THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Alright, I usually write a little blurb about each show I’m recommending, you know, arguing for why you should check it out. But this week I’m recommending these shows all for the same reason: each of them is a benefit for the relief efforts in Haiti. Hopefully you see something you like here, but if not, why not check out something new? Please help us show these artists and venues some love, but more importantly, let’s show a little love to the world outside our little pocket of the city.

MON, JAN. 25
Amber Rubarth, Ian Axel, Vienna Teng, Wes Hutchinson, Ari Hest and more
City Winery
8:00, $20, 21+

WEDS, JAN. 27
Cold War Kids, Ted Leo, The Wrens, Sondre Lerche, Eugene Mirman, AC Newman
The Bell House
6:00 PM, $50, 21+

El Medio, No Eye Contact, Breakfast in Fur, Drew Citron
Bruar Falls
8:00 PM, $5 with can of food / $6 without, 21+

The Roots, Kaki King, Eric Krasno & Chapter 2 with John Scofield, Matisyahu
Music Hall of Williamsburg
8:00 PM, $35adv/$40do, 18+

THURS, JAN. 28
Flanagan Smith, Matt Jones, Alyson Greenfield, Charlene Kaye, Outernational, Automa
Public Assembly Back Room
8:00 PM, $10, 21+

SAT, JAN. 30
Blag’ard, The Barrens, Sing With Voices,
Fontana’s
7:00 PM, $8, 21+

compiled by Erin Sheehy

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.
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THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Our top picks…

MON, DEC. 7

dubknowdub, Long Distance Poison, K Holes, Behavior
Matchless
8:00, FREE, 21+
Casey from Eat Records curates a night of experimental music…
You might have heard of K Holes, the Golden Triangle/Georgiana Starlington offshoot. If Golden Triangle is some disorienting typhoon of noise, K Holes is more of a slow-rolling haze, kinda like that fog on “The Simpsons” that turns people inside out. Ultimately they’re sorta woozy and fun.  Listening to Long Distance Poison, on the other hand, is like falling witness to an unending procession of ogres trudging toward some ritualistic beheading. It might make you a little scared, or at least uncomfortable, but it’s totally entrancing, and when the thing ends and you blink once or twice you’ll be like, “whoa, that was really cool!” Doomed out droney noise, twenty-minute songs and a Minimoog. Get with it!

WEDS, DEC. 9

The Santamaria Collective Presents: Dynasty Electric, Zigmat, Terry Poison, Rebel Diaz, Jani “Bomba” Rose, DJ Ron Zilla
The Studio @ Webster Hall
8:00 PM, $10adv/$15do, 19+

Seriously, doesn’t donating things make you feel really good? At the Santamaria Collective show this Wednesday, audience members are asked to bring new, unwrapped toys, which will be given to the children at Harlem Hospital & several homeless shelters in New York City. I know money’s tight, but even picking up a small gift means a lot. Or hell, why not splurge and give yourself an excuse to go play on the big piano at FAO Shwarz? (Is that thing even still there?) This’ll be an eclectic mix of bands, but if you’re going to check out any of them, look up Rebel Diaz, who’ve been using their group as a platform for serious social activism in the South Bronx. They call themselves “periodistas de la esquina,” or “street journalists,” which I sorta like…
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THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Unfortunately, for those of us who’re orphaned in the city this Thanksgiving, it’s a slow week for shows. But it’s New York, so of course a few people are keeping the party going no matter what. And I’m thankful for that. Here’s what else I’m thankful for:

TUES, NOV. 24

Old dudes who’ve still got it: I usually figure it’s not worth it to see an artist who achieved their career prime a couple of decades ago. Not so with people like Ray Davies, lead singer and songwriter from The Kinks. I’d even book it on over to Jersey for him! Maybe that’s because, while I’m often drawn to bands for a certain raw energy – which has the real potential to wane – Davies’ real power has always been his genius songwriting, which has carried into the present. I guess I’m ultimately more thankful for The Kinks, though – who needs a real Thanksgiving meal when you have “Maximum Consumption” and “Hot Potatoes”?

Ray Davies, Nicole Atkins
Wellmont Theater
8:00, $75, $55 & $35, ALL AGES

Bands with personality: In a city so saturated with new music, personality, or even just a certain level of oddness, goes a long way in setting yourself apart from the crowd. I don’t know enough about Automa to say definitively that they have crazy stage presence or some excellent collective sense of humor. (Actually, from the looks of their Myspace bio, they take themselves quite seriously.) But when lead singer Suki hinted that if JezebelMusic.com went to their Public Assembly show we could score some killer Lisa Frank stickers, I knew that if nothing else, these guys were memorable.

Cinema, Cinema EP Release with Automa, Already Gravity, Psycho Wipeout, The Kissing Club
Public Assembly
8:00, $7, 21+
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SEE IT LIVE
JezebelMusic.com October Feature Show @ Public Assembly
October 8, 2009 | Young Boys, Sleigh Bells, Vandelles, Telltale

[All images copyright 2009 Rez Avissar]

Here are some of our shots from the JM.com Feature Show last month. Tonight, check out the November Feature Show with Home Video, Dead Heart Bloom and Heads Up Display.

Young Boys

More on JezebelMusic.com October Feature Show

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

TUES, NOV. 10

Free Energy, Diehard, Small Black
The Bell House
7:30 PM, $8, 18+
I don’t know how I feel when, on their self-titled track, the lead singer of Free Energy says that he’s “making out with the wind,” but they’ve got a great, if sometimes corny, teenage ’70s power-pop feel, especially on the glammy “Dream City.” But the reason I first got excited about this show is that I somehow managed to miss Small Black during CMJ, and after reading our writer Tricia Patterson’s interview, I got all amped up to go see them this time round. (Shameless plug, yes, but also totally true.)

THURS, NOV. 12

Home Video, Dead Heart Bloom, Heads Up Display
Public Assembly
9:00 PM, $8, 21+
Yes, it’s the JezebelMusic.com Monthly Feature Show. It’s also a great chance to check out the gorgeous haunt of Home Video’s electro rock. Their song “Every Love That Ever Was” always makes me picture a montage sequence of some film where a couple has broken up but is still in love; maybe someone shuts a door, then slides down it in tears. Or a Tuesday night when you’re home alone, and you feel alone, and you realize tomorrow will be the same. Not to say this band is oversteeped in depression – their beats tread too swiftly and the keyboards soar too high to wallow – but Home Video has a way of cutting deep, to something structural, a basic human longing.
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LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
It’s always exciting when babes have brains to boot. So it was fun for me to sit down with the members of In, and realize that, after a few beers, we weren’t going to get carried away, but rather, carried inward to a palpable thought-swap on the modern state of music in Brooklyn. And on a Monday night, there are few places states of mind I’d rather visit.  Mike, Nick, and Frank’s show last week at Public Assembly piqued my interest for both its experimental merits and its visibly mixed reviews among the crowd; I was curious to hear more, and glad I had a chance to hear it from the source:

JM.com: Let’s get started… where are you guys from?

Frank: I’m from Minnesota.

Nick: We [Mike and I] grew up together in Boston. Arlington, it’s right outside of Boston. It’s funny, it’s never had any claim to fame except that Uncle Sam was born there and Paul Revere rode through there. But in a recent report based on census figures, it’s one of the best places to live as a single person.

Mike: Arlington’s for lovers.

Nick: It’s totally erroneous, because people on the census said they were single and then had a high income. There’s a certain bracket of people who are single and make a lot of money in Arlington, Massachusetts but none of them are ever going to meet and a lot of them are like, widowed.

JM.com: So you met at a singles mixer in high school?

Nick: We met in 5th grade actually when we were making these plastic lizard toys.

Mike: Let’s not get into it.
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LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Public Assembly
August 12, 2009 | Silver Sound Studios’ Band Battle

Hank and Cupcakes, photo by Jessi Bautista

On Wednesday night at Public Assembly, Silver Sound hosted a battle between nine local bands, offering a music video deal of $10,000 value as the coveted top prize. Though the winner has not yet been announced (each attendee received a thumb-sized paper ballot upon admission), I’ve graded each group according to how they fared in my eyes.

The Courtesy Tier
B

It sucks to start. Nevertheless, The Courtesy Tier took the stage uncomplaining, and jumped rather un-dramatically into some heavy and hard-hitting rock and roll. The duo’s emphasis on minor keys and high-amplitude could easily have lent itself to head-banging rage-rockers, but The Courtesy Tier remained surprisingly composed as they cranked out songs that were crashing yet clean.

The band’s spotless performance is attributable to the fact that guitarist, Omer Leibovitz, and drummer, Layton Weedeman, have been playing together for over seven years. The result is reminiscent of Cold War Kids’ music – a hard but energizing kind of rock that is only possible with the aid of true talent. Fittingly, the band closed with “Cold,” a fast-licking number that demanded from both band members a dexterity that bordered on virtuosity.
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