Quick Update

A few notes for you:

One, I updated the calendar. It's got new shows (in the distant future) listed as School of Seven Bells in October at the Pearl Street Clubroom and, in the less distant future, you can look forward to shows like Man Man at Daniel Street in Milford, Conn. this Wednesday and Cotton Jones at the Space on Thursday in Hamden, Conn. More dates on the way soon. 

Two, I'm going to start reviewing some more albums. Got any suggestions? Or, at least, are there any records you're anticipating?

Three, I'm going to be messing with the RSS feeds by Feedburner. Watch out.

More Calendar Dates

Dear Turkey readers,

We just want to let you know we posted some more dates on the calendar and will continue to do at least that for the next three months.

If you haven't already noticed, our posts have been on the decline and as 2/3 of the blog contributors will be out of the state for the summer, we expect to be on hiatus unfortunately. We may post, but probably not consistently or very frequently. For other CT entertainment and music news, see manicproductions.org for Manic's listings or the CT Indie blog. If we find some more useful sites or listings, we'll post them here. 

-Melissa

New Dates Added!

We've got at least a month or so worth of news shows added thanks to Manic Productions and other booking agencies in the CT area. NOTE: national acts such as Girl Talk, Iron and Wine, M83, Vivian Girls and Ra Ra Riot are coming up soon. Grab your tickets and soon. 

Also, what's left of the Turkey writers will try to make it out to some shows in the next two months or so.

Tons of Shows Added, This Weeks Highlights

I finally did some calendar updating and there's a ton of quality shows coming up soon. Some highlights for this coming week.

Say Hi on Wednesday
Formerly named Say Hi to Your Mom, the Seattle indie-pop band will be in Danbury with Jukebox the Ghost. Earlier this year the band released The Wishes and the Glitch, which is a favorite of mine for 2008. Jukebox the Ghost has been gaining adoration lately with their April release Let Live and Let Ghosts. Honestly, Ed, you guys should really do to this. The Dodos are also today and if I haven't seen them live twice already I would definitely be recommending them here too. Say Hi will be in Cambridge, Mass. the day before and Brooklyn the day after.

Downloads:
Say Hi - Northwestern Girls
Say Hi - Toil and Trouble

Tegan and Sara on Saturday
A week from today everyone's favorite twin sister, lesbian indie-pop band (are there any others?) will be Worchester with City and Colour and Girl in a Coma. I'm just really glad they stopped bring that all-girl hip-hop group with them on tour. They were bad.

Tegan and Sara released The Con last year to much praise (from myself included). In fact it ranked at #5 on our Top 20 list. Interesting to look at a year later to see how it held up. We definitely bought into the Radiohead hype a bit too hard. And some are way too high (White Williams, Jamie T) and some too low (LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A.). Anyways, go see Tegan and Sara, they are great.



Speaking of Saturday and female hip-hop, there's a great show that I plan on being at in Brooklyn that day. Menya will be playing at the Asterisk Gallery with Figo. A couple dudes from the Rapture will be DJing (I assume) after the show.

Jenny Lewis on Sunday
Good timing for you Connecticutians. Her second solo album, Acid Tongue, was just released on Tuesday and now you've had enough time to fall in love with it, remember all the lyrics, and creep Lewis out by how well you know it. The A.V. Club gave it a solid B+. I personally have not heard it, but I would definitely take their word on it.

Girl Talk Today (Show and On Sale)

Apparently Ed and Melissa are not your friends. They actually planned on not telling you about tonight's Girl Talk show just so they could get in. Imagine that? Yeah, I'm a bit shocked too. So if you happen to see those two at Trinity College tonight do what we Brooklynites do to the cast of the Real World when we see them, throw PBR cans at them (I don't know what part of that I'm joking about).

The Trinity Tripod reported in the beginning of the month that Greg Gillis himself would be at the campus today "performing" (oh fuck yeah, I said it) at the Mill. I have no idea where that is, but go to Hartford, find Trinity and follow the drunk kids. You'll either end up at a party or the Girl Talk show, and you may not even be able to tell the difference (I kid, I kid).

Assuming they haven't sold tickets in advance, I would get there early. If you haven't heard yet, Mr. Gillis has sold out two consecutive dates (11/15, 11/16) at Terminal 5 in New York. The good news is for you New Yorkers is that a third show is still available on 11/18, but I'm not really up for getting that drunk on a Tuesday. I'm a working man, goddammit!


Tickets go on sale today at noon for the Girl Talk show at Lupo's in Rhode Island. That show isn't until November 29th, but seeing how these shows sell out I wouldn't be surprised if they were making room for a second show if necessary.

Pictures provided by Ed when Girl Talk came to Toad's Place.

The Calendar Revised

Hello and welcome back. If you'll check the sidebar to the right, you'll see a bunch of new dates for the Conn., Mass. and R.I. area. P.S. Ignore the Aug. 21 date- today is actually 8/23. 

It may be a bit too late to plan for some shows tonight, but I'm going to tell you about them anyways:

 The Hush Sound are headlining, along with The Cab and Steel Train at the Webster. Doors are at 6 p.m. The venue will be closing its door until Sept. 5 for a performance by Eve 6 and Stealing Jane. The Problemaddicts, a hip-hop act from Mass., are making an appearance at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. The show's at 10 p.m. and tickets are $10. Sister venue Pearl Street Night Club will see headliners Gone By Daylight for a 7 p.m. show. 

If you're in the New Haven area tonight, look out for Cafe Nine's "End of Summer Dance Your Face Off Rock Show." Seriously. Seattle's welcome will be there, as well as Saint Bernadette and Milford, Conn.'s Electric Bucket. 

More calendar to come...

(the rest of) July in Connecticut: Shows

UPDATED 7/13: Check below for additional information on venues and openers. New dates have been added.

We’re going to talk about some Connecticut shows; Manic Productions has got some events happening soon, as well as local names like Titles and Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine.

We’ve already talked about Elf Power playing tonight at The Space in Hamden, Conn. for $12., but this weekend will also see Wye Oak with El Olio Wolof as a free performance at BAR’s tropolis in New Haven tomorrow night, Sunday, July 13. I think it will be a mellow, but pleasant night at BAR and certainly perfect Sunday music. Tall Firs will make an appearance there on the 27th.

Manic Productions presents Deerhoof at the Heirloom Arts Theatre on Wednesday, July 16th at 8 p.m.  if you have $12. Also, The Mae Shi (not "The Mae Shit" that has been posted on our calendar for some time now –sorry) are playing the Theatre on Thursday, July 17 for $8. Fat Worm of Error are opening. It's an all-ages show, 21+ to drink.

Jucifer along with North Haven, Conn.'s Murdervan and New Haven-based Taiga will be playing the Cherry Street Station in Wallingford, Conn. on Friday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m. 21+

The Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. may not have had an extravagant MGM Grand makeover like Foxwoods, but they will have Lewis Black. The stand-up comedian will be there on Friday, July 19; tickets are $45 and the show starts at 8 p.m. 

The following night, Saturday, July 20, at The Space will host New Haven, Conn.'s Titles at 7 p.m. The band's second LP, Up with the Sun, was released in June and should be available nationally around now. Tickets are $10.

Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine will be playing Cafe Nine in New Haven with Etta Place on Wednesday, the 23rd for free (?). I just realized we saw them open for Oxford Collapse at one of The Eclectic Society's shows at Wesleyan, however, we couldn't make it the whole way through. 

Manic also has Vetiver, Diamond J & The Rough and Kath Boom playing The Space on the 30th - tickets are $10. According to Manic's Mark, Vetiver is the "best band ever." Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (pictured, left) is stopping at the People's Center on July 31 in New Haven; tickets are $8. He recently dropped the track "L'estat" and is working on a full-length for release soon. The material on his myspace is a little obscure, but I'm digging it. 

Chairlift and The Procedure Club are also playing. 

For $40 you can see Nas with Talib Kweli and Jay Electronica at Toad's Place on July 25th at 9 p.m.

As usual, check our calendar to the right for updates and if there's anything good we're missing, let us know at morelikeasixfootturkey@gmail.com.

The Next Two Weeks in Shows

To get a good idea of what’s going on in Connecticut over the next week (month) or so, you can always rely on out calendar to the right, or you can just find out here, for now.

Mark Nussbaum over at Manic Productions is in the middle of a busy week with shows over at the Cherry Street Station in Wallingford. Tomorrow might they’ve got local band Cable and Boston’s Irepress. Something interesting: Wikipedia tells me that Cable’s “lineup changes and delays between recordings may have hindered their notoriety over the years.” It sounds a little more complicated than that – they’ve been around for 14 years… Apparently they are preparing to release their come-back album Variable Speed Drive.

Another show tomorrow night will be Tippy Canoe (and the Paddlemen?) at Cafe Nine (see calendar).

On Saturday, June 28th, the Cherry Street Station is hosting Grails and Nadja, who have been touring together for a little while now. Also present will be duo Lady Lovelace and the Calculator Death Machine. They are interesting.

Saturday is also the date of the Times New Viking show at the Living Room in Providence, R.I. if you feel like spending a little extra cash for the drive, or finding chauffeur friends. Listen to their recent Daytrotter session. Also, they’re playing with Deer Tick, a band that found us at the Not Brooklyn Festival.

Kicking off July on Manic’s calendar will be gothic, country punks (this is accurate) O’Death at New Haven People’s Center on the 11th. There isn’t much more I can say without Mark Rowan getting all flustered and embarrassed that I write for this blog.

For July 12, Elf Power is playing The Space in Hamden, CT. tThey’re another band hailing from Athens, Ga. and they're on tour supporting the March 25th release In a Cave. If I find myself home that weekend, I’d be down for spending less than $10 on this show.

People to See, Places to Go: 5/30 Podcast

Look at us being all productive and whatnot. The three of us got together one last time before Melissa packed her bags for NYC for the summer to bring you this podcast. We take a look at the calendar and spotlight a few things over the next week or so. Sample tunes galore.

Titles Record Release Party Tomorrow

I feel like this show has been on our calendar for ages, but now it's finally here (and I think we'll be there). So expect photos from that show.

The show is free and starts at 9 p.m., so you have no reason not to be there and plenty of extra cash to buy Up With the Sun, Titles newest album on Safety Meeting Records.

Etta Place opens up the show and DJ Live Mike closes it out starting at midnight for the after party.

Titles currently has three songs off the new record streaming on their MySpace. Not sure if I just listened to "A Happy Life" or actually spoke about it, but it's very New Amsterdams-y and that is a good thing. "Fully Dressed in Bed" and "No Love" are no slouches either. Check them out.

Newport Folk Festival - August 1-3

When I mentioned there wasn't much going on in our area as far as festivals go, I seemed to have looked over the Newport Folk Festival in (you guessed it) Newport, RI. The festival has been going on since 1959 and was actually the place Dylan went electric for the first time in 1965. Pretty neat.

There doesn't seem to be any information on what is planned for Friday, but Saturday and Sunday have a mix of acts from really good to pretty depressing. I won't go on to complain about which bands don't really fit the 'folk' label, but you'll notice it's an odd mix. Two-day passes will run you $148 bucks or $69 for Saturday and $89 for Sunday, assuming those of you reading this are over the age of 12.

Saturday, August 2nd
The Black Crowes
Cat Power
Stephen & Damian Marley
Jim James (of My Morning Jacket)
She & Him (feat. Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward)
Jakob Dylan
The Felice Brothers
Jesca Hoop

Sunday, August 3rd
Jimmy Buffett
Levon Helm
The Avett Brothers
Calexico
Brandi Carlile
Kaki King

This is a shortened list. For the whole lineup check out the Newport Folk Festival's site.

Comprehensive List of Festivals for this Summer

Pitchfork put together their "Guide to Summer Festivals" for this year and there's a lot going on. This is exactly what I was looking for a week ago when I was trying to plan a little vacation that involved a stop at a festival. So if you're looking for a weekend or week getaway and want to add some music to your list of things to do, check out the list.

There isn't much going on in our neck of the woods, but plenty of stuff not too far away. You can check the list yourself for New York, but I'll post the listing of the one Massachusetts fest.

WHAT: Brainwaves
WHEN: November 21-23
WHERE: Arlington, Mass.
WHO: Matmos, Stars of the Lid, A Place to Bury Strangers, Boduf Songs, Meat Beat Manifesto, His Name Is Alive, Gary Wilson, Lichens, Charalambides, Marissa Nadler

If you know of any other festivals (big or small) happening in the area, let us know!

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.

Not Just the Cool Kids Tonight

As much as we flat out love the Cools Kids, it would be a crime to not mention the other acts for Wesleyan's spring concert that is happening tonight. I just stumbled upon this now, but GZA will be headlining and not only that, he'll be playing Liquid Swords front to back.

Liquid Swords, in case you don't know, is acclaimed as one of the best rap albums ever. Yes, it is that good. And you could hear it all live. Rather insane to think about. The Hold Steady will be supporting. You may remember their album that everyone loved in 2006 - Boys and Girls in America. They are currently working on/wrapping up their follow-up, Stay Positive, which will drop in July.

Of course, the Cool Kids will be there too. Their EP to precedes their highly anticipated full-length drops this month. If that wasn't enough for one night, The Hood Internet will be spinning between sets. This horrendous quote was put in Wesleyan's newspaper regarding the Hood Internet:

“Instead of listening to Creed or Counting Crows between each set, we’ll skip the usual lulls and maintain the awesomeness indefinitely,” said Social Committee member Derek Silverman ’09.

How groundbreaking, a Creed dig. 

Side note: Why would you have acts like Talib Kweli (previously came to Wesleyan) and the ones mentioned above playing live and then have someone playing Creed in between sets? How is that even possible? It's not by the way, which is why that dig is even dumber because the dude had to go out of his way to make it. Yes, that did bother me.

Edit: Oops. Looks like we dropped the ball on this one. As I type this (almost 5 p.m.) Cool Kids and Hold Steady already went on. I assume GZA will be on soon. Oh well. If you went let me know how it was.

Oxford Collapse Tonight

I could have sworn Ed did an interview with Oxford Collapse when they came through New Britain last year, but I guess not. Anyways, the Sub-Pop band released Remember the Night Parties in 2006, which was the last album I was aware of, but apparently they dropped an album at the beginning of 2007.

The band is currently working on/finishing their latest full-length, Bits, which is planned for a August 5 release date. A full U.S. tour will precede that release in June with Scottish band Frightened Rabbit.

Check Oxford Collapse out tonight at Wesleyan (Middletown, Conn) for free.

Thursday Night: Dance Party in Northampton

So if you're in Northampton and not going to Dan Deacon or not into Dan Deacon, there's an alternative for you. Sierra Grill is having a little dance party of their own tomorrow evening featuring SwillMerchants and Rabbit Rabbit with Purity Supreme DJing afterwards. It's $2 and 21+.

Computer is Broke! Weekend Preview.

If you're wondering why there hasn't been any posts since the Girl Talk show it is not because we're too hungover still, it's because my hard drive just shit itself (and Ed and Melissa are lazy). I don't think anything too crazy has happened since the weekend, but I'll let you know that Ed should be posting an interview with Farewell Flight. I know you can find some photos kicking around on our feed to the side, but I'm sure Ed will be posting that soon.

Anyways, this weekend is shaping up nicely. Before I discuss the music, let's not forget that Iron Man hits theaters on Friday. I'm definitely nerding out for this one and may even catch it at midnight.

Dan Deacon makes two stops in our area this week. Once on Thursday in Northampton and for those of you who would rather not go into work destroyed (i.e. me) you can catch him in Providence on Friday. He's playing at Building 16, which is apparently some super secret place. I think I'm dedicated enough to dig up the address.

Oxford Collapse is playing for free at Wesleyan on Saturday. If you missed them when they came to New Britain last year with (I think) Chin Up Chin Up then make sure you catch them this time around.

Last, but certainly not least is the New Bloods, who I believe were named band to watch by the A.V. Club. Either way, this show is definitely worth driving to Providence for even on a Sunday. The band is going overseas right after this show, so make it out there or it might be awhile until you see them again.

A Ton of Good Shows Tonight

For those looking for a way to follow-up last night's Girl Talk performance at Toad's, there's a handful of really good looking shows tonight. I may stop by Japanther.

I'd go into details, but I think it's safe to assume you all can read the calendar on the side there. Tokyo Police Club and Smoosh is an awesome lineup though. If I wasn't busy or if I was in the Northampton area tonight I would certainly be making an effort to be there.

PS: Ed should hopefully have the photos from last night up around 7 p.m. or late tonight when he gets back from Farewell Flight.

New Mates of State Video, Album Drops in Less Than a Month

Mates of State posted their video for "Get Better" today. The track will be off their upcoming album titled Re-Arrange Us, which will hit stores on May 20. You can also listen to "Get Better" on the duo's MySpace.

Mates of State will be in New Haven at Toad's Place on May 16.



I like the song a lot better without the video. I have no idea why, but it's distracting.

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.