NEON INDIAN
After discovering house music in 2010, I dabbled in the different sects of electronica and found myself in love. In March of 2011, I made my official crossover from rap-enthusiast to househead when I attended Ultra Music Festival. Nearly a year later, I cannot wait to return to my stomping grounds and once again bask in the harmonious music and beating sunshine.
Last year’s festival was an incredible experience, but as a newbie, I had a lot to learn. The low-point of my weekend was when my ticket was ripped off of the lanyard strewn around my neck by a drunken fool. The maniac grabbed the ticket that was hanging above my chest, and ran. Luckily, my mother had always instilled within me the importance of self-defense, so I lunged at the crazy kid who attempted to steal the $275 ticket and returned the item to its rightful owner... me.
The Static Jacks, 4:00 p.m., Bowery Ballroom
by Ryan Egan
Do you wonder why you should love the Static Jacks? Well, it's easy. This band has a similar passion and camaraderie of your first high school rock band, the only catch is they're really, intensely good. The group is yet another beacon of hope shining in New Jersey, sending out signals that the scene is not dead. The live experience has fans remembering At the Drive In and Refused all the while realizing this music never left. My only critique of the performance is that we should have thrown the Jacks in a bus, high tailed it out of the Bowery Ballroom and propped them on stage at Madison Square Garden where their sound and energy could truly be harvested. The Static Jacks are musically begging to break down barriers and small venue walls, and soon enough we'll see them doing just that.
Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to the middle of August and the time where I seriously start to slump because I know that these upcoming weeks are the last licks of summer. Back-to-school will be here in less than ten days! Gone will be my lazy, nap-filled days, and instead replaced with classes, homework and jobs. But luckily for me, music has that ability to just completely take you out of present time and throw you around a bit, make you forget what’s been going on. So let's indulge, shall we? Just let the music lull you out of whatever slump you may be in, and get you back on track.
Looking for a nightclub you can dance all night long even if you're not 21?
It may seem near to impossible, but don't fret just yet because you are in luck. To get into Webster Hall you need to be 19 and older, so now you won't have to miss the biggest electro party in New York City. Come and party at Webster Hall with Girls and Boys with Peanut Butter Wolf. This Friday, the party will feature some of the biggest and most cutting edge names in dance music such as MSTRKRFT, Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Vitalic, A-Trak, Crookers, Bloody Beetroots, Boys Noize, Rusko, Neon Indian and many, many more.
Indie sensation Neon Indian, aka Alan Palomo, aka VEGA has changed labels. It's a major step for Palomo as he's the first of the "chillwave" genre to really break out, with his national performance on Jimmy Fallon.
Palomo has left his indie label Lefse Records and joined the FADER Label which is part of the music branding agency Cornerstone and has also released Matt and Kim, Editors and Saul Williams.
FADER will re-release Neon Indian's extremely successful debut album "Psychic Chasms," which will be out June 8th.
Neon Indian is currently on a U.S. tour and will play Bonnaroo this June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlJ27Dcv4fc
If you weren't able to get to the SXSW festival or just didn't get your fix of indie sounds, there is another festival that takes place down the road from March 20th to 22nd. There are two stages in a beautiful drive-in movie theater on the side of a mountain in the Sierra Madre Oriental, located at Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas #1818 Colonia Las Torres, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
Tickets are $30 USD for a 3-Day pass, which will have 78 bands, including headliners - No Age, Liars, Neon Indian, Andrew WK, and Washed Out. The festival includes a substantial visual art element as well, with the perimeter of the space decorated by huge original murals and projected video pieces (on the drive-in screen of course!) by such artists Stephanie Davidson, Sumi Ink Club, Jesse Spears, Katja Mater, JD Beltran and many more.
Chaz Bundick is Toro Y Moi, whom everyone should know by now is making his way up through the strange and bizarre world of indie rock. I was able to see him perform live last night at Cameo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show was put together by Crush: Bands We Love To Dance To, which is a monthly party built by Jen Lyon and Ruthie that showcases bands they are seriously ‘crushing' on.
It's that time of year again, when music festivals start to show what they got. Recently Coachella announced their summer line up, and now it's Bonnaroo's turn. Except they're doing things a bit differently this year; Bonnaroo is slowly unveiling the names that will be playing this year's festival in Manchester, Tennessee every six minutes at their Bonnaroo Myspace.
The Flaming Lips squealed early and announced that they would be playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon in its entirety. Other than that, we had to wait - and we'll have to continue to wait until the day's end to find out the rest of the lineup.
Alan Palomo makes a triumphant return to NYC area with the first of three Neon Indian shows!
Alan Palomo is a busy guy these days. After an amazing set of shows during New York's CMJ (College Music Journal) run back in October, and a weeks-long trek through Europe, Palomo and his crew returned to New York with the first of three area shows, Tuesday, December 15 at the Mercury Lounge. Touring and traveling incessantly to promote the recent critically-acclaimed release Psychic Chasms, Neon Indian did not disappoint during Tuesday's show, which proved to be a wonderful homecoming for Palomo.
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