SKIPSTER / ECHOING VOICES OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC IN UPSTATE NY

the gig list is m4d upd4t3dd!

anything we’re missin’ give us a SH000UT!!!

xox s

In case you were blacked out all weekend, Neon Indian made their Upstate debut at Buffalo’s Soundlab on Friday night. Preceded by local avant-pop group Wooden Waves, the set was tight and danceable, comprised solely of cuts off their breakout 2009 album Psychic Chasms. Things didn’t veer into “unexpected surprise” territory until the encore, at which point leader Alan Palomo emerged and asked the audience’s permission to play material from his other project, VEGA. Cue a stunning live version of that band’s “No Reasons,” one of my favorite tracks last year and one whose strobe-lit power stands above any single Neon Indian song in immediacy.

According to Palomo’s banter, we can expect a full-length VEGA album later this Fall; for now, you’ll have to pull some Google moves to get your hands on their excellent Well Known Pleasures EP, which may or may not have ever been “officially” released in 2009.

Elsewhere, in a calculated move to test the corporate limits of their hipster audience’s allegiance, Neon Indian debuted their new single, “Sleep Paralysist”, via Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound. You can grab that, as well as an exemplary VEGA track, below.

Neon Indian – “Sleep Paralysist”

VEGA – “All Too Vivid” (Original Mix)

Buy Neon Indian’s Psychic Chasms via Insound.

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Tonight, there’s no reason to stay in and fidget about Midterms, or whatever other stress life is bringing you this week. Firstly, remember to always take care of yourself first, mentally and physically, and second of all, the wonderful, Ithaca Underground presents a wonderful show tonight at Ithaca’s The Shop. Evolve, coming all the way from Cincinnati, bring their experimental, socio-political hip-hop to the table, while openers Blow! will caress your ears with their ethreal and dreamy pop tunes. If you didn’t catch Blow! at the Nines last Saturday, this is your second chance.

EVOLVE (Cincinnati, OH : Realicide Youth Records)
Robotic Detective (Ithaca, NY)
Blow! (Ithaca, NY)

The show is tonight, March 10th at The Shop on 213 E. Seneca St. The show will start at 8 PM, and is only 5 bucks to enter.

Okay, make your choice: Will it be the sassy and brassy Thao Nguyen or the Flaming Lips and their magic body bubble?

Sadly, this isn’t even a hypothetical: it’s a real choice you’re going to have to ask yourself RIGHT NOW, considering Thao and the Get Down Stay Down will be hitting Ithaca on April 18th. Personally, there’s no contest. Considering Thao’s frenzied stage manner, the band’s extreme chops, the precise live show, and her brilliant 2009 album, Know Better Learn Faster, it’s an easy decision. In fact, Know Better was in this half of skipster’s top ten of 2009!

Details are coming soon, but we know the show will be $12 and most likely will take place at one of the clubs here in Ithaca courtesy of Dan Smalls Presents.

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Thao / “When We Swam”

Friday morning’s traditionally the best time of the week to kick back and let all the feelings you’ve accrued over the past five days wash over you — the good, the bad, the ever-popular somewhere in between. We all need to take stock of whatever’s happening before we hurtle headlong into weekend madness. With that said, here are three tracks I’ve had in constant rotation over the past week, each of which is good enough to help usher you toward self-actualization before you go ahead and melt your brains tonight.

Pictured: Twin Sister in Brooklyn, via Ampeater

First up is Twin Sister’s “I Want a House,” the smoky, slow-burn finisher to the band’s self-released Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP. You can download the rest of that EP for free on their website, and stay tuned for another forthcoming release via Infinite Best Recordings. That one’s called Color Your Life and will be available digitally and on vinyl starting March 30th.

Twin Sister – “I Want a House”

Next is Jimmy Ruffin with Motowon staple “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” a song that Beach House’s Victoria Legrand recently named as an inspiration during the recording of their masterpiece Teen Dream. Opening with a melodramatic stomp before segueing into Ruffin’s genuinely cathartic vocals, his repeated mantra of “I’ll find a way somehow” coasts into the three-minute mark on the wings of pop perfection; it’s a land of despair and heartache, but never total resignation. One to keep on repeat.

Jimmy Ruffin – “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted”

Finally, we have nascent Los Angeles band Pearl Harbor with their latest, “California Shakedown.” As reported on Gorilla vs. Bear last weekend, this song will function as the b-side to their limited-edition, Japanese-distributed Slivers of You 7″. The sibling duo currently occupies my slot for “favorite working band who haven’t released an actual full-length,” and this is just another confirmation of their preternatural knack for opiated-yet-immediately-addictive dream pop. And check out that bassline.

Pearl Harbor – “California Shakedown”

That’s all, folks. Have a good weekend.

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To all those excited to see Kimya in Rochester tomorrow, as we posted previously, we have sad news. What we assume is due to her schedule, Kimya had to cancel her Rochester appearance. She will still be playing in Alfred, NY, and the other bands will still be playing in Rochester…but no Kimya.

sorry to be the bearer of the bad news..

UPDATE: although it didn’t happen we did find out that the cancellation was due to sickness in Kimya’s family. Hopefully this gets reschedules.

When you hear the name Kimya Dawson, what do you think of?

Livejournal? The overhyped movie, Juno, perhaps? Babies named Panda? The Moldy Peaches?

Regardless of what the name makes you think of, here’s something you SHOULD know:

Kimya Dawson will be passing through Rochester, to play an afternoon show this upcoming week! She will be playing at The Flying Squirrel Community Space this Wednesday alongside Seth Faergolzia of Dufus. That night Dawson is playing Alfred State University, and is squeezing this show in, because well, she’s awesome. Her schedule is understandably tight, considering she has a show that night, therefore the settimes are TIGHT, and as of now I believe Kimya is set to go on around 3pm. Alongside Kimya and Seth, Kerrin of Rochester Band Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells, and Ian Downey will be playing.

The community space is a great venture in Rochester. It’s incredible the way things like this bring people together, so please go support it.

To get in you only need five bucks, but really, this place is so nice the event page on facebook says:

“$5 at the door, no one turned away for lack of funds
children are welcome, but there will be adult language in the show”.  After reading that, how could you not support such a place?!”

I can’t remember the last time I was charmed out of my mind by a musician. Nevertheless, last night at Castaways in Ithaca, Norwegian heart-throb Sondre Lerche put on the moves to a near sold out Castaways.  Between his smile, his unforced and humorous stage banter, and his many references to The Office, Sondre was in it to win it.  Playing classics such as “Two Way Monologue”, “Sleep on Needles”, and “Heartbeat Radio”, Lerche had the crowd in his lil’ fingers the whole time. For being a mere 5′7″ Lerche packs a whole lot of punch not only in his delivery, but in his impeccable guitar playing. Switching between an electric and an acoustic guitar all night, his frenzied singing and bopping around kept what could have been a dull affair absolutely hyptnotizing.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for opening act, JBM, who played what sounded like a set consisting of the same sad song over and over again. Whatever happened to the days when opening acts functioned as a mean to pump you up the audience for the main event. These days all opening support seem to send the crowd into a bout of depression..

Nonetheless, the best part of the night was inarguably Lerche’s encore of fan favorite “Modern Nature.” While the gal who sings the other part of the song wasn’t present, the crowd didn’t even have to be asked to fill in. Within 10 seconds it was clear the audience knew what to do, and correct me if I’m wrong but Lerche seemed amazed. Watch it all below!

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Sondre Lerche / “Two Way Monologue”

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Roughly two minutes into their set, one of So Cow’s guitar players cocks his head toward the audience and asks if the sound’s okay. There’s a quiet, hesitant murmur of a reaction, and lead singer Brian Kelley jokingly says, “A little early to break the fourth wall, eh?”

The moment is typical of the live So Cow experience, all frenzied guitars and twee vocalizing — that is, until you hit a moment where the bottom drops out from under the agitated facade and humor lets itself in. Currently touring in support of both their self-titled 2009 album and the just-released Meaningless Friendly — both released stateside via Chicago-based record company Tic Tac Totally — So Cow exist in a humane netherworld between pop and punk. They don’t wear their heart on their sleeves, exactly, but they’re more willing to subvert their anger with slyness than the concise, Jay Reatard-ish construction of their songs would indicate.

There’s clearly enough passion in their play for them to have built a selective core audience, even on these tundras of Upstate New York — certain members of the Bug Jar crowd knew these songs by rote, which is more than can be said about most Dublin-based twee-punk acts. Kelley’s interactions with the audience proved to be the focal point of the show; at one point, he went through the crowd and had each person standing shout his name. Elsewhere he allowed another audience member to hold onto his eyeglasses before launching into another string of Beat Happening-inflected pop; “I’m bound to step on these things,” he added. Welcome to the fold, apparently.

Musical highlights of the set included opener “So Cow vs. The Future” as well as personal favorite “Moon Guen Young,” presumably a by-product of Kelley’s four-year tenure in Korea and one whose stop-start rhythms translate particularly well to the concert setting.

So Cow play another 50-odd shows in the next two months nationwide, including a number of showcases at the annual clusterf*%! otherwise known as South by Southwest. Meaningless Friendly is out via Tic Tac Totally.

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So Cow / “To-Do List”

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So Cow / “Casablanca”

Wisconsin-based trio Daredevil Christopher Wright played a daytime show at Ithaca’s quaint and brightly-colored The Shop today with local songstress Emily Arin. The snow was falling, the breeze was bitter, and honestly, there couldn’t have been a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Arin took the stage around 2:00, playing a handful of beautiful heartfelt folk songs, piercing the hearts of the small crowd left and right. “Sweetly Breathe”, which was recently nominated for an Independent Music Award, never ceases to draw out that giant lump in the back of my throat. Despite being 7 minutes long, this song captured every ounce of my attention, creating a tension suggesting that if I stopped focusing on the words, a bomb in my head would go off. Arin’s music is not to be ignored. After some small talk and a few more songs, including “When You Knew Me When” and “Hidden Flame” — two songs that were recently included on the soundtrack for Greenland’s first motion picture, Nuummioq — Emily thanked the crowd and sat down for some chai.

Walking into an artist’s show without hearing their work always creates a sense of anxiety in my bones; however, my anxiety evaporated after Daredevil Christopher Wright first harmonized in their opening song (which shares the band’s name). The group has the harmonies of Fleet Foxes, the falsetto of Sufjan Stevens, and the lively energy  of the Dodos. Considering the sleepy nature of the day, the trio was smiling and awake, engaging the small crowd in conversation and giving information about their work. They thanked their second cousin, an Ithaca College student that helped them set up the show, and even talked philosophy… albeit about bears, wolves, and indie music culture. After a crowd-requested encore, the dudes stuck around chatting with fans and friends, which pushed them over the categorical edge from “nice guys who happen to be musicians” to “OMG REALLY NICE KIND DOODZ that are in a RALLY RALLY tal3nt3ddd band.”

I’m not quite convinced their studio recordings measure up to their live performance, but that’s a question you’ll just have to figure out for yourself.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright play in Rochester tomorrow night at the Bug Jar.

Also download their Daytrotter Session for free.

Daredevil Christopher Wright w/ Off with their Heads
Bug Jar
Rochester, NY
Doors 9pm, $8