That's what happens when you leave a friend alone with your laptop. Faris the menace. Anyway, having the boys back in town was really good fun, albeit draining to the max. They played two gigs with the Kills and ruled em like the champs I've always known them to be. It's so great seeing a band get their critical due (though of course it would've been nice for the press to wake the fuck up when I was actually in charge of wrangling it). The afterparty on Saturday night was one of those typically loud affairs that would've had the gossips at NME salivating (with appearances by Winona Ryder, Noel Fielding, some Strokes, and the bands being feted, natch).
Faris crashed in my spare room and between two brutally hungover brunches managed to get some flea market shopping in. He came home one day clutching a plastic bag and proceeded to show me his purchases.
Me: "What the hell's all that?"
Him: "It's a jar of shells. And a miniature bust of Teddy Roosevelt."
Me: *bursts out laughing*
Him: "What? Is that weird?"
I fucking love the kid.
HORRORS VIDEO, 'SEA WITHIN A SEA' = YAY, THEY'VE GROWN UP!
In between all that madness I had my ten-year high school reunion. What a trip. My grade was small - I think we had about 100 kids by the time we graduated. And we were all pretty friendly back then. But as it goes, ten years can create a helluva lot of distance. More than I expected, actually. And being in this gallery surrounded by people that looked familiar but were not necessarily the same as I remembered really threw me. I found myself with little or nothing to say. How can you explain a life of music and touring and fun to a former classmate clutching a screaming infant? It's almost cruel.
That's pretty much been it. I'm heading back over to the warm coast soon (yeah, hello? Mother Nature? Can we maybe get some fuckin SPRINGTIME up in this New York piece already??) - can't wait for that. And shortly thereafter, Sarah and I will be testing our DJ skills again (retirement ain't all it's cracked up to be) - this time at an indoor/outdoor BRUNCH party in Williamsburg. Details to come. Woooooo!
*** POSTSCRIPT ***
Just to give you guys an idea of why I quit the PR business... at the second Horrors gig (Monday), I got to chatting with an industry friend. An editor at a top music magazine. This friend was marveling at the growth of the Horrors and telling me that he had pitched a story on them to one of his superiors. His superior's response? "Nah, the Horrors are old news. We need something new." Ok. See... this is precisely what is wrong with the fucking music business. Sure, this magazine in question had covered the Horrors the first time around, but what kind of self-respecting MUSIC publication can refuse coverage of a band that has so completely transformed itself simply because they've been around for a few years??? How is that even remotely logical??? The biggest gripe I have about music these days is that no new bands can hold my attention. The MySpace/hype/blog era has completely killed the ability for bands to grow and seep into your consciousness and actually take hold as something that might have some semblance of long-term impact on the musical landscape. People are so fucking concerned with being the first to jump on "the next big thing" that they pay no attention to DEVELOPMENT. It makes me so fucking furious (if you couldn't sense that from my overuse of the word FUCK, as in... FUCK YOU OLD-HAT MUSIC MEDIA).
NME Review of new Horrors record
DrownedInSound Review
Pretty great interview with Tom from the band
