by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Tony Castles - One Tone Man (MP3)

Tony Castles

Brooklyn's Tony Castles are gearing up to release their new EP titled Sharon Stone which will be out October 23. If your favorite Tony Castles song to dates was their magnificently dreamy "Black Girls in Dresses" the six tracks on the new EP definitely lean in that direction. It makes for nice autumn listening, when the days grow shorter and shadows get long. We've got the premiere of "One Tone Man" from the EP at the top of this post and you can stream snippets of other tracks below.

The band have a few NYC-area shows coming up, including tonight (9/6) at Pianos; the Silent Lights fundraiser on September 20 at the Green Building with Motive and Gurpal (advance tickets); and September 28 at Delinquency with Backwords, Zula, and Ancient Sky.

Win Win

Tonight's show at Pianos is part of Win Win's September Residency that happens every Thursday this month at the LES club. Originally a strictly-electronics duo (whose most recent album came out on Vice last year), Win Win are now a three-piece with an updated, band-driven sound as can be heard on new single, "Salt Days," from their new album, Double Vision (due out 10/16 via VICE) which you can stream below.

Win Win's September residency line-ups are as follows:

September 6: Jahan Lennon (Mad Decent), Roofeeo, Tony Castles, Sister Crayon, Taddy Porter

September 13: Behavior, Steel Phantoms and Beast Patrol

September 20: Slam Donaue (profiled here), Sleep Kitty and Warm Ghost

September 27: Crinkles, Window, Delicate Cutters, Louis Schefano and Brian Degraw

Continue reading "Win Win releasing LP, now in residency @ Pianos; Tony Castles have an EP, playing tonight (MP3, streams, dates) "

CANT @ Mercury Lounge

Considering their set time was 1am last night (8/30), I guess technically CANT played their debut show at Mercury Lounge today (8/31). Backed by three band members including Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange who also opened the free Spotify-sponsored show, Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor ran through a set of R&B infused songs we'll get to hear studio versions of soon. His debut album Dreams Come True is out September 13 via Terrible Records. I can never remember song names but BQ points out he loved "Answer," "Bericht" and "The Edge." You can watch audience video footage of "She Found A Way Out" and "Bang" below.

Missed the show and can't wait until October to see CANT? Chris Taylor and Co just announced another NYC show happening TONIGHT (8/31) at Glasslands with Steel Phantoms (Album Release Party) and Quinn Walker (from Suckers).

More pictures from last night (Blood Orange coming later), and those videos, below...

Continue reading "CANT played their 1st show @ Mercury Lounge (pics & video), playing second show TONIGHT @ Glasslands"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Fergus & Geronimo - Powerful Lovin' (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Final Club - Tragic World (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Final Club - Hot Gaze (MEDIAFIRE LINK - ZIP)
DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - Underwater To (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tyvek - 4312 (MP3)

Gruff

Welcome to the first This Week in Indie of 2011. We are 12 days into this year and I have yet to see a show. If you add in the time before Christmas...this might be the longest I've gone without seeing live music in a long time. That drought will end for me this week, maybe tonight, but certainly tomorrow (1/13) as Gruff Rhys plays Rockwood Music Hall. I was a little worried this snow was to cancel his flight today, but he is currently on route to NYC as I write this.

Still no word as to who'll be releasing his new solo album, Hotel Shampoo, in the US but it seems likely someone will. Hopefully we'll get to hear a lot it live. As anyone whose seen him before -- either with Super Furry Animals or solo -- know, Gruff is an entertaining guy, who always puts extra effort into his shows. Highly recommended. Eleanor Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces opens. Show starts early -- 7:30.

I also just watched Separado!, the musical travelogue documentary about Gruff's quest to track down distant relative (and '70s caped troubadour) Rene Griffiths in Patagonia. Like Rhys himself, the film is charming, scruffy, funny and full of good songs. Still not released in America but you can order the UK DVD (if you have a region-free player or watch on a computer) or, if you live in Williamsburg, rent it from Videology.

Fergus & Geronimo

Fergus & Geronimo release their debut album, Unlearn, on Hardly Art next week, and are playing three shows this weekend in celebration: Friday (1/14) at Death By Audio (official official release party) with Final Club, Easter Vomit (ex Beets), new Captured Tracks signees Widowspeak, and Philadelphia's premiere surf band Dry Feet; Saturday (1/15) at Columbia University hangout The Ding Dong Lounge with Final Club; and Sunday (1/16) at Mercury Lounge with Tyvek. Xray Eyeballs and The Gaming Commission.

While it suffers from a slight case of identity crisis (droney psych, garagey rave-ups, organ-fueled soul), track-by-track Unlearn is a pretty solid record. Fergus & Geronimo are good at all the styles they dabble in. Check out "Powerful Lovin'" at the top of this post -- that shows off their soulful side. And while I haven't seen them play live in a year and a half, they were good then so I can only imagine they've gotten better.

Final Club

If your eyes didn't glaze over at the list of bands two paragraphs up, you may have noticed Final Club are playing with F&G twice this weekend. The two bands were Denton, TX neighbors before Fergus & Geronimo moved to Brooklyn late last summer. Final Club are here just for these shows. They are worth seeing in their own right: sneery, melodic indie rock with a tendency to lean on the tremolo bar which gives them a little Swervedriver vibe. Confident and loud.

You can check out "Tragic World" at the top of this post. And if you like that, you can download their Hot Gaze EP as well. Look out for their excellent debut album, Blank Entertainment, later this year. In addition to the two shows with Fergus & Geronimo, Final Club play a headlining gig at Death By Audio tomorrow night (1/13) with Bogan Dust, Clinical Trials and Laserdisc.

Tyvek @ BV-SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Also as mentioned above, Tyvek are in town this weekend. While many of their peers have moved on to mid-fi production, the Detroit band keep it live and murky on their new album, Nothing Fits. It also sounds as anxious, angry and alive as the rest of their material. In addition to the Mercury Lounge show on Sunday mentioned above, they play Saturday night (1/15) at Glasslands with The Beets, Eternal Summers, and Sweet Bulbs. That is a good show. Do note it starts early, 8PM for real, as the Soul Clap dance party starts at midnight. I'll be there.

I should mention that openers The Beets have a new album Stay Home that's just out on Captured Tracks. After last year's swell, cleanly produced "Locomotion" single, they too (like Tyvek) are back to the same intentionally shitty "production" of their first album. (Maybe slightly less shitty.) Which, again, doesn't hurt them at all. The Beets are good songwriters I think, and especially good lyricists. And maybe if they can ever get a drummer to stick around for more than a month they might go places. Or just stay home. There's also a new Beets single, "Time Brought Age," and both the LP and 7" feature the bands signature comic artwork courtesy Matt Volz.

Mister Heavenly

What else? Oh yeah, Mister Heavenly play Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (1/16) with Sun Airway and Little Shalimar. This extra super group just signed to Sub Pop, and the label would like you to know the band features Nick Diamonds (Islands/Unicorns), Honus Honus (Man Man) and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse). Of course most of the press so far has been about the group's sometimes bassist who you may know from his non-musical day job. I don't mean the banana stand.

Going to see a band because there's a famous actor in it is usually a dumb reason to go (see Dogstar, 30 Seconds to Mars , 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, etc)... plus Mr. Cera is not an "official" member of the band and he may or may not be playing with them on Sunday (note that both the label and the venue told us they don't think Michael will be there). Luckily the rest of the band is known in their own right, so mabye you should go for that reason. Unfortunately there's no recorded music to hear yet, but their few shows so far have been well-documented on YouTube.

That's the main stuff. Here's a few shows, day-by-day, not covered above.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12

Nashville-via-Ohio band Mona -- one of the BBC's picks for Sound of 2011 -- invade NYC this weekend, starting tonight at Rock Shop. They also play Mercury Lounge on Thursday (1/13) (with Devin Therriault) and Union Pool on Saturday (1/15).

Given the abbreviation of this column you're reading, I would be remiss not to mention that The Twees play The Studio @ Webster Hall, a record release show for their just-released EP. They actually don't sound twee at all. I would say Strokes-esque pop would get you closer to a description.

Quirky, occasionally proggy, pop band Steel Phantoms at Bruar Falls.

more below...

Continue reading "Mister Heavenly, Gruff Rhys, Fergus & Geronimo, Final Club, Tyvek, The Beets & more in This Week in Indie "

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Active Child & harp @ Mercury Lounge

Active Child played their first NYC show last night (6/7) at Mercury Lounge. They totally killed it according to Wes Martin.

Active Child will play their second NYC show later this month when they open for Islands at Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 27th. The previously announced Northside Festival show (which is still on sale) also added Steel Phantoms and TV Carnage to the bill, AND is actually just the first date of a larger tour for Islands, Active Child and Steel Phantoms. All of those dates, and more pictures from Mercury Lounge, are below...

Continue reading "Active Child played Mercury Lounge w/ Blair (pics), touring & playing MHOW w/ Islands (dates)"