WWPJ @ Fashion's Night Out 2012 (more by Sachyn Mital)

It's been two years since We Were Promised Jetpacks released In The Pit Of The Stomach and while no follow-up has been announced yet, the band will release a live album this fall. In the meantime, you can actually see them live when they tour the East Coast and Midwest in June. Stops include the previously announced show at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park on 6/13 with Ra Ra Riot (tickets), and a just-announced one at Maxwell's in Hoboken on 6/15 (tickets).

All WWPJ tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks add more U.S. shows, including Maxwell's (updated dates)"

Ra Ra Riot (more by Amanda Hatfield)

How was your Record Store Day? Did you get your hands on one of the limited Binary Mind 10-inches? "Binary Mind contains the title track and the unreleased song "All I Fear" plus three demo versions of "Binary Mind," "Wilderness" and "I Shut Off," all from the Beta Love sessions." If you missed it, ypou can stream "All I Fear" below.

Ra Ra Riot and We Were Promised Jetpacks have added a show together at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ on June 13, 2013. Tickets are on sale.

For Ra Ra Riot the show is a headlining date in the middle of their tour with the Postal Service who they play with two nights later at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

For We Were Promised Jetpacks the show is so far a one-off in the USA, so I can't help but assume we'll find out about a NYC show very soon, though we know that so far it won't be part of Summerstage.

All currently announced WWPJ dates, and Ra Ra Riot dates and that unreleased song, below...

Continue reading "Ra Ra Riot released a song on RSD (listen), playing NJ with We Were Promised Jetpacks during Postal Service tour"

photos by Sachyn Mital

"Saw We Were Promised Jetpacks tonight at Rockefeller Center for Fashions Night Out! They were amazing!" - Amy DiReda

We Were Promised Jetpacks at Rockefeller Center - 9/6/12

We Were Promised Jetpacks brought their tour to NYC for a free outdoor Fashion's NIght Out (9/6) show at Rockefeller Center with The Lonely Forest. Ken Grand-Pierre wrote on his tumblr, "We Were Promised Jetpacks proved that you could be just as rowdy in a fancy plaza as you could be in a basement esque venue dripping with sweat. It was brilliant seeing the Fashion Night Out crowd go from confused to just going with it, and seeing their fans jumping up and down during the Jetpacks set was awesome."

WWPJ continue their tour at Amityville's Ollie's Point tonight (9/10) and come to Brooklyn on Tuesday (9/11) at The Bell House. Advance tickets for the Bell House show are still available.

More pictures from the FNO show are below.

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks played a Fashion's Night Out show at Rockefeller Center (pics); Brooklyn show is Tuesday"

UPDATE: We found even MORE

As mentioned, Thursday (9/5) is Fashion's Night Out. Basically another excuse to throw a party (in the name of bringing money and attention to fashion), the evening has become music-oriented in the last few years with bands playing stores all over New York City. There's a lot of stuff going on, including the Azealia Banks / DJ Cosmo performance at M.A.C. Soho we already told you about; plus Icona Pop and Maria Minerva at Urban Outfitters; Matchbox Twenty (!?!) at Bloomingdales; Haim at Topshop; La Sera at Helmut Lang; We Were Promised Jetpacks at Rockefeller Center; and Cyndi Lauper at Manolo Blahnik, just to name a few.

Below is a list of all the shows we could find with basic details and links where applicable/helpful. All shows are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Many have free food and booze as well. For more into visit the Fashion's Night Out website. Let us know what we missed, in the comments.

Continue reading "Fashion's Night Out is Thursday -- a list of musical goings on (Chairlift, La Sera, Icona Pop, Haim, Maxwell, Cyndi Lauper & more)"

We Were Promised Jetpacks at BV-CMJ 2011 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

We Were Promised Jetpacks have some (mostly European dates) coming up this month and next, but in between they'll come to the US for a few east coast dates including two three in the NYC area: Ollie's Point on September 10 in Amityville and The Bell House on September 11 in Brooklyn. Tickets for the Amityville show are on sale now and tickets for the Brooklyn show go on sale today (8/3) at noon.

UPDATE: WWPJ also play a free Fashion's Night Out show on September 6 at Rockefeller Center, like many other bands did last year.

A list of all dates and a video are below.

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks going on tour (dates)"

by Andrew Sacher

London's Breton were just in Austin for SXSW and before they head home they'll play a NYC show TONIGHT (3/21) at Mercury Lounge with Gold Fields. Tickets are available.

You may know Breton from the remixes they've done for Maps & Atlases and Local Natives, or the audio/visual work they've done for Tricky, but they've also been releasing EPs of their own material. Now they've got a debut full length, Other People's Problems, set to come out on April 3 in the US and March 26 in the UK via FatCat. The album pulls from two rather different, but distinctly UK styles of music. They've got a mix of James Blake-ian beats and the tense vocals of UK dance-punk groups like Klaxons and Foals. Check out the video for "Interference" off the album, which they wrote, filmed, and directed themselves, below. The album artwork and tracklist are below too.

All dates, including a May tour with We Were Promised Jetpacks (that has them in Philly on May 5th) and video below...

Continue reading "Breton are here, played SXSW, signed to FatCat"

We Were Promised Jetpacks at FFF Fest 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

We Were Promised Jetpacks, who were last in NYC to headline Webster Hall (and perform for our Green Room Sessions) (which was not long after they were here for CMJ), are currently on a European tour that goes through February. They'll follow that with a North American tour, which hasn't been announced in full yet but so far includes the sold out Coachellas and a few others including NYC shows happening on May 3 at Bowery Ballroom and and May 4 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for both NYC shows go on sale Friday (1/27) at noon with an AmEx presale starting (1/25) at noon.

All currently known dates and our 'Green Room Sessions' videos in case you missed them below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks touring around Coachella (two NYC shows announced)"

Radiohead @ Roseland Ballroom in 2011 (more by Bao Nguyen)

Coachella which is taking place over the course of two weekends this year (April 13-15 and 20-22) revealed their 2012 lineup. Last week, Azealia Banks was the first artist confirmed, and earlier today they confirmed The Weeknd (maybe he found a band?), and before that, Jimmy Cliff, Breakbot, and Housse De Racket. The reunited Pulp then announced itself. The full lineup also includes headliners The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, not to mention, as predicted, the reunited At the Drive In and the reunited Mazzy Star (!), and Madness and Refused (!) and Jeff Mangum and many, many more that you can see below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2012 lineup announced (two weekends worth)"

During our CMJ parties this past October, we partnered with Sony Bloggie to film a video series ("Green Room Sessions") of exclusive performances by artists, many of whom also played at our CMJ events. All of the videos were shot on nothing but Bloggies. We've been slowly revealing some of the videos from the series, but the most of them are finally here and can be watched below.

Chelsea Wolfe performed a new/non-album track called "Feral Love," accompanied only by brooding synths and beats from band member Ben Chisholm, making for a more similar performance to Chelsea's "solo" NYC debut than the full band set she delivered at our Friday party (10/21).

Members of Datarock, sitting on a ladder, played an acoustic guitar/saxophone and red-suit-less rendition of their song "True Stories," which they said they have to play when they're in NYC, as it is their tribute to Talking Heads, with every lyric in the song being a Talking Heads song title.

Laura Stevenson and her Don Giovanni labelmates Shellshag both played songs for us. Laura played a solo acoustic version of "Barnacles" from the Laura Stevenson and the Cans' album Sit Resist on the staircase to the green room at Public Assembly, whereas Shellshag took us out to the waterfront for a stripped down performance of "Face to Face."

Ólöf Arnalds played a new song called "Sudden Elevation" and a cover of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" which is one of the covers on her new mini album.

Peelander-Z took us outside on North 6th Street, shortly after playing our day party in Public Assembly. With no instruments except their voices, they wrote us a theme song.

Similarly to Chelsea Wolfe, Channy Caselle of Polica performed with just a microphone and samples playing through a guitar amp, as opposed to the massive dual drum rumbling set Polica played at our Saturday party (10/22). She performed "Happy Be Fine" off their upcoming debut LP, Give You the Ghost.

New Zealand band Street Chant, who played our Saturday party, played two songs for us after their set, "Stoned Again" and "You Do the Maths." For both songs, frontwoman Emily Littler played guitar and sang as the rest of her band and members of The Suzan provided claps and backup vocals.

Dave Quon of We Barbarians, who were also on the Saturday party, played an acoustic version of "Chambray" off the band's Headspace EP backstage after their set.

We Were Promised Jetbacks, who were announced on our Thursday (10/20) party at the last minute, played as a three piece because one of their members hadn't arrived to NYC yet at that point. Then, to size their lineup down even more, frontman Adam Thompson performed two songs on his own for us with his acoustic guitar (filmed on the same day they headlined Webster Hall).

A few more are coming, but meanwhile watch all of our completed videos below...

Continue reading "WATCH BV 'Green Room Sessions' (shot on a Sony Bloggie)"

Peter Murphy @ Highline Ballroom in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Brain Cloud @ Barbes
* Chicha Libre @ Barbes
* Hot Tub @ Littlefield
* M.O.P. @ Santos Party House
* Allen Toussaint @ Joe's Pub
* Martha Wainwright @ City Winery
* The Knux, Jordy Towers @ Maxwell's
* Leon Russell, Kristy Lee @ BB King's
* Chris Cornell, Craig Wedren @ Carnegie Hall
* The Jezabels, Beast Make Bomb @ Mercury Lounge
* Peter Murphy, She Wants Revenge @ Irving Plaza
* Karl Berger's Stone Workshop Orchestra @ The Stone
* Nathan Salsburg, Luke Roberts, Spiderwebs @ Zebulon
* Reverend Vince Anderson & His Love Choir @ Union Pool
* Dan Neustadt plays the Flaming Lips @ Knitting Factory
* Spectre Folk, Colin L. Orchestra, Images @ Death By Audio
* Awolnation, Middle Class Rut, Twin Atlantic @ Webster Hall
* Hate! Hate! Hate!, This is Hell, I Hate Our Freedom, Kills and Thrills at Saint Vitus
* Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Titus Andronicus, The So So Glos @ Shea Stadium
* Tony Scherr Trio, Anton Fier, Rob Jost, Jim Campilongo Electric Trio, Stephan Crump, Tony Mason @ Living Room

We Were Promised Jetpacks performed two songs on Last Call With Carson Daly. Check them out below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

photos by Tim Griffin

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 came to a close on Sunday night. It was another successful year for the well-rounded music fest, and the end of its first in the larger (and much dustier) Auditorium Shores. And though Ryan Gosling may have been the most talked about artist at the festival (Danzig was a close second), the real star was festival organizer Transmission Enertainment for putting together such a kickass lineup on four stages for three days straight (not to mention a mechanical bull) (and skate and bike ramp and tons of good food and vendors and merch and posters and wrestling) (and Turquoise Jeep).

After Hum and then a quick set of comedy by metal comedian Brian Posehn (he did his Slayer joke and one that involved Pantera), Slayer closed out the large Orange stage on Sunday (the other metal acts played on the slightly smaller Black Stage all weekend, but the Orange was the biggest and actually specially built to Slayer's specs).

Slayer wasn't the only wild headliner of the day though. In fact, that's an understatement. Trash Talk played after Henry Rollins did his set of spoken word in the Yellow Tent because Trash Talk had to miss their originally scheduled set on the Black Stage earlier in the week due to a family emergency. Thanking everyone for missing Slayer to see them (actually not true because it ended up Trash Talk was done before Slayer even started), Trash Talk started their hardcore insanity by pointing out that they were on the only stage with no barricade (the stage comedians usually played). Circle pits, stagediving, stage crowding, grabbing the mic, pumping fists (and skateboards) and just general craziness characterized the next 20 minutes or so.

The always controversial Odd Future drew their own giant and enthusiastic crowd to their headlining set on the Blue Stage, and Blonde Redhead closed out the Black Stage to a more intimate and chilled out audience (in the location that was metal, punk, garage and hardcore the rest of the weekend).

Here is our second set of pictures from the final day of the fest, including Asobi Seksu, the reunited Hum, We Were Promised Jetpacks (who just played NYC and one of our CMJ day parties), Odd Future, G-Side, Austra, Grimes, MNDR, Mates of State, Budos Band, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Architecture in Helsinki, Del the Funky Homosapien, Brian Posehn, Flying Lotus, Brody Stevens, Trash Talk, Henry Rollins, and more SLAYERRRR.

We previously posted pictures from both day 1 and day 2, and a second set by BBG day 1, day 2, and day 3

The rest of day 3, below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 -- Day 3 pics (part 2) -- Henry Rollins, Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Trash Talk & more"

We Were Promised Jetpacks at BV-CMJ (more by BBG)

Scotland's We Were Promised Jetpacks spent their Mischief Night (10/30) at Webster Hall in NYC. We invited the band's frontman Adam Thompson into a studio earlier that day to record a session for BrooklynVegan (stay tuned). He told us it was maybe the largest headlining show of their career so far. It was definitely their largest in NYC, and much larger than the show they played for us at Knitting Factory during CMJ. How was it?

Opening at Webster were Royal Bangs and Bear Hands who are still on tour with the Jetpacks. They're making their way towards Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest where WWPJP will play the fest while BH and RB will link up with Dom & Pujol for a FFF Nites set on 11/6.

Bear Hands return to NYC and headline Music Hall of Williamsburg on 12/16 with guest Fort Lean. Tickets go on AMEX presale at noon on Wed (11/2) and regular sale on Friday. Fort Lean will ALSO be at Le Poisson Rouge on 11/26 as part of the 2nd Annual Voidwell Homecoming Dance with Gordon Voidwell and his band, Emil and Friends, Emily Warren & The Betters and a DJ set from Aaron Pfenning (tickets).

All dates and WWPJ's new video for "Human Error", from their new LP In The Pit Of The Stomach, below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks played Webster Hall, Bear Hands add Brooklyn show (dates)"

photos by BBG

We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Knitting Factory

As you know, We Were Promised Jetpacks will HEADLINE Webster Hall on Sunday (10/30) with Bear Hands and Royal Bangs in tow as part of a string of US dates together. Tickets are still available. You can buy 'em or roll the dice and try to win a FREE pair. We're giving away one pair on the BrooklynVegan Facebook and another here. Details are below.

We Were Promised Jetpacks played our day party during CMJ one week ago today (10/20) and though we previously posted a full set of pictures from the day, a second set of pictures of WWPJ are here in this post. More of them with all dates and contest details below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks now on tour (win tix to Webster Hall!), played CMJ (more BV party pics)"

photos by Bryan Bruchman

Yellow Ostrich @ Knitting Factory

As far as BrooklynVegan shows were concerned, we started out this year's CMJ in a lowkey manner with a free Thursday day show at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. We Were Promised Jetpacks, announced that same day, headlined the show that began with a set by Yellow Ostrich at 12:30pm.

Though they didn't play acoustic like they did the night before at the FatCat CMJ showcase at Mercury Lounge, WWPJ mixed it up by performing as a three-piece since one of their members wasn't in town yet. Expect a four-piece at Webster Hall and other dates of their tour. Austin's Hundred Visions played their 2pm set despite their 15 passenger van being stolen from its parking spot in Williamsburg the night before. Luckily most of their gear was not in it at the time.

The whole day looked like this:

12:30 Yellow Ostrich (Barsuk)
1:15 Still Corners (Sub Pop)
2:00 Hundred Visions (unsigned)
2:45 Forest Fire (FatCat)
3:15 BOBBY (Partisan)
4:00 Main Attrakionz (Mishka)
5:00 We Were Promised Jetpacks (FatCat)

Thanks everyone who stopped by. Here are some pictures. More below...

Continue reading "BV Thursday Day Party @ KF in pics (Main Attrakionz, We Were Promised Jetpacks ,Yellow Ostrich, Still Corners & more)"

We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Southpaw in 2009 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

12:30 Yellow Ostrich (Barsuk)
1:15 Still Corners (Sub Pop)
2:00 Hundred Visions (unsigned)
2:45 Forest Fire (FatCat)
3:15 BOBBY (Partisan)
4:00 Main Attrakionz (Mishka)
5:00 We Were Promised Jetpacks (FatCat)

Maybe you caught WWPJ play an acoustic set alongside Forest Fire last night at Mercury Lounge? How was it? They kick off a tour with Bear Hands that includes a HEADLINING show at Webster Hall (!) in less than a week (Webster tickets are still on sale).

Listen to most of the bands playing this party via our Spotify Playlist. Get there early for Yellow Ostrich who reportedly killed it at Brooklyn Bowl last night.

Listen to a song by Hundred Visions below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks playing FREE BV SHOW TODAY (Main Attrakionz, BOBBY, Still Corners & more too!)"

Oneohtrix Point Never joins John Maus, Twin Sister and friends on the now-completed lineup of the Domino CMJ showcase happening at 285 Kent. No advanced tickets.

We Were Promised Jetpacks, who will be playing acoustic, have been revealed as the secret guest playing the FatCat showcase at Mercury Lounge. Tickets are still on sale.

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"

WWPJ at Governor's Island in 2010 (more by Andrew St. Clair)

We Were Promised Jetpacks are back with their second LP In the Pit of the Stomach which comes out October 4 via Fat Cat. The album was produced with Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, Interpol, The National). Lead track "Act on Impulse" is streaming and available for download on their website.

WWPJ will go on an international tour in September through November in support of the album. Royal Bangs and Bear Hands support the US dates. The tour comes through NYC on October 30 at Webster Hall. Tickets go on sale Friday (7/15) at noon with an AmEx pre-sale starting Wednesday (7/13) at noon.

All tour dates and album art below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks announce new album & tour w/ Royal Bangs & Bear Hands (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 "

We Were Promised Jetpacks' new EP The Last Place You'll Look came out in March on Fat Cat. That's the cover above.

In addition to playing the June 30th Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club/Suckers show at Governors Island (they're opening), We Were Promised Jetpacks has added a Tuesday, June 29th headlining show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Bear Hands open. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon. General sale starts Friday, May 28th at noon.

The Brooklyn show is one of at least seven shows that WWPJ and Bear Hands will play together this summer. Those dates include Louisville, Kentucky's Forecastle Festival which has updated its July lineup since we last spoke. That updated lineup and day-by-day schedule, and all dates below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks & Bear Hands add more dates (MHOW), Forecastle Festival updates its lineup "

Speaking of Governors Island, Scotland's great We Were Promised Jetpacks were just added to the June 30th Passion Pit & Tokyo Police Club show (tickets are still on sale). That's almost two weeks before they play a show in Chicago so expect more tour dates soon. All currently announced dates (including tour of Europe later this month) and some cool acoustic "Dirty Laundry" videos below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks touring Europe soon, returning to US this summer (playing Gov Island w/ TPC & Passion Pit)"

We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Bowery (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

We Were Promised Jetpacks' first-ever U.S. headlining tour has been fully announced in support of their 2009 Fat Cat album, These Four Walls. The tour kicks off on February 11th at Bowery Ballroom (tickets), leaves for Philly, DC & Boston, and comes back for a Brooklyn show at Knitting Factory on February 15th (tickets) before eventually ending up in Austin in mid March for the SXSW Music Festival (stay tuned for a big announcement related to that). All or most shows are with Bad Veins and Royal Bangs. All dates below...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks - updated 2010 tour dates (2 NYC shows, SXSW & much more) "

We Were Promised Jetpacks in NYC in Oct (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

We Were Promised Jetpacks toured North America with Fat Cat labelmates Twilight Sad, BrakesBrakesBrakes and Frightened Rabbit in September and October (though FR didn't play on the leg of the tour that hit NYC). That included shows at Bowery Ballroom and Southpaw.

Well, Jetpacks will be back in 2010, though only two dates of a tour have been announced so far. One will happen on Thursday, February 11th at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are on sale. Before then, the group has plenty of dates in the UK and Europe. You can see them below.

Fat Cat friends Frightened Rabbit just released a 7" single for new song "Swim Until You Cant See Land" (b-side "Fun Stuff") in the UK and Europe. That comes stateside on December 8th; the single artwork and "Swim" music video are below. The single comes in advance of their forthcoming third LP, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, set to be released on March 1st of next year. The Tracklist for that new album is below too.

Tour dates, all the above-mentioned stuff, and a five-part video of WWPJ being interviewed by John Norris at Fontana's between gigs, after the jump...

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks announce some shows (dates), Frightened Rabbit release a single (w/ new album info)"

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Tuesday night's Twilight Sad show was just like Friday night, there was just more if it. There was more space for the sound to fill, more shaved heads, more singing along. All three bands had put the bar relatively high coming off their show at Southpaw, and all three cleared it and then some.

Prior to the tour The Twilight Sad's James Graham and Andy MacFarlane had shaved their heads. Somewhere between Brooklyn and the Bowery Jetpacks lead singer Adam Thompson and bassist Sean Smith shaved their heads, Twilight Sad bassist Craig Orzel was sporting a mohawk and even their roadie, Esteban, got into the act.

With more room to maneuver and no band going on after them, the three bands seemed more inspired with only Brakesbrakesbrakes toughing out a rough set with a broken string and busted high hat.

The Twilight Sad made only two changes from their setlist Friday night adding "The Room" off Forget The Night Ahead and swapping the new record's one breakneck track, "The Neighbour's Can't Breathe", for its other ("That Birthday Present").

The moment of the night arrived when Graham hopped down into the crowd for "Cold Days From The Birdhouse". Where the audience at Southpaw gave him plenty of space a few nights earlier, the crowd at the Bowery crowded in close, enveloping Graham. And the crowd singing along as he belted the lyrics, "And your red sky at night won't follow me" and "So you make it your own/but this is where your arm can't go" was chill bump-inducing. It lead to Graham remarking, after he returned to the stage, "I don't think we'll ever forget this."

Anonymous wrote:

The Twilight Sad was incredibly loud and pretty much the definition of epic. The floor was shaking! The way those guitars swirl and those crescendos... it was a mesmerizing showcase of powerful, and noisy as heck, music that very few bands can even pull off. Great mix of new and old songs in the set list. When they played Cold Days From The Birdhouse, with the singer in the middle of the crowd, it felt special. The only thing missing from them is more stage presence from someone other than the lead singer.

Continue reading "We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Twilight Sad & BrakesBrakesBrakes @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics, setlist "

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

The Twilight Sad

If it was possible The Twilight Sad have gone even darker on their new record Forget The Night Ahead (Fat Cat). Yet what was evident on Friday night at Brooklyn's Southpaw is their live sound has not suffered as a result. Headlining an "early" set, along with label mates Brakesbrakesbrakes and We Were Promised Jetpacks, the Scottish quartet ratcheted the volume and dissonance blanketing lead singer James Graham's bleak lyrics about familial dysfunction and neglect.

Before all that, however, it was fellow Scots, We Were Promised Jetpacks, riding into Brooklyn on a wave of buzz. A full, but not sold out, venue led lead singer Adam Johnson to comment how there may have been only four people out to seem them on a visit to New York earlier this year. Supporting their summer release These Four Walls, it was a solid and heartfelt set - Johnson, belting out his lyrics, rising up on his toes for maximum effect. But it was always going to be the single "Quiet Little Voices" (played ad nauseum by the likes of KEXP) to garner the loudest applause.

The Fat Cat showcase continued with Brighton's Brakesbrakesbrakes (replacing Frightened Rabbits on this leg of the tour) and their set of sturdy rock numbers included cute 15-second songs like "Spring Chicken" and "Porcupine or Pineapple" played a second time after guitarist, Tom White admitted he "fucked up the chorus." White was the most entertaining of the quartet, thrashing about and raking his guitar violently along the mic stand.

But both bands still have a bit of a ways to go to match the sonic spectacle that is The Twilight Sad. With a sound that begs for an arena, the intimate nature of Southpaw allowed the Twilight Sad to swap their song's penchant for the epic for more intensity.

The searing guitar feedback from Night Ahead track and set opener "Reflection of the Television" gave way to the rumbling drums and bass as the curtains pulled back to find Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane sporting newly shaved heads. Graham stepped forth and doubled over singing "There's people downstairs, I'm more than a fighter, you know."

Keeping track of the songs off the setlist was a test in Caledonian translation as "Television" was listed as "Doonstairs" and "Loud/Quiet" was "Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed" from 2007's debut "Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters." Graham picked up a drumstick, dropped to his knees and hammered along with drummer Mark Devine during the loud part.

That debut landed them critical praise on both sides of the Atlantic and Graham mentioned that he thinks they had played more shows in New York than in Glasgow and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. They did split the set almost evenly with songs from both records instead of opting for the practice of loading the set with new songs at the cost of older, familiar ones.

The fevered pitch of the set reached dizzying heights with showstopper "The Neighbours Can't Breathe" a train-without-breaks-number from the new record and Graham's primal screen of "You keep pulling on the heart strings."

Graham walked into the crowd for "Cold Days From The Birdhouse", singing back to his band and then stood painfully still on stage as "And She Would Darken The Memory of Youth" and set closer "I Am Taking The Train Home"'s swirling outros played around him. The latter building into a five-minute wall of noise as he left the stage. It wasn't quite "You Made Me Realise", but the nod was clearly in that direction and perfectly executed to punish anyone without ear plugs. Fair warning if you plan to see them Tuesday (TONIGHT, 10/6) at the Bowery Ballroom (tickets).

More pictures below...

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