looking for something specific? search our archives:
[Night Out] Flagship @ Rough Trade (11/06/2015)
Flagship fam moments before they rocked our faces off at Rough Trade (11/06/2015)
Southern fried southern pride doesn't even begin to fully express how nice it was to be in the presence of North Carolina's Flagship at Rough Trade on Friday night. Calling the four-piece "southern indie rock" would be a bit of a stretch, but I liken their sound to a southerner moving up north and losing the majority of their accent, save for a few words where you catch a hint of that southern twang here and there. Either way, now all I want is fried chicken, sweet tea, and a Publix sub something fierce. Oh, and to obviously keep their new EP Faded on rotation pretty much indefinitely.
For an opening act they managed to have the audience's attention fairly easily. Someone you know may or may not have been caught clapping and stomping away to their latest single, "I Want You", with a big ol' grin on her face. I suppose the combination of just a salad for dinner and an onslaught of white wine allowed me to forget for a second that I was in Williamsburg where fandom is soooo passé. All that said, after their set ended, we chatted with our new Flagship fam for a bit before I realized that nothing was soaking up the white wine and I was on a fast track to making a fool of myself.
Y'all need to get on this Flagship EP tho. Yes, I said y'all. See? It comes out sometimes. Shut up. I'm homesick now.
And as usual here are the snaps of our Southern gentlemen from Friday night, courtesy of Sprout:
[Night Out] Honne @ Mercury Lounge (11/03/2015)
The huggy homies Honne @ Mercury Lounge (11/03/2015) photo credit: @sproutdr
NYers know that Mercury Lounge is essentially the "tipping point" venue for a lot of artists. Usually the trajectory for bands goes something a little like: Cake Shop/Pianos/Arlene's Grocery, Mercury Lounge/Rough Trade, and then the likes of Bowery Ballroom/Music Hall of Williamsburg/Gramercy Theatre, before moving on to the Terminal 5s, Town Halls, United Palace Theatres etc. of the world. Sometimes bands don't graduate to the next level of venues, but then there are other times like Honne on Tuesday night at Mercury Lounge that the energy was so electric that I felt like my hair was going to start standing straight up. It was already common knowledge that after their Merc and Rough Trade gigs this week that they'd be back in March 2016 for a show at Bowery Ballroom, so I think that heightened everyone's overall level of excitement.
To me, there's nothing better than realizing you're watching a pivotal moment for a band where all their hard work is finally about to pay off in a big way. I knew it the second we walked up to Mercury Lounge that night and heard some girls in line ahead of us giggling in excitement because they had seen Andy and James leave the venue a few minutes ago. A lot of times the people seeing shows at Merc are either jaded or too cool to show their level of excitement, but everyone in line was SO. STOKED. TO. BE. SEEING. HONNE. That made me even more excited for my pre-show interview with the band, which was awesome. Sprout and I were immediately greeted with hugs as we all introduced ourselves. Our chat was honestly super great. I can't wait to transcribe it for you all to check out for yourselves. These are some really legit dudes who are worthy of the success that is about to hit them like a semi-truck.
Like I hinted at before, their performance was electrifying. I haven't seen that much dancing in Mercury Lounge in awhile. I'm also fairly convinced that come 9 months from now that there is going to be a baby whose middle name is Honne, Andy, or James, if you catch my drift.
Is it March 11th yet?
If you haven't bumped their latest baby-making jams yet, you most definitely need to check out their new EP Over Lover:
You can also have a look at the photos Sprout took of the night in the slideshow below:
[Night Out] Blackbird Blackbird @ Brooklyn Bowl (10/24/2015)
Mikey Maramag aka the homey Blackbird Blackbird @ Brooklyn Bowl (10/24/2015)
I honestly couldn't tell you how I came across Blackbird Blackbird. It was such a long time ago now. I just remember the first time I heard "Pure" and I knew what one man band Mikey Maramag was doing was something very special and I'm glad that in the 5 years since I heard that song that I wasn't wrong. Anyway, the planets finally aligned and at long last I go to see my longtime Twitter homey grace us with his presence at Brooklyn Bowl. I've been listening to him for such a long time but it never occurred to me how much is going on when he plays live. It made me respect him even more, honestly. The layers of textures that he's carefully crafted together have always been my favorite thing about his sound and it translated incredibly well live.
I'm bummed that we didn't get to hang as was initially planned, but as they say life is what happens while you're busy making plans. I have no doubt that he'll be back soon enough and maybe next time when I literally bump into Dave 1 while grabbing pre-show tacos that he'll be by my side like a true taco bae does.
If you haven't heard Blackbird Blackbird's latest album, Strawberry Light then you are truly missing out on greatness.
Oh yeah, and have a look around at the photos I snapped at Brooklyn Bowl in the slideshow below:
[Night Out] Idlewild @ Gramercy Theatre (10/23/2015)
Idlewild @ Gramercy Theatre (10/23/2015) photo credit @sproutdr
I hadn't realized until CMJ just how much of the music I had been surrounding myself with was very synth heavy. Not that it's a bad thing, but I was raised on rock and had noticed that I had felt a little off for awhile. Seeing Kingswood at the Aussie BBQ finally made me see the error of my ways: I need to get more guitar solos back in my life. When the opportunity to catch UK's Idlewild at Gramercy Theatre you bet your sweet ass I couldn't wait for that Friday to roll around. As soon as we were on the other side of the Little May show I was bumping Idlewild's latest album, Everything Ever Written in anticipation.
The show was great. You can tell these guys have been together for a long time by how at ease they are with each other. It kind of felt like we were watching a family band play. It's hard to explain. Anyway, they hopped around a bit through their fairly extensive catalog, making longtime fans beside themselves with excitement.
Britpop, I have missed you dearly and I promise that I am not going to let myself go without you for as long as that last stint, okay?
If you haven't already, you really should check out Idlewild's latest album, Everything Ever Written
Make sure to have a peek at the snaps that Sprout took from the show in the slideshow below:
[Night Out] Little May @ Mercury Lounge (10/20/2015)
Little May @ Mercury Lounge (10/20/2015) photo credit: @sproutdr
Still riding the fumes of my CMJ high, I proceeded to see how long I could make my at least one band a day streak last. Obviously CMJ had me at 5 straight days, that Sunday I went to see Good Morning play Rock Shop in Brooklyn sans-camera, and then I remembered that Sprout and I had Little May that Monday at Mercury Lounge! I went a full week! It was awesome. Not to mention that Little May are Australian too so I technically had a 3 day streak of Aussie kids to support, so that was great as well. Sprout and I had been super pumped to see them ever since we first heard, "Home" back in July. The trio certainly did not disappoint. With their debut full-length For The Company being just a couple of weeks old at that point, you couldn't tell by how much the rest of the crowd was into it. With the kind of energy they were able to harness inside Merc, I see big things for them on the horizon.
Make sure you check out their debut album For The Company if you haven't already.
Here are all of Sprout's snaps from the show:
#skoaradio 10/31/2015 liner notes
When a new song comes out of nowhere and suddenly becomes your favorite.
Happy Halloween broadband buds!
Gotta say, the jams in this week's #skoaradio are so good it's SCARY! hahahaha oh boy am I bad at #relevantcontent sometimes but WE'RE HERE TO TALK MUSIC ANYWAYS SO WHATEVER. I dug up some spooktacular new tunes this week from Sinden, The 1975, Jamie Woon, MALAA, and more so it's a pretty damn good mixtape if I do say so myself. Lots of new music out this week so I hope you weren't planning on buying your family any expensive Christmas gifts because you're about to exceed your budget on music for the zillionth time.
Don't forget you can grab the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this post so you can treasure the order I painstakingly put these songs in. Or you can hit shuffle. Whatever.
Until next week!
<3
- Skaters - "Mental Case"
- Going mental for this new track tbh. Dudes are working on a new album rn, so keep your ears/eyes open for updates.
- Pompeya - "Does"
- Pick up their full length Real. It's....real good.
- Of Montreal - "She's A Projector"
- The Neighbourhood - "Sweater Weather"
- Their new album, Wiped Out! dropped this week! Go grab it!
- Nine Black Alps - "Unsatisfied"
- The Living End - "Pictures In The Mirror"
- M.I.A. - "Fire Fire"
- Peaches (feat. Kim Gordon) - "Close Up"
- Go grab Rub if you haven't yet
- MALAA - "H+M"
- I don't know much, but I DO know MALAA's Soundcloud is full of treats (NO TRICKS).
- Sinden & Herve - "Hit & Run"
- Brand new EP dropped this week! GO PICK UP THICK AS THIEVES PT. 2 ASAP.
- Breakbot - "Back For More"
- NEW. ALBUM. COMING. 2016. HURRRRYYY.
- Neon Indian - "Annie"
- Vega Intl Night School is out now, so get on that mkay?
- Mellowdrone - "Oh My"
- Jonathan still needs your money for album #2 for Big Black Delta, so go pledge your undying love (and dollars) towards that please.
- Here are our 2 interviews with BBD (one from Adrian, one from me)
- Phases - "I'm In Love With My Life"
- For Life out now!
- The 1975 - "Love Me"
- The video for this is hilar so go watch it.
- New album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it coming...soon? No date yet. We'll let you know when that happens.
- Oh yeah read the interview Shey did with Matt before they blew up.
- VOWWS - "Councilor"
- I MISSED THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THIS WAS COMING OUT THIS WEEK. GO BUY THE GREAT SUN IF IT'S THE ONLY ALBUM YOU BUY THIS YEAR.
- Man Without Country - "Catfish"
- Maximum Entropy is a solid and must-have record, so.
- Ryan has a project called Secular Ghost and it's good! He upped some new songs this week so check those out on Soundcloud.
- Matt Lange - "Inside My Head"
- My interview with him WILL be up on the site this week or you can punch me in the face.
- In the meantime, go grab his album Ephemera
- Jamie Woon - "Skin"
- Um, the press release I got sent was wrong, MAKING TIME IS OUT NOW GUYS OMGGGG.
- The Knife - "Heartbeats"
- RIP The Knife, may your music live on forever <3.
- Wilco - "Kamera"
- The name of their last album is a thing that my roommate is happy to rant to me about.
- Lily Allen - "Never Gonna Happen"
- #Sheezus seems to be straight chillin, but you can still go pick up her latest album.
- SIVIK - "High"
- Grab Spring EP even though it's almost winter. It will keep you warm from all the dancing.
#skoaradio 10/24/2015 liner notes
artist rendition of my convo with Alex from Kingswood after I shut the mic off post-interview.lol
Hey fam!
Things refuse to slow down in SKOA HQ, but I'm not complaining! I wrapped up CMJ with a day in Aussie Heaven where we interviewed KINGSWOOD prior to watching them totally kill it. I can't believe how much fun I had. Kinda wish it had never ended tbh. Oh well. Time to prep for Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, which is coming up super fast. I've got a couple of new tracks on this week's show. As always would love to hear your thoughts so @ me bb if you liked what you heard!
See you next week!
<3
- Battle Tapes - "Valkyrie"
- Debut album Polygon drops on November 20th!
- BOOTS - "Bombs Away"
- New track "C.U.R.E." out now
- Debut full length Aquaria drops November 23th!
- BOOTS is playing Rough Trade for his release show! You've officially missed your chance to get tix :(
- Good Morning - "You"
- Official writeup of my interview with them from last week's CMJ show coming soon!
- Car Seat Headrest - "Times To Die"
- New album Teens of Style drops October 30th!
- Shows coming up in the UK & US.
- Weaves - "Motorcycle"
- Did you know that THE NEW YORK TIMES reviewed one of their CMJ shows!?! AMAZING!!
- Monarchy - "Black Widow"
- Sam Sparro - "Hands Up"
- Sam's new EP Quantum Physical Vol 2 is out now! GO GET IT!
- Kenna - "Sleep When We Die"
- Dude just finished up 35 days of traveling to shoot his "Sleep When We Die" video. The NYC Core got some hugs with him while he was here.
- Go help fund Songs For Flight!
- JR JR - "Gone"
- JR JR available now.
- Slum Sociable - "All Night"
- Go grab TQ now
- You can also see pitchas of these guys from my CMJ coverage. I may or may not have seen them three times :)
- Little May - "Boardwalks"
- Caught these little darlings this week at Mercury Lounge. Show review coming soon!
- Go grab their album For The Company asap okay
- Don Diablo & Matt Nash - "Starlight (Could You Be Mine)"
- Don Diablo moved up like a gazillion slots to NUMBER 30 IN DJ MAG'S TOP 100 DJS LIST OMG YAYYYY!!
- Interpol - "All Fired Up"
- If you don't have their latest record, El Pintor well then shame on you (this track is from Our Love To Admire tho)
- The Dead Weather - "I Feel Love(Every Million Miles)"
- Dodge and Burn is good fam, you needs it.
- KINGSWOOD Interview!
- KINGSWOOD - "Ohio"
- Hope you enjoyed this interview. Don't worry, imma pull out the good bits to write up all official :)
- Mr. Hudson - "Dancing Thru It"
- I'M. SO. HAPPY. HE'S. BACK!!!!!!!!!
- Can't be too mad considering he was off working on the new Duran Duran album, which is great tbh.
- Also the Souncloud page for this says MORE MUSIC COMING. YES YES YES YES YES.
- Magic Sword - "Battlefield"
- Have you read the comic for this btw? Pretty cool stuff.
- Official write up for this interview is coming soon too. :)
- Sami Switch - "Self Destruct"
- This guy's story is so cool. You have to watch this mini docu about his trajectory in the past few years. He's gone from homeless to selling out shows in London. Good for him.
- Wrabel - "I Want You"
- Still tryna figure out why "bae-bel" still hasn't upped this to iTunes/Spotify/Whatever yet. It's on YouTube and Soundcloud at least? And you can haz for $FREE.99
- Anyway you can grab his first EP Sideways to show love. I think that's fair right?
THINGS I TALKED ABOUT ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK INCLUDE:
#skoaradio 10/17/2015 liner notes - THE #CMJ2015 EDITION
#CMJSELFIE, basically.
GUESS WHO'S TIRED?
"I GUESS KIBBE"
YOU GUESSED RIGHT!
But in all seriousness, I am having a blast at CMJ 2015 this year and I can't believe all of these little band babies are going to leave me. #RUDE.
Anyway I'm too exhausted to be witty rn. I'm gonna go grab coffee before my first Pianos margarita of the day.
Until next week!
<3
kibbe!
UPDATE: Grab this week's mixtape on iTunes.
- Luna Aura - "Dancing With Your Ghost"
- Valise - "Charlie Gray"
- Car Seat Headrest - "Times To Die"
- Good Morning Interview!
- Good Morning - "You"
- Jake Isaac Interview!
- Jake Isaac - "Home"
- Jesse Ruben Interview!
- Jesse Ruben - "Fearless"
- Hooton Tennis Club - "P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L. P.I.E.R.R.E."
- Weaves - "Tick"
- KINGSWOOD - "She's My Baby"
- Dirty Ghosts - "Cataract"
- BLXPLTN Interview!
- BLXPLTN - "Start Fires"
- Magic Sword Interview!
- Magic Sword - "In The Face Of Evil"
- Son Little - "The River"
- Crooked Colours - "Step"
- Slum Sociable - "All Night"