photos by Nathan Miller

"The Lutheran Church of the Messiah across from McGolrick Park in Greenpoint is a ghostly, candle lit basement performance state filled with cobwebs and perfect for the gothic folk of Marissa Nadler. Nadler, who is touring in support of her soon-to-be-released Little Hells, a record which finds the Boston based songwriter exploring the sonic textures of her sullen, pastoral folk, played solo on Friday night, ditching her live band for a more intimate performance with just her, her guitar, and the occasional banjo. Friday night's set was a welcome run through of Songs III stands outs like "Sylvia", "Dying Breed" and "Salutations in the Dark", as well as Little Hells highlights "Heart Paper Lover", "Ghosts & Lovers" and "Cobwebs." The especially intimate affair (most of the audience was seated Indian style on the floor) also featured an intensely poignant rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire". Nadler, who switched between a six string Taylor and a twelve string Martin, was in a jovial mood, laughing about how critics had been labeling "Mistress on a Sunny Day", the Little Hells closer, an "uplifting" tune, something that doesn't really exist in Nadler's canon. The warm, rainy night in Greenpoint ended with Marissa doing a version of "Dead Wives Club" on banjo, an appropriate end to a somber evening with the gothic folk princess." [Chocolate Bobka]

One night later Marissa played the final in-store at Sound Fix Records. More dates including a March 4th one at Joe's Pub, HERE. More pictures from the church show below...

Continue reading "Marissa Nadler, MV & EE and Mountainhood @ the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint - pics"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: MV & EE and the Golden Road - Anyway (MP3)

The New England psych-raga rockers MV+EE and the Golden Road are playing tonight (1/20) at Cake Shop (set at 11pm, $7, 21+), and tomorrow (1/21) at Monster Island Basement with Spectre Folk, Kurt Vile, Pink Reason, and Christian DeRoek of Little Gold (8pm, $7, all ages). After a Jan/Feb tour down the East Coast, MV+EE will then get back to NYC for a February 27 gig at Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint with Marissa Nadler and Mountainhood (a.k.a. Michael Curtis Hilde who's hosting the gig as part of his The Story series - this one is Chapter XII: Blisses).

Today, MV+EE and the Golden Road dropped a new duo-and-friends LP/CD, Drone Trailer, this time on San Francisco's Dicristina Stair Builders label. The band, fond of recording and releasing albums, worked with Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label on 2007's Gettin' Gone and last year's Astral Bleachers/Big Moment limited-edition live bootleg. The band's blog also reports that "[MV+EE] got some deep live archives being waxed for heroine celestial agriculture[EE's label] for the jan/feb tour as well as a sweet deluxe C.O.M. - all heads be united." I'm not really sure what that last part means...

Thurston Moore recently gave his Top 10 of 2008 - listing MV Carbon's The Dislodged Parahelion CD at No. 7. MV Carbon, a Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist, is a similarly dubbed, but totally different person than MV+EE's Matt Valentine. All tour dates and a video below...

Continue reading "MV & EE - 2009 tour dates & more album releases "

Calvin Johnson mural @ Dept of Safety, Anacortes, Washington (K Records)

Feb 14, 2008 - New York, New York
New York University, Shorin Hall - w/ Karl Blau 8PM All Ages

Feb 17, 2008 - New York, New York
Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery - 4PM

Feb 18, 2008 - Brooklyn, New York
Lutheran Church of the Messiah, 129 Russell St (at Nassau, Greenpoint, Brooklyn G-Nassau or L-Graham) -w/ Karl Blau & Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me) 8:00PM $7.00 All Ages

All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Calvin Johnson - 2008 Tour Dates, 3 NYC shows, Karl Blau"

DOWNLOAD: Thao and The Get Down Stay Down - Beat (Health, Life, and Fire) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thao and The Get Down Stay Down - Fear and Convenience (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Xiu Xiu - I Do What I Want When I Want (MP3)

Xiu Xiu @ Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, NY - Jan 4, 2008 (CRED)

Xiu Xiu's new album Women As Lovers is out on Kill Rock Stars on January 28th. You can stream the whole thing at MySpace. Thao (Nguyen) and the Get Down Stay Down's We Brave Be Stings And All is out the same day (or one day later) - also on Kill Rock Stars. Naturally, Xiu and Thao are going on tour together. Their NY stops look like this:

03-24 Purchase, NY - Student Center (SUNY Purchase)
03-23 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
03-25 New York, NY - Fordham University

Xiu Xiu is suing Rolling Stone. How was the church show? All dates below.....

Continue reading "Xiu Xiu & Thao Nguyen - 2008 Tour Dates, album stream"