New Music: Bluebrain - “Ten By Ten”
Bluebrain - "Ten By Ten"
Brooklyn's Bluebrain, a duo featuring former members of The Epochs, begins their Monday night residency at Pianos tonight (free show). I'm really digging their catchy cinematic record, Soft Power.
The full album is currently streaming for free at Spinner.com
Your New Favorite Band: Monogold
Photo by Lizzy Sullivan / lizzysullivan.com
Monogold
From: Brooklyn, NY
RIYL: Wild Beasts, Dappled Cities, early Radiohead
By the end of 2009, I was starting to feel my old age. 27 years old and after 3 straight years of an average of 3-5 concerts a week, I was finally growing tired, choosing to stay in and listen to a record instead of going out. Part of this was because the music scene in New York was becoming over-saturated with decent bands who kept multiplying into a bunch of bands with the same members. It became boring, hard to keep up with, and blogs like Brooklyn Vegan couldn't get enough of it. How many side projects can Real Estate and Vivian Girls have, and are any of them all that enjoyable to see perform live? I think they should focus on one thing and make it good. It's all been one big magic trick, keeping people too distracted with new material for them to really focus on the fact that something is lacking. Every new band I've been hearing about in Brooklyn sounds the same, and they're all side projects of the bands they sound like.
Then, last night I caught Monogold open for Hooray For Earth at Pianos. For the first time in quite a while I saw a band play with no prior knowledge of their music and was immediately hooked. This is why I do what I do. This is why I love what I do. Seeing new bands all the time is a gamble. Even if their recordings are good they could be lacking with their live performance. Seconds into their performance, Monogold had lit up the room. Last time I saw that happen was with The Drums, and they've become one of the biggest stars of our scene with an upcoming headline gig at Bowery Ballroom in less than a week.
Monogold sounds like the American counterpart to England's Wild Beasts or Australia's Dappled Cities. The songs have a theatric quality mostly due to lovely, playful vocal interplay. They may not be as developed as Wild Beasts, or as theatrical as Dappled Cities, but Monogold is onto something really great and refreshing for a city heavy with 3 chord bands that sound like they're playing from within garbage cans.
Because of Monogold, my adventurous spirit is returning. They have reminded me that there are great new bands still here waiting to be heard by a crowd of people outside of their circle of friends. For Monogold, the immediacy of their sound suggests that success could happen sooner than later.
And don't just take my word for it. The girls at For The Beat felt the same way.
Hopewell Released New Record, Played Pianos with Linfinity on Tuesday
Hopewell/Linfinity
Pianos, 5.19.09
Celebrating the release of their new record Good Good Desperation on Tee Pee Records, Hopewell packed the back room at Pianos on Tuesday night. While a room full of people is always a good thing for a band, having it be at place as small as Pianos was just another reminder of how overlooked Hopewell has been over the years. It's never made a whole lot of sense, but Hopewell has never seen great success despite Mercury Rev-lineage, a tour with My Bloody Valentine, a solid discography, and most importantly one of the better live shows around in the the biggest music scene in the world.
Good Good Desperation is another spaced-out psych rock gem that continues along the road that they began traveling years ago. It's darker and heavier than anything the band has ever done, and that makes for an even more intense live show.
Oddly enough, after pounding mostly through their new tracks, the band ended the set very abruptly which left a lot of fans looking pretty baffled.
On the second night of their Pianos residency, Linfinity preceded Hopewell and did everything in their power to make it known that they are the next big thing in the NYC scene. From the opening seconds of "Holy Rain" to the emotional closer "Molly Mar of Rome," the six-piece displayed an intense sense of urgency not unlike Arcade Fire or DeVotchka (the two bands this band's sound will be compared to most). This was my third time catching the band live in less than a year, and they've grown noticeably tighter, and really developed their songs and live show. Mustachioed frontman/songwriter Dylan Von Wagner carries the type of strong presence and powerful voice necessary to draw the band attention in the near future.
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.
CMJ 2008 Day 3 in Photos | 10/23/08
Asa Ransom @ The Delancey
The Dears @ Hiro Ballroom
Eulogies @ Hiro Ballroom
The Muslims @ Pianos
