by Bill Pearis

Long-running NYC trio Ivy are set to play their first hometown show in five years on September 24 at Gramercy Theater with openers Tahiti 80. It's in celebration of their new album (first in 6 years) All Hours which is out the same week. We're giving away two pairs of tickets to the show, along with signed copies of the new CD. Details on how to enter below.

While Ivy have dabbled in electronics before, All Hours marks a definite shift to the dancefloor. The move to Saint Etienne-land is not that much of a stretch given their already cosmopolitan brand of pop and suits them just fine. You can listen to a sampler of the new album at the bottom of this post. Nice to have you back.

The band have upcoming shows in Boston and L.A. as well -- those dates, contest details and album sampler are below.

Continue reading "Ivy returning with a new CD & some live shows (win tx)"

As Bill pointed out, France's Tahiti 80 are in town and headline Mercury Lounge this evening (3/10). What he didn't mention was that Connecticut's The Stepkids are opening that show. It's their sole NYC date before they head to Austin for SXSW where they'll play a bunch of shows including one for their label Stones Throw. In April they return to NYC to play a show at Littlefield with Emil & Friends. All dates below...

Continue reading "Stepkids tour dates -- tonight w/ Tahiti 80, SXSW & more "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - Girlfriend (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - Caesar (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sic Alps - Do You Want to Give $$ (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tahiti 80 - Keys to the City (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Small Sins - Pot Calls Kettle Black (MP3)

Ty Segall in San Fran in January (more by kolored)

...and this is the week that SXSW comes to New York. Dear lord, there's a whole lot going on, so This Week in Indie is coming to you in two installments. This one runs, basically, though Thursday, March 10. Do take advantage of this embarrassment of indie rock riches.

We're got some quality San Francisco garage rock in town courtesy of Ty Segall, fresh off the Bruise Cruise and whose most recent album, Melted, still gets a lot of play in these parts. (Download two tracks from it at the top of this post.) Few are doing this kind of music with more melody, attitude and enthusiasm as Ty, which really comes across in the live show. He plays Mercury Lounge tonight (3/8, sold out!) and Death by Audio on Thursday (3/10).

The Mercury Lounge show is with Brooklynites Devin Therriault and The Sundelles. At Death by Audio, Ty is joined by Nashville's Heavy Cream (yes it's true, they have a new drummer), Liquor Store and Home Blitz. Ty then heads to Austin for SXSW. Look for Ty's new album, Goodbye Bread, out this summer on Drag City.

While many acts under the garage umbrella -- Ty Segall, The Intelligence, The Fresh & Onlys -- have begun to embrace mid-fi recording, Sic Alps remain happily in the sludge. Their new album, Napa Asylum, is 22 tracks -- short songs but thick as molasses. Something about this band raises the temperature, probably because it sounds like it was recorded in a moldy basement in a swamp in July. Some bands use lo-fi as camouflage. For Sic Alps it's all about atmosphere.

Live shows can be just as sweaty, even when it's freezing outside, and the less traditional the venue, the better they tend to sound. Which bodes well for these shows. Sic Alps play the Old Firehouse (aka DCTV HQ, 87 Lafayette in Manhattan) on Wednesday (3/9) and 285 Kent (next door to Glasslands) on Thursday (3/10). Both shows are with touring mates Magic Markers. The Old Firehouse show also has Gary War and Total Slacker; the 285 Kent show is with PC Worship and Hubble.

OMD

Tonight (3/8) also marks the first show first-generation synthpop group OMD have played in New York in 25 years. The show is at Terminal 5 and tickets are still available. As reported before, this is the inarguable classic line-up of the band, the one that created their first six albums. And while there is a new album they're touring for, the shows have been packed with hits. According to Unrest/TeenBeat honcho Mark Robinson's twitter feed, last night's show in Boston included "Messages," "Tesla Girls," "Electricity," "Forever Live and Die," "If You Leave" and pretty much everything else you'd want to hear.

If you're going tonight and still care about music that was made more recently than 20 years ago, do get there early for opener Oh Land who, like OMD, will be at SXSW next week. She plays the BV/M for Montreal day party in Austin on March 19 at Barbarella/Swan Dive.

Tahiti 80

What else? Parisians Tahiti 80 never got as popular as their contemporaries Phoenix but the band have made consistently engaging, danceable pop over the last 15 years, including  what's found on the band's fifth album, the just-released The Past, The Present, & the Possible. The band play Mercury Lounge on Thursday (3/10).

I don't think I've seen Xavier Boyer and the rest of the band play since catching them at Brownies on the Wallpaper for the Soul tour, but have caught a number of their shows and Tahiti 80 are a solid live group. And the new album is good, dividing time between '60s influenced pop and more dancefloor-friendly material, both of which they do well. You can check "Keys to the City" at the top of this post.

Small Sins

Some of you may remember Toronto band Small Sins, who made a small splash back in the mid-'00s, putting out two albums of electronic-inflected indie pop on Astralwerks. They used to play NYC quite often back then. After 2007's Mood Swings the band kind of fell off the map, and I'd assumed singer-songwriter Thomas D'Arby had moved onto something else. Small Sins were basically a solo project for him after the dissolution of his old band Carnations anyway.

But turns out D'Arby was just in hibernation. Working with Tortise's John McEntire, D'Arby and the rest of Small Sins made Pot Calls Kettle Black, which came out last summer in Canada. A little bigger, a little more serious-sounding than the two other albums, Smalls Sins retain that mix of electronics, atmospherics and solid pop songwriting. You can download the album's title track at the top of this post.

I think the last time I saw them live is when they opened for Sloan at Southpaw back in 2007, though maybe I'm misremembering. Anyway, Small Sins are back in town this week, playing Santos Party House on Thursday (3/10) and The Rock Shop on Friday (3/11). The Santos Show is with '90s-rockin' Mr. Dream (who were good at Glasslands last week) and Quitzow; the Rock Shop also has True Womanhood and Suddenland.

Ok, that's the big stuff for mid-week. Stay tuned for Part 2 of TWII where we'll talk Still Corners, Edwyn Collins, Withered Hand, Megaphonic Thrift and more. Some more day-by-day picks are listed here:

TUESDAY, MARCH 8

Kurt Vile, whose new album Smoke Ring for My Halo is out today and garnered a well-deserved Best New Music in Pitchfork. He's doing three in-stores today: Academy in Williamsburg 5PM, then into the City for a stop at Generation (7PM) and Other Music (9PM). Soon to be on tour with J Mascis.

continued below...

Continue reading "Ty Segall, Sic Alps, OMD, Tahiti 80, Small Sins, Kurt Vile & more in This Week in Indie (part 1)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Grass Widow - To Where (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Frankie Rose - Thee Only One (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Mary Onettes - Puzzles (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Mary Onettes - Dare (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Carsick Cars - You Can Listen You Can Talk (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Carsick Cars - Zhong Nan Hai (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: PK-14 - Behind All Ruptures (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Xiao He - MTV (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Answering Machine - Another City, Another Sorry (MP3)

Frankie & the Outs - debut show @ The Woods on Halloween

I'm barely recovered from post-CMJ cold and we've got a week that is so packed with good shows it feels like another festival is in town.

Mercury Prize nominees The Invisible are playing their first U.S. shows this week, starting with a free one tonight at Brooklyn Bowl. Their lauded debut album doesn't fit into one easy category, which befits a band on Matthew Herbert's label. It's all fairly warm and soulful, but with forays into funk, sparse ballads, electro and Krautrock. There's a lot going on and I'll be curious to see how a three-piece can pull it off live. The Invisible also play Santos tomorrow (11/5) opening for Dragonette, and then on Friday at Pianos (11/6) where they'll be on the same bill as Freelance Whales.

The Mary Onettes, here from Sweden, play their first NYC show this year, tonight (11/4) at Union Hall where they'll play with Blacklist. As I said before, like a lot of the bands on Labrador, The Mary Onettes love the '80s and wear those influences on their black-clad sleeves. But their second album, Islands, wears them a little more subtly, though they are still writing reach-for-the-stars chorus -- now with strings. I like them a lot. They also play Friday (11/6) at Studio @ Webster Hall and then Sunday (11/8) at Mercury Lounge.

Grass Widow

San Francisco's awesome Grass Widow are also in town this weekend for a string of dates, starting tomorrow (11/5) at The Woodser with Frankie & the Outs, Air Waves and Hot Box. (There was to be a second show tomorrow, late at Monster Island, but that has been cancelled.) There are more than a few all-girl trios out there playing vaguely C-86 style indie (including fellow San Franciscans Brilliant Colors), but Grass Widow write better songs than most, and I really like both 12" EPs they've released this year.

The Woodser show was to be notable as the live debut of Frankie & the Outs, but then they went and played Halloween night at similarly named Willliamsburg bar The Woods (picture above). Frankie's debut single, "Thee Only One," is out now and is worth picking up -- though I think more for the dreamy b-side "Hollow Life" than the A-side (good as it is, and downloadable above) which is a little more of what you'd expect from someone who spent time in Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts. Frankie's got a way with harmonies, and the less that gets in the way of them, the better. There were a couple of songs The Outs did Saturday which were similarly laid back, and the best songs of the night.

The Bitters

Grass Widow also play Market Hotel on Friday night (11/6) along with Vivian Girls, The Bitters and Stupid Party. If you haven't heard The Bitters, the Toronto duo feature Ben Cook of Fucked Up (who play Thursday at Masonic Temple) and Aerin Fogel. They've got a single and an EP on Captured Tracks, the latter of which I dig (haven't heard the single yet). While definitely on the "low" end of the "fi" scale, Bitters are different from anything else on Captured Tracks with an early-'60s rock n' roll vibe (or early '80s West Coast punk), and Ben and Aerin's harmonies front-and-center.|

Grass Widow also play Saturday (11/7) afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum with Crystal Stilts and the Beets, a show which finally today was officially announced by the museum...

"Inspired by Gail's idea, and because we love Brooklyn photographers, on First Saturday we are inviting local photographers to come and shoot the bands that are playing and post their photos to the Brooklyn Museum's flickr group. Afterwards, Bob Gruen, a rock photography legend who is featured in the exhibition and has shot the likes of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and The Clash, will look at the photos and blog about his favorites here!" [Brooklyn Museum]

Grass Window then play again at Market Hotel that night, for a show with Small Black, Pictureplane, Girls at Dawn and Cale Parks (formerly of Aloha). They're also going to play somewhere on Sunday (11/8)... venue TBA. Go see them if you can.

Carsick Cars

There's also the China Underground Invasion tour this weekend, with three of Beijing's best indie rock bands: Carsick Cars, PK-14 and Xiao He. In particular, I'm excited about Carsick Cars who I've actually heard of prior to this tour thanks to a friend who is living in Beijing and occasionally sends me music. They're definitely of the Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr school of noise n' drone. I only just got their new album, You Can Listen, You Can Talk, but have been listening to their 2008 debut a lot, and am told that its "Zhong Nan Hai" is like the Beijing indie anthem. The tour hits PowerHouse Arena tomorrow (11/5), Glasslands on Friday (11/6) and Santos on Saturday (11/7).

Tonight (11/4) is also the second week of The Answering Machine's three-week residency at Coco 66. The band has also added three more NYC dates while they're here: Nov. 9 at Pianos, Nov. 11 at Bruar Falls and Nov. 12 at Cake Shop.

Tahiti 80

And finally, Saturday night (11/7) French pop band Tahiti 80 play Mercury Lounge (tickets). When it comes to Franco-pop, Phoenix get the lion's share of the attention, but Tahiti 80 have been at it almost as long (if not just as long) and have made four danceable, hook-filled albums. The most recent of which, Activity Center, came out last year in France but is just now getting an American release. The band have retreated a bit from the full-on disco that was 2005's Fosbury, and gone back to the '60s sunshine of 2002's Wallpaper for the Soul which definitely suits them better. I haven't seen them play in ages, but they were always a good live band. Opening is Brookville, the other band from Ivy's Andy Chase -- who also produced Tahiti 80's first two albums.

Videos, tour dates and flyers are after the jump...

Continue reading "The Bitters, Grass Widow, Tahiti 80, The Mary Onettes, Frankie Rose, The Invisible & more in This Week in Indie "