Superchunk - This Summer 7"

Any time that a new Chunk track comes down the pike is cause for much celebration at JS-NYC HQ and the good folk of Merge have seen fit to give us this new virtual/actual 7".

This Summer sounds like a late-period Superchunk track, mid-tempo with a hooky as hell chorus. Win. There is an acoustic version as well, along with a fun romp through the Bananarama track Cruel Summer.

I'd pick it up.

R

Live: Superchunk and The Hold Steady at CBGB Fest Times Square 10.7.12

Day three of the exceedingly poor planned CBGB Fest started with prospective triple digit temperatures in the announced Times Square area and still no sense of the schedule, one that inexplicably seemed to be headlined by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Superchunk had been moved from a show at the Seaport to Times Square, formally negating any equity in my CBGB pass, and no end of investigation could ferret out what their set time would be. Only a cryptic Wurster tweet revealed the 1pm set time. Eric and I posted up with a handful of other to see the mighty Chunk tear through forty minutes or so of heat-stroke rock, highlighted by Jon's pronounced amusement at Mac almost busting his ass jumping off the drum riser. Ten songs all told, including a romp through the new This Summer. I didn't get heat stroke, so a win was called.

Post-set, we chatted and grabbed drinks to eat up the couple hours between the Chunk and The Hold Steady and returned to sweltering heat and maybe 60 people. Short set, but one that featured the pretty ok new Wait A While. The gents are evidently wrapping a new record with Agnello in Jersey, so I expect we'll be seeing a new tour in the Spring.

R

Live: Cro-Mags and Sick Of It All at Webster Hall 7.6.12

Night two of the hardcore nostalgia fest again found JS-NYC posted up at the Webster Hall ready to get my old guy on. I rolled in as V.O.D played their last song to most of Long Island going batshit. I had noticed what I thought was an ex-member of one of the bands outside, but figured I was mistaken, as it seemed profoundly unlikely that said gent had been invited.

Mackie was in the middle of setting up when the lights came up to some eyebrow raising. After 10 or 15 minutes and some conspicuous stage clearing, word came down that the show was over. Eventually John Joseph came out and explained that the aforementioned ex-member had stabbed a couple people and sent us home. Arguably the quintessentially CBGB experience, but one that left my outlay at about $70 to see Madball and AF. Signs were pointing towards JS-NYC coming out formally anti-CBGB Fest.

R

Live: Agnostic Front and Madball with Murphy's Law at Webster Hall 7.5.12

Post- Color Me Obsessed, I ran up to Webster (aka the old Ritz) and rolled in just as Murphy's Law were wrapping things up. The early part of the day was spent roaming around the city fielding misinformation to get my pass for said CBGB Fest, a pass that I was far from pleased to find was less than relevant, as all the bands I wanted to see (GbV, Superchunk, The Hold Steady) were now free. I like me a hardcore show, and all three of the bands on this bill are solid, but it's not like I hadn't been seeing this bill for literally a couple decades.

Madball came out and leveled the place. Freddy was in good spirits and seemed to be in a good place. Mitts was absent, owing to some road work with H20 and Joe AF filled in as the boys romped through 40 minutes or so of classics that had kids of all ages flying off the stage with wild abandon.  Save for the fact that its been 30 years since Live at CBGB, the set was a nice bit of nostalgia. Stigma sure is old, as was much of the crowd, but sprits seemed to be high all around and the guy who got himself and his wheelchair passed up on stage for some impromptu stage work definitely gets my nod for 'that guy' of the Fest. All in all, a good time and a good show, and most importantly indisputably more CBGB than 90% of the rest of the bands on the Fest.

R

Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements

Color Me Obsessed was on my radar in its nascent Kickstarter phase, but sadly flew under the radar for me when it played for one night only last Winter at Bowery Electric. I was far from pleased, so when word came down that the doc would be part of the inaugural CBGB Festival, I stepped lively and got me a ticket. I was a little taken aback to see a less than capacity crowd for the official US release. The director, one Gorman Bechard, was there to introduce the film and do a Q&A that I bailed on afterward. Bechard mentioned in his introduction not to ask why there wasn't any music in the film, which did not bode well for the next two hours or so.

Color Me Obsessed covers the rise and fall of The Mats chronologically by record, courtesy of a gang of talking heads. Much like the recent Husker Du book, the participants are not nearly as conspicuous as those that are absent from the proceedings. None of the ex-Replacements appear in the film. Grant and Greg Husker do appear, yet no Mould. Tom Arnold does, however. No Peter Jesperson either, so it sure is an interesting perspective on the life of America's Best Ever Rock BandTM. I enjoyed the hell out of CMO and will definitely buy it when it becomes available, but those not already under the spell of The Replacements will definitely be wanting for something to latch on to.

Keep track of all things Color Me Obsessed here.

R

Lungfish - A.C.R 1999

There are many unfuckwithable bands from the Greater DC area, but Lungfish may very well be the top of the heap. And that's saying something. It's been far too long since 2005's Feral Hymns, begging the question as to whether we can really call Charm City's finest a truly active franchise. No live shows on the horizon, but we can at least take small consolation with this new recording. Or new collection, really. A.C.R. 1999 captures demos from a 1999 session at Baltimore studio A.C.R that preceded the recording of Necrophones at the start of the new millennium. Six of the tracks here were re-recorded for that record and demarcated but the other four are far from cast-offs, treading the same angular path we have come to know and love from Lungfish. I'll give Screams Of Joy the nod for the best of the 'new' tracks. Come for the new stuff and stay for the aces versions of Hanging Bird and Sex War.

It would be probably foolhardy to think that the release of A.C.R. 1999 will precipitate some live dates, but Moss Icon and Bitch Magnet have made a return to the live stage in 2012, so I'll leave that as a faint alluring possibility in my own personal world of delusion and hope for the best. Pick it up here from your friends at Dischord.

R

Jim Norton - Please Be Offended

Jim Norton has been rapidly approaching mainstream success in recent years, on a trajectory only eclipsed by the great Louis C.K. His presence on O&A has certainly not hurt anything, nor has his relentless stand-up touring. I wasn't crazy about his last recording, owing mostly to it being material I was already familiar with, but he's cleared the slate and stepped up with a new hour courtesy of upstart cable channel Epix, who you may remember did Bigger & Blackerer with David Cross a year or so ago.

Please Be Offended is a nice follow-up. Well, not nice, but definitely good. The opening segment that features both a transsexual and Ozzy Osbourne on the toilet (in separate vignettes) sets the tone for what you'll be getting for the next hour: namely commentary on a litany of topics including, but not limited to: Al Sharpton, prison rape dynamics, and The Dog Whisperer along with a laundry list of deviant sexual proclivities. You (hopefully) won't watch Please Be Offended with your Mom, but you do stand a very good chance of laughing your ass off.

Check it out here.

R