Let's start by quoting what Bill wrote in May:

Like a lot of folks, Malajube made a big impression on me in 2006 with their record Trompe-L'Oeil and, even more, their string of fantastic CMJ performances that year. The tunes were catchy, they were great live, the language barrier didn't matter so much. I must admit 2009's Labarinthes didn't make much of an impression but I've really been enjoying the band's brand new album La Cavern. The album is out now in Canada and will be available in the U.S. sometime soon on MB3 Records.

The new album walks the line between guitar pop and space rock and I keep imagining them performing songs like the vaguely disco "Le Blizzard" on the Muppet Show. There's a general soft filter '70s vibe to the whole of La Cavern that feels very comforting.

We now know that La Caverne is out physically in the US on September 27th, AND Malajube are back in NYC for two shows. They play tonight (September 16) at Mercury Lounge with Brian Bonz, and Saturday (September 17) at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn with Les Sans Culottes and Jonny Chan & The New Dynasty 6.

The two shows are the start of a US invasion that is spread out between now and October 8th when they play Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT as part of a run of dates with fellow Canadians The Besnard Lakes. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Malajube are here, touring the U.S. (dates)"

photos by Kurt Christensen

Electric Six @ the Bell House

Electric Six played The Bell House on Thursday (6/2), a day before they played Maxwell's (6/3), with support from Les Sans Culottes and Township. Pictures and the setlist from the Brooklyn show are in this post.

The band have since announced a North American tour that will run from September-November before they head overseas in late November for a string of European dates. The tour includes a NYC show at Bowery Ballroom on October 28. Information on tickets TBA as of this post, but keep your eyes on Ticketmaster.

All tour dates and more pictures from the Brooklyn show, and the setlist too, below...

Continue reading "Electric Six announce tour (dates), played The Bell House w/ Township & Les Sans Culottes (pics & setlist) "

According to Glide Magazine,

There are three rules that one must follow when getting ready to attend an Electric Six show:

1. Wear your dancing shoes.
2. Drink plenty of water.
3. Take the next day off work.

Take note, because after a show in Asbury Park last night, Electric Six are now back in NYC with Township. Both bands play The Bell House tonight (6/2) with Les Sans Culottes, and Maxwell's Friday (6/3). Tickets for The Bell House and Maxwell's shows are available. All tour dates and some electric videos, below...

Continue reading "Electric Six are here (Bell House, Maxwell's, other dates)"

"The new location, 20 blocks away in South Park Slope, was previously home to a short-lived bar called Ellis. "I was looking a lot in this neighborhood," said co-owner Donald O'Finn, who managed the old Freddy's. "It reminded me a lot of what Park Slope used to be when I moved here 20 years ago."

O'Finn and a team of about 12 regulars worked to bring the feel of the old Freddy's to the new location. The list of knickknacks can go on forever: The bar itself is the same "prohibition-era old mahogany," he said. The same tables and stools are back again as well. A piece of graffiti-covered bathroom wall is framed on the wall. A large mounted Marlin, a reference to play by Tennessee Williams, has been refinished.

"This place was pretty conscious and intentional," O'Finn said. "Every inch of this place was considered."" [Wall Street Journal]

Freddy's Bar [627 Fifth Ave. between 17th and 18th streets in Park Slope, (718) 768-8131] opens tonight, and Brute Force isn't the only one playing music on the bill. Les Sans Culottes (who headline at midnight) and The Magpie will be performing too. More events are listed below..

Continue reading "Freddy's Bar opens tonight (initial schedule)"

by Chris La Putt

On January 28th, Tragedy (the all-metal Bee Gees tribute band), was slated to perform at Maxwell's in Hoboken but was abruptly cancelled. Rumors of band break-up were confirmed when it was announced in March that their last show would take place at the Bowery Ballroom on March 12th. I've never had the Tragedy experience before and thought it best to at least document it. I arrived early to see the Blondest (a Blondie cover band), Les Sans Culottes (a faux French Brooklyn-based band), and the Upper Crust (an aristocratic hard rock band dressed in period wigs and costume). It was bemusing display of outlandishment but all three bands paled in comparison to Tragedy and their resplendent metal debauchery of the Gibb brothers' music.

For the encore, Moby arrives and plays a coruscating melody on a sparkling Gibson Flying V. Tragedy's lead singer strips off his immaculate disco suit and displays to the crowd a one-piece string mankini barely covering his package and butt crack. The band's cover of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff reverberates throughout Bowery. As the barely clothed lead singer moons the crowd, a girl near me lays her hand on his ass cheeks and plays them as if they are some hairy bongo drums.

Tragedy is gone, but its members are still keeping busy. In fact, Tragedy Phil and Moby have formed a new rock band with Dave Hill called Diamondnsake (catch them at Highlline Ballroom on June 17th).

More pictures from the epic Bowery Ballroom show can be seen below:

Continue reading "Tragedy played their final show @ Bowery Ballroom w/ the Upper Crust, Moby & others - belated pics (NSFW)"

photos by Paul Birman

Black Taxi

We already posted Brooklyn Bowl, Market Hotel, the Vice party, Weezer, and lots of pictures from the parade. Here's what it looked like at (and around) Mercury Lounge on October 31st....

Continue reading "Halloween 2009 at (and around) Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Desktop - Desktop EP (ZIP - 192 KB/S)

Electric Six on a Rocks Off Boat in NYC - Aug 20, 2009 (.A.A.)

When we left Electric Six last week, they were preparing a new album, KILL, due October 20th on Metropolis Records, and just about to play a boat....

"There's something a little unnerving about being anywhere for hours if you have absolutely no option to leave. So boarding a rock 'n' roll party boat for a three-hour concert cruise might not be for everyone; if you wind up hating the music, getting into a fight with your friends, or feeling violently ill, there's literally no way out until the boat docks.

That element of captivity feels more like a release, though, if you set sail at sunset on the Hudson and the bands are Electric Six, who are out east touring from Michigan, and Les Sans Culottes, the very best faux French retro-rock band in all of Brooklyn. Especially if the boat is named "The Temptress" and has multiple bars and a dance floor (and even if its aroma calls to mind the perspiration of generations past).

Electric Six's "Dick Valentine," the nicest front man who ever moved raving-drunk audience members to perform at-sea body-surfing, said that some people traveled hundreds of miles, some thousands of miles, to be at the show. Screams from the crowd indicated that perhaps it wasn't a joke." [Elle Magazine]

I wouldn't call a 3-hour boat ride a commitment to captivity, but to each his/her own.

Electric Six's post-river cruise plans include a full fall tour, which will feature opening sets by The Gay Blades and Millions of Brazilians. All three will play on Friday, October 16th at NYC's Hiro Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Thursday August 27th at noon. They'll also be in town for a show at Brooklyn's Southpaw on October 18th. Tickets for that are on sale now.

Electric Six bassist Keith Thompson and Zach Curd from The Pop Project recently launched a side-project under the name Desktop. The group's free three-song EP, linked above, shows off a knack for quirky, bedroom-casio-meets-'80s-prom-night electronic disco.

More info on Desktop and all E6 tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Electric Six tour dates ++ a free Desktop EP (E6 side-project)"

The following can be attributed to Dick Valentine [Electric Six singer]:

Hello everybody. We've needed an update for a while, but I am of the mind that you don't force things like that. You bring it when it's time to bring it. Yes, we've been recording and I suppose that's newsworthy. Our sixth album will be finished soon and it will be released in October. It sounds wonderful and I fully intend for this to be the first Electric Six album that sees each and every song being included in our live set when we tour this fall. Because you see, I am getting older and I have very little patience for bullshit.

Electric Six's sixth album, KILL, is set to come out October 20th on Metropolis Records.

The band has a short run of August dates before their not-yet-announced album-supporting tour this fall. The first of those takes place tonight (Aug 19th) at Maxwell's with Les Sans Culottes and Jemina Pearl (Be Your Own Pet). Tickets are still on sale.

The group also plays a Thursday, August 20th Rocks Off Concert Cruise show aboard the Temptress, again with Les Sans Culottes. Tickets are on sale for that too. The band played a similar boat cruise last year. A video of that gig with a brief introductory clip from Tragedy, the all metal Bee Gees tribute band, with all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Electric Six - new album soon, four August shows (dates) "

Art Brut @ Mercury Lounge - 11/10/05 (more photos)

Art Brut Five night NYC run @ Mercury Lounge is coming...

Mon 6/1 (Tickets)
Art Brut 10:00
Demander 9:00
The Picture 8:00

Tue 6/2 (Tickets)
Art Brut 10:00
Murder Mystery 9:00
Les Sans Culottes 8:00

Wed 6/3 (Tickets)
Art Brut 10:00
Tiny Masters Of Today 9:00
U.S. Royalty 8:00

Thu 6/4 (SOLD OUT)
Art Brut 10:00
Cymbals Eat Guitars 9:00
Phil & The Osophers 8:00

Fri 6/5 (SOLD OUT)
Art Brut 11:00
Special Guest 10:00
Keith TOTP & his Minor US Indie Celebrity All Star Backing Band 9:00 - DJ Eamon Hamilton (BrakesBrakesBrakes) 8:00

At first i thought, "do I really ever need to see Art Brut again?" Then I listened to the new album (Art Brut vs. Satan - out now on Downtown Records), and thought, "I really do want to see Art Brut again!", especially if again happens at a venue as small as Mercury Lounge.

As you can see above, tickets are still available for three of the five NYC shows. All dates HERE.

As you can also see above, the final night, now unfortunately sold out, seems to be the most special. Not only will it be the final night, but Keith TOTP means they're keeping it in the family ("Minor US Indie Celebrity All Star Backing Band" included), and "special guest" means, well... "Special Guest". If I could take one guess, my guess would be Art Brut 47 (aka We are Scientists), but that is just a guess.

A video diary of the recording of the new Art Brut album, with producer Frank Black (who by the way is playing the Siren Festival this year), is posted below...

Continue reading "5 NYC nights worth of Art Brut openers (one 'special guest') "