Wild Beasts (played Joe's, 2 more to go), Knitting Factory (opens tonight), Princeton & more in This Week in Indie

September 9, 2009

DOWNLOAD: Princeton – Calypso Gold (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wild Beasts – All the Kings Men (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sondre Lerche – Good Luck (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Marmoset – Peach Cobbler (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Marmoset – Florist Fired (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Marmoset – Winter (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Marmoset – Lemon Meringue Live (Zip)

Wild Beasts @ Joe’s Pub, Tuesday night – 9/8/09

Even without All Tomorrow’s Parties, this week is bananas with quality shows, so much so I’m dividing this week’s column into two parts. (Which means more tomorrow.) I caught Wild Beasts‘ New York debut last night (9/8) at Joe’s Pub and they were fantastic, wowing pretty much everyone in the room. I wrote over at Sound Bites…

Wild Beasts’ magic is in the interplay between the four members, and it’s best just to think of them as one slithering unit. Vocals trade lines between Flemming and Thorpe like twins, and the guitar lines snake around one another, bass pulses and ebbs, while drummer Chris Talbot (the band’s secret weapon) gives most songs a tribal feel — lots of toms, not so much cymbals. Nobody stood still for a second, bassists-guitarists-singers Hayden Thorpe and Tom Flemming swinging and swaying, hooting and howling. A bit more “rock” than the versions on new album Two Dancers (Talbot plays a little more four-on-the-floor live) but if it’s subtleties are missing, it’s made up in a mesmerizing group performance.

Wild Beasts have two more shows this week and you should really, really go see them. They play Thursday (9/10) at Mercury Lounge (tickets still available) and then Friday at Union Pool (no advance tickets). Video from Joe’s below.

Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, Tuesday night – 9/8/09

After Wild Beasts, I bolted back to Williamsburg for the “soft opening” of the new Knitting Factory space which will get baptized officially tonight (9/9) by Tim Harrington and the rest of Les Savvy Fav. No bands last night, just drinks and a looksee around the place. It’s nice. The Knitting Factory folks have completely transformed the Luna Lounge space which suffered from being one giant space with nowhere to go if you wanted to escape the noise. They smartly divided the space in half, with a bar room up front and the performance space in back. The front bar room has a number of booths and a nook where a small band could play. The actual bar is set against the wall that divides it from the performance space which is where the double-layer of super-thick soundproof glass windows are, so you can still see the bands play even if you’d rather be talking to friends. They’ll pipe in a monitor feed to the bar room so you can still hear the bands, just at a much lower volume.

Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, Tuesday night – 9/8/09

The elongated Knitting Factory performance space looks to be about the same capacity as Mercury Lounge, with what looks to me like a slightly smaller stage than when it was Luna Lounge. There’s a bar stage right so you don’t have to go to the other room for a drink. The floor slopes down slightly from the sides of the room, like the world’s gentlest half-pipe so the shorter among us might want to stay to the sides for a better view. There was no band playing last night, so I can’t say how it sounds, but stage lighting looked really nice and they have built-in smoke machines for when Blacklist or Cold Cave play. It’s a nice space and I’m anxious to actually see a band play there. Tonight will definitely be a trial by fire with Les Savy Fav, and the place should have a bit of that lived-in feel after they get done. Tomorrow night (9/10) is Boss Hog and Shilpa Ray, and Friday has Seattle’s The Spits and Austin’s Woven Bones, two bands who might just put those smoke machines to use. More on them tomorrow in TWII Pt2. More upcoming shows mentioned HERE. More pictures inside the new venue at Gothamist.

Sondre Lerche @ Bowery Ballroom, Tuesday night – 9/8/09 (more by Tim Griffin)

Just a couple other reminders of shows I’ve mentioned before. Sondre Lerche played Bowery Ballroom last night (9/8), which was a record release party of sorts for his very entertaining sixth album, Heartbeat Radio. He does it again tonight, this time in his neighborhood at Music Hall of Williamsburg. You should be able to get tickets at the door. As I said last week, he’s a funny, entertaining performer with lots of between-song stories.

Princeton

Princeton play Union Hall tonight (9/9) which is kind of a record release party for their full-length debut, Cocoon of Love. It’s not actually out till Sept 29 but you can get it via iTunes as of yesterday. It’s a really nice bit of harmony-laden chamber pop (you can stream the whole thing at Spinner), with shades of Belle & Sebastian and Magnetic Fields. You can download the album’s “Calypso Gold” at the top of this post. They’re pretty good live too. After tonight’s Union Hall show, Princeton head out on tour with Ra Ra Riot. All tour dates are below.

Maromoset

And Indianapolis’ Marmoset hit town today for their first of two shows. Tonight (9/9) it’s Cake Shop and Thursday is Bruar Falls. If you like your indie rock heavily influenced by the likes of early Creation records, Syd Barrett, and Swell Maps while being filtered through some sort of off-kilter David Lynch sensibility, well you probably already know and like Marmoset. In reviewing their 2007 album Florist Fired, Pitchfork wrote “Marmoset’s previous full-length, 2001’s 13-song, 33-minute exercise in Anglophilic indie Record in Red, quietly ranks among the best albums released by Secretly Canadian.” Marmoset’s brand-new album, Tea Tornado, is more of the same. And that’s a good thing.

Tomorrow in TWII Pt2: Kings of Convenience, Super Furry Animals, The Intelligence, Woven Bones, The Spits and more.

Tour dates and appropriate video after the jump…

Wild Beasts – “All the Kings Men”

Wild Beasts – “All the Kings Men” (Little Stolen Moments version)

Wild Beasts – “All the Kings Men” live at Joe’s Pub, 9.08.2009

Wild Beasts – 2009 Tour Dates
Sep 10 Mercury Lounge New York, New York
Sep 11 Union Pool Brooklyn, New York
Sep 30 Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh
Oct 1 Cockpit Leeds
Oct 2 Bodega Nottingham
Oct 3 Thekla Bristol
Oct 4 Hare & Hounds Birmingham
Oct 5 Hanbury Ballroom Brighton
Oct 7 Academy 2 Oxford
Oct 8 Garage London
Oct 9 Academy 3 Manchester
Nov 21 Paradiso, “London Calling” Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nov 22 Crossing Border Festival Anwerp, Belgium
Nov 23 Turmzimmer Hamburg, Germany
Nov 24 Karrera Club Berlin, Germany
Nov 27 Point Ephemere Paris, France
Nov 28 Guess Who Festival Utrecht, Netherlands
Nov 29 Aeronef Lille, France
Dec 1 Cabaret Electric Le Havre, France

Sondre Lerche – “Heartbeat Radio”

Sondre Lerche – 2009 Tour Dates
Sept 9 @ Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg #
Sept 11 @ Washington, DC – 9:30 Club #
Sept 12 @ Northampton, MA – Iron Horse Music Hall #
Sept 13 @ Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club #
Sept 14 @ South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground #
Sept 15 @ Montreal, QC – Petit Campus #
Sept 16 @ Toronto, ON – The Mod Club Theatre #
Sept 18 @ Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom #
Sept 19 @ Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern #
Sept 19 @ Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern (late show) #
Sept 20 @ Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Cafe #
Sept 23 @ San Diego, CA – The Casbah #
Sept 24 @ West Hollywood, CA – Troubadour #
Sept 26 @ Santa Barbara, CA – Soho Restaurant & Music Club #
Sept 27 @ San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall #
Sept 28 @ Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge #
Sept 29 @ Seattle, WA – Triple Door #
Sept 30 @ Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret #
# w/ JBM

Marmoset – 2009 Tour Dates
WED, SEPT 9 – New York, NY – Cake Shop
THU, SEPT 10 – Brooklyn, NY – Bruar Falls
FRI, SEPT 11 – Philadelphia, PA – Mroom
SAT, SEPT 12 – Washington, DC – Velvet Lounge
SUN, SEPT 13 – Baltimore, MD – Talking Head
TUE, SEPT 15 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506 w/ AA Bondy
WED, SEPT 16 – Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
THU, SEPT 17 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
FRI, SEPT 18 – Louisville, KY – Skull Alley
SAT, SEPT 19 – Champaign, IL – Pygmalion Music Fest

Princeton – 2009 Dates
Sep 9 ALBUM RELEASE SHOW @ UNION HALL Brooklyn, New York
Sep 10 CASTAWAYS W/ RA RA RIOT Ithaca, New York
Sep 11 LEE’S PALACE W/ RA RA RIOT Toronto, Ontario
Sep 12 MOHAWK PLACE W/ MAPS AND ATLASES Buffalo, New York
Sep 13 GROG SHOP W/ RA RA RIOT Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Sep 14 THE BASEMENT W/ RA RA RIOT Columbus, Ohio
Sep 16 SCHUBAS W/ RA RA RIOT (SOLD OUT) Chicago, Illinois
Sep 17 VARSITY THEATER W/ RA RA RIOT Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sep 18 FORWARD MUSIC FESTIVAL Madison, Wisconsin
Sep 19 PYGMALION MUSIC FESTIVAL W/ RA RA RIOT, WAVVES, IRON AND WINE ETC. Urbana, Illinois
Sep 20 FIREBIRD W/ RA RA RIOT St. Louis, Missouri
Sep 21 THE BOTTLENECK W/ RA RA RIOT Lawrence, Kansas
Sep 23 GRANADA THEATER W/ RA RA RIOT Dallas, Texas
Sep 24 EMO’S W/ RA RA RIOT Austin, Texas
Sep 25 WAREHOUSE LIVE W/ RA RA RIOT Houston, Texas
Sep 26 SPANISH MOON W/ RA RA RIOT Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Sep 27 BOTTLE TREE W/ RA RA RIOT Birmingham, Alabama
Sep 29 THE MASQUERADE W/ RA RA RIOT Atlanta, Georgia
Sep 30 CAT’S CRADLE W/ RA RA RIOT Carrboro, North Carolina
Oct 1 9:30 CLUB W/ RA RA RIOT Washington DC, Washington DC
Oct 2 TROCADERO W/ RA RA RIOT Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 3 PARADISE ROCK CLUB W/ RA RA RIOT Boston, Massachusetts
Oct 8 THE TERRACE CLUB W/ LE LOUP Princeton, New Jersey
Oct 9 TWISTED BRANCH TEA BAZAAR W/ tUnE- YaRds Charlottesville, Virginia
Oct 10 DUKE COFFEE HOUSE Durham, North Carolina