My Idea of Fun

This looks so f**king funny to me.

Use The Force

When the train arrives on the platform, if I am the first person waiting to get on, I wait for the train to stop , then I raise my right hand to the level of my abdomen, extend my index and middle finger and slowly move it about 4 inches from left to right as the subway doors open. I do this to emulate the appearance that I have opened the subway doors using nothing but the shear will of my mind. People see me do this all the time. I don't mind. I have been doing this for years. Still don't mind. I do not do this upon exiting the train. BUT I DO, DO IT.

Go ahead, act like you don't do some weird shit when you think no one is looking.

Let There Be House

A typical New York Sunday afternoon includes, the following: waking up late, Sunday times, picnic in Ft Greene Park and House music. Lot's of House Music courtesy of soulsummitmusic.com.There is no door policy, no hipster photobloggers, no dj Jeffrosaurus and his girlfriend Mahelxcha. No one in costume. No cover charge. No pre-burning man wind up at all.

Yellow, Brown, Puerto Rican and Haitian all are welcome. And you can bring the kids.

It's as if God Herself handed down a 12" to the dj and said "Play that one next". When the bass dropped God popped up from an amazing windmill and froze, then smiled and said "Ooooh that's my shit!!"

Then this kid showed up and told me it was time to go home.

Given The Prospects...

I choose Prospect Park. Every hipster,grup,art-rock,web designing, blogger in Brooklyn had their choice of things to do last night. Beastie Boys at McCarren Pool, Daft Punk at Coney Island. I, being none of the of the aforementioned chose The Hold Steady at Prospect Park. Just another free event in a long list of quality summer entertainment designed to keep New Yorkers from rioting in the streets do to the oppressive heat.

And the boys delivered as usual.
Here's a bit of "Chips Ahoy"

Sometimes I Wish I was From Barcelona

Last night my dear friend Mitchell was in from Los Angeles and asked me to meet him at Southpaw in Brooklyn. Being the font of information that Mitchell is, he neglected to tell who was playing. As I entered the club, I took note that is was very crowded for a Monday night. There was a band setting up like 20 mics on stage. A girl was taping giant flowers to the mic stand.I had not found Mitchell yet so I still had no idea who was playing and did not bother to ask because I was just there to see my friend( and sometimes I just don't care). Then some people came in with REALLY BIG bags of balloons. At this point I surmised that regardless who was playing these people came for a good time. Half way into my 1st Brooklyn Lager the band took the stage.. All 25 of them. Singing songs about building tree houses, bringing love, and getting Britney some help. I'm from Barcelona put a smile on every face in that club. There was crowd surfing , confetti throwing and kazoo solos. Mitchell later pointed out that only a band from Sweden could get away with such simple melodies. True.

My point is that sometimes you go out in Brooklyn on a Monday night and find yourself in the middle of a Partridge family type montage.

For some reason I did not have a camera with me so here is a video of the band from the pool the day before. You get the idea.

Music To Set It Off By

And I say that because this record is big. Meaning it has a lot going on. Meaning you know something is going to happen. So much so that parts of this record sound like they should be a soundtrack for a Rube Goldberg machine. a BIG ONE . I'm talking about starting with a marble rolling down a small rail and setting in motion a series of events so far reaching that from your vantage point (in your u-bicle) it would appear is as if the world were guided by unconnected, random happenings.

With tracks like "Brown Liquor" Mocean Worker evokes mechanisms of playing cards attached to clothes pins leading to kitten trapped in a drain pipe being rescued by local fire fighters as the fire fighters and being wooed by the ladies at the local house of ill repute circa 1917 whilst Jelly Roll Morton and Django Reinhart wail ancient tribal rhythms called down from the Gods. All the while you are in the middle of a race to get a truckload of bootleg Coors beer from Florida to Texas in an 1978 Trans Am and you only have 24 hours to do it.

Of course the end result achived from this record is : Ass-Shaking.

Well done sir. Well done indeed.

Cinco De Mowo hit's stores June 26th

Future of Music Business

I have to preface this post with , I have been back in NYC for about six weeks now and by far my favorite place to hang out is not Soho House, and not Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca or any thing hip like that. It's TEKSERVE. I have been in there at least twice a week since I have been back. And that's cool. TEKSERVE is the Apple store equivalent to a strip club. Everything in there is real sexy and they are happy to see you, but if you want a table dance you better bring your wallet. So I did. I picked up a Mac Pro Quad and I think I love it more than I love pie. Seriously.

Last night however TEKSERVE gave back a little. They held a seminar called "The Future of the Music Business". Which coincidentally is the name of the book that Music Attorney Steve Gordon was hawking. That's not why I went. This event was free AND they had free Brooklyn Lagers. But that's not why I went. The panelist was the draw for me. Anyone of these guest alone would have been worth the trip however to have Harry Allen Media Assassin as the moderator. Hank Shocklee ( Public Enemy), Bob Power ( if you don't know who this guy is pick up any major label release from the last 20 years and he probably mixed it) and Nick Sansano who produced DayDream Nation. In 2006, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. (Most of you people still pronounce it li-berry).

My point is this was a room full of greatness. So yeah, I'm in. The topics ranged from Technology of home studios to the Death of major studios. The future distribution platforms, will large labels be needed if artist can sell directly to their fans on myspace? If everyone has the technology to do cd quality records in their home does that level the playing field? Nope.
Just because you can make a record at home does that mean it will be any good? Just because you have a website and myspace page does that mean you are going to sell any music? Skill and talent will always be needed to create great music. Not so much to create "good" music. There is plenty of "good" music out there. Is it going to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up?
Bob Power made an excellent point regarding technology and music, he said rock & roll was "discovered" by people doing the wrong thing. So if that's the case we have yet to discover what the potential of the bedroom rockers could truly be. Also the Music industry in it's desperate attempts to catch up with the itunes store and myspace and blah blah needs to see a bit more in to the future and realize that some kid in some dorm is coming up with ANOTHER platform/distribution/ media format that they won't have anyway to stop or figure out how to capitalize.


And there was cake.