photos by Chris La Putt

"Ok, so in talking about the show with some old Strokes fan friends, people have express surprise at the fact that I enjoyed the show so much because...well, it's just not the same without all the other Strokes. To that point I say this: No, it's not The Strokes, but in my opinion, Julian is pretty much one of the best things about the band in the first place, so going to see a Julian Casablancas show is kinda like a Strokes show, but without all the other distractions.

That said, Julian's music is much different than the regular Strokes fare. I like to think his solo work is more pop-based, and a little bit more carefree than Strokes songs. I also think his lyrics are more playful, the song structure more complicated and interesting, and the imagery more vivid. Perhaps that's more of a reflection of his maturation as a songwriter than anything else, but any way you slice it, the solo stuff is great and you should be so lucky to see him perform it live.

The show last night wasn't as elaborate as the ones he did in his LA residency (you know, the one that he felt were a fiasco) which included set pieces, costume changes, and an intermission, but it was polished, smooth, and successful. He truly seemed like he was having fun, and the crowd was enjoying it.

He seemed relaxed and at ease with himself and the songs -- a very different energy than the one I remember when he plays with The Strokes. At Strokes shows, so much of the show is propelled by each of the band member's energy bouncing off and pushing one another forward. At a Julian Casablancas show it seems much more like Julian is puttering along, guiding his backup band, and the pace of the show with the slow and steady push of his own internal performance propeller." [The Modern Age]

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas, Telepathe & Tanlines @ Terminal 5 in NYC (night 1) - pics & setlist"

Julian Casablancas @ Downtown Palace Theater in L.A. (more by Darren Kim)

CNN: What was your reaction when NME called "Is This It" the album of the decade?

Casablancas: Unbelievable. I hadn't thought about it, but it's really weird. I like it, though.

CNN: What stood out for you in this life-changing decade?

Casablancas: Probably that: having people or magazines say that your album is the best of the decade. That's not something I ever thought in my wildest dreams.

What about the band with NME's album of the decade?

Julian Casablancas, the front man of the Strokes, told Billboard that the group would headline the Isle of Wight festival in Britain on June 12, alongside Jay-Z; the performance will probably be followed by other summer concert appearances in Europe and North America. "When we meet with the band and talk and play music, it's just a different level of ease and comfort," Mr. Casablancas told Billboard. "Everyone's more easygoing and everyone feels more confident and just trusts each other a little bit." [NY Times]

One of the bonus tracks on Julian's Phrazes For The Young is a cover of the SNL song "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" (it's also a limited 7"). Both versions of the track (videos) and all tour dates (he has a string of Europe/UK shows this December) are below...

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas playing T5 in NYC (and covered SNL holiday song), Strokes playing Isle of Wight (and top NME albums of the decade list)"

He actually published this list in August, but in case you missed it...

Continue reading "Gorilla Vs Bear's favorite 'songs of the decade'"

photos by Darren Kim

"In his stage show, which [began] Friday at the Downtown Palace Theater in Los Angeles -- a New York residency is planned for January -- this song will be represented by a multimedia landscape of videos and sets depicting the neighborhood, which Mr. Casablancas will stroll through. It is over the top by design -- he compared it to the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular" or a Disney show -- so he can charge higher ticket prices, he said, to offset a series of free concerts he hopes to do." [NY Times]

"The relatively short set was broken up with an intermission, which the band used for a costume change, slipping into some '70s-style white suits and unveiling an all-white set makeover that could have been ripped from "American Bandstand." The visuals impressed, more so because the giant sliding screens allowed for the underground water shots, cartoon-ish cityscapes and kaleidoscope-like prisms that mirrored Casablancas' intricately weird arrangements. No wonder such a short performance carries a relatively high admission price, with tickets starting at $35." [LA Times]

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas played the Downtown Palace Theater in LA (pics), playing NYC shows in January"

Strokes frontman gone solo Julian Casablancas, not to be confused with Interpol frontman gone solo Julian Plenti, kicks off a five-show residency at Los Angeles' Downtown Palace Theatre tonight (11/6). He also has shows scheduled in San Francisco, Seattle and some other places, though still no NY...

These confirmed tour dates support Casablancas' solo debut, Phrazes for the Young, which [was] released November 3 on Cult Records/RCA (Rough Trade in the U.K.). As part of the release, Casablancas is offering a Luxury Edition Deluxe Set of the record. A full description and pre-order are now available at www.juliancasablancas.com.

Casablancas wrote and orchestrated every musical detail on the album from poly-rhythmic drum beats to harmonizing guitar solos. Highlights include the first single, "11th Dimension" (available now on iTunes)...

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas kicks off LA residency tonight ------- 2009 Tour Dates & new album info"

Daft Punk's first album had helped refresh house music in the mid 1990s; the second went further, rewriting electronic pop's pleasure principles to such a degree that when it came out a lot of people thought Discovery must be a put-on. They took the joy in the record for irony. Rather, the band had simply plunged into the raw popstuff of their 70s childhoods, from AOR to disco, Buggles to Manilow, rock to robotics. They wanted their listeners to get the rush of context-free delight they had hearing music as kids, and on "Aerodynamic" and "Digital Love" they succeeded wildly, dissolving a decade-plus of dance music good taste. And not all of Discovery looked back. The middle of the album is house music as string theory, with the duo finding dimensions of pleasure coiled within the tiniest loops: "Crescendolls" releases an awesome, gleeful energy by repeatedly triggering one five-second sample.

Discovery was simply the decade's best good-times record, with Daft Punk as pyramid-toting party wizards and the chipmunk Kraftwerk of "Harder Better Faster Stronger" their anthem. But this most celebratory of records has a bittersweet streak, too: Daft Punk know that a rush always carries the risk of exhaustion. Perhaps the album's most underappreciated track is the sad but gorgeous "Short Circuit", a three-minute robot graveyard of crumbled transistors and dying LEDs. But from Romanthony's first blissful, vocoded shout of "one more time!" the dominant emotion on Discovery is joy. A joy that wasn't afraid to be sentimental and funny as well as hard and futuristic, and is all the better for that. When a generation looks back and tries to catch a fuzzy hold of the music that made them happy this decade, Daft Punk's will be top of the list. --Tom Ewing [Pitchfork]

Continue reading "Pitchfork announces the top 20 albums of the decade "

"Little Joy is a Brazilian/American rock band formed in 2007 by Los Hermanos singer/guitarist Rodrigo Amarante and The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Amarante and Moretti met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. In 2007, with Los Hermanos on hiatus "for an undetermined amount of time", Amarante travelled to Los Angeles to collaborate with Devendra Banhart on his Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon album. He and Moretti met during recording breaks and talked about "anything but music."" [Wikipedia]

photos by Tim Griffin

"I went to Pettyfest 2009 at Bowery Ballroom [Thursday] night, which was sick. Lots of drunk and stoned people shouting along to the hits and some great performers-- Nicole Atkins, Adam Green, Steve Schiltz, Antony Ellis, members of The Strokes and The Killers.

One of my favorite performances-- and this took me by surprise -- was the dude from Augustana singing "You Got Lucky." They're not a band I generally have a strong opinion about one way or another, but his voice was sick and he had a commanding presence-- like a subdued Mick Jagger with the wrist at the hips with a dash of Joe Cocker in the vocal tone." [EYTAN]

Continue reading "PettyFest @ Bowery Ballroom - setlist & pics (Adam Green, Strokes & Killers members, Nicole Atkins, Kid Rock, more)"

Little Joy opening for Jarvis was really 'Fab' (more by Chris La Putt)

Little Joy will hit the road with their friend Regina Spektor this September. Those dates do not include Regina's upcoming show at Radio City Music Hall (Jupiter One opens that one), though Little Joy did recently open for her at the Beacon Theatre show in June.

Meanwhile, Little Joy have announced their own headlining, Regina-less tour dates that include a September 20th show at Maxwell's (tickets are on sale now), and a headlining a show at Webster Hall on October 2nd. Tickets are on fanclub presale now. AmEx presale starts Wednesday at noon, with general sale starting Friday at noon.

Little Joy's lineup for the Webster Hall show will include Strokes/Little Joy member Fabrizio Morretti, who will not be playing with the band on any of the other dates on the tour. He hasn't been touring with them of late (to record the fourth Strokes album, on the way).

In a somewhat-related note, Morretti's fellow Stroke Julian Casablancas will be performing material from his forthcoming solo release Phrazes For The Young for the first time at a show at Tokyo's Duo Music Exchange on August 31st.

All Little Joy tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Little Joy announces tour dates including Webster Hall w/ Fabrizio Morretti ++ Julian Casablancas is playing Tokyo"

photos by Chris La Putt

NY MAG: How was working with Steve Albini on Further Complications?

Jarvis Cocker: It was kind like the polar opposite of most producers. He didn't want to get his fingerprints all over the record. And we're not that dissimilar in age; even though we were growing up in other continents, I guess it's that punk movement that brought us into music, so there were some points of reference in common. You know, being in the studio can be very, very dull, but this wasn't at all because when he wasn't playing poker online, we actually had some quite interesting conversations. And I suppose it's well-known -- he wears overalls to work because he treats it as a job rather than a creative enterprise, and that was quite a refreshing thing.

Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker & Little Joy @ MHOW in NYC - pics "

DOWNLOAD: Jarvis Cocker - Angela (MP3)

Julian

Pulp front-man Jarvis Cocker is currently playing dates in support of his newest solo record, Further Complications, which came out in May on Rough Trade. Check out a track from it above. His tour was to include a July 30th show at Terminal 5. Instead, that show will happen at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for the other venue will be honored, but new tickets are not available - the show went instantly to "sold out" status when it moved (that's one way to sell out a show in this recession - move it to a venue 4-5 times smaller).

Jarvis's Rough Trade label-mates Little Joy will be opening that show. Little Joy usually features Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, but he most likely won't be at the MHOW show (except maybe as a special guest) as he'll be busy recording the forthcoming, fourth Strokes album. At Little Joy's last Bowery Ballroom show, Fabrizio only joined the band for their final song, as did Regina Spektor who Little Joy opened for at Beacon Theater less than a week earlier.

At the same time, Strokes singer Julian Casablancas is preparing to release his solo album, Phrazes for the Young, due later this year on Cult Records/RCA. The record is produced by Jason Lader (who's worked with Elvis Costello, Rilo Kiley and others) with additional production by Monster of Folk Mike Mogis, and will be accompanied by solo tour dates, to be announced.

Check out a YouTube preview of that record and its synthy, New Age direction, with all Little Joy tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Jarvis Cocker show moved to MHOW, Little Joy (no Stroke) opening, (Stroke) Julian Casablancas releasing solo album"

photos by Tim Griffin

I don't fully know what happened at last week's show, but this is how it looked....

Continue reading "pics from Dylan Fest @ Mercury Lounge (members of the Strokes, Hymns, Adam Green, Nicole Atkins...)"

As previously reported, Little Joy, the band with Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes, has a June US tour coming up. That includes a Tuesday, June 23rd show at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

In that post, we highlighted the connection between Little Joy/The Strokes and Regina Spektor (touring together, recording together, etc.)...as it turns out, Little Joy will be opening for Regina Spektor at Beacon Theatre on Wednesday, June 17th. No ticket info yet. And that's just one of many dates Spektor is expected to announce for the summer.

And bad news for those who like Little Joy at least a little because of who is on drums... Fabrizio Moretti is skipping most of this Little Joy tour to record the Strokes' fourth full-length album.

While concert-goers shouldn't be surprised if co-founding member Fabrizio pops in to make an occasional cameo appearanceon stage, he will for the most part be occupied with recording obligations to the Strokes, and therefore unable to tour with the band for the large majority of the dates.

Rodrigo (vocals and guitar) and Binki (vocals, keys) will fill out the band with Todd Dahlhoff and Matt Borg from The Dead Trees (on bass and guitar, respectively), Matt Romano from Albert Hammond Jr.'s band (drums) and Jack Dishel from Only Son (guitar, backing vocals).

All Little Joy tour dates below...

Continue reading "Regina Spektor playing Beacon Theater & other (possibly Stroke-less) Little Joy tour dates "

Little Joy @ Mercury Lounge (more by Zach Stern)

Little Joy is playing the Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday, June 23rd. Tickets for the NYC show go on presale Wednesday, May 6th at noon. General sale starts Friday, May 8th at noon. The show looks like it's part of a larger, not-fully-announced tour (all known dates below).

Little Joy is Binki Shapiro, Rodrigo Amarante and Fabrizio Moretti -- the last of whom is the drummer for the Strokes. News with that band includes a March 27th message on the Strokes' website, which reads "The Strokes are now all back hard at work in their NYC space on writing and rehearsing new material for a 4th full-length album."

Regina Spektor, friend and collaborator of the Strokes, is set to release her own new album, Far, on Tuesday, June 23rd on Sire Records. The Stokes and Spektor have a long past together. One part is the fact that "Spektor's first nationwide tour was accompanying The Strokes as the opening act on their 2003-2004 Room on Fire tour" (Wikipedia). Other past connections include collaborating on Reptilia b-side "Post Modern Girls"/"Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men," Spektor playing piano on Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture's Nickel Eye side-project album, and Spektor playing shows with Albert Hammond Jr. That includes the rainy stop at McCarren Pool last summer.

"Spektor will tour the world beginning in June. Tour dates to be announced soon."

More info on Regina's new album with art, plus two Little Joy videos including an unplugged version of "Keep Me in Mind", below...

Continue reading "Little Joy tour dates (Bowery), a new Regina Spektor album"

Rolling Stone Magazine's The Smoking Section Presents: DYLAN FEST 2009!
A night to get drunk and celebrate Bob Dylan's greatest hits!

Featuring...
Hymns
Adam Green
Grant Maxwell - The Morning Pages
Jody Porter - Fountains Of Wayne
The Pierces
Matt Romano - Little Joy / Albert Hammond Jr. Band
Russell Simins - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion / Men Without Pants
Fab Moretti - The Strokes / Little Joy
Nikolai Fraiture - The Strokes / Nickel Eye
Sammy James Jr. - Mooney Suzuki
The Teenage Prayers
AND MANY MORE TO COME!!

In related news,

For the first time in ages, the Strokes are back in New York, hard at work on album number four in their midtown studio. "We have three songs," Julian Casablancas tells the S.S., three weeks into the sessions. "I would say it's going great. We have a lot of work to do, though."

It's been more than three years since First Impressions of Earth, and what's helping the process is good vibes and honesty. "It feels like we're new," says Casablancas. "We didn't used to be honest -- there would always be minifeuds over stupid shit. Now, if Nick [Valensi] and Fab [Moretti] or anyone are saying they like it fast or slow, we'll talk about it, as opposed to saying, 'Well, I never liked you sister.'"

Casablancas says that they've resisted jamming on old tunes; instead they're forging ahead. "Some of the new stuff has a Seventies vibe, like Thin Lizzy or Elvis Costello," he says. "But then some of it is bizarre music from the future that we're trying to tone down to sound catchy. So we're trapped between the future and the Seventies." [Rolling Stone]

Bill Flanagan interviewed Bob Dylan about the new album for a feature on BobDylan.com. Check it out.

photos by Leia Jospe

Nickel Eye @ MHOW

LA's Low vs. Diamond are going on a co-headlining tour with Strokes basssit Nikolai Fraiture's band Nickel Eye, but not before each of them play their own respective NYC shows this week. For Nickel Eye it's an opening slot at the Raveonettes show happening this Friday at Webster Hall (1/16). For Low vs. Diamond it's a headlining show at The Bell House in Brooklyn, tonight, January 15, 2009, with The Subjects.

The Subjects' other upcoming shows include a bunch of opening spots for Tapes n Tapes in February. That includes the dates at both Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Wild Light is playing both of those shows too.

Nickel Eye will release their debut album "The Time of the Assassins" on January 27, 2009 via Ryko. Their last NYC shows were during CMJ. They played one at Pianos, and another one with Late of the Pier at Music Hall of Williamsburg. More pictures from the latter, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Nickel Eye & Low vs Diamond - 2009 Tour Dates, live pics "

photos by Zach Stern

Last night saw the NYC debut of Little Joy-the side project between Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes, Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos, and Binki Shapiro at a sold out show at the Mercury Lounge.
...
Drawing band support from long-time Strokes compadre Matt Romano (drums) along with guitar power from Michael Ian Cummings and Matthew Borg from opener The Dead Trees, the band had an impressive, complete sound. Perhaps it's testament to the individual experience of each of the band members, but was hard to believe that this band is on it's first live tour-although there were some starts and stops, for the most part the performance was a well-oiled machine, where the music flowed freely and easily from their instruments and mouths. [The Modern Age]

Continue reading "Little Joy @ Mercury Lounge, NYC - pics & setlist"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Fredrik - Black Fur (MP3)

Little Joy

While tonight/Thursday's Little Joy show at Mercury Lounge is unsurprisingly sold-out but there are a few other chances to check out this Strokes offshoot. Fabrizo Morretti wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on Little Joy's genial, enjoyable debut, but leaves the singing up to his bandmates (Devendra Banhardt cohort) Rodrigo Amarante and the awesomely-named Binki Shapiro. While their is a through-line to the sound of the Strokes, Little Joy is way more laid-back with a '60s R&B sort of feel that makes it a great lazy Sunday album. (MTV2's Subterranean blog said it sounds like "smoking pot in Hawaii" which works too.)

Anyway, those additional shows. Little Joy also play Maxwell's on Friday (11/14) (which actually also appears to be sold out), the newly revitalized Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ on Saturday (11/15) and the Virgin Megastore Union Square on Monday (11/17) (free). They're also on a pretty extensive tour of the U.S. and all those dates (plus a video) are at the bottom of this post.

Fredrik

If you can't wait till December for the Swedish folk-pop of Loney, Dear and Melpo Mene, might I suggest checking out Fredrik who hail from Malmö, but have been over here playing some shows. Their debut, Na Na Ni, is spooky and somewhat downbeat -- perfect for this attumnal weather we're having. They're playing an in-store at Greenpoint's Permanent Records on Friday (11/14) and Pianos on Saturday (11/15). There's a few more additional U.S. dates (and a video) at the bottom of this post.

New Radiant Storm King

I would also like point out that indie rock stalwarts New Radiant Storm King are playing Union Pool on Sunday (10/16) with Tropic of Nelson. Though I tend to think of them as part of the early '90s scene that also produced Small Factory, Barnabys, and Versus, the band has never stopped releasing records, with 2006's The Steady Hand being perhaps the best of their career. I think Boston blog Bradley's Almanac summed-up their longevity pretty nicely:

That thoughtfully energetic collection of dual-guitar rock songs kept the best aspects of what made this born-in-89 quartet so good throughout the 90s, while at the same time showing enough growth to not sound like a retread. Unlike some of their peers, age hadn't split them apart and put acoustic guitars in their hands, or pushed them towards milking their rich catalog for nostalgia's sake -- their hook-filled creativity was still fully on display, along with a measured dose of songwriting maturity.

All videos and tour dates below...

Continue reading "Little Joy, Fredrik, New Radiant Storm King & more in this Week in Indie "

Fabrizio's band Little Joy have a show coming up at Mercury Lounge and now Nikolai's band Nickel Eye have a NYC show (showS actually) coming up too. The Nickel Eyes show is part of CMJ on October 22nd at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and also has As Tall As Lions, Ki:Theory, The Whip, AND Late of the Pier on the bill. $15 tickets are on sale (at noon) and $15 is much cheaper than $55 which is how much Late of the Pier's other CMJ show costs.

Nickel Eye are also playing Pianos on October 24th (also during CMJ).

Little Joy

Rough Trade Records is pleased to announce the forthcoming release from Little Joy. The band's self-titled debut will be released on November 4, 2008.

Little Joy is Binki Shapiro, Rodrigo Amarante and Fabrizio Moretti, three friends who dropped their routine at their respective hometowns to make a record in Los Angeles, California.

Through a chance encounter at a Portuguese festival in Lisbon, where both Amarante (Singer/Guitarist of Los Hermanos) and Moretti (drummer of The Strokes) had performed, the two chatted well through the night and into the morning by the side of the river, humoring the idea of working together on music that had no affiliation to their particular bands.

A year later, Amarante traveled to the United States to record with Devendra Banhart on his Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon album. On the off hours of an arduous recording process, Amarante would meet with Moretti to discuss anything but music.

Binki Shapiro, musician and native of Los Angeles, was introduced to the pair through mutual acquaintances and became a fast friend, encouraging the two to focus on the music they had spoken of long before. Through the process of late night "show-and-tell" the three developed and arranged songs Moretti had begun and soon after started writing original music for the group as a band.

A couple of months later they all moved into a house in Echo Park to demo songs and soon after, with the help of producer Noah Georgeson, who had recorded Banhart's album, they finished their self-titled debut, Little Joy, named after the cocktail lounge just down the street from their home.

Previous to the album's release the band will play select dates with Banhart's band Megapuss. A headlining tour is in the works for November and December. [PR]

One of those non-Megapuss, Little Joy headlining dates is at Mercury Lounge in NYC on November 13th. Tickets are on sale Wed at noon.

The Megapuss album, Surfing, "is being released by Vapor Records in physical formats October 7 and [was] digitally September 16." Listen to Megapuss at MySpace. Listen to Little Joy at MySpace. All known tour dates below...

Continue reading "Little Joy (w/ a member of the Strokes) - new album & 2008 Tour Dates (some w/ Megapuss aka Devendra Banhart)"

DOWNLOAD: Nickel Eye - Dying Star (off East Village Radio) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Nickel Eye - Brandy of the Damned (off East Village Radio) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Native Korean Rock - Rapt (from MySpace) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Native Korean Rock - OOO (live @ Union Pool) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Native Korean Rock - Day Go By (live @ Union Pool) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: N.E.R.D. - My Drive Thru w/ Santogold & Julian Casablancas (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Albert Hammond Jr. - GfC (MP3)

Band Members: nickel eye (guitar, vocals, electric bass, double bass, harmonica); South: Joel Cadbury (steel guitar), Jamie McDonald (guitar), Brett Shaw (drums) and very special guests: Regina Spektor (piano), Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (guitar), Jack Dishel of Only Son (back up vocals), Jesse Wallace (drums) + more...

About nickel eye: Soon to be released The Time of the Assassins... For the moment, you can visit Mark Ronson's most recent radio broadcast (06/06/08) of "Authentic Shit" at www.eastvillageradio.com. At 1hr and 19mins, you will find a sneak preview of two songs and an interview with nickel eye.

Regina Spektor is also working with Ben Folds and playing a show with another Stroke, Albert Hammond Jr., who has some new music out of his own.

And while Albert and Nickel Eye are busy doing their thing, Julian has been wearing Converse and hanging with Pharrell (soon to be a daddy?) and Santogold. I don't know what's up with The Strokes, but if there is something up, Pharrell also wants to be involved.

And while Nick Zinner has been keeping busy with Nickel Eye, Karen O has been also doing her Native Korean Rock thing which included two shows the other night at Union Pool and some demos on MySpace. Yeah.

Download a whole bunch of MP3s above. The Karen O live tracks were ripped from two of the three YouTube videos you can watch below...

Continue reading "3 Strokes side projects, 2 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 4 bands, 7 MP3s"

Albert Hammond Jr. is playing a free show at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square at 8pm today (July 8, 2008)

He's also playing a sort-of-private SPIN Magazine show in NYC tomorrow (July 9, 2008) at Hiro Ballroom . I have two pairs of tickets to giveaway to that one. To get them, email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: hammond). Include your first and last name. Two people will be picked and contacted. For another chance of winning, you can try for one of the 200 TICKETS GBH is giving away.

Like the recent show at Mercury Lounge, all this Albert Hammond hoopla is timed to coincide with the release of his latest album "Como Te Llama" which you can currently stream in its entirety at AOL.

Albert is also playing McCarren Pool in August with Regina Spektor (not to be confused with Ronnie Spector who played McCarren Pool this past Sunday). All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Albert Hammond Jr shows today & tomorrow + album stream "

Regina Spektor is playing McCarren Pool in Brooklyn on August 15th. $33.00 tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday, or you can get them now via Regina's presale or Live Nation's presale (password=concert) (thx Elizabeth!).

Regina's old friend from the Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr, is opening the show. Albert Hammond is also playing a private show at Mercury Lounge on July 1st. His new album ¿Cómo Te Llama? comes out on Rough Trade on July 14th. Check out the video of Regina playing with the Strokes @ MSG, below...

Continue reading "Regina Spektor & Albert Hammond Jr playing McCarren Pool "

Amy spotted the above sign in Red Hook today.

You probably already heard that Converse is giving away a song written by Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Santogold and Julian Casablancas "as part of the brand's Century celebration". I put the whole press release for that one below....

Continue reading "Converse recording artist Santogold filming in Red Hook"

High Places @ Market Hotel, Brooklyn, NY (mercurialn)

For rock bands this is a great time to be weird and independent in Brooklyn. After years in which the sound of New York was defined by various shades of retro monochrome -- the new wave minimalism of the Strokes, the disco-punk of the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem, the moody Anglophilia of Interpol -- a new generation is making music that is indefinably eclectic and complex, and finding acclaim around the world. [NY Times]