photo via Brooklyn Vegan Celebrating his fantastic new album My Finest Work Yet, Andrew Bird took to the intimate National Sawdust last night for the first of two Brooklyn shows. The performance was a 90-minute masterclass of Bird’s witty folk stylings, complete with whistles, loops, instrument changes, and a really great backing band. After a swift rendition of Chet Baker’s “I Fall in Love Too Easily”, Bird got to his Finest Work by playing the new LP’s Side A in its entiret

Photo via BTRtoday.com Last month Nap Eyes released their awesome new LP I’m Bad Now, which sees the band actualizing their brand of slacker rock in its best form yet. Four of the six songs from their set at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere were from that release, with one track of both prior releases also making the cut. At a short and sweet one-hour long set, the band came in, made a statement, and got out before anything had the chance to dull at all. From the beginning of “Judgement”

The String Cheese Incident has just wrapped up the main bulk of their summer tour, which recently included inspired stops in Missoula, MT, Eugene, OR, Red Rocks, and more. The band is releasing new songs via their new SCI Lab initiative, and firing on all cylinders with their live show, packing improvisation and experimentation into the mix. While the majority of their 2016 tour dates are behind them, Nershi & Co. are setting their sites on a few big shows to cap off the summ

Israeli’s TATRAN made the journey from the Middle East to the United States a couple weeks back, playing shows at Atlanta Jazz Festival and Time Square’s Iridium in NYC. During their stay in the Big Apple, the dynamic trio played a special show on the illicit Bushwick Rooftop, a last-minute pop-up orchestrated by the band and Tango Presents, a production venture that I’ve been working on to do some interesting jazz stuff in the borough. The performance lasted about an hour an

Brooklyn-based producer Cobrayama has released a brand new beat tape comprised of all original music. The project is the brainchild of Mike Iannatto, formerly of the trio Exmag and who used to go by the name Buffalo Analog. This time around, Cobrayama’s sound channels current instrumental hip hop torchbearers like knxwledge, Mndsgn, and Samiyam more than his former project’s future-funk. The mix, titled Cardboard, has 14 brand new, unreleased, original tracks by the man himse

Image via Beatport Floating Points is currently touring with an incredible ensemble in support of last years Elaenia. The record was acclaimed for melting modern electronic music with compositional nods from jazz and classical. The result was dynamite, even earning it a spot on our list of 2015’s best records. Next week, Floating Points’ live tour comes to New York City for shows at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Following the latter, Sam Shepherd (aka Floati

Chris Forsyth’s album The Rarity of Experience will be released tomorrow, March 4th, on No Quarter. The lead-up singles have lead to ecstatic reviews, with NPR calling him “one of rock’s most lyrical guitar improvisors.” Even Pitchfork said it’s “as classic as it gets.” The double-LP is chalk-full of instrumental guitar rock that touches on sounds pioneered by the Grateful Dead and Neil Young, along with a dose of modernism not unlike some of Mogwai’s material. The songs that

Verboten has announced their string of New Year’s Eve events for the upcoming holiday. On NYE proper, Hot Since 82 will spin, but the party won’t stop for a good day after that. Apollonia will bring his brand of deep house to the club for a daytime set on New Year’s Day, along with a healthy roster of local cats in the Cabaret Bar including Taylor Shockley, Marco Petrazzi, Mary Yuzovskaya, Gaspara, and John Kofi. Then Damian Lazarus keeps the party going on New Year’s night b

Photo via Andrew Blackstein // Live For Live Music Over the past three nights, Chris Robinson Brotherhood has brought their diverse blend of folk, blues and psychedelic-tinged southern rock to the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City. Playing two sets each night, the band showcased why they’re much more than just “Chris Robinson’s new project.” In fact, they are a premier group in their class. Neal Casal is great to watch, melting influences of Garcia and Clapton together to create

Photo via @gurusattva on Instagram Brooklyn Bowl is a mecca for collaborations. Whether it’s Warren Haynes popping up with Soulive or Dave Harrington joining Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, artists love popping up and delivering something special in that venue. Last night, Santigold joined afrobeat heavyweights Antibalas for a memorable collaboration. Antibalas is amidst a four-night residency at Brooklyn Bowl. They’ve been playing each Wednesday, digging deep into their catalogue

The London-based Cheatahs were slated to play New York City’s CMJ festival when visa problems arose. While they didn’t make it for the marathon, the group played a make-up show at Baby’s All Right last night. Playing older material and the phenomenal stuff off the new album Mythologies, the quartet displayed why they are one of the better acts on the current ‘nü-gaze’ style tons of artists are running with. The group splits vocal duties between the guitar-bearing members, whi

Photos by Phillip Prolo Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival took place last weekend in Brooklyn. Amongst the club gigs and DJ slots was Floating Points’ live performance with an eleven-piece orchestra. Four string players, three horn players, a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and the man himself, Sam Shepherd, on sequencers and samplers. Drawing heavily from the new material off the recent full-length Elaenia along with some older Floating Points material redesigned for the li

Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival is back in 2015, bringing electronic music of all types to Williamsburg over the course of four days. There are a number of special sets that you won’t want to miss, and so we’ve highlighted them below. November 5 @ OUTPUT | BEMF PRE PARTY | 11PM LAIDBACK LUKE b2b GINA TURNER The husband-wife duo will bring their love to the decks. What could be more beautiful than that? The two did a tech house set on Boiler Room back in May, and if that’s

Kamasi Washington featuring Terrance Martin #BRICjazzfest #brooklyn A photo posted by Philipp Walzer (@pwalzer) on Oct 15, 2015 at 11:19pm PDT The first annual BRIC Jazz Festival kicked into high gear last night with a headlining performance by Kamasi Washington and a number of other top-notch acts. New York’s Ben Williams was leading a band called Sound Effect when we walked into what was called the “Stoop”: a gallery with giant stairs for people to sit on. The quintet was k

Photo curtesy of @verbotennewyork on Instagram There are not many people that can get me out of the house ready to party in the hot sun before 3pm, but David August is definitely one of them. From the moment we walked inside the skyline-front lot that is Verboten’s Stage One, a decent crowd had already assembled I’m sure with the same notion in mind. August threw down an awesome set with room for days to dance—well worth a little sun burn. While I still think music of his cal

MASSIVE! Verboten StageONE has Jamie XX, Maya Jane Coles, and Matador slated to perform outdoors on a beautiful summer day come August 23rd. What could be better than that? The fact that Maya Jane Coles will debut her dubstep alter-ego at following the performance at 50 Kent earlier that day. Jamie XX is also going to spin a set at the after party, and Matador will perform a live set. There’s a few of Maya’s Nocturnal Sunshine cuts below. Tickets for the after party are avail

The String Cheese Incident will embark on a Roadtrip to Hulaween tour this fall! Amongst the stops are multiple nights in Minneapolis and the Theater at Madison Square Garden right here in New York City. Of course, the tour will culminate at the Suwannee Hulaween celebration in the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park for three days of insanity alongside Pretty Lights, Primus, STS9 and many more. Tickets for the tour dates will go on sale this weekend, so be sure to look out for tha

The line was long, the sun was beating down, the muffled bass teased everyone, but we all knew it would be worth the wait. Recently I read a book called “One Mind” by Dr. Larry Dossey. The premise of Dossey’s book is that as individual humans we don’t create consciousness, but merely interpret or connect to one universal consciousness – “One Mind.” As I descended down the stairs the purple and aqua canopy floated in the breeze. The glitter, laughter and of course beautiful

Taken From Woods’ Facebook Brooklyn’s Woods have been quietly doing their thing for almost 10 years now, releasing psychedelic-tinged indie rock. They’ve come a long way since their days of lo-fi folk tunes as displayed in their sold out show at Rough Trade. Woods’ style lies somewhere between (older) Death Cab For Cutie and the Grateful Dead, of whom they are highly influenced by. Their songs usually fall shy of the 4-minute mark, but they aren’t afraid to stretch them out t

After opening last year, Verboten has made the transition from NYC nightlife promoter to become one of the best clubs in the country. This summer, they’ll bring back their outdoor series StageONE to the East River shores of Brooklyn. The events have an all-star cast of artists who will undoubtably provide stellar beats for the NYC summertime. The legendary Sasha will join Scuba, who just put out a new album called Claustraphobia, and more for the 4th of July weekend celebrati