photos by Amanda Hatfield

Raphaelle Standell-Preston of Braids/Blue Hawaii @ MHoW

Like she was when in February, Canada's Raphaelle Standell-Preston was fighting a cold when she returned to NYC to play the BrooklynVegan CMJ showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday night (10/21). That didn't stop her from performing at the show twice though! Her electronic and atmospheric duo project Blue Hawaii bravely opened the show to the smallest audience of the night at 7pm (less than one hour after the BV day party at Public Assembly ended right next door). She then sang again at 10pm in Braids, but this time to the largest audience of the night. The room was packed to capacity as Braids performed their "absolutely beautiful" music. Seeming overwhelmed by their grand reception, Raphaelle thanked the crowd over and over as they ended their set and their tour with Pepper Rabbit who played at 8.

There's a rumor that the BV showcase may have been Pepper Rabbit's last show ever. Hopefully that's not true. To quote Hannah Angst, "Pepper Rabbit puts on an amazing show- I love when so few people can make that much noise." Maria Sherman said that, "the best part of [the] pepper rabbit show [was] John Norris screaming every lyric."

After Pepper Rabbit and before Braids, came Active Child. Elizabeth Rowe of the Examiner says:

Active Child stole the show with their 9pm set. Pat Grossi, the mastermind of the Active Child project, juxtaposes his chilling, choral falsetto and delicate harp-playing with the sonic intensity of electronic drums and keyboards. Reminiscent of How to Dress Well's deconstructed R&B with thundering electronic percussion, the band is ultimately difficult to categorize -- Active Child is an experiment in sonic contradiction as much as anything, and a compelling one at that. Songs were expansive, even grandiose affairs with the air of traditional choral music. The performance was finely-tuned, down to the apparent decision on the part of the band to wear matching scoop-neck t-shirts in slightly different neutral shades.

After Braids came the final set of the night, and that was from the great San Francisco post-punk band Weekend (I feel like it doesn't need to be written anymore that Weekend is not to be confused with The Weeknd or Weekends, but at least one person asked me to clarify this weekend, so I think I should keep writing it). Metro.us saw Weekend and says:

Bringing your own lights is an effective move that makes you stand out from the thousand other bands. You can better capture what you know as the es-sence of your own music. Weekend brought three long red tube lights to put beside their instruments, evoking electric heaters, warming up their icy goth rock sound.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Sorry if for some reason you couldn't get in! More pictures below...

Continue reading "BV CMJ 2011 showcase @ MHOW w/ Braids, Active Child, Weekend, Pepper Rabbit & Blue Hawaii (pics)"

CMJ Music Marathon Festival Guide (photo by olsoncaleb)

The 2011 CMJ Music Marathon starts today (10/18) and runs through Saturday night (10/22).

If you're not familiar with how this works, basically CMJ is just a whole bunch of concerts (showcases), films, panels, parties and other random events. CMJ attendees typically have a badge, but you don't need a badge to enjoy CMJ. You do need a badge to attend panels and stuff like that, and badges will get you into showcases, but they will not guarantee you get into the showcases you want. A limited number of badges are let into each show. The only way to guarantee you get into the official showcases you want, especially if you don't have a badge, is to buy an individual ticket to that show.

BrooklynVegan is hosting two official showcases: Friday night @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (tickets) & Saturday metal on a boat (tickets).

You can view all (most) of CMJ's official schedule at schedule.cmj.com. You check out our guide to all that is dark and heavy at CMJ for more too.

In addition to the official stuff is all the unofficial stuff. Those are the parties planned by whoever and most are free, though some require RSVP. Most are in the day (showcases are at night). Bill listed a bunch of parties happening today, with a guide for tonight coming soon HERE. Browse our CMJ archives for many more. Follow @bvCMJ on Twitter too.

BrooklynVegan is hosting three unofficial day parties. We're super last minute, so the lineups haven't been announced yet, but we're doing a day party at Knitting Factory Thursday, and two two-stage day parties at Public Assembly on Friday & Saturday. No RSVP necessary for these. Stay tuned for more shortly!

Check out some video features on BV showcase band Braids, performance of "Lemonade" included, below...

Continue reading "CMJ 2011 begins now. check out the schedule"

photos by Tim Griffin

Raphaelle Standell-Preston of Braids @ the Mohawk

"When I see Raphaelle Standell-Preston (guitar, lead vocals of Braids) take to the scene, I find that I'm even more excited than I thought I was. Joining her are Katie Lee (keyboard, vocals), Austin Tufts (drums, vocals) and Taylor Smith (samples, percussion, vocals, bass, guitar). The crowd is immediately in love after the first song and isn't afraid to show it. Cheers and screams all around. "Glass Deers," the longest track on the band's newly released album, Native Speaker, makes its appearance, leading in with its otherworldly din and chimes until it quiets down and Raphaelle's voice takes its first demure and regulated step. The whole group-from keyboard to drums, guitar, voice, samples and drums-shines with a melodious and striking sound, but it's the lead vocals that flare brightest. As the song unfolds, so do the layers of the multi-talented artist's range and expression. No one can help but be captivated and I am left inspired by the pure power of the song as performed live." [eventseekr]

The tour continues through Friday, 10/21, when Braids and Pepper Rabbit join Active Child, Weekend, and Raphaelle from Braids' other project Blue Hawaii at the BrooklynVegan official CMJ showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets are still on sale, or get in with your CMJ badge.

More pictures from Austin below...

Continue reading "Braids & Pepper Rabbit on tour, played Mohawk w/ Painted Palms (pics)"

Braids @ Mercury Lounge (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Though you may have noticed it on Music Hall's site already, I'm excited to announce the lineup of the 2011 BrooklynVegan official CMJ showcase, happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, October 21st. It looks like this:

7pm Blue Hawaii
8pm Pepper Rabbit
9pm Active Child
10pm Braids
11pm Weekend

Montreal's Braids (not to be confused with Braid), covered countless times on this site also played a BV-SXSW 2011 party and are currently nominated for the Polaris Award. I'm honored to host them twice in one year.

Blue Hawaii, more of a rarity, is Braids front-woman Raphaelle's solo project. You don't see Blue Hawaii's name on a bill very often, though maybe you just caught them when they opened for Braids at Mercury Lounge on September 6th. Get there early! Raphaelle on stage once is something not to be missed, let alone twice in one night!

Active Child @ Bowery Ballroom (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Active Child, whose last NYC was a sold out one at Bowery Ballroom just last week, will play an early 9pm set even though they could probably be headlining the night themselves. No lack of BV Active Child posts too if you want to find out more about the LA-based ex-choir boy harp playing artist (Active Child also played a BV SXSW party in March 2010).

Pepper Rabbit also recently shared bills with Braids, though not in NYC where Pepper Rabbit also just headlined their own Mercury Lounge show. Grab the Freelance Whales remix of of their song "Rose Mary Stetch" HERE if you don't have it yet.

Weekend @ BV-SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Last but far from least is Weekend (not to be confused with The Weeknd or Weekends) who also played the same BV SXSW party in 2011 that Braids did (Malajube, who are in NYC now, played that show too). I'm excited to have them back too! To quote one BV contributor who I think speaks for most of us, "Weekend are one of my favorite new bands of the last year." Maybe you just caught them at one of their two packed NYC shows earlier this month. They played both Mercury Lounge and Glasslands with Talk Normal. Download/listen to their new track "Hazel" below.

NOTE: This is one of two official BrooklynVegan CMJ showcases. The other is much heavier and on a boat. Stay tuned for free day party announcements too.

Continue reading "BV-CMJ 2011 official showcase @ Music Hall of Williamsburg -- lineup & tickets"

DOWNLOAD: Purity Ring - "Belispeak" (MP3)

As mentioned, Purity Ring are heading out on tour with Neon Indian in September and October, culminating in a CMJ show at Webster Hall on October 21. Tickets are still available for what is now Neon Indian's next NY show now that the Quiksilver thing is cancelled (well, unless you count DJing).

Purity Ring will also play a Windish Agency CMJ Showcase that same night (10/21) at Mercury Lounge with Drop the Lime, Small Black, We Barbarians, High Highs, Gauntlet Hair, Electric Guest, and Cuckoo Chaos. Tickets for the showcase go on sale Thursday (9/1) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (8/31) at noon (you can also try to get in with a CMJ badge). All tour dates are listed below.

Purity Ring are set to release a split 7" with fellow Canadians Braids on October 11 via Fat Possum. Grab Purity Ring's contribution, "Belispeak," above and check out the artwork, which is above too.

Speaking of Braids and We Barbarians, Braids are going on tour with Pepper Rabbit, but before they do Pepper Rabbit will play their own show with We Barbarians and ANR at Mercury Lounge on August 31. Tickets are still available. Braids play Mercury Lounge a week later. Tickets are still on sale.

Updated Purity Ring tour dates below...

Continue reading "Purity Ring schedules a CMJ show w/ We Barbarians & others, releasing split w/ BRAIDS (MP3 & updated dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Pepper Rabbit - "Rose Mary Stretch" (Freelance Whales remix) (MP3)

Pepper Rabbit @ Sasquatch 2011 (more by Josh Darr)

Pepper Rabbit are about to adjust to life on the road. Beginning on September 7 in Philly, they'll be on the road with BRAIDS and the Secretly Canadian-signed Painted Palms for over six weeks. But first, they play their own show at Mercury Lounge in NYC on August 31 with We Barbarians and ANR. Tickets are still on sale, and we have a pair you can win. Details below with all tour dates. The Polaris-nominated BRAIDS play Mercury Lounge without Pepper Rabbit (but with Painted Palms, Blue Hawaii and Noveller) on September 6.

Pepper Rabbit's new album Red Velvet Snow Ball was released earlier this month and if you order it on their website...

... You can get it in two different packages below. The totes and pins were made special for this offer. You can't get them anywhere else. Every order also comes with an immediate download of a ton of MP3s. You get our whole first record, Beauregard. You get the Rose Mary Stretch EP we've been giving out (with the rad Miniature Tigers cover!). And you get the whole new album....

Continue reading "Pepper Rabbit remixed by Freelance Whales (MP3 premiere), kicking of tour (updated dates & a ticket contest)"

DOWNLOAD: Blue Hawaii - "Lilac" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Blue Hawaii - "Belize" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Indiensoci - "Besnard" (MP3)

Blue Hawaii

Raphaelle Standell-Preston of Braids is also one half of the duo Blue Hawaii. She spoke to Lookout about the project in June 2010:

There hasn't been much press surrounding Blue Hawaii and your new album Blooming Summer. Who is Blue Hawaii?

Raph: Blue Hawaii is Alexander Cowan and myself. It's a project that we started when we first met each other. We've been dating for the last while, so it's kind of been, I don't know, I don't how I feel about saying it's like a "love project," but it kind of is, I guess.

The sound you're producing is quite distinct from your other projects. Was it a decision to move away from that or was it just a natural influence?

Raph: It was just a natural influence. Every project that I do really takes on its own sound. Except for a few of the tracks my voice doesn't sound like it does for Braids. It's such a different art form in itself that I become a part of the music. This one was very romantic and wispy, whereas Braids is very urgent and angsty. It was a different part of me, just like Indiensoci is. Indiensoci is very feminine and ethereal.

The live performances of Blue Hawaii feature stylistic elements that are absent from your other projects. Is that adoption part of achieving the blissful aesthetic?

Raph: For sure. Especially lately, coming into my twenties and performing for the last three years, I've become intrigued by the amount of control and freedom that you have as the performer. With Braids, if I were to put on face paint and stuff like that I would just stand out like a sore thumb, and that's not really what Braids is. With Braids, everybody is just wearing jeans and get out of the van and play the show. Blue Hawaii is a bit more of an outlet for the urge in me to explore what it really is to be a performer and to have face paint and to bring all the artistic elements into the performance. I'm excited about it. I want to go even crazier if possible. I want to bring projections and jellybeans.

Blue Hawaii's LP Blooming Summer is out now on Arbutus Records (home of Grimes). You can purchase the album at the Arbutus Records webstore and grab two tracks above. Two more songs are also streaming below.

As mentioned in the interview, Raphaelle also records material as Indiensoci. Grab the Indiensoci track "Besnard" above.

Updated Braids tour dates and songs below...

Continue reading "Blue Hawaii is Raphaelle from Braids & friend (MP3, dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Austra - "Spellwork" (MNDR Nighttime Remix) (MP3)

Austra at Santos (more by Vincent Cornelli)

2011's short list of nominees for Canada's Polaris Music Prize were announced. They include a mix of indie veterans, grammy-winners, a sax player who has played with those grammy winners, and some new kids on the block like the super buzzy The Weeknd whose resume includes working with Drake. Full nominee list is below.

One of the artists, Austra, will release a remix EP to follow-up their latest release Feel it Break. The remix collection, entitled SPARKLE will be released digitally on July 26th and on wax on August 23rd. The release features remix contributions from MNDR, Mark Pistel, and Planningtorock with the digital collection having an additional four bonus remixes. Preorder it at Domino, and download/stream one track, "Spellwork (MNDR Nighttime Remix)" above/below.

Reminder, look for Austra to play a FREE show on July 14th supporting tUnE-yArDs at Pier 54 in NYC. They'll also be on hand to support Cold Cave at Bowery Ballroom on August 6th (tickets). Cold Cave also plays NYC next week, at Knitting Factory with Cult of Youth on July 12th (tickets).

Braids, also nominated, recently announced a ton of tour dates.

Austra song stream and dates and the Polaris Music Prize nominees are below.

Continue reading "Polaris nominees announced, Austra releasing remix EP"

Braids at Bowery Ballroom in April (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

Braids play NXNE this weekend with Jennifer Castle, Chad Vangaalen, Grimes, Duzheknew and many others. They'll then spend most of the summer touring their home country of Canada and Europe. In September and October they'll embark on a massive tour of North America with Pepper Rabbit (who are currently on the road with Givers). All dates are listed below.

The Braids fall officially tour begins in NYC on September 6 at Mercury Lounge which is one of the only dates on the tour not listing Pepper Rabbit on the bill (maybe that will change after Thursday's Bowery Ballroom show). Mercury Lounge tickets go on sale Friday (6/17) at noon.

All tour dates and a recently released live video, below...

Continue reading "Braids going on a big tour with Pepper Rabbit (dates)"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Jennifer Castle - "Neverride" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jennifer Castle - "Powers" (MP3)

Canadian folk singer Jennifer Castle, who previously existed under the moniker Castlemusic, released her first album under her own name (though the album is titled Castlemusic) on April 26 in Canada via Chad Vangaalen's Flemish Eye label. Jennifer was accompanied by Dave Clarke and engineer Jeff McMurrich (Fucked Up, Owen Pallett), who recorded and mixed the album. She brought in friends to help out with piano, organ, flute, vibes, and pedal steel to accompany her voice and guitalele.

Jennifer's brand of folk exuberates with time-honored melodies and arrangements not unlike fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell. You can grab the songs "Neverride" and "Powers" off the album above, and purchase the album download or CD/LP from Flemish Eye. Also check out the videos (filmed by Mitch Fillion) of Jennifer's performance of "Powers" and "Poor as Him" on Southern Souls below.

Jennifer plays NXNE in Toronto on June 16 at WrongBar with Fucked Up, whose new album we recently mentioned Jennifer provides guest vocals on (she has also backed them on at least one older record). She'll play another NXNE show on June 18, the Flemish Eye/Weird Canada showcase, with her labelmates Chad Vangaalen and Braids, and Grimes and Duzheknew.

After NXNE, Chad Vangaalen heads out on short US tour with Nat Baldwin including the previously mentioned Music Hall of Williamsburg show on June 21. Hospital Ships also open that show and tickets are still available. Updated dates below.

All tour dates (though none in the US for Jennifer yet), videos, and Castlemusic stuff below...

Continue reading "Jennifer Castle released Castlemusic on Flemish Eye, hangs w/ Chad VanGaalen, backs Fucked Up, playing NXNE w/ both"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

Toro y Moi @ Bowery Ballroom

Toro y Moi, Braids, and Adventure toured through NYC earlier this month, playing two sold out shows at Bowery Ballroom while they were here. Pictures from one of those shows is in this post.

Adventure returns on May 14th to play a show at Glasslands with Pat Jordache. Tickets are on sale. All future tour dates for all three bands and more pictures from Bowery, below...

Continue reading "Adventure played Bowery Ballroom w/ Toro y Moi & Braids (pics), playing Glasslands & other dates"

Evan Dando at The Bell House (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

Evan Dando & The Lemonheads have a few random upcoming dates scheduled. The Lemonheads will share a bill with The Canon Logic on April 28th at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Tickets are still available. You can also catch Josh Lattanzi of The Lemonheads at Bowery Ballroom on May 26 & 27 as part of the Bob Dylan tribute that will also include members of the Strokes, Hold Steady, etc, etc.

All other upcoming Evan Dando dates are in other countries at the moment, including a June 16th Evan & Juliana Hatfield show in Toronto for the NXNE festival which, like Brooklyn's own multi-venue festival Northside, recently expanded its lineup. Some of the other bands playing are in the title of this post. The rest are listed below.

All Dando-related dates and some videos below too...

Continue reading "Lemonheads playing shows, NXNE expands lineup (includes Descendents, Stars, Devo, OFF!, Juliana Hatfield, more)"

The second annual Hopscotch Festival will go down in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, across 12 different venues with over 135 bands, from September 8th through 10th. The lineup this year runs the gamut of independent music... from traditional indie staples (The Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices, Superchunk) to southern-inflected rock (Drive-By Truckers) to noise (Prurient) to hip hop (Beans) to garage (Jeff The Brotherhood) to funk (Budos Band) to metal (Krallice), and everywhere in between (Swans, Rhys Chatham, etc etc). Tickets are currently on sale. Full lineup is below.

Hopscotch happens almost three months after Guided By Voices play a Brooklyn Northside Festival show in McCarren Park (tickets) which is one day after Beirut plays a Northside Festival show on the same McCarren Park stage with... Sharon Van Etten (though she may have been accidentally announced at one point, they officially kept her placement on the bill under wraps until after Saturday's Music Hall of Williamsburg show). Tickets for Beirut/SVE are still on sale, and another opener will be added too.

Guided by Voices (whose Brooklyn show also has more openers coming) are also playing Pitchfork in July with Animal Collective whose Prospect Park show is now on AmEx presale.

Swans' upcoming NYC show is now on AmEx presale too.

Hopscotch lineup below...

Continue reading "Hopscotch Fest returns to Raleigh (2011 lineup announced), Sharon Van Etten officially added to Northside Fest"

photos by Amanda Hatfield and Timothy Griffin

Adventure (by Tim)

Braids (by Tim)

Braids and Adventure are on tour with Toro y Moi now. The three bands play sold out shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (4/10) and Monday (4/11).

As discussed and/or pictured HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, we threw a free, three stage party with M For Montreal at Swan Dive and Barbarella in Austin on Saturday, March 19, 2011.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, to all the bands who played and to Ramesh for DJing. Sorry to Bass Drum of Death for not getting to play due to some confusion. Thanks to the cast of Workaholics for stopping by and for doing some hosting (catch their show on Comedy Central now!). Thanks also to Izzoz, Sensible Portions, Honest Tea, VegAustin, Raw Revolution, NadaMoo, Firefly Vodka, Line 6, Korg, Vox, Blackstar, Nudie Jeans, and ASCAP. Thanks to everyone else that helped and to anyone I forgot.

A whole bunch more pictures from the whole day are below...

Continue reading "BV/M For Montreal Austin Day Party in pics (Braids, Adventure, Owen Pallett, Little Scream & many more)"

If you've been following along, you know that this is finally the NINTH and FINAL BrooklynVegan SXSW 2011 show announcement! This one happens on Saturday, March 19th in Austin, at both Swan Dive and Barbarella (they connect). It runs from noon-6pm and is 100% free. We are doing it with our friends from M For Montreal and it looks like this:

STAGE 1 (SWAN DIVE)
12:00 PM New Moods
01:00 PM Oh Land
2:00 PM Austra
3:00 PM Little Scream
4:00 PM Owen Pallett
5:00 PM Braids

STAGE 2 (Barbarella main stage)
12:00 PM Baths
1:00 PM Misteur Valaire
2:00 PM !!!
3:00 PM Trail of Dead
4:00 PM Mount Kimbie
5:00 PM Daedelus
HOSTED BY: the cast of Workaholics
DJs: Ramesh (of Voxtrot) & 70's Bush

STAGE 3 (Barbarella small stage)
12:00 PM Bass Drum of Death
12:45 PM Adventure
1:30 PM Versus
2:30 PM Malajube
3:15 PM Suuns
4:00 PM Weekend
5:00 PM PS I Love You

And this party will also have:

• FREE vegan Izzoz breakfast tacos while supplies last!
• lots of FREE snacks courtesy of Sensible Portions!
• a lot of FREE Honest Tea!
• FREE Raw Revolution bars to eat.
• FREE vegan ice cream from NadaMoo
• FREE Firefly Vodka cocktails all day (while supplies last.)
• more FREE DRINKS TBA.

• Our official microphone sponsor Line 6.
• and our backline sponsors Korg, Vox & Blackstar.
• our sponsor Nudie Jeans.
• and to ASCAP for sponsoring too.

To celebrate the BrooklynVegan + M for Montreal party, Nudie Jeans is also giving away 5 pairs of jeans (one pair for each day leading up to the party). For your chance to win, friend Nudie Jeans on facebook and send an email titled BROOKLYN VEGAN to nudie@wantagencyinc.com. For those at the party, we'll also be raffling off more Nudie Jeans you can win while you're there.

We're also happy to announce that, for the second year in a row, we'll be partnering with our friends at VegAustin to host a vegan bake sale for charity at the party. All proceeds will be donated to Compassion Over Killing.

Check out the flyer and stuff below...

Continue reading "BrooklynVegan & M For Montreal Free Saturday Austin Day Party lineup (3 stages @ Barbarella & Swan Dive)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Braids

[Braids] singer-guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston's voice had largely abandoned her by the time the band hit the stage [on Feb 18th at The Rock N Roll Hotel in DC], turning an elastic, emotive weapon into a meek croak. Early in the set she strained and failed to hit notes normally well within her range and, at one point, simply stopped singing to apologize mid-song.

Her bandmates soldiered on, playing dramatic and surging songs with interwoven melodies and shifting tempos. They are slowly unfolding, cinematic creations that consistently simmer, if rarely explode. Many of them swell and subside over the course of six or seven minutes, like tornado funnels that never wreak complete havoc by touching down.

Baths, the one-man project of baby-faced 21-year-old Los Angeles resident Will Wiesenfeld, opened his headlining set by telling the crowd he was getting over a cold and asked listeners not to hold it against him if he had to pause at some point to blow his nose. No handkerchiefs were necessary, though. Standing behind an array of samplers, keyboards and other electronic gizmos, he played glitchy dance songs with more immediately satisfying payoffs than anything in the preceding set. -[Washington Post]

True Womanhood and Houses (who replaced Star Slinger) opened the Manhattan show. Houses frontman Dexter (who played second) normally plays with his girlfriend and a drummer, but since they were asked last minute, only he traveled from Chicago. Their album recently came out on Lefse Records.

More dates HERE. More pictures from Mercury Lounge are below.

Continue reading "Baths & Braids & Houses & TW played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo, words by Rachel Kowal

Baths @ Knitting Factory

Star Slinger may have bowed out, but Saturday night's alliterative line-up still proved to be a delightful exercise in spacey electro-pop. The show began with Mikey Sanders' project, Blackbird Blackbird. Though he typically performs solo, Sanders had help from his friend Frank. Much like Baths, Blackbird Blackbird is heavily comprised of bass-heavy laptop samples that are skillfully manipulated by a series of knobs and faders and set to nice, clear vocals.

Sanders mentioned multiple times how "fucking stoked" he was to be playing over the course of his 20-minute set, and the audience responded to this enthusiasm by beginning to loosen up. Though the night was still young, it was clear that a dance party was brewing.

But before things got too frenzied, the dancers got a bit of a respite thanks to Braids' pleasantly dreamy set. After a long, meandering instrumental intro as the band and technicians ironed out some last-minute kinks, the lights suddenly changed and Braids exploded into the moody crowd pleaser "Lemonade."

Lead singer and guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston had a big smile on her face throughout the evening, despite her apparent illness. (She had thought ahead to bring a a steaming thermos and a Kleenex box on stage with her.) But even more notable than her upbeat disposition was her ability to hit every note - especially the high ones in "Lammicken." (At times, she looked a bit surprised when she nailed them, too.) When she finally confessed that she had "lost" her voice near the end of their set, she could barely talk. Luckily, the final song in the set called for some shrieking and audience participation.

When it was finally time for Baths, both Will Wiesenfeld and the sold-out crowd were ready to dance. "Ok. You guys want to hear music, I assume," Wiesenfeld began. "Let's do it!" As he began to play his first song, he turned to the sound technician a few seconds in. "Everything louder! Louder, louder, louder!"

It's easy to knock laptop musicians, but unlike some performers, Wiesenfeld is anything but dull. With his hands moving rapidly over dials and knobs, Wiesenfeld was a blur. He danced as much as physically possible, sending the key ring at his belt loop jingling wildly, which added yet another layer to the music.

"Oh my God. I love him already!" yelled a girl behind me during the first song. Everyone was gushing and in good spirits - it's hard not to be with lyrics like "It's a breezy, beautiful day." Meanwhile, Wiesenfeld was soaking up the love with a big grin on his face. "We're all friends here. I know all of you," he cried out at one point.

He was moving so much that he somehow managed to dislodge his glasses - twice. "I don't have any rock star things other than my glasses falling off, so that's peak. That's as bad ass as I get," he joked.

Following his action-packed set (which included a number of new songs), Wiesenfeld returned to uproarious applause for a one-song encore before admitting to the crowd and admitting, I don't have any more. I'm going to disappear."

--

The Saturday night show was over before midnight which is when Todd P took over for a late night party feating a set by John Maus.

Braids play again at Glasslands tonight (12/15), and then Baths and Braids continue their tour together at a sold out Mercury Lounge on Wednesday. More pictures from Knitting Factory below...

Continue reading "Baths, Braids & Blackbird Blackbird @ Knitting Factory (pics)"

Star Slinger

"five years ago, J Dilla passed away, aged 32... and his name crops up more than any other. There's a whole generation of musicians drawing influence from his soulful, psychedelic thump. One of them is Darren Williams, better known as Star Slinger. He's spent the last 10 months building an impressive body of work, from eccentric beat tapes, remixes of artists as diverse as Cocteau Twins, Deerhunter and Nicki Minaj and a saucer-eyed collaboration with Teams. Like Dilla, Star Slinger makes dense, weird music that's fun and accessible, beats that bare scrutiny and "tear the whole fuckin' club up."" [FADER]

Star Slinger was also supposed to play Glasslands in Brooklyn tonight (2/15). Instead you can head to the venue to catch Braids who were added a few days ago, and unlike the Mercury Lounge show, tickets are available. Geotic and Shigeto are also on the bill. Baths has the night off, but tickets are still available if you want to catch him when he opens for Cold War Kids at Radio City in March. All Braids dates below...

Continue reading "Star Slinger cancelled, but Braids added Glasslands show"

today in NYC
* Nir Felder @ Barbes
* Spooky Ghost @ The Stone
* David Wax Museum @ Joe's Pub
* Martial Canterel @ Home Sweet Home
* Mandingo Ambassadors @ Barbes
* Greg Giraldo benefit @ Beacon Theatre
* Soldiers of Fortune, Water Fai @ Zebulon
* Henry Rollins spoken word @ Joe's Pub
* Hannis Brown, Dead Cat Bounce @ Sycamore
* Huey Lewis and the News @ Gramercy Theatre
* Arms, Hospitality, Radical Dads, Translations @ Pianos
* Soft Black, The Vacant Lots, Will Cam, J'ac @ Maxwell's
* The Loom, Pearl and the Beard, Team B @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Nicole Atkins, The Gay Blades, Mon Khmer @ Bowery Ballroom
* Anna Ternheim, Sonya Kitchell, Nigel Hall @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Janet Hamill (poetty) @ St. Marks's Church
* Rhys Chatham Brass Trio, Tony Conrad, Face the Music @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Consortium Musicum w/ Sean Lennon & Greg Saunier of Deerhoof @ The Stone
* Larry Campbell (The Music of Neil Young Live Rehearsal show) @ City Winery
* Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, Full Speed Ahead, The Great Explainer @ Stone Pony
* Cubic Zirconia, the Popo, Machinedrum, Party Supplies, Anika (DJ) @ Mercury Lounge
* The Big Terrific Comedy Show w/ Max Silvestri, Gabe Liedman and Jenny Slate @ Cameo Gallery

Check out This Week in Indie.

The National (who played the Studio @ Webster Hall last night) are playing a private fashion week show tonight.

Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier (who played Europa last night) is playing with Sean Lennon at the Stone tonight.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson are responsible for the programming at the Stone this month.

Patti Smith & Lenny Kaye are doing poetry at St. Mark's Church (no advanced tickets).

Grimes have a new (unofficial but band approved) video that you can watch below...

Fellow Canadians Braids have a new video too. Also below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

"i read this as Braid and got excited" - Anonymous | November 28, 2010 11:38 PM

"how are you gonna name your band braids without someone, anyone telling you "yeah,so there was already this band called braid in the 90s who were a pretty big deal and you'll look like clueless morons if you go around calling yourselves that"?" - Anonymous | November 30, 2010 12:22 AM

Braid (not to be confused with Braids)

The Eagle: Why did Braid initially break up?

Bob Nanna: Chris [Broach] - one of the guitar players - wanted to stop touring and go back to school. The rest of us were still into touring and wanted to keep going. Basically Chris wanted to go back to school and we all thought it would be better to break up the band at that point in time. We decided to start a new band at that point.

The Eagle: Why did you decide to reunite and go back on tour?

Nanna: Mainly for people who got into us after we broke up and never got a chance to see us play. We got together to do commentary for this DVD that came out [on May 11] and when we got together to do commentary we were just talking about how cool it would be if we played a show when the DVD came out to promote it and have fun and let people come and see us play. Then since we all realized we didn't have much to do over the summer that we would just do a tour and give everyone in the U.S. a chance to see us play.

The Eagle: How do you react to the assertion that Braid was one of the godfathers of emo?

Nanna: Mixed. I don't know. I guess it's kind of flattering, but when you think about it it's not like we invented something new. We were taking bits and pieces of all these other genres that we liked and making it our own. I would even think of other bands before Braid as the "godfathers" just because we tended to copy some bands as well.

Braids (the plural band from Canada) are touring in February with Baths.

In other emo inventor news, The Get Up Kids have a new album (out TODAY) and a tour coming soon too. You can stream "There Are Rules" over at Spinner and purchase it for just $3.99 over at Amazon. Their latest set of tour dates and a live Braid video are below...

Continue reading "Braid reuniting, putting out a new LP (Get Up Kids out today)"

photos by Chris Becker

NY Press: You seem to be in a great place as a band right now. You're popular around the world, but still not so massive that connecting with your fans is a challenge. Do you have any fear that if you become bigger your music will become less meaningful?

Johan Duncanson of The Radio Dept: Yes, it's been our biggest fear since our first single in 2002. We've never been interested in 'making it.' We just want to create something strong, meaningful and different--something that matters to us. We're shy people and not very confident on stage. When the band grows you start attracting the kind of people who expect you to act out when you're playing live. The rock audience. That's what will kill us in the end.

Braids opened for the band at Bowery Ballroom, like they did at Knitting Factory. More pictures from Bowery and all Radio Dept dates below...

Continue reading "The Radio Dept played Bowery Ballroom w/ Braids (pics), add Webster Hall show (updated dates)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

"We're having technical difficulties," Duncanson said, waiting patiently as the Radio Dept.'s first US show in more than a year ground to a halt. The sound guys eventually sorted things out, and although they neglected to turn up Duncanson's vocals, which had been virtually inaudible from the start, the group picked up right where it had left off.

"OK, so this is the encore," Duncanson said, just before making a more successful pass through 'I Want You to Feel the Same,' a yearning 2006 pop ballad that ought to have come along two decades earlier, so that John Hughes might have included it on his 'Breakfast Club' soundtrack.

The Radio Dept. went on to play five more songs, and while there was, in fact, no encore, there didn't need to be. By the end of their 40-minute set, Duncanson, keyboardist Martin Carlberg and second guitarist Daniel Tjäder had already revisited three decades of European indie rock, referencing -- and at times combining -- the defiant fuzz of the Jesus and Mary Chain, jangle of the Smiths, dance beats of the Stone Roses, noisiness of My Bloody Valentine, halcyon droning of Cocteau Twins and preciousness of Belle and Sebastian. [Spinner]

Continue reading "The Radio Dept, High Highs & Braids @ Knitting Factory (pics)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Braids opened for the Radio Dept. at Knitting Factory last night and will do so again tonight at Bowery Ballroom, but one night earlier they played a show with Arms, Neighbors, and Emil & Friends at the more intimate Mercury Lounge. A set of pictures from that show continues below...

Continue reading "Braids, Arms, Neighbors & Emil & Friends played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Braids - Lemonade (Green Go Remix) (MP3)

If you've got tickets to one of the Radio Dept. shows this week, be sure to get there early to catch Montreal's Braids, who I just saw play in their hometown a couple weeks ago for the M for Montreal Festival. I said then:

Braids use their voices more as another instrument than a conveyor of lyrics. There are points during their set when the harmonies meld with the band's stretched out grooves to achieve ethereal bliss worthy of The Cocteau Twins. Their set is better than the one I'd seen at Knitting Factory back in May, not to mention besting many of the "official selections" at M the following days.

Braids will be back in 2011, hitting the road with Baths and Star Slinger -- a tour that hits NYC on February 12 at Knitting Factory. All Braids tour dates below...

Continue reading "Braids in NYC for 3 shows, touring w/ Baths in 2011 (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

We are Wolves

It's the week before Thanksgiving so I must be in Montreal. This is my third time attending the M for Montreal Festival, which is celebrating its Fifth Anniversary this year. There are more "international delegates" attending than ever before: journalists, agents, music supervisors, songwriters, label folk, and other industry types here to check out nearly 30 bands the festival organizers have deemed "export ready."

Also in attendance is KISS bassist Gene Simmons who will MC the big M for Metropolis concert on Saturday night that features Preistess, The Dears, Misteur Valaire and others. He's also filming an episode of his A&E series Family Jewels while here, and his presence is felt even when he, his ten-strong entourage and crew of cameras are not actually nearby.

This is as much a conference as it is a music festival. There's not much time for sightseeing, as delegates' days (especially the media delegates) are a full schedule of press conferences, schmooze brunches, panel discussions, meet-n-greets and more. Then nights are spent checking out the bands on an equally regimented schedule. We see all the bands, there's no running around between clubs.

Wednesday is kind of a warm up day for the festival with the bands playing being "unofficial" selections. In fact, Wednesday night featured the first-ever non-Canadian bands in M's history at an event presented by two other international festivals: Iceland Airwaves and the UK's Great Escape .

There are two Icelandic bands. Seven-piece Retro Stefson, barely into their 20s, make kitchy '80s Eurodisco that would be at home on the Lido Deck of The Love Boat. More grooves than songs, but they are fun and cute and young and try to get the crowd to do some synchronized dancing. (Delegate participation on this...notsomuch.) Hopefully things like choruses and verses and middle eighths will come with time.

Reykjavík's Lay Low is basically a showcase for singer-songwriter Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir who is no slouch with an acoustic guitar either. Her folk pop was maybe a little too gentle for a crowd that had been plied with free booze for the previous three hours, but I thought it was still pretty lovely, sort of if the Concretes hired Bjork's less quirky sister to take over for Victoria Bergsman.

On the Great Escape stage we had two Montreal bands, both of whom I'd seen before. Braids use their voices more as another instrument than a conveyor of lyrics. There are points during their set when the harmonies meld with the band's stretched out grooves to achieve ethereal bliss worthy of The Cocteau Twins. Their set is better than the one I'd seen at Knitting Factory back in May, not to mention besting many of the "official selections" at M the following days. NYC folk can catch Braids open for The Radio Dept at Knitting Factory (11/30) and Bowery Ballroom (12/01) in less than two weeks.

The show ran about an hour late which means We Are Wolves didn't take the stage until 1AM. Their garagey electro-rock is  pretty on which elevates my flagging energy, but not enough. It's an action-packed week ahead but I call it a night.

To be continued. A set of pictures from Wednesday continues below...

Continue reading "M For Montreal 2010 - night 1 in pics & review (We Are Wolves, Braids & Icelandic bands too)"