Mark Sultan in Austin (more by Tim Griffin)

Back in October, even before he played the Norton party at The Bell House, Mark Sultan (aka BBQ) told Spinner:

"I understand and appreciate instantaneous music and artforms in general," he maintains. "But I will say a lot of that is so phony to me. To talk about dubstep, for example: Maybe that's cutting edge for the next month in Williamsburg, but the fact is, I call bulls--- and I don't believe you. I think you're doing that just to be part of something that's popular for the moment, and if you want to take art as disposable fashion, that's your business. But I don't."

Mark followed that up with a post on his own website that said:

To be clear, I don't even know dubstep. I am a hypocrite. I also like to lie. Live however you wanna live. I realize it's better to print the worst parts of interviews, but I honestly don't think I am better or worse than anyone - just living my life. I enjoy being facetious and if that gets you to listen to my music, I'm happy, cuz it seems there is no other way.

Mark Sultan, king of dubstep, master of BBQ, hater of King Khan (maybe), and all around good guy, plays Cake Shop tonight (12/1), one of three shows he has scheduled for this month. They're all listed below.

Xray Eyeballs also play the Cake Shop show tonight, either before or after they play Brooklyn Bowl with the Dum Dum Girls (yes, they play twice tonight). Speaking of, the above picture was actually taken at a show in Austin that Mark played with the Dum Dum Girls.

Mark has a new video for "Graveyard Eyes" that features Jared Swilley of the Black Lips. You can watch it below...

Continue reading "Prince of dubstep Mark Sultan is on tour, back in NYC, plays with Xray Eyeballs (at one of their two shows)"

words & photos by Gabi Porter

If you're just joining us, start with PART ONE before continuing on....

Saturday morning we all woke up in the Bahamas, hit the buffet and the pool before the next show, fueling up for a day on the beach and a night at Senor Frogs. Situated on deck chairs with coconuts in hand, two pro-surfers were up-and-at-em bright and early. Alek Parker and Dylan Graves were there to judge Jonathan Toubin's late-night Soul Clap party, along with John Norris, Ben Blackwell from the Dirtbombs and others. Parker and Graves set the tone and brought the party - and their bathrobes - to the Lido Deck.

The Vivian Girls held court poolside and Kickball Katy (aka Katy Goodman aka La Sera who plays NYC shows with Tennis this week) won the hearts and lots of hugs from all the kids on board. In their set on Saturday at Senor Frogs they sounded more confident and melodious than I'd ever seen them before, finally growing into their echo chamber garage sound, or maybe it was the fruity "yard long" drinks their biggest fan (seriously, he had a different Vivian Girls t-shirt for every day of the cruise) bought for each of them before the show. Watch out for a cameo from them in the forthcoming Black Lips video.

New Orleans based Quintron and Miss Pussycat closed out the Bruise Cruise with their psychedelic organ fest. Miss Pussycat brought along her absolutely delightful puppet show for that morning's "Pancakes and Puppets" breakfast. I didn't see enough of The Strange Boys - if they'd played just one more set I suspect they might have been my faves, but at least that means I have something to look forward to the next time they play New York. They were on the bill at Senor Frogs and I loved their jangly guitars, open sound and the tight and twisted vocals from Ryan Sambol. And ditto for Miami youngsters The Jacuzzi Boys who were loved by many, including John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees. After all the bands had finished playing at Senor Frogs on Saturday, Dwyer grabbed his beer and said he was off to tell The Jacuzzi Boys "they were the best thing [he'd] seen at this thing."

Ty Segall's one short set on Saturday before Thee Oh Sees wasn't enough - Ty Segall opened the festival on board the ship that day and played a restrained and somewhat shy set behind his curtain of hair. Someone commented that if they work on their stage presence one day they might grow up to be like Thee Oh Sees.

Everyone was curious how the Bruisers (aka the people there for the bands) would get along with the "normal' cruisers (who were also on the same ship) (Bruisers were given wristbands so the cruise staff knew they were allowed in the shows), and I'd like to think that we brought a little something-something to people's normal, regular vacation. Poolside at a photo shoot with Turbo Fruits (see above) one very nice lady asked me, completely unperturbed about the quadruple cannonball photo-op that splashed everyone, "Is that one of the bands on the Bruise Cruise?" I told her it was Turbo Fruits. "Oh, I've never heard of them," she said a little sadly, then she looked at the bright side, "But at least now I can tell people I saw them!"

You already saw one set of pictures. The rest of the pictures from the Bruise Cruise continue below...

Continue reading "the Bruise Cruise in pics & review (part 2)"

words & photos by Gabi Porter

You are all going to hate us. I fully expect the comments section to light up like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center with all kinds of vitriolic bile and hummus inflected hatred, but you know what, we won't care because we had fun. Four hundred garage rock fans gathered from all over the world in Miami last Friday and boarded the Carnival Imagination cruise ship bound for the Bahamas, and had a giant party on the high seas full of fruity, candy-colored drinks, unlimited belly-busting buffets, hot tubs and music. Dazed hipsters and music fans wandered the Lido Deck in their jorts and tattoos, clutching their Hermann Hesse novels looking for a little shade poolside, while family vacationers stared and asked, "What's going on?" The [sold out] Bruise Cruise is what happened, and it was like summer camp for alcoholic indie rock fans, all who became friends by the end of the weekend.

Although they only played one blistering set at Senor Frogs on Saturday night in the Bahamas - if you don't count the pre-party in Miami on Thursday night, and we're choosing not to remember that horrible horrible place with the $8 beers - The Black Lips were like all the other bands' cooler older brothers. They stirred up their signature good-time chaos, drank more than everyone, partied harder, and managed to keep the peace all at the same time. Jared Swilley said he was looking forward to a weekend with no internet, no email, no computer, "I have our new album on my laptop, if I brought it with me I'd get drunk and start burning copies for everyone." Instead he tried to go down the waterslide in his underpants, where he was thwarted by a diminutive attendant who wouldn't let him on in his skivvies, despite pleas of, "This *is* my bathing suit! I'm European!" [In Beach Fossils fashion] he later threw his bass off the back of the ship during a clandestine music video shoot. Cole Alexander looked like he won big at the casino. And Ian St Pe jumped on a table with his guitar at the final dinner and was chased out of the formal dining room, only to return disguised in a baseball cap. Joe Bradley was scheduled to play piano at 2am on Sunday at the Mirage Piano Bar - "I'm really looking forward to that! I never get to play piano for people." - he showed up with pomaded hair and a tux and played a very dapper set, Maker's Mark in hand.

If The Black Lips were like older brothers, then Thee Oh Sees were the cooler older cousins who used to be troublemakers, but have settled down with nothing to prove because they've already proven themselves. John Dwyer and company may not have brought bathing suits, lounging poolside in jeans with beers in hand, but they were "mowing them down, cutting that spring grass!" as one "Bruiser" pointed out as they melted everyone's sun-addled minds on our final day at sea. Their first set early on Friday afternoon was just a warm-up. On Sunday early-evening, fueled by an open bar, they played the second to last set of the festival to a full gilded chrome ballroom. It might have been the best set we saw all weekend (admittedly I also heard someone say that about pretty much every set this weekend, but you know what, everything was pretty damn good). Drummer Mike Shoun said he was just trying to hit really really hard, and indeed he did, nearly coming off his drum stool more than once.

Surfer Blood and their buddies (and festival co-organizers) Turbo Fruits teamed up for a Sunday brunch set in the - wait for it - Shangri La Lounge. Clutching danishes and mimosas some said Turbo Fruits, with lead singer Jonas Stein losing his voice, was the best set of the weekend (see above). I spent the cruise with Surfer Blood's janglier live version of the vaguely tropical "Take it Easy" on replay in my head, arguably the cruise's theme song. JP from Surfer Blood chatted with me after their sparsely attended first set on board on Saturday afternoon, as everyone jumped ship and rented scooters to hit the island (this may be the last time Surfer Blood play to a room of 30 people).

I asked what the band thought when they were asked to participate in the Bruise Cruise, "We thought it was a cool idea, and we thought it was either going to be really cool or a complete and total disaster. But if you think about it that's kind of like how ATP started in the UK. I mean they took over a holiday park or something. It was a little bit cheesy, a little bit family oriented and they turned it into, you know, like a total party. And they've been doing it forever." When we asked how they felt about their sparsely attended set on Saturday he said, "If I had to pick between seeing a young band we kind of like, or going out to explore the Bahamas, I'd be pretty torn. We're playing again tomorrow anyway."

More about "tomorrow" (and the rest of the cruise) coming soon. Pictures from the pre-party and the first day, continue below...

Continue reading "the Bruise Cruise in pics & review (part 1)"

photos by Jessica Amaya

"The title of [the below] video is "The Black Lips' Jared Swilley apologizes for homophobia, kisses gay blogger" which made me worried that someone had forced Jared into a Michael-Richards/Dog-the-Bounty-Hunter public shaming situation over calling the fag from Wavves a fag.

Turns out it's mainly just him breaking down the difference between the high-school and hate-crime usages of "faggot" and then kissing a guy to atone for his slurs. I'd describe more of what they talk about but the make-out anticipation in interviewer guy's voice is severely putting me on edge. This must be what girls feel like ALL THE TIME. " [Vice]

Watch the above-described video (where Jared does end up making out with the interviewer) at the end of this set of pictures from last night's show at Bowery Ballroom (we'll talk more about the show in the set of pictures we have from their show one night earlier at Brooklyn Bowl)...

Continue reading "Jared Swilley apologizes for homophobia (video), Black Lips played Bowery Ballroom w/ Box Elders & New House (pics) "

wonder what happen in ATL? pics, report? van fucked up? or did Jared puss out to the "fag" -Anon Oct. 5 1:49AM

WAVVES show crowd (more by Leia Jospe)

After the Wavves/Black Lips fight in Brooklyn on Friday, Sept. 25th, Jared Swilley promised further trouble when Wavves played Atlanta (Black Lips' hometown) this past weekend. More specifically, Jared said, "[Nathan of Wavves]'s coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we're gonna get ugly on him. We're gonna destroy their van, we're gonna destroy their faces, we're gonna get crazy on em'. Nasty style."

Well, Wavves did play Atlanta, but without incident, though the show wasn't scheduled for October 3rd (it was October 4th) and the venue had extra security... and no glass bottles.... and Black Lip Cole Alexander in attendance. The full story, with the show's enhanced security measures and a post-show review from Nathan himself, below...

Continue reading "WAVVES played Atlanta (there was peace, it 'was awesome')"

Jared Swilley @ the Williamsburg Waterfront (more by Bao Nguyen)

After reading what happened Friday night at Daddy's from the point of view of one in attendance, and then hearing what Nathan Williams aka WAVVES had to say about it, Buddyhead called up Jared from Black Lips to hear how he remembers it....

"First of all, I just wanna say that Wavves was NOT involved in that fight. That faggot didn't even touch me.

I've never "come after" that kid, it wasn't four a.m., that wasn't my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn't attack him. I don't give a shit about that kid and his music.

What happened was, after we finished our set I went to Daddy's with some friends and saw that faggot from Wavves talking to a photographer friend of mine. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say "You're that faggot from Wavves and I don't like you". He smiled a bit but didn't say anything.

After that, I went outside and saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn't gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out.

All I remember is getting hit with the bottle and my friends dragging me to another bar. They wrapped my head up until I looked like a Confederate soldier.

So yeah, I lost the fight.

I also missed three flights. I've been in the airport all day having stewardesses cleaning my head because it kept cracking open. You can't go on board if you're bleeding.

Bottom line is that faggot from Wavves didn't even hit me. Never touched me. And he should've, cuz he had a free shot.

He's coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we're gonna get ugly on him. We're gonna destroy their van, we're gonna destroy their faces, we're gonna get crazy on em'. Nasty style.

PREVIOUSLY: an official statement from WAVVES re: the Black Lips fight

Who's Your Daddy? (Daddy's in Williamsburg) (by bitchcakes via Free Williamsburg)

"Talking shit about me on the Internet is one thing, I can handle that all day but when some dude is just looking for a fight at 4 in the morning talking shit to my face and his girlfriend is spitting in the face of all my friends it's a whole different story. I have no problem wih black lips or anybody else that i havent met but jared has been at me every chance he had. I just want to play music and have fun. It was unfortunate that it escalated to that point but he got what was coming to him."- Nathan Williams (WAVVES)

PREVIOUSLY: Nathan WAVVES & Jared from Black Lips fought @ Daddy's after the Roseland & Market Hotel shows (there was blood)

A video of Zach Hill playing with WAVVES from a show a few nights ago, below...

Continue reading "an official statement from WAVVES re: the Black Lips fight"