by Bill Pearis

Jonquil

Oxford, UK band Jonquil kick off a tour at Glasslands on on Monday (4/2) with Keep Shelly in Athens in tow. Jonquil's new album, Point of Go, is out now on Dovecote records and brimming with melodic, bubbling, slightly angular pop. (A gentler Foals perhaps. They're from the same hometown.) You can stream it on Spotify and watch the video for "It's My Part" at the bottom of this post where you'll also find all tour dates.

Keep Shelly in Athens, meanwhile are releasing a combined version of their In Love with Dusk and Our Own Dreams EPs on one vinyl record that will hit stores April 13. Also worth checking out is their Campus Maritus from late last year.

Opening the Brooklyn show are Brooklyn's own New Moods who we just premiered a track by.

Click through for all Keep Shelly in Athens / Jonquil tour dates and videos...

Continue reading "Jonquil & Keep Shelly in Athens going on tour (dates)"

today in NYC
* ASSSSCAT 3000 @ UCB
* No Pants Subway Ride
* Evillive (metal shows)
* globalFEST @ Webster Hall
* Jim Black Trio @ The Stone
* MV & EE, Butch Morris @ Zebulon
* Carla Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi @ The Stone
* Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Falls of Rauros, WARANIMAL, Mortum @ Acheron
* Calder Quartet, Andrew W.K. @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky @ Joe's Pub
* Highlife, Diamond Terrifier, Valerie Kuehne @ Cake Shop
* Comedy Night @ The Knit w/ Hannibal Buress @ Knitting Factory
* Hurricanes of Love, Colin L. Orchestra, All Dead Band, Riggonia @ Death By Audio
* Mickey Hart, Dar Williams, Bella Gaia, The Abrams Brothers @ Highline Ballroom
* Clare And The Reasons, Natalia Zukerman, Spirit Family Reunion, Levi Stephens, Sydney Wayser @ Public Assembly
* Here Come the Warm Jets: Brian Eno tribute w/ Joan Wasser, Vernon Reid, Travis Morrison, Sohrab Habibion, Paul Duncan, more @ Joe's Pub

Jeff Tweedy's son directed a new Wilco video.

Check out BrooklynVegan on Facebook.

Keep Shelly in Athens, who are slowly revealing an April tour that includes shows in Brooklyn, Austin and Chicago, performed a set for KEXP. Video below..

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

by Andrew Sacher

Keep Shelly in Athens in Chicago in Nov. (more by Ben Rodig)

Greek duo Keep Shelly in Athens have been releasing a solid handful of material this year. Their most recent EP, Campus Martius, came out this week on Planet Mu. It opens with a remix of Solar Bears' "Cub" before offering three new original tracks. The material on Campus Martius is noticeably darker than the other tracks the duo released this year, which have generally sounded much breezier. The first original track is a slow burner called "The Chains," filled mostly by a muffled rhythm and Sarah P's drifting vocals, until thunderous snares and industrial synths take over at the song's end. While Sarah's vocals are increasingly becoming the focal point of the group, the EP's title track is largely instrumental (very Pet Sounds of them). The song's drum patterns are light, but by far the most spastic on the EP, and the only trace of vocals is in the form of some great pitch-shifted samples. The darker edge of this EP comes out the strongest on its closing track, "Struggle With Yourself," which utilizes the muddiest synths I've ever heard on a KSiA song. You can listen to "Campus Martius" and "Struggle With Yourself" at the bottom of this post and purchase the EP at the Planet Mu webstore. Artwork and tracklisting are also below.

Keep Shelly in Athens were last in NYC, not long after they played Chicago, for their Bowery Ballroom show in November. OneThirtyBPM spoke pretty highly of that show:

Often acts that deal in the sample heavy arrangements that Keep Shelly In Athens take a while to come into their own as performers. A variety of hindrances often hold their sets back. Whether an inability to play with the tracks, an inability to make such playing interesting, or an inability to replicate the fullness of their recorded output, bands like this often suffer at this stage of their live career, but KSIA does nothing of the sort. The recorded tracks and synth parts serve to augment live guitar, drums, and vocals, much like Portishead always has.

This certainly isn't to say that Keep Shelly In Athens is at this stage in their career the live behemoth that Portishead has become, but they show the promise that they'll eventually get there. Though the 80s tinge on their earliest EP had them lumped in with the chillwave and Balearic pop movements, their live show is so much more rewarding than many bands in those trends have ever been. Though bands like Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, and Delorean are moving away from the sampler driven live shows that they've exhibited early on, they still aren't quite exhibiting the muscle that KSIA does, at least in a live setting.

They'll return to NYC for a smaller show which happens on April 2 at Glasslands. Tickets are on sale now. This is the only US show that they currently have scheduled, but it wouldn't be surprising if they end up going on a tour surrounding a festival appearance like they did this year with Fun Fun Fun Fest.

Song streams, artwork and tracklisting below...

Continue reading "Keep Shelly in Athens released a new EP, schedule NYC show"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Our Own Dream" (Blackbird Blackbird Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Our Own Dream" (MP3)

Keep Shelly in Athens at FFF Fest (more by Tim Griffin)

Greek duo Keep Shelly in Athens made their way over to North America earlier this month for Fun Fun Fun Fest where they played their first-ever US show in the early afternoon at Auditorium Shores. They then played their 2nd US show later that night downtown as part of one of the afterparties.

They've since been on a short tour with Body Language that hits Bowery Ballroom on November 18. Tickets are still on sale and we're also giving away a pair. Details on how to enter to win them are below.

We're also premiering Blackbird Blackbird's remix of KSIA's "Our Own Dream," off the 12" EP of the same name which came out on November 5 via Forest Family. You can download their remix and the original at the top of this post and check out the EP's artwork and tracklist at the bottom. Like most of KSIA's work, "Our Own Dream" is a dreamy piece of downtempo. On their remix, Blackbird Blackbird replace the song's swaying beat with a 4/4 headknocker and fill it out with synths that can't help but remind me of LCD Soundsystem's "Dance Yrself Clean."

Speaking of Body Language, you can catch them again after the Keep Shelly in Athens tour when they open for Matt & Kim and Super Mash Brothers at their New Year's Eve show at Hammerstein Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

All dates, artwork and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Keep Shelly in Athens are on tour now (win tix to Bowery!), were remixed by Blackbird Blackbird (MP3 premiere)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Spoon @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

Spoon had nothing to promote and no surplus of new songs to unveil. This was just an Austin band -- Austin's biggest indie band ever -- playing an Austin festival for their only major show of 2011 (at least so far). As a live unit, the four-piece that recorded Transmission (augmented here by an additional percussionist) is as precise as Spoon has ever been, cranking out savagely controlled, often slow-building versions of such songs as "Written in Reverse," "Delicate Places" and the instantaneously applauded "I Turn My Camera On." "We got horns!" frontman Britt Daniel proclaimed, bringing out a six-man section for "Cherry Bomb," "The Underdog" and "Jonathan Fisk." By the four-song encore, the crowd had both increased in enthusiasm and decreased in size -- no doubt some people had wandered to another stage to see the Damned, which Daniel himself had said he wished that he could do. [SPIN]

Personally I started at the Damned (who were great) and finished Saturday with about 30 minutes of Spoon which felt like the perfect chill ending to a long first-two-days of the outdoor Austin fest (right after their set I went back to the hotel, skipped all afterparties and crashed for 12 hours straight which made Sunday great).

Our first set of pictures from Saturday, Damned included, are HERE. Our second set continues, more of Spoon included, below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 -- Day 2 pics (part 2) -- Spoon, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Tinariwen, Purity Ring & more"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Hauntin' Me" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Running Out of You" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "A Tear In My I" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Song to Cheer You Up" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Fokiones Negri Street" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Cremona Memories" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Keep Shelly in Athens - "Running Out of You" (Memory Tapes Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Blood Diamonds - "Lasting Love" (Keep Shelly in Athens Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Porcelain Raft - "Tip of Your Tongue" (Keep Shelly in Athens Remix) (MP3)

Greek electronic duo Keep Shelly in Athens will be making it over to North America this fall to play Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX. While they're here, they'll play some other dates too. A full tour hasn't been announced (yet?) but you'll be able to catch them in NYC on November 18 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for the NYC show go on sale Friday (8/26) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (8/24) at noon.

I've never actually been to Greece, but if the coasts are as gentle as Fleet Foxes describe them, these guys sound pretty befitting for a blissful evening on a Grecian beach. Dreamy female vocals swirl around lush atmospheres and head-nodding beats as the duo takes you on a trip through the Mediterranean. They've remixed Blood Diamonds and Porcelain Raft and have been remixed by Blood Diamonds, Maria Minerva, Memory Tapes, and others. You can grab MP3s of some remixes and KSiA's original work at the top of this post and check out some more remixes below.

They've also recently made a mixtape featuring Toro y Moi, Star Slinger, SLEEP OVER, Games, Blackbird Blackbird, and more, which you can stream below. A video for their most recent single, "Hauntin' Me," is also below. That single was released as a limited 7" b/w "Song to Cheer You Up" via Transparent this past February and is now sold out. They're also set to release a split cassette with Disclosure via Loud and Quiet on August 29, limited to 75 copies. Forest Family is another one of their label homes.

Dates, video, song streams and mixtape below...

Continue reading "check out Keep Shelly in Athens --- dates & MP3s"

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"