
NYC fans were in for a special treat last Friday night as Hot Chip performed a last minute show as a part of the MySpace Secret Show Series - their first gig in over a year! The show kicked off at 9:30 following a supporting set by Philadelphia's Free Energy and was broadcast simultaneously on MySpace.com. The electronic quintet played 13 songs and 1 encore, clocking in at nearly 2 hours of absolute dancefloor bliss! The band was in full form with steel drums, disco balls, synthesizers, keyboards, maracas, trumpets, drum machines, guitars and bass in [...]

Cold Cave at Mercury Lounge 2.4.10 It was a bitter cold Thursday night but weather was not a deterrant for ticket holders and hopefuls who lined up outside of Mercury Lounge for the ultra cool and sold out self-titled bill! Ramona Gonzalez and her band Nite Jewel kicked off the night at 10 PM with a fantastic, dark and spacey set of 11 dance tracks . For those who missed out, the entire set (which included a killer cover of Suicide's Shadazz ) is [...]

Beach House at The Bell House 1.25.10 Tuesday night Baltimore's Beach House played an intimate show at The Bell House to celebrate the release of their third album Teen Dream on Sub Pop Records. I was unfamiliar with a majority of opening act Jana Hunter 's music prior to the show but all it took was one song paired with her aloof demeanor to win my affection. Although short, Baltimore's Jana Hunter provided a stellar and complimentary prelude to Beach House. After 10PM, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally hopped [...]

Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall 1/23/10 Two years ago I attended an Anti-Valentines Day themed party with my cousin at the now defunct Le Royale . Toward the end of the night, in walked a blonde wearing sunglasses, heels, a huge white fur coat...and not much else. We snickered "Who the hell does she think she is?" and continued checking out the scene. Shortly after open bar we were on our way out but stayed to check out The Lady Gaga Revue at the insistence of the bouncer. As [...]

Last Thursday New York duo Savoir Adore and their live bandmates headlined Mercury Lounge with opening act Mon Khmer (whom I will profile separately.) I last caught Savoir Adore at Spike Hill for the L Magazine's Northside Festival, but since then the band has gone on to release a stellar debut In the Wooded Forest and hit the road for their rigorous tour schedule. Savoir Adore played an enchanting 10-song set which was a visible hit with their growing number of fans. SA returns to New York next month for [...]

Saturday evening Rihanna was scheduled to play an outdoor show at Rockefeller Center in New York City to be aired as a part of Carson Daly's New Year's Eve special . Fans including myself were stoked for the performance...until hearing about the Major Snowstorm that hit the East Coast that day! However, we all braved the intense and horrible weather conditions to catch Rihanna perform 4 songs with two run-throughs each. The highlight of the show for me was when Jay-Z joined Rihanna onstage for Run This Town and Umbrella [...]

The Big Pink at Bowery Ballroom 12.3.09 The Big Pink 's debut album A Brief History of Love was fittingly released this past September to critical acclaim and heavy rotation on many of my playlists. Before diving into my review of the show, I'd like to share a brief history of the band: The Big Pink is comprised of Robbie Furze (guitar & vocals) and Milo Cordell (bass) who began making music together in 2007. Both have behind the scenes experience running the record [...]

Last night I was lucky enough to catch the Pixies first of four residing shows at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The shows are a part of the Doolitle Tour, a 20th year anniversary tour of the band's 1989 breakthrough sophomore album Doolittle . The album is heralded by many music writers as the most influential album ever and a staple on all greatest albums lists. Following Doolitte, Pixies went on to release Bossanova and Trompe le Monde before the inevitable 1993 split. The band reunited 11 years later in 2004 for [...]

Sleigh Bells played yet another fantastic set last night, this time I caught them at Le Poisson Rouge. Derek mentioned LPR having a great sound system in our interview ( Sleigh Bells: CMJ, The Hype and Beyond ) especially for my favorite song Beach Girls , and I couldn't agree more for those epic beat drops! It was a late night but worth the lack of sleep this morning. Check them out next time they're around kids! Spotted at the show: Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. To listen to Sleigh Bells, check them out on [...]

Collectively I've seen Saturday's line up 8 times this year. Peaches: 3 , Amanda Blank: 5 . Amanda Blank was first up and after having seeing her set four times this year alone, it was clear that Amanda was bringing something bigger something better to the stage this time around. Her 45-minute set began after 9PM and included 2 DJ's, a drummer, the obligatory Spank Rock guest spot AND a choreography section with background dancers! Fans were promised a revamped show for the current leg of Peaches' [...]

Last night, after being in the states for less than 24 hours, Friendly Fires played a random private party for Fred Perry at SPIN New York...and you can trust Tastes Like Caramel was there for all of the fun! It was our first time at the venue which played host to a ping pong event with the band providing the headlining entertainment. The party was in celebration of the Fred Perry brand and Friendly Fires kicking off their winter NYLON tour Thursday night in Texas with The Xx. We had the pleasure of interviewing [...]

Last week I caught my favorite Swedish pop band, Peter Bjorn and John 's show at Webster Hall. PBJ hit the stage with an all-star cast that included El Perro Del Mar , Spank Rock , U-N-I , Matt Sweeney and Andrew WK in what felt like a Monday night variety show! The onstage collaborations were great but the duet with El Perro Del Mar for Young Folks was the highlight of the set as well as Andrew WK's puzzling interpretive dancing. [...]

Last week I caught my favorite Swedish pop band, P eter Bjorn and John 's show at Webster Hall. PBJ hit the stage with an all-star cast that included El Perro Del Mar, Spank Rock, U-N-I, Matt Sweeney and Andrew WK in what fell like a Monday night variety show! The onstage collaborations were great but the duet with El Perro Del Mar for Young Folks was the highlight of the set as well as Andrew WK's puzzling interpretive dancing. My only complaint was the omission of Up Against [...]

Yesterday we attended the secret Shakira show in NYC that we wrote about earlier this week. Hopefully some of you were lucky enough to be in attendance, if not the footage can be seen at iheartradio soon! Fans came far and wide for the 5 song show that included She-Wolf, Loba (She-Wolf in Spanish), Hops Don't Lie and Give it Up to Me albeit Lil' Wayne. Shakira put on a fantastic, eccentric and eclectic set. It was a great send off into the weekend post-work, pre-partying. [...]

Sleigh Bells photographed 10.30.09 by anthoNYC Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss have managed to cause quite a stir on the internet, having going from amateurly recorded obscurity to booking sought after gigs and rolling with the likes of M.I.A. and Spike Jonze. Sleigh Bells : What is the method to their mayhem? Who are they? What kind of music is this? These were all questions that plagued us and we decided to get to the bottom of this two weeks ago, the day before Halloween. We met up with the duo at [...]

Dragonette at Santos Party House, 11.05.09 I actually didn't plan on catching Dragonette 's 1:30 AM set at Santos Party House last week but luckily I decided to sacrifice a few hours of sleep last Thursday night for a thrill. I've never written about Dragonette on Tastes Like Caramel before so in an effort to educate myself and TLC's readers who may not be familiar with Dragonette, I did a little bit of research: Canada's Dragonette consists of lead singer Martina Sorbara, guitarist Chris Hugget, producer and bassist Dan [...]

The main draw for me at Fader Fort at the ACE Hotel in NYC was Florence + The Machine's 7:15 set but along the way, open bar and wonderful sets by MNDR, Jenny Wilson, The Temper Trap, Chauffeur were an awesome bonus! Full pictures from each set can be seen HERE . << MNDR >> has been building steam over the past couple months through [...]

Delorean at Le Poisson Rouge, 10.23.09 As you know last week was a whirlwind of shows in NYC for CMJ! Some days we hit about 4 different showcases, as was the case on Friday. My Friday CMJ-age started at Rockwood for Au Revoir Simone 's set for SPIN Magazine, Dolorean at Le Poisson Rouge for self-titled Magazine, followed by Via Tania and Fall On Your Sword at Norwood for The Hours & High-Rise Showcase, topped off with Sleigh Bells at Market Hotel for the Anti-CMJ [...]

The Xx at The Delancey 10.22.09 Last week Jess and I were discussing how The Xx makes the most out of their time in New York. Back in August the band played about 6 shows in a week (See: TLC Spotlight: The xx Take on NYC ) and last week played about twice as many shows in New York during CMJ including Thursday night's 1AM "secret show" at The Delancey. Yesterday news outlets may have jumped the gun in reporting that guitarist Baria Quereshi has quit the band, taking into account the latest development [...]

La Roux at Highline Ballroom, 10.26.09 La Roux made their highly anticipated return to the states on Monday night at Highline Ballroom with Brooklyn's Body Language as the supporting act. Since interviewing Elly Jackson last month, we've anticipating the North American tour but unfortunately she's been struggling through a viral infection that's gone after her voice. The illness forced cancellation of the Chicago and Boston tour dates but luckily she was able to gather up enough strength to perform Monday in New York. We also previously interviewed Body Language and [...]