Ted Leo at Shea in November (more by Guy Eppel)

As mentioned, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will be in the NYC-area for New Year's Eve to play The Bell House on 12/30 (tickets) and Maxwell's on 12/31 (tickets).

According to Ted, there are only a few tickets left for the Maxwell's show and they're going fast. He also mentions that a "*Special Very Exciting* GUEST" will be there. Who do you think it is? If you're going, please say hi to this person who tweeted at Ted that they're "going alone so a 'hi' would make their night."

Comedian Kurt Braunohler opens both shows. I wonder if he'll also end up at Maxwell's at all this week for Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah shows. I wonder if Ted will? Say "hi" to Kurt too if you go.

Obits open the Bell House show and will also play NYC during a short run of dates in March with UK band Fists at Cake Shop on March 17. Tickets are on sale now (yes, advanced tickets for Cake Shop!). All dates are listed below.

In related news, the Fugazi web archives were recently launched and you can check out a listening session with Ted Leo.

Ted's other band, Citizens Arrest, had to cancel their ABC No Rio show which would have went down this past Saturday (12/17) but Omegas, Mind Eraser, and Night Birds still played the venue. Check out pics from that show HERE.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Ted Leo says a guest will be at Maxwell's on NYE; Obits opening Bell House show & playing March dates too"

Fugazi by Jem Cohen

After letting audio tapes for more than 800 shows languish in a closet for years, Fugazi has begun putting them all on its Web site, with the first batch of 130 shows going up next Thursday.

In keeping with its commercial principles of low prices and trust in fans, the shows' suggested price is $5 each, with a sliding scale of $1 to $100, for the cheap or the philanthropic.

As a career-spanning archival project, the Fugazi Live Series has few equals, putting the band in the unlikely company of acts like the Grateful Dead and Phish. And for Dischord, Fugazi's self-run label, it has taken more than two years and tens of thousands of dollars, said Ian MacKaye, one of Fugazi's two singer-guitarists and a co-founder of Dischord.
-[NY Times]

Joe Lally of Fugazi fame, who now lives in Rome, recently finished a batch of dates in Japan and South America, but will head back to the red, white & blue for a round of dates that will kick off in Austin at Fun Fun Fun Fest on 11/5. From there, the tour will eventually make its way up north and east to to places like Chicago, Canada, and NYC before terminating with a "homecoming" show at Black Cat in DC. Most shows are with Helen Money who maybe you recently caught with Shellac. The NYC show hits Knitting Factory on 11/17 with Appomattox also on the bill, and tickets are on sale. All dates are listed below...

Joe Lally's latest wholly-Italian-sourced LP Why Should I Get Used To It is out now via Dischord Records. Stream portions of it at the Dischord site. You can listen to the title track, along with a live video and all dates, below...

Continue reading "Joe Lally & Helen Money --- 2011 Tour Dates"

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield, words by Andrew Frisicano

The "Our Band Could Be Your Life" tribute Sunday night at Bowery Ballroom ran more than four hours with 14 bands playing the music of 13 bands (plus a special encore act that covered Nirvana). Set changes were kept short, and bands generally played about 10-15 minutes (between one and four songs). Unannounced guests included Tim Harrington and Lee Ranaldo singing the Minutemen, Craig Finn playing the role of Minneapolis cop, and Dan Deacon's multimedia barrage and three-piece band. More highlights, lots of pictures, and a bunch of videos (UPDATE: NPR has audio of the show) are below...

Continue reading "'Our Band Could Be Your Life' in pics, video & review (Dirty Projectors, St Vincent, Dan Deacon, Ted Leo, Wye Oak & more)"

Nat Baldwin, David Longstreth and Brian McOmber play Black Flag
Delicate Steve plays the Minutemen
Ted Leo plays Minor Threat
Titus Andronicus plays the Replacements
Tune-Yards plays Sonic Youth
Dan Deacon plays the Butthole Surfers
St. Vincent plays Big Black
Wye Oak plays Dinosaur Jr
Buke & Gass plays Fugazi

To quote show co-presenter Tiger Mountain Presents, "some of the best bands in contemporary indie music will play songs by each of the 13 bands in the book."

"For years, all kinds of people -- musicians, people who run labels, concert promoters, journalists, whatever -- have told me that they've been very inspired by Our Band Could Be Your Life and the bands it profiles, which is incredibly gratifying and totally unexpected," says Azerrad. "The tenth anniversary of the book was a great occasion for the current generation of bands to celebrate these pioneers."

Meanwhile the book will also be the topic of a panel discussion at SXSW that Merrill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs (who is also playing the festival) will speak on.

Ted Leo is headed to Austin too, an appearance at the BrooklynVegan official SXSW showcase included.

Delicate Steve and Wye Oak are going to SXSW too. Wye Oak can be found at the BV/KF/Partisan day party at Swan Dive on Friday, 3/18. Wye Oak will also play Bowery Ballroom as part of a tour in April.

St. Vincent plays Big Black. I just felt like saying it again!

Continue reading "'Our Band Could Be Your Life' 10th anniversary show lineup (Big Black, Black Flag & Fugazi songs will be played)"

by Klaus Kinski

As we pointed out, Them Crooked Vultures were the musical guest on SNL last Saturday (two nights before they played Roseland Ballroom as part of a short tour). What we haven't mentioned is the skit that Vultures drummer Dave Grohl also participated in during the course of the Superbowl-eve show. I'm talking about the Fred Armisen-penned ode to hardcore set at a wedding with Bill Hader and Ashton Kutcher rounding out a four piece Fred Armisen-as-dad-of-the-bride band that proceeded to destroy everything in sight.

What people may not have noticed at the time was how elaborate an homage to 80s hardcore the skit was. Not only did the sketch hilariously caricature and encapsulate the anti-authoritarian, anti-meathead-letterman mentality the bands of that era railed against, but the wedding party's name "Cadena - Norton" is, presumably, a shout out to Black Flag's Dez Cadena and Husker Du's Greg Norton. The band was named Crisis of Conformity (Earth Crisis, Corrosion of Conformity). They broke up in 1983 (just like Minor Threat). Its members are also a serious tip of the hat to that 80s era scene. The skit's line-up featured Steve (Steve Hansgen of Minor Threat), Greg (Greg Ginn of Black Flag) (or maybe Greg Norton) (or was it Greg Hetson of the Circle Jerks), Lyle (Lyle Preslar of Minor Threat, Samhain), and Ian (Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, Fugazi, Egg Hunt). Such a dense homage in such a short set could only have spawned from the mind of Fred Armisen (whose own credits also include Trenchmouth). However, theatrically, the skit wasn't without it's minor faults. As Tom Scharpling succinctly pointed out in a recent tweet, "Remember when hardcore guitarists acted like they were in Warrant? Aston Koocher does." Check out the video with the full lyrics below...

Continue reading "Crisis of Conformity played SNL (video & lyrics) "

DOWNLOAD: Vic Chesnutt - Chain (MP3)

"This fall Vic Chesnutt will embark on a six-week North American tour in support of At the Cut, the Athens, GA-based singer-songwriter's latest effort. The touring band features Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion, all of whom collaborated with Chesnutt on the new album which is out September 22 on Constellation Records."

Vic Chesnutt's North American tour will be coming to NYC for a show on Monday, October 26th at the Bowery Ballroom and another the next night (10/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for both go on AmEx presale Wednesday, July 29th at noon. General sale starts Friday, July 31st at noon. Clare and The Reasons open both gigs.

Vic Chesnutt played the same NYC venues in June as part of a summer solo tour with Jonathan Richman. And not long before that he was at Bowery Ballroom with Elf Power.

New album artwork, tracklist and info on the new record, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Vic Chesnutt - new album, an all star band, 2009 tour dates "

Resolutely independent filmmaker Jem Cohen (Chain, Benjamin Smoke, Instrument) and special guests musician Ian MacKaye (Evens, Fugazi, Minor Threat) and John Cohen (That High Lonesome Sound, There Is No Eye) present an evening of screenings and discussion exploring folk, punk and underground filmmaking as forms of homemade expression.

Among the films shown as part of the evening are John Cohen's 1963 music documentary That High Lonesome Sound; Jem Cohen's Nice Evening, Transmission Down, a portrait of Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous; a short film of Patti Smith's cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; never-before-seen outtakes from Jem's Fugazi film Instrument; and other surprises.

It's the first of three-part series with Jem Cohen at IFC. The second event, which includes Cohen's "documentary musical hallucination" Empires of Tin, will be on Tuesday, August 11th. The last, "Shorts, Rarities and Things to Come," will take place on Thursday, September 3rd.

More info on the event, plus an interview with Jem about his Fugazi documentary, Instrument, below...

Continue reading "'Film and the Folk/Punk Connection' w/ Jem Cohen, Ian MacKaye speaking @ IFC Wednesday + other movie dates"

DOWNLOAD: Glorytellers - Awake At The Wheel (MP3)

Joe Lally

Joe Lally (of Fugazi) is touring with Glorytellers (featuring former Karate member Geoff Farina) this June. The bands will visit the Cake Shop on June 11th and Brooklyn's Union Hall on June 12th.

Those dates are in addition to a number of Farina solo gigs scheduled for Europe in April, and a number of spring/summer dates Joe Lally has on his own - playing his songs as part of a trio. Full schedules below.

This is not the first time Joe Lally and Glorytellers have toured. They last visited NYC in May 2008 for a show at the Knitting Factory.

All tour dates and some live videos below...

Continue reading "Joe Lally (Fugazi) & Geoff Farina (Karate) - 2009 Tour Dates"

by Black Bubblegum

Fugazi @ Gilman 1988 (acrofish)

Alternative Tentacles released a trailer for their upcoming documentary of the legendary punk venue 924 Gilman in Berkeley, CA. Check it out down below. For those of you east-coasters who aren't up on Gilman, here's a little bio courtesy of the world's most accurate encyclopedia:

The 924 Gilman Street project, alternately the Alternative Music Foundation, is the Berkeley, California street address and official business name of the all-ages, non-profit, collectively organized music club usually referred to by its fans simply as "Gilman.".... On December 31, 1986, the club held its first show. Since then, 924 Gilman Street has been one of the longest-running independent music venues in the United States..... 924 Gilman... was started in part because of the lack of punk venues in the San Francisco Bay Area during this era, particularly all-ages venues.

Fugazi went on to break up which I'm really only mentioning so I can remind you again that you can catch one of their members live in NYC tonight (May 27).

The documentary trailer, and info on Jello Biafra's 50th birthday party, below.....

Continue reading "924 Gilman, documentary, Jello Biafra's 50th birthday party"

DOWNLOAD: Joe Lally - Day is Born (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Glorytellers - Awake At The Wheel (MP3)

Joe Lally in Bloomington, May 19, 2008 (ipicktherecords)

Gothamist: Your newest album is called Nothing is Underrated, which seems to me to be open to a lot of different interpretations.

Joe Lally: Indeed, it is.

Gothamist: Do you have an interpretation of your own?

Joe Lally: For me I guess it's coming from more than just a few places. But I suppose with the pace of the world and how much - especially here in the U.S. - people feel like they have to be accomplishing. And it's really not just here in the U.S.; it's about the mind and what we feel we have to accomplish to feel satisfied and what allegedly makes us happy. I don't know; it just sort of came down at some point to the idea that doing nothing is underrated. Being silent and going to a quiet place where creativity can come from... It's a number of things; it's hard to say that it came from this and therefore it's that.

Continue reading "Joe Lally & Glorytellers (Geoff Farina) - 2008 Tour Dates"

DOWNLOAD: Bob Mould - Stupid Now (new MP3)

Bob Mould -- the Husker Du and Sugar pioneer -- is preparing the release of his seventh solo album, 'District Line.' After last year's dance floor-savvy Blowoff project with D.C. house head Richard Morel, Mould seems to be making a return to his roots of hook-driven guitar grooves. Written and recorded in D.C., Mould is again joined by Brendan Canty of Fugazi fame for percussive duties. The LP isn't due until February, but you can snag an MP3 of the lead single, 'The Silence Between Us,' on Spinner.

In March Bob is going on tour. Tickets are on sale for a March 13th show at Irving Plaza. All dates below...

Continue reading "Bob Mould - new album, MP3, 2008 Tour Dates"

Best known for his darkly humorous, stop-motion, animated films that touch on themes of love, death, salvation, and the underworld, filmmaker Brent Green performs live this evening, narrating a series of new and recent films which will be screened alongside a live musical score performed by three extraordinary musicians: Jim Becker (Califone), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Freakwater). A self taught artist from Pennsylvania, Green writes, directs, builds, and narrates his short film animations, combining handcrafted figures with drawings and found props to create haunting, atmospheric backdrops for his alluringly twisted stories. For this evening Brent will premiere several new films and screen related recent works, including Old Country Songs, Louisville/Gravity, Walt Whitman?s Brain, Carlin, and Paulina Hollers. [February 13th @ The Kitchen in NYC]

Continue reading "Brent Green featuring Jim Becker (Califone) / Brendan Canty (Fugazi) / Fred Lonberg-Holm"

Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Evens, and co-founder of Dischord Records) (alive and well) is holding a Q & A at the Indie & Small Press Book Fair (Dec 1-2 in NYC)

Bring your questions regarding the parallels between the worlds of independent music and book publishing, sustainable models for truly independent companies, and anything else that’s on your mind.

2:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 1, 2007

Continue reading "Ian MacKaye, Indie & Small Press Book Fair, Dischord tours"