Songs About Knives

Rainy DVD Saturday

Greg — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:08:54 +0000

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).

David Bazan–Alone At The Mic

The Oh Sees–Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion

Someone’s Listening In: The Human / Monome Project

Greg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:16:35 +0000

Daedelus makes love, music to write columns to.

Paper Thin Walls: Gettying Out While The Gettying’s Broke

Greg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:16:36 +0000

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.

Lykke Lies At Le Poisson Rouge

Greg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:53:10 +0000

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.”

Future Islands MP3s From The Past

Greg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:25:19 +0000

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):

Someone’s Listening In: No Puns On Islam

Greg — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:54:26 +0000

Your SAK Correspondent argued against “Allah Board!” but he didn’t get very far.

Team Robespierre (Predictably) Book Another Show With Ninjasonik

Greg — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:46:51 +0000

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).

September 6th: East Village Throwdown!

Greg — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:01:46 +0000

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.

What The Fuck Is The Awesome Vistas Festival?

Greg — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:39:05 +0000

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.

Blue(Grass)Berry Boat

Greg — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:37:43 +0000

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.