Matt Kleinschmidt

Aussie band Philadelphia Grand Jury stopped off in NYC for a few dates on their way to the land down under for a tour in support of their album Hope Is For Hopers. The band hasn’t spent much time here in the states only about 6 shows total. Lately they’ve been splitting their time mainly between Australia and the UK which they’ve called home for the last few months. The band consists of two Aussies in MC Bad Genius and Berkfinger and one dynamite Detroit drummer simply known as Calvin. Their set is high energy fun and a shitload of fun. Read the rest of this entry »

The website North By Northwestern just recently ran a photo I took of The Cool Kids as part of their Weekender feature that let’s the people of Northwestern know about the events happening during the week.

I’ve made the trek to Austin for South By Southwest many times over the past decade. It’s an amazingly good time for anyone who makes the trip. Just yesterday I learned that one of my photos was used in the rotation masthead of a website dedicated to all the unofficial parties/events going on that week.

The photo is one that’s gotten a decent amount of mileage, and seems to be a favorite of people out there because it’s been used before. It was taken in 2008 and is of the tattoo sleeve of The Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon. They had played about 3 different shows in a 24 hour span of time, I caught 2 out of the 3 shows and they were amazing as always. I shot this set mostly in black and white and grabbed this pic specifically because I personally was interested in the details of Brian’s tats and wanted to see them. I don’t think it was a particularly well lit picture and felt better ones were taken that week but that’s often not the point of photography is it?

I’ve also realized that of all the pictures of bands I take, the ones of The Gaslight Anthem seem to be the most popular.

Well, it’s February and we’ve been beaten up by the winter weather quite a bit on the East Coast. The upside to all of this is the snow and winter weather offers up the chance to go out and make the gloomy world pretty.

I rummaged through the files of photos that I took over the course of the last year. There were definitely a few pictures that for some reason or another never got posted to the site. So I decided to post them here in some of my favorites of 2009.

I attended a fountain dedication ceremony on my old college campus, since it was a hot June day, the dedication soon turned into people daring others to run through it. Here are two of my friend’s taking a run through the water. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a pretty big fan of The Features. I’ve seen them a few times now and they never seem to disappoint with a terrific live show. The Tennessee quartet rolled through Irving Plaza as direct support for fellow Southern rockers, The Whigs. They’ve been out on the road since October converting fans with their jumpy, keyboard-rock soaked with devilish yelps and hoe-down floor stomps. Read the rest of this entry »

Violent Soho had been out on the road opening for the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and Built To Spill. They are a new group of New Zealanders and it’s always fun to head out and see what the young’uns have going on. About 5 minutes into their set it was pretty easy to see why they were on the road with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., because the band was seriously channeling some Mudhoney and other 80′s / early 90′s Alternative bands. Flannel seems to officially be back. Read the rest of this entry »

The CMJ Marathon is always a great time to run around NYC and check out new bands and take some pictures at the same time. The company I work for threw a few parties during the week. Philadelphia’s The Swimmers were one of the bands on the bill. Read the rest of this entry »

A picture I took of White Rabbits at All Points West recently ran with a show review on Spectrum Culture. You can read the full article here.

Australia’s City Riots came through NYC. The band was recently in the US recording their album in Chicago and they happened to tour the states a bit in the process. Some friends invited me out to the show and always one to check out a new band, I hit up the show and ran off a few pictures. As they donned their leather-jacketed glory in the middle August it just made things more abundantly clear how un-hip a man I am. Read the rest of this entry »