Yo La Tengo Hanukkah @ Maxwell's 12/21/2011 (via TheRealYLT)

Looks like Mac McCaughan (of Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge Records) had more than one reason (so far) for spending Hanukkah in Hoboken with Yo La Tengo again this year. His old friends Spent, who reunited in 2009 for Merge's 20th Anniversary, were the openers for Yo La Tengo on Wednesday (the second night of Hanukkah), along with comedians Bobcat Goldthwait (!) and Neil Innes (!). Smokey Hormel is guest YLT guitarist.

The Sea and Cake opened the first night. A picture of Spent on stage at Maxwell's below...

Continue reading "Spent reunited for night 2 of Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah party"

DOWNLOAD: Portastatic - Foam Hands (Destroyer cover) (MP3)

The idea for a whole EP of Merge covers stemmed from both listening to the SCORE! Merge covers compilation and from doing bookstore events to promote the Our Noise book, wherein we'd play some acoustic covers of songs that came out on Merge. Time permitting, this really could have been a much longer record, but in the spirit of quitting while I was ahead and also turning this in before the end of the year, I stopped at seven songs. Obviously, the Merge catalog is full of hundreds-thousands, actually-of songs I love, so I picked ones I either knew well or thought I could re-create without defiling too harshly. It wasn't easy to narrow down, so I just tried not to think about it too much, and then time constraints set in... -Mac McCaughan

Mac does a mean Bejar! Check out the MP3 above. Get the full EP at Merge. Tracklist below...

Continue reading "Portastatic cover Merge bands for EP (MP3)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Mac and Britt embrace (Triangle Music)

The much anticipated XX Merge Festival took place last week in North Carolina with a five-day (July 22-July 26), Wednesday to Sunday run of shows. Last night (Sunday)'s show with She & Him, American Music Club and Wye Oak was the only fully announced lineup. The other four nights (and one day) were a grab bag of any number of Merge bands past and present. Did you go? What were the highlights?

Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, who recently played a pair of big NY shows, headlined the fest's first night (which also included Magnetic Fields). Superchunk, which features Merge founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan, topped the bill of the second night. The third night included the reformed/reunited lineups of Spent, Polvo and Pipe.

Mac McCaughan came out on stage before [Pipe] instead of the night's emcee and announced that there was a lone protester outside. He invited him up on stage and it was Jon Wurster decked out in Phillies gear as Philly Boy Roy. He was holding a sign that said "Boycot MERGE." He complained that Merge didn't have any Philly bands on their roster and Mac said that they have bands from Jersey, which is close to Philly. You never compare Jersey to Philly in front of Philly Boy Roy. It was hilarious.

All of this led to the introduction of New Jersey punks Pipe. As soon as they kicked into their first song, beer cans and plastic bottles started flying. Frontman Ron Liberti ate it up and even put himself in the line of fire, headbutting some of the cans while kicking some back into the crowd. Liberti bounded around the stage, essentially taunting the crowd. The crowd loved the band's antics as did I (but that may have been different if I hadn't managed to stay dry). [triangle music]

You can see the partial setlist from Spoon, who headlined that night, below.

In addition to the Cat's Cradle shows (the venue for 4/5 of the night shows), Saturday featured a day show that included Julian Koster solo as Music Tapes and Mac McCaughan with violin accompaniment as Portastatic. A few videos from that set, below.

M. Ward, who's playing the Central Park Summerstage this Saturday (August 1st), played at the fest's Saturday night showcase. Zooey Deschanel joined him for a cover of the Beatles' "Birthday." Not too big of a surprise considering She & Him headlined the Sunday night show.

Other XX Merge artists who recently stopped in NYC include The Clientele and Richard Buckner (they played Music Hall of Williamsburg last Sunday), Versus and Superchunk (they played South Street Seaport last Friday), and Spent (they played Coco 66). Spoon didn't play a NYC show, but they were spotted in the audience of Paul McCartney's third of three shows at Citi Field in Queens. Destroyer is on his way up. He plays Bowery Ballroom on Thursday. Mark Eitzel (as American Music Club) played Le Poisson Rouge and Maxwell's before XX Merge, and now he's on his way back for a show at The Bell House.

Lineups for each night of XX Merge, with videos, and a bunch of setlists, below...

Continue reading "Merge celebrated their 20th w/ 5 days of shows in North Carolina (lineups, reviews, pics, video setlists...)"

Spent was an American Indie Rock band from Jersey City, New Jersey consisting of singer/guitarist John King, guitarist/occasional vocalist/keyboardist Annie Hayden, bassist/occasional vocalist Joe Weston and drummer Ed Radich.

Spent formed in the early 1990's in Jersey City, New Jersey. After releasing several EP's under various independent labels the band released their first full album. Songs of Drinking and Rebellion was released in March of 1995 on Merge Records, a indie label formed by Superchunk's Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance and a band that Spent toured with extensively throughout their career. In September of 1996 the band released an Ep entitled Umbrella Wars, which included a cover of Joe Walsh's A Life of Illusion. Umbrella Wars served as a teaser for their next album released a month later in October of 1996 entitled A Seat Beneath the Chairs. In 1997 John King joined Superchunk lead guitarist Joe Wilbur in a side project called Humidifier releasing the album Nothing Changes on Link Records. On July 21, 1997 the band officially split. In 1999 their last song "(I'll Clean Up) The Mess That You Are" appeared on the 10 year anniversary album of Merge Records called Oh, Merge. The band never received much attention outside of the 90's indie rock world. [Wiki]

As previously noted, Spent are reuniting for the XX Merge Records festival happening in North Carolina in July, but first the band will play a single show, presumably as a warm-up for the festival, and it will take place at Coco66 in Brooklyn on June 29th. Also on the bill at that show is Heather Duby, whose credits include albums released by Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze, and Sonic Boom.

Coco66 is killing it with the reunion booking lately. The Van Pelt just played a show there too.

Other bands playing XX Merge with upcoming NYC shows include Richard Buckner, The Clientele, Versus, Destroyer, Conor Oberst, Polvo, M Ward, and Mark Eitzel (as American Music Club).

Speaking of Mark Eitzel, his tour dates have actually been updated some since we last spoke. You can check them out below...

Continue reading "Spent playing NYC b4 XX Merge ++ updated Mark Eitzel dates "

DOWNLOAD: Guv'ner - Bay's Way Cruel (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Guv'ner - Help Me (MP3)

In celebration of our 20th anniversary, Merge bands of the past and present will converge for 5 days of live music, July 22-26th in the heat of the sunny North Carolina summer. We are calling these 5 days of live music and mayhem, XX Merge.

XX Merge Wednesday, July 22nd - Sunday, July 26th
4 nights at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC
1 night at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, NC on UNC Campus Details of additional music & bedlam yet to come!

Featuring over 25 of your favorite Merge artists including...Superchunk, Spoon, Conor Oberst, Spent, M. Ward, The Rosebuds, Destroyer, Guv'ner, Polvo, Pipe & The Broken West. Many more bands both expected and unexpected still to-be-announced!

5-Day Passes are $150 and will get you in to all XX Merge festivities. Passes will go on sale on Wednesday, April 8th at 10 AM EST via catscradle.com and mergerecords.com. 5-day passes are nontransferable. A limited number of tickets for individual Cradle shows and the Memorial Hall show will be made available at a later date.

And this interesting tidbit from their FAQ's: "We will announce a (nearly) complete list of Merge bands who will be playing prior to the festival, but you will have to come to each show to find out who is playing on which night. We think it's more fun that way!"

The Rosebuds are now in the midst of their April tour that brings them back to NYC for two shows soon.

M Ward is also playing Coachella and Central Park Summerstage this year. All dates below.

Check out the video for Spent's "Umbrella Wars", below...

Continue reading "XX Merge - ticket info & initial festival lineup announced (Guv'ner, Spent, Pipe, Spoon, Conor & M Ward included)"