photos by Brian Russ

As Lola Star, who designed that "Coney Island Forever" graphic you see above points out, volunteers are still needed in Sandy-devastated Coney Island (maybe you're there today?). If you're working this week, you can head there this weekend:

Help Coney Island -- VOLUNTEER
SAT NOV 10TH & SUNDAY NOV 11TH 9AM - 5PM
Meet on the Boardwalk & STILLWELL AVE
at TOMS RESTAURANT [which is back open]

Wear warm clothes! Wear sturdy footwear or boots, and bring work gloves!
Bring your own flashlight (with extra batteries), a backpack, and snacks/water for yourself for the day.

Donation requests to help with Saturday's work:
-- Power strips
-- Extra flashlights
-- Outdoor brooms

Please note that bathroom access on site will be very limited.
No RSVP required
You can refer to MTA.info for latest transit updates. Carpooling and biking are encouraged.
Please forward this to all of your networks.
Organized by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Brooklyn Community Board 13, Astella Development Corporation, and the Coney Island Development Corporation, & The Coney Island Dancers.

Alteratively, you can sign up now to help clean up Coney Island on Saturday.

Meanwhile bring your donations of nonperishable goods, individually wrapped sandwiches, toilet paper, baby formula, diapers, blankets, outerwear and baby clothes to Coney Island's FEMA station which is now located at The Shrine Church of Our Lady Of Solace at 2866 West 17th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11224.

And donate to help the aquarium get back on its feet. As discussed, the aquarium was flooded very badly.

If you're a Coney Island resident wondering where to vote today, check HERE (you might need to take a shuttle bus).

We previously posted a set of pictures taken in Coney Island right after the hurricane. Here's another set of pics by Brian Russ (who is in Brooklyn band backwords who are streaming their most recent album and playing Glasslands 1/18 with Gringo Star and Radical Dads). More below...

Continue reading "more Hurricane Sandy pictures from Coney Island (where they still need our help -- donations & volunteers accepted)"

Dan Deacon @ the 1896 in 2009 (more by Lori Baily)

tonight in NYC
* Bon Jovi @ the Meadowlands
* Natureboy @ a Rooftop Film in Brooklyn
* The Neville Brothers @ Nokia Theatre
* Questlove (DJ) (late) @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Jimmy Fallon @ The Paley Center for Media
* Braids, The Luyas (early) @ Mercury Lounge
* Forgetters, Holopaw, Callers @ The Bell House
* Cheap Time, Bad Sports @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
* Fixed w/ Simian Mobile Disco (DJ) @ Santos Party House
* Seraphim, Altered State, Divider, Colony @ The Acheron
* Horse's Mouth, The Extraordinaires, miniboone @ Union Pool
* The Morning After Girls, Soren Well (late) @ Mercury Lounge
* Sightings, Mouthus, Drainolith, Guardian Alien @ Shea Stadium
* A Setting Sun, Noveller, unFact, Kingdom of Sharks @ Glasslands
* Reverend Horton Heat, Cracker, Miss Derringer @ Highline Ballroom
* The Surprisers, Psychobuildings, North Highlands, No Joy @ The Cameo
* NT, Mr. Dream, Sunshower Orphans, Invisible Hands, Day Sleeper @ Bruar Falls
* Shakers n' Bakers, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Gutbucket, Blast Off! @ Littlefield
* Dan Deacon, Height With Friends, Eternal Summers, Big Troubles, Dustin Wong @ Cake Shop
* Dylan Fest w/ mems. of the Strokes & Black Keys, Adam Green, Norah Jones, more @ Bowery Ballroom

A bunch of tonight's shows are about to be profiled in This Week in Indie (coming soon).

A flyer for tonight's Bob Dylan Fest (with the lineup on it) is below.

A flyer for tonight's Full Moon Rides on the Cyclone! is below...

There are Rooftop Films happening Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The musical guest tonight is Natureboy (and the show is in Brooklyn). Friday (in Manhattan) gets Braids who play Mercury Lounge with The Luyas tonight!

Note that the Dan Deacon show at Cake Shop is TONIGHT (the date was changed).

Friends Records writes that, "Height with Friends finish up a massive two month tour this week with shows in New York and Baltimore. They will be playing the Cake Shop on [tonight] with Dan Deacon, Dustin Wong, Eternal Summers and Big Troubles. It's the Cake Shop's five year anniversary, and it'll be the first show that the [Height's] Bed of Seeds LP will be available at." A video trailer for the show is below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

photos by Chris La Putt

Thee Oh Sees

"Largely unfamiliar with the bands on the roster, my husband and I went to Coney Island on Saturday to see Built to Spill headlining on the main stage of the annual Siren Music Festival. Normally, I love free shows. I like the freedom to walk away from a disappointing or uninteresting performance-as we did from Monotonix-without feeling guilty. And ticketless shows tend to draw all types, which appeals to the voyeur in me. Neither of us had been to Coney Island before, so it was mildly amusing to see the confluence of century old kitsch and aggressive marketing tactics by softdrink companies. (We tried a sample of something called Vio, "the world's first vibrancy drink," and it tasted vaguely like flourescent lighting and perfume.)

Anticipating the rush toward the stage as Built to Spill began, we found a decent spot where we'd be able to hear the band, if not see their faces. It was as close as we could get without my cheeks grazing across sweaty pectorals while trying to squeeze through. This is the point at any show when the fan in me starts to grin and breathe faster, to feel like I'd rather be right here than anywhere else in the world. To our horror, not only were the people around us talking so loud that we could barely hear the music, they weren't even facing the stage. The crowd was mingling as though at a singles mixer, drink in hand, shouting over the din, completely oblivious to the band on stage.

Now, while I've been known to complain about NYC hipsters at opportune times (like when I'm on the downtown L train), I generally think people are too hard on them. They're pretty benign as far as contrived fashion/music subcultures go. But when they prevent me from hearing and seeing a live performance by one of my favorite bands, simply because they can't stop yakking and flirting for a single minute, I feel, well, displeased.

Next show is hopefully Trail of Dead at All Points East. I'm bringing pepper-spray and my slapping hand." [Home on the Fringe]

I think she means All Points West, which is actually just one of four shows that Trail of Dead has coming up in NYC.

Chris's Built to Spill pics are HERE, Raveonettes pics HERE, and the rest below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Siren Music Festival in Coney Island - pics (part 1) "

Leslie Feist & Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste on the Cyclone - July 13, 2009

Like she will Tuesday on Letterman (tonight, 7/14), Leslie Feist joined Wilco on stage at Keyspan Park in Coney Island on Monday night (7/13) for a few songs. Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear played with them too. Collectively they performed Woody Guthrie's "California Stars". Yo La Tengo opened the show, and then also joined Wilco on stage during the encore. Pictures and more from the show coming soon HERE. Full setlist below.

Earlier in the evening Feist and Ed rode The Cyclone, the famous Coney Island roller coaster (as you can see in the picture above). If you've never been on it, this Saturday during the Siren Festival might be a good time to change that.

For Grizzly Bear and Feist, it was just another example of a growing history of collaborations that includes multiple TV appearances, touring, recorded stuff, and on stage appearances. It's not clear if Ed will be on Letterman tonight too, but we do know that Feist and Wilco will perform the new Wilco song "You and I" on the show. They performed the same song together in Coney Island, and for the first time, in LA on June 25th. Video from that earlier one below.

Two nights before playing in Brooklyn, Feist reunited again with Broken Social Scene on stage at the Harbourfront Centre show in Toronto. For Feist it was at least the second time recently she played with her old band. To make this one even more special though, Emily Haines and Amy Millan were also all up there on stage at the same time - it was a proper BSS reunion. Videos below.

Above mentioned videos, and Wilco's entire Keyspan Park setlist, and video of Ed and Feist singing backup on "You Never Know", below...

Continue reading "Ed Droste, Feist (who just played w/ BSS) & Yo La Tengo played w/ Wilco (& rode the Cylcone) in Coney Island (setlist)"

by Andrew Frisicano

2008 Mermaid Parade Ball (more by Eric M Townsend)

The 2009 Mermaid Parade will take place on Saturday, June 20th (2PM) along Coney Island's boardwalk. If you'd like to march (or volunteer) in this year's parade, registration is now open. Directions and new parade route, below.

Also at Coney Island this summer is the Siren Festival, taking place Saturday, July 18th. Bands playing include Built to Spill, The Raveonettes, Spank Rock, Frightened Rabbit, Japandroids and more.

The beaches at Coney Island, as well as the Cyclone, are both now open for the summer. The fate of the destination spot has been in limbo for quite a while. Astroland's "final year" was initially to be 2007. That was delayed until after the 2008 summer season -- since then, the old rides have been dismantled, and new ones have been put in their place, kinda, sorta...

What will finally end up in the spot is still in question. Thor Equities, the company that runs the former Astroland lot, announced earlier this year that it'll be setting up "Dreamland" amusement park. Curbed (which has recent pics of the condition of the site) reported on the new park's Friday, May 15th opening...

What was supposed to be a big day on Coney Island is already a bit of a bust. Today marks the grand opening of Festival by the Sea, the summertime amusement park and flea market set up by developer Joe Sitt on the former Astroland (pardon us, Dreamland) and other parcels owned by Sitt's Thor Equities. The hyped attraction is supposed to serve as Sitt's proof that he knows what's best for Coney Island's redevelopment, but a funny thing happened on the way to the freak show: the Brooklyn Paper reports that half the rides haven't arrived and the vendors will be "exposed to the element because of a tent mishap." [Curbed]

Add that to the fact that the City has made an offer on the lot to the tune of $105 million.

If the Coney Island development circus isn't enough, the actual circus is coming to the boardwalk on June 18th -- the Times makes the appropriate connections. Luckily, there's at least a slim chance that the circus' days in NYC may soon go the way of Astroland...

Almost half of City Council members [have signed] onto a bill that would prohibit "the display of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment or amusement." Other animals included in the bill: dolphins, walruses, hippopotamuses, giraffes, koalas, kinkajou, sloths, tarantulas, rhinoceroses and armadillos. Despite the extensive taxonomy in the bill, essentially everyone admits that the primary target for the legislation is the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The bill, which has circulated for many years in different local legislatures, has [recently] drawn renewed attention in New York City with Ringling Brothers arrival [on March 26th] and [late-March] closing arguments in a federal lawsuit that accused the circus of mistreating its Asian elephants. [NY Times March 26, 2009]

Footage of the 2008 Mermaid Parade (kinda NSFW), with directions and its new route, below...

Continue reading "Coney Island 2009 - Mermaid Parade returns (w/ new route), the circus (groan), "Dreamland", Siren & more "