Cincinnati, OH festival Bunbury Music Festival is returning for its second year from July 12 - 14, 2013. The lineup was just announced and it includes MGMT (who were also just announced for Firefly Music Festival), The National (who were also just announced for Bonnaroo and have a huge Brooklyn show coming up), Belle and Sebastian and Yo La Tengo (who just announced a tour together, which includes a Prospect Park show), Camera Obscura, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Savoir Adore, Bear Hands, Oberhofer, We Are Scientists, Chairlift, Cake, Tegan & Sara, Tokyo Police Club, Devotchka, Those Darlins, Buffalo Killers, Sky Ferreira, and more.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Cincinnati festival Bunbury Music Festival 2013 lineup & tix (MGMT, The National, Belle & Sebastian, Yo La Tengo & more)"

by Bill Pearis

Hollerado at Bowery Ballroom, June 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Ottowa's good time party rockers Hollerado will be bringing their confetti cannons into America (or perhaps buying them while here), opening a few shows for Passion Pit in the South and Midwest. Before they had back across the border, though, they'll stop in NYC for a late show at Mercury Lounge on November 7 with Royal Bangs. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (10/12) at noon. After that, Hollerado will play a few shows in Canada with their old tour pals Tokyo Police Club. All dates are listed below.

Hollerado's 2010 debut album, Record in a Bag, reamins a fun listen, full of sing-a-long anthems the kind of which used to be heard on alt-rock radio in the mid-'90s and they are a ton of fun live. You can stream it at Spotify. The band are finishing up their second album which should be out early next year and there is video of them in the studio below.

Meanwhile, Passion Pit play SNL this week (10/13) with Christina Applegate hosting.

Continue reading "Hollerado working on second album, playing NYC after tour with Passion Pit (dates)"

Tokyo Police Club at Bowery Ballroom (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Tokyo Police Club, who recently played Summerstage and Bowery Ballroom, will play the Lackawanna Music Festival, a Hoboken-based arts and music celebration going down on August 18th. The 100% free festival will feature nine bands in total, though the rest of the lineup is still to be announced.

The festival comes from hMag, who produced the rescheduled-due-to-a-hurricane hMAG Music Fest last year with The Walkmen, School of Seven Bells, The Kick Drums, Wormburner and others. Let's hope for better weather this year.

Speaking of The Walkmen, the band played Bowery Ballroom a little more than a week ago but will return to NYC to play Terminal 5 on October 18. Tickets are still available.

Lackawana Fest flyer is below.

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club playing Hoboken's Lackawanna Music Fest"

by Dominick Mastrangelo

While they were in town to open for Foster the People at Central Park Summerstage, Tokyo Police Club played their own smaller headlining show at Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (6/10) with Hollerado and Team Spirit (who we missed). Here are some pictures from that one, and a rough version of the setlist (three new songs and Kelly Clarkson cover included). It all continues below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club played Bowery before Summerstage (pics)"

Tokyo Police Club at House of Vans in 2011 (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Tokyo Police Club, who are opening for Foster the People at Summerstage on 6/11, just added their own NYC show happening one day earlier at Bowery Ballroom 6/10. Tickets for the Bowery Ballroom show are on AmEx presale now and go on sale to the general public on Friday (2/24) at noon.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club add NY show (before Foster the People tour)"

Beirut at Terminal 5 in 2011 (more by VIncent Cornelli)

Beirut are currently on an international tour that includes dates in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. They're beginning to reveal some North American dates happening later on this year, including Coachella and a NYC show happening on August 29 at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (aka Summerstage). Tickets go on sale Friday (1/13) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (1/11) at noon.

That makes the total Central Park Summerstage shows, as of January 2012, up to four already. The other three are Foster the People, one of which was just announced with Tokyo Police Club on June 11 (AmEx presale also starts Wednesday at noon).

All currently known Beirut dates below...

Continue reading "Beirut & other Summerstage shows announced"

James @ Terminal 5 in March (more by Andrew St. Clair)

The annual 'Fashion's Night Out' is this Thursday (9/8), and that means free events at clothing stores all over NYC. One of those events takes place at VPL @ 5 Mercer Street in Manhattan. Running from 6-11pm, the "Mercer x Howard Block Party" will feature a performance (DJ set most likely, though they never speficy) by James Murphy "and more". James will also DJ on 9/10 in Columbia, MD at Virgin Freefest (who also initially advertised the performance as "James Murphy solo").

UPDATE: :Block Party is cancelled.

In related news, Tokyo Police Club have been keeping busy releasing cover songs including "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem. Listen below...

Continue reading "James Murphy playing VPL Mercer x Howard Block Party, Tokyo Police Club covered LCD Soundsystem"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Tokyo Police Club plan to cover and release 10 songs in 10 days next week as part of a Polaroid-sponsored project...

"We want to know which track YOU want us to cover for each day of our 10 days of covers from 2001 - 2010. Tweet your favorite song from the 3 options listed on our site Polaroid.com/TokyoPoliceClub, including #TPC10Covers and a hashtag for the year of the cover i.e. #TPCcovers2001. We'll choose a random tweeter each day through 9/2 to win a prize bundle including a copy of our 'Champ' CD, vinyl and a signed 7"" [TPC]

Coming up the band doesn't have many shows scheduled, but one is at the new AV Festival coming to Chicago on September 10th & 11th with HUM, Archers of Loaf, The Thermals and more. All TPC dates and more pics from House of Vans below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club played House of Vans (pics), covering 10 songs in 10 days, playing AV Fest (dates)"

photos by Chris La Putt

The lineups have been (almost) completely revealed for the three remaining free House of Vans House Parties. The series continues this Thursday (8/4) with the previously revealed lineup of Man Man, Glass Candy, and Crystal Antlers.

As mentioned Tokyo Police Club are playing August 18 and Big Freedia is in fact on the bill along with Against Me!, Japanther, and Team Robespierre.

As predicted, Converge and All Pigs Must Die are the bands that play August 25, though there's also a secret guest on that show too ("xxxx xxxx").

RSVP is open for all of them.

Though Crystal Antlers and Team Robsepierre play separate House Parties, they'll share a bill at Glasslands on August 6 with Balkans. Tickets are still available for that.

Cro-Mags, Fucked Up, Screaming Females & Pissed Jeans played the last show. A second set of Fucked Up pics from that show continue below...

Continue reading "House of Vans announce more bands --- almost-final lineup (and more Fucked Up pics from last time)"

by BBG

Tokyo Police Club (more by Andrew St Clair)

Get ready floorpunchers, Cro-Mags, Fucked Up, Screaming Females and Pissed Jeans are about to rough up House of Vans TONIGHT (7/29) starting at 7PM. RSVP for this jam while you still can (all our VIP tickets have been awarded, congrats to the winners). The show makes two NYC Cro-Mags dates this summer (they played Bowery Ballroom in early June) and three in the past two months for Fucked Up (285 Kent and Terminal 5).

For those of you counting at home, that leaves THREE House of Vans parties on the schedule... August 4th with Man Man, Glass Candy, and Crystal Antlers, as well as an August 18th and August 25th show which have no official lineups announced, but...

Tokyo Police Club has just confirmed their involvement in August 18th and we hypothesize that Converge and All Pigs Must Die will play the August 25th date. Word is that Big Freedia will play House of Vans too, so my money is that she won't be sandwiched in between two hardcore bands (aka on August 18th) but stranger things have happened. (meanwhile get your dose of Bounce this Saturday at PS1 courtesy of Vockah Redu.)

Tokyo Police Club last played NYC at Terminal 5 with Two Door Cinema Club. Since that visit, TPC's keyboard player Graham Wright has released his own LP, Shirts & Skins. Pick that up on iTunes.

photos by Josh Darr

Flaming Lips / Modest Mouse

"Rockers The Flaming Lips have long had a reputation for extravagant live shows: Fake blood, torrential confetti downpours, animal costumes and comically oversized fists are all standard fare. The band's Sunday night set at this year's Sasquatch Music Festival was no exception, with frontman Wayne Coyne taking to the crowd in his over-sized bubble. Still, the band managed to make its big, flashy show feel like a more intimate affair.

While playing the landmark 1999 album The Soft Bulletin nearly in full, Coyne chatted genially with the audience, taking frequent breaks during "The Spiderbite Song" to relate the anecdotes behind the song's lyrics. Another set highlight, "Waitin' for a Superman" -- stripped down to a delicate piano and voice arrangement -- was introduced as a tribute to departed icon Elliott Smith. Although the band was forced to exclude a couple of songs due to time constraints, it delivered a personal version of what many consider its finest album." [listen @ NPR]

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2011 - Day 3 in pics & streams (Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Beach House & more)"

Big names and regulars aside, there are a few bands I want to highlight on the just-announced Sasquatch lineup: Wolf Parade ("indefinite hiatus" rumors be damned), The Flaming Lips (performing "The Soft Bulletin"), Death From Above 1979 (now three reunion shows total), Guided By Voices (they're not done yet), and... Archers of Loaf (!). The full lineup of the fest that goes down in Gorge, Washington in May (Memorial Day Weekend), is below...

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2011 lineup announced (Archers of Loaf, Guided By Voices, Wolf Parade, DFA 1979 & "The Soft Bulletin" included)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair, words by Dominick Mastrangelo

"Tokyo Police Club at Terminal 5. These men do indie rock well" - Luke McCormick

In the awkward land of co-headlining shows there's always one band that you think should be the headliner. Personally, going in, I knew all along that Tokyo Police Club would be that band when they and Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club performed at Terminal 5 on Friday. Having been thwarted in three previous attempts to see them live (the most notable being an unfortunate corresponding time slot opposite My Bloody Valentine at All Points West in 2009) I was still hoping the band that drew me way in with their excellent Lesson In Crime EP and followed it up with two hook-laden full-lengths would be the same one taking the stage as part of "The Last.fm Festival".

But going on after Two Door Cinema Club and their highly polished electro-pop anthems, complete with blinding light show, Tokyo Police Club seemed to spend most of their set trying to match TDCC in both sound and arena rock grandeur, when their songs, as brash and catchy as they are, beg for slightly more nuance. Or perhaps restraint. I was a tad let down, but more on that later

Two Door Cinema Club's set, for long periods, sounded like the same song over and over - did they just play "Undercover Martyn" or "Something Good Can Work"? - with the same high hat-led dance beat as well as recorded backing track and even canned horns on set opener "Cigarettes in the Theater". "What You Know" was a highlight as Alex Trimble crunched out a solitary guitar riff and then sang without accompaniment before the rest of the band launched in to support him. Yet, even then, the catchy guitar pluck so noticeable on record was lost, such the volume of the backing track.

Bloc Party instantly comes to mind but for all the pulsing lights and clear, bigger venue ambition TDCC have a long way to go and are still short on variety before they can match that kind of live performance. But the sold-out crowd was very much into the set and prior to the sing-along of set closer "I Can Talk" (also a highlight) Trimble pulled extra applause when he mentioned how great their CMJ performance at Webster Hall was last October but that "tonight was even better."

Happy Birthday Dave Monks

That Tokyo Police Club entered to the dying strains of Bill Conti's "Theme from Rocky" (their 2010 release was, after all, called Champ), underscored how much of an underdog they may consider themselves. For a band that was set to call it a day before the Pop Montreal performance that ultimately led to them signing their first record deal, their first full-length Elephant Shell was unjustly considered a let-down on the heels of the Lesson EP (though it was featured quite a bit on Friday.)

"We're Tokyo Police Club and we're fucking excited to be here," said birthday boy and lead singer David Monks one song into their set. And you could tell how excited they were - Monks and guitarist Josh Hook pressed heads during "Nature Of The Experiment" and then Monks scurried over and pressed his head into keyboardist Graham Wright's back and then he was coaching the crowd in how to clap during "Tessellate".

But as Monks' vocals continued in a hollowed echo - like he was in a hangar instead of a terminal, it pulled more and more away from the rest of the band's sound. Monks is not shy on packing loads of lyrics into the band's sub-three-minute songs and it was frustrating to have them lost in the mix at times.

Though on songs like "End Of A Spark" which featured Passion Pit's Ian Hultquist on acoustic guitar, and the slow build of Champ's lead track, "Favourite Food" - songs that weren't straight forward postpunk - "Breakneck Speed" was another, everything fell into place and they showed why they deserve to be tops in the pecking order with their tour mates.

After they finished their set with "Wait Up", complete with audience participation on the "woo oooh ooohs" and "Your English Is Good" both Tokyo Police Club and Two Door Cinema Club came out for the encore. "We're going back to 2001," said Monks (who was 14 then), before the ensemble launched into The Strokes' "Last NIght". It was fun, wonderfully timed and the crowd ate it up. It was hands down the highlight of the evening as Monks and Trimble took turns on vocals and everyone else ended up on the drum riser playing to TPC drummer Greg Alsop.

Lost in the fray were Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin who opened the night with a straightforward set of easy, indie-pop numbers. Including those from last year's subtly underrated, Chris Walla-produced, Let It Sway.

Andrew St. Clair was on hand for TPC's soundcheck and caught all three bands including the TPC birthday cake moment. More pictures from all of it, and the setlists below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club, Two Door Cinema Club & Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin played Terminal 5 (pics & setlist)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

yes, that's Matisyahu & Tokyo Police Club...

Tokyo Police Club and We Barbarians played an invite-only show at the Wired Store on 12/15, much like Ra Ra Riot did a week earlier. It was the Foundations Artist Management Holiday Party and was marked by a surprise appearance from Matisyahu who joined TPC for a cover of his own "Miracle (The Hanukkah Song)". Ayad and Michael from Passion Pit didn't play the party, but they did introduce TPC after jokingly introducing themselves at Foundations interns.

After the Wired Store show, Andrew St. Clair joined TPC at Nancy Whiskey in TriBeCa where they played We Barbarians in a gentlemanly game of shuffleboard.

Matisyahu played a string of Hannukah related shows, including four NYC shows recently, and has a show coming up at Mercury Lounge. TPC have a tour coming up with Two Door Cinema Club which will hit Terminal 5. Passion Pit are playing Wellmont Theater on 12/30 and 12/31.

More pictures below...

Continue reading "Matisyahu played w/ Tokyo Police Club after a set by We Barbarians & a Passion Pit intro @ the Wired Store (pics)"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Ra Ra Riot played the pop-up Wired Store (at 692 Broadway in NYC) on 12/8 as part of a series of private events at the store. Their friends Tokyo Police Club, whose next public show in NYC is at Terminal 5, play the same place tonight (12/15)

The night before their appearance at Wired, Ra Ra Riot played "Boy" from their recent LP The Orchard on Letterman. Video of that and more pictures/setlist from the Wired Store are below...

Continue reading "Ra Ra Riot played Letterman & the Wired store (Tokyo Police Club play there tonight) -- pics, video"

Tokyo Police Club @ Governors Island over the summer (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Canada's Tokyo Police Club and the UK's Two Door Cinema Club will head out on tour together in January for a trip that includes a co-headlining show at NYC's Terminal 5. Tickets for the whole tour are now on a band presale. Tickets for the NYC show also go on AmEx presale today at 11am. The general sale starts Friday at noon.

Two Door Cinema Club were last in town for CMJ when they played a sold out show at Webster Hall. Tokyo Police Club were last here as part of their tour with Passion Pit, but they also headlined Webster Hall before - all the way back in February 2009.

Tokyo Police Club recently recorded and released a Daytrotter session which you can grab now, new song included. All tour dates, and some videos from TDCC's Webster show, below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club touring w/ Two Door Cinema Club (dates) "

photos by Andrew St. Clair

The music is/was great, but part of the reason I trekked out to see Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club, We Were Promised Jetpacks & Suckers on Governors Island on Wednesday night (June 30th), especially after having just seen 3/4 of the bill one night earlier in Prospect Park, was to check out Colonel's Row, the area where the show was actually being held.

Unlike "The Beach" where most of the Governors Island concerts are held, there was no sand - just lots of beautiful trees and grass and old buildings on either side. It was a lot like a college campus. The sound was great, the weather was great, and despite the approx-7000 capacity, it wasn't too crowded at all (though the lines for the ATMs were super long). The sides were lined with food vendors (mostly gross-looking food) and there were lots of bars set up all over. I wish they would do more shows there actually (Passion Pit is unfortunately the only one happening in the space this summer).

Colonel's Row, during Tokyo Police Club (via my phone)

Another reason I was really motivated to take the ferry was to see We Were Promised Jetpacks who didn't play Prospect Park the night before. The Scottish band did a great job warming up the crowd with their wailing vocals, wall of guitar sounds, and tension-building rock songs. Many in the young audience cheered along, though the excitement that the three openers experienced didn't come close to what I saw two nights in a row for Passion Pit who had thousands of people cheering, dancing and just generally going crazy to their falsetto-fronted dance songs.

I unfortunately had to leave Passion Pit early this time to catch Delta Spirit at Bowery Ballroom, but photographer Andrew St. Clair not only stayed for the whole show, he stuck around afterward for the backstage karaoke afterparty (the show was the final stop on TPC & PP's tour together). Andrew's pictures from the whole night, below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club, We Were Promised Jetpacks & Suckers played (and sang karaoke on) Governors Island - pics "

words by Rachel Kowal, photos by David Andrako

Before the show started, the crowd in front of the bandshell sat and chatted leisurely to pass time, but when they saw Suckers walk on stage, they immediately jumped to their feet, cheering. In their cool shades and neon-colored clothing, Suckers had definitely embraced the outdoor park setting. "We're from Brooklyn. Celebrate!" shouted Suckers singer Quinn Walker early in the show. Drummer Brian Aiken thrashed around with such intensity that before long, his face was nearly the color of his fuchsia shirt. They only played seven songs, but the group harmonies, well-placed trumpet cameos, and over-the-top facial expressions from the drummer made for a pretty entertaining show, and the Brooklyn band's music proved to be a good introduction to the evening. Many of their songs had slower starts, but they definitely filled out by the time the choruses hit.

Tokyo Police Club's music was more immediate. Instead of building up their sound gradually, they seemed to put it out there up front, and their sound was a bit more raucous overall. Like Suckers, Tokyo Police Club really seemed to be enjoying the picturesque setting. It had been another hot day in Brooklyn, but it cooled off just enough to be pleasant for the show. "I hope you enjoyed the beautiful day in the park," said singer Dave Monks. "You guys should really check out these trees when you get a chance. The trees are killing it." And he was right. The trees lining the back side of the bandshell were waving gently in the wind as if swaying to the music.

Tokyo Police Club showcased a number of songs from their recent album, Champ. After their set had ended, the eager crowd tried a few different methods to get Passion Pit out on stage, but neither the chanting nor the slow clap did the trick. Shortly after 9:00, the tech guy gave a signal with his flashlight and yellow lights started flickering madly on stage as the band walked out. The production value definitely went up with each band's performance. For Passion Pit, each song seemed to have its own color scheme for lights: reds, oranges, purples, blues, and greens all made an appearance as the evening progressed. By the third song, a colorful banner (resembling the cover art of the Manners re-issue) fell against the backdrop to the delight of the audience.

For the most part, the sound throughout the evening was pretty good for an outdoor show. But the vocals did seem to be a little low in the mix - especially for Passion Pit. I'm not sure if it was just where I was standing or if there was a technical oversight, but there were times when I'd see Passion Pit singer Michael Angelakos open his mouth as if to sing but no sound came out. Of course, it didn't help that he had a tendency of holding the mic a bit too far away. (Were the officials trying to thwart the non-paying park goers from hearing the show outside of the official venue space?)

Regardless of the levels, the crowd seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Throughout the show, they sang along, clapped to the beat, jumped up and down, and danced. There was also more than one attempt at crowd surfing as the evening progressed and the excitement mounted. The band was clearly thrilled to be performing in front of such a large, enthusiastic audience. Angelakos paced and danced around the stage with glee and kept effusively thanking everyone in between songs, eventually saying, "People make fun of me for always thanking everybody, but we're just in awe of everything that's just happened in the past year. This show sold out in like ten minutes. We're from Boston, but this city made us. Thank you so much! This is the biggest show we've ever played."

For their encore, Passion Pit played a delightful cover of the hit 1994 song "Dreams" by The Cranberries before closing with their own hit - "Sleepyhead." Though the crowd left behind a wasteland of bottles and cups, the tinkling of the aluminum Bud cans as they rolled over the cement surface made for an oddly melodic exit.

They do it again, at an even bigger venue with the same lineup (and the addition of We Were Promised Jetpacks) tonight (6/30) at Colonel's Row on Governors Island. More pictures from last night, some videos and Passion Pit's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club & Suckers Celebrated Brooklyn in Prospect Park - pics, video & setlist"

DOWNLOAD: Tokyo Police Club - Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) (Dom Remix) (MP3)

Tokyo Police Club are in town as part of their tour with Passion Pit to play two sold out shows starting tonight, June 29th at the Prospect Park Bandshell. Wanna go? I have a pair of tickets to give away. Details below.

In fact, I also have a pair of tickets to give away to the show Wednesday at Governors Island. Details also below.

Last night, TPC appeared on Letterman (again). They played "Wait Up" which is the song Dom remixed. Download the Dom remix above. Check out the Letterman video (with contest details and other stuff) below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club - Letterman video, Dom remix, free tickets "

photos by Andrew St. Clair

Tokyo Police Club, now on tour with Passion Pit and DOM (who played Brooklyn Bowl last night), played a sort of private show at the Studio @ Webster Hall in NYC last night (6/1). That was followed by a beer pong after-party with Mark Knight and others in attendance. Pictures from the whole night, and TPC's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club played a show (and beer pong) @ The Studio @ Webster Hall - pics & setlist"

Outside Lands 2009 (more by Chris Graham)

San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival 2010 takes place in Golden Gate Park from August 14th-15th. Headlining acts for the fest include Kings of Leon, Furthur featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, Phoenix, Social Distortion, Levon Helm and Al Green. Other acts include Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, The Budos Band, Dawes, Gogol Bordello, Cat Power Janelle Monáe and Tokyo Police Club. The full lineup (which will be added to) is below.

Two-day passes go on sale Tuesday, June 2nd at 1pm EST. Single day tickets go on sale Sunday, June 6th.

Check out pictures from all three days of Outside Lands 2009 (which as you may have figured out was one day longer than this year's).

A video trailer for this year's fest and the lineup is below...

Continue reading "Outside Lands 2010 lineup announced"

Tokyo Police Club kick off their tour with Passion Pit in Baltimore on Wednesday (June 2nd). They'll be in Virginia on June 8th which is the day their new album Champ (cover art above) is released, and they won't be back in NYC until the end of the month when they open for Passion Pit in Prospect Park and on Governors Island. To remedy that situation a bit, they're playing their own headlining show at the Studio at Webster Hall tonight (June 1st) (flyer above). Members of the press and other friends were invited to the gig. And I have five pairs of tickets to giveaway too. Details on winning them, the band's new new video, all dates & stuff, below...

Continue reading "Tokyo Police Club play private record release show tonight (win tix) before leaving on tour - 2010 dates, new video, stuff"

photos by Rachel Carr

Devo

"An aggregate 225,000 people bought tickets to see a [Coachella] roster headlined by Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz during the April 16-18 event at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio.

The previous attendance record was set in 2007, when the headliners included a reunited Rage Against the Machine. Final figures are still being tallied, but AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips said the gross will exceed $20 million.

Phillips said the future looked bleak for AEG Live's nascent All Points West festival, which took place in 2008 and 2009 across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J.

"We're probably going to kill it," said Phillips. "As beautiful as (the site) is, it's very hard to get New Yorkers to cross that river. All Points West is an experiment that just didn't work." [Reuters]

Continue reading "more photos from Coachella, more confirmation that All Points West is not happening"

photos by Rachel Carr, words by Daiana Feuer

"Wow. The Sahara is past capacity at Coachella for Die Antwoord. No midget. Waiting for the trainwreck but people dig it." - The Scenestar

"Seeing a shirtless Danny DeVito run across the stage while Faith No More played pretty much made my #coachella weekend." - stovn

Die Antwoord, Faith No More

Flopping phalluses are in this year according to Major Lazer and Die Antwoord. Each presented the intersection of beats, party-hyping, gross humor, and dancing in your underwear. Day 2 of the Coachella Music & Arts Festival had an overall far-out theme. Some with sexually explicit lunacy, others with psychedelic music. South Africa's Die Antwoord introduced zef-rap to the festival, South Africa's version of white trash hip hop-a bold, fearless expression of crazy stick a finger up your bum entertainment.

Before arriving at these culminating moments, the day progressed through a series of psychedelic and/or raunchy expressions. John Waters kicked things off with thoughts on crawling through pig poo, taking poppers, the pleasures of sploshing, and strange things he wants to do before he dies. Gossip's Beth Ditto hoped he was watching her blazing disco soul performance but was afraid to look backstage and see him smiling and waving at her. Gossip put on a set that inspired revelations on reality in the most self-empowering ways.

John Waters & Beth Ditto @ Coachella (this pics via Jermey Scott)

The day's best covers include Faith No More doing "Reunited" (they also covered Michael Jackson's "Ben"), Portugal, The Man's jamming Bowie's "Moonlight Daydream," and Girls' flawless "All I Have To Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers. The last was a most appropriate choice for the band with an Ariel Pink sensibility towards '50s ballads. MGMT brought the futuristic 1960s with songs from its new album. Many pointed out that the band didn't play "Kids", but that seems to miss the point that MGMT put on a pretty sophisticated, experimental live performance of the band's signature Indian headdress on Phil Spector Fraggle Rock sound.

The Raveonettes played as a duo and sans drum machine, adorably sharing a mic sometimes. The rest of the band remains trapped under lava in Iceland, figuratively speaking. Camera Obscura also shouted out bands stuck in the UK, dedicating "Let's Get Out Of This Country" to those who could not make it.

It seems almost every DJ this weekend has sampled Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor" except Flying Lotus, who took the stage all on his own (no Thom Yorke cameo included). After warming up the crowd with some first grade experimental hip hop, FlyLo brought out the big guns, sounds combined in layers and pitches that act like quaaludes on the light speed continuum. The Dirty Projectors girls evoked cool electronic birds and the Dezurik Sisters with their harmonizing powers. Beach House cooed the audience romantically as 50% of the band, Alex Scally, rubbed his slide up and down the frets.

Did that sound sexy? It's time to talk about sexy. The xx provided the mellow arousal Blonde Redhead and Portishead have given Coachella the last two years. People like The xx because they want sex that fits this soundtrack. They also want sex as excitingly goofy gross as Die Antwoord and to fall in love with a gal like Sia, all at the same time. Sia's beautiful voice closed the night in the Gobi tent, and though her accent rendered her side comments completely incomprehensible, everyone laughed and agreed with anything she said. On the other hand, as great and sexy as the Dead Weather sounded, I don't know if I want to bed someone who demands I treat her like my mother. Old Crow Medicine Show suggested letting a woman rule your mind leads to troubles during "Minglewood Blues." Instead, let her win your heart with country-fried dinner.

Faith No More's twelve-song set included a cameo by a semi-streaker who happened to be Coachella regular Danny Devito. You can see that happen in one of the videos below. Faith No More's whole setlist is down there too.

Porcupine Tree, Tokyo Police Club, Hot Chip, The Almighty Defenders, Les Claypool, Devo, and Muse were also on the bill Saturday. Our review, pictures and videos from Friday are HERE. Saturday continues below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2010 - Day Two in pics, video & review (Die Antwoord shots & Faith No More's setlist included)"

Passion Pit @ Terminal 5 on January 10th (more by Samantha Marble)

Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club are already setup for a Tuesday, June 29th show at Prospect Park Bandshell. Tickets for that are gone. They'll follow up the show with a June 30th show at Colonels' Row @ Governors Island. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 19th at noon (presale info TBA).

Members of Passion Pit will be DJing down at SXSW this year. You can catch them Friday during the day at the BV/DailyMotion party at Club DeVille, and then Saturday during the day at a Pianos day party. Yes, the same Pianos they DJ'd at on New Years Eve.

Also on Governors' Island this summer: a 12-hour theatrical performance of Dostoyevsky's "The Demons," put on by Lincoln Center.

All Passion Pit tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club add Governors Island show - updated 2010 tour dates & other stuff"