ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI @ Fillmore NY (Irving Plaza) – 6/8

With a band and stageshow as large as their name, Architecture in Helsinki delivers an exciting night out for everyone and will be playing at the newly renamed Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza. The Melbourne, Australia octet blends horns and synths and other various instruments to embellish what is, at its core, an indie pop sound. Their last two releases have been critically acclaimed and their fanbase has grown to include the likes of David Byrne and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. You’ve got a chance to check them out tomorrow. Now what is it about the architecture in Helsinki anyways?

RIYL: Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Enon, Oppenheimer

OF MONTREAL @ Irving Plaza – 3/9, 3/10

Athens, GA madman Kevin Barnes and his merry band will be invading the Irving Plaza this weekend and you will have a chance to see a real spectacle of a show. Ever since Barnes virtually hijacked Of Montreal and made it his own, they have gotten considerably weirder than they originally were on their Bar/None releases. In fact, Barnes may very well be the weirdest of the former Elephant 6 consortium and that, my friends, is saying a lot. Case in point, earlier this tour, Barnes’ penis made its on stage debut, much to the chagrin of a Las Vegas crowd. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again. The eccentricities are not all bad, though. Their newest release on Polyvinyl, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? is a much more mature album in terms of subject matter than their two previous critically acclaimed albums, Satanic Panic in the Attic, and The Sunlandic Twins, but the danceable, upbeat compositions and hyper-intellectual lyrics remain well in tact. We may never know why the bizarre Barnes felt it necessary to whip out his wanker on stage, but it could have just been another Outback Steakhouse advertisement.

RIYL: Olivia Tremor Control, Marshmallow Coast, Apples in Stereo, Elf Power