The rumors are true, Radiohead will be playing Liberty Park today at 4pm. This will be a shit show to end all shit shows. In fact, I kinda think it's irresponsible of the band. The cops are already heated and flooding downtown with Radiohead fans might be exactly what's needed for a full on riot to erupt. This is gonna get ugly, proceed with caution.
***NEVERMIND. They just cancelled. Probably a good thing.
******Okay, maybe it is happening. The band says no, occupy Wall St. says yes. But the band saying no could simply be a crowd control measure.
*********Looks like my hunch might be right. Now Gothamist is reporting that the bands denial was a fake out to keep 1,000,000 people from showing up. We'll see what happens.
Chris Cornell is guilty of making one of the worst solo albums ever. He is also guilty of making one of my all-time favorite solo albums, Euphoria Morning. So what can we expect with this one? Well, the good news is he's back in Soundgarden and playing guitar again. He also has ditched Timbaland (thank you big baby Jesus)! And furthermore he did a solo acoustic tour recently.
Based on the first single/video, "The Keeper", we might have a proper follow up to Euphoria Morning. The new solo acoustic album comes out on November 21st.
Cerebral Ballzy has released yet another video. This time it's for "Anthem" and it's being released by Hot Topic. People are giving them serious shit for working with Hot Topic and even for working with Adult Swim. That's fucking bullshit if you ask me.
Labels are broke, fans aren't buying albums or even much merch and here we have a band actually being success in the only way possible these days and you're busting their balls? Don't be a dick. These are good dudes who make pretty killer music and put on some of the best live shows you'll see these days. They deserve to put a couple bucks in their pockets. My only complaint is the video itself (not the song) is kinda boring and why is only Honor in it?
The first full track from the Metallica and Lou Reed collaboration has hit the net and boy does it suck. It's everything wrong about Metallica (the 90's) mixed with all that is wrong about Lou Reed (artsy bullshit) mashed together. It sucks to a level that nothing has sucked before, not even St. Anger. It makes me want to exterminate man kind. I woke up kinda drunk and feeling good and now I want to kill myself. I want someone to drop an anvil from the 20th floor and have it land on my head, obliterating my eardrums. Then, and only then, I will at last be at peace.
Two of our favorite local bands, Ritz Riot & EULA, are at Matchless tonight. They make for an awesome 1-2 punch. The first time these two played together was at the Brooklyn Ski Club edition of Personality Crisis at Shea Stadium. That was awesome so don't miss out this time.
For the past few weeks people were talking about a secret Suicidal Tendencies show going down in Brooklyn. Everyone knew it would be on September 15th because that was the only open date on the tour but the location was under wraps. But when your tour is sponsored by Vans and it just so happens Vans has a pop-up venue in Brooklyn it wasn't a hard one to figure out.
I had a few friends that know people at Vans and/or with the band, I'm not really sure. All I know is we asked around and it seemed like we would be able to get in. Then MyFreeConcert posted the RSVP info so to be safe I RSVPd. I never got a confirmation and our friends who might be able to get us in were running late so we just went over there, not at all sure we'd get in.
The first band I ever saw, way back in 1994, was Suicidal Tendencies and I haven't seen them since. I had to get into this show.
To our surprise there were hardly any people there. People in line were chatting about the RSVP thing and it seemed like only about 1 of 5 people actually got a confirmation. The majority of the line were just there, hoping to get in.
Right at 8pm they opened the doors and people started trickling in. It turns out the RSVP email on MyFreeConcert actually worked. 15 minutes after the doors opened we were inside getting frisked. Apparently they don't usually frisk people at House Of Vans but this is an ST show.
After getting through the checkpoint we headed right through the warehouse/skate park and through the giant garage door into the yard. Outside they had a bar area and free food from that Korean taco truck and Meatball Shop. Unfortunately we just stuffed our guts at Fette Sau so instead we headed straight for the booze. They had tall boys of Brooklyn Lager up for grabs (yeah, that means free).
We hung out in the back drinking until the show was about to start. As we were waiting we saw the Cerebral Ballzy boys, The Death Set and other familiar faces. All the punks were out!
When the band started to setup everyone headed inside and the outdoor bar shut down. People were drunk and pumped and ready to get crazy. As soon as ST struck the first chord all hell broke loose. I think they started with "You Can't Bring Me Down" which was fucking amazing. Almost too good to waste in the beginning of the set.
They went on to play all of the songs you'd want to hear. The pit was huge and crazy but not very violent. Just a bunch of kids having fun and even skating through the moshers. At one point there was this long hair, bearded Viking looking dude kicking ass in $200 jeans. Then it hit me, Chad fucking Muska! My favorite skater when I was growing up. I've been to a bunch of parties with celebs lately and this was the very first time I was starstruck. Chad Muska was thrashing like a champ in the pit. Fuck yes!
There were some lulls in the set most likely due to Cyko Miko's semi-incoherent rants between songs. The vocals were super low the whole set and no one could understand a thing he was saying but that didn't stop him from talking. It also didn't stop him from dancing which was awesome. He was doing his modified Beavis dance all over the stage.
For the encore the band invited the crowd up on stage with them for "Pledge Your Allegiance". The kids on the floor immediately bum rushed the stage. My shitty knee prevented me from joining them. Some chubby goon went to hop the barrier and hooked his foot - 250 lb face plant, ouch! Within seconds the band was playing and there was an all out mosh pit on stage. Then out of nowhere someone is crowd surfing on stage. It was Crazy Abe from Cerebral Ballzy!
To recap - free booze, free food, rad kids and Suicidal Tendencies! How can that not be fucking awesome?
The Society of Illustrators is celebrating their Rolling Stone Art exhibit with a rock n' roll show. The bands playing are Locksley, Lily & The Parlour Tricks and our bros Raccoon Fighter. It's $10 to get in.
On Thursday I was one of the lucky few who managed to get into the VICE.com Launch Party. The domain name was being held ransom by some porn site and VICE finally got their hands on it. Obviously this is calls for celebration so they invited Rick Ross, DFA 1979, Tanlines and more to perform at some gigantic old bank in Brooklyn.
I've been to many VICE parties in the past and sometimes getting in, even if you're on a list, can be an issue. So I made sure to get there as soon as doors opened. When I arrived there were maybe 40 people in line, which is nothing. It took us about 15 minutes but we got in. Considering that there weren't many people waiting and the doors just opened I was surprised to walk into a nearly packed room. Apparently some press and VIPs had been there partying since 7:30.
The Black Lips were on the main stage DJing when we got in. We took a quick tour of the main floor and then grabbed a few drinks. They were serving up free rum, vodka and Grolsch. There were bars in just about every inch you could cram one - a setup I very much approve of. There was not going to be a shortage of booze tonight, that much was certain.
We hung out on the main floor as more and more people funneled in. Word is there ended up being quite a line outside. Familiar faces started popping up all over the place including Hima from Das Racist, Rob from Wild Yaks, Nick Zinner, various VICE Guide To Everything reporters and every photog ever. It was pretty much impossible to take ten steps without someone taking your picture. Good for posterity I suppose.
The call of nature arose and we went in search of the bathrooms. It was at this point that we discovered the downstairs vault. There was a whole other party going on downstairs and it was awesome! It reminded me of a Brooklyn DIY party back in 2005 or so, only with endless free booze and better sound.
VICE is putting all of it's various websites under one roof, www.VICE.com, and want to celebrate. So they've put together what looks like the best fucking party in history. The line up is fucking insane and best of all it's free! Hurry the fuck up and RSVP now though because this will fill up fast. I generally hate shit shows but this is so crazy that I don't think I'll even care.
Tomorrow night I'm going to be over at St. Jerome's doing a special DJ set dedicated to classic punk of the 70's and 80's. Expect to hear some Dead Boys, Anti-Nowhere League, FEAR, Subhumans, Ramones, Misfits, New York Dolls, The Damned, Sham 69 and so forth. Later that same night Parris Mayhew of the legendary Cro-Mags is doing a Cheap Trick tribute set. It's free to get in and the beer is only $2 until midnight. Party!
On Thursday I stopped by City Winery to see Tom Morello performing as The Nightwatchman. I was only familiar with a handful of songs prior to the show and I had mixed feelings about what I had heard. I didn't know what to expect.
We were given seats a couple of feet away from the stage. I scanned the room and saw an surprising amount of middle aged dudes in collar shirts. It looked like a holiday luncheon for CitiBank or something. We ordered a couple of drinks (Old Speckled Hen!) and waited for Tom to come out. Luckily we didn't have to sit through any crappy opener or anything and the show started 15 minutes after our arrival.
Tom came out with nothing but a stomp box and an acoustic guitar. The crowd went crazy! People were yelling out "revolution" and shit along those lines. Again, considering the appearance of the crowd this was not what I expected. Tom thanked the crowd and chatted a bit before launching into the first song.
His songs were clearly inspired by Dylan, Seeger and Guthrie. They were folky but had elements of what we know of his work with RATM and Audioslave. I didn't love every tune but none of it was bad either. He is a master perform and even when the tunes were lackluster he completely controlled the mood in the room. The between song banter was very entertaining. He is pushing an agenda but kept it light enough that it didn't come off as preachy.
On a few occasions he whipped out his electric guitar and played some of the craziest shit I have ever heard/seen. I've always taken issue with him getting such high marks on all-time guitar player lists but when you see what he's doing from 10 feet away it's fucking mind blowing. He is a technical master but has Hendrix-esque flare (he even played with his teeth).
My one complaint would be that the range of his voice is pretty limited. Granted he's a guitar player, not a singer, but the songs would have benefited greatly if the vocals were better. He did have another guitar player on some of the songs who would occasionally chime in on vocals. That guy could sing very well and it added so much to the music.
Some other highlights included Tom performing "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "This Land Is Your Land". At the end of the set he invited everyone on stage to sing along and close out the set. That's when I saw Michael Moore smash his head on an overhead speaker getting on stage. Did I mention Michael Moore was there? He was amongst the rich white guys yelling "revolution" while drinking a $14 glass of wine.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, more so than I expected. Tom knows exactly what he's doing on stage and just fucking owns the room. It was impressive, not so much on a song level but on a performance level. I would see this guy perform anytime.
TV On The Radio have a new video and a new live EP coming out called "World Cafe Live" which is available on September 6th. They will be in NYC on the 8th at the Williamsburg Waterfront.
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