CrackersUnited presents FRICTION: 05.16.06

With Rothko closing their doors for a month or so to work on their Structural Violations, our Monthly Friction show has moved down the street to The Delancey. Get your tickets here!

What does this mean?

1. Same great bands – Ghostland Observatory, Favourite Sons, The Mugs, and DJ Gorgeous Undertow.

2. No asshole door guy telling you to stand all the way up on Houston to smoke a cigarette.

3. Same great Crackers to hang out with.

4. No asshole door guy not letting you back in after you went to the deli.

5. Awesome rooftop garden for before and after the show.

6. No asshole door guy…

CrackersUnited presents FRICTION: 05.16.06

After the incredible Record Release party with Rahim, we are continuing to bring the forefront of indie rock with an incredible show as part of the KEXP live from NYC: bringing bands from our beloved Texas and of course our favorite NY locals. CU is at it again with Texas-favorite Ghostland Observatory and local heroes Favourite Sons and The Mugs with the Gorgeous Undertow at the booth all night long.

So leave the iPod at home, make sure to listen to the In Studio sessions with each of the bands on KEXP, get your tickets ahead of time, and come support live music and join us for an incredible Tuesday night at The Delancey.

Ghostland Observatory is Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner, undoubtedly influenced by the likes of Daft Punk, Bowie and LCD, they offer up their own brand of electro-dance soul rock. It’s as if a piece of every musical genre of the past and present were blended together to create a keyboard. A keyboard that could only be used by this one band. We dare you to listen and not dance. [Gothamist]
Ghostland Observatory – streaming audio

If post-punk took one step back towards rock and added a dash of sentimentality, Favourite Sons might be the result…the lyrics and vocal work couple together in one of my favorite performances of the year. [You Ain't No Picasso]
Favourite Sons – Down Beside Your Beauty

The Mugs were tasty. well worth checking out. reminded me of something like a french kicks, but with a little big (just a touch) darker side though you wouldn’t have realized with their ear to ear grins. [Yeti Don't Dance]
The Mugs – Broken Signals

KEXP 90.3 FM [mp3 feed]
For those of you that aren’t familiar with this Seattle-based radio station, it’s the nation’s best independent radio station. Well, at least in our book. Be sure to tune into John in the Morning’s playlist everyday at 9AM (EST) and listen for songs from past and present FRICTION bands and other great independent artists. If you miss John’s show or any other KEXP program, KEXP’s streaming archive allows you to hear anything from the past two weeks in both Windows Media and Real format.

L Magazine
The L Magazine is the only independent magazine left in our fair New York City. And we have our own pair of portable 35mm film projectors. L Magainze covers New York nightlife, politics, theater, shopping, fashion, restaurants, events in New York City, and especially Friction, the best night of the month.

Subscribe to FRICTION events with

Neil Young rides again

It was released last week that Neil Young is coming out with a new album, Living with War, completed in 3 days and highlights his opposition to the Bush adminsitration, the war, and anything else bad happening in the world. Though there are only a few ears who have heard the tracks, it is apparently an incredible album musically and lyrically.

Mind you, I am adamant hater of our favorite little Texan, but this still makes me ask a couple questions:

- we have been at war with Iraq for 3 years, Fahrenheit 9/11 came out in June of 2004, Willie Nelson and Toby Keith was stringing up people in the trees back in 2003 – don’t you think he is a little late for any kind of revolutionary anthem that will change the way people feel about our President or the war? Everyone already hates him!

- how would Canada like it if an American released an album about how bad THEIR government was? Oh right I forgot, Neil’s a self-declared citizen of the planet.

- seriously, the guy can’t really sing and is only decent at best on the guitar. Maybe the Dixie Chicks should pick up the vocals for him.

You know I am one of those weird people who does not really listen to the lyrics of songs and find my passion for music in the feel of a song musically more than lyrically. So, I rely on the experts to tell me if the lyrics are good or not and apparently this album is quite a gooder. I seem a little hesitant to listen to the experts when I see lines like:

impeach bush
Kerry was a push
impeach bush
he got no blow job
he’s giving snow jobs
impeach bush
he’s a mistake
nawlins a lake
rum’s a snake
osama’s a fake
bombs against a rake

And this one doesn’t really make me shudder with awe:

Let’s impeach the president for lying
Misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Regardless of all this, I think the more we talk, the better. At this point there are few people who would ever defend what is left of our Preseident – so if Young is willing to continue his protest of the administration, I will support it 100% just for the sake of the protest not for continuing to put him on a pedestal that most would be too quick to do. Especially before the calls of ‘Neil Young For President’ start up.

Details are sketchy at best, but the featured song, “Impeach the President” contains Bush’s voice accompanied by a choir chanting “flip/flop.”

Classic. ?

For me, I will go back to my little bubble-world of music making me happy and turn up some more Lee Greenwood.

This is how we do it in Texas

If you’re from Texas and have a lawyer or an oiler in the family, you have most likely heard of Joe Jamail, the King of Torts, who is worth over $1 billion (the only lawyer on The List) having made his fortune as a plaintiffs’ lawyer in Texas, representing such cases and Pennzoil v. Texaco for encroaching on its contract to purchase Getty Oil (winning a verdict for Pennzoil in the amount of $10.53 billion, the largest jury verdict ever at that time, and a $1 billlion fee for the King). Jamail didn’t get to where he is now by being a softee. In Paramount Communications Inc. v. QVC Network Inc., Jamail represented one of the Paramount directors – During the course of the case, Jamail was defending a deposition when the following exchange took place:

Q. . . . Do you have any idea why Mr. Oresman was calling that material to your attention?
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MR. JAMAIL: Don’t answer that. How would he know what was going on in Mr. Oresman’s mind? Don’t answer it. Go on to your next question.
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MR. JOHNSTON: No, Joe –
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MR. JAMAIL: He’s not going to answer that. Certify it. I’m going to shut it down if you don’t go to your next question.
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MR. JOHNSTON: No. Joe, Joe –
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MR. JAMAIL: Don’t “Joe” me, asshole. You can ask some questions, but get off that. You could gag a maggot off a meat wagon. . . . .

I love Texas. This guy has the football field at UT Austin named after him, but I have to admit there are some interesting people that come out of there. This video is a perfect example – Jamail is conducting a deposition, questioning a witness that appears to be a former Monsanto research scientist. I also love fat old men ready to rumble…

“That ain’t your job, fat boy” = awesome.

SXSW 2006 Recap

This year’s recap has taken me almost a month to write since we had such a festive time down in Austin (plus I never completely got around to write about it). It took a while for my heart to beat normally again and to gather my thoughts. Plus all the free Red Bull & vodka, Sparks, beer and whatever else we could get our hands finally wore off. Not sure how we were able to function during the day when we went to bed at 8 in the morning everyday. SXSW 2006 was explosively fun even though I thought the music part was so-so cause no one new really blew me away. Got to show that hotel room voyeur/exhibitionist Justin around the easier to navigate parts of Austin, he ended up loving Trudy’s (he was like WTF!? last nite when I told him I was still gonna do this recap). Ran into and hungout with the Let’s Do This kids like I do every year, plus Julie and her crew, caught up with the Underrated and randomly met the man about town, VI (I just realized his blog looks just like a Zagat’s guide, doesn’t it? ha).

Launching your band or being signed by a label is pretty much dead at SXSW these days, its just a chance for labels to pre-hype and ready their new releases and artist for the new year. This isn’t necessarily bad because it just becomes one big party, but you’re not really gonna find some gem because the bands will probably have the means to tour. (It was frustrating one nite when we went to see Boy Kill Boy, but the rumored to be true special guest was The Flaming Lips at the same venue a couple of hours later. They caused a line that stretched down the block, 2 hours before they were supposed to come on. We couldn’t see our lessor known band because the Lips wanted to pull a stunt. WTF?) It was pretty disappointing that wristband holders had such a hard time getting into venues this year, because the excessive number of higher priority badges waiting in lines. There were alot of marketing, PR, magazine, media and product placement types running around.

My favorite part this year were the day and night parties. ‘Tha bomb!’ “When the alcohol kept flowing, water was like liquid gold,” thats what Paul the HumanCockblock would say. It got so ridiculous we started drinkin’ up to half cans of Sapporo and tossing the rest because they were getting warm. Ka-blam! You’d meet some fun characters at these parties too. Does a drunk hi-five and a handshake from Emily Haines at 4:30 in the morning count as a handjob? Hanging out, drinking and shooting the sh*t with the other Crackers all day long was explosive fun.

Justin took almost all of these Pics, His recaps: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Here are the bands I advertently and inadvertently got to check out this. The performances that especially stuck out for me are in bold or I just really like them, so you should check’em out.
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SXSW Recap | Day 4 – Voxtrot, The Duke Spirit + more

My very first SXSW trip was a blast, although I didn’t get to see every single band that I wanted to see (Band of Horses, What Made Milwaukee Famous, The Black Angels, and Stars of Track and Field – had keyboard issues), I caught a couple that I didn’t think I liked (read: Voxtrot). Voxtrot turned out to be the real surprise of SXSW, for me at least, everyone already seemed to love them, but I never really took to them. All that changed on Saturday when I caught their live show twice at The Velvet Spade and Factory People. I was really impressed with their day show performance, but they really blew me away later that night at Factory People. On the hand, I caught Tapes ‘N Tapes a second time at The Velvet Spade and the band did nothing for me, nothing. Myself and a few others aren’t quite sure what all the hype is about. To each his own, I guess.

The other very exciting band that I saw on Saturday was The Duke Spirit. Their performance was right up there with the rest of my SXSW favorites. I was extremely happy to finally see their live show. Other acts I caught on Saturday included: Small Sins, Hot Chip, Camera Obscura, and White Rose Movement.

Not sure if I’ll be going back next year, but if I do I probably won’t be buying a wristband since there are so many day shows and parties where you can see the same bands as the showcases.

Follow the “more” link below for more photos from Day 4 and check out our Flickr page.

Other SXSW Recaps
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

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SXSW Recap | Day 3 – Film School, Silversun Pickups, Gliss + more

I was hoping to get all my SXSW recaps up by the end of the week, but I spent most of the week sleeping and recovering from last week’s festivities. Day 3 started off at Jane Magazine’s day party where I caught The M’s and Film School. Film School sounded good live, but I think they would have sounded much better at a different venue. I met up with the rest of the group and headed up to the Vice Kills Texas outdoor stage where we caught Priestess who ended their set by jumping off the stage and proceeding to beat down some guy in the crowd. That was the most memorable part of their performance, so that should tell you something about their live show. After getting some food at Trudy’s I headed over to Spiro’s to catch Silversun Pickups and Gliss. Silversun Pickups played to a packed room and put on one of my favorite shows of SXSW. They played some new songs that aren’t on their Pikul EP, hopefully a full-length isn’t too far away. While waiting for Gliss to take the stage at 11pm I ran into Rachael and the guys from Amusement Parks on Fire. Rachael was in the back of Spiro’s checking out New York’s Five O’ Clock Heroes and Soft. One of the most remarkable things about Gliss’ live show is that the three members constantly rotate between drums, bass/vocals, and guitar/vocals and pull it off amazingly. Very happy that I finally was able to see them live. I met up with the rest of the group and we made our way over to the Stolen Transmission party where we caught NYC favorites Foreign Islands. I urge anyone who hasn’t seen them yet to go to one of their shows, they’re playing a bunch of shows in the upcoming weeks, including FRICTION on April 6th.

Follow the “more” link below for more photos from Day 3 and check out our Flickr page.

Other SXSW Recaps
Day 1
Day 2

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