Night Owl

New Yorkers are spoiled to death when it comes to music-- bands that other cities eagerly wait months and years to see pass through my neighborhood without so much as a shrug from me. Lately I've been feeling dispassionate, and thought it was possible, albeit disappointing, that it now takes more than great music to impress me. Gimmickry, though flashily transparent, is welcome exclamation point in my world of overwhelming opportunity. So when I heard the phrase, "ROCK AND ROLL BOAT CRUISE with Apollo Sunshine," I was impressed and willing to cooperate. Low and behold, Apollo Sunshine proved my hypothesis wrong. The cruise was incredible, but it was their music that left me radiant.
 

photos courtesy Dario Sbrana

Last Friday, the leaders of Brooklyn's DIY scene, kings of underground venues, invaded Music Hall of Williamsburg for the release of Ninjasonik's Tight Pants EP.  Oh, you bet your ass I was there.

It was 10:30 AM on a Thursday, and the girls were losing it. The screaming and hollering 12 year olds that filled the auditorium of Agnes Y Humphery School for Leadership,  PS/MS 27 in Red Hook, were completely inconsolable. Was it a particularly hard geometry test? No, it was a special morning assembly--a rap concert starring Young Jinsu. 

photo credit: Andrew Jackson

It's Valentine's Day. She wants to go to the sold out MGMT and Yeasayer show. Even if it wasn't sold out, you don't have any money, anyways. But she's so damn cute and funny you know you'll do whatever it takes to get those damn tickets! After the jump, who or what will save the day?

(photo credit: Landon Von Soest)

Saturday night at “SUPERNATURE,” standing in the corner of Silent Barn's kitchen next to the amp, I felt nervous.

1. I was leaning, slightly, on a card table with a soundboard duct taped to it, which in turn was duct taped to a box fan duct-taped to a folding chair. The fan was nudging the faders up and down, and making the bass louder and louder.

2. The floor was overflowing with an estimated 350 hormonal teenagers who seemed to be blissfully unaware that the fun bouncy-bounce of the floorboards was indefinitely approaching collapse.

3. The song Move Your Hard Shit” has inspired 30-some shirtless dudes to dance fight, then mosh, then crowd surf, then start pushing each other… hard…into me, and thus, into the duct taped castle of electronics…