Here we have a flier recently encountered in Park Slope. Perhaps you are familiar with MiniBoone, the upstart indie-rockers laying ruin to the NYC music scene and, in their idle moments, teaching the impressionable youth of Park Slope/Prospect Heights pentatonic scales and the circle of fifths and the chords to Bush's "Glycerine." As James' contact info is omitted here, try the band's website. We are honored, by the way, to be quoted in this missive, and while I personally was not responsible for the David Byrne time-traveler conceit (surprisingly!), I'm sure it's totally accurate, and thus James is fully capable of having your kid bashing out "Wake Up" or "Psycho Killer" or whatever you desire in no time. [Thanks to Ms. Meltzer, and happy birthday.]

We understand in great detail what a street team is (which we learned from listening to VoiceStreet over cubicle walls), and the importance of wide-scale sticker/flyer promotion, but is there really anyone out there, small business or new-to-town band, who would spot this serial-killer note taped to a Williamsburg pole on Metropolitan Avenue and dial the number (which you can't see here)? Even these shady, Hotmail-addressed Craig's List ads offering both hand-to-hand poster/flyer "commuter traffic distribution" offer a better sales pitch and cheaper rate: "5,000 FLYERS or Less for $475," which works out to be a little more than 10 cents a flyer. And in the event you have something smaller scale, you've got a couple of better options, including an important one called Do-It-Yourself. Then again, if we're truly missing something, and you'd like David Berkowitz's phone number, I'd be more than happy to pass it along, but not before making you explain why you're not dumb.

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Magik Markers at Shea Stadium, photos Rebecca Smeyne

So last night was the beginning of L Magazine's ambitious little festival that could, Northside Festival, and it is, by all appearances, cozier and far more endearingly starry-eyed than our old embattled, but lovable glue-bound horse CMJ, whose badges cost eight-quadrillion dollars and hydra-headed geography makes it impossible to navigate more than a few venues in a day. Northside is also unlike last weekend's Hillstock, because it takes place entirely in Williamsburg and your homie's landlord won't call up angrily to shut the thing down. So even though there's been the usual comment-section vile about this ambitious little hood-centric festival ("It's like any other night in Williamsburg" is something I've heard more than once--not true, I would never step foot in Spike Hill on any other night except to use the toilet), we're rooting for Northside's success, and not just because one-third of SOTC lives on the Southside.

That said, there's already been a bit of controversy with Northside--and it has nothing to do with Jon Norris. Last night, anyone who arrived at the East Williamsburg live-recording studio/show space Shea Stadium for the Magik Markers, Marnie Stern, and The Fly Girlz/Nine II Thesaurus, and Dynasty Handbag--a show listed on both the Northside official schedule and handbook--was given a flyer disavowing the show's affiliation with the Northside and told that badge or not, the show cost $10. Oh yeah--and Marnie Stern had cancelled. The leaflet, scanned by photog Rebecca Smeyne:

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Pretty sure I've got this right: Dopplereffekt are a mysterious 15-year-old Detroit electronic-music crew veiled in secrecy and German pseudonyms -- an even more deadpan and reserved Kraftwerk, let's say. Pepper them with prying questions Saturday night at Le Poisson Rouge, in a rousing-late night affair partially helmed by friend-of-SOTC Piotr Orlov, last seen in these pages wincing through a Junior Boys debacle this show will be much much better than, promise. Kieran Hebden and Santiago Salazar will drop by to DJ as well.

I first met visual artist Jack Dylan at POP Montreal a few years ago. He was living with Graham van Pelt, the guitarist for Think About Life and the front man for a band-you-should-love-by-now, Miracle Fortress. At the time, they were both based in Friendship Cove, a massive, bi-level loft space that doubled as a weekend show venue. (They'd previously been evicted from a similar space dubbed The Electric Tractor.) Dylan has been handling poster duties for POP Montreal for the past four years, combining images plucked from superhero comics with portraits of Mile End's hipster royalty. (He's also responsible for some truly epic oil paintings, including one that showed a bereaved Al Gore cradling a dying panda bear.) I spoke with the artist about the newest round of posters for this years POP, which include inspirations from Edward Hopper, Woody Allen, and local Montreal make-out spots. -- Scott Indrisek

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Click me and I grow.

We Ragazzi
Also on the Bill: These Are Powers, Matteah Baim
Venue: Union Pool
Date: Tuesday, April 24
What To Expect Based Solely on the Flier: Serpents. Tongue wars. Nearly fatal hugs.

Background, Part I: Matteah Baim is half the "white-bearded metal-lullaby band" Metallic Falcons with CocoRosie's Sierra Casady.

Background, Part II: We Ragazzi broke up, reunited, broke up again, reunited again. Pitchfork reported. We had no clue either.

DOWNLOAD
We Ragazzi, "Walking Before All Shadows"
These Are Powers, "Funeral Xylophone"
Metallic Falcons, "Four Hearts" [5 Acts]

PREVIOUSLY FEATURED FLIERS
Volume 3: Cheeseburger Does Friday the 13th
Volume 2: Sto's Parts & Labor Poster
Volume 1: Project Matt's Saturdazed

Send your fliers, jpgs, and posters to sotc@villagevoice.com or you're gonna keep getting photographs of brunch-diner foyers. Thank you.

Cheeseburger (10 pm)
Also on the bill: Enon (11 pm) and the Muggabears (9 pm)
Venue: Mercury Lounge
Date: Friday, April 13
What To Expect Based Solely on the Flier: Recyclables. Dead sorority girls. Memories worthy of LOL e-mailed forwards.

Designer: Cheeseburger guitarist Christy Karacas

Concept: This one's pretty self-explanatory for a perpetually-and-proudly drunk Brooklyn band whose press shots are set in the Greenpoint Tavern.

I got a quote anyway: "I spoke to Christy," writes Paul Hanly, the press guy over at Cheeseburger's label Kemado, "He said he wanted to have the flier be a drunken frat party photo turned into Friday the 13th. Kinda like the ultimate out-of-hand situation."

PREVIOUS WORK

DOWNLOAD
Cheeseburger, "Derby Day"

PREVIOUSLY FEATURED FLIERS
Volume 2: Sto's Parts & Labor Poster
Volume 1: Project Matt's Saturdazed

Keep the fliers, jpgs, and posters coming to sotc@villagevoice.com. Thank you.

Parts & Labor, Big Bear, Gowns, Alex Delivery
Venue: Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg
Date: Friday, April 6
What To Expect Based Solely on the Flier: Spiritual healing, Christian Scientist lice-treatment, tag-team armpit smelling.

Artist: Sto, co-founder of Cinders Gallery in Williamsburg (where, yes, YACHT is playing on April 14).

Concept: "I've been working on a series of paintings and drawings exploring faith healers, snake handlers, telepathic powers, and possession," Sto e-mails. "I love the look on people's faces when they are in that state of being possessed, the idea of believing in something so intensely! With music, I feel that a kind of possession can happen to the performer and to the audience."

How Sto ended up doing this poster: "I've known BJ [Warshaw] and Dan [Friel] from Parts and Labor for awhile now, they played one of their first shows several years ago at an art show i was having in this garage space I was living in Greenpoint. . . I had Dan play a solo set of music at the opening of my most recent solo show of paintings at Cinders. I also drew the cover for the first record they released on their label Cardboard Records and another one [below] for one of my favorite Brooklyn bands Pterodactyl."

RELATED WORK

DOWNLOAD
Parts & Labor, "A Great Divide"
Big Bear, "Track 01"
Gown, "Feathers"

SOTC's sick of hunting around for fliers on FoxSpace, getting GOATSE'd, and therefore giving up. So make life easier and send your fliers, posters, jpgs to sotc@villagevoice.com. Thank you.

Time to step up your flier game. Once a week, SOTC's going to hype a local event based solely on the flier's awesomeness. First up, a gangsta squirrel with a diamond-stud mini-grill attacks Manhattan!

Project Matt and Nick Catchdubs
Venue: Home Sweet Home, 131 Chrystie Street, Manhattan
Date: Saturday, February 24
What To Expect Based on the Flier: Hairy blinged-out beasts giving you the eye

Designer: Project Matt of the notorious FUNTIME PARTY TEAM. "I throw events downtown for downtown kids. Sometimes I may venture to the MEATpacking district or to Brooklyn, but I try to keep it street, nah mean?"

Concept: "The flyer is kind of a joke. My girlfriend is a super-big animal fan, so I try to incorporate a new animal into the flyer each week. And if you have ever been to Home Sweet Home, you will know that there is all kinds of taxidermy at the venue, so it kind of works. . . oh, about the bling. I like gangster rap so i thought it would be funny to kit the lil' guy with a fat chain."

Project Matt's event pitch: "Every Saturday, we do a guest DJ and this week is Nick Catchdubs from FADER. He's a really ill DJ and plays everything from Baltimore club remixes to crazy '80s jams with reggae and dancehall smashed in there too."

Contact: projectmatt[nospam]mac.com

PAST WORK