by Andrew Sacher

Psych synthesists Black Moth Super Rainbow are preparing to self release their new album, Cobra Juicy, on October 9 and though they record all of the music themselves at no cost, they're funding the album on Kickstarter to offer different physical versions of it. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, different levels of donations get you different rewards, and for this album they vary from a simple CD release to vinyl in a lenticular sleeve, to a limited edition mask emulating the "Ugly Orange Head" that graces Cobra Juicy's album artwork. That's a picture of the mask being worn by BMSR leader Tobacco above. The cover art version is below.

The band have revealed two tracks from the album so far, "Spraypaint" and "Windshield Smasher," both of which you can stream below. Both tracks are still weird, but "Spraypaint" is actually a pretty beautiful sounding song as far as BMSR go.

The band will be supporting the album with a US tour this fall which comes to NYC for shows on December 5 at Bowery Ballroom and December 6 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for the MHOW show go on sale Friday (7/27) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (7/25) at noon. There is currently no ticket link for the Bowery Ballroom show.

A list of all dates, song streams, and cover art are below.

Continue reading "Black Moth Super Rainbow releasing 'Cobra Juicy', touring (dates & streams)"

Com Truise at Public Assembly earlier this month (more by Ryan Muir)

Princeton, NJ's Com Truise and Tobacco teamed up for some dates, including one in Philly last night (4/18) and another in Brooklyn tonight, Thursday (4/19) at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Beacon, Shine 2009, and Selebrities. Tickets are still available.

The shows with Com Truise are the only dates listed on Tobacco's calendar other than a show at Poughkeepsie's Vassar College on 4/20. Com Truise, on the other hand, will continue touring the US this month, head to the UK in May, and was just announced on the lineup of this summer's North Coast Music Festival in Chicago along with the Rapture, Dan Deacon, Big Boi and many more.

All tour dates, a video for Com Truise's "Hyper Lips" and a few remixes are below...

Continue reading "Com Truise & Tobacco on tour, play Brooklyn tonight (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: Beans - "Deathsweater" (MP3)

Beans played what was supposed to be his only SXSW show last night (3/16) as part of the official Anticon showcase, BUT we've managaed to add him to our day party happening at Swan Dive & Barbarella in Austin TODAY (3/17). He replaces Dom who cancelled due to a scheduling mistake. The show is three stages. Beans plays at 3pm on the same stage as Dominique Young Unique, Obits & Mellowhype (Odd Future).

In April Beans is going on tour with Tobacco and Shapers. Beans recently released an LP entitled End It All, and even more recently released a video for the song "Blue Movie", which you can watch, alongside all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Beans replaces Dom on BV Austin Day Party (happening TODAY), touring w/ Tobacco, made a video"

DOWNLOAD: Crystal Stilts - Practically Immaculate (MP3)

"The Black Angels and Reverberation Appreciation Society are happy to announce the dates, location and initial lineup for Austin Psych Fest 4. The 4th annual festival will be held at The East Side Drive In, an outside venue in the heart of downtown from April 29 - May 1, 2011. Spanning the full range of the psych sounds, the festival honors the past while also magnifying the modern vanguard of mind-expanding music. The festival grounds will feature a multi-stage setup and wide-open spaces for you to stretch out and enjoy live performances from these bands and many more to be announced."

Grab the free new Crystal Stilts holiday track above. Check out the Psych Fest lineup below...

Continue reading "Crystal Stilts release a holiday song, playing Austin Psych Fest w/ Black Angels, Spectrum & more (MP3 & lineup)"

DOWNLOAD: Greg Saunier vs. WOOM - Quetzalcoatl's Ship (MP3)

Greg on stage with Deerhoof (more by Chris Gersbeck)

We already knew that we could catch the very talented Greg Saunier of Deerhoof at one of two upcoming NYC shows (Ridgewood Masonic Temple on 2/8 with Buke & Gass and Le Poisson Rouge on 3/14-tickets), but we can also see the Deerhoof trapsman extraordinaire THIS FRIDAY, 2/17, at Bruar Falls. It doesn't look like Saunier will be behind the kit though, but he will be manning the drums... on a drum machine if the billing of the show is correct. Bruar Falls lists it as "SARA MAGENHEIMER (WOOM) AND GREG SAUNIER (DEERHOOF) DRUM MACHINE IMPROV DUO. The show kicks off at 8PM and will also feature sets by The Psyched and Antimagic. WOOM won't play the show, but they do have dates coming up elsewhere which are listed below. All Deerhoof dates are in a previous post.

This is not the first time Woom and Deerhoof will have collaborated either...

Last July the duo WOOM released their debut album, Muu's Way. Since then, word of mouth has been spreading about the chaotic, tender, startlingly original world the album creates. The band's reputation has grown slowly but persistently at the edge of visibility, like a slime mold spreading across the parking lot of modern independent pop music. So who is it listening to WOOM? Well, take for example some of their biggest fans: the musicians featured on this new release, Muu's Way Remixed.

Deerhoof's Greg Saunier takes on the underwater pop splash "Quetzalcoatl's Ship". Adding stuttering distorted drums, his version rolls the song like an over-ripe melon down a rocky hill in the hot sun. His longtime collaborators, Xiu Xiu, have a remarkably different take on the same song, chopping and looping to create a moody piece of midnight electro-minimalist doom.

BJ Warshaw (Parts and Labor, Shooting Spires) turns "The Hunt" (human-breath-based dance beat) into a psychedelic trash-can rave-up. Lucky Dragons ease the album's political-sleeper-love-song "Judith" into a pastoral latin-bumping cloud of rain. Talk Normal flip folk-concrete "Backwards Beach" into a no-wave sing-a-long. Meanwhile, Japanther get mellow with "Salt" and Butchy Fuego (Pit er Pat, The Boredoms) invents a new genre ("Woombia") for "Back In."

Listen to the whole EP on Soundcloud. Download Greg Saunier's take on "Quetzalcoatl's Ship" above. Full tracklist, and WOOM's new video for "The Hunt", is below.

In related news, the "driver" half of Deerhoof's "Hoofdriver" project (that 7" is out now) will play two nights at Southpaw as part of "Search And Restore & Manhattan New Music presents...4 nights of Kneebody". Kneebody's four night residency will feature two sets from the band each night, and will take place on 1/26 -1/29 with Wayne Krantz on the first night (tickets), Busdriver on board for the second night (tickets), Busdriver & Mark Guiliana on the third (tickets), and Daedelus on the final night (tickets).

It's not the first time that Kneebody and Busdriver have collaborated for a show or on stage; in fact, the pair were in NYC in February for Kneebody's four day residency at Bleecker St Theater. Videos of the two artists playing together are below.

If you can't make it to catch Daedelus at Southpaw, you can still catch him support Lotus with Tobacco at Terminal 5 on February 5th. Tickets are on sale. Lotus is also on board to play Mercury Lounge the night before, and tickets to that show are currently on sale as a package with the Terminal 5 tickets.

Full tour dates and everything else below...

Continue reading "Deerhoof's Greg Saunier playing w/ WOOM's Sara, Kneebody playing w/ Busdriver & Daedelus (who opens for Lotus too)"

DOWNLOAD: Junk Culture - West Coast (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: HEALTH - Die Slow (Tobacco RMX) (MP3) (via)

Junk Culture, which is made up of electronic artist Deepak Mantena and his younger brother Nitin Mantena on drums, got in position on stage and music immediately started flowing from the speakers. Everyone started dancing as if they were commanded to do so. They opened with a song which doesn't require any real dancing effort because your body starts swaying and your head starts bopping involuntarily with the beat. While they played, random videos like crashing ocean waves and a kid slalom skateboarding flashed on a large screen behind them. The random videos continued through the show with no pattern or theme, and later Deepak told me the videos were just '50s and '60s propaganda he chopped and assembled in the same fashion as he does music. [The Reflector on Junk Culture live Oct. 2009]

Junk Culture is the lo-fi pop/hip-hop beats project of Illegal Art's Deepak Mantena, with his brother Nitin on drums (they also make sketch comedy videos as Celery TV, see below). They'll be coming to New York this weekend as part of their tour with psychy indie-pop Common Loon, the Champaign, IL duo of Matthew Campbell and Robert Hirschfeld. Both bands play Friday, July 9th at Coco 66 with k.Flay and Ava Luna, and the next night (7/10) at Union Hall with the Diggs.

Junk Culture's West Coast EP came out in 2009 on Illegal Art (home of Girl Talk), and he has a new record due in the fall. Common Loons's The Long Dream of Birds came out in April - check it out streaming on their Bandcamp.

Coming up, Junk Culture has a September tour with Tobacco who are giving away a free mix tape, and whose HEALTH remix from the new HEALTH remix LP, you can download above. Tobacco's Manic Meat came out in May which is also when The Hood Internet released a free mashup EP using some songs from it.

Tobacco's Anticon labelmates Why? are playing the debut 2010 Pool Party on July 11th.

HEALTH are playing Santos Party House this summer.

Girl Talk is playing Camp Bisco.

Junk Culture videos and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Illegal Art's Junk Culture touring w/ Common Loon & then Anticon's Tobacco - dates, MP3s, videos & stuff"

by Andrew Frisicano

HEALTH @ The Smell in LA in November (more by Rachel Carr)

HEALTH are going on tour with Indian Jewelry and Gold Panda this June for shows around North America. All three play Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday, June 20th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday (4/14) at noon. General sale starts Friday at noon.

HEALTH will release DISCO2, the follow-up to its 2008 remix record, HEALTH//DISCO, on June 22nd through Lovepump United. Remixers on the disc, which also features new track "USA Boys," include Crystal Castles (who play Irving Plaza tomorrow, April 14th), Javelin, Small Black, Salem, Tobacco and Pictureplane.

They recently released an intense & unspeakably creepy video for their song "We Are Water," directed by Tim & Eric's Eric Wareheim. That, album info and tracklist (with a complete list of remixers) and all tour dates (including dates in Europe) are below...

Continue reading "HEALTH - 2010 tour dates w/ Indian Jewelry & Gold Panda, new remix CD & Eric Wareheim video "

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

The eighth annual Bonnaroo drew about 75,000 people to 700 acres of farmland here in Manchester, 60 miles from Nashville, for a lineup headlined by a jam band (the reunited Phish, playing three-hour shows on Friday and Sunday), rockers whose careers are measured in decades (Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails and David Byrne) and rappers who now qualify as old school (the Beastie Boys). [NY Times]

Far from a complete representation of what went down in Tennessee from June 11-14, but nonetheless, one set of pictures from the fest (catching up this weekend), below...

Continue reading "a set of pictures from Bonnaroo 2009 "

The lineup is coming together for Pop Montreal 2009 (September 30th to October 4th). Confirmed acts include Butthole Surfers, Fever Ray, Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow + The Missingmen, Loudon Wainwright III, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Thee Oh Sees, tUnE-YaRdS, to name a few.

Those interesting choices (like Lou Barlow with some configuration of Mike Watt's band?) are just part of the fest's usually-strong lineup. Full lineup so far, below...

Continue reading "Pop Montreal 2009 - initial lineup (Fever Ray, Os Mutantes, Butthole Surfers, Lou Barlow + the Missingmen...)"

Jane's Addiction - @ Echoplex, Los Angeles - Feb 16, 2009 (revolute)

Live Nation and Adam Zacks are pleased to announce this year's line up for the Sasquatch! Music Festival at the legendary Gorge in Eastern Washington. The festival, now in its eighth and most ambitious year yet, has evolved from a unique, homegrown & low key fest into a full blown three day extravaganza. A festival-goer's dream, it comes complete with camp-outs, canyons, sunsets, three stages and new this year, an expanded comedy and dance music tent. The tent will feature performances from comedians throughout the day, and then come dusk, will spotlight electronic and dance music artists.

Already the official opener to summer for music fans, the Sasquatch! Music Festival is becoming a certified monster of a musical event: this year features another exciting and diverse line-up for the musically adventurous, and ups the ante on an event already hailed for its independent spirit. Tickets go on sale Saturday February 28th at 10AM

Jane's Addiction, reunited once again, played a show at the Echoplex in LA last night. They announced it last week via their website and mailing list.

Today it was announced that Jane's (feat. all four original members), NIN, Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, and many others are playing this year's Sasquatch Festival (May 23, 24, 25, 2009 @ The Gorge in Quincy, WA). Full lineup and ticket info below...

Continue reading "Jane's Addiction played LA, headlining SASQUATCH Festival (which just announced most of the 2009 LINEUP)"

Fujiya & Miyagi @ @ Mercury Lounge, CMJ (more by Gabi Porter)

Last Wednesday (10/22) night I was initially drawn to the show happening at Mercury Lounge because of Fuijiya & Miyagi. The trio have never failed to flawlessly deliver their whisper-soft vocals, and laidback, funky instrumentals any of the previous times I've seen them. Wednesday's show was no exception. They played a pleasant mix of both old and new tracks (partial setlist below, the dashes are songs I couldn't identify, and I am pretty sure they played "Uh" but forget exactly when), some of which had a nice extra kick thanks to the addition of drummer Lee Adams, joining the performance a few tracks in.

Fujiya & Miyagi at Mercury Lounge - October 22, 2008 Partial Setlist

Sore Thumb
Ankle Injuries
Pterodactyls
-
Collarbone
Goosebumps
-
Knickerbocker
In One Ear & Out The Other
Electro Karaoke In the Negative Style

Prior to Fujiya & Miyagi I witnessed Tobacco which consisted of 2 people poring over a table of electronics on the left side of the stage while some truly wild retro video footage (that had been edited to sync up pretty well with the music) played against a screen set up on the right side. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I liked the visuals much more than I liked the music. While the sometimes trippy, electronic jams were very well suited to the far out visuals, I didn't really find anything about them too remarkable. The visuals captured my interest more from the get-go and nothing Tobacco were doing over on the left reeled me back in.

The most pleasant surprise of the line-up (and of my whole CMJ experience for that matter) was Whomadewho, who I have affectionately and with the utmost respect been referring to as "these crazy, weird, dudes from Denmark who rock". I knew I was in for something when, for starters they took the stage in those outfits, but also when guitarist/vocalist Jeppe Kjellberg announced "Yes, please come closer. We don't bite...even though we are VIKINGS!" after two girls scurried up to the front of the crowd at the end of their first song.

Whoemadewho played quite a number of songs from their self-titled debut album from '05 (which I can't wait to check out), which were funky, dancey, and rocking but not categorizable. Also be sure to look for their new album, The Plot on its way this coming February. While I really enjoyed their entire performance, as a huge fan of electronic/dance music, I could not help but freak out when they began playing a live version of Mr. Oizo's "Flat Beat". I was ready for Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction", but was totally unaware that they cover "Flat Beat" too. Unfortunately the maybe one quarter full Mercury Lounge was not the ideal setting to get down. Luckily I was able to catch them a couple of more times during CMJ, one of which was at Studio B Saturday night. Check out the video I took of them performing "Flat Beat" at Studio B:

Continue reading "the Tuesday & Wednesday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"

Photos by Gabi Porter

I didn't get the chance to catch (Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman) Tobacco this CMJ, but the reviews I heard ranged from "amazing" to "good visuals" to "totally pointless live show" (aka he might as well just hit play). What did you think? On Wednesday night (10/22) he shared a bill with Sebastien Grainger at Mercury Lounge. A few more pictures from that below...

Continue reading "Tobacco @ Mercury Lounge (CMJ), NYC - pics "

Set times are actual. No advanced tickets...

Continue reading "2008 CMJ shows at the Mercury Lounge"

DOWNLOAD: Tobacco - Truck Sweat (MP3)

Fucked Up Friends - out Oct 14 on Anticon

Continue reading "Tobacco is a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow"

DOWNLOAD: Why? - The Hollows (MP3)

Why? @ Knitting Factory - March 2008 (more by Leia Jospe)

Continue reading "Why? - 2008 Tour Dates (Bowery Ballroom)"