photos by Autumn Andel

Eleanor Friedberger @ Crystal Ballroom

Almost a month before she heads out on tour with Wild Flag, and one night before she plays City Winery as part of John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders, Fiery Furnace Eleanor Friedberger will make an appearance at the Union Square Barnes & Noble as part of Upstairs in the Square with writer Christopher Bollen (on 9/22).

This past Wednesday (9/7), Eleanor shared a bill in Portland with Mini Mansions and The Kills at Crystal Ballroom as part of the MusicFestNW festival. A set of pictures from that show is in this post. More of them, with all tour dates, below...

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photos by Andrew St. Clair

DOWNLOAD: The Dodos - Don't Stop (MP3)

"In 45 minutes the show with Showalter starts! It's gonna be amazing, I can tell by his purple sweater. Color of royalty. He's feelin' it!" - Neko Case

Neko Case helped Michael Showalter promote his new book at an event at Barnes & Noble in Union Square last night (2/24), or to be more specific, Upstairs at the Square. Katherine Lanpher hosted. Neko sang four songs (setlist below). Showalter read a couple passages including a beat poetry inspired poem and a chapter about what to put in a Hollywood script. He also discussed the orgin of The Baxter, and they both talked about their writing process. Pictures from the bookstore are in this post.

Uptairs at the Square returns to Barnes & Noble in Union Square twice in March. Wednesday, March 9 will feature Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) and Cubic Zirconia (Follow Your Heart), and Thursday, March 24 has my favorite Keren Ann (101) with Barbara Browning (The Correspondence Artist).

Audience members included Eugene Mirman (who will again join Michael at the Bell House this weekend) and Todd Barry (who just announced an April tour with Neil Hamburger - dates below) (not to be confused with Neil's February and March tour).

Earlier in the day Neko "leaked" a new Dodos song via her Twitter. She wrote, "Fave song off new Dodos. Bummed I didn't didn't get to sing on it (I shouldn't be so greedy cuz I did sing on lots)." Download that above. The Dodos are heading out on tour in March and they'll be playing lots of SXSW shows in the process. Their updated dates, a BrooklynVegan day party included, are below.

Michael Showalter is also touring, though he won't be at SXSW. Neko Case is not touring, though she did just play a show at the Bell House and is giving away her car.

More B&N pictures, Dodos & Barry dates, and Neko's setlist, below...

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Regina Spektor - Beacon Theatre, NYC - 06/17/2009 (absolutelyaudrey)

Half an hour into her joyful set at the Beacon Theater [June 17th] Regina Spektor has completely lost her place. She is giggling at first and then laughing and then almost gurgling with pleasure. "Rehearsing at the Beacon theater," she says, "there's so many of you". then she shrugs, "Fuck it," and turns back to arranging the song with her string section. "I'm so happy," she says and she is obviously in a great mood.

Except for two songs on guitar ("I wish I knew more") Spektor sits at her piano throughout the set. She opens with "Folding Chairs" off her new album and continues with another seven new songs till reaching an oldie, a splendid "On The Radio", and it doesn't matter. All the new stuff is maybe her best stuff ever, every song cuts deep with a bouyancy that is like maybe a ball bouncing on the ocean: the undertow pulls her down but she is still light and above it. [Rock NYC Live and Recorded]

That's a write-up of Regina Spektor's recent Beacon Theatre show, which Little Joy opened. The performance was the first of Spektor's dates supporting her latest record, Far, which is out now on Sire Records.

Regina Spektor rounds out July with tour dates in Europe, and currently has a set of North American shows planned for September. Her full schedule is below.

She's also appearing at Barnes & Noble's "Upstairs at the Square" series on Tuesday, August 18th with host Katherine Lanpher and writer Kurt Andersen. The event at the store's Union Square location (33 E 17th St in NYC) will include an interview and a performance. Entrance is free, but admission is first come, first served. Considering the fact that her Beacon show sold out (see above), a sizeable crowd should be expected.

Set list and videos from the Beacon Theatre show, with all tour dates, below...

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