New York – The Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel is barely a music venue. It’s mostly a swanky bar on the top floor of a trendy Meatpacking District hotel where tourists and new-money Manhattan-ites gather to preen and feel exclusive and eat frites, which is what you eat if you want to seem
Austin – Day three marks roughly the halfway point for SXSW, and it featured some of the best day shows yet. Which was fortunate, because the weather really took a dive. Making it to both Viet Cong and Ibeyi, whose sets were just ten minutes apart, was a bit of a personal victory. Viet Cong
Los Angeles – Right off the bat of the opening track from Chaos And The Calm, the 2015 Brits Critics’ Choice winner James Bay sings with experienced aplomb. However, the British singer/songwriter/guitarist is only debuting his first LP. The affecting vocalist from Hitchin commands festival-ready tracks that balance the fine lines of soul, soft rock,
New York – Houndmouth is from New Albany, Indiana, a history-rich town just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. New Albany was a steamboat boomtown in the mid-19th century. Its most famous product is the Civil War-era steamship Robert E. Lee, memorialized in The Band song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Perhaps
The Dunwells, (a promising group that Best New Bands has taken notice of over the past few years) an indie rock quartet hailing from Leeds, England, have announced the release of a new track off their forthcoming project, Lucky Ones. The extended play is due to be released in late May. Showing an abundance of motivation and plenty of
San Francisco – Tobias Jesso, Jr., was never really a piano player. It wasn’t until a woman in a dream told him that the world was going to end that he decided to sit down at the keys and write his first solo demo, “Just A Dream.” This strange encounter turned out to be just
Los Angeles – After several opening bands took turns pummeling audience members at Jewel’s Catch One last weekend, headliners Naomi Punk put on a dynamic and loud performance. These three gentlemen from Olympia, Washington have been churning out noisy, chaotic noise rock since 2008, producing two full-length albums, 2012’s The Feeling and 2014’s Television Man.
Next week, indie pop act, Geographer, will be back with their newest record, Ghost Modern. (Best New Bands contributor, Sean Kayden, first reported on the upcoming record here.) The five piece San Franciscan band has been working to leave no ear un-intrigued and no playlist without a spot for filling, in the time leading up the the release and the group
Austin – A lot of people say SXSW Music doesn’t really start until Wednesday, but those chumps missed out on day one. It was a little slower than usual as people waited in line to collect wristbands, but careful planners could have filled up their schedules. Or, just stayed at Spotify House. They had some
Courtney Barnett’s full-length debut album, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit is out next Tuesday, via Mom+Pop Music. Anxious fervor has been growing in the months and weeks leading up to the release and things have only reached a new high with Barnett’s latest promotional effort. This past Monday, Barnett and her band made