Alt-J at Mercury Lounge in May (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Big day for award nominations. The Oscars announced theirs this morning and the Brit Awards just wrapped up their ceremony for 2013 nominations, with Emeli Sandé grabbing four and Mumford & Sons and Alt-J each getting three. All three of those artists were nominated for British Album of the Year, a list that also included Paloma Faith and Plan B. If you don't know, The Brits are basically the UK's equivalent of the Grammys, though nominees are all British apart from a few "International" awards.

Jessie Ware, Muse, and Adele each got two nominations, and single-digit noms went to Bat for Lashes, The xx, Richard Hawley and The Vaccines.

Mumford & Sons have two nights at Barclays Center in February and Alt-J will swing though town in March.

The entire 2013 Brit Awards nominees list is below.

Continue reading "2013 Brit Award nominees announced (Emeli Sandé, Mumford and Alt-J lead the pack)"

by Bill Pearis

Django Django at Glasslands, March 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

The shortlist for the 2012 Mercury Prize, an award voted on by a panel of music industry professionals and journalists honoring UK albums of the year, was just announced:

The Maccabees - Given to the Wild
Jessie Ware - Devotion
Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Lianne La Havas - Is Your Love Big Enough
Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Sam Lee - Ground of its Own
Field Music - Plumb
Django Django - S/T
Roller Trio - S/T
Plan B - Ill Manors

Odds seem pretty good for Alt-J (who play Bowery Ballroom tonight), who have not only made a great album with An Awesome Wave, but also the kind of album the Mercury Prize voters like. Though, though we shouldn't count out Micheal Kiwanuka's Home Again or Jessie Ware's Devotion. Now in its 20th year, this year's Mercury Prize will be given out November 1. (I am rooting for Django Django.) Last year's winner was Let England Shake by PJ Harvey.

Janelle Monae @ Terminal 5 (more by Matthew Eisman)

As performing with Prince and a Grammy performance have recently shown, Janelle Monae is definitely moving upward. It wouldn't be surprising if Of Montreal, who she has opened for on tour in the past, eventually open for her. That won't be happening any time in the near future though, as Janelle will head out on tour with Bruno Mars in May, who she recently performed with at the Grammys.

The tour, which they're calling the 'Hooligans in Wondaland' tour, kicks off at NYC's Roseland Ballroom on May 4 with opener Plan B (who like Arcade Fire, recently took home a Brit, and not long ago played a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom). Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10am.

All tour dates, poster, and video below...

Continue reading "Janelle Monae touring w/ Bruno Mars & Plan B (dates)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

The Loom @ Brooklyn Bowl


The Loom played a "Brunch After Dark" show at Brooklyn Bowl on February 9th with Pearl & The Beard & Team B, one of two NYC dates scheduled for The Loom in the month of February. The NYC band is now on tour with The Wailing Wall that wraps at the Rock Shop on Feb 26th with Soft Landing, Rice Cultivation Society, and Christopher Paul Stelling (tickets). Look for them at SXSW too.

Meanwhile, Pearl and the Beard, who also played a pop-up show in Union Square on Saturday afternoon (2/20), are gearing up for a tour of their own that will include SXSW as well as Knitting Factory on April 1 (tickets).

All tour dates, more pictures from Brooklyn Bowl, and some from the Union Square show too, are below.

Continue reading "The Loom, Team B & the Pearl & The Beard played Brooklyn Bowl, playing other places (pics & dates)"

To quote Gothamist:

Following the Arcade Fire's win at the Grammys, it seemed like half the nation was asking: Who Is Arcade Fire? What started off as a post on BrooklynVegan, grew into its own Tumblr account, and by last night the band themselves caught wind of the meme. At the Brit Awards--while accepting one of their awards (they took home trophies for Best International Album and Best International Group)--Win Butler said, "We're called Arcade Fire--check it out on Google."

Full Brit winner list (Bieber and Mumford & Sons included) and some videos below...

Continue reading "Arcade Fire win Brits (Bieber too), acknowledge meme"

photos by Chris La Putt

Blood Red Shoes @ MHOW

After Chris left the BV Loft Party all the way back on Friday, October 22nd, he headed over to Music Hall of Williamsburg for the Blue Flowers-presented CMJ showcase for a lineup of mostly UK bands including Chapel Club, Everything Everything, and Blood Red Shoes (who toured North America with Sky Larkin in October). Pictures from that show are in this post.

The occasion (to post these belated pics)? SXSW has already announced an initial lineup of bands playing in Austin from March 16-20, 2011, and Chapel Club is on that list (and I wouldn't be surprised of the other 2 mentioned bands end up coming too). Also on the list: Lia Ices, Braids, Asobi Seksu, Wye Oak, Suuns, Sun Airway, A Place to Bury Strangers and more. Full list under the rest of the MHOW pictures, below...

Continue reading "Chapel Club played CMJ w/ Everything Everything & Blood Red Shoes (pics), playing SXSW 2011 (intial lineup)"

DOWNLOAD: Sharegroove - Douglass Loft Hot Pot mix (MP3)
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Jokers of the Scene @ Plan B - April 14, 2009

Last Friday I was too tired to brave Webster Hall for Congorock even though I wanted to, and not being here Saturday or Sunday meant I didn't go out until Tuesday. That night I went to another one of the excellent parties Scion has been throwing monthly at Plan B. I didn't find out about it until the last minute - hopefully some of you saw the details I posted in the comments.

In any case...it wound up being a lot of fun. It wasn't as packed as quickly as usual, but by the time Jokers of the Scene started deejaying, Plan B had filled up nicely. Their set lived up to the two times I saw JoTS previously - great and full of new stuff, hardly any of which I knew, save for "One Day" by the Juan MacLean (who is playing a show at LPR tonight, but more on that and other upcoming events below...).

Toward the end of their set, just minutes after I had finished talking to a friend about Mr. Oizo, the next deejay coincidentally opened his set with "Flat Beat". The shock continued when the other half of the dj duo (who I later discovered were Super Viral Brothers) started to drop verses over the beats. He (Anthony Mills) continued to do so for the rest of the set which consisted of the following tracks (along with a few others) delivered by Olle Cornéer (who also happens to be half of Dada Life):

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (Etienne de Crecy, Flying Lotus, Plan B, Coachella & more...)"

DOWNLOAD: 2020Soundsystem - Shiver (live at sonar) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Robot Blair & David Bruno - Live From People Don't Dance No More Jan 2009 (MP3)

Congorock @ the Scion Radio party @ Plan B - February 17, 2008 (CRED)

Last week in dance wound up being pretty amazing despite being off to a rough start (literally). Friday night Webster Hall was packed to capacity - the Justice hype is still alive. Only half of the duo (Xavier de Rosnay) was scheduled to deejay as well as Busy P. Around 12:30 Busy P opened his set with a punk song followed by "Cut Dick" by Mr. Oizo. This immediately reminded me of his set at Le Royale last March which consisted of a lot of current electronic tracks with loads of pop, rap, anything mixed throughout the set. It was one of my favorite shows last year and I was hoping for the same on Friday.

Style-wise it was - great and super varied, however, crowd-wise I was in hell. It was super crowded. We wound up in a bad spot where people were passing through every other minute and it made the whole thing (which was awesome musically) pretty much un-enjoyable. The crowd only got more intense once Xavier went on. His set was much, much better than his set at Le Royale last April. He played some new stuff, along with some electro bangers from the past year, plus a hint of pop and some dance classics and mixed it all together beautifully.

the Week in Dance continues...

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta"