Deradoorian @ Our Heart Ached for Syria SXSW 2013 benefit (more by Tim Griffin)

As mentioned, Nightlands tour will hit NYC at the end of the month for a show at Mercury Lounge on May 29. The night has become more enticing as Deradoorian will be opening and promises to debut a few new songs. Tickets are still available. Her only other show at the moment is opening for Animal Collective at Washington DC's 9:30 Club on June 10.

Nightlands, meanwhile, have added a few shows since we last posted about them -- including a stop at North Carolina's Hopscotch Music Festival -- and all dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Deradoorian opening for Nightlands at Mercury Lounge"

One of the most eclectic lineups in the US, Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, NC, will be back for 2013 on September 5 -7. Pulling from all genres, this year's line-up includes names like Big Boi (who plays NYC tonight), Spiritualized, Sleep, Wolf Eyes (who have a new video), The Breeders (performing Last Splash), John Cale, Kurt Vile & the Violators, Gorguts, Inter Arma (who play NYC on Saturday), Double Negative (who played NYC this past weekend), Swearin' (them too), Pissed Jeans, Dan Friel, Waxahatchee and many many others. Three-day wristbands are on sale now with individual day tickets going on sale in June. Full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Hopscotch announces 2013 lineup (Big Boi, Sleep, Spiritualized, Kurt Vile, Wolf Eyes, John Cale, more)"

by Andrew Sacher

Nightlands at Knitting Factory in February (more by Jono Bernstein)

Speaking of similar/confusing band names, two that have been getting me this year are Night Beds and Nightlands. Both are vaguely in the folk spectrum and had releases that came out two weeks apart in the first quarter of 2013. Plus, Night Beds' album, Country Sleep, came out on Dead Oceans and Nightlands' album, Oak Island, came out on affiliated label Secretly Canadian.

To keep this confusion up, both artists have announced spring/early summer tours this week. Night Beds' tour kicks off in Tennessee in May and ends in NYC on June 30 at Glasslands. Tickets For that show go on sale Friday (4/12) at 10 AM.

Nightlands' tour is much shorter, and it begins with a NYC show on May 29 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (4/12) at noon.

All dates for both tours are listed, along with Nightlands' new video for "Born to Love" and a live Night Beds video, below...

Continue reading "Night Beds and Nightlands announce tours (dates & videos)"

photos by Jono Bernstein

Retribution Gospel Choir w/ Nels Cline

It was a great night for side projects when Low side project Retribution Gospel Choir brought their tour to NYC for a show at Knitting Factory on February 11 with Tim Berne, Jim Black, and Nels Cline's appropriately titled BB&C and The War on Drugs side project Nightlands (led by TWOD bassist Dave Hartley). They just released their two-track full length album, 3, and one of those, "Seven," which features Nels Cline on the record, and he also came out to play it with them that night (audio recording of that song via NYC Taper is below). And in addition to the new album songs, they made time for older tracks as well.

Low are also releasing a new album and going on a tour which hits NYC on March 20 at the Concert Hall (tickets).

More pictures of all three bands and that audio recording from the Knitting Factory show below...

Continue reading "Retribution Gospel Choir (joined by Nels Cline) played Knitting Factory with BB&C and Nightlands (pics, audio)"

Retribution Gospel Choir (more by Grant MacAllister)

As discussed on BV Chicago, Low side project Retribution Gospel Choir will release their third album, 3, on January 22 via Chaperone Records. The album will be a two-song full length which features a guest appearance from guitarist Nels Cline on the second track. RGC will support the new album with a tour that hits NYC on February 11 at Knitting Factory with BB&C (Tim Berne, Jim Black, and Nels Cline) and Nightlands (aka Dave Hartley of the War on Drugs, who also has a new album coming out on 1/22). Tickets for that show are on sale now.

In related news, as discussed, Low will release their new Jeff Tweedy-produced album, The Invisible Way, on March 19. The album marks their 20th anniversary as a band.

A list of all Retribution Gospel Choir dates and a video are below...

Continue reading "Retribution Gospel Choir releasing an LP, touring, playing NYC w/ BB&C and Nightlands (dates)"

Nightlands is the project of Dave Hartley, who has played as a sideman in The War on Drugs and with Sharon Van Etten, and they'll release their sophomore album, Oak Island, on January 22 via Secretly Canadian. The first single, "So Far So Long," is an effect-laden folky cut that fits right in with the other projects Dave has been involved in. You can stream that track and check out the album's cover art and tracklist below.

Nightlands hails from Philly and they'll be making their way over to Brooklyn this week for a show at Glasslands on Thursday (11/29), where he made his live debut almost two years ago. Nightlands will be supported by Eastern Midwestern and Eliza Hardy Jones. Tickets for that show are available. Their only other announced date is a hometown show next week/month.

A list of all dates, song stream, cover art and tracklist are below.

Continue reading "Nightlands releasing new LP, playing shows (dates, stream)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo, words by Rachel Kowal

Fanfarlo @ Webster Hall


After hearing their 2009 debut, Reservoir, I thought I had Fanfarlo pegged, but as the bridge on the cover of their recently released album suggests, the pop folk darlings are venturing into a new sonic territory. Sure, they're still as charming as ever, but as I learned when I saw them play at Glasslands last October, they've begun to grow teeth.

But before Fanfarlo took the stage at Webster Hall last night (3/6), Young Man and Nightlands played quick sets. I enjoyed Chicago's Young Man when I saw them open for label mates Local Natives at Governors Island a couple of summers ago, but sadly, they fell victim to an astonishingly terrible mix at Webster Hall when within seconds of their first song, the sheer force of the bass drum launched an assault on the crowd and made me feel like an unwitting participant in an old Maxwell tapes ad. The bass was so overpowering and unbearable that people around me actually broke concert cool to clasp their hands over their ears in a desperate attempt to preserve their hearing. Hopefully they fare better at SXSW.

Following Young Man's Richter Scale-tipping performance, Nightlands, the second act, hardly registered as a blip on the radar. For the Philly trio, a harp - not drums - rounded out the mix and offered a much-needed respite from the bass drum of death. Given what we had just witnessed with Young Man's set, the ultra-chill and beautifully melodic Nightlands seemed wildly out of place. Then again, Fanfarlo definitely seems to have its hand in a couple of pots, combining the quiet, safe side of orchestral folk pop with their newer, more experimental sound. (Experimental for them, anyway.)

After a long set change, Fanfarlo kicked off their performance with the surprisingly edgy "Replicate," one of the stand out tracks on Rooms Filled with Light thanks to singer Simon Balthazar's staccato vocals and the quick blasts of keys that drive the song. I grimaced earlier when I saw the sound guy drag the mic stand closer to the bass drum, but luckily, the percussion - though still a bit too loud in the mix - was restrained. The band's new material has a sparse, scientific quality that calls attention to each delicate violin solo or assertive trumpet interlude. Absent from last night's show were the usual melodicas, mandolins, glockenspiels, and singing saws.

And yet, despite the band's adoption of cooler aesthetic on their latest release (randomly projected images replaced the whimsical lights and colorful flags that adorned the stage during their Reservoir tour), their performance, which included a good mix of their older songs, still radiates warmth. Balthazar hasn't lost that endearing swagger to his voice, and I have to say the addition of the impromptu Swedish lesson ("Skål!" Balthazar said as he raised his bottle of wine) was pretty adorable.

Another thing that certainly hasn't changed for Fanfarlo is their penchant for the gradual build-up. The tension in their new material is palpable, but somehow, though they've turned up the heat on the last album, they maintain a tight rein on the music, opting to substitute keyboard solos or occasional taps on a drum machine in the place of a rocking guitar riff or a more traditional breakdown. Looking around Webster Hall, I almost chuckled. The urge to dance is clearly in the air, but without the big moments, the audience's movement is comically limited to polite foot tapping and an insistent, but mild-mannered bobbing. And though I might have longed for them to let it all go, it's that careful restraint in that individuates Fanfarlo and has me longing for more. Given the natural progression on their first two albums, I'm already looking forward to what comes next. It's only a matter of time before that pot boils over.

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We're happy to announce that Fanfarlo will be playing "Hotel Vegan" (at Hotel Vegas) at SXSW this year on Thursday, March 15th. Stay tuned for more details.

More pictures and the setlist from Webster Hall, below...

Continue reading "Fanfarlo played Webster Hall (pics, review), playing BV-SXSW"

Sondre Lerche at BV Day Party (more by Tim Griffin)

Vulture: Why release a self-titled album now?

Sundre Lerche: Usually I have the title for the record pretty early on. I'll know which song title it is, or if it's a phrase from a song, but this time I didn't really have a clear vision of what it might be. I even asked my followers on Twitter for a suggestion. And of course -- no offense to them -- but that didn't prove to be fruitful. I sort of became obsessed with this whole title thing. I woke up from this dream one day and I had the perfect title, but I couldn't remember it. I'm not going to settle for anything but that title, and if I can't have it, it'll be a self-titled album.

Lerche's new and self-titled LP is due on June 7th via Mona Records. He kicks off a tour with Nightlands and Kishi Bashi on June 1st, hitting Bowery Ballroom on June 4th. Tickets for all dates are currently on fan presale, and Bowery Ballroom tickets go on general sale Friday.

Sondre's friend JBM is also returning to SXSW this year. You can catch him on 3/18 at Central Presbyterian Church (Sondre plays the same show) and earlier that same day at the TBA BV day party at Swan Dive (stay tuned).

All Sondre tour dates and some video, below...

Continue reading "Sondre Lerche releasing new album, touring, playing SXSW (2011 dates & presale now)"

Glasslands photos by Shanda Boyett, Apohadion by Bryan Bruchman, words by BBG

Delicate Steve on Governors Island (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Congrats to Delicate Steve, whose new LP Wondervisions is out now via Luaka Bop. Check out the video below for the title track featuring Dirty Projector Nat Baldwin (who plays Knit on 2/10 - tickets). Its a breezy funky track smothered in vintage keys ala.... you guessed it, Stevie Wonder.

And though Akron Family will take them out on an extensive run of dates including 2/17 at Knitting Factory (tickets) and 3/5 at Bowery Ballroom (tickets), Delicate Steve will celebrate the new LP with a record release show at Public Assembly on Saturday (2/5). As discussed, he'll be joined by Dustin Wong (Ponytail, Ecstatic Sunshine), Grandchildren, & Strange Shapes. Tickets are still available. You can also catch DS at the Meat Locker in Montclair, NJ TONIGHT (2/4) and at BAR Nightclub in New Haven, CT on 2/9.

A few days after Public Assembly, Wong will cross paths with the Woods/Ducktails tour that hits Monster Island Basement TONIGHT (2/4) with Metal Mountains. The tour recently hit Portland, Maine, and you can check out pictures from the Apohadion Theater show below. Ducktails will be back on stage later this month when they team up with Glory Girls to open for Lower Dens at Music Hall of Williamsburg on 2/25 (tickets)

Dustin Wong recently supported Nightlands, aka Dave Hartley of The War on Drugs, at his debut show at Glasslands on 1/19 with Tony Castles (who play Death By Audio tonight). Check out some pictures from Glasslands below. Nightlands went on to perform another four dates before the tour came to an end in Pontiac, MI. That included a gig in Chicago:

"Playing just his fourth show, Hartley's Chicago set began with a few songs alone with his acoustic guitar and some drum machine samples. Apparently having already mastered looping effects, Hartley was maintaining a strong vocal presence without any accompaniment, but opening act Houses joined him for the final two thirds of his set anyway. They brought with them a mandolin, louder percussion, and a noisier electric guitar. Live drumming was essential to Suzerain, the highlight of Nightlands' debut full-length, Forget the Mantra. And the additional set of voices enabled even more dynamic harmonies, especially for their chorally exultant closer, 300 Clouds."

All tour dates and some video/song streams are below...

Continue reading "Delicate Steve playing gigs b4 Akron/Family tour, Woods /Ducktails tour underway, Nightlands & more (dates & pics)"