photos by Amanda Hatfield, DDG photos by Bryan Bruchman

Memoryhouse @ Mercury Lounge

Like Still Corners, Xray Eyeballs, Gem Club, Jacuzzi Boys and Memoryhouse played the Hardly Art/Sub Pop CMJ showcase at Mercury Lounge during CMJ. Here are some previously unposted pictures from that show.

J Mascis and Dum Dum Girls also played this Merc show, but we missed 'em. We did however catch DDG at their headlining Bowery Ballroom show. Some pictures from that one in here too. They are all below...

Continue reading "Memoryhouse, Jacuzzi Boys, Gem Club & Xray Eyeballs @ Mercury Lounge (belated Sub Pop CMJ show pics)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Still Corners @ Mercury Lounge

Still Corners are coming back from the UK to play some shows with The War on Drugs and Arc in Round in December. That includes the December 11th Bowery Ballroom show. Tickets are still on sale.

Still Corners was last around in October during CMJ when they played a BrooklynVegan day party and the Sub Pop official showcase at Mercury Lounge. Here are some pictures from the latter. More of them with all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Still Corners touring with the War on Drugs --- 2011 tour dates & some more pics from CMJ"

by Bill Pearis, photos by Chris La Putt

DOWNLOAD: A Place to Bury Strangers - So Far Away (MP3)

As mentioned previously, A Place to Bury Strangers severed ties with Mute and have signed with Dead Oceans who will release a new EP, Onwards to the Wall, on February 7, 2012. You can download "So Far Away" from it at the top of this post. There's a '60s paisley pop structure to this, to which layers of doomy sonics and volume are added in typical APTBS style.

Having been around for eight years, A Place to Bury Strangers don't seem to be mellowing, or at least turning it down, as anyone who caught the bracing ear assault that was their set at our CMJ week day party at Public Assembly last month. Theirs is a sound you need to feel in your chest, even if you (wisely) wear earplugs. Here are some pictures from that CMJ set.

More of them with the cover art and tracklist to the Onwards to the Wall EP, below....

Continue reading "new A Place to Bury Strangers MP3 from new EP (and some CMJ pics too)"

photos by Chris La Putt

DOWNLOAD: Gauntlet Hair - Keep Time (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Gauntlet Hair - Top Hair (MP3)

Gauntlet Hair @ BV-CMJ in NYC

Gauntlet Hair, who are just finishing up a tour with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, was one of a few bands to bless our BV day party at Public Assembly on 10/21 (along with names like J.Mascis, Chelsea Wolfe, A Place To Bury Strangers). They played as a 3-piece that day due to one of their members having to get back home before CMJ ended. Some pictures from their set are in this post.

The band will return to NYC for two shows as part of a developing winter tour. Those dates are12/1 at Glasslands with Parenthetical Girls, and a late show at Mercury Lounge on Friday, 12/2 with the Big Sleep and Dive. Tickets for Glasslands and for Mercury are on sale.

Gauntlet Hair recently posted a new video for "Keep Time" (which you can also download as an MP3 above). Check that out, with more pics and all dates, below...

Continue reading "Gauntlet Hair tour dates, live pics from CMJ, new video"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Wild Flag @ Bowery Ballroom

Wild Flag recently hit the NYC-area during CMJ, selling out three shows while they were here with Eleanor Friedberger and Hospitality. The run ended at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom. A second set of pictures from their Bowery Ballroom set are in this post. Pictures of Eleanor's set are HERE and Hospitality's are HERE.

Wild Flag will return to NYC during a 2012 tour for a much larger show at Webster Hall on April 1. Tickets for the NYC show go on sale Friday (11/11) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (11/9) at noon.

All spring tour dates and more CMJ pics below...

Continue reading "Wild Flag -- 2012 tour dates, a Webster Hall show & more pics from Bowery"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Hospitality @ Bowery Ballroom

"Since it was the Merge Showcase, the show itself featured a short set from Hospitality, a new signee to the label that showed a great deal of promise. Their music was meat-and-potatoes indie, with a little Stereolab and a little Built to Spill, but it was a perfect, if perfunctory, set-up for Wild Flag." [tripped media]

Hospitality also play a show on 11/11 at Glasslands with ARMS, Franz Nicolay, The Building. That one is $10. ARMS have no other upcoming shows.

The next "Local x Local" at Brooklyn Bowl is in December with Delicate Steve and Milagres.

More pictures from Bowery Ballroom below...

Continue reading "more Hospitality pics & upcoming shows (one with Caveman tonight, one with ARMS later)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Cansei de Ser Sexy @ Webster Hall

CSS played a headlining show at Webster Hall on 10/22, joined by their tourmates MEN, and EMA (who played other shows while she was here), and Mykki Blanco. The tour concludes with a trio of dates in Texas this week (which means don't expect to see JD Samson in the crowd at Death By Audio tonight). Pictures from the CMJ show at Webster are in this post, and they continue below...

Continue reading "CSS, MEN & EMA @ Webster Hall (CMJ pics)"

photos by BBG

We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Knitting Factory

As you know, We Were Promised Jetpacks will HEADLINE Webster Hall on Sunday (10/30) with Bear Hands and Royal Bangs in tow as part of a string of US dates together. Tickets are still available. You can buy 'em or roll the dice and try to win a FREE pair. We're giving away one pair on the BrooklynVegan Facebook and another here. Details are below.

We Were Promised Jetpacks played our day party during CMJ one week ago today (10/20) and though we previously posted a full set of pictures from the day, a second set of pictures of WWPJ are here in this post. More of them with all dates and contest details below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks now on tour (win tix to Webster Hall!), played CMJ (more BV party pics)"

photos by BBG

BOBBY @ Knitting Factory

BOBBY, now officially with NO MOUNTAIN MAN MEMBERS ANYMORE (there's a new very able front-woman), played the BrooklynVegan/Knitting Factory/Partisan Records day party during CMJ one week ago today (on 10/20), one of two CMJ appearances for the band who played their official showcase at Fat Baby the night before. With those in the rearview, BOBBY will begin a proper tour on 10/30 in Pittsburgh. After a Halloween show with Royal Bangs in Ohio, they heads West to play a string of dates with Little Scream. In December they're back east again for a short tour that hits Mercury Lounge in NYC on 12/3. Tickets for that one are currently on AmEx presale, and go on regular sale at noon tomorrow (10/21).

All tour dates and a second set of pictures from Knitting Factory (first set here), below...

Continue reading "BOBBY played CMJ (more pics), heading out on tour, playing Mercury Lounge (updated dates)"

Nick of Islands on stage w/ Mister Heavenly (more by Graeme Flegeheimer)

Islands will release their new album A Sleep & A Forgetting this February 14th via Anti-Records..., this time band leader Nick Thorburn has infused the songs with a personal introspection that gives the record a new and powerful emotional resonance.

"This album is far more personal than any I've made before," Thorburn explains. "I left New York after the end of a relationship and came to Los Angeles. There was a piano where I was staying and that's where I wrote these songs. This record deals with loss, with memory and forgetting and with dreaming. I started writing it on Valentine's Day and it's coming out on Valentine's Day."

...at Dominion NY, the sign outside promises an "Intimate Evening with Islands"; the venue isn't lying. The basement doesn't seat more than one hundred; it's dimly lit, and barely anyone in the audience is talking. In addition, I am sitting uncomfortably close ("intimately close," even) to the stage.

While the rest of the band is dressed in black sports coats and black pants, Nick Thorburn is dressed in a light blue jacket and light-colored pants. He is clearly the star of the show. (None of the band members from the last time I saw them in 2008 are on stage here.)

Islands performs nine or ten songs from their new album, which Thorburn shares will be out February 2012. Some of the lyrical sentiments of the new songs are nice. At one point, Thorburn croons, "Don't I love you? Isn't the sky grey? Isn't the moon blue?" One of the songs has Geordie Gordon joining Thorburn on the piano playing a doo-wop style melody. To say that Thorburn's side project Mr. Heavenly with Honus Honus of Man Man is an influence on this song is an understatement. At one point, I said (to my notebook), "This sounds like 'Van Helsing Boombox.'"

Islands does break out two old gems: "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" and "Swans (Life After Death)" from the 2005 album, Return to the Sea. [Evil Monito]

photos by Markus Shaffer, words by BBG

Hull @ Mercury Lounge

Hull is currently on the road with The Fucking Wrath, and is also scheduled to play a Fun Fun Fun Fest Nite show in Austin with Toxic Holocaust and Pushmen at Red 7 on 11/3.

Hull have also been added to the previously mentioned Doomriders / Eyehategod show on December 4th at Europa with Knight Terror.

Hull recently played Mercury Lounge with Rwake as part of their Record Release celebration, and Union Pool as part of the Tee Pee CMJ Showcase. Time Out reports on CMJ:

By my count, my CMJ 2011 consisted of 13 metal sets. Not every one was great, but what impressed me overall was the willingness many of the bands displayed to cut across the genre's constrictive sub-borders. Locals Raspberry Bulbs and Tombs--whom I caught, respectively, at Saint Vitus on Tuesday and on Rock Off's East River-faring Jewel on Saturday--each drew on black metal; but while the former spiked the style with grimy punk, the latter took a more expansive and emotive path. Likewise, Norway's Kvelertak (who also played the Jewel) juxtaposed dire metalcore breakdowns with primitive, almost Queens of the Stone Age-ish rock & roll. Best of all, though, was Hull, a local quintet that toggled gracefully between doom and thrash stylings. On Friday night at Union Pool, the band's riffs, ground out by a trio of heavy-bearded six-stringers, rolled forth from the stage like massive boulders, and its stage presence oozed conviction; these were players who had clearly pored over everything from Sabbath to Mastodon, synthesizing their research into epic treatises on the nature of heavy. --Hank Shteamer

Continue reading "Hull played CMJ, added to Eyehategod show (here's a second set of pics from Mercury Lounge)"

photos by Bryan Bruchman

MBAR fronting Ill Fits @ Pianos

Finishing off wha we have from Bryan (who also saw the Rapture and our Thursday day party), here are sets from the Greedhead CMJ showcase at Pianos with Keepaway & Ill Fits (Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson included), and some of Dum Dum Girls headlining Bowery Ballroom. They continue below...

Continue reading "Ill Fits, Keepaway & Dum Dum Girls (CMJ pics)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Street Chant @ Public Assembly

The Mishka store isn't the only appearance David Liebe Hart is making tonight (10/25). The Tim & Eric character will also appear at Bruar Falls as part of the Brooklyn venue's last week of shows before it closes.

Also on the Bruar Falls bill tonight is Phil and the Osophers, Emperor X and New Zealand band Street Chant who you may have caught right at noon on Saturday at our BV day party at Public Assembly, and who you can see again (after tonight) on Wednesday (10/26) at Trash Bar. After that they head out on tour with the Lemonheads (who recently added a Brooklyn show at Knitting Factory)...

"An aggressive Auckland trio, Street Chant (formerly Mean Streets), is made up of Emily, Billie and Alex, and they are a band to watch out for. After a successful appearance at CMJ 2010, and picking up a Critic's Choice Award at the NZ Music Awards, the band was quite welcome back to perform at this year's CMJ. Their music brought back thoughts of the defunct group Sleater-Kinney (or perhaps the band was on my mind as I knew PopMatters' writer Corey Beasley was at Wild Flag around the same time) though the drummer was male. Due to some inaudible vocals, I was not able to pick out the songs, but I could tell I wanted to hear more. Performing songs from their debut album Means, Street Chant's tight performance left me thinking how would the next band fare alongside them?" [PopMatters]

Continue reading "Street Chant played CMJ (BV party pics), adds more shows (including Bruar Falls w/ David Liebe Hart TONIGHT)"

words by Andrew Sacher, photos by Amanda Hatfield

Born Gold @ Public Assembly

During Purity Ring's set at the BrooklynVegan party Saturday, they mentioned that everyone should catch Born Gold (formerly Gobble Gobble) who were playing an hour later in the backroom, and who used to feature Purity Ring's Corin Roddick as a member. Anyone who took their advice knows what went down, but if you didn't, and haven't seen Born Gold in the past, they've got a show that you won't want to miss. They requested that all the stage lights be turned off so they could use their own blinking light show, and once they emerged from darkness, they revealed a show unlike anything I've ever seen. The singer/keyboard/knob player stayed on stage behind his table of electronics as the other two band members danced through the crowd on stilts, banged shovels together for snare hits, gave audience members high fives, and just about anything else you never imagined a live band would do. Their set was largely (if not entirely) material off their recently released LP Bodysongs, which you can stream its entirety below with options to buy the whole set or download each song individually for free.

More pictures from the BV day party down there too...

Continue reading "Born Gold played CMJ, partially with shovels --- BV day party pics & full LP stream"

words by Andrew Sacher, photos by Amanda Hatfield, video by (((unartig)))

"I think I finally fell in love with NY.. I miss it already !" - Chelsea Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe made her NYC debut this past August, but she was unable to bring her band along with her and was forced to accommodate using only her guitar, beats and samples. She returned to NYC this past week for a few CMJ shows, including Europa, Cake Shop, and the BV day party on Friday (10/21) at Public Assembly which is pictured in this post. This time, with her band in tow, Chelsea was able to perform her songs more similarly to the recorded versions, and it was even more mesmerizing than her solo show. As always, her eerie vocals remain the unobstructed focal point of the performance, but while her solo show focuses on dense atmospheres, her band provides intricate subtleties like the guitar interplay and galloping drums of "Mer" and the Sonic Youth-y guitar grit of "Demons." Though every song in the set was great, Chelsea was at her most intense during the mortal desperation of "Moses."

Rachel also talked a bit about the BV day party where she went on after A Place to Bury Strangers and before J Mascis.

A video for "Mer" recently premiered online. You can watch that along with a video from the BV party, more pictures and tour dates too, below...

Continue reading "Chelsea Wolfe played a BV day party (pics, video & review)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Parts & Labor @ Union Pool

Chris stopped by the Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans CMJ showcase at Union Pool on Wednesday night, but left after catching one of Parts & Labor's last-ever shows to check out the raucous Davila 666 at Knitting Factory (you can catch them again this Saturday night opening for the Black Lips). Pictures from his night continue below...

Continue reading "CMJ Wed night w/ Parts & Labor, Davila 666, Porcelain Raft & Exitmusic (pics)"

by BBG

Kvelertak @ Europa

Before the Rocks Off/BrooklynVegan showcase, Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch hit Europa on 10/21 with support from Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross. Though I missed all support due to the showcase's early start, I arrived just in time for Kvelertak and the ensuing moshing, stage dives, fist pumps, and insanity. The crowd was insane for the band and just got wilder when the band dove into the crowd for a bout of crowd-surfing. The highlight of the show for me happened moments after that, when one of the guitarists played from the middle of the pit and eventually handed over his guitar to another audience member. Pictures of that, and the whole set are below.

After Europa I stopped in to catch the great Weekend at our official showcase, but then headed to Saint Vitus for a second, secret Kvelertak set that went down early Saturday morning. Pictures from both Brooklyn Kvelertak shows below...

Continue reading "Kvelertak played Europa & Saint Vitus on Friday (pics)"

photos by Chris La Putt

DOM in the Puma Store

For CMJ, SPIN hooked up with the Puma store in Union Square to present a series of free in-stores. Wednesday's schedule included one of the three shows that The Duke Spirit played, one of Dom's many CMJ 2011 appearances, and even a set by Weekend (who played the BrooklynVegan official showcase on Friday night). This Puma commercial continues below...

Continue reading "bands like Dom, the Duke Spirit & Weekend played in a Puma store (pics)"

photos by Chris La Putt, words by Andrew Sacher

Purity Ring were just in NYC for a number of CMJ shows including the BV-presented day party at Public Assembly on Saturday (10/22). They took over the front room's stage with an orange and green backdrop recalling the shades used on the cover of their split 7" with Braids and killed the house lights in favor of Corin Roddick's light-up pipe gadget (not that kind of pipe!) (see below), a light inside of an elevated bass drum, and a lamp that hung at the front of the stage. Singer Megan James would often trigger the bass drum light by striking it with a mallet as she pranced around stage. And I'm still not sure if Corin's pipe was actually making music, but either way it looked pretty damn cool when he hit it with drumsticks in time with the music.

Whatever Corin was doing back there, the sounds he was making killed. He threw in witch housey pitch shifts, dubstep bass swells, and skittering glitch hop beats into the band's overly catchy electropop. To those who complain about watching people push buttons at live shows, he put more energy into this than at least a handful of guitarists and drummers who are out there at the moment. While the beats and synths could have made for an excellent show on their own, Megan took everything to another level with her sugary vocal melodies. Purity Ring only have three songs available but the rest of the set was as immediately striking as those familiar tracks. A full length by this band is highly anticipated.

More pictures from their Public Assembly set below...

Continue reading "Purity Ring played CMJ (BV Day party pics & review)"

by BBG

Friends pose with Chip The Black Boy and David Liebe Hart (far right)

David Liebe Hart is a puppeteer, actor, songwriter, sign painter, musicainist, and street entertainer from Los Angeles. He is best known for his long running public access show, performing outside the Hollywood Bowl with his puppets, and his frequent appearances on The Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! on Cartoon Network. This album was recorded in early 2008 with the help of producer Adam Papagan and chronicles David's experiences with women, UFOs, and trying to make it in the entertainment industry. -[the word-for-word bio from the most recent David Liebe Hart/Adam Papagan LP]

Check out the flyer, a full LP stream (!), some live video from a performance at Bruar Falls in April, and some video of DLH on Tim & Eric below.

Continue reading "David Liebe Hart played Pete's Candy Store, playing MISKHA"

photos by Amanda Hatfield. words by Bill Pearis

Silver Swans @ Public Assembly

San Francisco's Silver Swans were a late addition to our day party on Friday afternoon (10/21) and their slinky synth pop made for a nice pairing with Xeno & Oaklander who played after them. If you missed them at CMJ you can still catch Silver Swans tonight (10/24) at Pianos. They DON'T play with Sweden's Buvette and Australian trio Cameras.

UPDATE: Silver Swans are not playing Pianos tonight afterall. Scheduling mixup. You can however hear one of them DJing tonight on East Village Radio from 8-10pm. More dates HERE.

Look for Silver Swans' debut album, Forever, in early December. Meanwhile check out pics and video from the show below.

Continue reading "Silver Swans played CMJ (BV party pics & video), NOT PLAYING Pianos show tonight"

by BBG

After the boat cruise on Saturday, my original plan was to hit Santos for Youth of Today but that was before I heard about the surprise show at the infinitely smaller Acheron later that night (10/22). Featuring appearances from The Last Stand (mem Inhuman) and Mouthpiece, the show sold out around 12 midnight with 150 lucky people crammed into the venue. I caught some of The Last Stand's NYHC before slipping out to catch a drink and returning in time for Youth of Today. As tight as ever, the "youth" crew played many highlights from their catalog including the entire Disengage 7", "Break Down The Walls", "Flame Still Burns", "Positive Outlook", "Take A Stand", and even a cover of "Minor Threat". Though the band was tight and well-executed, I noticed that Ray Cappo's screaming voice was gone, a fact that wasn't apparent at the Mohawk show during Chaos in Tejas. How was it at Santos? Regardless, the crowd was beyond pumped and so was I.

Pictures are on the way. Meanwhile check out the videos below...

Continue reading "Youth of Today played a secret show @ the Acheron w/ Mouthpiece (review & videos)"

photos by Jonathan McPhail & Greg Cristman, videos by (((unartig))), words by BBG

Kvelertak on the Jewel (photo by Greg Cristman)

A hearty thank you goes out to Rocks Off crew and the audience who baorded the Jewel on Saturday to set sail on the East River for the BrooklynVegan/Rocks Off official CMJ showcase. The show, headlined by Kvelertak and featuring Skeletonwitch, Tombs and Psychic Limb, was the second of three NYC shows for the Norwegian band, who played a surprise show at Saint Vitus directly following their Europa gig the night before. Europa was with Skeletonwitch, Turbid North, Battlecross, and Barn Burner.

As the boat pulled away from the dock, Psychic Limb took to the stage with their nihilistic hard-grind. Vocalist Brian Montouri's stage antics were as negative and wild as usual, at one point grabbing a case of beer set aside for the bands and throwing it into the crowd and screaming "free beer" into the microphone. The crowd swarmed the case and after the sound man headed to the front to move the case behind the band (its original spot), Montouri found it again and threw it back to the frothing alcohol-hungry wolves. They won't be asked back on the boat any time soon.

Tombs followed. The cold late fall air whipped through the top tier of the boat and the Brooklyn band managed make it even a little bit more icy. Another well-executed set of black metal-tinged with hardcore from Brooklyn's finest, who performed part of their set with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop. Surreal and awesome.

Skeletonwitch's uber-fun and tongue-in-cheek blackened thrash kicked the party into overdrive, and was followed by Nowegian party-metal crew Kvelertak. Crowd-surfing, moshpits and general dancing insanity were the center-piece of both sets, which mirrored Kvelertak's set at Europa (but differed from Saint Vitus) (I went to all three). Kelertak literally brought the boat's ceiling down with them during their set, with the bands and audience members ripping the drop ceiling and tiles out of place and leaving a huge mess by the end of the night.

Lots more pictures and video from the Rocks Off Boat Cruise, below...

Continue reading "Kvelertak, Skeletonwitch, Tombs & Psychic Limb rocked the boat (pics & video)"

words & photos by BBG

What Cheer? Brigade @ Public Assembly

My Thursday night (10/20) during CMJ was mostly spent at the Ballistic Missle/Anchor Brain show at Public Assembly, with a stop at the Life or Death PR showcase at Cake Shop to catch an early set from the always enchanting Chelsea Wolfe. Pictures from Chelsea Wolfe's appearance that night (one of several, including Europa and our day party the next day), as well as pictures of noise-rock greats Vaz, ear-shredding spazz-noisers Doomsday Student (3/4 of Arab on Radar), marching band mayhem from What Cheer? Brigade (with Joey in tow), XDS, and the punishing 400 Blows are below.

Continue reading "CMJ Thursday night in pics (What Cheer? Brigade, Chelsea Wolfe, Vaz, Doomsday Student, 400 Blows & more)"

photos by Chris La Putt, words by Andrew Sacher

Polica @ Public Assembly

Polica, the current project of Channy Casselle of Gayngs, made quite an impression at the BV day party at Public Assembly on Saturday (10/22). Channy danced breezily on stage as she belted out her intricate vocals with an on-stage presence ambitious enough to fill arenas, let alone the back room of Public Assembly. She was backed by two drummers, a bassist, and some samples. I knew that the Polica album was beat-heavy but I was not at all expecting to see the interlocking percussion that the drummers provided. At times they would add to each others rhythms with complementary parts, at others they'd provide parallel executions of the same pattern by using different parts of the kit, and they also gave each other the chance to throw in fills without sacrificing the beat. Polica's set was made up of tracks from their upcoming debut LP, including the two on their website. The band are working on a video for one of those songs, "Lay Your Cards Out," and you can download a 24 second outtake clip from that video here.

Polica also played the Fader Fort and a show at National Underground on Saturday. Pictures from the BrooklynVegan day party are in this post.

Polica is about to kick off a tour with Centro-Matic, but before they leave NYC, they'll play Bowery Electric tonight (10/24) as part of the Marijuana Deathsquads and Har Mar Superstar Residency at the Manhattan venue. Fur Pillows and The Young Things are also on tonight's bill.

All dates and more pictures of Polica from the BV day party below...

Continue reading "Polica played CMJ (BV day party pics), plays 1 more NYC show tonight before heading out on tour (dates)"