DOWNLOAD: Beirut - Elephant Gun (MP3)

Beirut @ Sasquatch 2008 (more by Chris Graham)

Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival is a borough-wide celebration of Brooklyn's musical talent, comprising mainstage events at BAM (performances by Beirut, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Kaki King, and Chairlift), music in BAMcafé, off-site performances at thirteen Brooklyn venues (The Bell House, Bodega, bushbaby, Le Grand Dakar, Frank's Lounge, Goodbye Blue Monday, Monkey Town, Pete's Candy Store, Solomon's Porch, Sputnik, Southpaw, Union Hall, Zebulon), and a BAMfamily event (featuring Guy Davis).

BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo commented, "Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival demonstrates BAM's continuing commitment to celebrate the borough's vibrant music scene and its wealth of talent. We're thrilled to partner with many of Brooklyn's most dynamic clubs and venues, and we're excited to present exceptional artists in our own house."

Continue reading "Beirut, CYHSY, Kaki King & Chairlift playing Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival @ BAM"

"What a fitting day to announce the complete list of artists involved with our upcoming album DARK WAS THE NIGHT - the February 17th 4AD release that will benefit the Red Hot Organization. It's World AIDS Day, and in honor of that, we bring you the exciting news."

Continue reading "Dark Was the Night - full 4AD comp artist list, cover art, etc"

Team B @ Union Pool (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Everything (ok, maybe not everything) you need to know about Team B in the video below...

Continue reading "a 6 minute Team B/Beirut/Kelly Pratt documentary (video)"

words and photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Last night (11/10) I caught the first-ever performance of Team B at Union Pool in Brooklyn. I normally wouldn't try to hit a concert two hours after flying back from Austin, but the night was too tempting. Team B is Kelly Pratt (Beirut/Arcade Fire) 's brainchild, and the record features appearances from many great musicians including other members of Arcade Fire and Beirut.

I'm glad I made the effort. The group of multi-instumentalists played about half of the new album, along with a few other songs. "On My Mind," "Empty Hallways," and "Papa's Waltz" were personal favorites. Overall, I was overwhelmed with the amount of musical talent on the stage.

If you were there, you probably also remember the constant yelling of a drunken friend of the band in the front row. After they played "Hang Me", she yelled "Yay! Suicide!!!".... This spoiled some of the intimacy of the small venue, but, to accentuate the positive, I guess it also helped ease some of the tension of the band's first-ever-show and made for less awkward transitions between songs.

Kelly and band-member Jon Natchez are getting ready to hit the road with Herman Dune for a month or so (including 2 NYC shows this week), so don't expect to see any upcoming Team B shows soon, BUT Kelly told me he's trying really hard to make sure this band happens. Based on what I saw last night, I really hope it does. More pictures and the setlist below...

Continue reading "Team B (Kelly Pratt) @ Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY - pics"

DOWNLOAD: Team B - On My Mind (MP3)

Team B is the new musical endeavor of Kelly Pratt. While written and recorded primarily on tour with Arcade Fire and Beirut in 2007 and 2008, help was also found with his amazing friends Pat Mahoney on drums (LCD Soundsystem), Jon Natchez and Perrin Cloutier from Beirut, and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) on a track or two.

We don't have a label yet, but the cd is available now through this website, and will be available in a couple of weeks through other online outlets. If you want a copy just click on the link below and ye shall receive. Price is only $10 plus $2.50 for shipping (in the U.S). If you live outside the US please include $6.50 for shipping.
[Team B]

Kelly Pratt (Beirut, Arcade Fire)
Tracy Pratt (Beirut)
Ryan Smith (Twin Thousands, Stars Like Fleas)
Jon Natchez (Beirut, Stars Like Fleas)
Jason Poranski (Beirut, FreeTime)
Mike Fadem (The Jealous Girlfriends)

Jon Natchez's credits also inlude Shugo Tokumaru's live band, Bishop Allen, The Citizens Band, Escort and.... Skavoovie! Jon and Kelly also sometimes play together at venues like the Stone.

Mike Fadem's band The Jealous Girlfriends are going on tour with Nada Surf and have a NYC show coming up (Dec 10) at The Studio at Webster Hall where they also played during CMJ.

Stars Like Fleas have a track on Habitat, "a two disc set including 29 artists, covering the various manifestations of 'electronic music,' and produced as a benefit for Habitat for Humanity." You can get that at Asthmatic Kitty.

A video of Kelly, Tracy and Jon playing with Herman Dune at Union Hall below...

Continue reading "Team B (Kelly Pratt + Jon Natchez & other Beirut members) - an MP3, a Brooklyn show Monday"

Grizzly Bear @ Hammerstein Ballroom (more by Zach Dilgard)

Grizzly Bear & Final Fantasy will be performing with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, conducted by Michael Christie, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8 PM. Tickets go on sale October 20th.

Nico Muhly will be writing the arrangements for GB. FF writes his own. Grizzly Bear's last NYC show was at Hammerstein Ballroom with The National. Their next one will be a few songs at an event for Obama.

"Last spring, Final Fantasy and members of Beirut went outdoors with instruments, microphones, and Alan Lomax's headphones for an ethnomusicological exercise in fake field recordings that captures the culture of the fictional land of Spectrum.' Final Fantasy's Spectrum, 14th Century is out now from from Blocks Recording Club. Final Fantasy's next EP, Plays To Please, is out October 21st, "as part of the Pregnancy Series, presented jointly by Slender Means Society, States Rights Records and Blocks Recording Club. It is six songs written by Toronto genius Alex Lukashevsky, delivered by a 35-piece big band, including Nick Fraser (Drumheller), Paul Mathew (The Hidden Cameras) and Andrew Bird."

Expect very short sets. UPDATE: I was told this is a private event (sorry). More info and the other side of the flyer below...

Continue reading "Grizzly Bear, Zach Condon (Beirut) & Nico Muhly are playing an Obama bingo benefit in NYC this Friday "

Photos by Chris La Putt

So it ends up that Magnetic Fields show in Jersey City is not Shugo's next NYC-area appearance. Tickets just went on sale for the following October 22nd CMJ show at Bowery Ballroom:

Margot And The Nuclear So & So's w/
Wild Sweet Orange / Love As Laughter / Audrye Sessions / Shugo Tokumaru / Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons

Continue reading "Shugo Tokumaru played Mercury Lounge (pics), playing CMJ w/ Margot and the Nuclear So & So's"

Shugo Tokumaru's first-ever NYC show (it was his first US show, but then he added one earlier this month at Chicago) happens tonight (9/23) at Mercury Lounge in NYC. This who you can expect to see on stage with him:

* Jon Natchez (Beirut)
* Bryan Devendorf (The National)
* Perrin Cloutier (Beirut)
* Lawson White (So Percussion)

If you miss him, Shugo is back in the area in exactly a month, but next time as an opener for The Magnetic Fields, and in Jersey City. Tickets for the Loew's show are still on sale. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Shugo Tokumaru - tonight w/ all star backing band & updated 2008 Tour Dates (w/ the Magnetic Fields) "

this is pretty cool....

For his final project as an undergrad at England's Huddersfield University, Miller came up with Colour It (Red), a book/compilation combo inspired by his favorite indie rock jams and the (Red) organization, which raises money for the AIDS/HIV-battling Global Fund.

Taking a cue from such indie megahits as LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends", Panda Bear's "Comfy in Nautica", and Joanna Newsom's "Peach, Plum, Pear", Miller crafted a coloring/activity book sure to tickle pink-- er, make that red-- even the most hardened, poker-faced, arms-crossing indie music fiend.

Can you "help James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem find all his friends" by completing a maze? Care to "make Beirut's carousel pretty by colouring it"? Are you man or woman enough to "find the grizzly bear that does not fit"?? [Pitchfork]

photos by Chris Graham

Destroyer

Fleet Foxes

M.I.A.

The Sasquatch Music Festival went down in Gorge, Washington this past Memorial Day Weekend. More pictures from day one below....

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2008 - day 1 in pictures (Saturday May 24)"

photos by Ryan Muir

DOWNLOAD: Stars Like Fleas - I Was Only Dancing (MP3)

Stars Like Fleas opened for Beirut at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (May 18, 2008). More pictures below....

Continue reading "Stars Like Fleas @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - pics"

British Sea Power @ MHOW - May 11, 2008 (more by allan)

Thurston Moore & Nancy Garcia @ No Fun Fest 2008 (more by Seth Tisue)

Zach Condon & ring @ MHOW last night (more by Bao Nguyen)

tonight in NYC & NJ
* Dandi Wind @ Knitting Factory
* The Swell Season @ Radio City Music Hall
* Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash at Irving Plaza
* The Mary Onettes & Blacklist @ Mercury Lounge
* British Sea Power & Jeffrey Lewis @ Maxwell's
* Los Campesinos & Titus Andronicus @ Bowery Ballroom
* Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Music Hall

The Mary Onettes are from Sweden, are on tour, are not twee, and also playing Union Hall on May 23rd.

Check out more pictures and stuff from last night's Beirut show.

Another big show that happened this weekend was Hercules and Love Affair at Studio B. Video from that below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

photos by Ryan Muir

It was almost two years ago that Beirut played in the venue that occupied the same space that they played last night (May 18, 2008). I don't know what my point is. Last night's last-minute Brooklyn show at MHOW was really great (2 encores, some covers, all the hits, and kick ass new songs). More pictures & comments, and the setlist, below....

Continue reading "Beirut @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - pics & setlist"

In April, you canceled a bunch of European tour dates and posted that letter on your site. What led you to cancel those shows?

Zach: I was on tour again for maybe the fifth or sixth time that year. I'd been away from home for so long. And it wasn't homesickness, it was literally just... it's funny, I wanted to make this record, and I realized there was no way I could actually do it if I was still doing these tours.

So you're working on a new record?

Yeah, I'm working on it right now as we speak. I went down to Mexico to do that, and I'm going back soon, after this tour--finishing what I've started....

DOWNLOAD: Beirut - A Sunday Smile (MP3) -- (MHOW tix are on sale)

April 3

A Letter from Zach

It's with great regret that I have to tell all of you that Beirut is canceling their summer European shows. My reasons for doing this are many, a lot of them personal, but I still feel I need to provide something of an explanation.

The past two years have been a mindblowing experience. From the first indications that people were putting songs from Gulag up on their blogs to our incredible tour of Australia and New Zealand that we just completed, everything that has happened has been beyond anything I'd ever hoped could happen with the music I wrote and recorded in my bedroom. Once things started happening, I decided I wanted to do everything as big as possible. So, I set about putting together a large band, and giving that band a huge sound, and making the most spectacular records we possibly could.

I know this can sound like an artist shithead kind of comment, but going through all that really does have its low points along with the highs. The responsibilities of gathering people around your vision, working with great people like those who work directly for the band and those at the label, wanting to insure that every show is as good as humanly possible so that every single person in the audience sees that we put in a real effort, all of that leads to a lot of issues in terms of doing right by people who have done you right.

It's come time to change some things, reinvent some others, and come back at some point with a fresh perspective and batch of songs.

Please accept my apologies. I promise we'll be back, in some form.

-Zach

The show will be a warm up for their West Coast tour and possibly the last NYC show-ever for the current incarnation of Beirut - whatever that might mean.

Beirut are playing a last minute show at Music Hall of Williamsburg THIS SUNDAY May 18th. $20 tickets will be on sale soon. stay tuned.

UPDATE: Tickets are on sale.

More tour dates below...

Continue reading "BEIRUT are playing Brooklyn on Sunday, 2008 Tour Dates"

* Brooklyn Next
* Anti-Folk Fest
* Winger plays BB King's
* De Novo Dahl play Pianos
* Ambulance LTD play Union Hall
* Be Your Own Pet play Mercury Lounge
* Blood on the Wall will play Other Music

"In the Mausoleum" by Beirut in video format below (and Winger). What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

Tickets are now on sale for the Wordless Music Series Grizzly Bear show. Beirut played a "Wordless" show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple last night.....

More pics like the one above at ThatGreenPlanet's Flickr. Beirut has two more NYC shows coming up - one more "Wordless" one in Manhattan, and one that is part of Joe's Pub in the (Central) Park.

So while the Black Lips were busy puking on stage, marching and whatnot....

Beirut played a free secret show at Coco 66 in Greenpoint last night and completely wrecked the place! They played a drunken 1 1/2 hour set (including one “pee break”) of new and old songs to prepare for their three upcoming NYC shows. You can catch them tonight (9/20) at The Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene. More photos of the show can be found here. [Obscene NYC]

Jamie Lidell (not playing BK) & Ed from Grizzly Bear

The September 24th "Wordless" Beirut show is right around the corner (not really wordless - just the name of the series), and word has just come in that - around a few more corners after that - Beirut's good friends Grizzly Bear will also be playing one of these Wordless shindigs...

Grizzly Bear + special guests and classical performers TBA
The Wordless Music Series
Nov. 3, 2007
New York Society for Ethical Culture
6:30 PM doors / 7:30 PM show
Tickets on sale Monday 9/17/07 via www.wordlessmusic.org

FRIEND TRACKLISTING:
Alligator (Choir Version- feat. Zach Condon of Beirut and Dirty Projectors)
He Hit Me (Crystals cover)
Little Brother (Electric)
Shift (Alternate Version)
Plans(Terrible vs. Nonhorse: Sounds Edit)
Granny Diner
Knife (as covered by CSS)
Plans (as covered by Band of Horses)
Knife (as covered by Atlas Sound)
Deep Blue Sea(Daniel Rossen Home Recording)

Going to Austin for ACL this weekend? Stop by the Hot Freaks (BrooklynVegan and other bloggers) afterparty to see Grizzly Bear for free. Make sure you add your self to the waiting list (RSVP) though, and get there early. All tour dates (and some more friends) below.....

Continue reading "GRIZZLY BEAR & friends, a "wordless" show, ACL this weekend & other 2007 Tour Dates"

It went something like this...
1) It leaked that Beirut would play NYC 3 times in September
2) Two NYC shows were announced
3) One @ the Society for Ethical Culture went on sale
4) One in Central Park went on sale

Now finally today the third show is announced, and tickets are on sale, and it's in Brooklyn @ The Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene (map) on September 20th. The opener is Fifth Veil - a clarinet-with-string-quartet group from the Bard College Conservatory of Music that will perform composer Osvaldo Golijov's "The Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind" (1994), which combines Klezmer clarinet playing with classical string quartet writing. Three shows - three intersting venues.

In other Beirut news....
* Old Beirut demos have surfaced
* Someone posted a Beirut live show for download
* Someone posted another live show for download too
* La Blogoteque posted a new Take Away Show starring Zach
* Zach Condon played instruments for Alaska in Winter
* Jon Natchez played instruments for White Rabbits

All Beirut tour dates below....

Continue reading "BEIRUT playing Brooklyn Masonic Temple & other news"

Joe's Pub is throwing some shows at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park in NYC in September Some of them are free, and some of them are not. Tickets are now on sale for the one on September 26th with Beirut, Balkan Beat Box & NY Gypsy All Stars ("Presented in association with The NY Gypsy Festival"). This is a Beirut tour date we already knew about, but this is the first time ticket information has become available (unlike the wordless show that is/was on sale a while ago).

Full Joe's Pub in the Park schedule below....

Continue reading "Joe's Pub in the Park - Beirut, Patty Griffin & more"

Tickets are on sale for the September 24th Beirut show, a Do Make Say Think show, and the Mum shows. (note: Zach will be singing at the "wordless" show)

Did anyone notice a member of Beirut playing a horn with The Citizens Band when they opened for the White Stripes at Irving the other night? I could be wrong.

Zach @ Primavera sound 2007, 9:00 am soundcheck (more about that)

Back in May it kind of leaked out that Grizzly Bear-fan Zach Condon and his band Beirut would be playing three NYC shows in September, but the tour dates I just received only list two September dates - so either plans changed, or they'll announce the third one after the first two sell out. All dates, and new album info, below....

Continue reading "BEIRUT - new album & 2007 Tour Dates"