The 2013 ACL Festival happens in Austin, TX on two consecutive weekends: October 4 - 6 and October 11 - 13. Weekend passes are on sale now and the full line-up is below...

Continue reading "2013 ACL Music Fest lineup announced (Depeche Mode, The Cure, Atoms for Peace, The National, Vampire Weekend + more)"

Bumbershoot is returning to Seattle this year from August 31 to September 2 at Seattle Center. This year's lineup was just announced, and it includes Death Cab for Cutie performing Transatlanticism (in case The Postal Service reuniting wasn't enough Ben Gibbard nostalgia for you), Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, The Breeders, The Zombies, Alt-J, Deerhunter, Baroness, Crystal Castles, Gary Numan, Joey Bada$$, Eric Burdon, Bob Mould, David Bazan, Charli XCX, Redd Kross, The Men and more.

Tickets (3-day passes, 2-day passes, and single day tickets) for the festival are on sale now.

Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Bumbershoot 2013 lineup & tix (Death Cab for Cutie, MGMT, Kendrick Lamar, Breeders, Zombies, Alt-J, Deerhunter & more)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

The Joy Formidable @ Webster Hall

Feisty Welsh trio The Joy Formidable brought their tour with Blood Red Shoes to NYC last week for shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg (4/17) and Webster Hall (4/18). Sets pretty evenly split between both full lengths and their A Balloon Called Moaning EP, ending both shows with big hit, "Whirring." Pictures from the Webster Hall show, including opener You Won't and Joy Formidable's setlist, are in this post. Pictures from the MHOW show are HERE.

More pics and The Joy Formidable's current tour schedule, below...

Continue reading "The Joy Formidable played two NYC shows with Blood Red Shoes (Webster Hall pics, setlist)"

Metallica at Orion 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Metallica held their inaugural Orion Music & More festival in Atlantic City in 2012, and as mentioned, they'll be moving to Detroit for the 2013 installment. It happens from June 8 - 9 in Belle Isle and the lineup was just announced, including headliners Metallica joined by Japandroids, FLAG, Tomahawk, Gogol Bordello, Death Grips, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Deftones, The Dirtbombs, Death, Foals, The Bronx, The Orwells, Red Hot Chili Peppers, FIDLAR, and more. Full lineup below. The announcement includes no word on Metallica playing full albums like they did last year.

Tickets for the festival go on sale to the general public on Friday (3/1) at 10 AM EST with a Met Club presale starting Tuesday (2/26) at 10 AM and an Orion E-list member presale on Wednesday (2/27) at 10 AM.

Continue reading "Metallica announce line-up & tix for Orion Music & More 2013 (Japandroids, FLAG, Tomahawk, Death Grips, RHCP & more)"

Firefly Music Festival 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Dover, DE festival Firefly Music Festival had a great first year in July of 2012, and afterwards immediately announced it'd return in 2013. The 2013 festival happens from June 21 - 23 at the Dover International Speedway, and the lineup was just announced. It includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, The Walkmen, Django Django, Public Enemy, CHVRCHES, Amanda Palmer, Foxygen, Alabama Shakes, Toro y Moi, Dan Deacon, Action Bronson, The Avett Brothers, and more; and the headliners are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Vampire Weekend, and Foster the People. The full lineup is below and you can watch the announcement video at their website. TIckets go on general sale Thursday (2/21).

Firefly happens a couple weeks after NYC festival Governors Ball, which has some lineup similarities (Kendrick Lamar, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, Avett Brothers, etc). That one goes down on Randall's Island from June 7 - 9 and tickets are still available.

Firefly lineup below...

Continue reading "Firefly Music Festival announces 2013 lineup (Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, Japandroids, Tom Petty, RHCP & more)"

by Bill Pearis

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day as you may know. Some folks really enjoy this chance to finally say I love you to that special someone in your life. Others take a more cynical view, echoing the sentiments of Team Spirit's new EP, Love Is For Suckers, which will consists of five garagey covers of classic love songs, mostly '60s pop, but also Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." The EP will be a free download on Valentine's Day but you can stream the whole thing right now, below.

Meanwhile, Team Spirit, the band fronted by former Passion Pit member Ayad Al Adhamy, are readying thier first official release for VICE/Warner Bros. It's a five song EP, out April 9, and you can stream "MRDR It's OK" from it below and check out the very NSFW animated video for "Fuck the Beach."

Team Spirit have a few tour dates coming up, including a stint opening for The Joy Formidable (though not in NYC). All tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Team Spirit releasing free Valentine's Day covers EP (stream it), another EP in April, touring (dates)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

The Foo Fighters with Bob Mould / Joan Jett, Deluna Fest 2012

The Foo Fighters headlined day 2 of the Deluna Fest in Florida (9/22) and while they've been no strangers to giant outdoor shows this summer (like Global Fest which happened this weekend in NYC), this was the only one where they sang happy birthday to Joan Jett who then joined them for "Bad Reputation." She did her own set earlier in the day. Additionally, Bob Mould came out for "Dear Rosemary" and Tom Petty's "Breakdown." Bob played Sugar's Copper Blue on day 3 (which he already did in Brooklyn).

In addition to Grohl & Co, Bad Brains also blessed day 2 (pics) as well as Brass-a-Holics, Saints of Valory, Mike Doughty, OFF!, Band of Horses (who also played Global Fest) and The Joy Formidable who will be touring (and playing NYC) and whose Deluna set photos are here.

Pictures from day 1 of Deluna Fest 2012 are HERE and more day 2 pics are below and

Continue reading "Deluna Fest 2012, day 2 in pics: Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, OFF!, Band of Horses + more (pics)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

The Joy Formidable at Deluna Fest 2012

The Joy Formidable were one of the many bands to play the Deluna Fest in Pensacola Beach, Florida and pictures from their 9/22 set are in this post. (Deluna Fest day 1 pics are here and the rest of day 2 are here.) The rest of North America -- well, select cities at least -- will get a chance to see them when the Welsh band come back to tour in November, including two small shows in NYC: Bowery Hotel on 11/8 and Littlefield on 11/11. No word on advance tickets for Bowery Hotel, but Littlefield tickets go on sale today (10/1) at noon.

A list of all Joy Formidable tour dates and more pics are below...

Continue reading "The Joy Formidable played Deluna Fest, will be back for North American tour in November (pics & dates)"

by Bill Pearis

After busting up the gang in 2000, snarky mid-'90s piano trio Ben Folds Five reunited this year with a new album on the way and a tour, which they're on now. The tour stops at Central Park Summerstage tonight (9/14), their first NYC show in 12 years. Tickets for tonight's show are still available. BFF will also return to the NYC area for a show at Port Chester's Capitol Theatre on October 9 with Kate Miller Heidke (tickets) and a couple days later they will play opening night of New York Comic Con on October 11. Tckets for that are still available too.

Ben Folds Five, best known for their ballad "Brick" back when people still held up lighters at shows (1997), have a new album, The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind, which is their first since 1999 and is out next week (9/18). The record was funded via Pledgemusic and is a little mellower than the bouncy, fuzzy pop of their Clinton-era singles like "Underground" and "The Battle of Who Could Care Less" but his sense of humor seems intact. You can listen to tracks at SPIN, TeamCoco and Rolling Stone.

Ben Folds Five are also playing Florida's Deluna Fest which happens September 21 - 23 in Pensacola Beach, FL and also features Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Bob Mould doing Copper Blue, Diplo, Florence & the Machine, Band of Horses, and many more. Tickets for Deluna Fest are still available and full line-up is below.

A list of all Ben Folds Five dates, a few classic clips and that Deluna Fest lineup are below...

Continue reading "reunited Ben Folds Five releasing LP, playing Central Park (tonight), Comic Con, Deluna Fest (lineup) & other dates"

photos by Chris Graham and Rae Graham

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah/Feist

Before the release of their 2011 album, "Hysterical," Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had been inactive for three years, but they were as lively as ever on Monday afternoon. Blowing through tracks from all three of their albums, Alec Ounsworth and company charged through a set full of guitar-based indie rock that catered heavily towards their fans. But judging by the crowd's response, even those who were unfamiliar with the band were enticed. After playing Sasquatch! 2006 on a much smaller stage, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's triumphant set had the crowd, well, clapping their hands and saying "yeah!"

Mogwai (who have upcoming shows with Balam Acab) were supposed to play that day but they cancelled last minute and were replaced by Deer Tick who came on to play a set of covers.

Pictures of Day 1 are HERE, Day 2 are HERE and HERE, Day 3 are HERE, and more from Day 4 below...

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2012 in pics - Day 4 (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Feist, Beck, Spiritualized, SBTRKT, Shabazz Palaces & more)"

"Superfly Presents and A.C. Entertainment are excited to announce the initial lineup for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The 11th annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 7 - 10 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2012 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.Tickets for the event will go on sale on this Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12 noon EST exclusively at bonnaroo.com."

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2012 lineup announced"

"Following last year's 10th anniversary, which crushed previous attendance records and set a new mark for the speed with which tickets sold out, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2012 lineup which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 25-28 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA."

Continue reading "Sasquatch! 2012 lineup announced (Bon Iver, Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Shins, Portlandia, Spiritualized & more) "

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"

Here is the initial lineup for Willamette Week's MusicfestNW, scheduled for Sept. 7-11, 2011 in Portland, Oregon, and it's pretty great. The multi-venue fest includes big outdoor performances by Band of Horses (Sunday, Sept. 11), Explosions in the Sky (Saturday, Sept. 10), and Iron & Wine (Friday, Sept. 9), in addition to shows with everyone from Archers of Loaf to Big Freedia to Butthole Surfers to Neurosis. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 3rd. Check out the full list below...

Continue reading "MusicfestNW 2011 -- dates & initial lineup"

The Outside Lands Festival, which runs from 8/12 - 8/14 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, released their 2011 lineup in April (and now it's May, so consider this a catch up post). Tickets are on sale.

This year's fest will appearances from The Shins, Muse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Phish (two sets), !!!, Erykah Badu, Big Audio Dynamite (who played Coachella and are also playing Lollapalooza), Girl Talk and many more. The full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Outside Lands 2011 lineup"

Lollapalooza last year (more by Josh Darr)

Lollapalooza celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with some huge names on its just-announced lineup. See it in full below.

The festival has obviously changed over the years. What started out as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction with a 'touring festival' lineup that included the Rollins Band, Nine Inch Nails, Butthole Surfers, and Souxsie & The Banshees, has turned into a one-weekend Chicago festival that Lady Gaga co-headlined last year. As leaked a while ago, Foo Fighters, Muse and Eminem all play this year, as will Coldplay, Cee Lo Green, and My Morning Jacket along with the reunited Cars and the continuing-to-be-reunited Big Audio Dynamite and Death From Above 1979, and a bunch of other bands which may or may not be worth the ticket price depending on how you feel about the headliners and generally seeing bands in big, hot, outdoor crowded parks (Lollapalooza happens in Chicago's Grant Park from August 5th - 7th).

Full 2011 Lineup and a couple of videos (one from 1991, one from 2010), below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2011 lineup announced"

Truck America, the first US version of the 13-years-running UK fest, will take place Friday, April 30th to Sunday, May 2nd at The Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY (map), a little less than three hours from NYC. Confirmed bands include White Rabbits, Hopewell, Tim Easton, The Sadies, Ida, The Joy Formidable, Neil Halstead, The Silent League, Cat Martino, Common Prayer, Oxygen Ponies, Brandon Patton, Atlantic/Pacific, Dusty & The Dreaming Spires, The Shoestring Band and headliner Mercury Rev. Tickets are on sale now online (and details on where to get tickets in person are below).

The three-day, three-stage fest will have on-site accomodations, workshops and more. Details and poster are below...

Continue reading "Truck America comes to Big Indian, NY in 2010 - lineup includes Mercury Rev, White Rabbits, Neil Halstead, more"

Doveman @ album release party in October (more by Ezra Caldwell)

tonight in NYC
* Slavic Soul Party @ Barbes
* Charlie Hunter @ Rose Live Music
* Giggles comedy night @ Bruar Falls
* Jenny Scheinman, Adam Levy @ Barbes
* Amanda Monaco's Deathblow @ The Stone
* Led Er Est, Light Asylum @ Glasslands
* Hilary Hahn's Bach Party @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Little Feat, Donna the Buffalo @ The Concert Hall
* The Joy Formidable, Morning Fuzz, Locksley @ Pianos
* The Hot Rats, The Heavy @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* The Respect Sextet, Ethan Iverson @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Doveman, Puss N Boots, Sam Amidon, The Poison Tree @ Mercury Lounge
* Pendulum Swings (Jason Trachtenburg), Brilliant Mistakes, Colin McGrath @ Southpaw
* Mike Wexler, Shahzad Ismaily, Jolie Holland, Garrett Devoe @ Monkey Town
* Doveman, Puss N Boots (with Norah Jones), Sam Amidon, The Poison Tree @ Mercury Lounge

Doveman & Friends play Mercury Lounge. Those includes Puss N Boots (Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper), Sam Amidon and The Poison Tree (Steve Salet of King of France).

Sam Amidon will open for Beth Orton at her City Winery and The Bell House shows next week.

Shahzad Ismaily usually plays with Doveman (some connections between Beth Orton/Doveman/Shahzad/Sam Amidon and others are laid out here), but possibly not tonight, as he's scheduled to play at Monkeytown (which is closing) with Mike Wexler, Jolie Holland, Garrett Devoe and a "surprise guest".

Jan 24th is the space's last night. Before that you can catch "WOODS FAMILY CREEPS" - "Brooklyn quartet Woods explore their jammier, improvisational leanings in an intimate setting with visuals" - on Monday, January 18th.

Holy Fuck are DJing in Princeton,

Charlie Hunter continues his Rose Live Music residency.

The Joy Formidable play their fourth of four NYC shows at Pianos tonight. Video from their gig last night at Union Hall, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"