1. Yeasayer Odd Blood The Brooklyn trio’s new record, pictured, weaves weird textures around pop songs for the group’s most interesting and sonically expansive effort to date. Read our interview here, and listen here.

2. Gil Scott-Heron I’m New Here Genre-spanning blues artist Gil Scott-Heron hasn’t put out a record in 16 years, but I’m New Here might be worth the wait. Watch the awesome “Me and the Devil” video here, and listen to the record here.

3. Hot Chip One Life Stand Hot Chip comes back with another funky record that masterfully blends influences like Pet Shop Boys and Prince. Read our live review here, and listen to Hot Chip’s latest triumph here.

4. Sade Soldier of Love With ’90s pop undergoing somewhat of a revival in recent years, and many contemporary artists claiming pop icons like Mariah Carey and Aaliyah as stylistic peers, Sade’s return couldn’t have come at a better time. Check out Sade’s smooth, soulful disc here and check out a cover of “Smooth Operator” by some of Brooklyn’s leading ladies here.

5. Pantha Du Prince Black Noise German electronic artist Henrik Weber makes his Rough Trade debut with Black Noise, a foggy, hypnotic collection of techno. Panda Bear and LCD Soundsystem contributor Tyler Pope guests. Listen here.

Holly Miranda has been on tastemakers’ radars for some time now (including our own), and the release date for her debut solo LP, The Magician’s Private Library, is approaching. However, you won’t have to wait until February 23 to hear material from the Dave Sitek–produced LP, as Ms. Miranda stops by Other Music for an in-store performance February 15 at 8pm.

Check out TONY’s interview with Holly from last year, and catch her excellent Black Cab session after the jump.

Read more »

Photos: Matthew Siffert

Last week, Atlanta band The Constellations performed at Brooklyn Bowl, to promote its upcoming release, Southern Gothic. Using the ploy of free bowling and beer to draw in a crowd of music bloggers and fans, the band hung out and hit the lanes for a couple hours before taking the stage. Promising to look much stronger on stage then they did rolling at the pins, guitarist and keyboardist Ryan Davis vowed, “We’re much cooler than we seem.” And true to their word, they sounded great; there was a surprising hip-hop influence to a number of their cuts, and the new album will feature guest spots from Cee-Lo Green (Gnarls Barkley, Goodie Mob) and onetime Atlanta transplant Asher Roth. Check out the band when it makes its way back to New York March 15 at Bowery Ballroom, and download its new single, “Setback,” for free at theconstellationsmusic.com.

The Beets + Christmas Island + Beach Fossils at Cake Shop
The Beets’ star has risen considerably since they inaugurated our Live at TONY in-office performance series last April. Tonight, catch up with the local lo-fi eccentrics as they kick off a U.S. tour in the company of two like-minded travel- and label-mates.

A Fundraiser for Haiti with Fleurine and Brad Mehldau at Smoke
The jazz-piano superstar and his vocalist wife stage an uptown gig in support of earthquake victims.

A Celebration of the Life of Joe Maneri at Irondale Center
A host of improv luminaries honor the legacy of a late experimental reedist.

Yeasayer + Javelin + Class Actress at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Music Hall hosts a diverse indie bill featuring three TONY faves. (Before you head out, have a look at our recent coverage of Yeasayer, Javelin and Class Actress.)

John Mayall at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
The godfather of British blues makes a stop in Times Square.

In anticipation of the February 16 sold-out Plastic Ono Band show at BAM, Yoko Ono has announced a special “dress rehearsal” show on February 15. Will the special guests from the big concert be on hand? (Some…but not all.) [BAM]

Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, was charged with manslaughter today in Los Angeles for giving the musician a powerful sedative that significantly contributed to his death. [New York Times]

A White Stripes–themed ballet performance that first appeared in England in 2006 has now resurfaced in Canada. Called Chroma, it is part of the National Ballet of Canada’s upcoming season schedule. Between this and the forthcoming White Stripes documentary Under Great White Northern Lights (shot in Canada), the duo’s dominance of our northern neighbors’ rock scene carries on unabated. [Pitchfork]

While one supergroup knocked out a couple of great rock songs on stage at 30 Rock, another band (the Fred Armisen–fronted Crisis of Confomity) stole the spotlight in the weekend’s most nostalgically rebellious performance by faded rockers. Sorry, the Who. [NBC]

It’s a shame that a band as earnest as Ra Ra Riot had to follow The Antlers at Friday night’s closing Sounds Like Brooklyn show at BAM. Ra Ra Riot has proven its ability to careen through many, many joyously orchestrated live shows since it became one of Barsuk Records’ most effervescent bands, and the top billing was deserved. But the Antlers’ spare, wrenching and somehow intimate—as intimate as you can get in a venue that seats more than 2,000, anyway—set was utterly transfixing, so fragile and yet so powerfully suited to the Howard Gilman Opera House, it was difficult to focus on much of anything else after they left. Peter Silberman is not the Avatar eye-candy of front men—he performs the way someone would if they were alone in their bedroom trying to hide the sounds they were making from their roommates. But he’s no less bewitching than a Bradford Cox or a Julian Casablancas; hitching his guitar high up on his chest and pawing at the floor with his shoes like a horse kicking at dirt. Though a confident yet fragile falsetto, he bites through his lyrics as if they hurt him. The Antlers’ performances of “Two,” “Bear,” and “Sylvia” in particular were arresting exorcisms of the universally specific story the trio has told since Hospice was released.

Click past the jump for Ra Ra Riot

Read more »

Fact: One of the greatest ways to pack a musical punch is to combine joy and melancholy in one crazily danceable package. Recent examples of tracks that may have given you that weird, ecstatic feeling on the dancefloor include LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” and Outkast’s “Hey Ya” (which switches from happy to sad in four notes). It may sound nerdy, but it’s true, and the finest example of this phenom today is London’s Hot Chip, whose shows we previewed in this week’s issue; the band played a secret show at Highline Ballroom on Friday, and a blowout at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday, as well as guesting on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Click past the jump for recap + set list

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Williamsburg’s Glasslands Gallery staged Saturday’s Terrible Records bash, which featured a stable of New York’s finest buzz bands including Acrylics, NYC-newcomers The Morning Benders, Devonte Hynes solo project Blood Orange and Class Actress. Judging by the music (and the turnout), Chris Taylor and Ethan Silverman’s young label is on a roll. Now if Mr. Taylor would only share some of that Volkswagen money…

He’s not sure where, but at some point pianist Gilles Vonsattel shattered one of his nails in the second half of his program at Bargemusic on Friday night. “I just looked down and saw blood,” he said postconcert to one of the audience members, his left index finger buried in a Kleenex. The casualty worthy of Led Zeppelin came as no surprise from the powered and impassioned playing the Swiss-born musician offered that evening. Poulenc’s comically-overblown, party-games-rooted Les Soirées de Nazelles was rife with virtuosic underpinnings in Vonsattel’s hands, an aural collection of emotional Polaroids. The aquatic themes of Debussy’s hauntingly radiant Images, Book I and Book II were not lost on the audience aboard the retired coffee barge. In Hommage à Ravel, he inexplicably made the piece sound both like a Ravel étude and like a piece by its actual composer, Arthur Honegger (whose style would differ vastly from the man who wrote Boléro). And Ravel’s own Gaspard de la nuit—most likely the piece that did in the finger—featured crescendos that literally shook the boat. Read more »

Yeasayer at Bowery Ballroom
The drum-thwacking Brooklyn trio recently invited TONY’s Colin St. John to help autograph CDs with them (see our feature here) and tonight plays the first of two shows in celebration of its mighty new album, Odd Blood. Expect delirious disco and arty weirdness galore.

Them Crooked Vultures at Roseland Ballroom
Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones continue their quest for world domination, back at the Roseland four months after their NYC debut (at least, their NYC debut as a trio). Check out our live review here.

The Bridesmaids and Greene Girl at Mercury Lounge
This cute, smart indie pop bill features the twangy, sparse sounds of Greene Girl (which features TONY staffer Alex Schecter on keys).

Project Transmit at Zebulon
If you’re a fan of Aussie trance-jazzers the Necks (yes, there is such a thing as trance jazz), check out percussionist Tony Buck’s art rock outfit, Project Transmit, tonight.

Chicha Libre at Barbès
Brooklyn’s Chicha Libre offers a slinky, groovesome take on 1970s Peruvian workers’ music at this superior weekly residency (see our preview here and review of their Silent Films/Live Guitars show here).

Rumors continue to swirl regarding a new Radiohead album after Thom Yorke set up Twitter accounts for himself and the band this week. This follows Yorke’s guest vocal performance on Flying Lotus’s upcoming release, Cosmogramma, and DJ sets at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. [Stereogum, Pitchfork]

Spoon premieres the video for “Written in Reverse” from its latest album, Transference. Shot in black and white, the group performs alongside a mirrored wall. Check out TONY’s review of the album here. [Consequence of Sound]

In an attempt to withdraw money from Paul Simon’s personal bank account, Rafael Ramos was apprehended and arrested for identity fraud. The bank cashier was initially tipped off by the fact that Paul Simon is not over six feet tall. [The Guardian]

It’s been three years since R. Kelly presented his now-legendary “hip-hopera,” Trapped in the Closet. Now it seems the scandalous performer can’t wait to pull us back in: Fifteen original chapters have been shot and are slated to premiere. [The Guardian]

When performing live accompaniment to silent comedies, musicians face two paths: play period-specific scores to seamlessly blend into the movie (see Film Forum’s excellent Keaton expert, pianist Steve Sterner) or flout convention, stylistically and otherwise. Last night at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall, Chicha Libre—a contemporary Brooklyn band with its head in 1970s Peru—chose the latter. The band scored a pair of Charlie Chaplin shorts: 1922’s “Pay Day” and “The Idle Class,” an early switcheroo movie from 1921. (Might there be a Lohan remake?) The band never strayed from the movies’ action, emphasizing subtle jokes and, at one point, using silence to embellish the comic’s punch line. But the septet resisted the temptation to follow Chaplin too rigidly—it is, after all, impossible to keep up—playing a deliberately plodding South American refrain even as the star raced around the screen. It made for a smart contrast, highlighting the films’ madness while adding a further touch of the absurd.

Photo: Luke Caddon

If you’ve seen Ladysmith Black Mambazo in action—and given the group’s international fame throughout the past two decades, it’s likely you’ve at least caught a glimpse of them on your mom’s favorite TV show—you’ll have gotten the impression that the band puts on a feel-good show.

But what I hadn’t counted on were the different tones of feeling good—from finger-snapping joy to soft, contemplative moments that summon a really deep feeling of well-being—that the group shifts between, as demonstrated at last night’s gig at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. That, and the fact you’d be hard-pressed not to grin at a troupe of men wearing red socks and white shoes, doing high kicks.

Click past the jump for more.

Read more »

The Antlers

Friday

1. Ra Ra Riot + The Antlers at BAM

Strings and heartbreak define this Sounds Like Brooklyn show. Read our preview of the series here.

2. Tune-Yards at the Bell House

Merrill Garbus’s weird sonic experiments hit Gowanus. Check out our recent discussion with her about the music she is into here.

3. The Soft Pack at Cake Shop

The band formerly known as the Muslims snarls with attitude and celebrates its first full-length with this free show tonight.

Saturday

1. Hot Chip at Music Hall of Williamsburg

The electro-emotional Brits get down with a show here and then a DJ gig later at Brooklyn Bowl. (The also play a free MySpace show at Highline Ballroom Friday.) Read our show preview here.

2. Kayo Dot at the Stone

The avant-rock consort led by Toby Driver plays Zorn’s joint. Read our show preview here.

3. A.A. Bondy + Lia Ices at Union Hall

A couple of excellent singers grace Park Slope.

Sunday

1. Helado Negro at Union Pool

Roberto Carlos Lange leads his experimental crew.

2. Bauder/Cymerman/Evans/Wooley Amplified Quartet at the Stone

Saxist Matt Bauder, clarinetist Jeremiah Cymerman, and trumpeters Peter Evans and Nate Wooley get amped.

3. MC Frontalot at Pianos

This nerdcore rapper gives you something to do after the Super Bowl.

Dresden Dolls lead singer Amanda Palmer has taken Frances Bean Cobain under her wing on the upcoming release Evelyn Evelyn. According to Palmer, the self-titled album highlights a mysteriously talented pair of conjoined twins. Oh, and “Weird Al” Yankovic will be there too. [Pitchfork]

Film auteur Michel Gondry tells EW that he will reunite with Björk. [TwentyFour Bit]

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, star of MTV’s Jersey Shore, sat down with Grammy Award–winning band Phoenix. They opted against touching the poof. [Consequence of Sound]

The sudden appearance of a “Music” application and link on Facebook led users to suspect the development of a streaming-media utility on the site. Company representatives have claimed the occurrence was merely due to a “bug” and that Facebook has no immediate plans to explore a media-player option. [TechCrunch]

Welcome to the latest edition of Van Jams, in which we ask our favorite touring bands what’s on heavy rotation. This week, we talk to Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, a one-woman DIY workshop whose strange and beguiling debut album, BiRd BrAiNs, was self-assembled using shareware mixing software. Merrill creates her mini epics by looping her vacillating voice and trebly ukulele with field recordings and pumping drum beats, so it’s no surprise that her playlist picks have a homemade bent. Ms. Garbus is bringing her lo-fi junkyard tunes to the Bell House this Friday, but in the meantime, you can check out her selections below:

1. Happy Birthday – “Girls FM” ” Yep, my sister’s in this band. I don’t care what you say. This is the feel-good album of the new decade, every song a single. The album hasn’t even come out yet, but I have sisterly privileges.”

2. Chris Weisman – “999” “I never leave for tour without a gosh-darn ton of Chris Weisman in various forms: iPod, CDs for the ol’ car and now, cassette tape, thank the good Lord. I usually get hooked on one song at a time, and now it’s this one.”

3. VC – “By His Deeds” “I have this song on a DJ Vlad mixtape from, like, 2001. The horns! the horns! the horns and vocals on the chorus! Oh, sweet music.”

4. Beep Trio – “tune for tune-yards” “Yep, my boyfriend’s band. But what could be better than listening to a song your boyfriend dedicated to you? If it wasn’t such good music, I wouldn’t admit that I listen to it so much.”

5. White Hinterland – “Icarus” “Casey did this in a homemade style, heart and soul poured in. I’m so glad it exists. Again, not officially released yet, but the world will probably wet its pants when it comes out.”

Click past the jump to sample three of the tracks!
Read more »

Welcome to Play Count, the Volume’s weekly mix of the best in recent hip-hop. In this edition, new music from  B.o.B, Bun B, Mos Def and more.

Click past the jump for commentary.

Read more »

We Sing Baby Dee! at Joe’s Pub
Andrew W.K., Corn Mo, Paul Wallfisch and others pay homage to the great transgender harpist Baby Dee (who plays her own show at the Stone on Friday).

New York Guitar Festival with Chicha Libre + Gyan Riley at Merkin Concert Hall
The Peruvian-styled psychedelic band Chicha Libre accompanies Charlie Chaplin films; Gyan Riley presents new music for Harry Smith movies. (Click here for Chicha Libre’s preview.)

Hope for Haiti with the Bacon Brothers at the Canal Room
Enjoyed the Bacon Brothers’ performance for the Volume? Check out their show—and help a good cause.

JD Allen Trio at Village Vanguard
The saxist brings bassist Gregg August and drummer Tyshawn Sorey to the Vanguard.

Josh Rouse + Christina Courtin at (Le) Poisson Rouge
The talented singer-songwriter Josh Rouse headlines; young Nonesuch signee Christina Courtin opens. (Click here to see Courtin’s performance for the Volume.)

Memphis’s Commercial Appeal reported the results of rocker Jay Reatard’s autopsy. Though homicide was once a rumor, “cocaine toxicity” appears to be the cause. [Stereogum]

British producer Tim Goldsworthy is out at DFA Records and has returned to the U.K., signifying a crack in the label’s brain trust of Goldsworthy, James Murphy and Jonathan Galkin. [The Daily Swarm]

Arcade Fire, which rarely lends its songs to even the most artistic projects, has licensed “Wake Up” to be used in a Super Bowl ad. The wrinkle? 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to Partners in Health’s Stand for Haiti relief fund. [Arcade Fire]

Paul Simon has been added as a headliner for this summer’s Bonnaroo lineup, alongside the Flaming Lips. If only the most famous living Beatle would come out and justify the swirling rumors, we may have quite the festival this summer in Tennessee. Speak, Macca! [Live Daily]

Beach House adds another NYC date, July 27, as a part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series in Prospect Park. If you were worried that last week’s Bell House date and June’s Radio City date simply weren’t enough Beach House in NYC, worry no more. On sale Thursday, February 4, at noon. [Brooklyn Vegan]

Hey you—ask me anything!

If you’re like us, you were totally bummed to hear that February 23’s “Ask Andrew W.K. Anything,” an open-format Q&A with the party starter/nightclub owner/motivational speaker/all-around bon vivant at Santos Party House, is officially sold out. Either that or you had no idea this special evening was even in the cards and we just bummed you out by telling you about it.

But don’t let a little bad luck harsh your mellow—you can still ask Andrew whatever the hell you want, because he has valiantly agreed to answer queries from TONY readers who missed the boat. Needless to say, our interview probably won’t turn into an all-night rave like many of Andrew’s appearances, but at least you can get some burning questions off your chest—things like, what is the meaning of life? Which brand makes the the best white T-shirts? And, who do you think is more motivational, you or Diddy? (Just don’t ask him what he thinks about Marc Summers—we already covered that.)

E-mail your questions to ownthiscity@timeoutny.com by Tuesday, February 9—we’ll pick the best and boldest to present to the man himself next week.