The Appleseed Cast (more by BBG)

The Appleseed Cast will kick off the first leg of a US tour with dates at SXSW before taking a few weeks off and heading back out on the road to play East Coast dates with Brooklyn's A Great Big Pile Of Leaves.. That leg includes a show at Highline Ballroom on April 28th with another Brooklyn band, Two Lights. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale.

7446 Films will document portions of the trek for an upcoming documentary on The Appleseed Cast. No word on a release date for that yet. In the meantime, catch TAC on the road. Their tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "The Appleseed Cast -- 2011 Tour Dates"

photos by Chris La Putt

Blood Red Shoes @ MHOW

After Chris left the BV Loft Party all the way back on Friday, October 22nd, he headed over to Music Hall of Williamsburg for the Blue Flowers-presented CMJ showcase for a lineup of mostly UK bands including Chapel Club, Everything Everything, and Blood Red Shoes (who toured North America with Sky Larkin in October). Pictures from that show are in this post.

The occasion (to post these belated pics)? SXSW has already announced an initial lineup of bands playing in Austin from March 16-20, 2011, and Chapel Club is on that list (and I wouldn't be surprised of the other 2 mentioned bands end up coming too). Also on the list: Lia Ices, Braids, Asobi Seksu, Wye Oak, Suuns, Sun Airway, A Place to Bury Strangers and more. Full list under the rest of the MHOW pictures, below...

Continue reading "Chapel Club played CMJ w/ Everything Everything & Blood Red Shoes (pics), playing SXSW 2011 (intial lineup)"

by BBG

Digital Retribution: When I last interviewed you, you said of the Dead Kennedys reunion, "I thought it was fucking pathetic, though, when The Dead Kennedys went out without Jello as their singer." What I meant to say instead of whatever monosyllabic witticism I spouted is: What's the difference between DK and the reformed Misfits, who GWAR toured with?

Dave Brockie (aka Oderus): I think there is a big difference, but don't expect the original product in either. I like Jerry and I would rather have him out touring and having fun than have him working in his machine shop. You can't blame him for wanting to cash in on how great The Misfits were, and enjoy himself in the process, plus give all of his pals jobs in his crew, and show his kids the time of their lives! So in that aspect, I think Jerry and what's left of The Misfits is cool, as long as you don't go in there expecting to see Glenn Danzig! I feel Jerry has earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants through 30+ years of dedication to this music. Jerry never lets up, he is always gigging. Whereas the Dead Kennedys thing was just a one-shot money grab. They knew they could get away with it, do a year or two, cash in, and bail...and also, The Misfits actually got away with replacing their singer, with Mike Graves, and did a couple of great records! That was when we toured with them, and that was great! American Psycho is a great fucking album!

With 46 acts spanning multiple genres, all worth at least checking out, and most worth more than that, playing on four stages in a 10 hour period along with side attractions like a bungee jumping thing and a mechanical bull, and with three of us at Fun Fun Fun Fest, it shouldn't be surprising that it took us ONE, TWO, THREE, and now FOUR posts to cover just the pictures from Saturday. They continue below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 - Day Two in pics (part 4) - Gwar, Jeff the Brotherhood, Municipal Waste, Dam-Funk & more"

Tim's complete set of pictures from FFF Fest Saturday are split into two posts: HERE and HERE. A third set, that I took with far inferior skills and camera, but that fills in some blanks and includes stuff like a dude being thrown into a pool filled with thumbtacks, a member of Gwar storming the stage during Municipal Waste's set, and people waiting in line to get Wavves' autograph, continues below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 - Day Two in pics (part 3) - Jacob Calle, Butcher Bear and Charlie, Gwar vs Municipal Waste & more"

photos by Tim Griffin

Big Freedia

The 2010 edition of Fun Fun Fun Fest is now complete. You saw pictures from the first night. We have lots of possitive things to say coming up, but for now here is a part two of our photos - all from day two aka Saturday (11/6). They continue below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 - Day Two in pics (part 1) - Big Freedia, Antlers, Wavves, Devin the Dude, Os Mutantes & more) "

by BBG

If one stands back from the mayhem of life around them and will honestly realize what has been done on volume one of Low Level Owl, they will be floored. Here is a band who has, for the most part, orchestrated a symphonic masterpiece and glides effortlessly from one track into another. Odd for the average indie rock fan? Perhaps. Unapproachable? Hardly. Ambience and environment are the keys here. Through a number of experiments and hard work, the band has made a piece that is truly larger than what many people may be able to appreciate. -[Allmusic review of Low Level Owl Vol 1]

The Appleseed Cast will revisit their popular Low Level Owl 1 & 2 LPs by playing them in their entirety on a two-month US tour with Chicago's Dreamend. The tour kicks off in the tail end of February and ends in April with NYC getting April 17th at Gramercy Theater. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale.

The Appleseed Cast are preparing to release the 3LP vinyl of Low Level Owl Vol 1 and 2 via Graveface Records. Preorder it here.They'll also offer a new live LP while on the Low Level Owl tour. Their last full-length Sagarmatha was released in 2009.

Dreamend contains one Ryan Graveface, owner of the Graveface Records (TAC's vinyl label) and a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow.

All tour dates and the tour flyer are below...

Continue reading "The Appleseed Cast playing Low Level Owl Vol 1 & 2 on tour - 2010 dates w/ Dreamend"

DOWNLOAD: TRAA - Don't Haunt This Place (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Orenda Fink - Bloodline (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Orenda Fink - No Evolution (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Old Canes - Taxi On Vermont (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: UUVVWWZ - Shark Suit (MP3)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson @ Union Hall 10/1 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's Summer of Fear, the follow-up to his 2008 self-titled debut, is set for an October 20th release on Saddle Creek. The label, which recently signed the songwriter, tells the TVotR/Grizzly Bear-littered story of the new record...

TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone--a close friend since the pair met en route to a Grizzly Bear show in 2005--helped bottle Robinson's bruised hymns last winter, ramping up the tension in such standout tracks as "Death by Dust," "Summer of Fear pt. 2," "The Sound," and the 11-and-a-half draining minutes of "More Than a Mess," a haunting epic that deserves its own short film. (Or more than half of Side D; Summer of Fear is spread across two LPs like one of Robinson's favorite records, Tusk.) Since they both "have a tendency toward a generally and hilariously doom stricken worldview," Malone also understood what Robinson was going for with his redemption songs. After all, he was there that summer. He saw it all go down, and now that he's heard the whole thing told through Summer of Fear's relentless and raw tone poems, he can't wait to see what Robinson comes up with next. (Robinson is desperate to record his third record--yes, already. Written last year in the midst of touring to support his unexpected self-titled debut, he describes the disc as containing,"actual songs...as opposed to vaguely melodic litanies of grievance.")

Robinson recently made a video for the song "Woodfriend," which is posted below.

October 20th will be a big day for Saddle Creek (home of Tokyo Police Club, Cursive and Land of Talk). It's also the release date for the latest by new signees Old Canes. The record, Feral Harmonic, is the Lawrence, KS band's second.

Old Canes architect Chris Crisci (also known as half of Appleseed Cast) constructed Feral Harmonic largely alone in his basement studio. He played the majority of the instrumentation himself with additional help from a cast of musician friends contributing various parts, including trumpet, harmophone, cello, and hammer dulcimer, among other instruments. As recording was regularly interrupted by touring, work, other projects, and life in general, production on the album took nearly three and a half years to complete.

Tracklist and album art are below.

The label will also be dropping a new album from Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, Art In Manila, O+S), titled Ask The Night, on October 6th.

Ask The Night was primarily recorded live to 8-track by Stephen Bartolomei (Mal Madrigal) in Orenda's former Omaha, NE, basement (she is now based in Los Angeles, CA), as well as by Andy LeMaster (Now It's Overhead; production on Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Azure Ray) in his Athens, GA, living room.

The album features a wide variety of players and singers, including producers Stephen Bartolomei and Andy LeMaster, Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching), and Adrianne Verhoeven (Dri, The Anniversary, Art In Manila), among others. Four songs on Ask The Night are collaborations with Birmingham, AL-based artist and poet Chris Lawson...

Lawson also provided the album's art, which, with the tracklist, is below.

The Rural Alberta Advantage's previously-self-released debut came out on Saddle Creek on July 7th. The band was featured on ABC's Amplified on August 17th, and they have shows coming up. Those include the Positive Jam with the Hold Steady in Ithaca on September 6th, and a show at the Bowery Ballroom on October 7th. Tickets for that go on sale Friday, August 21st at noon.

UUVVWWZ also released an album on Saddle Creek on July 7th, and they'll also be in NYC in October (for CMJ). In fact, they'll be playing what looks like an extremely sick bill at Union Pool on October 24th with An Albatross, Dark Meat, Lovvers, Flexions, ZzZ, and JEFF The Brotherhood.

For a taste of what Saddle Creek has been up to over the past year (before any of the new bands mentioned above), check out the free sampler they're giving away on Amazon. All upcoming TRAA and UUVVWWZ tour dates, and above-mentioned things, are below...

Continue reading "Saddle Creek: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Old Canes & Orenda Fink ++ Rural Alberta Advantage & UUVVWWZ dates"

Tickets went back on sale for tonight's Demetri Martin show at Bowery Ballroom (2/19), and for tomorrow's at Music Hall of Williamsburg (2/20).

The Appleseed Cast added a 2nd NYC show at Mercury Lounge. Now they're playing twice, early and late, at the same venue on April 18th. Tickets are now on sale for both. More dates HERE.

Tickets are on Am Ex presale for a May 14th Thao and the Get Down Stay Down show at Bowery Ballroom

Kevin Devine is playing Bowery Ballroom on April 24th. Tickets are on sale.

Illinois is playing Mercury lounge on May 5th. Tickets are on sale.

By now seasoned veterans of the independent music world, The Appleseed Cast is proud to announce the release of Sagarmatha, their sixth studio album and second release with The Militia Group. The album will be available on February 17, 2009. The Appleseed Cast recorded at Mixtape Soundlab and Toy Shop, with their own Christopher Crisci engineering, and later re-grouped with Ed Rose at Black Lodge Recording in Lawrence, KS for instrumental overdubs and mixing. The record leads The Appleseed Cast to the peak of their musical ability, into experimental post-rock, and often purely instrumental territory.

Now on a February 28th-ending tour in support of that new record, The Appleseed Cast will hit the North American road again in April. During that leg they play Mercury Lounge on April 18th. Tickets for that NYC show are on sale at noon. All other known dates, and the new album tracklist, below...

Continue reading "The Appleseed Cast - 2009 Tour Dates, new album"