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In the starkly arty black-and-white video for their charged-up anthem “Best Of Friends,” we see the members of the anarchic, party-starting British band Palma Violets rocking out before a bored and hostile crowd and committing petty acts of street crime. It’s a far cry from the drunken revelry of their “We Found Love” video, but it has its own kind of energy to it. Watch the video below.

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James Blake at Terminal 5 earlier this month (more by Jono Bernstein)

James Blake returned this year with his excellent new album, Overgrown, and has been touring in support of it. He recently wrapped up the North American portion of the tour which came to NYC for two Terminal 5 shows (and a DJ appearance) and he's now just announced another North American leg that will go down this fall and bring him back to Terminal 5 on November 6 and 7 for two more shows at the Manhattan venue. Tickets for those shows are not on sale yet but check ticketmaster for updates.

All dates are listed, along with the video for "Retrograde," below...

Continue reading "James Blake announces North American 2013 fall tour (dates)" at brooklynvegan

The Overgrown troubadour returns to North America this Autumn.

After performing at Drake’s OVO Fest in August and a slate of UK dates in September, Blake will return to North America for two dozen dates in the US and Canada.

Blake just finished his most recent tour of the continent last week. Read our review of Overgrown, an album that FACT’s Angus Finlayson described as “a heartening step in the right direction, and reassurance that Blake

You don’t throw a music festival on the beach and neglect to invite Best Coast. Gulf Shores isn’t what Bethany Cosentino had in mind when she named her band, but even she saw the parallels: “This next song, it’s about California, but all of the things I talk about in it you guys have here.” They then commenced with “The Only Place,” one of the nearly indistinguishable (but identically awesome) sunshine refractions they performed at the Chevrolet Stage just after noon Sunday. Cosentino is one of those pop savants whose every lazy melody seems like the product of divine intervention; you can count on her songs to hit you in the heart. That said, half the charm of a Best Coast show is her rambling between songs. She fielded questions about her pet

Art-rock three-piece Liars brought their synthy drone-pop to Le Poisson Rouge last night, and managed to keep the audience satiated despite the notable absence of celestial opening act Doldrums. The band played tracks from last year’s expectation-crushing WIXIW as well as some suspenseful new material. Guess it just goes to show, sometimes one is enough.

Photos by Emily Korn.

The post Liars @ Le Poisson Rouge: May 19, 2013 appeared first on CMJ.

Band confirm that Bennington will play with them in between commitments to Linkin Park

Pharmakon at Drone Activity in Progress (more by PSquared Photography)

Pharmakon's tour schedule has increased a bit recently, including adding a string of dates with Swans (!), though not at the NYC appearance. However, Pharmakon is scheduled to play this weekend (5/25) at The Rink with Var and in middle June as part of a late night show during Northside Festival on 6/15 with Lust for Youth.

Pharmakon has released the new track "Ache" from the Abandon LP on Sacred Bones. Stream that along with a list of all tour dates, below.

Continue reading "Pharmakon playing shows with Swans and other dates" at brooklynvegan

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Will the woman who lost a small baby please come to the stage...

Two days after their appearance on Fallon and one day after they headlined Wellmont Theater in Montclair, the Flaming Lips played a 6:15pm set in Prospect Park as part of the first day of the second year of GoogaMooga (which ended up not having a third day). They want on in the light after the Darkness and before Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Here are some pictures, the setlist and video from their set. It all continues below...

Continue reading "The Flaming Lips played GoogaMooga (pics, video, setlist)" at brooklynvegan

It really does what it says on the tin.

Originally released on FRAK’s influential Börft imprint, Ü’s Great Dose of Monotonous Techno still sounds as great, and as monotonous as it no doubt did back in 1992. Produced by the sadly departed Joel Brindefalk, this snippet is the second we’ve heard from the record and excels with a blend of thick, pounding techno and the kind of haunting analogue electronics Aphex Twin made his own back in the early 90s.

Remastered by Swedish producer Andreas Tilliander (aka Mokira and TM404) who was a friend of Brindefalk, we now get to hear the track at its beefy best and while the omnipresent cassette hiss gives the track character, it’s nice to hear things spruced up a bit.

Great Dose of Monotonous Techno will be released in June on vinyl and digital via Digitalis.

Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty’s guest-heavy ninth studio album, Wrote a Song for Everyone, hits stores on May 28th via Vanguard Records. In anticipation, Rolling Stone premiered his electrified rendition of “Fortunate Son” that he put together with Sound City pals the Foo Fighters. Granted, they played it live on-stage every night at this past Spring’s Sound City Players gigs, but it’s nice to hear the studio version finally. Regardless of the rock, I’m still a sucker for the original, but it ain’t me, it ain’t me…yeah, you get the point. Stream it here.

Wrote A Song For Everyone Tracklist:
01. Fortunate Son (with Foo Fighters)
02. Almost Saturday Night (with Keith Urban)
03. Lodi (with Shane Fogerty and Tyler Fogerty)
04. Mystic Highway (John Fogerty solo)
05. Wrote a Song for Everyone (with Miranda Lambert feat. Tom Morello)
06. Bad Moon Rising (with Zac Brown Band)
07. Long As I Can See the Light (with My Morning Jacket)
08. Born on the Bayou (with Kid Rock)
09. Train of Fools (John Fogerty solo)
10. Someday Never Comes (with Dawes)
11. Who

Graphic design, transit, and The Smiths, united at last.

This is pretty neat: BuzzFeed points to this graphical representation of The Smith’s intertwined discography as a tube map, designed by Proof Spirit.

Click below for an enlarged version. Last year saw the usual rash of Smiths-reunion rumors, but it appears that we’ll have to settle for 30-year-old rehearsal footage.

Oh his new album Wrote A Song For Everyone, the former Creedence Clearwater Revival yowler John Fogerty has recruited a whole mess of famous people to help him revive a bunch of his old band’s songs. The album’s roster of guests is a pretty schizophrenic one; it’s got My Morning Jacket, Dawes, Jennifer Hudson, Kid Rock, and the like. And on the album’s version of the righteously aggrieved CCR classic “Fortunate Son,” Fogerty shares the track with the Foo Fighters. And if you ever wanted to hear that song’s swampy power swapped out for compressed crunch-rock riffery, you can stream the song at Rolling Stone.

Wrote A Song For Everyone is out 5/28 on Vanguard.

Last week, in honour of Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, we launched our own Alternative Eurovision shindig.

Over two parts (available here and here), we picked a track by an underground artist from each of the 39 countries participating in the official contest, and asked you to pick your favourite of the bunch. It was about as catholic a survey as you could hope for, encompassing head-nod, metal, trap, tech house, acousmatic music, purple and skweee, and you voted in your droves for your favourites. The results have been collected, compiled and independently verified, and we can officially reveal the winner is…Lithuania!

Congratulations to Zebra Katz collaborator Boyfriend, who stormed into first place with 16% of the total vote. Second place, meanwhile, went to hip-hop producer Yeah Left (Serbia), whose ‘Boom Bap Coup’ won 12% of the vote share. Bronze was awarded to caliginous sound artist Kondaktor (Greece) for his eerie collage piece ‘Kozak’. The chattering trap of ELOQ (Denmark) and thrumming grindcore of Nistokki (Finland) brought up the rear, making for an admirably broad Top 5.

Our incisive data analysis drew up the following important conclusions.

Nul points: Every country managed to secure at least a handful of votes, but, afte...

It’s not uncommon for musicians to take from the critically acclaimed household names of previous generations. Jack Tatum of Wild Nothing states flat out that he

by Fred Pessaro

Mike Judge and Porcell with Judge at Webster Hall last night (via xfaceupx)

Twenty-three years after breaking up, legendary New York hardcore crew Judge took to the stage to a packed house at Webster Hall last night. The show was their second of two dates at the venue (May 18 & 19), both as part of Black & Blue Bowl with support coming from Breakdown on one night and Madball on the other, with other names like Kill Your Idols, Bane, Black Train Jack, Crown of Thornz and more across the two days. Check out some video of Judge from Webster Hall below, including almost all of their 5/18 set and a rendition of "New York Crew" featuring CIV and Toby Morse of H20.

If you missed Judge, Kill Your Idols, Bane or Black Train Jack, you're in luck. All three, as well as names like Cold World, Trapped Under Ice (last show), Sick of it All, Modern Life is War, Paint it Black, Kid Dynamite and Suburban Scum will play This is Hardcore 2013 in Philadelphia in August. Updated lineup is below and tickets are on sale in different incarnations.

In other NYHC news, in addition to his ongoing Lower East Side walking tours, John Joseph of Cro-Mags will lead a pair o...