FRICTION NYC

FRICTION NYC presents: The Golden Filter, Heartsrevolution, Pink Skull | 1.30.09 @ (Le) Poisson Rouge

We’ve followed the golden fox, held the golden key, and have seen the golden light. The band that’s piqued everyone’s curiosity for the last six months is about to shed their veil of mystery. On January 30th, New York City’s nu-disco outfit, THE GOLDEN FILTER, will make their North American debut at (Le) Poisson Rouge. HEARTSREVOLUTION with their distorted, punchy electro 8-bit and fine purveyors of dirty Philly tech-house bangers, PINK SKULL, round out this modern-day disco rager. FINGER ON THE PULSE DJs drop the jams all night. Presented by FRICTION NYC and (Le) Poisson Rouge. GET HYPE!

Advanced tickets are available at the (Le) Poisson Rouge website. Doors open at 10:00 PM, flyer, mp3’s, and more below.

 

 

“New York City’s THE GOLDEN FILTER may have just put out one of the sexiest jams of the summer with ‘Solid Gold’ and no one knows a single thing about them. A revved up, glittery disco-bassline and icy synths anchor your feet to the dancefloor while airy female vocals breeze past on rays of golden light – a combination that’s enough to cool you on the most humid of days.” [FRICTION NYC]
[MP3]: “Solid Gold”

 

“Beware; those who enter the HEARTSREVOLUTION world may never leave. Ben and Lo’s music takes hold of you with its silvery, digital clutch – cut’n’paste, overlapping beats, dream-like synths and mantra lyrics – and never lets you go.” [NME]
[MP3]: “C.Y.O.A.”

 
”
PINK SKULL’s first full-length released earlier this year (Zeppelin 3), plays like a time- and genre-transcending masterpiece like nothing you’ve heard — a mélange of soundscapes ranging from dancefloor killers to experimental funk to psych-rock to ultra-low-key acoustic folk.” [Prefixmag]
[MP3]: “Unicorn Harpoon”

 
In part with:

FRICTION NYC & FLYING V present: Crystal Antlers, Pink Skull, Mythical Beast | 10.26.08 @ The Barbary

Making their Philadelphia debut, Long Beach, CA’s CRYSTAL ANTLERS (Touch & Go) bring their combustible live show to The Barbary on October 26th. With an explosive build-up of noise and melody blended with raw vocals and twisting riffs, this quintet has mastered the art of thrash. Philly’s hypnotic, dance-floor-friendly enthusiasts, PINK SKULL (first-ever all ages show!!!), and Kansas City’s fine purveyors of dark psych, MYTHICAL BEAST round out the bill. Be sure to knock back a couple of extra Bloody Mary’s at brunch and/or an extra six-pack of Kenzinger during the game before heading over to The Barbary for this Sunday evening jawn.

This is an ALL AGES EARLY SHOW!!! with doors opening at 6:00pm. Advanced tickets available here. The Barbary is located at 951 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125 (215 634-7400).

GET HYPE!

 

 

“Existing at the cross-section of so many styles, CRYSTAL ANTLERS debut EP (Touch & Go) finds the band at a more important nexus of potential and realization. In person, Crystal Antlers look like outcasts from six different bands, and at various points on this record, they sound like it, too: Merging psych, garage, lo-fi, prog, and countless other influences, the group easily maintains consistency despite a complete inability to be pinned to any specific movement or trend.” [Pitchfork, Best New Music]
[MP3]: “A Thousand Eyes”

 

“PINK SKULL’s first full-length released earlier this year (Zeppelin 3), plays like a time- and genre-transcending masterpiece like nothing you’ve heard — a mélange of soundscapes ranging from dancefloor killers to experimental funk to psych-rock to ultra-low-key acoustic folk.” [Prefixmag]
[MP3]: “Unicorn Harpoon”

 

“Steeped in the darkest recesses of psych’s heart, MYTHICAL BEAST’s tracks [on their debut album, Scales] smolder with scorched earth and the black taste of doom. But there is light at the edges of Mythical Beast’s universe and though the themes are dark there’s a sad hope that looms present behind the clouds of destruction. The band has pulled itself to the forefront of modern psychedelia, and this album [recorded with Greg Weeks at Language of Stone in Philly] will more than likely serve as a jumping off point for great things to come.” [Raven Sings the Blues]
[MP3]: “Cycle/Circle”

**FREE** CMJ Afterparty w/ Crystal Antlers, Best Fwends, & Ninjasonik | Tonight! @ Cake Shop

FRICTION NYC and FUCK YEAH FEST bring a little bit of the right coast, left coast, and in between to the Cake Shop for this CMJ Afterparty TONIGHT! Austin, Texas’ BEST FWENDS, along with Long Beach, California’s CRYSTAL ANTLERS, and Brooklyn’s very own NINJASONIK get hype for CMJ. Best Fwends gets shit moving at 1AM. No RSVP bullshit — just show up and GET HYPE! Free PBR while it lasts!

I didn’t even write any of this people, I put in something else earlier. Justin changed my shit up, another case of not being able to delegate and being controllingly anal. -Nghia

“BEST FWENDS’ music is a big attention-deficit-disordered smash-up of punk, early Beastie Boys and unrefined 8-bit sounds. It’s a kindred sound to those of British bands like Gay Against You and Applicants: frantic, but rooted in pop and/or rock. It’s trashy, cheap, headachy noise, but noise that a lot of love has clearly been put into.”
[MP3]: “Orange Marker”

“Existing at the cross-section of so many styles, CRYSTAL ANTLERS debut EP (Touch & Go) finds the band at a more important nexus of potential and realization. In person, Crystal Antlers look like outcasts from six different bands, and at various points on this record, they sound like it, too: Merging psych, garage, lo-fi, prog, and countless other influences, the group easily maintains consistency despite a complete inability to be pinned to any specific movement or trend.” [Pitchfork, Best New Music]
[MP3]: “A Thousand Eyes”

“Looking for a good time? You might want to call NINJASONIK. These Brooklyn art-hop pranksters combine spiky beats with rhymes about grabbing asses and the skinny jeans they wear…Mostly, though, people have been talking about these foul mouthed Ninjas for their debauchery fueled live shows, which has seen plenty of crowd diving and drunken punk rock antics…Whoa! Don’t say we didn’t warn you.” [Brooklyn Radio]
[MP3]: “Tight Pants”

FRICTION @ Cake Shop w/ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart + Women + The Beets + Katie Stelmanis | 10.19.08

GET HYPE! With our second show of the weekend, on the eve(-ish) of CMJ, FRICTION invades Cake Shop with a lineup designed to make you stay put. Save those feet from all of the pavement pounding they’re about to do a few days later and get a jump on some of the most anticipated bands featured during this year’s CMJ clusterfuck festival. New York City’s blissful noise-pop darlings, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, along with recent Jagjaguwar signees Women (Alberta, CA), and fine purveyors of 60s garage straight-outta Queens, The Beets are featured on this bill. Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis and her aresenal of piano and MIDI noise percolations and classically trained vocals to boot, opens the show.

Tickets are just $8 and available the night of the show at Cake Shop. Doors @ 7:30pm

 

 

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART “mix sugary boy/girl vocals, Jesus & Mary Chain’s rain clouds and Darklands drum machine minus the face-melting noise, sneaker-gazing a la Black Tambourine (or, hey hey, rifle through the rest of the Slumberland back catalog to namedrop something with a bit more jangle) and punky Comet Gain(s) into addictive pop gold that locates a place beyond the band’s well-chosen influences.” [Stereogum]
[MP3]: “Come Saturday”

 

WOMEN “straddle the 1960s divide between the Warhol crowd’s speed-addled New York cynicism and the echoes of psychedelic San Francisco that bubbled up across the pond in the fey, catchy pop of UK groups like the Zombies.” [Pitchfork]
[MP3]: “Black Rice”

 

“I’d stay for just one song, but once they began playing their classic 60s garage rock I was gripped. Twin guitars beamed rhythmically forward, punctuated by strokes of brush snare and flicking around vocals that seemed perfectly, timelessly at ease in the music. This is a band that seemed to have appeared out of the ground (of Queens, apparently) fully formed without a formative period. Predictions are dangerous so I’ll try to sidestep making one now, but wherever THE BEETS may go from here, I have a feeling it’ll be worth watching.” [Impose]
[MP3]: “Happy But On My Way”

 

“The drama of Kate Bush and Toyah Wilcox mixed with the
sturm and drang of Diamanda Galas and the pop bubbles of Lena Lovich or Ann Steel shouldn’t make any sense whatsoever but in the world of 23-year-old Torontonian KATIE STELMANIS it comes together. Possessed of a classically trained voice that stuns at 10 paces, Stelmanis’ arsenal is simple—piano and midi noise percolations shape simple songs that subtly grow into powerful, cathartic moments.”
[MP3]: “In My Favour”

 
In part with:

Native Korean Rock & the Fishnets | Union Pool 7.21.08

Native Korean Rock & the Fishnets, the second show of the nite.

What one BV commenter said:

One of those moments in your life you will never forget! The songs couldn’t have been more beautiful and sincere. The MySpace demos are really the most basic rough draft of what was heard…

Flickr

Yeah!!!

POPPED! Music Festival Pops Off Friday in Philly

I woke up on Monday morning and the first thing that came to my mind was, “holy shit, POPPED! is this week!” I couldn’t believe that nearly a full year had gone by since I started working on this year’s festival and that now we were just a few days away. I’ve mentioned the details of POPPED! on here in the past, but wanted to give everyone a final blast and mention some additions that have been made since we first went to press.

The press release reads: “Only in its second year, Philadelphia’s POPPED! Music Festival is already a testament to the city being a prime destination to visit for live music. Centered in the accessible downtown area, POPPED! is a truly unique festival that highlights some of Philadelphia’s best music venues and local culture.” For me, it all comes full circle with Vampire Weekend, a band who just over a year ago was playing FRICTION shows and other small venues in New York. Fast forward to 2008 and the band is playing a slew of well-established festivals across the world, touring Europe and the United States, making appearances on Saturday Night Live, etc., and headlining their very first festival right here in Philadelphia on June 21st.

The Vamps have a solid line of support acts on Saturday beginning with UK buzz act The Ting Tings, Philly’s own Hoots & Hellmouth and Mr. Lif, gypsy-punks Gogol Bordelo, Mates of State, and FRICTION alums Dan Deacon and Crystal Castles. Between sets, three of Philly’s best DJ nights will be bringing their parties to the stage including Sorted’s Mike Z spinning indie/Brit/dance, along with heavy cosmic groovers Rock Tits, and Turnaround vs. Immediate with soul, psych, and amphetamine-fueled R&B.

On Sunday, the festival moves from outdoors at 33rd & Market Streets, down the block to World Cafe Live where Daniel Johnston and The Capitol Years will cap the day’s festivities which will see performances by Cheers Elephant, O’Death, Sam Champion, Gildon Works, Takka Takka, Tickley Feather, PWRFL Power, Project Jenny, Project Jan, The Swimmers, and The Vandelles.

Slick Rick starts things off on Friday night fronting a live band at The Trocadero, while White T’s & White Belts and Steven Bloodbath fuel the party with hip-hop and electro.

Check the new POPPED! website where the full schedule is posted for Saturday and Sunday. 3-day passes are currently sold-out, but tickets for the individual days WILL BE available at doors.

[MP3]: Dan Deacon  ”Pink Batman”
Spiderman of the Rings, Carpark; 2007

My Bloody Valentine Returns

With the original lineup, shoegaze icons My Bloody Valentine returned to the stage on Friday, June 13th for the first time in 16 years at London’s ICA. I wasn’t there, but many were and feedback was generally positive. After listening to the mp3s from their live set, I’m BEYOND stoked to see them here in the States in a few months. Amazing.

[MP3]: My Bloody Valentine  ”Only Shallow (Live)”
[MP3]: My Bloody Valentine  ”When You Sleep (Live)”
Live at London’s ICA; June 13, 2008
Get the entire set from Friday, June 13th here (setlist above)