Not tonight- honey I am on fire

Well, last night sure was interesting to say the least. It started with my trip to Prospect Park to see the Cold War Kids perform for free. There, I met up with my sister and some of her friends.
Needless to say, I didn't have enough Brooklyns in me to make the Cold War Kids all that enjoyable. I mean, my sister yells at me for my taste in music, but this band sounded excessively mediocre.
After the show, they split on their bikes. Speaking of which, what the hell is up with the bike fetish nowadays? My sister and her friends spent way too much time looking and admiring other people's bikes, like some sort of bike porn.
Anyway, I ended up at the Brooklyn Burger Bar, my former place of employment, and ended up having some drinks and chatting up the new staff. I felt bad though- some random guy that started talking to me stiffed the bartender on like a 40 dollar bill. Not fucking cool. Me? I tipped one dollar on every drink I bought and two dollars on the first. So of course the tender complains to me about it...whatever-she was pretty cute.
And then I stumbled home.

On a separate note, the title of this post comes from one of the new Gaslight Anthem tracks of which I've managed to sneak a listen. Holy shit is this album going to be great. Here's a video of the title track from out West:

Drinks?

I need one-anyone in Brooklyn feel like grabbing a drink tonight?

"The Bridge"- The Loved Ones

The Loved Ones are one of the best bands doing it right now. Good hooks, passionate vocals, and basically everything that kicks ass about rock music. Here's a sample:

The Bridge

My Parent's Microwave

I'm staying at my parent's house for the time being, since I need to be in Brooklyn for my cousin's wedding. What scares me, is that when I finish microwaving something, the light panel tells me to enjoy my meal.

But what if I'm microwaving my neighbor's cat out of pure spite? I mean, I'm not planning on eating said cat.

Updates galore

I'm in Brooklyn and tired! Here's what happened since I posted last:
I have a new article up at www.puremtgo.com! Holler at Magic!
The Mets fired Willie. I don't disagree with the move, but I do not like how it was handled. You could almost hear Omar Minaya saying "I didn't want to do this, but I had to." Lame!
I had another interview!

Life is moving...just it interesting directions!

Oh Buster

This sums up my opinion on the entire Willie situation pretty well.

Plans

I hate having to change my plans. I hate it even more when it happens at the last minute.

So of course my life is now up in the air as I drive home Sunday for what looks like 2+ weeks at home. Not how I was expecting to do with the second half of June.

This is for Wagner

The good, the bad, and the ugly; June 12th edition

The good: Pelfry pitched very well and Beltran won the game in the 13th
The bad: Wagner blowing Pelfry's amazing pitching job necessitating Beltran's walk off heroics
The ugly: Obi-Wan after the birds decided to turn it into a latrine

The difference

The difference between public and private schools during economic downturns:
Offices at public schools have to clear a lot of bureaucracy and politics to hire you, taking weeks. Things are out of their hands to a certain extent.
Offices at private schools will interview you one day, and invite you down the next.

Awesome.

PDC and the Mana Curve

My new article (and hopefully my return to regular publication) is up here. Enjoy.

My night with the Andrea Doria

Mark is an old college roommate of mine, and his new band, the Andrea Doria, is doing a week long tour (check them out: http://www.myspace.com/theandreadoriaband ) that kicked off a few hours ago in Buffalo. And I went!

And already I'm part of the band lore. Their tour van has been converted to bio-diesel, but they had a small problem- seems they have a problem with coolant on the tail end of their trip, so I took Mark to Target, and we made a video, of us buying engine coolant.
The show itself was pretty good, but not too many people showed up- lame. But I did get to take the band to Mighty Taco for some cheap eats. Then I got the pleasure of helping them drive around looking for restaurants so they could get some more of their bio-fuel.

This was a pretty fun night, and I'm happy I was able to help out a band that is just getting their start. Good times.

Last night

Would is really kill a bar to play some decent music? I mean, I understand that some music is conducive to the bar scene, but really, do I need to hear "Informer" by Snow every single time I head out?

My Entire Team Sucks

You read this so often in NYC high school bathroom stalls. The joke is that it's the acronym for my beloved Mets, written by the then cocky Yankee fans.
The Mets are going through a rough season so far, but look to be coming out of the funk (despite the plunk you/we lose events of last night). I'm happy about this because it saves Willie Randolph, who is doing, in my estimation, a pretty good job. I think a lot of the hoop-lah surrounding Willie the past few weeks is something I'll call Yankee envy. The Mets were good for two years- arguably better than the Yankees during that span. As such, all us insecure Mets fans (because every Mets fan is, on some level, insecure because of the Yankees) felt it was our turn to act like the assholes and demand things change.

That's not our way- less Yankees, more Rays! Let's go Mets!

New old music

It's great when the bands you listen to lead you to discover other music. This little journey begins with the Lawrence Arms. While I have talked about the label Brendan helps run (Red Scare) previously, and gush over those artists, I will not be talking about them today.
Rather, I'm going to gush over American Steel. I mean, I was first exposed to these guys when their new album had some tracks played on PunkRadioCast, which was pretty bad ass. I then heard the Larry Arms had them open on their recent tour (which I sadly missed). I mean hell, they had to be good. Recently, I picked up that album (Destroy Their Future) and Rogue's March. Let me tell you, I am blown away. There is something so powerful about the vocals n these albums- they are all at once gruff and rough yet refined, and full of soul. Granted, March is less polished, but still you can hear the strain and the heart.
The newer release, out on Fat Wreck Chords, has some insanely moving tracks- the biggest stand out to me is Hurtlin' which fuses that punk aesthetic with some true folksy tune, and an accordion.

If you like The Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio, the Loved Ones, the Gaslight Anthem, or other bands like those, pick up American Steel- you will not be disappointed.

Seriously?

Is it June already?

I don't believe it.