by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Nana Grizol - Galaxies (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Naza Grizol - For Things That Haven't Come (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Futureheads - Struck Dumb (MP3)

Sky Larkin @ Pianos during CMJ (more by Bryan Bruchman)

It's not the most action-packed of weekends in TWII land. Stars is sold out, as is Kings of Convenience and Delorean, no twee indiepop from Denmark, or San Francisco garage rockers. So I'm gonna start with mentioning that terrific Leeds, UK trio Sky Larkin (who played one of our CMJ day parties last year) have finished their second album, Kaleide, and it'll be out in August. Like their first album, Kaleide was recorded in Seattle with John Goodmason. But the results this time seem a little more muscular and confident.

Hear for yourself: the band are offering up a free, downloadable EP featuring the album's swell title track (pronounced "collide"). You do have to give up your email address to get it but they're nice folks and I'm sure they won't do anything nefarious with it. Either visit their website or use the download widget at the bottom of this post. Hopefully we'll get the band over here again soon.

Nana Grizol

OK, so what's going on this weekend? Athens, GA's multitudinous Nana Grizol are in town tonight (6/4), playing Silent Barn on their way back from the Primavera Sound festival and we should be glad to have them.  Their wide-eyed folk pop reminds me just a little of much-missed '90s band Small Factory, There's a similar approach to the songwriting, even if the arrangements add about 15 more people (depending on the night) to the mix. You can download two tracks from their latest album, Ruth, at the top of this post. They are super-charming live.

Adding to the fun (and sheer number of musicians onstage at any one time) at Silent Barn are Providence, RI's What Cheer? Brigade which is a 19 piece brass ensemble whose sound is "an aggressive mix of Bollywood, The Balkans, New Orleans, Samba and Hip-Hop, played with the intensity of metal." There's also locals The Eskalators, and Boston singer/songwriter Greg Mullen. Sounds like a pretty fun, probably sweaty, night.

The Futureheads @ Pianos in 2008 (more by Jason Bergman)

The Futureheads play Maxwell's tomorrow (6/5) and Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday (6/8). Like a lot of people, I was a huge fan of their first album, and felt the two following albums were a little too straightforward (and overproduced) for a band who got popular on quirky charm. Some of that off-kilter-ness is back on the band's new album, The Chaos, which I think is easily their best since that first one. They've kind of become a modern, Northern England version of The Knack. Which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Check out "Struck Dumb" at the top of this post.

The band played Music Hall of Williamsburg earlier this week, it was probably the eight or ninth time I've seen them live, and I have to say even when I'm not crazy about whatever record they're touring at the time, they are always worth seeing live. Singer/guitarist Barry Hyde is as manic as ever, guitarist/vocalist Ross Millard provides the punchlines, and the band are tight as hell, and nail those four-part harmonies. And "Decent Days and Nights" and their amazing cover of "Hounds of Love" still sound brilliant.

Athlete

While we're reminiscing about 2004... Athlete play the Bell House tomorrow (6/5). They are not remotely cool anymore, but I have great affection for their debut album, Vehicles & Animals, an exceedingly pleasant bunch of mid-tempo, head-bobbing Brit indie tunes, all of which seemed to have been based on Pavement's "Carrot Rope." It's still a good album to clean the house to.

I saw them at a half-full Mercury Lounge back in March 2004 (they played with, um, Razorlight if memory serves) and remember them being charmingly nerdy. I'm still a bit baffled how/why a year later they turned into Snow Patrol. They're pretty huge in the UK but America has never caught on, but I'm sure that the Bell House will be full of ex-pats and Anglophiles. I'm half tempted to go, if for nothing else than to hear "El Salvador" or "You Got the Style."

After Brooklyn they continue on a month-long North American tour in support of their new album Black Swan, which isn't half bad. All tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Po Po

And one last show of interest. Tonight (6/4) at Glasslands is a pretty good bill, headlined by low-fi Philly duo PO PO. Also playing: Light Asylum who I've written about a bit before and you may have seen open for LCD Soundsystem last month at Music Hall of Williamsburg; enigmatic local band Translations whose songs on MySpace sound pretty good; and underheard Brooklynites (and Soft Pack cohorts) The Sundelles.

And one last little note of shameless plugging. If you're looking for something new to listen to, over on Sound Bites I post a weekly downloadable Summer Fridays mix during the warm months. This is the third year I've done it and this week's has new tunes from Foals, Beach Fossils, Django Django, Young Friends, Radio Dept, plus some oldies (B-52's, Lulu, Air Miami + more) as well.

That's it for this week. Flyers, videos, that Sky Larkin download widget, and tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Sky Larkin, Nana Grizol, Futureheads, Athlete, PO PO, Summer Fridays mix tapes & more in This Week in Indie"

words & photos by Benjamin Lozovsky

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final/first week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

With golden-encrusted boots, bristly magenta beard and childlike eyes that could sit deeply sunken on any familiar septuagenarian relative, Lee 'Scratch' Perry wheeled his suitcase on stage. By the time he departed his performance at the Highline Ballroom, Perry took with him more than his Selassie-emblazoned luggage; he had ran off with the crowd's sanity.

Although the reggae world has its fair share of pioneers still eluding that eternal cloud of weed smoke in the sky, few remain as colorful and essential of a performer as Perry. Arguably one of the genre's originators and certainly greatest innovators, the 73 year-old singer/producer continues to tour and be a playful if not amusingly confounding stage presence. With more patches and flair on his jacket than an alt-rock preteen, his outfit alone was eye candy; Perry's music, navigated by a top-notch touring band, was equally appetizing.

Perry was preceded by a set of sarcastic battle hip hop by underground vet Pacewon and DJ Mr. Green, as well as a performance of one-dimensional, sloppy garage rock from Philly duo PO PO. Fans seemed to appear out of nowhere to fill up the venue just in time for Perry, whose soft voice shot through the sound system before he joined his already skanking backing group on stage. Surrounded by younger musicians, Perry's characteristic style was at moments more aggressive than laid-back and ethereal, and there weren't as many stuttering snares and waves of reverb as one might expect from this progenitor of dub. Despite that, the plinking keyboards and tiptoeing riddims of classics like "Roast Fish and Cornbread" and "Dreadlocks In Moonlight" were still worn in and luxurious.

More pictures from Lee Perry's December show at Highline Ballroom, below...

Continue reading "Lee Scratch Perry @ Highline Ballroom in NYC - pics & setlist"

Santacon hit NYC over the weekend (oracle monkey)

Hundreds of sloshed Santas piled into bars across the city Saturday - part of an annual pub crawl called Santacon.

I strapped on a shiny Santa Claus suit and joined a legion of merrymakers at a secret meeting spot in Queens. The booze began flowing well before the official 10 a.m. start.

A few naughty boys even dared to play three Santas in a pickup basketball game in an Astoria Park - and lost.

"Nobody tops Santa at basketball," said Pat Costello, 27, who trekked in his costume from Floral Park. [Daily News]

Happy Hanukkah. Check out our guide to Hanukkah events (MP3s included).

If you missed the Hanukkah Gone Metal show at Knitting Factory, you have anothter chance December 17th at Fontana's.

"It's been nearly a week since MySpace Music closed its acquisition of some of the assets of music service Imeem and redirected imeem.com to music.myspace.com. MySpace took a lot of heat for the sudden shutdown of the Imeem service, particularly the API." [Washington Post]

Amazon continues to release a free Christmas song a day.

iTunes is giving away a free holiday sampler (Weezer included).

Nacional Records is giving away 21 MP3s by its 'Latin Music' artists (including Manu Chao).

Highline Ballroom hosts The Slits. The afterparty is at Santos Party House where Popo will play a set. Popo opened for Lee Scratch Perry at Highline Ballroom on Sunday night. Flyer below..

Keren Ann plays her 2nd of two shows in a row tonight. A live video below...

"Strong sales of the video game The Beatles: Rock Band haven't translated into job security at Harmonix Music Systems Inc., the Cambridge software company that created the game. On Thursday, Harmonix let go 39 of its employees, or about 13 percent of its workforce." [Boston Globe]

Reggie Watts records his second of three shows tonight.

What else?

Continue reading "Whats going on Monday?"

As previously mentioned, Lady Gaga added two NYC shows at Radio City Music Hall making her grand total a crazy four nights in a row at the prestigious venue. Kid Cudi opens all of them. Tickets for the two new ones (1/23 & 1/24) are on sale (@ 10am).

Tickets are also on sale (@ 10am) for the upcoming Slayer, Megadeth and Testament show at the Izod Center in NJ - part of the "American Carnage Tour".

In somewhat related news, Paul Di'Anno (the original Iron Maiden vocalist) is playing BB King's on January 27th. Tickets are on sale.

Tickets are now on sale for the two upcoming Tinariwen shows in NYC: Highline Ballroom & The Bell House.

Tickets are also still on sale for the David Johansen show coming up at Highline Ballroom.

Popo played Le Poisson Rouge with Sleigh Bells last night. Popo has been added as opener on the December 13th Lee Scratch Perry show at Highline Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

Tickets are also still on sale for the Slits show happening at Highline Ballroom one day later.

Tickets are also still on sale for the Life of Agony show happening at the same venue one day after the Slits.

Blind Pilot and Laura Veirs play Friday night (tonight - 11/20) at the Bell House. Tickets are still on sale.

A video of Maiden performing "Phantom of the Opera" when Paul was still in the band, and the audio of Paul covering Megadeth, below...

Continue reading "Lady Gaga, Slayer/Megadeth/Testament, Tinariwen, and other tickets on sale"

Sleigh Bells @ Santos Party House (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Village Voice: Tell me what the first taste of "blog fame" is like. Is it weird?

Miller: It's everything I ever hoped it would be. My wildest dreams have come true. Actually it feels a lot like waiting tables, which is just fine really.
Krauss: It's nothing like waiting tables.
Miller: My mom started Googling us and listens to us on YouTube. The YouTube rips actually sound better than the 320 versions.

Continue reading "2 more chances to see Sleigh Bells (dates)"

People are officially stagediving at the wavves show at bowery. Holy/shit. - david galea

PREVIOUSLY: Wavves broke his wrist skateboarding, but is still scheduled to play Bowery, P4K Fest, a skate park benefit...

Woods video below...

Continue reading "WAVVES played Bowery Ballroom sober, meltdown-free & in an arm cast (Woods, Real Estate & Popo played too) - pic"

WAVVES @ Less Artists More Condos (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

WAVVES headlines a Todd P-like bill at Bowery Balllrom in NYC on July 15th. Opening the show is Woods, Real Estate, and Popo. It's one of just two U.S. shows WAVVES has scheduled at the moment. The other is July 18th at the Pitchfork Music Festival (July 17-19 in Chicago) which recently announced its final lineup additions. They are Final Fantasy, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bowerbirds, Michael Columbia, The Thermals and Killer Whales. Full lineup below...

Tickets for the NYC show go on AmEx presale Wednesday at noon, and then regular sale on Friday. All dates below...

Continue reading "WAVVES adds a NYC show ++ final Pitchfork Fest lineup "