What's Lizzie Linking to?

Drive Thru (in Bushwick), created by D. Billy.

* The Brooklyn stoop drinking case from Sept 2008 was stalled due to Judge Jerome Kay believing that his long-time residency in Brooklyn would cause him to be bias to the case (pro or con, he did not say). [Gothamist]
* North Brooklyn's industrial heritage through old train tracks. [BushwickBK]
* Mike Lupica says A-Rod did in fact give us the truth about his steroid use in his public apology yesterday, but it was still just A-ROD's version of the truth. (That's right, I'm a Yankee's fan.) [NY Daily News]
* "Fucking shit," he realized. "I live in the new McKibben Lofts." A story of Bushwick. [My Memoirs]
* NYC Graphics interviews Al Jaffe, Mad Magazine's veteran Fold-In artist.
* The WHOLE LIVE WAVES SHOW, from Market Hotel! [NY Taper]
* Go see Hunger, a riveting look at the IRA hunger strike. [Film Details]
* I will not miss the next Chili Takedown @ Union Pool (last one was Sunday). [FreeWilliamsburg]

Music Suggestions:
The Low Anthem (American/Folk/Indie), The Happiness Project (interview segments, looped, and set to music by Charles Spearin), Laura Marling (Alternative/ Folk)

Video Monday: St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and The Depreciation Guild

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but here's another St. Vincent video. It's from Other Music!! (I love that store), and I've never heard Annie Clark sing this first song before :)


ST. VINCENT from Dig For Fire on Vimeo.


Backstage Sessions : Sea Wolf - Middle Distance Runner from Hard to Find a Friend on Vimeo.


The Depreciation Guild // Blip Festival 2007: The Videos from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

And a lil' Motel Motel. I love these guys.



Happy Monday!

Beirut (w/ Kaki King) @ BAM (02/07/09) UPDATE: Video below

Beirut @ MHOW (photo by Ryan Muir)

Last night was unseasonably warm for February in Brooklyn, which made the trip to BAM for an epic and thoroughly unique concert even more enjoyable (G train trips can be trying). My roommate was a bit late, so we missed the beginning of Kaki King, but did catch her trying to pull out her "rock moves" (a strong kick outward while playing 11-3, which she later said sucked because she hit her volume knob on her guitar and sent the whole thing out of tune). No matters, it was the engrossing melodies and vibe she exuded that made me love her performance last night. Honestly, next to Annie Clark, I've never seen a girl play the guitar like Kaki King can. Her personality and small figure reminded me instantly of Juno, but the way her fingers pluck and glide across the body of a guitar literally left me speechless and to wonder what kind of trance she must get into to play like that. Also, her drummer was AMAZING. My roommate is currently learning the drums, and she laughed out loud as how intimidating seeing something like that was for her. For the last song, Kaki King laid on her back and stared at the beautifully ornate ceiling of the BAM orchestra house while she took strong advantage of her acoustic (oh, yeah, and she told us a story halfway through of a man who died on safari because a zebra mistook him for a female zebra and...well...he died from anal trauma. Kaki King wasn't sure if she could say anal in an opera house, but did it anyway). As a Brooklynite, she looked thoroughly in love with last night's performance.
And then, Beirut came on.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats as the pared down, 5 man band took the stage, and we all collectively waited for Zac to say his first words, words that in the end created a panic.

"We tried this last night," Zac said, "And it worked pretty well, so...stand up! Come forward."

After a moments hesitation ("Is he serious?"), the entire opera house's main floor went CRAZY! People rushed from their seats into the aisles and down to the front of the stage to try and stake out a prime spot. Luckily, our seats were close enough that getting to the stage was easy (we were about 5 feet from Zac and less than a foot from the right side of the stage). There were some hugely tall guys in front of us, which sucked (though I can't get too mad because my brother is 6 foot 5, and I always try to sympathize with a strong love of music and absurd height). But really, who cared about all of it? We were 5 feet from BEIRUT! And the concert was just lovely, I must say. Those brass instruments are so INTENSE when you're right next to them! And everyone was swaying and dancing together as the songs built in crescendo and Zac danced around on stage with his ukulele or horn (or really, just by himself). He kept joking around with the audience and explained to us that he didn't know if this whole, "Bring the audience to the front of the stage," thing was kosher in an opera house, but that he loved people standing close because the stage felt lonely without them. He also struggled with a knot on his ukulele for a bit, and said he didn't trust volunteers after a million people offered to help.

After about 7 songs, the gang brought out the Vassar Orkestra to help with the rest of the set, and that just sent the whole performance over the top. There was a girl in front of me freaking out because she knew about half of the people in the orchestra, and kept trying to distract them while they played.

They ended with a 3 song encore (including Sunday Smile :) ) and Zac took someone's feathered headband from the audience and using it as a blindfold for their last song before thanking us for a wonderful night, leaving the collective brass-pop-rock-loving population of the 5-boroughs to fan out into the brisk streets of Brooklyn, and stand in awe for a few minutes before going about our business. One thing can surely be said about last night: everyone left with a truly unique musical experience under our belts, and a lovely memory of an intimate show with Beirut in a grand opera house.

UPDATE: Here's a video from youtube of the performance from the upper balcony. It makes me that much more grateful that I was one of those small heads so close to the stage!

What's Lizzie Linking to?

Uphill Climb, from the series Sweet Science, credited to Elizabeth Fraser Photography.

* New Yorker has decided on their top 12 Eustace covers from 2008, and gave the wonderful Banksy some love.
* Velo Brooklyn (Bushwick's lean, mean bike shop) gets profiled at BushwickBK (preview: it's owned by a young chick!)
* If you buy chicken from Murray's, you can now track where it came from and find out more about that local farm!
* BrooklynVegan reports on the Motel Motel show (amazing!) at Market Hotel. Definitely the band to look out for in 2009.
* Photosmashing makes me want to break out my Holga camera again.
* The beautiful, new site NYC Graphic has a chat with Dean Haspiel who is "Bleeding Hipster Ink".
* 25 Random Things (the Facebook chain letter), has taken over the internet. (NYtimes.com)
* Tell my brother to update his site.

Music Suggestions:
Passion Pit (electronic/pop), Sondre Lerche (pop/indie/dub), and The Depreciation Guild (pop/experimental).

Annie Clark (aka: St. Vincent)

So, it's not Monday, but I did want to add a few additional videos for this week, specifically of Annie Clark. Oh, how I love this lady. Clark's voice can bring you into a trance-like state of being, either soothing you to the bone (as in Marry Me), or make you wondering how such intense music can come from such a doe-eyed woman. She reminds you in the end to just breath, sit back, and listen, enjoy. If you know me personally, these videos will be nothing new (except for the last one that I recently found on shoottheplayer.com), but they're worth watching again.
Happy Tuesday :)

#67.2 - St Vincent - Marry Me Uploaded by lablogotheque

St. Vincent - These Days (DUMBO Session)


St. Vincent - Paris is Burning (DUMBO Session)


St Vincent: What Me Worry? from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Other Videos:
Black Cab Session: Dig A Pony
DUMBO Sessions: Your Lips are Red
La Bologotheque

For more information on St. Vincent, please visit the myspace, or Annie's blog, or their website (though, sadly, nothing has been updated in quite sometime). The newest bit of information I have seen is that St. Vincent plans to play a show on February 26th in San Francisco, California.

Video Monday | I heart VIMEO

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.


alela diane | "dry grass & shadows" from gorillavsbear.net on Vimeo.


Andrew Bird: Plasticities from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Fruit Bats: Love in a Compact Compartment

Fruit Bats (from their myspace album section).

Band: Fruit Bats
Label: Sub Pop
Members (currently):
Eric D. Johnson, Graeme Gibson, Chris Sherman, Ron Lewis, Sam Wagster
Discography:
Echolocation (2001) Mouthfuls (2003) Spelled in Bones (2005)

One of my favorite bands for a long while now has been the Fruit Bats, a self-defined indie/bluegrass band originally from Chicago but now based out of Seattle, WA. Funny thing is that they have not produced any new music since 2005, and "Fruit Bats" has been an every changing cast of musicians, the only consistent member being Eric Johnson, Fruit Bat's original founder, yet these things do not stop me from listening to the band on a steady basis. My brother turned me on to this wonderful band (as he usually does) when I was still in high school (2002?), and I've been hooked ever since. The Fruit Bats are odd, because I often feel they really personify why great music can sometimes exist without having the strongest cohesion between melodies and lyrics. (I can often love their songs, bouncing my foot and singing along, yet then look closer at their lyrics and wonder, "What the hell are they talking about?"). My favorite record of theirs is Mouthfuls, with Echolocation being a close second, and Spells in Bones a farther third. Echolocation is a wonderful supplement to Mouthfuls, but I think that they did not hit the same cord on Spells in Bones as they did on the other two, and perhaps this was a reason they drew apart as a band. Nevertheless, they tug at my heart strings, and I will forever enjoy listening to their music on a warm summer day, in the car, while driving to some distant waterhole (sorry, I am nostalgic for Austin, TX).

Why my sudden interest in these guys who have not been recording since '05, you ask? Fruit Bats recently announced that they are in the studio again and TOURING none the less! I have already put my heartfelt plea in for a NYC (Brooklyn, I hope) show through their blog, and I am sure they will give it a strong consideration. This band shows its greatness over and over again to me, because when I joined their mailing list and expressed my love of their music (along with my joy to hear that they are starting things up again) I got a personal response of, "Excited to start playing again, too! Speak to you soon!" When a band takes time to acknowledge their fans, I think that is just wonder. Please check them out! You will not be disappointed.

Tour Dates (as of today):
Feb 2: The Casabah @ 8pm (Santa Barbara, California)
Feb 3: The Echo @ 8pm (Los Angeles, California)
Feb 5: The Ike Box@8pm (Salem, Oregon)
Feb 6: Mission Theatre @ 8pm (Portland, Oregon) <--check out the link for an interesting write-up on the band.
Feb 7: The Vera Project @ 8pm (Seattle, Washington)
Mar 28: Schubas @ 9pm (Chicago, Illinois) <-- I would give my right arm to see this show. Apr 2: The Picador @ 8pm (Iowa City, Iowa)

Go to their blog, Myspace, or website for more information, music, and love!