Howlin Rain (photo by Fitz)

A hearty welcome goes to The Russian Wilds, Howlin Rain's new LP due on Valentine's Day 2012 via American Recordings. Head to the band's site for a new track, "Phantom In The Valley", in exchange for your email address. Or just listen to it below along with the new album's trailer too.

The Russian Wilds will be on display when Howlin Rain hits the road for a string of US dates leading to SXSW which will include NYC twice: Mercury Lounge on 2/7 (tickets) and Brooklyn Bowl on 2/8 (tickets). All dates are listed below.

Both shows, and at least three more on the east coast, will feature "supergroup" Soldiers of Fortune, comprised of Brad Truax (Home), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf) and Kid Millions (Oneida). They released a 12" via Mexican Summer. You can listen to the 8+ minute jam "Yes to Everything" below.

All tour dates and those songs, below...

Continue reading "Howlin Rain releasing new LP, touring, playing shows w/ Sweeney+Oneida+Truax supergroup Soldiers of Fortune"

Anna Ternheim @ Joe's Pub in 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Known for his work with Skunk, Chavez, Zwan, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Neil Diamond, and even now Win Win, Matt Sweeney played guitar on Anna Ternheim's 2009 Björn Yttling-produced album Leaving on a mayday, and he will be playing guitar with Anna when she takes the stage at Rockwood Music Hall tonight (2/9), and at the Living Room on Saturday (2/12). They'll mostly be playing new songs she's been working on, most of them for the first time ever. She has no other tour dates scheduled at the moment. Some videos below...

Continue reading "Anna Ternheim playing shows w/ Matt Sweeney "

DOWNLOAD: Win Win - Releaserpm ft. Lizzie Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Win Win - Interleave ft. Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor (MP3)

Win Win

Win Win, a new crew featuring Devlin, XXXChange, and Ghostdad, have a self-titled LP due via Vice Records on Feb 15th. The LP features many guest shouts over its 15 songs including Lizzie Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance (check out "ReleaseRPM" and its remix above and below), Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip (check out "Interleave" above and below), Matt Sweeney, Spank Rock, Andrew WK, and many others. Lizzie and Alexis will also be on hand to perform live with Win Win at their record release party at the Andrew WK co-owned Santos Party House on 2/15. The free show will take place downstairs at Santos while Odd Future is on the first floor ("limited tickets available at the door" for the sold out show).

Alexis Taylor also has a gig of his own scheduled a few days later. He'll bless the 1's and 2's at Brooklyn Bowl on 2/19.

Alexis Taylor has also been keeping busy with another new project...

"There are many surprising things indeed to be discovered in the course of listening to Start and Complete, the new album from About Group (out APRIL 26, 2011 on Domino Records), but perhaps none more so than the beautifully unorthodox genesis of the band itself.

Comprising Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Charles Hayward (This Heat), John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized) and Pat Thomas, who has played with the likes of Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley and others, the band originally formed to make a record of improvised music for the Treader label in 2009, having never played together as a whole before the day it took them to make their first album. After a clutch of live performances (supporting Gang Gang Dance, playing Ornette Coleman's Meltdown Festival and even Glastonbury, among others) they regrouped to record this album. [Domino Records]

An About Group video trailer with full album tracklist, with a whole bunch of Win Win stuff, below...

Continue reading "Win Win playing show w/ LP guests - GGD's Lizzie Bougatsos & Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor (who is also in About Group)"

C93's David Tibet with Sasha Grey

S&S: Are you interested in the occult or any other mystical systems? Have you ever experimented with sex magick?

Sasha Grey: Thanks to Jimmy Paige and C93, I became quite fascinated with the writings of Aleister Crowley, and later LaVey. I am sex magic.

S&S: You recently collaborated with David Tibet on Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain. What was it like working with him?

Sasha: We have an interesting relationship as our lives are drastically different, but there's definitely a subconcious connection that happens between us. I recorded my vocals literally in a few hours, and I was, and still am quite self concious about my music yet I still immensly enjoy the process.

Back in September it was announced that there would be a series of Current 93 shows in April and May in London & NYC. Well, NYC didn't happen, but London did just get two:

"I and all of C93 want to thank everyone who attended the two concerts in London; without you we are nothing. We also want to thank Comus, Simon Finn, Nurse With Wound, Rameses III and These New Puritans for appearing. We were absolutely astounded by all their sets.

Personally, I wish to thank all of C93: Andrew W.K., Matt Sweeney, Keith Wood, James Blackshaw, Stephen Emmel, William Breeze, Baby Dee, Michael Cashmore, Eliot Bates, John Contreras, Andrew Liles, Sarah Dietrich and Alex Neilson. To have Bill Fay appear with us was an experience that was so meaningful for us all; Bill Fay is Divinity! And thank you Sebastian Horsley for introducing us on both nights--I love you!" [David Tibet]

Andrew WK was there, and I'm sure he will be again when the NYC shows actually do happen. That's because David has also announced that "C93 will be playing two or three nights at Santos Party House in NYC [Andrew's club], probably some time between 10-20 October. More details soon. These will be our only US shows this year." Stay tuned for more details.

David Tibet contributed to Baby Dee's recently released A Book of Songs for Anne Marie, out now on Drag City. Baby Dee is touring with Swans.

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Guilty Simpson & Bumps - Drums (MP3)

A new Madvillain track, "Papermill," is online to stream and download. The Madlib's wirey '70s cop chase sample and top-form wordplay from DOOM are both good signs that the pair is putting in some serious effort to follow-up 2004's Madvillainy. The label writes that the song will be on the new album, which is still a work in progress.

The song is online as part of the Adult Swim singles series, which has been distributing tracks weekly. Madvillian was the second song, and there's already one from Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney. On the way is music from Black Lips, Freddie Gibbs, Killer Mike, High on Fire, Cults and Washed Out.

To measure just how long the new Madvillain is taking in Madlib-years (remember, he already put out his own part 2 of their debut), consider the fact that Stones Throw gave the beatmaker his own label imprint, Madlib Invazion, in early '10, and that's now in the process of releasing one Madlib CD a month for 12 months. The most recent edition, Madlib Medicine Show #5: History Of The Loop Digga, 1990-2000, collects "Madlib's previously unreleased, made-for-cassette 90s work" under the Loop Digga name (and comes with a comic book to boot).

Madlib's "OJ Simpson" collaborator Guilty Simpson recently released a track with Bumps, the beatmaking trio of Tortoise drummers John McEntire, John Herndon and Dan Bitney. You can get that above. The OJ Simpson album is out now on Stones Throw.

Tortoise kick off a tour in June that brings them to NYC for a June 23rd show at Le Poisson Rouge as part of the Care Fusion Jazz Festival. Tickets are still on sale.

All Tortoise dates and some classic Madvillain videos are below...

Continue reading "updated Tortoise dates, new tracks from Madvillain, Adult Swim, Guilty Simpson, Bonnie Prince Billy & Bumps"

Bonnie Prince Billy @ the Apollo Theater - May 21, 2009 (crespa´s)

"last nights bonnie 'prince' billy concert at the apollo was supreme. jim white on drums. emmett kelly on guitar. josh abrams on bass. cheyenne mize on violin and vocals. matt sweeney dueting on blood embrace." [here i am. there you are]

Bonnie Prince Billy @ Santos Party House - May 20, 2009 (Catharine Connell)

Bonnie Prince Billy concluded his two night, NYC run last night. More dates HERE. A shot from each of the NYC shows is above. Most of the Santos setlist is below...

Continue reading "Bonnie Prince Billy played Santos PH & the Apollo Theater "

Crocodiles @ Emo's in Austin (SXSW) - March 18, 2009

tonight in NYC
* The Drones, EMOK @ Pianos
* Bang on a Can @ Merkin Hall
* Balkan Beat Box @ Webster Hall
* Ray LaMontagne @ Wellmont Theater
* Questlove (the FANtastic) @ (le) poisson rouge
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band @ Blue Note
* Asobi Seksu, Tyvek, Crocodiles @ Bowery Ballroom
* Japanther, NinjaSonik, Mountain High @ The Shank
* The Black Tie Party, The Giraffes @ The Bowery Electric
* Endless Boogie, Children, Chin Chin @ Santos Party House !
* The Cave Singers, The Antlers, Phantogram @ Mercury Lounge
* USAISAMONSTER, The Library Is On Fire, Pterodactyl @ Glasslands
* Ariel Pink, Vivian Girls, Cryptacize @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Bad Veins, Eulogies, Josh Wise (of The French Kicks) @ Union Hall
* Wizardry, Heavy Hands, La Otracina, Kreisor, Radio America @ Southpaw
* Scrambler/Seequil, Frank Sidebottom, Imaginary Weapons, Lost Boy @ Cake Shop
* Dan Deacon, Teeth Mountain, Future Islands, Miracles of Modern Science @ NYU Kimmel Center

! "ANDREW WK + MATT SWEENEY will be performing a special duet!" at Santos tonight.

YouTube now pulls music videos out of Germany

Duane Jarvis, RIP

Maurice Jarre, RIP

MySpace Music: What Went Wrong, and What's Being Done About It

Pictures & Black Bubblegum near-death experience story from Converge's Brooklyn show HERE. Video footage and interview from the Philly show, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

photos by Bao Nguyen

from formal to 'party hard'...

Santos' Party house co-owner Andrew WK performed a solo piano set at the New Museum last night as part of their new monthly "Get Weird" series of live music performances (May 15, 2008). More pictures below...

Continue reading "Andrew WK @ the New Museum 'Get Weird', NYC - pics"

Neil Diamond & Matt Sweeney @ the Bitter End

Just to confirm what has been floating around the comments this week, it is Matt Sweeney of Chavez/Zwan/Superwolf that plays on Neil Diamond's new album, and who played with Neil at the Bitter End in NYC last night.

DOWNLOAD: Little Annie - It Was A Very Good Year (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Baby Dee - The Only Bones that Show (MP3)

I just realized that the Little Annie & Baby Dee show is tonight at Joe's Pub. Of course the show starts in 2 hours, so you probably won't go if you're reading this, but I thought I would finally stop procrastinating and mention it (and them) at least anyway.

"Baby Dee is an internationally traveled singer, pianist, harpist, songwriter and performer. Dee claimed New York City as home for decades, but now resides in her hometown of Cleveland, OH." I think it was Baby Dee's connection to Antony that first led me to her, and I was definitely excited when I first found out that Drag City was putting out her new album. Then I was even more excited when I found out who else was involved...

Produced by Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney (who also perform on the record), Safe Inside the Day is a record with that blends the Old World with new pop sensibilities. She is also helped by contributions from Andrew WK, Robbie Lee, Max Moston (Antony and the Johnsons), William Breeze (Psychic TV), John Contreras (Current 93), James Lo (Chavez) and Lia Kessel.

The record comes out January 22nd. I have a copy, and while certainly not bad, it unfortunately hasn't excited me to the levels the description first did. I'm not done giving it a chance though, and I'm upset that instead of seeing the show tonight, I'm just typing about it.

Little Annie is also connected to Antony - he produced her last album called Songs From the Coalmine Canary which featured the song "Strange Love" which was used in a Levi's commercial and went on to win "Best Use of Music in Advertising" at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. And like Baby Dee, Little Annie also has a new album coming out (Feb. 2008). It's a partnership with Paul Wallfisch called When Good Things Happen to Bad Pianos - described as a "cycle of songs by Frank Sinatra, Leon Russell, Tina Turner, Jacques Brel, Candi Staton, Michael Legrand and U2." Annie & Paul will also be touring together in 2008.

Continue reading "Baby Dee & Little Annie"