Joey Ramone's annual birthday party is happening at Irving Plaza on Wednesday, May 19th. The lineup has been announced and acts in attendance include Hank III, Ronnie Spector,Batusis (NY Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome of Rocket From the Tombs/Dead Boys), Sic F*ucks, ex-Voidoid Ivan Julian and The Independents, Heap. Tickets are on sale (the show is a benefit for lymphoma research).

Sylvain Sylvain also has a show coming up with the Dolls in Brooklyn in May. David Johansen plays a solo one in June.

Videos of those acts, the Ramones and Adam West's original Batusi are below...

Continue reading "Joey Ramone's 2010 birthday show lineup announced"

"We are going to miss him terribly" - David Johansen

Recording artist, manager of the Sex Pistols, provocateur, fashion designer, impresario -- Malcolm McLaren, who died of cancer April 8th at 64 was all those things. He was also, briefly, the manager of the New York Dolls just before their breakup in 1975. Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain spoke with Rolling Stone about his encounters with McLaren. "I always thought the most important member of the Sex Pistols was Malcolm McLaren," Sylvain says. "When they got back together in the '90s, I thought, 'They're missing their most important star, and that was Malcolm.' "

Rolling Stone: When did you first meet McLaren?

NY Doll Sylvain Sylvain: It was at a clothing trade show back in 1971 in New York City. I had a knitwear company, and he and Vivienne [Westwood] were down at the end of the hallway with their clothing line Let It Rock, which was basically rockabilly clothing. Malcolm had this long blond pompadour, long sideburns and white baggy pants. He was like Jerry Lee Lewis, really cool looking. On the last day of trade shows, designers sell their samples, so I said to David Johansen and Johnny Thunders, "You gotta come over." So we bought some things from Malcolm and Vivienne and invited them down to see us at the Mercer Arts Center. He fell in love with the New York Dolls, and we fell in love with them. Vivienne would tell us, "You boys look so much better in women's clothing."

Malcolm McLaren also managed The Sex Pistols. You can hear what Sex Pistol & PiL frontman Johnny Rotten has to say about him HERE.

About to kick off a tour in Europe, it has been announced that the New York Dolls will play Warsaw in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 22nd. Tickets are on sale for the joint Knitting Factory and Scenic production.

You can also catch David Johansen solo on June 27th at Highline Ballroom. All dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "New York Dolls remember Malcolm Mclaren, playing Warsaw in Brooklyn, touring Europe (dates) "

Semi Precious Weapons & Rachael Ray @ Santos in NYC (Nicky Digital) (thx Krista)

As posted earlier today, Franz Nicolay & Major General will be opening for the Pogues at Roseland Ballroom on March 13th, but that is just one of many shows the Hold Steady's moustached member has coming up. Another one is tonight, March 5th...

3/5 FRANZ NICOLAY @ Small Beast Salon
Guest-hosting & curating.
THIS WEEK: 8:15-8:45 Franz Nicolay
8:55-9:25 Yoni Gordon
9:30-10:05 Serena Jost
10:15-11 Jennifer O'Connor
@ The Delancey - 168 Delancey, NYC

Franz is doing the same thing at the Delancey with a different bill on March 12th too, and he's doing a reading at Bar Matchless on March 14th. He'll have a busy few days which almost immediately then turns into a Hold Steady trip to SXSW that starts with a pitstop in Portland for a March 16th show at the Crystal Ballroom.

At SXSW, Franz is playing one solo/Major General show, and The Hold Steady are playing two. The first HS show is Friday March 20th at Mohawk. That's a public, official SXSW appearance. The second is the next day at Maggie May's for the Tom Jones-and-Semi-Precious Weapons-loving Rachael Ray. And they're not the only ones playing her party. As previously mentioned, The Airborne Toxic Event will be there, and so will New York Dolls, Ra Ra Riot and The Thermals. You can see the whole lineup and more details on the Dunkin Donuts spokesperson's website. The picture above was taken at Rachael's NYC show at Santos last week. See more like it at Nicky Digital's site.

NY Dolls also have an official SXSW show, and Sylvain Sylvain is sitting on a SXSW panel called "The Sound and the Fury". This all in addition to a new record coming out...

After working together on the New York Dolls' influential debut in 1973, the group reunited this winter with producer Todd Rundgren to record their fourth studio album, Cause I Sez So, set for a May 5 release on Atco Records.

Recorded at Utopia Sound Studio in Kauai, Hawaii, the album features 11 original compositions and a new version of "Trash," which was on their 1973 debut album. "It was amazing working with Todd again, and I think we were able to evoke the special sound of our first album and drag it by the hair into the present," says frontman Johansen.

Prior to the album's release, the New York Dolls-David Johansen (vocals); Sylvain Sylvain (guitar); Steve Conte (guitar); Brian Delaney (drums); and Sami Yaffa (bass)-will appear at the South By Southwest (SXSW) music conference and festival in Austin, TX. [as outlined above]

No upcoming Dolls dates in NY, bit Ra Ra Riot are at NYU TONIGHT (3/5), The Hold Steady are at Irving Plaza on March 30th, and The Thermals are playing Bowery Ballroom twice in May.

The NY Times went to RR's SXSW show last year. Video below...

Continue reading "Franz Nicolay, Rachael Ray, NY Dolls, Thermals, NYC, SXSW "

When I found out I had the chance to interview a member of the New York Dolls, I knew immediately that J from Heartonastick was the perfect perfect person to do it, and it ends up he was. J and Sylvain Sylvain talk about everything from Max's Kansas City to the Morrissey-driven reunion, the new album to Pete Doherty.....

NEW YORK DOLLS @ SOUTH STREET SEAPORT, NYC | AUG 18, 2006

* photos of David Johansen & Sylvain Sylvain by Wellington Lee

No, they’re not going to go quietly. Isn’t that the last thing you’d want from them?

When the New York Dolls came together in 1971 they were just a bunch of city kids – Drummer Billy Murcia and guitarists Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain were from Queens, bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane from the Bronx, singer David Johansen from Staten Island – who wanted nothing more than to be in a rock and roll band.

People didn’t think they looked and sounded like anything else out there, but the Dolls didn’t really think there was any other way to look or sound. In a musical era of processed, plastic professionalism, these guys played loud and sloppy, banging themselves against bluesy ‘50s-style rock and ‘60s-era girl group sounds so hard something was bound to break.

What broke was everything. Including the Dolls. But by the time the group had fallen apart in 1975, people knew you didn’t have to love music from a distance, anymore.

Most of the original Dolls are no longer with us. Murcia died on the group’s first UK tour, drowned in a bathtub during a bizarre booze-and-barbiturate party. His replacement, Brooklyn-born Jerry Nolan, suffered a fatal stroke in 1992, not even a year after a cancer-and-drug-addled Thunders passed on. Kane lived to see the band’s triumphant 2004 reunion at Morrissey’s Meltdown Festival in London... but died of Leukemia shortly afterwards.

Sylvain Sylvain and David Johansen are very much alive, and they want nothing more than to be in a rock and roll band.

I got to talk to Sylvain, and though we spoke longer than we were supposed to, it certainly wasn’t long enough. The New York Dolls have so much history – and are responsible for so much more – that I could barely scratch the surface. For those who want more, I’ll link to a few books and DVDs at the bottom. Further suggestions are always welcome; please leave them in the comments.

Above all, of course, you should own the records. It doesn’t make sense without the music. The group’s first, self-titled CD is necessary, and available; their second, Too Much Too Soon, a tougher find. And, hey: It’s 2006, and there’s a new Dolls CD, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Whoulda thunk.

Thanks to BV and the folks at Roadrunner Records for this opportunity, and to Sylvain Sylvain for his time and good humor.

---

J: New York is losing CBGB’s and Continental in the next month, but The Dolls came up before those clubs were even around. You kind of had to invent places to play...

"Syl: Yes, well, we always had to look for venues really, because when we came around there was none, except maybe Max’s Kansas City.

J: And that was a Warhol hangout then, right?

Syl: Yeah, exactly, that was famous for the back room, the downstairs back room where it was the late-60s musical scene, Warholish, all the old superstars, self-made superstars. Which we fit in pretty well because we were self-made stars ourselves. But yes, we had to look for places, and in fact that’s how we ran into the Mercer Arts Centre.

J: I wanted to get an idea what those places were like...

Continue reading "An Interview with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls"