In this week's issue, we headed north to tell the story Westchester's punk rock scene from the mid '90s into the late aughts. Here, find a collection of flyers advertising local shows, courtesy of Morgan Storm's Allison Gray and the Genuine Imitations' Dave Haack. Note the opener in slide 6it's none other than an early incarnation of My Chemical Romance.
As spotted and carried away from the intersection of 4th and Bowery this morning. Could this flyer possibility be legitimate? Interscope, Young Money, and Universal are in fact all the same company (if three very disparate wings of it); those are indeed their logos. But is this really how bad it's gotten, that Universal Records is A&Ring via photocopied, pasted-up pieces of paper? That seemed doubtful. So we called the number, and got a pre-recorded message:
"Below is a video we made to celebrate and get pumped up!" says Jelly NYC. Ok.
Hey, internet people who think confronting nature in Williamsburg means getting drunk outside. Another series of free outdoor shows were just announced five minutes before they're about to start. The organizers are Jelly NYC, the famous people behind the Pool Parties at the Williamsburg Waterfront, and these Saturday-afternoon shows will take place at a new venue called the Rock Yard. The first one is this weekend, but since you'll be at Siren's 10th anniversary Festival, let's just pretend that the first one is July 31 with Priestbird. Other notable names are Bun B (!), Frankie and the Outs, Motel Motel, and ZAZA. There is also "A VERY SPECIAL GUEST" on September 11, curated by Bikes in the Kitchen. Obvious guesses: Japanther, Spank Rock, pr Matt & Kim, which could actually be feasible since their fall tour doesn't start until September 15, but you didn't hear it from us. Full schedule and flyer after the jump.
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.
The Yummy Fur, the delightfully skuzzy Glasgow indie-pop band, didn't make it across the ocean in their initial 1992-1999 run; college radio love never quite did buy anybody a plane ticket, either then or now. But being in Franz Ferdinand definitely is good for a transatlantic flight, and so drummer Paul Thompson, who got his start in the Yummy Fur and went on to become a big, big rock star, will be making the trek to America this month with the band's original frontman John McKeown and long-serving guitarist Brian McDougall. The occasion? Ten years since the band's breakup, plus a What's Your Rupture?-issued greatest hits comp.
ThreeSOTCobsessions in the same building, as part of the New Jersey label Don Giovanni's showcase at Bowery Ballroom on February 6th with Shellshag, the Measure, Black Wine, and Groucho Marxists. Tickets still available. Definitely the most official show the forgetters have yet to play. Not so much for road vets Screaming Females and JEFF the Brotherhood, though they don't often get to headline in venues as big as this one. 16+, so bring your little sister maybe.
"She has the ambition to be a pop star," says A-Trak about his one-time paramour Kid Sister in this week's issue of the Voice. "She knows what she wants." Indeed--Kid Sister's years-in-the-making Ultraviolet debut finally came out yesterday, the end of a long and publicly agonized affair that began with a 2007 Kanye West guest verse and a Billboard-charting song, "Pro Nails." Did she deliver? Opinions differ. She plays New York tonight for something like an official release party with A-Trak, Catchdubs, and probably a whole horde of other MTVU Woodie Awards after-party refugees--RSVP, and decide for yourself.
If you RSVP here, and get there before 10pm. Consider this the official SOTC lock of next week, although you didn't need us three experts to tell you that. Probably time to start making that CMJ schedule, huh.
Not the first time this year they've gone the secret elaborate MySpace free show route. RSVP here. Maybe Cam will show up this time. Video of Pusha T flashing a promo copy of Till the Casket Drops while simultaneously slipping in the fact that the record's been pushed back to December 8th, right here: