words by Rachel Kowal

The Blow (via)

Khaela Maricich of The Blow walked on stage, bashfully said 'hello,' and started singing a new song A cappella. By the next song (crowd favorite "Hey Boy"), she began to warm up to the room - she broke out the dance moves and she began talking animatedly.

"This is The Blow's second show in New York since moving here," said the ex-Portland resident. She then launched into a series of intriguing claims with increasing enthusiasm. "So I got to write a song for a celebrity. Yeah I'm not bragging at all because the song's not going to come out [...] I can't tell you who it was, but you absolutely know who this person is. No question. But I very much doubt you ever listen to very much of her music." She proceeded to list off a number of descriptors that seemed to indicate that the mystery pop star was Lindsay Lohan, but in the end, she never quite spelled it out. Khaela played a number of new songs, many of which were allegedly from the unnamed celebrity's never-to-be-released album.

More than merely a singer-songwriter, Khaela is a performance artist and something of a comedian who makes it somewhat difficult to tell how much of her fantastical claims are true, and how much of the story is just a means to introduce material. Of course, her tongue-in-cheek matter of speech doesn't help matters. After talking at length about the unnamed celeb's power to transform society's view on lesbianism and establish new norms, Khaela suddenly said, "Unless I made that whole part up... you know when you can't tell?" Yeah, no kidding.

Seeing The Blow perform at Joe's Pub (a fancier venue with tables, candlelight, and fancy drinks) was a bit odd and almost disappointing. The seating precluded dancing - at least in the audience. Khaela herself was wildly entertaining on stage - both thanks to her theatrical stage banter and her spastic, fantastically awkward dance moves. For one song in particular ("Parentheses"), Khaela "turned up the feminine dial" and mimicked the unnamed celebrity who apparently liked to sing the song to her girlfriend. Khaela traded in her flats for a pair of dramatic gold high-heel sandals and tucked her sheer, over-sized shirt into a belt worn high on her waist to reveal some skin-tight black leggings. Within a matter of thirty seconds, she had transformed into an American Apparel model.

The Blow @ Joe's Pub - July 9, 2010 (Devyn Manibo)

The Blow's set was short - she played for just under an hour and opted out of a formal encore, saying, "I think the encore thing is really embarrassing... you know with the curtain thing." She concluded with the creepy but infectious "Come on Petunia," a love song fit for a psychopath (look up the lyrics).

At the end of the night, the veracity of Khaela's celeb story was still in question, but true or not, it certainly made for quite an entertaining evening. The setlist, a video from an older appearance at the same venue, and some European tour dates, below...

Continue reading "The Blow played Joe's Pub"

The King Khan & BBQ Show @ Bowery in November (more by Tim Griffin)

It's hard to take any King Khan news 100% serious. And like many dysfunctional couples, just because King Khan and BBQ are "broken up" doesn't mean they might not get back together. That said, here's the story...

Laurie Anderson's concert for dogs in Sydney Australia was part of the Vivid Sydney Festival, which she and Lou Reed curated. Acts they brought included Holly Miranda, Emily Haines, Boris, Doveman, Marc Ribot and Dave Hidalgo, My Brightest Diamond, Melt Banana and, a favorite of Laurie's, the King Khan & BBQ Show, whose two shows at the fest did not go smoothly. What happened at their gigs isn't exactly clear, but it's been all down hill since an argument after the second one. The blog Rockaliser Baby has details on the group's canceled June 19th show in Seoul, where more drama went down. That was to be the last of three shows in South Korea (they "successfully" performed two nights before in Daegu). Between those posts, King Khan's account of their Australian shows and Mark (BBQ) Sultan's version of the story on the band's Facebook, you could spend an afternoon catching up on everything that happened.

Mark Sultan is currently recovering from the disastrous trip in Cambodia, and though no official statement has been made (except maybe by Mark Sultan in a comment hidden far down on his Facebook wall), all signs point to the group being broken up.

The duo are currently still on the schedule for Sled Island in Calgary June 30-July 1, where King Khan is one of the curators, but the band doesn't have any upcoming dates listed and they did officially cancel other dates (like September 28 at Neumos).

It's not the first time the band has had trouble on the road - most recently, in 2009, their tour manager was arrested mid-tour, forcing them to cancel some shows.

And King Khan made news (TMZ included) earlier this year when he showed his ass to Lindsay Lohan after an Almighty Defenders (a group BBQ is also in) show at Cannes.

No video from these shows in Australia or Korea (yet), but clips from their set at Primavera Sound at the end of May is posted below...

Continue reading "King Khan & BBQ broken up for good? "

by Andrew Frisicano

The Blow at Pulse in Miami in December (crissachappell)

Khaela Maricich (The Blow) has performed sparsely over the past year. In that time, she moved to NYC, and has been preparing performance art/pop music, which she did a bit of at Art Basel in Miami on December 5th. At that performance she claimed to be writing songs with Lindsay Lohan and went on to perform some of them.

Other recent performances include opening a handful of dates for Vampire Weekend in March, where she apparently told the same story, because the new songs from that show (captured on video below) are labeled "Lindsay Lohan demo" by whoever put them on Youtube (one imagines a fumbling for the camera phone at the mention of a celebrity's name).

She's also made a few one-off appearances around town, like at Joe's Pub for Our Hit Parade Best of the Decade Show on December 16th (she performed Eminem's "Lose Yourself") and at the Bell House Haiti Benefit in January, where her set included an acoustic-guitar-backed version of her own "True Affection." Videos of both of those are below.

Her upcoming shows include a short tour of the Northeast this May, where she'll continue working out the new material. There is a new LP in the works, and she's set to release an EP later this year. At the shows, she'll be joined by installation and sound artist Melissa Dyne, who'll focus on "accoustics, light, and spatial phenomena" (they performed at Baltimore's Transmodern Festival just last weekend).

The short tour starts in Buffalo on May 4th and ends with a Brooklyn show at Glaslands on Thursday, May 13th. The Blow's full schedule and the above-mentioned videos are below...

Continue reading "The Blow is living in NYC, playing shows, releasing stuff "

DOWNLOAD: N.E.R.D. - 'Everyone Nose' (MP3)

N.E.R.D. @ M.S.G., N.Y.C. - May 13, 2008 (malusbrutus)

N.E.R.D.'s new album Seeing Sounds will be out June 10, 2008. "Everyone Nose" is the first single. You can download the MP3 above. The video was (at least partially) shot here at Gypsy Tea in NYC in April, and it features a bunch of cameos including Lindsay Lohan and Kanye West (who N.E.R.D. played with last night at Madison Square Garden). You can watch that below...

Continue reading "N.E.R.D. - new album & 'Everyone Nose' MP3 & video"

* KEXP is coming to NYC
* Taken by Trees covered 'Sweet Child O' Mine' (via)
* Atlas Sound came out, got "Best New Music"
* Britt Daniel (Spoon) remixed Feist & Interpol (MP3)
* "No Depression" To Shut Down After Next Issue
* Resonance Magazine is going out of business too
* TVT Records is also going out of business or something
* Remember when the Manics played for Castro?
* Sharon Jones sang for part of a song at Union Hall
* BAMfans Drink for Free After The National
* Hello Blue Roses played Glasslands Gallery
* Sam Means (Daily Show) interviewed John Darnielle (Mtn Goats)

Gibby Haynes @ Highline Ballroom - Feb 17, 2008 (mways)

* Lindsay Lohan posed nude
* The Spice Girls are @ MSG
* Dre Day is celebrated at 205
* De Novo Dahl are playing Pianos
* French Kicks are playing Fontana's
* President is playing Knitting Factory
* Calvin Johnson, Karl Blau & Fred Thomas are @ Luterhan Church...
* Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint is now on the NYC venue map

Nick Cave says "Dim the Lights!" (below). What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday? (Presidents Day)"