(Flyer via Alphaville)
Scully, B Boys, Decorum, NOIA, The Christian Peslak Band, Milk Dick
Friday January 27, 8 pm at Alphaville: $12
The Trump opposition movement continues with more benefit shows extending well beyond Day 1, including this Friday-night gathering in support of Planned Parenthood. Tunes will be provided by Scully, a dream pop/cloud rock trio by way of Oakland (née The Splinters) still drifting on the bleary vibes running through their most recent release, No Sense.
Also newgaze from Decorum, and the music of NOIA (aka Barcelonian musician Gisela Fulla-Silvestre), which, if you can imagine such a lovely thing, is the sonic equivalent of knee-buckling onto a stack of 50 body pillows. And two just-announced acts– Milk Dick (foot-stompin’/milk-and-cookies-style garage punk, a la The Black Lips) and a “special secret band” B Boys (think: Goo-era Sonic Youth) have been tacked on to the lineup too.
Just in case music isn’t nearly enough to push you through the doors at a benefit show, this fundraiser show has the support of a slew of local businesses contributing stuff and things for raffle prizes– everyone from restaurants like The Spotted Pig and Bunk sandwiches to spots like Nitehawk and shops like Worship vintage and Mikey’s Hookup are throwing down. Raffle tix are just $2 and the organizers are rattling off the (many) winners between sets.
(Album art via The World Is a Beautiful Place and I am no Longer Afraid to Die)
The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die, Forever Losing Sleep, For Everest, Take One Car
Thursday January 26, 8 pm at Brooklyn Bazaar: $15
They’re a mouthful, to be sure, but in throwing up a perma-fundraising song on the interwebs,  The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die have firmly placed themselves as a benefit band to rule them all. From here to eternity, purchasing or gifting or whatever-ing their track “Body Without Organs” will benefit the ACLU. Which is great, because let’s be real, the ACLU definitely has their work cut out for them under the new administration headed by He Who Must Not Be Named.
If emo is your thing, stop whatever you’re doing and get tickies to this show, featuring a full lineup of bitter tear-jerkin’ crooners (see also: Forever Losing Sleep, For Everest, and Take One Car). But even if it’s not (I mean, if you’re anything like me and decided after the age of 14 that you’d rather croak than drown your ears in Saves the Day-esque tunes), something about this stuff sounds so right at this moment.
(Album art by Jesse Jacobs, via Landlady)
Landlady, Westerlies, Kalbells
Wednesday January 25, 8 pm at House of Yes: $13 to $15
In celebration of their new album, The World is a Loud Place, Landlady will gather at House of Yes for a super-duper fun-time release-party banger. If you’re not familiar these baritone broads (well, guys…), they’re steeped in the kind of music that Brooklyn has always done best: indie electro-pop. It’s definitely a path that’s been tread and over-tread during the past decade or so (or more, really), but the Landlady and their collaborators have really outdone themselves (and a rather static scene in general) with the impressive, epic orchestral heights they’re jetting toward with this release.
Drool over the gorgeous assortment of strings (violin, viola, cello), electro-strings (guitar, bass), vibraphone sounds, a Space Echo machine, Wurlitzer, and analogue synth galore. It’s all held down by expert percussion and globbed over with a sticky-icky lacker of glorious production. All of which is to say, this one’s a headphone case for sure.
Holding down the fort are The Westerlies and Kalbells (members of Rubblebucket).
(Photo via Sunnyvale/ Facebook)
Tonstartssbandht, Tredici Bacci, Cruel Angels, Leya
Wednesday January 25, 8 pm at Sunnyvale: $10
Even if you’re not familiar with these super duper prolific brothers, their band name Tonstartssbandht has probably caught your attention at some point or another owing to the fact that it’s an almost foolproof way to figure out if you’re dyslexic or not (turns out I just have a lazy eye). But beyond that, their records are sorta required listening for anyone remotely interested in the sputtering, barely clinging half-corpse creature that is rock n’ roll in the 21st century– and by virtue of that position alone, their live performances are an essential part of grasping the slippery body that contains the soul. Try your hardest to grip it, and remember: Even if the Tonstarts (as this lazy-eyed girl prefers them) prove somewhat elusive to the “Likes” section in the aural squish-sector of your brains at first, try and try again, and your gray matter will be pleased in the end.
Joining the bros are a co. that includes Tredici Bacci, purveyors of Scott Walker-style groovy jazz muzak weirdness. Also, head-in-a-hole, ambient space-case drone from Cruel Angels (aka Cool Angels, aka no idea to be perfectly honest).