c/o Phillip Stearns

This weekend computer/music/art enthusiasts will meet in Williamsburg for the annual In/Out fest. The “In/Out Fest is an annual festival that features leading performers, developers, artists, and tinkerers of the digital design community. With the hope of bridging the gap between the forum based world and the stage, the festival seeks to bring digitally driven performances into the limelight with two full days of workshops and performances.” [via]

Check it out if you are into things like programming, hacking, music, art, and generally crazy digital shit. The festival will be held at 285 Kent for workshops and lectures, and performances will go on at The Knitting Factory. In/Out Fest dates are November 11-13th.

Elephant 6′s About page begins like this: “A Collective, a Label.. a Cult? Elephant 6 may be all of these things or none of these depending on your point of view. And we’re certainly not going to try to define what it is now!” Seems about right. And with Jeff Mangum coming out of the woodwork for a bunch of shows (including All Tomorrow’s Parties at Asbury Park), anything the collective does is sure to stir up some excitement. That, plus everything they do is actually exciting.

I’m not sure which holiday this tour is commemorating, but that might be part of the surprise. The way it works is about a dozen musicians take the stage together for a marathon show known to last over two hours. The musicians swap out instruments, play each others songs, create new configurations and sometimes all play together at once in a giant climax of psych-out radness. Also, Julian Koster organizes the audience in crowd participation games. Fun!

The lineup includes a ton of people: Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, Peter Erchick, John Fernandes, Julian Koster, Scott Spillane, Andrew Rieger, Laura Carter, Derek Almstead, Heather McIntosh, Bryan Poole, Theo Hilton, Robbie Cucchiaro and others play the music of The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Circulatory System, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Gerbils, The Music Tapes, Major Organ and Adding Machine, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t , The Instruments, The Late BP Helium and Nana Grizol. Plus, possibly more!

The surprise takes place tonight and tomorrow at Knitting Factory.

Is this going to be like Bill and Ted or Die Hard where the sequel is as good as the original? Or is the new Zs record going to follow the sad tradition of many sequels and flop? I’m anticipating the former. Tonight, join the band at the Knitting Factory as they release New Slaves II: Essence Implosion, the follow up to last year’s amazing New Slaves, a chaotic, noisy electronic masterpiece.

In addition to being Zs record release show, the lineup at Knitting Factory tonight looks pretty rad. Baltimore’s spazzy Ecstatic Sunshine, electronic mastermind Cex, Thee Majesty (featuring Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle), and DJ DRUZZ of The Rapture will all appear tonight. All of these artists have also contributed to Essence Implosion, remixing tracks from Zs previous release. Believe that this is a much better Monday night lineup than How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement.

The show is $12, doors are at 7. Expect a weird/awesome time.

Get together with your friends, musicians, singers, former choir members, people who like to sing in the shower, etc. We will have a festive party with holiday music, spiked egg nog (or hot chocolate) and social networking.

Amateur singing? Spiked nogs? Santa hats? A room filled with fucking holiday cheer? Check all, please! Monday night the Knitting Factory will host a night of group caroling and live music. Despite the fact that the Christmas creep has made the holiday basically in effect since September, we are still going to soak up this opportunity to embrace the seasonal merriment.

There is a discounted cover if you wear a Santa hat, and the cover already pays for your first cocktail and holiday cookies. Who’s bringing the mistletoe? (Everyone, bring mistletoe.)

It seems that the hairier frontman Dave Davison gets, the heavier his songs get too.

Chicago-based Maps & Atlases played a superb set at Mercury Lounge last night, with Cults and Laura Stevenson & The Cans opening (all will be together again at The Knitting Factory show tonight).

Laura Stevenson’s angelic voice was an unexpected charm to start the show off, and while this band may somewhat still appear to be in its formative stage, I think its fair to say they’ll be one to watch out for. If Joanna Newsom’s crooning makes your spine tingle when she hits her shrill notes, perhaps Laura’s voice is the mellower answer you’re looking for.

Cults played a tight-knit albeit brief set, and certainly didn’t disappoint.

But Maps & Atlases blew the crowd away with their new slew of math rock / pop gems and untiring energy (think slightly-toned-down Dirty Projectors with folkier tuning?). They even played an unplugged set AFTER their full set, in the middle of the venue floor, for those who stuck around after midnight. Playing many of the tracks from their just-released debut full length Perch Patchwork (with great artwork we must say), it seems that this group has finally hit their stride.

If you’re in the ‘burg tonight, this is definitely one not-to-be-missed.

In support of their recently released debut album, Maps & Atlases will be playing two shows in NYC this week– the first on Thursday at Mercury Lounge and then at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory on Friday. We have a pair of tickets for y’all but more on that in a bit…

Perch Patchwork is a stunning array of folk viva voce, “a Latin phrase literally meaning with living voice”, with the backing of a big sound that swells in choral waves. And these songs do live, with unavoidable imagery of marching bands, lazy Sundays, and Caribbean dance parties (maybe). Maps & Atlases sound is hard to put your finger on, drifting in and out of mopey longing to hooks filled with echoing hope. They’re definitely a band to keep an eye on, as we can probably expect greater things from them with seasoning.

Check out their Big Ugly Yellow Couch session after the jump, and comment below for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the Brooklyn show. Happy listening… and good luck.

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Last night Reading Rainbow and The Beets played at Knitting Factory, for an L Mag late night show. When we arrived the bouncer informed us that the DJ had called out sick, so Reading Rainbow had gone on early. No matter. The show was great — both bands have fantastic energy, with Reading Rainbow harmonizing along to frantic drum beats and guitar riffs and audience members starting up a dance party. At some point, perhaps inspired by the music or just out of pure competitive energy, there was a pushup contest in the corner. The Beets were great too — same energy but with more of a raw sound (if a full band can sound more raw than just a guy and girl with a guitar, snare drum and tom tom). No more pushups, but lots more dancing.

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Last night, in celebration of the Northside Festival’s opening night, things got messy at the Knitting Factory– but not the kind of mess you may already associate with Nathan Williams (a.k.a. Wavves). I mean, of course, in that beer soaked slam dancing sort of way. And although some of his fans may not be on the path to adulthood just yet, according to his new band members the now frontman of Wavves, Williams, has quite possibly done some growing up [via]:

I left before Wavves took the stage after getting soaked in sweat scented beer (though the Village Voice caught me on the bright side), but let’s talk Dom and Cloud Nothings (and a live performance video that perfectly personifies them) after the jump.

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I cannot confess my love for Warpaint any further than saying that they are the sunshine induced sonic love child of HEALTH and Beach House, two FREEwilly favorites. I’ll let your love grow organically with this:

Welcome back Noisemakers, we’ve missed you! Here are some photos from last night’s show:

Saturday night Engine Room Recordings is celebrating the release of Robbers on High Street‘s 7″ vinyl single “Electric Eye.” Marking a definitive move for the band’s sound, Electric Eye showcases Robbers’ newfound English rock sound.

As a part of the celebration, Engine Room is giving away a pair of tickets to Saturday’s Knitting Factory show with Robbers on High Street, The Bloodsugars, and Israel Darling. To sweeten the deal, Engine Room is throwing in a copy of the 7″ for you too! Enter the drawing by Tweeting the following at Free Williamsburg:

@freedubya I’ll steal those Robbers’ tix if I don’t win!

The winner will be Tweeted back at Friday at noon! If you don’t hear back from Freedubya, you can still snag tickets to Saturday’s Knitting Factory show for $8 here. And if you miss out on the show this Saturday, you can download the Electric Eye 7″ digitally on June 22nd.