Shit Robot at Terminal 5 (more by Andrew St Clair)

Shit Robot has a few DJ and performance dates in the near future as part of a tour that kicks off in Chicago on Friday night at The Mid where James Murphy will also DJ. The NYC date is a DJ set at Le Bain on August 14th (no James). Full tour dates and a new mixtape and a remix by Shit Robot are below.

In other DFA Records news, The Rapture will play a sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg on 8/20 which is followed by a bunch of European touring (updated dates below). The band recently released a new remix via an Adult Swim series. You can download the original for the price of your email at DFA. Adult Swim has since released the new Clams Casino track, "Wizard".

Juan MacLean has a few upcoming dates as well, including the previously discussed date on 8/20 at PS1 with Pictureplane (who just played a hot 285 Kent), Blood Orange, Solange Knowles and more. Full tour schedule is below.

Rewards aka Aaron Pfenning of Chairlift has signed to DFA and is releasing a 12" called Equal Dreams which is a track featuring vocals by Solange Knowles. Blood Orange aka Devonté Hynes contributes to the flip, "Asleep with the Lights On". Stream both songs below.

LCD Soundsystem guitarist Phil Mossman and Will Bates are Fall On Your Sword, and the duo are preparing to release the DFA debut too. The new single features extended versions of tracks from the soundtrack of Another Earth. Stream both songs, with a video for one too, below.

And last but not least, Holy Ghost hit the road as part of the Identity Festival in middle August, tagging PNC Bank Arts Center on 8/14 and Jones Beach Ampitheater on 8/21. Tickets are still available for both dates (they are no longer $20 though).

All tour dates and those Shit Robot mixes are below.

Continue reading "DFA Updates -- Shit Robot shows, Rewards, Fall on Your Sword & more (dates & songs to listen to)"

YACHT photos by Chris La Putt

YACHT @ WEBSTER HALL - 4/27/2011

Dave 1 w/ Holy Ghost! @ MHOW - 4/30/2011

LCD Soundsystem may be done but DFA Records still has a strong presence, especially lately, and especially Saturday night in NYC when Free Energy played Glasslands while Holy Ghost! headlined a sold out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg where they were joined by Nancy Whang on vocals and surprise guest Dave 1 from Chromeo on guitar. Holy Ghost's setlist and some videos are below. Later in the night Nancy headed to Webster Hall to hang with Classixx while Juan Maclean and friends DJ'd at Cameo.

Holy Ghost! recently released a video for "Wait & See" which stars the duo's actual fathers. Check that out below. Holy Ghost! are on the lineup of the HARD Summer Fest happening in LA on August 6th, as are DFA artists Shit Robot, Special Disco Version (James and Pat), and Still Going. Shit Robot also recently released a new video for "Losing My Patience" which features Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip. Watch that below.

DFA DJ Justin Miller is DJing at Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday night (5/3). NSFW flyer HERE. Matt Thornley DJ's with Midnight Magic at Public Assembly on Thursday.

Earlier last week, the DFA-signed YACHT came through town for their own big headlining show which was at Webster Hall with Light Asylum. A set of pictures from that show are also in this post and they continue with the other stuff, below...

Continue reading "Dave 1 played w/ Holy Ghost! @ MHOW, YACHT played Webster Hall (pics, videos, Shit Robot & stuff)"

most of the words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

They played for over 3.5 hours before the sun set on LCD Soundsystem in a cascade of white balloons dropping from the Madison Square Garden ceiling in NYC Saturday night. I wished they played even longer. Everyone I talked to agreed.

But James Murphy and co. gave everything at Madison Square Garden last night (4/2). And the sold-out arena crowd gave in return. For two months - through the initial on-line ticket debacle, the addition of four T5 shows to make up for it, constant hype, and lots of guessing at what guests might turn up (sadly there was no Daft Punk) - it all made this final act in the drama, The Long Goodbye, even more of an event.

People camped on line several hours early to get a coveted spot up front on the floor and most of the crowd adhered to the black and white dress code. Those who didn't stuck out.

From where I was in the middle of the front GA section nobody stopped dancing, or singing along or smiling the entire night. (Save for, like at all four Terminal 5 shows, the couple of awkward, yet brief and deserved intermissions.) Every turn to scan the Garden saw people full-on, in the groove dancing; not just some barely-registered shuffling back and forth. Honestly, everyone who was there should take a bow because they were fantastic. During the first break, video footage was shown of an interviewer talking to fans outside the venue, Aziz Ansari included.

And no, there was no Daft Punk, but there was Arcade Fire singing joyously along on "North American Scum" (the third set's highlight) and an appearance by Reggie Watts who also played with the band at three of the four Terminal 5 shows. The boys choir featuring members of Mr. Dream was there, as were the two female backup singers, and the horn section that included Kelly Pratt and Colin Stetson. Original LCD guitarist Phil Mossman was back and featured a few times in addition to LCD band members
Nancy Whang, Tyler Pope, Pat Mahoney, Matt Thornley, Gavin Russom, and David Scott Stone. Liquid Liquid opened the show like they did at the first two Terminal 5 shows. Shit Robot, who opened the second two T5 shows, again made an appearance during the show. Shit Robot and Juan Maclean, for one song, were alien vocalists in mysterious cardboard-looking spaceships that were set up in seats behind the stage (pictures and video below).

Pitchfork streamed the whole show for those who couldn't be there - you could see the cameras all over the place, including on the shoulders of cameramen walking through the GA crowd. Filmmaker Lance Bangs was seen dancing in the crowd and working backstage on the video of the show, and yes the clouds made it to the two screens that were hanging on the sides of the stage.

LCD started with "Dance Yrself Clean" and "Drunk Girls" followed. The first set was breathtaking and included "Daft Punk is Playing in My House." After an intermission, the band tackled most of 45:33. Watts came out for "Part 2" and Murphy spent most of the middle set off in the background letting the band tackle the instrumentals.

The first encore featured a cathartic and riveting "Someone Great" as well as "Losing My Edge" and "Home." For me that block was the highlight. During "Losing My Edge," the video screens featured images of some of the influential bands mentioned. When I looked up I saw The Sonics.

Their Harry Nilsson cover of "Jump Into The Fire" was part of the final 3-song encore. Murphy, his voice sounding a bit hoarse, paused between songs to thank everyone who came out and everyone who helped put the show together. "Three songs left," "two songs left," and then after saying "this is our last song", and a bit more banter including an admission to his family who was in the audience that he was wearing his dad's watch (as you can hear in the video below), he led the band into their final (ever) number, "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." It started slow with Murphy even laughing and pausing 'for dramatic effect' but by the end of the raucous outro the crowd was in a frenzy, only for the band to launch back in and cue the balloon drop. As the crowd was preoccupied with balloons of various size descending upon them, the entire band slipped off stage, almost completely unnoticed, and into history.

VIDEO OF THE ENTIRE SHOW (from the stream), and lots more pictures and the full setlist, below...

Continue reading "LCD Soundsystem played their final show @ MSG w/ Liquid Liquid (and Arcade Fire) -- pics, setlist, video of entire show"

photos by Andrew St. Clair, words by Bill Pearis

You could see glo-sticks being passed back among the crowd as LCD Soundsystem began their third straight night at Terminal 5, the hump day of their week-long career wind-down extravaganza. The moment set-opener "Dance Yourself Clean" goes from quiet to loud, someone near the stage flung about a hundred of those glo-sticks into the air, making for the first of many memorable moments of the night.

Despite having done this three-hour tour-de-force the last two nights, James Murphy and crew didn't show any signs of flagging. The eight or so musicians on stage -- not including female backup singers, male chorus and occasional horn sections -- seemed to be having a blast. As did the crowd that pretty much went mental for the entire first hour of the set, which included "Too Much Love" for the first time this week.

High point for me was watching the crowd react to "All My Friends." I was looking down from the third floor balcony and it was amazing to see so many people connect so deeply to it. That will definitely be one of my top concert moments of the year. I stayed against the balcony for the whole show (my first time at T5 if you can believe it) which I think probably made things more tolerable for me.

The bulked up band really made a difference, especially that male choir which includes members of the band Mr. Dream -- "Get Innocuous" and "Sound of Silver" sounded much fuller because of them. It was also nice to have Hot Chip's Al Doyle back, his presence was missed on last year's This Is Happening tour. He kept his shirt on tonight, but played guitar, vibes, timbales and even trumpet at one point.

The mid-section, an attempt to recreate the Nike-commissioned "45:33" was a bit hit or miss. Some parts were fleshed-out into more song-like structure, but without much singing it seemed like a good opportunity for the crowd (and band) to catch its breath.

For the third act, LCD Soundsystem got the crowd moving again with "Us Vs. Them" and kept the crowd bouncing through "North American Scum" and "You Wanted a Hit." With the pingpong bass of "Tribulations" the crowd surfing began, and then it turned into a pit for the thrashy "Movement."

There was also crowd favorite "Yeah" (it always kind of destroys), the throbbing "Someone Great," and LCD signature tune (and first single) "Losing My Edge" which seemed to take on extra meaning (and some new lyrics) in the hours before their retirement. Al Doyle also threw the keyboard hook from "Da Funk" into it at one point -- probably the closest we'll get to Daft Punk playing in LCD's house this week. (Though who knows what surprises are in store at MSG?) Also a treat: the band also threw in their cover of Harry Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire" in the encore, plopped in-between "All I Want" and "New York I Love You." Another highlight.

I don't know if he was saving his voice for singing, but James Murphy was rather unchatty between songs. Which is okay, the music spoke loud enough.

Shit Robot opened the show, and their set included LCD's Nancy Whang on vocals for "Take Em Up". They also later joined LCD on stage. Special guest Colin Stetson joined LCD on horns. Original LCD guitarist Phil Mossman played on some songs.

Only two more nights left for LCD's existence: tonight at Terminal 5 and then the big blowout Saturday at MSG. More pictures and video, and last night's setlist, after the jump.

Continue reading "LCD Soundsystem played Terminal 5 w/ opener Shit Robot, covered Harry Nilsson (night 3 pics, video, setlist)"

Earlier this month LCD Soundsystem posted that they had finished their final tour show and were "hunkering down to learn as much as we can for the t5 and msg shows. oh dear." On March 10th they tweeted that they're "looking for a 12 to 16 (or more) part men's chorus to help us with... something... umm... email bgraf@hotmail.com it will rule. HELP!" Hopefully they worked that out by now because the gigs are just around the corner with the first of four Terminal 5 shows happening on Monday, March 28th. The final show goes down Saturday, March 2nd at Madison Square Garden. If you can't be there, well, Pitchfork has announced that they'll be streaming it.

This is also happening:

Continue reading "LCD Soundsystem's MSG show will be webcast, preparty @ Le Bain w/ Shit Robot & Juan Maclean (who DJs tonight too)"

As previously mentioned, tickets to the four LCD Soundsystem shows at Terminal 5 go on sale Tuesday, but now we also know the exact time, price, openers, and a lot of special rules. LCD says:

basic bullet points to know:

-monday and tuesday, march 28 & 29 will feature liquid liquid.

-wednesday and thursday, march 30 & 31, will feature shit robot live.

-tickets for all four terminal 5 shows (march 28/29/30/31) will go onsale via ticketmaster at 9.00am on tuesday 22nd.

-there is a two ticket per person limit.

-the cost of a ticket is $40.00. ticketmaster charges will be $6.90 plus $2.05 per order handling fee. (that's the best we could get, apparently)

-(as an attempt to avoid the "secondary market") there will be no hard tickets. the only way to get in to terminal 5 on the nights of the shows will be to show i.d. at will call and then immediately enter the venue.

-we're told that ticketmaster will also sweep the online purchases daily and delete any duplications from potential scalper bots. (please come to the venue early on show nights - the line for entry may be long). if the tickets for the shows don't sell out very quickly, we'll stop the duplicate ticket thing and allow people to buy tickets for multiple nights. (just want to make sure all who want to go get a ticket before "multiples", if that makes any sense).

-oh... and we can't do a walk-up ticket buy at the mercury lounge box office this time (w/o ticketmaster fees) because those are only the hard tickets, which can be sold afterwards. (yes, i asked about putting names on the hard tickets.)

-more important: we're as bored of this ticket stuff as you are, so let's just have fun a few last times, and then get some food! 2 more liquid liquid shows! the new york debut of mr. shit robot live, maybe featuring some guests! loudness and lights! fancy stuff!

It's awesome the band is going out of its way to stop scalpers, though unfortunately this is a key statement: "please come to the venue early on show nights - the line for entry may be long.", There's also no mention of a way to give your tickets to someone else if you can't make it that night, and I'm not sure how someone without a credit card in their name can get tickets. Also, as they point out - there's no way to get tickets without fees now. That all said, this is not a new debate, but which way would you prefer?

Liquid Liquid is also opening the MSG show.

DOWNLOAD: Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Soulwax Shibuya Mix) (MP3)

Continue reading "the DFA Holiday party is at (Le) Poisson Rouge"