The Weekend Shortlist April 25 to 27

The Fiery Furnaces Courtesy of HRT

Friday April 25

Location: East Village, NYC
Band: Baby Dayliner + Blockhead
Show time: 4:25 PM
Venue: Rehab
Food: Veselka
Drink: B-Side
Miscellaneous: ChiKaLicious

Local frontman/one-man-band and crooner extraordinaire Baby Dayliner comes across like the great frontmen Morrissey and Frank Sinatra while sounding all his own. His live show is always fun. Don’t miss beatmaker Blockhead. You may know some of his work from Aesop Rock and Murs among others. Part diner with a Russian menu, Veselka stays open 24-hours and offers blintzes, pierogi’s, and stuffed cabbage along with standard diner fare. One of the L.E.S.’s favorite rock n’ roll bars, B-Side has a kickass jukebox, and an excellent happy hour from 3-8pm, where you can get a PBR and a shot of Whiskey for $5. If you’re serious about your desserts, then ChiKaLicious will blow you away with a $12 pri-fixe that includes an Amuse, Choice of Dessert, and Petit Fours (with wine pairing, $7 additional).

Friday April 25

Location: Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Bands: Paul Simon: American Tunes with Olu Dara + Grizzly Bear + Josh Groban + The Roches + Gillian Welch
Show time: 8:00 PM
Venue: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Food: Junior’s
Drink: O’Connor’s
Miscellaneous: Thomas Beisl

At the tail-end of Paul Simon’s month-long residency at BAM celebrating his long and storied musical career, tonight he performs with an eclectic group of modern artists he’s influenced including Olu Dara, Grizzly Bear, Josh Groban, The Roches, and Gillian Welch. Known more for its cheesecake than anything else on its menu, Junior’s also offers fantastic diner and deli style eats from steak burgers to deli sandwiches. If you can make it through dinner, the cheesecake will be worth the wait! One of Brooklyn’s most interesting dive bars, O’Connor’s offers cheap drinks in a place where Park Slope hipsters meet old-time drinkers, making for one of the oddest pairings that works. An excellent place to get schnitzel and goulash and other Austrian delights, Thomas Beisl is right across the street from BAM.

Saturday April 26

Location: Soho, NYC
Band: Bent Festival 2008
Show time: 7:00 PM
Venue: DCTV
Food: Nha Trang
Drink: Knitting Factory
Miscellaneous: La Esquina

Get ready to geek out as the annual Bent Festival comes to town! Featuring art, music and DIY electronics, hacking, and all kinds of circuitry, prepare to see bands from all over the world playing home-made instruments, artists giving workshops, and witness just what these circuit benders are creating. One of the best affordable Vietnamese restaurants in the city, Nha Trang is right near the downtown courthouse, making it a high volume place. Despite that, the food is great and the Pho (rice noodle soup) dishes are $5 and under. An hip and eclectic place for drinks, the Knitting Factory is also a music venue. The drinks here aren’t expensive and the crowd is fun and artsy. One of the best taqueria’s in the city, the Mexican food here is authentic and to die for. While tacos will set you back $3, plates are in the $6 to $7.25 range.

Saturday April 26

Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Band: The Fiery Furnaces
Show time: 8:00 PM
Venue: Southpaw
Food: Press 195
Drink: The Gate
Miscellaneous: The Chocolate Room

The genius of The Fiery Furnaces is well documented and tonight they take their recording process to another level as the debut “Democ-Rock,” a series of recordings written with the help of their fans. Taking the pressed sandwich to the gourmet level, Press 195 offers 30 kinds of hot pressed sandwiches that make this place hard to get tired of. One of the more social bars in Park Slope, The Gate is a great bar with a wide selection of local beers on tap and an outdoor patio overlooking the park. A great little dessert and coffee shop, The Chocolate Room has a menu filled with everything made with some form of chocolate. Try the hot chocolate, you won’t regret it.

Sunday April 27

Location: Tribeca, NYC
Film: Tribeca Film Festival
Venue: See here for times and locations
Food: Ear Inn
Drink: Village Lantern
Miscellaneous: Jacques Torres

With Robert Deniro’s Tribeca Film Festival, new films come first though there will be plenty of events, music, art, panel discussions, and special screenings including Tina Fey’s Baby Mama and Speed Racer. One of my favorite places for food, Ear Inn is a 200-year-old bar with a small menu featuring burgers, sandwiches, and a chalkboard with specials including Jerk Chicken that’s under $10. With $3 pints Monday thru Friday 12pm to 7pm along with comedy and music performances, the Village Lantern is a great bar to chill at after work, especially now that it’s finally getting warm outside. Watch some of the best chocolate in the world made right in front of your eyes or browse through the store and sample for yourself the fruits of this master chocolatier’s labor.

ART: Josh Azzarella

Josh Azzarella Untitled #23 (”Lynndied”) 2006

March 21 – May 17, 2008

Josh Azzarella
DCKT Contemporary
195 Bowery, ground floor
New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 741.9955

Hours:
Tuesday through Friday, 11am – 6pm
Saturday, noon – 6pm
Sunday, noon – 5pm

Unmaking icons and remaking history are the subjects of the first solo show by Josh Azzarella, currently on display at DCKT Contemporary’s new Lower East Side gallery.

Appropriating some of the most famous images in the history of photojournalism and video reportage, Azzarella recontextualizes these images and forces viewers to confront their power by removing their historical significance.

In his re-working of the Jules Naudet video footage from 9/11 of American Airlines Flight 11, tragedy becomes a near-miss as his footage shows the plane flying harmlessly by the still standing towers. Another series of images based on the photographic evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, shows Lynndie England and her fellow Army Reservists in their grotesque banality, with all traces of their victims erased.

The work, ultimately, is less about the image, than the importance of the historical moment. By removing the icon, Azzarella places the emphasis fully on the reality that the image re-presents.

–Jonathan Shieber

The Daily Shortlist April 24

Speed Racer Debut’s at The Tribeca Film Festival

Location: Tribeca, NYC
Film: Tribeca Film Festival
Venue: See Tribeca Film Festival website
Food: Ear Inn
Drink: Village Lantern
Miscellaneous: Jacques Torres

With Robert Deniro’s Tribeca Film Festival, new films come first though there will be plenty of events, music, art, panel discussions, and special screenings including Tina Fey’s Baby Mama and Speed Racer. One of my favorite places for food, Ear Inn is a 200-year-old bar with a small menu featuring burgers, sandwiches, and a chalkboard with specials including Jerk Chicken that’s under $10. With $3 pints Monday thru Friday 12pm to 7pm along with comedy and music performances, the Village Lantern is a great bar to chill at after work, especially now that it’s finally getting warm outside. Watch some of the best chocolate in the world made right in front of your eyes or browse through the store and sample for yourself the fruits of this master chocolatier’s labor.

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MUSIC REVIEW: Great Northern

Great Northern
sleepy eepee
eenee meanie records

sleepy eepee may be short, but is it ever so sweet! Consisting of 5 brief songs, this prequel to Great Northern’s highly acclaimed Trading Twilight for Daylight, packs a whole lot of talent into a teeny (eenee) space. For starters, the vocals are pretty great. Great Northern’s primary songwriter, Solon Bixler, delivers his disaffected lyrics with a scratchy voice that is perfectly picturesque. However, the songs get boring somewhere in the middle of the album, on tracks like “summertime,” in which Bixler’s vocals are not heavily featured. But the album’s best songs – “loose ends” and “this is a problem” – feature memorable vocal melodies and skillful harmonization over a spare instrumental framework of piano, guitar, and percussion. And as if simple, adept songwriting weren’t enough to make an album great, producer Mathias Schneeberger has helped create a highly polished package, with sounds reminiscent of works by New York’s The Fireflies.

–Gregory Hyman

The Daily shortlist April 23

©2008 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Location: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Art: ©MURAKAMI
Venue: Brooklyn Museum
Show Time: Wed to Fri: 10 AM to 5 PM; Sat to Sun: 11 AM to 6 PM
Food: Tom’s Restaurant
Drink: Soda Bar
Miscellaneous: Old Brooklyn Parlor

Celebrating the art of Takashi Murakami, this retrospective of the acclaimed Japanese artist shows more than 90 of his works, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, and animation. It’s the place where Susanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Restaurant,”but Tom’s restaurant is just as famous for its food. With a near insane breakfast menu, expect items like pancakes with apples and pecans to be brought to you by the sweetest waitresses in Brooklyn. Soda Bar is a great place for drinks. The alcohol is cheap, there’s surprisingly excellent food, and there’s even another room where DJs spin. If it’s too much, you can hang outside in the backyard patio under the stars. The Old Brooklyn Parlor specializes in old school drinks like the Brooklyn Egg Cream and the Lime Cherry Rickey, making it an excellent anchor to this neighborhood.

MUSIC REVIEW: The Duke Spirit

The Duke Spirit
Neptune
Shangri-La Music

Neptune, the second full-length from U.K. band The Duke Spirit, finds the group delivering on the promise of their debut LP Cuts Across the Land. Their first album was a dark bare bones effort but this time out, the group is letting in some light. The result is an album that is more pop-centric but still captivating. Fans of the original album will rally around songs like “Dog Roses” that find the band employing the usual tools of their trade (crunchy guitars and tough-talking songs) but the cheery production behind “My Sunken Treasure” should lure new listeners. If there’s one song that perfectly blends the conflicting light/dark sides of The Duke Spirit together, it has to be the mid-tempo rocker “The Step And The Walk.” It takes the bands My Bloody Valentine-esque roots, adds in the here and now, and dashes headlong into the future.

–Amy Wagner

The Daily Shortlist April 22

Jenna and Laura Bush Discuss Literature at the 92nd Street Y. Photo Credit: Seth Wenig

Location: Upper East Side, NYC
Event: Laura and Jenna Bush
Show time: 8:00 PM
Venue: 92nd Street Y
Food: Brother Jimmy’s Bait Shack
Drink: Cavatappo Wine Bar
Miscellaneous: Ship of Fools

Push aside your political leanings for one night and check out the First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna stop by the 92nd Street Y to read from their new children’s book Read All About it, and talk about the importance of literacy and education. Now that it’s getting warmer out, what better way to celebrate than with some BBQ. Jimmy’s Bait Shack is known for their BBQ’d meats, smoked in house. The menu is all Southern favorites like po boys, catfish, fried chicken, along with burgers. Though it’s small, Cavatappo Wine Bar packs a mighty punch, offering an amazing selection of wines from all over the world for under $10 a glass. With more than 40 TVs featuring sports, Ship of Fools also has darts, pool tables, and video games.

The Daily Shortlist April 21

Lucio Bubacco, Three Graces, 2000; Flameworked glass. Photo Credit: Ed Watkins

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Art: Cheers! A MAD Collection of Goblets
Show time: Open Daily 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Thursdays 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Venue: Museum of Arts & Design
Food: Swizz
Drink: Russian Vodka Room
Miscellaneous: Zip Burger

To celebrate the Museum of Arts & Design’s (MAD) upcoming move to its new space at Two Columbus Circle, they are showing a sneak peak of their collection of glass, metal, clay, fiber, wood, and mixed media goblets. For fans of fondue, Swizz is where it’s at. Try the Traditional Cheese Fondue (serves two) with Gruyere and Emmenthal cheeses, served with cubed bread ($40). When it comes to making great vodka, at the Russian Vodka Room, the menu says it all as they offer 53 different vodka’s not including their 10 specially infused flavors like strawberry, ginger, and if you’re feeling bold, garlic, pepper, and dill. If your looking for a burger with lot’s of extra’s, then check out Zip Burger, where farm-raised, organic/grass-fed meat and poultry help them create a better burger. Burgers start at a mere $4.50 but can get dangerously expensive depending on your toppings.

The Weekend Shortlist April 18 to 20

On Their New Album Walk it Off, Tapes n’ Tapes Sound Better Than Ever

Friday April 18

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Band: The Headhunters
Show time: 8:30 & 10:30 PM
Venue: Iridium
Food: Island Burgers and Shakes
Drink: Smith’s Bar
Miscellaneous: Colony Music

The first time I heard Herbie Hancock’s 70’s jazz/funk project The Headhunters, I realized there was more to jazz than the acoustic upright bass/drums/horn trio. Though the original Headhunters are here for the reunion and Hancock is not, this is sure to be magic live. For a kickass burger or chicken sandwich, Island Burgers and Shakes specializes in making great burgers like the Bourbon Street Burger that’s blackened, with bacon, Jack, bayou mayo, and onion on sourdough. One cheap bar in midtown, Smith’s is a dive bar with cheap booze, friendly locals, and live music daily in the next room. Though the place is way expensive, Colony Music is a fun music store that sells albums and sheet music. You can walk around and check out the entertainment memorabilia. Whether you’re looking for an autographed guitar signed by the Rolling Stones or an autographed 8×10 of Linda Carter, they’ve got it.

Friday April 18

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Band: Cock Lorge
Show time: 7:30 PM
Venue: Pianos
Food: The Stanton Social
Drink: Motor City Bar
Miscellaneous: Ludlow Guitars

Cock Lorge is like that really dirty joke you heard, spread out over an album. This sex talking folk singer may come across as creepy at first thought, but after hearing him harmonize with a lady singing backup, you’ll blush but you’ll also laugh. Part lounge and all restaurant, The Stanton Social offers a very chic décor and a menu of small and affordable items meant for sharing. Try the Wasabi Pea Crusted Salmon with Asian pesto and soba noodle Beet salad ($15). If you like your bars loud, Detroit Rock City loud, then Motor City Bar is for you. With inexpensive drinks and an automobile motif, this is the place to party hard late into the night. Whether you’re in a band, looking for gadgets, or just want to strum on a $2,000 guitar, Ludlow Guitar is your wet dream.

Saturday April 19

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Band: Regina Spektor
Show time: 1:00 PM
Venue: Sound Fix
Food: Bliss
Drink: Spike Hill
Miscellaneous: Ella Cafe

So apparently Saturday is Record Store Day. Not sure if that’s an actual holiday, but in celebration of it, Regina Spektor will play a free show here. So get there early as the performance space is small and a free show by Spektor doesn’t come along often. For veggie lover’s, Bliss Café is an excellent place for tempeh, tofu, and vegetables, with all menu items $10 and under. Right off the L train at Bedford, Spike Hill is a really nice Irish pub with a great selection of draft beers on tap and booths in the back to sit, drink, and even order off an Irish menu of food. While several new coffee shops have popped up in Williamsburg recently, Ella Café is not just the best designed, with it’s blond wood interior but the coffee is pretty good too.

Saturday April 19

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bands: Tapes n’ Tapes + White Denim
Show time: 10:00 PM
Venue: Music Hall of Williamsburg
Food: SEA
Drink: Galapagos
Miscellaneous: Academy Records

Touring in support of their new album Walk it Off, Tapes n’ Tapes have put out an even better album than their last one, The Loon. Openers White Denim are punk, funk and spazz rock worth checking out. Though it looks like a fancy club belonging in the Meat Packing District, SEA is one of the best Thai restaurants in Williamsburg. Huge in size, the menu serves up your typical Thai cuisine, but it’s the space, where a giant Buddha sits over an indoor pond that’s one of its draws. More than just a bar, Galapagos is also an art space with front and back rooms filled with art, music, burlesque, and most importantly, inexpensive drinks. Whether you’re a music geek, an audiophile, or someone who appreciates the warm crackle of a record player, Academy Records is a huge warehouse sized space filled with vinyl and CDs at relatively cheap prices.

Sunday April 20

Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Bands: Bad Wizard + Monotonix + Dark Meat + Heavy Hands
Show time: 8:00 PM
Venue: Cake Shop
Food: Paladar
Drink: Libation
Miscellaneous: Bereket

An excellent lineup of bands here as Brooklyn’s Bad Wizard heads up this awesome lineup. With Dark Meat, a psych-rock band, Monotonix a heavy rock outfit known for their live performances, and rockers Heavy Hands. One of the best Pan-Latin restaurants in the city, Paladar, helmed by Chef Aarón Sanchez, creates eclectic dishes that tickle your palate like the Salmon con Parcha, a seared salmon with black squid rice and spicy passion fruit glaze ($17). Very swanky for Ludlow Street, Libation is a three-floor bar and nightclub beautifully designed with mostly warm brown and gold colors. Though the drinks are pricey, it’s worth trying this place, at least once. One of my favorite late night places for eats, Bereket has some of the best falafels on the L.E.S. and is one of the funniest places to eat after 2 a.m., because everyone there is just as drunk as you are.