James McNew in Philly in Sept (more by David Andrako)

Yo La Tengo, who are now selling a Hanukkah t-shirt for charity for a limited time (if you can get the link to work), are playing eight sold out Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's later this month.

Dump, aka the other project of Yo La Tengo's James McNew, is playing a show at Spike Hill in Brooklyn tonight (12/11) with The Medium Necks and Asuna. Tickets are still available (and probably will be at the door).

Spike Hill, the Williamsburg bar and music venue conveniently located on Bedford right near the L, has also announced that O'Death will be playing there on New Year's Eve. Tickets are on sale.

O'Death have also announced a January 2012 tour with Brownbird that has them playing another NYC show at Le Poisson Rouge on 1/21. All O'Death dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Dump playing Spike Hill tonight; O'Death playing New Year's Eve (and other dates)"

"Future of the Left, though I've seen them 1,000 times, were a REVELATION tonight, and a finer bunch of gents to hang out with? Hard 2 find." - Ted Leo

Future of the Left @ Spike Hill - twitpic by Ted Leo

The above review and picture are by Ted Leo who was at his former tour-mates' secret show Sunday night at Spike Hill in Brooklyn. The show they played together at Webster Hall was FOTL's first NYC show. The show at Spike Hill was their first in Brooklyn, and an unofficial afterparty for the Pool Party at Williamsburg Waterfront. Tonight (7/13) you can catch FOTL in Jersey (Maxwell's), and then there's Siren and other places... Videos below...

Continue reading "(Ted Leo saw) Future of the Left @ Spike Hill --- NJ tonight"

DOWNLOAD: Future of the Left - The Hope That House Built (MP3)

Future of the Left @ Webster Hall (more by Nathan Miller)

Welsh trio Future of the Left (ex-mclusky) are coming to North America for a July tour in support of their latest record, Travels With Myself And Another, which is out now on 4AD. The first single from that is above.

That tour starts with a secret show (shhh) at Brooklyn's Spike Hill on Sunday, July 12th. The 8pm gig will act as an unofficial after-party to the Mission of Burma/Fucked Up/Ponytail show at Williamsburg Waterfront earlier in the day. I think the Spike Hill show will also be FOTL's first first headlining NYC show, and their first-ever Brooklyn show.

Their tour also makes NYC-area stops at Maxwell's on Monday, July 13th (with Me You Us Them) and Siren Fest on July 18th. Tickets to Maxwell's are still on sale.

Future of the Left's Andrew Falkous recently had a nice, long rant about why people should leave him alone about working with producer Steve Albini, who recorded a bunch of Falkous' Mclusky records. Faklous said...

..."I'm usually polite about it for the most part but it is very difficult to summon up the effort to answer the question for the seventh time in a day. You end up saying 'I just told that guy over there, see the guy in the orange, fucking ask him what it's like to work with Steve Albini, because I've already used up all the variant ways I can think of of expressing it."...

Albini's band Shellac was just added to the 2009 ATP NY festival. Andrew's answer, in full, and all tour dates, below....

Continue reading "Future of the Left - 2009 tour dates (SECRET SHOW @ Spike Hill + Maxwells + Siren Fest + more)"

photos by Maryanne Ventrice

Drink Up Buttercup @ Bruar Falls

"After seeing somewhere around forty bands, eating exactly four amazing taco truck tacos, and drinking something like 40,000 beers, half of which were free and half of which I'm totally going to expense, the first annual Northside Festival has officially come to an end.

I believe I can speak on behalf of the L Magazine staff, as well as our sponsors and various partners, when I say thank you--to the people who bought badges, the press people who covered it, the pedestrians who stopped doing what they were doing so that they could watch bands perform on the street, the venues who trusted us with their spaces, the showcase presenters, and most importantly, to the nearly 350 bands that played--for making this entire thing an overwhelming success. [L Magazine]"

Mayanne Ventrice was running all over the place for the four dates of the Northside Festival. On the second day, Friday (6/12), she saw nine bands in four venues (Public Assembly, Spike Hill, Cameo, and Bruar Falls), stopped by Music Hall of Williamsburg for a peak at the BV photo show, and accidentaly caught Shilpa Ray playing with her band on the street. The rest of her pictures from that day are below...

Continue reading "Northside Fest 2009 - Day 2 in pictures "