Focused on up-and-coming artists, RiverRocks has featured such groups as the White Stripes and Rooney. The series has become a mainstay of the Park’s Take me to the River festival and is enjoyed by thousands of New Yorkers.

Groups that played on Pier 54 in 2011 – Tune-Yards, Austra, Metronomy, Class Actress, Deer Tick, Dom.

Groups that played on Pier 54 in 2010 – Phosphorescent & Dawes, The Antlers, Dinosaur Feathers, Deerhunter, Real Estate.

14 July 2011, Thursday – Tune-Yards with Austra

Doors open at 6pm, free, no tickets required

During her live shows, Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs thrills fans by creating drum loops on the spot, and layers in a mixture of sounds, including the saxophone, ukulele, electric bass, and voice. Since the “lonely bedroom confessional” of Garbus’ solo debut some two years ago, tUnE-yArDs has grown fangs and claws. The result is the more precise, more concentrated, more vivid sound that is heard on the band’s acclaimed sophomore album – whokill – dubbed a “creative force so strong and focused, [it] practically jumps out of its shoes.”

The Toronto-based trio Austra, comprised of vocalist/pianist Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski, and bassist Dorian Wolf, perform a dark blend of “big-beat-backed electro-pop” “suitable for both ritual incantations” and after-hours clubs.

28 July 2011, Thursday – Metronomy with Class Actress

Doors open at 6pm, free, no tickets required

With the spring release of its third album The English Riviera, the constantly developing British electronic band Metronomy has continued its streak of producing some of the most original and exciting music in the current pop milieu, an utterly unique proposition. Led by James Mount, Metronomy’s music is described as “pure experimental pop” a “mixture of unabashed funk and sunset tunes.”

The Brooklyn-based electro pop trio Class Actress indulges in elancholic, synth-heavy jams about romance and desire that recall some of singer-songwriter Elizabeth Harper’s favorite groups, circa 1986: Soft Cell, Pet Shop Boys, and Yaz. Dubbed “Brooklyn’s very own Madonna,” by critics, Harper’s music also draws from the icon’s early career.

11 August 2011, Thursday – Deer Tick with Dom

Doors open at 6pm, free, no tickets required

Fronted by guitarist, singer-songwriter John McCauley, Deer Tick has a unique musical style that encompasses punk, blues, folk, garage rock, grunge and country. Reviews of the band’s near-legendary live shows proclaim the band as “louder, rawer and more raucous than anyone who’s heard their records could’ve thought possible.”

With warped vocals, fuzzy low-fi distortion, and broken Casio keyboard lines, the Worchester, Mass-based four-piece Dom filters a DIY aesthetic through the upbeat, sunny rhythms of pop music. The buzzed-about twisted-pop rockers, who stampeded into music world consciousness like a herd of irritable rhinos with their debut EP Sun Bronzed Greek Gods, proclaims, We want to be the Lady Gaga of garage rock.

River Rocks

See also River Rocks website