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Next week, Wise Blood will release his debut album, Id. For a while, it seemed like that day would never come.

Wise Blood is Pittsburgh songwriter Chris Laufman. Laufman builds non-traditional pops songs from dusty samples and earworming loops, structuring them like towering houses of cards. His breathy, half-sung vocals alternately give him the air of a long-forgotten bluesman and a tent revival preacher: there

by Andrew Sacher

As mentioned, Ann Arbor's Pity Sex are releasing their debut album, Feast of Love, next week (6/25) via Run for Cover (Cloakroom, Creative Adult), and you can now stream the record in full a week before its release in this post. Feast of Love is similar to the contemporary shoegaze pop of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and like on that band's most recent album, Belong, the guitars are thick and recall Siamese Dream more than any of the wailing on Loveless. The melodies really pop and the songs are memorable too. Check out the whole album below.

As discussed, Pity Sex are supporting the new album on a tour with The World Is... and Dads, which includes a NYC show at Brooklyn emo house Suburbia on July 20. That show and a few others are also with Daylight.

Updated dates are listed, along with the new album stream, below...

Continue reading "stream Pity Sex's debut album, 'Feast of Love'" at brooklynvegan

Sam Beam, better known as Iron & Wine, is in the midst of promoting his latest and fifth studio album Ghost on Ghost released earlier this year via 4AD/Nonesuch. Recently, he filmed an episode of At: Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt to perform some tracks and speak about his new offering. One of the song peformed was opening track “Caught in the Briars.” You can never go wrong with the simple elegance of Beam’s compositions. They are just timeless. Find the video below and listen to the entire podcast here.

UK noiseniks Fuck Buttons are back with a record four years in the making, titled Slow Focus. It’s out this summer, which isn’t soon enough. “The Red Wing” is its third track, and the band’s Andrew Hung has made it a video true to the song/album title (very red, less-than-focused). Slow Focus the band’s first self-produced record, so pay attention to what’s happening with the sound: Benjamin and Andrew cite fear, loneliness, and urban abandonment as referential touchpoints for their sonic intention, and they’re conveying that here with a mix of industrial-grade distorted keyboards and a melange of synth tones, whirling effects, and live drums. Hung’s video is mesmerizing and a bit malevolent, so it’s not a respite to your Yeezus marathoning so much as an accompaniment. Do what you will:

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Here’s something sad: “The Rock,” the new song from Providence scraggle-rock traditionalists Deer Tick, has nothing to do with the movie star and occasional professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson. Instead, it’s a love song, and a perfectly decent one, with an assured build and a rousing horn line. But can you imagine how much better this thing would be if it were an ode to Johnson and his amazing 2013? Great turns in Furious 6 and Snitch? Being the best part of the otherwise-awful Pain & Gain? A WWE title run and a main-event match at Wrestlemania (an underwhelming one, but still)? That would be a good song. Listen to “The Rock” here and think of what could’ve been.

Deer Tick’s new album Negativity is out later this year on Partisan.

Bill Callahan @ The Allen Room, February 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Bill Callahan retired his Smog alias in 2007 but has contined to make lovely, downcast folk under his own name, like 2011's Apocalypse. He's just announced the follow-up to that which is titled Dream River and will be out September 17 via his longtime home of Drag City. No songs have been released from it yet, but you can check out the tracklist below.

Continue reading "Bill Callahan releasing 'Dream River' in September" at brooklynvegan

New music and fresh revelations? Drake, you’re spoiling us.

‘On My Way’ initially surfaced as a radio rip back in 2010, but it looks like Drake was never happy with the outcome and re-recorded the track with fresh production and a new vocal part from James Fauntleroy. This nicely ties in with the ongoing promotion for the Toronto-based rapper’s forthcoming full-length

photos by Amanda Hatfield

The Antlers @ LPR - 6/12/13

The Antlers helped hometown venue Le Poisson Rouge celebrate their fifth anniversary when they played the intimate space (for their standards) last week (6/12). Frontman Peter Silberman mentioned on stage that the band had never actually played LPR before, but he did used to work there before the release of their breakthrough album, Hospice. He also mentioned they've got a new album in the works, but there's still a ways to go on it.

The show was opened with a set by Dave Harrington of Nicolas Jaar's live band (and their collaborative project, Darkside). More pictures of both artists from the LPR show below...

Continue reading "The Antlers and Dave Harrington celebrated Le Poisson Rouge's fifth anniversary (pics)" at brooklynvegan

photos by David Andrako

The Luyas & Julian Lynch / Majical Cloudz @ Sneaky Dee's, 6/14/2013

After the big, free National show in Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square, BV photographer David Andrako hit a couple smaller club shows for his second night (6/14) at festival NXNE. With a quick stop at The Horseshoe Tavern to catch Brooklyn's Buke & Gase, he then headed over to Sneaky Dee's for the M for Montreal showcase which featured an unannounced 2 AM set from Majical Clouds (who would play Brooklyn the next night for Northside Fest).

This was also the NXNE stop for The Luyas and Julian Lynch's collaborative tour where Julian was in The Luyas for their set, and they in turn were his backing band. (It hit Northside too.) Brooklyn's Brazos was also on the bill and pictures from those bands are in this post.

Pictures from NXNE Day 1 are HERE. More Day 2 pictures below...

Continue reading "NXNE day 2 in pics (Majical Cloudz, The Luyas w/ Julian Lynch, Buke & Gase, Brazos)" at brooklynvegan

In the spring of 2011, I heard Ally Einbeinder speak at Ladyfest Easthampton panel on

CMJ Music Marathon will be the event you don’t want to miss this coming fall. Recently named one of New York’s Top 3 Entertainment Industry Events by BizBash, the city’s most ambitious live music festival is slated to vastly exceed your daily recommended dose of cosmopolitan decibel levels.

Badges are on sale now, at a huge discount. General CMJ badges are just $375 (cut from $549), while student badges are only $175 (cut from $325) with even bigger discounts for student groups. They include full access for all five days to hundreds of showcases from the best rising artists, non-stop panels, seminars, special events and exclusive parties.

Badges also come with a CMJ 2013 gift bag and a commemorative guide book that you will want to keep to the end of your days. These discounts will only be available until midnight on June 24!

photos by Lukas Hodge

Merchandise / Destruction Unit @ 285 Kent, 6/15/2013

The dream pop band with the punk rook roots, Merchandise, brought their North American tour with Milk Music and Destruction Unit to 285 Kent on a very busy Saturday night (6/15), as part of Northside Festival. The sold-out show was one of two gigs for first band of the night, Destruction Unit, who by all accounts came out looking more like a headliner than a band warming up for the "real attraction." (Destruction Unit played higher on the bill one night later at Shea Stadium) Pictures from 285 Kent are below.

The jaunt included recent stops to Chaos in Tejas and NXNE, and two of the three bands recently released videos during their tour (Merchandise for "Totale Night" and Destruction Unit for "Sonic Pearl").

More pics from Saturday night are below...

Continue reading "Merchandise, Milk Music and Destruction Unit played 285 Kent during Northside Fest (pics)" at brooklynvegan

The Gary, Indiana tough guy Freddie Gibbs is back on the rap underground after a stint on Young Jeezy’s CTE label. His new album ESGN arrives next month, and we’ve already posted the Problem collab “One Eighty Seven.” Now Gibbs has released the John Colombo-directed video for the hard-minded, hoarse ESGN track “Eastside Moonwalker.” It’s pretty much just low-budget rap-video posturing, but Freddie Gibbs is really good at low-budget rap-video posturing. Watch it below.

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