by BBG

Total Abuse - Prison Sweat art

If you weren't paying attention, you might have missed Total Abuse's Mutt, which surfaced its ugly head last year on Post Present Medium Records (Dean Spunt of No Age's imprint). The eleven track ripper encompassed elements of early negative hardcore, wearing its Void, Necros, and Black Flag influences on their tattered, punk-patch covered sleeve.

Austin's Total Abuse definitely have similar influences to bands like Cold Sweat, Men's Interest, Sex Vid and some of the Youth Attack crew, but also dabble in noise/power-electronics on their latest LP Prison Sweat which is out NOW via PPM. The LP, which opens with seven-minutes of brutal noise, blasts off by the second track "Early Morning" and is propelled with a similar furious energy throughout the remainder of the LP until it hits the final title track. From there Prison Sweat moves into a different mode, falling in line with side-2-of-My War Black Flag and latter feedback-obsessed hardcore bands like Drunkdriver or Pissed Jeans, but also venturing into borderline Swans/Godflesh style noise destruction. Stream all of Prison Sweat for the first time below.

Total Abuse only has one show scheduled as of now, at the PPM 10 year anniversary party in LA at The Smell on 11/4 - 11/6. The three day festival will feature appearances from No Age, Abe Vigoda, High Places, John Wiese, Gun Outfit, Dunes, Eric Copeland, Bleached (who play a BV CMJ party on 10/21) and many more, including an appearance from Total Abuse-related project White Dog, whose new album Triumurate is also out now on PPM. Stream tracks from White Dog, and all of Total Abuse's Prison Sweat below, alongside details of the PPM Anniversary show.

Continue reading "stream Total Abuse's new LP 'Prison Sweat', see them at PPM's 10th Anniversary fest (if you're in LA)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Xeno & Oaklander - Autumn's Edge (MP3)

Xeno & Oaklander are New York's premier minimal wave, and have been doing it 1981 style -- using patch bays and vintage equipment exclusively, no laptops -- for over five years. Despite the duo's neo-luddite approach to making electronic music, Sean McBride and Liz Wendelbo have certainly gotten better at what they're doing, both mastery of their gear and in songwriting.

Sets & Lights, which was released this week on Wierd Records, is the band's third album and easily their best. Arpeggiated synths and sequencers bubble along and Wendelbo and McBride trade vocals... it's like the soundtrack to some gleaming baroque futureworld. You can download "Autumn's Edge" at the top of this post, and be sure to check out the genuinely spooky video to single "The Staircase" further down.

Xeno & Oaklander have a few shows coming up. Tonight (10.12), they celebrate the release of Sets & Lights tonight (10.12) at the weekly Wierd Party at Home Sweet Home. Friday night (10.14) they'll play the afterparty of the first night of the Neon Marshmallow Festival which is happening all weekend at Public Assembly.

Then next Saturday (10/22), Xeno & Oaklander play Altered Zones at the New Museum, which seems to be this year's attempt by Pitchfork at CMJ counterprograming. (Remember #Offline?) In addition to X&O, performers include AraabMuzik, Grimes, Teengirl Fantasy, Trash Talk, Eric Copeland, Prince Rama, Light Asylum, FORMA, and Dive. The show is 21+ and $25 for non-museum members and a portion of the proceeds goes to benefit the 2012 New Museum Triennial, an international exhibition of emerging artists. This actually sounds potentially cool. Flyer for the event is below.

Continue reading "Xeno & Oaklander released Sets & Lights, playing shows, Pitchfork Altered Zones not-CMJ party @ New Museum"

Avey Tare @ PS1 in 2010 (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Animal Collective member Avey Tare released his debut solo effort Down Here last fall via the band's own Paw Tracks Records. At the end of this November, Avey will head out on a 10-city solo tour that will hit Knitting Factory Brooklyn on December 2nd with Eric Copeland (of Black Dice). Tickets are on sale now. All dates are listed with some videos, below.

Continue reading "Avey Tare announces solo tour (Knitting Factory included)"

Details below...

Continue reading "final Monster Island Block Party reminder"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Archers of Loaf - What Did You Expect? (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Art Brut - "Lost Weekend" (MP3)

Archers of Loaf @ Sasquach 2011 (more by Josh Darr)

This weekend marks the return of '90s indie legends Archers of Loaf who play Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday (6/25, sold out) and Webster Hall on Sunday (6.26, you can still get tickets). Opening both shows are Mr. Dream which is as perfect an opener as you could imagine.

I didn't care for their later records (or Eric Bachman's Crooked Fingers) but Archers of Loaf's 1993 debut, Icky Mettle, is an indie rock classic that stands tall alongside No Pocky for Kitty, Slanted & Enchanted, There's Nothing Wrong with Love and Sebadoh III. 1995's Vee Vee is pretty awesome too, and both records are getting the expanded reissue treatment from Merge Records in August. You can download "What Did You Expect?" (a 1994 7"-only release) at the top of this post.

Speaking of Mr. Dream, despite the Voice saying that the lineup was final, they added Mr. Dream today to the upcoming 4Knots Fest at South Street Seaport, and DJs and an indoor lounge too...

The Village Voice is excited to announce the addition of the 4Knots Indoor Lounge during the 4Knots Music Festival on Saturday, July 16, 2011. The lounge, located at 210 Front Street, will be open from 2PM till Midnight with free admission, 21+ only. DJ Sets will take place all day from: Yeasayer, Dan Deacon, Finger on the Pulse, PUNCHES, Brahms, and others TBD. Drink specials from Sailor Jerry and Bud Light will be available along with a PopChips photo booth, and much more.

The inaugural 4Knots Music Festival with also include live music on South Street Seaport Pier 17 from 1-8pm. The Black Angels, Titus Andronicus, Davila 666, Oberhofer, Eleanor Friedberger and Mr. Dream and are all scheduled to perform on the outdoor stage at the free, all day, all ages music festival.

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While we're in the '90s milleiu, Mazes are here opening for White Denim on Saturday night (6/25) at Bowery Ballroom. I'll just quote myself here:

When you think Manchester, England you may think Stone Roses and The Smiths, but in the case of Mazes, it's more Sebadoh and Soul Asylum. Not unlike Yuck, this trio owe lots to '90s indie rock as can be heard on their debut album A Thousand Heys which came out in April.

A Thousand Heys is full of catchy singalongs -- like their current single "Summer Hits" -- and well worth checking out. (Samples from the album are streaming at their label's website.) You can download a previously unreleased track, "Brunswick Stack," at the bottom of this post via a Soundcloud widget.

And if you can't make it this weekend, Mazes return for a headlining show at Glasslands on Tuesday, July 5 where they'll play with Beige, Country Mice, and The Hairs.

Art Brut

What else? Art Brut are on tour and played Maxwell's last night and will be at Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday (6/23). The band's new album, Brilliant! Tragic!, finds Eddie Argos taking it down a notch and almost singing. Almost. It's really more of a whispery type thing -- not unlike Jarvis Cocker -- and for the most part I think it works pretty well. I especially like the single, "Lost Weekend," which you can download at the top of this post. More than anything, I think the music is the best Art Brut have come up with since their debut. And the band remain a lot of fun to see live. Argos is the real deal.

Sic Alps

Sic Alps roll through town on Friday, playing Death By Audio with Spectre Folk and Weekends. As previously reported, founding member Matt Hartman -- who was half the band originally -- has left the group which is kind of weird Mike Donovan is carrying on with the name with Eric Baur and some kid named Ty Segall (who had briefly joined the band a couple years ago). Shouldn't they be called Sic Andes or something now?

Granted, Mike Donovan did most of the singing (and maybe wrote most of the songs) and I'm gonna bet this new version of the band is pretty awesome. Sic Alps most recent album, Napa Asylum, is another smoldering, thick stew of swamp garage. A lot of bands use the low-fi thing as a crutch, but Sic Alps have always used sludge like it's a member of the band. A new 7", perhaps the first fruits of this new line-up, is out in August.

Fulton Stall Market in 2010 (more by Chris La Putt)

And finally, a little shameless plugging. Sunday afternoon, June 26th, is the first of my four Sound Bites Series shows which take place at the Fullton Stall Market down at South Street Seaport. You can get your vegetables and jingle jangle indiepop all in one place. This Sunday the latter is provided by scene stalwarts My Teenage Stride. The fun (which includes me DJing before the band) starts at 2PM, and it's all free. Do come down and say hi.

This is the full Sunday show lineup:

JUNE 26: MY TEENAGE STRIDE
JULY 3: THE HAIRS
JULY 10: pow wow!
JULY 17: HOSPITALITY

July 10th is also the first of six free shows at Beekman Beer Garden which is at South Street Seaport too. The free Friday Seaport shows begin this Friday, but more about that below.

Some additional daily picks follow:

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22

Iceage play a free show at Other Music today.

THURSDAY, JUNE 23

Black Dice's Eric Copeland, McDonalds and Regal Degal play Secret Project Robot. It's a record release party for both Copeland and McDonalds, so do check out the merch table. The Copeland record, Waco Taco Combo, is only a 500 copy pressing.

Dinosaur Jr. are at Terminal 5 performing their classic 1988 album Bug (that's the one with "Freak Scene") in its entirety. And probably some other songs as well. Many people will be going just to see Fucked Up, not to mention Off!.

Beach Fossils and Javelin play Santos Party House. It's a free show if you RSVP.

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Continue reading "Archers of Loaf, Mr. Dream, Art Brut, Mazes, Sic Alps, Iceage, Sundays @ The Seaport & more in This Week in Indie"

by Erez Avissar

HEALTH

UK's Gold Panda kicked things off with his synthetic glitch-house, fitting in with a certain forward-thinking new breed of dance music (Pictureplane, Crystal Castles) that HEALTH so openly loves (this was their "DISCO2" comp record release after all). Just a shame that from the audience's vantage point you couldn't see him construct drum beats and launch samples from his MPC.

Indian Jewelry was the surprise face-melting of the night, summoning spirits at Music Hall with an awesomely loud and heavy set that mixed the occult with the industrial. Better experienced live than on record.

HEALTH were as tight as I've ever seen them, playing pretty much their whole discography as fans eagerly sent their bodies aflail and shifted like a drunken sea. They capped off their set with the new "USA Boys" before returning to do an encore which consisted of "Courtship", a song that runs for less than a minute. I looked at my friend and we both laughed a little, knowing we couldn't really ask for more.

More dates HERE. More pictures from Sunday's show at Music Hall below...

Continue reading "HEALTH, Indian Jewelry & Gold Panda played MHOW (pics) "

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Growing - "Camera84" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Growing - "Hormone" (MP3)

With Growing's new Vice Records LP PUMPS due this week, the trio will celebrate with a US tour that will kick off with an album release party at Coco66 on Tuesday, 4/6. Eric Copeland (of Black Dice), Luke Roberts and The Monroe Indians will provide support along with DJ sets from Ron Morelli, Josh Wildman, and Taka Hiro.

The new album PUMPS is the first for Growing as a trio, and was recorded at The Ocropolis, aka Oneida's Brooklyn studio. The LP also marks their debut for Vice Records, who currently have the album up for preorder. Two tracks from that album are free downloads above. Cover art and tracklist below.

Growing recently made two videos, as well as a gang of video vignettes in celebration of PUMPS. One video, "Mind Eraser" is only available with purchase of the LP, but you can dig on all of the rest of the vids/vignettes (some of which are possibly NSFW?) below. All tour dates down there too...

Continue reading "Growing album out this week (MP3s & videos), a Brooklyn release show @ Coco66 & other 2010 tour dates"

WHITE MAGIC NEW YORK SHOW FRIDAY FEB 27TH!!!
WHAT'S UP!? BEEEN A MINUTE...

WHITE MAGIC WILL PLAY NEW YORK THIS FRIDAY NIGHT - FEB 27TH @ 92Y (in Tribeca)! It's our fist BAND SHOW in the NY & the US, since 2007 (!!), so COME OUT!

SUPPORT FROM ERIC COPELAND (of BLACK DICE)
+
HIGHLIFE (sleepy doug shaw of WM project - first US show of new songs!)

If you quote code "WHMG" when buying tickets at the door, online, or by phone, there is a $3 discount from the regular $15 door price!

Doors are at 8pm

COME OUT NEW YORK!

Joly told me they've been in the UK for the past year. All dates, including a bunch with Bonnie Prince Billy, below...

Continue reading "White Magic back in NYC - 2009 Tour Dates (tonight included) "

RiverRocks
Pier 54 at 14th St.

Blonde Redhead
Eric Copeland (of Black Dice)
August 14
doors open at 6pm

Other free events are listed in the free show calendar. The video that picture of Simone came from is below...

Continue reading "ride a motorcycle to the free Blonde Redhead show tonight"

by Deepak Mantena

DOWNLOAD: Panda Bear - Bro's (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Rusty Santos - Moving Time (MP3)

Panda Bear @ 93 Feet East, London - Mar 8th, 2007 (CRED)

Panda Bear is playing some shows this week - two at NYC's Bowery Ballroom, and one in Baltimore, and one in Philly. Along with him at each of the shows will be a circus of friends of the band. Whether you scored a ticket to one of the sold out shows or not, here is a handy guide to the Panda Bear openers...

Rusty Santos (CRED)

Rusty Santos (June 18 @ Bowery) is a New York singer-songwriter whose most notable Animal Collective connection is helping them record their 2004 album Sung Tongs for Fat Cat Records. As well, he helped with production on several Panda Bear records, including the acclaimed Person Pitch.

Kria Brekken (CRED)

Kria Brekken (Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir - formerly of Múm) (June 18 @ Bowery) and Avey Tare of Animal Collective released this year's Pullhair Rubeye. She is also married to Avey. The duo previously played many live shows together.

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Continue reading "A guide to Panda Bear's openers"