Carlos Kotkin - Standup And Stories From A Heartthrob

Carlos Kotkin seems to be the Garrison Keillor of stand-up. Most of his material seems to be read rather that done in the conventional (?) standup manner. Rest assured that I would rarely even entertain then notion of comedy revolving around a boy's childhood chickens (blame that horrible SNL skit with Dana Carvey), but that is but one of the topics that I laughed my ass off about on Standup And Stories From A Heartthrob. I've never heard of him before, but he seems to be one of the many LA improv guys making moves in this day and age. He reminds me a little of Mike Birbiglia, but is definitely not a new jack riding MB's coattails. Grab a copy from Carlos here.

Tubers - Anachronous

It’s been a twenty-five years since Revolution Summer, but evidently no one bothered to tell Tubers. Cultivated in the rich Florida soil that fostered Twelve Hour Turn and The South before them, Tubers ply their trade in the Dischord-ant rock bands like Fugazi and Dag Nasty did so well before them, with a soupcon of San Diego for good measure. The St. Augustine three piece certainly turns up the heat on Anachronous, throwing down meaty slabs of post-hardcore with shouted unison vocals that will have you spazzing around your favorite home-based listening station in short order. Rob McGregor displays the same production flair he has lent to the lion’s share of the No Idea roster, capturing the sound of a band that refuses to be contained. Placed in the same room, the men of Tubers coalesce into something that is much more than four guys in a room throwing down. And don’t get it twisted: throw down they do, but know that the men of Tubers are men of good general bearing and refinement, so you can rest assured that restraint is exercised (when need be).

R

Dwayne Perkins - She Ate My Haircut

I saw Dwayne Perkins on late night TV a year or so ago and thought he was great. He plays it pretty clean over all, but with a Dave Chappelle sort of spin. Think a black Todd Barry. The set is recorded live in front of a receptive Sacramento crowd. Perkins lives in LA, but is originally from Brooklyn. He's got great bits on both, plus a bunch of other pretty hysterical bits. Pick up She Ate My Haircut here and look out for his Comedy Central special.

R

Live: Bridge & Tunnel, Yesterday's Ring & Leatherface @ The Knitting Factory 3.5.10

With all the snow and the ridiculousness that comes with it, it seems like forever since I've been to a show. You can also add being fucking broke to the equation, too, but when word came down the pike that Leatherface were touring, you could damn well guarantee that I was going to be there. Adding a rare set of Stateside Yesterday's Ring dates and Bridge & Tunnel to the equation made me reconsider the influence of a higher power in my life.

So I made it across the water as Bridge & Tunnel started their set. Let me state from the onset: Bridge & Tunnel are fucking great. Hands down, no ifs and or buts. Great songs, Rachel plays her ass off and all and all the kids are 100% a good time. They remind me a lot of Braid and in some ways a bit like The Riot Before. Either way, I couldn't be happier that NY finally has a No Idea band. Between them and Little Lungs, all is not lost in the local scene. Not a lot in the way of stage banter, but know that Bridge & Tunnel crushed it from note one to note last. Buy their current release East/West here and see them immediately.

I was a little disconcerted during the backline change and thought there maybe had been a lineup change, but soon the preponderance of Inepsy and Tragedy t-shirts on stage confirmed that Yesterday's Ring was most definitely in the house. I was in Montreal for the record release shows behind their last EP and fell way hard for them. You may be aware that YR is the more rootsy incarnation of Canadian punk mainstays The Sainte Catherines. There are a few different members, but the apples don't fall far from the tree and SC singer Hugo Mudie fronts both franchises. He is as sweet a dude as he is smelly. The six piece ran through a bunch of stuff from their new Suburban Home release Diamonds In The Ditch as well as some chestnuts from the back catalog. I couldn't of been happier, plus I had a couple 'that guy" moments with Hugo, so it was win-win all around. Yesterday's Ring don't make it across the border all that often, but if they come near you, go out of your way to see them. They are one hell of a good time.

Ran into Davey Tiltwheel as I staked out real estate for Leatherface. One hell of a guy, and unsurprisingly tour managing this junket. He had Frankie on in short order, aviator hat, high blood alcohol and all and the suddenly full room promptly went apeshit. There is a delicious point where Frankie gets drunk enough to do his little shuffle dance around that make the Lemmy fronting Husker Du sound Leatherface purveys some of the best music ever. There were many Roach House residents touring the stage and monitors during the set, begging the question (at least in my mind) of how old the kids were in the 80s when things jumped off for Leatherface, but this would be the wrong room to play the agism card, as Frankie makes me look like a spring chicken. He held up for most of the set, but was obviously fading toward the end of the proceedings. That made two of us, frankly, but all in all one of the best shows I've seen this year. Setlist for Leatherface is to the left. Look for a review of the new record The Stormy Petrel soon on JS-NYC.

R

R.I.P: T Bone Wolk (1951-2010)

Well, this is one hell of a bummer. When I was but a wee bairn deciding to play the bass, it wasn't really because I gravitated toward the basslines on records or anything. Mostly it was because my picking up the best instrument ever was coincident with my getting MTV so I could see cool guys that were bass players. In that era, there were two big guys who I though looked the coolest via video. The first was Peter Cetera in the video for Chicago's You're The Inspiration. Cheesy, I know, but the band scenes in the beach house with Cetera chilling in the arm chair playing the inverted Precision were totally bad ass. And note that Cetera rocks a fucking Bauhaus t-shirt. The second was T-Bone Wolk in the Hall & Oates Private Eyes video. Oddly enough, another P-Bass guy, but I wanted to be the guy in the hat for a long while afterward. In recent H&S years T-Bone was musical director for the franchise, but in a pronounced bummer wasn't playing bass, but rather acoustic guitar most of the time. I don't recall who was playing bass this past summer, Kasim Sultan maybe? Either way, kind of a bummer.

Evidently T-Bone had a heart attack after a session upstate, perhaps one for a solo record he was working on. Either way, the bass community has lost one of it's biggest pillars. Rest easy, big guy!

R

Bowery Boy Blue On Tour

Hey Midwesterners:

Those handsome (mostly) bastards in Bowery Boy Blue are hitting the road for a bit. Go see them!

R

Mar 3 2010 8:00P	Russian Recording	Bloomington, Indiana
Mar 4 2010 9:00P	The Whistler	Chicago, Illinois
Mar 5 2010 9:00P	The Brick	Kansas City, Missouri
Mar 7 2010 9:00P	Soundpony Lounge	Tulsa, Oklahoma

Free So Hideous My Love ep download

So, on the open disclosure tip: This is my band.

Not in the "I founded and write all the stuff" end of things, but we've been together for a couple years now and have quite a canon of material. We've played (and will continue to play) out around NYC and beyond to good sized turnouts. This past Fall we went into the studio with our dear friend Dave Baltunois at his Wild Arctic Studios (what's up Leroy!) and came out with these three tracks. We've decided to call the EP I Balance A Daydream On The Edge Of A Knife and offer it to you all for free. We'd like to think we are in the same vein as Mono, Envy and Heaven In Her Arms. For the uninitiated, at it's basest form So Hideous My Love is essentially loud classical music with alternately guttural and clean vocals. There are strings and orchestration, but we will not hesitate to break it down on your fool ass if we deem it so necessary. If I may indulge in a rare moment of immodesty, we are good at what we do.

Download I Balance A Daydream On The Edge Of A Knife here. Do feel free to flame or pass around the link or mp3s as you see fit.

R