A little shameless self-promotion. I’m DJing a happy hour event this Thursday (September, 29) at Knitting Factory from 6 – 8PM that’s being brought to you by the tastemakers at Flavorpill, with Amstel Light being generously served and free burgers from the Frites & Meats truck. There’s no cover, but you do need to RSVP to attend.

To give you a taste of what I’ll be spinning, I made a mix especially for the occasion:

DOWNLOAD THE HAPPY HOUR MIX

Here’s what’s on it:

1. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Tigers
2. Big Troubles – Misery
3. Dum Dum Girls – Bedroom Eyes
4. Hess is More – Burn
5. Pepper Rabbit – Murder Room
6. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden (Hackman Remix)
7. Korallreven – As Young As Yesterday (feat. Victoria Bergsman)
8. Chrome Sparks – Soul & 9. Oberhofer – Gotta Go
10. Caveman – Decide
11. Hospitality – Friends of Friends
12. Cuckoo Chaos – Just Ride It

Hope to see you there. If you stick around Knitting Factory afterwards, there’s an ’80s Block Party happening in the performance space with Rappers Delight (featuring Wonder Mike and Master Gee).

The weather on the East Coast is now in the ’60s, the leaves are changing and Fall’s official start date is Wednesday. Might I suggest Veronica Falls‘ debut album as the perfect soundtrack to the Autumn? Minor chords are strummed at a fierce jangle, dark romance sung at close harmonies, and production that sounds alive and full of space.  The album was mostly recorded live over a three day period by producer Guy Fixen, which gives the songs a real immediacy, and shows off the bands chops. And as I said before, there’s a lot of headroom too — it’s a “you are there” sound that really only works if your band can play.

The band get the C-86 tag a lot but, apart from The Velvet Underground (which has inspired 95% of all indiepop), New Zealand seems to be a bigger influence anyway. “Misery” and current single “Bad Feeling” could both be Bats songs. (The Verlaines are a clear influence too, and I bet someone in the band loves The Chills’ “Pink Frost.”) But this is not a band you really sit around playing “spot the influence” to, as you’re too busy swooning to the gorgeous melodies and Roxanne Clifford’s truly lovely voice.

There’s not a dud in Veronica Falls‘ 36 minute running time. New songs (“Misery,” “Bad Feeling,” the effervescent “The Box”) are equals to early singles “Found Love in a Graveyard” and “Beachy Head” which appear here in newly recorded versions that might actually improve on the original versions. Normally I grumble when bands put all their singles (and b-sides) on their album, but the album has very good flow. It works. (That said I hope to hear some new songs next week when they play NYC.) Lyrically, it’s all old school romance: love and death, often intertwined. Sad, but happily so. This is haunted pop, a brisk October breeze that calls for a nice cardigan.

MP3: Veronica Falls – Misery (buy the album)

If you’re on Spotify, you can listen to the whole thing.

And for a little comparison, here’s a classic from The Bats:

MP3: The Bats – Block of Wood (from Daddy’s Highway, buy the album)

Speaking of the The Bats… they have a new album, Free All the Monsters, coming out October 25 on the newly-rejuvenated Flying Nun label that is celebrating it’s 30th birthday this year.  You can stream the title track here:

In addition to the new album, Flying Nun is reissuing some of its classic catalog on vinyl, including The Bats’ Daddy’s Highway which “Block of Wood” is from. They’re also reissuing The 3D‘s 1992 ripper Hellzapoppin’. More titles revealed soon — here’s hoping we’ll get The Chills’ Submarine Bells and The Verlaines’ Bird Dog. And cross your fingers for a Bats U.S. tour, they’re great live.

And speaking of touring — back to Veronica Falls. They’ll be in North America next week. Tour dates are after the jump.

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Glasslands’ has this art instillation backdrop to the stage, a giant sea clouds made from tissue paper. With Christmas lights implanted, it looks like a snapshot of a fierce thunderstorm. It can make for striking photographs, but compliments some bands more than others. The clouds  fit with chilly UK act Still Corners so well they feature in their press photo.

Portland’s Blouse, who made their New York debut at the venue on Thursday, mine ’80s mope and ’90s shoegaze and those clouds seem like they brought them with them. (Not that you can tell from my crappy photo above.) The band — now expanded a trio to a five-piece — sounded fantastic. Guitarist Patrick Adams, armed with a Rickenbacker and a floorful of pedals, has studied the Chameleons and early U2 albums and gets that Big ’80s sound just right. And singer Charlie Hilton, dressed in a shiny black jumpsuit Charlene Tilton might’ve worn on Dynasty, complimented it with her sad/pretty vocals. Blouse are much more “rock” live than on their keyboard-heavy album due out on Captured Tracks next month, though if I’d been standing near the keyboardist and not the guitarist maybe I wouldn’t be saying that. Either way, it’s not to their detriment. More a storm than a cloudy day.

MP3: Blouse – Videotapes

Woven Bones (who now sound more like Felt than JAMC) were supposed to be on this bill but dropped out at the last minute and were subbed out by Sound Bites faves Hospitality, who were the odd band out on this bill that also included headliners Unkown Mortal Orchestra. It was a party crowd and Hospitality can be on the delicate side, but the band turned it up, taking it as a challenge. Hospitality can rock too, like on rediculously catchy “Right Profession” and the slowly building “All Day Today.” This is especially true now that Nathan Michael has switched from drums to guitar who brings a little music school skronk to the band which tempers out some of the band’s more delicate leanings.

Some of my friends told me after that they thought Hospitality played to long but I was into it. (I am also a proponent of the “all sets should be 25 minutes” philosophy though.) Mind you, I got slipped a copy of their debut album a couple weeks ago and have been listening to it pretty much nonstop. (Merge [!] is putting it out in January, it’s really really good.) So I knew all or most of the songs pretty well. They also have no bad songs, or at least don’t play them if they do, and are an extremely tight unit right now. They might’ve thrown in a P.Furs cover, though, to get this crowd’s attention a little more but I think they made a few converts. If you’re close enough to the stage to really watch them play, I don’t know how you can’t be impressed.

MP3:  Hospitality – Friends of Friends

It dropped 25 degrees yesterday and now feels like Fall but that season doesn’t technically drop for five more days, so here’s the final Summer Fridays mix of 2011 on an autumnal tip. Which means some ’70s folk, sad strings, and mellow grooves. But as always, there’s some great new music on here: new singles from Django Django (the first in a year and a half), Still Corners and Radio Dept. offshoot Korvallren and Junk Culture (featuring Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel). Plus some oldies, cult obscurities (Yes that’s Matt Berry of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The IT Crowd opening this mix) and other sonic ephemera. This one turned out pretty well.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.17

Tracklist:
1. Matt Berry – Take My Hand
2. Cashier No. 9 – To Make You Feel Better
3. Korallreven – As Young as Yesterday
4. Django Django – Waveforms
5. Baxter Dury – Leak at the Disco
6. Junk Culture – Chippewa Kids
7. The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up
8. Yo La Tengo – Can’t Forget
9. Wendy & Bonnie – The Paisely Window Pane
10. Fan Mondine – Another Eventale
11. The Field Mice – September’s Not So Far Away
12. Weekend – Hazel
13. Still Corners – Into the Trees
14. Heaven’s Gate – Salome
15. Donovan – Hurdy Gurdy Man
16. Shimmering Stars – Dancing to Music I Hate
17. Mercury Rev – Goddess on a Highway
18. The Shortwave Set – Is It Any Wonder?

Like the shortening days, the songs onto the mix flow into one another and we’ll be back at the beginning before you know it. So no shuffling. I’m going to get liner notes up later this afternoon.

Apart from coming up with good songs and being able to play them live*, one of the hardest things new bands face these days is choosing a name. For example: Those of you who follow my Summer Fridays mix series (this week’s the last one of 2011, by the way) may remember the song “Jeane” from Brooklyn trio Vacation that was featured way back in June.

But there was already at least one other band called Vacation and a couple called Vacations, so they decided to change their name while it was easy to do so. So welcome Jeane to the scene.

In taking the name of one of their songs, they also seem to have retired said song. The two times I’ve seen Jeane live, they haven’t played it — which kind of makes sense. “Jeane” was, by a good stretch, the band’s poppiest song that had a strong ’80s Madonna vibe to it. The rest of their material is darker and propulsive with a strong Krautrock vibe to it, courtesy drummer Kyle Clairmont Jacques (who can hammer the hi-hat like Stephen Morris) and bassist Quinn Lewington.

Singer Paul Dally brings a slurry vocal style to group — and a sense of unpredictability. Especially live. He’s a real livewire on stage, pacing around, going into the crowd, laying down singing on his back… it’s somewhere between Ian Curtis and Jim Morrison. Shy types might want to stand near the back.

Jeane just released their first EP, Hidden House, today and it’s a free download from their Bandcamp site:

For sure check out lead track “Run Away” which samples New Order’s “True Faith.” And go see them live, not that they have any dates coming up…but be on the lookout.

Bonus: here’s a track from when they were still Vacation and they do still play this one live. It’s really got the motorik thing working:

MP3: Jeane – Agents of Cowardice

*also: finding an affordable practice space, figuring out how to tour without going broke and how to break through an increasingly cluttered landscape of new bands.

This is the penultimate Summer Fridays mix for 2011. As these are a lot like The Wire, you know that a lot of stuff is going down over the next hour. Spoiler alert: your favorite character may die. Cover art was done last-minute by yours truly.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.16

Tracklist:
1.    Echo & the Bunnymen – Silver
2.    Hospitality – Friends of Friends
3.    Box Codax – Charade
4.    Robert Wyatt – Heaps of Sheep
5.    Summer Camp – The Last American Virgin
6.    Twin Sister – Gene Ciampi
7.    Jean-Claude Vannier – La Girafe Au Ballon
8.    Gaz Gaz – Faster
9.    Mystery Artist – Heartbeat
10.  Wax Idols – Dead Like You
11.  Babybird – Candy Girl
12.  Princeton – Clamoring for Your Heart
13.  Elephant – Actors
14.  Blouse – Videotapes
15.  The Drums – Days
16.  The Frank & Walters – Fashion Crisis Hits New York
17.  Masters of the Hemisphere – In the Volcano
18.  Shack – Dragonfly
19.  Translations – Pigeon Suit

Please refrain from listening to this whilst in shuffle mode. Liner notes after the jump.

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It was the well-deserved encore and the Bruar Falls crowd — heavily Asian, how often do you get bands from Beijing? — were bouncing around like crazy. A guy who’d been dancing the whole show jumped on stage and immediately didn’t seem to remember why he’d done it. He then tumbled into the drumkit and the amps, bringing Hedgehog‘s set to a crashing end. Turns out that dude was the band’s U.S. tour manager. Don’t let him drive the van guys!

This was the first night of Hedgehog’s stateside jaunt and the band took the stage invasion in stride. The trio may hail from halfway around the world but play a very American brand of indie rock, noisy and melodic, that would sound right at home on college radio. Not revolutionary, but enthusiams makes up for it. The band’s pint-sized drummer, Atom, looks like she is 11 but is no joke: she can whallop with the best of them, and is quite lithe on the band’s more textured songs.

MP3: Hedgehog – Wet Wild Dream

Hedgehog play Cake Shop tonight and leave NYC tomorrow to hook up with Xiu Xiu and New Orleans’ synthpop act Kindest Lines for a East Coast/Midwest tour. Provided their manager survives tonight’s show and gets them on the road, you can check out Hedgehog at a rock venue near you:

Hedgehog – 2011 Tour Dates
4-Sep at Bruar Falls, New York,NY
5-Sep Cake Shop, NYC
9-Sep Grey Eagle Tavern Asheville, NC
10-Sep Southern Charlottesville, VA
11-Sep Metro Gallery Baltimore, MD
12-Sep Altar Pittsburgh, PA 15222
13-Sep Redwood Art Space Plains, PA
14-Sep The Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford, CT 6
15-Sep The Haunt Ithaca, NY
16-Sep Mohawk Place Buffalo, NY
17-Sep Dubland Underground Rochester, NY
18-Sep Happy Dog Cleveland, OH
20-Sep Crofoot Ballroom – Pike Room Pontiac, MI
21-Sep Pyramid Scheme Grand Rapids, MI
22-Sep Zanzabar Louisville, KY
23-Sep Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, OH
24-Sep Pygmalion Music Festival Champaign-Urbana, IL
6-9 Oct Culture Collide Festival , Los Angles , CA

Labor Day weekend, folks. Party it up, you’ve earned it. Here in New York, we’ve recently weathered earthquakes and minor hurricanes and other inconveniences. So fire up the grill, put a cold beverage in your hand and turn up the mildly twee indie pop jams on this week’s mix. Cover art photo was taken by Kate Bryant at the Friends With You inflatable sculpture park which is at the upper end of the Highline park.

While Labor Day is seen as the end of summer, Summer Fridays mixes will continue to the Autumn Equinox… so you get two more after this. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.15

Tracklist:
1.  Zumpano! – The Party Rages On
2.  Allo Darlin’ – Darren
3.  Future Bible Heroes – Hopeless
4.  Ski Lodge – I Would Die to Be
5.  Murder Mystery – Problems
6.  XTC – Day In Day Out
7.  Peggy Sue – Song & Dance
8.  Devon Williams – All My Living Goes to You
9.  Papas Fritas – My Revolution
10. Radiation City – The Color of Industry
11. The Liminanas – (I’ve Got) Trouble in Mind
12. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Hide and Seek
13. Music Machine – The People in Me
14. The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know the Devil
15. Pale Saints – Fell from the Sun
16. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Keep Me Waiting
17. Grandaddy – Chartsengrafs
18. Destroyer – Savage Night at the Opera

I’m not even going to write it this week, but you know what I’m talking about. Liner notes after the jump.
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The calm before the storm. Literally. New York is bracing for the biggest hurricane it’s ever faced (named after Irene Ryan, Granny Clampett was one tough cookie) and I’m just hoping my 100 year-old building will survive the winds. (It survived the earthquake on Monday… what a week!) Until then, or if you’re somewhere not on the East Coast of the United States, please enjoy the collection of mostly jangly pop. This week mostly ping-pongs between now and the mid-’80s (hey, that’s new for me!), with a few stops in the ’90s as well.

Cover art this week is by me. This was taken on the Williamsburg Bridge on a summer Friday back in June. I know I said no Hipstamatic pictures, but I can break my own rules, dammit. Anyway, it’s a nice picture I think.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.14

1. Tommy Keene - Places that are Gone
2. This Many Boyfriends – Young Lovers Go Pop!
3. Easterhouse - Out on Your Own
4. Cut Off Your Hands – Nausea
5. The Smiths – Half a Person
6. Real Estate – It’s Real
7. Kitchens of Distinction – Third Time We Opened the Capsule
8. Violens – Through the Window
9. Psychic TV – Godstar
10. Male Bonding – Tame the Sun
11. The Candyskins – Submarine Song
12. Big Troubles – Misery
13. Girls - Honey Bunny
14. Rockpile - Teacher Teacher
15. Grass~Show – 1962
16. Race Horses – Benidorm
17. A Classic Education – Baby, It’s Fine
18. The Lucy Show – Ephemeral (This is No Heaven)
19. Oberhofer - Gotta Go
20. Oh Minnows – Another Volunteer

Stock up on batteries, water, and read-to-eat food, and no matter what you do…no shuffling! Liner notes after the jump. (more…)

We’re at #13. Unlucky for you…this week’s cover art is by me, the first one I’ve done this year. The original photo is by Danny Lyon, part of a series he took in Brooklyn the summer of 1974. My photoshop skills could use a little polishing but I don’t think it turned out too bad. Musically, this week’s mix was partially inspired by me seeing Upside Down: The Creation Records Story where Primal Scream features heavily. A little madchester, a little dub and some other stuff that made sense at the time.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.13

Tracklist:
1. Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun
2. Chrome Sparks – Soul & <3
3. The 2 Bears – Bear Hug
4. Holy Ghost! – Jam for Jerry
5. Inspiral Carpets – Directing Traffik
6. Cat’s Eyes – Over You
7. Spoon – Me and the Bean
8. Baxter Dury – Isabel
9. Michigan & Smiley – Nice Up the Dance
10. Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell – Understand My Dub
11. CSS – Hits Me Like a Rock
12. Happy Mondays – Bob’s Yer Uncle
13. M83 – Midnight City
14. Electronic – Lucky Bag (Miami Edit)
15. The Fall – Dr. Buck’s Letter
16. Athlete – Out of Nowhere

Did you know I actually mix these songs together? You probably did. That’s why I’m always like “Hey no shuffling!” But you do what you like. Liner notes after the jump.

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