photos by Amanda Hatfield

Anna Calvi @ Bowery Ballroom

"...when Anna Calvi coaxed slinky licks, sweeping chords, and gasping runs out of her Telecaster, I couldn't help but smile. She can really play -- she leaves no room for questions of authenticity. she's there, and she's doing it, bringing a sensuality and nuance to her guitar playing that stands her apart from a lot of guitarists, both male and female." [Broken & the Blessed]

As promised in the post that mentioned David Byrne was in the audience, here are pictures from Anna Calvi's Wednesday night show at Bowery Ballroom with Cuckoo Chaos and She Keeps Bees. More of them below.

Anna and Cuckoo are now still on tour, and Anna's NYC return has already been announced. Tickets are on sale for a July 27th show at Le Poisson Rouge. That's three days before Anna plays Osheaga in Montreal.

Highlights of Anna's Bowery set included her covers of both Elvis's "Surrender", and Edith Piaf's "Jezebel". Videos of both (one from the Bowery show, one from a previous show), with more pictures and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Anna Calvi played Bowery w/ Cuckoo Chaos & She Keeps Bees (pics & video), playing LPR, Osheaga & other dates"

photos by Tim Griffin

Anna Calvi in Brighton

"Calvi was midway through a lean eight song set when I entered, but I was utterly spellbound for the four songs I caught. 'Desire' was a particularly stirring highlight from the singer who has recently recovered from a serious hand injury to be back on guitar playing duty, providing inspired flamenco-inspired flourishes to her otherworldly brand of Banshees-esque goth-pop. Her lips curling around harsh consonants provided subtle breaks to her commanding and powerful vocal, which was offset beautifully against her charmingly dainty asides. Her presence and poise was there for all to see, though this is no idle hype; Calvi will be a real force to reckon with and I await her further output with baited breath." [Skiddle]

Anna Calvi joined Handsome Furs, EMA, Warpaint, Okkervil River, and too many more to name at the UK festival The Great Escape over the weekend. Anna's set took place at Brighton venue Komedia on Friday. The above review and the pictures in this post are from that show (and even more pictures from The Great Escape can be found at the BV Facebook page).

Now Anna Calvi is about to kick off her post-injury North American tour with a show in Philadelphia before heading to NYC to play Bowery Ballroom on 5/25 with Cuckoo Chaos and She Keeps Bees. Tickets for the NYC show are still available, and you can try your luck at winning a pair! Details on how to enter our contest are under her full list of tour dates below.

In April Anna played a show in Paris that you can watch in full online.

Cuckoo Chaos is a 5-piece San Diego Lefse-signed band comprised of "players from other bands including The Vision of a Dying World, The Paddle Boat, Black Mamba, and Cousins." They've appropriately tagged their own Bandcamp page with "tropcal hipster jams," and they'll be on the road with Anna from NYC to San Francisco. Show up early to check them out. All dates, more Brighton pics, and the contest details, below...

Continue reading "Anna Calvi played the Great Escape (pics), about to tour w/ Cuckoo Chaos (win tix)"

photos by Jessica Amaya

While a crazy rain storm was happening outside Saturday night, Sharon Van Etten, Megafaun, and She Keeps Bees (who replaced Little Scream) played a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, who played a show at Fontana's earlier that day and who opened a few dates for Sharon last week, joined Sharon and band on a song during their headlining set. Video of that moment, and more pictures from the Brooklyn show, below...

Continue reading "Sharon Van Etten, Megafaun & She Keeps Bees (and Lady Lamb) played Music Hall of Williamsburg (pics & video)"

Little Scream @ a BV Day Party @ SXSW (more by Amanda Hatfield)

TV on the Radio's (new album and) Brooklyn show date has arrived, and though they're not listing any opener, I think there might be a surprise tonight at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Not a surprise at all is that Light Asylum is opening for TVOTR at RCMH on Wednesday. Tickets for that larger show are still on sale. AND, we have TWO PAIRS of tickets you can win to see the band headline Radio City. Want them? Details on how to win are below (all of TVOTR's dates are down there too).

Speaking of bands opening sold out shows at Bowery venues on 4/12 (today), Frankie Rose is the reason to show up early to the Go! Team's sold out show at Bowery Ballroom tonight.

Jesper Of Junior Senior DJs before The Go! Team play their set at Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday (their second of two NYC shows which are part of a short tour). That show is also sold out, though the venue says, "WE WILL HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF ADMISSIONS TO RELEASE ON THE NIGHT OF THE SHOW STARTING AT 11:00 PM. ALL ADMISSIONS AT THE DOOR ARE FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE AND WILL BE $12, CASH ONLY."

Speaking of opening bands playing shows in Williamsburg on Saturday night, Little Scream is NOT. Sadly, at some point after it was announced, Little Scream dropped off the last six dates of Sharon Van Etten's tour to instead play some dates with Jose Gonzalez in Europe. Don't worry, everyone's still friends. BV Zach was actually at their final show together the other day at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, and he told me...

Little Scream announced that it was their last show on tour with Sharon Van Etten, and that it has been an honor to work with her. Little Scream consists of two strong female singers (playing guitar and violin respectively), plus an also guitar-toting drummer. Their sound referenced the likes of Andrew Bird-esque violin plucking, interwoven with streams of freak folk and choral arrangements. Later during Sharon's encore, all of Little Scream returned to the stage to take part in a cover of Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy".

The good news is that Little Scream will make it back to NYC while on tour with The Antlers.

She Keeps Bees, not to be confused with Sea of Bees (I was actually confused until I wrote that sentence), have replaced Little Scream on the Brooklyn Bill. Megafaun also play that Brooklyn show and amazingly tickets are still available.

Continue reading "Frankie Rose opening for Go Team!, Little Scream not opening for Sharon Van Etten. Someone opening for TVOTR? (win tix)"

DOWNLOAD: Acid Mothers Temple - "In O" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Acid Mothers Temple - "In A" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - "Heaven In Stereo" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - "Venus Shaver" (MP3)

photos by Greg Cristman

Acid Mothers Temple @ Knitting Factory

Acid Mothers Temple, in the form of Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO, will return to tour North America in March. That tour hits Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on April 12th. Tickets are on sale.

The last time Acid Mothers Temple was at Knitting Factory was last April. A lost set of pictures from that show adorn this post. Acid Mothers Temple released their latest LP In O To Infinity via Important Records. Two MP3s above come from that release.

Almost all of Acid Mother's upcoming tour, including the Brooklyn show, is with Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers who have a new LP on the way. Teenage and Torture will be released on January 18th via Knitting Factory Records. Dig on a pair of songs from that release, including the previously posted "Venus Shaver" that appears on the 7", above.

Help Shilpa celebrate that new LP at a show happening on Friday, January 21st at Brooklyn Bowl with Soft Black and She Keeps Bees. Tickets are on sale for the gig which is one of two Shilpa has scheduled this month. The other is in Buffalo.

All dates and more AMT pictures below...

Continue reading "Acid Mothers Temple playing KF again (pics from last time), touring w/ Shilpa Ray (who plays an LP release show soon) -- (dates & MP3s)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Sharon Van Etten and full band played two NYC area dates this weekend as part of an extended weekend of shows that would see her eventually link up with Bowerbirds who arrive back in NYC on Tuesday (10/12). If you missed either her 10/8 show at Rock Shop with Julianna Barwick and She Keeps Bees, or her 10/9 show at Mercury Lounge with Kyp Malone, never fear, SVE will return to the NYC stage next week to play the annual Chouette day party, this year at Bruar Falls, on 10/20 during CMJ. The show, which will also feature Lower Dens, Highlife, and Sebastian Blanck, will kick off at 3PM and will feature SVE in the top slot (at 6PM). Set times are below.

Not long after CMJ, Sharon Van Etten heads out on the road with Junip. All dates, as well as pictures from Rock Shop are below (Mercury Lounge pictures are on the way)...

Continue reading "Sharon Van Etten played The Rock Shop (pics), playing Chouette day party (and other dates) "

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

La pluie. It just wont stop. From sun up to sundown and well into the night here in Montreal the rain continued, making the second day of Pop Montreal (Thursday, September 30th) , and everyone attending, a soggy mess. Buses were crowded, Bixi (the public bike racks that blanket the city) were not an option. It was taxis or hoofing it.

The rain forced the "Pop BBQ" indoors and up Boulevard St. Laurent to the Barfly where Lost In The Trees were first up. The set times were moved up an hour and upon arriving there were maybe 20 people in the bar. Nestled back in the corner the seven-member ensemble performed, without microphones. It had the feeling of a Take Away show with people carrying on quiet conversations, watching the band or sitting at the bar nursing a beer. After playing a raucous sold-out show the night before it had to be just a bit disappointing for the band. But you wouldn't know it by how they sounded.

After hiding out in the Notman House where registration and the hospitality area are, it was back up the boulevard and a fun, hip-hop set by Montreal's Socalled. "Does anybody want to play bass with Socalled tonight?" asked bandleader Josh Dolgin to the rapidly filling up space. (One of the curious things about some of these shows in Montreal is the way a venue will be nearly empty 10 minutes before a set and by the time a band takes the stage nearly packed.) Two songs in a guy came walking up with a bass and joined right in.
While waiting for Greenland's Nive Nielsen to begin at boutique clothing store next to the Barfly, I popped in to see who was on and was surprised to catch Brooklyn's She Keeps Bees killing it to what appeared to be the same 20 people from a few hours earlier.

Then if was off to see the see Polaris Prize-winners Karkwa. I arrived early and caught most of Montreal's Leif Vollebekk. Sounding a bit like the Bowerbirds with a voice that sounded equal parts Ryan Adams and Andrew Bird, his set was the more impressive of the two bands. And their sounds couldn't have been more differennt. If you stripped away the blistering light show, Karkwa's songs come away a bit less impressive. But from a spectacle standpoint it was worthy and the Montreal crowd was very much in love with them.

A dash through the rain and into The National to close out the evening. I arrived early and caught the last bit of the Black Feelings. Women followed and might have been the highlight of the night. Liars capped the evening and were loud, loud and more loud.

Read about the first day of the festival. HERE. More pictures from the second day below...

Continue reading "Pop Montreal 2010 - Day 2 in pics & review (Liars, Women, Karkwa, She Keeps Bees, Socalled & more) "

photos by Chris La Putt

Though I'm personally having trouble getting excited about the UK band, a wave of sudden hype (much of it from friends) got me out to Mercury Lounge last night to check out The Joy Formidable who were playing their second sold out show at the NYC venue in a week. People, many from the music industry and a bunch with accents similar to the band's, were packed into the club that the three-piece rocked for less than an hour. And they do rock, especially animated front-woman Ritzy Bryan who simultaneously handles vocal duty, guitar and a large board of pedals. She/they were tight, loud and fun to watch. Many people around me were feeling more than that too. I expect to see them play somewhere at least as large as Bowery Ballroom for one or even two nights in a row next time they visit (which they promised was soon).

Their eight-song EP entitled A Balloon Called Moaning is out now in the USA on Black Bell Records (it was released in 2009 in the UK and before that in Japan). More pictures, including one of the setlist, from the Merc show (that She Keeps Bees also played), and a video, below...

Continue reading "The Joy Formidable & She Keeps Bees @ Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics & video"

DOWNLOAD: David Thomas Broughton - Weight of My Love (MP3)

Talented UK experimental-folk artist and friend of Doveman/Sam Amidon, David Thomas Broughton will make a rare and brief stop in NYC before heading to SXSW next week. All in all he'll play only two shows in the US, both of which are for The Local. "The Local is an evening of fine live music hosted by Howard Monk. It's an unpretentious affair, and friendly too." More specifically, The Local is a UK EVENING of fine live music, and on March 17th they will be "in New York for a second time"...

Hosted by Howard Monk ('Later with Jools Holland meets Phoenix Nights. Result!' Time Out), The Local hosts two events in the U.S, in NYC and Austin, Texas (SXSW) and will feature live performances from the inimitable David Thomas Broughton (SXSW & NYC), last seen layering and sampling his melancholy tales with a banana in his mouth; the much celebrated Liz Green (NYC & SXSW), winner of Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent competition last year, and with a new album on its way, the 'flickering and hummable' stories of Shearwater (SXSW) and the much vaunted Alela Diane (SXSW).

Full lineups for both shows below...

Continue reading "David Thomas Broughton & The Local coming to NYC, SXSW "