Canada’s DD/MM/YYYY were tighter than I’d ever seen them before at this year’s pool party. Watch ‘em up close, and for cheap ($5), at Don Pedro’s tonight, where Impose Magazine is hosting Test Patterns, 8-bit vs. Canadian edition to celebrate the band’s cassette release of Black Square on Impose Records. Also playing are Graffiti Monsters, whose fierce drummer, Red-Bull-induced leaps, and 8-bit jollies won’t escape your memory once they make their way in; L Magazine’s 8-bit favorite, Anamanaguchi, who make “fast, loud music with a hacked NES from 1985″; and Canada’s Spiral Beach.

Download “Digital Haircut” by DD/MM/YYYY
Download “100%” by Graffiti Monsters
Download “Black Out City” by Anamanaguchi
Download “Domino” by Spiral Beach

Our friends at Uncensored Interview are putting on their Northside showcase tonight, and it features two of our Secret Garden alumni: Iceland’s whimsical sonsgress, Ólöf Arnalds (see video); and the woman behind one of my favorite albums of this year, Sharon Van Etten (see video), who’s also playing our free day showcase tomorrow. Girls in Trouble (see video), freshly returned from a fiddling tour, is playing at Bar Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave at Driggs Ave).

Owing to “lack of management” and some harsh health regulation fines, Cortelyou Rd’s liberal cafe, Vox Pop, has been unable to sell any food or beverages, and hence unable to make money for the outstanding bills and fines. From what I hear, there’s about $18,000 more they need to raise, and that if they don’t raise it by the midnight of Sunday, it’ll have to shut down (they’ve hired a proper manager since, though she remains unpaid).

The cafe was co-founded by Sander Hicks, who also started Soft Skull press as a guerrilla operation out of Kinko’s while working there in the early 90’s. If the fact of it being one of its kind in a neighborhood that was previously neglected from a cultural standpoint and the fact of it having luminaries of liberal thought in its logo aren’t enough, think about the coffee? Says Oliver Moné, a fan:

“This is aggravating,” he said. “I like the coffee. I like the place. Dunkin’ Donuts is O.K., but this is prime stuff. I mean, I hate Starbucks. God, I hate Starbucks.”

Money is being raised in two ways: a benefit show tonight featuring The Loom and Holler Wild Rose (tickets are $10 each but you should feel free to pay more); stocks are being sold at $50 each, which will be refundable if the required amount isn’t raised and the cafe is forced to close. To make donations directly, email Debi Ryan, current President & CEO of Vox Pop: debi.ryan101 [at] gmail [dot] com

Download “Song for the Winter Sun” by The Loom
Download “Holler Wild Rose” by Holler Wild Rose

Last night at Le Poisson Rouge, Maryland’s Cotton Jones played a short set of about six songs; they said most were songs they don’t play very often. I’d forgotten how many members are in this band–six, and they’re all good. Even though I prefer this venue when they clear the floor for standing room (the seating arrangement feels a little too fancy), it has fantastic acoustics and it was great to hear Cotton Jones with so much clarity. They’re playing tonight at Union Hall with Lost in the Trees, and despite a muddier sound, that will probably be the show where they’ll play the hits and let loose a little. More pictures after the jump.

Download “Blood Red Sentimental Blues“

Website: Cotton Jones Myspace

Download “Daniella” by Hurray for The Riff Raff

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

Le Poisson Rouge: Yes, you may say that one-time Mum touring member Olof Arnalds is indeed somewhat of a Joanna Newsom in Icelandic. Except, instead of being “freak folk”, her solo work is freakishly folk, compared to the decidedly contemporary sound we get from most Icelandic bands in the indie landscape, including Mum. But who knew Icelandic folk could be so damn lovely. I’m not sure how Arnalds did at South Streeat Seaport this past Sunday when she played the East Village Radio Festival, since that doesn’t seem like the ideal venue for her, but Le Poisson Rouge should pretty much be perfect. She plays an early show that’ll also feature a set from Skuli Sverrisson, with whom she has worked in the past. Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Deerhunter is playing a late show, and one that is not part of the tour scheduled for later this year with BARR, Knyfe Hyts and Vivian Girls.

More bands and all mp3 links after the jump.

Cake Shop: Pogo Togo presents an alternative party with The Magick Report, Love Like Deloreans, Willy Weird, and Omega Jarden, out of which my favorite is Brooklyn’s trio Love Like Deloreans. The band says they’re “Gassy with excitement, had to change our panties a few times and we haven’t even played yet. Ecstatic. We’re gonna check out hot people in the audience and dance and it’s gonna be a party!” But there seems to be a dissident in Lorna, the only girl in the band: “I disagree with this. I’m a lady who enjoys respectable social gatherings.” Well, how was your recent show at Goodbye Blue Monday? “GBM is a great venue. It’s our favorite neighborhood hang. The show was all bands that somehow have members who live in Peter’s apartment and it was all like community love hippie shit and we had tons and tons of fun!” Lorna insists it was a “grand soiree” and that she was the “belle of the ball”. In the meantime, they’re recording some 7 inches, one of which is for a label in Germany. Say the dudes, “Watch out Dusseldorf! We’re coming for you, bitches!” And adds the lady, “The future will be as wonderful as a sunrise on a spring morning whilst on horseback.” There will be a special guest at this show (not the horse).

Pianos: I love Germany’s Locas in Love (download free album), who will be cross-pollinating with The Bloodsugars tonight. Says Niklas of Locas in Love, “The last time we were in New York was one of the best times we’ve ever had as a band and we have great memories of shows we played at the Cake Shop and at The Club Midway [now Rehab]. Incidentally that show was the first time we met Sam, who played drums with The Leader on that day and he will be playing drums for us at Pianos. So this is exciting. Adding to that we’ve loved The Bloodsugars ever since we first heard them so not only playing a show with them but actually cooperating is just about the greatest possible way to spend an evening in the city for us.” For the late show, No Good For Me will present fashion and music with Ver Sacrum and Speck Mountain.

Mercury Lounge: When Maine transplant Luke Rathborne self-produced and released After Dark (download) in 2007, he was a mere 18-year-old. Right now he’s a mere 20-year-old! Though he appears to be no Zach Condon (just to get that out of the way), there’s something to hang on to in his sullen tunes. He’s playing a late show with Five O’ Clock Heroes. Natalie Walker and BM Linx are playing two separate early shows.

Spiegeltent: Last night of the musical by The Citizens Band // Death by Audio: Brendan Fowler (previously BARR), Silk Flowers, our favorite City Center, Katie Eastburn.

Love Like Deloreans: Epic High School
Olof Arnalds: Klara
The Blood Sugars: Purpose Was Again
Locas in Love: Stefanie Sagt
Luke Rathborne: Cold Breeze
City Center: Bleed Blood
BARR: The Song Is the Single
Natalie Walker: Pink Neon
Ver Sacrum: Coco General Mdse
Flocking Associates: B&B
Speck Mountain: Blood Is Clean

More bands & all mp3 links after the jump.

Cake Shop: Dave Heumann’s vision for his band Arbouretum was for the songs to “evoke natural forms and movements as opposed to architectural constructions with rigid forms and linear progressions”. They’re playing with label mates Pontiak, with whom they share a split LP titled Kale, and American Buffalo.

Union Hall: Brooklyn resident Todd Goldstein’s Arms was selected by The Guardian earlier this year as a “new band of the day”, with Paul Lester writing, “Meet the new Conor Oberst/Bill Callahan,” which I found to be somewhat mutually exclusive no? I asked Todd what he thought of it: “I liked that Guardian comment! I’m not much of an Oberst fan, myself, but I see what they’re getting at–my music has a tendency to be pretty heartstring-tugging as well, though I like to think his lyrics tend to get a little clunky. The Bill Callahan part makes up for it, though. His lyrics are some of my favorites–so dark and misanthropic, but funny and weirdly sensitive at the core. So yeah, I’m down with that comparison. Though, in my nerd-dreams, I’d be the next Brian eno/Scott walker, I know that’s too much to hope for.” Arms is playing with Chicago’s Speck Mountain, who did a session with Daytrotter last month.

Europa: Bushwick’s Bad Credit No Credit plays with some of my favorite instruments, namely horns, accordian, and a flute. I asked singer Carrie-Ann about the increased tendency to feature such unrockly instruments. Says she, “I think it’s great people are branching out and embracing these instrumentations which, to me, are actually quite traditional–we all listened to a lot of Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday and such growing up, so to juxtapose that with our modern attitudes and sensibilities feels like a natural step to me.” They’re playing with The Shivers, who are presently working on a song for a 7″ they’ll be splitting with friends Deer Tick. Say Jo and Keith about their recent adventures, “Just played a great garden party in Greenpoint, called the Harvest Fest, in a Sweedish fella named Gustav’s backyard garden… right after an amazing performance by a guy named Marquis, who played the violin and sang, the FDNY showed up… I guess there were there because of a call. It was a strange night.” At Europa they’ll perform as a duo (with some new gear!). Conrad Keeley (of …And You Will Know Us by Trail of Dead) was supposed to play as well, but he’s had to cancel at the last minute due to the attention his band requires of him on the last day of their mixing.

Mercury Lounge: Every Good Boy, The Royal Chains, Baby Teardrops (download free album), Jounce // The Annex: Dogshow, Eastern Midwestern, Shannon Corey, Simon C.F. Yu // Spiegeltent: The Citizens Band // Santos Party House: A.R.E Weapons // Highline Ballroom: Sons and Daughters, Benjy Ferree

Monotonix: Ride
Knyfe Hyts: Smoke the Milk
Bad Credit No Credit: Dry
The Shivers: Remain in the Pain Zone
Arms: Kids a Flame
Dogshow: Pink Elephants
Arbouretum: Underneath the Arches
Every Good Boy: Stairmaster
Speck Mountain: Blood Is Clean
American Buffalo: Train Tracks
A.R.E Weapons: Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Killing My Life
Benjy Ferree: In the Countryside

More bands & all mp3 links after the jump.

Cake Shop: Bristol’s “punk and alternative hip-hop” performer Ratface is in New York for a week to promote Down with Ratface, which just came out on a local independent label Bumtapes, at full speed. He’s heading home on Saturday, but is still looking to play a show on Thursday and Friday, if anyone’s interested in booking him. Tonight he’s joined by The Sweet Ones and Rosetta Stoned.

Pianos: Richie from Ghostfinger says members of the band have been busy touring w/ Lucero, Bobby Bare Jr, David Vandervelde, Glossary, and Jessica Lea Mayfield, and for that reason are “Road warriors! Valient and trustwilling!”; adding, “We tour so that we can go swimming everywhere in the world.” Their latest full-length is the sophomore effort, The Feeler. Playing tonight with My Velcroe, and Wilde Turkey.

Mercury Lounge: Fixer, Brent Grunow and the Bandits, 13th Floor, Nothing Rhymes with Orange // Bowery Ballroom: Federico Aubele, Dawn Landes, Natalia Clavier

Chief: Your Direction
Ratface: Sunday Sunday Sunday
Nothing Rhymes with Orange: Kill the Vibe
Dawn Landes: Bodyguard
Ghostfinger: Let it Ride
My Velcroe: Bucket for Your Bleeding Heart
The Black Hollies: Paisley Pattern Ground

More bands and all mp3 links after the jump.

Union Pool: Kelly Rae, frontwoman of Zero Spanish, says, “The first thing people say when they come to see us is, Wow, I wasn’t expecting that! That was crazy!” Believing that exisiting recordings have so far failed to capture all of that excitment, the band will be spending the next two weeks recording an album that will strive to do justice. “We are far more aggressive and much louder than anyone ever expects,” she says, adding that she’s also finally become accustomed to singing, a task she’s taken on for the first time in her musical ventures. Zero Spanish is playing with Ghostfinger and Spottiswoode, who also goes by Spotty, and sometimes plays with his impresive gang Spottiswoode & His Enemies–”Somehow Spottiswoode has been able to hold together a gang of seven of New York’s finest musicians, put out a string of acclaimed records, perform residencies at New York’s best clubs, play Lincoln Center, tour the country, cross the ocean… all without paying his collaborators much more than a few dimes each”; but looks like tonight’s show is solo, and perhaps for that very reason.

Cake Shop: Brooklyn’s trio Treasure will be releasing 300 copies of a seven-song collection titled Tea Parties this week, and singer Amanda says the band’s dear friend and illustrator Maude Black will screen print and paint each copy with his tireless hands. The two took rough mixes of the songs “deep into the woods of North Idaho this summer, to a river cabin untouched since 1980″ where they wrote and drew. Black also illustrated a book of short stories Amanda wrote to go along with these songs. Her band mates Caleb Lindskoog and Ryan Trott are also members of Hologram, and Caleb heads another Brooklyn outfit, The Silver State. Treasure is sharing the stage tonight with Glass Ghost, founded by Eliot Krimsky of Flying; Boshra of Looker who will play a short set of solo material (and perhaps one Looker song?); and finally Aerial East, whose sweet song “Calculators” is included in the playlist. This is going to be Aerial’s first show; she’ll be playing with a band (Michael Leviton, Elliot Krimsky, Mike Bloch, Victor Magro, and Nat Johnson), and she feels it’s going to be “the best debut a girl could ask for”.

Mercury Lounge: Army Navy is headed by Justin Kennedy, who parted ways with Seattle’s band Pinwheel, whose other frontman Ben Gibbard then went on to form Death Cab Cutie and The Postal Service. Justin & friends have taken encouragement from bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to abstain from major labels and produce their own debut album, which will come out on October 14th. Incidentally, producer Adam Lasus, who’s worked with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Helium, and Yo La Tengo will be aiding the boys. Playing with them tonight are Autodrone, who’s spent the summer writing new songs, and hopes to play the CMJ Festival and SXSW, and Saints and Lovers and Paul Holmes & the Patients.

Rehab: Radio America, This Reporter, Headfloss, Eastern Sweats // Le Poisson Rouge: Lou Reed, John Zorn // Monkeytown: Axolotl, Rings, Mark Morgan of Sightings, Bulbs // Southpaw: Federale, Illuminations, Charles Burst

Zebulon: The Loom is playing with Peasant, Essie Jain, and if you’ve yet to see the videos we made of The Loom, here’s one:

City Center: Bleed Blood
Zero Spanish: Sweetheart
Aerial East: Calculators
Glass Ghost: Like a Diamond
Peasant: Exposure
The Loom: Patience for Books
Vivian Girls: Where Do You Run To
Treasure: Rainbow
Illuminations: Rising
This Reporter: Letter
Rings: Mom Dance
Autodrone: Through the Backwoods