"With a horn section behind the already several-member group, Broken Social Scene began with 'World Sick' off their new album Forgiveness Rock Record and then 'Stars And Sons,' the latter with fans clapping repeatedly on cue as six guitarists jammed out the conclusion.

However, from there things got bigger and better, with Metric's James Shaw and Pavement's Scott Kannberg helping out on the danceable 'Texico Bitches.' Then Feist made her way onstage for '7/4 (Shoreline),' dancing around the stage when not sharing vocal duties with Drew.

The only problem perhaps with the set - aside from Drew irked that his guitar pedals weren't working - was how it seemed to peak halfway through. Following the plodding, precious ballad 'Sweetest Kill,' both Feist and Metric's Emily Haines appeared for 'Sentimental X's,' which had the crowd onside from the start." [Toronto Sun]

Sebastien Grainger (DFA1979) and John McEntire (Tortoise/Sea and Cake) also joined BSS on stage on Saturday, June 19th, on Toronto's Olympic Island. The full lineup for the 2010 edition of the annual Toronto Island Concert, which wasn't officially part of NXNE (but which did let in 250 badges) looked like this:

1:15 PM Toronto Revue (The Beauties, Flash Lightnin', Zeus)
2:45PM Timber Timbre
4:00PM Beach House
5:15PM Band of Horses
6:45PM Broken Social Scene
9:00PM Pavement

I left my downtown hotel in a cab at 3pm, and though the ferry station was only a ten minute drive away, I didn't actually get to the stage area until around around 4:45. I heard Beach House as I walked up, but I never actually saw them. I wasn't worried about catching Timber Timbre because I saw them the night before in a club (more on that later), and I knew I wasn't getting there by 1:00 (after being out till 4am at NXNE shows the night before) so I didn't even try.

The weather on Saturday in Toronto was hot and beautiful and Band of Horses (who played Grand Central Station in NYC one night earlier) (and the Williamsburg Waterfront in NYC one night later) sounded great as they played out to the thousands of people who were either watching them... or waiting on line for something. Lines were definitely a problem on the island. You usually had to wait a long time for food, bathrooms and most frustratingly to many, beer.

Then came Broken Social Scene and they were in top form - it was my favorite time ever seeing them. In fact, though I've seen the band more times than I can remember over the past six years, I was never 100% comfortable with their live show before. That changed on the island. Maybe it was because they were in their hometown of Toronto with all their friends (though sadly no Jason Collett or Amy Milan who are both on tour). Feist and Emily Haines together on stage contributed strongly to the specialness (par for the course for Toronto), and Lisa Lobsinger no longer feels like the new girl.

Full setlist (and lots more pictures and some videos) below.

As painful as it was to leave while BSS was playing their last song (aka I didn't stay for Pavement), I made the decision that I was going to catch The Stooges who played a competing show at Young Dundas Square at 9:30. My trip off the island was much quicker than my trip on. I got a ferry immediately and then a cab immediately and I was 40 minutes early for Iggy. I even caught the last ten minutes of The Raveonettes who played before the Stooges on the outdoor stage which was in the middle of a Times Square-like area of town. It was a complete madhouse (a free show in the middle of town open to anyone... with Iggy Pop), but more on that later.

Andrew Frisicano was with me on the island. He missed Band of Horses but stayed for Pavement. His post on the headliner is coming later. More about BSS and Band of Horses, with a ton of pictures and some videos and both setlists, below...

Continue reading "Broken Social Scene (w/ Feist & Emily Haines) & Band of Horses opened for Pavement @ Toronto's Olympic Island - pics, video, setlists"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Pavement - Gold Soundz (MP3)

Broken Social Scene @ Masonic Temple, Oct 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Broken Social Scene will be releasing their new, as-yet-untitled album on May 4th, 2010 on Arts & Crafts. Co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto, the new album is the follow up to their acclaimed self-titled record, released in 2005.

It's hard to believe that the last BBS record came out more than four years ago. The new album's release will be accompanied by a short set of tour dates in North America and Europe. One of those will be "An Evening With Broken Social Scene" at NYC's Webster Hall on May 7th. Tickets to that are on Arts & Crafts presale now. (as are tickets for their L.A. and San Francisco shows). NYC tickets go on general sale Saturday, 2/16 at noon.

Tickets for BSS's Toronto Centre Island (Olympic Island) show on June 19th are also on sale. Toronto Island Concert will be a full-day festival with Band of Horses and co-headlined by Pavement. More acts are TBA.

Pavement, whose reunion shows are slowly creeping up, recently released the tracklist of their best-of comp, Quarantine The Past: Greatest Hits 1989-1999, coming out March 9th on Matador. Tracklist, album art and updated tour dates are below. A remastered version of "Gold Soundz" from the comp is posted above.

All BSS tour dates, the credits for the new BSS record (which included Feist and Pavement's Spiral Stairs) and more info are below...

Continue reading "Broken Social Scene - new album! & tour dates, Webster Hall & Toronto Island w/ Pavement (who has a 'Best Of' coming)"

Buraka Som Sistema @ Bowery Ballroom (more by Tim Griffin)

tonight in NYC
* Shad @ Pianos
* John Medeski @ The Stone
* The Invisible @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Gil Scott-Heron @ BB King's
* The Answering Machine @ Coco66
* Zombie Nation @ Santos Party House
* The Fiery Furnaces, Cryptacize @ Maxwell's
* Blues Traveler, Outside the Box @ Irving Plaza
* The Very Best, Sleigh Bells @ Santos Party House
* Hidden Cameras, Gentleman Reg @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Golden Isles, Papa, She Keeps Bees @ Death By Audio
* The Mary Onettes, Blacklist, Submarine Bells @ Union Hall
* Liam Finn & Eliza Jane, Miracle Fortress @ The Bell House
* Noah And The Whale, Robert Francis, Sharon Van Etten @ Mercury Lounge
* Buraka Som Sistema, Maluca, DJ Geko Jones/Que Bajo? @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Stand Up for Heroes benefit w/ Bruce Springsteen, Louis CK, more @ Town Hall
* Thao With The Get Down Stay Down, Portland Cello Project, @ Bowery

LPR hosts Canadian indie-rock acts Hidden Cameras and Gentleman Reg for an early show and Portugese kuduro group Buraka Som Sistema for a late one.

Speaking of Canada, Shad is here.

Speaking of Canada, Miracle Fortress is here.

Sharon Van Etten opens for Noah and the Whale and Robert Francis tonight at Mercury Lounge. It's your last chance to catch Noah & Co. in their run at the venue.

The Fiery Furnaces are at Maxwell's tonight with Cryptacize, but not Dent May. They play Bowery and MHOW on December 11th and 12th.

The Yankees could win the World Series in the Bronx tonight.

Mayor Bloomberg is still Mayor Bloomberg.

White Rabbits were on Kimmel. Video below...

Spiral Stairs has a video for "Cold Change". Below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

Art Brut @ Mercury Lounge in June (more by Tim Griffin)

tonight in NYC
* New Yorker Festival
* Al Green @ BB King's
* Bjorkestra @ BAMcafe
* Bon Iver @ New Yorker Festival
* Neko Case @ New Yorker Festival
* R. Kelly, Pleasure P @ WaMu Theater
* Art Brut, Princeton, Hot Panda @ Maxwell's
* Echo & The Bunnymen, Zaza @ Mercury Lounge
* Glenn Branca Ensemble @ Issue Project Room
* So Percussion: Imaginary City @ BAM Harvey Theater
* Fool's Gold, Lemonade, Light Asylum @ Cake Shop
* The Avett Brothers, Jessica Lea Mayfield @ Terminal 5
* Free Blood, SSPS, Mazing Vids, Led Er Est @ Bruar Falls
* Apollo Heights, Soren Well, Pet Ghost Project @ Southpaw
* Cool Places Sound System w/ Janka Nabay, Javelin @ Zebulon
* Patti Smith: A Salute to Robert Frank @ Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Small Black, Fluffy Lumbers, Blast Off, Men & Women @ Death By Audio
* Lucero, Amy LaVere, Cedric Burnside, Lightnin' Malcolm @ Webster Hall
* Chuck Ragan, Jim Ward, Tim Barry, Jenny Owen Youngs @ Gramercy Theatre
* No Age, Male Bonding, Soft Circle, Hot Box @ Above the Auto Parts Store
* Iron Age, Naam, The Banner, Brain Killer, Descender, Dustheads @ The Charleston
* NY Electronic Art Fest w/ Ikue Mori & LEMUR, Miya Masaoka, Peter Blasser, more @ Roulette
* Mellisa Auf der Maur, Mike Edison and the Space Liberation Army, Kid Savant, Blacklist @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn

Art Brut play Maxwell's with Princeton and Hot Panda - they come back for two shows in November.

No Age play a Brooklyn show at Above the Auto Parts Store with Male Bonding, Soft Circle and Hot Box. This is their fourth NYC show in less than a week, but the first in Brooklyn.

Iron Age headlines a Charleston show with Naam, The Banner, Brain Killer, Descender and Dustheads.

Royal Flush Film Festival happens at Knitting Factory Brooklyn with Mellisa Auf der Maur, Mike Edison and the Space Liberation Army, Kid Savant and Blacklist.

Lucero - interviewed here - play Webster Hall with Amy LaVere, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm.

Al Green plays BB King's for the second night in a row.

Echo & The Bunnymen and Zaza play Mercury Lounge. They're back at Hammerstein Ballroom in November.

Glenn Branca Ensemble play from The Ascension: The Sequel again, this time at Issue Project Room.

It's your last chance to see So Percussion's Imaginary City at BAM Harvey Theater.

The Avett Brothers (on the heels of their major-label debut) and Jessica Lea Mayfield play Terminal 5.

New Yorker Festival is going on. Tonight's shows/panels include Justin Vernon from Bon Iver and Neko Case.

Spiral Stairs' video for "Stolen Pills" is posted below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"

DOWNLOAD: Spiral Stairs - Maltese Terrier (MP3)

Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg of Preston School of Industry and Pavement (who are reuniting) is set to release his first album as Spiral Stairs on October 20th. That record, The Real Feel, will be released by Matador in the US and Domino in the UK. The first MP3, "Maltese Terrier" (or "Maltese T" as its listed below in the tracklist), is posted above. There'll also be a single for the song "Stolen Pills," out a week before on October 12th.

The whole album is produced by Jon Auer (of the Posies and Big Star, the latter of which has a show in NYC on Nov. 18th) and guests include Preston School of Industry/Posies guys Matt Harris and Darius Minwall and BSS' Kevin Drew (though he's not listed as a contributor below).

Spiral Stairs will be playing shows in the coming months. Currently, there's the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco on October 18th, and a handful of West Coast shows around that, where they'll be opening for Bob Mould (who hits NYC in early October with Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson opening). No NYC date yet.

Album art and credits for the new disc, and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Spiral Stairs (mem. Pavement) - new album soon, MP3, shows"

the pavement outside Summerstage in 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

Typically for Pavement, the decision to get back together was made in a lackadaisical way. Says [Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg], "Steve [Malkmus] and I just had a conversation on the phone, and we'd never talked about it before at all. We've talked over the years, but the subject never came up. Then our agent asked us about these New York shows, so we went around to everybody in the band, and they said, 'Yeah, the time is right. If everybody's ready to do it, then we'll do it and see what happens.' There was no real impetus -- it just kind of happened naturally."

Right now, there's only one gig booked, a benefit at Central Park Summerstage on September 21, 2010. Says Kannberg, "We'll do some rehearsing in the new year. The Central Park shows, we'll probably end up doing one or two of those. There's festivals and stuff that we're talking to, like Coachella. After that, anything that happens in the future is in the future." [Rolling Stone]

Tickets for the September 21st, 2010 Pavement show at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (otherwise known as Central Park Summerstage) are on pre-sale (at 10:00 AM) (password - ZOWEE).

UPDATE: a 2nd show was added after this pre-sale sold right out.