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DOWNLOAD: Futurebirds - "nearsayefive"
DOWNLOAD: Futurebirds - Live at Union Pool, Brooklyn 2-26-11 (posted to www.nyctaper.com)
(Photo: Eddie Whelan)
It is hard to put a label on Futurebirds' music as some of their songs fit perfectly alongside the music of recent touring partner J, Roddy Walston but other songs sound like something out of Explosion in the Sky's catalogue.
2011 has been a large year for Futurebirds. The Athens outfit has released two well-received EPs; road-dogged the nation with bands such as Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Gary Clark, Jr., J Roddy Walston & the Business, Thomas Hardy, and grass giraffes; rocked to rave reviews at Bonnaroo Music Festival and Austin City Limits; and generally simply had a swell time—though brains and livers might scream otherwise.
Futurebirds' Holiday Road Tour, which includes grass giraffes and Brantley Jones, plays Brooklyn Bowl on Dec. 12th. Futurebirds will have a tour-exclusive single - the Holiday Road Super Single - for sale at each stop. The split single features new Futurebirds track "Serial Bowls", a cover of eddie the wheel's "nearsayerfive", a grass giraffes remix of Futurebirds' "Megachills", and a grass giraffes original, "Don't Forget Me." Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 DOS - Doors are at 6PM and the show starts at 8PM.
Links:
Futurebirds
DOWNLOAD: Deleted Scenes - "Bedbedbedbedbed" (from Young People's Church of the Air)
D.C. post-punk band Deleted Scenes released their second disc, Young People's Church of the Air, in September on Sockets Records. Their newest collection of songs originated in frontman Daniel Scheuerman's basement and assumed a live identity over the course of 300 tour dates. Recorded at the Garden Center in Hockessin, DE, with Nick Krill (The Spinto Band) and Birdseed Shirt producer L. Skell, the album mixes themes of family, love, death, and joy incorporating studio sounds and home-recorded lo-fi noise. Young People's Church of the Air's title was fittingly taken from a 1930's radio-church hymnal Scheuerman found in an old piano bench at the Garden Center, and evokes the elusive and sometimes illusory nature of hope.
In an interview with Washingtonian, singer/guitarist Daniel Scheuerman was asked to describe the band's new album and he said: "This new album is our second, and we wrote it over the course of the last two or three years. Lyrically, it opens up a lot of new territory, so it moves away from a post-adolescence/early twenties negativity, and tries to come to terms with a post-cynical outlook. In your late twenties, you start to doubt the usefulness of negativity, and try to find truth in a world that doesn’t really offer it, so I think you try to create it yourself instead. It’s about getting over yourself, I guess...One of my favorite songs on the new album is called “Bedbedbedbedbed,” and that’s definitely inspired by getting engaged and appreciating the nice things about relationships, the ways in which they help you."
Deleted Scenes came through NYC over the summer and are now back on the road for a Fall tour. The band is playing two NYC shows with the first being at Brooklyn Bowl on Dec. 2nd with Jukebox the Ghost and The Spinto Band. Tickets for this show are $10 in advance and $12 (DOS) and doors are at 6PM. The second show is at Pianos on Dec. 3rd. Tickets for this show are also $10 and Deleted Scenes is playing with Mandala, Lesser Ghost and Backlights.
Links:
Deleted Scenes
DOWNLOAD: Waters - "For the One" (from Out in the Light - out 9/20)
Photo credit: Ashlie and Amber Chavez
Waters is the new project from ex-Port O'Brien front man Van Pierszalowski. Following the demise of that band last year, he took a break from making music and ended up living in Oslo, Norway. After some time off, he began writing again, then traveled most of the next year to Alaska, California, and Brooklyn, NY, before returning to Oslo to record the album with a band he put together. The album, like "For The One," has a louder, fuller, more aggressive and raw sound than anything he's written before, and was recorded in Dallas with John Congleton (St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, The Walkmen).
Waters just played the Immergut Festival in Germany last weekend and will support Wye Oak in Europe before coming to NYC to play the Northside Fest and a Mercury Lounge headlining show later this month.
Waters Tour Dates:
JUNE 07 -- AMSTERDAM, NL, PARADISO*
JUNE 08 -- GHENT, BE, VOORUIT*
JUNE 09 -- HAMBURG, DE, MOLOTOW*
JUNE 10 -- GRONIGEN, NL, VERA*
JUNE 11 -- MUNICH, DE, ATOMIC CAFÉ*
JUNE 12 -- VIENNA, AT, CHELSEA CLUB*
JUNE 13 -- FRANKFURT, DE, SINKKASTEN*
JUNE 14 -- BERLIN, DE, COMET*
JUNE 16 -- LONDON, UK, HOXTON BAR & GRILL*
JUNE 18 -- BROOKLYN, NY, CAMEO GALLERY (Northside Festival)
JUNE 19 -- BROOKLYN, NY, BROOKLYN BOWL# (Northside Festival)
JUNE 21 -- NEW YORK, NY, MERCURY LOUNGE (late show, 10pm set)
* supporting Wye Oak
# supporting Deer Tick (performing as Deervana)
Links:
Waters
DOWNLOAD: Hollis Brown - "Doghouse Blues"
NYC quartet Hollis Brown has been playing around town for the last three-four years but I've never had an opportunity to hear what they sound like prior to receiving a copy of the band's forthcoming EP "When The Weather's Warm". A number of reviews that I've read over the last few years have compared Hollis Brown to The Black Crowes (which I don't hear at all) but I would suggest a better comparison is the bastard child of John Fogerty and the MC5 (if you can image such a combination) with a little bit of Del Shannon thrown in on the side.
"When The Weather's Warm" is a gritty, blues-drenched slab of old-school rock that doesn't require visual props like bell-bottoms and feathered boas to prove its authenticity. Hollis Brown embraces a variety of styles and tempos across this 16-minute/five tracks EP, all the while staying true to its blues-rock core. The disc's lead-off track "Doghouse Days" comes on like early MC5, back in the day when they were playing James Brown medleys. Both "Miracle" and "Down On Your Luck" sounds like tracks that easily could have been part of John Fogerty playbook. Continuing to mix things up though, "Hey Baby, Shake Mama" sounds like the sort of thing Led Zeppelin was playing on their first post-Yardbirds tour but with a more relaxed vibe.
Hollis Brown are playing a CD Release Show at Brooklyn Bowl on Feb. 26th. Tickets are $5 and there will be a special guest appearance from DMC (of Run DMC) who recently finished a new single ("The Fly") with Hollis Brown that will be released as a limited edition 7" in the Spring.
Links:
Hollis Brown
The event is at Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Avenue) and is all-ages until 6PM.
From 12PM - 5PM, the promoters will be giving away 160 Cannondale bikes to Blue Ribbon employees for the NYC MS Ride, as well as raffling off bikes to the public, doing free helmet fittings, tire changing workshops and generally having a family-friendly good time.
The bike distribution will be followed by a fundraiser party at Brooklyn Bowl from 7-11 PM called Local x Local, which features the best in local food, beer, and music. Special features will include free chips and salsa from Brooklyn Salsa, and a performance by rising star Maluca.
Maluca, who joins the ranks of M.I.A. and Santigold on Diplo’s record label Mad Decent, brings the heat with “tropical punk” ghettotech and a fierce latin flare.
Brooklyn's bike community will be coming out in force to raise awareness for the MS Ride and celebrate. Donations can be made inside the Bowl, but the whole event is free and open to the public.
Links:
NYC MS Ride
DOWNLOAD: School of Seven Bells - "Windstorm" (Live)
Note to RIAA Weenies - Live track cleared through Vagrant; go look for illegal Lady Gaga downloads elsewhere
School of Seven Bells is playing Brooklyn Bowl this Thursday, Sept. 9th. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. The show will likely sell out in advance so buy your tickets now.
Links:
School of Seven Bells
DOWNLOAD: Glint - "Freak" (Radio Edit)
Local electro-rock band Glint is playing a free show at Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday, Feb. 18th as part of the Hank and Cupcakes Video Release Party. Glint got a lot of buzz with their 2009 release Sound in Sight which had songs featured on iTunes and Melrose Place and the band also made two live appearances on Fearless Music (video from the first appearance is below).
Glint's music has been described as "emulative of early David Bowie and Eno-esque atmosphere" and, last year, the UK Metro stated “Muse's Matt Bellamy is a clear influence on Glint singer Jase Blankfort, but the New York outfit are arguably even more epic than the British band, full of glistening synths, massive hooks and orchestral swatches [...] This may be your only chance to catch them in relatively intimate surrounds before the inevitable arenas".
Glint is currently in the studio working on a new disc so this show is essentially a warm-up show for the band's upcoming US tour in March.
Links:
Glint
DOWNLOAD: We Are Wolves - "Blue" (from Invisible Violence)
Montreal dance-rock band We Are Wolves are in town this weekend for two shows. The band is touring behind their third CD Invisible Violence which came out just a few days ago on Dare To Care Records.
The band doesn't slow down on the dance floor grooves on this new disc but there is a bit of a "cooler core" to the overall sound. In a recent interview with Exclaim.ca, Alexander Ortiz "volunteers a recent group obsession with David Bowie's Low that subliminally seeped into their sound, even to the point where producer Moumneh mentioned it during recording."
We Are Wolves are playing The Studio at Webster Hall on Friday, Feb. 5th. Tickets are $10 and the band is playing at 11PM.
On Saturday night, We are Wolves are playing Brooklyn Bowl as part of the Hot Chip Official After-Party and DJ Set. Tickets are $10 and doors are at 11PM.
Links:
We Are Wolves' MySpace Profile