Lower Dens at Central Park in 2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

As mentioned, Liars are coming to NYC this month for shows at The Met on May 18 (sold out) and Brooklyn Masonic Temple on May 19. Since we last posted, Baltimore dream pop crew Lower Dens has been added to the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show. Tickets for that one are still available and we've also got two pairs to give away.

UPDATE: As quick as they joined this show, Lower Dens have dropped off of it.

Details on how to enter to win tickets and videos from both bands below...

Continue reading "Lower Dens NOT opening for Liars (win tix)"

photos by Greg Cristman

"A night of Round Robin improvs and Julia Holter just adjusted her sheet music??? #undeadjazz #redmusicacademy" - Bill Bragin

"James Chance. You too with the sheet music?" - Bill Bragin

Andrew Bird & Joe Lavano / Kim Gordon / Julia Holter & Thundercat

The Red Bull Music Academy NYC residency continued last night (5/1) with the sold-out Night Of Improvised Round Robin Duets, which went down at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The night featured a ton of incredible performers, including (in order of appearance) Jameszoo, Questlove, Matana Roberts, Mary Halvorson, Thundercat, Julia Holter, Kim Gordon, Dosh, Roy Hargrove, James Chance, Kim Gordon, Andrew WK, Bernie Worrell, Glenn Gotche, Erik Friedlander, Vijay Iyer, Robert Glasper, DJ Spinna, Don Byron, Andrew Bird, and Joe Lovano. Pictures from that night are in this post.

Many of the performers have other upcoming Red Bull Music Academy events (or non-RBMA shows) in NYC too. Kim Gordon plays tonight (5/2) at Knockdown Center in Queens as one half of the duo Body/Head with Bill Nace. Other artists on the bill include Stephen O'Malley, Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Noveller, Mick Barr, Pharmakon, Pete Swanson and many more. That show appears sold out is back on sale.

Thundercat, who has a new album on the way, plays with Flying Lotus on May 5 and 6 at Terminal 5. Tickets for both nights are still available, and we're also giving away a pair to each night.

After the RBMA residency is over, Julia Holter plays Le Poisson Rouge on July 12 with Jessica Pratt. Tickets for that show are still available.

The "Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets" also doubled as part of the Undead Music Festival, which includes another Andrew Bird and Martin Dosh show on Saturday (5/4) at Shapeshifter Lab, where he'll be playing as a duo with Martin Dosh. The rest of that bill includes Jeremy Ylvisaker and Todd Sickafoose. Tickets for that are still available.

Andrew WK is touring as a the singer of Marky Ramone's band, and that tour hits NYC on Friday (5/3) at Santos (tickets) and October 3 at Irving (tickets).

More pictures from the "Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets" below...

Continue reading "Andrew Bird, Questlove, Thundercat, Kim Gordon and others played the 'Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets' (pics)"

photos by Greg Cristman; words by Andrew Sacher

"Back from Brooklyn. Full of Oasis falafel and grape leaves. Neurosis blew my mind and ears. Easily the loudest set I've seen a band play." - @HolyShitJustin

Neurosis @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 1/19

Neurosis made a triumphant return to NYC over the weekend when they headlined a sold out show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Saturday (1/19), the same spot they played with Mastodon the last time they were in NYC, almost exactly five years ago. Neurosis are now without their graphic artist, so the lack of visuals may have made the room bit less ominous than it was five years ago (not to say it wasn't still totally life threatening) but the band still ripped like no other. Their 11-song, hour and a half encore-less set was bookended by two Through Silver in Blood tracks ("Eye" to open, "Locust Star" to close), and in between they focused entirely on their atmospheric, Steve Albini-produced era, relying most heavily on their two most recent albums, 2007's Given to the Rising and 2012's Honor Found in Decay.

People have varying definitions on what "heavy" music is, but if their albums don't already, it's undeniable that Neurosis' shows carry the weight of the word. They tore through boulder-crushing chords, razor-in-throat screams, and a storm-approaching atmosphere that you could feel in your bones (and eardrums). Some moshed, others headbanged in place, and others just watched in awe as the band delivered. There were some moments to breathe during the set, like the post-rock passage of "My Heart For Deliverance" and the half-sung intro of "The Tide," but moments like those are equal in intensity to the heavy sections, and are part of what keeps Neurosis so consistently interesting. They never let up during the set to talk to the crowd, and it was rarely ever silent, even while tuning their guitars. Just an onslaught of peaks and valleys that had command over the crowd throughout the entire set.

The show opened with an industrial drone set from No Fun boss Carlos Giffoni and an experimental guitar/drum/sampler duo set from James Plotkin and Tim Wyskida, who were both members of Khanate. More pictures from the show, Neurosis' setlist, and a video of them playing "At the Well" (via (((unartig)))) below...

Continue reading "Neurosis made their return to Brooklyn Masonic Temple (pics, video, setlist)"

Liars at Webster Hall in 2012 (more by Bryan Bruchman)

As mentioned, Liars are playing a special show in NYC on May 18 at the Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing at the Met Museum. Tickets for that show are on sale now. They've also just added another NYC happening a day later (5/19) at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, and it's being presented by Wordless Music (who are also presenting the Met show) and BOOM Collective. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

A list of updated dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Liars playing Brooklyn Masonic Temple after the Met"

by Bill Pearis

Destroyer at Webster Hall, April 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Destroyer have added a second NYC-area show -- June 19 at Le Poisson Rouge -- which is one day after their previously-announced show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Tickets for the new show go on sale Friday (5/4) at noon.

Armed with the "Destroyer Orchestra," Dan Bejar is ably reproducing the lush grooves of last year's Kaputt (my favorite album of 2012). Destroyer's show at Webster Hall last year was terrific, so do go see them this time around.

All Destroyer tour dates are below, along with footage of Destroyer's recent Coachella performance.

Continue reading "Destroyer add 2nd NYC show (updated tour dates)"

Destroyer at Webster Hall in 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Destroyer did a fair amount of touring last year in support of Kaputt, which was one of our favorite albums of the year. After playing Coachella this April, he'll kick off another tour in support of the album in June which hits NYC on June 18 at Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Tickets for the Brooklyn show go on sale Friday (3/2) at 9 AM. All dates are listed below.

In related news, Destroyer's Dan Bejar and his old band Points Gray are planning to issue their 2000 LP Offshore on vinyl. It was initially only released in a limited amount of CD-Rs. The band are raising money on IndieGoGo to press the album. You can check out the campaign video below.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "Destroyer announces tour dates; Points Gray planning release"

photos by Greg Cristman

Amon Tobin @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple

Nightclub lasers and lights are one thing. These days, electronic music visuals are on a whole other level. Artists have upped the production ante on their live shows, taking the DJ set out of the club and into the venue...

But perhaps the most ambitious of this year's traveling visual circuses is Amon Tobin's ISAM, a fully HD, 3-D mapping experience that brings Tobin's experimental electronic album of the same name to subtly stunning life.

"Comparisons could be made to Deadmau5 and Daft Punk, who make electronic music and surround themselves with technology as they perform," says Tobin, who brings the "ISAM Live" show to the Congress Theater on Friday. "But unlike that, ISAM doesn't focus on making people dance. It's not a DJ set where you're raving; it's a much more cinematic experience, and is more closely guided by a narrative, how the visuals and music work together."

The show features a shape-shifting DJ booth/art installation. Washes of color, shapes and video images stream over the structure, triggered by Tobin in a storyboard mapped to the music in real time...

"Whether people are into my stuff or not, they come to the show and have an awesome experience regardless," he says. "And then the hope is that there'll be some people who get more curious about the record itself." -[Chicago Sun Times]

Amon Tobin brought his ISAM live performance/light show to Brooklyn Masonic Temple last night (10/25), the first of THREE sold out dates at the venue. Emika supports Tobin on all three nights, but won't join him at MoogFest 2011 in North Carolina, his last US date before heading overseas to play the UK. All dates and more pictures and some video from the impressive Brooklyn spectacle, below...

Continue reading "Amon Tobin brought his ISAM show to Brooklyn Masonic Temple (night 1 pics & video)"

"The ISAM tour will feature a stunning 25' x 14' x 8' multi-dimensional/ shape shifting 3-D art installation surrounding Tobin and enveloping him and the audience in a beyond 3-D experience. A fantastic visual journey to accompany ISAM"

If you missed out on tickets for the other two shows, you still have one more chance to get your ISAM on because Amon Tobin has added a THIRD show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The new date is October 27th and tickets go on sale Saturday at noon.

Continue reading "Amon Tobin adds 3rd Brooklyn show"

photos by Greg Cristman

Godspeed You! Black Emperor complete their 5-night NYC run tonight (3/18) at Church of St. Paul The Apostle which is also where they played last night after playing two nights in a row at Brooklyn Masonic Temple which came after a show at Terminal 5. Pictures and the setlist from the 3/15 show, and the setlist and videos from 3/16 are in this post. More below...

Continue reading "Godspeed You! Black Emperor played Brooklyn Masonic Temple & Church of St. Paul The Apostle (pics, video, setlist)"

photos by Greg Cristman, words by BBG

Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, and the new incarnation of Swans played their first NYC show since reformation at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Friday night, 10/8. They were joined by tour-mate Baby Dee and recent addition Ben Frost as support. The show was one of two NYC dates on a larger tour for the reactivated post-punk/noise/industrial pioneers (previous shows included Pop Montreal and the Black Cat in DC). Swans played their 2nd NYC show at Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night (sans Ben Frost, avec Baby Dee). Both NYC shows sold out in advance. The Brooklyn gig featured an afterhours party with Sasha Grey, Caleb (Sacred Bones), and DJ JonBenet (Prurient, Cold Cave) on the lower level. That drew its own separate crowd in addition to the post-show revelers.

Ben Frost's opening set was particularly impressive, mixing guitar acrobatics and laptop scientifics that took full use of the considerable soundsystem. It was a fantastic set; I normally have a hard time enduring solo laptop-musician/DJ sets, but watched the entire thing. Unfortunately I missed all of Baby Dee.

Swans blasted on stage with the opening thump of "No Words/No Thoughts", before transitioning into a bit of a reworked version of that song. Their set was overwhelmingly heavy with material from the incredible new My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (five of the eight tracks), but the band made stops by their earliest works too ("Sex, God, Sex" from Children of God, "Your Property" from Cop, "I Crawled" from Young God EP). Moving, crushing, beautiful, and magnetic, Michael Gira and Co delivered one of my favorite performances at a space that has hosted its share of memorable moments: Neurosis, sunn o))), Sleep, and Throbbing Gristle.

Don't believe the hype though; it wasn't quite as overwhelmingly loud as you have been lead to believe... not that it matters either way. It was/is always more about electric performance and there is no doubt that Swans delivered on a Friday night on a quiet street in Brooklyn.

More pictures and video from the Brooklyn show, with the Swans setlist, below..

Continue reading "Swans played Brooklyn Masonic Temple w/ Baby Dee & Ben Frost (pics, video, setlist) "

They announced their return earlier this year along with the promise of nine American shows. Well, counting Canada there are now actually at least 15 Godspeed You! Black Emperor shows coming up in America and two of those are in NYC!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
317 Clermont Avenue at Lafayette, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
8pm doors / 9pm show / $25 general admission / Tickets on sale here
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Church of St. Paul the Apostle
405 West 59th Street at Columbus Avenue, NYC
7pm doors / 8pm show / $25 general admission / Tickets on sale here
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

It will be their first NYC shows in eight years. All dates below...

Continue reading "Godspeed You! Black Emperor touring North America in 2011 (dates), NYC shows on sale NOW "

Sleep night 1 photos by Greg Cristman
A Storm of Light/Lichens by BBG, Sleep night 2 by Justina Villanueva

Sleep (by Justina Villanueva)

Sleep played their second and final show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Wednesday (9/8, first show was two days earlier), this time with an assist from A Storm of Light and Lichens. As with the previous night, support was fantastic though in much different ways. A Storm of Light featured Zohra Atash (Religious To Damn) on vocals, new drummer RJ from US Christmas, and Will Lindsay (Indian, Wolves In The Throne Room) on second guitar, which added tremendous depth to the already massive sound that the band has cultivated and on the PA at the Masonic Temple, it only sounded larger. Lichens followed, and although technical difficulties truncated Rob Lowe's set to a paltry 15+ minutes, his vocal and primitive synth harmonies were enthralling in those brief moments. Excellent set.

Thirty minutes earlier than the night before, Sleep launched into their set with the opening bars of "Dopesmoker".

Your primary document tonight is 1993's Sleep's Holy Mountain, a churning monolith wherein tunes like "Aquarian" change tempo and velocity in a real casual, nonchalant way, a nice balance of dirge and thrash, narcotics and histrionics. "Traveling toward the atomic sky!" Cisneros growls on "Inside the Sun," and verily you soon feel like you're standing in it yourself. (The Brooklyn Masonic Temple remains a fantastic place to hear these bands, your Sunn O)))s and Mastadons and Neuroses, thanks to the high ceilings, the grimy feel, the liberal approach to volume, the conservative approach to stage lighting, the words "Masonic" and "Temple.") The miniseries-length "From Beyond" is like a portable natural disaster, ebbing and flowing, a super-brooding trudge that powers down to a soft, almost gentle interlude (Roeder tapping cymbals with his bare hands) and then inevitably supernovas into an extinction-level event, with Pike's wildest and most eruptive solo of the night as punctuation. The cops didn't even bother showing up to gawk at this one, most likely because they were completely terrified. Their loss, your hearing loss. -[Village Voice]

A second set of pictures from night one, as well as more pics from night two are below....

Continue reading "Sleep played Brooklyn Masonic Temple again (pics) "

photos by Greg Cristman,

Two nights after they closed out ATP NY, Altar, aka sunn o))), Boris, Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston, and others, headlined Brooklyn Masonic Temple (smack dab in the middle of two Sleep shows). The Altar show featured opening sets by BXI (aka Boris + Ian Astbury of The Cult) and the enchanting Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter. Power failures caused the headliner's show to halt ten minutes in, and the way the show ended is up for some debate, but those issues aside, anyone who was there until the end doesn't seem to be complaining...

"The experience alone of seeing these two amazing bands perform this album in its entirety was the best live performance I've ever had both physically and mentally.
While exiting the show, my comrades and I remained in silence only to make the occasional comment of "holy shit that was amazing", or "my body is still vibrating."
Now that I have been to several 'big time' events about the city which include some of my favored bands, this still remains to be the best thing to have happened in New York since I've been here, and possibly the year.

My praise to you, oh, Elder Gods. My our sacrifices be plentiful.

Blood for the blood God." [Vitamin C4]

More pictures from the show are below...

Continue reading "Altar (sunn o))) & Boris), Jesse Sykes & BXI rattled Brooklyn Masonic Temple (pics)"

words & photos by BBG

Sleep @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple Monday night

Back before Boris and Sunn O))) took over the place, Sleep played their first of two NYC shows at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Monday night, Labor Day (9/6). Unearthly Trance and Doomriders opened the show, and the legendary stoner band will do it AGAIN TONIGHT (9/8), this time with different openers: Lichens and A Storm of Light. The show, which WAS sold out, will now have tickets available when doors open at 7PM TODAY.

Sleep's reunion tour so far also included shows at ATP NY and at FYF Fest out west.

Unearthly Trance's next NYC show is at Union Pool on 9/29 with Swedish doom destructors SUMA and NJ's Pharoah. The show is part of a short stint of dates for the duo and doubles as their record release party for the forthcoming V due on Relapse Records at the end of this month. Unearthly Trance and SUMA will share a collaborative EP on Throne Records in the coming months, not to be confused with their previous, and now sold-out, split 10".

If you miss them tonight, Lichens also have another show coming up soon:

Wednesday September 15th @ SHEA STADIUM

:: INTERNATIONALTAPES.COM & TODD P present:

:: Janka Nabay ----------------- solo
:::: Highlife -------------------- Doug Shaw, Social Registry records
:::::: Ali Kamiya Dit Ba aka Ali Baba -- from Mali, w/ Adrian Orange of Thanksgiving
:::::::: Lichens ------------------ Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

:: special guests: CLOUDLAND CANYONS
:: International Tapes djs

| SHEA STADIUM |
20 Meadow St btwn Waterbury St & Bogart St | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Grand, G-Metropolitan | 8pm | all ages | $8
| MYSPACE |-- http://sheastadiumbk.blogspot.com

More pictures from Monday's show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple, including one of the setlist, and all Unearthly Trace dates, below....

Continue reading "Sleep played Brooklyn (pics, setlist), do again (TONIGHT)"

by BBG

"Sunn O))) broke the Brooklyn Masonic Temple". -juddgreenstein

"power problem sideswipes #sunn #Boris #altar show. Band breaks character, lifts hoods and asks audience 10 mins to straighten out" -Robert Chow

"Power outage@ Brooklyn masonic temple: praying to the doom metal gods: let sunn o))) & Boris finish" -thejass

"Sunn 0))) blew the power to the Masonic temple. Everyone's running around trying to fix it. Having punk rock show flashbacks". -americab

"All the mobile device tweet power in here should be
routed into the amps #altar" -Toby Driver

The massive sunn O)))/Boris rig at ATP NY 2 nights earlier (more here)

After sets from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter and BXI, two songs into last night's (9/7) sunn O)))/Boris set at Brooklyn Masonic Temple, the power blew. With the heat sweltering inside the venue and the Brooklyn Masonic staff scrambling to fix the issue, a number of people from the audience decided to hit the road. The venue later fixed the issue, and sunn O)))/Boris played in complete darkness to conserve power. Reportedly the police then showed due to noise complaints, but according to one attendant, "Saw the cops, but can you shut down a show that's already over? Or did someone give Sunn and co. the signal to stop? Either way I don't think anyone noticed. Shit was excellent." Stay tuned for more info.

UPDATE: The noise did get the police there, but they didn't shut it down.

Hopefully the power won't buckle tonight at Sleep at BMT (all went well Monday night) (and by the way, tickets will be released at the door) or at the sunn O)))-curated Roadburn 2011 with the newly added Pentagram and Swans. Swans will also play Masonic Temple on October 8th, tickets are still on sale. Their Bowery Show the next night is sold out.

BXI sat down with someone for a video interview 2 days ago (right after ATP). In it, the interviewer says that people called the last sunn O))) show at Masonic Temple, "the loudest they ever heard". You can watch that below...

Continue reading "electrical problems & then police show up @ sunn O)))/Boris"

by BBG

BXI

ATP NY have a plethora of exclusives upstate in early September, and now they're bringing one to NYC. On September 7th, The Blackened Music Series and ATP will combine forces for a show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple where sunn o))) & Boris will perform Altar in its entirety (a NYC first) and BXI will make their US debut! The melancholic and heart-wrenching Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter will sweeten the deal/provide awesome contrast for the rage. Tickets are on sale.

The show is one day before Sleep smokes out the same venue with Lichens and the newly added A Storm of Light (tickets still on sale for that too)...

As previously discussed, BXI is the collaboration of Boris and Ian Astbury (The Cult) who will release their debut EP in September via Southern Lord. The four song EP will feature three new tracks, as well as a cover of The Cult's "Rain". Dig on the EP cover, as well as a video of BXI in action (performing The Door's "The End") in Sydney Australia below.

Reminder, Boris plays MHOW on August 6 with Torche and Russian Circles (the day after UNSANE/Keelhaul at Santos!). Tickets are on sale.

The Altar flyer, a BXI video and cover art, below...

Continue reading "Boris will perform 'Altar' w/ sunn o))) & w/ Ian Astbury as BXI (all at the same NYC show!)"

by BBG

Sleep 2010 = Al Cisneros, Jason Roeder, Matt Pike.

The rumors are true. After initially reuniting for a "final show" at ATP The Fans Strike Back, followed by an announcement that the band would appear at ATP NY, Sleep is BACK with a vengeance! What's more? BrooklynVegan and Osiris will present the return of the gods of stoner doom, Sleep, at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Sept 8th. Tickets are on sale now.

The NYC show is part of a string of dates for the band, who will return to the road (!) with an appearance at ATP NY, alongside Iggy & The Stooges, Sonic Youth, sunn o)))/Boris, and many esteemed others. They'll be performing their Holy Mountain album as well as "selections from Dopesmoker and more".

Lichens, who toured with Om in 2009 will open the show at Masonic Temple, and the gig Sleep are playing the next day at Chicago's Logan Square Auditorium. In Portland Sleep will play as part of Music Fest NW.

Sleep 2010 is looking a bit different from Sleep 2009, as Chris Hakius has definitely thrown in the towel and will be replaced by Neurosis bruiser Jason Roeder behind the kit. Full tour dates and some videos from the 2009 show, below...

Continue reading "Sleep announce US tour dates, Brooklyn show w/ Lichens!"

by BBG

Michael Gira at The Stone (more by Lori Baily)

We knew that it was coming, but now we have a New York City date. The much discussed Swans reunion show will take place on 10/8 with Baby Dee at Brooklyn Masonic Temple, a Haunting The Chapel/The Blackened Music Series/The Issue Project Room joint production. Tickets go on sale Monday at 10AM. The show takes place a few days after Swans play Pop Montreal, one of two festivals that Swans have announced with the second being Supersonic in the UK in October 2010. More dates TBA.

UPDATE: It looks like tickets go on sale Friday now, and the Brooklyn show takes place one day after a show at Bowery Ballroom.

words by BBG, photos by Greg Cristman

So campy.... but oh so fun! Immortal played Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Tuesday, 3/30, as part of their brief but sweet "Blashyrkh in North America" campaign that laid waste to a select few cities on said continent (namely Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn, and LA).

With a serious lighting rig and enough smoke machine action to make Greg Anderson proud, the band opened the what-appeared-to-be-sold-out show with the title track and "The Rise of Darkness" from their recent success All Shall Fall. Though guitars were a bit too thin in the mix for my liking, the band blasted their way through killer renditions of classics from across their catalog (setlist below) while the eager and surprisingly not too mosh-y crowd nodded and raised their fists in triumph. It was a big and bold set from the frost-bitten Norwegian legends. If you missed it and can't make it to The Avalon in LA (where the band was already spotted hanging out last night) on 4/2, then pray that the corpsepainted (or should I say warpainted?) horde make another trek to the US soon (and hopefully they don't wait 3 years again this time).

Black Anvil opened the show after Immortal hosted a fan meet & greet (it cost extra money). The band is like Kiss in more ways than one. More pictures (though not of Black Anvil yet), as well as tons of videos, below...

Continue reading "Immortal played (and met and greeted fans at) Brooklyn Masonic Temple - pics, video, setlist, more dates"

photos by Lori Baily

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

Where was Alex Chilton on Wednesday night? At the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, he was onstage, more or less, standing at the far right, sometimes even near his microphone (and sometimes even using it). But as has been the case on and off for the last couple of decades, he was frustratingly hard to find.

It was the first New York show in several years for Big Star, Mr. Chilton's band, still plying the songs that for a few years in the early 1970s helped shape what power pop was to become, even if it was coolly received at the time. (An impressive Big Star boxed set, "Keep an Eye on the Sky," was released on Rhino in September.)

But memories are made in a variety of ways. The resurrection of Big Star in the early 1990s cemented its legend, and also the lineup: Mr. Chilton, who also played guitar, and the drummer Jody Stephens from the original group, rounded out by the guitarist Jon Auer and the bassist Ken Stringfellow, who were enlisted more than 15 years ago to fill out the band during its first comeback and never left. [NY Times]

Kurt Vile opened for Big Star at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on November 18th. More pictures and the setlist from the Scenic-presented show, (especially sorry for the delay on this post) below...

Continue reading "Big Star & Kurt Vile @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple in NYC - pics & setlist"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Jake Forney

Apart from a few deviations, Fucked Up succeeded in performing their 2008 album The Chemistry of Common Life in full and in sequence at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Thursday, November 5th. The program even found room for the record's hazy instrumentals "Golden Seal" and "Looking for God," both of which featured guest keyboardist Andrew W.K. On the latter, one of the last songs of the night, W.K. was noodley and playful, tacking pointy chords to the song's building progression.

Vivian Girls were another of the night's guests. They added eerie siren-like back ups to "Crooked Head" and "No Epiphany," as they do (with Frankie Rose who was playing her own show across town) on the recorded version.

Another album guest, Katie Stelmanis, who stole the show with her band's unique opening set, dueted with Pink Eyes on the apocalyptic slow-builder "Royal Swan." Her operatic voice tangled with the burly singer's cryptic proclamations. Andrew W.K. was there too, and led the way with an introductory piano figure, cued with a huge wink by guitarist Ben Cook. The epic took minutes to unfold, and it was one of the night's rarer moments.

The pacing of the album did need some energy injected at times - that came in the form of "Crusades," which the band inserted after "Black Albino Bones" (dedicated to "anyone who collects records"). "Peaceable Kingdom," a ChemCom bonus track almost never performed live, was uneventful, until Pink Eyes decided to join the night's many stagedivers (many annoying and wasted) by falling into the crowd and writhing on the ground for a while.

For the encore, the band treated the crowd to "David Comes to Life" and a full-guest version of "Louie Louie." There was no "Party Hard" as requested many times, and that was for the best. Titus Andronicus hinted at that song by jamming on its opening riff while setting up. They played tightly-packed opening set, which had one brief lull. "I thought it was okay after one string broke, but now I'm down to four..." said singer/guitarist Patrick Stickles before grabbing a seafoam green guitar backstage. "I hope the very nice lady in the first band doesn't mind."

That would be the guitarist for Katie Stelmanis, who joined the singer and a percussionist (also on marimba) to perform gothy pop with a booming, crisp sound. On stage, Stlemanis projected a world of drama with the subtlest gesture. The following act, The Girls at Dawn, did off the cuff, girl-group-inspired punk. Their front-woman (girl) was covered in fake blood.

Pink Eyes stuck around until the last fan got his 7-inch signed and a shirtless hug. More pictures from the show below...

Continue reading "Fucked Up performed an album w/ Vivian Girls, Andrew WK, Titus Andronicus, Katie Stelmanis & The Girls at Dawn @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple - pics & review"

The Very Best were scheduled to play some CMJ shows, but plans changed last minute due to travel complications. Those complications must have been worked out because on October 31st Flavorpill is hosting "Gods and Heroes", a show with The Very Best, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, DJ Stretch Armstrong, Subswara, Small Change and more at Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Tickets are on sale. Open bar all night. The money is going to charity. Flyer below...

Continue reading "The Very Best can come here now - they're playing Flavorpill's Halloween party @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple "

DOWNLOAD: Eagle Twin - Live at KRCL (MP3)

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Greg Cristman

Pelican

It wasn't all costumes and dry ice at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Tuesday 9/22. sunn O))) were joined that night by Earth, Pelican and Eagle Twin.

Much like their labelmates Black Cobra, the duo Eagle Twin make a lot of noise for a two piece. Gentry Densley's guitar tone recalls the low-end version of an elephant blowing his trunk, and it gets in your guts. Drummer Tyler Smith has the power to match that tone, as he bashed away at his kit breaking at least three drumsticks in the five minutes I stood near him. This band is much more impressive than The Kindness of Crows would lead you to believe.

Pelican followed, pulling mostly from their upcoming LP What We All Come To Need with a few nods to City of Echoes along the way. The new material seems a bit heavier, and we can look forawrd to hearing some of that again when the band comes back in December with Black Cobra and Disappearer.

Earth's clean tones and Morricone slant were the final band before the funeral dirge of sunn O))). The pensive nature of their material (which was focused on later releases, in particular, The Bee Made Honey in The Lion's Skull) was a sharp contrast to the two heavier acts that preceeded it.

"Led by Dylan Carlson, the quartet has perfected a playing style which derives its narcotic power from an almost impossible slowness, taking John Fahey-style melancholic guitar licks and dragging them out as if they're echoing across an infinite Texas plain in the dark.

Then something unpleasant happened: Earth stopped playing. Whoever the tenth-level puppetmaster is who runs things at the Masonic temple, he/she apparently is a set-time stickler, so despite all manner of enthusiastic applause and catcalls from the crowd, Carlson and crew did not return. Surprising and frustrating." [William]

sunn O))) pics and review HERE. Pelican tour dates and more pics are below...

Continue reading "Earth, Pelican & Eagle Twin @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple -pics"

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Greg Cristman

"It started its show, as usual, with a 20-minute censing of dry ice and the recorded chants of Gyuto monks. Then the band started its march of long, long notes, played by guitar and bass and a little bit of keyboard. The members played through the pieces in unison, without a drummer, so slowly and loudly that small discrepancies of timing produced dissonances that worked like sonar drills on your guts." [NY Times]

It was hot. DAMN HOT. Add to that soupy air from the blasting fog machines, a room packed with people, and the walls were literally dripping with condensation. Nevertheless sunn O))) hit the stage to a packed Brooklyn Masonic Temple on 9/22. As expected, Attila Csihar performed with the band, with costumes varying from a mirrored statue of liberty with laser fingers (sounds weird, but it worked) to a winter demon. Sunn O))) did venture into clean and simple tones, with assistance from a keyboard and trombone, but the full stacks of vibrating low-end were the order of the night for the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley.

"When we first started we thought of it as a studio project," Anderson says. "We had no intention of playing live. But we discovered [that] to really capture what Sunn O))) was about, that physicality of sound we were getting off on, it can't be produced on CD or vinyl. We had to do it live. There's no substitute for volume." [Metro Pulse]

Sunn O))) is still on the road with Eagle Twin, but for this special event at the Masonic Temple, they were also joined by the mighty Pelican and Earth. Pics from those bands are to come, but for now you can see some more from Sunn O))), and a couple of videos, below...

Continue reading "Sunn O))) @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple in NYC - pics & video "

COMING UP @ BROOKLYN MASONIC TEMPLE

• TICKETS ARE ON SALE for the Sunn O))), Earth, Pelican & Eagle Twin show happening on September 22nd.
• TICKETS ARE ON SALE (@ 10AM) for the November 5th "Fucked Up performs The Chemistry Of Common Life featuring Andrew W.K. (Keyboards) / Vivian Girls (Backup Vocals) With Guests: Titus Andronicus / Katie Stelmanis" show.
• TICKETS ARE ON SALE for the November 18th Big Star show.

And speaking of performing entire albums from start to finish, The Drones, The Feelies, Dirty Three & Suicide will be doing it in Monticello tonight (9/11). The Chemistry Of Common Life's EPK video below...

Continue reading "Fucked Up, Sunn O))) & Big Star - Masonic Temple tix on sale"