photos by Chris La Putt

Michael Hurley @ Brooklyn Bowl

Jonny Corndawg @ Brooklyn Bowl

Jonny Corndawg completed his April residency at Brooklyn Bowl last night (4/25) with an impressive lineup of openers that included Jason Isbell (who played Bowery Ballroom a few days earlier) and folk legend Michael Hurley who Jonny is now on a short tour with. And Rude Bear was even there. More pictures and a video from the night, below...

Continue reading "Jonny Corndawg played Brooklyn Bowl w/ Michael Hurley & Jason Isbell (pics)"

DOWNLOAD: Burns - First Move (Fred Falke Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Sounds - No One Sleeps When I'm Awake (Disko Dali Remix) (MP3)

Kings of Convenience @ Bowery Ballroom - Sept 10 (more by Fresh Bread)

While my favorite show from last week was definitely Kings of Convenience at Bowery Ballroom, Tonight We Ride at Santos (which I headed to immediately afterward) was quite good too. I caught most of Human Life's set which was very upbeat and energetic, but the vocals reminded me of radio "club hits" a bit too much. After set-up and a brief transitional dj set in between, the Glass went on around 12:30. The duo of DJ Wool and Dominique Keegan opened their set with one of their new songs "Wanna Be Dancin' " which was a little on the quiet side. Things picked up by the next track which was "Come Alive" and only got better with each song. Superhero (which is the Glass' next single, due out next month) was amazing and really stood out. The Glass followed with some earlier tracks, "Won't Bother Me" and "Mad At You", rounding out a great set of both new and classic material.

continued...

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (part 1) (Datarock, Esser, Burns, the Glass, the Sounds, Disko Dali & more) "

Building in the inaugural success of 2008, Famous Friends, a New York-based promotion company, in conjunction with Noise Problem, a leading multi-faceted music agency, are pleased to announce the line up for The Second Annual Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival (BEMF). Spanning two stages, indoor and out, BEMF will be headlined by The Juan Maclean (live) and also feature Young Love, Jupiter One, Adventure, Shy Child, Home Video, Free Blood, Awesome New Republic as well as dozens of other DJs and performers.

Famous Friends will be announcing a very special surprise guest headliner via twitter on the day of the show. RJD2 will not be performing as previously announced.

Continue reading "Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival (Aug 8th) - full lineup (w/ Juan Maclean, Cloud Room, special guest headliner, NO RJD2)"

DOWNLOAD: Diana Krall - What Are You Doing New Years Eve (MP3)

Rude Bear @ a Muggabears show (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

• Grandmaster Mele Mel, Mickey Factz, Ninjasonik, Trouble & Bass, and more @ Studio B
• The World Famous Pontani Sisters @ The Bell House
• RUDE year's eve HEARTSREVOLUTION (Live+DJ set) plus Nick Catchdubs / Bubblyfish / RUDE (DJ set) / hosted by RUDE BEAR @ Glasslands Gallery
• Surprise Me Mr Davis (members of The Slip) and The Benevento/Russo Duo (late show) @ BB King's
• Famous Friends & Palms Out Sounds Present NYE 2008! featuring Kill The Noise / AC Slater / The American Dream Team / Udachi / Bradley D & VDRK / Hosted by Chaz & Jason Pants of Palms Out Sounds @ Europa
• EVERYTHING ELSE

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Zach Dilgard & Leia Jospe

Rude Bear getting his black metal on (by Zach Dilgard)

Vried (by Leia Jospe)

By the time Rival Schools bid ta-ta to the main stage at the Knitting Factory, black metallers Vreid had already begun to soil the Tap Room during the Brooklyn Vegan Day Party on Oct 25th. Clad in gestapo-like matching black outfits, the band charged through their thrashy brand of black metal while vocalist/guitarist Sture barked away at the adoring (though small) crowd... which included none other than Rude Bear.

Vried's appearance at Knitting Factory marked their third show in the USA.... the first being Heathen Crusade Festival in 2007, and the second at the late-night CMJ Vice Party at The Studio at Webster Hall with Krallice. Vreid is currently mixing their new album, Milorg, which drops in 2009.

A little bit earlier, Trap Them flooded the Old Office with their patented brand of hatred.

More Vried pictures below...

Continue reading "Vried & Rude Bear @ Knitting Factory, NYC - pics "

DOWNLOAD: Congorock - Trust No One Mixx (zSHARE MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Deviant Soundsystem - Jump (Backwards Bootleg) (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Deviant Soundsystem - Deviant Sound Sessions on Australia's PulseRadio.net (zSHARE MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Double Exposure - What You Need (DJ Duckcomb edit) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Runaway at People Don't Dance No More May (MP3)

Chromeo & Rude Bear @ Webster Hall - October 2, 2008 (CRED)

We're barely into October and signs of what a crazy month it's going to be are already showing. For me it all started Thursday night with Chromeo. Hell, even the bears were out! As always, Dave and P played a very clean, energetic set that included their entire album, Fancy Footwork, as well as a few older tracks from their first album. The crowd was losing it - singing, dancing, and screaming along in a way that I've seen only in response to these Québécois electro-poppers. In addition to being consistently good performers, Chromeo are so unassuming and appreciative of the success they've found, always making it a point to credit New York as one of the first places that welcomed them. It was a great (albeit familiar - I need some new songs!) way to start dancing in October.

I took a break before heading back to Webster Hall that same night, arriving just in time (after being thoroughly frisked and forced to throw out the suspicious, crumpled tissue in my pocket that was holding my earplugs) to catch the Bloody Beetroots deejay around 1. The crowd, despite being pretty decently sized, only took up about a third of the huge room. What they appeared to lack in size, was made up for in energy as about two thirds of the people there were relentlessly getting down - totally losing their shit, as the Beetroots played tons of their own tracks and reworkings. They also teased the crowd, cutting back and forth between their bangers and a few unexpected tracks like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys and Jump Around by House of Pain. Overall it was one of the crazy, relentlessly banging, unstoppable dj sets I've come to expect from the masked Italian duo. Unfortunately things seemed to be cut short after someone whispered something to them. Within minutes they were both zipping up their jackets and packing up in time for Alexander Technique to get on the decks again (he had spun earlier, right after Chromeo finished) at 2.

Friday night I found myself at Webster Hall, yet again, for the Attack of the Unibros tour featuring A-trak and Boys Noize. After far too much interaction (in the form of horrible pick-up lines and involuntary grinding) with the Webster Hall regulars the night before, I was a little nervous about going back. The novelty of the big room & loud system was beginning to wear off. I hoped the music would be great enough to help me ignore the more annoying crowd members (hopefully as the folks over at Webster are now putting together some real quality electronic line-ups, the crowds will begin to mirror that more).

When I arrived just after 1, the place was absolutely packed (even more than when MSTRKRFT deejayed back in May). There was an empty area over on the left (mainly due to the fact that the view of the deejays was totally obscured by a huge speaker stack) where I spent my time during A-trak's hour long set from 1ish to 2ish, followed by most of Boys Noize's hour long set from 2ish to 3ish, before I headed onstage for the best part - their joint set that went until about 4. Each of their sets were very good. A-trak's was heavy on a lot of new tracks I didn't know that sounded great. One I did know, was Mr. Oizo's "Positif Extract" (which I happened to post about on my blog just one day prior) which sounded absolutely AMAZING out on a loud system. I can't wait to hear it when I'm out again.

I mentioned some concerns about Boys Noize's sets getting to be a bit repetitive/seeing him deejay too often over too short a period of time last week. My concerns disappeared pretty quickly as he opened with some of his own, newer material followed by a diverse mix of current electro, devoid of any of the transitions I remembered from any of the times I saw him in the past.

Despite being up close, the stage was so packed it was difficult to see who was deejaying when they were on together, but between the two of them the tracks were all over the place in an amalgam of old and new (including Necessary Evil by Armand Van Helden, Breathe by the Prodigy, Cross the Dancefloor by Treasure Fingers, Shake & Pop by Green Velvet, and the Boys Noize remix of Justice's Phantom as well as Feist's My Moon My Man to name a few) that had everybody losing it.

As we head into week 2 of the crazy month that is October there is sure to be plenty more where that came from, starting with Thursday (10/9) and ending with a chance to win free tickets for an event this Saturday night...

Continue reading "the Thursday & Friday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Parenthetical Girls can be very touching

Evangelicals bring the creepiness to Cake Shop's basement

Parethetical Girls played an emotional, energetic and crowd-interactive show in the cozy basement of Cake shop last night (Oct 02). It was the first show PG played here in a while - their last scheduled NYC appearance was cancelled due to mechanical issues. Pwrfl Power, who played a show at Union Hall one night earlier, was in the crowd...and blogged about it...

I headed to Cake Shop after dinner where my big brothers Parenthetical Girls played.
They played very good. it gets better everytime.
I didn't catch the Evangelicals.

Continue reading "Parenthetical Girls & Evangelicals @ Cake Shop, NYC - pics"

photos by Zach Dilgard, words by Black Bubblegum

After a great (and late) Saturday-night, morning (3pm) bloomed with Robin Guthrie (co-founder of Cocteau Twins) and his shimmering ambient soundscapes in the main room. Backlit by projections of fractals and waves, it was the perfect way to ease into Sunday. Le Volume Courbe and Wounded Knees (both opening for MBV tonight at Roseland) had already played on stage two, but sadly, I missed them.

While Guthrie shined on, I scooted on over to stage deux and caught a few minutes of sunny pop by The Lilys (opener for MBV in NYC night two).

continued below...

Continue reading "ATP NY day 3 - Lilys, EPMD, TOD, YLT, Dinosaur Jr., more..."