Widowspeak - Calico

The Swamps is out Oct 29th on Captured Tracks.

Widowspeak - True Believer

The Swamps EP will be out October 29th on Captured Tracks.

Vivian Girls, Widowspeak, Eternal Summers & Heliotropes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Live Show Review!

On Friday, Music Hall of Williamsburg hosted a stellar set of indie rock with legendary local icons Vivian Girls (their first NY show since 2011!) and Widowspeak, along with the up-and-coming Brooklyn bands Eternal Summers and Heliotropes.

Everybody's favorite shoe—that would be Converse of course—sponsored the free-with-RSVP event. I'm not exactly sure if it was required of performers to don the shoes, but it was probably mere coincidence that I caught Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman wearing a pair of ankle-high all-black converse. Sweet. I'm sure she was not the only one wearing them too, but I've always felt that winter is not the best time to wear my pair.

But I digress. It was a night of memorable performances, start to finish, although I missed most of the Heliotropes so I guess I can't really say that, but I'm sure they were great too! I've been a fan of them since discovering their cover of Roky Erickson's "I Walked with a Zombie." Oh well. Red Bull is apparently curating a new monthly showcase on trending local bands, and Heliotropes will be playing the inaugural event at the Bowery Electric this Tuesday for only $3—count me in.

For the performances I did see in full, all were pleasantly excellent and unique, I guess a little paradoxically, like every band in Brooklyn these days. And that's a compliment to the fact that I am fortunate to see so many great bands in one music scene. But because there's so much greatness going on at once, I was actually not too familiar with most of the acts, so I saw this show as an opportunity to see bands I have heard good things about across the blogosphere. In fact it was this very blog that named "You Kill" by Eternal Summers its favorite song of 2012. And I did know a lot of about Vivian Girls from a peripheral standpoint, enjoying associated acts like The Babies and the work of former bandmates Frankie Rose and Ali Koehler, who drummed for a bit with Best Coast.

I won't bore you with my vapid observations, but here were two noteworthy things: two of the bands were entirely female, and all leading vocalists were women. I really hope that we're at a time in music where no one will think twice about that, because this wasn't a showcase of great female musicians. This was awesome rock, period.

The second observation is that the drummer for Eternal Summers looks like he could play Sabretooth in an X-Men movie, and I'm very jealous about that. Check out my photos if you don't believe me.

And don't forget to check out my photos of Vivian Girls and WIDOWSPEAK too!

-Photos and Story by Joe Waslin

Viva Indie Rock Podcast #46

Track List:
1) PVT  Homosapien  Love and Defeat
2) Thao and the Get Down Stay Down  We The Common  City
3) Bjork  Bastards  Moon (The Slips Remix)
4) Parenthetical Girls  Privilege  Young Throats
5) Sin Fang   Flowers   Young Boys
6) Widowspeak  Almanac   Devil Knows
7) Darkstar  News From Nowhere  Timeaway
8) Jonny Debt  Prince of the Golden Horseshoes  Bronze
9) KONTROLL  A State of Emotional Imbalance 
10) Stars   You Guys Are Awesome EP  Hold On When You Get Love...
11) Unknown Mortal Orchestra  II  No Need For a Leader
12) Nightlands  Oak Island  Rolling Down the Hill
13) Samantha Crain  Kid Face   Never Going Back
14) Shugo Tokumaru  In Focus?  Katachi

Viva Indie Rock Podcast #44

Tracklist:
1) Foxygen  We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of...  In the Darkness
2) Widowspeak  Almanac  The Dark Age
3) Bleeding Rainbow  Yeah Right  Pink Ruff
4) Boxed Wine  Cheap, Fun EP  Dayglow (Why Can't We Stay)
5) Fraktus  Millennium Edition  Pogomania
6) The Fridge  Draw the Pilot  Pilot
7) Gospel Claws  Put Your Sunshine Away  Looming Darkness
8) Guards  In Guards We Trust  Nightmare
9) The History of Apple Pie  Out of View  Mallory
10) The Little Ones  The Dawn Sang Along  Forro
11) Mice Parade  Candela  Currents
12) Milk Music  Cruise Your Illusion  I've Got a Wild Feeling
13) Nightlands  Oak Island  I Fell In Love With a Feeling
14) Norwegian Arms  Wolf Like A Stray Dog  At the Formerly British Counsel...
15) Paisley Reich  Dive  Margot
16) Spiders Everywhere   The First EP  Swing Loops

Widowspeak - Locusts Video!

New album Almanac out now on Captured Tracks!

Stream Widowspeak's "Thick As Thieves"

New album Almanac will be out January 22nd worldwide on Captured Tracks.

Widowspeak - The Dark Age!

Their Almanac LP is due out 1/22/13 on Captured Tracks!



Tour Dates:
12/14 Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus (Hurricane Sandy benefit show presented by Pitchfork) ¥
1/22 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
1/23 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
1/24 Washington, DC - Black Cat Backstage
1/26 Middletown, CT - Wesleyan University - Eclectic House
1/27 Boston, MA - Great Scott

¥ = w/ The Men, Lust for Youth

Viva Indie Rock Podcast #40

Podcast #40 is ready for your streaming or downloading pleasure. Catch the live broadcast Thursdays, 9pm EST on Plaza Midwood Community Radio!



Track List:
1) The Babies  Our House on the Hill   Slow Walking
2) IO Echo  IO Echo EP  Shanghai Girls
3) The Winter Sounds  Runner  Bird on Fire
4) People Get Ready  People Get Ready  Three Strangers
5) Stargroves  Westfjords  Boy Wonder
6) The World Palindrome  Particularly Hello  Pink Spot, Blue Star
7) Widowspeak  Almanac  Ballad of the Golden Hour
8) Sufjan Stevens  Silver and Gold  Christmas Unicorn
9) Brian Eno  Lux   Lux 1

Widowspeak - Ballad of the Golden Hour Free Download!

Widowspeak new album Almanac will be released January 22, 2013 on Captured Tracks. Take a listen to or download the great track Ballad of the Golden Hour!