Category Archives: Uncategorized

10.07.09
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Sufjan Stevens @ Bowery Ballroom, New York – October 5, 2009

Going into the Sufjan Stevens show last night, I must admit I didn’t know what to expect. Having heard great things about his live set, the bar was set pretty high for him. This was his second date in New York as there are two sold out nights in Williamsburg to follow. The show opened with Asthmatic Kitty labelmates, Cryptacize who were a pleasant surprise. Singer Nedelle Torrisi has a soft angelic voice that’s not afraid to mix dark with poppy. The band seemed well recieved by the crowd.

Then, it was Sufjan time. No matter how big this guy gets, he still comes on stage to set up his own equipment. Fans in the front of the stage were sneaking pictures of him getting ready with smiles on their faces. With a band of over ten people it’s amazing how they even fit onto the Bowery stage.

Stevens greeted the crowd and launched into the set with banjo in hand. The setlist was mostly a cross between new songs and Come on Feel the Illinoise which made for a stellar lineup. Seeing Stevens play live is every bit as amazing as hearing his records. He sings with little effort because it comes so natural to him. The backup singers who included Nedelle from Cryptacize sounded heavenly behind the mixture of trumpets and assorted wind instruments that appeared throughout the night.

One thing I learned about Sufjan last night is that he is a bit of a joker. He said he is ‘”not very good talking onstage,” before he announced a string of songs, giggling “this one’s by Sufjan Stevens!” A lot of the new songs that he played last night strayed away from his orchestral sound that we’ve come to know and love. The new tracks with titles like “Impossible Soul” and “There is Too Much Love in Here,” are a bit electronic based but not in a cheesey way that feels forced. Somehow these songs still fit in with the likes of his banjo/acoustic songs like “Casimir Pulaski Day” which was one of the highlights of the night. Another surprise Sufjan had up his sleeves was the track “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts,” which they hadn’t played it in so long that he admittedly had to write out the words to keep onstage. Stevens and the band played it flawlessly though, just like the other songs in the set. The show closed with a short encore: a low key version of “Chicago” and the earlier mentioned new tune “There is Too Much Love in Here,” as Sufjan stated that the encore had to end ‘just right and louder.’ It did just that.

Photos by Ivy Weir

Check out MORE Photos of Sufjan’s Show AFTER THE JUMP

10.05.09
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Budian’s Beast Travels the Sea of Minds

As you and I both know, there is always a sound that depicts every moment of our lives. Much like a soundtrack, but more personal and passionate. Sounds know us more than we know each other. The sound that we hear keeps our minds creative. In all instances, in all happenings, there is a sound. Has there ever been a moment in your life that felt so still? Everything remained motionless, but your soul and mind wandered off to far places. Lights, bright lights, filled the air and the sky. It could almost be compared to how a rainbow would look if it were to explode in a million pieces.

In this big city of San Antonio (Texas), there reigns four talented individuals who know the sound of wandering silence. Budian gives the mind and the soul the chance to escape this dirty world and enter this field of stillness and beauty. Budian just released their newest record this September, The Beast. The Beastis a 10 track record full of nothing but beautiful harmonies and melodies. Budian consists of Janiene Bishop, Joshua D. Bishop, F. Sott Andreu, Stephen B. Andreu, and a special guest Ruben Benavidez for the ‘Get Up’ track. The very first song, ‘Please To Meet You, ‘is the perfect introduction to a beautiful work. Purely instrumental on this first track, hearing the violin autmatically brings this comfort to the mind. It’s very mesmerizing as it leads to the next track, ‘Dreams.’ ‘Dreams’ has to be one of the most beautiful, soothing tracks I have ever listened to. As I first heard this song, I felt powered to close my eyes. This is where the imagination takes the lead. A dream is, indeed, what Budian is all about. They are the dream of calmness and creativity. They give the listener the chance to just sway back and forth and loose themselves within the sound. The vocals in The Beast may very well be the key ingredient to this beautiful, calming product. Janiene Bishop has the voice of an angel and knows exactly how to project it in each track. However, each individual in this band brings forth the perfect amount of talent and passion to make their sound so unbelievably beautiful. I can ramble on and on about each track on this record, but you, the listener, will have to experience the beauty of all this on your own. It is a record worth listening to and buying. Give your mind the chance to explore on a level it has never explored before. Let Budian become the soundtrack to your precious life.
–Krista De La Rosa

Check out Budian on MYSPACE 

10.04.09
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Secondhand Sunday: The Moldy Peaches “Lucky Number Nine”

Today is a special edition of Secondhand Sunday that is close to our hearts. The Moldy Peaches ‘Lucky Number Nine.’ I remember the first time I saw the band performing on a local NY show called The Daily Beat. From what I recall, they performed this song and ‘Hulkamaniac’ while wearing rabbit hats and/or footed pajamas and/or capes. Learning the band actually was from the town over and that Kimya Dawson worked at my favorite record store and my mom worked for Adam Green’s dad, my friends and I were blown away. They are hometown heroes if you will. Both have went on to very successful solo careers and a lot of attention from Juno, but sometimes we wish ‘Lucky Number Nine’ would waltz it’s way back onto the stage. Footed pajamas and all.

Watch The Moldy Peaches’ ‘Lucky Number Nine’…..(hooray!)

10.01.09
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Shining Bright with Erin from the Headlights

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This week indie darlings, Headlights just released their third, highly anticipated album, Wildlife (Polyvinyl). The album shows a new side of the band but still manages to obtain those great Headlights hooks and sound that we all know and love. Recently I had the chance of interviewing the lovely Erin Fein who gave us some insight on what makes Headlights shine.

How did everyone in the band initially meet?

Let’s see, we’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve known Tristan, our guitarist since I was in high school. Originally we were a three piece and met at the University of Illinois and that’s where we went to college. And then we met our bass player, Nick, just through playing music since we had already started the band at that point. We stole him for us.

 Your third album, Wildlife is coming out. Are you nervous since Some Racing, Some Stopping was so successful?

Yea I think you’re always nervous just because your putting something out there that’s very personal so it’s kind of a vulnerable feeling. But I’m looking forward to it, I’m excited about it. I can’t wait to be back on tour and see what adventures lay before us.

 What is the inspiration behind the songs on the new album?

 It really comes from a lot of places but meanwhile we just tend to write about things that we’re going through and things that we feel. So Tristan and I particularly had some a big year as far as shifting family health issues and some people passing away. That kind of stage of life comes to people at different times and so it’s difficult. I guess probably what we went through definitely affected the mood of the record.

 Had did you come up with the title of the record?

 Well actually, it’s been a long time trying to think of what we wanted to call the record. It didn’t come very fast but we wanted some sort of way of expressing this kind of general idea we were feeling. It’s not particularly original, just the idea of kind of like this song that’s on the record called ‘We’re All Animals,’ just is sort of a personal realization sometimes that you’re not in control, people can be cruel, life can be cruel. But also the positive side of that too. So I think maybe Wildlife has the idea of animals and how we’re probably closer to that than we’ve wanted. But that’s what it means, I think, to me anyway! You may get a different answer from someone else in the band.

 What’s your favorite song on the new record?

 I will say my favorite is the one called ‘Secrets,’ because I just love the melody and I love every time we play it. It’s personal so it feels meaningful when I sing it, particularly meaningful, not that the other ones aren’t meaningful. That one is very close to my heart.

 What’s it like being the only girl in an all boy band?

 Sometimes it’s overwhelming, a little overwhelming. I grew up with brothers so I’m kind of used to that dynamic anyway so I think it’s fairly natural for me to be around a bunch of guys, since that’s how it worked growing up. Sometimes I urn for a female friend when I’m out on the road. Every now and then I get to go on tour with other bands that have girls and that’s always a delight.

 Do you think it’s harder for women in indie rock in general to have to prove themselves as great musical forces?

 I don’t know if it’s harder for women that it is men, but women are definitely outnumbered. I think doing anything when you’re kind of up against a lot of other guys, maybe it can be a little intimidating at times. For me personally which is probably the best way to speak about it, I think I feel like I wish I had a man’s voice. Because I really love sort of scratchy voices like Bob Dylan, the guy’s voice from The National, so many examples. So many male voices that I love, but there’s a lot of female voices that I love too. I always feel that everytime I sing it’s very ‘pretty’ and I like my voice a lot, but it doesn’t have that deep dark thing that it seems that male voices can do. But then again you go to somebody like Stevie Nicks, she has a great, strange, dry voice. Maybe I just need to smoke a lot of cigarettes.

 How does the songwriting process occur for the band?

It is somewhat collaborative. Basically we don’t have one way we stick to necessarily but generally it happens that either Tristan or I write a song and record a demo to give it flavor. Then we’ll bring the demos we made to the guys and we’ll knock it out and be like ‘here it is, does it do anything for you?’ And so the one we tend to gravitate to we record it downstairs in our basement and just trying to open them up and making them a Headlights song, not just a Erin song or a Tristan song.

What’s your favorite part about recording in general?

At least with modern technology you’re limitless as far as with what you can do. You can put 15 keyboard tracks, no problem. I really love arrangements like that with lots of melody and tons of keyboards, I’m a keyboard player. I also enjoy pulling back every now and then but really I tend to just want to keep putting more and more onto a song to our drummer’s dismay because the does all the recording. He has to tell me to stop usually! I love the aspect that you can just dive into your song and create this musical landscape and that’s unique to recording for me.

 What’s your favorite part about being on tour?

I like traveling. We live in Champaign, well Tristan and I live in Champaign, it’s a lovely little town but it does get boring. When we leave it’s the feeling of ‘Yes I got out!’ so I get to see the world again. I love traveling and particularly like going to the west coast just because the drive there is so beautiful, and I love New York City that’s always an exciting place to be. I think the traveling and the performing every night, the waiting part is a little bit hard when you’re sitting in the van and there are so many hours of nothing to do. But once we get to have a drink and then we play it’s really fun.

What inspires you to write music?

 I don’t really know. I don’t know why I started writing music, except I always gravitated towards playing music. Even when I was very little I always wrote my own little songs on the piano so I guess it’s hard to say. The music just sort of comes to you I guess.

 Did you record Wildlife yourself?

 We recorded it ourselves, but actually the credit should go mostly to our drummer. He’s really the brains behind the recording operation.

 How would you describe the difference between the new record and the first two albums?

I think that this one is a little darker, sonically and lyrically. At least something we try to do, or like doing are kind of writing songs that straddle sort of hopefulness with a darker edge. I think that remains. We try to just go into a recording studio with an open mind and see what comes out. Having some basic idea set before we go in and because of that each record is pretty different from the last record, and that’s kind of what we like to do. It’s boring to do the same thing over and over again.

 Who are your influences?

 They’re so many of them. Harry Nilsson, you know the song ‘The Point’? ‘Me and My Arrow,’ I love that one. I’m a big Stevie Nicks fan and Fleetwood Mac. I really love Emmylou Harris. It’s so hard for me to narrow this down especially using the rolodex of musician’s in your mind and you don’t know where to stop. Most I’m drawn to really neurotic music, edging towards that. There are so many fantastic band’s I’ve loved over the years like The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Neil Young. I kind of tend to listen to a lot of older stuff. Carole King, newer bands, I really love the new Grizzly Bear record. Influences just come from so many different places. Some of it’s musical, some of it’s lyrical. It’s a person or something you have done, so it’s hard to say it comes from one place only. Definitely it’s centered around a lot of melody.

 Are you excited about playing the new songs on the road?

Yes very much so! After you play 200 or something shows a year, the same songs over and over again it’s exciting to put new flavors into your setlist. It’s nice and fresh to play for people.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

Right now, honestly, I love playing the new song ‘Secrets.’ I love playing that song, it really seems to go over well everytime we play it. It’s a very dynamic song.

If you weren’t in The Headlights, what would you be doing?

Riding a horse off into the sunset! Am I allowed to say that? I have no future ahead of me as you can see. I’m a musician first and riding horses into the sunset second. There’s no health insurance in my future unless Obama gets his way, which I’m crossing my fingers. To anyone reading this just know I like the public option. Selfishly!

 Where do you see The Headlights in 10 years from now?

We’re all be fat! If the guys read that I’m going to be in trouble

Best answer ever.

Except for me!

Check out Headlights on MYSPACE

Order Wildlife at POLYVINYL RECORDS

09.30.09
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The Wooden Birds * Bowery Ballroom, NYC * September 27, 2009

Sunday night we had the amazing chance to experience The Wooden Birds open for Great Lake Swimmers at the Bowery Ballroom. Okay, as soon as we found out that the band had both Andrew Kenny from American Analog Set and Matt Pond in it, we were intrigued.

The band, which is the brain child of Kenny, released Magnolia (Barsuk) back in May and have been supporting the album ever since. This is one of the greatest records I have heard all year, hands down. At their live show, the band gives even more life into the songs. Listening to the record, the first thing you notice that there are no drums on any of the tracks. A careful decision made by Kenny.

Onstage the band brings on drummer Sean Haskins to liven up the live show.  Guitarist and sometimes vocalists Leslie Sisson has one of the most beautiful voices you’ll ever hear, especially on stage. Matt Pond makes a nice addition to the live lineup, playing the new songs like an old pro. Kenny takes on the part of lead vocalist and bass player, with the most infectious bass lines you’ll ever hear. The Great Lake Swimmers had a hard act to follow that’s for sure.

Check out MORE LIVE Pictures of The Wooden Birds @ The Bowery After the JUMP

Check back later on in the week for our exclusive interview with Andrew Kenny!

 

09.29.09
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Let’s Go Surfing with The Drums!

Brooklyn four piece, The Drums are gaining attention faster than we can keep up with! Our writer Joe Paolucci caught up with the drummer of The Drums (try saying that 10 times fast!), Connor Hanwick at Brooklyn Bowl to find out what this buzz band is all about.

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So you guys started out playing CMJ last year, right?

No, no. We started out at Popfest. We did our first show at Popfest at the Cake Shop.

As far as attention goes, what has that been like?

 The honest truth is that we played Popfest and we played the basement party at Popfest. It’s been a snowball.

 The band is great live, you put on a great show.

 Thanks! The whole thing has just gotten out of control. People have been really receptive and we’re really grateful. Here in New York and more so in the UK, we’re like Top 40 radio. It’s Jay-Z, The Killers and us.

 ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ is a great song. You are kind of like New Order meets the Beach Boys. That’s a great description of that song.

 We don’t actually surf ourselves, but we like the whole culture, that whole thing.

 I do too. We were actually going to ask you, where do you surf in Brooklyn?

Not to get heavy but ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ was written about, well like, we have two songs…. like ‘Let’s Go Surfing,’ and we have a song that’s coming out on the full length called ‘The New World,’ solely based on Obama. Like ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ was just a reaction towards the whole idea of being free I mean the past 8 years have been kind of a mess and we kind of realized that some new guy was coming into power. It’s just like a total liberation. That’s what we felt like, we felt like ‘I want to go surfing.’

We’re you in Elkland too?

 I wasn’t in Elkland, no. I met the guys Adam, one of the guitar players and Jon. I wasn’t in Elkland, Adam and Jon were in Elkland together.

 Jon was the singer and Adam was the guitar player, right?

 Yea, the other guitarist Jacob was in a band called Goat Explosion with Jon several years back. They were an electronic band.

 Where are you guys from originally?

Ah, from all over. I’m from here (Brooklyn). Jon is from upstate, Adam is from the same town and Jacob is from Ohio.

 So you’re the only one from around here?

 Well yea, but we all moved to Florida to write the record.

 Where about in Florida?

 Kissimmee.

 Right outside of Orlando. Why Kissimmee?

 A good friend of mine gave us the house.

 That’s pretty sweet. Elkland was kind of pop-punky weren’t they?

They were sort of pop-punky but Elkland was just a good new age band. I don’t think they were really pop-punk. Their label Columbia was full of shit. They don’t know how to handle their bands. It’s old people, you know?

 How did you guys meet?

Jon and Jacob were best friends since they were like eleven. They met at like a Christian Bible camp. Jon and Adam met, well they’re from the same town and met right before Elkland started. John and I used to DJ when I was like 17, 18…

 How old are you now?

 22. I used to DJ at a lot of clubs that Jon would go to and we used to hang out there all the time.

 Did you DJ at the Annex and all?

 Yea.

 Are you guys sad about the closing? What do you think about that?

 The Annex has done great things for us. I think they had a great venue. If you’re a shitty band and play the Annex, it’s like whatever, but we think the Annex was  good venue for some bands. We played there with the Bravery and they were amazing. (gesture) Can you get that motion on tape? (laughs)

 How is your debut album coming along?

 The debut is about finished. We have 2 songs left. We have about 12 songs written for the full length and 2 songs left to write. We already have them basically down. We have vocals left to do. They’re essentially done. The full length is essentially done and we’re looking towards the next one.

 Really? That’s crazy!

We’re very specific about what we want aesthetically, soundwise. We’re pretty close to having the full length done. 

How hard is it to create what you do in the studio, onstage? It’s pretty apparent because you’re good live.

 It’s weird because none of us our actually musicians. Every band I’ve been in has just been drum machine, weird obscure shit. The other guys, same thing. This is the first time Jacob has ever played guitar. Adam is sort of the same. We’re not musicians you know? We’re songwriters. We’re all sort of like synth enthusiasts. We all grew up on Kraftwerk, New Order. Those bands. Factory records were a big influence on us, obviously, but more of the band’s like Stockholm Monsters. All four of us separately went through a serious Joy Division stage.

I love Joy Division.

Yea, like how can you not?! The band that inspired us to make this sound is a band called The Wake. They were like a really obscure factory band and between them and a band called Field Mice, they were on a label called Sour Records from ’88 to ’92. They released a 100 releases and then kind of fizzled out.

How did the band come together?

Well Jon and Adam became friends because they were from the same town, so then they played in Elkland together. Jon’s been in New York for a couple of years now. I grew up here so I’ve been DJ’ing around since I was 16. The Drums actually started as a fictional band. We all had a blog called the Neo-Violent Boy’s Club. This band had a song called ‘Neo-Violent’ so we started this blog, full of our ideas and we started this fictional band called The Drums. Jon drew up a fictional band. We kind of made it up, we promoted it as the greatest band in the world. It was all photos, image based. So then Jon moved down to Florida to help Jacob on the record and they were like ‘Well let’s call it The Drums!’ Jon called me up, called Adam, like ‘What do you guys think of, you know, The Drums?’ We heard a few songs and signed on right away.

What were the songs?

I heard ‘Me and the Moon,’ which will be on the full length and ‘Let’s Go Surfing.’ I was DJ’ing at the time and I was playing a lot of those songs. We have a song called ‘Best Friend’ we have a remix that me and Jacob made. I was playing it non stop whenever I DJ’ed. People were really receptive and it kind of went from that.

Who are your influences?

A lot of people give us comparisions to New Order and Joy Division. We’re really more inspired by the Shangrilas, The Angles.

 No Beach Boys?

 No the Beach Boys too. The Beach Boys have this album with 13 songs that they just wrote about being in cars. That’s really inspiring to us. A guy named Alexander Rovadnick, and we like timeless classic Americana. I like the Beach Boys, The Zombies, Shangrilas, a lot of old doo wop girl groups.

 I love the music video for ‘Let’s Go Surfing.’

We have another video coming out very soon called ‘Down by the Water,’ and we’re totally ripping off frame for frame a video by the Shangrilas. They’re like 4 girls from Queens that just made amazing song and we’re totally obsessed with them. One of the girls from that group sells show now. So we went up and gave her a copy of the EP.

Where does she sell shoes?

Like 82nd Street at a really random store (laughs). Our main influences are The Zombies, The Shangrilas, The Ronettes and Timelife Magazine.

Before it collapsed?

Well yea, we’re really image based.

My old photo teacher collected those images and they’re amazing. Did you help with the rest of the album songwriting?

 I mean like, as far as I’m concerned, the drum parts are very simple, all the parts are. The whole thing is we want to do everything we want to do and confine them into three minutes.

 It’s like a pop album.

 I think there’s this whole Williamsburg thing going on right now and that’s great but we’re really not part of that whole thing.

 You guys kind of popped out of nowhere, kind of like Grizzly Bear.

 Grizzly Bear is cool. They’re good friends of ours. I love Grizzly Bear.

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 John takes on sort of a Morrissey persona when he hits the stage, he even does the whips.

 Honestly, our influences, we really don’t try and hide them. I think everybody like you and I went through a serious Smiths phase. Our band is formed based off a lot of the same bands. If John has something that seems Morrissey-esque, it’s very sincere.

 What’s your favorite song to play live?

 My favorite song to play is probably the song ‘I Felt Stupid,’ but there’s a song coming up on the full length called ‘The New World.’ We’re looking to get booked for the Olympics for the opening ceremony with the song. The lyrics are comprised completely of Barak Obama’s inauguration speech. It doesn’t sound cheesy or anything and it’s probably my favorite song on the album.

 Are you guys traveling outside of New York City and Brooklyn right now?

We’re going to London on the 14th and then have two shows here at the Mercury Lounge and then we go to Iceland for the Airways Festival and back to London and then L.A. and back to New York. By then the full length will be out and we’ll be all over.

 A lot of comments on Youtube ask this question….Why are you guys so skinny?

Well none of us eat ever. I actually read a comment on Brooklyn Vegan that said we’re all actors who had to audition for this band. To me it’s hilarious because it’s like a big studio production. We produced the whole album ourselves in our bedroom, so if people want to think we’re actors or whatever, that’s fine. It’s sort of following. Honestly we’re just a couple of good looking kids who are playing music that we want to play.

 I like it! What bands are you into?

There’s a band from Florida who’s playing in New York called Surfer Blood, they’re really amazing. Other than that, a lot of Swedish bands, a band called the Tough Lions, Air France. There’s a band we hate called The Bravery (laughs). No we just had this thing in NME which is just us talking a bunch of shit about The Bravery. It’s kind of embarrassing. We’re all still huge fans of The Strokes, I’m really looking forward to their new record. I think those guys write great pop songs. The band Chairlift, The Embassy, The Legends. We’re into Camera Obscura, Glass Vegas. We all went through that New Order/Joy Division phase a long time ago, even though we get those comparisons.

Check out more of The Drums on their MYSPACE.