by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Oh No Oh My - Walking Into Me (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Suzan - Home (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bettie Serveert - Deny All (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Jerks on Ice (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Intelligence - Like Like Like Like Like Like Like (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: JEFF the Brotherhood - Diamond Way (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Crystal Stilts - Shake the Shackles (MP3)

The Suzan @ Brooklyn Bowl for the Fool's Gold party (more by Brook Bobbins)

Unlike last year, I managed to make it through CMJ week without getting sick. Normally I try and do a sonic detox and not see any music after CMJ for at least a week. But that's not gonna happen as there's some seriously good stuff rolling through town in the next five days. Early next week too (Clinic/Fresh & Onlys), but let's not get ahead of ourselves too much.

Hey, remember Oh No Oh My? No? Oh. Well, people were going apeshit about them a few years ago. I kinda forgot about them, to the point where when I saw they were playing this week I thought it was Danish band Oh No Ono (editor's note: SAME). Anyway, Oh No Oh My are back!... and will release a new album of pleasant acousticy pop, People Problems, in early 2011. And they're here in NYC for a couple shows: tonight at the Rock Shop, and tomorrow (10/28) at Pianos.

More interesting to me are the bands they are playing with. Tonight at the Rock Shop, it's with Japanese bandThe Suzan whose new album Golden Week For The Poco Poco Beat was just released this week. It was produced by Bjorn Yttling of PB&J and you can definitely hear his touch on clever, catchy tracks like "Home" which you can download at the top of this post. Also playing are New Zealand's The Family Cactus.

The Pianos show has another New Zealand band,Street Chant, who were one of the funniest bands, stage-banter wise, I saw at CMJ. One memorable song intro: "We're the biggest rock band in New Zealand and this next song was Number One for nine months in a row!" Street Chant are pretty punk rock and definitely worth catching. Also playing the Pianos show: Boats (not Seattle's BOAT) and Estranged Estates.

The Intelligence @ Market Hotel in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

The Intelligence are visiting this weekend, playing Cake Shop on Saturday (10/30) and then the Todd P/Panache Halloween extravaganza on Sunday (10/31)at Ridgewood Masonic Temple . When it comes to surfy garage rock, The Intelligence are in the 99th percentile and if you haven't picked up the band's new album, Males, it's one of my favorites of the year. You can download a track from it above.

Further reading: Front dude Lars Finberg is keeping a tour diary for The Stranger and so far (one entry) it's a very entertaining read:

It's a 14-hour-plus drive to Fargo (basically 20 after my bathroom stops). We've learned to do this at the beginning of the tour as it can be so depressingly boring that all you can do is listen to Erik Satie and stare into the void. We finally stop around 2 am in Dickenson, North Dakota, and every hotel is booked for hunting season. I thought that the whole point of hunting was to drink the deer's blood and sleep under the stars in its carcass. It doesn't seem right to bag a deer and have a Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity breakfast and watch Becker in a warm bed at the Comfort Inn, so we drive on. Wait, there's a vacany sign--a true dump glowing like a beacon! "One room left," the clerk says. Highlights include two towels for five people (I am answered with a blank stare followed by a shrug when I ask if we can get more), a hornet in the room, and a shower curtain that emits such a powerful cigarette smell that I want to steal it to impress others.

The Cake Shop show is with Philly's An Albatross, plus locals German Measles and McDonalds; the Todd P Halloween show has Cassie and Justin from The Babies performing as The White Stripes, plus The Beets, Das Racist, Janka Nabay, Pictureplane and more. All upcoming Intelligence tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Bettie Serveert

Visa issues kept Dutch band Bettie Serveert from playing Maxwell's and Southpaw earlier this month, but the band are here now, in the middle their North American tour that hits Bowery Ballroom on Friday (10/29), and Maxwell's a few days later. Their 1990 debut, Palomine, is one of my favorite Matador albums ever and they've consistently performed ever since. Pharmacy of Love is the band's ninth album and a little more rockin' than we've heard from the band over the last few LPs. Check out "Deny All" at the top of this post. Carol van Dyk's voice is still smoky cool, and catchy songs abound. And surely they'll play "Tomboy" and "Kid's Alright."

Opening are Elk City whose new album House of Tongues was kind of overlooked. Smart, well-arranged pop, with ex-Luna guitarist Sean Eden providing some shimmery flair. Download album track "Jerks on Ice" at the top of this post.

And finally, Austin's YellowFever are in town this weekend for a string of shows. Hopefully Jennifer made it through Airport security ok this time. They play tonight (10/27) at the Showpaper 42nd St. Gallery with The Babies, Sewn Leather and more. Then they play The Mug at Vassar College tomorrow (10/28), Dead Herring on Friday with Coasting, Julianna Barwick and more; and Saturday (10/30) at 171 Lombardy forThe Pelly Twins Halloween Party with DOM, Smith Westerns, Total Slacker and Sweet Bulbs.

Also, just in time for halloween, the spooky video for Total Slacker's "Crystal Necklace" which you can watch below.

That's the big stuff. A few more shows, day-by-day, not covered above.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27

'90s electronic superstars Underworld play Roseland Ballroom tonight. Lager, lager lager!

continued below...

Continue reading "The Suzan, Street Chant, Intelligence, Bettie Serveert, Yellow Fever, Sunny Day in Glasgow & more in This Week in Indie "

photos by Kurt Christensen

The Delta Spirit / Nada Surf tour hit Bowery Ballroom in NYC on Saturday night (12/6). Nada Surf's friends Gramercy Arms also joined the bill as first-of-third opener for that night of the tour only. Gramercy Arms was in turn joined on stage by Mascott, was sang her/their part on the new Christmas song she/they contributed to, and Renée Lobue of Elk City, who sang for three songs.

"ray ketchem from elk city was also there, and was nearly thrown out on the cold street by a rogue security dude for attempting to film us with his flip camera. being the smart man that he is, ray got off clean" [mascott]

Nada Surf's Matthew Caws made his presence known throughout the whole night, joining both Delta Spirit and Gramercy Arms on stage. For Gramercy Arms, Matthew sang his part of "Nothing I Can Do", the song he contributes to on their new album. No Sarah Silverman though. More about Gramercy Arms, MP3s included, HERE.

Martin Wenk of Calexico was also in the house and played with Delta Spirit and Nada Surf. Of Nada's set, Talia says...

The show was not as long as the last one I attended in Williamsburg, but bassist Daniel Lorca gave his usual mind boggling performance of chain smoking while playing flawless bass and singing backup vocals! Lead singer, Matthew Caws sweated clear through his shirt by the second song, and proved to us all that the band was indeed glad to be back home in NY to end their tour.

I didn't keep track of the setlist, nor was I able to find one online but I do recall the following songs being played (in no particular order):

Always Love, Blonde on Blonde, Do it Again, Your Legs Grow, See These Bones, Whose Authority, Beautiful Beat, I like What You Say, Ice on the Wing, Inside of Love, Fruit Fly, Neither Heaven Nor Space, Blankest Year

Delta and Nada also played Webster hall on Sunday. More Bowery Ballroom pictures below..

Continue reading "Nada Surf, Delta Spirit & Gramercy Arms @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Kirsten Ketsjer - The Brigde (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kirsten Ketsjer - Ernie and the Sand (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kirsten Ketsjer - Foot and Foot
DOWNLOAD: Women - Black Rice (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Los Cruzados (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Cherries in the Snow (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Amazing Baby - Infinite Fucking Cross EP (Zip file)
DOWNLOAD: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything with You (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday (MP3)

Kristen Ketsjer & friends

With all the quality shows between now and tuesday you'd think CMJ had already started and it's making it very hard to keep to my vow to take it easy before next week's onslaught. Here are a few that are making it especially difficult.

I only caught two songs by Danish trio Kirsten Ketsjer at this year's SXSW, purely by accident, but I was taken by their VU-meets-Television style guitar rock that can be both delicately beautiful and monsterously loud. But mostly beautiful. Drummer Anja Jacobsen sings while guitarists Andreas Führer and Anders Lauge Meldgaard spin webs around each other. Not sure why they haven't gotten more attention than they have -- last year's FFFFOO K TSSCCH! is a pretty magical album -- that may change after next week. They're playing at least once a day during CMJ and there are two shows this week (Thursday [10/16] at Lit, and Friday [10/17] at Dead Herring) if you want to catch them early. Do check them out.

Elk City

Elk City are playing a special show this Saturday (10/18) at Union Hall. The band, who've added former Luna guitarist Sean Eden to their lineup, agreed to be the entertainment at a friend's wedding which meant they had to learn a whole slew of cover songs and the Union Hall show is a dress rehearsal of sorts for the big day. Expect more along the lines of Bowie, Nina Simone, and Carol King than "The Chicken Dance," "The Electric Slide" or the dreaded "Butterfly Kisses." The show will be interspersed with Elk City material too, including some of the songs in contention for their new album. Opening are Boy Genius who put on a nice show Tuesday opening for Bearsuit.

White Denim

If you're willing to go out on a Sunday (10/19) you can see a lot of CMJ buzz bands before the fest actually starts. And actually, at Mercury Lounge are Austin's White Denim (tickets), who are skipping CMJ entirely in favor of a European tour. Their U.S. debut, Exposion, is out November 11 and is a slightly different version of their acclaimed UK release, Workout Holiday, which was released earlier this year. It defies easy description: there's some noodling guitars a la the Minutemen; bluesy passages like some other White bands; shouty indie rock and blissful psychedelia. I dig it. White Denim also play Union Hall the next night (10/20) (tickets).

Playing with them at Mercury Lounge are Amazing Baby who I've written about more than once both here and over at my own blog. They've been playing pretty regularly over the summer and are a pretty tight machine these days, so they should be ready for CMJ and their upcoming tour with MGMT and Violens. If you haven't heard them yet, you can download their Infinite Fucking Cross EP for free.

Women

Meanwhile, around the corner at Cake Shop, Friction NYC have put together a pretty unmissable lineup as well: The noise-drenched pure pop of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart who are fresh off a tour of Sweden; reverb-loving Canadians, Women;, who are certainly one of CMJ's most buzzed-about bands; Jackson Heights' only garage rock band*, The Beets (*fact completely uncomfirmed by me); and the organ styling of another Canadian, Katie Stelmanis.

Current # of CMJ-related shows Women have coming up: 9
Current # of CMJ-related shows The Muslims have coming up: 9

Both Women and The Muslims are playing BrooklynVegan parties during CMJ. The Muslims are on the Thursday October 23rd one. Women are on the unannounced Saturday October 25th one. If you count the pre-CMJ Cake Shop show, that raises Women's total NYC show count to 10. Don't be surprised if more NYC shows pop up on both of their schedules.

All tour dates and videos for all bands in this post, below...

Continue reading "Kirsten Ketsjer, Women, Elk City, White Denim, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & more in This Week In Indie"

That's right - Kelly of the Rosebuds does more than sing and make you dance. Catch her doing standup in NYC this Thursday - December 6th @ 8pm @ Comix: Smiletime with Shawn and Sean: A super fun free show hosted by Sean O'Connor and Shawn Pearlman. Yeah! All dates, and news about a Pixies tribute album, below....

Continue reading "Kelly Crisp of the Rosebuds is a comedian + Pixies news"

"Standing room" tickets have been released for all six NYC Neil Young shows. They cost $75, but they come with a "free" copy of Chrome Dreams II - Harp Magazine's 9th favorite album of the year.

"Cinnamon Girl" is an all-women Neil Young tribute CD that's coming out in February for charity. Tracklist below....

Continue reading "Neil Young standing room tickets on sale"

by BrooklynVegan Mike

DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Los Cruzados (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Cherries in the Snow (MP3)

Indie-pop is a loaded term. It conjures up different ideas - from Labrador Records to K Records, Beat Happening to Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura to Radio Dept. When coming up with the appropriate description for Elk City, indie-pop was the single classification that stayed in my head. They're bouncy, they're melodic, they're celebratory, all hallmarks of indie-pop. But the description doesn't hold because they are all that and more.

The best starting point would be with singer Renee LoBue's voice. The centerpiece to much of the songs, she moves effortlessly from power-invoking brashness to feint, Feist-like delicateness. But she's just one element, as the band around her captures every detail from 60's soul croons to classic country twang. Catch them at one of four CMJ-related shows in NYC this week - the first one being upstairs at Pianos on Wednesday October 17th (TODAY) @ 4pm (the artist that was listed as "TBA" on the flyer) - part of the free BrooklynVegan party. Their official showcase is the next day at Joe's Pub. All tour dates below......

Continue reading "Elk City - 2007 Tour Dates (CMJ, BV show announcement)"

DOWNLOAD: Pela - Lost to the Lonesome (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Cherries in the Snow (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elk City - Los Cruzados (MP3)

Camera Obscura @ South Street Seaport, NYC - Aug 24, 2007 (CRED)

* 826NYC
* After the Jump
* A free show at Governor's Island
* Papercuts is playing at Sound Fix
* Luke Pritchard of the Kooks is playing Sound Fix
* Pela is headlining Bowery Ballroom w/ Elk City
* Beachhouse & Papercuts are playing Mercury Lounge
* Ex-Models, Deathset, & Titus Andronicus are playing Silent Barn CANCELLED
* The Fiery Furnaces are playing for free @ Socrates Sculpture Park

What else?