After The Jump Summer Fest
In a few short months, it will be Summer and that means the second annual After the Jump Fest! Bigger, better with even more acts and surprise guests, this year the festival takes place along side the city wide music event, Make Music New York (which itself is a part of the worldwide music phenomenon that takes place in 300 cities in 108 countries) on the first day of Summer, June 21st.
After the Jump Fest is the effort of 20 New York City music bloggers whose goal is to help new artists gain exposure while raising money for struggling school music programs. This year, After the Jump is teaming up with The Music Hall of Williamsburg and Galapagos Art Space for a festival stretching from noon until last call. In the next few months, After the Jump blogs will be making more announcements about the festival including new artists and pre-parties. Stay tuned . . .
AFTER THE JUMP IS ORGANIZED BY: themusicslut . batteringroom . disconap . earfarm . ryspace . irockiroll . merryswankster . softcommunication . theunderratedblog . sitdownstandup . watercoolergossip . bumpershine . themodernage . productshopnyc . subinev . punkphoto . poptartssucktoasted . stereoactivenyc . jinners
For press opportunities such as interviews with the organizers or bands, please contact publicity@afterthejumpfest.com. For sponsorship and all requests, contact producer Jennifer Kellas: jkellas@afterthejumpfest.com.
There is a 
Here is a list of shows to get you through the week. While it was a slow November, things are really picking up next month. There are some top notch U.K. acts coming to New York like Los Campesinos! and Richard Hawley. There are some long-time favs like Elvis Perkins and Dirty Projectors headlining Bowery with killer support like Bon Iver. Old timers like GZA and The Sword are performing in December as well. And Friction stacks their next party with Yeasayer and Team Robespierre. Hopefully I can catch all the bands on this list. 
New York City, December 8, 2007 taking over all three levels of the Knitting Factory.
Buy your 
Go see 
Go see 
After The Jump Fest is finally coming up this Saturday, August 24th! Spectum aka Sonic Boom of the legendary Spacemen 3 is headlining the FREE day show and Riot in Belgium is headlining the night show. Free Blood (ex-members of !!!) has been added to the night show. 
77BOADRUM with Boredoms 
Cheeky Bastard presents: Chromeo / Flosstradamus / 33Hz 
JellyNYC presents: Octopus Project / Erase Errata / Dan Deacon / OCDJ
I am back from Sasquatch. Yeah, I know the festival ending a week ago but I spent some time in Seattle after that. More later, but I can tell you now that one of the best acts I caught out there was 
Here are a few SXSW links you may be interested in...
When I first heard Boys and Girls in America, I don’t think I would have predicted it would be my favorite for the year. I thought that the polished production and careful arrangements violated the realness of my favorite bar band. But Craig Finn has left his lyrical stomping grounds of the Twin Cities and the characters that he knew there and The Hold Steady is musically reaching farther than their local dives. Their territory has gotten bigger and so has their music. The songs are still set in bars and at parties – and fueled by booze and drugs – but these stories could be happening all over America. 
The Thermals made a leap of faith by ditching the lo-fi simplicity of their three-chord assault and even adding some keyboards, which took their sound out of the garage and into the studio. Hutch Harris spent more time crafting these lyrics than he has in the past and even tried to cut down his rampant cursing. But this leap was not without reason; the resulting album is an apocalyptic vision of a fascist religious state. This album really resonates with me considering our current government. I also appreciate their DIY punk aesthetic that goes all the way down to the collaged album covers. 
When I listen to TV On The Radio’s Return To Cookie Mountain, I try to imagine what Cookie Mountain would be like. I see a thick wooded forest covered in a blanket of dark fog with the rickety cabin at its peak, overlooking a huge metropolis below. Inside this one-lamp shack, there are reassembled transistor radios, exposed circuitry, and loose woofers from busted speakers. When all of these salvaged devices sing together, the haze over the mountain thickens. Tuned Adebimpe’s falsetto singing is similar breeze. That might sound like a bunch of BS but this album is vivid and tireless. However, the cookies will remain a mystery.
The Blow have four albums, I am not sure why I have not heard of them before their last, Paper Television. Even more boggling is that Khaela Maricich used to be a part of K Records labelmates The Microphones. When I saw her perform at the Fader House during CMJ this year, I was hooked. Khaela is an unassuming Northwestern, who got on stage clad in fleece jacket and clutching only a microphone. She is a casual singer too, but she can spin the everyday mundane thing into a clever lyric, even if it is not in perfect pitch. Her songs are almost like monologues set to music. Just add Jona’s beats, which strike a happy balance between The Neptunes, The Post Service, and The Knife, and you get the folktro (yes, I made that up) duo know as The Blow.
Zach Condon is a gypsy. He grew up in Albuquerque, traveled through Europe after high school, and then moved to Brooklyn. So naturally he stumbled upon Balkan gypsy music. The lush orchestration of ukuleles, accordion, trumpets, tambourines, and strings combined with his unwavering voice is both foreign and familiar. Gulag Orkestar is a serene portrait of his travels through pop songs he found in European folk tunes.
¡Forward, Russia! get labeled post-punk, but have more in common with post-hardcore acts like At The Drive-In than they do with Joy Division or Gang of Four. “Fifteen Pt. 2” is the best screamo track of the year. Plus, Tom Woodhead does the meanest “mic whip” in a live act since Cedric Bixler-Zavala.
Almost every track on Fishscale is a hit, but “The Champ” wins out as the most triumphant hip hop joint of the year. Too often, you hear young MCs trying to make this track before they’ve really arrived. Ghost paid his dues, hustled his way to the top, and “The Champ” is the sound of him rightfully claiming his throne.
Between Lord Willin’ and Hell Hath No Fury, Malice and Pusha T have popularized enough new slang to write their own Clip-tionary. These cats are so trill, they just grindin’, all they do is wamp! wamp! 
MODULAR X-MAS PARTY
TV On The Radio is on this week's edition of the Interface. 
This is a repost from Product Shop. Might as well though because the show is free, those are hard to come by in the colder months....
For those of you who don't know AOL Music's indie arm is now called Spinner and they have a brand new studio in LA. The Decemberists just happened to drop by for a chat and a few songs. I am sooo glad they did not play songs just from The Crane Wife because that is sooo not their best record. However, all the songs played here are good. 
I posted some songs from the best bands I saw live at CMJ this year. I would upload the MP3s here but that would be too much work. Just go get them from 
Remember when indie rock bands didn't really have remixes. That was before the days of the mashups and cross-pollination between genres. 
Going to see 
FROM PRODUCT SHOP NYC:
