Sweet treats for the literary, the musical, the feminine, and the generally filthy.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Maynard Man

Remember this guy?





Maynard’s Mind

When he’s not singing for Tool and A Perfect Circle or tending to his secluded Arizona winery, Maynard James Keenan is focused on Puscifer, a musical project self-described as his “island of misfit ideas.” Puscifer’s sound is a bit more downtempo and ambient compared to his other bands, and we imagine that his live shows will be a wickedly warped voyage. Join in on Maynard’s party at Lincoln Theatre this March.

PUSCIFER featuring Maynard James Keenan from Tool and A Perfect Circle
w/ Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival
@ Lincoln Theatre • Washington, D.C.
Friday, March 5 & Saturday, March 6
7pm Doors for both nights.

On Sale Friday, January 22 at 10am


click here to purchase F 3/5 tickets

click here to purchase Sa 3/6 tickets

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Something Completely Different...

This just popped up on my Gmail, and I sort of can't believe it's not in a Kurt Vonnegut novel or something: Holiday Inn Offers Human Bed-Warming Service

I wonder if you can hand-pick your bed-warmer for that evening, based on body mass and proportional emitted heat, etc. Otherwise it would be a waste, obviously.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What Everyone Else is Blogging About

The new Vampire Weekend album, Contra is stirring up a lot of talk because it is, in the well-thought opinion of many, f--ing awesome. Though the polyphonic polyrhythms and reverb-heavy vocals on top of playful synth and samples is very Animal Collective-esque, (and familiar or predictable only in that comparison), the songs on this sophomore album are anything but sophomoric. Pretty impressive the Columbia graduates landed movie gigs (Stepbrothers and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) just two years after their inception in 2006. And the fact that they didn't go suddenly devoid of originality or creativity after first spark of fame is hopeful. It is Vampire Weekend who will be bringing us our Audiogasm of the Moment, "Holiday."

Monday, January 18, 2010

This is Hardcore!

Though we only caught the end of it, there was a very legitimate hardcore show at the Sonar in Baltimore last night, featuring the likes of Naysayer, Cruel Hand, Maximum Penalty, Forfeit, and Trapped Under Ice, local from B-more, and featuring one of the coolest servers at Sticky Rice, Brad. Again, only caught the last few songs, but heard enough to be totally blown away, impressed, and somehow comforted at seeing all the crucial pile-ups and hype that were being thrown onto stage. When are you ever going to see a totally agro, sweaty young thing,
all shirtless and flailing limbs, suddenly jump onstage to carefully right the microphone that was inadvertently knocked over? The culture surrounding hardcore is as unique and deep-rooted as the music itself.
In a segmented and often pretentious culture, the spirit of hardcore forms undeniable bonds, and buzzes with the truest of life-loving mentality. It's pretty cool to see the bands from an originally D.C.-initiated genre now tour as far away as the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Austria. Good luck to these guys on their tour, and hopefully I'll get to see an entire set soon!

Keep bringin' the real back to D.C.--we could use it!!

Oh yeah, just their amazing awesome Myspace, complete with killer rage and killer merch.




Monday, January 11, 2010

Brave New Decade

While it blows my mind that the first decade of the twenty-first century has already gone by, it is even more mind-bending how much more adept we become at adapting our surroundings to our aesthetic tastes (needs)? By which I mean that in an age of escapism through the filtering and sensationalizing of our reality, we start to demand more of art: it needs to be clever, the right mix of tongue-in-cheek irony and bold defiance to the bullshit coming in at us from all angles. It's been said before, and I will here say it again: anyone still thinking there is no Good new music coming out nowadays is sadly mistaken. Here is a list of awesome things recently brought to my attention that hopefully bring you as much comfort as it does me:

1. This band Witchcraft, from Sweden and around since 2000, who played at the Rock and Roll Hotel in 2006 but haven't had a new album since Alchemist came out in 2007. Incomparably badass and beautiful, the pillars of our great Valhalla!

2. This website DC Shows Dot Net where you can research upcoming local punk and hardcore shows. Definitely would have come in handy when I was a bored high schooler in the area, once upon a time...

3. A video of Phoenix playing a live, acoustic and seemingly impromptu version of "1901" on the streets of Paris...thanks to Tori for showing this to me at work!

4. A very predatory Tiger graced the cover of Vanity Fair this month, suggesting suggestively that perhaps we were wrong, and golf is sexy after all.


...or maybe it's just jacked on cash and rep. (Rep!!!)


5. I broke down and bought an exquisite, oh-so-Edie-Sedgwick faux-fur coat at H&M for an impossible sale price I couldn't turn down, and apparently it makes the owner equally hard to miss...though, "better to be looked over than to be overlooked!" (Mae West). Photos to follow.


6. Other awesome and recent things include Paste Magazine, Kate Hudson, and Lady Gaga for making videos good for putting on mute.