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Week in Shows: Queer Trash ‘Gets Sleazier’, Rock With Standing Rock, and More

(Flyer via Alphaville)

(Flyer via Alphaville)

Queer Trash 4: It Gets Sleazier
Saturday December 10, 8:30 pm at Alphaville: $10

Remember back when you’d regularly opt out of noise shows? The way things used to be, they were pretty much guaranteed to be dominated by white boys, unbathed (like, in a stilted way) and of questionable talent, who’d rather spend all night trying to make contact between forehead and concave chest for maximum gloom appeal, while dropping painfully lame hints about holding a copious stash of heavy drugs in an attempt to add mystery and subversiveness to their otherwise dull music.

Homogenous, standoffish scenes are just the worst. There is a silver lining, though: the backlash tends to be far superior than the priggish haughty BS anyway. Queer Trash 4 is no exception, and the queer noise acts they spotlight are carrying out the kind of insurgency that most noise makers only dream about.

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Week in Sound: Alphaville Turns Two, The Julie Ruin, and More

(Flyer via Mutual Crush)

(Flyer via Mutual Crush)

Mutual Crush VII: Mzungu, Drunken Sufis, Amar
Wednesday November 11, 8 pm at Elvis Guesthouse: free

Ongoing live music series Mutual Crush returns with a show that “focuses heavily on noise/ambient music,” and a reminder that such sounds tend to “evoke a meditative reaction in the listener”– lord knows that’s just the ticket to sliding back into some semblance of normalcy after all this election garbage crap.

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Gig Alert: Identity Tripping with Pujol, Testing the Limits of Adorable

(Image via Baby's All Right)

(Image via Baby’s All Right)

Hinds, Cold Fronts, Navy Gangs
Friday October 30, 7 pm at Baby’s All Right: $20

I’m just as averse to the term “girl band” as the next girl, but for some reason I can’t resist calling Hinds, an indie rock outfit rolling into town this week from Madrid, a babe band. Before anyone gets all riled up and loses their breakfast sandwich over the label, remember that “babe” is a gender-neutral term and, secondly, a person can qualify as a babe for a number of reasons.

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Our Guide to This Year’s Scary-Good Halloween Parties

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 26

giphyGIFoween
Brooklyn Bazaar, 150 Greenpoint Ave., Greenpoint; 7pm; free

The web’s best animators set out to prove that everything is scarier when it’s looped for all eternity at this contest from the folks at GIPHY and Brooklyn’s Animation Block Party. The coolest entries are being screened and measured up by celebrity judges at the Brooklyn Bazaar’s new four-story space — here’s hoping for lots of animated homages to the dancing pumpkin man. Plus, on Saturday BK Bazaar is doing their “Brooklyn Fright Bazaar,” with musical tributes to The Cramps and The Bee Gees, games, karaoke (guess they found a manager), a Halloween drinking game contest (yikes), food and more.

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Your Near Future in Music: A Vulture Rises + Duchess Says Get Spooky

(Flyer via Duchess Says/ Shea Stadium)

(Flyer via Duchess Says/ Shea Stadium)

Duchess Says
Friday October 14, 8 pm at Shea Stadium: $8
Saturday October 15, 8 pm at Elvis Guesthouse: $10 – $12

Duchess Says is the ’80s freak-wave/post-punk band you never knew you were dying for. Hailing from Montreal, they’re out to prove that Montreal’s really gaining on NYC right now in every way. And who can resist a band that sounds a whole like like what would happen if the Cars and the Slits had two babies, both born under the darkest of stars, then those babies mated with Halloween incarnate, then all the resulting offspring started a band. Yup. Picture that one.

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Week in Shows: Ween Face Flops into Town, Sounds of the Floppy Disk Era, and More

(Flyer via PC Worship/ Rough Trade/ Facebook)

(Flyer via PC Worship/ Rough Trade/ Facebook)

Lazeyes, PC Worship, Gingerlys, RIPS
Wednesday October 5, 8 pm at Rough Trade: $10 in advance/ $15 at the door

According to our social media stalking of Justin Frye, PC Worship will be playing some “new songs” at their Rough Trade show tonight.

But wait, aren’t all of the band’s live performances improvisational? How could music that lingers somewhere around deconstructed punk/avant-garde/drone/free jazz made with freaky-deaky instrumental sculptures (ew, I’d never say that Frye “hacks” his instruments) be anything but new-to-you?

Maybe it’s the scenery (Williamsburg) that’s making Frye feel lightheaded. He’s also encouraging showgoers to take a walk along the waterfront and “contemplate the exact moment Williamsburg ‘changed.””

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Week in Music: Wacky Electro Banana Jammers, Miserable Shoe Gaze, and More

(Image via Berlin)

(Image via Berlin)

Holiday Mountain, Coaches
Wednesday September 28, 8 pm at Berlin: $8 in advance, $10 at the door

Even when they’re jamming an oversized banana down your throat, you might find it sorta hard to swallow Holiday Mountain‘s product. It’s almost as if that great, mushy mass they’re thrusting toward you isn’t edible at all, but something meant to linger in your cheek like a big chunk of chewing tobacco– mmm, actually let’s just go with Big League Chew, coz even though I’ve railed snuff a couple of times in my life, I’m really not sure of the mechanics of actual dip.

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JEFF Bros. and Three Other Shows Not to Miss This Week

(Flyer via Aviv)

(Flyer via Aviv)

Dream Crusher, NAH, Girlpusher, Tony Seltzer, Hounds
Wednesday September 21, 8 pm at Aviv: $10

It’s just about time to start gathering your crew for the last stretch at Aviv as we know it. The venue is closing at the end of October and fingers crossed they find a new space, but until then me and you and everyone else who does the Brooklyn DIY thing should get it in while we still can.

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Sip on Herpes Slurpees With Cast of 'Drunky' at Alphaville on Saturday

(Flyer via "Adventures of Drunky"/ Augenblick Studios)

(Flyer via “Adventures of Drunky”/ Augenblick Studios)

Let’s be real, it’s been a sticky week. And since the frozen negroni machine has been broken at the Narrows for going on forever, you’re probably thinking, what’s the point of even leaving my fire-escape kiddie pool this weekend? There never is one, truth be told. But there’s something going down this weekend at Alphaville that could turn out to be the next best thing to soakin’ in a plastic tub filled with the champagne of public water and dribbles of your own pee.
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Shimmy Up to these Four Shows for Your Listening Pleasure

(Flyer via Alphaville/ Facebook)

(Flyer via Alphaville/ Facebook)

Honey, The Men, Foster Care, JJ Doll
Friday May 6, 8 pm at Alphaville: $8 in advance/ $10 at the door
The season of leisure is (sorta, almost) upon us, but before you can pull out your pastel polos and Adidas flip flops n’ white socks (predicting that a health-goths-in-hot-weather with ’80s Beverly Hills golf club vibe will dominate Riis Park Beach Bazaar this summer), you gotta ease into that seasonable mindset of giving very few fucks. Without the zen attitude, you’re just another banker boy who spills mustard on his Comme des Garcons tennis shoes and makes his French bulldog Daisy pay the consequences. In my opinion, the best way to avoid wanton animal abuse is to eliminate all possible stress factors– that means lining up your go-to tunes for the summer far in advance so that when it comes to making an all-day playlist on the fly, you’ll be ready to go.

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