Big Takeover Magazine

05/31/2026

Last night, NYC summer festival season started with the inaugural Total Bummer Festival a well-curated collaboration between & bringing a slew of legendary outsider noise rock/hardcore punk bands and newer artists who were inspired by them together for a 2-day, tightly-scheduled in the massive Queens arts complex.

San Francisco, CA-originated noise-punk pioneers , on tour for the reissue of influential 1982 debut LP Album - Generic Flipper with founding 🥁 Stephen DePace joined by 🎤 (of ) & Jon Kelly 🎸 🎤 for a loud & bracing set, including "Way of the World", later covered by Melvins.

05/31/2026

Last night, NYC summer festival season started with the inaugural Total Bummer Festival a well-curated collaboration between & bringing a slew of legendary outsider noise rock/hardcore punk bands and newer artists who were inspired by them together for a 2-day, tightly-scheduled in the massive Queens arts complex.

Amherst, MA-originated noise rock power trio & alternative/grunge rock godfathers headlined Day 1, and, 21 years into the reunion of the original '80s lineup, it's still a thrill to experience the loud & powerful force of 🎸 🎤 in front of 3 stacks, ripping on bass/🎤, & Murph pounding on 🥁. The band opened with deep cuts from excellent 1987 SST LP You're living All Over Me, including this performance of "Kracked".

05/31/2026

NYC summer festival season started with the inaugural Total Bummer Festival a well-curated collaboration between & bringing a slew of legendary outsider noise rock/hardcore punk bands and newer artists who were inspired by them together for a 2-day, tightly-scheduled in the massive Queens arts complex.

NYC '90's dreampop/shoegaze/noise rock trio are still going strong with the hypnotic voice & dancing of .Makino 🎤 🎹/bass & Italian twin brothers 🎸 🎤 & .Simo 🥁, with a beautiful, cinematic set (nice FOH mix, !) that closed with fan favorite "23", the lead single and title track of 2007 LP 23.

05/31/2026

NYC summer festival season started with the inaugural Total Bummer Festival a well-curated collaboration between & bringing a slew of legendary outsider noise rock/hardcore punk bands and newer artists who were inspired by them together for a 2-day, tightly-scheduled in the massive Queens arts complex.

Influential Phoenix, AZ-originated psychedelic/cow-punk band (acolytes included Nirvana, Pavement, and their SST Records label mates & Total Bummer headliner .) performed in their original 1980 lineup of brothers Curt Kirkwood 🎤 🎸 & Chris Kirkwood bass/🎤 and 🥁, with newer members (Curt's son) 🎸 🎤 & 🎹 played a warmly-received set at the outdoor Ruins stage 🌴, including their biggest hit, 1994 single "Backwater" from the Too High to Die LP.

05/28/2026

In front of pop-up shop by the Imagination Playground near South Street Seaport, Jersey City, NJ-originated 90's post-harcdore/emo (& now that several members have young children, post-Dadcore) band played their first show since 2022 in honor of last month's release of Numero Group compilation LP Pulaski Skyway & Other Bridges Burned, which includes 1996 single "White Jesus of 114th St.", which originally was released on a split 12" w/ Olympia, WA band Karp.

The mid-period OG lineup of founding members Ralph Cuseglio 🎤 .Gonnelli 🎸 bass w/ Dave's brother 🥁 gave sweaty punk energy to the word-of-mouth-gathered all ages crowd of Gen Xers and, even though they were born after all of Rye Coalition catalogue had been recorded, many slamdancing kids singing along to every shouted word in a free street hardcore punk show that made it feel like a time warp to the early '90s.

05/25/2026

The Big Takeover Show – Number 592 – May 25, 2026

This week’s show, after a 2003 Belle & Sebastian botch: brand new Kiwi Jr., Lucy Dacus, Hanging Stars, Pete Fij, Social Distortion, Sera Cahoone, Rallies, and Idaho, plus The Hollies, Johnny Osbourne, Matadors, Eddy Drake, The Knack (U.K.), Gates of Eden, The Ugly’s, and Luis Bacalov; and R.I.P. Claudine Longet (1942-2026)

DJ Jack Rabid (song: Belle & Sebastian – “Piazza, New York Catcher”) Belle & Sebastian – Unnecessary Drama (live) (KEXP Session, Seattle, WA, May 31, 2022) Kiwi Jr. – Blowin’ Up (Blowin’ Up) brand new The Hanging Stars – All Your Yesterdays (Just a Day) brand new The Bevis Frond – ...

05/24/2026

Haledon, NJ influential post-punk/psych rock band celebrated 50 years as a band with the second of 2 sold-out nights on a customary holiday weekend that brought in fans from all over the country to see founding members & primary songwriters 🎸 🎤 Bill Million 🎸 🎤/percussion w/Dave Weckerman 🪇 🥁 🪘🎤 & longtime members bass/🎤 🥁 play another magical marathon show, this time opening with a complete performance of their inventive and hypnotic debut 1980 LP Crazy Rhythms, including the strange & kinetic opening track "The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness", excerpted here.

05/23/2026

Last night Haledon, NJ influential post-punk/psych rock band celebrated 50 years as a band with the first of 2 sold-out nights on a customary holiday weekend that brought in fans from all over the country to see founding members & primary songwriters 🎸 🎤 Bill Million 🎸 🎤 w/Dave Weckerman 🪇 🥁 🪘🎤 & longtime members bass/🎤 🥁 (all of whom I interviewed for immediately after their July 4, 2008 reunion show opening for Sonic Youth) perform excellent 1986 jangle rock LP The Good Earth in full & Feelies classics with special guests as advertised, but we all got much more.

The band played 37 songs over 3 full sets: The Good Earth out of order; other Feelies tracks, and a mostly covers set with longtime friends Ira Kaplan & Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, The_Bongos_Official & , John & Toni Baumgartner of Feelies-related group .The.Plough, and Bar/None Records co-founder Glenn Morrow, as well as reprising the tunes they played in Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild (David Bowie, The Monkees) 40 years ago, and 3 cheered-for encore sets, in an exhilarating marathon show that lasted 3+ hours.

Setlist included:

Let's Go
When Company Comes
The High Road
The Good Earth
On the Roof
Slipping (Into Something)
Invitation
Gone, Gone, Gone
Higher Ground
It's All Too Much ( cover w/ Toni & John Baumgartner 🎹)
Fame ( + cover)
I'm a Believer ( version of a cover)
Pablo Picasso (The Modern Lovers/ cover w/ 🎤 )
What Goes On ( cover; w/ Richard Barone 🎸 🎤)
See No Evil ( cover w/ James Mastro 🎸 🎤)
I'll Be Your Mirror (The Velvet Underground cover; w/ Georgia Hubley🎤& Ira Kaplan🎸 of )
Ramblin' Rose (the version of a Fred Burch/ Marijohn Wilkin cover originally recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis; with Ira Kaplan🎸 🎤 of )
Dancing Barefoot ( Group cover)
Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds version of a cover)
Mannequin ( cover)

05/22/2026

IVY

Last night , it was tremendously moving to see NYC-originated indie/dreampop greats return to play their first local show since 2011 (at Gramercy Theatre; I was there!) in front of many cheering longtime fans, friends, & family, one of a handful of performances to celebrate 2025 LP Traces of You (from which "Mystery Girl" & "The Midnight Hour" were live highlights), a reunion album that came in the aftermath of the tragic passing of founding bassist/singer-songwriter (also a musical collaborator; on the night of the final ) in the early weeks of Covid-19 in 2020, and went from the late (who signed Ivy to Seed Records in 1994: Ivy dedicated the performance of fab debut single "Get Enough" to him) requesting unreleased bonus tracks for Ivy LP reissues to building upon uncompleted recordings that co-founders Andy Chase 🎸 🎤 & 🎤 had worked on with Schlesinger, with longtime Ivy backing musician 🎸 🎤 🎹 (who also played in/worked with Chase projects Brookville & ) helping to finish what became a worthy addition to the sparkling Ivy catalog.

Throughout the 17-song set of old & new Ivy classics, including their swell cover of Go-Betweens "Streets of Your Town", Durand, Chase, Driscoll, and Mike Williams 🥁 (who also played in Brookville & Camera2), with Ben Collins 🎺 on 2 songs, kept Schlesinger's memory alive on stage by playing with his recorded bass from studio & live recordings, while video clips of him appeared on the projection screens during select tracks, and sounded like the Ivy of old, with impeccable arrangements, hummable hooks, danceable grooves, & sizzling guitar arpeggios/strumming, with Durand's cool-yet-warm Parisian-accented English, including on faves "I've Got a Feeling", "Edge of the Ocean", "Disappointed", "This is the Day", "I Think of You" & "Thinking About You" (and I, along with the rest of the audience, would have welcomed an additional 17 unplayed Ivy gems, hopefully they will play an expanded set after the 2nd reunion LP is released).

Setlist:
Edge of the Ocean (2nd song in encore)
Keep Moving
Thinking About You
Mystery Girl
Disappointed
Undertow
The Midnight Hour
Tess Don't Tell
I've Got a Feeling ( intro about bass tracks)
Fragile People
I Think of You
Everyday
Say You Will
This Is the Day
Worry About You
Encore:
Get Enough
Streets of Your Town (The Go‐Betweens cover)

05/21/2026

May 18 Mold, Wales-originated, London, England-based shoegaze/post-punk band (and faves) The took a departure from their great loud & walloping shows, with longtime musical collaborators Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan 🎤 🎸 (nimble-fingered guitar tone ace) & 🎤 🎸🎹 (& triggered 🦶rhythm + memorable high harmony hooks) playing 16-song split into 2 sets of stripped-down, but intricate & propulsive (with Byron Owens of joining for most of the 2nd set on 🪇 & musical 🪚) versions of many great tunes from most-recent LP Into the Blue, 2013 LP Wolf's Law, some Bryan (AKA Shy Western) and Davies solo material, a swell new Welsh language composition “Yn Rhydiau'r Afon”, a cover of "Strangers", songs from stunning 2011 debut LP The Big Roar, including the rousing single "Whirring" that captures so well the toll anxiety takes on sleep (see earlier post for an extended clip) and many stories about their journey as a band, as well as genial Welsh lessons!

The Joy Formidable will be recording a new LP with new 🥁 (who couldn't make this tour because he's waiting on a U.S. visa) and will return for an American tour next year; , 2027 should book them!

Setlist:

Cradle (7th song in Set 2)
Set 1:
The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie
The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade
Austere
Ostrich
Into the Blue
Yn Rhydiau'r Afon
Hugger (Shy Western song)
Interval

Set 2:
Maw Maw Song (unamplified)
The Leopard and the Lung
Back to Nothing
Make the Sign ( song)
Whirring (musical 🪚 solo)
Strangers ( cover)
Wolf's Law