X's John Doe is in NYC to to promote his new album "Keeper" which follows his release from earlier this year, a collaboration with Jill Sobule. John will make three live/tv appearances while he's here. Tonight (9/7), catch a free performance at 7pm at Soundfix Records in Brooklyn. Thursday (9/8) catch John at Rockwood Music Hall where he'll probably play a longer show. Thursday night watch him on Letterman!

If you miss him, John won't be gone long, but when he returns it will be the more punk rock version of himself. X just announced a show at Maxwell's that happens on their fall tour that also includes two NYC shows and a gig in Asbury Park.

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Lawrence Arabia - Beautiful Young Crew (Mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Lawrence Arabia - Apple Pie Bed (MP3)

Lawrence Arabia

Kiwi popsmith Lawrence Arabia (real name James Milne) is back in NYC for CMJ (last here with Crowded House), playing a few shows -- the first of which is today's (10/19) early evening New Zealand showcase at Le Poisson Rouge. He's on at 6PM and the show is FREE but you do need to RSVP if you don't have a CMJ badge. (Free booze of some sort too, apparently.) The rest of the NZ line-up is Zowie (who is also playing the Fader Fort and Fat Baby on Friday), Kids of 88, Street Chant, Ruby Frost and Electric Wire Hustle.

Lawrence Arabia also plays Thursday, Oct. 21 at Bowery Electric (11PM) for the Bella Union/Yep Roc showcase with former Lucksmith Darren Hanlon, Savoir Adore, Jukebox the Ghost, Drink Up Buttercup, Alessi's Ark, and Heidi Spencer.

Lawrence Arabia's excellent second album, Chant Darling, was released early 2010 on the Bella Union label and ranges from gentle folk to ELO-style orch-pop. You can download two tracks from the album at the top of this post. It's really charming, tuneful stuff. In addition to his solo work, Milne has also spent time in the Brunettes, Ruby Suns and as a touring member of Okkerville River.

Some Lawrence Arabia music videos, the flyer and stuff, below...

Continue reading "Lawrence Arabia & other New Zealand artists here for CMJ (dates, MP3s, videos) "

Apples In Stereo will be putting out their seventh LP, Travelers in Space and Time, on April 20th through Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6. A few days before that the band heads out on a two-and-a-half week tour of the US. Its New York stop comes Wednesday, April 21st when they play Bowery Ballroom with Generationals and Laminated Cat. Tickets for the show are on AmEx presale now, and general sale Friday at noon.

The album, a "a futuristic pop record" (so says frontman Robert Schneider), is the band's first with drummer John Dufilho. Its cover is above. The new record is the second release ever on Elijah Wood's Simian Records (New Magnetic Wonder in 2007 was the first).

The other band signed to that label, which is technically an imprint of Yep Roc, is Heloise & the Savoir Faire, who have shows coming up too. Heloise & Co. play Valentine's Day at Galapagos with comedians Adira Amram, John Roberts and Reggie Watts (tickets are on sale). They also play Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 5th. Tickets go on sale Friday (3/5) at noon.

A video of Heloise and Elijah chatting with the Apples in Stereo tracklist, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Apples in Stereo announce new album & 2010 tour dates, Heloise & the Savoir Faire (their labelmates) have shows too"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Dream Diary - Bird in My Garden (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Big Troubles - Drastic and Difficult (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ty Segall - It #1 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fanfarlo - Finish Line (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fanfarlo - I'm a Pilot (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fanfarlo - Luna (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jeremy Warmsley - If He Breaks Your Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Slaraffenland - Meet and Greet (Mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Slaraffenland - Open Your Eyes (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea (MP3)

Ty Segall's drummer @ Cake Shop (more by Tim Griffin)

I realize we're all concerned about This Week Next Year in Indie, what with this Pavement stuff, but there are actually good shows in the next few days too, so let's get down to it.

Ty Segall is back in town, playing three area shows before heading down to Memphis for next weekend's Gonerfest. If you haven't picked up his new album, Lemons (which is on Goner Records), you really should -- I think it's one of the year's better slabs of garage. And by all means see him live. He (and his band) were great when they played Cake Shop back in June. You can catch him Friday (9/18) night at Death by Audio (as part of this Maze installation which I have yet to see, and where they recently "chopped some of the walls in half [to help] with the viewing".), Sunday night (9/20) at Mercury Lounge with Golden Triangle, and Monday (9/21) at Maxwell's.

All dates on this current tour are with fellow San Franciscans The Mantles whose self-titled debut is just out on Siltbreeze. Every time I think I've heard all the SF bands doing psych-garage, here comes another and they all seem to put their own stamp on it. The Mantles are a little more on the tuneful, paisley side of things -- think Lyres, Mouse & the Traps or even The Turtles -- that the scream through a distorted mic kind of thing, so they make for a good "similar but different" match to Ty's grittier style.

Dream Diary

It's Rosh Hashanah this weekend and the folks at Silent Barn are throwing a party Saturday night in celebration of it: "The party is to celebrate 5770 and will have a Jewish theme but non-Jews are definitely welcome... and encouraged to attend. Gonna be a party and a blast!" Headlining are Dream Diary, who I caught last week at Bruar Falls and thought were really good. Dream Diaryplay what I'd call classic indiepop: jangly guitars, fey vocals, with a love of both sunny melodies and rainy day minor chords. Think The Pastels, Orange Peels, or Trembling Blue Stars. You can check out an MP3 of "Bird in My Garden" at the top of this post, and there's video from the Bruar Falls show below. Also playing: duo Big Troubles who are also Fluffy Lumbers' backing band (if that means anything to you), and The Kezners. Plus: apples and honey!

Fanfarlo

We are in the midst of The Bell House's First Anniversary, which early in the week saw shows from OK Go, Fountains of Wayne and Rhett Miller, and is now ankle deep in the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. The last day of this weeklong celebration (Tuesday, 9/22), however, is the one I'm most excited about: Fanfarlo. It's one of two dates they're playing in NYC, they also are at Bowery Ballroom on Monday (9/21). I'm a longtime champion of these guys and it's great to see them playing two of my favorite venues in the city -- a big move up from the 40 or so people in attendance at Fat Baby during CMJ 2008. Their debut, Resevoir, has been available digitally for some time (they were even selling it for a dollar for a while there) is finally getting a proper release on Atlantic in October. It's one of my favorites of the year, but I think Fanfarlo are even better in concert where their sweeping anthemicism really comes alive. The Finest Kiss caught the first show of their U.S. tour in Seattle:

Fanfarlo get compared to Arcade Fire quite a lot, but where Arcade Fire are all about pomp and bombast, Fanfarlo soften the corners coming across as a warmer friendlier band. They can sound big, but they also know how to do quiet. They all seem to be able to play multiple instruments, and apparently get tired of playing the same thing all the time based on all the switching off they did, and that restlessness spread to audience during the encore, when the band brought out hollow plastic whistling tubes and handed them out to various audience members for the song Ghost. It was just about perfect (except for ducking a few times) with the whistling forming and eerie bed of sound over which the band played. Like the stage set up, it was just another example of the band making a big impact with tiny props. It was a Monday night, but Chop Suey was pretty full for a UK band touring the US with no album out yet. The majority of the people there must have been fans, because after the encore the audience demanded another song. The house music and lights were coming on but everyone persisted and the band obliged. I rarely see a genuine encore, but this indeed was one, and the band were a little taken aback. They weren't sure that they even knew another song that they could play, but they pulled out the A-side to their second single "You Are One Of The Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us." It may be the poppiest song they have, and just like the rush of the opening "I'm a Pilot" this put a smile on everyone's face. In a lot of ways a gig is like a salesman making a sale, it's all about the presentation, and Fanfarlo have got it down, visually and sonically.

Jeremy Warmsley

Helping fill out Fanfarlo's sound on this American tour (he's playing as a member of their band) is London musician Jeremy Warmsley who travels in the same circles as Noah & the Whale, Lightspeed Champion, Emmy the Great, Slow Club, the Wave Pictures and the rest of London's new folk scene, much of which was documented last year on his online show Welcome To Our TV Show. (You can watch an episode below.) His debut album from last year, How We Became, has yet to be released in America but it's well worth seeking out, a nice mix of acoustics, electronics and well-crafted songs. While here with Fanfarlo, he's doing his own solo show (which is also his NYC debut) on Wednesday (9/23) at Pianos. He's performing solo acoustic, but maybe some of the Fanfarlo folks will still be around to help him out? We'll see. He's good. You can download his single "If He Breaks Your Heart" at the top of this post.

Slaraffenland

If I wasn't going to the Fanfarlo show at Bell House I would probably be at Union Pool to see Denmark's Slaraffenland, their only NYC date of their current U.S. tour, most of which was spent opening for Akron/Family. Their new album, We're on Your Side, came out this week and while it's a little more straightforward than 2007's weird, wonderful Private Cinema, it's no less lovely. You can download two tracks from it at the top of this post. And I wholeheartedly recommend seeing them live. I wrote this about their show last year at Knitting Factory: "Live, Slaraffenland are pretty fascinating to watch, as all the members sing and play at least two instruments... often within the same song. The guitarist played the oboe; the percussionist played a variety of woodwinds; the bassist also played flute; and the keyboardist / sampler was often seen with a trombone. There is a lot of live sampling going on in their show -- many songs started with everyone playing horns which would become a backing loop -- so live percussion blended with canned bits. Very little of their music follows pop conventions, but there is melody and beauty if you stop waiting for the chorus and just let the music wash over you." You can also watch their Takeaway show further down this post.

If you're looking for things to do tonight, I can recommend three shows. At Glasslands (9/17), it's Savoir Adore, Drink Up Buttercup, The Art of Shooting, and Candles of Paradise. Savoir Adore, who I've plugged many times before here on this site, are a great live band and I really like their debut, In the Wooded Forrest which is out this week on CD and vinyl. (They're giving away three tracks from it at their website.) I've also written about Drink Up Buttercup more than once, and the band have just signed to Yep Roc who will release their debut album early next year. In the meantime, you can download the A-side of their new single "Even Think" from YepRoc's website after giving them your email address.

There's also The Horrors at Bowery Ballroom. They didn't win the Mercury Prize (no surprise) but as I've said before, their new album Primary Colours is pretty great. I'll quote myself: "Mind you, I'm prone to like things that owe to '80s post punk and goth, as well as '90s shoegaze, but they transcend the influences I think. Like My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, some of the sounds on the record make you wonder if your stereo is melting. In a good way." Opening are Crocodiles who do a good JAMC / Spacemen 3 impersonation that works, I think, because they've got the attitude and snarl to back it up. Or maybe it's the sunglasses. If you miss them, both bands will be back in October.

And at Union Hall tonight (9/17) are We Are Ivy League, Americans who do wispy Brit indiepop just about perfectly. They got most of their press from being part of another band who wrote the Snakes on a Plane theme song, but I think their album from last year stands on its own. They've been mostly quiet since releasing it. It might be worth going to the show just to find out what's going on with them these days.

That's it for this week (and a bit of next). Flyers, videos, and tour dates follow...

Continue reading "Fanfarlo, Jeremy Warmsley, Ty Segall, Dream Diary, Slaraffenland, Horrors & more in This Week in Indie"

"In true honky tonk style, Country Club is the bastard child of a drunken promise. A post show hang-out between X & the Knitters' [John] Doe and The Sadies produced the idea to join forces to a make an album of country songs. Both rock n' roll and country music are littered with the ghosts of broken promises but this one was destined to become reality. Timeless sounds abound on Country Club, driven by Doe's gorgeous vocals, the dueling thousand pound chops of the guitar-wielding Good brothers and The Sadies' world class rhythm section of Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean. Here, the Countrypolitan sound of late 1960s Nashville is filtered through the telecaster-based tonk of Bakersfield, CA and the results are simply stunning." [Yep Roc]

John Doe and The Sadies are playing several May dates as a combo. Those include a show at NYC's City Winery on Wednesday, May 6th. Tickets are on sale now. All dates below.

John Doe also has scattered tour dates with X from now till June. As part of their Total Request Live tour, which will feature set lists picked online by fans, X is playing three nights at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale for all three dates: May 29, May 30, May 31, and the three day pass

The Sadies are opening dates for Jenny Lewis from May 27th to June 4th. Lewis continues on tour without the Sadies through July 9th which is exactly a month after she plays Music Hall of Williamsburg with Deer Tick (sold out).

The Sadies are also featured on Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone. Neko is in NYC for two shows at the Nokia Theatre as I write this.

All John Doe & The Sadies tour dates below...

Continue reading "John Doe (of X) & The Sadies - an album & 2009 tour dates"

Swedish rock force The Soundtrack of Our Lives will release new studio album Communion on March 3rd, 2009.

Nearly four years since their last studio effort, power pop-psychedelicists The Soundtrack of Our Lives land the rock n' roll mother ship once again with the release of their 2 disc, 24-track opus Communion in early '09.

Caftan-sporting eccentric lead singer Ebbot Lundberg, guitarists Ian Person and Mattias Bärjed, bassist Kalle Gustafsson, keyboardist Martin Hederos and drummer Fredrik Sandsten experienced divine inspiration in the studio, completing basic tracks in a mere two weeks. "This was the easiest, most natural thing we've ever recorded," Lundberg notes, adding, "It really felt like the album created itself, like we had a dream of what the album was supposed to be and then the album became that."

After it became evident the band was taking a new musical direction, the members decided to abandon plans for a follow up to their last album Origin Vol. 1 and instead focus on a large scale mood piece based on the concepts of day and night-a song for each hour.

To quote Avi Roig, "TSOOL would have to be one of the finest, balls-out rock'n'roll acts I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. They haven't played the US in ages, so I wouldn't miss 'em." All dates below...

Continue reading "The Soundtrack of our Lives - 2009 Tour Dates, new album"

a 1988 CMJ badge (Marc's museum of indie rock novelties)

CMJ badges look much more modern these days. They also cost much more these days - $495 to be exact (at today's non-student rate). Now one can be yours for free, courtesy of Yep Roc Records, home of Mercury Rev, Robyn Hitchcock, Loudon Wainwright III, Billy Bragg and many others. CMJ runs in NYC from October 21-25. To win this badge...

Continue reading "win a 2008 CMJ badge courtesy of Yep Roc"

By Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Chad VanGaalen - "Willow Tree" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Women - Black Rice (MP3)

Chad VanGaalen

Pop songsmith Chad VanGaalen is playing Blender Theater at Gramercy in NYC this Sunday, Sept 21st, with Howe Gelb's Americana rock band Giant Sand. Chad later launches into a tour of his native Canada in October and visits Europe in November. It feels like forever since Chad was last in NYC, and this Sunday show also seemed to pop out of nowhere. Tickets are on sale.

Giant Sand, the headliner at Gramercy, is on a huge tour of their own in support of their new album proVISIONS, released earlier this month on Yep Roc. Their first album in almost four years features guest appearances by Neko Case, M. Ward and Isobell Campbell. "The incarnation of Giant Sand hitting the road in support of this release includes Howe along side Danish musicians Thøger T. Lund on bass, Peter Dombernowsky on drums and Anders Pedersen on slide guitar."

Giant Sand

VanGaalen's latest record, Soft Airplane, was released earlier this month on SubPop. (See MP3 above.) Unlike Chad's previous releases, which pieced together material spanning several years, the tracks on this album were all sprung from the same creative burst. To give an idea of the aesthetic, SubPop says that most of Soft Airplane was recorded in Chad's basement on "an old tape machine and a JVC ghetto blaster."

VanGaalen recently recorded Women's debut self-titled LP, out on Jagjaguwar Oct 7 (or out now in Canada on Flemish Eye). Women, in all their psych drone-rock glory, will be touring with VanGaalen this fall and visiting NYC on Sunday, Oct 19 for a performance at Cake Shop with The Pains of Being Pure of Heart and more ($7, 8pm doors, 21+).

See full tour dates and a video of "Molten Light," off VanGaalen's latest, below...

Continue reading "Chad VanGaalen + Women + Giant Sand - new records, 2008 Tour Dates, NYC shows"

DOWNLOAD: The Baseball Project - Past Time (MP3)

The Baseball Project (photo by Vivian Johnson)

What happens when two great songwriters decide to focus their talents upon their favorite sport? You get the highly entertaining debut disc from The Baseball Project, Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. The album is the brainchild of Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3) and Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, and R.E.M). The two musicians were longtime fans of each other's work throughout the 80s but never met until the early 90s. Wynn recalls, "I honestly think the first time we met was side-by-side at the urinals at the Offramp in Seattle when I played there in 1992." He adds, "Scott didn't try to shake my hand."

Continue reading "The Baseball Project = Steve Wynn & Scott McCaughey - album stream & Letterman video (starring Peter Buck)"

DOWNLOAD: Since I Came (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thirty Year Low (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Aspect of an Old Maid (alt. take) (MP3)

....Over the years, The Mendoza Line has featured not one but several songwriters; the band's original musical cornerstone was the songs of founding members Timothy Bracy and Peter Hoffman. Other members included Lori Carrier, Margaret Maurice, Paul Deppler and Andres Galdames. In 2000, Shannon McArdle joined the outfit, and became a major contributor to the songwriting, beginning with that year's We're All In This Alone. 2002's Lost In Revelry continued the string of favorably reviewed, but poor-selling albums. After 2004's Fortune, Hoffman took a hiatus from the band, while Bracy and McArdle were married in 2005. That year the couple released an album, the more electronica-dappled The View From The Floor, as a duo under the name Slow Dazzle. Entertainment Weekly declared that 2005's Full of Light And Full of Fire contained "the prettiest protest songs imaginable." In a turn of events that recalls the story of their songwriting heroes Richard and Linda Thompson, Bracy and McArdle announced their divorce in 2007. The band will issue a final recording called 30 Year Low, along with a bonus disc combining covers, live tracks and rarities in August of 2007. [Wikipedia]

In happier news, Timothy is still making music. His new band is called "Timothy Bracys Collection Agency", and you can catch him for free at my party upstairs at Pianos with Doveman and Craig Wedren on Saturday October 20th (6:15 pm). Tim's other CMJ show is a Yep Roc party on October 18th at the-soon-to-be-closed Mo Pitkins. Details on all of Yep Roc's CMJ happenings, below....

Continue reading "Timothy Bracy - formerly of Mendoza Line + Yep Roc @ CMJ"