Upcoming Shows: NYC PopFest, Thurston Moore + more!

Tonight!! Thursday, May 19

NYC PopFest: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Gold-Bears, Sea Lions + more @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * SOLD OUT!
This year's PopFest is pretty lame, mostly featuring bands that even people active on the indiepoplist (the global twee listserve) haven't heard of.  The fest did get one major coup though, tweegazers the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, whose adorable pop songs are covered with a sheen of distortion.  Seeing the Pains in Cake Shop is, simply put, classic and not an opportunity that comes around very often anymore.  So if you can find a way in and don't mind being crammed in a wall to wall crowd of cardigans and print dresses, it should be a cool show. [pains video]

The Antlers @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * SOLD OUT
The Antlers play sad music that's also noisy sometimes.  Reference points would include Arcade Fire, Radiohead and Neutral Milk Hotel.  They aren't as good as any of those three yet, but I think they will be. [video]


Tomorrow!! Friday, May 20

Thurston Moore, I Feel Tractor @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Thurston Moore is the guy from Sonic Youth.  His solo gigs vary from freeform noise to oddball lo-fi punk.  At a venue like this and in light of the fact that this is in support of Thurston's new solo album, I'd expect a much more song oriented set than usual.  I Feel Tractor is a cool band with a cool name and they are opening. [thurston video]

PC Worship, Zulus, Space Lions In Outer Space @ Monster Island Basement * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $Donation
Don't mistake this for a free show, they'll make ya pay.  But it's worth paying because these bands are good.  PC Worship wasn't great last time I heard them, but I'm hoping it was a fluke - at their best, they play a strange combination of lo-fi folk and free jazz/noise.  Zulus play loud and heavy and fast and yell a lot in a way that might scare children or your parents.  I haven't seen Space Lions in Outer Space, but they do have an amazing name.  Theirs is a sort of electro-noise experimental poppy something, I believe. [pc video]

S.V.B (So L'il + Booboniks), Electric Djinn (mems Lumipad), Season Finale, Panda Riot @ Studio Maya, 603 Bergen Street * Prospect Heights, Brooklyn * $10 + open bar!
These are very strange shoegaze/dreampop/triphop bands. I don't know what to expect, but whatever happens, it's going to be awesome.

The Antlers @ Bowery Ballroom * LES, Manhattan * SOLD OUT
See above.


Other shows
Cymbals Eat Guitars (shouty pop like Modest Mouse), Radical Dads (mem. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) @ Glasslands ($10)
French Miami (cool fast guitar stuff), Beast Make Bomb (pop punk), Selebrities (intensely terrible/fascinating new wave throwback) @ Knitting Factory
Real Estate, Big Troubles, Family Portrait (NJ kids singing about the beach and shit, but some of the better ones so if that's your thing) @ Bell House ($12/$14)


Saturday, May 21

Pregnant @ 538 Johnson St.* Bushwick, Brooklyn
Pregnant are a loud and nasty hardcore/post-hardcore band.  They are badass.  Go hear them play. [video]

Other shows
Dinowalrus (psychedelic synth and guitar music that you might dance to) @ Brooklyn Bowl ($5)


Sunday, May 22

Various Bands Covering Various Other Bands from the Book Our Band Could Be Your Life including performances by: Ted Leo, Titus Andronicus, tUnE-yArDs, Dan Deacon, St. Vincent, Wye Oak and others @ Bowery Ballroom * LES, Manhattan * SOLD OUT!
This show sounds a little lame to me even though I love that book and almost all the bands in it and like a lot of the bands that are performing.  I just don't see how that many bands covering that many other bands is going to maintain interest when bands are almost always better playing their own dang stuff.  But obviously, I find it worthy of note.

Other shows
Damon & Namoi (slowcore indiepop) @ Knitting Factory ($15)


Monday, May 23

Thurston Moore @ Other Music * East Village, Manhattan * FREE
Thurston Moore doing a free in-store show on Monday at 8 PM.  It will be crowded but probably worth fighting the crowd.  I explained who Thurston was above.  I should also mention that he's very tall.

Other shows
Liquor Store @ Shea Stadium
Company (Fat Possum), Shark? @ Death By Audio ($7)


Tuesday, May 24

French Miami @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
I think I saw French Miami once and they fingertapped stuff on guitar with one hand while playing keyboards with the other.  Then again, that was a long time ago, so I could be remembering wrong.

Other shows
Balun (electro-shoegaze-pop) @ Pianos ($8)
Arctic Monkeys @ Central Park ($35/$43)
Company, Space Lions in Outer Space @ Bruar Falls ($6)


Wednesday, May 25

Hunters @ Bruar Falls * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
Hunters are wild.  They roll around trying to make out and/or kill each other with their guitars. [video]

Other shows
Miniboone @ Brooklyn Bowl (free!)
Hilly Eye (mem. Titus Andronicus) @ Death By Audio ($7)
Yvette, Shapes, Dirty Fences (good aggressive experimental) @ Glasslands ($8)
Converge @ Santos Party House ($15)


The long view...

May
26
Big Freedia (dirty south rap in drag), Javelin @ Mercury Lounge
Darlings (messy/noisy indie pop) @ Death By Audio

27
Dum Dum Girls, Crocodiles, Woven Bones (lo-fi post punk pop, but all doing acoustic sets so it won't be as good as it sounded at first) @ Glasslands ($10)
Pterodactyl, Screens, Zulus (noize rock with experimental bent) @ Death By Audio ($7)
Times New Viking, Babies (lo-fi) @ Knitting Factory
Fang Island (lots of guitars) @ Brooklyn Bowl

28
Big Freedia (see above) @ Brooklyn Bowl ($5)

30
Brick Mower, Mattress @ Silent Barn


June
1
Zs (experimental/noise) @ Silent Barn

2
Liturgy (black metal crossover), Sightings (experimental/noise) @ Knitting Factory
Stiff Little Fingers (late 70's UK punk) @ Europa ($20)
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Silk Flowers, R. Stevie Moore @ Irving Plaza ($20)

5
Against Me!, Screaming Females, Lemuria (first and last = BEST pop punk; Females = just plain BEST) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

7
Against Me!, Screaming Females, Lemuria (see above) @ Webster Hall

10
Bush Tetras (original early 80's experimental post punk funk by ladies) @ Le Poisson Rouge ($12/$15)

11
Pygmy Shrews, Pop 1280, White Suns (post-hardcore/experimental/noise) @ Death By Audio ($7)

12
TSOL (one of the best original SoCal hardcore punk bands) @ Santos Party House

14
Japanther (arty poppy punk), Shellshag, Heavy Cream @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

16
Northside Festival: Atlas Sound (Deerhunter side project) @ St. Cecilia's ($15/$17)
Swervedriver (original shoegaze) @ Irving Plaza

17
Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500 (slowcore shoegaze), Vacant Lots @ Bell House ($15/$20)
Northside Festival: Surfer Blood, Eternal Summers, Grooms, Xray Eyeballs @ Knitting Factory ($12/$14)
Northside Festival: Woods @ St. Cecilia's ($12/$15)

18
Northside Festival: Guided By Voices (original line-up), Wavves, Surfer Blood, The Babies @ McCarren Park
Northside Festival: Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces, see above) @ St. Cecilia's ($15/$17)

19
Northside Festival: Mount Eerie (aka Microphones, the best lo-fi noise folk since Neutral Milk Hotel) @ St. Cecilia's ($12/$15)
Swervedriver @ Irving Plaza

23
Dinosaur Jr (late 80's/early 90's loud proto-alt rock, performing their classic album Bug), Fucked Up (wall of sound meets hardcore/thrash meets best thing ever) @ Terminal 5

24
Special guest (it definitely is a big deal and involves ladies, so make your guess), Coathangers, Religious to Damn @ 285 Kent

25
Archers of Loaf (one of the best 90's indie bands) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (SOLD OUT)

26
Archers of Loaf (see above) @ Webster Hall (SOLD OUT)


July
12
Animal Collective @ Prospect Park
Cold Cave @ Knitting Factory

14
Gary War, K-Holes, Pop. 1280 (noisy post punk and post punky noise) @ Union Hall

29
Black Lips @ Bowery Ballroom


August
8
The Kills @ Terminal 5

12
Sonic Youth @ Williamsburg Waterfront
Streets, El-P @ Terminal 5
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