ahoy, me mateys! went to the frying pan last night after scarfing a scandalously delicious lobster roll at bongo and seeing some silly sasquatches with jami and sarah. that place is so cool -- if you don't know, it's a rusty old boat docked on the hudson that has some sort of historical significance. so many makeout/hangout nooks (see more pics on flickr). we waited forever for ex-models to go on and by then were too tired to stick around for people of the north (or, more likely, oneida, as all three members were on the boat). i might go see oneida tonight at tonic, or tomorrow at the east river amphitheater, where they'll play with oxford collapse (who i saw a couple weeks ago and who were fabulous), tall firs, and extra action marching band.

::: Oneida, "High Life" ::: the new oneida album, the wedding, is really good, and probably their most accessible. definitely the first one i would call "grand," which probably has something to do with the giant music box they built themselves, and the abundance of strings. but fear not: they don't skimp on the heavy riffage. they are definitely one of the most creative and fascinating bands out there. and as an added bonus, they will never be trendy and will never play fucking webster hall. a rusty boat on the hudson? check. a basement in hamburg? check. god bless 'em. oh my rockness has a good profile but unfortunately is a little behind the times, as they apparently think crazee is still in the band. they've been a trio for like four years now, guys. ahem.

::: Oneida, "Run Through My Hair" :::

::: Oneida, "Did I Die" :::

also, everybody needs to check out kid's korner. so lovable. i always enjoyed his tour reports immensely and now he seems to be writing regularly. remember when i used to go around saying "ONEIDA" in that weird voice for no discernible reason? i'm starting that up again. you have been warned.

okay, so remember when the hold steady "sold out"? here's the site, the horribly named oddsagainst7even.com (you're supposed to say "seven"). the hold steady have not yet made their appearance, but i'm linking it anyway so i can get the SCOOP (sarcasm, people). so there will be five short films about a bunch of freshman college kids trying to get a band for a party, and i'm guessing there will be some really cool lamps and shit in the background that you can buy at tar-zhay. the extremely hot hero, who appears to be a quiet, sensitive soul, thinks he can get the 22-20s. damn, i wish i was that cool at 18! but i really hope the hold steady gets it! i do! it would be so rad if they played the party! um. tune in next wednesday!

i was walking out of the subway at west fourth yesterday (the dirrrty w. 4th, btw, near sixth) and i heard this woman yelling at someone (her man, maybe), 'i wants to go home now! i keeps telling you this! i needs to wash my ass!'

i can't decide what is my favorite thing about this video profile of "big apple blogger" lockhart steele: his two-time mispronunciation of the word "dilapidated," the idea that he likes to interact with his readers' thoughts, or the jaunty music. there's just too much to love!

MUG nails it again with its assessment of the inefficacy of the random subway searches. it does nothing but make it look like they're doing something. that and make people feel like they're living in a police state (or lull them into a false sense of security). i must add: why do they always add these dumbass measures AFTER the shit goes down? it's not like nobody has ever thought of the idea that maybe somebody might blow up the subways. but the shit goes down in london, and bam, all of a sudden, they better "do something." argh.

friends who ask me to cutify their shirts typically get them back at least six months later. that's christine up there, powering through her fear of clowns in her spiffy new adam and the ants t-shirt.

the other night i went to see the scissor sisters at the mercury lounge. never have so many gays been seen in the mercury lounge at one time. some of them were full-on dancing to the music between sets. also in attendance were jimmy fallon (hot...gay?) and jared leto (beautiful but unattractive, if that makes sense, and also very short). the scissor sisters were trying out a bunch of new songs. i guess they sounded okay. the dude singer looks kind of like a gay rhett miller, which is to say he looks like rhett miller, but with pecs.

the real treat of the night, though, was morningwood. i'd seen them before, a couple years ago,but they really won me over at this show. lead singer chantal started it off by commanding, "all right, i'm gonna need everybody to come in reeeeeal close," and we obeyed. and from then on it was just hilariously great. the girl has a rubber face, and kept making all sorts of faux pouty, angry, surprised faces. i wanted to take pictures but i could not stop laughing. it was SO much rock and roll fun. and i love that she's so overtly sexual and confident despite the fact that she's not exactly the definition of classic beauty, with her crazy curly moptop and little pot belly. she brought some dude on stage and made him perform a strip tease, and frankly it was pretty hot. i think they do it every show, but it works. i love their mix of catchy melody and yeah yeah yeahs-y stomp. they're total pros. rock on, morningwood! their album was pushed back to january, but you can stream a few songs on theirspace.

in news that should surprise no one, the breakup of gbv has not stopped insane amounts of music. steven soderbergh's new film "bubble," which will be shot on video and set in ohio, features all bob pollard jams. that's pretty cool. there'll be an EP of some of that stuff coming out in october. he's also coming out with suitcase II. there is also another "briefcase" coming out. i'm not even cool enough to know what the fuck briefcase I is, but there you go.

it is a documented fact that i love ok go. this song is pretty much shit, but this video is brilliant. what choreography! i wonder how many times they practiced those moves. so funny. makes me sorry i missed them at the pier this week. they have an album out august 30th. let's hope it's not shit. you can actually listen to a couple of songs on their site. they're also playing a show at the jersey shore tomorrow with hot hot heat, which makes me wish fervently that i had a car.

this dumbass 24-year-old beauty editor got fired for blogging. i have very little sympathy for this girl. who in 2005 doesn't know that you can't blog about work? in fact, i was nervous about posting about this because i'm practically afraid to blog about blogging about work. then again, the dumbass got contacted by "several book agents," says the post, so what do i know?

man, joey's don'ts and dont's column is the best thing in the blogosphere right now. hands down. genius, i tell you.

but watch out! because kurt has joined the blogosphere. i refuse to call it "shaken, not stirred," because everybody knows kurt drinks only straight vodka. anyway, kurt has so far discussed the ugliness of karl rove and a drunken evening at the hotel on rivington. off to a smashing start!

if you can stay up late tonight, the hold steady are on conan. billy bob thornton is the guest! that's gonna be a hot show. (as many of you know, i am totally hot for billy bob thornton. ) i am bringing little brother steve to the hold steady show on august 5 (with black mountain opening), because i discovered in the jerz that while my dad was rolling around to bruce springsteen, steve was rockin' the hold steady. of his own accord! even quoted some lines in his borderline-mocking way! i'm so excited to have converted him, and to be bringing him to see them for the first time. he has no idea what he is in for. he shall be baptized in their fire of rock, or something.

hilarious voicemail from a texan calling in late to work. just listen.

also, two gallants got signed to saddle creek. they are more than pita-approved; they are pita-adored. i'm happy for them.

finally, i heard the funniest joke today. (okay, i, uh, read it on the gbv mailing list -- shut up.) it caused me to lol. maybe i'm easy though. anyway, here it is:

Q. How many indie rockers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. I have that on vinyl.

i'll be here all week, folks.

weekend was uniformly disgusting. these are the days when you can't stay clean, or even get clean, ever. oppressive haze and humidity did not let up the entire weekend. i do not want to move from the direct blast of my AC. but i have taken to wearing philosophy's "soap and water" and i get whiffs of it all day. so that helps. but it's so humid out that it's hard to breathe. ugh.

this siren, my fifth (yep, haven't missed one -- why is this annual trip to coney island so perenially doable? can't figure it out), was cool in that i had a VIP pass and thus was able to see the bands up close and take a bazillion pictures if i felt like it (i didn't, really, but a shit ton of others did). yet somehow, between the long lines for VIP beer and VIP potties, i only saw two full performances. was most excited for diamond nights, but they played it a bit lackadaisical up there and did not seem to be firing on quite as many rock and roll cylinders as i would have liked. i like their EP a lot though. also saw brendan benson -- word on the street is the boy likes nice pants. he shops at zara. interesting. little matt also says he is a "dirty dog." fyi. these facts aside, the man is brilliant. i almost reached concert nirvana during his set. by spoon time, jen was ready to go and it was pretty crowded and i've seen spoon several times, so what the hell? might as well get a seat on the train. having missed their set at siren, i was going to go see dungen at the mercury lounge but everyone bailed and i was exhausted and so i lazed on my couch and watched a rerun of the 4400 (which so wishes it were the x-files but is still a good show). what a life i lead. it felt good. more pics at flickr, duh.

last night brian took me to see blowfly. this man is frightening. supposedly the original dirty rapper, he is at least 60 and grabs his balls a lot, while singing about things that my mom would not like to read about on this website over standard (boring) funk music. it was funny about a quarter of the time, such as his version of a certain r. kelly hit: "i believe my dick can fly." crowd favorite "hole man" was funny for the first 30 seconds, too. my good english upbringing kicked in at one point and i actually got offended and left the room to collect myself and be annoyed. perhaps i am too sensitive, but at that point i was just waiting for it to be over. maybe if half the band wasn't playing off of sheet music it would have been more fun. worth noting: blowfly is a christian who doesn't smoke, drink, or do drugs. i'm sure that would make my mom feel better.

tonight is the nyc debut of richmond electropunk outfit VCR. don't sleep, kids. of their EP, which you can stream here, the almighty pitchfork says: "there's at least as much Dischord abrasion and punk gallop in this stuff as there is Human Leage dancefloor pyrotechnics." and tamar says they've been known to play shows that involve "8-foot cardboard bongs, flags of kurt cobain, and bloodied noses." in other words parrrrrrrty! TONIGHT, eight o'clock, 169 bar. detachment kit play, too.

"I woke up with the sound of German hip hop in my head/
A great unholy clatter quickly filling me with dread/
I wondered then if silence had forever disappeared/
With everybody yelling, the end was finally near..."

i actually woke up to the sound of npr telling me about the blasts in london, and promptly burst into tears. because not only was it terrible, but it reminded me of the confusion and fear that reigned in this city four years ago, causing me to change my alarm from pleasant "babbling brook" to no-nonsense npr, so that i might know if the world had collapsed while i slept. and in that first few seconds of the broadcast, i wasn't sure where it had happened. does it even matter? bombs in london causes wnyc to switch to bbc for nonstop coverage, but pretty much every morning is a report of bombs in baghdad. shit, i have no point. it's just very depressing in so many ways.

but luckily we have music! and thanks to the almighty jen and her seemingly endless supply of VIP passes, randi and i got to check out clem snide from front row side at castle clinton tonight. and eef is so comforting and wry and, yes, adorable with his little hopping and his "sexy danceable songs about the end of the world" (his words) that you can't help but feel better, even if you can't quite get that tear bubble out of your eye.

they sang a few new songs, including one eef did solo called "the ballad of bitter honey," sung from the perspective of a rap-video hoochie. it was hilarious and ultimately sweet. i've never seen a crowd laugh as hard as they do for clem snide. and they are just so goddamn GOOD, able to go from a waltzy melody to a triumphant feedbacky squall and back so seamlessly that it takes your breath away. pete, the multi-instrumentalist guy, played a banjo with a bow and his mouth, a geetar, a euphonium, some crazy keytar-like instrument but with a million buttons instead of keys, and various tinyboxes all lined up on the stage floor. sometimes after i see a band a million times like i've seen clem, it gets old. but it never gets old with them. amazing. also, just because i like posting videos, here's a little clip of pete waving the euphonium around in the air.

and eef is so insanely ADORBS! fave quote: "you aren't that cool, new york. i'm not impressed that you found an apartment." (he escaped to nashville, but two band members remain in brooklyn.)

::: Clem Snide, "War Pigs/Don't Be Afraid Of Your Anger" :::

::: Clem Snide, "Something Beautiful" :::

::: Clem Snide, "The Sound of German Hip-Hop" :::

if that's not enough for you (and it shouldn't be), there is a crapload more here, including several whole shows.

independence weekend in jersey was lovely and relaxing. saturday we celebrated my dad's birthday by planting flowers for his "floral grotto," playing tennis, barbecuing, and seeing war of the worlds (excellent!). brother steve smashed a cake into his own face after accidentally, and hilariously, dropping it facedown on the book i had just given my dad. the next day we feted howard with, yes, more food! it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend, breezy and just warm enough. great for riding around "the farm," as we call it, on howard's golf cart (which he uses for hauling dirt). good times. additional pics on flickr.

Catherine's Pita's Trip the Summer Fantastic Mix

The Clean, "Tally Ho"
The New Pornographers, "Twin Cinema"
Head of Femur, "Elliott Gould Is In California Split"
Mellowdrone, "Beautiful Day"
Two Gallants, "Nothing to You"
Old 97s, "Friends Forever"
Marah, "Freedom Park"
Diamond Nights, "Destination Diamonds"
Supagroup, "Get Wasted"
Oneida, "Did I Die"
Les Savy Fav, "The Sweat Descends"
The Blood Brothers, "Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck"
Lifter Puller, "Manpark"

have a great weekend kids! don't shoot your eye out!

p.s. the new ryan adams record rules. get it.