words by Bill Pearis, LoD photos by Bryan Bruchman

DOWNLOAD: Wetdog - Lower Leg (MP3)

London trio Wetdog are in town this week, playing Glasslands on Friday (4/2) with Blank Dogs and Wild Nothing, and then Saturday (4/3) at Death by Audio with Australia's Love of Diagrams and Coasting. In the UK the band are on Angular Records -- home of These New Puritans, Klaxons, and the late Long Blondes -- and have just inked with Captured Tracks in the U.S. who've just released the band's debut album, Frauhaus! There's a definite early '80s post punk vibe to these ladies' sound that might have you thinking of early Fall or Liliput/Kleenex or The Slits (with whom they've toured), though they don't really sound like any of them specifically. They're good. Check out their excellent single "Lower Leg" at the top of this post.

The Friday show at Glasslands has three Captured Tracks bands on the bill. Label head honcho Mike Sniper fronts Blank Dogs, who now have a new live lineup that, to quote Sniper in Fact Magazine, is "more wimpy, less rock-sounding."  They've also got a new EP, Phrases, which finds them crawling out of the murky muck of previous releases for what is probably the least affected thing they've ever done. It's still dark and moody, but there's a clarity of sound that we've yet to hear from BDs.

Blank Dogs have have a short East Coast/Midwest tour lined up with Wetdog over the next ten days or so, and will then continue on by themselves to the West Coast which is followed by two more NYC shows in May. All dates are at the bottom of this post.

Then there's Wild Nothing from Virginia who've released two singles on Captured Tracks already, and the label will release the band's debut, Gemini, later this year. The album's pretty great, the kind of dreampop that Sarah Records did so well in the late '80s/early '90s.  A one-man band on the recordings, Wild Nothing haven't quite figured out the live version just yet (a better drummer would help) but they're getting there. And the songs are there, which is a lot more than most bands this young can claim. The Glasslands show looks to be a one-off.

Love of Diagrams were one of many foreign bands that played a bunch of shows at SXSW earlier this month. They'll also play a few while in NYC. In addition to the Death by Audio show with Wetdog, they have gigs scheduled at Santos with Holiday Shores and Cake Shop. All of those dates with a set of pictures of the band in Austin, along with the Blank Dogs/Wetdog dates and a video for Wetdog's "Lower Leg", below...

Continue reading "Wetdog (MP3) touring w/ Blank Dogs (new EP), playing NYC shows including 1 w/ Love of Diagrams (dates & SXSW pics) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Crayon Fields - All the Pleasures of the World (MP3)

Crayon Fields

One of my favorite albums of 2009 was the baroque pop gem All the Pleasures of the World from Melbourne, Australia's Crayon Fields. It's ten swoony epics in miniature, recalling The Zombies and The Left Banke without ever directly ripping them off. You can download the album's title track at the top of this post. The band are making their first trip to the U.S. to play SXSW but then are heading to New York for four shows: Bruar Falls on March 23, The Sycamore on March 24, The Bell House on March 25, and Pianos on March 26.

The Bruar Falls show is especially noteworthy and pretty unmissable in my opinion. Also playing is singer Kath Bloom who is something of a cult hero in folk circles. You might know her song "Come Here" which was used prominently in Richard Linklater's film Before Sunrise. (Crayon Fields covered the song as a b-side last year too.) Chapter Music, which is Crayon Fields' label, has been a champion of her for some time, reissuing much of her impossible-to-find '70s/'80s catalog, as well as new material, including 2008's Terror, her first official new album since 1984.

Last year, Chapter Music released Loving Takes This Course, a two-CD set that featured one disc of covers by the likes of Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan and The Dodos, and a second disc of the original Kath Bloom songs that were covered on the first disc. Kath's brand new album, Thin Thin Line, which got an 8.0 on Pitchfork. She doesn't play very many shows and I'd imagine her alone would be enough to get people out to the show.

But there's more. Also on the Bruar Falls bill is Australian indie legend Richard Davies, who in the early '90s fronted The Moles (get their essential, out-of-print debut, Untune the Sky, any way you can) and then went on to form chamber pop group Cardinal with Eric Matthews (their 1994 debut is equally amazing ), and then a three album solo career that ended when he gave up rock for a law degree in 2000. But Davies has become active in music again as of last year. First came Cosmos, a collaboration with uber-prolific Robert Pollard, that is worth picking up. This year will see a new Davies solo record and the long-rumored second Cardinal album, both of which will be released by Chapter Music.

Fouth performer on the Bruar Falls line-up is Guy Blackman, who writes "sensitive piano ballads that aim to make straight white men feel slightly uncomfortable by confronting them with my renegade sexuality" and who has also run Chapter Music since starting the label in 1992. Chapter Music releases a lot of great stuff: Pikelett, The Twerps and Tenniscoats among them.

The Bell House show The Crayon Fields are playing is the second-annual Aussie BBQ that features 12 (!) bands from down under: The Chevelles, Love of Diagrams, Pets with Pets, Paul Dempsey, Sherlock's Daughter, Children Collide, Oh Mercy, City Riots, Beaches, Bliss N Eso, and The Goons of Doom. As the name implies, there will also be Australian BBQ and beer. Sounds like fun. Maybe you went last year?

All Crayon Fields tour dates, plus three of their music videos are below.

Continue reading "Crayon Fields playing SXSW & NYC, Australian BBQ in Brooklyn & a show w/ Kath Bloom & Richard Davies (dates) "