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December 8, 2009 | Cross-Pollination CCLXVII:  Shira Goldberg, Bill Bartholomew

[All images copyright 2009 Rachel Oakes]

This week, our photographer Rachel Oakes went to Cross-Pollination, a long-running concert series at Pianos which pairs two artists together to each play a set of their own material followed by a set together. Check it out.

Bill Bartholomew and Shira Goldberg

More on Shira Goldberg & Bill Bartholomew @ Pianos | 12.8.09

Class Actress

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October 23, 2009 | Terrible Records CMJ Showcase

Brooklyn band Arms opened Saturday night’s Terrible Records CMJ Showcase with a breezy, blissed-out pop set, their casual tone clashing distinctly with frontman Todd Goldstein’s jagged movements and nervous between-song banter. Though clearly uncomfortable under the spotlight, his guitar playing was effortless; unfortunately, like the rest of the set, it was also somewhat passionless. The band seemed to be in a hurry to finish, neglecting to put emotion into the music – there was a lukewarm smiliness that persisted even through a song that was, according to Goldstein, “about the end of everything,” and while the lyrics were crisp and audible on the venue’s excellent sound system, they were delivered in a nasal monotone. The music was pleasant enough – barring an irritating excess of ooohs and aaahs in the backing vocals, sung in stock harmonies that wobbled off-tune occasionally to turn the dreamy pop into the stuff of nightmare – but quite bland, and easily forgettable.

Arms

The next set was all too brief. Toronto act Little Girls wasted no time in creating a stormy atmosphere, sending whorls of dark noise over ominously simple minor chord progressions that teetered on the edge of control. Frontman Josh McIntyre’s vocals wove skillfully in and out of the noise, shouting and singing with equal effect. The thrashing guitars piling up over the main chords threatened to descend into total anarchy at any moment but never did, drummer Anthony Gerace’s speedy yet metronomic percussion keeping them in line. Even when McIntyre started flailing around the stage, savaging the keyboard and then jumping into the audience, no one missed a beat, merely speeding up to match his convulsive dancing. The legendarily-jaded CMJ audience was surprised, to say the least, when this energetic tornado with his weird brillo-pad haircut landed in their midst, and he helicoptered around shouting his way through the last song all too briefly before crashing to an end and taking the set with him.

Little Girls
More on CMJ 2009: Terrible Records @ Pianos | 10.23.09

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September 11, 2009 | Telefon Tel Aviv

photo by Thomas Wilk

Telefon Tel Aviv played before a half-moon shaped crowd last Friday night at Brooklyn’s The Bell House — unfortunately, the room was also half empty. My boyfriend, who was three-quarters ejaculating at the chance to finally see this band, called foul when Telefon lead man Joshua Eustis started singing. Apparently, my boyfriend best knew TTA in 2001 as a vocal-free blip and blop beat wonder, and he took it to heart that their newest BPMs vulgarly hit 120 and Eustis was clouding each jam with incoherent man singing. However, their 2004 disc, Map of What is Effortless, put out by Chicago electronica label Hefty Records, is characterized by a midtempo glitchy R&B sound with trading male and female vocals, so their current sound should be unsurprising for Telefon acolytes. If you hadn’t paid attention to TTA for the last seven years, you wouldn’t recognize the band of last Friday night — which I think most bands would find flattering.

Nevertheless, TTA’s beats were still sexy (even as the Bellhouse scene was a little too well dressed for sexy). The songs they played from their newest disc, Immolate Yourself, a disc released earlier this year in January on Ellen Allien’s German label BPitch Control, all had a bleary-eyed ambiance to them. Sonically, they seemed referential to uncomfortable mornings, insomnia, or night sweats. The message of the set seemed to project an ambiguous darkness, which given the quizzical death of former band founder Charles Cooper, could have been intended. A picture of a sweaty note on their Myspace page says, “with this song you’ve managed to musically describe the female orgasm. Nice fuckin’ job!” This sentiment seems to capture a previous blithe era of the band, and although it is likely that many still climax to TTA, it seems solemnity and “realness” are a new priority for Eustis’ project.

by Thomas Wilk

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September 4, 2009 | Hank and Cupcakes, Mook, Wolff

[All images copyright 2009 Rachel Oakes]

More photos from the Hank and Cupcakes EP release party. You can also check out our review of the show here.

Wolff

More on Hank and Cupcakes, Mook, Wolff @ Pianos | 9.4.09

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September 4, 2009 | Hank and Cupcakes

photo by Allison Levin

The crowd at Pianos was well-liquored. A little while after Hank and Cupcakes took the stage and demurely introduced themselves, a pronouncement had to be made.

“YOU’RE HOT!” some guy screamed from the middle of the crowd.

Honestly, it could have been directed at either Hank or Cupcakes, although it was the latter who decided to answer. Flipping some of her hair out of her face, she stared out at the audience in her American-Apparel-approved open-shirt-over-bra combo and smiled. “Yes, I am!” And then it was time to get back to business.

The Brooklyn duo is known for their infectious (and yet still aloof) bass and drum electro-pop. Here to celebrate the release of their new EP, Pleasure Town, they were surrounded by friends and fans in the cramped back room of Pianos. It got so crowded that they stopped letting people into the actual show about halfway through the set, and only the very resourceful could MacGyver their way in.
More on Hank and Cupcakes @ Pianos | 9.4.09

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compiled by Erin Sheehy

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June 9, 2009 | Ezra Furman and the Harpoons

Photo by Rosie Wagner

Having just returned from filming for La Blogotheque in Paris and playing at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, it seems that Ezra Furman and the Harpoons are building up momentum, and getting noticed. Over the past year, the Harpoons have played some shows as a three-piece, and others with friends filling in on lead guitar. But recently they scored a permanent fix – Andrew Langer, former guitarist for The Redwalls, who joined Adam Abrutyn, Job Mukkada and Ezra Furman as the fourth member of the band.

Last night was the first performance kicking off the band’s month-long residency at Pianos. Although the venue was only sparsely populated for most of the early evening, Pianos’s back room became a lot cozier around 9:45, as the crowd began to anticipate the Harpoons’s set.
More on Banging Down the Doors: Ezra Furman and the Harpoons @ Pianos | 06.09.09