You don't look like I look back

A funny thing happened on the way to The Duke Spirit show on Tuesday....

Dirk and I could not find the Bowery Ballroom. Ok, so yeah you're going to find out that I'm not the downtown LESider you thought I was. Ok, you probably didn't think that, but as many times as I've been to Mercury Lounge, you'd think that I'd have no problem finding Bowery. I mean, they ARE in the same neighborhood. I partially blame hopstop, and the man that we stopped to ask for directions at the liquor store. But I thank the nice couple that told us we had to walk back towards the bridge. And of course Liela.

So here's the deal. I'd never seen a show at Bowery Ballroom before. Dirk had only been there once. We were pretty certain that we'd passed it somehow (even though we were being all eagle eyed with the lookout for Delancey). But we were walking and walking and didn't see it. So, after too much walking, I decided to ask this nice couple which way Delancey was. They told us to go back where we came from so we started walking. And walking. And walking some more. I decided to try looking it up on my Blackberry again, and saw out of the corner of my eye as two people walked by. Dirk said, "Hey I think that was Liela." I said, "huh?", stopped, and looked back. And sure enough it was Liela. She must've heard him say her name, because she looked back in our direction. So did Luke (who plays guitar) who was walking with her. So I said to Dirk, "Maybe we should just ask her where the Bowery Ballroom is," so I did. By this time, her and Luke had walked a pretty good ways, but that didn't stop me from yelling "LIIIIIIIIEEEEEELLLLAAAAAAAAA" down Bowery. She turned around and stopped and I started running towards her and she started coming towards me. Sometimes I can be really outgoing.

So first off, Liela Moss is totally the sweetest person ever. I'd met her and Toby back in February at the Union Hall show where she was super nice and remembered that Dirk and I were at the show the night before at Mercury Lounge (you know how I love that stuff.) Anyway, she had the best smile on her face and I asked her where the Bowery Ballroom was. Isn't it awesome when you can ask a person from London where something in New York is and they know!?! She said, "Oh it's actually really close by, just another block over," and I was grateful to know that we were close. Oh yeah, and it didn't suck getting to talk to the lead singer of one of my favorite bands again either. We thanked her and she and Luke went back the way they were going, and we headed towards Delancey. And of course, we saw the street sign clear as day starring at us when we reached our destination. How could we have missed it? Who knows.

Don't know what time it was, but by the time we went inside, Chief were already on stage. I'd read about them Paper magazine (the beautiful people issue with Joanna Newsome on the cover) so I was like, "Oh yeah! Those guys." The crowd was definitely loving them, and they played a really good set. They had a laid back, folk groove to them. Great harmonies too. The Pierces were next and Catherine and Allison did not disappoint. Their vocals were haunting and confident, but very sweet. I'd only heard one of their songs before, but was impressed with their set. I especially enjoyed the song, "Boring," and think it sounded even better live than on record, which is always nice. And of course it was cool to see that Russell Simins, who plays drums for Tiny Masters of Today, was playing with them.

The room was pretty packed when The Duke Spirit took to the stage. They walked out to "I Do Believe" which is a 43 second track that opens their new album, Neptune. Then they launched into "Send A Little Love Token" and proceeded to unleash all of their awesomeness on a very appreciative and excited crowd.


Even though I've only been listening to The Duke Spirit for about 3 years, I'm certain that Liela Moss will go down as one of my favorite lead singers, male or female. When she's on stage, you cannot keep your eyes off of her. She's mesmerizing to watch. Besides the gem that is that fantastic smokey voice of hers, she moves pretty much non stop, banging her tambourine and dancing, her blonde hair flying. And even though she wasn't wearing her signature feather, her outfit (a shiny gold sleeveless top, with leggings and black boots) looked great.

But of course, The Duke Spirit wouldn't be the Duke Spirit without those four awesome guys that Liela performs with every night. Toby, Luke, Dan and Olly are all incredible musicians and we're all fortunate that this group of people found one another and decided to play music together. Olly is an animal behind the drums and I love the back and forth between Toby, Luke, and Dan.


The band played mostly new stuff including "This Ship Was Built to Last" (which is the most EPIC song I've heard in quite some time), "Sunken Treasure," "Into The Fold" (which Liela said is "about conviction"), "Sovereign," "Neptune," "The Step and The Walk" (which had the best Liela dancing and tambourine banging of the set in my opinion), and "Dog Roses." They also played oldies like "Red Weather," "Lion Rip" (which I hadn't heard live before, but sounded amazing), and "Love is An Unfamiliar Name." The best was when they did their very last song in the encore, which couldn't have been anything other than "Cuts Across The Land." It was perfect and got every old Duke fan in the house crazy with excitement when they started playing it. I truly love this band and I know that 2008 will be a great year for them.

If you've yet to pick up Neptune, please go to your local music retailer and get it ASAP. You can even get it on iTunes (which is what I did back in February). Every song is fantastic. Feel free to get your own tambourine and bang it along with Liela. Although stay away from the harmonica, 'cause she's got that shit down.

I took loads of pictures but the one at the beginning of the post is probably my favorite. See the rest on flickr.

You were right from the start

Would you believe that I missed Jaymay on Conan last night! I totally set my alarm and everything so that I could wake up in time. But still, I missed it. Must've slept through the damn thing. Anywho, it's ok because I was able to watch the whole thing on nbc's site here. So if you haven't seen it, check it out. She played "Gray or Blue" and it was great! I'm hoping that I can make it out to her Mercury Lounge show next week even though I have a baby shower to go to that night. But we'll see.


Jaymay's new CD, Autumn Fallin' came out today in the US and I picked up a copy at the Virgin Megastore in Union Sqaure this afternoon. I also picked up MGMT and asked the lady at the checkout counter how long this $10 sale was going to last. And to my surprise she said that it's an ongoing thing, just with different releases every now and then. Mr. Branson, how can you afford to do that? So cool! I'd never been in there before so I had no clue, but I must say that's pretty effing awesome and I'll be visitng the store often.

I didn't make it out to the Lightspeed Champion show on Saturday night in Brooklyn (did anyone else get caught in that never ending rain storm?) but I'm sure Dev was great.

I guess all the cool kids are in Austin for SXSW this week. I hope to go one of these years. At least we can be pretty sure that everyone playing the festival will at some point come through New York, so I'm sure I'll have a chance to catch all of the next big things later on

I hardly saw any episodes of Project Runway this season, but caught enough to know that Christian was probably the one to beat. And I'm glad to see that he won. I'm even more glad that SNL decided to do a skit on him because it is hilarious. You can watch the video below.

It's totally Conan!

For those of you who do not know, the wonderfully talented Jaymay will perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Monday, March 10th. No idea what song shes doing, but that doesn't even matter! This is totally going to be her year. She's already been in both Nylon and Paste magazines and once she plays SXSW next week, it's a done deal. She's going to be huge. ABC, I hope to hear "Ill Willed" person on Gray's Anatomy at some point in the next couple of months.

Jaymay's CD, Autumn Fallin, comes out here in the states Tuesday, March 11th. You better go get it. For details on her SXSW shows, visit her MySpace blog. And if you're like me and not lucky enough to go to SXSW this year, you can still catch her at Mercury Lounge Wednesday, March 19th.

I feel better now I've seen you

It seems like I have less and less time every day for blogging, but I figure at the very least, I can try to write short little recaps of shows I go to. Now that can't take too much time right?

Last night Georgia, Dirk and I saw Lightspeed Champion at Mercury Lounge. I had been looking forward to this show for some time and Dev did not disappoint. But first...

The opening band was Hey Hey My My all the way from Paris. Check out some songs here. Don't worry, they sing in English. I really enjoyed their set, especially when what seemed like quiet songs at first would explode and be rocked out towards the end. I particularly enjoyed the "get along, get along" song, and regret not singing along when the lead singer invited the crowd to join in.

During said performance, Dirk went to get a drink and spotted Dev in the crowd. He told him that I was a big fan and was standing up front so that I'd have a good spot for Lightspeed's set. That's true. He also told Dev that I was too nervous to go up and say hi. Dev, that's totally not true. And as a matter of fact, after Lightspeed's set, Georgia and I crowded around with some others and waited to say a quick hello. But I'm jumping ahead.

Once Hey Hey My My finished their set, everyone moved up to get a closer spot for Lightspeed. I've decided that it's so silly to stand in the middle of the floor when you know you really want to be right up front. Don't wait for other people to go right up front. If you want to be in the front, dammit go up there and stand by the speakers and be proud of the fact that you're such a big dork. It didn't bother me in the slightest.


Dev received a warm and generous round of applause when he took the stage. Only other person on stage with him was Mike Sidell playing violin. Dev seemed genuinely humbled and happy to have a sold out crowd there to see him perform. He said that he was nervous, but I couldn't really tell, he did such a fantastic job. He played "Galaxy of the Lost," "No Surprise" (a song he wrote for his mother), "Dry Lips," "Tell Me What It's Worth," "Midnight Surprise" and "Everyone I Know Is Listening to Crunk." He made the crowd laugh after every song and seemed to be having a great time. He also did a cover of the Strokes' song "Heart in a Cage" which sounded brilliant. After "Dry Lips," he said that he only had one song left, and everyone made that sad booing sound. But he actually had two left (I guess he always forgets about "Tell Me What It's Worth"). And while "Midnight Surprise" was meant to be the last song, cheers and yells from the audience brought Dev back on stage to play one more. After several suggestions were shouted from the crowd (my vote was for Waiting Game) Dev and Mike settled on "Xanadu!" I LOVE Lightspeed's version of this song, and myself and a few others really enjoyed singing "Ju Ju Bug. Xanadu!"

After the final song, the club tried to hurry everyone out so that they could get ready for the night's next show. Georgia and I were able to say a quick hello to Dev before being ushered out. All in all, Lightspeed made a fantastic return to the big city and a good time was had by all.

On the train ride home, we saw John Waters in the next car and got super excited. I really wanted to tell him how much I love Cry Baby, Hairspray and A Dirty Shame, but I'm sure he gets that all the time. Ok, well maybe not so much for A Dirty Shame 'cause I don't think that many people have seen it, but definitely for the other two.

I'm about 75% sure that I'll attend the Union Pool show on Saturday. I've never been to Union Hall, and you know how I love going to "new" venues! If I go, maybe I'll get to hear Waiting Game.

For more pictures, go here. Oh and just so you know, I'm still trying to figure out how to maneuver all of the 8 million different functions on my camera, so don't expect expert pics or anything. I just do what I can.

It never seemed so strange

I went to the Decemberists show in Central Park on Monday. Georgia, Dorothy, Warren, Joe and I all headed down to the park after work. Joe had to wait for his girlfriend outside the gate, so the rest of us went in without him. It was really hot, but I had my trusty bottle of Smart water to keep me cool. The first band was Land of Talk. I'm SO mad at myself for never having heard of this band before, especially since bloggers were talking about them last year. Where the hell was I? They were so awesome, and have an AWESOME frontwoman/guitarist in Lizzie Powell. They're playing the Bowery in September, and I hope I can go. One reviewer described them as Pretty Girls Make Graves at their peak, although I wouldn't say all that. But I can hear similarities.

Grizzly Bear were next, and I was really impressed with them. The song I'd heard of theirs that made me not want to listen to them didn't do them justice. They were actually really great live. After their set, I told everyone goodbye, and headed to the outskirts of the crowd. I knew I'd have to leave before the Decemberists finished their set (didn't want to go back home too late on the train) so I decided to get out of the middle while I still could. As I was standing around waiting for the Decemberists, I saw John Norris from MTV sitting on the grass. I stared for a little bit as is customary, and then turned back around to the stage. Georgia told me today that he's a big Decemberists fan and was also at their Hammerstein show.

The band went on somewhere around 8:15 I think. The weather was perfect, and they opened up with "July July." I didn't realize how absolutely funny and nice Colin Meloy is. What a great frontman. When he saw someone holding a sign with the name of a song they wanted the band to play, Colin said, "Duley noted. We'll try to get to it, so you don't have to hold up that sign for the rest of the show." He had everyone waving their hands and fingers in the air, and Georgia said that towards the end of their show, he had everyone lie down on the ground. I wish I could've seen that! I only stayed for about 6 more songs, including "The Perfect Crime # 2" and "Summersong," but what I heard was great. I'd definitely see them again.

You Aint Worth Guest List

On Tuesday night, I saw Patrick Wolf and Amy Winehouse at Highline Ballroom in Chelsea. It was pretty phenominal. I hadn't heard much of Patrick Wolf before the show, but he played such an incredible set that the next morning I ran out and picked up his record The Magic Position before work. And it's amazing. I'm totally lame for not getting that record before. Patrick, you are amazing. Not only is he a talented singer and storyteller, but he's a fantastic performer.


And as far as Ms. Winehouse. Well what can I say? The woman is a goddess. Her voice is almost unearthly. I mean, really, who sings like that anymore? She went on around 9:30 and opended up with "Addicted," which is a song that I'm pretty obsessed with at the moment. She also played "F*** Me Pumps," "Cherry," "Wake Up Alone," "He Can Only Hold Her," "Tears Dry On Their Own," "Valerie," "Love Is A Losing Game," and "Back to Black." She "closed" with "Rehab" and encored with "Me & Mr. Jones" and "You Know I'm No Good." Her band is full and rich and wonderful, and her backup singers are soulful and can harmonize so well. She made a couple of jokes and twirled her hair and was a pleasure to be entertained by. I'd see her again in a heartbeat. To see more pictures from the show, click on the picture below.


And can I just say that as I'm writing this right now, they're playing "Wake Up Alone" on Gray's Anatomy. Radness.

There was a huge picture of Amy on the front page of the Arts section of the NY Times, and Georgia brought it in for me, so that I could add it to my "Amy Winehouse Picture Collection" in my cube. Whenever she's see anything in a paper or magazine that is Amy Winehouse related, she gives it to me, and I put it up. I can't wait until it gets all full.