It's no secret that I love M.I.A. So when her Terminal 5 show was announced and Y offered to get me a ticket for my birthday, I was stoked. Somehow, I managed to convince three of my best friend from Atlanta to come up for the show. Days passed, weeks even. Finally the time came and Friday night we found ourselves at the new venue, teeming with excitement.
Earlier that day, I ventured over to Brooklyn Vegan to get the scoop on the Thursday night show. Reviews were mixed. Some people loved it; others hated the location, complaining that it was too massive and cold and that the beers were pricey. I don't know about you but I expect to pay over six dollars for a beer anywhere above 50th street. It's called "pre-drinking," folks.
So after a fair amount of pre-drinking in CG$, our crew took a car into the city and we arrived at Terminal 5 half an hour before M.I.A. took the stage. We hit up the bathrooms, got a drink, spent at least 10 minutes or so debating whether or not we were standing next to an aging Lady Miss Kier, and then the show began.
Donned in shiny leggings, silver high tops and a fluorescent orange stripped top, M.I.A. exploded onto the stage and killed the crowd for an amazing show that none of us will soon forget.
She played a ton of stuff from her new album, Kala, including "Bamboo Banger," "Bird Flu," "Boyz," "Jimmy" (a somewhat different version than on the album, "$20." "Hussel,"(during which Afrikan Boy joined her onstage), "XR2," "Paper Planes," and "Down River." She also pulled out some favorites from the Arular repertoire such as "Pull Up The People," "Bucky Done Gun," "Fire Fire," "Bingo," "Hombre," "10 Dollar" and "Galang." (She opened with the first song from her second album and closed with the last song from her first.)
At one point, they let people go on stage to dance. We were way in the back but decided that we needed to get in on that action. We made it all the way up to the front but they wouldn't let us on. Still, it worked out well because suddenly, we were much closer.
I like the new venue. Intimate, it's not, convenient, with its three levels of bathrooms and bars, it is. Anyone who was there Friday night would be hard pressed to call it "cold." The energy level was high and everyone looked like they had a good time. Can't wait for Justice Saturday night! Hope it's as interesting as their Jimmy Kimmel stint!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Power power!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Fashion Costumes
I'd like to be any of these non-slutty, fashionista superheros for Halloween. Thank you Felipe Oliveira Baptista!
Wonderwoman
Star trek Meets Mod
Badass wrestler
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Vh1 Hip Hop Honors?
As everyone knows I am not a fan of contemporary rap but I found myself watching a rerun of the VH1 Hip Hop Honors show and I couldn't turn the channel! Yeah like everyone else I've seen the poster advertisements while waiting for my faithful six train in the morning or the persnickety L train on the way to the studio, and I thought wow what cool illustrations, but I don't think I'll watch the show. I was wrong.
What some of you may not know is that I was an avid fan of hip hop during my preteen years. I have an aunt who is only five years older than me so during my formative years she was like a big sister. So, of course I wanted to be just like her. She was listening to Salt n' Pepa, LL Cool J, Whodini, Big Daddy Kane, Queen Latifah so I listened too. This is where Hip Hop Honors touched me. I turn it on and the first Honoree is Missy Elliot who is the most creative performer, producer, video star to come along in a long while. Then I hear, Whodini was being honored and I just had to see it. I wasn't disappointed, I found myself singing along to all the classics complete with the old school dance moves. It took me back, I wonder if this is the music I'll be blasting when I'm eighty, making all the kids roll their eyes and sigh "Not again!"Other honorees included Snoop Dogg, the movie Wild Style (see if you have the chance, it's awesome), and A Tribe Called Quest. If you're like me and you remember rap before the era of gangsta you'll wanna see this show.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Can't Have The Cake
and eat it too.
Boo, while we were squirming in the crowd of thousands (maybe hundreds) at the Arcade Fire + LCD Soundsystem pow wow (which by the way was amazing and yet frustrating all at once) we missed everything else that weekend including Diplo and M.Ronson on Friday and Sigur Ros and Coco Rosie on Saturday. God, New York, ya killing us!
anywho, STOP IT, can't cry about it now, here's a hump day treat. WE HEART MARK RONSON!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Beirut and Inspirational Musings
Take this weekend to listen to Beirut and while you're at it download the new single, Sunday Smile here.
Beirut at the edge of the sea
staring across at Africa, dreaming of travel
going with wind, water . . .
floating an inch above the waves
hovering just slightly
nudging the current forward
to rest on land
moving, m o v i n g
all along
beyond past, broken seashells, war
to glimpse a secret place no one could ever go
whispering stories along the way in sound, in music
carrying the moment, the deep longing
in a single breath blowing through a horn, a note, a season
to find meaning
sitting at the edge of the sea
Monday, September 24, 2007
Ulrich Schnauss at Joe's Pub
Saturday night, I made a rare weekend trip into the city to catch Ulrich Schnauss at Joe's Pub.
I'd never been to a show at Joe's and found it to be an interesting venue. It's small and intimate. Half the space is filled with tables and they serve food. It's a little like seeing your favorite artist playing in your dining room.
The show began promptly at 9:30 and Ulrich played through many tracks off his new album, Goodbye, including "Shine," "Medusa" and the title track. The only older tune he played was "On My Own," which I found disappointing because I prefer his previous material to the new album.
IDM loses part of its charm when performed live because essentially, it was just a man and his laptop, joined every so often onstage by a (hot) guitarist/lyricist. I joked that he was really just running his iTunes library and talking to his friends on iChat. My friend Cesar retorted that he was updating his MySpace profile and we finally decided that he was just looking at porn.
Still, the music sounded great, the visuals were nice and I couldn't help but think that it was a shame we'd given up all those party favors we used to indulge in back in the day.
After the show, I ventured back to CG$ and further still to Red Hook ¢, specifically Lido's Bar, for Daddy Dennis's 33rd Birthday bash. Unfortunately, I had far too many $4 cocktails, a course of action that ruined the 24 hours to follow and caused me to blow off my ball field plans on Sunday. Better luck next weekend!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
National Singles Week!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Shake A Fist
I recently grabbed the new Hot Chip tune, “Shake A Fist,” due for a 12” release sometime this month and after a few listens, I still can’t decide how I feel about it.
Just last night, I was thinking that “Over and Over” defined Summer ’06 for me. And while I loved that song and realize that this one will probably click after a few more listens, it’s just different than what I think of when I think of Hot Chip.
The middle part, AKA the "sounds of the studio," is an experiment within a song. It’s a far cry from anything on their previous two albums. I love the heavy bass and grimey sounds but I’m confused about the evolution.
I do recall that when we saw them in March at Webster Hall, their new material seemed to have taken a turn into harder, more danceable, dare I say, ravey territory, but I was a big fan of their melancholic, lap-pop, bleep and glitch numbers too (unlike the folks at Fluxblog apparently, though I found their review quite amusing.)
Check it out for yourself and decide.
Trump L'Oeil Baby
Hanging out in the CG$ and R.Hook$ this weekend got me looking at a lot of babies, admiring the fact that I don't have one but that they exist and are tiny bundles of cuteness, at least when they are not crying and pulling hair. Instead, (thanks to the Sartorialist) I can look for my very own Trump L'Oeil baby t-shirt.
Monday, September 17, 2007
And the award goes to...
So is it just me, or is the award season so far a total joke? Let's start with the now infamous MTV music video awards. First this is a joke because you rarely ever see videos on MTV anymore, as pointed out by the lovely Justin Timberlake during the show. ( I don't want to see anymore of the Simpson sister's respective reality shows either.) Second, YES Brittney Spears was horrible but that was the only reason a lot of us tuned in. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a Brittney hater and I wanted to see the flop live rather than hear about it second hand, and I did, repeated several times thanks to A's TiVo. Third, and thankfully I'm not alone in this contrary to several early reports, Mtv's new award show format was very uncomfortable to watch. The reason we tune in is to see the performances, these were limited to short teasers where we were encouraged to visit the internet for the full show. The production was rife with awkwardness and technical difficulty. For example, did anyone notice the guy pushing Jennifer Garner down the stairs on her way to present an award with Jamie Foxx? It was priceless, even Mtv's staff has admitted to not being happy with the outcome. Also who came up with the award categories? I was grateful for the shorter two hour format, but that was about it. Oh and Kanye West's rumored outbursts were quite enjoyable too, but I guess technically that wasn't part of the broadcast. Oh and sorry Mr. West but if you had opened the show I wouldn't have busted my ass to get to the beginning of the show like I did for Brittney.
Let us now move on to the Emmy's. Boring. The circular stage wasn't exciting, half the audience got to see the back of some important people in the TV biz, and I kept waiting for a rock show to start or a stand up comedian to come on. Ryan Seacrest as host, umm really? Wasn't there someone else more dynamic, and less pop culture? It seemed like the same movies and mini-series were nominated in every award category. Come on, there had to have been a little more going on in the television world this year. I mean how many times did Robert Duval get up on stage to make a long winded speech about cowboys and have to get played off. What's going on? Is there no creativity involved in the planning of these shows anymore? Fine, great take a risk but Ryan frickin' Seacrest? really? I didn't even make it through the whole show, maybe it got better but I somehow doubt it. Maybe I should do what I normally do and completely ignore all the award shows.
