PopMatters

A HEALTH-y Weekend: Two Nights with the Electro-Industrial Powerhouse

There’s something delightfully masochist about spending consecutive days getting audibly pummeled by the industrial-electro-noise-pop assault of HEALTH. With a light show that seems designed to induce epilepsy, the grinding crunch of guitars that would be well-suited for a cyborg rave, and the kind of relentless drumming attack that bounces around your throbbing skull for hours afterwards, the live HEALTH experience leaves no room for half-measures. You’ll either love it or leave the venue under the impression the devil himself had taken the stage.

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Chrvches Throw Indie Dance Party at Rough Trade to Celebrate ‘Every Open Eye’

Two years after Scottish electropop trio Chrvches released their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, the group has returned with their second collection of synthy jams. To celebrate the arrival of Every Open Eye, the outfit performed a private show (hosted for a SiriusXM audience) at Williamsburg’s Rough Trade and quickly got the crowd of industry insiders, musicians, and lucky fans shaking to the tunes.

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Brooklyn’s Afropunk Rocks with the Tolerant and the Fashion-Forward

No offense to the lovers of hippie-chic – the seemingly required attire of summer concert attendees from coast to coast – but the gals and guys who grooved to the tunes at Brooklyn’s 11th annual Afropunk festival just took the season’s fashion crown. Brilliantly colored dashikis, exquisitely painted hands and legs and faces (whether from one of the onsite spray-paint artistes or the steady fingers of a trusted friend), golden septum piercings glittering alongside jangling ear adornments, and innumerable messages of righteous empowerment brought together 60,000 music lovers over the course of the scorching weekend.

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Jarryd James Delivers Soulful Electro-R&B in First NYC Show

Shaking off the stickiness of yet another blisteringly hot August night, the crowd poured into the Bowery Ballroom on the 10th, eager to see if rising Aussie singer-songwriter Jarryd James was worth the blogosphere-hype. With just two songs currently available on Spotify, and only a single show in North America to his credit, no one would have blamed the crowd for failing to fully dive into James’ (mostly unknown) collection of soulful, electronic-tinged R&B tunes.

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