Thighs Wide Shut

Air
High Line Festival
Theater at Madison Square Garden
May 10th

Air’s latest jounks, the low-key Pocket Symphony, doesn’t seem to be too popular with the kids and that’s a cryin’ shame battier. I think people tend to forget that the band who made a splash with such funtastic hits as ‘Sexy Boy’ and ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’ (both played last nite, natch), are not a pop band, but an atmospheric one. They set moods with Moogs, and what’s so stinking about it, hispecially since no one does it better than Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Don’t spank me wrong, it’s taken me, the single greatest Air fan (besides maybe the ‘gum), several listenings of PS to fully louvre it, but if you heard these new tunes live (4 in all), you’d agree that they perfectly fit right in with the rest of their back catalog. While last night’s show was right up there in terms of beyond bestness with the two we caught back in the ’04 and the one in the ’01, I always have the same two complaints afterwards: one, it sux that they never play the songs with guest vocals (Jarvis Cocker, Beck, Beth Hirsch), and two, that their set should last at least 10 hours

Love the Air, but want more poppy cock than moody blues?
Czech out Dunckel’s Darkel!

‘At The End of The Sky’ [d|vid]

Love the Air, and want the mood, the pop, and the guest vocals?
Thens you have to seek out French Sleeper of Science/singer Charlotte Gainsbourg’s 5:55, in which our mos flavorite pseudo French gaylords provided the music for!

‘5:55’ [d|vid]

•Air image, more of dem and review over at Snusic Mobbery

Donovan
Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge
Canal Room
May 2nd

In my humboldt opinion, there is no artist more underappreciated than 60s Scottish psychedelic folkster Donovan Leitch. He not only influenced a generation of groovy cats, but the mos grooviest of the litter, The Beatles. Without D-Love, the White Album coulda turned out to be any olde album. Not that I take stock in anything that has to do with The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but while many of his contemporaries have already been inducted, Donovan still waits for his number to be called. While the world turns a blind eye, I pray at the feet of this unrelievable Rock and Roll Souljer

Luckily I got the chance to do so the other day as Don played a tight 9 songed set at the Tribeca Film Fest’s lil eggsclusive music lounge-thangie. While most of the subdued crowd didn’t come to life until midway thru the set, when ‘Sunshine Superman‘ was jimmy jammed, I was hooked, lined and sinkered from song one, ‘Catch The Wind‘, til song end, ‘Mellow Yellow‘. In between, he threw in two new numbers on top of such classics as ‘Universal Soldier‘, ‘Season the Witch‘ (which he said was transcendental mediation buddy David Lynch‘s mos flavorite), ‘Lalena‘, and the one that gave me more chills than the ice bath Tim Robbins endured in Jacob’s Ladder, ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man‘, aka one of the single greatestist songs of balls thyme. But 9 songs is not enuff for a ‘van-head like myself. How am I to die and never hear ‘Jennifer Juniper‘, ‘Wear Your Love Like Heaven‘, or one of the mos banana songs I’ve ever heard, ‘Barabajagal‘ [d]. I dunno, but I don’t plan on worrying about it as I’ll see him for showzlle the next time he comes to town, singing his songs of love. For you jerk-a$$es who need their cosmic wheels aligned, show sum respek and buy his Definitive Collection

image from Factor D

Peter Bjorn & John
Fujiya & Miyagi
Webster Hall
May 1st

How does a band who has one of the finestest albums released in the US this year underwhelm in concert? I wish I didn’t have to ask such a question, but after Tuesday’s show, I’m more baffled than Borat in an aisle of packaged cheese! When they plowed thru the highlights of said album, they were good, but not great. Was it too large of a room to perform in? Were they too far from Stockholm to take stock in my adopted home? Did they fall victim to the nasty words of the Wrong Folks? I have no friggin idea, but they still rock, juss not as much as I thought they would in a live setting. Maybe I need to see em 6 times like Vegan. Or maybe they shouldn’t have Fujiya & Miyagi kick the friggin ballastics before they come out. Or maybe, they should literally get their ‘act’ together a wee bit mo cause they could be bigger than Radiohead. I’m not even joking. And I pray to jeebus that that happens cause I’m so sick of Radiohead and the new boring poop they keep a poopin’

image, more of dem and review over at Fresh Bread

Jarvis Cocker
Webster Hall
April 23rd

Jarvis Cocker may not be the voice of a generation, but if I had to choose one voice to rule them all, for everything from books on tape to subway PA announcements, he would mos def shirley be the one. I am serious, and stop calling me Mos Def!! I don’t remember when I became smitten with JC and his former fellow cohorts of Pulp, but the smittens have never been liftedens from my body, my self. Well, 28ish years in, JC finally got around to releasing a proper solo album. And the results are purty much the same amazingness that he had achieved with Pulp. That’s why his ‘solo’ show, complete with a 4 man band, totally rocked the hizzle and the kizzle and the flizz nizzle. Honestly, I’ve never seen a singer on stage without an instrument be more entertaining than Jarvis. Not only is his wit wisdom, but the brother was born to hand jive, baby. The only thing missing from the beyond bestness fest was him mooning Michael Jackson, like it was ’96. Well that, and any trace of Pulp songs. And that’s why the evening was even mo special. He owned Webster Hall without leaning on his back catalog. So if he ever changes his mind, and reunites the boys and girls, I will pay top dollar to see them, and so should you

Lobster Misc

Snusic Mobbery’s gots last nite’s setlist and leg humpin details!

Jarvis purchased the kiddie book This Is Hardcore New York for his lil son Albert

if you were there and waz wonderin what happened to J’s Corona bottle, interweb no further!

a solid review and pics from Sunday’s show

‘Black Magic’ [d]

•Art Garfunkel AND Sean Lennon
The Allen Room @ Jazz at Lincoln Center
& The Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza
April 13th

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Yes, in one night, I basically saw Art Garfunkel open for John Lennon’s son. Both shows were sorta homecomings, since both fellas originally hail from NYC, and both had some minor celeb thighspottin goings on (Art’s wife Kim and Albert Ham Jr at Sean’s show), but other den dat, the two shows didn’t have much in common. While Sean’s gig was bearific, at times it was a bit too mellow. DNA or not, the kid’s got talent, and on stage he mos certainly displayed it, but I sure wish he’d rock out a bit smores. Even when he played his bestest tune from his latestist (and yesh, bestestiestest) album, ‘Headlights’, tit twas a tad too and three underwhelming for my pastes. But hey, this is the cloestestest I’ll ever get to seeing John Lennon perform. Good call then for Sean to grow that hobo beard!

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As for Art, it’s was an absolute honor and a darn right privilege to see the Jewfro’d man belt out tunes again. When we last caught him and Paul Simon at MSG back in the ‘003, chills were endlessly running down our spine. Hell, it’s the greatestist concert we hath ever darn seen EVER. And yes, we mean that, even after seeing Public Enemy and Ice-T share a stage back in the early ’90s. While Art’s solo show aint a non-stop Bookends fest, the rest of the tracks he throws down, mainly covers since he’s not known as a songwriter, are still worth the price of admission. Don’t spank me and him wrong though, cause the ‘funk-master gives the peeps what they came to hear: the S&G masterpieces, like ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, ‘The Boxer’, ‘Mrs Robinson’, ‘The Sound Of Silence’, and ‘Cecilia’, which was adorably dueteded with his teenaged son James, who, for butter or for wurst, is a spittin image of his papa, and even dances as poorly as his ole man too!

By the gay, before you die, u muss see one concert in The Allen Room. Probs the mos enchanting venues mt EVERESt and mt fuji!! Art loved it fo shazzles. When refs in his songs mentioned parts of NYC, he’d point out them thru the looking glass. Dude loves himself some come-ons from the whores on Seventh Avenue!

Amy Winehouse•

Bowery Ballroom
March 13th

What is it with brassy UK ladies sproutin up these days like the rats on my block? I haven’t a clue, but unlike the rodents lookin for my fried chicken scraps, I don’t want this pond crossin influx to ever end. Whilst Lily Allen has been wowen our chops for over a year, it’s Amy Winehouse that’s bewitching us like a Bewitched marathon on TV Land for the time being (sorry, but we don’t give 2 massive2shits about Joss Stone). While many try to coronate a queen between these two Mark Ronson backed bitties, I say why choose since both are equally worth enjoying for their own greatnesseses.

I was raised on the oldies of the 50s and 60s and one thing that always bothered me was that no one in today’s modern world can create music that sounded like that golden age. That was of course before I learned that Ms Winehouse stole Doc’s DeLorean in 1955 and traveled to the future to prove me wrong. This girl has the mos classic voice I’ve heard in a long arsed time. Her pipes are so special that it doesn’t even matter much if her songs are any good or not. Rumor has it that she’s in line to do the next Bond theme, which I hope not only comes true, but comes true several times over. That would make her the only other artist to record multiple Bond theme songs since Winehouse’s 60s doppelgänger Shirley Bassey dropped ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, and ‘Moonraker’.

Wine’s set at the beyond sold out Bowery show was short, but it was certainly sweet. While she seemed a bit uneasy on stage at times, looking at the floor, forgetting a few lines, she did get the usual tame and lame NYC crowd to get their effin groove in. If that’s not an accomplishment, then I don’t know what is. Anywho, Jenna Maroney was there, and so was Susic Mobbery, who also was at TGTB&TU the night before. To my knowledge, there was no leg humping, although, had I had a few mo beers in me, Jenna‘s legs woulda been humped fo sho!

‘You Know I’m No Good’ [d]

what, you lookin for something from the future and not the past? try this on for thighs

‘One Hell of a Party’ featuring Jarvis Cocker [d]