[photos by P-Squared Photography] Among us, we have seen Brooklyn's Widowspeak at least seven times in the past couple of years, including hosting them at last year's NYCTaper CMJ Day Show . What we have seen each time is a band that keeps getting better and, most crucially, continuing to write great new songs. True to form, half of the songs played during this opening set for Woods at Music Hall of Williamsburg were new (relative to their LP), and they stood up well alongside some of the best numbers from their 2011 [...]
[Photo by Jill Harrison at For the Love of Brooklyn] After catching two solo sets , and several other appearances at Hopscotch Festival back in September, I've seen a lot of the Nashville guitar prodigy and Lambchop member William Tyler lately. Luckily, Willy T always has something new to share with his fans - be it songs, stories or both - and in this case, he came to the Merge Records CMJ Showcase at Mercury Lounge armed with new songs from his forthcoming 2013 record on Merge (his first for [...]
[photos courtesy of PSquared Photography] Its always an encouraging story when talent, hard work and persistence are rewarded. We have been big fans of Purling Hiss for a couple of years, and we have been convinced since we first saw them in early 2011 at Bowery Ballroom that Mike Polizze's band was ultimately going to reach a large audience. Mike is an extraordinarily talented guitarist and the band's ferocious performing style fits with the aggressive garage-punk songs. At Music Hall of Williamsburg last week, we learned before the show that Purling Hiss has signed [...]
[Photos by acidjack] If you read this site regularly, it should be pretty clear by now that we just can't say enough good things about the Brooklyn band The Loom , who we've been fans of for four years now. We continue to watch this band grow, develop and change, evolving and tweaking their sound and taking their music in new directions. What has not changed over those four years is the high quality of this band's live shows, or their kindness and generosity as performers. This year has found the Loom completing a touring cycle for [...]
[Photos by acidjack] Futurebirds continue to broaden their audience and appeal, as the Athens, GA band refines their live sound and, of course, books opening slots with well-loved acts like the Heartless Bastards . When I caught them last year at Union Pool , the venue and the atmosphere gave the proceedings a more boozy, party-band vibe. That isn't necessarily un true of this Irving Plaza set - it was Halloween weekend, the band was the only one of the night's acts to roll in with Halloween costumes, and the [...]
[Photos by acidjack] The L.A. band He's My Brother She's My Sister have multiple personalities: Their twang suggests country, their style suggests retro, the natural bounce to their songs suggests a touch of swing. You cannot fairly call them any of these things, but once it's all happening on stage, it makes sense - and it's a fun, theatrical affair to boot. This pre-Sandy, pre-Halloween weekend show at the Knitting Factory seems like it was a long time ago now, but it otherwise would have been the perfect way for its crowd to enter [...]
[Still courtesy of Bleary Eyed Brooklyn. Watch video of the show ( HERE )] Lightning Love are one of those bands we fell in love with quickly. After catching their set at Spike Hill recently, we loved their upbeat, pop-driven sound and lead singer Leah Diehl's sweet, plaintive vocals. When we called them "irresistible" in our preview of the show, we weren't kidding; the Ypsilanti/Detroit, MI-based trio has a way of worming its way into your brain in a hurry. It was great news to us that the band was around our way [...]
[photos by PSquared Photography] After a week without power, internet, regular food, and just about any semblance of normal life, it was extraordinarily comforting on Saturday to get back to something familiar - a show. This wasn't just any event though, but prolific nyctaper-recordees Woods at Music Hall of Williamsburg . It also helped that the support bands included two other NYCTaper favorites, Widowspeak and Purling Hiss. We've recorded Woods for five years, and there are more than a dozen recordings on this site. Its a testament to the band that we keep coming back [...]
[Photo by Jill Harrison of For the Love of Brooklyn ] Merge Records co-founder and Superchunk and Portastatic frontman Mac McCaughan has more than earned his beloved status in the indie rock community. His contributions to the Chapel Hill and Durham, NC music scenes, and music in general, could have taken two lifetimes, and his confessional, direct songwriting continues to resonate and remain fresh more than two decades into his music career. As for Merge, the label has been one of those remarkable and rare successes in music, remaining staunchly independent and [...]
[Photos by acidjack] Our friends in Oneida were a late but welcome addition to the "Megafaun and Friends" day show at Hopscotch Music Festival , and as usual, nobody knew what to expect in terms of the setlist. Joined by a number of special guests throughout the set (including the ubiquitous man-of-the-festival, the drummer Chris Corsano), Oneida filled the streets of downtown Raleigh, NC with their complex improvisational post-rock. This three-part sequence was, as usual, an experimental journey in guitars and organs, anchored by the incomparable drumming of Kid Millions. As we eagerly await [...]
[Photos by Jill Harrison at For the Love of Brooklyn ] As Hurricane Sandy's damage continues to be assessed here on the East Coast, it seems grimly appropriate to highlight the CMJ performance of an outstanding New Orleans-based band that represents that city's history as well as its brightening future. Hurray For the Riff Raff have been favorites of this site for a while now, and we did everything we could - including picking them up from the airport - to make it possible for them to play our unofficial CMJ day show at [...]
[Photos courtesy of Dominick Mastrangelo ] The Philadelphia duo Modern Inventors led off this final Backyard Brunch Session of the season with a set of classic, tightly-arranged rock. The band for this event was a combination of old and new: Modern Inventors guitarist Matt Kass was previously in the well-known Philadelphia band The Brakes , and he was joined for this show by two of his former bandmates, Zach Djanikian (Ukelele bass) and Spence Cohen (drums/percussion). Seeing the band for the first time, I wouldn't have guessed that they didn't always play in this [...]
[Photo by Paul Spanbauer from the Three Lobed/WXDU Day Show Facebook Page ] One of the pillars of the Three Lobed Recordings catalog has been some of the incredible new American guitar music being made across this country - everything from work by the late Jack Rose to Lee Ranaldo and Steve Gunn. The Oakland (but formerly North Carolina) guitarist Chuck Johnson developed his main Three Lobed connection through the Chapel Hill, North Carolina band Idyll Swords, when they appeared on an ambitious multi-CD box set, purposeful availment , that [...]
[Photos by acidjack] On what was sure to be one of the year's biggest "amateur nights" nightlife-wise, Heartless Bastards showed up at Irving Plaza and did what they do best - play the hell out of material new and old - without costumes, gimmicks or bullshit. As I mentioned back in February when they sold out Webster Hall (that recording here ), Heartless Bastards have hit the big time, playing to the broader audiences that their classic blues-driven rock deserves. Even with a thousand costumed pub crawls and theme parties competing for one's [...]
[Photos by acidjack] Hans Chew plays a brand of old-time, piano-driven rock n' roll you may not have even realized you were nostalgic for. As the piano man for Brooklyn country-psych stalwarts D. Charles Speer & the Helix, Chew proved himself as a composer and vocalist in his own right on his debut album Tennessee & Other Stories . Imbued with a honky-tonk barroom quality, Chew's piano playing is even more central to his solo project than it is to his work with Speer, and that's all to the good. As a Southerner now [...]
[Photo courtesy of MaryAnne Ventrice ] At first, it's hard to grasp that the women of Heliotropes are your showcase's heaviest band by far. From looking at them, you might not guess that the diverse group of young women makes monster, Sabbath-inspired rock with chunky, wah wah riffs and a raging backbeat. Also one of the newest acts on our CMJ day show bill, these ladies are kindred spirits of modern stoner/psych rockers like The Midnight Ghost Train, Pontiak and others, and they don't hold back onstage. For a band whose current output consists of [...]
[photo by P-Squared Photography] These twenty-year reunions can be mixed affairs. Some bands are content to simply play the "hits" (i.e. Pixies, Wedding Present), while others re-establish themselves as working bands performing both old and newer material (Dinosaur Jr., Mission of Burma). When Crime & The City Solution announced their first tour and album in more than twenty years, the hope would be that they would follow the latter course. Crime didn't really have any "hits" to recycle anyway. At Music Hall last week, it was quite apparent from the outset that this was indeed a [...]
[YouTube video courtesy of Mandi. See more of her videos ] Like more than a few bands from our part of the country, NYC's Pop. 1280 made the trip down to this year's Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina to share the tiny stage at Slim's with some like-minded North Carolina bands as well as some bad-ass New York contemporaries. On a bill that also featured nyctaper favorites White Hills along with Chapel Hill's Pipe and Raleigh's Whatever Brains , Pop. 1280 fell more in line stylistically with the two [...]
[photo by acidjack] Chelsea Light Moving is Thurston Moore's new band. As Sonic Youth is on hiatus and has left the future of the band somewhat of a mystery, the various members have pursued their own projects. Thurston chose to debut Chelsea Light Moving with a series of concerts throughout Europe, but their very first show in NYC took place in mid-September at 285 Kent . The show was presented by Issue Project as a Benefit for Tom Carter , which acidjack outlined in his post of the Gunn-Truscinski Duo [...]
[Photos by Dominick Mastrangelo ] Thieving Irons , the current project of Brooklyn musician Nate Martinez, is a fairly gentle, vibey sort of band even in its electric format, so I was excited to see how their sound would change in a true "acoustic" setting. The band's second album, Behold, This Dreamer! is a lovely piece of rainy-afternoon music, with gauzy production and at-times confessional lyrics that also incorporate historical and literary references. This most recent installment of the Backyard Brunch Sessions - held due to weather in a Prospect Heights apartment [...]
nyctaper
Stream: Disclosure – When A Fire Starts To Burn
Belly - "Now They'll Sleep"
You’ve GOT to Hear This: “Enemies”
Boards of Canada :: Tomorrow's Harvest
