Flyer for Northside Fest Day 1

Here is the flyer for our first Northside showcase on June 14th at the Gutter in Willamsburg Brooklyn. Once again playing that showcase is Libel, Meaning of Life, Butchers and Bakers, Shilpa Ray  and Lazyeyes. To RSVP for all this musical goodness click here and to find out who else is part of Northside fest this year and to get your badges (which are a wise investment indeed) click here.

Daft Punk

Daft Punk's latest album "Random Access Memories" drops today and it's so amazingly good! At first all the hype surrounding the album made me apprehensive to listen, I thought for sure this was another case of people being total lemmings to publications such as Pitchfork (which gave the album a good review not a Kayne good review) and powerful pr companies, but after a friend whose musical tastes I total admire and I know would never be a lemming to Pitchfork and the PR companies raved about RAM, I decided to give in and to listen.

"Random Access Memories" features among others  Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder who both were pretty prominent in shaping the 70's disco sound, Rodgers was the guitarist and mastermind along with Bernard Edwards behind the band Chic and Moroder was best known as Donna Summer's producer but worked with other artists such as Blondie and David Bowie.

Nile Rodgers worked on three songs with Daft Punk including RAM's lead off single "Get Lucky" which features Pharell Williams of NERD fame, all three songs that Rodgers collaborated on bare Chic's signature bass lines and guitars and sound as if they were played on the dance floor of Studio 54 back in 1978. On another note I totally predict that " Get Lucky" will be the summer 2013 jam for lots of people including myself.

The Giorgio Moroder collaboration is rather interesting because it's basically Moroder talking about how he became a leading disco producer over a synthetic beat.

Other collaborators on "Random Access Memories" include; as mentioned Pharell, Julian Casablancas  frontman for the Strokes, Chilly Gonzales and 70's soft rock songwriting king Paul Williams  his collaboration with DP is a song called "Touch" and it's majorly trippy.

All in all "Random Access Memories" is worth all of the hype.

 

 

Check it out: Death

Happy May everyone! The reason for me not posting in a few weeks is cause I just moved into a new apartment and have been busy decorating and getting settled. The apartment is decorated, I'm settled and I'm back!

Way before the CBGB's legendary punk scene of the late 70's took off and the Sex Pistols where shaking things up, there was a punk or a proto punk band out of Detroit Michigan called Death. Death consisted of three African American brothers named David, Bobby and Dennis Hackney. 

The Hackney brothers previously played in R&B bands and were inspired to start a hard rock band after seeing Alice Cooper live. Death began recording demos in 1974 and those demos quickly caught the attention of legendary record exec Clive Davis, Davis tried to convince the brothers to change their name from Death to something that was more commercially viable, the band refused and Davis lost interest. The band released a single from the recorded demos on their own label called "Politicians in My Eyes" in 1975. On a side note there were only 800 copies of the "Politicians in My Eyes" single pressed and those copies have become major collectors items and are currently going for big bucks on Ebay.

The band called it quits in 1977 and the rest of the songs recorded during those demos in 1974 sat for years till 2009 when Drag City Records released them as an album called "...For the Whole World To See", which garnered a new found interest in Death from a younger generation of rockers, including Jack White who praised the band in a New York Times article written right after "....For the World To See" was released in 2009.

In 2013 a documentary was made about the brothers Hackney called "A Band Called Death" in which people such as Henry Rollins and Alice Cooper discuss the band and their influence. Sadly David Hackney passed away in 2000, but his two brothers Dennis and Bobby continue to play music as part of Vermont based band reggae band Lamsbread.

RIP Chrissy Amphlett

Chrissy Amphlett, the lead singer of the Australian band the Divinyls passed away yesterday at the age of 53.

The Divinyls biggest hit in the US was 1991's ode to female masturbation "I Touch Myself". In their native Australia the band had a very long and lustrous career.

My first exposure to the Divinyls was back when I was 12 and I heard their cover of the Syndacate of Sound's "Hey Little Girl" (the Divinyls cover was changed to "Hey Little Boy") on my local alt radio station WDRE. I remember absolutely loving the Divinyls version of the song and dancing around my room like a lunatic each time that song was played on WDRE and spending my allowance on a cassette copy of the Divinyls album that contained the cover of "Hey Little Boy",  "Temperamental" .

I remember being impressed by Chrissy's breathy but strong voice and I also remember being impressed by her image which was that of an overly sexual tough girl in charge who didn't shit from anyone, think one of the women from the cult film "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!". Chrissy Amphlett was not a shrinking violet for sure and her music and image had a huge impact on me.

RIP Chrissy your impact on music was huge!

 

Shows and songs from Jr High....

Shilpa Ray and Lazy Eyes have been added to our first Northside Fest 2013 show on June 14th at  The Gutter in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Libel, Butchers and Bakers and Meaning of Life are also on this bill. We also have a second Northside Fest 2013 show the following night June 15th at Legion also in Williamsburg, playing that show are Dead Stars, Bad Girlfriend, The Veda Rays, Low Fat Getting High and Clouder. Buying a badge for Northside Fest is the smartest investment you will ever make! To make that smart investment click here.

Moving along. All day today I have had Bell Biv DeVoe's song from the early 90's "Poison" in my head for some reason. "Poison" was released in 1991 when I was in the 8th grade and me I just loved this song! Fast forward some nearly 20 years and listening to this song again as an adult (albeit in my head) I still love this song!

So for your Friday here is a little Bell Biv DeVoe flashback from the early 90's, never trust a big butt and a smile and enjoy!!

 

Northside Fest 2013

So the Whatever blog will be going back to Northside again this year. We will be curating two official Northside shows on Friday June 14th and Saturday June 15th. The only details I can give you thus far are; Libel, Bad Girlfriend, Dead Stars, Butchers and Bakers, Meaning of Life, Veda Rays, Low Fat Getting High and a Clouder reunion. More details to follow in the next up and coming weeks.

The music portion of Northside goes from June 13th to June 16th and besides our two little shows, The Walkmen, a reunited Black Flag (sans Henry but with Greg Ginn), Swans and Twin Sister will all be playing Northside shows this year.

Besides music, Northside fest also features film which goes from June 16th to June 20th and a really cool interactive/tech bit which goes on at the same time as the music portion. Northside is a great time you get to hear awesome music and watch cool films and get to see all the new technology pertaining to music and other forms of entertainment. A badge to Northside fest is a smart investment and right now the Northside folks are having an early bird special on badges click here to get those deals.

In honor of the reunion of both Black Flag and Clouder at Northside Fest 2013 here are some Black Flag and Clouder to brighten your day and get you all jazzed for Northside 2013! The name of the Black Flag tune is "Rise Above" and the Clouder clip is from Break Thru Radio.

 

These United States Movie, New Bands Etc Etc

Happy April everyone! I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. The warmer weather in New York City marks the start of so many music related things around the city, the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival, lots of outdoor shows including the start of the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series and of course Northside!

One of the many glorious things that spring has brought is a documentary about our dear friends These United States it's called "A Picture of the Three of Us". The film chronicles TUS' Picture of Three of Us tour and you can catch the entire film on daytrotter.com on April 12th. In the meantime you can click here to watch the film's trailer .

In other These United States news, TUS' front man Jesse Elliott, the front man has a new really great band called Ark Life  which plays the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday April 6.