Karneval Bohemia!

Zum Schneider’s Karneval cabaret tradition continues. I’ll be going on Tuesday. You should too. The info is below, along with some of last year’s pictures.

Karneval Bohemia 2008

Costume Party

Thursday, January 31
through Tuesday, February 5
Doors open at 8pm

Like every year, Zum Schneider will produce an
extravagant and unique show and party for the Karneval season.

The popular Alphabet City place, notorious for its crazy Oktoberfest and Karneval parties, will completely change from a Bavarian eatery into a decadent cabaret location.

DJ Volka Racho spinning endless party music
and German Karneval hits before, during and after the show.

Please come in costume!
Turn of the century/Moulin Rouge style, but anything goesTickets are $13 in advance (online or at the bar), $17 at the door

Most nights will sell out in advance.

 

 

Me with “Piggy Sue.”

Right.

Kermit trying to make the show go on.

Sometimes they even let you get on stage.  Kelly got to sing.  “Menomena!” or “Barack Obama!”

 

Plenty of good German beer. A fantastic German sausage platter. People dressed as animals. You get the idea . . .

 

 

 

Or as the French say, “Touch!”

My friend Luke, like the patriot he is, is getting married this July 4th to his all-American sweetheart.  Recently Luke asked a bunch of us from college to suggest music from those glory days for the wedding.  It’s brought back a bunch of great memories and, much to my chagrin, this gem from Andrew:

One of my clearest musical memories from E3 was Al saying he couldn’t take Pearl Jam seriously because of Vedder’s ‘ridiculous’ voice, while (as Luke quickly noted) thoroughly enjoying Bob Dylan.

Touch, my friend.  Touch.  Incidentally, the “touch” joke, for those of you who did not live on the third floor of entryway E was but one of many French sayings ruined by their translation into English.  This trend was no doubt set off by the Austin Powers line “what the French call a certain ‘I don’t know what.’”  Personally, I was always a big fan of “cream of the cream.”

Note that Wiley’s pronunciation of “c’est la vie” without keeping the t silent is of an unrelated (and at the time of this blogging) unknown origin.

I Am What I Eat

My friend Ganda is a food writer who has a blog about food entitled Eat Drink One Woman. This blog has a feature known as You Are What You Eat or YAWYE to those in the know. It’s featured such local luminaries as Jeremy (aka Cal d’Hommage), the lead guitarist for Nous Non Plus. This week it features me eating a big ass turkey leg.

Indian Summer

So perhaps my fears about the lack of excellent music during NYC in the winter might have been a little premature.  This winter would appear to have been unseasonably warm so far, musically speaking.  I just tallied up the totals and this past month has brought no fewer than 11 bands.  Rhonda Vincent tonight will make a cool dozen.

. . . and then I went drinking with the band.

So this past weekend held two musical highlights, only one of which I was fortunate enough to catch. On Thursday the Two Man Gentlemen Band played on the LES and last night the Asylum Street Spankers performed their show, What? And Give Up Show Biz? I was only at the latter, which was awesome in and of itself, but my friend Matt was fortunate enough to catch both. His blog posting about them does more justice than I could, so I’ll just hit some of my personal favorite moments from the ASS show.

The band was seriously tight. As Matt mentions, the starts held instant energy and the stops were on a dime. This was particularly impressive considering that at least one member of the group, such as Korey Simeone (who I was fortunate to randomly meet on an errant 2 train ride on Sunday) on fiddle, had only rejoined the Spankers for their run at the Barrow Street Theatre.

What to say about the content? I loved it. I loved the acapela number about being a soldier that punned through lopping off syllables (”To piss! To piss! Two pistols on my knee . . .” was one of the tamer lines). I loved Christina Marrs’s ability to switch seamlessly from the voice of a New Orleans madame to that of the purest choir girl. I loved it when Wammo played the rubber chicken during his country murder ballad/gangster rap song, “Hick Hop.” I loved when during the rhythm section featured Josh Hoag playing the neck of the bass with his left hand and the main percussionist played the bass strings with his drum sticks. I loved it even more that they did this long enough for Wammo to give Josh a beer and for Josh to chug the entire beer. I loved it when during “Beer” the “Beer Girls” came out deliver cool cans of Bud to the audience. It was a great show.

And then I went drinking with the band.

You Can’t Sneak Nothing Past William Howard Taft

Heavy Petting, the much anticipated third album from New York’s very own old-timey kazoo blowing duo, The Two Man Gentlemen Band arrived in my mailbox yesterday. A review will follow shortly, I’m sure, but for the time being here’s the track listing:

1. William Howard Taft - A song about the great man’s girth

2. My Baby’s Off the Market

3. The Square Root of Two - “My love is like the square root of two”

4. When Your Lips are Playing My Kazoo - “. . . all I want to do is sing.” Too blue for radio?

5. Heavy Petting

6. The Big Strong Man

7. Unicycle Blues = [Update: Girl meets boy.  Girl rides tandem bicycle with boy.  Girl breaks up with boy and takes her half of the bike.  Boy only has one wheel.]

8. On the Badminton Court - A classic live number from the Gentlemen! Excited to see it here. I recall a pun on shuttle-cock, I believe. [Update: Not a pun.  The line I was thinking of goes something like, "What do you do on the badminton court?"  asks the singer.  "Smack the bird!" replies the full band.]

9. A Gentleman Knows How to Love - [Update: "A lady loves the gentleman because a gentleman knows how to love."]

10. Dippin’ Sauce - I haven’t gotten here yet, but I’m guessing it’s not about food. [Update:  The chorus? "You ain't gonna eat my meat without no dippin' sauce. "  Needless to say I don't approve of the grammar.]

11. They Can’t Prohibit Love - [Update: Puns on liquor terms for loving.  Well done, gentlemen!  Well done!]

12. Newtown Creek

Elana James, Bruce Robison, Guy Forsythe & the Hot Nut Riveters, South Austin Jug Band - Hill Country 1/13/07

Luckily, my friend Mark let me know about an Austin music showcase this past Sunday at the barbecue joint, Hill Country in midtown. Unfortunately, I missed the first act, Gretchen Peters, but was very fortunate to catch the rest.

The first act I saw was Elana James. Her group consisted of herself on fiddle and vocals, as well as flat-picker Whit Smith on acoustic hollow-body electric and a very enthusiastic Jake Erwin on upright bass. I didn’t take any notes on the set, but remembered it as being lively from the outset. Mark had mentioned how great he though Elana was on fiddle and I have to agree. She had an excellent combination technical skill as well as soul. A nice combination. It was also interesting that the fiddlers of the South Austin Jug Band, while quite good themselves, still paled in comparison three sets after Elana had wrapped up. I also really enjoyed the other two musicians. Whit really balanced himself with the other two. I feel that this is often hard for a really good flat picker to do since they often have the ability to go a million miles an hour. Instead, Whit was really in sync and the technical flourishes always seemed warranted. Beau was quite enjoyable as well. I typically groan at bass solos or at least am disappointed that they’re more technically oriented than musical. Beau had a nice balance of both.

The second act was Bruce Robison, a singer-songwriter about whom I knew little other than the fact that, as Mark informed me, he is married to Kelly Willis and who apparently is seven feet tall. The man was seriously tall. It might have been better to describe Bruce as a songwriter-singer as his set-list revealed that he’s written quite a few very, very successful country songs including “Desperately” (George Strait), “Travelin’ Soldier” (Dixie Chicks), “What Would Willie Do?” (Garry Allan), and “Wrapped” (George Strait). He closed with his poignant and funny “My Brother and Me.” I’d give him a solid A-. For stage banter. Very funny, but a little rehearsed it seemed. Two of my favorite bits were when he noted that Travelin’ Soldier was #1 at the time Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that Bush was from Texas and as a result Robison had the distinction of having written the fastest falling #1 hit ever. The other was introducing What Would Willie Do by saying that he knew that through his life there was a hand guiding him through good and through bad . . .

The real treat of the night, though, was Guy Forsythe and the Hot Not Riveters. I just got giddy watching them set up on stage. The instrumentation included: two resonators, a resonator ukulele, a tuba, a rub board with bell, cowbell, and cymbal attachments, and kazoo in addition to a few more traditional elements. Guy had an incredibly amiable manner and amazing stage charisma from the outset. And then he opened with this deep throaty acoustic (gospel?) number where the refrain sounded to me like “Sink’er low, boys” after which the Hot Nut Riveters all stomped and said “Huh!” all together. It was awesome in the more traditional sense of the word and less in the “that was a gnarly wave, dude” sense. A couple songs later was Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”, a song about the Titanic which Guy noted that the press had dubbed “the ship that even God couldn’t sink.” This was followed by a raucous dixieland number and a throaty, powerful version of “Summertime” with Guy soloing on the saw. That’s right, the saw. Then came another bluesy tune, “One-hundred and Five” and one that I have marked down as “I Hear the Train.” It was just incredible stuff. The set left my jaw dropped and me wanting to be Guy Forsythe. To spend your days going around the country doing that!?!?! What a life! It was probably the best live set I’ve seen since the Springsteen show in May of ought six. Apparently they’re not a fixed group - or at least Google doesn’t tell me so. But hopefully this can give you a taste.

RFATHNR’s were followed by the South Austin Jug Band. I don’t know if it was because I was tired or because they were following such an amazing act, but they didn’t really get the job done for me. They were a large-ish band of mandolin, guitar, fiddle, bass, and drums that seemed to run between a more contemporary pop country sounds on some songs and more of an old-timey feel (a la the Red Stick Ramblers) on others. I’d be happy to see them on any night, but in comparison to Guy Forsythe and Elana James, they paled some.

Note: Some members of the Hot Nut Riveters, specifically Wammo and Nevada Newman, seemed to originate from the Asylum Street Spankers, a band of that seems to be of a similar verve but plays music of a somewhat more consistently profane nature. They’re playing a limited engagement up through Sunday at the Barrow Street Theatre, entitled “What? And Give Up Show Biz?” Matt and I are going tonight or Friday. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Interestingly enough, on the way back to Morningside, I messed up and ended up on the 2 train to 110th Street just north of Central Park. I started walking back and there was this guy who had been on the train with me who seemed a little confused about where he was. We got to talking and it turned out he was an old member of the ASS (who I now realize also get points for having an excellent acronym that actually has a content-based relationship with their actual name) who had rejoined the group for their NYC (no such acronym credit) show.

[Update: Thanks to Mark for letting me know it was Jake Erwin and not Beau Sample that was playing with Elana James that night.]

High Rye Bourbon

I’m signed up for two newsletters from LeNell’s, a liquor store in Red Hook that seems to specialize in true small-batch bourbons and other hard to find desirables of the cocktail-oriented community. In the last newsletter on the cocktail of the month, LeNell wrote:

A few bourbons exist that are known as “high ryes” having a higher percentage of rye than normal. Four Roses, Bulleit, Basil Hayden’s, and Old Grand Dad are a few high rye bourbons. Four Roses Single Barrel is finally in the New York market, and at this time, New York is the only market outside of Kentucky where you can get this whiskey. The proof of 100 makes me happy. The legend of the name makes for a nice story to go along with the cocktail, too.

Needing no more encouragement and given my appreciation of Jim Beam’s rye, I decided to go out and get myself a little of the Old Gran Dad. I’m a big fan of the rye taste and it’s definitely my preferred (and incidentally the original) whiskey for making Manhattans, but I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on some of this Four Roses business.

[Update: See the comment below for a correction regarding the availability of Four Roses outside Kentucky and New York.]

Fare Thee Well Gone Away, There’s Nothing Left to Say

When I made up my New Year’s mix back in December I was conflicted about whether or not to include any songs I didn’t see live. I had seen more live music than you can shake a stick at this year and in the end decided to go all live all the time. One of the casualties of this decision, however, was the great Pogue’s song, “The Body of An American.” I first encountered this song on an episode of season 3 of HBO’s the wire during the “detective’s wake” for Cole, a Baltimore Police Department homicide detective. The intro into the song and seeing all the police, black and white, male and female, raucously sing along to the song has got to be one of my favorite TV/music moments of all time. There’s a reprise in season 4 but it’s not nearly as potent.

Rattle My Cage 2007 - A New Year’s Mix

Below is the annotated playlist for a mix constructed from my year in music:

1) Two Man Gentlemen Band – Stuff Your Ballot Box The best banjo picking, bass thumping, kazoo blowing duo I know.  Who knew politics could lend itself to such innuendo?  Paul and I found out one Tuesday afternoon at Muldoon’s.

2) Neko Case – Set Out Running Alison and I saw her play at Summer Stage in Central Park.  She sounds just as big and brassy in person.

3) Great Lake Swimmers – Your Rocky Spine GLS played this beautifully when Winnie and I saw them at Joe’s Pub this spring.  Volume’s a little low.

4) Jack Hardy and The Company – Go Tell the Savior I first heard this with Matt, Nick, Kate, and Matt’s dad down in the Village.  Matt and I found Jack’s tent at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival where he gave us an excellent encore. 

5) Anthony DaCosta – Poor Poor Pluto The only new artist showcase performer at Falcon Ridge to bring his A game.  He won a slot for next year.

6) Red Molly – Long Gone Lonesome Blues  Matt and I caught an impromptu jam session that included this Hank, Sr. song.  Anthony D and others backed.

7) Lucy Kaplansky – Amelia A performer I barely knew before Falcon Ridge.

Dar Williams – Iowa Dar had us put away our lighters and phones during this and her husband brought their young son out on stage as we took them out together.  “Talk about making the world a magical place for your child,” she said.

9) Eddie from Ohio – Old Dominion First heard on Winters New Years Mix 2007.  “Matt, do you think they’ll play Old Dominion?” I said.  And then “You think you’ll find some mountains in western Colorado . . .” rang from the stage.

 10) Golem – Golem Hora I’m not afraid to say that Matt and I led the meanest Hora the Mercury lounge has ever seen when we saw Golem open for Nous Non Plus with Kelly, Nara, Mike, and Paul.

11) Counting Crows – Rain King Most earnest performance of the year.

12) John Mellencamp – To Washington This reworked Woody Guthrie tune caught my attention at Farm Aid with Mike, Laura, and Matt.

13) Neil Young – Homegrown Heart of Gold it is not, but more Farmy.

14) Das Ben – NYC Terence, Catherine, Brooke, and I saw this NYC acoustic punk debut.  Go to his MySpace page for the Drinking Song video.

15) Laura Cantrell – Yonder Comes a Freight Train She really hit her stride with this song when Meg, Brooke, and I saw her at Mercury Lounge.  The purest, most peaceful voice I’ve ever heard.

16) Todd Snider – My Generation (Part 2) The highlight of the drunk gentleman miming the entire song had to be “condom sense.”  Matt, Rachel and I saw this epic accompaniment at the Highline Ballroom.

17) Hem – He Came to Meet Me Meg, Nina, Chris and I saw this BK act also at the Highline Ballroom.  Opener April Smith was an unexpected hit.

1 Tift Merritt – Good Hearted Man So euphonious, so easy on the eyes.  Chris and Nina can verify that she called me out for taking notes during the show.  I used my mortification as an excuse to say “Hi” after the show.