by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Lights On - Red Flashing Lights (MP3)

Lights On

Anglophilic San Diegans Lights On are in town this week, playing three shows here in NYC: tonight (7/14) at Knitting Factory, Friday (7/16) at Cake Shop and Saturday (7/17) at Union Hall. They'll also play Larry's in Danbury, CT tomorrow (7/15) night.

Not unlike Foreign Born, the echoes of '80s-era KROQ are all over the band's tuneful debut, Here Comes the Ocean, which is out now digitally in all the usual places and on vinyl/cassette via their website. Echo & the Bunnymen is the comparison they get most often and it's hard to deny, especially on the LP's midtempo closing tracks "She Comes Walking Down Slowly" and "It Never Stops" which coulda come straight off 1987's 'grey album.' The rest of the album is more energetic and not quite as influence-specific, but it's very Velvet Underground '80s sonic diaspora if you get my drift. The whole record's pretty catchy stuff, and you can download "Red Flashing Lights" which reminds me a little of Sweden's Mary Onettes.

Tonight's Knitting Factory show is part of a wine event called Summer of Reisling that also has the Black Hollies, Nouvellas and Himalaya on the bill. $30 gets you into show and four glasses of this particular varietal, seven of which are on offer (it's very similar to the new Vivo in Vino that Holly Miranda is playing coming up). If you just want to see the bands at Knitting Factory, it's $15.

The Cake Shop and Union Hall shows both feature New Mexico (formerly Apes of Wrath) and the Cake Shop show is headlined by synth-rockers Kordan.

All Lights On tour dates after the jump...

Continue reading "Lights On are here & touring (dates & MP3), Knitting Factory pairing bands w/ wine (tonight)"

photos by Ryan Muir, words By Black Bubblegum

Cymbals smashed with an Epiphone Crestwood. Airborne pizza slices. That vein in your neck that bulges from screaming. Somersaults. An open microphone for the audience to scream out vocals, gang style. These were all present at Frodus's lone NYC date at Death By Audio on Sunday (May 11th), one of a trio for the band over the weekend.

Did I mention the songs? Vocalist/guitarist Shelby Cinca writhed around on the stage floor, banging out faves like "Lights On For Safety", "The Awesome Machine", and "Explosions" (full setlist below). Jason Hamacher (drums), channeling Dale Crover, seemed more energized than ever as his gloved hands bashed the shit out of the Frodus logo'd drumkit. Jason, you may want to have those drum heads checked out.

The madness continues in June, but without bassist Liam Wilson of Dillinger Escape Plan, as former Decahedron bassist Jake Brown will join them on their previously announced dates in June. Full tour dates are also below.

The slowly fading Die Hard obsessives (thats a guess) Nakatomi Plaza played right before Frodus. They hammered out an energetic set of Dischord influenced post-hardcore/punk which provided a great intro for the similarly influenced Frodus. I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Oscar after his set,and he assured me that the trio would play a few more local shows before they go kaput. Whoop it up at those dates NYC.... Yippee-kai-yay motherfucker!

Himalaya and Limbs opened the affair, though unfortunately I missed both due to a certain triple bill of metallic awesomeness at Music Hall of Williamsburg (more on that later). More Frodus pics and tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Frodus & Nakatomi Plaza @ Death By Audio in NYC - pics "