i fucked up

i missed the my chemical romance secret show tonight... I'M SO FUCKING PISSED. this is the worst year EVER....

FIIILTHY

dino jr at warsaw. fucking shredding. i mean, he took it there... fucking SHREDDING. 2 marshall stacks with a fender twin... just ripping. and it wasn't just ripping for the sake of it, it was a part of songs, melodic, epic, etc. the irving plaza show was a tiny bit better and i was tired to start off this show, but mascis is mascis. amazing. obviously 'freak scene' was the highlight but these songs are part of a huge part of me. lame as it may sound, hearing 'little fury things' live when you're now 24 is a special thing. it reminds me of better times, and when J didn't have to open up for 'the shins'. what a 'relic'. i had a blast.

don't forget me

walkmen's 'pussy cats' record review! i have strong love for this band. i get weepy to most of their songs. i really think they're a special band. 'one hundred miles off'? kind of a slack record with some moments thrown here and there, but not nearly what everyone was expecting? are they bored? over it? having fun? or just not that good? i thought they were just slightly over it, but with the release of 'pussy cats', it's clear they're not only not over it, they're living the dream!

ok so the record is fine. lennon, nilsson, and dylan covers are going to have an expected result, but i can't help but feel it's a response to the reaction they knew they would get after '100 miles' came out. and the statement is, 'we're trying to have fun! and if it means putting out a so-so record along with what we REALLY needed to do [the covers] in order to keep this whole thing interesting, it's fine!' every artist has their dips. a 'what are we doing now' moment. and this record is a naked representaion of that. chalk this one up to process.

so is it good? hm. it's ok. is the idea good? yes, definitely. why? cause it feels like they had to do it.

baaaarteeender!

any joke that includes the phrase 'the widow love' or 'actress britney spears' is good enough for me. neil hamburger at piano's! fucking great! he started off the set with the 'let's get this party started' routine and it was just chuckles from then on out. it was a sold-out show, with a couple of over zealous billyburg fans in the audience, but it's hard not to love this guy.

i tried to get out of the room before he snapped out of character but it was too crowded. he rolled up to someone's table and casually asked, 'hey can i sell my merch on this table?'. a wizard of oz moment!

isis report

new isis record? 'In The Absence Of Truth'? i think it kinda sucks. i loved all their stuff up to 'oceanic' a lot, and 'panopticon' was pushing it kinda, but i really like moments from that too. i'm all for shaving off those goatees and getting 'zen', but this record is way too flat. the songs build and simmer, but to no result. um, 'Garden Of Light'? 'Wrists Of Kings'? 'Not In Rivers, But In Drops'? they sound like their titles. slightly pretentious and labored-over. they're trying too hard i think, and it comes through in this recording. like forcing something through a small door. you can feel what they're going for, but they're miles off course...

'and we barely fear the rain'

elvis perkins/dr dog/walkmen- mccarren pool

it was raining. it was cold. it was sunday. the L wasn't running. and the 6000 capacity pool was filled with 80 people. maybe. elvis perkins played. his record is good. his record is great! this show was bad. sooo bad. instead of the weepy lullabies he romped his way through a 'frat guy' honkey tonk set. oh well. inevitable with him, but i just didn't think so soon in his career...

the crowd was certifiably grumpy by the time the dog came on and, not surprizingly, they turned all those frowns upside down! people were swooning, walking quickly towards the stage, and looking at their friends mouthing the word 'WOW'. really, it was a great show in bad conditions. and their set is evolving! new songs mixed in with the classics. and an encore! of 'fuckit'! they looked like they were having a great time up there. home run! i can't be any more hyped about this band! they are right up there for me! more more more!

the walkmen played a less than inspired set to round out the day. the crowd had grown considerably since elvis, and the plowed through a few new songs off their cover record, a lot of jams from their last 'proper' record, and some hits. they're one of my fave bands that played a sleepy set today, but how could you blame them? it was the greyest day all summer. and it was already getting 'back to school' dark outside.

get off my lawn!

ra ra riot at piano's tonight. the next 'big' 'thing'? hm. a fun band? hm. am i glad i went to the show? totally! before the 'he's old and a hater' thought settles in, mind you we went there swimming upstream against all the syracuse 19 year-olds looking for vodka. and i'm glad i did! and they were totally average! it's hard talking about a band that has members with the mean age of 19, but let's compare them to another crew of undergrads... the annuals? song strength? annuals. fun level? annuals. longevity? annuals. quality? annuals. but what does that all mean anyway?

good for rrr. they're doing it. i love them for that. i don't love them for the fact that their songs sound like arcade fire covers [literally] and they're hardly a band, let alone people who might even be 'friends'. chalk one up to college, weirdness, and trying things out. we all did it. 'your mom used to be in a band! we played new york city! i was a staaar'

ok not so severe but you catch my 'drift'. pitchfork 6.1 if all that was too convoluted.

i blame arcade fire

for all these 11-piece bands popping up with 2 singers and violins. and the shitty thing is that i thing most of them are good!

ra ra riot are a bunch of college students from syracuse who play your standard indie rock with galloping drums and layers of picking guitars. and they're good! like so many other bands! i can't keep track! ok i can but it all gets mixed up. 3 weeks ago it was annuals annuals annuals. then it was beirut beirut beirut. now it's this band. well, i'm gonna see them. i'll report after the show! i'm psyched to see them

http://www.myspace.com/rarariot

bark bark bark

the new game video is up! he takes swipes at 50, 'bathing ape' rappers, brags about not being 38, and expresses his man-love for jeezy and dre. pretty standard issue material here, but a really good song! i hope his record goes X4 platinum just to make 50 even more mad... more anger = more comedy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZ4707_52M

whoops

the blow look like the most annoying band ever. i think i'll definitely skip them live.

this clip looks like an SNL skit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BznZq6SynGw

silversun/annuals meditation sesh redux

a revisted post about silversun pickups and annuals. after seeing them both twice and listening to their LP's for a month or so.

annuals... i think i like them a little less than i did when i first heard them. the full length rests on 'brother' a lot. 'complete or completing' is a jam too. live it's crazy. but there are moments, like the end of 'dry clothes' that are downright icky sounding. my gripe is they fall back on the vocal harmonizing too much. vocals that aren't pleasant sounding. more screaming and lyrics please. it just boggles my mind how much attention these 19 year olds are going to get. they're good, sure. great even. i just have to shake my head at how quick this all happens sometimes. good for them i think! how did they afford all that epic gear by the way? we're talking rush-type kit situations...

silversun pickups... it took me a while, but i'm fully FULLY into their LP. live the put on a crazy show, and the songs kind of take time to settle down in your ear. 'Common Reactor' is my new favorite song on this one. the album is just epic, weird, and totally thorough. there's drama! i wait for 'lazy eye' to come on every time, and every time it does, it sounds amazing! i'm pulling a boykins and sort of re-tracting my lukewarm post about this LP. top notch. i love it.

both these band are coming back in the fall. i'm gonna try to see them everytime. both of them!

'... and thats a pretty nice haircut'

the boston massacre aftermath! cashman 5, theo 0. sure the janks took on the salaries of abreu, lidle, and wilson, but i guess you have to spend money to make money. trading deadline maneuvers. we got a guy who's overpaid but is holding a .500 OBP with the yanks, a starter who's already won 2 big games for us, and an all-purpose utility guy who can play catcher! and had a legitimate mullet!

so with giambi and abreu the yanks have 2 on-base machines. it's almost like money ball, but instead of underpaying for OBP, cashman overpays for it! and to success! abreu being on base lets posada and cano swing free. and then you're right back up there with damon and jeter.

it's hard to hate the sox as much as i used to though. millar and mueller? sure. douchebags. varitek too. but papi and manny? those guys are fucking gangster! manny can't speak english! and he grew up next to the stadium! not mad at coco crisp either. cocaine crips! wells? nah he's bro-ish. papelbon is actually kinda rad too. we need more assholes on the sox to make this rivalry good again... although i didn't hate oil can boyd at all. clemens? jim rice? now that's a whole different story...

the blow

on k records. rad! there are 3-4 duds on the album but the rest are great. 'Parentheses' and 'Fists Up' are repeat plays. seriously like 10 time-over repeat plays. think figurine but more interesting vocally... or postal service if you must but PS kinda shit on everybody. and it's completely different if you can get past the 8-bit stylings. the comparisons between the 2 are inevitable tho. the k records affiliation is nice, and it does remind me of some lo-fi bands from back then [kicking giant?]. i dunno, i'm a little short of words for this one. not a masterpiece, but if you know what you're in for it's great. thanks go to boykins writer-at-large brawnyman for this 'scoop'...

i see this thing being 'bigger than elvis' but what do i know?

radatat

ratatat record release at hiro tonight. it was supposed to jump off at 11PM but there was an insane giant step party with esthero[!] that ran over their slot. esthero! remember her!? there're poeple who still care! singing along! it was like west side story. the pack of ratatat nerds vs the pack of esthero fans. i gotta say, esthero was painful. she called out all the 'ladies with vaginas born before 1978 out on stage to sing with her'. it was embarrassing. not hating on her fully, but that performance was super fucking weird in a desperate way....

so i have love for ratatat. they rule. for me. not for everyone. lite guitar shredding with video game nods? totally! they played a 'secret' live set, which was basically the whole new album. it was great. the sound sucked. it didn't matter. air guitars and swaying. i know there are haters out there, but fine. who wants to deal with haters anyway? i'd rather deal with esthero fans!

the Bowery is sold out [largely on account of envelopes], but i'll be there. also, at tonight's show, david harrison aka jermaine's back-up was drinking vodka in the corner. he got tricked into going to a giant step party. i was gonna run up to him and claim his [marginal] fantasy value but it wasn't even worth it...

did marbury talk to ian?

the new marburys only cost $15? that's like dischord back in the day refusing to charge over $8 bucks for a CD. well done starbury you did something right! you can clown someone for those weird magic johnson cheap shoes cause the were ugly and still cost 50$, but for $15? what're you gonna say to that? 'your $15 look like how marbury plays!' which is not cheaply and/or without drama, but we're talking f-i-f-t-e-e-n bucks. rad!

now can a major label come out and sell CD's for $4? you kinda want to dare them. 'pay $4 for something we all know you can get for free'

hamburger!

sept 27! piano's!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xHuaJo46Pjc

haha!

so the bergen record reports today that king is offering cwebb to the knicks! this makes so much sense. a crazy player in the twilight of his career with a ginormous contract. they're saying Q, and mo taylor for cwebb. fine. malik rose and jerome james? whatever.

you can see the trainwreck from a mile away. this was years in the making, when spre was running around telling the post that 'a certain friend of his wants to come to NY and play with him'. logic says to not take on anymore heavy contracts, but logical thinking is never dolan's strong suit. it's all dolan now, isiah knows better. he's just a fall-guy.

i know i sound blaissez about the knicks' moves this off-season, but how else can you react? what would make me excited? remember when thorne move K mart for, like, 4 first round picks? amazing! not to say the knicks have any collateral like kmart back then, but instead of dealing these players, we always end up recieving them. can we just stay put? let these guys play out their contracts? damn. keep a draft pick or two? look at toronto... with 1 solid draft pick [bosh] and a bunch of journeymen/role players they're easily more exciting than the knicks... and the had VC stolen from them! by thorne!

so... for the players mentioned? whatever. bring cwebb here. what a joke. still a cwebb fan, but on the knicks? with frye? curry? francis? marbury? crawford? jalen? what a fucking mess! i love it!

"my cartoon network ass... i watch spongebob!"

another young buck tape. '2006' and like the others? totally forgettable. not too much comedy here, standard beats, rapping about money, platinum albums, and the south. solid enough though. not too many skits [jamie foxx is really fancy on this one], and a ton of produced songs. if you can tolerate the 50/lloyd banks style of raps this one's great. 'Money In The Bank' with scrappy is the weirdest and best track on this one...

these days i don't really get amped for a tape unless it's drama, smallz, dipset, or if it has a basketball player on the front. but even those are dubious. buck is fine enough. standard cadence, scary voice, etc. maybe i just don't get this g unit thing. i'd just so prefer someone rapping about i.b.s. than money. not to say that money can't be funny, but you know what i mean.

the drama/dro tape is older but i got that too. after the buck tape? this one is great! the beats are funny, weird, and catchy. the rapping is hilarious 'iceberg goofy! YUP! cops want to do me! YUP i live like a movie! YUP!'. this is why i buy tapes. sure dro's album will come out and i won't really care enough to get it, but a $4 tape on my way to buy a sandwich? oui! the only blemish is pharrell. surprise surprise... he fucking sucks! anyway, drama makes fun tapes what can i say? dro isn't the best rapper at all, but with drama? great stuff... into it!

toosh report 8/15

the times reviewed the lloyd banks/juelz show

1st line: "It’s a new — and rather tiresome — ritual at hip-hop concerts in New York: one rapper after another huffs and puffs about how New York hip-hop isn’t what it used to be."
last line: "In New York they call it undertipping."

haha pretty funny. sanneh sounds pissed. just come out and say how much some shit sucks! c'mon negativity sells! that show sounds like real snoozer. so did that summer jam show. live raps is such a dice-y proposition.

this review gets 4.5 mics for the chuckles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/arts/music/14bank.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

i know i know. next time the toosh report will not be from the times...

not into it

deerhoof and beirut at mccarren pool aka myspace.com come to life. deerhoof filled mccarren pool today with billyburg's finest. a fun enough venue with a decent sound system. i liked a few deerhoof songs acouple albums ago, but now i can say that i'm not feeling this band at all. at all.

sure, the drummer is crazy. he's almost entertaining enough to watch alone, and the guitars sounds good to me. it's the singing and posturing that i can't stand. say what you will about cultural stereotypes and irony, but in the end it's just some blackface stuff. i understand the japanese fetishizing thing well enough, but the levels in which deerhoof's fanbase has taken it is baffling. it's kind of offensive and needless. i dunno, the songs meander and gain/lose steam sure, but the real response has always been this posturing. the cuteness. is this commentary? who cares! it's a tiny asian girl doing a song and dance... and people eat it up with this 'other' fanaticism. a very 'cool' band i'll give them that. count me out.

beirut played beforehand and i enjoyed that. the hits sounded great and he seemed confident. the mighty mighty bosstone guy was uneeded and unwanted [as usual], but the songs are good. i'm looking forward to seeing them again in the near future, some really nice moments from them in this daunting venue...

the white madge

white magic at cakeshop. mira and doug played an acoustic set for a receptive 20 people on saturday. it was sloppy, poorly executed, casual, great music. great! sure mira's voice stylings are patterned after her sister's in slant 6 and quixotic, but they still sound fresh and inetersting. a really great sound. tonight her vocals did everything to overshadow doug's 'village idiot' routine.

he's charming and really funny, but performatively, it dubious. 'you only laugh at me because i have a british accent'. no, we chuckle because you forget which instrument to play during songs and spill the same cup of beer over and over. not mad at all, but it overshadows the songs too easily... songs that are solid, but too fragile to mess around with. that said, a casual set by a solid NY band. psyched for the EP and full-length! they'll be awesome!

zzzz [to infinity]

what's next? 'clap your hands say yeah curate the 'i love david byrne' conference? mogwai curates the 'we are soft then we are loud then we are soft with no singing' festival? members of slowdive that aren't neil halstead curate the 'sometimes we sing soft. do you ever sing soft?' lunch club?

what a boring, pretentious show.

http://thebrightblackmorninglight.com/rainywood2/QQF.html

ratatat 'classics'?

this band was my shit in the summer of 2004. or was it 2003? i was kind of an e*vax fiend and when ratatat came out with their dualing guitars and lava lamp projections i freaked out. their first album came out on XL and i think i played it 1500 times that summer. sure, the band has inherent flaws... hipster billyburgh status, kitsch guitar situations, no vocals, etc. but it's catchy, and it cuts really deep what with my 8-bit nintendo upbringing [what happened to that 8-bit music scene? anyone?].

so since then i've kind of burnt myself out on their sound. i just forgot about it with the rest of my audio dregs records. and now the new ratatat is out, with weird song titles... and the song they leaked ['wildcat'] is laughably bad hipster stuff, but all in all? it's so good still! maybe a little less macho that the first [and that awful rap CD]. this one has the kid icarus vibes still pretty heavily on it, and it kinda makes me nostalgic/weepy. i know they go for camp, but to me it's kinda beautiful. so i can't go out and objectively say this is a good record. it may be. and it may be terrible. but subjectively? YES! there's finally new evan mast material! evan! the new e*vax now please. PLEASE!

leah with the lights on

new arctic monkeys track! that's what i thought he was singing when i saw them. yea, an ozzy 'gravy train' situation. they made a video for it already... and judging from this track, this band is going to make a greatt 2nd album. they're just going to get so good i think, i dunno, just a hunch based off their live show and this song.

maybe the dude will get his heartbroken in his mid-late 20s and write the most epic record... all fire and sneering. can't wait!

is this the guy from 24 hour party people in this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEukS2YN9B8

can't fucking wait!

the new swan lake song has been posted! 'allfires'! amazing! if the whole LP sounds like this we're in a for a treat! i wasn't a wolf parade fan when i first heard them but i think i should maybe go back and check them out. can't tell what bejar does on this track but i'm 100% amped.

weepy, creepy, fuzzy, sloppy, and really catchy. think breakup song vibe. i dunno google it for yourself. enjoy that shit!

5 year, 30 mil

so grunfeld decided not to match the knicks 5 year offer to jared jeffries. fine! we still have a bit of a log jam what with Q, rose, and francis, but defense? sure. i like it. did the knicks overpay? of course they did! but it's something in the right direction. his stats are modest at besy but maybe isiah can turn him into a stopper. hoosier pride?

grunfeld kind of gave the knicks the finger by signing stevenson, probably the same or better forward as jeffries for the minimum, but as i see it, this signing prevent the miles for Q trade, which would have been shitty [if not completely ironic]. is it me or do you guys think Q might step up his game this year? dude still has that 'upside' thing going on. when he's on and healthy, he's kinda a sick player...

this off season has been awful for the knicks [surprise surprise], but at the very least we have an overpaid team with incredible depth, little or no heart, and a coach with something to prove. welcome to the madison square jungle! wa waaa...

jurassic park part 4!

silversun played tonight at the merc, and i went with all my 90's expectations in my back pocket. and they were so predictably rad! the 4 songs on their first demo were formidable. 'lazy eye', kissing', dream tempo', etc. they were fantastic, i think i got the chills i felt really great. but they faltered too. the other song were duds, meandering and pacing to nowhere. they balanced it well though, and the crowd kinda thinned, but the old fans remained, and they can't be mad at that at all...

ok so she can't sing. ok so the pumpkins comparisons are totally true, but they are still a good band. to be continued...

i'm off for the sunny shores of vermont. my summer trip! see you guys monday! the 6 hour playlist is gonna be insane...

that makes 5!

the blazers landed magloire this week, and with joel p [big fan!], zach 'no D' randolph, raefer madness, and aldridge that makes 5 bigs! pretty impressive. they also got brandon roy and jarret jack. steve blake was nice from time to time sure but for a bonafied big like magloire? what a steal! maybe things are turning around in portland. you gotta think either darius, zach, or both are on their way out of town... maybe for a PG? or a SG? this could be interesting. if they add, say allen iverson [wishful thinking] for z-bo and miles, that could be a really sick team! the sixer wouldn't be entirely pissed either. or maybe they would.

oh and btw the wizards matched the knicks' offer to jefferies. great. isiah?

"you say thinking never got you far, but it gets you further"

the new mojave 3 is great! i lost touch with this band and the exploits of mr. sad-sack himself neil halstead, but i was, and still am, a confident slowdive fan. in this album you hear some pink floyd, a little slowdive, and a lot of late teenage fanclub. i can't really help comparing this to the new brightblack morning light album, which has all the ingredients of those shoegaze-y mope-y bands, but with much lighter narcotics. whereas the brightblack album kind of falls short for me, this mojave 3 album totally works. maybe it's the decades of playing/touring/drugs, etc that has seasoned these guys, but there's something to say about process. not to say that brightblack and mojave borrow from eachother at all; slowdive maybe, but mojave has left them both, including their own country phase, in the dust.

a 2006 top 10 list contender! maybe bumping off camera obscura?

at a bar this week i used the word 'slow-core' in referring to doug scharin codeine and they looked at me like i was crazy.