Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A catchy tune, dogs, unbent pretzels, scratch animation, a local band—oh, who am I kidding? I wasn’t trying to please Kevin; I just love the name. Feel free to mock me. 

Posted by Mrs. Polly on 07/14/10 at 08:30 AM
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Neutral Uke Hotel is playing tonight in NYC at the Mercury Lounge [via FREEWILLY]

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/15/10 at 06:35 AM
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Friday, April 23, 2010

read the whole post »

Posted by Kevin K. on 04/23/10 at 01:19 AM
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Friday, April 16, 2010

Can anyone find me one tax day teabagger event from yesterday that was even remotely as crowded as the Dirty Projectors show I went to last summer in Williamsburg? Weirdo rock FTW! Hipsters want their country back! Like, NOW!

Crowd packed in like sardines at Dirty Projectors show on Williamsburg waterfront.

[pic via FREEwilly]

MORE: The Daily Caller has a bunch of pics from Tax Day Tea Party in DC (the “biggest” event of the day).  I named this image “dopes.jpg”...

read the whole post »

Posted by Kevin K. on 04/16/10 at 09:35 AM
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

One of the guys who created this very funny video (Ben Sinclair) just emailed the link to us and said they recorded it on the same day as the outdoor Grizzly Bear show in Williamsburg this summer. I was there, but I didn’t hear any scuttlebutt about a suave naked dancing man running around the streets.  If I had, I would have asked, “What in the hell is HumboldtBlue doing in Brooklyn?”

(No, I didn’t see Beyonce or Jay-Z either, but I did shake Chucky Schumer’s hand.)

Posted by Kevin K. on 09/30/09 at 05:36 PM
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

As my lovely wife Chris and I were headed to Sunday’s Williamsburg Waterfront concert we took a detour through the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast and were lucky enough to catch the dance of the Giglio. Even better, we got to catch the Giglio meeting “la barca” (“the boat”) at the intersection of Havemeyer and 8th (video below the fold). I’ll let the chairman of the festival explain:

The Giglio [weight: 3+ tons—KK] is a statue on top of about a 65- or 70-foot tower decorated to look like a lily, and the statue on top is St. Paulinus. The Giglio is made up of a steel and aluminum frame, and it’s in three or four sections that are hoisted into place with a crane. The face of the Giglio, which is the lily, is made out of papier- maché and wood and cardboard tied to the frame ... and the face of the statue is painted. So the statue of Paulinus sits at the very top of the lily tower, and on the base is a 10-piece band that plays music (and the guys in the band like to eat - they’re pretty heavy!) and the Giglio “dances” to that music when lifted.

So why do neighborhood men risk throwing out their backs to hoist it?

Well, it’s a reenactment of the ritual that took place. Roughly about 100-130 guys pick up the statue, and the statue is lifted several times through the afternoon, and we dance through the streets to the music. And then, of course, the boat [another 3 tons, requiring another 100 men] is lifted at the same time, which signifies St. Paulinus coming back to Nola, and the Giglio is the lily meeting him. And the boat and the Giglio are lifted together a few times during the festival and come together. The dancing of the Giglio happens three different times during the 11-day festival, beginning today.

read the whole post »

Posted by Kevin K. on 07/15/09 at 07:37 AM
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Saturday, June 13, 2009

I really enjoyed the two-man electro-boom box band Javelin last night at the FREEwilliamsburg Northside Festival showcase. They put on a fun, energetic show. Unsurprisingly, they’ve also released cool lil’ homemade videos as well. Check ‘em out below.  Short and sweet. All in all, it was a great event. Job well done by our good pals over at FW.

read the whole post »

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/13/09 at 11:21 AM
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Friday, June 12, 2009

MORE: Our pals at FREEwilly posted the music video for this song.  If you’re a New Yorker and looking for something fun to do tonight, here’s the scoop (*PUN ALERT!*).

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/12/09 at 08:03 AM
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Monday, June 08, 2009

Stumbled upon this amazing talent last night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the soon-to-close Black Betty.  Adron had a bass player and a guy playing a massive marimba backing her up and it was a hell of a show.  Most people at Black Betty’s were there for the Brazilian music dance party that followed her, but she blew everyone away. If Adron doesn’t break out, human beings completely suck. It’s just that simple.

You can check out Adron’s music at her official site and MySpace. If you like what you’ve heard, you can grab her album from iTunes here.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/08/09 at 09:24 AM
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Monday, May 04, 2009

Nyle is a senior at NYU and in this one-take, feel-good live music video (replete with strings, horns and a piano) he covers Lil Wayne’s “Let the Beat Build” (with new lyrics).  Buzzfeed, where I found this, wrote, “Everything about this is awesome.” It’s pretty hard for me to argue with that because Nyle had me with the line: “I don’t need no sample/Got a girl with the banjo.” And he does.

More info about the making of the video here.

Posted by Kevin K. on 05/04/09 at 09:40 AM
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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Because I’m a major player in the music industry, the folks from $99 Music Videos emailed me a few days ago to let me know that one of my favorite local bands La Strada were debuting a music video for their joyous ‘n’ infectious anthem “The Sun Song.” I’ve been a fan of La Strada since I quite literally stumbled upon them playing in the bowels of the NYC subway system back in April of ‘07 (shoddy mobile phone video here). Their first official recording, a self-titled CD that includes this tune and the equally skull-sticking “Mama,” is coming out on Ernest Jenning records in a few days.  If you’re a New Yorker, they’ve also got a record release party coming up on March 5th.

Goddamn, I love that song. Just a perfect musical accompaniment to this crisp, sunny Brooklyn day.

MORE: You can watch a larger version of the video here and see how it was made for $99 here.

UPDATE: If you’ve got a local band you’d like to plug, feel free to do so in the comments. Love to check out what you folks have brewin’ in your hometowns.

Posted by Kevin K. on 02/21/09 at 11:47 AM
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Friday, September 05, 2008

CORRECTION: The Williamsburg Obama fundraiser is TOMORROW NIGHT, Saturday the 6th.  I apologize for any confusion.

Don’t like what you saw for the last three days? Cleanse your palette with this video and make a donation. And if you’re an NYC resident, TOMORROW NIGHT’S Obama fundraiser in Williamsburg (featuring one of my favorite new bands La Strada) is worth checking out.  I’ll be there, so if you plan on attending, drop me a line at kevin—at—rumproast.com (or use the contact link in the top right sidebar) so we can say “howdy” and stuff.

Posted by Kevin K. on 09/05/08 at 09:35 AM
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

...you should be here tonight.

Not for the headliner Flogging Molly, who I know nothing about, but for O’Death, one of the best live bands working the Rotten Apple these days. Punk-rock-fueled Appalachian roots-billy stomp.  You need it.  Trust me.

O’Death’s David Rogers-Berry, one of the most entertaining drummers you will ever see.

Posted by Kevin K. on 07/31/08 at 12:03 PM
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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Photo from last night’s Deerhoof show in Brooklyn via WNYC

This Wikipedia description of Deerhoof, which seems to have been removed, does about as good a job as possible at describing the band:

Although typically classified as an indie rock band, due to their having been on an indie rock label (Kill Rock Stars) for the entirety of their career, the mercurial and unconventional nature of Deerhoof’s music makes genre identification difficult, and perhaps inappropriate. But several recurring features can be said to constitute Deerhoof’s distinctive sound: unassuming vocal delivery set against hyper-expressive instrumental playing; an elastic approach to group dynamics and rhythm more akin to the rubato of classical music performance practice than rock; odd yet highly memorable melodies; harmonic sophistication and dissonance; disjointed, condensed, asymmetrical and otherwise unconventional song structures; raw and at times strident sound surfaces; improvisation; and general creative restlessness.

I saw Deerhoof last night over at Celebrate Brooklyn and, good cripes, were they stellar.  They’ve added a fourth member, guitarist Ed Rogriguez, and the interplay between him and John Dieterich definitely kicked things up a notch compared to the show I saw last summer (ed: whoops, it was two summers ago). Lead singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki was as adorable and captivating as ever and, man, Deerhoof’s founding member Greg Saunier is just a flat-out amazing drummer.  Possibly the best working the indie rock circuit these days. What he accomplished on stage last night with just a bass drum, snare and cymbal was inconceivable. They’re not really touring right now, but If they play near you anytime soon, make sure you go.

Here’s a great 9-minute doc about Deerhoof that includes concert footage with the band’s current lineup. Check it out:

MORE: Too funny.  Last night I announced to some friends and my wife Chris that I had developed a man crush on Saunier after watching him play.  It looks like I wasn’t alone:

...and though ive been a fan of Deerhoof as a collective force i also have an established man/crush [ on the basis of musical skill, silly ] on drummer Greg Saunier.

Posted by Kevin K. on 07/19/08 at 11:55 AM
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Thursday, June 19, 2008

I’m going to check out Medeski, Martin & Wood and Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park tonight, so I got a hold of MM&W’s latest release Let’s Go Everywhere and was surprised to find out that it was children’s album.  I’m a selfish, childless bastard, so that wasn’t what I wanted or needed, but the good news is that it’s a damn fine children’s album and something every parent of youngish thingees who reads this blog should look into snatching up.  You can listen to four of the tracks at their MySpace page and I highly recommend you start with the FUNky “Where’s the Music?”, which just may be the best kids song ever (I can’t stop listening to it) and will surely worm its way onto my next mix CD.

MORE: You can download two MP3’s from the album, including “Where’s the Music?”, from here.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/19/08 at 02:37 PM
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