As mentioned, Scottish indie trio PAWS are over for their first American tour on their way down to SXSW. It starts with two shows in NYC: Tuesday (3/5) at Glasslands with Dinowalrus and OVLOV (tickets); and Wednesday (3/6) at Cake Shop with Shark? and EULA. All tour dates are listed below.

To commemorate the trip, the band recorded three new songs for a cassette that will only be available at merch tables on this tour. (They'll also be selling last year's great Cokefloat! LP.) However PAWS were nice enough to give us one copy of the tape to give away and details on how to win it are below. We're also premiering a stream of the entire tour cassette below.

Continue reading "PAWS are here, recorded new songs for U.S. tour cassette (stream it, win one!)"

SXSW is no doubt a great way to see a lot of bands in a short amount of time and can be a lot of fun. But it can also be a little much for some. If you'd like to see many of the same bands but in a more genteel setting, you might be interested in The Savannah Stopover which happens the weekend before SXSW (March 7 - 9) in at various clubs in Savannah, Georgia. Over 100 bands will play, including Of Montreal, Merchandise, Mac DeMarco, Chelsea Light Moving, Hunters, Braids, Delicate Steve, Turbo Fruits, Ducktails and loads more.

Tickets ($30 per day or $75 for three-day pass) are on sale now and more info is at Savannah Stopover's website. The full announced lineup is below.

Continue reading "of Montreal, Chelsea Light Moving, Merchandise, Mac DeMarco, & more playing Savannah Stopover before SXSW"

West Coast janglers Craft Spells are heading East next month to play Cincinatti's Midpoint Music Festival (September 27 - 29) which also features the likes of Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen, Dirty Projectors, Sleigh Bells and many more. Tickets for the fest are still available and the whole line-up is at the bottom of this post.

Before the festival, Craft Spells will be in NYC for a show at Glasslands on September 24 with new new romantics Ice Choir. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

You can stream Craft Spells' new-ish EP, Gallery, plus check out the whole Midpoint Music Fest line-up, below.

Continue reading "Craft Spells playing NYC before Midpoint Music Festival (2012 line-up)"

by Bill Pearis

DZ Deathrays

Brisbane, Australia's DZ Deathrays are fresh into a North American tour with Mississippi's Bass Drum of Death that will take the two duos all over the continent, including a NYC stop at Glasslands on Tuesday (6/12) with Shark?. Tickets are still available and all listed tour dates are below.

I caught DZ Deathrays at SXSW this year and though that week is a bit of a blur I do remember them being probably the loudest band I saw in Austin: "Speaking of volume, Australian duo DZ Deathrays were next and the nitro-blues sonic assault blew right through my earplugs. I mean LOUD. How do two people make that much noise?" Their debut album, Bloodstreams, came out last month on 3qtr Records and you can stream it at the bottom of this post.

Bass Drum of Death, meanwhile, are finishing up their second album (which will also be out on 3qtr) and you can check out one of that album's tracks, "White Fight," at the bottom of this post. And if you haven't heard last year's GB City yet, it's worth checking out especially if you're a fan of Ty Segall-style garage rock. You can stream it below too.

There's also a split tour 7" available at shows featuring one song from each band. Look out for that at the merch table and you can stream the BDoD side of that below as well.

Continue reading "DZ Deathrays and Bass Drum of Death touring together (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

Allo Darlin'

Hope you all survived Record Store Day. I didn't find most of what I was looking for (most of which was UK only) but I did get that great Lee Hazlewood comp on Light in the Attic. Hope you found what you wanted the most. Lots of good stuff this week, so let's get into it.

The most TWII show of the week happens tonight (4/24) at Mercury Lounge: Allo Darlin' and The Wave Pictures. It's the start of the two bands' tour together that will wrap up on Sunday, May 20 for the last day of the NYC Popfest which is happening at Littlefield (w/ Ladybug Transistor, White Town and about six more that day). All Allo Darlin'/Wave Pictures tour dates at the bottom of this post.

Allo Darlin's second LP, Europe, came out last week to pretty much across-the-board acclaim. It's a little more melancholy than the band's debut, with a lot less ukulele this time out. Maybe that seems like a good thing, but I must say I miss the exuberance of Allo Darlin's debut. The more subdued nature of the songs and production make it sound like a Camera Obscura album much of the time, a comparison I would've never made before. But Elizabeth Morris' songwriting and voice are still in fine form, it's all just a little more "mature."

You can stream Allo Darlin's Europe at the bottom of this post. I'm sure one thing that hasn't changed is Allo Darlin's ability to charm in the live setting.

The Wave Pictures

The same goes for The Wave Pictures who I will always go see live even if I'm not so crazy about the album they're touring to support. Not that they change so much from record to record. Their new album, Long Black Cars, is pretty good (listen at Spotify) I think but much like the rest: Dave Tattersall spins fascinating, funny stories with a singsong delivery. Most of their albums sound like they were recorded live, but it always comes off a million times more compelling when you actually see them play. Tattersall is also one of the funniest between-song banterers of our age. Also funny: the Darren Hayman-directed video for their song "Spaghetti" which you can watch below.

Here We Go Magic

Here We Go Magic will release their third album, A Different Ship, in a couple weeks (May 8 specifically) and soon head out on a short UK tour before covering most of North America with Hospitality. (All dates are below.) Before that, HWGM play this Friday (4/26) at Knitting Factory with Glass Ghost.

The new album has an interesting birth. Stuck playing a pre-noon set at Glastonbury 2010, the groggy band were playing to a groggy crowd, none of whom seemed to be having any fun. Except for two guys dancing right up front, who turned out to be Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich. The band met Yorke and Godrich after their set and Godrich turned up at more European shows... and ended up producing Different Ships. This is the bands first album that didn't start with Luke Temple doing demos on his own, and with the band incorporated from the beginning (and working in Godrich's studio). While still boyant and dreamy, Different Ships feels a little bigger, a little more fully formed than the previous two. You can stream "Make Up Your Mind" at the bottom of this post as well stream new single "How Do I Know?" at Secretly Canadian's SoundCloud page.

The Feelies at Prospect Park in 2011 (more by Tamara Porras)

And finally, while Feelies shows have become less rare since the band actually made a new album, but any chance to see one of the most influential NYC-area bands of the last 30 years is one you shouldn't pass up. And you have that chance on Friday (4/27) at the Bell House. While bands from Luna (who had the Feelies' Stanley Demeski on drums at the beginnning) to The Strokes have taken from them, there's no substitute for that Bill Million/Glen Mercer guitar interplay that still sounds like magic.

You can listen to the Feelies' terrific album from last year, Here Before, as well as some of their classic ones, at Spotify. The Feelies also play Saturday (4/28) at Club Helsinki in Hudson, NY if you're up that way and a few more scheduled dates throughout the summer which are further down this post.

That's the big stuff this week. Day-by-day picks of things not covered above, are below.

Diehard

TUESDAY, APRIL 24

Diehard are at Union Hall tonight with Everest, Benjamin Cartel (of Kaiser Cartel) and Resistor. Diehard just released a video for their theme songwhich you can watch below. It's from last year's The Times We Didn't Have Fun which you can download for free from Bandcamp. Diehard also play Saturday (4/28) at the Rock Bar in the west, West Village.

Colorado's Gauntlet Hair are in town at GLasslands tonight with dream poppers Field Mouse and Baby Alpaca.

Catch new Captured Tracks artist Mac Demarco tonight at Bowery Ballroom opening for Nite Jewel.

Nick Lowe

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25

One of the coolest cats around, Nick Lowe is at at Town Hall with nearly 40 years worth of amazing songs in his arsenal. Last year's The Old Magic was another winner from the Basher and you can stream it at Spotify and watch the comedy star-studded video for "Sensitive Man" below.

Sacramento's astral trio Sister Crayon wrap up their Pianos residency tonight with support from Megafortress, New Moods and Tygerstrype. Stay late for a free show from Japanese rockers ZZZ's.

continued below...

Continue reading "Allo Darlin', The Wave Pictures, Here We Go Magic, The Feelies, Nick Lowe & more in This Week in Indie"

photos by Andrew St. Clair, videos by (((unartig)))

Widowspeak @ Death By Audio - March 24, 2012

Brooklyn DIY venue Death By Audio is celebrating five years, and Saturday night's special bill included Eternal Summers, Bleeding Rainbow, Shark?, and a headlining set by Widowspeak (who just played one of our parties in Austin). Pictures from the whole night, and video of three of the bands, below...

Continue reading "Widowspeak, Bleeding Rainbow, Eternal Summers & Shark? played Death By Audio (pics, video)"

b Bill Pearis

DBA crowd for JEFF the Brotherhood in Feb (more by Andrew St. Clair)

South Williamsburg DIY space Death by Audio will be five years old on March 31 and are throwing a birthday party for themselves featuring Neckbeard Telecaster, Grooms, Les Savvy Fav's Tim Harrington doing something solo, and Free Paint (Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and Flying's Sara Magenheimer). And maybe some special guests? Who can say?

While the 31st is the official anniversary party, all of March has been loaded with semi-official ones. Saturday (3/24) is a stacked bill, with Widowspeak, Eternal Summers, Bleeding Rainbow and Shark?. I actually saw the first three last week in Austin at various SXSW shows (like our Hotel Vegan day party on Friday 3/16) and all were in fine form.

There's also Sweden's Echodeck on Sunday (3/25),  reunited '80s Aussie band Feedtime on March 29, and  Little Lungs (one-off reunion gig) with Nouns (Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females, who did part of the DBA stage mural, btw) on March 30.

While their were shows at what they called the Sugar Factory earlier (I remember seeing Dirty on Purpose and Vaz there during CMJ 2005), March 31 was the first show under the name Death by Audio (part of the space which Oliver Ackerman had been using since 2002 for his effects pedals company). I've seen so many memorable shows there (JEFF the Brotherhood, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, METZ to name just a few) over the last five years. Here's to many more.

Full schedule at Entertainment4Every1's site.