This week has been lots of craziness as the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon has descended upon New York City! This year seems to be mostly about finding new bands and talent, since I haven’t heard of a majority of the bands that are playing this year. While it makes enthusiasm ahead of time a little low because you never know what you’re going to get with any new band, it makes new discoveries that much better when you see an act that put on a good show and has some good tunes that make you dance around!
Let’s start with Tuesday. I had to cover a showcase at the Cake Shop, and while I wrote down little snippets about each band I saw, the only band that really impressed me was the Hospital Bombers, who were much poppier than the other bands that played after. They are definitely a soundtrack to a breezy summer day laying out in a field somewhere, and I like the occasional female vocals and the violin is a cute touch as well.
Hospital Bombers @ Cake Shop
I also saw Surf City and Male Bonding later that night at Cake Shop who were both good and I did enjoy them as well, but perhaps I’d enjoy their recorded stuff more than seeing them live (without knowing their music ahead of time, anyway).
Andrew WK @ NYU Kimmel Center
On Wednesday I went to see CMJ’s keynote speaker, Andrew WK! You already know that I love Andrew WK, so of course I was going to be at his panel! He gave a brief introduction and then pretty much opened the floor to questions for anyone to ask. He still dispelled his AWK wisdom, which is to believe in yourself and do what makes you happy, something I try to live by as well! It’s always nice to hear some reinforcing positive messages when it comes to things like that. But there were definitely parts of his talk that were funny as well. You never know what you’re going to get when Andrew WK gives a talk!
Bang Bang Eche @ Studio at Webster Hall
Later that night I saw another lineup of bands, but none impressed me until Bang Bang Eche. They’re roughly about 17 years old from New Zealand, and what caught my eye first was how energetic they (especially the lead singer) are. From the bands I saw earlier that night and the night before, none of them really rocked out when appropriate. This kid was all over the stage and jumped into the audience! Their music seems pretty complex for kids of their age, so I think that adds to the appeal, plus it’s just plain good and gets you up and dancing! I’ll definitely be looking for some music by these guys.
Bodega Girls @ Crash Mansion
Moving on to Thursday where I first saw Boston’s Bodega Girls after work. Note: there is only one girl in the band, and she doesn’t do much but try to dance sexily (is that a word?) onstage. Anyway, my friend Leila had seen them the night before and liked them, and it turned out that I shared her enthusiasm! Their first song, possibly titled “I Won’t Write You A Love Song”, was super catchy and dancey and it made me think I had heard it around somewhere before. I ended up dancing through the rest of their set, and I am excited to hear more from them!!
pow wow @ Cake Shop
I was able to quickly catch a few songs of the band pow wow. I don’t know anything about them, I just thought the description of them in the CMJ booklet sounded like something I’d like, and I saw that they only seemed to be playing this one show all week. I’m glad I was able to see even the three songs I did, because I loved their cute poppy sound, and it had all the girls dancing adorably in the venue. Might I mention that everyone in the band was adorable, including the girl guitarist who wore heels and a nice classy dress, and I kinda wanted to be her! I need to find out more information on them and get some music ASAP!
Hockey @ Mercury Lounge
Finally, my night ended at Mercury Lounge where I got to see probably one of the bigger buzzed bands at CMJ at this year, Hockey. I have their album and generally enjoy it, but live they sound much much better! Plus it’s also an automatic dance party! Everyone there seemed to be super into their set and it got pretty sweaty by the end of their set. Lots of energy plus catchy songs equals a great set! I wouldn’t mind seeing them play again, and perhaps with a longer set next time.
So those were the highlights of the past three days for me. Stay tuned for CMJ 2009 – Part Deux!
On a non-rainy day in June, I braved the annoying crowds of tourists in Times Square to attend a mostly New Yorker filled event: the annual Bubble Battle!
The idea is really simple – just show up…
blow bubbles…
and enjoy!
Check out the bubbles in real time! Who knew there could be so many bubbles in one place?!
Click here for more of my photos from the bubble battle!
It’s hard to write about the good times you have when there are so many good times going on at the same time! I went to Boston two weekends ago to participate in the Second Annual Boston Scavenger Hunt put on by the elusive Banditos Misteriosos. I was living in Boston this time last year and attended the first one and had so much fun that I had to go back! I ended up staying in Boston an extra day, and then came back to NYC to work on the always amazing Siren Festival, and didn’t have much time to blog between 8-14 hour days consisting of alcohol runs, buying all the plastic cups Kmart had to offer, counting out beer tickets, winning $10 in a foosball bet, and sorting out band gift bags! It’s hard work you guys!
So back to Boston! Teams are formed in groups of 10, and since I only had three friends coming to meet me we got some friendly strangers on our team, but they were all a lot of fun! We all admitted to not really knowing much about Boston, but as we got our manifest with our checkpoint clues, we all pretty quickly seemed to figure out most of the answers! Some questions were as follows:
Hooray! Round of applause! L’chaim! – Cheers!
“How do you expect to win the race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?” – Tortoise & the Hare statues in Copley Square!
Photo Challenge for “Most people you can fit in one space”
For three hours we ran all over Boston, allowing for the two clues that only had fifteen minute windows, and snapping pictures for our Photo Challenges in between checkpoints! At each checkpoint you are given a Photo Challenge, and if you’re able to get a photo of that challenge you get an extra point towards your total score. Some of our challenges were things like “Arm wrestle a stranger”, “Find an oxymoron”, “Person with the most Red Sox gear” etc. It was fun and we were able to get a photo of every photo challenge!
Arm wrestling a stranger, one of the park rangers!
At 4pm we made our way back to the park where we all gathered in the beginning and awaited the tallying of the scores, and to our surprise we came in THIRD place! About 50 other teams got beaten by The Ugly Stick (our team name, haha!). Unfortunately there were no prizes to be awarded, but simply having a day of fun is reward enough ;)
The rest of the weekend was filled with hanging out with all my Boston buddies I don’t get to see enough! Good times for sure =D
This past weekend was the 4th of July, which in the US brings thoughts of fireworks, parks, BBQs, beaches, and to us this Saturday morning, a HOT DOG EATING CONTEST!!! Yes, the world famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition takes place at Coney Island in front of Nathan’s flagship store each yeah on the 4th of July. It’s been a tradition since 1916 to have the contest at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, making this year the 94th annual hot dog eating contest.
A permanent tribute to the hot dog eating contest in Coney Island with a countdown to the next competition as well as the number of hot dogs eaten for the male and female world records
We arrived about two hours before the event started, getting our place in the large crowd that was to grow even larger as the competition neared. They had some cheesy entertainment before the big event; trampoline jumpers, dancing hot dogs, bunette cheerleaders, and even one of the contestants rapped about eating food. There was even an announcer who ended up on a riser that rose at least 40 feet above the crowd. I felt like I should be at Kaiju Big Battel or something, but I love it when silly things are made even more over the top.
Though there were about 20 contestants total, the main bout was between Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut who have been battling it out for number one the past few years. Kobayashi had won six years in a row until 2007 when Chestnut won two years in a row. Would Kobayashi be able to come back after a two year absence of number one, or would Chestnut continue to reign supreme?
The video I took above is of the last 30 seconds of the race, though somehow without the zoom on. It was a close race with Kobayashi coming out with a lead in the beginning and ending up being just bites behind Chestnut for the remainder of the race, but the end total ended with Kobayashi 64.5 hot dogs, and Chestnut eating 68 in 10 minutes – a new world record!! The previous record had been at 61, yet the Nathan’s billboard said 66 since apparently the two champions went into an overtime dog-off last year because they tied, and the first to eat five dogs (Chestnut) won! A very exciting race this year, and if I end up going again next year I definitely plan on getting there early to get a better view.
The rest of my day was a bunch of fun. We all went to have a beer at Cha Cha’s on the boardwalk, and then went to see the Coney Island Side Show which I had never attended. That was pretty fun and funny and I would recommend checking that out as part of your trip to Coney Island (most of my friends were surprised I had never been, seeing as how I go to Coney Island at least twice a summer).
Then since we were in the area and I had free admission my friend and I checked out the NY aquarium! I almost forget that NY has an aquarium since it’s so out of the way from the other main museums in Manhattan, and even though I’ve lived in NY for most of my life I had never been! I do love aquariums and water and looking at fish, but this was probably the least impressive aquarium I’ve been to. Since we went later in the afternoon some of the animals had gone in for the day, we could barely catch a glimpse of the penguins all the way in the back, but we did see an otter, seals and walruses (walri?), and of course lots of feesh!
And what is the 4th of July without fireworks? Specifically fireworks from a rooftop in Bushwick. I was super bummed to hear that the Macy’s fireworks were moving to the Hudson this year (another reason to hate Jersey), but we were still able to see parts of it by the skyline. And there were fireworks from all other directions to keep us entertained as well. Oh and the smoke from the building in Williamsburg catching on fire too! How crazy. Usually my July 4ths are pretty dull, but this year was an action packed day, hooray! Good times indeed.
If you’ve taken the time to delete the /goodtime from this site address, you might have noticed that I have a small collection of photographs that I’ve taken over the years. I think it’s safe to say that I have a photography hobby (I only have 9 or 10 different cameras!), and I’ve become increasingly interested in using film and experimenting with older cameras. The main film camera I use is a Holga FN, but aside from three focusing ranges, it’s basically a point and shoot medium format camera (or 35mm! I love shooting so you see the sprocket holes!). I’ve looking to expand my range and manual photographic abilities, and I think I’ve found a camera that will help me out with that!
A couple weeks ago when New York had its first lovely spring weather weekend, I was able to go to the Lomography store and borrow a Lubitel 166+ for a day! It’s the new version of an older twin lens reflex camera made in Russia as far back as 1946. What’s great and new about this version of the camera (compared to its original predecessor) is its ability to be able to use medium format or regular 35mm film, and you can also rewind back to any shot on the roll and take a double exposure! Developing medium format film is pretty expensive, so it’s nice having the option of using 35mm film instead.
Normally I am pretty precious with my film and don’t like to be forced to take photos, but since I was only borrowing it for a day I had to be fast! Even under pressure I was able to get some pretty nice photos and double exposures! Though I’m a little upset about two photos that I took that didn’t come out as I had hoped (the one downside to film!). I hardly ever take photos of people (outside of concert photography), but I asked two random people if I could take their photos. With the afternoon light and the guy’s bright pink shirt in front of a dark background I was excited to see how it came out. But somehow I pressed the shutter when I crossed the street, since there’s a huge truck in the middle of the photo! I’m not sure what happened, but in this case it wasn’t a happy mistake :(
Aside from that, I liked the fact that a lot of people stopped me on the street or on the subway asking me about the camera, since it looks so odd to what we’re used to, and you also look through it from the top! But I liked that and being able to chat about something I like with people on the street :) I’m looking into buying one of the original Lubitels on eBay (since I can’t afford this newer version), so hopefully in the not-too-distant future I shall have more Lubitel photos to share with you!
How nice has the weather in NYC been the past few days?! I’m completely exhausted from walking around all day on Friday, Saturday, and today. In two days I enjoyed some time in 7 different parks!! Hopefully everyone else found excuses to be outside this weekend!
So continuing from my last post, after we visited the Cathedral of Junk, we made the 30-40 minute drive outside of Austin to visit Hamilton Pool, part of a collapsed grotto with a still-standing pool of water and a trickling waterfall. After paying admission into the camping ground, you could hike a little ways to get to the pool area, or you could hike in another direction to make your way over to Hamilton Creek. We only had time to visit the pool and took our time hiking through. On the way, I took a picture with the cacti because, along with palm trees, I’ll always enjoy “foreign” flora.
We finally got down to the pool and it was kind of odd to see a mini little beach area with beautiful green water underneath a cavernous overhang. After taking some pictures, I noticed that a turtle had come up to the beach. I went over slowly and he shrunk halfway back into his shell, but stayed out enough that I don’t think he minded me picking him up, and Mai and I took a couple pictures petting and holding the turtle. Though he must have had enough of us, because when I put him back in the water he promptly swam away! (I think only a film photo was taken of this since my digital camera was dying.)
I had been picturing more waterfall action to be going on, but I guess because it was still early in the season there were just a few areas of steady water flow. You can also swim in the water if you want to, and the woman who we spoke to on our way in informed us that it was “a chilly 64 degrees.” I tried not to scoff, that’s nothing when you’re used to swimming in the cold Atlantic ocean! However there was one problem, I didn’t have my bathing suit! There was only one other guy there and he had brought his trunks to go swimming, and I was jealous. Finally Mai convinced me that I’d regret not going in, so I took off my pants, knotted up my shirt and jumped in! It wasn’t too cold to start, but it always ends up hitting you a little once your torso is immersed.
Even though I had to walk back up the trail and sit in the car for about 40 minutes with a wet butt, it was definitely worth it! What a great place to go on a really warm day to sit and relax for a while though! Check out this video to see how peaceful it was:
Once we made our way back to Austin, we had sushi for dinner which was delish, then to Annie’s for ice cream and photoboothphotos, and then to meet up with some other friends at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for Music Mondays. I was pretty excited to go to this theater because you can order food during the movie and they bring it to you in your seat! So I passed on ice cream at Annie’s and ordered a milkshake at the movie theater that they brought to me during the movie. And this time I didn’t have to feel bad about sneaking it in (I’ve sneaked many foods into the movies, including Taco Bell, haha).
All in all, a great way to end my Austin vacation! I am anxiously awaiting to get back all the film I shot while in Austin (getting the rolls back on Wednesday!) so I will definitely post a link to those photos if they turn out to be any good!
Sorry for the lag in between posts, but this story comes in two parts! Part deux will be added soon so as not to kill your already waning attention span.
Think back to March, after SXSW ended I still had a couple of days to hang around Austin. That Sunday we went to Flatstock, the poster exhibit that they have going on during the last few days of SXSW, featuring lots of poster designers and many many different styles of gig posters that you can buy. By the last day there were slim pickins left, but I still got a cool 18×24″ poster with copper ink for $5!
That Monday we went out to brunch, and then made our way to the Cathedral of Junk. It’s usually closed on Mondays, but we didn’t know that until we got there. Luckily the man who owns the place was working in the back and let us in. Apparently he has been building this large “cathedral” literally of junk for over 20 years.
The structure is pretty impressive, actually. At two or three various points you can climb up higher into the structure, and it’s cool to really look around and see what kind of junk has been incorporated into the building, like road signs, bicycles, typewriters, CDs, toys, holiday lights, chairs, guitars, car parts, etc. There were even some soda can windmills that reminded me of how they made the sensors fly in the movie Twister.
I’m curious as to what made this guy start working on this, and I’m really amazed at the skill he has to make a pretty sturdy structure out of these old, rusty materials. I love seeing “random” things like this and was so happy that my friend knew how much I’d would love checking this out.
Click here to see more photos of the Cathedral at my Flickr photo gallery. I also have more photos to add once I get the rolls of film from my Holga back!
So that was my Cathedral of Junk experience! I’ll post again in a day or two with part deux of my last day in Austin!
I can finally think about SXSW last week without feeling exhausted! Below is just a fraction of the bands I saw. The week is such a blur that I’m already forgetting all the bands that I saw, both good AND bad! But I tried to provide links, pictures and video of all the bands I saw so it’s almost like you were there with me (except you were probably much less drunk ;)! This is a long one, so beware!
I actually arrived in Austin the Monday before the the music part of SXSW started. That was cool because I was able to go out and see my friend Marko DJ for a little bit, and also where I met a couple people I’d hang out with for the rest of the week! We danced to his set and then made our way to a few other places throughout the night to get our groove on which was a lot of fun and we ended up being out until 4am (note: bars in Austin close at 2am, I forgot that seems to be the norm outside of NYC) drinking free beers at the PureVolume House! And there was a group of guys dancing who were basically having a dance-off and they were AMAZING to watch. I wish I had half of their skills!
White Denim
On Tuesday night I saw White Denim at Ms. Bea’s. I had only heard of them, though figured that since they were playing a Todd P event that they were probably going to be good, and they were great! Their music sounds a lot different on their site than it did live (I’m hoping this is the right White Denim that I linked to!), but I really like both! Live it was much more jangly garage rock, and had I had any friends there I probably would’ve been in the back spasm dancing along! Then I spent the rest of the night at Red 7 where I saw Mike from MXPX’s new “alt-country” band which was cute and upbeat, then saw my friend play in Death in the Park, which is the singer from Hot Rod Circuit’s new band. I stayed a little longer to see a Minor Threat cover band with members of Gallows and Rise Against taking turns singing songs. While I’m definitely not that punk, it was still interesting to watch people (and the singer from Gallows) go crazy during the songs.
Yelle
Wednesday was finally the first official day of music at SXSW and I started it off (I think) by seeing Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head at Maggie Mae’s. I had heard about this band for a while but didn’t really know what they sounded like, and they turned out to be really fun upbeat dance funness! I really enjoyed their set and was bummed I wasn’t able to catch them again during the week. They have pretty random songs like “Sophisticated Side Ponytail” and “Iceage Babeland,” but these songs make me dance, not think, so it’s okay!
Right after NPSH, Yelle was up next! I’ve loved Yelle for a while and was finally able to see her this past September in Boston, and since she is from France I took this opportunity to dance my boots off, even though it was still quite early in the day. I think I started a dance party up in the front, and I even introduced Yelle to my friend who hadn’t heard of her before and ended up loving her once it was over. I ended up seeing her close out the Perez Hilton party at the end of the week too and didn’t spare any dancing there either!
After Yelle we high-tailed it over to the next venue to try and catch Superdrag, but unfortunately they ended up being late and had to cancel their show, and I wasn’t able to see them the rest of the week either which was sad. But that left me time to go over and see The Thermals! I’ve seen them a couple of times since CMJ in 2006, but they still put on a good show and it’s so fun to sing along to their songs live. The new songs also sounded really good and I’ve been enjoying their new album on Kill Rock Stars.
The Thermals
Thursday was a bit of a slower day. My friend Mai and I ended up getting into this VIP party where they had free food off of a fixed menu and free breakfast drinks, so I overindulged and had a HUGE burger and 4 bloody marys. I mean, when the bartender asks if I want a free refill on my bloody mary, how can I say no?! So that slowed me down in the morning for seeing bands that seemed to be on the opposite side of Austin from where I was. But I ended up over at Stubb’s for the Spin party where I caught the end of Passion Pit, and was very excited to see Justin from the Darkness’ new band called Hot Leg and they didn’t disappoint! They weren’t quite as over the top as The Darkness was, but Justin still rocked the black studded leather jumpsuit unzipped to the belt as seen below:
Hot Leg
I was not expecting, but secretly hoping that they might play I Believe In A Thing Called Love, but luckily they didn’t, because if they had I would have exploded. I rock that jam at karaoke quite often, and wouldn’t have been able to resist jumping over the front barricade and trying to claw my way onstage to sing with Justin. So yes, it was good for all of us they didn’t play it! Moving on… I spent some time at the Fader Fort and saw Late of the Pier who I thought were kinda meh, and I also saw Tricky who was good, but a little too mellow for my mood at the time. I eventually ended up going to Austin Ballet to catch Ninjasonix, The Death Set, and Monotonix (who I wrote about earlier). I don’t really need to explain much more about that one, but if you still need clarification, it was definitely the best show I saw all week.
The Matches playing on the street
Friday morning I went to the Village Voice party where I was able to get my free food intake for the day and listened to Bear Hands who I thought were pretty good. I need to check out more of their stuff myself. A little while after that I was FINALLY able to catch King Khan & the Shrines after at least 3 or 4 failed attempts! They have a girl who just dances onstage. How do I get that job? Life goal: be in a band where my job is to DANCE!!! So awesome.
Then I went to see the new supergroup Tinted Windows (with Taylor Hanson, James Iha, Bun E. Carlos, etc). I was talking with a few people there about them and I didn’t think they were anything great, but for a power pop band they aren’t too bad (though I’m personally not a huge fan of Taylor’s voice). Check out a video I took of them covering The Buzzcocks’ “I Don’t Mind”
Then later that night I ended up at the Red Bull Moontower party. I had to sit through some terribly boring bands, and then The Von Bondies played, I didn’t realize they haven’t had a new album since Pawn Shop Heart, so they played a lot of material from that, along with some new stuff. I’m excited to hear a new album from them! Been listening to them a lot recently. While there I also abused the free photobooth privledge while waiting for friends to show up, haha.
The Von Bondies
Saturday was a good day, we had another free burger and drinks, I ran into Bryan and we checked out Flatstock. I tried to get into the Rachel Ray party since there was a pretty good lineup for the show all day but wasn’t able to make it in. I was, however, able to watch Alex from Ima Robot’s new band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros through the open window at Maggie Mae’s. Their sound wasn’t what I expected from him, it was much more similar to Broken Social Scene (especially with so many people onstage). But they were fun and I need to listen to their songs a little more on their MySpace.
After that I didn’t have much else scheduled so I just hung out at the Fader Fort for a while, drinking free beers and talking to some people around me. Diplo DJed for a while since Rick Ross didn’t show up and his set was really good. And finally Kanye West took the stage. He put on a good show and performed for almost an hour and a half, however he only played two singles, and they were the last two songs that he played. After about 45 minutes I was getting quite bored with all the music that I didn’t know and had he thrown in a single here and there I think I would have enjoyed the set much more. Check out a video of Heartless below:
After that I jumped in a cab to head over to the Perez Hilton party, which was apparently quite exclusive (and I’m still not sure how I managed to get into that one!). It took place in an old Safeway building which was pretty cool. I think I got there when Solange was playing, and didn’t really care to see any of the bands playing that night (I had already seen Little Boots earlier in the week, she’s too pop for my taste) except for Yelle again. A little while later my friends and I staked a spot on top of a swingset they had set up in the back, and Perez came out and announced that Kanye West was a surprise guest. By this time I had consumed more free alcoholic beverages, so I was much more excited when Kanye came out this time. I believe he played 5 songs, and at least this time he played Stronger along with the two singles from his new album. Check out Heartless from the Perez party:
After Yelle played around 3am we went home to finally sleep in for a little bit!
Sunday we took it easy and met up with Mai’s friends in Hymns as they took some photos and filmed for a music video. Then we ended up at an art space / free BBQ where the So So Glos played. I’m glad I saw them because they were really fun. We totally made their set a thousand times better by bringing in the strobe light that was going on in an empty room into the room where the band played. So much better!
The Perez Hilton party in between acts
Then we ended up eating a late dinner at Maudie’s Tex-Mex which was filled with people, including all of Hot Leg! I wanted to say something to Justin but never found the right time, and then before I knew it they had left already. Totally missed out on my chance, I’m still regretting not saying anything sooner, haha. Ohh well, I’ll get over it.
And I believe THAT was the last thing relating to SXSW that I did while in Austin! Phew!! I’ve got an update coming about what I did my last day in Austin though, which has nothing to do with music at all! But they were still some very good times.
So thanks for reading this if you did, I know it’s excessively long. If you were at SXSW did you see any of these bands too? What did you think? What were some bands I missed that I should have seen? Let me know in the comments!
Oh and don’t forget to check out a few more of my photos from SXSW over at my Flickr set!
A whole awesome SXSW recap is coming, along with what I did in Austin the two days following. But right now I’m still getting over the craziness of last week and have some kind of sinus sickness which is no fun. In the meantime, check out a little thing that makes me happy:
It’s the last day of SXSW! Obviously I have much to update on but definitely no time for that right now. So I will give you a preview of two videos that I did not take of Monotonix from Tel Aviv, Israel, who I saw Thursday night (or should I say Friday morning) starting at 2:45am. The show was at Ballet Austin and inside it was the sweatiest thing you can imagine, you can even see the windows all fogged up. The show eventually got shut down by the cops, but it was still a great time while it lasted. These videos can explain way more than I can in words, but still doesn’t capture the essence of being there::
Awesome, right?
I also recorded a quick voice recap yesterday morning that you can listen to by clicking here and it will stream.
Rad! I will definitely catch everyone up more in depth but for now I gotta run!
