Dev Hynes w/ CANT @ Mercury Lounge in 2011 (more)

Blood Orange, aka the R&B-leaning solo project of Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion (ex-Test Icicles), was in Australia for a couple shows earlier this month, possibly losing some of his equipment along the way. "I want to go home. I love NYC," the NYC-via-the-UK musician wrote on his Tumblr after reporting a theft last week (bummer!).

Though slightly more rare lately, there have been plenty of chances to catch Blood Orange around town since Dev started using that name in 2009. Apparently none of them have been headlining shows though because Dev will play his first headlining Blood Orange show in the city at Glasslands on February 25. Tickets are on sale now.

Dev released Coastal Grooves, his Chris Taylor co-produced debut LP for his Blood Orange moniker, last year. You can buy it on eMusic and watch the video for album single "Sutphin Boulevard" below. The "Dinner" 7" is still on sale now at Chris' Terrible Records, though they note: "FEW MORE LEFT. HOT." Listen to that single below too.

In other news, Dev and Pharrell Williams have been producing the new album for Solange Knowles (who recently became an aunt).

"Dev was a complete surprise, his role changed substantially throughout the process," Solange says of the singer-songwriter who's written for Florence and the Machine, the Chemical Brothers and more. "It's very rare that you work with someone with whom you have this creative chemistry, it's almost like a relationship. You have a sort of musical love affair." [Billboard]

The new album will be released sometime this year.

Blood Orange video/songs below...

Continue reading "Blood Orange headlining a show; Solange album coming soon"

photos by Erez Avissar

Warm Up at MoMA PS1 continued last Saturday (8/20) with Juan Maclean, Blood Orange, Solange, Pictureplane, Grimes, and Ford & Lopatin. Pictures from that show are in this post.

Pictureplane will be in NYC two times next week for the previously mentioned shows at Cameo (9/1) and The Morgan (9/3). He'll also be part of the Check Yo Ponytail Tour this fall.

Blood Orange plays a free show at Mercury Lounge this Sunday with CANT who he's also going on tour with in October.

This Saturday's (8/27) upcoming Warm Up lineup includes Tanlines, Nguzunguzu, Teengirl Fantasy, Sun Araw, and Physical Therapy. The show is one day after Sun Araw and Prince Rama present the NYC debut of their joint project Prince Sunarawma at Music Hall of Williamsburg (8/26). Julianna Barwick, Pterodactyl, and Teengirl Fantasy (DJ) are also on the MHOW bill. Tickets are still available.

More PS1 pictures from last Saturday below...

Continue reading "'Warm Up' continued w/ Juan Maclean, Blood Orange, Solange, Pictureplane, Grimes, and Ford & Lopatin (pics)"

crowd @ Warm Up 2010 (more by Zach Dilgard)

The full schedule for MoMa's 20l1 'Warm Up' season at PS1 has since been announced. The dance parties happen at the Long Island City location every Saturday from July 2 through September 3 from 2 PM to 9 PM. Admission is $15 and includes access to all exhibitions and 'Warm Up.' Check out the full lineup below.

As discussed, Four Tet and Matthewdavid play 'Warm Up' on July 9. STBRKT (who recently collaborated with Little Dragon) along with FaltyDL and others are also on that bill.

Other days feature Delicate Steve, Odd Future DJ Syd tha Kyd, Black Dice, Juan Maclean, Blood Orange, Solange, Grimes, Tanlines, Sun Araw and many other DJs, producers and and bands. Das Racist, Simian Mobile Disco, Ford & Lopatin, Gang Gang Dance and a few other groups are performing DJ sets.

More info and the full schedule below...

Continue reading "PS1's 2011 'Warm Up' lineup announced"

words and photos by Gabi Porter

Midnight Juggernauts posing @ Brooklyn Bowl Saturday night

Midnight Juggernauts played two NYC shows during their most recent visit. There was Thursday's show with HEALTH at Santos, and then Saturday night at Brooklyn Bowl where they shared a bill with Yawn and Teengirl Fantasy. Pictures from that show, with a quick interview Gabi conducted with the band at the show, below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Midnight Juggernauts w/ pics from Brooklyn"

Solange & Ed...

Her recent credits include playing with Dirty Projectors at Fashion Week and singing with Of Montreal at Highline and Terminal 5. Now Solange is DJing at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday, June 18th. I'm not totally sure if she's a good DJ or not, but tickets are on sale.

That's her in the picture above with her friend Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear who maybe she'll be checking out Sunday at Williamsburg Waterfront (again).

Grizzly Bear also have a NYC show coming up later in the summer at Governors Island with the Walkmen (tickets are still on sale). The Walkmen have just announced a new album! Pitchfork reports:

"Yesterday, we reported that Interpol's new album comes out September 14. As it turns out, September 14 will be a big day for bruised, world-weary New York indie rock, since that's also the date that Fat Possum will release Lisbon, the new album from the Walkmen.

The band recorded the follow-up to 2008's You & Me over two years, working in warehouses in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. They also wrote a few songs on trips to the Portuguese city that gave the album its title. St. Vincent/Mountain Goats/Thermals knob-twiddler John Congleton produced the 11-song album, and Passion Pit/Les Savy Fav veteran Chris Zane engineered it."

As Pitchfork said right there, Interpol's new album is coming soon too, and their old label Matador will be releasing it in the US! In the UK it will be Interpol's "own newly formed label, Soft Limit" that puts it out on September 13th (one day before the US). More details below. Interpol, now with a new 5-person lineup, are playing a free NYC show on June 26th.

Back to Solange for s second... She blogs that that she is in the process of finishing her new, indie (as in not on her former label, Interscope) album with indie rocker Dev from Lightspeed Champion (something that was originally reported a while back). That update is below...

Continue reading "Interpol (on Matador!), the Walkmen & Solange Knowles (who is DJing Brooklyn Bowl) are releasing new albums "

by Andrew Frisicano

Dirty Projectors at Allen Room on Feb 19th...(via)

Dirty Projectors' 2005 album, "The Getty Address," is far more a contemporary chamber opera than indie-rock. It uses woodwinds, brass, strings and orchestral percussion; its music has dissonances and complexities galore, and only fitfully settles into a steady beat. Lincoln Center's American Songbook series is a natural place for it, and on Friday night at the Allen Room, Dirty Projectors performed "The Getty Address," backed by the chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound. It was arranged for the concert by Matt Marks and conducted by Alan Pierson.

It was probably the most abstruse offering to date in the series. Just five years after its release "The Getty Address" sounds like both a precursor and a tangent to the rock Dirty Projectors went on to make. It delved into compositional obsessions that would later be channeled into barely less complex songs. [NY Times]

Dirty Projectors played The Getty Address in full on Friday, February 19th, joined by new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. For the encore, the band returned to play drummerless Bitte Orca tracks "Temecula Sunrise," "Cannibal Resource," "Two Doves" and "No Intention." The show took place at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, one night after Nellie McKay played there. Dirty Projectors do it again on February 27th in L.A.

Between those shows, Alarm Will Sound plays at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Tuesday, February 23rd to showcase the music of the group's own Caleb Burhans. Tickets are on sale. Caleb also performs at a late show at the venue with his layered, lush guitar/violin duo itsnotyouitsme. Avant-electronica act Son Lux opens - tickets to that are on sale. The show is a CD release party for itsnotyouitsme's new album, fallen moments, out now on New Amsterdam Records. AWS's A/Rhythmia came out last year on Nonesuch.

Dave Longstreth and three other composers will be on hand to introduce their work when it's premiered on Wednesday, February 24th at Merkin Hall by Bang on a Can All-Stars (it'll be the world premiere of Longstreth compositions "Instructional Video," "Matt Damon" and "Breakfast at J&M"). Tickets are still on sale.

As Dave Longstreth and Dirty Projectors get more involved with the classical world, they're also getting more intertwined with mainstream pop. Solange Knowles, who performed with Of Montreal (again) in January, covered the DP's popiest tune, "Stillness Is the Move," in 2009. The singer joined the band for a performance of the song and a cover of Groove Theory's "Tell Me" at a Fashion Week party held at Ace Hotel on Feb. 13th. Videos of that set are below...

Continue reading "Dirty Projectors played an album w/ an orchestra @ Allen Room & with Solange during Fashion Week ++ more shows "

DOWNLOAD: James Husband - A Grave in the Gravel (MP3)

Of Montreal @ Lollapalooza 2009 (more by Paul Birman)

The anticipated new of Montreal album may or may not be complete. Kevin Barnes says it all depends on how some upcoming sessions with Jon Brion work out. Barnes, who's always worked at home, alone, will meet up with Brion in early spring to work on the 16 songs that will likely make the new record. "If I wasn't going to go out there with Jon then they'd basically be done. They could be done. If I go out there with Jon and we both decide it's not working or whatever, I'll still have an album. And if I go out there and figure this is really great, then I'll have a different album," he says. Either way, the album won't be Skeletal Lamping over again. Barnes says the band is using this break to rethink their live performances, and have made an album that accommodates that. His plans are ambitious: he'd like to get rid of of Montreal's pre-recorded backing tracks, and round out the band line-up to ten or so musicians. "We're going to try to do something closer to the kind of bands that Curtis Mayfield or Stevie Wonder had in the '70s," says Barnes. [Stereogum]

Of Montreal's follow-up to Skeletal Lamping will include "cameos from Solange Knowles, Janelle Monae and "one or two other people..."

More importantly, Of Montreal is launching a last minute tour in Baltimore on January 25th. They hit NYC's Highline Ballroom the very next day (1/26). Tickets go on sale at noon. All dates are with James Husband "which features longtime of Montreal band members Husband, alongside Dottie Alexander, and Davey Pierce". All dates below...

Continue reading "Of Montreal working on new album, touring w/ James Husband, playing Highline Ballroom THIS MONTH"

Lightspeed Champion @ MHOW in July (more by Bao Nguyen)

Lightspeed Champion's second LP, Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, is coming out in the US on February 16th (Feb. 1 for UK) on Domino Records. Behind the controls for the album is producer Ben Allen, whose past work includes Gnarls Barkley and his label-mates Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Before the record is out, you can catch Dev Hynes & band at Bowery Ballroom in NYC on Thursday, January 21st. Tickets for the show are on sale now.

He put out a video for the album's first single "Marlene," which will be released on a 10" paired with covers of Serge Gainsbourg's "69 Année Érotique (feat. Valentine Fillol-Cordier)" and '50s singing trio the Fleetwoods' "(He's) The Great Imposter." The video and single info are below.

Despite having recorded Life Is Sweet! in early 2009, Hynes has a had a busy year, both home recording (which he's been sharing online) and performing unique shows, like covering Cat Stevens's soundtrack to Harold & Maude live with the film.

A full detailing of what he's been up to (including working with Solange Knowles (who isn't?), Basement Jaxx and Van Dyke Parks), the new video and new album info are below...

Continue reading "Lightspeed Champion releasing 2nd album + a NYC show, collaborations w/ Solange, Florence, Van Dyke Parks & more"

photos by Chris La Putt

Kevin Barnes & Janelle Monae

Of Montreal followed their Wednesday night fashion week show at Santos with a Friday night public show at Terminal 5 in NYC (9/18). Joining them, as opener and on stage, was the always-photogenic and robotic, Janelle Monáe.

"...what a lot of people are missing about Monáe is that she puts the art of performing above all else, politics be dammed. Even finishing her follow-up record--Metropolis Suites II and III, due out in January--is of less concern than getting onstage and acting it all out....

...Not surprisingly, the Kansas City prodigy grew up studying dance and theater, which led to a stint pursuing both disciplines at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She became bored quickly with life in New York, however, and eventually moved to Atlanta, where she's currently based.

There she began crafting the character Cindi Mayweather, the Alpha Platinum 9000 android who's the heroine of Metropolis Suite I...

...Her friend Kevin Barnes, lead singer of the indie band Of Montreal, guests on the new album, as does OutKast. And Monáe hints at the possibility that Gwen Stefani could be on the record as well. Monáe toured with No Doubt earlier this year and bonded with the polystylistic blonde superstar. "[Stefani] gave me great energy and I felt inspired around her," says Monáe." [Seattle Weekly]

Solange (Knowles) was also in the house at Terminal 5 last night (she's the one in the yellow dress). She joined the band and Janelle for a cover of Diana Ross's "Love Hangover" during the encore. More pictures from the show, and both setlists, below...

Continue reading "Of Montreal & Janelle Monáe played Terminal 5 (pics & setlist), Kevin Barnes & others guest on Janelle's new album "

photos by Jaecyne Howell

DJ Spinna and Q-Tip @ Nokia Theatre

"On Saturday, August 29th, what would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, fans of the King of Pop gathered at New York City's NOKIA Theatre Times Square for Q-Tip Presents: "Long Live the King! A Birthday Celebration for Michael Jackson." The sold-out crowd danced the night away to never-before-heard remixes of Michael Jackson's hits, as well as rare video footage from the Motown and Sony vaults. Joining Q-Tip onstage to DJ were special guests DJ Spinna and Mark Ronson. At one point, Quincy Jones called in to say a few words to the audience. Other celebrities in attendance included Solange Knowles, Marsha Ambrosius, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Premier and Anthony Anderson."

A similar party happened earlier the same day in Prospect Park where DJ Spinna also provided music and Grandmaster Flash was also in attendance. Solange has a busy weekend - on Sunday she was checking out Grizzly Bear at the Williamsburg Waterfront. More pictures from Nokia Theatre below...

Continue reading "Q-Tip, DJ Spinna, Mark Ronson & guests celebrated Michael Jackson's birthday @ Nokia Theatre in NYC - pics "

photo by Tim Griffin

The story of the day, Sunday, August 30th, would have been that, after an opening set by Beach House (who played after Vega) followed by a brief introduction by Senator Chuck Schumer, Grizzly Bear closed out the 2009 Pool Party season at the Williamsburg Waterfront with a beautiful 1+ hour set in front of the Manhattan skyline on a perfect Brooklyn day. Instead, Solange Knowles and her sister Beyonce who brought her husband Jay-Z decided to show up and watch Grizzly Bear from the soundboard. And that become the real topic of conversation for twitterers, texters, and the throngs of people walking toward Bedford around 7:30pm when the concert was over.

According to Schumer, he's going to fight to bring free concerts back to the same park next year. The status of that is currently unknown. It's possible JellyNYC may need to look for a new location for the free shows again. Maybe they should bring concerts back to McCarren Pool, or do they really think they're turning that space back into a swimming pool anytime soon?

More pictures and a full review of Sunday is coming soon HERE. In the meantime, check out some videos from the GB/BH/JZ show, and a few more pictures, below...

Continue reading "Grizzly Bear, Jay-Z & Beyonce @ the Williamsburg Waterfront Pool Party - a few pics & videos "

by Andrew Frisicano

Ida Maria @ Union Hall (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

I wanted to re-release my album, the way I wanted it to be.

I have designed the artwork, added three new songs, and changed the track listing.

Now it sounds, looks and feels like I want it to feel, and I am so excited again.

The story behind this cover is a story similar to a homebaked applecake.

You take what you have in your kitchen and experiment a little and hold tumbs that no one will notice you kinda forgot the recipe.

And then it turns out tasting good as hell and nobody can ever make it again.

My drummer Olle is a photographer (!) and has shot the genius cover photo in his apartment in Stockholm, with use of just the light that was there. Lamps in the livingroom, and pocket flashlight.

The cover art is designed by my friend Jon Edergren. -[Ida Maria's Myspace blog]

Fortress Round My Heart, Ida Maria's 2008 debut, is coming out in the US, digitally on March 24th and on CD, April 14th, on Universal's Mercury Records. The US release will sport a new cover and re-arranged track list, but won't include the bonus tracks described above (though new song "In the End" will replace previous closer "See Me Through").

Ida Maria is one of the many scheduled to be at SXSW this week. She was/is supposed to play KCRW's Showcase at Buffalo Billiards, a show at Maggie Mae's , and is on the bill of Perez Hilton's "One Night in Austin" party on Saturday.

"One Night in Austin" will feature Yelle, Solange, Lady Sovereign, Margaret Cho, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, Ida Maria and Thunderheist, plus "a very special Surprise Musical Performance." No word on who: "Not Tori Amos [but] one of our FAVORITEST acts of all time!!!!!!" [RSVP for the party].

UPDATE: Ida Maria never made it to her official SXSW showcases...

I don't think Ida Maria played either Maggie Mae's or Buffalo Billiards. I wanted to see her play while I am down here, but both nights, she was removed from the official sxsw.com website. She was replaced with Zee Avi on wednesday and with Val Emmich yesterday. I hope she actually plays the perez show. Looking forward to seeing her at MHOW regardless" [Ashok]

EW confirms that, "...Zee Avi, a tiny girl with a warm smile filled the lonesome last spot at the KCRW showcase on Wednesday night. It was huge opportunity for the newcomer -- her self-titled debut will be out May 19 -- filling in for Norwegian rocker chick/hype magnet Ida Maria, who was reportedly stuck in U.S. customs."

After the festival (if she makes it at all), Ida Maria is touring with Glasvegas through March, including a March 28th show at Music Hall of Williamsburg (on sale ) and a March 30th one at Webster Hall (on sale). Ida Maria also has a scheduled appearance at Coachella Festival on April 18th.

Ladyhawke visits NYC after SXSW. Little Boots was here in February.

All Ida Maria tour dates and the "Oh My God" video below...

Continue reading "Ida Maria - now on a major label, playing Perez Hilton's SXSW party???, Coachella & other places"