Talk Normal @ Prospect Park 2010 (more by Lori Baily)

The Brooklyn based duo Talk Normal - comprised of Andrya Ambro (Drummer/Vocalist) and Sarah Register (Guitarist/Vocalist) -- are currently at home in NYC, hard at work on their second full-length. Three 7"'s have come out over the summer, most recently M'Lady Records (with artwork by Kim Gordon), preceded by a split on Fast Weapons Records with Thurston Moore, and a split on Klangbad Records with Christy & Emily.

Continue reading "Talk Normal kicking off tour w/ Weekend and then Wire in Europe (dates)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

"Wire (yes, Wire ... the band) absolutely killed it
at the Williamsburg Hall of Music this eve." - J Simon

Wire @ MHOW

Wire arrived in NYC yesterday, and their busy day included taping an episode of Fallon that aired last night and then headlining Music Hall of Williamsburg after a set by their tour-opener Weekend. Both bands play NYC shows again tonight (4/6), though at different venues.

Madensuyu open for Wire tonight at Bowery Ballroom instead of Weekend (sold out). If you miss the Belgian openers, Madensuyu also play Pianos tomorrow (4/7), and Kenny's Castaways the night after that.

A set of pictures from Music Hall, setlist included, and the two videos from Fallon (in case you missed them), below...

Continue reading "Wire played Fallon & MHOW w/ Weekend (pics, video & setlist) ++ Madensuyu open tonight (and play other shows)"

EITS @ ATP NY 2010 (more by Samantha Marble)

today in NYC
* Matt Pavolka @ Barbes
* Vinny Golia @ The Stone
* Acoustic Africa @ BB King's
* Jason Stein Quartet @ Zebulon
* Taking Back Sunday @ Maxwell's
* Mandingo Ambassadors @ Barbes
* Jason Mears Ensemble @ The Stone
* Durations, City Defects @ Lit Lounge
* Wire, Madensuyu @ Bowery Ballroom
* Ljova and the Kontraband @ Joe's Pub
* Cut Copy, Midnight Magic @ Terminal 5
* Weekend, Little Girls @ Mercury Lounge
* Royal Bangs, Dinowalrus @ Mercury Lounge
* Glenn Tilbrook (of Squeeze) @ City Winery
* Dirty Gold, Country Mice, Snowmine @ Union Hall
* Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks @ Madison Square Garden
* The Pioneers of Seduction, Lycaon Pictus @ Fontana's
* The Octopus Project, Cookies @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Explosions In The Sky, Low, Eluvium @ Radio City Music Hall
* Noisemakers, Peter Rosenberg, 9th Wonder, Phonte @ 92YTribeca
* Yukon Blonde, ANR, My Gold Mask, Wild Vibes @ Public Assembly
* The House Floor, Horse's Mouth, Pat Hull, Painted Faces @ Littlefield
* The Sweetback Sisters, J.P. Harris & The Tough Choices @ Union Pool
* Joanne Schornikow, Golden Ghost, Tiger Saw, David Garland @ Bruar Falls
* Rubix Kube ('80s tribute band) (Back To The Eighties Bowl) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Chico Mann, Superhuman Happiness, DJ Little Shalimar @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Violens, Pablo Picasso, Erika Spring (of Au Revoir Simone) @ Knitting Factory
* Fair To Midland, Periphery, Scale The Summit, Meek Is Murder @ Santos Party House
* The Big Terrific Comedy Show w/ Max Silvestri, Gabe Liedman and Jenny Slate @ Cameo
* Baum, Annekei, Richard Bona, The London Souls (Hait Benefit Concert) @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Haunted House, Che Chen & Robbie Lee, Helena Espvall, Sondra Sun-Odeon @ Issue Project Room
* Soft Spot, Rifle Recoil, Space Lions In Outer Space, Bubblegum Octopus, Yatagarasu @ Death By Audio
* Dan'el Bjarnason, Ben Frost w/ Krakow orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia @ Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall
* Alana Amram, Misha, Buffie Roseanne, Jessica L. Wildman, Aron Blue, Abby Rock @ Goodbye Blue Monday

Wire played Fallon last night. Videos below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

As previously mentioned, "Less than three months after the album release, the post-punk legends [Wire] will hit the road for a short batch of East Coast dates. NYC gets a double dose with Music Hall of Williamsburg hosting on 4/5 and Bowery Ballroom on 4/6." You can also catch Wire on Late Night with Jimmmy Fallon tonight (4/5).

And as mentioned, Weekend open the Music Hall show and then play Mercury Lounge on 4/6. Madensuyu open the Bowery show.

PREVIOUSLY
* an interview w/ Weekend (on their tourmates Wire & stuff)
* Weekend add NYC show during tour w/ Wire (updated dates)
* Weekend touring w/ Wire (whose Red Barked Tree is out now)
* Wire announce new album & 2011 tour (MP3 & dates)

All dates below...

Continue reading "Wire are here w/ Weekend, play Fallon tonight"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Weekend - Coma Summer (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Weekend - End Times (MP3)

Weekend @ SXSW (more)

Weekend have stayed pretty busy since the release of their acclaimed debut, Sports, on Slumberland last fall. The San Francisco trio take myriad post punk influences, and amp them into a unique -- and vociferous -- sonic assault. The band are about to hit the road with post-punk legends Wire, a tour which rolls into town next Tuesday (4/5) at Music Hall of Williamsburg. (They also play an early headlining show at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday [4/6] with Toronto's Little Girls.)

The band also just wrapped up ten shows at SXSW, which is where this interview took place, right after their blistering set at our Saturday day party. In an alley beside club Barbarella, I pulled the band aside for a few minutes of off-the-cuff talk about hearing protection, their upcoming tour with Wire , and what's next for the band...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Weekend (on their tourmates Wire & stuff)"

by BBG

Weekend at O'Briens (more by Bryan Bruchman)

Weekend's noisy and gothic post-punk LP Sports was one of my favorites of 2010, and though they'll hit the road for a US and EU tour with Wire (that includes an April 5th show at MHOW together), the band has scheduled another NYC show. Look for the San Francisco band to headline on April 6th at Mercury Lounge. Tickets go on sale at noon (1/28).

Tickets are also still available for the Wire/Weekend show at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and for Wire's April 6th appearance at Bowery Ballroom which is the same night as Weekend at Mercury Lounge. Madensuyu opens for Wire that night.

Wire's new LP Red Barked Tree is out now. Weekend tour dates and a video of "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV", below...

Continue reading "Weekend add NYC show during tour w/ Wire (updated dates)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Wire - Two Minutes (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Weekend - Coma Summer (MP3)

Weekend

San Francisco's loud and awesome Weekend have been picked as openers for Wire's upcoming spring tour, which will hit the NYC area on April 5 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Weekend won't be playing Wire's other NYC show --  Bowery Ballroom on April 6 -- where openers are Belgian rock band Madensuyu. Pretty inspired pairing, as Wire's arty minimalism is a pretty obvious influence on Weekend's sound. Weekend will also open for Wire next month for a tour of Europe and will also be at SXSW in March.

Weekend's debut album, Sports, made a few Best of 2010 lists (including this writer's at #16) and if you haven't heard it yet, check out "Coma Summer" at the top of this post. The band were great back in November when I saw them at Glasslands and it will be interesting to hear them through a super-pro system like MHoW's. Maybe they'll squeeze in a small club date while they're here? We shall see.

If you're looking for something new from Weekend check out the stream of the Water Borders remix of Sports track "Monday Morning/Monongah, WV" at the bottom of this post.

Wire

Meanwhile, Wire's new album, Red Barked Tree, came out last week and is pretty fantastic, easily the best record they've made since 1989's A Bell is A Cup Until it Is Struck. The band's Read & Burn series of EPs and 2008's Object 47 showed that the band -- now a trio after guitarist Bruce Gilbert's departure -- still had creative fire. But Red Barked Tree finds songwriters Colin Newman and ominously-voiced Graham Lewis in top form, sonically somewhere between the aggressive Chairs Missing and 154's more ethereal moments. (There's some Bell Is a Cup era Wire in there too.) To think that this comes from a band into its fourth decade is pretty amazing. Colin Newman talked about the new album in the February issue of MOJO:

It's not like, "We've got to get back to the '70s," it was more "What was the method that made those things work?" There was a period when songwriting was derided within the band. It became subsumed by other ideas. What made Wire different from everybody else in the '70s was the level of discipline, and the arrangements for the pieces on the record remained very close to the writing. Then the band thinking, "I'll do this on top of that," is quite magical. That's how you get "Practice Make Perfect," that's how you get "I Am the Fly." And that's how you get Red Barked Tree. That is Wire.

Wire were here last in October 2008 when they played Irving Plaza. Wire and Weekend part company after their 4/7 date in D.C. but Wire continue on to some West Coast shows after that. All Weekend and Wire dates are after the jump.

Continue reading "Weekend touring w/ Wire (whose Red Barked Tree is out now)"

DOWNLOAD: Wire - "Two Minutes" (MP3)

Wire at Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)

Wire will return to in 2011 with a spanking new LP and a string of US dates! Red Barked Tree is the title of the band's follow up to Object 47, and it'll see the light of day on January 11 via their own Pink Flag imprint.

"Red Barked Tree was conceived, written and recorded mostly during 2010 by the pared-down line-up of Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey -- with no guests. Ranging from the hymnal "Adapt" to the barking sledgehammer art-punk of "Two Minutes," the album encompasses the full palette of style and nuance that has always endeared Wire to pastel-tinged pop aficionados and bleeding-edge avant-rockers alike."

Less than three months after the album release, the post-punk legends will hit the road for a short batch of East Coast dates. NYC gets a double dose with Music Hall of Williamsburg hosting on 4/5 and Bowery Ballroom on 4/6. AmEx presale for both NYC shows begins at noon on Wednesday, 11/17, with regular sale kicking off at noon on Friday.

All tour dates, the stream of new song "Two Minutes", full new album tracklist and videos, below...

Continue reading "Wire announce new album & 2011 tour (MP3 & dates) "

by Andrew Frisicano

Outdoor music fest fun...Woodstock '94

Tickets for the Austin City Limits festival - happening this year on October 2nd-4th in Austin's Zilker Park - go on sale today (Tuesday, April 7th) at 11am EST. That sale happens in advance of the fest's official lineup announcement, scheduled for April 28th.

Calgary festival Sled Island hasn't announced its lineup either. But Sled Island does have a pre-fest fundraiser planned for Saturday April 11th (tickets on sale). Headlining that show at Calgary's Royal Canadian Legion will be 2008 fest performer Fucked Up (video below). Sled Island itself takes place June 25th-28th. Curating this year's festivities will be Colin Newman from Wire (who also played Sled Island '08).

Camp Bisco, a three-night fest headlined by The Disco Biscuits, is happening on July 16th-18th in Mariaville, NY. The artists playing include Nas, Chromeo, The Orb, Dr. Dog and more (full lineup below). Tickets are on sale now.

Monolith Festival is happening again this year in September at Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Colorodo. No acts or dates have been announced yet - but last year's lineup was pretty stellar with TV on the Radio, Justice, Band of Horses, and more playing.

Merge Records is running its own 20th-anniversary festival, XX Merge, on July 22nd-26th in North Carolina. The lineup has been partially announced - with acts like Superchunk, Spoon, Conor Oberst, and M. Ward confirmed. Five-day passes go on sale Wednesday, April 8th at 10am.

Glastonbury sold out its last batch of tickets this week. The UK festival, happening June 26th-28th, has confirmed acts that include Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Neil Young, Blur, Bruce Springsteen, Emiliana Torrini, Doves, Franz Ferdinand, The Ting Tings, and Echo And The Bunnymen.

Other previously reported summer fests include:

Coachella in Indio, CA, on April 17th-19th. Tickets on sale.

Sasquatch in Quincy, WA on May 23rd-25th. Tickets on sale.

Northside Festival in Brooklyn (June 11th-14th). Badges are on sale.

Bonnaroo is happening too, from June 11th-14th in Manchester, TN.

Pitchfork Festival is taking place July 17th-19th in Chicago's Union Park. The fest recently added The Flaming Lips to its already announced lineup. Tickets are on sale now.

The Flaming Lips will also be co-curating and headlining one night of ATP NY, September 11th-13th in NY's Catskills. Tickets for that are still on sale.

All Points West July 31-Aug 2nd in Jersey City. Tickets on sale

Lollapalooza on August 7th-9th in Chicago, IL. Tickets (and VIP passes) are on sale now. There have been some rumored bands, but the official lineup comes out April 21st.

Bumbershoot in Seattle on September 5th-7th. Three-day passes are on sale now.

There are more confirmed festivals, but I think that's enough for this post. In the unconfirmed department, Woodstock '09 is currently shoping for a venue.

Camp Bisco's lineup, video of Fucked Up at last year's Sled Island Fest and Green Day at Woodstock '94 below...

Continue reading "ACL tix, Sled Island's 2009 curator, Camp Bisco lineup, Monolith, Glastonbury & other music festival news"

Wire @ South Street Seaport (more by Jason Bergman)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Beck, MGMT @ United Palace Theatre
* Matt Hales (of Aqualung) @ Joe's Pub
* Suckers, Bell, Crooked Looks @ Glasslands
* The Wedding Present, Taxi Taxi @ Southpaw
* Daniel Francis Doyle, Yellow Fever @ Cake Shop
* Howlin Rain, Children & Endless Boogie @ Santos
* Catfish Haven, Dead Confederate, Kuroma @ Mercury Lounge
* Wire, Times New Viking @ The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
* Luke Temple, Steve Burns & The Struggle, Musee Mecanique @ Union Hall

WFMU will also be broadcasting the Wire show.

Happy birthday Lennons! John Lennon was born today (1940) (RIP). Sean (John's son) was born today in 1975. BB King's is having a party.

Jackson Browne was born today in 1948.

Check out a new video interview with Silver Apples below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday? (Yom Kippur)"

Times New Viking @ McCarren Pool (more by Lori Baily)

Times New Viking will be opening for Wire at Irving Plaza in NYC on October 9th.

Tickets for WFMU's free WIRE show will be available starting TODAY (Wednesday, September 3rd) at Other Music (15 E. 4th St, Manhattan). Drop by during store hours to pick up your free tickets (limit 2 per person); we expect them to disappear quickly, so don't procrastinate. UK artpunk legends WIRE play Thursday, October 9th at The Fillmore (17 Irving Place, NYC): all ages, doors at 7:30pm, free to the public (tickets are REQUIRED for entry).

Earl Greyhound @ All Points West (more by Jefferson)

In additon to the previously announced record-taping shows coming up in September, Earl Greyhound are playing a free show at Southpaw in Brooklyn this Wednesday night (Aug 20, 2008). Smokewagon and Changing Holes are also on the bill.

Also on Wednesday, also free, possibly the show of the week (please don't rain): WFMU presents,

The Ex with Gétatchèw Mèkurya (renowned Ethiopian saxophone legend), and if that weren't enough, Lincoln Center added two amazing East African/American collaborations to the bill: Either/Orchestra with Mahmoud Ahmed and Alèmayèhu Eshèté, plus Extra Golden.

back to this week: Huey Lewis in Coney Island
and Friday: Grand Archives and Violens at South Street Seaport.

Aug 29th @ South Street Seaport:
"Oneida, Endless Boogie + VERY SPECIAL GUEST"

Who is the special guest? I have no idea, but if Endless Boogie can be considered a clue, there's a really good chance it will be a band on Matador Records. Speaking of which, Matador's Yo La Tengo are playing the very last McCarren Pool Party in Brooklyn on Sunday August 24th. That would be kind of cool and weird if Yo La Tengo played the Pool and the Seaport both in less than a week.

That's it for now. Take a look at the free show calendar for much, much more, but not THAT much more because unfortunately the free show season (aka Summer) is soon coming to an end. Summerstage is already done now that Sharon Jones played and actually I just realized that the Bill Withers tribute was the final 'Celebrate Brooklyn' show in Prospect Park this year too.

Wire @ South Street Seaport (more by Jason Bergman)

Continue reading "Wire - 2008 Tour Dates"

DOWNLOAD: Mogwai - Folk Death 95 (MP3)

photos by Rae Holtsabum

Mogwai

I'm still trying to properly wrap my mind around (and recover from) the amazing performances (and blazing sun) I was able to experience at Sled Island. It's hard to believe both the amount and range of wonderful music that was up for consumption over the course of four days, and last night's set from mainstage headliners Mogwai, shredding guitars with grace like only they can, followed by a flawless late-night club show by underrated Canadian folk rockers Rock Plaza Central, was the perfect send-off to a festival that defined itself on eclecticism and near unmitigated musical quality. [Beyond Robson]

Continue reading "Wire, Mogwai, and the rest of the pics from Sled Island 2008"

photos by Jason Bergman

"It was a great show! They did NOTHING from Pink Flag until the encore, but they did do some early stuff. For the encore they did LOWDOWN, IT'S SO OBVIOUS and REUTERS -- awesome! Actually the whole show was pretty awesome, even their new stuff! Good crowd too!" [Jason]

"They were wonderful, what a way to kick off the Seaport shows!" [Anonymous #1]

"Actually I saw them in 1979 at CB's and they were great then, but honestly they were every bit as good tonight!!" [Jason again]

"Hmmm i hate to rain on the parade going on here. The show was very good and the band were good also but i have to take Jason's statement and dump on it...." [Anonymous #2]

More pictures from last night's show (May 30, 2008) below....

Continue reading "Wire @ South Street Seaport, NYC - pics"

DOWNLOAD: Wire - One of Us (MP3)

Object 47 [the 47th object in Wire's discography] is nonetheless only Wire's 11th studio album. It is the 2nd product of an arc of work began in 2006 which has so far thrown up the rather well received EP, Read And Burn 03 [from which no tracks appear] and stands as a confident statement of where Wire are in 2008. As ever looking forward! While retaining Wire's idiosyncratic mix of an avant-garde mindset with classic pop timing this album boasts "tunes with zoom" a unique formula that somehow manages to sound wholly Wire [in a classic sense] and wholly contemporary.

Although Object 47 will not be released until July 7th, the first single, "One Of Us" is now available for download from pinkflag.com...

Continue reading "a new WIRE album & MP3, free show on Friday @ the Seaport"

All signs, and weathervanes, point towards the upcoming outdoor summer concert season, which is just around the corner. The River to River Festival is kicking things off with a nod to the past, featuring Wire at the Seaport Music Festival stage. Why should you care? Unlike other 70s bands that have been over-saturating the concert circuit, these guys haven't taken a stage in the U.S. in quite some time; their last show was in Spain in 2004.........The show is free for all, and takes place Friday, May 30th at 7 p.m [Gothamist]

Last year the Seaport booked Suicide. More Wire tour dates below...

Continue reading "Wire playing a free show @ South Street Seaport in NYC"