photos by Chris La Putt, words by Bill Pearis

Last night (2/6), Irving Plaza was witness to call-and-response sing-a-longs with the audience, epic guitar solos played while riding a roadie through the crowd, and a trust fall into the congregation. And that was just one song. It could only be The Darkness.

This was the second of two nights at Irving, their first NYC shows in five years or so. (We have pictures from Saturday too.) It was also after that Superbowl ad thrust the band back into public conscious, but it didn't seem like anyone there had forgotten about them. This crowd -- which included Dee Snider -- was primed to rawk and frontman Justin Hawkins had them eating out of the palm of his hand. When he yelled "I wanna see some thumbs!" we instantly obliged.

The Darkness are masters of this kind of schtick (that also included costume changes and headstands), as rehearsed as every twin lead, but it's performed with feeling. More than a feeling, even. We got the exact same 23-song setlist as Saturday night (probably the whole tour), which included the entirety of their 2003 debut Permission to Land, two songs from its overblown follow-up, One Way Ticket to Hell(and Back), some choice b-sides (the great "Best of Me"), and a handful of songs from their just-finished third album, due out sometime this year.

Of the new material, new single "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" stood out, as did the Thin Lizzy-ish "She's Just a Girl, Eddy." I was actually hoping we'd get more of the second album than we did, as I think its problems aren't so much the songs as the production and mixing which accenuated The Darkness' excessive qualities. We got its title track and "Is it Just Me" but I really wanted the Celtic, Slade-style stomper "Hazel Eyes" which is my personal favorite from that album.

But it was the Permission to Land stuff that really killed, from set-and-album opener "Black Shuck" to singles "Growing on Me," and "Love is Only a Feeling" and shoulda-been single "Friday Night," masturbatory ballad "Holding My Own" (performed, ahem, solo acoustic), and their hit "I Believe in a Thing Called Love."

The quarter of the crowd that left after that one missed the epic show-closer "Love on the Rocks (with No Ice)" which the band stretched to 15 minutes thanks to the insanity mentioned in the first paragraph. I'm happy to report that Hawkins' falsetto, so integral (like it or not) to the album, is still in fine form. The whole band was in fine form and benefit from the hardly-partying lifestyle they've adopted. As the band left the stage, Hawkins announced "See you in a few months" and it seems the world may actually be ready and willing for a return.

Click through for lots more photos from the show, including a few from openers Foxy Shazam and Crown Jewel Defense. The Darkness play Philadelphia tonight (2/7), and all upcoming dates are below as well.

Continue reading "The Darkness played Irving Plaza again w/ Foxy Shazam --- night 2 pics/setlist/review"

by Ryan Barkan

The Darkness played a Superbowl commercial

Another Super Bowl, another year where the Cowboys didn't win, and another year of music-filled commercials. The Patriots entered the field to "Crazy Train" by English metal god Ozzy Osbourne (who is currently having a feud of his own with an old bandmate). The Giants entered to "Written in the Stars" by English rapper Tinie Tempah.

Did you catch that map of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the Samsung commercial for their Galaxy (with stylus!)? You know, the one that had a sweet use of The Darkness jam "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"? Yeah, it was there and showed a close up of Berry and N. 1st in Google Maps. Did I mention they also have a stylus? The Darkness are currently in NYC, played Irving Plaza on Superbowl eve and do so again tonight (2/6). Watch the ad which stars the band's Justin Hawkins, below.

My personal favorite music-based commercial of Super Bowl XLVI goes to the Mr. Sandman-induced dream sequence in a new Kia commercial that featured two great music choices.

The spot starts with the Chordettes' "Mr. Sandman" for the first few seconds of the commercial. That song makes way for something completely different, like Motley Crüe. The band actually shows up and plays inside the race track-themed dream of the alpha male hero. He drives the track to impress Adrianna Lima while the Crüe shred on "Kickstart My Heart". Watch "A Dream Car For Real Life" below.

In the "did I just hear Megafaun in a commercial" category, Megafaun wins one for the little guys and gets a song used in a new Toyota ad. The band's song "Hope You Know" sounds super good as the soundtrack to a story-esque spot for the Camry model. Watch it below.

Also of significant note was another brand-infused OK GO music video. The band collaborated with Chevrolet to make a commercial/music video for the song "Needing/Getting", off the 2010 album Of The Blue Colour Of the Sky. The band is filmed strapped inside a Chevy Sonic, singing and utilizing both the car and a strategically placed course sprinkled with over 1100 instruments that more or less sound like the studio version of the song. The set up is meticulous, as is the band's ability to show up in a paid advertisement in an easily-digestible, yet very memorable way.

My single most favorite lyric placed in a Super Bowl commercial goes to the lines I know it must be killing time / unknowingly mine. Audi tries to end the whole Vampire craze with its 2012 game day commercial featuring Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Moon." Watch below.

continued below...

Continue reading "music & commercials of Super Bowl XLVI (Darkness, Motley Crue, Megafaun, Art Brut, OK Go, Echo & the Bunnymen, Madonna & more)"

photos by Chris La Putt

"The Darkness at Irving. Hope to have as much fun doing anything ever as these guys have on stage." - Sloane Crosley

The Darkness, and opener Foxy Shazam, played their first of two shows at Irving Plaza in NYC on Saturday night (2/4), part of a tour that continues with another Irving Plaza show on Monday (tickets). We'll have a full report after Monday's show. For now here are some pictures from last night. They continue with the setlist below...

Continue reading "The Darkness played Irving Plaza (night 1 pics & setlist)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Hospitality - Friends of Friends (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Big Sleep - Valentine (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Big Sleep - Ace (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Moonmen on the Moon, Man - Hey Look, a Sweat Baloon Artist (MP3)

Hospitality (photo by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Happy Groundhog Day folks. As you may have heard, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so we're getting six more weeks of winter. If that means the kind of winter we've had so far, I'm okay with that. I'm much more likely to head out and go see shows when not faced with the dreaded wintry mix. And there's lots of good shows this weekend, so let's get out there.

First up, the Hospitality record release party at Glasslands this Friday (2/3) (tickets still available). Their album came out this week on Merge, and I think makes a great case for not rushing things. Hospitality started playing about three years ago and released a CDR EP in the spring of 2009 that got them some notice. Most bands would've had an album out by the end of the year, but Hospitality took their time, honed their craft and became a really great live band. And the album is terrific, not a bad song in the bunch; winsome but there's some muscle in there too. You can stream the whole shebang at Merge's website or with Spotify.

The record release party also Glass Ghost and Dustin Wong on the bill. The band are also heading out on a quick tour of both coasts and will be in Austin for SXSW. All scheduled tour dates are below.

The Darkness

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum are The Darkness who are back for their first US tour in six years, playing Irving Plaza on Saturday (2/4, sold out) and Monday (2/6, still available). As stated before, I'm a huge fan of the Darkness' first album, 2003's near-perfect Permission to Land, which I picked as one of the best of the '00s. As a pop album. Justin Hawkins knows his way around a giant hook. After the overblown excesses of One Way Ticket to Hell (And Back) and Justin Hawkins' ill-advised Sunset Strip spandex group Hot Leg, the band seem to be back on track with new single "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" which is a little more in the "Growing on Me" vein.

The Darkness' show at Bowery Ballroom back in 2003 was one of the most fun shows I've been to in the last ten years, and from YouTube footage of recent shows it looks like they've still got it. They are a kick-ass live band -- it takes skill to play "I Believe in a Thing Called Love's" solo whilst riding on your roadie's shoulders through the audience. (I hope they're still doing that.) Tickets are still available for Monday's show.

The Big Sleep

Hospitality aren't the only ones with a record release party this week. The Big Sleep released The Nature Experiments this week, their first album in four years and their record release show is tonight (2/2) at Knitting Factory. It might be their most melodic record to date, with more songs that have caught my ear on first listen than I remember them doing before. You can download two of the album's best tracks at the top of this post and the listen to the entire album at Spotify. The Big Sleep are touring as well, and all dates are at the bottom of this post.

Moonmen on the Moon, Man

Still more record release party fun: Tomorrow night (2/3) at Cake Shop is a dual record release party for Moonmen on the Moon, Man and Glass Anchors who both have record coming out on the venue's subsidary Cape Shok label which finally seems to be in gear after a lot of promise but inactivity. MMotMM, which might feature members who work or even own Cake Shop, rock in an late-'80s/early-90s college radio kind of way. Their endearingly sloppy pop -- with a little punk and twang -- woulda been right at home on, say, Frontier Records, nestled in amongst Flop and Thin White Rope and Redd Kross. You can download a track from the EP at the top of this post.

Glass Anchors is the musical project of songwriter Annie Sicherman who I admit to not knowing much about but her Cape Shok EP is lovely, dusty folk pop. Says the press release:

Honing her songs in various bands over various years, soaring songstress Annie Sicherman brings us GLASS ANCHORS. The songs on her fledgling EP are plaintive, reflective, honest, and good. GLASS ANCHORS sounds best tearing up road (preferably dirt), the one to oblivion - right after you ended the longest relationship you ever had, the one you thought would last, the one with the proposal. That road can be in your head, but certainly GLASS ANCHORS has the ability to take you there every time... with Glass Anchors, we have the real Annie 3000%, no matter what road you're on.

You can stream Glass Anchors' EP at the bottom of this post. The Cake Shop show also features Bright Lights, Overlord and Fergus & Geronimo.

That's the big stuff this week. A few more picks, day-by-day, are below of things not already covered here.

Classixx

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2

LA's Classixx play the Popshop party at Santos with Workout and The French Horn Rebellion. You may know Classix from their remixes, like the excelent one they did for Phoenix's "Lisztomania." The group's new single is out this summer on a new label that's a joint venture from the Kitsune Maison folks and, I'm not kidding, the Cobrasnake.

Spacecamp, Mon Khmer, Romans and Skaters are at Bowery Electric. Spacecamp's new EP is pretty good, especially if you like a little Police in your pop rocks.

The Death Set, who I haven't seen play since maybe SXSW 2008, are at the Delancey. Always fun live.

continued below...

Continue reading "Hospitality, The Darkness, The Big Sleep, Moonmen on the Moon Man, Glass Anchors & more in This Week in Indie"

by Bill Pearis

The Darkness have just released their first new material in seven years, in the form of single "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" which is not, thankfully, a cover of the Starship song. It is however, and probably goes without saying, a rocker and reasonably restrained, at least compared to The Darkness' second album. And pretty good! You can download the single for free at the band's website and watch its cool, animated video at the bottom of this post.

The single is timed to coincide with the launch of The Darkness' North American tour that kicks off tonight in Toronto. While their show at Irving Plaza on Saturday night (2/4) is sold out, the band added a second Irving show on Monday (2/6) to which tickets are still available. All Darkness tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Continue reading "The Darkness release new single & video; begin tour tonight"

The Darkness, who are planning a new album and tour for 2012, have added a second NYC date to their tour which already includes the sold out Irving Plaza show on February 4. The new show will be happening at the same venue two days later (2/6). Tickets are on sale now.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "The Darkness added a 2nd NYC show (updated dates)"

by Bill Pearis

Oh happy day! The Darkness are coming back to America in early 2012, including a February 4 stop at Irving Plaza. (No on-sale date yet.) A full list of North American tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

We haven't had The Darkness on these shores in at least five years around the time the band was promoting their overblown second album One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back. Due to rock n' roll problems, the band didn't last much longer. Bassist Frankie Poulain left in 2005, and frontman/songwriter Justin Hawkins quit the following year after a stint in rehab. The remaining members of The Darkness continued on as the Stone Gods and Hawkins formed the more latex glam Hot Leg who played SXSW in 2009. In March of this year, the original line-up of The Darkness reformed, started playing shows and announced they were working on a new album.

That album is part of the reason why they're touring. Hawkins tells Rolling Stone that the band are going to Nashville in January to record a few more songs. The tour in February will unleash a few of those new tracks, as well as the entirety of the band's fantastic 2003 debut Permission to Land, which this writer considers to be a genuine classic, one of my favorites of the '00s:

Clearly you don't wear spandex cat suits, sing in a Tiny Tim falsetto and write a love song to a genital wart ("Growing On Me") and not understand irony, but it was clear singer/guitarist/songwriter Justin Hawkins loves this stuff. Part Thin Lizzy riff rock boogie, part Queen flamboyance, Permission to Land is all hits, start to finish. (If you can get past Justin Hawkins' falsetto.) And some of the most inspired, melodically-driven guitar solos (some songs have three) on any album of the last 20 years. Plus "Friday Night" which could almost be a Pulp song. And hilariously insane videos (especially "Growing on Me".) It all went up Hawkins' nose on the overblown second album, but Permission to Land is brilliant.

I still wear my Darkness t-shirt that I got free with purchase of the Permission to Land CD at Virgin Times Square and count their September 2003 show at Bowery Ballroom as one of the most fun of the last ten years.

Tour dates and some of their classic Permission to Land videos are below.

Continue reading "The Darkness are back -- new album coming, tour announced"

by Bill Pearis

I saw upwards of 50 bands during the four days of SXSW. These were the most memorable. I think.

--

1. Pete and the Pirates (Emo's Annex, 3.20.2009)

Easily the best band I saw at SxSW this year. Of course, as their album Little Death made my Best of 2008, I already had a predilection to like them but Pete and the Pirates so nailed their great songs live -- the harmonies, the guitar interplay, everything -- that I just had a big grin on my face the whole time. My only regret: not seeing them more than once.

Continue reading "Bill's Top 10 SXSW 2009 highlights (with pics, videos)"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Hot Legs @ the SPIN party @ Stubb's in Austin - March 20, 2009

AUSTRALIA's THE AGE's SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST BREAKDOWN

Bizarre supergroup: Tinted Windows features members of Hanson, Cheap Trick, Smashing Pumpkins and Fountains of Wayne playing catchy guitar-pop.

The pin-up: Sienna-lookalike Little Boots combines pre-recorded beats with synth and live drummer.

Commercial breakthrough: Cutesy New Yorkers Chairlift are already featured on an iPod ad.

Novelty act: Hot Leg is the new 1980s hair-metal project for Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins.

Critical darlings: UK act Mumford and Sons and their four-part harmonies.

Stadium potential: London goths White Lies attempt to merge U2 and the Killers. Playing Splendour in the Grass.

Crowd favourite: Boston act Passion Pit -- big on hand claps and synths.

Best new band name: Airborne Toxic Event have just signed to Universal and combine Bruce Springsteen and the Hold Steady.

The novelty act played two shows (that I know of) at SXSW this past week. There was the Friday afternoon SPIN party (pictured above), and the 11pm set at Emo's Annex the next night. I caught the latter which satisfied my need to see the leader of the Darkness's new band at least once. I doubt i would go see them again, or even really listen to more than maybe a single, but they were fun, and they shred on guitar.

More pictures Jacob took on Friday, below...

Continue reading "SXSW 2009 - Day 3 in photos by Jacob"

Meat Puppets @ ATP NY 2008 (more by Abbey Braden)

Stubb's in Austin is like Roseland Ballroom in NYC, except it's outdoors, it's conveniently located downtown near all the other venues, and you actually want to go see shows there (in my experience anyway). A lot of the "big" SXSW shows happen there. Last year Stubb's hosted R.E.M. and Motorhead. Metallica is still rumored to be playing there on the Friday night (which may or may not be the same show Jane's Addiction is or isn't playing). It's where the Decemberists will play their new album for the first time on that Wednesday, and it's where Andrew Bird is playing on the Thursday. PJ Harvey plays there that Saturday.

Each Stubb's bill has up to seven artists, and I think more than any other venue, they put together some... interesting combinations. Gomez is playing before Andrew Bird who is playing before Ben Harper. PJ Harvey and John Parrish are opening for... The Indigo Girls who are opening for... Third Eye Blind. AND, last but not least, The Meat Puppets are playing after... KATY PERRY. View the whole schedule, as it currently stands, at SXSW's site.

There are a couple of other big bands playing SXSW this year that I wanted to mention. The first is New York Dolls - they're playing Friday March 20th at 12:30 AM at Smokin' Music. The second is Echo and the Bunnymen - the UK band that recently headlined Radio City Music Hall have THREE official showcases scheduled in Austin, and they're scheduled to play the annual SPIN party at the 2500 (approx)-capacity Stubb's on Friday, March 20th, in the afternoon. Glasvegas, Passion Pit, Hot Leg (Justin Hawkins from the Darkness), Black Lips, and Cut Off Your Hands are also on SPIN's (invite only) bill.

Hot Leg also plays an official showcase Saturday night at Emo's Annex.
Videos below...

Full SXSW schedule at SXSW's site.
Lots more SXSW coverage right here at BrooklynVegan.

Continue reading "Katy Perry vs. Meat Puppets -- Stubb's -- New York Dolls, Echo & the Bunnymen, Hot Leg and other SXSW stuff"

FOC @ SXSW 2006 (CRED)

If you've been to SXSW, this documentary is hilarious. If you like Flight of the Conchords, this documentary is hilarious. If you haven't been to SXSW, this documentary is still hilarious, but also educational (in that it will give you some idea of what it's like to go). If you hate Flight of the Conchords, maybe don't watch...

Continue reading "Flight of the Conchords @ SXSW - a documentary (video)"