September 28th, 2007 r8e8rcom
I was hanging at my rehearsal space with Trevor the other night. Around 2 AM, realizing how late it was, we figured it was prolly time to leave, but despite the late hour we thought it might be a good idea (read really dumb idea) to get a drink. We bounce into LuLu’s to find a crowd of kids that look like someone forgot to tell them the 80s were over and no one listens to hard rock anymore. Motley Crue’s ‘girls, girls, girls’ was blasting at ear piercing levels framing the entire scene rather appropriately I felt. It was so loud that we were yelling just to hear each other. We head to one of the side rooms and sit down near an open window to escape the cacophony. Trevor is in the middle of telling me about some ideas he has for his website when this big oafy looking guy wearing a Yankees jersey stumbles up the window from outside. He points at Trevor’s beer and says what Trevor thinks is a request for a sip of beer. All I heard was “…Ey……lemme…….”. In all honestly we really couldn’t hear what he was saying thanks to Motley Crue, so we respond in unison with “what?”. He dribbles out some more unintelligible sounds, more like grunts than words. At this point I honestly think he’s retarded, he’s got some mental affliction. Now he’s making the universal drunk sign for a drink, his hand molding itself around an invisible glass, tilting it towards his mouth. It’s clear he wants a drink, and it’s clear he doesn’t need one. He tries to earn it by befriending us and telling us about his night. What comes out is, “……my friends……..”, sweeping gesture with his arm seeming to call attention to the obnoxious group of kids at the bar, “…..greatest night……” Trevor responds to him like he’s dealing with a toddler, “you’re having a great night? aw, that’s great man.”, at the same pulling his drink closer in and curling his arm around it. We both look at each other and start racing to finish our drinks. With little more than a sip to go we’re standing ready to go when the DJ starts playing Journey. This was too much for our drunk friend. He stands up on the bench outside and leans his head into the window, bobbing his head, his big oafy fist raised and pounding the air. Trevor and I chug the last of our drinks and stealthily exit via the side entrance.
While it may sound like an entire Balkan orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beirut’s first album, Gulag Orkestar, is largely the work of one 20-year-old Albuquerque native, Zach Condon, and was almost completely recorded at home. Two years ago, Zach immersed himself in Balkan folk, absorbed sounds, scales, styles, and the sonic joys of a skeletally structured ensemble. Condon was a straight-A student until he dropped out at the age of 16 to travel Europe in a drunken haze, cavorting and partying with the locals wherever he ended up. It was during one of these evenings that he was first exposed to Balkan gypsy music (notably including the Boban Markovic Orchestra), blasting from the upstairs apartment. Condon went upstairs to see what exactly he was hearing, and ended up staying up all night with the Serbian artists, going through albums country by country, note for note. This new album is the direct result of what he learned that night. These tracks are from his upcoming release, ‘The Flying Club Cup, on Ba Da Bing, Oct. 9th.
Nantes
Cliquot
Cherbourg
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September 26th, 2007 r8e8rcom
you guys wanna see something awesome? Peep this incredibly amazing weezer tribute band that http://fourthgradegladiators.com/ had the scoop on. There’s talk of a possible NYC residency in the future, lets all keep our fingers crossed, eh?
http://vimeo.com/314982
Monomen is a Norwegian New Wave/Electronica Band from the very small ‘city’ of Sørumsand outside of Oslo. The four band members are also classmates and despite their young age, they are all born in 1988, Monomen is considered to be one of Norways most promising bands. These guys sound like forward russia meets interpol meets the 80s flashdance sound track to me. That sounds terrible I’m sure but it wasn’t meant to, I swear its not one of those “this smells terrible, smell it.” deals. it’s good, really it is. The tracks are from their debut self title release on Trust Me Records.
Low Life
Drum of Glass
Neon
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September 25th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Just picked Casey up from school and on the train ride back some weird homeless guy kept interrupting our conversation and yelling, “everyone drinks alcohol now. Used to do PCP, then they did crack, now everyone drinks alcohol”, while chugging some kind of foul smelling canned beer in a paper bag. Now, is it just me or does everyone find it extremely hard not to stare at the crazy phantom talkers on the subway? Its like I want look at them so bad to see if they are just spouting soliloquies or if they’re actually gesturing toward some unseen figure that only their mind’s eye allows them to interact with. At the same time there’s the dreaded fear that they will catch your eye and try to pull you into their frenzied existence. There’s nothing worst than trying to communicate with their likes. It’s like trying to make sense out of a legalese, sure its in English, and sure there are some words you recognize, but what the fuck are they trying to say? And for some reason I can’t help but try to make sense of it. I hesitate to call the guy insane when in reality who is the more insane, the person spouting the nonsense, or the one constantly trying to make sense of it.
This is another pick via Trevor. See, Trevor got drunk one night and stumbled down to his neighborhood bar. He pulled himself up to the bar and ordered another whiskey and promptly passed out, head planted on the bar. He was awoken by a surprisingly well groomed hipster (an almost extinct breed these days) patting him on the back. Turned out to be the singer of Aloke. They stayed up all night and quickly became pals swapping drunken napkin scribbled lyric ideas and slurred melodies that were lost to the cloudy haze of their morning hang overs.
Nameless
You Did It Again
Violet
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September 21st, 2007 r8e8rcom
It’s either an unusually lazy day in general, or people in general are just lazier than I thought. I didn’t get much sleep last night due to a red bull consumed against my better judgement to help finish the end of the work day. Whatever it is that makes that shit work so well stayed in my system until 3 am. Needless to say it turned my morning commute into an exhausting and indolent act of persistence. The only thought that kept me moving was the anticipation of riding the escalator at the 34th St subway station. I don’t usually take the escalator, I try to walk up the 3 flights of steps to the street level to at least pretend like I’m an active adult. But I just couldn’t do it today. When the train arrived in Brooklyn I got in a middle car so that I’d be near the escalator when I got off, put my headphones on, closed my eyes, and thought of how nice it was going to be not to have to walk up those steps. I got off the train to a line at least a street block long of people waiting to get on the escalator. I’ve never seen so many people determined not to walk up steps. There are 4 sets of stairs no more than 30 feet from the escalator with no lines or crowds yet no one is willing to move from the line, and I was right there with them.
The last time I sent out pinback you guys ALL trashed it, granted it was a B sides album, but there was little love these kids. I gotta say I have been pinback’d out for the past 2 years. It doesn’t help that Rob Crow has like 50 side projects and that 90% of his side projects are just as ‘plunky’ as the pinback releases. But I’ve heard a few kids on the list mention that they wanted to hear some of the new record and I know a few of you have heard some of it and wanted to hear more, so here ya go. The album is called ‘Autumn Of The Seraphs’ and was released Sept. 10th on Touch and Go.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Pinback-AutumnoftheSer/09%20Torch.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Pinback-AutumnoftheSer/10%20Bouquet.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Pinback-AutumnoftheSer/07%20Devil%20You%20Know.mp3
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September 19th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Rogue Wave is headed by Zach Schwartz (aka Zach Rogue), who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was written, recorded and produced entirely by Zach Rogue (except the drums) - released privately in 2003 and finally re-released in 2004 on Subpop. In the autumn of 2004 they went on a national tour of the US, which lasted two years. These tracks are from his latest release, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, released yesterday on Brushfire Records. Saw that kid at that wedding in Baltimore I went to the other weekend. I knew he had a new album coming out and I didn’t want to wait til the release date to hear it so I kicked his skinny little ass all over the reception area. He almost had me when I tried to pile-drive him and fell backwards with the weight of him pulling me to the ground. But I quickly recovered and put him in a sleeper hold until he coughed up the tracks. See what I go through to bring you guys new tracks.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/roguewave-asleep/01-rogue_wave-harmonium.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/roguewave-asleep/02-rogue_wave-like_i_needed.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/roguewave-asleep/04-rogue_wave-lake_michigan.mp3
BTW, Sean’s band, ‘Sqaure Wave Punch’ has a show coming up with some kids I used to play with back in the diz-ay called ‘Two If By Sea’, that junxt is on Sat. at Lit. If you’re in NYC this weekend you should go. Ask Sean for deets if you wanna go.
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September 18th, 2007 r8e8rcom
So, I was having this conversation a while ago with some friends over a few drinks and it quickly turned into a pretty heated debate. The debate was weather or not cars should yield to bikes on city streets or the other way around. The bikers argued that cars are bigger than bikes so its their responsibility to yield to bikers just like they yield to pedestrians. The drivers argued that most streets were not designed for bikers and without a bike lane bikers should yield to cars. I really couldn’t give a fuck either way considering I do drive or ride a bike, but I sided with the drivers. Maybe because I do find it frustrating the way most bikers in the city pay absolutely no attention to traffic laws, and the fact that I have been hit by bikers on more than one occasion. Anyway, thought I’d try to spark some conversation on this ‘tepid’ list as Lawrence so endearingly called it.
So, I guess I should have waited to send out the year in review email for the new Engik tracks. Would have gone well together considering he sparked the whole thing. I was, however, hesitant to send something from the new album especially considering that almost all of the tracks are exactly the same as his last one, just re-recorded. Anyway, I got over it and decided to post a few. Here ya go.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/JeremyEnigk-TheMissingLink/06%20Been%20Here%20Before.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/JeremyEnigk-TheMissingLink/09%20Wolrd%20Waits.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/JeremyEnigk-TheMissingLink/03%20Tatseo%20Show.mp3
….now lets all sit back and wait for Matt to say ’swash buckling’ again.
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September 14th, 2007 r8e8rcom
It must really suck to be a doorman. I just went outside to smoke a cigarette by myself with the intentions of just zoning out for a few minutes. There I found our doorman, a thick, 6 foot tall gentlemen in his 50s with 80s style glasses, grey hair, and a Staten Island accent. As the neighborhood characters made their up and down the street I watched him get this glint in his eye when he saw someone he recognized. He would saunter up to them and put his hand on their shoulder and greet them in that endearing New York way, “Hey, Ronnie! Eh, how’s it goin’, eh?” Ronnie simply stared at him for a moment, perhaps struggling to place a name with the face, then simple reply with ‘hey’ and walk away, slightly quickening his pace. This was repeated several times, with Jay, Paolo, Santiago, Doug, and Dave. In between his vacuous social encounters he was left with his cigarettes and his pacing, scanning the street for a familiar face. As I watched this I thought about how he must spend his entire day standing on the street smoking cigarettes, just looking for anything to chase the hours away, anyone to talk to. As he turned to look at me I felt nervous for some reason, like I was going to be expected to come up with something interesting to say, like it was my duty to entertain this guy, if only for a few minutes. But alas, I chocked, I put my half smoked cigarette out and walked back in the building, a failure in the world of small talk.
Trevor actually reminded me about this band. I had checked em out a while ago and meant to send something out, but completely forgot about them. The only thing I know about them is that they formed at Syracuse University in January 2006. These tracks are from their self-titled EP released on Rebel Group.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/RaRaRiot-RaRaRiot/05%20A%20Manner%20To%20Act.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/RaRaRiot-RaRaRiot/06%20Ghost%20Under%20Rocks.mp3
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September 13th, 2007 r8e8rcom
So, I wanted to tell you guys about the only fashion week party I went to this year. If you were on the list last year you’ll remember the fashion party I ended up at with Andy where we were lured in at 2:00 am with the promise of free booze only only to find ourselves drunkenly lingering around a mid-town club with dudes in their underwear taking showers. The whole experience still gives me nightmares. So, when I was invited to the Betsey Johnson after show party I was reluctant to accept. Actually, that’s not true, I saw the words ‘open bar’ and that’s all the assurance I needed. But I was a bit frightened when the 7 foot tall 17 year old male models started filling the room. It wasn’t until sometime after 2:00am when most of my friends had already left that my fears were realized in the most obnoxiously annoying male model who decided to attach himself to me and my friend. His conversation started with a discussion of Carlos Castaneda, then slowly moved into the usual ‘who do you know here’ chatter, then jumped right into a lengthy discourse on how hard it was to be a ‘good’ male model, how hard it is to know your photographer, know your looks, and how to know who is important and who is a waste of your time. Through out all of these conversations the kid is making corny jokes and making Jim Carry faces at us randomly as if he had turrets. The whole thing was very Zoolander and I can only be so polite after I’ve consumed 2 hours worth of free vodka. Luckily there was no underwear or showers involved and the night ended with us basically telling him to leave us alone.
A Place To Bury Strangers is a three-piece psychedelic/noisepop band from Brooklyn New York. Guitarist Oliver Akerman (formerly of the Fredricksburg, Virginia shoegaze band Skywave) combines with bassist Jonathan Smith and drummer JSpace and APTBS get labelled “mesmerizing” and “the loudest band in New York”. I’ve heard these guys were good live, but I’ve never seen them. These tracks are from their debut self-titled release on Killer Pimp.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/a%20place%20to%20bury%20strangers/05%20Another%20Step%20Away.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/a%20place%20to%20bury%20strangers/04%20The%20Falling%20Sun.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/a%20place%20to%20bury%20strangers/07%20I%20Know%20I’ll%20See%20You.mp3
-mark
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September 12th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Took a week off from the list and work to finally get middle school and after school stuff sorted. But, check this, so Casey is going to a Criminal Justice middle school, crazy right. I guess that how the city rolls. Anyway, went to my friends wedding this weekend in Baltimore. It was a great wedding, and refreshing to see some old friends from DC. Always seems though that the closer I get to DC the more political the conversations seem to become. I’m prolly the most politically unconscious person I know. But somehow I had a 3 hour conversation about health care reform and I know absolutely nothing about it.
Les Savy Fav are an indie post-punk band hailing from New York City. Over the course of 4 albums (the last of which, Inches, is a collection of 7″ singles from ‘95-’04) they have evolved an increasing use of studio techniques and danceable electronics. Tim Harrington (lead vocalist) is known for his outrageous antics at live shows. These tracks are from the upcoming release, Lets Stay Friends, due out 9/18 on Frenchkiss. This is their first release of new ma trial in 6 years.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Les%20Savy%20Fav%20-%20Let’s%20Stay%20Friends/12%20The%20Lowest%20Bitter.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Les%20Savy%20Fav%20-%20Let’s%20Stay%20Friends/02%20Pots&Pans.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Les%20Savy%20Fav%20-%20Let’s%20Stay%20Friends/07%20Raging%20In%20The%20Plague%20Age.mp3
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