Florence at Creators Project in 2011 (more by Ryan Barkan)

Florence and the Machine have an extensive international tour scheduled which includes the Summer Soul Festival in Brazil this week, a number of summer festivals, and many headlining shows in between. They'll make their way over to North American in April and May surrounding their performances at Coachella. The tour hits NYC on May 8 at Radio City Music Hall with support from Blood Orange. Tickets are on AmEx presale now and go on sale to the general public on Friday (1/27) at 9 AM. While Florence is in the area, she'll also play Mohegan Sun Arena in CT (5/11) and the Borgata in Atlantic City (5/12). All dates are listed below.

Florence's most recent single from 2011's Ceremonials, "No Light, No Light" was released last week b/w remixed by Dave Sitek and Breakage. You can purchase it on iTunes or grab the limited edition on vinyl via Flotique. The video for this track is below.

Speaking of Blood Orange, you can catch him in NYC much sooner when he plays his first headlining NYC show at Glasslands on February 25 with support from D-Video and Physical Therapy (DJ). Tickets are still available.

Speaking of bands playing Coachella and Radio City, Pulp also just announced a NYC show.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "Florence & the Machine announces tour, playing Radio City w/ Blood Orange (dates)"

Dev Hynes w/ CANT @ Mercury Lounge in 2011 (more)

Blood Orange, aka the R&B-leaning solo project of Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion (ex-Test Icicles), was in Australia for a couple shows earlier this month, possibly losing some of his equipment along the way. "I want to go home. I love NYC," the NYC-via-the-UK musician wrote on his Tumblr after reporting a theft last week (bummer!).

Though slightly more rare lately, there have been plenty of chances to catch Blood Orange around town since Dev started using that name in 2009. Apparently none of them have been headlining shows though because Dev will play his first headlining Blood Orange show in the city at Glasslands on February 25. Tickets are on sale now.

Dev released Coastal Grooves, his Chris Taylor co-produced debut LP for his Blood Orange moniker, last year. You can buy it on eMusic and watch the video for album single "Sutphin Boulevard" below. The "Dinner" 7" is still on sale now at Chris' Terrible Records, though they note: "FEW MORE LEFT. HOT." Listen to that single below too.

In other news, Dev and Pharrell Williams have been producing the new album for Solange Knowles (who recently became an aunt).

"Dev was a complete surprise, his role changed substantially throughout the process," Solange says of the singer-songwriter who's written for Florence and the Machine, the Chemical Brothers and more. "It's very rare that you work with someone with whom you have this creative chemistry, it's almost like a relationship. You have a sort of musical love affair." [Billboard]

The new album will be released sometime this year.

Blood Orange video/songs below...

Continue reading "Blood Orange headlining a show; Solange album coming soon"

CANT @ Mercury Lounge

Considering their set time was 1am last night (8/30), I guess technically CANT played their debut show at Mercury Lounge today (8/31). Backed by three band members including Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange who also opened the free Spotify-sponsored show, Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor ran through a set of R&B infused songs we'll get to hear studio versions of soon. His debut album Dreams Come True is out September 13 via Terrible Records. I can never remember song names but BQ points out he loved "Answer," "Bericht" and "The Edge." You can watch audience video footage of "She Found A Way Out" and "Bang" below.

Missed the show and can't wait until October to see CANT? Chris Taylor and Co just announced another NYC show happening TONIGHT (8/31) at Glasslands with Steel Phantoms (Album Release Party) and Quinn Walker (from Suckers).

More pictures from last night (Blood Orange coming later), and those videos, below...

Continue reading "CANT played their 1st show @ Mercury Lounge (pics & video), playing second show TONIGHT @ Glasslands"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Emmy the Great visited the US for a couple of shows earlier this month. Her band wasn't able to make it over for the shows but Emmy enlisted the help of Brooklyn band SpaceCamp to back her. After touching down in the US she played a show in Philly on August 17 and then came to NYC's Studio at Webster Hall the next night (8/18). She played a set mainly of material off her recently released LP Virtue, saving time for a few older cuts as well. She ended the show by bringing out Devonte Hynes (aka Blood Orange) to join her for a cover of Weezer's "Island in the Sun."

Joywave opened the NYC show. More pictures and a video are below...

Continue reading "Emmy the Great (and Joywave, Spacecamp & Dev Hynes) @ The Studio (pics & video)"

Solange & Ed...

Her recent credits include playing with Dirty Projectors at Fashion Week and singing with Of Montreal at Highline and Terminal 5. Now Solange is DJing at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday, June 18th. I'm not totally sure if she's a good DJ or not, but tickets are on sale.

That's her in the picture above with her friend Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear who maybe she'll be checking out Sunday at Williamsburg Waterfront (again).

Grizzly Bear also have a NYC show coming up later in the summer at Governors Island with the Walkmen (tickets are still on sale). The Walkmen have just announced a new album! Pitchfork reports:

"Yesterday, we reported that Interpol's new album comes out September 14. As it turns out, September 14 will be a big day for bruised, world-weary New York indie rock, since that's also the date that Fat Possum will release Lisbon, the new album from the Walkmen.

The band recorded the follow-up to 2008's You & Me over two years, working in warehouses in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. They also wrote a few songs on trips to the Portuguese city that gave the album its title. St. Vincent/Mountain Goats/Thermals knob-twiddler John Congleton produced the 11-song album, and Passion Pit/Les Savy Fav veteran Chris Zane engineered it."

As Pitchfork said right there, Interpol's new album is coming soon too, and their old label Matador will be releasing it in the US! In the UK it will be Interpol's "own newly formed label, Soft Limit" that puts it out on September 13th (one day before the US). More details below. Interpol, now with a new 5-person lineup, are playing a free NYC show on June 26th.

Back to Solange for s second... She blogs that that she is in the process of finishing her new, indie (as in not on her former label, Interscope) album with indie rocker Dev from Lightspeed Champion (something that was originally reported a while back). That update is below...

Continue reading "Interpol (on Matador!), the Walkmen & Solange Knowles (who is DJing Brooklyn Bowl) are releasing new albums "

North 4th is the new bar/venue that took over the space at 160 North 4th between Bedford and Driggs. Somewhat low key at the moment (no website), the place has started having shows including this one that happens there tonight (4/9):

Translations
Rewards (aaron pfenning (ex-chairlift), angus t (bachelor of arts), dev (lightspeed champion, test icicles)
Landlady
Erika Spring (of Au Revoir Simone)

An updated picture of the venue below...

Continue reading "North 4th is a new venue sort of (members of Au Revoir Simone, Chairlift, Lightspeed Champion & others tonight) "

Lightspeed Champion @ MHOW in July (more by Bao Nguyen)

Lightspeed Champion's second LP, Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, is coming out in the US on February 16th (Feb. 1 for UK) on Domino Records. Behind the controls for the album is producer Ben Allen, whose past work includes Gnarls Barkley and his label-mates Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Before the record is out, you can catch Dev Hynes & band at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on Thursday, January 21st. Tickets for the show are on sale now.

He put out a video for the album's first single "Marlene," which will be released on a 10" paired with covers of Serge Gainsbourg's "69 Année Érotique (feat. Valentine Fillol-Cordier)" and '50s singing trio the Fleetwoods' "(He's) The Great Imposter." The video and single info are below.

Despite having recorded Life Is Sweet! in early 2009, Hynes has a had a busy year, both home recording (which he's been sharing online) and performing unique shows, like covering Cat Stevens's soundtrack to Harold & Maude live with the film.

A full detailing of what he's been up to (including working with Solange Knowles (who isn't?), Basement Jaxx and Van Dyke Parks), the new video and new album info are below...

Continue reading "Lightspeed Champion releasing 2nd album + a NYC show, collaborations w/ Solange, Florence, Van Dyke Parks & more"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Max Tundra - "Which Song" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Max Tundra - Playboy (Hot Chip) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Max Tundra - promo mix 2008 (MP3)

Max Tundra

Enigmatic Brit artist Max Tundra has been releasing music for 10 years but only just released his third album, Parallax Error Beheads You, back in October -- his first in six years. One of the reasons for being such a slowpoke probably has something to do with the way he makes them:

The main technology behind this and all of my albums has been the Commodore Amiga 500 - bestselling home computer at the time - running a $1 public domain software tracker program. The sounds don't emerge from the Amiga itself however; the machine is used to control various synths, samplers and the like. I look at columns of numbers all day on the screen of a black and white television; these digits relate to pitches, durations and tones. A lot of the noises on my record are real; the cello, bass guitar, drums, piano, trumpet and others are all rehearsed and played by me, but sometimes I will use realistic fake versions of these noises. Each song is recorded in a different way; drumkits are recorded on mono cassette recorders twice, then stuck together on the left and right of a mix; string arrangements are planned and then layered up; each note of an electric guitar is sampled so that it can be sequenced in ways too complicated for my fat fingers to play at full speed. And then I have a cup of tea and sing my heart out.

Seems like a painstaking and annoying way to make a record to me, but there's no denying the results: his albums don't sound like anybody else's. (Well, maybe just a little like Scritti Politti.) Max is making his NYC live debut this week, opening for The Rosebuds at Bowery Ballroom on Friday (1/16, tickets) and a headlining FIXED show at Le Poisson Rouge on Saturday (1/17, tickets). I'm curious to see how he'll pull it off his music in a live setting as well as how much equipment he'll have. What concert reviews of his I've read have been favorable (like this one from December).

Darren Hanlon

A few more options for you this week. Australian singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon has two NYC shows this week: tonight (1/13) at Googies (above The Living Room), and tomorrow (1/14) at the Bell House where he'll be trading off songs with Graham Smith of Kleenex Girl Wonder in the venue's front lounge. It's a free show. Hanlon's shows are as well known for his witty between-song stories and banter as he is his lovely folk-pop, so if you are fans of Billy Bragg, Robyn Hitchcock or fellow Aussies The Lucksmiths (with whom Hanlon spent a brief stint in the late '90s). He's a charmer.

As I mentioned a while back, Ida Maria is in town this week playing Mercury Lounge on Thursday (1/15) and Union Hall on Friday (1/16) and I am super-psyched for this. Both shows are sold out, but Union Hall usually has a few tickets available night of show if you get there right as doors open (which is 8PM, but Ida's not on till 10).

Also this week: The Muslims make their first New York appearances since switching their name to The Soft Pack. Their EP, which made my Best of 2008 list and has already sold out two vinyl pressings, is getting re-pressed in February under the new moniker with an additional three songs. Maybe they'll have those with them at the merch table for these shows? They play Mercury Lounge on Friday (1/16) and Union Pool on Saturday (1/17). Both shows also feature their 1928 Recordings label-mates the Browns.

Speaking of name changes, SpaceKamp, who I've written about before, now spell their name as SpaceCamp. Same great sound, now with more C. In addition to working with Adam Green, Spacecamp are helping Dev Hynes with the new Lightspeed Champion record as well. (Video of Dev and Spacecamp in the studio below.) They play Zebulon on Friday (1/16) and maybe you can quiz them on the new spelling if you go.

Videos and such after the jump...

Continue reading "Max Tundra, Darren Hanlon, SpaceCamp, Soft Pack, Ida Maria & more in this Week in Indie"