Human Eye at Scion Garage Fest (more by Taylor Keahey)

As previously mentioned, Goner Fest is back for its eighth year in 2011. The Memphis, Tennessee festival will pack multiple noatable garage-punk bands over its four day span (9/22 - 9/25) including appearances from Gories, Human Eye, Ty Segall, Royal Headache, OBN IIIs, Straight Arrows, Coasting, Alarm Clocks, and too many others to name individually. Check out the official schedule and the show flyer below, and get your tickets now.

If you can't head down to Gonerfest 8, then you can still attempt to have your own version of it in NYC in the coming months. Check out some of these upcoming shows...

Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, and Human Eye will play Bowery Ballroom on 9/29 (tickets). An updated set of dates, that also include some shows with Stephen Malkmus for Ty, below.

The wild and crazy Nobunny will support Girls on a tour that includes shows at Bowery Ballroom on 9/22 and 9/23 (tickets).

Shannon & The Clams will play Public Assembly on 10/22 with Shonen Knife during CMJ. Shonen Knife's tour also brings them to the Bell House in November with Heavy Cream and Hard Nips (tickets).

Sydney's Royal Headache have multiple shows coming up.

Sydney's Straight Arrows do too.

And more imminently:

After a hiatus, America's most popular soul party, New York Night Train SOUL CLAP & DANCE-OFF is returning to its NYC home! Seaport Music Festival, Panache Booking, and Metropolis Vintage celebrate both the party's local return (resuming third Saturdays at Glasslands starting next month!) and the kickoff of NY Night Train's Thursdays at South Street Seaport's Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club with this one-off party under the stars!

10pm-2am: dancing w/DJ JONATHAN TOUBIN

12am: DANCE-OFF for $100 grand prize and $75 at Metropolis Vintage w/guest selections by FINE WINE, hostess LAURA LEIGH, and a distinguished panel of local celebrity judges including:
- JAMES CHANCE (leader of The Contortions/James White and the Blacks)
- JUDY CHANCE (cultural hero/NYC legend)
- KEMBRA PFAHLER (leader of Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, performance artiste, actress, model, goddess, etc)
- LEAH FISHMAN (vocalist for Dansettes/Nouvellas)
- MICK COLLINS (vocals/guitar for Gories/Dirtbombs/etc)

RAIN OR SHINE! the beer garden is very well covered... 21+, $5

You can also catch James Chance in action TONIGHT (8/24) at the Manhattan Inn.

The Gonerfest trailer & schedule, poster designed by Per Byström, tour dates & more, below...

Continue reading "Gonerfest schedule, Nobunny dates w/ Girls, celebrity judges @ Jonathan Toubin's dance-off, James Chance"

"The Straight Arrows play no frills spazz rock and have grown up on a healthy diet of the Ramones and Hüsker Dü, culminating in a fearless, boozy punk. They used to play on the scungy fringes of Sydney's live scene and have since released several fuzzy 7" records. They didn't need an intro [at Manning Bar in Sydney in February] and didn't waste their time with one. They exploded on stage, stabbing the fret boards and punching out stripped back songs at ridiculous volume. It was about texture, not content. Loud, abrasive, loose, obnoxious, immature and really, really good." [Faster Louder]

Like fellow Sydney band Royal Headache, Straight Arrows will tour the United States in September around an appearance at Memphis' Gonerfest. Beginning and ending in NYC, they'll visit Cake Shop on September 5th and Death By Audio on September 30th. The Brooklyn show is with Deaf Wish, PC Worship and Home Blitz who also play Ding Dong Lounge on September 10th with Royal Headache.

All dates on the tour don't have venues yet, but they are listed below...

Continue reading "Straight Arrows touring US around Gonerfest (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Royal Headache - Down the Lane (MP3)

Sydney's Royal Headache are visting the US for a September tour around Gonerfest 2011. They kick things off at Brooklyn's Death By Audio on 9/8 with France's Cheveu, Black Marble & Family Curse, and then continue to Manhattan's Ding Dong Lounge on 9/10 with Home Blitz before continuing on (dates below).

These dudes have been one of the best things about Sydney's resurgent DIY punk scene for a while, on the strength of a self-produced 7" and some pretty amazing live shows, and their album, produced by Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Straight Arrows' Owen Penglis, delivers on their early promise pretty comprehensively. There's a '60s pop hue to punk jams like Down The Lane, but they don't come across as revivalists - you can put that down to a combination of a thick romantic streak and a totally prosaic lyrical style which is so terrifically unpretentious that it makes you wonder why so few other songwriters have been able to write like this. [Rose Quartz]

Grab a song above. Dates below...

Continue reading "check out Royal Headache (touring US around Gonerfest) ---- dates & songs"

Goner Records' eighth annual Goner Fest is coming to Memphis, TN on September 22-25. According to a press release, the festival will include three evening shows at the Hi-Tone Cafe, two afternoon shows, and opening and closing shows at the Goner Records Shop. The first batch of artists has been released and includes Alarm Clocks, Icky Boyfriends, Ty Segall, Royal Headache, Black Sunday, Kitchen's Floor, Deaf Wish, Brides, and Straight Arrows. Golden Passes are on sale now.

Nobunny, whose album First Blood is out now on Goner Records is in NYC this weekend. He plays Knitting Factory tonight (7/1) with TV GHOST and Shellshag and a late show at Mercury Lounge on Saturday (7/2) also with TV GHOST. More Nobunny dates HERE.

For more Friday night shows, check out "What's Goin on Friday?"

Greg Cartwright aka Greg Oblivian has teamed up with Coco Hames of The Ettes to form the Parting Gifts. They, naturally, recently played Gonerfest...

"Their set started with a catchy track, "Keep on Walkin'," from their upcoming album. They sounded great, with Chuck Berry riffs and boogie-woogie piano and awesome, pounding drums provided by Poni of The Ettes. Their music isn't straightforward punk, but soulful, moody garage rock that seems to take inspiration from many decades of intense, heartfelt rock 'n' roll." [Nashville Scene]

That "upcoming album" is called "Strychnine Dandelion", and is actually out now via In the Red and is streaming in full online.

Maybe you caught the Ettes Tuesday night at Bowery Ballroom. They opened for the Greenhornes. Catch the Parting Gifts Thursday (12/2) @ Maxwell's (if you have a ticket since it's the 2nd of eight sold out Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows), Friday (12/3) @ Union Hall with The Morgues (tickets), and Saturday (12/4) @ Sonar in Baltimore (thx anon).

Seven more YLT openers to figure out. All Ettes and Parting Gifts dates below...

Continue reading "The Parting Gifts are Greg Cartwright & Coco Hames (touring, playing NYC, opening for Yo La Tengo) ++ album streaming"

Jay Reatard @ the Wired Store (more by Tim Griffin)

As I was saying (and Bill will say even more about later), Jay Reatard and his Shattered Records crew (Nobunny, Hunx & His Punx, Box Elders & Useless Eaters) are on their way from Pop Montreal to NYC for a late show at Le Poisson Rouge tonight (10/1). Tickets are still on sale.

Yesterday, with some help, I rushed together some questions for an email interview with Jay (not the ideal format). Jay in turn rushed some answers back this afternoon, presumably from the road and after playing a late show last night. With that in mind, you can find that interview, which attempts to set the record straight on Jay's recent hate for Brooklyn, and what time Hamburghini practice starts, with all dates and tonight's set times, below....

Continue reading "an interview w/ Jay Reatard (whose Shattered Records tour hits Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tonight) "

It's been five years since Greg Cartwright's Reigning Sound dropped their last full-length studio album, Too Much Guitar. Not that Cartwright has been resting on his laurels. The Reigning Sound backed Shangri-La Mary Weiss on her critically acclaimed comeback album, Dangerous Game, which was produced and largely written by Cartwright. The band performed with Weiss on tour, including an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Cartwright also produced, penned songs for, and played in The Detroit Cobras for a spell. All the while, the Reigning Sound toured the US on and off and released a couple of live albums, yet never managed to get into the studio to record. All the while, Cartwright stockpiled loads of new tunes.

Finally, late last year, the band entered Ardent Studios in Memphis and laid down a bunch of songs. Some months later, they went into Echo Mountain Studios in North Carolina and recorded a bunch more. In the end, the band had more than enough for two albums, and carefully whittled it down to the cream of the musical crop.

Love and Curses (title comes from Memphis TV horror host Sivad) is a return to the sound and style of the Reigning Sound's incredible Time Bomb High School. The band once again features a full-time keyboardist, Dave Amels, and has jettisoned the lo-fi approach used on Too Much Guitar in favor of a bigger, warmer studio sound. As with Time Bomb High School, Love and Curses strikes a balance between soulful rockers and beautiful ballads. The results are a rock 'n' roll album as near to perfection as any one is likely to hear this year. [Midhaven Mailorder]

Love and Curses came out on In the Red Records in August. I also recommend you pick up their new disc "LIVE AT GONER RECORDS" which is also out now. As Goner Records put it includes a "Blastophonic run through some great covers, some great originals from Greg Cartwright!". Greg Cartwright also just put out a live solo record, Live At The Circle A, on September 15th on Dusty Medical Records.

And the group is finally getting around to touring behind these new releases. They play Goner Fest in Memphis this weekend (9/24-9/26), then hit the road in November. They'll be at Maxwell's on November 19th and Southpaw on Nov. 20th. Tickets to both Maxwell's and Southpaw are on sale.

A teaser for the new record, with album art and tracklist, and all tour dates are below..

Continue reading "Reigning Sound - new albums out & Tour Dates announced!"

DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - It #1 (MP3)

Ty Segall @ Cake Shop (more by Tim Griffin)

After my own greasy foray into a Popeye's a few blocks away, I was ready to see the wunderkind, who is freshly graduated from the University of San Francisco. Once upon a time, Segall was a one man band, but he's expanded his outfit to a three-piece. Clearly the night's headliner at Amnesia, he packed the joint. After sets by openers Snakeflower 2 and the Rantouls, he mostly played familiar songs from his 2008 self-titled release on CastleFace Records. However, he also delivered a few examples of his self-described "sludgier" work on the brand new Lemons (Goner Records).

Sludge or no sludge, Segall's solid work ethic is evident. He's constantly playing gigs at bars like the Knockout, the Hemlock, and the Eagle Tavern -- basically anywhere flannel is the prevailing fashion, alongside those straw fedora hats favored by the fixed-gear crowd. Despite his omnipresence on SF's dive bar scene, he's pretty modest about his dedication to his music. "There are a lot of ways that I am a slacker," he explains over the phone a month after the fateful Amnesia show as he and his band drive to New Orleans. "But if I'm not doing music, I feel like I'm wasting my time." [SF Bay Guardian]

An MP3 from Lemons is at the top of this post. Ty returns to NYC for a trio of shows on his North American tour in September. On September 18th, he'll play Death By Audio's 'The Maze' (the art installation being supported by this Saturday's 12-hour benefit at the venue).

Ty plays a Mercury Lounge show on September 20th with Golden Triangle and tourmates and fellow SF band The Mantels. Tickets for that go on sale Saturday, July 25th at noon. Ty Segall then goes to New Jersey for a September 21st show at Maxwell's. The Mantels opens that too, with Digital Leather. Tickets are on sale now.

Ty will be one of the acts at Goner Fest 6, put on by Goner Records September 24th-26th in Memphis, TN. Other acts include a reformed version of Jay Reatard's first band The Reatards, Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh & Onlys, Magic Kids (who are in NYC this weekend), Box Elders, The Intelligence, Nobunny, Cheater Slicks and just about every other vital band you could vaguely lump in with the current "garage" scene (No Sic Alps, though). Tickets for day one, two and three of the fest are on sale now (though three-day 'Golden Passes' seem to be either sold out or hard to find).

More info on that festival, with all Ty Segall dates and a couple videos, below...

Continue reading "Ty Segall tour dates (3 NYC shows) + 2009 Goner Fest lineup "