I think I'm bigger than the sound

It's come to my direct attention that, since the Starbuck's-ing of the Belle & Sebastian show on the 4th of July and my subsequent boycotting of the event, that, aside from the shows I'm at because of LIFEbeat, I haven't a fucking single good show under this ol' belt to wrap up the summer season.

Last year, the standout shows were the Arcade Fire at CMJ in Central Park Summerstage (which, by the way, was in September so it counts as a REAL wrap up of the summer concert season) and Brian Wilson's show at the Jones Beach Theater (where, again I'm adding, the lovely girlfriend Karen and I were 3 rows from the musical psychotic/genious during the entirety of the 2+(!) hour set.)

Here now for your viewing pleasure/dismay, is a listing of the shows (LIFEbeat or not) that I'll be at for the remainder of the hot months.  If you happen to see me/the lovely girlfriend Karen/any of the staff of The Culture of Me.com, don't hesitate to wave/accost/show some love to us.  We're not zoo animals, so you can feed us street-food (just watch out for James...his stomach is sensitive).

Find the complete list after the jump.

Bloc Party, Secret Machines, Mew
Sat 7/29 @ 5:00 PM
McCarren Park Pool
All Ages
$35
Get tickets!

Hot Chip, Oppenheimer
Fri 8/04 @ 7:00 PM
South Street Seaport
All Ages
Free show!

Gravy Train!!!!, V.I.P., Puddin Tang
Sun 8/06 @ 8:00 PM
Knitting Factory
All Ages
$10 advance/$12 day of show
Get tickets!

Gary Numan, New Skin
Mon 8/07 @ 9:00 PM
Irving Plaza
16+
$25
Get tickets!

Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Awesome Color
Sat 8/12 @ 5:00 PM
McCarren Park Pool
All Ages
$35
Get tickets!

Deerhoof, Beirut, Apollo Sunshine, The Harlem Shakes
Sun 8/13 @ 2:00 PM
McCarren Park Pool
All Ages
Free show!

X, Rollins Band, The Riverboat Gamblers
Wed 8/16 @ 8:00 PM
Nokia Theatre
16+
$40
Get tickets!

Archie Bell & Mighty Hannibal, The Dansettes, The Fabulous Soul Shakers
Sun 8/20 @ 2:00 PM
McCarren Park Pool
All Ages
Free show!

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, DC Snipers, Tokyo Police Club
Fri 8/25 @ 7:00 PM
South Street Seaport
All Ages
Free show!

Spank Rock, Gang Gang Dance, Shy Child
Sun 9/03 @ 2:00 PM
McCarren Park Pool
All Ages
Free show!

Band of Horses, Chad Van Gaalen
Sun 9/10 @ 7:30 PM
Webster Hall
16+
$17 advance/$18 day of show
Get tickets!

The Gossip, Erase Errata, Mika Miko
Wed 9/13 @ 8:00 PM
Irving Plaza
16+
$14.50 advance/$15 day of show
Get tickets!

The Kills
Fri 9/15 @ 8:00 PM
Southpaw
21+
$15
Get tickets!

Mates of State, Starlight Mints
Sat 9/30 @ 8:00 PM
Irving Plaza
Just announced!

So there you have it.  More shows than you can shake your ass at!  Anyways, keep an eye out for one or more of your friends at The Culture of Me.com and rock the fuck out.  If Robert Christgau can go to 30 shows in 30 days, you can go to at least five.

Godspeed!

TGI-holy shit!

Okay, so over the last few days my work has significantly slowed so that's allowed me to realize how much I've missed over the course of the past 2 weeks.  Let's see: war, natural disasters, our president sputtering "shit" on national and local televison sets across America, the Siren Festival (sigh), etc.  Here now are a few things I hope you all HAVEN'T missed over the past short period of time:

First, Be Your Own PET are officially the coolest fucking band on the planet right now.  Don't believe me, watch the video for "Bicycle,  Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle".  I cannot stress enough how I hope the foursome can become as important to the landscape of rock and roll as I keep saying they will be.  Mercy Mercy Me.

 

Some other things I've been paying all too much attention to recently.  Aside from the lovely girlfriend Karen, that is:

1.    NYC mainstays Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a video for new single "Cheated Hearts".  The story isn't that they made a video.  It's really that in this new video, Karen O and crew are ACTUALLY fighting for screen time with about 10 different fan-sent-in renditions of the new track.  If you haven't seen it, click here.

2.   Number three in the coolest things that David Bowie has done since Low and Hunky Dory (number one being his appearances with the Arcade Fire at CMJ last year and the guest appearance on the heavily-as-fuck-awaited TV on the Radio record Return to Cookie Mountain).  What do they say about imitation being the greatest form of tribute?

3.    Also, the lovely girlfriend Karen fucking loves Walk The Line.  I did too, but seriously, Karen is sooooooooo into it.  For real.  I'm glad about it.  The movie was an exceptional biopic (up there with The Doors and Sid and Nancy).  Plus, Karen says that Reese Witherspoon can totally outsing June Carter, which to some is blasphemous.  To me, it's funny as hell.

4.    Apparently the water in New York City isn't nearly as squeaky-clean as we all claimed it is.  Mmmmm, particles.

5.    Thank god for neverending research with high-as-fuck rats.

That's it for now as far as the temptingly awesome tidbits that I've been dowsing myself with as of late.  The YYYs video breathes new life into my love/hate affair with the patron saints of all-NYC revivalist rock.  I guess I'll be waiting a few more weeks until CMJ comes back around for 1,000 shows in 10 days.  I guess.

Godspeed!

Marketplace mentality

What if we no longer used dollars and cents (pounds, yen, etc.) as the currency that drives our economies?  Seriously, what if you were given the option to cash in all of your “worldly” possessions in exchange for personality/character qualities?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about recently.  Wouldn’t it be fucking awesome times two to really carry value in traits like honesty, integrity, loyalty, perseverance, etc?  Need a new home?  Make sure you have enough responsibility to afford it.  Looking for the perfect mate?  Make sure that she/he cares about how much morality and self-assurance you have.  Release yourself from everything concrete that you own, and commit yourself to the abstracts you’ve spent all of your years on this planet resting your bottom on.

Interesting, huh?

Wouldn’t it be nice if “poverty” was defined not as “the state of being without, often associated with need, hardship and lack of resources across a wide range of circumstances” and instead was relative to a person’s values, morals or ethics, or better yet, their lack thereof?  How would if make you feel if you needn’t the money (paper currency) to make you happy?  What if you could feel happy knowing that you have the personality traits that this new culture deemed as fit for a rich man/woman?  What if someone told you that if you weren't self-confident, self-assured or self-responsible, you really WOULDN'T get anything in life.  No home.  No car.  No job.  No support system (girl/boyfriend, friends, etc.).  How would it make you feel if the only way to buy groceries or a new TV would be to validate your own sense of integrity?

For me, (not because I’m NOT rich) it’s much better as a human being to be worth more in your head and heart than to be worth much in the pocket.  Meanwhile, our culture seems only to value the thoughts/feelings/goals of those that HAVE THE MEANS to speak to the community about them.  Bush.  Cheney.  Blair.  Bono.  Fucking Bono! These people aren’t humble, loyal, OR honest.  They’re especially not honest.

How about the people you come in contact with on the streets/subway/highway/buses/bars/clubs/libraries/etc.?  What if you couldn’t tell by their business suits or raggedy jeans if they were rich as shit?  If the culture changed to view personal traits as currency, I’d want to surround myself with anyone (regardless of dress code) with compassion, loyalty and dependability.  I do that now (the lovely girlfriend Karen and the staff of The Culture of Me.com, for instance), but it’d be more important to all of us if each person knew that the other valued their character and not just who would pick up the bar tab.  Lord knows it wouldn’t be me.

I have a feeling that I might lose a few of you on the next part of this post.  I think that, along with the shift in currency markers, every human being should be required to tattoo ONE word that signifies them on the palm-side of their right wrist.

That way, when you first meet someone and subsequently shake his/her hand, you can really get a look at that one word.  Say you meet someone new.  Like, John-on-the-street.  You shake his hand and turn it over to reveal the word “loyal”.  You can then decide if he’s worthy to accompany you on other occasions.

Ah, I can smell some of you saying “But what if John-on-the-street is a liar?  What if he’s disloyal, a cheater or even worse, he should have had the word ‘murderous’ tattooed on his wrist rather than ‘loyal’?”

True.  All of this does create a problem, and I haven’t figured out that solution yet.  Have a suggestion?  Tell me more.  But for now, I’ll stick the original plan of valuing someone’s true character triumphs/flaws (yes, even those are important too).

For me, I’ve lied, cheated, stolen.  You name the sin.  I’ve committed it.  But my word is “HUMILITY”.  In fact, most of my life can be filed under that term.  Looks like my tattoo is waiting for me to sit in the chair.

What about you?  What’s your word?  And, would you be willing to chance all of your relationships, past, present AND most important, future, on someone else’s defining term?

Godspeed!

Indie-pendence

Hey gang,

Happy July 4th (unless you're British, in which case, happy Tuesday)!  Stoked to still be here for another day, the folks at The Culture of Me just wanted to take the opportunity to wish all well for a safe and not-so-somber holiday.  So, don't be stupid and lose a finger or four or whatever.  And don't light your neighbors yards on fire (I've seen it happen, it's not pretty).

P.S. - The lovely girlfriend Karen shaved my head today.

Godspeed!

Thousands of days away

I’m going to go out on a limb here (first cliché down already?) and say something that will probably make a few readers throw up their hands in revolution, until of course they realize that they need one of their hands to scroll down and see where I’m going with this post.  Here goes:

The year 1996 will go down as one of the top 5 years in popular music history as we know it (at least for me, that is).

There.  I said it.  I went there and I’m not going to delete that line.  If you read a post I did a long time ago (read: maybe 6 weeks?), you’ll know that I’m prone to nostalgia in a certain way.  Not in the high school yearbook or looking up old friends on MySpace, but in the “where did we all go wrong” kind of way.  Those of us in my age range (I’m 24, but anyone between 24 and 28) can remember 1996 vividly.

For me, it was HUGE.  Kurt was dead and I was living in a vicarious life of knowing a lot more about Nirvana than I did when he shot himself that April afternoon.  I wasn’t alive for the Stones, the Beatles, Zeppelin, Elvis, Johnny Cash, the Pistols, really good Bruce Springsteen, 80s hair metal, Pink Floyd, Joplin, Hendrix, etc., so I had my own set of idol based pedestal-worthy icons.  See below for more on them.

And I mean that in not so much a harmful way of saying that I wish that music and POP history could be like 1996 every year.  Okay.  So I was only 14 going on 15 for much of the year, but it was as formative a year for me as any other (please don’t ask me to explain).

Grunge was dead.  Punk came back, sort of.  Pop music (not my definition of pop music, but “bubblegum” pop music) was dying a naturally slow death, and hip hop was about to leave gangstas behind for the time being.  Oh, and MTV still sucked, and they took notice.  MTV2 happened, because God forbid they’d play music on the main channel.  Fuck you David Sirulnick.

Here now if a list of the other surprisingly insane/awesome happenings in the year of the Rat:

Historically important dates:

January 18 - Lisa Marie Presley files for divorce from Michael Jackson.
January 29 - KISS reveals to the world that they are reunited with original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss with a surprise appearance on the American Music Awards.
February 20 - Snoop Doggy Dogg and his bodyguard are acquitted of first-degree murder. The jury deadlocks on voluntary manslaughter charges and a mistrial is declared.
March 13 - Ramones fans riot in Buenos Aires, Argentina after waiting all night for concert tickets only to find out that the show had been sold out.
April 3 - M.C. Hammer files for bankruptcy.
May 8 - In Los Angeles, California, a judge rules against Tommy Lee and wife actress Pamela Anderson Lee in their attempt to keep Penthouse magazine from publishing still photos taken from an X-rated home movie which was stolen from their home.
May 25 - Brad Nowell lead singer of the band Sublime is found dead of a heroin overdose in his San Francisco motel room.
September 13 - Tupac Shakur dies in a hospital after his wounds from the Las Vegas, Nevada MGM Grand shooting.

Other events of notice:

Slash leaves Guns N' Roses.
Jay-Z's musical career begins.
Singer Tori Amos is sued when a man crashes his car after being distracted by a billboard advertising her album; the billboard featured a photo of Amos breastfeeding a piglet.
David Bowie's single "Telling Lies" becomes the first song offered as a free digital download by a major record label (Virgin Records).
Jawbreaker split.
The Pogues disband.
Heavenly disband after the suicide of drummer/songwriter Matthew Fletcher.
Lush disband after the suicide of drummer Chris Acland.
The Stone Roses split.

And what about the records that came out?:

Boys for Pele - Tori Amos (sad girls everywhere rejoice!)
Richard D. James Album - Aphex Twin
Tidal - Fiona Apple (sad girls everywhere rejoice!, part 2)
1977 - Ash
Beats, Rhymes and Life - A Tribe Called Quest
The Gray Race - Bad Religion
Odelay - Beck
If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle & Sebastian
Tigermilk - Belle & Sebastian
Three Snakes & One Charm - The Black Crowes
Nico - Blind Melon
Razorblade Suitcase – Bush (sucked!)
Fashion Nugget - Cake
Testing Positive - George Clinton
Milk & Kisses - Cocteau Twins
Wild Mood Swings - The Cure
Crash - Dave Matthews Band (James says “Thanks!”)
Endtroducing... - DJ Shadow
Face to Face - Face to Face
Better Living Through Chemistry - Fatboy Slim.
Teri Yakimoto - Guttermouth
Paradise in Me - K's Choice
KRS-One - KRS-One
As Good as Dead - Local H
Louder Than Hell - Manowar
Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson
Load – Metallica (they cut their fucking hair, right!)
High/Low - Nada Surf (remember that song “Popular”??)
Murder Ballads - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle - The Olivia Tremor Control
ATLiens - Outkast
The Great Southern Trendkill - Pantera
No Code - Pearl Jam
Emancipation - Prince (3-disc box set)
Republica - Republica
Evil Empire - Rage Against the Machine
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - R.E.M.
Illadelph Halflife - The Roots
K - Kula Shaker
Call the Doctor - Sleater-Kinney (I’m tearing up thinking about them disbanding this year)
Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps
Tha Doggfather - Snoop Dogg
White Light, White Heat, White Trash - Social Distortion
Irresistible Bliss - Soul Coughing
Down on the Upside – Soundgarden
Resident Alien - Spacehog
Spice - Spice Girls (proving that I can stay impartial about important pop music events)
Wax Ecstatic - Sponge
Emperor Tomato Ketchup – Stereolab (Hooray!)
Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - Stone Temple Pilots
Sublime – Sublime
Factory Showroom - They Might Be Giants
311 - 311
Ænima – Tool
Millions Now Living Will Never Die – Tortoise (remember “post rock”?)
All Eyez on Me - 2Pac
Garibaldi Guard! - US Bombs
Rock!!!!! - Violent Femmes
Bringing Down The Horse - The Wallflowers
Pinkerton – Weezer (but Rivers is still a fucking asshole)
Bad Hair Day - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Oh, and did I mention that 1996 was a leap year?  So, to all of those who are leap babies…fuck you!  Anyways, I’d go more in depth with more events that made 1996 fucking crazy sick awesome, but I feel like those four adjectives did enough good.

In case any of you were wondering why I referenced 1996 as “one of the top five years in popular music history as we know it”, here are the other four years (to be written about in future posts): 1977, 1954, 1964 and 1991.

Godspeed!