The second-annual Spy Music Festival happens June 29th through July 15th, featuring "46 sets of music at 7 venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn." That's a big expansion from last year when it took place on two nights at Shea Stadium and Zebulon. This year's fest, run by the folks at Northern Spy Records, will happen at Union Pool, the Issue Project Room, The Stone, Vaudeville Park, 285 Kent, Death by Audio and Roulette. Amongst the artists performing are Rhys Chatham, Matthew Shipp, Dustin Wong, Arthur Doyle, Eugene Chadbourne, PG Six, Guardian Alien and Magik Markers.

The full Spy Music Festival schedule -- bands, venues, prices -- is below. There's no all-inclusive festival pass, but tickets to all the shows are available here. And the fest organizers have also made a sampler featuring the artists performing this year and you can stream that below as well.

Continue reading "Magik Markers, Dustin Wong, Eugene Chadbourne, Matthew Shipp and more playing NYC's Spy Music Festival"

by BBG

Hold on tight, the following post may make the internet completely collapse upon itself. Christopher Weingarten, notorious blogger/tweeter (as 1000TimesYes) and ex-drummer of Parts & Labor, welcomed his latest book Hipster Puppies over the summer. In celebration, Weingarten is throwing two upcoming events. The first is a (rescheduled due to hurricane Irene) "Hipster Puppies instore" at Sound Fix Records this Saturday (9/10). "Bring a dog, get a dollar off a book." Chris will be DJing. Flyer below.

The second, more my style, is a release party on September 21st at Public Assembly with live musical appearances from Zs, Burning Star Core, Mountains, and Dinowalrus, all of which appear on the Hipster Puppies: New York Cassette which is also celebrating its release that night. Limited to 350 copies, this 87-minute tape is available for purchase or for free to the first 50 people to buy tickets. Tickets are on sale now.

Zs

In addition, Zs will also celebrate their own release of a Sky Burial cassette, "an extremely limited 18-minute sound collage of lo-fi recordings snatched from the band's European encores". Available in two editions, a golden mirror finish and a white one (limited to 50 and 150 respectively), the release is the first of a trilogy of recordings for Zs that will include a 2x7" called 33 and an LP entitled This Body Will be a Corpse. Look for the LP on Playbutton and the 7" on Northern Spy (who will release many upcoming Zs recordings) but in the meantime, stream "33" and a snippet from the Sky Burial below.

Zs is also scheduled to play a release show for 33 in November (details forthcoming) as well as the first night of the Spy Music Festival going down on Oct 1st (at Shea Stadium) and 2nd (at Zebulon). Zs will join Bird Names, Colin L. Orchestra, Dan Melchior und das Menace, Neptune, Eleven Twenty-Nine, and Haunted House for the first night, while the second night will feature appearances from The Spanish Donkey, Hubble, Angels in America, Weyes Blood, and Zaimph. The shows are in celebration of record label Northern Spy's first anniversary. Full details on the festival are below.

In related news, Sam of Zs also is a member of Diamond Terrifier, who will play The Gutter on Sunday (9/11) with Charlie Looker (Extra Life), Patrick Higgins, and Eric Wubbels. $5 gets you into this 21+ event of avant-garde experimentalism. Stream an excerpt from Diamond Terrifer's forthcoming Himalayan Appalachia below, and look for it on limited cassette on 9/17.

Extra Life also have a show coming up at Glasslands.

All streams, Spy Music Fest details, Zs dates and stuff below...

Continue reading "Hipster Puppy events, limited cassettes, Zs, Spy Music Fest"

"That's Christopher Dexter Greenspan, who records as oOoOO, talking about the burgeoning style of music that he and a handful of others are developing. It's been called "drag," "witch house," and "haunted house," but like most subgenres these days, there's no official name for it. And like Greenspan points out, it's probably not a scene in the way we've come to understand the term. What "drag" is, so far at least, is a group of young, geographically scattered artists concurrently exploring ghostly, slow-moving electro-pop, each with their own unique spin." [Pitchfork]

DOWNLOAD: The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa (Violens remix) (MP3)

Ted Leo @ Pier 54 in July (more by Chris La Putt)

Ted Leo is one of many the acts lined up for the space at 107 Suffolk St (alternately called The Suffolk, Flamboyán Theater and Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center) during this year's CMJ Festival. The space, which also has a "beach" bar, isn't unaccustomed to shows - it hosted Ponytail in April - but around this time of year its usually set up as a haunted house (now housed elsewhere).

Ted Leo (now on Matador) will be headlining a True Panther/Matador Records showcase at the Suffolk on Friday, October 23rd. The impressive lineup for that night includes Glasser, Harlem, Cold Cave (who just played NYC with Faust) and Lemonade (who have many other CMJ shows, listed below). It's one of the official CMJ shows there (full schedule is below).

That gig is one of two shows set up by True Panther - on Saturday, October 24th they're also putting on a show at Pianos with Restless People (mems. of Professor Murder/Tanlines who debut five days earlier at Santos), Janka Nabay (backed by Javelin), Glasser (backed by Tanlines), Delorean and Lemonade. Flyer below.

Ted Leo also has some other upcoming dates scheduled including a post-CMJ headlining gig at Bowery Ballroom

The Suffolk is also playing host to unofficial, non-badge, first-come, first-served parties. AAM has one on Thursday, October 22nd (10pm) with Surfer Blood, Air Waves, Surf City, Violens (Very Vest remix MP3 reposted above), Lemonade and New York Night Train DJ Jonathan Toubin (who has his own showcase at Santos on Tuesday).

Finally, it should be noted that The Suffolk has a "back room" and that will also be hosting shows, including a Japanther performance on Wednesday, Oct. 21st (Fool's Gold is also on that bill).

Schedules and flyers for all of the above shows are below...

Continue reading "The Suffolk = Flamboyan Theater = CSV Cultural Center = ex-haunted house -- Ted Leo, others playing CMJ there"

DOWNLOAD: Night Creatures (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Haunted House (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dungeon (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Witches (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Encounter in the Fog (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: A Grave Matter (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Mad Scientists's Laboratory (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Elements (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Creatures (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ghosts and Phantoms (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Frightening Devices (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Haunting Music (MP3)

There's much more where this came from at Dave's Free Hallloween Sounds.