So… this whole swine flu business is not awesome. Especially not in NYC. This place is a total germ farm. Getting on the subway now has me scoping other subway riders for sneezers and coughers, and I ride the subway a lot.
But I gotta say… these people in Mexico City have the right attitude. Right on! Click on the photo to see a whole set of decorated swine flu masks in Mexico City from Telegraph.co.uk.
"With great mustache comes great responsibility!"
The Black Keys – Fox Theater, 4/18
We all know how awesome The Black Keys are, but honestly.. how do two guys produce such brilliantly hard-rockin’ music? It blows me away each and every time I see them live.
For those of you who are just learning of this band, The Black Keys are a mix of dirty blues and rock music, and consist of Dan Auerbach (vocals/guitar) and Patrick Carney (drums/producer guy).
They’ve been gaining a solid fan base over the past 7ish years, and rightfully so. Their latest album, Attack and Release (which was produced by Danger Mouse) came out in 2008 and its first single ‘Strange Times’ was even featured on Grand Theft Auto IV. The video (which is awesome and somehow doesn’t exist on YouTube) is of them playing around with freakin LASERS! Yeah.
They also had their song “When the Lights Go Out” off of their 2004 album Rubber Factory, on Sammy L’s 2007 flop, Black Snake Moan:
Of course, I can’t mention them without talking about the song “Your Touch” which is basically one of my All Time favorite songs. Ever. And the video is pretty neat as well.. I like the idea of ghosts going to do something mundane like get coffee.
To talk about the recent Fox show, I just have nothing but great things to say about the entire evening. They bring so much to the stage when they play, it’s amazing the intensity of music and stage presence that can come from just two dudes playing blues. They were wonderful with the audience and appreciative of the theater, and had just enough banter without it becoming trite. They played a good mix of old and new songs, and the flow of the evening was great (you can check out their setlist here).
Plus most everyone in the crowd, though absolutely wasted, was super nice about letting me do my job and anytime that happens, big thumbs up.
Go check them out when they come around, if you get a chance.. it’s well worth it.
-bex
Ok, so I’m about to lose all my cool points and street cred with this post, but I’m willing to because I think this is absolutely hilarious.
Ok, here we go.
So, Britney Spears (yes, yes, I know.. I know.. hear me out) recently released a new album Circus. Her ‘come-back’ album, as it were. The songs are bubblegum, cookie-cutter pop and not really worth noting here except the one titled “If U Seek Amy” (embedding disabled else I’d throw that puppy in here) where she sings about looking for a girl named Amy and the song absolutely makes no sense in or out of context. Here is the chorus:
“Love me, hate me, say what you want about me / but all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy”
Ok so originally the song irritated me because of how it makes no sense, but then someone finally told me that when you say “if you seek Amy” it sounds like “F-U-C-K me” and that is, well, kind of hilarious and brilliant. It adds a bit more depth to this next line in the song:
“Oh baby, if you seek Amy tonight / oh baby, we’ll do whatever you like”
Hah! I say, way to come up with a great new acronym type thing, Brit! You may be a crazy See You Next Tuesday, but damn girl. And of course she’s getting in all kinds of trouble with the parents for getting their little girls to spell out ‘fuck me’ when singing along to her music.
Hilarious.
(Oh, don’t ask why I was listening to the new Britney Spears album though. This is totally our secret. Ok? Ok. Sweet.)
-Bex
———–
5/5/09 – Editors Note
I am removing the ‘Britney Spears’ tag from this post as there are way too many people doing legitimate searches on Britney Spears and finding this blog. I find that deeply disturbing.
–DJ Rex Manning Day
Hey there, festival goer! Coachella 2009 starts today! Here are some tips and tricks to help you rock hard all weekend!
110 Degrees
1. Wear Lots of Sunscreen and a Big Hat – While this is stating the obvious, people still tend to forget to bring hats and sunscreen. Coachella is right next to Palm Springs. It is CRAZY hot. In 2007 temperatures hit somewhere around 110 degrees on Saturday. Getting sunburned will ruin the rest of the festival for you. Nobody likes being “That Guy” that looks like a lobster all weekend. Also, stay hydrated! Drink water, sucka!
Also, if you do forget to bring a hat, buy one there as soon as you arrive. My favorie are the asian style pointy dome hats. At Reggae on the River a few years back I was fed up with the hot sun and bought one of those hats on the last day. I was kicking myself that I hadn’t purchased it earlier in the weekend! It changed my whole world at that show! Since then it has traveled with me to countless festivals, Burning Man, and various other shenanigans.
This guy has the right idea.
Another thing about getting a hat is try to make it crazy unique and recognizable so your friends can find you in a crowd. Get creative! Sticker it up! Whilst waiting in line at the entry gate during a sandstorm at Burning Man 06, I started decorating my hat with colored electrical tape, and its stayed on ever since. My friends can always find me in crowds which minimizes time spent on texting people so you can maximize time getting jiggy with it and enjoying music. This brings me to my second point…
2. Stick to Text Messages – Coachella has terrible reception for cell phones. Cell providers can’t handle the load of tens of thousands of people calling all at once for 3 random days during April in Palm Springs. Text messages are the way to go. Besides, even when you do get through on the phone, you are in front of a loud ass stage, so odds are the other party won’t receive the call, or be able to hear you if they actually pick up.
3. Stick with a Buddy, Not a Group - A common phenomena at gatherings like this is ending up with way too many people all at once. Odds are, once a group gets over 3 people at a festival, its time to split up the group. We’ve all been there where 10 people are in a group, and someone is in the bathroom or wants to stay somewhere too long, and other people don’t want to wait for them, and then people get upset, and the whole thing becomes akin to herding cats. LAME. I think the way to go is to stick with one or two other people throughout the festival, and not worry too much about what ALL your other friends are doing. Large groups can work, but let go lightly when you or your friends want to go do their own thing for a while.
Parking Lot Friends! Kea and Nastasia 2002
4. Find a Good Meeting Space and Return to it Every Few Hours – Once you get to the festival, find a meeting spot that is really distinct, and come back to it every few hours. Sometimes at big festivals you have to go solo to catch a band you want to see, but the downside is you can end up alone for a long time. Hence the meeting spot! Reconvene! Party On! At the end of the festival in 2007, my friend Mark and I met this group of kids in the parking lot who were locked out of their car. Apparently the driver of the car had disappeared 3 days earlier after taking acid, and no one had seen or heard from him since then. As they were explaining this to us, the driver kid finally staggered up to the car after three days of tripping and doing God knows what, and looked like the most broken man I have ever seen. Shoulda had a meeting spot, fella!
This campground is whack, yo!
5. DO NOT CAMP AT COACHELLA - Although I have never done this, Dynosauras did for a night in 2007 and can speak pretty extensively about how awful it is. There is no shade, you are way too far from your car, and its generally a total mess. If you are with a bunch of people, the thing to do is rent a vacation house for the weekend outside palm springs. Preferably one with a pool and AC. (This is what a lot of the performers do) Only camp as a last resort and if you do, make sure you bring a cheap shade canopy to kick it under during the hot morning hours.
6. Bring a compact windbreaker – Its the desert and once the Sun goes down, it can get quite cold. Also, it can get quite windy. (Note the gargantuan windmill farm as you drive in. Its a windy spot.) Come sundown, you will be very happy with yourself if you have some sort of outer layer to put on. I recommend a light and compactable windbreaker - easy to carry and keeps you toasty, or at least, toastier than you would have been with nothing.
7. Bring Hand Sanitizer and a Handipack of Kleenex – Bathrooms can be gross and unpredictable. Watch out!
8. Bring the whole value pack of Earplugs! – These sound systems are the loudest that Southern CA has to offer. Going deaf sucks. (see the movie ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’ and you’ll know what I mean. Scariest. Movie. Ever.) Odds are if you had the foresight to bring earplugs, then all of your friends forgot them. A pack of 10 – 20 pairs is only five bucks at any drug store. Bring the whole pack and hook your friends up! *see also the title of this blog.
Arrr! The pirate tape do be comin' in handy
10. Pirate Tape! – Trust me. It came in handy. Bex was able to strap a flask to her thigh with it, and later on it was a hit in the Sahara tent. Don’t believe me? Just ask this guy:
11. Car Maintenance – In 2002, I drove 22 hours each way to get to Coachella from Colorado. We had a blowout at freeway speeds outside Phoenix at 3AM. It was crazy nuts and not very awesome. If you have the time, check the oil, make sure your tires aren’t bald, and if you have a hide-a-key, bring it as a spare and hide it near the car in case your keys disappear into the festival ether. (see #4)
12. Don’t drink all day! - Why spend time in a beer garden in super hot weather paying 8 bucks a beer? You miss music and the alcohol drains you of all your energy. (If you aren’t drained that day then you are a wreck the next.) If you are going to spend 8 bucks a beer, at least wait until the sun goes down. But don’t forget to keep drinking water to stay hydrated!
14. Channel Your Inner Lewbowski - Coachella is the best place to see new bands you have never heard of, and come away with a greater knowledge of current shit. You will not be able to see all the bands you want to see. Its impossible. There’s just too many stages and too many good acts to catch everything. So invoke your inner Lewbowski and keep a loose agenda.
–DJ Rex Manning Day
Kode 9
Get ready to have your face melted and body rocked with a double dose of rumbling bass. Kode 9 and Flying Lotus descend upon the Rose Center for Earth and Space for this month’s installment of Fader magazine’s ‘One Step Beyond’ parties this Friday. What could be better than dancing to dub step and future hoppy music whilst in the company of asteroids and Mars Rovers??? Nothing! Nothing I tell you! (Unless you happen to be at Coachella. That would be pretty cool too.) Don’t sleep on this one, NYC!!
Sweet! If only I had in iPhone!
I got this a while back from the Do Lab Mailing list. With misting tents and the most face melting beats, its sure to be a hot spot on the polo fields this year. If you are there on friday don’t miss Beats Antique! Straight from Oakland, the band consists of two djs and a professional bellydancer! I saw them open up for Bassnectar and it was amazing. Don’t miss it!
Many of you know that every year The Do LaB creates a massive art installation inside the Coachella Arts and Music Festival, complete with our favorite underground music, water misting madness, custom Do LaB structures and performances by the Lucent Dossier Experience. This year we’re going bigger than ever with our vision and lineup. Our installation is, by far, our largest creation yet and we’ve put together a collection of music artists from around the country that are sure to make you dance until you drop. This may be your best chance to see The Do LaB in full effect this summer as we unleash everything we’ve got on our Lucent Misting Oasis. You are officially invited so get a ticket or two and come kick it with us!”
On March 24th The Decemberists released their 5th studio album, The Hazards of Love.
Lead singer Colin Meloy had originally wanted the subject matter to be shown as a musical production, but realized what a pain in the ass it would be stage-wise and ended up turning it into a 17-track continuous story epic rock opera. Yes, you read correctly, a frickin’ rock opera. Rad.
The general story centers around a love story between this shape shifting forest dweller creature named William, sung by Meloy, and his love Margaret, sung by Becky Stark of the band Lavender Diamond.
The beginning track shows how they met in the forest..
They fall in love and she gets knocked up, and so then comes back to the forest to try and find him. They spend a blissful night together, emphasized by this sweet little ditty..
But, as in all good rock operas, then the trouble begins. The Forest Queen/William’s mother, played by Shara Worden (and who has an insanely powerful, kick-ass voice), is pissed and doesn’t approve of their love and basically tells him that he can’t see her anymore. William asks for one more night with Margaret and the queen allows it..
Enter the villain, The Rake. [To break from storytelling a bit here, the Decemberists have some pretty fucked up songs ("A Cautionary Tale" being a fun example of how at night while you're asleep your mom is the whore of all the scurvy-laden boat workers), but The Rake's song kind of takes the cake, so far at least.] Ok, so basically the Rake, who you learn has killed all of his kids because he didn’t really want the responsibility, steals Margaret and hides her far away across the water with the help of the Queen chicky..
William goes to the waters and asks them to settle down so he can cross to get to Margaret, promising his life as a repayment.
So he crosses and Margaret and William are reunited, partially due to the fact that in one of the songs the Rake’s kids come back to haunt him and so Margaret escapes, and then they both die in a sinking ship together. But William promises that they’ll be ghosts and kick it at the bottom of the water for eternity together. Yup.
It’s a pretty intense and amazing undertaking, I gotta say, and I think well worth the efforts.. give the whole thing a listen. Though it is a bit different and perhaps a bit less pop (if that’s what you want to call it) than their previous albums, I think they’ve really expanded on their sound and created something beautiful. Plus it’s a rock opera! I mean, right?
-bex
So hot on the internets right now. All your Belgian train stations are belong to us!
