photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin (more at BV Chicago)

Stone Roses / How to Destroy Angels / Johnny Marr

Coachella 2013 is underway and streaming live. if I had to choose a theme musically for day one (Friday), it would have to be new, solo and side projects. The NY Times agrees...

Friday's lineup was teeming with such line-jumpers, performing with various degrees of laurel-resting. Early in the day came the Shouting Matches, a shambolic blues-esque outfit whose sales pitch is that it includes Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. The group took almost a half-hour for sound check, and its set was almost as loose. Mr. Vernon, such a precise and processed singer in Bon Iver, was here far more at ease, pushing his vocals no harder than the amiable songs demanded.

Later, in the dance-centric Sahara tent, Dog Blood performed a loud but not thunderous set. It's a collaborative project of Skrillex and Boys Noize, and does not quite live up to Skrillex's typical punishment or Boys Noize's characteristic exuberance.

UPDATE: Day Two pictures are HERE and Day Three pictures are HERE.

Day One pics continue at BV Chicago and below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2013 Day 1 photos (Stone Roses, Blur, Trent Reznor, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Divine Fits, Sparks, Johnny Marr, more)"

Grimes aboard the SS Coachella 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Names like Grimes, Stars, Woods of Ypres (RIP), Crystal Castles, Metric and Leonard Cohen sit side-by-side with names like Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jebsen, Celine Dion and Drake as part of the 2013 nominees for the Juno Awards, Canada's answer to the Grammys.

"Electronic Album of the Year" nominee Grimes is most likely stoked to be named in the company of some of her favorite artists of 2011 (namely, Beiber & Taylor Swift). Her competition in that category is pretty stiff: Purity Ring, TRUST, Crystal Castles and Daphni. Meanwhile, I'm guessing Justin Bieber is stoked to not be mentioned anywhere near his arch enemy Patrick Carney, even though Carney has backed off a bit and is now known as himself again on Twitter.

The 2013 Juno Awards will be given out on April 21. Nominee list below...

Continue reading "Grimes, Justin Beiber, Metric, Leonard Cohen, The Weeknd, Crystal Castles and Drake among the 2013 Juno nominees"

Click it for the bigger poster.

Moby at Moogfest 2011 (more by Diana Wong)

Moby was one of the commercially successful electronic musicians of yesteryear, but as popular taste shifted towards distorted synths and abrasive bass drops, Moby chose not to follow the pack. As a result, lately he's been fitting more in with the growing underground (as we heard on his downtempo 2011 LP, Destroyed.) and when we asked him for his top 10 albums of 2012, his choices reflect that. In addition to his Mute labelmates Cold Specks and Liars, Moby's list includes Hyperdub production wizards Burial and Laurel Halo, in addition to some synth driven indie pop like Grimes and iamamiwhoami.

Moby is also DJing a TBA Brooklyn warehouse location on New Year's Eve (Bedford L stop) with Lee Burridge, Kilo Watts, circus performances from The Gowanus Circus, and more acts TBA. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

More show info and Moby's top 10 list, below...

Continue reading "Moby lists his Top 10 Albums of 2012, DJing NYC on NYE"

by Andrew Sacher

SPIN have revealed their list of the top 50 albums of 2012. It continues SPIN's trend of giving love to crossover punk and metal (which they've been pretty consistent with since naming Fucked Up's David Comes to Life their top album of 2011) with the inclusion of Baroness, Torche, Pallbearer, Cloud Nothings, and Japandroids, but rather surprisingly excludes the SPIN Essential'd Ceremony - Zoo and The Men - Open Your Heart, in favor of popular blowouts by Taylor Swift, fun., and Nicki Minaj. The list also shares its #1 and #2 with the two highest Pitchfork-rated albums of the year. And no Grimes.

The list begins with the Kanye-cribbed disclaimer, "Most critics' taste levels ain't at our waist level. Ain't nobody fucking with our clique." Check out SPIN's Top 50 LPs of 2012 list below.

Continue reading "SPIN names their Top 50 Albums of 2012 (Frank Ocean is #1)"

wet fans watching the Shins (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

The sold out 2012 ACL Festival happens October 12-14 in Austin and on YouTube (where you'll find the stream schedule if you scroll down - Jack White, Delta Spirit, A-Trak, Alabama Shakes, The Black Keys, Metric, Rufus Wainwright, Alt-J, Garcy Clark Jr., Polica, Kimbra, Steve Earle, The Weekend, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the The Shins included).

If you actually will be there in person, you can also catch many of the bands at one of the many official late night shows (including the Shins)

And, speaking of the Shins, they played Conan O'Brien last night. Watch both songs below...

Continue reading "Austin City Limits 2012 livestream schedule posted; The Shins played Conan (videos)"

photos by Jonathan McPhail

Metric @ Radio City Music Hall, 9/23/2012

Metric played what is surely their most luxe NYC show on Sunday night (9/23) when the Toronto band headlined Radio City Music Hall in support of their new album, Synthetica. Their performance, like the album, kicked off with "Artificial Nocturne," "Youth Without Youth," and "Speed the Collapse" but Emily Haines and crew threw in old favorites as well, like "Dead Disco," "Help I'm Alive" and "Monster Hospital."

The biggest surprise of the night (which was streamed online as well) came during the encore when Lou Reed came out to sing on "The Wanderlust," which he also does on Synthetica, and then stuck around for a rendition of the Velvet Underground's classic "Pale Blue Eyes." Video of that is below.

Emily Haines, along with Polaris winner Feist and Amy Milan of Stars (who were here this weekend), are all featuring on the new Jason Collette compilation, Essential Cuts, which culls songs from the Canadian singer's carreer. The record, out today (9/25), comes bundled with his new album, Rekon. Jason will play Joe's Pub on October 10. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Gotye plays Radio City Music Hall tonight (9/25).

Half Moon Run opened the show, but unfortunately we missed their set. The setlist and more pictures from Metric's set are below.

Continue reading "Metric played Radio City Music Hall and Lou Reed joined for the encore (pics, setlist, video)"

Bon Iver @ Radio City Music Hall, 9/20/2012 (via @itsvman)

We are on night three of Bon Iver's four-night stand at Radio City and you can still get tickets. If you're stuck at home (or don't live in the NYC area) but want to watch, tonight's show is part of Free Music Week at Fuse who, in partnership with Bowery Presents, are streaming it live via the Bowery Presents YouTube page. The setlists from Bon Iver's first two nights with Anais Mitchell (9/19 and 9/20) are below. Tonight's show is with Doug Paisley and Saturday's (9/22) is with Polica.

In addition, Fuse will also stream Radio City shows from Metric on Sunday (9/23) and Grizzly Bear on Monday (9/24), both through that same Fuse YouTube page.

Radio City is especially busy this week. In addition to the shows mentioned above, there's Goyte on Tuesday (9/25) (he also plays Williamsburg Park on Thursday [9/27]), AVICII on Wednesday and Thursday (9/26-27) and Jack White next weekend (9/29-30).

In other streaming news, Bowery Presents will be streaming Thursday's Two Door Cinema Club show (9/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg through their YouTube Page.

Continue reading "Bon Iver's Radio City run continues; stream tonight's show & Metric & Grizzly Bear too"

by BIll Pearis

Half Moon Run at Hotel Vegan, SXSW 2012 (more by Tim Griffin)

Montreal's Half Moon Run have been tapped to open on Metric's upcoming North American tour which includes a stop at Radio City Music Hall on September 23 to which tickets are still available. All Metric/Half Moon Run tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

The band won over crowds at the 2011 M for Montreal and have since played BV / M for Montreal shows at SXSW and the Great Escape festival. Their debut album Dark Eyes came out earlier this year, mingling '60s folk rock harmonies and modern dynamics and percussion, and you can stream the whole thing at the bottom of this post. If you're going to see Metric on this tour, definitely go early and catch them.

There's a few open dates after the Radio City show, maybe Half Moon Run will add a smaller show while they're in town? We can hope. Tour dates and album stream are below.

Continue reading "Half Moon Run released 'Dark Eyes,' going on tour with Metric (dates and streams)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Passion Pit/Bloc Party/The Shins at Osheaga - 8/5/12

Osheaga 2012 wrapped up on Sunday, August 5. It was one of the few dates for Passion Pit this month after they cancelled much of their tour. Exclaim caught their set and wrote:

Leadoff "Take a Walk" set Angelakos in motion, his vocals wandering octaves. Similarly, the ascending "Moth's Wings" grew from its telltale jangly strands to a sonorous sing-along and the aforementioned "Carried Away" juxtaposed driving synths with a stickier-than-cotton-candy vocal hook.

Cuts from the excellent Gossamer fared well, though old faves "Little Secrets" and "Sleephyhead" pushed the gig over the top with wet punters writhing under ponchos.

Pictures and review of day 1 are HERE. Pics of day 2 are HERE. More from day 3 are below...

Continue reading "Osheaga day 3 in pics (The Shins, Passion Pit, Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Metric, Santigold, Dan Mangan & more)"

photos by James Richards IV

Black Sabbath / M83 / the crowd, Lollapalooza 8/03/2012

A bell tolls, a bass guitar moans, and Ozzy Osbourne sings. "What is this that stands before me?" the former archnemesis of John Cardinal O'Connor intones with chilling deliberation. Black Sabbath - three-quarters of them, anyway - are back to reprise the doom-ridden, Beelzebub-baiting classics from the '70s. Osbourne sounds in good voice initially, slicing through Tony Iommi's granite-hard guitar riffs and Geezer Butler's nuclear-strength bass. He even lays down some credible blues harp on "Wizard." But, as if to prove he isn't lip-synching, Osbourne struggles to nail some of the high notes in "War Pigs." No matter, Sabbath was never about sex appeal or perfection. They were dead-end working-class kids who had no use for the romanticism of the flower-power era, and instead peered into the abyss that awaits us all. The songs, which just happened to invent an entire genre of music, still sound magnificent, from "N.I.B." to "Iron Man." [Chicago Tribune]

More Lollapalooza Friday pics are below.

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2012: Day 1 in pics (Black Sabbath, Passion Pit, M83, Afghan Whigs, Metric, SBTRKT, Tame Impala and more)"

We try to keep tabs on various festivals around the world here on BrooklynVegan, many of which you'll eventually see pictures from. Today we focus on Belgium.

Pukkelpop goes down from August 16 - 18. That festival includes The Stone Roses, Bjork, Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Refused, Wilco, The Hives, The Shins, The Afghan Whigs, Lykke Li, Hot Chip, Feist, Flying Lotus, tUnE-yArDs, Chromatics, Cloud Nothings, The Tallest Man on Earth, Baroness, Ceremony, A-Trak, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, and more. The full lineup is listed below. Tickets for the festival are on sale now.

Rock Werchter, which falls a bit more on the mainstream side, happens in Belgium even sooner, running from June 28 - July 1. That lineup includes The Cure, Jack White, X, Mastodon, Garbage, The xx, M83, Metric, Amon Tobin, Skrillex, Perfume Genius, Bat For Lashes, Michael Kiwanuka, Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, Regina Spektor, Florence + the Machine, The Vaccines and more. Tickets for the festival are on sale now sold out.

The full lineups for both Pukkelpop and Rock Wercher are listed below.

Continue reading "full 2012 Pukkelpop & Rock Werchter lineups"

Metric at Sasquatch 2012 (more by Chris Graham)

As mentioned, Metric will release their new album, Synthetica, next week (6/12). They're now streaming the album in full a week ahead of its release and you can check that out below. Metric will also be celebrating the release with three intimate shows including one in NYC on June 13 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. According to a press release, tickets for the show will not be available to the public but details on how to obtain tickets will be announced later this week on ilovemetric.com. Metric will also make their debut appearance on the outdoor stage at Jimmy Kimmel Live on June 21.

The band's previously discussed full tour in support of the album kicks off in September and comes to NYC for a show at the much larger Radio City Music Hall on September 23. Tickets for that show are still available.

A list of updated dates and the Synthetica album stream below...

Continue reading "Metric streaming their new LP; playing intimate release shows"

photos by Chris Graham and Rae Graham

Metric/St. Vincent

7:32pm Metric wrapped up a touch early; partly because one new song ("Lost Kitten") was stopped 10 seconds into it and Emily decided to strike it from the set. Aside from that odd error, Metric played a fair set. They cited the show as their "public debut" of Synthetica and they did play mostly new material (7 out of 11 songs), most of which sounds promising. It's always hard to judge new material accurately as the audience doesn't know it so it always comes across slightly weak or stiff. Metric opened their set with newbie "Artificial Nocturne" (also the album's opener). It was one of the stronger new tracks. The other stand outs were "Youth Without Youth" (when played live it seemed to lose it's sluggishness of it's studio version) and "Nothing But Time", a synth/piano number that builds each verse until drums kick in and the song finishes with a flourish of Emily Haines' Pro-One synth. The band closed with an acoustic version "Gimme Sympathy" that had pretty much the entire amphitheater singing along. [The Province]

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2012 in pics - the rest of Day 2 (Metric, St. Vincent, Shins, Dum Dum Girls, Araabmuzik, and more)"

After teasing us with lineup addictions day by day over the past few days, the full lineup of Austin City Limits 2012 is finally here. Check it out below....

Continue reading "Austin City Limits Festival -- 2012 lineup "

We just posted about Austra who's coming back to North America (including 9/19 at Music Hall of Williamsburg) after a tour of Europe. She's also one of many artists playing the 2012 Osheaga Festival in Montreal which happens August 3 - 5. Tickets are still available for the three-day event.

In addition to Austra, Osheaga plays host to The Black Keys, Snoop Dogg, Justice, Metric (who play Radio City Music Hall soon), Sigur Ros (who play Prospect Park and are streaming their new LP), Florence & The Machine (who plays Jones Beach this summer), The Weeknd, Passion Pit (who play Governor's Ball soon), The Jesus & Mary Chain, MGMT, Santigold (who just played Irving), Zola Jesus (who just played the Guggenheim) and many many more.

Full Osheaga lineup is below.

Continue reading "Justice, Metric, The Black Keys, Sigur Ros and more playing Montreal's Osheaga Festival in August "

Tickets are now on AmEx, Chase and "Internet" presale for Metric's Radio City Music Hall show.

Talk Normal, Religious to Damn & ATM are playing Glasslands June 22. Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are still on sale for Unknown Mortal Orchestra's show with Doldrums and Field Mouse at Glasslands on 6/8. The show is part of a tour for UMO and Doldrums that also hits Mercury Lounge.

UMO also play Googa Mooga this weekend.

Tickets are on sale for Young Magic & Quilt's 6/28 show at Glaslands. Young Magic recently remixed Doldrums and also play Mercury Lounge on their tour with Quilt.

Though it wasn't in our last-posted list of dates, Zambri, who joined Bear on Heaven on state at MHOW (a show Doldrums opened), have a show coming up at Brooklyn Bowl on 5/23 with Caged Animals, and AIMES Tickets are on sale.

Tickets go on sale at noon for for Lemonade's big show.

The Musical Box, "the exclusive, authorized by Peter Gabriel, recreation of Genesis" are performing The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with "all 1,100 original slide projections from the '74-'75 tour" this year. Tickets for an 11/23 show at the Grand Ballroom go on AmEx presale at noon. Regular sale starts Friday at noon which is also when you can get tickets for the 11/21 Wellmont Theater show.

The Felice Brothers are playing Brooklyn Bowl on 6/15 as part of the Northside Festival. Tickets are on sale.

Maybe the Felice Brothers will play one of Deer Tick's THREE curated Newport Folk Festival after-shows at the Newport Blues Cafe this summer. Deer Tick curated and play all three nights, July 27, 28 & 29, with special guests. All three just went on sale.

Tickets are still on sale for the Violens show happening at Le Poisson Rouge tonight (5/16).

Metric @ 2012 Voodoo Fest (more by Alysse Gafkjen)

In Metric's own words:

For the past week, Metric has been sharing clues with fans about "Youth Without Youth," the band's first single from the forthcoming album, Synthetica (MMI/Mom+Pop). We've seen mysterious video footage from the recording studio, heard Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw speak on the making of the song, and even saw fan interpretations of "Youth Without Youth" after the song's lyrics and sheet music were unveiled and before the song's release (relive the experience at www.ilovemetric.com/youthwithoutyouth).

Today, "Youth Without Youth" is officially released and available for purchase at ilovemetric.com and iTunes.com/metric. A pre-order of Synthetica is also available at ilovemetric.com. Every pre-order comes with an immediate download of "Youth Without Youth" and 5 Synthetica Reflections tracks. You can also pre-order the album at iTunes.com/metric now and immediately download "Youth Without Youth" (but you'll have to wait until June 12 to get the 5 Synthetica Reflections tracks).

Lastly, Metric has announced an extensive US tour for the Fall. Every ticket purchased for a headlining show comes with a download of "Youth Without Youth" (to be delivered to your inbox shortly after purchase) as well as a digital copy of Synthetica and 5 Synthetica Reflections tracks, to be delivered on June 12.

Continue reading "Metric release new song, annouce LP & tour dates including Radio City Music Hall (win tix)"

Lollapalooza (more by Grant MacAllister)

Chicago Sun Times reports:

Lollapalooza has revealed its official 2012 list of performers -- a typically wide-ranging smorgasbord of genres and styles topped by nearly a dozen mainstage headliners: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, freshly reunited bands Black Sabbath and At the Drive-In, the Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, the Shins and Passion Pit, plus spotlighted electronic music including Swedish house titan Avicii, French dance duo Justice and DJ-producer Bassnectar.

The annual music festival is scheduled for Aug. 3-5 in Chicago's Grant Park.

Rumored lineups have circulated widely, as they usually do, and Lollapalooza itself stoked the speculation in recent weeks via a series of CTA and online advertisements that seemed to hint at who would be playing.

The ads featured lyrics from such acts as Sigur Ros, Santigold, Jack White, Kimbra, Twin Shadow, the Weeknd, Bloc Party and more -- all bands that wound up on the bill.

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2012 lineup (Jack White, At The Drive-In, Sigur Ros, Black Keys, RHCP, Afghan Whigs, M83, Weeknd, SBTRKT, Black Sabbath & more)"

"Following last year's 10th anniversary, which crushed previous attendance records and set a new mark for the speed with which tickets sold out, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2012 lineup which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 25-28 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA."

Continue reading "Sasquatch! 2012 lineup announced (Bon Iver, Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Shins, Portlandia, Spiritualized & more) "

photos by Bao Nguyen

By the look of the pictures, you might think Metric performed an elaborate show at Lincoln Center complete with string quartet and white piano, but actually it was just a four-song set at MoMA last night (11/10). The occasion was the third annual Film Benefit in honor of Kathryn Bigelow, and the rest of the music was supplied by the DJs: Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and artist Nate Lowman (ex-Mary Kate Olson). Attendees included members of Arcade Fire (who are in town to play SNL this weekend), a BrooklynVegan contest winner, and Bao whose pictures continue below...

Continue reading "Metric & Nick Zinner played a Film Benefit @ MoMA (pics) "

photos by Alysse Gafkjen

MGMT / My Morning Jacket

"It's more than an average sweat-your-brains-out, suffer-in-the-mud music festival. It's the Voodoo Experience, and it went down at City Park this weekend in New Orleans.

Voodoo Fest, one of the world's largest Halloween parties, housed thousands of attendees who, for three days of musical bliss, watched some of the world's most notorious names -- including Muse, Ozzy Osbourne, MGMT and My Morning Jacket -- and donned costumes ranging from zombies to superheroes, fictional characters to condiments and anything and everything in-between." [The Daily Reveille]

Continue reading "Voodoo Experience 2010 in pics & video - part 1 (MGMT as Scooby Doo, My Morning Jacket, Jonsi, Muse, Metric & more) "

Metric at Prospect Park (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

"Don't ask Emily Haines about "indie."

"I don't know what it means anymore," says the Metric frontwoman. "I think it might be a font at this point. Which is fine, actually. Everything changes."

Haines is still a young woman, but at 36 she's old enough to remember what the much-abused word used to signify.

When the Toronto-raised singer-songwriter-keyboardist started her band in Brooklyn in the late '90s, "indie" didn't refer to a style of music. It was short for "independent." An indie record didn't conform to any particular style: It was an album that the musicians released themselves, without the assistance of a record company.

An album like Metric's "Fantasies."

"It's something I'll always be proud of: that we were able to reach the Billboard Top 20 (Rock Albums) without a label," says Haines, who [took] the stage with Metric at the Prudential Center in Newark, opening for Muse. "I believe we're the first band to do that."" [NJ.COM]

Muse and Metric concluded their trek together over the weekend in New Orleans at the Voodoo Festival (10/30). Pictures from that show (and the entire festival) are on the way but for now, head below for details on how to win those tickets...

Continue reading "MoMA honoring Kathryn Bigelow, Metric playing (win tix) "

Miike Snow pics by Alexander Stein

"Fashion Week mosh pit! Iggy on stage at Don's Hills = mayhem" - cutblog

"This is what it's like on the other side@perryfarrell when JA does their Small club show!" - Etty Farrell

Iggy Pop @ Don Hill's Friday night (mikenouveau)


Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow @ the Theory store Friday night

The Stooges ended up playing a Pop Magazine party at Don Hill's on Friday night. Whether or not they also show up at Varvatos this weekend remains to be seen. Speaking of Varvatos, did anyone end up getting their picture taken by Mick Rock or see any good shows on Fashion's Night Out?

Metric played Juicy Couture' Fifth Avenue Flagship store as a two-piece. They covered "The End Has No End" by The Strokes (who are playing their own fashion week party). A video of that, and more pictures of Miike Snow's Andrew Wyatt DJing at the Theory store, below...

Continue reading "Iggy Pop played Don Hill's, Metric covered the Strokes @ Juicy Couture, Miike Snow DJ'd Theory (pics & video) "

"On September 10th, 2010, VOGUE, Mayor Bloomberg, NYC & Company and the CFDA will team up for a second time to bring you Fashion's Night Out. The goal of the Fashion's Night Out is to celebrate fashion and retail."

Metric is playing at Juicy Couture' Fifth Avenue Flagship store at 8:30PM. They are also playing a fashion show on Monday.

Joss Stone is playing in Nine West (5th Ave and 53rd Street).

VV Brown is playing the Teen Vogue and ASOS.com's Fashion's Night Out Block Party. "The event will be held on Bleecker St (btwn Perry and W. 4th) in NYC 6-11pm."

"As part of Vogue's "Fashion Night Out" Bear Hands will be playing at Rockefeller Center tonight, September 10. The show kicks off at 6:30 and previous to Bear Hand's set at 9pm Savoir Adore and Brahms will be playing. The stage is set up between 49th and 50th street and 5th and 6th Avenue."

"My Gold Mask will be premiering "I Don't Need The Reason" live during their performance at the Phillip Lim store for Fashion's Night Out in New York City today on Friday, September 10."

Dan Black is performing an acoustic set at Saks at 9:30pm, and DJing at Dior Homme from 7-9.

Karen Elson will play at 9pm at Balenciaga, West 22 Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

Mick Rock is taking pictures at the Varvatos store.

"We will also have a live acoustic performance by British band Ramona at the Spring Street Burberry store."

Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow is DJing a Theory party at 40 Gansevoort Street.

What else?