photos by Bryan Bruchman / BTRtv; words by Bill Pearis

No Joy / Weekend @ Glasslands, 5/17/2013

No Joy's tour swung through NYC this week, with two shows for the Montreal shoegazers, first at Mercury Lounge (5/15) and then at Glasslands last night (5/17). The band's new album, Wait to Pleasure, is very much a studio creation, with producer Jorge Elbrecht of Violens buffing some of their more jagged edges in favor of more a lush sound that would've been right at home on 4AD Records in 1988. It's a terrific record, but I was happy to see no laptops or headphones at their show last night. While still in possession of honeyed vocals from Jasamine White-Gluz (using a harmonizer to great effect), songs like "Hare Tarot Lies" took on more pummeling form. This was especially true of show-closer "E" (which is opens their album) that is kind of their "You Made Me Realize," disintegrating into pure noise.

For fans of goth-leaning shoegaze, this was a great show as support came from Weekend who moved from San Francisco to Brooklyn last year, and even more recently adding a fourth member, Nick Ray, to the band. With Ray on bass, singer Shaun Durkan now plays second guitar. One might expect that to result in an even greater din, but last night's show was a bit turned-down, volume-wise, for the band. (It was still plenty loud.) Which maybe suited the set, which was made up almost entirely of Weekend's forthcoming album, Jinx, that trades white noise for liquid basslines, dark dance grooves and much hookier songs. The new direction suits them well and if you haven't heard first single "Mirror" you can stream it below.

Weekend's next show will be during the Northside Festival where they'll play Knitting Factory on June 15. Tickets for that show just went on sale today. They've got a few shows in California in July, too, and all dates are listed below.

I missed openers Grand Resort, but they have a few shows coming up including tonight (5/17) at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge where they'll play with Minneapolis' great BNLX. Those dates, along with more photos of No Joy and Weekend, are below.

Continue reading "No Joy played Glasslands with Weekend who are playing Northside (pics, dates)"

by Bill Pearis

No Joy's new album, Wait to Pleasure, came out last week via Mexican Summer. Produced by Violens' Jorge Elbrecht, the album goes beyond the group's pummeling shoegaze start, showing off previously unheard textures, melody and beauty. They can still attain tinitus-level volume, but they've got other cards too. You can stream it via Spotify, and check out their new video for the LP's almost Cocteau Twins-y "Hare Tarot Lies" below.

As mentioned, No Joy's tour will hit NYC in a couple weeks, playing an early show at Mercury Lounge on May 15 (tickets) and then Glasslands on May 16 with the sonically likeminded Weekend (who were great at Shea Stadium last week) and Grand Resort (who also play with BNLX the next day). You can still get tickets to Glasslands but if you'd like to go for free, we've got a pair to give away, along with a copy of No Joy's album.

Contest details, video, album stream and No Joy's current tour schedule are below.

Continue reading "No Joy released 'Wait to Pleasure' and new video; win copy of new LP and tickets to their Glasslands show"

by Bill Pearis

Weekend @ BVSXSW 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

As mentioned, Weekend will release their second album, Jinx, on July 23 via Slumberland. Where their debut album, Sports, wormed its way into your head from sheer force, the new album has a much stronger focus on both melody and dynamics (and just a smidge of melodrama). You can also dance to it, in an '80s goth club kind of way. You can stream "Mirror" (which opens the album) below along with choice cuts from their first album and EP.

Weekend are playing tonight (4/26) at Bushwick spot Shea Stadium, where they promise, "New songs, same volume.' I.e. bring earplugs. The show also has the ever-present LODRO, plus Slander, and Napoleon. Advance tickets are available. On Tuesday (4/30), Weekend will play a show at Stony brook University with SDLK. The show, sponsored by campus radio station WUSB, is happening in a classroom that's been converted into a studio. The show is free and all ages (and will be broadcast live on the station) and more info is here.

The band will also open for Montreal's No Joy at Glasslands on May 16 and tickets are still available for that show. (No openers for No Joy's 5/15 show at Mercury Lounge.)

Continue reading "Weekend add shows, playing Shea Stadium tonight and Stony Brook University next week (dates)"

Phoenix, who just played Coachella, are streaming their shiny new album, Bankrupt!, on iTunes.

Sub Pop 1000, the Record Store Day compilation with tracks from Peaking Lights, Iron Lung, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, Starred, My Disco, and others that we recommended in our RSD2013 guide, is streaming now on Pitchfork.

The new Nick Drake tribute album with covers by Vashti Bunyan, Robyn Hitchcock, and others is streaming on Spinner.

Jose Gonzalez's band Junip are streaming their new self titled album on Pitchfork.

Meat Puppets are streaming their new album, Rat Farm, on Spinner.

Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge are streaming their new film-soundtrack-style album, Twelve Reasons to Die, on NPR.

Montreal shoegazers No Joy are streaming their shimmery new album, Wait to Pleasure, on Pitchfork.

Tera Melos are streaming their new spastic pop album, X'ed Out, on Spinner.

The Boy Least Likely To are streaming their new album, The Great Perhaps, on Pitchfork.

by Bill Pearis

Weekend, who moved from San Francisco to Brooklyn last summer, have announced details of their second album. It's called Jinx and will be out on Slumberland on July 23. It's been almost two years since Weekend's dark, dissonant Red EP and the trio have burned a lot of the haze off their sound (and some of the ear-bleeding volume), in favor of more melody and danceability, albiet in a gothy '80s kind of way. (The Chameleons, The Sound and maybe even Ride come to mind.) You can stream the first track released from the album, "Mirror," below.

Expect tour dates a little closer to the albums release but in the meantime Weekend will be playing a NYC show soon, opening for No Joy at Glasslands on May 16. Tickets are still available.

Album art and tracklisting for Jinx are below.

Continue reading "Weekend ready new album 'Jinx' (stream a track), opening for No Joy in Brookyn"

Tamaryn is DJing at New York's Museum of Modern Art on Sunday evening (4/7) as part of a PopRally event called "Abstract Currents." Against projections of one-minute videos submitted by the public, Tamryn will provide a "hypnotic soundtrack to the collectively built abstract videoscape." It's in conjunction with MoMA's Abstraction, 1910-1925 and Abstract Generation: Now in Print exhibition and tickets are still available.

Later this month, Tamaryn will be in Texas' state capital for Austin Psych Fest (Apr. 26 - 28), which features a pretty amazing line-up that runs the gammut of "psychedelic," including Deerhunter, Spectrum, Black Mountain, OS Mutantes, The Moving Sidewalks, Clinic, Besnard Lakes, Elephant Stone, Roky Erickson, Sweden's GOAT and a bunch more. The fest just announced the day-by-day line-ups which are listed below.

Continue reading "Tamaryn DJing MoMA; Austin Psych Fest finalizes lineup"

by Bill Pearis

As mentioned, Montreal's No Joy will release their new album, Wait to Pleasure, on April 23 and it's a nice blast of textured, hooky shoegaze. You can stream "Lunar Phobia" below.

The band already have dates lined up with Clinic and METZ, but after those stints end, No Joy will swing through the Northeast on the way home, stopping in NYC for two shows: May 15 at Mercury Lounge and May 16 at Glasslands. Tickets for Mercury Lounge go on AmEx presale on Wednesday (3/13) at noon with the regular on-sale hitting Friday (3/15) at noon. Tickets for Glasslands are on sale now.

Updated No Joy dates are listed below...

Continue reading "No Joy expands tour (two NYC shows included)"

by Bill Pearis

Montreal's No Joy are set to return with their new album, Wait to Pleasure, which comes out April 23 via Mexican Summer. Working in a proper studio for the first time -- with Violens' Jorge Elbrecht at the helm -- the band are still in the hazy shoegaze world, but where previous records were focused on noise and volume, the new one aims for atmospheric, ethereal textures. So less Swervedriver, more Lush if that means anything to you. Stream the dreamy first single, "Lunar Phobia," below.

No Joy have dates coming up with Clinic and Metz, neither of which jaunts will hit NYC but hopefully they'll play here soon. All dates are listed below.

Continue reading "No Joy ready 'Wait to Pleasure,' touring (dates, stream)"

by Bill Pearis

Mac DeMarco @ Sala Rossa, 11/15/2012

"Nobody look up my girlfriend's skirt, okay?" Mac DeMarco asked the audience at Sala Rossa as he began his final song. His girlfriend, Kiki, was riding piggyback. She'd was dragged onstage a song earlier to play a game of "catch" where they held onto each other as Mac tipped them into the audience for a double crowd-surf.

So goes a Mac DeMarco show these days, where the onstage antics almost threaten to upstage the music. But, despite all the belch talking and other things, it never does. Mac and his band have toured most of 2012 and all that playing has done wonders for them -- they are tight but lythe around the groove. Songs off the new album ("Viceroy," "Cooking Up Someting Good") sound great and ones of his first album have a life to them than you don't hear on the recordings. And, like at CMJ last month, the Salla Rossa crowd loves him.

PS I Love You @ Sala Rossa, 11/15/2012

Mac was the unintentional headliner of night 2 of M for Montreal which, like the first night, took place at Sala Rossa, a club perched above a tapas restaurant (both of which are owned by some of the Godspeed guys). He got stuck in traffic and PS I Love You, nice guys that they are, switched into undercard slot. After spending half the year trying out a trio version of the group, they are back to their original duo arrangement of Paul Saulnier on vocals/guitar/bass pedals and Benjamin Nelson on drums. Playing most of the show with a double-neck guitar, Saulnier yelped and shredded through their 25-minute set of the catchiest material from the band's two albums, plus a couple new ones (I think). Nelson is a machine behind the kit and the way he hammers on the hi-hat gives the band a New Order-ish backbone which offsets Saulnier's more rock instincts. While I enjoyed seeing them as a trio, it's clear the chemistry is between these two.

continued below...

Continue reading "M for Montreal 2012: day 2 review (Mac Demarco, PS I Love You, Young Galaxy, No Joy + more)"

by Bill Pearis

The seventh annual M for Montreal festival happens next week (November 14 - 17) in its namesake Canadian city. Previous years, M4M has featured mainly Montreal (and other parts of Canada) artists, being showcased to a group of "international delgates" (talent buyers, journalists, music supervisors, tour agenents and other industry types) in a tightly controlled set of shows, this year's fest expands its scope with nearly 100 performer at 16 venues, giving it more of an actual festival feel than an industry conference that has music showcases the public could by tickets to.

The line-up is much more global this year as well, with musicians from France, Iceland and, for the first time, the United States playing alongside bands from all over Canada. Artists playing the 2012 edition include Death Grips, Of Monsters and Men, Mac DeMarco, Suuns, Mykki Blanco, Sun Airway, A Place To Bury Strangers, Cadence Weapon, Memoryhouse, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Bleeding Rainbow and Blue Hawaii. Full list of performers is below and daily schedule is here and advance tickets to shows and panel discussions are available.

Like in years past (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008), I'll be heading up for the M fest, and will be reporting the goings-on.

If you want a taste of Montreal this week in NYC, beyond the snow we're currently experiencing, Montreal rapper Cadence Weapon plays Glasslands on Friday (11/9) with Fat Tony. Tickets are still available. Cadence Weapon tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "2012 M for Montreal Festival: full line-up (Death Grips, A Place to Bury Strangers, Of Monsters & Men, Mac DeMarco + more)"

by Bill Pearis

Hazy Montreal rockers No Joy are hitting the road and crushing eardrum, joining Lower Dens on their upcoming summer tour that hits NYC on July 19 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that show are still available and all Lower Dens/No Joy tour dates are listed below.

Right before that tour begins (June 19 to be specific), No Joy will release Negaverse, a new five-song EP on Mexican Summer which refines the band's swirling maelstrom of big guitars and ethereal vocals. Alan McGee would've signed them to Creation in a heartbeat in 1990. Sounds good today too -- you can stream the EP's lead track, "Junior," alongside the record's cover art and tracklist below.

Continue reading "No Joy ready new EP (stream a track), touring w/ Lower Dens "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Lower Dens - "Brains"

Lower Dens' terrific second album, Nootropics, is out today on Domino subsidiary Ribbon Music, and they just announced a tour with No Joy that wraps up at Bowery Ballroom on July 19. Tickets go on sale for the Bowery show on Friday (May 4) at Noon and the Amex pre-sale starts tomorrow (May 2) at noon. Meanwhile, Lower Dens played the Insound offices last night for people who pre-bought Nootropics and play sold out shows tonight (5/1) at Mercury Lounge and Wednesday (5/2) at Glasslands.

Nootropics is new musical territory for Jana Hunter and crew, with a much spacier sound than their debut, Twin Hand Movment, and is a little closer in sound to their Baltimore neighbors Beach House. (I might argue that Nootropics out-Beach Houses the new Beach House album, Bloom, but that's just me.) Pitchfork gave it a 8.2 today, but not Best New Music. You can download the motorik-driven first single "Brains" at the top of this post and stream the album on Spotify. They also just released a video for new single "Propogation" full of spooky, glowing beekeepers. Spooky beekeeper music actually isn't a bad description of Nootropics, either.

Click through for the "Propogation" video and all Lower Dens tour dates...

Continue reading "Lower Dens release Nootropics, announce more dates & video"

Marnie Stern at Santos Party House (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Marnie Stern and No Joy, who coincidentally shared a bill at one of the BrooklynVegan day parties during CMJ, are heading out on a North American tour together in September. The dates haven't been announced yet but a few of them have been revealed, including September 29 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now.

Marnie and No Joy both have some other upcoming dates this summer too. Though they won't be at the same show, they'll both be in Chicago on July 8, when Marnie Stern hosts a guitar clinic before she opens for the Flaming Lips at Aragon Ballroom. No Joy play the Empty Bottle that night.

Speaking of the Flaming Lips, they played multiple shows last weekend in Atlantic City

"On June 23rd and 24th The Flaming Lips played in Atlantic City - including on the latter night their new arrangement of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety with highlights from The Wizard of Oz. The next day they were scheduled to travel seven hours northwest to play in Rochester, New York. That show however - a late addition to The Flaming Lips Peace and Punk Rock Summer Tour - was postponed. Its promoters needed more time, so Wayne flew to his home state Oklahoma - where he is shooting a role in a new movie with Melanie Griffith." [psych explorations]

All tour dates and some other videos too, below...

Continue reading "Marnie Stern going on tour w/ No Joy, opening for the Flaming Lips (who played 'Dark Side' in AC, didn't play Rochester)"

DOWNLOAD: Black Lips - "Modern Art" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: WIN WIN - VICTIM featuring Blaqstarr (Black Lips Remix) (MP3)

photos by Tim Griffin

[Black Lips] took the stage with their typical energy of 100 firecrackers and ripped into "Sea of Blasphemy", a helpful fan tossing a beer to lead guitarist Ian Saint Pé afterward. Shortly after, the band played my favorite song from their catalog, "Dirty Hands", arguably the best track from their awesome "live" album, Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo (and earlier, Let It Bloom). This track had people lip synching and lightly air punching, which then got kicked up a few notches with the first notes of "Katrina", which unsurprisingly got the biggest crowd reaction of the night. Lead singer and bassist Jared Swilley took a moment to mention that, "It feels good to be in Austin when it's not South by Southwest," -[Soundcheck]

Vivian Girls are now on tour with No Joy. Black Lips are heading to Europe before coming back for more North American tour dates in June. All of those dates are below.

Black Lips have a new LP produced by Mark Ronson entitled Arabia Mountain due on June 7th. Check out the first single "Modern Art," released officially yesterday, above. While you're up there grab the band's remixing debut via a new WIN WIN remix that appears on a new Scion-sponsored WIN WIN remix EP. Vivian Girls' new LP Share The Joy is out now via Polyvinyl.

More pictures and some videos from Emo's and all dates, below.

Continue reading "Black Lips released a new song & remix (MP3s), toured w/ Vivian Girls, played Webster Hall & Emo's (pics & video)"

Evan Dando at The Bell House (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

Evan Dando & The Lemonheads have a few random upcoming dates scheduled. The Lemonheads will share a bill with The Canon Logic on April 28th at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Tickets are still available. You can also catch Josh Lattanzi of The Lemonheads at Bowery Ballroom on May 26 & 27 as part of the Bob Dylan tribute that will also include members of the Strokes, Hold Steady, etc, etc.

All other upcoming Evan Dando dates are in other countries at the moment, including a June 16th Evan & Juliana Hatfield show in Toronto for the NXNE festival which, like Brooklyn's own multi-venue festival Northside, recently expanded its lineup. Some of the other bands playing are in the title of this post. The rest are listed below.

All Dando-related dates and some videos below too...

Continue reading "Lemonheads playing shows, NXNE expands lineup (includes Descendents, Stars, Devo, OFF!, Juliana Hatfield, more)"

words by Rachel Kowal, photos by Bao Nguyen

"For the record wavves has NOT confirmed anything for sxsw I have no idea why they posted our name that shit is bogus" - Wavves

"wavves covered nervous breakdown. black flag covers are like birthday cakes, or pizza." - Joe Frontirre

Brooklyn may still be covered with a few layers of dirty, icy snow, but last night's bill at MHOW offered a brief respite from the cold, gray weather.

With their noisy, high-energy music, the first openers, No Joy, seemed a fitting addition to the evening's bill. The guitar levels may have been a bit muffled for much of their performance, but they powered through their set regardless. The two main singers let their long hair fall over their faces and around the microphone, pushing it back only between songs to make sure they got the timing right. They hardly said a word between songs or sought to engage the audience with anything resembling eye contact, but their performance exuded the most energetic manifestation of lethargy I've seen in quite a while. For their finale, they unassumingly crouched down on stage over pedals as the sound died out around them.

From the first few notes of Best Coast's set, the dynamic in the room shifted to make way for the band's deceptively upbeat songs of LA life, inertia, and unrequited love. The trio kicked off their set with "This is Real," a sweet little song with a buoyant chorus that sounds almost as if it were made for Tennis's Alaina Moore.

They stood far apart on stage, but the isolation seemed to work for them. Unlike No Joy's muddled sound, Best Coast benefited from a mix that emphasized each player's strong points. Though not particularly insightful, the short, poppy format and pleasantly innocuous lyrics ("I wish he was my boyfriend") made nearly every song sound like a single.

After breezing through much of their discography and a Loretta Lynn cover song, Best Coast concluded their set with "Each and Every Day," and at Bethany Cosentino's lead, the crowd gladly clapped along.

I confess I got a bit sleepy between sets, but I immediately perked back up as soon as Wavves began to play. Suddenly, the calmly swaying, casually dancing crowd turned into a whirlpool of activity as beach balls and (soft) frisbees were hurled into the sold-out room. Up front, a mosh pit developed almost instantaneously as if on cue.

After a number of heavily publicized debacles, it was good to see Wavves feel a bit more at home on stage. Sure, there was one false start when guitarist Nathan Williams got a little ahead of himself on the set list, but other than that, the boys kept it together. A few songs in, Williams even paused a few seconds to deliver a little PSA about safety after one eager fan took a nasty stage dive into the unprepared crowd. "Guys, if somebody falls down, pick them up. Don't step on their face."

One of the highlights of the show came when another fan who had also managed to get on stage, overstayed his welcome and promptly got hurled back into the crowd by a bouncer. ("That was pretty good," said Williams afterward. "He got real leverage with that push!") (update: video below)

After Wavves' frenzied, encore-less set, I quickly surveyed the crowd from my spot in the balcony. The sweep of the spotlights revealed a couple making out and a number of happily bruised, disheveled people, searching for belongings that had gotten lost in the mad shuffle and grabbing a few beach balls as souvenirs on their way out.

The tour continues in Boston tonight. Two nights ago they played the larger Webster Hall in Manhattan. More pictures from the Brooklyn show (though none of No Joy - Bao had train problems), and Best Coast's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Best Coast, Wavves & No Joy played MHOW (pics & setlist)"

photos by Chris Gersbeck

"Off to Wavves and Best Coast -
maybe I'll show up on Hipster Runoff tomorrow" - Wesley Barrow

"At best coast/wavves, 99 percent of people here
follow best coast's cat on twitter" - WiLD ViBES

Best Coast @ Webster Hall

"The '90s are back, and along with flannel, environmentalism and 20-something ennui, the resurgence has brought some great self-deprecating rock songs.

Best Coast and Wavves are responsible for the best of them. The two young bands performed at the 9:30 Club on Monday night, singing about California boredom and slacker romance - the latter made all the more intriguing by the fact that Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino and Wavves singer Nathan Williams are a couple.

And while the neo-grunge lovebirds have both toured doggedly (and separately) in support of their both-excellent 2010 albums, Monday's gig proved that neither act has quite figured out how to translate the heroic loserdom of their recordings to the stage.

Still, these losers have been wildly successful." [Washington Post]

Two nights after DC, last night (2/2), Best Coast, Wavves, and tour-opener No Joy played a sold out show at Webster Hall, and they do it again tonight at Music Hall of Williamsburg. More pictures from Webster Hall are below...

Continue reading "Best Coast, Wavves & No Joy played 9:30 Club (stream it) and Webster Hall (pics) -- MHOW tonight"

Wavves @ Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Guster, Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, Darker My Love, Natalie Hemby, Crystal Antlers, Bishop Allen, Jenny O, Little Jackie, Ceci Bastida, and "Best Coast, Wavves" have contributed new songs to a Target Christmas album which is currently streaming at Target's site (a download of the songs is "coming soon"). Maybe the two bands will perform the song live when they collaborate on stage during their 2011 tour together. Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino told SPIN:

"We're both in summery California bands and I think by doing the tour in winter, we're bringing summer to places where it's fucking freezing," she says. "We've been talking about what we want the vibe to be -- we want it to be a beach-themed sort of thing, but we're still brainstorming."

Cosentino and Williams haven't planned all details of their sets yet -- Wavves are currently touring in Europe -- but she says fans can definitely expect some on-stage collaborations between the acts. "I'm sure we'll end up doing some songs together," she says. "We were joking that the whole show should be a Wavves-Best Coast jam, but everyone would probably just want a refund if we did that."

Williams also promises there will be a special, limited-edition piece of merch for sale. "I can't say what it is but it's definitely cool," he says. "I think we're also gonna breed cats before the shows and sell them at the merch table."

No Joy, who you maybe caught during CMJ, opens almost every show on the tour.

Other upcoming shows for Best Coast include two dates with Weezer, and EIGHT shows in FOUR DAYS at the SAME LAS VEGAS HOTEL (the new Cosmopolitan). Not sure what that is all about, but all dates are listed below...

Continue reading "updated Wavves & Best Coast tour dates w/ 2 NYC shows, a Target Christmas song & stuff"

"Best coast and wavves are touring the US together Jan/Feb 2011. Who wants to party with me while mom and dad are gone?" - Snacks the Cat

Wavves watching Best Coast @ NXNE (more)

Friends, lovers and now tour-mates. Best Coast and Wavves are about to announce a tour together, and when they do it will list at least one February 2nd show at Webster Hall in NYC with No Joy. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon.

Continue reading "Wavves touring w/ Best Coast, announce NYC show"

most photos by Andrew St. Clair, Jamie Lidell photos by Leia Jospe
videos by Bleary Eyed Brooklyn

Jamie Lidell / Marnie Stern

"As a sucker for daytime events, I headed to Williamsburg's Public Assembly around noon for a show curated by BrooklynVegan. First up (and by "first", I mean, "the first artist I woke up in time to see") was Ted Leo. Performing skeletal, solo versions of his Pharmacists material, Ted more than compensated for the sparse arrangements with furious strumming and hilarious banter. It was nice to see an older, established artist opening a free show designed to showcase rising stars; it sort of set the tone for the rest of the day. His hit-heavy set spanned the full-duration of career, touching on high-water marks like "The High Party" and "Bottled in Cork", and closing with a cover of Euro-dance phenom Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat". This was a perfect set to open the day, and my only recommendation is that the next synth jam he covers be "Chewing Gum", by Annie...

...Closing the show, metal prodigy Marnie Stern dominated stage two, directly opposite neo-funkster Jamie Lidell headlining the main room. While she reveled in the loose atmosphere, dropping hilariously lewd stage banter and slamming PBR's, Lidell tried a throwback set reflecting his early, robotic Warp Records catalog." [MTV Music Blog]

Hopefully you got there early on Saturday to catch Morning Teleportation who went on when we opened the doors around noon. If so, you may have also grabbed one of the free EarPeace earplugs we gave out, and grabbed a free V-Spot empanada. Hopefully you also had your fill of the free Firefly Vodka + Bourbon and Magic Hat beer we were giving out, snacked on free Raw Revolution bars, bought a free t-shirt or poster for charity (email if you still want one - we have more left). If you weren't there, maybe you caught the live stream (if we can ever make it available for podcast, I will let you know).

Thanks to Line 6 and Vinny's Music for providing gear. Thanks to Vinnie's Pizza for helping feed our bands!

Speaking of the bands, hopefully Titus Andronicus's short set didn't bum you out. And if it did, hopefully Big Freedia cheered you right back up.

Like for the Friday party, there are two sets of pictures for this one. The second one is on its way. The first one, along with a bunch of videos, continues below...

Continue reading "BV Saturday day party in pics & video - part 1 (Marnie Stern, Dominique Young Unique, Heavy Cream, No Joy & more)"

For those keeping count, BrooklynVegan will be at Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday night, Public Assembly on Friday day, and Sunday night at Union Pool. Add to that list (as previously mentioned): Saturday day at Public Assembly. And for this one we teamed up with Converse to bring you the following stellar 100% FREE SHOW....

The date: Saturday, October 23rd, 2010
The time: noon-6pm
The place: Public Assembly (70 North 6th St)
the bands:

STAGE 1
12:00 Morning Teleportation
01:00 Ted Leo (solo)
01:45 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
02:30 Wild Nothing
03:15 Titus Andronicus
04:15 Big Freedia
05:00 Jamie Lidell
DJ sets by SUNCELEb

STAGE 2
12:15 Evan Voytas
01:00 S. Carey
01:45 The Crayon Fields
02:30 Heavy Cream
03:15 Dominique Young Unique
04:00 No Joy
04:45 Reggie Watts
05:05 Marnie Stern

* free EarPeace (while supplies last)
* free V-Spot breakfast burritos & empanadas (while supplies last)
* free Firefly Vodka + Bourbon (while supplies last)
* free Magic Hat beer (while supplies last)
* free Raw Revolution bars

Can't make it? We'll be streaming select sets live on Converse Radio. Tune in.

Converse is doing a lot lately to help support music, and has especially hooked up Brooklyn. You might have heard about this:

"Converse announced details for an unprecedented initiative that directly supports artistic creativity and the music community in a unique way through the opening of a new, state-of-the-art recording studio in Brooklyn, NY later this year. Converse Rubber Tracks will provide emerging artists with the incredible opportunity to record music in a high-quality studio alongside a team of experienced local engineers at no cost. Converse Rubber Tracks will provide a platform for new musicians and directly help them overcome one of the biggest hurdles in their career-affording studio time."

Stay tuned to @bvCMJ for even more CMJ news and updates than you'll find on BrooklynVegan.com.

Oh, and if you oversleep, you can also catch Ted Leo later that day at the WFMU Record Fair or in December at Terminal 5 with the New Pornographers.

Thanks to: Zach Jaeger of Tonally Dude Productions for the sweet flyer you see above, and to Vinny's Music for providing us with some sweet gear, and to Underground Press (who have their own day party on Thursday) for getting us some merch printed to help raise money for charity including screenprinted versions of the above poster that we'll have available at the show.

Some videos below...

Continue reading "free BrooklynVegan & Converse Saturday day party @ Public Assembly -- lineup (15 bands, free drinks, food & more)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: PS I Love You - Facelove (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: PS I Love You - 2012 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Suuns - Arena (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Suuns - Up Past the Nursery (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The High Dials - Chinese Boxes (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Elephant Stone - I am Blind (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: No Joy - Headless (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Parallels - Find the Fire (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hot Panda - Mindlessnesslessness (MP3)

Radio Radio

There's never any shortage of Canadians at CMJ but this year... there seems like more than usual. So lets get to it.

On Thursday (10/21) The M for Montreal folks are back for a second year at Arlene's Grocery with eight diverse bands (not all from MTL) they deem worthy of seeing. The band with the most buzz coming into CMJ is probably Kingston, Ontario PS I Love You who play at 9PM.  For a duo, these guys have a pretty giant sound, and their debut LP,  Meet Me at Muster Station, recently got a 8.1 on Pitchfork. You can download two tracks from it at the top of this post. PS I Love You are playing five shows this week ( 20th - 23rd) and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

Capping the evening at 1AM are Acadian hip hop group Radio Radio whose album Belmundo Regal was up for this year's prestigious Polaris Prize. (They lost to Karkwa.) You can listen to the whole record via a widget at the bottom of this post. They are, I'm pretty sure, the only act to rap in the Chiac dialect, which is kind of the French Canadian equivalent of Spanglish. I saw them two years ago in Montreal and they were super fun -- even though I had no idea what they were saying. If you have no Last Show tonight, definitely head over to Arlene's Grocery. It's their only CMJ show.

Also playing the M for Montreal show: our good friends The Luyas who will also play our free day party on Friday (their only other show); Red Mass who bring a touch of theatrics to their Damned-esque garage punk; the low fi garagey folk of Uncle Bad Touch (who get the JEFF the Brotherhood Seal of Approval); Vancouver duo The Pack A.D.; and laid back folk-soul-hiphop group Random Recipe (check out their LP widget at the bottom of this post).

Random Recipe

If you show up at 6PM you'll be treated to a little pre show action: dream pop outfit Braids and free poutine, the official drunk food of Montreal (though not vegan). Set times for the whole night are at the bottom of this post. Braids play six times this week and all of their shows are listed at the bottom as well.

The biggest bummer about this show is it happens at the same time as the official BrooklynVegan Showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg. But you can get a taste of Montreal at our show as Suuns are playing at 8:45 PM. You can download two Suuns tracks at the top of this post. If you dig shoegaze, Krautrock, or Clinic, you don't wanna miss this band. I caught them at Mercury Lounge over the summer and was impressed. If you can't make our show but still wanna see Suuns, they also play later Thursday (11:45 PM) at Pianos as part of the Secretly Canadian showcase. Those are their only two shows during CMJ week.

High Dials

There are more Montreal bands here this week too. One of my favorites, The High Dials, play on Saturday (10/23) at the 269 Bar at 11PM. Their new album, Anthems for Doomed Youth, is another great offering of jangly psychedlia, shoegazy guitars and sunny harmonies. You can download "Chinese Boxes" from it at the top of this post.

You may remember that The High Dials used to have a sitar player who left after the band's first album. That guy, Rishi Dhir, now has his own group, Elephant Stone, whose album The Seven Seas, was up for the 2009 Polaris Prize.  Elephant Stone play the Trash Bar on Thursday (10/21, 10PM). If you can't see them then, Elephant Stone will be back in NYC in November.

More Montreal action: No Joy, who split their time between L.A. and MTL and will have your eardrums bleeding from their awesome, sludgy shoegaze. They play seven CMJ week shows, including the BV day party on Saturday (10/23) at Public Assembly. (Official announcement soon.) After CMJ,  No Joy head out with Vivian Girls offshoot La Sera (who plays a bunch her own CMJ shows) -- all dates are at the bottom of this post.

Folk band The Barr Brothers play two shows tonight tonight (10/19): Cameo Gallery at 7:30PM and then The Rock Shop at 11PM. They also play tomorrow (10/20, 7PM) at Rockwood Music Hall.

More MTL: rawkers Priestess play Mercury Lounge on Wednesday (10/20, 8:30PM); and AIDS Wolf play a late show at Knitting Factory Saturday night with Ty Segall (10/23, 1AM).

Time, space and sanity doesn't permit me to go through every single Canadian act here for CMJ, but here's a few more of note:

Much-buzzed, glammy, glitzy Diamond Rings plays six CMJ week shows, starting with tomorrow night's (10/20) killer Stereogum/Popgun party at Santos, that also includes Wild Nothing, Tamaryn, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., now-revealed headliner The Drums, and more. (Only $5 with RSVP.) All Diamond Rings CMJ dates, including an Underground Press/Distiller day party at Knitting Factory on Thursday, are at the bottom of this post.

Toronto synth-disco duo Parallels play two shows on Wednesday (10/20): Backstage (formerly the Annex) at 1opm and then 11:45PM at The Bell House (that's gonna be cutting it close). Check out their track "Find the Fire" at the top of this post.

Hot Panda

Edmonton, Alberta's cute, frenetic indiepop foursome Hot Panda play two shows on Wednesday (10/20): a day show at Fontanas (2:40PM) and then that night at the Trash Bar (11PM). Check out "Mindlessnesslessness" from the band's new album, How Come I'm Dead? at the top of this post.

Two Hours Traffic hail from Prince Edward Island and traffik (sorry) in Weezer-ish power pop. They play the R Bar on Saturday (10/23) at 9PM.

And Woodhands, from Toronto, will bring their somewhat nerdy, definitely catchy snyth rock to The Bell House for a midnight set.

Tour dates, some flyers, videos, album widgets and other stuff are below.

Continue reading "Canadian invasion @ CMJ 2010 (PS I Love You, Hot Panda, No Joy, Radio Radio, Diamond Rings, High Dials, Braids, more) "

words and photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Swans

Day three/Friday of Pop Montreal (check out days one and two) was colder and, thankfully, dryer than Thursday. But a canceled day party at the Notman House and some overlap at the other day party at Divan Orange made for a quiet afternoon.

The night started in earnest at Place des Arts to catch Zola Jesus. It was a really spacious concert hall and Nika Roza Danilova paced from one side of the stage to the other, dramatically swaying back and forth. She owned the stage and her backing band sounded good in a space where it would seem easy for the sound to get lost.

Then a walk along Rue Ste-Catherine back to the National to catch Baby Dee and Swans. Baby Dee's Baroque pop consisted of her on harp and an accompanying violinist and cellist. Between hushed songs and awkward "hee, hees" at the audience applause, Baby Dee led the audience in some purposeful artist bashing. She mentioned how you never hear crowds show their out and out dislike for someone's music. So, the entire crowd was led in a chant of "You stink and your music stinks." It was reprised at the end of the set as well. "Just don't do that with (Swans') Michael Gira," she warned the crowd. "You need to do that to someone with lower self-esteem."

For Swans, ten minutes of loud, deep strings on tape gave way to each musician taking the stage, first Shearwater's Thor Harris on percussion and finally the rest of the band and lastly, Gira. He stood stoically and surveyed the crowd and as the noise began to swell he donned his guitar and rocked back and forth before the band broke into blaring instrumental, face-melting, rock mode. Even with earplugs it was deafening. It was mesmerizing and devastating and sounded great in such a cozy, old theater like the National. "Holy shit, I still can't hear!" said one kid as he bounded out of the venue before the set was over. He was certainly not alone and any questions about the reboot of the band were settled.

From there it was up Boul. St-Laurent to the packed, hot and sweaty Barfly to catch Montreal's No Joy. I arrived early to find Toronto's Little Girls rocking away. Their set of self-described minimalist post-punk culminated with lead singer Josh McIntyre knocking his keyboard onto the ground and then standing on it as his bandmates thrashed around him. Shoegazy with indecipherable lyrics that bled into hazy guitars and bass, No Joy was a solid set though one gets the feeling that dark, sweaty clubs is where these songs sound best. The same would go for Little Girls.

More pictures from the whole day below...

Continue reading "Pop Montreal 2010 - Day 3 in pics & review (Swans, Baby Dee, Zola Jesus, No Joy & more)"

photos by Josh Darr

DOWNLOAD: a mixtape by Tamaryn for Vice (MP3) (via)
DOWNLOAD: Tamarayn - Love Fade (MP3)

Dum Dum Girls at Aragon Ballroom

"Dum Dum Girls opened the [Radio City] show [on September 16th] and Dee Dee was sick- she was actually taken to a doctor immediately after the show but she put on a brave performance for a crowd that was still filing in. Didn't matter- seeing friend's band play at Radio City Music Hall in NYC: check." [CatDirtSez]

After those recent dates with Vampire Weekend and Beach House, Dum Dum Girls played their own show at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn before linking up with another band large enough to fill up Radio City on multiple nights, MGMT. The two bands are currently touring Europe through middle October. Hopefully Dee Dee is feeling better...

"Dee Dee was in much better health for [the Knitting Factory] show and it came through in the performance. The crowd was enthusiastic. The girl in front of me actually got out her filp phone and texted "ddg r killing it" right in front of me in conspicuous fashion. Mike Sniper of Blank Dogs/Captured tracks and Wes Eisold of Cold Cave were there. I also read that the lead singer of Vampire Weekend and David Cross were there too but I didn't see them." [CatDirtSez]

Tamaryn

San Francisco's Tamaryn, who is signed to Mexican Summer and who you could easily mistake for a member of the Dum Dum Girls in the above picture (their songs are not so dissimilar either), also plays the Mexican Summer CMJ showcase at Knitting Factory on Thursday, October 21st with Lower Dens, Robert Lester Folsom, Viva L'American Death Ray Music, Soldiers Of Fortune, and No Joy. Tickets are on sale. The two NYC shows are Tamaryan's only upcoming dates at the moment. Grab "Love Fade" and a mixtape Tamarayn made above, and check out the video for the same song below. Tamaryn's album The Waves is out now.

Before DDG/BH/VW played Radio City, the band tagged Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on 9/5. Pictures from that show adorn this post, and more are below, along with all dates...

Continue reading "Dum Dum Girls, Frankie Rose & Tamaryn schedule more shows (not together) - MP3s, video, pics, dates, CMJ"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Weekend - End Times (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Weekend - All American (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Procedure Club - Feel Sorry for Me (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Procedure Club - Rather (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: No Joy - No Joy (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ceremony - Someday (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Games - Everything is Working (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Family Trees - Dream Talkin (MP3)

Weekend @ Cake Shop

I hope you all survived the insanity that was last week. Thankfully, this week is not quite as action packed but still a lot of cool stuff going on. Let's get to it.

Lovers of shoegazy noisepop will want to be at Silent Barn tonight (8/18) for a pretty killer quadruple bill at which earplugs are definitely recommended. San Francisco's Weekend and New Haven, CT's Procedure Club are both signed to Slumberland Records. Weekend are pretty clean-cut looking dudes who make a dark-edged squall that shows a direct through-line from Joy Division to Jesus and Mary Chain to Ride and beyond. I caught them last night at Cake Shop and despite a few microphone problems I thought they were pretty good. Loud. Really loud. The band have already released singles on Transparent and Mexican Summer -- download tracks from those at the top of this post -- and the Slumberland album, Sports (is the title perhaps a tip of a hit to fellow Bay Area musician Huey Lewis?), is out in November. Weekend also play Death by Audio tomorrow (8/19) tomorrow night with sonic compatriots A Place to Bury Strangers.

Procedure Club

Procedure Club, meanwhile, are more on the bedroom pop side of things. Their album, Doomed Forever, came out in June and is a pretty low fi affair, but the songwriting begins to shine through the cacophony on repeated listens. Check out two tracks from the album above, and there's a video for "Rather" at the bottom of this post.

As for the rest of the Silent Barn bill, there's LA/Montreal duo No Joy who I've written about before (but still haven't seen) and are possibly the loudest band on a very loud night. The band's debut 7" is out now on Mexican Summer (grab the b-side above) and is recommended to those whose taste leans towards the sludgy side of things. No Joy are also playing the Death by Audio show with APTBS and Weekend tomorrow night, and will then head out on tour with Dungen, and those tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Rounding out the show are Fredericksburg, VA's Ceremony who crib more than a little from JAMC (and Medicine and The Radio Dept.), though their album, Rocket Fire, has some nice moments on it -- you can download an MP3 of "Someday" at the top of this post.

Dean and Britta

Dean Wareham kicks off his "Plays Galaxie 500" tour tonight at the Rock Shop, and he'll do it again tomorrow night at Bowery Ballroom with Crystal Stilts opening. Both shows are sold out so I won't go on and on here, but I'm looking forward to this trip down Memory Lane. Hopefully he'll pull out some of my favorites ("Strange," "Parking Lot," "Oblivious"). Dean talked to the AV Club about the difficulties of rearranging the songs for his current band:

AVC: You play with four people now instead of three.

DW: We like four people, because I listen to the records, and there's generally two guitars, because there's an overdub on each track. Or sometimes Matt [Sumrow] plays keyboards; he switches back and forth. I think it sounds fuller with the live guitar. When I go back and look at the old Galaxie 500 live recordings, sometimes Kramer would get onstage with us and play a few songs. It sounded a little fuller. There are times when it works great as a three-piece, too.

AVC: Does touring the Galaxie songs as a four-piece involve some rearranging?

DW: It involves some rehearsing. The songs are more difficult to play than I remember. I listened to the live Galaxie 500 album from Copenhagen, and I realized that's at the end of a tour, after we had been touring for a couple of months and had gotten pretty good at it. In terms of chord structure, the songs are incredibly simple. For example, a song like "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste" is only one chord, but there's a whole lot going on in it.

AVC: Peter Buck talks about how hard it was late in R.E.M.'s career to relearn some of their early songs. Because they didn't know what they were doing at first, it's incredibly difficult to replicate.

DW: On "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste," when I was going over my guitar solo, I had no idea what I was doing and I was completely lost. Then I'm like, "How did I do that?"

AVC: It's hard to stumble into the same thing twice.

DW: Well, obviously I don't have to replicate it note-for-note. Mind you, I've got fans who get mad if I play "Snowstorm" and I do the solo with the fuzz pedal instead of the wah-wah. "What! How could he do that?"

Deva

And a few more picks, day-by-day of shows that weren't covered above.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18

Family Trees, who probably own a Galaxie 500 record or two, play their dreamy folk pop to Pianos tonight opening for Julian Lynch and Family Portrait. Check out Family Tree's lovely "Dream Talkin'" at the top of this post.

Quality indie rockers Diehard highlight a fun bill at Bruar Falls that also has The Vandelles and The Sanctuaries.

Air Waves, The Beets, Easter Vomit and Rifle Recoil play a benefit for Yellow Fever's Jennifer Moore at Death by Audio.

continued below...

Continue reading "Weekend, APTBS, Procedure Club, Galaxie 500, Games, No Joy, Ceremony, Family Trees & more in This Week in Indie"