Hello all. We're not dead in a ditch, promise. We were out of town for over a week, got new hairdos (I am so blonde now, no longer everyone's favorite dyed-black grumpus. I'm still getting used to it, thx.), and then had to recover from all that travel. We're cool. Just mad busy! Oh, and our server is still in limbo, so ... hope you like words and embedded videos! I'm only partially kidding, we're working on getting that resolved ASAP.

But hey! If you need yr daily fix of Rich Girls blather, we post on our Tumblr ... a lot. (Add the RSS feed to your reader?)

Furthermore, hello to anyone directed from the Boston Metro -- thanks for the link, y'all.

So, things that we'll hit on soon:

• Seeing The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle play a solo show @ Brooklyn's lovely Masonic Lodge -- it was pretty rad. And some some drunk guy complimented me on my "glorious stockings" -- they were pretty badass, actually.
  
• Seeing John Darnielle read from his new 33 1/3 title -- Black Sabbath's Master of Reality -- at the Housing Works cafe/bookstore, the hidden gem of Soho (no really!), where we found some amazing books, including one of easy piano/guitar versions of fave New Wave joints, published in 1978 -- which means I can now play "Psycho Killer" or "Love Comes in Spurts" on the autoharp, should I so chose.
• Our shopping spree @ Austin's End of an Ear -- look for us in their print ads soon! Pinkie plans to tell you all about the awesome Crass record she found there. I, however, will probably only be reminding you how awesome ... The Style Council were. Or subjecting you to my rilly pretentious David J 12" that isn't even mentioned in his Wikipedia article!
  
• The Ting Tings record -- it's the worst thing EVER! The Madonna record -- it's possibly the best thing in recent memory!
• So where, exactly, are the summer jamz? We're with Sasha Frere-Jones on this one -- it's a little disturbing. I blame the excess of club tracks (not a bad thing, mind you...) and skyrocketing gas prices, which will make it hard to drive around blaring The Summer Jam(s) for all and sundry to hear.
  

In other news -- we'll be out an about this week -- it's my BIRTHDAY.

Blacklist and The Mary Onettes play Union Hall on 5/19
Bellmer Dolls, WOMAN, and Magick Daggers will appear @ Union Pool on 5/23
The Muggabears play the Knitting Factory Tap Bar on 5/25

And, though we've become devoted to quite a few things lately, nothing has moved us quite so profoundly as ... Fall Out Boy's cover of "Beat It." Pinkie says, "If you think Fall Out Boy suck -- or that you're too cool for them ... you clearly have no soul."

I've just spent wayyy too much of my morning updating my account on TourFilter, which is an entertaining cross between upcoming.org (which I kind of hate) and ohmyrockness or any of the other myriad sites that track events in NYC.

The most entertaining thing about TourFilter is the ability to see what other bands users are tracking. For instance, I had a good giggle over the fact that Slim Moon (founder of Kill Rock Stars and currently doing A&R for Nonesuch) and I seem to be tracking the same bands -- meanwhile, I'm dying to know who user 3xWes is, seeing as he/she/it also tracking tourdates for Interpol, Sally Shapiro, and solo shows from Will Sheff of Okkervil River. Obviously a weirdo like me, I suppose.

Speaking of Sally Shapiro, I can't get enough of her, really. If I were to make a list of my favorite discoveries of 2006, she'd be right at the top. Here's a belated holiday-themed song for you.

Sally Shapiro -- Anorak Christmas. (site)

Ok, time to run errands -- library, post office, bank. The usual boring stuff.

BTW, I tried listening to the new Menomena record, Friend and Foe (stream it over here) but just got bored. I wasn't the biggest fan of their previous work, but still. It was more interesting than this! Sad to say, I think they're the latest victims of The Barsuck Effect -- you know, have a promising future, sign to Barsuk, put out a streamlined, dull album. It seems this is only happening with new roster additions -- roster veterans are generally safe.