Yet another outstanding set! Official TMS Rating: 10/10. Read my Q&A with The Cribs here. In November, The Cribs debuted a video for ‘We Share The Same Skies’. Be certain to catch The Cribs on their North American trek.

More photos, the setlist & a Cribs tune AFTER THE JUMP…

(Read the article)

Kooky and brilliant, as per usual. Last night’s set included a handful of tunes from his new LP (Minor Love), a selection of fan faves (’Jessica’, ‘Morning After Midnight’, ‘Dance With Me’) & even a teaser line from the Moldy Peaches classic, ‘On Top’. Official TMS Rating: 9/10. Visit Adam Green on MySpace. Prior to Adam’s sensational performance, I chatted with him for a forthcoming segment on TMS TV. It’ll be featured on the site very shortly! Adam Green will head out on a brief UK journey later this month.

View more photos & download an Adam Green tune AFTER THE JUMP…

(Read the article)

‘Do I look like Lady GaGa? Yes? Then I’m taking it off. I’ve been wearing wigs since that bitch was still in high school’! That hilarious statement was uttered by Casey Spooner a few minutes past midnight at Fischerspooner’s sensational New Year’s Eve gig. If I described their Music Hall performance as brilliant, then this week’s show was positively otherwordly. Official TMS Rating: 10/10. Watch Fischerspooner’s official video for ‘We Are Electric’ here. Not to be discounted by any means, Dangerous Muse did a fabulous job as the evening’s opening act. All accompanying photos by Santiago Felipe.

View more shots & download a Fischerspooner tune AFTER THE JUMP…

(Read the article)

Last night, Devo performed their legendary 1978 album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, in its entirety (alongside a handful of extra treats). As you might have guessed, the gig was undeniably incredible. TMS Rating: 10/10. Read my Q&A with Devo here. Visit Devo at their official site. Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh recently scored Circle Of 8. All photos by Alexis Maindrault.

View more shots & download a Devo selection AFTER THE JUMP…

(Read the article)

Details are as follows:

June 8th
The Fillmore
8pm

Ticket info can be found here.

MP3: Battles - Atlas

May 19th @ NYC’s Fillmore - Irving Plaza.

This year’s roster includes:

Mary Weiss (The Shangri-La’s)
Richard Lloyd (Television)
Jesse Malin
Cheetah Chrome
Walter Lure
Tish & Snooky
Jean Beauvior
Andy Shernoff
Joe McGinty
JP Thunderbolt
Al Maddy
Ivan Julian
Bobby Steele & Mickey Leigh
Charm School
Semi-Precious Weapons
The Independents
Local H
L.E.S. Stitches
Rachel Newman

For further updates, head here.

MP3: The Ramones - Merry Xmas

Matt: After the teases Jen and I both received while witnessing the live spectacle that is Mew for their brief half-hour set with Bloc Party last summer, and their succinct 45-minute set with Kasabian this past September, it was beyond exciting to hear the band was headlining their first US tour and actually playing a complete show. The Irving Plaza gig last night highlighted tracks from both of their releases, Frengers & And The Glass Handed Kites and was 80 minutes of sheer euphoria.

Mew’s unique blend of post/prog/straightforward and every other genre of rock give the Danes a distinctly recognizable sound as well as a galaxy of authenticity. It was reassuring to see that despite three trips to North America over the last nine months, frontman/guitarist Jonas Bjerre is still as shy and stoical as the band’s first visit. The juxtaposition between the band’s soaring melodies and Jonas’ introverted stage presence is magical, I must say. I can almost picture Jonas, with his captivating voice, auditioning for Danish Idol (yes, it really exists) and having that modest grin on his face upon the judges telling him he is amazing. Although, I’m sure his good looks alone would take him into the finals.

Mew’s usual shtick (a la their backdrop featuring all sorts of creepy images) was in full effect last night. Cats, giraffes, intense neon light beams, line drawings, you name it and it was probably on the screen behind Mew. Probably the most well-received tracks of the night were ‘The Zookeeper’s Boy’ and the set-closing ‘Comforting Sounds’. The latter of which swelled into one of the best live tracks I may have ever seen live before. ‘Comforting Sounds’ is an epic 9-minute tune that only increases in perfection as the end nears. A fantastic song to close the show!

Still want to learn more about Mew, or are just curious as to what Jonas is like in an interview? Check out Jen’s ‘8 Questions With’ Mew from August. I may be a tad bit biased, but Jen conducted a fabulous Q & A with Copenhagen’s finest vocalist.

Setlist: Circuitry Of The Wolf/Chinaberry Tree/Am I Wry? No/156/White Lips Kissed/Behind The Drapes/She-Spider/Apocalypso/Saviors Of Jazz Ballet/The Zookeeper’s Boy/Snow Brigade/Louise Louisa//Special/Comforting Sounds

Jen: Oh No, Oh My are really funny. No seriously they are, like, hilarious. The first time Matt and I saw them over CMJ, they were a riot. Not so much last night though. I chalk it up to them being a wee bit nervous in front of the expansive crowd. There was a small group up front of well-wishers and fist-pumpers that continuously shouted out songs, which was nice.

ONOM are…innocuous. A band more fun to see in a small space than a large venue. Their music is twee and some songs, especially drummer Joel’s ‘I am not a monster’ would fit well along side any Boy Least Likely To track.

Their one shining, standout track is the lovely summertime tune, ‘Walk in the park.’ It’s happy, lovely and invokes great imagery of walking barefoot through your lawn on a hot day. It again has that skippy, airy, folk BLLT sound, but with the advantage of a catchy melody.

Irving has the problem of a generational gap. The crowd tends to part the sea with 16-20 year olds on one side and 30 plusers on the other. With the relatively high ticket prices and the low admittance age, many struggling twenty-somethings tend to avoid Irving, always making for an odd mix of people at the venue.

Therefore last night saw a great divide of hardcore high schoolers up front singing all the words and the older crowd hovering around the fringes, nodding their heads. We were somewhere inbetween.

Mew’s music is dense (like plum pudding not George Bush). What comes at the audience is a wall of sound with ominous drums and layers of singing over crescendo guitars. Throughout last night’s set, I tried to put my finger on what the sound of Mew actually reminded me of. For an hour I alternated with 80’s hair band ballad, Guns and Roses ‘November Rain,’ Sigur Ros and 90’s grunge. What I came up with was that Mew is all of the above. They combine the best of these efforts together to make a sound completely all their own- the ‘November Rain’ guitar solo with the vocals of Sigur Ros over it, White Snake mixed in with Kurt Cobain. But mostly, what you find is that it is all Mew, a shy boy from Copenhagen leading a band of punky Danes playing music with a passion.

MP3: Mew - The Zookeeper’s Boy

I tried people, I really tried. After listening to TVotR’s first album I though, meh. But everyone else was so into them. I got Return to Cookie Mountain and still thought, what the hell?

But sometimes, a band is just so much better in person (see Editors) so I went to see them at Irving. And you know what? This just really ain’t my thing. It’s psychedelic jam rock. Their music is so layered with noise that it’s hard to distinguish the tune of the song. I felt that if they just pared down the layers of noise and add some hooks, they could actually have something good. Though I do think that ‘Wolves Like Me’ is pretty good.

The best part of the show? The two HUGE guys behind us who lit two joints and said only my friend and I could have. The smaller of the two got so excited at the encore that he bulldozed his way to the front, scattering hipsters as he ran, and started moshing with whomever he could bump into.

But mostly, this was my view of the night. I never noticed how pretty the chandelier at Irving is.

Though I did have some excitement. Before the show, I saw Randy Harrison from the American Queer as Folk. I am a huge fan, so that was pretty awesome. Rounds out me seeing his on screen boyfriend, Gale Harold, at the Dallas Museum of Art a couple of years ago.

It’s time for me to play catch up with all the shows I’ve seen these past two weeks. I have been busy running around the city with a friend visiting the city. We’ve been organising an art exhibition that is going to blow your socks off, so watch out.

Last Sunday night, I had the immense privilege of seeing Joan Jett and the Blackhearts perform at Irving Plaza. When I heard confirmation that I was on the Blackhearts list I jumped up from my chair with glee. Now this was something exciting. Joan Jett has been a favourite of mine since high school when I first saw her perform at the Vanderbilt in Plainview, Long Island. It was the first concert I had ever been to and I just couldn’t believe how awesome the experience was. I went with my younger sister and we both jumped into the crowd, pumped our fists in the air and screamed along to ‘Cherry Bomb’ amongst a sea of black leather and tattoos.

Now eight years later, there I was at Irving Plaza with a pass stuck on my jeans allowing me access to the after show party where I could meet the legendary woman who first drew me into the world of music.

Before I get ahead of myself though, first up were opening acts Valient Thorr and Eagles of Death Metal. We aren’t all indie rock here at The Music Slut. Every once in a while, we like to thrash our heads to a little punk metal. Valient Thorr’s music was good, fun and well done but the presentation was a bit off. What ran through my head was: this is exactly what Jack Black’s metal band would be like. I couldn’t tell whether the leader singer was taking the piss or was actually earnest in the way he was acting.

Next up was Eagles of Death Metal. I’ve been a fan of their brand of music since the summer of 2005 when they played T in the Park. After a confusing performance by Valient Thorr, EODM got the crowd back on track with a rousing set. The charismatic Jesse Hughes may just be the perfect front man with an impeccable combination of male bravado and humility. He made the girls swoon and the guys shout. Their latest single, ‘I want you so hard’ from the album Death by Sexy, was the highlight of their set.

And now the amazing Joan Jett. While waiting upstairs for the the Eagles to go on, the crowd suddenly parted as space was made for Ms. Jett, accompanied by Carmen Electra, as she made her way to the VIP section. Electra is very pretty in person and was wearing a lovely cream dress with black polka dots. She’s shorter than you would imagine as well. Earlier this year, Electra admitted that since the age of eight, she’s had a lesbian crush on Jett and is featured in the video for the first single, a cover of Sweet’s ‘A.C.D.C.’, from Jett’s new album, Sinner. The term ACDC is used in place of bisexual.

When I first saw Jett 8 years ago, she barely filled the small Vanderbilt. I was surprised to see the house completely packed for Sunday’s performance. The show was such a successful book, that Jett is set to perform again on December 2nd.

Jett is undeniably a great front woman, performer and is the all time queen of covers. When you buy a ticket to her show, you know you are in for an amazing night. She performed a lot of songs from her new album. ‘Fetish’ and ‘Riddles’ were the stand out tracks. Though not the typical all out rock songs, they have a bit of a quirky pop beat. Like many entertainment folks out there, Jett too has her opinion on the war and ‘Riddles’ is her anthem, it samples the infamous speech by President Bush in which he fumbles the age old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

When the show ended and the venue emptied, I was left on my own in the balcony watching the Blackhearts come out. Jett was taking a long time to emerge and time was slowly creeping into the early morning hours. I’m not much of a star fucker anyway, so I didn’t stick around to take a picture with her. Too bad, it was going to my new MySpace photo.

Last night was The Secret Machines’ opening night of their US tour in support of this year’s thrilling, Ten Silver Drops. Josh, Ben and Brandon collectively decided to have this tour in-the-round.

While I was under the assumption that each band member would be in an opposite side of the room, the show actually featured a circular stage directly in the center of Irving Plaza (just like the Hiro Ballroom show earlier this year). The stage dymanic was intense, just like the music the band produces.

I was rather surprised to hear 2 pre-Now Here Is Nowhere tracks in the set, particularly one opening the show. That said, they sounded great and fresh in spite of their age. The band see-sawed for most of their set with songs from NHIN and TSD with a cover of ‘Money’ thrown in for good measure.

‘The Road Leads Where It’d Led’ was breathtaking and powerful. ‘All At Once’, which isn’t necessarily one of my favorites on TSD, sounded glorious and was one of the most well-received tracks of the night.

The band hopped off stage briefly after ‘Now Here Is Nowhere’, only to return with a 4-song blustering encore that closed with a glowing version of ‘First Wave Intact’. 120 minutes of sheer bliss!

I’m Just Sayin’ has live versions of ‘The Road Leads Where It’s Led’ and ‘Alone Jealous & Stoned’ for download!

And because I love you, here’s the setlist:

Once again, the band plays Irving Plaza again tonight and Warsaw in Brooklyn in a month. That show will end the US tour; the boys head to Europe immediately afterwards!