FN News Roundup: April 18, 2012

Hey everyone! Rushing off to a sexy trivia party tonight (not kidding, you should come!), so here's your news blast for the day.

• Dean Wareham has a particularly awesome habit of playing live sets centered on material from his celebrated band Galaxie 500 with his wife Britta Phillips. They're continuing this tradition at one of FN's favorite venues, Le Poisson Rouge, on July 20, so you should buy a ticket right now. We'll wait. (Le Poisson Rouge)


• Took care of that? Cool. Now then, in honor of all the Coachella love going around since last week, the Pixies put their storied Coachella 2004 set up for free on their website to kick off their live concert download series (Slicing Up Eyeballs)


• It's officially on: Ty Segall has confirmed that a new Ty Segall Band album, Slaughterhouse, is coming out on June 24 via In The Red (Consequence of Sound)


• It's been a great week for fans of The Walkmen: in addition to the title track from their upcoming album Heaven, you can now check out another album cut called "Heartbreaker" (Stereogum)


• And finally, check in with our friends at BrooklynVegan for details on how you can get into The Hives' (no longer) secret NYC show at The Studio At Webster on April 26! (BrooklynVegan)

Watch: Neutral Milk Hotel's "Naomi" Music Video Made By Naomi Yang (Galaxie 500 / Damon & Naomi)

If the title of this post just completely blew your mind, you're not alone. "Naomi," a standout track from Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island, has received the music video treatment. Not just by anyone, mind you - by Naomi herself, Naomi Yang from the legendary Galaxie 500 (and later Damon & Naomi).

And Yang not only produced this new music video, she stars in it: lipsyncing along with the lyrics inbetween blurry shots of highways, clocks, and nature. I'm going to stop writing now and just let you enjoy the video below, because something like this doesn't just happen every day. Cheers to Pitchfork for the heads up.

Happy Fourth of July

Tags: Galaxie 500, Subterranean, MTV Shows

Enjoy the holiday, and thanks again for coming by our party at Motor City Bar on Saturday! We had an awesome time and will be throwing more events like that soon.

This Week's Nostalgia (6/13-6/19)

I'd hate the fact that I've been indoors all weekend, sick as a dog, except it gave me time to give the site a bit of a facelift. You can now access all of our features on the beautiful sidebar to your right, and the overall look of the site has been de-cluttered and streamlined. Also, Upcoming Nostalgia now has its own page, complete with a Google embedded calendar so you can add events to your own personal calendar. Hope you enjoy.

This past week brought us two relatively intimate shows from the great Peter Murphy, and if you haven't checked out photos from those two performances, do so now. As I said last week, the summer concert season really kicks off this week, and I wasn't kidding. There's a plethora of great shows this week you should try your best to make it to, so let's get to it.

Brian Wilson Re-Imagines Gershwin (and Beach Boys hits) @ Highline Ballroom
Monday, June 13th

If you're a fan of music, then you should be a fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. And if you're not, I'm very ashamed of you... not really, but what are you waiting for? I'm as shocked as anyone that Brian Wilson is actually still performing live in front of people, but apparently he still brings the goods. If you have $125 to drop on tickets to see him in the relatively small Highline Ballroom tomorrow night, then I recommend you do it just to say you've seen Brian Wilson play the Highline Ballroom. Though he will be performing Gershwin, he'll also be playing the classic Beach Boys songs you'd expect him to. Let us know if anything weird happens on stage.

Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) @ Mercury Lounge
Wednesday, June 15th

There was a summer in college when I listened to Super Furry Animals' Guerilla practically every day on the way to work. So anything Super Furry Animals related, I am down for. Frontman Gruff Rhys will be hitting the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday in support of his latest solo album Hotel Shampoo, and tickets are still one sale. Mikala over at The Backstage Rider caught him in Vancouver last week and told me I should do my best to make it to the NYC date, so I have no choice but to try my hardest. Hope to see you there.

Swervedriver @ Irving Plaza
Thursday, June 16th

Swervedriver (not to be confused with Skrewdriver... yech) were a highly influential shoegaze band who formed in 1989 and went on hiatus in 1998. They reformed back in 2008 to embark on a world tour, and I caught them play the Music Hall of Williamsburg during that tour. They were awesome. I'm happy to see they're still at it, and hopefully they'll start to write some new material and not linger in a post-reunion Pixies-esque limbo, but it's only been three years so I'll cut them some slack. Tickets are still available for their Irving Plaza show this Thursday, so grab one while you still can. Bring earplugs.

Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500 @ The Bell House
Friday, June 17th

More photos here

I've been lucky enough to catch Dean Wareham (with wife Britta Phillips) play his Galaxie 500 set twice in the past year, and both shows were extremely memorable experiences. Wareham has made it pretty clear that Galaxie 500 will never reunite, and since remaining members Damon & Naomi are still busy doing their own thing, this is the closest you will get to seeing them live. I can only say this: for a cool $15, you will walk out of this show more than satisfied. Tickets for the show are still on sale. BUY ONE.

Guided By Voices @ McCarren Park
Saturday, June 18th

More photos here

Another band I've seen twice in the past year, Guided By Voices, are playing McCarren Park in Brooklyn with contemporary lo-fi bands Wavves, Surfer Blood and the Babies as part of L Magazine's Northside Festival. GBV frontman Robert Pollard is a performer who must be seen to be be believed; he gets completely wasted on tequila, plays for nearly three hours, and never hits a wrong note. Not to mention, he somehow always lands on both feet after executing chin-high air kicks. Don't believe me? See for yourself at this Saturday's show, as tickets are still on sale. The show begins at an early 3pm, and GBV are on at 7pm sharp, rain or shine. This is gonna be a fun one kiddies, let us know what you think.

Whew... that's a full and incredibly awesome week of shows and if I could make it to every show I would. I'll be in Toronto with my band playing the NXNE festival, where Digable Planets, Men Without Hats, Devo and the Descendents will be performing. I'll try to snap some photos if I can, but it's likely going to be pretty hectic. Let us know if there are any shows I missed in the comments section below...