everywhere i went last weekend i found myself wishing i had my camera. from the roof of carl's gowanus studio, where we were checking out an art opening, to the street art on the way to park slope for sunday's afternoon hefe session at the gate, i was kicking myself. and all my pretty friends, undocumented in this space! i hereby promise to make a greater effort to pixelize the pita. for now, you have this photographic evidence of our mass-produced danish midcentury chair, newly reupholstered by moi with a cool vintage alphabet-print fabric by alexander girard. cool, no?
and note the extremely limited edition, one-of-a-kind in fact, mussels pillow! they are playing friday at the delancey, don't forget. this guy liked 'em, and has a fantastic set of photos, too. and the band is currently heating up the web-waves at woxy.com. come on bloggers, start your engines!
in other news, we saw spoon the band play the other night. we are getting a little old to be going out on weeknights, 'tis true: carl leaned over several times and announced his tiredness in my ear. but i think spoon are just a little too reserved, somehow. everything sounded good and precise and all, but just not that excitiing. concert nirvana NOT reached. we left before the encore. eff it, we said. strangely, i wish they had played more new stuff off their upcoming supposedly titled "ga ga ga ga ga." seriously? worst album title since yo la tengo's "i am not afraid of you and i will beat your ass." i fear britt has lost his mind, especially with such song titles as "black like me." i really dug one of those new songs. it sounded a bit funkier, fresher, funky-fresher even, then the old stuff. anyway, for the performance overall? if i were randy jackson, i would say, "i dunno, it was just okay for me, man."
i DID reach concert nirvana at the john vanderslice at mercury lounge last thursday, though. i wish he had had a fuller band with him, but goosebumps appeared nonetheless. he just fills me with awe. strangely enough, there was a contingent of frat broskis hoisting brewskis and doing shots and screaming before and during his set. odd! opener st. vincent was also charming and special, despite my initial inclination to dislike her based on the silly birdcage she had on stage with her (not to mention the unfounded joanna newsom comparisons). i guess gimmicks get people to pay attention, though. but she held it all together all by herself. she reminded me of a quirkier, happier fiona apple. i was impressed. she's also very pretty and incredibly skinny, so expect to see her on a stereogum "50 hottest babes in indie rock" list by year's end.
if you're interested, i've been talking about swimsuits, tote bags, maxi dresses, and more over at fashion binge. and tamar, of course, has been talking about everything under the sun in her own special language.
this is only slightly more entertaining than watching our cats spar, and slightly less entertaining than watching our timid little chester bolt across the fire escape and through the neighbor's window into his apartment (!), where he apparently hangs out from time to time (!!): chickens break up rabbit fight. thanks paul.
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sunday, april 15, 2007
well, this weekend was, as a whole, a waste. here's what happened: friday night started out with drinks and food at pacifico with carl's studio crew, the margaritas followed by tecates with little dots of hot sauce placed around the rim of the can: delicious! then it was time for a fun ride into the city for a beer at the whiskey ward, followed by a lackluster enon show. meh.
saturday we cleaned while the sun shined: mistake. i got out of the house for a little while, returning home late for our appetizers date with brandon and allison. we eventually journeyed to lucali with the intention of getting their awesome pizza, but got impatient with the wait and headed to petite crevette, where we waited over an hour for food (click the link for my review). somehow, some way, the night just got totally away from us and by the time we were finishing up dinner, it was almost midnight. how the fuzz did that happen?? we ended up missing the gossip show, which i'd been really looking forward to: incredibly disappointing. i've been trying to see them for years, and something always gets in the way. we could have sped into the city hoping the knitting factory was behind schedule, but i would have been even more pissed if i'd had a repeat of the last time i didn't really see them, when i arrived at maxwell's in new jersey in time to hear one song before beth ditto said, "thank you, good night!" at least i got a really good thai cod curry out of it, but still. worst.
now it's raining buckets and i'm going a little stir-crazy inside, despite having scads of entertainments at the ready. oh, and i'm reading a really depressing book. happy nor'easter!
this shit is so hilarious, please click: worst commercial ever. it's just like. a mini mall.
also, i think i enjoy paloozahead a little too much:
all i really want to talk about today is the new mussels album, "little voices." if that's not the most beautiful cover art you've ever seen, you need to get a copy to really see it. lovingly hand-silkscreened by the band members, it's even more impressive in person (the white you see above is actually a gleaming silver), and that's only half of it (it continues on the back cover; see the whole thing here). it's exquisite, along with the music. a copy fell into my hands about a week ago, and it's taken a few listens to click, but now it's in heavy, heavy rotation chez pita. at first, i was like, "yeah, it's indie rock," but now i'm like "yeah! it's indie rock!" you know, indie rock the way it's supposed to be done: layered, catchy, rockin'. supercatchy, in fact: these songs are stuck in my head now, with no signs of leaving. it reminds me of classic indie rock bands like built to spill (a teensy bit), plus newer indie faves: superfan blogger the battering room, who has a track-by-track celebration of the album, picked up on a wolf parade-ish organ, while i hear the ringing guitars (but thankfully not the painful vocals) of clap your hands say yeah. but none of these comparisons is quite right, and none of them do the band justice. there is no reason why mussels should not be as popular as either of those bands, and indeed any of the best indie bands out there, and featured in zach braff movies and car commercials and all that stuff. currently, however, these brooklyn boys are a local phenomenon. they released "little voices" themselves, and it's only available at shows now, but will be in local stores soon! (their previous ep is at insound, fyi.) now i am going to share a couple of tracks with you, and i really hope you enjoy them as much as i do, but know that the album is solid from start to finish; it was really hard to pick just one. so i made it two, of course. listen, learn, love:
and you can hear three more songs at their myspace. then you will understand that mussels are, in a word awesome, and then you must go see them play. they've got two upcoming shows:
-friday, april 27 at the delancey w/Sure Juror, the Mugs & Beat Radio
thursday, april 5, 2007 i admit, i only saw karl rove dancing yesterday, but maybe some of you (my parents?) haven't seen it yet. i love how his style of dancing seems to derive almost entirely from 80s workout videos.
new feature alert! i have a feeling i am going to regret this one, but as i am in a pita rut (as you may have noticed), i am going to start a new feature: Out of the Inbox! i get sent a pretty formidable number of mp3s and pitches each week from publicists and regular-joe bands and solo artists, and frankly i ignore most of them. but they're not all shitty, i know. and so every week (she said optimistically), or at least every so often/when i feel like it, i will spotlight the best of the bunch. first up...
...is ford and fitzroy. i first met one of the dudes in this band a few years ago at a backyard party in williamsburg involving neal pollack and some bloggers. for some reason (beer), nate and i and his friend ray hatched a plan to walk the high line the following weekend, and we actually did it. turns out nate is in this band i've heard some good stuff about: ford and fitzroy. i think i mentioned that. they played at movable hype but i missed it. oopsie! sorry jen! anyway, this just means that i don't get to be the first kid on the blog block to talk up this band, but that was never really my thing anyway. i can't keep up with the young'uns. anyway, to the mp3 we go...
::: Ford & Fitzroy, "Handbags and Handgrenades" ::: the singer has a bit of an unhinged warble, like indie poster boys isaac and conor, so if you like that sorta thing, you'll love 'em, and if you hate that sort of thing, well, your loss.
so news about the free summer concerts around town is starting to pop up here and there. i'm pretty excited for quite a few of these shows! more dates are still to be announced, i think (ted leo of course must play the pier in late august, for example), and the mccarren park pool shows have yet to be announced.... please summer, come quick! effin' flurries this morning...that's b.s. here's a little list of the stuff i wanna see; check bv, of course, for more complete listings.
i'm afraid i lied about the party pics; this is the ONE picture i have from last weekend. it seems that my camera's battery pack is always in need of changing! the nerve! but i can tell you that the fratellis are undeniably awesome live. i cannot say the same for opener phosphorescent, a loopy one-man band who was almost aggressively morose, a really poor choice to warm up a drunk, largely british crowd interested in rocking out. but when the fratellis came on, all was forgiven. they really kick out the jams, and with only three dudes. it seemed like the entire crowd was fist-pumping and bouncing along—concert nirvana, y'all! finally! and carl's brother got to experience a fun, sold-out show in a small venue for his visit to the big city. good times. and then later that weekend my dad came to brooklyn and installed a fancy-ass grill in steve's backyard, which will be very nice to have this summer. i am still waiting for my housewarming present.
and then this past weekend i found myself at the mercury lounge again, after an enjoyable time with miss leigh ann and miss jami at marshall stack (which i really think should be called the marshall stack), drinking wine and smelling farts that turned out to be cheese. jami and i had to leave to go catch bishop allen, whose lovely, catchy pop songs i adore but who frankly just did not bring the good songs to the merc that night. weird. jami objected to their "shit-eating grins," which assessment bummed me out at first, but then i realized that she was right. a somewhat cultishly cheerful outfit, bishop allen. the keyboard singer in particular looked like she had been given some very happy pills. also, i now like to come home from visiting a new place and immediately yelp it. is that dorky? i sort of love yelp. on sunday after eileen's birthday pedicures, i yelped the dashing diva nail salon, too. i have yet to yelp our lunch venue or blue ribbon, where carl and i were treated to a nice dinner by our neighbor friends erik and ellen as the prize for our crushing oscar-pool victory.
in other news, i think someone has put a mail-related curse on me. either that or i have an enemy in the u.s. postal service. here is a list of things i have not received at my new address, despite directly notifying my correspondents: my phone bill, new magazine subscriptions, my metrocard that I get through work (returned to wageworks), a box of checks from the bank, a package that was returned as "undeliverable" (?!), a package that was tracked as "delivered" and yet not, and, of course, numerous netflixes. so far two movies have never reached me and then have magically been returned to netflix. i ask you: w. t. f.??? i keep trying to call the post office; this biotch is supposed to call me back tomorrow morning to discuss it. we shall see how far i get with that. i'm not optimistic. have you ever had mail problems of this magnitude, such that you want to rip out the arteries of the nearest postal employee? a simple "argh" is no longer enough.
does anyone else find this unintentionally hilarious?
the new rosebuds record is out and streaming, kids. i have a feeling they're going to pick up a few more fans with this one, which has taken a distinct turn for the synthy. i loved their debut, make out, a fresh, catchy power-pop record; carl preferred their more mature (and not quite as fun) follow-up; and now we get a dark, 80s-ish record, night of the furies. you can tell that deep down, they're a pop band, though. i'm liking it. they put on a fun show, too; they're at bowery may 24 and other cities on other dates.
