Buzz Rant & Rave

Goes Cube and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin at Union Hall

Goes Cube Photo #1

Goes Cube Photo #2

Goes Cube is loud, intense and dark. They have hooks amidst the sonic assault, so the takeaway is more than just distortion and double-bass pedal polyrhythms. Even though the songs are all titled "Goes Cube Song #X," each has its own character.

Goes Cube is playing at Guero? on Thursday afternoon and at The Delancey Thursday night (11 pm).

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Another person was taking a photo of a band with blog buzz? That's a real shock. But at the exact same instant? Well, that is different. And yes, this probably would have been a good venue to experiment with flash photography for a change. Even at ISO 800, the F30 can't get good photos with this little light sans flash.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is the best band name EVAR! No, seriously, it's brilliant. It got me to get to this show early despite never having heard anything from this band. The closest point of reference is probably The Shins, with perhaps a bit more edge.

They're in town for the week, playing tonight at Pianos, tomorrow afternoon at the CMJ daystage at Avery Fisher Hall, tomorrow night at Europa (in Greenpoint) and Saturday afternoon out at Asbury Lanes.

Newsday: How iTunes saved 'The Office': iTunes has saved 'The Office.' A year ago, the show was about to suffer the fate of a hundred thousand other shows that labored under the tyranny of Nielsen: It was about to get the ax."

The NY Post has the latest scoop on BSG spinoff, "Caprica": The Ring Cylon: "The story, Moore says, 'centers around two families, one of whom owns an enormous corporation, à la Microsoft, and it builds the first Cylons; then the other family is Adama's father, who's a lawyer at the time and starts to become an opponent of what they're trying to do.'"

Finally, TV Squad finds Michael Cera's (George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development) new band. No, he's not playing cowbell in Dr. Funke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, but is playing guitar in The Long Goodbye. Michael Cera Brings the Indie Rock

Jon Pareles rounds up CMJ in the Times: The CMJ Big Break? Not Such a Big Deal: "Bands aren’t waiting for their big break anymore. Or if they are, they’re keeping mighty busy in the meantime. That was the gist of this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, the showcase for independent music that expanded to five days this year, presenting music day and night from last Tuesday through Saturday."

This is more of a broader overview of the trends and implications of the entire festival than the detailed micro-level reviews in the blogs.

Also in the Times today, The Bowery Presents is showing that they have a good PR person, with another article about their purchase of Northsix and the club's impending transformation into the Williamsburg Music Hall: Polishing the Grunge: "Williamsburg is not losing a rock club, then, but gaining one that may be more suited to its current state of gentrification, to the 40-story condos being planned along the East River nearby. Where Northsix has distressed, paint-caked wood floors and rudimentary high-school-style risers, the Music Hall will have balconies and a big-city gloss."

I've never heard anything from Ra Ra Riot, but Heart on a Stick posted the definitive bad review of the band: I Wouldn’t Like Death If Death Were Good, Not Even if Death Were Good: "Ra Ra Riot makes the sort of music that would cause entire villages in Africa to machete themselves to death."

WSJ: When Being a Fake Rock Star Is Better Than the Reality: "Many professional rockers, however, say the game lets them act out a fantasy that their real lives don't quite match. Sometimes, pretending to be a rock star for a few minutes can be more fun than being one"

Devin Davis released one of my favorite albums of 2005 with "Lonely People of the World, Unite!"
I can't say how much I enjoy this album. Some of the high points include the badass squonky sax solo on "Iron Woman," the sheer joy of glam-stomper "Moon Over Shark City," the swagger of riff heavy "Transcendental Sports Anthem," and the twisted tale of driving down the road with Willie Nelson in "Cannons at the Courthouse." It's hard to resist the charms of "Giant Spiders," when the song shifts from the catchy chorus to screaming with reckless abandon "we'll be fine if we can survive the giant spiders!" (You can hear the exclamation point in the singing.) With quirky lyrics, solid songwriting chops, and everything but the kitchen sink instrumentation, this album is just a lot of fun.

Iron Woman
Turtle and the Flightless Bird

No, it's not a new album, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun. Davis is in the midst of recording his follow-up for a 2007 release.

Buy Lonely People of the World, Unite!

Sixeyes: Devin Davis Interview

We're not actually sponsoring anything as BRR, but if we were going to sponsor shows, this would be a good one to start with:

The Walk Ons and The Bosch
performing live at Crash Mansion
with Maggie Kim (video release) and Apollo Heights
Friday, November 10, 2006 at 9 PM
RSVP for free admission at New York Underbelly

No, I'm not talking about Axl's All Star Touring Band, but rather some awesome live footage of Guns 'n Roses from back in '88 at the height of their powers. Despite out of tune guitars, bum notes and Axl's occassionally lazy vocal phrasing, this show rocks, and the energy in these songs is even better the studio versions. Too bad drugs and egos would soon bring these guys down.

BTW, in case you're wondering, the venue is the Ritz, which is now Webster Hall in NYC. The show feels so vital that it's crazy to think that this was 18 years ago...

While they're not quite in their heyday, it's still pretty damn cool to see John Fogerty play "Fortunate Son" with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: