forthebeat Presents… THURSDAY Night

Come hang with us this THURSDAY, December 16th at Glasslands @ 7:30 PM with Keepaway,  Headless Horseman, Slow Animal and The Young Maths

This is what this party will sound like:

Keepaway – 100
Headless Horseman – Sh8kr
Slow Animal – Sitting Here
The Young Maths – Body Bags

One more thing: the show is the LAST night you can donate to Keepaway to help them raise funds to record their full-length. Here’s a message from the band:

HELLO EVERYONE
You may have heard we are raising money to record our full-length debut. It’s going great, but WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! We started a Kickstarter page to help out. It’s really easy to throw in a donation, and you’ll get exclusive prizes for anything you give.
Thanks so much to all those who have already given. You mean the world to us, and we couldn’t be more thankful. Watch this video: we talk about the project.

Click here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/641970963/keepaways-debut-full-length-record/

Truly yours,

Frank, Mike, and Nick

PS If you haven’t yet, you can download KOMPETITOR, our new collection of songs and video, here.

Keepaway – KOMPETITOR

Keepaway has a new EP called KOMPETITOR that you can download for FREE HERE on their Band Camp page.  Although, the guys say “it’s not really an EP, it’s got videos in it” – even better.

Between their first EP Baby Style and an upcoming full-length, KOMPETITOR is out on Lefse Records and features new material to hold us over for a few months.  New songs include “100” (which you’ll probably recognize), “Sideways Smile,” “Hologram,” and “Zoo Too” featuring some of my faves, Das Racist, as well as remixes of “100” by Sunglasses and DJ Seashell – say that three times fast, or just call him by his real name Keegan McHargue.

The guys also say that on prepping for their new record, they are working on something “that the sounds on KOMPETITOR only hint at.”  Take a listen…

Keepaway – Sideways Smile

New Artist: Headless Horseman

Headless Horseman played their first ever show opening for Avery Tare (Animal Collective solo project) in late September at Glasslands, followed by a handful of CMJ shows including a Brooklyn Vegan loft party and most recently, a show at Pianos with Keepaway last night.

If you’re not impressed yet than listen to their 5 track EP, because one song is better than the next.

They will be releasing a full record in January but for now you can download their EP on their Bandcamp.

Their next show is at Pianos Thursday, November 18th with Quinn (from Suckers) and Free Blood. I keep going back and forth between these two songs and can’t decide which is my favorite- your turn:

Headless Horseman – Sh8kr

Headless Horseman – Wavlngth

New Keepaway Track

Listen to this song when your toes are in the sand.  You are drinking a Mai Tai.  Or it’s a balmy Friday afternoon in NYC and you need to get the F out of work.

I first saw Keepaway at Zebulon a few months back, and it was magical.  Frank beat the $hit out of the drums, Mike provided beats that one can only craft while wearing some extreme neckwear, and Nick’s blonde locks looked like they were caught in a breeze coming from an imaginary fan.  There was also a guy in the crowd who kept running up to slam the cymbals with his hands.  He might have been my favorite.

Well that was a fun night, but then I caught Keepaway at Brooklyn Bowl during the Northside Festival showcase thrown by FREEwilliamsburg, and I was blown away.  I thought they were good the first time I saw them, but man did they kill it that night.  Want to hear for yourself?  NYC Taper recorded the whole set, which you can download HERE.

The band is playing a few local shows here and there this summer while recording their full length, so sorry the rest of America.  However, when they hit the road, be sure you are there to catch them live.  I would definitely place their Brooklyn Bowl show among my Top 5 best performances of the summer thus far.

Here’s the latest from the trio:

Keepaway – 100

forthebeat’s Northside Festival Picks

The Northside Festival got underway last night with acts including Wavves, Cloud Nothings, DOM, Fang Island and Millionyoung playing all over the borough of Brooklyn.  We’re a day late, but we’re highlighting our picks for the rest of the weekend:

Friday: Dailyvinyl.com Presents Minks at Union Pool at 9 PM

Saturday: Titus Andronicus, Male Bonding and Cults at Newtown Barge Park @ 1 PM

And the show we’re MOST excited about — Sunday: FREEwilliamsburg Presents Keepaway, Hooray For Earth, Glass Ghost and Oh Land at Brooklyn Bowl @ 6 PM

A little preview of Sunday’s show, which promises: a night of dancing, drinking, and making out with strangers to the tunes of the following musical talents.  How can you skip that?

Keepaway – Yellow Wings

Hooray For Earth – Surrounded By Your Friends

Glass Ghost – Mechanical Life

Oh Land – Heavy Eyes (Kasper Bjørke Remix)

forthebeat favorite: The Whitest Boy Alive

The Whitest Boy Alive is playing Coachella tomorrow, but nevermind that because, more importantly (!) they are coming to New York next week.  They are playing two sold out shows at Bowery Ballroom on April 20th and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 21st. That’s it until June, when they reconvene their tour in the Czech Republic.

Norwegian singer Erlend Øye (one half of the Kings of Convenience duo) leads the foursome. And while The Whitest Boy Alive will be touring this summer, so will Kings of Convenience, so it’s sure to be a busy summer for Øye .

If you get a chance to check them out at either show next week – lucky. But consider yourself extra lucky if you’re catching their Wednesday show at Music Hall of Williamsburg, which is being supported by another forthebeat fave Keepaway.

Here’s one of my favorite Whitest Boy Alive tracks remixed by Fred Falke:

Whitest Boy Alive – Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)

Here’s a remix by Royksopp of a newer Kings of Convenience track:

Kings of Convenience – I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From (Royksopp Remix)

New Mixtape: Le Miel du Mois: Avril

Oh No Ono Surprise at forthebeat’s Spring Show

OH NO ONO are hard to categorize or even explain. I’ll be listening to them and think they remind me a lot of Empire of the Sun, but then I’ll play a different track and something completely different comes to mind. Seeing them live at Union Hall in January, I thought all four of them reminded me of David Bowie in Labyrinth / a 70′s dance party cast to the rising sun…

When you listen to Oh No Ono for the first time, you try to imagine how they might interact on stage and how they might sound live, but seeing them in-person affirmed all of my positive thoughts on this strangely wonderful act. Hailing from Denmark, they are eccentric both musically and aesthetically.

It was a true honor having Malthe Fischer join Hooray for Earth on stage last week at the spring forthebeat show. The night opened with Coma Cinema (visiting from South Carolina), Sunglasses (visiting from Atlanta and just signed to Lefse Records (Neon Indian, Keepaway, etc.), then Hooray For Earth joined by Fischer and members of Zambri, followed by The Royal Chains. The night was amazing. All of the bands rocked and forthebeat wishes we could re-play the evening over and over again. Special thanks to our DJs as well.

Spring’s been good to us, so now we’d like to be good to you:

Oh No Ono – Internet Warrior

Photo Credit: ROB LOUD

Keepaway

The possibility in our electronic age is huge.

That’s what the bio for Keepaway says on Lefse Records.  And it’s true.

So many of these electro bands can manipulate music in such a way that you never thought these sounds would be possible, and you never would have thought to create them.  But someone has.  And today we’re talking about Keepaway.

The Brooklyn-based trio is Mike Burakoff (“the sampling one”), Frank Lyon (drums) and Nick Nauman (guitar).  They all like to sing.  And they bring fresh sounds to samples, creating psychedelic “future pop” with big beats and catchy hooks that you can’t help but dance to.

The thing about these electro acts is – do they hold up live?  In terms of Keepaway, I’ve heard they bring as much power and pop to their performances as they do in the album versions of their songs, so I’ll definitely be checking them out in the next month or so.  They are playing Glasslands on April 30th with Tanlines and their EP release party is slated for May 18th at Mercury Lounge.

Take a listen to “Yellow Wings” on their debut EP Baby Style…

Keepaway – Yellow Wings