Upcoming Shows: The Styrenes!!!!!!! + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Thursday, April 29

Cold Cave @ Le Poisson Rouge * Greenwich Village, Manhattan * $12
Cold Cave effortlessly combine the sweeping dramatics of early 80's New Wave with icy nihilism. Its a distillation of all that's good about synth-based music. [myspace]

Fiasco, Total Slacker @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
These are two punky DIY bands who have been slightly outstripped by the hype but are still worth checking out. They're pretty loud. [fiasco myspace] [slacker myspace]


Friday, April 30

The Styrenes @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Some strange things happened deep in the Midwest, deep in the mid 70's and at least in the world of rock music, Cleveland was at the center of the strangeness. There were only about a half dozen bands in the movement, and inbred bands at that, but they changed the course of music, opening the door to post-punk before the rest of the world had caught on to the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.

The Cleveland bands can be divided roughly into to cliques - on one side, you've got Rocket From the Tombs whose core members split to form Pere Ubu and Dead Boys. On the other hand, there was a wildly experimental noisefuck called Electric Eels and the slightly more pop-angled Mirrors, who would later morph into the Styrenes. Paul Marotta played with all three of these and when he and his bandmates decided to reunite, they rounded out the band's most well-known four-piece line-up of yore with the Electric Eels' notorious John Morton and original Mirrors/Styrenes founder Jamie Klimek.

So, six of the most insane, daring and violent minds in punk history will take the stage at New York's best DIY venue, the intimate Death by Audio. According to Cleveland.com, they will play a few Mirrors and Electric Eels songs as well as the Styrenes' material. I think I might die. [myspace]


Saturday, May 1

Styrenes + Tyvek @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $10
See above. And this time, no DIY, but a great venue nevertheless and with the lovable mad Detroit punks Tyvek warming up the stage. [tyvek myspace]


Sunday, May 2

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers @ Mercury Lounge * LES, Manhattan * $10
Acclaimed and adored by critics everywhere and with one of the loyalest fan bases around, Shilpa Ray could school all of Brooklyn when it comes to rock. Her soulful, bluesy rock builds around a hand-powered harmonium and her punk rock energy and the fact that she's legitimately totally insane makes for one of the most fun live shows you can find in the New York scene. I mean, seriously, the woman is bonkers. [myspace]


Monday, May 3

Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Mahogany @ Bell House
Just to keep you posted, this show has been postponed, apparently due to visa issues rather than the volcano. When it happens, you should be there cause this is shoegaze at its finest.


Tuesday, May 4

Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Soundpool @ Bell House
See above.

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

May
6
Yo La Tengo, Jeff Mangum, Kyp Malone, Portastic, the Clean, Claudia Gonson (Magnetic Fields), Sharon van Etten @ LPR ($75 and way SOLD OUT - I'm only listing it to make you cry cause I'm a mean person.)

7
The Clean @ Bell House (Advanced Tix SOLD OUT)

11
Sleigh Bells + secret guests @ Ridgewood Temple

13
The Buzzcocks @ The Fillmore

15
Parts & Labor, Talk Normal @ Knitting Factory

18
Public Image Ltd @ Terminal 5
Woven Bones @ Mercury Lounge

19
Public Image Ltd @ Terminal 5
Diana Ross @ Radio City Music Hall

21
Fuck Buttons @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

22
Fuck Buttons @ Le Poisson Rouge
New York Dolls @ Warsaw
NYC PopFest: Wake, Boat, My Teenage Stride + more @ Bell House

27
Forgetters @ Bell House

28
Holy Fuck @ Le Poisson Rouge

29
Psych Fest: Weird Owl (yay), Hopewell (blech), Golden Triangle (blech), Psychic Ills (yay), Sunburned Hand of the Man (yay) + more @ Glasslands

June
4
Psychedelic Furs @ the Fillmore

6
Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Webster Hall

18
Melvins + Isis @ Webster Hall

24
Wavves @ Knitting Factory

July
24
M.I.A. @ Governors Island

30
Big Takeover: Springhouse @ Bell House

31
Big Takeover: Springhouse, For Against @ Bell House

Five Forgotten Pioneers: Part 2

OK, here's part two! (Part one is here.)

R. Stevie Moore

R. Stevie Moore has been making independent underground pop since the 1960's. Recording and releasing most of his music himself, Moore established a DIY aesthetic that would eventually be the hallmark of lo-fi, the dominant movement of American indie pop. Moore's music itself isn't lo-fi, but in his recordings, you can hear the beginnings of the intentionally messy and proudly raw sounds later adopted by the likes of Sebadoh and Pavement. Even the use of basic multitrack recording equipment like Moore's has become a badge of honor among American indie bands from Guided by Voices to the White Stripes.

Moore's releases number in the hundreds if not thousands, so of course, there's a lot of dud songs in there, but the average quality is surprisingly high. The variety among the releases is itself amazing, with genre-crossing composition at times akin to Beck's. Experimental but accessible, his pop music has always been forward-looking, innovative and fun.

NEWS: R. Stevie Moore is playing November 11, 2008 at Cake Shop in NYC. See you there!


Mirrors (a.k.a. the Styrenes)

Of the many groups immediately preceding the punk movement, few have been more forgotten than Mirrors. Part of the Cleveland scene that hatched the Electric Eels, Rocket from the Tombs and Pere Ubu, Mirrors formed in 1973, recorded a small amount of material (the majority of which went unreleased until 2001), then changed names and directions and continued into the 1980's at the Styrenes.

Mirrors play a raw, aggressive proto-punk like the Stooges or the Electric Eels, but with more thoughtful experimentalism than these bands, borrowing from early Pink Floyd as well as the Velvet Underground-inspired Cleveland and Detroit scenes. The intellectual approach of Mirrors to the subversively raw proto-punk of their peers in many ways predicts the post-punk movement, which would add the very same slowed-down thoughtfulness to its punk roots. Intelligent and creative, Mirrors included touches of prog rock and noise in their music, but they never once forgot to rock out.