NYC Live Pick for 03.13.10 // ARMS
Sat 3/13 • 7:00 PM • (le) poisson rouge • 18+ • $12
w/Jarrod Gorbel (of The Honorary Title)
FEAST ON THIS Free MP3 Recap: February Edition
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - "Filthy & Free"
Wildbirds & Peacedrums - "My Heart"
Freelance Whales - "Generator Second Floor"
Wild Beasts - "This Is Our Lot"
Grandchildren - "Cold Warrior"
We Were Promised Jetpacks - "A Far Cry"
The Subjects - "Winter Vacation"
The Bewitched Hands on the Top of Our Heads - "Hard To Cry"
Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River - "Goodbye Sweet Dreams"
Blind Man's Colour - "Sleeping Bag"
Hot Protestants - "Sad About An Ice Age"
New Pornographers - "Your Hands (Together)"
Extra Life - "Black Hoodie (Pre Album Version)"
Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Ballad of Big Nothing (Elliot Smith Cover)"
Armedalite Rifles - "Not Myself Today"
Light Asylum - "Shallow Tears"
Mani Pedi - "ENYGSM" (rough demo)
Bear In Heaven - "Lovesick Teenagers"
I Had A Weird Dream - "No Longer Sunday Morning"
Charles Mingus - "Wham Bam Thank You Maam"
Judson Claiborne - "Song For Dreaming"
Jookabox - "John Kill Meets the Brick People"
Kid Primitive Family - "The Sun (Dance)"
ArpLine - "Fold Up Like a Piece of Paper"
Mr Bungle - "Desert Search For Techno Allah"
Pattern is Movement - "Light of the World"
Dark Dark Dark - "Bright Bright Bright"
Tallest Man On Earth - "King of Spain"
Uninhabitable Mansions - "Do You Have A Strategy"
Saharan Gazelle Boy - "Something I Wanna Know About You"
The Secret History - "Johnny Anorak"
Frog Eyes - "A Flower in a Glove"
The Residents - "Angry Angakok"
The Magnetic Fields - "Book of Love"
Let's Wrestle - "We Are The Men You'll Grow to Love Soon"
Paul & The Patients - "Second Hand Smoke"
Concert: Benefit for Jiamini @ The Bell House // 2.24.10
Jonny Leather/Good For You's Good For Me Presents:
A Benefit For Jiamini Scholarship Fund
The Subjects
ARMS
Uninhabitable Mansions
Frances
2.24.10 @ The Bell House
149 7th Street Brooklyn, NY
Doors at 7pm
21+
$10
proceeds will be donated to The Jiamini Scholarship Fund
The Subjects
The Subjects - "Winter Vacation"
"The line I want to use to describe The Subjects is from the exasperated phone call scene in 'Back to Future', where Marvin Berry- wth his bloddy, bandaged playing hand - punches his cousin Chuck's phone number and says, "You know that new sound you've been looking for? Well, listen to this..."—Daytrotter
Consequence Of Sound: "... classical work with eccentric pop work that is light and fresh with just enough thud and kick to it."
"...remarkably solid..."—Magnet Magazine
ARMS
"Arms' music is lo-fi but lovely and very, very good. There's truly not a bad song on here. 'Kids Aflame' rocks, shudders, weeps, and smiles as you reach to hit 'play' again." —The Guardian (UK)
"[Arms] readily demonstrates a knack for the slowly building, triumphant-sounding anthem that's still a little downbeat no matter what." —AllMusic.com
Uninhabitable Mansions
Uninhabitable Mansions - "Do You Have A Strategy"
At Bowery last Saturday, the Brooklyn art and music collective Uninhabitable Mansions opened for the Antlers and provided the packed house with abundance of talent and songcraft. Drawing members from the bands Au Revoir Simone, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, and the late lamented Dirty on Purpose, UM performed a thirty-five minute set of material from their excellent new release Nature Is A Taker. The songs combine elements of indie-pop and shoegaze and highlight the vocal harmonies of Annie Hart and Robbie Guertin, while focusing on the interplay between melodic guitar lines, keyboards and Doug Marvin’s driving drums.—NYC Taper
Frances
“All The While nails its grand aesthetic. It never descends to the pomposity of similar artists like the Divine Comedy, but still forges a friendly marriage between accessibility and mystery. Call it “chamber pop” or just call it like it is: a phenomenal debut album.”—Prefix Magazine 8.5/10
Learn More About Jiamini
Together with the New York Times and Thomson Reuters, Jiamini is honored to co-host a panel discussion addressing the role of education in Africa’s long-term development.
Event: Panel discussion
African Experiences: Development through Education
Date: February 16th | 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Panel discussion will begin at 6PM | Cocktail reception to follow
Location: 3 Times Square | 30th floor | New York, NY
7th Ave between 42nd & 43rd Streets
Panel Moderator: Matt Bigg, Atlanta Bureau Chief for Reuters
Panelists
- Ambassador John Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria
- Dr. Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome (CUNY), Professor of Political Science
- Mora Mclean, President and CEO of theAfrica-America Institute
- Reverend Petero Sabune, Chaplain at Sing Sing Correctional Facility
Sponsored by: Thomson Reuters Black Employee Network
The New York Times African Heritage Affinity Group
RSVP Required | This is a free event | Jiamini.org/rsvp.php
MP3: ARMS - “Tiger Tamer”
ARMS' debut record Kids Aflame has finally received its US release thanks to Gigantic Music. Kids Aflame is one of my absolute favorite records by a local artist in recent years. The solo project of Harlem Shakes guitar player Todd Goldstein makes perfect pop rock that has finally just recently gotten the attention of the press (Huffington Post, Spin, Black Book). It's about time. One of the album's standout tracks, "Tiger Tamer" is now available to free download.
Catch ARMS' CD release show in NYC at Pianos on Thursday, November 12th.
Saturday Oct. 3rd: Good For You’s Good For Me 1 Year Anniversary Party
Back in October 2008, I organized my first charity concert. It was at Union Hall, and a little unknown band named Motel Motel headlined, along with Intermissions, the GoStation, and Tropic of Nelson. There was never any intention to turn the charity concert into a full on series, but then it happened and felt so good to give back to the world no matter how little I had to offer, so GOOD FOR YOU'S GOOD FOR ME was born, and I continued along organizing concerts nearly every month to raise money for a variety of charities, from an orphanage in Nairobi to a girl in need of a liver transplant to an organization for the deaf.
It's been a year now, and I've been lucky enough to have great performers like The Forms, Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, Your Vegas, Essie Jain, The Silent League, Frances and many others all involved.
So in celebration of a great year, I've organized a really special free concert event to take place on October 3rd at Bell House from noon to 6pm.
I've been lucky enough to bring back some of my favorite performers from the last year to play very special sets:
5:15 - BLING KONG (reunited for 1 day only)
4:30 - MOTEL MOTEL
3:45 - ARMS
3:00 - NOEL HEROUX (of Hooray for Earth) + PAUL HOLMES (of Paul & the Patients)
2:30 - HOLAS
1:45 - IVANA XL
1:00 - GRUB ANIMAL
12:00 - Doors
and special guests
Grub Animal - "Day Brings New Love"
Paul Holmes - "Tiny Red Light"
Hooray For Earth - "Surrounded By Your Friends (Miádis Remix)"
Is 2009 The Year for Chamber Pop?
The Loom/Arms
Pianos
1/6/09
Brooklyn’s DIY scene has had its year. Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, and High Places all saw loads of attention from the media in 2008. And while this scene will continue to thrive, the ever-present lack of attention span and need for something new by indie fans and bloggers means that this might not be the scene that gets all the attention in 2009.
Watching The Loom at Pianos on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but think that maybe it’s finally time for the chamber pop scene to get its proper attention. Chamber pop scene? Well, yes. Over the last few years, there has been bunch of new bands with big lush sounds and poppy hooks. With the start of a Pianos residency, history suggests that The Loom have success on the horizon, as many popular local bands have done the same.
Along with The Loom, Frances, The Silent League, This is Ivy League, Hopewell, Harlem Shakes, La Strada, Ravens & Chimes and The Lisps are all making pop music with all the bells and whistles. A big year for this scene makes perfect sense, as a reaction to the overload of new music being produced that sounds like it’s been tape-recorded in a garbage can with Coby stereo.
These bands are not your average kids who just recently learned 3 chords after drunkenly deciding to start a band. Instead, they’re filled with multi-talented artists with formal training, who’ve studied Stravinsky and Charles Mingus just as much as they’ve listened to The Beatles and REM.
It may only take one of these bands for the scene to take off, and Tuesday night’s performance by The Loom proved that they’re just as likely to make it happen as Frances. The 6-piece played a sparkling set of beautifully composed songs that often utilized slide guitar, French horn and mandolin. Every instrument seems vital in the arrangements, each adding an extra element to the songs. Particularly, the best of the bunch were the songs that featured slide guitar.
Arms (above), the side project of Harlem Shakes guitarist Todd Goldstein, followed The Loom on Tuesday with a much more stripped down solo set. Equipped with only a guitar (or occasionally ukelele), Goldstein still managed to totally captivate the room with his intimate bedroom pop songs. After having recently hearing comparisons to Mark Kozelek, I finally caught some of those connections in his guitar arrangements, but Goldstein’s is more uplifting than Kozelek’s incredibly saddening tone.
The Loom continues their Pianos residency on January 13, and 27.
Arms plays A Benefit for NYC After-School Programs at The Belll House on Sunday January 18 with The Forms, Ford & Fitzroy, and Frances.
