NYC Taper writes:

Alabama Shakes recent rise in popularity can be described as nothing short of meteoric. Less than a year ago, they were virtually unknown outside of a handful of bars in the southeastern United States. Getting a push via the internet, word of mouth and their Alabama brethren, Drive-By Truckers, the group began to blow up, playing gigs with DBT and flooring attendees at their NYC debut this past October as part of the CMJ Music Marathon. After a follow up at the intimate Mercury Lounge in December, Alabama Shakes blitzed our city again with sold out, back-to-back shows at the Studio at Webster Hall, Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg to coincide with the release of their first full-length album, 'Boys & Girls'.

Sound of the City writes:

The music portion of the Northside Festival—the North Brooklyn celebration of music, art, film, and (in a nod to Brooklyn's many small businesses) entrepreneurship—will take place at various venues throughout Kings County from June 14 to 17. Participating venues include the usual Brooklyn rock suspects as well as Williamsburg Park, a former industrial lot on N. Kent Avenue where this summer's waterfront concerts will take place.

Sound of the City writes:

By the third week of "Insides Out," Dr. John's residency at the Brooklyn Academy might have been dubbed "Occupy Howard Gilman Auditorium." The vibe at this high-culture outpost had been that powerfully transformed through a participatory democracy not often witnessed at supposed pop-star showcases. On Thursday night, protest was in the air—actually, it seemed more like junior-high misbehavior during assembly period when boos and hisses overtook a representative from JPMorgan Chase, the fourth pre-concert podium speaker on hand to celebrate BAM's 150th anniversary (this was also board gala night). Such speechifying wasn't the best of plans; still, BAM's programming of "Insides Out" was starting to look like a brilliant stroke.

Sound of the City writes:

There was a roar that went up during the full stops between songs early in Kraftwerk's Saturday-night MoMA set, the fifth of eight total (the seventh begins tonight). It started like applause but kept rising, thickening—there was no mistaking it. It wasn't simple relief that we finally got into the damn building after the concert series' well-publicized online ticket-sales flubs, or that (I hope) we didn't have to pay $45,000 for one. It was more like gratitude, as if we were getting to shake hands with Thomas Edison: Thank you for inventing everything. OK, maybe not "everything," but like James Brown or the Beatles or Bob Dylan, Kraftwerk's impact is simply too big to measure.

Brooklyn Vegan writes:

There's this awkwardness that I love at a hardcore show, the moment when a beloved band plays a new song. It's clear that the crowd wants to dance and go nuts (especially, in the case of Converge who have a rather large hit rate), but no one knows what to do.

NYC Taper writes:

Yellow Ostrich was the first band I saw last year, at this same venue (Mercury Lounge). Back then, the band consisted of creative mastermind and frontman Alex Schaaf and drummer Michael Tapper, working hard to produce an on-stage re-recreation of the simple magic of the band’s then-current release, The Mistress. That record was one of those inde gems you might miss if you didn’t pay attention to the CMJ showcase circuit and the right blogs; it was a lo-fi, low-profile recording offered on Schaaf’s bandcamp page for free, and it was as simple and unadorned as a record could get. That sold-out show found Schaaf still finding his footing creatively and and as a performer; he was still a bit raw, but already compelling.

Brooklyn Vegan writes:

Julianna Barwick and Grouper performed at the Guggenheim Museum on Friday (4/13), as part of the three-part live music series, Divine Ricochet, "that accompanies John Chamberlain: Choices, on view through May 13 at the museum."

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

On Saturday, April 14, the Seattle, WA hip-hop collective known as Shabazz Palaces (Tendai Maraire and Palaceer Lazaro) headlined a late night show at Brooklyn Bowl in support of their excellent Sub Pop record, the full length album Black Up. Opening act was another Seattle hip-hop group, Malitia MaliMob, whose members were born in Somalia.

Sound of the City writes:

YouTube recently declared a new Worst Band Ever. Whether or not the hapless outfit from Pennsylvania—first seen covering Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" under gloriously bizarre giant letters spelling out MUSIC—is truly deserving of the title remains to be seen. But they and countless other YouTube sensations yet to come have both marginalized and validated the Shaggs, the band of sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire that recorded one privately pressed album in 1969, gigged for a few more years at their local Town Hall, called it quits, and—since their late 1970s rediscovery—have traditionally held rock's Worst Band Ever title. In a better-indexed society, though, "Worst" is no longer the most accurate word to describe them, if it ever was to begin with.

Brooklyn Vegan writes:

You already saw the setlist from last night's Pulp show which was the first of two shows at the fancy NYC venue for the reunited Britpop greats who also hit Fallon while in town and who continue on to play Coachella this weekend. Here are the pictures, opener Chromatics (who played Le Bain one night earlier) included.

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

The Brain Cave Festival aimed to showcase DIY bands, artists and DJs from Brooklyn, NY. On Thursday, April 5, concertgoers caught sets from the following bands: Shilpa Ray, Natureboy, Firehorse, Landlady, Blast Off!!!, EULA, El Jezel, Jon Mizrachi and Magnetic Island.

Pitchfork writes:

As part of Kraftwerk's eight-night retrospective New York museum residency this month, the band will release a limited-edition box set of all eight of their albums. 2,000 copies of the set will be sold on the Museum of Modern Art's website, and at gift shops in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan and MoMA/PS1 in Queens. It'll include remastered versions of the set released in 2009 (the massive reissue The Catalogue).

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

On Friday, April 6, Market Hotel held it's first non-secret show in two years with the prolific Calvin Johnson's unamplified band, The Hive Dwellers. Leila Adu and Hamish Kilgour shared a set, with Kilgour performing first followed by songs from Adu. Seattle's The Curious Mystery were second, before Katie Eastburn's solo set. Not pictured? Lots of people in the audience talking incessantly during Kilgour and The Hive Dweller's acoustic performances.

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

Japanese garage punk rockers (and stars of the cult fim, Wild Zero) Guitar Wolf played a raucous show at Brooklyn, NY's Knitting Factory on Saturday, March 31.

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

On Thursday, March 29, Ducktails (a.k.a. Matthew Mondanile), Twerps and Home Blitz performed at 285 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, NY.

Sound of the City writes:

Over the past three years, artists such as Caribou, Phantogram, and Tame Impala have merged their already-existing musical sensibilities with psychedlia, creating music that attempts to bring its audience into a transcendent place. The trio Young Magic, which come together from different corners of the world and now resides in Brooklyn, operates with a similar M.O., exploring both the past and the future with its heady, potent mix of music and visuals.

Stereogum writes:

Vermont outsider folk duo MV & EE will put out a new record, Space Homestead, out on Woodsist in May. We've already heard the lead single "Workingman's Smile," and now we've got a new cut from Space Homestead available for download, the wistful jam "Too Far To See."

IMPOSE Magazine writes:

On Wednesday, April 4, New York, NY's Mercury Lounge featured a garage rock show with Oakland's Hunx & His Punx and Nashville's Heavy Cream.

Sound of the City writes:

If you're really "in the streets" of New York City, then most of the people in your circle should be street urchins and guttersnipes also using the asphalt lawns of the Big Apple as their playground.
They're your closest friends, even though you didn't go to school together; you're not from the same hood or even the same borough. Yet somehow you're friends. The street is your alma mater. Racking, hustling, skating, rapping, writing graffiti, drinking, drugging... that's the curriculum.