Live music – Page 40 – 7th Level Music

The Beths’ first U.S. tour is now underway.

The Beths Announce Fall U.S. Dates
& Kick Off World Tour.Watch The New Video For “Little Death”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuzlZWvTU2I

[“Little Death” video still]

“The debut from Auckland indie rockers is just really impressive—hook-filled songs filled with energy and attitude, written with depth and played masterfully.” – Pitchfork

“A wonderful little record that never lets up, piling on unassumingly buzzy fun until you start realizing you might be in the presence of a true power-pop monument.” – Rolling Stone

“The New Zealand band has two gears: The first is a more classically pop-oriented retro sound, like a ’60s girl group doing the shimmy-shimmy-cocoa-pop but with guitars and a shoegaze influence. The second is a caffeinated ’90s alterna-rock head rush, with Superchunk-level riffs and Velocity Girl vocals courtesy of singer-guitarist Elizabeth Stokes.” – The A.V. Club

“Few bands make angst sound as joyous as the Beths do on their debut LP. As its title suggests, the album is full of songs of both regret and self-doubt, but the group deliver them with some of the strongest power-pop this side of Weezer’s Blue Album.” – Bandcamp Daily

The Beths kick off their world tour this week in support of their acclaimed debut album, Future Me Hates Me (out now on Carpark). Beginning in Australia and New Zealand, The Beths will continue onto the U.S. at the end of September and play many cities for the first time ever. They will then head to Europe through mid-November to round out the year.To mark the beginning of their world tour, The Beths share the new video for “Little Death” via NPR Music. “We made this video while we were on tour,” says Elizabeth Stokes. “[The director] Norwood hit us up saying ‘I made videos for Superchunk in the 90s, let me make a Super 8 video for you guys when you’re in LA.’ So we spent a day larking about and scratching on film and then he edited it up. It’s difficult to tell, but if you look closely you can see there is some green screen footage and special effects added afterwards.”

Watch “Little Death” Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuzlZWvTU2I

Watch “You Wouldn’t Like Me” Video:
https://youtu.be/CV3Bjx-vPTg

Watch “Great No One” Lyric Video:
https://youtu.be/qQYhM48H5zs

Watch “Happy Unhappy” Video:
https://youtu.be/ct8AwQwlbNA

Watch “Future Me Hates Me” Video:
https://youtu.be/iVImwSb4EYU

The Beths Tour Dates:
Wed. Sep. 12 – Auckland, NZ @ Neck of the Woods
Thu. Sep. 13 – Auckland, NZ @ Neck of the Woods
Fri. Sep. 14 – Wellington, NZ @ Meow
Thu. Sep. 20 – Dunedin, NZ @ Captain Cook Hotel
Fri. Sep. 21 – Christchurch, NZ @ Blue Smoke
Sat. Sep. 22 – Queenstown, NZ @ Sherwood
Fri. Sep. 28 – Los Angeles @ The Roxy
Sat. Sep. 29 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Mon. Oct. 1 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Tue. Oct. 2 – Seattle, WA @ Timbre
Fri. Oct. 5 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
Sat. Oct. 6 – Lansing, MI @ Mac’s Bar
Sun. Oct. 7 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
Mon. Oct. 8 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
Tue. Oct. 9 – Buffalo, NY @ 9th Ward at Babeville
Wed. Oct. 10 – Boston, MA @ Atwood’s Tavern
Fri. Oct. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Alphaville (SOLD OUT)
Sat. Oct. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Everybody Hits
Sun. Oct. 14 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
Tue. Oct. 16 – Nashville, TN @ Fond Object Records
Wed. Oct. 17 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
Fri. Oct. 19 – San Antonio, TX @ 502 Bar *
Sat. Oct. 20 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s BBQ *
Sun. Oct. 21 – Fort Worth, TX @ MASS (Main At South Side) *
Thu. Oct. 25 – Prague, CZ @ Klub 007
Fri. Oct. 26 – Krakow, PO @ Klub RE
Sat. Oct. 27 – Berlin, DE @ Arkaoda
Sun. Oct. 28 – Cologne, DE @ Hangende Garten von Ehrenfeld
Tue. Oct. 30 – Paard, NL @ The Hague
Wed. Oct. 31 – Paris, FR @ Le 1999
Thu. Nov. 1 – Angers, FR @ Jokers Pub
Fri. Nov. 2 – Bordeaux, FR @ El Chicho
Sat. Nov. 3 – Rennes, FR @ 1988 Club
Mon. Nov. 5 – Bristol, UK @ Exchange
Tue. Nov. 6 – Manchester, UK @ Mancunia Studio (SOLD OUT)
Wed. Nov. 7 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
Thu. Nov. 8 – Leicester, UK @ Duffy’s Bar
Fri. Nov. 9 – Bournemouth, UK @ The Anvil
Sat. Nov. 10 – Brighton, UK @ East Street Tap
Sun. Nov. 11 – London, UK @ Sebright Arms (SOLD OUT)
Mon. Nov. 12 – Brussels, BE @ Chaff

* w/ Flint Eastwood

[Future Me Hates Me artwork]

Purchase Future Me Hates Me:
Carpark Shop – http://smarturl.it/fmhm_carpark
Streaming Services – http://smarturl.it/fmhm_dsps

The Beths online:
https://www.facebook.com/thebethsnz
https://thebethsnz.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/thebethsnz
https://twitter.com/lizstokedstokes
https://www.instagram.com/lizstokedstokes/

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Black Belt Eagle Scout’s North American tour starts today.

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT SHARES NEW SINGLE, “JUST LIE DOWN,”
AND ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

LISTEN HERE

photo credit – Jason Quigley

“The electric guitar that starts ‘Soft Stud’ bristles with a coarse riff. The tone is brittle and blunt, rattling from the amplifier as it wordlessly confesses deep frustration. But Katherine Paul’s voice, which glides over the guitar, is an elegant curve, all practiced and gathered.” — Pitchfork

“You’ll hear echoes of early Hole here, but you’ll also hear a powerful new voice grappling with her heritage and her sense of place. ‘Soft Stud’ is a great track, and the crazy part is that it’s not even my favorite track on the album” — Vulture‘s Best New Songs of the Week

“‘Soft Stud’ expresses the complexity of queer desire, layering intimate
lyrics and clean melodies over fuzzy guitar.” — NPR‘s All Songs Considered

“[‘Soft Stud’] . . . feels surprisingly compact, tight nerves and circuitous guitars
and muddy drums building and breaking.” — Stereogum

“Sludgy guitars clash compellingly with Paul’s rich, yearning vocals, which eventually
dissolve into a chaotic and cathartic instrumental outro.” — Consequence of Sound

“…a sprawling, yet intimate six-minute odyssey on which
Paul pairs tender lyrics with transcendent, seeking instrumentation.” — Paste

Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Portland-based Katherine Paul) is an indigenous queer musician whose debut album, Mother of My Children, is about “grief and love for people, but also about being a native person in what is the United States today.” Mother of My Children is out September 14th via Saddle Creek. Paul will tour North America surrounding its release (all dates are below). After sharing lead single, “Soft Stud,” Black Belt Eagle Scout now presents “Just Lie Down.”

“I started working on the guitar line for this song at the end of a five year stay at a big duplex I was renting in Portland. This had been the longest period of time I had ever lived anywhere that wasn’t my parents’ home. I was being kicked out of the place because the landlord wanted to renovate and hike up the rent. This was the case for a lot of Portlanders at that time (and still is) as the city was on a steep course of gentrification.

My life shifted and I ended up moving in with people I had never met to a smaller, but comfy situation in a different part of town. There was a Corgi named Dayton involved. The room in this house is where I worked on the majority of the songs for Mother of My Children, staying up late and turning up my guitar amp volume when I could. I was in a new place and the feeling of ‘home’ was never really present when I lived there. It was a really disconnected time in my life thus warranting the initial bits and pieces of ‘Just Lie Down.’

So many things didn’t feel foundational and at times I felt like I was losing it. I remember thinking, ‘You aren’t yourself right now. What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this? What even is this?’ and that’s where most of the questioning lyrics in the song came from. I like to find some sort of resolution in my songs be it a feeling I get from playing it, a certain part of the song that has lyrics that reflect it, something. My resolution in this song is when I sing the lyrics, ‘Just lie down, head on the ground, sky looks blue, just like you.’ To me, it was a simple poem you could say to yourself that means even though you are sad, even though there seems like there is no hope, look up and see what is above you. The sky is still blue and beautiful. Hopefully you will see that beauty and move forward.”

Paul grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, surrounded by family focused on native drumming, singing, and arts. From an early age, Paul was singing and dancing at powwows with one of her strongest memories at her family’s own powwow, called the All My Relations Powwow. Paul reminisces, “When I was younger, my only form of music was through the songs my ancestors taught the generations of my family. Singing in our language is a spiritual process and it carries on through me in how I create music today.” With the support of her family and a handful of bootleg Hole and Nirvana VHS tapes, Paul taught herself how to play guitar and drums as a teenager. In 2007, she moved to Portland, Oregon to attend college and get involved with the Rock’n’Roll Camp for Girls eventually diving deep into the city’s music scene playing guitar and drums in bands while evolving her artistry into what would later become Black Belt Eagle Scout.

Listen to Black Belt Eagle Scout’s “Just Lie Down” –
https://BBES.lnk.to/MOMC

Listen To “Soft Stud” –
https://youtu.be/LXsfiYigeg4

Black Belt Eagle Scout Tour Dates:
Fri. Aug. 31 – Columbus, OH @ Wexner Arts Center #
Sat. Sep. 1 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx *
Sun. Sep. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen ^
Tue. Sep. 4 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Lodge #
Wed. Sep. 5 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall #
Thu. Sep. 6 – New York City, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
Fri. Sep. 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA #
Sat. Sep. 8 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel #
Sun. Sep. 9 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat (Backstage) #
Tue. Sep. 11 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook #
Wed. Sep. 12 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn #
Thu. Sep. 13 – Tampa, FL @ Crowbar #
Fri. Sep. 14 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Wilbury #
Sat. Sep. 15 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa #
Mon. Sep. 17 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda #
Tue. Sep. 18 – Ft. Worth, TX @ Main at South Side #
Wed. Sep. 19 – Norman, OK @ Opolis #
Thu. Sep. 20 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck #
Fri. Sep. 21 – St. Louis, MO @ Off-Broadway #
Sat. Sep. 22 – Davenport, IA @ Village Theater #
Mon. Sep. 24 – Lexington, KY @ The Burl #
Wed. Sep. 26 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb $
Fri. Sep. 28 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive $
Sat. Sep. 29 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records $
Sun. Sep. 30 – Boise, ID @ Funky Taco $
Wed. Oct. 3 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett $

* = with Varsity
^ = with Shortly
# = with Saintseneca
$ = with Guerrilla Toss

Pre-order Mother of My Children —

https://BBES.lnk.to/MOMC

Mother of My Children cover art

Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp

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Thom Yorke’s “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” solo tour starts November 23rd.

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke has announced a bunch of U.S. tour dates this fall to promote and play his solo material. Joining him will be producer (and frequent Radiohead collaborator) Nigel Godrich and visual artist Tarik Barri. Oliver Coates, a London-based cellist, will be the opening act.

The dates are as follows:

November 2018
23rd Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA
24th Wang Theatre-Boch Center – Boston, MA
26th Kings Theatre – Brooklyn, NY
27th Kings Theatre – Brooklyn, NY
30th John F Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts Concert Hall – Washington, DC

December 2018
1st Keybank State Theatre – Cleveland, OH
2nd Masonic Temple Cathedral Theatre – Detroit, MI
4th Chicago Theatre – Chicago, IL
5th Riverside Theater – Milwaukee, WI
6th Northrop at the University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
8th Stifel Theatre – St. Louis, MO
9th Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland – Kansas City, MO
11th Paramount Theatre – Denver, CO
13th The Union – Salt Lake City, UT
15th Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco, CA
17th The Observatory, North Park – San Diego, CA
19th Orpheum Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
20th Orpheum Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
22nd The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas – Las Vegas, NV

Tickets will surely sell out for most, if not all, of these shows. Don’t wait too long to score some.

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Live: The Flaming Lips and Le Bucherettes – August 16, 2018 – Clyde Theatre – Ft. Wayne, Indiana

It was a grey night. Rain had been falling. My wife was on the phone with her boss and trying to sort out work drama that had been bothering both of them for a week. She and the whole Ft. Wayne area, it seemed, needed a boost of love and fun. They got it from the Flaming Lips and Le Bucherettes at Ft. Wayne’s Clyde Theatre on August 16th.

My wife had never been to a Flaming Lips show. All I told her was that it would be wild and there would be balloons and confetti. I didn’t want to spoil anything for her.

We walked in just at the start of Le Bucherettes’ set. I’d heard of them somewhere before and made a note to check out their stuff, and this was my first full exposure to their work. It was a wild mix of psychedelia and art punk fronted by a wild Latina (Le Bucherettes hail from Mexico) who seemed to be the child of Iggy Pop and Poly Styrene after they’d had sex in an Aztec temple. They threw down a wild set that even had Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips crouching at stage right to take photos of them. My wife and I thought they needed to play next year’s Levitation Music Festival in Austin. They’d fit in perfectly there, and we picked up their last album at the merch table not long after their set.

The beginning of the Flaming Lips’ set began with their cover of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and then “Race for the Prize” off The Soft Bulletin, which included the following (of course):

My wife was already grinning by this point, and the grin never left her face the entire night. She laughed in disbelief at the giant inflatable robot that stood at center stage over Wayne Coyne during “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” – which Coyne described as a song not just about a young, female Japanese karate master fighting evil robots, but more about “Your friend who tells you they’re going to do something impossible, but they don’t know it’s impossible, and instead of you telling them it’s impossible, you tell them…Yoshimi you won’t let those robots defeat me.”

“Fight Test” is always a welcome addition to their sets, and the “Golden Throat” microphone version of the national anthem was a weird treat. This show was the first time I heard “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” as well as “The Castle,” which Wayne Coyne described as a sad song, but it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly sad when he sings it. It still sounds hopeful to me.

Coyne then put on rainbow wings and jumped on a light-up unicorn that was pulled through the audience while he sang “There Should Be Unicorns,” which took on a near deep-house beat and feel live. It’s cool on Oczy Mlody, but it’s better live.

They busted out “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which was well-received by the crowd (and was one I’d hoped they’d play), and “The Captain” after that. There was a small temporary stage in the middle of the crowd, and I figured it was for when Coyne stepped into a giant plastic sphere and crowd surfed to it during their cover of “Space Oddity.” I’d seen him do it at the inaugural Middle Waves Music Festival two years earlier. I was right, and my wife, a big Bowie fan, nearly cried when she realized what song was coming.

They wrapped up the set with “How??”, “Are You a Hypnotist?”, “The W.A.N.D.”, and “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” before coming back for “Do You Realize?”

“That made me happy,” my wife said afterwards. “I needed that.”

We all did. Thanks, Flaming Lips.

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Caroline Rose adds more U.S. tour dates for November.

CAROLINE ROSE EXPANDS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
WITH HEADLINE DATES IN NOVEMBER

LONER OUT NOW VIA NEW WEST

Photo Credit: Matt Hogan

Caroline Rose has expanded her fall tour to include a set of headline dates in November. Since the release of her new album, LONER, via New West this past February, Rose has spent most of the year on the road playing sold out headline shows and opening for acts, including Mitski, Guster, and Maggie Rogers. Now, she’s gearing up for a set of dates supporting Rainbow Kitten Surprise before setting out on a headline tour with performances in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and more. By the end of 2018, Rose will have played over 100 shows in the U.S. alone.

At the same time, critical praise for LONER has continued to flourish. The album landed on over a dozen mid-year highlight lists, including NPR Music’s “40 Favorite Albums of 2018 (So Far)” and Vinyl Me, Please’s “Best Albums of 2018 So Far.” After crediting Rose with putting on one of the best shows at SXSW, Rolling Stone recently published a profile on her, saying:

“Her music has a spaced-out intelligence, an impish energy, plenty of venom and jokes. Her perspective on the world snaps, because it’s light on its feet and has sensitive skin. Even if the structural circumstances suck… Rose can have a precise sort of play with it, criticizing the whole enterprise with a slicing one-liner.”

Rose’s knack for energetic performances and stage banter will be on full display this fall. All dates are below and new dates are in bold.

Stream Caroline Rose’s LONER

Watch/Listen/Share:
“Bikini” Video
“Soul No. 5” video
“Money” video
“Getting To Me”

Caroline Rose Tour Dates:
Sat. Sep. 15- Sun. Sep. 16 – Burlington, VT @ Grand Point North Festival
Wed. Sep. 19 – Rochester, NY @ Abilene Bar and Lounge
Thu. Sep. 20 – Lancaster, PA @ Tello 360
Fri. Sep. 21 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Sat. Sep. 22 – Sun. Sep. 23 – Franklin, TN @ Pilgrimage Festival
Mon. Sep. 24 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson *
Tue. Sep. 25 – Norfolk, VA @ Norva Theater *
Thu. Sep. 27 – Richmond, VA @ The National *
Fri. Sep. 28 – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre *
Sat. Sep. 29 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head *
Mon. Oct. 1 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
Tue. Oct. 2 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre *
Sat. Oct. 6 – Providence, RI @ The Strand *
Mon. Oct. 8 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls *
Thu. Oct. 11 – Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall *
Fri. Oct. 12 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s *
Sat. Oct. 13 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Centre *
Mon. Oct. 15 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Elevation at The Intersection *
Wed. Oct. 17 – Bloomington, IL @ The Castle Theater *
Sat. Oct. 20 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge *
Sun. Oct. 21 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom *
Tue. Oct. 23 – Oxford, MS @ Lyric Theatre *
Thu. Nov. 1 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Fri. Nov. 2 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
Sat. Nov. 3 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Tue. Nov. 6 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
Wed. Nov. 7 – Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
Thu. Nov. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Fri. Nov. 9 – Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
Sat. Nov. 10 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Tue. Nov. 13 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
Wed. Nov. 14 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
Thu. Nov. 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Fri. Nov. 17 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel

* = with Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Praise for LONER:

“[LONER is] a wonderful, rollicking beast.” – MOJO

“Loner is a thrillingly odd take on pop, braiding her sardonic lyrics with off-kilter songs that groove and groan.” – Boston Globe

“Rose has a newly loosed imagination and a flair for exaggerating the absurdities we’re living with, and the way she’s put them to use is a timely gift.” — NPR Music

“With its mix of sunny melodies and acerbic wit, the material from her newly released LP, Loner, was frenetic and freewheeling.” – Rolling Stone

“In an era of endless, ear-numbing streams, LONER grabs your chin and commands your eyes.”
— Consequence of Sound

“Rose is a fascinating person, and from DIY production trickery to her multi-role star turns in her videos, LONER represents her at her best.” — Stereogum “Artist to Watch”

“an often wickedly funny and winningly sardonic indie-pop act with lots of surprising musical moves on her new album, Loner.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

“With her newly honed interest in producing, Caroline Rose has made an unwaveringly entertaining album filled to the brim with songs that are at once contemplative and coax the listener to get out of their seat and dance.” — Rookie

“Rose is a joy to behold . . . LONER whacks the listener swiftly upside the head with our red-clad protagonist’s winning charisma, leaving ya dizzy and begging for more.” — Under The Radar

“…a punchier, studio-powered pop sound, packed with danceable beats, prominent synths, big choruses and plenty of swagger. She remains unafraid of singing about serious subjects (capitalism, sexism, death, etc.) but on LONER, she delivers them through a bold, candy-colored filter that’s always intriguing and often irresistible.” — Paste

Download hi-res press images and cover art

Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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Shopping announce fall tour dates for North America.

Shopping To Return Stateside For Fall North American Tour
In Support Of The Official Body, Out Now On FatCat Records

Playing Hopscotch, OctFest, Basilica Soundscape, And More

(photo credit: Matthew Williams)

“Wiry and urgent, ‘The Official Body’ offers vibrant, chaotic catharsis at an ideal moment.” — Rolling Stone

“‘The Official Body’ has such an expansive and warm soul that it forces you reconsider all the wiry clichés associated with post-punk.” — Pitchfork

“…Shopping have opted for one of the most revolutionary forces of all: fun.” — NPR Music

“The 10 tracks here are audacious, funky, and have that element of outsider-cool leftover from the heyday of influences like Delta 5, Gang of Four and ESG.” — Paste

Having wrapped up a short North American tour of the west coast this past summer, which included a triumphant performance at San Francisco Pride to a crowd of nearly 50,000, Shopping – the London/Glasgow-based trio of Rachel Aggs (guitar, vocals), Billy Easter (bass, vocals) and Andrew Milk (drums, vocals) – are thrilled to announce they’ll return stateside next month in support of their most recent album, The Official Body, out now on FatCat Records. Including stops at Hopscotch Music Festival, OctFest, and Basilica Soundscape, the tour will kick off in Philadelphia on Thu. Sep. 6th at PhilMOCA. A full list of dates are below, with tickets on-sale now.
Shopping Tour Dates:
Sat. Aug. 11 – London, UK @ Oslo Hackney
Thu. Aug. 30 – Dorset, UK @ End Of The Road
Fri. Aug. 31 – Baignade Interdite @ Rivières, FR
Thu. Sep. 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilMOCA
Fri. Sep. 7 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival *
Sat. Sep. 8 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel #
Sun. Sep. 9 – New York, NY @ OctFest %
Tue. Sep. 11 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Wed. Sep. 12 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
Thu. Sep. 13 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott
Fri. Sep. 14 – Sun. Sep. 16 – Hudson, NY @ Basically Soundscape &

* = w/ Miguel, Belle & Sebastian, MC50 and more
# = w/ No Age
% = w/ The Flaming Lips, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Girlpool and more
& = w/ Efrim Manuel Menuck, Grouper, Stephen O’Malley’s Un Vide Dans Le Ciel and more

Watch/Listen/Share:
Stream The Official Body via Spotify – https://spoti.fi/2KkcdKW
“The Hype” video – https://youtu.be/JnAm6AphanY
“Wild Child” video – https://youtu.be/GWvzFYTPrRw
“Suddenly Gone” video – https://youtu.be/GVcZGVVhfkU

Purchase The Official Body:
via Bandcamp – http://bit.ly/2kZQL6Z
via iTunes – http://apple.co/2iBSknm
via FatCat Shop – http://bit.ly/2C3DGO8

Download hi-res album art and press images of Shopping –
www.pitchperfectpr.com/shopping/

Shopping online:
facebook.com/weareshopping
 twitter.com/SH0PP1NG
soundcloud.com/shoppingband 
fat-cat.co.uk/artist/shopping
 pitchperfectpr.com/shopping

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Live: My Bloody Valentine and Martha’s Vineyard Ferries – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL – July 28, 2018

The second of two sold-out shows for My Bloody Valentine at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre was added when the first sold out in minutes. I was surprised the second didn’t sell out as fast, but happy that I got a ticket to what I was sure was going to be a face-melting experience.

Opening up for MBV were Martha’s Vineyard Ferries – a sort of shoegaze / garage punk band with bits of doom flavor sprinkled in now and then. I expected something a bit more psychedelic with a name like that, but they were “honored” to be opening for My Bloody Valentine and their enthusiasm came through in their set.

The stacks of amplifiers for MBV were tall and numerous. A woman behind me said her friend had come to the first show and told her, “It was louder than Dinosaur, Jr.” Her friend was right. It was louder than them and probably five more bands combined.

Opening with “I Only Said,” the four of them powered through with walls of distortion and reverb. Vocals were barely audible at times, and usually incomprehensible. You don’t go to a MBV show to hear crisp vocals, however, not even on the two new songs they played. You go to experience the raw energy that comes at you like a pounding surf on a rocky beach.

Of course “Only Shallow” was a big crowd favorite (and as heavy-hitting as you imagine), but “What You Want,” “Nothing Much to See,” and, naturally, “Soon” were big wallops to your chest, too. A friend of mine held my hands in hers after “Who Sees You,” and we noticed our hands were trembling. She patted her chest and said, “Wow! Intense!”

“My ears are hurting!” was the cry of a guy to my left after they finished “Wonder 2.” I saw a lot of people without earplugs. I pitied them. Many of us were in near-meditative states by the time they got to “Feed Me with Your Kiss” and the audio avalanche that closed the show – “You Make Me Realize.” The bridge in that was a couple minutes of cymbals and guitar noise that almost reached the point of punishment before breaking back into the power chords. It left us all dumfounded.

As we were walking out, a woman behind me told her boyfriend he should’ve put in his earplugs for the finale. He said, “I could feel my chest vibrating. I thought, ‘Am I having a heart attack? Is this how it ends?'”

“Not a bad way to go,” I said.

“That’s true,” he said.

True, indeed. A My Bloody Valentine show isn’t for everyone, but it is something everyone should experience.

Keep your mind open.

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Pitchfork Musical Festival 2018 recap

The lineup for this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park didn’t thrill me. Plus, the forecast for the weekend called for rain nearly the entire time my wife and I would be there. Still, the tickets were free (Thanks, Nivas of WSND!) and there were some acts I definitely wanted to see, so we made the trip.

We got there just in time on day one for rain and Melkbelly. The Chicago punks were the second band to play and they unloaded a loud set of fierce shredding. The rain also stopped while they were playing, so I took it as a good omen.

Up next was Lucy Dacus, who played a nice set as the humidity rose from the sun emerging from the clouds. She talked about her fear of being electrocuted and how she was rearranging some of the set list to avoid too much playing guitar near standing water, but she did fine and was lovely to hear.

Natural Information Society‘s psychedelic jazz set was just two songs and it lasted nearly forty minutes. It was hypnotic, peaceful, and perfect for a warm and wet afternoon.

One of the weirdest parts of the day was Tierra Whack‘s twenty-minute set. She replaced Earl Sweatshirt who had cancelled. Whack’s DJ played parts of hip hop songs to warm up the crowd. It didn’t work all that well, mostly because he didn’t play whole tracks and he kept yelling variations of “Hey, Chicago!” over and over to the point where it became pandering. Whack came out and performed her entire debut EP, Whack World, which is only about fifteen minutes long, and then left. “That was weird,” my wife said. Yep.

Electro-pop outfit Mount Kimbie played a nice set on the far side of the park, and it was a nice warm-up to Tame Impala‘s closing set, which suffered from bad volume mixing. “It sounds like AM radio,” said one woman behind me. Her friend added, “Nothing like listening to Tame Impala through a tin can. Thanks, Pitchfork!” The crowd was yelling, “Turn it up!” at one point. We left before chaos reigned.

Day two brought less rain and we started the day with a great set from Zola Jesus. She came out in a red veil and looked like a witch from a Dario Argento movie. She seemed to have a great time. “She could sing anything with that voice,” my wife said. She’s right.

Our friend, Nivas, told me to check out Moses Sumney‘s set. Mr. Sumney wasn’t on our radar, but we’re glad we took Nivas up on the suggestion. His set was a good mix of soul, gospel, R&B, and jazz.

Another soulful highlight was Raphael Saddiq, who is a dead ringer for Lightnin’ Hopkins. Sadie played a fun set of bluesy R&B that had a lot of folks dancing.

I got all hipster by dragging my wife to see prog-rock legends This Is Not This Heat. It was a loud, dark prog-rock show with songs about nuclear warfare, consumerism, and painful lessons of history. It was neat to see some legends. I even scored a couple autographs.

We left early again in order to get a decent meal and came back on day three just in time to see Kelly Lee Owens. Her self-titled debut was my favorite album of last year, so she was the main artist I wanted to see at the festival. She didn’t disappoint. She put on a great electro-dance set that had everyone bouncing. It was a crime that she only got to play for 40 minutes.

Japanese Breakfast played after her, and they were quite popular with the crowd. Their stuff is a mix of shoegaze, dream pop, and straight-up rock. A big favorite among the crowd was their cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams.”

We wandered over to the main stages to claim a spot for the two closing acts and ended up hearing all of DRAM‘s set. He had excited to be playing for such a large crowd and on such a beautiful day. He wasn’t bad, but after the fifth time he yelled, “If you love your momma, say ‘Yeah, dawg!” it became repetitive.

People were fired up for Chaka Khan, who looks and sounds great. The line dance that broke out near us during “I Feel for You” was a treat, and the whole crowd, men and women alike, was jumping during “I’m Every Woman.”

Lauryn Hill closed the festival. There was talk that she wouldn’t show up, despite being there for a sound check at the beginning of the day. She came on stage twenty minutes late, which I’m sure drove the stage manager nuts, but she showed that her chops haven’t diminished in the last twenty years. She played the entire “Miseducation” album and had a sharp backing band. They had to be ever-vigilant because she was constantly stopping some of them or having them alter their volume and tempo on the fly. She also seemed to have endless problems with her microphone and monitor, judging by how often she tapped the mic and her earpiece. Still, she sounded great. “It wasn’t as epic as I thought it would be,” my wife said, “but I’m glad I got to see her live.”

That pretty much sums up Pitchfork for me this year. It wasn’t as epic as last year, but I’m glad I went. Let’s hope the 2019 lineup is better.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: Radiohead – United Center – Chicago, IL – July 07, 2018

I hadn’t seen Radiohead in concert since 2012. They’d put out a couple albums since then, and I had been looking forward to this show for months. It was a bonus show of sorts, as the original show the previous night sold out within minutes. They added the second show to make up for those of us who couldn’t get tickets to that one, and even this show sold out in rapid time. I had to refresh websites on my phone and laptop computer just to score tickets on the third level.

That being said, it was worth it.

They started with “Daydreaming” and “Desert Island Disk” to lull the crowd into a nice trance before breaking out tracks like “Myxomatosis” and “Lucky” to get everyone moving.

A real treat was their first performance of “Spectre,” the rejected theme from the Bond movie of the same name. It was great to hear “Idioteque” (which had the whole place jumping) and “My Iron Lung” (a personal favorite). “Bodysnatchers” almost blasted the back wall off the United Center.

Their first encore consisted of “You and Whose Army?”, “Airbag” (which had a friend of ours dancing in the aisle), “The National Anthem” (another personal favorite), “2 + 2 = 5,” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” Their second encore brought us “Everything in Its Right Place” (which was jaw-dropping), “Pyramid Song,” and “Karma Police” (which had the whole place singing).

It was great to see them again. I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing them until that night. They’re one of those must-see bands anytime they’re close.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: Diana Krall – Saenger Theatre – New Orleans, LA – June 24, 2018

Diana Krall‘s performance at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans had a “no cellphones / cameras” policy, which was refreshing. I resisted the urge to take any photos during the show, although others did and some even used the flash on their phone cameras to do so. Using your camera flash at a show is the new smoking at a show.

Ms. Krall and her slick backing band (upright bass, guitar, fiddle, drums) played a fun mix of love songs and jazz classics that included many cuts from her latest album Turn Up the Quiet. She had fun banter with the crowd, even admitting to screwing up a Fats Waller tune that was harder to play than she realized. She delighted the crowd with a soft instrumental version of “Walkin’ to New Orleans.” They played for close to ninety minutes and the crowd was buzzing afterwards as we stepped out into the warm night.

She’s a jazz powerhouse and still on tour throughout the U.S. Don’t miss her if you get the chance to see her.

Keep your mind open.

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