The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

BEST OF NYC™
Sartorial Disobedience: Order Up Your Own NYC Fashion

The State Of New York's Indiepop Scene: A Roundtable Discussion

"I don't think any indie pop bands or fans really cried out for attention," Clyde Erwin Barretto told the Voice in this week's feature about the recent rise of New York's indie pop scene. Well, they're getting some. The NYC Popfest, co-organized by Barretto, recently marked its sixth year of celeb ... More >>

The Drums and Hospitality Are Popping Over

Riding the indie pop wave

Live: Guided By Voices Give A History Lesson At Central Park

Guided By Voices w/The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Cloud Nothings Central Park Saturday, July 7 Better than: Sobriety in the sweltering heat. It's hard to place a band like Cloud Nothings. A group whose recent reputation brings them somewhere between saviors of guitar rock and late '90s emo revi ... More >>

How To Enjoy An Outdoor Concert On A Potentially 100-Degree Day Without Dying Of Heatstroke Or Sunburn

Tomorrow is a big day for outdoor live music in New York City! The CBGB Festival is throwing a free show in Times Square with Superchunk, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Hold Steady, and Seattle Weekly columnist Duff McKagan's Loaded; it's also sponsoring the SummerStage show at Central Park with Guid ... More >>

QUARANTINE THE PAST

Guided by Voices play Central Park 
in tribute to an East Village landmark

The Secret History Sing Their Life

Cataloging the beautiful losers

Pazz & Jop 2011: Michael Tedder On Fucked Up's Majesty, Danny Brown's Cunning Skills, And The Joy Formidable's Outro Power

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. Here, Michael Tedder breaks down his entire ballot, and along the way he talks about about the operatic heights of Fucked Up, the shredding ability of Annie Clark and R ... More >>

Grooms

Friday Night In Williamsburg: Male-Female Pairings, Baseball-Related Queries, And Joyous Looping

Debbie Allen​In Waste Of Paint, our writer/artist team of Jamie Peck and Debbie Allen will review goings-on about town in words and images. As New York problems go, this is not a bad one to have: there was so much good stuff going on Friday night that we wished we could clone ourselves. The B ... More >>

Real Estate

HEARTCORE

Local rock with a lovey-dovey core

Announcing the 2011 Village Voice and Frank 151 SXSW Party, Featuring the Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf, Wild Flag, Fishbone, and More

Rocky Business at the Mercury Lounge last week. Photo by Nate "Igor" Smith.​With three weeks to go and counting, we figured we might as well make it official: please join us in welcoming the 2011 Village Voice SXSW party, presented in concert with Frank 151, and starring the Wu-Tang Clan, Fish ... More >>

The Depreciation Guild

Hear A New Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Track, "The One"

​Your initial reaction to the fact that there's a band named Pains of Being Pure at Heart is revulsion, of course, but as a lover of sweet, gauzy, energetic power pop you eventually get over it, given the relative rarity of actually competent sweet, gauzy, energetic power pop. Then Pains of Be ... More >>

Is Kingmaking At CMJ A Real Thing Or An Act of Futility? Our Critics Discuss

Titus Andronicus play Webster Hall during last year's CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​Ah, the first day of CMJ: a moment of optimism, possibility, and prophecy. Even now every website and publication with any kind of music-related bent is scrambling to post guides and predictions, links to MySpac ... More >>

Why Pitchfork Is Challenging CMJ With Their #Offline Festival

Screaming Females at CMJ, last year. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In case there was any doubt, it's now official: next week's Pitchfork-sponsored #Offline Festival will have no CMJ affiliation whatsoever. "This is purely a Pitchfork event," a representative for the website told us yesterday: "just ... More >>

CMJ 2010 Announces 700 More Artists: Phoenix, GZA, Francis and the Lights, Screaming Females, Franz Nicolay, and More

Our hero, Screaming Females frontlady Marissa Paternoster, at Siren. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​The second round of artists announcements is out, and it's the big one--count on newly installed acts Phoenix, GZA, Screaming Females, Extra Lens, Francis and the Lights, et al, to be your headliners, ... More >>

CMJ 2010 Initial Line-Up Announced: Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ghostface Killah, the Blow, Salem, and More

Surfer Blood play Cake Shop during last year's CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Hey, remember last year, when we predicted that the stresses of Surfer Blood's twelve different CMJ shows would cause the band to self-destruct? Um, that's not at all what happened. Instead, the Florida band rode thei ... More >>

The Fake Retirement of Ted Leo

Rumors aside, the mod-punk icon still gives a fuck. Maybe too much of one.

SIREN SERENADE

We're the best! We rule! Yay, us!

Siren Festival 2010 Line-Up Additions: Ponytail, Dom, Holy Fuck, Apache Beat

The tenth-anniversary line-up of the our Siren Festival is already stacked. Matt & Kim, Ted Leo, Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the Night Marchers, Screaming Females, Earl Greyhound, Wye Oak, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Harlem. But as of this morning, there're four new names to add to that l ... More >>

The L Magazine Asks The Tough Questions, e.g., Can You Wear Shorts Onstage?

Another of Ted Leo's questionable looks, courtesy this person.​Kudos to the L crew for whipping up one of the more entertaining (and informative!) multiple-artist Q&A gambits in recent memory: "It's 95 degrees. It's humid. You're playing an outdoor show. Shorts on stage: Yes or no?" Don't act ... More >>

We Are Scientists Playing Siren Festival 2010 After-Party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

photo by Dan Monick Continuing along with Siren Fest's tenth-anniversary theme of rehosting past performers, Brooklyn-based We Are Scientists (Siren Festival, class of 2007) have been tapped to play the Music Hall of Williamsburg after-party on Saturday, July 17. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at noon ... More >>

New Siren Festival Additions!: The Night Marchers, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Earl Greyhound, Wye Oak, and Screaming Females

​If the ace, tenth-anniversary themed line-up of our very own Siren Festival--featuring Matt & Kim, Ted Leo, Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Harlem--wasn't convincing you, how about some new additions? San Diego ex-Hot Snakes guitar slingers The Night Marchers, the tiny firebra ... More >>

Summer Guide: Kelis Tries For A Rebound

With her new album Flesh Tone, the "Milkshake" singer tries on some club-pop

Week in Review: May Day

Salute. Photo by Sam Horine.​In the week we finally got to unleash the initial Siren Festival details on the world (July 17! 10th anniversary! Matt & Kim, Ted Leo, Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Harlem! Totally free!), we celebrated Cinco De Mayo like Anna Wintour, Pharrell, a ... More >>

Announcing the Siren Festival 2010 Tenth Anniversary Line-Up: Matt & Kim, Ted Leo, Surfer Blood, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Harlem

Paul Antonson This year, we proudly celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Siren Festival. In the history of the our free Coney Island corndog bonanza, no band has ever played Siren twice. This was a conscious decision on behalf of our fearless festival founder and organizer (who we've kindly rewar ... More >>

Presenting The Ultimate Record Store Day Guide: See Some Music, Buy Some Music, Or Make Your Own

​It's that special time of the year again: Record Store Day, which is like Teacher Appreciation Day for independent record stores. Saturday, to celebrate their tenacity, among other things, record stores around the city are holding performances, releasing exclusives, and offering once-in-a-blu ... More >>

THE DAY THE MUSIC LIVED

Mp3s take a hike!

Superchunk Talks With Us About Their Last Show Ever, Which Will Never Happen

After chatting backstage at the Village Voice Media SXSW party with Surfer Blood (who told us about their Twittering philosophy), and Pains of Being Pure at Heart (who recounted an innocently embarrassing incident involving a condom), we cornered Merge Records honchos/Superchunk leaders Mac McCaug ... More >>

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Backstage at the Village Voice SXSW Party

Like to pretend this doesn't exist, but the Music Slut won't, so here you go. Backstage at the Village Voice's finely tuned SXSW day party, someone who is definitely not me was conscripted into having how-is-your-SXSW-going conversations with bands who were kind enough to humor their hosts. Includ ... More >>

The Village Voice SXSW Party Was Really Spectacular And We're Not Just Saying That Because These People Employ Us

photo by S. Taylor Not a clunker in the bunch of this year's VVM SXSW afternoon party at La Zona Rosa: Surfer Blood, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Superchunk, the xx. Surfer Blood, who'd by now lost count which number show this was, opened--and they are, as we later discovered, the nicest kids ... More >>

Hey Neat, The Daily SXSW Showcase Schedule Has Been Posted, So You Can Plan Your Itinerary If You're Going, Which, Yeah, Great, Good For You

​Oh, the places you'll go. Namely Buffalo Billiards (Das Racist! Andrew W.K.!), La Zona Rosa (Chamillionaire and Paul Wall!), Stubb's (Broken Social Scene!), Aces Lounge (Solange Knowles!), and so forth. Have fun, but don't forget about the Voice's own fete, featuring Surfer Blood, Superchunk, ... More >>

Announcing the Village Voice 2010 SXSW Party, Featuring Superchunk, the xx, Surfer Blood, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart

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 the xx, Superchunk, the ... More >>

Live: The Drums And Surfer Blood Confound At Bowery Ballroom

Not a scene from Napoleon Dynamite The Drums/Surfer Blood Bowery Ballroom Wednesday, January 13 So the Drums, near as I can figure it, consist of four pretty-boy villains from cheesy '80s movies who've banded together to play twangy, relentlessly peppy new-wave with a canned backing track of ove ... More >>

The New York City Record Store Year-End Roundup

​In 2009, we began the weekly Local Top 10, a series we hoped would prove that New Yorkers were far too stubborn to let the record store go. The series ran until last month, when we literally ran out of stores to cover--not the best sign for the future of music retailing in New York City. Befo ... More >>

Insound Design Pop Store Opens Today at 303Grand, Where Small Black Are DJing

​Quote, "a pop-up music gift gallery open to the public Dec 17th-21st." At the 303Grand "revolving storefront" in Williamsburg. Though Insound's well-deserved rep is as an online music retailer, they are leaving the local retail competition alone--instead of records etc., expect audio gear, t- ... More >>

Woosh League

Two nights with nu-gazers the Big Pink

SWEET SLUMBER

D.C. punks bask in their global vision

This Week's Voice: Fall Arts Guide, The Beatles Box Set, Jay-Z's Blueprint 3, Yo La Tengo, Whitney Houston, and More

​In this week's Village Voice, we unveil our 2009 Fall Arts Guide: Dan Weiss on the Jane Austen alt-rock of Brooklyn locals the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Jed Lipinski in conversation with George Packer on the occasion of the author's forthcoming Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​Fall Arts! Along with looks ahead at the various season highlights, Aaron Hillis interviews Juliette Binoche. Robert Shuster contemplates Sarah Anne Johnson. Jed Lipinski reads Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade by George Packer. Dan Weiss takes in The Pains of Being Pure at ... More >>

Fall Guide: The Pains of Pure at Heart Will Pervert Your Indie Cliché

So Who Should Cover What at This John Hughes Tribute at the Cake Shop on Saturday?

This, of course, could be really good, or really bad. "An original," in particular, sounds ominous. But it did get us thinking about our dream version of this show. What kind of New York talent is available to do covers of songs from John Hughes soundtracks?

Lovely New Pains of Being Pure at Heart: "Higher Than the Stars"

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 Eng ... More >>

Week in Review: All I Have Left Are My Memories and This Copy of The Razor's Edge Signed by Asher Roth

Photo of Jim Jones taunting hipsters by Rebecca Smeyne​ In the week Jim Jones put ten thousand dollars on a three-on-three basketball tournament sponsored by Converse and barred to the media, we got up in there anyway, and brought you the hilarious play-by-play. Take that, shoe company. Gera ... More >>

The Hood Internet

Live: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Play Background to Your Romantic Photo Op

photo via mediaeater's photostream 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, ... More >>

Comet Gain

BRING IN THE NOISE . . .

. . . And you're not getting sleepy now