photos by Jonathon Bernstein; words by Bill Pearis

DIIV / LODRO @ Mercury Lounge, 5/11/2013

It was the kind of line-up you might see at Shea Stadium or 285 Kent, but Brooklyn crossed the bridge on Saturday night for the Downtown Music Festival on Saturday night (5/11). Well some of its bands did at least, specifically DIIV, LODRO, Xray Eyeballs and DJ Dog Dick -- for a show at Mercury Lounge. Fresh off their tour with How to destroy angels_, DIIV played the small-for-them Houston venue, cranking out their well-honed whirling sound. The band have a few festival dates lined up and those are listed below.

LODRO are are starting to rival DIIV for sheer number of locals shows played in a given week, and its clearly working as their claustrophobic blues has already come into its own a mere four months since the band's first live show. (And as DIIV showed, playing all the time helps.) You can catch them tonight (5/13) at Knitting Factory as part of the BV-curated Red Bull Sound Select show with headliners Foxygen as well as Amen Dunes and Prince Rupert's Drops. That show is only $3 at the door (no advance tickets) and doors are at 7 PM (which is what time I start DJing). I you haven't seen their new video, which we premiered on Friday, you can watch that below.

The night started with sets from Xray Eyeballs and DJ Dog Dick. Saturday night's other DTF offerings included Purity Ring at Bowery Ballroom and we've got more coverage of the fest's maiden voyage still to come. For now, check out more Mercury Lounge pics below.

Continue reading "DIIV, LODRO, Xray Eyeballs and DJ Dog Dick played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

DIIV at Apollo last month (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Austin festival Chaos in Tejas further expands their lineup with the addition of some notable names across many different genres. Among those announced today: Wolf Eyes, Morbosidad, Antwon, Deep Time, DIIV, Roc Marciano, Meyhem Lauren, and many many more. Full listing of artists is below, and tickets are still available for the fest and individual shows.

Continue reading "Chaos in Tejas adds Wolf Eyes, Antwon, Mobosidad, DIIV and more"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

How to destroy angels_ at The Apollo - 4/29/13

Trent Reznor's band How to destroy angels_ brought their tour with DIIV in NYC last night (4/29) at The Apollo after hitting Coachella, Chicago, Montclair, NJ, and other cities. Like on their other dates, the band was complemented by elaborate on-stage visuals, and you can see pictures of the spectacle in this post.

How to destroy angels_ wrap up their tour tonight (4/30) at The Fillmore in Silver Springs, MD. It won't be too long until they return to the stage though, because How to destroy angels_, along with Trent's other band Nine Inch Nails, were both just announced for Asheville's Mountain Oasis Festival. More pictures and the setlist from the Apollo below...

Continue reading "How to destroy angels_ & DIIV played the Apollo (pics/setlist)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Htda_ @ Wellmont Theatre, 4/28/2013

How to destroy angels_ made their debut in the NYC area last night (4/28) at Wellmont Theatre as their tour made its way east after Coachella (they hit Chicago along the way too). Trent Reznor, for the most part, took a backseat during the show, letting his wife Mariqueen Maandig's sultry vocals take the spotlight. Though, really, they all took a backseat to Htda_'s elaborate stage setup that had the band playing the first part of their set behind a curtain of illuminated cords to dramatic visual effect. DIIV, who continue to tighten their live show, opened (and have done so the whole tour). Htda_ and DIIV play NYC proper tonight (4/29) at the legendary Apollo Theatre, which is sold out.

More pictures from Wellmont and the Htda_ setlist below...

Continue reading "How to destroy angels_ & DIIV played Wellmont Theatre (pics, setlist); sold-out Apollo show is tonight"

Kendrick Lamar at SXSW (more by Tim Griffin)

Tickets for the individual shows of Downtown Music Festival (5/10-11), which were just announced are on sale now, in addition to passes.

A whole bunch of other tickets just went on sale too.

Day-by-day schedule for Downtown Music Festival below...

Continue reading "individual Downtown Music Fest shows on sale now"

TEEN @ Glasslands. Sept. 2013 (more by Courtney Dudley)

The Downtown Music Festival happens in two weeks (May 10 - 11) at NYC venues on or below Houston St. A few artists have been added to the fest's line-up: Nguzunguzu, Antwon, TEEN, Branchez, Mess Kid, Jade <3 & Blind Benny, Anais Mitchell, Crush Distance and Nire & Nani. Tickets (single day and two-day passes, and VIP passes) are still available.

The festival has also announced the daily line-ups, so we now know things like that Black Hippy and Fat Tony will be playing at Capitale on Friday night (5/10); Earl Sweatshirt, Ryan Hemsworth and Antwon will be at Element on Friday; and Ratking, Black Dave, Vashtie, Mr. Muthafuckin Exquire and Jade <3 & Blind Benny will be at Tammany Hall on Saturday night (5/11), to name a few. Check out the full schedule below.

Continue reading "Downtown Music Festival adds more artists (Antwon, TEEN + more), announces daily schedule"

photos by Wei Shi

Ghost BC / The Three O'Clock / Thee Oh Sees fans

After two weekends, Coachella 2013 officially came to a close this past Sunday (4/21) with sets from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wu-Tang Clan, Grimes, Vampire Weekend, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jessie Ware, Tame Impala, and more. Pictures of those artists, and some of the comparatively smaller but not less exciting artists that we missed at Weekend 1, like Ghost B.C., The Three O'Clock, DIIV, and Thee Oh Sees, are in this post.

We didn't catch James Blake this time like we did the first time, but he brought out RZA (who was there with Wu-Tang Clan) to perform their song, "Take A Fall For Me," which appears on James' new album, Overgrown. You can watch a video of that below.

In case you haven't been keeping up with our coverage, pictures of Weekend 2 Day 1 are HERE and Weekend 2 Day 2 are HERE. For Weekend 1 pictures, check out day 1 (HERE and HERE), day 2 (HERE) and day 3 (HERE).

More pictures from Weekend 2 Day 3 and the James Blake video below...

Continue reading "Coachella Weekend 2 Day 3 in pics (Ghost BC, The Three O'Clock, DIIV, Thee Oh Sees, Nick Cave, Grimes & more)"

Autre Ne Veut at BV-SXSW 2013 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

As mentioned, Downtown Records are taking their Downtown Music Festivals to different North American cities this year, including NYC from May 10 to 11 across various LES venues, including Mercury Lounge, Bowery Ballroom, Angel Orensanz Center, Pianos, Cake Shop, Tammany Hall, Element, Capitale, Rockwood Music Hall and more.

In addition to the previously announced lineup of Black HIppy (aka Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock), Purity Ring, Earl Sweatshirt, DIIV, Sky Ferreira, Trash Talk, Palma Violets, Teengirl Fantasy, and others; more acts have just been added. Those new acts include Andrewy Wyatt (of Miike Snow), Autre Ne Veut, Guards, Ryan Hemsworth, Port St. Willow, Kilo Kish, Ratking, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Vashtie, Fat Tony, d'Eon and Kingdom (playing with Kelela, who sang a song on the Teengirl Fantasy album last year and sings a song on the new Kingdom EP this year, which you can listen to below).

2-Day passes for the festival have sold out, but single day tickets for May 10 and May 11 are still available. The day-by-day lineups have also been announced, and you can check those out below.

Continue reading "updated Downtown Music Festival lineup & tix info (Autre Ne Veut, Ryan Hemsworth, eXquire, Kilo Kish & more added)"

photos by Debi Del Grande

Hdta @ Fox Theater 4/10/2013

One could sense the electricity in the air when the lights dimmed at the Fox. The curtain finally pulled back to reveal streams of electric lights four sheets deep as Alessandro Cortini, Atticus Ross, Mariqueen Maandig, Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan worked in the shadows conjuring up the opening notes of "The Wake-Up."

How to Destroy Angels refer to themselves as a collective with all members contributing equally to their visual and auditory aesthetic. They recently added Cortini to their live band to help take on some bass guitar duties as well as extra synthesizer wizardry. All the members were hunkered over their work stations and grooved in time to the snarling synthesizer bass of "Keep It Together." - [OC Weekly]

After Coachella, the Htda_ tour heads this way, playing two NYC area shows on April 28 at Wellmont Theatre (tickets) and April 29 at Apollo Theatre (sold out). More pictures from Fox Theater, as well as the Htda_ setlist, are below.

Continue reading "How to destroy angels_ made their live debut at the Fox Theater in Pomona with DIIV (pics, setlist)"

Lollapalooza 2012 (more by James Richards IV)

After it was already confirmed that Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, The Postal Service, The National, The Killers, and Mumford and Sons were playing Lollapalooza 2013, a pretty promising leak came which appeared to potentially reveal the rest of the lineup, and it turns out that leak was real.

In addition to the previously mentioned artists, Lollapalooza will include Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Kendrick Lamar, Grizzly Bear, The Cure, New Order, Baroness, Beach House, Cat Power, Death Grips, Jessie Ware, Father John Misty, DIIV, Wavves, Alt-J, Hot Chip, Disclosure, Baauer, Palma Violets, Angel Haze, Band of Horses, Crystal Castles and many others.

Lollapalooza goes down in Chicago from August 2 - 4 in Grant Park. Single day passes go on sale Wednesday (4/3) at 10 AM.

Full day-by-day lineup below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2013 lineup announced (Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Postal Service, Cure, New Order, Kendrick Lamar & more)"

Palma Violets at BV SXSW 2013 day party (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Downtown Records are taking their Downtown Music Festivals to different North American cities this year with a lineup that includes Black Hippy (aka Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab Soul, and Jay Rock all playing together), Purity Ring, Earl Sweatshirt, Sky Ferreira, DIIV, Palma Violets, Trash Talk, Beach Fossils, Teengirl Fantasy, Inc., Ducktails, Royal Teeth, and Black Dave, plus more TBA.

The first festival takes place in NYC from May 10 to 11 across multiple venues, including Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge, Rockwood Music Hall, Angel Orensanz, Pianos, Cake Shop, Tammany Hall, and Element. The full lineup and schedule for the NYC shows has not been announced yet, but we do know that it includes the previously announced Palma Violets show at Bowery Ballroom (which is now sold out, but tickets are still available for PV's MHOW show a day earlier). We also hear that they're trying to put up an outdoor stage and shut down Ludlow St to car traffic (which Pianos and Cake Shop are both on) for the festival, but no exact word on how that will work out.

2-Day Passes for the NYC festival are on sale now and tickets for individual nights go on sale Friday, April 12 at 11 AM.

After NYC, the festival will also pass through Philly, Toronto, Boston, LA, Denver, and Las Vegas, but the dates for those cities has not been announced yet.

Osheaga Festival is returning to Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau from August 2-4. This year's lineup includes The Cure, Mumford and Sons, Phoenix, New Order, Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, Hot Chip, Alt-J, Beach House, Explosions in the Sky, Big Boi, Baauer, Father John Misty, Disclosure, Frightened Rabbit, Angel Haze, Jessie Ware, DIIV, Guards, and many more.

3-Day passes go on sale Friday (3/15) at noon. There are still over 20 artists TBA, but you can browse the complete initial lineup below...

Continue reading "Osheaga Festival 2013 lineup & tickets (The Cure, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, New Order and more)"

DIIV at Webster Hall in 2012 (more by Dan Bracaglia)

As mentioned, Trent Reznor is taking his band, How to destroy angels_, on tour this year and hitting the NYC area on April 28 at Wellmont Theatre and April 29 at Apollo Theatre. The band have now announced that support on the tour will come from DIIV, as Pitchfork reports. The Apollo show is sold out but tickets for the Wellmont Theatre show are still available. This tour happens right around the time another current indie pop band tours with '90s alt rockers.

All dates are listed, along with a DIIV video, below...

Continue reading "DIIV added to How to destroy angels_ tour (updated dates)"

Weird Al and Bonarroo phone bank (including Mike Birbiglia and Eugene Mirman...

With help from Eugene Mirman, Chris Gethard, Mike Birbiglia, Portugal. The Man and more, Weird Al just began announcing the 2013 Bonnaroo line-up on the Bonnaroo YouTube page which happens June 13 - 16 in Manchester, TN. Weird Al just announced Pretty Lights, Wilco, A$AP Rocky, and The xx, and over the next hour, more artists will be announced. We'll update this post as more announcements come.

Other artists playing include Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, David Byrne and St. Vincent, Jim James, Big K.R.I.T., Billy Idol, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, Foals, Wild Nothing, Deap Vally, Killer Mike, Lord Huron, Divine Fits, Nas, Beach House, The Gaslight Anthem, Local Natives, Dirty Projectors, Baroness, The National, The Vaccines, Holy Ghost, Death Grips, R. Kelly, Alt-J, Purity Ring, Cat Power, Wu-Tang Clan, Bjork, Tame Impala, Animal Collective, The Tallest Man on Earth, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Paul McCartney, Earl Sweatshirt, Four Tet, Father John Misty, Swans, A-Trak, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Cults, AraabMuzik, DIIV, Charli XCX, Matthew E. White, Frank Turner, JEFF the Brotherhood, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Calexico, Two Gallants, and more.

Tickets for the festival go on sale Saturday (2/23) at noon EST.

There's also now a video of Daniel Tosh announcing the initial lineup, which you can watch, along with the current list of announced names, below...

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2013 lineup announcement underway"

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"

photos by Jonathan McPhail

The Vaccines @ T5 1/31/2012

"When you're a kid and you see these people in these bands, you think they're these perfect beings beamed down from space," says [Vaccines' frontman Justin] Young. "I definitely don't feel like a different person, but perhaps I'm expected to be. I really didn't want to make a record about being in a band and being a musician. I think that really disconnects you from your audience, because how can anyone relate to being in a band? So I wanted to talk about it from a human perspective, rather than a musician's perspective. I think when you get into your mid 20s, you realize how big and bad the world is and no matter how much you cry over spilled milk, no one is gonna mop it up for you. The world is a cruel place and it's like realizing that." - [Metro US]

The Vaccines tour rolls on tonight at Washington DC's 9:30 Club. More pics from T5 are below.

Continue reading "The Vaccines and DIIV played Terminal 5 (pics)"

Click it for the bigger poster.

Primavera Sound have announced their 2013 lineup, set to go down on May 22-26 in Barcelona, Spain. The announcement came via an animated video and artists performing include Phoenix, The Postal Service, Blur, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, My Bloody Valentine, Tame Impala, Wu-Tang Clan, Dead Can Dance, Grizzly Bear, The Knife, and loads more. Current lineup is below along with the flyer and video...

Continue reading "Primavera Sound 2013 line-up announced"

photos by Jessica Amaya

DIIV with kids at Brooklyn Bowl

DIIV came to Brooklyn Bowl yesterday (1/13) for two hometown shows, an all ages KidRockers show around brunch time (11:30) with their Captured Tracks labelmates Widowspeak, and then a night show with Magic Trick (aka Tim Cohen of Fresh & Onlys, who is sticking around NYC to open for Father John Misty at a sold out Webster Hall show tonight). We were there for the early show, which was hosted by Seth Herzog (Jimmy Fallon/Sweet) and Craig Baldo, and pictures of that one are in this post.

You can catch Widowspeak, who have a new album coming, in NYC again when they play Mercury Lounge on January 22 with Murals, Prince Rupert's Drops, and Alex Laliberte of Vensaire (tickets).

More pictures below...

Continue reading "DIIV and Widowspeak played for Kids @ Brooklyn Bowl (pics) "

by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Merchandise @ 285 Kent, 12/31/2012 (via @lkj)

Florida's Merchandise closed out their 2012 with two shows at Brooklyn DIY venue 285 Kent. The first happened on Saturday (12/29) with Philadelphia's Night Sins, plus Pharmakon, Shoxx, and Herzog Rising. Both shows featured Elsner Nino of Shoxx who is now Merchandise's official drummer and gave the songs a harder edge, steering the band a bit back to their punk roots. It almost made stagedivers during "Time" and "Become What You Are" seem semi-normal. OK, not really. You can check out two good-quality videos from Saturday's performance below.

Pharmakon, meanwhile, played a brutal noise set that featured washes of dissonance peppered by blasts of hallowed screams from mastermind Margaret Chardiet. There is a simmering fury that sits just beneath the surface for Chardiet, and in the moments when she lets out that primal scream, it is absolutely terrifying.

Night Sins, who ripped in the small K&M bar back in November, were swallowed whole by the cavernous soundsystem at 285 Kent. The band was sporting a new guitarist with a 12-string awash in reverb which, considering the ambient sound, was completely lost in the mix.

The Saturday show was a last-minute show that was in addition to their previously-announced New Year's Eve show where they played alongside Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche and "secret" headliners DIIV (though most people had figured out they were playing).

Additionally, Merchandise contributed a list of "merchy's ten taypes_2012" to Pitchfork's end-of-year "Guestlist" feature and you can check out their cassette picks below, along with the video from 285 Kent.

Continue reading "Merchandise played 2 shows @ 285 Kent (video), listed their favorite tapes of 2012"

photos by Chris La Putt

every year between Christmas and New Year's, we catch up on unposted stuff. This year is no different...

As you might remember, Grimes headlined a big free outdoor Hudson Park River Rocks show over the summer at Pier 84 with support from Captured Tracks indie rockers Wild Nothing and DIIV. We already posted a set of pictures from that show back in August after the show happened, and we've got a second belated set of pics that are in this post.

Grimes had a pretty amazing year this year (love it or hate it), making a huge leap from being relatively underground to becoming one of the most talked about indie pop successes of the year. We blogged about her a lot, everyone blogged about her a lot, she made a ton of year end lists, and had one of the biggest indie pop songs of the year with "Oblivion" (Pitchfork's number 1 track). Grimes also gave us her own year-end list which included things like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, and Swans.

More pics from the Pier 84 show below...

Continue reading "previously unposted pics: Grimes, Wild Nothing, and Diiv"

Brooklyn Bowl during a Deer Tick show (more by Tracy Allison)

As you probably know, we've been posting a bunch of year-end lists from artists this year, and we've also posted a few from venue guys like Josh Moore and Johnny Beach from Bowery Presents, Jack "Skippy" McFadden of Emo's in Austin, and Andy Bodor from Cake Shop. Now we've got a top 10 albums list from Brooklyn Bowl talent buyer (aka booker) Adam Geringer-Dunn. You can see Adam's full list below.

Brooklyn Bowl is where Lucero (who gave us two year-end lists) are beginning their New Year's Eve run. The country punks will play a two-night stand at the Brooklyn venue on Friday (12/28) with Nude Beach and Saturday (12/29) with Hollis Brown. Tickets for night 1, night 2, or both nights are still available, and we're also giving away a 2-day pass. Details on how to enter to win are below. Lucero also play NYE at Wellmont Theatre with The Hold Steady, which is one of many New Year's Eve options in the NYC area.

Adam Geringer-Dunn's year-end list and contest details below...

Continue reading "Adam Geringer-Dunn's (from Brooklyn Bowl) top 10 albums of 2012 +++ a chance to win a 2-day pass to Lucero"

Small Black at Brooklyn Museum in June (more by Jessica Amaya)

Today we've posted year-end lists by Andy from Cake Shop, Mark Eitzel, and James from Veronica Falls. Now we've got one from Josh Kolenik of Brooklyn chillwavers Small Black giving us a rundown of 12 singles he loved in 2012.

Based on Small Black's own sound, it's got an unsurprising amount of indie pop, R&B, electronics, and Young Chop-produced hip hop. But he also sneaks in the inclusion of some vintage-sounding psych folk courtesy of Jessica Pratt. Check out his full list of songs, along with streams and/or videos for each track, below...

Continue reading "Josh from Small Black's top songs of 2012"

Today Pitchfork posted the first half (well, first 30 albums) of their Top 50 Albums of 2012 list. There are some surprises on it, like Peaking Lights and Sharon Van Etten, who seemed more likely to end up on their Honorable Mentions list due to their relatively lower scores and the fact that most of the albums on this list were awarded Best New Music throughout the year. Cat Power and Hot Chip also make it, both of whose new albums seemed to have received less love from Pitchfork than previous releases by those artists. A Rustie Essential Mix also makes the list even though his actual album which came out last year didn't make their 2011 list. And of course the expected ones end up there too like Purity Ring, Julia Holter, Schoolboy Q, Miguel, and more. The remaining 20 will be revealed tomorrow (Friday, 12/21).

Check out their 50-30 picks below...

Continue reading "30 of Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2012"

Merchandise at WIERD in September (more by Phil Maier)

We've got about two weeks to go and still more New Year's Eve options for NYC are getting announced every day. Just yesterday it was announced that Titus Andronicus are playing Glasslands that night (tickets) and now we just found out that Tampa post-punks Merchandise will be next door at 285 Kent with Arbutus Records-signed duo Tonstartssbandht and Vermont psych pop duo Blanche Blanche Blanche. (We're hoping Merchandise will have hired a drummer by then.) The bill also features "speciial guests," and we're not sure who the special guest is, but we couldn't help but notice they spelled "speciial" with two I's. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

A list of all Merchandise dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Merchandise playing NYC on New Year's Eve with Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche & "speciial guest""