The War on Drugs (more by Amanda Hatfield)

today in NYC
* ASSSCAT @ UCB
* Wyclef Jean @ City Winery
* Matt Mitchell @ The Stone
* Jane Birkin, Joey Arias @ Town Hall
* Dump, The Medium Necks, Asuna @ Spike Hill
* !!!, Friends, MNDR (DJ set) @ 285 Kent Ave
* Club d'Elf, John Medeski @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Hannibal Buress & friends @ Knitting Factory
* A Murray Little Christmas @ Knitting Factory
* Laura Marling @ McKittrick Hotel (early & late)
* Jason Moran, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey @ The Stone
* Bill Frisell, Jenny Scheinman @ Village Vanguard
* People Under The Stairs, Lushlife @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Landlady, Yellowbirds, Railbird @ Bowery Electric
* Darlene Love Christmas show @ B.B. King Blues Club
* Dax Riggs, Man's Gin, Not Blood, Paint @ The Rock Shop
* The War On Drugs, TEEN, Arc in Round @ Bowery Ballroom
* Stephane Wrembel Presents The Django Experiment @ Barbes
* Cory Branan, Dave Hause, Laura Stevenson @ Mercury Lounge
* Black Cobra, Zoroaster, The Body, Gang Signs @ Saint Vitus
* Oh Land, Savoir Adore, Friends @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Caged Animals, Small Reactions, Phonetag, Soft Spot @ Shea Stadium
* Ben Vida, Eli Keszler, C. Spencer Yeh, Twistycat, Ben Hall @ Zebulon
* Gospel Music, Ra Ra Rasputin, White Life, Brother Reverend @ Glasslands
* Robert AA Lowe, Alessandro Cortini, Surachai, Volunteers Park @ Death By Audio

Caged Animals play Shea Stadium tonight and open for Fucked Up in Brooklyn later this month.

What else?

by Bill Pearis

DOM @ Pier 54 (more by Chris La Putt)

Last week when we announced the 12/16 BrooklynVegan Presents holiday show with Fucked Up at Brooklyn Night Bazaar there was still one band TBD. Well it turns out here that the "D" in TBD stood for Dom. Yep, we're pleased to announce the poppy Worcester, Mass quintet round our our five band line-up. You can stream the entirety of Dom's still fresh Family of Love EP at the bottom of this post.

So let's recap. Here's what you're getting for your very reasonably-priced $10 ticket: Fucked Up, Dom, Big Troubles, Caged Animals and Radical Dads, plus Frankie Rose (and myself) spinning tunes. Brooklyn Night Bazaar is a three-day holiday shopping, eating, drinking and music extravaganza all under one roof, just a few blocks from the Bedford L stop (specifically 149 Kent Ave at N.5th St.). It's free to get in the shopping area; getting into the shows is extra.

In addition to our night, on Thursday, December 15 it's a headlining DJ set from James Murphy, plus the Crystal Ark Party Machine, Poolside (who were recently added too) and Midnight Magic; on Saturday, December 17 it's The Hold Steady plus Titus Andronicus, Wakey Wakey and W/O. For those curious about the shopping and eating side of things, a full list of vendors is here. Hope to see you there.

Click through to listen to Dom's new EP, and check out the Brooklyn Bazaar flyer.

Continue reading "Dom added to Fucked Up show at Brooklyn Night Bazaar"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Radical Dads - Little Tomb (Pursesnatchers Remix) (MP3)

Radical Dads at Bruar Falls, CMJ 2011

As I mentioned earlier, Radical Dads are playing the BV Holiday Party at Brooklyn Night Bazaar on Friday, December 16 that also features headliners Fucked Up, plus Big Troubles, Caged Animals (and more more TBA) as well as Frankie Rose on the decks. All for only $10. One of my favorite live bands in Brooklyn, Radical Dads are definitely worth showing up early for.

Before that you can see Radical Dads open for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah this Wednesday (12/7) at Webster Hall. Waters also play the show and tickets are still available. Robbie Guertin will be a busy man that night, as he's in both bands (drums for Rad Dads, guitar in CYHSY).

By the time of our holiday show, Radical Dads' debut album, Mega Rama, should be out on vinyl (and at the merch table) which would make a great holiday gift for the classic indie rock lover in your life. As I've said before, if you like Wild Flag, this has a similar vibe and great songs, though much less hyped. We've got a version of LP-opener "Little Tomb" remixed by Pursesnatchers, adding a few layers of soaring guitars to the song which was already reaching the stratosphere. Download it above. And you can stream all of Mega Rama at the bottom of this post.

Continue reading "Radical Dads playing BV night @ Brooklyn Bazaar, opening for CYHSY @ Webster, remixed by Pursesnatchers (MP3 debut)"

by Bill Pearis

Fucked Up at House of Vans in July (more by Chris La Putt)

BrooklynVegan is really in the holiday spirit this year. In addition to the BV holiday party with Anna Calvi and Eleanor Friedberger at Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 13 and the Twin Sister/Widowspeak/Ava Luna show at Bowery Ballroom on December 17, we've added a third BV Presents show to the holiday themed mix.

We're psyched to be presenting a full evening of bands at Brooklyn Night Bazaar on Friday, December 16, headlined by Toronto's amazing Fucked Up. Making things more festive will be Big Troubles, Caged Animals, Radical Dads and one more we'll be announcing shortly. DJing in between bands will be Frankie Rose  and myself. Tickets are a Bob Crachett-friendly $10 and on sale now.

If you don't know, Brooklyn Night Bazaar is a holiday shopping, eating, drinking and music extravaganza happening Dec. 15 - 17 at a giant warehouse in Williamsburg (149 Kent at N.5th). Shopping and food vendors is free, you gotta pay to see the bands. Thursday 12/15 is James Murphy DJ set with Poolside, Crystal Ark and Midnight Magic, and Saturday 12/17 is The Hold Steady with Titus Andronicus and Wakey Wakey. Full list of vendors is here.

Do come out it should be fun. (Did I mention it's only ten bucks for our night?) Flyer for the Brooklyn Night Bazaar is below.

Continue reading "Fucked Up headlining a THIRD BV Holiday Party at Brooklyn Night Bazaar, also with Big Troubles, Caged Animals, Radical Dads, DJ Frankie Rose and more."

photos by Erik Erikson, words by Bill Pearis

2:54

UK band 2:54's new EP, Scarlett, sounds amazing: rolling flinty basslines, layer upon layer of guitar haze and the alluring vocals of Colette Thurlow. (Her sister Hannah provides much of the aforementioned haze.) As well it should, the record was mixed by Alan Moulder who provided polish for Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Curve (whom 2:54 most resemble) in the early '90s.

Though they didn't quite hit those stellar sonics live last night at Pianos (12/30) -- their second-ever American show and a short one at maybe six songs -- what they did have in spades is promise. Colette suffered through microphone feedback problems and there was a crackle running through the speakers on the first couple songs. 2:54 also seemed a little green, not quite jelled as a cohesive unit. But when it did -- like on "Cold Front" with its spare, skeletal arrangement -- you felt that in six months or so these Brits are gonna get there. And hopefully we'll be saying "the records are good, but you really have to see them live."

Openers were Caged Animals, the new band from Soft Black's Vincent Cacchione who sound like a big hug. Warm and poppy, except for the last song where things turned briefly feral (hooting and strange faces). I only caught the last three songs, but I thought they were terrific when they opened for Metronomy during CMJ. They have it pretty together for as new an endeavor as Caged Animals are. Catch them again tonight (12/1) at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge with Shilpa Ray, EULA & Quilty.

More pictures from the Manhattan show (their first US show was at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn one night earlier), below...

Continue reading "2:54 made their US debut, played Pianos w/ Caged Animals (pics & review)"

by Andrew Sacher

London duo 2:54, the current project of sisters Hannah and Colette Thurlow who previously played together in the punk band Vulgarians, have shared stages with Yuck, Male Bonding, and Warpaint, and even share an affinity with them for the same decade (the '90s). But while those bands are channeling the lo-fi/indie rock subgenres of the time, 2:54 are taking their influence from a much different side of the spectrum. Their name comes from the thundering 2:54 mark of the Melvins' "A History of Bad Men" and both sisters have a "life-long love of Queens Of The Stone Age".

The duo have yet to announce plans for an album, but they've got a few great songs on their soundcloud. The song "Scarlet" sounds like early-mid '90s Radiohead for about 20 seconds before the sludge-drenched guitar takes over and reverby sullen vocals kick in. Their first song to surface on the internet, "Creeping," is a locked-in stoner jam, and the guitars on "On A Wire" actually sound like they're being detuned as the song goes on. Check them out for yourself by listening to the streams of these tracks and a couple others below.

2:54 will make their US debut this week with two shows in NYC. They're playing Shea Stadium on Tuesday (11/29) with Total Slacker, DIVE, and Pages and a free show at Pianos on Wednesday (11/30) with Caged Animals.

All dates, a video, song streams, and the flier for the NYC shows below...

Continue reading "check out 2:54 (they make their US debut in NYC this week)"

Just like in nature documentaries, the circle of life continues in the Williamsburg indie community. As Bruar Falls was having a it's Last Weekend Ever, a new DIY venue was having its first shows. Big Snow Buffalo Lodge is located at 89 Varet St. in East Williamsburg, just a couple blocks from Don Pedro. It's run by some of the same folks that bring us It was started by some folks that used to work at Shea Stadium and its first show was last Thursday (10/27) with Dustin Wong, the So So Glos, Lost Boy?, Day Dress and Pigeons.

Big Snow Buffalo Lodge's upcoming slate includes a Chat Logs and Many Mansions record release party tomorrow night (11/5), DIVE (11/10), Celestial Shore (11/12), and Caged Animals (12/01). Has anyone gone yet? What's the space like? Full schedule is below.

Continue reading "Big Snow Buffalo Lodge is a new venue in East Williamsburg, open now (upcoming shows)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Dive - Sometime (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Caged Animals - Teflon Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Caged Animals - Girls on Medication (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Heaven's Gate - Weakness Worms (MP3)

Toys & Tiny Instruments

It's a fairly quiet post-ATP weekend, which is fine. And the big stuff (Jens Lekman, James Blake) is sold out. CMJ is coming up in less than two weeks, and I plan on taking it (fairly) easy until then. (More than anything else, I'm stoked for the Breaking Bad finale on Sunday!) But there is, as always, stuff going on that's worth your time and coin. So this week I'm just going to do an extended version of the day-by-day picks.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6

Anika at Glasslands.

Dive, the new band from Beach Fossils dude Cole Smith, is easily the hardest working group in Brooklyn right now. You can see them tonight at Death by Audio on a pretty stacked bill of locals. I've caught Dive a couple nights now and am really impressed with their energy -- dark and motorik (not totally unlike Captured Tracks labelmates Soft Moon) -- and Smith's ability to spin around and play in clothes six sizes too big for him.

Dive also plays tomorrow (10/7) at 285 Kent with Night Manager and ex-Sweetbulbs band Heaven's Gate (who have a new MP3 to download at the top of this post) and Friends.

The rest of the show is good too. Caged Animals is Vin of Soft Black's new band. There are MP3s above and you can read more about them here. The show is also a record release for Spanish Prisoners' new album, Gold Fools, which you can stream in its entirety at the bottom of this post.  It's been a while since I checked in with them... it's a really nice record, especialy the single "Rich Blood" which you can download for free from their Bandcamp. Also playing are Quiet Lights who might fill the void for lovely loud guitar pop left by Dirty on Purpose.

Over at Cake Shop are the Toys and Tiny Instruments Band who do not play live very often. It's exactly as it sounds, seven or eight folks playing songs on kazoos, melodicas, penny whistles, plastic guitars and other toys and tiny instruments. (Not unlike Pianosarus for those whose memories go back to '80s obscurities.) They are way better than you think they're going to be.

And at Public Assembly it's electronic psych rock pioneers Silver Apples who play with MNDR, Lemonade, Ital and Todd Pendu on DJ duty. Another worthy show.

continued below....

Continue reading "Dive, Caged Animals, Ladytron, Taste of the Seaport, Psychic Paramount & more in This Week in Indie"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Hedgehog - Toy and 61 Festival (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hedgehog - Waiting for the Last Bus (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Royal Baths - Nikki Don't (MP3)

After surviving a couple minor major acts of nature, we deserve a long break. So for your Labor Day weekend... like usual, it's pretty slow, show-wise. But there are some things to do.

We'll start this week with a movie. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is finally getting a U.S. release (it came out in January 2010 in France), albeit a limited one, thanks in part to great reissue label Light in the Attic. The film started it's two-week Film Forum run last night and will be making its way around the country throughout the fall. All play dates are at the bottom of this post.

Heroic maybe, but for sure Serge Gainsbourg led a wild life before succumbing to cancer at age 62 in 1992. You could make a compelling film out of any period of his life, and that the movie tries to cram it all in -- from fleeing Nazi-occupied Paris as a child through his rise to fame, relationships with Bridget Bardot and Jane Birkin to his his '70s dalliance with reggae -- gives too much of your standard Behind the Music story arc.

But it's also untraditional at the same time. Writer-director Joann Sfar is a comic artist (this is his first film) and injects a big element of the absurd courtesy of a puppet-like alter-ego (alter-Id, really) that encourages Gainsbourg to do bad things. Eric Elmosnino, a dead-ringer for Gainsbourg, is terrific, as is the rest of the cast -- including Lucy Gordon as Birkin and Laetitia Casta as Bardot, plus appearances by eccentric singer Philippe Katerine and the late Claude Chabrol. It's got a great sense of style and, of course, the soundtrack is amazing. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life could be better, but it's still worth seeing.

Weekend

As for actual shows, San Francisco's vociferous and awesome Weekend will be here on Saturday (9/3) at Glasslands and Sunday (/4) at Mercury Lounge. Both shows are with the similarly cacophonous Talk Normal.

Weekend have a new EP, Red, out September 20th on Slumberland which finds the trio exploring new sonic territory, though not the quiet kind. It's still rather pummeling but Shaun Durkan's vocals, previously hidden behind echo and backwards reverb, are dryer and more up front now. The sound is a little sharper all around, but the driving, melodic basslines and guitar squall remain. You can download Red track "Hazel" via a Soundcloud widget at the bottom of this post.

In addition to Talk Normal, the Glasslands show features their Slumberland labelmates Brown Recluse; the Mercury Lounge show also has Fan-Tan on the bill. All Weekend/Talk Normal tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Royal Baths

San Francisco's Royal Baths bring their heavy psychedelia to Death by Audio on Friday (9/2) with Xray Eyeballs, Hunters and Mountain Cult. I wrote previously: "Royal Baths are kind of bad trip acid rock, dark and seedy but not atonal. But it's definitely down the rabbit hole. In a good way." At the top of this post you can download a track off of Royal Baths debut LP  from last year. The band have a split double-7" with Ty Segall due out on HoZac any time now. Keep an eye peeled for that.

Hedgehog

Bejiing's Hedgehog are back in America for the first time since CMJ: they play Bruar Falls on Sunday (9/4) and Cake Shop on Monday (9/5). After that they head out on tour with Xiu-Xiu and Kindest Lines, and all tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

I caught set at The Woods last year and the venue's atrocious sound didn't deter Hedgehog's tenacity, most ably embodied in Atom, their tiny pistol of a drummer. Looking at them, you might expect pop punk a la Japan's Blue Hearts, but Hedgehog make melodic indie rock. There's a couple tracks to download at the top of this post. They're a blast live, and there aren't a lot of shows Sunday or Monday, so here's a good international option for your concert dollar.

That's it of the "big" stuff in my world. Some more shows -- including a fair amount of free ones -- are listed day-by-day below.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

Good show at Shea Stadium tonight. In addition to the recently-profiled Caged Animals, there's also new FatCat singings Forest Fire whose Walkmen-esque album Staring at the X is worth looking out for when it comes out in October on FatCat.

Nerdy rapper and Adult Swim voice talent MC Chris is throwing a record release party at Death by Audio for his new album Race Wars. It's also his birthday. Show is FREE.

continued below...

Continue reading "Serge Gainsbourg, Weekend, Hedgehog, Royal Baths, MC Chris, Hunx, 'English Beat' & more in This Week in Indie"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Caged Animals - Teflon Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Caged Animals - Girls on Medication (MP3)

Caged Animals, the new project from Soft Black front man Vin Cacchione, will release their debut album, Eat Their Own, on Sept 27 via Lucky Number. You can download the album's first single, "Teflon Heart," at the top of this post. You can also go see them play live this week: Thursday (8/25) at Union Pool with Life Sized Maps and Shark? and then on September 1 at Shea Stadium with Dive and Forest Fire (whose 2nd album is coming out soon on FatCat).

Where Soft Black (who are still together if you were wondering) are a straight up guitar band, Caged Animals began as a home recording project for Cacchione, using ancient drum machines and keyboards...and modern technology too. The resulting album is minimal and joyous, with Cacchione's melodic abilities as a songwriter fully intact. Despite the understated production, "Teflon Heart" is a pretty soaring pop song with a chorus that could get lodged in your head for a while.

Live, Caged Animals are a quartet, including violinist Magali Charron, and Vin's sister Talya which should flesh out things a bit. Also check out non-LP single "Girls on Medication" from earlier this year at the top of this post and watch its video below.

Continue reading "check out Caged Animals (MP3 premiere, video & dates)"