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“..it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.” Full speech.
Let’s pretend “American” means “humanist” and we’re all good. Go Obama.
Animal Collective: For Reverend Green
Múm: They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded
Beirut: My Family’s Role In The World Revolution
Au: RR vs. D
The Books: Tokyo
Broken Social Scene: Our Faces Split The Coast In Half
Sufjan Stevens: Your Land
Kocani Orkestar: Siki Siki Baba
Photo credit: “A grief stricken American infantryman whose buddy has been killed in action is comforted by another soldier. In the background a corpsman methodically fills out casualty tags, Haktong-ni area Korea.” By Sfc. Al Chang, August 28, 1950. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer
Buy music from these fabulous bands, artist names are linked to albums.
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Here comes tonight’s shitlist showlist. There are some good bands, but tonight’s group is overwhelmingly unexciting. It’s left me uninspired enough to not post a list tomorrow, so I won’t. Instead, there will be time devoted to raging after having read this account of Fuck Yea Fest founders getting beat up by Hollywood Bowl’s security staff and being ignored by the LA police while I was watching a footage of an NYPD officer lifting up a woman and smashing her face down on the floor, followed by an image of her badly swollen face on television. I think I heard “pleaded not guilty”. Obama will have to repair the damage. Of every bad news. With his speeches. He headlines at the DNC. Go crazy.
ps. Pictured with “Yes We Can” sign is Adam from The Royal Chains, who’s not playing tonight, but you can see them at Mercury Lounge next on Sept 8th.
All bands and mp3 links after the jump.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Music Hall of Williamsburg: Dr. Dog plays a rescheduled, sold-out show with Senator R. Stevie Moore and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson // Cake Shop: Brooklyn’s Callers will release their full-length album Fortune on September 9, and will play tonight with The Chris Forsyth (of The Peeesseye).
McCarren Pool: L Magazine’s Summer Screen series is showcasing two local bands; The King Left will play an acoustic set, and are joined by Trashed on Fiction before showing Wes Anderson’s Rushmore.
More bands and all mp3 links after the jump.
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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.
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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.
Continued, and all photos after the jump.
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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.
More bands and all mp3 links after the jump.
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Le Royale: There are about eight bands paying there tonight and though I’m not sure who goes on when, I bring your attention once again to The Postelles–just returned from playing Lallapalooza–whose 50’s-60’s-inspired pop rock tunes stand out for sounding so much like the real thing that it’s impossible not to enjoy. All four members have the style down, but it makes hell lot of a difference that singer Daniel Balk sounds like a boy right out of that era. I’m equally into Charlie Klarsfeld’s The Americans, who also draw heavily from that same bygone, fruitful time, but the style here is decidedly R&B, complete with claps, piano and horns. Joining these two is Samuel (amongst many others?), who prefers the more modern affiliation with electronica, and who, it is said, will play with a new live band.
Two gorgeous ladies, more great bands, and all mp3 links after the jump.
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The Annex: Moenie & Kitchi is Gregory and the Hawk. They’re set to go on at 10:15 after Attached Hands and Cassorla // Cake Shop: Dream Bitches are friends Yoko Kikuchi and Ann Zakaluk, whose latest album is this year’s Coke and Spiriters from Recommend if You Like Records. They’re playing with Bugs in the Dark, about whom L Magazine wrote back in December, “Bugs in the Dark are doing their best to fill the void left by Sleater Kinney and the Pixies (unless the Pixies are actually together again, in which case, meh). Suprisingly, they’re doing a bang-up job.” To this day the band wonders the signifance of that meh. What does it mean? Also playing is Dave End, whose track “And By Queen” I quite like, and Sway.
More bands and lots of mp3’s after the jump. Also, which famous band did I sight this morning?
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hooves on the turf is a mostly-music blog based out of brooklyn. i can be reached at hoovesontheturf [at] gmail [dot] com - please send me your lovely music as an attached mp3 or an mp3 link. if i like what you send, i'll be sure to ask for more.
