They may be young, but Late of the Pier will surprise you. Photo by Ear Farm




My first thought when seeing Late of the Pier take the stage at The Bowery Ballroom on April 1st was, “They’re just a bunch of kids!” This was no April Fool’s Day joke though. They may be young but they exhibit the confidence and professionalism of a far more experienced act. Late of the Pier have actually been playing and releasing singles in their native England for a few years now but have yet to really break through in the U.S. market. I think this may change soon, based on my experience with them at the show. They have all the right elements: a charismatic frontman, a technically proficient bassist, a human-metronome on the drums, and a spazzy synth player who showed us the proper way to dance to each song. Songs like “The Bears are Coming” and “Focker” were the biggest highlights of the night. When these electro-anthems hit, the audience couldn’t help but dance in spite of their insecurities. Surely Late of the Pier are already masters of this electronic dance-rock. With no less than three members playing synthesizers (often at the same time), the band came up with a wide array of blips and bleeps and really cool keyboard sounds. What sets them apart from other club related acts however is that they are also a good rock band. Though these moments were few, they could bash out a real nice racket on their guitars if the moment called for it. The bassist gave his instrument an almost prog-like working over and the drummer, while able to seamlessly replicate drill beats, proved why its better to have someone with a pulse holding down the rhythms.

Openers The Whip were a perfectly decent warm-up act. Their sound owes more to House music than Late of the Piers’ but the crowd still liked it. Watching them, I started to feel like what I imagine it was like at Tony Wilson’s Hacienda in the 80’s, you know, minus the drugs. They gave a good performance but it was clear why they weren’t the headliners. Late of the Pier truly has the potential for great success, and the youth to build it on.

Jonathan Zuckerman

British vodka maker Three Olives who puts out a wide variety of inexpensive super-premium flavors of vodka, offer 16 flavors that run the gamut from fruits like Watermelon and Pomegranate to Chocolate, Triple Shot Espresso, and even Tomato. I recently had the chance to taste their grape, cherry, and root beer flavored vodka’s, which I found to be not just refreshing but great to mix. Though the flavors stand well enough on their own, tasting more natural than artificial, mix the Cherry with an energy drink and you have the “Three-O Cherry bomb.” Mix the Grape with orange juice and you have a “Grapedriver.” Mix the Root Beer with a half pint of Ale and you have a “British Car Bomb.” Simple as that. If you go to the site Three Olives, you can download a PDF with more than 70 recipes for all the flavors. If you can’t afford the top shelf vodka’s all the time, Three Olives offers up a comparable tasting alternative for less that half the price, with most of their vodka’s in the $22-$30 range. Happy boozing!

Another reason to like Three Olives is the fact that they are giving away $10,000 for your best “O-Face!” Not only that, but the winner gets to be THE face of their new “O-Face” campaign. Show ‘em your best “O-Face” and you could be flown to NY, get the VIP treatment and be the face of the national ad campaign.

For more info on the contest, check their website.

DaVe Lipp

Friday April 3

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bands: Kaiju Big Battel in 3D Get Tickets Here
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Warsaw
Food: Wasabi
Drink: Bar Matchless
Miscellaneous: The original Soupman

Thought up by a performance and media group based out of Boston, Kaiju Big Battel combines video installations, monster movie props, a crushable miniature cityscape and tournament style performances that see monsters square off against each other in a wrestling ring. Music act Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears will perform, being the soundtrack to this awesome spectacle. There’s a lot of restaurants popping up in Greenpoint nowadays. The Japanese restaurant Wasabi has been there before many of them and serves up some of the best sushi in that hood. A good local bar, Bar Matchless is that low-key place where you can chill, get a drink and not have to scream at the top of your lungs to make conversation. He’s been called “The Soup Nazi” on Seinfeld, but Al Yeganeh knows how to make soup. Try the Lobster bisque, it’s the best I’ve ever had, and don’t forget to follow his rules or “No Soup for You!”

Friday April 3

Location: Union Square, NYC
Bands: The Presets Get Tickets Here
Show time: 7 PM
Venue: Webster Hall
Food: Thai Me Up Sandwich Bar
Drink: McSorley’s Old Ale House
Miscellaneous: Mudd Cafe

With their sophomore album Apocalypso, The Presets blend pop with techno and house music to create some dancefloor music that sounds both retro and futuristic. Their single “If I Know You” is a fun and addictive listen that shows the originality and creativity that these guys are capable of. For eats, check out Thai Me Up Sandwich Bar, a sandwich shop offering Thai sandwiches with 7 Steamed Fried Vegetables and a choice of chicken, veggie, tofu or beef on a baguette with 3 types of sauces for $7. One of the city’s oldest bars, you can feel the history when you enter as memorabilia, since its beginnings in 1854, are all over the walls. Aside from it being a frat hangout nowadays, it’s worth the trip. You’ve seen that orange Mudd coffee truck parked on Astor Place and on various other streets, but check out their café on East 9th for coffee and a healthy, vegan, and vegetarian menu.

Saturday April 4

Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Event: The Ganesh Experiment: Live Music Naked Art
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: The Brooklyn Artists Gym
Food: El Viejo Yayo
Drink: Buttermilk Bar
Miscellaneous: The Chocolate Room

Inspired by the art happenings of the 60's and the Indian God of art and music, The Ganesh Experiment features 30 visual artists, 10 musicians including Joe Tomino from Dub Trio, Hektor Fontanez from Twi the Humble Feather, and Marco Benevento from The Benevento Russo Duo, who will be improvising with each other. There will also be 3 installation artists, 1 performance artist, nude painted models, and more. Keeping the night going, try El Viejo Yayo for dinner. This gorgeous and warm Latin restaurant has an elegant dining room and an affordable menu offering Dominican/Latin cuisine. The outside of Buttermilk Bar may look non-descript, but looks are deceiving . . . just not in this case, as this low-key watering hole is where you can grab a cheap drink in a friendly atmosphere, while playing a board game or two. With a near insane menu of chocolates from coffee and tea to delectable dessert, and even beer, The Chocolate Room is a great way to end the night on a high note.

Saturday April 4

Location: Soho, NYC
Band: Toubab Krewe Get Tickets Here
Show time: 9:30 PM
Venue: Sullivan Hall
Food: Nha Trang
Drink: Naked Lunch
Miscellaneous: La Esquina

Blending rock with West African sounds, Toubab Krewe represent the best of both the East and West. Featuring mostly instrumental music, they have collaborated with vocalists like Umar Bin Hassan of The Last Poets. One of the best affordable Vietnamese restaurants in the city, Nha Trang is right near the downtown courthouse, making it a high volume place. Despite that, the food is great and the Pho (rice noodle soup) dishes are $5 and under. Named after William S. Burroughs novel, Naked Lunch is a cool and comfortable bar where local artists usually gather. No shooting up though! One of the best taqueria’s in the city, the Mexican food at La Esquina is authentic and to die for. While tacos will set you back $3, plates are in the $6 to $7.25 range.

Sunday April 5

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Bands: John Scofield & the Piety Street Band Get Tickets Here
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
Food: Burger Joint
Drink: Bill’s Gay Nineties
Miscellaneous: Tafu

Jazz guitarist John Scofield has been experimenting with all kinds of genres for years now, working with greats from Herbie Hancock to Medeski, Martin & Wood to Governemnt Mule and many more in between. With his new band featuring greats playing with him like John Cleary, George Porter Jr., and Ricky Fataar on his new album Piety Street, he boldly goes into gospel territory. Located in The Parker Meridian, Burger Joint serves up excellent burgers and milkshakes in its curtained off space inside the hotel. The theme at Bill’s Gay Nineties surprisingly is an ode to the speakeasies of the roaring twenties. With a second floor dedicated to the history of entertainment, it even has an autographed poster of Buffalo Bill. The history’s deep here and the drinks are stiff. If you want to get some sort of sanity back after this night, stop by Tafu for some premium Japanese teas and desserts.

This One is Mine
By Maria Semple
(Little, Brown and Company)





Maria Semple's first novel traces the paths of two protagonists: Violet, a burnt-out, used-to-be-cool-but-now-is-just-fat housewife of a very wealthy record label executive; and Sally, Violet's diabetic sister-in-law who has relied on beauty and extreme materialism to float from one seemingly-eligible-bachelor-turned-loser to another in search of a perfect husband to support her high demand for entirely unnecessarily trendy fashion.

Themes of wealth, disparity, illness, parenthood, and marriage riddle this story of a not-quite broken family facing life's highs and lows over a short period of time. Semple's experience writing for popular television shows (including Arrested Development and Mad About You) certainly explains the well-paced unfolding plot. However, that same background might also explain why her characters are mostly confined to clichés. Rich, married Violet embarks on an affair with a hepatitis-C-laden junkie, while Sally's most promising suitor ultimately reveals a flaw that despite glaring red flags, goes entirely unnoticed by Sally until the most critical moment. Furthermore, few, if any, of the characters can garner audience sympathy, which at times is likely to make this novel difficult to complete, as readers are likely to lose track of why they should care about the fate of the cheating overweight wife of a sold-out executive and his trophy-wife-bound manipulative sister.

That being said, the story flows well and is undoubtedly amusing over time. For readers (particularly fans of Jodi Picoult) looking for an easy-going, deeper-than-Danielle Steele beach read, Semple's novel is guaranteed to please.

Jessica Stein

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bands: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Get Tickets Here
Show time: 9 PM
Venue: Music Hall of Williamsburg
Food: Three of Cups
Drink: Whiskey Ward
Miscellaneous: Sugar Sweet Sunshine



If you’ve never heard Ariel Pink’s music, at first it sounds like badly recorded and made mellow AM radio music made on lo-fi recording equipment. But once you realize that this reclusive Los Angeles based artist made his music in his room using only a guitar, keyboard, and an 8-track, it will blow your mind at how good he is. Joining them are The Vivian Girls and Duchess Says. What I like about Three of Cups the most is that the food is classic Italian fare like Pizza made in a wood-fired oven, risotto, pasta, while also offering more exciting dishes like lamb stew in a barolo wine reduction, served with potato gnocchi. The atmosphere is relaxing, bordering on romantic. With a name like Whiskey Ward, it’s expected that they deliver the goods, which lucky for this bar, they do. Whether it’s Scotch, Bourbon, Whiskey, or Single Malts, they got em’ along with a pool table and a damn good jukebox. Who doesn’t like cupcakes? Sugar Sweet Sunshine has one of the best in the city. With 10 different kinds, it’s hard to beat.

Richie James Follin
Battle
(Red Bear Recordings)







With vocals that scowl alongside harmonies of full-throated 70s rock and emo leaning country western music, Richie James Follin’s solo album, Battle is a bit of a detachment from the garage punk sound of his other band the Willowz. A wistful slide guitar opens up “Prize” as a disengaged country pop meets a nervous western showdown that starts with Follin’s soft echo vocals, later rising up to the heavens in an inebriated chant-manta. The savage lull of rumbling drums are trance-inducing. The track continues to expand while each instrument grows slowly into a pulsing tribal frenzy. “Colt” lyrically feels like a dark elegy, while acoustic guitar chords can be heard squeaking along the fret board, with high notes plucked and twanging in the distance. Not getting too stuck in his own convention and not breaking entirely from it, “Rose” is a remorseful rhythm and blues slow dance that boasts a heavy hint of western rock and blues. Richie James Follin does a fine job at crafting a stylized usefulness of multi-genre music that at its best moves in and out of lone cowboy allure.

Chanda Jones


Arbouretum
Song of the Pearl
(Thrill Jockey)






Wailing, melodious electric guitars pulsing over a thumping bass and earth-moving, pounding drums set the blues, root, psychedelic sounds of Arbouretum. Each song feels like a separate journey or a different room of someone’s house. Each track like each new space effortlessly captures an atmospheric energy. The album, Song of the Pearl, is heavy on hazy escapade rock, closely related to a very summer of 70s type of musical enchantment best appreciated at high volumes, while the lyrics are deeply poetic. Lead singer, David Heumann, has such beautifully warm vocals that are iconic at times. “Thin Dominion” is the most righteous gem on the album. The low-end bumps of bass and the tightness of the drums yield a funky, nastily wild delivery. Heumann’s lyrics fall like a heavy rainstorm underneath a promising forecast of coming sun. “False Spring” begins with Heumann’s vocals expanding like smoke over raking guitars; Corey Allender, Daniel Franz and Steve Strohmeier as the rest of the band calmly build the track that later breaks way into a wicked hard rock guitar jam. It seems as if Song of the Pearl was an album released over 30 years ago and is a remastered treasure of some legendary rock band from yesteryear. Arbouretum is now, however.

Chanda Jones


The Bicycles
Oh No, It’s Love
(Fuzzy Logic Recordings)







The album, Oh No, It’s Love is a musical sugar high. Definitely danceable and overly caffeinated, this new release is chockfull of intensely pop flavored tracks that boast a chipper-happy agenda. The Bicycles hail from Toronto, Canada and the quartet is made up of Matt Beckett, Drew Smith, Dana Snell and Andrew Scott. Their music is bubblegum-core with a bit of country western zest. The multi-vocal choral sharing and the upbeat summer sunshine rock shuffling yields giddy results. Cascading harmonic solos burst all over “What A Fool,” while the song moves like a breezy 1950s mainstream radio gem, except for the lyrics which are much more risqué than anything allowed on the radio back then. “Roland” is a super jam shakeout party, a dance anthem where the chorus belts out like a cheer. Sweeping wind-up guitars explode then quickly spill out into a more shadowy tone. “Walk Away (From A Good Thing)” has a nice edge and a more indie rock harmony. The beauty of the song is that it exhales with gorgeous horns and a sweet guitar hook with crazy catchy vocals of sliding “ohh’s.” Definitely fun, uproarious and loud, Oh No, It’s Love is fizzy fun.

Chanda Jones


The Howlies
Trippin’ With Howlies
(OverUnder Records)






Trip and fall into the new, Trippin’ With Howlies. Opening with the upfront “Sea Level,” I was reminded of both the Beach Boys and The Ramones(!), though I liked how it got all messy and barking at the end. The single guitar and vocals opening “Smoke” kept this weird one perfectly in the pocket while “Howlies Sound” is solid modern commercial pop punk.

Things change a bit with the lighter “Chimera,” but we’re back in familiar Howlies groove with the fun “Walk On Home” (this could be a mid 60’s shore band hit) and “Angeline” begins what the CD indicates as ‘side 2’! (gotta love these guys). The next few are fast and furious, 2 min-or-so little gems like, “Whiskey Night” benefiting from the strong vocals of all four Howlies and “Dirty Woman” back in Ramones territory.

“Aluminum Baseball Bat” is one of the longer tunes here, but is absolutely fantastic slow fifties-like heartfelt blues. It features Aaron Woods’ great vocal (he is the drummer as well) and Matt Forsee (bass and backing vocal), Justin Brooke (guitar, piano and vocal) and Brandon Morrison (guitar backing vocal) playing with spot-on restraint. “(Do The) Natural Thing” ends it all with a blistering fast beginning, then the CD’s producer, the infamous Kim Fowley of Runaways/Gene Vincent fame, recites the CD’s back cover liner notes.

Wacky and weird, Trippin’ With Howlies is definitely a must-have debut.

Ralph Greco, Jr.


Lily Allen
It’s Not Me, It’s You
(Capitol)






Lily Allen's sophomore effort It’s Not Me, It’s You, brings with it a feel-good sound, as well as a more mature honesty that usually isn't found in this genre. Her songs discuss themes of rebirth, fear, and doubt with such wit and substance that it's hard to believe she's just 23 going on 24. Although the processed electronic beats may seem a bit excessive at times, Allen’s melodies and catchiness carries the whole album. Some key songs include the popular, delayed Bush-basher "F**k You," and the song "Everyone's at it," in which Allen shows her concern for our antidepressant culture. She gives us the inside and outside look into the situations at hand, and we are simultaneously charmed and amused by her. The album provides both plugged and unplugged versions of the single, "The Fear," a song that treads lightly but doesn't go too deep into precious territory. The result is a cohesive mix of songs likely to catch your heart somewhere along the way.

Christine Thelen

Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Bands: Late of the Pier + The Whip Get Tickets Here
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Bowery Ballroom
Food: Social
Drink: 151
Miscellaneous: Bereket

UK electro-rock act The Whip stop by the Bowery Ballroom bringing disco and synth heavy beats. Openers and fellow Brits Late of the Pier, who’s recently released album Fantasy Black Channel has been doing quite well, offer Gary Numan-esque synth heavy anthems. Where to go afterwards? Go straight to the bar, and that bar would be 151, where happy hour is 7 days a week from 6pm till 10pm and includes 2 for 1 drinks. For those that don’t want a liquid dinner first, check Social for comfort food including the Mac and Cheese (Macaroni covered in Three Cheese Truffled Mornay Sauce and topped w/Seasoned Bread Crumbs). For a late night eat, a favorite spot of mine is Bereket for falafels and to watch drunks succeed at spilling their food all over themselves and failing at picking up chicks. Not for the faint of heart!