As mentioned, dreampop veterans Lorelei play Mercury Lounge tonight (2/27). The show is also a record release party for NYC's Dead Leaf Echo, whose debut album, Thought & Language, is out next week. It was produced by John Fryer who, in addition to being one of two constants in 4AD legends This Mortal Coil, has worked on such alt-rock touchstones as Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell, Cocteau Twins' Head Over Heels, Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine, and Chapterhouse's Whirlpool. If your shoegaze taste veers towards Slowdive, you should check them out if you haven't already. You can stream "Memorytrace" and check out the video for "Kingmaker" below.

Tickets are still available for tonight's show which is part of a tour for Dead Leaf Echo. After their stint with Lorelei, they'll continue on towards the beast that is SXSW. All tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Dead Leaf Echo releasing debut LP; NYC record release show is tonight, touring to SXSW "

by Bill Pearis

As you may remember, OG dreampoppers Lorelei dropped their first album in ages last year, Enterprising Sidewalks. It pretty much picks up right where they left off, full of chiming, swirling guitars and hazy melodies. You can stream it below (via Spotify). We've also got the premiere of the video for "Hole Punch" from the album which, fitting the title, seems to have been made in the copy room of someone's office. Nice use of the shredder, guys! You can watch it below.

Lorelei are kicking off a short run of dates tonight (2/27) in NYC at Mercury Lounge with Dead Leaf Echo. Tickets are still available and all tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Lorelei made a new video, touring, NYC tonight (dates)"

Ringo Deathstarr at SXSW 2011 (more by Bill Pearis)

" I call a lot of things shoegaze, but these three have the classic '90s sound -- including Kevin Shields' glide guitar style -- down pat. Some seriously catchy songwriting keeps it out of pastiche territory. They are good and loud on the Palm Door patio, my first of many Lone Star tallboys of the week in hand, and it's a great start to the fest." [Bill]

Ringo Deathstarr, who just played Chaos in Tejas this past weekend (we didn't catch them though), will support Trail of Dead on a week-long run directly before heading out on a three week headlining tour at the end of June. The tour stops at Brooklyn's Shea Stadium on July 3 with Vandelles, Heaven, and Dead Leaf Echo.

Ringo Deathstarr released Colour Trip back in March. Check out a soundcloud stream of the entire album HERE, and the video for "So High" and more dates below...

Continue reading "Ringo Deathstarr album streaming, band touring (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

The Depreciation Guild

For fans of Shoegaze/Dreampop/etc, the Bell House is where you want to be tonight (1/8) for a free show with locals The Depreciation Guild, Dead Leaf Echo, and Luxa. I'm quite fond of The Depreciation Guild's most recent album, In Her Gentle Jaws, which you can download for free from the band's website. Mixing heavy and heavily-treated guitars with beats built on a Nintendo Famicom, they actually kind of remind me of me of Mew's dreamier moments. The Depreciation Guild are also going on tour with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart next month so the rest of the country will get a chance to check them out too.

As for the other two bands on the bill, I'm not familiar other than checking out their respective MySpace pages, but Dead Leaf Echo have dreampop cred: their forthcoming album was produced by John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Pale Saints), and they've had remixes done by Ulrich Schnauss. Luxa are a little more on the bliss-out side of things. No idea what any of these bands are like live, but you can't argue with the price. Also free: Brooklyn Lager from 8-9.

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Keeping things Brooklyn local, My Teenage Stride play Union Hall Friday night (1/9). The band have entirely revamped their line-up in the last six months but when I saw them at Glasslands late last year they were good as ever. If you like Lloyd Cole, the Chills, The Wedding Present and other jangly '80s indie signifiers, you should definitely seek them out, if you haven't already. My Teenage Stride also play next Thursday (1/15) at Vanishing Point Studio in Bushwick.

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Box Elders

It's already been mentioned that Michigan band Tyvek are playing three shows this weekend, one of which is at Market Hotel with Crystal Stilts. Also on that bill are Omaha trio Box Elders, who are not named after the classic Pavement song, or the tree, but the bugs that infested the house where two-thirds of the band (Jeremiah and Clayton McIntyre) grew up. (They claim they still have a snare with about 100 dead box elder bugs in it...eww.) So far the band only have one single, the excelent "Hole in My Head" which sounds a lot like New Zealand's The Clean to these ears. (Bonus points: the b-side is a cover of Redd Kross' "S&M Party.") The Box Elders are currently on a fairly extensive US tour but The Market Hotel show is their only NYC-area show so do check them out.

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And finally, this weekend marks the premiere of FUTURITY -- a musical written by local retro-futurists The Lisps. As the Lisps' shows tend to be theatrical anyway, mixing elements of vaudville and Americana and other genres, it's no real suprise they had a musical in them. Here's the blurb:

FUTURITY tells the story of Julian Munro, a lowly foot soldier in the American Civil War with an overactive imagination and a dream to be a famous writer. Through the double narrative of Julian's wartime experience ripping up Confederate railroads in southwestern Virginia, and the grimly futuristic novel he writes along the way, the musical weaves an ominous and bizarre tale of destruction, creation, and utopianism. The protagonist of Julian's novel, The Inventor, devises an omnipotent steam-powered artificial intelligence that he sees as a panacea for all of humanity's woes. The story is largely narrated by Ada Lovelace, the famous mathematician and Julian's imaginary muse. The music in FUTURITY draws inspiration from every corner of traditional Americana and contemporary indie-rock to paint a quintessentially American scene of war, antiquity, technological hubris, and outmoded conceptions of futurity.

Sounds kinda epic. FUTURITY is being performed both Friday and Saturday night at The Zipper Factory and you can get tickets here.

ALSO THIS WEEKEND: 2 Camper Van Beethoven shows

Videos, tourdates and other stuff for some the above groups after the jump...

Continue reading "the Depreciation Guild, Box Elders, My Teenage Stride, a Lisps musical & more in This Week in Indie"