Just Blaze

MoMA PSOne may take home the bloggable gold once again this week with Just Blaze, Nick Catchdubs, Danny Brown, The Stallions and BAIO (of Vampire Weekend) at Warm Up on Saturday, but there’s no fewer than four more hip-hop shows this week we’d say are up to snuff with that one.  The best part about them is that they’re all FREE (except for warm up, which is just $15), and they’re all on different days.

The legendary Pete Rock appropriately gets things started on Wednesday at East River Park with a free show with DJ Premiere.  THEN Action Bronson plays Thursday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg (with Flatbush Zombies, Meyhem Lauren and Tanya Morgan.)  Nas released his first decent album in about a decade last week (or more, depending on who you ask), and he plays tribute to the city that made him a star with free one at the iHeartRadio Theater on Friday night.  Cap it all off this weekend with the FREE Afropunk festival; which is hip hop heavy with Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Das Racist, Ninjasonik, and Spank Rock, PLUS TV On The Radio, Toro Y Moi, Body Language, Cerebral Ballzy and much, much more.

If it’s not a hip-hop week, then it’s Teengirl Fantasy’s week.  Their highly anticipated LP, Tracer, is out tomorrow, which features guest spots from Panda Bear and Laurel Halo (to name just a couple) and they’re appropriately all over our buzz list for this week.  And why not start with tonight?  Teengirl Fantasy are part of a FREE show at Summerstage which gets going at 6 PM with none other than Araabmuzik.  Flosstradamus and Nick Hook are also on the bill, and you don’t even have to go uptown for it either – this one’s down at East River Park.  Too last minute for you?  For just fifteen bucks, you can catch them on Thursday ON A BOAT, with Lemonade and Gatekeeper on the latest Rocks off Cruise.

(more…)

Warm Up

You know… I was going to lead this with the whole “free” angle this week, but then I realized I did that last week.  I’m going to do it anyway… it’s appropriate, because once again, there’s a bunch of free shows dominating the blogosphere.  That’s summer in NYC for ya.

The most blogged about show this week isn’t free, but it’s pretty cheap at fifteen bucks, and worth it for admission to the museum and a look at the winning installation, and that’s Floating Points, Jacques Greene, Secret Circuit and Hieroglyphic Being at MoMA PSOne Warm Up on Saturday.

This week’s editor’s pick, however, IS FREE, and that’s over at the House of Vans.  The Jersey kid in me is pretty much foaming at the mouth at this week’s show which is co-headlined by the pride of Glen Rock, Titus Andronicus, and Cursive (not from NJ, but justtttttttt emo enough to be pigeonholed here.)  Titus just announced their new LP will be released on October 23 (my birthday, btw, thanks guys), so there will likely be some new tracks to hear for the first time, and who can resist the tone-deaf screech of Tim Kasher’s vocal assault?  Love as Laugther and Joyce Manor are also on the bill.

(more…)

Flaming Lips

This week’s edition of the Most Blogged About Shows is 100% recession proof.  Our MOST BLOGGED ABOUT show and my EDITOR’S PICK can both be had for the princely sum of “on the house,” and they’re both all kinds of awesome.  Oh, and we’re giving away some pretty awesome tickets this week as well.

That being said; the recession is something that’s always on my mind, especially heading into this November’s presidential election.  It’s fitting then, that this week’s MOST BLOGGED ABOUT SHOW is Colbchella, Stephen Colbert’s FREE festival at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.  I can’t think of any better backdrop for a Colbert festival than a museum on a pier with battleships and fighter jets, and the lineup is similarly incredible; Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear, Santigold, Grandmaster Flash and fun.  This thing gets kicked off on Saturday at 3 PM.

(more…)

The xx

I’m going to try and get all the shameless self-promotion out of the way in the first two paragraphs here, but we released the new version of My Social List quietly over the weekend.  It features an all-new blog, where you can read even more of my incoherent ramblings.  Our “Official Grand Opening” in which we take over the blogosphere is TBD, but the door’s open for you to come on in and poke around now.

SHAMELESS PLUG TWO: We have another show scheduled for TONIGHT with our good friend Kristina Tequila featuring Anasazi (record release party), Dream Affair, Religious to Damn (last show) and Nao Katafuchi.  I’m looking out my window now and it’s a total Factory Records day out there; perfect because these bands would have fit right in on the label in the late 70s.  Read our preview here.

THE MOST BLOGGED ABOUT SHOW this week is The XX at Terminal 5 tomorrow night.  No surprise, the UK buzz darlings have sold out the cavernous venue in spite of the negative press their first single has received; but if you missed out, Jamie XX is performing at MoMA PS1’s Warmup on Saturday with Lemonade (who DJ late night at Glasslands for free afterwards with Rewards), Pearson Sound, Sinjin Hawk and Jora Jones.  If you haven’t been to Warm Up yet this year, this is the perfect one to start with.

(more…)

Catalpa Festival

Another week, another festival in New York.  Randall’s Island is getting quite the workout this summer, and this weekend the tri-boro island hosts the inaugural Catalpa Music Festival.  The two-day festival (Saturday and Sunday) has an admirable concept, to create “a truly authentic, fresh and unique musical experience featuring over 50 artists that traverse many styles and genres from rock and indie to hip-hop, reggae and the world of electronic music.”

And they do accomplish that to some degree.  The lineup is eclectic and bloggable enough to be our MOST BLOGGED show for the week; thanks in no small part to the two mammothly huge headliners: The Black Keys and Snoop Dogg.  Also worth mentioning: TV on the Radio, a newly non-Hasidic Matisyahu, Girl Talk, Araabmuzik and Zola Jesus.

(more…)

Beach House

If the temperature is any indicator… we’re smack in the middle of summer.  The buzz temperature seems to indicate the same thing, because there’s a plethora of bloggable shows this week.  Quite honestly, there’s enough going on JUST TONIGHT to fill up a blog post.

If there’s a MOST BLOGGED ABOUT artist this week, it’s Lower Dens, and I mean that in a very literal sense.   I interviewed them for THIS blog just a couple of days ago. They’re the headliner at Bowery Ballroom tomorrow night, with shoegazers No Joy and Wham City alum Alan Resnick opening.  Oh, and that’s just a warmup.  Lower Dens are playing Central Park Summerstage on Monday as well, supporting blog all-stars Beach House.  That’s our MOST BLOGGED and EDITORS PICK for this week, and unsurprisingly sold out a long time ago.

(more…)

Lower Dens

Baltimore’s Lower Dens have packed up their guitars, and this time around, their synthesizers, for their first headlining tour this summer, to support their excellent sophomore LP, Nootropics.  Nootropics injects the atmospheric shoegaze of 2010’s superb Twin Hand Movement with a dose of late 70s post-punk and krautrock from the likes of Idiot-­era Iggy Pop and Kraftwerk (namely, Radioactivity), resulting in one of the strongest releases of 2012.  The LP is the second album in a conceptual four-album cycle, and the tour includes a stop across the bridge at Bowery Ballroom on Thursday night (tickets still available here.)  My Social List caught up with front-woman Jana Hunter beforehand for quick chat regarding the thematic content of her albums, yoga and the challenges of playing multiple instruments in a live setting.

Peter Rittweger: I’ve read that you’ve become quite a yoga enthusiast, at times, pulling over at highway rest stops to do your routine when there isn’t a studio in the area. “Nootropics” are, by definition, drugs that enhance some cognitive function, similar to the impact yoga or other meditative rituals can have on the psyche.  Do you feel that this interest influenced the content of the album or at least the album title?

(more…)

Best Coast

This week is pretty refreshing.  It feels like the old days.  After taking a couple of months off of playing pretty much every day, at every venue known to man, DIIV are back, Pitchfork “Best New Music” sheen and all.

They’re part of our MOST BLOGGED ABOUT show this week, opening for buzz queen Bethany Cosentino’s Ali Koehler-less Best Coast (speaking of the old days) at Terminal 5, also with Those Darlins.  That one is next Tuesday, and there’s still tickets left for this all ages show at the cavernous waterfront midtown venue.  It seems that Best Coast’s buzz may have died a bit after The Only Place’s mixed reviews, but the Cosentino led act still manages to top our list, possibly in part to her recent spread with Wavves in SPIN (in which she looks absolutely amazing, by the way.)

Anyway, back to DIIV, who hold the rare distinction of being a part of both our MOST BLOGGED ABOUT show and my EDITOR’S PICK; as they’re the opener for the VERY recently announced Cloud Nothings show at 285 Kent tomorrow.  That’s two of my top ten albums for the year in one bill, at one of my favorite venues.  Tickets are going fast (if they’re still there when this is posted) so jump on this one.

(more…)

Preview

Dirty Projectors

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: In 2002, an Ivy League student recorded a quirky, yet promising album on a four-track in his bedroom.  He dropped out of school and moved to Brooklyn to pursue a music career, fueled by the modest buzz surrounding the release.

It’s an archetypal story, but it’s important to remember that all archetypes begin as something original and exciting; a testament to just how influential Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth has been over the past decade.

Swing Lo Magellan, Dirty Projectors’ seventh album, finds the band at a crossroads.  Key contributor Angel Deradoorian split, leaving Longstreth with the pressure of releasing the pivotal follow up to an album that has cruise ship-sized shoes to fill, his 2009 breakthrough, Bitte Orca, without his most senior collaborator.  The “on the cusp” success of Bitte Orca has primed the tenured Dirty Projectors to “make the leap” to Grammy Award-nominee mainstream acceptance (or recognition, to be more accurate), another increasingly archetypal plot line for indie bands in this day in age. Longstreth’s been at this project for a decade, now.  It’s make or break time.

(more…)

CBGB's

CBGB is a name that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

CBGB might have been your church.  A punk rock church that featured sermons from the likes of Alan Vega, Patti Smith, David Byrne, Richard Hell and Joey Ramone.

CBGB may have been your favorite club, with high-energy, uncompromising matinee sets from hardcore bands like Bad Brains or The Misfits.  Maybe you caught The Beastie Boys there in their earlier, more punk rock-leaning days.

Or maybe CBGB is a slogan on a t-shirt you bought at Hot Topic or Spencer Gifts.  A “cool” logo that suggests some sort of connection with underground music, with a limited understanding of the original idea or aesthetic.

(more…)