interesting. And fun. Proceeds go to charity, so give a little. Tickets are on sale now.

Reading Rainbow

And lastly, I really love Reading Rainbow's new album, Prism Eyes, which is out on the HoZac label and will be on my Best LPs of 2010 list when I ever get around to finishing writing it. You can download "Wasting Time," one of my favorites off the album, at the top of this post. They are great live too, which you can find out for yourself Saturday (12/18) night at Death By Audio as part of an insanely good bill that includes current tourmates Coasting, plus The Babies, Big Troubles and new Captured Tracks signing, Widowspeak. All upcoming Reading Rainbow tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Like I said, it's a short one this week. More daily picks of things not covered above:

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15

The Depreciation Guild have decided to call it quits, which is sad, but have a couple more shows left in them. The first is tonight at Glasslands.  Check out the lovely animated video to their final single, "Blue Lily," at the bottom of this post.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16

SPIN and Free Williamsburg  are throwing some sort of Holiday party tonight at Death By Audio with a performance by The Hundred in the Hands, who made my Best EPs of 2010 list. It's free (and free beer), you just need to RSVP.

Travis are still a going rock outfit, but here's your chance to see frontman Fran Healy play solo at Bowery Ballroom in support of his new album, Wreckorder.

And if you are looking to laugh, Coco66 hosts Supershow!. Tonight has ex-SNL Jenny Slate, who also voiced that charming Marcel the Shell short. (I hear they might debut a new Marcel the Shell short tonight. Maybe.) Also performing: Food Party composer Matt Fitzpatrick will play original holiday songs, and more. It's free.

continued below...

Continue reading "MAKE OUT, not Steve Mason, Reading Rainbow, Savoir Adore, Depreciation Guild & more in This Week in Indie"

DOWNLOAD: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - "Simple Girl" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bear Hands - "Crime Pays" (MP3)

Dale Jr Jr at Cake Shop (more by Chris La Putt)

"The goal of the Green-Screening Project is to bring musicians together to change the way music videos are made - more creative and rewarding for artists, and more engaging material to entertain fans. This whole process has been collaborative, from raising money via a KickStarter appeal, to musicians playing together in the studio, to even crowd-sourcing ideas for the videos.

Twenty-eight (!) exciting acts came in the space of one week to master a live track at Seaside Lounge studios in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The recording studio was rented out especially at the end of October 2010 in parallel to the CMJ Music Marathon event, in order to reach a wider geographic of bands. Each band performed in a space decked-out in full professional 'green screen' backdrops so that bespoke visuals could be added in afterwards to create over thirty amazing music videos. It's an audio-visual experiment that was a wonderful, improvised experience, and we couldn't have anticipated how much fun it would be. From redundancies to stormy romances, the tall tales and magic of Green Screening will live on."

And if you missed them at CMJ, or want to see them again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. are returning to NYC this Friday (12/17) to support Bear Hands at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still available for the show which is one of three on the east coast this week for Dale, and one of two shows left for Bear Hands who were just on a longer tour.

Bear Hands also recently dropped a video of their own for "Crime Pays" from Burning Bush Supper Club which is also viewable below (and downloadable above), with all dates and the other video...

Continue reading "watch Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. play in front of green screen (video), see them live this week w/ Bear Hands (dates)"

photos by Diana Wong

Surfer Blood @ Stratosphere Sound

This can best be described in the words of the person who invited me to this:

"we're going to be hosting a private, unofficial CMJ artist lounge here at Stratosphere Sound (James Iha, Adam Schlesinger and Andy Chase's studio in Chelsea) on Thursday, October 21st.

We're going to be having [8] bands recording 2-3 stripped-down songs (which will be recorded by our Grammy Award-Winning engineer Geoff Sanoff, and then featured in a special Insound.com mixtape a week later). Confirmed acts:

11AM - Fake Problems
12PM - Dom
1PM - Bear Hands
2PM - Surfer Blood
3PM - Ma.Mentor
4PM - Woven Bones
5PM - Class Actress
6PM - Jukebox the Ghost

Additionally, [we'll have a lounge where artists and industry folks will be invited to enjoy drinks from our liquor sponsor Maker's Mark, and check out free goodies from Fred Perry]

Continue reading "Surfer Blood, Dom, Bear Hands, Woven Bones & others played Insound Sessions @ Stratosphere Sound (pics) "

WAVVES @ MHOW in September (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Wavves will support Phoenix and Dirty Projectors at Madison Square Garden tonight (10/20). If you miss it, the king of branded weedgrinders will also play a surprise show at the CMJ PureVolume house later tonight at 10PM. He goes on right after Matthew Dear (which means he's playing at least 4 CMJ shows) Flyer below.

The Purevolume House will be open all five days of CMJ and will also host sets from No Joy (who are also playing the BV day party on 10/23 and other shows), Oberhofer (who also play the BV Day Party on 10/22), La Sera (who plays the Hardly Art showcase on 10/21 and the Forcefield showcase on 10/22 and more), Bear Hands (who play a bunch of shows - all dates below), Teen Inc, and many many others (some curated by Gorilla Vs Bear and Hype Machine). RSVP to get in.

Full schedule below...

Continue reading "another Matthew Dear show, another Wavves one too, Bear Hands dates & full Purevolume House lineup "

photos by Lionel D. Bergeron

Bear Hands @ Rockefeller Center - 9/10/2010

Bear Hands are opening for Jamie Lidell at Webster Hall on Saturday night (9/18). If you don't already have a ticket, here's a little more incentive:

"As an additional bonus to all of his amazing and supportive fans, Jamie is offering everybody who has pre-ordered a ticket to any show on his fall world wide tour a special collection of remixes done by friends like Tiga, Micachu and Tuneyards, as well as from band mates Guillermo Brown and Andre Vida. This deal applies to all standard headlining shows September 6-November 20. Local promoters will provide all purchasers with a download link on the day of concert, and all hard ticket purchasers will receive a link from the box office on the show day by presenting their ticket. "

Savoir Adore, Brahms (who have some CMJ shows comin up), and Bear Hands played sets outdoors at Rockefeller Center as part of Fashion's Night Out last week. Lionel missed Savoir Adore, but shot the other two bands. Those pictures and all dates continue below...

Continue reading "Bear Hands played Fashion's Night Out w/ Brahms (pics), opening for Jamie Lidell (free remix EP w/ ticket) "

"On September 10th, 2010, VOGUE, Mayor Bloomberg, NYC & Company and the CFDA will team up for a second time to bring you Fashion's Night Out. The goal of the Fashion's Night Out is to celebrate fashion and retail."

Metric is playing at Juicy Couture' Fifth Avenue Flagship store at 8:30PM. They are also playing a fashion show on Monday.

Joss Stone is playing in Nine West (5th Ave and 53rd Street).

VV Brown is playing the Teen Vogue and ASOS.com's Fashion's Night Out Block Party. "The event will be held on Bleecker St (btwn Perry and W. 4th) in NYC 6-11pm."

"As part of Vogue's "Fashion Night Out" Bear Hands will be playing at Rockefeller Center tonight, September 10. The show kicks off at 6:30 and previous to Bear Hand's set at 9pm Savoir Adore and Brahms will be playing. The stage is set up between 49th and 50th street and 5th and 6th Avenue."

"My Gold Mask will be premiering "I Don't Need The Reason" live during their performance at the Phillip Lim store for Fashion's Night Out in New York City today on Friday, September 10."

Dan Black is performing an acoustic set at Saks at 9:30pm, and DJing at Dior Homme from 7-9.

Karen Elson will play at 9pm at Balenciaga, West 22 Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

Mick Rock is taking pictures at the Varvatos store.

"We will also have a live acoustic performance by British band Ramona at the Spring Street Burberry store."

Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow is DJing a Theory party at 40 Gansevoort Street.

What else?

Javelin @ Bowery Ballroom in February (more by Jessica Amaya)

Whitney Live: Summer 2010
Presented by Keds
Fridays: July 2, July 23, Aug 13, Aug 27
Lower Gallery / Sculpture Court 7pm

JULY 2
HIGH PLACES + TORO Y MOI

JULY 23
BEAR HANDS + DARLINGS

AUGUST 13
JAVELIN + WARPAINT

AUGUST 27
DJ/RUPTURE + TANLINES

Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg and Wye Oak's Andy Stack are playing a show at the museum on Friday, June 25th to ring in an exhibit of art by painter Charles Burchfield.

Last year's summer Whitney shows included Vivian Girls & These are Powers and the Feelies.

The Biennial just closed at the museum - there's a video tour of it below...

Continue reading "Whitney Live 2010 - free shows @ the museum in July "

We Were Promised Jetpacks' new EP The Last Place You'll Look came out in March on Fat Cat. That's the cover above.

In addition to playing the June 30th Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club/Suckers show at Governors Island (they're opening), We Were Promised Jetpacks has added a Tuesday, June 29th headlining show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Bear Hands open. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon. General sale starts Friday, May 28th at noon.

The Brooklyn show is one of at least seven shows that WWPJ and Bear Hands will play together this summer. Those dates include Louisville, Kentucky's Forecastle Festival which has updated its July lineup since we last spoke. That updated lineup and day-by-day schedule, and all dates below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks & Bear Hands add more dates (MHOW), Forecastle Festival updates its lineup "

photos by Bryan Bruchman

Spinner: You had an EP out in October, produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor. How did you team up with him?

Acrylics: Chris Taylor saw us play some shows, and we had some friends in common. He asked us to record initially one track that was going to be on a split 7-inch, and we got into it and recorded an EP. We had about a week to do it. We were in his church studio, which is a beautiful place to record. We had fun. We had been working on a whole record prior to that, and we're still working on that record, slowly. So it was fun that he gave us the opportunity.

• A flyer for tonight's (3/26) show at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn
• More Acrylics tour dates (w/ The Smith Westerns)
• A video of Acrylics at SXSW
• More pictures of Acrylics at SXSW
Acrylics played many shows at SXSW this year, including the very first one apparently. Great bill at Glasslands tonight. All that stuff below...

Continue reading "Acrylics played SXSW (pics), play Glasslands w/ Lissie Trullie, Bear Hands, Holy Ghost! & others tonight + other dates"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Dum Dum Girls - Jail La La (Mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Happy Birthday - Girls FM (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Bloodsugars - Light at the End of the Tunnel (Mp3)

Bear Hands

It's another jam-packed week of shows. In addition to Taken By Trees, El Perro Del Mar and The Soundtrack of our Lives, here's some of the ones I'm excited about.

tonight (2/16): New Cantora Records signees Bear Hands play The Studio at Webster Hall. You can download the band's percussion-heavy new single "What a Drag" for free from their website if you're willing to give them your email address. You can also watch the video at the bottom of this post.

Also tonight (2/16), Beast kick off what is now a run of three NYC shows. As we pointed out earlier today, "Beast are at the Living Room tonight. They play the Cameo tomorrow night late...and they've added an early set at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, where the show is with Fight Like Apes, Honor By August, Stationary Set and Tryptics."

The Bloodsugars

This week is last of Savoir Adore's February Thursdays residency at Cake Shop and we've got a pair of tickets up for grabs. Just email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM and we'll pick a winner at random. In addition to Savoir Adore (have I mentioned their album made my Best of 2009 list?),  it's another good group of openers. The Bloodsugars make '80s-inspired widescreen pop that at times sounds uncannily like Prefab Sprout -- and good Prefab Sprout, not "hot dog jumping frog Albequerque" Prefab Sprout. Which is to say these folks know their way around big pop hooks, and are kind of a perfect match with Savoir Adore. You can download "Light at the End of the Tunnel" from last year's underrated I Can't Go On, I'll Go On at the top of this post.

Also on the bill: Pittsburgh's chilled-out Ennui and Brooklyn's synth-heavy Red Wire Black Wire with between-sets DJing from Nora of blog I Rock I Roll.

Also on Thursday (2/18), Dan Black is in town at Mercury Lounge. There's a new version of Dan's single "Symphonies" that features Kid Cudi, and you can watch the new video for it at the bottom of this post.

Bear in Heaven @ Mercury Lounge in January (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

A few more shows. Bear in Heaven, who were just great at Mercury Lounge a couple weeks back, play Glasslands on Friday night (2/19) with Secret Machines. What I like about them live is that you can tell they all really enjoying being in Bear in Heaven and playing these songs. They're just a lot of fun to watch, and they're pretty tight too with a drummer beats the shit out of his instrument.

Secret Machines are headlining, a band I haven't seen play in some time but have always liked. They've got a trippy, string-heavy new single, "Like I Can," that you can listen to on their website. Also playing what sounds like a full evening are electro rock quintet Mon Khmer, Noveller and Papa.

Saturday (2/20) marks the end of The Beets/Beach Fossils/Christmas Island tour where they'll play Music Hall of Williamsburg along with German Measels and headliners Crystal Stilts who I still haven't managed to catch since Frankie Rose left the drummer's chair.

Dum Dum Girls

Speaking of Frankie, she'll be pulling double duty Sunday night at Mercury Lounge where her own bandThe Outs will open for Dum Dum Girls (she's their drummer). DDG's debut album for Sub Pop is about six weeks away but you can download the album's first single, "Jail La La," at the top of this post. (It's out on 7" today with a nice cover of the Stones' "Play With Fire" on the flip.) I'm usually not one for re-recording songs that have already been released, but I actually think this recording is spruces things up just enough without unraveling their reverby gauze. After heading to London for a few shows, Dum Dum Girls will be back for SXSW and then will go on tour with Girls in April. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

Frankie & the Outs are really coming along as a band too, and thought they were fantastic at Monster Island this past weekend. The vocal harmonies in particular are the band's strong point, with a bit of soul in there too actually, kind of like some late-'60s girl rockers. I'd love to hear them cover The Kelly Affair/Carry Nation's "Sweet Talking Candy Man" from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. But maybe that's just me.

Also playing are Dum Dum Girls' Sub Pop labelmates Happy Birthday, whose super-catchy song "Girls FM" is downloadable at the top of this post. It's power pop, but kind of gritty/garagy and makes me anxious to hear more.

That's it for this week. Flyers, videos and tour dates after the jump...

Continue reading "Bear Hands, Dum Dum Girls, Happy Birthday, Bloodsugars, Bear in Heaven, Beast & more in This Week in Indie"

photos by Alexis Maindrault

Near the end of their first New York show in 10 years, at Webster Hall on October 7th, singer-guitarist James Dean Bradfield of the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers hit the plaintive opening lick of the Small Faces' 1966 British hit "All or Nothing," leading the rest of his group into a verse and chorus of that mod-soul classic -- a song about giving without quitting -- before veering into the Manics' own 1990 Molotov cocktail "Motown Junk." You can count the number of times the Manics have played New York on one hand; this was the biggest room I've seen them in here. But Bradfield, drummer Sean Moore and bassist Nicky Wire, traveling with a second guitarist and a keyboard player, ran through the whole of their history in 90 minutes -- a greatest-hits set anywhere across the Atlantic, a long list of shots in the dark in the U.S. -- like still-hungry animals with conquerors' pride. There was no encore but, as Bradfield told the ecstatic faithful on the Webster floor, "That doesn't mean we don't love you from the bottom of our filthy Welsh hearts." [David Fricke]

Continue reading "Manic Street Preachers & Bear Hands @ Webster Hall - pics"

photos by Ryan Muir

At what can only be described as one of the worst live shows I've ever seen, Das Racist took the stage of Public Assembly Sunday night (8/30) (around 11:30pm) (four hours after the Grizzly Bear show had ended right down the street) and proceeded to play 3 or 4 or was it 5 songs with an extended Wesleyan-related lineup (Ryan says they called the whole band "Spanish Broads").

The jokey trio, Das Racist, already permanently feature a member of Boy Crisis on drums. They also have a college in common with many bands that now call Brooklyn home. Santigold, MGMT, Amazing Baby, Bear Hands, Francis & the Lights, Extra Life, Mobius Band, Boy Crisis and Chairlift are all from, or have members who went to Wesleyan University in CT. Apache Beat might not be directly related to Wesleyan (I can't say for sure), but like Suckers, I'll just throw them into that MGMT-friends, Wesleyan-related group.

Despot somehow fits into all this too. We know he is tight with Islands who Das Racist recently opened for. And he's friends with Amazing Baby too. MGMT are also one of his top friends. And by the way he was getting all close with Das Racist on stage at Public Assembly, I guess they are good friends too.

Imagine 20 kids being introduced to instruments for the first time. They're brought into a classroom, at a 'touch museum' or in pre-school, and they're all handed various noise-making devices. One gets a triangle, another a tambourine. Some get to beat drums, while others rub a stick back and forth on a grooved piece of wood. They all start making noise at the same time. Now just replace the triangles and grooved wood things with drum machines and microphones. Throw in very loud, amplified volume, and you've sort of got Sunday night's show.

Despot did not rap at all. The Taco Bell song, or a version of it, was one of the 'songs' played. The person in the ET mask is a dude from Chairlift. Cerebral Ballzy opened the free show, but I missed them because I was next door at Music Hall of Williamsburg trying to figure out who Edward Sharpe was (more on that later). More pictures from the Public Assembly show below...

Continue reading "Das Racist w/ members of Boy Crisis, Chairlift & Apache Beat & Despot @ Public Assembly in Brooklyn - pics "

photos by Chris La Putt

Thee Oh Sees

"Largely unfamiliar with the bands on the roster, my husband and I went to Coney Island on Saturday to see Built to Spill headlining on the main stage of the annual Siren Music Festival. Normally, I love free shows. I like the freedom to walk away from a disappointing or uninteresting performance-as we did from Monotonix-without feeling guilty. And ticketless shows tend to draw all types, which appeals to the voyeur in me. Neither of us had been to Coney Island before, so it was mildly amusing to see the confluence of century old kitsch and aggressive marketing tactics by softdrink companies. (We tried a sample of something called Vio, "the world's first vibrancy drink," and it tasted vaguely like flourescent lighting and perfume.)

Anticipating the rush toward the stage as Built to Spill began, we found a decent spot where we'd be able to hear the band, if not see their faces. It was as close as we could get without my cheeks grazing across sweaty pectorals while trying to squeeze through. This is the point at any show when the fan in me starts to grin and breathe faster, to feel like I'd rather be right here than anywhere else in the world. To our horror, not only were the people around us talking so loud that we could barely hear the music, they weren't even facing the stage. The crowd was mingling as though at a singles mixer, drink in hand, shouting over the din, completely oblivious to the band on stage.

Now, while I've been known to complain about NYC hipsters at opportune times (like when I'm on the downtown L train), I generally think people are too hard on them. They're pretty benign as far as contrived fashion/music subcultures go. But when they prevent me from hearing and seeing a live performance by one of my favorite bands, simply because they can't stop yakking and flirting for a single minute, I feel, well, displeased.

Next show is hopefully Trail of Dead at All Points East. I'm bringing pepper-spray and my slapping hand." [Home on the Fringe]

Chris's Built to Spill pics are HERE, Raveonettes pics HERE, and the rest below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Siren Music Festival in Coney Island - pics (part 1) "