Rooftop Films opening 2009 @ Open Road Rooftop (more by Ryan Muir)

Rooftop Films will open this year with a May 14th film & music event at Open Road Rooftop (above New Design High School, 350 Grand St in NYC), with music from Twin Sister (who have shows at a taqueria and elsewhere coming up). From there, the series will program movies and bands every weekend through August 15th.

On Friday, April 16th (tonight), there's a special pre-summer-season event with Norway's Hanne Hukkelberg at the Open Road Rooftop. Along with her set will be "a special presentation of Knut Eric Jensen's fantastic documentary, Cool & Crazy, a portrait of the dedicated members of Norway's Berlevag Male Choir." The unsubtitled trailer for that film is below. Tickets are on sale.

The schedule hasn't fully been announced yet, but what has, and a clip of last year's Troll 2 screening, are also below...

Continue reading "Rooftop Films - initial 2010 schedule includes pre-season kick-off tonight, Hanne Hukkelberg, Twin Sister, more "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Megaphonic Thrift - Acid Blues (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Good The Bad - 004 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pirate Love - A Kiss Hello (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Choir of Young Believers - Action/Reaction (MP3)

Casiokids

By now you hopefully you know that Norway's awesome Casiokids are playing our Brooklyn Vegan Pre-SXSW party, alongside Let's Wrestle, The Wave Pictures, Banjo or Freakout and WhoMadeWho. There's now also free PBR for an hour or two (exact details on that soon). And I'll be DJing in between sets. It's all very exciting, isn't it? There are still some tickets available -- only $8.

In that previous post about Casiokids, we mentioned a compilation of the band's 2009 singles called Topp stemning på lokal bar that was, as of that writing, only coming out in Norway. The band have since announced that they've signed to Polyvinyl in the U.S. who will release the album, complete with bonus disc of remixes just like in Norway.

The Knitting Factory show is actually one of three that Casiokids will be playing in NYC before they head to Austin for SXSW. They will also play Pianos this Saturday (3/13) along with Banjo or Freakout, Denmark's synth-rock quintet Spleen United and our Italian friends A Classic Education. Casiokids also play Littlefield on Sunday (3/14) afternoon for an all-Scandinavian party that again features Spleen United, plus Denmark's only surf/flamenco band, The Good The Bad, and The Megaphonic Thrift.

The Megaphonic Thrift are made up of members of Casiokids and The Low Frequency in Stereo and are definitely of the '90s indie rock variety (in this case think GBV or Dinosaur Jr.) that seems to be coming back into style lately. You can download their single "Acid Blues" at the top of this post. Their debut, Decay Destroy, just came out in Norway and is available here through your favorite digital store. I haven't seen them play yet, but BV caught them at by:Larm and said they were pretty good. Pictures from their February 18th show at Oslo club Sub Scene are below.

In addition to the Littlefield show, Megaphonic Thrift are playing Sunday night (3/14) at Bowery Electric and then on Monday night at Santos Party House for a Oya Fest / Oh My Rockness party with fellow Norwegians Pirate Love (High energy, Hives-ish garage) and Hanne Hukkelberg (orchestrated pop), plus The Depreciation Guild. Mind you this is the same night as our Knitting Factory show, so Megaphonic Thrift will play Santos then certain members will race across the Williamsburg Bridge to join their Casiokids bandmates in time for that set. It's all going to work out fine.

Pirate Love will be back after SXSW for a couple shows with UK garage act Thee Vicars. Catch them at Cameo Gallery on March 26 and Lit Lounge on March 27.

Spleen United @ CMJ 2009

The aforementioned Spleen United are also playing this Wednesday (3/10) at Union Hall with fellow Danes Choir of Young Believers. I caught Spleen United at CMJ back in October and they reminded me of the kind of band that 20 years ago would've been on Wax! Trax! or Play it Again Sam records -- the poppier side of goth/industrial. They've had #1 albums in Denmark I've since learned. With multiple percussionists, they put on a pretty good live show too.

Choir of Young Believers were also here at CMJ. Their debut, This is for the White in Your Eyes, is elegiac folk that gets the band compared to Fleet Foxes quite a bit but CoYB are a bit more instrumentally varied and grandiose than Robin Pecknold and co.  It really is a lovely record. The Union Hall show also features The Loom (who played that BV loft show during CMJ 2009) and Spain's The Right Ons. Choir of Young Believers also play Pianos on Thursday (3/11) with Brooklyn's ARMS who are worth checking out in their own right.

Choir of Young Believers

That's more than enough for one post. Below are videos, flyers and tour dates for some of the bands mentioned here...

Continue reading "Megaphonic Thrift, Casiokids, Choir of Young Believers & other Scandinavian bands playing SXSW, NYC, other dates"

by Dominick Mastrangelo

One night after opening for The Watson Twins in Brooklyn, Norway's Hanne Hukkelberg headlined her own show (an early one) at the Mercury Lounge on Saturday (2/13). Hukkelberg's set consisted mostly of songs from last year's full-length, Blood From A Stone. Saturday's show - which was full but not sold out - was the second night of a short, four-show, two-city tour that wraps tonight (2/15) in Boston. Then it's back to Norway for the by:Larm Festival later this week.

Norway's ruling party celebrated its election victory in a rock venue; more than 20% of the population attends a music festival every year; and it's not unusual to find gigs taking place in a mausoleum. Oslo is the music-mad capital of this music-mad nation, and the city's modest population of 550,000 sustains numerous venues, outstanding record shops and countless festivals.

Annual events cater for a wide range of tastes including metal, jazz, folk, world and electronica, while the Øya rock festival puts most larger UK equivalents to shame when it comes to bands, organisation and environmental credentials. And while showcase industry events Folkelarm and by:Larm attract music business figures from around the world to check out the talent, Norway's social democratic principles ensure that the gigs are also open to the public. [Guardian]

Opening the Merc show was New York's Ravens & Chimes whose next scheduled show is with Robbers on High Street at the Bell House on March 6th. More pictures including one of the setlist below....

Continue reading "Hanne Hukkelberg & Ravens & Chimes played Mercury Lounge in NYC (pics) --- by:Larm kicks off Thursday in Norway"

by Andrew Frisicano

If you can imagine it, Norwegian singer Hanne Hukkelberg used to carry vocals for doom metal band Funeral before settling into her own atmospheric folk. She's in NYC this weekend - her first show is at the Bell House on Friday, February 12th with The Watson Twins (who are at the Living Room tonight, 2/11 - for WFUV members only) and La Strada. Tickets are still on sale.

She headlines Saturday, February 13th at Mercury Lounge with Ravens & Chimes Tickets are on sale.

Hanne Hukkelberg is one of the many Nordic artists participating in By:larm, a regional showcase/festival in Oslo, Norway on February 18th-20th (a fest we'll be attending... more on that later). The full list of artists participating in that is below.

Her album Blood From a Stone came out last year on Nettwerk. Videos from that and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Hanne Hukkelberg playing NYC shows & by:Larm (full lineup)"