This week's Chikpiks

Hate to break it to everybody but summer is (yes, I'm about to say it) almost (here it comes) over. (There. See that wasn't so bad.) As a wise friend of mine once said, summer means nothing more to him than unfulfilled promise. When certain people go on and on about their idyllic beachfront romances and wistful summer memories, I blink and go "Yeah. Am I supposed to have some of those?" To be honest really seem to recall about this particular summer at least right now, with my heat-melted brain, is taking a bath on a steel tub on the roof. And sticking a spoon into my fan blade to get a face full of dust. But the optimist in me says the shows coming up this week will do nothing less than fulfill the promises of all the summers past.

Tuesday, August 25

My Teenage Stride

Appropriate from a show curated by Brooklyn DIY up-and-comer PopJew, Jed Smith's My Teenage Stride are poppy and earnest and oh-so-much-fun. Their latest EP, Lesser Demons, though, is a little on the serious side. It's nice to know he also has feelings. Oh yeah, and I just noticed there's an upside-down guy in the photo above. Massive. With Bright Lights, Surfer Blood and I'm Turning Into.

Silent Barn
8 PM
All Ages
$7

MP3 - My Teenage Stride - Theme from Teenage Suicide


Friday, August 28

Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt


It's easy to say "the picture says it all," but when it comes to this electronic dance-rock "band" (and even that term is used with the loosest possible definition) it kind of doesn't. These are a bunch of kids from SUNY-Purchase (holla!) with a single-minded goal -- to do everything within their power to get you to dance, even it means dressing up as a gigantic foam slice of pepperoni pizza. They apparently have songs, but who cares? It's the "New Saturday Night." New York Magazine said so. With True Womanhood, French Miami and Santino Santino.

Death By Audio
8 PM
All Ages
Price TBA

Saturday, August 29

Psychic Ills, Screaming Females, Sharon Van Etten (Impose Magazine Party with Tables)


Have I written about Sharon Van Etten yet? I haven't? That's...that's unbelievable. Okay, well, I guess it's okay because on Saturday you'll have a chance to go see her in person, which you absolutely should do because her songs are so beautiful I spent a clear 45 minutes one night in February, listening to her play in a liquid trance, falling in love with the guitar-playing boy sitting across from me at a table at Zebulon because her music entranced me into thinking I should. Later we left together and sat on his guitar case and kissed on a deserted north Williamsburg street. (I got my heart broken eventually, of course, but that has nothing to do with Sharon). If you like Vashti Bunyan, Ani DiFranco, or any chick singer who puts every ounce of herself into her music every time she plays, go and maybe her magic will happen for you, too. With Zs, Silver Summit, Future Islands, Air Waves, Boogie Boarder, plus local vendors and a performance by Julianna Barwick to projections of Joel Schlemowitz’ 1734 and Francis Thompson’s NY NY.

MP3 - Sharon Van Etten - For You

Brooklyn Yard
1 PM
All Ages
$10

Sunday, August 30

Grizzly Bear, Beach House

Well, this is it: the last JellyNYC Pool Party and your last chance to seize the infinite but elusive promise of Summer 2009, before it's gone, gone forever and you can never get it back. These two summer-perfect bands offer a particularly lovely way to sit back and let the whole season slip from your grasp. Beach House's oceany vocals are beautifully self-explanatory, and GB delivered more of their unpindownable, idiosyncratic folkish music with this year's Veckatimest. Now hurry, start relaxing before it's too late!

Williamsburg Waterfront
2 PM
All Ages
Free

MP3 - Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader