The Cobbs Grab Opening Slot On BMRC Tour

As fans of theirs from back when they were called Mad Action, we're pleased to see that Philly's badass garage noise merchants The Cobbs have jumped on to the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tour for about three weeks of dates.

Like BRMC, The Cobbs play a catchy kind of rock that throbs and grates, but underneath is straight up pop structure. That's going to be a great double bill.

The Cobbs - "Say You Never Knew Me" mp3 buy

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB/THE COBBS TOUR DATES

May 31 Webster Hall New York City, NY
June 1 Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
June 2 9:30 Club Washington, DC
June 4 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
June 5 The Music Mill Indianapolis, IN
June 6 City Hall Nashville, TN
June 7 Roxy Theatre Atlanta, GA
June 9 Culture Room Fort Lauderdale, FL
June 10 The Social Orlando, FL
June 12 Zydeco Birmingham, AL
June 13 The Repulic New Orleans, LA
June 14 Meridian Houston, TX
June 15 La Zona Rosa Austin, TX
June 16 House of Blues Dallas, TX
June 17 Diamond Ballroom Oklahoma City, OK

Stream the whole album here:

Free Summer Shows Listings, Television/Apples/Dragons Of Zynth Preview

As we enter the Summer free concert season, we find the usually indispensable Oh My Rockness listings even more awesome. Click here and bookmark their free show listings.

Speaking of free shows, how cool is the Television/Apples In Stereo/Dragons Of Zynth bill on June 16 at the Central Park Summerstage?

In case you hadn't heard, that show will be Richard Lloyd's final gig ever with Television.

Television - "See No Evil" mp3 buy

The Apples in Stereo - "Energy" mp3 buy

Dragons of Zynth - "Who Rize Above" mp3

New Art Brut Album Info & Contest

If you read extrawack! regularly you know of our love for Art Brut, so it should be no surprise that we are fired-up for the release of their new album, It's A Bit Complicated, which hits the streets on June 19th. Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that they'll be back here later this year for dates with Maximo Park...that's a sweet double bill.

Anyway, extrawack! wants to give three lucky readers a combo prize pack of an autographed Art Brut poster and a "can't-buy-it-in-stores" CD sampler of tracks from the new album. To win, be the 20th, 25th, or 30th email to extrawack@gmail.com with the subject "ART BRUT". Contest open to U.S. residents only...sorry Papua New Guinea!

Here are a couple tracks from the new one:

Art Brut - "Pump Up The Volume" mp3 buy

Art Brut - "Direct Hit" real win

And here's a great clip from Art Brut's first trip to NYC in 2005, filmed at the Tribeca Grand Hotel (courtesy of Punkcast):

Free Ladytron DJ Set @ Hiro Thursday Night

Mira & Reuben of Ladytron, two musicians who actually can DJ (as opposed to preening behind the decks with headphones on like most "special guest DJ's") will be spinning at Hiro Ballroom Thursday night. There will also be a live set from the always super groovy Kudu...





Click here for free guest list action.

Bloc Party - "Like Eating Glass" (Ladytron Remix) mp3 buy

Gang Of Four - "Natural's Not In It (Ladytron Remix)" mp3 buy

Video Of Lady Sov's Studio B Meltdown

Here's video of Lady Sovereign's meltdown at Studio B last Friday night:



"I'm finished...I'm done".

Anyone know if refunds were given?

Erasure Playing McCarren Park Pool In August

After finishing up their stint on the multi-act "True Colors" tour (with Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, The Gossip, and Dresden Dolls) in support of the Human Rights Campaign, Erasure has scheduled their own headlining tour culminating with a date on August 3 at McCarren Park Pool.
I've seen these guys a bunch of times live, and it's always a ball...a far cry from back in the day when Vince Clarke would walk out on stage with Yaz, light a smoke, push a MIDI trigger button, and wait for Alison Moyet to finish singing...

The tour is in support of their new Light at the End of the World album, which is out today.

Here's video of the single, "If I Can Fall In Love With You":



Light at the End of the World Tour Dates:

Fri 7/6
Tampa, FL
Carol Morsani Hall @ TBPAC

Sat 7/7
Miami, FL
James L. Knight Center

Sun 7/8
Orlando, FL
Hard Rock Live!

Fri 7/13
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Coliseo Roberto Clemente

Sat 7/14
Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic
The Amph @ Altos de Chavon

Mon 7/16
Mexico City, Mexico
Metropolitan Theater

Thu 7/19
Monterrey, Mexico
Arena Monterrey

Sat 7/21
Anaheim, CA
Grove of Anaheim

Tue 7/24
Seattle, WA
Moore Theatre

Fri 7/27
Minneapolis, MN
First Avenue

Sat 7/28
Milwaukee, WI
Pabst Theater

Sun 7/29
Kansas City, MO
Uptown Theater

Tue 7/31
Detroit, MI
Music Hall

Wed 8/1
Cleveland, OH
House of Blues

Fri 8/3
Brooklyn, NY
McCarren Park Pool

Free New Adult Swim Album With Rare Tracks From TV On The Radio, Asobi Seksu, Rapture, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Broken Social Scene, and more.

Adult Swim has just released a free downloadable album called Warm & Scratchy with a pretty sweet lineup of artists and rare/new tracks:


Warm & Scratchy - Tracklisting:

01. Me-I - TV On The Radio
02. Dead Sound - The Ravenettes
03. The Equestrian - Les Savy Fav
04. Crimson Red - The Rapture
05. Justine - 120 Days
06. Canada Vs. America - Broken Social Scene
07. Color of the love You Have - SOUND Team
08. The Bunting Song (acoustic version) - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
09. Half Century - The Brother Kite
10. Silver (Original Beats) - Jesu
11. Back to Flash - Amusement Parks on Fire
12. Stay Awake - Asobi Seksu
13. Winter - Fennesz
14. Sunset Rodeo - Liars

Get the whole thing here.

I'm already in love with this one in a huge way:

Asobi Seksu - "Stay Awake" mp3

That track, as far as I know, is the A-side of a vinyl 7" that Asobi Seksu is putting out very soon on Gigantic.

album review: Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara

There’s a scene in Boogie Nights when William H. Macy reviews the activities for the day’s shoot with Burt Reynolds. Scanning the list of participants, Macy pauses. "Dirk...Diggler?" he asks, to which Reynolds responds something like, "That’s the new kid." Macy nods enthusiastically and says quietly, but with considerable admiration, "great name." As Wahlberg states in an earlier conversation with Reynolds, he wanted a "razor-sharp" tag, something that could "cut glass." And for all his obvious intellectual lapses, the guy crushes the name game on the first try. It’s a killer title for his cocksman alter-ego - it’s compact, heavy and it implies action. Dirk Diggler becomes the king of what he does and his name is no small part of it. You close your eyes, hear "Dirk Diggler" and you know what to expect. It’s a seamless union of man and mission.

Great Lake Swimmers is the perfect name for the Canadian band led by Tony Dekker. It speaks of open spaces, majestic views, heroic feats and grand undertakings. At its heart however, the name suggests simplicity - people against a force of nature. From this competition of man against nature, the other elements flow. Their music follows a similar vein - it’s grand, it’s simple, it soars, it sinks. Ongiara, their third album, rarely finds GLS breaking past mid-tempo, like most of the songs on the first two albums. Listen to older tunes like "Moving Pictures, Silent Films," from the debut and "Let’s Trade Skins", from Bodies and Minds, and hear how these, like so many on the new album, unfold and develop slowly, moving in fragments, seemingly, until the end when you realize how perfectly the parts have fused together. The reverb from their first two offerings is tempered on Ongiara. Dekker’s vocals (they sound double-tracked in spots) float above the music, which contains a lot of banjo and strings. Like all great songwriters, when he feels something, you feel it too.

Reflective and moody, Ongiara takes you places and sits you on the wall to scan the action. Each track is written in the first-person and each explores common subjects - love, loss, family, heartbreak and acceptance. If you’re familiar with GLS, there’s nothing on Ongiara to surprise you, but it feels good knowing the ideas and the music still sound fresh.

As Dirk Diggler would say, these guys have the touch, they’ve got the power. Great name, too. (John Byrne)

Great Lake Swimmers - "I Am Part Of A Large Family" mp3 buy

Dirk Diggler - "You've Got The Touch" mp3 buy


Great Lake Swimmers tour dates:

June 5 Cambridge, MA; Middle East
June 6 New York, NY; Joe's Pub
June 7 Arlington, VA; Iota
June 8 Philadelphia, PA; Tin Angel
June 9 Pittsburgh, PA; Garfield Artworks
June 10 Chapel Hill, NC; Local 506
June 11 Charleston, SC; The Map Room
June 12 Atlanta, GA; The EARL
June 13 Birmingham, AL; Bottletree Café
June 15 Houston, TX; Walter's On Washington
June 16 Austin, TX; Emo's
June 17 Dallas, TX; Bend Studio
June 19 Phoenix, AZ; Modified
June 20 Los Angeles, CA; Hotel Café
June 21 San Francisco, CA; Cafe du Nord
June 23 Seattle, WA; Tractor Tavern
June 24 Portland, OR; Holocene
June 26 Salt Lake City, UT; Kilby Court
June 27 Denver, CO; Hi-Dive
June 28 Omaha, NE; TBA
June 29 Madison, WI; Cafe Montmartre
June 30 Chicago, IL; Schuba's
July 1 Minneapolis, MN; 7th Street Entry

May's Baker Dozen Downloads...mp3's from The National, Fields, Bebel Gilberto, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and 9 more.

This month's download bonanza features a boatload of extrawack!-approved quality mp3 goodness...this batch was chosen specifically to be burned to a cd and cranked up in a car with windows down, preferably on the way to a picnic or street fair. Have at it:

Bebel Gilberto - "Um Segundo" mp3

The National - "Murder Me Rachael" mp3

Charlotte Gainsbourg - The Songs That We Sing mp3

The Veils - "Advice For Young Mothers To Be" mp3

Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Forever Heavy" mp3

Handsome Furs - "What We Had" mp3

Machine Go Boom - "All The Way To PA" mp3

Meowskers - "Colors That Lie!" mp3

Fields - "Song for the Fields" mp3

The Clutters - "9999 Ways To Hate Us" mp3

Rocky Votolato - "Postcard From Kentucky" mp3

Emilie Simon - "To The Dancers (Live In Santa Monica)" mp3

James Apollo - "Beauty Bird" mp3

Thanks to the peeps who are hosting these gems.

HBO's Flight Of The Conchords Clips & Contest

The last time we saw the Lower East Side on television with any regularity (other than news reports about rambunctious late night club-goers waking up the neighborhood) was that terrible show with the guy from Ed and Brandon Walsh from Beverly Hills 90210. Starting next month, HBO's giving the LES another chance to show off its narrow streets and rising drink prices with Flight of the Conchords, a new show about some broke musicians who move from New Zealand to Downtown NYC.

Here's how the PR notes describe the show:
The Flight of the Conchords is a folk/pop/comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie of The Black Seeds and Figwit fame and Jemaine Clement of The Humourbeasts. Billing themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-parody duo", the group depends upon a combination of witty banter and acoustic guitars to work the audience.

The clips I've seen look pretty promising, and WAY better than the show with Ed & Priestley mentioned above.

extrawack! would like to give one lucky reader a Flight of the Conchords prize pack that includes a t-shirt, a DVD copy of the first episode, a poster, and a very special "robot stress reliever". The sender of the twenty-fifth email with "Conchords" as the subject to extrawack@gmail.com will get the swag. Contest open to U.S. residents only. Sorry Latvia!

Check out a few clips of the show:

Earl Greyhound/Dirty on Purpose/Great Northern Triple Whammy @ Bowery Next Month.

Talk about value for your ticket buying dollar...

Check this triple bill that Bowery Ballroom has just announced:

All three of these bands had critics in a tizzy at SXSW a couple months ago...for thirteen beans you can see them all one show? We're there. I'm assuming this'll sell out quickly...Tickets here.

Earl Greyhound - "S.O.S." mp3

Dirty on Purpose - "No Radio" mp3

Great Northern - "Home" mp3

review: Sea Wolf - Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low

Ever get in one of those funks where if feels like there's nothing new musically worth listening too, and you only feel like relying on old favorites? That was me for the last week.

I listen to a ton of music. If I'm by myself I'm playing the radio, iTunes, online radio, satellite radio, or rockin' the Zune. I've even been known to sing out loud if there are no devices available. But I haven't been able to listen to anything very new, because it all sounds the same. Of course, it doesn't all sound the same, but that's the mood I was in.

I'm out of that funk now, and I owe it to the new Sea Wolf EP, Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low.

Sea Wolf is singer-guitarist Alex Brown Church, whom you may remember from pop-groovers Irving, and a whole bunch of Church's pals playing violins, cellos, and all kinds of percussion. The songs on this disc are not as immediate or urgent as Church's previous project, but are every bit as catchy and memorable.

The strings add a sense of moody mysteriousness to the songs, making these tracks equally perfect for hanging on the couch with, or singing along to in the car with the windows open. And isn't that the best test of a Summer record...car singability? This is one of those discs that once put in the car, seldom make the trek back into the house.

So thanks, Sea Wolf, for breaking my funk and keeping me from settling for the old stuff.


Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low is out this week on Dangerbird Records, who seemingly are incapable of releasing a bad album.

Sea Wolf - "You're A Wolf" mp3 buy

Sea Wolf - "The Garden That You Planted" mp3 buy


Sea Wolf Tour Dates:

May 09 Toronto, ON - The Phoenix [w/ Silversun Pickups]

10 Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom [w/ SSPU]

11 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall [w/ Elk City]

13 Baltimore, MD - Recher Theatre [w/ SSPU]

14 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero [w/ SSPU]

15 New York, NY - Webster Hall [w/ SSPU]

18 Louisville, KY - Radio Convention

19 Chicago, IL- The Empty Bottle [w/ All Smiles]

21 Lawrence, KS - Gaslight

22 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge

24 San Francisco, CA - The Grand Ballroom [w/ Devotchka]

John Peel...This Is Your Life.

A buddy of mine and I were discussing the legacy of John Peel the other night, and he told me that he had heard that Peel was actually honored on "This Is Your Life" on the BBC sometime in the Nineties.

I was pleased to find that my pal was in fact correct, and not only did the show feature appearances by The Fall's Mark E. Smith and The Wedding Present's David Gedge, but the whole episode is on YouTube!

Here it is in three parts:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3



And here's Peel's favorite song of all time:

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (Live at Maxwell's, Hoboken) mp3

The Joshua Chimp.

We normally don't post the results of our contests here, but this entry in our Arctic Monkeys "Send Us A Great Monkey Photo" contest was too good not to share.

Congrats to C.V. of NYC!

The Specials - Monkey Man mp3 buy

New Spinal Tap Video, Band Reforming For Live Earth Concert, Amps Still Go To Eleven.

from the press release:

New York - The new Spinal Tap film directed by Rob Reiner that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival is available at LiveEarth.MSN.com. Reiner also announced at the festival that Spinal Tap has reunited and will play Live Earth's London Show on 7/7/07.

The 15-minute film chronicles Marty DeBergi's (Rob Reiner) efforts to reunite Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael
McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) to play Live Earth. The film also reveals what the band members have been up to since they were last together. Ferrets, tiny horses, rehab and hip hop play prominent roles.

Please see the clip below and the entire film at LiveEarth.MSN.com.

Live Earth is designed to trigger a mass movement to combat our climate crisis.

On 7/7/07, Live Earth will be a defining musical event with more than 100 headliners performing live on all 7 continents and being broadcast globally through television, radio, web, wireless and other media platforms. These music artists will inspire an audience of more than 2 billion people worldwide to make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives to turn the tide on global warming.

Live Earth's proceeds and the audience it engages will be the launch for an ongoing campaign to combat the climate crisis that will be led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, which is chaired by Al Gore, and international environmental NGOs.

Live Earth will provide simple actions and tools that, if applied on a mass scale, will have a massive impact on combating the climate crisis. A global movement of people making meaningful changes in their lives will give the companies they do business with, and the governments who represent them, no choice but to enact positive long-term themselves.



Spinal Tap - "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" mp3 buy

Squeeze Adds Starland Ballroom Date To Reunion Tour

The Squeeze reunion tour has added a date at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville for Monday, August 6th. Tickets, which are being sold at pre-sale here, are a mere $35...compared to the $99 you'll have to shell out to be up front at The Beacon Theater in NYC.

I've seen Squeeze a few times back in the day, and have also seen Glenn Tilbrook solo, and trust me on this one...a better time will be had in a club setting than a theatre.

This post gives me another chance to proclaim my love for the Starland Ballroom. Formerly the meat-market disco known as Hunka Bunka, Starland is easily one of the finest larger clubs I've ever seen shows in...and I've been in tons of these joints.

The ballroom layout with the stage on the wide side of the floor (as opposed to the narrow end like at Roseland) lends itself to allowing most of the crowd to have a closer vantage point. There are actual bars (as opposed to beer kiosks) on all sides of the main floor from where you can actually watch the show. They also offer pizza slices, which to me is a necessity at a club...there's nothing worse than fading toward the end of a show because of hunger, and trying to fill up on drinks or Red Bull just leads to drunktasticly and/or bug-eyed bad results. The sound is pretty great, and perhaps most remarkably, the staff is first-class.

The girl in the ticket booth, the door guys who check ID's, the bar staff, and most impressively, the floor bouncers...every employee I've ever had contact with there is friendly and reasonable. You know all the reasons why people hate shows at Webster Hall? The exact opposite is the rule at Starland. And since it's just minutes off the Parkway, it's really easy to drive to.

Most of the shows booked here lean toward bands you are likely to read about in Alternative Press or Kerrang!, but they often book surprisingly hip shows...I've seen Wilco, Secret Machines, X, Nada Surf, Fountains Of Wayne, Ryan Adams, and stellastarr* here, not to mention a Motorhead show that blew my wig off.

I have to agree with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem when he sings, "New York I love you, but you're bringing me down"...especially when it comes to escalating ticket and parking prices. I thank my lucky stars I have a place like Starland to offer me a cheaper and more compfortable option now and again.

**UPDATE 5/7**
The presale is now sold-out...regular ticketing begins Friday, May 18th at Noon.

Squeeze - "Cool For Cats" mp3 buy

Arctic Monkeys Single #1 in USA, Album In At #7, Vinyl Giveaway

The Arctic Monkeys track "Brianstorm" entered the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart at #1, and remarkably, their new Favourite Worst Nightmare album enters the album charts at #7, selling an impressive 44,000 copies in it's first week of release. By comparison, their debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not sold about 10,000 copies less in it's first week of release here, peaking at No #24.

Amazingly, due to some sort of accounting error, the Arctic Monkeys had 17 tracks in the British top 200 Singles chart last week, because the songs were sold individually rather than as an album set on a download site. We never had that kind of problem back in the days before digital this and mp3 that...

Speaking of old-school, extrawack! wants to give one lucky reader a copy of The Arctic Monkeys "Brianstorm" 12" vinyl single, featuring the following tracks:

1. "If You Found This It's Probably Too Late"
2. "Brianstorm"
3. "Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend"
4. "What If You Were Right The First Time?"

To win, send us a photo of a monkey. Not just any monkey, but a great monkey doing great things, or looking great, or monkeying in a great way. Photo must be a .jpg, and sent to extrawack@gmail.com by 11:59 Saturday night (5/5). We'll pick the best monkey and award the prize to the submitter. Contest open to U.S. residents only. Sorry Panama!

Upcoming shows:
May 4 2007 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
May 7 2007 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
May 8 2007 Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL
May 9 2007 Clutch Cargo's Pontiac, MI
May 11 2007 Kool Haus Toronto
May 12 2007 Theatre Olympia Montreal, QUE
May 15 2007 Hammerstein Ballroom New York, NY
May 16 2007 9:30 Club Washington, DC
May 17 2007 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA
May 19 2007 The Tabernacle Atlanta, GA
May 20 2007 Hard Rock Live Orlando, FL

Drink Rum - Save A Pet!

From the press release:

Friends of Animal Care & Control NYC Benefit Fundraiser

Help us raise money for NYC's homeless dogs and cats!
AC&C is NYC's only non-profit animal shelter that never turns any animal away.

DJ Mike C. spins 7 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007
at TAJ
http://www.tajlounge.com

48 West 21st St.
betw. 5th & 6th Ave.
NYC

Minimum $35 donation at the door
Open bar 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Sponsored by Bacardi & Astor Wines
Raffle prizes & more

RSVP (incl. # of guests) to accofnyc@yahoo.com

Click on the invite above for larger version.

Squeeze - "Cool For Cats" mp3 buy

The Stooges - "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog" mp3 buy

Q&A With Andy Rourke of The Smiths This Thursday @ Pianos

This could be cool...assuming the Smiths-o-philes in the audience ask compelling questions deeper than, "So...did Morrissey really wear a hearing aid?".

Tickets available here.

Andy Rourke MySpace

The Smiths - "Panic" mp3 buy