Fujiya & Miyagi at LPR in 2009 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

We recently mentioned that Fujiya & Miyagi will be kicking off a US tour in January at Glasslands on January 19 with The Golden Filter (DJ) (tickets). That tour has since been fully announced and includes another NYC show at Mercury Lounge on January 21 with Jangula. Tickets for the Manhattan show go on sale today (12/2) at noon.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "updated Fujiya & Miyagi tour dates (2 NYC shows)"

photos by Josh Darr

"Berkeley, California-bred four-piece band The Morning Benders are the Muhammad Ali of pop-rock: their summery melodies float on leader Christopher Chu's airy vocals like butterflies, but their lyrics sting like bees that've crawled under your sleeve when you weren't looking."
[Eye Weekly]

The Morning Benders finish up their tour tonight in a big way, with a headlining show at Webster Hall and a stacked bill of indie pop rising stars with both Twin Sister and Cults opening the show. Tickets are on sale, and if you need one more reason to get there, how about a pair of free tickets? I am giving a pair away. Details on how to win below.

Earlier on that tour they happened upon Chicago's Lincoln Hall on October 31st, and as you can see in the above picture taken at that show, they were ready for the occasion. More pictures like it, below.

Also below: a stream of the Golden Filter's brand new remix of hit Morning Benders track "Excuses" which you can also download via a widget at the band's website.

Continue reading "The Morning Benders are back (win tix), remixed by Golden Filter (MP3), dressed up for Halloween (pics) "

photos by Andrew St. Clair, words by Patricia Scull

Dan Black @ Bowery Ballroom

Dan Black headlined Bowery Ballroom on Thursday night (9/10), one night before he played a pair of Fashion's Night Out events. Dan returns to play a dancey BMI & SPIN CMJ showcase at Highline Ballroom on on October 19th, eleven days after he is scheduled to play Austin City Limits 2010. Also playing that CMJ show are The Golden Filter, Neon Hitch, Boy Crisis, Body Language, and The Chain Gang of 1974. Tickets are on sale for those who don't have and/or want to chance getting in with a CMJ badge.

Pictures and a review of the Bowery Ballroom show, continue below...

Continue reading "Dan Black played Bowery Ballroom (pics), playing CMJ (tix) "

photos by Erez Avissar

DOWNLOAD: How To Dress Well - "Decisions" (MP3)

How to Dress Well

For a half hour before Tom Krell went onstage at Glasslands Gallery in the early hours of Saturday morning, associates were setting up a white backdrop on which videos would be displayed during his set. All the while, Mr. Krell's beloved 1990s R&B, from which he draws so much inspiration - Shai, Keith Sweat and so on - played over the room's speakers.

It was the last time those sounds went unmolested. In his soothing and haunting music Mr. Krell, who records under the name How to Dress Well, takes that music as inspiration (and sometimes as sample source) and stretches it, chops it, squeezes it dry of context. Rather than swing, Mr. Krell's music crawls. As a singer, some of his inflections are borrowed from his idols, but his voice is purposefully alien, like Antony Hegarty singing at the bottom of a coal mine...

It was less a concert than an indulgent lark, or a total miscalculation. Taken as a whole, Mr. Krell's catalog is absorbing, dreamlike and jagged at just the right moments. Onstage, though, the songs virtually evaporated in real time, with diminishing returns. Appropriately, it marked Mr. Krell as someone who'd clearly given more thought to the music that preceded him than to his own. -[NY Times]

How To Dress Well headlined Glasslands on Friday 8/13, his first ever US show, with support from The Golden Filter, Glasser and SOARS. Erez unfortunately missed the two openers (one of whom will be touring with Gayngs soon), but snaps of The Golden Filter and How To Dress Well await below.

In other How To Dress Well news, Tom Krell recently dropped a new song for streaming at Pitchfork ("Decisions", above) and video for his new track "Lover's Start". Both are from his forthcoming debut Love Remains, due September 21 via Lefse. That video and a ton of other pics from Glasslands below.

Continue reading "How To Dress Well played Glasslands w/ the Golden Filter (pics), put out another song & video "

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: How To Dress Well - "Take It On" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: How To Dress Well - "Ecstasy wit Jojo" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: How to Dress Well - "Suicide Dream 2" Spirituals Remix (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: How to Dress Well - "Ready For The World" Twins Remix (MP3)

How To Dress Well's new 7" art

I've never been one to ache for the days of pelvic-thrusting 90s R&B of the-photocopied-from-the-Jodeci-blueprint sort, but luckily Tom Krell, AKA How To Dress Well has taken that ball and ran with it in another, fascinating direction. Haunting and soulful, How To Dress Well is the lo-fi ghost of R&B, replacing the sexy talk with a dream-pop undercurrent. The one man machine is preparing his new limited to-300 7" "Ecstasy With JoJo / Take It On" for release on August 30th via Transparent, an appetizer for Krell's debut LP Love Remains due via Lefse on 9/21. Download both tracks from that 7" above in addition to a pair of remixes, and check out videos of two tracks from the upcoming LP below.

As mentioned, How To Dress Well's haunting funk will bless Glasslands TONIGHT (8/13, tickets) alongside The Golden Filter, Glasser, and SOARS, but don't expect a simplistic/boring live show:

"I don't want to be a hater but when I see some people perform live, they stand behind a keyboard and hold one note and sing into a microphone with their head down to make it look like they're real musicians. I want to go the exact opposite direction. Kool Keith says pop stars are like wack ass Britney Spears with headsets-- that's what I want to be. Like a pop singer. -[A recent interview with Pitchfork]

Pressure's on, brah.

Love Remains tracklisting, videos, and some tour dates are below..

Continue reading "How To Dress Well is here - MP3s, videos, releases, NYC show tonight"

Dear Fans and friends,

I've been meaning to catch you up on what' s been going on in Rapture world. First off, I'm sad to say that at the begining of April our buddy Mattie Safer decided to leave the band. We are sad to see him go but it seems it is the best for all of us. Since then Luke, Vito and I have been on a creative tear. We've been working out of our little Brooklyn make shift studio, writing, demoing and jamming. I'm pretty damn excited to share the fruits of our labor with you. But its still gonna be a minute before we hit the studio for real. On the other hand, I am very pleased to announce that the people of the great continent of Australia will be some of the first to hear some of our new material live, when we arrive late September for Parklife festival. In the meantime, keep an eye on this blog and another on your neighborhood dance party, who knows maybe we'll be spinnin'.

Lotsa Love,
The Rapture

That message, which we previously posted, was originally blogged by the Rapture on July 14th. The Australian dates they reference kick-off on September 26th, but those down under won't be the first people to hear the new material live. That honor goes to NJ (and Baltimore). The show is September 11th at the Stone Pony. Golden Filter opens. Tickets are on sale. All dates below...

Continue reading "The Rapture (minus Mattie) announce some shows (dates)"