Central Village

If I was in town...

Think About Life for FOTP @ Lucky Cat is pretty much a no-brainer. I've been told/it's been written that these are the kind of guys that need a sweaty basement party atmosphere to thrive. I didn't even realize they could have shows at Lucky Cat, so yeah, this'll work.

Saturday I guess I'd be at Bloc Party/Secret Machines/Meu, but if you're looking for something to do after, Slowlands is playing a small warmup show at Lit before heading to the West Coast for a a mini tour, which includes a stop at KEXP for an in-studio on August 9th. I think they go on at Midnight.

Sunday I'd totally be at the pool, of course. Maybe the best top-to-bottom lineup yet from Asobi to Of Montreal.

Pitchfork!

Heading out to Pitchfork tonight. First stop is the pre-party with Sunset Rundown, Voxtrot and The Joggers with Aziz, Eugene and Todd. Straight from the airport. That's a no-brainer.

Like I mentioned the other day, I scanned through the lineup looking for weak points to maybe skip over to the Biz3 stage, but there are really very few times I'd wanna miss. I'll go see Flosstradamus instead of Man Man. They look like a DJ duo that did a mashup of Sigur Ros and Twista. Very cleaver and pretty well executed. My computer is acting up or else I'd post it myself, but you can download it off their Myspace page.

The only other questionable gap is the Liars/Aesop Rock with Mr. Lif/Mission of Burma trio on Sunday. I'd actually like to see a bit of Liars, tho I'm not really a fan. The Jux-ers I've tried to enjoy live, but it never happened. Burma I guess I should give another shot, but that Bowery show earlier in the year was pretty boring, I have to admit.

Anyway...the Biz3 alternatives from 3:30 till 6:00 are Cage, (Not bad...I'll see him opening for Cobra Starship soon tho...) Tarantula AD (Been ages, but I remember being really impressed when they opened for Devendra at Tonic a few years ago. Post-Rock Chamber Punk in vintage Jordans, if you haven't heard) And Ada (Atmospheric dance music, I guess?...May stay for a bit and split my time between this and Burma.)

The only other time may be to check Diplo out for a bit during Spoon. I love Spoon and all, but I've seen them before. By the end of Sunday I'll either be in the mood to dance or the mood to crash. I'll play it by ear.

Any other recommendations, please let me know. I did a quick scan through and nothing else jumped out at me. Nothing, at least, that would draw me away from the stellar main stage bands.

"New Orleans feels a lot like the kind of dreams you have after drinking Nyquil."

The Cloud Cult tour diary is an absolute classic. Read up! (via Jen)

Man, Mew was good last night. Giant, epic stuff. I like the new album even more after seeing them live. Such a show! I felt like I was in some twisted hipster Epcot ride, with holographic or animatronic band members playing perfectly constructed compositions. It was actually sort of a relief when a vocal key briefly got missed or a guitar hit the wrong note. Sort of a reminder that what we were watching was actually real. I'm not sure how it's gonna translate to giant outdoor venues in the fading daylight. (What with the lights and video projections and stuff), but there is no doubt these guys are big enough to sonically fill the place. Much more so than headliners Bloc Party are able to.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Chicago for the Pitchfork Festival. I still haven't quite gotten over how great this lineup is. It's just pure quality, top-to-bottom. I'm going through now the Biz3 schedule to check out the acts on there going opposite the bands I don't care to see. (Oh, hello Flosstradamus!)

Is 'holy expletive' the new 'die!'? Is it okay that I have personally gone three generations from the whole "What's the deal with all the Wolf bands" thing, whereas most people are still stuck beating a dead Horse?

Lastly, Brand New is playing Webster Hall tonight. I like that when you google seventy times seven, four hundred ninety is spelled out for you.

Chance of a Lifetime...

Man, busy day today today, huh. I (as well as every other blogger, I presume) just received a new MP3 from The Rapture. Can there be Post-Jazzpunk if there was never regular Jazzpunk to begin with?

The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (mp3)

The full album will be out September 12th.

Cobra Starship at Knitting Factory

There's a presale going on right now for Cobra Starship *LIVE* at the Knitting Factory. They are opening for the God-awful Gym Class Heroes. (Thx Scenestars)

U: gymclass
P: heroes

Regular on-sale is at 1:00pm this Saturday.

So Young...

Voxtrot joins the two nights at Bowery Party. They play the following days after CMJ.

Tickets are on sale now.

I found my Crispy Pork

I long time ago I put a call out for an authentic Thai restaurant in Manhattan. I had been to that place in Queens, and a few spots out in LA, but nothing in Manhattan came close to they type of menu I was looking for. One dish in particular was what I craved, and that was a crispy pork dish. Mmm Mmm Mmm! Man, I love that stuff. There are other things on the 'authentic menu' I dig, but this was the staple dish. And it was nowhere to be found in my area.

Well, it turned up on the menu at Fatty Crab last night. It had been so hard to track down, I almost assumed it was another dish that shared the same name. But it was, indeed, what I had craved. And not only that, it was the best crispy pork I had ever tasted! No joke. It was not only perfectly crispy on the outside and fatty on the inside, but the salad came with several cubes of pickled watermelon and a scattering of these minty tasting leaves. It couldn't have been better. The watermelon was the perfect sweet compliment to the grotesque portions of pork fat on the plate. The minty stuff acted as an equalizer between the two. It was amazing. Whenever else I've had this dish, it was with something boring like Chinese broccoli. I'm not much of a greens guy, so that usually was left uneaten. This was much much better. Recommended!

The rest of the meal was not as great, unfortunately. The kitchen has a tendency to add tiny anchovies into everything without announcement, which I found a bit unnerving. The Pork Belly Tea sandwiches were too plain and white bread dominated. The Nasi Lemak dish was, on the other hand, way too busy, with a bone-in chicken and a half dozen other ingredients mixed in. Both had anchovies. The Green Mango with Chili-Sugar-Salt was tasty and straightforward, tho it's pretty hard to mess this up.

Anyway, lessons learned, but the moral is I found my dish. And it was great. I'd go back just for that. I may even go out of my way coming home to grab some for take-out.

Between this, Dirty Bird To-Go's Fried Chicken, discovering that RUB BBQ delivers to me, and the openings of the not-bad-at-all Philly Slims on University and Wichcraft on 8th, I'm in the middle of an affordable food renaissance. I had grown tired of my dinner/delivery options of late, but all this is very nice. Too bad Saigon Grill is so overpriced and mediocre. I had semi-high hopes for that one.

What I'm listening to: All Girl Talk All the Time

Yeah...for the last few days, I've mostly been listening to this new Girl Talk. Assisted by the fact that my roommate is as well, it's been on a lot. Part of the fun, once you get past the initial mind blow, is obviously how layered and complicated each track is. Every listen yields new discoveries and favorite parts. It might just make the actual creation of music obsolete. Soon you'll be hearing mashups of mashups, and then, of course, mashups of those tracks. I suppose someday creating actual music will come back into vogue, but for this week, consider it a forgotten art.

Girl Talk - Hold Up (mp3)
Girl Talk - Minute by Minute (mp3)

UPDATE: Girl Talk will perform at Mercury Lounge on August 18th. Tickets on sale now. (Thx BV/Yeti don't comment)

Ok, it's not all I've listened to...

Sonic Youth - Incinerate (mp3)
I find it pretty remarkable that Sonic Youth can be so influential for so long without ever sounding derivative of itself. Been over 20 years now? And the sound hasn't changed THAT much. But there's still nothing that sounds like this. Name another band that's been around this long and is still making some of the best music they've ever made. I don't think there are many.

Okkervil River - Westfall (mp3)
I was thinking about posting another track off the first two albums...'Song about a Star' off 'Down the River...' was my next choice, but this is such a great song, I don't care if it's their most popular pre-BSB jam. I had never heard it before the Castle Clinton show, and I imagine I'm not the only fan who hadn't gone through the back catalog yet. Great storytelling style. I think 'Dylanesque' is pretty played, but all I can think of when listening to these old discs are songs like Hattie Carrol and Tangled up in Blue. As much as I love their newer stuff, I hope (and expect, hearing 'The President's Dead') the forthcoming songs hark back to these old ways.

Jets to Brazil - Chinatown (mp3)
Random e-music download at the end of last month. This is what I LOVE about emusic. If forces me to take chances and listen to stuff I may not have otherwise bought/downloaded. I got this album with some leftover credits and was listening this morning when this song jumped out at me.

Mad About Mew

Not only are these guys pretty amazing, but their name is RIPE for blog post puns. I can't wait to hear them all.

Jen posted a song of theirs back in 2004. It's great. Pitchfork also has one of the best tracks off the new one for download on the confounding Infinite Mix Tape. While you're there, you may as well grab #22: Girl Talk's Smash Your Head. Biggie vs. Elton John, and more!

You can stream the entire new Mew album here (via BV). Just click one over to the right on that top bar. I've listened to it three times today. Really excited for tomorrow night at Hiro. Tickets are really expensive, but still available. If you're going to Bloc Party on Saturday, I recommend getting there early for these guys.

Dodgeball is not a crime

I just mentioned to a friend of mine that I hadn't been to a lot of shows recently. That's actually not true. It's sort of the complete opposite of the truth. I saw Pretty Girls Make Graves and the Grandaddy guy at the Pool yesterday and Beirut and Jens at Bowery Friday. But I didn't take a lot of pictures, so I can't be sure either actually happened. Just kidding. Pictures are lame.

Beirut was pretty good. Had the full band together, tho I think I was more impressed standing in the back of Mercury Lounge watching them for the first time when they opened for Frog Eyes/Sunset Rubdown. Back then I had (famously? famously!)dismissed them as this hype thing I had missed out on, but realized after that they were actually pretty good. At this point, I have already started to grow a bit tired of the album, so hearing the songs (and not the songs in particular, but the the whole sound and idea.) was nice, but no longer groundbreaking. However, if you've never seen them, or are just starting to listen, I'm sure they've never sounded better.

Jens I didn't LOVE as much as I expected to either, but I still thought he was very very good. It just didn't reach that magic level I always hope these quiet lyrical songwriters can achieve. Colin Meloy at the Fez is the gold standard, and this never approached that level. The encore was superb, with the horns coming from the balcony and a completely acoustic (no mic) song to close it out. I just can never get comfortable at Bowery for these quiet shows. I'm a squirmy guy...I have a hard time sitting still for an hour straight. But to stand in one place...no way. I find myself walking around a lot, going to the balcony, up front, off to the side, all the way in the back. I just can't get comfortable. Felt the same way about Sufjan when he played there...love the music, love what he does with the live show, but standing completely still at Bowery just doesn't work for me.

While I was there for PGMG and Jason Lytle, I didn't spend too much time watching the bands. Instead, it was a big dodgeball day. Got to play a bit in the morning. Even won a match early on. Later in the day, the crowds grew and it got more intense. As what always seems to happen, one team totally dominated all challengers. It's good for the sport when that happens. Like how MLB ratings go up when the Yankees are dominating. People love to root for the underdog, and when everyone's an underdog, there's just more rooting to go around.

Anyway, my throwing shoulder is kinda sore today from all the action. Next week I'll be in Chicago, but the week after I should be back in pro form.