by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jonny - Free EP (Zip)

The harmony-laden indie rock Reese's cup that is Jonny -- Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake + former Gorkys Zygotic Mynci singer Euros Childs -- will be touring this summer in support of their debut album that's out April 12 on Merge. There will be two stops in NYC: June 9 at Le Poisson Rougue and June 10 at The Bell House. As I said previously:

The album's artwork, an image Blake found on a friend's website, inspired the duo's name. Musically, if you're familiar with Blake and Child's work previously you know what to expect -- harmony rich pop with a more than dash of psychedelia. The record's 13 songs were made with the help of TFC's Dave MCGowan on bass and ex-BMX Bandit Stuart McKidd on drums. Vocally, it's a little more Childs than Blake, though the latter shines on "Circling the Sun," and "The Goodnight" and the two together make for perfect pop on single "Candyfloss," the charming video for which is below.

You can stream the entirety of the Jonny album over at the Merge website. And you can still download a 4-song digital EP at the top of this post.

Opening for Jonny on the whole tour will be Merge labelmates Apex Manor, the new band from former Broken West dude Ross Flournoy. Apex Manor's debut, The Year of Magical Drinking, was released in January.

All Jonny/Apex Manor dates are below.

Continue reading "Jonny album stream & 2011 Tour Dates w/ Apex Manor"

by Andrew Frisicano

Mac and Britt embrace (Triangle Music)

The much anticipated XX Merge Festival took place last week in North Carolina with a five-day (July 22-July 26), Wednesday to Sunday run of shows. Last night (Sunday)'s show with She & Him, American Music Club and Wye Oak was the only fully announced lineup. The other four nights (and one day) were a grab bag of any number of Merge bands past and present. Did you go? What were the highlights?

Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, who recently played a pair of big NY shows, headlined the fest's first night (which also included Magnetic Fields). Superchunk, which features Merge founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan, topped the bill of the second night. The third night included the reformed/reunited lineups of Spent, Polvo and Pipe.

Mac McCaughan came out on stage before [Pipe] instead of the night's emcee and announced that there was a lone protester outside. He invited him up on stage and it was Jon Wurster decked out in Phillies gear as Philly Boy Roy. He was holding a sign that said "Boycot MERGE." He complained that Merge didn't have any Philly bands on their roster and Mac said that they have bands from Jersey, which is close to Philly. You never compare Jersey to Philly in front of Philly Boy Roy. It was hilarious.

All of this led to the introduction of New Jersey punks Pipe. As soon as they kicked into their first song, beer cans and plastic bottles started flying. Frontman Ron Liberti ate it up and even put himself in the line of fire, headbutting some of the cans while kicking some back into the crowd. Liberti bounded around the stage, essentially taunting the crowd. The crowd loved the band's antics as did I (but that may have been different if I hadn't managed to stay dry). [triangle music]

You can see the partial setlist from Spoon, who headlined that night, below.

In addition to the Cat's Cradle shows (the venue for 4/5 of the night shows), Saturday featured a day show that included Julian Koster solo as Music Tapes and Mac McCaughan with violin accompaniment as Portastatic. A few videos from that set, below.

M. Ward, who's playing the Central Park Summerstage this Saturday (August 1st), played at the fest's Saturday night showcase. Zooey Deschanel joined him for a cover of the Beatles' "Birthday." Not too big of a surprise considering She & Him headlined the Sunday night show.

Other XX Merge artists who recently stopped in NYC include The Clientele and Richard Buckner (they played Music Hall of Williamsburg last Sunday), Versus and Superchunk (they played South Street Seaport last Friday), and Spent (they played Coco 66). Spoon didn't play a NYC show, but they were spotted in the audience of Paul McCartney's third of three shows at Citi Field in Queens. Destroyer is on his way up. He plays Bowery Ballroom on Thursday. Mark Eitzel (as American Music Club) played Le Poisson Rouge and Maxwell's before XX Merge, and now he's on his way back for a show at The Bell House.

Lineups for each night of XX Merge, with videos, and a bunch of setlists, below...

Continue reading "Merge celebrated their 20th w/ 5 days of shows in North Carolina (lineups, reviews, pics, video setlists...)"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

DOWNLOAD: The Rosebuds - Life Like (MP3)

The Rosebuds @ the Merge CMJ showcase @ Mercury Lounge

The Rosebuds are coming back to NYC to headline Bowery Ballroom on January 16th. Tickets go on sale December 1st at noon. Last time they were here was exactly a month ago to play a couple of shows during CMJ including one for their record label Merge at Mercury Lounge (10/25). Their new album Life Like is out now on Merge.

No openers have been announced for the Bowery show yet. Maybe they'll grab The Ladybug Transistor to play with them again, like they did at Bowery before, and like they did at the show they played at the Bell House during CMJ. ABC News was at that Bell House show. Video features are posted at their site called "The Mix". One video is of Wye Oak who also played that show, and who played with The Rosebuds again at the Merge showcase.

We already talked about the Merge show a little - The Music Tapes part anyway, and I gushed a bit about Wye Oak from one of their other CMJ shows at Pianos, but the rest of the Merge pictures were unpublished, until now... All of them and all Rosebuds and Oakley Hall tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Rosebuds tour dates (Bowery), Merge CMJ showcase pics"

Portastatic @ Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)


It's the "CMJ Artist Lounge at Red Bull Space Presented By Paste, KCRW.com, and indie outlaw." Open to CMJ artist badges all day. Free to the public at night. Band schedule and flyer below...

Continue reading "free 2008 CMJ 'Artist Lounge' shows @ the Red Bull Space"

photos by Rae Holtsabum

I scurried over to the sold-out The Grand Theatre to catch most of RZA's set. The Wu-Tang Clan producer/MC performed as his Bobby Digital alter-ego and controlled the crowd with "Long Time Coming" and "Booby Trap" from the just-released Digi Snacks LP. The set was dominated by material from that album, and RZA turned the gig into a kick-ass block party.

Near the end, he broke out older classics "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F' Wit," "Reunited" and "Shame On A Nigga" near the end. They all made the crowd of mostly college kids go absolutely ape-shit, and it was a perfect way to close out my coverage of the fest. [Chart Attack]

RZA's tour as Bobby Digital is almost over. He hits Webster Hall in NYC this Saturday July 5th. Tickets are still on sale.

Other artists Rae caught on day three (June 27, 2008) of the Sled Island Festival in Calgary included Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, and Yo La Tengo. The rest of the pics from that day below....

Continue reading "Sled Island 2008 day three - RZA, Yo La, Tegan & other pics"