Yura Yura Teikoku

As promised, Yo La Tengo added some more names to the bill of their September 25th NYC show at Roseland Ballroom that already includes opening an set by Black Lips, and a set in the lobby by Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co (tickets). I'm not sure if this is the final update, but there are two more additions. Joshua White & Gary Panter Light Show will be there (I guess doing a light show), and John Oliver of the Daily Show will be hosting (and presumably telling some jokes). I have one pair of tickets to giveaway. Details below.

Yura Yura Teikoku opened for Yo La Tengo at shows on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week...

"Warming up the stage with a lean blast of angular guitar rock, Japanese trio Yura Yura Teikoku was a fitting opener, just as interested in its music's fringes as the headliners so obviously were." [Boston Globe]

"But for me -- and several bewildered folks I spoke with during and after the show -- the night belonged to Yura Yura Teikoku, a Tokyo-based psych-rock trio that opened the show. Sweet holy hell. They might be my new favorite band. I even bought a CD at the show, which I rarely do -- mostly because I typically already have CDs sent to me from bands playing shows at HG. And also 'cuz I'm cheap." [Solid State]

Yura Yura Teikoku headline their own show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn tonight (9/18). Tickets are still on sale, and I have two pair to giveaway. Details with some videos, and all Yo La Tengo tour dates, also below...

Continue reading "updated Yo La Tengo tour dates, NYC show additions, Yura Yura Teikoku in Brooklyn (tonight) & some free tickets"

by Andrew Frisicano

Hercules & Love Affair @ MHOW in August (more by Sara Skolnick)

Hercules & Love Affair's Andy Butler was one of the many DJs at the Electric Zoo Festival that happened over Labor Day weekend. At the fest he was billed as himself, but on September 26th he'll be DJing as H&LA at MoMA MiXX, a new series of dance parties at the museum.

MoMA MiXX uniquely pairs together major artists with world-renowned musicians or DJs, with each featured performer spinning a set of music that night. The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby will be transformed into a dance floor, and MoMA's Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium will serve as a lounge area complete with bars. The money raised benefits the exhibition programming for The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Opening up the first night will be DJ sets by Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin (of the Mister Saturday Night series among other things). The paired artists are Mickalene Thomas and Derrick Adams. Tickets are on sale, though they're not cheap...

Tickets for each event are $75 per person (or $200 for the first three events), and include an open bar.

The next two events in the series are planned for January and April 2010.

Also on the way, the museum is hosting Between Worlds, an evening-length "pop spectacle" performance by Fischerspooner on November 1st. Tickets TBA. (MoMA is also still running Looking at Music: Side 2, and will be showing a Spike Jonze retrospective with No Age in October.)

Hercules & Love Affair played two live shows in NYC in August. At them, they debuted their new current (but probably not permanent) lineup of Shaun Wright, Aerea Negrot, Kim Ann Foxman, Mark Pistel and Andy Butler.

In the past, Hercules & Love Affair's lineup prominently featured singer Nomi Ruiz. More recently, she's been playing with Jessica 6. They opened for CocoRosie's return-to-NYC show at the beginning of September. Coming up, they're opening for Japanese psych rock band Yura Yura Teikoku at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 18th. Then the next night (Sept. 19th), they play as part of the New Languages Festival, which runs for six nights (starting Thursday, Sept. 17th) on two weekends at McCarren Hall in Brooklyn (on 98 Bayard St, an address that might sound familiar). Tickets are available at the door only.

For Japan's Yura Yura Teikoku, the MHOW is one of three upcoming US dates they have scheduled. The other two are opening for Yo La Tengo on Tuesday (9/15) and Wednesday in Vermont and Boston. Their new album "Hollow Me", which includes their recent EP "Beautiful", is out September 14, 2009 on DFA's Death From Abroad label (which helps explain the Jessica 6 connection). Album tracklist and NYC show flyer below.

The whole lineup for the jazz-based New Languages Festival, which "attempts to provide a panoramic view of 21st century jazz in New York City," is pretty diverse and spectacular. It includes Akoya Afrobeat, which matches the sound of Fela Kuti almost note for note (and integrates some of his songs into their rep), drummer Mike Pride's From Bacteria to Boys combo (who recorded a live session for WFMU in April), a set led by noted improviser and avant-jazz composer Tim Berne, and an opening night performance by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, whose debut, Infernal Machines, came out in May on New Amsterdam Records.

The full schedule of shows and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Herc & Love Affair/Fischerspooner playing MoMA, Jessica 6 playing w/ Yura Yura Teikoku & New Languages Fest (lineup)"

Yura Yura Teikoku

today in NYC
* DANCE
* David Dondero @ Union Hall
* Springhouse @ Sound Fix Records
* The Bronx & Love City @ Maxwell's
* Effi Briest & many others @ Glasslands
* White Denim & Amazing Baby @ Mercury Lounge
* The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Women @ Cake Shop
* Yura Yura Teikoku, Obits & Invisible Conga People @ MHOW

The Bronx also have a CMJ show at Fontana's.

Obits are not playing CMJ because at least one of the members will be out of town.

White Denim aren't playing CMJ, but they also have another NYC show on Monday.

Women and Amazing Baby both have plenty of shows to choose from during CMJ.

CMJ starts Tuesday which is also the night of the BrooklynVegan showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Ponytail is one of the bands on that bill. Check out their video for "Die Allman Bruder" below...

Sarah Palin was on SNL last night. I posted one video. Another (rap) one is below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

Tickets are on sale for an October 19th show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn with the following lineup: Yura Yura Teikoku, Obits (ex Hot Snakes / Drive Like Jehu), Invisible Conga People. From Sub Pop:

While it's likely that we have already tipped our hand with their appearance at our 20th anniversary festival (and also with bits of press coverage like this Seattle Weekly piece), we are exceedingly thrilled to announce that we are now working with the band Obits!

Let's meet the men of Obits!

Rick Froberg---guitar, vocals
Sohrab Habibion---guitar, vocals
Greg Simpson---bass
Scott Gursky---drums

Rick was in Pitchfork , Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. Sohrab was in Edsel. Scott was (and is, for about another week, apparently) in Shortstack. And, according to that Seattle Weekly article linked above Greg Simpson is easily the best musician in the band--no small feat in the company he's keeping here.

They are an amazing band, an excellent group of people and we are very excited to be working with them.

The plan is to release the first Obits full-length record album sometime in the first few months of 2009.