Holy fucking weekend! When will they slow down? Who wants them to slow down? After this weekend I'm realizing that a move from the city, though somewhat necessary, isn't going to happen anytime soon. There is still a small possibility that I could jump ship, but then who would captain it? Probably Builder, he seems nautical.Friday Fuck All.This Friday I pulled a disappearing act. In an effort to relax for a full 24 or so hours, I took another vacation day.
Del the Funky Dj and I met up for a sushi lunch and then I rode around the city for a bit before returning home. At this point I purchased myself a bottle of Canadian Club and began to settle in for an evening at home. Noah popped in to keep me company before he headed to work. Then it was just me and the Corleone Family for the next hour or so. I spent my time putting heaps of records onto our new hard drive. Our 160 GB hard drive looks like the future.
Eventually Oveis came by to keep my drunken ass company. We talked politics for quite some time and he told me his stint in NYC is coming to an end. Alec took a job in Connecticut working with a candidate who is running for the State Senate. Congrats to him, and I wish him the best even if he is working for a Republican, (I kid, I kid).
Saturday morning found me feeling great. After a solid 10 hours of sleep, I got myself up and went hunting for the new issue of Slap Magazine which gave my interview of the Shins two pages. Nate informed me of our press. He took the stellar photos of the Northwest nice guys. After no luck finding the magazine, I stopped by Key Foods to pick up some grub for the rooftop BBQ that was taking place later in the day.
Editors Note (Meaning Me): My life has been a mess the past couple of days. The previous portion of this entry was written on Monday afternoon, about three hours before shit hit the fan. Since then, my unstable life has been full of dead beats and no sleep. Don’t worry, I’ll explain later. Let it be known this entry could go on forever.
Let’s get back to the food preparation. Since I’m such a huge fan of the BBQ, I wanted to roll into Jeff and Simon’s throw down with weapons in hand so I marinated 16 chicken legs in different sauces as well as some kielbasa. Once the meat was packed away (hold your comments Paul), I made huge container of guacamole and waited for kids to show up. Erin and Leah showed up with Jack who is the cute dog Erin is babysitting. He ran around the house like a wild man until Erin calmed him with a bone, (get your minds out of the gutter). Nate and Oveis stopped by before Hawkins showed up with Tony and we made our way to Brooklyn with an overstuffed car because Lewis decided to come with us.
The weather was a tad under ideal, but the barbeque was so choice it didn’t matter. I honed my skills as the grill master and took charge of the cooking. I may have been a bit of a Nazi with the tongs, but it was with good reason. So much food was consumed by the huge turn out. During the first keg things started to get a bit rowdy. It started when I took an old sweaty hotdog off the grill. The neglected meat stick need some love so I chucked it across the roof and it hit Nate square in the back. It was at this point that Hawkins and I decided to call the bet off. This means you can come to my house and make out with me if you sticky icky icky.
Lots of old and new friends were at the bbq. It was great catching up with Pat from Philly and Lee from St. Louis. At one point Tony and Lewis got into a hilarious beer fight. Later in the evening Nate and Oveis Culkined me while I was manning the girl. My apologies go out to Leah for taking her down with me. The chicken went over well, and the party was a hit. By 10pm the kegs were gone so Christie, Oveis and I headed to 186 for a quick drink.
After our beverage we made way to Rothko where Dirty on Purpose were playing their homecoming show. They were out on the road for a week doing a small tour on the east coast. Joe and Dj both told me the shows went really well and the turnouts were often surprising. Next time they cruise through your city, make it a point to check them out because they rock without a lot of the pretensions that come with being a New York band. We also ran into The Headset, but instead of Elliot, they had Stevo. We fucked about for a bit before the band came on. Right before they hit I ran into Jin who was a happy momma. Kudos to her on pulling off her first tour. The sound in Rothko is always so loud, but on Saturday night it was quite soothing. The problem was that I couldn’t hear Joe’s vocals from the back of the room. I moved up front and danced around with Jin before we took a tequila shot and my night began to spiral. The last few things I remember went like this: 1. Monument is a fucking amazing song. 2. The little nuances of D.O.P.’s songs are a big part of what makes them great. 3. The Delancey has dickhead security. 4. Gabe is 21. 5. Pizza.
After an early morning viewing of the Pirates of the Caribbean, I hit the streets in hopes of finding a copy of SLAP. I ran into Steve and Jordan on Houston Street and opted out of my cup of coffee with Cami so I could calm the beast within. We ate some delicious grub at Croxley’s Ale House. Who knew they could throw down on Brunch? Then I went up to Hawkins to grab his car for my first mission of the day.
Noah was waiting out front of Odessa when I pulled up. He needed some help moving some Modest Mouse merch from Inland Empire’s Office to the Hammerstein Ballroom. To be honest the whole mission felt a little glamorous at the onset, but after the drop off I realized we were errand boys. But I still got to ride around with their t-shirts!
We dropped the car off and tried to coax Hawkins out of his hole, but he celebrated the bet being off like it was 1983. Noah and I stopped by 186 for a few before heading to Beach’s for some super huge vodka tonics before the show. My ass was dragging at this point, but we had some Modest Mouse to see.
Noah had to wait for Emma at the venue and they had a different box than Beach and I so the two of us made our way into the show. Beach’s friend hooked us up with some amazing seats. We were in the first box on the East side of the venue. The great part about the box was the amount of vacancy. Only half of the seats were full. I ended up meeting a nice couple from New Jersey who got into the show because one of them was cousins with Kathy Thermals. We chatted away after the French Toast set which was groove laden, but the lack of crowd interest was a bit of a bummer.
This was my first time seeing Modest Mouse. I must say that their live show really changed my perception of the band and after three straight days of listening to nothing but their music, I can’t understand how I navigated through life without them. I’ve bought a couple records, but never realized their sheer brilliance until now. Issac continues to make refreshingly urgent (bullshit terms, but it makes sense) music. Allow me to explain. Take for instance Room is On Fire. People bitch and complain because they feel like the Strokes made the same record twice. My opinion lies somewhere in the middle. The Cars style riffs are a definite departure from Is This It, but that’s beside the point. Do fans expect them to come out with something completely off base on what was only their sophomore effort? This sounds like a difficult task especially when you are a band that was swallowed by the public eye in a hot minute. Expectations change for the listening public, the label and the artist. Finding a healthy medium is no easy task. In relation to Modest Mouse, Issac and the gang have continued to put out records with new sounds and big risks. They don’t go from metal to rap or rock to sugar pop, but they certainly don’t sound the same. This constant rebirth without shunning their roots could keep them fresh for years to come in an environment that chews up artists and spits them out in a heartbeat.
Anyway, the show rocked like no other. They opened with
Beach and I met up with Builder and Kyle (who had just returned from the west coast) for a couple drinks at 2A. I slept like a baby that evening wholly not knowing the bullshit I’d have to deal with the next couple days.
The Bahamas return post along with the explanation of my week from hell are both in the works.
8 Comments:
jay, you are one savage mofo, and that's fucking great. just when i think you might have broken your leg falling off the party train, you boomerang back to your blog with a story and mood that can only impress the likes of me. fuck ya, is all i can say. clearly there's nothing semi-hard about this Good Times Gorilla (meaning you). i fucking love it dude, that you got too bombed to enter an update. that's about the best reason i can think of for slacking off. i myself, feel like i could morph into a beer bottle at any moment. the party has been 24 7 for quite some time since most of my friends are at grad school which means summer break. i, unfortunately, am a working stiff who can't sleep in until whenever and who deals with unbearable hangovers every fucking sweaty hellish half awake day, much like yourself it seems. i'm in the best partying shape of my life though, if that makes any sense. anyway, hats off to you. i laughed my jolly old ass off this entry because your party induced pain comes out in almost every word- damn that's good. keep it up! not semi-up but fully erect, got it. scat turdly
Do any of you folks remember when Jay used to rage? H'es getting more and more like Oveis with each passing day....
unless jay is a compulsive liar, and i can smell a lie like a fart in car so i doubt he is, it seems he still has some energy to party. oveis (interesting name) on the other hand, i don't know anything about. he's got an interesting and impressively oriented blog explaining his political beliefs in consumate detail, which i'd wager is common knowledge. still thought, how can you fault jay for liking some discussion with this guy oveis who i'm sure has opinions that he's thought alot about. whatever, i'll back the Good Times Gorilla. i think he could still sling that canadian club if oveis was jay's name for his remote control. plus, for all you down loaders: get an xbox and modify it with a 256 gb drive. you'll be able to store way more shit and its way way cheaper than anything else. plus you'll never have to buy an xbox game again. scat turdly
Weird question, when you wrote 4. Gabe is 21, were you refering to a boy named Gabe being 21, a girl named Gabe (Gah Bee) being 21, or a song entitled "Gabe is 21." Just wondering.
scat thanks for the kind words, but my problems this week haven't been party induced. its a whole nother ball game.
gabe phillips is 21. he is builder's cuz.
hey, jay, sorry about that misundertanding. i hope everything is alright. whatever the case, you just gotta' shake off your feet and not get too run down. everything is harder when your tired. scat turdly
by the way, i'm in full agreement about modest mouse. they really are a ligit group with a lot of song writing talent. i didn't always feel that way, but i've definitely come around. they're an incumbant in my music rotation. dude, i know i'm way overstepping my boundaries but i'm curious what's gone down. i'd be bummed if "good times" took an indefinite hiatus. all my friends clown me for writing this stuff as much as i do. fuck them though. for some wierd reason i love reading this blog. i hardly ever make sense in my entries because half of them are entered when i'm shit-housed, which past 10 at night i almost always am. anyway, don't say if you don't feel like it. got to go, scat
scat, calm your jets bra. i've been working my ass off this week and not having access at home throws a serious monkey wrench in my whole day. good times will rise again, don't worry, i'm just in a huge push at work and blah blah blah. oh yeah, and i'm broke. buy me drinks.
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