New York Dolls at Bowery Ballroom in March (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

After releasing their fifth LP earlier this year, New York Dolls celebrated with two nights at Bowery Ballroom before kicking off an extensive amount of international dates including the tour with Motley Crue and Poison that brought them to Nassau Coliseum, and most recently a short UK run with Alice Cooper. The Dolls are back home for the holidays and will round out 2011 with a hometown show on December 30 at Irving Plaza before playing New Year's Eve in Boston the next night. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now.

UPDATE: THE NYC SHOW IS CANCELLED.

Last week, Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya Beck, who released the New York Dolls Documentary All Dolled Up in 2005, released a DVD of live clips and interviews filmed of the band in the 70s titled Lookin' Fine On Television. You can purchase the DVD on Amazon and check out a clip of the band performing "Lookin For a Kiss" off the DVD below.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "NY Dolls subject of new DVD, playing end of year shows"

Boadrum777 (more here)

After events in NYC on 9/9/9 and 8/8/8 with nine and 88 drummers respectively, the original Boadrum show in DUMBO on 7/7/7 with 77 drummers will be released on video:

On July 7th, 2007 at 7:07 PM, Japanese group Boredoms, orchestrated a performance by 77 drummers at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, NY. Nearly three years later, the experience is finally making its way to DVD. 77 Boa Drum is the official live performance documentary of the event, complete with behind the scenes rehearsal footage, interviews, and of course, lots of footage of the actual performance.

The momentous event was filmed by Jun Kawaguchi and his crew, web-TV sites like VBS TV, Viva-Radio, and several unknown You Tube cameramen. Kawaguchi, a big fan of Boredoms, had spent a decade chronicling the band's live performances and the 77 Boa Drum concert was no different. After editing his footage together with live footage captured and posted on You Tube, the 89 minute documentary was born.

The DVD will see release in the US on Thrill Jockey Records on September 7th and come with a series of photo postcards not available in the Japanese edition.

The movie is being screened on Wednesday, September 1st @ IndieScreen (285 Kent Avenue) at 8 and 10PM. Dig on the trailer, cover art, as well as more YouTube videos (some of them which might be on the DVD) from that show, below...

Continue reading "77 Boa Drum coming to DVD & to a theater in Brooklyn"

by BBG

Mogwai at Music Hall of Williamsburg (more by Ryan Muir)

Mogwai's first live album [Special Moves] will be released on Rock Action Records this spring.. alongside the live film Burning. The formats will be CD and DVD and limited deluxe triple vinyl box set which will also include the dvd of Burning, set lists and a poster. [Burning]... comprises footage shot over three nights at sold-out shows in Brooklyn on April 27th (pics), 28th (pics) and 29th, 2009 at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg.

And now the circle is complete, as Mogwai will also screen Burning at Music Hall of Williamsburg on August 24th. Tickets are $5 and on sale Wed 6/16 at noon.

Special Moves is currently up for preorder in digital, CD/DVD, and deluxe formats.

Album tracklisting and a trailer for the film, and all places it is screening, below...

Continue reading "Mogwai live DVD will screen in the venue where it was filmed (and other places)"

"Sundance Channel will premiere the second season of its critically acclaimed music/talk original series "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 10:00pm et/pt. "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." combines the best elements of talk and music television and lets viewers in on intimate conversation and performance with host Costello and his guests ranging from legendary performers to promising new artists...

"We're thrilled to launch a second season of 'Spectacle' on Sundance Channel," said Sundance Channel EVP and GM, Sarah Barnett. "The series offers viewers unprecedented access to artists through its mix of candid conversations and exciting musical performances. This season's A-list line-up is a testament to the level of respect that artists feel for Elvis Costello as a musician and entertainer."

"I am delighted that we can continue where we left off--making intelligent, and informative music programming," said Sir Elton John, one of the series' executive producers.

Elvis Costello commented: "In the words of the great Joe Strummer, 'Let's Rock again!'""

Meanwhile, the first season of Spectacle is coming out on DVD ("in standard DVD and Blu-Ray formats"). And to promote that, Elvis will be appearing at Barnes & Noble Tribeca on Tuesday, November 17th, which is the same day the DVD is released. "Fans will have the opportunity to meet Elvis Costello and get their DVD or Blu- Ray copy signed by him." I guess no performance. His only upcoming date at the moment is Wilkes Community College's MerleFest in North Carolina on May 1, 2010.

A clip of Elvis talking to Smokey Robinson, below...

Continue reading "Elvis Costello's appearing at Barnes & Noble on Spectacle DVD release day, season two of TV show premieres in Dec"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Smith Westerns - Be My Girl (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sondre Lerche - Good Luck (MP3)

After what seems like an entire summer's worth of epic weekends, this one is looking pretty quiet, music-wise. No surprise, as it's Memorial Labor Day which is usually a dead time for shows. But that's not to say there's nothing going on. Chicago's glam-rocking teenagers The Smith Westerns are back in town after touring with Los Campesinos and Girls. While a good chunk of their self-titled debut is so Marc Bolan it seems like an exercise in style appropriation, they do it really well. It's not new, but it's new to them and that makes it work I think. They play tonight (9/2) at Monster Island Basement with Titus Andronicus and the So So Glos; Vassar College tomorrow (9/3); and a late show at Bruar Falls on Friday (9/4) (tentative replacement for the show they had scheduled at Swat Bar). They also list a show on Saturday (9/5) as "under the High Line" but what that means, exactly, well your guess is as good as mine.

Comet Gain @ MHOW in April (more by Tim Griffin)

The most exciting show of the weekend, in my opinion, is happening at Cake Shop on Saturday (9/5). Cinema Red and Blue is a Comet Gain side project featuring frontman David Feck, as well as that band's Anne Laure and Hoffner Burns. They're actually in town to record their album at Gary Olson's Marlborough Studios in Brooklyn and decided to play a show while here. I ran into Feck at a show on Monday and he told me that the album is about half covers and to expect the same from the live show. He rattled off a bunch of the songs they're covering but the only one I remember now is a Julian Cope song from his 1989 album Skellington. The band will be augmented live by former Comet Gain / current Soft City member Phil Sutton, plus JB, Andy and Kyle from Crystal Stilts. I have to imagine Gary Olson will contribute trumpet to at least one song. This should be fun.

The whole Cake Shop bill is pretty good, with Kyle Forrester pulling triple duty: keyboards in Ladybug Transistor, and saxophone in German Measles. Ladybug Transistor are one of the NYC indie world's elder statesmen and their lush sound is cool and easy like a late summer breeze. On the other end of the scale, German Measles are usually a jokey mess onstage, I saw them on Monday at Bruar Falls and they actually approached something you could might call competence. Maybe they're getting serious? Opening the night at Cake Shop are the budget baroque sounds of Jacques Detergent.

Sondre Lerche @ Bowery Ballroom in 2008 (more by Faith Ann-Young)

And looking forward to the early part of next week, Sondre Lerche is playing Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday (9/8), which is the same day as the release of his sixth album, Heartbeat Radio. (He plays Music Hall of Williamsburg the next night.) The 27-year-old Norwegian, now Williamsburg resident, has the charms to hold the attention of a Bowery or MHoW-sized crowd by himself, which is how he usually plays in NYC, but I do wish he'd bring his ace band, The Faces Down, to America at some point, as we deserve to hear his songs get the full-on treatment live. Heartbeat Radio is another winner, I think, maybe his best yet -- with Sondre displaying more confidence in his songwriting and ease in his arrangements. (He's also been listening to a lot of Prefab Sprout, I think, with the album's "I Cannot Let You Go" clearly being a tip-of-the-hat to Paddy McAloon.) You can sample album-opener "Good Luck" at the top of this post. And whether he's with band or solo, he is always entertaining.

And finally, as this is a light week, I thought I'd point out that the essential 1980 concert film URGH! A Music War has finally made its way to DVD. For those of a certain generation, this seminal document of the punk/post-punk/new wave scene was seen every other weekend on USA Network's weekend Night Flight and blew minds with footage of Gang of Four, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cramps, Wall of Voodoo and more. Since then it's shown up on cable and film festivals in about 17 different versions, with some performances being cut for music rights reasons and other legal whatnot. These reasons have also kept it from DVD, much like the first to Decline of Western Civilization films, to the point where I thought they'd never get a legit release. I'm still not sure how legit this is either (read URGH! performer Jim Skafish's blog post about it), but you can buy it via the Warner Archive which has made available hundreds of films that the studio has deemed otherwise unworthy of proper releases. They actually burn you a DVD-R of the movie. You don't get proper menus or any extras beyond the trailer or even proper chapter breaks (they divide it up into 10 minute sections), but the picture quality is good (anamorphic widescreen), and it's almost the whole film. (Sorry, Splodgenessabounds, your footage isn't here.) And it sounds good too -- they did a great job recording the bands. And just to have the footage of Klaus Nomi, The Cramps and Gary Numan, it's worth the $19.99.

There's a few choice clips from URGH below, as well as tour dates fliers and general etc...

Continue reading "Smith Westerns, Sondre Lerche, Cinema Red & Blue (Comet Gain), URGH! A Music War & more in This Week in Indie "

The auction for premium Housing Works Bjork seats ends at 6:00 pm. As of this post, the current prices range from $550-$800.

Bjork, as well as The White Stripes, Beck, Paul McCartney, Radiohead and many others appear on a new Michel Gondry DVD (pictured above). Details below...

Continue reading "Bjork ticket auction ending, Michel Gondry's new video DVD"

by Black Bubblegum

Insanely prolific leaders of the NWOFHM (that's New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal), Circle, have a DVD called Saturnus Reality on the way. It's out March 10th via No Quarter, and you can also catch it at a FREE screening on Friday March 13th at Monkeytown in Brooklyn. Retro-rockers Endless Boogie will DJ the event.

Circle recently dropped the live 2LP Triumph on Fourth Dimension Records. Pick that up here. Before that they released Hollywood which was one of only TWO releases for the Finns in 2008.... slack much? In 2007, Circle released two LPs (including a collaboration with Sunburned Hand Of The Man), two live albums and a seven inch. In 2006 it was two LPs, two live albums, an EP and .... ah you get where I am going with this.

More details on the screening, and a video preview of the movie, below...

Continue reading "Circle releasing a DVD - video preview & free screening info "

Paul McCartney Nutcracker, Seattle, 2007 (cred)

....I feel like I made the right decision, because right after I left, EMI got sold, so obviously something was wrong. They are now in new hands and are applying themselves and they're going to bring themselves into the modern world. This is the point. They were floundering. Like a lot of these record companies, they were in the old world and they needed to enter the new world. It's not just me. Look at Radiohead's new outing. Artists are taking it into their own hands again, and it's really showing the record companies that it's time they get their act together. It's not the end of the world for EMI, they are like family to me. But the funny thing was, they understood. I'd told people I'd known for years at the label, "Hey, guys, I've gotta make this move." And some of them said quietly, off the record, "I really don't blame you, man."....... [Paul McCartney to Chicago Tribune]

Help! is finally out on DVD...

Continue reading "Paul McCartney on Radiohead & labels, Help! on DVD"

This list (though annoying because you have to view 25 pages to read the whole list) caught my attention because I can never decide what movie to rent. What did Rolling Stone miss?