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LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Glasslands
May 28, 2010 | Twin Sister, Lost Boy, Data Dog

By the time the doors opened for Twin Sister‘s record release party at Glasslands on Friday at nine, there was already a line of several dozen young folks snaking down Kent Street (Note to bands: want people to show up early? Have an open bar), including an underage kid who’d already been turned away once and to whom I definitely did not explain how to sneak in, because that would have been immoral. As the club filled up, the line stayed at a steady 30 people or so all the way through ten, at which point I heard a Lost Boy fan remark “I guess Twin Sister is a popular band or something.” Indeed. Twin Sister has been setting the internet on fire for months now, and I was extremely curious to see how their sleek and subtle pop songs came through in a room packed full of inebriated youth. For the occasion, Glasslands had been decked out with all sorts of fun video projections including slow motion footage of people jumping into a glittering lake, which seemed kind of cruel, considering that Glasslands is a god damned sauna on even the coolest summer nights. Throughout the show I would marvel at the fact that no one seemed willing to shed their flannel shirts.

By the time the opening act went on, I was already huddled in a rear corner of the packed room, trying to avoid the constant stream of sweaty bar-bound traffic. Data Dog is a young, intriguing experimental pop trio, combining tasteful live drums with electronics and featuring dueling lead singers, each of whom possesses an astonishingly high, nasal voice, which I imagine will not be everyone’s cup of tea. The sound onstage was uneven, with vocals sometimes disappearing and other times rising way too high above the band (and one ear-piercing melodica solo), but Data Dog picked up confidence as the set progressed, and by the end they seemed to have found their stride. They have an ear for shape and form that keeps their songs interesting, even if their attempts at anthemic melodies never quite take off.

More on Twin Sister, Lost Boy, Data Dog @ Glasslands | 5.28.10

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC

Listening to the Maine Coons is like never getting fully dressed in the morning, marching down to McCarren Park to meet some friends, getting well-oiled on Tecates in 65 degree weather, calling it a day, crashing in a San Loco to eat a burrito the size of two hamsters, and stealing a garden ornament on the way home.

The Maine Coons are the one man band of lead singer anonymous, and they have been very busy this weekend. In the last two days they’ve trailblazed Williamsburg and Greenpoint, playing Glasslands, Joe’s Fresh Pad, and Coco 66.

The Coons sound like a philandering cousin to local favorites The Beets. The Coons’ songs with shouted vocals and tom and snare drums chronicle lazy playboyism and being a causeless, incorrigible musician. For instance, “My Kind of Luv” sounds like an early Starlight Mints song, replete with xylophone, whistling and melodic cadences. “Ghetto Queen” plays like the park bench observations of the fairer sex belted out above overdriven guitars.

The Maine Coons sound very Williamsburg-now, drenched in reverb and sing-songyness. You’re likely to see them alongside the Beach bands of the moment. Maybe you’ll even see them in a San Loco.

By Thomas Wilk

I had never seen a show at Glasslands prior to this Saturday, and have to say, despite its somewhat abandoned location, I was enchanted. As I sipped my beer, waiting for the show to start, I took the time to appreciate the excellently haphazard and whimsical space, hoping the music would follow suit. Supported by an energetic coterie of glow necklace adorned fans, openers We Are Country Mice were by far the highlight of the evening. Brooklyn-based, but mid-country reared, their sound is honest and refreshing. Sometimes twangy, sometimes vaguely surf, they’re just plain fun. They won me over with “The Ballad of John,” a gorgeous, harmonious country-esque rambler that breaks out into a crashing, cathartic rock song. “A Good Old-Fashioned Barn Raising” is a lot less creepy live, and come on, who doesn’t love to see a megaphone appear onstage? Drummer Kurt Kuehn looks like he’s having an absolute blast, as they all do. Between a xylophone cameo and some inherent scrappiness —lead singer Jason Rueger smilingly manned their merch table all night — We Are Country Mice, are for sure at the top of my small-indie-bands-I’m-rooting-for list.

More on We Are Country Mice, Dragon Turtle, ARMS, Tall Firs @ Glasslands | 3.6.10

Around the coldest January corner in Williamsburg nests Glasslands, a barn full of glitter and darkwave music. On January 26th, 2010,  local arts impresario Todd Pendu brought DJs from Chicago and two local bands, Omega Jarden and Mirror Mirror, to Glasslands.

On this evening, the stage at Glasslands looked like the underside of a prom dress, or like a snug womb, depending on your life outlook. Ladies with cokebottle glasses boogied and waify boys sashayed across basslines played by DJ Harrison as the party warmed up.

More on Mirror Mirror & Omega Jardens @ Glasslands | 1.26.10

LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Glasslands
January 6, 2010 | The Babies, True Womanhood, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils, Sundelles

[All images copyright 2010 Rachel Oakes]

Last Wednesday, an adorable swarm of stripey-teed, bespectacled Williamsburgers filed in to Glasslands for bands whose very monikers spoke volumes to the nature of the crowd: Total Slacker, The Babies, and perhaps a bit more far-fetched, True Womanhood. Although the main event was The Babies, (comprised of members from Vivian Girls and Woods), I thought True Womanhood had considerable novelty appeal and definitely won Miss Congeniality for the night. Thomas Redmond, Melissa Beattie, and Noam Elsner’s melodic doomsday drones brought out the vampire in all of us, and by the end of their set, even the bartender was rocking out.

Utilizing maudlin drum loops, beer-soaked, distorted basslines, and Doug Martsch-inspired vocals, the trio of psych rockers filled the space with a palpably hypnotic echo. The sound is a product of organic songwriting, never taking the obvious route back to a hook, barraging the ear with a pattern of recognizable basslines, and then shying away. Luckily for us, this gave way to the under-indulged timpani, whose deep and kettled voice brought new life to the roll of the kick drum in experimental indie rock. Elsner’s drumming is a sight to behold, as is Beattie’s childlike, Duff McKagan attitude toward her bass. The songs could have been tighter, but the kernel of a great structure was there, and at Glasslands, who’s counting?

by Drew Citron

Check out more shots of the show after the jump!
More on The Babies, True Womanhood, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils, Sundelles @ Glasslands | 1.06.10

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

TUES, JAN 12

Led Er Est, Light Asylum
Glasslands
9:00 PM, $7, 21+
Todd Pendu’s throwing a new Tuesday Nite Disco party at Glasslands, but it’s not so much disco as “dark-electro-synth-pop.” If this lineup is any indication, these parties are going to be pretty cool. Both bands are super synthy, but Led Er Est is colder, darker, more elemental (more weird?) whereas Light Asylum plays more throwback romantic synth pop.

WED, JAN 13

The Drums, Surfer Blood, The Depreciation Guild
Bowery Ballroom
7:30 PM, $12a/$15d, 18+
Okay, another post about the weather. I’ve been thinking of this show as something like Wii surfing or like… O’Doul’s for summer? You sure won’t be capturing the real thing, but the feeling’s there. Total beach party.
More on This Week In Shows

True Womanhood – “The Monk”

It seems that when we listed the reasons we wanted to go to the Babies/Beach Fossils/Sundelles show at Glasslands this Wednesday we forgot a pretty good one: DC’s True Womanhood. We just received this track that will appear on their soon-to-be released debut EP, Basement Membranes – which they recorded at Brooklyn’s own Death By Audio!

People often compare True Womanhood to Radiohead, (probably because of their overriding melancholy and Thom Yorke-ish vocals) but we think that’s simplifying it a little, and the members of True Womanhood say themselves that they’d rather be aligned with contemporaries like Beach House. We’ll go for that comparison, but after listening to more of True Womanhood’s songs like “Magic Child,” we think that they’ve got a potential for aggression you won’t find in Beach House…and we like it! (Besides, we already know not to mess with anyone who wields a sledgehammer while wearing flip-flops.)

Check out True Womanhood at Glasslands this Wednesday, January 6, with Babies, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils and The Sundelles.

by Erin Sheehy

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Hey…so we’ve been out of the show listing game for the past two weeks, partly because there just haven’t been too many shows going on due to the holidays, but mostly because the editors have been out of town, assessing our life goals and watching old movies in bed. Anyway, it’s a new year, so time to get back in it:

TUES, JAN. 5

Real Estate, Babies
Brooklyn Bowl
8:00 PM, FREE, 21+
I think our reviewer Kyle McGovern described the evocations of Real Estate better than I can. He said they call to mind “the kinds of scorched summers that seem tedious while they’re happening and glorious when they’re not.” I know I talk about the weather a hell of a lot on this, a music blog, but man, when the heat’s out (again) and you’re duct-taping your windows shut, sometimes sunshiney music is exactly what you need to remind you that it won’t be long till you’re once again dropping ice cubes down your shirt and sticking to the subway seats. Do all the imagining you can at this free show on Tuesday.

WEDS, JAN. 6

Babies, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils, True Womanhood, The Sundelles
Glasslands
7:30 PM, $7, 21+
Ever since we found out that Kevin from Woods and Cassie from Vivian Girls were getting together to make Babies, we were like, “Yeah, let’s cover that, man, that’s gonna be the hot new shit.” But we’ve yet to see them, so one of our New Years resolutions is to get on it – might as well plan to see them twice in one week in case we flake out again. Votes for Glasslands versus Brooklyn Bowl? Well, Max, the more sophisticated JM.com editor (if you ignore his taste in beer) truly loves him some Beach Fossils, and Erin, the editor with the more impressive collection of go-go boots, is a big proponent of The Sundelles.
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