July 2, 2009
It wasn't so long ago we waved goodbye to Jelly NYC's three-year experiment at Williamsburg's McCarren Park, filling its enormous Pool with hipsters, booze, and buzz bands instead of water, leading to the finest free Sunday/undproductive Monday combo in NYC. We curated the very first one with Les Savy Fav and Holy Fuck. We went to practically every one after. And then we struggled to explain the tragedy of the city earmarking the pool to become a, well, pool, to out-of-towners.
But, rejoice. The Pool Parties live on, as do their website, although they won't be held in any sort of a pool at all: Jelly NYC has again assembled a ridiculous slate of free shows, once more within a stone's throw of the Bedford Ave. L stop, at the Williamsburg Waterfront (aka "East River State Park," although I don't know anyone who ak it a that). It's running 8 straight Sundays, for free, and yes there will be dodgeball and the best people watching this side of the river. (Pretty much any river.)
The first two Sundays start strong -- Mission of Burma/Fucked Up/Ponytail on one, and the unlikely but awesome pairing of Dirty Projectors/Magnolia Electric Co. on the next -- but expect madness for the No Age/Dan Deacon/Deerhunter bill and the Grizzly Bear/Beach House day. And a free Girl Talk show in Williamsburg? Sounds like a nice, quietly controlled time where everyone wears an appropriate amount of clothing. Bring a date!
Here's the full schedule:
Continue reading The Jelly Pool Parties Return With Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Girl Talk, But No Pool...
Posted at 8:46 AM by amrit in
latest by super_fantastic
July 1, 2009
Whether they're outright taking over the Letterman show or having their latest LP remixed by Hype Machine darlings, U2 are a band that tend to go all out with their projects. Bet you didn't know that before. You're welcome. As is their m.o., the band has totally whoa-verhauled their stage show once again for the 360º Tour, which kicked off last night in Barcelona and has thoroughly redefined "performance in the round." Apparently they spent two weeks rehearsing for the show, and judging by these photos I'd believe it took them just as long to erect the monstrous altar to U2's collective ego (or, stage). It looks sensational, obvs. Along with this pic gallery, you can take a virtual tour at 360.u2.com. The setlist aimed to please and was peppered with shout outs to, and quick teases of, Michael Jackson's historic oeveure. (FYI he died last week.) We have some surprisingly good fan video to put you right in Camp Nou, followed by the night's setlist.
Continue reading U2 Launch 360° Tour In Barcelona...
Posted at 5:31 PM by amrit in , ,
Tags: Michael Jackson | U2
latest by clim
June 29, 2009
For 10 years now, Austin's Explosions In The Sky have been putting their stamp on a cinematic strain of expansive, chiming instrumental post-rock. This tour is functioning as something of a decade-anniversary celebration, then, with Munaf thanking the Palladium Saturday night for getting emotional with them for all these years. They should thank Friday Night Lights, too; while The Show Everybody Should Be Watching's ratings remain criminally low, there's no denying a certain swell of adoration for EITS after three seasons of providing note-perfect theme music situational music to the note-perfect small town classic. (Gabe knows what I'm talking about.) The Palladium set offered little by way of light show; according to photographer Andrew Youssef, it was just a no frills, "straight up melt your face rock" show. Good undercard too, including fellow atmospheric dramatist Eluvium, and suf-punk relief coming by way of No Age, who played a new song that may or may not have been titled "Fuck Prop 8 In The Face," which may or may not be one of the great song titles of 2009. (It may.) Lots of photos of the night here, and you can catch the Explosions anniversary tour on these dates.
Posted at 5:20 PM by amrit in ,
Tags: Eluvium | Explosions In The Sky | No Age
latest by Nojo
June 24, 2009
With the excellent Farm, J, Murph, and Lou are back and spry as ever. And with their colossal amp and pedal rigs, they are eardrum rupturing as ever, too. Dinosaur Jr. is touring to show everybody how it's done, yet again, last night playing the second of a sold-out two-night stand at the Troubadour. Tomorrow night they'll rattle teeth and test the mettle of Jimmy Fallon's sound crew, so set your TiVOs. Opening were Long Beach psychedelic punkers and CMJ faves Crystal Antlers, and photographer Andrew Youssef was on hand to snap both.
Posted at 11:42 AM by amrit in ,
Tags: Crystal Antlers | Dinosaur Jr
latest by tim
Yesterday Dirty Projectors' van flipped when they were traveling from Michigan to Toronto. (Yes, that's a photo of said van.) According to the band, they'd stopped at a fruit stand and after moving back onto the highway were hit by a car that had jumped the meridian after it was cut-off in the left lane by a semi. Folks are OK, but understandably shaken. Accordingly, the band's show tonight (6/24) at Lee's Place in TO's been canceled, as well as their show tomorrow at Montreal's Theatre Plaza. No word on what happens after that, though the band is scheduled to play dates in North America and Europe later in the summer. For now, in lieu of speculation, here's the statement the Projectors thankfully posted under the headline "We're O.K.!!!".
Continue reading Dirty Projectors Survive Pretty Serious Accident...
Posted at 9:20 AM by brandon in
Tags: Dirty Projectors
latest by LILTRUCKER
Citing "all the bad news about the economy and the layoffs," Virgin Mobile has rebranded its fourth annual American music festival the Virgin Mobile FreeFest, and has reduced its price of admission from a lot of dollars to no dollars at all. An exec for the company tells Billboard they were just trying to "put a smile on people's faces." With the details we have it's hard to be cynical about this, and you know how much I love being cynical about everything. Weezer and Blink-182 headline, and the undercard is no OzzFest shit show either, including St. Vincent, the Hold Steady, Holy Fuck, Girl Talk, Public Enemy, Franz Ferdinand, Taking Back Sunday, and Pete Tong. Yes also the Bravery and Jet, but let's just take it easy now. It's free.
The FreeFest will be 8/30 in Columbia, Md. at the best venue of 2009, the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Tickets are available starting 6/27 via ticketmaster.com, but if you bought tickets to a previous Virgin Fest, or if you're a Virgin Mobile customer, expect an email on 6/25-26 giving you first dibs. And with all the nonstop Ticketmaster scandals, the company's trying its best not to taint the goodwill a free event of this magnitude generates by waiving its fees for those picking up tickets in person at the MPP or 9:30 club in D.C. But if you want them to deliver 'em, they'll gladly do so. For a fee. Also if you're into all this, you can donate $5 to "help youth homeless shelters" by texting FREEFEST to 20222.
Posted at 9:17 AM by amrit in
Tags: Virgin Mobile Festival | Weezer
latest by cm
June 23, 2009
Last night Wilco played the first show in a sold-out three-night run at the Wiltern Theatre, sure to be attended by fans young and old. Whatever your age group, Wilco's playing relentless marathon sets this tour (last night's was over 2 hours, 28 songs with a 10-song encore), apparently calculated to break everyone's curfews -- even the Wiltern's. The band's intro music was the Family Feud theme, Nels melted faces as always, and Jeff happily obliged a fan's request they come back more often by telling him they'd be back tomorrow. Andrew Youssef was in the pit for these pics of the band and opener Jonathan Wilson.
This past weekend the folks behind Record Store Day are christening a new holiday for tangible-audio-philes called Vinyl Saturday. Wilco's getting behind the celebration in a major way, releasing a new 7" featuring a song titled "Unlikely Japan," an early version "Impossible Germany." It shares lyrics with the Sky Blue Sky cut, but otherwise this is an entirely distinct rendition -- pulsing, slightly fuzzed and electronic, gorgeously defeated in tone -- much less Steely Dan, much more the arty side of Wilco. You can and should hear that, along with checking last night's setlist and Wilco's upcoming dates right here:
Continue reading Wilco @ The Wiltern, Los Angeles 6/22/09...
Posted at 10:21 AM by amrit in ,
Tags: Jonathan Wilson | Wilco
latest by Jon
June 22, 2009
Although Trent Reznor's big-upped Grizzly Bear on his defunct (and now refunct) Twitter, he gave the soothing side of indie rock a big kiss in high profile print recently, telling Newsweek:
I saw Sufjan Stevens last year, and I was like, how is his singing that good? The band Grizzly Bear, I think they're excellent. There's a beauty and a musicality there that I wish would have been in vogue in the late '80s, when I was forming bands. The aesthetic I was tuned into was a more dumbed-down kind of thing. Sometimes listening to stuff like they're doing makes me feel irrelevant. That's a nice, healthy kick in the ass. And it's interesting to see there's room for that in what's considered hip these days.
A friend once told me that Trent's similar tweetment of the Horrors' new album gave their sales a massive surge; that said, it's not like you could find an available ticket to the Grizzly Bear/Here We Go Magic L.A. stop even before that Newsweek hit the stands. The slowly-crossing-over Brooklyn outfit is finishing a celebrated cross-country trek tonight in San Francisco, on the heels of last night's show at the Wiltern, Grizzly Bear's largest headlining venue yet. Opening was Luke Temple, whose Here We Go Magic is reportedly beginning to coalesce into a live outfit on par with its hypnotic and worthy debut LP. Thanks to photographer Andrew Youssef for bringing back these photos.
Posted at 5:18 PM by amrit in ,
Tags: Grizzly Bear | Here We Go Magic
latest by tyler
