photos by Bryan Bruchman

new Friends @ Mercury Lounge

Advance tickets are now available for the previously discussed !!! show at 285 Kent Ave on 12/11, a Showpaper benefit also featuring an appearance from Friends and a DJ set from MNDR. Tickets are also available in person at Other Music and Co-op 87. In addition, tickets are still available for the previously discussed 12/12 Maxwell's date.

Friends recently played Mercury Lounge on 11/19 with Ganglians as part of the pair's dates together. The remainder of their tour schedule and more pictures from Mercury Lounge are below...

Continue reading "Friends played Merc w/ Ganglians (pics), playing 285 Kent w/ !!! (tickets now on sale)"

Ted Leo @ SXSW 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

A "Music Summit" is being held at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn tonight (10/5). As you can see on the flyer below, there will be a panel discussion with various music industry peeps and a musical performance by both Ted Leo (solo) and the band Friends. Admission is free with RSVP.

Speaking of Friends, they're also about to announce a tour with Ganglians that includes a Mercury Lounge show on November 19. Tickets for the NYC show go on AmEx presale today at noon (10/5). General sale begins Friday. Full tour TBA.

Ted Leo will also be a special guest at a comedy show at the Bell House later this month.

Unfortunately our Rock Shop show that Ted was supposed to play during Hurricane Irene is not being rescheduled due to the artists' busy schedules. You should be getting a refund for that if you haven't already.

Continue reading "Ted Leo playing free 'Music Summit' @ KF tonight w/ Friends (who are going on tour with Ganglians)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Ganglians - Jungle (MP3)

Grave Babies

Seattle's Grave Babies' current U.S tour is rolling through town and the band plays Death by Audio tonight (9/13) and Cake Shop tomorrow (9/14). Both shows are with fellow Seattle-ites Perpetual Ritual, and all upcoming dates are at the bottom of this post.

As their name might imply, Grave Babies are on the darker side of things, kind of like a blown-out scuzz rock version of '80s goth (Sisters of Mercy, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Clan of Xymox). There's some strong melodies buried under all that intentionally bad production. The band have been kicking around for a couple years but have a new single out on Hardly Art that you can stream at the bottom of this post.

Tonight's show at DBA is a pretty good one, also featuring Brooklyn's Xray Eyeballs who, as you may have read, are playing the Sub Pop/Hardly Art CMJ showcase at Mercury Lounge on October 20. (Tickets are on sale now.) They also have a new single on Hardly Art, "Sundae," that's streamable at the bottom of this post.

Ganglians

Tonight's DBA show also features a "secret guest" who can now be revealed -- and not just hinted at -- as Sacramento, CA's Ganglians who played the Rock Shop last night. Ganglians' new album Still Living came out on Lefse at the end of August and is a step forward, musically, from 2009's Woodsist-released Monster Head Room. Album track "Jungle" (downloadable above) is a good example of their poppy, dreamy, distinctly West Coast sound.

Grave Babies' show Wednesday at Cake Shop also has K-Holes and Population 1280. Tour dates and streaming songs are after the jump.

Continue reading "Grave Babies on tour, in NYC for 2 shows, one w/ 'secret guest' Ganglians (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Gem Club - "Twins" (MP3)

J. Mascis at Hammerstein Ballroom in August (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

Sub Pop/Hardly Art are presenting Lamefest II: Eclectic Boogaloo (aka their 2011 CMJ showcase) at Mercury Lounge on October 20. The lineup includes J. Mascis, Still Corners, Jacuzzi Boys, Gem Club, Xray Eyeballs, and special guests. Tickets go on sale Friday (9/9) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (9/7) at noon. Update: Here are the set times:

Special Guests- 1am
J Mascis - 12am
Still Corners - 11pm
Memoryhouse - 10pm
Jacuzzi Boys - 9pm
Gem Club - 8pm
XRay Eyeballs- 7pm

Gem Club also play Glasslands on September 30 with Youth Lagoon and Gardens & Villa. They've recently released a new track, "Twins," off their upcoming LP Breakers. Grab an MP3 of that track above.

Jacuzzi Boys also play a Hardly Art CMJ party at 285 Kent on October 21 and the Bruise Cruise CMJ show on October 22. Venue and full lineup TBA.

Still Corners recently made a video for "Cuckoo." Check that out along with all dates below...

Continue reading "Sub Pop CMJ showcase announced (J Mascis & Still Corners included), Xray Eyeballs playing other shows too (dates)"

photos by Leia Jospe

WAVVES (Nathan + Zach Hill) and Ganglians are on tour, and were joined by Beach Fossils for a show at Market Hotel last night (9/25) (one night after the show at Santos Party House).

After the show, the party continued at Daddy's where Nathan got in a fight with Jared from Black Lips. More pictures from Market Hotel below...

Continue reading "WAVVES (pre-fight), Ganglians & Beach Fossils @ Market Hotel in Brooklyn - pics "

"i cant even begin to describe how much zach hill adds to wavves" - Nate Albert

"The WAVVES live show sucks now. His new drummer is an overbearing double kick drumming metal-head." - Brad Horenstein

Friday September 25th @ MARKET HOTEL

:: WAVVES
:::: Ganglians
:::::: Beach Fossils

| MARKET HOTEL |
1142 Myrtle Ave @ Bdwy | Bushwick, Bklyn
JMZ-Myrtle, L-Jefferson, G-Myrtle/Willoughby | 8pm | all ages | $10

DOWNLOAD: Coathangers - Toomerhead (MP3)

Coathangers @ Pianos CMJ08 (more by Faith-Ann Young)

The Coathangers are going on tour this October with Japandroids (who will come to NYC on Sept. 24th with Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band). But before those joined dates, The Coathangers will be in NYC for shows of their own on September 29th, when they play Death By Audio's The Maze, and September 30th, when they play Cake Shop. Also on the bill for the Cake Shop gig are DC shoegaze-inspired Prisms and BK's Ex-Humans. For the DBA gig, they'll be joined by '80s-style-punks Xray Eyeballs, a band called Swimmingcitiesoceanofblood (?) and Nervehunt, which features Justin from Teeth Mountain and Ryan Ulsh from Wavves. The gig will be Nervehunt's first show in a while (Flickr has a pic and a brief, blurry video of a show, apparently of them, at the Charleston last year).

Ryan Ulsh was the drummer of WAVVES that you might most remember from his appearance with Nathan at this year's Primavera Festival. Not surprisingly, things didn't work out between him and Nathan, and now the prolific Zach Hill (of Hella, etc.) is playing in WAVVES.

WAVVES' fall tour with new drummer Zach is also happening soon. The pair will play NYC shows at Santos Party House on Thursday, September 24th (tickets still on sale) and a Todd P show, now confirmed for Market Hotel, on Friday, Sept. 25th. Support for both comes from Ganglians, with Beach Fossils also playing the Market Hotel show.

"Toomerhead," the opening, dance-punk-sounding track to the Coathangers' newest record, Scramble, which came out in April, is posted above. An interview with the band from last year and a clip of them live in Vancouver (with an incredibly strange and extended intro) are posted with all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Coathangers touring (dates), Zach Hill in WAVVES (Market Hotel show confirmed), Ryan from WAVVES in Nervehunt"

DOWNLOAD: WAVVES - Mickey Mouse (MP3)

WAVVES' Nathan Williams successfully performed with a broken wrist at the Bowery Ballroom and Pitchfork Festival, but ended up canceling his scheduled appearance at L.A.'s the Smell to get surgery on the fracture (actual x-ray pic which he posted to MySpace above). In the note announcing the surgery, he also posted a demo for the song "Mickey Mouse." He wrote, "This was a demo that I never ended up coming back to and probably wont end up doing anything with but jam on it n-e-wayz." You can get that track above.

WAVVES' post-surgery plans include almost two months of touring with fellow California band Ganglians (who visited NYC for a pair of shows in July).

The tour will stop in NYC for a show at Santos Party House on Thursday, Sepember 24th and a Todd P show the Friday, Sept. 25th. Tickets for the Santos show are on sale. All dates below...

Continue reading "WAVVES - tour dates w/ Ganglians ++ new demo track (MP3)"

photos by Tim Griffin, words by Andrew Frisicano

The Woodsist/Captured Tracks Festival's Day One (7/3) was moved inside the Market Hotel. Thankfully, the weather held out for its second, 4th of July lineup, which went off as planned in the grassy, rock-filled lot of 979 Broadway Backyard.

I arrived just as Real Estate was going on, and the New Jersey band nearly stole the show with dreamy rock that seemed to be made for a sunny afternoon. The Beets held down their set with a casualness befitting a park lodge show (kind of what the fest was on a slightly bigger scale). The guys gave new meaning to the word "ramshackle" as things seemed to be toppling over continually onstage.

German Measles played a set before I got there. Bill caught them and said they "aren't actually that bad... But they're also not very good. And that kind of seems to be the point. Shambolic is an understatement, like 'why rehearse when we can just play shows?"

The Great Excape did a set of Jersey-style pop-punk that included their own theme song, several politically-themed tunes (a nice touch) and a cover of "Summertime Blues." Ganglians brought one of the day's only keyboards, and burst with a flurry of reverb and overdrive.

Brilliant Colors started out with straight-ahead noise punk, with a bit of a melody void left by their super-reverbed vocals (maybe a theme of the night) and washed-out guitar. When the bass stepped up its riffs a few songs in, the band immediately sounded twice as catchy. The Fresh and Onlys took that bass-forward momentum and went with it. Their bassist pounded the notes in between and then some. As a result, the group had one of the most complete sounds of the night (with a tambourine and three-part harmonies rounding it out). They dedicated their last song to the member of Tyvek in the hospital (the reason for that band's cancellation). Hopefully their situation turns out better.

Dum Dum Girls had to be one of the night's cleanest sounding groups. The band relied heavily on singer Dee Dee's vocals, which harmonized with drummer Frankie Rose on their songs' many hooks.

The atmospheric rock of Woods definitely got jammier as it progressed. As Bill Pearis pointed out, the group's fourth member, who sat on the floor twiddling effects and singing into a microphone strapped to his face, was a bit strange considering the rest of the guys were dressed proper enough for church. Whatever you have to do to make it sound good I suppose.

Kurt Vile & the Violators roared into the night as the sun finally went down. Vile and Vivian Girls (who, as one commenter pointed out, "played with a great intensity") more than warmed up the crowd for Thee Oh Sees, who capped the night (for some) with an unstoppable set. Frontman John Dwyer was literally foaming at the mouth as a streak of white drool smeared across his face for part of the set. Thee Oh Sees' strange, repetition-laced anthems are amazing for shaking and rattling, as the crowd proved. The band even got talked into playing an encore before sending everyone into the night.

The rest of the pictures from Day Two, with a bunch of videos, below...

Continue reading "Woodsist/CT Fest Day Two in pics & video (Thee Oh Sees, Real Estate, Ganglians, Fresh & Onlys, Woods & more)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Fresh & Onlys - Fog Machine (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Fresh & Onlys - Love & Kindness (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ganglians - Hair (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bachelorette - Mindwarp (MP3)

It used to be Independence Day weekend was dead in NYC, the city emptying out, leaving only tourists and those unfortunate enough not to have some sort of beach hookup. There was nothing to do but barbeque with fellow left-behinds and see whatever Will Smith movie had just been released. (Actually, I like it when the city is empty.) And the only show would be whatever was at Battery Park on the 4th. Not this year.

The Woodsist/Captured Tracks Festival is two days of just about every band on the two label's roster and also manages to be one of the best collections of reverb-lovin' lo-fi/pych/garage bands you're likely to see, including many names you may recognize if you read this column on a regular basis. You can buy a two-day pass for $25 or buy individual $15 tickets for Friday or Saturday.

As both Woodsist and Captured Tracks are Brooklyn labels, a lot of the bands are local and chances are if you're into this kind of music at all you've probably managed to already see some of these bands, probably more than once: Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Blank Dogs, The Beets, caUSE co-MOTION, Kurt Vile, and Woods.

The Fresh & Onlys @ SXSW 2009

But there's also a bunch of great West Coast bands who have yet to hit NYC, which is what makes it most exciting for me. First and foremost are San Francisco's Fresh & Onlys who I caught at the Todd P/Woodsist party during SxSW and have become one of my favorite new bands. They play the Saturday (7/4) which is definitely the more essential line-up of the two days. The band features members of Skygreen Leopards and Black Fiction, and have also spent time recently backing up Rodriguez and Ty Segall (though not on the East Coast.)

The band's first album of 2009 came out in April on John Dwyer's Castle Face label, with a sound not that far off from what you might expect from cohorts of The Oh Sees (who headline the Saturday show), though The Fresh & Onlys are definitely more pop and less psychedelic freakout. Their second album of 2009, Grey-Eyed Girls, is out in August and they've also got 7"'s out or out soon on Chuffed, Dirty Knobby, Hozac and Captured Tracks. If you like 13th Floor Elevators, The Chocolate Watchband and other Nuggets era bands, I think you're going to dig them. I interviewed bassist Shayde Sartin a couple months ago on my blog if you'd like to know more.

If you can't make the daytime show, The Fresh & Onlys also play a post midnight show that same day at Market Hotel that also features Babies (members of Woods, Vivian Girls and Bossy) (does anyone know which members?) and Pink Reason, and maybe a solo performance from Crystal Stilts drummer Frankie Rose. And The Fresh & Onlys will be here again in October when they'll be on tour with fellow San Franciscans Thee Oh Sees.

Thee Oh Sees are also playing Siren in July, and playing maybe the best of the Woodsist fest's offshoot shows on Thursday night (7/2) at Glasslands. They're headlining the Glasslands show and Saturday night of the fest, and are definitely worth seeing twice, or even thrice. Also playing Glasslands: Golden Triangle who are working on their debut album for Sub Pop offshoot Hardly Art; The Beets who, the last two times I've seen them, have had Crystal Stilts' JB Townsend filling in on drums for an absent Jacob Warstler; and German Measels which features half of caUSE co-MOTION wearing fake moustaches.

Ganglians

A little earlier at Woodsist Fest on Saturday (3:45 if they keep to the posted schedule) are Sacramento's Ganglians, who just released an EP and an album on Woodsist. Not all that far off from The Fresh & Onlys, Ganglians have equal worship for solid songwriting and trippy arrangements/production. I think both records are worth picking up: the self-titled EP shows off more of their rocking side (which they favored when I saw them at SxSW), like the surfy, Kiwi-esque "Hair" of which there's an MP3 at the top of this post. The album, Monster Head Room, is more acoustic and owes a lot to Brian Wilson. If you can't make the July 4th show, they'll be playing the next night (7/5) at Monster Island basement with Psychedelic Horseshit.

In between Ganglians and Fresh & Onlys on Saturday (4:30PM) are San Francisco's Brilliant Colors, an all-girl trio who play short, scratchy pop with a definitely New Zealand vibe. They also play the late show that night at Market Hotel, and will be on WNYU on July 8.

Dum Dum Girls, who play after the Fresh & Onlys at 6PM, are from L.A. and owe much to the C-86 scene that has been an influence on Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Vivian Girls. Actually, Dum Dum Girls is just one girl, Dee Dee, who may or may not have a band with her when she plays. Dee Dee is also in The Mayfair Set, a collaboration with Blank Dogs (and Captured Tracks domo) Mike Sniper, who will make their live debut (I think) Friday (7/3) at 6:30.

I've got MP3s for most every band playing the Fest over at my blog.

Brilliant Colors

A couple non-Woodsist/Captrax Fest recommendation for the Fourth weekend. New Zealand's Bachelorette is back in town, playing the kickoff show of this year's Seaport Music Festival, opening for Here We Go Magic. I saw Bachelorette at Cake Shop a couple weeks back and was so smitten I bought everything at the merch table. There was a fair amount of laptopping going on, but Annabel Alpers' breathy, fragile voice was definitely live and the three-piece oozed unassuming charm. Bachelorette also play the sold-out Rooftop Films Fourth of July party Saturday night which happens on the roof of the Chelsea Art Museum.

And Thursday (7/2) starts The Feelies' three-night run at Maxwell's. Friday's show (7/3) is sold out but you can still get tickets for Thursday and for Saturday (7/4). Bring comfortable shoes -- they're doing two sets each night. The excitement of their reformation may have faded a bit since this time last year, but their great songs -- and still-awesome guitar interplay -- have not.

Full Woodsist/Captured Tracks Festival schedule and other tour dates after the jump...

Continue reading "Ganglians, Fresh & Onlys, Brilliant Colors, Bachelorette, lots of Woodsist bands & more in This Week in Indie "

DOWNLOAD: Woods - To Clean (MP3)

"...it has been damn near impossible to keep up with [Blank Dog] Mike Sniper's Captured Tracks label, who have hit the ground running with eight releases since the start of the year and many more slated for the near future. Captured Tracks is, to put it plainly, an outlet for Mr. Sniper to release records by bands he loves. In his mind it is "not a boutique label, " and by that he means that the releases are not meant to become instant eBay collectables, and will remain in print as long as there are people buying them. Some will have limited edition versions with alternate artwork or bonuses, but even these editions are easily and widely available. Affordable, available and well made, Captured Tracks is the populist record label. " [Agit Reader]

Continue reading "Woodsist/CT Festival - final 2-day lineup, set times, tickets "