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Photos by Greg Cristman

The Feelies @ The Bell House, 5/18/2012

Hoboken legends The Feelies played The Bell House on Saturday (5/18) -- one of two NYC area shows for the band this past weekend -- and the venue's relaxed vibe made for a nice pairing with the band's strummy, post-Velvets sound. The band treated the crowd to a two-set, five encore show, including lots of classics ("Raised Eyebrows," "Higher Ground," "Let's Go") and, as usual, a ton of covers, including Television's "See No Evil" and The Doors' "Take it As it Comes."

Setlist and more pictures from Saturday's Bell House show below...

Continue reading "The Feelies @ The Bell House (pics, setlist)" at brooklynvegan

With Daft Punk

As far as bad gigs go, the one that goes down in Palma Violets’ new video for “Best of Friends” is awfuly excruciating. In the black and white video for their anthemic track, the UK act runs around the streets of the city like The Beatles once did in A Hard Day’s Night, only the gaggle of fans running after them seems to be missing. When the band finally get to the gig, it’s as if the audience holds Palma Violets personally responsible for history’s most horrific wars and atrocities. Get a glimpse of what cutting your teeth is like in in the video below:

Also check out the band’s recent interview with Rock It Out! Blog:

The band’s debut album, 180, is currently available via Rough Trade. In support, the four guys embark on a European festival tour tomorrow.

Palma Violets 2013 Tour Dates:
05/21

Set design duo Block 9 will curate the late-night area

The FACT favourite producer is to return to Europe this Spring.

Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth has had a pretty unshakable 2013 so far, and before he embarks on the epic Infinite Daps Tour with Baauer and RL Grime, Hemsworth has plotted out a small tour of Europe. Billed as the One Man Boy Band, Hemsworth will be taking his unique vision of skewed R&B, rap and pop to Denmark, France, Poland, the UK and the Netherlands so if you’re in the area you know what to do. [via Resident Advisor]

You can hear Ryan Hemsworth’s incredible 2012 FACT mix right here.

May 29 – Copenhagen – Rust
May 30 – Paris – Social Club
May 31 – Liege – Studio 22
June 01 – Warsaw – Miasto Cypel
June 04 – London – Koko
June 06 – Edniburgh – Sneaky Pete’s
June 07 – Amsterdam – Trouw Amsterdam
June 08 – London – Brixton Academy

The British singer-songwriter Laura Marling is 23, and she’s already four albums deep into a surprisingly impactful career. (You can’t exactly credit or blame Marling for Mumford & Sons, but Marcus Mumford did get his start as Marling’s drummer.) Marling references Bill Callahan in the title to her new album Once I Was An Eagle, and we’ve already posted its songs “Where Can I Go?,” “Master Hunter,” and “Once.” Now, you can hear the entire hour-long album; it’s streaming at NPR.

Once I Was An Eagle is out 5/28 on Virgin.

by Andrew Sacher

KIngston, PA punks Title Fight, whose 2012 emotionally charged post-hardcore record, Floral Green, was one of the best of its kind that year, just returned home from a European tour with Whirr and they've now got some upcoming US shows scheduled for the summer. A full tour announcement hasn't come yet, but they were recently announced for LA's FYF Fest. They've got East Coast shows happening sooner than that though, including the PA stop (6/14) on the Merchandise, Milk Music, and Destruction Unit tour (tickets) and a NYC show aboard a Rocks Off Cruise on June 16. That show is being presented by Shirts for a Cure and tickets for it are on sale now.

As mentioned, on Record Store Day, Title Fight released a split 7" with Touche Amore where the two bands covered each other, and you can now pick up that 7" on grey or pink vinyl at the Deathwish E-Store. The purchase comes with an instant MP3 download of the release. You can also stream a sample of each song below.

Touche Amore, who also play FYF Fest, are working on a new album which is due out this fall via Deathwish. They recently began work on it with producer Brad Wood (Sunny Day Real Estate). Check out a trailer video of the band in studio below.

All Title FIght dates are listed, along with a full stream of Floral Green and all other streams/videos, below...

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UK singer-songwriter Laura Marling is streaming her new studio album, Once I Was An Eagle, one week ahead of its official release date (May 28th via Ribbon Music). Take a listen at NPR.org.

The 16-track effort was recorded at the UK

by Andrew Sacher

Could there have been a more perfect moment for an epic documentary on Giorgio Moroder? The man who, according to the show's very starry (and very generous) presenter Niles Rodgers, invented dance music? On the night that Daft Punk's fourth studio album finally launched, with fitting audacity at the top of the Shard, Radio 2 put out Electric Dreams: The Giorgio Moroder Story, the most enjoyable music documentary I've heard this year. Snippets of recent Daft Punk collaborator Moroder, 73, talking about his life were tacked over some of the best music made in the last century: I Feel Love, Together In Electric Dreams, Now I Need You. In between came New Order's Bernard Sumner, Debbie Harry, Sparks and more, colouring in the detail of what Moroder's music has meant. [The Guardian]

The above quote is from The Guardian's review of of the new audio documentary on dance music legend Giorgio Moroder that BBC Radio 2 recently put out, Electric Dreams: The Giorgio Moroder Story. The documentary premiered on May 13, and as of this post, and you can listen to Part 1 below.

Today's a good day to check it out if you haven't yet, because as mentioned, Giorgio will be in NYC TONIGHT (5/20) at Output in Williamsburg to DJ a Deep Space party with T. Williams, Benjamin Damage, and Francois K. The show is part of the Red Bull Music Academy NYC residency and it's Giorgio's first-ever NYC DJ...

Koreless gifts us another measured, quiet gem with ‘Last Remnants’.

Culled from the Glasgow-based producer’s brand new EP Yugen, which was released today on the Young Turks imprint, ‘Last Remnants’ is one of the most heartfelt offerings from Koreless yet with its fusion of blissful electronics and a gamelan-inspired percussive push. It almost sounds akin to Solaris/Drive soundtrack composer Cliff Martinez’s unmistakable productions and that’s no bad thing at all.

Koreless’s strength comes from his resistance to embellish his compositions with elements that would pander to one particular style or another, and ‘Last Remnants’ excels as a low-key, blissful example of this.

In his first public address on 26 November 1976, in the opening seconds of the Sex Pistols' debut single, Johnny Rotten declared himself "an antichrist". Two years later, John Lydon reintroduced himself to the record-buying public by saying "Hello" on 'Public Image', PiL's debut single. Here, Lydon was starting a new conversation about who he really was: "You never listened to a word that I said / You only seen me for the clothes that I wear", he spat, brilliantly reasserting control over his own public image. This was Lydon ditching the antichrist persona, bringing an end to anarchy in the UK and saying, loudly and clearly, "This is who I really am". The thing is, that was 35 years ago, and unless you're the man himself, the issue of who the real John Lydon is remains up for debate.

This much we do know: John Lydon fronted the Sex Pistols as Johnny Rotten from 1975 to 1978, becoming one of the most influential and iconic figures of the 20th century and, at the same time, the most hated man in Britain. He formed PiL with Keith Levene and Jah Wobble in the aftermath of the Pistols' last gig and the band made a string of ground-breaking albums (how many, depends on who you ask) before a hiatus in 1993.

What followed was an autobiography (Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs), a solo album (1997's Psycho's Path) and a series of strange flirtations with fame: a show on VH1 (Rotten TV), <...

The Billboard Music Awards have historically been the most low-rent of America’s non-niche music awards shows, but last night, the show had an unexpected viral moment when Miguel, in the middle of a particularly spirited rendition of “Adorn,” attempted to jump over a section of the audience and ended up doing the Hulk Hogan legdrop on some lady’s face. She’s reportedly OK, so don’t let anything get in the way of laughing at everyone’s misfortune; the pratfall happens around the 2:56 mark of the Miguel video below. This instantly became a gif/photoshop meme, so have fun clicking on its various mutations around the internet today.

The show had a few other notable moments. Janelle Monáe and Erykah Badu presented an Icon Award to an afroed Prince, who got to do an absolutely badass bluesy medley with a crack all-female band. Also, Icona Pop performed the song that Icona Pop always performs. Watch the Miguel, Prince, and Icona Pop videos below.

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On Saturday night, SNL bid goodbye to some of this past decade’s most prime players via a bit of musical spoof — Fred Armisen as early-punk caricature Ian Rubbish, singing (with Sudekis and Hader, also departing) about it having been a lovely night. It wasn’t as moving as Stefon and Seth Meyers getting married (finally!), but still, it was memorable stuff. As in Armisen’s Ian Rubbish, the piston of sketch comedy music satire is pairing a style of music with subject matter absurdly removed from that genre’s general value system, and this is what the SNL vets of Lonely Island do so well, still. (That, and booking cameos.) The new track “Diaper Money” does this, too, albeit without cameo — all bravado and swaggering materialism about being a tight-leashed Park Slope dad spending all his money on diapers, a wife who won’t let you touch her, and a comfy funeral casket. This is a fun video to watch if you just broke up (you don’t want to be about this life), presumably less so if you’re about to get married (though that isn’t stopping Samberg). Check it here:

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photos by Greg Cristman

Liars @ Le Poisson Rouge - 5/19/13

Onetime Brooklyn residents Liars returned to their home city for two shows over the weekend. The first happened on Saturday (5/18) at The Met and the second happened on Sunday (5/19) at a more traditional concert space, Le Poisson Rouge, where it was relocated to from its original Brooklyn Masonic Temple location. Pictures from the latter are in this post.

Lower Dens were initially supposed to open that show but quickly dropped off and were replaced by Toronto's Doldrums. However, Doldrums never made it across the border (missing their Ran Tea House show too) as their van got broken into and Airick Woodhead's laptop and passport got stolen. Via Twitter: "hey my van was broken into & along with my laptop with a years worth of writing and a box containing nothing but my fav CDs from teenagedom."

So Liars ended up taking the stage at their originally schedule time of 8:30 with no opener, and played a set that was a little over 75 minutes and included three encores. More pictures from the show (including one of the setlist) below...

Continue reading "Liars played 2 NYC shows (Le Poisson Rouge pics & setlist); Doldrums' van got broken into, never made it to NYC" at brooklynvegan

(Nick Albrook, pictured second to the left)

Few bands have had as much success recently as Tame Impala, yet that hasn’t stopped bassist Nick Allbrook from walking away. In an official statement, the band announced that Allbrook will be “hopping off the Tame Impala band wagon so that he can try and screw his head back on, and make an attempt to assimilate back into society. A task the rest of us fear we will one day have to perform….”

Allbrook further explained his decision in an interview with NME: “All bands and projects and stuff will keep going, it’s just hard to keep them all going if you’re touring all the time,” he said. “The only bad part will be not seeing my mates every day. I love them more than anything.”

Allbrook will be replaced in the band by Cam Avery of the band Pond, which ironically enough is fronted by Allbrook himself.

Tame Impala will spend much of the summer touring the work, including festival appearances at Primavera Sound, Sasquatch!, and Bonnaroo. Check out the band’s full tour schedule here.