popwreckoning

San Francisco just hosted the annual Noise Pop Festival on February 25, 26 and 27. To celebrate the festival,
Diesel:U:Music, in association with The FADER had their 3rd annual Happy Hours at the Diesel Post Street store.

Check out an exclusive video recap of the Happy Hours event. The video includes performances from Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Les Savy Fav, The Submarines and Loch Lomond.

Diesel:U:Music: website

In time for Halloween, Les Savy Fav front man Tim Harrington unveiled the premiere episode of “BEARDO”, a new web series on Pitchfork.tv following hilarious results from camera takeover at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival.

Three episodes of “BEARDO” have already been completed and PopWreckoning is happy to share with you the first, “Vampiral Dysfunction”, which fits in nicely with today being Halloween. Kristen Schaal guest stars as the date to Harrington’s Dracula. Watch the hilarity ensue.

Happy Halloween!

BEARDO: website

Stepping onto the stage before a crowd that was hardly interested in first opening act, Phil and The Osophers, the members of Bear Hands were comfortable, relaxed and ready to rock out for the entirety of their pre-Les Savy Fav time-slot at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Within minutes of launching into their first song, these Brooklyn rockers had at least half of those in attendance toe-tapping and head-bobbing along to their breed of post-punk experimental indie rock.

Alternating between jumpy electro-rock jams and somber Joy Division-esque testimonials, they kept the audience on its toes and wondering what would be coming next. The combination of lead singer Dylan Rau‘s cutting voice and talents on a Korg synthesizer and guitarist Ted Feldman and bassist Val Loper‘s penchant for indulging in percussion circles painted the picture of a band that is clearly comfortable with their burgeoning sound. Bear Hands was super happy about sharing their live set with such a receptive crowd that, by the show’s end, they pretty much owned the filled-out audience and got them pumped for Les Savy Fav…

What can one possibly say about this band that hasn’t already been said? Sashaying onto the stage following an impressive opening set by fellow New Yorkers Bear Hands, Les Savy Fav immediately launched into their growing catalog of idiosyncratic indie rock with the energy and enthusiasm of a band hell-bent on bringing in the dawn (so long as the booze was still flowing). Over the course of a set that included tracks like “The Equestrian,” “Disco Drive” and “Rage in the Plague Age,” singer Tim Harrington delivered his hysterically energetic signature performance, complete with stage banter and wandering the floor of the venue sans shirt.

Meanwhile, the band also managed to keep the crowd bouncing along to the beat. The combination of melody and discordance in guitarist Seth Jabour’s riffs set a frantic pace, while drummer Harrison Haynes and bassist Syd Butler provided a slick dance floor rhythm section perfect for the amped audience.The melding of art rock sensibility and post-punk abrasion resulted in a sound that eluded genre branding, like a page straight out of The Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.

With one song leading into the next that was occasionally punctuated by Harrington’s conversant banter with the crowd, Les Savy Fav delivered a no-frills, highly-energetic set topping many shows I’ve seen this year. It seriously felt like pure entropy and left nearly all in attendance with a sore throat and crick in the neck as the energy broke out onto 6th Street.

Guest Reporting by: Khurram Bajwa (NYC)

Out Today!!

Your Vegas A Town and Two Cities
The Constantines Kensington Heights
The Roots Rising Down
Les Savy Fav After The Balls Drop
Langhorne Slim Langhorne Slim
Boris Smile
Jamie Lidell Jim
Portishead Third
Wallpaper T Rex EP
Madonna Hard Candy

Les Savy Fav will digitally release their debut live EP After The Balls Drop Out on April 29th featuring a Superchunk cover and unreleased non-album live tracks. This digital only release was recorded from the band’s New Year’s performance at New York City’s famed Bowery Ballroom. Les Savy Fav caused chaos on stage for an hour-long set including cover songs from Credence Clearwater Revival, Nirvana, Misfits, Pixies and Love.

You can check out some of Les Savy Fav’s previous live performances with these mp3s:
City Sol | “Disco Drive” mp3 (2005, Atlanta) | �Reprobates Resume� mp3 (2005, Atlanta) | �In These Woods� mp3 (2005, Atlanta)

After The Balls Drop Tracklisting:
01. Equestrian
02. Patty Lee
03. What Would Wolves Do?
04. Sweat Descends
05. Yawn Yawn Yawn
06. We’ll Make A Lover Of You
07. The Year Before The Year 2000
08. The Lowest Bitter
09. Who Rocks The Party
10. Tim Speech
11. Hey Tonight [Creedence Clearwater Revival]
12. Debaser [Pixies]
13. Astro Zombies [Misfits]
14. Sliver [Nirvana]
15. Everybody’s Gotta Live [Love]

Tour Dates:
Apr 25 – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music Festival
Apr 27 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall [w/The Dodos]
May 21 – New York, NY – Highline Ballroom [w/Zack Gallflankis]
July 18-20 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
Jul 25 – Seattle, WA – Capitol Hill Block Party
Jul 26 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom

Les Savy Fav: website | myspace | Syd Butler’s NHL blog