photos by Stephanie Crumley, words by BBG

Saviours @ Saint Vitus

Saviours headlined Saint Vitus on 11/30 with Ramming Speed, reeling in support from locals Elks and Bad Dream. Pictures from the show are below.

The show was part of a string of dates for Saviours/Ramming Speed, the latter of which will play solo dates across the country leading up to an all-ages New Year's Eve show in their hometown of Allston, MA at WWTAWWTAP. Full tour dates are also below...

Continue reading "Saviours played Saint Vitus with tourmates Ramming Speed (pics & more dates)"

by BBG

Youth of Today at Chaos in Tejas (more by BBG)

After many years away from the road, Youth of Today will return to play a free CMJ show at Santos Party House in NYC on Saturday, 10/22. This is the same show that Trash Talk & Kylesa are playing, not to mention AraabMUZIK, Action Bronson, Mr. Motherfuckin eXquire, Main Attrakionz and many others for what will be an eclectic mix of stoner, hardcore, and hip hop. Converse's "True Til Def" will be hosted by the venue's own Andrew WK and is open to the 21+ public, but RSVP is required. Full lineup and flyer for the show is below.

In related news, Primitive Weapons (who are also on the 10/22 show) will support Rwake & Hull at Mercury Lounge on 10/10 as part of Hull's record release party. Tickets are on sale.

Trash Talk also plays at least two other CMJ shows.

Converse lineup and flyers below...

Continue reading "Youth of Today playing Converse CMJ show w/ Kylesa, Action Bronson, eXquire, AraabMUZIK, Primitive Weapons & more"

photos by Devan Council, additional Iron Tides photos by Jonathan McPhail, words by BBG

ELKS @ Union Pool

While 40 Watt Sun was playing slower somber pieces at Public Assembly on Friday, Elks were headlining Union Pool with Heliotropes and Iron Tides as part of their record release for the Destined for the Sun EP. Pictures from the show are in this post.

Elks have a few tour dates in the coming weeks including a Pop Montreal showcase on 9/22 with Quest For Fire, NAAM, and Burning Love, and the Tee Pee CMJ showcase on 10/21 at Union Pool (which had Hull, who have since dropped off to be replaced with "TBA"). Hull WILL, however, play NYC at Mercury Lounge on 10/10 as part of their own Beyond the Lightless Sky release party presented by BrooklynVegan. Tickets are on sale.

All ELKS tour dates and more pictures below...

Continue reading "ELKS, Heliotropes & Iron Tides @ Union Pool (pics)"

by BBG

Elks at Le Poisson Rouge (more by Greg Cristman)

The knowledge that they have signed to Tee Pee, recent shows with Pentagram, and some of the band member's decidedly 70s look would indicate that Elks is another retro-leaning band hell-bent on reliving the golden-age of guitar rock. But you'd be wrong, Elks mixes the big bang of early Mastodon-ian riffs with Iron Maiden's melodic gallop and a host of others on their new EP Destined for the Sun due via the label on 9/13. Stream "White Fang Learns to Hate" and "Two Moons of Mars" below. The latter makes its first appearance here. Learn more about the first track in a recent interview with Revolver Magazine.

Elks will play Union Pool on September 16th as part of their Record Release party for the new EP. The band will also play the upcoming Tee Pee CMJ showcase at Union Pool on 10/21 with Hull and The Fucking Wrath. Full tour schedule is below.

In other news, Hull has released a new track from their forthcoming Beyond The Lightless Sky. And Hull will play a FREE show at Union Pool on 9/10 as part of the venue's Summer Thunder series, teaming the Brooklyn five piece with Wizardry. Stream that alongside the new Elks tracks and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Elks releasing EP (song premiere), playing Tee Pee CMJ show w/ Hull (who play a free show even sooner)"

photos by Greg Cristman

JEFF the Brotherhood @ LPR

Pentagram headlined Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday night (8/21) with Jeff The Brotherhood, Valient Thorr and local addition ELKS, just a few days after playing dates on the West Coast as part of Power Of The Riff (check out the LA and San Fran pics). The LPR show is part of a string of dates that continue on 8/26 in Pittsburgh at Mr Small's before concluding at Sonar in Baltimore on 8/27. Pictures from the NYC show are in this post.

The day after LPR (last night, 8/22), Jeff The Brotherhood hit Matchless to play with Cy Barkley as part of his three show NYC tour that hits Death By Audio TONIGHT (8/23) and Cake Shop tomorrow. According to Rebecca Seung,

Cy Barkley is the man to know in Nashville, TN. Fronting both Cy Barkley and the Way Outsiders and the hardcore punk band Slammers with Jamin Orrall from Jeff the Brotherhood, Mimi Galbriez from Heavy Cream, and Josh Shearon from Cannomen and Cy's current band the Way Outsiders, he's like the Kevin Bacon of the underground scene in Nashville--it probably only takes three moves to get to him. But then, it is a small town and a smaller scene, so it probably only takes six moves at most to get to anyone. Cy also lives with Nashville's Dead founder Ben Todd and throws a few shows a month attheir south side space Glenn Danzig's House, recently hosting touring acts like Personal and the Pizzas, in addition to frequenting local favorites like Useless Eaters, Natural Child, and D. Watusi.

ELKS are prearing to release their debut LP Destined for the Sun via Tee Pee on September 13th. Look for a new track to stream on BrooklynVegan in the coming days.

More pictures from LPR are below.

Continue reading "Pentagram, JEFF the Brotherhood, Valient Thorr & ELKS @ Le Poisson Rouge (pics)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Heavy Cream @ Death By Audio

Heavy Cream played the show at Death By Audio last night (6/22), with a female-heavy lineup that included Elks, Teen Witch, and Hunters. Their tour next brings them to NJ tonight and eventually on the road with the mostly-girl group The Ettes.

More pictures from the Brooklyn show below...

Continue reading "Heavy Cream, Elks, Teen Witch & Hunters played DBA (pics)"

photos by Samantha Marble, words by BBG

Braveyoung

The Body played their second show this year (first was with Universal Order of Armageddon) at Union Pool on Tuesday 2/22. Their tourmates Braveyoung and locals Elks were also on the bill. The show was three sets by three bands, and nothing like the a few nights prior in Pawtucket, RI at Machines with Magnets where The Body and Braveyoung collaborated on stage. Video of that collabo is below, and look for the corresponding LP in the near future.

Braveyoung is also readying the release of their forthcoming LP We Are Lonely Animals. You can preorder it now and stream it in its entirety.

Meanwhile, both The Body (who will be back on 4/1 with Whitehorse and Unearthly Trance) and Braveyoung are on the road to SXSW (the Boyd play the BV/PLore show at Lovejoys on 3/19). All tour dates, some video, and more pictures from Union Pool are below.

Continue reading "The Body & Braveyoung played Union Pool w/ Elks (pics), touring to SXSW (dates)"

photos by Leia Jospe

"Memphis' JEFF The Brotherhood closed the night by splitting it wide open. This duo incorporates channel splitters (to fill out the entire tonal spectrum, and to avoid paying a bass player) through a Jucifer-inspired pile of amps, speakers, and doodads. It was big, bad, and beautiful, and with just two players on stage handling guitar and drums, it was dynamic, fantastic, and raw." [a review from Rochester]

JEFF, who have a new album on the way, were then supposed to open for The Zeroes at Maxwell's last night, but they got stuck in traffic and never made it to the show. They hopefully won't have similar problems before their next show which is at Union Pool tonight (10/30). More pictures from Music Hall, below...

Continue reading "JEFF the Brotherhood played Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Ninjasonik, Liquor Store & ELKS (pics), didn't play Maxwell's"

DOWNLOAD: Elks - "Destined For The Sun" (MP3)

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Heavy Suzan Cream

Liquor Store will team up with Heavy Cream, Grooms, and Hunters for a show at Death By Audio TONIGHT (9/7). It's one of a few shows that Heavy Cream have/had scheduled in the NYC area. They played Union Pool and Cake Shop last week and Rock Shop last night. Pics from the Cake Shop show, which featured a headlining set from Unnatural Helpers (who played a bunch of shows in town too) and support from The Suzan (ditto), are in this post.

Heavy Cream are on the road surpporing their new LP Danny which was just released on Infinity Cat Recordings. Dig on what's left of their tour sked below.

Meanwhile, the headliners at Death by Audio tonight, Liquor Store, will also play Music Hall of Wiliiamsburg on 10/28, alongside Elks, Ninjasonik, and "hosts" Jeff The Brotherhood (who are very good friends of Heavy Cream). Tickets are still on sale.

Elks also played Rock Shop last night with Heavy Cream, and are prepping to release their new six-song EP Elks In Space produced by Brendan Tobin of Made Out of Babies. No word on when/who will release the effort, but until then, download one of the tracks above.

More pictures from the Cake Shop show (which doubled as Heavy Cream guitarist Mimi's 23rd birthday party), and UH's setlist, and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Heavy Cream played Cake Shop w/ Unnatural Helpers & the Suzan (pics), play DbA tonight w/ Liquor Store & other dates"

words by BBG, photos by Meghan McInnis

Coliseum bassist Mike Pascal, in flight

Coliseum headlined Europa on July 8th (Thursday), alongside ex-Cursed project Burning Love, Tournament, Elks, and the great Fight Amp as part of a larger tour in celebration of A House With A Curse, their new album out NOW on Temporary Residence Limited.

The new LP shows the band venturing into new territory (as discussed in our recent interview) with similarly compelling results as the old material, though guitarist/vocalist Ryan Patterson remarked:

"We got called Prog Metal today."

Burning Love supported, and Chris Colohan's new band absolutely smokes! Though they have more in common with Doomriders than Colohan's former band, the band ripped through their set and brought to life some of the material that I was so-so on in their recorded output. Tons of live energy, these dudes rule.

Unfortunately, I missed Tournament, Fight Amp and Elks (our photographer missed Tournament & Fight Amp), though I am sure that both Fight Amp and Elks delivered a whopping blow to the early crowds. Elks will play Death By Audio on Sunday (7/18), alongside Reading Rainbow, Splinters, Heavy Cream (currently touring with JEFF The Brotherhood) and Big Boyz.

More pics from the show are below....

Continue reading "Coliseum, Burning Love, Tournament, Elks & Fight Amp played Europa (pics) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Splinters - Mysterious (MP3)

The Splinters

San Francisco's The Splinters are teaming up with Nashville's Heavy Cream for two shows: Sunday, July 18 at Death by Audio with Reading Rainbow and Elks; and then Monday, July 19 at Cake Shop with Midnight Masses and Oxmen Girl Get Noticed.

While the mixing of '60s girl group melodies and punky edge is a common blend over the last 30 years, it's also a classic that can be successfully mined over and over. Especially when you've got really good songs like The Splinters do. Check out "Mysterious" at the top of this post which is from their new album, Kick. These ladies polish it all off with a does of new wave, which might be why their songs are so catchy.

Heavy Cream

Heavy Cream are pretty much straight-up punk, as can currently be heard on their debut 7" on JEFF the Brotherhood's Infinity Cat label who are also releasing their debut album, Danny, out August 24th. In addition to the two shows with The Splinters, Heavy Cream will also play a free show Union Pool on July 20 . The band are currently on tour with JEFF, though that pauses while they're in NYC where JEFF is instead scheduled to play a Pool Party at the Williamsburg Waterfront on July 18th (earlier in the day than the Death by Audio show...).

All Heavy Cream dates, plus two entertaining Splinters videos are below...

Continue reading "Heavy Cream & The Splinters releasing albums, playing NYC & other dates (some w/ Jeff the Brotherhood) - MP3 & dates"

words by BBG, photos by Samantha Marble

Naam

Naam headlined the Cake Shop on a rainy Wednesday (6/9) with help from newest Relapse signees Cough, Massachusetts doom trio Elder, and Brooklyn metali-garage punks Elks. The show was part of a tour for Cough / Elder, which lead them up into New England before heading back down to Cough's home territory of Richmond, VA.

Though you can't tell much from their MySpace page, I could tell that Brooklyn's Elks are on to something. The band kicked out a brief but ripping set of punk-y garage inflected metal, providing an ample kick start to the show and a perfect lead-in to the Massachusetts big riffers Elder. Cough followed Elder and blew me away with their unstoppable doomy sludge pummel. It was my second experience with the band in NYC (the first was at Northside) and now that Cough has a second guitarist in tow, they are sounding more massive than ever! Naam's bluesy space-a-delic sounds were well executed as usual, though my personal highlight was seeing the trio rock "Black Ice". It's good to know that although they normally let the riffs breathe, they can (when they want) pummel as fast and furious as any of the bullet-belted folk. More pics from the show are below...

Continue reading "Naam, Cough, Elder & Elks played Cake Shop (pics) "

by BBG

Bundy of Naam @ the Charleston (more photos by Samantha Marble)

The pointer in the above photo taken at the Torche (who just announced another Brooklyn show) show at The Charleston is none other than Bundy of Naam, who will play a BV/1000 Knives show alongside Elder, Elks and BV-BBG Northside alums Cough on Wedneday (June 9th) at Cake Shop.

In other Cough news, the Richmond band has announce that they have signed to Relapse Records (!) and are currently working on their new LP Ritual Abuse with Sanford Parker which will see the light of day this fall via the label.

In other BV Cake Shop news,this Saturday (6/5) brings two BV-affiliated shows. There's the FREE Yeasayer show on Governor's Island. And, Monolith, Voyager, Seraphim and Altered State are set to tear down Cake Shop. Doors for that one at 5PM.

Tour dates, flyers, some videos, and current Cough dates are below...

Continue reading "Cough now on Relapse & on tour w/ Elder - BBG show @ Cake Shop Wednesday w/ Naam (and other one this Saturday)"

by BBG

Naam at the Action PR showcase at SXSW (more here)

Naam will headline Cake Shop on June 9th alongside support from Richmond's downtuned miscreants Cough, the rifftastic Elder, and Brooklyn's own Elks as part of a BV/1000 Knives production. $10 gets you in the door.

The show is one of a pair that Naam will play with the mighty Elks, as both will support Karma To Burn and Year Long Disaster at Knitting Factory on Friday (5/14). Want to go? I have two pairs of tickets and one copy of Karma to Burn's new album Appalachian Incantation to give away, details on how to win are at the bottom of this post. Appalachian Incantation hits store shelves on 5/18.

Naam is also scheduled to play the NY Eye & Ear Fest on My 23rd. Black Dogs, Liturgy, Effi Brest, Twin Stumps, Blondes, Hunters, and more will all play the fest over the show's two days. Tickets are still up for May 22nd, May 23rd, or both.

Cough last played NYC as part of the BV Northside Fest show at Europa alongside Doomriders, Sourvein, Unearthly Trance, and many others. Unearthly Trance will be back for Northside Fest this year, this time as part of the BV/1000 Knives production of Floor at Europa. Tickets are still on sale or you can get in with your Northside badge.

Some videos, full Cough dates, and details on how to win Karma To Burn tickets are below...

Continue reading "Naam playing Cake Shop w/ Cough, Knitting Factory w/ Karma to Burn (win tix & an album) & other dates "