The 2013 ACL Festival happens in Austin, TX on two consecutive weekends: October 4 - 6 and October 11 - 13. Weekend passes are on sale now and the full line-up is below...

Continue reading "2013 ACL Music Fest lineup announced (Depeche Mode, The Cure, Atoms for Peace, The National, Vampire Weekend + more)"

Phosphorescent at Bonnaroo 2011 (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

As mentioned, Newport Folk Festival is returning this year to Fort Adams State Park from July 26 to 28, and since we last spoke, the lineup has been revealed. This year's fest includes Beck, The Avett Brothers, Feist, Jim James, Colin Meloy, Andrew Bird, The Mountain Goats (who just announced a tour), Father John Misty, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Dawn McCarthy, Justin Townes Earle, Felice Brothers, Jason Isbell, Amanda Palmer, Phosphorescent, Beth Orton, John McCauley, Michael Kiwanuka, Lord Huron, Frank Turner, Black Prairie, Langhorne Slim, TIft Merritt, Spirit Family Reunion, Blake Mills, Houndmouth, Cold Specks, and others, plus more TBA.

Hope you acted quick back in January. 3-Day passes and 2-day passes are sold out, as are single day tickets for Saturday and Sunday, but you can still get single day tickets for Friday.

Speaking of the Rough Trade-signed, Lumineers-like Houndmouth, you have two chances to catch them in NYC this week before they become as big as the Lumineers. They're at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday (4/10) and Rockwood Music Hall on Thursday (4/11).

Full initial Newport Fest lineup below...

Continue reading "Newport Folk Festival -- 2013 lineup (Beck, Feist, Jim James, Phosphorescent, Father John Misty, Bonnie Prince Billy, Houndmouth & more)"

Dawes at SXSW 2013 (more by Sarah Frankie Linder)

Folk rockers Dawes are set to release their new album, Stories Don't End, on April 9 via their own label. You can check out a video playlist below, which begins with a lyric video for the album's single, "From A Window Seat," and also includes video clips of the band in the studio and the album trailer.

Dawes will be supporting the new album with a tour -- some of which is supporting Bob Dylan -- that hits the NYC area for a headlining shows on June 22 at Terminal 5 and July 24 at Capitol Theatre. Those shows and some others on the tour are with Shovels & Rope. Tickets for the Terminal 5 show and tickets for the Capitol Theatre show go on sale Friday (3/22) at noon.

All dates are listed, along with those videos, below...

Continue reading "Dawes releasing new album, going on tour (dates & videos)"

Osheaga Festival is returning to Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau from August 2-4. This year's lineup includes The Cure, Mumford and Sons, Phoenix, New Order, Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, Hot Chip, Alt-J, Beach House, Explosions in the Sky, Big Boi, Baauer, Father John Misty, Disclosure, Frightened Rabbit, Angel Haze, Jessie Ware, DIIV, Guards, and many more.

3-Day passes go on sale Friday (3/15) at noon. There are still over 20 artists TBA, but you can browse the complete initial lineup below...

Continue reading "Osheaga Festival 2013 lineup & tickets (The Cure, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, New Order and more)"

Says the PR

On the heels of a highly successful, critically acclaimed sold-out 2012 festival, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2013 lineup, which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 24-27 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The
Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA.

Woot. 2013 Lineup below...

Continue reading "Sasquatch! Music Festival 2013 lineup is here"

As you may remember, Brooklyn old time folk revivalists Spirit Family Reunion released their debut album over the summer and sounds more like something from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack than something from their NYC borrough in 2012. You can stream the whole thing below. The band recently appeared on long-running NPR show Mountain Stage (taped in West Virginia) alongside Dr. Dog, the Mountain Goats, Nellie McKay, and Red Wanting Blue and that episode airs this week, check here for a station near you and look for the episode to go up on their archive next week.

Meanwhile, Spirit Family Reunion have a few live shows coming up, including New Year's Eve in NYC, playing Pianos with Christopher Paul Stelling. Tickets are $15 and include a champagne toast at midnight.

The band were also kind enough to send us their Top 10 LPs of 2012 and if you're expecting a bunch of Bill Monroe reissues on the list, you'd be wrong. Their list includes Ty Segall and Leonard Cohen who maybe they're going to see tonight at Madison Square Garden? Check out their full list below, along with a stream of their album and a list of all upcoming tour dates.

Continue reading "Spirit Family Reunion are on 'Mountain Stage' this week, list their Top 10 LPs of 2012, playing NYC on NYE (dates)"

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)"

Built to Spill at BV SXSW 2012 (more by Ryan Barkan)

The Hopscotch festival in Raleigh, North Carolina will celebrate its third year from Sept. 6-8, 2012 in downtown Raleigh, with 175 bands in 15 venues. The initial lineup, released today, runs the gamut from traditional indie favorites to punk to noise music to hip hop to noisy black metal and all stops in between, featuring performances from Built to Spill, sunn 0))), The Roots, The Jesus & Mary Chain (who played SXSW), Liars (who have a show coming up at Webster Hall), Baroness, Deerhoof, Death Grips (who play NYC soon and have new material on the way), Danny Brown (who was at Coachella and plays Prospect Park soon), Pallbearer (who play an exclusive East Coast Show soon), Screaming Females (who recently played NYC and are on tour now), Thee Oh Sees, The Spits (who just played NYC twice), Tenement, The Mountain Goats (two sets, one of which will be an all metal-covers set!) and so many more.

(and now we know the Jesus & Mary Chain are coming back soon)

Tickets are on sale. The full lineup and flyer (update: and a few more announced J&MC dates) are below...

Continue reading "Hopscotch lineup announced; Jesus & Mary Chain will be in NC in September; John Darnielle to do metal covers set "

photos by Chris La Putt

Corndawg & Ellis @ Mercury Lounge

Of all the unique characters at the South by Southwest Music Conference last week, few stood out like Jonny Corndawg.

A twangy song picker from rural Virginia -- "I never really quite fit in there, which explains a lot," he says -- the real-life Jonny Fritz made a striking figure physically in Austin, with his rail-thin frame under a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. He was conspicuous musically, too, with a traditional yet rowdy, trucker-brand country sound and a status as one of Rolling Stone's 25 artists to watch at SXSW 2012. Part of the buzz is built on an upcoming album he just made at Jackson Browne's studio, backed up by his pals in the L.A. band Dawes.

Maybe the thing that made the Corndawg stand out the most was the tour vehicle parked outside his gigs. He drives a maroon Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van with "Corndawg.com" emblazoned across the back.

"I've been saving up for that thing for about three years," beamed the broad-smiling countryman. [StarTribune]

And you should hear its horn! (it and its musical horn drove by me at least once at SXSW this year.)

As promised, the Jonny Corndawg / Robert Ellis / Shoves & Rope train, or should I say Sprinter, pulled into NYC for a show at Mercury Lounge last night (4/2). Here are some pictures. More below...

Continue reading "Jonny Corndawg, Robert Ellis & Shovels and Rope played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

Jonny Corndawg poses with fans @ SXSW 2012 (photo by zavertnik)

Alt-country, singer-songwriter associates Jonny Corndawg and Robert Ellis are out on the road with "sloppy tonk" band Shovels + Rope. That tour brings the party to Mercury Lounge in NYC tonight (4/2) for a show that begins with with a set by Colin Langenus (USAISAMONSTER). Tickets are still on sale (for those who didn't win tix in our Facebook contest).

All tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Jonny Corndawg, Robert Ellis & Shovels + Rope are on tour (dates include Mercury Lounge tonight)"

words & photos by Chris La Putt

Butch Walkter in Brooklyn

"Well, I left the town of sinners, redneck priests and meth lab stalls
To find myself a few more just like me
The option's pretty skinny and the order's pretty tall
To swim the hippest waters in the sea

Somewhere in the sticky city, driving back and forth
I found myself a squat in Williamsburg
Nobody seemed the same sincerely this could be a curse
But everyone's the same with different shirts"

Former Marvelous 3 lead singer Butch Walker peformed at Music Hall of Williamsburg last month (10/25), "3 Kids in Brooklyn" included (the song quoted above)., in support of his recent album The Spade. Butch is known for his many pop star connections, so I guess it wasn't a complete surprise that Pink showed up and did a duet with him at his Williamsburg show (like she has done in the past). Not as cool as Mastodon's Brent Hinds jamming with him on 10/7 in Atlanta, but much crazier considering the size and location of the venue and the size of the special guest's fame. Videos of both are below.

Members of Butch's backing band, the Black Widows, opened the Brooklyn show, as did Shovels and Rope (who have shared bills with Jason Isbell and the Felice Brothers in NYC over the past year). Pictures of the whole Brooklyn show are in this post.

Earlier that day Butch was on Leonard Lopate's show on WNYC discussing his new book Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt which is about his life as a musician and record producer. You can listen to the segment below. Want to ask Butch a question about it? The Daily Swarm is collecting questions for an upcoming Butch interview.

Pictures, videos, and Butch's WNYC interview, below...

Continue reading "Butch Walker wrote a book, jams w/ Brett Hinds of Mastodon (video), and.... Pink in Brooklyn (pics from MHOW)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit @ Bowery Ballroom

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Hayes Carll, and Shovels and Rope played a show together at Bowery Ballroom on Friday night (4/22). The show was part of a tour that ended at Brighton Music Hall in Boston one night later, but Jason is back to join Jonny Corndawg at his final residency show at Brooklyn Bowl tonight (4/25). The previously-undisclosed final lineup looks like this:

Jason Isbell - 8pm
Michael Hurley - 9pm
Stray Dawg (Jonny Corndawg film) - 10pm
Jonny Corndawg - 10:15pm

Act now and you can still win a pair of tickets to the show. You can also buy them.

If you miss tonight's show, Jonny is back on June 1st to open for Roger Alan Wade of Jackass at Mercury Lounge.

Shovels and Rope play the Bell House on May 18th with the Felice Brothers who have added a 2nd show at the same venue on May 19th. Tickets are on sale for both.

Hayes Carll plays Summerstage this summer with Emmylou Harris. More pictures from the Bowery Ballroom show, and Hayes's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Jason Isbell played Bowery Ballroom w/ Hayes Carll (pics), playing Brooklyn Bowl w/ Jonny Corndawg (tonight)"

"The Felice Brothers new and fourth LP "Celebration, Florida", will be in stores May 10. Recorded in the gymnasium and theater of Beacon, NY's old high school, the band explores a multitude of sounds and instrumentation throughout the expansive album. It's inspired, imaginative, heady, menacing, passionate, and rollicking. Most importantly, it's as steadfastly authentic as ever, expanding upon the dark, woozy undercurrent of ramshackle barroom blues, vaudevillian atmospherics, and surreal storytelling of their previous albums."
- says the band

The LP's first single, 'Ponzi', will be released on 3/29. The full track list is below.

Meanwhile The Felice Brothers are on tour with Diamond Doves and play sold out shows at Maxwell's tonight/Sunday and Monday. That tour brings them all the way to California where they'll play the sold out Coachella. In May they'll hit the road with Shovels & Rope, though the opener has yet to be announced for the show the Felice Brothers will play at the Bell House in Brooklyn on May 18th.

UPDATE: As mentioned in a later post, they added a 2nd show at the Bell House which is on sale.

Like many others, The Felice Brothers were just down at SXSW. NPR has a stream of their official showcacse set. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "The Felice Brothers announce new album & more tour dates"