by BBG

Earth at Le Poisson Rouge (more by Greg Cristman)


Pitchfork is currently streaming the new Earth album Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II in its entirety. The LP is a follow-up to the first Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light LP which reared its head early last year. Stream it in full below and head to Southern Lord to order your copy before the release date on February 14th.

In related news, Dylan Carlson of Earth is currently trying to raise money for his solo project.

Earth will hit the road for a string of European dates with Mount Eerie and Ô Paon though no US dates, outside of a record release party in Seattle, have surfaced just yet. Full tour schedule and the LP stream are below.

Continue reading "Earth streaming new LP, announce Euro tour w/ Mount Eerie"

As previously mentioned, Mount Eerie arrives back in NYC this week. Tonight's show is at 285 Kent and looks like this:

Wednesday September 21st @ 285 KENT AVE
:: Mount Eerie
:::: Nicholas Krgovich
:::::: Ed Askew Band
| 285 KENT AVE |
285 Kent Ave @ South 1st | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy | 8pm | $12 | all ages

Tickets go on sale at noon for the Shins show that happens 9/25 at Bowery Ballroom.

Mount Eerie's next NYC show after tonight is 9/26 at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets are still on sale. All dates (including SUNY Purchase) HERE.

Tickets on sale at noon for the Arrested Development reunion.

Tickets go on sale at noon for EMA's headlining show at Bowery Ballroom, a CMJ showcase.

Tickets are on sale now for the BrooklynVegan CMJ showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are also on sale for the BrooklynVegan metal CMJ show on a boat.

Tickets went on on various presales for My Morning Jacket/Band of Horses today.

Javelin at Mercury Lounge in May (more by Chris La Putt)

We recently mentioned that Mount Eerie will play September 26 at Le Poisson Rouge (tickets). He's since announced a Brooklyn show happening a few days earlier on September 21 at 285 Kent Ave. Still no full tour announcement.

Javelin will also play 285 Kent, but on September 17, after finishing up a short West Coast tour in August with Hollagramz and Pictureplane, whose Brooklyn show with Teengirl Fantasy and Gatekeeper was just moved to 285 Kent.

The Javelin/Pictureplane/Hollagramz West Coast tour intersects with the previously announced Tri Angle tour on August 16 at Echoplex in LA. That tour was scheduled to have Holy Other, oOoOO and Tri Angle DJs, though due to health issues Holy Other has had to cancel his US shows, Mercury Lounge and PS1 included. A message on Tri Angle's site reads:

"We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but regretfully it's our job to announce that Holy Other has had to cancel all of his upcoming US dates due to ill health. Holy Other is still planning on playing shows in the US in the foreseeable future, but circumstance has unfortunately made it impossible for Holy Other to fulfill the shows he had scheduled for July / August. Consequently Tri Angle DJs have also had to pull out from the forthcoming shows. oOoOO will still be playing, and a suitable replacement support act is currently being figured out. We hope you understand. Thanks."

All dates below...

Continue reading "Holy Other cancels shows, Mount Eerie & Javelin add some"

What The Heck Fest is taking place this weekend in Anacortes, WA from July 15-17. Bands playing include Mount Eerie, Earth, Liturgy, and many others. 3-Day passes are sold out but partial passes are still on sale. Full lineup below.

Mount Eerie (aka Phil Elverum and whoever he has playing with him at the moment) also has a few other shows coming up in the next few months. In September, like Guided By Voices, he'll play Hopscotch Fest. he plays a NYC show shortly after that on September 26 at Le Poisson Rouge. The LPR show and What The Heck Fest are both with Nicholas Krgovich (of No Kids), who played with Phil at Northside. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now.

All (three) tour dates and What The Heck Fest lineup below...

Continue reading "upcoming Mount Eerie shows, What the Heck Fest in WA"

photos by Jessica Amaya, wordsy by Rachel Kowal

Twin Sister @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

The last two nights of Northside were decent, if not a bit predictable. Though I was curious about Kelly Pratt (Arcade Fire/Beirut)'s new band Bright Moments (they played their first show at the Luaka Bop showcase), I decided to play it safe on Saturday night and headed over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg where I was familiar with the last three artists on the bill.

Somehow, the venue was actually running ahead of schedule, leaving me with only one song from the peppy Brooklyn collective Ava Luna. Luckily, I got my fix of group vocals from the next band, London's Allo Darlin'. The mood in the room (both on stage and off) was lively. As if attempting to match the vibrant performance, a number of people near the front of the floor danced enthusiastically (or rather, jumped up and down) for the entirety of the set. The band dedicated one song to Clarence Clemons who passed away earlier that night.

Twin Sister rounded out the evening. With vocalist Andrea Estella's shifting persona, you never really know what you're going to get. This time, Estella was decked out in a long white wig, oversized glasses (sans lenses), and a demure white button-up blouse, complete with matching bowtie. Whether the changing aesthetic is driven by a shyness or confidence is unclear, but it seems to be in keeping with her dramatic and affected vocals.

Toward the mid-section of their set, Twin Sister showcased a handful of songs from their upcoming album, due out in September on Domino. With the combination of charming low-key songs and funkier electro-pop songs, like the new single "Bad Street," the Brooklyn group can sometimes feel a bit schizophrenic to me, but they handled the shifting tempos in their set like pros. After a few punchier songs, nearly everyone in the band cleared the stage save for Eric Cardona and Estella, who stayed on to play a couple of their quieter and more intimate songs, including the lovely "Nectarine" and one from their upcoming album. Far from making the audience lose interest, these were the portions of the show that seemed to garner the most applause.

Mount Eerie @ St. Cecilia's Church (this photo by Michael Barron)

After a string of nights traipsing between venues and navigating the particularly unkind MTA service changes, Northside concluded where it began for me - in St. Cecilia's Church.

Though it was definitely Mount Eerie that sold me on the show, one of the biggest surprises of the long weekend was the first opener, Wyrd Visions. The set-up was simple - just a guy and his guitar, but within seconds of starting to play, the crowd was locked in a silent reverence.

With his hair slicked back and white collar shirt, Colin Bergh serenaded crowd with his long, melodious instrumental interludes and soothing vocals. Though I had never heard his music before, it somehow seemed both comfortingly familiar and organic. What better opener for Mount Eerie than a man who sings of things like ghosts and nature? The setting of the church only added to Bergh's stark mystique.

Up next was Nicholas Krgovich who played his own set before joining Phil Elverum for the main act. In his SADE t-shirt, Krgovich paced around the small space, clutching two mics and singing over samples of sultry saxes and hip hop beats. After a few songs, he was joined by Katie Eastburn who lent her vocal talents for a handful of songs, including a cover of the Prefab Sprout song, "Doo Wop in Harlem."

By the time Mount Eerie began, the church had filled out nicely. As a longtime Phil Elverum fan, I was eager to learn what had made the set list, but from a brief conversation with Elverum before the show, I knew not to expect anything too old. The show began and ended with songs from the darker and heavier album Wind's Poem ("Wind Speaks" and "Stone's Ode," respectively). Sandwiched in the middle were even newer songs that Elverum told me hadn't yet been recorded.

Even though he didn't delve too far back into the discography, I was still on the edge of my seat for every song... and yes, a bit heart broken that there was no encore. Whether a product of my ever diminishing attention span or the quickly changing music scene, much of what I listen to has a pitifully short shelf life. Elverum's music is one of the only things that I've held onto year after year, even as he turned in his hushed, lo-fi recordings and ventured into more metal territory. In stark contrast to the "ironic" bullshit that seems to drive some of today's trends, there is something in Elverum's steady voice and calm, down-to-earth demeanor that deeply resonates with me and reminds me why I fell in love with music in the first place.

My only gripe of the evening (apart from the brevity of Elverum's set, of course) is that I didn't have enough money to purchase both The Glow, pt. 2 on vinyl and some music from Wyrd Visions.

---

No mmore pictures from the Mount Eeerie show (which happened at the same time as YACHT and Deervana), but more pictures from Twin Sister/Allo Darlin, below...

Continue reading "Twin Sister, Allo Darlin', Mount Eerie, Wyrd Visions & more (Northside Fest pics & review)"

In their own words:

Northside Festival is thrilled to announce special series of shows in beautiful St. Cecilia's church in Greenpoint.

St. Cecilia's is one of the most beautiful and vital churches in Brooklyn. We are excited to be working with this community institution and proud to say that St. Cecilia's will be an important part of Northside.

There will be four shows taking place at the most spectacular venue imaginable.

Continue reading "St. Cecilia's Church in Greenpoint will host Northside Festival shows (Atlas Sound, Woods & Eleanor included)"

Theophilus London will headline the "Official Northside Festival Opening Party" at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday, June 16th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon, and then general sale Friday at noon. You can also try to get in with a Northside Festival badge.

The hip hop artist is one of 65+ new artists being officially added to the lineup of this year's Northside Festival (June 16-19 in various venues across Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY). Here's the full list:

Continue reading "Northside Fest adds 65+ bands to lineup, Theophilus @ MHOW, Mount Eerie, Iceage & more ++ open studios & DIY films"

The second annual Hopscotch Festival will go down in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, across 12 different venues with over 135 bands, from September 8th through 10th. The lineup this year runs the gamut of independent music... from traditional indie staples (The Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices, Superchunk) to southern-inflected rock (Drive-By Truckers) to noise (Prurient) to hip hop (Beans) to garage (Jeff The Brotherhood) to funk (Budos Band) to metal (Krallice), and everywhere in between (Swans, Rhys Chatham, etc etc). Tickets are currently on sale. Full lineup is below.

Hopscotch happens almost three months after Guided By Voices play a Brooklyn Northside Festival show in McCarren Park (tickets) which is one day after Beirut plays a Northside Festival show on the same McCarren Park stage with... Sharon Van Etten (though she may have been accidentally announced at one point, they officially kept her placement on the bill under wraps until after Saturday's Music Hall of Williamsburg show). Tickets for Beirut/SVE are still on sale, and another opener will be added too.

Guided by Voices (whose Brooklyn show also has more openers coming) are also playing Pitchfork in July with Animal Collective whose Prospect Park show is now on AmEx presale.

Swans' upcoming NYC show is now on AmEx presale too.

Hopscotch lineup below...

Continue reading "Hopscotch Fest returns to Raleigh (2011 lineup announced), Sharon Van Etten officially added to Northside Fest"

by Andrew Frisicano

Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum @ Market Hotel...

The haunting, cryptic grind of Malkuth and the high-intensity shriek of Liturgy (in full corpsepaint) were quite the introduction for Mount Eerie's headlining set at Market Hotel on Halloween. The latest opus from Mt. Eerie (aka Phil Elverum), Wind's Poem, is a metal-inspired noise odyssey that manages to expertly pair brutal passages of distortion with ethereal lyrics and tender interludes usually found in his acoustic work. The somewhat rare occurrence of Phil's full-band tour, armed with the abrasive new album, was the obvious impetus for the creative holiday-night booking. Mount Eerie's live set, with Elverum backed by No Kids' Nick and Julia on synths and two drummers (one of which manned a massive gong), did not disappoint with its dynamic range - guitars blasted and died alongside Phil's whispered words.

No Kids, the quiet, restrained indie pop trio responsible for 2008's excellent Come Into My House, must have felt a bit out of place in the opening Halloween-night spot, but it was a different scene the following night at (Le) Poisson Rouge (I showed up too late to see them on Halloween so I stopped by the next night at LPR). At that show, the band followed classical pianist Dina Pruzhansky, whose opening set included selections from Debussy and Schumann. Welcoming the diversity, singer and songwriter Nick Krgovich played all his synth parts on the club's grand piano. Phil Elverum has been playing drums with the group all tour (drummer Justin Kellam has been living in Berlin) . His casual, sound-sensitive approach to the kit is rooted in his production style - subtle and unafraid of the occasional slip.

No Kids played a set of all new songs written for a forthcoming LP expected in fall 2010 (no word if they played the supremely excellent "For Halloween" on the night itself). The tunes dealt in Tin Pan Alley melodies (aided by the piano for synth substitution) and lyrics that painted a Hopperesque picture of isolation (and focused on Hollywood in specific terms). The crowd sat, still in a haze from Halloween, and soaked in the restrained songs.

I didn't see Tara Jane O'Neil's set either night. I don't believe she played at Market Hotel, but she was definitely set up to go at LPR. The Mount Eerie/No Kids/TJO tour continues through November 8th. Dates and more pictures from both shows are below...

Continue reading "Mount Eerie & No Kids played LPR & Market Hotel w/ Liturgy & Malkuth on Halloween (pics) "

King Khan & the Shrines @ Sasquatch 2009 (more by Chris Graham)

The Almighty Defenders CD, out September 22nd on Vice, brings together the Black Lips, King Khan and Mark Sultan. The latter two make up King Khan & the BBQ Show, which is the band that'll be playing Brooklyn's Bell House this Halloween (its an early show - 7:30pm doors / over by 10:30pm) (there's a TBA late show at the same venue). Prizes for best costume. As you can see above, King Khan already has some ideas in mind. Tickets are on sale now.

Can't make it Halloween? King Khan and BBQ are also playing Bowery Ballroom one night earlier (10/30). Ticket info TBA. Full tour dates are still forthcoming, but there are a few more below (including November 1st in Philly). They'll be touring in support of the new King Khan & the BBQ Show album, Invisible Girl, out November 3rd on In the Red.

Another Halloween NYC gig happening in Brooklyn is the Mount Eerie metal show at the Market Hotel. His tourmates, No Kids and Tara Jane O'Neil, will also be his backing band for a set that promises "2 drummers, some gongs and a wall of amps." Liturgy is one of the bands on the bill. Another will be Malkuth. That tour formerly had a TBA for another NYC show. That will happen (with No Kids & TJO playing sets too) on Sunday, November 1st at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tickets for that Manhattan show (which does not include Liturgy or Malkuth) are on sale (Market Hotel doesn't have advanced tickets).

The LPR show is put on by Wordless Music, who has a bunch of big shows coming up (not the least Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail on Saturday). There's also Warp20NYC, the Wordless series at Columbia's Miller Theatre, Deefhoof and Why?.

The Market Hotel show is curated by Brandon Stosuy - music writer and organizer of Show No Mercy (that Black Bubblegum co-curated this past Sunday). Tonight (August 5th) Brandon will be be presenting from his "in-progress oral history of American black metal [briefly excerpted at Believer] joined by Matt Luem for "Joe's Pub's Happy Ending Reading & Music Series. Also at the event will be "Rachel Cohen reading from her book A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists. And Lawrence Weschler reading from his work on the visual artists David Hockney and Robert Irwin. And Colin Stetson delivering an opening invocation on saxophone. And Buke & Gass playing a short set of clear voiced yet fuzzed out pop experiments on homemade instruments." Tickets are still on sale.

Videos, new KK&BBQ album tracklist and tour dates from King Khan & the BBQ Show, below...

Continue reading "King Khan & BBQ Show's new album, tour dates, NYC shows, Halloween in Brooklyn, Malkuth, Mt Eerie, Joe's Pub & stuff "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Mount Eerie - Wind's Dark Poem (MP3)

Mount Eerie/Phil Elverum is going on tour this fall. In addition to his dates with Why?, Elverum will be headlining a trip with friends and collaborators Tara Jane O'Neil and No Kids. One NYC stop on the tour will be a Halloween show at the Market Hotel with an eclectic bill of metal bands Liturgy and Krallice, the minimal folk of Tara Jane O'Neil, and No Kids's indie pop. (There's also a TBA NYC show for Mount Eerie on November 2nd.)

UPDATE: Krallice are not playing the Halloween show (which is curated by Brandon Stosuy of Show No Mercy), anymore. Another band will be announced instead. We also found out that No Kids will be Phil's backing band. That is all.

If that lineup sounds strange, it might make more sense after looking at the lineup of this year's What The Heck Fest, or hearing the new Mount Eerie record, Wind's Poem, which is out now on his own PW Elverum & Sun label. The double LP covers a range of sounds from the first blast of introductory noise (as heard in the inaugural track, above) to more melodic, image-driven storytelling to creepy marimba-eque textures (notably on "Between Two Mysteries"). No idea if live he'll be doing the songs with band, iPod or solo.

Elverum just wrapped up What the Heck Fest 8, which ran July 17-19 and brought a lot of great artists to his hometown of Anacortes, Washington...

What the Heck Fest is a festival out of Anacortes, Wa put on (more-or-less) by Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and Geneviève Castrée of Woelv. It's kind of like summer camp with tons of indie bands. They've been at it for 8 years now. This year's fest was awesomely diverse (highlighted humorously saturday night with Olympia black metal superstars Wolves in the Throne Room following posi indie folkster Kimya Dawson) and I really couldn't have been more pleased to have the presence of so many things that didn't fit the k records/indie rock mold that people assume this festival is in the mix. [Letters With Mixtapes]

Continue reading "Mount Eerie - 2009 tour dates (Market Hotel on Halloween w/ Liturgy, No Kids, Tara Jane O'Neil & ???) +++ MP3"

Willamette Week's Musicfest NW announces this year's festival line-up which will be held at various venues around the Portland, OR metropolitan area on September 16, 17, 18 & 19. On the heels of the most successful MFNW to date, MFNW 2009 launches with nothing but the hope of a bigger and better festival. MFNW's ultimate aim is to provide Portland with a unique and special musical experience that features all types of acts including nationally renowned artists while still honoring and supporting the special musical scene of the Northwest.

The lineup so far, including the newly-reunited Sunny Day Real Estate, is below...

Continue reading "Musicfest NW in Portland, OR (Sept 16-19) - lineup"

a shot from Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)

The Sled Island Music and Arts Festival -- taking place at various venues in Calgary, Alberta from June 24 to June 27 -- is pleased to announce the initial line-up and the inclusion of Olympic Plaza as the main venue on Friday, June 26. This year will include over 200 bands performing at 23 venues plus art shows, film screenings, and a comedy component at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.

Sled Island 2009 will feature performances by the influential indie rock darlings The Breeders (featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies) making their first Calgary performance, NYC post-punk revivalists Liars bringing the noise, the legendary Canadian metal band Anvil the recent subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil and the garage rock assault of Tel Aviv's Monotonix known for their incredible live show. New Orleans-based musician and mad genius inventor of the 'drum buddy' Quintron & Ms. Pussycat will bring the party along with blood-soaked party rocker Andrew W.K. and Toronto-based electro tour-de-force Holy Fuck on the more 'offensive' front. Phil Elverum's (of The Microphones) latest moniker Mount Eerie will deliver a symbiotic balance of fuzz and folk matched by Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy surrealist violin stage performance. Calgary-based experimental icons Azeda Booth aim to mystify crowds along with their all-male psychedelic pop counterparts Women making their second festival appearance...The complete festival line-up and schedule will be revealed on June 1. [pr]

As previously reported, Colin Newman, vocalist and guitarist for Wire, will be guest curating this year's festival. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Sled Island - 2009 fest lineup (Breeders, Liars, Anvil & more) "

photos by Lori Baily

Mount Eerie opened for Why? at Bowery Ballroom last night (Sept 18, 2008). Tonight the show is in a church w/ Julie Doiron & Woods. More info HERE

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Of Montreal - Nonpareil of Favor (new MP3) (via)
DOWNLOAD: Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire - Flaming Home (MP3)

Mount Eerie

Mount Eerie (songwriter/producer/Microphone Phil Elverum) is set to release the new LP Lost Wisdom, October 7 on his P.W. Elverum & Sun label. The album is a collaboration with vocalist Julie Doiron (of '90s band Eric's Trip) and guitarist Fred Squire, which leans heavily on folk sounds, taking a break from the "punkest incarnation of Mount Eerie" featured on 2008 10" Black Wooden Ceiling Opening. Like most of Phil's stuff, it bears distinctive marks of his Anacortes, WA studio.

Mount Eerie is now on tour with Why?. Their final date together is at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on Sept 18th. Tickets are still on sale. One day later Mount Eeerie kicks off a tour with Julie Doiron and Calm Down, It's Monday at Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Woods is also listed on the Brooklyn snow. All dates and more details below...

Last year, Elverum released Mt Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 10" picture disc + hardcover photo book box set (For $64 here). Obviously a $64 record is directed towards serious fans (those curious can catch a preview here ), but maxed out box sets seem to be becoming the new thing (maybe as a reaction to download only albums).

Phil's also releasing a similar project, Dawn, November 1 on both music-only LP and CD+144page booklet formats. His site describes the accompanying materials as "a book of very intense journal writing from time spent in a cabin in northern Norway...Some drawings. 8 double sided photo cards."

The Robot Ate Me's Ryland Bouchard is another musician opting for the box set route, putting out Seed, a limited edition, four 7" box set (with a ton of extras) due October 1. Songs are up on his Myspace, and Ryland is currently taking preorders for the $110 set ($135 regularly). His solo works seems to take a more intimate, less noisy approach than his TRAM records. Though there's no dates, Ryland's Myspace hints at a late fall U.S. tour. Full box set details below.

Then there's Of Montreal, whose new Skeletal Lamping album will come in traditional CD/LP form and packaged as a digital download paired with a variety of unique merch. Get your music with a set of buttons, a paper lamp, and two styles of t-shirt, tote bag or wall decoration, plus a $90/$100 CD/2xLP set including much of the preceding. See the full set of options here. Preorders ship Sept 29, and the album is in stores October 7th.

Of Montreal's new 7" (the first single from the record), Id Engager, out Tuesday, Sept 9, also comes with a code for its digital equivalent.

Of Montreal's album-supporting tour will be sporting new member, Sinkane drummer and bandleader, Ahmed Gallab. Love is All, who also have a new record coming soon, open on a bunch of the dates.

All tour dates and box set tracklists below...

Continue reading "Mount Eerie tour dates, box sets, Ryland Bouchard, Of Montreal, Julie Doiron"

DOWNLOAD: Why? - The Hollows (MP3)

Why? @ Knitting Factory - March 2008 (more by Leia Jospe)

Continue reading "Why? - 2008 Tour Dates (Bowery Ballroom)"