photos by Michael Darpino, words by BBG

Today is the Day celebrating AmRep

BrooklynVegan/AEG Live/1000Knives are proud to announce, that in addition to the recently-added Keelhaul (and as hinted in that piece), Today is The Day will play the Corrosion of Conformity show at Highline Ballroom on 10/10. Tickets are still available.

Today is the Day recently played a show at Santos Party House with A Storm of Light (who played last night with Sleep, pics forthcoming), but also played the AmRep Anniversary Party in late August. More pics from the show (the first set is here) are below....

Continue reading "Today is the Day added to CoC show, played Santos & AmRep's Anniversary w/ Melvins & others (more pics) "

photos by Taylor Keahey, words by BBG

God Bullies

On what was a perfect day to celebrate anyone's anniversary, a sold-out crowd gathered at Grumpy's in downtown Minneapolis to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the legendary local label Amphetamine Reptile Records. It was an all-day event (on 8/28) that honored and saluted an influential and groundbreaking scene, as well a bunch of bands that perhaps never got their due back in the day. All the groups played to a large, receptive crowd that was, if not trying to turn back time a bit to see a bunch of bands that they never had a chance to, than maybe just feel younger for one day at least. Everywhere you looked there were old friends running into each other for the first time in years, and there were broad smiles plastered on everyone's faces (due in no small part to the $5 Surly's). It was a glorious commemoration of a label that still packs quite a punch and knows how to throw one hell of a party. -[City Pages]

The above review comes from the second day of the AmRep Anniversary show, which featured a headlining set from Boss Hog, as well as appearances from Melvins, Vaz, White Drugs, Gay Witch Abortion, Thrown Ups (with Mudhoney's Mark Arm and Steve Turner), Today Is the Day (who play NYC Friday), Shannon Selberg (Cows) with AmRep founder Tom Hazelmyer, God Bullies, and Hammerhead (who played DBA recently). The first night featured performances from Unsane (who just played Santos) and Lollipop.

Pics of both day one and two, as well as some video, continue below.

Continue reading "AmRep celebrated 25 years (pics & video) (Unsane, Melvins, Boss Hog, Hammerhead, Vaz, God Bullies & more)"

by BBG

Arab on Radar

Arab on Radar are a Providence, Rhode Island based noise rock band founded in the mid-1990s. They went on hiatus in 2002. Members of the band went on to form or join the bands The Chinese Stars, Athletic Automaton, Made in Mexico... Arab on Radar's early sound was typified by thickly distorted, repeated bass grooves, 4/4 drum beats, and two deafening guitars that employed contrasting melodies and near-unison chords that drew comparisons to the Contortions.

Arab on Radar will reform to headline Dudefest 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 9th and 10th. The band will join a stacked lineup that includes Municipal Waste (playing Knitting Factory Thursday, tix), Trap Them, Voetsek, Landmine Marathon, Weekend Nachos, Get Rad, Coffinworm, and many notable others. Full lineup for the show is below. More info is forthcoming.

It's one of two notable shows recently announced for the Midwest this summer, with the incredible 25th anniversary of Amphetamine Reptile being the second! That show goes down in Minneapolis at Grumpy's on 8/28, and features a plethora of the label's greats including Melvins, Boss Hog, Today Is The Day, God Bullies, a Hammerhead reunion, and many others. For those considering the trek to Minnesota, the label has set up group rates for a hotel. Show flyer is below. Somewhere I hope that Unsane and pre-Betty Helmet's phone is ringing....

The Melvins are touring and playing NYC with Isis. Tickets for Webster Hall are still on sale. The Melvins will welcome their new LP, The Bride Screamed Murder via Ipecac on June 1st.

Weekend Nachos have a new EP on the way, while Get Rad was recently profiled in the latest edition of Short Wave Warfare.

Full dudefest lineup and AmRep flyer/more detals are below.

Continue reading "Arab on Radar playing Dudefest 2010 in Indiana, Amphetamine Reptile celebrating 25 years in Minneapolis (both lineups)"

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Ryan Muir

Steve Albini in Shellac

"We're taking a bath, but I don't care," Barry Hogan told [Sasha Frere-Jones]. We were standing in the makeshift production office for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, at Kutsher's, a resort in the Catskills.

Kutsher's, where Muhammad Ali trained and a thousand schticks were born, was once the jewel of the Borscht Belt. The main venue at Kutsher's, the Stardust Ballroom, has a capacity of 2,800. But Hogan seemed largely unbothered that only 1,800 tickets to ATP had sold. It is 2009, after all.

"My name is Sufjan Stevens and I am going to play all of my Seven Swans album. That should be a good early afternoon hangover sort of thing"

Considering the bad coffee situation and the fun that I had the day before, Sufjan was spot on. Clad in tie-dye that the band had purchased at the general store at Kutsher's, the five piece were delicate, light and lilting. Sufjan's bright banjo strums and songs, like the sunny "Sister", resonated so well in the Stardust Ballroom. The Seven Swans album was an excellent choice for a wake-up set on the second day of the three day upstate NY festival (Saturday, September 12, 2009).

After Sufjan, I wandered over to catch a crew of young Aussies named Bridezilla. Though their name is a touch offputting, guitarist/vocalist Holiday Sidewinder has a sexy and breathy coo that recalled PJ Harvey and their her cocktail-dress-ed crew were a surprise and a delight.

Grouper were next, and as a fan of 2008's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, I was eager to check out Liz Harris's ambient soundscapes. Playing to a projection of an ocean at night, the stage show wasn't much visually but the tides of noise was otherworldly.

Conversely, Black Dice in the same room was a psychedelic mindfuck. Blasts of tribal noise beats nodded heads and shook them in equal measure.

As a fan of Bradford Cox, it was great to see him pull a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning with Atlas Sound. Rolling solo with guitar, harmonica, and some backing tracks, Cox was engaging both in song and with between song banter. I would regrettably end up missing Deerhunter's set a few hours later. Drowned in Sound was there though:

Bradford Cox is a picture of serenity as he swaps his shirt for a more tasteful number and leads Deerhunter into their Saturday night set. He announces that this will be their last performance for some time, causing the band to roll out the hits in quick-fast fashion. They gallop through 'Cryptograms' and 'Nothing Ever Happened', the positively herculean double guitar sound feeling unstoppable and a sense of jubilation ricocheting between the walls as people succumb to these great big shining pop songs. The closing 'Calvary Scars' is a slab of beautiful kraut-pop, with Lockett Pundt's metallic Tim Gane-esque strum leading the way, face-painted kids jerking their bodies back and forth, and Cox looking genuinely sad that this will be the last time these songs will be wrung from his fingers and throat for a while.

Anti-Pop Consortium was my next venture, the first time I had ever seen the crew though I was a long time fan. On the Stardust Ballroom system, APC's distorted and creative beats sounded amazing but save for Beans energetic movement, I was less than impressed with their live show. Live hip hop is hard to pull off, and those who try should heed the great Rakim who said "to me MC means move the crowd". If you want to give them a chance, they're at Santos Party House on September 29th.

Sleepy Sun were line checking when I got back to the second stage, with vocalist Rachael Williams checking her levels in the monitor

"Check. Check. I. Hi. Me. You. All of you. Us. Getting nervous."

If they had nerves, the band channeled them into positive energy. Sleepy Sun's influences fit right in with their hometown, San Francisco, as the band dabble in a psychedelic California sound with some krautrock-y elements. I was most struck by their fantastic drummer Brian Tice as well as vocalist Williams, who ripped out a solo that had the crowd shouting and applauding. Wayne Coyne watched the band from stage left, clearly impressed.

After an elongated line check, El-P came on and with a four-piece band (Chin Chin) and hypeman (Mighty Quinn) to the sound of "Tasmanian Space Coaster". I have a soft spot for El-Producto's Blade Runner beats and post-apocalyptic rhyme styles, and it was great to see a Hip Hop artist who actually puts an emphasis on his live show. As a matter of fact, El-P put a little too much of himself out there, almost falling off the stage after pogo-ing around during "Smithereens". Careful dude... we need a follow-up to I'll Sleep When You're Dead.

I hadn't seen Akron/Family since the then more acoustic-centric band played Tonic many years ago (with Hamid Drake?) and it was refreshing to see their energy were still in place. Against a backdrop of a tie-dyed American flag, the band played a rousing and ripping set. It's good to see that the loss of Ryan Vanderhoof to a Buddhist center hasn't slowed them a bit.

Autolux had the discordant riffs, feedback squalls, and a 90s alt punk sound to hit all of the right influences (Joy Division, Sonic Youth, etc), but unfortunately didn't really distinguish themselves from their influences. Autolux isn't offensive by any means, just not compelling or distinctive, and I find it a touch disappointing that guitarist Greg Edwards was a member of Failure (a band that I dug).

Dead Meadow and their fuzzy freakout psych blues were riffing on Stage Two towards the end of the Autolux set, but by half way in, the crowd had diminished considerably due to Shallac on the main. For shame, as the trio played a ripping set!

continued below...

Continue reading "ATP NY 2009 - Day 2 pics & review (Atlas Sound, Deerhunter, El-P, Boss Hog, Shellac, Animal Collective, Dead Meadow...) "

photos by Tim Griffin

Knitting Factory's move to Brooklyn is finally complete and the doors are open. After a friends and family performance-less soft opening on Tuesday, Les Savy Fav truly broke in the place with one of the band's trademark bonkers performances on Wednesday evening (9/9). Comedian and new SNL writer Hannibal Burress warmed up the attentive, approximately-250-capacity crowd with a solid 20 minute set. The room was full, but never too packed. Bill wrote a little bit more what it was like inside on the previous night.

Check it out tonight (9/10) when Boss Hog hits the Brooklyn stage (with Shilpa Ray opening). On Saturday, Boss Hog perform at ATP in Monticello. Full Knitting Factory schedule HERE.

More pictures from opening night, below...

Continue reading "Les Savy Fav & Hannibal Buress helped open the new Knitting Factory in Brooklyn - pics "

Les Savy Fav @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple (more by Natasha Ryan)

BROOKLYN KNITTING FACTORY SET TO OPEN / BROOKLYN'S LES SAVY FAV TO PLAY OPENING NIGHT

"The Knitting Factory, a leader in the New York arts scene for over two decades, is proud to announce that our new venue at 361 Metropolitan Avenue in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY will be opening September 2009. Brooklyn-based favorites, Les Savy Fav, will perform and host the opening night on Wednesday September 9th. Upcoming shows will feature performances by: Boss Hog, Rasputina, Mayer Hawthorne, Titus Andronicus, The Raincoats, The Spits, Mucca Pazza, Melissa Auf der Maur, cEvin Key, A Wilhelm Scream, Helado Negro, Maps and Atlases, No Neck Blues Band, Dub Trio, Smokey's Secret Family and much more to be announced. Upcoming special events include this year's Williamsburg Fashion Week's Fashion and Arts Premiere, the Miss LEZ Pageant and the Royal Flush Film Festival.

We've been waiting for this news since first finding out Knitting Factory was taking over the Brooklyn Luna Lounge lounge space in April 2008 (which was followed by official confirmation in July of the same year). Since then, Knitting Factory's Manhattan location closed and reopened (and closed again) and lots of people have been left wondering what the deal was.

Tickets for the September 9th Les Savy Fav show are on sale (thx Coma). They also play Fun Fun Fun Fest in November.

Boss Hog is September 10th (tickets). They play ATP NY on September 12th.

The Titus Andronicus/So So Glos show (tickets) is the last date on a long tour that also includes a show at Maxwell's.

Melissa Auf der Maur plays KF on October 17th as part of the Royal Flush Film Festival which makes sense since she made a movie. Tickets for that event are on sale.

And tickets and dates to all of the above mentioned shows are HERE.

More about the space, HERE.

Tim Harrington apologizes to his mom, in the video below...

Continue reading "Knitting Factory Brooklyn opening September 9th w/ Les Savy Fav (tix on sale) ++ other upcoming shows like Boss Hog"

All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) is happy to announce its return to Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, New York for the 2nd annual ATP New York festival. The event will be held Sept 11-13, 2009. Last year's festival, co-curated by My Bloody Valentine, was a critical and cultural success with rave reviews from media and fans. This year's Fest will be co-curated by The Flaming Lips.

ATP has announced the final lineup additions to this year's festival. That includes the comedians who will be joining David Cross on Friday night, and official confirmation that it will in fact be Bob Mould who will be playing Husker Du songs (a whole LP to be exact) with No Age (who also just announced some NYC shows). Every act who plays Sunday will be playing some kind of special set...

Recently added were Crystal Castles, Super Furry Animals, Boris performing Feedbacker, Low Lows and "Oneida presents the Ocropolis" - where Oneida will transport the impetus, spirit and community of their multidisciplinary studio/performance space, The Ocropolis, to ATP for a full day of improvisation, collaboration, and recording, combined with the astounding Mighty Robot Visuals light crew. Other announced acts include Boredoms continuing their BOADRUM series, performing with 9 drummers on stage. Deerhoof will perform with special visuals by Martha Colburn. Caribou will perform as Caribou Vibration Ensemble, with a 4 piece horn section, 4 drummers and a choir and guests that include Kieran Hebden (Four Tet/Fridge/Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid), Koushik (Stones Throw Records), John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac), Kathryn Bint (One Little Plane), Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane), Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra) and more.

Other brand new additions to Sunday are Menomena, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Birds Of Avalon, and Hopewell.

Circulatory System, was added in the last announcement, and have since revealed an entire tour. Dead Meadow play ATP on Saturday and will perform on a boat in NYC that same week. The Feelies have a Brooklyn show scheduled. Super Furry Animals play NYC and NJ in addition to ATP. The list of related shows goes on...

Unfortunately missing from the ATP NY schedule is Nick Cave - not that he was ever supposed to be there, but in addition to being very involved with ATP in general, he was recently confirmed to be only a short car ride away just one day after the festival ends. Full 2009 lineup below...

Continue reading "ATP NY final 2009 lineup -- Bob Mould (now official), Eugene Mirman, Menomena, Hopewell & more (but not Nick Cave) "

Sufjan Stevens w/ Clogs @ BAM in February (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

We are extremely excited to announce the addition of Sufjan Stevens to the ATP-curated Saturday lineup. Stevens, who will be releasing Run Rabbit Run (a re-arrangement of his 2001 album Enjoy Your Rabbit) in October, has not played a US show in over two years, and this is sure to be a special performance. [ATP NY]

Sufjan is one of the most recent additions to ATP NY, running September 11th-13th in Monticello, NY. It'll be his first show in a while, though over the past year Sufjan has made appearances joining St. Vincent at BAM, The Welcome Wagon at St. Paul's Lutheran and the Clogs with My Brightest Diamond (which you can see above) again at BAM .

Sufjan will be joined on the Saturday bill by new additions Shellac, Circulatory System and Grouper (who we previously announced).

On the Sunday, the Flaming Lips-curated bill has added Crystal Castles, who has been touring North America and Europe. They're also on the schedule for All Points West on August 1st.

Other Sunday additions are Super Furry Animals (who are also playing Maxwell's and Highline Ballroom), Boris, Low Lows and Oneida, the latter of which will perform a special set, described below...

"Oneida presents the Ocropolis" - where Oneida will transport the impetus, spirit and community of their multidisciplinary studio/performance space, The Ocropolis, to ATP for a full day of improvisation, collaboration, and recording, combined with the astounding Mighty Robot Visuals light crew.

Limited tickets for the fest are still on sale. Ongoing coverage of ATP NY and related NYC-area shows HERE. Full lineup so far below...

Continue reading "ATP NY adds Sufjan Stevens, Boris, Shellac, Crystal Castles & more - full updated lineup"

Boss Hog @ Maxwell's (more by Tim Griffin)

Friday will feature a first New York show in a long time by The Jesus Lizard and newly announced, ATP favourites Iron and Wine. They will join the Don't Look Back shows also taking place on Friday: The Feelies performing Crazy Rhythms, New York's finest Suicide performing their first LP, Dirty Three performing Ocean Songs and The Drones performing Wait Long By The River... The evening will be rounded off with the Comedy Stage hosted and curated by the one and only David Cross.

Saturday is curated by ATP and is headlined by Animal Collective and an exclusive performance by Panda Bear. Other confirmed acts include the newly announced Boss Hog, Deerhunter and Bridezilla, plus the previously announced Melvins, Black Dice, Dead Meadow, Autolux, EL-P, Akron Family, Antipop Consortium, Atlas Sound and the hotly tipped Sleepy Sun.

Sunday is curated by the outlandish Flaming Lips. Every act that plays will perform an exclusive special show, bespoke for this event. First up are the Boredoms who will continue their BOREDRUM [BOADRUM?] series, performing with 9 drummers on stage. No Age will perform a whole LP by Husker Du including special guest vocalist [um... Bob Mould?]. Deerhoof will perform with special visuals by Martha Colburn. Caribou will perform as Caribou Vibration Ensemble, with a 4 piece horn section, 4 drummers and a choir and guests that include Kieran Hebden (Four Tet/Fridge/Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid), Koushik (Stones Throw Records), John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac), Kathryn Bint (One Little Plane), Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane) and more. Finally Stardeath and White Dwarfs also join the line-up, with lots more to be announced!

This is great. Full (current) lineup (in list format), and more info, below...

Continue reading "ATP NY 2009 adds more acts & crazy stuff w/ Boredoms, Iron & Wine, Boss Hog, Deerhunter, No Age & more..."

DOWNLOAD: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (LOL BOYS Remix) (MP3)

Kevin Barnes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Boss Hog @ Maxwell's (more by Tim Griffin)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Anticon @ Knitting Factory
* CSS @ Webster Hall
* The Weight @ Union Pool
* Leona Naess @ Pianos
* Variety Shac @ Knitting Factory
* Jay Reatard @ Wired Store
* The Say Sos @ the Living Room
* Power Plant & Talibam! @ Zebulon
* Peasant @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Boss Hog, Those Darlins @ Bowery Ballroom
* Suckers & Twi The Humble Feather @ Glasslands
* Vetiver, Crystal Stilts & Silver Summit @ (le) poisson rouge
* Oasis & Ryan Adams & The Cardinals @ Madison Square Garden
* The Night Marchers, Obits & Two Tears @ Santos Party House
* DJ List Christee (Kevin Barnes) & karaoke @ the Bell House

Mike Mills was born today in 1958.

There will be no Gene Ween Band show tonight.

There will be no Aimee Mann holiday show tonight at Nokia, but there will be one tomorrow.

Anticon will be at Knitting Factory tomorrow too.

The Say Sos play their first-ever show at the Living Room tonight. The Say Sos are ex-BV writer, ex-Undisputed Heavyweights' Wes's new band.

Quasi curates three floors at the Knitting Factory this Saturday.

Some tickets went on sale today.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs put a new Christmas song on their MySpace.

The Cure performed "Freakshow" on Kimmel last night. Video below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

photos by Tim Griffin

Boss Hog played their first show back together as a band last night, December 3rd, at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Front-woman Christina Martinez stayed fully clothed as she and hubby Jon Spencer (and drummer and keyboardist and bassist) tore through a set of their bluesy punk rock songs, in alphabetical order, to an enthusiastic crowd. They played an encore, but not "White Out" (It was requested, they refused). Tickets are still on sale for their December 17th NYC show at Bowery Ballroom. All dates HERE. More Maxwell's pictures below...

Continue reading "Boss Hog (Jon Spencer) @ Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ - pics"

As previously reported, Boss Hog are back in action and have shows scheduled in the UK, @ Maxwell's and at Bowery Ballroom in December...

Explaining their eight-year hiatus, Cristina says, "It's been two torturous terms of Republican disease and culture death. Now that we're free, it's the perfect time for us to bring back our own brand of sick in celebration."

Adds her live-in guitarist, Jon Spencer, "This whole 'change' thing isn't new... Boss Hog represented change with every album we made!"

Joining Boss Hog at the Bowery Ballroom is a full compliment of rhythm and grind, featuring the country punk moxie of Tennessee's Those Darlins, the titillating parade of burlesque goddesses Harvest Moon and Dirty Martini, and special guest DJ Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Sponsered by the fabulous BUST magazine

Tickets for the December 17th show are now on sale. More info and dates HERE.

by Black Bubblegum

If there's one thing that ATP is good at, it's a reunion. One gaze through the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas 2008 lineup and it becomes evident that the Melvins and Mike Patton haven't let us down with the addition of Boss Hog. The Jon Spencer/Cristina Martinez (husband-wife) project (formed post-Pussy Galore and pre-Blues Explosion) will be, though technically not broken up, playing their first gig in over seven years.

A little history, courtesy the world's most accurate online encyclopedia:

Boss Hog was formed in 1989, as something of an accidental side project, when Jon and Cristina were told of a last minute vacancy on the bill at the influential New York punk club CBGB's. The pair put together a group of musicians from members of The Honeymoon Killers and Unsane, along with Kurt Wolf from Pussy Galore. The gig is reported to have been an underground sensation in New York, not least because Cristina performed the whole show naked.

The same line-up of Spencer, Martinez, Charlie Ondras, Jerry Teel and Kurt Wolf recorded the mini-album Drinkin', Lechin' & Lyin' for the record label Amphetamine Reptile in 1989. Martinez continued the sexual notoriety by appearing on the cover naked save for thigh-length black leather stilletto boots and arm-length black leather gloves.

The ATP gig is in Minehead on December 5th, and Boss Hog have another UK show scheduled for December 8th at The Luminaire in London (tickets here, overseas folk), BUT FIRST, Boss Hog will play a show at Maxwell's in Hoboken on December 3rd (tickets are on sale), and we also hear they may be playing a BUST magazine (holiday?) party at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on December 17th.

Jon Spencer has also been keeping busy lately with his band Heavy Trash. They played a few NYC shows back in August. We're not sure what else Christina is up to. All Boss Hog dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Boss Hog (Jon Spencer) - ATP UK, Maxwells & Bowery too?"

Boss Hog - Drinkin' Lechin' & Lyin'