This Week's Live Picks
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Artist:
Monday: Fuck Buttons, Growing, + These Are Powers @ Bowery Ballroom 7:30pm $15 [tix]
Most acts that set up in front of a table are never able to truly capture an audiences attention in the live setting. They stand there, pressing buttons and twisting knobs, letting the music do the work for them and a lot of times it winds up as a boring performance. Fuck Buttons are not one of those bands. Yeah they do the pushing and twisting, but their music captivates, the sheer volume and magnitude of the sound make it so you can't help but be enthralled. Their shows are not to be missed!
Fuck Buttons - "New Crossbow"
Growing - "Lateral"
These Are Powers - "Life of Birds"
Tuesday: Mon Khmer @ Pianos 8pm $8 [tix]
Month long residencies at Pianos are not a new idea, but they have managed to create waves of buzz surrounding artists and launching them to the next level. Just look at Passion Pit who took over the stage for a month and spent the next year touring the festival circuit and lining up a major label record deal. This month Mon Khmer sets up shop at Pianos for three consecutive Tuesday's, and while their music isn't quite as catchy and immediate as Passion Pit's, they have a deep, well rounded sound that is not to be missed.
Mon Khmer - "Birthplace"
Wednesday: The Fiery Furnaces, Cryptacize, + Dent May @ Maxwell's 8pm $15 [tix]
Amid all the hoopla surrounding the decade end lists which have flooded the internet in recent weeks, The Fiery Furnaces have somehow been seemingly forgotten by a lot of the bigger people making these lists. Over the last few years the band have been nothing but envelope pushing, taking their indie pop base and expanding it in strange and amazing ways on each successive album. Maybe it's time for people to remember how great they've been in this decade and catch them live to remind yourselves what everyone else has been forgetting.
The Fiery Furnaces - "Tropical Iceland"
Cryptacize - "Tail & Mane"
Dent May - "When You Were Mine"
Thursday: Fucked Up + Titus Andronicus @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 7pm $18 [tix]
This summer Fucked Up put on one of my favorite performances of the year at the first week of the relocated Pool Parties. It was a set that was foaming at the mouth with energy, one that will not soon be forgotten by the people that were there, and just the latest in a string of shows that have wowed people wherever they happened to see them. So it figures that the band knew they had to up the ante with their next New York show and chose to perform their Polaris Prize winning album The Chemistry of Common Life in its entirety, complete with backup vocals from Vivian Girls and instrumentation from some surprise guests. This show is going to be surreal and I can't wait to see it all unfold before my eyes!
Fucked Up - "No Epiphany"
Titus Andronicus - "My Time Outside the Womb"
Friday: Girls + Real Estate @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $13 [tix]
At this point Girls debut record Album has become my favorite album of the year. Sorry to The Antlers and Animal Collective who have spent the whole year at the top, but this record of deeply personal and wildly eye opening lyrics has shot to the top of the heap. It makes Girls one of the best bands I've never managed to see and thankfully all that will change on Friday evening. If you've yet to explore the amazing debut please do so immediately! Album is the perfect soundtrack to the economic downturn we've all been in lately, focusing on the small pleasures in life rather than the gaudy financially driven ones, and it has really helped me through a tough stretch of unemployment personally.
Girls - "Lauren Marie"
Real Estate - "Saturday Morning"
Saturday: Small Black, Cale Parks, + Girls At Dawn @ Market Hotel 8pm $10 [info]
At my CMJ show two weeks ago Small Black proved that all the hype surrounding them and their upcoming EP has truly been justified. Supplementing their synthetic sound with a live rhythm section, the band managed to expand their sound on stage rather than simplify it like a lot of electronic bands will do when they take the stage. The result is a sound that demands your energy and your attention right from the opening notes, and considering this is a young, inexperienced band they can only get even better at pulling it off on stage.
Small Black - "Bad Lover"
Cale Parks - "Once At A Time"
Girls At Dawn - "Never Enough"
Sunday: Monsters of Folk @ The Beacon Theater 8pm $50.50 [tix]
For most people $50 is just way too much to go see some band play for a little more than an hour. With Monsters of Folk you will most likely get your moneys worth though. Seeing a band that features Jim James, Conor Oberst, and M. Ward all together will not only be amazing for the experience of it alone, but because these musicians know how to weave a song and how to put on a performance to keep people talking for weeks after it. I know the piggy banks have been getting tighter and tighter lately but something tells me this will be a show not to miss.
Monsters of Folk - "Say Please"
Most acts that set up in front of a table are never able to truly capture an audiences attention in the live setting. They stand there, pressing buttons and twisting knobs, letting the music do the work for them and a lot of times it winds up as a boring performance. Fuck Buttons are not one of those bands. Yeah they do the pushing and twisting, but their music captivates, the sheer volume and magnitude of the sound make it so you can't help but be enthralled. Their shows are not to be missed!
Fuck Buttons - "New Crossbow"
Growing - "Lateral"
These Are Powers - "Life of Birds"
Tuesday: Mon Khmer @ Pianos 8pm $8 [tix]
Month long residencies at Pianos are not a new idea, but they have managed to create waves of buzz surrounding artists and launching them to the next level. Just look at Passion Pit who took over the stage for a month and spent the next year touring the festival circuit and lining up a major label record deal. This month Mon Khmer sets up shop at Pianos for three consecutive Tuesday's, and while their music isn't quite as catchy and immediate as Passion Pit's, they have a deep, well rounded sound that is not to be missed.
Mon Khmer - "Birthplace"
Wednesday: The Fiery Furnaces, Cryptacize, + Dent May @ Maxwell's 8pm $15 [tix]
Amid all the hoopla surrounding the decade end lists which have flooded the internet in recent weeks, The Fiery Furnaces have somehow been seemingly forgotten by a lot of the bigger people making these lists. Over the last few years the band have been nothing but envelope pushing, taking their indie pop base and expanding it in strange and amazing ways on each successive album. Maybe it's time for people to remember how great they've been in this decade and catch them live to remind yourselves what everyone else has been forgetting.
The Fiery Furnaces - "Tropical Iceland"
Cryptacize - "Tail & Mane"
Dent May - "When You Were Mine"
Thursday: Fucked Up + Titus Andronicus @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 7pm $18 [tix]
This summer Fucked Up put on one of my favorite performances of the year at the first week of the relocated Pool Parties. It was a set that was foaming at the mouth with energy, one that will not soon be forgotten by the people that were there, and just the latest in a string of shows that have wowed people wherever they happened to see them. So it figures that the band knew they had to up the ante with their next New York show and chose to perform their Polaris Prize winning album The Chemistry of Common Life in its entirety, complete with backup vocals from Vivian Girls and instrumentation from some surprise guests. This show is going to be surreal and I can't wait to see it all unfold before my eyes!
Fucked Up - "No Epiphany"
Titus Andronicus - "My Time Outside the Womb"
Friday: Girls + Real Estate @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $13 [tix]
At this point Girls debut record Album has become my favorite album of the year. Sorry to The Antlers and Animal Collective who have spent the whole year at the top, but this record of deeply personal and wildly eye opening lyrics has shot to the top of the heap. It makes Girls one of the best bands I've never managed to see and thankfully all that will change on Friday evening. If you've yet to explore the amazing debut please do so immediately! Album is the perfect soundtrack to the economic downturn we've all been in lately, focusing on the small pleasures in life rather than the gaudy financially driven ones, and it has really helped me through a tough stretch of unemployment personally.
Girls - "Lauren Marie"
Real Estate - "Saturday Morning"
Saturday: Small Black, Cale Parks, + Girls At Dawn @ Market Hotel 8pm $10 [info]
At my CMJ show two weeks ago Small Black proved that all the hype surrounding them and their upcoming EP has truly been justified. Supplementing their synthetic sound with a live rhythm section, the band managed to expand their sound on stage rather than simplify it like a lot of electronic bands will do when they take the stage. The result is a sound that demands your energy and your attention right from the opening notes, and considering this is a young, inexperienced band they can only get even better at pulling it off on stage.
Small Black - "Bad Lover"
Cale Parks - "Once At A Time"
Girls At Dawn - "Never Enough"
Sunday: Monsters of Folk @ The Beacon Theater 8pm $50.50 [tix]
For most people $50 is just way too much to go see some band play for a little more than an hour. With Monsters of Folk you will most likely get your moneys worth though. Seeing a band that features Jim James, Conor Oberst, and M. Ward all together will not only be amazing for the experience of it alone, but because these musicians know how to weave a song and how to put on a performance to keep people talking for weeks after it. I know the piggy banks have been getting tighter and tighter lately but something tells me this will be a show not to miss.
Monsters of Folk - "Say Please"
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MOG it up!
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