Sandro Perri

Toronto art pop musician Sandro Perri has a few dates scheduled to take place surrounding his appearance at this year's FYF Fest. They're a bit scattered at the moment so it looks like more might be revealed, but we know that one of them is a NYC show which happens on September 20 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets for that show are on sale now. All currently known dates are listed below.

Sandro Perri is also one of the many musicians being featured on the new Arthur Russell tribute album, This Is How We Walk on the Moon, that AIDS organization Red Hot (who are also responsible for Dark Was the Night, Red Hot + Rio and many other compilations) and Pitchfork are putting out. Sandro will join Robyn, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, Dan Boeckner, Twin Shadow, Washed Out, Laurel Halo, Sam Amidon, Devendra Banhart, Olof Arnalds, Jose Gonzalez, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Chad VanGaalen, Glen Hansard, and many others for the album. The project is being funded on kickstarter. The Kickstarter video and a list of all participating artists is below.

Earlier this year, DFA put out a remix 12" of material from Sandro's 2011 LP, Impossible Spaces. The stream of Eluvium's remix of "Changes," a list of all currently known Sandro Perri dates, and the Arthur Russell tribute info are below.

Continue reading "Sandro Perri touring, featured on Arthur Russell tribute w/ Cut Copy, Hot Chip, Twin Shadow, Washed Out & more (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

Bonfire Nights

The annual post-SXSW Aussie BBQ is happening March 25 at the Bell House in Brooklyn, with a whopping 14 performers throughout the all-day event: Big Scary, Bonfire Nights, Busby Marou, Jonti, Jordie Lane, Oh Mercy, The Jefferson, Teeth & Tongue, Voltaire Twins, Wazu, Luluc, Pets with Pets, Traveller & Fortune, and Saskia Sansom.

Oh Mercy

With the only determining factor being country of origin, it's a disparate lineup, ranging from gentle folk (Jordie Lane, Luluc, Traveller & Fortune and Saskia Sansom), wide appeal pop (Big Scary, The Jefferson), psych rock (Bonfire Nights, Pets with Pets), synth/glitch/electro (Voltaire Twins, Jonti, Wazu), indiepop (Oh Mercy) and Teeth & Tongue, who is a little like Anna Calvi. Literally something for everyone. Unless all you like is jazz or metal or some other genre not listed above.

At the bottom of this post there's videos and music streams for every artist on the bill. Tickets are $12 -- that's less than a dollar per band. Pretty good deal and a fun way to spend a Sunday.

In addition to playing SXSW and the Aussie BBQ, Big Scary and Teeth & Tongue are going on more extensive North American dates (though not together) and those dates can be found at the bottom of this post. For Big Scary they included gigs at Mercury Lounge and Glasslands.

You can also grab a Big Scary tracks as part of a free mixtape they're giving away on Bandcamp, and as part of a free Family Records SXSW 2012 mixtape. The mixtape also contains songs by Savoir Adore, We Are Augustines and 10 others.

Twerps

While not part of the BBQ, Australia's Twerps (who made one of my favorite albums of 2012) will be over for SXSW too. After Austin, they're coming to New York for two shows:  March 29 at 285 Kent with Ducktails and March 30 at Mercury Lounge with The Mad Scene. After playing here, Twerps hit the road with Real Estate for an extensive North American tour and those dates are at the bottom of this post, along with a new video for album track "Through the Day."

Speaking of Hamish Kilgour (who is in the The Mad Scene), The Clean also just announced dates that bring them to Le Poisson Rouge this year.

Click through for videos and streams by all the Aussie BBQ bands, plus tour dates for Big Scary, Teeth & Tongue, and Twerps.

Continue reading "Big Scary, Oh Mercy & more playing Aussie BBQ, other dates; Twerps playing SXSW, NYC, touring with Real Estate"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Crayon Fields - All the Pleasures of the World (MP3)

Crayon Fields

One of my favorite albums of 2009 was the baroque pop gem All the Pleasures of the World from Melbourne, Australia's Crayon Fields. It's ten swoony epics in miniature, recalling The Zombies and The Left Banke without ever directly ripping them off. You can download the album's title track at the top of this post. The band are making their first trip to the U.S. to play SXSW but then are heading to New York for four shows: Bruar Falls on March 23, The Sycamore on March 24, The Bell House on March 25, and Pianos on March 26.

The Bruar Falls show is especially noteworthy and pretty unmissable in my opinion. Also playing is singer Kath Bloom who is something of a cult hero in folk circles. You might know her song "Come Here" which was used prominently in Richard Linklater's film Before Sunrise. (Crayon Fields covered the song as a b-side last year too.) Chapter Music, which is Crayon Fields' label, has been a champion of her for some time, reissuing much of her impossible-to-find '70s/'80s catalog, as well as new material, including 2008's Terror, her first official new album since 1984.

Last year, Chapter Music released Loving Takes This Course, a two-CD set that featured one disc of covers by the likes of Devendra Banhart, Bill Callahan and The Dodos, and a second disc of the original Kath Bloom songs that were covered on the first disc. Kath's brand new album, Thin Thin Line, which got an 8.0 on Pitchfork. She doesn't play very many shows and I'd imagine her alone would be enough to get people out to the show.

But there's more. Also on the Bruar Falls bill is Australian indie legend Richard Davies, who in the early '90s fronted The Moles (get their essential, out-of-print debut, Untune the Sky, any way you can) and then went on to form chamber pop group Cardinal with Eric Matthews (their 1994 debut is equally amazing ), and then a three album solo career that ended when he gave up rock for a law degree in 2000. But Davies has become active in music again as of last year. First came Cosmos, a collaboration with uber-prolific Robert Pollard, that is worth picking up. This year will see a new Davies solo record and the long-rumored second Cardinal album, both of which will be released by Chapter Music.

Fouth performer on the Bruar Falls line-up is Guy Blackman, who writes "sensitive piano ballads that aim to make straight white men feel slightly uncomfortable by confronting them with my renegade sexuality" and who has also run Chapter Music since starting the label in 1992. Chapter Music releases a lot of great stuff: Pikelett, The Twerps and Tenniscoats among them.

The Bell House show The Crayon Fields are playing is the second-annual Aussie BBQ that features 12 (!) bands from down under: The Chevelles, Love of Diagrams, Pets with Pets, Paul Dempsey, Sherlock's Daughter, Children Collide, Oh Mercy, City Riots, Beaches, Bliss N Eso, and The Goons of Doom. As the name implies, there will also be Australian BBQ and beer. Sounds like fun. Maybe you went last year?

All Crayon Fields tour dates, plus three of their music videos are below.

Continue reading "Crayon Fields playing SXSW & NYC, Australian BBQ in Brooklyn & a show w/ Kath Bloom & Richard Davies (dates) "