Results tagged “bengibbard”

Death Cab for Cutie hit the scene before most of the well-known music blogs even registered a URL -- and even though they've made the major label jump (moving from Barsuk to Atlantic in 2004), become prime time sweethearts (with their music soundtracking shows like The OC) -- they've maintained their indie cred. On May 13th they released their second album on Atlantic, their seventh in total, called Narrow Stairs, and tomorrow night they play a sold out show at McCarren Park Pool. Last week Ben Gibbard talked to us about the new album, the old days, and a questionable recipe for peanut butter veggie sausage toast.

After GBH announced that Courtney Love was to play a free show at Hiro Ballroom, the biggest question besides what she'd sound like or how badly would Hiro screw up the crowd control, was what type of raucous scandal would Love cause during the set. Would she be trashed? Would she get into a fight? Would she show at all? Well, to the pleasant surprise of any real fan, the show went on without a hitch, and Love played a solid set of some old favorites as well as a bunch of new songs, many of which were co-written by professional hitmaker Linda Perry. Check out Freshbread for some pics (like the one above), and Ephemerist and Productshop for some more reviews.

Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the night we went, we were treated to a mini acoustic set by Ben Gibbard and a sit in by Nick Zinner, who among other songs, played the haunting Daniel Johnston cover "Devil Town." But as far as Bright Eyes goes, no matter what you think of the guy and his music, there's no denying that he always makes the extra effort to please his fans in NYC. Whether it be avoiding the larger, expensive venues, playing intimate shows or pulling stunts like this. Conor went out of his way to make each of these shows special, and as a fan, we really appreciate that.

READINGS: Papermag points out an interesting reading tonight for "Queens of the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks."

Mets third baseman David Wright has been embraced by the public for his baseball skills, team work, and adorable face. He's been hitting a .316 average in spring training and now the Mets plan to settle up some important business with Wright: What song will be played when he goes to bat? They announced today the launch of an online fan vote at Mets.com to select Wright's at-bat song selections. The full list is here, let's take a closer look.

Thursday night we attended the release party for Death Cab For Cutie's Directions DVD (even though it was at Marquee). An interesting thing happened there. We were standing with Scott (who you know as Stereogum.com) and Nick Harmer (who you know as the bassist for Death Cab For Cutie), and Nick asked us to take a picture of him with Scott. He scrambled for his camera, handed it to us, we took the shot, he took a Stereogum t-shirt and the two bonded. He was citing old posts as a fan would cite lyrics...he was a fan of the blog.

For a long time we didn't listen to Wolfmother just because they had "wolf" in their name. We were sick it. Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, We Are Wolves..."how could any of them be better than Wolf Parade?" we thought.

Thank god the holidays are finally over and bands are getting back into the swing of things. Now we can sell off all our unwanted gifts on eBay (how much do you think we can get for a hypercolor "hip" bible?) and spend the cash on evil rock and roll, which is back with a vengeance in our fine, fine city.

Will the real Neil Diamond please step forward?

Saturday: Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs around 80 degrees. Lows in the low 70s. [via WNBC]

The logo on their website still says Summerstage '04, but the benefit concert lineups scream of '05 (or '95, rather). That's right, SummerStage is back and tickets go on sale this Saturday at noon (is drinking at the shows still illegal?) Our mind is sort of blown that we'll be seeing Ben Gibbard and Colin Meloy in the same place, at the same time...so we're going to go fan ourselves while you look at the schedule and ticketing info after the jump...

Time to start the new year off right, by seeing live music and not being left out on the cold cold sidewalk listening to your favorite songs echoing down the snow-filled street. This month there are a lot of hyped up bands coming our way. We are mainly talking about the Arcade Fire, if you don't have tickets we don't know what to tell you. If you're good at haikus you could try this contest. We'll also be having some ticket give-a-ways for some shows this month, and maybe MAYBE there will be an Arcade Fire one. But in the meantime, here are some tickets on sale that you can still buy:

Once upon a time, in a college town in the Pacific Northwest, four young men formed a band. They chose a name (the title of a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song that appeared in the Beatles' compilation.

Gothamist is aware that you're probably already finding yourself pulled towards the sweet Sirens sounds promised to be coming from Coney Island tomorrow, but we wanted to give you a reminder of the event in the form a preview. We are really excited about it ourselves and are having a problem figuring out which acts to catch, so here's our rundown for your sake and our own...

Gothamist woke up early Tuesday morning. Very early. To meet with the pinnacle of early morning radio, John Richards (aka – John in the Morning). He is used to waking up early, we are not. Sitting in the makeshift studio on the 5th floor of the Museum of Television & Radio on 52nd Street (where John is broadcasting from all week), we asked if he is as chipper in the AM hours as he seems on-air or if he really is a bear. He replied "is that code for 'asshole'?" then admitted he's never really gotten used to the early-morning routine.