Somewhere I hope Jimmy Kimmel is kicking himself for letting her get away. -- SK


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

That's the Baroness taken by her mommy, wonderful photog and doggy enthusiast Emily Shur. Add that to your "cuteness" folder.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/09/17/must-watch-charlie-kaufmans-synecdoche-new-york-trailer/

This past Tuesday, Green Label Sound put together a swell party a (le) poisson rouge. For those not in the know, Green Label Sound is spearheaded by Mountain Dew and has recently launched a “singles only” music label to support emerging artists from a diverse array of genres.

Anyway, I got there early per a buddy's suggestion after he informed me that the RSVP list was almost at the 3,000 mark. Impressive! Aside from the great lineup, there was a full open bar - and we all know that nothing gets those jaded Downtowners queuing up like free booze (yours truly included). Cool Kids were awesome, as were Matt and Kim. My pristine white shoes ended up trashed after moshing but it's Matt and Kim's fault! How could anyone just stand there? I dare ya! I ended up missing Flosstradamus because my friends wanted to hit up Corner Bistro. I haven't eaten meat in a long time but I decided, "What the hell!" and ordered a bacon burger. It fell apart and I just ended up poking at it and eating the bacon. It was still delicious though. End of story. -- SK

Saturday at 1o PM. Dean & Britta will play the last show of their residency at The Zipper Factory (336 W. 36th St.) in NYC.

My cousin had a baby recently. Last Sunday, we walked around the city taking photos of her kid and shooting some video. I thought I did a bang up job on this one-so I figured I'd share. Enjoy.

At this point, Bruce Willis has proved himself to be the ultimate badass. Sure, Sean Connery probably has a bigger dick. But can Sean do this: 

I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite authors, David Foster Wallace, was found dead at his Claremont, California home this past Friday. He commited suicide at the age of 46. This is very sad news. Infinite Jest is a terribly important book for many people in my generation. In fact, Hal Incandenza (arguably the protagonist of the sprawling, 1,079-page novel) is a character that I still to this day ruminate upon, despite the fact that I read the book almost 8 years ago. The literary world has lost one of its greatest talents. - SK

We think Adam Kurland and Panoptic's video for Dr. Dog is insanely gorgeous, and so does Kanye West!


Dr. Dog "The Ark" from Panoptic on Vimeo.

Go to this site: http://engrishfunny.com

You will not regret it. Promise.


more the engrish!

This is gonna be the bomb! --SK

So this is a bit late coming (as are all of my post-party blogs, actually), but a few Fridays ago bluhammock Music held a swanky party in the Hamptons. It's not often that us, um, let's say "dirty music nerds" get to go to the Hamptons. I mean, let's face it, over here at D+T our idea of chic is a new pair of jeans and some PF Flyers (yeah, you know who you are).

Anyhoot, we left work early to catch a bus that our friends over at Cornerstone Promotion were kind enough to provide. The 4 hour drive made me question why people bother going to the Hamptons in the first place, but it also got us pretty toasty since there was Balvenie Single Malt Scotch for everyone. D+T held it down the entire time in the very back of the bus like the crazy recluses that we are.

We arrived at a lovely estate around 8:00 and immediately challenged each other to see who could get kicked out first (answer: none of us, because we are classy and sophisticated!). The party itself was created by bluhammock in an effort to further showcase its appreciation for live music, and to continue to position music at the foreground of very upscale Hamptons events. Afterall, music should be fancy every once in a while, no?

The Break and Repair Method, a band fronted By Paul Doucette, (guitarist of Matchbox Twenty) performed and they were actually decent. Of course, getting us good and liquored up definitely helped. So, long story short: Thank you, bluhammock, for giving us indie rock shlobs an excuse to party in style! --SK

WESC are hosting an event at the midtown Bloomingdale's in New York City on Thursday September 18th. The Stockholm-based clothing company will announce their fall/winter line at the show and will be gifting five hundred limited edition headphones as well as other goodies. The invite is below, RSVP to rsvpnyc@wesc.com to attend.

Sonic Youth, arguably pop music's best-loved art-rock band, have signed to NYC-based label, Matador Records. The band recently completed their recording obligations with the Universal Music Group. Their last album for UMG, Rather Ripped, was awesome, replete with memorable hooks and explosive jams.

Sonic Youth formed in New York City in 1981 when guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo started jamming with bassist and vocalist, Kim Gordon. They became a cult favorite during the nineties, lauded by such acts as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Mainstream success eluded Sonic Youth, much like their punk rock counterpart The Ramones, but the band accepted their role as influential artists, becoming a bit like elder statesman in the burgeoning alternative scene.

Twenty-seven years after forming, Sonic Youth will begin working on their Matador debut this autumn, which will be something like their 22nd release. Hopefully it'll be particularly inspired. - SB

Yellowtail, the Australian brand of wine developed in 2000 and brought to American shores three years later, produced a fairly tasty, albeit budget, Shiraz in 2006. I must have had twenty, thirty, maybe even forty bottles of it last year. To the head. It's $7.99 at my local alcohol center, Skyview Liquor, which is run by a quixotic Jewish man who always has wine tasting that no one comes to despite my area being chock full of recidivistic alcoholics and single moms.

Before he revolutionized indie-film making with Kids, Harmony Korine was just your everyday, drug-addled, mixed-up teen living in New York City. During the period, he produced several zines with no set title or mission. Drag City will release Harmony Korine's Collected Fanzines on November 18th. He may even do some readings here and there to promote the release.

Death+Taxes had the pleasure of interviewing Harmony Korine this past spring when he was promoting his most recent film, Mister Lonely.
You can read the interview HERE. Below is a statement from Korine regarding the release of Collected Fanzines.

"Going back ten year...it's so hard to remember, I was always tripping and falling over myself. These zines were written over the last fifteen years, mostly in dark rooms and the basements of old people.

With names like Adulthood, Foster Home and Gardens, Pocohontas Monthly, Humer, and others, they were sold in limited editions out of the Alleged Gallery and Andrea Rosen Gallery. Some were sold on street corners and given away to the tramp sects that were so prominent during that time period. Scraps of paper and half thoughts in the guise of art objects, you see.

Not many people actually got a chance to have these but the ones who are still amongst the living have greatly benefited. I know one lady in Panama who has the complete set, her family has stopped referring to her as a gimp now, now they call her Sue. They were never meant to be collectible--just low-concept laugh-inducing juxtapositions of words and images, images and images, lists, monologues, cartoons, free verse, jokes, half-thoughts, fake/real interviews, innuendo and Matt Dillon's phone number.

If you sold them on eBay for a bunch of money, I want my cut. Or if you bought them then please spare a percentage to the dyke army and the flame militia, its a good charity and it's ribbon buttons are invisible. Some of them read like letters from prison. I know these were popular in some prisons but I'm not sure why."

- Harmony Korine, 2008

Vincent Gallo's spontaneous music project, RRIICCEE, will be heading out on a national tour at the end of September. They will not be promoting an album because they don't have one. However, they will probably be selling $260 t-shirts and jeans. If not, you can buy that HERE. This will be RRIICCEE's second national tour. The first took place in December of 2007, and was sold out. The new tour dates are listed below.

RRIICCEE NORTH AMERICA 2008
September 24th New York, NY Hiro Ballroom
September 25th Buffalo, NY Soundlab
September 26th Pittsburgh, PA Garfield Artworks
September 27th Pontiac, MI The Crofoot Ballroom
September 28th Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
September 29th Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall
September 30th St. Paul, MN Turf Club
October 3rd Portland, OR Mission Theater
October 5th Santa Barbara, CA SOHO

Following a brief flirtation with the Belmont Street Fair and Old Town's Saturday Market, we (okay, I) had a massive lunch at another historic seafood bar/restaurant. This time it was Dan & Louis' Oyster Bar & Museum, which yielded smoked salmon chowder and the "house speciality" cioppino, a tomato-based featuring crabs, mussels, clams, halibut, cod, prawns, and calamari (i.e. the entire ocean). I helped it down with Roots Organic IPA and later had two respectable greyhounds (that's vodka and grapefruit juice) with grade-school pals at Ringlers Annex, one of many McMenamins outposts around Portland.

But on to the music. We hit Crystal Ballroom (the site of my spiritual de-pantsing Thursday night) to catch Mimicking Birds (right), a quiet Portland act signed to Isaac "Modest Mouse" Brock's vanity label Glacial Pace. Drowsily dwelling somewhere between Band of Horses, Iron & Wine, and M. Ward, the trio used brushed drums and longwinded jams to dreamy effect but were somewhat wallpaper-y.

Fellow locals Blitzen Trapper then previewed tunes from their new album Furr, out later this month. The wooly six-piece began with shambling psych, segued into a sort of classic rock gone gonzo, and gradually stepped up their country side for a shaggy-dog, foggy-mountain indie rock all their own. With that said, the new album's title track is a harmonica-soaked folk song very much indebted to Bob Dylan. Meanwhile, the title track of their previous album, the genre-hopping breakthrough Wild Mountain Nation, was sloppy and spare compared to the LP version but still awfully grabby.

Another Sub Pop-signed Pacific Northwest act, Seattle's Fleet Foxes, opened with an a capella tune that hushed the massive crowd completely. Leader Robin Pecknold said he usually doesn't stand to play and sing, explaining his awkward posture. But the band didn't slouch delivering its ringing, choral folk-rock, with highlights including "Sun Giant" and the especially quivering "White Winter Hymnal." And towards the end, the other four guys left Pecknold alone on stage to finish out the set.

By then, though, we were on our way to Voodoo Doughnut, the 24-hour PDX cult classic where I procured the infamous maple donut with bacon on top, which tasted wonderfully like breakfast and not hideous at all. Then we hit Ash Street Saloon for Pierced Arrows, the grizzled Portland garage band that sprang from the unfortunate ashes of the two-decade institution Dead Moon (subject of a documentary film available on Netflix, btw). Knocking out distorted and sweaty punk songs, the trio's long, wild hair spoke of another era of rock.

Nearby Dante's then yielded Supernova, a ridiculous and ridiculously catchy pop-punk trio that cheekily goaded the crowd between brief, propulsive anthems. Between shiny suits and tin foil coating the guitar and drums, the guys were goofy even before delivering "Chewbacca (What A Wookie!)," their standout song used in the background of Clerks.

Then came a reunited Polvo at Berbati's, just a block away from the previous two venues. As expected, many aging white dudes gyrated and bobbed to every weird twist and turn, and honestly, it was hard to resist the genre-defying (or is that -defining?) might of the North Carolina quartet's cooly magical and totally alien music, which is surprisingly melodic.

Back at Dante's and now after midnight, Sub Pop/Merge vets Seaweed (left, also freshly reunited) thrilled a loyal crowd with their solid pop-punk (or post-hardcore?) anthem-making. For the second song, there was an instant sea of dancing, which greatly pleased still-charismatic singer Aaron Stauffer.

To wrap the night -- and the festival -- we wound up back at Ash Street Saloon for a 1am set by Flipper (below right), the insane '80s punk/noise outfit that these days features Nirvana's Krist Novoselic on bass. Their discordant screeching and "singer" Bruce Loose's lizard-like, in-your-face imp-isms were a little wearying after a long night, but it still felt like a rare opportunity to be in the same room with several music legends at once.

And with that, MusicFest NW came to a fulfilling close. As a member of Polvo said earlier in the night to the people of Portland: "You guys have a lovely city." He forgot to mention that they also have a lovely music festival. Or maybe it was just obvious.

You'll all be glad to hear that Friday went much better for us, festival-wise, than the previous two days. After a hungover breakfast at Pine State Biscuits and a massive seafood lunch at the historic Jake's Famous Crawfish, with some decompressing and a shopping stop at Flora in between, we caught a bus to Rontoms for a jag of early-evening sets. We were able to catch six bands between 5 and 8pm, thanks to two stages -- part of a showcase for thriving local label Bladen County -- in the large, lovely outside space behind the bar (which itself is memorably decked out in vintage furnishings).

Blue Horns (left) were first and wound up my favorite of the batch. Armed with a jittery jangle that's equal parts '50s rock 'n' roll and '80s college rock, the band is completed by frontman Brian Park's very distinctive voice, a quivering gasp-for-air yelp that somehow recalls Corin effin' Tucker. Being first and playing outside, their energy was somewhat wasted on the crowd, but I'd love to see them play late-night in a small, crowded bar. Team Evil, an Oregon-grown collective / supergroup, were also quite good, plying sleepily experimental pop that recalled Broken Social Scene's mellower moments and maybe Tortoise with dreamy vocals (wait, does that make the Sea & Cake?).

Not be confused with Langhorne Slim, who's also playing the festival, Dakota Slim tapped a messy, emotionally raw vein of indie-folk-rock that didn't need tapping. Their set was dark, dirty, and deeply cliched. The Skinnyz were even worse, starting with ineffectual hipster garage-rock before massacring another genre (including this city's much-loved reggae) with every song. It didn't help that every song included a wide swath of Guns 'N' Roses-inspired guitar cheese. "These guys are a colossal yawn," wrote my wife in my notepad, later adding, "They keep getting worse!"

Invisible Rockets (right) improved our mood from there, though the first half of their set was too harmless and low-energy for our liking. Their bittersweet, guitar-strong Americana wasn't so far removed from Ladyhawk and Silkworm, and the occasional harmonies must be why they get compared to Dr. Dog. Little Pieces (ex-Sunset Valley) were better but still awfully mellow until about halfway through their set, digging deep into dreamy, crunchy, psych-stained guitar-pop, with tinges of surf and rockabilly creeping in towards the end.

From there we got sidetracked at a street fair (there were Native American-made bison tacos, fire-flirting hula hoopers, and pretty bad jazz-jam fusion) and missed Micah Blue Smaldone at the lovely Doug Fir, a sort of retro ski lodge.

But we made it to the all-ages half of Satyricon to catch the final few songs of Portland's buzz-building Eat Skull, whose white-noise-y shitgaze horror-punk was super loud and at times not unlike the Clean's early singles. Then came Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death (left), the latest venture from Spencer Moody (of Murder City Devils, Dead Low Tide, and Smoke And Smoke fame). The band's doomy dirges were fleshed out by Spencer's trademark singing -- still a soulful, cathartic howl that fills the room -- but the players' instrument-switching and heady experimentation made for a finished product more lush, atmospheric, and syrupy than Moody's past bands. They even closed with a duet between Spencer and the drummer, who just happened to be Pretty Girls Make Graves' Andrea Zollo. (Damn.) It's worth noting that with all the excited talk about the festival's aborted Murder City Devils reunion, TOLSATD played to a small room at just half-capacity or so. That's a shame.

Zipping over to Dante's, we caught the last song of Colour Revolt, a band I downright loathe on record but found pretty respectable live. We stayed for These Arms Are Snakes but were quite instantly made weary by the singer's manic, showy strutting and exuberant freaking out. It was a lot more smugness that we had the energy to absorb (or deflect).

Exhausted and with my wife literally falling asleep on her feet, we managed to get to the Roseland Theater to see a little act called TV On The Radio, who were all caged energy and spacey, soulful genre-melding. Highlights included several tracks from this month's upcoming Dear Science as well as a stirring delivery of "Province," a fiery and propulsive take on "Wolf Like Me," and a slow, stripped-down version of "Dirty Whirlwind," all from the band's insanely great previous album, Return to Cookie Mountain. It being the West Coast, fans were doing shitty hippie dances like nobody's business, but even that couldn't detract from the greatness of TVOTR's set. What a perfect way to end a packed night of shows.

First things first: Portland is very different from Philadelphia. It's clean, safe, and friendly, and the following items are eerily plentiful: reggae, redheads (seriously; it's creepy), bars, cafes, strip clubs, bike shops, and vintage stores. Hell of a town.

But my wife and I are here for a music festival, though you wouldn't know it from how much we've managed to miss so far, including Mogwai the first night. (Blame jetlag, laziness, or both.) But we did dominate the VIP tent outside Thursday's all-ages, Nike-sponsored, full-capacity No Age / Battles show, drinking things smugly called "TV On The Lemonadio" and "Jedi Mind Trashed." We followed the latter's advice a bit too literally and, thanks to a light lunch and no dinner, we were trashed by the time we made it to the Crystal Ballroom for Calvin Johnson (below at right) and M Ward.

With that said, both were as reliable as ever. Johnson (of Beat Happening, Halo Benders, Dub Narcotic Sound System, and K Records fame, if you didn't know) felt newly comfortable with his froggy baritone, crooning odd love songs like another generation's Jonathan Richman. Ward, fresh off touring as half of She & Him, played to a loving hometown audience with lots of full-band selections from 2006's sterling Post-War and the handful of albums preceding it.

In other news, my wife spilled beer on me (thanks to the 97-year-old venue's spring-loaded "floating dancefloor") and I later returned the favor by tackling her on the sidewalk in front of a very nice police officer. We took that as a sign to head home and are currently being repaid with nasty hangovers. But the show must go on, and we're looking forward to packing a ton of shows into tonight and tomorrow. Stay tuned for another action-packed dispatch in 24 hours or so....

-- Doug Wallen

Fresh off tours with Deerhunter and No Age, High Places are hitting the road again this fall. They rocked at our 4th of July party this summer where they made all sorts of whimsical fantastic sounds and looked cute as gum drops doing it. For those of you unfamiliar with High Places, they are a Brooklyn-based duo on Thrill Jockey through which they have released a fantastic self-titled album as well as a collection of recordings aptly titled 03/07 - 09/07. The tour dates are listed below. - SB




HIGH PLACES ON TOUR
08/30 Los Angeles, CA: The Echo
09/16 Pittsburgh, PA: Brillobox
09/17 Cleveland, OH: Grog Shop
09/18 Grand Rapids, MI: Division Avenue Arts
09/19 Madison, WI: Majestic Theater*
09/20 Champaign-Urbana, IL: Pygmalion Festival

09/21 Rock Island, IL: Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor
09/23 Chicago, IL: AV-aerie
09/24 Minneapolis, MN: Triple Rock
09/25 Grinnell, IA: Gardner Lounge**
09/26 Iowa City, IA: TBA
0927 Denver, CO: Rhinoceropolis
09/29 Salt Lake City, UT: Kilby Court**
09/30 Missoula, MT: The Badlander**
10/02 Seattle, WA: Nectar Lounge**
10/04 Vancouver, BC: Richards on Richards**
10/06 Portland, OR: Backspace**
10/08 San Francisco, CA: Bottom of the Hill**
10/10 Los Angeles, CA: The Smell
10/12 Phoenix, AZ: Modified**
10/15 Austin, TX: Emo's**

* = w/ Dan Deacon
** = w/ Ponytail

In case you missed it...

Smashing Pumpkins will release a song pack, featuring hits from their popular nineties albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness for Guitar Hero: World Tour, which will be released on gaming consoles this fall. As a welcomed twist, they'll be releasing their new single, "G.L.O.W." exclusively for Guitar Hero within the song pack. That's right: brand-new digital music that you actually have to pay for. It had better be good. -SB

Chuck Klosterman's new book, Downtown Owl, is slated for release on September 16th. Klosterman, who authored four works of non-fiction over the past decade and is currently a columnist for Esquire as well as a contributor to ESPN, rose to national prominence after Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs, a collection of essays characterized by Klosterman's witty musings on pop culture, became a bestseller. In Downtown Owl, Klosterman steers off the beaten path and offers his first work of fiction.

The novel follows the lives of three citizens who live in the (obviously) small town of Owl, North Dakota. Klosterman uses the characterizes to divulge his theories on americana, existentialism, rock music, conpsiracy theories, and modern communication. Everyone is insecure. Everyone is consciously or sub-consciously hanted by his or her past. And everyone endures a tragic blizzard. But, in the case of Klosterman, the blizzard is only semi-tragic, naturally. The book is a solid read, and is recommended to all followers of Klosterman's writing. - SB