Spin Magazine 20th Anniversary Bash at Webster Hall

It seems more than one blogger thinks of Webster Hall as being guido central. Really, you think so? Hairy chests were banished last night, as Spin Magazine rented it out for for a big bash. Artists participating were:

Public Enemy
Death Cab For Cutie
LCD Soundsystem
Drive-By Truckers
Lady Sovereign
and DJ sets by Afrika Bambaataa, Diplo, DFA, The Rub

With that sort of bill, I thought it would be an au courant scenester crowd. In fact it was the picture of mediocrity, all media industry folks and interns. Not that I contributed anything to the zeitgeist.

Missed LCD Soundsystem entirely. Closest we got was walking up the steps and hearing some guy mutter "yeah, yeah, yeah" while exiting. Reports from the LCD show a month or two at Webster mentioned they added "Oscillator" to their repertoire. I'm curious what a cover would sound like..

Paperclip People - Oscillator

If anyone reading this was there, did they play this song? Might be good live. Frankly, I'd like to see them rent out a string section and reinterpret some Pepe Braddock.

Next comes up J Mascis, one of the surprise guests. Half the crowd thinks he is a stagehand tuning up Death Cab's guitars. Very nice abbreviated solo acoustic set with some pedal feedback manipulation and a few loops.

Lady Sovereign follows. All the cheeky midget she descibes herself as. I don't envy her getting up in front of a crowd hungering for Death Cab, and she wisely blew through three or four tracks. Didn't win over any new converts but at least silenced the doubters in the audience.

Placeholder: hangover + not enough sleep = I will "borrow" the inevitable photo of Death Cab off of Stereogum and/or Brooklyn Vegan later

Death Cab for Cutie turned in a fine set, not that I know what they played. I can recall the titles of possibly two songs off Transatlanticism, and have no idea what they've been up to since. Crowd very eager for them. Still young men, but they have matured quite a bit.

Placeholder: Click here in a couple days to see a photo of Flava Flav that I will have stolen off of Flickr. Right now my head hurts.

Public Enemy took the stage at 1:45 or so, and hit the ground running. Not only are they still around, but put on a pretty competent live act. No searchlight cutting through pitch black with jailbreak klaxxons though. But they did have two silent men in PE branded paramilitary gear and sheathed ninja swords. The only part where I started cabbage patching a la Rosie Perez in the Do the Right Thing opening credits was when they dropped "Welcome to the Terrordome" on the reinvigorated crowd.

We didn't make it to "Fight the Power". They slowed it down with some political stuff and we were done. Besides, my bones are old and tired. There is also a perpetual weary trapped inside the tiredness.

Public Enemy - Fight the Power (Power Sax Mix)

Coco Loco

It appears Miss Indie 2005 is going over swimmingly, a half dozen votes shy of the 1,000 mark as I write this. I hope everyone realizes it was a big joke.

The level of interest says something fascinating about the Internet's role in the ongoing collision of pop culture faddism and rockist notions of authenticity. These days, if you're a good enough musician, it's hard to keep a low profile, especially when you're just a search function away.



One commenter wanted us to add the CocoRosie girls to our little beauty pageant. While a bit of an oversight, it reminded me about that those meanies at Pitchfork recently slapped a 3.4 on Noah's Ark, CocoRosie's latest album. It might lack the novelty debuted by La Maison de Mon Reve, but it retains all its scratchy nuance and secret charms. Speaking of which, I recently bought La Maison de Mon Reve and got an unexpected surprise: pink vinyl.

While I have some mixed feelings about the new album, it is a worthy listen. What sounds "uneven" to one person may be rampant experimentalism to another.

CocoRosie - Noah's Ark
**Buy it at Amazon**

This title track leak has been reviewed and commented by quite a few bloggers, so I will hold off on saying too much. Suffice to say that the catchy chorus might propel it onto a forward thinking radio programmer's playlist. Or maybe we could use it instead of "There She Is.." at the coronation.

Cast Your Vote for Miss Indie Rock 2005

You knew this would happen eventually. Indie rockers Death Cab and The Shins are feted on programs like "The O.C.", while Miss America isn't even carried on network TV anymore. Something had to be done. We're not so awful, it's not like there's a swimsuit category. Everyone listed below is a solid musician who could kick you to the ground and leave you wiping the fog off your horn-rimmed glasses. Male gaze, male schmaze.

Voting is enabled below. I guess we'll announce the winner in January '06, assuming Blogspot hasnt deleted Banana Nutrament by then.


Leslie Feist

M.I.A.


Katrina Kerns (Sufjan's xylophonist)


Kim Gordon


Eleanor Friedberger

That Hot Chick from Rilo Kiley

The Deheza Twins (ex-On!Air!Library!)

Lizzie Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance)

That Hot Chick from Smoosh

Nico

such poor taste.. shout to Gripper

Italo Love Affairs

I was just goofing off when I came across this great interview with Morgan Geist on Stylus. I'm not a frequent Stylus reader, but I guess I should be. The writing there veers off into currents and eddies that Pitchfork can't, and I guess they do host the Stypod, some sort of MP3 blog I've never been able to figure out which is hosted by a rotating cast of guest writers.

Anyway, this excellent interview with Geist delves into his approach to production and even offers a few insights on the Unclassics series (one of which happened to be posted last Friday). I always thought the Unclassics mix was a sincere labor of love -- it is, but Geist does find humor in some of the more ostentatious Italo frippery.

I also discovered he is a lover of Gaz Nevada. That much should be obvious being that the wonderfully oddball "Special Agent Man" makes an appearance on Unclassics. But he also mentions "I.C. Love Affair" in the interview, a track that I find far more memorable. It's a strange clash of the sublime and the stinky; profound synthesizer progressions rub shoulders with a moustachioed narrator and a disco mandatory Bee Gees chorus. And somehow it all works.

Gaz Nevada - I.C. Love Affair
**Buy Gaz Nevada records here (perhaps {cough} overpriced)**

Morgan Geist Interview on Stylus

Oops, Forgot One

In regards to what Banana Nutrament might do with $250 million dollars, I missed one from the other day. I forgot all about that Steve Martin monologue from a couple years back:


A Holiday Wish
written by Steve Martin, performed on Saturday Night Live (1991)

Steve Martin:
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.

If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.

You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe.

And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know? No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth!

So -- we reorganize! Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we go with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.

Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.


Glaxo Babies - Maximum Sexual Joy
**Buy it from AB-DC**


Yeah, I would definitely buy an extended 31-day orgasm.

My $250 Grillion Dollar Powerball Ticket


Somewhere in New Jersey resides a $250 million dollar lottery ticket holder totally oblivious to the unclaimed windfall they have just walked into.

Here's what I would do if I came into that much money:


Only eat ice cream made from human breast milk.

Pay an African-American dwarf $200,000 a year to be my human lawn jockey.

Hire one of those Suicide Girls to come over to my house, strip, give me a lap dance, and then actually commit suicide.

Check into a retirement home at age 28.

Buy a major metropolitan newspaper, fire all the writers and editorial staff whose opinions I disagree with, sell the newspaper at a profit, repeat.

Get Tommy John surgery just for fun.

Buy a warehouse full of Girl Scout cookies so I can eat them year round.

Breed a Chihuahua with a Great Dane to see what comes out.

Choreograph a Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders routine in which they just ticklefight each other.

Offer Conor Oberst a million dollars to get a laryndectomy. Same goes for Billy Corgan and that Bright Eyes guy.

Hire the world's most high-priced assassin to hunt down the world's most expensive ninja, and vice versa.

Pay Scarlet Johansson to proposition me for sex and then refuse her.

Spin a globe and install a puppet regime wherever my finger falls.

Snuff out any any music writer at The Wire who has described an artist's work using the word "godhead".

Have Lance Armstrong teach my son how to ride a bike for me.

Buy a majority share of eBay stock, wrest control from the board, then sell the company on eBay.

Build a Coliseum for my panda gladiators.


Charles Bronson - Rich Crusties Must Pay
**Buy it at Musicstack**

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Until the Poorest of People Have Money to Spend
**Buy it at Sundazed**

Noam Chomsky - Automation Protecting the Rich from Market Discipline
**Buy it at Downloadpunk**

Happy Singing Children

I mentioned on Monday the fortune I had in scoring a sealed copy of the Black Orpheus soundtrack for $3. This could be a rarity for obsessive Jobim collectors or maybe it's as common as those naked chick Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass records that are seen in every bargain bin, I could care less, it's all just sentimental value to me. A favorite film of mine, I was introduced to it by a junior high Latin teacher who also got away with screening I, Claudius for three weeks instead of teaching us. Beats making a lesson plan.

Antonio Carlos Jobim - Samba de Orfeu
**Buy it from Verve**

I love the shoolkid chorus backing up the skittish guitar, it all sort of rushes up in an ecstatic swoop.


Theo Parrish - Friendly Children
**Buy it from Clone Records**

When I play the Jobim, I think of "Friendly Children" by Theo Parrish. I know he didn't use "Samba de Orfeu", as the kids are singing something else entirely. Still, the two songs are fused together to my ears, they both trade in poles of melancholy and hopefulness inextricably wrapped up in one another. I'd love to find out where he sourced those samples. Maybe he just walked into a grade school and did it himself.

Thursday, 9/15 (Nexus of the Universe)

CMJ is hotting it up on Thursday. I have no idea why they had to pick that particular day to confound us so. I have limited interest in most of the CMJ offerings, and then out of nowhere enough bands to keep me busy for two weeks are all playing the same night at roughly the same time. Makes you wish you could be in multiple places at once. Or at least have a limo with a mirrored floor to ferry you around from venue to venue.


11:30 AM
Deerhoof, Daughters, Von Iva, Chinese Stars
Cake Shop

There's something wonderfully perverse about going to a Deerhoof show while draining your morning coffee.


8:00 PM
Blood on the Wall, Psychic Ills, Samara Lubelski, Artanker Convoy, Telepathy
Tonic

Great Social Registry schedule. A must see show. This label is a Banana Nutrament favorite and their bands have been featured here too many times. Yeah, see if I could clone myself and later hunt myself down for sport I'd send him there, but as it stands..


8:00 PM
Delia & Gavin, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, The Juan Maclean, Panico, Ponihoax
Northsix

..it looks like I'm going to this showcase instead. Damn you, cruel sands of time.


5:00 PM
The Arcade Fire, Sound Team, Bell Orchestre
Central Park Summerstage

That's cute, $30 advance, $35 day of show. You're not buying a day of show ticket, as this is so sold out that even those snot nosed college radio programmers won't be getting in with their precious CMJ badges. Wonder if Bowie will show.


9:30 PM
Dungen, Diamond Nights, Tarantula A.D., Cheeseburger
Bowery Ballroom

Dungen is yet another Banana Nutrament favorite. It's good rock with a timeless quality to it, and you don't have to be a psyche dweeb to get into it. I'd be fiending to see this show if I hadn't already caught their great performance at Maxwell's back in July.

Back then I asked our readership to help me figure out where I could score Ta det Lungt on vinyl. I ended up jumping the gun and buying it direct from the label in Sweden, along with an EP of songs that didn't make the final cut. Forced Exposure is handling US distribution of Dungen's new 7", short EP, and reissues of older stuff.

Dungen - Tyst Minut
**Forced Exposure should have it soon, site not updated though. Better call them if you're after new Dungen**


5:00 PM The New Pornographers, Tim Fite
Bowery Ballroom
I have never heard a New Pornographers song, but they seem to be on the up and up with the indie set. How's that for doing my research?


8:00 PM
Cordova, Ian Love, The Silent Type, Vague Angels, Knife Skills, Nakatomi Plaza
Cake Shop

So I was all set to mock the hipster cachet of the name "Knife Skills". Then I checked out their site and realized these hotties can play out. Edgy, skittering punk along the lines of Erase Errata. Yes, "angular" has been banished from my vocabulary.

Knife Skills - Get Home Safe
Knife Skills - Our Summer of Teenage Lust
**Knife Skills website**


8:45 PM
Tommie Sunshine, Josh Wink, Evil Nine, Men, Women and Children, Dragonette, Something for Rockets
Canal Room

Josh Wink is so great that the Law of Twenty does not apply to him. His shit will be retro relevant again in only two more years. Here's a taste if you slept the first time 'round:

Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness
**Buy it at Amazon**


7:00 PM
Amadou and Mariam, Laura Veirs, Glenn Kotche (of Wilco)
Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel (CMJ) 21+ $25

Diallo got his band back together? WHAT WHAT


8:00 PM
Rasputina, Mia Doi Todd
Maxwell's

That's rough to be a Mia in the era of M.I.A.


8:00 PM
Every Move A Picture, Test-Icicles, The Like, World Leader Pretend, The Morning After Girls, The Chalets
Sin-e

Test-Icicles might actually be the best not-fake-actually-real band name ever.


8:00 PM
The Wrens, Goblin Cock, The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, Sparrow, The Dudley Corporation, Get Him Eat Him
Mercury Lounge

Correction, I see with Goblin Cock we have a new winner. Cock gobblers.


8:00 PM
Surefire, Tsar, The Sexy Magazines, Ley Royal Scam
Pussycat Lounge

I don't know who these bands are but the Pussycat Lounge is the best strip club within spitting distance of Ground Zero that I know of. Ask for the prostate massage upstairs.


7:00 PM
Flying, Polysics, Gorch Fock, Attack Formation, Tia Carrera, The Arm
Trash

How sweet is that? Tia from Wayne's World plus THE GORCH!

The Weekend Record Haul

Banana Nutrament made out good this weekend. Real good. Better than the last time I posted. Park Slope had one of the biggest stoop sale weekends I can remember. I guess it's a combination of Fall cleaning, last week's Labor Day weekend, and people starting to realize they only have a few more chances to have a sale before it gets too cold. I wasn't even trying to pick stuff up, we just happened across these platters walking around the neighborhood.

$1
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men?
I bought this CD a long time ago after a screening of Bruce Connor's "Mongoloid" film (a proto-MTV video). Don't know where I put that CD so now I have this.

50 cents
Happy Mondays -Hallejulah EP
This has a couple good songs and three remixes. I always like "Hallejulah" but was surprised how drugged out and plodding the Club Mix is, it wasn't how I remembred it. I suggest going up to 45RPM and pitching way down to recreate a mini-Hacienda in your own home.

Happy Mondays - Hallelujah (Club Mix)
**Pick it up at Amazon**

$1
Urgh! A Music War
Double LP soundtrack to the classic movie. Psyched to get it, but unfortunately it must have been stored in someone's hot trunk. When I got home I realized the records were hopelessly warped and unplayable. Can't complain for a dollar, I guess it goes with the territory..

$1
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
I'm not really not into classic punk of the '70s. The Sex Pistols were a cool prank, I don't understand the hopeless devotees of The Clash, and pretty much think that British post-punk, Dischord era DC stuff, and overlooked bands like The Mekons sound better. But I love the Buzzcocks. This seems to be a compilation of all their catchier hits.

$1
The Jam - The Gift
The Missus wanted it. We haven't put it on yet, but I'm sure it is stellar.

$1
Suicide - S/T
I'm guessing the first album? I was surprised to find this. It has Cheree and the longish Frankie Teardrop.

50 cents
Gang of Four Yellow EP
I got this on Montgomery Place. Kind of funny to find this agitprop 4 song workout from Gang of Four on probably the most bourgeois street in the neighborhood. Montgomery has been voted Brooklyn's Best Block to Live On in New York Magazine and is the home of Caroline Kennedy.

$3
Black Orpheus Soundtrack
Found this at the PS 3.2.1. market. I've always loved the film, and the Jobim score is incredible. Field recordings of Rio's Carnival are intercut with quiet dirges and simple guitar pieces. It was sealed too, felt pretty strange opening up something from forty years ago.

$1
Rap Mastercuts
I'm not particularly drawn to bootlegs and even though the wax was scratched up, I grabbed this as it had Special Ed's "The Magnificent" and Brand Nubian's "Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down" among other cuts. Weirdly, the Brand Nubian on the label was in error. In it's place was Black Sheep's "The Choice is Yours". No quality control with these boot pressings, but I'll take it.

Black Sheep - The Choice is Yours
**Get it at Juno**
Just spotted the video here

Across the Narrows (Pixies and Gang of Four)

Apologies in advance if this is irrelevant to you. I have two Pixies/Gang of Four tickets for the Across the Narrows Festival in Coney Island that I can't use.

I'm just looking for face value, $65 a ticket ($55 +$10 service fees). It's really more than just two great bands, more of a mini-festival. Rilo Kiley, Built to Spill, and Death From Above 1979 are also one the bill, among others.

The show is on October 1st, should be a good time. Hit me on e-mail at nutramentmikeREMOVETHIS@ gmail.com if you want to take them off my hands.


Pixies - Bone Machine
**Buy it on Amazon**


Gang of Four - To Hell With Poverty (Go Home Productions Remix)
**Buy it at Picadilly Records**

Link to this post

Daylight's for the Birds


Banana Nutrament favorite On!Air!Library! has apparently pulled the plug after a great LP, a split EP, and an opening slot on Interpol's 2004 tour. It's tough to see them call it quits while showing so much promise. Fortunately, two thirds of the band are still collaborating under the moniker Daylight's for the Birds. Gone are the gauzy interwoven field recordings and Morricone steeped interludes, retained is all the pop experimentalism of O!A!L!.

These are just rough mixes of songs they have been writing, but such great early efforts lead me to hope they get to touring soon.


Daylight's for the Birds - Worlds Away
Daylight's for the Birds - Flicker

Daylight's for the Birds MySpace Site (with music streams)

Quincy and Downing Broken Angel Honeypot


So this is my new thing now. Since putting up a half informed post on Las Malas Amistades and attracting the band's attention, I'm going to start writing about things I want to find more about.

I'm guessing you're here reading this because you Googled that amazing house at 4 Downing Street, nestled in the corner of Quincy and Downing, near Classon, where Clinton Hill segues into Bed-Stuy. I saw the house too during a long walk a few years back, it is really a sight to behold.

It's sort of a twisted, byzantine construction of angled windows, terraces, and ledges. I'm not sure if anyone lives there, or if it is a long abandoned project of some nearby Pratt students.

Can anyone help? Leave a comment, or e-mail me at nutramentmike @ gmail.com, and I'll update this entry with your additions. I couldn't find anything explaining its origins, but came across a few photos and links:

Pictures from some movie scout guy?
Another good one from the scout
Satan's Laundromat
Village Voice Best Of
Google Maps location of the building

Let me know if anyone can help explain 4 Downing Street..

Update (Sep 7th, 2005)
Big up to Rio Rocket over at That Good Good for setting us straight with answers and some more links. In fact, the building, know as Broken Angel, is the project of a Pratt teacher/alum, and is still being tinkered with to this day.

Another Broken Angel Lover
Forgotten NY (how did I miss this?)
Great Pictures at Jimmy Legs
Featured in Designer/Builder
Setting for a Dave Chappelle Film Shoot

..I wouldn't forget your bread and circuses:

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House
**Buy it from Insound**

Daniel Wang - Unhouse
**Buy it from Nuloop**


Speaking of Insound, I'm a little late with this, but head over to Gumby Fresh to take a gander at indie rock baseball cards. I'm fiending for a Stephen Malkmus M-/NM with no soft corners. What marketing scheme will they think of next?


Also, this pretty good Village Voice Essay is worth reading. I intentionally passed it over Wednesday as I thought there was little novelty in its New York City equals Rome thesis. That thought has occurred to myself and countless others in our city time and time again. Had a little spare time on the subway, so I read it today. It's actually quite good and has lots of funny quotes from writers and poets of the Imperial era. They couldn't stop bitching about the rental market either.