DOWNLOAD: Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (Van She remix) (MP3)

Little Boots @ Bowery Ballroom in September (more by Chris La Putt)

Little Boots has announced openers and additional dates on her upcoming North American tour. That includes Coachella and the previously announced NYC show on March 2nd at Highline Ballroom. Opening that will be Body Language, JDH & Dave P of FIXED and Fan Death (the latter of which open more dates on the tour) UPDATE: Fan Death cancelled their appearance on this tour. Tickets are still on sale and we have a pair to give away. Details are below.

The show coincides with the US release of Little Boots' debut album, Hands, on Elektra Records, which comes almost a year after its UK release.

Besides Vancouver band Fan Death (who have videos posted below), Class Actress and Dragonette (who have a remix above) also open shows on the tour. Of those mentioned, Body Language, Class Actress and Fan Death will be at SXSW.

Class Actress (Brooklyn's Elizabeth Harper and band) just released their debut EP, Journal of Ardency, on Terrible Records (co-run by Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear). She recently played a Glasslands release party for that album, and plays again tonight (2/9) with Yeasayer and Javelin at MHOW. More tour dates are below.

Contest info and tour dates for all the bands are below...

Continue reading "Little Boots playing shows w/ Fan Death, Body Language, Class Actress & Dragonette - updated 2010 tour dates"

words and photos by Noah Perabo

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

Fan Death, a three piece from Vancouver, BC, played their first ever New York show on February 5th at Le Royale and tore through their set in just over thirty minutes. When they announced to the fired-up crowd that the next song would be their last, the response was a disappointed "Awwwww." Dandi Wind, the raven haired lead singer asked the crowd with a smile, "Did someone just say 'Fuck you assholes?' We only have this many songs." They then broke into their finale We'll Be Back When the Money's Right, which was not only their best song of the night, but a fitting one considering they were only getting paid on a $5 ticket. While their set would have benefited from live drums, the infectious disco beats from dual keyboards, the charismatic vocals and the stage presence of Ms. Wind was plenty to have the full-house dancing and wanting more.

More pictures and the setlist below...

Continue reading "Fan Death @ Le Royale in NYC - pics"

Fan Death

Valient Thorr @ Roseland Ballroom (more by Chris La Putt)

today in NYC
* Marah @ Maxwell's
* Fan Death @ Le royale
* English Beat @ Crazy Donkey
* Drink Up Buttercup @ the Annex
* Estelle & John Legend @ Radio City
* Twi The Humble Feather @ The Stone
* Black Diamond Bay @ Mercury Lounge
* Cat Power & Dexter Romweber Duo @ MHOW
* Variety Shac & Zach Galifianakis @ UCB
* Will Sheff and Kristen Schaal @ Crash Mansion
* Headdress, Dead Man & Radio Moscow @ Union Pool
* Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Anthrax, Black Gold & Valient Thorr @ East River Park
* Pretty & Nice, Tally Hall & The Parlor Mob @ Union Hall
* Francis and the Lights, Savoir Adore & The Bloodsugars @ Bowery Ballroom
* Kristen Schaal, Pete Holmes, Patrick Borelli, Max Silvesti & more @ Sound Fix

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan of Guns N' Roses was born today in 1964.

Anthrax are playing for free in NYC tonight. Anthrax's ex-singer Joey Belladonna used to wear an Indian headdress. Amazing Baby have a song called Headdress. Headdress are playing Union Pool tonight.

Kristen Schaal is playing Crash Mansion and Sound Fix tonight.

Frightened Rabbit's video for "Snake" below..

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

DOWNLOAD: Fan Death - Veronica's Veil (MP3)

"Fan Death are the best new disco act we've heard since we bigged up Hercules & Love Affair in January. The best and the most authentic-sounding: they're not nu rave, or an indie-dance band, or a guitar group using a funk undercarriage. They've got the slightly wonky strings, elegant mid-tempo rhythms and female vocals of disco, recalling the music's golden age - ie. between the release of Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby in 1975 and the ritual burning of disco records in that baseball stadium in Chicago that signalled the death of disco in 1979. They're a girl duo who recognise that all the best disco records were sung by women, and they sing in the blank, distracted manner of all the finest disco divas. Really, they hardly sing at all - they open their mouths and pout and this spookily, exquisitely blank, almost Teutonic sound comes out....

...Some actual, proper facts: Fan Death are the protégés of glam-trash DJ Erol Alkan, who on his remix gives the single extra electroclash-y oomph on the handclaps and bass. They're adored by superstar tastemaker Diplo. They're the subjects of blog hysteria. And in a press release they declare their intention to be to "make music that recalls the greatest era of electronic pop: Depeche Mode, OMD, New Order, Human League, Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys." [Guardian]

Watch their official video for "Veronica's Veil", and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Fan Death - 2009 Tour Dates (NYC @ Le Royale), video, MP3"