James Murphy aboard SS Coachella 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Staying in NYC this weekend? There's actually no shortage of things to do here, even though the weather forecast is less than ideal. Head below for our top 10 list of events going on this Memorial Day Weekend.

Continue reading "NYC Memorial Day Weekend Events (DFA Anniversary, Do-Over, Converge, Green-Wood Cemetery, Greg Proops & more) "

Pharmakon at Drone Activity in Progress (more by PSquared Photography)

Pharmakon's tour schedule has increased a bit recently, including adding a string of dates with Swans (!), though not at the NYC appearance. However, Pharmakon is scheduled to play this weekend (5/25) at The Rink with Var and in middle June as part of a late night show during Northside Festival on 6/15 with Lust for Youth.

Pharmakon has released the new track "Ache" from the Abandon LP on Sacred Bones. Stream that along with a list of all tour dates, below.

Continue reading "Pharmakon playing shows with Swans and other dates"

Elias of Var with Iceage at Bowery Ballroom last month (more by Fred Pessaro)

Iceage offshoot Var have released a second single from their forthcoming LP No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers. Stream both "Into Distance" (the new one) and "The World Fell" below.

As mentioned, Var will team with Pharmakon to play a show at on May 25 at The Rink. Tickets are still available for this, the only known Var date in the US.

Streams below...

Continue reading "listen to a second track from Var's forthcoming LP"

Lust for Youth at Saint Vitus, 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro)

Swedish producer Hannes Norrvide, better known as Lust for Youth, has announced the new LP Perfect View, due via Sacred Bones on June 11. Stream the new track "Breaking Silence" below.

With the announcement of the new LP comes a string of US dates that kick off at Chaos in Tejas and include play a pair of NYC shows during Northside. Catch LFY on June 14 at Saint Vitus (details soon) and a late show Public Assembly on June 15 with Marshstepper, Foreplay, Pharmakon (who recently played in Queens and has a show with Var) and Body of Light.

All tour dates are listed below

Continue reading "Lust for Youth announce 'Perfect View,' playing shows (dates and stream)"

photos by PSquared Photography, words and additional photos by Fred Pessaro

Pharmakon / Prurient / Kid Millions / Kim Gordon

Sixteen bands that deal in ambient, drone, noise and power electronics converged on Knockdown Center in Queens last night (5/2) as part of the Drone Activity in Progress show. The multi-stage event, part of a massive May NYC takeover by Red Bull Music Academy, was housed in a giant warehouse/factory building somewhat-shaped like an "F," with three stages (Red Room, Grand Hall, and West Wing) located in separate areas. Most of the sets had minimal crossover to the other stages, set time staggering was well executed, but those that did overlap were obvious in reasons why: guitar drones vs thumping bass lines, etc. Soundbleed was shockingly minimal in each individual room.

That many bands is a lot to take in general, but personal highlights all seemed to come from the "Red Room" where I caught sets by Prurient, Pharmakon, Alberich and others, who each used keys, effects pedals, vocals, patch bays, and samples to create their versions of industrial-noise terror. Other highlights from the other stages (Grand Hall and West Wing) included guitar-noise from Body/Head (with Kim Gordon), guitar/ambient from KTL (with Stephen O'Malley), guitar qizardry from Mick Barr, Noveller and the spazzy/jawdropping Jim Sauter/Kid Millions.

Tonight's Red Bull Music Academy events are: Brian Eno's "77 Million Paintings" at 45 W. 32nd (sold out); Masters At Work w/ special guest and vibraphone legend Roy Ayers at Le Bain (which is free); and Knox, QuietDust, August Rosenbaum, and Jimi Nxir at Le Poisson Rouge which is also free.

In addition to this set, check out another set of pictures at InvisibleOranges. More photos from Drone Activity are below.

Continue reading "Drone Activity in Progress, part of RBMA, took over Knockdown Center last night (pics)"

Elias of Var on stage with Iceage (more by Fred Pessaro)

Iceage related project Var will head to the US to play a one-off show with Pharmakon (who plays NYC tonight) and DJ Anthony Naples on May 25 at The Rink (67 West Street, 5th FL in Greenpoint). Tickets are on sale. The show is ten days after the release of the band's new LP, No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers, which hits via Sacred Bones on May 15.

Iceage recently completed a US tour that included a stop at Bowery Ballroom.

Continue reading "Var playing one-off NYC show in Greenpoint with Pharmakon"

Pharmakon at Saint Vitus earlier this year(more by Fred Pessaro)

Set times for the Red Bull Music Academy's noise/drone extravaganza tonight (May 2) at the Knockdown Center in Queens have been announced. Drone Activity in Progress, which will feature sets from KTL, Vatican Shadow, Body/Head (Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, who also performed last night), Prurient, Grassmas, Mick Barr, Pharmakon, Alberich and many others, will bring the noise to this show (which appears sold out). UPDATE: Tickets BACK on sale. You can snag a shuttle bus from the Jefferson L if you don't feel like making the walk, though it promises to be a lovely evening.

Flyer and set times are below.

Continue reading "Drone Activity in Progress (Pharmakon, KTL, Prurient & more) announce set times for tonight"

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)"

White Fence

As mentioned, White Fence's new album, Cyclops Reap, is out this week on John Dwyer's Castle Face label. Tim Presley doesn't seem to be running out of songs and this is another quality batch of paisley-scented psychedelia. You can stream "To The Boy I Jumped In The Hemlock Alley" below and hear the whole record over at Pitchfork.

White Fence will be in Brooklyn for the Northside Festival in June, playing two shows: the Panache showcase at Brooklyn Bowl on June 13 and then a late show at Knitting Factory on June 14. Tickets to the Knitting Factory show are on sale now; no word on Brooklyn Bowl tickets just yet.

The whole Panache showcase line-up is still forthcoming but we do know its being headlined by Mac DeMarco and we have updated dates for him below as well.

These are just a couple of the additions to the 2013 Northside line-up that includes that free Walkmen show in McCarren Park. Other new additions, Kylesa, Torche, Sonny & the Sunsets, Nü Sensae, Kisses, The Luyas and more. Northside line-up as it stands now is below.

Continue reading "White Fence streaming new LP, added to Northside Fest line-up (Mac DeMarco, Nu Sensae, Kylesa, Torche & more too)"

Pharmakon will release Abandon, Margaret Chardiet's debut effort with Sacred Bones and first long-player overall. Look for it on May 14th via the label, but first check out the new track "Crawling On Bruised Knees" available for streaming below..

Chardiet's noisy, confrontational and abrasive live show is a must see, and you can catch her at a trio of upcoming NYC shows including, most imminently, the previously discussed April 7th date at 285 Kent with Jason Lescalleet and Spencer Yeh Trio (tickets) and at another show at 285 Kent on June 15th with Marshstepper, Body of Light, Lust For Youth and Foreplay as part of the Northside Festival. Ticketing info for that one is on the way, or get in with your Northside Festival badge.

Pharmakon also has one other NYC date, as part of the upcoming Red Bull Music Academy series of events, and it's a whopper:

On May 2, the Red Bull Music Academy will turn the spectacular Knockdown Center into a temple of thundering noise with some of today's most daring sound artists for Drone Activity In Progress. The night will see performances from sixteen solo artists and duos on three stages, where the sound bleed between stages is entirely intentional.

Continue reading "Pharmakon readies 'Abandon' (stream a track), adds dates, playing big RBMA show full of experimental artists (dates)"

by Andrew Sacher

Hands down, the most intriguingly difficult album I encountered last year was Jason Lescalleet's massive double album, Songs About Nothing. The title and album cover was an obvious riff on Big Black's Songs About Fucking, as were some of the song titles (Big Black's "The Power of Independent Trucking" gave us Jason's "The Power of Pussy" and "The Beauty of Independent Music"). But while Big Black gave us abrasive in-your-face noise, Jason withheld, creating noise that slowly built up into one of those feedback sounds a singer's mic makes at a show and causes the whole crowd to yell "ahh!" and plug their ears. If it doesn't sound like a nice thing to listen, that's because it isn't. But there's something alluring about the record that after successfully scaring you away, eventually pulls you back in. You can stream three of its tracks below.

Jason will be in NYC for a show with a great lineup of fellow experimentalists, Wolf Eyes main man Nate Young, and two regulars on the NYC noise scene, Spencer Yeh Trio and Pharmakon. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

The 285 Kent is Jason Lescalleet's only show that we're currently aware of. Song streams below...

Continue reading "Jason Lescalleet released 'Songs About Nothing', playing NYC w/ Nate Young, Spencer Yeh & Pharmakon (song streams)"

Left for Dead at A389 in Baltimore, Jan 2013

Chaos In Tejas have announced the latest batch of bands for the Austin, Texas festival set for late May/early June. New additions include announced reunions for Left for Dead and the Rats (pre Dead Moon/Pierced Arrows), with other appearances including Mobb Deep will perform all of their classic The Infamous LP, No Statik, Parquet Courts, Pharmakon, Pinkish Black, Grouper, Lust For Youth, Waxahatchee, Benediction, Jessica Pratt, True Widow, Vassafor, Violent End, Speedwolf, Waxahatchee, Who Killed Spikey Jacket?, Replica, Lotus Fucker, Cold World, Jessica Pratt, Joyce Manor, Marshstepper and much more. Head below for the current Chaos in Tejas lineup. Tickets are on sale.

Full lineup and a multi-camera video from their Baltimore reunion at A389 is below.

Continue reading "Chaos in Tejas expands lineup again, now w/ Left for Dead (!), the Rats, No Statik, Parquet Courts +++ more"

Iceage at 285 Kent, Saturday (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

In addition to the decidedly punk show that went down at 285 Kent the night before, Iceage also played a cramped and swaying Home Sweet Home on Saturday (1/26). There the Danish foursome were joined by sets from Pharmakon and Dream Affair. Video from all three bands' sets is below.

If you missed either 285 Kent or Home Sweet Home Iceage play with the great White Lung and Parquet Courts at Bowery Ballroom on April 20 and tickets are still available.

Continue reading "Iceage played Home Sweet Home w/ Pharmakon & Dream Affair (video)"

words by Phillip Pantuso, photos by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Iceage @ 285 Kent

Iceage blew into 285 Kent last night (1/25) in the wake of an actual snowstorm, but if the inclement weather deterred any from venturing out to see the Danish post-punk band, you couldn't tell by the room. 285 Kent was overpacked, the usual cigarette-and-sweat melange augmented by dirty slush tracked all over the floor. Anticipation was high, and you couldn't move for being thrown to the ground.

Deformity got things started with a raw-as-fuck set of scalding punk, the drums hitting like a combo move. Raspberry Bulbs were next. Over a 25-minute set of fuzzy, blackened punk--cut one song short by a malfunctioning amp--the band destroyed eardrums. The bass, distorted and aggressive, was louder than on their record, choking the low end while corrosive twin guitars squalled above it. Faint intimations of melody ghosted beneath the noise and frontman He Who Crushes Teeth's abrasive vocals.

Nomad upped the ante and left the room broken and bleeding, no mean feat given that they played a ten minute set. There is nothing that can really prepare you for Nomad, and it seemed that many in the crowd, having come for Iceage, where not prepared for the hardcore audial assault of the NYC three-piece, nor for, say, a dude in a helmet cannonballing helmet-first off the stage, which happened about thirty seconds into their set. Their songs are holocaustic rippers that sound like your brain being cleaved through the corpus callosum; all you can feel is the hot blade.

Then, ah: Iceage. They crawled out from somewhere looking like beautiful enfants terribles, buttoned all the way up, babyfaces touched by no razor. The heraldic manumitters of the angry and disenchanted youth of today. When their debut album, New Brigade, blew up eighteen months ago, it was as if the music media machine had turned over a new log and voila, Iceage were the brightest beetle. After that came the flood: Iceage were nebulously connected to an underground Copenhagen scene centered around the Youth House, a music venue and rendezvous point for various leftist groups before it was demolished following a police-enforced eviction in 2007. The swirl of hype crested with questions like, "Are Iceage the Saviors of Punk?" and write-ups in outlets like The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Guardian. And there's been controversy, too, primarily about racially-loaded imagery in the band's music videos and a fanzine called "Dogmeat", illustrated and published by frontman Elias Rønnenfelt. Defenders and detractors came out swinging on both sides of the debate. Now they're signed to Matador and readying the release of the second record, You're Nothing.

But you know all that. You're also angry and confused at the state of things, or you used to be, or you're just curious about this band. In the presence of the storm, the crowd at 285 Kent last night immediately bifurcated into those who throw firecrackers and spin-kick in the middle of the pit, and those who press to the sides with an admixture of fear and awe.

Iceage pummeled through a set culled almost entirely from You're Nothing, two exceptions being "New Brigade" and "You're Blessed" from the first record. During the latter cut, a burly figure leapt on stage and then tackled Rønnenfelt into the crowd, kicking the heads of the unsuspecting on the way down, thereby collapsing the opposing punk rock impulses to both terrorize and protect the stage into a single meaningful move. Rønnenfelt seemed unfazed, though. He might have been rendered insensate by drink or just the tumultuous noise; it seemed as though he might pass out at any moment, and I'd guess that little more than half of his barked vocals actually made it to the mic. He wailed on the platform like a pipsqueak Henry Rollins, incautious of his own safety. A stagehand wisely removed the mic stand after two songs.

Iceage played loose and brazenly apathetic, often turning their songs into chaotic barrages of masochistic squall. They're too musical to be called punk, too clangorous to be called post-punk. When it cohered, as it sometimes did, you experienced an ecstatic fever dream of power. Dan Kjaer Nielsen's furious drumming had the same effect on the guitar and bass as a blender has on whatever you put in it. The crowd responded in kind, or some of them did anyway, meeting violence with violence. Firecrackers, flying beer cans, etc. I have a jacket that might forever smell like whatever hot, cinnamon-y drink the tiny girl next to me was drinking when it was body-slammed from her hands.

The set was assaulting, furious, sloppy and aggressive. When it unceremoniously ended after thirty or so minutes (a long set by Iceage's standards), the audience filed out to the Williamsburg waterfront, bruised and vertiginous. At the eye of the hypestorm Iceage have generated is the blackthroated, hook-laden punk of New Brigade that's still irrepressible. The glimpse we got of album number two suggests we're in for more of the same.

Catch Iceage again tonight (1/26) at Home Sweet Home with Pharmakon and Dream Affair. More pictures (unfortunately none of Nomad) and Iceage's setlist, below.

Continue reading "Iceage played 285 Kent with Nomad, Raspberry Bulbs & Deformity (pics), play again tonight at Home Sweet Home"

Raspberry Bulbs at Saint Vitus, 1/13/2013 (more by Fred Pessaro //BBG)

Raspberry Bulbs concluded a set of dates with Salvation and Pharmakon last night at Saint Vitus (1/13), bringing their stomping and unique brand of punk-laced black metal to a ravenous, moshing audience. Check out more pictures at Invisible Oranges.

Raspberry Bulbs (mems Bone Awl, Rorschach, Violent Bullshit) recently recorded a new LP at Heaven Street studios, though no word as to when we'll see the LP.

DOWNLOAD: Iceage - "Coalition" (MP3)

Iceage at LPR in 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

As mentioned, Danish punks Iceage are releasing their new album You're Nothing on February 19 via Matador and they've just revealed the first taste of that album with the new track, "Coalition," which you can download above or stream below.

The band already announced that they'll play a NYC show on January 25 at 285 Kent, which Raspberry Bulbs, Nomad, and Deformity open (tickets) and they've just revealed that the show is part of a whole tour which includes two other NYC dates. The day after the 285 Kent show, Iceage will play Home Sweet Home (1/26) (131 Chrystie St) with Pharmakon and Dream Affair. Admission for that show is $10 at the door (more info on the flyer below).

Then in April the band will do an east coast run with Vancouver punks White Lung which hits NYC on April 20 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for the Bowery Ballroom show are not on sale yet but you can check ticketmaster for updates. Other tour dates include support from Merchandise, Milk Music, Hoax, and more. All dates are listed below.

UPDATE: Parquet Courts (who play Death by Audio this weekend) are on the Bowery show too and tickets go on sale Friday (1/11) at noon.

White Lung released one of the greatest punk records of 2012 with Sorry and towards the end of the year they released a 7" for their European tour with two new songs, "Two of You" and "Hunting Holiday." You can stream both of those below.

Continue reading "Iceage reveal new track, announce tour w/ White Lung & others (dates, MP3)"

by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Merchandise @ 285 Kent, 12/31/2012 (via @lkj)

Florida's Merchandise closed out their 2012 with two shows at Brooklyn DIY venue 285 Kent. The first happened on Saturday (12/29) with Philadelphia's Night Sins, plus Pharmakon, Shoxx, and Herzog Rising. Both shows featured Elsner Nino of Shoxx who is now Merchandise's official drummer and gave the songs a harder edge, steering the band a bit back to their punk roots. It almost made stagedivers during "Time" and "Become What You Are" seem semi-normal. OK, not really. You can check out two good-quality videos from Saturday's performance below.

Pharmakon, meanwhile, played a brutal noise set that featured washes of dissonance peppered by blasts of hallowed screams from mastermind Margaret Chardiet. There is a simmering fury that sits just beneath the surface for Chardiet, and in the moments when she lets out that primal scream, it is absolutely terrifying.

Night Sins, who ripped in the small K&M bar back in November, were swallowed whole by the cavernous soundsystem at 285 Kent. The band was sporting a new guitarist with a 12-string awash in reverb which, considering the ambient sound, was completely lost in the mix.

The Saturday show was a last-minute show that was in addition to their previously-announced New Year's Eve show where they played alongside Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche and "secret" headliners DIIV (though most people had figured out they were playing).

Additionally, Merchandise contributed a list of "merchy's ten taypes_2012" to Pitchfork's end-of-year "Guestlist" feature and you can check out their cassette picks below, along with the video from 285 Kent.

Continue reading "Merchandise played 2 shows @ 285 Kent (video), listed their favorite tapes of 2012"

Merchandise at WIERD, September 2012 (more by Phil Maler)

Freelance writer and DJ Maria Sherman gave us a list of her favorites of 2012, including top shows and her favorite label. Check out her list below.

On that list is Merchandise's performance at 538 Johnson, one of the few early performances to feature now-permanent drummer Elsner Nino (also of Shoxx). The new-look Merchandise will perform twice at 285 Kent this week, including tonight's show WITH Night Sins, Pharmakon, Herzog Rising AND Shoxx.

Maria Sherman's Best of 2012 and a video of Merchandise from 538 Johnson earlier this year, below...

Continue reading "Merchandise are now with drummer; Maria Sherman tells us her Favorites From 2012 (Merchandise with drummer included)"

Night Sins at Rituals in November (more by Lukas Hodge)

As you know, moody Tampa post-punks Merchandise will be in NYC to play a New Year's Eve show at 285 Kent with Tonstartssbandht, Blanche Blanche Blanche, and a "speciial guest." Tickets for that show are still available and it's also just been revealed that Merchandise are the secret headliners at the 285 Kent show two nights earlier (12/29) with Night Sins, Pharmakon, Shoxx, and Herzog Rising. It's a much cheaper way to see Merchandise than NYE ($8 as opposed to $20), and when Merchandise played previous NYC shows with Shoxx, they were joined by Shoxx's drummer so hopefully that happens again.

As mentioned, Pharmakon will play Saint Vitus on January 13 with Salvation (whose lineup includes members of Night Sins) and Raspberry Bulbs. Tickets for that show are still available.

The flyer for this show, a list of updated Merchandise dates, and some song streams/videos below...

Continue reading "Merchandise playing 285 Kent before NYE too -- with Night Sins, Shoxx, Pharmakon & Herzog Rising"

Raspberry Bulbs at Saint Vitus, Oct 2011 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

The previously discussed Raspberry Bulbs / Salvation / Pharmakon show at Saint Vitus on January 13 (tickets) has expanded to an extended weekend tour. Check out the dates of the four-day run below. Raspberry Bulbs contains members of Bone Awl, Rorschach, Italian Horn and more, and the band recently reissued Demos 2009/2010 via Personnel Records (a subsidiary of Seed Stock).

UPDATE: Raspberry Bulbs have also joined on as support for the previously discussed Iceage show at 285 Kent (tickets)

Pharmakon is hitting the road for a string of dates with Soren and Foreplay on the West Coast next week.

Members of Salvation also serve time in Night Sins, who have a new LP and recently played NYC.

All tour dates are listed below along with video.

Continue reading "Raspberry Bulbs add 2013 tour dates with Salvation and Pharmakon, opening for Iceage in NYC"

Warthog

Christopher Hansell of Warthog (ex-The Men) has dropped off his top 10 releases of 2012, as well as other thoughts on the passing year. Check out those below.

Warthog (which also features members of Nude Beach) is scheduled to play Worcester, MA at The Beacon on 12/15 with Who Killed Spikey Jacket, in addition to their previously discussed show with Inmates at Acheron on 1/12.

Hansell is also involved in power electronics crew Foreplay who will play the West Coast later this month with the great Pharmakon and Soren (of Rosenkopf). Dates are below. Soren will also play NYC at Saint Vitus on 1/5 as part of the Dysrhythmia/Wreck & Reference show (tickets).

Speaking of The Men, check them out this Friday at Saint Vitus (12/14), part of a Hurricane Sandy benefit (tickets).

Hansell's 2012 Top 10 list is below, along with video and a list of all tour dates.

Continue reading "Christopher Hansell's favorite records of 2012; Pharmakon & Soren (Rosenkopf) add West Coast dates"

Salvation at Power of The Riff East, August 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

With their  dates with Night Sins now behind them, Salvation have plotted a course back to NYC for a show on January 13 at Saint Vitus. There the band will join NYC black metal favorites Raspberry Bulbs and noise terrorist extraordinaire Pharmakon. Tickets are on sale.

Similarly, support for the previously discussed Nachtmystium show has changed yet again, this time with Mutilation Rites, Batillus, Sannhet and Lord Mantis. Tickets are still available for the 11/19 show at Saint Vitus.

Meanwhile, support for the previously discussed Eyehategod shows at Saint Vitus have been announced, with Magrudergrind, Clean Teeth and The Communion taking on 11/27 (tickets) and Mortals (Record Release), White Widows and one more TBA taking on 11/28 (tickets).

In other Saint Vitus show news, look for the great Pinkish Black to team with Naam for a show at Saint Vitus on December 1st (tickets).

by Lauren Jackson

Cult of Youth at Public Assembly 9/7/2012

Friday evening at Public Assembly (9/7) saw a motley crew of performances to celebrate the
release of Cult of Youth's new album, Love Will Prevail, out now via Sacred Bones.

At the start of the night, crusty noisemakers Zatsuon pierced through the sparse crowd with a blisteringly short set that involved a lot of caterwauling, a lot of blown out bass and a lot of thrashing about (though almost entirely by the band's frontman who violently threw himself into and out of the less-than-willing crowd on more than one occasion). Polarizing the small crowd, the open-minded stayed throughout their set while the rest-- no doubt Cult of Youth fans expecting something less aurally assaulting--retreated to the back of the venue. Summed up well by a small and very concerned-looking concertgoer after Zatsuon's frontman jumped from the stage into the crowd, "Do you know if all the other bands are going to be like this? I don't want to get hurt."

Whether or not she preferred what Pink Reason brought to the stage next is uncertain, but they did set the concert on a less sinister path--at least on the surface. The set hearkened to a time of a laid-back punk affectation, less encumbered by fashion statements and more about the familiar devil-may-care attitude. Jangling, bluesy at times, Pink Reason were, above all, quite fun to watch--a far cry from the hollow alienation that characterized the band's earlier "shitgaze" records. Someone familiar with the band's discography might even say that Pink Reason's performance spoke to a newfound control over the uninhibited anomie of their earlier work; a sign that the band is not less nihilistic these days, but more at ease with that nihilism. True to that, frontman Kevin DeBroux introduced one of his upbeat, pogo-ready punk songs with, "This song is about the American prison system...I just wanna say: fucking kill cops."

Pharmakon

Though it may have been an odd choice to add noise project Pharmakon to the bill, it proved an awesome one. Easily the most unexpected and powerful performance of the night, solo noise artist Margaret Chardiet commanded the attention of the of the audience more than any other. Ghoulishly swaying back and forth with her long blonde hair concealing her face, her distorted, reverberating vocals cascaded through harsh industrial beats. It was less a performance and more a display of demonic possession, the spilling over of a rage so pure, powerful and misanthropic that it seized total control over all.

It was as if Pharmakon delivered the opening liturgy for headliners Cult of Youth who did, in fact, preside over the show much like a priest at the altar. By the time they went on, the stage was smoky, the smell of incense pervading through the dark room. The bands raw pastiche of rugged Americana, neo-folk and exotic psychedelia are haunting enough alone, but coupled with their spectral appearance on stage -- lit only from below, shadows casting into the hollows of each musician's face -- one could believe they were quite literally channeling the spirits of long-dead saints, criminals and poets. Though now short the disturbingly beautiful violin arrangements of Christiana Key, Cult of Youth proved no worse for wear and the songs played from their new album may very well be their richest yet.

Cult of Youth head out on tour in early October, including a stop at FFF Fest in Austin. Tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Cult of Youth played Public Assembly with Pharmakon, Zatsuon and Pink Reason (review)"

Pharmakon (photo by Jane Chardiet)

One-woman noise wrecking crew Pharmakon will join a stellar support cast of Pink Reason and Zatsuon as part of the previously discussed Cult of Youth record release party that happens tonight (9/7) at Public Assembly. Tickets are available at the door for or you can try your hand at winning a pair! Details on how to win are below.

If you can't celebrate Cult of Youth's new LP with the band, live vicariously through their recorded material; Love will Prevail is out now via Sacred Bones. Stream a couple of tracks and check out video of Pharmakon's live set below.

Cult of Youth is on tour in Europe in September and will cross paths with labelmates and fellow Brooklynites Amen Dunes. Amen Dunes' US tour leads up to and follows those dates in the EU, includes a stop at Hopscotch this weekend,.

Dates for Amen Dunes and CoY are listed below.

Continue reading "Pharmakon added to Cult of Youth record release party tonight (win tickets)"

Alexander Hacke (of Einstürzende Neubauten) and wife Danielle de Picciotto, plus and Algis Kizys (Swans, Foetus) will play a "multimedia event" on July 11th at XPO 929 (929 Broadway in Brooklyn).

Based on a true story Danielle de Picciotto has created an experimental, silent movie telling the story of her last night in NYC in 1987.

The dramatic and shocking turn of events during that dark evening retold in spoken word by Danielle de Picciotto are accompanied by an industrial, noise soundtrack created live by the musicians Alexander Hacke and Algis Kizys.

Video of Pharmakon and Chaos Majik, as well as the show flyer is below.

Continue reading "Alexander Hacke (Neubauten) & Danielle de Picciotto to play "multimedia event" at XPO 929"