Results tagged “live”

Members of the sprawling Ontario art rock collective Broken Social Scene are on tour in support of founding member Brendan Canning's solo album Something For All of Us... It's the newest record in the "Broken Social Scene Presents" series, in which individual bandmates take charge to create their own set of songs, with varying degrees of collaboration from their fellow scenesters. (You'll recall that the first of these was Kevin Drew's Spirit If..., which established the trend for albums with ellipses.) Reviewing Something For All of Us..., Spin declares, "Brendan Canning makes the case that he might be the guy really responsible for the Scene's glisten, summoning goose bumps with gossamer strings and arranging rockers that simmer but don't singe."

Multi-instrumentalist Mike Gordon – revered for his virtuoso bass playing and distinctive singing with the trailblazing jam band Phish – is releasing a new solo album on August 5th, right in the midst of feverish speculation about a Phish reunion; speculation that's been all but confirmed by the band members themselves. As Gordon tells us in this interview, the timing of all this increased Phish chatter is a bit "weird," mainly because he's so excited about touring with his new band in support of the upbeat new record, called The Green Sparrow.

              

Hometown post-punk heroes Sonic Youth played a free show for approximately 7,000 fans in Battery Park on July 4th as part of the River to River Festival. The decades-old band started the set with a spellbinding, spacey rendition of “She is Not Alone,” followed by the Kim Gordon-led classic “Bull in the Heather.” By the third song, a blistering “Silver Rocket,” 50-year-old frontman Thurston Moore seemed to have had enough of the photographers separating his band from the frenzied crowd, so he climbed down into the photo pit to thrash through the scrum, before getting back onstage to finish the song.

For their fourth full-length album, BITS, Oxford Collapse reportedly wrote over 30 songs – more than twice as many as they needed. "The economy has been bad, so we decided to write more songs," explains Michael Pace. It was originally assumed that BITS, their second album on Sub Pop Records, would be a double album, but in the end 13 tracks round out the CD, to be released on August 5th. One song, "The Birthday Wars" is on the band's MySpace page for your listening pleasure; the others can be sampled tonight when they play a hometown gig at Southpaw. The band's live show is a total blast, bursting with mean hooks and propulsive guitar work; their set at McCarren Pool last summer was the sleeper hit of the summer. Tickets cost $12 and also get you sets from Frightened Rabbit and The Lame Drivers.

Since he began his fruitful collaboration with Walter Becker back at Bard College in 1968, Grammy award-winning musician Donald Fagen has steadily distinguished himself as one of the smartest and most imaginative contemporary songwriters. As Steely Dan, the innovative duo lays claim to an impressive catalog of hit singles that somehow manage to stay fresh despite their everlasting ubiquity on classic rock stations across America. For whatever reason, people still can't help cranking up the volume when My Old School comes on for the millionth time, to say nothing of indispensable classics like Caves of Altamira, Sign in Stranger, or the soulful Dr. Wu.

In the years since the demise of the '90s cult phenomenon Soul Coughing, Mike Doughty's been assiduously cultivating a fruitful career in the singer-songwriter mold, though he's not above sharing the spotlight with other musicians like his admirer Dave Matthews. His 2005 album, Haughty Melodic, was his first to feature a full band; PopMatters praised the album's marriage of "post-Soul Coughing singer-songwriter compositional style with the tapestry of brightly colored sounds and snarled grooves of his now-defunct, aesthetically pleasing – in other words, fly – band."

In between campaign stops for March 4th primaries, Hillary Clinton put on a happy face about the recent Saturday Night Live skits that aired during the show's return last week, adding that "it's so nice to be a fashion icon at my age" (video here). Last night the SNL troupe was at it again with an opening skit that mirrored last week's. As Clinton (Amy Poehler) faced off with Obama (Fred Armisen), it became less clear who SNL might be supporting; their Fauxbama is pretty lifeless:

And the winner is. . .Despite having ancient looking graphics that can be seen from across the street, a set that looks like it is from a station in Iowa, and a love of sprinkling kicker stories throughout the newscast, WABC’s Eyewitness News and the station overall is yet again at the top of the ratings among the big three for February.

It's weird when a Reuters story seems like something on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update:

Kenyan elders may impose a fine on U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, payable in livestock, after a photo of her rival Barack Obama in robes dragged their people into the race for the White House.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off for the 20th time last night in Cleveland, Ohio, as they head towards the big March 4 primaries next week. The rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination "traded insults," as they accused each other of negative attacks regarding their health care policies.

Saturday Night Live is back! Wasting no time digging into primary season, the opening skit was a debate between Hillary and Barack, immediately answering the big question posed this week: who will be our Fauxbama? The answer: Fred Armisen! The Huffington Post raises the controversial points of this decision, given the previously-noted lack of minority players on the show (Armisen is not black - he's Venezuelan and Japanese - but has played Prince on SNL) and the whole "Is Obama black enough?" debate. As for the sketch itself, it was about the media's infatuation with Obama - and it even included Obama Girl!

Ralph Nader will be making another third-party bid for the Presidency in the 2008 election. The consumer advocate - and bane of many Democrats - made the announcement this morning on Meet the Press.

A Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Cincinnati became an opportunity for her to blast Barack Obama over what she called "blatantly false" campaign literature. Clinton said, "Shame on you, Barack Obama," as she held the literature in question. “It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

It is snowing and that means it is time for the local morning newscasts to fall into the normal winter storm clichés get trotted out. Reporters standing out in the cold and snow? Check. Live shots from some highway depot (bonus points if in New Jersey, natch)? Check. Pictures of the aftermath of people who can’t drive in the snow? Check. School closings? Check. Some sort of graphic branding for the coverage? Check.

Less than two weeks after the writers' strike has come to an end, and sixteen weeks after the show went dark, Saturday Night Live makes its return this weekend. Everyone is checking in with the troupe to see what they missed most, and it's no surprise that it's been the chance to chime in on the primaries (Lorne Michaels called his show's absent voice, "dispiriting"); the NY Times notes the missed opportunities (ahem, Mitt Romney).

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on Hudson St. in Manhattan, an under-a-train fatality at Lenox Ave. and Central Park North in Manhattan, and a stabbing on 34th St. in Queens.
• Auvryn Scarlett, the sanitation truck driver who mowed down a pair of British tourists as they strolled down a midtown sidewalk, was arraigned on manslaughter charges yesterday.
• Saturday Night Live will attempt to make up for lost time and laughs by putting its writers' and cast's noses to the grindstone with four straight weeks of new shows.
• Food for thought: Con Ed recommends customers save energy by turning off lights, yet the utility leaves its many office lights on.
• After ten straight losses to Obama, it may be the Alamo for Hillary Clinton in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Supporters are amassing funds to boost Clinton and offer "contrast" ads about Obama.
• The heiress to a vast (billions) fortune narrowly avoided death by deciding to sleep at her mom's place last week - that's what happens when the 400-pound Venetian chandelier over a bed tears free from the ceiling,
• Nathan Hale may have regretted having but one life to give for his country, but the Revolutionary War martyr has multiple locales of his execution.
• You think your super is crazy? Does yours write numerous signs threatening to kill you?
• The originator of the phrase "Ithaca Is Gorges" died last week at the age of 78.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

Date : Sunday Feb. 3rd / Location : Lexington and E 48th, Manhattan The video is pretty nuts. We've put in a call to the NYPD to see if an investigation was opened.

Thank goodness the weather is warming up this week - who knows how many kids will decide to see if their tongues will really stick to a frozen flagpole? Because that's what two boys in Indiana did. It's unclear if double-dog-dares were involved.

Sure, with the All Points West Fest announced, Coachella may not have the same appeal for east coasters this year, but the lineup announcement is still an exciting annual event. Over the last few years, it has established itself as the granddaddy and standard bearer of the American festival circuit. Unfortunately, most people are finding this year's lineup is a bit of a dud. Coachella's been operating at such a high level since 2003 that it was really only a matter or time before the lineups would stop exciting everyone, and while last year had it's plusses and minuses, this year seems to have really fallen off. Many of the smaller acts played the fest recently, something they used to try and avoid, and the headliners seem to be all over the place. Sure, a Portishead reunion is a treat, but how many Roger Waters fans are into Jack Johnson? Is a Love and Rockets reunion and Death Cab for Cutie really above the fold top draws? Doesn't seem like it. While we can't speak for their bottom line, which surely is doing okay, it might serve them well to try and scale back a bit in the future if this year has a bit of a drop off. Two days in the desert is more than enough for most, and to pack those days full with bands everyone can get excited about is a much more appealing scenario.

No arrests have been made, but a violent incident in Times Square originating at karaoke nightclub early Monday Spotlight LiveSpotlight Live resulted in the death of one man and the injury or hospitalization six others last night. A coat-check dispute, led to the ejection of a number of patrons and resulted in a deadly brawl.

Over 150 residents of an eleven-story building at Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg were evacuated yesterday after the Fire Department and Buildings Department found a number of violations. The building had been illegally converted to residences and a matzoh factory, complete with two silos of (highly combustible) grain in the basement. A neighboring building was cited as well, and the violations ranged from non-working standpipes (which firefighters use to deliver water to fires), illegal partitions, blocked exits, inoperable sprinkler systems and others, including the illegal grain silos for the unauthorized basement bakery.

Easy, sugar fiends - the new Magnolia Bakery outpost on the Upper West Side (Columbus at 69th Street) isn't quite opening at 11AM as Eater reported yesterday. We walked by around 9:30AM and the sign said that they anticipated a noon opening.

Native New Yorker Michael McKean is so identified with his ensemble work in Christopher Guest’s films – This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration – that it’s easy to forget that he created the iconic Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski in Laverne & Shirley some 32 years ago. What a long, strange career it’s been, with parts in almost-entirely forgotten films like Steven Spielberg’s 1941, hits like Clue and, in the 90s, a stint as the oldest person to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. In between there’s been a whole lot of supporting roles (his IMDB page counts 174 in film and television) as well as plenty of stage work; in 2004 he took over for Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway production of Hairspray. McKean is now onstage again and very funny in the must-see revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, which also stars Eve Best, Ian McShane and Raúl Esparza.