DIIV

*Insert obligatory comment about the long lines and overall poor-planning of The Great Googa Mooga HERE*

Alright, I’m glad we got that out of the way.  Let’s move onto something a bit more current.  Complaining about Googa Mooga is sooooooo four days ago.  Next thing you know, I’ll be writing an op-ed about the Facebook IPO!  Onto the Most Blogged Shows of the Week.

We all cracked on the name when we heard it (or read it, I guess), but it looks like DIIV has the last laugh as they’re this week’s MOST BLOGGED show AND my EDITORS PICK, and that’s for their free Hype-Machine-produced and Toyota Prius-sponsored show at Brooklyn Bowl tonight.  It’s my pick for a few reasons.

1)     It’s free.

2)     DIIV are actually pretty awesome, if you haven’t heard them (or seen them) by now.

3)     KILLER MIKE is also on the bill (holy shit!)

4)     DIIV are about to blow up, so who knows what kind of venues they’re going to play from now on?  And at what cost?  Not that Brooklyn Bowl is “intimate” or anything, but you understand my meaning, no?

5)     The openers, High Highs and Beat Culture are no slouches.

6)     The first 150 people get some kind of “League Night” gift bags chock full of target-marketed goodies!

7)     Did I mention it’s free?

Make sure you show up early (Brooklyn Bowl opens their doors at 6 PM.) I’d guess this thing’s going to be packed.  I wouldn’t recommended showing up if you haven’t RSVP’d either, and that’s all closed up now.  If you get turned away, The Deli Magazine’s Emerging Artists festival continues tonight at Public Assembly and Spike Hill.  ALSO, a couple of awesome bands that have shared the bill with DIIV about 74 times (Night Manager, Heaven’s Gate) play Cameo Gallery for just $5 with some solid openers as well (Yvette, Mala Strana.)

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Has anyone checked out any of the “Tiki Disco” events? If you haven’t, you absolutely want to make your way to Bushwick(Morgan L stop) on Sunday for the opening of their 3rd season at Roberta’s. It started out with three friends(Andy Pry, Lloydski, Eli Escobar) just spinning for their pals and neighborhood locals. Now it’s insane! I’m talking lines out the door insane.

If you want to make sure you get in, I would suggest showing up before the 2pm start time. Their parties tend to reach capacity within the first hour. Be prepared for a full 8 hrs of dancing to classic house and disco mashed with some of the tasteful sounds of the present. Party ends around 10pm. Lets all pray and knock on as much wood as possible that the Sun has been kind to dear old mother nature and she has nothing to cry about this weekend.
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Perfectly somber for a rainy day like today:

Mother nature teased us with amazing weather all weekend only to wake us up Monday and Tuesday to an intense case of blue balls. “Rain rain go away come back another day!” because you’re ruining my life with this rain crap. I’m so ready for McCarren Pool (capacity 900 hipsters = roughly 15,000 tattoos) to open this summer. In the meantime, we have no choice but to cope. If you’re lame and don’t plan on coming out to play after work today, no worries, here are a few videos to keep you occupied and get some testosterone circulating in those “Gonads”. I’m Justin Little by the way, whisper sweet nothings into my ear if you hear something you like. Enjoy!

Chicago – I’m a Man

Chicago on the web:
chicagotheband.com/

Chicago on Facebook:
facebook.com/chicago.official

Chicago on Twitter:
twitter.com/chicagotheband

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Dinowalrus

Williamsburg’s own Dinowalrus recently released their critically-acclaimed sophomore LP, Best Behavior; a decidedly more dance-driven and synth-based approach than their debut, the noise rock-inspired %.  My Social List caught up with Pete Feigenbaum, their self-proclaimed “curator of riffs” at El Beit to discuss his band’s progression, the erosion of local music scenes, the continued gentrification of Williamsburg and what he described as a Warholian appropriation of culture as a driving influence in his band’s sound.

Peter Rittweger – You’ve said that Andy Warhol’s or Mike Kelley’s “appropriation” was a source of inspiration on Best Behavior. I almost immediately think of your album cover, which is an image of the Domino Sugar factory, this “iconic” Williamsburg landmark.  % was more “no-wave” or “noise rock” inspired, while Best Behavior seems to be more influenced by the best music AROUND you.  Would you say the image symbolizes that sort of appropriation?

Pete Feigenbaum – Yes and no.  I mean, the album cover is just an allusion to Animals, that Pink Floyd album… which isn’t a very good album, but that album cover really resonates with me.  I mean both albums (% and Best Behavior) are sort of appropriations in a different way.  I have this theory that nostalgia comes in twenty year waves.  I guess there’s only really been two years between the two albums, but in my mind it feels like more, so we’ve jumped from 1982 to 1992 in our minds, haha.

I was vaguely interested in this Madchester acid-house sound for a while, so it just made sense to dig even deeper into that and really let that influence the songwriting on Best Behavior, and the production too.  So I feel that that’s the biggest re-appropriation on Best Behavior…like taking ideas from the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Charlatans, Primal Scream, Candy Flip, Flowered Up… all those bands.  I feel like our interest in them is a very unique thing. It seems like no one else around here is into that.  Revivalism can be kind of hokey, or even a cheap thrill but I like to think the way that we’ve done it, we’ve kind of made it our own and made people see this style that they may have overlooked previously.

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Foo Fighters

The MOST BLOGGED shows this week are somewhat enigmatic… and that has EVERYTHING to do with the Bamboozle music festival, which apparently our algorithm likes a whole lot.  And hey, there’s some stuff to like (and a lot to make you cringe.)

I’m a New Jersey native, who has no problem admitting that I spent a great deal of my youth at Jersey shore emo and hardcore shows.  That’s what this Asbury Park festival was originally known for, going back to its roots as the Skate and Surf Festival at the dilapidated Convention Hall.  Some of that remains on the bill (Brand New, Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, Hot Water Music, Promise Ring, to name a few of the friendly faces), but the rest of the lineup is something of a gigantic clusterfuck consisting of everything from wub-wub dubstep to bad comedy.

Andrew Dice Clay is probably the biggest “WTF” of the event, and he has a set scheduled on Sunday which is headlined by an equally “WTF” act (but for totally different reasons), Bon Jovi.  This isn’t AS MUCH of a surprise for me, as I’m somewhat familiar with the festival.  They usually have some incredibly off-the-wall act every year that really doesn’t fit (acts as diverse as MC Hammer and Skid Row has graced the festival’s stage in previous years), but Dice Clay might take the cake (though I’m not sure where.)

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As always, Oldham is entertainingly weird.

Will Oldham is often described as prolific, and with good reason. The singer-songwriter of many monikers — he has recorded music as the Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Palace Songs and Bonnie Prince Billy, among other names — has seldom gone a year without releasing a record in almost two decades. He has also been known to rerecord his old songs, making instrument-packed renditions of what were spare arrangements and turning dark, slow ballads into light, country-inflected numbers. To coincide with his new book, “Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy,” Oldham is again releasing a new batch of his own oldies — a six-song EP called “Now Here’s My Plan,” made up of fresh versions of songs from the Prince Billy catalog. Among the recordings, available on July 24 at Drag City, is an impossibly upbeat rendition of “I See a Darkness,” the beautifully bleak song off his 1999 album of the same name that was later covered by Johnny Cash.

Jason Persse's flickr

Jane’s Addiction, Die Antwoord, Counting Crows and others are the latest to join the waterfront concerts LACOSTE L!VE Williamsburg Park Concert Series lineup, organizers announced today. Counting Crows will perform with We Are Augustines, Field Report, and Kasey Anderson & The Honkies are on July 17th. Jane’s Addiction and Die Antwoord are on August 17th. Tickets for both shows are on sale this Friday.

This summer’s lineup so far includes Cake, My Morning Jacket, Sublime, and Cypress Hill.

retaildesignblog.com

The official name for this summer’s waterfront concerts is The LACOSTE L!VE Williamsburg Park Concert Series, according to Fashion Daily Mag. The details of Lacoste’s involvement is unclear, but the brand will have an interactive and eco-friendly “pop-up shop” at the venue, a re-purposed shipping container that will have men’s and women’s apparel and a listening station, among other features.

Lacoste debuted its “pop-up shop” at a Coachella party last month.

Jelly previously sponsored the series from its inaugural season in 2006 through 2010. Last year, Jelly moved its series first to the Rockaways and then to East Williamsburg.