by Bill Pearis

Montreal's Sheer Agony have been in America for a few weeks, touring on either side of SXSW with Philadelpia pals Lantern. The trek wraps up this week with two shows in NYC: March 29 at Barnard College with Tonstartsbandht, Rutabega, and Herzog Rizing; and March 30 at Silent Barn with Martin and Lawrence, and more TBA.

UPDATE: Sheer Agony wrote in to say they're not actually playing the post-SXSW shows with Lantern. Bummer!

Last here in December 2011, Sheer Agony make tightly-wound, jittery pop that is jam-packed with hooks. Power pop fans who hold Shoes, Sex Clark Five and those first two dB's albums sacred would do well to check out the band's three singles, like last year's great self-tiled EP. You can stream them all below. They're good live, too. All upcoming tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Montreal's Sheer Agony (not) on tour with Lantern (dates, streams)"

by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Merchandise @ 285 Kent, 12/31/2012 (via @lkj)

Florida's Merchandise closed out their 2012 with two shows at Brooklyn DIY venue 285 Kent. The first happened on Saturday (12/29) with Philadelphia's Night Sins, plus Pharmakon, Shoxx, and Herzog Rising. Both shows featured Elsner Nino of Shoxx who is now Merchandise's official drummer and gave the songs a harder edge, steering the band a bit back to their punk roots. It almost made stagedivers during "Time" and "Become What You Are" seem semi-normal. OK, not really. You can check out two good-quality videos from Saturday's performance below.

Pharmakon, meanwhile, played a brutal noise set that featured washes of dissonance peppered by blasts of hallowed screams from mastermind Margaret Chardiet. There is a simmering fury that sits just beneath the surface for Chardiet, and in the moments when she lets out that primal scream, it is absolutely terrifying.

Night Sins, who ripped in the small K&M bar back in November, were swallowed whole by the cavernous soundsystem at 285 Kent. The band was sporting a new guitarist with a 12-string awash in reverb which, considering the ambient sound, was completely lost in the mix.

The Saturday show was a last-minute show that was in addition to their previously-announced New Year's Eve show where they played alongside Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche and "secret" headliners DIIV (though most people had figured out they were playing).

Additionally, Merchandise contributed a list of "merchy's ten taypes_2012" to Pitchfork's end-of-year "Guestlist" feature and you can check out their cassette picks below, along with the video from 285 Kent.

Continue reading "Merchandise played 2 shows @ 285 Kent (video), listed their favorite tapes of 2012"

Night Sins at Rituals in November (more by Lukas Hodge)

As you know, moody Tampa post-punks Merchandise will be in NYC to play a New Year's Eve show at 285 Kent with Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche, and a "speciial guest." Tickets for that show are still available and it's also just been revealed that Merchandise are the secret headliners at the 285 Kent show two nights earlier (12/29) with Night Sins, Pharmakon, Shoxx, and Herzog Rising. It's a much cheaper way to see Merchandise than NYE ($8 as opposed to $20), and when Merchandise played previous NYC shows with Shoxx, they were joined by Shoxx's drummer so hopefully that happens again.

As mentioned, Pharmakon will play Saint Vitus on January 13 with Salvation (whose lineup includes members of Night Sins) and Raspberry Bulbs. Tickets for that show are still available.

The flyer for this show, a list of updated Merchandise dates, and some song streams/videos below...

Continue reading "Merchandise playing 285 Kent before NYE too -- with Night Sins, Shoxx, Pharmakon & Herzog Rising"

WIERD photos by Phil Maier, 538 Johnston videos by (((unartig)))

Merchandise at Home Sweet Home

Merchandise played their second of three packed NYC shows last night at 538 Johnson (9/13), this time joined by drummer Elsner Nino (ex-Pollution, current Shoxx) behind the kit and support from Shoxx as well as Worshit, Nuclear Spring, and Herzog Rising. Video from the show is below.

The band played WIERD at Home Sweet Home on Wednesday night (pictures in this post), and will play again in Brooklyn at Saint Vitus tonight (9/14) alongside Rosenkopf, Siamese Twins, and Dream Affair. Tickets may be now sold out (call the venue) -- but the band will be back for CMJ if you didn't catch one of these.

Check out the video from 538 last night along with pictures from Home Sweet Home and more tour dates, below.

Continue reading "Merchandise played WIERD (pics) & 538 Johnson w/ Shoxx (& their drummer) (video) --- Saint Vitus is tonight"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: METZ - Headache (MP3)

As mentioned before and worth doing so again, Toronto's METZ are on tour and in town, with two chances to see them in NYC: tonight (8/31) at Pianos with Birds & Batteries, Writer and ILLUMNTR (tickets); and then Saturday (9/1) at Death by Audio with Pop. 1280 and Herzog Rising. Updated tour dates are listed at the bottom of this post.

METZ's debut album for Sub Pop is due out October 9 and jettisons through 11 songs in under a half an hour and does a surprisingly good job of bringing the band's propulsive, concussive live energy to tape. There's a big dose of AmRep style punk, but there's a hooky-ness to the white squall. Still, it's no match for their live show which is intense and frighteningly loud. Sometimes sheer volume is needed for that crushing feeling in your chest, not your ears. (Earplugs are suggested, unless you wanna fast-track tinnitus.) You can download "Headache" at the top of this post.

For tonight's show, METZ are on one of the earlier slots. You could probably slip out afterwords and still make it to Italian glampunks Giuda's set down the street at Cake Shop, which would make for a pretty fun night.

A list of all tour dates and an album teaser video are below.

Continue reading "METZ are here, playing 2 NYC shows (updated dates, MP3)"

by BBG

Balaclavas

Don't confuse Balaclavas with another similarly-named band that played our Deathmatch day party in Austin recently. The Houston band with the plural name, who dabble in Birthday-Party like post-punk, are currently on the road after a round of dates surrounding SXSW, and will team with In School (ex-Household), Herzog Rising, and Rutilated Powerhaus (mem of Rosenkopf) to play Death By Audio TONIGHT (3/27). The shows are in support of the band's Second Sight EP, which is streamable in full below.

As discussed, Herzog Rising is also scheduled to play a second show at Death By Audio soon (on April 7th), this time with Kim Phuc, Pop 1280 and Family Curse.

Stream the new Balaclavas EP and the Herzog Rising Demo below alongside all tour dates and some video....

Continue reading "Balaclavas (not Balaclava) on tour, play tonight at Death By Audio w/ Rutilated Powerhaus & others"