So, even if we couldn't pull enough strings to get into the grand opening of the Highline Ballroom tonight with Lou Reed and Overkill (um, Okkervil) River (that mutual admiration society is a bizzaro complement to the Iggy Pop/At The Drive-In pairing back in the day, isn't it?), we were super-stoked to find out today that one of our favorite Austinites, the always wonderful DJ Mel, is rolling with the Yo Majesty & CSS party barge for a few dates in June. Though we aren't the biggest CSS fans ever (or at all, even), the idea of darling Mel with the ladies of Yo Majesty is very pleasing to us indeed. (Grab one of his dj sets from November on East Village Radio con Nick Catchdubs over yonder.)

DATES:
april 30th - nasty's / austin, tx
may 30th - nasty's / austin, tx
june 1st - irving plaza w/ yo majesty & CSS / new york city
june 2nd - the middle east w/ yo majesty & CSS / cambridge, mass.
june 6th - dagobert w/ yo majesty & thunderheist / quebec city, quebec
june 7th - academy club w/ yo majesty & thunderheist / montreal, quebec
june 8th - babylon w/ yo majesty & thunderheist / ottawa, quebec
june 11th - casbah w/ yo majesty, diplo & bonde do role / san diego, ca.
june 12th - cinespace w/ yo majesty / los angeles, ca.
june 14th - beauty bar w/ yo majesty / austin, tx.
july 7th - milk bar/san francisco

Speaking wonderful things, I can't get enough of DC's Da Committee -- as they put it, they really are the perfect blend of Dirty South and East Coast Hip Hop. Thanks (again) to AgentLovelette for the tip. (And check out the "DC Clap" on their MySpace page...)

Da Committee -- Bruce Wayne (sorry for the zshare action, I was having trouble uploading it to the Rich Girls server...)

Also: Prince covering Joni Mitchell is indeed the best thing ever. Don't even attempt to disagree with me here. Or wait, or is it John Cale covering LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends"? (Which, btw, is totally the "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)" of 2007, I think. Too bad I didn't have that to post, too.) I just don't know.

John Cale -- All My Friends (DFA cover). [I don't need to tell you this is mad limited, get it before Murphy and Sweeney nail my ass for this one. FASTER!]

Prince -- Case of You (Joni Mitchell cover).

And, hey! Congrats to our new pals The Muggabears for making the grade on the L Magazine's Class of 2007: 8 NYC Bands You Need to Hear list. Rock on, y'all! We don't envy anyone the task of winnowing down the gobs of bands sprawled across our lovely metropolis to a list of just eight to watch, and The Mugs totally deserve the shout-out.

The Muggabears -- Dead Kid Kicks.

Needless to say we weren't at Coachella. AS IF -- it was totally the weekend to clean the Castle, duh! However, this Friday we'll yet again voluntarily subject ourselves to the FUN! gathering at Studio B in Greenpoint. Oh, the things we go through for the Bellmer Dolls, I tell ya. (They'd best play that cover of "Jump into the Fire" if'n they know what's good for them.)

And, dear NYC'ers -- don't miss the adorable Yellow Fever, who will be in town this weekend too -- featuring Jen (aka 'remember when there was a girl in Voxtrot?') and Isobel, one of Pinkie's former coworkers! It's gonna be positively Austin-tastic up here for the next few weeks, and that's totally fine with us!

ps -- Are you a writer with a strong background in financial journalism (3+yrs) in the NYC area? Are you looking for a new gig? Are you a nerd for business news, operations, and history? Let me know. Seriously.

pss -- One of our favorite show-going pals, the magnificent photographer Kathryn Yu, is selling prints of her work. Show the love -- and someone buy me this one, okay?

Mmmm. Old Austin fave, the ever-changing yet totally stalwart and prolific Dale Watson takes a page from the Johnny Cash playbook on his new album From The Cradle To The Grave (on Brooklyn's very own Hyena Records) -- even going as far to record the entire album at Cash's Tennessee mountain cabin (currently owned by Johnny Knoxville -- really, could this story be more swoon-worthy?). Check out the video below for "Justice For All," starring some heartthrob from Desperate Housewives. (I wouldn't know, I don't watch it...)



And yes, you betcha, we will be out to see Mr. Watson on tour. You should too...

May 11 / WFPK "Live Lunch" / Louisville, KY
May 11 / Ear X-tacy In-Store / Louisville, KY
May 12 / Midnight Jamboree @ Texas Troubadour Theatre / Nashville, TN
May 13 / Hideaway BBQ / Raleigh, NC
May 14 / Plan 9 In-Store / Richmond, VA
May 14 / Shennanigans / Richmond, VA
May 15 / The Iota Club / Arlington, VA
May 16 & 17 / The Rodeo Bar / New York, NY
May 19 / Johnny D's / Boston, MA
May 20 / The Ale House / Troy, NY
May 21 / The Sportsman's Tavern / Buffalo, NY
May 22 / Beachland Ballroom / Cleveland, OH
May 23 / Martyr's / Chicago, IL
May 24 / Club Tavern / Middleton, WI (Madison)
May 25 / Vnuk’s Lounge / Cudahy, WI (Milwaukee)
May 26 / Lee's Liquor Lounge / Minneapolis, MN
May 27 / Knuckleheads / Kansas City, MO
May 28 / The Continental Club / Austin, TX
June 1 / Blanco's / Houston, TX
June 2 / Stagecoach Ballroom / Fort Worth, TX
June 7 / Time Warner Cable-Publik Music Event / Waco, TX
June 8 / Hank's Texas Grill / McKinney, TX
June 9 / The Broken Spoke / Austin, TX
June 16 / Love and War In Texas / Plano, TX
July 6 / Nutty Brown Cafe / Austin, TX
July 20 / The Broken Spoke / Austin, TX
July 28 / Safari Sam’s / Los Angeles, CA
August 1 / The Rawhide Saloon / Jamestown, TX
August 3 / Tractor Tavern / Seattle, WA
August 4 / Pickathon Roots Music Festival / Happy Valley, OR
August 5 / The Oregon Jamboree / Sweet Home, OR
August 8 / Alive After Five Series / Boise, ID
August 9 / Street Dance / Challis, ID
August 10 / Braun Brothers Reunion / Challis, ID
August 17 / The Broken Spoke / Austin, TX
August 23 / Smith’s Olde Bar / Atlanta, GA
August 31 / Minnesota State Fair / St. Paul, MN
September 2-4 / Oneida Casino / Green Bay, WI


...Because, omg, The Rodeo Bar has everything a good Texas girl likes to eat except for queso. I can't believe we missed seeing our SXSW 2006 supercrush, pedal steel savant Chris Scruggs, there earlier this month.

So, whilst people were having the best time ever over at the Of Montreal show/karaoke jam (it did sound way fun...) at the always-entertaining Studio B, we were having the best time ever seeing Calla at the Bowery Ballroom -- which, given my informal survey after the show and this morning, is proving to be one of everyone's favorite Calla shows ever, it seems (second only to that one last February at Northsix, maybe). They were tight, they were on, and they were brutally lovely. But more on that later... and some other events of the evening, including a nice turn from the Sugar Report and a predictably dull and soul-less (though tight, mind you) set from Dirty on Purpose -- AND the part where we were mistaken for glamorous burlesque queens headed for our shift at The Slipper Room. Color us flattered! Must be my new Chinatown special haircut ($20!) and hot new shoes with the dirty cone heels or Pinkie's high-Weimar Republic makeup scheme, starring Nars' Exhibit A blush and her four-inch dance-a-tattoo-on-yr-grave heels. (No, I'm not kidding. We're still laughing about it, even now. Gotta love NYC.) [Note from Pinkie: Dude, those are five inch heels.]

But for now, we have the second in our two-part series of extra special Voxtrot content, live footage of "Your Biggest Fan" intercut (via the editing skillz of Reynard Seifert) with even more road hijinx and co-starring the Golden Gate Bridge -- I tell you, that tour with Au Revoir Simone is gonna be like the best boy-girl party ever. EVER.



Other big news of the day: So, was the first Interpol show on Canadian pre-release tour lackluster -- or was it first-night jitters? (Were you there? Do tell!) If you're >dyingfor a peek at the new material, head this way (beware of the crappy resolution, though). In other news, you got your tickets for the secret Spoon show at the Bowery Ballroom next Monday, right? Should be a grand old time. They haven't played a venue that small in NYC since ... what, 2001? 2002?

ps -- i fixed the mp3 links on the entry below -- sorry about that. but now, like, the comment link isn't working. WTF? I checked the code, and the bit for the comments just isn't there -- but is on all the other posts. If anyone has suggestions as to what might be going on, please do let me know.

pss -- Brian Banks of Ear to Ear Productions makes $20,000 a pop writing 30-second compositions for commercials -- most of them Fortune 500 companies. Once upon a time, he sold pianos and synths in LA in the 70's and was a session musician -- most notably on Thriller. Now, you hear his compositions several times a day, probably. (via Fortune, link forthcoming)

A few short things before the weekend. I know I'm lagging on my recap of the Xiu Xiu/Shearwater/Casiotone for the Painfully Alone show -- the hosting hijinx earlier in the week really threw me for a loop -- but I do have a few small items for you today.

First -- Calla, Dirty on Purpose, and the newly-retooled Sugar Report take the stage at the Bowery Ballroom Saturday night. The Sugar Report's demos are enough to make us want to see if they can bring it (you know, "it" being that je ne sais quois that the best bands have live) on a bill with two bands that are pretty formidable performance machines. We'll let you know how it goes.

Secondly -- A friend sent me an interesting article, which you may or may not have seen around the interpipe, about violin virtuoso Joshua Bell's experiment with The Washington Post. They asked him to busk with his Stradivarius violin in a busy DC subway station to see what happened when a master of his caliber graced a more humble venue than a vaunted concert hall. Would people notice? Or would it not even register? The results didn't really surprise me all that much -- now that I live in a city constructed atop a massive public transportation system, nothing that happens in a subway station gives me pause. Anyway, I'd like to posit that this is some of the best writing about music, just in general, that I've read in quite some time. I was moved to tears a few times. You'll see -- I have a feeling that if you're reading this, you're the kind of person who'd be touched by it as well.


I wasn't able to get an mp3 of Bell's recording of one of the pieces in the article (though you can watch a video of his performance at the article link) -- Bach's Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D Minor -- but I did find another fiery virtuoso's version...

Lara St. John -- Bach's Chaccone from Partitia No. 2 in D minor. [site]

Thirdly -- I'd forgotten how great lovefingers is. (Recent posts: Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix! Tuxedomoon! METALLICA!! A Kid Creole remix! All in one week!) I'm super bummed that I missed his dj sets here in NYC in February. Ooops.

Fourthly -- James Green Peaness has a great review of the self-titled Voxtrot record. As a preview of coming attractions, I suppose I should let you know that my opinions are pretty much aligned with his. VXTST (hey, I just made that up -- I like it as an abbreviation!!) isn't a collection of jangly, light-hearted singles -- it's a hefty bildugsroman-esque (Though, Pinkie tells me that maybe it's more Künstlerroman-y. Smartypants!) album, which I think is pretty neat. I have a weakness for what I call "thinly-veiled semi-autobiographical coming-of-age" novels -- you know, the kind of thing that lots of promising writers put out as their first effort (everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Less Than Zero to The Mysteries of Pittsburgh to Special Topics in Calamity Physics follow this literary trope -- there are countless others), and most never get around to following up? Yeah, those. That's what the Voxtrot record is like, in a way. (Except I surely hope there will be an exceptional followup!) Anyway, this will make more sense later, I promise.

YOUR OFFICIAL PARTY TRACKS OF TAX WEEKEND, BTW or, I'm cleaning out things I've wanted to post for months now:

Pull Tiger Tail -- Let's Lightning [ myspace ]
The Longcut -- Idiot Check [ myspace ]
Beyoncé -- Irreplaceable (Dances With White Girls RMX) [ remixer ]
Herbert -- The Audience (Martinez Cosmic Re-Edit) [ remixer ]

ACK! You may notice that it's a little plain around here today. In a fit of pique, I accidentally deleted all of our image files after getting a copyright infringement notice from our hosting firm early this morning. Don't fret, our pretty pictures and other assorted content will be back tonight -- however, we have taken down our precious archive due to abusive third-party linking.

In the meantime, please pardon our technical difficulties, we'll have everything back to normal at some point! Oh yeah, and watch this video from The Veils for "Advice for Young Mothers To Be." (They're coming stateside this summer, hooray!)



thx.

UPDATE @ 3:11 PM. Images still out of commission, but any tracks uploaded in 2007 are back online. In order to stay out of trouble, though, in future all tracks will be available for a limited time only.

Wow, what a weekend -- Patrick Wolf, quality time with Shearwater and great sets from Xiu Xiu and Casiotone for the Painfully alone. More on all that later, though.

First, we're happy to have to have our very own exclusive content (does that mean we're really in the big leagues now? oh, I crack myself up...) -- an adorable video from the Voxtrot camp of the band's 2006 Fall tour, set to the strains of "Fast Asleep" off the Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP: Five boys in a minivan take on the West Coast!



And, the oft-posted -- and in our humble opinion, totally rad -- teaser for the band's self-titled album, out May 22. Yes, it's darker. Yes, it's not so user-friendly as the earlier stuff. We think that's totally okay -- better than okay, even! Totes perfect.

Voxtrot -- Kid Gloves

...the boys hit the road again soon with the similarly adorbable Au Revoir Simone. BOYS VS GIRLS! Be sure to bring mash notes and cupcakes and hugs, they'll need them -- they're sure to leave a string of broken hearts across America!

05-25 Austin, TX - Emo's
05-29 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey
05-30 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
06-01 Portland, OR - Doug Fir
06-02 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
06-05 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock
06-06 Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection
06-07 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
06-08 Toronto, Ontario - Sneaky Dee's
06-11 Cleveland, OH - Beachland
06-12 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
06-13 Washington, DC - Black Cat
06-14 Boston, MA - Middle East
06-15 New York, NY - Webster Hall
06-16 Philadelphia, PA - Pure

***

In other news, I was at what was apparently the nicest of the Patrick Wolf shows around town this weekend -- at Studio B on Friday night. (And apparently, Kelefa Sanneh was there too, but I didn't spot him -- I also didn't see him at Shearwater's Bowery Ballroom set Sunday, but I assume he was there, too.) Anyway, it was an experience, to say the least: I took the bus alone at night! I walked a long way in heels! I waited in line for ages in the cold and put up with the obnoxious kids behind me erroneously discussing the completion of Mozart's Requiem, praising Rasputina and calling the show a "concert" in a most tedious fashion!

Luckily, once inside the venue, there wasn't a massive, disinterested crowd, as was apparently at the Hiro Ballroom on Thursday. (I tried to go to that show after a lovely dinner at Dimple with the lovely Meg, but promptly turned on my heel when I saw the swelling crowd of wannabe hipsters spilling into the street.) Nor was there drama over the passed out, accosted, and finally uh, unemployed drummer (sad, as he had REALLY NICE HAIR), as at Wolf & band's appearance at MisShapes at Don Hill's on Saturday. (Which also I almost attended as well, and then remembered that it would be more fun to stay home and be boring and give myself a manicure and watch Beauty Shop). However, much to everyone's chagrin, there was a party hostess who blathered like an airheaded dj at a radio remote appearance from hell. I mentioned this to the handsome, mustachioed gent next to me, and he agreed. We were also treated to the worst opening band of all time, Dreamburger. I mean really ladies, if you must get up and scream and play synths in front of people, could ya do it without the bad 80's manqués, and maybe practice a little first? Otherwise, do us a favor, and like, don't subject us to your cutesy/disgusting little-girl slumber party singing-into-a-hairbrush stage antics. OKTHX! (PS -- you might want to watch La Brune et Moi for pointers on how to do it right, yo.) Can I also mention that DJs-of-the-Moment Eamon Harkon and The Bangers' sets were underwhelming at best? Oh, I think I can. (That being said, they do generally book great bills, so uh, don't blackball me, or whatever okay, ya'll?)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah -- really, for all my complaining, I had a great time. Wolf & band (when conscious) put on a hell of a show -- even if it was a mere 30 minutes long. He has about the most compelling stage presence I've seen in a long, long time -- in a completely organic and charming yet totally and completly affected way, he rocks the punk rock queer Puck role flawlessly, at that liminal point where New Romantic stage melodramatics, Rufus Wainwright, Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), Antony, and well, yeah Rasputina and their ilk all collide. (No wonder he's such a hit with the LiveJournal set..!)

Much like Eddie Izzard as megalomaniac manager Jerry in Velvet Goldmine -- someone at Universal probably has dollar signs in their eyes right about now, given that the door girl was walking up and down the block outside the club, screaming to make sure no one in the plebian cash-only/will-call line was a guest-listed label VIP. And Wolf's giddy scream-inducing stage antics can't be hurt by that 8.3 review in Pitchfork, either. (Meanwhile, I was totally won over by his cover of Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm In Love" -- at least I think that's what it was..? Confirmations/corrections appreciated.)

The hype couldn't be more clearly deserved, IMHO.





Wolf-y selections from the archive:


Patrick Wolf -- Accident and Emergency
Annie -- Hopeless Fool For Love (Patrick Wolf Remix) [which I originally described as "the ABBA-from-another planet remix"]

[photo courtesty of Kathryn Yu]

***

And later ... how I actually physically enabled Shearwater's Kim Burke in the signing of her contract with Matador on the downstairs bar the Bowery Ballroom -- by providing a pen! (Hahahahaha!) But seriously, y'all. Go buy the new version of Palo Santo tomorrow, okay? OKAY! It's sooooo pretty! You'll see! (Really, this necessitates a hard copy and not the iTunes version, all you packaging fetishists!)

I like it when something I find kind of serendipitously dovetails with something delivered into our overflowing, over-stuffed email box (seriously DO NOT GO IN THERE) -- it's frightening.

I am (naturally, hello!) in love with Kids on TV's cover of "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off." (via AgentLovelette) You know, you remember -- Jermaine Stewart, right? Boy-freestyle? YES! I had a huge video post a few weeks back that Blogger decided would make a good midnight snack that was chock-full of awesometastic videos, including the stunning juxtaposition of said song and Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend" -- and the inevitable postmodern-mindfuck mating of the two -- Justin Timberlake's "My Love."

You know ... like this:



Jermaine Stewart -- We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off

Prince - If I Was Your Girlfriend

Justin Timberlake -- My Love


Anyway, Kids on TV's album Mixing Business With Pleasure is coming out on blocksblocksblocks soon-ish; they're having a record release show on my birthday in Toronto. Which I imagine will be totally fun. They're currently touring Europe, and are currently in the wilds of Denmark headed for Germany.



Kids on TV -- We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off






***

Meanwhile, from the PR machine comes Pink Nasty's cover of Usher's "Burn". You know I don't generally serve up stuff from promo people unless it's worth hearing, and this is. I should probably also let you know that Ms. Nasty is touring with those other Austin darlings who double as her backing band, The Black. Keep an eye out for them. And, if you like, stream all of her great debut, Mold The Gold behind this link. Good times!

Pink Nasty -- Burn


Needless to say, after following Shearwater across the U.S. in people's Flickrs, I'm on tenterhooks for Sunday (SUNDAY! SUNDAY!). I'm torn between holding a "WIN A DATE WITH CINDY HOTPOINT" contest (I kid, I kid) or just going alone or asking out a certain interesting young gentleman. I know this may shock you, but I'm horribly shy when it comes to those kinds of things. I don't think anyone would ever call me forward.

I suppose I should also mention that I'm kind of all about the Voxtrot debut, which I'm sure is shocking to no one -- and I'm avoiding the backlash like the plague. But I'll have more on that when I write a review approx. two months from now. (Can't post a track now -- I don't feel like running afoul of the nice folks at Beggars, you know how it is...) Anyway, perhaps by then, the hater-aters will have calmed down...or not.

ps -- NYC-ers, anyone else going to Patrick Wolf on Thurs. @ Hiro Ballroom?

pss -- Latest secret dance party track: Cosmos -- Take Me With U (Vocal Mix) . Seriously.

The weekend at TGRAW HQ went a little something like this, thanks to the fact that the C train wasn't running:



Derek Jarman's films pretty much define clear-eyed prescience -- especially Jubilee. And the best part has to be Jordan as Amyl Nitrate singing (shreiking? wailing?) uh, the anthemic "Rule Britannia". (Jordan apparently, in addition to working at a fetish shop in Brighton, occasionally performed with Adam and the Ants.)

[Small editorial aside from Pinkie: Contrary to our speculation that Jordan, née Pamela Rooke, may have met with a bad end, we were pleased to find that Wikipedia, among other sources, states that Ms. Rooke is now a veterinary nurse and a noted breeder of Burmese cats. But we do suppose that cat breeding, in its obvious absurdity, is a pretty iconoclastic avocation.]




It's always nice to find another April Stevens fan, seriously -- especially one as nearly giddy as he was when I mentioned her iconic cult album Teach Me Tiger... Now then, perhaps my treasured vinyl copy of that LP will materialize from the aether. (Winning back cover copy: 'she sings like her throat is full of angora sweaters...')

April Stevens -- Teach Me Tiger

(And check out the rollicking duet "I've Been Carrying A Torch For You So Long That I Burned A Great Big Hole In My Heart" performed with her brother Nino Tempo over at Domino Rally)

Must dash for now, but I'm thinking of you. Really!

ps -- In Flagranti dj set, A Decade of Hero Worship