by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jeffrey Lewis - Cult Boyfriend (MP3)

Jeffrey Lewis' new album, A Turn in the Dream-Songs, came out a few weeks ago and the East Village mainstay is about to head out on tour for it, one that concludes November 25 at Mercury Lounge (with Diane Cluck). That's the day after Thanksgiving, and a good reason to get your butt off the couch. All 2011 dates are below.

A Turn in the Dream-Songs is another fine example of Lewis' witty, thoughtful, boho worldview. For a taste, download single "Cult Boyfriend" at the top of this post. With lines like "When you're a cult boyfriend life is always intense/They're in love or they're indifferent, no one's on the fence" and references to WFMU and Meet the Feebles, this is pretty much an instant classic. (I bet JL superfan Eddie Argos wishes he wrote this one.) The whole record is pretty great and features appearances by members of The Wave Pictures, Au Revoir Simone, Schwervon, Dr. Dog and The Vaselines.

His songs are all the more charming live though. Anyone who's seen him live knows Lewis does "documentaries," which pairs his conversational folk with his comic illustrations, covering such topics as the Fall of the Roman Empire, The Fall (as in the band) and the history of Rough Trade Records (his current label). The History Channel, as briefly mentioned before, commissioned a series of these, including one on Sitting Bull which won a Webby for Best Writing.

A couple of those videos, plus tour dates and cover art (by Lewis) to the new album, are below.

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis released a new album, going on tour, is working with The History Channel"

Dan Deacon @ FYF Fest 2011 (more by Nathanael Turner)

Jeffrey Lewis, Lady Lamb The Beekeeper, and Emperor X play a show that starts at 8pm at Maxwell's in Hoboken tonight (9/21). Dan Deacon then takes over the club for a late Wednesday night show that starts at 11pm. It's a one-off for Dan who will hit the road proper in late October, playing both solo and Wham City comedy shows through 11/19, and then again for a few days at the beginning of December.

The "Wham City Comedy Tour 2011" hits 285 Kent in Brooklyn on 11/18, right before the tour ends back in Baltimore. What is the Wham City Comedy Tour? Well, "Their two-hour bat-shit variety show covers experimental theater, performance art, video, and stand-up." You might have caught it when it came to NYC in 2010. Video trailer (and dates) below.

Last week Dan reissued some stuff...

Deacon dug into the vaults and reissued two of his early LPs, Meetle Mice and Silly Hat Vs. Eagle Hat, on double LP via Carpark Records on Sept. 13. Also, limited cassette versions of Meetle, Silly as well as Spiderman of the Rings and Bromst will be issued and made available at shows and on the Carpark online shop. In October, Carpark will also reissue Spiderman of the Rings on LP

Continue reading "Dan Deacon is here, announces fall solo & comedy tours"

DOWNLOAD: Art Brut - "Lost Weekend" (MP3)

Eddie of Art Brut serenades Webster Hall (more by Brook Bobbins)

Dearest Internet

In glorious celebration of the imminent release of Art Brut's 'Brilliant! Tragic!', a rag tag group of comic book magicians have come together for an exclusive project. Each one of the shining ten album tracks has been given to ten artists to interpret as they see fit. The result? Comic book masterwork. Plus, no comic would be complete without a letters' page. Fancy submitting a question to me, your editor in chief, Barnaby Fudge? It can be a letter about anything Art Brut related. I will answer your every whim and desire. Get it in either through Chez Argos or direct to source at delightfullyfudge@gmail.com. You can find the complete list of artists here, including Bryan Lee O'Malley, Hope Larson, Jamie McKelvie and Jeffrey Lewis. Going to print soon, for all you geeks out there, this is a pretty exciting one.

Don't forget to get your letters into me. Forcible or otherwise.

Your editorialy

Barnaby Fudge

The Black Francis-produced LP is available now and can currently be purchased on Amazon in CD format for 25 cents less than the MP3 download. Check out the song "Lost Weekend" from the album downloadable above and in video form, along with updated dates (and some European Jeff Lewis dates too), below...

Continue reading "Art Brt Brut released 'Brilliant! Tragic!', making a comic book, added more tour dates"

Jeffrey Lewis at Mercury Lounge, 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard are currently on the road, and about to pull the van into Vassar College in Poughkeepsie to play a show tonight (4/7). The Vassar date marks the second to last show on a short (over a week) tour that will terminate in NYC Friday (4/8) at Silent Barn with The Beets, El-G & Preston Spurlock.

The Silent Barn show must be a late one though because Jeff will also be performing earlier on Friday at a MoCCA 2011 Pre-Party with Peter Stampfel at SUTRA Lounge (16 1st Avenue). $5 cover (donation to The Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art) (they play that one at 7:30pm sharp).

Starting Saturday, 4/9, Jeff will spend two days at the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art's Festival at Lexington Armory (68 Lexington Avenue between 25th & 26th St).

MoCCA Fest is an annual two-day event attracting thousands of comic art lovers and creators from around the globe to celebrate the world's most popular art form in the heart of New York City. It is an annual fundraiser for the Museum.

Since 2002, MoCCA Fest has offered a unique venue to experience comics, mini-comics, web comics, graphic novels, animation, posters, prints, original artwork, and more. In addition to the hundreds of creators who exhibit, the Festival hosts dozens of established and emerging creators, scholars, and other experts who participate in two days of lecture/discussion panels on a variety of comics and cartoon topics.

Jeffrey Lewis's last LP was a collaborative effort between him and Peter Stampfel. The Come On Board LP, which dropped on Jan 1, is out now on digital/CD via Bandcamp and is streaming with stuff below..

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis on tour, playing 2 shows Friday, setting up @ Cartoon & Comic Art Fest all weekend"

Gary Lucas (who played a show at SXSW last night), in association with the estate of Jeff Buckley, is curating a Jeff Buckley tribute event this Friday (3/18) at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Performers include Gary Lucas, Jeffrey Lewis, Haydée Milanés, Damon Daunno, Alessio Franchini, Diana Silveira, Nicholas James, Mossa Bildner, Fay Victor, Jann Klose, Pete Pidgeon, Felice Rosser & Faith, Danielle De Luca, Villa Delirium, Marianne Nowottny, Kevin McWha Steele, and Lynda McLaughlin. The event is to benefit Road Recovery, and tickets are on sale.

Continue reading "Gary Lucas-curated Jeff Buckley tribute this Friday"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

The [Dr. Dog] show started in an almost cult-like environment as the stage was adorned with abstract stain glass art that emitted a strange yet awe-inspiring light. As the band entered the stage, tribal hymns were piped through the sound system and the crowd greeted them with deafening applause. I felt as though I was entering the Temple of Dr. Dog and was about to take part in a right of passage or ritual into the band's world. The opening note was the monotone ring of Miller's organ as McMicken cried out the first line of "I Only Wear Blue," one of the more memorable tracks off the new record. It only got better from that point as Dr. Dog pleased the crowd with songs off all their records. The set featured a great balance of slower songs ("I Only Wear Blue," "Shadow People," and "The Breeze") and fast jams ("The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer," "Stranger," and "Mirror Mirror") that kept the entire venue swaying and jumping the entire night. Some memorable tunes were the band's cover of Architecture in Helsinki's "Heart It Races" (complete with an interpretive dance performance by a friend of the band), "The Ark," and "The Beach." -[Philadelphia City Paper]

Phantogram was originally scheduled to be on board for the Terminal 5 date, but were replaced by Jeffrey Lewis following a family emergency.

If you missed the show on Friday, The Head & The Heart are teaming with Daniel Wayne to play Maxwell's TONIGHT (2/21). Tickets are still on sale.

Dr. Dog recently released a video of "I Only Wear Blue" made with compiled tour footage. Check that video out, as well as more NYC pictures and the T5 setlist below...

Continue reading "Dr. Dog played Terminal 5 w/ The Head & The Heart & Jeffrey Lewis (pics & setlist)"

Phantogram at MHoW (more by Jessica Amaya)

"NYC fans, we're very sad to announce that we've had a family emergency and have to cancel the T5 show w/ Dr Dog this Fri, 2/18. We can't offer refunds, unfortunately, but please go enjoy the amazing Dr. Dog w/out us, and email phantogramterminal5@gmail.com tell us how it went. We'll work on something special for you, and you'll be the 1st to know about our next NYC show." - Phantogram

Recent Sub Pop-signees The Head and the Heart are on tour with Dr. Dog, are playing Terminal 5 still, and have added their own NYC-area show at Maxwell's on 2/21. Daniel Wayne opens and tickets are on sale. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis replaces Phantogram on Dr. Dog show, The Head and the Heart playing Maxwell's & other shows"

by Rachel Kowal

"Thank you so much for coming here," Jeffrey Lewis began after a lively sound check and some introductions. "We realized that in Googling 'Shea Stadium,' you had options for other places you could have ended up. Those of you who made it here, we'll do our best to make it the best Shea Stadium you could be at this evening." (Unfortunately, I didn't make it out earlier to catch much of the opening acts: John Kessel and Lail Arad though the two songs I did hear from the British songstress were charming.)

Tuesday night's show marked the release of Jeffrey Lewis and legendary folk musician Peter Stampfel's second album together. The two met some seven years ago at Ed Sanders' 65th birthday party at the Bowery Poetry Club and have collaborated from time to time since then.

Thanks to his zany banter, vivid recollection of the scene in the 60s and 70s, and bizarre and impressive discography, Stampfel is quite a force to behold. His songs range from more traditional folk/blues numbers to utterly ridiculous songs like "Stick Your Ass in the Air," which he apparently wrote and recorded with his daughter. "I love dance music," Stampfel said by way of explaining the song. "Dance music is super... etcetera, but a lot of dance music is really dumb [...] there were way too many hands in the air. All hands and not enough asses."

As the evening went on, Stampfel continued to open up and revealed some of his recent projects. Apparently, he has also been working on recording a popular (but often forgotten) song for every year in the twentieth century. After whistling the chosen ditty from 1904, he and the band played the rambunctious, rollicking song "Heart Made of Stone" from 1955. In addition to the period pieces, Stampfel and Lewis reworked a number of traditional folk songs in irreverent, but entertaining ways (Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" became "Devil in the Ground").

Interspersed throughout the set were a series of "films" (now available on the History Chanel website!), featuring Lewis' hand-drawn illustrations of historical events that are then set to songs with explanatory lyrics. This time, we learned about Marco Polo, The Renaissance, and the colorful history of bottle caps, featuring some of Stampfel's favorites, scanned especially for the occasion from his personal collection of more than 12,000.

When Lewis sings, "They love me or they hate me. No one's on the fence," he might be talking about potential lovers, but the line (from the song "Cult Boyfriend") is indicative of the general public's response to his music. Add Sampfel to the mix, and these two groups (the fans and the haters) become even more distinct.

But there's a silver lining to this schism. Because Lewis' music is so polarizing, his shows are rarely populated by a disinterested or ambivalent crowd, and this was no exception. Instead of being put-off by the many oddities and quirks of the performance, the small, convivial crowd openly laughed along with Lewis and Stampfel's stage antics and were more than willing to participate in impromptu sing-a-longs and history lessons - a goofy sing-a-long one minute, an educational cartoon the next. Love it or hate it, it doesn't seem to matter much to Lewis.

--

Jeffrey, who not that long ago headlined his own show at Bowery Ballroom, plays his next NYC show, again with Peter, at the tiny Pete's Candy Store on 2/22. They also have a Philly show scheduled. The Shea Stadium setlist is below...

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel played Shea Stadium"

videos by eyelidsflutter

Jeff & Peter @ Cake Shop

If you missed them at Cake Shop in January, here's your next chance::

Tuesday, February 15, Brooklyn NYC - Jeffrey Lewis/Peter Stampfel album release show at Shea Stadium in Bushwick! With Lail Arad (from London, has played UK and Israel w/ Jeffrey).

Shea Stadium is in Bushwick at 20 Meadow St, near the Grand St station of the L train. SIX bux admission, ALL-AGES (21+ to drink), and BYOB if you wanna. This is the album release show for Come On Board, the new Stampfel/Lewis collaboration album... the last Stampfel/Lewis NYC show (at Cakeshop last month) was totally sold out, too bad the album wasn't back from the plant yet... sob! But now the Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band is back home from tour, with albums and comic books and bottle cap slideshows etc.

8 pm = doors
8:30 = John Kessel
9 pm = Lail Arad
9:30 = The Jeffrey Lewis/Peter Stampfel 6-Piece Band, featuring: Anders Griffen! Spencer Chakedis! John Kessel! And Dave Beauchamp!

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel played Cake Shop (videos), playing more shows (including @ Shea Stadium tonight)"

One of anti-folk's most talented stars, Jeffrey Lewis, has teamed up with folk legend Peter Stampfel of The Holy Modal Rounders (and the Fugs) for a new LP entitled Come On Board (I'm not sure of the release date). The two will also be playing shows together, including a January European tour, but first you can catch them at Cake Shop in NYC TONIGHT (1/10) with Dufus frontman Seth Faergolzia who didn't stay away long. "Dufus" played their final show at the same venue in September, but I guess Seth hasn't technically retired.

A video of Jeff and Peter playing together at the January 2010 Tuli Kupferberg benefit at St. Ann's Warehouse, below...

Continue reading "Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel releasing an LP, playing shows (Cake Shop tonight with not-Dufus)"

by Andrew Sacher

The Vaselines @ a UK gig in September (photo by Dani Canto)

The Vaselines are back, they still sound great, and if naming their new album Sex With An X didn't give it away, they're just as sexual as ever. Songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee are now joined on stage by Stevie Jackson and Bobby Kildea of Belle & Sebastian and Michael McGaughrin of the 1990s (the band). McKee prefaced her introduction of the new band members with, "Just so you know what they're called...in case you wanted to slack them off later." This was just one of her bawdy jokes, which played almost as important of a role in the set as the songs themselves.

The set at Webster Hall Wednesday night (10/6) was a good mix of classic Vaselines songs and songs off the new album, which, although released 20 years after their debut full length, picks up right where The Vaselines left off. There was such a high amount of energy on stage throughout the entire show, and the band didn't miss a single beat. They played through fan favorites like "Son of a Gun" and "Rory Rides Me Raw" just as powerfully as the new tracks. During "Molly's Lips," McKee invited opener Jeffrey Lewis and his drummer on stage to dance and play the bicycle horn.

After about an hour of playing, Kelly and McKee announced they had one song left, and ended the show with "Dying For It" which resulted in multiple audience members tossing their beers into the air and breaking out into a push pit. The Vaselines then left the stage, only to return momentarily in response to the audience's cheers for an encore. They opened the encore with their cover of Divine's "You Think You're a Man" and then ended with "Dum Dum," leaving the crowd seeming extremely satisfied (other than ignoring multiple cries to play "Sex Sux").

Both The Vaselines and Belle & Sebastian (whose NYC show was at Williamsburg Waterfront) are now on intersecting tours. Jeffrey Lewis opens for the Vaselines until October 16th.

"Jeffrey Lewis, who opened the show, also keeps his music simple, strumming a few chords on a guitar that may well be held together by the stickers covering its front, and leading a band that piles on a cheerful clutter. But he's a clever, articulate wordslinger, coming up with rhetorical conceits -- one song, "Cult Boyfriend," compared his romantic appeal to that of cult bands and films -- and putting in a lot of preparation.

He's also a comics artist, and his set included two short films -- essentially slide shows of his elaborate drawings -- that were finely reasoned histories, in rhyme, of the Soviet Union and the French Revolution, affirming populism through primitivism." [NY Times]

Continue reading "The Vaselines played Webster Hall, on tour now "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Teenage Fanclub - Baby Lee (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Vaselines - I Hate the '80s (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Vaselines - Sex with an Ex (MP3)

Like veteran indie bands from Glasgow? Want to see them live for free? Read on.

If the $50 price tag of this Thursday's (9/30) Belle and Sebastian show with Teenage Fanclub at the Williamsburg Waterfront has been scaring you off, we're giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Details below.

We're also giving away THREE pairs of tickets to tomorrow night's (9/28)  Teenage Fanclub/The Clean show at Bowery Ballroom. Details below.

Wait there's more. We're also giving away TWO pairs of tickets to see The Vaselines on October 6 at Webster Hall.  Details below.

The waterfront show on Thursday is the kickoff to Belle and Sebastian's tour. Fellow Glaswegians Teenage Fanclub are opening. Tickets are still available. Let's hope the current rainy forceast changes by then. The band also performs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (9/29) night. After the Waterfront show, the band head's to Las Vegas for this weekend's Matador 21 extravaganza, make a short detour into Mexico, and will then backtrack east across North America.

The band's eighth album, Write About Love, will be out October 12 and is Belle & Sebastian's first in nearly five years. A decade and a half into their career, you pretty much know what to expect from Stuart Murdoch, Stevie Jackson and the rest of the band, but since 2001's Dear Catastrophe Waitress the group's quality control has been pretty high. (2006's The Life Pursuit was especially good I thought.) Write About Love is another lovely record in the band's cannon. The vinyl comes with a bonus 7" containing two songs not on the album.

There are a couple of surprising guest vocalists.  Carey Mulligan, Oscar-nominated star of An Education, sings on the album's title track (which you can download for free via a widget at the bottom of this post), and Norah Jones features on "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John."

The band have taken some interesting routes promoting the new album. Earlier this year they encouraged fans to take pictures with the album's title incorporated into the shot, creating a Flickr pool for the project. Murdoch included his favorites in an entertaining half-hour "television" program (not sure if it aired anywhere but online) that is a mix of live performance, audience Q&A, and a discussion of the current state of the music industry. In a cute, charming way, of course. You can watch it below.

It is also worth noting that Belle and Sebastian have some really impressive openers along the way, including The Vaselines (Mexico dates), Versus in Washington D.C., Dean & Britta doing the Galaxie 500 thing in Boston, and Trashcan Sinatras in Seattle. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

Teenage Fanclub, who open the Waterfront show, have two headlining shows of their own -- tonight (9/27) and tomorrow (9/28) -- at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still available for both (click the links). Tomorrow's show is the more desirable of the two, with New Zealand indie rock legends The Clean as co-headliners. Merge labelmates The Radar Brother open both shows other dates on the tour.

If you somehow got this far into this post without reading it, we're giving away tickets to the show tomorrow with the Clean. See details below.

Teenage Fanclub's new album on Merge, Shadows, is the band's seventh. Like what I said about Belle and Sebastian above, you know what you're getting with a new TFC album at this point (midtempo, harmony-laden guitar pop indebted to Big Star and The Byrds) but the band has remained amazingly consistent during their 20-year history. It doesn't hurt that they have three very good songwriters in the band. (Though we can all agree Gerry Love is the best, right? No? Your mileage may vary.)  You can stream the whole thing over at Merge's website. And they have always been good live, funny too.

Teenage Fanclub's North American tour with The Radar Brothers takes them across the continent, ending in Vancouver on October 16. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

One of the TFC dates is opening for The Vaselines in DC on Saturday (10/2). That's where the Vaselines are launching their own North American tour. Will there be any musicians over the age of 37 actually in Glasgow next week? The Vaselines tour hits NYC next week when they play Webster Hall on Wednesday, October 6 with openers Jeffrey Lewis and Crystal Stilts. If you haven't heard The Vaselines' new album Sex with an Ex, it picks right up where the band left off 20 years ago: smart, funny, filthy, and catchy as hell. And still genuinely great live.

All tour dates for Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines are below, along with videos, contest details, widgets and whatnot.

Continue reading "Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub & the Vaselines launching tours w/ new albums (WIN TICKETS, get MP3s, dates & stuff) "

DOWNLOAD: Fang Island - Life Coach (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fang Island - Daisy (MP3)

Fang Island and Dan Deacon are no longer sharing a bill at Cake Shop on Saturday, May 29th, one of the gigs that's a part of the venue's five-year celebration. That's because Dan Deacon's show has been moved up two nights to Thursday, May 27th, when he'll play with Eternal Summers, Big Troubles and Dustin Wong. (Dan also jams out in Red Hook Park on Tuesday, June 15th.)

Fang Island will instead be performing with Philly garage four-piece Univox on May 29th.

The Bundles' Cake Shop show earlier in the month ended up happening, but with the group playing as a trio comprised of Jeff and Jack Lewis and Anders Griffen (so, without Kimya Dawson and Karl Blau). A note Jeff sent us about the show, and the surprise one they played right after it at Sidewalk Cafe, is posted below.

Then, to close out the month-long celebration, on May 31st, Moonmen On The Moon, Man (the Cake Shop house band basically) will "play five times for five years," including a "1,825 song set, to represent every day of Cake Shop's last five years of live music." A video of that band playing the venue's third birthday, more details on the show, and other dates below...

Continue reading "The Bundles played as a trio, Dan Deacon date changed, Moonmen playing 1825 songs & other Cake Shop news"

The Luyas @ MHOW in April (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

tonight in NYC
* High Violet Annex (see below)
* Effi Briest @ Union Pool
* Blank Dogs @ Home Sweet Home
* Iggy Pop @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Clare & The Reasons @ Joe's Pub
* Elliot Brood, Jonny Corndawg @ Pianos
* TBA, Only Son, Ching Chong Song @ Cake Shop (see below)
* Heavenly Beat, Attics, Red Romans @ Bruar Falls
* Dick Heaven, James Pobiega, Jeff Halen @ Zebulon
* Cold Heat, Rahzel Sadat, X Craig G, Torae, Poison Pen @ SOB's
* Massive Attack, Neon Indian, Martina Topley Bird @ Terminal 5
* Two Door Cinema Club, Bad Veins, MillionYoung @ Bowery Ballroom
* Hot Hot Heat, The Stationary Set, Paige Whitcher @ Public Assembly
* Leatherface, Ninja Gun, Two Man Advantage, Iron Chic @ Knitting Factory
* Steve Moore, itsnotyouitsme (Joshua Light Show Fest) @ Abrons Art Center
* Venom P. Stinger, Fresh Kills, Violent Bullshit, Golden Error @ Shea Stadium
* Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now!, Murder Mystery, Blackbells, Phil and the Osophers @ Mercury Lounge

Joshua Light Show's four-night fest at Abrons Art Center kicks off tonight, and has Silver Apples, Oneida, Dean & Britta and more coming up.

Tonight at the National's High Violent Annex

LIVE sets by:
6:05 - INLETS
6:25 - ZACHARY CALE
6:45 - HELADO NEGRO
7:05 - JULIANNA BARWICK
7:25 - THE LUYAS
7:45 - TALK NORMAL
8:05 - ARLT
8:25 - MARTHA WAINWRIGHT

Unfortunately Leatherface never made it into the country.

Venom P Stinger back together again, warm up for an ATP UK gig in NYC tonight.

Clare & the Reasons play their own show at Joe's Pub tonight. They tour the US with Van Dyke Parks in September. Tickets are on sale for the NYC show at the Bell House.

Tonight's PiL concert will be streaming from DC at NPR.

Blank Dogs reports that, "This and Pendu NYE&E are our last NYC shows or a while. Ok?" He plays the Wierd Records party at Home Sweet Home tonight.

The new video for Memoryhouse's "Lately (Deuxieme)," which cops a sample from Jon Brion's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, is posted below (along with a Jay Electronica song that does the same and the original).

Jonsi performed on Craig Ferguson last night. Video below....

MGMT was on Letterman. Videos below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

The Bundles

Like Dan Deacon, a band called the Bundles are playing the Cake Shop anniversary celebrations this month. Their show is on Wednesday, May 12th.

The Bundles are fronted by the anti-folk dream-team of Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson, and include drummer Anders Griffen, Jack Lewis (Jeff's brother and band-mate) and K Recs' Karl Blau. Their debut self-titled record came out on K Records in April.

Also on the Cake Shop bill are the controversially-named Sidewalk Cafe staples Ching Chong Song and Only Son (ex-Moldy Peaches guitarist Jack Dishel), as well as a mysterious "Secret Guest". Who could that be? Well, two members of the Moldy Peaches are listed on the bill already, Kimya headlining would sort of be a bigger deal than her new band, Moldy Peach Adam Green is sort of big (he just did two nights at Bowery), so my guesses are:

1) Moldy Peaches (seems unlikely though right?)
2) Kimya Dawson (but why be secret when you're already on the bill?)
3) Adam Green (bigger, but does he need to be a secret?)
4) Beck (just kidding)
5) Regina Spektor

hey guys, andy cakeshop here...just so theres no confusion, its not adam green.. i was throwing the idea around with his management, but it was really just an idea. the bills really strong on its own, and i should really take off the 'secret guest' thing, its been a weird week and sorry it got to this level. jeff and kimya need to play at 8 to make it to a prior commitment...anyway we're working on something cool for the 11pm, but as of yet, truthfully, its not booked! sorry for the mixup &
thanks everyone.
love, andy

Before then, Jeff Lewis plays Happy Ending Music Series at Joe's Pub tonight (5/5). Tickets are available.

The Bundles tour the UK and Europe later in May. Those dates and videos are below...

Continue reading "anti-folk supergroup The Bundles (Kimya, Jeff Lewis, etc) have an album, playing Cake Shop w/ SECRET GUEST & other dates"

by Andrew Frisicano

Bushwick Book Club, the series that challenges songwriters to tackle a new literary subject each month at Goodbye Blue Monday, will be hosting a double-bill of sorts on Tuesday, April 6th (tonight). The usual themed event will be happening and will focus on songs about Dolly Parton's memoir My Life And Other Unfinished Business. Performers include Major Matt Mason, Franz Nicolay (via Skype), Maria Sonevytsky, Susan Hwang, Sarah Pappalardo, I Feel Awesome, DanyJulieyDany, Angela Carlucci, Matthew Varvil and Joe Crow Ryan.

The second part of the evening is that the show is also a release party for The Bushwick Book Club, Volume 1: 2009, a 58-song MP3 CD of songs from the first year of the Book Club by Franz Nicolay, Corn Mo, Jeffrey Lewis, Phoebe Kreutz and more. A fuller list with a bigger version of the artwork by Jeffrey Lewis, below.

Six of the 58 (including Franz's Watchmen-themed song) are streaming on the Book Club's Myspace.

The reading assignments for 2010 and a list of more artists that appear on the CD, below...

Continue reading "Bushwick Book Club releasing a CD, hosting more shows "

Winter Antifolk Festival is happening at Sidewalk Cafe (94 Ave A) through February 26th. It kicked off last night (2/15) with an open mike, and gets into the schedule proper Tuesday with sets from Larkin Grimm, Jeffrey Lewis (solo) and others. The full festival schedule (with songwriters like Phoebe Kreutz, Lach, The Pendulum Swings feat. Jason Trachtenburg, Dufus, Franz Nicolay associates The Debutante Hour, The Wowz, Toby Goodshank and many more) is below.

For Dufus (aka Seth Faergolzia), his February 24th festival appearance is his first of five upcoming shows at the East Village venue. He'll be in residency there in March which is the same month he has a residency at Boulder Coffee Co. in Rochester. All of his dates and a video are below too...

Continue reading "Winter Antifolk Festival 2010 through Feb 26 - Dufus, Jeff Lewis, Larkin Grimm, Jason Trachtenburg, Phoebe Kreutz..."

DOWNLOAD: Hesta Prynn, Can We Go Wrong (MP3)

The Walkmen @ the Guggenheim in 2009 (more by Kurt Christensen)

today in NYC
* Paul Dianno @ BB King's
* The Necks @ Issue Project Room
* Hesta Prynn, Workout, Sally Head @ Pianos
* Daniel Higgs, Stellar Om Source @ Maxwell's
* Darius Jones' Elizabeth-Caroline Unit @ Roulette
* Kevin Devine and The Goddamn Band @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Jessica 6, Yes Giantess, Body Language, Brahms @ Santos Party House
* Bear in Heaven, Oh No Ono, ArpLine, The Jaguar Club @ Mercury Lounge
* The Holy Experiment, Skeletons, Mirrorgate, Nude Photo @ Glasslands
* Wild Yaks, Steel Phantoms, I'm In You, Ball of Flame Shoot Fire @ Union Hall
* Haiti Benefit w/ Breakfast In Fur, No Eye Contact, El Medio, Drew Citron @ Bruar
* Private Income, White Hills, Romanian Buck, Cheryl or Sheryl? @ Knitting Factory
* Hal Willner's I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues? Music and Readings from A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, featuring Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Van Dyke Parks, and more @ The Allen Room
* Haiti Benefit w/ The Walkmen, Ted Leo, The Wrens, Freelance Whales, Sondre Lerche, A.C. Newman, Rhett Miller, Nicole Atkins, Here We Go Magic, Lauren Ambrose and The Leisure Class, The Blow, Senator Diane Savino, Jimmy Fallon, Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman @ The Bell House

Skeletons play a benefit at Glasslands for show space ParisLondonWestNile with Mirrorgate, Nude Photo and Holy Experiment (flyer below). They play with Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog at LPR on February 2nd. Then they're at Zebulon for a BAM Sounds Like Brooklyn show with Up Died Sound.

Hesta Prynn of Northern State has gone solo. She plays a show at Pianos tonight. MP3 from her forthecoming album above.

Cale Parks has stopped going solo and is now in a trio called Brahms (who already opened for Passion Pit at Terminal 5). They plays Santos Party House tonight with Jessica 6 featuring Nomi who some thing of as the frontperson for Hercules & Love Affair.

Tonight may be the first public appearance Rufus Wainwright makes since the very recent death of his mother.

Solange Knowles helped Of Montreal cover the Jackson 5 at Highline Ballroom last night. Video below...

Beach House played The Bell House last night. Video of them playing "Norway" at SXSW 2009 below...

Jeffrey Lewis read/sang "the And song" at the recent Tuli Kupferberg Benefit St. Ann's Warehouse. Video below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

Grant Hart

Blurt: Do you ever feel like your contributions to Husker Du are overlooked?

Grant Hart: This isn't thrown out as a condemnation of Bob, but I think that my fans know my material better than a lot of Bob's fans know his material. The reason I say that is every time I've gone to see a Bob Mould concert, someone has yelled out the name of one of my songs. When I'm out touring, I maybe hear that one out of five concerts.

The last couple of years of Husker Du proved this, but the larger your audience is the more dumb elements it's going to encompass. Bob's fans who never heard Husker Du, but heard Sugar first have more of a "Grant sucks" kind of attitude. I think with the popularity of Copper Blue, Bob ended up with a bunch of cowboys for listeners. If Bob and I were as competitive as our fans are, we would have never gotten past Land Speed Record.

Blank Dogs makes a semi-rare appearance tonight Death By Audio IS CANCELLED DUE TO BLIZZARD.

TONIGHT @ THE STUDIO @ WEBSTER HALL

The legendary L.A. punk label released Go Man Go, KELLY's solo debut in 1989. Founded by seminal punk band Black Flag, SST was also home to such alternative icons as Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr. and Sound Garden as well as fellow Antifolk founder Roger Manning. The project was produced by the Violent Femmes' Brian Ritchie and fast on the heels of releases by Cindy Lee Berryhill (Rhino), Michelle Shocked (Mercury) and Manning, established Antifolk as a national underground phenomenon.

With performances by: Roger Manning, The Folk Bros., John S. Hall, Erin Regan, Kirk Kelly, Debe Dalton, Lach, Mike Rimbaud, John Kruth, Jeffrey Lewis, Joe Hurley, Jason Trachtenburg and Paddy on the Railway.

What else?

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

photos by Bryan Bruchman

After an exhausting CMJ full of shows including the BV party at Pianos on Thursday (10/22), Surfer Blood are back as part a tour that keeps them on the road for the next month. They open shows for both Art Brut and Japandroids along the way. The Florida band is one of two openers for Art Brut at Brooklyn Bowl tonight (11/13). The other is Midnight Masses.

Right before CMJ it was announced that Surfer Blood signed to Kanine Records. The Brooklyn label will release their album Astro Coast on January 19, 2010. Art Brut also plays Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (11/15), but the openers on that show are Jeffrey Lewis and Murder Mystery.

All Surfer Blood dates and more pictures from Pianos below...

Continue reading "Surfer Blood touring - NYC tonight w/ Art Brut ++ Pianos pics "

Shilpa Ray @ Knitting Factory in September (Edwina Hay)

Dates and details below....

Continue reading "Welcome home Jeffrey Lewis tonight @ Glasslands w/ Shilpa Ray (one of three upcoming shows for her) "

photos by Tim Griffin

Dr. Dog has signed to Anti-Records (home of Os Mutantes), which will release the band's fifth record in early 2010. What does Dr. Dog guitarist-vocalist Scott McMicken have to say about that?

"Each album we've made was the best one we could have made at the time and I don't have any regrets," McMicken says. "But something has changed. We've never really recorded as a band before. We started as a recording project but over the years we've become a real band. We tour all the time and we have this certain place we fall into. And I think we're ready to use that as a reference point now"

Bethlehem Musikfest is a music festival that runs from July 31st to August 9th and consists of more than 300 performances, most of which are free (Dr. Dog on August 3rd included). Pay shows at the fest include a stop on the Pat Benatar/Blondie/The Donnas tour (which has a free Coney Island show on August 13th) and a show with the B-52s (also playing NYC) and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

Dr. Dog's last NYC show was also a free one. It took place at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn. We already posted a set of pictures from it. Now here's another one, along with the full lineup for the Bethlehem Musikfest and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Dr. Dog sign to Anti, playing Bethlehem Musikfest (lineup) & other places - 2009 tour dates & more Prospect Park pics "

DOWNLOAD: Slaraffenland - Meet and Greet (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Akron/Family - River (MP3)

Akron/Family @ New Museum 3/27 (more by Leia Jospe)

Akron/Family will continue to tour behind their new disc, Set 'Em Wild, Set Em Free, into the fall, with tour dates supported by "Wooden" Wand, Jeffery Lewis & The Junkyard and Slaraffenland. On those shows, "the Slaraffenland horns will join the band on stage each night (a la The Dodos [who have shows coming up] or Megafaun before them) to form the Akron/Family big band."

NYCers can next catch Akron/Family at either All Points West or All Tomorrow's Parties. Slaraffenland are playing a NYC show on September 22nd at a venue that is still TBA.

Akron/Family is releasing a series of 7" singles through Dead Oceans. Those records will be available mainly on tour, and contain 'Em Wild a-sides and exclusive, unreleased b-sides. The first of those, featuring "Everyone is Guilty," is out now; the second in the series, "River," comes out in September. Details on those singles below.

Slaraffenland's new album, We're on Your Side, will be out September 15th on Hometapes. "Meet and Greet," that record's first single, is posted above. In addition to their dates with Akron/Family, the Danish group has a TBA NYC show penciled in for Tuesday, September 22nd. They also recently collaborated with filmmaker Vincent Moon (of The Take Away Shows) for a video filmed in their native Copenhagen.

Moon also recently taped Akron/Family's March 29th Union Pool show. That video, with all tour dates, album info, and some background on Slaraffenland, is below...

Continue reading "Akron/Family - new records & summer tour (w/ Wand, Jeffrey Lewis & Slaraffenland - who have a new album)"

Jeffrey Lewis repping Olive Juice Music @ Mercury Lounge (more by Chris La Putt)

The OJ All Day music festival is an annual event put on by Olive Juice Music, a D.I.Y. label, studio, and online distributor, based in New York City, interested in helping people who are in the developmental stages of trying to do something with their art.

June 19th and 20th at: The Brooklyn Lyceum (227 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY)

Jeffrey Lewis, who releases his comics on Olive Juice and has cut many records with the label, won't be playing this year, but Dufus, who toured with Lewis earlier this year, will.

Full schedule, trailer, other videos and more info, below...

Continue reading "OJ All Day - 2009 Brooklyn Lyceum festival schedule, tix, info"

photos by Chris La Putt

DC comics and chocolate milkshake
Some things will always be great
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
Even though I'm 28
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
I guess I'm just developing late
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
I never got over that amazing taste

Continue reading "Art Brut (night 5) & Jeffrey Lewis & Keith TOTP @ Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics (the residency is over)"