December 29, 2008
I'm not the only one at Stereogum who goes out to see live music, but I'm the one who goes out to see the most live music. And then I'm the one who sits around anally cataloging and indexing it in photos and words, and then recataloging it in list form at year-end. To that point: Lists are inherently personal; a list of top concerts even more so. Did you have that drunk Jersey kid yelling in your ear Night Two of Radiohead @ APW? I didn't! And that's why I loved it and that's why it made this list. (Also it made this list because it's Radiohead. As you well know.) From every sweaty summer fest, every late set in Williamsburg or out on the LES, I've pared the possibilities to 20. And then I numerically ranked those 20 to make a ludicrous and subjective endeavor that much more ludicrously subjective. So without further ado, here is the definitive list of 2008's 20 Greatest Concerts. If you saw a show you think belongs on here but isn't, you're wrong.
Continue reading 20 Great Concerts From 2008...
Posted at 12:31 PM by amrit in
Tags: Animal Collective | Apes And Androids | Dirty Projectors | Fleet Foxes | Gang Gang Dance | Joanna Newsom | King Khan | Krallice | Lightning Bolt | Marnie Stern | My Bloody Valentine | My Morning Jacket | of Montreal | Portishead | Radiohead | Robyn | Saul Williams | Sigur Rós
latest by FlyerAsh
December 15, 2008
Photos by Ben Shapiro
The big news, and ostensibly the big draw, for the show last Thursday at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple was Dan Deacon's headlining, public reinvention from banana-iPod-armed hipster pied piper to conductor of a 14-piece ensemble, with the unveiling of select works from his forthcoming Bromst album. But in the near freezing temps and gusty, pelting rain, the big news and certainly the big draw personally was the promise of new tunes from the forthcoming, recently Progress Reported Dirty Projectors LP.
Continue reading Dirty Projectors/Dan Deacon @ Masonic Temple, Brooklyn 12/11/08...
Posted at 2:37 PM by amrit in ,
Tags: Dan Deacon | Dirty Projectors
latest by we can all see in color
December 9, 2008
By Amrit Singh & Brandon Stosuy
Yesterday we learned the winners of the 2008 Gummy Awards. Last night we partied. Thanks everyone for braving the cold and long lines to get in. The show was a full and festive -- host Max Silvestri presented a stunning array of the best greeting cards you've never seen, Videogum debuted a montage of the year's finest viral videos (we'll have that for you soon), and post-show chatter suggested each band -- Bell, Violens, Deerhunter, and DJs High Places -- walked out with new fans in tow. We'll let this spread of pics by ace photog Ryan Muir do most of the talking because they're just that good, but here's a bit on how it all happened:
Continue reading Gummy Awards '08 Live Starring Deerhunter @ MHOW...
Posted at 5:33 PM in ,
Tags: Bell | Deerhunter | High Places | Max Silvestri | Violens
latest by Schlomo Hoffmann
December 4, 2008
Last night Studio B hosted New York mag's third NYxNY Indie Rock Karaoke jam. Following in the steps of previous installments with of Montreal and the Thermals, this one featured Ted Leo + RX, with emceeing duties falling to the joyful Andrew W.K. As usual, it was memorable: Ted delivered a fun, full set of his principled punk shots and tried out four promising new tunes (including one he described as "blackmetal dancehall," adding "my life is now complete"), but the night really took off when we shifted into karaoke mode. The combination of Ted and Andrew's charismatic, celebratory shenanigans was positively combustible. But still, I've been trying to figure out what it is about these karaoke sets that make them such a great time.
Continue reading Indie Rock Karaoke With Ted Leo & Andrew W.K. @ Studio B, Brooklyn 12/3/08...
Posted at 1:22 PM by amrit in
Tags: Andrew W.K. | Ted Leo
latest by Anonymous
November 20, 2008
Last night was the second time New York x New York -- the memorable comedy/music series designed to drive subscriptions to New York mag and frustrate with 65-minute lines for one-hour open bars -- turned to the "Bad Art Auction" concept. The first time around, Zach Galifianakis offered up a sharp standup set but his heart just didn't seem into the auctioneer duties, and we discovered he and music-guest Band Of Horses share many fans and of course a love of beards. The Judah Friedlander/Jamie Stewart pairing didn't yield a crossover quite so fertile (see: the criminally under-attended Xiu Xiu set later in the night), but both were on their respective, disassociated games: Xiu Xiu slayed, and Judah got kids to spend way too much on the shittiest art ever.
Continue reading Bad Art, Good Art: Judah Friedlander & Xiu Xiu @ Le Poisson Rouge, NYC 11/19/08...
Posted at 4:02 PM by amrit in
Tags: Judah Friedlander | Xiu Xiu
latest by d33r
November 13, 2008
Over the past few years, mtvU's annual Woodie Awards have been unexpectedly bloggable. But last night we couldn't rely on Jordan Catalano picking fights since he was busy being king douche somewhere else, and Spank Rock seemed sober which meant no drinking from stilettos or jacking liveblogs, so we were left with ... music? Well music plus asymmetical haircuts because remember this is all about COLLEGE. Before the show I spent some time on the indoor red carpet because it was warmer than the outdoor no carpet. It was fruitful: Chromeo promised new material will sound more like the "Momma's Boy" than "Tenderoni," Santogold confirmed that mtvU press release was erroneous and that she is still indeed Santogold, Vampire Weekend smiled and Palin'd as they didn't stop to take questions from the liberal elite media, etc. Through the din of answers from guylinered bands I didn't know, I heard the words "Dirty Projectors" and "TV On The Radio" and thought maybe things were changing. I looked up to see the lovely ladies of Au Revoir Simone. Things in fact are not changing.
But! There were some cool moments.
Continue reading Photos From The 2008 mtvU Woodie Awards...
Posted at 4:44 PM by amrit in
Tags: A-Trak | Asher Roth | Bjorn Yttling | Chromeo | Kid Sister | Lykke Li | Mark Hoppus | Peter Bjorn And John | Santogold | Spank Rock | Trevor Andrew | Vampire Weekend
latest by Nylund
November 10, 2008
Reviews of the Smashing Pumpkins' two night stand in NYC last week haven't been kind. "Things quickly fell off a cliff, bogged down by tuneless dirges like the reworked version of 'Heavy Metal Machine' and a noisy, directionless cover of Pink Floyd's 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,' said Rolling Stone. Matthew Perpetua of Fluxblog agrees those two tunes were "flat-out awful" and felt the encore ("a song that mixes disingenuous hippy-dippy 'everyone is beautiful!' lyrics with improvised sarcastic rants that outright diss the city you're playing in, mock the fans for paying to see your band, and tell your visibly disappointed audience that you'll see them in hell") was "full-on douche-tastic passive-aggression." And that was only night one.
Continue reading Billy Corgan Invites Heckler Onstage To Ridicule Him...
Posted at 6:27 PM by Scott in , ,
Tags: Billy Corgan | The Smashing Pumpkins
latest by Jake
Last night we finally hit Andrew W.K.'s recently opened venue. Nice space, clearly designed with acoustics in mind -- huge speaker blocks above the side bar, tweeters suspended over the floor for sound to surround -- although you couldn't say the same for sight (the poles that dot the space are good for advertising, not so good for uninterrupted stage views). Anyway it's solid to see a worthy music space opening in Manhattan, and it's always great to see three bands for the price of free in Manhattan. This was the first of four shows No Age is doing to help shockhound.com celebrate their launch, last night including ex-Black Dice man Soft Circle and raucous NJ crew Titus Andronicus in support. Unfortunately we missed the Circle set, but Titus, Dean and Randy did their best to inject some life into a pretty tame Sunday night crowd. For Andronicus that meant a three-guitar attack on a stage that could barely contain them, and for No Age that meant a switched up setlist, no Randy-on-the-amp bit, and a single guitar that seemed more forceful than the Andronici combined. The guys may have seemed a little weary, but we all were. At least No Age have the excuse of nonstop touring. If you want more, enjoy this spread of photos for your eyeballs, all by photog Ben Shapiro.
Continue reading Titus Andronicus/No Age @ Santo's Party House, NYC 11/9/08...
Posted at 5:51 PM by amrit in
Tags: No Age | Titus Andronicus
latest by John Claude
