Bobkast #22: Listen, The Snow Is Falling

"I Need Another World...This Ones Nearly Gone"
(Photo by automaticbobby)
It's funny how a little bit of snow can bring a city to a stop. Aimless and carefree, it floats amongst smoke stacks and skyscrapers, lulling the avenues to a quiet hush. Quickly, it builds, hypnotizing wide-eyed onlookers as it dusts dirty streets with crystalline sparkles that shine under street lights like diamonds in a summer sky. Quiet. It swirls, whirls and falls. You stick your tongue out and taste its frozen delight. "Ahh, nurishment." And all of the sudden, the world is anew.

Bobkast #22: Listen...The Snow Is Falling
Galaxie 500- Listen, the Snow is Falling
Yo La Tengo- Nowhere Near
Alela Diane- White As Diamonds (Daytrotter)
Bjork- All is Full of Love
Grouper- Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping
Koushik- Morning Comes
Apollo Sunshine- Happiness
Japancakes- Blown A Wish
Julianna Barwick- You Were Waiting
Mum- I Can't Feel My Hand Anymore, It's Alright, Sleep Tight
Mogwai- Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home
Antony & the Johnsons- Another World

Download Bobkast #22: Listen...The Snow Is Falling (PC: right click+ save as; Mac: command (apple)+ click)

we saw: Hercules & Love Affair

"You Belong To Him Tonight"

Friday night was truly epic. Radiohead's juggernaut of a live show made my legs so weary that all I could do to make it to Hercules & Love Affair was to take a nap on the light rail platform. (And another nap in the cab across town). But we are young and the young shall dance, so when we arrived in front of the Fillmore (still weird that its not Irving Plaza) we were injected with a few hours worth of second, third and fourth winds.

We arrived just past midnight, and probably missed the first 10-15 minutes of H&LA's show, but it didn't matter, the party was in full swing and the hyper-sexual gay club disco had the old IP feeling a lot more like 54 or Tunnel, or one of those obscenely hedonistic dance clubs of old that people like to reference. Moustached men in short, short shorts maneuvered the dance floor as if they were extras in the roller disco musical Xanadu, while drag queen supreme Nomi dominated the stage, all eyes on her. The band, which included a full horn section and a half nude male "Vogue" dancing all night, was so tight that the songs literally moved into and out of each other, as if they were having sex and each transition lead to a new disco-beast of an offspring. "Athene" and "You Belong" were full of sleek body shaking goodness, while the unstoppable crowd could have brought the balcony down during "Blind." For me, the unreachably high highlights were H&LA's cover of "Don't Fear The Reaper", the "my secret love of a man" jam "You Raise Me Up" and the encore, and house rattler, "Hercules Theme." It's nights like this, and acts like Hercules & Love Affair, that often make me dream of being a young gay male during the height of the cocaine fueled NYC disco years of yore.

Hercules & Love Affair- Don't Fear The Reaper (Live at Irving Plaza) (Courtesy of The Sound of Indie)


"Blind" Live @ Studio B (R.I.P.)

coming soon: My Robot Friend

"I let you get inside my heart but you just pass me by"

A colleague asked me the other day, "Where can I get my robot fix now that Daft Punk is done touring?" Well my dear androphiles (made up word?), NYC's own My Robot Friend is here to the rescue (or will be at least, in early-mid 2008). My Robot Friend, aka Howard Rigberg (aka Howard Robot), is near completion on Robot High School, his follow-up to 2006's Dial 0, which featured a cover of Blondie's classic "Rapture" (video found here) as well as the suburb "One More Try" featurng Antony of Antony and the Johnsons (audio below).

According to the official website, My Robot Friend has 8 tracks already in the bag, including the title song "Robot High School" (video below) and tracks like "The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane." My Robot Friend is known for his live shows, where he "performs in an elaborate, personally designed light-up suit while interacting with illuminated objects, wireless video cameras, pyrotechnics, and other odd home-made props." The suit includes a penis that shoots out flames of course.

For music video fans the video for "Robot High School" (below) is a must.

For all things robot check out:
My Robot Friend Official Web Site
Robot High School official website
Myspace Page
VIRB Page

My Robot Friend - One More Try (feat Antony) [from 2006's Dial 0]