Pitchfork

NYC Popfest 2007 at Pitchfork!

I have been super busy with organizing popfest and will do my best to blog a bit from there, but expect some super exciting news about my summer job after the fest.

Shapes and sizes at cakeshop

Shapes and sizes at cakeshop

Yellow fever

Yello fever

Yellow fever

NYC Popfest 2007

NYC Popfest 2007
NYC Popfest MySpace

All fest passes can be purchased by sending $60 via Pay Pal to paypal@nycpopfest.com

THURSDAY MAY 24, 2007
Opening night gala
98-104 Meserole Ave., @ EUROPA in Brooklyn

* BMX Bandits (Scotland)
* Pants Yell! (MA)
* Yellow Fever (TX)
* The Metric Mile (NYC)
* Lispector (France)
* Plus other surprise guests!


FRIDAY MAY 25, 2007
Kick off the weekend with Mitch Easter and a rooftop after-party!!!
168 Delancey Street, @ THE DELANCEY on the L.E.S.

* Baskervilles (NYC)
* Mitch Easter (NC)
* The Secret History (NYC)
* The Smittens (VT)
* Affair d'Coeur (NYC)
* The Reverse (NY)
* AND ROOFTOP AFTER-PARTY


SATURDAY MAY 26, 2007
FREE daytime all-ages show
Astroland Stage - Coney Island Boardwalk, @ ASTROLAND on Coney Island!!!!!

* Bunnygrunt (MO)
* Cars Can Be Blue (GA)
* Best Fwends (TX)
* The Gritty Midi Gang (NYC)
* and special surprise guests!


SATURDAY MAY 26, 2007
74 Leonard St., @ THE KNITTTING FACTORY

* Casiotone For the Painfully Alone (CHI)
* The Ballet (NYC)
* Ballboy (Scotland)
* Harvey Williams (UK)
* My Teenage Stride (NYC)
* The Besties (NYC)
* Brown Recluse Sings (PA)


SUNDAY MAY 27, 2007
361 Metropolitan Avenue, @ LUNA LOUNGE in Brooklyn

* Pipas (UK/NYC)
* CAUSE CO-MOTION (NYC)
* Human Television (PA)
* Michael Leviton (NYC)
* Pelle Carlberg (Sweden)
* Dear Nora (CA)
* The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (NYC)


MONDAY May 28, 2007
Memorial Day BBQ & show
484 Union Avenue, @ UNION POOL in Brooklyn

* Allen Clapp & His Orchestra (CA)
* The Gazetteers (NY)
* The Lil Hospital (PA)
* Surefire Broadcast (PA)
* Titans of Filth (GA)
* and special surprise guests!!

Icicles/Casper and the Cookes/Scary Monster
The Khyber, Philly, April 30 2007, be there!

I lucked out today and got the new Icicles cd at Repo Records on South Street in the discount section.

or as seen in the Motorola commercial


Then I found this great video of Jason Nesmith from Casper and the Cookies singing Don't Stop Believing karaoke with Of Montreal at the 40 Watt in Athens


And a shout out that the third band on the bill in Philly is Neal "the Snow Fairies have really broken up and this is proof" Ramirez's new band, Scary Monster.

Sooooo funny things afoot at our little Pop Inn in Philly
I got Kev to enter the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Battle of the Bands contest
and The Lil Hosptial is a finalist!



So please vote for him (or if you like the other bands)

http://www.mary-kateandashley.com/media/article.php?1170|1

Spalding Gray and Calvin Johnson

It's the time of year when I spend too much time mourning those people I loved who are no longer with us, and thinking of sitting in the Washington Center and watching Spalding Gray perform around 1999/2000 is also making me sad. I'll have to listen to It's A Slippery Slope again soon. I think about all the uncertainties I had at that time, fuck Paxil, fuck unboyfriends, fuck graduation...it was pretty much a time to listen to a wise old white guy with a New York attitude and NPR sensibilities and think maybe, maybe things would get better.

There is a new play based on his writings that has been going on in New York and getting good reviews

And it will be performed at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia on April 20 with Calvin Johnson reading and performing an original song he wrote for Mr. Gray. Bravo.

Sandman and Calvin Johnson Shootout


WTF? WTF? WTF? (okay, that seems to be all Calvin will say too)

Anyway, my buddy Justin is putting a bunch of random videos up on YouTube for our amusement...thanks!

Nicki Click at the Mill Creek Tavern

Hornet Leg at the Mill Creek Tavern

Maple Rabbit at the Mill Creek Tavern

Of Montreal sell out again

At the Trocadero in Philly

More clinic@netomat

Clinic

Clinic at johnny brendas

When the Payola scandal broke a few years ago, I was really dissapointed by the use of the word "indies" to refer to the middlemen who brokered the deals between major labels and radio to buy airtime for their artists. I felt that people who didn't know what indie rock, indiepop, or just indie music was would confuse the marketing machines with the small labels and artists who were completely irrelevant to the scandal.

If you're unfamiliar with the scandal, read Payola: The Dirty Industry Practice That is Ruining Hip-Hop or the document containing actual facts and figures about the practice.

I don't know if the use of the word "indie" meant anything to anyone else, but in an odd turn of events, the major corporate radio firms have voluntarily agreed to set aside 8400 half-hour blocks of airtime for independent artists not affiliated with the major labels.

After seeing the Apples in Stereo twice last month I really felt like it might be a magic year for an indiepop band to have a major hit single. It would be no stranger than some of the hit singles I remember coming out of regional radio (ie Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" on KNDD and Dead Eye Dick's "New Age Girl" come to mind).

And if anyone would like to hire me to program some of those blocks, I'm available.