by Bill Pearis

The Wedding Present @ South Street Seaport 2011 (more by Chris LaPutt)

Three pieces of exciting news from Wedding Present HQ. 1) The band will put their eighth album, Valentina, out in March 2012; 2) they will tour North America around the same time, starting in Austin for SXSW, and then NYC for stops at The Bell House on March 21 (onsale Fri 12/9) and Le Poisson Rouge on March 22 (no on-sale date yet); and most excitingly for longtime fans, the tour will also celebrate the 21st anniversary of their 1991 album Seamonsters which will be played in full.

Consensus among Weddoes devotees is that Seamonsters is the band's best album. I'd agree with that and go on to say Seamonsters is one of the best albums of the '90s and is maybe the greatest loud/quiet/loud record ever. Said the AV Club the LP's entry in their retired Permanent Records series:

One of those collections that demands to be listened to in its entirety, Seamonsters explores Gedge's one true passion: the opposite sex. As potentially hazardous as that sounds, his songs explore relationships from every angle, though most of the album's glorious moments crawl on the underbelly: "Dalliance" vacillates between angsty guitars and lyrics about longing; "Dare" chugs along, desperate for an illicit affair with a friend who's fighting with her lover; and "Suck" is about as sexy as Gedge dares get, using the titular double-entendre to maximum effect.

And that's just the first three songs. Seamonsters offers 10 perfect miniaturizations of love gone right, wrong, and so-wrong-it's-right, all couched in dense guitars that say as much as the words. It's the first (and only) time Gedge refused to give himself and his fans a breather, and that's probably why it's widely considered his masterpiece. (Be warned, though: The disc has been reissued countless times, with excellent bonus tracks that don't quite fit the mood.)

The Steve Albini-recorded album still sounds great today. (Why yes, it is on Spotify.) While touring your most acclaimed album while promoting a new record is a bit odd, the chance to hear Seamonsters in its entirety is a draw enough and anyone who saw any of 2011's Bizzaro shows knows David Gedge still has the fire in his arm to power the LP's intensity. And the new songs they were playing last year sounded good. Win win.

All Wedding Present 2011 tour dates are below.

Continue reading "The Wedding Present playing 'Seamonsters' on tour in 2012, plus a new album"

photos by Chris La Putt , words by Bill Pearis

Friday was the final week of the 2010 Seaport Music Festival but it went out with a bang with Leeds legends The Wedding Present who, like they did at Bowery Ballroom earlier this year, were there to perform their classic 1989 album, Bizarro, in it's entirety. The intense heat of some of the July shows gave way to cool, mid-August weather making it the most perfect setting of the season.

David Gedge and company hit the stage around 8:15 and launched into "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft" from their first album, George Best, which was the start of a short set of classics and a couple of promising new songs before the Main Event. Despite being, by design, a nostalgia tour, it was apparent that Gedge has still got it, and Bizarro side-one barn-burners like opening salvo "Brassneck" and "Kennedy" had all the manic fire they did when Margaret Thatcher was in office.

The less intense songs -- "No," "What Have I Said Now?" -- seemed a little restrained to me, but the band was probably saving their energy. for the album's second side which contains three of the most intense songs in their catalog. "Granadaland"  "Bewitched," and the nine-minute epic "Take Me!" kicked some serious ass. On the latter in particular, Gedge's arm just becomes a blur with the band's signature furious jangle. I was surprised he only broke one string.

In between songs, Gedge joked with the audience, including a few who didn't seem to understand the concept of the show including one person's repeated screams for "Interstate 5" (from 2005's Take Fountain). "Have you heard Bizarro?" Gedge asked the person. "Then you know 'Interstate 5' is not on the album." His polite exasperation continued with a woman who kept asking to hug him. "I'll be at the merch table after the show -- we'll see then."

Openers were Savoir Adore who also have jangly guitars, just not the furious kind. They were terrific too, playing about half of last year's super-catchy In the Wooded Forrest album -- highlights for me the dance-friendly closing two-fer of  "MERP" and "Bodies."

More photos below, plus a video montage of four songs from The Wedding Present's set...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present & Savoir Adore played South Street Seaport (pics, video) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Fergus & Geronimo - Girls with English Accents (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fergus & Geronimo - Harder Than It's Ever Been (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - Girlfriend (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - Caesar (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Royal Baths - Nikki Don't (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Eternal Summers - Pogo (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Rayon Beach - The Memory Teeth (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dog Day - Synastry (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dog Day - Wait it Out (Mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Deerhunter - Revival (ZIP)
DOWNLOAD: Versus - Invincible Hero (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: How to Dress Well - Ecstasy with Jojo (MP3)

Wild Beasts @ Lollapalooza 2010 (more by Josh Darr)

Just like the August bounty of tomatoes, corn and zucchini that can be currently found at your local farmer's market, we looking at five extremely fertile days of live music, much of it free. Take advantage now -- this crop is extremely perishable.

Wild Beasts are stopping in NYC tonight on their way back from Lollapalooza, playing Highline Ballroom. Their second album, Two Dancers, was my favorite album of 2009 and a year later I'm still listening to it. It's up for this year's Mercury Music Prize and if anybody is going to beat The xx it'll be Two Dancers. If you missed their shows last September, or their appearances here in February , don't miss them this time. Tickets are still available. The fluid interplay between the band is something to behold -- a real case of four people working as one mesmerizing whole. And those who still haven't gotten used to their vocal style, I say go see them live and everything makes more sense.

Domino Records is offering a free downloadable four-song EP featuring "We've Still Got the Taste Dancing on Our Tongues" in original and remixed form, a track previously only available as a Japanese b-side and an acoustic version of "The Devil's Crayon." The download widget is at the bottom of this post and expires August 14 so get on that. And do go see them live tonight if you can. Denmark's The Kissaway Trail and UK artist Lone Wolf are also on the bill.

Fergus and Geronimo

It's been a year since Denton, TX's Fergus & Geronimo were last in town, and while they haven't released anything new since last summer's initial flurry of singles, that should change soon. The band have signed with Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art who will hopefully be putting out a record sooner than later. In the meantime, UK label Transparent (who put out "Tell it in My Ear" last year) have offered up a new F&G track "Girls with English Accents" that you can download at the top of this post. Maybe a little more dreamy/folky and less soul-tinged than their previous output, it's still another winner from this excellent four-piece.

I saw them at 92-Y Tribeca last summer and thought they were terrific. Fergus & Geronimo play Cake-Shop tonight (8/11) with Radical Dads and Little Gold. They then play Saturday (8/14) at Don Pedro's with Liquor Store, Home Blitz, Moonmen on the Moon, Man, and Nashville's Pujol. That sounds like a party.

Also here from Texas this weekend are Austin's Rayon Beach who play Bruar Falls on Saturday (8/14) and Death by Audio on Sunday (8/15). Like a lot of the bands on Hozac Records (or bands from Austin for that matter), this trio fit under the psych/garage umbrella but there's a decided Brit bent to their music. Baroque garage, is that a thing? Think Syd-era Pink Floyd or The Pretty Things more than Woven Bones. Make no mistake -- Rayon Beach can and do get plenty loud. It's just sometimes with pinkies extended. Check out Memory Teeth's title track at the top of this post.

The Bruar falls show is with Girls at Dawn and Xray Eyeballs; the Death by Audio show also features The Beets and Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch.

Ty Segall

We're just getting started. Ty Segall and The Royal Baths are here from San Francisco, playing Cake Shop on Thursday (8/12) and Death by Audio on Friday (8/13). For my money, it doesn't get much better in the new garage scene than this guy, who has been cranking out records over the last two years. Amazingly, they're pretty much all good, and each record goes somewhere new. The latest, Melted, just out on Goner Records, adds some nice '60s paisley pop touches. You can download two tracks from it at the top of this post. And he's great live.

The Royal Baths, meanwhile, are sort of the flip side to Ty's sunshine pop. I wrote before that they're "kind of bad trip acid rock, dark and seedy but not atonal. But it's definitely down the rabbit hole. In a good way." Royal Baths debut LP is due out on Woodsist in September and you can check out album track "Nikki Don't" at the top of this post.

Eternal Summers

Still more. Roanoke, VA's Eternal Summers are back -- they were last here for the Northside Festival -- for two shows: Thursday (8/12) at new Williamsburg venue The Pyramids and then Friday night (8/13) at Cake Shop. The band have signed with Kanine records who will put out their first full-length, Silver, in September. You can check out the album's first single, "Pogo," in the popular MP3 format at the top of this post. If you dig C-86 inspired pop like Brilliant Colors or Liechtenstein, you should definitely seek this duo out. Absolutely worth seeing live and nice folks too.

Both shows Eternal Summers are playing have pretty stacked bills. The Pyramids gig is with Philly's Reading Rainbow, all-girl quartet Rescue Bird, the shambly goodness that is German Measles and the wistful surf of Family Trees; Friday's Cake Shop show also has new-ish Brooklyn duo Yvette, the tinny, witty pop of Knight School and Halifax, NS band Dog Day.

Dog Day

Dog Day are actually here playing two shows. They play Thursday (8/12) at Bruar Falls in addition to the Cake Shop show on Friday. It's been a while since Halifax's mid-90s indie explosion that gave us Sloan and Thrush Hermit, but Dog Day are helping put the coastal city back on the map. Led by husband-and-wife team of Seth Smith and Nancy Ulrich, the quartet make moody, melodic indie rock that is not too dissimilar from The Figurines or The Comas. Last year's Concentration was one of 2009's lost gems. There's two songs to download at the top of this post and I highly suggest you do. You might find yourself saying "why haven't I heard these guys before?" Normally a quartet, for these NYC shows Dog Day will just be a duo of Smith/Ulrich and they'll be testing out new songs for their upcoming album.

Savoir Adore @ Coco66 for Northside (more by Don Gochenour)

And last but not least, Friday is the last Seaport Music Festival show of the season but they are really going out with a bang with The Wedding Present and Savoir Adore. I'm told we're getting a full 90-minute set from the Weddoes pretty close to what they played at Bowery Ballroom back in April: a career-spanning "hits" set and then they'll play 1989's Bizarro in full.

I saw the Bowery Bizzaro show and it was fantastic, especially the stuff from Side Two of the LP, the long, jangle-on-speed workouts of "Bewitched" and "Take Me!" David Gedge may be 50 but he can still tear into his guitar like Thatcher was still in office. There's video of "Take Me" from Bowery at the bottom of this post. The hits set was peppered with a few new songs too, which I thought were pretty good.

Savoir Adore, one of my favorite new NYC bands of the last few years, are always good live. If you have yet to check out their self-titled debut from last year, you definitely should.

-----------------------------

As if this wasn't enough, here are a few more picks by day that weren't already covered above:

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11

Two of the best new bands of the last year -- Twin Sister and Oberhofer -- play Mercury Lounge with Ontario's MemoryHouse. Twin Sister and Memory House also play together on Thursday (8/12) at Monster Island Basement, the start of a two-week tour together. All dates at the bottom of this post.

At Coco 66 it's another installment of Show Off Your Sugar which pairs one band and one author to benefit 826NYC, a non-profit writing center for New York City students. Rock critic Chuck Klosterman reads and Here We Go Magic will rock.

continued below...

Continue reading "Wild Beasts, Fergus & Geronimo, Rayon Beach, Ty Segall, Eternal Summers, Dog Day, the Wedding Present & more in This Week in Indie "

by Bill Pearis

If you missed The Wedding Present performing their classic 1989 album Bizarro at Bowery Ballroom in April, you've got another chance to see these British indie rock legends in NYC -- they'll be playing Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport on August 13. it is part of the Seaport Music Festival series presented by the River to River Festival. No opener has been announced yet.

The Wedding Present were fantastic at Bowery, playing Bizarro with all the manic, string-destroying energy it had 20 years ago. They also played a warm up set of new and classic, non-Bizarro songs. There's video at the bottom of this post of them tearing through the eight-minute epic "Take Me!" from the Bowery Show.

That looks to be the last of the shows at the Seaport which will play host to such bands as Bear in Heaven, Thee Oh Sees, Avi Buffalo, Yacht, Best Coast and Free Energy before then. The first show in the Seaport Music series is Saturday, June 26 with the Apples in Stereo being joined by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Tuesday, June 15th, at the Seaport, Paper Magazine is presenting Drake, Hanson and Ninjasonic. That will be bananas.

And while on the subject, Ribbons play my Sound Bites Lunchtime Series, also at the Seaport, this Wednesday at 1PM.

Full Seaport Music Festival schedule, and that live Wedding Present video are after the jump.

Continue reading "The Wedding Present added to this summer's Seaport lineup"

by Bill Pearis

There's a lot going on this weekend but the show I'm most excited about this weekend is The Wedding Present who are in town performing their 1989 classic Bizarro in its entirety. They'll do it at Maxwell's on Saturday night (4/10, Sold Out) and then Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (not sold out) (4/11).

I won't lie: you're looking at a Wedding Present superfan. Like a lot of Americans, Bizarro was the first album I heard and is near and dear to me for that reason. (1991's Seamonsters is my all-time fave, though.) Bizarro is the peak of their early sound -- jangle pop played hard and very fast -- ten bashers that climax with the nearly ten minute "Take Me!" that might be the band's most manic song ever. Magnet asked frontman David Gedge, who turns 50 on April 23rd, a question I was wondering about.

Magnet:There's a lot of frantic guitar strumming on Bizarro, songs like "Kennedy" in particular. Twenty-plus years later, how worried are you that you might need frequent breaks during the shows?

David Gedge: I'm not going to deny that it's a challenge! With Bizarro, we took the original idea of the Wedding Present--namely, to play songs as fast and for as long as possible--to its logical conclusion. As a result, it's a collection of fairly extreme recordings, and obviously, we've never played them back to back like this before. Rehearsals have been more like training sessions for a marathon, but I have no doubt that we'll get there in the end.

A little clarification: the band are doing the original 10-song UK version of Bizarro, not the 14-track U.S. CD version so don't expect them to play their cover of Pavement's "Box Elder." They are, however, playing about seven songs from throughout the band's career (and a couple new ones) before launching into the album.

White Mystery

Guitar-bass garage rock duos are a dime a dozen, but White Mystery from Chicago stand out and not just because siblings Alex and Francis are flaming redheads. (If they ever need to change their name, may I suggest Firecrotch?) Alex, formerly of Red Orchestra, has a soulful wail that she lets belt out at top register. They're also less blues-y than many of their brethren -- even without the singing nobody's gonna confuse them with The White Stripes, Thee Oh Sees, etc. Their self-titled debut is a lot of fun. And you just know -- you just know -- they're gonna be good live.

White Mystery play Don Pedros on Friday night (4/9) with Girls at Dawn, Medication, Lil Daggers, and The Psyched. They'll also play Cake Shop on Saturday with QXBXRX, Zbornak, and the Richie White Orchestra.

In addition to Serena Maneesh, Here's a few more picks for tonight and Friday...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present, White Mystery, Mon Khmer, ARMS, Zaza, Light Asylum & more in This Week in Indie (part 2) "

by Bill Pearis

The Wedding Present @ Bowery Ballroom in 2008 (more by Tim Griffin)

The Wedding Present will be playing their 1989 album Bizarro in full on an upcoming North American tour in celebration of the record's 21st anniversary, including an April 10th show at Maxwell's (tickets on sale Wednesday at noon) and an April 11 stop at Bowery Ballroom (tickets on sale Friday at noon). All dates below.

Bizarro was most Americans' introduction to The Wedding Present's jangle-on-speed sound, as it was their first to get released in this country, and was also their major label debut (RCA). (It's also the first place anyone ever heard a Pavement song -- their cover of "Box Elder" was a bonus track on the American CD.) While the album's singles, "Brassneck" and "Kennedy", have remained constants in The Wedding Present's live cannon, this tour will surely mark the first time some of Bizarro's songs been played live in the States since 1990, if ever. As to why frontman (and sole remaining founding member) David Gedge chose to celebrate 21 years, not 20, is anybody's guess but if nothing else I'm looking forward to hearing the album's nine-minute epic "Take Me." And we can only hope this will lead to them doing the same for their 1991 masterpiece, Seamonsters. And maybe they'll do it on the 20th anniversary.

The Bizarro tour will also hit Japan and Europe later in the year, but most of those shows are still TBD. All announced dates, plus some videos from the time of the album, below...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present celebrating & performing 'Bizarro' on tour - 2010 dates (2 NYC-area shows) "

DOWNLOAD: Klee & The Wedding Present - Holly Jolly Hollywood (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Klee - Gold (MP3)

by Bill Pearis

Right before the Wedding Present played at Southpaw last night, a guy appeared on stage wearing a paper mache mask. I excitedly thought, "oh my god it's Frank Sidebottom!" Never in my life did I think I would see him perform live. He's mostly unknown in America, but in the UK he's... uh... I don't know exactly what to say... I'll quote the Trouser Press:

"At first glance, Frank Sidebottom is just an idiotic soccer fan from Timperley (a town just outside Manchester) who performs inanely nasal renditions of popular songs -- accompanying himself in various musical modes, from rock to acoustic piano to a rinkydink synthesizer approximation of '20s ragtime -- while wearing an enormous painted papier-maché head. But what Chris Sievey (former leader of the equally prolific punk-era Freshies) has done as Frank Sidebottom is so completely over the top, so singlemindedly weird, funny and charming that one has to marvel at the wit and intensity with which he pursues his bewildering career."

Though Frank's been doing his thing since the mid-'80s, I have no idea whether he's played the U.S. before. It's the first time I've ever heard of it.

He only performed for 10 minutes at Southpaw, so I can't actually tell people to go see him, but it would be a diservice to the world to not let the New York public know that he is here. Seven more upcoming NYC-area shows are listed below, and here's some Youtube video of him on Tony Wilson's Grenada Reports in the mid-'80s:

Continue reading "Frank Sidebottom is here! (7 more NYC shows)"

Photos by Tim Griffin

The Wedding Present played their first of two NYC shows at Bowery Ballroom last night (Oct 8). The 2nd one is tonight (Oct 9) at Southpaw. Tulsa opened the show. More pictures from Bowery below...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics, setlist"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The New Year - The Company I Can Get (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Yellow Fever - Culver City (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Yellow Fever - Joe Brown (MP3)

The Wedding Present @ Neumos, Seattle 9/25 (via The Finest Kiss)

The Wedding Present are in town this week and they are one of my favorite bands ever, probably one of five or six groups of which I can say I'm a genuine, died-in-the-wool fan. And I can honestly say I don't think frontman David Gedge has made a bad record in his 23 year career -- either with the Weddoes or Cinerama -- and that goes for the new album, El Ray, even if he maybe tries a little too hard with the lyrics on this one.

And they are always good live. Gedge, who's been the only constant in a lineup that's changed almost as many times as The Fall, still hammers at his guitar with a speed and voracity that would exhaust men half his age in half the time. Setlists on this tour have looked pretty good, especially if you're a fan of their 1991 Albini-produced classic, Seamonsters... which you should be. Just remember: They don't do requests or encores.

The Wedding Present play Bowery Ballroom tonight (10/8) (tickets) and Southpaw tomorrow (10/9) (tickets).

The New Year

Having just wrapped up a stint opening for the Wedding Present, Brooklyn's Dirty on Purpose are now playing some dates with The New Year, including one this Friday (10/10) at Music Hall of Williamsburg (tickets are still available). It's a good double-bill, as DoP's Joe Jurwicz and George Wilson initially bonded over their love of '90s indie rock legends, Bedhead whose core members, Matt and Bubba Kadane, went on to form The New Year. (I learned this, by the way, via Death By Audio's new-ish blog, worth a visit.) The New Year's new, self-titled album injects a little light into the Kadane brothers signature downbeat sound -- but not too much.

Dirty on Purpose, Wii versions

I've got a pair of tickets and a Dirty on Purpose t-shirt to give away for the MHoW show. Just email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM with the subject line "Dirty New Year." Include your first and last name. Winner will be chosen at random and notified by Friday morning.

Yellow Fever @ Death By Audio

Austin duo YellowFever are back in town for two NYC shows this week. There are no shortage of duos these days but I gotta say nobody else sounds quite like them. Their sound couldn't be more spare -- usually just drums, the simplest guitar (often just single notes, not chords), and Jennifer Moore's understated, kinda haunting voice. It's that space inbetween the instrumentation that makes them so special. It's a little bit like Young Marble Giants if Beth Orton was the singer instead of Alison Statton. I caught them at Death by Audio when they came through town in July, and they are definitely worth checking out this week. They play Cake Shop on Thursday (10/9) and Silent Barn on Friday (10/10).

Speaking of Cake Shop, you might want to swing by tonight/Wednesday (10/8) to catch L.A.'s The Heartstring Symphony. Somewhere between fellow Angelinos The Bird and the Bee and Lavender Diamond, this is well-crafted jazzy R&B pop that brings to mind Joe Jackson and Steely Dan. Main symphonette Heather Porcaro, who basically is the band on record, is of Yacht Rock lineage, her father, Steve, and late uncle Jeff were in Toto. Just don't yell "Rosanna," ok? The Heartstring Symphony also play Club NME at the Annex on Friday (10/10).

All tour dates and videos below...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present, Dirty on Purpose, the New Year, the Heartstring Symphony & YellowFever in the Week in Indie"

Pattern is Movement

Tonight's show was supposed to be at Studio B and was supposed to have The Jealous Girlfriends on the bill (August 20). Instead, Pattern is Movement, Jukebox the Ghost, Bryan Scary and "a very special unannounced guest" (not Sarah Silverman) are playing at Le Royale on 7th Ave in Manhattan. Is the special guest The Jealous Girlfriends or is it The XYZ Affair or is it somebody completely different? I don't know.

On September 10th, Pattern is Movement kick of a tour in Canada and keep going through October when they eventually meet up with the reunited Shudder to Think to play a few shows including the October 4th one at Webster Hall. The Jealous Girlfriends are also on that bill. Less than a week later The Jealous Girlfriends go out on tour with the Wedding Present. That tour does not currently include the two NYC WP shows. All PIM and TJG tour dates (and the Le Royale flyer) below...

Continue reading "Pattern is Movement - 2008 Tour Dates (tonight, a special guest, Shudder To Think & The Jealous Girlfriends)"

Formed in 1985, the band quickly rocketed to success, due in large part to being seen as the likely successors to the Smiths' throne. Their debut, George Best, was well received, largely because of Gedge's highly personal, entirely autobiographical lyrics. But despite the success, which continued to some extent through 1992's Hit Parade, the band--meaning Gedge--always did everything his way.

"It's always been the way we've worked," he says. "I think a lot of bands start off like that, you know, do it all themselves. But after they've had a bit of success, they're like, 'I shouldn't be booking hotels, I should be lounging around the pool with a couple of babes.'

"Yeah, I've felt like that," he adds with a laugh.

"I think most musicians are drunken, lazy idiots, to be honest," he continues. "I think they're in it to write songs and play concerts, but then they kind of lose interest after that. I've never been like that--I've always been a bit of a workaholic about that." [Daily Yomiuri Online]

Tickets are now on sale for an October 8th Wedding Present show at Bowery Ballroom. That's one day before the previously-announced Brooklyn show. A few more October tour dates have popped up too. All dates below...

Continue reading "The Wedding Present - more 2008 Tour Dates (Bowery)"

Tickets are on sale for an October 9th The Wedding Present show at Southpaw in Brooklyn. That's the only North American date I have at the moment, but...

The band are also currently organising further tours of Iceland, USA and Canada for September into October and The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and The Czech Republic for November....

...so stay tuned. All other known dates below...

Continue reading "the Wedding Present are playing Brooklyn, touring the world "