hooves on the turf

Pianos: Jezebel hosts a free show featuring Dark Dark Dark, who’s also playing Deitch Studios tomorrow and the day after. The band set sail with seven rafts that were part of The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea project, leaving Troy, NY on Friday, and reaching Long Island City, Queens, where the fleet has docked at said studios. It’ll remain stationed there as part of an exhibition. Dark Dark Dark’s promising album, The Snow Magic, comes out October 28th, and they’re playing tonight with Action Lives, Jared Glenn, and Alex Diaz. This event is followed by a DJ set from Sammy Bananas.

More bands and all mp3 links after the jump.

Cake Shop: Nicole from Air Waves mentioned that this was her favorite venue to play, “The sound rules, and there’s a lack of pretension there that you find at some other NY venues.” I totally agree! What gives?—is it perhaps just the right size and just the right shape? “I don’t think it’s so much the size. All the sound people there are really good. And Andy, the booker, manages to keep the place ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’ or whatever without being a jerk about it. Like you see all types of people there. And he books all different kinds of bands. You can see metal, or indie pop, punk, or folk… or whatever. You know he really likes what he likes and he’s not trying to show off about it.” Air Waves is playing with Prince Rama of Ayodhya, Browns, and The Sundelles.

Knitting Factory: Singer Kelly Buchanan suffered traumatic brain injury while playing street hockey this past March, and friends are gathering tonight for a benefit to ensure Kelly receives all of the care she needs. There will be performances by Nada Surf, members of Fountains of Wayne, Measure, Chris Barron (formerly of Spin Doctors) and more. Says Laura Distasi of Measure, “Covering a Kelly Buchanan song really is at the heart of the show’s purpose. Kelly never had a chance to have a proper CD release, due to the accident, and so her really excellent album has gone mostly unheard through the six months that she’s been out of commission. Since she won’t be well enough by the time of this show to perform, the idea is to have each artist play one of the songs off the album, to start bringing some attention to it.”

Mercury Lounge: Maps and Atlases is playing with The Subjects and Nurses, whose bio begins like this: “In an era when every band seems to spend more time designing merchandise and adding friends to their MySpace page than making art,”—this is an absolute, merciless burn!—”Nurses have thankfully been losing touch with reality. As one listen to the CD can attest, their lack of convention results in an ‘instinctual’ or dare say, ‘artistic’ approach: ‘The songs we wrote weren’t a reaction to anything, it was just the most natural thing we could do.’ Intriguing idea indeed.

Le Poisson Rouge: MoveOn.org’s Civic Action benefit featuring Living Colour, The Family Stand, Earl Greyhound, Danielia Cotton, Viva Mayday. I caught up with Viva Mayday to ask if they’ve been to this venue before; “Unfortunately, we’ve never played or seen a show at the venue before; it’s pretty new isn’t it? But the pictures look awesome. We’re really stoked and extremely honored to be playing with such established and influential bands on the 10th… We hope, aside from enjoying all the great talents, that people walk away from this show thinking about the positive change each individual can have on this world.”

Joe’s Pub: Luke Doucet, The Duhks // Union Hall: Babe The Blue Ox, The Mommyheads, David Poe // Bowery Ballroom: Melissa Ferrick, Brian Bonz // Rocks Off Concert Cruises: O’Death

Dark Dark Dark: New York Song
Air Waves: Kingdom
Nurses: Technicolor
The Sundelles: Waiting
Measure: Begin Again
Browns: Modern Man
Maps and Atlases: Every Place
Viva Mayday: Red Sun
The Subjects: Goldenshire
Kelly Buchanan: Slow Watches
Nada Surf: See These Bones
The Duhks: Mighty Storm