The Last Shadow Puppets In NYC - The Grand Ballroom and Conan O'Brien

It's always sad to have to acknowledge that nagging empty feeling the day after a show you had been looking forward to for so long, especially when that show was as good as The Last Shadow Puppets at The Grand Ballroom in NYC last night. As many of our regular readers know by now, I am quite zealous about The Last Shadow Puppets. Alex and Miles' live show gladly did not disappoint as they were backed by a 17 piece orchestra who helped them bring their flourishing tunes to life on the stage.

TLC went to the taping of Conan O'Brien the night before and saw the lads perform Standing Next To Me. Conan seemed genuinely impressed and interested in them as he chatted animatedly with the boys during breaks and invited them to the couch at the end, something most musical guests don't usually get to do.

The crowd last night was a pleasantly surprising mix of the very young, the middle-aged and older and everyone in-between. Groups of young teenagers were abounding with their parents in tow as well as older fans, some who traveled from as far as Boston and Montreal to attend. The crowd's diversity was truly a testament to the quality and wide appeal of Alex and Miles' music and the fact that they're doing something completely from anyone else in modern music. How many other 22 year old musicians cite Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, mid-60s Bowie and Burt Bacharach among their influences?

With the orchestra ready to go, the charming duo burst onto the stage a little after 9:30pm and went straight into In My Room. The set that followed included all songs from their debut LP, The Age of the Understatement, as well as an array of b-sides and covers including their own Hang The Cyst and Gas Dance as well as the Bowie cover In The Heat of the Morning, the Bacharach-penned Love tune My Little Red Book. Highlights included a passionate cover of The Beatles' I Want You (She's So Heavy) and Leonard Cohen's doo-wop throwback Memories.

They closed with Standing Next To Me and were extremely gracious to the crowd and arm in arm walked off stage to uproarious cheers. The night was just getting started though as TLC then proceeded on to multiple after parties. A number of stars made appearances like BONO, Mark Ronson, all of Franz Ferdinand, Ryan Gentles, Nikolai Fraiture, and Eleanor Friedberger but Turner & Kane were nowhere in site. Miles did mention he was a little under the weather but needless to say we were disappointed not to see them out and about. All in all it was a wonderful couple of days with The Last Shadow Puppets who never cease to amaze me and who I hope to see again before too long.

Check out their performance on Conan and Memories from The BBC Electric Proms:

«More Photos of The Last Shadow Puppets at The Grand Ballroom NYC 10/31»

MP3: The Last Shadow Puppts - My Little Red Book (Live from New Theatre, Oxford, UK) or zShare

Happy Halloween from TLC!

Just wishing all of our readers a safe night of fun, mischief, music, costume, and hopefully some sweets...like caramel!

MP3: Air - Ghost Song or zShare

Get Tickets for the MTV U Woody Awards!

Click HERE to register for tickets for the 2008 MTV U Woody Awards.

The event takes place November 12th at Roseland Ballroom. Performers include: Lykke Li, Vampire Weekend, Santogold, and All Time Low.

MP3: Santogold - Starstruck (Diplo Remix) or zShare

New Beck Video: Gamma Ray

Beck's new colorful and funky video features a dancing Chloë Sevigny.

MP3: Beck - Hell Yes

Holy Hawley! Camden's Favorite Watering Hole Re-Opens

Last February's fire in Camden was tragic and destructive, but it seems rebuilding has been taking place in remarkable time. Tomorrow night will see the re-opening of The Hawley Arms, the legendary scenester outpost almost entirely destroyled by the fire.

I didn't realize how bad this building was damaged until I saw this picture among others on MySpace.

Tomorrow and Thursday night are INVITE ONLY events. If you RSVP'd to an invitation but didn't receive a confirmation, you will not gain entry. However the proprietors are happy to announce that Halloween Friday will be the official public re-opening.

Ahh The Hawley...Welcome Back!

Win A Signed Bass From Peter Hook

Rhino Records is re-issuing New Order's first 5 albums (Movement, Power Corruption and Lies, Low-Life, Brotherhood, Technique) as 2-disc collector's editions on November 11th.

In celebration of the releases you can enter to win a signed bass from Hooky himself. 2 runners-up will win copies of all 5 New Order collector's edition CDs.

ENTER HERE.

MP3: New Order - Ceremony

Travis Frontman To Play Acoustic NYC Show

From Travisonline.com:

Housing Works Bookstore Café presents a concert with Fran Healy of Travis on Friday, November 7. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 at www.housingworksbookstore.org and include free beer, compliments of Whole Foods Bowery, the official beer sponsor of Live From Home. All proceeds benefit Housing Works Inc.

Celebrate the release of Travis' 6th studio album, Ode To J. Smith (out Nov 4th on Red Telephone Box), at this event for a great cause!

MP3: Travis - J. Smith or zShare

Erol Alkan Voted Top UK DJ

The Top 10 as voted by Data Transmission Poll

1. Erol Alkan
2. John Digweed
3. Sasha
4. Danny Howells
5. Above & Beyond
6. Riley & Durrant
7. Armin Van Buuren
8. Carl Cox
9. James Zabiela
10. Paul Van Dyk

Watch his humble award acceptance interview below.



MP3: Fan Dealth - Veronica's Veil (Erol Alkan's Extended Rework) or zShare

New Christina Aguilera Video: Keeps Gettin' Better

Christina Aguilera premiered the video for her brand new song, Keeps Gettin' Better today. check out the video below and pre-order the Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits HERE.

MP3: Christina Aguilera - Keeps Gettin' Better (Tricky Remix) or zShare

TLC vs. Pete & The Pirates: The Exclusive Electric Proms Interview

TLC featured Pete & The Pirates in an Artist Spotlight last month after rediscovering their poppy post-punk gem of an album, Little Death.

While perusing the BBC Electric Proms 2008 line-up we were thrilled to see our favorite Reading lads headlining the BBC Introducing gig at Proud Galleries in London. That momentous gig is happening tonight at the close of the annual week-long event. TLC caught up with Pete & The Pirates' guitarist David Thorpe who talked to us about what it means to be involved in Electric Proms, what they're working on now, and when they might (FINALLY) tour the US.

>Congratulations on headlining the BBC Introducing show at the Electric Proms! The first time I heard Pete & the Pirates was on Steve Lamacq's show and then on Zane Lowe's. How instrumental has support from the BBC, namely Steve Lamacq, been in your success so far?

DT: Steve has been amazing, he has supported us right from the beginning, not just by playing our records on his shows but coming to gigs, saying hello and what not. The BBC in general has always been very supportive of us which is great. I think as a band it just gives you a little boost and a bit of extra confidence to keep doing what you're doing.

>What significance does participating in the Electric Proms hold for you? What are your expectations?

DT: It's quite exciting, some of the shows seem to be collaborations between people you may not usually put together, which i think is a great idea, even if it ends up sounding not so great. It is definitely good to encourage artists to try new things. We actually went down to an event on the opening night of the Electric Proms called Africa Express where we met some really interesting people and managed to play with some musicians who we normally would not have had the chance to play with when you just do standard shows around England. Although in the end we didn't get to perform the songs on stage, we hope to perhaps meet with one or two people we met there at one of our gigs in London and play the songs there instead.

>You've all been or are currently involved in other musical projects. How did Pete & The Pirates form? Is it the main focus for all of you or do you like to continue to work on other projects simultaneously?

DT: We formed in Reading; we all lived very close to each other and gradually met one another through mutual friends or seeing people at the same pub or whatever and realised we all were songwriters and interested in recording music and just kinda grew from there. A couple of us had been in bands together before so it was all very natural, just hanging out playing songs together and recording, just sort of dawned one day that we were a band without really thinking about it. I think The Pirates is definitely our main focus, however I think all of us have solo side projects too. But the boundaries are very vague, as to what is Pirates and what isn't. I mean we all write songs and some become Pirates songs and some don't.

>Your bio describes the band as "bright, young commanders of a brand of unique Englishness." In your view, what about your music is distinctly "English" and how does that set you apart from today's other indie rock bands, English, American, or otherwise?

DT: Coming from Reading you are just far enough from London to not be in "the scene" there. I think all our influences were from listening to each other's songs rather than hearing a popular band's sound and kind of apeing that. So I think our sound is different perhaps from some other bands just because we weren't really influenced so much by what is or was popular at a certain time. Our writing is very much based on our own experiences and things that concern young folk growing up and living in Reading, England, not necessarily explicitly but kind of innately. I guess how could we not sound English? Also, we have never put on accents when we sing, so I guess people pick up on that too.

>Describe the music scene in Reading. Are you still based there or did you make the obligatory move to London?

DT: Yeah, we are still in Reading. Its tricky, as I think it really suffers from being 40 miles from London. You never get that many big bands playing there as most just play in London and there are unfortunately very few live venues, so it is difficult for a scene to kind of take grip. Which can be a good thing, as it enables bands to do their own thing and not worry so much about sounding like other bands around. If there is not much there already it gives you an impetus to make your own fun and get out there and play in places like London and Manchester etc.

>Can you tell me a bit about the new material you're working on? How different is it working with Dave Allen versus Gareth Parton, who produced Little Death?

DT: Well, so far we have recorded two new songs (actually off to finish the mix off in a mo) with Dave and a man named Mark Ralph (who is part of Filthy Dukes) for a single to come out soon. They are sounding great, feel quite excited for people to hear them, I'm kinda terrible at describing songs... I think everyone you work with has different approaches and ideas about how to do things and it's good to try lots of different people just to see what's out there. We are quite hands on when recording so obviously the sound is very much down to us as well. But yeah, I've really enjoyed working with all three.


>Lastly, when are you going to tour the US?! I know quite a lot of people who would love to see you here in NYC and noticed other Stateside fans clamoring on your MySpace page for you to make your way over. What are your plans for the rest of 2008 and early '09? Does a trip to the States factor in?

DT: We are doing a big UK tour for the whole of November and then in December I think we are just gonna finish off some new songs, try and get the next album ready to record. Early 2009 should be releasing a single at some point and then off to record the next album. And then, fingers crossed, a quick trip to the States in or around March (which hopefully will drop by in New York for sure). It's something we have wanted to do for a long time now.

MP3: Pete & The Pirates - Knots or zShare

CMJ 2008 Coverage: Chairlift at Piano's

On Tuesday TLC attended The Music Slut's afternoon showcase at Piano's to catch our recent interviewees' first CMJ set.


Chairlift headlined the popular event and played a rousing set to warm up for their 329732493740324 CMJ appearances. Day-time showcases are fun, mostly if you enjoy standing in a sea of industry types, Blackberries aglow. But I digress....


My first impression of Chairlift's live show was very positive albeit shortlived. Their ethereal, glossed-up sound was beautiful in this intimate setting and good enough to get everyone to lift their heads from their iPhones more than once. The lighting in Piano's is atrocious however and didn't yield that many great pics. I'm excited to see the trio play a full set in the near future.

MP3: Chairlift - Planet Health or zShare

CMJ 2008 Coverage: The Teenagers at Ben Sherman

The second night of CMJ we decided to check out the Parisian pop outfit and blog darlings, The Teenagers. The boys played the second night of Ben Sherman's Big British Sound 3-day event for CMJ week and once again they were definitely a crowd pleaser. I saw the band at Studio B last winter and became an instant fan of their catchy brand of naughty electro-pop music that goes heavy on the hilarious pop culture references. It's impossible to not to dance, sing along, and feed off of their tremendous energy and interactions with the crowd.

It's been a busy week of all day events and open bars but the super-cool boys took time out to chat with us for the slurry TLC interview after the gig (which will be posted later.) Until then enjoy the pics from last night's show, which was also Teenager Michael's birthday! The Teenagers continue their CMJ rounds tomorrow night with a DJ set in the LES and on Saturday in Brooklyn for the Up The Antics gig. Catch the boys before they head back to Europe!

«More of The Teenagers at Ben Sherman's Big Sound»

MP3: The Teenagers - French Kiss or zShare