show: Beach Fossils, Freaks, Cloud Nothings, Nude Beach

"Journey Through The Past"

As another Saturday night descends upon us, lets head down to the Monster Island Basement, and pretend its our very own fallout shelter. Sort of like that Christopher Walken/Brendan Frasier movie Blast From the Past, sans Alicia Silverstone, and plus a ton of cheap beer and kick ass bands. Y'all are probably already familiar with Beach Fossils and Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, if your not, get acquainted now so you can sing-a-long or at least have the option of doing so. Speaking of sing-a-longs, Cloud Nothings, Cleveland's teenage wonderkids, whose basement pop sensibilities are steeped in anti-cool kid aesthetics. Like most of us, Cloud Nothings have probably spent more than a few nights driving aimlessly around their hometown, looking for something, anything, or nothing, to do. Their return to Brooklyn is especially notable as the last time they played, with Real Estate and Woods, they had the Market moving. Throw in Nude Beach from New Hope, aka Pennsylvania's classic freak outpost, and it's sure to be a blast. Did I mention this is a Chocolate Bobka & Group Tightener Party? Oh, well, it is, so yeah, it's definitely gonna rage. 8pm, $7. Game on.

video: Beach Fossils "Vacation" from Bobka Show

"Nothing to Worry for"

The Chocolate Bobka show last Saturday night was easily one of the best nights of the Summer. Stacked with a cohesive lineup of up-and-comers, Cameo Gallery felt like, well, the place to be. Beach Fossils closed out the night with their meandering surf psych bashing through the room. Marred by technical difficulties, and the fact they don't really have that many songs, after finishing an extremely short set that included "Daydream," "Lazy Day," "Vacation" and a few others, the band launched right back into the same set. That's right, two sets from Beach Fossils in the same night. While they were practically identical, the second hash through the band's catalog was, for whatever reason, a lot more fun. Possibly because the crowd wouldn't let them stop. Dustin repeated said "We don't have any more songs" to which the crowd responded "We don't care, keep playing." And so, they did. My guess this is the second version of "Vacation," which had the room in a pogo-sway you'd think only Gigit or Dick Dale could inspire. More videos from the Cameo Gallery show by Ray Concepcion in the coming days.

reminder: ChocBob Show at Cameo Gallery

"And Later On"

Being that its rainy, a bit chilly and the forecast for the weekend "blows," you might as well come to Cameo Gallery tomorrow night for one last pre-Labor Day, post-fuck this humidity party. A rager it shall be, with my boys Family Portrait kick starting the evening, which will sway from the hypnotic folk of Sore Eros to the wondrous Floridian pop of Holiday Shores to the vibrato-inflected surf psych of Beach Fossils. As usual, there will be cookies. So yeah, come out, its only $7 and if your nice, maybe we'll draw a moustache on your face. (Warning: Only nice people will be violated with magic marker moustaches.) Peep chronic videos below for a preview of what will mark the end of our summer, and the beginning of the autumnal transition.

In other news, our friend and pseudo west coast corespondent J. Spacecakes will be on location in San Francisco, a small psychedelic fishing village in Northern California (maybe you've heard of it), at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. In what is surely to be the best piece of web reporting in the micro-blogging age, Spacecakes will be live tweeting the musical styling, while sampling copious amounts of medical edibles. Being that Spacecakes is, well, the greatest stoner in the world, the worlds most absurd tweeter (not counting Ron Artest), and the most gracious dude left of the Mississippi, I highly recommend following his tweets this weekend, especially if your on the trapped indoors on the East Coast watching old movies on AMC while rain streaks down your windows. The party kicks off in Golden Gate Park today at 1pm pst. Follow J. Spacecakes on Twitter.

Presents...Holiday Shores|Beach Fossils|Sore Eros|FP

"Lazy Today, Lazy Tonight"
If I knew any better I'd think I dreamt this show up after sleeping in a sandy bed. [Ed note: I think I may have. My bed is quite sandy.] It's all beach pales, Capri Sun and Super Soakers, which, if you've been paying attention, is sort of the sound of the summer. That said, I'm proud to be presenting a superb lineup that'd be as perfect in Rockaway Beach as it will be at Cameo Gallery on N 6th.

Chocolate Bobka Presents...
Beach Fossils...warbled, sunburnt slacker pop that may have been birthed in the backseat of a convertible with the top down on the way to Fort Tilden.

Holiday Shores...vibrant Floridian pop straight from the pan handle. Set to release their blissful Columbus'd the Whim on two syllable records on August 4th (pre-order here)

Sore Eros...lysergic folk from the lush meadows of Connecticut ripe enough to score a psychedelic Tony Soprano dream sequence or your next robo-trip.

Family Portrait...Underwater People's 'house band', featuring UP's head dude Sawyer. "Mega Secrets" is the reason dudes say "that's the tits."

If you've been following the beach pop, dream folk, stoner indie stylings of late, then there is a good chance you're already familiar with these artists. However, if your not, get acquainted below. Before long you'll be loading up the bong and scrapping together change to get a Choco Taco from the Kool Man. Bascially, get your ass to Cameo on Saturday the 29th of August. Sharpie that shit in. Big thanks to MJM for poster and Cameo Gallery for hosting the event.

Beach Fossils- Daydream
Holiday Shores- Phones Don't Feud
Sore Eros- Whisper Me
Family Portrait- Mega Secrets

live: Beach Fossils, Real Estate, Girls

"I've Got Wild Eyes"
Friday night at Water St's Monster Island Basement was one of the best lineups of the year, if not for the plethora of future stars then for it's unbriddled cohessiveness. Hats off to Todd P, who, once again, curated a night of near-perfect music from Beach Fossils, Real Estate, Girls and Kurt Vile & the Violators. Hazy surf-psych, lazy beach pop, narcotic Costello grooves and mega-feedback, it was almost as if the boundaries dividing each act bleed into each other, so that the revolving cast of musicians, actually felt like a revovling cast, rather than a drastic 180 degree turn taking . While Girls wowed me for the second night, especially their righteous cover of Vivian Girls "Wild Eyes" and Real Estate showed that they just keep getting tighter and tighter, the real surprise of the night was Beach Fossils, whom, despite being a one-man act on record, really fleshed their sound out nicely for the live performance. The band's short, remarkably clear sounding set include Bobka-favorites "Daydream" and "Vacation," as well as "Lazy Day", which continues Beach Fossils "I'm really baked and it's way too hot to do anything but pass out in the sun" vibe. While I heard muttering that Beach Fossils vocal effect may have been "a little much," I'm going to let it slide, as the warbled-flange is the vocal equivalent to someone muttering strange thoughts in your ear whilst passed out on the beach.

Beach Fossils- Vacation
Real Estate- Black Lake

Girls covering "Wild Eyes" at Cake Shop (Shot by Bill)


Girls "Solitude" (new song)

bobkast #27: Polaroids at the Beach

"Leave The City Behind"
(photo by margaret zyro)
Ok, here's the plan: We're all going to quit our day jobs and shack up at my grandparent's beach house for the summer. (They're old and forgot they have a beach house.) Then we'll get sweet jobs like, Ice Cream Man, Italian Ice Guy, Fish Delivery Dude and Badge Checker Chick. We'll live off grilled cheese sandwiches and milkshakes. And margaritas. We'll have unlimited ice cream, and freeze pops. You can buy like 500 freezepops at the gas station for like $5. It's sick. We'll just wear Umbro's every day. No shoes. And it won't even matter when you jump into the ocean with your clothes on at 4 in the morning and your cell phone dies, cause, well, it just won't matter. And well ride bikes. It's gonna be so rad.

Boobkast #27: Polaroid's at the Beach


Quiet Village- Victoria's Secret
Real Estate- Beach Comber
Beach Fossils- Vacation
Holiday Shores- Phones Don't Feud
Ganglians- Lost Word
Strawberry Fair- Give Up
Ducktails- Let's Rock The Beach
Juana Molina- No Llama
The Tough Alliance- Hung Up On A Dream (Zombies cover)
The Ruby Suns- Ole Rinka
High Places- From Stardust to Sentence
The Mayfair Set- Desert Fun
Jacuzzi Boys- Island Ave
The Meanest Boys- I Don't
Ms. Tyree "Sugar" Jones- If You Feel It
Rodriquez- Sugar Man
Reefer- Blue Moon
Sore Eros- Whisper Me
tUne-YaRdS- FIYA
Wilson Simonal- Escola em Luto
Sandbar- Fresh Life
Stag Hare- Allah

Download Bobkast #27: Polaroids at the Beach (PC: Right Click + Save As; Mac; option + click)

mp3: Beach Fossils "Vacation", "Daydream"

"Leave The City Behind"
Waking up all foggy on a hazy morning with peanut butter on my breath, espresso penetrating my nasal passage, and Beach Fossils "Vacation" radiating through my ear drums felt like a moment of semi-cosmic clarity. My senses were a buzz, yet, despite the undeniable strength of Stumptown's Hairbender, I still felt like I was drifting through Maya Lin's Wave Field at Storm King, the landscape undulating like an ancient oscillating synthesizer– a rippled world. Beach Fossils, a dreamy bliss pop act from Brooklyn, whose associations with Woodsist, Captured Tracks and Underwater People's places him as part of the neo-Urban sylvan-beach psyche community (Woods, Ganglians, Real Estate, Ducktails), is the sound of escaping into a sun washed Polaroid from Rockaway Beach– the Atlantic to your east, Queens to the west. Beach Fossils have a number of upcoming shows in NYC, including one, appropriately, this Sunday at Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach. That show, aka Todd P's annual Unamplified BBQ, also features Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, Shilpa Ray, Real Estate (& Ducktails), Teengirl Fantasy, and, literally, like a hundred more bands. Oh yeah, and it's free. So yeah, you should probably get there if you can. If you can't make it Sunday, do your best to catch Beach Fossils with Real Estate and San Francisco's Girls at the Monster Island Basement on Friday June 26th, which is sure to be one for the ages.

Beach Fossils- Vacation
Beach Fossils- Daydream