photos by Lionel Bergeron

Tame Impala

[At their first of two shows at Bowery Ballroom (11/18)], Tame Impala wowed a very sold out crowd... Though lead singer, Kevin Parker, gripped his throat throughout the set due to his strained voice, no one could complain about the band's gripping presence... Coupled with a stellar projector show of squiggles that danced to Parker's riffs, the band completely blew everyone's collective wig off with grinding guitar squeals and hardened, rhythmic percussion... Had Parker's voice been in perfect form, no one would have noticed. Lyrics are back-benched here in favor of psychedelic washes of sound. There was a wall of finely controlled squall that held us all rapt. [A Heart is a Spade]

More Bowery pictures and some videos below...

Continue reading "Tame Impala, Stardeath & White Dwarfs and Kuroma @ Bowery Ballroom (night 2 pics & video)"

photos by Jessica Amaya

"I'm glad I scrapped 6 different remixes for Tame Impala, because the one I have almost finished is 1000 times better then the last one" - Erol Alkan

"why the fuck would anyone even bother remixing tame impala? its like saying "this 1990 La Tâche would be better with more bubbles"" - Acid Jacks

DOWNLOAD: Tame Impala - Lucidity (Pilooski Remix) (MP3)

"head hurts from headbanging so much tonite @ tame impala/stardeath. pa' la cama to have sweet psyched out dreams of swimming in guitar riffs" - [cheep de ville]

Continue reading "Tame Impala, Stardeath & White Dwarfs and Kuroma played their 1st of 2 shows @ Bowery Ballroom (pics & setlist) "

Tame Impala (photo by teapot)

Although tickets may still available for their appearance at Bowery Ballroom on 11/18 (though presumably not for long), Tame Impala has added a second show at the venue the next night (11/19), and also with Stardeath and White Dwarfs & Kuroma. Tickets for the 11/19 date are currently on AMEX presale, and go on general sale at noon on Friday (10/15). More dates HERE and below.

Tame Impala's trek begins a few days before the first Bowery show, but the Aussie band has a new Daytrotter appearance, that you can listen to now, where they ran through four songs from their new LP, Innerspeaker.

Their new video for "Lucidity" with updated dates below...

Continue reading "Tame Impala add a show --- updated dates, Daytrotter, video "

Tame Impala will return to our shores in November, this time as a band big enough to headline Bowery Ballroom which they'll do on November 18th. Stardeath and White Dwarfs and Kuroma will be on the road with them and both play the NYC show too. Tickets for the Bowery show go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon with general sale beginning Friday. All dates below...

Continue reading "Tame Impala announce 2010 Tour Dates"

by Bill Pearis

Chairlift @ All Points West 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)


Synthy trio Chairlift spent most of 2008 on tour, following the release of their debut album from 2008, Does You Inspire You?, which got picked up/rereleased by Columbia Records in 2009. They hit the road with Phoenix, TV on the Radio, Peter Bjorn and John, the Killers, and played this year's muddy All Points West Festival. Gearing up for another tour -- this one to Australia (dates below) -- singer Caroline Polachek answered our year-end survey. Her answers are below...

Continue reading "an end of 2009 interview w/ Caroline Polachek of Chairlift"

DOWNLOAD: Sean Bones - Easy Street (MP3)

Rings, the debut LP of Sean Bones, the stagename of Sean Sullivan, the guitarist for Sam Champion, is out now on Frenchkiss Records. Check out a track from that above, as well as a video for Bones' song "Dancehall" below.

Glasslands is hosting a CD release show for the album tonight (July 22nd) with a bill that includes Bones, Kuroma and Hesta Prynn. If you're reading this from 10am-12pm EST, you can also catch Sean now on East Village Radio.

Sean Bones will also be playing with The xx, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Free Energy at the Mercury Lounge on August 7th. Tickets for that are on sale now.

All tour dates, a video and a flyer for the Glasslands show, below...

Continue reading "Sean Bones - CD release show @ Glasslands & other dates"

Kuroma in Prospect Park (more by Natasha Ryan)

Kuroma used to be in MGMT. Last night he opened for them in Prospect Park. Tonight (7/2) you can catch him at Pianos with Acrylics.

Suckers also opened for MGMT last night. They don't play Pianos tonight, but they do have four shows coming up there starting with one on July 9th.

photos by Natasha Ryan

Zen: stumble into MGMT bringing it live(!) while walking the hound. Brooklyn has a great soundtrack. - Doug Moore

MGMT, Suckers, and Kuroma played a big Brooklyn show together last night in Prospect Park (7/1). I listened to most of it while hanging out in the grass from outside the black, heavily guarded, tall, not-see-through fence (which was behind a 2nd, smaller fence which had lots of security guards behind it (aka people between the two fences) (there were also a LOT of police around).

The highlight of the show for me was at the very end when MGMT (a band who I generally don't like... especially live... but last night I thought sounded ok... lots of people having fun also = good...) started playing "Kids" and, as the crowd could be heard erupting in cheer on the inside, a huge dance party broke out in the street behind the bandshell. Nobody could see what was going on inside, but that didn't stop everyone from getting down.

There were lots of people taking video of the people dancing. Please post it if you were one of them. More pictures from the inside, and some other videos, below...

Continue reading "MGMT, Kuroma & Suckers in Prospect Park - pics & video "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Starfucker - German Love (MP3)

Less than a year since they released their self-titled debut, Portland Oregan's Starfucker are back with a new record, Jupiter, and a short U.S. tour that includes two stops in NYC this week: Mercury Lounge on Tuesday (4/21, TIX) and Union Hall on Wednesday (4/22, TIX). All dates through May 1 are with fellow Portlanders Guidance Counselor. Kuroma was also originally listed on these bills, but according to one of the promoters, "They dropped off a few weeks ago. No explanation."

You may have seen Starfucker last year during CMJ at the Brooklynvegan day party at Knitting Factory. (Or maybe not, they were on at noon.) At 26 minutes, Jupiter is technically a mini-LP and is more specifically aimed at the dancefloor than last year's debut. It's out May 5 and includes a not-bad cover of Cyndi Lauper's '80s classic, "Girls Just Wan't to Have Fun."

A bit confusingly, the band also just released a new music video for "German Love" which is on their first album, an MP3 of which is at the top of this post. You can watch the video and check out all Starfucker's U.S. tour dates below...

Continue reading "Starfucker - 2009 tour dates, new album, MP3 & video "

photos by Tim Griffin

"Never one to play by the rules, the Scream eschewed a greatest hits set and instead focused on the latter half of their career. Just over a third of the 16-song set was devoted to tracks off of their last two records, Riot City Blues and Beautiful Future. Group think/conventional wisdom is that these two records don't hold up very well next to the band's Vanishing Point / XTRMNTR / Evil Heat heyday, but "Country Girl" and "Jail Bird" sounded right at home next to older staples like "Kill All Hippies" and "Miss Lucifer."" [DCist, review of Friday's DC show]

Continue reading "Primal Scream @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - pics "

Primal Scream @ The Metro in Chicago - March 22, 2009 (theres no way home)

"Steven Van Zandt plays many roles: Guitarist in the E Street Band. Tough-talking club owner Silvio Dante in "The Sopranos." Host of syndicated radio show "Little Steven's Underground Garage."

But early on Friday, March 20, in the Austin Convention Center, he assumed the role of music industry elder statesman and philosopher during the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference.

Van Zandt spoke and answered audience questions in a convention center conference room....

... When a booking agent informed Van Zandt that the British band Primal Scream was not physically capable of doing a 20-show tour he hoped to organize, he did not hide his disgust.

"C'mon. (The E Street Band) does 20 shows a month. You want to be a drug addict? Go be a drug addict. Don't waste my time."
[The Times-Picaynne]

Continue reading "Primal Scream played Webster Hall, Chicago (setlist) & SXSW (where Little Steven implied they are drug addicts)"

Primal Scream make it really hard to figure out where they are playing. Since my last posting, there are now at least four more confirmed US dates - 2 at SXSW, one in Washington DC, and March 29th at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The new Brooklyn show happens one day after their show at Webster Hall in Manhattan. Tickets are still on sale for Webster Hall, and they go on sale Friday for the Brooklyn show (with the Am Ex presale starting Wednesday at noon)). All North American dates are with Kuroma...

Hank Sullivant, lead and founding member of Kuroma may also be known to some as the founding bass player of Athens, GA band The Whigs and for being a former touring member of MGMT. When asked about the inspiration behind the song "In New York, Everything Is Tropical," Sullivant had this to share, "It came to me in a dream. In my dream I was parasailing and the boat below me was blasting a No Doubt song... but it wasn't an actual No Doubt song, it was this song. I woke up and immediately transcribed the whole thing." The pop sensibilities of this track made it a fitting subject for Rich Travali (Pharrell, Jay-Z, Nas) to put his mixing touch on. Kuroma's overall sound brings together a perfect mix of guitar-driven garage rock and psychedelic pop.

Continue reading "Primal Scream adds Brooklyn show, tour dates w/ Kuroma "