Thurston Moore has been responsible for choosing the lineups at The Stone since April 16th. Upcoming Thurston-curated shows include U.S. Girls (tonight, 4/21), "Kim Gordon with Guest" on 4/23 which is right before a Talk Normal performance on the same day, and Nancy Garcia on 4/29. Thurston's reign ends on 4/30. Check the Stone's site for the whole calendar.

Thurston, who recently played a Japan benefit, has his own shows coming up at Music Hall of Williamsburg, in Northampton, at the Pitchfork Festival, and as part of his White Out project on a bill with Metal Mountains and Bardo Pond at Le Poisson Rouge on June 18th.

For more Sonic Youth, Steve Shelley also has shows coming up, both as part of Disappears and Spectre Folk.

One day after they play the Stone, Talk Normal share a bill with Grass Widow (like they did when they opened for Sonic Youth in Prospect Park), Broken Water and Tara Jane O'Neil at Death By Audio.

by Andrew Frisicano

Jemina Pearl @ Union Pool...

The audience was left to wonder exactly what happened when Jemina Pearl walked off stage less than 30 minutes into her headlining set Saturday night (2/13) at Union Pool. The question wasn't the shortness itself, but the abruptness of her departure: after getting increasingly frustrated with something, she kicked the drum set, gave the one-finger salute to her band and left, to the stunned then embarrassed faces of her supporting trio. The show was really just getting started. "As long as everyone had fun, that's what matters," said the bass player sheepishly before getting a lit cigarette thrown at him by the singer, in a brief return to the stage.

They did manage to get through "I Hate People," a cover of "Band on the Run" and a handful of others (though not "Heartbeats" which one of the most enthusiastic fans requested as a not-to-be encore). It was an awkward hometown end to nearly a month of touring.

Openers Harlem were admirably sloppy and enthused (it's hard not to think of a less manic Black Lips). Their animated, banadana-ed singer/guitarist and more straight-laced drummer swapped roles halfway through the set, which brought out a different dynamic for sure - round two was cleaner with more of a focus on pointed guitar riffs and less on effusive vocals. The Austin band's second album is due this summer on Matador, and they'll be touring the West Coast for the next few weeks.

Jemina's next scheduled show/shows are SXSW. The full Ecstatic Peace SXSW showcase lineup (Thurston Moore, J Mascis & Andrew WK included), more Union Pool pictures, a video and Harlem tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Jemina Pearl played Brooklyn w/ Harlem, stormed off stage (pics), playing SXSW w/ Thurston, J. Mascis, Andrew WK"

photos by Lori Baily

When Lee Ranaldo is playing with David Watson and Tony Buck, it's called Glacial. When Lee is playing with Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, and Steve Shelly, it's called Sonic Youth. If it's Lee and Alan Licht (and friends), then it would be Text of Light, and that's who played Knitting Factory in NYC earlier this month with Demons (Nate Young of Wolf Eyes) and Nancy Garcia..

The Text of Light group was formed in 2001 with the idea to perform improvised music to the films of Stan Brakhage and other members of the American Cinema avante garde of the 1950s-60s (Brakhage's film 'Text of Light' was the premiere performance and namesake of the group). The original premise was to improvise (not 'illustrate') to films from the American Avante-Garde (50s-60s etc), an under-known period of American filmic poetics. [SonicYouth.com]

More pictures from that show below...

Continue reading "Text of Light (Lee Ranaldo & Alan Licht), Demons (of Wolf Eyes) & Nancy Garcia @ Knitting Factory, NYC - pics"

by Black Bubblegum

Flower Traveling Band @ 2nd World Rock Festival 1974

OK. I literally almost fell out of my chair when I saw this one..... the Knitting Factory NYC booked two nights of the legendary Japanese Psych/Doom/Alloftheabove prog rock of Flower Travelling Band! Their first two US dates EVER. 40 years later. Here's what allmusic had to say about Flower Travellin' Band and their classic LP Satori:

Flower Travelling Band was Japan's answer to Led Zeppelin meeting Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath at the Ash Ra Temple. Simply put, they played grand, spacey, tripped-out hard rock with a riffy base that was only two steps removed from the blues, but their manner of interpreting those steps came from an acid trip... From power chords to Eastern-tinged, North African, six-string freakouts, to crashing tom toms, to basses blasting into the red zone, Satori is a... new sonic universe constructed from cast-off elements of the popular culture of the LSD generation. Forget everything you know about hard rock from the 1970s until you've put this one through your headphones. It's monolithic, expansive, flipped to wig city, and full of a beach blanket bong-out muscularity. In other words, this is a "real" classic and worth any price you happen to pay for it.

Thats an endorsement. Grails have covered Flower Travellin' Band's "Satori" on their Interpretations EP, and will join Silver Apples, Arbouretum, Dinowalrus, Nudge, and others to open the first night (Nov 22nd) of the three floor event entitled "Third Annual Halleluwah Festival of Enthused Arts" at Knitting Factory. The next night, Nov 23rd, look for Hard Bop, Apse, Talk Normal, Nancy Garcia (of Monotract), and others to kick things off.

Tickets are on sale: November 22, November 23.

Flower Travellin' Band reunited in January of this year, playing a handful of shows in Japan, including the Fuji Rock Festival. The band dropped the NEW album We Are Here on Sept 17th via Pony Canyon Records. Featuring eight new tracks, you can stream three of them here.

Flower Travellin' Band was recently profiled in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler, where Cope named their classic LP Satori as his favorite "Japrock" record ever.

Union Pool plays host to Grails on November 21st with recently added guests Psychic Ills.

Apse recently played ATP NY and have another NYC show scheduled at Death By Audio on November 21st.

All tour dates, the festival flyer and a bunch of videos below...

Continue reading "Flower Travelin' Band playing 2-day Halleluwah Festival in NYC (first US show ever) (w/ Grails, Apse, more...)"