Better than Mr. Ed

This month's issue of Blast Magazine includes my profile of my favorite band at the moment, An Horse, and also my review of their excellent debut album, "Rearrange Beds."

Worlds Collide, Excellently

Anyone who knows me knows I am a veritable music junkie, and also a person who finds disproportionate amounts of pleasure in things of little or no consequence. So, you can imagine my delight when I saw on my iTunes download monitor last weekend that one of my favorite bands, Frightened Rabbit, was going to be a guest on my favorite music podcast, Sound Opinions.

If you have even a passing interest in music, I'd urge you to check out Sound Opinions, which features weekly commentary from two Chicago-based music critics, Greg Kot and my personal idol Jim DeRogatis. And, best of all, it's free (Yes! Free!) from iTunes every week.

Give it a listen, and start with the Frightened Rabbit podcast from February 23rd. It's a good one.

Thanking the Academy

I won't be liveblogging the Oscars this year, but those who are interested can check out my predictions in the major categories here.

Happy New Year

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be better at keeping up with this thing.

For starters ...

Check out my article on Frightened Rabbit in today's Boston Globe.

Live from the CMJ Music Marathon

I was lucky enough to score an all-access press pass to the 28th annual CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival this week, and I'll be liveblogging for Blast. Check the homepage for updates.

Never Too Young

Sometimes there's nothing like hearing about other people's struggles to make you realize how insignificant your own problems are.

So it was quite the wake-up call/reality check/whatever cliche you want to call it when I reunited with a good friend from college earlier this year only to find out that, in the time since we had last seen each other, she had been diagnosed with and survived cancer.

Here's a small plug for a piece she wrote about how the shortcomings of our current health care system only compounded her ordeal.

Blast update

In the October issue of Blast I have pieces on Totally Michael, Dragonette and Land of Talk.


In other news ...

Highlights of this past weekend included my first time seeing Madonna, at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, which was truly mind-blowing. I wish I had a tenth of her physical stamina. Among other things, the performance reinforced my belief that "Like a Prayer" is the greatest pop song ever written. By the time the show ended, it seemed like most of the audience members (myself included) had forgotten that the time Madge kept us waiting for her to come on (nearly two hours late) was about equal to the length of the concert itself.

Lowlights included the New York Magazine 40th Anniversary Party at Hammerstein Ballroom, where a typical stellar live performance by The National was preceded by an excrutiatingly un-funny performance by comedy troupe Stella - which was particularly disappointing for me since I'm a huge Michael Ian Black fan. Seriously, their jokes felt like they were tied to lead balloons.

New York State of Mind

Quote of the Week:

"You don't regularly see things in New York that make you go, 'Wow, that's awesome.' You don't see humans interacting in a way that takes you off guard and makes you smile. You see a guy taking a shit on the sidewalk." - Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere

Since I moved to New York, I've learned a few things about New Yorkers. One is that they have an uncanny ability to take things in stride and be unfazed by pretty much anything. Another is that there's a sort of camaraderie among New Yorkers in embracing the glaring flaws and shortcomings of their city, and sometimes even turning them into endearments. Both of these attitudes I think can be applied to the above quote.

In the past eight months, I've also discovered that the reaction from people who don't live here to the fact that I do generally falls into one of two categories.

The first are the people whose concept of New York living was formed as the result of repeat "Sex and the City" viewings, who believe I spend my nights (and days) drinking expensive martinis with friends, meeting eligible, handsome, rich bachelors on a nightly basis, and not really working ... at all. (Only one of the above occurs in my life with any regularity). I would refer them to the Charlie Todd quote.

The second are the people who can't fathom why anyone would want to pay out the nose for a tiny apartment, brave public transportation for a commute that's longer than most people's lunch breaks, and live in a city with a high crime rate, low air and water quality, and a noise factor that could at times probably make Marlee Matlin wince.

For those people ... there's really no point in trying to respond, because the fact of the matter is that most New Yorkers have probably wondered the very same things themselves.

A friend of mine, whom I met while we were both students in Boston, was recently profiled in a New York Times interactive feature about 20-somethings struggling to get by in New York City. While it would be dishonest of me to portray myself as "struggling," the story really resonated with me. I definitely don't count every penny I spend, but let's just say I'm not going to be owning any property ... or nice shoes, for that matter ... anytime soon either.

But it's worth it. And this is why.

I recently commented to a (different) friend that I've been having all of these what I dubbed "'I Love New York' moments" throughout this summer ... probably owing a lot to the weather. Some of my favorite memories include afternoons spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, rooftop barbecues, brunches in Brooklyn, and picnics/concerts in Central Park.

What spurred me to publish this post (which I originally composed back in June), was this article in today's New York Times. It says more eloquently than I can what I'm trying to convey here.

Which is ...

When I read Charlie Todd's quote in New York Magazine, my first thought was, "Wow, that's so true." But as I thought about it more, I realized that although it may have some veracity on the surface, I've been finding plenty to smile about here in the Big Apple ... even if it is sometimes just a guy taking a shit on the sidewalk.

Yes We Can!

Out of everything that's come out of the DNC so far, these guys are by far my favorite. I'm glad someone is finally bringing this issue that I've been bitching about for years to the forefront.

Now I have Culture Club in my head

I can't remember the last time I read an article that held my attention as much as "The Chameleon", David Grann's profile of a European con artist, in the current issue of The New Yorker. Talk about truth being stranger than fiction.

Don't be deterred by the fact that the online version is a daunting 13 pages. It's one of those stories where your eyes fly over the words just to find out what happens next.

This month's Blast articles

At long last, my profile of Uh Huh Her is the cover story of this month's issue of Blast (click anywhere on the cover to access the article).

Also in the issue are album reviews of the latest offerings by CSS and The Stills.

Enjoy!

BAM!

Continuing my recent trend of catch-up posts ...

Last month, I really tried to take advantage of my BAM membership. (It wasn't hard; they always have a ton of great stuff going on that I'm eager to check out). Two events were particularly enjoyable.

The first was a panel discussion and film screening with photographer Annie Leibovitz. The film, "Life Through a Lens," was written and directed by Barbara Liebowitz (Annie's sister) as a part of PBS's "American Masters" biographical series. Ethical implications of nepotism aside, the documentary offered an intimate portrait of Leibovitz, arguably the greatest living photographer. The only downside of the evening? No one - including me, who chickened out - brought up Hannah Montana.

The second night was the kickoff of the Sundance at BAM series, which showcased films that stood out at the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night selection was "American Teen," a documentary that followed five high school students through their senior year in small-town Indiana. I highly recommend it to cinephiles when it opens later this year.

Viva la Rock!

In the six weeks or so since I've actively blogged, I've been to quite a few shows. Most recently was Coldplay's free performance at Madison Square Garden last night - a cool gimmick the band offered to fans in New York, Barcelona and London to celebrate the release of their latest record, the inanely-titled "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends."

I'm definitely not a hardcore Coldplay fan ... I only own one of their albums (not "VLVODAAHF" - someone needs to come up with a better acronym) and my familiarity with them doesn't go much beyond the singles they've released. Still, that's about 20 songs or so right now so I consider myself pretty well-versed.

I thought it was great that a band that could have easily sold out Madison Square Garden probably several times over decided to treat fans to a free show. Apparently they did too; singer/Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow Chris Martin reminded the audience members that we didn't pay anything for tickets no less than three times. But, snark aside, the band put on a great show, even trudging to the back of MSG to perform "Yellow" literally in the midst of the audience. And if the production aspects were truly a preview of their upcoming tour in support of "Viva La Vida," it should be a real crowd-pleaser.

A couple minor points of contention:

-Tickets were given out for only the first and floor sections of the venue, so it was about half-full. I can't understand what the rationale was for that; it certainly didn't offer any hint of intimacy if that's what the band was going for. Maybe the rest of the space was needed for Martin's ego.

-No encore, which is understandable, given the fact that the show was free and all. But the band's set list also left out "White Shadows," "Talk," "Speed of Sound," and most surprising to me, "The Scientist." Go figure.

But all in all, it was a great show. And definitely worth the cost of admission.

In a related note, or several, here's a brief overview of some other noteworthy performances I've seen recently.

-Uh Huh Her at Highline Ballroom, May 20: After a mediocre show at Webster Hall last December that was rife with technical difficulties and sound problems, I had low expectations for this one. (Even though their album, "Common Reaction," out August 19th, is amazing - pre-order it now!). But the ladies didn't disappoint, putting on a great show in front of a sold-out crowd that went fairly apeshit despite not knowing the majority of the material. I also had the opportunity to interview the very sweet and talented Camila Grey and Leisha Hailey the day before for a feature I'm working on. Look for it in an upcoming issue of Blast!

-Frightened Rabbit at Pianos, May 27: I was thrilled to be a part of this Scottish band's first ever sold-out U.S. performance ... even if it was in a 120-person capacity bar. Oh well. Gotta start somewhere. Anyway, I've been prattling on about this band to anyone who will listen for the past couple of months and it was a treat to see them live in such an intimate setting. I advise people to jump on the Rabbit bandwagon soon because they're really starting to get some buzz. And, in a return to my old stomping grounds, I had a tiny piece on them published in the Boston Globe's Sidekick section prior to a show of theirs in Beantown. Check it out here.

-Northern State at Knitting Factory, June 3: What's not to like about an all-white, all-girl rap trio from Long Island, one of whom goes by the stage name "Hesta Prynn"? And if that isn't enough, lines like "Enjoy a lemonade spritzer with Elliot Spitzer" should do the trick.

-Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at WAMU MSG Theater, June 10: A great performance from music's most unlikely pairing, plus a bonus mini-set from producer T. Bone Burnett. Plant's pipes are just as strong as they were in Led Zepplin's heyday, and his dance moves, hilariously, haven't changed all that much either. Imagine the lanky blonde swinging the microphone stand like a pendulum to his latest folk-tinged material and you get the idea.

Much overdue Blast update

So, a mere three weeks after these articles went live, I'm finally getting around to linking to my latest Blast stuff. Been busy - apologies.

Three quick album reviews this month:

Death Cab for Cutie - "Narrow Stairs"

Gavin Rossdale - "Wanderlust"

Ladytron - "Velocifero"

Equines

So, the Kentucky Derby was a great time - until second-place horse Eight Belles was euthanized after breaking both her ankles during the race.

Needless to say, that turn of events put a damper on an otherwise wonderful day. (Video footage to come). Like many attendees, I put my money on Eight Belles to place, so I'm donating half of my winnings to Save the Horses, a hopefully legitimate charity organization that rehabilitates retired racing horses. The other half of my winnings went to Drink the Juleps, a personal charity I established at about 10:30 a.m. on Derby Day. Unfortunately, DTJ was shuttered about eight hours later due to lack of funds.

Anyway, speaking of horses ...

The greatest thing to come out of Australia since ... ever, maybe? ... is An Horse, who were the opening act for Tegan & Sara at Terminal 5 last night. They are my new addiction - I bought their EP at the show last night and it's been on a nonstop rotation on each of my music-playing devices ever since. Check them out!

New Blast articles

New issue up today ...

Yada, yada ...

Eisley - my new obsession!
Foals
Constantines
Frightened Rabbit


In other news ...

Patrick and I leave for the Kentucky Derby in approximately 9.5 hours (God, I need to sleep ... ) and are SUPER excited about it. Look for episodes of "Derby Diary" to be posted on YouTube soon!

Gossip Girl

I feel compelled to rave about The Gossip's concert at Webster Hall last night.

For the first hour or so, the concert was good. No complaints. Here's a clip of "Yr Mangled Heart." But when the band launched into "Standing in the Way of Control," the performance soared to Amazing level. I literally thought Webster was going to implode amidst the energy of a sell-out crowd jumping, singing and rushing the stage during the encore.

Singer Beth Ditto was predictably outspoken, waxing philosophical on politics and media conglomerates' coverage of music and celebrities, and shooing a bouncer away when he tried to prevent a fan from jumping on stage during the show's closer "Listen Up" — which led to about 40 audience members following suit. Ditto eventually jumped (er, tepidly climbed down) into the crowd and it was like Palm Sunday a month too late - with fans clamoring to grab her hand as she led everyone in a self-affirming chant of "You Are Important!" while at the same time probably pondering how the hell she was going to hoist herself back on stage (eventually she just sort of walked back towards the front of the venue and headed backstage). I'm hoping a video of this lands on YouTube. It was really something to behold, and a really uplifting, positive message.

Also, what other concert can you go to where you'll hear both an Aaliyah cover (prefaced by Ditto saying "We're sorry we did this to you") and a rendition of "Careless Whisper" (video to come, I hope)?

King of the Road

Kaki King's show at the Bowery Ballroom last week was predictably awesome, capped off with a rousing rendition of Bubonix' "Fashion Tattoo." It's nice to see that Kaki is reaching out and exploring different musical genres like, you know, German hardcore.

Check out a clip from the show here.

In other news ...

I received minimal heckling this weekend while I was out and about in Red Sox wear. Probably a lot less than Gino Castignoli.

And finally, for your reading pleasure, here are links to a couple of articles I've come across in the past few days that really held my interest.

First, this depressing piece from New York Magazine about Dr. Ramon Torres, a leading physician in the early fight against AIDS who eventually became a crystal meth addict.

And second, Yvonne Abraham's column in today's Boston Globe — her first after a long maternity leave hiatus — about her personal experience with the naturalization process.

Both really well-written and captivating stories.

Evil Empire in my backyard

Ever since I decided to move to New York, I knew this day would come, and I've been preparing for it with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, joy and fear. And it's finally arrived (almost).

This weekend marks my first Red Sox-Yankees series as a New York resident. Luckily a friend and fellow Sox fan has offered to take me to a Sox bar to watch the games, where I can don my "2007 World Champions" T-shirt and hat and (hopefully) not get a beer thrown in my direction. I'm picturing a Red Sox bar in New York to be a little like the underground warehouse in "Fight Club." Like, maybe the first rule is you don't talk about Eric Gagne, and I'll have to name the starting rotation in order just to gain admittance.

Life has been pretty easy for me as a Sox fan in the Big Apple so far. While I don't wear my Sox pride on my sleeve, I've "outed" myself as a fan on a few occasions - with mixed results. A guy who works at my gym, happy to find an ally in the city, offered me a free sports drink after I paid my membership fee with a Red Sox check. On the other hand, there was also the MTA worker who responded "Not with that card" when, during my second week here, I inquired about purchasing a subway pass and slipped my Sox MasterCard through the window.

But let's face it. I moved here in the December-January time frame. New York sports fans had other things on their minds. Now it's baseball season, and Sox and Yankees fans know that the race for the AL East practically begins in the offseason.

So we'll see what happens this weekend. I'm feeling pretty good about the series, and I hope the good guys give me at least two reasons to wear my World Series shirt with pride next Monday - even if it is stained with beer.

My poor, neglected blog

So I realize I've been a little lax with the posting lately. I wrote four articles for Blast this month, and while I'd like to use that as an excuse, the truth is ... I'm just lazy.

Anyway, check out my Blast articles on:

Kaki King
Great Northern
The Raveonettes
and
The Gutter Twins

Highlights of the past few weeks:

-The Great Northern/Gutter Twins show at Webster Hall was amazing. I can't say enough about Great Northern, which you can probably tell from the article.
-The Raveonettes show at the Bowery Ballroom was also great. I still maintain that they are a band whose records don't do them justice. Go see them live if you want to get a real feel for their sound.

And now baseball season is starting! Life is good:).