To promote his newly released solo debut, Phrazes Of The Young, the Strokes frontman is playing a string of LA shows. We have a pair of tickets for his show at the Downtown Palace Theatre on Nov 13th at 8pm, if you’re interested.
If you’re in the area and want to go with a friend, leave a comment with your name and valid email address. The winner will be contacted Friday morning.
Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension
Julian Casablancas – River of Breaklights
Buy Phrazes of the Young at InSound.
Tegan & Sara are playing Orpheum Theatre in LA this Sunday, October 25th @ 7PM.
We have two tickets to give away. If you’re in the area and want to go with a friend, leave a comment with your name and valid email address. The winner will be contacted Sunday morning.
Picture Courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan
It was tough trying to explain a Girl Talk concert to my parents. “It’s a guy with his laptop, putting songs together. There’s toilet paper rolls, and confetti and stuff. Basically, it’s just a giant dance party. Trust me, it’s not lame- I think.”
And thankfully, as expected, the Girl Talk live experience was far from lame. It was an epic, hour-and-a-half masterpiece of mash-ups, beach balls, sweaty hipsters, and soothing rain. The beautiful New York backdrop didn’t hurt, either. Continue reading →
Miike Snow are six on stage, and they all wear matching shiny black track jackets. One, obstructed by stacked trunks bearing equipment, wears a cowboy hat. Their music is complex and dancy, all synth and keyboard and a thousand unnameable gadgets, a little guitar and drums that sound like a machine. Everything is arranged in a neat arch on Music Hall of Williamsburg’s wide stage, organized in little stations for each member.
Somewhat surprisingly, Miike Snow’s songs are about sadness and depression – songs to walk alone in the rain to, lyrics-wise. Their music is music to get down in the club to, unthinking and unconsidered. The bald man twisting dials on the synth in front of me bobs his head excitedly – “he looks like he belongs DJing in a club,” my friend insists – to lyrics like “don’t forget to cry at your own burial.” The crowd dances more than I had expected them to. Depressing lyrics don’t matter – for Miike Snow, words are an afterthought, something to provide added rhythm, to layer with fuzz and xylophone. They are good words, often, but unnecessary. What matters is music – sound, loud and echoing and varied and ecstatic, regardless of anything else. Continue reading →
Town Hall on 43rd Street in Manhattan is full of smoke like a 1920s lounge. With red velvet chairs and polished mahogany and giant crystal chandeliers, everything seems like a throwback. Grizzly Bear’s music seems to fit here – sometimes it contains elements of the past, but they are wrapped up in smooth modern twists – reverb, omnichord, a pile of effects pedals on the floor. But there is that choir element, a layering upon one another of four voices; there is the string quartet and the piano; there is the flute and the clarinet. Grizzly Bear’s music comes from another time and it is not now, and it is difficult to say whether it is the past or the future. Continue reading →
Southpaw, in Park Slope, is dark and uncrowded. The sparse crowd is an awkward, eclectic mix. In one corner a DJ spins nineties rap, watched by awestruck preppy hipsters in peach button-downs. Most of the crowd clusters happily by the long bar. Chiddy Bang’s first New York City headlining show is performed for no more than forty people, happy drunk girls and guys in their thirties absently sipping a beer and, in one corner, a white-haired couple I assume are somebody’s grandparents.I have never seen live rap before, with the exception of one Talib Kweli song. But Chiddy Bang aren’t really a rap group like you’d expect them to be. Continue reading →
Sort of. Chiddy Bang will play Brooklyn! Here’s the info:
When:Wednesday May 13th
Location:Southpaw (Park Slope,Brooklyn)
Time:8:00
Admission:$10.00
I’m giving away a pair of tickets. If you’re interested in being on the list, leave a comment with your name, your guest’s name, and your email address. Will pick a winner this Friday, May 8th.
Wes Miles pulls at his clothes like he wants to say “Free me from this earthly prison!” He stares into nothing. He turns this way and that with lifts and presses of one boat-shoed foot. Wes Miles does not stand still, and the rest of his band does not stand still, and no one in this cavernous room stands still, and everything jitters electrically.
This is Ra Ra Riot’s biggest headlining show to date, and Wes nervously admits this between “Run My Mouth Off” and “Winter ’05,” halfway into the show as if he doesn’t want to jinx things. I have always believed that Ra Ra Riot deserve more attention and more love, and when year-end lists came out last December I looked nervously for The Rhumb Line (their only album) everywhere, for their name in the top-ten of best live band, for “Ghost Under Rocks” under best song, but I was disappointed to discover that not all people extend the kind of adoration to Ra Ra Riot that I do. This sold-out show appears to be a step in the right direction. Continue reading →
Friendly Fires & White Lies w/ Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) are playing the Bowery Ballroom on 3/26 at 8PM
Want to attend with a guest?
Leave a comment w/ your name and your guest’s name and your email address (in the provided field, you don’t need to share your email address to the world).
Random Winner will be contacted on 3/26 at 3PM EST. Check your email.
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