by Bill Pearis

SISU, the band fronted by Dum Dum Girls drummer Sandra Vu, have a new EP titled Light Eyes that is currently out digitally and will be out in physical formats at the end of the month. Laying off the electric guitars a bit, the new EP has an almost baroque faerie folk feel to it. You can stream the whole thing below.

Having just wrapped up dates with Marnie Stern, SISU are now playing a few headlining shows. The tour wraps up with an EP release show on Friday (5/10) at Glasslands with Yellow Dogs and Young Boys. Tickets are still available and all remaining tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "SISU released 'Light Eyes' EP (stream it), playing NYC record release show and other dates"

photos by Greg Cristman

!!! at MHOW - 12/13/12

!!! came to NYC for a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg this past Thursday (12/13) with Sinkane (who DJs Bowery Hotel tonight [12/17] and opens for Solange on Tuesday [12/18]) and Yellow Dogs. The venue never got too packed, but but !!! aways put on a fun show. (Sinkane and Yellow Dogs are no slouches either.) Pictures from the show are in this post.

You can also check out what albums and songs were !!!'s favorites of the year, and more pics from MHOW below...

Continue reading "!!!, Sinkane, & Yellow Dogs played MHOW (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Peoples Temple - Sons of Stone (MP3)

The Peoples Temple are on tour and make their NYC debut tonight (4/6) at Death by Audio with Apache Dropout, Yellow Dogs and Dead Sands.The band's Sons of Stone made my Favorite Albums of 2012 list, where I wrote this:

For those who long for the days when Anton Newcombe wrote catchy psych pop instead of plodding through the haze for eight minutes at a stretch might want to check out Lansing, Michigan's Peoples Temple. Not only do they share a proclivity for catchy '60s-ish acid pop, their name is a reference to Jim Jones' cult. Dig.

You can download Sons of Stone's title track at the top of this post and click through for the video for "Axeman", the flyer for tonight's show, and all dates....

Continue reading "The Peoples Temple on tour, making NYC debut tonight at Death by Audio (MP3, video, dates)"

Twin Sister at ACL Live (more by Tim Griffin)

As some of you may know, in addition to screening free movies, the L Magazine-presented Summerscreen series in McCarren Park also features a live performance by a band each night before the film plays. On July 27, before Ferris Bueller's Day Off is screened, Twin Sister and Your Youth will play free sets at the outdoor Brooklyn venue. The Wednesday night shows happen in the Ballfields (Bedford and North 12th) from around 6pm-10pm.

Other bands playing at Summerscreen this summer include Widowspeak, Zambri, Milagres, and Yellow Dogs. The Wayne's World screening, originally scheduled for July 13, was rained out and is rescheduled for August 17 with Yellow Dogs.

Twin Sister meanwhile are in Chicago this weekend to play the Pitchfork Festival, and have upcoming dates scheduled with Explosions in the Sky, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Purity Ring, and others.

Updated schedule and dates below...

Continue reading "Twin Sister playing free Summerscreen show, other dates"

Thee Oh Sees @ Summerstage in 2010 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Death By Audio lists tonight's show like this:

6.17 -$5- (doors are at 10pm for this show)
.??S
.?R?
.R?

Well, we may know at least one band on the bill. Thee Oh Sees play Brooklyn Bowl Saturday (6/18) but list "06-17 shhhhhhh...." on their website (thanks Maxim), so it's either them or there are two secret shows. Who do you think the other bands are?

Adventure, CO LA (Matt Papich of Ecstatic Sunshine), and Weekends were supposed to play Death by Audio Friday night, but that show was cancelled. Weekends will instead open for Dom at Brooklyn Bowl.

To add to the mystery, a "Surprise special guest" is also listed on the Saturday Thee Oh Sees Brooklyn Bowl show that Yellow Dogs, and Emil and Friends are also playing. Who's playing that one?

All Thee Oh Sees dates below...

Continue reading "secret show @ DbA Friday night? Thee Oh Sees? Secret band Saturday too? "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Amor de Días - Bunhill Fields (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Damon & Naomi - "Walking Backwards" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Damon & Naomi - "Shadow Boxing" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: BNLX - Burn the Boats (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: BNLX - Garbage Strike (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Beige - Folds (MP3)

Amor de Dias

This weekend is dominated, for me at least, by NYC Popfest but as I've already written an exhaustive (exhausting) post about that, so go read it and we'll discuss other shows here. There's lots more to cover anyway.

One thing, and this is Popfest related really, is that Amor de Días are here this weekend, playing Knitting Factory on Sunday (5/22) opening for Damon & Naomi. We've got a pair of tickets to give away to this show. Just send an email with your name to BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM with the subject line "Amor de Dias" and we'll pick a winner at random.

As you may know, the duo (Amor de Días) are Alisdair Maclean of The Clientele and Lupe Núñez-Fernández of Pipas, a group who played the first ever NYC Popfest back in 2007. I actually thought it was going to be Amor de Días in the "TBA" slot at the Thursday night Cake Shop show that turned out to be Pains of Being Pure at Heart. For this show to be happening at the same -- but not part of -- the 'Fest seems a little criminal.

MacLean and Núñez-Fernández formed Amor de Días back in 2008 and wrote and recorded whenever they had time, with help from current tourmates Damon & Naomi, indiepop legend (and master arranger) Louis Phillipe and Ladybug Transistor's Gary Olson. Their debut, The Street of the Love of Days, came out this week on Merge and is a lovely little album as you might imagine from the talent involved. Their styles and voices are a perfect match for one another and the arrangements are just perfect. Among the treats is a particularly nice version of The Clientele's "Harvest Time." You can download "Bunhill Fields" at the top of this post.

Damon & Naomi's new album, False Beats and True Hearts, is a really nice record too. And if it's still pouring out Sunday night, all the better. It's an evening of rainy day music.

BNLX

A much louder duo, also in town this weekend, are Minneapolis' BNLX, who play Pianos on Friday (5/20) and The Rock Shop on Saturday (5/21). I've written about them a couple times this year already and I do really dig their mix of rockin' tunes and corporate humor. I'll quote myself again:

Volume isn't just for punishment, though in the wrong hands it most certainly is. But sometimes you just can't achieve that clarity of sound, that particular strain of feedback, that shriiiiiiinnnnng you get from flicking the strings above the headnut, that tone...without cranking the amp. Ed Ackerson, a 20-year veteran guitar slinger of such Minneapolis bands as 27 Various and Polara, knows what he's doing. BNLX didn't just blow eardrums, they kinda blew minds...

...for being just two of them and a laptop, they made quite a racket at the Rock Shop. Normally I'm one to complain about bands using canned backing instead of a real drummer, but vintage drum machine sounds -- right out of 1987, be it Jesus & Mary Chain or Age of Chance -- are kind of integral to what BNLX are doing. With a stroboscopic lightshow (what, no smoke machines?) you didn't really need anyone else.

You can download two tracks from EP#5 at the top of this post, and I have a good feeling they'll have EP#6 at the merch table for the NYC shows. Also playing The Rock Shop show is Black Onassis, which is not the ex-drummer of Urge Overkill but a new group from former member(s) of Kasabian and Daylight for the Birds. Don't know much about them.

More interesting is what's happening earlier that same evening at The Rock Shop: a tribute to Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets featuring a cavalcade of indie rock talent. Here's the press release:

When Brian Eno's first solo record, Here Come the Warm Jets, came out in 1974 it turned heads. It continues to baffle great minds due to the sneaky way it overlays whimsical pop with the beginnings of Eno's whole philosophy of creativity and experimentation.

Indy music stalwart Rob Christinsen (Eggs, Grenadine, East Ghost West Ghost) and Rock Shop booker Jack McFadden team up to present this great curiosity of a recording LIVE with a melange of rockers and experimentalists.

"It sounds fantastic but one of the things that I tried to do with Warm Jets was to bring musicians together who would normally never play together and to play a music that they couldn't agree upon. The music would come from the chemistry. But of course, it was impossible to do. I couldn't expect any of the session people I worked with to go along with it. They literally fought." - Brian Eno, 1974.

In that spirit, fifteen singers and ten instrumentalists from all musical worlds team up to perform this masterpiece.

The evening will be emceed by walking/talking Brian Eno encyclopedia, WNYC's John Schaefer.

Musicians performing include Travis Morrison (Dismemberment Plan), Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), Richard Baluyut (Versus), Rob Christiansen (Eggs), Amy Klein (Titus Andronicus), and Ben Trokan (Robbers On High Street).

Of course the big tribute this weekend is Sunday's Our Concert Could Be Your Life which celebrates the 10th anniversary of Michael Azzerad's chronicle of the American indie rock scene in the '80s. The talent assembled paying tribute to the bands covered in the book is pretty amazing, and it's changed/expanded a bit since first announced:

• Nat Baldwin, David Longstreth and Brian McOmber play Black Flag
• Delicate Steve plays the Minutemen
• Citay plays Mission of Burma
• Ted Leo plays Minor Threat
• Grooms plays Husker Du
• Titus Andronicus plays the Replacements
• Tune-Yards plays Sonic Youth
• Callers plays Sonic Youth
• Dan Deacon plays the Butthole Surfers
• St. Vincent plays Big Black
• Wye Oak plays Dinosaur Jr
• Buke and Gass plays Fugazi
• White Hills plays Mudhoney
• Yellow Ostrich plays Beat Happening

Janeane Garofalo and Eugene Mirman host the evening -- which is sold out, but I wouldn't be surprised if tickets were released day of show. Keep an eye out. UPDATE: They are back on sale as I type this.

[note: both Tune-Yards and Buke and Gass play a sold out show at MHOW one day earlier. Dan Deacon also plays more shows this week. Delicate Steve has a headlining show coming up soon at Brooklyn Bowl.]

---

Cymbals Eat Guitars

And lastly, Cymbals Eat Guitars play their first show in a long time this Friday (5/20) at Glasslands. The band are finishing up their sophomore LP which is due out this fall ,so hopefully we'll get a preview of what's to come which they'll be playing in full at the show. The whole line-up is pretty good, with fellow '90s loving indie rockers Radical Dads (whose member Robbie just announced a new album for one of his other bands), Iranian transplants Yellow Dogs, and the psychedelic sounds of Mirror Mirror.

A few more picks, day by day, are below.

THURSDAY, MAY 19

It should be a fun night at Union Pool with neo baggy kids McDonalds, volatile and soul-bearing Wild Yaks, and The Surprisers.

continued below...

Continue reading "Amor de Días, not Popfest, BNLX, Cymbals Eat Guitars, album & book tribute shows, Cheeseburger, Beige & more in This Week in Indie "

Yellow Dogs

Brooklyn/Iranian band post punk band Yellow Dogs are playing a show at The Morgan tonight (4/11). It's free and Cole from the Black Lips is DJing (the Morgan is located at 25 Bogart St). The Black Lips are in town for their big headlining show at Webster Hall on Tuesday (4/12), part of their tour with Vivian Girls. Tickets are still on sale for the NYC show, and I have a pair you can win. Details below.

If you miss Yellow Dogs in Brooklyn tonight, they also play Wednesday (4/13) at Pianos with Ohnomoon and others.

Contest details, the Black Lips' new video for "Modern Art", and updated tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Yellow Dogs are here ++ the Black Lips are on tour & play Webster Hall Tuesday (win tix) +++ updated dates, new video"

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ the Seaport in 2009 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

tonight in NYC
* Andrew WK DJ w/ live performances @ Santos
* Culture Shock @ SUNY Purchase
* GWAR CRACK-A-THON @ MF Gallery
* Aloha, Pomegranates @ Maxwell's
* Hanne Hukkelberg @ Rooftop Films
* "Exit Through the Gift Shop" opening
* Yellow Dogs, Hypernova @ 92YTribeca
* Budos Band, The Jay Vons @ Southpaw
* Cable, Slacks, Goes Cube @ Union Pool
* Kaki King, An Horse @ Bowery Ballroom
* Caveman, Arms, Quiet Lights @ The Cameo
* The Low Anthem, Timbre Timber @ The Bell House
* Natural Child, Liquor Store, Foster Care @ Lulu's
* Liturgy, White Mice, Suffering Bastard @ Shea Stadium
* Suprise Me Mr. Davis, Anne & the Beekeepers @ Union Hall
* Wussy, The Fervor, Mystery of Two, Little Big @ Cake Shop
* Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Golden Triangle @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Tao Saxo Quartet, Butchy Fuego, The Sway Machinery @ Zebulon
* The Little Death, Gordon Gano & The Ryans @ (le) Poisson Rouge
* Rykarda Parasol, Bootblacks, Little Annie & Paul Wallfisch @ Littlefield
* Claymation Velociraptor,Sigmund Droid,LookBook,Common Loon,No Place @ Pianos
* Girls & Boys presents VIKING, The Hood Internet, Telephoned (Live) @ Webster Hall
* Air Waves, Beach Fossils, Total Slacker, Eternal Summers, Beachniks @ Bruar Falls
* Alex Battles, Gabe Rothschild, Lenny Molotov, B is for Baroness @ Petes Candy Store
* Real Estate, Family Portrait, Liam the Younger, Big Troubles @ Monster Island
* Justice of the Unicorn,Untied States,Lucky Pineapple,Pet Ghost Project @ Glasslands
* Fiasco,Daniel Francis Doyle,Dinowalrus,Pterodactyl,Dana Falconberry @ DeathByAudio
* Contact! w/ NY Phil plays Nico Muhly, Sean Shepherd, Matthias Pintscher @ Symphony Space

UPDATE: Shrinebuilder have added a last minute show tonight thanks to the volcano.

More about some of tonight's shows in This Week in Indie.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion plays Brooklyn Bowl tonight and then the Pitchfork Festival this summer. Last summer they played South Street Seaport.

South Street Seaport just announced some of the bands playing there this summer.

One of the bands playing the Seaport this summer is Golden Triangle who opens for Jon Spencer tonight and has other shows coming up too.

The Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" opens this weekend at Sunshine Theater and Lincoln Plaza. As everyone that was clapping at the screening we hosted on Sunday will tell you, it's a great movie. Mr. Brainwash FTW!

Speaking of movies, I haven't seen it, but No One Knows About Persian Cats (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh) also opens tonight...

"Recently released from prison, two young musicians decide to form a band. Together they search the underworld of contemporary Tehran for other players. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan to escape from their clandestine existence more », and dream of performing in Europe. But with no money and no passports, it won't be easy..."

Iranian indie rock bands Hypernova and Yellow Dogs both star in the film and then are playing its opening party at 92YTribeca.

The Iranian event is not part of the Tribeca Film Festival which starts on April 21st.

Aloha have a new album out, and play Knitting Factory tomorrow (tickets) and Maxwell's tonight (tix still available).

Culture Shock kicks off tonight with Surfer Blood and others, but without Los Campesinos, who got stranded by a volcano.

The Roadburn Festival is underway in Tilburg in the Netherlands. Stay tuned for reports from the ground.

Coachella starts today in California. You can stream it online.

Have Coachella open in one window and the Gwar Crack-A-Thon open in another (or go to the Crack-A-Thon in person).

The Cribs were supposed to be one of the streaming Coachella performances today, but not anymore.

Pavement played a US show at the Fox Theater last night. A video from the show below...

Spoon played Kimmel last night. Video below...

Kaki King plays Bowery Ballroom tonight. Last night she was at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Two nights ago she was on Fallon. Video from the TV appearance below...

Caribou's recent video for "Odessa" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"