Central Village Has Moved!


It's been real, but Central Village has finally moved on to Typepad. Blogger's inconsistencies of late have driven me away for good. I will continue writing this site at:

http://centralvillage.blogs.com


Please update your blogrolls and bookmarks accordingly. Thanks! I'll see you over there.

Balm Party?


The more I sit on this, the stranger it sounds. I've received word from a pretty reliable source that Bloc Party is lined up to do some commercials/promotional work for Burt's Bees. My prissy and fashionable informant tells me that they make lip care products. They're the one in the yellow tins with the honeycomb pattern in it (found a picture! see above!). Weird. I don't think I've ever even seen an ad for the product. If this actually pans out, it'd be odd, but not nearly as strange as them passing up the major label bucks and signing with indie label Vice (who appears be the music industry's equivalent to the annoying pimply college kid who gets hot chicks up to his room cause he's got coke.)

The band was also heard on the OC last night, which was cool, but seemed off. Actually the whole episode felt off. It's not that I didn't like it, it just didn't make any sense. At all.

Finally, I noticed recently that Urban Outfitters is selling their album, displaying it prominently in the front of their stores.

I think it's safe to say the Bloc era has officially begun.


I wasn't at the show last night, (ended up not going to ANY show last night. The rain kept me in) but I got a broken up voicemail from a friend this morning who made it sound great. Something about a Mr. Brightside tease? Details please.

Anybody who won't be able to make it tomorrow, rest assured, they'll be back at Webster Hall in June. And speaking of Mr. Brightside, The Killers will be playing Summerstage June 4th. Tickets are not on sale yet for either. More info on both at Good Times Roll.

Blogger: Dead to me

Blogger really screwed me this time, making it unable for me to log in and edit my unfinished and poorly worded post that I accidentally published yesterday afternoon. There'll be some changes coming soon. Likely this weekend. Stay tuned...

Culture!


Yesterday was productive! I woke up early and went up to the Museum of Television and Radio for the KEXP sessions. Phoenix was up first. They were awesome. Very stripped down and simple, but for a group of guys who were sprawled out on chairs sleeping minutes up until they went on air live, they sounded remarkably tight and focused. If you goto the KEXP archives page, click on Wednesday, April 6th at 7:32AM. I keep on trying to listen to the albums but end up just going back and re-listening to this session again. If anyone knows how to get this whole thing onto MP3, lemme know.

After a quick breakfast break I went back up see an equally tired and hung-over Dogs Die in Hot Cars. They, unfortunately, played and interviewed a bit more like they looked, but were still a lot of fun. Definitely got better as they went on. Check out their session at Wednesday, April 6th at 9:31AM

Went back downstairs to enjoy the day, walk around the block, and grab some lunch before The Fiery Furnaces played. Another amazing set. Played three new songs. At least one had never been performed ever before. I liked it. I liked them all. It was just Matt and Eleanor acoustic, and while the interview was a little much for me, the music was really memorable. Take a listen at Wednesday, April 6th at 11:01AM. Fluxblog also posted an MP3 of the final song they played, and had some comments on both Phoenix and the Fiery Furnaces sets. One Louder has a review as well.

So after that, it was amazingly only about 2:30 in the afternoon. During my brief walk earlier, I realized that the MOMA was literally around the corner from the Museum of TV and Radio, so we went, since I hadn't been since its reopening.

I was really blown away by the place. I've been to many of the top museums around the world. Some of them twice. I can honestly say nothing even comes close to the New MOMA. No contest. The Musee D'orsay had always been my favorite, but this place trumps it tenfold. I'm very proud to have it in my hometown.

The art is perfect. I've NEVER been so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I actually looked at. I'm pretty picky when it comes to art that genuinely interests me, but I would say that 80% of the stuff in there I was impressed by. What stood out even from the amazing art was the actual building itself. Every room with a window, I found myself running up to look outside. They so perfectly framed the cityscapes. It was like a Red Grooms painting come to life.

Jen's got lots more pictures from the museum, as well as the latter two studio sessions. Check em out.

Evening plans


So, if anyone out there either didn't get a ticket tonight to the sold out Bloc Party show (or you sold your tickets to that show to a friend for about 1/5th of what you could have gotten off craigslist) or The Fiery Furnaces show, (or you just don’t feel like going all the way to Williamsburg by yourself to see a band you saw play an acoustic set for KEXP yesterday and who you have tickets to see at Webster Hall Saturday night anyway) there's still another option available.

R.U.O.K., a band I've mentioned a couple times recently, is playing at the Delancey tonight. The party starts at 9:30 and they'll be on around 11. Check em out. And have a listen to my favorite song they're got up on their website (which, I know I've posted before...but it's good):

R.U.O.K - Arms Length

Also, if you're looking for a late night, the Bloc Party after party is at Pianos and features some excellent late-night performances. Get all the info here.

Day off!

Hi. Took the day off today. Will be back tomorrow.

Ride


Over the last four days or so I’ve become a very big fan of Ride. It all started when I read a couple of posts and an article at NME.com about how Mark Gardener, former lead singer/guitarist, was playing a solo show at Bar 13 last Sunday night. Bar 13’s quite literally a stone’s throw from the my apartment, and I rarely read about bands with any international buzz playing there, so it got my attention. I poked around on Rhapsody and on the internet and started listening to lots of Ride, as well as Mark's solo stuff. It’s great. Everything I read said they were a massively influential band that never got the recognition they deserved. It’s pretty clear from listening to them that bands like Oasis and Coldplay would not be what they are without these guys. I actually listened to Mark Gardener sing “Dreams Burn Down” solo from his 2003 EP first, thinking is was a blatant rip-off of “Champagne Supernova” meets “In My Place”, before realizing it was a Ride song from an album that came out years before either of those songs ever existed. I’ve listened to that version and the original no less than 30 times over the last few days. It's my favorite.

Anyway, I really wanted to see him on Sunday, but I was totally wiped after watching Intervention and ended up regrettably passing. I found out yesterday, however, that he has been added to the Vicious/KEXP show tonight at Rothko between sets. Can't make the same mistake twice. He goes on at 9:30. I'll be there.

Putting us all to shame...

I was gonna write a bit about what shows I'm looking forward to this week, cause there are some good ones, but after reading Brooklyn Vegan's new weekly post at Gothamist, I'm finding it hard to justify why I should EVER talk about an upcoming show again. He covered virtually everything, including even the weird shit over at Tonic. Check it out.

If you're still interested...Morning Theft and/or The Cloud Room on Tuesday, Fiery Furnaces at NorthSix Thursday, and Bloc Party Friday. Wednesday I'm taking the day off from work to go see Phoenix, Dogs Die in Hot Cars and The Fiery Furnaces do their KEXP in-studio performances.

Baseball!

Been nothing really to write about so far this morning. No major goings on over the weekend. LCD Soundsystem was good, but not so great as to make me like their album any more (See pictures at One Louder and Brooklyn Vegan. Also, check out a rare concert review from ToTC). Movement and Losing My Edge were lots of fun, as was the set-closing Yeah, but the rest didn't really do it for me.

But...how bout baseball starting this week? April begins my annual stint as a real Mets fan, which usually fades out around May when they've got a 10-17 record and 8 games behind the Braves. I don't really have any shame about being a fairweather fan. I still follow the sport, and I'll never say I'm not a Mets fan, but I can't go balls out for any of my teams (the Knicks or Giants or Mets) when they're so damn godawful. There are too many other interesting distractions here to be bothered with activities and interests that aren't really entertaining or successful. So I just don't force it. It's not like I'm gonna start rooting for anybody else or anything. I'll just find something else to do. I think that's natural. Can't be bothered.

But, that being said...Lets go Mets! I'll pay you attention so long as you stay above .500. I think that's a fair deal. I might even make the trip out to Flushing once or twice if you really impress me.

Weakened

Man, I've been sleepy all day. The Album Leaf were great last night, but they really were a dozer. I wanna go see them play a planetarium or something. Standing in a sweaty and crowded Mercury Lounge was not the ideal setting. The sounded really great tho, and the visuals were cool...I just wish I could have been reclining.

Today I've been just going through the motions, trying to get out of here on time. My officemate left sick this afternoon, so I've been blasting the Silent Alarm with the door closed, singing along, etc. It's remarkable how resilient this album is from burnout. I feel like I must have listened to it every day for the last 4 months, and it still sounds as fresh and exciting as the first day I downloaded it. In fact, I think it's even gotten better for me over time. Just amazing. By far the record of the year. I don't think anything can come close.

Copy guy just came in the middle of Price of Gas to deliver a job and gave me a funny look. This whole day I’ve been mad skeptical. Pranksters about. Even got an e-mail from my "boss" basically telling me I was gonna be laid off, only to find a sicko april fools wink emoticon where the letter should have been. NOT FUNNY.

Okay...gonna wrap this up. Slow day 'round here. Have a good weekend.

The Trumpet Calling the Kettle Ska

Because this story just won't go away...

"I've heard rumours about [members of] that band (The Bravery) being in a different kind of band, and how do you defend that? If you say, 'My heart really belongs to what I'm doing now,' but you used to be in a ska band." -Brendon Flowers to MTV.com earlier this week

Ever talk to your drummer about where his heart "really belongs" ?



That's him. Second from the right. Ronnie Vannucci. Former drummer for the Las Vegas ska band Attaboy Skip.

Is it April Fools Day yet?