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

A Trip Down Ashbury Road

...and down Memory Lane. Sometimes it's good to remember where it all comes from: Ashbury Road from Rebstein, Switzerland focus on the best of the late Sixties and cover The Who, The Beatles, Stones and some Rock classics. This is Roman performing five songs with them, mostly to rough things up, and lo! it worked. It's only Rock'n'Roll but I like it - note the classic hard rock gesture my left hand comes up with. Where the heck did it learn that?


On a different note that sounds more like late seventies punk: After their furious debut, Room have been asked to come back to East River Bar for another treat on Saturday, February 25th. They plan to invite Overlord, one of New York's most original indie bands to join them! Opening up will be Angelica Block, which continues our tendency for inviting bands with weird names.

The Man With The CD Players

You can call it a live performance with a movie or a movie screening with a live soundtrack, anyway you see it, it goes well together. I'm talking about the first performance of the Contemporary Soundtrack Orchestra New York, which, to be honest, makes just as much noise as a full blown orchestra, but consists mainly of cd players, keys and computers and one man working frantically at all the machines at the same time - Fa Ventilato, artiste musicaliae. The movie was Dziga Vertov's 1929 masterpiece "Man with a Movie Camera", to which Fa's frantic sound collages set the fitting audioscape. There's the thing about the harp sample, though, that went on throughout the 68 minutes of the feature, up and down and up and... y'know. Still, I'll go again next time.

Rock the Room and Room Rock You

A great night was had by a good crowd of almost a hundred heads and hearts at East River Bar in Williamsburg on Tuesday, where the upstarts of the new Alternative indie scene, Morex Optimo, Chasm in Labrador and Room performed highly entertaining sets. Above from left: Jean-Cosme, Martial and Bernd keep it straight in Room while their singers go apeshit. Below: Stjan and Rollie of Room are not your typical rock singers, but quite a handfull to watch and listen to. Bottom: This photo is proof that Morex Optimo are just as much fun off stage as on it. Their dense and rich intellectual punk was the crowning highlight of this rocking night. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of the exquisite Chasm in Labrador who opened the evening with melodic yet beautifully psychedelic tunes. If you have any pics of them (or Morex or Room for that matter), please post the in the comments below! Morex Optimo will be recording a new 3track single this week...prelistening on this blog soon!



White collar punx give you Room



Morex Optimo having fun thinking about new song titles.

Cowboys in the Alpine Regions

So you thought there were no real Cowboys across the Atlantic? You're so wrong! There's not only Privateman "Bronson" Heer, his claim that the original cowboys come from Switzerland is backed by Walti, the solo entertainer from the eastern outpost of Rorschach at the Lake constance, the same smalltown that claims true Punk's heritage. But Walti knows better: "If music, then Walti. If Walti, then music" promises his slogan on the website. Thanks to Philipp Amrein of swiss alternative music magazine Loop, who comments Waltis efforts with the line "the dark side of Rorschach." Loop unfortunately does not have a website (yet?). Post more sightings of Swiss cowboys in your comments below!

East River Has Some Serious Horns Going on!

Yes, there are some things that havent been done in rock music and Country Club & the Porn Horns have definitely found their own niche: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock mixed with great Dexy's Midnight Runners style horns. Rocks your socks off, man. They are playing every Friday in January at East River Bar, so you got one more chance to check them out live. And as I said earlier, 1968 is definitely back, it's so back it's almost 1970. This is also true for trusted old party Rubulads, where it was packed on Saturday and people rubbed their hair against all sorts of things. Anyway, there were highlights like the wonderful Adira Amram who charmed her butt off and handed out free CDs (go to her space), I even forgot to take photos. Worthy of a couple of good words and originality points is Thomas Truax, who defied the digital age all by himself and was on fire.