photos from a House of Vans show in March (more by Andrew St. Clair)

As promised, House of Vans, which is located at 25 Franklin St in Brooklyn, is hosting free shows this summer. Stepping in just at the right moment to possibly fill the gap left by the loss of the Pool Parties, there will be six free-with-RSVP Vans House Parties between June 30th and August 25th.

The lineups for the first two FYF-presented, all-ages shows have been revealed, as have all six dates to hold (all of which are weekdays). No Age, HEALTH, Cults, and Ceremony play the Greenpoint venue on Thursday, June 30. Superchunk, Off!, and Lemuria will play on Thursday, July 14. The other dates, with lineups still TBA, are July 29 (a Friday), August 4 (a Thursday), August 18 (a Thursday), and August 25 (a Thursday). RSVP links are at their site, and note:

"In order to gain access to the free shows at the House of Vans this summer, you must RSVP to reserve a place on the list. RSVP links are listed under each show on this site.

Due to capacity restraints each event will be first come, first serve. A line will form in front of the building at 5pm, no line ups are allowed prior to that. There will be food and drinks inside, no outside food and drinks will be allowed in."

Meanwhile Cults are on tour and in NYC now (and playing Summerstage this summer too), and Off! will be here soon with Dinosaur Jr., Henry Rollins and Fucked Up.

photos by Andrew St. Clair

"Vans made a power move into Brooklyn Saturday October 18, 2010 and unveiled its new, state-of-the-art event space, the House of Vans, opening it's doors to 900 of New York's skate community.

The new space is located in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood and is a prime example of Vans' commitment to and respect for the East Coast skate scene. The House of Vans is a 25,000-square-foot renovated warehouse, featuring an indoor concrete bowl and outdoor street course, a permanent stage for concerts and enough space to do whatever the Vans heart and soul could desire. The House of Vans will be Vans' East Coast hub, with two full-time employees to start.

The new space's outdoor skate park and bowl, designed by California Skateparks and influenced by Lance Mountain and Brian Pino, were well received by those in attendance." [probably a press release]

The 25,000 square feet House of Vans (15,000 indoors and 10,000 sq. ft outdoor enclosed patio and skate plaza), located at 25 Franklin St (at Meserole), hosted a Warped Tour kick-off show back in March. It's not exactly the type of show we'd normally cover, but when I heard there will be more concerts there this summer (stay tuned for announcements), I asked Andrew to send over some of his shots from that event so we could get an idea of what to expect. They continue below...

Continue reading "House of Vans warehouse in Brooklyn hosts concerts (and is a skate park) -- pics"

In their own words:

Northside Festival is thrilled to announce special series of shows in beautiful St. Cecilia's church in Greenpoint.

St. Cecilia's is one of the most beautiful and vital churches in Brooklyn. We are excited to be working with this community institution and proud to say that St. Cecilia's will be an important part of Northside.

There will be four shows taking place at the most spectacular venue imaginable.

And the shows are:

Continue reading "St. Cecilia's Church in Greenpoint will host Northside Festival shows (Atlas Sound, Woods & Eleanor included)"

DOWNLOAD: Fucked Up - Here Lies Are (MP3)

Fucked Up @ MWTX in Austin (more by Andrew Frisicano)

Lineups for Brooklyn's Northside Festival are coming together-- and some of the bigger shows (that aren't at Music Hall) are going to be at Greenpoint's Newtown Barge Park. First, Titus Andronicus, Cults and a special guest play an afternoon (1pm) show on Saturday, June 26th. Later that night, Liars, Fucked Up and High Places play the space (6pm). Then the next night (6/27, 6pm), Les Savy Fav performs with Polvo and Grails. Tickets to all three are on sale now. The shows are all ages (badges, which you must be 21+ to purchase, get you in too, capacity permitting).

Northside writes that the shows will be the first at the 1,500-capacity park space. Newtown Barge Park is a triangle of land at the corner of Franklin and Commercial Streets, and is part of the proposed plan (PDF) to expand Williamsburg/Greenpoint's waterfront park space.

The BrooklynVegan Northside show takes place the same Saturday as Titus --> Fucked Up/Liars, but at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Doors for that are 8pm, and it goes later. Tickets are now on sale.

Titus may DO NOT have another Brooklyn show coming up, on Thursday, June 3rd at Glasslands with Boogie Boarder. It has been cancelled. It was supposed to be a benefit for Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, a group frontman Patrick Stickles has talked about before...

Pitchfork: Best Purchase of the Past Year

Patrick Stickles: We can't take too much pride in the things we that own, can we? If I can get on my soapbox for a minute.... Isn't it much more important not what things we bought, but where we bought them? I'd love for you to remind your Brooklyn-based readership that they should make a point of not supporting the new Duane Reade that's moving in across the street from the historic Kings Pharmacy on Bedford Avenue. If you'd pass that along I'd appreciate that a lot. You can read a lot more about it at the website of this community group called Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. We all need to remember to vote with our dollars and take a stand for locally owned independent businesses, because that's what makes American capitalism great.

Maybe they'll reschedule it at a later date.

Grails has a new EP coming out. Grab an MP3 from that.

Fucked Up recently posted a new song that'll appear on a 12" split with Serena-Maneesh. You can get it above. Also, Damian from Fucked Up has been Internet debating the new Arizona immigration laws with fellow Canadian band Stars via Twitter and Stereogum.

All tour dates for Titus and Fucked Up are below...

Continue reading "Fucked Up, Liars, Titus Andronicus, Les Savy Fav, Polvo & others playing Greenpoint's Barge Park (and other dates) "

"This has been a long time coming, but we at The L Magazine are pleased to finally and officially announce the first annual Northside Festival. Taking place from June 11-14 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it is, as we've grown accustomed to saying, a four-day celebration of the independent music and art scene that thrives here in New York City, with live music being held at nearly every venue in the area (including some that haven't even opened yet), and art events at some of the most relevant galleries in the neighborhood.

What bands are playing? Well, while we will be booking our fair share of shows on our own, it's important to us that the festival has as many different voices as possible, so we've invited some of our favorite NYC music people to curate their own showcases full of what they think are the bands you should be listening to. There will be a pronounced focus on local artists, obviously, because that's sort of what we do, but be on the lookout for a few special guests from out of town as well.

For the visual art portion of Northside, we've teamed up with the nice people over at the Williamsburg Gallery Association, who will be calling attention to area galleries with some amazing exhibitions on display...

...Four-day passes will on sale shortly at what will surely be a ridiculously low price, and you'll definitely want to get yours quickly, not only so that you can get into every single show at Northside, but also so that you can get drunk for less money than everyone else, as you take advantage of the many drink specials we'll have on offer all weekend." [NorthSide Festival]

The idea behind this is to bring a sort of non-industry, SXSW-like festival to Williamsburg and Greenpoint, an area saturated with venues all within walking distance of each other. Some showcase presenters have already been announced - Kanine Records, WFUV's The Alternate Side, Gothamist, Frenchkiss Records, and BrooklynVegan.com included.

photos by Nathan Miller

"The Lutheran Church of the Messiah across from McGolrick Park in Greenpoint is a ghostly, candle lit basement performance state filled with cobwebs and perfect for the gothic folk of Marissa Nadler. Nadler, who is touring in support of her soon-to-be-released Little Hells, a record which finds the Boston based songwriter exploring the sonic textures of her sullen, pastoral folk, played solo on Friday night, ditching her live band for a more intimate performance with just her, her guitar, and the occasional banjo. Friday night's set was a welcome run through of Songs III stands outs like "Sylvia", "Dying Breed" and "Salutations in the Dark", as well as Little Hells highlights "Heart Paper Lover", "Ghosts & Lovers" and "Cobwebs." The especially intimate affair (most of the audience was seated Indian style on the floor) also featured an intensely poignant rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire". Nadler, who switched between a six string Taylor and a twelve string Martin, was in a jovial mood, laughing about how critics had been labeling "Mistress on a Sunny Day", the Little Hells closer, an "uplifting" tune, something that doesn't really exist in Nadler's canon. The warm, rainy night in Greenpoint ended with Marissa doing a version of "Dead Wives Club" on banjo, an appropriate end to a somber evening with the gothic folk princess." [Chocolate Bobka]

One night later Marissa played the final in-store at Sound Fix Records. More dates including a March 4th one at Joe's Pub, HERE. More pictures from the church show below...

Continue reading "Marissa Nadler, MV & EE and Mountainhood @ the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint - pics"

photos by Ryan Muir

Beirut played a last-minute, free (though some were charged at the door?), secret show at Coco66 in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn last night (1/26). They stuffed as many people as possible into the small bar - many packed right into the adjoining rooom, and Beirut played for an hour, took a short break, and then played for another 30 minutes. I'm not sure it's fair to complain about anything at this show... They played new songs, many of which they're still rusty at, but that's probably why they scheduled the show - as a warmup for the much more important performances they have coming up at Vassar, BAM and MHOW. So far there are some complaints in the comments though - most related to Zach getting his drink on, and at least one by someone who misheard what Zach said about his ukelele. They're not all bad though...

"zach was drunk. but no drunker than anyone would be playing to a bar full of drunk youngens on a monday night. i was right up front and thought the sound, for a place whose acoustics are far from outstanding, was pretty decent. definitely nothing to complain about (and I enjoy complaining about bad sound). really see no reason to hate on this show. no it was not life changing, but it was definitely better than staying home on a Monday night watching reruns of man vs. food." [mcg]

Where you ended up standing probably had a lot to do with how good it was. Regardless, people in attendance were cheering loudly throughout the show (especially when they played the hits). People are working on the setlist in the comments of the last post. More pictures and a video below...

Continue reading "Beirut's secret show @ Coco66, Brooklyn, NY - pics & video"