Cure Beauty Bar
921 Fulton Street
(btwn Clinton and Waverly)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Tel: (718) 622-7100

Sitting in a window seat inside Cure Beauty Bar on a soon to be spring day and watching all the people buzz around on Fulton Street makes me think how nice it is to be connected to humanity...while getting my nails did. Cure is welcoming and cool, with 70's R&B playing, soaps, and fun stuff made by locals and a display of jewelry that you would actually want to buy. Cure offers manicures, pedicures, facials (Evan Healy essential oil based skin care line) and massages at competitive prices (you can get a $20 manicure and an $85 facial) geared toward the au natural gal (or guy...they do a good amount of back waxing here). Located on street level, Cure welcomes walk-ins and spa parties (which are growing in popularity everywhere) and weekly discounts on manicures and pedicures.

--Sheehan McGuirk

Spend St. Patty's Day with The Pogues

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Bands: The Pogues + William Elliott Whitmore + Ollin
Show time: 7:30 pm
Venue: Roseland Ballroom
Food: Pig N’ Whistle
Drink: The Irish Rogue
Miscellaneous: Island Burgers & Shakes

Top O’ the mornin’ to ya! Yes, it’s St. Patty’s Day today, which means getting trashed off green beer, getting away with wearing a kilt, and maybe eating some mint ice-cream for the hell of it. As for music, what would St. Patty’s Day be without The Pogues? Catch their performance with William Elliott Whitmore and Ollin. For great Irish food, one of my faves is Pig N’ Whistle in midtown. Serving traditional Irish fare like Steak and Kidney Pie and American. A great Irish pub in Hells Kitchen, The Irish Rogue has live music and sports playing on TVs, so you know this bar will be a party all day. If Irish food ain’t you thing, then head over to Island Burgers & Shakes as the menu is stacked two pages deep of some of the most intense burgers and chicken breast sandwiches on the island of Manhattan.

Matt Costa Performs




American cutie-pie Johnathan Rice and his twangy Americana slurry opened for Matt Costa last Monday night. Something in Costa's awkward swagger managed to sell out Bowery Ballroom, where "Mr. Pitiful" (Costa's single from his latest full-length) himself kept tune with guitar in hand. Monday night being the first day one could walk outside without frostbite, the albums songs went over best with a crowd ready to sing familiar words about "Yellow Taxi Cabs." Fans like to pretend that Costa's this country’s next Dylan just because his compact statue uses a harmonica. But as entertaining as his flowery live show is, he is not a Dylan—he is a Costa. Watching him perform is like seeing history in the iridescent and upbeat making. And there is not a more pleasing way to spend a night than with him and Rice.

--Tania Katherine Dworjan

What Made Milwaukee Famous. Photo credit: Cambria Harkey

Friday March 14

Location: Union Square, NYC
Bands: Louis XIV + What Made Milwaukee Famous + Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective
Venue: Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
Food: Chat ‘N’ Chew
Drink: Pete’s Tavern
Miscellaneous: Whole Foods

While Louis XIV are the hot rock band right now, What Made Milwaukee Famous are the ones who know how to put a good rock album together. Either way, this one shouldn’t disappoint. For food with southern flair in Union Square, Chat ‘N’ Chew makes some kickass fried chicken, pork-chops, and meatloaf. In the running for oldest bar in NYC, Pete’s Tavern has been around since 1864 and was made famous by author O. Henry who wrote “Gift of the Magi,” in one of its booths. One good thing about the Union Square location of Whole Foods is that it’s not only a reprieve from this tourist heavy area, but with it’s huge windows, you can sit, get healthy organic food and drink, and watch the insanity like it’s a movie.

Friday March 14

Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Band: Masada String Trio
Venue: The Stone
Food: Supper
Drink: Barramundi
Miscellaneous: Kudos

One of John Zorn’s most accessible projects, Masada’s music is gorgeously arranged. The Masada String Trio, featuring violinist Mark Feldman, cellist Eric Friedlander, and bassist Greg Cohen, with John Zorn conducting, will undoubtedly take this music to another place. A favorite restaurant of mine, Supper has a dimly lit, all-wood interior giving it a rustic vibe. They even have what looks like a bar overlooking the chefs cooking for you to watch. The Italian menu offers some fantastic food too. Though it might sound like it has to do with Buddhism, Barramundi is actually an Australian owned bar that has infused vodkas, sangria, and a laundry list of mixed drinks like the Champagne Cocktail made with sugar and bitters with Courvoisier, topped with bubbly. If coffee and a snack is your thing, Kudos is an inexpensive place to get baked goods, a cup of coffee and chill before the show.

Saturday March 15

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bands: African Underground with Chosan + Blitz + Baay Bia + Bamboo
Venue: Rose Live Music
Food: My Moon
Drink: The Abbey
Miscellaneous: Fabiene’s

Put together by Nomadic Wax, a label that documents the underground hip hop scene throughout Africa, tonight they bring together some of Africa’s best up and coming MCs like Chosan, Blitz, Baay Bia, and Bamboo as part of their African Underground series. With one of the best looking spaces in NYC, My Moon offers delicious Turkish food like the Tuna Tartar-Yellow fin tuna, tomato jelly, avocado, purple potato chips, chili oil and soy sauce ($12), which makes this place worth the trip. For a drink at a local hang, The Abbey is what you’re looking for. With a TV playing and a pool table in the back, settle in, get one of seven beers on tap and relax. One of my favorite coffee shops to sit by a window and stare out into the sea of Bedford Avenue, Fabiene’s offers exceptional desserts and sandwiches on top of beer and wine.

Saturday March 15

Location: Gramercy Park, NYC
Bands: Vinicius Cantuária
Venue: Jazz Standard
Food: New York Burger Co.
Drink: Metro Café & Wine Bar
Miscellaneous: City Bakery

What I like about Brazillian music is that it comes across as soft and sweet, while being intricate to play. Guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria brings his playful and well-versed take on bossa nova to the Jazz Standard in quintet form. Taking burgers to the next level, New York Burger Co. builds their burgers with high quality ingredients, delivering a better take on a classic. With a casual American and dim sum bar menu, the food is an excellent complement to the over 100 wines available by the glass from all the major wine-making countries in the world. With one of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had along with the hot chocolate, City Bakery makes all sorts of high-end food that won’t send you to the poor house.

Sunday March 16

Location: Union Square, NYC
Bands: Bad Manners
Venue: Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
Food: Sobaya
Drink: The Thirsty Scholar
Miscellaneous: ChikaLicious Dessert Bar

Late 70s English ska band Bad Manners return to the stage at Irving Plaza, having gotten back together and playing the last several years. Regardless, it’ll be good to see lead singer and showman, Buster Bloodvessel running around on stage again. A Japanese noodle restaurant that makes its own noodles, Sobaya makes traditional soba and udon noodles, while creating inventive dishes like Tuna Yamakake Soba, which blends soba noodles with raw tuna. With a name like The Thirsty Scholar, one might expect drunken professors reciting Dylan Thomas or Bukowski poems, but it’s actually a chill bar with an excellent happy hour from 5-8pm. For some of the sweetest desserts in the city, ChikaLicious offers a 3-course dessert menu for $12. Be warned, get there early. Due to its small size, there’s usually a line out the door.

William S. Burroughs. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery.

Stellan Holm Gallery
524 W. 24th St.
New York, NY 10011

The cult of personality that still clings to the early counter-culture provocateurs of the 1950s is in full swing at Stellan Holm Gallery, showing the late paintings, shotgun blasts, sketches and ephemera of junkie-beat-novelist hero William S. Burroughs.

There are some works of abstract beauty on display, especially in a few of the dark canvasses and textual paintings, and like everything else that Burroughs touched in the latter part of his life, it's all swaddled in a blanket of cool.

Of all the pieces, the shotgun paintings–effectively large blocks of wood shot with a 12-gauge–evoke most fully the sense of gallows humor that pervades much of Burroughs' written work, and they serve as a fitting homage to the mystique that helped to make him an anti-hero to generations.

Rub Out The Word by William S. Burroughs is showing at Stellan Holm Gallery until March 29th.

Jonathan Shieber

Location: East Village, NYC
Event: Dean Wareham Reading
Venue: Club Midway
Food: China 1
Drink: Hi Fi
Miscellaneous: Second on Second Karaoke Bar & Lounge

You may know Dean Wareham from his bands Galaxie 500, Luna, and Dean & Britta, but he’s also a writer. Check him out at Club Midway as he reads from his memoir, Black Postcards, A Rock & Roll Romance. Part restaurant and part club, China 1 serves up more upscale Chinese food than you’re used to. With décor that’s more dungeon lounge than China, this is a fun place to hang. With an MP3 jukebox that has 3000 albums to choose from, nicknamed “El DJ,” Hi Fi is a rock lover’s wet dream. With daily drink specials, this place is cheap, and that’s a rare thing in NYC these days. If you’re still in the mood to party after this early reading, hit up Second on Second for some karaoke, where you can sing till your throat is sore!

Hot Chip
Made in the Dark
DFA/EMI






The British quintet flouts nearly every convention in the book on their third record, Made in the Dark. They add ‘70s metal, dancehall, dubstep, and Hot 97-style R&B to their arsenal of sounds and beats. “One Pure Thought” opens the disc with a guitar-god solo before transitioning seamlessly into a dreamy space-disco ruckus. “Hold On” evokes a disco-fied LCD Soundsystem. “Don’t Dance,” with its beats that maniacally transition into trance and dancehall, renders its title impossible to ignore. The ballads on the album don’t disappoint either, including the song “We’re Looking for a Lot of Love,” an organ driven hold up your lighters anthem punctuated with Caribbean drums. Bizarre as the songs sound in Hot Chip’s hands, the music just clicks, much like the five musicians and DJs that make up the oddly formed quintet. Get the album, you won’t be disappointed.

--Corey Crossfield


Junkie XL
Booming Back At You
RCA








Booming Back At You, the 2008 release by Junkie XL does not false advertise: it booms, breaks, and jumps into your consciousness like a groove-bomb. His fans have come to expect quality work like this from the Dutch beatmaker. Booming Back At You is his fifth studio album.

This album is fit to be played loud at a club, dance party, or any other scene that necessitates moving bodies. It's awesome dance music; it inhabits characteristics of house, break beats, hip-hop, and girl-pop. Junkie describes his motivation for his multi-faceted approach on his website, "This time out, I wanted to capture the energy of my live shows. In the past, I always made conceptual records or tried to find a theme. But I'm such an energetic performer, very upbeat, and I wanted to capture that. 'Booming Right At You' and the album as a whole, throws that vibe right back at the fans."

--Marc Amigone