Cory Branan at PopMatters

Hear me now and believe me later: you need the new Cory Branan record. Read my review of Mutt here, courtesy of the good folk of PopMatters.

Thanks to Josh at Bloodshot and Sarah at PopMatters.

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Live: Rorschach with Barbarian @ ABC No Rio 5.26.12

Among my laundry list of personal issues is the inability to not perseverate on who 'very special unannounced guests' are on punk bills. It's allowed me to spend untold awkward times standing around venues, official and not, to see bands I would never waste my time seeing in a million years previously but the fact that this one was down the street from JS-NYC HQ at ABC made it worth checking out.

As luck would have it, said unannounced band was Rorschach playing the first of three shows that day, saving me the chore of having to once again not get Converge when they played later on that night (or having to ride out to Acheron to see them after that). I showed up for the tail end of the Barbarian set (think: poor man's So Hideous My Love) and staked out some real estate while the gents sorted out borrowed gear. It had been forever since I had seen Rorschach, and safe money was on it having been at ABC. Maggio had mentioned they played five of their early shows at ABC, I believe 13 years ago. The crew is definitely older, but the vocals and B.C Rich guitars are still the same, making for a fun half hour of nostalgia. What kids were there got frisky enough, but not so much that old folks got annoyed, so I'll call that a fine way to spend one of the last afternoons at ABC for the foreseeable future.

Keep track of Rorschach here.

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Live: Afghan Whigs with Joseph Arthur @ Bowery Ballroom 5.23.12

So after the appetizer that was the Fallon taping, I was pretty excited at the proposition of seeing the Afghan Whigs play a full set at Bowery. I rolled in maybe halfway through the Joseph Arthur opening set and hooked up with Sm. I've seen a lot of Joseph Arthur shows over the years, none of them willingly, and have always came away pretty underwhelmed, but the four-piece rock band JA we got seems to be the most palatable for this guy.

In talking with the crew at the Fallon show, it was pretty astounding how few people that were there had ever seen them before. While I am old, and admittedly rife with personal issues, I have seen a lot of Afghan Whigs shows in my day and didn't seem to be that much older than the general population there. Sm had seen them, and as such seemed a wise choice to attend with, so we wisely cut to the chase and set to figuring out what Prince cover would be appearing (Little Red Corvette, for the record).

The set was heavy on the last three records, although I'm Her Slave made an appearance, as did Something Hot and Miles Iz Ded. The gents look thin and sexy for their age and played their asses off. Dulli's added not smoking cigarettes to his reform regimen, which is odd in its absence, but beyond that it's same old, same old. A heckler was dressed down in endearingly old school fashion, a new R&B cover (Frank Ocean: Love Crimes) made it into the set and Jon Poneman and Megan Jasper even got a heartfelt Thanks at the end of the set (I smell Sub Pop reissue initiative). I'd argue the gents weren't as incendiary as they were back in the 90s, but they sure managed to kick a herculean amount of ass for some old dudes. Set list is to the left. Now I just have to figure if I want to see them play T5 with Eagles Of Death Metal in the Fall or get a months rent for the tickets.

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Live: Afghan Whigs on The Jimmy Fallon Show 5.22.12

The day was going pretty poorly before I got an e-mail from the Fallon show about being on their 'band bench' for the Afghan Whigs taping that afternoon. I was already pretty stoked at the proposition of seeing the gents at Bowery the next night, but figured this was a little too good to pass up. Tickets evaporated for the show and a lot of people were left wanting, but none of them could get out in time to run the stupid NBC gauntlet. Luckily Alex could make it, and as I had seen a number of Dulli related shows over the last couple decades with her, it made for a comfortable pair of shoes.

That certainly helped, as the whole line for the list to get the wristband, to be able to wait on three more lines over as many hours, just to be able to wait on two more and be berated by an army of twelve year old interns in bad polyester suit jackets for the duration is not first date fare from where this old man is sitting. I watched a fair amount of Fallon when I had cable, and will give him begrudging general props, I don't find myself missing the show much.

This episode featured Anderson Cooper and John Mayer, who seems to have done little to dilute his inherent twat-dom, even if he has done us the favor of moving to Montana. While we still had to suffer through his interview segment, the stellar Two-Rock/Dumble rig he used to sit in with The Roots was pretty spectacular to behold. That sorted, we were shunted from our bleacher seats off to the aforementioned 'band bench' ringing the area our heroes were playing in. Word came down the pike while we waited that the air song would be the Marie 'Queenie' Lyons cover (See And Don't See) that they released digitally earlier that week, with another song to be taped for the web afterwards.

See And Don't See was decent, albeit somewhat perplexing. Three string players swelled the AW lineup from its already expanded six-pieces, Greg natty in what Twitter tells me is a Varvatos suit and everyone looking exceedingly healthy for some old-timers. A quick break for Greg to shed his jacket and strap on a 335 and the gents burned through I'm Her Slave to some collective band bench pants-shitting. It's good to have Afghan Whigs back. Check out both performances here at the Fallon web presence.

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John Mulaney - New In Town

After years on the comedy scene and stints writing for SNL and Conan (I believe), John Mulaney got a lot of notice with his 2009 debut The Top Part. The recording topped the iTunes comedy charts and Punchline magazine year end best-ofs and now Mulaney is back with New In Town. 

If you enjoyed Mulaney previously, rest assured that while the jokes are different, a lot of the same ground is covered on New In Town. Longtime fans can take confidence that the Law & Order joke about Jerry Orbach from The Top Part is swapped for a (truthfully, pretty aces) 2012 compliant bit about Ice-T and SVU. In other somewhat related notes, a well-known Dana Gould joke is also 'covered' in surprisingly flagrant fashion.

Mulaney doesn't work blue, treading the same path Mike Birbiglia has done pretty well with in recent years, albeit in slightly edgier form. That said, while the Def Comedy Jam bit here was/is sort of new 'airline food is bad' fare for 2012, the bit about Delta Airlines is actually pretty funny and 'The One Thing You Can't Replace' is solid enough to very well become his signature bit. Comedy is strange like that. That Gould thing that still rankles me aside, New In Town is worth checking out. Get it here from the John Mulaney web presence.

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Live: Chavez @ Bowery Ballroom 5.18.12

It's been a odd time of nostalgia for me and Chavez, as if my calculations are correct, I saw them played their first ever show with The Afghan Whigs eighteen years ago at the old Academy. Fast forward to today and The Whigs are playing their first show in thirteen years next week at Bowery and Chavez made their return to the New York stage in easily six or seven a mere five days before. There are worse histories to be doomed to repeat.

I rolled up to Bowery minutes before the gents took the stage, Sweeney's twitter telling me the set time and my spider sense telling me that any band called Endless Boogie opening for Chavez is well worth missing. The gents took the stage with little fanfare and launched into Nailed To The Blank Spot. Save for Marshall having a shorter haircut, the band pretty much looked and sounded exactly like they did the last I saw them. They have evidently been recording for a new record and save for at least one band member checking his notes on his iPad over the course, seemed to be in fine fettle for the live stage. Pretty much all of the Chavez canon was covered, with a new tune and the first jam they ever had revisited to close the proccedings. I still am pissed about missing the warm-up show at Lit Lounge, but Chavez kicked some pretty serious ass for some old guys. I'd definitely see them again. Here's a the set list, stolen from SetListFM.

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Tragedy - Darker Days Ahead

I think Tragedy are ok, but have never really been a mark for them like the hygenically challenged youth of today. The shows I've seen over the last four or five years have been consistently good, albeit with a pretty high stench factor. Don't get me started on the facial tattoos. JS-NYC old guy issues aside, it's been a bit of time between Tragedy records, but there is finally a new record called Darker Days Ahead. Again, I'm not that discerning with their canon, but it sounds like a Tragedy record to me. You get some textural stuff, guttural vocals, a heavy part or four, paired with some anarchy-driven song content. Chances are that if you are already down with the cause, you already own Darker Days Ahead, but if you are unaware and enjoy some grindy post-hardcore with a political bent, you may want to check out a copy.

That said, I couldn't tell you where to get a copy. I enjoy the idea of being 'too punk for the internet', but it does leave a man lacking in suggesting where one keeps track of Tragedy or even goes to get a copy of Darker Days Ahead. Anarchy being anarchy, I bet you can come up with a copy on the web in short order.

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