James Blackshaw

The eclectic sounds of Grails played Knitting Factory on a wet Easter night (last night, 4/24) with tour-mate James Blackshaw. Unfortunately, I missed all of Moonrises's set and at least half of James Blackshaw's, though his twelve-string guitar's resonant (in tone and emotion) and gorgeous compositions sounded amazing...

DOWNLOAD: Grails - "I Led Three Lives" (MP3) Grails at Newtown Barge Park (more by Greg Cristman) Want to see me nerd out, and quick? Throw on the new Grails LP Deep Politics, which combines bits of the KPM Library with Lalo Schifrin, 70s prog, David Axelrod, and 100s of oddball influences to create a wholly cohesive and ballsy record...

The Swans are wonderful to look at: three craggy veterans and three younger musicians. One of them is a guy named Thor, who has waist-length blond hair and hammers a set of bells...

S&S: Are you interested in the occult or any other mystical systems? Have you ever experimented with sex magick? Sasha Grey: Thanks to Jimmy Paige and C93, I became quite fascinated with the writings of Aleister Crowley, and later LaVey...

Bon Iver @ Sasquatch Fest (more by Chris Graham) Tickets are now on sale for all of Merkin Hall's upcoming 2009/10 concerts. Those shows include the NY Guitar Festival's Silent Films/Live Guitars series (previously mentioned here), which features David Bromberg and Marc Ribot playing alongside Charlie Chaplin films on January 14th, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon (Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush) with Steve Kimock (Buster Keaton's Cops) on January 21st, and more...

DOWNLOAD: Marissa Nadler - River of Dirt (MP3) With a new touring band, a refurbished banjo and some personal clarity ("I just cut this person out of my life who I've been writing about for four records," Nadler said), she sounded extremely pleased talking amid rehearsals for the new tour ...

Since last year's (Pitchfork's 34th favorite album of 2007) introduced James Blackshaw and his formidable 12-string skills to a wider audience, fans exploring Blackshaw's back catalogue have been in for quite a dig...