Is This Really It? Now That JC and Anphibius Finally Make People Laugh?!

The two people who said goodbye to funny years ago had the audiences cheers and laughs on their side last night at Detour, where Jazz has succumbed to Pop and Rock on Tuesdays. Anphibius announced the show as their last one in NYC for possibly quite some time: JC, after a brief stint in LA is moving to Amsterdam, while the ant will reside in Berlin soon. Joe McGinty and his wizard friend on sax warmed up the audience with Joe's tongue-in-cheek songs and created the right atmosphere for JC's slow motion Morrissey and ants antics, for whom the keyboard, no matter how long, always seems too short. Maybe they were always funny, but I missed the point for years. I finally got it. We will miss you guys, and hope we will here from your adventures in jolly old Europe on this blog...Sword Up!

Blondie vs. The Pretenders - A Fair Match

Well, not that everybody was spectacular, at the Knitting Factory when The Losers Lounge matched Debbie and her gang against Chrissie.
But hey, a short earful downstairs where Nikki Sudden played a sad set in front of about twelve art students, it felt much more like the losers lounge. So back upstairs, where especially Theremin Angel Dorit Chrysler reached back into her own punk days with Halcion and gave a Harry that Debbie would have blushed. The Greatest Pretender was, no doubt, Mike Fornatale whos incredible vocal strings wailed a rock the pretenders only about hinted at, while he humped the stage, broke a mic stand and killed about a dozen people with his eyes. Highly entertaining, and the victory deservedly goes to The Losers Lounge - they sounded great, although imo the Pretenders sound calls for Fender guitars. Oh, and minus points to the KF - what a damn shame to make Mike pay for the broken stand. Be glad he didnt bring down the house!

And George Was In The House

To enlist all the formations the late George Javori once played in or collaborated with is impossible, but they managed to get about twenty or so to play at Sin-e on Wednesday, March 8th. Man, it totally worked: It was a party, partly melancholic, partly dark, a bit weiird but full of honest emotion. Shining lights were Botanicas Paul Walfisch with the Jacques Brel cover "Voir un ami pleurer" and the nerdily beautiful Indigo Street and their attack on guitar.

Acoustic Rock Night at Detour Ends in Shards

...but these, at least where I come from, are supposed to bring luck, so maybe all is not lost for Room, but i think we shouldnt do the acoustic thing and return the our wall of sound. The mic cut my lips open, in return i knocked the lamp down. Overlord opened with a nice set, Kerry Kennedy and Mike Fornatale gave us a nice Buckley and Vega treat and were the stars of the evening for me. Thanks to all you folks who came out late on a regular Tuesday evening. We'll have CDs soon, so you can stay home and still hear us!

Die Letzte Uebung Finds Worthy Memorial

Everybody has obscure tunes in his head, from long forgotten bands, pieces of a melody from a song from your childhood and first impressions of what punk as an art form could be. In Switzerland, the honor of combining unique imagery, graphics, type and powerful music first goes to Die Letzte Uebung, a six piece band that made their shows surreal art happenings not unlike the Residents, but wilder. DLU did not shy away from playing fierce funk rhythms or include free jazz saxophone and roughest early synth shocks into their punky mix. Foremost, they were a band, and with that comes the territory of fighting, followed by premature break ups. DLU played four legendary concerts and never entered a studio. One old cassette tape of rehearsal room recordings has recently been restored by bass player Fredy Stieger. Entercontainer, a new virtual label of highest quality and good services presents the long lost tape in full length mp3s and is strong testimony of the raw power the band came across with, even under poor conditions. With the exception of Bleichenbacher, who was on synth, all remaining members of DLU still dabble in music. But to reunite the six on stage has so far proven impossible...

Room for Rock in a Jazzbar

So you had fun, but we were too loud for you at East River Bar, last time? Here's your chance then: Room play a rare semi acoustic show for the nice people at Detour, NYC. Overlord will begin the festivities, followed by a set of songs by Kerry Kennedy, Mike Fornatale and Roman Game, then Room. As Joes Strummer would say: Rock the Chasbahr!

May The Overlord Be With you!

So Overlord had to prove they can live up to the promise their songs on MySpace made...and they did, not once but twice: A lush sounding performance at Pianos on Friday and a powerful show at galapagos on Saturday. Their songs are well crafted pop tunes, the likes that Julian Cope, the Byrds or Velvet Underground could have written. Next to the gracious class of Kerry Kennedy, some of the male members of the band desperately need fashion advice, though. If you wonder, what Overlord sounds like, the podcast on the right is most probably playing my favorite of their tunes, The Family Plot. Or you can come and check them out on March 7th at Detour.

The Swordsman Entertains at the Knitting Factory

Downstairs at the old office last Friday Anton Sword lulled us into his universe of sounds and, erm, words. The exceptional Heather Wagner lent a hand on drums, and, who would have expected it, they were close to rocking, at least for one song. Antons material is from another world, deep inside his soul, where words and sounds are very fragile. Not really something for us punx, but just right for a cold winter night. He promises to be even funnier next time and that his jokes will not all be about this blog...and rumor has it that he will show up with a two foot long plastic sword. U gotta see that.

Indie Alternative 1 - Americana Rock 1

It's a tie between the performances of C. Gibbs and Falcon yesterday at Pianos and Southpaw - both shows were great, but about as different as bands with guitars, drums and keyboards can be. Falcon sound like a sophisticated cross of the Flaming Lips and Coldplay, with the right big'n'mighty wall of sound, while C. Gibbs sounded better than ever, with Melomane's Pierre making a strong impression as new guitar hero and Q. giving the dignified british Lord he is. The crowd at Pianos looked a bit better, but the people at Southpaw danced way better. Good to see the guys from Kinetic again - they have a record coming out and a couple of show coming up, notably with Overlord at Fat Baby on March 16th.

The Reason Nobody Knows What's In the New Village Voice - Go See C.Gibbs Instead!

Well...wouldnt happen on the internet, now, would it? That doesnt mean im not picking the VV up anytime theres one left in that very red box. Soccer on hold, TV program bad, Olympics not what they supposed to be... Let's rock! For example Thursday night at Southpaw where we all should enjoy C. Gibbs with his grooving outfit including dear Melomane members Q. and Pee/dog/air.

Bushwick Astronauts Goodbye

Here's a little teaser from Morex Optimo's last show at the surprisingly nice Wreckroom in Bushwick. Yuri takes an open ended break now and the question is who will join Heather and Kristofer in their journey to the core of music?

On the Westward Trail through New York

Missed HeadQuarters at Fat Baby on Thursday, but was pleasantly surprised by the duo that went on after them: The Westward Trail play Punktronic in the best possible indie manner. Propelling beats, passionate guitar play and great vocal harmonies with the right dose of angst. They are from Boston, so make sure you see them next time around here.

Everyone Loves Yuri...

...but Yuri leaves. Sad but obviously true news from Morex Optimo. Let this blog to be the first to start a petition for Yuri to reconsider his decision and keep our favorite intellectual punk combo together - post your outraged comments below, I'll make sure Yuri gets them. It's not all over yet, Baby Blue: Check the band's last show out this coming Friday at Wreckroom in Bushwick, 949 Flushing Ave (L to Morgan Ave). Here's what Heather writes:

"hey, so as it turns out, if you were maybe on the fence about coming to see us this friday, um, well here's a bit of news that might help you make your mind up one way or the other: sadly, it's going to be yuri's last show. i don't know when we're going to play again, but we're not breaking up, kristofer and i are going to see if we can keep it together and find maybe 5 or 7 musicians who can fill in yuri's parts.

yes, we're really bummed so it might be your chance to see a live rock band crying through the whole show!(we never said we weren't pussies.)and i guess, if you know any wildly talented musicans with perfect pitch and impeccable time and exquisite sense of melody and who sing like angels and can play every instrument and can play
rock/country/punk/jazz/fusion/mathrock/metal/classical/klezmer/gamelan and have always wanted to play in 13/7 time with a sullen swede and smartass drummerchick, um. yeah. let us know."

HeadQuarters on the Road Again

It's already February and we haven't had a single HeadQuarters show yet - how did we get thru the cold without them? High time to go to Fat Baby this Thursday, Feb 9th, to see the boys and rock out. Their music, your dancing and a whiskey with a lemon is the surest way to avoid a cold. And since models tend to get booked into the Hotel on Rivington and Fat Baby is just across the street, we can first hand find out if it's true that models love rockstars... I mean, look at them!

The Television Personalities Are Back

The original TVPs are back - their new record is out on Domino records and Dan Treacy not only resurfaced after ten years of drugs, petty crime and a stint on an british prison boat, but he also reunited with the fantastic Ed Ball. Let's hope we all get to see them live again!


Television Personalities - All The Young Children On Crack