Indie Pop
Shamir
Apr
30
7:30 pm19:30
California, Jazz, Live Music, Indie Pop, Rap, San Francisco, Disco, R&B;, Soul

Shamir

  • Swedish American Hall (SF)

Shamir is Shamir Bailey, a 20-year-old Las Vegas native who grew up not on the strip but in the desert. His verve for life makes him almost impossible to categorize. As a young musician, he moves in and out of soul, r&b, house, disco, rap, and pop – in the tradition of artists like Prince, Grace Jones, David Bowie, and Madonna. Genre is a tool for Shamir, not a boundary. Or as Shamir would put it, "It doesn't matter what you sound like – you just have to be you."

With an androgyne croon that recalls Nina Simone, Shamir rose from the suburbs of Vegas after sending demos to Nick Sylvester, who runs the GODMODE label out of New York. Together they made "Northtown," Shamir's debut EP (2014), and continued their working relationship for "Ratchet", Shamir's first LP for XL Recordings (2015). It's an ecstatic dance-pop record that also has some dust and age to it, sparkling with the grit of a desert geode. The songs are about growing up in Vegas, though not the Vegas you think you know. The music is fun even when it's mostly introspective, introspective even when it's mostly fun. There's an obvious fluidity to Shamir. He transcends boundaries – genre, gender, age, geography. If he feels solitary, it's because there's literally no one else like him.

Apr
8
8:00 pm20:00
Brooklyn, Indie Pop, Live Music

The Grownup Noise + Moving Panoramas + Benjamin Cartel

  • Union Hall, Brooklyn

The Grownup Noise: From self-titled 2007 debut up through 2011's acclaimed, rousing This Time with Feeling, Boston's the Grownup Noise have bridged the gap between Americana and indie-pop. During that half-decade, the 5 piece ensemble's performed with everyone from Kill Rock Stars sensations Thao with the Get Down Stay Down to acclaimed Canadian barnstormers Rock Plaza Central and folk troubadours the Guggenheim Grotto. After releasing This Time with Feeling, which was mixed and produced by studio wizard Scott Solter (Spoon, Okkervil River, St. Vincent, John Vanderslice), the band spent most of '11 crossing the U.S. on tour, and as they continue to support Feeling and ready new material, 2012 has remained just as busy. This past spring, the Grownup Noise celebrated their first appearance at SXSW, which was highlighted by an opening slot for Tommy Stinson of the Replacements and Guns N' Roses, in addition to a slate of dates with Minneapolis alternative icons the Honeydogs. The Grownup Noise will be back on the road this summer, with their third release eminent on the horizon. Come out and see the band Flavorpill says reminds them of "late-'80s Scottish pop in the vein of Aztec Camera and Trash Can Sinatras" and whose growing discography "stands apart on musical skill."

"The Grownup Noise's best asset, however is the songwriting, with lines of love and the changing seasons coming out as gently and colorful as the music itself."
-The Onion, AV Club

"Boston's the Grownup Noise are one of those perfectly named bands whose moniker sums up their aesthetic to a tee… It's not surprising that theirs is a musicianship of the first order."
- PopMatters

"This Time with Feeling stands apart on musical skill."
- Flavorpill

Moving Panoramas: are an all-gal dream gaze trio from Austin, TX. Singer/guitarist LESLIE SISSON, had been living in Brooklyn while playing in The Wooden Birds and came back to her home state of Texas to be closer to the band and her family. She took on a job teaching music at School of Rock where she met bassist ROZIE CASTOE, who was in an 80's show Leslie directed. Meanwhile, Leslie was subbing on bass in Black Forest Fire with drummer KAREN SKLOSS, a longtime friend and former film grad school classmate. The stars aligned when the three girls' primary projects had each run their course, so Leslie decided to combine forces with Rozie and Karen to try something new. Sharing influential gazey roots inspired audial expansion into something spacey but not alienating, loud yet still light, painting panoramic sound against a moving melodic backdrop. Thus became MOVING PANORAMAS, who finished their debut LP titled One, with Louie Lino at Resonate in Austin, releasing on October 2nd, 2015, on Modern Outsider Records.

Benjamin Cartel 

After earning a buzz as one of New York City’s up-and-coming songwriters, Benjamin Cartel put his solo career on hold in 2004, the year he co-founded the indie folk duo Kaiser Cartel. Now he's playing solo again, showcasing "top notch music, up close and intimate" (Secrets of the City). CMJ happily reports that "after all the rocking and road work he’s put in over the years, he has finally released the first proper Benjamin Cartel solo release, the Money & Love EP, six songs of the straightforward heartfelt songwriter stuff that comes from, well, all that rockin’ and roadwork." On the record, Cartel builds a bridge between old and new, love and loss, to arrive at a "rock-solid folk-pop creation" (Pitch).