This has turned into THIS.........

Continue reading "Mid Summer Outdoor Party @ The Yard - July 12, looks nuts"

Vivian Girls @ Market Hotel (more by Ryan Muir)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* FREE STUFF
* Louis CK @ Carolines
* Emmylou Harris @ Town Hall
* Band of Holy Joy @ Southpaw
* Raekwon & Cappadonna @ BB Kings
* 65daysofstatic @ Mercury Lounge
* Sloan & Bear Hands @ Bowery Ballroom
* Man in Gray's final show at The Delancey
* Modest Mouse @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* REM, The National and Modest Mouse @ MSG
* LA Riots & Naive New Beaters @ Hiro Ballroom
* Crystal Castles & Woodhands @ Studio B (free)
* Shearwater, Frog Eyes and Evangelicals @ MHOW
* Pale Nimbus, Gates of Heaven @ Death by Audio
* Gibby Haynes & C. Spencer Yeh @ Issue Project Room
* Medeski, Martin and Wood @ Prospect Park Bandshell (free)
* Vivian Girls, The Muslims, & Hong Kong Blood Opera @ Santos Party House

Two big free shows in Brooklyn tonight, though the Medeski, Martin and Wood one in Park Slope one should be less of a hassle to see than the Crystal Castles one in Williamsburg.

Evangelicals played Cake Shop the other night. Tonight they open for Shearwater. Soon they open for Conor Oberst.

Lil Wayne: A Millie (Platinum In One Week Remix). Download it HERE (zshare). RZA's new album Digi Snacks is streaming at MySpace.

Last chance ever to see Man in Gray. Two chances to see Modest Mouse tonight.

What else?

photos by Ryan Muir

DOWNLOAD: Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To (MP3)

Henry Joseph Darger (April 12[?], 1892-April 13, 1973) was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a janitor in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story. Darger's work has become one of the most celebrated examples of outsider art. [Wikipedia]

There are a lot of bands named after Darger's Vivian Girls. Brooklyn's Vivian Girls are the ones commonly found playing shows presented by Todd P like the one pictured here in which they opened for Love is All at Market Hotel on Saturday (June 14, 2008). Vivian Girls are also playing Santos Party House on Thursday with The Muslims. The Muslims are also playing Market Hotel on Tuesday. Vivian Girls play Market Hotel again on June 28th. More pictures from Saturday's show below....

Continue reading "Vivian Girls @ Market Hotel, Brooklyn, NY - pics ++ MP3"

photos by Ryan Muir

Love is All delivered another wildly entertaining set in NYC on Saturday night, this time at Market Hotel in Bushwick. The scene was sticky, hot and sweaty - a sauna full of jubilant fans who made their way out in the thunder and lightning to see the band from Sweden play in Brooklyn. The storm brought significant downpours, but that did nothing to cool off the steaming temperature at Market Hotel. [The Sky Report]

The third and last NYC Love is All show (for now) is tonight. The first was at Cake Shop. More pictures from Market Hotel (June 14, 2008) below....

Continue reading "Love is All @ Market Hotel, NYC - pics +++ Bowery tonight"

Vivian Girls

The Muslims' 5th NYC show is a VICE party at Santos' Party House that Vivian Girls and "special guets headliner" are also playing. There's also free alcohol. You need to RSVP

Vivian Girls are also playing Market Hotel with Love is All and caUSE co-MOTION on Saturday.

by Bill Pearis

editor's note: Metal, comedy and 'dance' all have their own semi-regular BV feature writers. Those topics are getting a level of focus that I wished I could give to "indie rock" (that somewhat meaningless term, but it helps sometimes to categorize). That's why I contacted Bill...

Bill says: BV approached me about writing an indie rock column because I "repeatedly go to see The Young Knives and are excited about Versus reuniting." Which is to say I like unpopular bands and am, like, James Murphy old. This will likely take on more shape as the weeks go on, but for now here's a bunch of notable shows happening over the next five days.

editor's note part two: Bill forgot to mention the part where I said he is just as excited about the old (knowledgeable) as he is about the new (not jaded). OK, here we go....

Amazing Baby (tour dates at the end)

Firstly are the two Swervedriver reunion shows - tonight at Bowery Ballroom and tomorrow at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The '90s shoegaze scene has had a bit of a resurgence, with a slew of new bands inspired by its hazy, voluminous sound, including Dirty on Purpose (who open for them tonight), Deerhunter, Silversun Pickups, and every other band from Sweden. Obviously the big story this year are the upcoming My Bloody Valentine shows, but Swervedriver's shows are no less relevant or justified.

They may never have released anything as universally-praised and influential as Loveless, or as catchy as Ride's Going Blank Again, but Swervedriver rocked the hardest of any of the shoegaze bands and probably had the most consistent body of work. Unfortunately, of their four great albums, only 1995's Ejector Seat Reservation remains in print - though the good, if expensive, import Juggernaut Rides is a good introduction to the band. I've also got a few mp3's over at Sound Bites if you're interested, and Swervedriver's site has live MP3s for every song from every album, free to download.

Swervedriver were never the type to jump around the stage or make rock star poses (the shoegaze scene, after all, got its name because the bands tended to pay more attention to their many effects pedals than to "putting on a show") and frontman Adam Franklin isn't much for stage banter, but they were always a seriously good live band and reports from earlier dates on this tour (The Finest Kiss has a nice writeup and photos from the Seattle stop) show this, thankfully, hasn't changed.

Tickets for tonights' Bowery show are still available (June 11, 2008).

Local support for both nights are well chosen. Dirty on Purpose are obviously big fans - their newish EP for RCRD LBL is really good. Longwave open at Music Hall of Williamsburg. After getting the heave-ho from RCA, the band are currently working on a new album, and a few of the tracks are up on their MySpace and sound promising. Opening both shows are Glasgow's Terra Diablo who are actually managed by Swervedriver drummer, Jez.

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The other big event this week is the NYC Popfest, now in its second year. The four-day event, at a handful of clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn, is a must for lovers of chickfactor magazine, Sarah records, twee, jangle, and the generally lighter side of indie. (Also known as indiepop.) They've brought in bands from all over, including Massachusetts (Pants Yell!, Hands and Knees), the UK (The Hermit Crabs, The Foxgloves), two from Sweden (Love is All, Oh! Custer), plenty from here in NYC (Pains of Being Pure of Heart, My Teenage Stride, Ladybug Transistor, The Besties) and elsewhere.

The lineup also includes three legends of the indiepop scene. Glasgow's The Orchids (pictured), whose single "I've Got a Habit" was the second-ever release on the legendary Sarah records; Australia's The Cannanes (aka "the world's most 'indie' band) who've been making music since 1984; and Seattle's Tullycraft who were part of the US scene in the '90s.

The two bands I'm most excited to see are Scotland's The Hermit Crabs, who bear more than a passing resemblance to fellow Glaswegians Camera Obscura; and Finland's Cats on Fire whose album, The Province Complains, is one of the better indiepop albums of the last couple years. Plus, they're from Finland - a country that doesn't send a lot of bands our way.

Of course, the hot ticket for Popfest is Love is All's appearance Thursday night at Cake Shop. I'm not sure why the organizers put the weekend's biggest draw in a place the size of a closet, but I'm sure for those 20 people in the first three rows will really enjoy it. For everyone else, you'll be able to say "they sounded great!" The show is sold out... if you've got tickets get there early and enjoy the other bands (including fellow Swedes Oh! Custer and NYC's The Secret History).

continued.....

Continue reading "Swervedriver to Pop Fest, The Muslims, Amazing Baby & Vivian Girls too - A NEW FEATURE ABOUT INDIE ROCK"

DOWNLOAD: TheDeathSet - Negative Thinking (MP3)

The DeathSet in Athens, March 8, 2008 (Tod Seelie)

Todd P helps keep things interesting in Austin this week.....

Continue reading "Todd P's 2008 SXSW schedule"

Last night around 11:15 pm, I got to the Market Hotel--a/k/a the 20 day-old all-ages space where Todd P and other DIY-minded folks have been booking rad shows, the same tremendously rad space where I snapped these nifty No Age pics couple Mondays ago--only to pull open its metal door and find the lights on, total silence, and a NYPD officer standing at the top of the stairs. Then, a frustrated bark: "We're closed."

It was supposed to be a four-band benefit for Showpaper, topped off by Ninjasonik and Team Robespierre. But according to a couple kids who'd already been inside (one of whom was Crowd-Surf Girl--her name turns out to be Stephanie), the bill didn't make it past the Vivian Girls before the po-po showed.

No official word yet what this means for the stellar line-ups scheduled for the next two nights (High Places/Lucky Dragons tonight; Ghengis Tron, Aa, Ponytail, Shooting Spires on Saturday), but as of this moment all the dates are still on the Market Hotel MySpace page. [Village Voice]

I just talked to someone else who was there when it happened. They said it got shut down around 10:30 and there were around 100 people there. The Vivian Girls had finished playing and there was a DJ on at the time. Scary part: supposedly anyone with a Showpaper shirt was told to stand against the wall. Everyone else was allowed to leave. They don't think anybody was arrested, but tickets were issued. It all may have had to do with someone drinking on the street. Lots of rumors (including the show possibly starting back up at 1am?) and not many exact details at this point.

The Vivian Girls @ Market Hotel (pre-bust), Feb 28, 2008 (Tod Seelie)

Just last week a much more packed Black Dice show happened at the Market Hotel with no problems at all.

Help Team Robespierre celebrate the release of their new record tonight at Death By Audio (Feb 1), show up early to the Foals show at Bowery Ballroom to see Team Robespierre, and get your tickets before they sell out for the Team Robespierre, Health, Crystal Castles and Apache Beat show at Mercury Lounge on March 26th. Stay tuned for a BrooklynVegan TR remix contest coming soon. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Team Robespierre - 3 cool NYC shows, SXSW, Tour Dates"