[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:

[Night Out] OMG CMJ 2015 Day Four & Five: Controller, Slum Sociable, Good Morning, Methyl Ethel, Step-Panther, Pierce Brothers, Kingswood, Sui Zhen, Client Liaison, & SAFIA @ Pianos & The Delancey

Controller @ Pianos

The last 48 hours of CMJ were a total blur. My big brother came to town early before a cruise he was going on and since family comes first my venue hopping came to a screeching halt. Bro was a champ and helped me pick out the featured images in Day Three's post and got an exclusive first listen to the interviews I did with Good Morning, Jake Isaac, Jesse Ruben, BLXPLTN, and Magic Sword. I did manage to drag him out to Pianos go see my good friends Controller. He also got to finally meet Sprout! It was nice to have my two favorite people in the world in one room. We decided to cut the night short after Controller finished so I could rest up to go all out of the last day of the fest.

After spending the afternoon on Saturday with my brother I scurried over to The Delancey or as I will be referring to the day as "Aussie Heaven" (but really it was the Aussie BBQ). I soon realized as I was confirming which stages Slum Sociable and Good Morning were playing that I haven't been exaggerating all week when I've told people that Australia dominated this CMJ in a huge way.

I'd soon get some intel from Alex Laska, Kingswood's guitarist, about why it felt like I had been hit by a semi truck of awesome Australian music all at once. It never occurred to me that in Australia because it's such a huge country that's mostly populated along its coastlines that being a committed band is a hell of a lot more effort than anything anyone in the US could ever imagine. He explained that driving from one major city to the next could sometimes take at least up to 26 hours. We are spoiled rotten, my fellow Americans! That all said, Laska went on to say that because this is the case that the bands who want to tour are the ones who put in the time to make it worth their while so they're all very talented individuals. They're also very supportive of each other because they usually end up eventually all touring together. He really wasn't kidding when he said, "Every single band that's here deserves to be here." It was really great chat overall, I can't wait to air it next week on #skoaradio.

Kingswood getting their face-melty on @ The Delancey.

Post-my interview with Laska I saw the entire day completely differently. He was totally right, you could tell by the way the bands all interacted with each other that the community there was incredibly close knit. It was actually really refreshing to see bands watching each other perform. I know that's not a rarity here per say, but it felt more genuine and less obligatory. I'm sure that has to do with the abundance of bands that are at one's disposal here so the air is more competitive vs communal. That's really a bummer when you think about it. It'd be nice to find a way to swing that there. I guess maybe that has to happen state by state?

Anyway, the only bummer on Saturday night was when I had to call it a night and head home. After finally having a moment to befriend the Slum Sociable guys I tagged along with them going from stage to stage to see all their friends play. I finally got to see Methyl Ethel after Good Morning told me during our interview that I *had* to see them! I caught a total of 9 bands whilst in Aussie Heaven and I loved every single second of it. Glad to have caught Good Morning and Slum Sociable multiple times. Can't wait to get to know Step-Panther, Pierce Brothers, Sui Zhen, Client Liaison, and SAFIA better. Side note: Client Liaison is crazy in the best possible way. Really glad the Slum fam made me stick around for them. Kingswood was face melty. I'm really excited that I'm getting pulled back to gritty guitars to compliment all the synth-driven pop/rock I've been into lately.

I honestly can't think of a better way to end a CMJ than how I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep for 72 hours and see how long until the caffeine withdrawal headaches go away.

Have a look at the photos from Day Four & Five in the gallery below. You can also have a taste of Aussie Heaven for yourself courtesy of this handy dandy Spotify playlist I put together.

[Night Out] OMG CMJ Day Three: Hockey Dad, Vomitface, Dirty Dishes, Mothers, Dirty Ghosts, Kevin Garrett, Mass Gothic, Skaters

Dirty Ghosts! Yay for SKOA fam!

I did not train as well for this year's CMJ as I have in years past. I refuse to say I'm getting too old for CMJ. I just know better than to not have perfect sleeping habits weeks prior, etc. I'm suffering in a big way from it. I decided to more than stick to my schedule of hitting up NYC Taper's day party at Cake Shop. Except for the part at the beginning of the day where, you know, I accidentally rushed to Pianos assuming that's where it was (the door guy welcomed me back the same way he did on Wednesday btw). So instead of seeing Womps I caught 15ish minutes of Hockey Dad. They were great, but not what I had been anticipating. Womp wompppp

Hockey Dad @ Pianos

By the time I got to Cake Shop my new local darlings Vomitface had taken the stage. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the three-piece broke my brain by playfully announcing that they were Viet Kong when they started, which set off a stint of paranoia for at least 3 more bands that I had mixed up venues etc again. I can't tell you how many times I frantically kept checking my schedule until my 2nd coffee kicked in.  Anyway, I enjoyed that for a their playfulness that that they're actually a really solid band. They reminded me that I've been meaning to find more local bands to rally for (since VOWWS left a gaping hole in my heart upon moving to LA) so we gradually made arrangements to hang out later in the day.

Vomitface!

Dirty Dishes

Dirty Dishes and Mothers both delivered solid sets. The fatigue from all of the running around with little sleep was starting to set in and all of the red lighting for every single set wasn't helping me stay energized even with all of the caffeine flowing through my bloodstream. I knew I had another long night ahead of me so I decided to take a set or two off to save my energy for Dirty Ghosts, who I realized earlier in the day I hadn't seen since their appearance at our SXSW show with the Axis of Audio in 2011. I felt proud watching people dance along to tunes from their new record, Let It Pretend, which dropped last week.

Gotta show love for some folks from the south. <3 Mothers <3

After briefly running into my favorite Canadians (Weaves) and giving away the free beer that NYC Taper scored for me, I accepted Vomitface's kind offer to tag along with them to Brooklyn to go check out their friends in Mass Gothic play at Knitting Factory for the Sub Pop showcase. On the way there I invented a new barter system that I want to try on all of the bands I want to befriend: I buy you all drinks and in exchange I get merch. That's fairly mutual beneficial, no? I suppose I should just be generous and pay for both, but for the times a lady needs to be a blogger on a budget this will [hopefully] work out well in the future. At any rate, I was sad to cut my time short with them because I liked both their company and the sweet sounds of Mass Gothic, but I told myself I wasn't going to miss my chance of seeing Kevin Garrett at Rockwood Music Hall (stage 2) so I hauled it over there ASAP.

Mass Gothic @ The Knitting Factory

I was not prepared for the crowd for Kevin Garrett at all. Plenty of shows this CMJ have been full, but when you're lugging around a backpack with a laptop, camera, etc. you become really aware of how much space you're taking up to slip through a crowd. Everyone was irritated that I dared to arrive late to document what I assume will be a rare setting fairly soon, that being Garrett at any venue that small ever again. I mean, have you heard his EP, Mellow Drama? Anyway, "the hunger" suddenly struck me like a semi truck so I became the room's nemesis once again lugging all of my gear out to go grab food before Skaters.

Kevin Garrett making a packed Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 weak in the knees

Did not realize how spoiled I was for day one of CMJ when it came to how chill the energy was at The Living Room for the Music Is Great Showcase because the crowd for Skaters was nutttyyyyy. It was dark and no one was interested in sitting still, yours truly included. At first I attempted to really go for some killer snaps but by that point in the night I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the chaos. Felt good to know that I was supporting multiple NYC bands in a night, especially because someone you know has heard their new song already that comes out next week and LOVESSS ITTT.

Skaters tearing up The Living Room

Didn't do too badly in terms of sleep deprivation. I was only out until a whopping 2:30am. Don't worry, I made sure to put the Slum Sociable album on repeat and sing along to it walking home in Harlem so the crackheads didn't bother me. Since I'm writing this you know it worked. :)

You can check out the rest of my photos from CMJ Day Three in the gallery below. You can also listen to samplings of all of the artists I heard from this post in this nifty little Spotify playlist.

[Night Out] OMG CMJ 2015 Day Two: Car Seat Headrest, Luna Aura, Pinact, BLXPTN, Weaves, Hooton Tennis Club, Magic Sword

Car Seat Headrest @ Pianos

I thought Tuesday was supposed to be my craziest day of CMJ, but apparently it's just a slow build. I'm terrified but obviously still excited to see how Thursday goes. After trying to get photos edited in a timely manner for yesterday's post I had to haul ass to Pianos to make it in time for Car Seat Headrest. They played some cuts from their new record, Teens of Style, which I'm really excited for everyone else to hear once it drops on October 30.

Then came the comical portion of the day where I proceeded to run back and forth from Pianos to other venues in the area that the door guy at Pianos kept greeting me with, "welcome back!", "back so soon?", and " hello again". First I darted over to Rockwood stage 2 to catch the little fireball of energy that is Luna Aura. My first coffee hadn't quite kicked in yet so it took me a moment to be able to harness the explosion of energy that she exuded in photographs, but we got there. In addition to a solid cover of Destiny's Child - "Say My Name" which she got some extra special audience participation from, she gave the crowd a sampling of her latest EP Supernova.

Luna Aura getting a little help from a friend at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2

I shot back over to Pianos to catch Pinact. I can feel myself pulling back towards more rock/punk rock this fall after a long stint mostly focusing my attention on electronic-esque bands as of late. I can't put my finger on it, but I found their bassist to be the most amusing person on the planet. I think it's mostly because he looks like he will never give any fucks about what anyone thinks about him. I think I may secretly want to be him when I grow up? Jury is still out on that one.

Pinact @ Pianos

I ducked out from Pianos the second Pinact finished to go be blown away by Austin duo BLXPLTN. They were another one of those bands that I hadn't gotten to spend a ton of time listening to prior to catching their performance so I'll admit I sort of forgot what I was getting myself into. Their set was as powerful as much as it was inspiring. It's been awhile since I came across a band that had something to say and said it in an approachable enough way that once you're lured in by their badass genre-bending sound that they're doing what they can to inspire change. Once they finished their set I forced myself to not be intimidated by their badassery and beg them for an interview, which you'll be able to hear in full (albeit I need to air it in two parts because it's longer than the standard #skoaradio segments). I also apparently fulfilled a dream of Jonathan from BLXPLTN's by interviewing him while he ate cauliflower? I hope that's not the biggest dream he's ever dreamt, because I see much bigger things for them.

BLXPLTN slaying my face @ Arlene's Grocery

I was so overwhelmed by how awesome the interview with BLXPLTN was that I decided to sit out any other bands I had intended to see and wrap up my Day One recap and use Weaves' set as a reward for pushing out #content even though I wanted to keep running around. By the time I finally wrapped up and got to Pianos they were about halfway through their set. Thankfully, Jasymn is such an performer that I didn't have any trouble getting some fun shots of her. As she would later confirm after their set, they played a couple of new cuts from a record that is in the works in addition to selects from their debut self-titled EP. Jasymn also was kind enough to give me a button after their set, so I'm taking that as a cue that we're going to be best friends any day now. *FINGERS CROSSED*

Jasymn Burke, my future BFF of Weaves at their Pianos set

Upon fueling up on margaritas and a little food I scurried over to Santos Party Haus to see Hooton Tennis Club, who I missed at the Music Is Great Showcase the night prior.

Fun vibes + crap lighting + had to duck out early to make sure I got to Brooklyn in time to interview Magic Swords = not much visual proof of their awesomeness. Oh yeah, speaking of that interview with Magic Sword, that was a fun thing to arrange, especially when you exchange texts like these:

Actual convo with a band I interviewed earlier. Never a dull moment at #cmj2015

A photo posted by [stephanie] kibbe (@heylookitskibbe) on Oct 14, 2015 at 7:05pm PDT

I booked it back to Cake Shop as fast as my taxi could get me there to make it in time for Slum Sociable, who I can say with confidence was my most anticipated show of the week. Two things: #1 - I think I'm going to buy Cake Shop more lights for Christmas so everyone isn't always doused in only red light #2 - if singer Miller Upchurch could bottle the energy he releases for every performance I would buy it immediately and not be complaining on Twitter about how tired I am this week.

Slum Sociable bathed in red at Cake Shop

After Slum I quickly realized that it would have made sense for me to just stay in Brooklyn but you know, the heart what the heart wants. Either way, I made it back to Cameo Gallery with more than enough time to catch Magic Sword. In fact, they were running fairly late so I had a chance to try to practice the ultra low lighting there on Street Fever. I came in on the tail end of his set so I'm not sure if this is a normal occurrence, but within minutes he picked up a synth, threw it on the ground, and proceeded to beat the shit out of it with a mic stand a la the Office Space printer scene....like a foot away from me. It all happened so fast that I only managed to get this one shot, but even sorta blurry it speaks for itself.

This was moments before he threw it on the ground in front of me and tore it apart.

At that point I was feeling the darkness creeping into Cameo in a big way, but it wasn't too long before The Keeper of the Sword and The Seeker aka Magic Sword took the stage and put darkness in its place. I loved that there were a few fans that had their own light up swords to cheer the band along.

When their set ended it was a little after 1:30am. I remember thinking to myself that Slum Sociable's publicist told me that they were playing another show at 2:15am at Baby's All Right. At that point I was sleep deprived enough that I managed to convince myself that if I walked slowly enough from Cameo Gallery that by the time I got to Baby's that I'd be right on time to see them and then I could go home to bed.

The Keeper of The Sword!!!!!!

Upon arrival I was a few minutes early,which gave me just enough time to somehow accidentally trick some Australians who were apparently friends of friends of Slum Sociable that I bought them the free Tiger Beer that was being given away that late. They thought I worked for CMJ? I don't even know. At any rate, as you could guess the turnout for a band that's organically growing into their own didn't pack out Baby's at almost 3am. My new Aussie friends took advantage of the minimal audience to capitalize on the number of selfies they could get while the band was playing. They even demanded a few times that I stop trying to enjoy the slightly better lighting vs Cake Shop to take photos of them.

Slum Sociable being lit the way they were meant to at Baby's All Right

Gotta point out though, even with the turnout being less than ideal those guys played they were headlining a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom. Much respect to bands who aren't easily affected by turnout (or in this case lack there of). I crawled into a cab as soon as I could get away from my new Aussie friends when Slum ended. That was about 3:30am. So much for sticking to my healthy schedule to keep me sane!!

You can listen to all the bands I talked about in this recap in the CMJ 2015 playlist below in addition to having a look at all the photos I painstakingly edited today. Be sure to check this week's #skoaradio for an extra special CMJ edition of the show!