EMPIRE!

In a rare quiet moment before the long anticipated (and slightly dreaded) "Week of Gigs" begins tomorrow night with Nine Inch Nails (and then two nights of Kasabian, U2 and two screenings of Episode 3), I thought I would do my best to get you up to speed on where things have been this past week or so.

I was hoping Brandt would post about the magnificent New Order gig here in New York last week, but again the task seems to have fallen on my shoulders. Having last seen New Order 12 years ago and after repeated viewings of the recent live DVDs from 1998 and 2002, my expectations were very high. I expected greatness and unlike certain bands who have a long history, I didn't want to allow them to get by just on their legendary (or Godlike) status. Happily, it took New Order about half a second to blow me away by starting their gig with LOVE VIGILANTIES and it was all uphill from there. They had such amazing presence and a ferocity to them that we were all shouting and clapping like giddy teenagers with each song. New Order ran through an amazing selection of songs from their vast history and even the new material worked well (Despite an appearance from the manly chick from Scissor Sisters on the new single JETSTREAM). And just to make the night even better, we got to hear Joy Division tracks performed for the first time in our young lives. Watching my hero Hooky, in sleevless T, mind you, belting out basslines for songs like TRANSMISSION, SHE'S LOST CONTROL and LOVE WILL TEAR US APART were the highlights of the evening for me, without a doubt. Just seeing the man throwdown on the bass and the drumkat served as a wonderful throwback to being at the front of the stage during Revenge's first and only tour a decade and a half ago and deciding at that very moment that I would be a bassist. The reason we are all here. Awesome.

Meanwhile, before you read about it in NME, yes that was me hiding in a corner of Darkroom the other night with Poontang Dorg drinking Stella and making an exchange that made me the proud owner of 4 boxes of Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies. No, Carlos D was not there. Thank fuck. Always good to see Dorg, and the addition of Stella, Thin Mints and a DJ spinning Primal Scream only makes a lovely weeknight that much lovlier. Dorg is the best girl scout connection EVER.

KICKING AND SCREAMING is a funny movie starring Will Ferrell and a bunch of kids playing soccer. It's pretty good, not a classic, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Because it's produced by the genius known as Judd Apatow, it features cameo appearances from the various actors who have appeared in his previous TV series' FREAKS AND GEEKS and my personal favourite, UNDECLARED. Anyhow, I do enjoy the recent wave of comedies from these guys aka "The Frat Pack" (Read about them at http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2004-06-15-frat-pack_x.htm). However, I think Mr. Ferrell needs to start getting back to the edgier stuff that's NOT for kids cause I can tell you this much, as much as I liked this film, WEDDING CRASHERS is going to kick it in the ass when that comes out.

Today saw a full day of action at the Birdcage, with a special impromptu appearance by Ash Himself. Parts for a new song were demoed, work continued on The Saintface remix (getting there, Peter, I swear), and the lads spent time fixing some computer stuff for Ash so he can go and mix THEME FROM PROPAGANDA from the long lost unreleased Hypefactor album, EXIT STRATEGIES, still sitting unmixed in various harddrives in lower Manhattan. Anyhow, the HF live set was discussed, tunes were listened to and exchanged, more strategies were plotted, the Ass Cobra real band name was pondered, and by the time this was all over with, a good day was had by all. If only we can have more fun days like this. However, there's still an album that needs to be finished...

The rest of the day involved lazy wandering around the neighborhood with Irene which led to us walking through a street fair where we witnessed Leo, Giselle, and Leo's mom buying pickles from a vendor. Seriously. For the record, Giselle looks like my more attractive younger sister Anna Poontang's less attractive younger sister. Did that make sense? Then B and I exchanged some recent CD purchases while Irene and I sat and watched the new hit from Hong Kong HOUSE OF FURY, produced by Jackie himself and featuring all the new crop of HK young stars that I like, such as Stephen Fung and Daniel Wu and some old schoolers like Tony Wong and the VERY old school Wu Ma. However, not enough of the Twin Who Looks Like My Girlfriend (observer: http://www.8660.com/twins/image/20.jpg), but good fun nonetheless.

Well there you go. Things are obviously slow and boring. Maybe things will pick up. Who the hell knows...

F