Live: The Karl Hendricks Trio at Leftfield 10.19.12

There is nothing like the announcement that it has been a decade since Karl Hendricks played in NYC to make a jaded scenester feel a wee bit aged. Of course, JS-NYC was at that show, and all of the ones previous dating back to the mid-90s, so it wasn't hard to figure where JS-NYC would be on this evening. I caught the back end of the Choo Choo La Rouge set and then posted up frontish for the KH3 set.

Once JS-NYC processed the bizarre eventuality of three females attending a Karl Hendricks Show, it was a pleasure to enjoy the nine tracks we were afforded. As this was a Comedy Minus One showcase, the new The Adult Section figured prominently in the proceedings. Hold On, Cool Breeze opened the set and a broodingly rowdy romp through the Neil Young chestnut that is Thrasher capped things, but we also got a couple deep cuts, including You're A Bigger Jerk Than Me. While the set was typically criminally underattended, hopes are high that we'll see Karl & Co. back in NYC in the very near future.

Get The Adult Section here from the Comedy Minus One web presence and keep track of all other things Karl Hendricks Trio here.

R

Live: Greg Cartwright at The Friars Club 10.16.12

The Friars Club Film Festival has become quite the big deal in recent years, and as JS-NYC is in good favor with the bigwigs on the programming end of things there, it was a pleasure to get the invite to see Mr. Greg Cartwright of the Oblivions and Reigning Sound play a pre-festival solo set at the Friars Club.

The Club is certainly a venerable institution. I showed up and headed upstairs for some hobnobbing and a DJ set from The Hound before we dipped across the hall for a little less than an hour of Cartwright delight. The fifty or so attendees definitely seemed to have drank the Kool-Ade, respectfully hooting and hollering their way through their respective libations. I much prefer the Oblivions to Reigning Sound, but it was still a good time. Kudos to the Take My Tuesday crew and much thanks to The Friars Club and Eric from The Friars Club Film Festival.

R

Live: Vagina Panther @ Trash Bar 10.17.12

Vagina Panther have become quite the rock juggernaut in the last year or so, playing well-received gigs from here to Columbus behind their recent Aqualamb EP Judge. The foursome returned to Trash Bar for their CMJ debut, romping through way too short of a set to a full house. I expect their Tinderbox set next month at Webster will be a tad more expansive.Vagina Panther is loud rock made in small rooms to be played on big ones like Webster Hall.

Seems like JS-NYC isn't the only one to think so. Check the interview with Vice here.

R

Live: Restorations at Fifth Estate 10.21.11

This was night three of an unprecedented-in-recent-history JS-NYC CMJ run, with Friday night's proceedings featuring current JS-NYC obsession Restorations playing the Aquatic People CMJ showcase on the second night of an East Coast tour. I had built this show up to the point where it seemed like it could be nothing less than a disappointment, especially when I passed up dinner with a hot chick to barrel ass out Brooklyn way. Twitter had tipped me off to a later start. I locked up and rolled in to a room where the band outnumbered me (the crowd) markedly.

The first song had the room fill up a bit, but I would have liked a crowd that befit my repeated playing. Despite being crammed into a ridiculously small space for a five-piece, the gents soldiered on with the shockingly posi- demeanor that newer Philly bands display. Too short of a set, but one that featured a couple of the high points from their most recent eponymous release. No Linear Notes, but pretty tight. Good show, chaps. Here's hoping we get them back in NYC very, very soon. East Coasters should check for the tour dates Team Restorations are undertaking currently.

R

Live: Banner Pilot at Union Hall 10.20.11 (late)

So this show was the official Fat showcase for CMJ, and owing to the fact that the lineup they were purveying was fairly meh save for Banner Pilot, I couldn't have been more pleased at the 8:45 slot the gents were afforded, especially as I had just come from seeing them at the Chrome instore.

Union Hall was sold out, as well it should be given its small-ass size and the CMJ masses seemed to be much more into the proceedings (read:drunk) than the crowd for the Chrome set. The boys were tight again, romping through pretty much the same set. The new Spanish Reds and Western Terminal were high points, but there wasn't too much bad stuff in the 40 minutes or so they got. The crowd had a pronounced 'my first beer/CMJ' tinge to it, but I was on the bike a minute after the BP boys bade us adieu, so I hope those tall boys treated everybody real proper for the duration. Banner Pilot are touring down to The Fest and definitely should be seen if you are able. The new Heart Beats Pacific is out on Fat 10/25 and is unequivocally recommended to anyone with working eardrums. Check here for it.

R

Live: Banner Pilot and Dead To Me at Chrome Store 10.20.11 (early)

I heard about this at the last minute and rushed down to grab some real estate a couple minutes before things jumped off. I guess you can add messenger bag culture to the list of things that make me feel old. I can remember banging on the door to the basement of DeMartini Sail Co. to get mine a million years ago and now bag companies have huge storefronts in trendy NY neighborhoods. Oh, how things change.

So bag/schmag. I was in it for the mighty Banner Pilot. They've got a banger of a new record called Heart Beats Pacific out on Fat and were out for the CMJ showcase with Dead To Me and a bunch of other meh-able Fat bands. More on that later. The boys brought it pretty serious, but they are pretty deadly with a short set. They maximized their potential with a pretty seamless stream of highpoints of the last couple records over maybe 40 minutes. Dead To Me were up shortly after. I like them a lot in theory, but they have never really caught on for me. I stayed for the first five or six songs and bailed to eat something before I headed out to Brooklyn to catch more Banner Pilot. Good time, and had I not been still recovering from the weekend, I would have availed myself of the free open bar. I guess they do this most Thursdays, so keep an eye here to see what the entertainment is like. Banner Pilot and Dead To Me can be found here and here, respectively. Look for a review of Heart Beats Pacific soon.

R

Live: Sarah Jaffe @ Bowery Poetry Club 10.19.11

CMJ and pouring-ass rain are not normally the two great tastes that go great together. Frankly, CMJ has kind of blown the last couple of years, or more diplomatically I am aging out of the college demographic, but I got off my ass and ran out between deluges to catch Ms. Jaffe. I really enjoyed her opening for the Centro-matic a couple months ago and her debut Suburban Nature has received fair amount of play at JS-NYC.

Upon rolling in, I saw the end of a textbook reason why I'm way over the young people's music, read: two dudes, lots of Line 6 looping and/or delay, yelling, blah blah blah. Don't get me started on the haircuts. The Jaffe band was up in short order and wonderfully enough featured Scott Danborn on keys. Some tuning issues ate up the early part of the set, but once things got underway Jaffe sang the hell out of seven or eight Suburban Nature tunes, including the crowd-pleasing Clementine that set the young lesbian set in attendance into a tizzy. No real reason why Jaffe shouldn't be someone we'll be hearing big things from soon, save for the fact that there's no accounting for taste in this day and age.

In investigating links for you all, I'm intrigued to hear there is a new record out from Sarah. Get all the skinny here at the Sarah Jaffe web presence and look for a review soon.

R

Live: CMJ showcase @ Europa featuring Teenage Bottlerocket, Cobra Skulls, Jon Snodgrass and Joey Cape, Banner Pilot and Higher Giant 10.25.9

Initially, the reason for the season for my attendance at this show was seeing Banner Pilot, who I adore. They have taken over the mantle from Two Cow Garage as the band that I travel long distances to either miss outright or play way too short sets. I had taken the L on the last two BP shows I tried to see, but even my shitty job did not make me miss the proceedings.

I got inside in time to catch the end of the Higher Giant set. Featuring Ernie Parada from a million awesome bands that started with Token Entry, they played a bunch of Queens accented punk rock not all that far from previous Parada franchises like Grey Area. They got a good response, despite their lead-off spot. Their new record is out courtesy of the good folk of The Black Numbers. Get it here.

Twin cities powerhouse Banner Pilot made their live debut for me next, playing a decent, but not fabulous show that leaned heavily on new stuff from their Fat debut Collapser. There were some sound issues, most of them seemingly precipitated by the front of house guy, but it was a decent set. I would have liked to hear more stuff from the first EP, but a good showing from the gents. I would have liked to have seen a longer set, but hopefully it won't be another four years til the next NYC show.

Jon Snodgrass and Joey Cape played next, reprising their increasingly frequent duo set for the first show of their most recent tour. While there was a small but vocal crew of Cape obsessives drinking their way to nirvana, I would say it was a Snodgrass room. Neither disappointed, but suffice to say I'm a Snodgrass proponent. Why he is not hugely famous I'm not sure, but I'm going to enjoy seeing him in the small rooms for as long as I can. You should see both of those jokers at Bar Nine tomorrow night, or for free at Maxwells on Monday. JS-NYC will be all up in those shows. You should be, too.

Cobra Skulls (from Reno) were up next. There has been a big buzz about them lately, so I got their records and found them to be pretty staggeringly underwhelming from where I was listening. I thought maybe the live show would sway me, but I literally took a nap after the first couple songs. Jack Terricloth was evidently out to see them, but unless you can have someone on that level to talk to during their set, I'd save your cash. Probably one of the most overrated things I've heard in a long while.

Luke was all about seeing Teenage Bottlerocket, as they hail from his hometown of Laramie, so I stuck around. I don't remember them rocking my world when they came through last time with the Copyrights and Unlovables, and I'm almost positive they were not good at the show at Knit with Chixdiggit, but they sure kicked my ass from note one to note last this time around. Wow-ee!! More hooks than a tackle box and a gang of song-along choruses that rival their aforementioned touring partners. It was a good move snapping up that guy from the Lillingtons. It fleshes out the sound a bit and while I would say that I prefer Ray's songs, Teenage Bottlerocket are a great fucking time. The Poison cover is a slippery slope, but it shouldn't keep you from snapping all their records up stat. They just dropped a new one called They Came From The Shadows on Fat that I haven't heard, but will soon be rectifying that situation. Look for a review soon but in the interim do whatever you need to to see Teenage Bottlerocket. Them boys kick some serious ass. Thanks to Luke for coming out, too!

R

Live: Hello Sir Records CMJ showcase featuring Antarctic, Bronzed Chorus and Ho-Ag @ Lit Lounge 10.22.9

Evan and Aaron (sic?) had been after me to check out a couple bands at Lit. CMJ has been a holocaust of crap for the last couple of years and 2009 is no exception, but as musical tastes go, theirs are pretty good, given our age disparities and Lit has been good to be and the So Hideous franchise, so on the bike I went.

I got there just in time for things to run behind schedule, but Antarctic were up in fairly short order. Instrumental, with a pretty decent rhythm section, they definitely got the few asses that were in the room moving. There was a fair amount of the "you play the big chord and I'll do the tapping riffs" guitar interplay that Minus The Bear and Don Cab have made newly re-relevant, but it was pretty obvious that they knew how to play and weren't total wank-meisters about it. I'll give them there due props, but reassert again that bands really need to Google their potential band names. I would hope that they would be aware of the Eric Richter franchise that plays music not altogether dissimilar from their stuff, but then again maybe I'm just old.

The Bronzed Chorus were next, representing for the new crop of two piece bands. Again, I would argue that two pieces does not a band make, moreso an act, but the two dudes have evidently played together since middle school. I'd assume (hope) that they are of college age now. They have a nice sense of interplay, but I'd prefer to see and hear them in more of a fleshed-out form. They are on tour with Antarctic and fellow label dudes So Many Dynamos for the next couple of weeks. See about checking them out.

Ho-Ag closed the evening for me. As they set up, more and more things started to give me douche chills about how things might go down. Two guys who seemed like Boston rich kids attracting a lot of attention to themselves before things even started? Check. Moog? Check. Bullhorn? Oh, you know it. Cue checks for keys and cycling gloves. The three or four songs I heard were pretty unimaginative Brainiac meet early D-Plan bites that tried way too hard. I would expect that it's a fine soundtrack (or prelude) to coke/pill-fueled couplings with troubled art-school girls (or maybe boys, but they really don't come off that cool) but from where I stood about four feet from them, it was pretty much ear-rape. Ho-Ag are definitely the type of band that guys that go on to law firms or marketing groups brag about having been in to shitty women in expensive Upper East Side bars. If that's your thing, throw on some cologne and set it off, but I'd defer more towards the bottom of the Hello Sir roster.

R

Live: Chris Mills @ Cake Shop 10.23.8

This evening marked my first official foray into the nightmare that is CMJ in general and the 2008 version in particular. This was the Ernest Jennings Record Company showcase. Had it not been Tim's label and Chris Mills I would have passed, as Cake Shop is a scheduling nightmare, but the quasi-regimented CMJ schedule made it worth trying. Issues with the sound guy delayed things a bit longer, but before we knew it Mills and his band were on stage and making other bands feel bad.

It astounds me that Ernest Jennings hasn't sold a million copies of the new Chris Mills record. It's called Living In The Aftermath and only serves to reassert the fact that Mills is the best singer-songwriter we have in NYC. His crack band, with David Nagler on keys and Steve Goulding (Gang Of Four, Mekons) was a little rough, but still better than most other bands. We got a good representation of the new record, with Atom Smashers being the highlight, as well as a smattering from his first three records. It being CMJ and it being an early slot, the set passed pretty quickly. Too soon, really, to the point where I had to listen to more Mills once I got home. Get the home version of the Chris Mills rock show here and stay in the loop as to when the next show is here. You can thank me later.

R