by Andrew Sacher

Psychic Blood at Tommy's Tavern in 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro)

As mentioned, Exploding In Sound Records and Gimme Tinnitus are teaming up for an unofficial Northside showcase on Saturday (6/15) at Big Snow (89 Varet St) which features sets from a ton of great bands Speedy Ortiz, Pile, Two Inch Astronaut, Grass Is Green, Ovlov, Hive Bent, Fat History Month, and Porches. Doors are at 5 PM, admission is $7 or $5 with a Northside badge, and there will be free pizza while supplies last. If you like your indie rock like it was in the days of Dinosaur Jr, Archers of Loaf, Pavement, etc, you'll probably dig most of this showcase.

EIS and GT are also doing another showcase today (6/14) at Silent Barn (603 Bushwick Ave). This one's also got a ton of great music (and free pizza), including two of Brooklyn's best upcoming punk bands, Sleepies and Low Fat Getting High, noise rockers Eula, Western Mass psych rockers Psychic Blood (who also play the ridiculously good show at Shea on Sunday with Nu Sensae, Destruction Unit, and Big Ups), other local live staples like Yvette, Miniboone, Shark?, Krill, Life Size Maps, and still more. Doors for today's show open at 3 PM.

More info on both shows at the Facebook event. Flyers for both shows and song streams from some of the bands playing below...

Continue reading "EISGTNSIDE13 starts today (Psychic Blood, Sleepies, Speedy Ortiz, Two Inch Astronaut, Fat History Month & more)"

by Andrew Sacher

Low Fat Getting High at Cake Shop earlier this month (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Brooklyn punks Low Fat Getting High have been playing raucous local shows for some time now, and as mentioned, they're finally laying down that intensity for a new EP, which is called Bad Yoga, and has just been officially announced. The EP will be out on July 18 via Dead Broke/Money Fire Records. It kicks off with three tracks of menacing, breakneck-speed punk, and culminates in a fourth track of Bleach-style noise and sludge. The whole thing is just over ten minutes and it's a real ripper so keep an eye out for it. You can stream the opening track, "Better Better Worse," along with the artwork and tracklist below.

Low Fat Getting High have a ton of upcoming shows as usual, including a previously discussed Gimme Tinnitus-presented show TONIGHT (5/22) at Big Snow with another solid local punk band, Big Ups, CYHSY-related Radical Dads (for whom the show is a record release party), and Miniboone. $7 at the door gets you into tonight's show. Doors are at 8 PM. All ages. Show flyer below.

After that, they've got a bunch of other local dates, including a Converse Rubber Tracks show on June 12; Silent Barn on June 14 with another great local punk band, Sleepies, noise rockers Eula, indie rockers Shark?, sludgy psych rockers Psychic Blood and others; a release party for the new EP on July 18 at Shea Stadium with Big Ups, Vulture Shit, and Flagland (who play with Butter the Children and Ovlov soon); and even more local dates, all of which are listed below.

In related news, as mentioned, Big Ups and Psychic Blood also play a Northside show with Nu Sensae and Destruction Unit.

All LFGH dates are listed, along with the song stream and album info, below...

Continue reading "Low Fat Getting High announce new EP & upcoming shows"

Oberhofer @ The Congress, Chicago 11/10/2012 (more by Chase Turner)

Oberhofer are back with a new EP, Notalgia, which is out April 23 on Glassnote. You can stream the anthemic first single, "Earplugs," below (via Rolling Stone). Shortly after the new EP's release, Oberhofer will be heading out on a short East Coast tour starting in NYC at Glasslands on May 2 with Celestial Shore and Life Size Maps (tickets). All tour dates are listed, plus the Notalgia album art and song stream, below.

Continue reading "Oberhofer readies 'Notalgia,' touring (dates, stream)"

Javelin will be back with their second album, Hi Beams, on March 5 via Luaka Bop. Unlike their first album which the band made themselves on the cheap with a computer, Hi Beams was recorded at Machine With Magnets studio in Pawtucket, RI using vintage equipment, real microphones and the like. Was it worth it? Check out "Nnormal" from it below.

You can hear some other new songs, probably, when the band starts playing shows again next month. A proper tour starts around the album's release date, but there's a few East Coast shows before that, including one at Shea Stadium on February 1 with Guardian Alien and Life Size Maps. Advance tickets for that show are available.

All tour dates are listed below, along with the new song stream.

Continue reading "Javelin releasing 'Hi Beams' and 2013 tour (dates, stream)"

NYC indie rockers The Big Sleep released their third album, Nature Experiments, earlier this year and have been playing a number of local (and non-local) shows since. You'll have three more chances to catch the band in NYC this weekend and early next week. First, they'll support dredg at their Bowery Ballroom shows tonight (11/9) and Saturday (11/10). At tonight's show, dredg will be performing El Cielo in full and at Saturday's, they're playing Catch Without Arms. Ben Henderson is also on both dates. Tickets for both shows are still available.

Then after that, The Big Sleep will headline their own show at Brooklyn Bowl on Monday (11/12) with The Denzels and Life Size Maps. That show is free before 7 PM and $5 after.

Those dates in list format and a video below.

Continue reading "The Big Sleep playing Brooklyn Bowl after opening for dredg in NYC this weekend (dates)"

Murals at Pianos, July 2012 (more by Eric Townsend)

Louisville's Murals are visiting NYC this week for CMJ and are certainly contenders for the Most Shows award, playing nine times between now and Saturday, including the BrooklynVegan day party on Friday (10/19) at Public Assembly. Full line-up is still forthcoming but Murals play at 1 PM right before Deap Vally. If you haven't heard Murals's On a Passing Cloud LP, you can stream it below. The band were last here over the summer.

The band's run of shows begins tonight (10/15) with a Oh My Rockness Kickoff Party at Pianos, that also features Scott & Charlene's Wedding, Infinity Shred, Life Size Maps and Noxious Foxes. $8 at the door.

Other shows this week include Aquarium Drunkard's showcase at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday (10/16, 8 PM) with Rafiq Bhatia, Tashaki Miyaki and more, and then Pianos upstairs shortly after (9:30 PM, free) that same night that also features Team Spirit, Slam Donahue and more.

On Thursday (10/18), Murals play two shows: Pianos (1:30 PM, free) for the I Guess I'm Floating day party with Chad Valley, Hundred Waters and more, then the Bird Dog/Golden Ratio party (6:45 PM, being relocated from Deliquency, venue TBD, free) with Ava Luna, Royal Canoe and more.

On Friday (10/19) in addition to our day party, they'll play Pianos/The Deli's official CMJ showcase (9:30) with Young Magic, Mac Demarco and more. Then two shows on Saturday (10/20): the Bowery Presents Day Party at Pianos (3:30, free) with Savages, the Orwells and more; and finally Cake Shop that night (10 PM) with Francisco the Man, Field Mouse and more.

All Murals CMJ week dates are listed below, along with their album stream and show flyers.

Continue reading "Murals are in NYC for CMJ, playing 9 shows including kickoff party at Pianos tonight & BV day party on Friday (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Eternal Summers - You Kill (MP3)

via @EternalSummers

Eternal Summers will be here this weekened playing the curated-by-me Sound Bites Series on Sunday (8/12) afternoon at the Fulton Stall Market. I'll be DJing from 2PM and the band goes on at 3PM sharp. It's free. Were you wondering about their taste in vegetables?

Daniel: Carrots. I like to juice them.
Jonathan: Carrots too. I like to crunch em.
Nicole: Green Beans because they go with everything!

What's your least favorite and why?

Daniel: I like okra but sometimes okra can be kinda weird. I hope Okra doesn't read this!
Jonathan: Onion. Texture. Taste. Overrides everything. I don't dig.
Nicole: Radishes but they're not bad. Just not a staple.

Continue reading "Eternal Summers playing 285 Kent before Fulton Stall Market"

DIIV at Austin's Red 7 in April (more by Tim Griffin)

DIIV are about to hook up with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Doldrums on their tour which kicks off this week. DIIV won't be at either of UMO's NYC shows (6/7 at Mercury Lounge and 6/8 at Glasslands) but they'll be playing their own NYC show on Friday (6/8) at 285 Kent with Captured Tracks labelmates Mac DeMarco and MINKS, along with Life Size Maps, Crinkles, and Turnip King. Admission is $10 and there will be free pizza. (Nobody yell "food fight!" ok?) The flier for this show is below.

DIIV's debut full length, Oshin is due out June 26 via Captured Tracks. The band just spoke to John Norris for an interview with Interview Magazine about the album:

JOHN NORRIS: Guys, this is a band that only a year ago had just barely begun, right? And at the time you just had a handful of songs?

SMITH: [Our first show was in the] end of July. It's funny, when I was first writing songs for this record, all the song titles would be just like the date, and then a short word describing it. And I could probably look back and see that I recorded some song on the record like today, exactly one year ago. Basically I wrote all the songs, with a few exceptions, in May of last year.

NORRIS: In a very concentrated amount of time?

SMITH: Yeah, yeah, real concentrated. A couple of the songs that don't sound anything like each other, I wrote on the same day, within like 10 minutes of each other.

After the UMO tour, DIIV have a number of other dates scheduled, including a few more in NYC: their record release show in Brooklyn at Glasslands on June 21 with Forma, PC Worship, and VIncent Cacchione (DJ) (tickets), a short run with Best Coast, including the Terminal 5 show (7/17) (tickets), and the free River Rocks show with Grimes and Wild Nothing (8/9).

Meanwhile, Beach Fossils (who also count DIIV's Zachary Cole Smith as a member) have an upcoming NYC show opening for Jens Lekman and of Montreal in McCarren Park on June 15, the same day DIIV plays a NXNE show. Wonder what this means for Beach Fossil's lineup at the McCarren Park show.

A list of all dates and video and show flier below...

Continue reading "DIIV playing 285 Kent before UMO tour (dates & new video)"

Hilly Eye at Acheron earlier this month (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Annual all ages, DIY music festival Hillstock is returning to Brooklyn this year from June 22-24 across four spaces in Clinton Hill. Day 1 (6/22) begins with a kickoff party at Free Candy on 905 Atlantic Ave with Math the Band, Ava Luna, Hop Along, Heaven's Gate, and more. On day 2 (6/23) we'll get the free block party at 106 Emerson Place with Hilly Eye, The Suzan, Life Size Maps, Swear and Shake, surprise guests and more, followed by a $5 afterparty with Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt, Twitchers, Nuclear Santa Claust, and Sega Genocide. The fest wraps up on 6/24 with a backyard picnic at 402½ Park Avenue headlined by surprise guests and also featuring Archipelago, Emilyn Brodsky, Modern Hut, and more.

The full schedule, flier and a trailer video are below...

Continue reading "Hillstock returning to Brooklyn in June (Hilly Eye, The Suzan, Math the Band, Ava Luna & more)"

Frankie Rose @ Township (more by Sarah Frankie Linder)

In addition to the Jens Lekman/Of Montreal show at Williamsburg Park, the Northside Festival (June 14 - 17) just announced a slew of confirmed artists who'll be playing this year, including Future of the Left, the U.S. debut of Iceage-spinoff Vår (formerly War), Frankie Rose (playing the BrooklynVegan showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg with more TBA), Grass Widow, Cleveland's Gap Dream, Wymond Miles of the Fresh & Onlys,  Chain & the Gang, Kool Keith and more.

Other 2012 Northside Festival artists we've already posted about include Olivia Tremor Control, GZA, Neil Hamburger, Eternal Summers, Ceremony and Screaming Females and Royal Headache. Badges are on sale now and the full list of confirmed 2012 Northside artists is below.

Continue reading "more Northside Festival artists announced (Frankie Rose, Grass Widow, Felice Brothers, Buke & Gass, Vår, Gap Dream & more)"

DOWNLOAD: La Sera - "Please Be My Third Eye" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: La Sera - "Break My Heart" (MP3)

La Sera at the Bell House in 2011 (more by Jessica Amaya)

Vivian Girl Kickball Katy Goodman released her second album as La Sera, Sees the Light, earlier this year via Hardly Art. The album continues in the vein of the catchy indie pop of her 2011 self titled debut. You can grab two tracks from the new album, "Please By My Third Eye" and "Break My Heart" above or stream them below.

La Sera will kick off a tour this month in support of the album which culminates in a NYC show at Cameo Gallery on May 19 with Life Size Maps and The New Lines. Tickets are on sale now.

Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone's band The Babies plays Glasslands on June 6 with Nude Beach.

All La Sera dates and streams below...

Continue reading "La Sera going on May tour (dates & MP3s)"

The Babies @ Cake Shop - 2/6/2012 (more by Jessica Amaya)

285 Kent, the most difficult venue to keep track of in terms of who is playing, is hosting a show TONIGHT (Thursday, 2/9):

===| THURSDAY 2/9 @ 285 KENT AVE |====
:: Alex Bleeker and the Freaks
:::: the Babies
:::::: Darlings
:::::::: Life Size Maps --- ep release
:::::::::: Heaven's Gate
285 Kent Ave @ South 1st | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy | 8pm | $7-$10 sliding scale donation | all ages

Continue reading "Vivian Girls playing free Fashion Week event; The Babies are at 285 Kent tonight with Alex Bleeker"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Cloud Nothings - "Stay Useless" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: My Best Fiend - "Higher Palms" (MP3)

Nada Surf

The column comes early as it's a busy week and there are lots of shows to talk about. First up, venerable NYC trio Nada Surf's new album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, is out today and the band play Bowery Ballroom this evening to celebrate. Tonight's show is sold out but Nada Surf will be streaming the show live via their YouTube channel starting at 10PM. The band then head out for a good two months of touring and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

The band's seventh album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, is another fine record in Nada Surf's catalog of positive-vibe guitar pop, bolstered this time out by Doug Gillard who provides a lot of great lead work. This kind of music may not be in fashion right now, but it also never really goes out of style. And they do it really well You can stream or download the ebullient first single "Waiting for Something" at the bottom of this post and Spotify users can listen to the album here.

Cloud Nothings - 'Attack on Memory'

Also out today: Cloud Nothings' Attack on Memory which, as Andrew noted a couple weeks ago, is much more sophisticated and agressive than the tuneful pop-punk the band have released in the past. They're still writing catchy songs -- check out "Stay Useless at the top of this post -- but the shift is fairly radical, so much so that main man Dylan Baldi briefly considered changing the name of the band. (It's not that radical.) It's a very good album, and you can listen to it on Spotify and watch the brand-new video for "No Future/No Past" at the bottom of this post.

The album, you may have seen, got Best New Music on the 'Fork yesterday, and despite this there are still tickets to be had for Cloud Nothings' show this Thursday (1/26) at The Studio @ Webster Hall though I imagine not for long. Knowing how good the band are live (what a drummer!) I'm really anxious to hear these songs live. It's a one-off show, but the band will tour starting mid-February including, need I say it, time in Austin for SXSW. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

The Hundred in the Hands - Bowery Ballroom Feb. 2011 (more)
 

The Hundred in the Hands are playing their first show in a long time this Friday (1/27) at Glasslands, which will give us the first taste of the duo's second album which will be out on Warp at some point this year. While they haven't released any tracks from it yet, they are still updating the THITH Zine, the band's culture zine that most recently interview artist Zander Blom. There's a lot of interesting stuff in the archives that's worth checking out.

My Best Fiend

A lot of people will be at Glasslands on Friday just to check out THITH's Warp labelmates My Best Fiend whose album In Ghostlike Fading is out February 21. My Best Fiend are not your typical Warp act, closer to the space blues of Spiritualized or My Morning Jacket (or Neil Young) than the electronic music that fills most of the label's roster. The band have been plugging away in the Brooklyn scene for upwards of seven years and its good to see it pay off for them. You can download album-opener "Higher Palms" at the top of this post and you can stream "Cracking Eggs" (which features Light Asylum's Shannon Fuchness) further down.

The Glasslands show also features duo Bikini who make unapologetic four-on-the-floor dancefloor fodder, and Bear in Heaven will be DJing between sets, hopefully not playing all the records at 400,000% slower than normal.

Guy Harvey

And finally we have Florida's Guy Harvey, which is a band and not a solo artist and should not to be confused with Elbow frontman Guy Garvey which I did for half a second. The band are on tour with Gainsville residents Averkiou and hit NYC this weekend for two shows: Friday (1/27) at Cake Shop and Saturday (1/28) at Death by Audio. All GH/Averkiou dates are at the bottom of this post.

You may recognize Guy Harvey frontman Adam Perry from his moonlighting gig as an auxiliary member of Surfer Blood. There's not a lot of Guy Harvey music out there to listen to, but both sides of a 2010 7" (streamable below) are ace, with a strong Flying Nun influence. If you liked the Twerps album from last year, give Guy Harvey a listen. Averkiou, meanwhile, make fuzzy, shoegazy pop not too far from early Teenage Fanclub. Check out a few streaming tracks at the bottom of this post.

Friday's Cake Shop show is with Byrdsy locals Slow Country whose new album is a name-your-price download at their Bandcamp and is quite nice. Saturday's show at Death by Audio also has underrated Brooklyn bands I'm Turning Into and Bright Lights. Either show is worth checking out. Or go to both!

That's the main stuff for this week. Below are a few more picks, day-by-day, of shows not covered otherwise.

The Hairs

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24

There's a TWII-approved line-up at East Village mainstay Lit Lounge -- that is now booking bands I've heard of again -- with The Hairs (new single out next month), Pigeons, and Gross Relations.

Friends have shown up on most of the "Bands to Watch in 2012" lists. Go watch them in 2012, tonight, at Cameo as part of a very solid bill with Phonetag and Spanish Prisoners.

continued below...

Continue reading "Nada Surf, Cloud Nothings, Hundred in the Hands, My Best Fiend, Guy Harvey, Averkiou & more in This Week in Indie"