by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Gospel Music - This Town Doesn't Have Enough Bars for Both of Us (MP3)

Florida indie pop group Gospel Music are visiting this weekend, playing the Rock Shop tonight (5/4) with Kleenex Girl Wonder, The Randy Bandits, and Parade Grounds, and Cake Shop on Saturday (5/5). It's the start of a pretty extensive U.S. tour, and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

Gospel Music, who was last around in December, is the new group from Owen Holmes who used to be in Black Kids, if your memory goes back five years, and now makes music on his own that's reminiscent of Magnetic Fields or Jens Lekman. Last year's How to Get to Heaven from Jacksonville, FL is worth checking out if you haven't heard it. You can download "This Town Doesn't Have Enough Bars for Both of Us" at the top of this post and watch the video for it below, or stream the album on Spotify.

Continue reading "Gospel Music (the band, not the style) on tour, playing Rock Shop and Cake Shop this weekend (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Still Corners - Into the Trees (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Immaculates - Hey Joe Kelly (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Gospel Music - This Town Don't Have Enough Bars for Both of Us (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Radiation City - The Color of Industry (MP3)

Still Corners

I think Wednesday is my favorite day for CMJ day parties. You get a lot of good bands, but it's not insanely packed like the weekend shows. And this year, there are a lot of great Wednesday afternoon options.

Before we get into it, I would like to say that Spotify has been a giant help in checking out music from bands playing and if you have the service, I recommend using it. (If you don't, chances are someone you know has invites to give out.) Much easier than Googling for Bandcamp, Soundcloud or (heaven forbid) Myspace sites. Spotify doesn't have everything, but it has most everything. I've got a CMJ 2011 Playlist that I update when I find something new and interesting which you're welcome to check out.

[editor's note/update/disclaimer: Spotify has partnered with us on all BV CMJ events this year, but Bill did not know that when he wrote that above paragraph, so please no conspiracy theories!]

Anyway, day shows:

PICK OF THE DAY: Under the Radar party at Public Assembly has a line-up that is pretty hard to beat, including one of my favorite bands of late, Still Corners whose chilly, majestic debut, Creatures of an Hour, came out last week on Sub Pop. Check out an MP3 of new single "Into the Trees" at the top of this post and you can stream the whole album at the bottom. Public Assembly is good and dark, ideal for their trippy accompanying lightshow. Still Corners also play Public Assembly Wednesday night which must be nice for them not having to schlep their gear around. They also play tomorrow at our day party at Knitting Factory and then the Sub Pop showcase at Mercury Lounge that night.

Also playing at Public Assembly: Norway's super-fun Casiokids, Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger (who maybe you caught last night with Wild Flag at Bowery Ballroom), the retro funk of The Stepkids (who also play our TBA Saturday party at Public Assembly), plus Chad Valley, Porcelain Raft. It's kind of a slam-dunk show.

The Immaculates

THEN AGAIN... the folks at Terrorbird Media have put together a pretty great show at Cake Shop. It kicks off with newish, shit-hot Brooklyn garage-soul band The Immaculates who are worth showing up early for. Check out an MP3 at the top of this post. Then it's Virginia's Eternal Summers who have really come into their own since expanding from a duo to a trio.

Gospel Music

Then it's Gospel Music which is Owen Holmes who used to be in CMJ 2007 buzz band Black Kids but now makes indiepop somewhere between Stephin Merrit and Jonathan Richman (which is a definite sweet spot for me.) Holmes got help from Hefner's Darren Hayman, Camera Obscura's Traceyanne Campbell and others on last year's Duets EP, but for his full-length debut, How to Get to Heaven from Jacksonville, FL,  he shares the mike full-time with fellow Jacksonville resident Madeline Long. Check out an MP3 of first single "This Town Doesn't Have Enough Bars For Both Of Us" and watch the video (which features his old Black Kids pals) at the bottom. Gospel Music's other CMJ dates are down there as well.

The rest of the Terrorbird line-up: Cloud Nothings, Mux Mool, Widowspeak, Teen Daze and Cubik Zirconia. That's a quality free show too folks.

Of course the nice thing about the Lower East Side is that every venue around there has a day show. At Pianos there's the We Listen For You party with Arms, Guards, The Pass, Parlovr, Nerves Jr. and Headless Horseman in the main room; upstairs it's the Big Hassle Media party with Radiation City, Aeroplane Pagaent, Clubfeet, Marques Toliver, J. Viewz, Pyramids and Army Navy.

Radiation City

If you're in the Ludlow area, do try and check out Portland's Radiation City (3PM) who've made one of the year's more charming debuts which drifts between moody, organ-driven numbers and more upbeat pop. Papercuts covering The Free Design? Add in some Mazzy Star smokiness and you're almost there. Check out "The Color of Industry" at the top of this post, and go seem them live at some point this week. Radiation City also play the PASTE party at The Living Room today too (4PM) and have shows this week, and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

That PASTE party, which goes from 4 - 7 PM also features Lord Huron, Santah and The Lonely Forest.

And finally over at Fontanas (which you may remember from BV day parties of old or episodes of Louie) is this year's Pirate! Island party with a pretty good bunch of bands too: Canada's Hollerado, Nick Diamonds, Fairmont, Army Navy, The Great Book of John and The One & Nines. Set times at the bottom of this post.

Click through for flyers (including a couple day shows I didn't mention), streams, videos and set times. I'll have Wednesday nighttime picks a little later.

Continue reading "CMJ 2011 - Bill's Wednesday daytime picks (Still Corners, Gospel Music, The Immaculates, Radiation City & more)"

Tickets go on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the recently announced Mates of State / Black Kids shows at Webster Hall and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are on Am EX presale (@ noon) for the recently added Cursive show at Bowery Ballroom.

Clem Snide is playing Bowery Ballroom on March 18th. Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon).

Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the 2nd Bloc Party show at Terminal 5.

Butch Walker is playing Webster Hall on March 14th. Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon)

Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the Elvis Perkins show at Bowery Ballroom.

The Leonard Cohen presale has been pushed back to 2PM started.

Mates of State @ ACL 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Mates of State and Black Kids are going on tour together, and according to their tour dates, they collectively are doing well enough to play both Music Hall of Williamsburg (4/5) and Webster Hall (4/6). All dates below...

Continue reading "Mates of State & Black Kids - 2009 Tour Dates"

Continue reading "Langerado Fest, in Miami, in March - initial 2009 lineup"

KTXT (88.1 FM) out of Texas posted their list of the 10 most disappointing albums of 2008 on their blog The Couch. This is what they came up with...

10. Weezer - The Red Album
9. The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
8. Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
7. Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
6. CSS - Donkey
5. Ghostland Observatory - Robotique Majestique
4. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
3. Beck - Modern Guilt
2. Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyalty
1. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cardinology

What does your list look like? Where does Chinese Democracy rank on it?

What are your favorites?

CSS play Webster Hall on December 17th & 18th. Tickets are still on sale. Ghostland Obersvatory are playing Terminal 5 in NYC on December 12th. Tickets are still on sale. Black Kids are playing a private party at Bowery Ballroom on December 9th (no tickets). If you weren't too disappointed, the rest of the BK & GO tour dates below...

Continue reading "What were the most disappointing albums of 2008?"

Love it or hate it, licensing songs seems to be the new reality for "indie" bands (or any bands) looking to make money and gain exposure. As an avid music fan and Senior Director of Advertising & Video Games at Primary Wave Music Publishing, Ryan Barkan makes sure to stay on top of news related to artists getting their songs in ads, on TV, in movies, in video games and just about anywhere else a band would get paid to put a song. As someone who never pays attention to any of that, I thought the site could use a weekly column to identify who sold out this week help fill in what I'm missing (think M.I.A. in the Pineapple Express commercial, Nick & Norah, Santogold shilling Bud Light, Chairlift & CSS for Apple, etc..). For that...please welcome Ryan (who also goes by the blog and photographer name "Fresh Bread")....

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by Ryan Barkan

Microsoft's Halo 3 video game commercial was so amazing that it won the Grand Prix (i.e. best of show) at this past year's Cannes Advertising Awards, in June, in the "Film" ad category. The spot, titled "Believe", was created by San Francisco advertising agency T.A.G. and featured the dramatically delicate "Raindrop Prelude No 15" by Chopin against a violent and disturbing war scene.

Another huge 2008 release for Microsoft is the upcoming sequel to the game Gears of War, creatively called....wait for it...Gears Of War 2 (available November 7th exclusively on Xbox360). What works once should work again right? T.A.G. thought so and took the same approach with the music as they did with the "Believe" spot, juxtaposing the hard war visuals against a beautiful song, but this time with a more contemporary artist, Devotchka. The beautiful song they used by the Colorado band is called "How It Ends" and the trailer will debut on network television this Sunday, November 2, during NFL Sunday Night Football. You can also watch it right now. The video for that, and of the full version of "Believe", are below.

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Other Notable Licensing News:

The Walmart-exclusive AC/DC edition of Rock Band is out November 2nd and now MTV/Harmonix have announced a Beatles video game that will be based on the "Rock Band" engine, but not branded "Rock Band". "The Best Of The Who" edition of Rock Band was released in July as DLC (downloadable content).

Hypebeast has the info on a new line of Miles Davis-inspired T-shirts by urban boutique and shoe company, Supreme.

Flaming Lips, the B-52's, BB King and others were commissioned by NBC to create their own interpretation of the network's classic "Chime In"...

You may not know that the notes to NBC's famous chimes are G, E, and C, but chances are you'd recognize the Peacock jingle in an instant. With that in mind, executives at the network decided to have some fun with their famous chimes and launched a national campaign calling for a 21st century reinvention of the 75-year-old television staple. [Hollywood Insider]

Wayne Coyne talks about it in an interview to EW you can watch HERE.

What do Friendly Fires, The Duke Spirit, The Submarines, The Black Keys, Black Kids, The Virgins, and Robyn have in common? They've all had songs featured in an episode of Gossip Girl this month.

What about Lykke Li, Passion Pit and The Kooks? Well, as you may have read earlier, they'll all be appearing in future episodes of Gossip Girl/OC-creator Josh Schwartz's new "music-themed scripted web series" Rockville, CA.

I really dig the new spot for the Google Android Phone. The commercial features a song by The Black Angels called "Black Grease" - not sure if it'll convince me to switch from the iPhone but it's a nice placement nonetheless. Video below...

Continue reading "It's Not Selling Out Anymore -- This Week in Music Licensing"

photos by Zach Dilgard

Special Disco Version is at Santos tonight (Aug 27), but that doesn't start until 10 and is downstairs. Upstairs at 8 is an earlier live show that includes a performance by The Virgins (who I was told don't go on until after 10....tix - and...) who are then leaving on a tour with the Black Kids in September. That tour hits Webster Hall on October 1st. Tickets are on sale. All dates, and more pictures of the Black Kids playing Lollapalooza this summer, below....

Continue reading "Black Kids & The Virgins - 2008 Tour Dates"

Black Kids are playing a free show in a store tonight (July 22, 2008). The occasion is the release of their new record "Partie Traumatic" which is (still) streaming in its entirety at AOL.

Partie Traumatic will be available to purchase at the Virgin Megastore Union Square location from 9:00am. Fans buying a copy of the album at the store will receive a wristband for this very special performance at 7:00pm. The performance will be followed by a CD/LP signing. Time and space are limited, so please arrive early.

Although free, their Virgin set will likely be much shorter in length than the real show they're playing Friday at Santos Party House with Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. Black Kids will also appear on The Late Show With David Letterman on Thursday.

UPDATE: Pitchfork reviewed the album, sort of....

Updated tour dates below...

Continue reading "Black Kids playing Virgin, TV & Santos ++ new album stream"

Listen to both of the new albums @ Spinner.

Santos Party House now has tickets on Ticketweb. That includes the upcoming Black Kids show. A full listing of upcoming events at Santos is below...

Continue reading "Supermayer, Busy P, DJ Medhi, Moby, Free Blood, Black Kids & other Santos Party House events - some with advanced tix"

this is what it looks like upstairs @ Santos' Party House....

If anyone has something nice to say about a Black Kids live performance, speak up now. They could use some opinions like that to counteract the multitudes of "they suck"s I'm used to hearing. Actually, this one is not so bad:

The Black Kids' music isn't necessarily going to blow your mind, but what they lack in depth they make up for in hooks and fun. This is music to dance to, to forget about your age to, to throw cynicism out the window to. Sure, i could poke a million holes in their show/music if i wanted to, but what's the fun in that? I couldn't help but just give in and get sweaty. [Quarterlifeparty]

This one is pretty good too:

A little bit throwback pop, a little bit rock and a little bit soul, the Kids' dancey, sassy set served as a perfect warm-up for headliners Cut Copy. Despite the band's relative newness, the front rows at the Black Cat responded in kind: dancing, shouting and singing along for the duration of the Black Kids' set. It was a little surprising for a band that doesn't even have an album out, though definitely warranted. [DCist]

Their status of not having an album out will change on July 22nd when Partie Traumatic is released on Columbia Records. Three days later the band will play a NYC show at Santos' Party House. Cover art and all tour dates below....

Continue reading "Black Kids - 2008 Tour Dates (Santos' Party House)"

Black Kids @ Coachella 2008 (by Lucy Hamblin for SPIN)

Black Kids' debut album, Partie Traumatic, will be released on Tuesday July 22, 2008 on Columbia Records. Tour Dates below....

Continue reading "Black Kids signed to Columbia Records, continue touring"

I've posted these dates in one form or another already, but just to be 100% clear:

May 13 - Black Kids, Cut Copy & Mobius Band @ Studio B
May 14 - Cut Copy & Mobius Band @ Bowery Ballroom
May 18 - Black Kids @ Bowery Ballroom

New Black Kids official video below....

Continue reading "Black Kids & Cut Copy tickets on sale ++ a Black Kids video "

Black Kids @ R Bar, NYC (BV CMJ) - Oct 19, 2007 (Tod Seelie)

As you know, Cut Copy are playing SXSW, Coachella, Mercury Lounge and Studio B (on March 15th). And as you know, Black Kids are playing Coachella and Bonnaroo. What you might not know yet is that the most talked about band at CMJ this year are also returning to NYC in May to play Studio B (on May 13th), and that they're going on a tour with Cut Copy after Coachella (which includes a lot of dates, but none in NYC....or maybe they just can't announce it yet....).

I saw Black Kids twice during CMJ, and I'll admit that the first time (@ Annex) was a let down, but the band was nervous and there were technical difficulties. They were much better at R Bar, though that could come off as biased since it was my show (a little more on that here). Seriously though, I thought they were pretty good at that one, and I'm definitely curious to hear and see more next time. All dates below....

Continue reading "Black Kids & Cut Copy - 2008 Tour Dates"

DOWNLOAD: Fader issue 51 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fader Issue 51 (PDF)

That's No Surrender and Santogold up there on the cover of the new FADER. The BBC also put Santogold on a list of "some of the hottest new music talent" for 2008. You can read the whole list, and more, below...

Continue reading "Santogold, FADER & the BBC's 10 to watch in 2008"

DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Foundations (Metronomy Mix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Caroline's A Victim (Tapedeck Revised Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Foundations (Clean Version) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kano - Me & My Microphone (Ft. Kate Nash) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Lethal Bizzle - Look What You Done (Ft. Kate Nash) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - The Nicest Thing (live) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Fluorescent Adolescent (Arctic Monkeys) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (Black Kids) (MP3)

Just catching up on my collection of non-album Kate Nash tracks in preperation for her return to North America next week. The January 9th Bowery Ballroom show is sold out, so luckily now there's a 2nd NYC-chance to see her: one day earlier at the Union Square Virgin Megastore. It's the same day her album "Made of Bricks" is being released here.

DOWNLOAD: Yeasayer - 2080 (MP3)

Yeasayer @ R Bar, NYC (BV CMJ) - Oct 19, 2007 (CRED - Rebecca Smeyne)

If you've read any reviews of my Friday show at R Bar, you know three things for sure: the Black Kids played, R Bar has stripper poles, and R Bar was packed.

Every place Black Kids played during the 2007 CMJ Music Marathon was mobbed. That’s not bad for a band that is still giving away its four recorded songs on its MySpace page, myspace.com/blackkidsrock. Black Kids were, it’s true, playing small places like the R Bar on the Bowery, where they shared the stage with a pair of stripper poles, and the Annex, where an amp gave out during their first song. [NY Times]

Most of those reviewers weren't there at noon when iLiKETRAiNS went on of course - at that time it was not packed (maybe 30 people?) (which is too bad because the UK band is really good live). For Brooklyn's Yeasayer though, it was also PACKED. This had in part to do with the fact that people were there to see Yeasayer...

One of the primary reasons I went to the BV party was to see Yeasayer, who my pals at Pitchfork had been talking up all week, with weird allusions to Vampire Weekend and 4AD; you could absolutely say I was intrigued. [17dots]

,and this in part had to do with the fact that Yeasayer went on right before Black Kids. Regardless, Yeasayer rocked the house.....

As much as I want to despise them, however, I don't. Songs like "2080" and "Sunrise" are kind of undeniable singles, they nail the harmonies (sometimes four-part) and the band are engaging performers." [Sound Bites]

He wants to hate them because he says they are hippies. HOAS adds,

There's both something legitimately good about this band, and a legitimate hesitancy to go nuts over them. The Fleetwood Mac + World Music thing is a good starting-point blurb, but the way the band incorporates its World rhythms and riffs is less appropriative than explorative; the songs where they go New Wave over (electronic) Native American beats keep the thing from settling into overthought mush. [heartonastick]

This band obviously has a lot of influences....

Wow. I’m not even sure how to describe their sound except to say that at one or many points throughout their 5-song set I heard the following elements: Men at Work, Annie Lennox, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Joy Division, AND for some reason that only makes sense in my head and I know I will get crucified for this…wait for it…an inconceivably tasteful Nickelback in the hook for “Final Path.” And I LOVED it. Yeesh. [Ear Farm]

Nickelback....maybe. Let's just all agree that they don't sound like grunge...

Yeasayer don't sound anything remotely like grunge; their epic, cavernous sound relies too much on slippery crystalline guitar-lines and huge, thunking offbeats. More than anything else, their haunted keyboards and vague but fully integrated African influences recall Peter Gabriel by way of TV on the Radio, but their cascading thrum really doesn't sound like anything else I've heard. Still, I like the grunge parallel, if only because this band evinces the sort of all-consuming seriousness and desperation that those first-wave grunge bands had. [Village Voice]

Or to put it another way...

in short, though, yeasayer were fucking fantastic. [mr mammoth]

Check out an interview with the band at KEXP, and live videos (also from CMJ) at KEXP too. Download some live MP3s at Daytrotter.

Yeasayer are having a record release "dance party" at Glasslands in Brooklyn tonight (Oct 23, 2007), but according to everyone in the comments (and someone from the band), they are not actually playing.

They also have an upcoming Bowery Ballroom show that they mentioned at their last Cake Shop show, but it's still not listed on their tour dates, which are below....

Continue reading "Yeasayer @ R Bar, NYC (BV CMJ) + more Tour Dates"

Peter and Bjorn (I was just told NO JOHN) and Black Kids are playing an invite-only CMJ show starting at midnight on Saturday October 20th at Galapagos in Brooklyn. Luckily for those who weren't invited: the first 100 people who (RIGHT NOW) email rsvp@themusebox.net (subject: Late Night)will be added to the guestlist for this event. Walter Meego are DJing it after they get finished playing my own CMJ afterparty that's happening at the same time in Manhattan. Black Kids are also playing one of my parties.

Exact P&B party details below...

Continue reading "Peter & Bjorn & Black Kids private CMJ show"

DOWNLOAD: Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your BoyFriend How to Dance With You (MP3)

Pitchfork excited me with their choices two days in a row. Yesterday they gave Bon Iver a little boost....

THANK YOU TO PITCHFORK FOR AN OVERWHELMING RESPONSE! THE RECORD IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE. PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR AN OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE SOON. [Bon Iver]

Check out Bon Iver at two upcoming BrooklynVegan shows.

Today it was a band called Black Kids from Jacksonville, Florida - a band who I haven't posted about yet, but who I was excited to check out this CMJ - so excited, that I also booked them to play a BV CMJ show. People from the South have been raving about their live show, and I've also been loving the few songs I've heard so far...

You can download Black Kids' four-song demo, Wizard of Ahhhs, for free on their MySpace-- it's not available in stores. They're giving away something we can't buy often enough: a record with not just a distinctive aesthetic, but also one single-worthy track after another. Dueling keyboards and scrappy lo-fi guitars give rise to Go! Team-style shouted-back cheers, a communal urgency not unlike the Arcade Fire's, and an uptempo bounce paying homage to Motown 45's. In short, Black Kids make catchy, tightly executed songs that put a memorable stamp on pop's classic themes.[Pitchfork - Best New Music]

Black Kids are playing their official CMJ showcase at the Annex on October 18th with Mates of State (an NME show) (sold out). Black Kids are also playing the free BrooklynVegan show at R Bar on October 19th - with Yo Majesty and more bands TBA soon. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Black Kids are the "best" & playing CMJ"