De La Soul and Fishbone For Free In The Park

Their website is so confusing that I have no idea if they are a TV channel, an online station, a network, or some dude in a basement...but Take Back TV is sponsoring a free show this coming Thursday, October 6 @ 5 P.M. at Rumsey Playfield (near 69th Street) with De La Soul, Fishbone, Slum Village, and a few other acts.

The gig is free, but they claim you can't get in without a ticket, which can be downloaded from here.

I haven't seen Angelo and his crew in about ten years, so a nice Fall evening in Central Park with De La to cap the night may be just the setting I need to get my funky soul on.

Be A Part Of "a first in movie history" with The Amazing Kreskin!

This craigslist post is so ridiculous, I have to repost it here in the hopes that somebody will go and report back:

MAKE MOVIE HISTORY WITH THE LEGENDARY AMAZING KRESKIN!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: see below
Date: 2005-09-23, 12:59PM EDT


!!!CASTING CALL!!!

Do you want to be in my movie?

I’m The Amazing Kreskin.

I know what you are thinking…

You will audition for a role as an extra in my movie Wake-Up Callz. As an extra you will be involved in a scene, the likes of which have NEVER BEEN SEEN IN MOVIE HISTORY!!!

WHEN: High Noon – Saturday October 1st

WHERE: Back parking lot of the Marriott Residence Inn

3 Gatehall Drive (off Route 10 and Route 202)

Parsippany, NJ

West of Route 287

Parking Begins at 11am.

A unique opportunity awaits thespians. Aspiring actors and extras are going to have the opportunity to audition for the role of villains in a full-length motion picture starring The Amazing Kreskin. It is a first in movie history, as candidates for the acting role will be tested for their capacity to respond legitimately to Kreskin’s hypnotic suggestions.

All extras are to come dressed and ready to act as thugs. Many type of thug outfits are accepted, including Mafia, bikers, gangsta, ninja, bounty hunters, aliens…etc.

Come dressed as thugs? Nice touch. Full original post is here.

In & Out Burger, Here I Come.

I'm off to L.A. for a week, so if anyone knows the address of Morrissey's home, holla. Not so much to stalk him, but I'd like to see who does hang out in front of his house. Would that make me a stalker stalker?

So, J.D. is the new singer for INXS. It would have been a crime for creepy Marty or fey Mig to lead that band.

False 45th discusses the notion that your iPod's "shuffle" feature is not as random as you'd expect.

Brooklyn Vegan has the story of another Anton meltdown at the Brian Jonestown Massacre show at Pianos this week, with photos of him climbing into the soundbooth to take on the sound guys. BV also raves about the Towers Of London show at Scenic, backing up claims I've heard that they are GnR/Motley Crue good.

Pimp your iPod:

Download Echo & The Bunnymen's "Stormy Weather" here.

Download Diamond Nights' "Destination Diamonds" here.

Download Big Star's "Lady Sweet" here.

If you need me in the next few days, check in the used CD racks at Amoeba on Sunset. Later.

A Ride In A Time Machine For $15? Count Me In.

If you were to tell me last New Year's Eve that in the coming year I'd be able to see, in person, Gang Of Four, Devo, and The dB's...I'd have laughed at you and accused you of hitting the punch bowl too hard. Then I would have probably made your wife hide your keys so you couldn't drive home.

However, drunk or not, you would have been right.

Last night I saw the final band of that triumvirate, The dB's, play their third of a total of four reunion shows for 2005 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, home of their very first show in 1978.

Despite some (uncharacteristically for Maxwell's) stage-monitor problems, they sounded pretty great for a band that hasn't played together in this formation for 20 years or so. They played most of my faves, including my fave faves "Love Is For Lovers", "Big Brown Eyes", "Lonely Is As Lonely Does", and "Amplifier". The couple of new songs in the set sounded remarkably good.

Here's how it looked from my spot on the floor:






Peter Holsapple announced from the stage that they are offering an MP3 download of their recently recorded version of the Motown classic "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" to help raise money for the displaced musicians of New Orleans. He said they'd already raised $8000, which I find amazing. Here's the link...I'm buying mine as soon as I'm done typing this.

Photo Wrap-Up of a Few of My Fave CMJ Shows

The Rosebuds at Lincoln Center:



The Most Serene Republic at the Arts & Crafts showcase at Hiro Ballroom:



My homeboys (literally...until recently a couple of these guys lived up the street from me) Thursday at the Fuse party at Webster Hall:


Tom Vek at the KRCW "Morning Becomes Eclectic" live broadcast at Sony Sound Studios (see & hear the whole streaming set here):



Say Hi To Your Mom @ Ace Of Clubs:















Icelandic mood-meisters Worm Is Green @ Pianos:
















The heavy and nutty Square Johns @ CBGB:















Blackalicious @ the KEXP broadcast from the Museum of Television & Radio:














And this guy, just by being at Matador's record release shindig for The Double at The Frying Pan, easily makes him the hippest dog in Manhattan:















A special thank you to my peeps at ASCAP, Fuse and Matador for providing open bars and drink tickets that made every street I crossed on Thursday night feel like my own personal giant game of Frogger.

You can tell if you had a good time at CMJ the night before...

if when you wake up your hand looks like this:

Gil Mantera's Party Dream...Winner of CMJ '05's "Best Bikini Briefs Of The Festival Award".

It's Thursday night during CMJ week in NYC, and I'm already exhausted. I shoulda put in more training hours for this week.

Tuesday night I saw Sigur Ros and Amina at the Beacon. Another totally moving and beautiful show by these guys, and a remakably respectful audience as well. Both bands' music really need (and deserve) full attention to be appreciated, and surprisingly, the normally noisy Beacon crowd held off on the chatter to allow the music to reach ears undiluted. Their shows are really something special.

Wednesday was the first full day of CMJ, and my favorite shows of the long day were The Love Scene (at left), Asobi Seksu, and Gil Mantera's Party Dream. I watched the last two bands with certified hipster spinachdip nyc, who was able to keep his eyes open a bit longer than I could this morning to describe those bands' sets here.

Asobi Seksu's set was quality as usual, and ended with a long, furious, and beautiful shower of noise loud enough to give Kevin Shields a chubby.




I can't even begin to describe Gil Mantera's Party Dream. I just can't, other than to say they are/were two crazy drunk guys from Ohio who play a music that is equal parts Rush, Cher, Voivod, Duran Duran, and Ted Nugent. Did I mention the high point of their set for me was their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" sung by Gil through a vocoder? Here's singer Donny in the audience, and in his drawers:




I'm too tired to write about today's excellent shows (including Tom Vek & Blackalicious), so I better go catch some z's so I can attack tomorrow's open bar shows with the vigor they deserve.

Besides Getting To See Federer & Agassi in a Final Match...

...my favorite two things about this year's U.S. Open on Sunday were:

This, my yearly pre-match triple-shot frozen margarita:


and this queeny dude who sat behind us giving commentary on the match as if he were MC-ing Wigstock, and who had the tightest, shortest shorts of anyone of either sex in all of Arthur Ashe Stadium:

Clams, Kills, and Kele...Down The Shore And Up To Roseland

I started my two-month sabbatical from work late last week, and as the first step in quest to figuring out how to relax again, we went to the Jersey Shore yesterday. Sandy Hook is the closest beach to North Jersey, so that was where we set up the blanket.

Although it was overcast, the temperature was just right and the beach was desolate. I spent most of my time standing in calf deep water hypnotized by the motion of the surf and some trancy rock on the iPod. The one-two punch of Catherine Wheel's "Black Metallic" and "Primitive Painters" by Felt totally broke whatever tension I had left in my body, and I spent the rest of my time down there floating.

On the way out of Sandy Hook we hit a clam shack called Moby's (not to be confused with Teany...) and had some killer fried fish & clam sandwiches on a pier overlooking the bay or whatever that water is called around there. I coulda stayed there all day, but I had to do the Garden State Parkway boogie because I had tickets to Bloc Party at Roseland.

The Kills opened the show with a set that surprisingly sounded great in such a big hall. Their "one-man-band plus sexy vocals" style gets a little tedious after a while, but their stage charisma kept the crowd interested. I got to watch them (and Bloc Party) from the side of the stage, and seeing them up close and totally immersed in their own groove was cool and spooky all at the same time.

Having seen Bloc Party climb their way up the NYC venue ladder since playing the Tribeca Grand, it's interesting to chart just how far they've come in less than a year, both in skill and popularity. They've been playing non-stop for many months now, and though they certainly did not suck on their first trips through the city, they are a much better live band. And unlike many bands who can't seem to progress out of the clubs, Bloc Party seems likely to flourish even more as they make their way to the next levels, which I guess will be Radio City and The Garden.

As usual, I totally enjoyed the set straight through. Two interesting things I noticed from my vantage point during the show were:

a) it's amazing how many people know the words to Bloc Party's new songs before they are even cut in the studio.

and b) the entire front three rows of fans in front of the stage were some of the prettiest girls I've ever seen in one place ever. If you ever needed a reason to figure whether to start a band or not, take a look at the front of a Bloc Party crowd. You'll start a band.

Check out Kinky Brat for her review and lots of great photos like this one:



More nice photos and a review of the show are also at A VC.

Finally, Murpf, the guy who runs the excellent False 45th, has an excellent but sad review of the Northampton Iron Horse date of The National/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tour which started with a raucous set by the Clappers, and ended with cricket noises and a walkout by The National's singer.

The Giant Rotating Plastic Red Lobster vs Jason Lee, 41st Street & 7th Ave.

How To Chill On Labor Day In NYC...

This guy totally had it down today when I went to MOMA to check the Cezanne & Pissarro exhibition before it closes next week:



Grab a chair facing the sun next to a groovy sculpture in the garden at the Museum of Modern Art, slap some shades on, and hope the old guy in the beige jacket doesn't start yappin' about his grandkids.

I continue to be amazed at the art that building holds. I'm a member there, and I've been there dozens of times, but I always find something new that astounds me. I listened to Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" and "Ritual de lo Habitual" in their entirety while I was there, and found them to be an excellent soundtrack to that place. The fact that the epic "Three Days" came on just as I entered the Jackson Pollock room was pretty mind-blowing, and I kept company with the splattered canvasses for the entire 10 minutes of that song.

Thankfully, "Been Caught Stealing" didn't come on while I was in the museum's Design Store, or else I might have been inspired to boost the Lee Freidlander book I was eyeing up and trying to justify forking out the dough for.

This Is What Coldplay Looks Like From The Soundboard With A Weak Digital Camera.

The missus and I volunteered for the Oxfam table at the Coldplay show at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel Saturday night. I love doing this kind of outreach at shows, and Coldplay is pretty great live, so this was a lot of fun. It's pretty easy to get through to people attending these shows, since Chris Martin has really done an amazing job of pimping the Make Trade Fair campaign to anyone that'll listen.

I've worked at Coldplay shows on previous tours, and it's weird to see that as they grow in popularity, how the crowd changes as well. There was a much higher percentage of meatheads/white caps/drunks at this show, which of course leads to a higher incidence of general jackassness. What makes somebody say, "I'm goin' to Coldplay tonight and I'm drinkin' 'til I puke on the concourse! Wooo-oooo!"? I dunno, but it's kind of fun to play "Guess How Drunk This Guy/Girl Is" as they approach you while they are killing time waiting for Rilo Kiley to finish up.

How To Help New Orleans

Wow...I guess because my last couple of posts were a bit more topical than the usual nonsense entries I make, I got about ten times as many visits as usual in the last 24 hours...I also see that a bunch of the visits were from people searching "How To Help New Orleans", so here I'll list the organizations suggested by The One Campaign, who overnight thoughtfully sent out an e-mail to members reminding them the following:

As members of ONE, we must believe that Americans can't help people around the world unless we also take care of urgent needs at home.

So true. Here's the list:

Bread for the World
Christian Children’s Fund
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) Church World Service
Episcopal Relief and Development
Heifer International
International Medical Corps
International Orthodox Christian Charities
International Rescue Committee
Mercy Corps
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
Operation Blessing
Oxfam America
Red Cross
Save the Children
United Way
World Concern
World Hope International
World Relief
World Vision

If anyone would like the above list for reposting in your own blog, or wherever, drop me an email (extrawack@gmail.com) and I'll send you back the list all HTML'd with the links for you to copy & paste.

Possibly the most honest interview a mayor has ever given...

CNN.com has the full transcript and some video of the interview New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave WWL-AM Radio last night here.

I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

This thing gets more heartbreaking by the hour.

Anderson Cooper...Thank You.

Via spinachdip nyc and mediabistro, Crooks and Liars has video of Anderson Cooper calling out Senator Mary Landrieu on her political back-slapping live on CNN yesterday.

It was a gutsy move to take on a politico in the midst of crisis, but it had to be said...you know those big foreheads on Fox News Channel wouldn't take a stand like that.