photos by Ryan Muir

The Joy Formidable @ Union Hall

"The Joy Formidable is the first band signed to Black Bell Records, the label founded by Passion Pit's synth player/sampler Ayad Al Adhamy. The band will release their Black Bell debut, an eight-song EP titled A Balloon Called Moaning, on May 4.

The EP was recorded in the band's home bedroom studio and was entirely self-produced. The Joy Formidable has sold out multiple UK tours throughout the past year and supported several standout bands including Editors and The Temper Trap. After touring the UK with Passion Pit, the band was invited to join them as the opening act to their shows at New York's Terminal 5. Additionally, the band played two stateside headlining shows at Brooklyn's Union Hall and New York City's Pianos, both of which sold out." -PR

Tickets are on sale NOW for a Monday, May 10th Joy Formidable show at Mercury Lounge in NYC.

The UK band, now on a short tour (all dates below), played Bamboozle on Sunday, a sold out show at Mercury Lounge the night before that, and the Truck America Festival the day before that. Earlier this year, as mentioned above, they visited NYC for some shows including one at Union Hall in Brooklyn with Jaguar Club and Ravens & Chimes. Pictures from that show, with the tour dates, below...

Continue reading "The Joy Formidable played Union Hall (pics), Bamboozle, Truck Fest & Mercury Lounge (where they play again soon - ON SALE)"

David Byrne @ Bowery Ballroom with Dirty Projectors in Novemeber (more)

tonight in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Jim Campilongo @ Living Room
* Rev. Vince Anderson @ Union Pool
* David Byrne (lecture) @ The Bell House
* Uri Caine (seminar series) @ The Stone
* Beachniks, The Surprisers @ Bruar Falls
* Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens @ Joe's Pub
* Les Paul Guitar Tribute w/ Jose Feliciano @ Iridium
* Still Life Still, Hermit Thrushes, Elemeno @ Death By Audio
* The Joy Formidable, The Jaguar Club, Ravens & Chimes @ Union Hall
* Jon Irabagon's One-Song Rollins Tribute Trio, Wowz, CSC Funk Band @Zebulon
* Hazmat Modine, One Ring Zero, Las Rubias Del Norte, The Wingdale Community Singers @ Mercury Lounge

David Byrne has a talk at The Bell House on where he'll "present a short video/audio lecture called 'Creation in Reverse,' speaking to the ways that venue and context shape artistic creation, followed by a Q&A." First come, first served.

Whiplash at UCB tonight features comedians Leo Allen, Eugene Mirman (Delocated), Kumail Nanjiani (Jimmy Kimmel Live), Tony Camin (The Marijuana-Logues), Sean Patton & Max Silvestri (Big Terrific).

If you missed UK band The Joy Formidable open for Passion Pit at Terminal 5, you can catch them tonight at Union Hall (with Ravens & Chimes and The Jaguar Club) and Tuesday at Pianos.

Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, on Daptone Records, are at Joe's Pub tonight. Sharon Jones, also on the label, has a new record on the way.

The regular Monday Les Paul Guitar Tribute at Iridium features guest guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli tonight. For its January 25th edition, Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde joins the band. Tickets on sale Tuesday

Mercury Lounge hosts "Barbès Takes Manhattan!" with music from Hazmat Modine, One Ring Zero, Las Rubias Del Norte and The Wingdale Community Singers.

Tuesday night at Mercury Lounge is the Doveman and friends.

Lightspeed Champion celebrated Elvis's 75th birthday by covering and making a video for "Devil In Disguise". Check it out below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Veils - Killed by the Boom (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Foreign Born - Vacationing People (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Foreign Born - Early Warnings (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Club - Sleepwalking (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hospitality - Betty Wang (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Horse's Ha - The Piss Choir (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Polvo - Beggar's Bowl (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Obits - Two-Headed Coin (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Obits - Pine On (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Blacklist - Flight of the Demoiselles (MP3)

Jarvis Cocker @ MHOW in 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

There is a ton of stuff going on this weekend, but clearly the gig of the week is Jarvis Cocker (who is also on Jimmy Fallon tonight) at Music Hall of Williamsburg (7/30). The last last two years Jarvis held my top spot for Show of the Year and I have no doubt he will deliver tonight as well. He's truly on another plane of existence when it comes to performers. But I'm like a lot of you this year, I didn't buy tickets for Terminal 5 (a venue I'm kind of proud I've never been to) and then kicking yourselves when the show got downgraded to MHoW. It's kind of killing me that I won't be at this show, but luckily there are a lot of other good options.

The Veils

If you are an Anglophile, I think your best bet tonight (7/30) is at Mercury Lounge for The Veils and Foreign Born. Tickets are still available. The Veils' new album, Sun Gangs, is a little more palatable, in my opinion, than 2006's Nux Vomica with singer Finn Andrews' vocals a little more reigned-in and less histrionic, though I realize that was a selling point for some people. (I was more of a fan of the first album, The Runaway Found, than the second album.) The new record is good, for fans of moody, heart-swelling anthemic rock. Check out "Killed by the Boom" at the top of this post. Having seen The Veils play for both previous albums (and both times at Mercury Lounge) I have not doubt that Andrews (son of XTC/Shriekback's Barry Andrews) will give 110%, if only that were possible. He will also likely wear a big hat.

Foreign Born

Foreign Born, meanwhile, are from L.A. but clearly were raised on classic KROQ and the influence of The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and House of Love was an undeniable presence on their 2007 debut, On the Wing Now, of which I was a fan. Their new album, Person to Person, still bears those influences but they've folded them in more delicately with their distinctly American sound so that it's more nuances than nods. (I do still hear a lot of House of Love in the guitars, though.) It's a really good album. They got a boost back in March when Ed Droste gushed about their new record on Grizzly Bear's blog:

I was pretty vocal about my love for their last album On the Wing Now, and this time around it's even better. I gotta say, something about the production of this album is really doing it for me. Crisper sounds, and Matt's voice sounds wonderful. This track "Vacationing People" is a lovely little pop gem, and it's not even scraping the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the album. I hope that you all enjoy the song and check these guys out.

You can download Foreign Born's "Vacationing People" and "Early Warnings" at the top of this post. If you are going, do try and go early and catch locals Jaguar Club who definitely fit well with the night's proceedings. Their debut, And We Wake Up Slowly, is out September 1 and is a nice distillation of various gloomy Brit-rock influences. They're young, still evolving, but worth checking out.

If you can't make Mercury Lounge tonight, both Foreign Born and the Veils are playing on Monday at The Bell House and you can get tickets here.

The Horse's Ha

Another good option tonight (7/30) is at Bruar Falls which has the first Hospitality show since late May, as their bassist pulls double-duty in White Rabbits who were on tour the last two months (and play Saturday at All Points West). I previously wrote in May: "Singer Amber Papini's delicate, airy voice matches so perfectly with her songwriting: jazzy pop that kind of reminds me of '60s chanteuse Claudine Longet or Austin's Yellow Fever. I've yet to see them live but I'm kinda in love with the songs." I've listened to their swoon-worthy CDR EP I don't know how many times since then and was quickly won over when I saw them live. Check out "Betty Wang" at the top of this post and see if you don't feel the same way. They've promised to play a whole bunch of new songs tonight, too.

Also on the Bruar Falls bill are Chicago's The Horse's Ha which is reason enough to go. Primarily a duo of James Elkington of The Zincs (kind of the Windy City's American Analog Set), and Janet Beveridge Bean who has spent time in the great '90s indie rock band Eleventh Dream Day as well as '00s folkies Freakwater. The Horse's Ha are their homage to late-'60s/early '70s Euro-hippy-folk like Fairport Convention and Pentangle, and their voices sound great together on their debut album, Of the Cathmawr Yards, which, like their name, is a Dylan Thomas reference. With a backing band of ace improv-jazz players (Fred Lonberg-Holm, Nick Macri, and Charles Rumback), this should be something. You can download their song "The Piss Choir" at the top of this post.

The Mekons

The Horse's Ha are also playing two more shows this weekend, both of which are opening slots for The Mekons who also call Chicago home these days: Friday at The Bell House and a sold-out show at Mercury Lounge on Saturday. What do you say about the Mekons these days beyond that they are probably the only band from the original punk/post-punk era to rival The Fall on longevity, relevance, line-up changes, and essential output -- the only constant being change. The band are working on their 27th album, recording in Wales, so expect some new tunes at these two gigs: the Bell House show being semi-acoustic, the Mercury Lounge being full electric. Anyone who's seen the Mekons before should know to be prepared for a marathon, booze-soaked performance with a crowd of die-hard hard fans who match the band shot-for-shot, pint-for-pint. It can be a bit much for the uninitiated (or casual fan) but worth the effort. They are legends.

Obits

It's a great double-bill at the Seaport Music Series on Friday: Polvo are in town fresh off their appearance at XX Merge, have just re-signed to the label who will put out In Prism, the band's first album in ten years. You can check out "Beggar's Bowl" from it at the top of this post and if it represents the rest of the album, it definitely sounds like the Polvo I remember: intricate guitar lines, rhythmically complex, shredding indie rock. And Obits have put out one of my favorite rock albums of the year: full of pedal-to-the-metal, cheap trucker's speed style jams. I've seen them twice already this year, and Rick Froberg hasn't lost any snarl. Two downloadable tracks off their I Blame You album at the top of this post.

A complete 180 from Obits are... Modern English. Yes that Modern English, whose classic '80s single "I Melt With You" has been used at least twice in commercials to sell various things with cheese on it over the last 10 years, will be performing at The Studio at Webster Hall on Friday CANCELLED. While that may be the only thing anyone remembers about them, the album that song came from, After the Snow, is actually a really solid platter of goth-tinged pop which, you may not remember, came out on 4AD (home of Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and The Wolfgang Press). It also contains the absolutely brilliant single "Life in the Gladhouse," probably the best thing the band ever did. The two albums that surrounded it (1981's Mesh and Lace and 1984's Ricochet Days) aren't bad either. I have no idea who is in this version of the band -- certainly singer Robbie Grey, probably guitarist Matthew Shipley -- or whether they're any good, but Modern English were more than a one-hit flashback fave.

Blacklist

I wonder if the members of Blacklist wouldn't be watching Modern English if they weren't playing at Cameo on Friday (7/31). Surely they've got a copy of Mesh & Lace in their record collection somewhere. Blacklist's debut, Midnight of the Century, was released this week and would've sounded at home on 4AD or Beggars Banquet in 1984. They've worked out the best bits of '80s goth: killer pumping basslines, effects-drenched guitars, the just-melodramatic-enough singing, and giant anthemic choruses. If you ever liked Sisters of Mercy, The Bolshoi, Death Cult, Xmal Deutschland, you're gonna dig Blacklist. It's pastiche, but it's done to perfection. You can check out "Flight of the Demoiselles" at the top of this post.

The Cameo show also features Austin's loud-as-hell shoegazers Ringo Deathstar who are way better than their name might suggest. Might be a good way to prep your ears for the My Bloody Valentine aural assault that will happen at All Points West on Saturday (7/31).

Justin Ripley

This is a big column this week! And it's almost over. Seattle's Justin Ripley is also in town this weekend. You may remember The Pamonas, the band he had in Lawrence, KS a couple years ago. Since relocating to Seattle, he went on a songwriting binge and has released three downloadable albums this year so far. It's a lot of material, wildly ranging in styles and fidelity, but quality across the tracks is surprisingly high. Plus, he's got power pop at his core and I'm gonna guess that's what you can expect from this weekend's shows, especially with half of the awesome, raucous Rooftop Vigilantes as his backing band. He plays Glasslands on Friday (7/31, with Midnight Masses), the Alphabet Lounge on Saturday (8/1) and Monkeytown on Sunday (8/2).

And finally I would be remiss to not mention All Points West, which is at Liberty State Park this weekend as I'm sure BV readers are already aware. I think it's a better lineup overall than last year (no Jack Johnson) and Saturday and Sunday are both pretty strong, though I'd have to give a slight edge to Sunday, what with Echo & the Bunnymen, Elbow, MGMT, Slilversun Pickups, Mogwai and Lykke Li. (Also La Roux, who I'm curious as to what they're like live.) I am no fan of outdoor festivals, but I had fun last year and am looking forward to this weekend.

Tour Dates and videos after the jump....

Continue reading "The Veils, Foreign Born, Hospitality, Horse's Ha, Mekons, Polvo, Obits, Modern English, Blacklist, Jarvis, Justin Ripley, Ringo Deathstarr, APW & more in in This Week in Indie"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Club - Beat of My Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Club - Who Says We're Last? (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Spanish Prisoners - Los Angeles Guitar Dream EP (Zip)

JEFF the Brotherhood @ Death By Audio (more by Leia Jospe)

Nashville's JEFF the Brotherhood are back in town this weekend and if you missed Jake and Jamin's four-show run at Death by Audio last month you should definitely try to make one of their three area shows: Cake Shop on Friday (5/22), Bruar Falls on Saturday (5/23) or Death by Audio on Tuesday (5/26). They are a serious amount of fun. JEFF just made a video for their song "Bone Jam" which you can watch below.

Along for the ride are their Nashville neighbors Turbo Fruits, fronted by Jonas Stein who was guitarist in Be Your Own Pet. Their self-titled album from 2007 on Ecstatic Peace is a fun slab of grungy, garagey party rock. Since BYOP's dissolution, Turbo Fruits have gone through a couple lineup changes and have signed to Fat Possum, home of WAVVES, Crocodiles, and Andrew Bird. There's a video for their song "Volcano" below.

Spanish Prisoners

Elsewhere this weekend, the Spicy Times party returns to Union Hall with New York locals Jaguar Club, Spanish Prisoners and ECHOecho (who replaced the Shackletons). Most of the press Jaguar Club have gotten make reference to new wave or new-new wave which I think must come from them listing Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths and Talking Heads as influences on their MySpace. Apart from the new romantic singing style of frontman Will Popadic, I don't think there's anything overtly retro about Jaguar Club's sound. They're doing their own thing.

Spanish Prisoners are a band I've been meaning to write about for a while, as I thought their debut, Songs to Forget, was one of the more underrated (and underheard) albums of last year. Part of that was they didn't play all that much, the band kind of imploded with main Prisoner Leo Maymind rebuilding it this year into a new precision touring unit. The first fruits of this is a free download EP, Los Angeles Guitar Dream, which is a bit different than what they've done before but is pretty great, especially the ethereal-yet-dancey title track which you can check out at the top of this post. If you want to learn more about Spanish Prisoners and Jaguar Club, Maymind and Popadic recently interviewed each other and it's a pretty entertaining read.

Kingsbury Manx

Another good Saturday option is this week's Cake Shop 4th Anniversary Awesome Saturdays event. While not the 16-band spectacular that was last Saturday's party, this week features Chapel Hill, NC's The Kingsbury Manx who've been plugging away for nearly a decade now making good album after good album of gentle '60s-ish folk pop, garnering good reviews but not much attention. I would like to think this might change with their new album, Ascenseur Ouvert!, which might be their best yet, with songcraft playing as big a part as mood this time. If you like the current roster of Sub Pop folk (Fleet Foxes, Grand Archives) seek this band out. Also on the Cake Shop bill: fellow Chapel Hill natives (and Odessa Records labelmates) Americans in France; two dreamy artists from Arizona (Stephen Steinbrink and Hell-Kite); NYC-via-NZ's The Mad Scene which features Hamish Kilgour of the Clean, as well as Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo; and local post punks Fan-Tan.

Tour dates for most of the bands mentioned here, and videos after the jump...

Continue reading "JEFF the Brotherhood, Spanish Prisoners (free EP), Turbo Fruits, The Kingsbury Manx & more in This Week in Indie"