Hot on the tail of their Southeastern US tour, World War IX returned to New York with a vengeance.
Ecstatically opposed to a high concept approach, but with visual sense, and moments.
This Newcastle, UK quintet played a terrific show, even if the set’s inclusion of ten new LP songs undercut some of the band’s typical rapid-fire, crackling pace.
When two of pop music’s best songwriters, Pernice Brothers/Scud Mountain Boys’ Joe Pernice and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, come through town to perform acoustically as The New Mendicants, you drop everything and go.
11pm may seem like a strange time for an entire show to start, but when a phenomenal band from the Shanghai, China scene pairs up with the monsters of Kabuki surf punk, attendance becomes imperative.
A night of planet engulfing reverb—the mortal bewilderment of Benji couldn’t be smothered with any less.
This Philadelphia quartet’s My Bloody Valentine-esque onslaught continued through eight explosive tunes, which often flew by in a tumultuous blur. Don’t be misled by the unassuming moniker; on this night, Nothing was really something.
It sure was strange to see NYC’s poppy Pains for this fifth occasion, as frontman Kip Berman was backed by a completely different lineup than the familiar one that played the other four!
I missed London’s Toy when they played this superb-sounding tombstone store turned music venue back in January, so I was grateful to have this chance at redemption four months later. As expected, it was easy to lose oneself in a head-bobbing haze.
In a word, their hour long set was epic. We overuse that word in the human race just like we wear out words like amazing but nonetheless if you were hesitating even in the slightest about seeing them as they embark on their upcoming tour, think again. It could easily be the best show you’ve seen all year and one you’ll remember and cherish for decades to come. It will make any doubters a believer in the blissful power of shoegaze music.
It is strange to be anything at all and still we’re all glad for the shared experience of hearing someone like Jeff Mangum who is not like anyone else we’ve ever known.
England’s Factory Floor three piece started out slow but pretty soon female lead singer Nik Colk was starting to dance to her own rhythms as the heightened sense of beats took over the crowd and made for an awesome beginning set for many people. Some fans were even so appreciative of the beats by live drummer Gabriel Gurnsey that they started crowdsurfing!
Not content to put on a run-of-the-mill gig, this elusive, secretive seven-member Swedish collective delivered another energetic, elaborate, and exhausting extravaganza.
The classic lineup rolls on like an out of control freight train, only on roller coaster rails with insane grip.
If there’s no other Pitchfork festival band that you check out the full set for, make it Slowdive and you won’t regret it!
After their breakthrough third LP Too True and a Late Show with David Letterman appearance, Dum Dum Girls played two of their biggest headlining shows in NYC.
Midwestern rock duo makes music increasingly ravaged by winter, plays a show at the end of the worst one yet.
Two days, ten acts: Lizzo, Jeremy Messersmith, Best Coast, Matt and Kim, De La Soul, Valerie June, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Dessa, Guided by Voices, and Spoon.
Was it worth schlepping from New Jersey to Manhattan on the night of the city’s tenth-highest rainfall total in record-keeping history, to see these golden-voiced teenaged sisters from Indianapolis trill together? In a word: yes!
The Spudboys from Ohio land in the Big Apple and go down a storm, playing material recorded from 1974-1977.
An incomparable showman handles the violin with the light and playful manner his celebration rock requires.
Seven bands, two nights, thirty five bucks. What a bargain!
On the Emblems anniversary tour, the band is determined to articulate every sound as powerfully as possible, as if the songs, ten years older but ten times more vivid, can be made new again.
Day 3 of Boston Calling, featuring Modest Mouse, Brand New, Tegan and Sara, Phosphorescent, Kurt Vile, Built To Spill and more.
Karl’s voice is undiminished in its power and clarity after all these years, a time which included a brain aneurysm which left him with the inability to speak. That he recovered so well is a testament to his passion and drive as a musician.
Day 2 of Boston Calling, including sets from Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, Warpaint and more.
Everything profound she follows with a laugh, sometimes in the middle of a song if she can break its spell.
Day 1 of the Spring edition of Boston Calling, featuring Jack Johnson, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, and Cass McCombs.
This show spotlighted the veteran trio’s new 32-song tenth LP Purgatory/Paradise, while Muses co-founder Donelly joined her half-sister Hersh on stage for five older numbers.
Yes, the night has darkness on it’s side but Elbow makes it all the more brighter and worth living, even if we still end up on the losing side.
This cozy mid-afternoon Greenpoint brunch gig, opening for veteran CT folkie Kath Bloom, was ideally suited to Draper’s soothing approach.
Annie Clark enacts a kind of science fiction story told in the relationship between herself and her guitar.
Not only does singer Nathan Hewitt bring to mind Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, but the band also employs a similar no nonsense/no banter presentation, blasting through their ten-song set with workmanlike precision.
Sunday proved to be another very exceptional day of gorgeous sunny weather and psychedelic bands that challenged the mind and explored both the outer reaches of the genre and the melodic harmonies that it could fulfill. Unlike the way many shows and some festivals are right now, Austin Psych Fest is filled with people who want to actively listen and learn and that makes all of the difference for the bands and the mood overall.
It was another lovely day in Austin to experience all kinds of psychedelic music with influences from folk to drone to metal to pop to rock. The day seemed to be about people experiencing how far the genre could take them and enjoying both the onslaught of noise from the more aggressive bands to the relaxing sounds of music with a much different tone. Austin Psych Fest offered the whole spectrum of the genre for those with an adventurous spirit.
It was clear from the lineup that the entire festival is chocked full of psychedelic wonder but the ultimate and constant pleasure of experiencing that all day long under the sunny Austin sky was remarkable.
They squashed my ego, broke down all barriers of self-definition and aesthetics that one might use as quarantine, left me standing there stunned with only these words: What can I say, it’s a great band.
“Stand up, your father’s passing,” someone might have said.
The Rocket has returned.
WMBR’s Jon Bernhardt rallies some ’90s indie rock heroes for a celebration.
The greatest garage rock band in the world, brought to you by the Reverend Little Richard Penniman.
For the encore, they closed with an incredible version of “Coming Down” which featured Dee Dee bringing down the house with her vocal acrobatics. What a treat!
After closing the first set with “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, Mason took a short break, and soon returned with a clear focus on his solo work. “We Just Disagree” opened the second set, noting to all that this was now a Dave Mason show.
The trio’s first of two final shows focused on the bash ‘em out, ramshackle yet endearing punk days of their first two albums, and the career retrospective was a treat for longtime fans.
This rare, one-off Northeast appearance by superb new San Francisco ethereal band Slowness was hypnotic and resonant.
This was a bill so strong from top to bottom that we braved the icy tundra and slippery roads to make it out to this show.
Paisley Underground favorites The Bangles, The Three O’Clock, Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade reunited in December for a show benefitting Education Through Music – Los Angeles. Chicago-based rock photographer Philamonjaro was at L.A.‘s Henry Fonda Theatre to document the evening in this photo essay.
