The Music Tapes

Mac and Britt embrace (Triangle Music) The much anticipated XX Merge Festival took place last week in North Carolina with a five-day (July 22-July 26), Wednesday to Sunday run of shows…

(more from the Bell House by Tim Griffin) Merge Records has updated the lineup for its 20th anniversary festival, XX Merge, taking place Wednesday, July 22 to Sunday, July 26 at North Carolina’s Cat’s Cradle and UNC’s Memorial Hall…

The Music Tapes visited NYC for two nights in March – Maxwell’s in Hoboken (3/1, which I wrote about) and two days later at the Bell House (3/1), where Tim Griffin took pics (below) and wrote:”The big event was when julian came out in to the audience and asked everyone to sit around him…

The Music Tapes @ a CMJ show (more by Kyle Dean Reinford) The Music Tapes played Maxwell’s in Hoboken on Sunday (3/1), and for those who missed the criminally under attended show (maybe something to do with the weather), you’re in luck – they’ll be back in town on Tuesday (tonight, 3/3) playing the Bell House with the same lineup of opening acts: musical mad scientist Brian Dewan and upbeat Elephant 6-ers Nana Grizol…

The Music Tapes @ Mercury Lounge (more Kyle Dean Reinford) The Music Tapes, aka Julian Koster, “the 7 Foot Tall Metronome, Static the Television and other human bandmembers”, are hitting the road again in February…

The European-folk-music-influenced duo of ex-Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and violinist Heather Trost, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, is set to play two upcoming NYC shows – January 10th at Mercury Lounge (tix), with Great Lake Swimmers, and January 11th at Union Hall (tix)…

DOWNLOAD: Julian Koster – Jingle Bells (MP3) Earlier this year, Seattle songwriter Rosie Thomas, who has collaborated with friends Damien Jurado, David Bazan and Sufjan Stevens in the past, again rounded up family and friends to put together A Very Rosie Christmas, a holiday-themed album that mixes traditional songs and covers (Peanuts’ classic “Christmastime Is Here” for one) with originals like “Why Can’t It Be Christmastime All Year” – a rolling indie-pop singalong truely worthy of release on Thomas’ own Sing-a-long Records label…

DOWNLOAD: Steinski – The Payoff Mix (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Steinski – Lesson Two (James Brown Mix) (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Steinski – Lesson Three (History of Hip Hop) (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Bon Iver – Skinny Love (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Shearwater – Leviathan Bound (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal (Dj Doc Rok Remix) (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fucked Up – No Epiphany (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fucked Up – Twice Born (MP3) Plush’s & The Dodos’ It’s the time of year when people start talking which album was the best this year…

The Hold Steady @ McCarren Pool (more by Kyle Dean Reinford) today in NYC * DANCE * NY Comedy Festival * free comedy @ Caroline’s * The Gutter Twins @ Warsaw * The Heavy, Kenan Bell @ Union Pool * Care Bears On Fire @ 92YTribeca * Endless Boogie & Dead Man @ Maxwell’s * Smashing Pumpkins @ United Palace Theatre * Drive By Truckers, The Hold Steady @ Terminal 5 * The High Dials & Black Diamond Bay @ Southpaw * Toadies, People in Planes, Mike Krum @ Webster Hall * Rival Schools, Innaway, The King Left @ Mercury Lounge * Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Little Annie, Paul Wallfisch, Edison Woods @ Santos Party House * Bad Brains, Rival Schools & Trouble Andrew @ Irving Plaza * Psychic ills, Soft Circle & Eric Copeland (Black Dice) @ Cake Shop The Music Tapes are coming caroling this winter…

I was running late to the Merge showcase Saturday night (10/25), but luckily caught The Music Tapes in the middle the fantastic rendition of “An Orchistration’s Overture,” a duet between frontman Julian Koster and a TV-headed robot (who appeared on stage across from a 7-foot wooden metronome)…