There were plenty of opportunities, but I only caught Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel's new band She & Him once during SXSW. It was a short, but sweet free outdoor performance and interview on Friday afternoon (March 14th). The whole thing was streamed on MPR too, and you can listen in their archives.

The performance was approximately their sixth-ever live show (as you can hear them say in the stream). One of their first was in San Francisco earlier in the month at Noise Pop. One of their next is May 18th at the Great Meadow Fort Mason in San Francisco too, and strangely Zooey has this coming up at Glasslands in Brooklyn too.....

MONDAY MARCH 24TH 8PM $5 21+ (tickets at door night of)

GlassLands is usually closed on Mondays but will open for this special concert!
ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Featuring Ambrosia Parsley of Shivaree,Dave Palmer, The elegant two, plus surprise guests)
Opener Cameron Hull

Continue reading "Zooey Deschanel playing Brooklyn ++ She & Him SXSW pics"

Bon Iver @ Bowery Ballroom, NY, NY - Feb 22, 2008 (Jason Bergman)

Bon Iver @ Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn, NY - Feb 23, 2008 (Tod Seelie)

Bon Iver just played 3 NYC shows. Black Mountain headlined two of them. BV mostly-metal contributor Black Bubblegum was at the Bowery show. Here's what he had to say...

I came there for Black Mountain... I can't lie. They were fantastic. Stephen McBean's guitar tone brought to mind Tony Iommi and Amber Webber did her best Grace Slick. They killed and so does "In The Future".

What surprised me was the stunning power of Bon Iver! Every ounce of greatness that "For Emma...." evokes was matched on the Bowery stage. The disheveled Justin Vernon had the ladies swaying and singing quietly, some holding cameras up to capture the whole set on video (links to those?). Vernon and his bandmates du jour were dead on. "The Wolves (Act I and II)" was easily the highlight, with a Mogwai-like crescendo as the crowd built upon the "what might have been lost" chorus. I have the digital version of "For Emma..." but I decided that I needed the vinyl.

Continue reading "Bon Iver & Black Mountain @ Glasslands & Bowery Ballroom "

The new NPR Music website is pretty cool. KEXP, The Current, WNYC and more. Streaming concerts. Studio Sessions. Even blogs - one of which is by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney...

Song stuck in my head: Theme from "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
Maybe because it's the only aspect of the current season that isn't brutal. And it's the only part of the show I can repeat out loud without offending anyone.
Most recent album I learned to love only by listening to it as background music: The National's Boxer [Carrie]