I almost forgot to mention this one! Last Nights is thrilled to provide this video of our previous show with MV & EE w/ Mick Flower, Spectre Folk, Images, & Jefferson High. It was a great time so we're excited to be offering a little snapshot of the evening. The video comes courtesy of jeremy Aquilino, so big thanks to him & everyone else involved!

Ponytail have been a group notorious for their energetic live performance, & maybe equally for recordings that fail to capture this intensity. Well, I think "Honey Touches" may serve to dispel some of that. The track, taken from the group's newest LP Do Whatever You Want All The Time, is a tour de force that showcases the group's great songwriting abilities while also tapping into their frenetic playing abilities.

I'll admit I'm not sure I really got this group until recently though. The track sees guitars intertwine in & out of themselves, while quick ADD-laden vocals flow throughout. The video was directed by Bill Benz & Mike Giambra respectively. Make sure to check out Ponytail's Do Whatever You Want, which is available now via the fine folks at We Are Free.

Moon Duo have just released their newest full-length Mazes via Sacred Bones and it is a scorcher of post-Spacemen 3 minimalist psych rock. For those of you familiar with Moon Duo I'm sure this came as now surprise, but maybe the fact that to honor the release Sonic Boom (of you guessed it the almighty Spacemen 3 among fantastic projects), Psychic Ills, Gary War, & Purling Hiss have all contributed remixes of tracks off of Mazes.

While above you'll find, or found, a video for Sonic Boom's remix sees slight alterations to the original. Yet upon further listens, separates itself from the original, some more wombly atmosphere here & accent there, all set to some retro vacation footage layered upon itself. Pretty rad, and definitely worth checking out.

Out of the ashes as they say... or something like that. Anyway it seems like a lot of people are doing pretty good following the demise of Pocahaunted. Now we have music from the likes of Psychic Reality & Best Coast to listen to. T0 add to that list here is Diva Her music melds a number of contemporary sounds, Ducktails & Sun Araw come to mind, while at other instances harking back to Syd Barret's acid tinged solo work.

After a few listens to her self-released cassette The Glitter End I realized that Diva can actually write some terrific songs! Poking through all the synth squiggles, some unbelievable hypnogogic pink floyd moment, & drum samples appear some great songs.

You can buy the album from Diva's bandcamp or a cassette straight from the artist. Did I mention you can choose your own price for the download?

Over the course of three days NUMINA lente will be presenting some fantastic performances by the likes Charlemagne Palestine + Tony Conrad, Bill Orcutt, Andrew Lambert with Flower-Corsano Duo, & Hype Williams. The event was organized by the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, though the Howlinghex.com had this to say about the festival

NUMINA lente is a three-day music + performance festival which aims to explore the speed of perception + the experience of other. Assembling an international array of artists operating outside conventionally accepted or defined genres, these shows will offer New York audiences a unique opportunity to glimpse into unseen worlds.

The series presents a mix of groundbreaking artists, both obscure & established. The highlight show for us here is the friday show featuring longtime collaborators Charlamagne Palestine & Tony Conrad in together again. Some may remember the duo most recent release Aural Symbiotic Mystery, released on Sub Rosa in 2006, which paired Palestine's sweeping piano patterns with Conrad's steady violin playing. The night will also see Bill Orcutt hit the stage, which is a real treat as his recent solo work has left a lot of people scratching their heads at its beauty. I wish I knew about his one sooner as it's sounds great.

Both 3 night passes & single night tickets are still available from the website & of course at the door. Also there's a facebook page for the shows, if you do that sort of thing

The last few nights over here have been rad. MV & EE were in town with Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flower-Corsano) in tow bringing some positive vibes and getting this spring off to a great start. Last Nights was proud to present the trio along with Spectre Folk, Images, & Jefferson High at Death By Audio (Brooklyn, NY) Friday (4/8) night, and hey what would you know It was a lot of fun and we'd like to thank everyone involved MV & EE, Mick Flower, Pete & Pete from Spectre Folk, Edan at DBA, Jared Jolly for making the rad flyer, & everyone who came out!

Make sure to check the trio out on the rest of their April Flower Tour. Last Nights will also be doing some other rad shows in the future so keep your eyes open.

Last Nights Presents:

MV & EE w/ Mick Flower

Spectre Folk

Images

Jefferson High

Friday April, 8th

$7 :: 8pm

Death By Audio (49 S. 2nd Street)

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After kicking off the last Nights blog & organizing Silk Flowers record release party this past February (That long ago already!), I was thinking of who to ask for the next show. As luck would have it one of Last Nights favorites MV & EE were going on tour in the spring, that is it begins today Monday 4/4/11!

Throughout their career MV & EE have released countless albums through the likes of Ecstatic Peace, Time-Lag, not even to mention their own label(s) Child Of Microtones & Heroine Celestial Agriculture. All the while brewing the most own unique take folk & psych-rock out there. They'll be touring around their new LP coming out on Three Lobed/Blatant Obviousness this May. The appropriately titled, Country Stash sees the duo in full band action accompanied by a great cast that includes Mick Flower, Jeremy Earl (of Woods), among others. The album finds them in familiar territory once again, yet this time a little more fermentation has resulted in a great batch of tunes begging to be heard.

They'll be accompanied by Mick Flower on this tour which they've dubbed the April Flower Tour. Mick Flower, who hails from the UK, is a fantastic musician whose work deserves some mentioning in its own right. Readers may be familiar with his work in Vibracathedral Orchestra, or his own solo material as Michael Flower, to name just a few of the projects he's been involved with.

Spectre Folk also graciously agreed to play making this one a dual headliner of sorts. The group, Pete Nolan's (of Magik Markers) solo project, have just released The Blackest Medicine Vol. II on Jeremy Earl's Woodsist records. With a full band in tow (that includes members of Sonic Youth & Tall Firs) Nolan's tunes are more upbeat & melodic than ever. There is definitely a classic country-psych vibe to the while ordeal. I saw them at their 1st record release show the other day & can attest to the live prowess of this group right now. I think that make this show Spectre Folk's Record Release Vol. II. Can't wait

Images will also be playing this evening. The NY duo have been busy recently releasing an ep "The 60's Sound" through Last Nights & have been announced to play the Creepy Teepee Festival at the GASK Museum of Fine Arts, in the Czech Republic (along with Liars, R. Stevie Moore, & Xiu Xiu to name a few). People tend to say stuff like psych-drone & mention something about tribal drumming & layered guitar noise. But really there are some golden pop moments, which will be showcased on their next release due out this fall.

While finally Jefferson High will rounding out the evening. A three piece group that have a driving rock approach wrapped inside some retro doo-wop sheen. The group have recently released an album through their American Buffalo Recordings.

Hopefully we'll be seeing you!

-Last Nights

Excepter have reissued, if that's even the right word, a collection of classic tracks from the band titled OD. The album is composed of "early versions" of tracks that appeared on the albums Throne & Alternation (a Last Nights favorite) & has been released today (4/1/11).

The lengthiest track in the collection Heart Beat / Rock Stepper showcases some classic Excepter moves. During Heart Beat synths soar throughout the mix, weaving undecipherable vocal snippets throughout. That is until a loose rendition of Rock Stepper begins to make its way around the 11 minute mark. Offering some considerably different lyric content & vocal arrangements. That is exactly what you can expect from OD though, a great glimpse into the always diverse nature of Excepter.

It's very good indeed to hear some positive news for this band after the untimely passing of member Clare Amory. Hopefully time will allow the group to return to live performances in the future. A digital version of the release can be found on the group's Bandcamp site & is released through Excepter Records.

curated by am 180 collective

Everyone over here at Last Nights is pretty excited to announce that Images will be playing the Creepy Teepee Festival 2011, held at GASK Czech Museum of Fine Arts. We'll be joining the already star studded lineup of Liars, Xiu Xiu, & R. Stevie Moore to include just a few. The festival is still in the process of announcing the lineup so more great acts are sure to follow. We'll have more news to report with time so look out, you can find more info on the Facebook & Last.fm event pages for the Festival.