via Sage

Indie music and Thai food may not seem like the most logical pairing, but a new Thai restaurant on Graham Ave. actually has its roots in the scene. Sage, which opened in May and is located at 301 Graham Ave. (at Ainsley), was inspired by the longtime friends and business partners behind Generation Records, an East Village punk, metal, and hardcore record store that occupied Thompson Street for twenty years. In tune with its musical background, Sage is hosting a photography exhibit later this month that will feature “prominent and influential indie bands on tour in the late ’80s through ’90s, all black and white photography, original and unique prints,” a rep tells FREEwilliamsburg.

The artist behind the exhibit is Bert Queiroz, a Brooklyn-by-way-of-Washington, D.C.-based musician and photographer. Querioz’s website says he “was one of the original members of the punk and hardcore scene that gave birth to such influential bands as Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Fugazi.” The exhibit will be in Sage’s bar area and will open with a reception on October 30th from 8-10 p.m.

Click here for more on Sage, located at 301 Graham Ave. (at Ainsley).

CMJ 2012

The My Social List team has covered CMJ extensively over the past two weeks.  We’ve listed over two-hundred shows. We’ve interviewed bands. We’ve provided handy guides to each day of the festival, and alerted you to all the best free shows. There’s so much going on, that it’s almost tough to keep track of US, let alone the festival itself.

That’s why I’m posting an official guide to CMJ here on FREEwilliamsburg.  Five can’t miss shows for every day of the “music marathon,” in no particular order.  There’s still a couple of shows that haven’t been announced (the Brooklyn Vegan day parties come to mind;) but rest assured, they’ll be added to our comprehensive CMJ list as soon as they’re announced.  For the budget minded, check out this list of free shows.

TUESDAY:

My Social List Official CMJ Showcase: Thieves Like Us, Teen Daze, Delicate Steve, Dent May, Heavenly Beat, Mac DeMarco, Bleeding Rainbow, The Young Evils, Grand Resort, Lingerie DJ set (Marlin Room at Webster Hall, 6:00 PM) $12

Why you should go: Because despite my obvious bias, this is probably the best collection of buzzed artists for the entire week.  Don’t believe me? Keep reading, and you’ll see. Oh, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets to this one. (more…)

Lana Del Rey has been a video vixen since day one.  Most of us saw “Video Games” before we heard it, and that video’s DIY/found footage aesthetic didn’t take long to go viral. Since then, Lana’s video releases have been events, with “official audio” versions and promo pictures leaked days or weeks in advance. The videos have gotten longer and their characters more complex; this past summer we saw Lana as Jackie O., a suicidal lesbian, and a David Lynchian chanteuse singing “Blue Velvet” in an extended ad for H&M.

Excluding “Blue Velvet,” “Ride” is the first single off of the extended cut of her album and its video went on YouTube yesterday. LDR plays a singer/streetwalker living carefree on Kerouac’s open road. She swings like a pendulum on a tire swing in desert, as if suspended from the sky. She rides on the backs of motorcycles, shoots off fireworks while wearing a Native American headdress, and gets physical with older men on pinball machines and outside motels. Her hair is curly, but she’s still our Lana, fringed denim jacket and all. She’s in character, but a theater marquee lists her as Lana Del Rey, perpetuating and perhaps mocking criticism that she’s fake and always in character.

The “Ride” video is over ten minutes long and the actual song doesn’t start until three minutes and thirty seconds in. Lana provides voice over narration, which she wrote, at the beginning and end. “I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer,” she begins. Later: “I was born to be the other woman. Who belonged to no one. Who belonged to everyone.” The sentiment is powerful at times, trite at others. Anthony Mandler directed, as he did Lana’s “National Anthem.”

Unlike Lana’s previous songs, the Rick Rubin-produced “Ride” is less “ghetto Nancy Sinatra” (Lana’s words, not mine) and more  ”Sam’s Town”-era The Killers (who director Mandler has also worked with). Lana’s look is more Americana and less flash.

Lana still has tricks up her sleeve, and for now at least, we’re still along for the ride.

Watch the video below.

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via

On November 2, RZA will make his directorial debut with the pop-cultural smorgasbord The Man With the Iron Fists. Written by RZA with Eli Roth and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film stars Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and RZA himself.

The film’s soundtrack– which is out on October 23 on Soul Temple/STAX/Red Distribution– is packed, too. We’ve heard Method Man’s track with Freddie Gibbs and Streetlife; Pusha T, Raekwon, and Joell Ortiz’s track; Ghostface’s track with M.O.P. and Pharoahe Monch; the Wu-Tang Clan’s track, the Revelations’ track with Tre Williams, and RZA’s track with the Black Keys.

(Note: this film is directed by RZA not, as Pitchfork says, Quentin Tarantino.) And here’s the trailer: (more…)

My Social List & Freewilliamsburg presents

That’s right.  CMJ Music Marathon is probably the absolute best week to be a New Yorker.  For a few days, all of the best buzzbands and buzzhumans descend on the city to play music, drink and network with one another.  And this year, the FREEwilliamsburg and My Social List team is taking the whole damned thing over.

Well, not EXACTLY, but we do have a bunch of great showcases to share with you.

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