Howlin Rain (photo by Fitz)

A hearty welcome goes to The Russian Wilds, Howlin Rain's new LP due on Valentine's Day 2012 via American Recordings. Head to the band's site for a new track, "Phantom In The Valley", in exchange for your email address. Or just listen to it below along with the new album's trailer too.

The Russian Wilds will be on display when Howlin Rain hits the road for a string of US dates leading to SXSW which will include NYC twice: Mercury Lounge on 2/7 (tickets) and Brooklyn Bowl on 2/8 (tickets). All dates are listed below.

Both shows, and at least three more on the east coast, will feature "supergroup" Soldiers of Fortune, comprised of Brad Truax (Home), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf) and Kid Millions (Oneida). They released a 12" via Mexican Summer. You can listen to the 8+ minute jam "Yes to Everything" below.

All tour dates and those songs, below...

Continue reading "Howlin Rain releasing new LP, touring, playing shows w/ Sweeney+Oneida+Truax supergroup Soldiers of Fortune"

Panda Bear @ ATP NY 2009 (more by Ryan Muir)

today in NYC
* It Is It @ Pianos
* ASSSSCAT @ UCB
* The Feelies @ Maxwell's
* Very Be Careful @ Barbes
* Japan benefit @ Bowery Electric
* Jaga Jazzist @ Le Poisson Rouge
* The Hairs @ South Street Seaport
* Hannibal Buress @ Knitting Factory
* Protect-U, Ital, Dariius @ Cameo Gallery
* Sade, John Legend @ Mohegan Sun (CT)
* Rob Curto's Pe De Serra All-Stars @ Barbes
* Luis Lopes Humanization Quartet @ The Stone
* Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra @ Cameo Gallery
* Panda Bear, Ducktails @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Gary Lucas & Gods & Monsters @ Iridium Jazz Club
* Boy Friend, Phonetag, Speculator, Kruxe @ Glasslands
* Home Video, MillionYoung, Tiny Victories @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Bomb The Music Industry, The Wilds, Cheap Girls @ Europa
* Necking, Father Amos, Earthmasters, Lazurite @ Silent Barn
* The Dangerous Boys Club, DJ Night School @ Mercury Lounge
* Kirk Knuffke, Stephen Gauci, #1, Kenny Wollesen @ The Stone
* The Suzan, Bad Indians, Haunted Leather, Pass Kontrol @ Bruar Falls
* Outer Borough Brass Band, Wasabassco Burlesque @ The Bell House
* The Vandelles, Heaven, Dead Leaf Echo, Ringo Deathstarr @ Shea Stadium
* RAM, Group Doueh, Baloji, GlobeSonic Sound @ Central Park Summerstage
* Tinsel Teeth, Satanized, Xaddax, Unstoppable Death Machines @ Death By Audio
* New York Night Train's Beach Party Happening @ Beekman Beer Garden
* The Mess with Julia, Evanss, Brian Thompson & Good People, The Lynguistic Civilians @ Union Hall

The Hairs go on at South Street Seaport's Fulton market at 3pm.

New York Night Train's Beach Party Happening @ Beekman Beer Garden is also free and right next door a few hours later. More info below.

Monday is the Fourth of July.

Some new PunkCast videos to check out below. David First & Kid Millions performing at issue Project Room. Religious to Damn playing a new song at 285 Kent.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

by Andrew Frisicano

Grouper @ Terminal 5 in May 2009 (more by Natasha Ryan)

So we managed to sneak into Grouper's rare Brooklyn gig on Friday night and still aren't sure what we witnessed over the course of her main 60-minute set. (She also presented a new tape collage piece.) To be honest, the entire thing looked/sounded incredibly creepy, as if one of The Shining's redrum-happy twins suddenly learned how to sculpt dronescapes and acoustic something-or-others from an ancient keyboard and several effects pedals. It didn't help that the room was humid as hell--literally--with Issue Project Room's single, solitary fan getting switched off in the middle of the first 'song' because it was interfering with Liz Harris' signal. [self-titled]

Grouper's Friday, June 4th show at Issue Project Room was one of the events that opened the venue's Darmstadt series, which pairs new and old boundary-crossing music and art over the month of June.

Coming up, Matt Mottel (Issue's artist-in-residence) brings his jazz duo Talibam! to the venue for a free performance on Wednesday, June 9th. On Friday, June 11th, composer and tape artist William Basinski presents his piece "Vivian and Ondine" at a free show at 110 Livingston (Issue's new being-remodeled space).

Man Forever (Kid Millions from Oneida's new composition for multiple rock drummers) performs with composer/musicians Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Frank Vigroux and Hélène Breschand on June 25th. Tickets are on sale. Man Forever have a new record almost out, and the project will be touring this summer.

The self-titled debut - two monolithic, hypnotic improvisations for arrays of carefully tuned drums- is due out [June 22nd] in an edition of 300 LPs featuring hand-pulled screens on recycled record jackets from Jagjaguwar vinyl imprint St. Ives. The touring quintet of Kid Millions, YEAH YEAH YEAHS drummer Brian Chase, Oneida cohort and KNYFE HYTS drummer Shahin Motia, drummer Allison Busch of AWESOME COLOR, and SIGHTINGS bassist Richard Hoffman, will be augmented by local percussionists in each city.

(Oneida has a new record, Absolute II , due too.)

Man Forever plays tonight (June 8th) at the Tank with Dump (James McNew of Yo La Tengo), M&M and the New York debut of the Sloppy Heads (who have a new Kid Milions-produced 7", First Gasp, which you can download here as a ZIP). That show has tickets on sale.

Man Forever also headline a Monster Island show on Friday, June 11th.

The night after Man Forever at Issue - Zs, who just put out a new record, play Issue with sound/multimedia artist David Linton (on Saturday, June 26th).

Separate from Darmstadt is the venue's ISSUE Project Room's Sunday Concerts in the Courtyard series that'll be bringing a Sunday, June 27th lineup of Omar Souleyman (who plays Central Park the day before with Tinariwen) and CSC Funk Band (featured here) to the Old American Can Factory courtyard. Tickets are on sale. The other shows in that series are posted below.

On top of all that, Issue will be participating in the two-venue, 65th-birthday celebration for improv legend Anthony Braxton (father of Tyondai from Battles) happening on June 18 and 19th. It's at (Le) Poisson Rouge on the 18th and Issue on the 19th. Details, tickets links and video are below.

The full Issue/Darmstadt schedule, video from Zs' Gulf Coast benefit show at Shea Stadium on June 2nd, and more are posted below...

Continue reading "Darmstadt continues @ Issue Project Room, Man Forever, Zs, James McNew, Omar Souleyman & Anthony Braxton's birthday"

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Ryan Muir

some of the stars of ATP NY 2009

What's almost the exact opposite of a soothing set of Seven Swans performed by one of the most delicate singers in indie rock? Try nine drummers (including Hisham Bharoocha, Zach Hill, and Kid Millions among other notables) bashing your fucking skull for so long that the stage manager has to come out to unplug their gear and remove toms from underneath them! That's how I started my ATP Day 3... with the Boredoms blowing my mind.

Starting off with sparse chords on the monstrous multi-neck guitar/percussive device, Eye set a calm and reflective mood... and then the cymbals. And then the toms. And then eight drummers pummeled away led by Yoshimi P-We. And then the synced rimshots that recalled an Animal Collective beat. All of this happened before a ninth drummer was carried into the show like an emperor while doing a call and response with the other eight.

Within about 10 minutes, I knew that Boredoms would take the prize as best show at Kutsher's that weekend. The sheer power of the coordinated drums, along with pregnant pauses and killer synth effects performed via keys, CD-DJ tables, and broomsticks (!) were beyond jaw dropping.

Following Boredoms, I poked my head into Oneida's Ocropolis for the first of many times. For 10+ hours, Oneida basically had the small and very decorated room all to themselves for a long jam session with their friends. Reportedly, the band had tape rolling the whole time (Ocropolis is the name of their Brooklyn recording studio) and had visuals provided by the Mighty Robot AV Squad. With local standbys like BJ Warshaw of Parts & Labor/Shooting Spires fame, Chris Weingarten (ex P&L), Todd P, and many others spotted in the Sportsman's Bar, it seemed like Brooklyn in the Catskills. Unfortunately, I missed every single special guest appearance (word is, and in part according to a sign on the door, Soft Circle, Yoshimi, Aaron from Tall Firs, Zach Hill, Steven Drozd and many others all popped in) but the band was very interesting to watch, alternating between songs, and droney ambient jams.

Caribou was next in the main room and the 16-piece(!) band including Sun Ra Arkestra member Marshall Allen, Koushik, Kieran Hebden (Fourtet) and many others. I had no expectations heading into the set and was pleasantly surprised, although I found the mix to have waaay too much low end.

I ducked out of Caribou early to catch the last twenty minutes of Hopewell who was billed to be playing "The Desperation Suite," "complete with a female choir and avant-garde saxophonist Mark Marinoff". From what little I saw, the three person "choir" did little but coo, ooh, ahh, and coordinate a dance, but the band did close with a rousing cover of Jane's Addiction's classic "Of Course".

continued below...

Continue reading "ATP NY 2009 - Day 3 pics & review (Boredoms, Caribou, Deerhoof, Boris, Jarmusch, Oneida, that crazy guy...)"

Saturday September 5th @ MONSTER ISLAND | MONSTER ISLAND BLOCK PARTY 2009

| Golden Triangle
|| K-Holes
||| Knyfe Hyts 81
|||| Cult of Youth
||||| Oneida Jah Division Ensemble
|||||| Georgiana Starlington
||||||| X-Ray Eye Balls
|||||||| DubbKnowDubb
||||||||| Trilateral Commission
|||||||||| Buckets of Blood
||||||||||| Bezoar
|||||||||||| Psychothriller

|| dj Hairwaves
|| 2 ART OPENINGS OUTDOOR INSTALLATIONS ALL DAY BBQ

Oneida is playing the block party as/with Onieda Jah Division Ensemble. Jah Division is a dub/reggae Joy Division cover band that has released an EP on Social Registry, who even when not in "Ensemble" format, share drummer Kid Millions with Oneida. Next weekend, Oneida visit ATP NY, where their Oneida present The Ocropolis is set to run all day Sunday.

Another of the mysterious bands on the bill is Knyfe Hyts 81. The band tweeted that "KNYFE HYTS 81: ZARG and SHHA (Knyfe Hyts, Ex Models) + LUUUK BRODY (Yeasayer, Ex Models)....Think Blade Runner!".

UPDATE: The final lineup for this is in the comments...

More info on Monster Island, and live clips of Oneida playing Dublin this August, are posted below...

Continue reading "Monster Island Block Party this Saturday in Brooklyn"