by Erin Rioux

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High Places
Tammany Hall
Saturday, August 13

Better than: Listening to The Weeknd's record for the fourth time on repeat.

The Los Angeles-via-Brooklyn duo High Places launched into their set on Saturday night with "Year Off," the first single off their forthcoming LP Original Colors (Thrill Jockey). The two craft kaleidoscopic beats—Mary Pearson handles lead vocals and synth duties, while Rob Barber is on drum pad and guitar—and "Year Off" is a cool, glassy exploration of the dark undertones once buried in the band's colorful sound palette. Barber's winding disco beat is supported by an arpeggiated-synth bassline with soft bell sounds rising over the top. Pearson's delicate voice is beautiful when it's audible, but it's mostly dominated by the pounding kick drum and the snare drum decaying in echo. She stepped away from the mic, dancing gently in her what looked like a shirt-cape as Barber navigated the song in and out of a jungle break.

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​Listen, most men and women of means are on a fuckin' Hamptons jitney at this exact second, and here in the SOTC stronghold we're daydreaming about a bridge-burning new feature called Slow News Day, but carry on we/you shall, and may we suggest we/you begin tonight at the Whitney with the soothing, childlike, nostalgic-for-a-time-I-can't-remember dulcet tones of NYC defectors High Places and professional sweet dude Toro Y Moi. A rad Christian Marclay exhibit just opened, too. Hopefully our own Chillwave Scholar will be in attendance to explain this music to you, if you need him to do that.

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Titus Andronicus and Ducktails, respectively. Pics by Georgia, way more below.

​Whew, what a whirlwind of a weekend! The L Magazine hosted the 2nd-annual Northside Festival, a major throwdown of bands, art, film, and more bands, all packed into multiple venues across Williamsburg and Greenpoint from Thursday through Sunday. Starting with Thursday night's kick-off party with Wavves, we partook of a lot of it--here's a taste of the (notably hot and sweaty) scene, direct from the front lines. While Vice's Creators Project blowout was a decidedly Manhattan affair complete with (slightly) cooler temperatures and fancy cocktails, much of the Northside Fest was DIY Brooklyn through and through. Yeah, we're talking humid warehouses and Miller High Life in a can.

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Really loving the woozy depressification going on with these guys. Photo by Katelyn Reeves.

​Wow, word was that Mary Pearson and Rob Barber were doing something completely different for High Places vs. Mankind (out in April on Thrill Jockey) and October's "I Was Born" was pretty ethereal and dark but who would've thought L.A. would've turned Brooklyn's much-missed #1 duo into house-jamming Liquid Liquid-on-depressives divas? Not us. Song is called "On Giving Up." Really rad in a way you never really thought of High Places as being rad. Download it via Pitchfork.

Your new-look High Places: sing-y, bassoon-y, spooky. "I Was Born," the single, is out today on Thrill Jockey; above is the duo's self-made video for the song, which is suitably scary and features what is either a nearly unrecognizable Mary Pearson or, alternately, an entirely different person. That's definitely Rob Barber though, covered in mud. This is a song about being born again, literally. Take that how you will--we do not think religion is what these two have discovered out in the wilds of Los Angeles. "I Was Born" will get the remix treatment soon, as part of a 12" single that will also feature another new song. In the meantime, Thrill Jockey's selling this one for a dollar. [Pitchfork Image Factory]

If nothing else, this new and somewhat maddening High Places video--in which Rob Barber and Mary Pearson wander hills and dunes and trees for twelve long minutes to no particular purpose--is an excellent delivery vehicle for its song, the still-lovely and leisurely "Late Bloomer." Those looking for a slightly more galvanizing experience might try the mixtape the band just made with Hisham Bharoocha (whose Soft Circle provides the other side of "Late Bloomer"'s 12") for Vice, which goes from vintage Nausea to Underworld in three moves and from Underworld to the Delfonics in just two. It's a tape with a keen arc and a keen ear and, like everything else these days, a Drake cameo. Full tracklist and download at the Vice Music Blog.

No one was ever able to answer our question about why the Guggenheim's It Came From Brooklyn concert last Friday cost so much money just to get into, not even Mary High Places herself when we ran into her the next night. (They thought the whole thing was gonna be free until they showed up and found out that tickets were $40-$45. After that, High Places nearly didn't play.) But once you were in, the show did indeed look quite lovely. The Fader sent Ray Concepcion to shoot video. His lovely Walkmen clips circulated earlier this week, and now he has an excerpt of High Places' set from the same night. It's a bit subdued compared to what we're used to, but then again, they were playing in a museum. Unadorned as they are, the duo's compositions have a different quality to them--their songs are more song-like, less snatches of melody and more full-blown, sustained movement. Not a bad look. [h/t Chocolate Bobka]

Leigh Righton

Japandroids, the second Siren band who set their drums on fire

--We've already lamented missing what was probably one of Japandroids' last tiny gigs in New York ever, but here's a manageably-sized solution: tickets for their Mercury Lounge show on September 24 are onsale today. If intimacy isn't your thing, you can also catch them with us and a bazillion others at Siren on Saturday.

--We've also already told you about those $5 Motorhead tickets. But now it turns out that this deal extends to a grocery list of artists you probably weren't going to pay $40 bucks to see. But, hey what the hell, you'll catch Pinback (or Islands, or Alice in Chains) for the same price as a Spicy Italian.

--The Guggenheim announced the "It Came From Brooklyn" series with what it apparently envisions as bands that should be from Brooklyn. The first line-up features Upper West Siders The Walkmen, Los Angeles-based High Places (who, okay, did form in Brooklyn), and, opening, the Brooklyn "Steppers" Marching Band, who aren't trying to fool the Upper East Side institution and are actually from our favorite borough.

--Dredging the bottom of Michael Jackson's barrel of health issues, hijinks, and creepy secrets (and keeping readers in the loop) will hopefully remain daily happenstance for years to come. What will it be like when we can no longer take for granted random shit about his needle-marked legs, his hair bursting into flames, or his personal Dr. Kevorkian?

--Another quick reminder that there's a great show at Cake Shop tonight, with the blistering ex-Be Your Own Pets brother duo Jeff: The Brotherhood, faithfully punkish Ex-Humans, and Lovvers, a double-v'd band that should've blown up. That, or you can hang out with me at my awesome party! Deets.

Los Angeles certainly seems to have made a mellower band out of New York exile duo High Places, who return to the city for the It Came From Brooklyn series at the Guggenheim on August 14. "Late Bloomer," destined for a Post Present Medium split 12" with Soft Circle, is a vaguely choral and languid dip in the High Places id: lots of echo, chirping birds, tinny wrist-bracelet cymbals, dripping water, slithering electronics, floating bits of stray melody, and a brief but convincing Mary Pearson incantation. It's lovely and we envy them their out-of-town ease. Stream it at Pitchfork.

--Jeff Archuleta, the overeager stage dad of 2008 American Idol contestant David Archuleta, has been charged with soliciting a massage parlor hooker. The charge stems from a January raid on a Midvale, Utah parlor after police conducted a five-day investigation. Archuleta's lawyer maintains his client was getting legitimate therapy for his back. Those "flimsy outfits" that drew cops to the building? Just casual Friday.

--A series of live shows will take place in the Guggenheim rotunda later this summer. It Came from Brooklyn will showcase ten bands over five Friday nights. Judging from the lineup so far, the museum is going all out. The Walkmen and High Places kick off the series August 14, and Grizzly Bear is also expected to headline at some point. The series, which is meant to give exposure to Brooklyn's expanding art scene, will also include readings from Brooklyn-based writers.

--Jack White hates the internet's influence on music. In an interview with Canada's National Post, White discussed promoting his new band, The Dead Weather, saying "Do I really need a MySpace page for this fucking music? Do I really need to do that? There's a part of me, that just out of spite, says I don't want to do it because it's so antithetical to what I do." The Dead Weather hosts its YouTube channel, which White is undoubtedly excited about.

--Tom Delonge may back with blink 182, but that hasn't stopped him from pursuing being as pretentious as possible. Delonge's Angels and Airwaves project is planning a free concept album and film, Love. Sounding like a high-schooler trying to describe his favorite new prog band, Delonge told Billboard, "It's like blending Radiohead and U2 together with these kind of Pink Floyd movements." Just a few years ago he was writing about wanting to fuck a dog in the ass.