New Model Army FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!

I don't care if it's the millionth time I've seen them... Autumn doesn't start until I've seen New Model Army

photo by slabrador

An Evening Of Unknown Pleasures... i don't know dude

So Peter Hook is playing Unknown Pleasures live for the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis' death and he will be visiting NYC in December. Am I going? hmmmmm.....
Hell yes!

• Crunchy bass vibrating my ear drums
• As close as I'll ever get to seeing Joy Division
  
• SHADOWPLAY
• Peter Hook's beard
• Hearing the "back in the day" stories by grandpa goths at the bar
• Maybe randomly playing Monaco's "What Do you Want From Me"
  

Hell to the no!

• Co$t... this is going to hurt
• "What do you mean Love Will Tear Us Apart wasn't on this album?"
  
• Has a new band, has a new club... Anniver$ary of Ian Curti$' death?
• "I have the rare textured sleeve... got it off ebay"
• It will prob. be packed= elbows in the tits
• Webster Hall smoke machines smell like ass syrup

I'll let you know in December!

photo by Man Alive

What is wrong with me? BIG TAKE OVER

I can't even think about why I haven't posted anything on The Big Takeover show I went to a couple of weeks ago...

The evening began with rushing out of work, piling in whoever needed a ride into my baby blue station wagon and sitting in traffic while my olfactory organs were enticed by the smell of fancy cologne and Japanese cakes. So my working class fancy folk smelling friends and I made our way to The Bell House in Brooklyn mainly to see two people... Steve Drewett of The Newtown Neurotics and Mark Burgess of The Chameleons...

(note to those going to The Bell House in Brooklyn on an empty tummy... bring a snack, bring a snack, BRING A SNACK... There is nothing around there and filling my belly with whiskey sours wasn't an option because I had been at work since 6am, it was only 6pm, and Mr. Burgess wasn't going on till around midnight.)

Steve Drewett went on pretty early. Beginning his set solo. He played some songs including a new one called, "You Break my Heart", which was super catchy with doo doo dooooooos! and fun guitar riffs. He later was joined by his backing band featuring Jack Rabid on drums. After some potty humor and drum seat problems, the band, who rehearsed for no more than a hour, played an awesome set including Neurotic songs "When the Oil Runs Out" and "Kick Out the Tories".

My friends and I got a chance to talk with Steve Drewett outside the venue for a while with his sweetheart wife. So what has he been doing all these years? WEB DESIGN! After making a this quick career move, he finally has decided to go back where he belongs... THANK YOU! He told us fun stories about sleeping on Justin Sullivan's floor and having Kajagoogoo's tour bus when he was in the Neurotics. They didn't take the big Kajagoogoo off the side of the bus and they were confused for the two-toned-spiky-i dunno what the fuck is going on hair-pop band- when they were on the road... He must have been one of the happiest men I've ever met and I really hope he decides to come back to NYC really soon!

The rest of the evening I spent walking around the venue and dropping in and out of sets by Jon Auer of The Posies and For Against... Most importantly staring down Mark Burgess while he was enjoying a smoke outside because I am a total creep... I was ready to hear this man's howling voice.

This was the closest I'm ever going to come to The Chameleons... They played all my favorites like "Perfume Garden" and "Pleasure and Pain". The set was all Chameleons except for ending their set with Alternative TV's "Splitting in Two"... Mark Burgess was jumping around with his red Big Take Over tshirt on full of energy. I was really impressed with the eye-lined backing band and my ears were ringing for a few days after this show.

I'm still in "did that just happen?" mode...

Where have you been?

So I've been a tool and haven't been updating this blog at all and it's all because of Netflix screwing up my sleeping patterns and I'm going to try to update this thing on a regular basis! Keyword= TRY...

I've been to great shows in the last couple of months. Including The Specials and Echo and The Bunnymen... check out those links that'll lead you to my reviews of the shows for The Aquarian.

But just some key hightlights from those shows.

1. Ian McCulloch is not a wide-eyed awkward cutie anymore, but his vocals are still very youthful even though he now looks like a chubby Liam Gallagher.

2. Terry Hall has a great sense of humor. From asking for his socks back to hiding on stage behind beams and amps... brownie points!

3. No annoying elbows in the tits... A+

lazy days...

So working in a cupcake shop has taken over my life... well almost! I've still been writing at The Aquarian. I've reviewed a couple of good albums, so please check them out! For now... I leave you with a song I've had stuck in my heads for the past 4 weeks.

r.i.p Mugsy

I wish The Uncle Floyd show was still on the air. There's something charming about plaid suits and slapstick comedy...

The Residents!

Last night I went to see The Residents. I'm not a hardcore fan, but I've always have been really curious about their live shows. I headed over to Webster Hall last night and I did enjoy their set. I think it's funny when people say things like "I could do that" about bands like The Residents. Then why haven't they? Even I appreciate them and I started getting a little restless after an hour or their two hour set. I liked the story-teller part of their performance with different disoriented characters. I've never experienced anything like that at a show and it's definitely a unique one of a kind performance. It freaked me out at points, but that's what The Residents want, no?

I like THE THE and it's not because of Empire Records!

accordions rule...

Bobby Steele and The Undead

I forgot to post about The Undead show at Clash Bar a couple of weeks ago. I was a little iffy at first because Bobby has gotten a little shaky over the years, but it turned out to be a fun show. The drummer in the band Hitomi is a really petite lady who can hit the crap out the drums and Hiromu is an awesome bassist with a friendly attitude. Yay for Japanese band members! Bobby's vocals were good along with his guitar solos and he spent most of the set shirtless.

The Undead covering "Rat Fink" by The Misfits

NOFX New EP Cokie The Clown Review

original review in The Aquarian
I’ve never seen a Punk-O-Rama compilation without NOFX on them. Does that make them super punks? Even though NOFX has graced the t-shirts of teenage adolescents with bad acne for more than two decades, the band still remains at the top of punk rock charts. Why? Because people will always associate punk with acting like assholes, musicians selling their soul to bad hair, and having less than two minute songs, which NOFX fits perfectly into that punk rock formula.

NOFX have always been clowns in my book, so it’s perfect that their new EP Cokie The Clown has a portrait of Fat Mike as a drugged up clown that’s snorted one too many lines. I hate to admit this because I’ll probably loose around 100 punk rock points, but I liked all of the strung out pop punk songs on this EP. The title track has funny lyrics about a drug cocktailing clown’s stage show accompanied by fast bass lines and simple guitar solos. The EP also features an acoustic version of “My Orphan Year,” which is a heart-warming song about Fat Mike loosing his parents in 2006. Though it’s strange hearing a sincere tune from NOFX, it’s a straightforward likable song. The rest of the songs are your average everyday fast NOFX that people can’t get enough of. The band really are those annoying circus slapstick acts that you’ve seen over and over again, but you still end up smiling no matter how bad they are.

Cokie The Clown shows that NOFX still have a sense of humor and they can make fun of themselves like they’ve been doing since 1983. It’s nice that these guys don’t take themselves seriously, so you can’t bash them for their sloppy stage show and crappy lyrics. Though I stopped listening to NOFX years ago, they still haven’t changed and for once that’s a good thing.

Lee Harvey Osmond A Quiet Evil Review

original article from The Aquarian

Marinate the members of Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Cowboy Junkies, and Skydiggers. Then sauté their folk rock flavors together in a black cauldron of spooky malevolence, and you’ll end up with a pot of beatnik hippies, who could sound anywhere from Kenny G to Shawn Mullins and still be considered cool.

Lee Harvey Osmond’s new album A Quiet Evil combines elements of folk, country, soul, blues, and indie rock to enjoy on an early Sunday morning. With the slide guitar, cello, harmonica, and Tom Wilson’s tender baritone voice, it’s a nice ensemble of silky melodies. “The Love of One” is the best track on the record due to its soulful organ and smooth vocal harmonies between frontman Wilson and guest vocalist Suzie Vinnick, who sounds a lot like Emmylou Harris. “Lucifer’s Blues” starts off with a spoken word and quickly goes into a catchy Jack Johnson-like song with jangly guitars and bongos. Most of the songs have a laid-back country vibe to them, but not so soothing that it’ll put you to sleep.

A Quiet Evil doesn’t go overboard with its ensembles. Even with all the instruments featured on the album, Lee Harvey Osmond balance them throughout the whole album so it wouldn’t sound like a train wreck of jam solos all on one track. The album is consistent with its moonshine-fueled tone, dark ambiance, and quixotically keeps you on your feet with a downy, velvet sound.

The Cult at The Wellmont

original article from The Aquarian

MONTCLAIR, NJ- I remember first buying the album Love by The Cult. It wasn’t 1985, but I probably did have too much hairspray and eyeliner on at the time. I knew a couple of their hits and liked Ian Astbury’s ruffled shirts, so I figured it’d be a good filler record to have in my collection. Instead of lumping it with the rest of the fillers that made few trips to my turntable, it ended up getting listened to repeatedly. So when I saw that The Cult was playing their entire Love album at The Wellmont Theatre, I was curious to see what these guys sound like after forming 26 years ago.

No opening band? Awesome! Starting the show close to an hour and a half late? Eh! I wished there was an opening band instead of hearing the same five songs on loop over the speakers. I did however enjoy listening to the grandpa Goths talk about seeing Southern Death Cult “back in the day.” It sucks being born around three decades too late.

They did a great job playing through Love. “Hollow Man” sounded enormous and the crowd roared once “She Sells Sanctuary” started. Pleasing fans with other hits such as “Fire Woman” and “Wild Flower, The Cult played a solid set of guitar howls, crooning vocals, and sultry bass lines. Ian Astbury looked like “L.A. Women” era Jim Morrison with his grizzly beard, but his vocals haven’t aged a bit. Even though he looks nothing like he did in the ‘80s, he did have on leather gloves and a raccoon tail hanging by his hip. Guitarist Duffy blew me away with his echoed solos and white holy body guitar that looked bigger than he was.
Though I was expecting Astbury’s infamous tribal hip shakes, instead he complained about how the concrete stage was giving him pain from his recent hip surgery and commanding the Wellmont to use the stage lights instead of the spotlight. What a rock star! The psychedelic video in the backdrop of nature, people, and trippy effects made the show better and livened up the lack of movement from the band. By the end of the show, Astbury threw the tambourine he was playing into the crowd, Duffy threw a bunch of picks, and the overpriced beer fueled crowd went nuts over them. Let’s hear it for big hair, leather, and combat boots!

According to Ian Astbury, there are rumors of The Cult going into the studio soon, so hopefully they’ll have a new album out within the next year or two.

FOR VIDEOS OF THE SHOW.... CLICK HERE!!!!

Volcano Choir New Album Unmap

original article from The Aquarian

The word volcano conjures thoughts of hot lava engulfing buildings, ruining cities, and leaving nothing but dust. So with a name like Volcano Choir, wouldn’t you expect a huge explosion of sound powerful enough to melt your face off? Sadly, this Wisconsin band is a bunch of indie rockers that have probably snorted too much dust making their looping melodies and moaning vocals.

Unmap sounds like a bunch of whales talking to each other while listening to ambient synthesizer music. Some tracks abruptly end instead of smoothly transitioning into each other and have lots of tone clusters. “Cool Knowledge” starts off well with some awesome throat singing, but is quickly ruined with the cat-like vocals that come in, but I probably only liked that track because of its short length. The vocals that sound the best are on the song “Still,” but it’s because they use auto-tune. The rest of the album is uncanny reverberations of gobbledygook accompanied by whispering vocals.

Though Unmap does have a euphoric sound at some points, it’s ruined with nasally vocal harmonies, unpleasant popping percussion, and weird spacey sampling. The whole ambient thing is about being avant-garde and different, but it’s no good when you end up sounding like a strung out zombie singing Radiohead.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/36936836@N02/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Peter Hook had a band???

yep! I randomly found out about his band Monaco after finding an old mixtape of my sister's and fell in love with the song "What Do You Want From Me." It's so catchy and dancey... I only wished the rest of their stuff was as good as this song.

UKEPUNK!!!!

So we all know about Jake Shimabukuro and how he's mastered "the guitar face", but lets try something simple this time.... Love Punk? Love Ukuleles? You'll love UKEPUNK... Such good covers!!! Even though his voice is a little bit low, his uke sounds awesome. Check him out!

WFMU RECORD FAIR THIS WEEKEND!

For all you record collectors and music lovers out there, this weekend is your chance to get your hands on that super rare import you've been digging crates for thanks to one of the best radio stations out there, WFMU.

There will also be a bunch of live broadcasts from The Trashmen, Heavy Trash, and many other... plus movies in the AV Lounge...

My suggestion would be to go on Sunday because the dealers just want to get rid of what they're selling, so you have a chance of getting music at a lower price... but then again, who knows what will be left after tons of people thumbed through before you.

They have a coupon you could get in for $5 instead of $7 and for desperate collectors, you could pay $25 to get in early and get free re-entry all weekend.

So it's today Friday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 25 at The Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th St. between 6th and 7th aves in NYC.

for schedules and floor plans click here!

Don't bring all your money with you unless you want to be broke by the end of the weekend, but if you don't care, go for it!

photobyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Heavy Trash Midnight Sould Serenade

original article from The Aquarian

Jon Spencer is a hot mess, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Rockabilly bands are the tightest I’ve seen live, but when it comes to Heavy Trash, Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray pull off a muddled rockabilly sound with their mix of blues and garage punk.

Their new album, Midnight Soul Serenade, is what Jack White would’ve wanted The White Stripes to sound like with their crunchy blues guitar, hip-swaying drumming and crooning vocals. “Bumble Bee” is an amusing track with Jon Spencer’s buzzing reverbed voice. “The Pill” is a spoken word song that has a Jim Morrison feel, while Spencer sounds like a growling Nick Cave. It’s pretty funny, but not in the Henry Rollins spoken word sort of way. The last song “In My Heart” ends the album with an echoing love song accompanied by Santo and Johnny-like guitar licks and soulful organs.

Though this album will definitely make cherry lipped pompadour-wearing women swoon over Spencer, it also is perfect music for a lazy Sunday afternoon. It would’ve gotten an A, but that spoken word track threw me off and didn’t fit in.

Halloweeny Shows!

Alright! So there's a bunch of stuff to do on Halloween, but for those looking for something after seeing parades or going trick or treating, maybe a show wouldn't be such a bad idea. recommended shows in orange...

NY SHOWS

• Weezer @ Hammerstein Ballroom... This show is sold out, but there's a bunch of giveaways for it. I'm sure there will be extra tickets somewhere.
  
• Above and Beyond @ Roseland Ballroom... Oontz oontz music on Halloween


• Karl Denson's Tiny Universe @ Bowery Ballroom... Lenny Kravitz's sax players funky band.


• Justin Bond @ Joe's Pub... drag queen goodness!


• Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts @ 171 Lombardy St @ Varick Ave, BK... nom nom nom reverb... yummy!


• Frankenstein Rock Musical @ Highline Ballroom... dude, Frankie comes to NYC...


• The Get Up Kids @ Irving Plaza... emo kids


• King Khan & BBQ Show @ The Bell House... garage rock by Canadians


• The Figgs @ The Knitting Factory... a mix between Glen Mercer and Elvis Costello


• World Inferno Friendship Society @ The Grand Ballroom... everyone should experience at least one Halloween with Jack Terricloth


• Black Taxi @ Mercury Lounge... lead singer likes body paint?


• Lez Zepplin @ Music Hall of Williamsburg... all girl zepplin tribute band


• Thievery Corporation @ Terminal 5... dubby electronic dudes


• Tegan and Sara @ Town Hall.. sold out, but maybe some girl with a bad haircut has an extra ticket so try it out!

NJ SHOWS

• Stevie Wonder @ Borgata... fancy blazers and shades!


• Senses Fail @ Starland Ballroom... lacrosse rock? no thanks!


• Snoop Dog featuring method man and redman @ House of Blues in Atlantic City... for shizzle?


• Black Heart Procession @ Maxwell's... spooky indie dudes


• JOHN EDDIE'S ROCKIN' HALLOWEEN @ Stone Pony... this video says it all


• Robert Earl Keen & Todd Snider @ Wellmont Theatre... yeehaw?

comment if I missed any... I'll add them!

Documentary About The Blitz Kids

Yeah... I have a soft spot for Boy George, Marilyn, Soft Cell, and Visage. It's so much drama, I really can't ignore this scene. These are the things I watch when I'm wide awake at three in the morning. It's a really good doc. about the new romantic era and has a fun soundtrack.

thanks for the video poshtottyvoice

DUDE... YAT-KHA

Thanks to the editor at my internship, I now know about YAT-KHA. They are a group of throat singers from Tuva, Russia that create their own songs, but are more known for covering bands like Joy Division, Motörhead, Kraftwerk, Captain Beefheart, etc. It must be one of the coolest things I've ever heard...
Check out their cover of Motörhead's "Orgasmatron."

And their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman"

photo by cactusbones