by Bill Pearis

I absolutely hated Cake Shop, which opened around this time back in 2005, the first few times I went. Not the idea of the place, which was fantastic: part coffee shop, part record store, part indie rock venue. More the practicality of the place. The inclined floor meant that you had to (and still do) have to be in the first few rows of people to see anything. I was used to the clear sightlines of Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom and Knitting Factory. What the hell was this?

But the place became hard to avoid if you went to a lot of shows. The people booking seemed to get really good shows, and some surprising ones. And they clearly loved '90s indie rock and Flying Nun. I think it was the in-store with The Bats back in March of 2006 that finally warmed my heart to Cake Shop. It was around this time as well that I learned that if you wormed you way to the front of the downstairs room, not only could you see, there is an intimacy and connection with the bands you don't get at many other "legit" venues. Some of my most memorable shows of the last few years have been there.

While the record store has given way to more couches, Cake Shop remains one of the places in the city to catch emerging talent -- and cool veteran artists almost no one else would book. As previously mentioned, the venue celebrates its 6th Anniversary on Saturday night (5/7) with six bands for six bucks. Headlining are The Beets whose new album, Stay Home, is another fine slab of protopunk folk rock, this time slightly less murky. The guys, who managed to get themselves featured on the Howard Stern Show recently, are heading on tour with Eternal Summers soon and all dates for that are below.

Also playing are New Zealand's Surf City, whose sound reverberates with their country's indie rock past. They are maybe the most Flying Nun sounding NZ band never to be on Flying Nun. The new album, Kudos, is worth checking out. (They're here recording another.) Then there's Conversion Party whose anthemic pop stylings should be more popular (seriously these guys are good). If you can't make it Saturday, they play Cake Shop's sister venue Bruar Falls tonight (5/6).

More bands playing: Holy Shit who is San Francisco artist Matt Fishbeck (and sometimes Ariel Pink). At their website you can listen to what is certainly the only electro cover ever on Felt's "Final Resting of the Ark." Still more: reclusive Faunelle (dreamy, gothy synths) and poet Ariana Reines.

Holy Shit also play Monday at Glasslands with John Maus.

Beets tour dates below...

Continue reading "Happy Birthday Cake Shop (happy tour Beets) (Holy Shit)"

photos by Greg Cristman

"OUR DEAR AND HEARTLOVED COUMPANION IN CREATION...Peter Martin "Sleazy" Christopherson, who chose to drop his body on November 24th 2010, laid at rest and then was cremated in Bangkok 7 days later. We feel consoled and comforted to know that another very dear friend BEE (who lives in Bangkok) was able to be there, as was JENKS.

Apart from participating in the vigil as loving representatives of us all, Bee took these photographs as a memorial document. In our grief, we naturally crave evidence to fulfill our inescapable need to believe something that seems to be an irreversible finality cannot TRULY be so. And, of course, our gift from Sleazy is one we can see all around us. Thousands of flowerings of empathy and love. Each of us taking that facet of Sleazy that is most precious to our personal understanding of him and amplifying it within our own mind, through Creation, adding our own frequencies to those of Sleazy so that his most favorite of Nature's elements may grow ever brighter, ever purer and ever whiter...LIGHT! -BREYER P-ORRIDGE nyc 2010

Genesis P-Orridge posted the above-quoted update/tribute about her Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV band-mate Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson (RIP) to her website recently. Go there to see the photographs and read the complete eulogy.

Though "Sleazy" and Genesis were playing together again recently in TG, Christpherson hasn't been a member of PTV since the 80's, so though there was no denying Pete's spirit was in the air Thursday night at Europa (12/09), and that Genesis is affected by his passing, it was business as usual for Psychic TV at their lone-US show for 2010.

Psychic TV did have a new guitarist named Jeff Berner though, and he played an impressive and extended solo on "Maggot Brain", one of six songs the Genesis-led group played over two hours. The full setlist is below.

Beaut, 4th Sign Of The Apocalypse (featuring Bryin Dall of Thee Majesty) and Ariana Reines opened the show. Ariana did a brief acoustic set followed by a vulgar spoken word set that most people were talking through. She screamed at people to shut up, but most people ignored her.

More pictures and setlists from the show are below...

Continue reading "Psychic TV played Europa (pics & setlist) "