Speaking of Australian bands....

feedtime was an independent postpunk rock trio from Sydney, Australia, formed in 1979... [who] made four albums in the 1980s... The second album, Shovel, received the greatest critical acclaim. The last of these four albums, Suction, was produced by Butch Vig.
feedtime's sound was loud, primitive, and brutal. The most distinctive musical element is thick, roaring electric guitar, played with a slide, over a thick, chugging rhythm section. Their loud but stripped-down, minimalist approach led them to be compared to the British postpunk band Wire (although feedtime didn't know Wire's music), but feedtime's sound also heavily referenced rural American country and blues. -[Wikipedia]

The dates include a trio of NYC area gigs: Brooklyn gets Death By Audio on 3/29, Manhattan has Cake Shop on 3/31, and NJ gets the look at Maxwells on 4/1. Advance tickets are available for Maxwell's.

The tour is timed to coincide with the release of their new 4xLP/4CD boxset, the Aberrant years, due on March 13th via Sub Pop. Order yours.

"With the Aberrant years, Sub Pop finally realizes our goal of releasing feedtime, a longtime staff favorite and a huge influence on the label's early artistes. From 1978 or 1979 (dates are hazy) until the breakup of their classic lineup in 1989, Sydney, Australia's feedtime--no, that's not a typo, the 'f' is lowercase--shoved their mutant fusion of early American blues, stripped-down hard rock and minimalist punk on an often-hostile music scene. Their raw vision of rock music and disdain for trendy music-biz maneuvering earned them little in the way of mainstream success, but it did get them a rabid underground following (notably Sub Pop's very own Mudhoney) and the support of seminal Aussie indie label Aberrant Records, Amphetamine Reptile Records and Rough Trade US...."

Continue reading "feedtime releasing boxset, announce reunion tour (dates)"

By Bill Pearis

Siren singer. Champion skronky guitar solo-er. Drone princess. Dressed in an iridescent dark green smock-frock, Welsh singer Cate Le Bon looked a like Crannogmen royalty at Mercury Lounge last night (2/9), where she held court over a rapt, smiling audience. Those who didn't come as fans left as converts. There is nobody quite like her and, for me, this is the current show to beat for 2012.

Previous visits from Le Bon have been mostly solo, which fit the general faery folk vibe of her first album. Le Bon's new LP, Cyrk, is definitely a "band" album, however, and the group she brought with her were more than capable of recreating its pastoral psych-rock. The night opened with the icy and discordant "Julia" but things warmed up from there as band members switched places as Cate went from guitar to keyboard and back again for singles "Puts Me to Work and "Fold the Cloth." Only her New Zealander drummer, who was flash-free but rock-steady, stayed in one place the whole night.

He also got the evening's biggest laugh. Cate invited the audience to go on tour with her, at least to tonight's show at Maxwell's where we'd get "the same band, and the same songs." Then the drummer piped in, "...but New Jersey" and immediately hit a rimshot to much groans and laughter. The evening finished as Cyrk does with the two-part "Ploughing Out," which starts off gentle and haunting but grows into a chugging, noisy rocker. In a tribute to Wales legends Super Furry Animals (Gruff Rhys was one of her early champions), the songs comes to a clamorous end with Cate and the bassist crossing their instruments like swords.

Cate plays Maxwell's tonight (2/10) before continuing on tour, again with openers Pigeons, and I highly recommend you go to this show (and then stick around for the comedy). If you haven't heard Cyrk yet, it's one of 2012's best so far. You can download "Puts Me to Work" at the top of this post, watch the video for "Fold the Cloth" below, or stream the whole album on Spotify. But really, go see her live. Click through for a couple more grainy cameraphone pictures from Mercury Lounge, and all 2012 tour dates...

Continue reading "Cate Le Bon played Mercury Lounge, plays Maxwell's tonight"

by Klaus Kinski

Kurt Braunohler

Hey readers. Long time no write, amIright? I haven't been writing much these days and I bet you thought/hoped I was dead or something. Wrong! Unlike most people (according to the news media) I have a job and lately it's talons have been dug so deep into my flesh and lard that I haven't been able to deal with anything else. I poked my head outta the trenches today to wipe the sweat and offal from my brow and noticed that we in the Tri State area are on a collision course for some seriously incredible comedy, like, really soon.

Friday February 10th really has us laugh-seekers in a right pickle as there are two amazing shows happening that night, but one happens on one side of the Hudson, while the other happens on the other side of the Hudson. I kall this phenomenon Klaus Kinski's Komedy Krawl.

First off, on Friday February 10th at 7:30pm the UCB Theater (Chelsea) will play host to the great and way-not-famous-enough Tom Shillue and his show Tom Shillue's Funny Story. The show is more a storytelling affair than a stand-up affair and will feature a STELLER line-up including Bobby Tisdale, Bob Walles, and Gavin McInnes. This is an EXTREMELY miraculous line-up and the fact that it isn't sold out tells me that there's probably only one or two tickets left. I cannot tell you how brilliant Shillue is. Get. On. It.

After that show ends, get those gorgeous hemispheres (bunz) of yours upstairs and down (or up) to the PATH train and make your way into Hoboken for a special, off-site-off-nite edition of the great Pretty Good Friends. PGF is usually hosted by Eugene Mirman every Sunday night in the subterranean confines of Union Hall. However, they are shaking the fuck out of things and bringing PGF to Maxwell's in Hoboken on Friday February 10th at 9:30pm. The show will be hosted by Kurt Braunohler and feature the likes of Andrea Rosen, Wyatt Cenac, and Todd Barry. Some tickets are still available, so get yours before they go the way of the Dodo. These two inexpensive events will bring you face to face with some of my personal favorites in the biz. Live it up! You CAN do this.

Oh, and speaking of Kurt Braunohler... Kurt got the gig as host and star of a forthcoming IFC comedy series called Bunk. The show will be taping live February 17th through February 24th at Manhattan Center Studios in NYC. Guest panelists will include Ethan T Berlin, Bobby Moynihan, Jordan Klepper, Damien Lemon, Matt Oberg, Chris Gethard, Kumail Nanjiani, John Gemberling, Eugene Mirman, Alison Rich, Michael Che, Dana Gould, Scott Adsit, Tom Lemon, Alex Borstein (no Dave Hill? tha fuck?). Wanna attend a taping or several of them? Head over to the Black List and throw your name in the hat for FREE TICKETS.

Last but not least... first there was ONE, then TWO, then THREE, and now there are FOUR Demetri Martin shows happening at NYU. The newest one happens at the Skirball Center on February 15th, at 9:30pm. Tickets are on sale, and we're also giving away tickets to the third one which is now sold out like the first and second.

ALSO
* Rob Delaney added a 2nd NYC show!
* Those in Chicago should go see Brian Posehn this weekend!
* Follow @bvComedy on Twitter!
* "SXSW Comedy" is expanding its offerings in Austin this year
* We're giving away a pair of tickets to see Tosh at Radio City.

Some videos below...

Continue reading "PGF in Hoboken, Tom Shillue, a FOURTH Demetri Martin show & other comedy stuff"

Psychedelic Furs at E2NY in 2011 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Last fall, The Psychedelic Furs went on a month-long tour with Tom Tom Club, which brought them to the NYC-area a few times in October. Check out some videos from their Irving Plaza show (10/3/11) below.

They'll return to the NYC-area this March on their recently announced short run of Northeast US dates, which culminates on March 24 and 25 at Maxwell's. Tickets for those shows are on sale now. The dates don't include any actual NYC shows at the moment, but they do play NY at Tarrytown Music Hall on March 22, so maybe they'll end up fitting one in. Tickets for the Tarrytown show are on sale now.

All dates and videos below...

Continue reading "Psychedelic Furs playing March shows, two at Maxwell's"

John K. Samson on a boat (more)

Speaking of frontmen of punkish bands playing solo shows at Maxwell's, John K. Samson of The Weakerthans added a show at the Hoboken venue scheduled to take place one day before his tour hits Bowery Ballroom (tickets). He plays Maxwell's on March 14. Tickets are on sale now.

We recently premiered the track, "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San," off his upcoming solo album, Provincial.

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "John K. Samson adds Maxwell's show to tour (updated dates)"

Jonah Matranga released Voices + Dedication, an album made up entirely of cover songs, on January 1. He covers tracks by the reunited Mazzy Star, the slightly less recently reunited Hum, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, and others. You can purchase and stream the entire album at his bandcamp.

He's got a few upcoming dates including two in the NYC-area on March 7 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ and March 14 at Mercury Lounge (he was last around in November). Tickets for the show are on sale now. All tour dates (now updated) are listed below...

Continue reading "Jonah Matranga releases covers LP (that you can stream), schedules shows (dates)"

The Lemonheads at Bowery Ballroom in October (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

The Lemonheads are kicking off another It's A Shame About Ray tour on January 11 at Knitting Factory. Tickets for that show are still available.

Since we first announced the tour, many more dates have been added, including two more in the NYC-area on March 12 and 13 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Tickets for both of those shows are on sale now.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "more Lemonheads 'Shame About Ray' dates (2 at Maxwell's)"

by Amanda Hatfield

"ATTN HOBOKEN! I WILL NOT BE DROPPED TONIGHT!" - kurt braunohler

"Pink shirt on. Ready to party like it 3012" - kurt braunohler

"Happy New Year to everybody! I didn't get to reply last night because I was watching @TedLeo and @kurtbraunohler be awesome." - Tom scharpling

"Omg @scharpling 's here @maxwellsnj for @tedleo NYE& I didn't even say hi - @kurtbraunohler was hilarious - Sharon Van Etten & band=amazing!"
- Bella Allen Farrelly

"Last 2 nights w/@kurtbraunohler, @obitsband, @sharonvanetten, & the AMAZING AUDIENCES: I count myself lucky to be among such excellence." -Ted Leo

Ted, Kurt & Phamacist @ Maxwell's

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists rang in the new year at Maxwell's with not-surprise guest Sharon Van Etten and comedian opener Kurt Braunohler who also opened for Ted and Obits at The Bell House one night earlier. Pictures from the NJ show, where Kurt Braunohler tried to crowd surf again, and possibly got dropped again, are in this post.

Ted played a predictably excellent set and covered 'I Wanna Destroy You' with Sharon Van Etten whose opening set included a new backing band lineup. Doug Keith is still there, but there was a new guy on drums and a new backup singer/keyboard player/additional guitarist lady. When they played "Don't Do It", they did this new thing with looped sorta spooky vocals in the beginning and it was so beautiful. The new songs sound amazing. I can't wait for the album.

Sharon will hit the road for a string of dates in February that include Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom, and before that she'll make an appearance at the Greene Space. Tickets are still available for that WNYC Soundcheck session, as well as both Bowery and MHoW.

More pictures and some video from Maxwell's on New Year's Eve, below.

Continue reading "Ted Leo, Sharon Van Etten & Kurt Braunohler celebrated New Year's Eve at Maxwell's (pics, video)"

So it wasn't exactly the Feelies, but Yo La Tengo did manage to arrange for an opening set by The Trypes on the eighth night of Hanukkah at Maxwell's...

After Crazy Rhythms, Fier and Keith DeNunzio left the band. With the Feelies in limbo, Mercer and Million collaborated with other local New Jersey musicians, forming one of a number of Feelies offshoots, The Trypes, featuring some once and future Feelies members, including Brenda Sauter, Dave Weckerman and Stanley Demeski, as well as John Baumgartner, Marc Francia and Toni Paruta. The Trypes, quieter and more psychedelic than the Feelies, played regular live gigs around the New York/Hoboken scene at clubs such as Maxwell's and Folk City. In 1984, Coyote released a Trypes 12" EP produced by Million and Mercer, The Explorers Hold, featuring three original songs (credited to Mercer alone or with other band members), plus a cover of the George Harrison song, "Love You To", which originally had appeared on The Beatles' Revolver. The Trypes also contributed a Million/Mercer-produced original song, "A Plan Revised", to the 1985 Coyote anthology of Hoboken acts, Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon. Some members of the Trypes later formed the band Speed The Plough. [Wikipedia[

Continue reading "Yo La Tengo snag Chris Elliot & Trypes for Chanukah night 8"

It's got to be kind of hard to find someone to open for you on Christmas. Maybe that's what led to Dump, the other project of Yo La Tengo's James McNew, opening for Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's on Sunday, December 25th (Hanukkah, night 6). Maybe Dump's recent show at Spike Hill was scheduled as a warm-up.

Yo La Tengo is keeping a diary. Their friend Kelly Reichardt writes:

Dump is on the stage. I know, I know, this reporter is asking herself the same question. How in the world did Yo La Tengo get Dump to play their Christmas night show? I guess everybody in this business has connections. In any case, it's our good fortune and listening from my perch I forget all about my duties and just let myself get lost in the music (not in any kind of freaky arm-waving way, but just in a quiet-inside way). I'm in my zone. Enjoying myself along with everyone else in the room. It's somewhere in the middle of the Prince cover tune, "Another Lonely Christmas" that the older, more disgruntled looking red-shirt-wearing door guy makes a beeline over to me. He's shouting something I can't make out, but I can clearly read his lips as he keeps repeating YOU SURE LOOK GOOD TONIGHT KELLY! I finally lean closer and take out the earplugs and it turns out what he is actually yelling in my face is YOU CAN'T STAND ON THAT STOOL!

Last night, night 7, Kurt Vile & the Violators and Leo Allen opened. Dave Schramm played guitar with Yo La Tengo, and Peter Stampfel also joined the band. Full setlist HERE.

Tonight, 12/27, is the final night of Hanukkah 2011. Who do you think the openers will be? I bet James McNew (not to mention the rest of Yo La Tengo) would be excited if it were the Feelies.

Browse the Yo La Tengo tag for more.

As promised and rumored, The Glands and Pussy Galore opened for Yo La Tengo on fourth and fifth nights of Hanukkah at Maxwell's.

Who will open the sixth on Christmas?

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah @ Maxwell's 12/22/2011 (via TheRealYLT)

The Lee Ranaldo Band and comedian Ted Alexandro opened the third night of Hanukkah for Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's. Lee, Steve Shelley, and Alan Licht, who is also in Lee's band, joined Yo La Tengo for a number of songs in the latter half of their set, including a cover of Sonic Youth's "Mote," which Lee sings lead on. In the encore, Yo La Tengo covered John Cale's "Andalucia" and Barry Manilow's "Mandy," the latter of which they were joined by John Cameron Mitchell on vocals. Check out the full setlist via Frank & Earthy below.

Who will open the fourth show tonight? Spent reunited for the second night. The setlist from that show is below too. We posted the first night's setlist HERE.

Speaking of Lee Ranaldo, he's working on his solo album called Between The Times & The Tides, which will be out March 20 via Matador. As mentioned, his live band includes Alan Licht, Irwin Menken, and SY bandmate Steve Shelley. All three members contribute to the album in addition to Sonic Youth collaborator Jim O'Rourke, Nels Cline, John Medeski, Bob Bert (who drummed in SY before Steve Shelley joined, and was also in Pussy Galore who are rumored to be opening one of the YLT shows), Lee's wife and longtime collaborator Leah Singer, and Kathy Leisen. The album was produced by Lee Ranaldo and John Agnello, who produced Sonic Youth's most recent album, The Eternal. According to Sonic Youth's site, he is planning a 2012 tour. Lee spoke to Rolling Stone about the new album:

It's eight songs with a full band and two songs with pretty much acoustic guitar only. I've always been an acoustic guitar player and I've pretty much continued to play acoustic guitar throughout all of the Sonic Youth periods. My material for Sonic Youth often started on acoustic guitar. What was refreshing about this was just to see all these songs sprout and actually kind of follow each other down this road and actually get completed. I've got millions of tapes of half-completed songs and for some reason, at this point, I had the energy to take them all the way through to the end.

I'm feeling optimistic about the future no matter what happens at this point. I mean, every band runs its course. We've been together way longer than any of us ever imagined would happen and it's been for the most part an incredibly pleasurable ride. There's still a lot of stuff we're going to continue to do. There's tons and tons of archival projects and things like that that are still going on, so there are so many ways in which we are tied to each other for the future both musically and in other ways. I'm just happy right now to let the future take its course and I guess I'm kind of thankful that I've got this other project that kind of came about on its own. It wasn't kind of like, well, "Oh the band is ending for a while and I've got to figure out what to do." It kind of naturally happened in the course of things so that was a nice way for that to come about. I played my first show the day after Kim and Thurston announced [their separation.] That was completely weird.

Continue reading "Matador-signed Lee Ranaldo opened for Yo La Tengo on night 3 (Pussy Galore opening another?)"

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah @ Maxwell's 12/21/2011 (via TheRealYLT)

Looks like Mac McCaughan (of Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge Records) had more than one reason (so far) for spending Hanukkah in Hoboken with Yo La Tengo again this year. His old friends Spent, who reunited in 2009 for Merge's 20th Anniversary, were the openers for Yo La Tengo on Wednesday (the second night of Hanukkah), along with comedians Bobcat Goldthwait (!) and Neil Innes (!). Smokey Hormel is guest YLT guitarist.

The Sea and Cake opened the first night. A picture of Spent on stage at Maxwell's below...

Continue reading "Spent reunited for night 2 of Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah party"

Sharon Van Etten @ BV-SXSW 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Sharon Van Etten, who recently opened for and played with The National, contributed backing vocals to a song The National wrote for the movie "Win Win". That song, "Think You Can Wait", is on the shortlist of 39 songs eligible to be nominated for an Oscar. That list, reprinted in full below, also includes songs by Jonsi and She & Him.

In other Sharon news, after the show sold out today, it was revealed that she is the secret guest playing with Ted Leo at Maxwell's on New Year's Eve! (not the first time they've shared a bill). She's also appearing on WNYC's Soundcheck on January 17th. You can buy tickets to attend the afternoon taping at the Greene Space. You can also still buy tickets for other shows she has coming up which will be in support of her new album.

Continue reading "Sharon Van Etten is Ted Leo's special guest, playing the Greene Space, shortlisted for an Oscar (sort of)"

photos by Bryan Bruchman

As previously mentioned, The Sea & Cake, Mac McCaughan, Jon Benjamin & Jon Glaser stopped by at Maxwell's last night for Yo La Tengo's first of eight Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's. Who will be there tonight? UPDATE: It was Spent

Here are some pictures from the first show. They continue below...

Continue reading "Hanukkah 2011 @ Maxwell's Night 1 in pics (Yo La Tengo, Sea & Cake, Jons & more)"

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah 2011 Night 1 (photo by Jack2point0)

Yo La Tengo played their first of eight Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's last night (12/20). We have a full set of pictures coming, but in the meantime, check out last night's setlist complete with openers/guests listed, via Frank & Earthy, below...

Continue reading "Yo La Tengo Hanukkah 2011 night 1 was The Sea & Cake, Mac McCaughan, Jon Benjamin & Jon Glaser (setlist)"

JEFF the Brotherhood at Matchless in August (more by Andrew St. Clair)

As mentioned, JEFF the Brotherhood are going on a winter 2012 tour with The Kills and Hunters that includes a NYC show at Terminal 5 on February 11. Tickets for that show are still on sale.

Two days before that show happens, JEFF the Brotherhood will headline their own show at Maxwell's (2/9) in Hoboken, NJ. Tickets for the Maxwell's show are on sale now.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "JEFF the Brotherhood playing NJ during Kills tour (dates)"

Ted Leo at Shea in November (more by Guy Eppel)

As mentioned, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will be in the NYC-area for New Year's Eve to play The Bell House on 12/30 (tickets) and Maxwell's on 12/31 (tickets).

According to Ted, there are only a few tickets left for the Maxwell's show and they're going fast. He also mentions that a "*Special Very Exciting* GUEST" will be there. Who do you think it is? If you're going, please say hi to this person who tweeted at Ted that they're "going alone so a 'hi' would make their night."

Comedian Kurt Braunohler opens both shows. I wonder if he'll also end up at Maxwell's at all this week for Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah shows. I wonder if Ted will? Say "hi" to Kurt too if you go.

Obits open the Bell House show and will also play NYC during a short run of dates in March with UK band Fists at Cake Shop on March 17. Tickets are on sale now (yes, advanced tickets for Cake Shop!). All dates are listed below.

In related news, the Fugazi web archives were recently launched and you can check out a listening session with Ted Leo.

Ted's other band, Citizens Arrest, had to cancel their ABC No Rio show which would have went down this past Saturday (12/17) but Omegas, Mind Eraser, and Night Birds still played the venue. Check out pics from that show HERE.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Ted Leo says a guest will be at Maxwell's on NYE; Obits opening Bell House show & playing March dates too"

Yo La Tengo @ Maxwell's, Hanukkah 2007 (more)

Yo La Tengo, despite a scary health scare for Ira, will begin their eight nights of Hanukkah shows tonight at Maxwell's. Part of the fun is of course figuring/finding out who opens each show, and who the special guests and comedians are/will be. Any ideas?

So far it looks like the recently reunited Glands are visiting from Georgia to open the Christmas Eve show! You might remember that Yo La Tengo opened for them at Mercury Lounge in November.

Any other guesses? Who's definitely in from out of town? Marianne Faithfull? Dum Dum Girls? Who lives here or close to here that seems like maybe they could stop by? Titus Andronicus? Ted Leo? Kurt Vile? Thurston Moore? These are all just guesses... stay tuned for more as the week goes on.

Ira @ Maxwell's for Hanukkah 2008 (more by Natasha Ryan)

Ira posted the following to Yo La Tengo's website on Saturday:

Hi everybody, especially those of you with tickets to next week's shows,

We strive to make our Hanukkah shows unpredictable, and in one unfortunate regard we've outdone ourselves this year. I'm going to be a little vague here, but I had a pretty serious health scare earlier this month. I'm well on the way to recovery, but I've not yet been deemed ready to Rock. The good news is . . . well, the good news is I'm on the way to recovery . . . but vis-à-vis next week, the good news is that I've been deemed ready to sit in a chair and play the concerts that mean more to me, Georgia and James than most anything else we do together. Our sets will undoubtedly be tweaked accordingly. In other words, if you were hoping to be in attendance for our annual airing of "Mushroom Cloud of Hiss," I'm afraid that is now zooming up the Unlikely chart with a bullet. But we're confident that it's going to be a great eight days. We're looking forward to seeing you all, and to not answering any questions about what happened to me!

As long as I've got your attention, I'll let you know about one other change this year. We've filled the walls of Maxwell's front room with a bunch of posters and other ephemera from our various closets. Some of it will be for sale (all proceeds to charity) and all of it will hopefully be entertaining.

Hanukkahly yours, Ira

by Andrew Sacher

Cults at ATP NJ (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

I was in a restaurant over the weekend that was playing some modern rock radio station as we ate. And after hearing Green Day, Muse, and Angels and Airwaves, "Go Outside" by Cults came on. I knew they'd gotten a lot bigger, but it definitely was still pretty weird. Anyway, they're still probably the only band on that list who plays venues like Webster Hall, which they'll do on January 19. Tickets for that show are still on sale.

When we first announced the show, it was one of a few other 2012 dates. They've since added way more dates for next year, stretching all the way through the end of April. The new dates include another NYC-area show happening on March 2 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Tickets for this show go on sale Wednesday (12/14) at noon.

One of the dates on the tour is with of Montreal, who just announced a new tour, Webster Hall dates and an album.

Updated Cults dates below...

Continue reading "Cults announce more tour dates, Maxwell's included"

Craig Finn at Cabinet of Wonders in October (more by Chris Graham)

The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is releasing his debut solo LP, Cleart Heart Full Eyes, on January 24 via Vagrant. You can stream the single, "Honolulu Blues," below and purchase it on iTunes. The album artwork and tracklist is below too.

When we first announced his solo tour in support of the album, it didn't include any NYC-area dates. He's since added a show on March 1 at Maxwell's. Tickets go on sale Friday (12/16) at noon. Mount Mariah open most of the tour, but no opener has been announced for the Maxwell's show yet.

The Hold Steady play even sooner at Brooklyn Bazaar on December 17 with Titus Andronicus, Wakey Wakey and W/O. Tickets are still available. That's the final night of the three night event which also includes a BV-presented Fucked Up and Dom show.

Craig tweeted that he's "happy to be sharing a 1/24/12 release with John K Samson" of The Weakerthans, who kicked off their run of 4 albums in 4 nights at Bowery Ballroom last night (12/7). More on that later.

All Craig Finn dates, song stream, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Craig Finn adds Maxwell's show --- updated dates & album info"

Thurston at Pitchfork Fest in July (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

As mentioned, Thurston Moore is playing an acoustic set for Lincoln Center's American Songbook 2012 Season on February 2. Tickets for the show are on sale now.

Thurston has since scheduled a tour around the Lincoln Center show which hits Hoboken, NJ the next night at Maxwell's on February 3. Tickets for the NJ show go on sale Friday (11/18) at noon. He also plays New Hope Winery on February 4. All shows will be Thurston with his Demolished Thoughts ensemble (Keith Wood, Mary Lattimore, John Moloney, Samara Lubelski). All dates are listed below.

Meanwhile, you can catch Thurston's Sonic Youth bandmates Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley at the previously announced Glasslands show on 12/16 (tickets), where they'll be playing material off Lee's upcoming solo album Between The Times & The Tides, which comes out March 20 via Matador.

You can see Steve Shelley even sooner when his other band Spectre Folk play the new Brooklyn venue Big Snow Buffalo Lodge on November 19 and an older Brooklyn venue two days later, Death by Audio on November 21.

Sonic Youth, despite recent troubles, just played a show in San Paulo, Brazil on November 14th. Many on the Internet are asking if it could be their last show ever. We hope not. Regardless, you can watch video of the whole thing, along with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Sonic Youth played Brazil (their last show ever? --- video), Thurston Moore announces tour (dates include Maxwell's)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

The Sonics @ Maxwell's

"When I heard that The Sonics, already in the New York City area this weekend to play Norton Records' 25th anniversary festival at Bell House, added an afternoon show at Maxwell's, I decided to buy a ticket. After all, I'd missed their previous East Coast appearance at the Cavestomp festival in Brooklyn several years earlier and since they're not playing here in Philadelphia, this seemed like a no-brainer.

Thankfully, this performance more than justified the $30 ticket price. The Sonics were in excellent form with keyboardist/lead vocalist Gerry Roslie (unfortunately obscured by the monitor on the right-hand side of the stage, so it was difficult to see him from where I was standing) trading off vocals with bassist Freddie Dennis (who sounded like a rawer John Fogerty!) and guitarist Larry Papyra firing off riffs with saxophonist Rob Lind in fine form as well. Roslie, in particular, was a revelation, since at almost 70 he still has the golden throat, a white, suburban Little Richard-like howl!

As for the setlist, the hour-long show featured basically all the classics from their '60s albums Here are the Sonics (the crown jewel in their catalog and one of the best '60s garage-rock albums ever), the terrific follow-up Boom and even a few from the much-maligned but still pretty good_Introducing the Sonics_. In other words, we got "Dirty Robber," "Boss Hoss," "Have Love Will Travel," "Cinderella," "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," "Louie Louie," "Keep A-Knockin'" and of course their best-known songs "Psycho," "Strychnine" and penultimate, pre-"encore" (the band never left the stage) classic "The Witch", their still-incredible first single from 1965..." [Matthew Berlyant @ The Big Takeover]

Continue reading "The Sonics played Maxwell's w/ The Young (pics, setlist)"

Ted Leo at FFF Fest (more by BBG)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists just played Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin and are continuing to tour the US throughout the month of November. After a short break, they'll celebrate the new year in the NYC-area with a Bell House show on December 30 and a New Years Eve (12/31) show at Maxwell's in Ted's home state of New Jersey. Tickets for the Bell House show and the Maxwell's show are on sale now.

In the meantime, Ted Leo also has another local show and soon. Ted Leo will fly solo (and be playing at least one Replacements cover) at Bowery Electric on 11/17 as part of the BV-presented celebration for Replacements documentary Color Me Obsessed. That's the 2nd of three shows tribute shows. Ted, who we know is good at covering Misfits, is definitely not playing the first on 11/16, but he is probably playing the recently added late one which is still on sale.

All Ted dates below...

Continue reading "Ted Leo & the Pharmacists playing New Year's Eve in NJ (and one night earlier in Brooklyn) -- updated tour dates"