SXSW is no doubt a great way to see a lot of bands in a short amount of time and can be a lot of fun. But it can also be a little much for some. If you'd like to see many of the same bands but in a more genteel setting, you might be interested in The Savannah Stopover which happens the weekend before SXSW (March 7 - 9) in at various clubs in Savannah, Georgia. Over 100 bands will play, including Of Montreal, Merchandise, Mac DeMarco, Chelsea Light Moving, Hunters, Braids, Delicate Steve, Turbo Fruits, Ducktails and loads more.

Tickets ($30 per day or $75 for three-day pass) are on sale now and more info is at Savannah Stopover's website. The full announced lineup is below.

Continue reading "of Montreal, Chelsea Light Moving, Merchandise, Mac DeMarco, & more playing Savannah Stopover before SXSW"

DOWNLOAD: Jaill - Waste a Lot of Things (Mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Jaill - Perfect Ten (MP3)

Milwaukee, WI's Jaill are currently on tour with their Sub Pop labelmates King Tuff, out promoting their fine new album Traps which came out last month. You can download a couple tracks from it at the top of this post. After a run with The Coathangers through the South, Jaill will hit the East Coast for a few dates with Fergus & Geronimo (who also have a new LP), including two NYC shows: Mercury Lounge on September 10 and Maxwell's on September 11. Mercury Lounge tickets go on sale Friday, July 20 at noon with an AmEx presale beginning today (7/18) at noon. Tickets for the Maxwell's show are on sale now.

All Jaill tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Jaill released 'Traps' (MP3), expand tour w/ 2 NYC-area shows"

photos by Chris La Putt

The Coathangers at Death by Audio - 5/30/12

The Coathangers are on a tour which brought them to NYC for two shows, including a stop at Death By Audio on May 30, the day after they supported OFF! at Bowery Ballroom with Cerebral Ballzy. Joining the bratty Atlanta foursome was support from Hunters, The Numerators and Desert Sharks. More pictures from the DBA show are in this post.

Though a return trek to NYC is not currently in the near future, The Coathangers have added a batch of new tour dates with Heavy Cream and King Tuff/Jaill (separately) that includes a stop at Capitol Hill Block Party.

Speaking of Heavy Cream and King Tuff, both bands head to the NYC area in the coming weeks for separate shows. King Tuff plays two dates -- 285 Kent on 6/9 and Maxwell's on 6/14. Heavy Cream also play a pair of shows in NYC with Hunters, on June 17th at Cake Shop with The Foxx and at Death by Audio on June 18th with Mannequin Pussy.

All dates are listed below along with more pics from the DBA show...

Continue reading "The Coathangers played DBA w/ Hunters & more (pics); touring w/ Heavy Cream & King Tuff (dates)"

by BBG

Total Control at Fun Fun Fun Fest (more by BBG)

Total Control's Henge Beat was a favorite around these parts, and now the band recently released a split 12" with Thee Oh Sees. Check out a video for Total Control's "For Lease" from that split below and order your copy via Castle Face.

Total Control currently have no US dates scheduled. Thee Oh Sees, on the other hand, will spend their summer abroad and have a handful of appearances in the US. The band, who recently played Austin Psych Fest, will play a gang of festival dates including the previously discussed Pitchfork, Outside Lands, Hopscotch, ATP I'll Be Your Mirror and the sold-out Woodsist Festival in Big Sur.

In addition, the band just signed on to be a part of the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle WA, joining names like Neko Case, Major Lazer, Fitz And The Tantrums, Phantogram, The Lumineers, Grimes, Aesop Rock w/ Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz, Youth Lagoon, Diplo, Cloud Nothings, The Psychic Paramount, Twin Shadow, Dam-Funk and so many more across six-stages and as many city blocks during three days in July (7/20-7/22). Current lineup is below and tickets are on sale.

All tour dates, the Capitol Hill Block Party lineup and that "For Lease" video is below.

Continue reading "Total Control release video from split with Thee Oh Sees; Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party announces lineup"

The Coathangers at #HotelVegan during SXSW 2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

The Coathangers welcomed a new split 7" with Davila 666 this past Tuesday (streamable below), and have followed up that happy news with more: a new set of tourdates. The Atlanta punk four-piece are set to do a string of East Coast dates that include the previously discussed date with Keith Morris & the boys, as well as ANOTHER NYC appearance the following day at Death By Audio on May 30th with The Numerators. All tour dates are listed below.

Cerebral Ballzy also support OFF! at Bowery Ballroom on 5/29, and they'll play support for another band this weekend, Refused at Terminal 5. The show is sold-out.

All Coathangers dates and a streamable version of that split with Davila 666 is below.

Continue reading "The Coathangers release a split with Davila 666, add dates"

by BBG

Still from OFF!'s "Wiped Out" video

OFF! are back with their first official LP due on May 8th via Vice Records. The self-titled LP is the source of the recently released "King King Brigade" and a track called "Wiped Out" which now has a video which makes its debut here. Watch it below. Preorder a copy of the album on vinyl or CD.

As previously discussed, OFF! are touring in May and July (with Refused), and are scheduled to play two NYC shows in those months, including May 29 at Bowery Ballroom with Cerebral Ballzy and The Coathangers (tickets) and July 18th at Williamsburg Park with Refused (tickets).

They've since added even more shows in Europe. All dates, the new video and a stream of "King Kong Brigade", below...

Continue reading "OFF! add tour dates, are "Wiped Out" (video premiere)"

by BBG

Bush Tetras

New York's Bush Tetras had a no wave link, via guitarist Pat Place's association with James Chance, but the band's sound was neither frantic nor disjointed enough to be properly categorized with those bands. They played scrappy post-punk, with fellow Americans Pylon and Konk and Brits Delta 5 and Au Pairs as close contemporaries. If there's any one song the Bush Tetras are known for, it's 1980's "Too Many Creeps" -- the band's most representative song and also the catchiest, made by the kind of jagged rhythms, slicing guitars, and sniping vocals that were used throughout their short lifespan. -[Allmusic]

Tonight's date at 285 Kent is one of two NYC shows for the touring Coathangers, who also play Cake Shop Saturday (6/25) with Teen Witch and The Nec. Teen Witch also recently played Death By Audio with Heavy Cream.

285 Kent holds a different and equally compelling show Saturday: Fucked Up, Jeff The Brotherhood, & Iceage.

Bush Tetras recently popped in to WFMU to play a set. Stream it.

Check out some video and show details below.

Continue reading "The Coathangers are here, Bush Tetras tonight"

DOWNLOAD: The Coathangers - "Trailer Park Boneyard" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Coathangers - "Hurricane" (MP3)

The Coathangers @ Death By Audio (more by Leia Jospe)

The Coathangers released Larceny & Old Lace in North America this week (6/7) via Suicide Squeeze. The band will go on a tour later this month in support, and that reaches NYC on June 24 at 285 Kent in Brooklyn with Religious to Damn and special guests TBA. Coathangers also play June 25 at Cake Shop, though no other acts have been announced yet.

Larceny & Old Lace is available for purchase via the Suicide Squeeze webstore as CD and LP. Grab the tracks "Trailer Bark Boneyard" and "Hurricane" above, and check out the video for "Hurricane" along with more dates, album art and tracklist below.

Continue reading "The Coathangers released 'Larceny & Old Lace', touring soon (MP3s & dateS)"

"heading to NYC to play the PORTLANDIA premiere!" - The Thermals

"good flight. I finally learned what the mile high club is. I always thought it meant getting stoned in Denver" - The Thermals

The Thermals @ 2009 Pitchfork Fest (more by Joseph Xu)

"Allow us to introduce you (against their wishes) to Forbidden Friends!

Forbidden Friends is part secret society, part torrid love affair. The kind of experience you cherish, yet would kill to keep secret. Well as of this moment the secret is OUT. You can wash your dirty sheets as many times as you want, but once the world knows all your steamy indiscretions there's no going back! Might as well post all your (formerly) deep, dark secrets as your next status update. Forbidden Friends may have hoped to keep their little club private, but it's too late now! The gossips have spoken and won. Let's tell EVERYBODY. Please help us!

Forbidden Friends is a new band from Hutch Harris, lead singer and mastermind of The Thermals, Portland's last great post-pop-punk-power trio. Initially conceived as a way for lovers to send hidden messages in plain view (isn't there an app for that?), Forbidden Friends is now a legitimate, public work of art. The band is at once old fashioned (acoustic instruments, mono mixes), forward thinking (reference-less, incredibly danceable), and timeless (classic lyrical themes of love and desire.)

Forbidden Friends will release their debut single, "Tiny Hands", on the Kill Rock Stars label March 15, 2011, on vinyl (7") and digital download. It is accompanied by the b-side "For You". Harris played the basic instruments (drums, guitar, bass, vocals), and was assisted in the studio by his fellow Thermals Kathy Foster and Westin Glass, as well as Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, on percussion. Both songs are truly upbeat and fun, and are the perfect introduction to this exciting new band." [Kill Rock Stars]

Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, premieres on Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:30 PM ET/PT on IFC, but you can watch it now in the video embedded below.

The Thermals, after the Portlandia party (1/19), have some dates scheduled on the west coast followed by a European tour with The Coathangers. Their list of dates, and Carrie's new band Wild Flag's updated set of dates, and pretty much every upcoming Kill Rock Stars-artist tour date currently listed by the label, is below...

Continue reading "Hutch of the Thermals forms new band 'Forbidden Friends' (Thermals playing a Portlandia party in NYC & other dates)"

photos by Leia Jospe

The Coathangers @ Death by Audio

Atlanta's The Coathangers, almost done with their tour, will bless Baltimore, MD tonight (11/17) with their garage-y punk, four days after their Saturday night Brooklyn show at Death By Audio with The So So Glos, The Ex-Humans, and Unholy Two. The Britney Spears fans are welcoming their new split 7" with The Numerators (on sale now) via Suicide Squeeze.

The So So Glos have a trio of new dates in their near future. First up, the band will headline The Studio at Webster Hall on November 26th with The Rassle and Devin Therriault (tickets). Then in December, they'll play the Showpaper Gallery on Dec 3rd with Weekends, Adult Themes, & Slow Animal, and Shea Stadium on Dec 11th.

All Coathangers and So So Glos tour dates, and more pictures of the two (Leia missed both openers) at DbA, male stripper included, below...

Continue reading "The Coathangers & So So Glos played Death by Audio (pics), playing more shows (dates) "

The Coathangers supporting The Thermals in April (more by Andrew Frisicano)

The Coathangers hit the road tomorrow (10/15) for a string of tour dates that include shows with Woven Bones, The Thermals (who just played Irving Plaza), Cymbals Eat Guitars and more as part of a larger US tour. NYC will get a look on that tour as the band will play Death By Audio on 11/13.

If you head out to the show, make sure and swing by the merch table, as the band will have some new goodies out with them. First up is the new Hard Candy 7" out NOW via Die Slaughterhaus Records featuring two new tracks, "Johnny" and "Wife Eyes". Suicide Squeeze will release a second 7" for the band, as The Coathangers will share a limited-to-500 split (100 opaque red, 400 black) with The Numerators. Dig on the incredible artwork for that below.

The Coathangers recently commissioned a video for the oh-so-fonky Judi Chicago remix of "Arthritis Sux". Check out that video for the first time, all tour dates, and The Coathangers/Numerators split art below.

Continue reading "new Coathangers video, 7" & 2010 tour dates"

words & photos by Andrew Frisicano

The Thermals completed a two-night run at Brooklyn Bowl last night (4/21). I was at the irst night, Tuesday, when they played a great set to a sold-out crowd. The band's two show run at the venue was the last stop of their two-week East Coast tour.

The Thermals crowd came ready to sing along, and got more and more riled up as things progressed (the band's "Pillar of Salt," "No Culture Icons," "Returning to the Fold" run at the end was particularly spectacular). There was a kind of girls vs. boys thing going on, with plenty of female fans belting out the words while the guys threw their bodies into it.

The hour-plus set covered the band's catalog, from the power-punk of More Parts Per Million to the cleanly cut songs on Now We Can See. The new material showed promise for Personal Life, their fifth album, due in September. Those tunes stayed intense even as the band slowed down the tempo. "Seperate" - from their Record Store Day split with the Cribs - is one new song with a different, more calculated edge (see it in a video from an earlier show on the tour, below). Here's hoping the new album will match The Body, The Blood, The Machine for lyrical sharpness and replayability. After the 20-ish song set, the band came back for a gracious encore, and repeated cries to play their Olympics anthem "Canada" went unheeded.

Spazzy punk band the Coathangers opened, with all four members taking turns at the mic as they swapped instruments. Other opener Past Lives played grungy rock that didn't really keep my attention (Tony Castles subbed for the Coathangers on the second night).

More pictures and a few of those new songs from their Baltimore tour stop are below...

Continue reading "The Thermals played 2 nights @ Brooklyn Bowl w/ The Coathangers (pics) "

photos by Bryan Bruchman

Golden Triangle

The Coathangers played a SXSW show at Beauty Bar on 3/19 with Aa, Golden Triangle & Garotas Suecas before they headed down to Mexico. Garotas Suecas and Golden Triangle will again share a bill on April 1st at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. More pictures from the Austin show below...

Continue reading "Golden Triangle, The Coathangers, Aa & Garotas Suecas @ Beauty Bar Austin (SXSW) - pics "

by Andrew Frisicano

After spending four days in Austin for SXSW, my personal MtyMx experience started with an all-day trip from Austin to Monterrey on Sunday. I arrived to see Andrew W.K.'s set that night, the after-party at the Garage, and Monday from first to last band (minus the comedy set with Dan Deacon, though there are pictures of him too). I'm now writing this from Tennessee where the Big Ears Fest is about to begin. Stay tuned for reports about that, and check out my pictures from the festival in Mexico, with captions, below...

Continue reading "pics from MtyMx (Todd P & Yo Garage's Mexico Festival) "

As anyone following along on @bvSXSW knows, after some serious transportation issues, Andrew Frisicano eventually made his way down to Monterrey, Mexico from Austin, TX (counting waiting for the bus to show up, it took him something like 18 hours which was 4 hours shorter than it took Ryan Muir) in time for a bit of the 2nd night and all of the third day (aka today, 3/22). Here is some of his story so far...

The Coathangers @ MtyMX (by TiTa_Elizondo)

"You Will Remember Tonight" was the song that stuck out in Andrew WK's headlining set at MtyMx Festival last night in Monterrey, Mexico. It was the second night of the fest, and the only set I saw because of a lengthy, complicated bus trip that started much earlier in the day.

There were a lot of questions coming down to Mexico: transportation, accommodations and food were mostly left in the hands of the festival, and at MtyMx now (5pm Monterrey time), most of those continue to be issues, sadly distracting from the bands who did make it. For some bands and showgoers the trip took 20+ hours of waiting and riding on buses, but if one thing has been consistent, it has been that no two MtyMx trips have been the same.

Due to spotty bus service from Austin, shaken confidence in the festival and scheduling issues, a number of the bands on the bill have canceled or been unable to make it down. Those bands (editor's note: which Todd P sarcastically addresses in a video below) include Washed Out, Small Black, Tanlines, No Age, Lucky Dragons, Anamanaguchi, Pocahaunted, Beach Fossils, MNDR, Sun Araw, Total Abuse, Talk Normal, The Wave Pictures, Fucked Up, The Sandwitches and Liturgy. On the festival's last day, arranging transportation back to Austin or elsewhere has been an overriding theme.

story continued below with video & more pics...

Continue reading "Andrew Frisicano reports from MtyMx (which he had much trouble getting to, and he's not sure how he's getting back) "

SXSWeek 2010: March 12-21
Interactive: March 12-16
Film: March 12-20
Music: March 17-21

Continue reading "SXSW 2010 - dates & initial band lineup "

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks @ Knitting Factory in June (more by Lori Baily)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* 50 Cent @ Governors Island
* NY Burlesque Fest @ BB King's
* Lucinda Williams @ Irving Plaza
* Bootleg w/ Lady Gaga @ Santos Party House
* The Do @ Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel
* Micachu & The Shapes, ACME @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* A-Bones, The Fleshtones, The Above @ Union Hall
* Wallpaper, Mystery Roar, Bodega Girls @ The Cameo
* The Choke, Foster Care, Images, Corn Mo @ Bruar Falls
* Christina Courtin, Henry Wolfe, El May @ The Bell House
* Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band @ Giants Stadium
* The Antlers, Holly Miranda, Family Of The Year @ Maxwell's
* Amazing Baby, The Entrance Band, Psychic @ Bowery Ballroom
* The Besnard Lakes, Acrylics, The Cinnamon Band @ Mercury Lounge
* Cheap Time, Sediment Club, Guinea Worms, Uzi Rash @ Silent Barn
* 50 Cent, Kid Cudi, Wale, Mike Posner @ Beach at Governors Island
* Chain and the Gang, Fiasco, Preacher and the Knife @ 171 Lombardy Street
* The Jaguar Club, My Teenage Stride, pow wow!, Raise High The Roof Beam @ Cake Shop
* Dick Hyman, Ted Rosenthal, Aaron Diehl, Mike Lipskin, Ethan Iverson, Spike Wilner @ Smalls
* Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Depreciation Guild @ Webster
* Bling Kong, Motel Motel, Arms, Noel Heroux & Paul Holmes, Holas, Ivana XL, Grub Animal @ The Bell House
* WFMU Fest w/ Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Sightings, Drunkdriver, Talk Normal @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

The Antlers are currently on tour with Holly Miranda. They play Maxwell's tonight with Family Of The Year. You can also see the Antlers on October 20th at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Sightings, Drunkdriver and Talk Normal play the WFMU Fest at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Last night Pissed Jeans was the headliner of the same festival at the same venue. The night before that was Faust.

Chain and the Gang was supposed to play Market Hotel - the show's now at 171 Lombardy Street...

...a wonderful, big (but cozy) new space in a dramatic location w/ a beautiful roof patio overlooking the Midtown skyline, the Greenpoint industrial district & the Kosciusko Bridge -PLUS- it's air conditioned & heated & has a killer soundsystem & great dance floor lights & no neighbors. Djs outside on the patio if it's warm / dry enough! - Todd P

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band do Born In The USA at Giants Stadium tonight.

Micachu & The Shapes join ACME at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Last night they were at Littlefield. The night before that we hosted them at Pop Montreal which is still going on up in Canada all this weekend.

Speaking of going on this weekend, ACL is happening in Austin.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Cymbals Eat Guitars and The Depreciation Guild perform at Webster Hall. The same local lineup probably wouldn't have sold out Mercury Lounge a year ago.

Canada's Besnard Lakes skip Pop Montreal for NYC this weekend. Tonight they're at Mercury Lounge with Acrylics and The Cinnamon Band.

Lucinda Williams plays two sets, one of which is material only from her 1979-1989 catalogue, at Irving Plaza. Her next two shows cover the following two decades.

NY Burlesque Fest continues, tonight at BB King's.

The Dø follow up their Pop Montreal show with a gig at Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel.

The new season of Saturday Night Live continues tonight with musical guest Lady Gaga.

Tennessee's Cheap Time headlines tonight at Silent Barn (the same venue they played last night) with Sediment Club, Guinea Worms and Uzi Rash.

A video from the recent Coathangers show at Cake Shop, below...

Arctic Monkeys played Last Call Thursday. That and other videos below.....

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"

DOWNLOAD: Coathangers - Toomerhead (MP3)

Coathangers @ Pianos CMJ08 (more by Faith-Ann Young)

The Coathangers are going on tour this October with Japandroids (who will come to NYC on Sept. 24th with Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band). But before those joined dates, The Coathangers will be in NYC for shows of their own on September 29th, when they play Death By Audio's The Maze, and September 30th, when they play Cake Shop. Also on the bill for the Cake Shop gig are DC shoegaze-inspired Prisms and BK's Ex-Humans. For the DBA gig, they'll be joined by '80s-style-punks Xray Eyeballs, a band called Swimmingcitiesoceanofblood (?) and Nervehunt, which features Justin from Teeth Mountain and Ryan Ulsh from Wavves. The gig will be Nervehunt's first show in a while (Flickr has a pic and a brief, blurry video of a show, apparently of them, at the Charleston last year).

Ryan Ulsh was the drummer of WAVVES that you might most remember from his appearance with Nathan at this year's Primavera Festival. Not surprisingly, things didn't work out between him and Nathan, and now the prolific Zach Hill (of Hella, etc.) is playing in WAVVES.

WAVVES' fall tour with new drummer Zach is also happening soon. The pair will play NYC shows at Santos Party House on Thursday, September 24th (tickets still on sale) and a Todd P show, now confirmed for Market Hotel, on Friday, Sept. 25th. Support for both comes from Ganglians, with Beach Fossils also playing the Market Hotel show.

"Toomerhead," the opening, dance-punk-sounding track to the Coathangers' newest record, Scramble, which came out in April, is posted above. An interview with the band from last year and a clip of them live in Vancouver (with an incredibly strange and extended intro) are posted with all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Coathangers touring (dates), Zach Hill in WAVVES (Market Hotel show confirmed), Ryan from WAVVES in Nervehunt"

Sam Hillmer (left) playing with Zs @ the Yard (more by Sarahana)

You Are Here (The Maze) is a performance festival in a sculptural maze taking place at Williamsburg's Death By Audio from September 10 - October 2, 2009. Emphasizing the sprawling and interconnected nature of New York's underground, a trip through the maze offers a peak inside NYC's diy art/music scene. A meditation on passage and desire, You Are Here engulfs the space and presents beckoning inhabitants, dead ends, and uplifting epitaphs. Medium and genre vary and overlapping and simultaneous performances are frequent, each performer establishing a different corner or dead end as his or hers.

Skeletons kick off the first night of the festival on September 10th as the Skeletons Big Band, a 12-piece band (expanded from their usual four) that's also playing September 7-9th at Roulette. There they'll be performing "New Works for a Larger Ensemble" which includes "excerpts and new arrangements from their record in progress "PEOPLE," a long form piece based around conversations in Greyhound busses and stations, and beyond..."

The full schedule for the Maze (and the lineup for Skeletons Big Band) is below...

Continue reading "Death By Audio's The Maze - schedule (includes 1 of 4 upcoming Skeletons Big Band shows & much more) "

Remember Death By Audio's 12-hour benefit on July 25th for something called You Are Here: A Maze?

Sam Hillmer & Laura Paris, who dubbed their art collaboration Trouble, had the first You Are Here festival in 2007, at 44th street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Paris drew out the floor-plan of the maze, while Hillmer, who plays tenor saxophone for the Zs, booked bands to play in the space and coordinated efforts to bring people inside to interact with the maze.

"It didn't seem like the kind of thing that could just sit in a gallery, it needs constant traffic," Hillmer explained. "That is the piece, people dealing with the situation [presented by the maze]."

This year's festival, scheduled for Spetember 10th through October 2nd, will take up the entire space of Death by Audio and feature a maze constructed out of salvaged doors from Built It Green, a nonprofit organization that sells surplus building materials. The space will also have woodchip-covered floors ("to reference mazes built out of bushes," Hillmer notes). The twists and turns of the venue will be littered by some 200 of Paris' sculptures, molded from some of her pieces and then cast repeatedly. [Greenpoint Gazette]

The preliminary lineup (aka almost a month's worth of shows at the venue while the maze is up) mixes interesting out of town names (Calvin Johnson, Ty Segal, The Coathangers) with local acts like Skeletons (as 'Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities'), Mick Barr (he is local right?), Extra life and Stars Like Fleas. Full lineup to be announced soon but more of it is below, along with video footage of the first Maze (starring Dave Longstreth, Thee Oh Sees and others), and other details and the flyer for the new Maze...

Continue reading "Death by Audio maze installation running Sept 10-Oct 2 (Skeletons, Mick Barr, Calvin Johnson, Extra Life, Ty Segall)"

Japandroids, who played last weekend in NYC and are appearing at Siren Fest in Coney Island this Saturday, have announced a two-month North American tour this fall. The trip includes a Thursday, September 24th show at the Mercury Lounge. Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 16th at noon.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band will share the bill at that show and others. The Coathangers, who came to NYC in June, are another band opening a set of dates. All dates below...

Continue reading "Japandroids - 2009 tour dates (Siren Fest, Mercury Lounge) "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: The Strange Boys - Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up (MP3)

Strange Boys...

The Saturday, June 13th show at the Market Hotel seemed to be running pretty closely on schedule. Unfortunately, that meant I missed the sets by Fiasco, Germs (MIA) (a Germs cover band) and most of Atlanta's Coathangers. What I did hear from that last band was loud and brisk and definitely put them on my must-see list for the next time they're in town.

Closing the night were Austin's The Strange Boys and L.A. band Mika Miko, who have been on tour together since the beginning of June (they also played a show on Sunday at Tilden Beach - more pics HERE, and later Sunday night at the Cake Shop, and travel together through the month).

The Strange Boys clicked through a set of blues-tinged garage rock that filtered its sound through the sun-baked expanses of the South. Singer Ryan Sambol's voice croaked through the band's twangy guitars and distorted swampy ambiance. The guys played a straight-ahead cover of Creedence's "Lodi," which garnered catcalls throughout the set for more CCR. At one point, Jenna from Mika Miko jumped in for a sax solo that squonked clean through the roar of the band.

Beer flew through the air for Mika Miko's set. Even before it started, someone spilled a beer on Michelle Suarez's guitar amp, forcing her to borrow another. Shortly after the band kicked things off, someone in front blew their foamy Bud into the crowd, covering most of Mika Miko and those around. Not taking any shit, singer Jennifer Clavin confiscated the offending drink and took a swig. Besides the beer, there was also a lot of sweat in the room, which lubricated the room's moving bodies. On stage, Mika Miko inflected garage punk forms (mined minutes earlier) with the flavor of post-punks like Wire and SoCal trio the Minutemen (who themselves covered CCR). Mic troubles were certainly forgivable in the context (lots of people falling on the stage) -- you can't really tell what they're saying anyway. An encore finished out the night.

More pictures and tour dates below...

Continue reading "the Strange Boys, Mika Miko @ Market Hotel, Brooklyn - pics "

Sunday June 14th @ FORT TILDEN BEACH
:: FREE ALL AGES UNAMPLIFIED ACOUSTIC BBQ 2009
:: each year we throw an informal, quiet party in a beautiful public place, w/
:: many diverse musicians playing two or three songs w/ no amplification
:: this year, it's on Fort Tilden Beach in the Rockways! best beach in NYC! [Todd P]

Continue reading "Todd P's UNAMPLIFIED ACOUSTIC BBQ 2009 (at Fort Tilden)"

a shot from Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)

The Sled Island Music and Arts Festival -- taking place at various venues in Calgary, Alberta from June 24 to June 27 -- is pleased to announce the initial line-up and the inclusion of Olympic Plaza as the main venue on Friday, June 26. This year will include over 200 bands performing at 23 venues plus art shows, film screenings, and a comedy component at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.

Sled Island 2009 will feature performances by the influential indie rock darlings The Breeders (featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies) making their first Calgary performance, NYC post-punk revivalists Liars bringing the noise, the legendary Canadian metal band Anvil the recent subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil and the garage rock assault of Tel Aviv's Monotonix known for their incredible live show. New Orleans-based musician and mad genius inventor of the 'drum buddy' Quintron & Ms. Pussycat will bring the party along with blood-soaked party rocker Andrew W.K. and Toronto-based electro tour-de-force Holy Fuck on the more 'offensive' front. Phil Elverum's (of The Microphones) latest moniker Mount Eerie will deliver a symbiotic balance of fuzz and folk matched by Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy surrealist violin stage performance. Calgary-based experimental icons Azeda Booth aim to mystify crowds along with their all-male psychedelic pop counterparts Women making their second festival appearance...The complete festival line-up and schedule will be revealed on June 1. [pr]

As previously reported, Colin Newman, vocalist and guitarist for Wire, will be guest curating this year's festival. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Sled Island - 2009 fest lineup (Breeders, Liars, Anvil & more) "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: The Strange Boys - Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Mika Miko - Capricorinations (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fiasco/Banzai split EP (ZIP)

The Coathangers @ Pianos (more by Faith-Ann Young)

Mika Miko, the Strange Boys, the Coathangers and Fiasco all converge in New York City for a Saturday, June 13th show at the Market Hotel.

I say converge because that show is part of the Mika Miko/Strange Boys tour that'll be cutting across the US in June. The Coathangers share the bill on some dates. That's until July, when the Strange Boys switch ships and continue on the road with just the Coathangers. All details below.

The Coathangers, who releaed their third record, Scramble, on Suicide Squeeze in early April, also play another NYC show on Sunday, June 14th at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery with Ex Humans, K-Holes, DJ Aliz. The same Sunday, Mika Miko and the Strange Boys will venture into Manhattan for a show at the Cake Shop.

Both mentioned Brooklyn shows happen during the Northside Festival.

Strange Boys' debut record, And Girls Club, came out in March on In the Red. Mika Miko's newest, We Be Xuxa, is coming out May 5th on Post Present Medium.

Fiasco doesn't have a new record -- though in January '09 they did release a free, split, two-song EP (with NYC band Banzai) called Fabulous Bozo, where both bands cover the NYC band Snuffy. It's available courtesy of Beautiful Records for free (zip file above). Fiasco is also playing this year's Citysol Festival at Stuyvesant Cove Park on Tuesday, July 7th in July. Carebears on Fire played Citysol in 2008.

All tour dates, with videos of all four bands at SXSW '09, below...

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