Abe Vigoda & Talbot Tagora - 2009 Tour Dates (Whitney Museum, Cake Shop & Monster Island)

Abe Vigoda are awesome.

used to be, until their fierce ass drummer left the band. now they're alt-rock. that drummer was bad ass!

same evening (7/17) as superchunk + versus at the seaport. abe vigoda don't stand a chance.

Oh shit, the drummer left? Guerero or something like that? He was insanely good. Where did he go?

that drummer was awesome

on their myspace, his name is crossed out with lol next to it. not kidding.

What will save rock 'n' roll?

By Todd Leopold
CNN

(CNN) -- Steven Van Zandt did not mince words.
Steven Van Zandt (right) wants musicians to have a sense of history and care for their craft.

Steven Van Zandt (right) wants musicians to have a sense of history and care for their craft.
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"I want to spend just a minute on a topic that never ever gets discussed in the music business -- the music," the Bruce Springsteen guitarist and "Sopranos" star said in a speech to the SXSW music and arts festival in March. "The reason nobody wants to talk about it is because it mostly sucks!

"Who are we kidding here?" he said. "Nobody's buying records? Because they suck!"

He called the speech "A Crisis of Craft," and implored listeners to get back to rock 'n' roll's roots. Learn how to play cover songs, he said. Get people to dance. Harness your working-class energy. Take pride in craft.

It's been two months since that speech, and Van Zandt is still passionate about the subject.

"[Rock 'n' roll] is a craft that has to be learned," he tells CNN. "There are things you learn by listening to great records, copying heroes." He believes that he said some things that people were thinking, but haven't said out loud.

But the rumbles are out there. The music business is in a state of flux, with the sales of more profitable CDs continuing to fall even as single downloads climb. "American Idol's" season is coming to an end, with rock purists once again assailing the show's slick pop sensibility. Commercial radio, country, rap and hip-hop -- they all have their critics, many of them wishing a return to the way things used to be. Blog: What do you think of the state of rock 'n' roll?

Van Zandt has sympathy for all sides, coming at the issue from what he calls "a unique perspective" -- he's a musician, a DJ (with his radio show and Sirius XM channel, "Little Steven's Underground Garage") and record label honcho (Wicked Cool Records). He's quick to observe that he's not slamming all pop music. There's vibrancy in some hip-hop, he says, and he admires "Idol," particularly when it promotes music history.

"But it's quite an alien world to my traditional rock 'n' roll world," he adds. "It has nothing to do with it."

Within that rock 'n' roll world, he worries. Today's bands, he says, look down on performing covers, and as a result many have gotten lost in a musical wilderness. "The result is an extraordinary amount of mediocrity," he says. "There are no standards to live up to."

go listen to some "Crystal Stilts" Mr. Van Zandt.....great music is still being made...you just have to have your ear closer to the ground than in the past to be in the know.

van zandt plays with brooce and so his shit don't stink? that gives him negative cred.

Crystal Stilts are endemic to precisely the kind of mediocrity he was referencing. No talent...no skill on their instruments...no creativity...no ability to write a good tune or craft a memorable melody...etc, etc, etc. They are, in every way imaginable, just simply bad. There's absolutely nothing to what they do. Monkeys could do it...nay, monkeys could do it better because at least monkeys wouldn't be spouting forth predictable, basic, derivative, generic drivel.

But the fault doesn't just lie with the musicians. The fault lies with the music listening public as well. If it weren't for them, these bands wouldn't be given the chance to exist in the first place.

this sounds like my sister taking a shit

"Crystal Stilts are endemic to precisely the kind of mediocrity he was referencing."

Crystal Antler DeerwolfAIDS on the other hand...

Great Post. Will be back for more.

Crystal Antler DeerwolfAIDS on the other hand...

Yes precisely. Theres a lot of rehash these last 6 to 10 years,a big lack of history, but much to do with cheesy attitude and super wacky "weirdness". More like a cartoon or caricature.
The Williamsburg template has nothing to proud of that has spawned "noise" "experimental" bands galore that acts like a duck,but claims not to know what a duck is.
Beacons Closet called and wants its individualism back.

Abe's new album is called Confusion is Vigoda.
Crazy tunings. Funny shirts and banter live.

what do you know, a bunch of knownothings are talking shit on brooklyn vegan. what a shocker.

She's reading off a sheet of paper! How lame!

Yeah, that paper is not cool!

just learn the lyrics already - YEESH

what do you know? This cute named band is very unoriginal and really derivative. Real dandy kids though.

This website is sorta funny because people talk shit like anyone in any of these bands is some sort of celebrity. Talk shit onLindsay Lohan or Britney Spears. Grow some balls or start a band or kill yourselves for being such boring hipsters.

did the show tonight get moved or is it just listed wrong? it says its at market hotel everywhere else

nevermind

did anyone see this show @ cake shop 7/17? how was dinowalrus?