New venue: Chill opening in Montclair

Chill is a new venue opening in Montclair that is sure to please everyone!

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H.R. from Bad Brains set to play Montclair's Meat Locker

Bad Brains mastermind, H.R. is set to hit Montclair's Meat Locker Thursday, May 19th. The special bill will include Kicking Spit (New Brunswick), The Flops (Newton), Four

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NJU Presents: JEFF the Brotherhood, Fergus and Geronimo, Slow Animal & Alien Father @ Meat Locker 3.28.11

We here at NJU are happy to announce that we'll be presenting a show featuring: JEFF the Brotherhood & Fergus and Geronimo. NJ bands, Slow Animal and Alien Father will be supporting the two touring groups on the bill.

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Elvis Costello announces tour dates. Playing Wellmont & Beacon Theatre.

Elvis Costello has announced a slew of 2011 tour dates. The legendary New Wave singer will hit the NJ area this May with a stop at Montclair's Wellmont Theatre Wednesday, May 18th and two back to back stops at New York City's Beacon Theatre May 22nd & 23rd (Sunday, Monday). No word on when tickets will go on-sale for either date yet, but we'll keep you posted. EC will be out in support of his recently released National Ransom, which dropped this past Fall via Hear Music/Universal Records. Until then Mr. Costello will be keeping busy with a ton of overseas dates where he'll hit: South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. All of Elvis Costello's upcoming 2011 tour dates can be found here.

From Good Homes' Wellmont Residency

Natives of Sparta, New Jersey, and veteran rockers, From Good Homes, will be playing two shows this weekend as a part of their residency at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey. After achieving success throughout the 1980's and early 1990's the band split up due to artistic differences. The band was able to achieve mainstream success and several record deals with RCA due to extensive touring and a unique and soulful sound. From Good Homes also helped a few bands get their start - Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band and Hootie and The Blowfish were all openers for From Good Homes at the starts of their careers. To prepare for the residency, From Good Homes played a very secret intimate show at The Mercury Lounge in New York City back in November where the band was billed as "Jefferson Township".

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Keith Caputo (Life of Agony) announces poetry reading at Montclair's Gallery U

Life of Agony lead singer Keith Caputo has announced a poetry reading from his new book Night Blooming Jasmine Will Never Smell The Same at Montclair's Gallery U. The reading will take place on Thursday December 2nd at 7pm. The new book is a collaboration between Caputo photographer Michael Alago. You can purchase the book at the reading or here. They are working on a second book entitled Today Is The Day which will be released next year. In other Life of Agony news, the band will be performing at the Best Buy Theatre on Thursday December 16th along with Biohazard and Vision of Disorder. Purchase tickets for that show here.

The Front Bottoms @ Meat Locker 11.3.10

The Front Bottoms (Photos by Ken Lavey)

Suburban Grass

Bible Gun

People In Charge

More Photos Here

The Front Bottoms made their return to Montclair's Meat Locker this past Wednesday, November 3rd. Joining them on the bill were Bloomfield's Suburban Grass, New Brunswick's People In Charge and Montclair's Bible Gun. NJU photographer Ken Lavey was there to grab some great shots. Jersey Beat editor and Star-Ledger contributor, Jim Testa covered the show for both publications. You can out Jim's Jersey Beat write-up here. An excerpt from his Star-Ledger article can be found below, full story here.

It’s 8 p.m. Do you know where your children are?

They might just be having the time of their lives at the Meat Locker, an underground — literally and figuratively — all-ages venue in Montclair where audiences from their early teens to early 20s have a place to hang out and hear music.

Even more importantly, it’s a space where young musicians get to make music. And what they’re playing might just blow you away.

James Wells of the Gay Blades once called the Meat Locker “the greasiest venue in New Jersey” — but he meant that as a compliment. [Jim Testa - The Star-Ledger]

The Front Bottoms - Legit Tattoo Gun (Buy)

Girl Talk announces tour dates. Playing NJ, NYC & Philly.

Girl Talk has announced a massive run of 2011 tour dates. The trip will take him to Philadelphia's Electric Factory February 4th, Montclair's Wellmont Theatre February 5th and New York City's Terminal 5 February 24th. A new Girl Talk record was rumored to be out by the end of this year, but their is still no release date set or any other info available. No word on when tickets go on-sale yet, but we'll let you know when they do!

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The Goo Goo Dolls @ The Wellmont Theatre 10.18.10

The Goo Goo Dolls (photos by Brian Reilly)

The Spill Canvas

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The Temper Trap @ Wellmont Theatre 10.30.10

More Photos Here

It finally happened. After attending close to two-hundred shows in the past two years I finally witnessed a band butcher the name of the city they were in. Hearing singer, Dougy Mandagi ask "What's up Clairmont?" wasn't quite as big of a mishap as I'd image a band saying the name of a different city, but pretty entertaining nonetheless. Either way when the group jumped into one of their albums stand out tracks, "Fadar" shortly after, all was well. The Wellmont Theatre always has good sound, but The Temper Trap seemed to really bring that out, the group's array of instruments allowed them to reach an even fuller sound than on their well producer record.

The Australian quintet have had a crazy year, very rarely will you see a band become as instantly large off a debut as The Temper Trap have. Even though compared to most other Wellmont Theatre shows, last night's crowd was smaller than usual, it is extremely impressive that a new band from thousands of miles away can draw a crowd as big as they did in the suburbs of NJ. Tonight the group will play to a much larger audience at their sold-out Terminal 5 show. If you missed it, the group recently performed on Jimmy Fallon. Be sure to pick up their impressive debut Conditions here.

The Temper Trap - Fader     (Buy)

Delicate Steve, Times New Viking @ Meat Locker 9.23.10

Delicate Steve

Times New Viking

More Photos Here

NJ's Delicate Steve played a home-town show this past Thursday at Montclair's Meat Locker. The group was just coming off a very successful Union Pool residency, which was attended by members of TV On The Radio, Dirty Projectors, Yeasayer and Fang Island. Their crowd at the Meat Locker confirms their quickly growing popularity. While billed as support for Matador's Times New Viking everyone at the show seemed to be there for Delicate Steve. As someone whose heard their yet-to-be released album Wondervisions, I can say their songs take on a whole new life in a live setting. Delicate Steve is a band that clearly pays attention to details and takes pride in their performances. They leave nothing out of their live show that was apart of their recordings. Unfortunately when Times New Viking took the stage the crowd had dwindled to a handful of people, but the group still played a fairly long set, satisfying the few that did stick around. The group is now set to head out on the Guided By Voices reunion tour starting next week. All of their upcoming dates can be seen here.

Delicate Steve - Wondervisions

Times New Viking - Teen Drama

Ben Folds announce Wellmont Theatre date

Ben Folds has announced a stop at Montclair's Wellmont Theatre during his upcoming tour with Lady Danville. The singer-songwriter will perform at the Wellmont on Thursday November 18th.  Purchase tickets for that show here. Ben Folds will be on the road supporting his upcoming album Lonely Avenue which hits stores on September 28th. Lonely Avenue is musical collaboration between Ben Folds and bestselling English author Nick Hornby. Check out a behind the scenes video for the album below.

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Times New Viking to play the Meat Locker 9/23

I'm proud to announce that TheNJUnderground.com, in association with Atlas Records, will be presenting Times New Viking at the Meat Locker next Thursday, September 23rd. This is the day after the Columbus, OH group open Pavement's sold-out Central Park show. It's also just a week before the band kicks off tour with Guided By Voices. The show will basically be a one year anniversary of their latest studio album Born Again Revisited, which came out 9/22/09 on Matador Records. Be sure to check it out here. Find all of Times New Viking's upcoming tour dates here.

Delicate Steve will be joining TNV on the bill. The experimental NJ group have a busy schedule ahead of them. They're currently in the middle of a month residency at Brooklyn's Union Pool, which wraps up next Tuesday. Then after their Meat Locker performance the group will make a trek to open for Dr. Dog in Maine. Lastly the group is set to head out with Fang Island in November for a 2 week stint. Check out the title track from their yet-to-be released debut album Wondervisions below. All of 9/23's show info can be found after the fold. RSVP here.

Times New Viking - Teen Drama

Delicate Steve - Wondervisions

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Heavy Cream to play Meat Locker 9/4

Nashville's Heavy Cream will be making a stop at Montclair's Meat Locker next Saturday, September 4th. The lo-fi punk group just released their debut LP Danny, which can be picked up here. You can download their 1st single titled "Watusi" below. Video for the song is below as well.

Saturday, September 4th
Meat Locker
8 Park Street
Montclair, NJ
Doors 8pm
$5

w/
Heavy Cream
Tourmaline
The Front Bottoms
The Jean Jackets

Heavy Cream - Watusi

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LCD Soundsystem announce Wellmont Theatre date 9/23

Wellmont Theatre has announced that LCD Soundsystem will be performing at the Montclair venue Thursday, September 23rd. The New York based group, which revolves around the songwriting of James Murphy released a very impressive 3rd studio album titled This Is Happening this past May. James recently announced that he would be retiring the moniker from both releasing new music and touring wise, but obviously this date proves otherwise? Tickets for the Wellmont show go on-sale this Friday at noon and will be able to be picked up here. Check out a track off of LCD Soundsystems's lastest release below and then pick up the album here. Recent live videos can be found below as well.

LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change (Buy)

LCD Soundsystem - All I Want (Buy)

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Counting Crows @ The Wellmont Theater 8.18.10

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On Wednesday evening, renowned alternative rock band, the Counting Crows, played the second show of their two night stay in Montclair, New Jersey. The Wellmont Theater was the host of the Counting Crows’ Traveling Circus & Medicine Show, a three hour collaborative performance with friends and fellow musicians, Augustana. 

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Aziz Ansari & Wolf Parade playing Wellmont Theatre (separately)

The Wellmont Theatre have announced (via twitter) that Aziz Ansari will be performing at the Montclair venue Wednesday, September 15th and that Wolf Parade will be playing Wednesday, November 3rd. Aziz's Dangerously Delicious Tour, which kicked off in June and will come to a close in November has selling out almost every date. His NYC date the next night is already sold-out, so I wouldn't sleep on picking up tickets. You can do so here. Wolf Parade will be out in support of their newly released full-length Expo 86, which is available now on Sub Pop Records. The Montreal group is first set to head over to Europe for all of September. They've yet to officially announce any other tour dates for when they pass through the area, but my guess is there may also be an NYC date. Tickets for their November 3rd show will go on-sale this Friday at noon here.

Aziz Ansari - Kanye West vs. Darwish

Wolf Parade - Shine A Light

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Bern and the Brights interview on Absolutepunk.net

Bern & the Brights were recently interviewed by Absolutepunk.net. The Montclair based band released their latest EP entitled Swing Shift Maises last month. They will be playing a ton of shows over the next few months so please check them out if you can.

1. How did you get your band name?
Bernadette: “Bern & the Brights” began as just a phrase, a gnawing hunch that woke singer Bernadette Malavarca in the middle of some night way ahead of the band’s formation. She jotted it in a notebook with the rest of the thought: “Gonna start a band. It’ll be Bern & the Brights . . . should be sleeping.”

2. How did this band get started?
Catherine: The start of the band was random and somewhat by happenstance. I was working at a bookstore that was about to go out of business and for the last day they were open she threw a big concert filled with 6 hours of local bands. I asked Bernadette to perform in it and Bernadette wanted to do it with a full band. So, she had me play acoustic guitar. Jose and Nicole both worked on small recording projects with Bernadette and I the year prior, so she asked them to join in on the show. Shawn had played bass in another friend's band, so Bernadette looked towards him when trying to find a solid musician to jump on bass. Our chemistry was instant and after this show, we just stuck together because we continued to get offered shows and have great responses to what we were doing.

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Interpol's Wellmont Theatre show is cancelled due to problems with roof.

Updated on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 12:24 PM by NJU

There were rumors of the Modest Mouse show almost being canceled due to Wellmont's roof problems, then I personally saw parts of the roof in the upper balcony area fall from the ceiling at last week's Deadmau5 show. Now today Merge Records has announced that Wednesday's Interpol show @ Wellmont Theatre is officially canceled. No word on how this will affect the Montclair venues other upcoming shows.

Interpol - Untitled (Buy)

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Deadmau5 @ The Wellmont Theater 07.27.10

If you missed the Tuesday's sold-out show, Deadmau5 just announced he'll be performing 3 consecutive nights in October (28, 29, 30) at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan. Tickets are on-sale now here, the presale code is "Venue".  A link to more photos, videos and setlist from Tuesday's show, below.

More Photos Here

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