Rockness Recommends

The Best Shows This Weekend!

December 2, 2013

The following are subjectively complimentary words about localized live music concert shows.

To the swashbuckling 13 of you brave enough to read The Best Shows This Week - I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Forever and Ever.

Amen.

Thursday - December 5th, 2013 A.D.

OK. I’m ready to talk about Night #2 of Big Snow’s farewell party now. Because Night #2 is tonight at Shea Stadium. The lineup features several good up-and-comers. These up-and-comers are Porches + Krill + Baked + LVL UP + Lost Boy? + Bueno. (remember: if you see a link that means I wrote complimentary words about that band previously - these types of links you see don’t go to the bands’ website - a common source of confusion for people who do not prefer to click but instead like to guess as to what the link’s content might be). Now, I could’ve posted a song by any of these bands. But I’ll go with Krill. Because more up-and-coming bands should have their own theme song.

(i will also post my own personal theme song immediately following Krill - i call upon it often whenever i find myself in a situation that calls for an act of great bravery - like opting for the side salad instead of fries.)

The famous punk rock club NYU has a good punk rock show tonight. Ceremony + White Lung + Perfect Pussy + Sleepies will play their punk for you. This show is free if you go to NYU. It’s $5 if you don’t go to NYU. For those people, though, the $5 might perhaps be a fair trade-off for not having to be a student at NYU. ZING. POW. BOOM. STRAIGHT TO THE MOON.

(just kidding - NYU is fine - i don’t have any problems with NYU - all of my imaginary friends went to NYU - like Theo Huxtable for one.)

Com Truise plays Paper Box tonight. I like his beats and they make me very nostalgic. They remind me of that one time in 1982 when I was a computer software programmer at ENCOM and somehow managed to digitize myself and then get transported inside this really wild software world of a mainframe computer. And let me tell you what, I had a helluva time getting back out! It was a good thing I was awesome at digital gladiatorial games. I think it was all the PONG I used to play that prepared me.

Anyway, I can bore you more with that story later. Here’s Com Truise’s remix of The Twilight Sad a.k.a. “the thinking man’s Counting Crows.”

Turquoise Jeep play Brooklyn Bowl tonight. And while I once again must state for the 13 of you reading this that I don’t approve of personages who utilise humour in music and must advise against its practise and connexion - however a special case can be made for a song about smanging it - a most honourable labour and worthwhile pouursooot.

(don’t ask me about the British spelling thing - even i’m not sure why it’s my favourite new pastime - yet apparently it ‘tis)

SEE ALL OF OUR THURSDAY SHOW PICKS.

Friday - December 6th, 2013 A.D.

Are you punk enough to be my band? Sweden’s Holograms and NYC’s Black Marble and Indiana’s TV Ghost should all now answer with an emphatic “YES!” (if they were reading this which they are not but that’s ok maybe they feel their ears burning a bit anyway). These three good bands play 285 Kent tonight. By the way, anybody know the address for that place? And why is this wooden cane suddenly around my neck? And why am I being pulled stage right?

The following five bands can also answer with an emphatic “YES!” when I ask them, “Are you punk enough to be my band?” California X + Perfect Pussy (two mentions in one Best Shows This Week? we’re really getting into unprecedented territory here) + Yvette + Flagland + Blessed State play Shea Stadium tonight. And like the punk bands mentioned above, they’re not reading this thing either! Again, that’s OK. Totally cool. Their burning flaming scorching soon-to-be charred ears will be satisfaction enough for me. Although Perfect Pussy might not know what’s happening to their ears. Because that band “has lost desire for all feeling,” remember.

“I’m like a (Andrew) Bird I can fly awaayyyyyyy.” To be sung in the key of Nelly Furtado and what ever happened to Nelly Furtado? I guess she migrated south somewhere? To molt maybe? Anyway, Birdman plays Rough Trade tonight. And while normally I’m a pacifist and don’t condone violins, I’ll once again make an exception.

(ps: i’m sorry for all the Rough Trade mentions this week - what can i say - that brand new venue is going for it in its infancy - i’m just reporting what I see - i’m just playing it as it lays - i’m not sorry for that violins joke though - that’s straight gold).

UPDATE: THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED. NOISE COMPLAINTS/ISSUES AT ROUGH TRADE. OVER AND OUT.

Other good shows tonight (careful readers will see i only make this handy cheat sheet for nights when there are too many good shows to post) = The Soupcans at Cake Shop (punk!) + TEEN at Brooklyn Night Bazaar (free!) + Allah-Las (rough trade!) + Low Fat Getting High (sludge!) + Midnight Magic at Cameo (late - dance!) + Andrew Cedermark also at Cameo Gallery (early - jersey!).

SEE ALL OF OUR FRIDAY SHOW PICKS.

Saturday - December 7th, 2013 A.D.

For the love of *$%$(#! Pardon my outburst. But I need to talk about Rough Trade….AGAIN. Because DIIV and Black Marble and Butter the Children play there tonight. And those are three good bands. So what am I to do? Not mention Rough Trade just because I’ve been mentioning them a lot? My hands are tied here.

(enjoy your good show debauchery while you can, Rough Trade - for a wise man once said “moderation in all things” - scholars disagree if this was said by Aristotle or Wimpy of Popeye fame.)

UPDATE: THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED. NOISE COMPLAINTS/ISSUES AT ROUGH TRADE. OVER AND OUT.

Au Revoir Simone + Spires + Splashh + Grooms play a FREE show (i’ve just decided to retire putting FREE in ALL CAPS from now until the end of time - things got too deep and mistakes were made ) at Brooklyn Night Bazaar tonight. So please listen and enjoy these four solid bands as you shop for your precious assorted trinkets. Remember. I’ve got dibs on that handwoven afghan made out of kale.

Knitting Factory is hosting NYC’s version of “The Rock Lottery” tonight. It’s this ongoing thing that happens in multiple cities where people from other bands - in this year’s case, bands like Quicksand + DIIV (stop sabotaging this thing, DIIV) + Small Black + Afghan Whigs + others - get randomly assigned to form new bands with the different players involved. The new bands featuring members of other bands practice for a few hours and then they all come back and play some new songs from the stage which = the show.

It’s not as confusing as I made it sound. Or perhaps it’s even more so. I don’t know. I don’t play the lottery much. It’s a tax on people bad at math.

Luscious Jackson play Webster Hall tonight with All Night Chemists and ADW Young. Even if you don’t know Luscious Jackson (formed in 1991 - released a bunch of goodness for the Beastie Boys’ Crown Royal label - drummer Kate Shellenbach drummed for the Beastie Boys from 1981 - 1984 - I saw them open for R.E.M. at a stadium during the “Monster” tour - and so on), I’m going to bet you’ve heard this song that was played constantly on the modern alt radio station in 1997.

(By the way, remember that band Sponge? Similar era to Luscious Jackson. Sponge are also playing somewhere or another tonight with that band Spacehog who had that one modern alt hit radio song that went “ohhh ooooh wheee ooooh.” And this isn’t like a wholehearted recommendation or anything - which is why we’re having this clandestine discussion under the hidden cloak of parentheses - I just wanted to tell you that I never wanted to change the station anytime this Sponge song came on the hot modern alt radio in 1995 - that’s all - here I am - this is me - flaws and all.)

Bring out the cheat sheet! Other good shows tonight = Life Size Maps at Greenpoint Reformed Church + The Ice Choir at Glasslands + The Soupcans (again) at Death by Audio + Lucius at Bowery Ballroom + some Cyndi Lauper party at Beacon with Matt & Kim + Free Time at Baby’s All Right (google docs spell check does not recognize “all right” as a word - as it’s not - it’s “alright” - but either spelling is probably fine - and anyway what did google spell check ever do).

SEE ALL OF OUR SATURDAY SHOW PICKS.

Sunday - December 8th, 2013 A.D.

Hibou play Glasslands tonight (the band also played Pianos on Thursday and whoops I forgot to tell you about that one - but what is done can’t be undone - my hands are tied here). Hibou is the homemade labor of love pop project of Peter Michel - a young man who used to be in Craft Spells. This is swirly goodness that’s perhaps similar to Wild Nothing and/or some of the sunnier stuff on Captured Tracks. If you like the sound of that, you should go to this show. AND I SHOULD MIND MY OWN BUSINESS.

Palehound play Death by Audio tonight. I’ve talked about Palehound on this thing before. But look at me. Here I am recommending this smartly sparse guitar pop goodness again.

(and anyway, most everybody I’ve mentioned this week have been discussed in this space several times before - careful readers, should there be anybody from the core 13 left at this point, will undoubtedly agree with this bold assessment.)