More From The Jam!

We told you about it in February and we tell you again: Go see Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler with their new band, simply called From the Jam. They play fired-up, precise versions of the tunes that made the Jam famous back in the late Seventies and sound as fresh (and probably better) than when Paul Weller was with them. Foxton and Buckler replaced the Modfather with two guitars, and Russell Hastings does a good job, not imitating Weller but never veering too far away from the original performance. The video should put any fears that you will not be getting the real thing at rest!
From the Jam are at the Blender Thyeatre in Manhattan on Friday, Sept 26th.

Don't Miss Your Chance to See the Feelies!

A little older, but looking good - Mercer (2nd from left) and Million (2nd from right) reunited with the original line-up. The band that had the first "New Wave!" sticker on its debut album is back, 30 years later and after a 15 year break: this weekend, the Feelies are in town, Saturday at Williamsburg Hall of Music, Sunday at the Bowery Ballroom. In case you haven't heard of this extraordinary and most influential group (cited by Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo among others), we recommend you go to both shows to get a grasp on how to combine pop, punk and melancholy. If you know them, we know you'll go to both shows anyway. See you there!

New York Ain't Sleepwalking, I Am

Full Tank at Cooco 66 by Tobias Klutke

There's live shows worth blogging out there, sure! It's just that my computer gets so hot after all the typing, I need to get away from it, from time to time, say to Fire Island to inspect the ticks situation and play Kadima. Or to the catskills to swim in forbidden lakes and inspect suspicious alien activities in hundred year old cellars. And then, my trusty help and videographer Schmiani just went and got married and all, and now she ain't blogging now more.

Still, we managed to see some great shows. First off, the taking off of Falcon at Rehab, after their much reviewed EP hit the stores. As you can see in the sidebar, we recommend you both the live as well as the packaged version. The photo is by Geoff Northrop, you give him shit for playing around with those nasty Adobe fonts.

Then, we caught the revitalized Overlord at the Cake Shop and were given the excellent new single "My Mechanical Heart". George tells me that they will release a new track at every show till the new CD is complete - a nice idea of concept rock in a digitally confusing age. Third, Sword was the word, again at Rehab, which is the coolest place in Manhattan these days anyway, if you still have to go to (or live on) the money infested island. The new quartet with the amazing bass/drums duo of Kristin Mueller and Jessica Hallman harmonized beautifully with the eccentric fantasies of Anton Sword and Kristofer Widholm and give the sword a new bite. Now, tell these stories, Antony!

Last not least we saw the also reinvigorated riot grrrls from Full Tank at hip hip Coco 66 and were positively surprised with new additions Joe Jameson and Ness Newcastle on drums respectively bass, who trim the ladies' bubbliness into a tight punky unit. Now we strongly suggest Simone changes her last name to Smirnov and Halona to Heineken. Gail Grappa, meanwhile should have a drink with Ennio Moriccone.

But now I'm off to Glasslands, another show I forgot to mention on the liver calendar, the Walking Hellos, just to find out what Heather has been up to and talk to hear about my plan for an new NGO that fights for animals' rights to their names. So go, Falcon, the Overlord may grant you a Full Tank, so you escape a ton of Swords.

Falcon at Rehab by Geoff Northtrop

Fuckintosh vs Yanni

Here is a hilarious review from The Phoenix of Fa's show in Boston. He insists he doesn't "toss back his hair" (it's the headphones, silly.) And he's genuinely upset about the Yanni comparison! We like the "Higbrow Sound Collage" and the plaintchant dirges. We looked for a picture of Yanni staring down the acropolis in his white suit, but then leave it up to you to compare the synthi sinfonist with the mashmaster Fa:


Reporter Matt Parish has his take on the events and writes:
"Some guests shuffled back through a closet door to the small special-exhibition gallery for a look at Luisa Rabbia’s new video piece, a wall-sized montage of Mrs. Gardner’s photos from China spliced with rippling water and animated plant roots growing from beige landscapes like a Windows 95 screensaver. The small klatch sipped and listened to critic Mario Diacono parse the playfully trippy work with parlor-game nonchalance.
DJ Fa Ventilato stood in the courtyard garden mixing plainchant dirges with harps and ritualistic drum loops, tossing back his long hair, the Ronnie James Dio of highbrow sound collage. A young graphic designer and her social-worker friend gazed past him to the fountain. “We should do shrooms in here and run away from the fish that would fly out of that thing,” she said. Another guest wondered aloud how soon everything would turn into Eyes Wide Shut. Ventilato ended his set and raised his bottle up like Yanni staring down the Acropolis, which was in the general direction of the coat check. No secret-society masks appeared, but the night still managed to tweak reality into a few exotic kinks."

The World Thru the Eyes of Paul Weller

Forget TV, give it to YouTube and a guy called JBtheManchesterMod to give us the first complete historic overview of the works of Paul Weller and the Jam. Here, in a good hour you can watch six ten minute pieces about Weller and his songs, commented in a nicely understated way by PW himself, but also giving Foxton, former wife DC Lee and Paul's father and manager John deserved screen time, as well as Style Council collaborator Mick Talbot and Steve White. The Pistols had their film(s), the Clash their visual hommages, now here's the Jam. Enjoy!


Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
And now, go out and buy Paul Weller's new CDE 22 Dreams - it might take a while for it to fell home at your place at first, but it will stay with you forever. And if you're in New York, I'll see you probably on the ominous 9/11 at the Highline Ballroom. Here's for the Modfather's rehabilitation!

The Greatest Hits as Many Matters on Swiss Day 08

This gig will go down in my New York memories as entirely enjoyable, in company of great friends and minds, musically and visually magnificent experience. I'm exaggerating? You weren't in our shoes! The sound's fake, of course - it's from Steve's trusty mini digi stick, during the one and only rehearsal. We're only getting started. Leane took all of these - and even more - amazing photographs. The Empire State Building appears courtesy of NYC.

Falcon flies, Lucinda Black Bear at Garden Party

The animal named bands come out to play again, and not the least of them: First, the Falcon really takes off with getting a big nod not only in NY Time Out, with above classic understated photo of the band, the stylish Mr. Bongers far left, as ever. Check out the TONY story here. Then read the Village Voice article, jump to the one from radio NPR, on to the one in ther Daily Herald and if you didnt realize that the guys are about to make it, read it in Chartnet. Then ask the guys about that strange Jared story yourself, we're sworn to silence.

Then our favorite teddy LUCINDA BLACK BEAR (minus Mike) will be playing a downsized acoustic set in an outside garden in Brooklyn this Thursday. Christian, at the moment playing the Boradway show Passing Strange to the film cameras of Spike lee, tells us it's the first ever party hosted by LIVE FEED and takes place at Bar Reis, 375 5th Ave at 6th St., Park Slope. According to him, there will be indeterminate chaos brought to you by the cast of Black Eye Fixer. Plus Dancing! Booze! Garden Flirtations! (what happens in the garden stays in the garden?) Come help them celebrate the concrete condo tidal wave that's taking Brooklyn by storm! $10 cover (to benefit the renegade theatrical tactics of the one-and-only LiveFeed). C. Gibbs and Lucinda Black Bear will play Joe's Pub August 6th before heading West on a US tour from until September 2nd, then head to Europe in October. And finally and occasion to post the beautiful video for the Bear's "You got it blue" video:

The Greatest Hits Starring as the Many Matters

Swiss National Day is the 1st of August, but here in New York we celebrate it early, so that most of us sweaty Swiss can get a plane on time for the real thing back home. The Swiss Benevolent Society who organize this event have found a great spot: The roof garden on top of the high rise building 230 Fifth Avenue. It's ten dollars to get in, but you will be rewarded with a great view, nice people, swiss food, and music: There's a live rock band, called Radon Love, and a DJ. With Jan and Bernd being out of town, I found fantastic friends to help me out for my part as "THE MANY MATTERS" - we play three songs by the greatest Swiss songwriter ever, Mr. Mani Matter. Since I was told that these songs don't work with my horrible St. Gallen accent, I translated them into English, where, being in NYC the accent don't matter much. The superb band, also dishing out a few 80ies Pop Songs in Cowpunk versions, is also known as The Greatest Hits with the wonderful Kerry Kennedy on vocals and guitar, the inimitable Quentin Jennings on vocals and all sorts of string instruments, NYs top ten bassman Christian Bongers, not to speak of the american Brassens, Pierre de Gaillande of Melomane and Steve Schiltz of Longwave. We had a blast rehearsing, and hope it comes across just as well as intended... Come help us out and sing along! It starts at 12 noon, Radon Love are on at 2pm, there's some short speeches and stuff, we're on after 3.30pm.

Jarvis, Rockstar Like You And I, or Mick Jagger

So, Jarvis Cocker, leader of Brit-Pop's Pulp, came to town for two nights, first at the Williamsburg Hall of Music, next at Terminal 5, the new big space in midtown west. After seeing him last time at Webster Hall, it was clear that it will probably not be as cool as Pulp in 99 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, but Jarvis is an excellent showman and quite a British gentleman, too. With his long speeches and spastic dances, he's the kind of manly intellectual every girl wants to cuddle with, but then again, the wiry frame and the rock moves exude just as much sex as the (not so young) Mick Jagger. And then he lectures about the white man and the Blues. And then he says, there's only three things to write songs about: Sex, Death and Cars. And then he rants about American politics. And then everybody loves him. And then, him and his band look and sound just like The Rolling Stones. But beware: He has at least one new hit at hand: "Big Stuff" will be coming, oh yeah.

Andy White Pays Us A Visit From Australia!

He's Irish, but he's been living in Melbourne for about as long as I've been in New York: Old friend Andy White played a short notice gig last night at the Living Room and showed in a short 45 minute set that he hasn't lost his knack for melodic songwriting and witty lyrics. The highlight came when he unpacked his tiny 12-string "Aubergine" and per effect box added nice guitar loops to his acoustic strumming. Andy's new CD "Garageband" will be out in the U.S. in the next few weeks. He says it's a rock record and after giving it a first listening, we say he's right! Review to follow on this blog!

Only Chrysler Stays Cool at PS1

It's time for the PS1 dance fests again, no matter how high the temperatures out there rise. So we treked to Long Island City despite the blistering sun to hear the cooling soothing sounds of Theremin Queen Dorit Chrysler, who finally is back in town and working feverishly on a new record. There's one or two new pieces in the current set, I think, and judging by those, Dorit listened to a lot of Gary Numan, OMD and Young Marble Giants, lately - which, imo, is a good thing: Will there be a chart hit for the Austrian-American indie star?

Hello New York, Goodbye Jan

Jan on stage with Room at East River Bar.

Summer is here and I am back, what a bad combination. Luckily, the snow are playing on Thursday, so I'll ice my cake there. Otherwise, of course, I miss the alps and the lakes, the cool climate and cool people. Seems a lot of people are either out of town or leaving town soon. On returning, we had to detect serious damage in the Room: Our dear omnitalent Jan is moving back to Berlin, today. We'll try to take it with stoic equanimity, but believe us, it's difficult. Anybody who's had the pleasure in seeing Jan either on stage or on a soccer pitch will agree. Best of luck meanwhile to Verena and Jan in Berlin, where publishers of beautiful books better hurry up to seek his advice. He'll stay loyal to the excellent New York publishing house of PA Press, I'm sure. To say goodbye, we have a little track with Jan doing the Stingster on a classic Poleez track, please don't tell em.

Open Air St. Gallen: From Kravitz to Kooks

So my stay in Switzerland comes to an end befitting: Writing for the Swiss newspaper Tagblatt I will get a chance to see quite a few interesting young bands: The Enemy, who won Paul Weller's praise and have been mentioned on this blog before, then the Wombats (with the sweetest greets to their biggest NYC fan Martial Vivot of Room: how was the show?) and the Kooks. Me, I am looking forward to see my friends Stahlberger & Band: The wittiest lyrics over the freshest music, in swiss german, though. Then again, you Americans dont know whatcha missing anyway: The combo Zueri West has been around for 25 years and beats Lenny Kravitz in one single bar.

We miss you Roman, do you miss us?

It Is Not About Winning, Is it?

So, Switzerland lost against Turkey in the Euro 2008 and can focus on what the Swiss do best: Hosting. Finally, done with the drama, the supersized star posters, the bread rolls with Swiss flags in it and every car seller giving away free soccer balls etc. Back to quaint quiet non-euphoric Swissness, watching others play and commenting dryly on their mistakes instead of keeping our own porch clean. Who's gonna win? The Germans, probably. Or the Italians (I hope). But it's not about winning - it's about playing the king of games, Football. So forgive me for taking a break from all that Rock'n'Roll and focusing on the round leather. But, just so you know that there are good concerts in the alps, let me give you a rundwon of what I've seen so far: Palace SG hosted the first Silver Jews show ever in Switzerland and fans came from hundred of miles away to be treated to an intense and beautful set of alt country with a bitter twist. Switzerland's own Guz played Palace, too and he is so real and true, even you Americans would be impressed - i'll have to get him to come to NYC one of these days. Then there was the unique Jeffrey Lewis and his brother Jack, who don't get enough out of supporting Steven Malkmus on his tour and use their days off to play strangely beautiful squat places such as the Binz in Zurich, where hundreds of alt folkies managed to transform old factory spaces into a Swiss Mini-Bushwick. The Lewis brothers, you could tell, felt like home and rewarded us with two hours of music and history lessons. Grand. More to come, I am looking very much forward to reporting from the Open Air St. Gallen, where we will have a chance to see acts such as Beck, Bad Religion, The Enemy and, erm, Lenny Kravitz. No Witz.