words & photos by Tracy Allison

DOWNLOAD: Deer Tick - Sun Street (Katrina & the Waves cover) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Deer Tick - 20 Miles (MP3)

Last night (6/7), Deer Tick played a private show on the Rocks Off Concert Cruise boat The Jewel in celebration of their friend's birthday. Around 7 p.m., a line wrapped around the pier on 23rd street and FDR while approximately 200 close friends slowly began to board the boat for the surprise party.

The evening began with the members of Deer Tick playing backup for singer-songwriter Jonny Corndawg, who engaged the entire audience to the point in which everyone in sight began shouting along to the music and providing backup vocals for his song "Shut Up".

Around 9 p.m., Deer Tick took the stage- a very dimly lit area that took up the entire bow of the lower half of the boat. The theme for the night (aside from sailor hats and lei necklaces) seemed to be getting iced: John McCauley, sporting a gold tooth and straw hat, took a knee three times during Deer Tick's set to chug a Smirnoff Ice. McCauley began the set by singing the words, "I've got a cock that's hard as a rock/Every time I see my Johnny", a special song he wrote for the birthday boy.

"Let's do something stupid and maybe tomorrow we'll remember it." McCauley said before setting down his beer and beginning to play "Easy". Throughout the course of the 90 minute set, Deer Tick played songs from their previous two albums War Elephant and Born on Flag Day, as well as cover songs such as Lightnin' Hopkins' "Bring Me By Shotgun" and Tom Petty's "Breakdown" which provided a segway into a beautifully violent version of "These Old Shoes."

McCauley then stated, "We're going to do a cover song. Maybe you guys have heard of it..." and began to sing "Happy Birthday", which was followed by the birthday boy getting iced and the entire band shotgunning beers.

Towards the middle of the set, the noise began to mellow out with a slowed down rendition of "Diamond Rings 2007" with the lyrics changed to, "What good would fingers be/If it weren't for onion rings/Now I know you're leaving me/So I'm going to Burger King." However, things quickly began to pick up again, Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus joined the band for a song, and the audience went wild dancing and cheering as Deer Tick finished up their set with the appropriately chaotic "La Bamba".

The Jewel returned to the dock at 11 p.m., with no one completely content returning to land after such an amazing night on the East River.

Deer Tick's new album The Black Dirt Sessions is out TODAY (6/8). A track from that album is on the top of this post (Amazon is giving away the same song too) along with the track Deer Tick did for our Katrina and the Waves cover EP. They kick off a tour with shows at Maxwell's and Webster Hall this July. More pictures from the boat below...

Continue reading "Deer Tick & Corndawg played a birthday party on a boat (pics) "

It is official: Spike Lee's party in honor of Michael Jackson's birthday will be held in Brooklyn, but in Prospect Park, not in Fort Greene Park.

The party will take place at the Nethermead, a meadow in the center of Prospect Park, according to an e-mail message from a city official on Friday.

The date, Aug. 29, which would have been the singer's 51st birthday, and the time, from noon to 5 p.m., remain unchanged.
[NY Times]

The much larger park was selected in anticipation of the 10,000 people expected for the event. "The Nethermead is most accessible from the 16th Street and Prospect Park Southwest entrance, the Bartel-Pritchard entrance, the 9th Street entrance..." More directions below.

It's a big week for Spike Lee. In addition to being involved with this party, his "Passing Strange" movie just came out, sort of, maybe (you can catch it at the IFC Theater).

Another Michael Jackson birthday tribute show is happening in NYC on August 29th at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. At that event, Q-Tip (who is DJing) and guests Mark Ronson and DJ Spinna will bring, among other things, "never-before-heard remixes of Michael Jackson hits." Tickets are still on sale.

The biggest show of all scheduled for that date, Michael Jackson's funeral in LA, has been postposted until September 3rd.

And in other Prospect Park West news...

If Carrie Bradshaw and her "Sex and the City" cohorts ever felt lonely in their single-gal lives, at least it was because they actually lived alone. But in Amy Sohn's new chick-lit tome "Prospect Park West," which hits stores Sept. 1, once-glamorous city lasses still feel abandoned. Only now they're isolated in loveless marriages, raising kids they resent.

The book has already been optioned by HBO and Sarah Jessica Parker's production company. The story, which focuses on four stroller moms, from Brooklyn's Park Slope, is touted as fodder for "SATC: The Next Generation." [NY Post]

I hope that TV show never happens. Directions to Saturday's free park party are below...

Continue reading "Spike Lee's Michael Jackson birthday party happening near Prospect Park West (the possible future HBO show topic)"

Morrissey @ Coachella 2009 (more by Darren Kim)

We Will Resume

I am very pleased to confirm that we will resume at Luxembourg this coming Friday (5 June), absorbed and collected. I have been reconstructed by a Wiltshire hospital and I am as close to good health as I'm likely to get.

I apologize to everyone caught up in the to-ing and fro-ing, but the disappointment of postponement is less than the disappointment of hearing me sing on one engine.

I should stress that nothing has been canceled. The four London concerts are repositioned in July, and both Birmingham and the Royal Albert Hall are October fixtures. I've endured a titanic struggle against an intolerable virus lately, and although Hull, Hartlepool and Manchester were nights that comprised a whole life, the physical limits were reached. False notes crush the soul.

Besides Luxembourg and beyond, I am excited about the October release of Swords, which is an 18-track compilation of b-side of singles from the last three albums. This will be a Polydor release.

Thanks to everyone who bought 'Years of Refusal'. We were the number one seller in the UK for the week of release, but, as with 'You Are The Quarry' and 'Your Arsenal', we were booted off the number one spot on the last hour of the final day. We cried.

I would like to point out that some passable creature is using my name and sending sharply chiseled replies to people via Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. This person is not me. Not enough happens in my life that I would wish to share it with others. I do not scan these sites - or whatever they are - so I can only hope that whoever is posing as me is at least worth talking to. Beware of false imitations.

Thanks for reading these unvarnished facts, and thanks for giving us some greatly enjoyable nights on the Refusal tour.

Absolutely Yours,
Morrissey.

Long story short, right after he turned 50, Morrissey (born 22 May 1959) had to cancel/postpone a bunch of European dates because he got sick. All upcoming, cancelled, rescheduled dates, etc, HERE. Videos from some of Morrissey's 50th birthday parties below...

Continue reading "a letter from Morrissey who is now 50 & doesn't use Twitter"