Results tagged “setsthecityprofile”

Human Television are Boyd Shropshire, Billy Downing, Mario Lopez and Richard Davis. This week guitarist Boyd took some time to answer our questions...

The Harlem Shakes are young, but their influences seem to cover decades of New York rock. Their sound is lo-fi tinny garage rock that will definitely make you dance (and yes, by dance New Yorkers, we mean disaffectedly tap your foot and occasionally bob your head.) We're not going to make the obvious comparison, okay we will, but it's meant as a compliment...the Harlem Shakes sound like what the Strokes sound like. Their gritty guitar and catchy melodies are what make NY rock...rock.

Do you remember rock n' roll? Not the synthy 80's stuff that's been inundating our ears lately, but actual guitar grinding rock. Well Dear Leader will make you remember, incase you don't. They are what rose from the ashes after the band Sheila Divine broke up in 2003. Their lyrics and sound are anthemic and loud. So come stomp your feet to them tonight at Pianos. More details after the interview.

I was on the phone with my best friend and we thought it would do. Only now do I realize that it's something I actually want to be.

People seem to describe bands by listing off names of other bands they sound like. It's akin to when you meet someone, develop a crush, and try to explain to your friend who lives across the country what this person looks like. You list off a mixture of famous people to create an image that becomes a muddied version of reality. In fact when we first heard this band we had to stop what we were doing and compose ourselves and an email to our friend in Colorado. And, well, if you want the muddied descriptive here we go. Imagine some alternate universe in which Massive Attack and Jeff Buckley had just listened to , then performed a show together of all original trip hop/rock songs...this is Benzos. They are complex, textured rocktronica and NYC has developed a huge crush.

Live My Teenage Stride are Jedediah Smith (guitar, vocals), Brett Whitmoyer (drums), Michael Hollitscher (bass), Tris McCall (piano, synth, vocals) and Dakkan Abbe (guitar, vocals)

Morning Theft, fresh off the bus from Boston in 2003, have been desribed as Pearl Jam meets Travis, Nirvana meets the Cure, the Pixies meets Radiohead...you get the point. But these guys have their own sound. And it sounds good. They're the band who has been (not so) silently brooding in the corner of the indie rock scene. They're loud. They're catchy. They're pensive mood rock. Gothamist (and pretty much everyone below 14th St) loves Morning Theft, you should too. Go check them out for free at Luna Lounge tomorrow night. More details after the interview...

Gothamist first saw Gym Class back in August at Pianos. We can't remember who we originally went there to see, but we remember Gym Class. They had faux hawks. They played edgy synth rock that made us tap our feet (the equivalent to dancing in these parts). We imagine that if heaven and hell existed, and it existed as multi-leveled notes and chords played in the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's simulatenously...and they crashed together...Gym Class would be comprised of its apocolyptic fragments. Stop, don't think about it, keep reading...

This week Gothamist is particularly excited about a performance a bit different from what's normally on our concert schedule. Ensemble Pamplemousse, a 10 person musical troupe, has been described as 'extremely forward looking' and 'breathtakingly virtuosic', however we're pretty certain that words can't describe what will take place during their three performances later this week, nor would a word do it justice. Some of New York City's finest composers will collaborate with Swedish artist Peter Köhler to bring you an aurally and visually stimulating experience; a unification of the senses. Each person and action triggering another, coming full circle in a performance quite unlike any you have seen.

When The Fresh isn't playing some hip venue in the Silver Lake region (that's LA's answer to Williamsburg), we're betting he's locked up in an artificially dark room somewhere just south of Hollywood Blvd surrounded by keyboards and guitars. A virtual mad scientist of musical standards, the Fresh isn't a musician, he's a performer. An award winning one at that, just ask the Malibu Film Festival. To learn more about the Fresh check out his website, where you can download most of his songs. His debut east coast performance is Tuesday at the Gothamist show, so be sure to get there for his 8pm set (more details after the interview).

Vermont...what have you done for us lately? Actually (and beyond Ben & Jerry's) you've done quite a bit for us. And now musically, you give us Vorcza. We admit it, we're fans. This isn't like the "Sunday morning jazz" you listen to while doing the crossword. It's jazz, it's funk and it's danceable. Three musicians in this band...and they create a layered, sultry sound that is, yes, reminiscent of Medeski, Martin & Wood, but also very much their own. The music blends, comes apart and reforms almost seamlessly, creating an ocean of modulation (this can be a nice change when we're used to hearing a wall of strum.)

Canadians and their homeland have become pretty hot over the past few months, and while this may all just be the biggest fad since hula hoops, The Arcade Fire, hailing from Montreal, are way more than the flavor of the month. To those who are lucky enough to hold tickets to tomorrow nights show at Bowery, hold on to them...no matter how much you are offered.

Brooklyn's Fort Ancient have come a long way since their humble days when there were only two members, and humble nights of playing Brooklyn rooftop parties. The band is now five members strong, originating in Kentucky, Wisconsin, Illinois and Texas. An engagement and two weddings later (two of the band members are married to each other), the Fort Ancient family is releasing its third EP, , mixed by Thom Monahan of the Pernice Bros. The band participated in last month's NEMO Music Festival in Boston, and have been deemed playlist-worthy by East Village Radio (New York), Radio Indie Pop (New York), KEXP (Seattle), Indie 103 (Los Angeles), and Friuli Radio (Italy).

With his signature Stetson and the swagger of a man completely at home on the stage, Christian Gibbs seems to be the perfect rock n' roll cowboy. But this Brooklyn dweller has lived and performed all over the world, with a number of different outfits, including a 4AD British band, the Morning Glories and the Cardia Brothers. Most recently, he's been playing a number of shows with his group, the C. Gibbs Review, around town charming audiences with their country influenced rock and between set folksy banter. Previously recording on Atlantic Records, Gibbs and his band have also completed a new record which should be available at his shows soon.

We first caught the guitar heavy indie-punk band These Bones during CMJ, but we had heard their cover of Britney's long before then. With a sound that borders on garage anthem rock and choppy punk the bands style and energy certainly doesn't do anything to hurt their live show. You know how people don't dance at shows in this city? They do at These Bones.

New York has a well-earned reputation: bright lights, honking cars, late nights, frantic energy, non-stop. All this constant motion necessitates downtime: an aimless stroll, sifting through the Sunday , an afternoon nap, a hot bath. Brooklyn's Argentine makes music that goes hand-in-hand with a somber mood or rainy day. An antidote to a more common musical typology (four boys in suits and haircuts playing something loud and fast and fleeting), Argentine's slowcore sound swells with drunken guitar laced with viola, drawing comparisons to Low, with strains of Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, early Radiohead and Yo La Tengo. The quintet consists of Ian Carpenter (vocals, guitars), Nat Guy (guitar, bass), Timothy Quigley (percussion), Marcus Smith (bass, keyboard, guitar) and Chris Curtis (viola). Vocalist Carpenter gives us his two cents on life in the city.

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.

Sam Champion is New York's musical anachronism. While most rock bands either bow down to Max's Kansas City circa 1975 or the UK in the post-punk wave of the early '80s, the finest band ever named after a local weatherman is all too happy to take its cues from the '90s. The slack trappings of Pavement are channeled through the ghost of Credence Clearwater Revival and the loping, folksy rumbles of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Remember when lyrics were clever, the shirts were untucked, the hair a post-collegiate mess and emo hadn't brought feelings and vulnerability to indie rock? (Except for Lou Barlow, of course.) Ah, what an era.

A few weeks ago someone told Gothamist about this band called The Cloud Room. We went to their site, gave them a listen...and immediately asked them if they'd like to play at our show coming up in November. They couldn't do it this time around...but we still love them. They give the 80's pop resurgence we're hearing from so many bands right now a bit of a darker edge. A thickly lined beat and dreamy vocals over the typical wall of strum makes them stand under a bit of a different light than the other bands we've seen lately. Lucky for us they're about to go into the studio to record an album, and until you can put them on your iPod we suggest you catch them live (details below).

Toronto's controller.controller have been garnishing critical praise here in the states and fueling dance frenzies north of the border for the last couple years but are only now making their second trip to New York. With their highly infectious melodies from female lead vocalist Nirmala Basnayake they prove that they are more than just the latest band to jump on the dancepunk bandwagon. Recalling the best of female rock vocalists from Debbie Harry to Chrissie Hynde, Nirmala's voice alternates from anxious and angry to pure sonic tenderness as the four boys behind her laydown seriously solid songs of punishing rhythm and dueling angular guitar work. Bust out your dancing shoes because with their nonstop four-on-the-floor disco beats and raging basslines, you won't be able to stand still for long.

Trying to describe the Head Set we wanted to avoid the catch phrases that litter today's reviews. Post-punk, "the new Strokes"...you get the idea. It's hard though, with this band, because they are those things, in the best way imaginable. We don't usually do this, but listen to them right now, then come back and read the rest.

Before twentysomething Glaswegian art rock quartets were bestowed all the credit for generating the highest level of audience excitement and participation since the mosh pit craze of the early nineties, Ted Leo taught the indie kids how to dance. Churning out high energy punk-pop, the ever-enthusiastic and hardworking Leo tours relentlessly (even during massive blackouts and severe thunderstorms), and has been described as the Chevy trucks of indie rock. He lives and breathes rock 'n' roll... Gothamist witnessed him putting every available dollar bill into the jukebox at his very own listening party back in August. We have also been helplessly, spastically rocking out to the latest album, , which shakes the streets next Tuesday, October 19.

What a surprise. A local band sounds influenced by its hometown. What’s refreshing about Dennis Cahlo’s newest project, The Sons of Sound, is the way in which it transforms the bleak emotion of New York into haunting, almost comforting warmth. Listening to The Sons of Sound, one is struck by the contrast of lonely, wailing vocals set against grandiose walls of sound. It is a sound of an individual entrenched in the bustle of a heartless metropolis, and it is beautiful. Here, Dennis Cahlo takes a moment to regale Gothamist with his New York memories… which may or may not include flatulence, and a turn on, uh, Page Six?

Raspberries, the Posies, Todd Rundgren, Jellyfish (without the bellbottoms and bright colors) and the Pernice Brothers. Fireworks Go Up! has a new record, , out on Baryon Records.

If you don't know who On! Air! Library! is right now...well, we'd like for you to stop reading this and go educate yourself on good music.

If you had asked us a few months ago who Inouk was, we would have stared blankly. If you asked us today, we'd tell you the following...

Their song titles are some of the best we've heard, so show this Jersey band some respect and please...do not use the term Bridge & Tunnel around them.

As a band, Radio 4 (Greg Collins, Anthony Roman, Tommy Williams, Gerard Gerone, PJ O’Connor) has existed for about five years. As a concept, they’re about as old as the city from which they’ve sprung. In many ways, Radio 4 is the quintessential New York band. Understated yet vocal, cynical yet hopeful, blasé and yet undeniably excited by their peers, Radio 4 take the amalgam of sub-cultural emotions and meld them into danceable middle-finger rock perfect for this politically charged atmosphere. Seeing Radio 4 play live gives newfound hope to a city of folded arms. Something about the crack-spun percussion, invasive bass-lines and superior melodies seeps into the crowd, fueling a dance frenzy uncharacteristic of most New York experiences. In preparation for their Wednesday night romp at Bowery Ballroom, Anthony (bass, vox) and Gerard (keyboards) took a few moments to regale Gothamist with tales of Kate Moss, hotel exile, and drinking in Alcatrazz.

The Naysayer is Brooklynite Anna Padgett, alt-country storyteller who weaves descriptive narratives of seemingly mundane people, places and things, delivering curt punchlines in deliciously laconic fashion. A native Houstonian, Padgett lingered in Louisville, Kentucky before settling in New York. Southern sensibilities seem to ground the narrator in Padgett's songs, who doesn't mince words, recounting with a healthy thread of skepticism, observations of life in the Big City and other tales.

We've had a chance to listen to the band Audio Fiction recently and thought they'd be perfect to tell you about this week. Why? Because the RNC is in town, and this band is most likely doing everything in its creative power to counter the Republican agenda.