Surprise Birthday Party For Nas

Last Wednesday I was invited to a surprise birthday party for Nas. The shindig went down at Canal Room and was put together by Kelis. The only thing I knew ahead of time was that Slick Rick was going to perform, Kanye and Diddy were supposed to be there and there was free booze. Also, the theme was "old school," which of course I had no clothing for. So I threw on my Run DMC shirt and waited for my ride.

You see, I invited one of my old friends from Jersey because I thought he would be into it. Knowing his tendency to be late I told him that this was the big time and he couldn't fuck around. Of course, the asshole was late - about 40 minutes late to be exact. No worries though, Nas ended up being late too so it was all good.

We got to Canal Room right around 9:30PM or so. We stood outside for about five minutes waiting to get in. In front of us was a guy that was about 6'10" or so. I jokingly said "what team do you think that guy plays for?" According to some post event coverage I read he actually does play for a team. Not surprising, I suppose.

After a brief wait we got our VIP stamp and headed inside. As soon as we walked in I noticed a VH1 camera crew interviewing someone. I'm not sure who it was but either way that's not a sight I'm used to, not at the parties I frequent. Like always we headed straight to the bar and got ourselves some free drinks. Then we decided to stroll the perimeter and see who was there we might recognize.

As soon as we entered the VIP area we noticed DMC standing against the wall. Early on he was pretty much the only familiar face - well, at least the only one I could put a name to. It was incredibly crowded upstairs and I was getting hot so I headed back down to the bar. I hung out there with some friends for awhile and then I noticed ?uestlove stroll by.

About ten minutes later a huge entourage bursts through the door. It was a big train of dudes pushing through the crowd obviously protecting someone in the middle. There were cameras following him and flashes everywhere. Was this the man of the hour? Then the train stopped for a quick interview with this guest. When it stopped and the entourage cleared it was easy to see who this mystery man was...Nick Cannon. What? Are you serious? All that for Nick fucking Cannon?

It was a ridiculous scene and really disgusted me. I mean here you have ?uestlove and DMC and Kanye (did I mention Kanye was there?) and this little shit is trying to steal the show. Not only that but for his "old school" outfit he dressed up like DMC. Dude, come on, show some fucking respect. You could have walked in like a normal person like every other celeb did that night but no, you gotta show boat. Sorry for the rant but that shit was fucked up.

Back to Kanye: I didn't see him all night but my friends did. Bronques got a shot of him so he was definitely there. The funny thing about that was when I saw my friends the first thing they said about Kanye was, "He's really short." Maybe that's how he snuck in without anyone noticing.

At some point shortly after the whole Cannon thing the DJ announced that Nas was walking in. Everyone got really quite since this was a "surprise." You could hear crickets in the place it was so quite and then it happened, "Sike." False alarm so everyone went back to drinking and dancing. Not much long later Nas did enter but the crowd wasn't trusting the DJ and it didn't quiet down like the last time.

After Nas made his entrance people flocked to the VIP section and the music began. At first it was a bunch of dudes I never heard of and not because I'm square, nobody seemed to know who they were. At one point I was standing next to my friend Andre and I turned around and nudged him. "Yo is that Carmelo Anthony?" I said. "Nah...maybe...I'm not sure." Turns out it was Carmelo but it was odd because he was just standing by himself. He actually looked kinda lonely, you think one of the best ballers in the league would have a few more friends.

Somewhere around this time I kinda blacked out. I wasn't wasted but I can only remember bits and pieces from that point on. I do remember a few things like Monie Love performing, a little bit of Slick Rick, Tracy Morgan on stage and getting kicked out of the super VIP area for Nas and his family. I got pulled in there and immediately expelled, then pulled back in, and again thrown back out after a picture was taken. None of this was my idea by the way, I like to leave the celebrities alone for the most part.

Yeah, so the rest of the night was a bit of a blur. I heard Kelis popped out of a cake but I don't remeber that shit. I did leave for about an hour and then come back so it could have happened then. Andre never made it back to Jersey, he slept in his car somewhere down near Canal. It was a crazy, crazy night. One of the best parties I've been to in years. From what you hear in the news you would think a hip-hop party would be all ego and tension. It was none of that, everyone there was super cool and just trying to have fun. I'll be telling stories from this one for a while.

Links:
Much better coverage of the event

Nas Surprise Party

More Photos:
Random Flickr Photostream (lots of celebs)
LNP

MP3:
Children's Story (Knock Em Out The Box Remix) - Slick Rick

Apes And Androids: Shows & Clothes

The best unknown band in NYC have some news to share. Apes And Androids will be playing a few shows in the coming months. Here are the dates:

• Oct. 7th at Sin-e w/ Palomar, Die Romantik, The Oranges Band

• Oct. 30th at The Annex (OhMyRockness Pre-CMJ Party)

• Nov. 2nd at Studio B (Insound CMJ Party) w/ Thunderbirds Are Now!, Tokyo Police Club, We Are Wolves
  

Also, go to the A&A homepage and check out the nifty new t-shirts they have. While you're there you should buy one and give it to me. Yeah that's right - I'm cheap like that.

Oh and one more thing, go vote for them on the Deli Magazine website.

Ski Club On PodServe

Awhile ago i signed up Ski Club for PodServe. What I thought it did was rip the MP3's from BSC and put them into a podcast - I was wrong. What it does is converts written blogs into sound and has robot voice read them to subscribers. It's kinda neat but I never really did much with it because I didn't think anyone would be into that. Apparently I was mistaken, during a random google search I found the PodServe BSC page and it looks like I have over 260 subscribers. What the fuck? That's kinda crazy.

So here's to you my PodServe peeps:

iubapwhreijbwirebaw[uhhbajiwtgbuigaw[hetnbjowbet[uigg[

O. U. 8. 1. 2.

I. M. A. 1. 2. B. 4. U. R. A. 0. - c.

uhwie osbetogn owitg sjhg 0witg w 0owhtg hwtig 0h swng

and shit.

***Update: So apparently I had PodServe confused with some other service. It does play music from the blog or at least it's supposed to. It doesn't appear to actually work, so those 265+ subscribers aren't hearing a damn thing.

The Cramps, Motherfucker!

Since this is about two weeks overdue I'm not really going to go into depth - because I can't remember the details. So anyway The Cramps played the Labor Day Motherfucker party at Avalon. The place was super packed and it was damn near impossible to find a comfortable spot.

I was upstairs when they started their set so I headed downstairs. On the way down the steps I got stuck. There were people watching from the steps and I couldn't move further down. People filled in behind me and I couldn't go back the way I came either.

Fortunately I had a great view of the stage from where I was at. Unfortunately I was sandwiched between two people and could not move at all. Eventually I couldn't take the heat anymore and just made a big push down the stairs. I couldn't see as well but at least I could breath.

The Cramps were fucking fantastic. The singer, Lux, was simply amazing. The old man was kicking ass and taking names. Several times throughout the show he felated the microphone. He also broke out the harmonica on a couple tracks. He basically just randomly blew into it. He either has no idea how to play one or he was taking the minimalist approach. The rest of the band was also very good, especially the guitar.

While I have always liked the Cramps I've never really been a big fan. Meaning I don't have their albums and have never seen them before. This means I can't tell you exactly what songs were played but I can say they were pretty fucking cool.

Sorry they're so dark

MP3:
Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps

Greatest MySpace Profile Ever!

Yesterday at work I randomly stumbled upon the funniest MySpace profile ever - Kwame "the last soul brotha". The first thing you'll notice is the picture, which is an instant classic. As long as you have a bowtie why even bother with a shirt? What the fuck is that mark on his chest? It looks like one of his hoes threw a hot iron at him and it hit him on the chest.

You see the man is a P.I.M.P, ya heard. Look at his top 8 - you don't know quality hoes like that. His general interests include "oozin' up and roun' the crib," "quality cognac," and of course..."sponge baths." Please take a minute to meet Kwame, you won't regret it - especially if you're a Nubian princess.

Link:

Kwame - "The Last Soul Brotha"

Updates Coming Soon

So once again I've been to busy to keep this blog up to date. I'm still posting but there hasn't been time for concert/party reviews. I will try my best to get caught up by Monday night. Here is what's coming.

• The Cramps @ Motherfucker
• Sigmund Droid @ The Annex
• LNP Book Tour Party
• Nas' Surprise Birthday Party
• & More
  

I know I'm forgetting shit but that's whats on the back burner right now. What did you guys think of Tom's TVOTR review?

Brooklyn Ski Club The T-Shirt

For shits and giggles I made a Brooklyn Ski Club t-shirt. I oreded it through Flickr and I have to say it kinda sucks. I mean the quality is pretty poor - the image is blurry and the print is already cracking. But it's not like I mass produced these so whatever man.

Click for better quality

Return To Cookie Mountain - TV On The Radio

Ski Club has a new reviewer, his name is Tom. Tom and I used to work together at Tower Records. Recently we've been hanging so I asked him to do some reviews. He's leading off with the new TVOTR.


Tom says...

And so it goes. Culture hurdles forward, we are told, more rapidly today than ever, thereby leaving us all perpetually searching for a successor to each previous milestone (millstone?). Six years ago David Sitek walked down the corridor of his apartment building and heard Tunde Adebimpe caterwauling and messing about surreptitiously with sound loops. It seems fair to say that, at the time, no one might have predicted that Sitek’s “eureka” moment would one day lead the two men’s group, TV on the Radio, into a remarkably hostile world of comparisons and weighty expectations such as surrounds that of the group’s newest release, Return to Cookie Mountain. Nevertheless, it happened, and today’s talking point asks the question: is Cookie in fact the 00’s cipher of the musical milestone that was Ok Computer, as its advanced billing has suggested?

Of course, TV on the Radio operates with a guile and sense of humor that the favorite sons of Oxfordshire have never possessed (OK Calculator­!—tee-hee, it still cracks me up). And it would be silly to overlook the fact that TV on the Radio never had an awkward hit-making phase of their career like Radiohead or the Flaming Lips. In fact, TV on the Radio’s outward career trajectory towards pop composition rather than away from it is the real story behind Cookie. Let us consider this comparison for a moment. For example, if you are anything like me, then you have hard time telling the difference of late between Thom Yorke solo recordings and cameos, and actual Radiohead releases. The reason for this resides in the fact that Radiohead (unlike the Lips or Wilco) has been bent on a quest of sonic reduction over the course of the last half-decade. Their’s is now the science of how to make five competent musicians sound like one or two. On the other hand, TV on the Radio’s brief history has witnessed the exact opposite movement! What began as a duo banging on a collection glorified chotskies turned into a songwriting threesome which in turn became a full-fledged fucking rock band. Suddenly, TV on the Radio is another great outfit featuring all the age-old bells and whistles: a great rhythm section, superior guitar players, and fantastic lead singer. Go figure.

Whether buoyed or propelled by this newly-minted classic rock configuration, the songs have never been better. Melodic consistency and simple song craftsmanship become the centerpiece of Cookie in a way that previous TV on the Radio releases only hinted at. This is no loss. For all the talk of their experimental nature, the band was never really much of a vehicle for crazy jazz or noise rock formulations, none of which made up the finest moments of TV on the Radio’s past oeuvre. I am eager to attribute much of the credit for this transition towards professional songcraft to guitar-player Kyp Malone, who appears to be eclipsing Adebimpe and Sitek (who retains his producer’s role) in both compositional quantity and quality. Three out of the four most immediate and compelling tunes are primarily credited to Malone. The heavy-breathing opener, “I Was a Lover,” and the art-rock power-ballad “Province” (both of which benefit greatly from Sitek’s machine-made loop-d-loops and carefully displayed layers of fuzz), as well as the cake-taking “Blues from Down from Here,” are easily the groups three finest moments recorded to date. All that aside, Adebimpe scores huge with the pounding and droning lead single, “Wolf like Me,” exactly the kind of tune one finds oneself playing compulsively on repeat for days. While these are represent the album’s highlights, the rest of Cookie, it remains to be said, is a complete triumph; a thoughtful, sublimely-gorgeous, New York mindfuck. The band’s only return to obnoxious ponderousness is Adebimpe’s “Hours,” which comes on second (thus easily skipped past—if you’re down with that sort of thing). Suffice it to say that lesser albums have elevated groups into serious “America’s greatest living band” discussions.

There is one last reservation I harbor about Cookie, and it is a big one. Sitek’s production is a complete goddamn mess. Really, Cookie is an aural superfund site. Nearly all of its greatest qualities are diminished to the point of ill-recognition, its finest performances sloppily rendered, and most of its humanity seems to have been methodically removed. Throughout the album, each instrument sounds isolated to the point of excess, marching to the click of its own metronome, as though each instrumental take was first plotted by committee on graph paper, and only then committed to the hard drive. Either that, or during mixing it mistakenly occurred to the band that they hadn’t meant to make a pop album at all, and set about detonating such an endeavor after the fact. One way or another, at no point does it sound like five men standing together in the same room. The irony here is that Sitek’s work with groups such as Celebration and Yeah Yeah Yeahs is remarkable because of its lived-in raw power and woofer-to-tweeter audible boom. The consequence of all of this is that Cookie is a great record in spite of its creators’ sonic caprice, and unlike other arty-rock epics, it actually sounds better across a room than through a set of headphones.

Oh, and the words. The words are fantastic, if you read the lyric book that is. In the mix they are totally indecipherable. The greatest lyrical casualty is “Province,” whose gorgeous chorus features Adebimpe, Malone, and err, David Bowie, all singing together “love is the province of the brave,” but in a manner that is indistinguishable from “lobbed in the Providence bus-lane.” Even “Wolf Like Me” becomes a hypnotic spate of consonants and “I liiiike its”—which in the hands of the Rolling Stones would be solid gold—when it could be so much more.

Here’s to Cookie and to so much more: 8 out of 10

Matt says...

Agreed. Have you bought this album yet? Why not? Are you stupid? Possibly the album of the year. Check out "Blues From Down Here" - simply amazing.

9.5 out of 10



Related post:
Link w/MP3

Idolator Launched

Gawker Media has launched there new music blog. I was just looking through it and I have to say it ain't too shabby. The only problem is they haven't hired me to write for them. Seriously, come on guys - give me some money.

Link:
Idolator

Fuck The Fashion Parties

Go here instead - double feature party at the Annex. My friend is throwing a bash tonight and the club double booked. So now it's Death Disco and her party at the same time. Two parties in one, sounds good to me. More details on What's Up NYC.

iPod Breathalizer

Wow! This thing epidimizes all that Brooklyn Ski Club stands for...drinking & music! In truth it's a we bit retarded but I'm strangely attracted to it. Then again I never drive anymore so what's the point really?

Link:
iPod Breathalizer

Hatebreed at CBGB - Concert Review

I actually didn't make it to this show. I've kinda lost interest in Hatebreed since "Satisfaction..." but I still would have loved to see them at CBGB's. Here is the review that Blender mag did with some damn good pics.

Link:
Hatebreed Blender Review