Portland festival MusicFestNW is returning this year to multiple Portland venues from September 3-8 with a ton of bands including Animal Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Superchunk, Deerhunter, Charles Bradley, Shuggie Otis, Joey Bada$$, Bonnie Prince Billy, Chromatics, Glass Candy, Flume, Youth Lagoon, Washed Out, The Thermals, TItus Andronicus, Bob Mould, Baroness, Austra, Ty Segall, The Bronx, The Men, Mount Eerie, White Lung, and many more. Ticket info is coming soon.

Initial lineup below...

Continue reading "MusicFestNW 2013 lineup announced (Animal Collective, Godspeed, Deerhunter, Shuggie Otis, Ty Segall & 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 10th Anniversary ACL Festival line-up is on the books. Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Nas & Damian "Jr Gong" Marley and Cee Lo top the bill of the over 130 bands. Bright Eyes, Social Distortion, Empire of the Sun, Santigold, Pretty Lights, TV On The Radio, Skrillex, Big Boi and Randy Newman are also on tap to rock September 16-18.

3-Day passes are sold out. 1-Day passes go on sale at 10am. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Austin City Limits 2011 festival lineup is here, tickets on sale"

Memorial Day Weekend officially opened the summer, and for those in the Pacific Northwest it also brought Sasquatch Music Festival (pictures from all three days are coming soon). Now the lineup for its Labor Day cousin, Bumbershoot 2010, has been announced. That fest, happening at Seattle, WA's Seattle Center September 4th-6th, will include headliners Bob Dylan, Mary J. Blige, Weezer, Hole, Rise Against, Neko Case, The Decemberists, J. Cole and "one more very special guest to be announced soon."

Tickets (including non-Mainstage 'economy' passes) are on sale now. The rest of the lineup (by day) for the seven-stage festival is posted below...

Continue reading "Bumbershoot 2010 lineup (Bob Dylan... Hole... Mary J Blige)"

DOWNLOAD: The Wheel - Whimper and Wail (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Surf City - Records of a Flagpole Skater (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Surf City - Kudos (MP3)

Dent May

Sharon Van Etten

Cymbals Eat Guitars @ Brooklyn Bowl in August (more by Oren Loloi)

By the time Saturday, October 24th gets here, six BrooklynVegan shows will have come and gone. The first is on Tuesday. Then there are two on Thursday (night and day), and three on Friday (day, night, and night). Finally, the seventh and final BV party of CMJ 2009 (which is not technically part of CMJ) is happening Saturday at Pianos, and the 2-stage lineup is:

DOWNSTAIRS @ Pianos on the afternoon of 10/24/2009

1:15 Surf City
2:00 The Moondoggies (Hardly Art)
2:45 Local Natives
3:30 Still Life Still
4:15 Deastro
5:00 Cymbals Eat Guitars

UPSTAIRS @ Pianos on the afternoon of 10/24/2009

1:00 Dave Godowsky
1:45 Sharon Van Etten
2:30 The Smith Westerns
3:15 Pete & The Pirates
4:00 JBM
4:45 Dent May
5:30 Nathaniel Rateliff and The Wheel

Those times are all P.M. It's an afternoon show and it's 100% free. Come hang out.

Not only is this show 100% free, there will be free Miller beer (High Life and Lite) and free Vitamin Water (first come, first served). Same free stuff at all three BrooklynVegan day parties this year (Thursday @ Pianos, Friday @ Fontana's, and Saturday @ Pianos aka this party). Flyer for this party, which was put together in conjunction with Bowery Presents who wanted the same space on the same day (Double Booked!), below.

We talked about Surf City who are from New Zealand, and a bunch about Pete & The Pirates from the UK.

For the Moondoggies, this is one of only two CMJ-time shows. Their other is the official Sub Pop / Hardly Art showcase at Mercury Lounge.

Two bands on this bill are playing two BV parties. LA's Local Natives are also in the loft. Denver's The Wheel are also Tuesday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Still Life Still are that band that new Arts & Crafts band that just came through town. You know Dent May from the roster of Animal Collective's label Paw Tracks.

Dave Godowsky and Sharon Van Etten are both singer-songwriters making their second appearances at BV parties in the upstairs room of Pianos. You may have caught Dave when he opened for Dave Bazan at Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night. You may remember Sharon's voice from the new Antlers record (The Antlers are another band playing the BV show at MHOW).

Ghostly International artist Deastro has a tour coming up with Max Tundra in 2010. Don't wait that long to see him.

The Smith Westerns. You remember them. JBM too. And Cymbals Eat Guitars. Maybe another band TBA (probably). I'm too tired to keep writing. Flyer below!

Continue reading "BrooklynVegan & Bowery Presents were Double Booked! ...........(free Saturday day party during CMJ 2009 @ Pianos)"

DOWNLOAD: Talbot Tagora - Internet Fixture (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Le Loup - We are Gods! We are Wolves! (MP3)

Hardly Art is an independent record label based in Seattle, WA. Founded in early 2007 by Sub Pop Records, Hardly Art is run by two full-time employees and is distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) and Sub Pop. The label's name comes from a lyric the song "No Culture Icons" by [ex-Sub Pop band] the Thermals [who are in town], and the unofficial motto for the label is: Quality records for quality people since very recently. [Wikipedia]

The Hardly Art roster is now up to nine bands, the latest addition to which is Brooklyn Band Golden Triangle.

Golden Triangle @ NYU Strawberry Festival 2009 (more by Lauren Monaco)

Golden Triangle's upcoming shows include a gig on Saturday, May 9th at Rubulad with the Homosexuals. The band then plays a free show on Tuesday, May 12th at Southpaw with the Phenomenal Handclap Band. They're also scheduled to perform June 12th as part of the Northside Festival (again with The Homosexuals). All tour dates below.

Earlier this year when Golden Triangle were still unsigned, the group won the Dickies Battle of the Bands down at SXSW. The judges for that included Black Bubblegum, GZA, and Randy & Dean of No Age (who, being signed to Sub Pop, are now label cousins with the winning band).

Hardly Art intends to release Golden Triangle's debut full-length in early 2010. Other new signings by Hardly Art include Seattle bands Talbot Tagora and Unnatural Helpers.

Unnatural Helpers are a pretty righteous Seattle punk band with two former members of The Catheters, an ex-Sub Pop band of which I was especially fond and whose presence on the musical scene I miss dearly. Unnatural Helpers is ex-Catheters guitarists Brian Standeford (also of Idle Times and Tall Birds) and Leo Gephardt (Tall Birds), The Dutchess and the Duke's Kimberley Morrison on bass, though the band is the brain child of Dean Whitmore, who drums and sings. [Seattle Weekly]

A new track by Talbot Tagora (who named themselves after a type of car), "Internet Fixture," is currently posted at The Fader (and above). Their album Lessons in the Woods or a City will be released July 21st on CD and LP. From the label's more established acts, new discs are also planned for Le Loup and the Dutchess & the Duke by the end of this year.

Only one other Hardly Art band has an NYC date coming up: indie-pop trio Pretty & Nice play Union Hall on May 14th with the Dig and Middle Distance Runner. Tickets are on sale.

All upcoming Hardly Art tour dates below...

Continue reading "Golden Triangle & other bands signed to Hardly Art (like Talbot Tagora & Unnatural Helpers) - 2009 tour dates & stuff "