Juliana Hatfield at The Bell House, April 2011 (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

The Psychedelic Furs have been touring all year, and having already stopped in the NYC area on two separate occasions this year, they'll be returning on their fall tour and bringing along some pretty excellent support -- The Lemonheads, who will again be joined by Juliana Hatfield. Juliana and The Lemonheads (or more specifically Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando) go pretty far back. Evan played on multiple albums for Juliana's band the Blake Babies, including 1989's Earwig and their 2001 reunion album, God Bless the Blake Babies, in addition to her first solo album, Hey Babe. Juliana was also a member of The Lemonheads for their 1992 LP, It's a Shame About Ray, which The Lemonheads have been touring for the past year. Evan and Juliana again teamed up in 2010 and 2011 for some duet shows together.

The Psychedelic Furs tour with Lemonheads/Juliana Hatfield kicks off in October and hits the NYC area for shows on October 20 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester and October 21 at Best Buy Theater. Tickets for the Best Buy Theater show go on sale Friday (8/24) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (8/22) at 10 Am and an AEG Live presale starting Thursday (8/23) at 10 AM.

In related news, Juliana Hatfield is also releasing a covers album next week (8/28) which includes covers of songs by Teenage Fanclub, Nada Surf, Liz Phair, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and others. You can help fund the record on PledgeMusic. The goal has been met and many of the pledge options are out of stock, but there are still a few options left and pledgers can stream the album ahead of its release date.

A video of Evan and Juliana playing "It's A Shame About Ray" at the Bell House in 2011 and a list of all dates are below.

Continue reading "Psychedelic Furs touring w/ Lemonheads & Juliana Hatfield (dates); Hatfield releasing covers album"

Evan Dando at The Bell House (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

Evan Dando & The Lemonheads have a few random upcoming dates scheduled. The Lemonheads will share a bill with The Canon Logic on April 28th at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Tickets are still available. You can also catch Josh Lattanzi of The Lemonheads at Bowery Ballroom on May 26 & 27 as part of the Bob Dylan tribute that will also include members of the Strokes, Hold Steady, etc, etc.

All other upcoming Evan Dando dates are in other countries at the moment, including a June 16th Evan & Juliana Hatfield show in Toronto for the NXNE festival which, like Brooklyn's own multi-venue festival Northside, recently expanded its lineup. Some of the other bands playing are in the title of this post. The rest are listed below.

All Dando-related dates and some videos below too...

Continue reading "Lemonheads playing shows, NXNE expands lineup (includes Descendents, Stars, Devo, OFF!, Juliana Hatfield, more)"

John Wesley Harding @ the Eugene Mirman Fest (more by David Andrako)

The next edition of John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders goes down at City Winery in NYC tonight, 2/11, with Eugene Mirman, Ted Leo, The Fiery Furnaces, Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, Ben Ottewell (of Gomez), and Rivka Galchen Patrick McGrath. That's an amazing lineup and tickets are still available for the show that features a few people who appeared on the lineup of last night's Neil Young tribute at Carnegie Hall.

As mentioned, Ben Ottewell also plays an early show at Mercury Lounge tonight.

Tonight's show is Ted Leo's only upcoming NYC appearance, though those in Austin in March can catch him at the BrooklynVegan SXSW showcase and at other shows. His full solo tour includes February west coast dates, and April east coast dates (Philly, Scranton & CT included). All dates are listed below...

Continue reading "updated Ted Leo solo dates, John Wesley Harding Cabinet of Wonders at City Winery tonight"

Bettye Lavette at Highline Ballroom (more by Jacob Blickenstaff )

A quick reminder that one of the greatest songwriters of all-time, Neil Young, will be celebrated at Carnegie Hall in two days (2/10) as part of a benefit for music & arts programs of underpriviledged youth. The bill is beyond diverse, featuring The Roots, Nada Surf, Glen Hansard, DeVotchka, J Mascis and Bettye Lavette just to name a few of the twenty+ that are on board. "100% of the net proceeds from this event" will benefit charities like Fixing Instruments for Kids in Schools, Church Street School for Music & Art, The Pinwheel Project, Music Unites, The American Symphony Orchestra and Young Audiences New York, so pick up your tickets with a clear conscious!

Meanwhile, quite a few of the Neil Young-tribute artists have recently been or will be very active. Glen Hansard recently played City Winery and the Doveman show at LPR. Patti Smith & Jesse Smith are scheduled to play the Tibet benefit at Carnegie Hall in March. When Questlove of The Roots isnt going to see Prince or spinning at Brooklyn Bowl, he can be found on Jimmy Fallon. Nada Surf recently played Mercury Lounge and Rock Shop. DeVotchKa will play Highline in March with El Mariachi Bronx. Juliana Hatfield & Evan Dando were just at Maxwell's and the Bell House. J Mascis has his upcoming tour with shows at Mercury Lounge and MHoW.

Ben Ottewell of Gomez plays the Neil Young event and an early solo show at Mercury Lounge the next day.

And last, but certainly not least, Bettye Lavette, besides paying tribute to the great rock'n roll patriarch from the North, also has quite a NYC residency in the spring when she'll set up shop at Cafe Carlyle from 5/24 - 6/3 (no shows on 5/29, 5/30). Ticketing info is forthcoming, but all tour dates, the full Neil Young Tribute lineup and some videos are below...

Continue reading "Neil Young tribute show coming, Bettye Lavette playing shows at Cafe Carlyle & elsewhere, Ben Ottewell will be at Merc"

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

Evan & Juliana @ the Bell House

"Thursday night's sold-out Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield show [at Maxwell's] was a trip down memory lane. Mostly, though, a testament to the timeless power of great songwriting.

Dando and Hatfield, for the uninitiated, were the king and queen of the 1990s alternative rock prom. They were friends--or more than friends, nobody is really sure--who sang and played on each other's records. They made a handful of really great records that still hold up today.

For someone like myself, who saw The Lemonheads' "It's A Shame About Ray" tour in 1992, (I kept the set list as a souvenir until just a few years ago), and had Juliana Hatfield's 1993 classic, "Become What You Are" stuck in my car cd player for at least a couple of years, Thursday night's show was a real treat.

Armed with only microphones and acoustic guitars, the duo swapped songs back and forth. They played songs from the albums that made them famous, as well as more recent compositions and a few cover songs.... [Jennifer O'Connor for Hoboken Patch]

Read the rest of Jennifer's review at Hoboken Patch, and catch Jennifer herself playing music on February 8th at the Rock Shop as part of her new monthly residency there. Maybe she'll land Evan or Juliana to play with her at a future show (in February she'll be joined by Charles Bissell of The Wrens, Kendall Meade of Mascott, and Richard Baluyut of Versus) (meanwhile catch Charles Bissell at Maxwell's with Cymbals Eat Guitars TONIGHT/SUNDAY).

One night after they played Maxwell's, Evan and Juliana headlined a show at the Bell House. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper opened both shows. More pictures from the Brooklyn show, and a bunch of videos and the setlist from the NJ show, below...

Continue reading "Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield played shows (Jennifer O'Connor reviewed one of them) -- pics, video & Maxwell's setlist"

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper @ Rock Shop (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Singer/songwriter Aly Spaltro - formerly based in Portland, Maine, and known to fans as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - is blowing up fast. She played at promoter Billy Ruane's rock 'n' roll wake last month, won Folk Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards earlier this month and performs at the Lizard Lounge tonight.

Oh, and she's already managed to get Amanda Palmer's stamp of approval. After seeing Spaltro's BMA set, Palmer tweeted, "chick blew me away live."

The exclamation of love was absolutely warranted: She blew a lot of people away that night.

The only thing off was winning for Folk Artist.

"I don't consider myself folk," Spaltro said during a visit to the Herald. "I'm really honored with the win, but I'm not folk. I don't know what genre I'm in." [Boston Herald]

Listen on MySpace, or watch some of the videos below and decide for yourself what genre the super talented Lady Lamb the Beekeeper is. Or just check her out live at one of the four NYC shows she's playing before the end of the year including the super interesting and free one happening TONIGHT (12/20) at the Delancey:

Main Floor: PAUL WALLFISCH'S SMALL BEAST / SMALL BEAST HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! with Special guest Curators this week the LYNNS [LYNN FARRELL & LYNN WRIGHT ]Featuring: 8:00 pm PETE SIMONELLI [reading] / PAUL WATSON 8:45 pm LADY LAMB THE BEEKEEPER 9:30 pm AND THE WIREMEN 10:30 pm BEE AND FLOWER 11:30 Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) & Danielle de Picciotto FREE!!!

If you miss that, she plays The Rock Shop Tuesday (12/21) with Cat Martino, Mercury Lounge Wednesday (12/22) with Favourite Sons, and then Rockwood Music Hall on 12/28.

She also plays a trio of shows in January with Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield including the one happening at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Evan & Juliana played shows in NYC in September.

All dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Lady Lamb the Beekeeper is here (for four NYC shows), touring with Evan & Juliana (2011 dates)"

Two big names of the 90s alt scene, Juliana Hatfield and Evan Dando, will band together again as "Juliana & Evan" and play a pair of shows at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, 9/29 and Thursday, 9/30. The 2nd show with The Candles is sold out, but the 9/29 show with The Shining Twins is on sale NOW.

Juliana has taken to making custom songs to order as of late, while The Lemonheads (Evan Dando's band) relased Varshons on The End Records last year.

Full Evan Dando/Lemonheads dates are below, as well as some video.

Continue reading "Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield playing shows "

DOWNLOAD: Black Francis - All in My Mind (Love & Rockets) (MP3)

I would like to apologize to the Breeders for saying they would not sell out. I was a jerk about it and am truly sorry. I also apologize to their fans I may have offended with my stupid insensitive comments. Hope you liked the show.-Anonymous

The Breeders @ The Paradise in Boston 8/17 (more by Bryan Bruchman)

"Come one come all-I'm work shopping new introductions bare with me-Welcome to the 18th installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending concert series. Tonight brings us to the 'Sold Out' Bowery Ballroom at 6 Delancey St. in New York City. The Bowery is a venue that's been on my radar for a while, considering that the Bowery owns(or at least sponsors) most of the venues I attend for concerts in the city. Tonight the headliner, the band I'm here to see is the one, the only, THE BREEDERS." [The Jay Porks Blog]

The Breeders completed their two-night run at Bowery Ballroom in NYC last night (8/19). More on that soon.

On the horizon, Kim & Kelley Deal will be singing as part of The Long Count at BAM this fall, and Kim will be playing with her other band the Pixies, when they play NYC on their Doolittle tour this November.

Co-Pixie Frank Black recently contributed a track to New Tales To Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets, which came out Tuesday (Aug 18th) on Justice Records. Frank's track from that, "All in My Mind", off L&R's 1986 album Express, is posted above for your downloading pleasure.

He didn't appear at the release party/show on August 18th at the Ben Sherman store in Soho, but he will be at the show for, another tribute comp, Ciao My Shining Star - The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, which happens Sunday, September 20th at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Also appearing at the concert will be Joseph Arthur, David Berkeley and more. Non-musical guests (of sorts) include the premiere of the Thom Yorke video "All For The Best" and a reading by graphic novelist Ben Katchor. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 21st at noon.

Joseph Arthur also has a series of shows coming up at City Winery.

That Mulcahy comp also has a slightly more personal story, via FrankBlack.net...

We have some sad news from a friend of our website and of FBF, Mark Mulcahy. Some of you might recognize the name as the singer/songwriter behind Miracle Legion and Polaris [of the soundtrack to Pete & Pete among other things], both of which featured Catholics David McCafferey and Scott Boutier, or perhaps you recognize the name from the liner notes of Christmass, as Mark provided backing vocals for both "Radio Lizards" and "Don't Get Me Wrong." Or maybe, like me, you saw Mark open for the Pixies in Atlantic City in 2005. Regardless, Mark's wife recently passed away, leaving him as a single dad to two small children. Some friends and admirers, including our Frank Black Francis, have recorded some of Mark's songs for a tribute record called Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy.

That record comes out September 29th on Shout! Factory records, and includes contributions from The National, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, Dinosaur Jr., Vic Chesnutt and Elvis Perkins. In addition to the names on the tracklist, below, 20 additional cuts will be released digitally. Look for a London concert to be announced as well.

Radiohead has a new song out now (two actually).

The tracklist and art work for both tribute albums are posted below...

Continue reading "Breeders played Bowery, Frank Black playing Mark Mulcahy show @ MHOW (tix), on Love & Rockets tribute comp (MP3) "

This post usually goes up on Monday. Here it is a little late...

Luminous Groove is a 5-disc box set that collects remastered editions of Robyn Hitchcock's Fegmania!, Gotta Let This Hen Out!, and Element of Light albums (all with bonus tracks) along with a disc of previously unreleased studio material and one of unreleased live tracks.

Juliana Hatfield's memoir, When I Grow Up, may be out next month, but her latest album, How To Walk Away, is out this week.

The Fiery Furnaces release their double live album Fiery Furnaces: Remember this week as well.

The music releases this week may be short on star power, but they are incredibly deep. Other releases I have heard and can recommend include the Dandy Warhols' Earth To The Dandy Warhols, Jaguar Love's Take Me To The Sea, Jennifer O'Connor's Here With Me, Lykke Li's Youth Novels, Music Tapes' Music Tapes for Clouds & Tornadoes, Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line, Stereolab's Chemical Chords, Todd Snider's Peace Queer, and Uh Huh Her's Common Reaction.

Aside from the Robyn Hitchcock reissues and box set, other reissues worth noting include a vinyl reissue of PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and a remastered edition of the Dears' No Cities Left.

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"