photos by Kellyann Petry, words by Andrew Sacher

R. Stevie Moore @ Culture Shock

Back in April, R. Stevie Moore hosted and performed at SUNY Purchase Culture Shock 2011. His set was easily the most anticipated performance of the entire festival. Looking around the audience, I could see by the expressions on people's faces that many were watching one of their heroes perform, and even more had no idea what they were watching. Nevertheless, everyone there was digging the experience of R. Stevie Moore's confidently quirky repertoire. It was clear from Moore's on-stage demeanor that he couldn't have been happier to be performing these songs too. Pictures from that show are in this post.

We've announced that R. Stevie Moore is opening for Ariel Pink on June 2 at Irving Plaza, and also in the process of raising money for his tour. He must have been successful because R. Stevie Moore and Tropical Ooze (who also play as his backing band) have dates booked through July including June 12 at The Bell House with Johnny Corndawg and Lost Boy. Tickets for the Brooklyn gig are on sale.

Fellow Kickstarter enthusiast Jonny Corndawg meanwhile can be found at Mercury Lounge on June 1st. He shares a Rocks Off-presented wacky bill with Danjaboots V1.1 (Feat Scott Metzger & SzufDaddy), Roger Alan Wade (of Jackass), and a mysterious "Cobraman".

More pictures from Culture Shock and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "R. Stevie Moore live pics, more tour dates, Jonny Corndawg "

by Marley Lynch

R. Stevie Moore @ Knitting Factory in 2007 (by Leia Jospe)

Talk about eccentric. R. Stevie Moore opened his show at Brooklyn's Cameo Gallery on April 14th wearing a white linen suit over a short-sleeved hoodie imprinted with neon skulls, rubbing a towel over his belligerent grey hair and moaning wordlessly into the microphone. And it only got weirder from there.

Fans who came to see the 59-year old original seemed to know what to expect. They danced to his experimental songs, laughed nervously at his semi-articulate digressions, and played along with his rambunctious antics. Indeed, they seemed pleased with Moore's delivery of his pop, punk and prog rock songs, which were backed by attractive Brooklyn band Tropical Ooze. Instead of being just plain bizarre, the concert was ultimately mesmerizing and inimitable; it offered a window into Moore's mysterious world, the man hailed as the "Godfather of Home Recording" who remains lamentably unrecognized.

The son of Bob Moore, revered session bassist who played with the likes of Elvis Presley and Patsy Cline, Moore Jr. grew up in Nashville and learned to play the guitar, piano, bass, and drums as a teenager. This self-sufficient method also extends to his production - the DIY stalwart writes, plays, records and mixes all of his music. He has now released over 400 genre-crossing records over a course of 32 years. Can you say prolific? If you'd like to delve into this indefatigable music catalogue, you can find it on a variety of domestic and international indie labels, as well as much that was released through Moore's own Cassette Club which then became the CDR Club.

Moore's releases are enough to send any record store employee into a head-scratching frenzy - what bin should they be placed in? This question is simply impossible to answer as his music captures an incredible range of styles and influences. Present are the sounds of the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, 10cc, Talking Heads and the Ramones. Moore is also a lo-fi movement pioneer, long before it became popularized by bands such as Pavement and Guided by Voices.

The tightness of last week's performance is even more impressive when you consider the diverse and formidable material Tropical Ooze was faced with learning (also keep in mind the challenges of working with a musician as idiosyncratic as Moore). On "Irony," an appealing, poppy song, his characteristically nasal falsetto was expertly backed by T'Ooze's gentle guitar twangs and melodic keyboard strokes to create a funky, danceable groove.

Towards the end of the show, Moore stormed offstage along with his band, only to return on his own - "totally unrehearsed the way you like," he assured his audience with a creepy giggle. Tenderly fondling his guitar, which was covered with a peeling sticker of the Virgin Mary, he delivered a solo acoustic session. His diffidence was only betrayed by his wailing lyrics: "Mama I'm at the top of my game // They all in the palm of my hand // What do I do now?"

If you did not catch him at Cameo, Moore will be back in the Big Apple on June 2nd to open for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza. He is currently raising money for a world tour, so curious non-New Yorkers (as well as NYC dwellers) should donate at his Kickstarter Campaign to be sure to take advantage of his rare forays out of the recording studio (also known as his living room). His value as a live performer is seriously underrated, and he definitely doesn't leave his audience bored.

We announced tentative R. Stevie Moore June/July tour dates in March, and those dates are still tentative. In fact, Stevie is raising money to help make them happen via Kickstarter. He says:

This past January, Kickstarter nation helped get R. Stevie out of the house and into the studio. With the FANtastic momentum, R. Stevie is looking now to get out of the studio and into to your town!

He will be joined in his crusade by bad boy Brooklyn backing band Tropical Ooze and documentary filmmakers Jon Demiglio and Tricia Gray.

Meanwhile, Tropical Ooze will back Stevie for the first time live TONIGHT, 4/14, at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. Tropical Ooze will also open, along with Purchase, NY's BIG MUFF. You might consider it a warm up show for his hosting gig at SUNY Purchase's Culture Shock festival this weekend.

Kickstarter tour video and more info below...

Continue reading "R. Stevie Moore still planning & raising money for a tour, but meanwhile plays NYC with new band (TONIGHT)"

by Andrew Sacher

The godfather of home recording, R. Stevie Moore, who recently moved back to his hometown -- Nashville, Tennessee, has announced his first ever American tour. He's coordinating the tour with Ariel Pink (who cites Moore as a friend and mentor) (though it's not clear if Ariel is playing any of the dates) and his booking agents. Moore will be backed on tour by the 3-piece band, Tropical Ooze. The cities and dates for the tour are still tentative, but R. Stevie Moore plans to start his tour in NYC on 6/19 and end in Brooklyn on 7/14. His Chicago date is 6/23 which means he won't be at the Pitchfork Festival though Ariel Pink will be. More details to come, but the full list of dates is below.

In addition to the tour, R. Stevie Moore is also performing at and hosting SUNY Purchase's annual Culture Shock Festival on April 15/16. This is the first time in Culture Shock history that the event is featuring a guest host. The full Culture Shock lineup hasn't been announced yet, but it has been announced that the side stage will be headlined by emo revivalists Algernon Cadwallder on Friday (4/15) and the breezy Long Island duo Small Black on Saturday (4/16).

Meanwhile R. Stevie Moore is working on a new album that he funded/is funding through Kickstarter. You can still donate if you want though he's already reached his goal, started recording and released a song. Listen to that song, watch his Kickstarter video and check out all dates (cities and dates only), below...

Continue reading "R. Stevie Moore recording his new album, planing a tour, hosting Culture Shock 201l"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Standard Fare - Dancing (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Standard Fare - Fifteen (MP3)

Standard Fare

Sheffield, UK's jangly pop trio Standard Fare are heading to Athens Popfest (Aug 10 - 14) and are making the most of their trip with an East Coast tour of the States. They'll play Bruar Falls on August 5 and Mondo! at Don Hill's on August 6. Standard Fare's The Noyelle Beat (out now in America on Bar/None) is one of the best indiepop records of the year (along with Allo Darlin's debut). Cute, romantic, but with some muscle in there too. You can download a couple tracks from it above. You should also watch the new video for their great single "Philadelphia" at the bottom of this post.

Maybe you saw them back in March? They are fun (and funny) live too. Don't miss 'em.

Athens Popfest, which took last year off, is back with a strong line-up that, along with Standard Fare, includes The Wedding Present, Mission of Burma, BOAT, Apples in Stereo, Rose Melberg, Dream Diary, Gold-Bears, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, and about 30 more.

All Standard Fare dates below...

Continue reading "Athens Popfest & other Standard Fare tour dates"

photos by Chris La Putt

DOWNLOAD: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round & Round (MP3)

"Ariel Pink completely obliterating to the max at mercury lounge! and being wasted on top of that is a plus plus pus." - Neon Indian

"How long does it take for an indie rocker to become a musical granddaddy? About five years.

In 2004 the Brooklyn band Animal Collective -- nearly granddaddies themselves at that time -- introduced a musical prankster from Los Angeles called ARIEL PINK (real name: Ariel Rosenberg). His albums, credited to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, were a hazy mess, from the layers of cruddy tape hiss to the way the songs seemed to absorb chunks from other songs, like a radio tuning in random stations. Somewhere beneath all this interference shone nuggets of nostalgic pop.

Flash forward to 2009, as music blogs alighted with a wave of new acts like Neon Indian, Washed Out and Memory Tapes that used clouds of reverb to distort 1980s-esque electronic pop. (Think Depeche Mode, underwater.) These bands were alternately identified as chillwave or glo-fi, but they were following a trail first laid by Ariel Pink." [NY Times]

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti played a one-off gig filled with press, recognizable indie musicians (like Neon Indian) and those lucky enough to score a ticket in time, at Mercury Lounge in NYC last night (5/4). The intimate show came a full month before their highly anticipated record, Before Today, is officially released by 4AD (MP3 re-posted above).

The always-interesting R Stevie Moore ("one of Mr. Pink's personal heroes") opened the Mercury Lounge show where Billy Jones reports that "Bright Lit Blues Skies was great but Ariel Pink didn't play the last chorus, outro to Round and Round. Kind of a dick move."

If you want to see Ariel, actual touring kicks off June 8th in Paris, and then again on July 9th in LA. The next NYC show is at the much larger Irving Plaza on July 24th and tickets are on sale (on a related note, Memory Tapes play MHOW this summer, and Washed out play The Bell House tonight).

More pictures and a video from the Mercury Lounge show, and a video of Ariel Pink sort of performing "Round & Round" recently for Viva Radio, below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti played Mercury Lounge with R. Stevie Moore (pics & video) & Viva Radio (video) "

DOWNLOAD: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round & Round (MP3)

The NYC Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti show set for May 4th at Mercury Lounge is sold out. Have no fear - there's a full North American tour coming this summer. Pearl Harbor and True Panther Sound's Magic Kids open the tour (the Merc Lounge show is opened by R. Stevie Moore). The tour comes to NYC's Irving Plaza on July 24th. Tickets TBA.

Ariel Pink's first record on 4AD, Before Today, comes out June 8th. The song "Round & Round" is reposted above, and will be out as a limited edition 7" (with "Mistaken Wedding" on the b side) and digital download single on April 26th. His band consists of Tim Koh (bass/vocals), Kenny Gilmore (guitar/vocals) and Aaron Sperske (drums/vocals). Before their North American tour, they'll play Europe in June. All tour dates and Before Today's tracklist are below...

Continue reading "Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti announce 2010 tour dates "

DOWNLOAD: F*ck The Facts - "The Storm" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: F*ck The Facts - "Absence & Despite" (MP3)

Aesop Rock & El-P @ McCarren Pool (more by Jason Bergman)

today in NYC
* FREE STUFF
* Howlies @ Mercury Lounge
* R Stevie Moore @ Cake Shop
* a benefit @ Santos Party House
* Les Paul and his trio @ Iridium Jazz Club
* Jim Campilongo Electric Trio @ The Living Room
* Billy Bob Thornton (makes music) @ Highline Ballroom
* The Walkmen, The Muslims & Frances @ Bowery Ballroom
* The Faint, Anti-Pop Consortium & Shy Child @ Terminal 5
* Fuck the Facts, From a Harlots Mouth & Psyopus @ Knitting Factory

I would get excited about the 'Hedwig & The Angry Inch 10th Anniversary Celebration' happening at Highline Ballroom on Thursday, but it's just a tribute show.

Anti-Pop Consortium keep the reunion going with a performance before the Faint at Terminal 5 tonight.

R. Stevie Moore plays Cake Shop tonight and also opens both of the upcoming (rescheduled) NYC Dr. Dog shows.

Video of Aesop Rock & El=P performing at McCarren Pool below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

R. Stevie Moore will be performing at Cake Shop in NYC every Tuesday this month. That includes tonight (May 6, 2008) with Half Handed Cloud (Asthmatic Kitty) and next week (May 13) with Double Wonderful. The May 13th show is being presented by the Anton Kern Gallery, Bridget Finn and David Schrigley in conjunction with the David Shrigley exhibition that will be running at the Anton Kern Gallery from May 15-June 21. More info on the May residency at Cake Shop's website.

R. Stevie Moore recently performed at another David Shrigley party in NYC too.

Check out a 1980 video of R Stevie Moore on the Uncle Floyd show, below....

Continue reading "an R. Stevie Moore residency, a David Shrigley exhibition"