Category: Uncategorized

The Blog Is Dead, Long Live The Blog

Last year was pretty dead for this blog (looking back my last post was in March, which is way too long to let something sit here and take up space, in my opinion). If anyone is still out there patiently waiting for new content here, I’m sorry to keep you waiting for so long. There were a lot of distractions to keep me occupied in my personal life. Two major factors were my move from Brooklyn to Long Island, and my only having the time to see the one band that has recently taken over a large part of my life. My writing wasn’t the only area that suffered because of it. I also majorly stopped with my photography pursuits. Fear not though, for my new year’s resolutions for 2014 are as follows:

1) Get this blog back on its feet and start posting content regularly again.
2) Dust off my camera and start taking pictures of anything and everything that crosses my path.

As I mentioned before, there was one band in particular that took over a large part of my life in the past year. That band is a LI ska band called “The Pandemics“. The guy I’ve been seeing for about a year and a half now is their bari sax player. This past year was very good to them, and they got a lot of great opportunities to play with some amazing acts. While I was pleased for them, their schedule combined with my work schedule left me with less ambition to run around taking pictures and writing about everything. I pretty much got in a routine of go to work, go home, occasionally see boyfriend’s band play. It was fine for a time, but it left me looking back on the year and wanting to push myself more in the future. I’m going to do my best to put myself out there and introduce you all to some great new things. Having said that, I’m also probably going to talk about The Pandemics a lot, simply because I have easy access to them and they are a large part of my life. Luckily for you, they’re not just some dumb band that I am close to. They actually are pretty good, and I think you will enjoy what I have to share with you. I promise to mix stuff up though and not just turn this into a lovefest for some guy and his stupid band.

Thank you for being patient with me as I work towards making this space more active again. I already have a couple of posts planned, first of which is going to be about the trip I took to Philly this past weekend. That should be out later this week, pending the status of the annoying plague-thing that has made residence in my chest. Until next time, happy new year and stay warm, kids!

The art of asking…

Last time I came out of hibernation was because Amanda Palmer inspired me to do so… Well, she’s done it again with a brilliant TED Talk that she recently gave in California. There are so many things I could say about this, but I think for now I’m just going to share the video and let this process for a bit before I even attempt to put into words all of the thoughts and feelings that surfaced while watching this video. I hope it touches you in a smilar way…

Ps – if you want some irony know that I couldn’t get the embed code direct from TED’s website. Instead I had to search for the video on YouTube. Way to make it difficult to share things, WordPress…

Life Happens

Coming out of hibernation to talk about life lessons and how sometimes they come from unexpected places.

In case you haven’t heard the news, Amanda Palmer recently canceled her upcoming year of touring to play the role of supportive friend for one of her nearest and dearest who is battling cancer right now.

Personally, I applaud her for this. She’s had a lot of momentum going in her favor with the kickstarter and new album, and taking the year off could potentially do a bit of damage (not to mention disappoint a lot of fans who eagerly awaited their next chance to see her), but the choice had to be an easy one. Someone she loves is hurting. Of course she wants to be there for him, as he was there for her so many times in the past. Easy. Right?

And that brings us to the lesson for today: Life happens.

Whether you want it to or not, things are going to happen to put a wrench in all of our plans. Jobs will fall through, loved ones will get sick, but whatever it is you just have to push through until you make it to the other side. It’s always easier when you have a great support system. I should know…

I’ve been looking back a lot on the past year, as you typically do when another one approaches its end, and I’ve realized all of the things that distracted me from keeping this and my photography website flourishing like I originally hoped. To put it short, life happened, and all of my energy got put towards staying afloat in a sea of problems. I’ve lost jobs and gained new ones, and had the same with relationships. I celebrated a year living in Brooklyn, and then was somewhat forced to move. I’m sitting in a room surrounded by bags and boxes now, all of which will be given a new home tomorrow.

But back to my point… Through everything I have found that as life happens, you quickly find out what has become my number one rule in life – People are more important.

I’ve told my friends this many times, because it is something worth repeating.

People are more important.

So yeah, Amanda canceled her tour to support someone she loves. Duh.

And yes, I would drop everything in a heartbeat for the people who matter most to me. I would hope that they would be willing to do the same. Because at the end of the day, as much as you love your job, it’s still just a job. It’s the people in your life that make it worth living. And when life keeps happening, as it tends to do, those are the people who will be there to help you get by.

Their Planes Will Block Out The Sun

Their Planes Will Block Out The Sun…

Sounds like a cool name for a book or movie, right? Well they’re actually a band from New Jersey, and they have a new single that I would like to share with you.

From the press release: The band have been hard at work on a combination of new and recrafted material, for their second album “Brasil,” their most polished to date. Each musician brings his own inspiration and life experiences to the new album, which collaboratively gives wake to a new sound. The band hopes their music will awake feelings of rediscovery and joy in their audience—and, in turn, give way to personal narratives like in the single “The Hunter”, a song about holding on to your happy moments while struggling with adversity, yet at the same time, finding hope in it.

So there you have it… If you like what you hear and want to catch them live, you have a great opportunity coming up that will also contribute to a good cause. They’re playing Public Assembly in Brooklyn on November 18th as part of Whatever Blog’s benefit for Hurricane Sandy victims.

LaLa DANCE

I mentioned back in May about a new Kids of 88 album to look forward to and gave you a video to hold you over until review time. We’re not quite there yet (Oct 5th is the scheduled release date), but here’s another sample to keep you going till then. The song is “LaLa” and will have you up and dancing in your cubicle or living room in no time.

You can find more information about the band and their happenings at the usual places, including their website and Facebook.

Woofstock – “1Day of Peace, Dogs and Music.”

Our friend over at Star Beat does a lot of work at Hell’s Kitchen in Newark. There is an event coming up this Saturday that I fully support you going to. I’m probably going to throw more events at you in the future, because what are friends for?

On Saturday, June 23rd Hell’s Kitchen Lounge hosts its 2nd annual
Woofstock event to directly benefit the Newark NJ Animal Shelter. It also
marks Hell’s Kitchen Lounge’s 5 year anniversary. Woofstock is an all day
block party (on Bruen St. btw Lafayette and Green St.) that features 15
Bands, 4 Djs, Food, Vendors and a chance to meet your next canine
companion. The free, outdoor portion will kick things off at 1pm till 9pm
when they close down the street. The inside portion begins at 8pm inside
Hell’s Kitchen Lounge where 5 bands will perform for a $5 cover. The
block party is family and pet friendly with hopes to attract animal lovers
from all areas.

A group of volunteers better known as “Friends of Newark NJ Animal
Shelter” regularly donate their time and effort to show these poor,
unwanted dogs a little love by taking them out for walks, donating food
and most importantly finding them homes. Hell’s Kitchen Lounge in
partnership with the “Friends of Newark NJ Animal Shelter” adopted 8
dogs and raised over $1500 at last years event with hopes to double that
this year. Visitors can come and meet up to 15 dogs between the hours
of 1-4pm where Volunteer handlers will let you interact with our furry
friends. Guests can also make food, toy and monetary donations to
directly support the shelter. Anyone looking to volunteer to be a handler
can send an email to woofup12@gmail.com for information.

Woostock lineup includes 15 Bands and 4 Djs that are donating their
talent for the cause, as well as sponsors who help make this event
happen.

Outdoor stage:
Lethal Affection
Science
Cezium
Artwork
DSU
Views into Vastness
The Vapor Apes
Driving Lights
Weekend Love Affair
DJ Doktor Lorenz
DJ Roxy
Professor Esperanca & Grupo
Liberdade Capoeira

Indoor Stage:
Deivito
Gazelle
Those Mockingbirds
Starbolt 9
At a Distance
DJ Mavric
Menace

Sponsors:
Bud Light
Yelp
Sit Stay Learn
BK Tees
Natural Training Center
Pyaara Hair Accessories

For more information on the event, visit www.HellsKitchenLounge.com

Kids of 88 – New Video + Upcoming Album

I did of review of Kids of 88 awhile back when I heard their first album. Also got lucky enough to see them during CMJ one year (the same year I saw Jukebox the Ghost something like 3 times in the same week. That year was awesome!)

Anyway, the Kids are back, with an album expected out summer 2012. I’ll definitely have a review once it gets closer, but for now enjoy this little sample to hold you over.

The Shivering Brigade

It has come to my attention that I have never mentioned the band The Shivering Brigade on here, so let me fix that.

This is the little band that could. Full discretion, I’m friends with 3/5th of them. Normally that would make me hesitant to do a review on here, but I feel confident enough that they’re actually good at what they do to let them occupy space on the site and ask for a little favor…

See there’s this Battle of the Bands going on now. They’re holding their own but could certainly use all the help they can get. So I’m sharing a video with you to judge for yourself and asking that if you like what you hear then please give them your support. Go vote, then tell all your friends to do the same. You can vote once per day, so keep going back and reminding people about it. Bands succeed largely through the power of their friends and fans, and through internet promotion. They’re good people doing something they love because they can and want to, not because they think they’ll become famous – which is exactly why I think they deserve to be.

Hank & Cupcakes at Santos Party House

Wednesday night could have been described as “bass and electronics” night at Santos Party House, as that was the focus (with the exception of one band). No complaints here, because it gave me and the rest of the audience a chance to dance the night away. The first two bands were also just as much about visual presentation as they were about the music, the difference being that Mother Feather seemed to use flashy costumes to get the viewer’s attention, where as Dolchnakov Brigade seemed to have an image they were trying to project. I’m more familiar with Dolchnakov, however, so that might influence how I viewed them. Regardless of the purpose, both bands did an excellent job of catching my attention and leaving me in wonderment of what I just witnessed. This is neither good or bad, just different (which I guess in itself is a good thing in a sense).

The main event for the night was Hank & Cupcakes, a two piece with the power of ten. The two members did a splendid job of turning a bass and drum kit into a symphony of beats that called the audience to movement. From the first note to the final echo, Hank & Cupcakes will make you want to get up and dance. Seriously, anyone who wasn’t dancing during their set was probably a robot. The night was a perfect antidote for the mid-week doldrums of life. If you missed the show on Wednesday, then I am sorry for your loss. The next opportunity to see them probably won’t be for awhile. Definitely keep your ears open though, because you are not going to want to miss them again.

Parry Adams at Webster Hall

When trying to decide what to say after seeing Parry Adams open for Lucy Woodward at the Studio at Webster Hall, it was hard to form complete sentences. Words definitely came to mind, even full phrases, but I couldn’t string them together into sentences that flowed together into anything that would give you an idea of what this show was like and make you immediately plan to attend her next event. Maybe a little mystery is good, though. Maybe it will make you even more intrigued, make you want to go even more.

So where to begin?

Maybe with the crowd. It was silent and attentive. It only spoke when appropriate. It clearly loved her. True, some of them were likely friends, but others were friends and fans for the other two performers. They still respected her, still gave her the attention she deserved, and some even went to speak to her after the show and share just how much they enjoyed her set.

And how about that set?

I’ve seen Parry both solo and with a band. Both are different experiences. One thing that always stands out is her voice. It’s strong and amazing. She might have been charmingly nervous in between sets, but her singing was always strong and confident. (And if she rambled any on stage, like I said, it came off as charming).

I’ll have to admit, I haven’t listened to the album yet, but I plan to after tonight’s performance. Might even write a review for that too. Who knows? And I will definitely be going to another show, if the opportunity presents itself. I recommend that you plan to as well.

(Parry Adams does ocassional uStream concerts, where you can get the live experience from the comfort of your own home. Her next one is March 22nd.)