photos by Chris La Putt

"I think oh land might be a magical priestess of disco" - Kirill Savitski

B-Sides: You've gotten comparisons to artists like Lykke Li and it's hard not to draw comparisons to Lady Gaga, with the outfits and your theatrical stage performance. Do you lean one way or the other? Do you see yourself as an indie artist or are you aiming to be a pop star?

Oh Land: What I want to achieve is to have my own space in music and of course I'll get comparisons to other female acts because there are quite many and if you're the newest one you always get comparisons until people try to find out who you really are. I feel like I've tried to make an album that very personal to me, so only I can make it. I think people will realize and place me somewhere themselves where it makes sense. One thing I'll say with the Lady Gaga comparison, I don't ever dress to stand out. I dress to fit in to my own universe. I think of myself more as Alice in Wonderland. She's a pretty normal girl in a fantastic world, everything else around her and the way she sees things is surreal and fantastic and scary and dreamy, but that's through her perception of the world. And that's how I see myself, I don't see myself as this animated character from outer space. I see myself as this girl who just sees everything around me through dream glasses."

Continue reading "Oh Land played Hiro Ballroom (pics)"

Ocote Soul Sounds (Martin from Antibalas, left)

Mondo Mundo Festival, put on by the booking agency of the same name, is happening at Hiro Ballrom Saturday, January 9th. Ocote Soul Sounds, the world jazz/soul-funk group with Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma and Martin Perna of Antibalas (and frequent sideman for TVOTR, Scarlett Johansson, Celebration, Dragons of Zynth and others), headline. The lineup also includes Toshi Reagon & BIGLovely's varied folk-rock, electronica-influenced instrumental jams from Burkina Electric, Lebanese-born singer-songwriter Abaji and DJ Angola. Tickets are on sale. We also have a pair of tickets to give away. More info is below.

Speaking of Antibalas, we just mentioned that Antibalas's Knitting Factory residency would be continuing into 2010, but those shows have been canceled for now (stay tuned for new dates later in 2010).

You can still see Fela! on Broadway though (starring members of Antibalas in the band). In fact, you can see it for free or cheap(er). We're giving away TWO pairs of tickets to see Fela! (in addition to the pair of tickets to the Mondo Mundo Fest), and we have an exclusive discount code that will get you tickets at a reduced rate should you choose to pay for them.

Details on all of that, with a streaming NPR story, a flyer, and more info on Mondo Mundo, below...

Continue reading "Mondo Mundo Festival this weekend, WIN tickets to that and to FELA! (featuring Antibalas whose residency is cancelled)"

Tonight (10/20) hip-hop duo Clipse play a free Myspace Music show (part of the site's "The Release" series) at Hiro Ballroom. The show, which is not part of CMJ, is a pre-release party of sorts of the group's Columbia Records debut, Till the Caskey Drops, due December 8th, and includes guests Donnis, Jasmine Solano, Adam Tensta and DJ dB.

The show is first come, first served. Info on how to RSVP is below...

Continue reading "Clipse - free Myspace show tonight, new album in December "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Desktop - Desktop EP (ZIP - 192 KB/S)

Electric Six on a Rocks Off Boat in NYC - Aug 20, 2009 (.A.A.)

When we left Electric Six last week, they were preparing a new album, KILL, due October 20th on Metropolis Records, and just about to play a boat....

"There's something a little unnerving about being anywhere for hours if you have absolutely no option to leave. So boarding a rock 'n' roll party boat for a three-hour concert cruise might not be for everyone; if you wind up hating the music, getting into a fight with your friends, or feeling violently ill, there's literally no way out until the boat docks.

That element of captivity feels more like a release, though, if you set sail at sunset on the Hudson and the bands are Electric Six, who are out east touring from Michigan, and Les Sans Culottes, the very best faux French retro-rock band in all of Brooklyn. Especially if the boat is named "The Temptress" and has multiple bars and a dance floor (and even if its aroma calls to mind the perspiration of generations past).

Electric Six's "Dick Valentine," the nicest front man who ever moved raving-drunk audience members to perform at-sea body-surfing, said that some people traveled hundreds of miles, some thousands of miles, to be at the show. Screams from the crowd indicated that perhaps it wasn't a joke." [Elle Magazine]

Electric Six's post-river cruise plans include a full fall tour, which will feature opening sets by The Gay Blades and Millions of Brazilians. All three will play on Friday, October 16th at NYC's Hiro Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Thursday August 27th at noon. They'll also be in town for a show at Brooklyn's Southpaw on October 18th. Tickets for that are on sale now.

Electric Six bassist Keith Thompson and Zach Curd from The Pop Project recently launched a side-project under the name Desktop. The group's free three-song EP, linked above, shows off a knack for quirky, bedroom-casio-meets-'80s-prom-night electronic disco.

More info on Desktop and all E6 tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Electric Six tour dates ++ a free Desktop EP (E6 side-project)"

photos by Paul Birman

Contest winners and others who managed to get themselves on the guestlist were treated to a free show by Violens and Girl Talk at Hiro Ballroom in NYC last night (5/28). Hiro isn't the smallest venue, but it's much, much smaller than where Greg Gillis played the last three times he was in NYC. More pictures from the show, below...

Continue reading "Girl Talk & Violens @ Hiro Ballroom (Canon/SPIN party) - pics"

Ida Maria in NYC in 2009
June 12 @ Hiro Ballroom (tickets)
June 14 @ The Bell House (tickets)

Bob Mould two nights ago @ Joe's Pub (more by Jacob Blickenstaff)

Last night (4/9), while some were enjoying (or not enjoying) a Passover Seder, others caught Bob Mould at his second of two shows at Joe's Pub. Anonymous wrote,

Unfortunately it was not an ideal venue tonight.
It could have been, but the atmosphere just wasn't the way most BM solo shows usually are.
Still not bad, and the audience was with him, but people were eating dinner....that's an ideal venue for Bob Mould?? I don't think so.

Paper Magazine held their "Beautiful People Party" at Hiro Ballroom last night. Past musical guests at the annual get together have included Antony and Joanna Newsom (whose music is now featured in a bra commercial). This year it was Paper cover-girl Katy Perry who was already in town playing multiple nights at Irving Plaza and humping bananas.

Speaking of humping bananas, Chris Cornell played two shows at Webster Hall this week. In the YouTube video below you can see that he.... shaved his guitar player's head on stage while they were playing at one of them.

Also featured in Paper's new "Beautiful People" issue is comedian Aziz Ansari who co-stars with Amy Poehler in the TV show Parks and Recreation which premiered last night. Did you catch it? What did you think?

Lissy Trullie was featured in last year's "Beautiful People" issue. Last night she played Union Hall with US Royalty (who play the Studio at Webster Hall tonight).

New Ditmas Park/Flatbush venue Sycamore hosted its third-ever live show last night. Check out the schedule for what they have coming up.

The Books paid a somewhat rare visit to NYC. The band, noted one showgoer, "debuted some sweet new tunes." Those'd be from the group's forthcoming record, which, according to the Columbia Spectator, is due next year. The Spectator also noted the lack of promotion for the show - which according to the Books' Twitter sold out less than a day before it happened. One student, on the minimal on-campus promotion, said, "I had no way of knowing they were playing at Columbia...I found out about the concert on a random music blog that I was casually browsing -- I don't even remember which site it was."

As NYC's summer concert lineup comes together, two shows were added to calendar yesterday - Casiokids at South Street Seaport and Shilpa Ray at Castle Clinton (as part of a Sly Stone tribute concert). Shilpa played Death by Audio last night. Look for more summer-show announcements today (in addition to Simian Mobile Disco at the Williamsburg Waterfront).

UK band Pet Shop Boys almost became Rescue Shelter Boys.

What did you do last night?

Continue reading "What did you do last night?"

Crystal Stilts @ Less Artists More Condos (more by Gabi Porter)

Popcorn Youth: What led to the formation of Crystal Stilts?

JB Townsend: Brad [Hargett], the singer, and I had just been playing around for about a year before we really started playing out around 2002. We met in Florida, before we moved to [Brooklyn], and we both wanted to get out of there. We really didn't take it too seriously -- we were just playing for fun. But then we ended up able to record at a space in Greenpoint called Junkyard, which was used by a lot of bands on the Social Registry label. We started recording and released a 7". Someone sent it out to college radio, and it did ok. We were really surprised; we had absolutely no expectations whatsoever. And that was a big encouragement to take it all a little bit more seriously.

Marco Benevento at Sullivan Hall, Freaks Ball at Southpaw, and John Medeski at Hiro Ballroom - all in one night. That doesn't seem like very good planning.

Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was born today in 1948.

Howlin' Wolf died today in 1976.

Tickets are now on regular sale for both of the upcoming Levon Helm shows at Beacon Theatre.

Taylor Swift is playing Saturday Night Live tonight and Fleet Foxes are playing it next week.

The end of Zune?

Lillo Brancato sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Okkervil River recently played The Bell House in Brooklyn. They were in town to play Letterman. Video from that TV performance below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday? (besides snow)"

Photos by Gabi Porter

Hiro Ballroom was sparsely crowded when I arrived for the show on Thursday night (10/23), but filled up quickly as The Dears got ready to play. The best way to describe The Dears is epic and complicated, and if anyone were to force me to name my favorite band ever, of the 5 or 6 contenders The Dears always seem to float to the top. Murray Lightburn plays the tortured town crier of the apocalypse really well, and despite the melancholy and doom, it's a trip you want to take with him because the music is just so damn good. They blazed through a set that relied heavily on new songs, which were good enough for me to go home and buy the new album immediately." - Gabi

Continue reading "The Dears @ Hiro Ballroom (CMJ), NYC - pics, setlist"

Photos by Fresh Bread

The amazing Andrew Bird played his second of two nights at Hiro Ballroom in NYC last night before heading to Music Hall of Williamsburg to close out the Barack Rock event with a second, but shorter performace (10/7). More than half of Bird's Hiro set was made up of songs taken from his upcoming album, "Noble Beast." There was whistling. Minnsesota/South Dakota singer-songwriter Haley Bonar opened the show and plays again at Union Hall in Brooklyn tonight (10/8). More pictures and the setlist below...

Continue reading "Andrew Bird @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC - pics, setlist"

Vincent Gallo & Snoop Dogg

Peter writes in:

You should mention something about the Vincent Gallo show at Hiro Ballroom last night.
25 dollars: the worst show I have EVER seen in my life.
Him and two out-of-work male models hunched over (Gallo's) expensive vintage equipment and noodled for an hour. I seriously do not think anyone in the band actually knows how to play an instrument. Gallo had his back towards the audience the whole time and ended the show with a mumbled 'thanks' and they took off backstage. I thought it was a pathetic attempt at an encore, and then the house lights came up.

by Showtrotta

James Murphy and Pat Mahoney @ PS1 - July 26, 2008 (CRED)

The Crowd @ PS1 - July 26, 2008 (CRED)

Thursday night, despite the various dance happenings I decided to take a break and stay in. Friday I took a break from dancing again and went to the excellent Ween show. The no-dancing streak couldn't last much longer though - Saturday I headed to PS1 for the DFA-laden edition of Warm Up. I arrived around 5 and witnessed a line stretched around at least 3 sides of PS1. Thankfully I was able to go on the much shorter line for LIC residents. Inside was less crowded than I expected - perhaps some of the line was due to an attempt at crowd control. Unfortunately it was only temporary and PS1 turned into a barely navigable, wall to wall crowd of people standing around, many waiting in one of the ridiculously long and seemingly merging beer lines.

After several minutes of scurrying through gaps opening in the crowd I finally made it to the dancefloor where there was an odd little mix of people not dancing at all, people just tapping their feet a little bit, and people absolutely losing their shit. I fell somewhere between the feet tappers and wanting to lose my shit but James and Pat's selections just weren't doing it for me. Probably the one and only highlight for me was when they dropped "Planet E" by KC Flightt which heavily samples "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads. Check out the video which features the soon to be touring David Byrne dancing through every now and then. Around 8 I left PS1 feeling very frustrated, but I am already starting to feel better because of the amazing events headed our way this week:

First off, hopefully things will be better tonight (Wednesday July 30, 2008) at Santos Happy House with different DFA'ers, Juan Maclean and Tim Sweeney (Beats in Space) choosing the tunes. Apparently it's going to be an actual battle with Tim and Juan switching off every hour, with one of them emerging as the winner....

Continue reading "Sebastien Tellier, DFA & the Wednesday night in Dance"

APC @ KF (more by Leia Jospe)

Anti-Pop Consortium, Prefuse 73 and Catchdubs are playing Hiro Ballroom on July 3rd. $8.00 tickets are on sale (the tickets are cheaper than the drinks) (except the free Lucky Beer they'll be giving out between 9 and 10). All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Anti-Pop Consortium, Prefuse 73, a Hiro show & tour dates"

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: Van Scott - Electechouse Mix (April 2008) (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Switch Mix for Kissy Sellout Show (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: RA.082 - Goon & Koyote Podcast (MegaUpload MP3)

Tommie Sunshine @ Hiro Ballroom - May 22, 2008 (CRED)

This past weekend was not one of the best I've experienced, but there were some good moments: Thursday night at Hiro, Tommie Sunshine dropped an hour and a half of very interesting, highly danceable, wobbly/fidgety house. Sunday night I got down to a decent, fun set by VDRK at Damn! at the Knitting Factory. He played Fred Falke's Love Theme which was absolutely amazing to hear out.

The less exciting parts of the weekend were Junkie XL's set at Hiro, which started off fine, but got a bit repetitive. Then it went from really hard stuff to a very mellow track which you probably would've appreciated a lot if you were on drugs, otherwise it just seemed a bit cheesy.

People getting down @ Damn! @ the Knitting Factory - May 25, 2008 (CRED)

The second disappointing part of the weekend was Apparat's set at the Knitting Factory. The show sold out. The Knitting Factory was as packed as I had ever seen it and people were actually dancing. But I just could not get into it. I went into this show loving what I had heard of Apparat thus far, but I found their live show to be very underwhelming. They had a few moments where they were rocking, but other than that it was just kind of eh. The parts that were more guitar-driven and rocking reminded me of the past few times I saw m83 (who are currently on tour and will be in town next week) a few years ago and once that happened they were all I could think about. I realize that m83 and Apparat are two different bands, trying to accomplish different things, each with their own sound, but they were similar enough that I felt as though I was watching a far inferior version of an m83 show.

From the looks of it, this week in dance should be much better. Fortunately/unfortunately most of it is happening on the same night:
Friday (aka TONIGHT - MAY 30).......

Continue reading "Switch in a museum & a ton of other places to dance tonight"

words by Showtrotta, photos by Ryan Muir

DOWNLOAD: Sebastien Tellier - Divine (Midnight Juggernauts remix) (Zshare MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Shoes - Knock Out (live @ Big in Japan) (Zshare MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Shoes - Baby I'm For Real (Zshare MP3)

I should have known that with so much on a Wednesday night, it would be another crazy weekend with (too?) much to do in New York. Tonight is the one calm night, but look out for a monster post of Friday dance events tomorrow.

Midnight Juggernauts @ Coachella

Australia's Midnight Juggernauts are in town this week finishing up the last few dates of their US tour with New York's own Shy Child. They will be playing at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday (May 9) along with one of my favorite disco-friendly, New York-based, deejays, Holy Ghost. Tickets are still on sale.

But prior to that, both bands will be deejaying at Hiro Ballroom tonight (Thursday, May 8) (free with RSVP). The Shoes will also be playing a live set (in case you missed them last night at Studio B - or if you saw them and could not get enough). I was at Studio B last night and thought the Shoes live set was pretty good. The duo's live show is created with a Mac, some other gear, and live vocals. The set was very energetic and got the crowd moving from the get-go. The live vocals gave their songs a sense of immediacy, and their original tracks were a pleasant change from all the deejay sets I've caught lately.

The Midnight Juggernauts photos in this post were taken by Ryan at Coachella. More of them, a video, and the flyer for tonight, below....

Continue reading "Midnight Juggernauts - tonight, Friday, Coachella, the Shoes"

photos by Bao Nguyen

I tried to like Yelle by staying up late to watch her streaming Coachella performance (she was on after Portishead). Maybe it was just that I was missing Prince at the time, but watching her play only made it worse. Like her or not, she seems here to stay. Her show at Highline Ballroom in NYC this Saturday night (May 3, 2008) is even sold out.

I can't escape her, for now anyway. Finger on the Pulse (sometimes BV contributors) will be opening the Saturday night show with a DJ set, and they've have been kind enough to offer two pairs of tickets to giveaway. To win, email music@fotpnyc.com (subject: yelle contest). Include your first and last name. They'll pick two winners and put them on the list.

Last time Yelle was here (in February), she played Knitting Factory and Hiro Ballroom. Bao was at the Hiro one and he took some pictures. More of them below....

Continue reading "Yelle - Highline Saturday, Coachella, Hiro Ballroom, pics, etc"

DOWNLOAD: the Bloody Beetroots - NLLR mix (zSHARE MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Felix Cartal - NLLR mix (zSHARE MP3)

Kavinsky (CRED)

As I mentioned last week, after a string of disappointing deejay sets I've been reluctant to allow myself to get too excited even when acts I've previously been amazed by come to town. I did a pretty good job of staying calm leading up to Kavinsky's set at Studio B on Saturday. Firstly, I have to give props to Jen Lasher for spinning a set that was much more interesting than many more well-known DJ sets I've seen recently. She covered quite a lot of ground in terms of dance music, and she wasn't afraid to drop a few oddballs and pop songs in there either. She took a relatively tame and sparse midnight Studio B crowd and whipped them into a dancing frenzy by the time Kavinsky took the decks at 2.

When that finally happened I found myself desperately hoping his set would be good and thankfully it was! He started off well, playing Mr. Oizo's remix of "Merrymaking at My Place" by Calvin Harris (who makes his way back to NYC this Monday), and D.I.M.'s remix of "My People" by The Presets a few songs in. He also played some electro that was less recent, but worked well despite this because of his timing, choices, and good mixing. About a half an hour or so in, something shifted, and Kavinsky's set went from good, to one of the most fun sets I've ever gotten down to. It was the perfect mix of classic dance tracks, brand new electro (he played the two new SebastiAn tracks which are perfect for the floor and a loud system), old electro, and random-ness (Phil Collins - Sussudio?!). He kept "the B"'s floor the most packed I've seen it in a while until a little after 4. It was easily one of the best sets I've witnessed this year. You can read my more detailed review here and stream a playlist I made of close to 20 of the tracks Kavinsky dropped at the B that night.

This weekend is another one full of dance. Get ready to start making decisions. Here is what is happening on Thursday (April 24, 2008) alone!.....

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (last week & tonight)"

A-Trak @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC - Apr 10, 2008 (thecobrabird)

Fool's Gold around the world....

Continue reading "A-Trak, Diplo & Santogold playing Summerstage, other places"

the Fiery Furnaces @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC - Nov 3, 2007 (CRED)

Of a good thing, mostly, and in any case that seems to be the point. At a time when indie bands and their devotees are worried about short, blog-enabled cycles of hype and backlash, the Fiery Furnaces have decided to reward their fans by overwhelming them. In a few years the Friedbergers have gone from promising upstarts (on “Gallowsbird’s Bark”) to celebrated indie favorites (with “Blueberry Boat” in 2004) to polarizing iconoclasts (with “Rehearsing My Choir” from 2005, a song cycle starring their grandmother, Olga Sarantos) to respected veterans. If that means they’re now playing Hiro Ballroom a few years after playing for a much bigger crowd at Town Hall — well, neither of them seems too worried. [NY Times]

Continue reading "The Fiery Furnaces played Hiro Ballroom + videos"

....and that's it. She played. People waited on line, and she played a show. Boring, I know....Hey, she just turned 43. She's all grown up now! (oh wait, nevermind).....

Courtney Love @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC - July 12, 2007 (CRED)

"Courtney Love's selective new-album-hype tour stopped in NYC last night for a midnight performance at the Maritime Hotel's Hiro Ballroom. An 11:00pm start time turned into midnight real fast as the place quickly filled up with free-show RSVP'rs...including celebs Laura Prepon and Danny Masterson. Oh, and it was hot as a mofo in there." [Fresh Bread]

"When I entered Hiro Ballroom around 11, I wondered what possessed me to spend two hours in line to see Courtney Love." [katesilver]

Continue reading "Courtney Love played Hiro Ballroom...."

Courtney Love @ Bush Hall, London - July 9, 2007 (CRED)

Courtney Love just gave London a small birthday show full of new material, and now it's our turn. This should be nuts:

Continue reading "Courtney Love playing intimate NYC show + played UK"

Congrats to those who won tickets to see Band of Horses @ Hiro Ballroom tonight (July 10, 2007), and I can finally confirm that, yes, Band of Horses are playing the free show at McCarren Pool on July 22nd. M.I.A. is not playing it - she was for a second or something - until she chose Siren (and Studio B) instead.

Note: Band of Horses are not playing McCarren Pool with Modest Mouse. Check BOH' Myspace page for more tour dates.

RSVP for the show @ Hiro Ballroom. They play Studio B on Friday. More tour dates & an MP3 HERE.

Band of Horses @ Primavera 2007 (CRED)

A whole month before Band of Horses play with Modest Mouse at Keyspan Park, they'll be doing a show at Hiro Ballroom that is also a "Bad Art Auction" with comedian Zach Galifianakis for NY Magazine's next hip event...

Buy art for a good cause. Zach Galifianakis helps us to curate a lineup of artwork that will make you wince, writhe, and wonder why its not already in your living room. Zach will take us through an evening of art that he's created, bought, found, stolen and maybe even inspired. He'll be joined by Band of Horses, at HIRO ballroom. All proceeds of the auction will go to New York Cares.

Continue reading "Zach Galifianakis doing NYMAG event w/ BAND OF HORSES + 2007 Tour Dates"