Sunday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, folks brave the chilly wind to see Comet Gain with the Crystal Stilts.
The Crystal Stilts opened, a six-piece band hurling their recognizable echo in front of a black curtain. The room was packed. Beginning a bit like an adolescent sexual experience, the lively keyboardist asks, “Is it okay for you?” It was more than okay.Their sound is hollow in the best way possible, producing an indescribably empty emotion that contains the whole spectrum at once. The songs were short, driving and drenched in purple light. Simple because there was nothing that needed to be complicated. Some of the riffs approached an early rock and roll feel, which makes sense since the lead singer, Brad Hargett, said he’d been listening to a lot of Bo Diddley while smoking outside the venue. When talking to him in person, it seemed hard to believe such a low and recognizable sound could come from this quietly nervous guy.
But this is not you’re average nervous musician. Less than a month after the release of their upbeat new single “Love is a Wave”, the Crystal Stilts are about to launch their second European tour in May, including a stop at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. We can be expecting the release of a new album by the end of this year. Their set ended on a happy note with the keyboardist yelling, “You can all come to my party!”
Comet Gain, despite their desperate jubilance, didn’t hold a candle to their opening act. Coming from Brighton UK, this show was a somewhat rare US appearance. Apparently there was a missing member named Jon (drummer Jon Slade). The audience kept asking about his whereabouts, to which the singer replied, “Having a long wank in the tub!” This was the first of multiple “wank” jokes. The singing was split between a guy/girl team, the latter of whom was laying on the calculated Brit-cuteness pretty thick. At times, I was starting to get into their high-energy sound, but it almost always gave way to a sappy breakdown making me feel like I was back in the audience of a middle school talent competition. The lyrics were just awful. Just because “groovy” rhymes with “movie” does not in anyway mean you should use them as a chorus. In a crowd consisting almost entirely of awkward hipsters, all I could see was visions of pre-teen fat chicks bouncing in tube tops.
“Its odd to be above the heads,” mused the singing girl, leading one to believe they normally play smaller, eye level venues. And even though they have been a band for close to two decades, this does not come as a surprise. When asked the secret behind their greatness, the singing guy yells back, “My secret is…uh, Beer!” Exactly. Drunken courage, not talent. This led into a proposition posed by the leading lady, “We’ll wank New York off!... if you get us more beer.” When they tried to rouse a clapping session to a song that revolved around the rhyme of “city” and “pretty”, no one was down. “You’re just too cool because you live in Brooklyn or something,” yells the girl. Yeah, maybe it's just a typical reaction that a room full of judgmental kids would have. But maybe it was just a cheesy attempt to create enthusiasm for an even cheesier song. Either way, it was a little awkward. After the third “wank” reference, it was time to go. We left a couple songs away from the end of the set.
Hangovers aren't the only thing a bong rip can cure. A recent study found that weed can also help to eliminate brain cancer cells. The active ingredient in marijuana, Tetrahydrocannabinol(THC) was proven to stimulate a process called autophagy.
Autophagy can either promote a cells survival or its death, depending on the circumstance. When in the presence of THC, autophagy induced destruction of the glioma cell in human subjects as well as the cancer-laden rodents. A huge breakthrough for science, as well as stoners everywhere. Spark up that joint!
Move over junkies and speed freaks, church chimes are the new peeve of East Village complainers.
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Sub Pop has released the video for Vetiver’s first single off the new album, Tight Knit. High camp and low-budge, the video for “Everyday” chronicles the romantic trials and tribulations of a skinny kid in roller skates and neon spandex. He loses his girl, throws a fit on the beach, meets another chick who then drugs him and steals all his stuff and eventually becomes homeless. The lyrics that light up karaoke style at the bottom of the screen don’t seem to match the storyline, but I think that’s what they were going for. Melodramatic in the most '80s way possible, it’s worth watching for a few laughs. Check it out here:
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New York-based electroclash duo Fischerspooner today revealed the cover art for its upcoming record, Entertainment, due out in May. Member Casey Spooner enlisted Nicola Formichetti, creative director of Dazed and Confused magazine, to assemble the styling cast that would create the look.
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In a scene ridiculed for an overabundance of paisley shirts and scraggly beards, Vetiver rises above the freak folk stereotypes with its new album Tight Knit, out this week.
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Photo by ZACH HYMAN for PMc
Valentine’s Day at 1Oak for the La Perla fashion week party: Mannequin-esque models stand on an elevated platform with the red glow of the fireplace lighting them from behind, scantily clad in La Perla’s latest lingerie. They seem uncomfortable when you try and take a closer look at the line, staring you straight in the eyes with abashed boredom. Pink feather boas stream from chandeliers and the table centerpieces are scattered with rose petals.
DJ Jus Ske spun for most of the night, hyping up what was otherwise a very mellow atmosphere. The main room wasn’t too packed. In the far corner, plush pillows surrounded vacant stripper poles and there were plenty of tables to lounge around on. Most of the excitement seemed to congregate somewhere in the space between the floor-to-ceiling open bar and the mirrored wall of barely-clothed girls. Go figure. La Perla clearly wanted this event low key, keeping with the times.
Everyone seemed to either be a La Perla employee, a media person or 1Oak regular. "I'm single and would rather look at near-naked models than be on date," says my friend Ray, a 30-year-old freelance journalist. “Only problem is that one of my exes is right over there.”
“Um, yeah, I need a few more drinks before I can talk to Ray,” says the ex. “He only liked me because I voted McCain. I think he voted Nader, whatever.”
Slouched at a table by the DJ booth, Ravi Somaiya, 26, looks like a shipwrecked Brit pop star hiding behind a wall of a booze glasses. “Drinks are like $45 dollars here so I’m hoarding the free beverages for when the open bar ends,” says Somaiya. An intuitively good idea, seeing as how they stopped serving the Veuve almost immediately after our conversation.
As the event wound down, 1Oak’s usual crowd of rich guys and the models touting their affection filtered in, filling up all the available tables and stripper poles.
You walk in the dimly lit restaurant with the giant Rolex clock on the wall.
Yuppies young and old hover around plates heavy with Swiss cuisine and mull over their half-drunk drinks. Past them, past the bar on your right, past the bathrooms, through the kitchen, you will find the back room at Café Select.
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