My oh my, where did May go?

Alright, time to play catch up.

First things first: I owe a big apology to The National. I bashed a line in a song off the new album (The Boxer, so good!) that I heard as "My mind was racing like a pronoun." Josh backed me up in saying that this line is just absurd and makes no sense. Which is true. Because the actual line is "My mind was racing like a pro now" which makes a bit more sense. Or so they tell me. I guess Tennessee Williams would agree.

So two weeks ago, the kickass band ALO came by our office. Those guys are so much fun. The ultimate California college party music. Nicest guys in the world and consummate performers. They played a bunch of songs from the new album Roses and Clover and we chatted it up for a bit. Made up my mind to go to the show that night at Bowery. Josh and I went to Jeeb for some dinner then to Bowery. Lots of good people there. Got some good advice on Peru from Kartzman's brother. Brett Dennen was awesome and ALO rocked the house down.

Had a very Jersey weekend. Friday the 11th we went to Deanna's old college haunts in New Brunswick. Had a fantastic dinner (mmmm braised thai short ribs) at a nice brew pub. Saturday we went to her Mom's birthday dinner in Perth Amboy--at a divine portuguese place. Lots of fun revelry. Horrrible rain and traffic driving back.

Last week was relatively mellow, Wednesday saw the best meal EVER at Saul's on Smith Street. Literally, the best meal ever. Friday my couch was delivered and we spent the weekend on Fire Island, maxing and relaxing. Not the best weather Friday and Saturday but Sunday was glorious. Jesse took me for $19.50 in gammon, which sucked... but the season just started.

This week I went to a great Dan Bern show at Southpaw and I caught the Biscuits last night at Highline. Leaving for the beach after work. Can't wait!!

If you like electronic music

then please go here and start downloading.

Wow. What a list! Get your untz on

Amy Winehouse is a trip

So thanks to Shawn Koonin over at Universal Republic, I checked out Amy Winehouse at the Highline Ballroom last night. Great venue--only two blocks from the A train. Good sound, Beano doing lights, cute bartenders (expensive drinks though), good sight lines (from downstairs, anyway). I dig.

Onto the show... I got there as the opener (Patrick Woolf, I believe) just finished his set. I ran into Erik Dane and met Leda Chang from UMusic. Had a few drinks and waited while the house music (house being both the music from the venue and the genre) was blaring. Finally, around 9:30, her band took the stage. The Dap-Kings. Who knew?? Good stuff. After some band riffing, they introduced her (very much like Cat Power) and Amy Winehouse, hot body and all, took the stage.

She was very sultry--I guess that's the best word to describe her. Hot little thing (after the show, Howie Schnee told me she's Jewish--who knew?), with tight, low-riding jeans, exposed tummy (complete with naked chick tattoo), and wizard of oz dorothy's crop top "shirt" (i don't even know the proper term for it, but she looked GOOD).

She ran through 45 mins of her songs. Good banter--she definitely enjoys her booze and clearly had no concept of time, as she thought it was Cinco de Mayo on the 8th. And then thought Cinco was the night before.

I found this quote today--and it sums her up perfectly: "I’m not a lesbian, though — not before a sambuca anyway." I almost bought the t-shirt that says "I don't want to go to REHAB" on my way out.

Good stuff! But more importantly, MTV needs to revive Celebrity Death Match and pin Amy Winehouse up against Lily Allen. I'd pay to watch it. My money is Amy...

The new L Train and the Arcade Fire

Last night, Marcie and I went uptown to the United Palace Theatre (my second Monday in a row there...) to see the National and the Arcade Fire. Only took 20 minutes to get up there from 34th st, which was nice. We got in, made fun of the overly kitsch decor (but even more so, we made fun of everyone who kept saying how beautiful the venue is--it's not. The decor doesn't make sense. It's too eclectic, too cheap looking, not authentic and just plain WEIRD. But Rev Ike's quotes were priceless).

But I digress. We got our seats in the balcony for the National who went on promptly at 8. They ran through most of the tracks from their new album "The Boxer" which all sounded great. Thankfully, they decided not to play the song with the horrible refrain "my mind was racing like a pronoun" which still just makes no sense to me.



There is a nice vid of "Secret Meeting." I love the National. They're just so good. His voice is perfect. Their sound filled the theatre very well. The multi-instrumentalist's viola was a great counterpoint to the dual guitar attack. Great set!

Then the Arcade Fire came on stage. Such pomp and circumstance. The crowd was whipped into a frenzy even before the band played a note. And with good reason--they are one of the best bands playing right now. They get it. They write great songs, play them well. Everything, albeit a little preachy, swells up and down so well. The grandeur of it all is what attracts people to it--the songs are big. It's a huge production.

The sound was great (it's not easy to mix that many people playing so many different instruments... like the Olivia Tremor Control's Bowery show a few years ago) but the lights were nothing special. The neon lights and the bible image that kept scrolling were good, but the LD could have done way more with the lights.



The band played all the songs from the new release, Neon Bible and the better songs from Funeral. All the songs sounded great--they really did. Regine's hurdy gurdy was good, as was the hammered dulcimer. The drummer was spot on the whole show. The violinist on the left won my heart with her dancing. And Win Butler was as energized as possible.



The peak of the show definitely came at the end of the set. They played Neighborhood 3 (Power Out) -> Rebellion (Lies) and the transition was pretty awesome. Crazy feedback, cacophony, madness and from that, emerged the beat of Rebellion (Lies). And it was good.



A predictable encore of Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels) and Intervention and that's all she wrote. The energy never let up throughout the 75 minutes they played for. Win and Regine definitely have a fire lit beneath them and it's fun to watch.

The train ride home was a royal pain in the ass. The crowded was full of hipsters (oh, by the way, this was one of the more unattractive crowds I've seen at a concert in a LONG time) who were SO loud and just annoying. The train was PACKED so of course it ran local. Marcie and I had seats, but when a woman with two young kids got on, we offered our seats. And the hipsters didn't make any room for us to stand up. Nice, thanks guy. It was just as bad as the L train during rush hour...

Overall, such a fantastic show. Watch the videos I posted. Enjoy!

The last two weeks of my life

So it's been a busy few weeks...hence the lack of posts. So let's go back in a quick recap fashion:

Last weekend of April was perfect. The Disco Biscuits performed under the Tractorbeam moniker at the Gramercy show. Tons of friends and good people. Woke up early on Saturday and met Jesse Jarnow at Penn Station and took the familiar train to Bay Shore and hopped the ferry to Fire Island. God damn how I've missed you!!! The beach and island were in great shape, as was his house. We played a lot of backgammon, hung out with Rhonda, listened to tunes, watched baseball, drank some scotch and just relaxed.

Came back Sunday afternoon to find my parents and sister hanging out with my lovely girlfriend at our apartment. Spent the afternoon showing them around the Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. We at at Pane e Vino and the food was really yummy. I saw them off to the Queen Mary 2 for their transatlantic cruise on Monday morning.

Monday night, went up to the United Palace Theatre to see Modest Mouse. Rockin' rockin' show. Loud but awesome. Johnny Marr sounded great and Isaac was in fine form. Tuesday I schlepped out to Long Island to see PGroove at Mulcahys. Great venue and the band was awesome. Cold rainy crappy night though... Wednesday night was Sage's bday and we celebrated at Sala. Good stuff!

Friday was my annual Cuatro de Mayo party. Great time as always. Deanna cooked up a storm (her paella tartlettes were the best things ever). The kegs of Six Points craft ales were amazing (Brownstone, Bengali Tiger and Sweet Action). About 75 people up on my roof and the pinata bashing at midnight was fun as always. We ended up at Magnetic Field and then back to my place around 3:30.

Saturday Shimon, Steph, Deanna and me drove to pick up other Steph and went to Tom's for brunch. SO YUMMY. Spent the rest of the day walking around Prospect Park and hanging out. Drove back to my place and rested up for the night.

Went to dinner with Matt from Perpetual Groove and Shimon at a yummy sushi place (where the girls were all dressed like they were clubbing and showing tons of cleavage--good stuff) then went to rock out to PGroove at the Gramercy. Another great performance by the boys. It was great to see Huffer run lights in a big room to show off what he can do. And the sound was immaculate in there also. Such a great room for them.

Sunday we slept in and drove into the city to pick up some stuff from my office and her old bike. Stopped in at the Pop International Gallery in SoHo to see if my Dylan photo was ready (it's not, but we had fun browsing!) and then bought my wine rack at Crate and Barrel. Drove home, put it together, had some wine, ordered in some sushi and had a very relaxing evening. Once the couch comes, our apartment will be complete! I can't wait...

Hipsters are funny

Watch this video and I'm sure you'll agree. Good stuff...

See you at my Cuatro de Mayo party tomorrow!!!

David Cross bashing String Cheese Incident

Download this hilarious rant about SCI by one of the best comedians out there. Good stuff!!

Post on this past weekend's events coming soon... last night was Modest Mouse and tonight is PGroove on Long Island.