by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: White Fence - Get That Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: White Wires - Be True to Your School ('Til You Get Kicked Out) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Buffalo Tom - "Arise, Watch" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Modern Skirts - Happy 81 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Modern Skirts - Bumber Car (MP3)

White Fence

It's been kind of a bummer week with way too many great musicians lost (Gerard Smith, Poly Styrene, Pheobe Snow) but Spring is finally here and, well, the beat goes on. Lots of worthy shows this week.

First up is White Fence who are making a rare trip to the East Coast this week, playing a few shows here in NYC: Thursday at 285 Kent with Woods and Spectre Folk, then Saturday (4/30) at Cake Shop. I feel fairly certain that they are also "Beige Swordfights" listed as part of a sweet Death by Audio show on Friday (4/29) that includes The Beets, Fergus and Geronimo and The Sundelles.

White Fence is Tim Presley who also fronts LA psych-rock band Darker My Love. Where that band is more groovy in a JAMC/BJM kind of way, White Fence sounds like a lost nugget from the late '60s flower power scene. White Fence released its debut on Woodsist last year, and the second album, ...Is Growing Faith, came out this January. Both records are weird and wonderful, lots of great songs made more interesting with vintage sound and old-school tape effects. If you like Love, The Left Banke or, more recently, the Lilys (to name three L bands) you'll dig White Fence's scene.

White Wires

Keeping with the color scheme, Ottowa, Ontario's White Wires are back in town for a one-off show on Thursday at Bruar Falls as part of a fun line-up of party rock and power pop. One of my favorite live bands of the last few years, White Wires play no-nonsense three-minute pop and do so with a joy you can't fake. White Wires new album, WWII, gets in and gets out in less than 30 minutes and should appeal to fans of the Nerves, early Tom Petty and The Undertones.

The rest of the show, brought to you by the good folks at Daed Pizza, looks pretty cool too with all-girl trio Babyshakes, and Games which is a new band formed from ex-members of Gentleman Jesse and Busy Signals. Obviously, this is not the synthy Games who now go by Ford & Lopatin. You can listen to this Games' swell debut single over at the Rob's House Records website.

Buffalo Tom

What else? Buffalo Tom play Bowery Ballroom on Thursday (4/28). The Boston trio were once dubbed "Dinosaur Jr. Jr." (being signed to SST and having J Mascis produce your debut, it was an easy joke) but became one of the most popular bands of the early '90s alt rock scene. 1990's Birdbrain and 1992's Let Me Come Over are indie rock classics that were unavoidable on college radio and Alternative Nation (or episodes of My So-Called Life) and still hold up.

The band went on hiatus around 2000 but returned with 2007's Three Easy Pieces and have just released a new album, Skins, which came out in February. It's pretty good. More mature, yes, but Buffalo Tom can still bring the noise too. If you have any doubt, you can download the entirety of Buffalo Tom's Mercury Lounge show from November 2010 courtesy NYC Taper. You can also check out a track from Skins at the top of this post.

Modern Skirts

And finally, Lord Huron are here on Thursday (4/28, the night of Too Many Good Shows) at Mercury Lounge. (And at tonight at MHoW with Femi Kuti) (we're giving away a pair of tickets on Facebook). I like their EP well enough, and the Merc show seems likely to sell out, so I'm really here to say if you're going do go early enough to check out North Highlands who play right before them. It's their first show in a long time, as the band have been putting finishing touches on their debut album which they've been working hard on all winter. The band are promising lots of new songs which is pretty exciting. Anyone who's seen them play know North Highlands are great live and I think 2011 is gonna be a big year for them. Go see 'em! And yeah, stay for Lord Huron I guess.

That's mostly it for this week. A few more daily picks are below:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27

Blogs may have gotten over their crush on Austin band Oh No! Oh My! but that doesn't mean they've gone stale. Hear their still-catchy indiepop tonight at The Rock Shop tonight. Go early to catch Atlanta's underrated Modern Skirts (check out two tracks at the top of this post).

Diehard, who've been busy recording their Kickstarter-funded debut album, try out some songs live at Cake Shop. One of NYC's best indie rock rock bands.

continued below...

Continue reading "White Fence, White Wires, Games (not Ford & Lopatin), Buffalo Tom, North Highlands, Modern Skirts, Yelle & more in This Week in Indie"

photos by Tracy Allison, words by Erin Allison

Tuesday night Delta Spirit played to a packed house at Webster Hall, their biggest headlining show to date. Darker My Love and The Fling opened, as they will for the remaining dates on this tour.

Long Beach natives The Fling opened the show around 8 p.m., playing a short but sweet 30 minute set. They were followed by Darker My Love (also California natives) who took the stage at 8:45 p.m. Darker My Love took small breaks in between songs to announce that there was no use in crying over spilled beer on their amp, and to thank Delta Spirit for playing the show with them. Their 9 song set included songs off their most recent album Alive as You Are, which was released this past summer.

By 10 p.m. the members of Delta Spirit started appearing on stage. The venue was packed wall-to-wall with a rambunctious, shouting audience. The band played off the crowd's energy and brought plenty of their own. Between dancing around the stage, encouraging sing alongs, copious amounts of hand clapping and a very enthusiastic fan up on stage, Delta Spirit kept the floor shaking throughout the entire set, which included a Pink Floyd cover and songs off their albums Ode to Sunshine and History From Below. Their just released five song EP entiltled The Waits Room was available as limited edition vinyl at the merch table.

Singer Matt Vasquez, who got some practice playing to the large Webster Hall crowd when he opened solo for Deer Tick on 8/13, expressed his gratitude and excitement about playing for the New York audience. Before playing "Bushwick Blues", he announced it was "for Bushwick" and dedicated "St. Francis" to non-native New Yorkers. Towards the end of the set, the enthusiasm that the audience felt became visible, with every person in attendance vigorously dancing and clapping along with the band. By 11 p.m. Delta Spirit had left the stage, but not a single person in the crowd was ready to leave and when fans demanded more music, they obliged with a two song encore consisting of "Motivation" and "People Turn Around".

More pictures from the show below...

Continue reading "Delta Spirit, Darker My Love & the Fling @ Webster Hall (pics)"

Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez @ Webster Hall (more by Tracy Allison)

Delta Spirit are on tour now, and tickets are still on sale for their headlining show at Webster Hall tonight (Tuesday, 11/23). Dangerbird-signed LA band Darker My Love (who share members with the 2007 incarnation of the Fall and who also have a song on that Target Christmas album that WAVVES/Best Coast is on) and Long Beach band The Fling open the show and the tour.

Delta Spirit just released a new EP entitled the The Waits Room which you can download now on iTunes, and get on limited edition vinyl at the merch table. Yourstru.ly, who posted a video of the band performing "Bushwick Blues" for the EP, has the story...

"Hidden in the hills of Northern California lies the bucolic town of Cotati, CA. Unbeknownst to many, a musical landmark exists there called Prairie Sun Studios, where many incredible musicians have rattled and hummed, including the venerable Tom Waits himself. And, just this year, Delta Spirit stepped into that very studio to record their soulful rocker, History From Below. In the midst of recording, the band discovered "The Waits Room," a gutted closet on the studio grounds where the man himself records to this very day. Echoes abound, the room creates a sound that reverberates until your body is lulled to rest. Although a full-fledged studio space exists, where most of the album recording took place, with roomsound like that, the band couldn't help but record tracks in there from time to time. In fact, it was such a gorgeous sound, ideal for Delta Spirit's folk-blues bliss, that they recorded an entire live EP in it. The result is the Waits Room EP, a 5-song burner..."

The "Buswhick Blues" Waits Room video with all dates (in text and special video format), below...

Continue reading "Delta Spirit on tour w/ Darker My Love, a new EP (NY tonight)"

photos by Rachel Carr, words by BBG

Audacity @ the FYF Fest Fan Appreciation Day in May

What are you doing over Labor Day weekend? Beach? ATP New York? Black Army Jacket? Chances are that if you live in LA and like your indie peppered in with a bit of stoner doom and hardcore, that you'll be at FYF Fest on September 4th at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The event will feature performances from The Rapture (who recently played a surprise show at Union Pool), Panda Bear (who is playing Governor's Island), Sleep (who play ATP the day before and NYC a few days later), the return of Unbroken (wow), !!! (who also play a Pool Party), 7 Seconds, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (who isn't retiring, is playing Siren), Screaming Females (them too), Aerial Pink's Haunted Graffiti (on tour now), Titus Andronicus... the list goes on and on.

Full lineup is below and early bird tickets ($5 cheaper) are still available, with regular sale and VIP tickets up as well.

On May 8th, FYF Fest held a Fan Appreciation Show at the Glasshouse in Pomona, and in two other locations that were right next door (including the Glass House Record Store). BV LA correspondent Rachel Carr was there. Her pictures from that show along with the full FYF Fest lineup, videos and more, below...

Continue reading "full FYF FEST 2010 lineup (Panda Bear, Unbroken, !!!, Sleep & tons more) +++ pics from Fan Appreciation"

photos by Rachel Carr

The sold-out event, concisely named "No Cancer!" hoped to raise money for Irene Garcia, the mother of a prominent L.A. scenester who was recently diagnosed with what an event volunteer would only call "an extremely rare form of cancer." All proceeds from the daylong festival -- including ticket revenues and merchandise sales -- went directly to the cause.

Organized by local indie promoting giant Sean Carlson and his team at FYF Fest [I HATE ROCK N ROLL RECORDS and VIDEOTHING.COM], "No Cancer!" brought together an eclectic group of well-known and under-the-radar bands from Los Angeles and across the country, with acts hailing from New York and Texas performing over the course of the afternoon. [Daily Trojan]

As advertised, No Age, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Cowabunga Babes, Best Coast, Nodzzz, Darker My Love and others played "No Cancer: A benefit for our Friend's Mom" in L.A. on Sunday, February 7th. Sean Carlson and FYF [update: who were NOT the organizers of this - see fixed quote above] are also the ones behind The Soft Pack's 10 shows in 10 days one weak earlier. More pictures from the benefit, with the full lineup and Vivian Girls' setlist, below...

Continue reading "No Age, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Best Coast & others played a benefit for Irene Garcia in LA - pics"

photos by Tim Griffin

"A Place To Bury Strangers release their sophomore album, "Exploding Head" via Mute October 6, 2009. The band had one simple goal during the recording process: "The original idea," says vocalist/guitarist Oliver Ackermann, "was to create the craziest, most f'ed-up recording ever."

The result is 43 mesmerizing minutes of pain as pleasure. You'll be checking the levels on your living room stereo from the moment "It Is Nothing" pulls everyone in earshot through a vortex of groove-locked rhythms and back-spun power chords (hammered out by drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono MOFO)."
-[Mute Records (part of EMI)]

Full tracklist for the new album is below.

On October 4th (two days before the album comes out), APTBS will kick off a tour in Philadelphia that lasts through October 30th. They'll make a hometown stop at Bowery Ballroom on October 29th with Dead Confederate and All the Saints. Their last hometown stop was this past Saturday at the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island. More pictures from that show with all tour dates (and all opener information), below...

Continue reading "A Place to Bury Strangers - new Mute album (tracklist), 2009 tour dates (Bowery) & more pics from the Siren Festival"