Your SAK correspondent has been meaning to tell you about some fine DVD retail opportunities coming your way, and since you are likely stuck indoors on this downpourish Saturday it seems high time (of course, this info would only serve you well if you had already bought them and thus could currently watch them, but let’s overlook that for now).
Your SAK correspondent, in an effort to be one of the cool kids, made a couple of pitches to Paper Thin Walls in the past few months, but they were rejected, and now it seems it was never meant to be.
PTW, whose editorial half was supposed to be the front end of a download store that simply never materialized (those must be some unhappy investors over at Getty), was done posting its regular content as of Friday last week (but had a characteristically smirky retrospective to go out on) but also has a minorly head-scratching best-of ‘08 addendum today.
For all the negative trends that PTW quietly escalated (chiefly indienet megasnark in their particular form of blogs linked to with piss-taking headlines), it was an editorially independent resource for legal, left field MP3s and, just as importantly, an intelligent, prose-deft ref on a field that, during PTW’s two year tenure, broadend so much as to be practically unplayable (they tore down the goalposts during SXSW’s PTW/Todd P ‘07 Throwdown).
At least we know we can continue to get our fix of Christopher R. Weingarten’s rhetorical wit over at his new home (and your SAK correspondent is not making this up) Jamd.
But your SAK correspondent forgives her/them. Last night/earlier this evening (think of it how you will) Lykkes told the crowd at Le Poisson Rouge she’d offer up something “special,” and then seemingly did:
Imagine your SAK correspondent’s heartbreak when he Googled around and discovered that Lykke’s performed the very same jam before, faking out audiences by starting up Lou Reed classic “Take A Walk On The Wild Side” and then dropping some rhymes from Tribe’s “Can I Kick It?” (which sampled “Wild Side,” not coincidentally) on top. It seemed like a brilliant New York only moment (she mentioned the city a lot in her banter), given that it was a fusion of Brooklyn-born Reed’s most famous solo song with a classic from the classic Queens rappers, but it wasn’t the first time.
No video is as yet available from the earlier (and your SAK correspondent is not making this up) cover of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” that was fused with “Dance Dance Dance.”
New York’s own WFMU has a six song live set from Baltimore’s Future Islands that was recorded but a few scant weeks ago. This vintage vid captures them back when they had a drummer (but your SAK correspondent really digs the electronic beats they currently rock on the road as captured in the ‘FMU set):
You SAK Correspondent uses “spazz” as a hyphenate adjective pretty regularly, as there seems to be an entire indie subgenre (see Matt and Kim) that it accurately describes. And so: Team Robespierre have a show this Sunday, the 31st, with sonikfuckingnihilists Ninjasonik on the roof of OfficeOps. Bikes In The Kitchen (who else?) says it’s happening at 3 PM, whereas no one else cares enough to list what is, presumably, the right time, and there’s no word as to whether or not it is free.
The Team also list a hometown Brooklyn gig on September 27th as the “best show of all time with 8 bands,” which may or may not be the already-mentioned Awesome Vistas Festival (although your SAK correspondent somewhat hopes it isn’t, so he can enjoy Thee Oh Sees in [relative] peace).
Your SAK Correspondent would say he blogged about the East Village Radio Fest too soon, but that would mean he wouldn’t have scooped all those other music blogs that waited for the official announcement (with rounded out, awesome lineup included).
But now here SAK is–first again with news that you’ll have to make a choice on Saturday the 6th, as the kids at Showpaper are teaming up with The Howl! Festival to bring Fiasco, The Crayons, and more to Tompkins Square Park on that very same day (so a bunch of Brooklyn kids are playing in the East Village; and EVR is having their show at the tourist-friendly Seaport. Uh, right).
If there’s one contest too close to call, it’s whether EVR or Howl! has an uglier website.
Throw quotation marks around the multi-word noun in question, like your SAK Correspondent did, and plug it in to Google, and, as of this writing, you’ll see exactly nine search results. What is known is that said festival will be bringing the San Francisco one-two-crunch of Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps to New York City on Saturday, September 27th. What isn’t known: where it is, or, what it is exactly. It’s a pretty serious bet that it will rock, though.
If you ever wanted to hear The Fiery Furnaces play your fav Friedberger jams with a banjo, WNYC wants to hook you up. Promoting their newly-released live album, Remember, they stopped by Soundcheck to further muck up their joyfully convoluted live legacy.
Your SAK Correspondent was bummed about missing The Dirty Projectors on Friday, but was lifted out of his funk sooner than expected during a Silent Barn performance by Baltimore’s Future Islands. He had no idea who they were as he wandered in at the start of their set, but was completely wowed over by the way the group’s sincere/theatrical vocals are layered atop a high-pitched, chugging electronic assault (and it’s not often that he’ll listen to an entire album immediately upon arriving at home around 4 a.m., then replay certain tracks before going to bed).
They’re at it again this weekend with bookings at the TreeFort and Union Pool on, respectively, Saturday and Sunday.
Your SAK Correspondent doesn’t understand why someone named Alfred Darlington–basically the coolest name ever–would need to record and perform under a different moniker, but that’s what Los Angeles sample maestro Daedelus does. And he’ll be playing under said appellation at two upcoming NYC dates: Le Poisson Rouge on September 7th and then at Crash Mansion on the 9th. The former is part of the Wordless Music Series; the latter is probably the best show Crash Mansion has had in a long time.
