Two boundary-pushing, genre-transcending death metal bands, Horrendous and Tomb Mold, are teaming up for a tour this summer. It follows the releases of both bands’ respective 2023 albums, Ontological Mysterium and The Enduring Spirit, which both made our list of the best albums of 2023. “Ever since an all-too-brief weekend stint of live shows in 2018 with the masterminds behind Tomb Mold, we’ve dreamed of uniting forces for something greater”, Horrendous says. “Six years later, the time has finally arrived!” The tour begins in Tomb Mold’s home city of Toronto on July 4, and it wraps up in NYC ..read more

Long Island emo/melodic hardcore torch-carriers Stand Still have announced their debut full-length album, following the In A Moment’s Notice (2022) and A Practice In Patience (2021) EPs. It’s called Steps Ascending, and it comes out June 14 via DAZE (pre-order). The album was produced and mixed by Greg Thomas, with additional mixing by Chris Teti, and it features guest vocals by Kristian Hallbert of Stand Still’s stylistic forebears Crime In Stereo on “Dust” and Michael Smith of current LIHC staples Pain Of Truth on “We Know the Score.” The album includes recent singles “Steps Ascending” and ..read more

NYC band +/- (Plus/Minus) are gearing up to release Further Afield, their first album in a decade,  and here’s its second single. “Gondolier” is a nearly seven minute piece of expansive, danceable indie rock, building off an electronic beat box spine, and sailing from there. The song also takes a surprising zag five minutes in (a musical saw is involved). “I bought this little keyboard and showed my son how to use it one day,” says the band’s James Baluyut of the song’s creation. “The initial passage you hear in the song is something he came up with. I took it from there and expanded it ..read more

Get tickets for three NYC shows on BrooklynVegan Presale today (4/25) starting at 10 AM ET: Maggie Rogers’ shows at Madison Square Garden with Ryan Beatty on October 19 and 20 – get tickets HERE with the password BKVEGAN. Brittany Howard and Michael Kiwanuka‘s show at SummerStage in Central Park with Yasmin Williams on October 3 – get tickets HERE with the password BKVEGAN. Sheng Wang‘s show at Town Hall on September 7 – get tickets HERE with the password VEGAN. Our presales run until 10 PM ET, and any remaining tickets to all shows go on sale to the general public on Friday, April 25 at 10 ..read more

Talking Heads‘ classic concert film Stop Making Sense got a new 4K restoration and theatrical run via A24 last year. The Blu-ray is out May 8, and to celebrate, Talking Heads are presenting “A Night of Stop Making Sense” at Kings Theatre on June 13. The event includes a Q&A with Talking Heads, including fan questions, and The Linda Lindas will be on hand to perform their cover of “Found a Job” that’s on the Everyone’s Getting Involved tribute album (out May 17). Tickets are on sale Friday, April 26 at 10 AM. The new A24 Stop Making Sense Blu-ray includes: 25-minute making-of documentary ed ..read more

“We only had three things to say in our first interviews: we’re great, we’re not an ‘indie’ band, and don’t judge us now, judge us in four years’ time,” Damon Albarn told British culture guide The List in May 1994, just a few weeks after the release of Blur’s third album. “At least now we’ve doing something that lives up to my big mouth.” It was a long, bumpy four-year road to Parklife. Formed with the name Seymour in 1988 by childhood best friends Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon, the band signed to EMI imprint Food in 1990 and were coerced into changing their name to Blur, which was one of a fe ..read more

NJ hardcore band Gel have announced that they’ll follow last year’s great Only Constant LP with a new EP, Persona, on August 16 via Blue Grape Music, the new-ish label launched by former Roadrunner Records executives Dave Rath and Cees Wessels that’s also home to Code Orange and Spiritual Cramp. It’s their first release for the label, following releases on Convulse. Pre-orders are up now, and we’ve got an exclusive violet vinyl variant, limited to 300 copies. As you can see in the mock-up below, it matches the purple EP artwork pretty nicely. Get yours in the BV shop while they last. The new 5 ..read more

Tickets for the big ska show at Brooklyn Made with The Suicide Machines, HEY-SMITH, The Planet Smashers, Kill Lincoln, and Bad Operation go on BrooklynVegan presale today (4/25) at 10 AM. PASSWORD = BKVEGAN. The show is part of a tour that also includes stops in Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philly, and more. Any remaining tickets after the presale will go on sale to the general public on Friday (4/26) at 10 AM. All dates and more info here ..read more

TONIGHT IN & AROUND NYC Benny the Butcher, Boldy James @ Irving Plaza Conor Oberst & Friends @ Bowery Ballroom The Lemon Twigs, SUO @ TV Eye Stripes, Superswell, Vega Maestro, Rosso Rosso @ Union Pool David Grubbs, Eli Winter, Wendy Eisenberg @ Sundown Archangel, Cisne, CoralKILL, DJ Emil Fabian, HUNY XO, Tama Gucci @ Nowadays DJ Chaotic Ugly b2b Pictureplane @ Rash Sun Ra Marathon w/ Space is the Place, Angels & Demons, Kamau Patton, The Magic Sun @ Roulette (film screening / performance) Jim Gaffigan @ Beacon Theatre STAY IN TOUCH Find BrooklynVegan on FACEBOOK and TWITTER and ..read more

It’s been 20 years since The Beta Band broke up, but frontman Steve Mason has kept the shuffle beat going via various solo projects (Black Affair, King Biscuit Time) ever since. Just not in North America. Tuesday night’s solo show at Le Poisson Rouge was his first NYC show since The Beta Band played The Roxy in 2002, not that he hasn’t tried to get here sooner.  Those who had caught The Beta Band back in the day — with their two drummer setup — may have been a touch disappointed to see that Mason is only backed by keyboardist Darren Morris on this tour, with a pair of bongos by Mason’s mi ..read more