Austin – Everyone recovered from ACL? Cool. It’s time for Fun Fun Fun Fest. Austin’s third-favorite festival starts this Friday, November 7, and while the name is trying a little hard, the lineup is enticing. The headliners are a mix of old favorites and new bands. Modest Mouse, Nas, Neutral Milk Hotel, and—big “Oh My
San Francisco – HAERTS is a hard band to get an audience with. There have been a few times over the past year that I thought I would see the indie pop group, but each time they slipped through the cracks. The first was a show in which they were scheduled to open for Au
New York – CMJ Music Marathon marches sleeplessly on in Gotham, and on Wednesday hit what was possibly the extravaganza’s pinnacle performance. Event organizers had preempted the Webster Hall concert with caution, a sort of this-night-will-be-packed-so-don’t-expect-entrance-is-a-given kind of mentality. And though they said it couldn’t be done, CMJ badge holders turned out in droves to
Chicago – Grizfolk brought their sweet folktronica to the Windy City. The LA band was excited to be playing the Aragon for the first time in their careers and it showed! The stage and the audience buzzed with electricity throughout the set, making it clear why Grizfolk was handpicked by Bastille to open on select dates for
Brooklyn – We’re in the heart of CMJ Music Marathon here in the city that never sleeps, and as up-and-coming musicians flock to the metropolis in droves, the volume of shows on deck is preposterous. So, to apply an imagined filter of intimacy to this massive and sprawling extravaganza, Best New Bands caught a quieter
Los Angeles – Watching Hozier perform at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on a recent night was divine. The sound that spilled from his unassuming persona was like a holy adventure on its own, but the addition of his thoughtful lyrics, cellist, and old-school back-up singers got the audience to their feet in awe. With the help
Austin – This headline guarantees Charli XCX a spot on a pink card in some future edition of Trivial Pursuit. More immediately, it seems like a looming, hilarious instance of the career-launching/overshadowing single—“Creep” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” come to mind. Before “Boom Clap” and the Icona Pop collaboration “I Love It,” British pop singer
Chicago – Last week Foxygen took the Windy City by storm. The LA psychedelic rockers sold out two shows at Lincoln Hall, and their performance on Chicago’s WGN Morning News was the talk of the town. Even English rockers Temples swung by Lincoln Park to watch frontman Sam France put “the LA in Chicago.” With
Austin—Another weekend of ACL brings another weekend of Late Night sets. This time I wound up on 6th Street west of I-35 to see Poliça, the Minneapolis electronic group that has been releasing music for two years, starting with 2012’s Give You the Ghost and following that up with last year’s Shulamith. Their music is
New York – Indie folk rocker Courtney Barnett and her band are beginning a month-long North American tour, co-headlining with avant-garde outfit San Fermin. Hot off the heels of a sold-out run of shows in her native Australia and New Zealand, the singer-songwriter will be playing songs from her critically acclaimed release, The Double