“To breed or not to breed? That is the question Owen Ashworth appears to be asking with his fifth full-length outing as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, the wryly titled Vs. Children. But this is a Casiotone record, which means Ashworth won’t provide direct access to his thoughts, relying instead on proxies, personae, and other distancing mechanisms. That is, until the record’s third act, when a new Casiotone seems to emerge. Before that, however, Ashworth takes us on a joyride with a succession of mostly doomed outlaws and derelicts, with a couple of side excursions into familiar disaffected-slacker-ballad territory. It all adds up to easily the most mature and thematically ambitious Casiotone release to date, a further testament to the talents of a man more in tune with the lives of his generation than many of the folks actually living them,” says Pitchfork on their album Vs. Children.
“Dropping an earth shattering set of modern, relevant, radio ready rock & roll . Robots In The Garden put on a performance that had the sweat packed room jumping for 30 minutes with what can only be described as one helluva a set! Check these guys out while you still have a chance to catch them in the small venues! ” – Detroit Rock Review.
Robots In The Garden featuring Avienne, Auto Artillery, Contents May Very, Artigo and Shotgun Theory in the Pike Room Sunday February 21. Doors at 5pm. Tickets are on sale for $10 in advance and $12 day of show.
“In a day where Hot Topic peddles guyliner to millions of male teenage mallrats, it’s hard to imagine a time when glam-rock was truly shocking. But there remains one gender-bending device whose provocative, polarizing power remains undiminished: the falsetto– a sound that tends to elicit both laughter and skepticism, if not outright hostility. Still, it remains a highly effective weapon in the endless war against safe, overly earnest indie– and few bands brandish it so wantonly as UK art-pop quartet Wild Beasts.” Read more on their album Two Dancers at Pitchfork.
Follow Wild Beasts on Twitter and check out their MySpace!
They will be playing with Still Life Still in the Pike Room on Saturday February 20 at 8pm. Tickets are on sale for $10.
“There is, indeed, a story in Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s two– yes, two– new releases, or more specifically, a backstory. “Intense panic attacks had made it difficult for me to leave the house,” claims songwriter Richard Edwards. He also claims the material that came out of that isolation (admittedly, an isolation he shared with his bandmates, who all supposedly live in the same Indianapolis house) was originally intended for a concept album about the Heaven’s Gate cult. Remember them? UFOs? Magic sneakers? Castration? Group suicide? Yeah, that one. The backstory continues…” Read more at Pitchfork.
Margot and the Nuclear So And So’s will be playing in the Pike Room Wednesday March 3 at 8pm. Tickets are on sale for $12.
“If vampires are as cool as I’m told they are right now, Cold Cave would’ve cleaned up at the Teen Choice Awards this year. Consider: Dark, synth-splashed pop songs with enough of an industrial bent to validate any flashbacks you might be having of watching Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie stalk the club for fresh meat in The Hunger. And though pack leader Wesley Eisold (also known for his work in the hardcore outfit Give Up the Ghost) does have the spooky Peter Murphy vocal thing down pat, Cold Cave sound more realized than the one-off pleasure project they look like on paper. By enlisting noise goblin Ian Dominick Fernow (Prurient) and Xiu Xiu-graduate Caralee McElroy to pitch in, their full-length debut, Love Comes Close, manages to stand out as a successful collaborative effort with a clear sense of purpose.”, says Pitchfork.
Cold Cave is playing with Hair Police, City Center, Deastro, and Jon Strucel & The Conspirators Of Pleasure in the Pike Room on Wednesday February 24, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets are only $7.
“Manna and Quail is Steve Saputo, Chad Nicefield, and three other members whose identities must remain anonymous. The band, though born in the present, was summoned through emerging technology to the future, where they are mankind’s only hope… ” Read more at their MySpace!
Manna And Quail will be playing in the Pike Room with Bear Lake, Jessica Hernandez, and The Marvins on Friday February 26, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets on sale for $5 in advance and $7 day of show.
“ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — It was five minutes before doors opened at Atlanta rock club The Earl, and Leslie Hall was backstage cramming her ample proportions into head-to-toe spandex. She straightened the stuffed white tigers mounted to her shoulders. Blasted her towering blond, bouffant with another spritz of Aquanet and sprayed Febreze on the sweatier regions of a size-16 costume that was definitely dry clean-only. “This is my Britney Spears-inspired circus outfit,” said Hall, tracing her fingers along the lion tamer piping of the gold lamé onesie. “My mom made a plus-size one for me to wear.” Hall insists that, quirks and all, she’s just another pop star.” Check out the rest of this CNN Entertainment interview here.
Also take a look at Leslie and the Ly’s website to see photos, videos, read more press and listen to songs!
Leslie and the Ly’s will be playing in the Pike Room on Monday February 15, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets are on sale for $8 in advance.
“Fate still manages to be a master class in illusory “good” songwriting. The bulk of it is so fenced into classicist templates– chamber-y pop meets maximum R&B with the occasional smidge of “tasteful” gospel/parlour games (”Hang On”) that, even when merely competent, it can still win over those unimpressed with all that punk and hip-hop riff raff of the past three decades. While Fate was rolling, I thought I’d be able to tell you about how delicious the descending melody of “The Old Days” is, or how their stabs at Bonzo Dog Band irreverence manages to come across as genuine. The problem is, once it’s over I can hardly remember how any of it went.”, says Pichfork.
Check out their MySpace to hear songs off the new album and look at photos!
Dr. Dog will be playing at the Pike Room on Wednesday February 3, 2010 at 7pm. Tickets are on sale for $12 in advance and $14 day of show.
“Teen Dream, Beach House’s third album and first for Sub Pop, obliterates these concerns. This is both the most diverse and most listenable of their three full-lengths, and yet it never seems like a compromise. It feels like the product of careful, thoughtful growth, bringing in new influences– bits of mid-1970s Fleetwood Mac, sparkling indie pop, even a few soul and gospel touches— while maintaining the group’s core sound. Teen Dream is a stirring reminder that good things can happen when you move out of your comfort zone.”, says Pitchfork.
Check out their new album Teen Dream at their website and/or hear songs, watch videos, and see pictures on their myspace page.
Beach House will be performing on Thursday April 1, 2010 in the Pike Room at 8pm with special guest Bachelorette. Tickets will be for sale $12 in advance and $14 day of show.
