Tomorrow you could definitely go see Final Fantasy and The Mountain Goats, but I would probably wait until Wednesday and see them at The Bell House. Why not check out this smaller show at Glasslands instead? I’m only familiar with Darlings, whose album will probably be on my “best of” list this year for its adolescent candor and catchy guitar riffs. I’ve listened to the other bands’ MySpaces, and they’re intriguing enough that it’s worth checking out these completely under-the-radar Brooklyn groups. Equestrian seems to be an evolving project with multiple contributors, one that vacillates between simple, straight-forward songs and dreamy soundscapes. Video Daughters are on the electronic side, but still rely heavily on thick guitar parts. I couldn’t find anything about the other band on the bill, Dynasties, on the Internets. You can check out Equestrian’s myspace here, and Video Daughters’ here. So, to summarize, with this show you are guaranteed one awesome band, one great venue, and at least three more mildly interesting up-and-comers.
P.S. I really love the song below. If you secretly liked the Strokes at all in your adolescence, I guarantee you will love it, too. And maybe even if you didn’t.
Hooray! Thanksgiving was delicious! Now we get to experience a whole month of green and red and ice skating and trees and capitalism and Tiny Tim. Sure, there’s plusses and minuses, but at least the holiday season distracts from how cold it’s getting outside. The holiday season also means that the music industry basically stops. No one puts out records, no new songs, no one’s on tour. Tomorrow is the slowest Monday I’ve seen all year. Tis the season for bloggers to make year end lists.
I’m not quite ready with my lists yet; they’ll be done closer to actual Christmas. Thus, in celebration of this industry-wide slowdown, I thought I’d post this weird little video that somehow found its way to my inbox. It’s by the Yule Logs. They’re from California, they describe themselves as “the hardest working band in snow business,” and they are ridiculous. But, also kind of delightful. You can’t really argue with the above video, and it’s not a terrible song.
The Happiness Project is Charles Spearin from Do Make Say Think (also performing this Sunday). He basically interviewed a bunch of people about what happiness is, and created a piece of music from these interviews. It is REALLY COOL and definitely something you’ll want to see. I have no idea how he performs it live, but I’m sure it will be moving and beautiful. Listen below and go to the show.
Happy Black Friday! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I took a quick break from blogging, but I’m back, and just a little disappointed by this Saturday’s line-up. It’s nice that I won’t be missing out on anything as I’m at my parent’s house in New Jersey, but there’s really not all that much going on. There is this mini-fest going on at Cake Shop, Pianos, and The Living Room called Hex Fest. The line up has some pretty good little bands and then a whole bunch of bands I don’t know at all. Chances are, if you go hang around these three venues, you’ll hear something cool. My personal pick would be Wild Yaks at The Living Room. I love this quirky rock outfit; they have so much personality that chances are, you will, too.
I’ve been a little disappointed with Screaming Females recently. They’ve been doing their fair share of touring with big names, and now they’re heading out to support the Arctic Monkeys. Really Screaming Females? The Arctic Monkeys? That’s almost enough to take them off of my year end list. Catch them while you can playing with non-lame bands. Like the So So Glos. On All-Turkey’s Eve. There is nothing like a good old fashioned rock and roll show to take the edge off of all that family time coming up this weekend. If you’re still left in Brooklyn, let Screaming Females and the So Sos keep you warm.
I’ve never written about something non-musical like this before, but I think it’s warranted. In the past few months you may have noticed a now-familiar figure wielding a camera at what seems like every show you go to. It’s Ray Concepcion, and he makes amazing live music videos. His muted colors and fuzzy focus style add magical touches to some of my favorite bands, making these the perfect representation of today’s New York music scene. It’s the sort of thing where in fifteen years when someone goes back to write a book about the Brooklyn scene in the late 2000s, they’d rely heavily on Concepcion’s beautiful videos as first-person sources. Plus, the man has killer, killer taste, only recording what I consider to be some of the very best bands in the biz. Above is a YouTube video of Woods, but I highly recommend spending some time on his Vimeo site (those videos don’t embed in WordPress, blergh). Add him to your RSS feed; he’s a great tastemaker and an excellent artist in his own right.
Unless you can shell out the money to see Devendra Banhart and Little Joy (and Devendra’s new album isn’t very good), your best bet is old new favorites Dinosaur Feathers and pow wow! I’ve blogged about these bands a ton, so I probably don’t need to describe them again, but this little show at Cameo should be the best of the night. They’re also playing with Eula and Daytime.
This show happened embarrassingly long ago, but here a just a few photos. Times New Viking were, of course, great. They churned out their noise pop tunes with incredible skill. The guitar player fills so much of the space in the songs that watching him demystifies the recordings to a certain extent, but a great band to watch. The Axemen are a New Zealand band from the 80s, and these dudes can still totally rock. In sweat pants and beer bellies, these guys are still the real rocking deal. And Home. Well, they were maybe the worst live band I’ve ever seen. They were “are you kidding me” bad. Their hippy-dippy looking lead singer played paltry, overly-worn chord progressions on the keyboard and guitar while the poor drummer and bass player merely filled in his lame posturings. I felt bad for them. I’m having a difficult time providing a MySpace link since it’s such a common name, but I believe they’re some band from the 90s. I can’t believe they’re still together, because they made a mockery of what rock and roll ought to be. Absolute trash, and I can’t believe they got on a bill with Times New Viking. Then again, you might be able to lob the same criticisms at these photos. I apologize for the lateness and not awesomeness of them.
Frankly, I can’t believe Times New Viking’s new album, Born Again Revisited, hasn’t gotten more attention. It got an 8.1 on Pitchfork, but didn’t get Best New Music. It’s just as hard to listen to as their older work, with just as many hidden pop melodies. Listen to the mp3 below. It might sound difficult to some listeners, but wait until the chorus. ”Move to California/ I hear you’ll have a better time.” A philosophy I’ve grown to doubt, but a fabulous line in the song. Plus, their shows are very cool as they play whole-heartedly on ramshackle gear. A wonderful band that you should definitely see if you haven’t already, and if you have, you should hear them play material off of their new album.
This is a really, really good show. The headliners, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes are probably the band I’d be least excited about, but I’ve even gotten into the grand, cinematic pop songs recently. Listen to the song below. It’s beautiful, catchy, and has been featured on a whole bunch of tv shows recently. Frankly, they write very good, listenable songs. Fool’s Gold I’ve written about tons before: tropical rhythms and world beats a-plenty. Fun for the whole family. And I saw Local Natives at CMJ and was fairly impressed, especially with their amazingly tight vocal harmonies. This is one of those shows where you’re really getting the bang for your buck. Three excellent bands.
