by BBG

The Hold Steady inject another 1.21 jigowatts of electricity into "The Power of Love", the 80s Back to The Future soundtrack fave by Huey Lewis & The News. Check out an AV Club video of The Hold Steady's doing a boozy, Stones-influenced version below, and look for The Hold Steady on the road in late September, including at the Popped! festival in Philadelphia.

The Hold Steady just finished a run of dates with The Donkeys who will play Knitting Factory in Brooklyn TONIGHT (9/2) with The Latebirds and Brooklyn's own Dinosaur Feathers. Tickets are still available.

The show is one of a select few dates for The Latebirds, who are touring in support of the US release of their new LP Last Of The Good Ol' Days (out now). If you just take the band's clearly American-sound for granted, you might not realize that The Latebirds are actually from Finland....

Blurt -Online: Americana really informs much of the sound.

Latebird Markus Nordenstreng: My first introduction to rock music came from Bruce Springsteen when I was eleven years old and that's when I got plugged into the great amp of life, as they say. I became a big fan of American popular culture, from Jack Kerouac to John Coltrane, from Hank Williams to Bob Dylan, from Paul Auster to Patti Smith, from Peckinpah to Scorsese, from the MC5 to Snoop Dogg, from Mother Maybelle to Marlon Brando. I think there is a common thread all along.
In the past ten years I've spent lots of time in the U.S. - not only touring or recording with the Latebirds, but on my own as well. I prefer spending my winters in Southern California instead of Southern Finland for sure...

All Latebirds and Hold Steady dates, plus that video and some other goodies are below.

Continue reading "The Hold Steady covered Huey Lewis (video), The Latebirds are on tour (play Brooklyn w/ The Donkeys tonight)"

DOWNLOAD: The Donkeys - "I Like the Way You Walk" (MP3)

The Donkeys at BV SXSW Party in 2009 (more by Leia Jospe)

The Donkeys are on tour in support of their recently released album Born With Stripes. That tour arrives at BAR in New Haven, CT tonight, 5/25, with fellow California psych-poppers and Dead Oceans labelmates Citay (who just covered Mission of Burma at Bowery Ballroom on Sunday). Thursday (5/26) both bands play Cake Shop, and The Donkeys play The Rock Shop Friday (5/27) with support from Snowmine (who play Rooftop Films on June 3) (Rooftop Films hosts Silver Swans at a rescheduled show tonight).

The Donkeys released a music video for the single "Don't Know Who We Are" off Born With Stripes. The video was directed by Jeff Lowe. Watch it below. Download the song HERE. You can also download another cut from the album, "I Like the Way You Walk," above.

The Donkeys also open for The Hold Steady on a few dates of their late August tour which just went on pre-sale. No NYC date has been announced but Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady plays Dylan Fest this Friday. Dylan turned 70 yesterday (5/24).

All tour dates and a video below...

Continue reading "The Donkeys are on tour, playing shows with Citay, and some with the Hold Steady (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: The Donkeys - Don't Know Who We Are (MP3)

San Diego's The Donkeys (who some might know as Geronimo Jackson) (not to be confused with Fergus & Geronimo) will release their new full-length album, Born With Stripes, via Dead Oceans on April 26th. You can listen to the first single from the 12-track LP for the first time right here. Download the jam, "Don't Know Who We Are" (insert Lost joke here), above. Stream it below.

The album was mixed by Pernice Brothers' Thom Monahan, "whose involvement not only gives us the crispest, warmest Donkeys recordings to date, it also serves to remind us of the band's loose connections to an array of psych-dappled kindred spirits: Vetiver, Papercuts, Brightblack Morning Light, Devendra Banhart," says the label.

The band was last in NYC in July 2009 which was the same year they played a BV party at SXSW. Hopefully they return to both places soon, but for now all they have scheduled are a few California dates.

Those dates, the song stream, album cover art, and tracklisting, below...

Continue reading "The Donkeys announce 'Born With Stripes' (MP3 premiere)"

DOWNLOAD: Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine (MP3)

The Donkeys @ Radio Room in Austin (a BV SXSW party) (more by Leia Jospe)

"We are proud to announce the first details of Magnolia Electric Co.'s Josephine (released July 21 in the US and July 20 in the UK), the prolific band's first longplayer since 2006. Josephine is a weighty, mature album about real loss and dislocation, bringing forth a more minimalist aesthetic than the band has attempted to date. For Josephine, the band teamed once again with engineer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago for what proved to be an emotional recording session." [Secretly Canadian]

In support of that new album, Magnolia Electric Co. will be going out on tour with their label-cousins The Donkeys (they're on Dead Oceans) this summer. And though the date has since mysteriously disappeared from Magnolia's list of tour dates, Pitchfork's list did reveal (thanks Eric and Tom) that the bands will be playing a "Pool Party" in Brooklyn, NY on Sunday, July 19th. That said, The Donkeys are listing that they play Union Hall in Park Slope on that date, so maybe it's just Magnolia that play the big, free JellyNYC show in Williamsburg.

New MP3 above. New cover art, track list, and all tour dates below....

Continue reading "Magnolia Electric Co & the Donkeys - new LP, MP3 & 2009 Tour Dates w/ free Williamsburg Waterfront show "

photos by Leia Jospe

These Arms Are Snakes / Thao / Daniel Johnston & Hymns

Thirteen bands were scheduled to play the BrooklynVegan / Agency Group day party in Austin on Thursday, March 19, 2009. Twelve ended up playing - one of them twice. I think the story is that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, who had a zillion other shows also scheduled during the SXSW week, got confused about what their set time was. For that reason (and traffic), they showed up too late to go on in their slot. Instead, The Wheel, who was our last-minute addition as opener on the inside stage, immediately went outside and played a second set on the larger outdoor stage in the late band's place. We got at least one "boo" when the "scheduling mixup" was announced, but what could we do? (sorry!) It was awesome of the Wheel to fill on a moment's notice. Hopefully the people outside enjoyed him after they got over the awkwardness. I didn't watch his second set, but he sounded amazing inside.

Due to overlap on the two stages, it was hard to see everyone that played the party. The most painful two decisions were Cursive or the Wrens, and These Arms or Snakes or Daniel Johnston. I think we originally had it worked out a little better in terms of that, but the main stage started to run late. I went back and forth and caught pieces of as much as I could (and all of Daniel).

Thanks to everyone who came!

Leia managed to catch 8 of the 12 bands (she missed The Wheel, Avett Brothers, New Villager and Au Revoir Simone). Her pictures are below...

Continue reading "BV day party @ Radio Room in Austin - pics by Leia "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Asthmatic Kitty, K Records, Tomlab SXSW 2009 All Star Revue Mixtape (MP3)

Tomlab SXSW Mixtape Tracklist (mixed by Rafter)
No Kids - Prisoner of Desire
Fol Chen - Cable TV
LAKE - Blue Ocean Blue
Jeremy Jay - Gallop
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Old Panda Days
What's Up - Seasonings Greetings
Grampall Jookabox - The One Thing
Parenthetical Girls - GUT Symmetries (Deerhoof Remix)
Rafter - No Fucking Around
Desolation Wilderness - No Tomorrow
DM Stith - Thanksgiving Moon
Tara Jane ONeil - Believe

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (Owen Ashworth) just finished playing a bunch of shows at SXSW this past week (his "HELL WEEK" TEXAS TOUR). If you're in Austin, you may have caught him last night (3/19) at Ms Bea's free Todd P patio party.

In April, Cftpa will tour Europe on the "'VS. CHILDREN VS. EUROPE' FULL BAND TOUR" in support of new album Vs. Children, out in early April on Tomlab. The record will be Ashworth's first new-material LP since 2006's Etiquette (see art and track list for the new record below). The label also just released a Casiotone "singles, covers, collaborations, & other rarities" record, Advance Base Battery Life, in early March.

Cftpa returns to the States in June/July for dates that include a Friday, July 3rd, Market Hotel show with Cryptacize.

The Donkeys, who sometimes tour as Casiotone's backup band (not sure if that's the case on any of the upcoming dates), played the BV day party on Thursday.

All tour dates, and Vs. Children artwork (by Heidi Anderson) and track list, below...

Continue reading "Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - 2 new CDs, Tomlab SXSW Mixtape, 2009 Tour Dates (Market Hotel)"

DOWNLOAD: The Donkeys - Walk Through A Cloud (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Donkeys - Nice Train (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Wallpaper remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Daniel Johnston - Honey I Sure Miss You (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Daniel Johnston - Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Your Grievances
DOWNLOAD: These Arms Are Snakes - Red Line Season (MP3)

This free BrooklynVegan show takes place on two stages at Radio Room in Austin, Texas this Thursday afternoon, March 19, 2009 from noon-6pm. Set times, more info, and answers to (hopefully) all FAQ's below...

Continue reading "Brooklyn Vegan & Agency Group Austin day party lineup"