by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Main Attrakionz - Take 1 Feat ASAP Rocky (Prod by Clams Casino (MP3)

Lo-fi rappers Main Attrakionz (aka Squadda B and Mondre) dropped a new album 808s & Dark Grapes II last week (8/16) for free on their bandcamp. It's a pretty tight collection of hazy blown out beats and laid back flow. Check out the Clams Casino-produced "Take 1" featuring ASAP Rocky, which you can grab above. Tee album art, tracklist, and a video for "Perfect Skies" are below.

Main Attrakionz will make their NYC debut on Friday (8/26) at the New Museum. Tickets are on sale now and are $2 less for New Museum members. The show will also include the premiere of a new video work by AHYVE, who is on the Main Attrakionz LP, and a DJ set by Walkmaster Flex. Ethan Swan interviewed the duo for the New Museum blog. Here's what the guys had to say about coming to New York:

What are your feelings about playing in New York for the first time?

S: Excited man, definitely a blessing.

You've collaborated with and/or shouted out some New York artists in the past, is there anyone you're looking forward to meeting in person at the show? Do you have a wish list of New Yorkers you'd like to show up?

S: No I didn't have no wish list. There's a lot of artists I do want to meet from New York, though.

M: Diddy should bring some Ciroc.

S: I do wanna meet Diddy.

M: And tell Dame Dash to stop in.

S: For sure Dame Dash! Styles P.

M: Mazaradi Fox. The whole 5 Boroughs, man.

S: Man I fuck with NY, all 5 boroughs.

M: I wanna see who got the lo-fi lab out there, recording out the closet.

Main Attrakionz will also DJ the official New Museum aferparty at Santos Party House at 10 PM with Salem (DJ) and Ghe20 Goth1k. Tickets are on sale now.

Video, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "check out Main Attrakionz -- new album, MP3, shows Friday"

Salem at Glasslands (more by Erez Avissar)

Almost a year after being booed off the stage at Fader Fort during SXSW, and about six months after the release of their album King Night, the stylish and hotly debated and often written about in the NY Times band Salem will take their codeine-laced jams on the road for a string of headlining dates. Eleven North American cities will get a dose from the witch house rapegaze doom crunk dark pop band, and NYC is one of them; look for Salem on March 19th at Santos Party House. Tickets are on sale.

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Salem --- 2011 Tour Dates"

by Andrew Frisicano

Los Angeles pop duo Kisses, Jesse Kivel (of the band Princeton) and singer/keyboardist Zinzi Edmundson (and a drummer live), are coming to New York for the first time for CMJ. Their shows for that include a Tuesday, October 19th IAMSOUND showcase at Santos and a Saturday, October 23rd show at Arlene's (a Forcefield PR/Windish show). For the Santos show, Men, Salem (last seen at Milk Studios) and Restless People are also on the bill, and tickets are on sale.

I guess that the Santos show will be Kisses' defacto album release gig, since their debut, The Heart of the Nightlife, comes out the same day on This Is Music.

With Kisses, the first thing to note is Kivel's bass-heavy, sometimes-loungey voice (basically unchanged from his singing with Princeton, if you know that). Its sound, combined with the music's '80s-nostalgia, compares favorably to Jens Lekman. Like Jens, Kivel has an ear for retro sounds, which he arranges variously as Muzak-inspired ballads, Arthur Russell disco burners and funk jams (one song, "Midnight Lover," could be on the new Chromeo, including its killer kicker of a chorus "I would like to take you out for a nice steak dinner"). The lyrics have a (slightly put-on) lonely-upper-crust perspective, and play between earnest and ironic (the words are supposedly inspired by a stint Kivel had writing reviews of holiday destinations he never visited).

I caught the band at what (unknown to me then) was their second show ever at the Echoplex in Los Angeles the night before FYF Fest. I partly wound up there because on my way through San Francisco, I saw the the members of Kisses blown up huge on the cover of the free weekly SF Bay Guardian, a really strange amount of pre-any-live-show buzz for the band's still TBA show there in November.

At the Echoplex, they played second on a four-band bill before Hawnay Troof and Stereo Total. The jitters were pretty obvious, though the band sounded good with their hard-hitting drummer and ample help from their programmed backing track. There's no problem with using a backing track, per se, but it was just a bummer to have some of the best hooks - a marimba run, a frantic Hammond solo, their defining bass pulse - played by a faceless laptop. The crowd got into it by asking questions, respectfully answered, between songs. "You guys are good!" blurted one person, almost incredulously, before asking when the record came out.

They'll have some more time to work out the show on the fly with October gigs in the UK and Japan. Until the record, there are two singles (with remixes) you can check out now.

Live videos from those first two shows, an official music video for their single "People Can Do The Most Amazing Things" (one of the record's least dancey songs) and all tour dates (LA, NYC, Japan, and Europe twice) are below.

Continue reading "Kisses played their 1st shows in CA, coming for CMJ (tour dates, videos, album info, more) "

SoSB @ MHOW - CMJ 2009 (more by Vincent Cornelli)


The CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival "has announced its first round of performing artists." The full list, BrooklynVegan showcase semi-included, and more is below.

One of those performing artists is School of Seven Bells who headline the Windish showcase at Santos Party House on Saturday, October 23rd. Tickets are on sale for that (or you can try to get in with your CMJ badge). SoSB played MHOW during CMJ last year.

Meanwhile School of Seven Bells will kick off a tour with Active Child at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg on September 9th. $5.00 tickets are still on sale.

All SoSB dates, the CMJ artist list, Bad Books info and more, below...

Continue reading "CMJ announces initial 2010 lineup (list), School of Seven Bells touring w/ Active Child (dates) ++ "Bad Books" & more"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Ryan Barkan

Mark Ronson & MNDR @ Milk Studios

The show spaces were predictably cozy and cramped, and USA lost their World Cup match again Ghana, but besides those qualms, not many bad things can be said about the Vice/Intel Creators Project event on Saturday (6/26). Interpol played their first hometown set since unveiling their new lineup earlier in the week, and M.I.A., the night's secret guest, put on a singularly ridiculous, entertaining show, albeit in the crowded, low-ceilinged second floor space. Even the un-affiliated soccer game screened amicably on a huge projector before the music started. If there was one caveat, it was that not that many people, relatively, got in to enjoy the art and music presented. Then again, that's one reason the labyrinthine network of art installations and stages was so surprisingly bearable and easy to navigate.

The same second floor stage that filled up for M.I.A. was also packed to capacity for Sleigh Bells. How much you enjoyed either's set depended a great deal on where you stood (and how early you got there). Cramped in the back, Sleigh Bells sounded pitchy and uneven - but jostled up in the front, the spectacle and body-shaking bass of Die Antwoord were entirely enjoyable. It also depended on your affinity for personal space, which was in short supply anywhere with a decent view of the stage.

And a view was pretty essential to enjoying the antics of the Antwoord crew and M.I.A.'s coterie of stage guests. Mia opened with caustic punk song "Born Free" (video below) a loud if not exactly melodious entrance choice. The stage-show continued the flashy political baiting of the "Born Free" video, which played behind the song. M.I.A. donned pot leaf goggles, rainbow hair and a hooded camo jacket, with a band who alternately wore glow-stick lined clothes and MIA-logoed burkas. Others on stage included a pair of dancers (one ginger-haired), Sleigh Bell's Alexis and Derek, and Ninjasonik. More new songs came, as did "World Town" and crowd-pleasing closer "Paper Planes."

Three of the night's other bands - The Rapture, Gang Gang Dance and Interpol - set up on the first floor studio's back loading dock, which was open to 14th street and the adjacent High Line Park. Gang Gang Dance sounded dependably sturdy in the cavernous garage. Interpol played an 11-song set with four new songs (including the slow-building "Lights") - tight and together, and ready for bigger arenas. The stage was open on three sides, so even without a spot in the front of the stage you didn't get locked out.

I didn't see much on the first floor lounge - Salem took a while to set up and I skipped them to catch Interpol. Neon Indian played the downstairs too, where DJs spun throughout the day. The eighth floor of the building was also part of the show (as was the penthouse/roof VIP-area above it). On eight, there was a screening room where Spike Jonze's I'm Here, a surrealist robot drama, played among other things, as well as installations like Nick Zinner's gothy, minimal photo and ambient-score room.

After M.I.A. I went to downstairs to find Mark Ronson DJing in the first floor gallery. MNDR was on stage with him singing her song "Fade to Black". She also reportedly performed Ronson's new single "Bang Bang Bang" before I got there. NME also says...

"Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald [sang] the Ronson-tweaked version of Radiohead's 'Just' while executing an impressive crowd-surf.

Ex-[Pipettes] singer Rose Elinor Dougall took to the stage for two new 'Record Collection' tracks, 'Hey Boy' and 'You Gave Me Nothing' - the latter a song co-written by Jonathan Pierce of The Drums. Ronson ended the night with the first public airing of 'Somebody To Love Me', which features vocals from Boy George.

The rest of Ronson's set that I saw, before the end, was mostly soul and early '00s hip-hop (Pharell, Snoop, Stevie, Jay-Z). Upstairs, MIA was still on the stereo, with NASA mixing the verses of "Bombs over Baghdad" over her song "Boyz." Much of the remaining audience was on stage partying with two arthropod-looking creatures. Back downstairs, some diehards were still dancing - the bar was still stocked, and Mark Ronson behind the decks didn't give much reason to leave.

Ryan's Die Antwoord pictures were already posted (as were Ben's of Interpol). The rest of Ryan's pictures, and some videos, below...

Continue reading "a take on the Creators Project event @ Milk Studios - pics & video of Mark Ronson, MIA, MNDR, Rapture & more included"

DOWNLOAD: Salem - King Night (MP3)

Vice Creators Project Announcement party (more by Erez Avissar)

Between the whole Northside Festival, the BrooklynVegan showcase @ MHOW, two BV-BBG heavy showcases, the Afro-Punk Fest, the final Voxtrot shows, Apples in Stereo at the Seaport and the ton of others shows, there's a lot of quality music this weekend, not the least of which is the Creators Project show at Milk Studios on Saturday, June 26th. That show will be the NY debut of Interpol's new lineup (and their first show in the city in quite some time). It'll also bring Mark Ronson, Die Antwoord, The Rapture, Sleigh Bells, Gang Gang Dance, SALEM, N.A.S.A., Neon Indian, Lemonade and a special guest to perform sets (in addition to visual art and whatever else they'll have).

Most if not all of those musicians who are performing have new albums on the way. SALEM's debut, King Night, is due September 28th on IAMSOUND. The fierce, ghostly (wordless) title track is posted above. Another of those artists with a new record on the way is Mark Ronson, whose newest, Record Collection, due in September. As usual there's a long list of guests, including Q-Tip and MNDR, who sing/rap on the super catchy track "Bang Bang Bang," the retro-styled video for which is below.

All the bands that are playing the event are considered "creators", as are all the artists they have listed on their site. Not all the "creators" are performing, and not all the people playing are listed as "creators" on their site. Those that are listed have videos being made about them. A new one debuts each day. For instance, today is Fool's Gold (the label). Past featured creators include Diplo, CSS, Peaches and Mark Ronson.

The Saturday event was previously open for RSVPs, but the list is now closed. The only way to get in now is to win tickets which we have two pairs of to give away. Details and the videos below...

Continue reading "win tickets to the Creators Project party, get the new Salem MP3, check out Mark Ronson's new video w/ Q-Tip & MNDR"

photos by Erez Avissar, words by Andrew Frisicano

In May, Vice and Intel announced the Creators Project, an art & music series that would be hosting events in various cities and on its website. The NYC kick off for that will be Saturday, June 26th at Milk Studios and will include performances by Interpol, Mark Ronson, Die Antwoord, The Rapture, Sleigh Bells, Gang Gang Dance, Salem, N.A.S.A., Neon Indian, Lemonade and others, plus a "very special guest." The event is free; RSVP here. How big is the space exactly? They write that "the eight-floor art gallery and performance space will host thousands of people for live concerts, art exhibits, film screenings and panel discussions by leading artists and the next generation of innovators."

It's the first of five events in different cities- the others are slated for London, Sao Paulo, Seoul and a three-day event Beijing.

For Die Antwoord, it will be their first NYC show, making the July gig at Governors Island their second.

For Interpol, it will be the first time we see them with their new lineup (unless they announce something else soon).

Pictures from the Creators Project announcement event, and a flyer and the full lineup of music and visual art (which includes work by Spike Jonze, Nick Zinner, Danny Perez/Animal Collective's ODDSAC and more) are below...

Continue reading ""Creators Project" announces free show w/ Interpol, Die Antwoord, Mark Ronson, the Rapture, Sleigh Bells, Gang Gang Dance, Neon Indian & more"

by Andrew Frisicano

HEALTH @ The Smell in LA in November (more by Rachel Carr)

HEALTH are going on tour with Indian Jewelry and Gold Panda this June for shows around North America. All three play Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday, June 20th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday (4/14) at noon. General sale starts Friday at noon.

HEALTH will release DISCO2, the follow-up to its 2008 remix record, HEALTH//DISCO, on June 22nd through Lovepump United. Remixers on the disc, which also features new track "USA Boys," include Crystal Castles (who play Irving Plaza tomorrow, April 14th), Javelin, Small Black, Salem, Tobacco and Pictureplane.

They recently released an intense & unspeakably creepy video for their song "We Are Water," directed by Tim & Eric's Eric Wareheim. That, album info and tracklist (with a complete list of remixers) and all tour dates (including dates in Europe) are below...

Continue reading "HEALTH - 2010 tour dates w/ Indian Jewelry & Gold Panda, new remix CD & Eric Wareheim video "

photos by Bryan Bruchman

DOWNLOAD: Harlem - Gay Human Bones (MP3)

Japandroids

I do too many BV parties to make it to the Fader Fort anymore. This is the second SXSW in a row I completely missed it (didn't even get to see Bone Thugs). Luckily I have these pictures and videos (and stories about a band being booed off stage)...

Continue reading "Japandroids, Harlem, Salem (before they were booed) & others @ the Fader Fort (SXSW 2010) - pics & video "

by Dominick Mastrangelo

SXSW Day Three started over at the free Dickies Sounds Day Party. Free silk-screened posters with all the bands playing that day (including She & Him and Surfer Blood at the official showcase that night) were printed up and handed out on the spot. People played ping pong next to the house while around the corner Greg Laswell played a few new songs, several old ones, as well as his incredibly depressing take on Cyndi Lauper's "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun". After a quick dash over to the convention center it was back to Dickies, where there was suddenly a long line, to catch the all-girl quartet, Warpaint, who were fantastic. Then Rogue Wave closed out the day portion. I still can't get excited about their new record, but live Zach Rogue and his newly configured lineup have it down and the crowd we're into it from the start. The highlight being "Lake Michigan" and a slow-building, two-minute intro.

For the evening I set up camp at the Mohawk for the Slumberland/Cake Shop Showcase. Sheffield's indiepop trio Standard Fare opened inside and their performance was great. A better batch of indie pop songs you'll be hard-pressed to find this year. Philadelphia drum-guitar duo Reading Rainbow were next and another indie pop band, the excellent Summer Cats (from Australia), followed. Frankie Rose and the Outs were up next with their hazy, lo-fi rock. I skipped out after that to nip over to the Galaxy Backyard to catch The Antlers (completely forgetting I would see them the following afternoon at another Party.) Their third show of the festival and they just nailed it. People around me who had not heard of them were won over after just one song (the increasingly uptempo "Sylvia".) By the end, one girl put her hands up in the shape of a heart right in front of Peter Silberman, eliciting a smile from the frontman mid-verse. From there it was a quick dash back up Red River to the Mohawk where both inside and outside were at capacity with Miike Snow about to go on outside (followed by Mayer Hawthorne, neither of who I caught) and Pains of Being Pure at Heart inside. "Welcome to the Cake Shop," said Kip Berman at the start of the New York indie pop band's set, pointing at the Cake Shop banner on the wall behind them.

Day One HERE. Day Two HERE. Day Three continued below....

Continue reading "SXSW 2010 day 3 in pics & review (Pains of Being Pure of Heart, Rogue Wave, Antlers, Cake Shop, Warpaint, more) "

The lineup has been updated for the MtyMx Festival happening March 20th-22nd in Monterrey, Mexico. As it stands, 69 of the 75 or so bands have been confirmed and are listed below.

New additions include Andrew W.K., Acid Mothers Temple, Grant Hart, Telepathe, Hunx and his Punx, Bitters, Male Bonding and Talk Normal. Dan Deacon and High Places will be MtyMx exclusive (as in not playing SXSW).

Three-day passes are still on sale. More info on the fest is HERE. The full list of confirmed bands is below...

Continue reading "MtyMx Fest expands lineup (Dan Deacon, Andrew WK, High Places, Acid Mothers Temple & other bands playing Mexico)"

DOWNLOAD: Salem - Frost (MP3)

photos by Erez Avissar

Salem...

On a series of breathy, claustrophobic EPs and singles beginning in 2008, Salem-- the trio of John Holland, Heather Marlatt and Jack Donoghue -- has been honing an oozy, cold style; a pastiche of several strains of pessimistic music: there are hints of noise-rock and shoegaze, as well as the stamp of the Houston rap pioneer D.J. Screw, who slowed records down until they became gummy and desperate.

It's not fun, this sound. And onstage it was even hazier. All three members took turns out front. Mr. Holland, who never took off his ski cap, sang, gripping the microphone hard, with hands heavy with rings. Ms. Marlatt -- who has a sweet voice, very well hidden -- was smoking while she played her keyboard, and smoking when she sang. (But hey, so were people in the crowd.)

She helps enliven "Redlights," one of Salem's best songs, which on Tuesday night was like M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" as heard through thick earmuffs, all low end and distortion but maintaining the hypnotic cyclicality of the beat. [NY Times]

The above review is from the group's show at Glasslands on January 5th, which is also the source of the pictures here. Salem will be releasing their first full length album later this year on IAMSOUND Records. More details will be announced later. More pictures from the Brooklyn show below...

Continue reading "Salem played Glasslands (pics), releasing CD on IAMSOUND"

DOWNLOAD: Salem - Frost (MP3)

"If we wanted to, we could go on about how this is a perfectly timed reaction to all the beach jams released this summer, but we know it's not like that. No, it's just Salem pumping out another ultra-creepy windswept song, no matter what the temperature, only this time they've added some complexity to the drum programming, unscrewed the vocals and turned the whole thing into a battle between lush misery and the kind of marching band drum machine claps we expect from Mannie Fresh. We're more or less watching this band go from good to really awesome, and that's a good situation to be in. "Frost" is the a-side from Salem's 7-inch release with Audraglint." [Fader]

Salem, the dark electro trio of John Holland, Heather Marlatt and Jack Donoghue, play a show at Glasslands in Brooklyn tonight (1/5) with synthy Gatekeeper. DJs play "new+classic-dark-electro-synthpop hits". Tickets are available at the door.

As far as we can tell, Salem only has a handful of releases to their name. Recently they released a single for the track "Frost/Legend" on Audraglint. The video for the "Legend" is below; "Frost" and more are streaming on their MySpace. Salem split a 7" with Tanlines as the December pick for the Fader/SoCo single series. That's streaming.

Flyer and videos are below...

Continue reading "Salem play NYC (tonight) - MP3 & videos "