See Some of the Bands You Can Hear This Week
May 20th, 2013
Josh Ritter Returns to Terminal 5 Tomorrow Night
May 17th, 2013Growing up in Idaho, Josh Ritter heard the Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash version of “Girl from the North Country” on his parents’ copy of Nashville Skyline and knew he wanted to become a songwriter. Some dreams do come true, because years later, Ritter was named one of the 100 Greatest Living Songwriters by Paste magazine. The folk-leaning singer-songwriter has earned favorable comparisons to Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen (or as Mary-Louise Parker says, he “is usually compared to the legends, the ones you have been listening to since you were 15, the ones you love most”), and he’s put out a considerable amount of material on EPs and full-length albums. The most recent of which, The Beast in Its Tracks, written in the wake of the dissolution of his marriage, came out earlier this year. In praising it, American Songwriter calls it “a gracious, relentlessly honest, post-breakup record.” And Josh Ritter (above, playing “Joy to You Baby” on Late Show with David Letterman) has been out on the road, touring with the Royal City Band, ever since. See them tomorrow night at Terminal 5. And as an added bonus, the Felice Brothers, on their last night on the tour, will open the show.
Cut Loose with SOJA Tomorrow Night at Webster Hall
May 16th, 2013Bassist Bobby Lee Jefferson and lead singer and guitarist Jacob Hemphill met back in elementary school, bonding over shared tastes in music. And beginning in middle school they started to meet the others, drummer Ryan Berty, percussionist Kenneth Brownell and keyboardist Patrick O’Shea. The band is based in Northern Virginia, where the five of them live, but since the quartet’s first album came out a decade ago, there’ve changed names—dropping Soldiers of Jah Army for SOJA—and embarked on countless tours, plus saxophonist Hellman Escorcia and trumpeter Rafael Rodriguez have come on to deepen the socially conscious group’s sound. Reggae isn’t as big in the U.S. as it is in other places. In fact SOJA plays before thousands in South America. But SOJA, whose fourth LP, Strength to Survive (stream it below), came out last year, don’t even always stick to reggae. Watch them cover “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” above, and then head directly to Webster Hall tomorrow night to kick off your weekend right.
Pure X Celebrate New Release Tonight at Mercury Lounge
May 14th, 2013Guitarist and vocalist Nate Grace, bassist Jesse Jenkins and drummer Austin Youngblood, who’d originally met in college, began jamming together in Austin, Texas, just a few years ago. They took the name Pure Ecstasy, but when they found out another band had already claimed it, they switched to Pure X. As Grace says, “I like Pure X. Pure ‘blank’ is how like to think of it.” The trio became known for their crunchy guitars and atmospheric noise rock. And after releasing several singles, their debut full-length, Pleasure, recorded live in the studio, came out in 2011. In praising it, Pitchfork said the album is “like grunge for beachcombers or shoegaze for people happy to be alive.” But before the next album arrived, the guys in the band had to deal with life, things like serious injuries, breakups and money problems. Borne from that is their darker follow-up, Crawling Up the Stairs (stream it below), out today. And tonight at Mercury Lounge, Pure X celebrate their new release live and onstage. Titus Andronicus guitarist Andrew Cedermark gets the party started, a record-release party presented by Dog Gone Blog.
You’d Be Crazy to Miss Ms. Lauryn Hill Tomorrow at Music Hall
May 13th, 2013She burst onto the scene—alongside Wyclef and Pras—in 1996 as one-third of the Fugees, thanks to the trio’s highly acclaimed second album, The Score. With their winning mix of hip-hop, reggae and soul, the Fugees were absolutely huge. But when Ms. Lauryn Hill went solo with the release of the groundbreaking, Grammy-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill two years later, she instantly became one of the biggest names in music all across the globe. Her face was plastered on magazines everywhere, and songs like “Doo Wop (That Thing)” and “Everything Is Everything” were in constant rotation on the radio. Ms. Lauryn Hill, above, doing “Doo Wop (That Thing)” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, recently released “Neurotic Society,” her first new single since Miseducation. And last week, she tweeted: “Hi! Decided to do a last minute show next week in Brooklyn @MusicHallofWB. Wanted to play NS live! –MLH.” In other words, you can see one of the most talented musicians of the past two decades tomorrow night at Music Hall of Williamsburg.
The Hush Sound and Hockey Lead a Great Bill at Webster Hall
May 10th, 2013Greta Salpeter (vocals and keys) was interested in classical piano and Bob Morris (vocals and guitar) was into rock when they first met while still in school. They began jamming together, making acoustic music as a two-piece called the Hush Sound a few years later, but ultimately decided to go for a bigger sound, recruiting friends of Morris’s from the Chicago music scene, Chris Faller (bass and vocals) and Darren Wilson (drums and vocals). They’ve since hit the road with bands like Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects and Rooney, all the while recording three crowd-pleasing albums of melodic, piano-driven pop over the course of three years. And then just like that, the Hush Sound (above, doing “Medicine Man”) went on hiatus in 2009. Fortunately they couldn’t quite quit one another, reuniting last fall to tour once again.
Hockey, out of Portland, Ore., began as a five-piece before paring down to just three—Benjamin Grubin (vocals), Ryan Dolliver (keys) and Jeremy Reynolds (bass)—three years ago. But despite the band size decreasing, the sound of their mash-up of post-punk and dance punk, which has earned them comparisons to both the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, remains as big as ever. They’ve just released their second LP, Wyeth Is (stream it below) digitally (the physical version arrives next month), and Hockey (above, playing “Too Fake” on Later … with Jools Holland) have hit the road. See them with the Hush Sound and River City Extension, Genevieve (of Company of Thieves) and Lucas Carpenter next Tuesday at Webster Hall.
Matthew E. White Headlines The Bowery Ballroom on Monday
May 10th, 2013Make no mistake: Matthew E. White is a musician. He’s a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger—and he even founded his own label, Spacebomb Records, which uses a house band—led by White on guitar, Cameron Ralston on bass and Pinson Chanselle on drums—for all of its work. Growing up in Virginia Beach and the Philippines, White listened to the likes of the Band, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Wilson and Stax-era R&B, and he has worked with Justin Vernon, Megafaun, the Mountain Goats and Sharon Van Etten, in addition to leading the avant-garde jazz big band Fight the Big Bull. In theory, that should really be enough for just one guy. But for Matthew E. White, it wasn’t. So last year, Spacebomb Records put out his acclaimed debut full-length, Big Inner (stream it below), reminding many of Randy Newman’s early work, thanks to White’s unique take on things. And upon the album’s release in the UK this past winter, The Guardian said it “feels like a genuine revelation.” White (above, doing “Will You Love Me” for WFUV FM) has spent the past month touring Europe, but you can see him on Monday night at The Bowery Ballroom.
Ween Frontman Aaron Freeman Plays Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 9th, 2013There’s a pretty good chance his voice will sound familiar even if his name doesn’t. And that’s because most people know Aaron Freeman as Gene Ween, frontman to the much-loved-but-now-gone alt-rockers Ween. But even before the band’s demise, Freeman had begun playing solo shows. So it should come as surprise that he finally recorded a solo album under his own name (although he’d released a Gene Ween album back in 1987). Marvelous Clouds (stream it below), filled with 12 covers of pop poet Roc McKuen songs, came out last year. AllMusic says it “achieves the near impossible, sounding like both a totally logical continuation of his band of the previous two decades, Ween, as well as a massive and legitimate musical step forward.” And with more than two decades of stage experience, you just know that Freeman (above, doing “Object” in studio at WNRN FM in Central Virginia) brings it every night. Even better, he also brings Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz with him. See them tomorrow night at Music Hall of Williamsburg.
After Selling Out Music Hall, Shout Out Louds Play Webster Hall
May 9th, 2013Three childhood friends, Adam Olenius (vocals and guitar), Ted Malmros (bass) and Carl von Arbin (guitar), formed Shout Out Louds in Stockholm around the turn of the century. They added Eric Edman (drums) and Bebban Stenborg (keys and vocals) before they’d even begun recording music, and with the release of their debut LP, the ’60s- and ’80s-influenced Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, in 2005, the five-piece made the leap from small European clubs to international acclaim. Despite their high-energy shows, Shout Out Louds (above, performing “1999” live in concert for KEXP FM) continue to churn out new material, including their fourth full-length, the self-produced Optica (stream it below), released this past February. It returns the band to the less-polished roots of their early days, while still maintaining the melodic tenor of the rest of their work. Shout Out Louds sold out Music Hall of Williamsburg nearly two months ago. So, fortunately, they’re playing a bigger room tomorrow night at Webster Hall.
Dead Skeletons Bring Icelandic Psychedelic Rock to Mercury Lounge
May 8th, 2013Psychedelic-rockers Dead Skeletons—headed by frontman Jón “Nonni Dead” Sæmundur, Henrik Bjornsson and Ryan Carlson van Kriedt—hail from Reykjavík, Iceland, but their music comes from an open-minded spiritualism. You see, Nonni Dead was diagnosed with HIV nearly 20 years ago and was given only three years to live, and in turn, he says, “I had to choose whether I wanted to die or live, and I took the decision to live.” Their debut LP, Dead Magick, is filled with upbeat, spacey spirituals beneath Nonni Dead’s Jim Morrison–like wailing vocals. But for Dead Skeletons (above, performing “Kundalini Eyes”), it’s not solely about music (about which NPR Music says, “The sounds and the sentiment line up perpendicularly to each other, carving a space of cognitive dissonance that’s at once confusing, comforting and hair-raising.”) They also put a heavy emphasis on innovative visuals. See how it all comes together tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge.
A Dance Party Not to Miss Tonight at Terminal 5
May 8th, 2013Julian Hamilton (vocals and keys) and Kim Moyes (drums and keys) met while studying classical music in early ’90s Sydney, but it was their common love of ’80s pop that cemented their bond. Initially the two joined an experimental, instrumental electronic group with other members, but when they wanted to remix a track with “harder electronic edges” on their own, they did it under the name the Presets. As a duo, they began recording demos, which gained the attention of some Australian labels. And after releasing the electro-house-filled EP Blow Up in 2004, Hamilton and Moyes started playing live shows. Since then the Presets (above, doing “Ghosts” live) have put out three high-caliber electronic dance-punk albums—plus a host of singles and remixes—including last year’s Pacifica (stream it below) and continue to get people moving everywhere they go.
The electro-pop band Dragonette is a family affair, formed by singer-songwriter Martina Sorbara and bassist Dan Kurtz, now her husband—they’ve since added drummer Joel Stouffer to complete their sound. The Toronto group has also put out three albums, these of the stylish, glam variety, including last September’s dance-worthy Bodyparts (stream it below). And tonight at Terminal 5, you can shake it all night long with the Presets, Dragonette (above, playing “Live in This City” for Studio Q) and the L.A. DJ duo Classixx. Do yourself a favor and head straight to the dance floor.
