​
The rock station WRXP—which highlights the current confused place occupied by the term "alternative" by jumbling together the likes of Sublime, Adele, David Bowie, Death Cab For Cutie, and the Smiths on an hourly basis—has announced its first festival, a two-stage affair that will take over the PNC Bank Arts Center on September 18. Dubbed the RXP Tākliberty (pronounced "take liberty," get it?) Festival, the fest has snagged Coldplay as the headliner, with ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft and local twee heroes The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart also on the bill. The general public can have at tickets on Friday, June 24, and a members-only presale that begins tomorrow. The lineup as it stands now after the jump.

More >>

Surfer Blood, doing their thing at the Cake Shop, circa CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Yeah, it's still months away, but someone has to kick SXSW season off, right? So it is with some pride and anticipation that we announce the Village Voice's 2010 SXSW party, featuring Superchunk, the xx, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and our old sparring partners, Surfer Blood. Friday, March 19, La Zona Rosa, Austin, TX, 12pm - 5pm. Free, first come first serve, open to the general public. These bands are alternately old friends and young heroes to us, so it just didn't seem worth keeping it secret any longer. You will probably forget, but we will definitely remind you. And if you forgot who these other guys were in the first place...

More >>

Good things do happen on Fridays! The Pains of Being Pure at Heart gave Pitchfork a pristine studio recording of the glittering recent live staple "Higher Than the Stars," eventually destined for a September EP on Slumberland by the same name. It's almost weird to have a band this polished and English-sounding living in Brooklyn, but we'll take it, especially when it's as blissed out and lovely as this. The band is on tour right now; they come home in October, when they'll play Webster Hall. Tickets for that one are on sale now.

Premiere: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: "Higher Than the Stars" [Pitchfork]

photo via mediaeater's photostream

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Bowery Ballroom, Tuesday May 12.

Cumbersome name aside, there's nothing entirely virginal about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a band whose hybridized mash of indie fuzz, twee, and shoegaze owes more than a little to long messy nights spent listening to Sarah Records, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine. The Brooklyn band's debut album for Slumberland--a once-great label, recently resuscitated--is enticingly crisp, poppy, and playful, the kind of thing which will indelibly mark a spring or a summer, depending on when you begin listening to it.

More >>