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Mon Khmer Plays Mercury Lounge Tonight

December 14th, 2011

Perhaps you’ve heard a story similar to this before: A group of friends meets at a Boston music school, realize they have many of the same varied musical influences, so they move to Brooklyn and start a band. This one’s called Mon Khmer, and its members have a wide range of backgrounds, which gives their music an interesting sound. Even better, although the group hasn’t been around for that long, they’ve already earned the reputation as a band not to miss. So don’t. Go see Mon Khmer (above, playing “Passwords”) at Mercury Lounge tonight.

Tags: Mercury Lounge, Mon Khmer, Preview, Video
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Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See Penguin Prison on 12/15

December 13th, 2011

Although you can still get tickets to see Penguin Prison at Music Hall on Williamsburg on 12/30, the local electropop group’s show at Mercury Lounge on Thursday is already sold out. However The House List is giving away two tickets, so if you’d still like to go, you should try to Grow a Pair. Just fill out the form below, making sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (Penguin Prison, 12/15) and a brief message explaining why you deserve to win. Eddie Bruiser, who’s making a list and checking it twice, will notify the winner by Thursday.

Tags: Eddie Bruiser, Grow a Pair, Mercury Lounge, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Penguin Prison
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Do Believe the Hype

December 12th, 2011

Alabama Shakes – Mercury Lounge – December 9, 2011

Bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg and singer-guitarist Brittany Howard knew one another in high school. Two of them later met drummer Steve Johnson at the lone music store in tiny Athens, Ala., and the four began making a stew of music together. Slowly word began to spread. Aquarium Drunkard fired the first salvo, calling Alabama Shakes (then just the Shakes) “a slice of the real” and posting the slow-burning, attention-grabbing “You Ain’t Alone” back in July.

For a while a self-titled EP, featuring that song and three others, was all most anyone heard of the band. But the group’s talent was immediately clear. And anticipation grew leading up to the Alabama Shakes’ Bowery Ballroom appearance—now with a keys player—at CMJ in October. Heady, flattering comparisons, quickly followed, like Janis Joplin (for Howard’s voice and demeanor) and Muscle Shoals (for the band’s gritty blues-and-soul-inflected rock sound). The quick rise then continued as the band signed with ATO Records and had “You Ain’t Alone” appear in a Zales commercial. So the hype was palpable ahead of Friday’s sold-out show at Mercury Lounge.

All too often bands with a retro sound come off like they’re trying to approximate something, but the Alabama Shakes’ music is earnest, raw and real. The crowd was responsive from the start, prompting Howard to say, “Y’all sound so beautiful.” And while the songs people knew, like “Hold On” and “I Found You,” elicited the loudest response, on the strength of Howard’s powerful, lived-in voice, even the ones they didn’t, like “Be Mine,” “Boys and Girls” and “Going to the Party,” were greeted with hooting and hollering. Not even two months earlier, the group’s members barely made eye contact onstage and even less often peered into the audience. But on Friday night, the new band with the old soul was in control, playing the kind of music that grabs you by the collar and, on a rambling cover of “How Many More Times,” smacks you in the face. —R. Zizmor

Photos courtesy of Ahron R. Foster | ahronfoster.com

Tags: Alabama Shakes, Mercury Lounge, Photos, Review
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The Simple Becomes the Sublime

December 9th, 2011

Dreamers of the Ghetto – Mercury Lounge – December 8, 2011

Romanticizing the awfulness of the American ghetto experience isn’t necessarily new, although perhaps the modalities have changed in 2011. Even Lupe Fiasco suggested that if urban life threatened any lionizing appeal, it was certainly outweighed by practical realities. Dreamers of the Ghetto entered themselves into this conversation with a stunning debut record, Enemy/Lover, and a fall tour in support of U.S. Royalty that stopped at Mercury Lounge last night

The four-piece Dreamers evokes a certain grittiness that befits the moniker—they’re underdogs dreaming of getting out or they’re solid outsiders dreaming of what happens within in the walls and streets of the American ghetto. Either way, the band pits wailing guitars against detached synthesizers, alongside pathos-rich vocals. This combination transmutes the band into the rarefied air of aspirational visionaries, hope-in-unseen believers armed with instruments.

Dreamers of the Ghetto closed the night with the breathy, seductive chorus of vocals of “Connection,” “Regulator” and the band’s thesis statement, “Tether.” Each song featured a central lyric loudly repeated and launched like projectiles into the minds and chests of the assembled audience: “When you’re gone I know you’re with me” (“Connection”), “I love your face/ I think you’re striking” (“Regulator”) and the fantastic and final “It’s just another door/ Tether on the other side” (“Tether”). Somehow these dark dreams of American terrors became beautiful; love, loss and fear of the urbane metastasizing into wide-open hymns and singable refrains. It was a dark pathos to be sure, but pathos all the same. —Geoff Nelson

Tags: Dreamers of the Ghetto, Enemy/Lover, Mercury Lounge, Review, U.S. Royalty
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Dax Riggs Plays the Late Show on Saturday Night

December 9th, 2011

Dax Riggs has been in several bands, like Acid Bath, Agents of Oblivion, Deadboy & the Elephantmen. And while the first two dealt in sludge metal, the third presented a stripped-down, blues-tinged perspective. Riggs has expanded on that since he began making music on his own in 2007. His most recent album, Say Goodnight to the World, came out last year, and Dax Riggs (above, doing “Night Is the Notion” for SPIN) plays the late show at Mercury Lounge tomorrow night.

Tags: Dax Riggs, Mercury Lounge, Preview, Say Goodnight to the World, Video
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Don’t Miss Ill Fits Tomorrow Night at Mercury Lounge

December 6th, 2011

The name Ill Fits seems appropriate for a band with such disparate parts—Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Will Berman (of MGMT), Don Devore (of Amazing Baby) and Johnny Hunt (of Foreign Islands)—until you actually hear the five-piece play. The group first came together for some late-night jam sessions, mainly doing covers, but with new material like “Blood & Devotion” (played, above, for Indmusic), it’s easy to see that these guys actually fit together pretty well. See them tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge.

Tags: Amazing Baby, Don Devore, Foreign Islands, Ill Fits, Johnny Hunt, Mercury Lounge, MGMT, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Preview, Video, Will Berman
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A Thursday Night Rock Show

December 2nd, 2011

J. Roddy Walston and the Business – Mercury Lounge – December 1, 2011

If you go see enough music, occasionally you get lucky. I don’t mean “see a great show” lucky, I mean you get to witness a band at the right time in the right room on the right night with the right crowd and can almost literally feel the slope of the upward career trajectory. Last night—J. Roddy Walston, Mercury Lounge, sold-out crowd all in perfect resonance—was one of those moments. Indeed, it’s shows like these, with Walston and band laying down no-frills rock and roll like they invented FM radio, that rooms like the Merc were built to house.

Walston’s band is called the Business, and watching them play is to realize how perfectly they’ve been named. There’s a multiple entendre at play. And whether it’s “giving them the business” or “now we’re in business” or “none of your [bleeping] business,” the band encompasses them all. Opening with “Don’t Break the Needle,” off last year’s eponymous album, the band wasted no time getting down to business. When Walston, sitting stage center at a piano, reached the chorus of the opening song, the crowd joined in, totally in unison, as if they were a backup choir filling in on cue. Guitar riffs were short and vicious, spicy condiments on Walston’s songs. His voice was a nice now-we’re-in-business blend of classic rock staples: a little Browne, a little Plant, a little Joel. He introduced several tunes as “some rock and roll” in an endearing, redundant way … well, duh!

The set had a lot of forward momentum, slight shifts in tempo and tone along the way, with the crowd totally in tune. Of all the bands to cover, perhaps my last guess would have been the Flaming Lips, but they gave the business to “She Don’t Use Jelly,” fitting it into the set quite nicely. Before the last song, Walston announced there would be no encore and those in the audience moaned briefly before getting their last raging fist pumps in for the evening. Why wouldn’t they consider an encore for the rabid, NYC crowd? I guess that’s none of our business. —A. Stein

Tags: J. Roddy Walston and the Business, Mercury Lounge, Review
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Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See J. Roddy Walston on 12/1

November 29th, 2011

J. Roddy Walston and the Business play Mercury Lounge on Thursday. It’s gonna be a fantastic show, which is probably why it’s already sold out. But the gift-giving season is upon us, so The House List is giving away two tickets. Want to go? Try to Grow a Pair. It’s easy. Just fill out the form below, making sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (J. Roddy, 12/1) and a brief message explaining why this band’s bluesy brand of rock does it for you. Eddie Bruiser, who’s a big fan, will notify the winner by Thursday. Good luck.

Tags: Eddie Bruiser, Grow a Pair, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, Mercury Lounge
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Josh Flagg – Mercury Lounge – November 28, 2011

November 29th, 2011

Photos courtesy of Mike Benigno | mikebenigno.wordpress.com

Tags: Jeff Flagg, Mercury Lounge, Photos
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Jeffrey Lewis Plays Local Show on Friday at Mercury Lounge

November 22nd, 2011

Growing up without a TV on the Lower East Side gave Jeffrey Lewis an early appreciation of music and comic books. And to this day, he’s still active in both. (In fact Lewis, who did his college thesis on the much-lauded ’80s series Watchmen, has his very own comic book, Fuff.) He began writing and performing his own songs as part of the antifolk scene at the Fort at the Sidewalk Café, among the likes of the Moldy Peaches. In perhaps a nod to his interest in both the Grateful Dead and Nirvana, Lewis began deftly mixing folk sensibilities with distorted garage rock. He got out the word by distributing cassettes of his recorded music along with his own comic books. And eventually his sound earned him a deal with London-based Rough Trade Records. The humorous singer-songwriter’s sixth album, A Turn in the Dream-Songs, came out last month, and when Lewis performs live, his shows will often include videos and illustrations to accompany some of the songs. You can see for yourself when Jeffrey Lewis & Junkyard (above, doing “If Life Exists” and “Whistle Past the Graveyard”)—and Diane Cluck and Moldy Peaches guitarist Toby Goodshank—play Mercury Lounge on Friday.

Tags: Diane Cluck, Jeffrey Lewis & Junkyard, Mercury Lounge, Preview, Toby Goodshank, Video
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First Aid Kit – Mercury Lounge – November 16, 2011

November 17th, 2011

Photos courtesy of Alexis Maindrault | rockinpix.com

(First Aid Kit opens for Lykke Li tonight at The Wellmont Theatre and plays Webster Hall on 3/28.)

Tags: First Aid Kit, Lykke Li, Mercury Lounge, Photos, Webster Hall, Wellmont Theatre
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Ladies and Gentlemen: Youth Lagoon

November 16th, 2011

Youth Lagoon – Mercury Lounge – November 15, 2011

New is exciting. It breaks from routine and offers something different. When it comes to music, eager listeners latch onto new artists. This community supports potential, especially young talent. And on Tuesday night, a sold-out crowd poured into Mercury Lounge to discover Youth Lagoon. Trevor Powers, the band’s 22-year-old principal, speaks like he sings: softly and fragilely. Halfway through the set, he expressed gratitude for the opportunity to visit New York City. Behind a keyboard, he, along with friend and touring guitarist Logan Hyde, played in near darkness, with only a dim red lightbulb to light their faces.

While Powers’ reverb-saturated vocals gave the illusion of being in a cave, dream-pop landscapes enveloped the room and a backing track supplied heft and driving purpose to wandering melodies. Performed live, songs from the debut full-length, The Year of Hibernation, received the acoustic space they deserve. Earnest songwriting isn’t new, and although I overheard an observer call Powers “an infantile Dylan,” he hardly fits the description. Excitement excuses genuine but misguided praise, and Youth Lagoon is for the moment. —Jared Levy

Tags: Mercury Lounge, Review, The Year of Hibernation, Youth Lagoon
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Two Bands to See on Saturday Night

November 16th, 2011

Four guys in Sacramento, Calif., met one another and began trading songs they’d recorded on their own. They had a lot in common and decided to perform together—like a gang of aliens, or Ganglians. The four-piece deftly mashes together noise rock and blissful tones and has already released two albums, including this year’s Still Living. Check them out, above, playing “Lost Words.”

Samantha Urbani had never been in a band, but she’d always been writing songs with a dreamy dance vibe. So one day she gathered four other multi-instrumentalists just to jam and less than a week later they played their first show. The band, Friends (below, doing “Friend Crush”), began to steadily appear at different Bushwick venues and now they—and Ganglians—play the late show at Mercury Lounge on Saturday night.

Tags: Friends, Ganglians, Mercury Lounge, Preview, Still Living, Video
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Young Man Plays the Early Show Tomorrow Night

November 8th, 2011

Like many before him, Colin Caulfield got his start on the Internet. While still in college, he posted a wide range of covers on YouTube and people began to take notice. One of them was Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox, who liked Caulfield’s version of “Rainwater Cassette Exchange” better than his own band’s. Eventually Caulfield signed with Frenchkiss Records and last year released the heartfelt EP, Boy, under the name Young Man. The band’s first LP, Ideas of Distance, followed this year. Originally a drummer, Caulfield now sings and plays guitar and performs live with a full band, which you can see when Young Man (above, doing “Just a Growin’” for Daytrotter) plays the early show tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge.