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Pianos: The reigning princes of Pianos wave to the cheering crowd, say “It’s been fun”, and leave town to conquer bigger kingdoms; Passion Pit plays the last of the three residency shows tonight. On board is their Swedish friend, drummer and singer-songwriter Kristoffer Rangstam, whose song “Swing That Tambourine”, taken from the album Wrong Side of the Room, lets the drums lead as if it, too, were singing, and the result is refreshing. Rangstam’s label mate The Break and Repair Method will join, as will Staten Island’s Gates of Heaven.
Many more bands playing tonight, and all mp3 links after the jump.
Though The Loom hasn’t been around for too long, singer John Fanning says the current line-up feels permanent, and I very much agree. He and drummer Jon Alvarez share a great chemistry from being friends before becoming band mates, and after playing with the band for about 10 months, classically-trained french horn and trumpet player Lis Rubard is happy to focus on it as her main project. Joining them most recently are flutist Bethany Chase (who quit oboe school after literally telling them to “fuck off”) and guitarist Mark Rogers (who seems to treat everything he says and does with a dose of passion). Both musicians are an excellent fit, musically and temperamentally. And though the beloved bassist Dan DeSloover is temporarily away on a biological project that involves stunning fish in order to count them, he was greatly missed as The Loom and friends of The Loom gathered at John’s apartment in Kensington for the shooting of these videos. China, who you will see playing the saw, made an exuberant amount of delicious food for all.
More on The Loom and one more video (my favorite of the two) after the jump.
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It’s freaking Tuesday! And how brilliant that the Olympics finished just in time for the Democratic National Convention. Here is the DNC’s full Tuesday schedule; Hillary Clinton headlines.
Girls in Trouble is classically-trained violinist, fiddle aficionado and singer-songwriter Alicia Jo Rabins, who has made Brooklyn her home for the past several years. I went to see her at her sister’s Bushwick apartment, outside which there is a small overgrown garden with tall sunflowers and ripe tomatoes. The first floor is a church, and narrow stairs inside eventually lead to a pretty kitchen where Alicia was brewing green tea when I got there. We shot three songs, all taken from a song cycle she plans to record as an album later this year. The first, “Who sent the heat?”, and the second, “Snow”, which I’ve decided to pick as my favorite, are performed with Aaron Hartman of Old Time Relijun on upright bass. For the third, “Hunter”, Alicia takes on the loop pedal with her violin. Watch all three, and get your literary paws dirty to figure out what binds these stories.
(Note: I’m taking a break from tonight’s show listing to bring you these videos from Girls in Trouble. The listing will return tomorrow).
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Download “Where Has Sally Gone” | Everyone from Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps seemed pretty likable, and they were quick to make new fans at their first-ever performance in New York City. Of the small crowd present last night–the room was half-full–it seemed most were friends of other bands playing: Measure, Olivia Mancini and Donny Hue are all local acts. Apart from myself, there were perhaps three others who knew of Caroline prior to the show: the band’s jovial mailing list guy, that guy’s friend, and another person Caroline greeted before the show. When the music got going, however, there were howls of approval, enthusiastic roars of applause; when it was time to announce they had only two more songs left, there was a unanimous expression of disappointment; finally as the last song came to a close, there was the request for an encore.
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Pianos: Austin’s The Lovely Sparrows is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Shawn Jones. Over a free-flowing, plucked rhythm of his acoustic guitar, he creates a tender sound fit for accompanying folk fairy tales. His storytelling vision is evident in the way he sparingly deploys little details of various instruments (like flutes, piano, violin, etc) as if each were a character coming in and out of a scene–this disciplined restrain of his adds a lot of texture to the tunes. Pay attention to the lyrics, too. In “Year of the Dog” he sings, “I was waiting out / To save you / You were into that / Romantic shit / And wanted to die young / It was plain to see / To everyone but me / There are no haunted places / Only people we / Still wish that we could see”. The band is playing at Pianos tonight with Satori, Illamanjaromo, and at Union Hall tomorrow.
