Pterodactyl at Glasslands in 2009 (more by Lori Bally)

Spastic Brooklyn noise rockers Pterodactyl haven't played a NYC show in about a year, and TONIGHT (4/8) at Mercury Lounge, they will play "a stripped-down, vocal-heavy two piece set, featuring material from throughout their ten years of songwriting in New York City." The show will reportedly be one of their last in NYC.

Support at tonight's show comes from San Francisco's Tartufi and Brooklyn brotherly duo Writer, who recently held a residency at Pianos and have toured Cults and Guards. Tickets for tonight's show are available.

Watch the video for "School Glue" from Pterodactyl's most recent album, 2011's Spills Out, below...

Continue reading "Pterodactyl playing "one of their last shows in NYC" tonight w/ Writer and Tartufi"

James and Andy Ralph make music collectively as Writer and the Brooklyn-based sibs self-released Brotherface back in October 2012 and it's loaded with dense, gritty, anthemic songs. You can stream the album below. Also below, we've got the premiere of Writer's new video for "Cash for Gold" which features no cash, very little gold but a plethora of psychedelic imagery.

Writer begin a January residency at Pianos tonight (1/8), where they've lined up Census and Crusin' USA to play as well. Advance tickets are available. Next Tuesday (1/15) they'll play with Spookfish, plus Shilpa Ray, Cannibal Animal Machine and Man Made Sun (tickets); and after skipping a Tuesday, they'll finish their residency on 1/29 with Travis Trevisan of Tape Deck Mountain, plus Man Made Sun again and Phantasm (tickets).

Residency flyer, video premiere, and album stream are below...

Continue reading "Writer released 'Brotherface,' made a new video; January residency at Pianos begins tonight"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: METZ - Headache (MP3)

As mentioned before and worth doing so again, Toronto's METZ are on tour and in town, with two chances to see them in NYC: tonight (8/31) at Pianos with Birds & Batteries, Writer and ILLUMNTR (tickets); and then Saturday (9/1) at Death by Audio with Pop. 1280 and Herzog Rising. Updated tour dates are listed at the bottom of this post.

METZ's debut album for Sub Pop is due out October 9 and jettisons through 11 songs in under a half an hour and does a surprisingly good job of bringing the band's propulsive, concussive live energy to tape. There's a big dose of AmRep style punk, but there's a hooky-ness to the white squall. Still, it's no match for their live show which is intense and frighteningly loud. Sometimes sheer volume is needed for that crushing feeling in your chest, not your ears. (Earplugs are suggested, unless you wanna fast-track tinnitus.) You can download "Headache" at the top of this post.

For tonight's show, METZ are on one of the earlier slots. You could probably slip out afterwords and still make it to Italian glampunks Giuda's set down the street at Cake Shop, which would make for a pretty fun night.

A list of all tour dates and an album teaser video are below.

Continue reading "METZ are here, playing 2 NYC shows (updated dates, MP3)"

Ava Luna at BV Holiday Party last month/year (more by Jessica Amaya)

Wintersleep are going on a short North American tour this month which ends in 2 NYC dates happening on January 24 at Mercury Lounge with Pretty & Nice and January 25 at Glasslands with ARMS and Writer. Tickets for the Mercury show and the Glasslands show are on sale now. All Wintersleep dates are listed below.

Speaking of ARMS, their frontman, Todd Goldstein, is opening for John Roderick (of the Long Winters) at his Mercury Lounge show (1/28), which is three days after ARMS play Glasslands and one day after John Roderick opens for Aimee Mann at her sold out MHOW show. Tickets for the Mercury Lounge show are still available.

In other Glasslands/Mercury Lounge news, Har Mar Superstar has a few shows announced including Glasslands on March 7 with Rewards. Tickets are on sale now.

Rewards were also just announced as the opener for the second School of Seven Bells show at Mercury Lounge (3/1). Their record release show (happening at the same venue on 2/28) sold out and Tickets for the new show go on sale Friday (1/6) at noon.

Both Rewards and School of Seven Bells also DJ in Brooklyn next Friday (1/13) at Cameo Gallery with CREEP, who is also DJing. Doors are at midnight for this late show, which takes place after Radical Dads play the same venue a few hours earlier. Radical Dads recently played a great set at our Brooklyn Bazaar Holiday Party.

The day before that Cameo Gallery show, NewVillager and Avan Lava play Mercury Lounge (1/12). Tickets are available.

Avan Lava is not to be confused with Ava Luna, who just played a BV Holiday Party with Widowspeak and Twin Sister, the latter of which they're heading out on tour with later this month. That tour doesn't include any NYC dates but Ava Luna just announced their own NYC show happening shortly after the tour ends at Mercury Lounge on February 24 with Celestial Shore, Darlings, and Cindy Lou Gooden. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (1/13) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (1/11) at noon.

You can catch Darlings in NYC even sooner when they headline Glasslands on Thursday (1/12) with The Suzan, Fabric, and DAYTONA (mems. of Harlem and Wild Yaks). Tickets for that show are available.

Friends play Cameo on January 24th.

Faris (of the Horrors) and Honor (of Cerebral Ballzy) both DJ cameo this Friday night (tomorrow, 1/6).

More Wintersleep & Har Mar dates below...

Continue reading "Wintersleep, ARMS, Ava Luna, Avan Lava, Radical Dads, Har Mar Superstar, NewVillager, Friends & other upcoming shows"

Cults will play a free in-store at Other Music on June 6 at 8pm, the day before their self titled debut drops. They kick off a tour with Guards and Writer one day later in Philly, and then return to NYC the day after that to play The Box on June 8 (though no details were ever announced about this show and it was removed from their public tour dates. It's probably private?) and then the sold out Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 9. All dates are listed below.

The album is currently streaming on NPR, and will be streaming in the little MySpace player embedded below as of midnight PST tonight (6/3). Amazon is giving away the song "Go Outside" for free at their site.

Cults also play a free Summerstage show on August 7 with Friendly Fires and The Naked and the Famous. Friendly Fires return to NYC in October to play Terminal 5. Tickets went on sale today.

Updated Cults tour dates and the stream widget below...

Continue reading "Cults streaming, NYC in-store added to tour (updated dates)"

Friendly Fires @ Bowery Ballroom in Feb (more by Chris La Putt)

Friedly Fires kick off a North American tour in Philly on May 24th. Joining them on that tour, including at their sold out May 25th Webster Hall show, will be Wise Blood (who maybe you caught open for Wu Lyf earlier this month).

That tour ends in Mexico in mid-June, but Friendly Fires will return later in the summer to headline their own free show at Central Park Summerstage with The Naked and Famous and Cults on Sunday, August 7th (at 3pm).

That makes four upcoming NYC shows for Cults who have two scheduled at Music Hall of Williamsburg before then -- one free one happening in a week, and another as part of a June tour that also lists them playing a NYC show the same week at The Box. And that doesn't even count their slot on ATP NJ in September.

Cults' June tour now has an opener too, and that is San Diego band Writer whose new "Miss Mermaid" 7" you can listen to below.

All Friendly Fires and Cults dates below too...

Continue reading "Wise Blood touring w/ Friendly Fires who are playing Summerstage w/ Cults who are touring w/ Writer (dates)"