Gabriel & the drummers of Takka Takka & the National

A>G>E opened the early show at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday night (Valentine’s Day). A>G>E is the project of Josh Wise (formerly of French Kicks), and drumming for him was Nick Stumpf (French Kicks drummer, Caveman producer). Walt Martin from the Walkmen was playing bass.

As advertised, headliner Gabriel & the Hounds (aka Gabe Levine of Takka Takka) was joined by many friends during his new-record-celebrating set including Bryan Devendorf of the National & Conrad Doucette of Takka Takka on drums, and a horn section featuring members of the National & Beirut (Kyle Resnick on trumpet, Ben Lanz on trombone, and Michael Atkinson on french horn). Phil Palazzolo, who engineered the Hounds record, was playing guitar (you also know him from the bands of Neko Case & AC Newman and elsewhere). Nate Lithgow, who also plays in My Brightest Diamond & other bands, played bass.

Here are some pictures from the show. More of them, including a shot of the setlist, below…

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Siren singer. Champion skronky guitar solo-er. Drone princess. Dressed in an iridescent dark green smock-frock, Welsh singer Cate Le Bon looked a like Crannogmen royalty at Mercury Lounge last night (2/9), where she held court over a rapt, smiling audience. Those who didn’t come as fans left as converts. There is nobody quite like her and, for me, this is the current show to beat for 2012.

Previous visits from Le Bon have been mostly solo, which fit the general faery folk vibe of her first album. Le Bon’s new LP, Cyrk, is definitely a “band” album, however, and the group she brought with her were more than capable of recreating its pastoral psych-rock. The night opened with the icy and discordant “Julia” but things warmed up from there as band members switched places as Cate went from guitar to keyboard and back again for singles “Puts Me to Work and “Fold the Cloth.” Only her New Zealander drummer, who was flash-free but rock-steady, stayed in one place the whole night.

He also got the evening’s biggest laugh. Cate invited the audience to go on tour with her, at least to tonight’s show at Maxwell’s where we’d get “the same band, and the same songs.” Then the drummer piped in, “…but New Jersey” and immediately hit a rimshot to much groans and laughter. The evening finished as Cyrk does with the two-part “Ploughing Out,” which starts off gentle and haunting but grows into a chugging, noisy rocker. In a tribute to Wales legends Super Furry Animals (Gruff Rhys was one of her early champions), the songs comes to a clamorous end with Cate and the bassist crossing their instruments like swords.

Cate plays Maxwell’s tonight (2/10) before continuing on tour, again with openers Pigeons, and I highly recommend you go to this show (and then stick around for the comedy). If you haven’t heard Cyrk yet, it’s one of 2012′s best so far. You can download “Puts Me to Work” at the top of this post, watch the video for “Fold the Cloth” below, or stream the whole album on Spotify. But really, go see her live. Click through for a couple more grainy cameraphone pictures from Mercury Lounge, and all 2012 tour dates…

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DOWNLOAD: ÆGES – “Wrong (MP3)

ÆGES at The Power of The Riff in San Francisco (more by Taylor Keahey)

Combine past and present members of Pelican, Shift, Undertow and 16 and you’ll get LA’s ÆGES, a crew preparing their new LP The Bridge for release via The Mylene Sheath on April 17th. The record mines metal and hardcore in many of the same ways that Quicksand or Betty-era Helmet did in the 90s and Cave In or its contemporaries have in latter years; melodic vocals top thundering guitar riffs on tracks like “Wrong” which makes its debut here today. Check out “Wrong” streaming below or downloadable above.

In related news, Pelican is preparing their new release the new Ataraxia​/​Taraxis EP via Southern Lord on April 12th. Stream a new track, “Lathe Biosas”, below. In the meantime, you can catch up on previously released Pelican material via their 10xLP boxset available now (with domestic shipping!).

All streams are below, as well as a set of Pelican tour dates in the EU surrounding their appearance at Roadburn.

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BV Chicago contributors Jamie Ludwig and Carmelo Espanola were on the scene in Chicago at Reggie’s on 2/3 to take in the ongoing Slow Southern Steel/Hail! Hornet tour. The tour hits NYC at Europa TONIGHT (2/8) and tickets are still available. -BBG

Hail Hornet! @ Reggie’s

An enthusiastic crowd gathered at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago on Friday night (2/3) for a rare appearance of Southern metal super-group Hail! Hornet, with Atlanta psychedelic-sludge trio Zoroaster, and the Chicago premiere of the Slow Southern Steel, a documentary exploring the heaviest bands throughout the South [ED: it premiered in NYC last year].

Directed by Chris Terry (CT, front man for Little Rock, Arkansas-based Rwake) and David Lipke, and produced by Karim Kahn of I Am Better Than Everyone Records, Slow Southern Steel has been drawing attention among heavy music fans since production began in 2009. The devil horns that flew as the house lights went down and the opening credits started to roll seemed telling that many in the sizable audience had been awaiting the screening for quite some time.

Slow Southern Steel proved itself to be a smart, thoughtful film that sheds light on how regional culture and common experiences continue to shape art even in a time where the spread of technology and the homogenization / strip mall-ization of the American landscape can appear to render those factors invalid. Told exclusively through the musicians’ perspectives and featuring interviews and concert footage from over 40 bands including Hank III, Kylesa, Eyehategod, Alabama Thunderpussy, Torche, Dark Castle, Sourvein, Music Hates You, and Weedeater, Slow Southern Steel is a testimony to the longevity, power, and rich diversity of sounds of an under-recognized genre. For the uninitiated, it provides an honest and compelling look into a music community where good riffs matter more than what you wear or how many records you’ve sold.

The film left the audience primed for a show, and thankfully the night was only just beginning. Zoroaster took to the stage in a haze of smoke and laser lights, visually matching the moody atmospherics of its dark, groove-laden metal. A slight muddiness that plagued the beginning the set was soon remedied, leaving guitarist/vocalist Will Fiore’s winding, experimental guitar solos to soar over the rumble of Mike Morris’ bass and Dan Scanlon’s unwavering drum beat. The effect was heavy enough for the vibrations to resonate off the floor.

Hail! Hornet, comprised of vocalist T-Roy Medlin (Sourvein, Buzzov*en), drummer Erik Larson (Alabama Thunderpussy), guitarist Vince Burke (Beaten Back to Pure), and bassist / Slow Southern Steel narrator “Dixie” Dave Collins (also of Weedeater, Buzzov*en) capped off the night with a set of raunchy, fuel-guzzling metal. The same crowd that only an hour ago had sat so peacefully through a feature-length film combusted into a volatile pit, as if everything up to this point in the evening had just been foreplay before getting down to business.

Although this tour is Hail! Hornet’s first as a unit, you wouldn’t know it from watching. With the grace of a chainsaw the band barreled through songs from their second and latest record Disperse the Curse (Relapse) as well as a few tracks from their debut eponymous album. Chaos reigned as Medlin cooed from the stage, “I wanna see you fucking miserable in the morning.” It’s a guarantee that many of Friday’s concertgoers weren’t so chipper come Saturday, but it’s doubtful that after such a celebratory night out anyone really cared.

The tour arrives in NYC tonight (2/8). More pictures from Chicago below…

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Though we won’t see him/them performing at the Grammys (“We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn’t play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else,” Justin said), Bon Iver played two songs off their latest album on Saturday Night Live last night (2/4). Watch both songs below.

Earlier the same day, Wisconsin’s WEAU profiled the Grammy-nominated artist on the evening news, interviews with Justin’s parents and his co-manager Kyle Frenette included.

“Music was always around the house, we made all the kids take piano lessons,” says Justine. “With Justin, he didn’t really like the piano all that much, especially when I was teaching him for a while. That did not work out, but he asked if he could quit piano if he went to guitar. From that point on it was him and his guitar always.”

Gil says he did what he can to make sure Justin had a place to practice.

“We actually partitioned a room in the basement right below us with sound proof in the wall, so we could actually sit in the room where we’re speaking now and watch TV and have a full conversation in spite of the fact that we had nine kids down there with trombones, trumpet, two saxophones, three guitars and a keyboard all plugged in,” he says.

Today, Bon Iver is also made up of nine musicians, but the Vernons didn’t always know their now 30-year-old son and his band would make is this far.

“We always thought that he had talent but we’re his parents, you have to take that with a grain of salt,” says Justine.

Watch “At Home With the Vernons” and and both performances from Saturday Night Live, below…

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Bon Iver played SNL & his parents were on the news (videos) is a post from: Guitars for Beginners

Blouse @ 285 Kent

Captured Tracks took over 285 Kent Tuesday night, featuring three bands from their roster, as well as one that they merely liked a whole lot. I’m not sure if it sold out, but it was a full house by the end of the evening and a pretty fun night all-around.

Last time Blouse were in town, the band were a five-piece with a lead guitarist who really had that early U2/Chameleons sound down, which took the band into more “rock” territory than what you hear on their synth-heavy debut. Last night, Blouse were a quartet with the keyboards back in the forefront. Charline Hilton is charismatic front person who is no slouch, on guitar and the whole band are pretty tight in general. Blouse are best when they break out of the dreamy midtempo sound that makes up so much of their album: the driving “Time Travel” is probably their best song, but it’s the cinematic “They Always Fly Away,” that really impresses. In 285′s airplane hangar acoustics, the song goes widescreen.

Cosmetics probably were the most successful group of the night at least as far as marriage of sound to space. The Montreal duo’s icy, desolate beat — made by vintage synths and sequencers cranked really loud — sounded great bouncing off the metal ceiling and concrete walls, and fit the overall bombed-out Berlin warehouse vibe of the place. (The duo, all popped collar leather jackets and model-pretty, looked the part too.) From the bathroom they sounded like a munitions factory…in a good way.

Not that successful were The New Lines, the one non-Captured Tracks band on the bill, who haven’t quite figured it out live. Their album, one of my 2012 favorites, is chilly baroque pop densely layered with harpsichord and all manner of analogue synths. It would be hard to pull off even under the best of conditions, something 285 Kent doesn’t exactly afford, but even harder when you’re only three members strong and your very good drummer can’t hear the backing tracks. While they don’t necessarily need the sonic precision their studio recordings have, a live bassist laying down the record’s grooves would help immeasurably towards filling things out sonically. They did, however, have really cool psychedelic projections.

I got to 285 just a hair late to catch opener Heavenly Beat, the solo project of Beach Fossils bassist John Pena whose second single “Faithless” is like a lost 7″ from some early-00′s Swedish indiepop band. I think both sides are terrific. From what I was told, Heavenly Beat live is currently just Pena onstage with a laptop/ipod backing and not doing a whole lot, so maybe I didn’t miss much. He plays this Saturday (2/4) at Cake Shop with fellow C/T band DIVE, plus Caged Animals and Fabric which is a pretty good bill overall.

More pictures from all the bands, including a shot of Blouse’s setlist, below.

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DOWNLOAD: Averkiou – Present Tense (MP3)

IIf you read this week’s, er, This Week in Indie you saw that Gainsville, Florida’s Averkiou will be in town this weekend with fellow Floridians Guy Harvey for two shows: tonight (1/27) at Cake Shop and tomorrow (1/28) at Death by Audio.

Averkiou have a new EP, The New Imperative, coming out February 10 on Sound Study Recordings and we’ve got the premiere the track “Present Tense,” which you can download at the top of this post. (You can also stream it below.) Averkiou wrap their songs in a warm sweater of distorted, tremeloed guitar and vocal harmonies and those who are fond of early ’90 Yo La Tengo, and Teenage Fanclub will likely dig this.

Click through for cover art for The New Imperative EP, “Fuzzy Photogragh” stream, and all upcoming Averkiou tour dates.

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Feist has a huge international tour on the way, including Australian dates this weekend and into February, followed by a number of European dates during March, some of which will be supported by M. Ward (who has his own upcoming tour). She’ll work her way back to North American in April when she plays the sold out Coachellas, and has just announced another show happening on this side of the Atlantic at NYC’s Radio City on May 5. It’s her only other US date announced at the moment. Tickets go on sale Saturday, 2/4 at 10 AM.

In other news, she recently was interviewed by The Weekly Feed, where she talked about 2011′s Metals, jamming with fellow Canadians Sloan, and her upcoming split 7″ with Mastodon, which will feature each artist covering the other. She’s still not sure which song she’s picking but promised via twitter that “if people are expecting a cute twee cover of a metal song they have a big surprise comin.” Here’s what she said to The Weekly Feed about the project:

Oh my god, what a task. What an insurmountable mountain to try to cover Mastodon. We’re working on it right now and I’m trying to figure out what song even. I haven’t figured that out even yet. But yeah, I hugely admire them and I kind of come from that world. That’s where I cut my teeth when I was 15/16 going to metal shows, and in my first band our guitar player probably would’ve wanted to be in Mastodon if Mastodon had existed at the time, you know? So it definitely speaks to me. When I saw them play on Jools Holland, that’s how I was first introduced to them. We played that television show in England together and it just went right to my bones, and after the show we kind of had this, “oh man we should something!” you know? Which didn’t seem like it was gonna happen, but now it seems like it’s gonna happen, they announced it on MTV so now it’s happening.

You can listen to the entire interview below.

Also below is a stream of Beck‘s remix of Metals single, “How Come You Never Go There,” which you can also purchase at iTunes.

All dates and streams below…

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Feist playing Radio City Music Hall (and other stuff) is a post from: Guitars for Beginners

RollingStone.com: All News

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photos by Stephanie Crumley, additional SSoS photos by Suren Karapetyan

All Pigs Must Die @ Acheron

At Acheron in Brooklyn on Friday night [Kevin Baker of All Pigs Must Die's] singing and stage presence were roughly the same: self-possessed but bristling, an act of containing endless rage more than distributing a measurable amount. He barked short lines at maximum bellow, and the phrases and images ran together from song to song: “the soil soaked with blood,” “merchant of death,” “erase from existence,” “no graves, no coffins” — you get it. His ire slowly expanded, and what would happen when he popped? At one point he whipped a drumstick over the heads of the crowd in the tiny space; at another, during a problem with the sound system, he crashed the microphone stand against an overhead speaker. But he was careful, even graceful.

All of that can make a band imposing. What makes this one special — its first full album, “God Is War” (Southern Lord), was one of the better rock records of any kind last year — is that it strikes a weird place between aggression and virtuosic joy. You don’t have to know anything about Ben Koller, the drummer, to recognize how good he is; he’s been a member of the metalcore band Converge since the late ’90s, and his loud playing is full of momentum, swing and flourish. (He performed the entire set with a wide, hungry smile.) Likewise what came from the guitar of Adam Wentworth and the bass of Matt Woods: big, rugged, articulated and stylized sound, suggesting different sources every 30 seconds or so.
[NY Times]

All Pigs Must Die headlined a one-off show at Acheron, with Seven Sisters of Sleep, Low Places, and Grudges. SSoS and Low Places went on to play the massive A389 Anniversary show at Sonar the next night (pictures/review… part 1, part 2).

If you missed All Pigs Must Die, catch them with Narrows on March 9th at Knitting Factory. Narrows is readying the release of their new LP Painted via Deathwish on 2/28. Stream a new track, “Absolute Betrayer”, below (or download it above) alongside pictures from Acheron….

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All Pigs Must Die, Seven Sisters of Sleep & Low Places played Acheron with Grudges (pics) is a post from: Guitars for Beginners