Sit · Down · Stand · Up · com

Last night I went to see the lovely Alexandra Scott play at the equally lovely Rockwood Music Hall. She played full band, a first for myself, and managed to stand up even with a soon-to-be-operated-on bad knee. Always enchanting through her strong and charming stage presence she convinced very easily. She played a very different sounding and original cover of Madonna's Ray Of Light which I am dying to hear again. Her drummer, one of the few female ones I've seen, was quite excellent and so was her bass player. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again soon when she plays a Cross-Pollination July 11th at Piano's with the wonderful Liz Moore.



After Alexandra we got a little surprise with yet another low profile Norah Jones sideproject. This time it was a lovely collection of country-tinged diddies putting the spotlight on some real crafty songwriting. The Sloppy Joanne's, as they called themselves, featured the talents of three ladies of the LES songwriting scene. Sasha Dobson on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Norah Jones on backing vocals and lead guitar (charmingly clumsy but interesting and with a lot of feeling), and Daru Oda on backing and sometimes lead vocals and bass guitar. Quite a few covers were included, all played in an original way and Stir It Up (Bob Marley) stood out most with wonderful audience reception. My favorite song played however featured Daru on lead vocals and was an almost Tin Pan Alley-ish crafty song with Hawaiian elements. I am not sure if it was a cover, or what the title is, but I'm going to be looking for it to share on these pages. A lovely group to see! Recommended. They mentioned they played some pool hall every Sunday night, which I found to be amusing, but I have yet to discover which pool hall that is.



Download of the Day
Alexandra Scott - Good Goddamn (MP3)
Alexandra Scott - Good Girl (MP3)

Go back to the main page HERE

Last night I saw what was probably the best Hip Hop concert I have seen. Perhaps aside from, and brace yourself, the Black Eyed Peas in 2000 pre-Fergie and pre-Wow They Suck. (Don't even get me started on how extremely far the BEP have strayed from their pure bred hip hop beginnings.) At the end of the night I had to conclude that however good a Hip Hop show is, it will never be as good as a great rock or folk show. And that is coming from a huge hip hop fan, it was my first musical love and the number of hip hop albums owned by me outnumbers any other genre (total albums owned somewhere up from 1700). (Picture by StJohns/VaBeach)


Last night was a night with The Roots that featured Nas, Talib Kweli, Big Daddy Kane and Common. There wasn't any real opening act and the night started with just ?uestlove on the drums and Black Thought ripping it up with at least 100 bars straight. No hook, no chorus, just bars and bars. It was a great start in a perhaps half filled, yet sold out, Radio City Music Hall. Oh those snobby New Yorkers and their BS fashionably late routine. 5 minutes in, and with Black Thought still going, the rest of the Roots walked out and joined in. I was surprised at how the sound was kinda shitty. I had imagined it to be excellent, and when it was just drums and vocals it was fine but then as soon as the rest of the band joined in it became muddy and many of the guest appearances featured faulty mics and half the stuff Big Daddy Kane rapped wasn't audible.(Picture by StJohns/VaBeach)


About 20 minutes in Nas came out to bless us with a handful of classic with the Roots acting as his backing band and the audience reaction was very strong. He did a great job performance wise and his songs were wonderfully enhanced by the Roots playing all the music live. DJ Jazzy Jeff was a wonderful addition to the band also with the scratching and cutting. (Picture by Bakinakwa)


After Nas left the stage again and the room had filled up nicely the Roots went into another song or two of their own and were then joined by Common who was the most energetic element of the night on stage. He was a very decent performer and gave it his all with hits like I Used To Love H.E.R. and Go. John Mayer didn't show up for the latter.

Talib Kweli joined next and dissappointed with poor breath control. Everything the music started on a Talib song the crowd got rowdy in anticipation, for he has many so-called bangers, but was inevitably let down by Talib not being able to say all the words in his rhymes due to a lack of mic control. That made me sad. I just know he is a very genuine performer and wants to give the people their money's worth, but he kinda just didn't do that last night.

In their final Roots section their guest guitarist ruined a perfectly fine version of You Got Me by going off into solo land for a good 15 minutes straight in an attempt to be Prince and Jimi Hendrix. It was pretty awful. Rahzel, the Godfather of Noize, then got his own little bit and though he never ceases to amaze me with his antics (beatboxing and singing at the same time? whoa!), it got old after 10 minutes and seriously he should've left the Touch It beat alone.

The show went from 8pm sharp til 11pm exactly and like I said was probably the best Hip Hop show I've seen, aside from Jay-Z's retirement show (which I saw only on DVD, go figure), but I still ended up coming out a little dissappointed, but in a state of acquiescence. Also, no Jay-Z appearance! And Dave Chappelle showed up too late so all he did was walk onto the stage at the end and say: wow the Roots! how about the Roots? (He was scheduled to do an opening monologue.)

Download of the Day
New Roots songs
The Roots - Please Don't Go (Demo) (MP3)
The Roots - Don't Feel Right (MP3)

PS all pictures of different shows, not last night. But they look like they could've been.

Craigslist is always a source for amusement. I was just forwarded this post: I was asleep from too much booze and for some reason got onto the J train???? Someone wrote in magic marker on my forehead:: Meow!!

Please let me know who you are... I'd love to buy you a drink because it was one of the funniest things when I got home, and saw it in the mirror.



Another REALLY funny thing I came across is the following classic and hilarious mistake made by the BBC a few days ago. A taxi driver was interviewed by mistake instead of the high level executive he was waiting for in the BBC lobby. The 10 o clock news people were in such a rush they didn't ask the right questions and just dragged the taxi driver from the lobby into the studio, fitted him with a mic and ear piece and went live on air. Watch the video (WMV) by clicking HERE. Read the full article HERE. Excerpt below.

With the seconds ticking down to a studio discussion about a court case involving Apple Computer and The Beatles' record label, a floor manager had run to reception and grabbed the man, thinking he was Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net, a specialist internet publication.

Actually, he was a minicab driver who had been waiting to drive Mr Kewney home. Baffled, but compliant, the driver was fitted with a microphone and allowed himself to be marched in to the studio. Cameras rolled, and he was quizzed live on air by consumer affairs correspondent Karen Bowerman - who missed the cabbie's panic-stricken expression when he realised he was being interviewed.

Despite knowing nothing about the case - a judge ruled that the computer company could continue to use the Apple symbol for its iTunes download service - the man gamely attempted to bluff his way through and, speaking in a strong French accent, sustained a (somewhat illogical) form of conversation. Meanwhile, the real Mr Kewney watched indignantly on a monitor in reception.

The BBC apologised, saying the mistake occurred because the man was wearing Mr Kewney's name tag.

Download of the Day
Jon Brion - Here We Go (MP3) Via MusicIsArt
Neil Young - Lets Impeach The President (MP3)

Last night I taught an international rockstar how to pronounce Jens Lekman's name. Before that I went to see french rockers Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom, and before I went to see Beirut at the Knitting Factory.

To start of with Beirut, the latest mega blog buzz wunderkind of today. The MP3's are better than the live show, but hey this packed to the brim first nyc show, wasmaybe his 5th show ever, and he's 19 and this was only the second time he played with a band. So it's ok, because he showed promise. It was somewhat monotonous, there was way too much tuning going on (damn those ukelelkjkjels), but the trumpet playing was very nice and his vocals have a little something special about them. MP3s below.

Picture by Kathryn.



Phoenix was unexpectedly awesome. Not that I expected bad thing, I just had no idea who they were. Well they rocked, they made me dance, they were fun and they were super tight. I was wildly impressed by their drummer, which I then found out isn't their real drummer (or something like that). But he was SO in the pocket. Just scary. I will include an MP3 below.

Picture by BV.



Download of the Day
Beirut - "Postcards From Italy" (MP3)
Beirut - "Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)" (MP3)
Phoenix - If I ever feel better (MP3) Via BV

Last night us Undisputed Heavyweights had a grand time at Pianos playing at our friends Kinetic's CD release party. They rocked the house, and so did Wynn Walent, Hula and El Jezel. Really fun and packed night of music. I saw lots of flashes going off so sometimes soon perhaps I will stumble across pictures to post. For now I'm just really excited about Friday's show at Crash Mansion for Rachael's graduation party. For more info see the flyer below. I thought I'd make an appropriate one for the occasion. :) Click on the picture to see it full sized.



Download of the Day
Seth Kallen - All I Need (MP3)
A Brief Smile - Kitchen Floor (MP3)
The Head Set - Enemies (MP3)
The Undisputed Heavyweights - Money (Live At Rockwood) (MySpace)
Kinetic - Incandescent (MP3) Via Underrated

Last night's Cross-Pollination was our two year anniversary and it was a great one! UK/NYC band The Primms and NYC faves The Upwelling played great great sets and the cross-pollinating led to 4 gems including a Neil Young cover and Jay's guest vocals on John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance. Beatrice tooks some amazing pictures. Check our her Flickr page HERE.







Download of the Day
The Upwelling - In Her Arms/Sam (MySpace)
The Primms - Blind (MySpace)

Oh boy am I excited! ALmost as excited as I am for the new Sufjan album (downloads below). Maybe even more! The Undisputed Heavyweights have a new website finally! Woohoo! Built by Schram Industries' design arm Schram Design with help on the initial conceptualization and infra-structure by the Petrol Club. Check it out at BetterThanElvis.com and let me know what you think. :)



Now, who decided to hire Stephen Colbert to speak at the White House Correspondents dinner? Who thought that was going to be a good idea? The speech was spectacularly ballsy and razorsharp. The President was sitting two seats next to him and plenty of eye contact was made. Watch it on YouTube (Via StereoGum):

Part 1 HERE
Part 2 HERE
Part 3 HERE

Read Jon Stewart's reaction and Stephen Colbert lookback HERE. Colbert made fun of his mixed reception at the dinner, re-running the tape of one of his jokes with the audience barely reacting. He described this as "very respectful silence," and said that actually the crowd loved him. "They practically carried me out on their shoulders," he said, "even though I wasn't ready to go."

Download of the Day
More new Sufjan! Via BV via StereoGum and Pitchfork
Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr. Supercomputer (MP3)
Sufjan Stevens - The Hennybuggy Band (MP3)

With Neil Young's upcoming political manifest against President Bush coming soon (read about that HERE at BV), I thought I'd highlight two interesting recent songs in the same vein. Bright Eyes is supposed to be the "new Dylan" and this generations protest/sincere folkie and he took a pretty good swing last year while on Jay Leno. He played a song called When The President Talks To God, which when preaching to the choir comes off as quite successful. Click HERE to view a video of the performance. That which weakens this songs however is the fact that it's very easily dismissed as crazy left wing liberal nutjob type of stuff by those who are on the other side. It's very black and white lyrically and the energy inside of the performance screams fury and anger. Bright Eyes wears a cowboy outfit to deliver his rant against the cowboy President in a feat of irony. Download the song below.



Then there is the pop singer with little credibility in the indie scene, Ms. Pink, and she actually manages to upstage Bright Eyes and most other folkies with a song targeting the President in a much simpler and more human way. She asks genuine questions, she doesn't attack blindly, she makes points. Line for line it's a hardhitting and real emotional inquiry. Sure it starts off sounding a little lame, especially the early background vocal, but listen to the full song and take in the words, and realize a song like this hits much harder and deeper than the Bright Eyes. This is a song that if the President heard it, might even trouble him and it might even make him think. It's much easier to dismiss Bright Eyes' song as some crazy talk. And sure artistically it might be more credible. But listen to the Pink song, view a live acoustic video HERE. The bridge is my favorite part. Bridges generally are though. Read Pink's lyrics behind the cut below.

( LyricsCollapse )



Download of the Day
Bright Eyes - When The President Talks To God (free on iTunes) (MP3)

To watch R&B singer fumble while singing the national anthem in front of Michael Jordan and thousands of other people, he forgets the words, click HERE

To read about Tapes 'N Tapes being signed to XL Recordings click HERE. Via Coolfer

How awesome is this picture by Virginia Belle of last week's Undisputed Heavyweights show at Arlene's Grocery?



More albums added to my iTunes.



Ludacris - Word Of Mouf (2000) :: What a great introduction of one of the best modern rappers out there. Ludacris brought back a certain old school mentality and sense of humor back to hip hop and though it took a long time for New York to accept this Atlanta artist, a show stealing featured spot on a Nas finally sealed the deal, he is now one of the most widely respected rappers out there. Lots of funny word play, great punchlines, light hearted topic matters. Later he would release tighter albums with more hits, but I still love this one.

Dave Matthews - Some Devil (2003) :: I didn't like this record very much, until I saw him perform it live at MSG with his band of '& friends'. I much prefered the friends to the actual band he plays with usually. Much more fun and entertaining. Trey Anastacio was one of those friends and though I am not a Phish fan I loved his performance that night as well as on the record. Emmy Lou Harris is another on of the friends who did a great job and the list goes on. More brooding, less jammy, seemingly somewhat deeper, more personal, all round a good album with the title track being the highlight for me. The African influences come a little more to the forefront that in the DMB catalogue and the jamband stigma is left behind on a mature record by a musically confident songwriter.

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964) :: Hahahaha what am I going to say about this album aside from: you must own this.

Download of the Day
Gnarls Barkley - the boogie monster (MP3)