Here I was, backstage with Calvin Harris and his band at the Bowery Ballroom after climbing up to the tippity-top of the steep winding staircase where, in spite of the the humidity, he was chilling with his bandmates sipping a brewski in the dressing room before the show. Hmmm. No, there was no party back here.  No posse of arm candy, no illicit substances, no dancing or none of the wild merry-making the 24-year-old Scotsman sings about.

Harris cultivates the persona of a "playah," a heartbreaker and a hipster, getting all the girls, and even creating disco. During his interview he claims it's all part of his act. "I'm not like that at all," he told me, though I wasn't totally convinced. In one of his most popular hits, "Vegas," Harris proclaims, "I've got my car, and my ride, and my wheels (when I go to Vegas), I've got my drugs, and my stuff, and my pills (when I go to Vegas), I've got my girls, and my boys, and my girls (when I go to Vegas)."

Still, they seemed like just regular blokes, a bit shy and polite, standing around in the bright lighting, Harris wearing a goofy pink Fruit Loops T-shirt, another band member in a bright green T-shirt with cartoons of some primeval wolf man and the third sporting a glitzy Ramones shirt, all of them with adorably raffish mops of hair. Harris addresses me with a tentative grin. "Hallo! Right, New York Press.  We spoke on the telephone," he said, recalling his recent interview with me from his hometown, Dumfries, Scotland. "Sorry, my battery went dead," referring to our being cut off. 

"Yes, guys always use that excuse," I joked. Did I mention Harris is 6-foot-5 and, according to his MySpace page, wears a size 12 shoe? Then there's his self-deprecating style flavored by his British accent. Sigh!

Harris, 24 years old, is the newest success story on the electro-dance music scene. Harris and his band had just flown in after a couple of gigs on the West Coast, including the triumphant set prior to Prince's at Coachella. His eponymous CD came out in 2007, and he has another in the works that will be released later this year. The press has labeled him a MySpace sensation, with more than 4 million plays and 2.5 million page views.

"It's not true, I'm not a MySpace sensation – it was just a stroke of luck," he told me. So far, his colorful YouTube videos are approaching 400,000 views, among the top 50 in the UK. Back in 2005, while he was out of work, he put up a few songs on MySpace. Unable to get anyone to listen to the demos he'd sent out, he began staying up all night "friending" everyone in sight, including (luckily) an EMI Publishing executive, who loved his tunes and signed him up, allowing him to quit his job. That was the happiest day of his life.

One of Calvin Harris's most appealing traits is he makes it all look so easy. He claims to have no special talent as a singer nor as a musician and only used his own voice because he couldn't find anyone else at the time. As a teenager, and recuperating from a year-long illness, he spent many hours messing around on his brother's low-tech Amiga music sequencer, creating the sounds which have since made him famous. He considers himself more of a producer and has collaborated and remixed songs with the likes of Kylie Minogue, The Mitchell Brothers, Dizzee Rascal and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Harris is proud he's acquired a huge following among pre-teen girls, tweens and teenyboppers.  "They have just as much right to like music as a banker or anyone else," he says, loyal to his fans. Only a few years ago, he himself was stocking shelves in a department store and when he was 17, he actually packed fish into tin cans for a while. "My hands smelled awful," he confided.

Harris is the model for gawky youth everywhere with a dream, a synthesizer and a video camera. Did he create disco? No, but he has created a danceable blend of electro-funk with simple lyrics his fans chant in the "mosh pit," jumping up and down and singing along with Calvin for the entire two-hour show. Alongside the glammed up girls were many teenaged and early-20-something boys. And there I was, twice their age and mouthing the words to "I Created Disco," as I leapt into the air in my Frye boots.

The kids love him because he's unpretentious, and he's one of THEM, a loser who makes good. He mentions his girlfriend and how he enjoys knocking about at home, but in one of his most popular songs, especially with his female audience, "The Girls," he confesses how he can't help playing around and gets all the girls, but whether it's true or not, there's something very appealing about his all-inclusive taste in women:  "I like them black girls, I like them white girls, I like them Asian girls, I like them mixed-raced girls, I like them Spanish girls, I like them Italian girls, I like the French girls, And I like Scandanavian girls, I like them tall girls, I like them short girls, I like them brown-haired girls, I like them blond-haired girls, I like them big girls, I like them skinny girls, I like them carrying a little bit of weight girls."

In his video, he's shown with a bevy of beauties, all of whom are slender and Caucasian. "Calvin, what's up with that?  I thought you liked all the girls," I asked. "And what about the older girls." Characteristically diplomatic, he replies, "Well, you're white, and you're blonde, so I've included you, too." Was he also thinking I was one of those "carrying a little bit of weight" girls? I didn't ask, but said goodbye since they needed to start the show.

After a brief stop in Glasgow, Harris & Co. are off to Berlin where the band opens for Hot Chip on May  8th.


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Christmas is coming and superlative songsmith Rufus Wainwright is ready to jingle. Family and friends join him for a few carols on Dec. 10 at the annual “McGarrigle Christmas Hour featuring Rufus and Martha Wainwright” at Carnegie Hall. We caught up with Rufus, who was all jolly about Jesus ears, saving the planet and stage time with mom.

You’re just back from Israel. What was that experience like?
That was really wonderful. I did a couple of big shows in Tel Aviv and the audience was definitely enthusiastic and appreciative of my coming all the way there. And then the next two days I traveled around the country, saw all the big sights and dealt with my latent Catholicism [laughs].

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Usually, I try not to add to the hype, but this is too funny to pass up. Last week, Green Day announced it was going to, um, announce its new album title at the Grammys on Sunday. On Sunday, the band said the record would be called 21st Century Breakdown. Today, it announced the album art was ready to be released, I mean, released. Here it is, 21st Century Breakdown’s album art:

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Maybe Peter Bjorn and John are already tired of their success as the cute jangly-pop trio from Sweden. That’s the only way I can explain their new song, “Lay it Down” off their forthcoming album Living Things-out Mar. 31. The video for “Lay it Down” was released last month on YouTube. It opens with a bunch of people wearing masks of themselves while a DJ starts to play “Young Folks,” their hit from 2 years ago. Just as the whistling starts, the new song cuts it off with the line, “Hey, shut the fuck up boy. You are starting to piss me off.”

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This image of Morrissey just-about-naked from the alleged inside sleeve of the forthcoming album is currently making the rounds. We're happy for the Moz: When we saw him last, he was looking a little doughy—but that didn't stop him from slinging his sweat-soaked shirts into the crowd. He's been known to show of his furry chest on many occasions, but most people don't seem too perturbed by the full-frontal flesh view.

When I asked one hetero male super fan about his feelings on the photo, he was nonplussed, "Makes perfect sense. What are those records?" See, he just wanted to see if it was some secret into the mind of the singer: musical influences? wry references? a cabalistic confession? For a Morrissey fan, no amount of narcissistic self-promotion will deter them. They just want more, more, more.

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Just a day after the beer summit, we get word of another high-profile fight brewing. Yesterday, “Eminem” debuted his new song “The Warning” which is a full-scale attack on Mariah Carey and her current hubby Nick Cannon. Before Eminem begins describing his “birds and the bees” night with Carey in very vivid detail, he gives us some candid insight into his inspiration for writing this ballad. “Only reason I dissed you in the first place is because you denied seeing me/ Now I’m pissed off.” OK, got it. Thanks...

Eminem’s song comes after Carey dressed up like Eminem and put on a goatee to mock him in her latest music video “Obsessed.” Well… apparently The Real Slim Shady was none to happy about this and shot back in a level-headed non-violent way. “Oh gee, is that supposed to be me in the video with the goatee/ Wow Mariah, I didn’t expect her to go balls out/Bitch, shut the fuck up before I put all them phone calls out you made to my house when you was wild n out before Nick/When you was on my dick and give you somethin' to smile about/ How many times you fly to my house? Still trying to count.” 

The song is called “The Warning” because, later in the song, Eminem threatens to reveal nude pictures of his former lady. Before anyone does anything they'll regret later, let’s all take a deep breath. Remember what President Obama says, and I am paraphrasing here: "We must not be scared to negotiate with our enemies, even if they have given the world an in-depth look at private matters and are threatening to release [nude pictures].”  



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Androgynous and Berlin-based (surprised?) Cinema Bizarre has paid some dues by touring around the country with Lady Gaga. Now they'll headline their own show at the Highline Ballroom on April 24.

The vaguely Marilyn Manson-esque pseudo-goth band (they call themselves "electro-glam") released their debut album Final Attraction last year, scoring a top ten hit "Love Songs (They Kill Me)," which is a fun romp through the emotional wasteland, viewable below. I find it funny that all these bands release songs in English (I couldn't find any German lyrics), but you've gotta cater to the biggest audience…

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Everyone's super excited about Jack White's new band, The Dead Weather. And sure, if you never knew about Jon Spencer or the Delta 72, it's probably sort of exciting. What really gets my goat, however, is that everyone talks about singer Alison Mosshart as though The Kills was the only (or even the best) thing she's done. The girl was in Discount for fuck's sake! Besides the band's live Cyndi Lauper covers, it released three full-length records and a number of singles (with bands like As Friends Rust and J Church) in its five-year life. Though we hear that Alison is a bit of a snot when anyone tries to bring that up—since palling around with Kate Moss and pretending to be British is really something to be proud of.

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This week we feature one of our favorite transsexual performers, Allanah Starr. And then we found Jonny McGovern's latest parody—which takes the Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce's "All the Single Ladies" to an entirely new level. Enjoy the "Tranny Ladies (Put Some Duct Tape On It)".

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Jammins Entertainment understands that many New Yorkers will be sticking around the city this summer instead of taking the vacations they have been able to afford in previous years. To still provide entertainment for those staying in New York during the summer months, Jammins will be presenting the Brooklyn Music Festival, "giving financially strapped New Yorkers an island vacation in their backyards". The festival will be a day-long carnival-style celebration featuring food, crafts, entertainment and music from around the world specifically for Brooklyn’s culturally and economically diverse communities. The wide ranging styles of music will include reggae, dancehall, ska, soca, hip hop, oldies, rhythm & blues and reggaeton. The festival will be on June 21st at Floyd Bennet Field in, you guessed it, Brooklyn.

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