Custom instruments.
Bent Festival is this week. As part of the festivities, 3rd Ward will hold a special “hacked music event” tonight. This is your chance to meet future music pioneers before they continue to release limited edition 7 inches that your son picks up at an estate sale and starts jamming to.

NEW YORK electriCITY from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.
Peter Edwards of Casper Electronics
Hat Tip: Make Magazine

It seems new york’s newest obsession was a free williamsburg reader. She left a comment on this post back in March, signed, of course, Korean Abdul-Jabbar. Good find Gothamist.
Kari, if you’d like to write an explanation to the world from your home here in W’burg, email me.

100 sound artists came together to re-interpret Phish’s Gamehenge into Gamehenge 09, and are presenting the album tonight at Monkeytown. Backed by live visuals by Greg Zinman, the show will present the mythic story of Wilson, the Lizards and the Helping Phriendly Book in a very psychedelic alternative electro/noise universe.
I’ll let Monkeytown explain the rest:

In the spirit of experimentation, collaboration and fun, 100 sound artists have re-interpreted Phish’s coveted Gamehendge album to create Gamehenge ’09!!! This is a kaleidoscopic joyride through bizarre sound demi-genres.
Whether you are a Phish fan or not, they have become a ritualistic-psychedelic necessity for a distinct and vast niche of the American people. The massive collection of new artists featured on Gamehenge 09 offer a refreshing vantage point from which to reconsider Phish’s psychedelic music tradition and to shed light on possible future avenues. The point of this release is to breath new, forceful vision into this modern piece of Americana mythology.

To download the album for free, click here. The show starts at 8, and reservations are recommended. For a list of all 100 artists involved in the project, click through the jump…

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Photo credit: Ryan Muir, Flickr.
An interesting discussion is burning on in the comments section of our dearest friend, ye Vegan of Brooklyn’s recent post about Crystal Castles’s Dallas blow-up (which may have been the club’s fault, to be fair). The readers wonder: Can hating on Crystal Castles be a meme? Well, for starters, no, not really. At least not yet. Their first dose of controversy came to be when they stole a black-eyed Madonna image and used it for their tour shirts. Sure, artists can h8 them for that. But they settled OOI (out of internet).
Now, another Madonna controversy is back in the news after last night, a Dallas, Texas club manager called them a bunch of pre-madonna assholes [sic motherfucker? it's prima donna, unless he meant pre-you're-no-pop-star-yet, in which case, clever.]. So i guess that’s an unusual happenstance that can get people all “fuck crystal castles” lately.
If the entire Hipster Runoff (HRO so-forth) set took to Flickr to start up an “I H8 CC” photoset then yea, we’re getting there. Coupled with a few remixes about CC being douchnozzles and a YouTube post with their worst freakouts then yes, that there is a “Hating Crystal Castles Meme.” But sadly, we’re not there yet. If you do truly think the Electro-canadiens of the Crystal Castle are deserving of their own h8 h8 h8 meme then we say shit, go for it.
Also worth noting is the fact that one commenter thought the word “meme” was a dingleberry spouted out by Carles, but he was then promptly corrected by Mr. 4:21. Hurrah for self-policing.
In related news, BV reminds us that Crystal Castles are playing All Points West this summer. So, get your meme pants on and we’ll see you there, h8rs.

Last summer, The Walkmen delivered You & Me perfectly packaged to the masses, and quickly became one of my favorite albums of 2008. WIth a more solemn tone than their previous work, the lyrics managed to simultaneously break our hearts and fill them once again with hope, literally track by track. The often mentioned Roy Orbison-ness of singer Hamilton Leithauser’s voice takes front and center in these seemingly lonely tales of longing, accompanied on tour by, well, Craigslist horns.

We got a chance to catch up with Mr. Leithauser recently about Anderson Cooper, a CL musician who witnessed Otis Redding’s fatal death, and twitter.

Be sure to catch The Walkmen with Beach House and fellow FREEburg favorite Cymbals Eat Guitars TOMORROW night @ Webster Hall– this is your last chance to see them out in NY for a while as they kick off their tour with Kings of Leon two days later.

Check out the interview after the jump:

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I volunteer at 826NYC, meaning I get to hang out with crazy little kids and help write crazy little stories, which doesn’t really feel like work at all. Not only is 826 a totally legit place to volunteer organized by an even more legit writer, they apparently put on excellent parties as fundraisers. From the 826 newsletter:

After years of raised expectations and inevitable disappointment, after Pretty in Pink and Saved By The Bell season 4 (we remember it, too), 826NYC and Bowery Presents are happy to finally present THE PROM YOU WERE PROMISED, a night of formal wear, amazing dance music, and a chance to re-live prom the way you always wanted. Namely, as such:
THE PROM YOU WERE PROMISED
A DANCE PARTY THAT RE-CREATES PROM NIGHT THE WAY WE ALL HOPED IT WOULD BE,
WITH DJ SETS BY ACCLAIMED MUSICIANS, ALL TO RAISE MONEY FOR 826NYC
WITH DJ SETS BY:
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
PAT MAHONEY (of LCD Soundsystem)
HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR
and Hosted by Leo Allen
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thursday, May 21st, 9 p.m.
66 North 6th St, Brooklyn, NY.
Tickets: $25, available through Ticketmaster

It’s for the kids! And you get Vampire Weekend! Buy tickets starting tomorrow here.

My my my. This story is so goddamn juicy I don’t know what to do with it. Here are the basic facts, after that, I highly suggest you go find this Kari Ferrell and turn her in to the Salt Lake City Police Department (wanted poster here). It’s full of sex, con artists, drugs and more sex, and most of it takes place right here in sunny Williamsburg. Here’s a summary, but you really need to carve out fifteen minutes and read it at the Observer. Gawker also has a quick run-down.

1. 22-year old Utah con artist with “a cute pixie haircut” lies her way into a job at Vice.
2. After coming on to a co-worker there, he googled her, and she popped up on the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Most Wanted list. Fired!
3. She banged a dude after a Girl Talk show and then stole his cell phone.
4. She lied about having cancer, being pregnant and so forth. She smoked pot.
5. She went to the Beadruary event, was photographed next to a ton of beards, then said she was doing a book for Vice.
6. She gave the Union Pool bartender a note that read (t-shirt alert): ‚”I want to give you a hand job with my mouth,” and was signed ‚”Korean Abdul-Jabbar.” Nice!
7. She also passed along a note to someone at Fabiane’s on Bedford that read: “I want you to throw a hot dog down my hall.”
9. And so, so much more.

This is just heartbreaking, from Daily News

It was after 2 a.m. She was writing in her journal and had headphones on when she felt a man touching her feet.
Alone in the subway car, she tried to move away, but the man, wearing a camouflage hat pulled low over his eyes, edged closer.
Besedin missed her stop but managed to bolt from the train at 21st St. She was running up the stairs when the rapist caught her from behind.
“The guy was running behind me and started pulling me down the stairs,” she recalled.
“I held \[the token booth clerk's\] gaze for at least five seconds, yelling and screaming, ‘Help! Help!’.

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Poster Boy commented on the Brooklyn Paper’s recent article about his upcoming event at 3rd Ward, defending himself against their rather New York Post-ish title, “Poster Boy sells out in Bushwick,” writing:

Who’s selling out? I’m giving people an opportunity to partake in some large scale collage. The ad’s are not provided by any sponsers [sic]. Dogfish, Harper, and the Brooklyn Salsa Company have offered to “go under the knife” but that would defeat the purpose of Poster Boy. I’ve indiscriminately “borrowed” the ads myself. Get your sh!t right: http://freewilliamsburg.com/

Damn straight, bitches. Animal adds that “if the ads aren’t unsanctioned, it’s not really ‘vandalism,’” and while that’s true, everybody needs to remember who these companies are in the first place that have offered to “go under the knife” anyway. Brooklyn Salsa, Dogfish (a 30-barrel microbrewery) and Harpers Perenial (HarperCollins imprint specializing in new and young authors). This is not Pepsi offering gold-plated exacto knives to the Bushwick artist(s). Everybody chill out. Oh, and PB…we’d love to speak with you. Hit us up.
Update 4/15 from Poster Boy:
“Bucky [Animal] is absolutely right, “if the ads aren’t unsanctioned, it’s not really ‘vandalism,’” I won’t say much on how I’m getting the ads. I can tell you that the sole purpose of the sponsers [sic] is to provide the beer. They have nothing to do with Poster Boy at this event. There was a miscommunication between the organizers and Poster Boy. The organizers didn’t know the material was being provided by Poster Boy…..Back to the event. This is NOT a show of Poster Boy’s work. This is an opportunity to create Poster Boy style work in a controlled environment. Most people aren’t willing to partake in vandalism. I’m hoping this, seemingly, innocuous act will encourage people rethink advertising and their environment. Then maybe those people will build up enough courage to do something on their own time. That’s all I want out of this, nothing else.”
Do you read that correctly? Poster Boy can only exist IF YOU WILL HIM TO.
Above image via Poster Boy’s Flickr. Speaking of which…think this has anything to do with the Paper’s sudden disregard for PB?

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