photos by Diana Wong

Moogfest 2012 is now underway in Asheville, North Carolina. The two day, multi-venue fest will feature sets by Killer Mike, Primus, Explosions in the Sky, Thomas Dolby, Death Grips, Four Tet, Orbital, Disclosure, and many more. Check out the full schedule.

Last night (10/25), Justice, who are on a tour that also hit Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, helped kick things off (unofficially) with a big show at the U.S. Cellular Center. Distal opened, and we have pictures. More below...

Continue reading "Justice kicked off Moogfest 2012 (which continues today)(pics)"

photos by Diana Wong

Tangerine Dream & fan

The annual music festival Moogfest took place this Halloween weekend down in Asheville, North Carolina. Countless bands we know and love played over the course of its three days including The Antlers, Atlas Sound, Austra, Anika, The Field, AraabMuzik, Flying Lotus, Chromeo, TV on the Radio, Moby, Matthew Dear, Tangerine Dream, and many more. And that was just Friday. Friday pictures are in this post.

As NPR points out:

"Tangerine Dream has wore many hats during a prolific 35-year career: Krautrock, New Age, film scores and pioneering synth music, to start. The group has consistently worked at a steady clip, generating 116 (!) live and studio albums in spite of its many personnel changes. Edgar Froese, the creative force behind Tangerine Dream, is the only remaining original member."

Continue reading "Moogfest 2011 - Day 1 in pics & streams (Tangerine Dream, Moby, TV on the Radio, Austra, Chromeo, Antlers & more)"

photos & videos by Jessica Amaya

The Love Language @ The Rock Shop

The Love Language played The Rock Shop on Saturday (8/20) with Nightdogs and IYEZ. Pictures and videos from that show are in this post.

The show was one of a few for the Merge-signed headliner before they play Hopscotch Fest in Raleigh, NC this September. Hopscotch recently updated their lineup to include The Men, Hospitality, Fan Modine, and Dreamers of the Ghetto. The Light Pines, who were scheduled to play the fest, have broken up and had to drop off, and Apex Manor, who were also scheduled to play, cancelled all of their 2011 appearances, including Hopscotch. Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio, playing the fest on September 8th with The Necks, J Mascis and Steve Gunn at Fletcher Opera Hall, has revealed its band lineup. You can check out the full schedule at Hopscotch's site and purchase Tickets there too.

More pictures and video from Brooklyn below...

Continue reading "The Love Language played the Rock Shop (pics), playing Hopscotch Fest (updated lineup)"

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"

DOWNLOAD: Megafaun - "Volunteers" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Megafaun - "Carolina Days" (MP3)

Megafaun @ Bowery Ballroom in 2009 (more by Kurt Christensen)

Those looking for an excuse for a road trip this weekend:

Megafaun & Fight the Big Bull • 'Sounds of the South'
feat. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver & Sharon Van Etten
Friday, September 17, 2010 | 8:00 pm
Saturday, September 18, 2010 | 8:00 pm
Sunday, September 19, 2010 | 5:00 pm
Hayti Heritage Center
$26 • Duke & NCCU Students $5

The members of Megafaun moved from Wisconsin to Raleigh with Vernon as the band DeYarmond Edison. After Vernon went back north to record as Bon Iver, the Cook brothers and Joe Westerlund stayed on in the Piedmont, crafting a timeless folk-pop that "drinks deeply from the well of the past but could only have been made today" (Drowned in Sound)--an archive of rural America's ghosts.

In this exclusive live recording event, the rustic avant-gardists team with Fight the Big Bull, the "thrilling" (NPR) 9-piece jazz collective from Richmond, VA, along with Vernon and the blisteringly talented Van Etten. Together in Durham for three shows only, they'll cut a live album based on Alan Lomax's collection of shape-note songs and dirt-floor hymns, Sounds of the South, gathered during a two-year trek through the American southeast (1959-1961).

Sharon Van Etten plays two NYC shows and then tours in October.

Meanwhile, Megafaun's fine new mini-LP Heretofore is out today (9/14). Check out two free songs from that above. Grab a remix the band did for The Acron @ My Old Kentucky Blog. And a video of Megafaun covering Gillian Welch with The Tallest Man on Earth, below...

Continue reading "Megafaun LP out now (MP3s), 'Sounds of the South' shows w/ Justin Vernon & Sharon Van Etten this weekend "

Hopscotch Music Fest will be happening at ten venues in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, September 9th-11th. The three-day fest's two headlining shows are Panda Bear & Broken Social Scene with The Rosebuds on September 10th, and Public Enemy with No Age & The Love Language on September 11th. Other acts at the fest include Tortoise, Akron/Family, Best Coast, Burning Star Core, Atlas Sound, Fucked Up, Harvey Milk, Lucero and 9th Wonder. The lengthy full list is below. Tickets are on sale now.

Panda Bear's only other tour date currently is at Pitchfork Music Fest on July 17th in Chicago.

Another person at the fest with only a handful of shows beforehand is songwriter Richard Buckner. As of now he has four gigs before Hopscotch in September, and one comes Saturday, April 17th at Union Hall in Brooklyn with Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine. Tickets are on sale.

Richard Buckner hasn't had much in the way of news since three of his older records got reissued by this label Merge last year. He did stop by for a Daytrotter session that was posted March.

The list of bands at Hopscotch and Richard Buckner tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Hopscotch Music Fest in North Carolina has Panda Bear, Public Enemy, BSS & Richard Buckner (who plays other dates first)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Mac and Britt embrace (Triangle Music)

The much anticipated XX Merge Festival took place last week in North Carolina with a five-day (July 22-July 26), Wednesday to Sunday run of shows. Last night (Sunday)'s show with She & Him, American Music Club and Wye Oak was the only fully announced lineup. The other four nights (and one day) were a grab bag of any number of Merge bands past and present. Did you go? What were the highlights?

Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, who recently played a pair of big NY shows, headlined the fest's first night (which also included Magnetic Fields). Superchunk, which features Merge founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan, topped the bill of the second night. The third night included the reformed/reunited lineups of Spent, Polvo and Pipe.

Mac McCaughan came out on stage before [Pipe] instead of the night's emcee and announced that there was a lone protester outside. He invited him up on stage and it was Jon Wurster decked out in Phillies gear as Philly Boy Roy. He was holding a sign that said "Boycot MERGE." He complained that Merge didn't have any Philly bands on their roster and Mac said that they have bands from Jersey, which is close to Philly. You never compare Jersey to Philly in front of Philly Boy Roy. It was hilarious.

All of this led to the introduction of New Jersey punks Pipe. As soon as they kicked into their first song, beer cans and plastic bottles started flying. Frontman Ron Liberti ate it up and even put himself in the line of fire, headbutting some of the cans while kicking some back into the crowd. Liberti bounded around the stage, essentially taunting the crowd. The crowd loved the band's antics as did I (but that may have been different if I hadn't managed to stay dry). [triangle music]

In addition to the Cat's Cradle shows (the venue for 4/5 of the night shows), Saturday featured a day show that included Julian Koster solo as Music Tapes and Mac McCaughan with violin accompaniment as Portastatic. A few videos from that set, below.

M. Ward, who's playing the Central Park Summerstage this Saturday (August 1st), played at the fest's Saturday night showcase. Zooey Deschanel joined him for a cover of the Beatles' "Birthday." Not too big of a surprise considering She & Him headlined the Sunday night show.

Other XX Merge artists who recently stopped in NYC include The Clientele and Richard Buckner (they played Music Hall of Williamsburg last Sunday), Versus and Superchunk (they played South Street Seaport last Friday), and Spent (they played Coco 66). Spoon didn't play a NYC show, but they were spotted in the audience of Paul McCartney's third of three shows at Citi Field in Queens. Destroyer is on his way up. He plays Bowery Ballroom on Thursday. Mark Eitzel (as American Music Club) played Le Poisson Rouge and Maxwell's before XX Merge, and now he's on his way back for a show at The Bell House.

Lineups for each night of XX Merge, with videos, and a bunch of setlists, below...

Continue reading "Merge celebrated their 20th w/ 5 days of shows in North Carolina (lineups, reviews, pics, video setlists...)"

DOWNLOAD: Guv'ner - Bay's Way Cruel (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Guv'ner - Help Me (MP3)

In celebration of our 20th anniversary, Merge bands of the past and present will converge for 5 days of live music, July 22-26th in the heat of the sunny North Carolina summer. We are calling these 5 days of live music and mayhem, XX Merge.

XX Merge Wednesday, July 22nd - Sunday, July 26th
4 nights at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC
1 night at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, NC on UNC Campus Details of additional music & bedlam yet to come!

Featuring over 25 of your favorite Merge artists including...Superchunk, Spoon, Conor Oberst, Spent, M. Ward, The Rosebuds, Destroyer, Guv'ner, Polvo, Pipe & The Broken West. Many more bands both expected and unexpected still to-be-announced!

5-Day Passes are $150 and will get you in to all XX Merge festivities. Passes will go on sale on Wednesday, April 8th at 10 AM EST via catscradle.com and mergerecords.com. 5-day passes are nontransferable. A limited number of tickets for individual Cradle shows and the Memorial Hall show will be made available at a later date.

The Rosebuds are now in the midst of their April tour that brings them back to NYC for two shows soon.

M Ward is also playing Coachella and Central Park Summerstage this year. All dates below.

Check out the video for Spent's "Umbrella Wars", below...

Continue reading "XX Merge - ticket info & initial festival lineup announced (Guv'ner, Spent, Pipe, Spoon, Conor & M Ward included)"

Merge Records started 20 years ago in Chapel Hill, NC with some 4-track recordings, a couple cassette tapes, and some hand-stuffed 7" vinyl. Many singles, albums, and late nights later we're happy to be here and happy that you're still here for us! All year we'll be celebrating the past, present, and future of Merge but this summer we're throwing a party to mark this anniversary: XX Merge, five days of music by Merge artists past and present in the summer heat of sunny North Carolina. July 22-26, 2009.

Put it on your calendar now! Lineup and ticket information to be announced soon!

Subscriptions to SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years have been extended to January 11th. This is your last chance to receive a year of Merge goodies delivered to your door and computer all year long!

Continue reading "XX Merge Festival: July 22-26, 2009 in NC"