craigslist - musicians

So I was looking through craislist for some people to play music with, when I came accross these back to back posts:

female musicians wanted $$ (brooklyn nyc)
Hey. Im 28 yo guy with talent and depth, looking for some hot females to play some music with. What can I say, Id rather play with girls. There is potential financial compensation involved for your time if you are the right fit.

looking for hot female musicians (brooklyn) Hi. Looking for some girls to play some music with. Im 28 and have talent. get in touch.

A little bored, I could not resist responding. So I sent the following email:

Hot Female Musician you realize you post is a little sketchy, right? are you hot? what kind of talent do you have?

Then I got this essay of a reply:

yes of course. But I'm looking for people who aren't hung up and don't think it's that big of a deal. Cause it's not. It's just a Cl post ya know... Anyway, I am a pro musician with talent and experience looking to do something new. What is the harm in that??? It's not my fault that that there are weird dudes looking for girls on the internet. Tell me something new... I own a recording studio and have hosted and played with some pretty big bands before. I know what I want. I will find it. maybe I do have alot to offer... Maybe I am really hot and love getting girls. I am a man. I know what I can do and cant do. I am not jerk and not unattractive. I am actually a great catch. I am not afraid of offending anyone on craigslist. If you we afraid of my post and it offended you I am sorry, but don't be paranoid. If you play music and you're good then lets see if we can do anything. Aren't men and women supposed to be together and enjoy music together. What's so sketchy about that???

Because his email address included his name, I decided to do a google search, and came up with this:
I then spent about three hours decided whether or not I thought it was mean/unethical to post this all on my blog. I decided that if I didn't say his name, and didn't say anything aside from the facts, how could that be mean? Its not like he knows me and was sharing something personal that he wouldn't have responded to anyone who questioned his post. Maybe I am doing him a favor...

As you can see, the craigslist browsing wasn't so successful. The only response I got was from the one person that I knew I would play with. Next time I will try not to get so easily distracted...

A day at Sziget Festival (Back from Budapest)

I planned my trip to Budapest having no idea was the Sziget festival was. When the friend I was visiting suggested we get a day ticket I was like, "sounds cool". My expectations have never been further surpassed in my life. The biggest festival in Europe, it was like nothing I have ever experienced. Maxing out at 70,000 people, the festival had 13 stages, countless bars, lounges, restaurants, markets, dance clubs, activities (rock climbing, bungee jumping, etc) and more and took up a whole island almost 4 miles around. Honestly, it was more like a city than a festival. It was amazing. Check out the map below for an idea of just how big it is.
So I figure its just easiest if I post my pictures in chronological order and give you an idea of what my day at the festival was like. Below is a look at the schedule, in Hungarian.
Because the festival is on an island, the music on the smaller stages can go pretty late without bothering the residents of Budapest.

Early on, from a bar near the main stage. Anti-Flag was playing. The lead singer wouldn't shut up and was kind of embarrassing me as an American.We explored some of the more chill smaller stages. There is a band playing to the left... We got ambush kisses from painted men and had to wash up to hide the evidence.
MGMT!!! By far the band I was most excited about seeing at the festival. They put on a great show. The album is so great it would have been hard for me not to be into the music, but I think I can honestly say they had great energy and ensemble.

I was pleasantly surprised at how popular MGMT is in Europe. Not only did they have a great turn out (even at an early time slot) but the crowd was singing along and so very into the music. Apparently they are played on MTV Europe almost every hour. I wish I had MTV Europe. Between shows we had a beer and snack in front of the Yoga tent. The snack was good, but for the first time in my life I thought a food had too much cheese.

Flogging Molly was awesome. Its not the kind of music I generally listen to, but its such a fun concert to see. And I was so impressed with the talent of all of the individual musicians (especially the fiddle player!). As you can see from the video, even on the edges of the crowd, people were really into the show. As you can also see, people look stupid dancing when you can here the music.
Those Flogging Molly fans sure are excitable, just ask this lady.
Exploring again, we saw some people that were getting an early start at one of the dance clubs. These are probably people who also got an early start at the bars.
Alanis Morissette was so great. She is an amazing performer with a flawless voice. To my joy she played mostly old stuff, and nearly all of her hits from Jagged Little Pill. I was slightly distracted by some cute French guys behind us. Upon finding out they were 21 and 22 I became obsessed with age for the rest of the evening. Looking around, I would guess that 75% of the crowd was between 18 and 22. Which is consistent with the fact that all of my friend's friends (25+ locals) that we had been hanging out with all week were so over Sziget. While eating dinner near the Kooks show, we met some locals. They provided a drink that was sweet Hungarian wine mixed with club soda. Delicious!
They showed us the museum quarter where there was a lot of cool interactive art, including this exhibit with some much appreciated bean bags. The tents were beautiful under the lantern light. Don't worry, we didn't go inside any.
We checked out the Heaven Street Seven DJ set. Apparently he is in a Hungarian band that my friend really likes. It was a pretty unimpressive DJ set, but the music was fun to dance to.

We did some more exploring, above being an example of the late night scene between stages. With the help of a 24 year old German gentleman, we started to survey the age of the Sziget population. After a 21 year old responded to my age with "25?!!! Where are your grandchildren??!" I nearly wet my pants and had to stop the survey.

We checked out a Hungarian band Kiscsillag. They were pretty good but I was pretty... tired.
This is a pic from another night, just to show the main stage crowd at night.

Sziget was one of the best experiences of my life. Two of my favorite thing are music and meeting people. I frequently meet people at shows but because people come from all over Europe to go to Sziget, it is even easier to talk to everyone. It's a place where "Where are you from?" is the new "Nice pants" and where being from New York is exotic. I can't wait to go back!

Crystal Castles and friends play shows

I am heartbroken that I have to miss the next NYC Crystal Castles show (October 23rd) and that their 12 show tour does not include any cities within bus distance. I highly recommend buying tickets ASAP to anyone, whether you were previously a fan or not. I can't get into how great/fun the last Crystal Castles show I went to was, it would just make me too sad. I decided the next best thing would be to check out the bands Crystal Castles has recently/is going to be playing with. Click the links to listen.

Woodhands. I caught some of these guys at the last show and they were freakin awesome. Their self described "sweaty electro glory" is very accurate and the crowd was going crazy for it. They appear to by playing a Todd P party at Silent Barn, August 16th in Queens. I guess you just show up and pay at the door? Sounds fun.
Fujiya & Miyagi. These guys are playing the Oct 23rd show with Crystal Castles. Basted on the tracks I have heard, they seem more chill than the above mentioned bands, but really cool. Maybe a little TOO cool. I am going to put on my dancing shoes and check them out Oct 22nd at the Mercury lounge (tickets not available yet).
Who Made Who. This band, also playing the Oct 23rd show, has some funk to them and while still having an electronic feel, my impression is that it is mostly live instrumentation: "a house DJ [on] drums, a Bowie-loving bassist who sings too, and an avantgarde jazz guitarist". I am hoping they're not flying over from Denmark for just one show, because from the videos on their myspace page, it looks like it would be awesome to see them live.

My top Karaoke songs

If you sing one of these before I get a chance to program it in ... we've got problems.

1. Avril Lavigne - I'm with you
2. Coldplay - Fix You
3. Kelly Clarkston - Since U been gone
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
5. The Police - Roxanne
6. Jewel - Foolish games
7. The Cranberries - Dreams

The last one I sing as a duet with V, pictured with me below.

I think in this pic she is nailing some Fiona Apple.

Review of NYC's best Karaoke places to come soon.

Awesome !!! show - 7/27/08

!!! has never been my first choice when I turn on my ipod, but I certainly enjoyed the show more than those of the bands that most often would be... if that sentence makes any sense. The show was very high energy (duh) and the band, as big as it is, was very tight. It is obvious that these guys really love performing.
I wish my shitty camera-phone could have captured this great ice cream T-shirt or, even better, the awesome dance moves going on, most of which really reminded me of a bird.
Of course, one of the best things about this show was the crowd. Pretty much everybody was dancing, getting nice and sweaty, and loving it. We got our fare share of attention too: lights, water throwing and spitting, genuine thanks for being so awesome, you know... etc. The only thing I will comment on was that, to my shock, after the most sincere encore request I have ever seen (over 5 minutes of full fledged yelling and chanting) we were completely denied.

I dont think this show will have much impact on the frequency of which I listen to !!!, but I will def be on the lookout for their next NYC show.


PS. Caught the last few songs of Modey Lemon. Its not really my thing, but they sure knew how to rock out. Of note, they would make a great shampoo commercial.
There hair has gotten even longer since this picture, but remains very well taken care of. I rarely saw faces and had never witnessed head banging like that before (wasn't going to shows in the 90's)

Siren's Standout Sunglasses

Sure, I notice cool sunglasses when I am walking around the city. But it was only after observing thousands of young indie music fans all in one place, on a sunny day that I realized just how popular some of these styles are. Move over Aviators, because I swear over 50% of the festival crowd was wearing sunglasses in one (or both) of these two categories.

Siren Music Festival Pictures

When I arrived at the Siren Music Festival it was ~96 degrees. But if you could get past the heat, it was a beautiful day at Coney Island.
Beach balls at the Stillwell stage.
Annuals. They sounded good but didn't rock quite as much as when I saw them (a couple years ago?) at North Six. BUT, I have to admit I only stayed for three songs, so they may have really picked it up. Regardless, I would have excused them for much worse considering they had the worst time slot in terms of the heat.
I loved having the Cyclone in the background of the main stage, hearing the squeals of the people on it throughout the festival.
Times New Viking. I was really wondering how their sound was going to translate to a live show and it translated pretty well. They sounded great and it was really fun. It helped that I had a spot in the shade. Sweet!
Hot people. Shaded people. Overall, Coney Island was a really fun place to see a festival. The short walk between stages was either through the rides of Astroland, or along the boardwalk in view of the beach. Your pick!
The sand was burning me.Nobody can be bored at the boardwalk.
This is the only grass found near the festival. I think that dude is in Jaguar Love, but I didn't watch that show.
It would have been cool to see a show from the wheel. This is me watching Beach House. They sounded GREAT. The duo was accompanied by a drummer. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this show, even in a festival setting. I was also surprised that this is the first time I noticed that they remind me of Cat Power.
Islands. I went in pretty excited about this one because I really like Return to the Sea, and I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the show. However, the song Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone was pretty exciting. The rapper was amazing. Ted Leo was spinning all day at the main stage, but stayed pretty hidden.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks were amazing. As was well put by my brunch-mates, when they got on stage it was like "ooh, adults". These guys are professionals.

Overall, it was a great day. Thanks to the Village Voice for providing such great music for the price of $0.

Telephono

I just joined Telephono. Its a social networking site and soon, I hope, going to open up a whole new way of collaborating with people currently unknown. It was set up by musician David Matysiak, coinciding with the release of the Telephono music project, in which over 50 artists participated.

"Telephono is an audio experiment that allows musicians to communicate with one another by manipulating audio files. Inspired by the classic children’s game 'Telephone,' my interpretation involves sending a unique audio file to a musician via the internet. That musician then chooses whether to edit the piece or simply pass it on to the next person in the chain."

I just bought the box set and cant wait to sit down and really listen to it. For more info on the music project check out telephono.org or read this AJC article (Matysiak, like me, is from the ATL).

Anyways, back to the point, the social networking site! This is perfect for me. I have been trying to find people to make music with for quite a while now. All of my potential collaborators either intimidate me or are just too flaky to follow through. My plan was, and still is, to find some people via craigslist, but this new site really opens up alot of possibilities.

Stoked for Santogold Sunday

I only first heard Santogold pretty recently. The first song I heard was LES Artistes. I was a little resistant at first thinking it sounded a little too much like Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Tegan and Sara. Then I was like, "wait a sec, those are two of my favorite bands." So... basically, I love it.



Santogold's other stuff is more hip-hop and equally great. Anyone in NYC should take advantage of the free show in Central Park this Sunday.

New Keyboard!

I have really had the urge to write songs lately. The main problem is that, in addition to singing, the only instrument I play is the viola. First of all, its incredibly hard to sing and play the viola at the same time. But the bigger problem is that I have felt very confined whenever I have tried to write using my viola. The 13 years of playing classical music really makes it hard for me to experiment. So when a friend was giving away a free keyboard, I jumped on it.

Its kind of old school. Dont be jealous.