I’m from NJ (Clifton). So is Titus Andronicus (Glen Rock) and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (Bloomfield). The New York Times focuses on these two bands (no mention of me, that’s okay) who just released great new albums.

After more than a decade awash in hardcore, heavy metal and emo bands, a few of them distinguished like My Chemical Romance, New Jersey is having another moment. In addition to Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls and Real Estate, there’s also the Gaslight Anthem, soul-punkers from New Brunswick, which is home to the sly garage and dance-punk influenced outfit Screaming Females. (full story)

MP3: The Mighty Sparrow

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (new website coming soon) is celebrating the release of the band’s new album on Matador Records, The Brutalist Bricks, with a show at The Knitting Factory. Tickets are only $5 and are on sale now. Ted & co will play a set followed by a run of live band karaoke, where you can sing with them as your backing band. Will likely be amazing and insane at the same time.

Evidence:

Guess dude lives in Tribeca now. Read the TONY article here.

Speaking of Cudi, anyone watch that new HBO show he’s in?

Jonsi’s debut album comes out April 6, and here’s the first video:

I just bought tix to see him perform live in New York in May. Complete tour dates after the jump. (more…)

MP3: Ice and the Storm (DM Stith Remix)

On January 26, My Brightest Diamond is releasing Shark Remixes, a limited edition 2CD set featuring remixes of her last album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth.

They brought on four remixers (Alfred Brown, DM Stith, Son Lux and Roberto Carlos Lange (Epstein, Savath and Savalas, ROM) and commissioned them to each create a separate EP of remixed material.

You can see the band in New York as they celebrate the release of the album at Bowery Ballroom on Friday, January 22.

MP3: White Christmas

From the band:

Our ’00’s touring ended on an especially high note, with the “Lost Gaijin Tour” of Japan — and our ’10’s are going to start with a bang at two very special shows, Jan 30 at the 92Y Tribeca in New York, and Jan 31 at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge. Each of these evenings will feature the first-ever theater screenings of Naomi’s films featured on the DVD, 1001 Nights; a Q&A moderated by Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive and author of the liner notes to 1001 Nights; an opening set by the extremely talented singer/songwriter Sharon van Etten; and a headlining show by the same line-up that we toured so often earlier this decade, but haven’t for some time: Damon & Naomi with Kurihara.

In this new video from Vandaveer, we go on some Lost-style time traveling mind bendery that will make your brain hurt as you travel along the 5+ minutes of the music. It’s worth the pain, though, as the song is great and the video is beautifully crafted.

The band is wrapping up their latest tour in New York in support of their latest album, Divide & Conquer.

12/09 Brooklyn, NY – Union Hall
12/10 Manhattan, NY – Mercury Lounge

Director and animator Mark Wiitanen created this new video for Beaten Awake, Thunder$troke, which is the same name of their new album on Fat Possum. Buy it on Amazon.

The band is in New York this week, playing Trophy tonight and Monkeytown in Brooklyn tomorrow.

The last time I had the chance to see The Magnetic Fields, I went and got married instead. OOPST.

The band has a new album out January 26 on Nonesuch Records. Complete tour dates after the jump. (more…)

MP3: Stillness Is the Move

This premiered on Pitchfork a few hours ago and I’ve listened to it like five times. It’s definitely the easiest way to trick your friends into liking Dirty Projectors (THEIR MELODIES AND TIME SIGNATURES ARE SO COMPLICATED AND WEIRD!!!!).

There’s a lot of talk about Noah and the Whale’s upcoming three day stay at the Mercury Lounge, but let it not go unnoticed that Robert Francis will be opening each night. Francis just released his second album, Before Nightfall.

Complete tour dates after the jump. (more…)

MP3: Ambling Alp

Ahmed Gallab (not pictured) of Sinkane has been drumming for Yeasayer for a few months now and will be well into 2010. He appears on this first song from the new record (download it above).

Columbus musician Brian Harnetty’s collaboration with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Silent City, saw its European release last month, and it’s getting some good press over there. Seems like a good time to remind everyone about this overlooked gem. It’s an album well-suited to the fall and winter months, I think. Earlier this year Harnetty told me a little about his vision for the record (a vision that jibes pretty well with the “Some Glad Day” video below):

I wanted all these things to be around almost like a mythologized small town. I had this vision in my mind of being late at night and you’re in an old dive bar, and it’s between being awake and being asleep. You’re tired, but at the same time, you’re observing, and it’s simple but pretty extraordinary, too. So it’s got this laconic or sloshy feel to it. The beats don’t quite match up. But underneath that sleepy surface, there’s some other things that are happening, structurally, rhythmically, all these little things.

MP3: Brian Harnetty – Silent City

NYC folks can catch Harnetty at The Stone on Nov. 18 at 10 pm with Maria Chavez and Zeena Parkins (8 pm). Silent City is out in the U.S. on Atavistic.

New Ted Leo song:

Get past all the corporate sponsorship in the beginning and here’s Best Coast doing an acoustic version of Sun Was High (So Was I)