photos by Grant MacAllister

B.A.D. @ Lolla

Big Audio Dynamite brought their reunion back to North America this month. It included another visit to NYC in the form of a show at Brooklyn Bowl (on 8/3) and an appearance on Jimmy Fallon where they played two songs (one was a web exclusive). They since hit Lollapalooza (on Saturday). More pictures from Chicago, both Fallon videos and the entire Brooklyn Bowl setlist, below...

Continue reading "Big Audio Dynamite played Brooklyn Bowl (setlist), Fallon (video), and Lollapalooza (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Widowspeak - Harsh Realm (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hoop Dreams - XCPR (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Crinkles - I'm a Dog (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: VHS or Beta - I Found a Reason (MP3)

Widowspeak

After last week's crazy abundance of sonic riches, this week is nicely slim on choices (at least for thing's that interest me.) But even a fallow week has plenty to do.

Tonight (8/2) at Glasslands is the record release party for Widowspeak's self-titled debut, which is out on Captured Tracks. This local trio gets compared to Mazzy Star a lot -- and I am as guilty as anybody -- which is to say singer Molly Hamilton has the same smoky vocal quality as Hope Sandoval. And the band make vaguely '60s-ish pop, dreamy and twangy with lots of vibrato.

I pulled out She Hangs Brightly last night and, really... Widowspeak doesn't really sound all that much like Mazzy Star. Hamilton's voice is more breathy and effervescent than Sandoval's (and an undeniably powerful weapon live, a subtle knife), and their music isn't nearly as drowsy or patchouli-soaked. Beyond that, the band are good songwriters and performers -- the album is quite good. Though I still say their cover of "Wicked Game" is a little too on-the-nose.

Hoop Dreams

The Glasslands show also is NYC live debut of new Captured Tracks signing Hoop Dreams. The six-piece are from Blacksburg, VA, same as fellow C/T band Wild Nothing. (The label has a stronghold on Southwest Virginia talent it seems.) The A-side to their Captured Tracks single, all two minutes of it, is hook-filled in a Spencer Krug kind of way, and you can download it at the top of this post. (The b-side is a little more dour.) It doesn't sound like six people made it, so I'm curious to see them play tonight.

You can also catch the shoegazy sounds of Burlington, VT's Crinkles (check out "I'm a Dog" at the top of this post) and Excops (new band from Hymns frontman Brian Harding).

Big Audio Dynamite @ Coachella 2011 (more by David Andrako)

The newly reformed Big Audio Dynamite, who last played a somewhat prohibitively expensive (but awesome) show at Roseland back in April, are back in town to play Brooklyn Bowl tomorrow night (8/3). Tickets, a more reasonable $35, are sold out but there will be "limited admission" at the door, which will open at 6PM. Here's some of what I wrote about the Roseland show:

Getting nearly every single the band released plus some choice album cuts, the NYC show was a pretty perfect showcase for what made B.A.D. so great: killer dance songs ("C'mon Every Beatbox," "E=MC²," "Just Play Music"), hip hop and reggae-influenced jams ("Sightsee MC," "BAD"), the band's love of film ("Medicine Show"), and genuinely affecting pop ("The Other 99," "V. Thirteen"). We also got "Beyond the Pale," one of the best songs Jones has ever written, dedicated last night to Joe Strummer (who cowrote much of No. 10 Upping St.).

Apart from the tip of the hat to Strummer, Jones didn't do a whole lot of "remember when" talk and kept things mostly free of drippy nostalgia. He was, however, jovial and chatty, joking with the audience between songs or when things went askew, like a false start to encore number "E=MC²."

Band co-founder Don Letts is just one of the coolest dudes on the planet, and B.A.D. really came alive on any song that featured him, of which there was a fair amount: foreign war critique "A Party," the hard-hitting London travelogue that is "Sightsee MC!" and the band's theme tune, "BAD." (Also the reggae hoedown "Battle of All Saints Road," though I would've prefered No. 10 Upping St.'s "Ticket.") Letts, who's inching towards 60, jumped around the stage, dreads hitting the ground, like it was 25 years ago.

Also playing is Bad Brains frontman HR, and onetime Smiths bassist Andy Rourke will DJ in between sets.

And that's the big stuff for this week in the TWIIverse. (Told you it was a quiet week.) As usual, some more daily picks, starting at Wednesday, are below.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3

Though it's been a while since they've been in the spotlight, Fountains of Wayne continue to write winning powerpop about everday minutae. That includes their just-released Sky Full of Holes. Hear songs from that -- as well as probably "Stacy's Mom" and "Radiation Vibe" -- tonight at Bowery Ballroom with Nicole Atkins opening. It's sold out, as is their acoustic show on Friday (8/5) at City Winery.

This week's Summerscreen in McCarren Park is '90s classic Clueless, with the sultry and danceable Zambri opening the show.

Music streaming service Spotify is sponsoring a free show at Mercury Lounge with Suckers and Headless Horseman at Mercury Lounge. First come first served, no RSVP necessary.

continued below...

Continue reading "Widowspeak, Big Audio Dynamite, Hoop Dreams, Crinkles, VHS or Beta & more This Week in Indie"

Big Audio Dynamite at Roseland (more by Chris Gersbeck)

"If there was any disappointment it was they have been playing the same set at all these shows... I would've liked a couple more songs from 1989's Megatop Phoenix (that album's single, "Contact," was conspicuously missing) but hopefully we'll get some different tracks next time. And I sure do hope there is a next time."
-said Bill after the B.A.D. show at Roseland

We since found out that Big Audio Dynamite will in fact return to North America to play both Lollapalooza (August 6) and Outside Lands (August 14), and now there's even more good news. B.A.D. have started announcing pre-Lollapalooza U.S. dates including Boston, Philly, and another NYC show, but this time the NYC gig is at the much more intimate Brooklyn Bowl on August 3rd! Tickets for the Brooklyn show go on sale Thursday, 5/19 at noon. All dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Big Audio Dynamite announce more shows, Brooklyn Bowl included! (2011 dates)"

The Outside Lands Festival, which runs from 8/12 - 8/14 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, released their 2011 lineup in April (and now it's May, so consider this a catch up post). Tickets are on sale.

This year's fest will appearances from The Shins, Muse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Phish (two sets), !!!, Erykah Badu, Big Audio Dynamite (who played Coachella and are also playing Lollapalooza), Girl Talk and many more. The full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Outside Lands 2011 lineup"

Lollapalooza last year (more by Josh Darr)

Lollapalooza celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with some huge names on its just-announced lineup. See it in full below.

The festival has obviously changed over the years. What started out as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction with a 'touring festival' lineup that included the Rollins Band, Nine Inch Nails, Butthole Surfers, and Souxsie & The Banshees, has turned into a one-weekend Chicago festival that Lady Gaga co-headlined last year. As leaked a while ago, Foo Fighters, Muse and Eminem all play this year, as will Coldplay, Cee Lo Green, and My Morning Jacket along with the reunited Cars and the continuing-to-be-reunited Big Audio Dynamite and Death From Above 1979, and a bunch of other bands which may or may not be worth the ticket price depending on how you feel about the headliners and generally seeing bands in big, hot, outdoor crowded parks (Lollapalooza happens in Chicago's Grant Park from August 5th - 7th).

Full 2011 Lineup and a couple of videos (one from 1991, one from 2010), below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2011 lineup announced"

photos by Chris Gersbeck, words by Bill Pearis

"Welcome to 21st Century B.A.D," said Mick Jones slyly to the strains of the 20th Century Fox theme, right before launching into the opening riff of "The Bottom Line," Big Audio Dynamite's debut single (And here, first encore). Mick Jones now has better teeth and less hair, and in a suit last night at Roseland Ballroom looked like some West End mafioso from a Guy Richie film. But the man can still sing and play and seemed to be having a great time. "The Bottom Line" is 26 years old but lines like "Dance to the tune of economic decline" still seem relevant.

As do Big Audio Dynamite, who played Roseland last night after a lauded Coachella set over the weekend and sounded like they hadn't skipped a beat despite not playing together for twenty years. This was the original line-up of Big Audio Dynamite, the one that gave us their nearly-perfect first two albums, and two pretty good ones after that. The set stuck almost entirely to songs from this era of the B.A.D., save for 1991 hit "Rush" (from their Big Audio Dynamite II days) which to me sounded much more dated than any of the band's '80s records.

Getting nearly every single the band released plus some choice album cuts, the NYC show was a pretty perfect showcase for what made B.A.D. so great: killer dance songs ("C'mon Every Beatbox," "E=MC²," "Just Play Music"), hip hop and reggae-influenced jams ("Sightsee MC," "BAD"), the band's love of film ("Medicine Show"), and genuinely affecting pop ("The Other 99," "V. Thirteen"). We also got "Beyond the Pale," one of the best songs Jones has ever written, dedicated last night to Joe Strummer (who cowrote much of No. 10 Upping St.).

Apart from the tip of the hat to Strummer, Jones didn't do a whole lot of "remember when" talk and kept things mostly free of drippy nostalgia. He was, however, jovial and chatty, joking with the audience between songs or when things went askew, like a false start to encore number "E=MC²."

Band co-founder Don Letts is just one of the coolest dudes on the planet, and B.A.D. really came alive on any song that featured him, of which there was a fair amount: foreign war critique "A Party," the hard-hitting London travelogue that is "Sightsee MC!" and the band's theme tune, "BAD." (Also the reggae hoedown "Battle of All Saints Road," though I would've prefered No. 10 Upping St.'s "Ticket.") Letts, who's inching towards 60, jumped around the stage, dreads hitting the ground, like it was 25 years ago.

If there was any disappointment it was they have been playing the same set at all these shows, so if you glanced at the setlist from, say, Manchester Academy two weeks ago you knew exactly what you were going to get. I would've liked a couple more songs from 1989's Megatop Phoenix (that album's single, "Contact," was conspicuously missing) but hopefully we'll get some different tracks next time. And I sure do hope there is a next time.

The full setlist, more pictures and some videos from the show, below...

Continue reading "Big Audio Dynamite played Roseland (pics, video & setlist)"

photos by David Andrako

Big Audio Dynamite

As you know, Arcade Fire played a light-up beach ball-filled headlining show on Saturday, and Odd Future made their presence known to crowd members, security and those watching Lil B, but other exciting stuff, like the reunited Big Audio Dynamite killing it (and bringing some to tears), happened too. The only unfortunate part of BAD's set was that Wire, who people keep reporting was "underattended," were on at the same time. Wire was also up against the very popular Mumford & Sons who played before Animal Collective who played before Arcade Fire.

Animal Collective got their usual mixed reaction thanks in part to their usual choice of playing whatever they want no matter how big the crowd and who's on before and after them. Anonymous | April 17, 2011 6:32 AM said, "fuck animal collective. people went to the festival to have fun [,not] to have images of cum projected for an hour while the boring drones. they had the deadest crowd i've seen on the main stage so far." Anonymous | April 17, 2011 8:25 AM basically agrees and said, "AC should have never been allowed on that stage in that time slot. The worst." Anonymous | April 17, 2011 1:33 PM says, "guys AC just sucks, this ain't no new mystery.... it's almost as if they try extra hard just to be that terrible and make the crowd feel like a bunch of tools for giving them money... They're prob just a social experiment by banksy anyway." But Anonymous | April 17, 2011 3:22 PM asks, "so AC sucks for trying to make innovative, artistically rewarding music instead of god-awful corporate college-rock like arcade fire? every song is like, the same four chords played over and over and over again."

Mumford & Sons went on after Bright Eyes who went on after Broken Social Scene who went on after Erykah Badu aka Erica Abi Wright aka Loretta Brown aka Annie aka Analog Girl in the Digital World aka Medulla Oblongata, etc. (she was great despite technical difficulties).

Erykah Badu

Neko Case helped make the New Pornographers shine under hot sun. Empire of the Suns won best costumes of the day. Phoenix New Times says...

"Also, I suppose yesterday was the "Fuck Arizona" day at Coachella -- Jenny & Johnny, Bright Eyes and One Day as a Lion all had sets during the day. I actually saw someone wearing a Sound Strike t-shirt on Friday. Wearing that shirt to a music festival is doing about as much as de la Rocha and Oberst are collectively doing to combat SB 1070."

The third and final day of Coachella 2011 is underway and streaming on the internet as I type this. Our pictures from Friday are HERE. Check out more pictures from Saturday, below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2011 Day 2 in pics (Big Audio Dynamite, BSS, Animal Collective, Erykah Badu, Bright Eyes, Mumford & Sons, more)"

Big Audio Dynamite

According to Bowery Presents, Leftfield's 4/19 post-Coachella NYC show at Webster Hall was cancelled "due to logistical issues. Refunds are available at point of purchase." That means you don't need to decide between that and Big Audio Dynamite at Roseland Ballroom any more (tickets are still on sale for that 4/19 NYC show).

Wanna go to the BAD show for free? We have a pair of tickets you can win. Details below..

Continue reading "Leftfield cancelled their post-Coachella NYC show, but Big Audio Dynamite didn't (win tix) "

Big Audio Dynamite (1984-1990, 2011-present)
Mick Jones - vocals and guitar
Don Letts - sound effects and vocals
Dan Donovan - keyboards
Leo Williams - bass
Greg Roberts - drums and background vocals

Speaking of Roseland Ballroom, assuming the fire isn't too bad, Big Audio Dynamite will play the Manhattan venue on April 19th, not long after they play Coachella and a warm up show in LA. Tickets for the NYC show go on "Live Nation Presale" Thursday at 10am, and then general sale Saturday at noon. More tour dates below...

Continue reading "Big Audio Dynamite original lineup playing NY after Coachella"