"I'm supposed to advertise myself, so any questions?" seems to be Wallis Bird's personal calling card for the evening. Most of the queries revolve around Wallis' phone number (087-4, apparently), but she's doing a solid job of advertising herself without the assorted between-song antics, producing a charismatic, bubbly singer-songwriter set that's a touch cheesy yet intriguing and fulfilling at the same time. No doubt Wallis picked up a few fans along the way, but right from the off there's no doubt who the sell-out Olympia crowd are wedged against the barriers for. [...]
A man from Memphis plods onto the Whelan's stage. Attached to his stout frame is a Gibson Flying-V guitar. Hailing from a city predominantly affiliated with the blues, he aims a plectrum at an instrument which has been adopted by purveyors of kitschy hair metal. The ensuing racket may well extract some of the despair of the blues as well as more than a few decibels of metal, but it is neither (nor, thankfully, a hybrid). Instead, Jimmy Lee Lindsey is a psychopathic popstar. He's Del Shannon with static and a sneer. He's Buddy Holly with a [...]
Regular readers may recall that I first fell in love with the powerful, confessional Americana folk of Signature Sounds artist Caroline Herring after last year's Lantana , a tour de force concept album of sorts which evoked a broad set of southern women's voices struggling with their own claims to power and the lack thereof. As we wrote last month on the cusp of its release , Herring's newest album, Golden Apples of the Sun , is a stunner, too, and I'm happy to report that it's garnering the attention it deserves, [...]
Hey, we saw Justin Townes Earle (name must be written in full) a few months ago parading around the East Village with Jason Isbell (formerly of the Drive By Truckers.) He looked like the above song "Mama's Eyes" sounds -- dark and raw. One of our many motos here at Stark is "that's what we expect out our artists --" not to be too sadistic, but we want our favorites to be drunks, disturbed, do drugs, have promiscuous sex, over extend their welcomes (insert Wild Yaks' drummer at After The Jump here) -- it [...]
Hail to the power of radio play. Tonight is testament to what remains the number one force for pushing a band around these parts. Following five previous visits to these shores, one album and a considerable radio hit under their belt, The Airborne Toxic Event walk onstage at The Olympia, reaching something of a benchmark of success in this country. They've drawn a sizeable crowd too, though there are very few of the skinny-jeaned posse in attendance tonight. This is not a draw for those who like to think they're on the cusp of things and - at [...]
[MP3] Solange - Stillness Is The Move Amber Coffman has a really great voice and is cute as a button, especially when she hops around on stage like a diva during "Stillness Is The Move". So much for acting like a diva, as a last minute change to this Thursday's edition we'll hear the Dirty Projector's tune trade in its indie boots for soulful socks. Solange Knowles , the sister to booty shaking Beyoncé , reworks the tune with a smooth voice [...]
There's too many reasons not to like Dawn Landes: she plays the glockenspiel, has a background in sound engineering, covers the likes of Peter Bjorn & John and Tom Petty, and is married to fellow folky Josh Ritter. Most importantly, she has a beautiful voice and sticks it some pretty good tunes. I highly recommend Landes's excellent performance of "Straight Lines" on the Black Cab Sessions . Then dig into her brilliantly layered version of Harry Nilsson's "Life Line"—multi-tracked vocals and guitars shimmering with hypnotic and endearing quirk. (Photo by Wrapped In Piano Strings ) [...]
Over the course of two critically praised albums, Kentucky-raised, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Dawn Landes has found that interesting three-way intersection of loosely structured folksy Americana, cheeky, trendy TV-friendly alt-pop themes and the stripped-to-the-core soft side of indie rock -- all of which add up to what might be termed "garage pop." Throw in a vocal style that's all sexy, diffuse nonchalance and songs that don't so much swagger as saunter and you've got Sweet Heart Rodeo , out in the U.K. now and arriving on this side of the pond January 19 via Cooking Vinyl. [...]
photos by Ezra Caldwell BV : And you also played on the new Doveman record, The Conformist , which came out October 20th. Bryce Dessner: Yeah the three of us, my brother and Bryan from [The National] all play on that record. We're kind of like the house band, so we back him up for a bunch of those songs. National frontman Matt Berninger sings on The Conformist [...]
New Recordings 28/10/2009 David Ford - Rescue Rooms Nottingham 20/10/2009 AA Bondy - Academy 3 Manchester 17/10/2009 Richard Hawley - Philharmonic Hall Liverpool 11/10/2009 Richard Hawley - Albert Hall Nottingham 24/09/2009 Otis Gibbs - The Maze Nottingham 24/09/2009 Chuck Prophet - The Maze Nottingham 16/09/2009 Richmond Fontaine - Academy 3 Manchester 16/09/2009 Al James - Academy 3 Manchester 13/09/2009 Josh Ritter - Bridgewater Hall Manchester 12/09/2009 Ray Lamontagne - City Hall Sheffield 10/09/2009 Okkervil River - The Rescue Rooms Nottingham 07/09/2009 Josh Ritter - Brudenell Social Club Leeds 06/09/2009 The Low Anthem - The Deaf Institute Manchester 04/09/2009 [...]
New albums this month from Bowling For Soup, Paramore, Alice In Chains, Michael Bublé, Gabby Young, and Dead by Sunrise. Horehound - The Dead Weather Two Suns - Bat For Lashes To Lose My Life - White Lies Welcome To The Night Sky - Wintersleep Backspacer - Pearl Jam 11:11 - Rodrigo Y Gabriela The Resistance - Muse Wait For Me - Moby Black Gives Way To Blue - Alice In Chains Yeah So - Slow [...]
The home studio of The Low Anthem My coverage collection is pretty light on at the moment, but I do have a few gems to share with you. I'm not a huge Dylan fan, but I love anything The Low Anthem guys get up to. Dignity (Bob Dylan Cover) - The Low Anthem I love the Guillemots version of Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out' - don't let its slow beginning fool you, this is [...]
One last gargantuan batch of photos from an exhausting, exhaustive week of NYC showgoing. On Friday Jessica Amaya joined us at Doveman's record release party at the Elevated Hole, a Chelsea loft owned by the Yale English Dept. chair Michael Warner. The room was a perfect foil for Doveman's candlelit Conformist material, along with guest performances by Sean Lennon , Bryce Dessner , Dawn Landes , Charlotte Kemp Muhl , Jennifer Charles , and Justin Bonds . Afterward she trekked to Pianos for the Terrible Records showcase, featuring [...]
wie ein gutes wirtshaus. hier kannst du immer einkehren und bist auch gern gesehen ( hier und hier ), selbst wenn du dich ein paar jahre hast rar gemacht. und die bedienung ist freundlich und nennt dich beim namen. die speisen sind variantenreich und von immer gleicher qualität. wer ein wenig serious business records vernachlässigt hat, dem wird es ähnlich ergehen. wie ein gutes wirtshaus geriert sich das label aus new york. die letzten neuigkeiten wollen nun berichtet sein und so geben wir uns mühe, dies in aller knapp- und angemessenheit zu erledigen. der [...]
This is where things get messy. The final day of CMJ falls on a weekend bringing more day parties than any other. A brief rundown of what I could find is below. AFTER THE JUMP DAY PARTY @ BROOKLYN BOWL: Bear in Heaven (7PM), Lovvers (6PM), Soft Black (5PM), Harlem (4PM), Surfer Blood (3PM), Grooms (2PM), Savior Adore (1PM) BROOKLYN VEGAN/BOWERY PRESENTS DAY PARTY @ PIANOS: The Wheel (5:30PM), Cymbals Eat Guitars (5PM), Dent May (4:45PM), Deastro (4:15PM), JBM (4PM), Still Life Still (3:30PM), Pete and the Pirates [...]
by Bill Pearis Cymbals Eat Guitars @ Bowery Ballroom in May ( more by Ryan Muir ) Okay, so Saturday is officially bonkers. I think every band in town this week is playing somewhere, sometimes more than once. There are so many good shows you may get an ulcer trying to narrow down your choices. Here we go: DAYTIME Surely there's no place you'd rather be Saturday afternoon than at [...]
With little to no expectations of Dawn Landes we arrived at the Bell House ready to absorb whatever the beautiful New Yorker had to offer. Dawn's charm instantly spread contagiously through the room from the very start, hitting one person at a time as she stared and smiled at random members of the audience, hell, when our time came we were ready to get down on one knee.
The xx @ South Street Seaport in August ( more by Chris La Putt ) tonight in NYC * Bell @ Sycamore * The Antlers @ Sound Fix Records * Arms, Afuche, Graydon @ Fontana's (CMJ) * FIXED w/ Aeroplane @ Santos Party House * The xx, Javelin, Lia Ices @ Mercury Lounge (CMJ) * US Royalty, Middle Distance Runner @ Fontana's (CMJ) [...]
Last night was kind of a bust for me CMJ -wise, (well I didn't go out, so it wasn't like I went out and was disappointed or anything), but tonight should prove to be a different story. It looks I'll be dividing my time between the Mercury Lounge (early/late), Bowery Ballroom , Arlene's Grocery (M for Montreal), and perhaps a late night visit to the Cake Shop ( After the Jump Late Night Party ) or the Bell House . Here are some of my Wednesday night picks: [...]
Warpaint Here's our guide for next week's CMJ Festival in New York. Look for Warpaint, Rough Francis, Electric Tickle Machine, Sin Fang Bous, Japandroids, The Megaphonic Thrift, The Very Best, Speech Debelle and The xx to generate the biggest buzz. Air Waves (Myspace) Hometown: Brooklyn, New York Label: Catbird Records Air Waves - Knock Out Alec Ounsworth (Myspace) Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Label: Anti [...]
‘09 Been Kind
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
remixed: the beach boys, lady gaga, duck sauce, ellie goulding, shakira, la roux, madonna, & more!!!
