New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Double release on Sunday April 15 at The Studio at Webster Hall for two promising folky NYC bands, Flearoy and Town Hall.
Town Hall (top picture) describe themselves as an "adventurous indie pop band", although their music betrays a strong folk component, with frequent jazzy tinges. In the past few months they released a weekly, DIY cover video of songs like "Always On Time" by Ashanti & Ja Rule and "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. This past January, they released their EP "Sticky Notes & Paper Scraps" and recently released their first official music video, "Good Boy".
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Flearoy‘s Americana carries influences ranging from Booker T & the MG’s to the Beatles to Destiny’s Child (whom they recently covered in a tribute set in December). The band has earned an always welcome reputation for their raucous and fun live shows, but can also be moving in an intimate kind of way, since they master the art of the country ballad.
London-native, NYC based Anna Krantz has tackled a variety of songwriting projects over the years and was recently named a top 10 finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, the same competition that Goyte and Kimbra won for “Somebody That I Used To Know.” She’s continuously impressed NYC audiences with her unique voice, clever banter, and catchy songwriting, leaving her mark on a city that she now calls home. "Rubble and the Dust" (see video streaming below) is the first single off of her upcoming EP, set to release in Summer 2012. "I hope this song will give people the courage to really listen to themselves, to acknowledge the signs and to never settle. We never need to settle for anything less than that which simply feels right.” Anna encourages fans to submit their RATD photos to her blog. – Christina Morelli
Tonight is the release party of the BITBY Tape Club at Kung Fu Necktie. Their inaugural cassette (with digital download code included) will feature new tracks from Attia Taylor, Psychic Teens, Break It Up, Streetwalkers, Oh! Pears, Faux Slang, Spirit Animal and Heyward Howkins. It will also double as BITBY’s April episode premiere featuring Blayer Pointdujour who will be performing a live set along with Attia Taylor opening. DJ sets by Lady.Bang.Beat. and members of Arc In Round will be going on throughout the evening. A portion of the door will go to HollabackPhilly, an organization that promotes awareness and works to end street harassment and violence against women. Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 10:30pm, $5, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman
Seattle-based songwriter Debbie Miller will debut her sophomore album, Measures and Waits, with a live performance at the Columbia City Theater on Sunday night. Once regarded as one of New York City’s best-kept musical secrets, Miller’s relocation to the coast came after the succesful release of her first album, Fake Love, back in 2010. Mixing a folky sensibility with disarmingly honest, and frequently clever, lyrics, Miller has gained followings that bookend the country with enthusiasts on both coasts. Measures and Waits, a six-song EP, is a return to form for the multi-talented songstress, who deftly shifts from strumming an acoustic guitar to navigating a piano’s keyboard. As always, Miller blends canny instrumentation and delicate, yet powerful, vocals. A siren chorus opens the album’s leading track, "Inch By Inch", and her piercing voice and rousing wordplay work to ensnare the listener within the first few bars. The rest of the album follows that example, with catchy choruses and even more infectious harmonies, ensuring that fans new and old won’t be disappointed at its release this Sunday. Opening acts will include folk rockers Haystack Charm, and Sean Neil.
Doors: 8:00 p.m.
Tickets: $6
– Kate Shepherd
Mean Jeans is looking to take their pot smoking, boozed-up, denim-clad pizza party shenanigans into space with the release of their latest full length effort On Mars. To launch their record into the infinite void that is the internet, the trio put together a video for the single "Anybody Out There" with buddy-director Brett Roberts. Featuring a homemade spacecraft set and accompanying costumes, the video is equal parts Mystery Science Theatre and the kvetchy mid-century cult flicks that very show satirizes. It’s entirely the kind of fun-fueled Bill and Ted punk irreverence we’ve come to expect from these devil-may-care rockers. A sign that bodes well for die-hard fans, but done with enough tongue-in-cheek style that even those with a stiff upper lip are sure to crack a smile. The full album drops April 17th via Dirtnap records, but if you really want to "celebrate" the new record with the band, then we suggest you hold out till the album release show on 4/20 at Eagles Lodge.
A Light Sleeper is back with a new ep called Brevity through the always artistic Another New Calligraphy. The physical edition of this ep is handmade and numbered and can be order through the labels website.
Electro-popist Kyle Andrews is playing his first Nashville show of the year at The High Watt Friday, May 4 with The Gills and Cashatt. Soooo, the first person to shoot us an e-mail at delinashville@gmail.com gets a free ticket to the show, and the band will even let ya bring your +1.
Definitely one of the most original alt-country bands expressed by the NYC scene in the last decade, O’Death writes songs that are never generic, and (in tune with the project’s name) always carry a dark sense of desperation. The band just released a new, beautiful but rather tense video of the slightly gypsy sounding ballad "Black Dress", streaming below. The band is about to leave on an Eat Coast tour which will bring them to NYC at Glaslands on June 9.
Data Garden is an online journal and record label encouraging the discovery of electronic music through the windows of history, science and community. When we intially heard about the collaborative being invited by Megawords (who are running a library and exhibition in conjunction with the photography exhibit of Zoe Strauss: Ten Years) to present a project that would have tropical plants hooked up to specialized electronic sensors to make music, our interest was piqued. Their Data Garden: Quartet installation will be open to the public this weekend (April 13 – 15) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will be “the first bio-reactive and plant controlled work of art at The PMA.” Now, you are probably wondering: What does this mean? Well, rather than cutting and pasting their nicely chosen words from the post on the Data Garden website to try to superficially explain, we decided to hit up masterminds Joe Patitucci (a.k.a. Tadoma), Sam Cusumano and Alex Tyson to find out what the Data Garden: Quartet is all about. And we were right! It is pretty damn interesting so now we are really looking forward to seeing it in action this weekend, and we think that you should definitely join us. But first, we suggest that you get a little more enlightened about the installation as well, and check out our interview with the Data Garden crew HERE.
