by Bill Pearis

Former Swell Maps and Television Personalities member Jowe Head, who you may have heard guest DJing recently on WFMU, is in NYC this week for three shows: Wednesday (4/20) at Rock Shop, Friday (4/22) at Bruar Falls, and Saturday (4/23) at Cake Shop.

Head is probably best-known for his time as bassist in Swell Maps where he wrote two of the band's catchiest songs, "Harmony in Your Bathroom" and the great "Cake Shop Girl" which did indeed inspire the name of the Ludlow St. indie rock venue (where he's played before). In 1984 he began a ten-year stint with Television Personalities. Since the early '80s, Head has also released solo records with various backing bands, most recently last year's Diabolical Liberties as Jowe Head & the Demi-Monde. He's also an accomplished artist.

Backing him up for these shows will be a nine-piece all-(indie)-star band, including Hamish Kilgour of The Clean, plus members of Crystal Stilts, Cause Co-Motion, Ladybug Transistor, The Surprisers and Barbez. I'm told they'll be playing material from throughout Head's long career.

There's some pretty good openers as well, some of whom will be doing double-duty in Head's band. At the Rock Shop it's McDonalds (who I just wrote about) and German Measles. At both the Bruar Falls and Cake Shop shows you'll The Surprisers. The Bruar show has a set from The Mad Scene (Hamish Kilgour's other long-running band) and Devin, Gary & Ross (featuring famed punk rock artist Gary Panter who has designed the sets for Pee Wee's Playhouse amongst many other things). Cake Shop has the NYC debut of Cuffs, the new band from former Pants Yell! front man Andrew Churchman.

Continue reading "Swell Maps' Jowe Head playing 3 shows w/ all-star indie backing band & friends"

DOWNLOAD: Crystal Stilts - "Shake The Shackles" (MP3)

"We are also playing tomorrow night with Crystal Stilts, German Measles and The Mad Scene (Hamish from the Clean, Girl from Yo La Tengo)..." - Street Chant

Crystal Stilts at Rock Shop (Pascale Gueracague)


Crystal Stilts played Rock Shop on Friday (10/29), days after the release of their new Shake The Shackles 7" via Slumberland Records. Download the title track above and stream both tracks from that release, below.

Crystal Stilts seem to open for half of the indie legends that pass through town (The Vaselines, Dean Wareham playing Galaxie 500, Henry's Dress/Aislers Set, Comet Gain), and/or play with every notable current indie-pop band who are on tour too. They're also part of indie supergroup Cinema Red & Blue which prominently features Comet Gain's David Feck, but also "employs the services of Amy Linton, Hamish Kilgour and Gary Olson." It's not a big surprise then that their recent Rock Shop show with German Measles, The Surprisers and The Mad Scene was equally indie-star studded, though it was the Mad Scene that consisted of regular member and New Zealander/Brooklynite Hamish Kilgour of The Clean along with Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, Amy Linton of Aislers Set, and Gary Olson of Ladybug Transistor. New Zealand band Street Chant, who were in for CMJ, also played some songs at the show.

If you missed Crystal Stilts over the weekend, you won't have long to wait to catch them again, and for FREE; the Brooklyn band will play a free show at Brooklyn Bowl on 11/14. It's part of the venue's "Local by Local" series of shows. 21+. 8pm show.

Meanwhile, Cinema Red & Blue released their debut LP last month on What's Your Rupture. Crystal Stilts have a new LP on the way as well and though very few details have been released, look for it in early 2011. Until then, tide yourself over by checking out the new 7" tracks streaming below.

Continue reading "Crystal Stilts played w/ a guest-filled Mad Scene, released a 7" (stream it), playing a free show"

Junius at Public Assembly in April (more by Brian Reilly)

A BIG shout out goes to Junius, who have been added to the KEN Mode / Castevet shindig TONIGHT at Acheron in the place of the ailing East of The Wall. Doors are at 8, and $10 gets you in. GET THERE! - BBG

Also in Brooklyn tonight, we forgot to mention, Hamish Kilgour's band The Mad Scene are playing Bruar Falls with Eux Autres and Knight School.

More, including Lee Scratch Perry at Highline Ballroom in What's Going on Tuesday

by Andrew Frisicano

I snuck this picture of the t-shirt...

"Chris Knox (born September 2, 1952) is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist, and DVD reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate, much loved for their honest, unpolished sound and intense live shows. His 4-track machine was used to record most of the early Flying Nun singles." [Wiki]

Jeff Mangum played a set of Neutral Milk Hotel songs for the first time in nine years at the benefit for his friend, musician Chris Knox, last night, Thursday, May 6th. From opener "Oh Comely" to encore "Engine," and "A Baby For Pree," "Two Headed Boy Pt. Two" and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" in between, Mangum's voice was clear and strong as he sang from a chair into microphones set up a few feet away. Most of the audience looked somewhere between giddy excitement and shock. Some quietly sang along, others broke out into tears - one person choked on frantic, shallow breaths as "Oh Comely" climaxed, another stood with his hand over his gaping mouth, unable to move.

A few photos were furtively snapped in defiance of the posted signs, but most were content to just listen. Though "just listen" doesn't really describe the gasps, tears and unending applause. Mangum played with his eyes mostly closed, neck vein tensed, rocking and swooping to the contours of the songs. His eyelids fluttered open on the chorus of "A Baby for Pree" to reveal eyes rolled back into his head. Between songs Mangum gulped down water and was gracious, bordering on triumphant as he popped up at the end of "Aeroplane." He encouraged the crowd to contribute to the encore, "Engine." After the set, someone caught his attention with a book to sign, which he did. Most people up front looked anxious and ready for a post-show smoke.

It was fitting maybe that the bill for Mangum's last show, in 2001 in New Zealand, was with Chris Knox, who suffered a stroke in 2009. Though Jeff Mangum was a clear pinnacle, the rest of the benefit gig was an engaging, full evening which covered 12 bands and 2 comedians, and ran more than five and a half hours (though at least 1/3 of the venue cleared out after Mangum's 8:50pm set). The show ended at 1am, amazingly, exactly as scheduled.

Coasting (set time: 6:20pm) opened up with appropriately coastal guitar sounds and surefire drums, Sharon Van Etten played three songs with nuanced dynamics on electric guitar. The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson played only one song as a trebly synth trio to cover "Beauty" which the band does on the Chris Knox tribute CD Stroke.

Robert Scott (of the Clean) and TVOTR's Kyp Malone (aka Rain Machine) both played solo guitar sets. Kyp, who told the crowd they should check out the new Devendra Banhart video (he checked it out in a cafe because he doesn't have internet), was joined by Emilyn Brodsky for what he said was a Bob Marley cover. Rachel Feinstein did raunchy comedy.

After that, there was New Zealand band Dimmer (who are in town for a while), The Mad Scene (Hamish Kilgour of the Clean's other band), David Kilgour of The Clean (backed by Yo La Tengo and one other band member) and comedy from John Mulaney (who killed it) (and who you may have seen doing a bit about girl scout cookies on a recent episode of SNL).

"Portastatic" was Mac backed by Yo La Tengo. They closed with Superchunk's "Slack Motherfucker" complete with windmill guitar moves and pogoing from some of the crowd (even though the concert was going into its fifth hour at this point). Yo La Tengo, with extra member David Kilgour on guitar, covered a Chris Knox song, said many kind words about Chris and closed with two songs from their 1993 album Painful, which Chris Knox contributed art work to.

The Clean, who Ira introduced as the greatest band in the world, and who'd already been up several times as their solo bands, closed the night right, both jangly and poppy. And despite the mass exodus after Jeff, a respectable amount of people were still there right until the last song. Catch the Clean again (if you have a ticket because it's sold out) at The Bell House tonight (5/7).

Editor's note: Ben Goldberg did an amazing job organizing the event, keeping scalpers away, and making sure that pretty much every person in that venue (except maybe the bartenders) paid their $75 donation to Chris Knox to get in the door (or $20 if you showed up after Jeff went off). Ben did less of an amazing job during his pre-Yo La Tengo stand up routine, but nobody's perfect!

Illegally shot (not by us!) audio and video from the event, and the new Devendra Banhart video, and Jeff Mangum's setlist again, below...

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum, The Clean, Yo La Tengo, Portastatic & friends played for Chris Knox @ LPR - review, setlist, video & pic "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar / Ashes Maths (MP3)

For more weekend picks from me (Fiery Furnaces, Yellow Fever), check out This Week in Indie Pt 1.

I think my top pick for Saturday has to be That Petrol Emotion at the Bell House, their first NYC show in 15 years. (You can get a ticket here.) One of the '80s more underrated bands, TPE were the band formed when Feargal Sharkey left the Undertones and most of the rest of the band carried on together with new singer Steve Mack. 1986's Manic Pop Thrill (the title's an apt description of the music, too) is one of the best albums of that year, and 1987's more ambitious, politically-minded Babble spawned what is probably the band's best-known song, "Big Decision."

Sean O'Neil left after 1988's End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues and the band became a little more straightforward alt-pop and laid off the politics lyrically, but still delivered some great hooky singles. As I said previously, I caught them at SXSW earlier this year and they're still an amazingly energetic live band, especially Steve Mack who is as wiry and manic as he was back in the day. Fans should expect a set heavy on the last two albums (1990's Chemicrazy and 1993's Fireproof) but as Bell House booker Skippy is a huge Babble fan, I'm hoping he has coerced them into adding a few of that album's more amazing tracks ("Creeping to the Cross" and "Swamp") to the mix.

Opening for TPE will be The Mad Scene (Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour's long-running NYC band) and the debut of The Forgery Series which is a solo project from Obits guitarist (and big That Petrol Emotion fan, and old friend of mine) Sohrab Habibion. Some of you may remember Sohrab's '90s band, Edsel, who were one of my favorites from the '90s DC scene. (Factoid: Edsel started the Desoto label that ended up being run by Kim Colleta and other members of Jawbox.) The Forgery Series are new songs from him that don't exactly fit the Obits mold, and he's gathered an all-star band to help him out: old DC pal Michael Hampton, who was in S.O.A., One Last Wish and Manifesto; Radio 4 bassist Anthony Roman (Radio 4); and Joe Newton who drummed for Gas Huffer. Who knows when or if they'll play again (pretty sure they're just doing this for the fun of it) but should be interesting.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Also this weekend, Philadelphia's A Sunny Day in Glasgow are in town playing Saturday at Union Hall and Sunday at Le Poisson Rougue. Their new album, Ashes Grammar, is one of the year's more overlooked albums (it got an 8.3 on P4K but not Best New Music), it's a 22-track ethereal wonder, with songs flowing into interstitial soundscapes and back again. (It reminds me a lot of Slowdive's 1995 album Pygmalion.) Maybe not the best record for picking a song for a mix CD, but as a cohesive listening experience, it's gorgeous. Since making the album, the band went through a state of flux when they decided to tour, losing both singers Robin and Lauren Daniels, resulting in a worldwide search to fill their void. They settled on Jen Goma who, along with Annie Fredrickson, are now fronting the group. Will be curious to see them attempt to recreate the album's sonic miasma in a live setting.

Videos and tour dates after the jump.

Continue reading "That Petrol Emotion, Sohrab Habibion, A Sunny Day in Glasgow & more in This Week in Indie (part 2) "

DOWNLOAD: The Clean - In Dreamlife You Definitely Need Rubber Soul (MP3)

Polvo (above) & The Clean (below)

This September Merge Records will be releasing new albums by both The Clean and Polvo.

Polvo's new disc, In Prism, their first in 12 years, will come out September 8th. The band's upcoming shows in June and July include a free Friday, July 31th gig at South Street Seaport with the Obits. A few days before that, the band plays the XX Merge celebration. More tour dates for the fall are on the way.

The Clean's new record, Mister Pop, also comes out September 8th. That'll be that band's first record in eight years. Check out a track from the new disc, above. In 2003, Merge put out a retrospective of the band called Anthology. In 2007, the band played some NYC shows. I'm sure there will be more with the new album, though none are scheduled that we know of at the moment.

Hamish Kilgour of The Clean is also on The Mad Scene who play with Times New Viking at The Bell House this Saturday, June 13th. Tickets are still on sale.

Polvo tour dates and track list below...

Continue reading "Merge releasing new albums by Polvo & The Clean (MP3)"