by Bill Pearis

The Beets

When I caught Veronica Falls at Bowery Ballroom a few weeks ago, Juan Wauters was one of the opening acts and it was at that point that I realized I hadn't heard from his band The Beets in a while. Though it's been two years since their last album, Let the Poison Out, the band are still together and have just released a new video for "Doing As I Do" from that album. It was filmed at the far Rockaways before Hurricane Sandy took its toll on the area. The Rockaways still need your help and the band encourages you to donate to disaster relief.

You can catch The Beets tonight (4/9) at Silent Barn as part of a pretty great lineup that includes UK indiepop band Golden Grrrls (who have stuck around a little longer in NYC than originally planned), California's charming Sea Lions, local postpunks Household and Army Men (ex-German Measles). More info here.

Next week, The Beets will head out on tour that will hit both coasts and includes anther NYC show at Death by Audio on May 4 with Bass Drum of Death. All Beets tour dates are listed below.

Bass Drum of Death

Speaking of, Bass Drum of Death will be in town because that same night they're opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at Terminal 5 (tickets). They're opening the whole tour and their dates are listed below. BDoD have singed with Innovative Leisure (Nick Waterhouse, Allah-Las) who will release their new album this summer. You can stream "Shattered Me" from it below.

Continue reading "The Beets made a video, playing tonight w/ Golden Grrrls + more dates; Bass Drum of Death ready new LP (stream a track)"

photos by Ivey Haber; words by Bill Pearis

Parquet Courts

Texas ex-pats Parquet Courts released their debut album, Light Up Gold, back in August on their own Dull Tools label and the record (and band) have been building buzz ever since. The album gets a repress this week via Brooklyn indie label What's Your Rupture? and the band played a re-release party at Death by Audio on Friday (1/11) in celebration, which was also the last date on the band's first tour.

Not sure how the rest of the world feels about the band but Parquet Courts definitely have New York's attention, and with features in The Village Voice and Pitchfork, the show hit capacity about two songs into the second band of the night's set. It was as packed as I've seen DbA which was also sporting new art on the wall behind the stage, an angular collage by Maya Hayuk. Bye bye Marissa Paternoster dog illustration and giant head of DbA's Edan Wilbur.

Despite co-frontman Austin Brown being under the weather and the somewhat obtrusive presence of an onstage videographer, Parquet Courts put on a great set and the crowd was primed to dance to Light Up Gold standouts like "Borrowed Time," "Donuts Only" and the album's title track. A bit of stage diving too, via a perfectly-timed leap from Beach Fossils' Dustin Paysuer between the one-two punch of "Master of My Craft" and "Borrowed Time." (Austin Brown also jumped into the frey, playing guitar on his back across the sweaty crowd.) With the album being one of the more quotable in recent memory, there was a lot of shouting along as well. In addition to most of Light Up Gold, the band also delivered a nice cover of The Kinks' "This Strange Effect."

Parquet Courts head to the West Coast this week for some shows in California and a few in the Pacific Northwest with Naomi Punk. Those dates are listed below.

Earlier in the night we got sets from bad trip noiseniks PC Worship, the skeletal post-punk of Household and Washington DC's riot grrl-esque Priests. Picturess of their sets, plus a few more shots of Parquet Courts are below.

Continue reading "Parquet Courts played a record release party at Death by Audio with PC Worship, Household and Priests (pics, review)"

Household (via)

Brooklyn's Household made of 2011's more underheard albums, Items, that recalls the nervy post-punk of Liliput, Delta 5, and Girls at Our Best, or more currently Grass Widow or Deep Time. The album was produced by Andrew Raposo of Midnight Magic and you can stream the whole thing below.

Household have a few shows coming up. They'll play this Friday (11/30) at the WBAR "Goth Cruise" which isn't actually on a boat but at Diana Event Oval (3009 Broadway @ 117th) at Barnard College. The show is headlined by James Chance & the Contortions, with Household's pals Midnight Magic playing as well. The show is free and open to the public and more info is here. Household will also play Glasslands on December 12 which is the "A Mr. Dream Christmas" party that also features Alan Watts (tickets); and will open for Hospitality's Bowery Ballroom show on January 10 (rescheduled from Hurricane Sandy blackout week) and replace TEEN on the bill. Tickets are still available.

Meanwhile, Midnight Magic just released their debut album, Walking The Midnight Streets, via PledgeMusic and 10% of the purchase price goes to the Red Cross' Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. In addition to the WBAR goth cruise show, Midnight Magic will play The Barbary in Philadelphia on Saturday (12/1).

A list of tour dates, streams and flyer are below

Continue reading "Household playing shows, including free NYC one w/ James Chance & the Contortions and Midnight Magic (dates, streams) "

Dunes (LA)

LA band Dunes, who (like Bleached) include a former member of Mika Miko, are heading out on a tour this summer which brings them to NYC for two shows in August. Those shows include New Museum on August 24 with Brooklyn's Household and Death by Audio on August 26. Tickets for the New Museum show are on sale now. Dunes recently dropped the track, "Dirt," which you can stream below.

Dunes are not to be confused with Brooklyn producer Jordan Welner, who also operates under the moniker Dunes. That Dunes is playing Drom on Friday (7/20) with Kingdom, Kastle, Sleepyhead, and Figgy. Tickets for that show are on sale now. The Drom show is actually listed on LA Dunes' bandcamp page, though bandcamp tour dates are powered by songkick, which causes confusing things like this to happen. Check out a stream of one of Brooklyn's Dunes' songs below.

A list of all dates and song streams below...

Continue reading "LA's Dunes touring in August/September; Brooklyn's Dunes playing Drom this weekend w/ Kingdom (dates & streams)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Love Inks - Blackeye (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Lovers - Figure 8 (MP3)

Love Inks @ SXSW (more)

Can you feel the love tonight? I can though mainly because we've got two bands with that in their name playing tonight. Though not in the same place. First is Austin's Love Inks who, as previously mentioned, are playing NYC for the first time. Tonight (6.2) they're at Glasslands with Rewards, Slowdance, and Celestial Shore. They'll also play Tuesday (6/7) at Pianos with Elastic Summer, Monokino and more.

Love Inks' debut, E.S.P., came out last month on City Slang and, as I wrote previously, it's a pretty little understated thing. Minimalist instrumentation -- guitar, bass, drum machine -- that doesn't get in the way of the band's main asset: singer Sherry LeBlanc's honeyed vocals. (In the same timbre as Beth Cosatino.) E.S.P. is what I like to call Sunday Morning music (Galaxie 500, Belle & Sebastian), and a fine example at that. You can check out "Blackeye" at the top of this post.

Tonight's Glasslands show is pretty solid all around. I've been wanting to check out Slowdance for some time. You can download two tracks from their website and both are pretty good: atmospheric rock that is, and yes, danceable. (Though maybe not slowdanceable.) Rewards, as you may remember, is Aaron Pfanning who was in Chairlift; and Celestial Shore are channeling some serious Brian Wilson vibes in a slightly mathy kind of way.

Lovers

The other "love" band tonight is Portland trio Lovers (not to be confused with Lovvers), who are at Cake Shop with Household and Skeleton Head (They played last night at Union Hall...anybody go?). Lovers' most recent album, Dark Light, came out last fall on Badman Recordings and you can download "Figure 8" from it at the top of this post. It's a pretty good representation of the rest of the records: throbbing synths and big choruses. The BPMs are a little to slow to call it dance music, but it's definitely got a groove. Mood music you can move to.

You should get there early for local trio Household who I caught at Bruar Falls a couple weeks ago and really liked. They're in the Lilliput/Raincoats school of minimalist postpunk (or more recently Brilliant Colors or Yellowfever). No releases yet, but Household have a handful of streamable songs on their website which were produced by Andrew Raposo (who plays bass in various DFA-related bands). Definitely worth a listen.

Hospitality @ Pianos in Feb (more)

What else? After what seems like an awfully long time (two years plus), Hospitality are finally getting around to putting out an album. I think it's pretty much done, so hopefully we'll see that sooner than later. In the meantime, the trio are playing a whole bunch in June, starting Friday night (6/3) at Cake Shop where they'll share the bill with country folk act Numbers and Letters, and Edelweiss who kind of sound like first-album Foals and are not to be confused with the shortlived early '90s novelty act of the same name. The show is FREE.

Hospitality also play the final date of my Sound Bites series at the Fulton Stall Market on July 17. All upcoming shows are at the bottom of this post. More Fulton Stall Market (Seaport) shows are listed HERE.

TSOOL @ SXSW (more)

And last but certainly not least, the mighty Soundtrack of Our Lives arrive from Sweden this weekend, playing Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday (6/5) and The Bell House on Monday (6.6). If you enjoy '60s/'70s style rock, there are few bands that do it as well as TSOOL, and certainly not many who put on a better live show. I wrote of their 2009 show at Music Hall of Williamsburg:

A nearly two-hour show of guitar windmills, endless stick twirls, karate kicks, ponderous, psychedelic lyrics and massive riffs. You could watch The Soundtrack of Our Lives and spend the whole time picking apart the references: The Who, Stones, Pink Floyd, Love, Spirit, Faces, Beatles, etc. But to do so is to miss the point of TSOOL, who distill everything that is great about rock's classic late '60s / early '70s era into one incredible band. And an even better live show. Seriously, these guys knock it out of the park every time.

The band have just released a best-of compilation, Golden Greats, which is a fine introduction to the band's catalogue to date (five albums, all doubles) and really showcases what this band does so well. But live is where they make you a believer. TSOOL are promising wildly different setlists for the two shows, and superfans can buy a discounted $35 ticket that gets you into both. These guys love to play, and usually do two-hour sets so... be prepared.

Opening the Le Poisson Rouge show are The Mommyheads ('90s era indie rockers who pop up now and again), and at The Bell House is Montreal's sitar-fueled Elephant Stone (an especially inspired pairing). TSOOL are also on Last Call With Carson Daly tonight (6/2).

That's the main stuff this week. A few more recommended shows, day-by-day, are below

THURSDAY, JUNE 2

Some of you may remember The Barracudas who led the UK surf-rock/garage revival in the early '80s. (If not, there's a video below.) Singer Jeremy Gluck has formed a new line-up of the group and they're playing Union Hall tonight. Don't be confused with Georgia's  Barreracudas on the bill as well. We can only hope they'll hll play together as The Barrarerrarerracudadas.

continued below...

Continue reading "Love Inks, Lovers, Slowdance, Hospitality, Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Barracudas & more in This Week in Indie"