i rock i roll

Monday, May 14, 2012

Bear In Heaven: Sinful Nature video

I am so 10000000000% obsessed with the new Bear In Heaven album. And this new Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman if her character was on a constant acid trip video version of single 'Sinful Nature' totally helps fuel the flame of my luuuuuuuuuv. Check it out.

posted by n. @ 5/14/2012 06:44:00 PM

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Wednesday, May 02, 2012

METRIC release single "Youth Without Youth"

Metric's last albums is one of my alltime favorites and I feel like this time around - if "Youth Without Youth" is any indication - they will not disappoint. Their fifth studio album, SYNTHETICA, will be released in the US on June 12th.

Here are some fall tour dates for you too:

METRIC U.S. FALL TOUR

09.06.12 - Water Street Music Hall - Rochester, NY

09.08.12 - The Fillmore - Detroit, MI

09.09.12 - Madison Theatre - Covington, KY

09.11.12 - State Theatre - Minneapolis, MN

09.14.12 - Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN

09.17.12 - The Fillmore - Charlotte, NC

09.18.12 - Stage AE - Pittsburgh, PA

09.20.12 - Orpheum Theatre - Boston, MA

09.21.12 - The Strathmore - Washington, DC

09.22.12 - Tower Theater - Philadelphia, PA

09.23.12 - Radio City Music Hall - New York, NY

09.27.12 - Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

09.28.12 - The Fillmore - Miami, FL

09.29.12 - The Ritz - Tampa, FL

10.01.12 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA

10.02.12 - The Pageant - St. Louis, MO

10.04.12 - Ogden Theatre - Denver, CO

10.05.12 - The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT

10.06.12 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV

10.09.12 - The Greek Theatre - Los Angeles, CA

10.10.12 - Marquee Theatre - Tempe, AZ

posted by n. @ 5/02/2012 09:32:00 AM

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Friday, April 27, 2012

A NIGHT TO SAY NO

I'm very proud to be DJing this benefit "A Night to Say NO," the 3rd annual fundraiser benefitting the UN Trust Fund to end violence against women. Buy a ticket for you and a woman you care about and come out for a great cause. There will also be cupcakes.

posted by n. @ 4/27/2012 11:34:00 AM

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Dark Dark Dark - Daydreaming

This song from Minneapolis folk band Dark Dark Dark pretty much conveys every emotion I have right now. Went to a funeral in Pennsylvania for the past three days which has left me in quite a mood. Happy to be back home with my music and cat and life to embrace me.
ps: Also the new Blogger interface is so awful it makes me want to punch something. Or move to Wordpress - which is hopefully happening fairly soon!

posted by n. @ 4/20/2012 12:05:00 PM

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Friday, April 13, 2012

KRAFTWERK @ MOMA - Trans Europe Express

I guess it's appropriate, on Friday the 13th, to write about something really lucky that happened to me. In all honesty, my luck with purchasing tickets online to shows I really want to see is approximately... like 2%. If that. The last time that situation worked out in my favor was 5+ years ago when I scored a pair of tickets to see Beck at Hiro Ballroom and for some reason my jerk of a boyfriend at the time guilted me (I honestly don't remember why) into selling them. Worst.

Nevertheless, I am kind of an eternal optimist about these sorts of things but I certainly have low expectations about my prospects. So a few months ago when two of my coworkers mentioned that they were going to try to buy Kraftwerk tickets online for their very very hyped Retrospective series at the MOMA, I figured "why not try?" but was pretty much convinced I would come away empty handed. At noon that day I went on the system, put myself in the much maligned "queue" and figured I'd just see what happened.

Well, at first nothing happened. You are waiting in the queue. You are waiting in the queue. After about 10 minutes I had to go interview a potential candidate for a job and was away from my desk for about half an hour. During this time both of my coworkers gave up as did the majority of people it seemed who took to the internet to vent their understandable frustrations. By the time I got back to my desk it was 12:40ish and my queue was still spinning. Great. I left the window open anyways (optimism!) and was writing an email when suddenly the screen refreshed and I was in the system. Figuring it was a glitch, I still entered all of my information and after 2-3 full page crashes and reloads I suddenly found myself with two tickets to the third night of the Retrospective. Kraftwerk would be playing 8 of their classic albums - one album each night for 8 nights - and I would be seeing Trans Europe Express.

Last night it all went down, and honestly was one of the most amazing concert experiences I've ever had. The room we were in (the 2nd floor atrium) probably held about 450 people (that's how many tickets were sold) and there was still room to breathe. The show was also in 3D (with custom Kraftwerk 3D shades, obvs), which added a whole additional layer of coolness. And not only did they play Trans Europe in its entirety, but they also threw down a few of their classic hits including "The Robots" and "Autobahn" and the sound - for the MOMA especially - was completely crisp and fantastically clear. I actually read somewhere that MOMA overhauled their entire sound system to specifically accomodate Kraftwerk's technical specifications and it definitely was worth it. In the gift shop afterwards, where I picked up a t-shirt and the 3D book that accompanies these shows, a woman in the line behind us commented that her experience that evening was even better than seeing Kraftwerk in the 70s - technology has certainly improved since then and the 3d layer truly brought the show to life.

Here's a video that my friend Lawrence shot when he attended the first night:

posted by n. @ 4/13/2012 09:49:00 AM

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Record Store Day: Yay or Nay?

As you may or may not know, April 21st is Record Store Day. This basically entails record stores having a lot of "exclusive" limited edition vinyl and everyone and their mother comes and buys records and supports record stores and all that jazz.

What you may also not know is that my lovely boyfriend Greg is an avid record collector and runs a record shop all his own in New Jersey. Since we've been together my appreciation of the medium has expanded immensely - as has my collection - and as of this weekend I will have an entire room in my apartment stocked with wall to wall vinyl in the thousands. Can't. Wait.

Because of this, when I mentioned to Greg that Record Store Day was coming up soon and inquired about what his store would be doing to "celebrate" the day expecting excitement, I was actually pretty surprised by his reply. This is what he later posted on his Facebook page, in response to this article about Record Store Day titled "Yes April 21st is Record Store Day and yes it's going to be annoying" which pretty much sums it up:

I wholeheartedly agree with this article. As a collector of all things vinyl and the proprietor of my own record shop, I don't give a flying fuck about Record Store Day. It doesn’t help vinyl stores stay in business. It doesn’t help bring in new customers who will continue to shop all year round. It was a good idea when it started in 2007 that became bastardized and over commercialized each year they’ve done it. RSD is not about supporting your local brick and mortar shop: It’s all about the limited edition pieces and how much of your hard earned money you are willing to waste on this crap. Or how much money you can make selling it on ebay days later. That’s why I’m giving away free records at my shop on Record Store Day. Screw you guys. Thus ends my bitter, crotchety old man rant. Thank you for listening.

So there you have it. What are your thoughts on Record Store Day? Has it lost its way and just become just another Hallmark Holiday? Does it actually help record stores in any meaningful way? Do you REALLY need that brand new EVE 6 vinyl with limited edition earbuds (ALSO, who the fuck listens to records with earbuds anyways? and who the fuck still listens to EVE 6?)?

Personally, I think I'll be spending Record Store Day hanging out in my vinyl lounge and visit record stores on some of the other 364 days that they are open and in need of business, thank you.

To find out more about Greg's awesome shop, join the HPRS Facebook Group!

posted by n. @ 4/12/2012 12:31:00 PM

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Young the Giant covers R Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)"

The boys from Young the Giant hit up the AV Club to record a cover from their epic list. Props to them for opting to NOT covering Fleetwood Mac and also sporting some pimped out fur coats. Loves it.

(click above to watch)

posted by n. @ 3/20/2012 10:26:00 AM

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Yellow Ostrich announce new tour to support sophomore album 'Strange Land'

"The Mistress was a guy in a bedroom," says Yellow Ostrich lead singer Alex Schaaf, who grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York in 2010. "Strange Land is a band. In a slightly bigger room."

Strange Land is out March 6th.

Tour Dates:
3/3 - Great Scott - Allston, MA #
3/4 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY #
3/6 - Beachland Tavern - Cleveland, OH #
3/7 - The Pike Room at The Crofoot - Pontiac, MI #
3/8 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL #
3/9 - Der Rathskeller - Madison, WI &
3/10 - 7th St Entry - Minneapolis, MN #
3/11 - Cactus Club - Milwaukee, WI #
3/15-19 - SXSW - Austin, TX
3/19 - Solar Culture - Tucson, AZ
3/20 - Soda Bar - San Diego, CA
3/21 - Bootleg Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
3/23 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA @
3/24 - The Depot at Humboldt State - Arcata, CA
3/26 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR %
3/27 - Media Club - Vancouver, Canada %
3/29 - Flying M Coffee - Nampa, ID %
3/30 - Kilby Court - Salt Lake City, UT %
3/31 - Hi Dive - Denver, CO %
4/2 - The Waiting Room - Omaha, NE %
4/10 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA ^
4/11 - Black Cat Backstage - Washington, DC ^
4/12 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY ^
5/27 - Sasquatch Music Festival - George, WA

# = with 1,2,3
& = with 1,2,3 and Lower Dens
@ = with Lost in the Trees
% = with Howler
^ = with TEEN

posted by n. @ 2/24/2012 02:07:00 PM

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Field Mouse

I had a pretty fun time DJing a semi-emo set last night at Union Hall for the latest Hilly Town Presents show. I say semi-emo because I was DJing with Chris from Battering Room and that's pretty much all he ever plays. My favorite part of the night, however, outside of that and rocking out with my best white girl dance moves to Shark? was getting to see dream-pop band Field Mouse for the first time. When I first saw them milling about, I made a point to mention to the boys how pretty their lead singer (Rachel) is and I suppose I am not alone in this assessment given the video below for track "Glass" is actually just a close-up of her face with bubbles and stuff flying all around. She's also very nice, btw, and complimented our DJ set (not sure if it was the emo or non-emo bits she preferred, however).

Their set was equally as appealing and enjoyable to watch and listen to as the video, so if you like what you see I would definitely check them out. Field Mouse have a few upcoming shows including two at SXSW aaaaaaand very very very pretty 7" out on Feb 28th via Small Plates Records.

posted by n. @ 2/23/2012 06:12:00 PM

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Hustle Roses (ex Oohlas) release debut EP

Confessional: I might be one of the biggest "secret" Oohla's fans of all time. Actually it's probably not that much of a secret, but I always felt for some reason that, back when they were quite popular with the bloggerati set a few years back, I could never accurately express how much I loved that band so I just never really talked about it outside of my friend Meg and I driving around in her car blasting 'TV Dinner' at maximum volumes. Perhaps it's because I never once got to see them perform live, which is certainly a huge regret, but honestly I have no idea why I was so mum on the fact that Best Stop Pop was in HEAVY rotation circa 2006-2007.

Since then I have waited impatiently for some sort of an update on the band who were working to get out of a major label deal (who isn't, really) and finally we have one - sort of - and I couldn't be more excited about this. Hustle Roses (aka Ollie Stone), the singer of the band, has gone off on her own and put together a solo act that is quite a departure from the Oohlas garage rock sound. It's bigger, dancier, and - dare I say - even awesomer.

The debut Hustle Roses EP, Tequila Mockingbird, is available now on Bandcamp and iTunes and hopefully SOON on Spotify. Pump up these jams right now and this time I promise not to be so hush hush.

posted by n. @ 2/21/2012 02:50:00 PM

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