Thurston Moore in Battery Park - July 4, 2008 (more by Jason Bergman)

It's happening September 12th @ Knitting Factory in NYC and tickets are on sale!

photos by Jason Bergman

DOWNLOAD: Sonic Youth - Made in USA theme (MP3)

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers turned out in a light drizzle Friday night to celebrate the nation's 232nd birthday with the annual Fourth of July fireworks display along the East River.

The nationally-televised Macy's Fourth of July Spactacular began around 9:20 p.m., was co-hosted by former New York Giant Tiki Barber and featured musical performances by artists including country singer Kenny Chesney and American Idol Jordin Sparks...

...Some who watched the Macy's show began their evening with a concert in Manhattan's Battery Park.

Sonic Youth and the Feelies played in front of a sold-out crowd of hundreds of thousands at the park's River to River Festival.

"I'm all about music on Fourth of July," said one concert attendee. "I kind of hate running around, fighting traffic and such. I was here summer for Fourth of July for this show, it's a great hang out for music here down in Battery Park."

"Sonic Youth outside, Fourth of July, it's a fantastic bit of Americana," said another.

"I heard it was free and I was just like, 'Wow, I'm really happy.' I've always wanted to see Sonic Youth," said a third. [NY1]

Continue reading "Sonic Youth @ Battery Park (4th of July), NYC - pics, setlist"

Josh, Thurston Moore, Byron Coley @ Other Music - June 14, 2008 (Leftist)

The Feelies kick off their three-show reunion run at Maxwell's on Tuesday July 1st. Then comes July 2nd at Maxwell's, and finally July 4th with Sonic Youth at Battery Park. I'm not sure if there will be more tickets available for the show on the 4th. Regardless, if you can't be there, you can always listen to it on WFMU. Then one day later you can catch Thurston Moore in a much smaller setting - with Gene Moore, downstairs at Rehab.

"By now you probably know the story ... days before the release of their sophomore album Get Awkward (Ecstatic Peace / Universal) Be Your Own Pet were informed by the Universal Records higher ups (ya know, the people in suits in the corner office at the top of the building) that three tracks on the album were too violent for the impressionable ears of Be Your Own Pet fans. The band was given the option of recording the tracks without the offending lyrics or taking them off the album. Not wanting to give up artistic control they chose the latter and thus off the album came\"Becky,\" a song about kicking the ass of your former best friend, the nihilistic\"Black Hole\" and\"Blow Yr Mind\" which is about just that.

XL Recordings (Be Your Own Pet\'s label outside of North Amercia) then entered the picture. The indie had no problem releasing Get Awkward as it was given to them and is only too happy to be putting out this Get Damaged EP so America can finally hear the songs that were banned for being too violent.

Get Damaged is currently available via itunes and will be in-stores on June 24." [official PR]

Continue reading "Be Your Own Pet censored EP & 2008 Tour Dates (McCarren)"

Thurston Moore @ Starbucks - June 13, 2008 (cred)

Renegade Craft Fair, McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NY - June 14, 2008 (cred)

Thurston Moore signing his new book near KF - June 13, 2008 (cred)

today in NYC
* FREE STUFF
* Sigur Ros @ Grand Ballroom
* The Muslims @ Mercury Lounge
* Jose Gonzalez @ The Stone Pony
* Martha Wainwright @ Barnes & Noble
* Ted Leo & the Pharmacists & Variety Shac @ Maxwell's
* Love is All, Versus & Crystal Stilts @ Bowery Ballroom
* Rickie Lee Jones & Erik Friedlander @ (le) poisson rouge

Did you go to (le) poisson rouge yet? Damon & Naomi played last night. How is it?

The above paparazzi picture of Thurston @ Starbucks happened on Friday. I wonder if he has a free-coffee-for-life card. Later that night he played Knitting Factory.

It rained on R.E.M. It rained on My Morning Jacket. It rained on Vampire Weekend. It rained on Death Cab For Cutie. It rained on Adam Green's parade. A member of Sigur Ros was in the hospital. Iron Maiden lost their sound.

Knitting Factory is coming to Brooklyn.

"New York F*cking City" (NSFW)

Videos of Death Cab For Cutie playing Bonnaroo below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

photos by Lori Baily

"So Teenage Jesus and the Jerks played the Knitting Factory in N.Y.C the other night.... (the legendary No Wave band that Lydia Lunch fronted way back in the late 70's) 2 shows for 1 night only and I wasn't there. I wasn't even remotely in the neighourhood, I was stuck in London, England." [The Dark Forest]

Of all the strange and short-lived periods in the history of experimental music in New York, no wave is perhaps the strangest and shortest-lived.

Centered on a handful of late-1970s downtown groups like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and James Chance's Contortions, it was a cacophonous, confrontational subgenre of punk rock, Dadaist in style and nihilistic in attitude. It began around 1976, and within four years most of the original bands had broken up.

But every weird rock scene -- and every era of New York bohemia -- eventually gets its coffee-table book moment. This month Abrams Image is publishing "No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980," a visual history by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley.

On Friday the book will be (was) celebrated with an exhibition opening at KS Art, at 73 Leonard Street in TriBeCa, and, across the street at the Knitting Factory, the reunion of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, whose blunt, aggressive songs had instrumentation so minimal that on its records the percussionist was sometimes credited as playing simply "drum." Lydia Lunch, the former lead singer, is flying (flew in) from Barcelona to play the show.
[NY Times]

More pictures, and video, from the late show at Knitting Factory on Friday (June 13, 2008), below...

Continue reading "Teenage Jesus & The Jerks @ the Knit, NYC - pics & video"

You won't be able to hear Thurston Moore discuss his new book at McNally Robinson until July (event #4), but you can hear him read from it tomorrow (event #2)...

THURSTON MOORE & BYRON COLEY BOOK RELEASE PARTY
Join us at the shop this Saturday for a reading, signing and release party with Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, celebrating the publication of their great new no wave primer "No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980." Let's call this one the after-party for the Teenage Jesus & the Jerks/Information reunion gigs at the Knitting Factory the night before (event #1)... quite a weekend!

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 @ 6:30PM - 8PM
OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC
Free admission / Limited capacity

McNally Robinson is a bookstore on Prince St in NYC. Check out who they have visiting in May, June and July....

Continue reading "3 music-related events happening at McNally Robinson "

Sonic Youth has finalized the track list for its compilation "Hits Are for Squares," due June 10 exclusively in Starbucks stores in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as well as online.

In addition to the exclusive Sonic Youth track "Slow Revolution," the limited-edition CD features Sonic Youth songs, handpicked by Radiohead, Chloe Sevigny, Dave Eggers, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Beck, Flea, David Cross and other enthusiasts. Participants have also written about their selections for the liner notes... [Billboard]

Continue reading "The SONIC YOUTH Starbucks tracklist (curated by Radiohead, David Cross, Beck, Eddie Vedder, Flaming Lips...)"

British Sea Power @ MHOW - May 11, 2008 (more by allan)

Thurston Moore & Nancy Garcia @ No Fun Fest 2008 (more by Seth Tisue)

Zach Condon & ring @ MHOW last night (more by Bao Nguyen)

tonight in NYC & NJ
* Dandi Wind @ Knitting Factory
* The Swell Season @ Radio City Music Hall
* Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash at Irving Plaza
* The Mary Onettes & Blacklist @ Mercury Lounge
* British Sea Power & Jeffrey Lewis @ Maxwell's
* Los Campesinos & Titus Andronicus @ Bowery Ballroom
* Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Music Hall

The Mary Onettes are from Sweden, are on tour, are not twee, and also playing Union Hall on May 23rd.

Check out more pictures and stuff from last night's Beirut show.

Another big show that happened this weekend was Hercules and Love Affair at Studio B. Video from that below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

"The movie has obligatory interviews with Thurston Moore (keeping his promise to be in every documentary ever), Mike Watt, Brian Poole (giving Athens bootleg lords a shout out!) and a coterie of other luminaries including....Noam Chomsky (!?!?!)." [Chunklet]

Continue reading "I Need That Record: The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store -documentary (videos)"

No Fun Productions is pleased to announce the initial line-up for No Fun Fest 2008. Taking place for three nights (May 16, 17, 18) at the legendary Knitting Factory in New York City, this year's festival, which includes some of the most acclaimed names in experimental music, avant electronics, and noise and beyond will without question create a cacophonic haven for all fans of noise and dissonant experimental sounds.

Continue reading "No Fun Fest 2008 @ Knitting Factory in NYC, full lineup"

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were an influential New York City No Wave music group of 1976-79 fronted by Lydia Lunch and James Chance, who later left the band after some conflict about their direction.

Reputed to play ten-minute sets of thirty-second songs (though "The Closet" and "I woke up dreaming" extended to around three minutes and performances up to twenty), they sought to take music beyond what Lunch saw as the traditionalism of punk rock ("I thought punk was lousy Chuck Berry music amped up to play triple fast", she later commented). Their frenzied playing and Lunch's shrieked vocals gained them a renown quickly matching and even surpassing that of other No Wave bands such as DNA or the older Mars......The group has been cited as a significant influence on post-punk groups such as Sonic Youth. [Wikipedia]

2 shows: both on June 13th. $25 tickets are on sale. Videos below....

Continue reading "Teenage Jesus & the Jerks reuiniting for 2 NYC shows "

Lou Reed & Moby @ FADER Fort, SXSW 2008 (Nathan Malone)

Continue reading "Lou Reed & Moby & friends @ SXSW (pics, video)"

Roky Erickson - Two Headed Dog 1980

* Roky Erickson is in NYC to play Webster & Maxwell's
* The Karen Ann/Dean & Britta tour reaches an end Friday & Saturday
* St Vincent & Foreign Born play NYC again tonight/Friday

Roky Erickson returns to NYC to play Webster Hall on March 1st. Thurston Moore & The New Wave Bandits (Thurston + full rock band) are opening. Roky is also playing Maxwell's on March 2nd. Tickets are on sale Wed @ noon.

Thurston Moore @ Knitting Factory, NYC - Jan 8, 2008 (lori baily)

wearing no pants in Union Square, NYC - Jan 12, 2008 (zodak)

* Globalfest @ Webster Hall
* Franz Nicolay @ Maxwell's
* Endless Boogie & Human Bell @ Pianos
* KT Tunstall is playing the Apple Store
* Ladybug Mecca & Brian Jackson @ Knitting Factory
* Kimya Dawson & Tiny Masters Today @ Southpaw (afternoon)
* Mirah and Spectratone Int'l @ Southpaw (night time)

What else?

While looking for a picture of last night's Ecstatic Peace show, I found a picture of Thurston Moore and Ian MacKaye eating brunch...

* an Iron Maiden tribute at Mercury Lounge
* Martin Medeski & Wood came out with a new album
* Martin Medeski & Wood are playing Borders
* Natalie Merchant is playing Hiro Ballroom
* Kate Nash is playing Bowery Ballroom
* Kate Nash played Virgin Megastore
* Sia is playing Virgin Megastore

Did you see Sia on Conan last night? It was cute, but I don't have a video. Instead a video of Thurston Moore's November Jimmy Kimmel appearance is below. What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

Super Furry Animals fans, New Years Eve, London (cred)

* Thurston Moore and friends play Knitting Factory
* Hymns are having a residency at Pianos
* Natalie Merchant plays Hiro Ballroom
* Kate Nash plays the Virgin Megastore
* New Hampshire is having a primary
* Happy Birthday Elvis

What else?

Tickets are on sale. Flyer below....

Continue reading "Ecstatic Peace night w/ Thurston Moore @ Knitting Factory"

It's hard to believe that Portishead is playing two shows next week...

Portishead and Aphex Twin opted to present their shows in Centre Stage and will be doing 2 performances each so they could perform their sets with no restrictive sound issues. To make this work ATP have cut the capacity of the festival by over 600 people to allow much easier access for all fans to be able to come and see the shows of their choice.

The Portishead show will be wrist-banded so all fans are guaranteed entry. At check-in please choose your preferred show day (Friday or Saturday) The wristbands will be on a first come first served basis, however if there are special circumstances that means you are arriving late on the Friday evening or not until the Saturday morning and can only attend the Saturday show please contact ATP on feedback@atpfestival.com with "wristband" in the subject line and let them know and they can make arrangements to hold back wristbands.

The Aphex Twin shows will be on a first come first serve basis on the night - once the room is at capacity they will let people in on a one out one in basis.

Continue reading "Oneida, Portishead, ATP"

Bright Eyes @ Radio City Music Hall, NYC - Nov 19, 2007 (CRED)

the opening bands were pretty cool. the first band was the felice brothers, and they were sorta country-ish but not annoying and i didn't hate it. the second band was the lifeboats...the something lifeboats....i dunno i'll look it up. they were great;; more instrumental, but great.
and THEN, there was a second intermission after them so we knew that bright eyes would be next, and this intermission was really long so me and erika were like oh yeahhh connor has to finish up his coke or else he wont be able to preform properly!
but when he came on the stage, when he came on with his sky blue button down shirt and picked up his guitar, i was having a seizure.
the most amazing lyrics...oh god DJDSKLLFS!! and he said that they've been touring for 11 years, and that this was their last show. when he said that, me and erika looked at eachother with the widest and BRIGHTEST eyes, like we were the luckiest people on earth.
i really hope that connor was just coked out and he didn't mean that. i need to see them again. <3 [Rachel]

@ The Apple Store in SOHO, NYC (info)
Oct 12 - Alan Alda
Oct 16 - Stephen Colbert
Oct 17 - Thurston Moore
Oct 18 - Q-Tip
Oct 19 - Simian Mobile Disco
Oct 23 - Dave Gahan

Speaking of sell-outs (JUST KIDDING!), Thurston Moore is opening for Bright Eyes at Radio City Music Hall, and playing an in-store performance at the Apple Store in SOHO on October 17th. There's no mention of it on Apple's site yet, but they do have a listing for an appearance by Stephen Colbert one day earlier. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Thurston Moore - 2007 Tour Dates --- Radio City w/ Bright Eyes & The Apple Store"

Thurston Moore @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - Sept 26, 2007 (CRED)

How was the show? The Boston Globe recently interviewed Thurston. Here's a clip:

BOSTON GLOBE: What do you say to people who think you've sold out by dealing with Starbucks?

THURSTON MOORE: There's no difference between working with Starbucks and working with record labels like Universal and Geffen. It's a knee-jerk reaction from PC watchdogs. I mean, really, which long-distance company do you use for your cellphone? Are you on the grid? If you're off the grid, I'll listen to you.