photos by Ryan Muir

Seeing Jarvis Cocker makes you realize that almost all other bands are chumps. This is how it's done. This is a show. This is charisma. This is It. You can't take your eyes off him. [Sound Bites]

Jarvis also just played the Pitchfork Festival and he does it again tonight (July 22) @ Terminal 5 (tix). Last night (July 21, 2008) was at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. More pictures and the setlist from that show below...

Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker @ MHOW, Brooklyn, NYC - pics & setlist"

photos by Elizabeth Weinberg

Lessons in how to win over a crowd start now. Hope the guys in Vampire Weekend were in the wings taking notes. Jarvis Cocker is so skinny, his glasses so large, he's practically a caricature of himself. Yet he commands the stage like a pro, a veteran of countless European festivals dating back to his days in Brit-pop giants Pulp. He jumps from glam-rock audacity to blue-eyed-soul sincerity, and sells each song to the far corners of the park. Cocker's no hack. His songs brim with clever wordplay, devastating humor and honesty, and supersized hooks. But he never assumes his audience is just along for the ride. [Chicago Tribune]

That review, and these pictures, are from Jarvis's performance Saturday (July 19, 2008) at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Moving on, Jarvis is now in NYC to play two more American shows. The first is tonight (July 21) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The next is Tuesday at the much larger Terminal 5. Tickets are still available for the latter. More pics below...

Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker played P4K (pics), in NYC tonight & tomorrow"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Sic Alps - Bathman (MP3)

Sic Alps (BullyRook)

Another busy weekend, eh? The Village Voice Siren Festival, now in it's eighth year, is just one of those things you go to, despite massive crowds and the tendency for it to always fall on the hottest, most humid day of the Summer. (Saturday's high is predicted as 90°.) It's a good excuse to visit one of the last seedy places left in New York before it gets its makeover and, for me, a chance to ride the Cyclone and visit my favorite pizzeria in the five boroughs, Totonno's.

Despite falling on the same weekend as the Pitchfork fest in Chicago (and competition from River to River, Summerstage and JellyNYC's Pool Parties), the Siren organizers have put together a good lineup. Hard to really complain about a free show, especially one with Stephen Malkmus, Broken Social Scene, Islands and The Dodos. Also Film School who I don't think get enough credit as good as they are. I'm also curious to see new Matador signees Jaguar Love who I bet will be entertaining even though I find the singer's voice a bit hard to take.

This year's Siren Fest also features an Official Afterparty at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Apes and Androids, A Place to Bury Strangers and Marnie Stern which could upstage the Coney Island show, depending on how all-out A&A go. (And they tend to go all-out.) However, it's not your only good option in Williamsburg on Saturday night (July 19).

At Glasslands on Saturday, there's a pretty killer bill featuring The Crystal Stilts, San Francisco's Girls. I caught the Crystal Stilts at the Charleston last week, and they just get better (and further from the JAMC comparisons) every time. Definitely one of my favorite NYC bands of the moment and their full-length debut is due out later this year on Slumberland. Meanwhile, Girls are fairly new to me but the songs on RCRDLBL are really good fuzzy pop (I'm trying really hard not to use "shoegaze" so much anymore) and even better is the single "Morning Light" to which there's a good video found further down this post. This is the first time in NYC, and they'll be playing four shows total here, including the Stereogum/MyOpenBar show tonight (July 17) at Market Hotel with Quinn Walker and Imaad Waasif.

Also visiting this weekend from San Francisco (and also a two-piece) are Sic Alps whose fourth album, U.S. EZ, was just released this week. If you're unfamiliar with them, it's sort of '60s psychedelic rock/pop/folk with some '90s indie rock int there too. As much as I like the new album (check out "Bathman" at the top of this post), the best place to start is with A Long Way Around to a Shortcut, which collects a handful of singles and EPs the band have released over the last couple years. Sic Alps play Death by Audio on Saturday (7/19, with Cause Co-Motion and others) and Union Pool on Sunday (7/20). As DBA and Glasslands are literally right around the corner from each other, it might be possible to hit the key bands at both shows if set times allow.

continued below.....

Continue reading "Sic Alps, Siren, Jarvis, Girls, Cheeseburger and more in This Week in Indie"

Tickets are on sale (@ 12) for the upcoming Jarvis Cocker shows at Terminal 5 & Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Jarvis Cocker has explained that he plans to release a new studio album in 2008, and has revealed the names of two tracks set for the record.

Speaking to NME.COM, the ex-Pulp singer said that he had two new songs written - 'Girls Like It Too' and 'The Usual' - and hoped to have enough material to record the follow-up to his 2006 solo debut 'Jarvis' soon.

"I've got vague ideas," he said of the forthcoming LP. "I'd like to do another [album] before the end of the year."

Cocker explained that 'Girls Like It Too' was, as its title suggests, about how females enjoy sex as well as men. "Which boys sometimes forget," said the singer.

Jarvis is visiting America again in July. He'll play the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 19th and then make his way down to NYC to play shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Terminal 5. Tickets for the NYC shows go on sale Friday. All dates below.....

Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker - 2 NYC shows, Pitchfork Festival, new album"

Mika and not-Beth Ditto @ The Orpheum - Feb 15, 2008 (Consumable Audio)

Next another video from the Brits last night (with Beth).....

Continue reading "Beth Ditto & Mika VS Beth Ditto & Jarvis Cocker (videos)"

DOWNLOAD: Jarvis Cocker - Rats (MP3) (info) (via)

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker played his first of two solo shows at Webster Hall in NYC last night. How was it? Who opened? It surely wasn't The Long Blondes or Little Man Tate. Any duets with Beth Ditto?

Jarvis Cocker @ Webster Hall, NYC - April; 22, 2007 (CRED)

In other news, Blur frontman Damon Albarn says 'no more Gorillaz albums'.

The Blur singer said that the only project left for the cartoon band will be a film featuring a score composition, that has previously been linked to filmmaker and Monty Python mastermind Terry Gilliam.

Damon's other band The Good The Bad and The Queen played Webster Hall back in March. Jarvis and Damon are both playing Coachella later this week.