words by Andrew Frisicano

Zola Jesus @ Sneaky Dee's - June 17, 2010

Zola Jesus (singer Nika Roza Danilova & band) played an early evening set at Toronto's Sneaky Dee's on Thursday as part of NXNE. For some she was the first act of the festival (the official opening was only an hour before), and a moody introduction at that, with the setting sun flickering through the windows next to the stage. Accompanied by regular band member Alex DeGroot on synth and sampler, and guests Katie Stelmanis (keys) and Maya Postepski (drums), Zola, who occasionally walked into the audience, sang expressively over dark synths and heavy, throbbing percussion. She closed her 30+ minute set with one of her best, "Night" (video below). HEALTH and tour-mates played the same 2nd floor venue right afterward.

Zola plays again at NXNE on Friday (tonight), and has a bunch of New York City shows coming up, including Glasslands on Saturday, June 19th with Effi Briest, Nice Face and Amen Dunes. Tickets are still on sale. After that she joins Bear in Heaven at their free July 9th South Street Seaport show, and then tackles the halls of Terminal 5 at a July 13th show opening for Wolf Parade.

More NXNE pictures, her video for "Night" and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Zola Jesus played NXNE (pics), plays NYC on Saturday ------- 2010 tour dates & the "Night" video"

Tickets are on sale for the show Zola Jesus is playing with Effi Briest, Nice Face, Amen Dunes, and who also has shows coming up at South Street Seaport and Terminal 5 (with Wolf Parade). Check out her brand new video for "Night", off her EP Stridulum, below...

Continue reading "new Zola Jesus video, Glasslands show tickets on sale"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Night (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Clay Bodies (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Smireye (MP3)

Zola Jesus @ Bowery Ballroom in April (more by Lori Baily)

Zola Jesus, singer Nika Roza Danilova who's been likened to Diamanda Galas, Siouxsie and Karin Andersson (check out for yourself above), has a few notable shows coming up this June and July. First, she's on the bill for NXNE in Toronto June 14th-20th.

After that, she comes to NYC for a show on June 19th at Glasslands.

Then later im the summer, Zola Jesus plays with Bear in Heaven at their free South Street Seaport show on July 9th. Bear in Heaven also play Terminal 5 with Metric on May 16th, and have a ton of tour dates (including some with Twin Sister), which are posted below.

Further, you can catch Zola Jesus supporting Wolf Parade at Terminal 5 on July 13th (and on a couple of their dates on the West Coast). Tickets are still on sale. That's around the same time Wolf Parade's new record, Expo 86, comes out on Sub Pop. The cover is below.

All tour dates for Zola Jesus and Bear in Heaven below...

Continue reading "upcoming Zola Jesus shows include Glasslands, South Street Seaport, Wolf Parade (new album cover) & more (dates) "

photos by Lori Baily

"The night was started by Twin Sister, a quintet with only one raspy voiced female. I certainly hope she's got a twin somewhere!...

...Next up was Zola Jesus, moniker for Nika Roza Danilova. Last year, she collaborated with Freddy Ruppert and Jaime Stewart for the Former Ghosts project, via the The Bull and the Ram. At that point, I had no idea who she was, but that song sounded pretty much like a nightmareish synth pop tune sung by Kate Bush, then after grabbing a couple of mp3s off her debut album The Spoils, it became clear that was her preferred line of work. She recently released a new EP called Stridulum that still goes down that same line of being the second coming of Kate Bush in an even more refined manner...

...Tune-Yards is another one-lady band, in this case her real name is Merrill Garbus....she proceeds to create her musical and vocal loops right in front of you. I have no idea how she does it, but it's incredibly fascinating to watch and makes her set electrifying...

...Xiu Xiu went through yet another line-up change, now it's only a duo with new member Angela Seo...About half the set consisted of songs from the new album Dear God, I Hate Myself. I've been listening a lot more to the album and it's currently on the rise with me. At first it struck me as a bit too 8-bit, but once you really give it a listen the sheer melodic genius of it all starts to shine through. Guess it won't really appeal much to the people who complained about Women As Lovers not being noisy enough, it probably is the most pop album. [pecusita]

Xiu Xiu and Tune-Yards' setlists and more pictures from the Friday night show at Bowery Ballroom (4/9), below...

Continue reading "Xiu Xiu, Tune-Yards, Zola Jesus & Twin Sister @ Bowery Ballroom in NYC - pics & setlists"

photos by Tim Griffin

Lucero

"...The bands were running late at Club Deville, but I was pleased to hear Centromatic on the stage. They sounded like classic rock and when Steve Miller Band's "Rock'N Me" came on after their set, it was in the same vein, but Centromatic was above and beyond.

Lucero came on next and killed it. Nichols' voice is like sandpaper on gravel and it has a booze-soaked and sorry quality that makes it sound like the hard nights and heartbreaks that he sings about are real experiences. Lucero is one of the few bands that I've seen (Free Energy comes to mind as well) that broke through to fans. Quite a few folks were dancing, jumping, singing and generally rocking out during their set..." [Rock Candy]

...It was a perfectly rowdy ending to the BrooklynVegan/DailyMotion day party at Club DeVille on Friday, March 19th (one of our seven shows this year). The day's eclectic lineup ranged from country to electro to singer-songwriter to comedy. We also made a huge effort to feed people and give away free stuff this year. Those who stopped by the free show got free Ear Piece ear plugs, Magic Hat beer, Firefly Sweet Tea vodka (that lasted the entire 6+ hours), Gundlach Bundschu wine, Raw Rev bars, Nadamoo ice cream, Hail Merry "Grawnola", breakfast tacos and Daily Juice catering. Action For Animals was on hand with baked goods for sale that helped raise $800 for charity. Somebody (and every band and comedian) won some Original Penguin clothes. Members of Passion Pit (aka the Wet Bandits) played the music between bands. KEXP was filming video. All in all an amazing day.

Catch Lucero in NYC at Music Hall of Williamsburg this Tuesday, March 30th with Glossary (tickets are still on sale). Centro-matic kicks off a house tour in Houston the same day.

You've already seen some of this Friday party HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. Pictures, reviews and videos from it continue below...

Continue reading "Lucero, Centromatic, Nicole Atkins, Holly Miranda, Zola Jesus, more @ Club DeVille (BV/DailyMotion day party) - pics & video"

*Friday, March 19, 2010*
BrooklynVegan Free Day Party Presented by DailyMotion
@ Club DeVille - 900 Red River St, Austin, TX (NOON - 6 PM)
*free and open to the public, no RSVP necessary

Main stage:
12:00 Princeton
12:45 Twin Sister
01:30 Nicole Atkins
02:15 Sondre Lerche
03:00 Holly Miranda
03:45 The Antlers
04:30 Centro-matic
05:15 Lucero

DJs: Passion Pit

Inside stage:
12:30 - Active Child
01:15 - Pearly Gate Music
02:00 - Tig Notaro (comedian)
02:15 - Katie Stelmanis
03:00 - Joe Mande (comedian)
03:15 - Zola Jesus
04:00 - Abe Vigoda
04:45 - MNDR
05:30 - The Wave Pictures

FREE DRINKS COURTESY OF: Magic Hat & Firefly Vodka
(while supplies last)
FREE VEGAN BREAKFAST TACOS FROM: Izzoz Austin
(starting @ noon. while supplies last)
VEGAN BAKE SALE FOR CHARITY BY: VegAustin & Action for Animals
MORE FREE FOOD COURTESY OF: Daily Juice (catering from 2-5)
MORE FREE FOOD COURTESY OF: Raw Revolution Bars
MORE FREE FOOD COURTESY OF: Hail Merry
FREE EAR PLUGS FROM: Ear Peace
+ more TBA

If you've been following along, both on this site and at our @bvSXSW Twitter account, you probably pieced most this lineup together already. And I'm extremely happy to report that this is the final BrooklynVegan party lineup we have left to announce this year. We'll see you on Wednesday at Emo's and Club DeVille, Thursday at Hoek's and Spider House, Saturday at Red 7 and Galaxy Room and on Friday right here at Club Deville from noon-6pm (on TWO stages) (the second stage is inside).

Thanks to DailyMotion for helping make this all possible. They're not only our presenting partner on this party, but we'll be uploading live footage from SXSW all week long to our account at their site. Some of that footage, including from this party will be shot by our official radio partner, KEXP.

Thanks to also to Original Penguin clothing for providing some clothes to giveaway to a few lucky attendees at the show.

Like at Emo's and Red 7, we'll have 10 kegs worth of Magic Hat beer to give out at this show, not to mention lots of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka to pour. And like at Emo's and Galaxy Room, we'll have free breakfast tacos and then late afternoon free catering by Daily Juice. All of our parties will be stocked with free Raw Revolution bars and Hail Merry Grawnola as well. And as if that's not enough, we're hosting a vegan bake sale for charity, courtesy of the fine folks at VegAustin.com and Action for Animals at this show. All money raised goes to Food for Life, an organization feeding Haitian and Chilean earthquake survivors.

Flyer design by Tammijean Triplett. Videos below...

Continue reading "a BrooklynVegan & DailyMotion Austin day party @ Club DeVille - full free lineup (Lucero, Antlers, Abe Vigoda, more) "

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Night (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Clay Bodies (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Zola Jesus - Smireye (MP3)

LA Record: How would you describe your music to a child?

Nika Roza: I tried to do this with my cousin. She's an aspiring goth. I am trying to turn her into a weirdo. 'It's like pop music but it's really noisy and there's opera.' I would probably say, 'This sounds like Hannah Montana' and let their minds adjust. 'This is what Hannah Montana can also sound like.' There's got to be a Nickelodeon Black. If you turn on TV you see people yelling things and vomiting colors. But when I was growing up seeing cartoons they would have a lot of snot and bodily fluids and weird things. What is going to happen to this new generation? But I would tell the 7-year-old child it was the Apocalypse. You know what, fuck that. There's nudity and language--let them see it! If not, they will turn into bigger creeps. You have to expose children to stuff like that. You gotta be ready.

Madison, Wisconsin's enigmatic Zola Jesus (real name Nika Roza) is playing a one-off show at Cake Shop on Saturday (2/20). Posessed with a haunting wail, comparisons to Diamanda Galas, Siouxsie and Karin Andersson are not inappropriate. Check out the MP3s at the top of this post, especially "Night" which is from her new 12", Stridulum, which is out March 9 on Sacred Bones. I really dig the pulsing, slow-build arrangement and the production cuts way back on the reverb -- her voice doesn't need it. The Saturday line-up at Cake Shop is well chosen, Blacklist, Cult of Youth and White Ring.

If you can't make Saturday's show, she'll be back again on April 9 opening for Xiu Xiu and Tune-Yards at Bowery Ballroom Tickets are still on sale. She'll also be at SXSW. All dates, along with a video for "Clay Bodies" and a flyer for the Cake Shop show...

Continue reading "Zola Jesus MP3s, video & 2010 tour dates (Cake Shop Saturday, SXSW, Bowery w/ Xiu Xiu, Purchase & more) "

Monday, Dec 15, 2008 // DOORS 7:00 PM // ADV $20// DOS $25

WNYU 35th Anniversary Celebration (a full club event!) with special guests Pylon, Psychic Paramount, Grouper, Ehnahre, Sword Heaven, Zola Jesus, many more!

This is currently Pylon's only scheduled show. Tickets are on sale. Watch a video of Deerhunter covering a Pylon song HERE. The reunited group came around a couple of times last year too.

This event is one more big one in the month-long celebration that is Knitting Factory's final month open in Tribeca. They close for good after New Years Eve. Bands rumored to be playing that night include Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Deerhoof and Akron/Family.