by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Pavement - Gold Soundz (MP3)

Broken Social Scene @ Masonic Temple, Oct 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Broken Social Scene will be releasing their new, as-yet-untitled album on May 4th, 2010 on Arts & Crafts. Co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto, the new album is the follow up to their acclaimed self-titled record, released in 2005.

It's hard to believe that the last BBS record came out more than four years ago. The new album's release will be accompanied by a short set of tour dates in North America and Europe. One of those will be "An Evening With Broken Social Scene" at NYC's Webster Hall on May 7th. Tickets to that are on Arts & Crafts presale now. (as are tickets for their L.A. and San Francisco shows). NYC tickets go on general sale Saturday, 2/16 at noon.

Tickets for BSS's Toronto Centre Island (Olympic Island) show on June 19th are also on sale. Toronto Island Concert will be a full-day festival with Band of Horses and co-headlined by Pavement. More acts are TBA.

Pavement, whose reunion shows are slowly creeping up, recently released the tracklist of their best-of comp, Quarantine The Past: Greatest Hits 1989-1999, coming out March 9th on Matador. Tracklist, album art and updated tour dates are below. A remastered version of "Gold Soundz" from the comp is posted above.

All BSS tour dates, the credits for the new BSS record (which included Feist and Pavement's Spiral Stairs) and more info are below...

Continue reading "Broken Social Scene - new album! & tour dates, Webster Hall & Toronto Island w/ Pavement (who has a 'Best Of' coming)"

photos by Vincent Cornelli

"On any given occasion [Do Make Say Think] are a formidable proposition, but tonight [at an October show in London,] their core six members are joined by a revolving cast of guests. All ten musicians appear across the evening, providing instrumentation and support for both the support bands here. Charles Spearin's Happiness Project and Ohad Benchitrit's Years; in essence, side-projects from the full time labour of the headliners. However, there's a genuine sense amongst the crowd that this isn't a typical 'headline + support' concert as such, but rather a collective of musicians who happen to perform under various guises, and are doing so tonight." [INDROSSI]

Do Make Say Think and the Happiness Project played their third NYC show together last night at Bowery Ballroom (11/29). The night before that it was in Brooklyn at Music Hall of Williamsburg (both were with Years). Two months earlier they shared a bill at a venue located at Columbia University (no Years). More pictures from this weekend's Brooklyn show, below...

Continue reading "Do Make Say Think, Years & The Happiness Project played Bowery Ballroom & Music Hall in NYC (pics) "

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Land of Talk / Surprise Me Mr. Davis show happening at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Do Make Say Think / Happiness Project shows coming up at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Bowery Ballroom and Brooklyn Bowl Art Brut shows coming up. Maxwell's is still on sale too.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Girls show at Bowery Ballroom. They're playing Maxwell's too, and that is still on sale as well.

DOWNLOAD: Do Make Say Think - Other Truths album sampler (MP3)

photos by Chris La Putt

Do Make Say Think

The term "wordless" was perhaps misleading, because the Broken Social Scene founding member's [Happiness] Project was rooted in language, words, and conversation. A year ago, [Charles] Spearin began inviting neighbors from his downtown Toronto neighborhood over for a series of casual interviews in which he asked them questions about happiness and its meaning.

Listening to the recordings, Spearin noticed the musicality of his subjects' voices, as well as their varied and diverse responses. He set about trying to create melodies from the responses, and enlisted his musical friends to help, ultimately arranging the melodies as songs.

[On September 10th], Spearin and other musicians (including some members of DMST) performed these songs, along with the interviews that inspired them. Beginning with bare musical imitations of the voices, the melodies grew and developed into full-fledged songs, featuring repeated sound clips from the interviews. The use of the recordings, a sort of motif in post-rock music, was developed in a truly inspired way.

Following the performance of the Happiness Project, Spearin rejoined Do Make Say Think for a set in which they performed songs from their older albums, as well as new songs from the forthcoming album Other Truths.

During this second half of the evening, the volume went way up, as did the banter, swearing, and on-stage beer drinking. The band's signature distorted guitars, spacey electronic effects, and loud bass was a major shift from the comparatively subdued Happiness Project.

Though the set was at times repetitive, it was more often powerful, intense, and surprising. The songs built up beautifully, and the audience members, restricted by their seats, bobbed their heads in satisfied unison. [Columbia Spectator]

Thursday's show (described above) was just one of the four recent "Wordless Music" shows that happened at Miller Theatre. Destroyer, Grouper, and Doveman were among those who played the other three.

Do Make Say Think and The Happiness Project hit Europe this fall, then return to North America for a series of shows in late November and December. Joining on the tour will be Years, a project of DMST guitarist Ohad Benchetrit. All three play November 28th at Music Hall of Williamsburg and November 29th at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets (finally) go on AmEx presale Wednesday, September 16th at noon. General sale starts Friday, September 18th at noon.

DMST's new record Other Truths is set to come out October 20th on Constellation. A preview of that record is posted above. Artwork and tracklist are below with the rest of the pictures from the Miller Theatre show...

Continue reading "Do Make Say Think & Charles Spearin's 'The Happiness Project' played Miller Theatre (pics) ++ MP3 & more dates..."

802 Tour...

Wordless Music's four-night run at Columbia University's Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street) starts tonight (9/9) with a one-off show from the "802 Tour," a collaboration between Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and Doveman (Thomas Bartlett).

That's followed by Do Make Say Think and Charles Spearin's "The Happiness Project" on September 10th (the same lineup that will tour together in November), Tim Hecker, Grouper and Julianna Barwick on September 11th (Grouper is also playing ATP NY), and the final night with Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Loscil and JACK Quartet on Saturday, September 12th. Tickets are still on sale for all events.

We also have two pairs of tickets to give away to each show. Full details are below.

Wordless Music's fall series continues after Saturday with shows from Deerhoof, No Age, múm, Mount Eerie, Broadcast & Atlas Sound, Why? and more.

Do Make Say Think's new album, Other Truths, will be released on October 20th via Constellation Records.

More on the "802 Tour" show with video, below...

Continue reading "Wordless events kick off @ the Miller Theatre TONIGHT -- win tix to Doveman, Destroyer & Do Make Say Think "

Doveman @ LPR in June (more by Fresh Bread)

Miller Theatre joins forces with the Wordless Music series to present a week of specially curated concerts highlighting the best of each organization's aesthetic and mission. For five nights, indie-rock and electronic-music performers share the stage with artists from the classical- and new-music world, for a week of unorthodox and unconventional musical meetings.

Of those five nights, four lineups at Columbia University's Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street) have been confirmed. Those will take place as follows...

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The 802 Tour:
Nico Muhly + Sam Amidon + Doveman

Thursday, September 10, 2009
Do Make Say Think
Charles Spearin's "The Happiness Project"

Friday, September 11, 2009
Tim Hecker
Grouper
Julianna Barwick

Saturday, September 12, 2009
Dan Bejar (Destroyer)
Loscil
JACK Quartet

Ticket information HERE.

Those concerts are an addition to Wordless's upcoming schedule, which currently includes the Alarm Will Sound show tonight (July 22nd) at LPR, the Liquid Liquid & Rhys Chatham "200 Electric Guitars" performance on August 8th at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, and the Warp20 NYC series in early September.

The original "802 Tour" (the Doveman date above) took place in 2008. No word on whether they are actually going on tour again, or if this is just a one-off date with the same name.

Do Make Say Think and The Happiness Project also have a bunch of other tour dates scheduled, including two other NYC shows. Grouper is also playing ATP NY. Destroyer is going on a very short tour at the end of July that brings Dan Bejar to Bowery Ballroom on the 30th. All dates and a video from Doveman's June 18th show at LPR, below...

Continue reading "'Wordless Music' @ Miller Theatre w/ Doveman, Grouper & Destroyer ++ other tour dates"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - "By The Ripping Green" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound - "The Slumbering Ones" (MP3)

Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound

After the Autolux trek, not to mention ATP NY, Sleepy Sun will hit the road with Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound for a US tour that kicks off on 9/17 in Providence, just two days after they wrap up shows at Bowery (9/14, tix) and MHOW (9/15, tix).

Meanwhile, AHISS will get into first gear by playing a show at Union Pool on the night before their jaunt with Sleepy Sun, Sept 16th. Look for the SF psychedelics to join forces with Brooklynites and fellow Tee Pee-ers Weird Owl, as well as a "special guest". Oddly, Sleepy Sun are taking that night off...

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound recently dropped their new LP, When Sweet Sleep Returns via Tee Pee Records in April. Recorded in October 2009 by Tim Green, who also manned the boards for Howlin' Rain, Comets on Fire, Six Organs of Admittance, and Earthless, check out "By The Ripping Green" and "The Slumbering Ones" available for download above.

Speaking of Six Organs of Admittance, the band is scheduled to play NYC TWICE with Om in September.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Assemble Head in Suburst Sound (Tee Pee) & Sleepy Sun (ATP) - 2009 tour (after Autolux dates) ++ MP3s"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Lullabye Arkestra - "We Fuck The Night" (MP3)

Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think blowin' the horn for Broken Social Scene @ Mercury (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Do Make Say Think has scheduled a few dates in the coming months, including 9/10 at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University (tickets are on sale) as well as Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom on November 28th and 29th respectively (ticket info forthcoming). And DMST will keep it family, having invited along Charles Spearin's Happiness Project as well as guitarist Ohad Benchetrit's project, Years. Both released their LPs earlier this year on Arts & Crafts. (note: Years is not playing the Miller Theatre show).

Meanwhile, one Do Make Say Think side project will NOT be out on the road with the band, but ARE on their way to NYC in the coming months. The band Lullaby Arkestra features Justin Small of DMST and his wife Kat Taylor-Small, and they are a lot less crescendo, and a lot more melodic heaviness akin to Big Business, Tweakbird, or NYC's Orphan. Lullabye Arkestra are currently prepping their sophomore LP, Threats / Worship, out on Vice Records on Sept 1 and have scheduled an NYC show at Glasslands on 8/13. Check out "We Fuck The Night" downloadable above.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Do Make Say Think touring w/ Happiness Project & Years, Lullabye Arkestra signed to VICE & playing NYC (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Do Make Say Think - Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! (MP3)

This is just a reminder that Beirut & Grizzly Bear are not the only Wordless Music series shows coming up. In fact, Do Make Say Think play their show in the church-like New York Society For Ethical Culture TONIGHT (Sept 14). There's also Mum, Johnny Greenwood, AND the U.S. debut of Max Richter...

Wordless Music is honored to host British composer and Fat Cat recording artist Max Richter for his first-ever U.S. concert appearance. On Wednesday, November 28, Max will perform selections from his albums Songs from Before, The Blue Notebooks, and Memoryhouse in the 300-capacity Good-Shepherd Faith Church alongside a full chamber ensemble and accompanying video projections. Also appearing will be the Minneapolis ambient/electronic composer and Ghostly International recording artist Cepia, as well as New York City pianist Assaff Weisman, who will perform solo piano music by Joseph Haydn and Olivier Messiaen.

All shows and details at the Wordless site.

Tickets are on sale for the September 24th Beirut show, a Do Make Say Think show, and the Mum shows. (note: Zach will be singing at the "wordless" show)