Permanent Wave is a network of feminist artists and activists. If you want to help challenge the gender binary as it manifests itself in art, politics, and our personal lives, we want you to join. We believe that women, queer, and trans people should see each other as collaborators and inspirations, not rivals. We want to finish the conversation about equality that started generations ago and change the way women are treated.

(MEN are not to be confused with the Men who just put out a new song and who play 285 Kent in March)

MEN have announced via their new website that "IN ONE MONTH OR LESS THERE WILL BE AN EP RELEASED." and that they've been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award, and that they now have a street team you can join.

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"

photos by Tim Griffin, words by Andrew Sacher

YACHT @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

YACHT recently played Fun Fun Fun Fest and went on a tour with Yo Gabba Gabba. We've got another set of pictures from their set at FFF Fest in this post.

At the beginning of December, YACHT will kick off another string of dates that includes the previously mentioned NYC show at Santos Party House on December 3 with Parenthetical Girls and Midnight Magic. Tickets are still available.

Earlier that day (12/3), both YACHT and Parenthetical Girls will perform at Purchase College for 'House Our Queer Youth: A Benefit for the Ali Forney Center,' whose mission is to "protect the LGBTQ youth from the harm of homelessness, and to support them in becoming safe and independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood." The show also includes sets by DOM, MEN, DJ/Rupture, Tearist, Advance Base, Sam Mickens, Hilly Eye, and others. Tickets for the all ages show which is open to the public, are on sale now.

Updated dates and more pics below...

Continue reading "YACHT playing public Purchase show w/ Dom, MEN & more --- updated dates & more pics from FFF Fest"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Cansei de Ser Sexy @ Webster Hall

CSS played a headlining show at Webster Hall on 10/22, joined by their tourmates MEN, and EMA (who played other shows while she was here), and Mykki Blanco. The tour concludes with a trio of dates in Texas this week (which means don't expect to see JD Samson in the crowd at Death By Audio tonight). Pictures from the CMJ show at Webster are in this post, and they continue below...

Continue reading "CSS, MEN & EMA @ Webster Hall (CMJ pics)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

JD Samson @ Brooklyn Museum

The first part of this post's headline is the title of a SPIN article. Here's a snippet:

"Musicians are particularly vulnerable to anti-gay sentiment because, says Ejeris Dixon of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, they "become representations of their communities. When people are attacking public figures, it's a way of sending a broader message of homophobia, transphobia, racism, and all these forms of discrimination that can be a way of really fostering a homophobic and transphobic culture. They're attractive as targets as a message to our community."

As a result, bashing is not uncommon in the non-mainstream music world (we'll call it "indie" here, with the knowledge that Merritt, who has released records on the Warner Bros.-affiliated Nonesuch, wouldn't approve of such a tag). This sphere has more out figures than virtually any other major art form, except possibly theater: [Stephin] Merritt, Beth Ditto, Antony Hegarty, Mark Eitzel, Tegan & Sara, Bloc Party's Kele Okereke, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Le Tigre's JD Samson, Sigur Ros' Jonsi Birgisson, Wild Flag's Carrie Brownstein, Patrick Wolf, Ani DiFranco, Owen Pallett, the Hidden Cameras' Joel Gibb, and Bob Mould (who is comfortable enough to detail his 45th birthday present to himself -- a male escort -- in his recently published memoir See a Little Light)."

"This summer I tried to rent an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The process sent me into an emotional crisis and awakened me into a whole new realization of our economy, the music industry at large and, more specifically, what it means to be a queer artist in 2011.

I spent days trolling around Williamsburg, looking at shitty apartments with cockroaches lining the doorways, fighting neighbors, rats in the ceiling, bedbugs infesting the linoleum floors, fifth-floor walk-ups and cat-pee-soaked carpets. The rent was exorbitant, availability was scarce, and I was turned down by two different landlords for being "freelance." To be honest, I don't blame them. Not only am I freelance, but I'm lesbian freelance. Double whammy. What was the reason they turned me down? Because it was easier to rent to a rich, trust-fund, straight-guy banker who wants to live in the coolest borough in the world? Because when he met me he saw a tattooed gender outlaw who makes "queer electronic punk music" and isn't sure when the next check is going to come in? Yeah, I don't blame him. He doesn't give a shit about how kids email me all the time thanking me for keeping them from committing suicide. It's not part of his capitalist business practice. "

Continue reading "'Homophobia Haunts Indie Rock' & JD Samson loves her job, but it made her poor +++ MEN pics"

EMA at Mercury Lounge last week (more by Amanda Hatfield)

EMA just made a ton of noise on her tour that ended last week in Canada after NYC shows at Mercury and Glasslands. After a short break, she'll head back on the road for an international tour in September and October. Those new dates include opening slots on the recently announced Wild Beasts tour and the CSS tour with MEN. She'll open the CSS/MEN NYC date on October 22 at Webster Hall. Tickets are still on sale. (Note: that now means three bands on the bill with three letter all-caps names).

All dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "EMA announces tour, opening for MEN & CSS (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: CSS - "Hits Me Like A Rock" (feat. Bobby Gillespie) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: CSS - "Hits Me Like A Rock" (Dillon Francis Remix) (MP3)

photos by Andrew St. Clair

CSS @ Bowery Ballroom

The last time we mentioned CSS, they had no North American dates announced. Since then, they've added a string of North American dates with fellow party starters MEN in October, including October 22 at Webster Hall. Tickets ($20 advanced) go on sale Friday (7/8) at noon. All dates are listed below.

CSS have a new single, "Hits Me Like A Rock," off their upcoming album La Liberacion. The track features Bobby Gillespie (of Primal Scream). Grab the MP3 and a Dillon Francis remix of the same track above.

All tour dates, and a yet another set of pictures from their Bowery Ballroom show in May with Sleigh Bells and Princeton, below...

Continue reading "CSS going on tour w/ MEN ---- 2011 dates, a new song, remix & more pics from one of their Sleigh Bells shows"

photos by Chris La Putt

MEN @ a museum

"The pop trio MEN, fronted by the former Le Tigre member JD Samson, made a triumphant return home recently with a performance at the Williamsburg Hall of Music. In cheekily full frontal fashion, they opened their set wearing a bright pink, three-helmet contraption that connected the trio with rods into a triangle formation. When not attached at the head with her bandmates, Samson leaped around the stage, enthusiastically leading the frenzied audience through song after song of electronic, danceable fun, and interlacing the carefree tracks with messages of radical politics and feminism." [NY Times]

Continue reading "MEN & Savoir Adore played the Brooklyn Museum (pics)"

photos by David Andrako

DFA1979

"While it was kind of a running joke that the gnarled dance-punk band was one of the biggest reunions at this year's Coachella (Death From Above 2005 jokes abounded), the band reasserted what made them such a strange and compelling commodity in the first place.

Lacerating bass, Grainger's falsetto wails and a relentless rhythmic urgency both hearkened back to the mid-'00 dance punk craze, yet reminded the audience that their palpable violence set them apart from their more trend-minded peers.

"Romantic Rights" and "Blood on Our Hands" rode slithery, distortion-tangled bass lines over the kind of four-on-the-floor that bassist Jesse F. Keeler would explore more thoroughly in his disco aegis MSTRKRFT.The audience seemed simultaneously enthralled and a bit confused."
[LA Times]

Coachella 2011 concluded on Sunday with a big headlining set by Kanye West. I already posted some pictures from that one, but a more proper set is also in this post which also includes our full set of pictures from the California festival's final day (day one pics HERE, day two HERE).

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon who played Friday night with Gayngs, made two guest appearances on Sunday, first with the National earlier in the day and then with Kanye West during one of the most high profile sets of the weekend.

The other big set of Sunday was by the Strokes who weren't afraid to play the hits. Their full setlist is below.

The Strokes

PJ Harvey (who arrives in NYC this week) played her headlining set on the "Outdoor Theatre." It overlapped with both The Strokes and Kanye...

"Backed by a nimble three piece band, Harvey, with the Strokes audible from the nearby main stage during the silences between songs, delivered the most emotionally intense performance I witnessed at this year's Coachella, singing songs of violence, war, love and lust (mostly from her harrowing new Let England Shake), before a crowd of rabid supporters...." [SPIN]

More pictures from Sunday, below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2011 Day 3 in pics (The Strokes, DFA1979, PJ Harvey, The National, CSS, MEN, Nas, OFF! & more)"

DOWNLOAD: New Villager - "Lighthouse" (Punches Remix) (MP3)

MNDR at Terminal 5 (more by Brook Bobbins)

The L Magazine kicks off a three-date monthly series called Audiophile at Brooklyn Museum on Friday (4/15). The inaugural date will feature appearancess by MNDR and New Villager at the museum starting at 7PM, with a round of free "cocktails compliments of Brooklyn Republic Vodka" until 8PM. The show is FREE with admission to the museum.

The following months offer interesting choices as well, as MEN (who play Coachella this weekend) will team with Savoir Adore on 5/13 and Theophilus London and a guest will hit on 6/10.

MEN, who played Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 7th, and Savoir Adore are featured on the Pray for Japan (with Music) vol.1 compilation, out now on iTunes.

Brooklyn's own Punches recently dressed up the New Villager track "Lighthouse" for a remix which premieres in this post. Download it above. Stream it below. The New Villager LP, due via IAMSOUND, drops on 8/16. Check out the remix, as well as the original video for "Lighthouse" and a recent video for Theophilus London's "Why Even Try", below.

Continue reading "MNDR is playing the Brooklyn Museum w/ New Villager (who was remixed by Punches) -- MP3 premiere & other dates"

DOWNLOAD: Making Friendz - Situation (MP3)

Making Friendz aka Tami Hart

MEN (featuring JD Samson of Le Tigre) started a tour at Bowery Ballroom back in March. That tour ends tonight, April 7th, at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn with opening sets by Australia's Romy and No Bra (who literally wears no bra, or shirt even). Tickets are still available for tonight's show and I have a pair you can win. Details below.

MEN bassist Tami Hart is otherwise known as Making Friendz, who used to be signed to Kathleen Hanna's Mr. Lady Records, and is now signed to Brooklyn's Last Bummer Records who are releasing her next album, Social Life, on 6/21. The first track from that high energy "sweet, sweaty mixture of lo-fi punk and glossy pop, R&B and disco" is called "Situation" (hopefully not a reference to Jersey Shore). You might remember dancing to the song at one of Tami's live shows, or heard the demo on MySpace, but now the album-ready, studio-recorded and mastered version is finished, and it makes its first appearance in this post. Download it above. Stream it below.

Some videos and the contest details below too...

Continue reading "Making Friendz is Tami Hart from MEN (who play MHOW tonight), releasing 'Social Life' (MP3 premiere)"

It has been announced that Antony will join Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Cibo Matto, and Patti Smith for the benefit at LPR Tuesday. In other news, Antony has this coming:

Antony and the Johnsons will release their four track EP "Swanlights" on 10" April 16th through Record Store Day followed by releases through Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade on April 26th. The EP includes a remix of the title track by Oneohtrix Point Never and two exclusive B-sides. The CD version will include the Swanlights music video directed and produced by Sara Hegarty.

1 - Swanlights
2 - Find The Rhythm Of Your Love
3 - Kissing Noone
4 - Swanlights OPN edit

Continue reading "Antony added to Yoko benefit, releasing EP, in MEN song"

DOWNLOAD: MEN - "Off Our Backs" Lemonade Remix (MP3)

Talk About Body art

Men will welcome their debut LP Talk About Body on Feb 1st of the new year, via Iamsound, following it up with seven weeks of touring:

We tried to take all of your suggestions, and play in your hometowns, backyards, favorite clubs, and gay alleys.

If we aren't gonna make it to you this time, please please please take a winter road trip with your best friend, brother, sister, lover, mother, professor, or all by yourself. because we want to see YOU!!!! and we want to gather up all your amazing energy. build a huge strong tower with it, climb it, and then tear it down and dance on it.

Men recently dropped their single for "Off Our Backs" (from Talk About Body) on 12" and digital download. Check out the video for it below. The EP/12" also features the Lemonade remix of the track which you can download above and stream below. Men also have a few other songs streaming at their blog.

In related news, JD Samson of MEN's old bandmate in Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna, is keeping busy as well. She recently DJ'd at a Raincoats show that took place at MoMA and will be the subject of a documentary and a corresponding and sold-out tribute show on 12/11. In addition, Hannah will appear at Joe's Pub on Dec 15th as part of "Our Hit Parade: Special Decade Edition - The Top 10 Songs of the 90's!". She'll join Ad-rock of the Beastie Boys, Judy Gold, Alan Cumming, and others to perform the songs "as comically literal skits". Tickets are on sale.

And actually, Hanna didn't just DJ at MoMA that night with the Raincoats, she also joined them on stage for a Slits cover. Video of that, and video of her speaking this past October at Bruar Falls (courtesy of Punk Cast), is below.

MEN song stream, video, and all tour dates are below too...

Continue reading "MEN releasing LP & touring ++ Kathleen Hanna doing stuff too"

Kathleen Hanna with Bikini Kill in the 90s

Kathleen Hannah will be celebrated on December 11th at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, as a host of bands she has influenced will team up to perform songs from across her career. The show is a benefit for a forthcoming documentary on the Bikini Kill/Le Tigre member:

Kathleen is currently the subject of a documentary tentatively titled The Kathleen Hanna Project, a.k.a. Who Told You Christmas Wasn't Cool?, directed by Sister Spit alumni, Sini Anderson. ...The documentary explores exactly what makes people react so strongly to Kathleen Hanna's work... her personal motives and perspective on the scene she's been a part of for 20 years, "there's also a lot of context: the history, the musicians, the other people who were part of that movement." The film is also about perseverance in the face of personal attacks, even from those within one's own marginalized community. "Kathleen took an enormous amount of shit. She ate a lot of dirt along the way." And Anderson wants to know, "when people are so busy trying to take you down, how do you keep on creating?" -[The Feminist Guide To Hollywood]

Bands playing include Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Kaia Wilson, MEN (aka JD Samson of Le Tigre's new band), Bridget Everett, Care Bears on Fire, Hilly Eye, She Murders (featuring Kim Gordon's daughter Coco), Toshi Reagon, Making Friendz, Christy & Emily, and many many others including video performances by Caroline Polachek (Chairlift) and a dance performance by Emily Wexler. Full lineup is below.

Kathleen Hanna DJed the sold-out Raincoats show at MoMa on 11/20. Some videos below...

Continue reading "Kathleen Hanna documentary benefit @ Knitting Factory "

by Andrew Frisicano

Los Angeles pop duo Kisses, Jesse Kivel (of the band Princeton) and singer/keyboardist Zinzi Edmundson (and a drummer live), are coming to New York for the first time for CMJ. Their shows for that include a Tuesday, October 19th IAMSOUND showcase at Santos and a Saturday, October 23rd show at Arlene's (a Forcefield PR/Windish show). For the Santos show, Men, Salem (last seen at Milk Studios) and Restless People are also on the bill, and tickets are on sale.

I guess that the Santos show will be Kisses' defacto album release gig, since their debut, The Heart of the Nightlife, comes out the same day on This Is Music.

With Kisses, the first thing to note is Kivel's bass-heavy, sometimes-loungey voice (basically unchanged from his singing with Princeton, if you know that). Its sound, combined with the music's '80s-nostalgia, compares favorably to Jens Lekman. Like Jens, Kivel has an ear for retro sounds, which he arranges variously as Muzak-inspired ballads, Arthur Russell disco burners and funk jams (one song, "Midnight Lover," could be on the new Chromeo, including its killer kicker of a chorus "I would like to take you out for a nice steak dinner"). The lyrics have a (slightly put-on) lonely-upper-crust perspective, and play between earnest and ironic (the words are supposedly inspired by a stint Kivel had writing reviews of holiday destinations he never visited).

I caught the band at what (unknown to me then) was their second show ever at the Echoplex in Los Angeles the night before FYF Fest. I partly wound up there because on my way through San Francisco, I saw the the members of Kisses blown up huge on the cover of the free weekly SF Bay Guardian, a really strange amount of pre-any-live-show buzz for the band's still TBA show there in November.

At the Echoplex, they played second on a four-band bill before Hawnay Troof and Stereo Total. The jitters were pretty obvious, though the band sounded good with their hard-hitting drummer and ample help from their programmed backing track. There's no problem with using a backing track, per se, but it was just a bummer to have some of the best hooks - a marimba run, a frantic Hammond solo, their defining bass pulse - played by a faceless laptop. The crowd got into it by asking questions, respectfully answered, between songs. "You guys are good!" blurted one person, almost incredulously, before asking when the record came out.

They'll have some more time to work out the show on the fly with October gigs in the UK and Japan. Until the record, there are two singles (with remixes) you can check out now.

Live videos from those first two shows, an official music video for their single "People Can Do The Most Amazing Things" (one of the record's least dancey songs) and all tour dates (LA, NYC, Japan, and Europe twice) are below.

Continue reading "Kisses played their 1st shows in CA, coming for CMJ (tour dates, videos, album info, more) "

MEN, a group of both men and women (some only partially dressed as you can see in the videos below), DO NOT play an early show at Bruar Falls tonight (7/19) (even though that's what it says on Bruar Falls' website. It's actually The Men - see comments). "Men" do play Saturday at PS1 though. Check out a bunch of videos (sorta NSFW) from their June 25th Northside Festival show at Knitting Factory, and all dates, below...

Continue reading "MEN not playing today, are playing PS1 Saturday, other dates "

Delorean @ Glasslands in June (more by Chris Doss)

MoMA's annual summer season of parties at PS1 in Long Island City, aka Warm Up, returns on July 3rd and there are lot of familiar names on this year's lineup. That is due in part to this year's curators being Dean Bein of True Panther Records, Jon Galkin from DFA, Kris Chen (XL), Ronan from LPR, writer Brandon Stusoy (Stereogum, etc), and Robin from Tri Angle. Check out the full schedule, directions and more info below...

Continue reading "2010 PS1 Warm Up schedule announced (Delorean, MEN, Big Freedia, Questlove, DFA, Animal Collective DJs & more) "

"Like last year, everything will be taking place in Williamsburg and Greenpoint because walking long distances is a drag when there are bands to see and beer to drink, we mean seriously. Us here at The L Magazine will be booking a share of shows on our own, but, for a large chunk of the festival, we've once again handed over curatorial control to some of the most tasteful, talented and dedicated folks in New York's independent music scene -- record labels, bloggers, promoters and more -- allowing them to showcase the bands they think you need to hear. The Williamsburg Gallery Association is again on board to highlight special exhibitions and other events at over 25 art galleries in the neighborhood. And to celebrate Northside's second year, we've invited a few of the city's biggest aficionados of independent film to curate four nights of New York-made movies at Brooklyn's new, as-yet-unopened film house-music club-restaurant-bar, indieScreen."

Music, art and movies will be happening at "30+ venues" and "dozens of galleries" over the course of four days in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Like SXSW & CMJ, you can buy tickets to individual events, or you can get a badge which gets you in to everything that isn't already at badge-capacity. $50 badges are now on sale to those 21 and over. If you buy a badge, "Arrive to venues early - badgeholders are admitted on a first-come, first-served, one-out, one-in basis."

If you buy a badge you can take your chances at getting into one of the four Northside shows happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg (BrooklynVegan showcase included), Fiery Furnaces at Brooklyn Bowl, and WAVVES & Cloud Nothings at Knitting Factory. TONS more shows TBA, but the initial list of bands that will be playing has been announced (I'm especially excited to see The Wave Pictures, Fucked Up, Liars, Parenthetical Girls and Les Savy Fav on there in addition to what we've previously talked about) (and yes Titus Andronicus is on there). Check it out below...

Continue reading "2010 Northside Festival - tickets & intial lineup (includes Liars, Fucked Up, Les Savy Fav, Polvo & many more)"

Sia just peed all over our van. We are on herbal x. And we bought a whistle -jd samson

Men...

I just saw the Marie Claire with CHRISTINA AGUILERA on the cover and I realized we are waaaay overdue for an update. Yes, the rumors are true...Le Tigre wrote and produced a couple of songs with Christina! Not wanting to break the spell of this magic opportunity as we wait in suspense to hear if our tracks make it on the album, we've been quiet on the topic. But now that the buzz is getting crazy I just can't contain myself. Needless to say, for a feminist band obsessed with pop music, it was pretty much a dream come true.[Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre]

"Le Tigre" might be actively working with Christina Aguilera, but they still don't have any shows coming up. MEN, a project headed by Le Tigre's JD Samson, does. That group, which used to pair JD and Joanna, now has a "core group" of "Hirsute members Michael O'Neill (Princess, Ladybug Transistor) and Ginger Brooks Takahashi (LTTR, The Ballet) with Johanna and artist Emily Roysdon contributing as writers, consultants, and producers."

MEN play a party called "That's My Jam" at the Bell House on February 20th, with MKNG FRNDZ, DJ Kingdom and DJ Tikka Masala (no advance tickets). They're also playing a March 10th show at Mercury Lounge with Light Asylum. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, February 3rd (today) at noon.

All dates and the full post about their work with Christina Aguilera are below...

Continue reading "Le Tigre work with Christina Aguilera, MEN schedule shows"

photos by Eric Townsend

"Beth Ditto started singing from somewhere in the ether, and when she finally set foot on stage, the crowd went berserk...but quickly reigned themselves in so as not to miss a single second of Bethtastic vocal goodness. The band's universally loved frontwoman sported a new shorter 'do in Kool-Aid red or Sunkist orange (depending on the lighting), She wore form-fitting black, knee-length dress covered in silvery glitter sparkles that shimmered as she shimmied around the stage to the beat, giving the impression that Beth Ditto is not the centre of the universe, but the universe itself...and we mere mortals are all just playing at her game." [I Was at the Show]

Continue reading "Gossip @ Terminal 5 in NYC - pics & video "

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings @ Radio City (more by Natasha Ryan)

"The new six-part IFC Original Series, DINNER WITH THE BAND is the first alternative cooking show combining culinary delights, musical performances and conversations with some of today's most acclaimed indie rock artists.

On DINNER WITH THE BAND, Sam Mason, the tattooed and celebrated NYC chef (Tailor, WD-50), invites a band to his Brooklyn loft where he shows them how to add his signature culinary spin to their favorite "on-tour" food. In the meantime, Chef Mason and the artists converse on food, music, and life while cooking together. After they "chow down" they "get down" as each act takes to the loft's stage to play a rockin' musical set.

Bands with dinner reservations this season include, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Kid Sister and Flosstradamus, Les Savy Fav, YACHT, Final Fantasy, and MEN.

Chef Mason, who recently took on Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America, is the former pastry chef of New York's WD-50 and current proprietor of SOHO's contemporary dining and cocktail parlor, Tailor. A modern day pioneer of avant-garde cooking and a James Beard nominee, Mason brings a casual approach to his dishes that stimulate the palate as well as the dialogue.

DINNER WITH THE BAND will debut on IFC in November 2009."

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings have a handful of shows scheduled between now and the end of the year, and one of them is taking place at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ on December 5th. Tickets are on sale. All dates below...

Continue reading "Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - 2009 Tour Dates (Starland Ballroom) +++ Dinner With the Band (on IFC)"