summertime shows

actually, i haven't been seeing much that intrigues me going on. but, there are a couple of good ones coming up:

Jurassic 5 - Jun 7 @ BB Kings
Rebirth Brass Band - Jun 10 @ BB Kings
Ozomatli - Jul 15 @ Irving Plaza

and while i'm thinking about it, why is it that a club named for a blues legend has so many off-genre shows? rebirth, ok, new orleans brass is definitely jazzy. but a bunch of their other shows swing all the way from apparent satanists (deicide, playing with skinless, despised icon & with passion) to some fairly hard rap (ja rule). whatever i suppose, they've got a good space and i'm happy to go there, even if it is in times square.


also, i see that RJD2 is coming to nyc in august, for some reason playing a rock n' roll river cruise or something. been enjoying his two cd's a great deal, and would love to see him, but won't be in town. can't say what the cruise would be like, but i'd risk it to see him play.

...on another note...

after getting back from dc, was doing some news reading and came across this special series in the New York Times. yah yah, i know you have to register, but i thought it was really interesting.

basically a whole section on what class means nowadays in the US. interesting to see how they break down the elements of class as they see it these days, by occupational prestige, income, savings and education. one of the things that particularly struck me was this Where do You Fit In? section. a bachelor's degree alone puts you ahead of the educational level of 75% of the population, tied with people from 75-90.

i'll admit to being baffled on some of the occupational prestige rankings though. they got it from census data, so i guess it's pretty representative, but what does it say that judges have about the same prestige as podiatrists? bizarre. don't get me wrong, feet are really important, but the judiciary is arguably the backbone of our government. and i do sort of object to software engineers having lower prestige than DBA's and network analysts. maybe next time 'round i'll get a census and can get these things corrected.

and it's also interesting when they talk about the fact that obvious indicators of 'class' have changed so much now. it's much easier nowadays for more people to get the everyday trappings of wealth that used to be unavailable to all but the richest few. as they said at one point, 50% of the people now have the kind of things that 5% used to have. that's good, but considering the other article in there regarding the massive differences in health care treatment and life expectancy, sort of window trimming on serious underlying problems.

i'll come back down off my soapbox now. go and take a read, maybe you'll find it interesting.

back in it

i was informed this weekend that i've been neglecting my blog... which is definitely true enough.

so, let me get back in to it, on the Handsome Boy Modeling School.


definitely a show to look forward to. i thought the Lovage CD ("Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By") was fantastic, and the first HBMS cd was also really good. the second one i wasn't as excited about, but still like it a good deal. Dan the Automator and Prince Paul are excellent producers, and definitely have some pull getting talented artists to colloborate on their work.

but it seems that being a good producer does not necessarily imply good performances. IMO, it's a lot harder for performers to transmit their energy to the audience when they're messing about with their equipment, and this was definitely an example of that. both DA and PP spent most of the songs at the decks or on their computers, at the back of the stage, and couldn't really interact with the crowd while doing so... they did have a band playing with them (the first opener, whose name i've forgotten) who were good, but didn't save it.

all that said though, there were definitely some really entertaining bits of their set. first of all, they set up a bar on stage left, with bartender, and all the people on stage went and got a drink or two during the set. they spent a good bit of time not singing, but doing on-stage some of the same kind of interludes that they've got on their cd's... some really funny, some not so. one of the best was having a makeover of three audience members, who came out as: the Blue Man group. but all in all, i go to shows for the extra energy that a live performance gives to music i've often already heard, and this didn't quite get there.

even with that though, the evening was definitely not a loss. the first opener was ok, although i thought they did a better job playing with HBMS then on their own. but the real success story of the evening was k-os, a canadian rapper who's been near the top of my personal favorites list for a good bit now since fabian introduced me to his cd. his stuff ranges from pretty old-school sounding hip-hop (think tribe, de la, etc) to some fairly hard rocking songs, to r&b. good range, and he put on a hell of a show with a great back-up band. bought his newest cd the next day, and it's very good. my only disappointment in it is that it sounds like the band he played with is mainly a touring one, as it doesn't sound like them on the cd. bummer, because the bass player played an amazing set, and the guitarist was top notch as well.

Upcoming...

i've begun to lose track of what's coming up, so wanted to do a bit of a summary:

Los Amigos Invisibles @ Irving Plaza 4/2
Handsome Boy Modelling School @ Irving Plaza 4/20 - With k-os opening!
Cindy @ Teabag 4/23
Phoenix @ Irving Plaza 5/4
Mike Doughty @ Bowery Ballroom 5/5 - Soul Coughing frontman goes solo.
Nine Inch Nails @ Hammerstein 5/15-16
Snow Patrol @ Roseland 5/20 - I've got a ticket to this that I can't use, anyone wants it get in touch.

on-line co-op art

was just sent this by bev.


worth reading. at first look, couldn't get through more than a third. modern age version of spilling your guts to a bartender/stranger on a bus/priest?


wonder if you'd get as much by sending a postcard with your secret to a random address. you're still fessing up, with no chance of being 'published'. would you feel the same catharsis?



what's on YOUR postcard?

Post Secret

piss 'n vinegar

if you haven't seen Henry Rollins do his spoken work performance, find a chance and go. or buy one of his CD's, i'm a big fan of Big Ugly Mouth, but i'm not picky. it's probably all good.

anyway, went to go see him at the zipper theater last night, and he's just as angry and funny and odd as he was last time i saw him. he's got a lot to say about all kinds of shit, from the changing tastes of his friends ("they're all getting round and breeding") to dubya ("...like when he sometimes run in to a cogent sentence"). he's getting a bit gray, but it's not stopping him from standing on stage like he's just barely restraining himself from running around to burn off excess energy. and he had the crowd alternately trying to keep their faces from cracking from laughing too hard with stories from his week-long Trans Siberian Railroad trip from Moscow to Vladivostok, to trying to keep us from crying with stories of his visit to Walter Reed Hospital in DC, visiting maimed military personnel back from Iraq.

awesome. i've got a lot of respect for this guy for having a lot of opinions, stating them forcefully, and not letting it stop him from seeing the absurdities in life as you move through it. one big thing that he said to take away is to make sure you don't just sit back on your opinions. take a stand on them, and fight for them. i believe the quote was something like "i want you all to find something inside to rage about" or something similar.

anyway


in addition, the zipper theater is a very cool space. they've got a great little bar with good beer and comfy places to sit, and the theater itself is a big old converted industrial space, with bare concrete walls, and a whole mismatches array of seats, many old minivan bench seats complete with seatbelts. good place, would love to go back.

Teabag, The Bitter End and Pianos!

a bit of recap for this weekends music

Teabag's open mic was very.... interesting... i arrived a few acts before cindy went on, and was treated to three comedians, a karaoke number and a set of anime music covers. apparently i just missed an (air) guitar-playing beatles cover singer (lip syncher).

cindy's set went well, and the crowd definitely enjoyed seeing someone more polished get up there.

later that evening, went to see some people at the Bitter End in the west village, and it turned out that there was some solid music happening there. i got there as a rock band called Sirsy was playing. only caught the end of their set, but more than enough to want to see a full show sometime. they won't be back till the end of march.

the next act up was called Days of Wild, who are apparently at the Bitter End a lot, every week or two. big band, believe they topped out at 10 people on stage at once (big stage, too). very tight funk band, lots of good energy, they sounded great and were a huge amount of fun to watch.


saturday, went to go see The Fatales at Pianos with Cindy, who's done some work down in DC with their lead singer. so her recommendation of the band was a bit biased, but turned out to be well placed. they played a great set of thick rock, their CD sounds very well put together, and all in all i think these guys will be about quite a bit. their stuff is sort of Radiohead-esque, using a good bit of keyboard and computer to add extra layers to the normal band setup. the headliner, Benzo's, had a similar type of sound, and started off strong. i wasn't able to stay for the full set though, so would have to see em again to make up my mind.

jazzy open mic

my friend Cynthia Lin is coming up to NYC for an open mic, 3/11 8 PM @ Teabag in Chinatown.

what kind of band goes on on time??

as much as there have been times when i've been standing around waiting for the headliner to start their damn set, i've become so inured to it that i work it into my show schedule at all times...

thus, i thought i'd be fine getting to the interpol show at 10 pm, only to get a text at 9:15 from aaron, saying they'd just started! i missed the show entirely as they played a set that was only an hour and twenty minutes or so. bit rough for tickets that were almost $50.

at any rate, i heard the opener, Blonde Redhead, was quite good. maybe they'll come through again sometime, at a more reasonable hour. and the interpol set was apparently solid, although short.

Phoenix @ Irving Plaza 5/4

Just heard about this show coming up. Their song Run Run Run is good, definitely worth taking a listen to.

Upcoming shows

It was looking like a dry spring at first, but several good things have popped up recently:

Interpol @ Radio City 3/1 - Just found a ticket to this sold out show yesterday
Brazilian Girls @ Bowery Ballroom 3/16 - Heard about this group from Darlinda who's very excited about them. They sound extremely chill on the bits I checked out online, but apparently their live shows are higher energy.
Los Amigos Invisibles @ Irving Plaza 4/2 - I'm going to be out of town for this one. These guys are an excellent latin rock band, saw them first time four years ago or so in DC opening for Soul Coughing. Worth checking out.
Handsome Boy Modelling School @ Irving Plaza 4/20 - Dan the Automator and Prince Paul! Excellent experimental hip hop from the guys behind Lovage.
Snow Patrol @ Roseland 5/20 - Much hyped by U2 recently, probably the reason they're selling tickets so far in advance... Just gotten to know these guys recently from their "Spitting Games" track on a mix from Tera.


Good non-concerts too!

Henry Rollins @ Zipper Theater 3/22 - 4/2 - Former heavy punker turned intellectual... Rollins does great spoken word/standup. He's got several CD's out, but seeing him speak live is fantastic. He did a show at the 9:30 club in DC a few years back, sold out very sharpish and was excellent to see.
This is How it Goes @ Public Theater 3/10 - 4/16 - This is a new play by Neil Labute, the mind behind various very fucked up stories about people's relationships ("In the Company of Men"). His stuff is definitely thought-provoking, though more than a little disturbing at times... Interesting cast in this, Ben Stiller and Marisa Tomei.