Gabriel & the Hounds aka Takka Takka frontman Gabe Levine & band is releasing an album called "Kiss Full Of Teeth" via Ernest Jenning on 2/28. The album was co-produced by Gabe and Sean Greenhalgh of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and features a large cast of guest musicians including other members of Takka Takka, CYHSY and The National. The full credits are listed below along with the cover art and a song you can listen to.

Still need Valentine's Day plans? Gabriel & the Hounds play an early record release show at Mercury Lounge in NYC TONIGHT (2/14), and many of the same guests who appear on the album, and more, are expected on stage (such as Bryan Devendorf & Conrad Doucette on drums, the horn section from the National & Mia Riddle).

Gabe also has a UK tour planned for March. All dates and the other stuff, below...

Continue reading "Gabriel & the Hounds (aka Gabe of Takka Takka) releasing LP, playing NYC tonight (w/ members of The National)"

words & photos by Jessica Amaya

A Rose Parade opened with only a 4 song set, and although I hadn't heard of this band, I was definitely a fan after just the four songs. Shannon Funchess [of !!! fame] has an amazing voice and sounded great. The music was just a simple drum loop with either an acoustic guitar or keys. Takka Takka was the second opener and was pretty warmly welcomed by the crowd. They were accompanied by 2 horn players [and The National's Bryan Devendorf], and played a few new songs.

tUnE-yArDs came out and Merrill who could not stop smiling admitted she was quite nervous and as she put it, "it was the first time [so many] people were coming to a show knowing they were gonna see me". During the song "Gangsta", the crowd started to sing along with her, and after the song ended, she asked the crowd "How do you know the words to that song"? She admitted "I don't even know the words to that one". She also stopped at the beginning of another song due to what she was stage fright and needed a moment for it to pass. Great energy throughout the entire show as usual.

tUnE-yArDs kicks off a tour with Xiu Xiu in March. More pictures from Friday night's show at the Bell House, below...

Continue reading "tUnE-yArDs, Takka Takka & A Rose Parade @ The Bell House in Brooklyn - pics "

by Andrew Frisicano

Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman

On November 1st, Doveman opened up at Mercury Lounge for The Ghost of a Sabre Toothed Tiger, a project that features Sean Lenon, his model girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl (who, as announced from the stage, had only learned to play bass a few months prior), Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda and mi-gu drummer Yuko Araki. A week prior, both bands performed at Doveman's loft CD release party for The Conformist with different lineups.

The headlining Ghost of a Sabre Toothed Tiger is a relatively new project (with no records out) that plays tightly composed psychedelic pop. They also dip into Sean Lennon's previous catalog, like for an extended Maggot Brain-esque jam on his 2006 song "Dead Meat." Drummer Araki in particular hit all the fills and accents as if the songs were familiar jazz charts. Doveman came back to guest on GOASTT's last song, "Richard Brown," a jokey tune from an unfinished musical. The whole band (minus Kemp Muhl) is touring Japan right now with Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band in support of her latest Between My Head and the Sky.

Doveman was also joined by a stellar band that included National drummer Bryan Devendorf and guest singer Martha Wainwright. Bartlett is currently on tour opening for Swell Season. He'll be playing at Joe's Pub on December 2nd as part of the Happy Ending music and reading series with Amanda Stern, Hedwig's John Cameron Mitchell and Jonathan Caouette. Tickets are on sale.

Doveman will also be returning to Mercury Lounge for an as-of-now unannounced bill on January 12th. Then he and frequent collaborator Nico Muhly will be doing two nights (of TBA) at The Kitchen on March 18th and 19th.

More pictures from Mercury Lounge and tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Doveman played a show w/ Sean Lennon & Co. (pics), playing some more (Mercury Lounge, Joe's Pub, The Kitchen)"

DOWNLOAD: Doveman - Hurricane (new MP3)

Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) @ Dark Was the Night (more by Natasha Ryan)

The follow-up to Doveman's 2007 record, With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead, is on the way. That still-untitled album will come out on Brassland Records later this year. You can check out a BV-exclusive preview from that record, the especially upbeat (for Doveman) song "Hurricane," above.

Doveman will be performing his/their latest work (alongside the rest of his catalog and maybe some Footloose material) at his Thursday, June 18th show at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC. Tickets are still on sale, and we have two pairs to give away. More details on that below.

At LPR, Bartlett will be backed by long-time Doveman member Sam Amidon, who's also opening the show, and Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Bryan Devendorf of The National -- all of those musicians appear on the new record.

As usual, Doveman has been busy playing keys behind other performers. On June 14th and 15th, he played with Martha Wainwright in her "Songs of Edith Piaf" show. Those sets were recorded with producer Hal Wilner to be released as a live record.

This summer Bartlett will tour with Antony & the Johnsons in Europe. The National have summer dates too, and don't be surprised if Bartlett ends up making some of those gigs.

We talked to Aaron Dessner about his history with Doveman, the progress being made on the new National album and a forthcoming Dark Was the Night movie (and possible European dates). That exchange, and all tour dates, is below...

Continue reading "Doveman - new MP3 ++ NYC show Thursday w/ members of the National (who are recording, touring, keeping busy) "

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Grizzly Bear

Thursday night (2/26), Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden joined members of The National (Clogs) and Arcade Fire (Bell Orchestre) on stage with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM.

Two nights later (2/28), members of the National joined Grizzly Bear (headliner) and Final Fantasy (opener and sometimes member/contributor to Arcade Fire) on the same stage with the same orchestra. Nico Muhly, who contributed arrangements to the show and to Grizzly Bear's new album, was on stage playing piano during both sets as well.

Members of Beirut, who played their own two shows at the same venue a few weeks earlier (but with their own orchestra), could be spotted in the indie-rocker heavy audiences at both the Clogs/BO and FF/GB shows. All this collaboration and support between the current group of popular "indie" artists is commonplace (especially in Brooklyn), and there's no better representation of that than the recently-released National members-curated Dark Was the Night compilation which pretty much everyone mentioned in this post so far (except the Philharmonic) contributed at least one song to. I'm still anxiously awaiting more news of the ultimate live representation of Dark Was the Night in the form of a concert at Radio City Music Hall. Speaking of which, that's where Dark Was the Night contributor David Byrne was playing for the 2nd night in a row on the same night as Grizzly Bear.

Final Fantasy

So, how was Saturday night? I thought It was great. Final Fantasy opened the show....

Mr. Pallett, who hails from a classical background, was in his element, if not his comfort zone. Many of his songs reflect orchestral dimensions, including "Horsetail Feathers," which required little reinvention, and "Arctic Circle," which led to a coda packed with chromatic suspense. The two newer pieces that closed his set were marked by pungent but graceful touches: a suggestively smudged viola part, a twitchy line for violins.

Usually, though, Mr. Pallett practices an art of accretion, looping his own violin and keyboard parts to create chamber-pop arrangements in real time. Without that hint of sorcery, his performance felt almost ordinary. And because he isn't a forceful or particularly magnetic singer, he sometimes sounded overwhelmed by the pomp... [NY Times]

Grizzly Bear came up next and even impressed the people who had never heard of either band that were sitting all around me ("Grizzly Bear can sing!") (BAM subscribers?). Grizzly Bear played a mix of old and new songs, some for the first time live, and many of them with the orchestra. Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen have such different voices, and write such different songs, but somehow they mash it all together and it becomes Grizzly Bear. More than ever it seems the two front-men are collaborating - singing at the same time, or back and forth. Ed also seems to be letting his voice out in a gothier, Depeche Mode/Dead Can Dance/Antony-like direction that I liked a lot. I can't wait to hear the new album. More pictures, a video and the setlist from the show, below...

Continue reading "Grizzly Bear & Final Fantasy w/ The Brooklyn Philharmonic @ BAM - pics, setlist, video"

Photos by Chris La Putt

So it ends up that Magnetic Fields show in Jersey City is not Shugo's next NYC-area appearance. Tickets just went on sale for the following October 22nd CMJ show at Bowery Ballroom:

Margot And The Nuclear So & So's w/
Wild Sweet Orange / Love As Laughter / Audrye Sessions / Shugo Tokumaru / Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons

Last night (9/23) Shugo made his NYC debut at Mercury Lounge with an all-star cast featuring members of Beirut, The National and So Percussion. More pictures and the setlist below...

Continue reading "Shugo Tokumaru played Mercury Lounge (pics), playing CMJ w/ Margot and the Nuclear So & So's"

Shugo Tokumaru's first-ever NYC show (it was his first US show, but then he added one earlier this month at Chicago) happens tonight (9/23) at Mercury Lounge in NYC. This who you can expect to see on stage with him:

* Jon Natchez (Beirut)
* Bryan Devendorf (The National)
* Perrin Cloutier (Beirut)
* Lawson White (So Percussion)

Twi the Humble Feather open the late show.
(Lenka plays the early show at the same venue)

If you miss him, Shugo is back in the area in exactly a month, but next time as an opener for The Magnetic Fields, and in Jersey City. Tickets for the Loew's show are still on sale. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Shugo Tokumaru - tonight w/ all star backing band & updated 2008 Tour Dates (w/ the Magnetic Fields) "