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"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: My Best Fiend - "Higher Palms" (MP3)

My Best Fiend

Brooklyn band My Best Fiend recently signed to Warp Records, who will release their debut LP, In Ghostlike Fading, on February 21 in North America and a day earlier elsewhere. There's a sort of catchy, soaring psych rock to the new single, "Cracking Eggs," which features the guest vocals of Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum, and ends in a shattering refrain. Stream that and the bluesy album opener, "Higher Palms," below, the latter of which you can also grab an MP3 of above. The album's artwork and tracklist is below too. You can pre-order it now at Bleep.

My Best Fiend have two hometown shows coming up this month including one TONIGHT (1/11) with Porcelain Raft at Cameo Gallery (they play "after Porcelain Raft and before Crinkles") and another at Glasslands on January 27 opening for fellow Brooklynites/Warp labelmates The Hundred in the Hands. Bikini is also on the bill and so is a DJ set by Bear in Heaven. Tickets for the show are on sale now.

Speaking of Bear in Heaven, they'll kick off a tour this spring in honor of their upcoming LP, I Love You, It's Cool. That tour includes NYC shows on May 8 at Bowery Ballroom and May 9 at MHOW. Tickets for both shows are still available.

All dates, streams, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "My Best Fiend releasing LP on Warp (MP3), playing w/ Porcelain Raft tonight & w/ Hundred in the Hands later (dates)"

words by Bill Pearis, photos by Tim Griffin

DOWNLOAD: The Black Ryder - Gone Without Feeling (MP3)

the girls of Black Ryder @ Austin Psych Fest

Australian duo (and band) The Black Ryder are in town this week, after having played Austin Psych Fest over the weekend (pictures in this post). They played Glasslands last night (5/3) with the Big Sleep, and will play the downstairs room at Santos tonight (5/4) with Heaven and My Best Fiend. Before Psych Fest they went on a short tour with Spectrum.

Made up of former Morning After Girls members Scott Von Ryper and Miss Aimee Nash, The Black Ryder released their debut Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride in late 2009 which got released in America last year on Mexican Summer. Members of Black Rebel Motorcyle Club, Swervedriver and Brian Jonestown Massacre guested on the album which should give you a good idea of what they sound like. To give you an even better idea, download "Gone Without Feeling" at the top of this post.

The openers at Santos tonight are pretty good. My Best Fiend are not that far from Spiritualized angelic comedown vibe -- download their Jesus Christ EP for free here. The three guys in Heaven have played with Adam Franklin, Dean & Britta, the Comas, The Big Sleep and others and lay down a dreamy/heavy sound of their own. It's a well-curated night of bliss-out music at high volume, and stick around for the afterparty with Calle's Aurellio Valle DJIng (and others).

NYC show flyer, a video and more pictures from Psych Fest, below...

Continue reading "The Black Ryder played Austin Psych Fest (pics) & Glasslands, playing Santos (tonight)"

photos by Gabi Porter

DOWNLOAD: Tigercity - Are You Sensation (MP3)

Amazing Baby @ the Annex

Amazing Baby plays those two shows at Mercury Lounge in NYC this Thanksgiving weekend. Both $12 bills are also now packed with Brooklyn bands in a way that Manhattan doesn't get that often...

Friday, Nov 28, 2008
Amazing Baby 11:30
Tigercity 10:30
Suckers 9:30
Kristina Lieberson 8:30
Hosted by Despot

Saturday, Nov 29, 2008
Amazing Baby 11:30
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson 10:30
The Muggabears 9:30
My Best Fiend 8:30
Hosted by Despot

I have one pair of tickets to giveaway to each Amazing Baby Mercury Lounge show. Their new video, a set of pictures from the show they played at the Annex on October 21st (during CMJ), and the contest details, are all below...

Continue reading "2 nights of local bands w/ Amazing Baby, WIN TIX, new video, CMJ pics, Tigercity MP3, Suckers..."