Archive for the ‘ Music ’ Category

Get Your Sexy On: A Night at the NYBF

Warning: This is a NSFW article.

Event Date: October 3, 2009
Venue: B.B. King’s Bar and Grille
Performers Reviewed: Angie Pontani, Indigo Blue and Co., Gravity Plays Favorites, Ms. Tickle, Melody Sweets, Hot Toddy.

Burlesque.

Bur-lesque.

The word invokes all sorts of thoughts.  Mostly, they’re thoughts of half-naked women clad in tassels, garters, and feather boas.  Not to say that these elements are no longer relevant or present in modern burlesque but, well, the “art” has grown far beyond that simple description in recent years.

Wikipedia defines burlesque as, “a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration.”  But that’s still not hitting the nail on the head. While I put the word in quotation marks before, burlesque has truly become an art and nowhere was this more evident than at the Seventh Annual New York Burlesque Festival.

Anna Fur Laxis pretends to be scandalized!

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2010
02/16
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CATEGORY
Exhibitions
Music
Theater
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Wacken 2009: 20 Years of METAAAAL

Festival Dates: July 30 – August 1, 2009
Venue: Wacken Open Air, Village of Wacken, Germany
Bands Reviewed:  Airbourne, Bring Me the Horizon, Bullet for My Valentine, Endstille, GWAR, Heaven Shall Burn, In Flames, Machine Head, Motörhead, Napalm Death, UFO, Vreid, Subway to Sally

(via Youtube, via http://www.Wacken.com)

I won’t even pretend like this article has anything to do with music. The music is there, somewhere, far below the fraternity of sweating metalheads, the mud, the bipolar weather, the mead, the circle pits, the drunks curling up in the sun, the menfolk marking each foot of fence with a puddle of piss… I think you get the point. Wacken Open Air is united by music. Its existence is based on it’s line up, but that is not really what it is about. I learn this fact all over every year.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Wacken Open Air. It has began as a few trailers and a few campers–an intimate collection of mostly German bands and folks who could drive over from neighboring towns and villages. Today it hosts anwhere from 70,000 to possibly almost twice that number of attendees, journalists, band members, hangers on, and of course villagers hocking goods. People come from all over the world to take part, especially since “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” has named this festival the mecca of metal in 2005. Continue reading →

2010
02/06
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CATEGORY
Music
Travel
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Enter the Asylum: Long-Awaited Emilie Autumn, in NYC

(Editor: I screwed up the passes so our awesome photographer, Frenchie, with her DSLR camera, couldn’t take pics. These are shots with a regular handheld courtesy of Thomas. Thanks man.)

A long line stood outside the Highline Ballroom on the night of October 13th, 2009. They weren’t waiting for a concert, however…they were waiting to enter the asylum. Emilie Autumn fell upon New York City with all of the grace and costumed pageantry that one would expect of a young woman from the Victorian Era.

The stage was adorned with everything one would need for a tea party at the asylum. Cakes, cookies, tea pots, dolls, skulls, and rats, all lit by candle light, created the perfect atmosphere for the macabre performance still to come. As the lights dimmed the enthusiastic screams of dozens of wayward girls filled the Highline. Their long wait to see Emilie Autumn on her first ever North American tour was finally was over (this after a cancellation months ago).

A spot of tea and cookies with The Bloody Crumpets

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2009
10/23
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CATEGORY
Music
Theater
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VNV Nation at Nokia Theatre

Ronan Harris of VNV Nation

Ronan Harris of VNV Nation

I have a very definite opinion about music. Mainly, that it should make you feel something, anything. This is clearly an opinion shared by the members of VNV Nation; the duo being the Irish born Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson of Great Britian. Together they’ve become the most popular creators of a music genre called “futurepop”. For them, it’s not about the money, the fame, or even the art of creating the music itself; it’s about how that art can make people feel and that’s exactly why they’ve been so successful. It also doesn’t hurt that they make music almost certain to get you moving; losing yourself you feel inspired by the hope that Ronan’s voice and lyrics bring. Continue reading →

2009
07/28
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CATEGORY
Music
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Wednesday: Reading. Friday: Rocking– With AFP

Show date: June 5, 2009
Venue: Highline Ballroom
Bands: Amanda Palmer, The Lisps, Emilyn Brodsky, Abby Ahmad

palmerself

AFP''s blurry self-portrait before the show. Due to battery fail, this is all the photography you're gettin'. And it ain't even ours.

The night opened up with Abby Ahmad, a one-woman vocal powerhouse. She appeared on stage as a little surprise (she was unbilled), but quickly won me over with her fun, rhythmic guitar and her amazing voice. Deep and rich, she had to back at least a yard away from the mic in order to belt out some stanzas without blowing speaker cones or ear drums. Sadly she only played three songs, but they ran the gamut from emotional (i.e., recovering from a breakup) to tongue-in-cheek (i.e., reminder that a woman can have fun between the sheets all by herself). Continue reading →

2009
07/03
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CATEGORY
Music
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Vast and Into The Presence

Show date: May 8th, 2009
Venue: Highline Ballroom
Bands: V.A.S.T., Into The Presence
Photography by: Frenchie

Jon Crosby of Vast

Jon Crosby of Vast

VAST was a band I randomly found about a few years ago from a friend who randomly found out about it from a friend. This is how Jon Crosby would have wanted it. The band, consisting basically of Job Crosby, but which has finally established a consistent support in the form of Michael Cry, Ben Fenton, Tabber Millard and Ernesto J. Ponce has had a tumultuous relationship with record labels and has gotten some radio play and big media exposure in its formative years. Of late, VAST has been the underground band Crosby has always wanted it to be, with the direction and vision of the music entirely in his capable hands. Continue reading →

2009
07/03
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Music
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Neil? Yes, Amanda? – Performances and Q&A with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

Show date: June 3, 2009
Venue: Housing Works Book Store Cafe
Guests: Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

d42 was having a fan girl fit. Neil Gaiman, best selling novelist, comic book writer, tireless blogger, as well as Amanda Palmer, singer, musician, icon, and recently deceased, were going to be under one roof at the Housing Works Book Store Café! These two beloved icons gathered with us this night to promote Who Killed Amanda Palmer Photo Book for which Gaiman provided the text.  Kyle Cassidy, photographer (also in attendance, but on the sidelines), provided excellent pictures of Palmer bloodied and stuffed into a shopping cart, floating in a pond, as a gorgeous statue, and in various other poses, all having a lack of life in common. Continue reading →

2009
06/22
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Interview
Literature
Music
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