It's hard to believe that Portishead is playing two shows next week...

Portishead and Aphex Twin opted to present their shows in Centre Stage and will be doing 2 performances each so they could perform their sets with no restrictive sound issues. To make this work ATP have cut the capacity of the festival by over 600 people to allow much easier access for all fans to be able to come and see the shows of their choice.

The Portishead show will be wrist-banded so all fans are guaranteed entry. At check-in please choose your preferred show day (Friday or Saturday) The wristbands will be on a first come first served basis, however if there are special circumstances that means you are arriving late on the Friday evening or not until the Saturday morning and can only attend the Saturday show please contact ATP on feedback@atpfestival.com with "wristband" in the subject line and let them know and they can make arrangements to hold back wristbands.

The Aphex Twin shows will be on a first come first serve basis on the night - once the room is at capacity they will let people in on a one out one in basis.

Continue reading "Oneida, Portishead, ATP"

Bright Eyes @ Radio City Music Hall, NYC - Nov 19, 2007 (CRED)

the opening bands were pretty cool. the first band was the felice brothers, and they were sorta country-ish but not annoying and i didn't hate it. the second band was the lifeboats...the something lifeboats....i dunno i'll look it up. they were great;; more instrumental, but great.
and THEN, there was a second intermission after them so we knew that bright eyes would be next, and this intermission was really long so me and erika were like oh yeahhh connor has to finish up his coke or else he wont be able to preform properly!
but when he came on the stage, when he came on with his sky blue button down shirt and picked up his guitar, i was having a seizure.
the most amazing lyrics...oh god DJDSKLLFS!! and he said that they've been touring for 11 years, and that this was their last show. when he said that, me and erika looked at eachother with the widest and BRIGHTEST eyes, like we were the luckiest people on earth.
i really hope that connor was just coked out and he didn't mean that. i need to see them again. <3 [Rachel]

Thurston Moore @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - Sept 26, 2007 (CRED)

How was the show? The Boston Globe recently interviewed Thurston. Here's a clip:

BOSTON GLOBE: What do you say to people who think you've sold out by dealing with Starbucks?

THURSTON MOORE: There's no difference between working with Starbucks and working with record labels like Universal and Geffen. It's a knee-jerk reaction from PC watchdogs. I mean, really, which long-distance company do you use for your cellphone? Are you on the grid? If you're off the grid, I'll listen to you.

In the last few years, Moore has watched as contemporaries including Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. reunited to great acclaim and substantial financial rewards. And the 49-year-old admits he sometimes wonders how much money a Sonic Youth reunion tour would have made. He says, "The Pixies reunion was a real success, and Dinosaur Jr. seems like a big success, and both those bands play as good as they ever did. Mission Of Burma blew my mind when they came back. "But a band like us never did break up. Which was to our own detriment. "What would have happened if we did break up after (classic 1988 double album) Daydream Nation - or even after (1990's) Dirty - and had gotten back together two years ago? "You'd be interviewing me at the Chateau Marmont as I'm waiting for my limousine. We probably would have made so much money. "This was our biggest career faux-pas - not breaking up." [contactmusic]

DOWNLOAD: Thurston Moore - Frozen Gtr (clip) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thurston Moore - Trees Outside preview (MOV)

Tickets are now on pre-sale for a bunch of Thurston Moore solo dates that include a September 24th show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, and one two days later at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Thurston's new album, Trees Outside The Academy, is in stores September 18, 2007 on (his own) Ecstatic Peace Records.

It’s Thurston’s first solo outing since 1995’s Psychic Hearts. Of course, Thurston’s been releasing records here, there and everywhere mostly in the context of rowdy and rambunctious noise/improv escapades but this new one is killer diller SONGS! Unlike Psychic Hearts’ skeletal trio rock, this new jammer, 12 years post, has a far fuller bouquet of sonic depth and proves this Sonic dude to have a very real songwriting life outside of the legendary Sonic Youth (of which he is a founding figure, duh).

This newborn disc is 12 songs long. Thurston recorded primarily on acoustic guitar and bass, laying down the core of the tunes with drummer compatriot Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelly and violinist Samara Lubelski, a noted player from MV/EE and The Golden Road, Hall of Fame and other awesome gatherings as well as solo artiste.

Continue reading "Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth duh) - 2007 Tour dates/presale"

DOWNLOAD: Pavement - All My Friends (MP3)

It's not news that Pavement (and now Sonic Youth) bassist Mark Ibold is a bartender at Great Jones Cafe in NYC, but the interview he recently gave to NY Magazine (in the food section) is still worth a read...

Do fans ever recognize you as the bassist from Pavement and chat you up?

When they do, it generally doesn’t bother me because the people that would recognize me from doing that stuff are generally people that I have a nice time talking to. Every once in a while, it can be an awkward thing.

Sonic Youth @ McCarren Pool - July 28, 2007 (CRED)

I saw Sonic Youth perform Daydream Nation in its entirety twice in the span of a couple weeks, and if you really want to know, the first time in Chicago was better. Specifically, it was better for me -- I'm not sure if I can actually compare the performances in any meaningful way because I was so much more emotionally involved the first time around, in part because I was alone in the middle of a crowd of people who responded with so much joy and passion that it couldn't help but be a more visceral experience. (In comparison, the Brooklyn audience was...well, a Brooklyn audience, i.e. "extremely psyched in their own way," as my friend very charitably put it.) [Fluxblog]

Continue reading "Sonic Youth performed 'Daydream Nation' @ McCarren Pool"

Sonic Youth fans in an Urban Outfitters - July 21, 2007 (CRED)

Sonic Youth's final USA performance of the Daydream Nation album happens this Saturday July 28th at the historic McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Slits (still reunited) are opening, and the show is now sold out. Want to win tickets? E-mail BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Daydream), and let me know what the last show you saw was. Two winners will be picked at random, contact and awarded a pair of tickets (by 5pm today). Include your first and last name for list.

The Slits are also playing in Philly tonight (July 27), and then a few places in California.

The official McCarren Pool 'Smells Like Records' afterparty is not Saturday night. Instead it's happening on Sunday at The Living Room. The lineup: 7 Tall Firs, 8 John Wolfington, 9 Michelle Cassias w/ Tony Scherr, 10 Chris Lee, and @ 11 Tony Scherr. Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley will be playing drums for John Wolfington and Chris Lee. Tall Firs are on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label. It's sure to be a Sonic Youth-filled evening.

In other (depressing?) Sonic Youth news, the band will be releasing a compilation via Starbucks - the new home of Joni Mitchell (and of course Paul McCartney). Eddie Vedder, Jeff Tweedy, David Cross, Beck, and others are part of the Sonic Youth comp as well.

More Sonic Youth tour dates below....

Continue reading "the Slits & SONIC YOUTH, WIN TICKETS, an afterparty, Starbucks & Joni Mitchell"

One of them is being performed in McCarren Park next weekend....

Continue reading "'10 landmark albums that made indie rock'"

Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation was reissued this week (with bonus stuff). The original came out in 1988. If you're twenty-five now, you were six then. Eighteen year olds were negative one. Even thirty year olds were only eleven. You pretty much needed to be born by 1969 or 70 to have even had a chance of being in college when the now classic album came out. What does Daydream Nation mean to you? If the answer is 'nothing', now you can catch up and decide by (either buying it, or) streaming it this week on AOL. Decide if the ticket price is worth it. Evan says it is. (The Slits are opening in Brooklyn by the way)

AOL is also streaming Queens of the Stone Age's Era Vulgaris, the newly reissued O'Death (Largehearted Boy missed that one) and the U.S. release of Datarock's album.

DOWNLOAD: Scissors for Lefty - Lay Down Your Weapons (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Scissors for Lefty - Ghetto Ways (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wooden Wand - The Pushers (Morning Version) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wooden Wand - Spitting at the Cameras (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: John Doe - The Golden State (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Joan As Policewoman - The Ride (MP3)

As summer draws near, the music release lists get shorter - especially for new releases. Sonic Youth's remastered edition of their classic album Daydream Nation (as recently performed live in Spain) and several Dick Dale reissues are the highlights of this release week for me.

I can also strongly recommend Joan As Police Woman's Real Life, Former X frontman John Doe's A Year In The Wilderness, former Jayhawk and Creekdipper Mark Olson's solo album, The Salvation Blues, Scissors for Lefty's Underhanded Romance, and Wooden Wand's James and the Quiet.

What new releases can you recommend this week?

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"

Today Evan Korte concludes his review of the 2007 Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. If you're just joining us, why not start with day one and day two? And now, day three....

The Good The Bad & The Queen @ Primavera Sound 2007 (CRED)

The Good the Bad and the Queen (or the band with no name): The first few hours of Saturday’s Primavera were uneventful for me. I got there later than I wanted to, and only saw the last song of Ted Leo’s set. I was thoroughly unimpressed by both the Long Blondes and Architecture in Helsinki, and chilled in the back for Patti Smith.

The Good, the Bad and the Queen was the first concert in which I had high expectations. I haven’t heard the album, but I mean come on - with all the talent in that band I’d be an idiot not to check it out. Unfortunately it was a disappointment. A mere two days after the concert, the only thing that stands out in my mind is how badass bassist Paul Simonon looked hopping around in his suit, smoking cigarettes with no hands, and chugging whiskey like it was Kool-Aid. I guess an apt analogy would be seeing the Dream Team in a free throw shooting contest. Damon Albarn’s songs did absolutely nothing for me, and drummer Tony Allen and guitarist Simon Tong were completely under utilized. Everyone else in the crowd seemed to be pretty into it though.

Sonic Youth @ Primavera Sound 2007 (CRED)

Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation! I must confess that my overall Sonic Youth expertise is not that great. I had only heard Daydream Nation a couple of times in passing, but I mean everyone loves that album, and it was the first time ever that they performed it from beginning to end. They went on at 11:35 which meant I'd have to miss most of Hot Chip who were going on at 12. I made the right decision - the album rocked live! They mentioned several times that they hadn’t played many of the songs in seventeen years, but I thought they sounded incredible. The band was just so incredibly tight. Thurston Moore and the drummer absolutely blew me away. I forgot how experimental, yet melodic that album is. They're performing the album again at McCarren Park Pool in July, and I would encourage all of you to cough up the 34 dollars or whatever it is and go. You won’t be disappointed. They played a second, shorter set of newer material, but I had to skip that to check out the Buzzcocks.

The Buzzcocks @ Primavera Sound 2007 (CRED)

The Buzzcocks: My biggest conflict of the festival was between the Buzzcocks and Grizzly Bear. As much as I love Yellow House, the Buzzcocks are legends. I simply could not miss the opportunity to see them live, even if there are only two original members in the band. This was possibly the best show of the festival. They look like old men now, but who cares? They still know how to rock with the best of them. I was up front eagerly awaiting the first song, and as soon as the first notes were played, a gigantic moshpit erupted all around me. When they came out for the encore, Steve Diggle was clearly wasted. He told all of us to, “Stop watching MTV, it’s killing your minds!” about ten times. It was the last show of their tour, they were thrilled to be there, and the audience was ecstatic to be watching them. At the end of the show, nearly everyone that had been shoving me around like a pin ball, put their arm around me or gave me a high five. What a great time. Highlights included “Orgasm Addict,” “What Do I Get,” “Autonomy,” and “Ever Fallen in Love.”

Editor's Note: While Evan was moshing to the Buzzcocks, Zach from Beirut was busy jumping up and down on stage with Grizzly Bear...

Wilco @ Primavera Sound 2007 (CRED)

Wilco: My Primavera experience ended satisfyingly with Wilco, though I was a bit disappointed. The new songs sounded great live, and the band certainly has the best musicians that they’ve ever had. Guitarist Nels Cline plays the pedal steel like a Nashville veteran. Glen Kotche is one of the best drummers around. The band on any given song is able to take a number of noisy, avant-garde detours and still get back to the main melody of the song that they are playing in a heartbeat. I guess my biggest complaints are with the song selections. No “Heavy Metal Drummer,” only a couple of songs off of Summer Teeth, and nothing off of Being There. The set was pretty much an exact replica of the one I saw them play at Lollapalooza last summer. Jeff Tweedy is a masterful songwriter, and Wilco are still one of the best bands around, but you get the feeling that they are slipping into complacency a little bit. And that would be a terrible thing. Still though, there’s nothing wrong with watching adventurous musicians do what they do best. Highlights include “A Shot in the Arm,” “Jesus Etc.” “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” “Via Chicago,” and “Shake it Off.”

Primavera Sound 2007 (CRED)

Overall, Primavera Sound was an amazing festival. I saw just twelve bands out of the twenty or thirty that I wanted to see. That’s a testament to what a great job the organizers did. They know what the hipsters want to hear. Of course there were flaws (the most glaring one being the sound problems on the ATP stage), but anytime you have this many great bands in one place it’s going to be mostly spectacular. If they keep putting lineups together like this one, I’ll be heading back very soon.

Editor's Note again: Though Evan did catch Daydream Nation, he missed Slint play Spiderland on the first day of the festival. Videos below....

Continue reading "2007 Primavera Sound Festival - day three (Saturday June 2)"

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon @ Coachella

The rumor was that Sonic Youth would be performing Daydream Nation in Prospect Park in August. The reality is (pretty close)....

Sonic Youth are excited to announce a NYC performance of the Daydream Nation album: July 28 at the McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Presale Tickets available May 2 at 10AM Eastern. Public Tickets onsale Friday May 4 at noon Eastern. Additional Daydream Nation performances in the USA include July 13 at the Pitchfork Music Festival, on July 19 at the Berkeley Community Theater in Berkeley, CA and July 20 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Previously
* Sonic Youth performing Daydream Nation. In Prospect Park? No Fun, Wooden Wand
* More Sonic Youth posts