May 16, 2008

2008 Noise Stage Lineup
@ Galapagos
June 21st, 2008 Noon

Featuring: Ponytail, Power Douglas, Fiasco, The Shackeltons, Extra Life, The Austerity Program, Cursillistas, Monotract, Dinowalrus, Autodrone, Alex and the Horribles, Noveller, Brilliant Sweater, and more!!!

After the Jump is the joint effort of 20 New York City music bloggers whose sites attract over one million readers a week. Founded last year in support of underfunded city school music programs, After the Jump has planned and staged concerts in association with the massive South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas and the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City as well as our own all day and night festival last summer in Brooklyn. This summer, on June 21st, After the Jump will be partnering with Make Music NY to throw our second annual festival, taking over the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Galapagos Art Space, and the North 6th Street itself with four stages and over 40 bands.

After the Jump Fest 2008 is brought to you by our awesome sponsors:
Metromix.com
Stereofame.com
Snoozer Loser
Gen Art Pulse

AFTER THE JUMP IS ORGANIZED BY:
themusicslut . batteringroom . disconap . earfarm . ryspace . irockiroll . merryswankster . softcommunication . musicisart . sitdownstandup . watercoolergossip . bumpershine . themodernage . productshopnyc . subinev . punkphoto . poptartssucktoasted . stereoactivenyc . jinners

For press opportunities such as interviews with the organizers or bands, please contact publicity@afterthejumpfest.com
For sponsorship and all other requests, contact producer Jennifer Kellas: jkellas@afterthejumpfest.com

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

[M.I.A. scratching her head @ Coachella]

Last week I wrote that M.I.A.'s Coachella set was marred once the crowd got the invite to come on stage. In today's Denver Post, M.I.A. explains what went down in the preview piece for tomorrow's show at the Fillmore.

"Cops on both sides kind of shut us down," M.I.A. said recently from her tour bus, referring to a late-April show at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in which 50 eager fans rushed the stage (at M.I.A.'s request) to dance with their idol.

"People were like fainting and climbing up the scaffolding so they could see," she continued. "The security was beating people up and fights were breaking out in the tent. It just seemed like a big soupy, steamy mess." (Link)

The special Merry Swankster Devil's advocate division says: Huh? Beating people up? Cops? Maybe next time you don't bring people up on the stage if things can get sketchy. Unless you want to ruin the show on purpose.

M.I.A. performs at the Fillmore Auditorium this Saturday night in Denver with Felix Cartal and Low B. Tickets are still available.

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2008

...but more on that next week. For now, I give you a couple recent videos from the band's British peers, who slot in neatly against the electro leaning of their newly released album "Couples".

Ladytron - "Ghosts"

Ladytron has been touched upon many times previously, and this song specifically was discussed here.

Late of the Pier - "Space and the Woods"

These floppy haired young ne'er-do-wells got a brief close up in this space previously as well.

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

An attempt to introduce this with something clever would be foolish.

"There is a new yardstick for the size of the universe. It is approximately equal to the size of Kanye West’s ego."

Jon Pareles is not exactly mincing words with that opening sentence. More from his review of Tuesday's Kanye West show at MSG (link):

Mr. West’s set was the most daring arena spectacle hip-hop has yet produced, and in some ways the best, even as it jettisoned standard hip-hop expectations. The rhymes, the beats and the narcissism were there; the block-party spirit and sense of community were not. Until the encore Mr. West had no human company on the arena stage.

The spectacle is framed as a sci-fi space odyssey, with Mr. West as a lone explorer whose starship crashes on an unknown planet. He’s stranded in a landscape of colored lights, billowing smoke — probably enough dry ice to cool Death Valley — and gorgeous, panoramic video images of clouds, galaxies, fireworks and cosmic eruptions. He converses with his computerized ship, named Jane, and with shooting stars. He raps with barely a respite, and bounds around the stage: striding, hunching, pumping his fist, falling to his knees, grinding against the stage, flailing, shouting his rhymes. It is a show of stamina and lonely self-determination that takes on its own obsessive momentum, like a Samuel Beckett scene staged by Robert Wilson and George Lucas.

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 14, 2008

Right now I'm drinking Coco Loto: Coconut Juice with Pineapple and boy is it disgusting.

Let's start today's retro romp with one from an "obscure punk-rock band" from Philadelphia, PA, (home of a one Y. Korngold).

Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"

This next one comes from the 'Mats 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me, a title that spawned a million and one bad introduction jokes.

The Replacements - "Alex Chilton"

Continue reading "Retrohump: Adolescent Nonsense"

Posted by Randall Monty at 08:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 13, 2008

You'll be hearing quite a bit about the ins and outs of this year's After the Jump Fest in the days to come, but a quick word of alert is in order at the moment.

HEALTH - "Glitter Pills"
(live on Pitchfork.tv's Don't Look Down)

Tickets for the benefit portion of June 21st's all-day, all-night proceedings at the Music Hall of Williamsburg are now on-sale. Proceeds from the reasonable $10 dollar ticket price will go towards underfunded city school music programs, and the line-up is pretty stellar. So far we can tell you that it'll feature...

- HEALTH
- Titus Andronicus
- Project Jenny, Project Jan
- Pattern is Movement
- DJ XXXChange (Spank Rock)

...and there will be a bit more to add in due time for the night bill, and loads more to dissect in regard to the free daytime festivities. Watch this space.

Some initial convincing:

HEALTH - "Crimewave"
Titus Andronicus - "Arms Against Atrophy"
Project Jenny, Project Jan - "320"
Pattern is Movement - "Right Away"
Santogold - "LES Artistes" (XXXChange remix)

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 07:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

One of the enduring two-piece's poppiest songs to date gets a tense and brutal video treatment that makes domestic violence seem like doomed romance (whether that's a responsible idea or not).

the Kills - "Last Day of Magic"

Previously: Bleak Girls Club

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 12, 2008

Free Kitten - "Bananas"

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Pussy Galore's Julie Cafritz, and the Boredom's Yoshimi P-We return as the world's most terrifyingly intimidating female super-group, Free Kitten. Where Pavement bassist Mark Ibold previously filled the band's token male indie-rock luminary role, we now have J. Mascis bashing the hell out of a drum kit (and kicking the proceedings off with a righteous sneeze). A nasty grumble of a guitar line is the ingredient that'll shake your guts, but Cafritz adds even more bad vibes as the featured screaming banshee. "Survival of the fittest is a cruel cruel hoax" she drolly intones. I doubt these sisters in badassery would have any natural predators under any alternative laws of the jungle that she might propose.

Lissy Trullie - "Self-Taught Learner"

We know switch our attention to downtown cool of an entirely more aloof quality. Fetching tomboy Lissy Trullie is already a bit of a renowned fashion plate, chanteuse, scenester, and (we can only assume) incorrigible heartbreaker in advance of her debut EP. Its title track is a perfectly nonchalant cool breeze of a song, with slightly chugging guitars and low-key studio affects getting out of the way to let her nicotine saturated voice fill most of its empty space. It's deep but slight, and if you weren't graced with the above visual, you might assume it was coming from an adrogyne on the other side of the chromosome divide. If there's a nit to pick, it's that the song doesn't feel weighty enough to sustain itself after the lofty bridge at the two-minute mark. Brevity could have been another quill with which to smite hapless passers-by. But at the risk of being slightly condescending, a look at the above photo should clue you in on how much advice she needs to take from me in order to be successful.

Tickley Feather - "The Python"

This track, from Philadelphia single mom Annie Sachs' home-recorded debut has been floating around the internet for a minute, but it's too hypnotic to allow it to pass by unremarked. The song's various elements are pasted over each other like scissored bits in a stylish collage. The beat isn't guiding the wandering-in-a-fog vocal melodies, though it accidentally keeps time for the idle piano circles that seem piped in by loudspeaker from a far away warehouse. Its spare and pretty rather than forced, though. A would-be happy accident that was probably much more deliberate than it initially seems.

Ponytail - "Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)"

Ponytail might have been a math rock boys club if not for the completely bonkers vocal styling of improbably wee front-gal Molly Sigel. This track is the racing heart of the Blatimore band's forthcoming Ice Cream Spiritual, spending seven minutes alternately sprinting away from hornets or stealing a few winks in the shade. Sigel's lungs are a living, wailing instrument of destruction, adding texture but not concrete meaning. She gives 100% conviction to screeches and purrs both, highlighting the reckless fun in the speeding guitar lines. Instrumental pyrotechnics that could have been a wonk too far are instead thrillingly alive and neon-colored.

P.S. I'm not sure if this kitty has offcially cleared the bag yet, but New Yorkers will be able to see these guys for free at this summer's After the Jump Festival!

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 01:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

[Flight of the Conchords]

Monday, May 12
DJ Scooter @ Larimer Lounge
Fall From Grace @ Marquis Theater
The Mary Onettes @ Hi-Dive
Nylon Music Tour @ Gothic Theatre

Tuesday, May 13
Dead Meadow @ Larimer Lounge
Rocco Deluca @ Walnut Room
Subtle/Achille Lauro @ Bluebird Theater

Wednesday, May 14
An Evening With Asylum Street Spankers @ Walnut Room
Boulder Acoustic Society @ Fox Theatre
Frontside Five @ Bluebird Theater
Heart Start Hero @ Larimer Lounge

Thursday, May 15
Flight of the Conchords @ Caulkins Opera House
The Bellrays @ Larimer Lounge
Big Time Entertainment Show @ Hi-Dive
Emarosa @ Marquis Theater
Jackson Boone & The Lovers Jive @ Fox Theatre
Was (Not Was) @ Gothic Theatre

Friday, May 16
As Blood Runs Black @ Marquis Theater
Dark Lotus @ Gothic Theatre
Jen Korte And The Loss @ Walnut Room
Latch @ Hi-Dive
Margot And The Nuclear So And Sos @ Larimer Lounge
Shwerver @ Bluebird Theater
Super 400 @ Boulder Theater

Saturday, May 17
Atmosphere @ Ogden Theater
Blue Scholars @ Gothic Theatre
Brian Regan @ Paramount Theatre
Cloud Cult @ Larimer Lounge
Insane Clown Posse @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
M.I.A. @ Fillmore Auditorium
Rob Drabkin @ Soiled Dove
Stand By Your Band III @ Hi-Dive
Tapes'n Tapes @ Bluebird Theater
Vitamins @ Walnut Room

Sunday, May 18
Boulder Acoustic Society @ Fox Theatre
Cloud Cult @ Larimer Lounge
Collective Soul @ Boulder Theater
CPC Gangbangs @ Hi-Dive
The Insomniacs @ Walnut Room
The Mars Volta @ Fillmore Auditorium

Posted by Merry Swankster at 09:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 09, 2008

[This and all photos by Merry Swankster]

Sunday was the lightest lineup at this year's Coachella. The third and final installment of the fest saw sparse crowds and half filled venues all day long. For a substantial part of the day our group was at a loss on what bands to see. I don't remember that ever happening before, though it allowed time to check out the festival's extensive art installations without the accompanying guilt of skipping acts. The paltry schedule was magnified when our mid day penciled in selection did not show up. I was looking forward to seeing The Field, but immigration issues barred them from entering the country.

While the day still provided plenty of heavyweight entertainment from the likes of My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters and Justice, the consensus opinion of Merry Swankster's extended posse was disappointment. Without doubt the weakest single day crowd in at least five years for the festival so we obviously weren't alone with those thoughts. It gave the impression of a failed festival, something I'm sure the festival organizers will be eager to turn around in the coming years given the established prestige and past successes of Coachella. Expectations baby, they're a bitch. And the high expectations at Coachella are easy to take for granted. I look forward to complaining about making tough choices rather than feeling confused on why there is nobody interesting to see.

Previously:
Coachella Day 1
Coachella Day 2

Final day summary after the jump...

Continue reading "Coachella 2008: Sunday (Day 3)"

Posted by Merry Swankster at 08:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Pavement - "Slow Century" DVD - West Virginia, Lollapalooza 1994

Waxing about Malkmus reminded me of being too young and dumb to check out Pavement play Lollapalooza in 1994 and led me to this nugget of hilarity from the band's "Slow Century" DVD (Matador). It then got me thinking about how radically different things are these days at music festivals. Its a complete 180. Pavement was routinely ignored (my 15 y/o self - guilty) during their stint as headliner in '94, to the point where things got a bit ugly in West Virginia. Safe to say leaving the stage to a chorus of boos, flying mud, and reciprocating with flipped birds and dropping trout is not ideal.

So what's changed since? Fourteen years later and the festival circuit in America is as healthy as ever. The model certainly changed, traveling festivals replaced by anchored regional events. But at what point do things unwittingly revert to a facsimile of Lollapalooza's original failed model? Tons of bands do the "festival circuit" and exclusivity of acts is getting harder and harder for festival promoters in such a crowded market. Survival of the fittest? Could be a dangerous way to weed out the losers, considering it's tantamount to cannibalization. Geography will come into play in a big way for some organizers. Pitchfork, Lollapalooza, and Coachella have distinct advantages being in or near Chicago and Los Angeles, respectively. Only time will tell, but the music industry as a whole doesn't exactly have the best record with success these days. Now I'm getting bummed out.

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

[This and all photos by Merry Swankster]

Continued coverage of the Coachella Music & Arts Festival.

Previously: Coachella Day 1

Full rundown after the jump...

Continue reading "Coachella 2008: Saturday (Day 2)"

Posted by Merry Swankster at 01:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Hot Chip - "Over and Over" - Live @ Coachella 4.26.2008

And this was it. (Another angle)

Posted by Merry Swankster at 03:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)