Top 5 of '05

Do you want the non-mainstream answer to the question "what were the top 5 albums of 2005?" Well, you got it. Go to this website: http://www.looserecord.com/Feature/Feature_Main.php?docid=31

Candikini!

I made the greatest discovery on the internet yesterday. You can buy a candy necklace bra & g-string undies. Amazing!

2005 Concerts :: The Year In Review

I think I am missing some shows in between the first two, but perhaps not. It is damn cold in NYC during the winter and it’s hard to drag myself out of doors sometimes. The following list of shows is what I can remember going to in 2005. I’m sure something is missing. My NYE resolution is to keep better track of the concerts I go to in 2006.

12/31/04 – Wilco/The Flaming Lips/Sleater-Kinney :: Holy Awesome Line-up Batman! I got so drunk the show is a little blurry but I know it was awesome and I know that Wilco’s cover of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” kicked a lot of ass. Plus they dropped balloons and confetti on us at midnight.

3/29/05 – The Black Crowes :: Saw Kate Hudson, she’s cute. The stage set-up was beautiful, the band was solid.

4/19/05 – Garbage :: Shirley Manson is the voice of sex. I’m glad the band is back together.

5/20/05 – The Butchies :: It was their last show together, awwwwwwww. We’ll miss you guys and Kaia looked super-hot.

5/25/05 – Rasputina :: Chicks with cellos. Opening band Contramano, dudes with cellos. Way to rock the cello guys, keep it up.

6/4/05 – The Killers & Louis XIV :: Lots of teeny-boppers but I got in free thanks to my awesome job. Mina also managed to get in with her camera, minus the battery. Thanks Zoom.

6/9 – 6/12/05 – Bonnaroo :: 4 days of crazy bands, hippies dancing, people smoking and tripping, no showers and torrential rain pour. What more can you ask of a festival? How about a masquerade? Yeah, we did that.

6/23/05 – Sleater-Kinney :: Sleater-Kinney always puts on a good show and the new album rocks so hard, it was great to see live. During the encore, the girls did a cover of Danzig’s “Mother,” how intense is that?

6/24/05 – Oasis w/ Jet :: I love Jet but they were no fun to see at MSG. Oasis really impressed me though, the new album sounds great live. Tom & I got drunk with the fun couple next to us. Good times.

6/25/05 – Tom Petty w/ The Black Crowes :: The Black Crowes put on some really awesome shows this year, this was my 3rd. I love Petty, he’s my celeb dad. Put these two together and it was one of the greatest concert moments in history.

8/8/05 – Kings of Leon :: Oh those southern rocker boys…

8/20/05 – Amsterjam :: Was very wary of going to such a big corporate rock concert but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We danced our asses off with the hippies at the second stage during the day. At night we braved the front of the main stage for Snoop Dogg & the Chili Peppers. Snoop is the man. John Frusciante wails on the guitar. The Chili Peppers encore with Snoop and Bootsy Collins was a sight to see. History in the making…

8/30/05 – Mommy and Daddy :: New band discovery. Everyone needs to check out this hot duo.

9/24/05 – The White Stripes :: I trekked all the way down to Coney Island for this show and was not disappointed. Jack & Meg are some crazy-ass musicians.

10/6/05 – Beck :: Beck rocks all that exists. His opener McRorie was an amazing one-man-bander from Canada who did covers of “Rapper’s Delight” and “Baby Got Back,” what?? Then, Beck’s ensemble dances their socks off (that one guy has to show me some moves!) AND, the crew played plates & glasses from a dinner table on the stage at one point. If that isn’t hardcore, genius entertainment, I don’t know what is.

11/3/05 – Nine Inch Nails :: I hadn’t seen Trent since high school, I missed those guys. However, Trent turned into a scary machismo dude but his guitar sidekick made up for it with his pretty self and outlandish dance/thrash moves.

11/22/05 – U2 :: Never saw this band before. Got really drunk with Mike and the show is a little blurry. Maybe it’s something about MSG that makes me get really drunk at shows there. Hmmmmm

11/29/05 – The Dandy Warhols :: I love this band. Courtney is hottt. They should take me on tour with them. Go Portland!

12/6/05 – The Islands :: Stood in front of funny drunk guys and danced to the crazy rhythm of Islands. If only it was tropical weather outside as well.

Nick is Sex on Wheels

photo by mk


Or so someone shouted out of the crowd at the Islands show last night at Knitting Factory. I must admit that Nick is a brooding hottie with some of the greatest hair I have ever seen on a guy but I’m not sure if that translates into sex on wheels.
Actually, the whole band was rather adorable in their all white jumpsuit-y outfits. They were all wearing different things (in white) that suited their particular styles which looked awesome on stage as a whole.
Islands consisted of the drummer, French bass player, 2 Asian string/recorder/guitar/keyboard players, the singer/guitarist/keyboard player (Nick), a bass (?) saxophone player and another guitarist/back-up singer. So if you know anything about the stage at the Knitting Factory, you’ll know that it was very crowded!
The crowd at the show was pretty amusing. Mina & I pushed out way up to the middle of the stage about 2 heads back so she could snap up some photos for looserecord.com and the guy behind us was completely drunk and hysterical. He informed us that we could get high off of dust-off (y’know that stuff that cleans your keyboard) and almost lit my hair on fire. good times.
Islands were fantastic. Their quirky, hipster, ho-down songs were great fun to bop to. Maybe next time we’ll bring Nick home to 392.

Bangin' Breakfast

My boss decided that in order for our department (of 7) to be more comradely we should all spend quality time together each month doing something fun. Of course I got the greatest job of being the first one to pull something together. So, it obviously had to be good. I got turned down for ice skating at Bryant Park and watching one of the Christmas trees get lit up. Also, I got turned down for the free wine tasting with jazz music idea.
Finally, I turned to the only thing that everyone loves, FOOD. So, this morning I lugged in a suitcase to Manhattan from my digs in Jersey loaded with:
• Smoothie maker
• Waffle maker
• Waffle mix
• Butter
• Syrup
• Fresh Strawberries, bananas & raspberries
• Apple Sauce
• Smoothie mix
• Ice
• Blueberry muffins

Needless to say, our smoothie/waffle making party was a big hit and the rest of the office was very jealous! However, we were nice and did give people some of our leftover smoothies.

Arms Are For Hugging The Dandy Warhols

Years ago, when The Dandy Warhols first album came out, I won tickets to see them at Maxwell's in Hoboken. For those of you in the know, this is a VERY SMALL venue where you can't help but trip over the band. The Dandy's were very nice and gave us all free t-shirts and stickers with the phrase "arms are for hugging the dandy warhols." I kind of lost track of the band for a while until I heard of them touring about 2 years ago. The New York show was sold out but when I was visiting Sheela in DC, we got tickets to see them at the Black Cat. I was pleasantly suprised to find out that not only had The Dandy's progressed a lot as musicians, they put on one hell of a show.
Fast forward to Tuesday, November, 29, 2005. The Dandy Warhols played a show at Webster Hall in NYC. Of course I had to go to the show so I asked my buddies at www.looserecord.com to get me a press pass to review the show. And so it was done.
I don't think most people realize what an awesome band The Dandy Warhols are. Their fun and creativity oozes out of their music and their stage presence. Individually they are all very eclectic, psychedelic and punky at the same time. Go ahead; check out some Dandy Warhol's stuff right now, I bet you'll like it.