by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Beaters - Fishage (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Nodzzz - True to Life (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dom - Jesus (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Golden Girls - Newports (MP3)

The Soft Pack @ Cake shop in Feb (more by Gabi Porter)

The Soft Pack are here again, the first real shows in town they've played since releasing their debut album on Kemado: tonight (3/31) at Maxwell's, tomorrow (4/1) at Mercury Lounge, and Saturday (4/3) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. I've seen these guys a zillion times (and written about them nearly as much) but they remain one of my favorite current live acts. That said, I'm just a tad bit more excited about the bands who they've brought with them on tour: Nodzz, Beaters, and Male Bonding.

Geeky, funny, tuneful Nodzzz were relatively quiet in 2009 -- at least compared to some of their San Franciscan brethren -- touring early in the year and only releasing one single. Mind you, it was an excellent one, "True to Life," which made by Best of the 2009 list. They're bound to have a new record in the works,  so hopefully we'll get a bunch of fresh tunes.

Beaters

Beaters, from The Soft Pack's hometown of San Diego, are signed to Zoo Music, the label run by husband/wife duo Brandon of Crocodiles and head Dum Dum Girl, DeeDee. If you're familiar with their roster at all, you'll have a pretty good idea what to expect: dark, over-caffeinated, paranoid, heavy on the reverb. You can check out their single "Fishage" at the top of this post.

The Music Hall of Williamsburg show adds UK punks (and Sub Pop signees) Male Bonding who also play with The Smith Westerns and So Cow on Sunday (4/4) at Mercury Lounge.

Golden Girls

Two bands from Worcester, Mass are here this weekend -- Dom and Golden Girls. -- who play together tomorrow (4/1) at Pianos and then on Monday (4/5) at Cake Shop.

Of the two, I find Dom a little more interesting. There's some of that fifth-generation cassette tape chillwave sound going on, no doubt (which I'm getting a little waterlogged from frankly).  But they've got some good songs under that hiss (check out "Bochicha" on their MySpace) and appear to play real drums and guitars (as well as crappy old synths) so I have hopes that their live show will prove less gauzy.

Golden Girls are more straight-up indie rock, a duo on recordings but are a four-piece live. Raucous and on the sloppy side,  and with a single about cigarettes, you can draw a line from Golden Girls back to the Replacements pretty easily. They've only got two singles out so far, and I'm definitely curious to hear more.

A few more picks, by night, to take you through the weekend, along with tour dates and videos and stuff, below...

Continue reading "Beaters, Nodzzz, Best Coast, Ash, Abe Vigoda, Dom, Dum Dum Girls, Golden Girls, Soft Pack & more in This Week in Indie"

DOWNLOAD: The Soft Pack - Answer to Yourself (MP3)

The Soft Pack are in the middle of a series of record release shows for their self-titled debut (under their new name), which came out February 2nd on Kemado. They played San Diego on Feb. 2nd, and will do Philly on the 4th, and a free, all-ages show at NYC's Cake Shop on February 5th (which is a week before they make their network television debut on Letterman). Think that's an ambitious travel schedule? They did ten shows in one day in L.A. on January 30th with the help of FYFest's veggie oil powered bus. Videos documenting that day are below.

The band travels to the UK and Europe later this month and March before returning stateside for a full tour. That'll include three NYC-area stops. The first is at Maxwell's on March 31st. Tickets are on sale.

They'll then play Mercury Lounge on Thursday, April 1st and Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday, April 3rd. Tickets are on AmEx presale now; general sale starts Friday (2/5) at noon.

All of the Spring shows seem to be with Beaters, and Nodzzz, the San Francisco lo-fi band who hasn't been to NYC in a year. Sub Pop signee Male Bonding is also on the April 3rd Music Hall bill. Male Bonding play Mercury Lounge with The Smith Westerns one night earlier.

A song from the new SP record is above. All tour dates are below...

Continue reading "The Soft Pack played 10 LA shows in 1 day, announce more 2010 tour dates, shows w/ Nodzzz, Beaters, Male Bonding"