Ben Lozovsky

​Titus Andronicus
Glasslands Gallery
Wednesday, October 18

Better than: Reading a good book and being in bed by 10.

As you're surely by now aware, this year's CMJ Music Marathon has some thousand-plus bands, not from all over the country but all over the world—everyone from the Hendrix of sludge rock (J Mascis, duh) to small, wheelchaired rapper from Denver who you'll surely be hearing more about. Yesterday, we trimmed the fat and picked 21 of the acts we were most excited to potentially see, a list featuring mostly the young and the able-bodied, but a diverse group none the less. So with which band did I choose to begin my week of more shows than sleep and filing copy as the sun comes up? Titus Andronicus, of course.

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Veronica Falls w/German Measles, Darlings, Tanks Amigo
Glasslands
Tuesday, September 27

Better than: Forgetting an umbrella.

It's probably appropriate that Veronica Falls' name brings to mind waterfalls. The guitars cascade; the music builds, then breaks; the melancholy brings to mind gray, misty skies. The London-based quartet's just-released self-titled debut (Slumberland) is a well-timed autumn release; it's full of cool, gloomy music dotted with tambourines and covered in airy harmonies.

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Gold Panda, somewhere in there

Gold Panda
Glasslands
Saturday, April 2

Better Than: 
Thinking about how you couldn't afford LCD tickets.

It's hard to act like a rock star when you're hunched over a pile of hardware that's sitting on a table. But if you want to milk the maximum effect out of these small motions, you have to do what Derwin Panda (a/k/a Gold Panda) did at Glasslands Gallery on Saturday night: add some extremes to your music.

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There's no getting around it, this is LCD Soundsystem week. Buy your tickets on Craigslist and be scorned by James Murphy forever if you must--sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

But hey, other things are happening this week too! Tropical dance fete Que Bajo?! has relocated to a new home for their Thursday night getdown, taking over the main space of Le Poisson Rouge tonight, March 31. The party features cumbia, salsa, dancehall, kuduro, moombahton, Latin house, and other warm weather tunes--expect to sweat for real. GHE20 G0TH1K maven Venus X joins residents Geko Jones and Uproot Andy for a special "old school reggaeton" set, while Houston's Panchitron provides more of a Latin house groove. Venus X does not mess around when it comes to queer nightlife (check this Twitter fight with Diplo), so be prepared for the onslaught of her intensely dancing party regulars. We've seen epically emboldened salsa queens flit around the dance floor, recruiting partners out of wallflowers--standing in the background is not really an option. Que Bajo is for dancing, especially tonight. Tickets are $10 in advance.

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​During a recent Mercury Lounge invasion by majestic New Jersey angst-punk deities Titus Andronicus, we grew to greatly appreciate the presence of guitarist/violinist/backup vocalist Amy Klein, a bouncing, gleeful antidote to all that hyper-masculine self-recrimination. That someone in this band has an actually quite lovely soprano is a real asset, one you can now hear unencumbered by all those blaring Springsteenian guitar squalls on her new solo record, I Know What You Want.

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Less like Dinosaur Jr than you might have hoped/feared. Pics by Rob.

​Yuck/Total Slacker
Glasslands
Wednesday, January 26

Better Than: Watching American Idol exploit that brain-damaged woman, evidently

If you're here tonight, than you really want to be here. This includes your headliners, the classic-indie-guitar-god-worshiping Brits Yuck, who valiantly battled visa issues that axed their planned show last night at Mercury Lounge and probably contributed to their barely making it to this one: "We just got here," they announce from the stage. As for the crowd, we've braved a fuckin' thunder snowstorm, which begets a two-hour delay further exacerbated by one of the least pleasant opening-band experiences in recent memory. It's pretty much all worth it, though, when Yuck plays the song about the coconuts.

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Everybody wants to be a star on a Tuesday night. Pics by Rob, more below.

​Smith Westerns/Ducktails/Bass Drum of Death
Glasslands
Tuesday, January 18

Better Than: Well, certainly staying at home sulking about missing another Prince show at Madison Square Garden.

Every Smith Westerns lead-guitar line is expressly designed to remind you of the solo in "Let It Be": that warm, sharp, sweetly melodic George Harrison attack, the kind that turns merely OK garage rock into something startling and transcendent. Another way to put it: Best New Music. Join us as these Chicago dudes celebrate their burgeoning Internet fame (via their just-released new record, Dye the World) by crowing "That's right!" a lot between songs, rhyming "life is a joke" with "makes me wanna choke," bouncing around jovially, and ripping into those solos not quite often enough.

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Emeralds' Mark McGuire, pushing buttons. All photos by Georgia Kral.

​Emeralds
Glasslands
Tuesday, October 22

Better than: Unaccompanied daydreaming

A certain kind of music begs for a collective experience, one in which everyone in the room vibes together in harmony. Other music is more private, best experienced at home or walking around alone, wearing headphones. And then there are acts like Emeralds, the three-piece experimental band from Ohio. Live, they ride the line between public and private so closely you forget where you are. This was the case last night when each member of the band played a solo set at Glasslands.

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Well, it's probably time to admit to ourselves that it was a mistake to skip this one. Though they'll headline Webster Hall a month from now (after doing the same thing at the Bowery Ballroom back in March), last night brought the rousing sight of Jersey punk heroes Titus Andronicus playing the humbler confines of the Williamsburg rain forest that is Glasslands. We didn't go. That decision, it seems, was made in error: above, watch the band--and the crowd!--rip through the latter half of "Four Score and Seven." Ah well...

Julian Lynch, La Big Vic, Campfires, and Ducktails
Glasslands
Friday, July 30

Julian Lynch played at Glasslands on Friday night on a bill with some old friends. It was a rare New York performance for the Ridgewood, New Jersey-born musician, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin and hates touring. Organized by SOTC-contributor Georgia Kral, the night opened with a set by a band called La Big Vic, which includes Emilie Friedlander, New York editor of Pitchfork's new site Altered Zones and a longtime supporter of Ducktails and Lynch. Also on the bill was Ducktails, helmed by Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile, a guy Lynch has been playing in bands with since high school.

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