Sunday, October 12, 2008

Les Savy Fav Rubs Its Hairy, Sweaty Gut in Brooklyn's Face

The Brooklyn-via-RISD art rock (what is that?) juggernaut, Les Savy Fav, cranked it up for the hometown crowd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg Sunday night. They charged through a tight set of oldies and newer stuff from their latest album, Lets Stay Friends. Equally compelling was the over-the-top performance of lead singer Tim Harrington, who was literally climbing up into the rafters a la early Eddie Vedder. Fortunately his growing gut kept him from climbing out too far into harm's way. Many a hipster might have been squashed had he slipped. Others were not spared though when he waded into the audience, mic in hand, smearing the audience with his body slime. He even stuck his hand through his pants and out his zipper, allowing lucky gals in the first row to felate his finger. His rainbow striped knee socks, 70s-gym-shorts, bald-head, lumberjack-beard, bare, sweaty,pear-shaped torso, and histrionics all made for a distracting sideshow in the finest, anti-glam tradition. I was amused, but had to work to focus on the music. It just made my girlfriend want to vomit and leave. All in all twas a nice eve of Brooklyn rock, with local young lions The Bear Hands stepping up with an impressive opening set. In many ways I was more impressed with their hopeful sound and youthful energy than the aging ironic rage of LSF. Both are still worth seeing any chance you get.
Check out more pics here.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Liberals of America relax!

Wondering where to flee to when another Republican administration gets voted in? Don't worry, Canada welcomes you with open arms!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Sarah Silverman shleps for Obama! Why the hell didn't she speak at the Convention???

Viewer discretion is advised. Not recommended for highly sensitive or morally astute people.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Sarah, in her infinite, smutty wisdom, hits on a huge nugget of electoral truth; Florida has more grandparents per capita than any other state. It's time we leverage the unconditional love of our grandparents and blackmail them into voting for Obama! It's such a hyper-Rovian idea, I'm sure Karl is slamming his pasty forehead into his keyboard for not thinking of this first. And she gamely reminds us that Florida is basically responsible for delivering W. to us in the first place. Thanks, I almost forgot about that. If they hand us a McCain/Palin presidency, I vote to excise them from the union. What do you call that? Excession?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Jesus Is A Friend of Mine

This lost treasure was unearthed and properly enshrined on youtube.com. It's genius really - a sublime mixture of christian rock, ska and hip-hop. Check out the bass player just humpin his bass. Classic!

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Open Air Disco at the Yard, Brooklyn

Following my mandolin recital I danced away a balmy Sunday night at the Yard, an open lot on the Gowanus Canal in the heart of Brooklyn. DJ Danny Wang spun golden disco hits from Europe and the States, whipping a relaxed and happy crowd into a frenzy on the outdoor dance floor wedged between a grove of trees. Though the Gowanus Canal, a tributary of the East River that flows through the heart of industrial Brooklyn, is far from a fresh mountain stream, it lent the scene an almost European feel. Just avoid deep inhalations through your nose while standing at canal's edge.  But if anything was living in that urban urinal of a canal, it was groovin' on some slammin' beats that night.
Cheap beer and sangria was served from a makeshift bar, and hungry hipsters wolfed down humongous organic quesadillas from the owners of a beloved Red Hook taco truck. Though the forces of gentrification are encroaching ever closer on the Gowanus industrial area, it still felt like we were far from the baby strollers and lattes and we could dance to tunes as loud as we wanted. Sunday Best promoted a series of outdoor events at the Yard throughout the summer, and seem to be promoting more indoor events as the seasons turn. http://www.sundaybestnyc.com/
More photos here.

Recital at Jalopy Theater

After months and months of intensive study with my mandolin teacher Michael Daves, I finally had the chance to show Michael, fellow students and attending friends how my playing has progressed. With the illness of my performance partner, I had to perform my two songs, "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" and "Bluegrass Breakdown" with Michael. I always feel a little bit of nerves before going on stage for the first time in a long time, but I felt very comfortable right away. Adding to the fun was the honor of playing on the Jalopy Theater stage, one of my favorite live music venues in all of NYC. It's a real down-home theater in the heart of Red Hook in Brooklyn, way off the beaten path in many ways. It's a bit of a trek to get there by subway, but always worth it to check out the music and the vintage instruments for sale in the front. Anyway, it was a fine show, with many heartfelt performances by fellow students, including the first ever public performance by Michael's 10 year-old daughter, who sang a murder ballad with the gravitas of a 75 year-old bluesman. Well, almost. She definitely had the crowd by the ears. A group jam on "Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms" wrapped up a memorable Sunday afternoon. Next time, oh Jalopy stage, I'll be back with a band! More photos here... (Photo above by Robb Wood)

Friday, July 25, 2008

Ween Rocks Brooklyn

Ween is back and better than ever. In their last stop on their Summer 2008 tour, the brown boys, allegedly more sober than ever too, threw it down for two and half hours with one of the tightest, most energetic sets of music I've ever witnessed. Ween highlighted a fantastic summer line-up at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. McCarren features an emptied-out pool that's hosted concerts and events for the past few years, but it will close down as a concert venue after this season when construction begins on a new water park. Except for a tease of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" at the end of the second encore song, "You Fucked Up", Ween abstained from covers and dug deep into their huge catalog of music, which we should celebrate as fervently as Bob Slydell celebrates Michael Bolton's. Other highlights included: "Booze Me Up and Get Me High," "Spinal Meningitis", "Learnin to Love," "Transdermal Celebration," "Buckingham Green," "The Stallion Pt. 3," "The Argus," "Mollusk," "Dr. Rock," "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree," and many more (see set list and video here) Though the venue was not filled to capacity, the mood was raucous and upbeat, with a dash of the weird thrown in per usual at most Ween shows, evidenced by the orgy of nitrous tanks planted in a grove of trees just outside the entrance. Many a stoned, giggling fool were seen stumbling around Williamsburg as we wandered back to the subway. My photos here.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Skerik and the Beta Popes Create Satan's Soundtrack


Knitting Factory -- Seattle-native Skerik, enfant terrible of the saxophone world, invaded New York with his noise-rock trio, the Beta Popes, featuring New York's downtown jazz-scene legend Bobby Previte on drums and a hirsute (or in his case, hair-suited) Jimmy Saft on guitar. A sparse crowd was on hand to drown in a tsunami of sound during their hour-long set, during which they played two long sonic collages of death metal. Skerik spent much of the time adding to the clamor with his unique style of synthesized vocals. It was not for the faint of heart, maybe not for anyone with a heart. Satan would have been dancing for joy amid the sturm and drang, and perhaps he was in this subterranean venue. But it was good to see Skerik and his mates frolic with total freedom and see how far and deep they could go in pushing the boundaries of noise art, though according to the Beta Popes myspace page, they urge all to "say no to art." More photos of the carnage here.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Chris Thile and Michael Daves Rock the Rockwood, Again


Chris Thile and Michael Daves tore it up at the Rockwood once again. This time, the presence of a professional video camera and Phish bassist Mike Gordon (his gray-haired mop in the foreground) standing amongst the over-capacity crowd at this cozy club in Manhattan's Lower East Side seems to have spurred the duo to new heights. Or perhaps it was the result of continued collaboration and a growing symbiosis between the two shred-meisters, carrying on the tradition of the close-harmony brother acts of yore, as they honor and redefine classic bluegrass, honky tonk, and fiddle tunes such as: "Blue Night," "Rabbit in a Log," "The First One to Love You, "Loneliness and Desperation," "Little Girl in Tennessee," "Darlin' Corey," "Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes," "Cold Rain and Snow," "Molly and Tenbrooks," and fiddle tunes like "Fisher's Hornpipe," "June Apple," "Arkansas Traveler," Uvpick's Waltz, Billy in the Lowground, and Back Up and Push. For more photos check em here. Chris and Michael's unannounced gigs around Manhattan may take a break while Chris goes on tour with his new bluegrass supergroup, The Punch Brothers, but you can always catch Michael every Tuesday night at the Rockwood. I've seen him play numerous times now, in addition to taking lessons from him every other week, and his music never gets old, even though it's plumbed from the depths of a country music landscape long gone.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Mandingo Ambassadors: Best West African Band in NYC?


Tonight we managed to catch the Mandingo Ambassadors for the second time at Barbes, the cozy, world-music venue in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood. Legendary might be a stretch, but everyone here seems to know it as one of the best places to catch great African music and a wide range acts. I first caught the Mandingo Ambassadors at Jalopy Theater in Red Hook, and I was thoroughly blown away by their tight, energetic performance, charismatic vocalist, the cheery tones of their balafon, and the liquid-lightning sound of their guitarist, Mamady Kouyate, a musical god from Guinea who certainly should be legendary here as well. Here is a blurb about the band from the website of Barbes, where the Ambassadors usually have a residency every Wednesday night:

This legendary band was originally formed in Guinea, West Africa, in the late 1960’s by Guitarist Mamady “Djelike” Kouyate and singer Emile Soumah. Their music became some of the most beloved and influential of their generation and their songs were widely imitated. Mamady later went on to perform for many years with Guinea’s most popular group, Bembeya Jazz National. Now based in New York, Mamady Kouyate has decided to revive The Ambassadors. His electrifying guitar-work is supported by the new Mandingo Ambassadors, a crew of Guinean and American musicians who have steeped their glorious sound in classic 60's Guinean mandingo music.


Here is a clip of Mamady and the band at Barbes in 2007:

Monday, April 21, 2008

Chris Thile and Michael Daves at the Living Room


Thile and Daves once again wove their magic as a duo, this time at the Living Room in the Lower East Side. On a Monday night they drew an over-capacity crowd to witness their evolving 'brother harmony' act. I got stuck in the back, where good camera angles were hard as hard to come by as the drinks from the deluged waitress. Nevertheless it was good to see a larger crowd (100+) flocking to see these maestros. And their sound filled the room nicely–I wasn't sure how it would compare to the much more intimate space at the Rockwood.

After the show Michael urged me to stick around for Jim Campilongo's late night set. Campilongo, a virtuoso instrumentalist, even left Michael and Chris shaking their heads in awe as he made tasty musical sparks fly off his gorgeous-sounding '59 Fender Tele. He has a residency at the Living Room every Monday night. Like Thile and Daves, he must be seen to be believed. More pics of Thile and Daves here.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Earth Day - Central Park 2008


A fabulous spring day at Central Park, where Earth Day celebrations included a great free concert by none other than Ricky Skaggs and The Kentucky Thunder. Can't beat free bluegrass in Central Park!

Elsewhere in the park, members of the Central Park Dance Skater Association put on a fine display to the uplifting sounds of disco pumped out through a sound system. No stopping these guys from skating to ecstasy.



More photos here.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Banjo Festival at Banjo Jim's Showcases the Many Voices of this Uniquely American Instrument


An all-star lineup featuring Tony Trischka, Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, and Norris Bennett from the Ebony Hillbillies, among many other talented banjoistas, charmed the enthusiastic yet jam crowd at Banjo Jim's on Avenue C with old time, string band, bluegrass, folk rock, and newgrass music. Trischka, the top draw, was his usual virtuosic self as he unfurled a number of new and bluegrass tunes. Mercifully, the crowd thinned out as Trischka departed, and we were treated to the acoustic fireworks of the young guns Pikelny and Eldridge (guitar), who both play in Chris Thile's new superduper bluegrass brotherhood, the Punch Brothers. Dayna Kurtz sang a sweet set of mournful Gillian-esque old timey folk numbers. Seems she's big in Europe, should be big here too soon. More on the festival here.
Click here for the rest of the photos.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

© Murakami Exhibition at Brooklyn Art Museum

On a brisk spring Sunday we experienced Murakami, Inc. Actually, the title of the exhibition was "© Murakami," which properly reflected his philosophy on the seamless convergence of art and commerce. It was one of the most appalling yet fascinating, engaging yet enraging art exhibitions I've ever lived through. The "Superflat" movement founded by Murakami is exemplified by his playfully psychedelic, yet dense and richly-colored paintings. Many of the larger works were painted by a team of artists under his direction at his studio in Queens (we know one of his former apprentices personally; she left due to the sweatshop-like conditions). Some rooms in the exhibition were even decorated from floor to ceiling with his "superflat" motifs of happy flowers and other saccharine/evil images. But Murakami, not one to limit his choices of media, employed sculpture, video and even Louis Vuitton handbags to express his ideas on mass culture and society.


In fact, in the middle of the exhibition you are forced to walk through what seems to be a functioning Louis Vuitton handbag store, complete with sales agents and cash register. It's a shockingly effective piece of performance art perpetuating Murakami's obsession with commerce. I found myself so enraged by such a commercial assault on the sanctity of art, I almost made a scene–I really wanted to castigate the 'sales people' for molesting our right to enjoy art free of commercial intrusion. But then I calmed down and realized it was really a clever provocation on Murakami's part, even if he was making mega-bucks on the side.

Murakami's ability to shock and awe greeted us at the very beginning, when we were exposed to a fiberglass statue of a "Hiropon," a buxom, half-naked woman skipping a rope of milk streaming from her massive breasts. Then we were introduced to "My Lonesome Cowboy" (1998), a fiberglass sculpture of a young man with windswept, blue hair grasping his manhood while spewing a stream of "man milk", or a semen lasso as wikipedia puts it, over his head. Shock, glee, confusion, outrage, sadness, understanding–Murakami's exhibit brings out all of these emotions and more. That's art doing what it's supposed to do. Speaking of shocking, in May 2008, My Lonesome Cowboy sold for $15.2 million.

Murakami links:
On art, otaku and Japanese society: http://www.jca-online.com/murakami.html
WikiMurakami: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami

More photos from the day...

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Cory Seznec and Parrish Ellis at Jalopy Theater


My good friend Cory Seznec, an innovative country blues and old time guitar and banjo player, teamed up with the WIYO's own Parrish Ellis at the downhome Jalopy Theatre in the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn for their first, and hopefully not their last, performance together. Tonight they presented their takes on old field recordings of Tidewater and Virginia blues for fingerstyle guitar, and they rocked. Parrish even made his 'hambone' debut with a southern prison song. Both are leaving the fertile musical bastion of Brooklyn - Cory is embarking on another UK tour with the Groanbox Boys, and Parrish is relocating to Asheville, NC. No doubt these young, like-minded folk and blues wizards will cross paths again. Adding to the magic on stage was a cameo appearance by Seattle-based boogie-woogie blues veteran Del Rey. She's as real as they get.

Click here to see the rest of the pics from the show.