August 13, 2009 · 8:04 AM

Jam of the Day – Remembering Les Paul

It’s a sad day for music fans around the world. Les Paul, the inventor and virtuoso guitarist, died today in White Plains. He was 94. His innovations to the electric guitar and in the recording studio shaped and changed the course of popular music forever. His innovations to the electirc guitar were created out of his desire to have a stringed instrument that could make electronic sound without distorting. Later, Gibson created the guitar that bears his name – the Gibson Les Paul – using Paul’s original pickup deign, and the sales have generated a fortune for Paul, earning him royalties on every guitar sold (and sales have been substantial, seeing as the Les Paul at one point made up 50% of all guitars sold by Gibson). His tinkering talent was unparalleled, and his contributions to the music world and the musicians that he influenced and inspired are too numerous to list here. One of the coolest things that I read about Paul today in one of the many obituaries that have come out, was that in 1948, he was in a very serious car accident with his musical partner and second wife, Mary Ford. The collision left him with many injuries, including a shattered elbow that would be immovable for life; he had it set at a slightly less than 90 degree angle so that he could continue to play guitar. Talk about dedication to your craft. There is no better way to remember the man than to listen to the master himself.

Les Paul – How High The Moon:

-Melissa

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August 12, 2009 · 11:58 PM

Jam of the Day – The Compass and the Wires

Until January 4, 2010, you can view the “Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Exhibit” at the MOMA. The exhibit includes over 300 selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation’s “extraordinary collection of over 2,500 contemporary works on paper,” the largest gift of drawings that the museum has ever received. Although the Times didn’t exactly give it a glowing review, “Compass in Hand” is certainly worth checking out, even if only this small online slide show.

But if you’re looking for a different sort of directional indicator, don’t fret. Brooklyn-based electro-pop/synth group Red Wire Black Wire has the remedy in the form of the title track from their EP Compass, which was released by Tough Customer Records back in November. They have a pretty extensive tour schedule, slated to start in September, coinciding with the release of their first full-length, Robots & Roses that will take them all over the U.S. and even to Russia. They will be back in the bk at The Studio @ Webster Hall on October 23. Check out their first official video, for “Compass,” below and mark your fall calendars.

Red Wire Black Wire – Compass:

-Drew

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August 12, 2009 · 3:12 PM

JOTD Update – Boy Crisis ‘Fountain of Youth’ Video Shoot Pics

In case you were wondering how the video shoot went for Boy Crisis’ “Founting of Youth” at McCarren Park this past weekend, the band has now posted a few “behind-the-scenes” pictures of the on its Myspace page:

Boy Crisis and its women in action

Boy Crisis and its women in action

Standin' around

Standin' around

Check out all the photos here.

-Drew

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August 11, 2009 · 7:27 AM

Jam of the Day – Brace Yourself for the New Knitting Factory

Good news for fans of the now defunct venue, The Knitting Factory: they have just announced that they will be set to reopen in a smaller space in Williamsburg in early September. The new venue will be located at 361 Metropolitan Avenue, in the former space of the Luna Lounge. The Knitting Factory originally opened in 1987 on the Lower East side on East Houston Street, and developed a following for its eclectic mix of jazz, avant-garde, and rock music performances. This allowed the owners to move to a larger space in Tribeca in 1994. Its lease on the space expired in July, so the move to Williamsburg has been in the works for a while.

On their opening night of September 9th, the new club will present Brooklyn band Les Savy Fav. The group formed back in 1995 while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. The current lineup features Tim Harrington on lead vocals, Seth Jabour on guitar, Syd Butler on bass, and Harrison Haynes on drums. Bass player Syd Butler is also the owner of Frenchkiss Records (Passion Pit , Cut Off Your Hands, etc.), who released their latest full-length album Let’s Stay Friends back in 2007. Their live shows are punctuated by the antics of Harrington, who has been know to have multiple on-stage wardrobe changes and frequently kiss audience members, so watch out if you find yourself near the front at the show!

Les Savy Fav – Brace Yourself:

-Melissa

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August 11, 2009 · 12:37 AM

ev Veggie Restaurant – Counter

counter menu table When I came across an article about the boozy brunch popsicles that were being offered all summer long at East Village vegetarian bistro and organic wine bar, Counter, I was shocked that I had never been there before. As a long time vegetarian, and somewhat long time resident of the East Village, I couldn’t believe that I had missed a place that sounded so perfect for me. So I set out to see if the website and menu were too good to be true.

Upon arrival, we were ushered in to a small table for two near the back. Although the place was really cute inside, with small tables, low lighting, and vivid pictures of edible flowers on the walls, the ambiance was interrupted by the giant McDonald’s across the street. The front of the restaurant was entirely open to take advantage of the early August night but the benefits of the few sidewalk tables were far outweighed by the drain that the blaring McDonald’s signs had on the overall vibe. If they just nixed those few tables outside, or even closed the curtains at the front, it would have been a tremendous improvement.

Moving on from the ambiance, it was time to go through the menu and see what I wanted to try. As a vegetarian, I am fairly used to having just a few options to choose from at most places and going with whatever sounds the most interesting. But the Counter menu proved overwhelming, with so many delicious sounding items to try, how could I decide?

First things first, we started off with a delicious and fairly affordable bottle of Spanish Cava Brut. Sparkling white wine, in my opinion, is the perfect compliment to light meals, especially when they are vegetable based. The wine list at Counter exclusively offers organic, sustainable, and biodynamic options.

Counter started serving a new menu on August 4th, so everything available to us was new and exciting. Many of their ingredients come from their own sprawling rooftop garden at 51 East 7th Street, so you can’t get much fresher than that. We decided to share everything and, as they are relatively small plates, we were advised that five items would be a good amount for two people (we couldn’t narrow the choices down any further anyway).

To start, we ordered the gazpacho, and the watermelon and heirloom tomato salad (with flecks of basil and drizzled balsamic). The gazpacho was tasty, spicy and well-seasoned, with cubes of avocado to top it off in the center. The watermelon and heirloom tomato salad was perfect; it was visually and palatably interesting, featuring both pink and yellow watermelon cubes along with red and yellow tomatoes. Since everything looked the same, you never knew what you were biting into.

For the next course, we sampled the spaghetti squash spaghettini with roasted garlic tomato sauce and the cauliflower “risotto” (featuring both white and purple cauliflower with shallots and herb butter). The spaghettini was delicious, with the spaghetti squash cooked just long enough to achieve the spaghetti-like texture (for those of you that have tried this at home, you know this is hard to do) and the sauce was spicy and nicely complimented with hints of roasted garlic. The cauliflower “risotto” was a standout for its savory, melt-in-your-mouth flavor. The quotations indicate that cauliflower was used in the place of the traditional rice used for this dish. This creative pasta replacement continued in the last dish of the evening, the beet ravioli (with pinenut cheese and rosemary foam), with the beets acting as the ravioli outside of the pinenut cheese and the aromatic and flavorful rosemary foam was served as a light sauce on top of each bite.

Obviously, we had to order the popsicles as an after-dinner treat (the strawberry-mint was my favorite). They were tasty, but probably the weakest point of an otherwise stellar meal. Each dish was delicious; it’s not often that I have no complaints or order remorse.

Overall, I would highly recommend Counter to vegetarians and carnivores alike – I took a carnivore with me and he loved it! Counter is open daily for dinner and for brunch on the weekends.

Counter
105 First Avenue (at 6th Street)
212.982.5270
http://www.counternyc.com

-Melissa

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August 10, 2009 · 5:51 PM

Jam of the Day – Boy Crisis Finds the Fountain of Youth, Gives it to Monkeys

If you happen to be a nerdus maximus and read the Wired Science blog on the regular, you might have seen the piece a month ago about the results published in Science magazine of a 20-year-long study of rhesus monkeys. The study seems to show that “caloric restriction” (i.e. eating less than you “should”) actually produces changes in the body’s metabloic functioning that in turn may serve to lengthen life and increase the quality of life in primates (and maybe humans, too!). This is not entirely new thinking, but “[t]his is the first study to show that caloric restriction slows aging in a primate species. And of course, we’re primates, too. It’s a lot more relevant to humans than the mouse.” Sometimes science just pummels you with common sense. EAT LESS, BE LESS FAT. Maybe not exactly the fountain of youth that the story’s title suggests.

Not like I coughed up any dough for this research, but for my dollar I’d much rather take a sip off of the new “Fountain of Youth” track from Brooklyn’s favorite panty-dropping, party-starting fivesome, Boy Crisis. Part of what the Village Voice just dubbed the “Wesleyan mafia” along with MGMT, Amazing Baby, Bear Hands (not in the article, surprisingly), Das Racist, and a bunch of others, the group is comprised of Tal Rozen and Victor Vazquez on vocals (Victor is also known as Kool A.D., one half of the DR crew), Alex Kestner on bass and laptop (among other things), Lee Pender on guitar, and Owen Roberts on drums.

The first time I ever heard these guys play, I knew it would only be a matter of time before some major swooped in and picked them up by the spandex, which is exactly what happened last fall when Ben James signed them to B-Unique/Atlantic Records. Since then, the group has spent a lot of time selling their vision of danceable, freaky-deaky, Bowie/George Clinton funkiness to audiences across the pond, including gigs at the Glastonbury and Isle of Wright music festivals. They also had an opening spot for Katy Perry up in Boston recently – here are some great behind-the-scenes photos from our friend Ben Rowland of the show.

Apart from the touring, the boys have also been putting the finishing touches on their first full-length, tentatively titled Tulipomania. I had a chance to listen to a near-finished version of the record a couple of weeks ago, and let me tell you, its “japanties are makin me hot,” to borrow a line from the album’s first single, “Dressed to Digress.” To be honest, I’m not that into the studio-version of “Dressed to Digress” (it sounds a little thinner, bass-wise, than the pre-deal versions), but “L’Homme,” “Ganglion of Lightnings,” and “1981” all sound amazing. But why didn’t “Strawberries” make the album? I guess we can’t have everything we want in life. As to the new fare, I think Victor’s vocal patterns strongly shaped “Murder Murder Murder” and “Sex and Violence,” both of which have similarly sparse openings followed by catchy choruses of tightly rhyming lines. “Bang Bang Bang” sort of follows the same pattern, but with Tal recycling the lyrics from an older song over some horns and super-sleek production. God-damn Boy Crisis is catchy as hell! Essentially, all of the tracks are bangers; I can’t wait for the release.

I think that “Fountain of Youth,” the opener, is probably my favorite (at least of the newer tracks). And though they still haven’t released the actual music video for “Dressed to Digress,” this past weekend the band got together with their friend Jordan Fish to shoot a new music video for “Fountain of Youth” featuring a lot of women “relatively scantily clad” and “covered in paint at some point,” according to the casting call. I can’t give away too many details, but according to one female acquaintance on the set for the shoot, the women are carrying around Tal and Victor on some sort of “chariot.” Check back for updates.

As a video appetizer, last week Boy Crisis posted a link to an “ULTRAVIDEO MEGAMIX” for “Fountain of Youth”, so check it out while you wait for the real video full of scantily clad painted women. Boy Crisis is forever, like Wu-tang!

Boy Crisis – Fountain of Youth:

-Drew

P.S. Boy Crisis wins! It’s EV2BK.com’s 100th post!

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