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.

annuals report 2/3

saw the annuals again last night right before demassek! they played a set at pianos with all these thirsty industry types in the crowd. and they sucked! well, they're still a really good band but there was lame moments. the guitarist seemed like he wanted be in coheed, the bassist tries to put isis tapes on in the van [NIXED!], and the singer, well, he could lose some of his thespian moves. a collection of musicians, but not really a band yet.

whereas on record and in a basement the songs sound great, urgent, and huge, the set last night seemed like a bunch of 20 year olds, who are obviously talented as fuck, trying way too hard. but what can you do? i can't remember being 20, let alone having 40 year old execs trying to get you to sign everything.

so... good band. maybe great band! but i think they'll break up and form even better bands. or maybe in 3 months they'll be amazing.

the show tonight with the cold war kids is sold out and i'm not freaking out enough to try to get in. so thus ends my annuals 3 day long strange trip...

live the fantasy

demassek! a band made popular by a couple of blogs. and by popular i mean a lot of their friends show up and make these strange gestures with their hands and freak out. i was honestly expecting something in the vein of a party band, but they actually shredded! great guitars and a totally good singer. you can live the dream, and you can live the dream to a fuller extent, and they are definitely living the dream to the max! there were a couple a jammers and a couple snoozers but it was fun enough.

i've never heard 4 marshall cabs sound so lite though. maybe it was the cakeshop. we should've had our ears blown out! also, it's really hard to groove to a band whose drummer falls in and out of time throughout the whole set. double bass drums sound rad but if you can't keep up then it sounds weird.

but a fun time. yes. oh, i stole this pic from o'dell's site. i think it was from years ago though...

annuals report 1/3

they played this dingy basement last night in greenpoint. $5 cover. all you can drink beers, 50-60 people, of which 5 were over the age of 24. verdict? RAD! the annuals shredded really hard, huge sounds... 2 keyboards, 2 drummers, 3 singers, etc. and they were great! the opened with 'brother' and blazed through a 30 minutes set. i admit they lost a bit of steam at the end, what with so many different people doing so many thing in one song sometimes it didn't gel, but the end product was awesome anyway.

they didn't play 'Footless and wild' which was disappointing, but at least i didn't call this post 'the kids are alright'!

again tonight at pianos. i think they'll be just as good, but seeing them freaking out in a sweaty basement was just about as good as this stuff gets...

'putas report!

last night electroputas played cakeshop! they are rad people and they played a good show, but it didn't destroy my mind or anything. i guess by the time it's 2006 it's harder to pull off noise for 'noise'' sake. i mean, i'm digging the retro vibes, but but it's almost like some bands are fodder for cool artwork or weird names, more than the music. it takes bands like this to create 'a scene' i guess. and i'm loving the social registry thing, but in my old age i kind of pine for a tight song with parts and no throwing of guitars. call me grampa i don't mind. i was at clikatat ikatowi shows too you know...

i know this all may sound harsh but i don't mean it that way. i'm glad they're playing and i would see them again for sure. i'm just saying.

don't step on my pedals

silversun pickups report! the new album is out! it's good, but not as good as i had hoped for actually. a lot of gnarly grunge riffs with melodies coming through, but maybe not as much or as often as i want. there are JAMS. 'Melatonin' 'Little Lover's So Polite' and they re-did [AGAIN] 'Lazy Eye' and 'Dream At Tempo 119'. those songs are like, 4 years old dudes.

anyway all the elements here are good. heavy pedals, solid vocals, 8 minutes jams that go and go, and some heavy mid 90's vibes. a good band! i'm happy they put this out, even though it's no home run, i'm stoked enough!

toosh report 7/25/06

the grey lady reviewed the new southern smoke tape. let's take a look!

1st line: "Last week, when Johnny Cash topped the album charts with his posthumous CD, “American V: A Hundred Highways,” it was good news for his estate and bad news for record executives everywhere."
last line: "And you don’t have to be a nervous record executive, sweating over the latest SoundScan numbers, to know that no CD boom lasts forever."

christ the record industry is fucked! they have to fix this shit. you can get anything a month before it comes out. for free! and then IM it to someone. in 15 minutes! booo. they are too slooow to this problem. fuck em i say. people will figure out how to get their music sooner than later. hello? whose running these labels? maybe they should think twice about charging $16.99 for an ugly piece of disposable plastic... make me want to buy that shit douchebags!

as for the review? pretty good! smallz and drama are peaking. might as well write about them before they start sucking, which they probably will what with their upcoming $16.99 'mixtapes'. luda's track here is crazy! 50? cam? this is how you shred a dis track! luda kinda takes a dump on jeezy and ross pretty 'haaaard'. but how are you gonna showcase this song that goes at these two, and then follow that track up with tons of jeezy and ross!?

who cares this tape is great. all the southern smokes rule. the tape gets its usual 4 mics. this review get the same.

helloooo? isiah? anyone?

shouldn't we be taking on more big contracts? trading future draft picks? maybe getting another shooting guard? hello?

get off my lawn! [kids these days]

annuals report! winton hooked up some jams today and they're good! a bit varied, with heavy strings, orchestrated verses and huge screaming choruses. great production too! it's really fucking good actually! think islands/unicorns maybe. i think these are high college kids in NC with no record/label to speak of, but they have some interweb songs floating around. another bowery ballroom sell-out band in the making. who can keep track these days? great stuff!

man music these days is insane. if this was on a 7" back in 1996 it would've been the craziest shit ever. is it me or has music gotten a million times better what with file sharing and the 'net? blame it on 'puters...

i'm maybe gonna see these guys 3 times in 3 nights coming up, so i'll let you know how they are....

also a bit late, but here is the review anyway

50 and whoo kid's 'Hate It or Love It' tape. i don't really concern myself with 50's arguements and politics, but it was hard to pass up this record. haha the cover is hilarious! so janky! the first skit is funny what can i say. and i love the pic of ja rule with the jiffy lube t-shirt on! and the fat joe shot with the UPS uniform? haha this is some good stuff. the tracks are actually solid on this one too, production wise. but i'm not totally rolling over with laughter either. maybe i never really got 50...

i dunno, i think the game's fine and all and the footage of him on blind date is a zinger, but 50 comes off a little insecure on this one. will this be the summer where rappers try to call out other rappers, and no one responds? Cam looks like a douche now, and if no one responds to this one 50's gonna seem like he's just full of hot air. do it 50! call him a pussy again! tell him you're gonna shoot him again! tell them that you make money again!

a few weeks late, but an okkervil report!

one of my favorite bands lately. this guy is totally great what with the black sheep boy LP and the appendix EP. i ran up to castle clinton as they started and as me and brian were trying to figure out if we had enough money for 2 corona cans they blazed through 'for real', 'black' [which fucking RULED], 'song of our so-called friend', 'a stone', 'no key, no plan' [!], and 'a king and a queen'... by that time we had run out of money and i was totally pleased with their set. great great great. too bad it was outside but they proved to me that i'll be jamming their songs for a long time. i dunno, this stuff is so weepy. how could you not like?

great name! ok artist...

JR's full length on koch! haha i love the cover. we looked at it and it was all, 'do you think he's EVER had more than 2 cameras pointed at him in his life?' another gratuidous 'i'm gonna be a STAR' solo rap record, but i have to admit JR shows flashes of being tolerable. this record is kind of that. it's kind of annoying most of the time, and kinda funny some others.

a lot of byrd gang stuff like bird calls, and more bird calls, etc. writer's block pt 1,2, and 3 basically took care of my JR curiosity, but i guess there are people there who are into this dude. cam's verse is the highlight on this thing [as usual]. i say, congrats to JR! you have a record out now! with flashy artwork! it's says 'the dominican prince' on the sleeve! you got to rap about ninja turtles! that's not entirely shitty at all...

beirut is a kind of a dicey band name

beirut opened for jens the other night, and there were definitely more people to see them than jens! ok i understand they have all the hype in the world going for them right now, but they were still super good! they started with some jams that weren't necessarily sparse or orchestrated, but the build-up was nice for each. i can't really write about then without pointing out that they probably need to listen to a small band called the smiths or the talking heads, whose vocal stylings seem to get lost in indie rock these days.

regardless, beirut powered through a totally solid set, even though he had this freakishly annoying dude pulling arcade fire moves the whole set. dude, we know you're psyched...

check out their myspace page... those songs are totally fucking rad!

the best show of the summer so far

so lite! i got chills at the end! jens!? yup. that shit was so good. he played with 7 blonde swedish girls and declared before his set 'yes. i will play you 14 songs exactly'. at the 12th song [we were counting no homo] it was officially rad. all the hits. punchlines. he mumbled 'i love that song' right after he played a hit! which also brings to mind all the obvious liberal arts/meta fanouts but the truth is, he was super entertaining and not cheesy. he'll give you gags and them sucker punch you with some crazy as fuck lyrics.

like everyone else i was waiting for 'maple leaves', and at the count of 14 he played it. but with no band! no drum machine! no mic! just weird stepping out into a silent crowd with a guitar! 'i think you're beautifuuul! but it's impossible to make you understand that if you don't take my hand i'll lose my mind compleeetley'. haha amazing. i fucks with this show. thumbs up!

almost as big as the two thumbs up i give up to brian and lisa for having us over at the jammer compound a few weekends ago! thank you!

ladyhawk pt deux

fucking great. that band is great. they shredded the knitting factory last night and they had the 40 people there in a frenzy. kudos to them. but it brings to mind a question. what separates a great band, versus a great band with a trajectory to do better things? i know it's a moot point in a way, but immediately i thought of enemymine. remember those guys? selling out brownies to fans foaming at the mouth. fucking spectacular live shows. insane buzz. then a breakup. or did they? they did. enemywho? oh i have that record, it was good...

ladyhawk's show last night was like a giant, hulking tree crashing down in the forest with no one around to hear it. where someone can make another record that's not as good, and maybe play a show that wasn't as good, and get all the hype the probably would've hoped for. envelopes anyone? tapes n tapes? could be the fact ladyhawk are from vancouver. could be the laissez-faire 'tude. could be the music [i don't think so, but maybe], but go see ladyhawk next time they come to town. and make sure you take a few skeptical friends!

the band that everyone's the singer for

ladyhawk review! so-so album. good live show! last night they played the cakeshop for an engangement party... and they shredded it! man see a band once before your friends and you basically joined the band, broke up the band, and fathered them from wild chidren to young adults... there were about 25 people who knew all the words, a couple of said know-it-alls, and a few people asking me 'what's this bearded hippie crap'?

i say, it's really good bearded hippie crap! but that's not even it. the songs just sounded looser, heavier, and more fun live. the next zep they are not. the next whatever whatever they are not, but a good band noneless. that was the consensus. good! 'what'd you think?' 'oh they were really good' . 'yea totally good'. gonna see them again tonight at a 'proper' show but i'm psyched...

posting!

d. lee is the talk of the summer league! dude is putting up low double doubles! i know everyone is stressed about balkman and isiah, but i bet the knicks surprise this year. and by surprise i mean an 8th round seed and a frist round exit. but let's jam a mind session on the lineup as it stands shall we?

1st team
1. marbury - c'mon dude back to 18/9 please
2. francis - we'll see. this guy was a solid player not too long ago. 15/4/4. i know very generous but...
3. jalen - i'd take 9/4/3 averages if he just drains a 3 here and there and moves well.
4. frye - time to start him. i want 14/7 from him. that's all he's got too... he's not kareem
5. Curry - upside schmupside. i'll take the 15/6 and be happy.

2nd team
1. Nate - hustle hustle hustle. 10/3/5?
2. Crawford - i'm a big crawford fan. sure, low hoops I.Q. but 'wants' 'it'. 13/3/5
3. Q - could be a nice year from Q. 12/6/2 13PTM per.
4. David lee - 8/8! my new fave knick?
5. jerome james - 5 fouls to give. that's all. butt of jokes too.

bad band name great album

envy! "All The Footprints You've Ever Left And The Fear Expected Ahead" so killer! heavy heavy melodies over cookie monster vocals. there are just many damn pretty moments... the last 3 songs are these big pop songs filtered through your relapse filter. ok it gets weird when they pull the slint move and talk through a verse [but in japanese]. yea i can do without that detail. but the jams are super catchy, not unlike the last cult of luna record, but less math-y. i'd still take mono over this if i had to decide, but i'm loving envy right now

who wants to jam the 2 day temporary residence showcase at the bowery with me? anyone? hello?

'scura report

well, this has been the litest week ever! first belle and sebastian at the park now camera obscura at the bowery. i was kind of ready not to hate, but not to love them. zzz predictions. but it was great! very very good, i was stoked. the sound was well mixed and she was belting out the jams. sure she's got that 'glasgow i'm a wee bit drunk and shy' vibe but the songs are good. and she sings them well!

some fake hooligans kept heckling them, which was not a big deal, but she was pissed! yea they played 'loyd' and 'if looks could kill' and all the jams from the new record oh man it was really good. i crept up on bro's after the show claiming the band and they were all, 'dude are you high?'

now that's a trade

not a bunch of scrubs for derek fisher. not a bunch of expiring contracts. we're talking 2 players with huge upside who are completely different. i like the trade for both teams! CV's gonna get his 15/7 1 block 1 3PTM in bucktown. i think both teams are stuck with #1 overall pick centers. bargnani i'm kinda shitting on i dunno. i gotta see him but the 'soft and lack of hustle' rap sheet already!? bogut will be fine. a 9/8 guy when it's all said and done i think. a poor man's jamal magloire. ooooh where's jamal gonna go now?

tj for will be fine in toronto. i think his number might take a dip, but he's a good PG. the knock on him is he can't shoot threes, which is kinda retarded to me. at this day an age where centers can step back a drain a couple a game [ok the freak centers], a PG sgould be able to shoot threes enough so that the defenders have to play the 3pt line. i can never be a fan of TJ ford or someone like andre miller until they start draining threes. get to the gym! learn how to shoot that fucking shot!

insert clever lyric here

belle and sebastian 4th of july situations. waiting in line for hours for tix a week ago. downpour right before the show. epic outdoor crowds.... verdict: AMAZING! they totally killed it! stu was in a great mood, cracking jokes to the crowd, slighting the yankees, and calling out crazy fans. they started slow, and then shredded through a set of 'you cover's blown' 'if you're feeling sinister' 'jonathan david' 'tiny little frog' 'i'm a cuckoo' 'dirty dream no 2' 'white collar boy' and 'arab strap'! in a row! i'm forgetting some major jams but you know what i'm saying. the gratefull dead of our generation? except for the hippie part. and the jam band part. and the fat bearded frontman part. and the not-from-scotland part. i will see this band anytime anywhere basically.

congrats to brawnyman and meghan btw!