by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Tindersticks - "The Hungry Saw" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tindersticks - "Yesterday's Tomorrow" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tindersticks - "The Other Side of the World" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Paper - "Out of It Into It" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Week That Was - "Learn to Learn" (MP3)
DONWLOAD: The Antlers - "Bear" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Antlers - "Two" (MP3)

Tindersticks

The most exciting show of the week for me has to be the return of Tindersticks, who play the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Friday (3/6). The band rarely tour the States, having last been here five years ago for their album Waiting for the Moon. In the interim, frontman Stuart Staples put out a solo album in 2005, fueling break-up rumors. It was more like break in half: the band lost three members, leaving Tindersticks as a trio comprised of Staples, guitarist Neil Fraser and percussionist/keyboardist David Boutler.

The three have been busy lately. Not only did they put out last year's very good The Hungry Saw, but just finished soundtrack work for Claire Denis' new film 35 rhums. (Tindersticks previously worked on Denis' 2001 film Trouble Every Day.) Despite the shrinking membership, Tindersticks sound just as dark, lush and cinematic as before on The Hungry Saw. Like Nick Cave, Tindersticks' seem to get better with age. For these North American shows, Tindersticks will be touring as a seven-piece, including the amazing-in-his-own-right Terry Edwards on brass.

Tickets for the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show are still available,. Longtime BV fave Dawn Landes opens. Meanwhile, Tindersticks singer Stuart Staples is featured in this week's Pitchfork Guestlist.

The Week That Was

South by Southwest is only two weeks away, which means UK, European, and Canadian bands on their way there will start playing NYC shows soon. Next week is kind of insane, so in an effort to cover some of it early, I'll remind you again that The Week That Was play Mercury Lounge this Monday, March 9. Here's what I wrote a while back:

TWTW are one of the two splinter groups created when Sunderland, UK's Field Music decided to retire that moniker but still basically make music together. David Brewis released a phonetics-obsessed solo project under the name School of Language(which toured here last March). His brother Peter created The Week That Was, a concept album equally obsessed with (lyrically) The Media and (sonically) the Big '80s production style of Kate Bush and Trevor Horn. It's a brilliant album that made my Top Five of 2008. Both David Brewis and Field Music keyboardist Andrew Moore, plus about five others on percussion and strings. They'll only be a quartet at Mercury Lounge, but if they even come close to replicating the album's wall-of-sound, it will be worth attending.

Tickets are still available and I highly suggest you do. Also on the bill: Boston's underrated Hallelujah the Hills, Philly's Arc in Round, and Brooklyn locals Monuments. The Week That Was are doing a few other dates around the U.S. as well as a few at SXSW and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

Paper

Backtracking a bit, the first of those three consecutive PAPER shows at Cake Shop start tonight (3/4). It's the Swedish band's first-ever U.S. gigs and they've already been here a few days, blogging about their adventures in the city, systematically cataloging their food intake, complete with number ratings. Pretty funny. Of the three shows, Friday's (3/6) looks the most interesting to me, with Japan's Zazen Boys (who we featured earlier in the week) and Your Nature who, until just recently, you may have known as Frankopollis. But tonight's show (3/4) has local dance-rockers Holy Hail and Phones, which features members of White Rabbits and The Subjects. Not to short Thursday's show (3/5), of course, which has Talk Normal, Graffiti Monsters and Never Tune.

The Antlers @ Cake Shop during CMJ (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

And lastly, Thursday night (3/5) at Union Hall, The Antlers are having the record release party for their new album, Hospice, which is out this week and has been getting a whole lot of blog love. It was recently named "Best Album of 2009 So Far" by the folks at NPR's All Songs Considered. Personally, I don't start ranking things till at least April but I will say Hospice is definitely worth checking out. (There are a couple tracks from it at the top of this post.) I am curious to see how its dense, multi-layered sound will come off live. It's a nice night of music, actually, with North Carolina's chamber pop band Physics of Meaning, and the country jangle of Brooklyn's Brilliant Mistakes.

Like usual, tour dates and video follows after the jump...

Continue reading "Tindersticks, The Antlers, Paper, The Week That Was, Your Nature (formerly Frankpollis) & more in This Week in Indie"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Paper - Out of It Into It (MP3)

Zazen Boys @ Mercury Lounge on 10/5/08 (by Jeff Winterberg)

"Zazen Boys were formed in 2003 by Mukai Shutoku, former leader of Japanese rock band Number Girl. In a word, Zazen Boys aspire to be `Led Zeppelin in kimono."

Japanese funk-rockers Zazen Boys are playing three NYC-area dates this weekend - Friday (3/6) at Cake Shop; Saturday (3/7) at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ (tix); and Sunday (3/8) at Pianos.

A Baltimore City Paper review of the band's visit to that city (in support of their September 2008 release IV) captures the band's dueling improv-art-rock and dance groove tendencies, with plentiful name dropping:

After a brief introduction in delightfully accented English--"From Matsuri Studio, Tokyo, we are Zazen Boys!"--the quartet first pounded away with some mathy hardcore and obnoxiously endearing noise. In a far-fetched conception, this portion of the band's set was like California's Health, but with dramatically fewer loops and noise explosions; the drummer was adequately primal but keen to all the subtle transitions of art-rock composition.

But as the Boys softened a few of the hard edges and brought out funk fit for dancing shoes, it was possible to view them more accurately as disciples of the Dismemberment Plan, or even George Clinton. The hit "Weekend," with its juicy slap bass, pornographic guitar noise, and bilingual (nearly spiritual) party lyrics, made the show definitely feel like the "buzzworthy" arrival of foreign rock stars. "I Don't Wanna Be With You" was a delicious club number with hip-swerving runway synthesizers and pitch-altered Dan Deacon-esque vocals. It was unexpectedly mind-blowing, a show more than worth the in-box clutter.

At the Cake Shop, Zazen Boys will share the bill with NYC's Frankpollis, and Sweden's Paper who we also recently featured and are playing Cake Shop two other times that week.

Videos from Zazen Boys's 2008 release IV, and those dates in list & flyer format (their only scheduled shows at the moment), below...

Continue reading "Japan's ZAZEN BOYS - 3 NY-area shows, Cake Shop w/ Paper"

photos by Tim Griffin

Though not many people showed up, Friendly Foes played their first of two NYC shows, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, last night (12/9). The second show is tonight/Wednesday at The Studio at Webster Hall. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Friendly Foes & Frankpollis @ the Bell House, NYC - pics"

Cops showed up twice at the show happening in Sunset Park on Friday night (June 13, 2008). Frankpollis was about to go on around 2am. That's when the cops showed up for the 2nd time. That's when the party ended and approximately 8 people (including the guy in the above picture) were taken to jail without explanation to others at the party. Adam Green did not get to play, but he and his band were there and ready to go on last. He also wasn't arrested. More details soon.

Frankpollis @ Citysol (Stuyvesant Cove Park) - July 14, 2007

* movies @ McCarren Pool
* Corn Mo & friends play Union Hall
* Frankpollis opens for the Virgins @ Mercury Lounge
* Just Jack makes his U.S. debut
* The 1990s get down with Cause Co-Motion!
* Cause & Elijah B. Torn for free @ Pianos
* Ben Kweller continues his Southpaw residency w/ Adam Green
* The NY Times reviews Rock the Bells
* Imax makes Rolling Stones larger-than-life
* Sweden mourns film director Ingmar Bergman

What else? More photos from Citysol HERE, HERE, and HERE.

DOWNLOAD: Les Savy Fav - The Sweat Descends (MP3)

I'm excited to finally get to announce the kick-ass FREE show I've been working on for months with the fine people at Solar One. Thanks also to everyone who got in touch and volunteered their band and/or time for this cause.

I told you to save the date, and here's why:

Brooklyn Vegan & Solar One present Citysol....
A FREE SHOW on SATURDAY JULY 14 (1pm-10pm) in NYC w/
* LES SAVY FAV (!!)
* Land Of Talk (previously announced)
* O'Death (yeah)
* The Besnard Lakes (previously announced)
* These Are Powers (ex-Liars)
* The Budos Band (funky)
* Frankpollis (starring Jackson)
* plus a very special performance from OCDJ (Dance Party until the solar goes out!)

@ Solar One at Stuyvesant Cove Park - located along the East River between 18th and 23rd Streets. Solar One sits in the north end of the park, near the 23rd Street entrance and the Gulf Gas station.

We're also co-sponsoring the free Menomena/Beat the Devil show at the Seaport the day before, and hosting an opening night party the night before that with DRAGONS OF ZYNTH, DJ Mistakes (bicycle-powered turntablism), and Brightside.

Some interesting facts about the show on the 14th:

• It is the same weekend as the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago - more reason to stay home.
• It is outside (please don't rain, please don't rain).
• It is one day before the free 'Ponderosa Stomp' show at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn
• The bands will be performing on a solar + biodiesel powered stage.
• It is one week before the free Siren Festival in Coney Island
• There will be art installations to look at, and a "green product marketplace" for you to buy stuff at.
• It will rock.

All festival details below.......

Continue reading "LES SAVY FAV to headline FREE Citysol show ++ all 4-DAY NYC FESTIVAL DETAILS"