Coco66 in October 2010 (more by Andrew St. Clair)

As mentioned, Coco66 was shut down on July 9 so SBTRKT couldn't DJ after his PS1 show. We also recently mentioned that the July 23rd Pictureplane, Teengirl Fantasy, Gatekeeper show originally scheduled at Coco66 has been moved to 285 Kent. That's because Coco66 never reopened after the SBTRKT incident...

It seems that Greenpoint music venue and bar Coco66 was raided by both the NYPD and SLA for operating without a liquor license last weekend. According to reports at Paper and New York Shitty, the authorities showed up at some point Saturday night and arrested the venue's owner David Kelleran and in a scene out of prohibition, all of the booze was destroyed by the SLA when they made the bartenders pour out every last drop of about $20,000 worth of alcohol. What a waste! The bar's problems began in October, 2010 when the NYPD conducted an initial raid and lost its liquor license. Kelleran had been buying booze at retail shops for the bar's events and apparently wants to try to reopen the bar without a liquor license. [Eater]

No events are currently scheduled at Coco66.

SBTRKT is in North America for a few nights this week. As announced (by us anyway), it was never guaranteed that the now-sold out Glasslands show tonight (7/6) would be anything more than a DJ set and Sampha was definitely never confirmed, though apparently some thought he was (link is nsfw).

On Thursday (7/7), SBTRKT DJs again at Camp Bisco in Mariaville, NY. On Friday (7/8), he'll make his way to Toronto to perform with "Special Guests". Sampha's name was removed from the ticket listing since our last post, though maybe he'll still be there, and another special guest too.

SBTRKT returns to New York on Saturday (7/9) for his PS1 Warm UP Event with Four Tet, FaltyDL, Matthewdavid and others. If you want to see SBTRKT live, PS1 is the place to be.As mentioned, the show is billed as a live set w/ guest vocalist who will hopefully be Sampha.

Tickets are sold out for tonight's Glasslands show but are still available for the PS1 show at three different locations mentioned below (or at the door if it doesn't sell out).

As pictured above, SBTRKT tweeted that there may be an after party the night of the PS1 show (we think he's telling the truth) (no clue if it's dj or live though).

Ticket locations for the PS1 show below...

Continue reading "SBTRKT is here, playing somewhere after PS1 too"

Frankie & The Outs at Coco66 during CMJ (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Coco66 is up to full strength again after their CMJ-week debacle at the Tamaryn/Glasser/Frankie & The Outs/Light Asylum not-CMJ show. Open since Tuesday, this Friday (11/19) will see the venue host its first actual show with Burnt Sugar, MK Groove Orchestra, and Dope Sagittarius.

Sadly, in news I learned while searching for information on the venue's re-opening, that late Friday night show at Coco66 ended even worse than previously realized. A pair of cyclists leaving the show suffered massive injuries from a hit-and-run driver near Franklin & Calyer in Greenpoint (just a few blocks from the venue). Light Asylum goes into further detail"

"everyone who went to our Coco66 show that got busted by the police. Soon after, two of the attendees were heading home by bike and were hit by a car, traveling southbound on Franklin near Calyer. One of them was dragged 30 feet by the car, who did not even stop. She is still in the hospital."

Police are currently on the hunt for the perpetrators (maybe), but, like the MTA signs say, "if you see something, say something". Friends of the victims have set up an email tipline (FRANKLINSTREETBIKEACCIDENT@GMAIL.COM).

A picture of the (gruesome) flyer, which you might recognize from it being posted around the Northside, is below...

Continue reading "Coco66 back open, but hit & run driver still on the loose"

photos by Andrew St. Clair

"It's a scene here at coco66 for frankie/tamaryn/glasser" - Bill

"The cops shut down coco66. I am SO pissed!!!!! Aghhh Tamaryn didn't finish the set and they were amazing" - gina

"NYPD just shutdown the Coco66 show 3 songs into Tamaryn's (unofficial) CMJ set. Supposedly due to over capacity. Crowd, band bummed." - marvic paulo

Tamaryn / police

Tamaryn's exclusive Brooklyn CMJ show, which wasn't actually part of CMJ, took place at Coco66 on Friday night (10/22). Light Asylum and Frankie & the Outs were both openers. Glasser was added at the last minute, but never ended up getting to play. Tamaryn, as you can read in the above tweets, barely got to play after the cops busted in after three songs.

The venue, which reportedly was either over capacity or not up to code, remains shut as of Sunday night. There's a rumor that they might not open back up for a while, though they are still advertising Monday's Superhuman Happiness show.

If this happened in Texas during SXSW, one might speculate that Coco66's closing had something to do with the "unofficial" nature of the show, but it would probably be silly to guess that CMJ has that much influence with the NYC government.

More pictures from the part of the show that happened, below...

Continue reading "Coco66 shut down during Tamaryn/Glasser show (pics)"

sometimes Superhuman Happiness dresses up

Superhuman Happiness, the afro-funk outfit headed by Antibalas's Stuart Bogie, kicks off a weekly Monday residency at Coco 66 tonight (10/4). The regular shows will have guests - some confirmed on the venue's website are Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on October 11th, comedian Matt Higgins on October 18th, and Jeremiah Lockwood of The Sway Machinery on November 1st.

The Coco 66 show tonight (10/4) will be after (presumably) the free "Music of Fela!" concert at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 1 at 6:30pm (that's cause trumpeter Eric Biondo, Stuart and others play in both bands).

A video of Matt Higgins improvising with Stuart Bogie and drummer Miles Arntzen and Stuart Bogie's Superhuman Happiness at Public Assembly in 2009 are below...

Continue reading "a Superhuman Happiness residency & free Fela! reminder "

photos by Erez Avissar

DOWNLOAD: Arp - White Light (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Arp - Summer Girl (MP3)

Oneohtrix Point Never @ Coco66

There were several peculiar sights at the Oneohtrix Point Never performance on Friday night, but none more so than the handful of fans clustered near the front of the stage, nodding their heads rhythmically.

To what, exactly? Oneohtrix Point Never - a k a the ambient-noise musician Daniel Lopatin - generally forgoes percussion altogether, instead creating beautiful, glistening caverns of space that shift in sneaky, oceanic fashion. At once they're vast and also slippery. But something as pedestrian as a beat? Never that.

For this show, the back room at Coco 66, near the waterfront in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was almost completely dark, punctured only by columnar white lights rotating on either side of Mr. Lopatin and by red and green pinpoint lasers, which strafed his face and the heads of those near the front of the room. There was smoke, too, or if there wasn't, there probably should have been. Everything was a haze. -[New York Times]

Oneohtrix Point Never headlined the show, presented by Last Friday and Visitation Rites, with Arp, James Ferraro, and Future Shuttle on 8/27. One half of duo Blondes (one of Stereogum's "Best New Bands") was responsible for DJing. The next show for Oneohtrix Point Never is Friday in San Francisco. Shortly after, the electronic/ambient artist will ship out to Latvia (!) before skipping across Europe.

And though Oneohtrix was headlining, it was Arp's record release show. The Soft Wave is out September 7th on Smalltown Supersound. Both free MP3s above are from that album. Full tracklisting below.

All tour dates and more photos from the show, and the afterparty (at Coco 68), are also below...

Continue reading "Oneohtrix Point Never, Arp & James Ferraro played Coco66 (pics, MP3s & more dates) "

DOWNLOAD: Here We Go Magic - Casual (Sun Airway Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sun Airway - Oh, Naoko (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Here We Go Magic - Terminally Chill (Neon Indian Cover) (MP3)

Here We Go Magic have announced an October 13th headling show at Bowery Ballroom with The Love Language (tickets on sale Friday at noon).

For HWGM, that's three days before they leave on tour with Dr. Dog. For the Love Language, that's less than a week after they get back from tour with Local Natives.

The above downloadable HWGM remix was done by Philadelphia's Sun Airway whose album Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier will be released by Dead Oceans on October 26th (that makes Sun Airway and HWGM label cousins). A track from that album is up there too.

Sun Airway open for BRAHMS and Class Actress at Mercury Lounge on Thursday, August 19th. Tickets are on sale.

HWGM's last NYC show was an 826NYC benefit at Coco66 with Chuck Klosterman. The next show in that "one band + one author" series happens this Thursday night, August 19th, and features a full electric set by Phosphorescent (who are now label-mates with Sun Airway). The author speaking at that show is Sloane Crosley. Tickets are on sale.

The other track up there is HWGM covering Neon Indian who, like Dr Dog, and Local Natives, just played Governors Island.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Sun Airway remixed Here We Go Magic who are playing w/ Love Language ++ Phosphorescent playing Coco66, other dates"

words by Bill Pearis, photos by Don Gochenour, video by Big Ass Lens

Savoir Adore

It was fun to close out the second-annual Northside Festival at Coco 66 with North Highlands, The Luyas, Savoir Adore and Gray Goods. Things got off to a bit of a late start but no one seemed to mind, and most people who showed up stayed the whole night. There was dancing, and smoke machines and lazers and everyone wanted to know what the hell instrument that was Jessie from The Luyas was playing. (Answer: a moodswinger.) Thanks to everyone who came out.

More pictures (of 3 of the bands), plus some really nice videos below...

Continue reading "The Luyas, Savoir Adore, North Highlands & Gray Goods played the 'This Week in Indie' show @ Coco66 - pics & video "

Sondre Lerche @ BV SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Coco 66 will be hosting Show Off Your Sugar, a new monthly band & author series to benefit 826NYC, a non-profit writing center for students in NYC. The first event will be on June 25th with an acoustic set by Sondre Lerche, a reading by author Shalom Auslander and an opening set by Oberhofer.

The second is on August 11th with an acoustic set by Here We Go Magic (who recently headlined MHOW) and author Chuck Klosterman.

Tickets for both are currently on sale.

More about 826NYC and a song by Blake Schwarzenbach at a benefit last year are below...

Continue reading "Sondre Lerche, Here We Go Magic, Chuck Klosterman & others playing 826NYC benefits @ Coco 66 "

Sleigh Bells & M.I.A. (I think) @ Coco66 on 5/7 (actually 5/8) (Seva Granik)

As if the hype wasn't through the roof enough, M.I.A. helped popularize the act her label co-signed (is that the right term?) a little bit more this evening by joining Sleigh Bells on stage at the end of their show at Coco66. The show's promoter Seva Granik writes, "MIA closes Sleigh Bells' set on "Ring Ring." Crowd go nut. Ima get another drank."

In unrelated news, David Byrne was seen checking out Local Natives cover a Talking Heads song at Bowery Ballroom earlier the same night, and Emily Haines joined Broken Social Scene for three songs at Webster Hall. More on those later.

For prettier pictures of Sleigh Bells, check out the set from their show at Webster Hall earlier in the week. Sleigh Bells play another NYC show on May 11th. M.I.A. and Sleigh Bells officially share a bill this summer on Governors Island.

by Bill Pearis

Is there another band who have lasted as long, gone through as many sweeping line-up changes, yet remained as relevant as The Fall? Now in their 33rd year of existence, the band are set to release Your Future Our Clutter, is the bands first for Domino Records and their 28th studio album next Tuesday, May 4.

That night Brooklyn Vegan is hosting a listening party at Coco 66 (66 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn). The party starts at 9PM with Domino DJs spinning, some free vodka, and then we'll play the new album in full. We'll also be giving away test pressings on the new album as well as a good chunk of The Fall's back catalogue (66.89% of it is what the flyer claims.)

Additionally, we're giving away a copy of the test pressing before the party. Details below.

This is the first Fall LP in two years. The last few albums from The Fall haven't been the most memorable but Mark E. Smith and company really have it together for their Domino debut. It's easily the most focused, best-sounding record the band has made since 2005's Fall Heads Roll. This is due in no small part to the most stable lineup The Fall has maintained since Steven Hanley and Craig Scanlon quit/were sacked at the end of the century. Frontman Mark E. Smith, who famously said "if it's me and your granny on bongos, it's still The Fall," claims this version of the band is "the best line-up I've ever had." Your Future Our Clutter is the second album with this incarnation of The Fall. You can listen to it online over at NPR.org.

With so many records, line-ups and sounds, becoming a new fan at this point can be a bit daunting. Hell, even for a longtime fan it can be overwhelming. (Though I'd say 76.45% of their official studio recordings are worth hearing.) The AV Club recently featured a nice overview in their ongoing "Gateway to Geekery" series. And you can watch Jeffrey Lewis' funny "Legend of the Fall" video at the bottom of this post, along with a couple classic Fall videos from throughout the Manchester band's long, awesome career. Plus, Hitler gets upset when he can't find a copy of The Fall's Record Store Day 2010 single. It's all below with the party flyer and contest details too...

Continue reading "a party for the new Fall album (which is streaming) "

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Growing - "Camera84" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Growing - "Hormone" (MP3)

With Growing's new Vice Records LP PUMPS due this week, the trio will celebrate with a US tour that will kick off with an album release party at Coco66 on Tuesday, 4/6. Eric Copeland (of Black Dice), Luke Roberts and The Monroe Indians will provide support along with DJ sets from Ron Morelli, Josh Wildman, and Taka Hiro.

The new album PUMPS is the first for Growing as a trio, and was recorded at The Ocropolis, aka Oneida's Brooklyn studio. The LP also marks their debut for Vice Records, who currently have the album up for preorder. Two tracks from that album are free downloads above. Cover art and tracklist below.

Growing recently made two videos, as well as a gang of video vignettes in celebration of PUMPS. One video, "Mind Eraser" is only available with purchase of the LP, but you can dig on all of the rest of the vids/vignettes (some of which are possibly NSFW?) below. All tour dates down there too...

Continue reading "Growing album out this week (MP3s & videos), a Brooklyn release show @ Coco66 & other 2010 tour dates"

photos by Ryan Muir

Delorean @ Coco66

Delorean's tour opening for Miike Snow brought the Spanish band to Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, and Music Hall of Williamsburg over the weekend. They also played their own show Friday night after the Music Hall show, at Coco66. If you missed all four, there's still one more chance to see Delorean at Mercury Lounge tonight (3/29). The Miike Snow tour continues Wednesday in Boston. More pictures, and a video from Coco66, below...

Continue reading "Delorean (tonight @ Merc) played 4 NYC shows including one at 2am @ Coco66 - pics & video"

Delorean are playing Coco66 at 2am tonight (3/26, after GATEKEEPER, Mirror Mirror, Blondes & DJ Gavin Russom). That's a bunch of hours after they open for Miike Snow at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and a bunch of hours before they open for Miike Snow at Webster Hall (Saturday) which is one day before they open for Miike Snow at Bowery Ballroom (Sunday) which is a day before they play Mercury Lounge with Lemonade and Brahams (Monday). Check out their new video for "Look Alice" below...

Continue reading "Delorean add last minute NYC show tonight 2 (after Miike Snow) + new video "

DOWNLOAD: Twin Sister - Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP (Zip)

photos by Lori Baily

Twin Sister at Coco 66...

Twin Sister took the stage at Matchless with 8 minutes to go before midnight, which is when Matchless shows are supposed to shut down. They played til probably 20 past 12. You tell me why.... did you guess? Yeah, the answer is because they are a fucking incredible band. The sound guy knew it and everyone in the room, which was at capacity, knew it too.

The band moves with the music like lava runs down the side of a volcano. It's like something that must happen. And even though it looks like its moving slowly, its actually gushing pretty quickly, and its scorching hot. [Microphone Memory Emotion]

The above-described show happened on Friday, February 26th at Matchless. On March 6th, Twin Sister played another awesome show at Coco 66 with two excellent jazz fusion groups - Amniotic (which features Jen Shyu, Jamie Saft, Knox Chandler and Bobby Previte on drums) and the costumed Jerseyband.

Upcoming Twin Sister shows include a bunch of SXSW dates, one of which is the BrooklynVegan Day Party at Club DeVille on March 19th with Centro-matic, Lucero, The Antlers and more TBA. Their Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP is available for free above.

Amniotic played their first ever show at Issue Project Room in October. Video from that show and more pictures from Coco 66 are below...

Continue reading "Twin Sister, Amniotic & Jerseyband played Coco 66 (pics)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Answering Machine - Another City, Another Sorry (MP3)

The Answering Machine @ Cake Shop during CMJ (The World In A Paper Cup)

One of the bands I regretted missing during CMJ was Manchester's The Answering Machine who I liked a lot when they played here back in April. Well lucky for me, the band have decided to stick around NYC for a while and will be playing a three-week residency at Coco 66 starting tonight (10/28). If you like caffeinated guitar pop somewhere between The Wedding Present, The Strokes, and first album Futureheads (or more recently, Good Shoes) you should definitely check them out. You can download the title track to their debut album, Another City, Another Sorry, at the top of this post -- it's representative of what The Answering Machine do well.

Tour dates (which also include shows at Cake Shop and Bruar Falls), plus some videos, below...

Continue reading "The Answering Machine will be in NYC for a while (dates) "

Spent was an American Indie Rock band from Jersey City, New Jersey consisting of singer/guitarist John King, guitarist/occasional vocalist/keyboardist Annie Hayden, bassist/occasional vocalist Joe Weston and drummer Ed Radich.

Spent formed in the early 1990's in Jersey City, New Jersey. After releasing several EP's under various independent labels the band released their first full album. Songs of Drinking and Rebellion was released in March of 1995 on Merge Records, a indie label formed by Superchunk's Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance and a band that Spent toured with extensively throughout their career. In September of 1996 the band released an Ep entitled Umbrella Wars, which included a cover of Joe Walsh's A Life of Illusion. Umbrella Wars served as a teaser for their next album released a month later in October of 1996 entitled A Seat Beneath the Chairs. In 1997 John King joined Superchunk lead guitarist Joe Wilbur in a side project called Humidifier releasing the album Nothing Changes on Link Records. On July 21, 1997 the band officially split. In 1999 their last song "(I'll Clean Up) The Mess That You Are" appeared on the 10 year anniversary album of Merge Records called Oh, Merge. The band never received much attention outside of the 90's indie rock world. [Wiki]

As previously noted, Spent are reuniting for the XX Merge Records festival happening in North Carolina in July, but first the band will play a single show, presumably as a warm-up for the festival, and it will take place at Coco66 in Brooklyn on June 29th. Also on the bill at that show is Heather Duby, whose credits include albums released by Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze, and Sonic Boom.

Coco66 is killing it with the reunion booking lately. The Van Pelt just played a show there too.

Other bands playing XX Merge with upcoming NYC shows include Richard Buckner, The Clientele, Versus, Destroyer, Conor Oberst, Polvo, M Ward, and Mark Eitzel (as American Music Club).

Speaking of Mark Eitzel, his tour dates have actually been updated some since we last spoke. You can check them out below...

Continue reading "Spent playing NYC b4 XX Merge ++ updated Mark Eitzel dates "

photos by Ryan Muir, words by Black Bubblegum

More than ten years later, The Van Pelt returned to NYC, playing Brooklyn for the first time ever on June 13th as part of a show at Coco66 that the band curated for the Northside Fest.

There were a lot of people in Greenpoint feeling all '90s Saturday night when The Van Pelt reunited as part of the Northside Festival.

The strangest moment of the night happened during the anthemic closer "The Speeding Train" when a drunken Van Pelt enthusiast-turned-awkward dancer/mosher acted aggressively enough to start a fight in the crowd. All this while we were hearing about the beauty of the puppy's chin. Singer and occasional Take the Handle contributor Chris Leo quipped that the moshers had missed the Agnostic Front show. It made it feel even more '90s that there was some sort of debate going on about the ethics of moshing.

Regardless, the show was about as incredible as anyone who followed the band way back when could have asked for. It seemed like the band stuck more often to songs from Sultans of Sentiment, but this song, which served as the encore, comes from their first record Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves. It is called "Magic Fantasy (We Are Provincial)." -[Take The Handle]

The Van Pelt aren't done with touring yet either. They've scheduled a pair of shows along the east coast - June 21st in Philly at Kung Fu Necktie with Blacklist and This Frontier Needs Heroes, and the previously mentioned show with Frodus at The Black Cat in DC on June 20th. The Phlly show will be taped to broadcast by WPRB.

You can also catch Van Pelt front-man Chris Leo (brother of Ted who was in the crowd at Coco 66 on Saturday) at a reading this Friday night, June 19th at Bar Matchless in Brooklyn. Check out an interview with Chris Leo at the site Vol.1 Brooklyn.

Catch Ted Leo at one of his two upcoming NJ shows, or at the free one he's playing on a pier in NYC this summer.

The Van Pelt's first show back was at SXSW, and also with Frodus. Frodus played two shows down in Austin, and recently played Brooklyn too.

More pictures and video from the Brooklyn reunion show, below...

Continue reading "The Van Pelt played Coco66 (pics) ++ more shows & a reading "

by Black Bubblegum

The Van Pelt @ SXSW 2009 (more here)

After posting The Van Pelt review from SXSW, someone wrote, "more shows now please!" In the immortal words of Mary Kate / Ashley Olsen circa Full House... "You got it dude!"

The Van Pelt will curate and play their first-ever Brooklyn show at Coco 66 on June 13th as part of the Northside Festival. The Holy Childhood and Ghost Gamblers are along for the ride. Doors are at 8PM, $10 or your Northside badge gets you in.

The Van Pelt also has at least one other show on their calendar... The Black Cat in Washington DC with Frodus on June 20th, one of three dates left for Frodus.

A video of the Van Pelt playing a show in Germany in 1997, below...

Continue reading "the Van Pelt playing NYC (Northside Festival) & DC (Frodus)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: The Answering Machine - Another City, Another Sorry (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: James Yuill - No Surprise (Operators Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Answering Machine - Lightbulbs (James Yuill Remix) (MP3)

The Answering Machine

You've got two chances next week for a double bill of two up-and-coming UK artists: The Answering Machine and James Yuill.

Manchester's The Answering Machine have been playing together for around three years and get compared a lot to Los Campesinos! but owe more than a little to The Strokes and Maximo Park as well. Though if you're read their blog, frontman Martin Colcough is clearly into more obscure indie like The Radio Dept. and '80s cult act The Brilliant Corners. After a slow start -- only a few songs dripped out in their first two years -- the band will have two singles out by May and their debut album by year's end. I caught them at SXSW 2008 and were one of my favorites that year. Check out "Another City, Another Sorry" at the top of this post.

James Yuill

London laptop folkie James Yuill, meanwhile, released his debut album, Turning Down Water for Air, on Moshi Moshi in October 2008 and it will be released in the U.S. via Nettwerk sometime this Spring. Here's what the Guardian said:

If Eastbourne one-man-show James Yuill had had better luck with girls, he might now be a forensic scientist, and music would be the poorer. But years of unrequited love and a dabbler's interest in electronica led him to abandon his original ambition, and this album proves the wisdom of the decision. Turning Down Water for Air is constructed of gently-plinking guitar, cello, laptop and sensitive-busker vocals, and the result melts in the mouth.

The Answering Machine and James Yuill play early show on Monday (4/6) at Mercury Lounge in Manhattan, and then a free show at Greenpoint's Coco 66 on Tuesday (4/7).

Videos and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "The Answering Machine & James Yuill - NYC dates & MP3's"

photos by Ryan Muir

The Idiotarod is a shopping cart race in which five "idiots" tie themselves to a (sometimes modified) grocery store shopping cart and run through the streets of a major metropolitan area. The race usually features people in costumes and themed floats. The race, though fun, is competitive, and teams are known to sabotage each other in an effort to win. Forms of sabotage include tripping competitors, throwing marbles or large obstacles in their paths, and the spreading of misinformation, such as false route information.

The Idiotarod is named after the Iditarod, a 1,000 mile dog-sledding race in Alaska. [Wikipedia]

NYC's 6th Idiotarod race took place on Saturday (1/31). Starting around 11:45AM, the race went from 61st & East River Park in Manhattan, over the 59th St Bridge into Astoria, down through Long Island City, over the Pulaski into Greenpoint to Coco66 (the bar where Beirut recently played a secret show), and then finally ended in a playground. There were approximately 20 themed, powerful, and crazy teams (of idiots) running the long (5 miles?) race. They included Danger Zone (with Romulus and Remus gladiator carts and theme music), Wayne Fest (which was 1 Wayne and 4 Garths), Double Dare, Blue Man Group, and Gnomes (note: those may or may not be the official team names). Geese were also a popular theme. An Australian "Sparks" girl was running in stilettos and was very vocal about saving Sparks.

More of Ryan's pictures below...

Continue reading "pictures from NYC's 2009 Idiotarod race"

photos by Ryan Muir

Beirut played a last-minute, free (though some were charged at the door?), secret show at Coco66 in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn last night (1/26). They stuffed as many people as possible into the small bar - many packed right into the adjoining rooom, and Beirut played for an hour, took a short break, and then played for another 30 minutes. I'm not sure it's fair to complain about anything at this show... They played new songs, many of which they're still rusty at, but that's probably why they scheduled the show - as a warmup for the much more important performances they have coming up at Vassar, BAM and MHOW. So far there are some complaints in the comments though - most related to Zach getting his drink on, and at least one by someone who misheard what Zach said about his ukelele. They're not all bad though...

"zach was drunk. but no drunker than anyone would be playing to a bar full of drunk youngens on a monday night. i was right up front and thought the sound, for a place whose acoustics are far from outstanding, was pretty decent. definitely nothing to complain about (and I enjoy complaining about bad sound). really see no reason to hate on this show. no it was not life changing, but it was definitely better than staying home on a Monday night watching reruns of man vs. food." [mcg]

Where you ended up standing probably had a lot to do with how good it was. Regardless, people in attendance were cheering loudly throughout the show (especially when they played the hits). People are working on the setlist in the comments of the last post. More pictures and a video below...

Continue reading "Beirut's secret show @ Coco66, Brooklyn, NY - pics & video"

March of the Zapotec and RealPeople Holland

Beirut's two new EPs (pictured above) are out in February.

Beirut is playing Coco66 in Greenpoint (again) TONIGHT, Monday January 26th, at 10PM. It's free. Good luck.

Beirut also has Brooklyn shows coming up at BAM and MHOW, and one at Vassar.