#Ellen Qbertplaya

[thebowerypresents]

Jhené Aiko – Barclays Center – July 1, 2024

Making her way across North America, contemporary R&B singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko’s big Magic Hour Tour rolled into Brooklyn last night for a headlining show at Barclays Center.

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

[fortheturnstiles]

Stephen Malkmus by Ellen Qbertplaya via Brooklyn Vegan

[dustedmagazine]

Guided By Voices — Strut of Kings (GBV Inc.)

Photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

In an interview following the announcement of the new Guided By Voices record, Strut of Kings, Robert Pollard explained why it would, uncharacteristically, be the group’s only release this year: “I just wanted to give this one a little more time to sink in with the fans. Give them some breathing space.” Take Pollard at his word: Strut of Kings is worth the focus and, speaking of space, it’ll take up as much as your speakers allow.

Back in 2018, I wrote that Space Gun (also that year’s only GBV album) was “a protein-rich re-entry point from which to backtrack through the post-millennium catalog…with triumphant blends of sweeping rhythm guitar, ascending lead riffs and rolling rhythm sections.” Six years and 13 albums later, I’ll say the same of Strut of Kings, only more so. As on Space Gun, Pollard is backed by Bobby Bare Jr., Doug Gillard, Mark Shue, and Kevin March, but here they play with a stormier ambition that adds an extra potency to the songs. This isn’t angry music, exactly, but it is noticeably heavier and sounds off with a harder-rocking urgency.

On the edgier end of things come ornery, ear-ringing slugfests like “Olympus Cock In Radiana” and “Cavemen Running Naked.” The first of which heaves around thick, fuzzy guitar arpeggios over a dogged stomp with the bare menace of early Black Sabbath. The second evokes both Queens of the Stone Age with its brute force drumming and taut, meaty riffs and Thin Lizzy with its buzzy, glamorous bursts of guitar. Sequenced between those two and yet darker is “Leaving Umbrella.” The track, slow, sheer and draped with cymbal crashes and sliding walls of distortion, finds Pollard wallowing in a psychedelic, fantastical fog, like a long lost David Bowie album for Southern Lord.

Ill-tempered bangers aside, Strut of Kings is, like so much of Pollard’s vast catalog, at its best in rich, punchy, power pop mode. One of Pollard’s great strengths as a vocalist is delivering even his hardest-to-parse lines with the conviction of confessional poetry. As the sparkling strum and thrust of “Fictional Environment Dream” is lifted by sustained electronic keys, “trying to sell me/on such same primitive tools/programming fever dreams/with the fools/let them expel me” might as well be Matthew Sweet lamenting “I’m sick of myself when I look at you.” It’s one of several moments when the musical ambition and vigor of this album crosses into more radiant, but no less powerful territory. Take, for instance, the long, elegiac build of “Bit Of A Crunch,” from clean, picked guitar to a robust, sunbreak-after-rain stadium balladry close to Oasis’ ragged, golden “Don’t Go Away.” Perhaps the record’s most potent blend of beauty and brawn, however, is “Serene King.” At the bridge, while Pollard raps towards his jet plane takeoff on the final refrain, a rapid series of single guitar notes shoot up from the bullying rumble of bass, drums and blasting, third-rail rhythm chords, taking the song from fist-pumping to something like transcendent.

Chalk it up to the explosive instrumentals, but the lyrics, often the most beguiling aspect of a Guided By Voices record, aren’t the most memorable part of Strut of Kings. One verse, though, from the album closer “Bicycle Garden,” stands out: “Though all the roses are dying/the old nest climbing with ivy/is lively.” What better way to describe Pollard’s indefatigable musical career than in terms of voracious regeneration. With this latest liveliness, Pollard and company continue that relentless growth. And remember, they’re leaving the breathing space for you: no one said they needed it.

Alex Johnson

[jasper-dixon]

Bob sang at the City Winery on 3/18 in NYC. Here's a news item covering the event:

Photo Credit: Ellen Qbertplaya

[computerexploder]

Forest Hills Stadium, August 2021. Photo: Ellen Qbertplaya for BrooklynVegan

[pidge-poetry]

Yannis in New York | 16th Dec 2022 | Ellen Qbertplaya for Full Time Aesthetic

[brokenpiecesshine]

Evanescence, live in New York City, NY, USA (17/03/2023).

📸 Ellen Qbertplaya

[thesearenotphotographs]

Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna

I’m thrilled to announce that one of my images from Le Tigre’s second Brooklyn Steel show in July 2023 can be found in Kathleen Hanna’s book, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk that can be found in bookstores right now*. I was so happy to also see photos from the LT Brooklyn Steel shows by Ellen Qbertplaya and Wes Orshoski too.

The above photo of Kathleen jumping rope on stage appears on the final page of the photo section and I finally got my copy in my hands earlier today and I cannot wait to read it. The way my image appears in the photo spread can be seen in the above scan.

Thanks very much to Kathleen for selecting my image to appear in her memoir, and to Uli for sending me a copy.

*Please support your local independent bookstore! You can order online from the store via their website or Bookshop.

[dd-deevine]

[trueblueboygenius]

Julien Baker at Central Park SummerStage in NYC photographed by Ellen Qbertplaya for The Bowery Presents

[thebowerypresents]

The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie – Madison Square Garden – September 19, 2023

It was a double dip of Ben Gibbard on Tuesday when the acclaimed singer-songwriter brought two of his bands to Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a pair of seminal albums, with the Postal Service performing Give Up in its entirety and Death Cab for Cutie playing through all of Transatlanticism. Plus, as an added bonus: Atmospheric four-piece Warpaint opened the show.

(The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cuite play MSG tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

[john-taylor-daily]

Duran Duran / Madison Square Garden / New York, NY / August 25, 2022 / photos by Ellen Qbertplaya

more great photos here.

[orvillepeckdaily]

Orville Peck performing at the Armory Party at MoMA  (c)  Ellen Qbertplaya

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Ellen Qbertplaya | On Tuesday, @clppng dropped by Rough Trade to do an in-store performance for those who bought their new LP, There Existed an Addiction to Blood. Fans received the album 10 days early as well as a poster autographed by the band.

[computerexploder]

why was he slaying so hard will prob make a linked post later if i remember but by ellen qbertplaya https://www.brooklynvegan.com/wilco-sleater-kinney-played-a-shot-in-the-arm-together-at-rainy-forest-hills-stadium-pics-video-review/

[aurora-daily]

AURORA @ Brooklyn Steel by Ellen Qbertplaya // 07.03.19 // Brooklyn, USA