by Bill Pearis

While he's been hot stuff in his home of Los Angeles for a while, retro-styled R&B bandleader Nick Waterhouse is now gaining traction in New York too. His show this Saturday (5/19) at Mercury Lounge is now sold-out and he's been added to the line-up of the Village Voice 4Knots Festival at South Street Seaport on July 14.

In between -- next weekend to be specific -- he'll also play The Do-Over which happens at Dekalb Market on Sunday, May 27. It's a free party that goes from 2PM - 10PM and features a "secret cast of mystery guests" of whom Waterhouse is one. You do need to RSVP to go.

CORRECTION: The Do-Over is happening on May 27 but Nick isn't playing. Sorry for any confusion.

Nick also just released a video for his song "Some Place" from his enjoyable debut LP, Time's All Gone, which is out now and streamable at the bottom of this post, along with the new video.

The Do-Over is one of a growing number of shows happening at the Downtown Brooklyn space. Other announced shows include a series of parties thrown by Fixed and The Dog and Pony Show happening in June, July and August: Blondes with Holy Ghost! DJ set (6/3, tickets), Chromatics (7/22, tickets) and Maxxi Sound System (8/18, tickets).

Dekalb Market is also one of the Rooftop Films locations, and the first screening there happens TONIGHT (5/17) with a series of short films (inlcluding the brilliant "Walt Disney's Taxi Driver") and musical guest Future Shuttle.

Nick Waterhouse video and listed tour dates are below, along with more info on those upcoming Dekalb Market shows.

Continue reading "Blondes, Chromatics and more playing Dekalb Market (not together), which has Rooftop Films tonight"

DOWNLOAD: Heavenly Beat - "Messiah" (MP3)

Xeno and Oaklander at BV-CMJ 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Brooklyn synth goths Xeno and Oaklander have an upcoming local show this week at Public Assembly on Friday (5/11) with Frank (Just Frank), and DJ sets by Bauhaus/Love & Rockets bassist David J, CREEP and Todd Pendu. (There's also an open Asahi beer bar at 9:30.) Tickets are still available.

Next month, the band will head to Austin for Chaos in Tejas, and upon returning home, they'll play another NYC show at The Studio at Webster Hall on June 11 with fellow goths Plastic Flowers and Religious to Damn and fellow electronic artist Autre Ne Veut. Tickets are on sale now. The flier for this show is below.

In related news, Martial Canterel (aka Sean McBride aka 1/2 of Xeno and Oaklander) is opening for Iceage at LPR on 7/22 with Dirty Beaches and RØSENKØPF. Tickets are still available

RØSENKØPF also plays Glasslands with King Dude soon, in celebration of a new record. That record has a song called "Light The Way" which has a video which you can watch below.

In addition to DJing the Friday Public Assembly show, David J is also DJing tonight (5/10) at Elmurst club Arena Queens. Besides his gigs in Bauhaus and Love & Rockets (and Porno for Pyros and The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy), David J has a long solo career as well, having released his eighth album, Not Long for This World, last year on Starry Records. You can stream some of it here.

In more related news, Plastic Flowers have a NYC show coming up at Glasslands on July 10 with Captured Tracks bands Cosmetics and Beach Fossils side project Heavenly Beat (who has a new song out, download above), and Psychobuildings. Tickets are on sale now.

Speaking of both Cosmetics and Dirty Beaches, Exclaim points out that Montreal's Grand Trine have broken up and member Shubhayan Roy has joined Dirty Beaches while Tobias Rochman has joined Cosmetics.

All dates, stream, and flier below...

Continue reading "more Xeno & Oaklander dates; Autre Ne Veut; David J the DJ; new Heavenly Beat MP3 & a RØSENKØPF video too"

Chromatics at Radio City last month (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Chromatics who released the much talked about Kill For Love earlier this year, and was in NYC for two shows last month, are continuing to play shows internationally over the next few months. They'll return to NYC for another show on July 22 at Dekalb Market in Brooklyn for a "Fixed x Dog and Pony" show with Blondes. Some of their other US dates, including Boston and Philly, are with Hot Chip, who play Prospect Park with Gang Gang Dance a few days prior (7/18).

Blondes also play Dekalb Market, but on June 3rd (and not with Chromatics as originally posted). Both shows, and one with Maxxi Soundsystem, are on sale.

Chromatics have also released a drumless version of Kill For Love. Here's what Johnny Jewel told Pitchfork about the album:

It's 11 tracks, because some of the tracks don't have drums to begin with. It's all the pop songs without drums... I think people will have a lot of fun with it because everyone keeps remixing 'Birds of Paradise' because there were no drums on it... I also mastered an instrumental version of the entire album. I always master multiple versions in case I want to collage or edit them later. I was really liking the way the vocal mixes sounded with no drums and I think that the drums on the album are so heavy, that it's interesting to hear the record as this almost-empty, almost-a cappella kind of thing.

Continue reading "Chromatics schedule dates, playing Dekalb Market (like Blondes), release free, drumless version of album"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

PULP.
FUCKING.
DESTROYED.
SHOW OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!! - Anonymous

Jarvis Cocker @ Radio City Music Hall - 4/10/2012

"Jarvis is a bit older now, but he still has it. He's an extraordinary performer, in part because he's such a specific character, and he's so fully comfortable in his skin. I think the very best rock stars are the people who impose their quirks on to the role rather than conform to the expectations of the job. He created his own archetype, but he belongs in a pantheon of the great oddball rock gods alongside Michael Stipe, David Byrne, Elvis Costello, Stephen Malkmus, Black Francis and James Murphy. Watching him in action is inspiring - his sort of confidence seems somehow attainable, whereas more traditional rock, pop and rap stars make it seem impossible and superhuman. Even in his biggest anthems - "Mis-Shapes" and "Common People," both of which presage the sentiment of the Occupy movement by nearly two decades - Cocker is at a human scale even as the music soars. Extremely lanky, yeah, but human scale." [Fluxblog]

Continue reading "Pulp played Radio City Music Hall w/ Chromatics (night 1 pics)"

photos by Benjamin Lozovsky / BFAnyc.com

"Last night's CHROMATICS show at LE BAIN was earth shattering. Thanks to JOHNNY JEWEL for KILL FOR LOVE, my song of 2012." - Justine D

Chromatics debuted songs from their "Best New Music" endorsed album Kill for Love last night at club Le Bain in the Standard Hotel. With wraparound Manhattan views, it was a pretty spectacular setting. No less breathtaking, in its own way, is Radio City Music Hall where tonight (4/10) Chromatics will open for Pulp. (Probably to an indifferent, half empty hall. Here's your chance to sneak up close, Chromatics fans.)

Despite what Jimmy Fallon said last night on his TV show, tickets are still available for tonight's show. (Good ones, too, if you're willing to pony up the dough.) Tomorrow's Pulp show is sold-out, with Jeffrey Lewis opening. Click through for more pictures from last night's Chromatics show, plus video as well...

Continue reading "Chromatics played Le Bain in Standard Hotel (pics & video), opening for Pulp tonight (not sold out!)"

photo via jennileetweets

"...In the latest iteration of "Who's Zoo?," performed on [Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday] at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with professionals alongside nondancers, the biggest improvement is live music: Relaxed Muscle, a two-member band featuring Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp) and Jason Buckle, perform four of the show's six songs.

With the addition of live music and a cult-of-personality approach -- not only by the spectacularly louche Mr. Cocker, but also by Mr. Clark, who has given himself more cameos this time around -- "Who's Zoo?" is less of a dance than it ever was. Mr. Clark transforms it into a musical experience with movement...." [NY Times]

Now Jarvis just has one day before Pulp headlines Radio City Music Hall for two nights in a row, with two different openers. As mentioned, Chromatics open Tuesday's show while Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard opens Wednesday.

MEANWHILE, it looks like Chromatics play a semi-private, it's-going-to-be-really-hard-to-get in show at The Standard's Le Bain tonight (4/9) while some band called "The Junkyard" plays Cake Shop (with Dolfish and SLFM).

DOWNLOAD: Chromatics - "Into the Black" (MP3)

Chromatics at Lincoln Hall, Chicago in Jan. (more by Zach Pollack)

Portland, OR post-punk-turned-synth-pop outfit Chromatics are back with their first full length since 2007's Night Drive. They began picking up speed again in 2011 after the success of the Drive Soundtrack, which they contributed to, and announced that the album, titled Kill For Love, would come out this past January. The release was pushed back a few times but it finally came out last month via Italians Do It Better, the Troubleman Unlimited imprint which is co-run by Chromatics/Glass Candy/Desire multi-instrumentalist Johnny Jewel. Leading up to the release, the band put out videos for five songs off the album, which includes a cover of Neil Young's "Into the Black." All five videos were directed by Alberto Rossini and can be watched below, along with a stream of the entire album. You can also download "Into the Black" above or stream it below.

Chromatics will be in NYC next week to open for Pulp at Radio City Music Hall on April 10. Tickets for that show are still available. Jeffrey Lewis opens Pulp's second Radio City show (4/11) which is sold out.

All dates, videos, album stream, and more below...

Continue reading "Chromatics released 'Kill For Love', opening for Pulp @ Radio City (the show that isn't sold out) -- MP3, video & dates"

photos by Nathanael Turner

Descendents

Punk rock long ago transcended class, age, gender and ethnicity to become a signifier not necessarily of outward rebellion but of the symbolic, crazy-on-the-inside variety. That sense of internal defiance continues to permeate the entire underground and has become a secret handshake that united not only the artists who made traditional-ish punk rock over the course of 10 hours of the FYF -- the Descendents, No Age, Off! among them -- but from a wildly divergent cast of in-yer-face artists including beat makers Nosaj Thing and Dan Deacon, the deeply sensual, self-referential house music of New York's Chromatics and Glass Candy, and the catchy, arena-aspirant bands like Broken Social Scene.

"It's a punk rock festival. That means we're going to play ... in the wrong key," declared Guided by Voices singer Robert Pollard during his band's sturdy, hook-infused rock set featuring acrobatic kicks, monster choruses and a sexy girl delivering between-song lighted cigarettes to guitarist Mitch Mitchell.

But Pollard missed the point. As anyone who roamed downtown's Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday could see, punk no longer means inept, either on a musical or festival level. It means being inspired and maybe a little irrational, like festival founders Sean Carlson, Phil Hoelting and Keith Morris. It means realizing strengths and weaknesses. It means pushing at the edges like L.A.-based instrumental Nosaj Thing, who fused the deep, penetrating bass of dubstep with touches of skewed Aphex Twin breakbeat rhythms to create architecturally sophisticated sound structures as solid as they were abrasive. Or it means setting up gear in the crowd like electronic/serialist/rhythmatist Deacon to make sounds so driving and strobing that the level of crowd surfing reached Nirvana-like proportions. [LA Times]

Continue reading "more pics from FYF Fest 2011 (Descendents, Broken Social Scene, No Age, Girls, Japandroids & more)"

DOWNLOAD: Mister Heavenly - "Pineapple Girl" (MP3)

Descendents at FFFFest (more by Tim Griffin)

Much like last year, FYF Fest 2011 is poppin' off with some incredible bands, many of whom recently reunited. This year the LA fest will host a coveted Descendents appearance, a Death From Above 1979 show, Guided By Voices, another Kid Dynamite reunion, The Dead Milkmen, Explosions in the Sky, the return of The Weakerthans and many, many notable others. Full lineup is below. The show goes down at 1st and Main in downtown Los Angeles on September 3rd. Tickets are on sale.

Future Islands plays FYF Fest and plays Death By Audio in Brooklyn TONIGHT (6/28).

For Kid Dynamite, which features members of Lifetime, Paint it Black and None More Black, the reunion is their first since re-emerging for This is Hardcore last year with Ink & Dagger. The band called it quits in 2000 and reunited in 2005 at CBGB and some other times too. I hope they schedule another NYC show, but it's just LA for now.

This is Hardcore THIS YEAR features an appearance from Ressurection, which also featured Dan Yemin on guitar. Tickets for This is Hardcore 2011, taking place in Philly's Starlight Ballroom, is mostly sold-out, with tickets for the Sunday show still available.

The Descendents appearance at FYFest is one of several dates scheduled for the reunited band, NYC's Roseland, Chicago Riot Fest, and Philly's Riot Fest included. Tickets are still available for the 9/23 Roseland show.

Mister Heavenly will hit the road for a string of dates on the West Coast leading up to FYF Fest. Check out their full tour schedule below, and look for their new LP Out of Love on 8/16 via Sub Pop. Check out "Pineapple Girl" from that record above.

The Death From Above 1979 appearance is one of several slated for the band in the coming months, including a 7/22 appearance at Williamsburg Waterfront. Tickets are still available OR, you can try your hand by winning a pair at our Facebook. The full set of DFA1979 dates are below.

The Weakerthans have a few other dates slated for Europe and Canada in the coming months. Hopefully they add more US dates too. All dates for now are listed below.

A few bands on the FYFest lineup (namely, Cults, Off!, and No Age) will also appear in NYC at the House of Vans this summer, and for FREE. The FYF-presented House of Vans series of shows starts this Thursday (6/30). You just have to RSVP to get in (and maybe get there early).

All Weakerthans, DFA1979, and Mister Heavenly dates, some video, and the full FYF Fest lineup is below.

Continue reading "FYF Fest in LA, This is Hardcore in Philly, Future Islands in BK, Mister Heavenly on tour, a DFA1979 contest & more"

Glass Candy

Glass Candy (from Portland) will join fellow Italians that Do it Better Chromatics (from Portland), Desire (from Montreal), and Simonetti (from Bayonne, New Jersey) for a five day stint of US dates that include Webster Hall in NYC on January 14th, 2011. RSVP for the NYC show and pay only $1 before midnight. All dates below.

A notable Ed Banger member/dance musician will make his way to the USA and Webster Hall in the new year:

Mr. Oizo, a pseudonym of French music producer and film director Quentin Dupieux, is a successful French electro house musician, mostly known for his 1999 track, "Flat Beat" and his collaborations with labelmate Uffie. His pseudonym is a corruption of the French oiseau, meaning "bird." He is currently signed to French electro record label, Ed Banger Records.

Speaking of Ed Banger, we can't forget the band that ultimately made that label happen. Daft Punk have a new album (soundtrack) on the way. To celebrate, Le Poisson Rouge welcomes the return of Faux Punk, the Daft Punk cover band, to the venue on Saturday, December 11th.

The upcoming Brooklyn Electronic Festival doesn't feature any of the artists we've mentioned so far in this post, but it does feature many other similar others. Tickets are still on sale.

All Glass Candy and Mr. Oizo dates and some videos below.

Continue reading "Glass Candy touring w/ labelmates, Mr Oizo playing dates soon too ++ Faux Punk returns"