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Have i mentioned Oh My Rockness yet?
The annual CMJ marathon starts today. I'll definitely be at a few shows, but i'm sorta giving up the idea of trying to see as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Is that a sign of old age? Probably. CMJ's always a fun week for new york, i'll be reporting all the good stuff!
Tonight, The Tarts of Pleasure are hosting a party at new venue Snitch! Probably the first of many great parties to come. I highly recommend you check all the bands out, details here. I also love Ultragrrrl's new label Stolen Transmission and her approach to helping unsigned bands... such a good idea!
A word on the past few days. Interpol at the Bowery... this is was the first show of their fall Antics fall tour, and you could kinda tell. There were some fuck-ups, guitars glitches, and lots of downtime in between songs. Somehow, they still put on a great show. Everyone was excited to hear the still-in-minority new songs live, and i was particularly happy to see them again at the Bowery and hear Leif Erikson and NARC. Beautiful lightshow as well, i only wish they played a little longer, in fact, they were supposed to come back for a second encore and play Stella, but they didn't. I bet that a solid month of touring will bring them back to Hammerstein with a much tighter set.
Atomique this week was a blast , lots of new faces, loads of great tunes, many free drinks, and a strange young boy who kept requesting all Smiths songs on little pieces of paper... hmm.... anyway, next week, i'm super excited to have Tony Fletcher as my guest DJ! I'll give you all the details in time...
Finally last night, 6 very generous bands played a benefit show at Rothko and were all great sports about it. Amongst the highlights, Magnet from Norway was astonishingly good, Say Hi to Your Mom impressed the hell out and me, The So and So's from Boston have a great female singer, and miami's Modernage was a lot of Chaturbate fun. All profits went to Concerts for Change.
The Dirty Things
The Dirty Things, who played Rothko last night, will be playing at Lit tonight - followed by weekly dance-rock party ATOMIQUE! If you're a fan of the new crop of post-punk outfits and of old schoolers like Gang of Four and XTC, you'll most certainly like this band. And live, they just completely explode like a good punk band should. Listen here:
Last night, local band Dasher also played at Rothko. The band is fairly new to the nyc scene and have influences that range from The Velvet Underground to the JAMC with a good dose of glam rock. There's a lot boy/girl tension on stage, and Jeni's vocals remind me of a young, angry Polly Jean. I hear they're big in their native Peru, hopefully the same will happen here for them. This is one of the reasons why i love getting new-ish bands we like to play Vicious, in the hope that eventually they'll start getting attention from the locals and beyond (Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah being the best current example).
Speaking of, VICIOUS will be celebrating its two years anniversary in July! TWO YEARS! Jasper and i have asked our favorite Vicious graduates to play a two-nights extravaganza that will take place at both Rothko and Southpaw. I'll be be giving out more details soon, so stay tuned...
This friday, a local band who has yet to play Vicious (!!), Sam Champion is doing their first appearance at the Bowery Ballroom opening for Rogue Wave, before going on tour with them. All of you 90's indie rock lovers would completely fall for this band if you have not already... i say go see them before they get big.
Also this weekend, a band who has played Vicious (and will again on our anniversary), Dirty on Purpose is playing the mercury lounge on saturday night. They're re-releasing their much adored EP on their new label, and they want everyone to celebrate the occasion with them. DoP put on a killer show in case you have yet to see them live. Of course, a release show will not be complete without a good afterparty like the one they have planned at The Hanger Bar. An evening not to be missed. All of it brought to you by the good people at Loose Record.
DIESEL-U-MUSIC awards
Tonight, a lot of of you will probably be attending the DIESEL-U-MUSIC awards show at the Roxy. Should be a fun gig that i am unfortunately missing...
Whatever your plans may be, you should come over to Bar Eleven for Le One Night Stand, a night of all french pop & rock! Amylu and Andy have planned a great evening, with go-go dancers, giveaways, free vodka drinks the first hour, and birthday cakes! The theme is 60s Ye-Ye, so make sure you dress for the occasion cause Merlin will be snapping shots of your pretty faces all night. I'll be spinning at 11:30pm, but come early to catch Sheila B.'s set and of course stay late for all the other fabulous DJs. There's no cover by the way!
Had to cut the flyer in two for this narrow space.
I want to THANK everyone who came to ATOMIQUE@ Lit last night, it was quite the party! I didn't make it to the show, but heard that it was fantastic, which is probably why everyone came in such a good mood
The SPOON guys were lovely. Britt arrived a bit later and made his appearance behind the DJ booth for a little while. We plugged his iPod and he picked music between that and whatever cds he could find laying around. Truth be told, he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the big crowd and attention, but he was such a great sport about the whole thing. As for www.jasminlive.mobi music selection, he went old school for the most part, and played Interpol, The Rolling Stones, Queen, The Beatles, The Clash, and more that i can't remember right now... it was such a good time all around, so glad we did it.
It's been a crazy fun week, after saturday night, i'm gonna need a month vacation of doing nothing at night, but knowing me, that will never happen!
i'm hoping they'll be back soon
Perhaps the best news i heard all week was that local band Benzos is opening for Blonde Redhead at Irving Plaza on their second night there (10/28)! Unfortunately, i will not be in town for the show, but if you're here and love either or both bands, go support!
It's really great to see the bands you like get some really good gigs and recognition... Dirty on Purpose will soon open for Arcarde Fire at the Bowery, it will no doubt be a sold out and amazing show. Asobi Seksu, who are featured in this month's Nylon Magazine, are going on tour and will play with Earlimart on a couple of dates. It's all so great to watch happen.
This week's been quite amazing gig-wise. On wednesday, i saw PJ Harvey at Hammerstein Ballroom, and though, none of her jasminelive shows this year will compare to the Knitting and Pianos shows she played earlier, she and her band delivered another superb performance. They opened with Dress and went on to play such gems as 50ft Queenie, Who the fuck?, Meet Ze Monsta, Me-Jane, and the best received song of the night Rid of Me. This number never fails to get the crowd in the most effervescent of states, and will always be to me one of the best live songs ever performed. Surprisingly, she didn't play a lot of the new album and really brought on the oldies and rarities. This is very different than on the Stories... tour where every night she would play more than half of the album. It makes me wonder, does she not like to perform the new songs as much? Personally and strangely, i haven't spent a lot of time with Uh Huh Her, so it didn't bother me too much. Her band was very energetic and into the show. She came back for two encores and suprisingly didn't play her (only) MTV hit, Down by the water, but still left us happy after an hour and 1/2 of music. The only thing i regret is not being able to see her perform at all, since i was so far away from the stage.
On thursday, The Sons of Sound played their best show since the Mercury Lounge, this time at the Delancey. The sound was pretty incredible for the small basement venue, and the songs were tighter than ever. The band posted another new song on their site, check it out here. Also, read their interview in Sets and The City.
Sadly, i missed Rilo Kiley at the Bowery on friday, my fault completely... i'm hoping they'll be back soon.
I'm hosting a concert of change at Rothko this tuesday october 12th, i have some great bands lined-up, check out all the details here. I'll be posting more tomorrow. All profits from the show go to the Concerts for Change organization.
Share your favorite rock remixes with me
Apparently i'm a mega music nerd, and my parents have no idea! I hide it well. Take the music nerd test (from Maxime), it's long but fun.
LCD Soundsystem's self-titled debut album is out next week, and is so very recommended by the Melody Nelson computer, stereo system, and ipod. Those three devices have been playing the double CD non-stop. I'll add that Tribulations in particular is one brilliant track. Check out this LCD Soundsystem player if you want to stream and pre-order the album.
I love good remixes of good songs, especially those that fall in the "rock" category. I often prefer spinning the remixes rather than the original versions, simply because they're usually more "club/dance" oriented and much better and easier to mix in a set. Almost any 80's new wave 12" have remixes of singles that can go from decent to really good. I'm thinking of The Cure and Depeche Mode right now, cause these two bands always seem to have a ton of remixed singles from back in the day. I really like that new bands are getting into having their songs remixed. Some current favorite remixes of mine are Bloc Party's Banquet [Disco Phones Edit], Franz Ferdinand's This Fire [Playgroup remix] (thanks to Gerald for the tip on this one) and Mommy and Daddy's Confection Remix. I also found a really good (old-er) vocal mix of The Smashing Pumpkins' 1979, that has a nice low-fi dance beat. There are so many more good ones i could think of...
Although i found a new favorite one when i recently came across a sick remix of DFA1979's Romantic Nights by Erol Alkan (of Trash in London). I guess this was an easy one for me since i love the original song. I actually got an mp3 of it to share with everyone. So here it is, remix junkies like myself, enjoy!
Death From Above 1979 :: Romantic Rights (Erol Alkan's Love From Below Re-Edit)
Also feel free to share your favorite rock remixes with me, so i can go hunting for more.
Technical difficulties
So today, i wanted to thank everyone who came to Lit on friday, and prior to that to Lit on wednesday for ATOMIQUE. Friday was quite insane, i spun for five hours straight and played music from all over the spectrum. I did get a lot of requests, and since i was on for a long time, i tried to squeeze in everything that was requested. The peeps who go to Lit on fridays are very cool and very complimentary which makes it even more fun for me. I'll be back there on friday soon again. Wednesday was just as great. Eamon and i tend to play a little more oddities, a little less requests, we mix it up, and it's all good. So again thanks for coming by this past week where we had people dance until 3:30am, and hope to see lots of you guys this week!
Last thursday, i checked out Neon's first nyc show at the mercury lounge. They had technical difficulties, but that didn't prevent the aussie band from rocking and impressing the place. Hit me again is by far their catchiest and most addictive song and the one i was most looking forward at the show. Catch them next time they make a US appearance.
Last week, we had a very special and very packed Vicious. It was a reunion of sorts as three of the bands had already played the party. As anticipated, these bands are all doing great things these days. The Hong Kong signed to Ric Ocasek's new label and just finished recording their debut album produced by Ric. Benzos will see their debut album release on May 17th, and do i need to say that you all need to hear it? It's a real gem, one of these records that will stay with you for a long time. As for The Harlem Shakes, they've just finished recording a demo some of the Phantom Planet guys, and if it comes out as good as their live shows, they'll soon be the darlings of the town.
The one band who made their Vicious debut was Eugene. You haven't heard the name yet, but i have no doubt you will sooner than later. Eugene is a local quartet that i would best describe as intelligent pop-folk fronted by a charismatic singer whose voice is extremely reminiscent of Nick Drake's. Only at the early stages of their career, they're proving to be accessible yet very unique, with quite the potential to grow a significant fanbase in a short amount of time. MP3 coming...
Finally, thanks to Cathy for sending the link to this amazing video of La Ballade de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg - featuring Jane Birkin. This is one of the songs off of the album L'histoire de Melody Nelson, which inspired the name of this site. This video is so 70's, it's priceless, and of course the song has one of the best and most memorable basslines.
walk on the moon
Last week, i finally got to see one of nyc's best kept secrets play. I heard about Asobi Seksu a while ago, and immediately loved what i heard. Their music has a little bit of many great influences, from post-punk to new wave to shoegaze. They're loud and melodic at the same time, with beautiful vocals sung in english and japanese. I was even more impressed after seeing them live, they were a lot more energetic and catchy than i expected. I hear a lot of potential in this four-piece, and i can't wait to see where they're going to go with it. Well, i can at least tell you that their next stop is Vicious on october 14th...
On the day of the release of his new album Want One, Rufus Wainwright played a short but sweet instore performance at the worst location possible, Barnes & Nobles... bad sound and set-up aside, Rufus played 4 (or 5?) songs from his new album, accoustic and solo. They all sounded great, but as he said, it's hard to translate the feel of an album that has so much going on and so many musicians on it. Truth is, when a song is fundamentally good, you really don't need all the bells and whistles to prove it, and Rufus did just that.
On thursday night, Jinners put together a very cool show at Sin-é... I caught Dirty on Purpose, a bunch of talented musicians making noise that is moody and dark, and always good. Also on the bill, on!air!library!, a band who's definitely not afraid to experiment with sounds. The result, lush ambient-pop-rock tunes filled with intricate melodies that go from dreamy to heavy without ever ceasing to intrigue. I only saw a little bit of Pela's performance. These guys were on the poppier side of things that night and super entertaining to watch.