Modern Life is Rubbish at the Korova Milk Bar

Starting this Tuesday, January 31st, The Christopher Effect and The Lecherous Frenchman present Modern Life Is Rubbish at the Korova Milk Bar - a weekly Britpop/Shoegaze/DreamPop/FuzzBox event. You'll hear everything from Oasis to Bloc Party, Lush to Editors, Swervedriver to iForward Russia!

Modern Life is Rubbish: every Tuesday from 8pm to 2am at the Korova Milk Bar (200 Ave. A between 12th and 13th). $3 drafts and $4 wells from 8pm to 10pm. No cover.

See ya on Tuesday!

[Here's the outstanding setlist].

Not really a reunion, but...

As much as the NME wants it to be, Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke playing together do not make a Smiths reunion. Nevertheless, they played together on stage for the first time since 1987 on Saturday night at a cancer benefit at the MEN Arena. Marr and Rourke played "How Soon is Now?" together, before Rourke left the stage and Marr returned to playing new tracks from his band The Healers. New Order also played the benefit, playing a set completely comprised of Joy Division tracks. And the evening's finale was a group effort of numerous musicians doing a rendition of "Wrote for Luck" with Shaun Ryder on vocals. That must have been a sight.

Baggy!

One Louder has an excellent theme running now - Where Have All The Baggy's Gone? - focusing on the lesser known baggy bands of 1989-1994 (i.e., not The Stone Roses or Happy Mondays). Great stuff so far - The Farm (whose "Groovy Train" I play a lot while DJ'ing), The Inspiral Carpets, and The Soup Dragons (really the only "baggy" band to break mainstream America). This is a pretty hilarious trip down memory lane. I'm just waiting for a write-up of New Fast Automatic Daffodils and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

Modern Life is Rubbish at Korova

Oh, The Lecherous Frenchman and I are throwing a new party. Modern Life Is Rubbish at the Korova Milk Bar on Ave. A, every Tuesday night from 8pm to 2am. Britpop / Shoegaze / Dreampop / Fuzzbox. See ya there.

Editors at Rothko

Another great show by Editors. After all of the venue nonsense, Editors finally settled in at Rothko. They played a very similar, and short, set (if not the exact same) to the Mercury show, but seemed a little more into it. The crowd was much more vocal than at the Friday show - perhaps because the venue was packed by 10pm and they didn't take the stage until 11:30, so they were ready to rock.

After two nights of standing in front of the stage, I realized how great of a guitarist Chris Urbanowicz is. What I've always liked about Editors is the fact that their guitars are almost synth like, and along with the fast, precise drumming, they create a great dance rock sound withoyt using synths. And as I watched how quick and precise Urbanowicz was with his guitar, I was impressed at how well Editors recreated the "synth" sounds live.

Tom Smith gives a very emotional performance - almost Chris Martin-esque at times. And he's a nice chap too - I had a quick chat with Chris and him at the afterparty about how brilliant "Munich" is.

And even though the venue issues were crazy, Nick Marc did a good job securing both the live venue and the afterparty venue (Fontana's) after finding out that The Annex was not going to be ready for the show.

More Editors absurdity

From our friends at Plus 1 Management:

Due to unforeseen delays in construction on the Annex (which is a new club), tonight’s show (Saturday, January 21) has been moved to Rothko. Rothko is located just around the corner at 116 Suffolk Street between Rivington and
Delancey. To get there from the Annex, walk South to Rivington then walk East 4 blocks to Suffolk street. The club is just a 1/2 block south on Suffolk.

Rothko is a smaller club and capacity will be limited. Doors are now at 9pm. Due to the limited capacity, please arrive by 10pm in order for us to accommodate ticket-holders and will-call.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Ridiculous. This is gonna be a complete goat rodeo.

Editors at Mercury Lounge

Outstanding show last night by Editors. They were much more animated on stage than I expected. Much like The Back Room, the band seemed more into the faster paced songs (as did the crowd). And polite Tom Smith kept thanking the crowd for coming out because the band "was so faraway from home." Highlights were "Blood," "Munich," and "Fingers in the Factory." Yet for all the anticipation, this wasn't the greatest show of all time - perhaps the relatively short set had something to do with it. We'll see what happens at The Annex tonight.

The crowd was more subdued than I thought it would be. For such a Craigslist freakout, the packed room was surprisingly still, as if no one knew the songs. There was a crew right at the front of the stage who were constantly jumping around, but that was about it.

And let's not forget The Picture, who opened the night. Upbeat indie rock with subtle synths from this NY 5 piece. Their album Connect was just released, and it's definitely worth picking up.

Brits invade Mercury Lounge in March

A bunch of "hot" British bands will set upon the Mercury Lounge in March. Test Icicles on the 2nd, Battle on the 10th, Guillemots on the 13th, iForward Russia! and Amusement Parks on Fire on the 23rd. Not so much into Test Icicles or Guillemots, and Battle kinda lost their effect on me after the so-so "Isabelle" followed the impressive "Tendency," but the Russia!/Amusment Parks show will be great. I've talked about iForward Russia! before, and Amusment Parks on Fire are an outstanding "new shoegazer" band, who covered MBV's "You Made Me Realize" for Never Lose That Feeling, Club AC 30's cover album of classic shoegazer tunes.

Editors back at The Annex

Ok, so Brooklyn Vegan says that Editors are back at the Annex. As is Peter Hook. Hiro supposedly said yes, then no. So away to the Lower East Side!

I have no idea if any new tickets will be released, re-sold, offered, etc.

Editors at Hiro

For those of you that care, I was just informed that Editors are now playing their Saturday night show at Hiro (at the Maritime Hotel - 9th Ave & 16th Street). Apparently, they are too big for The Annex. The afterparty will be at Tiswas at the Annex, and Melody Nelson will DJ.

The link at Groove Tickets has the new location info, yet still says the tickets are sold out. Perhaps there will be tickets at the door?

Sapphire Lounge tonight

Come see two of the nicest and coolest people in New York nightlife tonight at Sapphire (249 Eldridge between Stanton and Houston): Melody Nelson and Eamon Harkin present Calling All Kids. At this great party, you can see local NY music luminaries such as members of Stellastar*, Mike H of The Bravery, and, ahem, me. See you tonight.

Staines!

Hard-Fi crushed it last night at the Bowery. They were much more ballsy than the last time I saw them. Now they act like rock stars, and their show backed it up. Richard Archer has a lot more mojo now than when they played the Mercury Lounge. In an imperitive tone, he tells the crowd to "clap along" or "now I want everyone to jump up and down." Surprisingly, almost everyone obeyed. He even made a comment about how New York's crowds were "too cool for school." True.

"Hard to Beat," and "Gotta Reason" were probably the stand out tracks of the set.

(I took the above picture at the Mercury show last fall).

Tiswas 2.0 at Hiro

Tiswas 2.0 was outstanding last night. Because The Annex is still being renovated, the party was moved to the Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel. Manchester's The Longcut was very impressive - upbeat rock with a Korg synth. Great musicianship. Hiro is kind of a tough place to play because there are a lot of couches and lounge chairs, so a lot of people sit. The Longcut pulled through though.

Nick and Phil did a great job behind the decks - playing a lot of Tiswas classics. And then Mani comes on, to Primal Scream's "Loaded". At one point he played "cigarettes and Alcohol," "Love Spreads", and "Rocks" back-to-back-to-back. Great work. He also through in some Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy, as well as a little Northern Soul.

I had one of the best nights out in NYC in a while last night, and I'm glad Tiswas is back. One thought I had was whether the crowd was there for Tiswas or for a "Saturday night out behind the velvet rope in the meatpacking district." There appeared to be a lot of confused B&T'ers trying to figure out why Pulp was being played.

Calling All Kids

Tonight, check out Melody Nelson's new party Calling All Kids. It's every Wednesday from 10pm onwards at the Sapphire Lounge, 249 Eldridge St. (between Stanton and Houston). Last week's debut was a smashing success.

WRM shows cancelled

As BV pointed out last week, White Rose Movement's shows in NY this week are cancelled. I just spoke with the Mercury Lounge, and they will no longer play there on Thursday. Kinda bummed, because I've been high on this band for a while and heard that their live shows are great.

Noel on XFM Scotland

I just love Oasis interviews. Even as Noel apologizes for criticizing some, he slags off numerous others.

Editors at The Annex

Tickets for the January 21st Editors show at The Annex (f/k/a/ Eleven on Orchard St.) were on sale here. Enjoy. (Now sold out)