Halloween spooky photo

Taking a break from the music and the politics for a quick minute, I had to post this picture. It was taken this past August at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn by yours truly. I've spoken about Green-Wood Cemetery in this blog before and if your a New York history/art geek such as myself then you'll find Green-Wood a very fascinating place. Greenwood is the final resting place of famous New Yorkers such as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, legendary composer Leonard Bernstein and infamous 19th century New York politician William "Boss" Tweed among others. And part of the land that is now Green-Wood cemetery was scene to The Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War in 1776.

Anyhow some of the graves at Green-Wood are very ornate. The picture below is no exception it's the grave of a German doctor. What made me want to take a picture of the grave was the intricate carving of the doctor's profile and the fact that the grave inscription was written in German. The only part of the grave inscription that I understood, was that the doctor died a few hours after surgery of blood poisoning. Take a good look at the photo and focus your gaze towards the top right side of the photo, there appears to be an odd blueish light with mist around it. And I'm telling all of you I didn't notice this light mist thing till I uploaded the photo days later!! Could the mist be the good Doctor himself!!??

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!




The interview with the Mood up and posted at the end of the week!!

CMJ/Brooklyn Vegan party Saturday afternoon

I just had to see Takka Takka play live! Takka Takka played five CMJ gigs over the course of the CMJ week and I made a vow to catch one of those gigs! The one Takka Takka CMJ show that I did catch, was the Saturday afternoon Brooklyn Vegan/CMJ show at the Knitting Factory. For all you kids not fimiliar with Takka Takka's sound, I would best describe it as straight ahead rock with elements of early 80's new wave mixed in for good pleasure, think early Depeche Mode meets 60's garage rock. Besides Takka Takka the other two bands that I caught at the Brooklyn Vegan show were the Shout Out Outs and Delta Spirit. I wasn't all that crazy about The Shout Out Outs, their sound was electronica and rock mixed together. I think I would enjoy The Shout Out Outs, more if I had a few drinks in me and it was midnight and not noon! Plus it took the Shout Out Outs about twenty five minutes to set up! I really liked Delta Spirit they reminded me of a more bluesier version of The Cold War Kids.

Takka Takka's frontman Gabe will be sitting down with me real soon for a whateverblog chat. I also have one more CMJ releated item to post and that is an interview with the ultra cool Mood, that interview should be up and posted by the end of the week!

I didn't have Nick for the Brooklyn Vegan/CMJ show, by the time Saturday rolled around he like most of us was CMJ'd out. So I took pictures of this show on my own with my own little digital camera. Enjoy!!


Brooklyn Vegan






Takka Takka


















Delta Spirit






The Shout Out Outs





The Tiny Animals (I saw them for a quick second)

Pictures of the Giraffes set at the CMJ/Onitsuka Tiger showcase

Since the Giraffes put on a fairly interesting but entertaining show, I had to include Nick's pictures of their set in a separate blog post.

Onitsuka Tiger/CMJ showcase Friday night

This past Friday night Nick and I went roaming the CMJ shows on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Even with a CMJ badge it's sometimes hard to get into sold out shows. We tried getting into the Mother Mother show at the Mercury Lounge but got turned away cause the show was sold out, we tried to see Takka Takka at the Cakeshop but were turned away again cause that show was sold out and then we tried to get into Pianos to see what was going on.... but yet again we were turned away. Part of our friday night plan was to eventually see the Giraffes/CMJ show at LePoisson Rouge, so Nick and I decided to go to LePoisson Rouge and just hang out there for the night.

The first band up at LePossion Rouge was a band from Australia called the Shiny Brights. The Shiny Brights had a sound that reminded me of early 90's Brit pop not so much Oasis but The Happy Monday's.

The second band on the bill was a really intense and amazing all African American shoegazing band called Apollo Heights who had a really unique sound. Nick and I got to speak with Apollo Heights' frontman Daniel Chavis for a few minutes after their set and he was a really cool guy.

The third band who went on was called Figo. Figo's frontman Praq used to be in a really awesome band that my friend Denise used to book all the time at CBGB's. I remember I always really liked Praq's voice and I had a little bit of a crush on him as well, total dynamic frontman! Things haven't changed, Praq still sounds fantastic, still is really cute and still is a really dynamic front man! Figo's sound is really different, I heard bits of a Pink Floyd and Gravity Kills influence in Figo's sound.

The last band up was the Giraffes. And for all of you who haven't heard the Giraffes, I would best describe them as a really excellent metal/punk band with a really sexy insane frontman named Aaron Lazar and an insane guitarist named Damien Paris. The Giraffes are known for their very rowdy shows and friday night they definitely didn't disappoint! There was crowd surfing, tossing beer onto the crowd and flipping off everyone!

Here are Nick's pictures from the evening. Enjoy!!









Figo










Apollo Heights















The Shiny Brights








The scene outside of Pianos, Friday night