Party Lights

Next show: Saturday March 24

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:42:46 -0400

Hey folks, we’re glad to say we survived a double header weekend unscathed (just barely - thanks to our flying amp-ducking skills) and we’re eagerly awaiting March 24 when we’ll be playing at Grand Victory (the old Bruar Falls). It’s a pretty ridiculously cool bill. We’ll be joined by our brothers from another mother, Big Riff…plus Shirlyn and the UnXpected (coming all the way from Singapore and featuring Party Light Joan!) and The Allisterettes (coming all the way from Montreal and featuring former Party Light Valerie!). Plus, DJ Tony LoFi will be spinning the very best rock n roll all night (while doing triple duty in Big Riff & The Allisterettes!). As the Hentchmen said, ‘if you can beat that, go right ahead.’ But we’re pretty sure ya can’t.

Free show! Party Lights Friday March 9th @ Hank's!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:59:00 -0500

Hey y’all, swing by Hank’s Saloon Friday March 9th for a night of garagey rock n roll wonderment! We’ll be joined by our pals The Living Kills and The Dear Hearts and DJ Tony LoFi spinning international garage, punk, and rock n roll all night! And the price is right.

Modern Needs! Party Lights = DJs. Tuesday 12/6.

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:16:00 -0500

After our mini tour with the Hounds Below this weekend, 2/3 of Party Lights (Anna and Quitty) will be spinning soul, R&B, garage and girl group tunes at our pal Lee’s awesome Modern Needs Party at Last Exit (136 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn) on Tuesday, December 6th. Rock n soul action starts at 9pm and goes until the wee hours. The lovely Greg Collins will be slingin’ drinks. What more do you need? That’s right, nothing.

December mini tour with The Hounds Below

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:09:32 -0500

Hey folks, we’re two weeks away from 4 shows with our pals The Hounds Below from Detroit (ex Von Bondies). We’ll be playing Manhattan, Asbury Park, Philly and Brooklyn with a bunch of our friends: Creem Circus, Crazy Pills and Fort Courage. Hope to see y’all for our last shows of 2011!

Next gig: Thursday November 3rd

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:18:50 -0400

Next show: Thursday November 3rd, with our pals Waking Boss (former Party Lights’ Karen Graves + Quitty on drums), Bradley Dean and the Terminals (with one time Party Light Erica Keller on bass) and Family Fun. We play third which would place us around the 10pm mark. Hope to see y’all there! This is our last show till our early December mini tour with The Hounds Below (Jason from the Von Bondies’ new band) which will be a hoot and a holler - details on our show page!

Happy Friday!

xoxo

Party Lights

Saturday Oct 22: Expose Yourself!

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:42:00 -0400

(Party Lights preparing for battle)

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Thanks a million to everyone who came out to our 7” record release party last weekend at Union Hall - it was a raging success and we had a blast! Thanks to Lee (Dead Flowers) for booking it, and to Crazy Pills and The Insomniacs for playing super duper rock n roll sets.

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Crazy Pills

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The Insomniacs

This Saturday (October 22nd) we’ll be at Don Pedro’s as part of Expose Yourself: Two Day Rock N Roll Blowout that Mr. Dave Harrison (of the Mess Around) so awesomely put together. We’ll be kicking off the night at 8:30pm and we’ll be followed by a bunch of great bands: our pals the Dirty Shames, the Bon (ex-Leather Uppers, Canada), The Jukebox Zeros (Philly), and Cudzoo and the Faggettes (hilarious and sexy foul mouthed ladies).

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Also: our new 7” is now available for sale at Underground Medicine and Black Gold Records in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and mp3s are available on Amazon and iTunes and all those other wacky places where the kids are buying their music these days. Makes a nifty Christmas gift, me thinks.

Nous Aimons le Canada

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:47:11 -0400

Party Lights’ sojourn up north to Montreal and Sherbrooke was a raging success. Big thanks to our supercool pal Oliver Twist who set the shows up, along with the amazing Photoroman, our brothers (and sisters) from another mother, and the super awesome Kid Sentiment. We also had the pleasure of playing with our longtime pals Muck and the Mires, from Boston, who never cease to blow us away with their sheer garage pop awesomeness. We realize we are using a lot of superlatives here, but trust us, it’s all totally true. Everything we heard about French Canadians being insanely nice is all true. Everyone up there was amazing to us and we were treated so well in every way. So big thanks to everyone who made it so much fun! So much fun, in fact, that we’re going back in February. We hear it gets a little balmy there in February…

In the meantime, we’ll be making a gloomy January a lot less gloomy by bringing Photoroman and Muck and the Mires here for a show or two mid-month so stay tuned! More on that later but do know it will be the best thing that will happen the whole month, and probably even all winter. All year? Actually, yes, probably.

We are super jazzed (jazzed?) - about our upcoming show this Friday, Oct 14th, at Union Hall, to celebrate the release of our first 7” on Ready Baby Records. We’ll be joined by our pals The Insomniacs and Crazy Pills (who kick off the night at 8:30pm). This is gonna be a great bill (presented by our buddy Lee of Dead Flowers) so come on out and make Union Hall not regret their decision to let us headline. We rock at 10:30pm sharp and we’ll have lots of pretty red vinyl waiting to go home with you.

We have a bunch of great shows coming up this Fall, including a December mini tour with The Hounds Below from Detroit (Jason from the Von Bondies’ new band). Check out the shows page for all the juicy details!

Record Release Party! Canadian Tour! Devil Baby!

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:15:36 -0400

The rumours are true…we’ve given birth to our first baby. A red, 7” long baby. Ew. That sounds gross. It’s a record, people, not a devil baby. Although that would be pretty cool I guess. We’d finally get our name in the tabloids…

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of our lovely little devil baby:

We can’t wait to show her off to y’all Friday October 14 @ Union Hall. We’ll be joined by power pop heavyweights The Insomniacs and Crazy Pills, three hot chicks who will rock your face off. Kindred spirits, those Crazy Pills. Tickets available here. Let’s sell this bitch out!

And how could we forget? For our Canadian friends, we’ll be visiting you this weekend! Friday Sept 30 in Montreal and Saturday Oct 1 in Sherbrooke. We’re coming up with our boss Boston buddies, Muck and the Mires, and will be rocking with two kickass Canadian bands, Photoroman and Kidsentiment. Tell all yer friends!

Next show: Saturday Sept 24

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:09:00 -0400

Hello beautiful people, hope you are all having a beautiful week! It will be even more beautiful on Saturday when we get to suit up in fishnets and leather and hot pants and all that good stuff over at Matchless in Greenpoint. We’ll be joined by Lovestruck and Lou Valentine, some kick ass DJs, a lovely burlesque MC, and our best pal, vodka open bar. See you there!

drip drip drip

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:27:00 -0400

It’s a rainy day in the neighborhood, perfect for blogging. Lots of exciting stuff going on in Party Lights land. Last Friday’s pre-HUH?ricane show at The Gutter was all kindsa awesome. The Living Kills and Les Sans Culottes were great and we must say, the Gutter is a damn fun place to play. They have a great room (behind the bathrooms, naturally) for bands to play - nice and big, great sound, plus a super nice staff - and we hope to book another show there again soon.

Last night at practice we worked out a great Stones cover, which we’ll be unveiling at our next show, Saturday September 24th at Matchless in Greenpoint. More details about that show soon. All we know know is that there will be an open vodka bar 9-10pm, and really, that’s probably all you need to know about that.

We’re eagerly awaiting copies of our debut 7” featuring “Before You Came Here” and “Keep You Around” on pretty red vinyl! They should be arriving by the end of the week and we are pretty freaking excited. We’ll be celebrating the release at Union Hall in Park Slope on Friday, October 14th with our pals The Insomniacs and Crazy Pills. Mark yer calendars - it’s gonna be more fun than a barrel of monkeys! Yes, MORE FUN than even that. I know, hard to believe.

Lastly, we’re gearing up to head up north at the end of the month and play two shows in Montreal and Sherbrooke, Canada, with our pals Muck and the Mires (Boston) and Photoroman (Montreal). Check the shows page for details.

Okay, me thinks that is enough news for now. More coming soon! Hope you’re all having a fabulous first week of September!

xoxo

Party Lights

next show: Friday August 26 @ The Gutter

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:39:24 -0400

Let’s see, how many jokes can we make about Party Lights and the gutter? We’ll spare you our morbid humor (trust us, we are very funny) and instead just tell you that we are playing at the very awesome GUTTER bowling alley/rock club (200 N. 14th St., Williamsburg) next Friday. We’ll be playing with our great pals Les Sans Culottes and the Living Kills for their record release.

Also, please help us welcome back our bass player Joan in style. She’s on her way back from six weeks in Singapore (this is actually true and not a typical Party Lights lie about one of us jetting off to an exotic locale) and we’ve missed her dearly. Although we’d be remiss if we didn’t give props to the super awesome Erica Keller who filled in on bass at Mercury Lounge. Erica learned the whole set in a measly two weeks and didn’t miss a beat at the show. Hats off!

See you next Friday! Happy weekend!

xoxo

Party Lights

Monday August 15: Party Lights @ Mercury Lounge

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:29:55 -0400

We’re pleased as punch - PUNCH! - to be playing at the Mercury Lounge on Monday August 15th. Joining us will be two ridiculously awesome bands - the Jay Vons, featuring Dave Amels of the Reigning Sound, and the Naked Heroes, who put on one helllll of a live show. We’re playing smack in the middle at 9pm but be sure to arrive by 8pm to catch the Naked Heroes, and for god’s sake, stick around for the Jay Vons.

You must come to this. We mean it.

xoxo

Party Lights

Shameless...

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:56:46 -0400

Shameless...:

…self promotion. My new blog about awesome ladies who play guitar on GuitarWorld.com. Check out the first blog about 10 ladies you need to know about - this will be a monthly feature (god knows there are more than TEN). I also interviewed the super awesome Nicole Starr from Dallas band the Valentine Failures. Plenty more to come…check back often!

xoxo

Anna

Summer Lovin'

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:27:55 -0400

We Party Lights have been a bit quiet on the blogging front the past few weeks. Just taking in all the awesomeness NYC has to offer in the summer (read: eating lots of ice cream and cranking the AC to blackout-inducing temperatures). Been working on a bunch of new tunes we hope to debut August 26 @ The Gutter (with our pals the Living Kills and Les Sans Culottes).

Beyond our show, we’re getting insanely excited for lots of great shows coming up: Wanda Jackson @ Summerstage July 27, Ponderosa Stomp @ Lincoln Center July 30 (Girl Group Extravaganza featuring LaLa Brooks of the Crystals, Lesley Gore and lots of other amazing ladies we love), Mavis Staples @ Damrosch Park Bandshell July 31, and looking a little further ahead, the Norton Records 25 th Anniversary extravaganza at the Bell House November 10-13 which is going to be so amazing, I almost threw up on my keyboard when I first heard about it. Reigning Sound, the Hentchmen, the Sonics, Gino Washington, the 5 6 7 8s, the Real Kids, and lots more. Phew!

Happy Friday!

xoxo

Party Lights

USA! USA! US...eh, you get it.

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:08:25 -0400

Happy 4th y’all! I don’t know about you, but we are soooo ready for a long weekend full of BBQs, beer, overcrowded beaches, men in skimpy clothing, and, of course, lotsa rock and roll. There is no place I’d rather be this weekend than here in Brooklyn, and I mean that. Now go have some fun in the American style and take care not to burn your eyebrows off with those illegal fireworks I hope you all got. Here’s to the good ole’ US of A…

And of course, two totally awesome dudes who adopted the American Flag as a fashion statement:

33 minute set in 7 minutes! for the modern, busy man

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:22:56 -0400

Who’s got time to watch a 33 minute video? No one in their right mind. Here, for your viewing pleasure, we have condensed the very best of our set the other night into a sprightly 7 minutes. Everyone has 7 minutes. Just skip your next bathroom break.

If you are batshit crazy though and would like to see more, we will be uploading full songs from the show on youtube soon…stay tuned.

I got it bad, he makes it worse

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:00:07 -0400

As a girl guitar player & songwriter, The Prissteens have always been a huge influence on me. Their 1998 album ‘Scandal, Controversy & Romance’ is pure sleaze garage pop genius.

A YouTube search reveals an impressive number of commercials, movies and TV shows featuring their music. And yet no live clips. In any case, here’s a great tune, ‘Going Out Tonight,’ that I sort of wish I had written. Like most great tunes, it’s under three minutes. And lines like ‘I feel real loose, my pants are tight’ and ‘Got a bottle of whiskey hidden in my purse’ are hard to beat.

My old band had the pleasure of playing with Purple Wizard a couple times which featured Lori and Lindsay from the Prissteens and they were pretty freakin amazing as well.

Next show: Saturday June 25

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:07:50 -0400

First of all, big thanks to all y’all who came out to Local 269 last week. We had a blast! Thanks too to our parole officers who kindly let us out of the slammer for our new lineup debut.

They’re letting us out one more time - this Saturday, June 25th we’ll be at the Delancey with our pals Palmyra Delran, Stupidity (from Sweden) and the Anderson Council. Also happens to be Anna’s birthday so come out and kill two (jail)birds with one stone.

‘

We hit the stage at 10pm.

After that we’ll be summering in St Tropez (I love using ‘summer’ as a verb) so we won’t be back on the scene till late August…so come get it while ya can!

xoxo
Party Lights

Thursday 6/16: new lineup debut!

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:02:41 -0400

Come on down to Local 269 on the Lower East Side on Thursday. We’ll be debuting our shiny new lineup, featuring the lovely and amazing Karen Graves on guitar and Joan Chew on bass! Plus, of course, the ole’ stalwarts Quitty on drums & Anna on guitar, who you already know, and (hopefully) love. We hit the stage at 8pm sharp, followed by our pals the Moto-Gators and the Apehangers.

Telstar

Wed, 25 May 2011 12:01:00 -0400

Monday night was Party Lights’ dinner & movie night. Karen’s pad has become Party (Lights) headquarters, due in part to her amazing projector screen, which made our movie viewing feel just like a theater, except with comfy couches, beer, and no smelly people.

Karen and her lovely Italian man cooked un bello pranzo (complete with fresh basil from the basil plant). Yum. I think that’s my fork at the bottom slowly edging its way into the pasta. There was also some tasty rosemary focaccia but we scarfed it down before I could get a photo.

Monday’s movie selection was Telstar (thanks Quitty!), a biopic about 60s British visionary music producer Joe Meek. The consensus was a big thumbs up.

Telstar (the song) was the first single by a British band to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s a tune close to our hearts.

It was fascinating to watch how Meek wrote it, not being a musician himself (basically humming the notes and screaming at the Tornados till they played it correctly). Meek was a hyped up, crazy fireball of a man in the Phil Spector vein. Although the movie portrayed Meek as pretty cuckoo bananas, I don’t think he reached one tenth of Spector’s craziness, but that’s probably just cause he didn’t live as long. Tragically, he committed suicide at age 37. Like Spector, he left behind a wealth of amazing music (245 singles - 45 of which were hits), including the Honeycombs’ Have I The Right:

Next up: Wild Zero!