The 2012 edition of Calgary, Alberta festival Sled Island is set to take place from June 20-23 at venues throughout the city. This year includes over 200 bands performing at 30 venues plus a large comedy schedule, film screenings, and art shows.

Sled Island 2012 will once again use outdoor venue Olympic Plaza as its main stage, featuring performances by Feist, The Hold Steady, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, The Dudes, Shabazz Palaces, Parlovr, and others.

Acts including Russian Circles, Hot Snakes, The Antlers, Boris, Thurston Moore, Willis Earl Beal, Trust, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Terry Malts, Neil Hamburger, How To Dress Well, The Evaporators (aka Nardwuar's band), DJ Jonathan Toubin, Hannibal Buress, Andrew W.K., Tim Heidecker, Archers of Loaf, and many more will be performing at various bars and venues. Check out the full lineup at the bottom of this post.

Festival passes, individual tickets for some clubs shows, and tickets for the Olympic Plaza events only are all on sale. The full festival schedule iwill be announced in June.

Full lineup and 2012 festival trailer below...

Continue reading "Feist, Stephen Malkmus, The Hold Steady and lots more playing Calgary's Sled Island Festival (full line-up)"

DOWNLOAD: Elite Gymnastics - "So Close to Paradise 3" (Physical Therapy Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Elite Gymnastics - "Here In Heaven 4 & 5" (CFCF Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: How to Dress Well - "Here In Heaven 3" (Elite Gymnastics Cover) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elite Gymnastics - "Minneapolis Belongs To You 3" (LOL Boys Remix) (MP3)

Elite Gymnastics

Brooklyn's Lemonade, whose new album Diver comes out later this month via True Panther, will play a local show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 2 with Teengirl Fantasy and Elite Gymnastics. Tickets go on sale Wednesday (5/16) at noon.

Last month, Lemonade released a 12" for Diver single, "Neptune" featuring remixes from Mike Simonetti, Sinjin Hawke, Pasternak, and Jacques Renault. Grab the original HERE and stream all four remixes below.

The MHOW show will be the first NYC show for Minneapolis K-Pop influenced electronic duo Elite Gymnastics, who just wrapped up a tour with Sleigh Bells and Javelin. They've got a bunch of free releases on their tumblr, including the recently released RUIN 3, which compiles covers and remixes of tracks from the impressive RUIN 1 and 2, which have since been combined for a not-free vinyl release on Acephale. RUIN 3 includes remixes by CFCF, LOL Boys, and Physical Therapy and a cover by How to Dress Well, all of which you can download above or stream below. It also includes remixes by Natalie Bootleg and Anime Skyscraper, the latter of which you can stream below.

Their next release, RUIN 4, is available for pre-order at the Acephale webstore as a bundle with poster, buttons, and t-shirt. The CD includes two previously unreleased tracks from the RUIN sessions, all of RUIN 3, and more TBA.

Speaking of Sleigh Bells, they've announced a set of July tour dates that include Making Time 12th Anniversary HYPER-RAGER in Philly. All dates are listed, along with the above-mentioned streams, below...

Continue reading "Lemonade releasing 'Diver,' playing a show w/ Elite Gymnastics (who are making their NYC debut); Sleigh Bells touring"

by Andrew Sacher

CFCF at MoMA PS1 in 2010 more by Andrew St. Clair)

NYC record label UNO is celebrating their one-year anniversary (or UNOVERSARY) in Brooklyn at 285 Kent on Saturday (4/21) with CFCF's Night Bus, Arca, Shayne from Hood by Air KUHRYE-OO (live), SFV Acid (live), Fur, Gobby (live), Physical Therapy, and special guests. RSVP is open.

NYC's Arca will be performing material off his new Stretch 1 EP, which you can download for free at UNO's website and stream a track from below. The show will be his live vocal debut.

Montreal producer CFCF is billed as CFCF's Night Bus, so we can only assume he'll be delivering material off of his Night Bus mixes. Night Bus is a genre, or as Gorilla vs Bear puts it, "a feeling." His mixes bring together artists like ASAP Rocky and Oneohtrix Point Never, or Elite Gymnastics and Notorious B.I.G. Download Do U Like NIght Bus? at The FADER and stream Night Bus Mix II below. Also check out a remix of CFCF by Physical Therapy, who is also on the lineup.

One last artist I'd like to highlight from the lineup is Mykki Blanco. She's a cross-dresser who writes poetry and also sings/raps. Check out some videos of her reading poetry (via FADER) and song streams below, one of which was produced by Arca.

All videos and streams below...

Continue reading "UNO celebrating 1 year; listen to some Night Bus w/ CFCF"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Blondes & Avey Tare @ PS1 Warm Up on July 31st

Avey Tare and Deakin of Animal Collective were among the DJs at PS1 Warm Up on Saturday, July 31st. Other sets & performances included Blondes, Prince Rama, Babe Rainbow, CFCF and Oneohtrix Point Never (who only performed for 15 minutes because of problems with his equipment).

Another AnCo member, Panda Bear, who played Pitchfork Fest in July, will be performing at the Beach at Governors Island on September 11th. Tickets are still on sale.

More pictures from the Long Island City party are below...

Continue reading "Avey Tare, Deakin, Blondes, Prince Rama, Babe Rainbow, CFCF & Oneohtrix Point Never played PS1's Warm Up (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Avi Buffalo - What's In It For? (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: CFCF - Big Love (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Grass Widow - Shadow (MP3)

This weekend is The Big Takeover's 30th Anniversary celebration: two nights of shows at the Bell House put together by Jack Rabid who has been publishing the 'zine since 1980. Jack's one of the most passionate, informed music fans I've ever met and he's put together a pretty stellar line-up of artists, most of which will be familiar to regular BT readers.

Friday night (7/30) is headlined by San Francisco punk legends The Avengers, and Seattle's Visqueen, and the first performance in 16 years by Flower (Ed and James Balyut's pre-Versus band). Plus the L.A. punks Channel 3, the Libertines U.S. (from Cincinnati) playing their first-ever Big Apple show, and Jack Rabid's band Springhouse.

For Against

Saturday night (7/31) is even more action packed. Former Chameleons frontman Mark Burgess headlines, performing acoustic and with a full band; legendary Lincoln, NE post-punk shoegazers For Against, playing their first East Coast show in 15 years; and Springhouse performs again, this time doing their 1993 album Postcards from the Arctic in full. Also: Former Nerves/Beat singer Paul Collins, a rare U.S. appearance by ex-Mutton Birds frontman Don McGlashan, onetime Newtown Neurotics singer Steve Drewitt (first-ever U.S. show), and the Posies' Jon Auer. Also also: The Sharp Things, The Sleepover Disaster (first-ever East Coast shows) and The Curtain Society.

You can still buy two-day passes for $40 as well. (Individual tickets are $25.) If you've never read The Big Takeover, well you should really recitify that. Each phone book sized issue (twice yearly) is packed with in-depth interviews, reviews and essays, the bulk of which is still written by Jack. The magazine's slogan is "Music with Heart" and he means it, man. The 30th Anniversary issue (#66 if you're keeping track) is just out with Spoon on the cover. Like always, it's a great read.

Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo play the Seaport Music Festival on Friday, their only New York appearance this go-around. Their self-titled Sub Pop debut is an impressive collection of shimmery, folky guitar pop that has stayed in constant rotation on my stereo since March. Live, Avi Buffalo put a little more muscle into the tunes. Front man Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg is a Doug Martsch in the making. (You get a sense of it on the LP's seven-minute jam "Remember the Last Time.") Dude uses like 15 pedals and is a pretty serious shredder. I thought they were great at South by Southwest. Yes they are barely old enough to buy cigarettes (not that they should be smoking!) but that just means Avi Buffalo haven't even hit their stride -- which is exciting.

Opening is Canadian multi-hyphenate wunderkind (and Sub Pop labelmate) Chad Van Gaalen who hasn't made a new record of his own in two years but has probably stayed busy being an illustrator, animator, and producer of Women. Unlike last Friday, weather looks to be idyllic Friday (sunny, high of 84) -- should be a lovely early evening on the pier.

CFCF

Despite the preponderance of reverbed garage, twee indiepop and '90s era slackerdom in this column, I do listen to a fair amount of dance music though I'm not really a club-goer. One of my favorite albums of 2009 was Continent, the full-length debut from CFCF, aka Vancouver beat-maker Michael Silver. It's an ambitious disc of instrumental, yet highly melodic dance music without even a trace of chillwave. (Though there's definitely some Balearic in there.) It's ridiculously catchy, and you may find yourself singing overtop tracks, making up your own lyrics (Well I do anyway.) Annie, Roisin, Robyn, etc... may I present your new collaborator?

You can download CFCF's great cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love" at the top of this post -- the only vocal track on Continent. Silver, who is also an in-demand remixer (on the new HEALTH album for instance), is in town this weekend for a bunch of DJ gigs. You can hear him spin Friday night (7/30) at Cameo Gallery with Jacques Renault and Lovefingers, and then the PS1 Warm Up on Saturday (8/31), where Animal Collective also DJ, plus live performances from Prince Rama and Blondes.

Grass Widow

If you're going to Prospect Park for Sonic Youth on Saturday, do get there early and catch Grass Widow as it's their only NYC show for now. The San Francisco trio's new album, Past Time, is out August 24 on Kill Rock Stars. It could use a few more choruses but gets by on the band's very distinctive sound. You can download "Shadows" from the new album at the top of this post and watch its lovely animated video at the bottom of this post. Grass Widow are teriffic live -- it will be interesting to see them on such a big stage. If you can't make it, they'll be back in September for two shows (Sept. 27 -28, venues still TBD). All tour dates at the bottom of this post.

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And some daily picks of things not otherwise covered above:

THURSDAY, JULY 29

The Music Slut has been blogging away for five years and they're celebrating on a boat! Specifically, the Rocks Off Concert Cruise ship and they've put Javelin, Keepaway and I Love Monsters aboard it. Boat leaves at 7pm, don't be late. Happy birthday, guys.

Coco 66 has a night of bliss-out drone, noise, old synthesizers, psychedelic freakouts, and tribal chanting all in celebration of the release of Amen Dunes' new album, Murder Dull Mind, which is out on Sacred Bones. Also playing Gary War, recent Paw Tracks signees Prince Rama (who are at PS 1 Saturday), and Coconuts. Open vodka bar at 9PM till it runs out.

Over at Silent Barn, you can catch locals Sisters whose debut album, Ghost Fits, is out in September on Narnack Records. Also playing: Knight School, Nude Beach, Giant Peach.

Meanwhile at Union Pool, there's CYHSY offshoot Radical Dads, Rope and The New Colossus.

continued below....

Continue reading "The Big Takeover, Avi Buffalo, CFCF, Amen Dunes, Grass Widow, Ducktails & more in This Week in Indie "

by Andrew Frisicano

HEALTH @ The Smell in LA in November (more by Rachel Carr)

HEALTH are going on tour with Indian Jewelry and Gold Panda this June for shows around North America. All three play Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday, June 20th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday (4/14) at noon. General sale starts Friday at noon.

HEALTH will release DISCO2, the follow-up to its 2008 remix record, HEALTH//DISCO, on June 22nd through Lovepump United. Remixers on the disc, which also features new track "USA Boys," include Crystal Castles (who play Irving Plaza tomorrow, April 14th), Javelin, Small Black, Salem, Tobacco and Pictureplane.

They recently released an intense & unspeakably creepy video for their song "We Are Water," directed by Tim & Eric's Eric Wareheim. That, album info and tracklist (with a complete list of remixers) and all tour dates (including dates in Europe) are below...

Continue reading "HEALTH - 2010 tour dates w/ Indian Jewelry & Gold Panda, new remix CD & Eric Wareheim video "