WE ARE SERENADES @ MERCURY LOUNGE 5/9

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Posted:
May 10, 2012
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WE ARE SERENADES @ MERCURY LOUNGE 5/9

We Are Serenades‘ [Adam Olenius and Markus Krunegard and friends] are snazzy dressers, and great performers.  On May 9th, at Mercury Lounge, the lovechild of Shout Out Louds and Laakso,  put on an incredibly fun and technically inspired show –  performing a collection of synth-inspired folk songs – ranging from, the beautiful harmonies of “Daydreaming” to the off-tempo-yet-incredibly-fun “Weapons”. I found it funny – a Swedish band performing in the States, sang back-to-back songs about Mexico – opening their set with “Criminal Heaven” [the song from which the album takes it's title] and ending on Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind”.  It also dawned on me that “All the Words” will  play at my wedding this summer. Check out some images from the show below:

-Cory Greenwell

Posted:
April 23, 2012
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KID KOALA’S SPACE-CADET HEADPHONE EXPERIENCE @ THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF AVIATION

The Coolest Event I’ve Ever Attended.
We’ve all been there. Pushed up against some sweaty drunk dudes armpit, while trying to enjoy our favorite musician play the songs we love to hear. Weaving through crowds of people, all trying to pretend they are far “cooler-than-the-next person”, as they radiate towards the bar like a zombie hoard – and completely miss the music they came for. This is something I’ve experienced far too often at shows in the past, but it was far  from what I experienced on Friday night at the Kid Koala “Space-Cadet Headphone Experience” at the Canadian Museum of Aviation in Ottawa.Upon arrival,  I noticed an eclectic mix of people, spanning all ages and styles, interspersed across a plethora of art and sound devices. There was a range of turntables, vocoders and wacky synthesizers in the shape of cockpits, alongside raffles, games, and a place you could turn your face into a meteor – later used in the show. As I explored the “funjects” [objects that are fun], Snailhouse played the opening set in the background.

We were then given Sennheisner headphones, motioned into the theater and seated in tiny “space pods” – [ side note:  I probably should have worn sweatpants and not the skinniest pair of jeans I own, but I digress].  Kid Koala took the stage, accompanied by his daughter, Maple,  sitting contently in the chair beside him. Then, with a giant smile, Kid Koala proceeded to blow every mind in the crowd, as he performed a magic show on his turntables that would make David Copperfield green. It is incredibly rare for a musician to give so much of themselves to the audience. While most Dj’s and musicians stand on stage trying to act as cool as humanly possible, Kid Koala appeared with no pretense;  more like a friend – sitting in his living room – doing what he enjoys doing most. This was what made the show such an awesome experience.

I talked to Kid Koala a.k.a Eric San after the show and he let me in on some details for the upcoming Deltron 3030 Event II – the sequel to the legendary Deltron 3030 album- which will be released in July,  as well as, 12 Bit Blues another album coming out on Ninja Tune in the fall.

Here is a song called “3 Bit Blues” which appears on the upcoming album 12 Bit Blues. 

MP3: Kid Koala: 3  bit blues

You can also listen to a couple songs off the Space-Cadet album below [disclaimer: the tracks on this album are so relaxing,  I haven't been able to make it through the album's entirety without being lulled to sleep].

MP3: Kid Koala:  Expedition_ page 45

MP3: Kid Koala: Goodbye_ page 8

If you have the opportunity to check out Kid Koala’s “Space-Cadet Headphone Experience” show, you should not think twice. I left the show feeling so inspired, that I immediately went home and turned on my MPC [MIDI Production Center]. After a 2 month creative drought, I quickly chopped up some samples, remembering how good it feels to create music you can call your own.

For tour dates and other information please check out:
-Darcy Ujjainwalla
Posted:
March 2, 2012
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 We caught Starfawn again last night at Spike Hill opening for and outshining Something in Spanish. We first learned about Starfawn a few weeks ago at Lit Lounge when they performed with Teeel and we’ve been huge fans ever since.We gave you the history behind the band when we posted the Teeel remix of their set-closer “Greenlight.”

We highly recommend checking out their Bandcamp page to stream the debut EP, then heading to Moodgadget to buy it.

Starfawn

Something in Spanish

[photos: Cory Greenwell]

Posted:
February 18, 2012
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Other Lives were at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night as part of their first major venue headlining tour. Coming off of their tour with Bon Iver, Other Lives will be beginning a ten day stint supporting Radiohead. A big step for any young band, but to kick off Radiohead’s first US tour since 2008, it will be huge. The exposure that they’ll get out of this tour will be incredible and it couldn’t happen to a more talented group of musicians.

I last caught Other Lives at Mercury Lounge back in June (Review), but the professionalism at the Bowery showed a definite level of maturity.

[photos: Cory Greenwell]

Posted:
February 15, 2012
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The Drums performed a 4 song set last night (Valentine’s day) at W.I.P. (short for Work-in-Progress & owned by the proprietors of the Greenhouse). We caught The Drums last at CMJ 2010 (Photos). Starting roughly an hour late a midst the bottle-service-heavy underground art house (even if a bit contrived), The Drums tore through perennial favorites such as “Best Friend” as well as their more current hit “Money” and the dancing made me really miss the days of Mondo at Don Hills.

Catch the photos from last night’s performance below.

[photos: Cory Greenwell]

Posted:
November 2, 2011
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[photo: Cory Greenwell]

 at OneThirtyBPM reviews Jeff Mangum Live October 29th, 2011 at Town Hall in New York.
Years ago when I began diving into the world of indie rock, I ruled out the possibility of ever seeing Neutral Milk Hotel or the reclusive Jeff Mangum — in any form — perform live. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea would be seen by many as the “crowning gem” of the genre and since the band’s breakup, Mangum had been as elusive a figure as any, only showing his face at Elephant 6 reunions at random.

In recent years, however, Mangum began poking his head out of his shell, first by playing Neutral Milk Hotel songs at others’ shows, to playing full sets unannounced, to playing ATP and embarking on a small tour of his own. About two weeks ago he even stopped by Zuccotti Park for a brief performance at Occupy Wall Street. Naturally, after missing him at ATP, I had to catch him in New York.

I trekked out into the snowy New York night (the first pre-Halloween snowfall since 1958!) and made it to New York City’s Town Hall theater just off of Times Square. The Town Hall hosts a wide array of events including Broadway shows, choirs, orchestras, jazz bands, comedians — hell, you can even catch Rush Limbaugh there at the end of the month (I implore you not to). And while the venue often does do acoustic shows like this, I didn’t really expect to be seated for this momentous occasion.

Opening for Mangum was Ólöf Arnalds, an Icelandic singer-songwriter, who alternated between guitars and a ukulele-like charango. She performed in both English and Icelandic, bantering with the audience throughout her songs as she plucked her strings and arpeggiated her chords before entering into the next verse. The 35-minute set was certainly soothing, and truly showcased Arnalds’ talents — especially her closing: a mic-less, a cappella version of an Irish folk tune — but I couldn’t help but feel anxious throughout the whole set, eagerly anticipating what was to follow.

Mangum soon appeared on stage and the entire theater erupted in applause. Then — absolute silence as he opened up with Aeroplane‘s closer “Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two.” Perhaps it was out of awe, or maybe it was just he nature of the venue, but for his first three songs (“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” “Song Against Sex”) there was complete silence except for applause between songs. Mangum commented, “You don’t have to be so quiet,” and went into “Gardenhead” as the cheers began.

Next was the eight-minute epic, “Oh Comely,” which yet again brought the crowd to silence as Mangum clenched his eyes shut and bellowed through the darkness of the theater, going the extra mile by holding notes before carrying into the final section of the song.

After another solemn number, “I Love the Living You” (a Roky Erickson cover), Mangum returned to Aeroplane again with “Ghost.” The silence had become prevalent again, leading Mangum to engage the audience to get them to make some noise: “Now fucking sing!”

The cheering and banter from there on continued, with the audience’s singing becoming more and more amplified as Mangum played through all parts of “The King of Carrot Flowers” without break, and climaxed with his last song of the set, “Holland, 1945.” As he played those opening chords the room suddenly came alive; it seemed as if ever single person in attendance knew all the words as was singing along. It was truly an enthralling moment.

After a standing ovation, Mangum returned with “Two-Headed Boy Pt. One” and b-side “Engine” before taking off into the night, leaving the audience standing and cheering for a good five minutes before they were disappointed by the sight of tech crew taking his set-up apart.

Although the audience lulled at times, Mangum put on a fantastic performance and managed to get us all roaring together to make for a truly ghostly experience. Despite this all — and it pains me to say it — Mangum’s “dee-dees” will never compare to Scott Spillane’s trumpet work, and however great the songs stood on their own, a full-backed band performing them would be worlds apart. Unfortunately, I don’t think a full reunion will ever happen.

Hopefully I’ll be eating my words in a year or two’s time.

Setlist
Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Song Against Sex
Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
Oh Comely
I Love the Living You (Roky Erickson cover)
Ghost
A Baby for Pree
Naomi
The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One
The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three
Holland, 1945

Two-Headed Boy Pt. One
Engine

Posted:
September 27, 2011
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Starfucker, also known as STRFKR, formerly briefly known as Pyramiddd, performed to a sold-out Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night.  A far cry from the Nachbar show I organized in 2008 (link) and even the Mercury Lounge performance of 2009 (link). How things have changed…bigger venue, bigger sound, bigger crowd, and even a bigger band…but there was one major deficiency.  Ryan, the face and frontman of Starfucker, is gone.  Starfucker may have started as a solo project of Josh’s, but for anyone who had seen them live, Ryan was the center of attention. For those that had never seen Starfucker before, the absence is really no loss.  The band sounded fantastic, Shawn and Josh both stepped up to share duties that the comically bad dancer Ryan once alone bore and had I not known better I would think they’d spent years with this approach.  Call me an old man, well-removed from the loop, as I was unaware that in early August, Ryan had announced his departure from the band to focus on his solo career.  It’s unfortunately hard to recover from an unexpected blow of that caliber. I wasn’t prepared.

Nevertheless, the band DID sound amazing.  Starting off with the their first ever single, German Love, the band instantly drew the crowd in.  Though in essence a simple and pure pop song, when combined with a rad laser show, harder-than-anticipated synth beats, and a crowd of primarily 18-20 yr olds, a pit was bound to erupt.  It was, in fact, in many ways, one of the most aggressive shows I have seen in New York, and it was from the first note.  My girlfriend and I were literally forced from front row, center stage to fifth row, stage left by the time German Love had finished.  Growing up going primarily to punk shows, I loved it.  The energy of the band and the crowd ramped up quickly and never faltered.  My concern that the show would lack energy, sweat and dancing without Ryan was quickly alleviated.

Starfucker

Beat Connection

Alexico

Posted:
September 21, 2011
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New York’s Caveman played a sold-out recordless record release party last week (9/15) for the digital release of their debut album “CoCo Beware” on Magic Man! Records (which you can get here).  Packed with psychedelic pop jams from beginning to end, we were ecstatic for the chance to catch these guys live.  Their show contained a visual component which was relatively nondescript, but which worked nicely to light the stage in a beautiful way while not distracting the audience from the focal point of the performance, namely the music. Frontman Matthew Iwanusa’s vocals contain traces of the nostalgia that seems to pervade every fuzzy shoegaze band since 2008…which is, of course, essentially every “new” band since 2009…but only ever so subtly and in hearing them live, I felt as though harmonically the vocals were aimed more at creating a mood than a mentality.  Anyone you speak to will tell you that if you like Grizzly Bear, you’ll like Caveman, however in a live setting, while a great deal of the albums texture does come through that invariably draws the Grizzly Bear references, I found Caveman to provide what was, for me, a significantly more engaging and exciting performance.  Iwanusa alternated between a standing drum and guitar and on songs such as ”My Room” and “Great Life” launched into ferociously heavy tribalesque drum tirades turning the otherwise melancholic and hushed songs into truly dance-worthy jams.  It’s rare to find a band with such sweeping and beautiful sounds to also have the pop sensibilities that Caveman has, and perhaps the best example is “Thankful.”

It’s no surprise that Caveman are so quickly generating buzz instantly upon the release of their debut and have gained places opening with the likes of The War on Drugs, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and the White Rabbits. These guys put on one hell of a good show. Abandoning the sold out crowd with a deafening reverb, Caveman returned to the stage to perform one last unplanned nonalbum song “Wasted Life.” Our recommendation, be sure to catch Caveman at CMJ next month, you won’t be disappointed.

 

JPL

Posted:
April 26, 2011
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Yuck and Tame Impala played a sold out show at Webster Hall on Monday 25.4.11.

For a band that formed only a little over a year ago, the London/Hiroshima/ New Jersey foursome, Yuck are quickly becoming one of the best new bands out there.  They might sound like they belong in the early 90′s but they are one of the more technically gifted guitar acts to tour in a long time, and prove themselves to be more than mere “Nineties revivalists” in concert. Drawing obvious inspiration from grunge and shoegaze bands from over a decade ago, they somehow manage to sound all their own, frontman Daniel Bloomburg channeling a bit of a young Dylan-esc stage swagger on a raw version of  ”Georgia”, and the band showing a more melancholy dreamlike side on “Suicide Policeman”. Substance o

If you haven’t seen Yuck live yet, there are still Tickets available for their  Headline show at Bowery Ballroom on May 27th or you can head over and catch them play a free in-store at Other Music TONIGHT.

Aussie musical ensemble Tame Impala took the stage last and is a beast. Their 70 minute psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock performance was packed with enough emotion and atmosphere to keep your head swirling around like the light show they project behind them.  With 9 flat screen monitors featuring a psychedelic light show rigged up to their guitars, the band tightly ripped through the entire Innerspeaker album, some lesser known tracks off their debut EP and even covered “Angel” by Massive Attack!  Check out the full setlist and some pictures from the whole show, below:

Tame Impala

Posted:
April 19, 2011
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Kentucky is not the first place you would expect to find a dance rock band of the caliber of The Pass, but these Louisvillians aren’t one to let their geographics tie them down. Which is lucky for us, considering we had two opportunities to see them play this past weekend in New York. Selling out venues across the country (twice selling out NY’s Pianos and even the 700 person Headliners in their hometown of Louisville), The Pass are nevertheless one of the more underrated bands of the scene. That was, perhaps, until Friday night when the line to get into Pianos stretched around the corner of the block and dozens of people that we spoke to were unable to get into see the band. For a young band still out to prove itself, there are certainly worse problems to have.

Drawing influences from Justice and LCD Soundsystem (R.I.P.), The Pass create a basement party kind of sweaty dance rock that packs crowds in and keeps even the most rigid hipsters moving. Recently featured on the CMJ and SXSW websites, big things are coming for this band who have found their music in primetime television and several CW and MTV televisions.

The sets at Pianos and Fontanas navigated the usual hits with all of the songs for which videos have been produced (except Criminal) making their appearance, but we were fortunate to be treated to two brand new songs, “It’s Less Dangerous” and “Hologram,” both of which were written in the last few weeks with kinks still getting worked out. The first of the new records had the anthematic quality showing the promise of that truly great record the labels are always looking for and the second displayed a really interesting wah wah kind of sound showing an exploration and development of guitar leads in their sound. Perhaps the tweet from Bank Robber Music said it best when they said “Wow. Suspicions confirmed at Pianos. @ThePassTheBand can’t write a bad song.” While they didn’t have the birdmen look this time, they put on a great show as always. In their feature, CMJ said “The courageous quartet pours passionate lyrics into a whirlwind of synthesizers and upbeat rhythms, all while catering to the perfect dance party environment” and notes that “the Pass’ music draws inspiration from dance parties, relationships, making out, the power of positive thinking and whatever rests in between.” It couldn’t be clearer from this week’s performances how true those statements are.

The Pass are definitely a band to keep up with so that you can be the guy or girl who knew about them before they blow up, and we’ll definitely be at the next performance (if we can get in the door).

Setlist:
Trap of Mirrors
Hologram
It’s Less Dangerous
Girl Don’t Wait
Treatment of the Sun
Crosswalk Stereo
How to Live
Colors
Vultures

The Pass: Live at Pianos

Cassette Kids: Live at Pianos

The Pass: Live at Fontanas

 

Posted:
April 10, 2011
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ANR Live at Tammany Hall in New York City

Miami’s psych-synth duo ANR brought their raw punk rock intensity to the Lower East Side on 4/7/11. And once again, drummer/ Singer Michael-John Hancock  floored us with his seemingly effortless ability to belt brilliant melodies and shimmering falsetto croons while keeping unbelievably tight rhythm on drums.  Keyboardist Brian Robertson’s skills were also on point showcasing some classical training and cinematic score sensibility to intensify the already atmospheric music of the band. We hung out with the gents before their set and have a really exciting interview coming soon.

Posted:
February 25, 2011
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Million Young at Mercury Lounge 2011

Last week we checked out ANR and  Millionyoung at New York City’s Mercury Lounge. The show was packed full of long time dedicated fans of  the Floridian chill-wave bands.

Miami’s music-making duo ANR brought a raw punk rock intensity to their synth heavy 80’s dance beats. The band pummeled through their set with a louder, more virtuosic energy than one might expect from listening to their most recent album, Stay kids. Drummer/singer Michael-John Hancock belted pipes from behind his kit, joined occasionally with brilliant falsettos from keyboardist Brian Robertson to reach shimmering dual chorsus electro pop juju. Millionyoung played the last set of the night, almost entirely in the dark. Only appropriately lit by a few colored strobe lights, as the band slowly turned their set list into a late night dance party, midway through the act.

When we caught up with Millionyoung’s front man Mike Diaz after the show, he told us his favorite part of the tour, so far, has been catching up on watching TV on the tour bus.  So, what is Millionyoung vegging out to? Mike’s a fan of one of our favorite shows: Arrested Development.

Check out some images from the show below:

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