Kleeb Verses The World

A Place To Bury Strangers - Keep Slipping Away

2009-12-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Greg Wilson. Partly filmed at Death By Audio. This video f'n rules:

A Place To Bury Strangers - Keep Slipping Away

A Place To Bury Strangers | MySpace Music Videos

Best Albums of 2009

2009-12-20T14:14:00.000-08:00

So it's the end of the year and I feel compelled to list everything I enjoyed in the last 12 months. Music this year was all over the map genre-wise, but 7 out of the 10 artists are from Brooklyn. I guess that says something about this past year.

10. Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

My relationship with Akron/Family is back and forth. With 2007's Love Is Simple, I fell in love with the spastic freak folk that fell in and out of chaotic improvisation. I looked into their back catalog, the phenomenal split with the Angels of Light, especially "Raising the Sparks," ignited a small obsession with this band. In 2009, I saw them at All Tomorrow's Parties as a three-piece, a big change from the 7-piece supergroup I saw at the Andy Warhol museum the year before. With Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, the group loses a lot of the magic of their previous albums. The percussive intro of "Everyone Is Guilty" shows promise, but the following tracks drift toward yawn-worthy territory. "River" has flashes of brilliance and then there are three tracks that lack any sort of surprise. Of course this album wouldn't be on this list if it weren't for tracks like "Gravelly Mountains of the Moon," almost 8 minutes of elaborate Akron/Family greatness. It begins with a crescendo of flute and french horn that builds into chaotic guitar feedback and lyrical harmony that made songs like "Raising the Sparks" so good. After this obvious centerpiece, it's hard to get excited until the final three tracks. "They Will Appear" has the contagious singalong ending that is hard to shake, followed by "Sun Will Shine" and "Last Year," the build up and the denouement ending, respectively. Though I love this band still, I feel like about half of this album could have been cut. Still, I look forward to whatever territory they're heading into next.

9. A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Little did I know what I was getting myself into moving into Death By Audio. I had not even listened to A Place to Bury Strangers beforehand, but was instantly absorbed into the wall-of-sound lifestyle perpetuated by Oliver Ackerman and his custom-designed guitar pedals. With names like "Total Sonic Annihilation" and "Fuzz War," the pedals almost describe the feel of Ackerman's live show: epileptic lighting accentuated by massive amounts of fog, overwhelming ear-shattering guitar, projections of television static, and a pulsing drum and bass to drive each song. "Keep Slipping Away" could probably be the radio single, with its catchy riff and vocal line, but I think the best song on this album is the dark "Ego Death," loaded with enough noise to be a viable advertisement for Death By Audio guitar pedals.

8. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors has one of the most unique voices and guitar styles I've ever heard. On his earlier work, he showcases these almost inaccessible time signatures and warbling that verges on annoyingly shrill. With Bitte Orca, it's hard to think he hasn't compromised for a more mainstream sound. Still, "Temecula Sunrise" doesn't subscribe to 4/4 time, and "The Bride" drifts around a steady tempo before breaking into a solid chorus, so they've stayed relatively true to form. Of course, this is before the Nico-influenced "Two Doves" ("These Days," anyone?) or the superb call-and-response of "Remade Horizon." Longstreth's trio of female vocal accompaniment has always added a refreshing alternative to his sometimes grating voice, and they show their full potential here. The stellar "Stillness Is The Move" is almost a Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera pop-diva single. Seeing it live, with Amber Coffman stealing the show away from Longstreth and showcasing an unbelievable vocal range, was jaw-dropping.

7. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

I've had a long relationship with The Flaming Lips, and like a long girlfriend, we've had great times and rough patches. The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots were the good old days. Psychedelic rock with catchy melodies, live shows with balloons and confetti cannons, Wayne Coyne in a giant hampster ball. It was too good to be true. Then came Zaireeka, which was a valiant attempt at something interesting. Then, as other bands entered my life, and the Lips released At War With The Mystics, I was almost certain our time together had come to an end. The hampster ball was old news, Coyne was recycling music, and they were playing "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" live, as if it were on par with "Do You Realize?"

Then came Embryonic, and like a romantic weekend together, the Lips and I were rekindled. Buried in fuzz and overprocessed drums, Coyne comes at his music from a different angle. It's like every song was recorded at max volume through iPod headphones but still retains the majesty of Coyne's voice. "Convinced of the Hex" and "See The Leaves" prod along like a 1970's Can album. Then there are spastic instrumental tracks like "Aquarius Sabotage" and "Scorpio Sword." Of course, with 18 tracks, there are a few that fall short. But by the time we get to "Watching the Planets," coupled with its shocking almost-porn music video, we know the Lips have outdone themselves yet again.

6. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

As a drummer, I was never a big fan of bands that keep the drummer subdued. I like loud, raw drumming that is in the foreground and as unprocessed as possible. Maybe that's why it took a long time for me to like Grizzly Bear. The slow tempo and mellow vocals started out as "working music" or "going to sleep music," and then I slowly, slowly started to really like this band. Veckatimest has a few really great songs. I don't think I have to talk too much about "Two Weeks" or "While You Wait For The Others," both amazing standout tracks that have received almost too much praise this year. I think the album closer "Foreground" made this album for me, a simple piano melody with a subtle bass drum. Or maybe it was the chaotic end of "I Live With You," or the bass-driven "Southern Point." If the whole album were as consistent as these tracks, this could be a viable #1 album of the year. I think there are still too many points where I just yawned and shrugged.

5. Jeff the Brotherhood - Heavy Days

"This will be your new favorite band," I was told when I moved into Death By Audio. Jeff the Brotherhood, by name and birth parents, are a guitar and drum duo from Nashville. With only three guitar strings and a three-piece drum kit, these guys manage to put on one of the most rocking live shows I've ever seen. Influenced by 1960's garage rock, Heavy Days is raw, catchy, and loud. The title track fades in with the sound of a swarm of bees and breaks down into an instrumental chorus full of crunchy guitar and syncopated drums. Sticking with the theme, "Heavy Damage" is a singalong that encourages the crowd to learn the words "I got so much to do/ Can't even talk to you/ Gotta go do a thing now baby/ We can hang out next week maybe." There's even a ballad ("The Tropics") and an instrumental complete with a metal breakdown ("Heavy Krishna"). The poppy "Bone Jam" would be almost cheesy if the lyrics weren't "I'm gonna grind your bones to make my bread." Closing the album is "Mind Ride," a slow, sludge-metal track that suddenly warps into double speed and repeats itself before catapulting into an ending smothered in wah-pedal glory. Catch this band live if you have the chance.

4. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

On the other end of the spectrum is Bill Callahan, or Smog, however you want to refer to him. He's been under the radar for quite some time. Monotone and short, he is almost talking more than he is singing. Still, he is never off-key, and he floats his baritone voice over beautiful compositions of orchestral strings and acoustic guitars. Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle opens with "Jim Cain,"as Callahan states "I started out in search of ordinary things" and how he "started telling the story without knowing the end." The dark "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" starts out bitterly before morphing into a nonsensical chorus full of made-up words. "The Wind and the Dove" alters beautifully between major and minor chords while "Too Many Birds" is a simple 1-4-5-minor6 progression. Over both of these tracks, Callahan is singing about what he sees. As with much of the album, the songs are descriptive and mostly about observation of nothing in particular. The closer "Faith/Void" has a stroke of insight, as Callahan repeats, "It's time to put God away" in an atheistic anthem. If Callahan has accepted the fact that the void exists, maybe he's just become content singing about birds and trees. I'm perfectly fine with that.

3. Woods - Songs of Shame

Surprise, Brooklyn again. Woods have perfected a very specific sound: their entire folk band and creepy high-pitched vocals of frontman Jeremy Earl are recorded with super lo-fi equipment. It's to the extent that the band sings through old radio microphones when they play live. Earl sounds like he's singing into a tin can. The drums are barely audible, and occasionally a distorted guitar appears out of nowhere, strikingly louder than the rest of the instruments. It was so striking that I originally thought Death By Audio was testing out pedals the first time I played this album. Haunting melodies on "The Number" and "Down This Road" sound like eerie campfire songs, while the low fi rendition of Graham Nash's "Military Madness" bounces along like a 1940's transistor radio hit. "Rain On" is one of the best tracks on the album, a spiteful anthem showcasing the vocal range of Earl, his high-pitched melodies reminiscent of Neil Young. I think this album is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with this band.

2. Antlers - Hospice

Brooklyn's Antlers, fronted by beautiful lyricist Peter Silberman, were introduced to me by my roommate April back in February. Their third album Hospice tells the tale of a man meeting a bone cancer patient at a clinic, then falling in love with her, and eventually watching her die. "Kettering" starts the tale, as Silberman almost whispers the description of the hospital room and the hopelessness of the situation. His voice trembles as he says "I didn't believe them when they said there was no saving you." This album isn't all quiet, as "Sylvia" follows with an explosive waltz, a call for compromise, to "let me do my job." The metaphorical "Bear" is my favorite track, comparing the cancer to something that's "living inside your stomach" and has been "kicking from within." The wavering chorus alters between "We're too old" and "We're not old at all," a perfect description of facing death at an early age.

"Two" dates back to childhood, spending youth in a cancer ward and not eating. It follows Peter and Sylvia as they move to New York and are abandoned by their friends. It has the most optimistic chord progression with probably the most depressing lyrics. With Sylvia's death in "Shiva," the aftermath of "Wake" showcases Peter's depression in a depressing 8 minute anthem. As the melody from "Kettering" comes back in "Epilogue," we can feel the pain of the funeral, waking up alone, and the lasting memories of the hospital. Beautiful, depressing, almost too painful because it's true. Hospice is a masterpiece of 2009.

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

Surprise! This album stands miles above the rest of 2009, a landmark for Animal Collective and a culmination of their entire careers, from Brian Wilson-esque lyrics to layered samples, to insane time signatures. Combine this with live shows utilizing giant projection orbs and huge sets involving a flowing ocean with sharks and tiki heads and you have one of the most innovative and creative bands of our time. I can't say anything about Merriweather Post Pavillion that hasn't already been said. Just listen to "In The Flowers" at about 2:30 and "you'd smile and say I like this song." The album doesn't let up, either. There's the catchy chorus of "My Girls," the driving pulse of "Summertime Clothes" and the 5/4 (I think?) verse of "Daily Routine" which gives way to a draaawwwnn-out lyrical ending. When seen live, this culminates into fifteen minutes of brilliant crescendos and cymbal crashes, a majestic centerpiece to the album.

Merriweather Post Pavillion could almost be viewed as our generations' Pet Sounds, the layered instrumentation and vocal harmonies that dubbed Brian Wilson the genius of his time has been modernized. Samples, both digital and analog, combine with reverb-heavy vocals to make a beautiful, layered masterpiece. This is miles away from the low-key abstract folk of Sung Tongs that brought Animal Collective their initial acclaim, and many will say they've catered their sound to a mainstream audience, but with progression comes change. Instead of recycling this style, they've managed to build upon it with each album. Finally, everything has fallen into place with an accessible album that doesn't compromise originality. Isn't that the most important thing?

Zen and the Art of Duct Tape

2009-12-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

Back in October, the cargo net had become such a hasty endeavor that we decided the best way to maximize our child-like sense of glee was to cut out about twenty feet of HVAC ductwork that ran through the center of the ceiling. Now that it is December, it was evident that the heating system we had removed would need to be replaced. Driven by the impending cold spell and party influenced by Brazil's seedy system of renegade Deniro ducts, we bought 100 feet of insulated octopus arms, military grade duct tape, and a few cans of expanding foam. The result? The shabbiest, but most exquisitely squalid heating system I've ever seen. We have yet to see how efficient it is.

Tim Burton at the MOMA

2009-12-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Rarely is there an artist buried in his own niche that is able to achieve commercial success in any genre. Someone that can enchant children and terrify adults. His films range from Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Nightmare Before Christmas and Mars Attacks!. He's had tear-jerkers (Big Fish), biographies (Ed Wood), and musicals (Sweeny Todd). At only 51, Tim Burton already solidified himself as one of the most visionary, imaginative, and horrifying directors of all time.

His work is on display at the Museum of Modern Art from November 18th to April 26th. In addition to half a floor dedicated to his early sketches and short films, all of Burton's films, in addition to all of his influences, are playing during that same timeframe in the MOMA theatre.

I recently visited the museum for the exhibit and was blown away by the amount of early sketches on display. There were doodles from grade school, high school poetry, and his early short films he made with his friends. There were children's books, storyboards, and even a version of Hansel and Gretel playing in its entirety. Many of the sculptures on display were of monsters he had created in some of his sketches. Some of them were smaller than action figures, while others stretched across the room. Most had multiple eyeballs and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. Everywhere we looked were tentacles.

From his films, we saw storyboards, sketches of characters, and even props used in the film. Johnny Depp's Edward Scissorhands towered above the props with footlong blades for fingers. In a glass container lay the straight razors from a recent throat-slicing barber film. The headless horseman's cape from Sleepy Hollow was draped over a far wall, ten feet tall.

Though we had been in the exhibit for quite some time, I felt like I could have absorbed much more. Instead, we decided to stroll through the rest of the MOMA, stumbling upon The Persistence of Memory, The Three Musicians, Starry Night, Christina's World, and Sleeping Gypsy. I was also introduced to a few great artists like Gustav Klimt and Sol LeWitt. On the top floor, there was an exhibit called Bauhaus, centered around a German design school. I think I'll go back and revisit this one, since it was almost as enthralling as Burton.

If you plan to visit New York and are looking for something to do, the Burton exhibit is on display until April. Get tickets in advance, because it's going to be crowded. Try to pick a day that's not the weekend, I'm sure it will be easier to walk around. And hell, if you're looking for someone to go with, contact me. I'd go see this again.

Brompton Bike vs Wilkes-Barre

2009-11-29T16:39:00.001-08:00

Wow November 29th, so far this is the longest I've gone without a blog post. In some ways, I feel like this is a good thing because we've been getting a lot done here at Death By Audio. New drywall, new heating ducts, cleaning up the space a bit. In some cases, I've opened up a window here and found I had nothing to say. I've been doing a lot of writing on the side which will not be available to the public until it's in a presentable form. I've also been developing a few ideas I've had with circuitry that I may be posting if they work out. So far, nothing has.

I recently received my Brompton bicycle from my place of employment. For those of you unfamiliar with the bike, it is a 16" wheeled folding bike. This video accurately describes the bike:

I had mixed feelings about this at first, but after the Thanksgiving excursion in Wilkes-Barre, I'm sold on the idea. It is not as fast as my beloved road bike, but for travel purposes it really can't be beat. I threw it underneath the bus and rode back to Wilkes-Barre. In my hometown, the aspect of riding a bicycle long distances (like my house to Wilkes-Barre) seemed unheard of in the past. Yet, I found myself traversing this distance almost every day of my holiday. Despite objections from motorists and even a stop at 3 a.m. by the police, I was overjoyed that I was finally able to get around my hometown without a car. This was probably the first time I came back from a holiday visit to my hometown without feeling bloated and lazy. I actually managed to get some exercise. Since I doubt I'll ever be able to find a replacement for my beloved Nissan Altima, and the idea of owning a car and paying for gas and insurance is not really desirable at this point in time, a bike will be serving as my main form of transportation. I look forward to biking the shit out of other cities and traveling a lot more with this bike.

Thanksgiving with the relatives was nice. Got to catch up with cousins and aunts and uncles. There was a huge feast, as usual. Much later, I got to partake in the vegan Thanksgiving with friends. Lots of jazz and wine and good homemade food. Got to talk to a lot of old friends and meet a handful of new ones. Between Common People Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre and Panksgiving! Thursday night in Scranton, I think I managed to cover all bases in a little under three days.

You know, though I probably wouldn't go back and live there, I like visiting northeast PA on the holidays. There will always be a place in my heart for Wilkes-Barre.

Bohemibot

2009-11-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Over the last few days, my house has been turning into the set of a video shoot for A Place To Bury Strangers. Director Brendan Bellomo and Oliver have been working together to construct a sci-fi virtual reality simulation using a wall of televisions, a variety of Oliver's pedals and homemade instruments, and a metal bowl attached to some cables.

(I took the pictures down, for the courtesy of Brendan's artistic vision, but I'll post the final video when it's done editing.)

As awesome as this set looks, I'm more excited for the finished product and future endeavors by Brendan. We watched his 2009 Student Academy Award Winning film, Bohemibot, a futuristic sci-fi story about a man that loses his wife and child, as well as his hands, in a totalitarian takeover. Working in a sort of concentration camp in space, he copes with the absolute helplessness of this lifestyle and the grief of losing his family. When he meets a child prisoner sentenced to death, he works out a method of escape. Here is the trailer:

The music video will be for the song "Keep Slipping Away" off of Exploding Head. I can't wait to see the final video.

Jeff The Brotherhood

2009-10-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend in New York City was the CMJ Festival. The College Music Journal is a publication for the music industry and college radio stations, and their festival is one of the biggest industry-oriented events of the year, spanning across venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Basically, next to South By Southwest in Austin, TX, CMJ is where bands make their mark with the music industry, journalists, and record labels.

With all of the commotion going on this weekend, it was hard to pick and choose which shows were worth attending. Instead of planning out specific shows to attend, I decided to just roll with whatever was blowing through Death By Audio in a hurricane of activity. Out of Nashville, Infinity Cat Records was having a showcase on Friday night. Their headliner? Jeff The Brotherhood.

Two brothers from Nashville, Jeff plays a blend of psychedelic garage rock, similar to The Wipers or Sonic Youth. I make an effort to see them every time they come to New York, and every time it is an amazing show. This time, they played in the basement of the Charleston on Bedford Ave.

As a grungy basement with low ceilings and poor ventilation, the Charleston was the perfect venue for the Brotherhood. Packed in well past capacity, the crowd swelled with the music, almost overtaking the band. The low ceilings were attractive for crowd surfing, and almost twenty people watched the band from this vantage point, clinging to the ceiling pipes.

With all of the music happening this weekend, I'm sure there were other amazing shows and other amazing bands. In my opinion, Jeff the Brotherhood was the band to see at the 2009 CMJ festival. With 7 shows over the course of three days, I'm sure they'll get the press they deserve.

Kleeb Fuzz

2009-10-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

My first fuzz pedal - CD4069 Inverter chip with 3 inverters in series:

Speed Songwriting

2009-10-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Joe, a PSU alumni and cameraman, has enlisted my help with a 24-hour film project. At 10 pm on Friday night, they receive a concept. They must write, cast, shoot, and edit a film to submit by 10 pm Saturday night. I'm in charge of the music.

For the last few years, a hobby of mine has been to score films. Since I tend to write things that around 30 seconds long, repetitive, and layered with different instruments, incidental music for films was always a perfect match for what I was doing. In an equally spur-of-the-moment recording session, I took "jealousy" (the only word we were given to work with) and wrote a bunch of rushed and kind of sloppy tunes and sent them over. At the end of everything, this stuff came out kind of interesting. Even when recording through a glove:

Shootout in the Wild West

Looking for Clues with a Magnifying Lens

Waiting On the Elevator

Pseudo Jazz

Once I get a copy of the video, I'll post the final version here. We'll see what happens.

The High Line

2009-10-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

It has been about two months since I first heard about the High Line, an old railroad that runs above ground on the west side of Manhattan. Overgrown and unused, it has been converted into a public park running from Gansevoort St. in the Meatpacking District (around 11th St.) up to 20th St. in Chelsea. The park opened in June, 2009. I finally got to visit it this past Friday, and have since walked the entire length of the public park three times. The walking path was installed in the center of the raised rail, and the benches were built right on the tracks. In places where the rail overlooks 10th Avenue, you can actually sit right over the road in front of a glass window.

While this is definitely a tourist trap (we were prohibited from entering a few locations on Sunday since they reached capacity, and waited about 5-10 minutes when we found a legit entrance), this is definitely worth checking out. It's an innovative idea, and transforms an unused industrial wasteland into a beautiful walking path with a great view of the Hudson River and most of lower Manhattan.

If you're looking for a relaxing activity in New York that is both free and full of photo ops - definitely visit the High Line park.

2012

2009-10-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

This post is about the movie, not the Inca/Nostradamus prediction

Everyone seems to be getting really excited for the upcoming Roland Emmerich movie 2012.

This movie bothers me on many, many levels. First of all, the limited knowledge I have about the prophecy of "2012" is not of global annihilation, but the end of an era of human consciousness and the beginning of a new era. It's a mass shift in thinking, and from what I can see, it may be away from materialistic and monetary values and toward human values and community. Goals that are driven by happiness and helping others rather than money and fame.

But enough about that, the real problem with this movie is Roland Emmerich's track record. Give Michael Bay some credit, even he doesn't have such a terrible line of movies:

Independence Day

By far the best movie Emmerich has made. Aliens invade. They destroy famous landmarks like the capital building and the Washington Monument. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum fight them off. Most memorable quote: "Welcome to Earth." I may be biased since I can't stand Will Smith's sense of humor, but this one is actually tolerable. Since it won the Oscar for best visual effects, this may have fueled Emmerich's "artform" of making a movie solely based on special effects and lacking any sort of plot.

Godzilla (1998)

HOLY SHIT THIS IS A BAD MOVIE. Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno take on gigantic lizard as it attacks Manhattan. Tanks and helicopters are decimated by said fire-breathing lizard. Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page capitalize with hit single "Come With Me." Creators of original Japanese Godzilla roll in their graves

The Patriot

Mel Gibson, enraged over the death of his son, leads an army of farmers and peasants to overthrow the king in 13th century Scotland....er 18th century colonial America. What's the difference? This is practically a remake of Braveheart. I've only seen an hour of this movie, but it was enough to get the point across.

The Day After Tomorrow

I will go on the record saying this movie is the worst movie I have ever seen. Every natural disaster teams up to finally take down the world as Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhall battle hurricanes, hail storms, floods, tornadoes, and infectious viruses. I wrote papers in college about how bad this movie is. A cruise liner sails through Manhattan. Wolves hunt the characters in a scene almost identical to the raptors in the kitchen from Jurassic Park. They run from the frost, as if it travels in a straight line, chasing them through the city and into buildings. The plot is SO horrible, I vowed to never watch another Emmerich film again.

10,000 B.C.

Didn't see this one. Do I really have to elaborate? See paragraph above.

I think the main focus is, don't be fooled by the media hype. 2012 is probably going to be a painfully terrible movie. Roland Emmerich should cease directing and stick to special effects.

A Place To Bury Strangers - U.S. Tour

2009-10-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

These arrived at Death By Audio a few days ago:

The new album is awesome. If this limited edition clear vinyl isn't enough reason to catch these guys on their U.S. tour, the music on it certainly is. A Place To Bury Strangers leaves tomorrow, and if you want to see an amazingly loud band, check them out at one of the following venues:

Oct 4 2009 8:00P
Johnny Brenda’s with Darker My Love & All The Saints Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Oct 5 2009 8:00P
DC9 with Darker My Love & All The Saints Washington, DC, Washington DC

Oct 6 2009 8:00P
Local 506 with Darker My Love & All The Saints Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Oct 7 2009 8:00P
Drunken Unicorn with Darker My Love & All The Saints Atlanta, Georgia

Oct 8 2009 8:30P
Club Downunder with Darker My Love & All The Saints Tallahassee, Florida

Oct 9 2009 8:00P
One Eyed Jacks with Darker My Love & All The Saints New Orleans, Louisiana

Oct 10 2009 8:00P
The Lounge on Elm St. with Darker My Love & All The Saints Dallas, Texas

Oct 11 2009 5:00P
In Store Performance @ Waterloo Records Austin, Texas

Oct 11 2009 8:00P
The Mohawk with Darker My Love & All The Saints Austin, Texas

Oct 13 2009 8:00P
Plush with Darker My Love & All The Saints Tucson, Arizona

Oct 15 2009 8:00P
The Casbah with Darker My Love & All The Saints San Diego, California

Oct 16 2009 8:00P
Echo with Darker My Love & All The Saints Los Angeles, California

Oct 17 2009 8:00P
The Independent with These Are Powers & All The Saints San Francisco, California

Oct 18 2009 8:00P
Doug Fir Lounge with These Are Powers & All The Saints Portland, Oregon

Oct 19 2009 8:00P
Crocodile Cafe with These Are Powers & All The Saints Seattle, Washington

Oct 20 2009 8:00P
Biltmore Cabaret with These Are Powers & All The Saints Vancouver, British
Columbia

Oct 22 2009 8:00P
Urban Lounge with All The Saints & Laserfang Salt Lake, Utah

Oct 23 2009 8:00P
Larimer Lounge with All The Saints & Lion Sized Denver, Colorado

Oct 24 2009 8:00P
Record Bar with All the Saints and The Feverbell Kansas City, MO, Missouri

Oct 25 2009 8:00P
Firebird with All The Saints & Stella Mora St Louis, Missouri

Oct 26 2009 8:00P
Double Door with Dead Confederate & All The Saints Chicago, Illinois

Oct 27 2009 8:00P
The Mod Club with Dead Confederate & All The Saints Toronto, Ontario

Oct 28 2009 8:00P
Il Motore with Dead Confederate & All The Saints Montreal, Quebec

Oct 29 2009 8:00P
Bowery Ballroom with Dead Confederate & All The Saints New York, New York

Oct 30 2009 8:00P
Middle East with Dead Confederate & All The Saints Boston, Massachusetts

Personal Reflections, In The Form of a Job Interview

2009-10-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

I signed up an AES Convention next week. The Audio Engineering Society, pretty much why I went to college. I figure I'm going to end up talking to an employer, and they'll ask me what my 'goals' are. At this point in my life, I don't even know what I would say to that. I moved to New York on a whim, and I definitely don't plan to stay for a while. I don't want to lie to them just to get a job, since I don't really need the money. I guess I would just honestly tell them my motivations, hoping for some kind of wisdom and direction. It might go something like this:

I think a lot about getting a serious job, one that I am motivated to do. I'm just terrified about the prospect of long-term commitment. I can't imagine rooting myself into a company right now. There's too many places to see and different environments to live in. I need a long-term personal project that can travel with me. Something I can work on constantly and be motivated to pour my heart into. I've had a few of those feelings throughout my life, and it's hard to pinpoint them, and what makes each one exciting.

The first and most obvious would be music. The reason I switched from chemical engineering in college to electrical engineering was based around music. I needed to know the science and technology behind music. Hell, I needed to know EVERYTHING about music. I learned to read music. I learned to play the saxophone, drums, guitar, and keyboard. I know major and minor scales and intervals. I know jazz and blues progressions. I can conduct a marching band in a few different time signatures. I learned to identify frequencies of notes. I can manipulate sine waves with Fourier Transforms. I learned how to fabricate sounds using resistors and chips. I can build a lowpass filter using equations. I can run a sound board for a live band. I know how to wire a stage. I know how a Shure SM57 microphone differs from a Neumann U87 microphone. I know how to record in ProTools and Logic Pro. I pretty much studied music composition, music performance, electrical engineering, sound design, audio recording, and live sound. The problem is, I didn't study any one area extensively. I got a sprinkling of everything.

So when do I really get excited about music? I can't say wiring a stage and running sound is very much fun. Playing the drums is a damn good time, especially when I can just beat the shit out of them and throw things into the crowd like I used to do. I've never had a more thrilling experience than playing drums in a band. It's the performance, the audience, the intensity, and the emotion all rolled into one. In high school, I was in the drama club. I had an obsession with performance. Even in college, every party I threw was sort of related to a performance. Setting the scene for an audience, themes, moods. I fucking loved it. In high school, every live show was different. We adamantly put on the best show we possibly could every single time. But at that time, playing in a band seemed like something that was done in high school, and then you “grew up.” Since that point, I haven't experienced that level of motivation and commitment to anything. I think this is part of the problem.

Okay, let's say playing live music isn't going to happen for the moment. Where else can I throw my energy? I'd say living at Death By Audio helped my trickle of interest in circuit-building into a formidable stream of activity. I'm building things I really only dreamed of before: amps, drum triggers, sequencers, oscillators. In college, these seemed very much out of reach. Something you created when you had years of experience in electronics. Seeing this self-built, self-taught collective of musicians run this business and design their own successful pedals is surreal. It's the perfect gasoline for the fire. I've just got to channel this random cloud of ideas into a freight train of action and I'll start pumping out creations. Of course, this doesn't really generate any money and it's more of a personal hobby than a profession.

What about math? I freaking LOVED math in high school. Physics, chemistry, calculus, bring it on. The challenge involved with math was what I needed. Puzzles that constantly needed solving. I got really excited about math. I'd say it was the mental equivalent of the physicality of drumming. I think I realized the difference between a theoretical school subject and the real world application of it during my second year of college. I had been balancing organic chemistry equations with glee for a year before I had to sit in a lab and use the actual chemicals. I realized there is no profession that just lets you solve math equations all day. You actually have to have some sort of real world application. So who gives a shit.

I'm a compulsive writer. I can find sparks of flair in my writing, especially if it's about a passionate subject. I can sincerely write my feelings with conviction and excitement. When I try to force things, however, it turns out really cheesy. Combined with this Kerouac-ian tendency to log my life's events, I've developed a sort of vague idea that I'm going to write a novel. Will it be about Wilkes-Barre? Will it be about New York? Maybe I'll just keep writing these essays and vignettes until I can publish my autobiography in a 1000 page tome.

I guess if I could get a job making lists I'd be content. I'll do that shit regardless. Top 20 albums of the year. Top 10 Quentin Tarantino movies. Top 5 sandwiches at the corner deli. I can't think of a single career where this is useful. Neither is my ability to memorize lists of up to 200 items. A professional list maker doesn't sound very exciting anyway. This is more of a bad habit than a useful trade.

I think a lot about the point of life and what people should be motivated to do. Growing up, I used to think it was about having lots of money or becoming famous. Then I thought it should be to just do something that makes you happy. Then I thought you should do something that makes other people happy. Then I thought I should try to change the world. Then I thought I should try to reach a deeper spiritual level within myself. Now I don't know what to think. The one thing I know is, I don't want to do nothing. I don't want to live a life of television watching or video game playing. I want to live my own life, not be entertained by someone else's. I'd rather produce than consume. I think a majority of our generation need to step up and renounce the lazy lifestyle we've drifted into. We have such vast knowledge and access to information that the possibilities are endless. It's an exciting time to be alive, and I'd rather spend it working toward a motivated goal than doing a repetitive, monotonous task.

That said, where do I stand? Maybe it's just more logical to not work with a company. With other creative musicians or electrical engineers, I feel like I could create something amazing. Will you provide me with an outlet to work on my passions? Will I have a reason to wake up in the morning, excited to come to the office and get started on a project? Will I go in early and stay late, just because I'd rather be working there than socializing? If the answer to any of these is 'no,' then maybe I wouldn't be a good fit for your company.

Blu and David Ellis COMBO Collaboration

2009-09-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

I love this artist:

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

10 Great Albums From High School

2009-09-28T11:41:00.001-07:00

If you know me at all, you know I've been making lists since early childhood, and music lists have always been the most dominant. I would wake up in grade school to watch MTV's top 20 videos of the week (pretty much how I started listening to bands like Soundgarden, Radiohead, and Green Day). In high school I started the "Top 100 Songs of the Year" list, and eventually followed with lists of practically everything.

In response to Pitchfork's Top 200 Albums of the Decade list, I have started to cultivate my own 100 albums. Unlike Pitchfork, however, I'm going to wait until the decade is actually over. Who knows what can happen in the final three months?

As a precursor to this list, I'm going to highlight a few albums that were staples in my adolescent life. I played these on my way to high school, with the windows down, and the CD's became scratched mementos of my life in the Wyoming Valley, Cafe Metropolis, the vista, and late nights at Denny's.

Bedford - Smiles Are The Batteries (1998)

The band that got me into local music. The band that would eventually become An Albatross. A Bedford show was something to look forward to a week in advance. My first band covered "Those Kneepads" when we were all learning our instruments. Lyrics to "Stay Stay Stay" and "The Sound and the Fury" were passed around study halls and drama club rehearsals. The one band that everyone in Wilkes-Barre loved, they were guaranteed to bring out a bigger crowd than almost any touring band. Smiles Are The Batteries was the highlight of their catalog, and one of my favorite albums of high school.

Brand New - Deja Entendu (2003)

Brand New ignited my transition from mindless pop punk and ska to a "deeper" sort of music styling. Deja Entendu still had the hooks and harmonies of a great pop album, but there seemed to be more under the surface. In fact, this band seemed a lot more talented than a lot of the music I had been listening to up to that point. I loved this album so much that I actually went to see Brand New in the midst of my mono spell, almost blacking out in the middle of the set. I also vaguely remember them punching a hole in the wall at Homebase during Grayzine Fest and pissing everyone off.

Cursive - The Ugly Organ (2003)

Tim Kasher's response to the media's reaction to the bitter Domestica, this album tackles the subject of art and forced lyrics and is almost a parody of itself. On the other hand, the haunting cello lines and angsty screams are pretty sincere. While Domestica is directed at his ex-wife, The Ugly Organ is directed at his critics. Kasher's voice is dark, and cracks with emotion as he strains to hit the notes. Until that point I had not heard anything that sounded so close to true artistic emotion as Cursive. Of course, I was only 17.

The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About (1999)

The first album I bought by The Get Up Kids, this is great from beginning to end. This was a windows-down, sing along album that was best played at max volume. The upbeat tracks like "Action & Action," "Holiday," and "I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel," were balanced with ballads like "Out of Reach" and "I'll Catch You." I actually made the trek out to NJ for one of their last shows (and was treated to a majority of this album) only to find out they've recently reunited. Blasphemy!

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001)

I remember downloading Napster for the sole purpose of hearing tracks from the new Jimmy Eat World album. "Sweetness" and "Bleed American" were the first two songs I ever downloaded. We drove out to the Gallery of Sound to buy this on the day of its release and every song resonated with an emotionally-charged 15 year old. Maybe not the most poetic lyrics of its time, but hey I didn't know any better.

Minus The Bear - Highly Refined Pirates (2002)

The vista was a clearing at the top of a mountain somewhere around Pittston, PA. It required about a 25 minute drive, around a large lake, then you had to park and hike about 10 more minutes to reach the top. Almost every drive through the pitch-black woods of Suscon was complemented by Highly Refined Pirates, a low-key, technical album from the former guitar player of Botch. The song "Monkey! Knife! Fight!" even had the lyrics: "We'll drive around the lake/Just a little too fast." This album seemed to be synonymous with late nights, the outdoors, and urban exploration that dominated my high school life.

Piebald - We Are The Only Friends We Have (2002)

This album was a lighthearted rock album, with silly songs about their van, drug-induced road trips, and stalkers. The lyric "Hey! You're part of it!" was adopted into the Wilkes-Barre subculture, and was written, carved, and spray painted onto almost any surface in the city. The riffs were catchy, and the vocals weren't quite on key, but for some reason this album stuck and remains a fun listen from time to time.

The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)

The collaboration of Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello was a whimsical masterpiece, combining Gibbard's soft lyrics with the digital beats and synthesized melodies of Tamborello. This was a great album for dates, late nights in downtown Wilkes-Barre, long drives through the mountains, or just driving in general. Although short-lived, I think The Postal Service lives on to almost the same name recognition as Death Cab For Cutie. This flash in the pan was a huge success of its time, before digital music was really mainstream.

Saves The Day - Stay What You Are (2001)

Saves The Day was probably my favorite band throughout high school. It was hard to pick between 1999's Through Being Cool and this one, but I think Stay What You Are had a longer lasting impact on my adolescent life. The leadoff track "At Your Funeral" had a pensive introduction about death before exploding into the typical pop punk that came with any Saves The Day track. Thick with emotional metaphors, the lyrics here seem a bit more intricate than most bands of this era. I'd even go so far as to say they're poetic.

Thursday - Full Collapse (2001)

I hated Thursday when I first heard them. Could not get into a band that utilized so much screaming. After a few listens, I was intrigued. They seemed to create a new genre of music that combined the emotional punk rock with metal breakdowns and heavier guitar riffs. Although their style would be exploited to the point of tortuously horrible bands, Full Collapse was a refreshing change from the music I had been listening to. "Autobiography of a Nation" was a critique of the Westernization of indigenous tribes. Instead of the sappy boy-girl troubles, Thursday sang about burning buildings, car crashes, and suicide. It was dark, it was heavy, and it was loud. Although I almost hate them in retrospect for creating the current eyeliner and vampire subculture that exists today.

Some of these will appear on my 100-album decade list. Mostly, I just wanted to reminisce a bit about some older music I haven't listened to in a while. It was probably sparked by the night we put on NOFX and Less Than Jake at Death By Audio. If you read through this, post some of your favorite high school albums. I'd love to rediscover some stuff I haven't heard in a long time.

All Tomorrow's Parties - Sunday

2009-09-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

"Dude, your fucking hair is on fire!"

The masked man that crashed our campsite in at night ended up staying up all night and drinking. When I wake up, he is sitting cross-legged in front of the citronella candle, hammered and rocking back and forth. As I watch, the candle catches the ends of his frayed dreads and his head erupts in flame. I dash out of the tent and grab a gallon of water and dump it over his head. Zac approaches me from the other side of the house.

"I called security. This guy threatened me this morning, and I don't want to leave him here with all of our stuff."

Fair enough. Security comes over. Yes, they know we're here. No, we're not allowed to camp here. They'll see what they can do about this drunk guy. They drive off. It seems like an empty threat to get us to leave, so I mosey into the country club for breakfast.

As I drink coffee on the patio and read, dumpsters are being wheeled past me filled with stuffed animals, crazy orange shag carpet, pieces of a huge orange lighting rig, animal costumes, etc. The Flaming Lips are loading in.

All day today, one of the side rooms of the country club is being run by the band/project Oneida. Artists are in and out of this room all day, performing with them along with insane projections and lots of awesome equipment. I pop in here occasionally throughout the day to catch a weird psychedelic jam and grab a drink.

With some time to kill, I think it might be a good idea to check out the sauna. I run into Nick and Joe in the steam room. We utilize the showers and spend some time in the sauna. This place is glorious. Refreshed and rejuvenated, it's time for the first band of the day: The Boredoms.

Performing 9 Drummer Boadrum, this is the best band of the entire festival. Nine drummers, eleven guitar necks, all tuned to different chords. This band is the greatest. I feel fantastic after their set, and I had not even listened to them beforehand. If you watch one video on this blog, make it this one.

A cigarette and a beer later and it's the next performance. Caribou followed as the Caribou Vibration Ensemble, featuring Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

I don't even really listen to Caribou, but they play an amazing show complete with horn section, multiple drummers (who at one point stand on their drums and play each others' sticks in the air), and an amazing solo by Marshall Allen.

It doesn't stop here! Deerhoof plays next with Martha Colburn's projections behind them!

Because my friend is interning for Martha, I am stricty instructed not to miss this one. Hyped up on alcohol and adrenaline, we bolt over to Stage 2 to catch the end of Black Moth Super Rainbow. A heavy synth and vocoder band, I'm surprised to learn that the singer spends most of his time close to the ground, so no one can see him.

Nick is really stoked for Menomena, performing next on Stage 2. With awesome percussion and an interesting utilization of saxophone, I am also intrigued by their performance. As it turns out, this is one of our letdowns of the festival, as most of their saxophone tracks and auxiliary percussion is played back as a sample.

At this time, we must meet Eric at the campsite to take him to the bus station. It's a fond farewell, and he gives us his cards for his business, Blank Action Productions. We see him off, and drive back to the country club.

We head back just in time to catch the end of Boris. It's a loud, smoke-filled noise performance. They're unbelievable live.

The countdown begins. Crystal Castles are entertaining, but I don't really listen to them. No Age is performing a Husker Du album. The only band left for me is the Flaming Lips.

In order to understand the Flaming Lips as a band, you need to understand the Flaming Lips as performers. Lead singer Wayne Coyne strives to make every show as much fun as possible, and sincerely cares that the crowd has a great time. He conducted singalongs for "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" and "Fight Test" and even concluded the show with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." This is the second time seeing the Flaming Lips, and they are still one of the best live shows I've ever seen:

Overjoyed and exhausted, we head back to camp. With empty pockets and empty ATMs, the last night of the festival wanes away. We spend the last night in the lobby, listening to Bradford Cox of Deerhunter sing Neil Young songs:

Zac disappeared, so the last night was just Nick, Joe, and I. We ignore the warnings about camping and sleep one more night in our meadow, undisturbed by both security guards, and drunks in masks. I will definitely return next year.

All Tomorrow's Parties - Saturday

2009-09-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

It has been raining all night. Inside the tent is wet. All of our shoes are wet. Andy, one of the guys from D.C., wakes me up with the statement, "Who left their jeans on top of the tent? Man that's going to suck."

I decided to go sockless and get breakfast with Andy and Zac. Andy and his friend Mike are both engineers with NASA in Washington D.C. They are traveling with Mike's younger sister, Jessie, who goes to school in New York. Andy was telling me how lax security had been last year. Even though no one stopped us from camping, or exploring the country club, or smuggling alcohol into the venue, or really much of anything, it was apparently much stricter than last year. He said they had rowboats available to go out onto the lake, and last year there were huge drunken crabapple fights in the middle of the lake. Despite all of this, it is still the least security I've ever seen at a festival.

During breakfast, we see Nick Cave wandering around the gift shop. Many of the artists are hanging around, waiting for the music to start. The first act of the day is Sufjan Stevens, performing his album Seven Swans:

We meet up with my friend Joe from college and watch Sufjan from the top tier. Although I'm not as big a fan of Seven Swans as I am of Michigan or Illinois, it is still a fantastic performance. Like I mentioned earlier, Sufjan's show is sponsored by the Kutsher's gift shop. Hence, the tye-dye. Over the next two days, I'd see more and more people wearing tye-dye Kutsher's shirts, as a sort of tribute or ironic statement.

Joe has a tent to pitch, so we lead him back to the creepy houses. Near one of the houses, we find some old charcoal grills. Too good to be true. Nick, Joe, Zac, and I travel to a nearby Wal-Mart for coals and some cooking supplies. Tonight, we'd feast!

Back at the country club, we pop in to see bits of Antipop Consortium and El-P. Our main focus, however, is the Akron/Family performance that is happening on Stage 2. Before they go on, we watch Sleepy Sun.

Another recommendation by Jamie (who actually left on Saturday, probably because she left her jeans on top of the tent), Sleepy Sun are like the Black Angels with outrageous percussion and a sultry female vocalist that everyone fell in love with. They turn out to be one of the biggest surprises of the festival, as I had never heard of them beforehand.

But, ah Akron/Family! Last time I saw them was at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, as a six piece freak-dance outfit. Today they are a three piece, but still have enough energy to ignite the entire room:

After two amazing bands, I need some food and a bit of rest. I watch a few songs by Dead Meadow, and then go out and sit by the lake for a bit. Animal Collective headlines tonight.

Deerhunter is playing right now, and I'm sitting outside the stage, a bit tipsy from whisky and beer. I go in and watch him a bit, but I am not a huge fan. I'd much rather see The Melvins playing on Stage 2, so I dip out alone and catch some of their set. Halfway through, Animal Collective is about to go on, so I jet back to the main stage to catch one of my favorite bands for the second time in two months:

A pretty similar set to the Prospect Park show I saw recently, I am not as blown away as my friends. Still a great cap on a fantastic day of music.

Nick, Joe, Zac, and I head back to the campsite to reunite with Mike and Jessie (Andy decided to skip the cookout that night). My friend Jane arrives with a few friends and we cook rice and beans on the charcoal grill, along with some potatoes. A random guy with a mask shows up completely trashed, not friends with anyone. We are convinced he's going to kill us in the nearby Rob Zombie houses, but he just drinks all of our alcohol and pisses everyone off. Eric shows up after the chaos and tells us he lost all his money gambling with Steve Albini. We head to bed around 5 a.m., with one more day of music ahead of us.

All Tomorrow's Parties - Friday

2009-09-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

New York has been getting monotonous. Working, drinking, living in a loud, fast-paced hive - it's getting to be too much. Central Park, the simulation of nature, is preened and controlled and catered to satiate the city's desire for trees and grass. It's just not the same when you look up and see the CNN Tower. I need to get out.

Music festivals have had some pretty poor lineups this summer. I had no desire to attend the big festivals: Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, All Points West, they didn't impress me. I saw the lineup for All Tomorrow's Parties, however, it seemed too good to be true. Curated by The Flaming Lips? At a resort in upstate New York? Paradise. I bought a ticket immediately, without anyone to accompany me.

The plan is to get a ticket to the festival but no accommodations. I'd camp discreetly in the nearby forest and cook all of my meals over the campfire with rice and beans. It looks pretty foolproof. Now I just have to find someone crazy enough to join me.

Last year, when I decided to have a spur of the moment trip to Montreal, I ran into my friend Nick at a bar in Pittston, PA. I said I was leaving in the afternoon. He said he'd call off work the next morning and have everything ready to leave by then. So this summer, I was glad to know Nicky would drop everything and come camping on this crazy adventure. We get our supplies together in Wilkes-Barre, including a tent, sleeping bags, cooking pots and pans, some rice and beans, a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly. We're ready for three days in the wilderness. The night before, we spend a crazy night in Brooklyn exploring the Maze and getting some last minute supplies, and then take off the next morning for Monticello, New York.

The day before, I answered an ad on Craigslist for two people that needed a ride to the festival. So we pick up Eric and Jamie in the Lower East Side on the way out. Eric has been putting together an independent film and was working with one of the guys from The Jesus Lizard. He is also a former minor league baseball pitcher. Jamie is an actress in one of his films. They have flown in from Austin, Texas and are going to the festival for free as guests of the Jesus Lizard. They also have no place to stay, so we invite them to our camp, or whatever happens that night.

We arrive at the resort and are blown away. This is a literal country club - indoor pool, sauna, massages, a huge lake with patios all around. There are artist installations, an independent cinema, and a little gift shop that servs amazing coffee (Sufjan Stevens would later play a show sponsored by the gift shop - all of them wearing tye-dyed Kutsher's Country Club T-Shirts).

We meet three people from Washington D.C. and start talking about camping. They tell us to check out the meadow beyond the parking lot. There are some old houses out there that are abandoned, and tons of room to pitch a tent. So we decide to scope out the area.

Growing up in Wilkes-Barre, I have an affinity for urban exploration. Abandoned houses sounded way better than the early acts of the festival we find the open gate in the parking lot and wander into a surreal scene, like something out of a Rob Zombie movie:

The houses have been abandoned for at least 15 years. Some beds and dressers remain inside, but it's mostly plywood and rotting carpet. One of the houses even has a dripping faucet, into a sink filled with black water. Right out of a horror movie. We find our new friends' tent behind a house and pitch ours next to it.

Back at the festival, we decide to check out The Dirty Three. I had never heard of them, but Jamie insists we check them out. They turn out to be spectacular, with Nick Cave turning up to play piano. This is one of the most memorable acts of the day.

We explore a bit more and run into a guy named Zac who knows one of our mutual friends in Wilkes-Barre. We invite him to stay at our camp that night, since he also arrived without a place to go. If you've been checking out Brooklyn Vegan, this is around the time that photo was taken. Lots of reading and sleeping. Of course, we were just waiting around for Panda Bear.

Noah Lennox is one of the most talented musicians out there. Even solo, his angelic voice floats over his bizarre samples, locking you into some strange trance that is half primitive percussion and half futuristic electronica. The video screen behind him seems to convey a mood that matches each song. This is one of the best performances of the weekend:

Afterward, Nick leaves and I stick around to watch Iron and Wine. Alone, Sam Beam plays an amazing show and has me close to tears with nostalgia. The stage is set up like a ballroom. There is a large hardwood floor, and a few tiers that extend back, presumably for dining tables. I go back to the first tier and jump up on the divider. From my perch, I take in the entire set wistfully, drinking in the beautiful lyrics.

The Jesus Lizard are rocking, but we are exhausted. Eric would later reprimand me for not staying for the entire set. He and Jamie are soaked with sweat. We all retire to our tent for the evening. Nick, Eric, Jamie, Zac, and I all cram side by side in our tiny tent. Later, we hear our D.C. compadres come back, saying "They're asleep? What about a tent party?" Friday was just a warm-up. Tomorrow is going to be even better

You Are Here (The Maze)

2009-09-16T06:33:00.001-07:00

I know, I've been away for a while. I've actually been spending the last few days at Kutsher's Country Club for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Lots of awesome bands, crazy creep campsite, outrageous paradise in upstate New York.

But more on that later. For right now, during the entire month of September, the Death By Audio show space has been converted into a giant maze:

You Are Here (The Maze)

Bands are playing in a few nooks of the maze every night from now until October. The night before ATP, I saw Knyfe Hyts, and the next night (though I missed it) was A Place To Bury Strangers.

If you're in New York or you plan to visit, you should stop by DBA and navigate the maze.

Health Care

2009-09-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of hubbub lately about the new health care bill and it's been translated into "communism," "death panels," and all of this other nonsense from, you guessed it, the ignoramuses of America. Take this video, for instance:

Can there be any room for a centrist at a health care reform town hall meeting

I'm on the fence about this health care plan myself, though I'm in full support of ANY health care plan. I think we can all agree that we need a massive overhaul in the current system. If you don't think so, I'd like to know why. As one of the uninsured, I can assure you I've heard enough cases in the past few years to argue your point. For example:

-A friend of a friend broke his collarbone skateboarding, and couldn't afford to get it taken care of because he was out of a job at the time.

-A friend had her appendix burst and was almost not treated because of confusion in her health care plan

-At least four people I know have bad credit because of outstanding medical bills (in the tens of thousands). They're just waiting for seven years because the credit rating will disappear. (How Medical Bills Can Wreck Your Credit)

Another thing that bothers me, is that people between 20-25 without insurance are not even considered "uninsured" by Blue Cross. Here is a statement released concerning the percentage of Americans uninsured:

"Nearly 6 million were what Blue Cross called "short-term uninsured," meaning people who are either between jobs or are just entering the work force."

This is from a fact-check session on cnn.com:

Health Care Fact Check - Cnn.com

So even though probably 75% of college graduates are "short-term uninsured," Blue Cross doesn't consider this a problem because, you know, what are the chances?

The thing with the new "public option" is that it is going to be so much cheaper than private practice that doctors are going to be "forced to compete and lower their prices" and I believe there is a provision for malpractice insurance built in as well. Is the government plan going to be THAT much more affordable? If so, is it going to be as good a quality as a private practice? Under the public option, you cannot select your own doctor or specialist (see link below). It also seems that private plans with high deductibles are going to be obsolete as well. So, it might almost be better to be uninsured from 20-25 than pay somewhere around $2500 a year, when it would typically cost about $800 for the average twenty-something to be treated.

You'll Lose Five Key Freedoms Under Obama's Health Care Plan

A few months ago, my friend referred me to an organization in New York that provided low-coverage plans for freelance artists and musicians for about $65 a month called Fractured Atlas. Unfortunately, they were forced to freeze their NYC enrollment because of eligibility problems with freelancers. So once again, independent artists and musicians, or anyone between the ages of 20-25, are not going to be covered.

There's got to be a way for younger people to subscribe to high deductible plans for a low price. Obviously there's no need to pay such high prices for such scarce treatment, but if I happen to break my collarbone, I don't want to have to make a choice between setting it myself without treatment or a $6,000 medical bill.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Arpeggiator

2009-09-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

We got a few new chips in the mail here at DBA. One of them is the CD4017BE decade counter sequencer chip. Using this with one 555 timer as the clock, and one 555 timer as a voltage controlled oscillator, we can produce a simple oscillator:

I can't wait to get this thing into an enclosure.

On a separate note, the band True Womanhood has been recording an album, and played a pretty awesome show at Death By Audio last weekend. Opening for them were the equally amazing French Miami.

But I think the band that put on the biggest spectacle was Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt

I know it's pretty dark. If you go over to Brooklyn Vegan (I'm returning the favor), you can see some more pictures of their performance. For costumes and dancing, great. For music, pretty blah. Interesting show to watch though.

More shows and effects to come!

Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji’s ‘Cove’ Suspended

2009-09-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

If you haven't had a chance to see The Cove, a 2009 documentary about dolphin slaughter off the coast of Japan, you should track it down. Pretty gruesome stuff. However, everything seems to be turning around with the film's publicity, as shown by a recent article in ecoworldly.com:

Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji's Cove Suspended

Ric O’Barry reports that the horrific annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji has been suspended due to publicity from the film, The Cove.
September 1st usually marks the first day of the year for the brutal killings, but for the first time the Japanese media has arrived in Taiji en masse, causing the local fishermen to pause while the world takes notice.

O’Barry has been trying to raise awareness in Japan about the secretive dolphin slaughter that takes place in the small fishing town of Taiji for years, but the Japanese media has refused to cover it. Until now.

“Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight. So today is a good day for dolphins!”, wrote O’Barry today in a report for the activist social network, TakePart.

He also said that when the Japanese police arrived, they merely shook his hand and told him they there were not there to support the “dolphin killing fishermen”, then left.

Despite all of his trials in the town, O’Barry believes strongly that Taiji can change its shameful image. He hopes to show the media around the town tomorrow, to encourage a more positive view of its people and potential. O’Barry sees an opportunity to turn the disgraced town into a place where dolphins are cherished rather than slaughtered. In time, he thinks Taiji could become a model for dolphin activism and education, raising awareness about dolphins much in the same way that Nantucket, once the center of the whaling industry in the U.S., has changed its image by stopping the killing and marketing to whale-watchers instead.

Even though the media is finally taking notice, keeping the movement alive over time will still take a great commitment from those who care about dolphins. You can help by donating to the Save the Dolphins Coalition, which you can do at savejapandolphins.org.

Amazing, the power of film.

Hints of San Francisco

2009-08-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

From "Desolation Angels" by Kerouac:

It's the bridge that counts, the coming-into-San Francisco on that Oakland-Bay Bridge, over waters which are faintly ruffled by oceangoing Orient ships and ferries, over waters that are like taking you to some other shore, it had always been like that when I lived in Berkeley - after a night of drinking, or two, in the city, bing, the old F-train'd take me barreling across the waters back to that other shore of peace and contentment - We'd (Irwin and I) discuss the Void as we crossed - It's seeing the rooftops of Frisco that makes you excited and believe, the big downtown hulk of buildings, Standard Oil's flying red horse, Montgomery Street highbuildings, Hotel St. Francis, the hills, magic Telegraph with her Coit-top, magic Russian, magic Nob, and magic Mission beyond with the cross of all sorrows I'd seen long ago in a purple sunset with Cody on a little railroad bridge - San Francisco, North Beach, Chinatown, Market Street, the bars, the Bay-Oom, the Bell Hotel, the wine, the alleys, the poorboys, Third Street, poets, painters, Buddhists, bums, junkies, girls, millionaires, MG's, the whole fabulous movie of San Francisco seen from the bus or train on the Bridge coming in, the tug at your heart like New York -
And they're all there, my friends, somewhere in those little toystreets, and when they see me the angel'll smile - That's not so bad - Desolation aint so bad-

Maybe just reading about romantic Frisco puts me in the mindset. It's not that the Apple is any less romantic, just less personal. I miss my close friends. Road trip to the Catskills soon with Scatini. Need a vacation.

Using my Bass Drum to Trigger an Analog Synth

2009-08-17T17:48:00.001-07:00

It says it all in the title:

Animal Collective at Prospect Park

2009-08-16T09:23:00.001-07:00

I know I don't have to come out and say this, but Animal Collective puts on one of the best shows I've ever seen. Here are some clips:

This show made me feel so great. I'm so happy this kind of stuff happens in Brooklyn.

A Work In Progress: Echo/Delay Circuit

2009-08-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Drumset

2009-08-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

Decided to finally put my drums back together. After ripping apart all the blue shit that was on them, I stained and clear-coated them. The result? Awesome:

Maybe playing a show in a week? Things are looking good. If I can just get this echo circuit to work....

The Future of Literature

2009-08-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

Lately, with no musical outlet here in New York, I've resorted to writing. In addition to this blog, a quasi-serious observation of events and people in New York, I've been writing more descriptive pieces about people and events in my life that I hope someday to turn into something bigger. This will mostly not be published here.

I've been thinking of a way to combine the two lately. Take this blog and make legitimate. Even before I was editor of ALT Magazine in college, I've been longing for my own magazine, with a team of writers who were on the same wavelength. It was tentatively titled In On The Joke, and it would include personal essays, political commentary, and observations of people in our generation. I was fueled by Adbusters and Ian MacKaye, and my young punk-rock mindset.

Now that I am older, I don't feel that the title In On The Joke accurately describes what I'm going for anymore. Instead of promoting the ideas of a young, rebellious generation, I think we need a professional, critical look at our leaders, the world, important issues such as health care and economics, and writing that comes straight from someone's heart, fueled by passion rather than an assignment.

There is a strong difference between someone writing passionately and someone writing as an observer, to cover a news story. While the latter is important for reporting, it lacks a certain flair and importance that can move people emotionally. This is the sort of writing I'm looking for. After publishing ALT Magazine for two years, however, I'm well aware of the costs of printing.

So the question is, how legitimate is electronic publication? A friend of mine referred me to a few websites with online magazines. Triple Canopy is very similar to what I am thinking of, with themed issues (just like ALT) arranged as an electronic publication. However, as with the first installment of ALT Online, this reaches a much smaller audience.

Electric Literature, a collection of fiction, distributes their work through paperback, iPhone, Kindle, and eBook. While it is affordable ($21 for 6 issues), I'd like to make my publication free of charge.

With the Kindle and Twitter gaining popularity, the question remains: is print media going to remain relevant? Would it be worth it to invest in printing a magazine and produce a tangible product, or is free electronic publication going to reach a wider audience? Does anyone care about online content, or do they simply skim through it?

I'm interested in your feedback, and if you're willing to jump-start this project with me, let me know. I want to find writers, designers, and artists. Anyone with something to say.

My Job Is Hysterical

2009-07-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is what I do at work:

At least when I get out of work, I can do things like attend a free Ted Leo show at Pier 54:

New York is the best.

Pool Parties and Accelerometers

2009-07-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. This will be pretty lengthy.

The Pool Parties are in full swing at the East River Park, which is about 5 blocks from Death By Audio. The summer lineup is pretty great, and the Dirty Projectors put on a phenomenal show yesterday. The view from the park is also amazing, and between bands you can lounge in the grass, play dodgeball, grab a drink in the 21+ section, or play basketball.

Needless to say, it's quicker for me to walk there than try to find a place to lock my bike.

Anyway, I went to Handmade Music at the 3rd Ward and saw some amazing uses of accelerometers and solenoids in digital sequencers. If you don't know what that means, that's okay. I went home and started looking into homemade accelerometer projects, and discovered Johnny Lee who used the Wii remote to do some amazing things. Check these videos out:

I grabbed a Wii remote and figured out how to use it as a computer mouse. It truly is one of the most versatile inventions of our time. It can be connected to anything via bluetooth. I'm working on developing a program that uses the Wii remote in conjunction with some of the projects here at Death By Audio. Not going to release anything until it's done, obviously.

In my perusing of TED.com, I also came across another video that is half amazing and half really scary:

After seeing something like this, I wonder how people are going to view privacy, and how much time will actually be spent in the real world as opposed to the virtual world. This video also convinced me to never buy an iPhone. I never want to have internet access all the time, though I'm sure it will happen within 5 years to all phones.

On one last note, I wandered over to the show space last week to see what was going on. I managed to catch the set of the band Religious Girls

They're basically a spastic explosion of drums and synthesizers reminiscent of early Animal Collective. They played on the floor and sprawled into the crowd with their excessive amounts of drums. It was hard to tell who was officially in the band and who decided to just pick up a drum and join in. At one point, one of the members took a floor tom to the middle of the room and spread blue and red paint all over the head. Everyone dipped their hands in the mix and walked through the crowd, smearing it on everyone's face. They put on quite the live show, and as I walked back into DBA afterwards covered in blue paint, I was greeted by a "what the fuck just happened to you" reaction. It was glorious. Best band I've seen in a while.

Everything has been great. If only I can get some kind of musical project together, things would be ideal.

Death By Audio Photo Journal

2009-07-13T12:44:00.001-07:00

With the acquisition of my new (albeit highly unprofessional) digital camera, I decided to visually document some of the places I talk about here, starting with my place of residence.

Practice Room:

Pedal Room:

Living Room:

Workshop:

Mixing Room:

My Room:

My First DBA Project: 2 Watt Amp:

Outside:

More to follow, including Brooklyn Pool Parties, survivalist biking, and a surprising show at DBA with lots of drums, keyboards, and paint.

The City of Brotherly Love

2009-07-06T18:25:00.001-07:00

Independence Day. What better place to spend it than the birthplace of our nation's Constitution? With my first Saturday off in a long time, I hopped on Mega Bus ($15 round trip!) and arrived in Philadelphia for a crazy weekend.

The first thing I noticed about the difference between Philadelphia and New York is the simplicity. Here is a New York subway map (Excluding upper Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn):

And here is a Philly subway map:

Needless to say, the city is pretty small. I met Joe and Will, friends of mine from Penn State, in south Philadelphia. They have a 3 floor apartment with a studio in the basement. We walked next door to their neighbors' BBQ and I discovered that they were from Dallas, PA. It's a small world in Philly. South Philadelphia is sort of like the Bed-Stuy of Philly. Rent is cheap, it's a bit shady (almost got hit with some fireworks while walking), and there are some really cool up-and-coming areas.

I made my way to West Philadelphia, the home of Drexel and Penn campuses. My friend Nira and I had brunch outdoors at the Marathon Grill and I made my way into center city.

Spent the day with my friend Jess. Ate dinner at the Banana Leaf, an amazing (and quick!) Malaysian restaurant on Arch Street. Then we made our way to the Art Museum for a free Sheryl Crow concert and some pretty alright fireworks.

The next day I met my parents for the Phillies-Mets game. On a hot streak, the Phillies managed to shut them out 2-0. I saw two homeruns from Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. Great game.

After the game, we walked from South Philly all the way to a bar in West Philly (an hour walk) called Fiume. It was an amazing, quiet bar with a bit of live music and an Ethiopian restaurant downstairs. We hung out in the park nearby for a bit before I left.

All in all, I think Philly changed my whole opinion on living in New York. I felt very slowed down (despite not working) and a lot closer to the people there. Maybe it's because I really don't have a lot of close friends left in New York. Maybe I'm just getting antsy again. I saw a job opportunity for an internship in Audio Engineering at NPR this fall. I'd have to move to Washington D.C., but maybe it would be for the best. I need something to concentrate my energy on anyway.

I also recently got a new digital camera, so from this point on, every picture on this blog (for the most part) will be taken by me. Since I've been linked to Brooklyn Vegan, I feel like I should be semi-professional.

10 Things People Love in New York

2009-06-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

There are a few trends here in New York that are not particularly prominent in my previous residence of Pennsylvania. I'm just going to highlight a few things that everyone seems to love around here, more so than anywhere else.

1. Avocados

Avocado slices, avocado salad, guacamole, whatever. This stuff is everywhere. Since living in New York, I've had avocado on my sandwiches, on salads, and in guacamole at almost every party involving appetizers. Go to a restaurant in Brooklyn and I guarantee you'll find avocado on at least 50% of the menu items. I'm sure this is more popular in a place like California (as I was informed while brainstorming this list) but there's definitely much more avocado affinity in New York than Pennsylvania.

2. Bloody Marys

Until living in New York, I have never had a Bloody Mary. Now I'm practically a connoisseur. Hot sauce, horseradish, Worscheshire sauce, green olives, cilantro, celery, etc. The list goes on and on. This drink is practically a meal, and two of them will get you drunk and full. Of course, you'll probably pay $10 a pop.

3. Brunch

A great way to combine #1 and #2. On the weekends, almost everyone in New York goes out to brunch. They can roll out of bed at 1 p.m. and get a huge breakfast complete with free coffee and a complimentary Bloody Mary or Mimosa. Harefield Road, on Metropolitan Ave in Brooklyn, has one of the best Bloody Marys I've had. They also put avocado on almost every entree. It's a delicious hangover remedy.

4. PBR

Pabst Blue Ribbon. For some reason, PBR has a monopoly over cheap beer in New York. It's cheaper than every other beer, and available at every single bar. They give this stuff away for free at art galleries, promotions, and Handmade Music Night. There's even a free PBR night at the Lazy Catfish. Although Brooklyn Lager takes the cake as the prominent good beer, you can't hide the fact that PBR is $2 a can.

5. Kickball

Every Sunday night at McCarren Park, you can find dozens of twenty-somethings clad in homemade uniforms competing in a three-month kickball league that spans the entire summer in Brooklyn. This is taken quite seriously, and I know some people that will practice a few nights a week in preparation of the big games on Sunday.

6. Grizzly Bear

The band Grizzly Bear, based out of Brooklyn, has been making a name for quite some time. Their album Yellow House blew up in 2006, resulting in tours with Radiohead and TV on the Radio. In 2009, they released Veckatimest and received lots of critical acclaim. This band is pretty much worshiped around New York, playing back-to-back sell-out nights.

7. The Dirty Projectors

Another Brooklyn-based band, the Dirty Projectors are hot off of the release of their new album Bitte Orca and collaborations with David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall. The eclectic mix of off-time rhythms and Dave Longstreth's warbling make this band either really amazing or really annoying, you decide. I will say that people around here will drop whatever they're doing to catch the Dirty Projectors live, especially if it's free.

8. Fixed Gear Bikes

BikeSnobNYC refers to it as the "Fixed Gear Apocalypse." It's the "Zen feeling" of riding with no brakes or gears and feeling one with the bike and the road. Don't get me wrong, I ride to work every day and I can understand the convenience of fixed gear bikes (total speed control, stopping on a dime without needing rim brakes, simplicity, etc), but many of these bikes are also ridiculously clean and/or stylish. It's almost more of a contest than a lifestyle.

9. Falafel

If you want to eat cheap and delicious, falafel is the meal of choice. A sandwich usually never costs more than $3, and depending on where you go, the toppings can vary from cabbage and pickles to cauliflower and eggplant. Oasis on N. 7th in Williamsburg is a convenient location, right across from the subway. Other notable locations include Mamoun's (W. Village), Olive Valley (Bushwick), and Pita Joe (14th St.) The random falafel carts in Manhattan also provide a delicious and quick meal for someone on the go. I eat falafel about twice a week. It's replaced pizza as my cheap meal.

10. iPhones

It didn't take long for the iPhone phenomenon to sweep the country in much the same way as the iPod. However, it has almost absorbed EVERYONE in New York. I'm probably one of about five people that live in New York without one. With the maps feature and instant internet access, it's perfect for a person that is constantly on the go. Bar specials, entertainment, directions, everything is at your fingertips. Which also means most people are looking at the palm of their hand 75% of the time. I'm going to hold off as long as I can, sacrificing the convenience for living in the real world.

Writing in the Rain

2009-06-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Summer 2009 has taken a rainy turn. I've begun to write a lot more, tying to capture life in New York in the moment, as it happens. Maybe try to compile all of these pieces into some sort of story down the line.

Here's a recent piece I wrote last week about biking to work in the morning:

So I wake up covered in sweat, two feet from the arched ceiling of the Domino's sugar factory. I stare at a dangling rusty chain hanging from the ceiling. The alarm clock beeps on a shelf that's hanging from tacks in the wall. I trace the extension cord above my head to where it's stapled to the wall over the doorframe. A maze of water and heating pipes weave through the air above me. I'm not sure which are still in use. I grab the red pipe directly above my head for leverage and search with my toes below the bed for the makeshift set of three steps used to climb into my loft bed. They're not quite high enough to reach the bed, and not quite aligned at the right angle. One slip and it's a six foot drop to the plywood floor. The pipe I am hanging from is actually in use, and if my force should break sealant inside, the sprinklers will turn on, ruining everything in the building.

I open the door and groggily stare out into the open space of the factory kitchen. I'm perched on the edge of a ten foot drop, with no railing or banister to prevent a fall to the cement floor. The cinder block walls stretch twenty feet up to the ceiling, a canopy of chains, pipes and beams extending across the open expanse. I descend the wooden staircase and enter the bathroom, a plywood room set off to the side of the kitchen. The shower is a giant round altar, set three feet above the ground and complete with mirrors along the far wall. It would be the most impressive and majestic structure in the entire living area if it weren't for the thick mildew and dirt around the edge. I kick the broken tile scraps and dirt from around the toilet. No one walks around here barefoot. Four feet away from the toilet is a miniature toilet, complete with Blues Clues seat cover. Apparently, it still works.

Emerging from the bathroom is the cleanest part of the day. It's all downhill after that. Sometimes I'll carry deodorant with me from all the sweat and dirt.

I grab the ragged black backpack I carry everywhere. The straps are frayed and it's splattered with white paint. It's an essential rucksack, carrying the basic necessities of one day away from home. There are days I won't be back until 2 A.M., and the extra apples are nice. A sweater and hat could come in handy if the weather gets back. The water bottle is nice, when I remember to refill it periodically. I like to pack a lunch as well. That peanut butter and jelly sandwich comes in handy if I work straight through my lunch break. It's also nice when I find that bag full of bagels in the dumpster a few blocks away. Extra fuel for weeks. The rucksack also harbors my portable toolbox. Riding to work on a bike requires almost as much gear as an overnight camping trip. It's safe to always have the following items:

Spare tubes
Tire lever
Hand pump
Set of allen keys
Spoke wrench
8 mm wrench
10 mm wrench
Pocket knife

I don the brimmed Bern skateboarding helmet I borrowed from Drew. Stick my mini Kryptonite U-Lock in my back pocket, and grab sunglasses. I'm ready.

I walk down the sticky tiled floor of the old sugar factory. The door on my left leads to another living space. The double doors on my right lead to the stage. Bands crowd this area almost every night of the week. I am often forced to step around synthesizers, drums, and guitar pedals when I go out at night. I push open the heavy front door and breathe in the warm Brooklyn air from the East River. A bulldozer sits in the middle of the street. Construction workers mill around me. I notice suspenders and curly locks dangling from the underside of the bright yellow hard hats. A few more blocks south and all the storefronts are completely Hebrew.

I walk my bike out to the middle of the street. I swing one leg over and lock my shoe into the toe clip. I take a deep breath, and then in one fluid motion, it starts.

Speed. The first thing you notice about a bike in the city. You're as fast as a car, and much more efficient. There's no stopping at stop signs, and most intersections can be bypassed with a quick glance left and right. You can weave through lanes and go down one-way streets in the opposite direction. Somehow, breaking traffic laws on a bike is allowed. Wythe Street, my first thorough way, is complete with a white painted bike lane. It's a nice comfort zone, but ultimately useless. After one block I weave around a parked taxi in the bike lane.

I reach the bridge and turn to ride under it. I can hear the cars above me. Old Hispanic men crowd the edge of the street, clad in wife beaters and smoking cigarettes. Two guys carry a refrigerator to the edge of the curb. After another block, I make the 180 degree turn to the base of the bridge. At the start of the turn, a white ghost bike sits chained to a sign. Tombstones littered all around New York.

The Williamsburg Bridge. The two mile barrier between the calm and the storm. The obstacle course featuring joggers, commuters, and Hasidic women pushing strollers. It's a grueling one mile uphill, the best wake-up call. I push my legs to keep their speed, never allowing myself to slow down. At the crest of the bridge I see the skyline of Manhattan. Even from here, you can feel the energy. The city has no mercy. Slow down or show vulnerability and it will chew you up and spit you down on the trash-littered sidewalk. It's every man for himself. Life or death. Paradise.

Downhill now. The descent plunges into the heart of the beast, dodging people left and right, picking up speed as the city invites you into its veins. Awareness peaks. Adrenaline rushes. I've just become a rabbit in a race of hounds. I burst from the crowd and hurdle off the curb into the nearest lane of traffic. This is my favorite part of the day.

I turn around the back of a minivan, narrowly squeezing in front of the front bumper of a sedan. Got to get to the other side of this five-lane road. The potholes on the sides of the road look like the surface of the moon. Sleek metal sheets litter the road, covering bigger holes. Sometimes they're a few inches above the pavement. It's a miracle my bike doesn't fall to pieces every morning. First Avenue approaches and I hang a hard right, keeping up with the taxi on my left. If I slow down just a bit, he can cut in front of me to pick up pedestrians. Can't let that happen. At the next red light, I leave him behind and power on into Chinatown.

Here, the delivery drivers don't follow the rules. At least I ride with traffic most of the time. This Chinese guy is coming straight for me, riding the wrong way in the bike lane with two bags of delivery food hanging from his wobbly handlebars. There's nowhere to go. I'm trapped between traffic and parked cars. I speed up to cut in front of the first moving car, swerving back into the bike lane and just missing a General Tso's Collision.

As 14th Street approaches, pedestrians grow threateningly anxious. They step out further into the street to hail cabs. They cut across streets into oncoming traffic. They certainly don't give a shit about bike lanes. From my point of view, they're basically an intelligent obstacle. You never know what they're going to do. I breeze inches away from the extended hand of a business man, standing in the center of the bike lane. He doesn't flinch as he stares past me at the taxi approaching. People still don't notice bikes, even inches in front of them.

The 14th Street intersection is lined with crowds of people. “Hello sir! Would you like to donate to the homeless?” Sitting at the light, I see a business man rush to get past the soliciting. The homeless man waves his brochure at him, but he turns his head and ignores it. Green light. Time to go.

The taxis start here, greedily seeking out any idling figures. They swerve across lanes, as if attracted by an invisible magnet pulling from someone's waving hand. I see someone on my right hail a cab and immediately look to my left. Sure enough the cab speeds past me and cuts me off. I bank a hard left, cutting between the stopped cab and the oncoming bus. My bag hits the side view mirror as I pass. I think that's retribution enough.

The hospital is on my right now. Cabs, patients, ambulances, and NYU buses line the side of the street. Cars double-park to drop patients off, and slow moving senior citizens meander across the street at red lights. This is a steep decline, and with all the obstacles I feel like a downhill slalom skier.

At the bottom of the hill, the buildings on my right cut off and the sun glares in my face. I can see the Interstate, cutting across to Queens. This will be one of the few times this morning I will see the sun. Here, the buses stop more frequently. I trail one and bear left as it pulls to the curb. You don't want to get wedged between a bus and the curb. I ride the left edge of the bus lane, close to traffic. A limo is stopped up ahead, turning into the U.N. Headquarters. I snake around it, careful not to scratch the shiny finish with my bike. I glance right and see a half circle of flags. Hoards of people pour from a bus onto the cobblestone sidewalks and squint into the sun. They walk around with their necks craned upward, most of them wielding cameras. I could probably be seen somewhere wearing these dirty clothes, riding this makeshift bike, and carrying this ragged backpack in a photograph of a real Manhattan street.

Trump towers on my left. If I'm lucky, there will be a mass protest outside. The most effective protests are barricaded off into a one-block area and ignored by everyone. As long as you can designate a place for people to voice their opinion loudly, you can choose to ignore it. I cruise down the hill, gaining speed. Suddenly, a cab backs up into the middle of my lane. I brake hard and turn left. I pound on the side of the car as it drives me into traffic. The cab stops suddenly and I pop through the narrow gap between the cars.

As I cruise through the last twenty blocks of the Upper East Side, I can relax a bit. Only delivery trucks to hinder my route, parked in the center of the bike lane. I weave through women pushing strollers and walking small dogs with sweaters. Welcome to Yorkville. The food is expensive, the streets are clean, and the people are all pretty rich. I pull my dirty bike onto the curb and approach the door. I'm sweating and dirty already, and it's only 10 A.M. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Summer in the City - Free David Byrne Show

2009-06-10T00:14:00.000-07:00

This past Monday signaled the beginning of summer in Brooklyn. Or at least a kickoff of free concerts in outdoor venues. Instead of getting together with Alex and Chak and finally playing some music (something that has been getting postponed a few times a week this month), I decided to join the rest of Williamsburg in the mass bike commute to Prospect Park.

I arrived with my roommate Alex and his girlfriend Dorothy an hour before Byrne was slated to go on. We found a line that stretched practically the length of the park, complete with barbecues, picnics, and a softball game. We opted for the much more appealing plan of getting beers and sitting in a field and listening to the concert from afar.

Since I really have only listened to Remain In Light out of any of David Byrne's music, I really just wanted to relax and enjoy the show, even though I couldn't see it.

I got to see my old friend Brooks, who I hadn't seen in a while, and hear a few Talking Heads tracks while I was closer to the stage. I love David Byrne because he combines my three favorite pastimes: biking, music, and interpretive dance:

On my way out of the park, I noticed a Transportation Alternatives tent with bike parking. Since Byrne designed bike racks around New York and is a huge cycling enthusiast, I'm really not surprised. Even BikeSnobNYC was there, albeit by mistake.

I met up with Chak afterwards for a drunken good time at Barbes in Park Slope, followed by a long, wobbly bike ride home. Summer is great.

June Arrives in Rain Torrents

2009-06-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

My last weekend in May was spent in State College, catching up with a few people, sitting on the Old Main lawn, checking out the gutted Hookah Lounge, and slaughtering a rooster with Shafni and grilling it at my old house. Roosters run for a much longer time with their heads cut off than I thought.

I got back to New York with a slight sinus infection, and in the midst of torrential rainstorms. Most of my nights have been spent inside, working on the shelves in my room or listening to music. Drew, Nate, and Bill are involved in a project back in Wilkes-Barre. I'm sure this is going to be fantastic. All these guys are really talented. I've been listening to some of Bill's old music, and some of this stuff is brilliant. His myspace page has a few songs that are amazing, and everyone should at least check him out. I'm really excited to hear their recorded stuff.

Speaking of outstanding people, I met Bladie Flowness at the store last week. Bladie hangs out in Central Park, mostly teaching in-line skate dancing. He can actually be seen in the movie The Visitor dancing in central park. He also happens to own a few 9-foot tall bicycles that my boss has outfitted with electric drive motors.

Bladie is a PHD candidate in psychology, a musician, a dancer, and a revolutionary. He has written a series of letters to President Obama outlining his idea of changing the world. Barack and Michelle both "wrote" back, thanking him for his passionate devotion. In any case, Bladie's flamboyant attitude and undying optimism bring a smile to my face whenever I see him. You can see Bladie in this video of Funky Rhythm Roller Skating:

On one last note, I picked up a random Moondog album the other night and it was one of the best purchases I've ever made. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is avant-garde jazz based on percussion. I have a soft spot for percussive albums and I was not disappointed.

This following track is my favorite song by him, "The Bird's Lament"

Oh, and apparently my blog was quoted in Brooklyn Vegan. I don't know how I feel about that, but apparently this is a bit more public than I imagined. A band was practicing here and asked me, "Are you the blogger?" I suppose I am. Although I'd much rather be known as something else...

A Place To Bury Strangers

2009-05-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

I've settled into a routine here at Death By Audio. I wake up at 8:30, do some Kundalini Yoga that I learned from Drew, make a huge breakfast, pack my PB&J sandwich for lunch, and bike the 8 miles to work. Then I arrive home around 8 pm and am too tired to make it past midnight, usually.

I guess I'd like to have some more time off. I really don't do anything for myself anymore. I don't play drums or saxophone or guitar, I put off all my circuit-bending projects, since both the altoid amp and the theremin are having problems that I don't feel like fixing. I have been writing sporadically, and I occasionally still do sound effects for Columbia students. I think I may leave this job after the busy season. Thinking about a cross-country trip, couch surfing with some friends. I can make it to Wisconsin from here, at least. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to get the rest of the way.

Anyway, one of my roommates' bands played the other night with Holy Fuck at the Williamsburg Hall of Music. They're called A Place to Bury Strangers, and before I lived here I had not listened to them.

Now, being a drummer, I was never really a big fan of guitar fuzz. My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, etc. I could appreciate what it was, but never really listened to them. I was promised that A Place to Bury Strangers would put on an amazing live performance, and I was not disappointed.

Oliver plays his Fender Jaguar through two half-stacks on each side of the stage, and I'm pretty sure they usually use more amps. His guitar has no tone knobs or pickup selector: each lipstick pickup is wired directly to an output jack. If one of the jacks breaks during the performance, he can simply plug the other one in. He keeps three of these guitars on the stage, because at various points throughout the show, he gets compelled to rip all of the strings off, or swing the guitar around in the air.

The bass and drums give an industrial feel to the massive amounts of guitar noise in the air. The overwhelming volume was on the verge of being too much to handle. This is definitely an earplug band. The projectors on the band flashed in blue and green patterns, giving an eerie, dark feel to the entire performance.

This video shows a performance from 2006 where Oliver gets his amps involved in the destruction.

As far as the actual music, it's not really my thing. But I will say that A Place to Bury Strangers was one of the best live bands I've seen recently. I stayed around to watch Holy Fuck, a band that I enjoyed listening to while working out or driving. After three songs I'd had enough. Two guys turning knobs and head-bobbing just wasn't as exciting to watch as someone ripping apart a guitar on stage.

As a side note, Oliver is the creator of the Death By Audio guitar pedal line, and he uses many of these on stage. I had the opportunity to play the Robot pedal, which will be released sometime in June. It's a fantastic device, with a modulated chip transforming your guitar into 8-bit fuzz, sort of like an old telephone sound. His pedals are gaining popularity, and with the band, it's great to see success take off for someone who's been working hard for so long.

As for me, I feel young again. These guys have been hard at work for so long, so I don't feel too bad at this point in my life. It's time to start playing music again. I feel inspired and I think I'm at the perfect place to do something great. It's summer in the city, and life is good.

Kleeb, Foley Artist

2009-05-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

Since my move into Death By Audio, I have been in a haze of moving, circuit bending, cleaning, working, and practicing for the Columbia MFA Radio Play where I am the Foley artist.

I discovered the MFA Drama program through Craigslist, when I was applying my face off for jobs back in February. I did sound design for them in the past, taking snippets from www.freesound.org and editing things together to make the sound and music for their plays. It was a fun thing I did on the side. I made $50 for the last play. But these are grad students and have no money, and I just want to do something fun, so I signed on to do their old time radio show with live Foley sound.

For those of you that don't know what a Foley artist does, watch the following video:

Essentially, they make sound effects live using various objects and foods.

The play tonight consisted of three smaller plays. One detective drama, one communist-scare mystery, and one high school zombie comedy. I've been collecting objects for the last three months to recreate zombie attacks, gun battles, and cigarettes lighting. Although a lot of it had to be played from a laptop, it was still fun to break celery and crunch nachos when zombie bites were happening.

After a stressful week of showing up to rehearsal straight from work and being ill-prepared and super unprofessional (this hit a peak last night, and I sat depressed on the DBA roof for 2 hours), I had a glorious performance, almost flawless. It is a fast paced play and I think I proved myself to the cast and directors, despite my immaturity beforehand.

Which leads me into an insightful look at my own personality. I can work well and efficiently when I need to and can concentrate on one thing. When there is too much going on, and this happens frequently, my attention is sacrificed and I am constantly late and I look really bad. For anyone who worked with me on ALT Magazine, it was a similar situation.

That said, I am going to take a break and concentrate on 2-3 activities instead of trying to do 10. I like having free time where I'm not worried about getting things done. I like having projects, but one at a time. I'll start drumming again, refurbish my own drums, and occasionally circuit-bend something. Maybe I'll get started on this novel I've been kicking around.

On a side note, I moved into Death By Audio and built this 2 Watt amplifier the next day:

The energy here is great. I'm going to be really motivated. Things are looking good.

Death By Audio

2009-04-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

As the curtain closes on the act called 3 Catherine St, I must look again, for the sixth time in five years, for a new place to live.

Some of you may have heard the rumors about "the ultimate loft space" in Redhook, in Bed-Stuy, in Williamsburg, featuring Nate, Joe Grocki, Drew, Chak, Dustin, Big Nate, and me. We would build a studio and record bands and live in a big commune and it would be great. We talked about the "summer of building walls" and I looked forward to some manual labor in the summer, drywalling and painting and constructing the place ourselves.

Then there was the Great Flood of 2009. Our basement abode spent three days in the mildew of Brooklyn garbage and god knows what the hell is in the water around here. My mattress didn't make it, and I just barely saved the drums and amps. I spent the whole night wrapping up cables and hanging them out to dry, along with my sheets and some clothes. It was miserable.

Then we got the news about the loan. The loan that was supposed to grant access to our glorious loft space. It didn't go through. People started dropping off the lease and a general depression hung in the air. Nate and Drew moved home. April found a space in Park Slope. My options were running out.

Enter Death By Audio. Those of you in New York may recognize the name as a small all-ages venue in Williamsburg, in an old refurbished warehouse. Some of you musicians may recognize it as a manufacturer of guitar pedals. However you recognize the name, it also doubles as a living space.

Harry and the Potters play DBA

I was lucky enough to meet a friend of April's that lived there. He invited me to check out the place to see if I wanted to take the spare room that had been available for the past few months. I walked through the first half of the warehouse, through the stage area and into the back where everyone lived. I passed a row of bikes, skateboards, and various speakers and keyboards in the entry way. I emerged into a huge space with high ceilings that functioned as the kitchen/living room area. One of the guys was preparing a fish dinner with potatoes. Another was cutting out some magazine clippings and pasting them on a bass drum. It bustled with activity at all times.

There was a practice space on the first level, mostly for bands that rented time. Attached to this was a makeshift mixing room, cluttered with DBA pedals. The next room was the pedal production room. About 15 pedals sat open on the counter, in front of a wall of resistor drawers. They are debuting a new pedal in the next few months, and are getting ready for the demand.

Wandering into the next room I saw a wall full of paint cans, a workbench, screens for printing, some lumber, and an array of hand tools. There was no shortage of projects to work on. On the side of the kitchen, a second level was constructed above all of these work spaces.

Upstairs was a small living space with a projector for movies. My room would be next to this. It seems to good to be true. So I came back today to meet some more of the guys. A Place To Bury Strangers , a few of them residents, were playing their new album for an older guy from Mute Records. I sort of got an informal tour and they told me I was welcome to move my stuff in.

So I close this chapter of my life and enter the next, and I don't think it could get any better. Who knows what is going to happen from here on out.

Bent Fest 2009

2009-04-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Since the last time I posted here, I've been paid for the first two weeks of my job. As much as I loved living off of dumpster bagels and drinking $2 PBR, having money rules. Just being able to splurge again is great, and I did so this past weekend at the Bent Festival in Manhattan.

For those of you that are not familiar with "circuit bending," is the process of opening up a simple circuit and modifying it, or "bending" it, to produce different sounds. For example:

Now, most of this sounds like nonsense. Circuit bending and music are definitely two separate areas that should not be confused at first. Circuit bending is the process of discovery: finding out that your furby or see-and-say can produce the same sounds from Dark Side of the Moon. Does this mean you can make another Dark Side of the Moon with your see-and-say and a soldering iron? Absolutely not.

The first night of Bent Festival was Thursday, but that also happened to be the same night as Handmade Music at the 3rd Ward, which is essentially the same thing. So I decided to stay in Brooklyn and check out what was going on over there.

Turns out we got two performers that were scheduled for Friday night of Bent Fest. First, and most impressive, was Peter Edwards of Casperelectronics. Essentially, Peter has a bunch of different tone generators with the same clock running through the system. Each tone generator has different settings, and by modifying each one slightly, he was able to simulate a full "band" sound, using a patch bay of external Voltage Controlled Oscillators.

For those of you that didn't understand that, he plugged lots of stuff in and turned lots of knobs. Made cool sounds. This is sort of a preview into his live performance:

The second act was called E Squared. This was a more random performance, utilizing many different kinds of circuits from old turntables to card readers. They were sort of like DJs that used circuit boards.

So on Friday night, I headed down to The Tank, right on the edge of tourist hell Manhattan, and found that the space was A LOT smaller than I expected. Of course I had missed the free beer, but I was just in time to see Peter Edwards perform again.

I ran into my old friend Lauren, who is working on her masters thesis based around the circuit bending culture. We talked to Dr. Bleep, the inventor of the Thingamagoop. It is essentially a small noise-box with a photo-sensor and a few VCOs, but they're handmade and pretty cool to play with.

I also checked out an installation that used circuits with traced patterns for your hands to produce various different tones, as well as video.

For sale, there were a lot of starter kits, from stripped down Arduinos, to LED displays, to synths constructed on a breadboard. Instead of buying any of the kits, I opted to go for the book that was debuted earlier that night by Nic Collins. It is called Handmade Electronic Music, and it is a great read for people interested in getting started with circuit bending. You do not need an electronics background for it either.

Saturday night I had planned to return, but work was exhausting so I headed home. I was hoping it was going on today, but no such luck. All the tutorials and everything were Saturday afternoon. However, I'm going to start building some projects in this book and see what comes of it. I have a soldering iron and a breadboard so why the hell not.

Here's a preview to my next post: What happens when you put seven audio engineers in 2,000 square foot loft in Bed-Stuy? This could be the start of a hilarious sitcom.

Essentials in Jazz

2009-04-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Growing up playing the saxophone, I've always had a slight affinity for jazz. I played "Mercy Mercy Mercy" in my high school jazz band at age 16, and "Take the A-Train" at 17. However, I was always swept up with the hip punk rock scene, and jazz music was filed next to classical music on the "old people music" shelf of my teenage life.

Seven years later, it has become pretty much the only music in my life. Aside from a handful of bands, jazz has taken up the majority of my listening time. Tonight, I want to highlight a few great albums I've been listening to lately that you should all check out.

Roland Kirk - Volunteered Slavery (1968)

This album is one of the best saxophone albums I've ever heard. Roland Kirk, blind genius and multi-instrumentalist, mixes snippets of popular songs in with his freestyle saxophone. "I Say A Little Prayer For You" bounds into a Coltrane tribute (with the album below), which explodes into a free-jazz extravaganza. Occasionally, Kirk will warble along with his flute or just yell nonsense. This is the most fun jazz album I've heard in a long time.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

One of the most highly regarded jazz albums of all time, and for good reason. Coltrane kills it on this one. He's in the foreground and nothing else. The songs grow and morph from beautiful melodies into improvisational masterpieces. The drum solo on this album is probably the best I've ever heard. So good.

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (1959)

This is another upbeat, bebop jazz album reminiscent of old New Orleans jazz. Mingus records with an ensemble, alternating from a main melody line into a turn-based improv section. I hold a special place in my heart for Charles Mingus for his involvement with John Cassavetes, doing the entire soundtrack of Shadows.

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz To Come (1959)

Coleman pioneered improvisational jazz with this album. Primarily blues based, the saxophone wails and screams through seemingly tempo-less structures. The absence of a piano creates room for the other instruments to really explore the space. The spontaneity of this album makes it great.

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1959)

Kicking off with "Blue Rondo A La Turk" in 9/8, Dave Brubeck designs this entire album around the waltz, shifting from 5/4 to 9/8 to 3/4. Probably the album that spawned "cool jazz" or "lounge," using Brubeck's sauntering piano to drive most of the songs. Such a laid back album, I love it.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)

It took a while to narrow down my Miles Davis collection to one standout album, but I think Bitches Brew takes the cake. Miles was there for the dawn of avant-garde jazz, the conversion to electric, and then took jazz to the next level of improvisation. The electric guitar, synthesizer, and percussion led to the fusion of jazz and rock music. This album also utilized tape loops and reverb chambers, almost unheard of before this point. Miles is the king of jazz, hands down.

There are many more I could write about, but I think this is a good cross-section of what I've been listening to. Needless to say, the late 1950's were a great era for jazz music, evolving from a traditional music into an experimental phenomenon. The musicians were pure soul, playing what they felt at the moment. It's pure emotion, and the saxophone can convey it the best. I've been dying to get back into playing jazz in New York, and would love to play sax with a small group one or two nights a week, just to get back into the swing of things.

I really want people to add to this list. If you have a jazz album you can't live without, put it down here. I really want to expand on my collection.

My New Job

2009-04-03T06:10:00.000-07:00

It's true, I'm finally working. 5 days a week (to start) at NYCe Wheels, a specialty bike shop that sells folding and electric bikes. Although I've never really gotten into this type of riding, I've got to admit the bikes are pretty cool.

Brompton, one of our folding bike brands, is so light and compact that I can't help but post this video, for the sheer convenience of the thing:

The folding bikes are great for New York, a city where everyone wants to save as much space as possibly while simultaneously saving the environment.

The electric bikes are pretty sweet too. Our biggest clients are Chinese delivery guys, who pay over $1500 cash to take an electric bike on the job. They cover it in cardboard and duct tape, which I suppose makes it look flimsy or cheap, but in reality they are pretty powerful.

My boss is a great small businessman from Austria. Knows all about conserving energy and good business plans, and is very tech-savvy. Our website is pretty high-tech. He also chided me for not commuting to work, so I started riding the 10 mile commute to and from work:

View Larger Map

Needless to say, I'll be in the best shape of my life by summer. How the tables have turned!

Follow The Music

2009-03-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be an observation of New York that is strictly my opinion. Since I've only been living here for a short time, I obviously do not have the tenure nor experience to accurately comment on this subject. Corrections are welcome, and comments are always appreciated. Again, this is personal experience and observation.

Based on what I've observed since living here, my plethora of New York City-based films, and what I know about music in New York, the center of activity has been constantly moving around the city since the 1950's. Rent is cheap in certain areas, poor aspiring musicians move to that area, and it becomes a great cultural center for music and art. So WHERE does this happen, how long does it last, and why?

Times Square

I guess the best place to start is Times Square. The commercial tourist center of the world, Times Square is probably the last place you'd go to see young artists these days. It's packed with retail stores and expensive restaurants, and while there are many shows around the area, they are usually very established people charging outrageous prices. However, it wasn't always like this.

In the 1920's, Charlie Chaplin and Fred Astaire were tied to Times Square and referred to it as The Tenderloin, the most desirable place to live in Manhattan. After the depression, it was a haven for gambling and strip clubs. It was considered dangerous in the 50's, and it wasn't until Rudy Guiliani started his mass cleanup in the 1990's did the area become commercialized.

Carnegie Hall, on 57th St, was a main attraction for people like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk. Midtown (between 14th and 59th) is still the center of New York industry and activity, but in the 1950's, there were many more seedy bars and small jazz clubs.

Greenwich Village

If you go to Greenwich Village today, home of NYU, there is still a great amount of music and cultural activity. Washington Square is always alive with street musicians. The West Village has great food and small music clubs, and there is a good deal of young aspiring students. However, it's kinda missing something nowadays. The Village at night reminds me of Beaver Ave in State College, just a lot of young kids drinking and walking the streets. Rent is expensive, though, and it kind of seems like a museum that wants to reflect what it once was.

I had this same feeling the last time I visited San Francisco. North Beach, the home of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and William Burroughs, was the West Coast equivalent of Greenwich Village. In the late 50's and 1960's, they were the centers for Beatnik activity. Bob Dylan, the Mamas and the Papas, Peter Paul and Mary, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, The Velvet Underground, Joan Baez, and many others got their start here. The Weather Underground was also based in The Village. If you visit The Village today, it is a great place for dinner. Washington Square is bustling on a nice day, and there is music everywhere. People are generally a little older though, and it seems like the Bohemian days of old are long gone.

The Lower East Side

Initially a primarily immigrant neighborhood, the gentrification of the Lower East Side happened when rent in The Village started getting very high. These days, the LES is still a pretty hip place. The rent is low, for Manhattan, and there are moderately priced bars on Ludlow St and Rivington.

The Mars Bar (2nd Ave & 1st St) is one of my favorite bars in Manhattan. The Lit Lounge has a huge basement with DJs all the time. The Cake Shop is a great bar/coffee shop with bands every night of the week.

The LES has a lot of art galleries, and is probably the easiest area to get a gig for a new band in New York. I've played in the Lower East Side several times with the Bullet Parade, and friends of mine continue to play there all the time. It's probably one of the cheapest areas to live in Manhattan, but gentrification peaked in the late 1980's, and people started moving across the bridge...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Across the Williamsburg Bridge from the LES sits Williamsburg, the hippest place on the map. Since 2000, gentrification of Brooklyn has been spreading outward along the L Train, beginning with Williamsburg. What started as a small, mostly Hasidic population has turned into one of the biggest music centers in America. Since 2000, musicians have been erupting from this area. Acts such as TV on the Radio, Akron/Family, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, and many others got their start in Williamsburg.

At the Mccaren Park in 2007, bands played at the pool, and there are plans for a 2009 North By Northeast festival that spans across Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Small venues like Union Pool and Death By Audio are having great shows with lots of up and coming acts.
Williamsburg has been referred to as "The Haight-Ashbury of ironic self-loathing" and is consistently called the hipster capital of the world by many people. Living in East Williamsburg, I see a lot of similar fashion and trendy stuff going on. Everyone has been pretty nice that I've met, though, and Williamsburg is a great place for the mid-twenties crowd. Bars are always packed and there is always something to do. However, in recent years the rent has skyrocketed. It is probably more expensive to live in Williamsburg than many areas of Manhattan. So what did people do? Move down to the next stop on the L Train until that area explodes. Williamsburg has been expanding in this way, down the L, until the L passes into the next Brooklyn neighborhood:

Bushwick, Brooklyn

Bushwick had previously been a pretty rough spot in Brooklyn. Lately, though, the rising rent in Williamsburg combined with the neighboring Bed-Stuy cleanup program has made Bushwick an affordable and fairly safe community. The 3rd Ward is a great artist/community space. The Surreal Estate is a loft space related to Food Not Bombs and The Freegans in Bushwick. They've had some great shows and DJs there.

Goodbye Blue Monday is an amazing space under the J Train that has bands every night, a cafe, and a huge backyard complete with another stage and great decorations. Bushwick is definitely coming into its own as a great, affordable place for artists and young, poor college grads. Across from a huge loft space is the bar King's County, the Archive Coffee shop, and a late night falafel joint. When we have to move from our apartment in East Williamsburg in May, we're looking into Bushwick. It's affordable, and very much alive.

Bed-Stuy

The last area I want to hit on is Bedford-Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy. Birthplace of East Coast hip-hop (Notorious B.I.G., The Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Mos Def, Talib Kweli), Bed-Stuy was, up until very recently, a pretty rough patch of Brooklyn. The Spike Lee joint Do The Right Thing is set here, as well. This neighborhood is not off of the L Train, but the above-ground J, M, and Z Trains.

Starting in 2005, police have cracked down on the area, and as of 2009 it is one of the most improved areas with a decline in crime and increase in safety. The 123 Community Space is in the heart of Bed-Stuy, supporting freegans, bike-builders, sewing workshops, and food shares. The younger people moving to Bed-Stuy have a great sense of community, and there is a good incentive to get involved with the outreach programs in the neighborhood.

Though Bed-Stuy is still pretty rough, I wouldn't mind living here either. The rent is cheap, and I'd feel great getting involved in community-based activities.

Now that I have a job, I've been searching for new neighborhoods to live in. I know there are places I haven't even touched on in this post. Park Slope, DUMBO, and Greenpoint are all very worthy neighborhoods in Brooklyn, albeit very expensive. A loft space somewhere around the L Train is ideal, although I'll take whatever I can get. It's amazing to be around so many places in New York that have experienced such a cultural revolution. I just want to be a part of it today, wherever it's going on.

New York City: The Lost Romantics

2009-03-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Since I've been living in New York, I've delved pretty deeply into its history. I've been on a Scorsese kick, with Gangs of New York and Mean Steets. I've downloaded lots of Miles Davis, Coltrane and Monk. I've been listening to a lot of the hip hop to come out of Brooklyn, and I've been reading This Side of Paradise, which has its moments in the city.

Since watching Cassavettes' Shadows, the 1950's have emerged as this golden era of New York. Miles Davis and Coltrane are playing Carnegie Hall. NYU is starting to produce a great atmosphere of music in Greenwich Village, and the twenty-somethings are living in a glamorous utopia. Looking back, of course.

Maybe it was the movie Diner by Barry Levinson that did it. This has nothing to do with New York, and was filmed in 1982, but it is a look at 1950's Baltimore, and features Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, and Kevin Bacon in their very early years.

The whole lifestyle is just different. Marriage in your twenties, dating, dancing, etc. It's pretty great. The false innocence makes it appealing. Just the nightlife in general. I mean, check out this picture of a club in New York City from the 50's:

Real musicians making real music that they actually felt at the moment. They played it for people who felt it and danced because they were compelled to dance, not because everyone else was doing it. There were no DJs or mashups or impersonal grinding up on strangers. There was an art to it, and there was feeling. It took great effort and practice to dance in public, and if you cared to pick up a girl, you'd learn. Hard to find that in a bar nowadays. The dating scene is bleak, impersonal, and lifeless.

Woody Allen's Annie Hall or Manhattan also seem to capture the romanticism of the city. How you can step out of the bustle and enjoy the whole damn thing. That's kind of what hit me when I read Kerouac. The love of a place, rather than a person. How you could visit a place and just "dig" it. The bars, the buildings, the expensive restaurants...these aren't what make a city great. It's the view from the South Street Seaport at midnight, watching the waves break on the Manhattan Bridge. It's the graffiti on Morgan Avenue in Bushwick, the unknown artist El Camino reigning over the broken down buildings. It's the Spanish owner of the bodega on the corner, who will let us pay her back in a few days because we're her best customers. It's the feeling in your hair as you fly down the Williamsburg Bridge on a bike. It's the bartender at Mars Bar giving you shots and talking about punk rock.

Reading Fitzgerald, I always got a lost sense of romanticism. How could I keep living through this endless bustle, day by day, working, distracting myself, staying occupied without any sense to stop and appreciate anything. The Jazz Age. Romance at its finest. The saxophone is the dominant instrument, playing on pure feeling. Not an electric guitar noodling on already-written and re-written riffs. People are passionate for each other and for life, and they seem to have some standards that keep everything relatively wholesome. I want to stop entertaining myself and start living. I want to be enraptured by everything I do from now on.

"I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last; a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

Poached Eggs and Guests

2009-03-11T10:31:00.001-07:00

Going back to my old cooking blog for a minute on this one:

I've been obsessed with different styles of eggs lately. Making them hard boiled, fried, over-easy, etc etc. When I looked into poached eggs though, it got a little challenging.

The idea of poaching eggs involves dropping an egg into ALMOST boiling water. The best way to do this is bringing water to a boil, then turning it down and stirring it until there are no bubbles.

Crack each egg and keep them in a small container, like a ramekin. (I used a 1/3 c measuring cup.) You want something big enough to contain the egg, but small enough to dip under the water in your pot. Now, this is the hard part:

Dip each cup under the hot water and let the egg flow out. If you're skilled, you can use a spoon to push the whites around the yolk. Make sure each egg is contained and not touching another, or they will stick.

Cover the pot and let it sit for about 3-5 minutes. Pull the eggs out with a slotted spoon and you're finished! This is probably the best and healthiest way to cook eggs, as it involves no pan-frying and is very fast.

On another note, Laz and Grub visited for two days. We ate some sushi at Yummy Village, ate falafel in Williamsburg, and just walked around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Turns out the bartender at Bushwick Country Club is from Scranton, so we got a round of shots. Living in NEPA for all that time really pays off, I guess.

Okay, much to do today. Freelancing can get distracting.

Biking Manhattan

2009-03-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've been biking Manhattan every day, for kicks. I want to share this YouTube video with you, just to express the sheer thrill of riding Manhattan streets.

THIS is why I love New York.

Esperanto Cafe, AudioFanZine, and Other Great Things About New York

2009-03-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

After yesterday's depressing article on unemployment, I want to dish out the optimism for a change.

Esperanto Cafe, located at 114 MacDougal St. in the West Village is one of my favorite 24-hour coffee joints I've been to so far. Lots of great coffee and tea, paninis, bagels, vegan cakes and pastries, this place has it all. It's a great place for reading or working. There's no wi-fi, but if you bring an ethernet cable, you can hardwire into the wall. The tables are quite small, so it's not a restaurant experience, but if you need to stop somewhere and grab a coffee or tea, I highly recommend it. Another selling point: There is a phone booth against the wall with the ethernet jacks. Inside on a shelf? A copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Today I am going to apply to Trader Joe's, and will most likely get hired. This is fine by me. I'm determined to stay in New York, and if working in a grocery store for now is my only option, then so be it. Trader Joe's has a great organic selection and a high quality standard. I am also a big fan of the local Freegan lifestyle, which consistently plunders Trader Joe's for their less than perfect produce. This may be a better job than I originally thought.

On another note, I am on the writing staff for AudioFanZine.com, an online community for musical equipment and technology. I'm going to be flushing out my technical writing paper on 1-Bit Sigma-Delta encoding for the first article, followed by some more technical papers on DSP, acoustics, and Pulse Code Modulation. Finally, I can put my engineering and writing skills to a good use.

Last, I have a meeting with SIA Acoustics on Monday. I hear unpaid internships are the new entry-level position. You know, similar to how cheap is the new chic. Finally, a place to apply my knowledge of engineering, acoustics, recording, and live sound. All together at last! I doubt they will hire me right there, but maybe they'll let me sit and watch them for a few weeks and refer me to another unpaid internship. I don't expect this industry to be easy.

Oh yeah, on a completely unrelated note. My favorite web comic for the last few years, and until I find something better, is xkcd.com. Intelligent, kinda nerdy, a bit romantic, and sometimes philosophical. This one has it all. Lately, I've been a fan of another comic, however. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is spontaneous, hilarious, and sometimes wrong on all sorts of levels. I want to post one from this week that I feel is pretty relevant to a recent blog entry I had:

(click to enlarge)

Alright kids, hang in there. Summer is right around the corner. That's what the old man with no teeth at the Mars Bar told me the other night. "Fuck groundhogs, I can feel summer coming!" In this post-snowfall New York day, it is a glorious 35 degrees and I'm getting a job today. The 3rd Ward has some great stuff going on this weekend, and I might get some visitors from Penn State.

Job Forecast for College Seniors: Grimmer Than Ever

2009-03-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1882979,00.html?cnn=yes

By Laura Fitzpatrick Wednesday, Mar. 04, 2009

"Smith College's career office sent its jittery job-hunting seniors a letter last month with a reassuring message: "there ARE jobs, and you can find employment." Unfortunately, there are far fewer jobs than anticipated, according to a report out today from the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE). The companies surveyed in the group's spring update are planning to hire 22% fewer grads from the Class of 2009 than they hired from the Class of 2008, a big letdown from the group's projections in October that hiring would hold steady. Some 44% of companies in the survey conducted last month said they plan to hire fewer new grads, and another 22% said they do not plan to hire at all this spring, more than double last year's figure. "If you were a student and were out there [interviewing] in the fall, you probably had a decent chance of getting a job," says Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE. "But frankly, the spring does not look good."

Job prospects for college grads, which had been on the rise since 2004, dropped in virtually every sector this year. The most dramatic decline was, not surprisingly, in finance, which hemorrhaged 71% of expected job openings. Less expected but equally troubling is the 37% decline in hiring for professional services, which include accounting and engineering. "Poor hiring estimates from this area speak to the depth of the recession in the college labor market for the Class of 2009," the report says. (See TIME's special report on paying for colleges.)

Government is essentially the only industry planning to hire more new grads this year than last, as the new Administration expands and as a graying workforce retires. (The only other sector with plans to increase hiring — that of distribution, transportation and utilities — had too few respondents for the projection to mean much.) The uptick in government recruiting is obvious to students. Last year, notes Dorothy Kerr, executive manager of Rutgers University's career services, there were just 15 government and nonprofit employers at the annual Big East Career Day in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden; others were kept out to make room for 135 private sector employers. This year, just 80 private companies signed up for the March 13 event, where 30 federal agencies will be on hand accepting resumes. "The good news is, the federal government is definitely hiring," Kerr says. Still, according to the NACE report, the projected increase is less than 6%. (See 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.)

Not only are fewer companies hiring, but more of those with openings are offering internships instead of full-time spots. Only a third of on-campus recruiters this year are looking to sign both full-time employees and interns, the report found, down from an average of two-thirds for the classes of 2007 and 2008. And 16% of employers will be hiring only interns, nearly double the percentage that did so last year. "I explain to [the students] it's like taking another course, and paying to take that course," says Middlebury's executive director of career services, Jaye Roseborough. (Read "How to Know When the Economy Is Looking Up".)

Experts say more college grads may also seek employment in fields that require comparatively little education. "Even if you're surviving by being a coffee barista, it's still better than just staying home," says Koc. "With the job market as difficult as it is, I don't think that students have much of a choice." (See the top 10 financial-crisis buzzwords.)

Still, serving lattes for minimum wage plus tips is a painful prospect to the average college student, who graduates $21,000 in the red. Tuition costs could also be one reason why graduate schools, traditionally a refuge in tough economic times, have seen uneven application numbers this year. Lance Choy, director of the career development center at Stanford, notes that grad schools were a popular backup a few years ago during the dot-com bust, but applications are flat this year. "Who needs more debt when the job market is looking rather grim?" he says.

Meanwhile, schools are pulling out the stops to help their students to beat out the competition. Counselors everywhere are encouraging students to turn to their alumni networks for help. The University of Maryland has conducted workshops with an emphasis on networking. The career office shared by Haverford and Bryn Mawr recently gave each senior 50 business cards listing their names and majors. (Read "Businesses Bucking the Recession.)

But students who have already managed to snag an offer might want to keep their business cards handy. According to NACE, as many as 8% of employers will be forced to rescind at least some of the offers they made this fall. "In this economy, we don't even use the terminology 'sewn up' anymore," says Roseborough. More like coming apart at the seams."

This is my last month in New York. If I can't get a job by the end of March, I'm going to be forced to move.

Don't graduate from college, kids.

Party Lines Are Destroying Politics

2009-02-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

Warning: Political viewpoints ahead. Proceed with caution, and please don't argue on my blog.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/28/limbaugh.speech.cpac/index.html

Today, Rush Limbaugh addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference. He was given several standing ovations, calling for the Republican Party to "take back" the white house in 2012 and again hoping for Obama's failure.

Limbaugh addresses the problems of bipartisanship, and I agree with him. The stimulus bill should have been a bipartisan effort and was not. Okay, you win. However, this sort of rally does NOT help his cause. He essentially garners support AGAINST the president, and talks about "taking back" control of the white house. How are these bipartisan viewpoints?

We're in an era where we need to trust our leaders. For too long, we've seen corruption in Washington, and I think the majority of Americans want an era of recovery. Someone to fix the problems in the government for everyone, not just Democrats or Republicans. I think a majority of Americans don't vote along party lines anyway. If there is a clear cut leader who stands out above his opponent, he should get the vote. I'm not saying this because I voted for Obama. I've been trying to learn as much as I could about every policy, conservative and liberal, that can be applied to this country. I think the best thing for everyone right now is keeping an open mind and selecting the right option. When you have people like Rush Limbaugh spoon-feeding propaganda, this will never get accomplished. This goes for Michael Moore, Ann Coulter, and all the media mudslingers. This country will NOT move forward with these people invoking hatred in people for the opposing viewpoint.

We need to stop arguing and start learning from each other. We need to stop trash talking. We need to open our minds instead of closing them off to others' opinions. This election may have alienated neo-conservatives, but I think it was a turning point for liberals and libertarians. We may have different viewpoints, but I think everyone wants the best for the country. I know there are a lot of conservatives that disagree with Limbaugh, evidenced by "How Radio Wrecks The Right," a pamphlet given out during the speech.

If the Republican party wants to be relevant in the future, they need to relate to the American people. I can't name ten people that voted for McCain. Every conservative friend I have voted for Ron Paul or didn't vote. There is a problem with the current state of the Republican party, and I believe it is arrogance, refusal to cooperate, and stubbornness. I'm angered with the selection of Rush Limbaugh as a keynote speaker at a Republican convention. If this is the current leader of your party, how long is it going to be before you "take back the white house?"

2009 Movie Preview

2009-02-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

Now that the Oscars are over, everyone starts to look forward to the movies coming out this year. No doubt, we'll have a summer full of blockbusters. I'm almost finished reading The Watchmen, slated to debut in about a week.

We also see revamped versions of Star Trek, Terminator, Harry Potter, X-Men, and Halloween.

There's also a new Woody Allen flick, a Sacha Baron Cohen film starring his alter-ego Bruno, and a Wolfman film starring Benicio Del Toro.

On top of ALL of these, there are ten films coming out this year that I'd like to address specifically. You know, the ones that are shaping up to be the powerhouses of the year. The ones that have names like Scorsese, Depp, Downey Jr., DiCaprio, Day-Lewis, Tarantino, and Pixar involved. These won't necessarily all be good movies, but I'm sure a majority of these will be around in a year for Oscar season. Let's get started:

Public Enemies

Director: Michael Mann (The Insider, Collateral, Heat)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Leelee Sobieski

Summary: A crime drama set in Chicago during the Great Depression, this centers around bank robbers John Dillinger (Depp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham), and Pretty Boy Floyd (Tatum). Bale portrays the FBI agent Melvin Purvis, hunting them all down and Crudup portrays J. Edgar Hoover, leading the investigation.

My Opinion: With this cast, it's hard not to think Oscars. Gangster movies are great these days, and I think this could be a bit reminiscent of Gangs of New York. Depp and Bale get to showcase their actual acting expertise, after being stuck in niche markets for the last few years. The addition of Cotillard, Ribisi, and Crudup doesn't hurt either.

Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese (The Departed, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer

Summary: Adapted from Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River) 2003 novel, this film centers around the psychiatric facility Ashecliffe, where the missing patient Rachel Solando (Mortimer) has committed multiple murders. U.S. Marshalls Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) are searching the island in the midst of a hurricane and deception.

My opinion: Scorsese and DiCaprio, need I say more? We have an island with a murderer on the loose, and a huge storm. Not only that, but it seems like there is a deep web of deception for our heroes to pick through. Dennis Lehane has written storylines for The Wire, not to mention spectacular films like Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. Teaming up with Scorsese could be a masterpiece.

Nine

Director: Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha)

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman

Summary: This is an adaptation from a Tony award-winning musical which is derived from an Italian play inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2. Phew. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Guido Contini, a film director facing a mid-life crisis where he must balance relationships between his wife Luisa (Cotillard), mistress Carla (Cruz), muse Claudia (Kidman), and his mother (Sophia Loren).

My Opinion: Hugh Jackman said it best: The musical is back! Here we have everyone's favorite actor Daniel Day-Lewis teaming up with a director whose last musical garnered 13 Oscar nominations. I'm not familiar with the storyline, but juggling women in a musical based on a 1950's story seems like an entertaining concept.

Up

Director: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (Pixar Animation: WALL-E, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles)

Starring (Voices): Ed Asner, John Ratzenberger, Christopher Plummer

Summary: Carl Frederickson (Asner) longs for adventure. He's always wanted to visit the mountains, in remembrance of his late wife. To avoid moving out of his home, he attaches balloons to his house to fly away. However, he accidentally takes 8-year old Wilderness Explorer Russel (Jordan Nagai) along for the ride.

My Opinion: I've come to the realization that every Pixar movie is phenomenal. It's captivating, fun for all ages, and heart-warming. I'm sure Up will live up to expectations.

Inglourious Basterds

Director: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger

Summary: Two converging storylines, Tarantino style. Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt) arranges for a group of vengeful Jewish soldiers known as The Basterds to scalp the leaders of the Third Reich. Simultaneously, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) operates a cinema in German-occupied France where she plans to seek revenge on the Nazis that killed her family.

My Opinion: Did Tarantino really call this his "spaghetti-western with World War II iconography"? If so, we should see lots of guns, lots of characters, lots of flashbacks and flash-forwards, and a vengeful Brad Pitt. It would be nice to see Pitt back in form after Benjamin Button and Burn After Reading.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Director: Wes Anderson (Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic)

Starring (Voices): Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman

Summary: Based on Roald Dahl's book, this stop-action tale is about a fox (Clooney) who steals food from three farmers while constantly evading their attempts to stop him. When the farmers band together to get rid of the fox once and for all, they find that he is much more cunning than they thought. This will be in the style of Nightmare Before Christmas, but right now I can't seem to find any images from the film. Keep an eye out for this one.

My Opinion: I have a place in my heart for Wes Anderson. I love to death everything that man has touched, and I expect this childrens' stop-action to follow suit. However, I don't see any production progress, so this might not get released in 2009. Let's see how Anderson does in a different setting.

Sherlock Holmes

Director: Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams

Summary: Sherlock Holmes (Downey) and Dr. Watson (Law) apprehend Satanic cult leader Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who promises revenge.

My Opinion: Guy Ritchie has lost his luster lately and I think this may be just the film to bring him back to prominence. Robert Downey Jr. in a film noir, with Jude Law as a sidekick and Rachel McAdams as the femme fatale. I'm not sure which Holmes story they plan to adapt, if any, but it sounds like this has the potential to be pretty captivating. I'm counting on Downey to make this a worthwhile endeavor.

Taking Woodstock

Director: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

Starring: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Paul Dano

Summary: True life tale of Elliot Tiber (Martin), a Greenwich Village resident whose parents held the only music festival permit in all of upstate New York. Also tells of Tiber's struggles of being a closet homosexual and his experiences with the Stonewall Riots of the 1960's.

My Opinion: Fresh off of my second viewing of Milk, I'm gung-ho for movies with social revolution and upheaval. Here we have the origins of Woodstock and a struggle for gay rights. Musical revolution? Check. Social revolution? Check. Up-and-coming comedic genius? Check. What more could this film ask for? I guess an award-winning director wouldn't hurt.

The Road

Director: John Hillcoat (The Proposition)
Writer: Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men, Blood Meridian)

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron

Summary: In post-apocalyptic America, a man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) struggle to survive amidst starvation, cannibals, and a barren landscape of ash. Soundtrack rumored to be written by Nick Cave.

My Opinion: This book is probably the most depressing and moving tales I've ever read. Desolate, hopeless, and bleak. The story is held together solely by the father-son relationship, and their struggles are depicted perfectly on paper. I hope this will translate to the screen as well, especially with a Nick Cave soundtrack. This has potential to fail, but I really hope it doesn't.

The Informant

Director: Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Che, Oceans Movies)

Starring: Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Patton Oswalt

Summary: Based on the 2000 novel of the same name, this film is about high-ranking ADM executive Mark Whitacre (Damon) who confessed to the FBI of his companies' intentions to fix the price of the food additive Lysine. He was the highest ranking whistle-blower in U.S. history, working undercover for three years and gathering hundreds of hours of video and audio evidence. We also see his struggle with bipolar disorder, and the bizarre behavior that landed Whitacre with a much longer prison sentence than the people he helped to stop.

My Opinion: This is Matt Damon's movie. He is living the life of troubled Mark Whitacre, and he alone will make or break this movie. It's a true story, and it has an interesting protagonist. I think Damon could really showcase his abilities here. He's been overshadowed by ensemble casts lately, and this is his time to shine. Let's see what he can do with it.

As the year progresses, I'm sure there will be other contenders I haven't even thought of, and I'm sure some of these will fall flat for one reason or another. Hell, I thought Australia would definitely be up for best picture, judging by the first few images I saw last year. This just goes to show how deceiving the previews can be.

Any films I missed that you would like to add? Drop me a comment!

The 3rd Ward

2009-02-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

It's high time I think some of the awesome places around here were recognized for being awesome. The first on the list: The 3rd Ward.

Located at 195 Morgan Avenue (above a five minute walk from my apartment!), this space has everything your creative heart desires. There are workspaces available to rent, with access to the wood shop, metal shop, photography studio, or digital media lab (complete with Final Cut Pro, Adobe Creative Suite & After Effects, and Macromedia Studio).

There are classes available in Digital Design, Photography, Professional Development, Screen Printing, Welding/Metal Work, and Woodworking. There is also a featured class: for this month it is Write A Business Plan.

You can become a member on a few different levels, and gain access to the labs, earn exhibition space, get discounts, AND GET HEALTH INSURANCE!

Also, the AMAZING Gardentone Recording Studio
is located here. I met with the head engineer and was thoroughly impressed by the setup. You should check out their website for more pictures and a list of artists and equipment. There is a possibility I may be able to record there as a freelance engineer in the future as well!

Last but not least, there are amazing events going on here. My personal favorite, Handmade Music Night:

Every 3rd Thursday, geeky DIY musicians come in to see crazy electronic devices handcrafted by other circuit-bending geeks and perhaps build their own! This past week, we saw a performance by the Electric Junkyard Gamelan , with instruments made from flower pots, rubber bands, and garbage cans. There was also a pretty sweet Arduino synth for everyone to toy around with. Did I mention there's free Pabst?

Oh, and for the artists out there, every 1st and 3rd Wednesday is Drink-N-Draw. $15 admission, $10 if you bring a friend. They supply the models, you bring your tools.

Of course, a space wouldn't be complete without a Movie House, every 2nd Sunday of the month. They just celebrated their 2nd anniversary with a 2-minute film festival.

I can't express how sweet this place is. I only first attended Handmade Music Night this past week, and I'll be sure to attend as many events in the future as possible. It's so great that such a communal space is so close to me.

Kleeb's Top 10 Films of 2008

2009-02-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Oscar night is upon us, and before we see any of the winners, I wanted to post my picks for the ten best films of 2008. Granted, I haven't seen them all but I really did try. I hope we'll see a reflection of this tonight:

10. Tropic Thunder

I expected nothing from this film. I expected a crappy Ben Stiller comedy with no intelligent plot or character development. I got a hilarious, innovative comedy mocking the war genre. Robert Downey Jr. is amazing as the overdramatic Kirk Lazarus, unable to get out of character as a blackface lieutenant. Nick Nolte and Danny McBride provide an amazing side plot. Tom Cruise is the best asshole I've ever seen. Matthew McConaughey is back in his best pot-smoking form. And Ben Stiller, as much as I loathe him and his movies, is fantastic. His post-panda attack attitude is great, and I think that scene alone makes this movie worth it. Surprise of the year. I don't think it will get any awards tonight, but it deserves some attention.

9. Waltz With Bashir

On a more serious note, war is not a joke. Even if war movies are. Waltz With Bashir is an account of the Lebanon War in the early 80's. Ari, the lead character, cannot seem to remember that part of his life. Specifically, the Beirut massacre. He talks to old friends to try to piece together the puzzle. I think this is a definite Best Foreign Language Film. Dazzling animation as well. The whole film is just artistically amazing. Think Waking Life, but a little more detailed.

8. Burn After Reading

Since we're on the subject of movies that didn't get the attention they deserved, the newest Coen Brothers film was ignored completely this year, by practically everyone. This is a great tale of stupidity, promiscuity, and blackmail. Brad Pitt and George Clooney are hysterical. John Malkovich is at the top of his game. Every character is just so utterly ridiculous and stupid that J.K. Simmons' character says it best: "What a clusterfuck!" This also won't win tonight, hell it isn't even nominated. But it's fantastic.

7. WALL-E

I love Pixar. Every movie they make is intelligent, funny, and accessible to all ages. Their latest release is one of the best they've made. It is a love story, a reflection on American consumption, and an entertaining action movie, packed with nostalgia. The score and much of the robotics are from Brazil. Even the main enemy is straight out of 2001:A Space Odyssey. The best part about this film is probably the lack of dialogue for over 50% of the film. What an entertaining film. Best Animated Feature.

6. Slumdog Millionaire

I'm probably the only person that doesn't LOVE this movie. I think it's great and very well-done. It will probably win Best Original Song for "Jai Ho" or "O Saya" and Best Original Score for A.R. Rahman. I'll give Danny Boyle Best Director because of the fantastic acting of all the mostly inexperienced cast. The story is fantastic too, so I'll also vote Best Adapted Screenplay. I think this is a fantastic film, don't get me wrong. It's a great love story, it's innovative, and the cast is relatively unknown. However, I think it's riding a pretty big wave of hype right now, and there are other films that deserve a bit more attention.

5. Frost/Nixon

Ron Howard's depiction of the battle between former President Nixon and then-trivial reporter David Frost is engaging and powerful. It is like watching a political boxing match, where Frost is getting crushed for three rounds, and somehow comes out in the fourth round and knocks out the champ. Since Nixon had been pardoned, there was no need to pry into the Watergate scandal. Frost's interview was able to pull a confession out of Nixon, get him to emotionally apologize on national television. It was considered the trial that Nixon never had, and Frost became a celebrity afterwards. Frank Langella deserves something for his emotional portrayal of Nixon, but I think he has too stiff of a competition. This film is great, and definitely worth watching, but I think it will go home empty-handed tonight.

4. The Dark Knight

The summer blockbuster is somehow getting better every year. The Batman franchise has been reinvented with the combination of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale. The Dark Knight is the best superhero film I've ever seen, with the help of Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and of course Heath Ledger. Best Supporting Actor by far, Ledger has far outdone the previous Joker performance by Jack Nicholson, one I strongly considered one of the best performances by one of the best actors of all time. Surely, they wouldn't try to outdo Nicholson? Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is sinister. There's no jack-in-the-box or whoopee cushion. The Joker is not practical jokes as much as he is just mentally unstable. The way his tongue darts around as he talks and his tone of voice just bring an air of uneasiness to the scene. It is troubling to watch the Joker, and even more so now that Ledger has passed. You could almost believe, if the rumors are true, that this character drove him over the edge. And THAT is scary. This will probably also grab Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

3. Man On Wire

I love documentaries. The crazier the subject, the more I enjoy it. This particular tale is about a crazy French tight-rope walker who absolutely will not stop attempting to walk between the towers of the World Trade Center. He is passionate and probably slightly insane, but the film follows his struggles and practice leading up to the great feat. His two teams must wait in the towers for hours as security guards patrol, then set up their camp on the roof. To get the wire across, they shoot an arrow attached to a fishing line. By morning, he is on the wire and he walks across eight times before they catch him. It is a story of dreams and passions and someone who will stop at nothing to achieve them. Best Documentary Feature.

2. The Wrestler

Growing up, all my friends were into professional wrestling. I couldn't stand it. Once I found out everything was staged, what fun was it? It was a lame show of masculinity with a predetermined winner. Who cares? After watching Aronofsky's moving tale of a washed up wrestler played by Micky Rourke, my attitude changed. Rourke had no other life than pro wrestling, and when he got too old, there was nowhere to turn. Marisa Tomei is fantastic, playing his closest friend, a frequent stripper. Evan Rachel Wood is also great, playing his estranged daughter. We see firsthand what Rourke is going through as he tries to find emotion in his life after his passion is impossible. I am split on the Best Lead Actor category for this reason, because Sean Penn has an equally compelling performance in...

1. Milk

Best Picture by far, Milk tells the tale of San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk and his struggle to win gay rights. He starts as a small business owner and slowly builds his community until he is elected city supervisor. Penn has transformed himself for this role, becoming the strong advocate for gay rights that Harvey Milk had been. I'd be content with either Penn or Rourke taking home Best Lead Actor because they both deserve it. I am also voting for Milk to win Best Original Screenplay. The supporting cast in this film are amazing too, with Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin in captivating performances. I can't say enough about this film, it was truly my favorite of the year.

Now, I have a little bit to say about other movies I've seen. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was great. It reminded me a bit of Forrest Gump, and I could see why it's getting shunned by everyone, but I still think it was very moving. Because Pitt and Blanchett played the same characters for an entire life span (except children), I'm giving Best Makeup, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design to this film. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I think everyone should give it a shot. It's really not bad.

In Bruges was a fun action film, something I haven't seen without it being terrible. I wouldn't be upset if it took home Best Original Screenplay.

Benicio Del Toro is amazing in his depiction of Che Guavara in Che. Though the movie is two parts, and I only got to see Part 1, I can still say that he was great. This is another film that got completely shunned at the academy.

There you have it, my analysis of 2008 in film. We'll see how I fare tonight during the awards.

John Cassavetes

2009-02-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago, I was introduced to the wild world of John Cassavetes. An American filmmaker from the late 50's, Cassavetes was the pioneer of independent film. He was the Jack Kerouac of film. He was the Beat director. I was in love.

We watched Shadows, his directorial debut. Shadows is about New York City in the 50's, from jazz to dating to bar fights. Here is a clip:

All the music is either jazz legend Charles Mingus or saxophonist Shafi Hadi. The film is more real than anything I've seen from this era. The relationships aren't overdramatic. The characters are believable. It doesn't hold back.

At the end of the film, a message appears on the screen:

"The film you have just seen was an improvisation."

I think that says enough. Great film, great acting, great music. I can't wait to get my hands on more of his stuff. Go check him out.

It's The Economy, Stupid!

2009-02-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

At the end of my last post I said Bill is gone and Nate is back, and it wasn't more evident than last night. The tips of my fingers hurt, the soles of my feet hurt, and I feel fantastic.

Nate and Paul came into my calm day of watching free Netflix movies and reading in a whirlwind of energy and musical inspiration. It wasn't long before we were writing songs again, Nate and I on guitar and Paul on drums. We now have about 5-6 songs to flush out in the coming week.

Around 11, we needed to pick up bagels for the week, so we headed downtown. The dumpster on Bedford flowed with cinnamon raisin, poppyseed, sesame, and garlic. I had a field day again. There has never been a time where I failed to retrieve bagels, and this time we scored about a dozen. We hopped the train to Manhattan because Nate was craving Mamoun's Falafel. Paul went home, and us jobless rogues decided to go for a walk around Manhattan.

We walked around the village, Washington Square, up to 14th St. to the Trader Joe's to see if we could score some produce (1 a.m. is not the time to find free produce) down to Alphabet City, to the Lower East Side, down to the South St. Seaport, where Nate worked in the summer, and into the financial district.

Nate is a stanch Ron Paul supporter, and for most of the night we talked about the economy. We both oppose the stimulus bill. For me, it seems illogical that a massive amount of spending will "pump up" the economy. Nate was telling me about an Austrian economic belief that pulls government out of people's lives and forces everything to be very competitive private businesses. This way, quality is improved and people have the choice between different companies.

I still believe in government funded education, police force, and health care, but I could see where he's coming from. The solution to a better economy is LESS government intervention, not more. At this point, we're too deep into this economic shit to do this, because of the national debt and the unpaid mortgages, but we'll see if this stimulus package actually works.

New York is beautiful because of the independent businesses. Every place around me is run by a family owned enterprise. Granted, quality is definitely sacrificed in a lot of instances, but there are about a dozen different groceries, laundromats, coffee shops, etc. Nate's belief is that no one takes better care of you than the community, so a privately owned hospital has incentive to take better care of their patients than a government-owned universal health care plan. The problem is that HMOs are in control of most of the medical practices today and it's destroying any sort of independent medical practice. Also malpractice lawsuits make it almost impossible for an indpendent doctor to exist.

As we walked we talked about this, and I learned a great deal about economics. It was never a field that interested me, but it is very critical right now to have a good understanding of what's going on. I just watched a video on cnn.com that kind of alarmed me, but it's probably true:

Yes, this election motivated many young people, but what are they doing now? Do they know what the details of the stimulus bill are? Are they going to be critical of Obama, or simply live unconcerned now that their celebrity is in office? I like Obama a lot. I think he truly does care about people and not power, and I know he did a lot of community service and worked closely with compassionate people. I don't think he will repeat the Bush disaster, but at the same time, I'm not letting him off the hook. If the people aren't critical of the government, who will be?

South Street Seaport is beautiful at 2 a.m. We stood under the Brooklyn Bridge and you could faintly see the Statue of Liberty through the night fog. A small freighter was coming in to dock, and the quiet streets of the financial district were the most desolate places I've seen in New York. We walked to Wall Street and stood in front of the Stock Exchange, with a huge American Flag across the front. We read about J.P. Morgan and all the historical facts concerning the beginnings of Wall Street. We took pictures in front of it and headed down to Ground Zero, passing French retail stores along the way that sold $300 sweaters and saddles. The observation walkway was blocked off, but we checked out a picture of what they intended the new site to look like:

Putting things into perspective, I'd rather be unemployed at this point in my life. I can get by on basically nothing, and work is going to come soon. I just have to REALLY persevere. I applied at Philip Glass's recording studio yesterday, and it was the only place to get back to me:

Mark,

Thanks for getting in touch about our studios. Unfortunately, we're closing our doors for good at the end of the month. Best of luck out there...

-xtian

Christian Rutledge, Studio Manager
THE LOOKING GLASS STUDIOS
632 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10012
212.353.2000 www.glassnyc.com

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

(Courtesy of xkcd.com)

Valentine's Day is the most loved and most hated holiday. Everyone either celebrates the fact that they have a significant other with extravagant dinners and bottles of wine, or sulks in self loathing and cheap beer. Personally, I have always been a victim of the latter. I've always been single for Valentine's Day, but this is pretty much the first time I'm pretty happy about that. My roommate April and her boyfriend went out for a four course meal in Manhattan with a $50 wine special. That's fine and all, but if you're unemployed in New York and eating bagels out of a dumpster to stay alive, you can't really celebrate Valentine's Day. There's not much room for romance in my wallet these days.

Since Drew and Bill are in the same boat, Bill decided to stay in New York until Sunday and spend Valentine's Day with us and Logic Pro. We finished another track in addition to "The Living" called "In Your Mother's Car" which was recorded with a better quality and mixed much more meticulously. Here are both songs available to stream, if you're interested:

The Living:

In Your Mother's Car:

I always have a great time playing with Bill and Drew. For those that don't know, the three of us played music together in 2003-2005 in Kill The Lights.

We were reckless, young, and energetic. People jumped into my drumset after every show. We broke guitars, drums, bones. It was pretty great, but pretty sloppy and destructive. Here's a video compilation followed by one of our old songs:

Credits For The Common Man

I Survived The Cicada Invasion But My Dog Didn't

And here we are about a year ago at Drew's birthday:

So Bill has gone, but Nate has returned. I am still jobless, but I am on a recording kick, so we may be pumping out songs for the next week or so. Life is great.

Norm Macdonald Has Lost His Mind

2009-02-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

I know this is an out of order entry, but I was really excited about Bill's song and you should all go listen to it.

On Tuesday, I attended the Conan O'Brien show with Drew. It was everything I always dreamed of. For those of you that missed it, here are two hilarious segments with Norm Macdonald.

And here with Gordom Ramsay:

I'm glad I got to witness in person one of the funniest things to happen on this show. Norm Macdonald truly is one of the funniest people of all time, whether he knows what he's talking about or not.

Speaking of people on late night that have lost their mind, what the hell happened to Joaquin Phoenix?

People are saying it's a gag, people are saying it's a character from an upcoming mockumentary, but in my opinion, he just wants out of the spotlight.

Phoenix's brother committed suicide. He declared his retirement from acting. I think he just wants out of the public eye and will do whatever he can to rip apart his reputation. I don't think anyone will care about Joaquin Phoenix in a few years and he will be happier for it.

Or maybe not, who knows. Who cares.

Wednesdays With Bill

2009-02-12T10:05:00.000-08:00

Bill came to visit us on Tuesday. We spent a typical Tuesday night at the Lazy Catfish and Matchless, drinking entirely too much and playing random games with random people in courtyards.

We woke up on Wednesday with no agenda, so we decided to record one of Bill's songs. We went all out, drums, sax, more drums, more vocals. It turned out pretty good considering the lyrics were mostly improvised and so were all the percussion parts.

Anyway, here you go. Comments appreciated.

Bill, Kleeb, and Drew - The Living

Enjoy!

What's With The Grammys?

2009-02-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Last year, I gave a long rant about the Gramophone Awards and how they were not inclusive enough. How they seemed to be out of touch with the artists of today and were just masturbatory awards for the music industry to dote upon. Artists that released fantastic albums like TV on the Radio and Joanna Newsom were ignored for extremely sub-par, but popular, artists like Maroon 5 and Amy Winehouse.

This year, I still hold some of these views. Washed up artists that have long since passed their prime (Paul McCartney, the Eagles, Maroon 5) are still nominated. Many great artists from the past year were ignored, albeit a pretty large critical acclaim and popularity (Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros, TV on the Radio). However, I feel that I am looking at the Grammys from a very narrow viewpoint, and in this post I'd like to expand that a bit.

Let's take a look at the categories. If you're an avid follower of music like myself, you would probably want to justify each of the winners being worthy of the award. However, I found myself not knowing much of the music nominated. I am currently looking into this Robert Plant/Alison Krauss project, because it seems to have swept the awards. Nothing I would listen to, by any means, but I guess it's good for what it is. Very over-produced and country-influenced, two things I despise about modern music. But hey, it's the Grammys. So it beats out Lil Wayne, an artist that I can stand in stride but feel he is somewhat of a joke. Ne-Yo I have never listened to. Coldplay's new album is alright. It's miles better than 2005's X&Y, but nowhere close to their first two releases. Plus Coldplay is just lukewarm at best. There are so many albums that were better than that. Then there's Radiohead's In Rainbows, which, in my opinion, was the groundbreaking album of 2007. Innovative, fresh, and the marketing strategy was outstanding. Just the fact that this was even nominated for record of the year is good enough for me.

Getting nominated for a Grammy these days is like winning five. If you're not Bruce Springsteen or Paul McCartney or someone ancient, you have little chance of being recognized. The Grammys seem to resurrect artists every year instead of baptizing new ones. Let's take a look at the best Solo Rock Vocal Performance: Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Eddie Vedder, Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer. Let's skip over the fact that Sir Paul was nominated for "I Saw Her Standing There" which was released upwards of SIXTY FUCKING YEARS AGO. This group of geezers are not really relevant. Mayer gets the win because he's under 50. I can even support Mr. Vedder because this song is actually great.

So let's move away from the aspects of the Grammys that make us all cringe and try to see what is changing for the better. First off, this performance is actually amazing:

Although other performances make me want to stop playing music altogether:

I guess you can be a corporate-built band with the sole purpose of marketing to 14-year old girls and STILL win awards despite how shitty you are. And play on stage with Stevie Wonder. Despicable. Poor Stevie. Anyway, some performers still impress me, getting nominated for song of the year (with lyrics about immigration!) and performing at 8 months pregnant:

So maybe the Grammys are getting better, though at this rate it's going to take decades. Kings of Leon beat out powerhouses AC/DC, the Eagles, Radiohead, and Coldplay for best rock performance.

I have yet to explore the categories like contemporary jazz, latin jazz, tejano, mexicano, norteno, and banda music. This leads me to believe that there is still a TON of music that is prospectively amazing that I have not yet heard. Although, I'm kind of disappointed that Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali was not nominated for any World Music category.

Also, with my major, I was happy to see categories for production, mixing, mastering, and composing. These people behind the music do not get recognized enough. Audio Engineers and Sound Designers are beginning to get the recognition they deserve. Even if it is the Grammys.

Maybe I WILL win a Grammy one day, even if it is the most self-indulgent and out-of-touch award you can win.

Holy Shit! Michael Phelps is Twenty-Three!

2009-02-03T10:42:00.001-08:00

I know I'm beating a dead horse on this one, but I just want to make some comments. For those of you that live in a barn but still have the internet, somehow, 8-time Olympian gold-medalist and all-around best physical athlete of all time, Michael Phelps was caught smoking weed. With a backwards hat.

Surprise! He's fucking twenty-three. He went to a college party. I know he's supposed to be a fine upstanding example of morality and the idol for your kids, but give the guy a break. If you're the absolute best in the world, don't fucking apologize. At most, he should stand up and say "I am the absolute best athlete in the world, and smoking weed did nothing to hinder winning 8 gold medals. I'll smoke another bong and win them again."

This also goes for Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen who was caught playing beer olympics. We've all been to college. It's a place to get things out of your system. Is he showing up drunk to football games? Doubtful. Is Phelps getting high before a swim meet? I guess it's possible. But improbable. Sports figures are under way too much scrutiny, especially in the years of their lives when they're supposed to be drinking and getting high and learning from it.

So now Michael Phelps is on the chopping block, pulls out of the Super Bowl speech he was supposed to give, and loses all of his AT&T endorsements. His "public image is damaged" and his "marketing potential may take a dip, analysts say."

Even our current president has admitted to marijuana use, and he's basically worshiped across the world right now. So have the last two presidents. Maybe marijuana isn't the most productive or smart thing to do when you have responsibilities. However, it's definitely not as bad as all the anti-drug programs make it out to be. It's much less dangerous than alcohol, and really needs to be re-evaluated.

I think this Phelps issue is important for that. After all, the guy has 8 freakin gold medals. Let him smoke weed. Christ.

The Super Bowl, or Another Excuse to Cook and Have People Over

2009-02-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

Since my interest in cooking skyrocketed a few years ago, I have taken advantage of many so-called "Cooking Holidays." These include, but are not limited to, Memorial Day, The Fourth of July, Labor Day, The Super Bowl, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I am an avid professional football fan. I've followed the Green Bay Packers since I was eight years old. My interest has waned slightly as of late, especially with a new interest in Major League Baseball and the Phillies, but I never miss a season of Fantasy Football, and I never miss a Super Bowl.

That said, the Arizona Cardinals seemed like the unlikely underdog of the year. So why not throw a party? Drew, Nate, April, and I got to cooking. Alex and two of her friends showed up and we drank and yelled at the TV and ate massive amounts of food. Since I lack a camera, other than my Mac, I will post pictures of what the food would have looked like if it had been photographed before eaten:

(All images are approximate and look more delicious than actual result)

Nachos were first. We baked them in the oven with some pepperjack cheese and had a side of salsa (store bought) and guacamole (home made). They were gone in about 10 seconds. The guacamole was probably the best turnout of the day, courtesy of Mr. Carsillo. We scooped out 2 avocados, a bit of diced onion and tomato, some garlic, lemon juice, cilantro, and some spices. I don't know why I never made this before, it was delicious.

Next, my Super Bowl staple, Buffalo Tofu Strips. I used to love buffalo wings, and a vegetarian Super Bowl would not be complete without SOME sort of buffalo something. So, I cut a block of tofu into strips and fried it in oil. Then I mixed BBQ sauce, Frank's Red Hot, Butter, and Sriracha Chili Sauce (A Kleeb kitchen staple). Poured this mixture over the tofu and baked it for about 10-15 minutes.

As you can see, the above image is breaded. After the fact, I would have breaded these strips, but they turned out okay anyway. Next time I definitely will.

Last, but not least, homemade Jalapeno Poppers. I made these once before with Alex Katos and they were delicious. I think I got overzealous this time and tried to bread them with flour. Basically, we cut the peppers in half and scooped out the middle and stuffed them with pepperjack cheese. Then I rolled them in milk and flour and then breadcrumbs. However, the flour did not solidify and we ended up with powdery, spicey, cheesy nonsense.

Here's what they would have looked like if we were successful

Anyway, we got loads of PBR and yelled at the screen and got really excited for the Cardinals (despite being a Pennsylvania native), but in the end Pittsburgh prevailed. You can't really dislike the Steelers though, they're a great team. And the winning touchdown was outstanding:

Anyway, it's time to crack down on this transcription. I'm working from home, and it's grueling, but this money will take me well into March. Maybe some film crew work after that? Hoping to get in as a sound mixer soon.

Soon....

EMPLOYMENT STRIKES!

2009-01-30T18:18:00.001-08:00

Yes, both Drew and I are now members of the working class of America. Today, I visited HCD Media in Dumbo to meet a team working on a documentary on prisons in New Orleans. My first task is to transcribe the interviews, something I'm not looking forward to, but at least it's paying and I got my foot in the door. I could possibly get in as a Production Assistant and then (hopefully) as a field sound technician. The producer I talked to today said he had to run sound, for lack of an engineer, and hated it. Good signs all around.

So I biked over to Dumbo, just to see how long it would take. About half hour, turns out. Not bad at all. On my return trip, I was turning onto my street for the last 10 seconds of riding when POP! HISSSSSSSSSS there goes my back tire. I could SEE my apartment. I got in and what do I see sticking out of my tire?

What is that? A staple? A piece of a car? All I know is that I'm lucky I was so close to home, traveling without a spare tube. The roads are unkind to bikers. In fact, roads are probably worse for biking than traffic. Ask anyone who has biked on Broadway. In fact, the entire U.S. infrastructure is pretty terrible. We got a D on our roads, bridges, dams, etc by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Now, I'm not one to prioritize, but shouldn't this be important? I know, I know we have to worry about unemployment and Wall St. and mortgage rates, but shouldn't this be slightly higher on the list?

According to the stimulus bill which probably won't get through the senate, out of the $550 billion in spending, we're looking at:

$142 billion for education
$111 b. for health care
$90 b. for infrastructure
$72 b. for aid and benefits
$54 b. for energy
$16 b. for science and technology
$13 b. for housing

Now, the opponents of this bill are saying the projects for the infrastructure will "take too long" and they want more projects that are considered "shovel-ready" (provide jobs quickly).

I might have to side with the Repub's on this one. We need some fast cash. Considering the state of the construction on the L Train, it might be two years before it's faster to take the subway to Manhattan than walk.

Anyway, it's getting warmer and biking is the preferred method of transportation for sub-3 Catherine St. We just have to avoid these staples and things.

Check out www.bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com for some entertaining bike stories in New York. He's much funnier than I am.

Thoughts on Girls, Bikes, and Garbage

2009-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

A few totally unrelated points that I want to touch on from this past week...

1. Girls in bars are predatory. They stare you down, they're up front, and they all want to hook up. This is a great thing, of course, but I've always had a sort of reservation about meeting girls in bars. Something about me being drunk, or them being drunk, or the awkwardness that ensues after the first night we hang out...it's just not appealing. The most appealing girl I've met so far in the city is the one I talked to at a sound design company about getting jobs in the city and working on tours and all of that. Anyway, I guess I'm just a bit overwhelmed at first. Bars are NOT like this in Penn State or Wilkes-Barre. Every girl is beautiful as well. The city is magnificent. And somehow, there are free drinks any night of the week if you look hard enough.

2. Biking the city is exhilarating. Riding 5th Avenue with traffic, you're right beside taxis and buses. You have to cut around the left sides of cars at intersections, because people will just turn right without signaling. If you hit someone's side view mirror, you better not stop or look back. The Williamsburg bridge is the biggest incline in the city, and the hardest ride in the winter. However, it has the best view of Manhattan, so it kind of makes up for it. Drew got a job as a bike messenger today, so at least one of us has an income. If it comes down to it, I might have to do this too.

3. Dumpster Diving is a lucrative hobby in Brooklyn. We came home with a dozen bagels the other night. We're going again in about thirty minutes. We need bread and produce. Hopefully we can minimize our grocery costs by simply finding out the right time to grab things. http://freegan.info/ is a great site for this, as well as free bike workshops in Brooklyn!

4. If Nate and I can't get a job by the end of the week, desperate measures may have to be taken. We're thinking about jobs on a loading dock or working on a boat, sailing to Europe. Maybe washing skyscraper windows. The audio business is not booming these days. I've applied to over 100 places this month. No responses.

In any case, life is still great. Reading lots of books. Watching lots of movies. Listening to a lot of new music (Dirty Projectors are amazing!), writing lots of cover letters. It's just a waiting game, and I'm not in a bad place to be waiting.

Milk

2009-01-25T20:59:00.001-08:00

I'm going to do my best to keep EVERY good movie and album off of this blog, because you can always read reviews in newspapers and online critics, etc. However, if a movie really hits me. If it sticks with me for a few days, or inspires, I can't help but mention it here.

Now don't get me wrong, other movies this past year were great. No discredit to The Wrestler, Man On Wire, Slumdog Millionaire, or any of the other amazing films this year. However, Milk takes the cake.

For those of you who don't know, Harvey Milk was an openly gay politician in the 1970's that was successfully elected San Francisco City Supervisor. He pretty much led the gay movement into the public and inspired the marches and oppositions to national anti-homosexual legislation. He was assassinated by fellow supervisor Dan White, along with the mayor of San Francisco

This kind of leader for any type of movement is electrifying. He was able to build a community where homosexuals could feel comfortable, and then gain enough power and voice in that area to demand equal rights. Thousands of people marched the streets of San Francisco, multiple times. He stood up for the one issue he believed in, and triumphed (for a little while, anyway). This wasn't only a victory for the gay community, it was a victory for politics as a whole.

I feel very inspired by this film. I've been watching movies with very powerful central figures, like Che or Man On Wire. Movies where the protagonist has a passionate goal and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

I'm at a point in my life where I need to get that passion back. I had it once, and I now lack a direction or goal. I think I'm waiting around for something to hit me, so I know which way to go. Sometimes politics will creep into my head, but I don't think I have the energy or attitude to get to the top. It's a gruesome game. I'd rather just play music.

Anyway, this is NOT my Oscar post. I will do a top 10 list once I have viewed a majority of the films. Soon, soon!

Songwriting

2009-01-22T15:32:00.001-08:00

Drew, Nate, and I sat down today and played music pretty much all day. It's 6:30 and we'll most likely be playing music later as well. It feels good. We're all on the same page, and I haven't felt that way about other musicians in a long time. We're doing a lot of things with acoustic guitars, lots of drums, bongos. Quiet but intense. We want to be able to play subway stations.

I just realized my Mac has this photobooth thing, so I'm going to take this opportunity to post some grainy pictures of our place, if anyone is interested. It's cramped but we love it.

I'll be posting some recordings hopefully when we get some shit together. Life is exciting, even if there's no income.

Obama-rama

2009-01-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

January 20th, 2009. 12:32 pm. The inauguration address has just ended. We can now say "President Barack Hussein Obama." At the same time, I am unemployed and things are not looking good. My college degree is utterly worthless and I'm looking at restaurant jobs.

But who can kill the optimism in the air? You can't deny that no matter how bad things are, there's a feeling of electricity never felt before for our generation. No one cared about politics, and many people downright loathed the system. I got my "Worst President Ever" T-shirt in 2003, when I started to realize what was going on. I just couldn't believe people were supporting the actions and programs of George W. Bush.

The viewpoint has completely changed. Bush isn't even relevant anymore, and hasn't been for the last 3 months. Everyone is hopeful. Everyone is excited for the future. Everyone thinks it can only get better from here. Despite the economy. Despite the Middle East. Despite the environment. Despite the education system. Everything is going to improve.

I will never forget the night Obama was elected. We were soldering resistors to the circuit board that would later become the theremin. I had no expectations for victory. I remember a quote from a friend's blog that said:

"if you're in New York, and you vaguely recall some slight issues of voter fraud, and there's an abandoned car on fire down your block, the Repubocons gone done and stoled it again. However, if you see more beer bottles on the street than usual, Obama has won."

I think we all expected defeat. We've been used to it. Remember 2004? It was like someone had died. No one could believe Bush got re-elected. How? After all the screw-ups and the endless war in Iraq, how could he get re-elected? It seemed inevitable that it would happen again.

It must have been around my third rum and coke and 55th resistor that I realized we had won. Not only did Obama win, but our generation won. The country won. The world won. There were about fifteen of us watching the acceptance speech. We all hugged and celebrated. I cried a bit. I don't think anyone could possibly understand what the election meant to younger generations. This was OUR future. This was OUR election. So many people, promising to move to Canada, to Europe, to Asia if McCain had won. This time they were serious. Faith in the United States was depleted. It was embarrassing to be a U.S. citizen. We were bullies. We were arrogant. We were rednecks. We loved guns and beer and fightin' for justice.

We had to cling to satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert. We got our gratification from the most scathing attacks on the president. With his level of corruption, it wasn't hard either. There was no hope that ANYTHING we believed in would be supported by the Bush administration. Environmental improvement was useless. Peace in the Middle East? Not a chance. I watched No Child Left Behind dominate my 11th grade English class as the Great Gatsby was eliminated to make room for more practice tests. Unemployment skyrocketed in the last year and a vast majority of my friends had no health insurance. We ALL needed this.

On November 4th, 2008 I cried with everyone. I ran down Atherton Street with Sean and ran into Dave Pfister, crying and waving an American flag. We were patriotic again. We were proud of our country. The president was one of us. He knew what needed to be done and was going to strive to do it. Common sense had won. Science had won. Intelligence had won. Peace had won. We knew it was going to be hard, but we were looking forward to the challenge. We were motivated.

We went to the Phyrst and danced all night. It was true, there would be more beer bottles on the street than usual. It was going to be a great Wednesday morning. Everyone who had been working on this campaign would realize their work had meant something. Everyone I knew who stood on the street for six hours a day, that would amount to a brighter future. Finally, everything we had endured would pay off.

Our generation is taking our place as the relevant force of the country. We will be making the decisions and working for causes we believe in. Our government will hear our voice and our president will work for us. The rest of the world will not look upon us with disdain and anger, but with benevolence and support. It is a uniting moment for everyone. We are now Americans. And damn proud of it.

I know there are many people who do not share this viewpoint. I know there are people, even close friends of mine, who are skeptical. I know there will be people who will attack this entry, saying I am naive, blindly following a man that has yet to prove his worth. He's all personality they'll say. He's inexperienced. This is all true, and he DOES have yet to prove himself. But I am confident that he will. Just wait a few years, and then comment on it. If there's nothing to look forward to, what's the point of hoping?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

2009-01-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

There are few books I've read in my life that I consider important to other people. Ishmael is one of them. I thought Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was one of them. It's not. I thought Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was one of them. It's not. These are simply vaguely describing an emotion and attitude that is nailed down and exposed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

There is so much to this book that it is a great challenge to actually finish it. But damn, is it rewarding. In short, it is a philosophy lesson mixed into a narrative of a man and his son traveling cross-country on a motorcycle. The concepts touched upon are things I've thought about and killed myself over. The reasons why I couldn't let music go. The reasons I can't get a 9-5 job. The reasons why I struggle with existentialism and living in "the system." It's all laid out here, intelligently and relative to today's mindset. I simply want to touch on some of the concepts that REALLY struck me as I was reading this:

1. Classic vs Romantic Mindset: This can also be described as technical vs aesthetic, structure vs surface appeal, etc. It hammers home the argument that these are NOT separate concepts. The thing that separates the two are the "quality" of the work. If things are manufactured without care or quality, then they are perceived by the consumer as useless or disposable. However, if something is evidently made with "quality" in mind, it is appreciated. Take a homemade mug or chair or table. If something is hand crafted by someone you know personally, it's going to mean a lot more than something put together from a Target box. I think this goes for anything functional. A lot of the time, the surface aesthetic is slapped on with whatever current "style" or "fashion" is relevant, and this is often a cheap way to fake "quality." It's an interesting argument.

2. He does a lot of urban vs rural comparing. Fast people, fast cars, neon signs. I think this argument is presented best at the very end of the novel with this passage:

"The explanation, I suppose, is that the physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small, and here it's reversed.
It's the primary America we're in[the west coast]. It hit the night before last in Prineville Junction and it's been with us ever since. There's this primary America of freeways and jet flights and TV and movie spectaculars. And people caught up in this primary America seem to go through huge portions of their lives without much consciousness of what's immediately around them. The media have convinced them that what's right around them is unimportant. And that's why they're lonely. You see it in their faces. First the little flicker of searching, and then when they look at you, you're just a kind of object. You don't count. You're not what they're looking for. You're not on TV.
But in the secondary America we've been through, of back roads, and Chinaman's ditches, and Appaloosa horses, and sweeping mountain ranges, and meditative thoughts, and kids with pinecones and bumblebees and open sky above us mile after mile after mile, all through that, what was real, what was around us dominated. And so there wasn't much feeling of loneliness. That's the way it must have been a hundred or two hundred years ago. Hardly any people and hardly any loneliness. I'm undoubtedly overgeneralizing, but if the proper qualifications were introduced it would be true."

3. Pirsig puts the quality back in technical work. He talks of the "peace of mind" of finishing a long a grueling technical project, such as the repair of a motorcycle. Or a theremin. Or a bicycle. Or a calculus problem. It's all the same. It's the zen feeling of inner peace, and it's related to an aesthetic that people today do not want to associate with technology. It's not the technology that is in the wrong, it's the mindset.

There is another great quote from this book in my facebook profile. I suggest reading that as well. This book has changed my life. I think it happened at a great point in my life. It fixed a haze of confusion and self-doubt and set me straight on a track of quality and motivation. It's a VERY hard read, but very rewarding. I'm extremely satisfied and kind of have a great peace of mind after reading it. Ha!

Anyway, I need some pulp for a while. That was intense.

Why I Won't Set Foot Back in Manhattan Until I Have A Job

2009-01-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

Going to Manhattan is an expensive endeavor. First of all, the process of getting there costs $4. Unless you decide to visit separate parts of Manhattan, then it's $8. We decided to check out Union Square, since it's right off of the L and we figured we could get a cup of coffee.

I have been saying that I've never felt out of place in Brooklyn. I never felt that I was in a dangerous part of the city, and I've never felt fear or anxiety. I have, however, felt out of place in Manhattan. Multiple times. Union Square is one of those times. Columbus Circle is another one of those times. People look at you with your beard and your backpack and greasy jeans and give you looks of disdain. What were we doing in Union Square? Obviously not where we belonged.

We went to Eva's in the West Village for some tea and to sort things out. Not a bad place, but still much classier than we wanted. We were looking for a diner run by one dude with tattoos where the coffee was good and people were hospitable. Nate called and we went for sushi.

Yummy Village Sushi was one of the best places we've been so far in the city. 95 Macdougal St in the West Village, the four of us gorged on sushi and sake like we all had an income (Not one of us do). The service was great, they put heat lamps right next to our table and gave us complimentary edamame.

Afterwards we went to 62nd st and Broadway to see Slumdog Millionaire. Unfortunately, after the Golden Globe victories, everyone else is also going to see it. We got tickets for Che:Part 1. Apparently the movie Che is in two parts, both clocking in around 2 hours and 17 minutes. Yikes.

Benicio Del Toro was great. I'm a huge fan of the Motorcycle Diaries, and this sort of picks up where that leaves off. Unfortunately, Part 1 was $11 and we could not afford Part 2.

In any case, we could not afford drinks after that. Subway+Tea+Sushi+Movie = roughly $50. Thanks Manhattan.

Today we are living the opposite life. Drinking out of flasks, staying in Brooklyn, and setting our spending goal at $10/day to make up for yesterday. If I got paid by the cover letter since the beginning of January, I'd have made up the difference by now.

Hire me?

Move Over Radiohead

2009-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

I will stand by a band that I think has complete and total creative control over music, pushing innovation in both the music and the marketplace. Radiohead, after seven full length albums, the massive success of The Bends and OK Computer, the subsequent departure and masterpieces of Kid A and Amnesiac, and the fantastic pay-if-you-want In Rainbows are still masters of their craft. Even their efforts for independent music and environmentalism are fantastic. Of Radiohead on their recent tour, the Liars said this:

"In a world full of fear and ripe with insincerity its such a relief to have met Radiohead.
They are purveyors of truth, beauty and a moral responsibility to the planet.
We’ve been welcomed with literal open ams and thoroughly schooled
on how to function as a band -not just musically, but ethicly too.
The honor is in learning from the best and from the beginning we’ve been in class.
The important thing for us to make clear is just how awe inspiring this production is.
We’re not sure if there’s any information made public about the efforts
Radiohead go to to reduce their environmental impact.
But, there should be.
At the outset we were all given tour water flasks.
Plastic anything is like contraband.
Every bus and truck runs on bio-fuel.
There is no idling, rather some new-fangled way to deliver electricity cleanly.
They don’t do air-freight either.
The list goes on..
Everything is supremely managed to reduce the ‘footprint’
and it’s inspiring in that its ‘real’ and should set the standard for other big productions.
This all goes beyond the immediate impact of simply
being able to watch these 5 guys perform together each night.
Unlike any band we’ve seen they all contribute such an immense amount to the outcome.
Their extreme individual talents blending so naturally.
To witness this first-hand is an education in musicianship and vision
that’s certainly not been lost on us..
For now, we’d like to send our huge thanks to the Radiohead crew
for being so super crazy nice and supportive to us.
We’ll see them in Spain again for the Daydream Festival
and ofcourse during our West Coast tour with Radiohead in August -
so no tears yet..
We Liars head to Europe now…
following a luxurious 2 day break and will be re-tracing
some of the steps missed due to the euphoria of living in rainbows."

Holy fuck. Radiohead are gods, even from the standpoint of one of the most innovative and experimental bands out there. I've even said Radiohead are the new Beatles. They appeal to everyone, and still continue to push the boundaries of music today. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, and I want to stress that I'm not discrediting Radiohead in ANY way, there's a new contender in the musical arena.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

This album, although I'm still in the first stages of obsession, is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. It towers over Strawberry Jam and Feels. It unites the quirky, spastic songwriting of Avery Tare with the atmospheric sample-heavy Panda Bear. Animal Collective is truly the next revolutionary wave of music, and this is their Kid A.

I was a slow starter on this group. The first album I heard was Feels, and while I loved it, and Strawberry Jam even more, it wasn't until I saw them at Pitchfork when I realized how truly amazing they are. The live performance complements their music immensely, as you can see by this performance of "Daily Routine."

The lights, the samples, the three members interacting live to push out a complete experience of a song rather than a show. The audience is able to interact rather than watch, and I think that is most important.

Something else I want to emphasize is the true honesty of this band. Take a look at this video of "Purple Bottle" performed by Avery Tare and Kria Brekkan.

Or this performance of "Winter's Love" off of Sung Tongs

I don't want to bore you with a track-by-track review of Merriweather Post Pavillion, but in a nutshell it's my favorite album by Animal Collective. It's a groundbreaking piece of art, our generation's anthem. If you haven't heard it yet, you're missing out. That's all I have to say about it for now.

Back to Brooklyn

2009-01-12T15:42:00.001-08:00

I've been reading a book lent to me by Brett upon our move into Brooklyn. It is titled “Broke-Ass Stuart's Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City.” Enlightening, eh? The book is useful. It has free food locations, drink specials, cheap deals on clothes and entertainment in various places around Manhattan and Brooklyn. I'm not going into detail about this book, but there are a few quotes at the beginning that have struck me, and I want to comment on them a bit.

“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years...”
-Thomas Wolfe

This is true. New York sucks you in, the moment you declare yourself a resident. You're swept up in the tornado of bars, buildings, subways, lights, bodegas, and restaurants. You're suddenly gasping for air as you compete with a million others who are just as good as you or better at music, engineering, Djing, and writing. You come to the realization that you're going to have to take a part-time restaurant job or freelance crew job to just pay the rent. It's both fantastic and difficult. One is not wealthy in New York. However, I think it's the second metaphor from this book that really fascinates me:

“I maintain that, no matter how much you love New York, this city fucking hates you. Don't take it personally; this bitch is just badder than you are. Her game is tighter, her mind is quicker, her swagger is more believable. She's not the one who got away, she's the one you never had a chance of getting, and that's what makes just being near her so exhilarating. I think old Mr. Wolfe was onto something. New York will never be yours; you will always be hers. She's got you pussy-whipped and you fucking know it.”
-Broke-Ass Stuart

I do not think the author of this book is a philosophical genius, but I do think he's correct, and I've never heard it put so eloquently. Drew and I moved to New York without the slightest regard to the above statement, and we got ripped to shreds. I have a subway ticket for $100. I spent $50 on Friday night in one bar in Manhattan. My bank account was drained. Job prospects are SO competitive, that despite my degree and experience, I have not had one reply to the resumes I've sent out. Kelsey and Craig moved to Richmond, VA and we wondered why? New York has so much going on, why would you leave? Well, it's because New York is a cold-hearted bitch. She's expensive and it feels good to have her around, but she doesn't appreciate your company and you won't be missed if you leave.

I am riding back on a Martz bus alone back to the city. I will lug my belongings back to Brooklyn, shower, and try to figure out just HOW to survive the rest of the month in this city. Tomorrow, an Audio Engineering Society meeting with a presentation on the sound system at Camden Yards. I will dress in suit and tie and have a folder full of resumes. Thursday I will attend the MAKE:blog circuit bending meeting in Brooklyn. At the 3rd Ward, the very first place I applied when I got here.

I think my current plan is to work in the city for 2-3 years. My “West Coast by 25” plan is still in effect. After I set into a job, I am going to start looking for grad schools on the west coast. I'd like a masters in Audio Engineering. I think San Francisco is the eventual place for this. So while I'm young and motivated, I'll stick it out in New York, just to say I did it. Just to say I survived, I lived in the Big Apple, and she didn't suck me in permanently.

But until that time, there is still much to see and do. The first ten days were the test. Now it's time to do this for real.

Kleeb's Top 10 Albums of 2008

2009-01-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

Ahh the legendary end of the year albums list. In years past, this was a well-written lengthy article covering the nuances and details of twenty albums, justifying their place on this list. However, I've come to notice that many of the albums that land in the top five will often fizzle out of memory, while albums near the end of the list will sometimes make a lasting impression, solidifying their place in my music library forever.

Therefore, I'm basing this year's list on the albums I can see myself listening to in the future. I've cut this down to ten, and I hope these ten will be cream of the crop for years to come. Some I've been listening to all year, others I just received a few weeks ago. Due to the theft of my laptop, there are many albums I did not get a chance to listen to. Some of these are DJ/Rupture, Nick Cave, Bon Iver, Portishead, The Bug, Deerhunter, and many more. There are other albums that people got really into that I can't seem to like as much. Frightened Rabbit, M83, No Age, Vampire Weekend, and Crystal Castles were some of these. Regardless, I want to represent the ten best without filler. Here we go:

10.Black Mountain – In The Future

This spot had a lot of candidates. Wolf Parade and The Hold Steady were very close. The Islands new album was good, but not half as good as Return To The Sea. Boris is great, as always, but not impressive enough for the top ten. I was impressed with the new Death Cab, and The Black Keys matured a lot on Attack & Release, but both albums just didn't strike me as much as previous work. However, In The Future by Black Mountain is a great record. Reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, but modern enough to avoid the cheesy aspects of Wolfmother. “Tyrants” is enough to make this album worthwhile, clocking in just over eight minutes. Guitar solos and breakdowns aside, this album is pretty great. It has some class that a lot of modern Zeppelin rip-off bands do not have. However, it is still kind of a Zeppelin rip-off. What can you do.

9.Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair

We're going to take this one with a grain of salt. I try not to jump on this bandwagon of retro-dance bands that are causing people to shuffle their feet and shake their shoulders awkwardly. However, I am a DJ occasionally, and I can tell when something is good enough to get people to dance. This is one such album. There's something about the 80's that is present on this album. There's something about Antony Hegarty's voice (Antony & The Johnsons). There's something about the consistent beat and the horns and the synths that really get to me. It's like someone took the overgrown indie-dance genre and infused it with disco or house and came up with Hercules & Love Affair. However, this album is going to spawn a plethora of spin-offs that will drive this sound into the ground, and in a few years I'll probably delete this album because I just can't stand the style anymore. For the moment, though, I can respect this stuff and I'll consistently DJ it until I'm sick of it.

8.Lindstrøm – Where You Go I Go Too

Last year, The Field's From Here We Go Sublime placed at #19, but continued to be one of my favorite albums for most of 2008. The minimalistic trance was always great music to put on while working, hanging out with friends, cleaning, driving, etc. I would call it the dawn of my interest in background music. Lindstrøm works in this vein as well, except with a little bit more punch. Where You Go I Go Too is only three tracks, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes, but it grows and flows in ways the Field does not. Where From Here We Go Sublime broke into different patterns and tracks, Lindstrøm keeps his beat going, embracing a house-style fusion of disco and trance. Where The Field was not quite upbeat enough to play at any dance party I was DJing, Lindstrøm will hold his own among the modern disco hipsters, eager for a synthesizer and a pulsing beat. It is difficult to say one is better than the other, since I have yet to delve deeper into this album, but I am sure this will be a consistent play well into 2009.

7.Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Surprise! The Fleet Foxes land on every year-end list for good reason. I even came into this album with a bias against folky, reverb-heavy vocals (see: Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, The Shins). After hearing “White Winter Hymnal” 800 times, I was sure I was going to get sick of this one. Not so. This one just keeps getting better, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the amazing harmonies. Maybe it's the songwriting. In any case, this stuff is addicting. I can't get enough of it, and even “White Winter Hymnal” is still good, 800 times later.

6.Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing

I heard this album a few times and wrote it off as a wall-of-mediocre-sound. I think it took a live performance in Chicago at Pitchfork Music Festival to truly appreciate what this duo was doing. This is a new breed of music. Laptops meet various types of synthesizers and MIDI controllers, mixed with gameboy samples and children's toy microphones. “Ribs Out” combines an eerie delayed vocal scream with an interesting percussive beat on a floor tom and random hardware. However, the majestic element of this band is the crushing atmospheric sound exhibited on the opener “Sweet Love For Planet Earth.” The swells and drawn-out pulses of feedback are what drives this album, and it must be listened to in full. The only complaint I have is the performance – exactly the same as the album. I guess you can't do much when you're working with all samples, but I'm interested to see what this duo is going to come up with next.

5.Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

There are a few things I can count on in life. My Nissan Altima will never break down, Israel and Palestine will always be at war, and Sigur Rós will always put me to sleep. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 2002's ( ) is one of the most majestic and beautiful albums I've ever heard. Well, at least the first four songs are. I'm usually out by the fifth. But hey, it always helps to have those bands around. Films like Vanilla Sky and The Life Aquatic wouldn't be nearly as breathtaking without Sigur Rós, so let's give their new album a shot. And in it rolls! Holy shit is this Animal Collective? Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust blasts off with “Gobbledigook,” a jangly percussive track, driven by acoustic guitars and hand claps. The tempo is about forty times what we're used to, and perhaps this time Sigur Rós has taken off in a new direction. They follow this with the glockenspiel-heavy “Inní mér syngur vitleysingur,” complete with horns. However, it seems after the sprawling “Festival” (which would have made a great ender, in my opinion), the band reverts back to their old method. I hardly ever make it through “Ára bátur,” complete with a single vocal and piano line for almost ten minutes. Again, not that this is a bad thing. This is the Sigur Rós we're used to. At least this album shows a lot of promise for the future.

4.TV on the Radio – Dear Science

When I first heard this album, it was the best thing I've ever heard. The second time, it was the best album of 2008. Then it was second best. I wasn't sure why. I think it's the lack of those powerful elements that made 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain so groundbreaking. The driving pace of “Wolf Like Me,” the percussion of “Let The Devil In,” and the aura of “I Was A Lover” are absent from this album. I think it's maybe the angst that is gone. Dear Science is based around “Golden Age,” a time where Obama is president, things are looking optimistic, and the songwriting seems a bit forced. The lyrics are a bit questionable on “Lover's Day” and “Red Dress.” Even my favorite track “Crying” is reminiscent of Prince. Regardless, it's still a great album, but it could have been better. “Family Tree” is a beautiful song. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in “DLZ” and “Shout Me Out.” I guess I was looking for something on par with Cookie Mountain, and Dear Science seems to just fall short a bit.

3.Spiritualized – Songs in A&E

A front-runner for 2008 since its debut in January, this album is great from beginning to end. I guess it was the right place, right time. I had just rediscovered Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and was eagerly awaiting a follow-up. The performance at Pitchfork was enough to convince me, with gospel singers on “Soul on Fire” and a very Kill The Lights-esque ending that involved J Spaceman kicking his half stack over and throwing his guitar. The whimsical “Baby, I'm Just A Fool” starts off with a tropical-island xylophone melody. The foreboding “Borrowed Your Gun” is a depressing insight into Spaceman's childhood. In fact, since this entire album was written on his death bed, it's easy to see how Songs in A&E is full of layered emotion and orchestration. A beautiful record indeed.

2.Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali

I know, this is a risky pick at #2, but I'm going to stand by it. I just got this album a few weeks ago, but in a weak year for music, I think this album can hold its own at #2. I don't know much about Amadou & Mariam, but here is what I've learned: They are blind. They are traditional African music, very rhythmic. Much of the album is produced by Damon Albarn. Yeah, THAT Damon Albarn. Plus, this is an albums list, and this is an album I can enjoy thoroughly from beginning to end. It is as if someone took traditional African music, with lots of chanting choruses and driving percussion and added a Western guitar player with a hint of American pop music. I'll admit, there are a few cheesy parts of this album that seem like they were suggested by Justin Timberlake, but these are overshadowed by an overwhelmingly accessible African sound, with traditional instruments involved in a modern, Western project. This truly is the East meets West mashup. Finally, musicians who are rooted in a traditionally communal music culture competing with the producers and pop stars of the West. Maybe Amadou & Mariam will be household names by their next album.

1.The Dodos – Visiter

Of course. The only album that firmly cemented itself as a mainstay of 2008. The only album I can truly say is the best album of the year. The one that was left off of almost every critics' list. The album I introduced to friends who obsessed over it as much as I did. The album that salvaged 2008 from a year of mediocrity. The Dodos. Two guys from San Francisco. Drums and acoustic guitar. Simple. Rhythmically, it's outstanding. Logan Kroeber on drums, with a history of metal bands. Meric Long on guitar, with training in West African Ewe drumming (do we see a pattern here?) As a drummer, this album is groundbreaking. The time signatures change multiple times throughout songs. Tempos speed up and slow down and break into chaos before emerging again in a new pattern. All the while, vocals are split between angelic melodies and reverb-and-distortion heavy screams. And the best part? There are no breaks on this album. Each song flows into the next, so seamlessly and smooth. The opening track “Walking” showcases a mandolin and guitar duet before exploding into “Red and Purple,” a rhythmic orgasm. I could spend at least five more paragraphs dissecting the rest of this album, from the genius of “Fools” to the two-part “Joe's Waltz,” complete with a driving blues guitar. The melancholy “Winter” is followed by the anthemic “It's That Time Again.” This album is a masterpiece, and I'm sure anyone I've introduced to it will say the same. Give this one a shot, it's the sleeper of the year.

For such a great year in music in 2007, 2008 was pretty weak. If you want to suggest any music I may have overlooked, I'll gladly listen to it or tell you why it wasn't included. Otherwise, thank god for 2009. Merriweather Post Pavillion is already one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. Look for a separate post addressing this album once I hear it a few more times.

Brooklyn Day 10: I'm Broke

2009-01-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Time for a refueling in Wilkes-Barre and a minute to size up the NYC situation. Yes, I blew through roughly $600 (counting rent!) since I've been here. No, I still do not have a job. I went to the AES (Audio Engineering Society) headquarters yesterday to get some contact info, so hopefully next week will involve a job offer of a high-paying audio engineering job. Either that or I keep biking the city and blowing all my money on PBR.

That said, I'm going to do a little write-up on some bars we've been to in both Williamsburg and the Lower East Side. Pretty different scenes, financially and socially, but both great in their own way.

Williamsburg

Union Pool (484 Union Ave):

The bar everyone loves to hate but can't stop going back to. We went here New Year's Eve and saw a brass band play on the bar. There's a taco truck in the back and a bonfire outside. I've been to this bar every time I visited NYC since I've been 21. Everyone is looking to get laid, and they're not afraid of rejection. Union Pool is an experience, and I think everyone that visits should go at least once.

The Lazy Catfish (593 Lorimer St):

Brooklyn is known for brunch. Pay $15-$20 for a humongous breakfast accompanied by free Bloody Marys or Mimosas. The Lazy Catfish will give you THREE free drinks with your brunch, ensuring your Sunday morning hangover is cancelled out with Sunday afternoon drunkenness. Oh did I mention FREE PBR's on Tuesdays? No cover? Yeah, Tuesday is the new Saturday. How many beers can you drink between 8:30-10? The answer: You never remember.

Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave):

Oh yeah, Matchless has a great two-for-one deal on Tuesday nights as well, and it's as many blocks from the Lazy Catfish as the number of beers you had. Everyone is pretty social in the patio too. I had a great time here. Although we tried to walk home after these two bars and failed, despite being roughly 5 blocks from home.

Harefield Road (769 Metropolitan Ave):

This is a relaxing atmosphere. Great brunch, but only one free drink. I suspect this place will be nicer in the summertime, when more people will utilize the enormous outdoor seating area. Not too busy, but very close to our place.

Legion (790 Metropolitan Ave):

Legion is your friendly neighborhood Brooklyn bar. It's right around the corner, affordable, and I've already danced the night away here. Did I mention that former Wilkes-Barre residents seem to just roll into this joint as if it's Donahue's?

The Levee (212 Berry St):

The Levee might be the best Williamsburg bar. Let's review. $5 for a beer and a shot. $1-$4 for veggie sloppy joes, veggie burgers, hot dogs, you-name-it amazing drunk food. Since all bars are open til 4 am, so is the food. There seem to also be endless cheese puffs and an amazing selection of board games including Sorry and Jenga. It's kind of a hike (or a hop on the L) but well worth it.

Rosemary's Greenpoint Tavern (188 Bedford Ave):

Oh. Man. Cheap. $3.50 for a 32 oz styrofoam cup full of beer. Smack dab in the middle of Bedford Ave, this place was the hip joint for the jobless. We pretty much drank at Rosemary's for 3 hours before our night at the Levee.

Bushwick Country Club (618 Grand St):

The bike bar. I don't remember much about this bar, but I had a great time here. There may have been some good drink special. I really don't know. Lots of intense bikers around.

There's a bunch of other places we've been meaning to hit in Brooklyn. The Alligator Lounge gives you a free personal pizza with EVERY DRINK! We also want to explore Bedford Ave a bit more, when we get some cash. There's a hoppin scene down there. Anyway, on to Manhattan! The main reason for my lack of cash.

The Lower East Side

The Lit Lounge (93 2nd Ave):

One of the best bars I've ever been to in my life. Two separate bars, upstairs and downstairs. The dance floor was hoppin all night, and although the Buds were $4 (which is standard LES rate), people somehow managed to smoke inside. Maybe it's all the incense stuck to the walls. Maybe it's that people just don't give a fuck and are dancing to Grizzly Bear remixes followed by Nirvana. Just, whatever you do, remember there's a $20 minimum for opening a tab. So don't open one at 3 am.

Fat Baby (112 Rivington St):

Drew, Nick Casaldi, and I were sitting at a table here when some girls just threw a napkin at us with their phone number on it. This place, although we went here on a Wednesday, is set up to be an amazing dancing bar. Want to get loaded and dance? This is the place. Bouncer was a riot as well. All I remember is that beers were $1 after Nick kissed the bartender (who was a dude).

Pianos (158 Ludlow St):

Pianos is a classy establishment. That said, we probably won't be going back here much. I've heard it's a great place to see bands. We heard some good music while we were there (new Animal Collective album is fantastic, if you haven't heard it by now), but it was expensive. If there's a band I want to see, I'll check it out. Otherwise, probably not.

Mars Bar (25 E 1st St):

YES! Imagine the oldest bar you've ever been in, covered completely in graffiti and stickers, with a mixture of young and old sitting around the bar. This is the dirtiest, cheapest dive bar in Manhattan (so far). I can see myself frequenting this place a lot.

Cake Shop (152 Ludlow St):

Not really counting this as a bar, but seeing as there IS a bar inside, I guess I'll have to count it. Upstairs: record store, vegan cafe, coffee shop, wi-fi. Downstairs: bands playing, full bar, etc. Coffee shop is open til 2 am, which means if you need a break from your night out to grab a coffee, the Cake Shop is right in the middle of everything. I'll be hitting this place often, but probably mostly during the day.

So that does it. We didn't eat out much. Went to Kate's Joint (58 Avenue B) in LES for some vegan sandwiches. They have an all vegan menu with things like Turkey Clubs, Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, and Meatloaf. Got some falafel from a vendor on Broadway. Biked Manhattan a lot. Went to brunch twice. Trembler came up last night and her parents took us out to dinner at Patsy's (236 W 5th St - amazing Italian food) and to see Jersey Boys, the play about the Four Seasons.

I am currently back in the 'barre, dropping my heap of a car off and getting some more food and money to make it at least another 2 weeks in New York. Wish me luck!

No Sleep Til Brooklyn

2009-01-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn Day 5:

I've spent upwards of $150 in the first 5 days of living in New York. Drinks are all about $3-$5. Brunch is spectacular, but runs a hefty $15 (including the free Bloody Mary!). Hardware Stores, Laundromats, Fresh Produce, and Bike Stores are all around the corner. We've been out almost every night to a different bar in Brooklyn, and they're all pretty rad.

That said, let me tell you a bit about my neighborhood:

We all know Williamsburg, the hipster capital of the world. We are on the very very eastern edge of Williamsburg. You may have also heard of Bushwick, an up and coming neighborhood, which Nick Casaldi describes as having only $1 stores and bodegas. Apparently, there is a great bar called Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick that I am looking to check out soon. We are on the very northern edge of Bushwick. We aren't really a part of either neighborhood. We have a building near us that looks eerily similar to the Murray Complex in Wilkes-Barre. Everyone that has been living here or around here is in some way related to Wilkes-Barre, so we've been referring to our slice of New York as Wilkesburg. Who knows if that will catch on.

The Legion and Harefield Road are two bars near us. Harefield Road has the killer brunch. Legion is a great hole in the wall. Launchpads, if you will, for a night out. I enjoy both of them immensely.

Last night, Nick Casaldi took Drew, Brett, and I out to Bedford Ave. We hit the Levee, a sweet bar with board games and veggie sloppy joes. Every place is freakin expensive. Bedford Ave seems great though.

The job hunt is not going so well. Electrical Engineering jobs are few and far between in the city. I'm looking into private tutoring or sound jobs for bars. Eking out an existence to pay rent and earn enough for some black beans and rice.

Our basement is great. It's very cozy. I enjoy living here, despite the mouse and rumors of cockroaches, and the 3 foot hole (no joke!) under our bathroom sink. In case we need to store a dead body or something. If one of us goes missing, you know where to find us.

Anyway, it's time to bike Manhattan. Brooklyn is a joke. If you can bike State College, you can bike Brooklyn. This is serious though. I should probably think about health insurance.

Cheers!

Kleeb's Top 25 Songs of 2008

2009-01-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

Up until this year, this list used to be the top 100. However, my Macbook was recently stolen and I have fallen behind on current music. 100 songs also seems illogical, as a simple playlist can be made out of 25, and it is the cream of the crop.

1. Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
2. The Mountain Goats - Sax Rohmer #1
3. The Dodos - Walking/Red and Purple
4. Spiritualized - Soul on Fire
5. El Guincho - Palmitos Park
6. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
7. Animal Collective - Water Curses
8. Wolf Parade - Kissing the Beehive
9. Amadou & Mariam - Ce N'est Pas Bon
10. The Dodos - Fools
11. Sigur Ros - Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur
12. MGMT - Electric Feel
13. Amadou & Mariam - Sabali
14. Fleet Foxes - Your Protector
15. Black Mountain - Tyrants
16. M83 - Kim & Jessie
17. TV on the Radio - Crying
18. The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
19. Animal Collective - Street Flash
20. MGMT - Time To Pretend
21. Magnetic Fields - California Girls
22. Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth
23. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules' Theme
24. Beach House - Gila
25. Islands - The Arm

Top 10 Albums on the way!