Kurt Vile @ T5, December 2012 (more by Gretchen Robinette)

Hot Chip @ SS Coachella (more by Greg Cristman)

today in NYC
* Yes @ Beacon Theater
* Serena Jost @ Joe's Pub
* Mika @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Slavic Soul Party @ Barbes
* Yo La Tengo @ The Kitchen
* Kurt Vile @ Apple Store SoHo
* Jon Madof's Zion 80 @ The Stone
* Nymph, Daniel Carter @ Union Pool
* Tokimonsta @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Jamie Lidell, Ludwig Persik @ Glasslands
* "Les Yeux," Dinowalrus, Redfoot @ Pianos
* Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau @ Bowery Ballroom
* Lianne La Havas, Jamine N Commons @ Webster Hall
* Rvivr, Dogjaw, Agatha, Tomboy @ NYU Kimmel Center
* Holly Miranda, Jon Shain, Caitlin Canty @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Crinkles, Make Good, Michael Beharie @ Brooklyn Fireproof East
* Hot Chip, Tanlines, The Crystal Ark (DJ Set) @ Roseland Ballroom
* Andrew McMahon, Kate Earl, Erland Wanberg @ Highline Ballroom
* Young Magic, Allah-Las, Reverberation (DJ Set) @ Mercury Lounge
* Slow Country, Oceanographer, Tiger Dare, Sanibel @ Cameo Gallery
* The Beets, Sea Lions, Golden Grrrls, Household, Army Men @ Silent Barn
* Las Supper (Big Daddy Kane, Show Tyme and Lifted Crew) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* The Mystery Lights, Baby Yaga, Mick Lewis and the Fine Print @ The Bowery Electric
* Bam Margera Experience, Fu*k Face Unstoppable, Hunter Moore, Shat, Buckwheat Groats, The Scandals @ The Studio at Webster Hall

In addition to playing what is sure to be a packed Apple Store SoHo tonight, Kurt Vile will play the Pitchfork offices today at 3 PM which will be streamed live.

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Marissa Nadler already offered an a capella version of the Game of Thrones theme, but Scotland's CHVRCHES (who sold out their upcoming Webster Hall and Music Hall of Williamsburg shows) put their spin on it recently and you can stream that below.

Young Galaxy remixed Born Ruffians' "Needle," the original of which is on their upcoming Birthmarks LP. Stream it below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

CHVRCHES @ Mercury Lounge, 3/18/2013 (more by Chris La Putt)

Having sold out their June 17 show at Webster Hall, Scottish synthpop trio CHVRCHES have added a second NYC show happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg the next day (6/18). Tickets to that show go on AmEx presale on Wednesday (4/3) at noon with the regular on-sale happening Friday (4/5) at noon. Updated tour dates are listed below.

CHVRCHES' shot a performance video of "Now Is Not the Time" (from their Recover EP) in an old roller rink and you can watch that below.

Continue reading "CHVRCHES made a new video, add second NYC show (updated dates)"

CHVRCHES @ Mercury Lounge, 3/18/2013 (more by Chris La Putt)

CHVRCHES just played their first American shows a couple weeks ago, including three NYC shows in two days. With the release of their Recover EP this week, the Scottish trio have just announced their first full North American tour, including another stop here at Webster Hall on June 17. That's quite a leap from two shows at Mercury Lounge, skipping the usual Bowery Ballroom/MHOW rung entirely. Tickets go on AmEx presale on Wednesday (3/27) at noon with the regular on-sale starting Friday (3/29) at noon.

All tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "CHVRCHES announce summer tour (Webster Hall included)"

photos by Chris La Putt; words by Bill Pearis

CHVRCHES @ Mercury Lounge, 3/18/2013

Hot off a busy SXSW, Scottish trio CHVRCHES made their NYC debut at Mercury Lounge last night (3/18), playing an early and a late show, both sold out. I was at the early show where the crowd was ready to have a good time. Good news: "The Mother We Share" and new single "Recover" are not the only catchy songs in their arsenal. We got 10 originals (plus a cover of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U") and nearly every one of them had a giant hook at its core. I would say at least four of the new ones seems single-worthy.

The bad news: they've got a ways to go in the live show department. Singer Lauren Mayberry's voice was in fine form, but she is a timid performer and doesn't quite seem comfortable in the spotilight. (A funny and foulmouthed between-song banterer, though.) And, like with so many synth-MPC acts these days, there's not a lot to watch. That said, they weren't bad. They just just need to build up the confidence and figure out the live setup. Like a drummer? Six months of touring, including the summer festival circuit will hopefully take care of that. But the crowd last night -- which hit all social and age strata -- didn't seem to mind,  with very enthusiastic singing, dancing and clapping along to the band's two singles.

CHVRCHES stick around NYC tonight (3/19) to DJ at 285 Kent and tickets to that show are still available.

UPDATE: They're playing live tonight too. Says the band, "Hi New Yorkers. We will be playing a 30 min live set tonight at 285 Kent in Brooklyn along with a DJ set from Martin. We will be on at midnight. " Tickets here.

I missed almost all of opener Dan Croll's set but what I heard was in the "whoa-oh" and "ahhhh ahh" heavy Fleet Foxes school of folky rock. The UK singer plays again on Wednesday (3/20) at Glasslands with Feathers and Lorna Dune. Tickets are still available.

More pictures from the early show at Mercury Lounge, including some of Dan Croll, below...

Continue reading "CHVRCHES made their NYC debut last night at Mercury Lounge (pics, review); playing again at 285 Kent tonight"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Scottish synthpop trio CHVRCHES made their SXSW debut last Wednesday (3/13) at the Windish Agency showcase at Austin's Red 7. For a band with giant hooky dancepop anthems, they are still on their shy side, playing a reserved set, according to BV photographer Amanda Hatfield. That didn't stop the crowd from singing along to "The Mother We Share" and "Recover," though.

CHVRCHES play two back-to-back sold out shows tonight (3/18) at Mercury Lounge with Dan Croll opening. They'll also be DJing on Tuesday (3/19) at 285 Kent and tickets are still available to that. Their album is due out this fall, so probably look for a return appearance (most likely somewhere bigger) then. More pictures from SXSW below...

Continue reading "CHVRCHES played SXSW (pics), making NYC debut tonight"

by Bill Pearis, Fred Pessaro and Andrew Sacher

Savages @ CMJ 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

SXSW gets underway today (3/13) in earnest, with 83,207 bands* playing SXSW this year. Trying to figure out who to see can be an overwhelming feeling. (Actually, just standing on 6th St. on Friday night is an overwhelming feeling.) Hopefully this post will give you some inspiration if you're among the throngs of people. Or maybe just some new stuff to listen to if you're not there.

Of course you could just hang out at all our day parties (our first starts at noon today!) and evening showcases, as we're really proud of our line-ups. But there are bands who we are pumped to see who aren't playing too. So here are 40 bands we're genuinely pumped to see in Austin this week. We made a Spotify playlist of all the bands (at least the ones on the service) you can stream below.

Check out our list below...

*not the actually number of showcasing bands. But it feels accurate.

Continue reading "40 artists we're excited to see at SXSW"

Since we last wrote about them, Scotland's CHVRCHES have signed with Glassnote in America, home to Phoenix, Mumford & Sons, Daughter and more. The group's Recover EP is out later this month and the band have just released the video to its uber-catchy title track. The clip pays homage to early-'80s sci fi and goes for model and in-camera effects over CGI. You can watch it below.

As mentioned, CHVRCHES will be in North America beginning next week for shows around the country surrounding their time at SXSW in Austin. They'll play two back-to-back, sold-out shows at Mercury Lounge on March 18, and will DJ at 285 Kent the following night (3/19). Tickets to that show are still available.

Continue reading "CHVRCHES sign to Glassnote, release "Recover" video, DJing 285 Kent after Mercury Lounge shows"

Firefly Music Festival 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Dover, DE festival Firefly Music Festival had a great first year in July of 2012, and afterwards immediately announced it'd return in 2013. The 2013 festival happens from June 21 - 23 at the Dover International Speedway, and the lineup was just announced. It includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, The Walkmen, Django Django, Public Enemy, CHVRCHES, Amanda Palmer, Foxygen, Alabama Shakes, Toro y Moi, Dan Deacon, Action Bronson, The Avett Brothers, and more; and the headliners are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Vampire Weekend, and Foster the People. The full lineup is below and you can watch the announcement video at their website. TIckets go on general sale Thursday (2/21).

Firefly happens a couple weeks after NYC festival Governors Ball, which has some lineup similarities (Kendrick Lamar, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, Avett Brothers, etc). That one goes down on Randall's Island from June 7 - 9 and tickets are still available.

Firefly lineup below...

Continue reading "Firefly Music Festival announces 2013 lineup (Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, Tom Petty, RHCP & more)"

by Bill Pearis

Scotland's CHVRCHES will release their third single, "Recover," which is streamable now below. Like "The Mother We Share" and "Lies," the new single takes Knife-like textures and applies them to more openly pop songwriting. And like those two previous tracks, it's pretty infectious stuff.

As mentioned, CHVRCHES will be in North America next month for SXSW and sold out two Mercury Lounge shows almost instantly, which caught a few people off guard. Where will their next NYC shows be? The band are playing Sasquatch in May, perhaps they'll stop in NYC on the way there or back. And when are we getting the album?

New track stream and tour dates below...

Continue reading "stream new CHVRCHES single, "Recover""

Says the PR

On the heels of a highly successful, critically acclaimed sold-out 2012 festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2013 lineup, which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 24-27 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The
Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA.

Continue reading "Sasquatch! Music Festival 2013 lineup is here"

by Andrew Sacher

Dan Croll

As mentioned, Scottish electropop trio CHVRCHES are making their way to the US for a tour around SXSW time and will play a NYC show on March 18 at Mercury Lounge. That show just went on sale and sold out almost immediately, and the band just added a late show happening the same night at the same venue (doors: 9:30). Tickets for the newly added show go on sale today (1/18) at 3 PM. Updated tour dates are listed below.

UK singer Dan Croll opens the early NYC show, but no opener has been announced for the late show yet (UPDATE: he opens both shows). Towards the end of last year, Dan released the "From Nowhere" single, which you can watch the video for below. Like CHVRCHES, Dan makes pretty addictive indie pop, but his is on a much brighter side of the spectrum. He's got enough "ahh-ahhs" and reverby guitar stabs to make a pretty good case that he's a big Grizzly Bear fan, but while they often delve into pastoral passages, Dan Croll appears more interested in making fat-trimmed (and safer) pop music.

He's got a few other US dates scheduled, and while he's in town for the Mercury Lounge show, he'll play another NYC show at Glasslands on March 20 with Feathers and Lorna Dune. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Lists of dates for CHVRCHES and Dan Croll, and the "From Nowhere" video, below...

Continue reading "Dan Croll visiting US; CHVRCHES sold out Mercury Lounge, add late show (updated dates & video)"

by Bill Pearis

Iain Cook, Lauren Mayberry and Martin Doherty are CHVRCHES - all caps a must. If the Glasgow trio's moniker isn't the most conveniently pronounceable name of recent tipster times, that's just another reason to let their music do the talking.

They've experience in their ranks - Doherty toured the world with The Twilight Sad, and Cook was formerly a member of Aereogramme. Both acts attracted admirable fanbases; but fans should expect something entirely new when approaching the music of CHVRCHES, more likely to channel Prince than post-rock pyrotechnics.

This is electro-pop that shimmers only when the tears are washed from its speaker cones. Debut single The Mother We Share rightly caused something of a stir with its accessible yet ambitious synth angles, positioned somewhere between Robyn and The Knife. Undeniably sad but also euphoric, it's a captivating calling card that sets them apart in 2013. - [BBC]

CHVRCHES will be here in March for SXSW (3/12 - 3/17) but will also hit both coasts in addition to their time in Austin. That includes a stop in NYC at Mercury Lounge on March 18. Tickets go on AmEx presale on Wednesday (1/16) at noon with the regular on-sale happening Friday (1/18) at noon.

Videos, track streams and all CHVRCHES North American tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Scotland's CHVRCHES touring North America, including NYC after SXSW (dates, streams)"

Haim (with Palma Violets) on the cover of this week's NME

Los Angeles sisterly trio Haim have topped the BBC's Sound of 2013 poll, beating out competition like AlunaGeorge (#2), Angel Haze (#3), Laura Mvula (#4) and CHVRCHES (#5), not to mention The Weeknd, Savages, Palma Violets and others. Previous BBC Sound Of poll winners include Michael Kiwanuka (2012), Little Boots (2009), Mika (2007), The Bravery (2005) and 50 Cent (2003). You can watch a half-hour BBC special that features the top 5 acts from the poll below.

Meanwhile, Haim, who played a headlining Brooklyn show in December, have a few tour dates opening for Mumford & Sons, including two shows at Camden, NJ's Susquehanna Bank Center on February 16 and 17 (both are sold-out), and their second of two Barclays Center shows (2/12) (also sold out). Dates are listed below, along with that video.

Continue reading "Haim are BBC's 'Sound of 2013, opening for Mumford"

Savages @ BVCMJ 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

The 15-name nominee "longlist" is up for the BBC's "Sound of 2013" poll that includes The Weeknd, Savages, HAIM, King Krule, Palma Violets, AlunaGeorge and Angel Haze. Full list is below. If you're wondering how The Weeknd, who have sold out Terminal 5 here in NYC, can be up for something like this, here's some of the criteria:

They must not have had a UK top 20 single or album by 11 November 2012.

They can be from any musical genre and any country.

They must not already be famous i.e. generally known by the UK public, (e.g. member of a hit band going solo, or soap star). They must not have got through to the quarter, semi or final rounds of UK reality shows such as X Factor in the last 3 years (i.e. 2010 onwards).

They must not have featured in the BBC Sound of list previously (See an alphabetical list of previous nominees here)

"New" means new to the general public. They may have been around for a while if you believe they are ready to step up to the next level of quality & recognition.

You can catch nominees HAIM at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday (12/15, sold out) and Palma Violets will be in NYC next month.

Continue reading "BBC lists the 'Sound of 2013' (The Weeknd, HAIM, Savages, Palma Violets, and Angel Haze included)"