photos by Andrew St. Clair

"at the "she and him" show on governors island. zooey deschanel is ridiculously adorable." - Sonal Dutt

She & Him helped NYC celebrate Independence Day with a free concert on Governors Island. The Sunday late-afternoon, Converse-presented show reached capacity early despite the intense heat wave we're currently still experiencing. Those who made it got a 20+ song setlist from M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel and band, and an opening set by their Merge label-mates Oakley Hall. Both setlists are below.

Those who got there a couple of hours earlier may have checked out a free show by Rosanne Cash in another area of the island (pics coming soon), and it's possible some people were also on the island the night before to see a free show by Portugal. The Man (pics coming soon).

She & Him do it again Tuesday night at Terminal 5 in Manhattan. The sold out (tickets were $30 each) 2nd NYC show has comedian Eugene Mirman listed as the opener. More pictures and the setlists from Governors Island below...

Continue reading "She & Him and Oakley Hall played the Beach at Governors Island - pics & setlist"

The Pianos show is sold out so Tame Impala added a 2nd gig on the same night at the same venue. Tickets for the new show are on sale. Tickets are also still on sale for the show the next day at Glasslands. Dates & more info HERE.

Panda Bear, Eels, Drive-By Truckers, Spoon, Arcade Fire & other tickets recently went on sale too.

Oakley Hall will open for She & Him at Governors Island on July 4th. The show is free!

The summer series of Adult Swim Presents free shows at Santos Party House in NYC continues tonight (8/6) with a kick-ass Aqua Teen Hungerforce/Squidbillies lineup that includes music by Oakley Hall, Marnie Stern, Drink Up Buttercup, and Jason and the Scorchers, and comedy by Dave Willis (voice of Carl and Meatwad) and Dana Snyder (voice of Master Shake and Granny on Squidbillies). Flyer below...

Continue reading "Marnie Stern, Oakley Hall, Drink Up Buttercup, Carl, Meatwad, Master Shake & Granny - free show reminder"

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]

You can see the partial setlist from Spoon, who headlined that night, below.

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...)"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

"Pretty much agree with everything said. Short setlist for an artist with hours worth of material (albeit a very solid set). Didn't think it came close to touching his Town Hall set 1-2 yrs ago.

Sound was really rough - the guitar player (the oldest guy in the band) was calling out for level adjustments on almost every song. The piano also sounded very strange." [Anonymous]

According to many, last week's M Ward & Vivian Girls show at the Apollo suffered from bad sound. Before another week goes by, here are some pics, and the setlist, from the show...

Continue reading "M Ward & Vivian Girls @ The Apollo Theater - pics & setlist"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

Meat Puppets and Oakley Hall played their first of two NYC-area shows together, last night (12/11) at Maxwell's. Their NYC one is Saturday at MHOW. More MP dates HERE. More pictures from last night below...

Continue reading "Meat Puppets & Oakley Hall @ Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ - pics"

"Oh Me by the Meat Puppets - In late 1993, when Nirvana played their famous "MTV Unplugged" show, they were on tour with Curt and Chris Kirkwood, the brothers who made up the heart of the Meat Puppets. At this point, Cobain was using pretty heavily, and barely made it through soundcheck. During the taping, the Meat Puppets joined Nirvana for three songs, all Meat Puppets originals.

Each band gave a gift to the other that night: Nirvana, by bringing an influential but essentially underground band up to play with them; the Meat Puppets by basically surrendering those wonderful songs to Nirvana, specifically to Cobain. Obviously, having those songs on Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" album provided the Meat Puppets with some pretty fair publishing royalties (Allah be praised!). At the same time, thanks to that legendary concert, those songs become Nirvana's -- specifically they are associated with Kurt Cobain and that performance. That's got to be an honor for the Meat Puppets. But who knows, maybe it also stings.

I say this only because the originals are so good; indeed, my own preference is for them, especially the fully electric version of "Oh Me," with its fuzz and building distortion and feedback. Curt Kirkwood's soloing is so haunting and sad on this, growing until the sound is profoundly huge. It's a song that deserves to be heard, especially during a season that is supposed to be about giving."
[Charles Bock's holiday playlist of non-holiday treats]

Hear it live, maybe, TONIGHT (December 11th) @ Maxwell's in Hoboken. Or try again Friday in Philly, or at the show Saturday (12/13) night in Brooklyn at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Oakley Hall opens both NYC dates. "Oh Me" videos, and all Meat Puppets dates, below...

Continue reading "Charles Bock lists songs, updated Meat Puppets tour dates"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

DOWNLOAD: The Rosebuds - Life Like (MP3)

The Rosebuds @ the Merge CMJ showcase @ Mercury Lounge

The Rosebuds are coming back to NYC to headline Bowery Ballroom on January 16th. Tickets go on sale December 1st at noon. Last time they were here was exactly a month ago to play a couple of shows during CMJ including one for their record label Merge at Mercury Lounge (10/25). Their new album Life Like is out now on Merge.

No openers have been announced for the Bowery show yet. Maybe they'll grab The Ladybug Transistor to play with them again, like they did at Bowery before, and like they did at the show they played at the Bell House during CMJ. ABC News was at that Bell House show. Video features are posted at their site called "The Mix". One video is of Wye Oak who also played that show, and who played with The Rosebuds again at the Merge showcase.

We already talked about the Merge show a little - The Music Tapes part anyway, and I gushed a bit about Wye Oak from one of their other CMJ shows at Pianos, but the rest of the Merge pictures were unpublished, until now... All of them and all Rosebuds and Oakley Hall tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Rosebuds tour dates (Bowery), Merge CMJ showcase pics"

DOWNLOAD: The Phenomenal Handclap Band - Testimony (MP3)

In the midst of popular electronic-based production teams such as Justice and DFA, Embassy Sound Productions (ESP) emerges with a fresh approach to dance-oriented rock and roll, using live instrumentation to evoke the intricate arrangements of Norman Whitfield, Quincy Jones, and Phil Spector as well as the pared down beats of contemporaries like The Neptunes and Danger Mouse.

ESP is Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, two New York underground club DJs who became restless with the concept of playing other people's music. Having been involved with and disenchanted by the local rock and roll scene, they began to focus on producing.

Their initial projects resuscitated the respective careers of two veteran soul acts (New York's Joe Bataan and Brazil's União Black) and garnered critical acclaim, leading Daniel & Sean to set their sights on The Phenomenal Handclap Band, a supergroup comprised of a "who's who" of the indie rock and underground soul scenes. Members of such diverse bands as TV on the Radio, L'Trimm, Calla, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Mooney Suzuki, and Sí Se all contribute their individual talents to the album.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band sound is an anthemic, dancefloor-oriented blend of progressive rock, disco, electro, and '60s soul with sprinklings of hip hop-styled orchestral breakbeats and moody, synth-heavy hooks.
[that's the description written on their MySpace]

I was going to list a whole bunch of keywords that come to mine when listening to the The Phenomenal Handclap Band, but I think they have it covered. Maybe throw in 'B movie soundtrack' (I mean that in a good way). Their unsigned, unreleased album also features contributions by (in addition to who they already mentioned) members of Antibalas, Oakley Hall, the Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse's band, Diamond Nights, Persephone's Bees and Apollo Heights. The people in the picture (can you name any?) are the core group of the band. So far the collective has only played one show. Tonight (Thursday September 25th) is their second. I think there will be 12 people on stage. Details below...

Continue reading "The Phenomenal Handclap Band - MP3, Disco D'or tonight"

photos by Kurt Christensen

Calexico's new album Carried to Dust was released earlier this month.

New album Carried To Dust is their most ambitious yet and is a return to form after 2004's Garden Ruin, an album that saw them make a lunge at the mainstream. For that record, Calexico had shorn themselves of the mariachi brass that had been such an instantly recognisable part of their sound, relying instead on pedal steel to augment their country-inflected rock. It soon became apparent how much the horns were part of their dynamism. Now they are back to their vibrant best, with a set of songs and instrumentals that mix contemporary Latino sounds with US post-rock. [The Independent]

Last night they played a show with Oakley Hall at Webster Hall (9/24). More pictures below...

Continue reading "Calexico & Oakley Hall @ Webster Hall, NYC - pics"

photos by Chris Graham

DOWNLOAD: Portastatic - Some Small History (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Julian Koster - Jingle Bells (MP3)

Superchunk @ Bumbershoot - Sept 1, 2008

Saturday 10/25/2008
Merge Records CMJ Showcase @ Mercury Lounge, NYC w/
* The Music Tapes
* Wye Oak
* Portastatic
* The Broken West
* The Rosebuds
* Oakley Hall

That's a great lineup for Mercury Lounge. No advanced tickets, approximately 150 tickets sold at the door, and another 100 go to CMJ badgeholders.

The Music Tapes (Julian Koster)'s new album is out on Merge this week. The Singing Saw At Christmastime (from whence the above Chrismas MP3 came) is out October 7th. He/they'll also be touring before CMJ as part of Elephant 6's Holiday Surprise Tour. One day Elephant 6, the next Merge - lots of sleeping around, kind of like...

...Conor Oberst whose new self-titled album is out now on Merge (and not on Saddle Creek or Team Love- two labels he founded). Conor's tour dates are HERE.

Wye Oak, another band that recently came out with an album on Merge (and is playing the showcase) are on tour as we speak. They're next Brooklyn show happens before September is over.

The Rosebuds will be playing at least one more show during CMJ, probably with the Ladybug Transistor who aren't on the Merge showcase, but could be. The Rosebuds' new album Life Like is out October 7th and some of the new songs are streaming at MySpace.

The Broken West, in addition to October 25th, are also playing Mercury Lounge on September 21st. That earlier show has them opening for Bobby Bare Jr. Tickets are on sale. Their new album Now or Heaven is out this week. All tour dates below.

The Broken West will also bid a fond farewell to drummer, Rob McCorkindale. A new baby and other family commitments have made Rob's departure necessary, but everyone will miss him! Sean McDonald will take over the skins and join Dan, Brian, Ross and Jeff on the road this fall.

Oakley Hall is playing Webster Hall on September 24th with Calexico.

Though not playing the CMJ show, Lambchop shares that MErge affiliation. Kurt Wagner (Mr Lambchop) plays Joe's Pub on October 8th. OH (Ohio) is out October 10th.

You can now subsribe to SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years.

And last but not least you'll notice that one of Mac (Mr. Merge himself)'s bands is on this Mercury Lounge CMJ bill too. Portastatic has a 2-CD compilation of singles (covers included) coming out this week. The entire "Some Small History" tracklist is below.... right under the rest of the pictures (and a rough setlist) from Superchunk's set at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle on Labor Day.....

Continue reading "Merge's CMJ Showcase, Broken West tour dates, new Portastatic, Superchunk Bumbershoot pics & more"

DOWNLOAD: Big Dipper - Shes Fetching (MP3)

$493??? Well, it is for charity, so that's good. For a more affordable donation, the David Kilgour autographed poster is still available for less than $50. David Kilgour plays Cake Shop tonight, tomorrow and the next day. Keep checking Merge's auctions through Christmas - they'll also be selling posters autographed by Robert Pollard, M. Ward, Oakley Hall, Spoon, The Rosebuds, Superchunk, Portastatic, and Destroyer. Or just screw charity, and check out Merge's holiday sale.

Robert Pollard is having an art show at Studio Dante in Manhattan in December. Listen to Spoon on NPR. Big Dipper is releasing an anthology. Polvo are reuniting for ATP. Every single Merge tour date, below...

Continue reading "signed Arcade Fire poster @ $493, Robert Pollard art"