Evacuate to the Bell House tonight (8/26) to catch a show by punk veterans Deniz Tek & Ivan Julian, but then stay away for the rest of the weekend because David Kilgour & Richard Buckner and the rest of Saturday & Sunday's shows at both the Bell House and Union Hall are all cancelled.

With our Ted Leo show cancelled too, there's now a lot less music to see in Park Slope this weekend.

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: BNLX - Living in Exile (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: BNLX - Vaporize (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: BNLX - Dance Dance Dance (on the Radio) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Senator (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Tigers (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Male Bonding - "Bones" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Male Bonding - Tame the Sun (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights - Diamond Mine (MP3)

I guess we'll start this week with Stephen Malkmus who is doing two in stores on Thursday: Academy Records in Williamsburg at 6pm and then Other Music at 9PM. His new album Mirror Traffic, as you may know, was produced by Beck. I'm not sure what that was supposed to connote (more acoustic guitars? L. Ron Hubbard references?) but it's a pretty typical Malkmus solo album with some tight pop songs ("Tigers," downloadable above, and "Stick Figures in Love") and maybe a little more focused and less jammy than he's been in a while. But not much less jammy.

I'm the guy that thought his first solo album was a step in the right direction and has been somewhat ambivalent by what's followed since. But they're always worth hearing. Malkmus and the now Weiss-less Jicks are on tour next month and all upcoming tour dates are at the bottom of this post, along with the video for "No One Is (As I Are Be)."

Voluminous and enigmatic Minneapolis duo BNLX are visiting this week, playing The Rock Shop tonight (8/24) and Pianos on Thursday (8/25). This is their third trip to NYC, and the first since releasing the 6th release in their quarterly EP series. It's description in typical BNLX corporate-speak:

BNLX commences the next phase in the BNLX First One Year Plan (extension two) with its sixth consecutive quarterly EP release of "music." These compositions combine rhythmically-expressed poetry in popular idiomatic vernacular ("rhymes") with pulsating percussive elements ("beats") and harmonic modulations/variations/transpositions (melody). The resulting unique juxtaposition of auditory and narrative elements can only be described as "music". Thematic topics on this release include IED's, event horizons, beards and banjos, and deposed royalty. "Vaporize" leads off the EP with a high-energy blast of high velocity psychedelic noise pop.

Three of the four EP tracks are available to download at the top of this post. What I really like about BNLX is that they seem to be doing this for fun and it really translates to the songs, and to the listener. This is well-tread territory, but it's a pleasure to crank up loud. Or to go see live. BNLX are an aural (LOUD) and visual (strobes, smoke machines) assault in concert and it works. Go see 'em.

The Rock Shop show is with Delaware's Sky Drops; the Pianos show also has Jeane (who I finally saw last week, liked 'em), Phone Home and Ventilader.

Speaking of regimented release schedules, Violens have been releasing a digital single every month this year, the latest of which, "Through the Window," is my favorite so far. With a skittering drumbeat and delay-drenched arpeggiated guitars, it sounds a little like Kitchens of Distinction (if you remember that early '90s band). Violens will be playing a lot of their new material tonight (8/24) at Glasslands.

The rest of tonight's bill is also worth checking out. Dive is the new band from Zachary Cole Smith who used to play drums (and wear mom jeans) in Beach Fossils. (He's also played in Soft Black and with Darwin Deez.) The one track I've heard is definitely a bit Fossil-ized, but am curious to hear more and see what they're like live. Dive play again on September 1 at Shea Stadium with Caged Animals and Forest Fire.

Opening the Glasslands show is Philadelphia's psych-shoegazers Arc in Round. whose most recent EP is cacauphonous and captivating...and sound like they might be very good live.

---

Personal and the Pizzas are delivering in our area this weekend: Friday (8/26) at Maxwell's and Saturday (8/27) at Death by Audio. If you like good time Ramones style rock n' roll, and pizza (with extra cheese) you're gonna have a good time. I don't know what else to tell ya. There's video at the bottom of this post.

Lastly, we've got Male Bonding rolling into town: Glasslands on Saturday (8/27) and Mercury Lounge on Monday (8/29). The UK band's new album, Endless Now, is out next week and as mentioned before it moves away from the swampy sound of their debut into defiant mid-fi. Any more fidelity with melodic punk like this and you might start getting into Blink-182 territory. This album is as produced as it needs to be and is a pretty fun listen with just enough shoegaze nods to keep old guys like me interested. You can download two songs off it at the top of this post.

The band are on tour with Austin's Love Inks who are 180 degrees from Male Bonding's sound: gentle, minimal, croony. The jury is still out on their live show (my jury at least) but I do really like their album.

That's the main stuff I'm talking about this week. A few more worthy picks -- day by day -- are below.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24

Head to Pianos to catch dark and sexy ZAZA,  who play with Australian group Sherlock's Daughter who are on an extended New York holiday, as well as My Best Fiend, Our Mountain, and Alak.

continued below...

Continue reading "Stephen Malkmus, BNLX, Male Bonding, Violens, David Kilgour, Dive, Joe Pernice & more in This Week in Indie"

DOWNLOAD: RIchard Buckner - "Traitor" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Kilgour - "Chord" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Kilgour - "Son of God" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Kilgour - "Sept 98" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: David Kilgour - "BBC World" (MP3)

Richard Buckner

RIchard Buckner is releasing his new LP Our Blood on August 2 via Merge. You can pre-order the album at the Merge webstore now and check out the lead track, "Traitor," above.

He'll go on an August tour in support of the album with his Merge labelmate David Kilgour of The Clean. That tour hits NYC on August 27 at The Bell House. Tickets are on sale now. Richard Buckner will also play Truck America in the Catskills in September. All dates are listed below.

David Kilgour offers some free song downloads on his website of songs not available elsewhere. Grab a few of those tracks above. David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights' new CD Left by Soft is out now on Merge where you can also stream it.

All tour dates and a video of David performing the title track on his new album, below...

Continue reading "Richard Buckner & David Kilgour going on tour, have new albums on Merge (MP3 & dates)"

by Andrew Frisicano

I snuck this picture of the t-shirt...

"Chris Knox (born September 2, 1952) is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist, and DVD reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate, much loved for their honest, unpolished sound and intense live shows. His 4-track machine was used to record most of the early Flying Nun singles." [Wiki]

Jeff Mangum played a set of Neutral Milk Hotel songs for the first time in nine years at the benefit for his friend, musician Chris Knox, last night, Thursday, May 6th. From opener "Oh Comely" to encore "Engine," and "A Baby For Pree," "Two Headed Boy Pt. Two" and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" in between, Mangum's voice was clear and strong as he sang from a chair into microphones set up a few feet away. Most of the audience looked somewhere between giddy excitement and shock. Some quietly sang along, others broke out into tears - one person choked on frantic, shallow breaths as "Oh Comely" climaxed, another stood with his hand over his gaping mouth, unable to move.

A few photos were furtively snapped in defiance of the posted signs, but most were content to just listen. Though "just listen" doesn't really describe the gasps, tears and unending applause. Mangum played with his eyes mostly closed, neck vein tensed, rocking and swooping to the contours of the songs. His eyelids fluttered open on the chorus of "A Baby for Pree" to reveal eyes rolled back into his head. Between songs Mangum gulped down water and was gracious, bordering on triumphant as he popped up at the end of "Aeroplane." He encouraged the crowd to contribute to the encore, "Engine." After the set, someone caught his attention with a book to sign, which he did. Most people up front looked anxious and ready for a post-show smoke.

It was fitting maybe that the bill for Mangum's last show, in 2001 in New Zealand, was with Chris Knox, who suffered a stroke in 2009. Though Jeff Mangum was a clear pinnacle, the rest of the benefit gig was an engaging, full evening which covered 12 bands and 2 comedians, and ran more than five and a half hours (though at least 1/3 of the venue cleared out after Mangum's 8:50pm set). The show ended at 1am, amazingly, exactly as scheduled.

Coasting (set time: 6:20pm) opened up with appropriately coastal guitar sounds and surefire drums, Sharon Van Etten played three songs with nuanced dynamics on electric guitar. The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson played only one song as a trebly synth trio to cover "Beauty" which the band does on the Chris Knox tribute CD Stroke.

Robert Scott (of the Clean) and TVOTR's Kyp Malone (aka Rain Machine) both played solo guitar sets. Kyp, who told the crowd they should check out the new Devendra Banhart video (he checked it out in a cafe because he doesn't have internet), was joined by Emilyn Brodsky for what he said was a Bob Marley cover. Rachel Feinstein did raunchy comedy.

After that, there was New Zealand band Dimmer (who are in town for a while), The Mad Scene (Hamish Kilgour of the Clean's other band), David Kilgour of The Clean (backed by Yo La Tengo and one other band member) and comedy from John Mulaney (who killed it) (and who you may have seen doing a bit about girl scout cookies on a recent episode of SNL).

"Portastatic" was Mac backed by Yo La Tengo. They closed with Superchunk's "Slack Motherfucker" complete with windmill guitar moves and pogoing from some of the crowd (even though the concert was going into its fifth hour at this point). Yo La Tengo, with extra member David Kilgour on guitar, covered a Chris Knox song, said many kind words about Chris and closed with two songs from their 1993 album Painful, which Chris Knox contributed art work to.

The Clean, who Ira introduced as the greatest band in the world, and who'd already been up several times as their solo bands, closed the night right, both jangly and poppy. And despite the mass exodus after Jeff, a respectable amount of people were still there right until the last song. Catch the Clean again (if you have a ticket because it's sold out) at The Bell House tonight (5/7).

Editor's note: Ben Goldberg did an amazing job organizing the event, keeping scalpers away, and making sure that pretty much every person in that venue (except maybe the bartenders) paid their $75 donation to Chris Knox to get in the door (or $20 if you showed up after Jeff went off). Ben did less of an amazing job during his pre-Yo La Tengo stand up routine, but nobody's perfect!

Illegally shot (not by us!) audio and video from the event, and the new Devendra Banhart video, and Jeff Mangum's setlist again, below...

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum, The Clean, Yo La Tengo, Portastatic & friends played for Chris Knox @ LPR - review, setlist, video & pic "

The dB's @ Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ - Dec 6, 2007 (CRED)

more below...

Continue reading "Jim James, Superchunk Mac, John Oliver & Eugene Mirman as Hanukkah w/ Yo La Tengo continues"

DOWNLOAD: The Clean - Tally Ho (MP3)

I saw The Clean at Cake Shop on Saturday night (Dec 1, 2007). It was sweet...

the Clean played a career-spanning smattering of songs, augmented at one point by guitar from Richard Davies (formerly of the criminally underrated Moles). At a time when so many bands of the Clean's stature are cashing in on outsized reunion tours, the whole evening was nothing short of inspiring. [Pfork]

Yep, that's Ira sitting to the right of Joly in the front row. He was way into it. Georgia was there too (she even played guitar with opener Times New Viking The Mad Scene). That's when it occured to me that The Clean were probably going to open one of the eight Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows this week. And they did - and on the rumored night - aka last night at Maxwell's (Dec 5, 2007).

The show I went to was one of five scheduled Clean shows - four of which were in NYC, and three of which were at Cake Shop. The other NYC show was at Other Music. Maxwell's was their sixth show in two weeks. I'm not sure when their next show will be, but they say they're planning on touring when their new album comes out - the album they're working on right now. Their last new album came out six years ago.

The dB's open the third Hanukkah show tonight (Dec 6, 2007).
Versus opened the first night.

DOWNLOAD: Big Dipper - Shes Fetching (MP3)

$493??? Well, it is for charity, so that's good. For a more affordable donation, the David Kilgour autographed poster is still available for less than $50. David Kilgour plays Cake Shop tonight, tomorrow and the next day. Keep checking Merge's auctions through Christmas - they'll also be selling posters autographed by Robert Pollard, M. Ward, Oakley Hall, Spoon, The Rosebuds, Superchunk, Portastatic, and Destroyer. Or just screw charity, and check out Merge's holiday sale.

Robert Pollard is having an art show at Studio Dante in Manhattan in December. Listen to Spoon on NPR. Big Dipper is releasing an anthology. Polvo are reuniting for ATP. Every single Merge tour date, below...

Continue reading "signed Arcade Fire poster @ $493, Robert Pollard art"

The Clean played Other Music yesterday (about 8-9 songs), and they're playing Cake Shop on November 29th, 30th & December 1st. Cake Shop's MySpace says, "(no advance tickets. to rsvp, send an email to cakeshopnyc@gmail.com specifying the amount you need and the day you want.)". They're also playing Philly on December 2nd.

The Clean were a band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band (usually a trio), forged a distinctive and quirky sound that relied heavily on organ melodies and simple chord progressions.

See who else is playing Other Music.