New Years Party In Greenpoint: Open Bar and Yeasayer
Live performances by:
11:25pm: Shilpa Ray of Beat The Devil - "NYC's best front-person" (Time Out), "a powerhouse" (NY Times)
12:20am: Yeasayer - spellbinding, seizure-inducing victors of CMJ
03:00am: Shellshag - spastic, thunderous, unusual, highly entertaining
DJs Michael Leviton (La Laque), rekLES and seanMFNRoberts
Shangri-La
100 Sutton Steet (btw. Nassau and Norman)
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 11222, map here
21+, $15 with RSVP, $20 without
As 2007 comes to a close and we begin to reflect on the past and look forward to what's to come in 2008, one question is sure to linger: what's with all the beards? The indie music scene, and all of Williamsburg for that matter, has begun to resemble a Widespread Panic show. We blame that dirty hippy Devendra Banhart for starting the trend.
Though we didn't see as many outstanding releases as we did in 2005, this year was a great year for music. And on the brightside, 2007 was a hell of a lot better than 2006. Generally, we team up with our pals at Rumproast when compiling this list, but our top picks were so different from theirs this year, we decided to go our separate ways. M.I.A. wasn't on Rumproast's list, for God's sake! (Check out Rumproast's list here. Despite the M.I.A. oversight, it's actually pretty solid.)
We realize that these "best of" lists have become ubiquitous, but there's one thing that sets our list apart from the pack. Namely, we're not pretending to like Radiohead. So without further ado this is FREEwilliamsburg's Best in Music 2007.
Honorable Mention:
Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab, The Sea and Cake - Everything, Blitzen Trapper- Wild Mountain Nation, Beirut - The Flying Club Cup, Chromatics - Night Drive, Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends, Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam, Vladislav Delay- Whistleblower
--------------------------
Biggest disappointment: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
We don't get it. The genius Sunlandic Twins was critically dismissed. (We loved it.) Meanwhile, people think this mediocre record is the best thing since Cheez Whiz. Maybe that horrible Outback Steakhouse ad spoiled this one for us.
--------------------------
Nothing But Hype: Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
Fans will have forgotten about this one by March.
--------------------------
Perpetually overrated: Radiohead - In Rainbows
How many times can Radiohead release the same record?
--------------------------
Our Most Anticipated Release in the New Year: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Evidently there's an online community in Russia that's enjoys making bizarre staged phot-ops:
“A Cheating Wife: You need to make a photo of a man, “a lover”, hanging outside the real window. The window should be not lower than a 3rd store of a multi-stored building. “A husband” should lean out from another window with a gun, aiming at “the lover”. From yet another window “the cheating wife” should look out in despair.”
“The Waiter: A man dressed like a water should crawl out of a refuse chute in some multi-stored building, right from the disposal opening. He should hold a tray with some servings and a towel in another hand”
“A Zombie: A man, rolled up in bandages should crawl on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing. He should have a knife sticking out of his back. Another guy should chase him with a working chainsaw”
“The Pickles: Make a photo of many jars of pickles. Some of them should have pickled cell-phones. Not less than five cell phones in each jar please”
“A Pyramid: You should have a three level pyramid on the photo. The first level is some random truck, the second is a passenger car and some two-wheeled thing on the top of “the pyramid” please.”
Twenty-one years earlier, in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.
In addition to wanting to completely abolish welfare, abortion, the I.R.S., and government regulations on big business in regard to the environment, Ron Paul doesn't believe in evolution. Check the 3 minute mark of this video. As we've said all along, Ron Paul is nuts.
Scientists Believe They'll Have the Ability To Build New Life Forms In 2008
Didn't anyone see Terminator 2? From Washington Post [Thanks John]
Researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.
Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.
In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. And while the first synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one, others that code for life forms that have never existed before are already under construction. The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between biological and artificial -- and forcing a rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive....
If a synthetic chromosome works the same way, as expected, the first living cells with fully artificial genomes could be growing in dishes by the end of 2008.
Happy holidays. This season, Fox News encourages us to give the gift that keeps on giving. Torture! From Raw Story
"There are instances where it works. I've had it done to me in training," said Hunt. "It's torture. It is an extremely dangerous thing. Your system shuts down."
Asked by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade if Americans were "better" than resorting to such practices, Hunt said he didn't think so.
"First of all, I don't think we are," he said. "I think if we are, we shouldn't be. We're in a war with people who aren't...good men have to know how to do bad things to do good."
Hunt, who says that he withstood his own waterboarding experience for a little over a minute and a half, described the practice as as intensely painful, but effective.
It's kinda like the Grey Album, only with Zeppelin tracks. DC-based DJ Doc Rok mixes up Jay-Z’s new album creating a hybrid of American Gangster and classic Zeppelin. Grab the zip here.
In 1996, the Parallel World label released the LP "Cambodian Rocks", a collection of Cambodian psych and garage music from the 60s and early 70s (probably), compiled by an American tourist named Paul Wheeler from some cassettes he bought in Phnom Penh. No information on the songs was provided at all, no artist names, no song titles, and no recording dates. Four years later, Parallel World reissued this compilation on CD with a few extra tracks, but still without any identifying information. Unfortunately, it is more than likely that many of the featured musicians, showing a definite Western influence in their music, were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime which took over power in 1975. Certainly none of them ever received any money from the sales of this compilation. However, the music is wonderful, and here it is for your enjoyment
Most creationists believe that dinosaurs coexisted with mankind on Earth and lived recently. Biblical support for this perspectives is drawn from the Genesis 1 where it states that all animals were created on the sixth day of creation along with humans. It is furthermore presumed they were still alive at the time of the global flood and taken on board Noah's ark. Evidence to support this perspective includes:
1. The Bible specifically states that a breeding pair of every kind of animal came to the ark.
2. The fossil record is filled with the corpses of dinosaurs that were buried during the deluge.
3. The abundant physical evidence of recent existence of dinosaurs.
It should be noted that although the Biblical description of Noah's ark states it as large enough to host even the largest known specimens of dinosaurs, it is logical that younger / smaller varieties were taken aboard.
Now, let the wiki vandalism begin. This entry on homosexuality is a good place to begin.
Ghostface "Explains" Name Of His New Album: "The Big Doe Rehab"
This is priceless:
"Dreams-- you can't really remember the dreams-- but I was someplace, I don't even know if it was rehab, but it was mad money in there. When I woke up, the first thing that came to my mind was The Big Doe Rehab."
An OPEN BASS ALE BEER BAR FROM 7-8PM
And AUTHENTIC RWANDAN CUISINE
WHEN: Thursday, December 6th, 6:30pm-midnight WHERE:Supreme Trading, 213 North 8th St. (Driggs & Roebling), Williamsburg, Brooklyn DIRECTIONS: Take the L-train to Bedford Avenue. Exit at the Driggs end of the train. Walk north on Driggs for 1 block to North 8th Street. Take a right (going west, away from the water). Supreme Trading is 1 1/2 blocks on the left. Map DONATIONS: $20 per person, but further contributions will be graciously accepted.
Last night was the first night of Hanukkah. We were sad to miss Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's as they kick off their traditional Hanukkah series. Brooklyn Vegan reports that Versus, Jon Glaser, Jon Benjamin, and Mark Arm joined the band on stage.
Another sign that the season is upon us, some of our favorite bloggers are whipping out the Christmas tunes.
SixEyes has an indie Christmas mix featuring Sufjan, Califone, and many more.
