Shearwater Album Out, In Danbury Next Week

Shearwater's latest, Rook, was released on June 3 to positive reviews (8 on Pitchfork, 4.5/5 stars on allmusic) and you can catch them shortly in Connecticut.

The band is composed of current Okkervil River member Will Sheff and former Okkervil River member Jonathan Meiburg, along with three others.

Rook is streaming now on the band's MySpace.

Shearwater will be playing the Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury, Conn. next Saturday, June 21. Frog Eyes and Evangelicals, who were around here recently, will be opening. $10, 7 p.m.

You may also be interested to hear that Okkervil River will be playing at the Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton, Mass. on October 8.

I'm (We're) Back! (Also: What's Going on Tonight)

So wow, I finally have my computer back now and have a clean slate for a hard drive, which means you no longer have to depend on Melissa and Ed for your music news for the Connecticut area. (Which also means you'll actually receive music news for the Connecticut area).

I did a bit of browsing and noticed that there's a good amount of stuff going on tonight. Ed and Melissa are catching DeVotchka in NYC at Terminal 5. A bit unrelated (and borderline crappy), but expect photos from that tomorrow.

American, Drew Victor and A Locomotive are playing The Oasis in New London. I would tell you a bit about these bands, but American is the worst name for a band ever -- at least as far as a Google search is concerned. It's free and it starts at 10 p.m.

Tonight is also the opening of the Connecticut film festival in Danbury. W-S Burns, Malcolm Tent (Ultrabunny bassist) and a few others will go on at 7 p.m. for $5 at the Heirloom Arts Theatre. The festival kicks off tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. You can check out the schedule for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend here. Apparently, you can only get tickets at City Center Danbury at 186 Main St.

Finally, two events that I'm probably most interested in yet do not have the drive to...drive to are happening in Providence, and very much competing with each other. Sort of odd that Providence needs two 80s dance parties on a Tuesday night. (Although Panic is more on the indie, electro side of things than straight up 80s). Anyways, Panic is at Club Hell (73 Richmond St.) and is free before 11 p.m. Rewind is at Club Gallery (150 Point St.) and is $5. Rewind's MySpace bulletin says:

"The first 50 people in the door get a free movie pass to an advance screening of Son Of Rambow, featuring a soundtrack of great '80's hits from Blondie, The Cure, Duran Duran, The Human League and more and we'll give you a chance to win the soundtrack through the night! There will be lots of 'Make Believe, Not War' t-shirt giveaways and random 80's films up on the big screen too!"

One Tuesday we'll head to Providence and pit these two similar dance parties against each other and report back to you.

Photos from Day 2 of Not Brooklyn Fest

So here they are. These are mainly the photos from the flea market during the day and the acts that performed then. We caught Grand Buffet (who was amazing) and one of the opening bands for the second part of the second day, but left shortly after that. If you have photos of Dead Meadow feel free to post a link in the comments section. You can view the whole gallery for Day 2 here.


Toby Goodshank of the Moldy Peaches


Neil Hamburger


Deer Tick


Grand Buffet

Photos From Day 1 of Not Brooklyn Fest

I'm too tired to say anything about tonight, so here's the photos from Day 1. Video will probably be up tomorrow after Day 2 photos go up. You can view the whole gallery from Day 1 here.


Bear Hands


Appleseed Cast


Cursive

Not Brooklyn Fest Tomorrow!

I think we said all there is to be said about Not Brooklyn Fest, however, we just wanted to remind you that it is tomorrow and we will be there. If you see us fumbling around with our cameras like idiots don't be shy to come say hello. Maybe we'll even sucker Ed into buying you a drink (if you're 21).

We're going to be doing the typical photos of both days of the event, so look for those Friday and Saturday evening, but we're going to be doing video again. Expect two sit-down interviews with Cursive and Bear Hands. If you happen to have any questions you really want the bands to answer, leave them in the comments section.

We'll also be asking you (as well as the bands) about the Connecticut music scene and other such questions. So, you have been warned!

See you there.

The Man Behind Not Brooklyn Fest and Manic Productions

This is all Ed here, but he's way too lazy to even copy and paste something he already wrote. I know, it's impressive. He wrote this piece for The Recorder, so we'll give you a peak here and link you over to save some space. Enjoy.

While you have read his or his company’s name, most of you don’t know who “Manic” Mark Nussbaum is or what exactly he does in the scheme of the Connecticut music scene. Recently, he announced that Manic Productions, along with WXCI 91.7, will be putting together a two-day festival, which headlines with Cursive and Dead Meadow. Along with the two headliners, there are a dozen or so local and national acts.

Edward Gaug: Can you give us the short history of Manic Productions and how it came to the position it is in now?
Mark Nussbaum: Sure, originally I was the [merchandise] person for the Flaming Tsunamis and I would help them out at shows, selling their merch and then some of the dudes in the band started Kill Normal Records, which I’m sure you are somewhat familiar with. I started helping Andy and Ethan book those shows and promote those shows. Eventually, I got interested in trying my own thing out. It just kind of snowballed from that, booking more and more shows, trying to book bands I’m really interested in.

Gaug: Can you remember what the first show you booked by yourself was?
Nussbaum: I did a show at the Arts Barn (Madison, Conn.) back in April of 2002 and it was River City Rebels, Grover Dill and this band Slackjaw, another local band.

Gaug: More recently you have been doing shows with Chinese Stars and Why? and now you have two bigger bands like Cursive and Dead Meadow as a part of your upcoming Not Brooklyn Festival on April 18 and 19. How has working with bands changed now that you’ve been doing this for almost six years?
Nussbaum: It’s much easier talking with bands, ‘cause you have to learn as you’re going. You need to know what you have to do to make bands happy. The experiences are pretty much the same working with a smaller band or a bigger band. They are both on the road trying to play shows.

Gaug: Speaking of Not Brooklyn Festival, you have two days of music lined up at Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury, how did you get the idea for the festival and what are you hoping to accomplish when all is said and done: is it promoting the locals bands you have playing, promoting the new venue or getting some exposure for the company?
Nussbaum: Jay, who owns the venue, told me the radio station (WXCI 91.7 FM) contacted him to put together a day or two of music for what is now a festival. We had done a couple shows there before, like Melt-Banana and No Age and a few others, so he asked me to jump aboard. I have never done a festival before and what better way to do it than at a new venue and splitting it with someone else, doing it by myself would have been way too much work. I basically started contacting bands that I like and thought would do well here. For accomplishments, we definitely want to get as much exposure as possible to the local bands, that’s why we put a lot of bands from New Haven on, which I’m really excited about. Also, we put some Danbury bands on there because the show is in Danbury. We are trying to get the locals exposure, but it also helps promote our company, it helps promote the venue as well and the radio station has real ly been helping us out.

Gaug: Earlier, I brought up the name of the festival, Not Brooklyn, and I have been trying to field that question to everyone I talk to about the shows. So what is the actually story with Not Brooklyn?
Nussbaum: Well, I was sitting in my living room and my roommates and I were trying to think of a name. We came up with the name Not Brooklyn Fest because I had just lost a few shows to Brooklyn and that’s why we chose Brooklyn. It also goes to show people that things are happening outside of major markets like Boston and Philly and Brooklyn. Things are going on in Connecticut and we want bands to be aware of it. Even people in Connecticut complain that they always have to travel out of state to see good shows and that’s not always true. People don’t really take the time to do research and that’s why we promote our shows so much, to try to get the word out. There definitely could be more going on around here and that’s what we’re trying to do overall; get things happening in Connecticut. We could definitely move to a bigger city and get more shows, but we really don’t feel the need to. I’ve grown up here my whole life and I want to stay where I’m needed.

You can check out the rest of the interview here.

Dark Meat in New Haven on Thursday

Another recent Vice Records signing will be at Two Boots (277 Fairfield Ave.) in Bridgeport on April 10 with Monotonix. That signing would be Dark Meat. The psych-rock band consisting of about six thousand members, or a still lofty 17.

There's also a few things you need to know about today. Tonight is night two of the band's kick off for their big tour. If you happen to be in Brooklyn you can find them at Union Pool. Today also marks the rerelease of Universal Indians with a few live tracks tacked on. Finally, if you want to get a sneak at Monotonix they will be in Danbury tonight at Larry's on Elm St.

Amazon's product description of Universal Indians actually does a fantastic job:
"Imagine the Stooges meeting Crazy Horse with killer marching band horns, wailing gospel backing vocals, ripping Eddie Hazel guitar leads, and Albert Ayler free jazz freakouts. Athens' Dark Meat, a 17-piece hippie rock fest featuring double drums, boundless guitars, massive horns, strings, and ensemble voices, has been giving earth-shaking performances all over the south for the last three years."

Download (courtesy of Vice):
Dark Meat - Freedom Ritual