AWOLNATION Releases Video for "Kill Your Heros" // Debut CD "Megalithic Symphony" Due Out March 15th

Aaron Bruno, front man for Los Angeles' Under the Influence of Giants, formed AWOLNATION in 2009 and the band came through town over the summer opening for Weezer and then followed this with shows at Brooklyn Bowl and Santos Party House. The band's debut CD Megalithic Symphony is due out next week and the band has been releasing videos from their forthcoming disc as a run-up to the release of their debut full-length.

AWOLNATION - "Kill Your Heroes"


AWOLNATION - "Kill Your Heroes" Live @ Santos Party House Nov. '10


Links:
AWOLNATION

Thee Attacks - Danish Garage Rock Band Plays Two NYC Shows in Advance of SXSW

"Thee Attacks are a mod-looking four-piece from Aalborg in north Denmark. Soulful vocals complement a '65-era Townshend guitarist, who whacks out Have Love, Will Travel-style riff after riff. So good - and with no covers - they'll easily move beyond the garage and could crossover to become a successor to The Hives. Primitivist über-producer Liam Watson is here and smiling along." - MOJO Magazine

Here is one of the pre-SXSW show that caught my attention...Danish bands Thee Attacks (garage rock) and Lars and the Hands of Light (psychedelic/pop) are playing local pre-SXSW "warm-up" shows next Friday (March 11th) and Monday night (March 14th) in addition to a DJ set on Saturday night at Motor City Bar, where Jon Spencer will be spinning along with both Danish bands.

Friday night's show (March 11th) is at Fontana's and cover is $8.00. The lineup for the evening is Swords of Chaos (Iceland) [8PM], Dinosaur Eyelids [9PM], Theee Attacks [10PM] and Lars and The Hand of Light [11PM].

Monday night's show (March 14th) is at Santos Party House and tickets is $10. Doors are at 7:30PM and the lineup for the evening is Who Made Who, Lars and The Hand of Light and Thee Attacks.



Links:
Thee Attacks

BTBAM Vocalist Tommy Rogers (aka Thomas Giles) Announces Solo Show at Santo's Party House on April 2nd

Tommy Rogers, lead vocalist, keyboardist and founding member of the award-winning North Carolina progressive rock band Between the Buried and Me has announced special U.S. tour dates in support of his just-released solo album, Pulse. The versatile front man / multi-instrumentalist who uses the pseudonym Thomas Giles (his given middle name) on the record will perform songs from the new release backed by a hand-picked live band. Support on the mini-tour will be provided by Steven Brodsky (of Cave In) and Braveyoung.

TOMMY ROGERS' TOUR DATES:

March 30 --Charlotte, NC, Casbah @ Tremont Music Hall
March 31 --Norfolk, VA, Jewish Mother
April 01 --Philadelphia, PA, North Star Bar
April 02 --New York, NY, Santo's Party House
April 03 --Providence, RI, The Met

The show at Santos Party is 18+ and tickets are $10 in advance.



Thomas Giles' Pulse is a challenging rock record designed so that the parts build up to a larger, cinematic-like structure where everything from production to arrangements to lyrics to album art is carefully crafted towards a unified purpose. Testing the limits of what he can do naturally with his voice, Rogers' strikingly beautiful falsetto and dynamic range conjures tales of anxiety, collapse, end-times and strength against swelling, heart-lifting arrangements and pristine backdrops of ambient loops, digital burbles, analog hiss and woozy drones. Exploring combinations of the outré genres of both post-rock and glitch, the music's emotionally resonant yet textural sounds draw reference to artists such as NIN, Radiohead, Muse, The Verve, Beck and Spiritualized, balancing both rock and electronic impulses.

Links:
Thomas Giles Music

AWOLNATION - Live Video from Santos Party House, NYC 11/30/10

AWOLNATION played a free show at Santos Party House on Nov. 30th. Adding free vodka, Red Bull and Asahi beer to AWOLNATION's explosive dance-punk sound made for a wild evening.



Aaron Bruno, front man for Los Angeles' Under the Influence of Giants, formed AWOLNATION about a year ago. The band came through town over the summer opening for Weezer and then followed this with a show at Brooklyn Bowl. The band puts on a hot live show that is equal parts punk and synth-driven funk and they capture this same manic energy on their debut EP "Back From Earth" which was released earlier this year.

Links:
AWOLNATION

Watain Tour N. America Behind "Lawless Darkness" // Show At Santos Party House on Dec. 2nd

Swedish black metal overlords Watain, who unleashed their fourth full-length Lawless Darkness earlier this summer, will return to North American soil later this fall. Presented by Decibel Magazine and sponsored in part by Fangoria, Metal Injection and Killer Tours, the unholy trek will commence on November 6 at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh and bludgeon its way through over two dozen cities before coming to close on December 4 at the Opera House in Toronto. Support will come from Goatwhore and Black Anvil.

The tour stops at Santos Party House on Dec. 2nd and tickets are $16 in advance. The show is all ages and doors are at 7PM.

Lawless Darkness was released via Season Of Mist on June 7. Recorded at Necromorbus Studio (Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Ondskapt et al) in Alvik, Sweden with cover art by Zbigniew M. Bielak, the record continues to reap critical accolades from press nationwide and abroad. In addition to scoring cover spots in some of metal’s most esteemed publications including Decibel, Terrorizer, and Subterranea (Metal Hammer’s extreme metal supplement), "Reaping Death," the latest single off Lawless Darkness, was certified gold in Sweden for sales in excess of 10,000 copies.

At the Sweden Rock Festival this past June, Watain played a tribute set to Bathory - audience filmed footage is below.



WATAIN: Lawless Darkness North American Tour 2010
(w/ Goatwhore, Black Anvil)
11/06/2010 Mr. Smalls - Pittsburgh, PA
11/07/2010 Reggie's - Chicago, IL
11/08/2010 Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
11/10/2010 Marquis Theatre - Denver, CO
11/11/2010 Club Vegas - Salt Lake City, UT
11/12/2010 Branx (Loveland) - Portland, OR
11/13/2010 Studio Seven - Seattle, WA
11/16/2010 Boardwalk - Orangevale, CA
11/17/2010 DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA
11/18/2010 The Ruby Room - San Diego, CA
11/19/2010 The Whiskey - Hollywood, CA
11/20/2010 Clubhouse - Tempe, AZ
11/21/2010 Club 101 - El Paso, TX
11/22/2010 The Loft - Dallas, TX
11/23/2010 Emo’s - Austin, TX
11/24/2010 Numbers - Houston, TX
11/27/2010 Back Booth - Orlando, FL
11/29/2010 Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
11/30/2010 Sonar - Baltimore, MD
12/01/2010 Peabody’s - Cleveland, OH
12/02/2010 Santo’s New York, NY [No Goatwhore]
12/03/2010 Le Fou Founes - Montreal, QC [No Goatwhore]
12/04/2010 Opera House - Toronto, ON [No Goatwhore]

Links;
Watain

Mondo Generator Release New Single "Dog Food" // Show at Santos Party House on August 19th

Over the last year, band founder Nick Oliveri and fellow member Hoss, alongside producer Bradley Cook have been working on Mondo Generator's fourth full length album Time To Destroy. During the recording process they enlisted a number of guests to make an appearance and "Dog Food" is the first taste of who is featured on the album. With Marc Diamond (The Dwarves) on guitar duties, Happy Tom (Turbonegro) has laid down some bass tracks, while Dave Grohl provides the drum tracks and Nick Oliveri delivers his trademark vocals. "Dog Food" will be released as a limited edition 7" as well as in an extended cd/digital format on August 10th and the band's US tour kicks off August 4th.

Here is the track list for the CD Single and vinyl 7":

CD Single (21 Minutes)
Dog Food
Smashed Apart (acoustic)
This Isn't Love (acoustic)
Green Machine (live/acoustic)
Endless Vacation (live/acoustic)
Bloody Hammer (live/acoustic)
Dungaree High (live/acoustic)
Pushed Aside (live/acoustic)

Vinyl 7" (5 Minutes)
Dog Food
Smashed Apart (acoustic)

Mondo Generator is playing at Santos Party House on August 19th along with Tweak Bird, Violent Soho and The Netherlands. Tickets are $10 and doors are at 7PM.

Links:
Mondo Generator

Galaxy of Tar Plays Santos Party House on May 20th

DOWNLOAD: Galaxy of Tar - "Volatile Glass"

Latin-psychedelia quartet Galaxy of Tar is playing record release show Santos Party House tomorrow night in support of their new disc Pneuma.

Galaxy of Tar features the soaring vocals of Naima Mora (winner of "America's Next Top Model") and the Latin-esque poly-rhythms and churning riffage of drummer / sonic-architect, Elias Diaz. The band "borrows equally from Diaz's Dominican roots and the industrial pulse of Brooklyn's transit system...to create an exquisite, liminal space between Santana's "Abraxas" and Tool's "Lateralus." Rounded out by the torn, metallic shards of Nemanja Rebic's guitars and the deep pockets of Samuel Fernandez's bass lines, Volatile Glass stands as a testament that, yes, there is great music coming out of New York City."

Cover for tomorrow night's show is $10 and the band is playing at 9:30PM.

Links:
Galaxy of Tar

Black Dahlia Murder - Photos from Santos Party House, NYC 3-20-10

Last Saturday night, Black Dahlia Murder played a headlining set at Santos Party House. I was looking forward to seeing some of the opening acts (Obscura, Augury and Hatesphere) but I obviously haven't been paying attention to changes in clubland. To wander off-track for a moment..."Back in the day", a weekend headlining act at CBGB, Coney Island High, etc. never went on before midnight (if you were lucky). I got to Santos around 9:30PM and Black Dahlia Murder was onstage checking the sound before starting their set and the room was filled to capacity.



Black Dahlia Murder played about an hour set and the pit started immediately. What I could appreciate is that, with the room so full, this was an old-school CBGB/L'Amour style mosh pit with none of that kung-fu karate chopping nonsense. Even those outside the pit (like myself) had fists in the air and were singing along to songs like "What a Terrible Night to Have a Curse" and "Miasma".

It was too crazy a night to keep a setlist (I felt lucky to get the photos I did with the room being a giant most pit) but here is a setlist that I found on the Internet that looks about right.

01. Unhallowed
02. Funeral Thirst
03. Necropolis
04. A Vulgar Picture
05. Everything Went Black
06. Black Valor
07. Christ Deformed
08. Elder Misanthropy
09. Closed Casket Requiem
10. I'm Charming
11. What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse
12. Statutory Ape
13. Denounced, Disgraced
14. Deathmask Divine
15. Miasma
16. I Will Return

Below is a video of the first two songs from the set that shows how crazy the night got. Once the temperature started rising and the shirts started coming off (Trevor was encouraging everyone to get naked but I didn't see anyone strip totally down from where I was standing), it just got crazier.



Links:
Black Dahlia Murder

White Wizzard Releases 'Over The Top' on March 9th / Show at Santos Party House on March 10th

Los Angeles traditional metal band White Wizzard are releasing their first full-length, Over the Top (Earache), on March 9th and are playing an early show at Santos Party House on March 10th.

The new disc was produced by Ralph Patlan (Megadeth, UFO, Michael Schenker) and Earache is taking pre-orders for limited edition colored vinyl and 2-CD versions of the disc. For anyone who wants an advance listen on how the new material sounds live, there are two White Wizzard videos from a recent performance at Reggie's in Chicago streaming on Chicago's UVTV site.

Here is an interview that I did with the band when they were in town last year for a show at Club Europa.



Links:
White Wizzard

The Morning After Girls Play Santos Party House on April 16th / New 5 Song EP "The General Public" Due Out April 21st

DOWNLOAD: The Morning After Girls - "Shadows Evolve" (MP3)

This show is going to sell out - I'd recommend getting tickets quickly.

Australia-to-New York transplants The Morning After Girls are playing a special one-off show at Santos Party House to celebrate the release of their new single "The General Public". The title track from this five-song EP is also the first single from the band's forthcoming debut CD Alone.

The band has been getting some great reviews for their recent live performances and here is a video from the band's sold-out show at the Mercury Lounge in January.


The Morning After Girls - "Chasing Us Under"



Tickets for Thursday's show at Santos Party House are $10 and The Morning After Girls are sharing the bill with Paul Dillon's (x-Mercury Rev) new project Silver Rockets and DJ Cock Fosters.

Links:
The Morning After Girls' MySpace Profile

The Pack A.D. Play Santos Party House on April 23 / New Video for "Making Gestures"

DOWNLOAD: The Pack A.D. - "Making Gestures" (MP3)

Vancouver heavy blues/rock band The Pack A.D. are in the middle of a two-month long US tour. After which, the band will be going back into the studio to record their follow-up to Making Gestures (which was released last August on Mint Records).

The only local show on the current tour is at Santos Party House on Thursday, April 23rd. Advance tickets are $10 and this is an early show, with doors at 7PM. On the bill with The Pack A.D. are Cherie Lilly, May Lane and Tayisha Busay.

Earlier this year, The Pack A.D. released the video for "Making Gestures" which gives anyone not familiar with the band a sense for the sonic power of their live show.



I did a video interview with Becky and Maya at their show last year at Piano's which also includes some live footage from the show.



Links:
The Pack A.D.'s Website
The Pack A.D.'s MySpace Profile

WITNESS (Peter Gabriel's human rights organization) Is Holding a Fund Raiser at Santos Party House on Friday, Oct. 24th

Give it up for a good cause...

WITNESS uses video and online technologies open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. WITNESS was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation as a project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). In 1988, Peter was part of Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Tour. He was struck by the stories he heard from survivors of human rights abuses and the lack of attention these stories received. Peter had brought along one of the first camcorder models and realized the potential of video as a tool against abuse; he noted that perpetrators of abuses were often brought to justice when photographic or video evidence of abuses existed.

Uncensored Interview is a music-oriented broadband video platform that willl be hosting the event with WITNESS and dedicating the evening to raising money for their cause.

The party on Friday is going to be held at Santos Party House- downstairs, on 100 Lafayette Street in New York City. The lineup includes sets by critically acclaimed Bhangra ambassador DJ Rekha, international DJ sensation Aaron LaCrate, hip hop scratch master DJ Boo and surprise guest DJs.

During the event, WITNESS staffers will be conducting video interviews with attendees to be uploaded to WITNESS' participatory media site, The Hub (http://hub.witness.org), in support of the 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 2008.

Links:
WITNESS
Uncensored Interview