Corrosion of Conformity fans (more by BBG)

The lastest list of SXSW additions is below....

Continue reading "More SXSW 2011 lineup additions"

The Roots at Prospect Park (more by David Andrako)

For a while there you could ring in the new week with The Roots at Highline Ballroom. You can currently ring in the weekend with Questlove who is on the tables at Brooklyn Bowl every Thursday night, and now you can ring in the new YEAR with the "organic hip hop jazz" crew. The Roots will play three sets at the Williamsburg venue on New Year's Eve starting at 10PM. $85 tickets go on sale 10/29 at noon.

The Roots recently released a collaborative LP with John Legend entitled Wake Up and played a big show Terminal 5, and a whole bunch of other smaller NYC venues together (lots of private and surprise promotional shows).

Guided By Voices, Sharon Jones, Patti Smith, Passion Pit, Phish, and Drive-By Truckers, and Gov't Mule are all also playing New Years Eve shows in the NYC-area.

Last night, 10/27, Gary Wilson sat in with the Roots on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. School of Seven Bells were the musical guest (Gwar is tonight), but Gary Wilson was on there too. School of Seven Bells recently announced that Claudia Deheza left the band, leaving just her twin sister Alejandra and Benjamin Curtis as the core members.

Video of School of Seven Bells playing Fallon (with a drummer which actually made them a trio), and video of the whole episode (Jimmy introduces Gary Wilson right after the intro), below...

Continue reading "School of Seven Bells (now a duo) played Fallon (Gary Wilson too), The Roots are playing Brooklyn Bowl New Years Eve"

by Bill Pearis

Yo La Tengo @ Pitchfork Fest 2009 (more by Joseph Xu)

What, it's Tuesday already? CMJ is here and I'm not really ready. Can we postpone for a week? No? All right. Here we go. Let's not go too crazy tonight (10/19), there's still four more days of this to come.

DAYTIME

Pretty much all the free daytime action happens on Ludlow St. today. Biggest among them is The Music Slut's party at Pianos, which features the dark synths of Brahms, the cheery synths of Hooray for Earth, plus Oberhofer (who play our day party on Friday), Young the Giant, Pearl and the Beard, and more. Party starts at noon, with the first band (Vancouver's Yukon Blonde) on at 1PM.

Moving down the street, Paper Garden Records has a showcase at The Living Room, with Denmark's Alcoholic Faith Mission, two bands from Toronto (Freedom or Death, Kidstreet), Emmanuel and the Fear, Motel Motel, Young Mammals and Saadi. First band is on at 1PM.

And then at Cake Shop, it's the Flower Booking/CapeShok party with Million Young, Sunglasses and Azalia Banks. This one starts a little later -- first band is on at 4PM.

And somewhere between day and night is the free New Zealand showcase at Le Poisson Rouge which starts at 5:45PM. I especially recommend you check out Lawrence Arabia, whose material ranges from delicate folk to ELO style orch-pop. Also playing:  electropop artist Zowie, Kids of 88, Street Chant, Ruby Frost and Electric Wire Hustle. Did I mention it's free? You do need to RSVP if you don't have a badge.

NIGHTTIME

Big ticket shows for tonight: Yo La Tengo play for free at the official CMJ kickoff show at Brooklyn Bowl with Screaming Females (who play our showcase Thursday night) and DOM (who play our Friday day party); Former Afgan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli is at Bowery Ballroom with Craig Wedren; and Jenny and Johnny, Wild Nothing, Times New Viking, Happy Birthday and La Sera (Kickball Katy of  Vivian Girls) at Irving Plaza;

If you wanna dance, you might want to head to Highline Ballroom for a night bands that sound like they could be on a Kitsune Maison compilation: the electro-soul sounds of Dan Black, Italo-disco lovers The Golden Filter, helium voiced Neon Hitch, Denver's The Chain Gang of 1974, and more.

UPDATE: "Chain Gang has dropped off tonight's show due to food poisoning. All other shows are set to occur as scheduled." (10/20 @ Maxwell's, 10/22 @ Cameo, 10/23 @ Santos)

For hip hop, it's Duck Down Music vs. Blacksmith at LPR.

And tonight at Cake Shop is your only chance this week to catch The Billy Nayer Show (11PM), the live band behind such cool sci-fi western musicals as The American Astronaut and last year's Stingray Sam. (Frontman Cory McAbee also directs and stars in them.) They're a one-of-a-kind, and playing as part of the Panache Booking showcase that also features Audacity, Dinowalrus, Onra, Janka Nabay, O'Death and Gary Wilson.

There's tons more shows, obviously. But that's what looks interesting to me. What are you going to see? Flyers and day party set times are below.

Continue reading "CMJ 2010 - Bill's Tuesday picks & stuff (Yo La Tengo, The Billy Nayer Show, Greg Dulli, day parties & more) "

by Black Bubblegum

I used to take took the infamous Chinatown bus from NYC to Boston all the time, but one ride was particularly memorable. I was sitting in the back of a full bus. There were no more seats, but then one more passenger wanted to get on, so the driver told this passenger to wait a minute and proceeded to put a lawn chair for them in the aisle...

Where am I going with this? Well, the Brainwaves Festival taking place at the Regent Theatre in Boston this weekend is a good reason to risk sitting in a lawn chair.

Two years ago, [Brainwashed's Jon] Whitney [that's not him in the picture] took on the role of concert promoter in a big way when he organized Brainwaves, an expansive, three-day festival of Brainwashed-related music and video. True to form, it was a monstrously ambitious undertaking.

"Brainwashed was 10 years old. For 10 years it hadn't really made any sense, so why not do a festival that didn't make sense? You know, we needed a party! And though it was two years in the making, all the work was worth it, since we eventually came up with a great group of musicians." [The Phoenix]

This year's eclectic, experimental lineup includes Matmos, Meat Beat Manifesto, Silver Apples, Stars of the Lid along with a day dedicated to Kranky, Major Stars,JG Thirlwell's Manorexia, Gary Wilson, Marisa Nadler (who started a new blog), and one bonafide legend in Peter Christopherson [that's him in the picture above], founder of Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and the performing Threshold HouseBoys Choir (the latter is the one billed as playing the fest). Christopherson recently told TinyMixTapes he is retiring THBC, so this is your last shot to see him live before he retires to his home in Thailand. Tickets are still available, and check the festival's site for more travel and lodging options.

A few of the festival participants have hit or will be hitting NYC this week as well... Silver Apples will be in NYC with Grails (but not Flower Travellin' Band, who postponed), To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie and Boduf Songs play Pianos and the Annex, Meat Beat Manifesto played Bowery Ballroom Wednesday, and Stars Of The Lid   will play a pair of shows at Le Poisson Rouge while they're on this coast.

Psychic TV (sans Christophersen) recently played Europa. The full Brainwaves lineup is below...

Continue reading "2008 Brainwaves Festival (this Fri-Sun in Boston) w/ Peter Christopherson, Matmos, Major Stars, SOTL, more"