I saw a number of friends’ bands over the last couple of weeks and thought I’d give them all reviews and plugs.

Spanglish Fly, Feb 19, Rose, Brooklyn — I’ve known the leader of Spanglish Fly, trumpeter Jonathan Goldman, for about eight years as he played on the corporate softball team I coached. He led a New Orleans style jazz band for a few years, then lived in New Orleans for a few years and came back and formed this band. These guys are bringing back the boogaloo sounds of Spanish Harlem in the 1960s and 70s mixing mambo, soul, latin jazz, and funk typified by supergroups like the Fania All-Stars. They’re playing live a lot and are highly recommended! See link above for schedule.


Spanglish Fly: Jonathan Goldman (trumpet), Erica Ramos (vocals) etc.

Bang On A Can All-Stars, Open Rehearsal, Feb 23, Carroll Music Studios, NYC — I was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of new BOAC All-Star pianist Vicky Chow at Manhattan School of Music recently and wangled an invite to this open rehearsal for their People’s Commisioning Fund Concert to be held the following evening. Every time I’ve seen this band perform, it’s been transcendant. You won’t find another band more capable of thinking and playing inside and outside the box, perhaps simultaneously. The first piece by Oscar Bettison was a little soundtracky for my taste but it ended with a beautiful chiming chorus of differently tuned bicycle bells. The second by Christine Southworth was a vast pop panoply about an imagined dream that her dog had. I heard elements of Kraftwerk, King Crimson, Laurie Anderson, Yes, Peter Frampton(!), bluegrass, and Pentangle. Very fun. The last piece by Nik Bärtch was a fantastic minimalist buildup with parts and rhythms in different time signatures in the vein of Steve Reich, followed by a gradual fade. Since Reich only composes for pairs of instruments, it’s nice to hear composers doing new things with his techniques. The latter two I could have in my iPod, not really the first. The BOAC All-Stars will be playing dates in Europe shortly.

The Dirty Shames, Feb. 24, Otto’s Shrunken Head, NYC — I had already booked my friends The Demands at The Ding Dong Lounge last summer and was looking for bands to open when The Dirty Shames tagged me on myspace and they ended up opening the show. They’re so good, they got a record deal after only being together for around six months. I’ve since struck up a friendship with their lead singer. She’s nice enough to sometimes put me on the guest list although you don’t really need that at Otto’s since there’s never a cover there. A problem with seeing shows at free venues is they sometimes lack amenities like maybe a sound guy. 99% of the time, any rock band that mixes itself will make it too loud and so as usual when I go to Otto’s, I didn’t hear more than a couple songs by any of the bands. Anyway, it was Chuck Berry cover night and Phast Phreddie (New York’s bossest DJ!) was DJing so it was great sitting in the bar listening to the classic Chuck Berry covers. If you like garage/punk rock, go see the Dirty Shames when they have a real sound guy working the board! Schedule on the link above. I’m going to see them again on Saturday with the Bamboo Kids at Lit.

The Dirty Shames at Otto’s, Feb 24

The Dirtbombs / Davila 666, The Knitting Factory, Feb 25 — This was a free show sponsored by a car company. Thanks, car company (ok, it was Toyota Scion). Davila 666 is a great party band from Puerto Rico who reminded me a lot of the Black Lips. (I wouldn’t really agree with the “Menudo on meth” moniker.) Both bands are sort of one-trick ponies but hey, if you can keep pulling the one trick off a few hundred different ways, you’ve got a long career in rock n roll! I’ve seen Detroit’s Dirtbombs probably six or seven times — one of the greatest bands working in rock today. I’m friends with their old bass player Troy Gregory who recently left so this was the first time I’ve seen them with the new guy. No complaints except that the other bass player, Ko Melina, is now playing fuzz guitar full-time instead of fuzz bass and it seemed to be way too high in the mix. (When I saw them at the old Knitting Factory, Ko sliced her hand open from one of her bass strings breaking!) Oh well. I’m not the sound guy.

Update: Added The Dirtbombs review after posting the first three. Also, Christine Southworth’s piece (performed by the BOAC All-Stars), Concerning the Doodle, has its own website where you can download the newly minted live recording (courtesy of WNYC) and see the amazing animation that accompanies its performance. I also added a link to Nik Bärtch’s site above. The entire PCF BOAC concert will be broadcast on WNYC’s New Sounds very soon.

The SiP Lounge Christmas party was Saturday night during the blizzard. Snowstorm? (This is where I DJ most Thursdays.) The following happened during the party:

• An indoor snowball fight — short, but sweet.
• A guy took off all his clothes and did a back flip in the middle of Amsterdam Avenue. I didn’t see it but I saw the video which will apparently never be posted online even though you know if it got posted, it would go viral.
• One of the waitresses passed out plastic barrettes and hair clips from the 99¢ store and guys wore them too. Exciting!

I spent the weekend in Oak Hill which was a little subdued because half the family is under the weather and the weather is a little under itself. Spring comes two or three weeks later up here than in the city. It was my friends’ daughter’s fourth birthday and they had a swim party at a YMCA which was fun even though it’s really hard not to snark at basting and swimming in Clorox®.

We missed a wedding at the Twelve Tribes compound. The ceremony is said to be full of ritual reverance and divinity. Couples in the Tribe are not allowed to even kiss before they get married there although they may hold hands. I would hope they have elaborate forms of handsies and arm wrestling to go with the sweaty palms. The honeymoon suite near the creek gets lots of spring and summer action.

I’m going to try and come up to the Grey Fox bluegrass festival again this year. There’s an Irish music festival in nearby East Durham at the same time. The hills will ring of droney folk music while the people dance like chickens.

Crappy cell phone pictures are back. I’m back. Gonna put batteries back in my camera and kick some ass.

By the way, the last season of Battlestar Galactica is jumping the shark. I disagree with the prehistoric actor’s assessment of the newer version but I think the writer’s strike completely ruined the new stuff.

And I hope 24 jumps its 59th shark as soon as possible.

I believe I gave Jay his first writing job. He’s back since getting laid off of NBC. Check his blog out please.

If you have any questions on waterbirthing etc, see Judith’s website. Her photos are also featured on the orgasmic birth site.

Ladies and gents, Ms. Leslie Kritzer! DVD extra!! See the outtakes!!!11!!

A year ago at this time, I was with my family in California celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, an achievement reserved for the few, the little bit crazy, the ever-loving lucky. Four of my siblings may also win this gold medal. This week my parents are celebrating their 51st so Happy Anniversary!

Nostalgia time! I can almost remember when I first learned “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,” one of the ditties my parents taught the kids to sing in lieu of squabbling during trips to Arizona, Yosemite, and Utah. I thought it was the most hilarious and grand thing ever and how it was so great that “100 Bottles of Coke on the Wall” just didn’t sound right. That’s a lot of beer, I thought. What kind of weirdo puts 100 bottles of beer on a wall? Did my parents really sing this in college at parties all the way to zero and then start over? So easy to get with the program. Take one down! Pass it around!

We would all sing some rounds and then the older kids would get bored and drop out one by one and then the younger kids would sing it longer to show off how they could rock counting backwards. Finally, silence would break out in the car for a while until a smarty pants like me would start in with “A Million Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” Good times. Are we there yet?