Oh My Rockness

Written by Patrick McNamara

The Following Are The Best Live Music Rock ‘n Roll Show Concerts for Emerging Buzz Indie Alt Bands and Groups in New York City.*

(*Awww, yeah. How you like THAT search engine optimization style, yo? Rockness gettin’ all meta tags and keywords on y’all’s sass. OMR and SEO. The illest since ABC and BBD.)

OK. All right. No more New Media Digital Strategist (fart noise) jokes now. Let’s get serious. Super, super serious. These are The Best Shows This Week. Kick it!

Thursday - May 23rd, 2013 A.D.

Selebrities (don’t you red underline "Selebrities" on me, Google Docs Spell Check - it’s supposed to be spelled that way - it's like I NO what I’m doing GODDD!) play Glasslands tonight. They also play pleasant synth-dance-pop. Go ahead and stream their pleasant synth-dance-pop song below.



Red Bull Music Academy is doing a night of Big Freedia and DJs and dancing at Santos Party House. Sounds fun. That Santos kid always throws good parties. Drop the Lime is playing too. Below is one of his epic dance mixes. It’s dedicated to all you secret office cubicle dance superstars out there. Blast this as you’re working in Excel or cleaning out your inbox or updating your weekly status report or something. They may have your body locked up in that cubicle. But they’ll never have your mind, man.



SEE ALL OF OUR THURSDAY SHOW PICKS.

Friday - May 24th 2013 A.D.

Richard Lloyd plays The Bowery Electric tonight. Yeah, yeah. He was in Television. The Greatest Not Totally Famous Band Ever (followed by Big Star). We know. We know. But Richard Lloyd’s solo stuff was pretty darn good too. Pretty, pretty, pretty darn good. Enjoy this “cool classic rock sound!”



Yacht headline Shea Stadium tonight. Yacht rock.



Yacht Rock.



Of course, the young Christopher Cross should also not be confused with the young Kris Kross. But nevermind that, now. Nevermind that. Going down this road will just lead us to the sadness.

SEE ALL OF OUR FRIDAY SHOW PICKS.

Saturday - May 25th 2013 A.D.

Grand Prospect Hall (and it is G-R-A-N-D) seems to be the place to be tonight. It’s DFA Records massive 12th anniversary party. And, as you know, 12 is the new 10 which was the old 25. So who’s playing this thing? Just about everybody ever involved with DFA. No LCD Soundsystem though. Unless.....unlesss....no. No LCD Soundsystem. Seriously. No.



Var and Pharmakon play The Rink (that's some new Greenpoint situation) tonight. This one is going to be loud. Bring your earplugs. And also bring an open mind towards spending your Saturday night listening to the noisy sounds of hopelessness and despair. YEAH!



Remember. Tom Petty is still at it tonight...still doing his thing....all these days later (how far we’ve come since Monday, dear Rockness reader). You know, it’s not really fair for a video starring Tom Cruise to represent the entire body of work of someone as legendary as Tom Petty. That was just petty. So let’s do right by him. Let’s give Tom Petty his proper due.



SEE ALL OF OUR SATURDAY SHOW PICKS.

Sunday - May 26th 2013 A.D.

The Shins play Williamsburg Park tonight. They got their second wind of simple pop goodness with this simple song from last year. Keep it simple. That’s what I always say. (The other thing I always say is, “It’s the economy, stupid!”)



There are some other good shows tonight. But you can just click that link below and find out who. What? I’m keeping it simple.

SEE ALL OF OUR SUNDAY SHOW PICKS.

And now we've come to the end. Those are The Best Shows This Week. And this has been fun. Thanks for reading this thing. Our time together is one of my favorite times of the week. Seriously.

Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes.

Click here to view all the new FREE SUMMER SHOWS >>

SELECT SHOWS ADDED TO THE SITE THIS WEEK

5/30 Charli XCX @ Urban Outfitters Broadway
6/01 Goldroom @ Brooklyn Bowl
6/01 Rioux @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
6/06 Sky Ferreira @ Maxwell's
6/07 Q-Tip @ Museum of Natural History
6/13 Bleached @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn (Northside Festival)
6/13 Body/Head (Kim Gordon & Bill Nace), Majical Cloudz @ Saint Vitus Bar (Northside Festival)
6/15 Chance The Rapper @ Europa (Northside Festival)
6/15 Weekend @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn (Northside Festival)
6/16 Light Asylum, Young Magic, Adventure @ Cameo Gallery (Northside Festival)
6/16 RatKing @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
6/22 Chairlift, Bear in Heaven, Neon Indian (DJ Set) @ Prospect Park (Tropfest )
7/04 The Feelies @ Maxwell's
7/05 The Feelies @ Maxwell's
7/06 The Feelies @ Maxwell's
7/18 The Beets @ Glasslands
7/19 Skaters, Drowners @ Bowery Ballroom
7/19 Kisses @ Mercury Lounge
7/19 OM @ Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing)
8/07 Death Grips @ Webster Hall
8/29 Ty Segall @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
8/30 Ty Segall @ Bowery Ballroom
9/06 Delicate Steve @ Glasslands
9/13 Peter Hook & The Light @ Webster Hall
9/20 Patti Smith @ Metropolitan Museum of Art
11/06 James Blake @ Terminal 5
11/07 James Blake @ Terminal 5
AND MORE...

VIEW ALL JUST ANNOUNCED SHOWS HERE >>

This is a good song.

In this tenth episode of The A.V. Club's "A.V. Undercover" series 4, watch Coliseum cover "Shakin'" by Eddie Money.

This is a good song.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see ARIEL PINK with Kirin J Callinan and Purple Pilgrims at Irving Plaza on Thursday, June 6th!

Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 6/3. Good luck!

For show information and tickets, click here.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see DINOSAUR JR. and REIGNWOLF at Irving Plaza on Friday, June 7th!

For show information and tickets, click here.

Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 6/4. Good luck!

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see VILLAGERS at Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday, June 11th!

For show information and tickets, click here.



Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 6/7. Good luck!

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see JON HOPKINS at Glasslands on Tuesday, June 4th!

For show information and tickets, click here.



Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 5/31. Good luck!

Click here to view all the new FREE SUMMER SHOWS >>

SELECT SHOWS ADDED TO THE SITE THIS WEEK

5/20 Majical Cloudz @ Other Music
5/25 Amanda Palmer @ Bowery Ballroom
5/27 Prinzhorn Dance School @ Cameo Gallery
6/04 Jon Hopkins @ Glasslands
6/05 Patti Smith @ Bowery Ballroom
6/08 Toad the Wet Sprocket @ Brooklyn Bowl
6/08 Berhnhoft @ Maxwell's
6/11 Willy Moon @ Gramercy Theatre
6/14 PAWS @ South Street Seaport
6/15 Pharmakon @ Public Assembly (Northside Festival)
6/18 Guards @ Brooklyn Bowl (Free with RSVP)
6/21 Peals @ Death By Audio
6/21 O'Death @ The Bell House
6/22 Miami Horror, Tanlines, Wild Belle @ The Beach at Governors Island (FULL MOON)
7/13 Chris Isaak @ The Capitol Theatre
7/14 Bosnian Rainbows @ Bowery Ballroom
7/14 inc. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
7/16 Olafur Arnalds @ Glasslands
7/20 Odd Future, Meek Mill @ Williamsburg Park
7/24 The Lemonheads @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
7/31 Erin McKeown @ Madison Square Park (Oval Lawn Series)
8/08 The Killers @ Prudential Center
8/14 Baroness @ Irving Plaza
8/17 Twin Shadow, Autre Ne Veut, Elliphant @ Central Park Summerstage
8/22 The Cult @ Roseland Ballroom
9/13 Pinback @ Irving Plaza
9/19 FLAG (Keith, Chuck, Bill, Dez & Stephen @ Irving Plaza
9/27 Superchunk @ Bowery Ballroom
9/28 Superchunk @ Bowery Ballroom
9/28 Volbeat, HIM, All That Remains @ Williamsburg Park
10/03 Boyce Avenue @ Webster Hall
10/11 Two Door Cinema Club, St. Lucia @ Hammerstein Ballroom
10/24 FIDLAR, The Orwells @ Bowery Ballroom
10/27 The Idan Raichel Project @ Beacon Theater
AND MORE...

VIEW ALL JUST ANNOUNCED SHOWS HERE >>

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see LOCAL NATIVES with WILD NOTHING at The Greek Theatre on Friday, September 13th!

For show information and tickets, click here.

Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 6/13! Good luck!

We have a pair of tickets to give away to see THE SHINS with MAN MAN at Williamsburg Park on Sunday, May 26th!

For show information and tickets, click here.



Enter your name and email address below for a chance to win. Only one entry per email address will be accepted. Winner will be randomly selected on 5/23. Good luck!

I’ll admit I was hesitant to check out Nude Beach because they are called... Nude Beach. The last thing anybody needs is for things to get more beachy around here. But I quickly discovered that Brooklyn’s (by way of Long Island) Nude Beach doesn’t sound anything like surfing or waves or haze. At all. Actually, this just sounds like good old American poppy rock ‘n roll.

Nude Beach has an early Elvis Costello/Paul Westerberg vibe going on. You can also make a case for Springsteen. But I hear more like a little bit of early Johnny Cougar (way before the “Wild Night” era - a song I’m totally cool with never hearing again). So just to reiterate. Nude Beach definitely does not sound like Brian Wilson or Phil Spector. And they definitely don’t use reverb. Whew.

So what DOES Nude Beach do? Well, pardner. I’m sure glad you asked that. This good old good time band rocks that scratchy power pop that makes you want to go out and shoot some pool down there at the only sticks hall in town. These songs that are meant to get you “up” might even give you the gumption to go hustle a few of the locals while you’re at it. Or, get hustled yourself. Hell. It’s ok. It’s all good. It’s only money and everyone is there just to have a good old time. I believe that means getting drunk on cloudy mugs of cold beer. But you can interpret a good time any old way you want to. It’s all good. pardner.

If you like bands that just sound like (there’s really no better way to put this) good old rock ‘n roll, you very well might like Nude Beach. If you like music that sounds like an ocean paddle out, this might not be the band for you. This band is for the real people in the small towns. And I do believe there was once a Johnny Cougar song about all that.



Nude Beach opens for King Tuff at Bowery Ballroom on Sunday, June 2nd.