CMJ and Music Networks

Just wanted to post a link to a Flavorwire post (the new blog from Flavorpill), entitled: "Idolator Is Wrong: Why a Music Conference Called CMJ Will Affect What You Listen To." Agreed.

Also, speaking of music and blogs: I recommend checking out the Hype Machine, which follows music blogs and provides an aggregate resource of mp3 listening samples and reviews. You can even find mp3s from music blogs to download, as well as lots of great insider tips on bands and songs you might be interested in based on your musical tastes. I will sure be checking it out more often!

Now, on to Halloween preprations.

More Halloween Parties!

In addition to the previous Halloween parties I listed, I am considering checking out the following. I am sure they both will offer an evening of glorious, costumed revelry!

The Danger Party in Bushwick, this Friday, and the Halloween Masquerade Ball at Galapagos, in DUMBO, this Saturday.

From The Danger website, on the "Promised Land" Halloween party this Friday:

A classic deep-Brooklyn party in a massive 112 year old warehouse of towering steal and brick. *This is a space you haven't seen before.* Expect the epic. We've taken over the expansive remnants of a lost industrial age; a building steeped with urban history with towering ceilings and impossible broken beauty.

Enter at: 215 Ingraham St., Bushwick, Brooklyn

Take the L train to Jeffereson, walk one block north on Wyckoff to Flushing, then walk two blocks up Gardner to the warehouse. Listen for the music.

And, the press release from Galapagos Art Space, on the Halloween Masquerade Ball Saturday:

Saturday, November 1st,
Doors 9pm, show 10pm, $10

Gemini & Scorpio and Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra
cordially invite you to

Halloween Masquerade Ball

The Music: Michael Arenella's Dreamland Septet will cut loose with an authentic all-night 1920s hot jazz programme. Freebass, a DJ & live bass duo, will close the night with their infectious live swing remix dance set.

The Mischief: A ghoulish menagerie of haunting proportions, with magic, burlesque banshees, fire dancers and special guests, including: Greek Goddess of burlesque, Pandora; delightful tasseled and fringed vintage tap dancing by The Minsky Sisters; Harlequin ballerina go-go dancing by The Love Show dancers; and sexy fire hooping antics by The Gyronauts. Plus, fantastical face and body painting by All-Seeing Mystik Painteresse Elyzabeth. Hosted by burlesque's charming reprobate Bastard Keith.

Costume suggestions: Victorian-1940s evening attire, Venetian carnivale, masked villains.

Fujiya & Miyagi and Walter Meego

I saw Fujiya & Miyagi last night at Mercury Lounge, who went on, as advised by Bowery Presents, precisely at 9 pm. They were astoundingly polished live. Formed in 2000, the band is an English band comprised of four members. They use synths, programming, beats and drums, in addition to vocals, to create their sound. With clever electro-pop songs, Fujiya & Miyagi's music is an inectiously good time.

(Fujiya & Miyagi, above, at Mercury Lounge)

After Fujya & Miyagi's hour-long set, I was in for a pleasurable surprise: the band who followed them, Walter Meego, is another electro-pop experimental band that proved to be a sugar-coated fun time. Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, they just released their debut album, Voyager, this year. Walter-Meego has received very high acclaim so far, and has had several songs featured on Ugly Betty, as well as a song featured on a Heineken commercial. Again, though I'm a little ambivalent about such corporate reliance, I do think it's helped give the band publicity; and with their sound, they are destined for rising fame!

(The lead singer of Walter Meego, Justin Sconza, above. At Mercury Lounge.)

Walter Meego is playing tonight, Thursday, at Le Royale in the West Village at 9 pm, Friday at Club 205 at 1 am, and Saturday, 2 pm, at Piano's. I strongly recommend checkin them out for some disco-electro fun. They even have their own blog here.

Fright Fest 2008!

As Halloween approaches, I have several events in mind for some fearsome, horrific fun. There is, of course, the Village Parade. But beyond that, where to go, what to do?

I am sure almost every venue will be throwing some sort of Halloween-related party or generally spread the spirit of gloriously spooky costumed revelry. Let's take a look at some of the prominent and not-so-prominent events that hold that extra-special blood-curdling appeal.

First up: The Central Park Pumpkin Festival! This Saturday, 10/25, from 3 pm to 7 pm, at the Central Park Naumberg Band Shell, by the East side of 72nd St, will be an afternoon-long festivity with free pumpkins, music and costumed fun! Appropriate for all ages.

Next Up: Lady Gaga at Highline Ballroom, at 431 W. 16th St, between 9th and 10th Ave. She will be performing alongside Semi-Precious Weapons and nightlife icon Amanda Lepore. The event is this Tuesday, 10/28, and is only $10 in advance from going.com. Doors are at 9; event starts at 10; and dressing/glamming up is mandatory!

The Halloween Robot Rock Masquerade at Le Royale, at 7th Ave South and Leroy St. With advance tickets at only $20 and a two-hour vodka and beer open bar, it sounds like you get more than what you pay for!

See the GBH site for RSVP info. Le Royale is a small-sized dance bar with 2 floors, with chic West Village style.

Webster Hall, at 125 E. 11th St., hosts an annual "Webster Hell" Halloween party and is apparently the official NYC Parade Afterparty, this being its 35th year.
All 4 floors will be open, starting at 8 pm. There will also be a titillatingly terrifying performance by Demon Queen and her demonic dancers. Tickets are available online, at $35 for standard admission. At 2 am is their famous costume contest, with the grand prize of $5,000. There will definitely by some extraordinarily scary, haunting costumes here.

The Delancey, at 768 Delancey St, between Clinton and Attorney, hosts a Zombie Prom night Thursday, October 30th, for only $10 and the Witches Ball (price tba) October 31st. Both parties are in the downstairs section. This is somewhere I recommend hitting up or some low-cost unpretentious, ghastly fun.

The Space Monster Mashup Ball on Halloween, starting at 9 pm, is a space-age, out-of-this-world costume party with a galactic fashion show. Hmm, how to make my sailor costume space-aged? Where can I get an astronaut helmet...(or how can I make one?)? The party is at PINK, at 199 Bowery (at Spring St), goes til 4 am and will also feature prizes and Space Pirate punch. Advance admission is $20 and can be purchased from the site's website, or for $30 at the door if the event does not sell out. Lookin' intergalactically stellar!

On Saturday, November 1st, Public Assembly -- at 70 N. 6th St. in Williamsburg -- is having a "Holla-Ween 2!" party, which marks the 2nd anniversary of the Crooked Disco parties, is only $5 with RSVP and has an open bar. Sounds too good to pass up!
The open bar is from 10-11 pm; there will also be free candy there AND a $100 costume contest.
For more info, see the Crooked Disco site.

And, of course, you can always roam the streets of NYC and follow your instincts in your hunt for blood for your Halloween thrills.

More CMJ: Princess Superstar, Moby, Matthew Dear & More!

I am overwhelmed by the amount of upcoming shows, tonight, tomorrow night, this weekend...

Here are some more recommendations:

This is tonight. I am thinking of checking out Fujiya and Miyagi at 9 at Mercury Lounge (see my last post), but if it is too packed to get in, and/or afterward, this is another extraordinarily promising event. See Princess Superstar's Myspace here. She is another really funny, clever female electro-rapper, and I expect it will be a good show.

And, above, this Saturday, is Matthew Dear's Big Hands, at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Also, take note, Princess Sperstar, along with Moby and Holy Ghost, will be doing their same thing again (live show for the former and DJ sets for the latter two) Thursday night at (Le) Rouge also, for $10.

CMJ Music Festival! Oct 21-25

Tonight marks the opening of the CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival, which is going on through October 25th and features some really well-known up-and-coming music, as well as films and panels. The ironic thing is that, while I had known about the upcoming CMJ festival for some time, I had completely coincidentally passed by the CMJ registration session today, which was going on around the NYU campus by Washington Square. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to scope it out and/or register, as I was on my way to a panel sponsored by NYU's SCPS Publishing department on the Media and Privacy. More on that in another post. Thus, with CMJ now lodged more firmly in my brain, I returned home after the panel and found several e-mails in my inbox regarding CMJ shows.

Obviously, I need to check some of it out: and I recommend CMJ-related events to anyone looking to see some of their well-liked indie bands and/or discover & check out new music/film/etc. So, apparently when you register for the CMJ Festival, you get priority and discounted access to all of the shows. Check out the CMJ site for more info about registration, but beware, registration ain't cheap: it starts at $275 for an individual student badge. But, there is a LOT of music going on, as well as the panels, film and comedy. For a full list of the artists, see the CMJ list here.

I am tentatively planning on seeing Fujiya and Miyagi tomorrow, Wednesday, October 22nd, at Mercury Lounge. But, if I am not feeling up to it or do not arrive in time to get a ticket, I am considering scoping out Webster Hall on Thursday, October 23rd, which will be featuring Crystal Castles and has Fujiya and Miyagi as an opener. (It is, however, sold out, so lurking on Craigslist and/or around Webster Hall will hopefully - fingers crossed! - yield a ticket.)

Wednesday night later, at 12:30 am, also features another band I would love to see, and I recommend checking it out to anyone up for seeing a show that late on a weeknight. Beach House is playing at (le) Poisson Rouge, at 158 Bleeker St. This is a relatively new venue I have heard great things about and haven't yet had the pleasure of checking out. And tickets for this show are only $10(!).

Also, the Muslims (I know, not a politically correct name) are a band that has been getting some good attention. They are playing apparently several shows in the next couple of nights, including at the Cake Shop, Mercury Lounge, Piano's and Don Pedro's on Thursday, October 23rd. Mind you, the first three of these venues are all on the L.E.S. and Don Pedro's is in Williamsburg (or Bushwick, depending on who you ask). But I looked at the times more carefully: The Cake Shop show is at 2:30 am, so technically is a late late Wednesday night show (I think? Unless it's a late Thurs show...); and the Piano's party is at 1 pm and part of the Brooklyn Vegan party. I am considering seeing the Muslims for the myopenbar.com event Thursday (if I don't see Crystal Castles), where they will be performing with several other bands that evening at Don Pedro's for $5, alongside a 3-hour open bar with Southern Comfort drinks.

I also just found this artist as a recommendation from the Brooklyn Vegan website: Little Boots. She is adorable, with a good voice, dance-pop grooves and some intelligent song lyrics! She has a few gigs going on this week. See her Myspace page for show and DJ set dates.



(Little Boots video above)

I could continue going on, but I'll stop there and hope I've whetted your appetite for some up-and-coming music. Check out the CMJ site for full listings!

"Happy-Go-Lucky": Movie on Pursuit of Happiness

I saw Mike Leigh's movie Happy-Go-Lucky last night. A British film by the director of Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake, it is, as director Leigh calls it in an interview with The Star, an "anti-miserabilist" film. That sums it up succinctly: the film is about a cute, diminutive cheerful woman, "Poppy," who manages to stay keenly optimistic despite the woes and unfriendliness she encounters in her life.


An English film, it was just recently released in the US and has received astounding reviews and substantial acclaim already. Besides its sentimentality and optimism in a markedly cynical and difficult time, what is striking about the film is its really jarring, realistic quality. Though I found the film slow at times (at a full two hours, it was on the longer side), I found myself forgetting that the film is fictional and the characters are, indeed, simply characters. In an interview with New York Magazine, Mike Leigh elaborates that Sally Hawkins, the actress who plays Poppy, was intended to be at the center of the film before he had worked out the plot details. It is Leigh's unconventional directorial process, wherein he determines the actors before the roles, and the actors improvise and work out the nuances of their characters and their lives, that gives the film its highly realistic, personable quality.

A review of Happy-Go-Lucky in New York Magazine by David Edelstein describes Poppy's outlook as much more than mere whimsy, but rather a deep "design for living"; and I would agree with this reviewer. It encourages us to go out and seek our inner-Poppy. The film is testimony that it is possible, even with unsettling and discouraging circumstances, to maintain a positive outlook in life.

See the official movie site here.