Wednesday, June 29, 2011

snippets and blippets

OMG, Captured Tracks pop up store opening when Krissie gets here! In greenpoint, super close... damnit i miss having a record player ... much less a fucking stereo...or a car to plug my ipod in. FUCK, when's christmans again? Well, i'm going, cuz that's where all our boyfriends hand their music over... Thanks as usual to craig for the heads up. oh and for being a total disser on Radiohead and deathcab and generally covering all the bases conversation wise.. obscure musical knowledge, fixed gear bikes, grrr, drug cartels, cocaine drug additives, crack babies, sex drives of our siblings. Yep went there too. @craigz is the jam.
Been revisiting the playin on blip..just a lil commentary, An Horse is great, and totally underblipped. Thanks @Locostavos. currently hearing Bradford Cox at Primavera sound...@pratinsky is kicking out the jams today...tom waits, Atlas sound, yee haw.. Thinking of making a few itunes purchases today..with my meager account balance...just wanna get some stuff..Gardens and Villa perhaps? Burnt Orange? Grooms? getting around to the cults as so recommended? new pump up songs to get ready to? i'm feeling more in the vein of up tempo and aggressively happy. I have a feeling the new future islands will be amazing.. but for now.. choices. love that preview button y'all

its getting nice in here..

its getting to be a good time feeling type of mood. IOW, i'm starting to really enjoy just BEING here. being as in physically as well as socially, contemplatively, and emotionaly all around just being right here. in brooklyn, ny, where i chose to call home about 6 weeks ago. its been fabulously tough, emphasis on both.. i think the whole 3 days off and making plans suited me just fine, a listmaker at heart. The beach yesterday had me smiling cheek to cheek, feeling like an actual kid..a kid that grew up without too much worry, just enough to still look forward to a trip out to the waves. I almost impromptued my "King Of The Beach" routine right on the sand.. i digressed..a 45 minuted jog in the morning had me a lil ready for just lazing..and that i did. afterwards, had a great nite with ex roomie julia, and found my first, admittedly, yet best margarita here to tally. Woods on s. 4th has an excellent taco truck and i was super stoked to get 2 texas fixes...
Today i tcbd and was pleasantly surprised by the pop up listing of Future Islands at Death By Audio tonite.. thought about seeing Puro Instinct and John Maus at glasslands, but the cheap cover and super duper <3 for FI had me giddy..
The set and sound was spectacular.. ive yet to see a show at DBA that isn't sardined packed and sweaty as a steam room on acid. srsly, god bless $1 water bottles! I was still not let down. didn't get 10 arms lengths from the front, but didn't really matter. The opening two songs from first full length Wave like Home were Beach Foam and Little Dreamer..they provided such anticipation for the bulk of the set, hit after hit from Tin Man, Walking Through that door, IOD, and VE.. all so lovely..so many fucking handclappers and even crowd surfers! this crowd had their shit together.. how can you not with such an endearing and comedic front man!?? GAWD!!! Plus two new ones that had been played "4 or 5 times". They were more in the vein of Wave Like Home versus the dancier beat driven In evening Air.. But was totally enthralled..esp since i knew i wouldnt get to see Washed Out in a couple of weeks.. this totally hit the spot. speaking of spots.. K Spot will be here in like two weeks and Mom and Dad this sunday. THese events most likely have an impact on my sudden surge of endorphins..way excited! bro downs with new roomates never hurt, and neither does a good hard jazzericize session (speckled with 2+ routines that i remember from ATX classes. ) So...referencing the list maker, i feel the time to TCB on that right now..just for clear head purposes:
Good Things:
1. Craig goes to shows with me
2. i've live closer to a beach that is more beautiful than any one i've been to in TX
3. Visitors from TX
4. My balcony
5. Naming a bar Old faithful, even though i've been in the hood about a month
6. Patio soon to be , if not already , opened at No Name Bar
7. Trains arriving 3 seconds after entering the platform
8. Cooking at home
9. Discovering foods on the outs..esp
10. Jogging long distances just to see what's next
11. surprise shows
12. Brooklyn Vegan
13. flip flops
14. settling in
15. 24 hour bakeries
16. rice to riches
17. captured tracks
18. lack of clutter
19. walking
20. i haven't locked my keys/phone inside the house..knock on wood!
21. random awesome texts
22. visitors
23. little italy
24. ppl asking me for directions and confident i gave the right info
25. getting to know brooklyn with a jogging stride


dislikes:
1. haven't taken a bus yet
2. not a crazy awesome place to dance has been discovered
3. the L sucks after hours
4. fear of bedbugs and thrift store shopping
5. no bluebell ice cream
6. overheard in new york (my new twitter tag) is kinda gross
7. missing tons of shows due to work
8. leaving my sewing machine and keyboard to gather dust while i miss them
9. Finding my way around the west villiage..daunting
10. fewer laughs, acronyms, and shouting.. must be remedied!!

all in all..things are feeling bright.. weather is nice..looking forward to:
1. rollerskating
2. pies n thighs
3. scarves
3. finishing the book on hasidic judaism
4. Coney Island
5. East River ferry
6. Lower rent, perhaps fingers crossed
7. Local shows/side project collaborations TBD
8. VISITORS!!

ok ok gotta quit with the head space...just had to TCB for the moment.. esp since there's not much space here. luckily, nooks and corners are in exploratory and curios stages.. i can't wait to plop down , make a grass angel and just breathe..then maybe a spelling lesson? forgive me.
xo
erin

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Northside festival

Sure was a festival this weekend. Northside Festival in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, very young, very much an in utero sister festival to sxsw, which in my opinion, is a nice thing. Now that i live here among the thick of the area of said festival,i can honestly appreciate the compact geography and smaller size of the northside fest.. versus the beast that is SXSW. even living on the outskirts of sxsw, where i had to bus or car it ,i could still bitch about the shows taking over my favorite venues and bars knowing i didn't have a space to call home...that means YOU Nomad bar, Longbranch Inn, etc..i love you but i want a quite calm amongst the storm ;) But here, yeah, it was small enough to where the venues didn't amass into a complete takeover and a lot of the shows were in sepparate rooms from the hangout bar area. Plus, I could walk everywhere, including home, yeah!! That said, i enjoyed both aspects..the shows and the scene. i must say i was most enamoured with X-Ray Eyeballs, an apparent brooklyn fave introduced to me by my go to goer of shows, craig (!!!) They had me hooked on first listen and nearly took down the ceiling at death by audio at an unofficial showcase this past weekend. I had visions of shapes have fangs or the apeshits or one of Penny's many projects at beerland as i listened. Ass shots, weiner shots, you name it :


also caught The Oh Sees as said venue, the sweatiest, DIYest, smokiest indoors, you could walk by and miss it totalliest venue i've been to here. They killed it.

Surprise sneak in to Music hall of Williamsburg brought Thelonius London, and honestly was captivated. Never a fan before. Clueless in fact. But i see the rage now...

Other highlights included a decent outdoor set by wavves, who was much funner w/ KSpot at FFF BTW...it was a weird setup..the crowd was blocked 10 feet from the steve madden stage and apparently nathan was a lil under the weather..Still played my faves and i was happy to see it, big as all Jesus pot leaf T shirts and all. Beirut gave me a new reason to love them playing on the same stage...go figure. Surfer Blood gave me chills with Catholic Pagan, and GBV did 3 fucking encores. yes emphasis on 3 and fucking, cuz these dudes have been around the block and still do kicks and mic swinging, yelling.. and 3 encores. Woven Bones show also blew my mind and cant hardly believe the transformation of Andy and his new crew. A +

Last day i opted for Blair and Airwaves at Glasslands... super duper cool to see Blair solo, WOW! and despite sound and mix issues, Airwaves brought the songs that made me smile. Go Knock Out.

I also became infatuated with Fergus and Geronimo..a brooklyn band that i'd heard of but never experienced. I heard TV personalities, The Clean, Gogol Bordello, and all kinds of gypsy craziness and i figured an accordian would make its way on stage at some point.
In other Hardly Art news, i saw Collen Green (the east coast version of Best Coast) and was amped TTM hearing her solo and electric. Sweet lady and a drum machine, a guitar, pink sunglasses, and a voice that made me jealous. YES.

Above and beyond, a great weekend.. missed diamond rings and the strange boys, atlas sound, porcelain raft, reading rainbow, and Dom. whatcha gonna do? I was able to work and see shows and get paid. That spells FUCK YEAH in my lil book.
Speaking of pay, more of it woulda resulted in a splurge to see Foster The People and Gardens and Villa ... or a venture out to see Hooray for Earth DJ in Greenpoint last night.. but rest was much needed.
Many more brooklyn musings to come... so many more i could type for hours..but the sun comes up early here and i have readily available project runway to watch..more to come after a lil R and R and cable TV xoxo