DOWNLOAD: Bright Moments - "Travelers" (MP3)

Bright Moments

Bright Moments is the moniker of Brooklyn, multi-instrumentalist Kelly Pratt, who has lent his talents to Beirut, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Owen Pallett, and others. According to facebook the full band also includes Jon Natchez (of Yellow Ostrich, Beirut, and many other bands), Jared Van Fleet (ex-Voxtrot, Sparrow House), Nikhil Yerawadekar, and Yoshio "Tony Afro" Kobayashi. He released his debut LP, Natives, this past February on Luaka Bop. The album fits in well with the "world music" leanings of the David Byrne-associated Luaka Bop and the orchestrations of his aforementioned collaborators (Beirut and Arcade Fire especially). Grab the album track "Travelers" above or stream it below.

He's got an upcoming NYC show at 92YTribeca on April 28 with Nikhil P. Yerawadekar & Low Mentality. Tickets are on sale now and we're also giving away a pair. Details on how to enter to win tix are below.

Continue reading "Bright Moments (Kelly Pratt & friends) playing 92YTribeca (WIN TIX)"

by Andrew Sacher

Ramesh

Ramesh Srivastava, formerly of Voxtrot who broke up in 2010, is now recording solo material as Ramesh. He's recorded a short 3-song EP aptly titled EP1 which is streaming on his website. The first track, "The King" pretty much picks up where Voxtrot left off with their "Berlin Without Return" b/w "The Dream Lives of Ordinary People" single recorded the year before breaking up. Like those songs, "The King" features Ramesh's earworm vocal melodies backed by simple mid-tempo drums and, catchy lighthearted strings. You can download "The King" for free at RCRDLBL.

The EP takes a complete 180 on the next track, "Romeo (Void)" and delves into polyrhythmic 80's synth-pop with a much less relaxed vocal delivery than Ramesh had been delivering lately. The video for "Romeo (Void)", directed by Elizabeth Skadden (Flaming Lips, No Age), can be watched below. EP1 then shortly ends after a brief instrumental track centered around a melancholic piano piece and accompanying string arrangements.

Ramesh's rather intriguing website is fleshed out with more than just his music. The home page is a paragraph written in large letters that begins, "I wish I could have understood that the hardest part of becoming a man would not be the part where you had to find yourself, but rather the part where you had to lose your center, by walking away from everything that you love." Continue reading. He also has an obscure photo montage that he's titled Head Game.

Ramesh has also posted a podcast of him DJing the Radar Lisboa Radio Show. His set consisted of Nicolas Jaar (who plays Le Poisson Rouge tonight), Mary J. Blige, a demo of one of Ramesh's non-EP tracks "Lux," and others.

The Black

Unfortunately, Ramesh has no tour dates announced at the moment, but his ex-Voxtrot bandmate Jared Van Fleet (Sparrow House) plays Bruar Falls on Saturday (5/28) with The Black, the band in which Voxtrot's Matt Simon plays drums. The Black, currently on tour through June 10th, also play a NYC show at Cake Shop on Sunday (5/29).

(Voxtrot's Jason Chronis also played in The Black briefly, but now only focuses on his JC & Co project. Mitch is keeping busy with International Waters.)

Tour dates and videos below...

Continue reading "Ramesh is back with a website, EP & video +++ The Black are on tour (playing a show w/ Jared Van Fleet)"

The new Skippy-booked, Bowery-associated, Park Slope music venue is selling tickets for (two) shows on Ticketfly.

UPDATE: They just added a bunch more shows to Ticketfly. The current July schedule is listed below...

Continue reading "the Rock Shop is announcing shows, selling advanced tickets "

Actually I have no idea if Jared dropped his solo moniker "Sparrow House", but he is billed at just "Jared Van Fleet" at the show he's playing tonight (12/18) at Sycamore in Brooklyn with Sebastien Schuller (and I wanted the post title to resemble the earlier one about Final Fantasy). Also it's true that he's not in Voxtrot anymore. Also he lives in Brooklyn at the moment.

Speaking of ex-Voxtrot members, YellowFever just came through town. How were those shows? Videos from the Death By Audio one, below...

Continue reading "Jared Van Fleet drops the "Sparrow House" name (and the Voxtrot) (and is playing in Brooklyn TONIGHT)"