words & photos by Sarahana

Headliner Owen Pallett (no longer called Final Fantasy like he was when he played Webster Hall in December) joined opening act The Luyas for a few songs. Luyas singer Jessie Stein, who has an inviting demeanor, commented on Owen's shirt, "That looks like an 80's mom's shirt." It was a black top with some patterns sprawled around the neckline and printed in gold. He replied that it looked pretty manly. Jessie shared a story about how she and Owen used to be roommates (and then neighbors) when she was about 21; Owen would go down to practice and listen to bands like Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart, and Jessie would think "This stuff is never going to fly".

Extra Life was heavy music with a prominently featured violin, which added refined tragedy to raw anger. You could say Shakespeare meets goth, dorky meets scary. Unlike The Luyas and Owen Pallett, who are both from Canada, these guys are from Brooklyn. Front man Charlie Looker should definitely play Bartleby in a movie.

Owen Pallett's set was spectacular. He played several old songs solo, and had an additional musician, Thomas Gill, play percussion and guitar with him on new ones. Thomas is a talent on his own, which was most obvious when he helped Owen sing the chorus on the last song, a cover of Mariah Carey's "Sweet Fantasy".

--

Extra Life's next show is May 9th at Cake Shop with Queening and Larkin Grimm ("Also in May, Planaria will release a split 12" single with Larkin Grimm, featuring the Extra Life cover of R Kelly's "Your Body's Callin'" and two new exclusive tracks from Larkin.").

The Luyas played a 'secret' show in Brooklyn one night earlier with sometime-Luya Sarah Neufeld of the Arcade Fire. Sarah did not join the band at Webster Hall, and she won't be with them tonight (4/23) at Sycamore.

Owen (who played as a member of Arcade Fire at Webster Hall in 2005) played Coachella over the weekend and now continues on tour. More pictures from last night at Webster Hall, with Owen's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Owen Pallett, Extra Life & the Luyas played Webster Hall in NYC - pics & setlist "

Owen Pallett @ The Kitchen February '09 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy) has plotted out the dates of a full North American tour for this April. Stops include Coachella and an April 22nd show at NYC's Webster Hall. Tickets go on AmEx presale at noon. General sale starts Friday, February 5th at noon.

Owen was last in NYC to play a January 12th record release show at Bowery Ballroom for his new album, Heartland, which is out now on Domino. That new record is steaming below, as is a remix of his song "Keep the Dog Quiet" by UK composer/remixer Simon Bookish. All tour dates down there too...

Continue reading "Owen Pallett - 2010 tour dates, remix & streaming album "

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

After the opening act, Avi Buffalo, Owen Pallett regains the spotlight as soon as he begins banging away at his violin, recreating the effects of a full orchestra with all the necessary colors and trills. Despite their density, songs from "Heartland," such as "Keep the Dog Quiet" or "Midnight Directives," never lose their immediacy when performed live; they are bombastic and bursting at the seams. Just when you think the loops are getting too muddled, squished together unceremoniously, Pallett the puppeteer pulls the strings taut with a resounding stomp of the foot at his pedal board.

Older songs such as "This is the Dream of Win and Regine" take a few minutes to materialize entirely, but when the main riff finally kicks in, the soulful plucks and warped background clicks are thrilling. In all the spacious Sturm und Drang, Pallett blows out his bass amp. No sedated violin affair here. The atmosphere is loose, any stuffiness punctured by moments of Pallett sucking on his finger.

"I've got to have a really moist finger for this one," he says, realizing the innuendo too late and trying to laugh it off bashfully. [NYU News]

Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy) and Avi Buffalo (signed to Sub Pop) played Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday (1/12). It was a record release show for Owen's great new "Heartland" album, out now on Domino.

Owen's future tour dates now include Coachella. Avi Buffalo's future tour dates include The Bell House with Vetiver and Inlets TONIGHT (1/21).

Owen wasn't allowing pictures Tuesday night, but some of Avi (who played his first-ever NYC show at Pianos on Saturday) and more merch and stuff, below...

Continue reading "Owen Pallett (no pics) played Bowery w/ Avi Buffalo (pics) "

Wow...Public Image Ltd, The Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Grace Jones, Fever Ray, Devo, Hot Chip, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, Mew, Camera Obscura, Gil Scott-Heron, The xx, John Waters, Dillinger Escape Plan, Deer Tick, Gary Numan... Full Coachella 2010 lineup below....

Continue reading "2010 Coachella line up announced (Faith No More, Pavement, Muse, Gorillaz, Thom Yorke, Jay-Z, LCD Soundystem, ???)"

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen will be joining Levon Helm at Terminal 5 on Thursday. It's also a chance to see Okkervil River who are opening for the show. Tickets are still on sale.

Okkervill River's Will Sheff (recently seen covering Fleetwood Mac) contributed to the new Norah Jones album.

Puss n Boots (aka Sasha Dobson, Catherine Popper, and Norah Jones (not Avril Lavigne as listed on Mercury Lounge's website) are opening for Doveman and friends at Mercury Lounge on January 12th. Tickets are still on sale. As previously mentioned, Doveman band member Sam Amidon opens that show too.

Tickets are also now on sale for the two "Doveman + Peter Pears : An Evening With Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly" shows at The Kitchen.

Norah Jones, Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly, and members of the National are among those who contributed to the new Doveman album.

Doveman, Sam Amidon and Nico Muhly are playing this year's Big Ears Fest which is curated by a member of the National.

Sam Amidon was reportedly "backed by Doveman, Beth Orton, Final Fantasy + Shazad Ismaily" at Rockwood Music Hall the other night.

Final Fantasy is not called Final Fantasy any more. Tickets are still on sale for the Owen Pallett show happening at Bowery Ballroom on January 18th.

Beth Orton and Shazad (who also plays in Doveman) both contribute to Sam's forthcoming album.

Beth Orton has some shows coming up of her own too. Video of Sam and Beth performing together in London, below...

Continue reading "Donald Fagen, Levon Helm, Puss n Boots, Norah Jones, Doveman, Sam Amidon, Beth Orton, etc (dates, tix & stuff)"

"Owen Pallett has announced that he will no longer be using the name Final Fantasy for his musical work. Owen Pallett's new album 'Heartland' will be available on Domino on January 12, 2010. Owen has issued the following statement:"

Continue reading "Owen Pallett drops the "Final Fantasy" name"

Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy concludes his tour with The Mountain Goats at The Bell House in Brooklyn tonight (12/2). Their second to last stop together was last night at Webster Hall (that's a picture from the show above). Final Fantasy also appeared on IFC's Dinner Was the Band last night. He performed "Keep the Dog Quiet" at both shows, but only talked about how he was vegan until he decided to eat lamb one day on the IFC one. Video from the TV show was previously posted HERE. A picture of the Webster Hall setlist is below.

In related news,

To celebrate the January 12th release of Heartland, Final Fantasy will be playing several shows, including dates in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City. The third Final Fantasy full-length and the first for Domino Records, Heartland is the product of nine months of work in four countries. It is a fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice.
Owen Pallett explains Heartland:
"The songs themselves form a narrative concerning a farmer named Lewis and the fictional world of Spectrum. The songs are one-sided dialogues with Lewis, a young, ultra-violent farmer, speaking to his creator. The album was compositionally modeled upon the principles of electronic music. The principles of analog synthesis informing symphonic writing, like an inversion of a Tomita record. These songs, too, were designed to be as dense with polyphony as the Final Fantasy live shows can become. While writing it, I kept an image in my head of putting so many notes on the page that the paper turned black. This record encapsulates a whole year of work for me, and was difficult to see through, but I'm immensely proud of the results. I hope you enjoy it."

Those new dates include January 18th at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Friday (12/4) at noon. All dates, the new album cover art and tracklist, and a video below...

Continue reading "Final Fantasy played Webster Hall (setlist) - announces 2010 tour dates in support of new Domino Records album "

The Mountain Goats @ Webster Hall in November 2008 (more by Faith-Ann Young)

tonight in NYC
* The Loom, Kath Bloom @ Bruar Falls
* McCoy Tyner Trio w/ Gary Bartz @ Blue Note
* Mickey Leigh & Legs McNeil @ Barnes & Noble
* The Mountain Goats, Final Fantasy @ Webster Hall
* Kurt Vile, Small Black, DJ Rezound @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Over the Rhine, Lucy Wainwright Roche @ Highline Ballroom
* Dynasties, Darlings, Video Daughters, Equestrian @ Glasslands
* Russian Circles, Young Widows, The Phantom Family Halo @ Bowery Ballroom

I'm making an effort to post "What's Going "On" first thing each day. As it scrolls down the page, you can always find it by clicking the "What's Going on Today?" button in the homepage sidebar. If things come up throughout the day, they'll be added to the post or the comments (which of course everyone is always encouraged to do as well).

Kurt Vile plays a free set at tonight's Fader Bowl at Brooklyn Bowl, along with Small Black and DJ Rezound. Vile will be back in February as part of his tour with Fucked Up.

The Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy play Webster Hall tonight. Tomorrow it's the Bell House. Both are sold out. Tickets are still available for the Webster Hall show.

Final Fantasy also appears on Dinner With The Band tonight. Video of a new song played on the episode, below...

I Slept With Joey Ramone is a new book by Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil who are both appearing at Barnes & Noble Tribeca (97 Warren St.) at 7pm today ("The evening will feature a Q&A, book signing and an intimate discussion with the authors. Plus: Witness a candid one-on-one interview between authors Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil.").

The Loom appear at Bruar Falls tonight. If you miss them, you can also try and see them when they open the late Rural Alberta Advantage show at Mercury Lounge on January 9th.

Legendary pianist McCoy Tyner, who got his start in John Coltrane's band, bring his trio for three nights at Blue Note with alto saxist Gary Bartz.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

Monsters of Folk's debut album is out Tuesday on CD, and the collaborative project of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis is one of the year's most pleasant musical surprises. Catch them on tour in October and November.

Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill is one of the year's best tribute albums, and includes contributions from Beth Orton, Bill Callahan, and Final Fantasy (who is touring with the Mountain Goats in November).

Other albums I have heard and can recommend this week include Amy Millan's Masters of the Burial, Castanets' Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts, Hallelujah the Hills' Colonial Drones, Le Loup's Family, Owen's New Leaves, Rose Melberg's Homeade Ship, and Vic Chesnutt's At the Cut.

Reissues of note this week include the Beastie Boys' remastered Hello Nasty (complete with bonus disc of rarities) and three Mudhoney discs on vinyl (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Mudhoney, and Superfuzz Bigmuff ),

What new music can you recommend this week? What's on your shopping list?

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings @ Radio City (more by Natasha Ryan)

"The new six-part IFC Original Series, DINNER WITH THE BAND is the first alternative cooking show combining culinary delights, musical performances and conversations with some of today's most acclaimed indie rock artists.

On DINNER WITH THE BAND, Sam Mason, the tattooed and celebrated NYC chef (Tailor, WD-50), invites a band to his Brooklyn loft where he shows them how to add his signature culinary spin to their favorite "on-tour" food. In the meantime, Chef Mason and the artists converse on food, music, and life while cooking together. After they "chow down" they "get down" as each act takes to the loft's stage to play a rockin' musical set.

Bands with dinner reservations this season include, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Kid Sister and Flosstradamus, Les Savy Fav, YACHT, Final Fantasy, and MEN.

Chef Mason, who recently took on Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America, is the former pastry chef of New York's WD-50 and current proprietor of SOHO's contemporary dining and cocktail parlor, Tailor. A modern day pioneer of avant-garde cooking and a James Beard nominee, Mason brings a casual approach to his dishes that stimulate the palate as well as the dialogue.

DINNER WITH THE BAND will debut on IFC in November 2009."

IFC recently picked up Dinner With the Band which was previously made just for the Internet.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings have a handful of shows scheduled between now and the end of the year, and one of them is taking place at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ on December 5th. Tickets are on sale. All dates below...

Continue reading "Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - 2009 Tour Dates (Starland Ballroom) +++ Dinner With the Band (on IFC)"

FF photos by Joseph Xu

DOWNLOAD: Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23 (new MP3)

Final Fantasy @ P4K

Final Fantasy played the Pitchfork Festival on July 18th, which is where the photos in this post are from (check out his Mayhem t-shirt). About a week later he played the Hillside Festival at Guelph Lake in Canada during a storm (probably not a good idea)...

A few songs into his bravura one-man baroque-pop set, the skies filled with thunder and lightning as rain began to drench Pallett, who continued shredding his bow fiercely across his violin.

As stagehands covered equipment with plastic, and organizers frantically tried to cut him off, Pallett kept playing the appropriately dramatic 'Lewis Takes His Shirt Off.' "One more minute," he yelled, as sheets of water hit him full force.

The stunned (and soaked) crowd broke into wild cheers as one minute turned into two and Pallett sped toward the song's big finish like a man possessed -- until the stage crew finally pulled the plug. Still, his heroics had already created Hillside's most memorable moment. [Spinner]

Video from that moment below.

This November he (Owen Pallett) heads out on tour to open up for The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle), who will be playing as a full band (though there is a much shorter string of Darnielle solo dates too). The trip ends with a pair of NYC gigs on December 1st and 2nd, when they respectively visit Webster Hall and the Bell House. Tickets for Webster Hall go on AmEx presale today at noon; general sale starts Friday, August 7th at noon. Bell House tickets are on sale today at noon.

The occasion for this tour is a new record from The Mountain Goats, enigmatically titled The Life of the World to Come, which comes out October 6th on 4AD. All song titles on the new album are Bible verses. John says,

The album was recorded between April and June: first at Electrical Audio with Brandon Eggleston; then at Sonic Ranch with John Congleton; and finally at Baucom Road with Scott Solter. Scott also mixed the entire album at Baucom Road. The band is still Jon Wurster, Peter Hughes, and me; Owen Pallett did string arrangements & played on the Electrical session.

I guess the obvious question is going to be: "John, have you had some sort of religious awakening?" and while I guess lots of people might want to be coy about answering that, that's never really been my style, so: no. It's not like that. It's not some heavy-narrative-distance deal either, though, and it's not a screed. It's twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of. More than that I'd want to wait to say until some people have heard it, which won't be long.

One track "Genesis 3:23" is posted above. The verse in question there, "Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken," may aid in your listening. Album art & tracklist, with tour dates, the FF Hillside video, and FF@P4K pics, below...

Continue reading "Mountain Goats - new Bible album, MP3, 2009 tour dates w/ Final Fantasy (who played Pitchfork & Hillside in a storm) "

WAVVES @ Less Artists More Condos (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

WAVVES headlines a Todd P-like bill at Bowery Balllrom in NYC on July 15th. Opening the show is Woods, Real Estate, and Popo. It's one of just two U.S. shows WAVVES has scheduled at the moment. The other is July 18th at the Pitchfork Music Festival (July 17-19 in Chicago) which recently announced its final lineup additions. They are Final Fantasy, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bowerbirds, Michael Columbia, The Thermals and Killer Whales. Full lineup below...

Tickets for the NYC show go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon, and then regular sale on Friday. All dates below...

Continue reading "WAVVES adds a NYC show ++ final Pitchfork Fest lineup "

a shot from Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)

The Sled Island Music and Arts Festival -- taking place at various venues in Calgary, Alberta from June 24 to June 27 -- is pleased to announce the initial line-up and the inclusion of Olympic Plaza as the main venue on Friday, June 26. This year will include over 200 bands performing at 23 venues plus art shows, film screenings, and a comedy component at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.

Sled Island 2009 will feature performances by the influential indie rock darlings The Breeders (featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies) making their first Calgary performance, NYC post-punk revivalists Liars bringing the noise, the legendary Canadian metal band Anvil the recent subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil and the garage rock assault of Tel Aviv's Monotonix known for their incredible live show. New Orleans-based musician and mad genius inventor of the 'drum buddy' Quintron & Ms. Pussycat will bring the party along with blood-soaked party rocker Andrew W.K. and Toronto-based electro tour-de-force Holy Fuck on the more 'offensive' front. Phil Elverum's (of The Microphones) latest moniker Mount Eerie will deliver a symbiotic balance of fuzz and folk matched by Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy surrealist violin stage performance. Calgary-based experimental icons Azeda Booth aim to mystify crowds along with their all-male psychedelic pop counterparts Women making their second festival appearance...The complete festival line-up and schedule will be revealed on June 1. [pr]

Festival passes are on sale now.

As previously reported, Colin Newman, vocalist and guitarist for Wire, will be guest curating this year's festival. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Sled Island - 2009 fest lineup (Breeders, Liars, Anvil & more) "

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Grizzly Bear

Thursday night (2/26), Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden joined members of The National (Clogs) and Arcade Fire (Bell Orchestre) on stage with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM.

Two nights later (2/28), members of the National joined Grizzly Bear (headliner) and Final Fantasy (opener and sometimes member/contributor to Arcade Fire) on the same stage with the same orchestra. Nico Muhly, who contributed arrangements to the show and to Grizzly Bear's new album, was on stage playing piano during both sets as well.

Members of Beirut, who played their own two shows at the same venue a few weeks earlier (but with their own orchestra), could be spotted in the indie-rocker heavy audiences at both the Clogs/BO and FF/GB shows. All this collaboration and support between the current group of popular "indie" artists is commonplace (especially in Brooklyn), and there's no better representation of that than the recently-released National members-curated Dark Was the Night compilation which pretty much everyone mentioned in this post so far (except the Philharmonic) contributed at least one song to. I'm still anxiously awaiting more news of the ultimate live representation of Dark Was the Night in the form of a concert at Radio City Music Hall. Speaking of which, that's where Dark Was the Night contributor David Byrne was playing for the 2nd night in a row on the same night as Grizzly Bear.

Final Fantasy

So, how was Saturday night? I thought It was great. Final Fantasy opened the show....

Mr. Pallett, who hails from a classical background, was in his element, if not his comfort zone. Many of his songs reflect orchestral dimensions, including "Horsetail Feathers," which required little reinvention, and "Arctic Circle," which led to a coda packed with chromatic suspense. The two newer pieces that closed his set were marked by pungent but graceful touches: a suggestively smudged viola part, a twitchy line for violins.

Usually, though, Mr. Pallett practices an art of accretion, looping his own violin and keyboard parts to create chamber-pop arrangements in real time. Without that hint of sorcery, his performance felt almost ordinary. And because he isn't a forceful or particularly magnetic singer, he sometimes sounded overwhelmed by the pomp... [NY Times]

Grizzly Bear came up next and even impressed the people who had never heard of either band that were sitting all around me ("Grizzly Bear can sing!") (BAM subscribers?). Grizzly Bear played a mix of old and new songs, some for the first time live, and many of them with the orchestra. Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen have such different voices, and write such different songs, but somehow they mash it all together and it becomes Grizzly Bear. More than ever it seems the two front-men are collaborating - singing at the same time, or back and forth. Ed also seems to be letting his voice out in a gothier, Depeche Mode/Dead Can Dance/Antony-like direction that I liked a lot. I can't wait to hear the new album. More pictures, a video and the setlist from the show, below...

Continue reading "Grizzly Bear & Final Fantasy w/ The Brooklyn Philharmonic @ BAM - pics, setlist, video"

Last weekend it was two nights of Antony and the Johnsons at Town Hall, one of which fell on the same night as Leonard Cohen at the Beacon Theatre and M Ward at Apollo Theater. This week's war of fancy seated shows I would love to go to comes in the form of two nights of David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall, two nights of Van Morrison performing "Astral Weeks" at the Theater at MSG, and the third option of Grizzly Bear and Final Fantasy with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. What are you doing?

Van Morrison also has two shows coming up at the Beacon Theater.

The above picture illustrates David Byrne's intricate tour production. You'll recognize it, white outfits included, if you've seen any pictures from previous shows on the tour.

Video from Antony's show at Town Hall, below...

Continue reading "David Byrne vs. Van Morrison vs. Grizzly Bear/Final Fantasy"

words & photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

What a great show last night (2/6). And well run. Doors were at 7:45, and the show started promptly at 8. Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) played about an hour with the addition of Matt Smith which made it "Ffiinnaall Ffaannttaassyy."

After one or two songs Owen invited us to move around and explore the space, to listen from different places in the room. The majority of the crowd stayed seated, but around 30 of us were moving around throughout. The sound really did change depending on where you stood because multiple amps were set up across the stage and each amp was pumping out different sounds. As you can see in the photos, they had free apples, the "Best Seat in the House" and the "Massage Chair".

Owen made it sound like this was the last time he'd be playing this way - that from now on he'd be playing with orchestras, rather than doing the looping that has somewhat defined him up to this point. Last time after tonight (2/7) that is.

And yes, they ran some of the electronics through an apple. More pictures and the setlist below...

Continue reading "Ffiinnaall Ffaannttaassyy (Final Fantasy & Matt Smith) @ The Kitchen, NYC - pics"

Kylesa @ Bowery Ballroom last night (more by Justina Villanueva)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Antibalas @ Southpaw
* DANCE to Golden Filter
* Tim & Eric @ Nokia Theatre
* Joseph Arthur @ The Bell House
* The Pretenders @ Roseland Ballroom
* Gogol Bordello movie screening @ 92Y Tribeca
* Jonas Reinhardt, ARP & Steve Moore @ Cake Shop
* Prairie Cartel, Hallcall & Jackson @ The Annex
* Curumin, Money Mark & Chin Chin @ Mercury Lounge
* Sally Head, Right on Dynamite, Sexpipe & Luca @ Pianos
* The Sword, Year Long Disaster & Children @ Bowery Ballroom
* Neckbeard Telecaster & Maxi Geil! and Playcolt @ Seaport Ice !!
* Apes & Androids, The Phenomenal Handclap Band & Bonnie Baxter @ MHOW
* Organs, The Specific Heats, Elizabeth Butters & Everyone @ Don Pedro's
* Mats Gustafsson (with Thurston Moore) and White Out (with Samara Lubelski)
* Dan Deacon, Thank You, Future Islands, These Are Powers, USAISAMONSTER, Woods, etc @ 1896

!! Maxi Geil replaced Grand Mal on the Seaport bill.

The Coachella lineup was announced.

Tickets are really on sale for the three Of Montreal shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

A whole bunch of other shows went on sale today too.

Lil Wayne loses copyright battle with The Rolling Stones.

Final Fantasy's video for Horsetail Feathers below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

Owen & Matt

Final Fantasy (singer, composer, and arranger Owen Pallett) is known for his process-based experimental-pop solo violin performances, which allow the audience to witness the construction of his densely textured, layered, intricately polyphonic songs in real-time. For this new project, Final Fantasy presents a dynamic set of live violin and electronics with musician and composer Matt Smith. Through a complex sampling and spatialization process that is half-rehearsed and half-improvised, Pallett and Smith re-create a site-specific version of the more dissonant and abstract Final Fantasy repertoire. [The show at the Kitchen called] Ffiinnaall Ffaannttaassyy also anticipates the forthcoming release of Heartland, the follow-up to Final Fantasy's recent Polaris Prize-winning album, He Poos Clouds.

Feb 06 - Final Fantasy & Matt Smith @ The Kitchen (tix)
Feb 07 - Final Fantasy & Matt Smith @ The Kitchen (tix)
Feb 28 - Final Fantasy, Grizzly Bear & Brooklyn Philharmonic (tix)

Final Fantasy released two EP's in 2008. Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste listed then on his top 10 of 2008. Owen Pallett's top 10 of 2008, and his new Final Fantasy video, below...

Continue reading "Final Fantasy adds NYC shows w/ Matt Smith, new video, new album Heartland, and Owen's top 10 of 2008"

Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear's Top 10 of 2008

1. Beach House, Devotion (Carpark Records)
2. Department of Eagles, In Ear Park (4ad Records)
3. Portishead, Third (Mercury)
4. Nico Muhly, Mothertongue (Brassland Records)
5. Final Fantasy, EPs (Tomlab)
6. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair (Mute U.S.)
7. M83, Saturdays=Youth (Mute U.S.)
8. Ssion, Fools Gold (Sleazetone)
9. The Chap, Mega Breakfast (Ghostly Int'l)
10. John Maus, Love is Real (Upset! The Rhythm)

That is list is via Filter. Ed's #2 is his Grizzly Bear bandmate's other band who have some shows coming up in January. Ed's #4 is doing the arrangements for Grizzly Bear's orchestral show at BAM in February. Ed's #5 is also on that bill. Ed's #7 listed his own Top 10 for Filter, a list that also included Ed's #6. I wish Ed's #3 was playing NYC, but who knows when that day will come again. Ed's #1 is playing NYC tonight, Tuesday December 9th, at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Dent May's Paw Tracks labelmate Tickley Feather. All Beach House tour dates below...

Continue reading "updated Beach House tour dates, Ed Droste's Top 10 "

Grizzly Bear @ Hammerstein Ballroom (more by Zach Dilgard)

As promised, tickets are on sale for the Brooklyn Philharmonic show (thx all).

Grizzly Bear @ Hammerstein Ballroom (more by Zach Dilgard)

Grizzly Bear & Final Fantasy will be performing with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, conducted by Michael Christie, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8 PM. Tickets go on sale October 20th.

Nico Muhly will be writing the arrangements for GB. FF writes his own. Grizzly Bear's last NYC show was at Hammerstein Ballroom with The National. Their next one will be a few songs at an event for Obama.

"Last spring, Final Fantasy and members of Beirut went outdoors with instruments, microphones, and Alan Lomax's headphones for an ethnomusicological exercise in fake field recordings that captures the culture of the fictional land of Spectrum.' Final Fantasy's Spectrum, 14th Century is out now from from Blocks Recording Club. Final Fantasy's next EP, Plays To Please, is out October 21st, "as part of the Pregnancy Series, presented jointly by Slender Means Society, States Rights Records and Blocks Recording Club. It is six songs written by Toronto genius Alex Lukashevsky, delivered by a 35-piece big band, including Nick Fraser (Drumheller), Paul Mathew (The Hidden Cameras) and Andrew Bird."

by BrooklynVegan Mike

The 7th annual Pop Montreal five-day music festival (the CMJ/SXSW of Montreal) begins October 1st and this will be their most unique year yet. Nick Cave, Hot Chip, Method Man and Redman, The Dodos, The Black Kids, Apostle of Hustle, Julie Doiron,A Place To Bury Strangers, Miracle Fortress, Land of Talk, Laura Marling, The Dears, and Ratatat are some of the big names among the lineup of artists who will overrun all or most of Montreal's clubs for the festival. Pop Montreal always comes through with some classic choices too, and this year is no different with Burt Bacharach, Silver Apples, and Wire playing during the festival. There is also a unique collaborative performance between Owen Pallett, Stef Schneider (Bell Ochestre and The Luyas) Mike Dubue, HILOTRONS and SoCalled, entitled Porn Pop!, which finds the group doing a live score of the gay porno film Cruisin' 57 at one of the last remaining true porno theaters in North America, Cinema L'Amour.

The last few years have seen the festival branch out to other avenues including Film Pop, symposiums on the state of music (with Lydia Lunch and Sister Nancy are a couple of this year's speakers) and Puces Pop, an arts and crafts bazaar. That expansion is going further this year with the announcement of Kids Pop, a series of demonstrations and workshops aimed toward younger Pop Montrealers that will run the entirety of the festival.

Like our CMJ coverage last year, over the next few weeks we'll be highlighting some bands playing the fest that we think might be worth checking out. Also, during the festival, we'll have write ups of the previous days action.

The full Pop Montreal lineup and schedule can be found HERE. A video commercial below...

Continue reading "Pop Montreal - Oct 1-5, 2008 - Burt Bacharach, Nick Cave, and a Socalled Final Fantasy live porn score included"

This one goes out to all of Dan Deacon's biggest fans.....

Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) @ Tonic

This year's Bang on a Can Marathon (co-presented by the River to River Festival and arts>World Financial Center) will be taking place at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City from 6pm on May 31st through 6am on June 1st. As always, the Marathon is FREE and open to the public!

The full schedule is below....

Continue reading "Bang on a Can NYC Marathon schedule (this weekend)"

photo of Bell by Alix Winsby

Bell (aka Olga Bell) is a musician from NYC. That might be how you know her, and/or maybe you downloaded that Radiohead cover she did, or maybe you saw her open for Au Revoir Simone, and/or maybe you read about her on Stereogum the other day. If you haven't heard Bell yet, go check out the songs streaming on her MySpace. If you're like me, Bjork will immediately come to mind. That's why I think Stereogum made a good choice when choosing Bell to cover "It's Oh So Quiet" for their ridiculously awesome-looking new "Post" tribute album called "Enjoyed"
(though I haven't heard it yet).....

Tracklist
1. Liars - "Army Of Me"
2. Dirty Projectors - "Hyperballad"
3. High Places - "Modern Things"
4. Bell - "It's Oh So Quiet"
5. Pattern Is Movement - "Enjoy"
6. Evangelicals - "You've Been Flirting Again"
7. Xiu Xiu - "Isobel"
8. Final Fantasy & Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear) - "Possibly Maybe"
9. White Hinterland - "I Miss You"
10. El Guincho - "Cover Me"
11. Atlas Sound - "Headphones"

Nuts... PLUS, the whole album will be a free download starting March 31st (like the REM & Radiohead ones before it). March 31st is also the day that Klaus Kinski and I are throwing our next edition of Rock 'n' ROFL at Pianos which, coincidentally, also happens to include Bell (aka BELL IS PLAYING ROCK N ROFL).

Takka Takka are playing the show too. It's not the first time they've shared a bill with Bell either, and that's NOT a coincidence. Bell contributed to the new Takka Takka album which is being finished as we speak - an album that takes Takka Takka in a completely new direction with a new sound and a significantly different lineup than who was in the band when their last release came out.

So, it's looking something like this....

BrooklynVegan & Klaus Kinski present
The unofficial & unauthorized "Enjoyed" release party
(aka Rock 'n' ROFL II)
@ Pianos in NYC
on March 31, 2008

7-8 pm: DJ David Bruno AND all the free Newcastle you can drink

8-9 pm: comedy by Will Franken, Larry Murphy, Kumail Nanjiani, Sean O' Connor and Reggie Watts

9-10 pm: music by Bell
10-11 pm: music by Takka Takka
11-12 pm: music by TBA (** can't announce yet, but it's good **)

also: $3.00 Svedka lemon drops all night AND a 2nd hour of free Newcastle (time TBD) (that's 2 hours of open bar). All that for just $10. Tickets are on sale.

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Related story: I put together a whole bunch of shows during CMJ. One was on Saturday October 20th at Pianos, during the day, upstairs & downstairs. The Maccabees were the last band to play downstairs. Doveman, Erik Friedlander and Craig Wedren were playing upstairs at the same time. Jefferson, who was there in a semi-official capacity to take pictures, wanted to shoot the Maccabees, but ended up missing them because of the upstairs lineup.

By the time he came back down, the Maccabees were already long gone and the next, unrelated show had started. He really didn't know the difference and started taking pictures of (who he thought was) the Maccabees. Eventually he figured it out and realized he'd just discovered Bell.

When Jefferson and I finally reunited, I think I said something like (now on like no sleep and 4 days into CMJ), "Where the hell have you been? Did you even see the Maccabees? We have to go see Santogold. Let's get out of here." He said something like, "Dude...chill. I was shooting this girl Bell. She was great." I think then by the next day I totally forgot about it, and it wasn't until I recently showed him the already-booked March 31st lineup that he pointed out that he had some never-before-seen Bell pictures (aka the ones you see in this post.....below) (the end)....

Continue reading "BELL is playing Rock 'n' ROFL w/ Takka Takka & TBA +++ Stereogum, a Bjork tribute & some pics from CMJ"

Tickets go on sale Thursday for a Dirty Projectors show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 9th. Before that they play the incredible Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett)-curated Maximum Black Festival with Final Fantasy, Six Organs of Admittance, Deerhoof and Frog Eyes - a 3-date tour that goes from Vienna to London to Berlin. They also play the Bryce Dessner (The National)-curated musicNOW Festival in Cincinatti, Ohio on April 4th. That festival bill also features Bang on a Can, Bill Frisell, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, and Glenn Kotche. All dates below....

Continue reading "DIRTY PROJECTORS playing Brooklyn, Maximum Black, MusicNOW, ATP & other 2008 Tour Dates"