If you’re doing that thing where you wait for albums to be released before getting them, then this sample of James Blake’s album might be pretty mindblowing for you. Otherwise, this is a quick way to digest the record if you’re just on a quick 15 minute break from work and want to hear some great moments from James Blake in a short period of time.

From Big Ass Lens:

Of all the indie bands we bumped hard in our high school and college days, The Dismemberment Plan still get knock in my stereo. They’re one of the few bands whose development is so finely traceable and their sound so consistently matured from record to record that I often wonder how it is they never got absolutely mega huge. Plenty of lesser bands wrote poppy indie-rock and got pretty massive, but none did it with the reflexivity, awareness and consummate skill of The Plan. From their raucous early two-fer “!” and “The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified” it was obvious these cats had crazy energy and anarchic wit, but the quantum leap they made in “Emergency and I” and their swan song, “Change” is why we still talk about them in such reverential terms. It’s why they rank as high as they do on things like the Pitchfork Best Albums of the 90s list, and why when they announced some one off reunion shows months ago we all flipped bathing apeshit and copped tickets immediately.

Saturday night the moment finally came, and as fans who never saw them when they were still active, we were beyond pumped. Kicking off their set with the ever-appropriate “A Life Of Possibilities”, the band who once yearned to be described as Radiohead meets De La Soul showed no major signs of rust as they plowed through their densely nimble songs. Joe Easley, Eric Axelson and Jason Caddell still have the skill to jump the rails following singer Travis Morrison’s skittish delight and rein it all back together on a dime – delivering two hours of improbably massive hooks. What struck us watching and listening to a completely sold-out room go absolutely nuts screaming every word, each chorus hitting exactly where our pop trained minds tell us it should; was the underlying fact that these songs are still so damn strange! Sure the elements are familiar, and on-the-surface non-threatening, but the arrangements and intensity of the lyrics, and dexterity with which this band bundles it all together is simply unlike any other.

Visit Big Ass Lens to watch another video of D-Plan’s spazzed out “OK Joke’s Over”.

Nobody seems to know if this is for real, but God knows Turkish Superman was pretty damn weird too. [via]

In case you haven’t yet noticed, Paul Lemos’ legendary experimental and avantgarde outfit Controlled Bleeding is back in action. Last night they were at Cake Shop, ripping through 30 minutes of shredding prog rock. What’s your excuse for not having been there?

Below are a few more clips of recent appearances
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We’ve blogged about them before, but we’re big fans of Beige over here at FREEwilliamsburg. Catch them tonight at Cameo with Regal Degal. Beige just released a few new tracks over at Bandcamp, so grab them while their hot.

Trying to decide whether you wanna leave your house today or not? The weather’s actually quite nice, so turn off Season 4 of whatever you’re ‘trying to catch up on’ and go check out some art & music.

Stroll over the bridge & catch Abrons Art Center: Henry Street Settlement’s open studios today, with works themed around René Daumal’s novel Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing. Yep. That means the one and only cult classic (based on Daumal’s book), Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, will be screening at 7pm.
Exhibition 12-9p, free, 466 Grand St (Manhatten)

If you need a different kind of insanity, or the snow is making you too lazy to leave the hood, get your fix at Rabid Hands’ Sequence of Waves. With performances and ephemera throughout the day, this convent at 21 Monitor St will have an electric gamelan orchestra, a giant zither connected to a mural, and a (Parts + Labor)-curated ‘House Show’ (whatever that means).
2-9p, free(?)
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If you wanna get a little daytime dancing in, hit up this chip music event off Graham:
“The biggest I/O dance party yet will feature five chip musicians performing dirty, lo-fi dance music from 6-10p whilst four visual artists project motion graphics on every surface of the venue (audience included).”
Can’t argue with that.
26 Bushwick Avenue, 6-10p; $5

…and later tonight…

A new space in town, Good Units (356 W. 58 St) launches off 2011 with the re-up of DARK DISCO (remember them?). I hear to expect crazy art installations, pretty people, and lots of debauchery.

Love or hate post-dubstep, d’n'b, & the sounds of sister London, their diffusion into the world of music is undeniable. Burial to James Blake, we are seeing electronic music that constantly reinvents itself and for that I have to give credit. Tonight two of the leftfield’s maestros, Jakwob and Falty DL, should give a pretty good idea of where its heading .
Oh yea, and Blaqstarr plays a live set.
$15 if you buy online, $20 door

The adorable children’s chorus at PS22 in Staten Island is at it again, this time with an awesome cover of “Round and Round,” from Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti. The only missing element here might be more boys in sequins, dresses and sunglasses… but hey, it still works pretty well. Why weren’t our elementary school music classes this cool?

The internet has been blowing up about this cover to the new Panda Bear record Tomboy. It’s pretty cool, I guess. And it’s nice to see people getting pretty excited about album art in a time when most people are downloading music more than actually buying it.

The release date has been changed again, making it available April 12 via Paw Tracks. But we’ll wait around forever for this follow up to the phenomenal Person Pitch. The tracklist is below. What do you think of the album art?

01 You Can Count on Me
02 Tomboy
03 Slow Motion
04 Surfer’s Hymn
05 Last Night at The Jetty
06 Drone
07 Alsatian Darn
08 Scheherezade
09 Friendship Bracelet
10 Afterburner
11 Benfica

Zachary Cale previewed a handful of songs off of his upcoming album “Noise of Welcome” last night at Zebulon. Below is a video edit of the set’s closing number “War Love”, alongside clips of openers The Heaven’s Jail Band and D.Charles Speer & the Helix. Speer himself has a new album coming out on Thrill Jockey soon. Can’t wait to see him and the Helix share the stage with label mates Liturgy. Now that’d be what I call a diverse bill.

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A taxi goes up in flames after getting stuck on Roebling and Grand. Evidently, this has been happening a lot. [via]