by BBG

Wesley Eisold (left) with his current project...
Cold Cave at Bowery Ballroom (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

GIVE UP THE GHOST (aka American Nightmare) Plan Exclusive Boston and Los Angeles Shows, and Vinyl Reissues

FYF Fest, The Kenmore Agency, and Deathwish are proud to present two exclusive performances from Give Up The Ghost (American Nightmare).

Boston (Revere) MA: Thursday, December 29th @ Wonderland Ballroom
Los Angeles CA: Saturday December 31st @ A Secret Location

These are the first Give Up The Ghost shows since their sudden hiatus taken almost eight years ago. The line-up will feature the definitive line-up of Wesley Eisold, Timothy Cossar, Joshua Holden, Brian Masek, and Alex Garcia-Rivera.

No word on NYC so far, but we'll keep you posted.

The shows are in celebration of the reissue of both Background Music and We're Down Til We're Underground on vinyl via Deathwish (preorder it). Members of Give Up the Ghost went on to form bands like Cold Cave, Some Girls, All Pigs Must Die, Bars, The Hope Conspiracy, and many, many, more.

photos by Nathanael Turner

Descendents

Punk rock long ago transcended class, age, gender and ethnicity to become a signifier not necessarily of outward rebellion but of the symbolic, crazy-on-the-inside variety. That sense of internal defiance continues to permeate the entire underground and has become a secret handshake that united not only the artists who made traditional-ish punk rock over the course of 10 hours of the FYF -- the Descendents, No Age, Off! among them -- but from a wildly divergent cast of in-yer-face artists including beat makers Nosaj Thing and Dan Deacon, the deeply sensual, self-referential house music of New York's Chromatics and Glass Candy, and the catchy, arena-aspirant bands like Broken Social Scene.

"It's a punk rock festival. That means we're going to play ... in the wrong key," declared Guided by Voices singer Robert Pollard during his band's sturdy, hook-infused rock set featuring acrobatic kicks, monster choruses and a sexy girl delivering between-song lighted cigarettes to guitarist Mitch Mitchell.

But Pollard missed the point. As anyone who roamed downtown's Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday could see, punk no longer means inept, either on a musical or festival level. It means being inspired and maybe a little irrational, like festival founders Sean Carlson, Phil Hoelting and Keith Morris. It means realizing strengths and weaknesses. It means pushing at the edges like L.A.-based instrumental Nosaj Thing, who fused the deep, penetrating bass of dubstep with touches of skewed Aphex Twin breakbeat rhythms to create architecturally sophisticated sound structures as solid as they were abrasive. Or it means setting up gear in the crowd like electronic/serialist/rhythmatist Deacon to make sounds so driving and strobing that the level of crowd surfing reached Nirvana-like proportions. [LA Times]

You saw the Future Islands shots. Here are some more of a bunch of the acts that played FYF Fest in LA on Saturday (9/3). No Dead Milkmen, Kid Dynamite or Guided By Voices, but a bunch of other stuff below...

Continue reading "more pics from FYF Fest 2011 (Descendents, Broken Social Scene, No Age, Girls, Japandroids & more)"

DOWNLOAD: Mister Heavenly - "Pineapple Girl" (MP3)

Descendents at FFFFest (more by Tim Griffin)

Much like last year, FYF Fest 2011 is poppin' off with some incredible bands, many of whom recently reunited. This year the LA fest will host a coveted Descendents appearance, a Death From Above 1979 show, Guided By Voices, another Kid Dynamite reunion, The Dead Milkmen, Explosions in the Sky, the return of The Weakerthans and many, many notable others. Full lineup is below. The show goes down at 1st and Main in downtown Los Angeles on September 3rd. Tickets are on sale.

Future Islands plays FYF Fest and plays Death By Audio in Brooklyn TONIGHT (6/28).

For Kid Dynamite, which features members of Lifetime, Paint it Black and None More Black, the reunion is their first since re-emerging for This is Hardcore last year with Ink & Dagger. The band called it quits in 2000 and reunited in 2005 at CBGB and some other times too. I hope they schedule another NYC show, but it's just LA for now.

This is Hardcore THIS YEAR features an appearance from Ressurection, which also featured Dan Yemin on guitar. Tickets for This is Hardcore 2011, taking place in Philly's Starlight Ballroom, is mostly sold-out, with tickets for the Sunday show still available.

The Descendents appearance at FYFest is one of several dates scheduled for the reunited band, NYC's Roseland, Chicago Riot Fest, and Philly's Riot Fest included. Tickets are still available for the 9/23 Roseland show.

Mister Heavenly will hit the road for a string of dates on the West Coast leading up to FYF Fest. Check out their full tour schedule below, and look for their new LP Out of Love on 8/16 via Sub Pop. Check out "Pineapple Girl" from that record above.

The Death From Above 1979 appearance is one of several slated for the band in the coming months, including a 7/22 appearance at Williamsburg Waterfront. Tickets are still available OR, you can try your hand by winning a pair at our Facebook. The full set of DFA1979 dates are below.

The Weakerthans have a few other dates slated for Europe and Canada in the coming months. Hopefully they add more US dates too. All dates for now are listed below.

A few bands on the FYFest lineup (namely, Cults, Off!, and No Age) will also appear in NYC at the House of Vans this summer, and for FREE. The FYF-presented House of Vans series of shows starts this Thursday (6/30). You just have to RSVP to get in (and maybe get there early).

All Weakerthans, DFA1979, and Mister Heavenly dates, some video, and the full FYF Fest lineup is below.

Continue reading "FYF Fest in LA, This is Hardcore in Philly, Future Islands in BK, Mister Heavenly on tour, a DFA1979 contest & more"

photos from a House of Vans show in March (more by Andrew St. Clair)

As promised, House of Vans, which is located at 25 Franklin St in Brooklyn, is hosting free shows this summer. Stepping in just at the right moment to possibly fill the gap left by the loss of the Pool Parties, there will be six free-with-RSVP Vans House Parties between June 30th and August 25th.

The lineups for the first two FYF-presented, all-ages shows have been revealed, as have all six dates to hold (all of which are weekdays). No Age, HEALTH, Cults, and Ceremony play the Greenpoint venue on Thursday, June 30. Superchunk, Off!, and Lemuria will play on Thursday, July 14. The other dates, with lineups still TBA, are July 29 (a Friday), August 4 (a Thursday), August 18 (a Thursday), and August 25 (a Thursday). RSVP links are at their site, and note:

"In order to gain access to the free shows at the House of Vans this summer, you must RSVP to reserve a place on the list. RSVP links are listed under each show on this site.

Due to capacity restraints each event will be first come, first serve. A line will form in front of the building at 5pm, no line ups are allowed prior to that. There will be food and drinks inside, no outside food and drinks will be allowed in."

Meanwhile Cults are on tour and in NYC now (and playing Summerstage this summer too), and Off! will be here soon with Dinosaur Jr., Henry Rollins and Fucked Up.

by Andrew Frisicano

Los Angeles pop duo Kisses, Jesse Kivel (of the band Princeton) and singer/keyboardist Zinzi Edmundson (and a drummer live), are coming to New York for the first time for CMJ. Their shows for that include a Tuesday, October 19th IAMSOUND showcase at Santos and a Saturday, October 23rd show at Arlene's (a Forcefield PR/Windish show). For the Santos show, Men, Salem (last seen at Milk Studios) and Restless People are also on the bill, and tickets are on sale.

I guess that the Santos show will be Kisses' defacto album release gig, since their debut, The Heart of the Nightlife, comes out the same day on This Is Music.

With Kisses, the first thing to note is Kivel's bass-heavy, sometimes-loungey voice (basically unchanged from his singing with Princeton, if you know that). Its sound, combined with the music's '80s-nostalgia, compares favorably to Jens Lekman. Like Jens, Kivel has an ear for retro sounds, which he arranges variously as Muzak-inspired ballads, Arthur Russell disco burners and funk jams (one song, "Midnight Lover," could be on the new Chromeo, including its killer kicker of a chorus "I would like to take you out for a nice steak dinner"). The lyrics have a (slightly put-on) lonely-upper-crust perspective, and play between earnest and ironic (the words are supposedly inspired by a stint Kivel had writing reviews of holiday destinations he never visited).

I caught the band at what (unknown to me then) was their second show ever at the Echoplex in Los Angeles the night before FYF Fest. I partly wound up there because on my way through San Francisco, I saw the the members of Kisses blown up huge on the cover of the free weekly SF Bay Guardian, a really strange amount of pre-any-live-show buzz for the band's still TBA show there in November.

At the Echoplex, they played second on a four-band bill before Hawnay Troof and Stereo Total. The jitters were pretty obvious, though the band sounded good with their hard-hitting drummer and ample help from their programmed backing track. There's no problem with using a backing track, per se, but it was just a bummer to have some of the best hooks - a marimba run, a frantic Hammond solo, their defining bass pulse - played by a faceless laptop. The crowd got into it by asking questions, respectfully answered, between songs. "You guys are good!" blurted one person, almost incredulously, before asking when the record came out.

They'll have some more time to work out the show on the fly with October gigs in the UK and Japan. Until the record, there are two singles (with remixes) you can check out now.

Live videos from those first two shows, an official music video for their single "People Can Do The Most Amazing Things" (one of the record's least dancey songs) and all tour dates (LA, NYC, Japan, and Europe twice) are below.

Continue reading "Kisses played their 1st shows in CA, coming for CMJ (tour dates, videos, album info, more) "

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Chris Juarez & Rachel Carr

Local Natives & the crowd @ FYF Fest Saturday

Yesterday was FYF Fest. We know all the problems... The lines... And are addressing them now. In no way are we sleeping on these problems. The bands were amazing and the turn out was unreal. I'm speechless. -Sean Carlson & FYF Fest

That's how the FYF Fest organizers started their post-fest email, which also outlined new, cheaper pricing to the three "fan fest" shows it hosted on Sunday in LA. For all the organizational problems on Saturday, FYF still managed to put on a highly enjoyable day of bands, around 37 total across three stages (plus a comedy tent), at LA State Historic Park.

The day's short sets kept you wanting more from nearly every act, many of whom played for a half hour or 35 minutes (which expanded in 5 minute increments up to an hour for the headliners). That made for tough decisions between overlapping sets. Ted Leo and band blew through their 45 minutes, and Titus Andronicus could've continued for another 35 at least with the momentum from their Monitor songs. Those two, along with Screaming Females, were part of what Ted Leo termed the "New Jersey Takeover" - three punk bands with Garden State roots who all played great sets at the fest.

Ariel Pink

Los Angeles represented with a number of notable hometown acts. Growlers, in grey facepaint, brought an earthy, ramshackle sound and lots of friends. Best Coast, Abe Vigoda, Local Natives and Ariel Pink also repped their hometown - the latter two with mezmerizing late afternoon sets.

Other acts brought some nice surprises. A chorus of kids, costumed as zombie versions of dead historical figures, backed Dead Man's Bones' Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields. The Blow introduced some of her new songs written for an unnamed celebrity (and played recognizable earlier songs too, including one "written with Sting...when [she] was 7"). And Big Freedia, the fest's only act with any trace of hip-hop, shocked the crowd with a short pre-headerliner dose of "Azz Everywhere."

Big Freedia

There was plenty of garage rock (Thee Oh Sees brought the man responsible for their cover art, William Keihn, to play tambourine), punk and metal. A reunited Sleep, in New York this week, grinded away, as !!! had people shaking their ass on the sister stage. On the fest's third stage, hardcore band 7 Seconds reminisced about their first time in LA almost 30 years ago and lead a spirited circle pit. Add to those bands, breezy folk from AA Bondy, the jams of Warpaint and Delorean to name a few.

If FYF's organizers are a bit defensive above, it may be with good reason: the few critical organizational errors were fairly memorable. A long line at will call (an hour would be a short estimate) kept many waiting in the 90 degree sun while the first bands of the day (Magic Kids, Let's Wrestle and The Goat) could be heard starting in the distance. Water inside was also an issue, with limited access to free drinking water and bottled water at $4 (which, according to Noah Lennox, ran out).

By the end of the night, the two final acts - The Rapture and Panda Bear - set up on competing stages. Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox interspersed his dreamy lullabies with patches of noise and dissonance while videos and images that could be described only as "trippy" played behind him; I think your response to the set depended largely on your state of mind after the long day: exhausted or ready for a patience-testing string of songs and sounds. He and The Rapture provided, alternately, a place to dance or doze.

--

Unsane also played a rare runion set at the festival where Off! shared a bill with Lower Dens. School of Seven Bells, Davila 666, Cults and Ceremony were there too.

Read what Noah thought about his own set, HERE. More pictures from the entire day, below...

Continue reading "FYF Fest 2010 in pics & review "

interview by Billy Jones, FYF photos by Chris Juarez

Panda Bear @ FYF Fest - Sept 4, 2010

"Noah Lennox (born July 17, 1978) in Baltimore, Maryland known as Panda Bear, is an experimental musician and a founding member of Animal Collective. He chose the name "Panda Bear" because he drew pictures of pandas as artwork on the recordings he made as a younger musician. Lennox grew up in the Roland Park section of Baltimore, Maryland, and had attended high school in Pennsylvania. As a child and teenager, he played sports, mainly soccer and basketball, and had studied piano until he was eight and then cello. He later sang tenor in his high school chamber choir. At the age of 17 he began to listen to electronic music styles like house & techno and artists such as Aphex Twin, all of which became a huge influence on his later work" [Wikipedia]

Panda Bear is currently making his way to NYC for a big headlining show happening on Governors Island Saturday night, September 11th (tickets are still on sale). On this past Saturday, September 4th, he played a set (that he wasn't too happy about) at FYF Fest in LA (pictures from that show are in this post).

On Monday he played the Fox Theatre in Oakland. Live Music Blog was there and said, "I left the concert speechless, completely in awe of what I just experienced. One of the best shows I've seen in a while." That's good news for those who were scared away by what they heard about the Pitchfork Festival.The Fox Theatre setlist is at the end of this post.

And it was right before that Oakland show (at the venue) that BrooklynVegan interviewer Billy Jones was able to get Noah, an ex-Brooklynite and father of two who currently lives in Portugal, on the phone for a few minutes. Their chat is transcribed in this post.

They talked about when Panda Bear's album is coming out (if you haven't heard, it's called "Tomoby"), whether Animal Collective is still a band, FYF Fest, 9/11, Governors Island opener Gala Drop, and much more. Read it below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear (about the album release date, status of Animal Collective & more) "

photos by Rachel Carr, words by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Off! - "Upsidedown" (MP3)

Off! played FYF Fest

"Supergroups" are hardly ever that super, but Off! is an exception. Featuring Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks), Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless/Hot Snakes/Rocket From the Crypt) and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), the band have a new release on the way, The First Four EPs preceeded by The First EP, and we have a taste of one of those tracks, "Upsidedown", available for the first time ever, above.

Off!'s high-octane early hardcore power killed it at SXSW, and they did it again this past Saturday as part of FYFest in LA...

Keith Morris' new hardcore group OFF! played with intensity, but had a surprisingly short set even for a punk group. Morris sweetly took time to pay eulogy to a deceased friend named Jeffrey Pierce at one point, dedicating a song to his old friend whom he used to party with in the old days. The group's guitarist called out the fact, "Let's hear it for our singer Keith Morris who just got out of the hospital two days ago!" To which Morris responded with, "Let's just play the fucking song." The group promised two more but strangely only did one before shouting "Fuck you Greg" before abruptly leaving the stage. [mxdwn]

Sleep, !!!, Unbroken and many others were also on the FYF bill. Off's other upcoming shows include Riot Fest and Fun Fun Fun Fest.

A full set of pictures and a review from that festival is forthcoming, but until then, check out a few more photos of Off!'s appearance, with some videos (from on and off stage), below...

Continue reading "new Off! MP3 & pics & video from FYF Fest"

photos by Rachel Carr, words by BBG

Audacity @ the FYF Fest Fan Appreciation Day in May

What are you doing over Labor Day weekend? Beach? ATP New York? Black Army Jacket? Chances are that if you live in LA and like your indie peppered in with a bit of stoner doom and hardcore, that you'll be at FYF Fest on September 4th at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The event will feature performances from The Rapture (who recently played a surprise show at Union Pool), Panda Bear (who is playing Governor's Island), Sleep (who play ATP the day before and NYC a few days later), the return of Unbroken (wow), !!! (who also play a Pool Party), 7 Seconds, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (who isn't retiring, is playing Siren), Screaming Females (them too), Aerial Pink's Haunted Graffiti (on tour now), Titus Andronicus... the list goes on and on.

Full lineup is below and early bird tickets ($5 cheaper) are still available, with regular sale and VIP tickets up as well.

On May 8th, FYF Fest held a Fan Appreciation Show at the Glasshouse in Pomona, and in two other locations that were right next door (including the Glass House Record Store). BV LA correspondent Rachel Carr was there. Her pictures from that show along with the full FYF Fest lineup, videos and more, below...

Continue reading "full FYF FEST 2010 lineup (Panda Bear, Unbroken, !!!, Sleep & tons more) +++ pics from Fan Appreciation"

photos by Rachel Carr

The sold-out event, concisely named "No Cancer!" hoped to raise money for Irene Garcia, the mother of a prominent L.A. scenester who was recently diagnosed with what an event volunteer would only call "an extremely rare form of cancer." All proceeds from the daylong festival -- including ticket revenues and merchandise sales -- went directly to the cause.

Organized by local indie promoting giant Sean Carlson and his team at FYF Fest [I HATE ROCK N ROLL RECORDS and VIDEOTHING.COM], "No Cancer!" brought together an eclectic group of well-known and under-the-radar bands from Los Angeles and across the country, with acts hailing from New York and Texas performing over the course of the afternoon. [Daily Trojan]

As advertised, No Age, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Cowabunga Babes, Best Coast, Nodzzz, Darker My Love and others played "No Cancer: A benefit for our Friend's Mom" in L.A. on Sunday, February 7th. Sean Carlson and FYF [update: who were NOT the organizers of this - see fixed quote above] are also the ones behind The Soft Pack's 10 shows in 10 days one weak earlier. More pictures from the benefit, with the full lineup and Vivian Girls' setlist, below...

Continue reading "No Age, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Best Coast & others played a benefit for Irene Garcia in LA - pics"

interview & Cake Shop photos by Gabi Porter

The Soft Pack @ Cake Shop

The Soft Pack celebrated the release of their self-titled debut LP on Kemado records at the Cake Shop on the Lower East Side of New York on Friday (2/5) with a free and packed midnight show. We had the chance to chat with lead singer Matt Lamkin after the show and before the boys from San Diego hit the road on a tour of the US and Europe that will finally wrap up at Coachella in April.

That interview and more pictures from Cake Shop below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Matt of The Soft Pack who played a midnight show @ Cake Shop (pics) "

photos by Rachel Carr

As previously mentioned, The Soft Pack (previously the Muslims) "did ten shows in one day in L.A. on January 30th with the help of FYFest's veggie oil powered bus." Photographer Rachel Carr spent the whole day with them. Check out the rest of her pictures (and a reposted video) below...

Continue reading "The Soft Pack's ten LA shows in one day (in pics)"

FYF Fest: Save Our State Parks is happening this Saturday, September 5th at California's L.A. State Historic Park. Tickets for the fest are still on sale (as are limited VIP passes).

The one-day-fest's lineup is a combination of bands that are coming to NYC soon (Black Lips, Kurt Vile, TNV, Cold Cave, to name a few) and bands that hopefully will be coming back to NYC sometime soon (Dillinger Escape Plan, Fucked Up, Mika Miko, "Tim & Eric Special Musical Performance"). The full schedule and more is below.

Continue reading "FYF Fest in LA Saturday - final 2009 lineup & set times"