Crystal Castles at The Hollywood Palladium, 10/20/12

Landing back in Los Angeles ahead of their upcoming album (III), Crystal Castles proceeded to blow the roof off a sold-out Hollywood Palladium with their angst-infused electronica. Complete with stage fog and strobes pulsating to every beat, they had the audience undulating like a stormy sea.

They opened with their latest single "Plague," following it up with the equally new "Wrath of God." It didn't seem to make any difference to the frenzied audience that these weren't released yet, as it was close to a riot in anticipation of the show. The Toronto based duo were joined onstage by a live drummer, although Alice's stage presence took up most of the venue.

While many bands as they get larger seem removed from their audience, Ethan Kath (electronics) & Alice Glass (vocalist) fully throws themselves into their performance; and for Alice quite literally backwards into the audience, crowd-surfing started while preforming their song "Baptism." Singing into her microphone with one hand and holding onto the ever-important bottle of Jack with the other; their reputation of a band that gives 1000% live, is nothing less than completely authentic.

The night's tunes were drawn from their self titled album, "II" and a few new tracks from the upcoming "III." Their sound presented an impressive contradiction - while very danceable, they also had an intently primal DIY feel; proving rebellion has many faces beyond those of guitar based bands. Check them out next time they're in around...

Photo/Review by Clovis IV

www.fb.com/clovis.iv

Sea and Cake & Matthew Friedberger Live Review Littlefield 10/21/1

Matthew Friedberger of the Firery Furnaces opened the show with a very conceptual set of solo material. He quickly divided the audience between those up for a challenging set and those who weren't in for that kind of an evening. As he paced back and forth from keyboard to keyboard explaining he would write a song in the moment, some headed back for a drink in the front room while other eagerly listened. Friedberger would play dissonant minor chords, amble over and push play on a loop, and hide behind his hair while continuing to ask us, wouldn’t it be great if he created a song in the moment? He shared stories about graveyards, visits from his deceased great grandfather who came to him in a dream, and sometimes, there were hints of songs. Occasionally, throughout the set, a full song of looped music would surface and he would accompany the tunes with some operatic vocals. Friedberger will be on the road supporting his new 45-track album entitled Matricidal Sons of Bitches due out October 30th on Thrill Jockey.

Next up was The Sea and Cake. They took the stage and launched into a string of tunes from their new album Runner.  The new songs are fantastic and the band sounded extremely solid live. I didn’t know the band shared drummer John McEntire of Tortoise. He kept perfect meter for the tunes while adding just the right amount of energy to their live set. Singer, guitarist Sam Prekop started out most of the tunes building up a rhythm  of guitar grooves, then adding his lovely, whispered, and dreamy vocals to the swelling sounds. Guitarist Archer Prewitt was armed with an ebow, which he would use to create intricate layers. He was placed center stage and the audience seemed enthralled with watching him and listening to his passionate guitar playing. The set featured many tunes off the new record, but the band balanced this with peppered in tunes from their extensive back catalog, to the crowds great enjoyment. They played tracks from their debut, The Biz, The Fawn, Car Alarm, Everybody, The Moonlight Butterfly and even a track off their Glass EP. While enjoying their set I noticed the musical couple Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo were also in attendance. It was a beautiful evening of music, I highly recommend catching a show.

Sea and Cake Setlist
The Invitation
On and On
Harp
A Mere
Jacking the Ball
Weekend
The Staircase
Middlenight
Window Sills
Pacific
Cross (?)
New Patterns
The Argument
An Echo In
Leeora
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyric
The Runner

Matthew Friedberger

 
Archer Prewitt  
 

 
John McEntire

 

The Sea and Cake

Kevchino Presents The Black Swans

Kevchino presents

The Black Swans
 

David King + The Confirmed Bachelors 

& Shenandoah and the Night

Thursday August 30th at The Rock Shop.

Get Tickets here.

Kevchino Presents Shilpa Ray, Natureboy, Greene Girl, Melanie Moser

Tickets:
http://www.ticketweb.com/fb/4606995/pianosemail

Price:
$8.00

|| SHILPA RAY 11pm
http://youtu.be/o-kSeywVIMU

|| NATUREBOY 10pm
http://natureboy.bandcamp.com/

|| GREENE GIRL 9pm
http://greenegirl.bandcamp.com/

|| Melanie MOSER 8pm
http://melaniemoser.bandcamp.com/

DJ DAVID KING & DJ KEVCHINO spin between sets

Interview with Active Child

Tim Needles chatted recently with Pat Grossi, aka Active Child, about his musical career—from singing in choirs and chilling with Snoop Dog and Dr.Dre in his youth, to currently eking out a living through touring, remixes, and oh yeah, actual albums. Read the rest here.

Will Sergeant (Echo and the Bunnymen) Interview

Tim Needles chats with Echo and the Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant about his art, art shows, Banksy and Mr. Brainwash, and his new solo record, Things Inside.

Read the interview here.

Grouplove @ The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA 4/16/12

 In support of their debut album "Never Trust a Happy Song," Los Angeles based GROUPLOVE played one of their first headlining-tour shows at downtown Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre. I was unsure of exactly what to expect from this up-and-coming multi-vocalist band, having only heard their ubiquitous "Colours" and the incredibly catchy video/single "Tongue Tied." While the songs were indeed happy (which may have you not wanting to trust them, per their own advice), they did however have an underlying resonance & joyful comradery that shown through in nearly every song: aka: the show was quirky & pretty awesome...

Reminiscent of some kind of a Southern Californian indie-rock love-child-mix between Modest Mouse, early REM, Arcade Fire, and The Flaming Lips; the band consists of a cornucopia of discordant laid-back surf looking, tho enthusiastic sounding members including: Hannah Hooper (keyboards/vocals), Christian Zucconi (vocals/guitar), Sean Gadd (Bass/Vocals), Ryan Rabin (drummer), and Andrew Wessen (guitar/mandolin).

Having made the decision to officially form GROUPLOVE on the Greek isle of Crete, the band set to out by recoding their self-titled ep in the 2010 recording session at Ryan Rabin's Los Angeles studio. From that point, the band has been busy playing the LA area continually, as well as being national support for Florence and the Machine, and later for Young the Giant.

Meanwhile back at the night's show: the band played nearly their entire catalog-to-date, having the packed venue bouncing along one buoyant tune after tune. After their Coachella appearances the band is continuing across the US on their first headlining tour. Check them out on tour & see what I'm talking about...

Photo/Review by Clovis IV

www.fb.com/clovis.iv

...Setlist...
Lovely Cup
Itchin' on a Photograph
Naked Kids
Love Will Save Your Soul
Betty's A Bombshell
Gold Coast
Spun
Chloe
Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten
Slow
...Encore...
Don't Say Oh Well
Tongue Tied
Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston cover)
Colours

...Tour Dates...
30-Apr  Carrboro, NC
1-May   Asheville, NC
2-May   Charlottesville, VA
5-May   Irvine, CA
8-May   Montreal, Canada
9-May   Toronto, Canada
11-May Detroit, MI
12-May Chicago, IL
13-May Milwaukee, WI
15-May Minneapolis, MN
16-May Des Moines, IA
17-May Omaha, NE
19-May Denver, CO
20-May Aspen, CO
22-May Salt Lake City, UT
23-May Boise, ID
25-May Portland, OR
28-May George, WA
2-Jun    Mountain View, CA
3-Jun    Chula Vista, CA
7-Jun    Manchester, TN
8-Jun    Manchester, TN
9-Jun    Manchester, TN
10-Jun  Manchester, TN
11-Jun  Philadelphia, PA
12-Jun  New York, NY
13-Jun  Washington, DC
14-Jun  Boston, MA
14-Jul   Cincinnati, OH
21-Jul   Dover, DE
18-Aug Tokyo, Japan
19-Aug Osaka, Japan

Brain-Cave Day 1 Photos 4/5/12 at The Bell House

Cara Bella Presents hosted the second year of the amazing music and art festival called Brain-Cave. This year it was a two day showcase at Park Slope's The Bell House. We sadly only caught the first night which featured the best female fronted Brooklyn bands. NYC Taper was there and hopefully some cool downloads of the bands sets will be available soon.
Jessica Larrabee on vocals and guitar and Andy LaPlant on drums of the Brooklyn duo She Keeps Bees tore it up with a tight as nails set filled with rocking tunes and Jessica's always comedic stage banter.

The promoter Luis came out for a heartfelt speech and thanked all the bands and the crowd for their support of his amazing Brian-Cave festival he put on with the help of Paper Garden Records.
It was quite a shock to see a violin on stage during Shilpa Ray's set. Her backing band was Caged Animals. Shilpa showcased some new songs she's working on.
Vin of Caged Animals played guitar for Shilpa's set.
Magali Francoise (Caged Animals) played some lovely violin and Patrick Curry (Caged Animals) played some cool beats during Shilpa's set both adding an amazing new dimension to her sound.
It was my time checking out The Family Band and it won't be my last. Singer/guitarist Kim Krans and crew put on an amazing set of stark and moody tunes.

Cat Martino played on the side stage and intrigued the audience wtih her amazing voice and her passion for looping a plethora of instruments and building up her angelic songs.
Sara Kermanshahi played a very engaging set with her band Natureboy. A lot of tunes from their new album called The Sweep. There set list: Pariah, A Flame, Lexies, Blow To The Head, Sight To See and the amazing Heart To Fool from there debut album.

Blast Off! was a real treat a three piece with guitar, drums and keyboards, saxophone who played between two sets on the side stage. They band was amazingly tight and had some very tight jams.

Fire Horse played a great set of hypnotic psychedelic jams.

They had live art being painted during the show.

Mr. Gnome Interview

We had a chance to chat with Nicole Barille and Sam Meister, who make up the duo Mr. Gnome, about their current tour, SXSW, tasty treats in Cleveland, Ohio, and their musical influences. Read the interview here.

Cults @ The Fonda Theatre, Hollywood, 03/22/12

Landing back in Southern California on tour for their debut album, Cults took the stage at Hollywood's newly re-opened Henry Fonda Theatre like long lost friends back for a visit. It wasn't too hard of a stretch, as they were playing to a packed house of fans seeking their darkly-tinged dream-pop.

As they took the stage in the minimally-projected geometric-light of their tune "Abducted"; they came-on similar to a few shots of Absinthe in a blurry evening: beautiful though disorienting. Sounding like a mix between early 60's girl-groups, Sleigh Bells, and The Jesus and Mary Chain; the band mesmerized from first note to last.

The Manhattan based duo, comprised of Madeline Follin on vocals, and Brian Oblivion on guitar; were joined onstage with a full band's accompaniment - filling-out their live sound. The night's tunes were largely taken from their self titled release, with a few new songs thrown in - not the least of which was a surprisingly good cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows."

Their sound presented something a feeling of contradiction. It gave off an enticingly/cute vibe, while simultaneously manifesting a hard-to-define uneasiness. All things combined, Cults were pretty enjoyable & well worth checking out live.

1) Intro/Abducted
2) The Curse
3) Slow Song
4) Most Wanted
5) You Know What I Mean
6) Bumper
7) Never Saw the Point
8) Rave On
9) Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen cover)
10) Walk at Night
11) Go Outside
12) Oh My God

Photo/Review by Clovis IV
www.fb.com/clovis.iv

Beach House - New track "Myth"

Beach House
Bloom out on May 15th via Subpop.
1. Myth
2. Wild
3. Lazuli
4. Other People
5. The Hours
6. Troublemaker
7. New Year
8. Wishes
9. On the Sea
10.Irene

Daughter Mercury Lounge NYC 3/9/12

I was very excited to have caught London based band Daughter at Mercury Lounge. It was the bands first headlining show. Singer songwriter Elena Tonra and her guitarist boyfriend Igor Haefeli and new member and drummer Remi Aguilella played all songs from their new EP His Young Heart as well as some great new tracks. "Landfill" and 'Candles" sounded even better live than the recording. Haefeli had quite the guitar alchemists pedal board he even had a foot pedal shown below with which he triggerred bass and keyboard sounds. He broke a string mid set and Tonra played the lovely acoustic "The Woods," while he fixed it. The band played some amazing new material which featuring more bass and drums and keyboards. Each member got to played bass on a track passing around a sparkly silver Dan Electro. The band thanked the New York crowd for being so attentive to their set. Daughter played a amazing show. Unfortunately they had a late start for early slated set and had no time to play an encore which the enthusiastic crowd demanded. Check out some live video's from the show below.

Frankie Rose & Dive Knitting Factory

Kevchino.com's Austin Party 3/17/12 in East Austin

We're excited to announce we'll be back in Austin this year on Saturday, March 17th in East Austin. Venue to be announced.
This years line up is below and It will run from 1pm till 8pm rotating from Indoor/outdoor stages. The show is FREE and we’ll have a food truck and free beer & drinks. RSVP here.

Line-up: Caged Animals, Mirel Wagner, Parson Redheads, Emily Jane White, Dana Falconberry, Matt Bauer, Laura Gibson, Steffaloo, Y La Bamba, Sea of Bees, Slowdance, Brown Bird and more to be announced.








Laura Gibson MP3
Parson Redheads VIDEO
Emily Jane White MP3
Dana Falconberry MP3
Sea of Bees MP3

Kevchino.com's 10 year anniversary celebration Matt Bauer, Dana Falconberry, Natureboy & Prairie Empire

Kevchino The Sky Report & Musicology NYC Present

Kevchino.com's 10 year anniversary celebration featuring . . .



Dana Falconberry “Petoskey Stone” (EP release show)






DJ Scot Bowman & DJ Kevchino and Easy Lover will be spinning between sets.

Join us for an evening of celebration, bowling and music!

Saturday, January 28th at The Gutter

$8 at the door

The Gutter
200 North 14th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-387-3585
21+

Coachella 2012 Line Up

What do you think? I'm so excited about At the Drive-In and Godspeed!

SVE on TV!