Fans of Dr. Dog were disappointed this week to learn that the band had canceled its New York shows due to the severely bruised larynx of its singer, Toby Leaman.

The band—touring in support of its new album, Fate—was slated to play last night at the Bowery Ballroom and tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but canceled the shows after Leaman was said to have been punched in the throat.

According to a publicist for the band, “Toby has a severely bruised larynx which is healing well,” which is cause for all of his fans to wag their tails, but how did the guy catch a fist in the windpipe?
“That was written by a fan and [is] 100% false,” said the band’s mouthpiece, Steven Trachtenbroit, who attributed the singer’s ailment to a “bad tubing accident.”

Except the same message was posted on the band’s MySpace blog and sent out by its management company, Foundations Music, making us wonder exactly what kind of access this mysterious fan has.
Either way, the flip-flopping flack added, “Throughout this week he has been able to sing better and better each day,” and the shows have been rescheduled for Aug. 26 and 27.

After seeing his mannered performance of "Praying For Time" on American Idol this spring , my expectations were low for George Michael's current tour; a feeling that was possibly shared by a few, as it was hardly a capacity crowd for the second of a two-night stand at MSG. Then the lights dimmed, and the audience made some serious noise, an impressive decibel level they kept up for nearly three hours. The infectious energy from the singing and screaming fans, many experiencing release after waiting 17 years since his last U.S. tour, was electric enough to cause the hairs on my arm stand at attention again and again. The singer himself felt it, commenting that compared to the Monday night audience "someone has turned the power on"...

Continue reading "George Michael" here.

Literally recorded in lead singer Chris Chu's bedroom, San Francisco's The Morning Benders have just released a free new album via their blog. Chu describes The Bedroom Covers, stating "if you want to hear some kids having a lot of fun playing some of their favorite songs ever, check these out." Simply played using acoustic guitars and shakers, and recorded with a laptop and one mic, it's an intimate experience worth checking out with covers of classics by artists like Roy Orbison, The Velvet Underground, The Smiths and The Ronettes.

Download the album from The Morning Benders blog here.

The Morning Benders will return to NYC to play the Puma Store on October 21st.

Originally built for military purposes in 1812, Castle Clinton in Battery Park has an incredible history in which it has served as a fort, an opera house, an immigration center, and even as the New York City Aquarium. Currently, Castle Clinton acts as the gateway and ticketing office for ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

During the summer, the oldest performance venue in New York City hosts a series of concerts presented as part of the River to River Festival. Tonight, Brooklyn's experimental folk rockers Akron/Family will be performing. The serene environment created by this great space should act as the perfect home for Akron/Family's feel good sing-a-longs.

The concert is free but seating is limited. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 5pm. Akron/Family is scheduled to take the stage at 7pm.

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch the lovely St. Vincent perform with a full band at Castle Clinton. With perfect weather, and trees swaying behind them, it was one of those perfect summer nights in NYC. Unlike many of the city's outdoor venues, the sound was perfect, and Annie Clark charmed us all with her perfectly lush, quirky pop songs and silly between songs banter.


St. Vincent performing at Castle Clinton

Photo of St Vincent by Jonny-Leather

America is bursting with singles, and an increasing number of people are meeting potential partners through sites like Match.com and eHarmony. Did we always think “The One” was out there? In the documentary Single (which recently screened July 22 at Anthology Film Archives), Richard Atkinson and Jane Scandurra interview a smattering of real-life singles, experts, comedians and singer/songwriters to shed some light on the increasing years Americans spend out of wedlock. To the sounds of folksy indie artists, men and women of all ages reveal what they think of single life in urban America.

The documentary uses a limited definition of singledom, zeroing in on the changing shape of marriage in particular as opposed to romantic relationships in general, but opens a universally compelling and pressing dialogue about how our relationships are changing. I spoke with Atkinson and Scandurra about their new film to figure out what they really think about single folk.

Why is the trend of increasing singledom in America so significant, and why should we pay attention to it now? 
Scandurra: There’s 100 million singles in the country right now, and that’s massive statistical jump. While we were in the midst of exploring the homeowner issue, the meter ticked over to the other side toward singles. Singles currently head the majority of households in the United States, and that’s never happened before...

Continue reading "Single Doc" here.

Enzo Castellari's The Inglorious Bastards (1978) is a grindhouse nostalgist's delight. It's cheaply made, derivative of preceding genre films-apart from ripping off, er, paying homage to The Wild Bunch, Bastards' poster proudly exclaims, "Whatever the Dirty Dozen did, they do it dirtier!"-and full of ridiculous racial stereotypes-see one of the film's alternate titles, G.I. Bro, whose tagline is "If you're a Kraut, he'll take you out"-Nazis, cheesy one-liners and exploding model sets. Oh and there's a nude bathing scene.

However, like most cult films, it is inventive in a few small ways and high on its own campy energy. Though concessions must be made lest one expect Peckinpah or Aldrich quality filmmaking, they are made with the expectation of getting in return a cheap but mindlessly fun time...

Continue reading "Inglorious Bastards" here.

Sweat dripping down my back as I walked across Williamsburg towards McCarren Pool on Sunday afternoon, I couldn't help but dream that it would be filled with water, rather than hipsters, dodgeballs, beer and rock bands. The heat was overwhelming, and the soles of my sneakers were melting to the concrete, but once again JellyNYC booked the type of headliner that just draws in us indie music geeks. (The mix of heat, Santogold in Central Park, and Siren on Saturday did, however, keep the pool a bit less crowded than past weeks.)

Following Team Robespierre and Fuck Buttons, whose sounds fair better indoors, the post-apocalyptic sounds of Liars devoured us. Every minute of their mix of electric tribal drumming dance punk felt profound. There's a reason Liars were chosen to open for Radiohead on their upcoming tour, and it's because there are few, if any, more interesting bands making music right now.

See a full set of photos of Liars @ McCarren Pool here.

Photos by Jonny-Leather

Used as an adjective, the word offensive has two main meanings as defined by Webster’s dictionary: “causing displeasure or resentment” and “to attack.”  In the case of Julie Goldman’s Offensive Women show, both are appropriate. Spokeswoman Erin Keating said the idea behind the show revolves around creating an, “absolutely open place for women to be fearless and funny.”  The best way they thought of to expose stereotypes and judgment of the fairer sex is through a no-holds-barred musical comedy show...

Continue reading"Julie Goldman" here.

The queue never ceases to amaze me. Folks line up dutifully for an iPhone upgrade or a last-minute look at the Telectroscope or the All-Star Game, and a grandmother’s position ahead of an American Gladiator is respected as tantamount to a constitutional commitment: do not cut, do not push. It’s a British convention that, while retaining that country’s predilection for rueful politesse, not to mention a uniquely Stateside bent towards compassionate competition, is still about as close as the common capitalist can get to egalité, fraternité, liberté while still pursuing his gadgety passions and hard-on for spectacle. It’s a sublime compromise. To get the things we want, we must wait our turn, stomach a couple seconds of social collectivism in the name of stuff, stuff, stuff.

Sunday’s Santogold/Diplo show at Central Park’s SummerStage not only had a queue out of Exodus, but an aesthetic mentality poised on the cusp of one-world wishwash and consumerist crassness...

Continue reading "Santogold" here.

Surprise, surprise, the local color has not been drained from Williamsburg. In fact, the multi week Giglio feast shows just how strong the neighborhood’s cultural and religious roots are. The feast, celebrating the patron saint Palonius of the Italian city Nola, goes back over a hundred years, and features a series of processions, religious ceremonies, and the lifting of a 2-ton, 50-foot-tall shrine by feast participants. With the mixture of religious events and an accompanying carnival, the festival is quite a logistical undertaking...

Continue reading "Giglio" here.

When I was younger, I would feel an electric charge of excitement in anticipation of a concert. Now that I see an average of 3 or 4 concerts a week, there's little time for that excitement to build up. Some concerts actually just feel like a fix to feed my crazy, crazy addiction.

By the time I got to Mercury Lounge last night, I was starting to feel that rare energetic surge of excitement. My friend and I had just witnessed a less than spectacular performance by Fiery Furnaces at the East River Amphitheater, and were looking to finish our Thursday night with something a bit more memorable.

After a short wait outside, with a group of overly-excited/obnoxious guys, we worked our way into the venue, through the narrow hallway alongside the bar, and into the performance space. Gentleman Reg was on stage, and our initial reaction was negative, but by the time we settled into a spot right up front, his performance became much more satisfying. But we were there for one reason, Broken Social Scene.

Continue reading "Broken Social Scene Finds The Magic At Mercury Lounge"

Photos by Jonny-Leather

If you live in Brooklyn and haven’t adopted some sugar-free (or vegan) diet, then you should have heard of Cake Man Raven and his famous red velvet cake.  Well, he wants you loyal sweet fiends to know he appreciates your business and this Sunday the Fort Greene shop will host Eighth Annual Family & Friends Appreciation Day. Get ready for a cupcake parade at 3 p.m. and live music on the festival stage at 4 p.m. (located at South Oxford and Hanson Place).  The Cake Man has promised stilt walkers, marching bands, giant slides and the possible celebrity cameo (maybe one of the famous people who love his cake like Patti LaBelle or Spike Lee will appear).

Originally from Harlem, Raven Patrick De'Sean Dennis III, got his nickname when a reporter referred to him as “Harlem Cake Man Raven” in 1991.  The title stuck and followed him all the way to Brooklyn where I have heard people ask in an excited tone as they point to the red cake with white creamy icing, “Is that from Cake Man Raven?”  And a lot of the time, it is.

Sun. July 20, 3 p.m., 708 Fulton Street (at Greene Ave.) 718-694-2253

Don’t hate on Jason Jeffries. He wants to close down Bedford Avenue—but it’s only for your own good. Jeffries is the architect behind Williamsburg Walks, an event that will close a stretch of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn for four Saturdays this summer, beginning this weekend. And, according to Jeffries, this is the best way to build community in the nabe.

Yes, you read that right, no taxis, no cars aiming for folks on crosswalks: Starting July 19 and continuing for four consecutive Saturdays, Bedford Avenue from Metropolitan to North 9th Street will be closed to cars and buses will be re-routed. Other businesses in the same area, from Roebling Street to the waterfront, will be allowed to set up tables outside their shops...

Continue reading "Car-Free Bedford" here.

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” will ring out in Red Hook this Saturday, July 19, when Jess Winfield performs 31 condensed plays by Shakespeare. If he manages to complete his task, he will set the record for the most Shakespeare plays performed solo in Brooklyn in a day. This isn’t Winfield’s first time dabbling in condensed Shakespeare. He is the founding member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company in California, a theater company that abridged all of Shakespeare’s plays into a two-hour performance. Though he, as he put it, “hung up his tights” in 1992, Winfield’s obsession with the playwright hasn’t died down.

The performance Saturday will help promote Winfield’s new book, My Name is Will, a story about a young Shakespeare scholar (named Willie Shakespeare Greenberg) tripping on mushrooms. The plays will take place in various spots, mostly in Red Hook, and each has a theme. The only non-Brooklyn location starts the show at 2 p.m. during the 20-minute Water Taxi ride from Pier 11 in Manhattan where he will tackle 16 comedies. B61 Bar features Hamlet and you can get more of Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Ice House. More locations can be found on the Freebird bookstore, where the performance ends and you can party down like it’s 1599.

Though diminutive actor Leslie Jordan may be best known for his Emmy-winning recurring role as Beverly Leslie on Will and Grace, he's probably better loved by the obsessed fans of Del Shores' 2001 cult classic flick, Sordid Lives. Happily for anyone who's ever been charmed by Jordan's portrayal of Brother Boy, institutionalized by his family in Texas for being a gay man with a proclivity for dressing in drag and lip syncing to Tammy Faye songs, he's very much present in the new Logo television series based on the film...

Continue readinig "Sordid Lives" here.

Last night I checked out Taylor Mac's performance at HERE, The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, which he is performing in rep with his other one-man show, The Young Ladies of... As I work on what I want to write about the performance, I thought this video of Taylor performing "The Palace of the End," an epic love song about Lynne Cheney and Saddam Hussein which is included in Be(a)st, would be a good way of cheering us all up while we sit in offices while our lucky pals are out at the beach.

The Nation magazine has just sent out a press release touting a "new sex column" to appear in the magazine beginning next month.  The magazine is calling the column "Carnal Knowledge," an extremely witty spin on the title of the 1971 movie, "Carnal Knowledge." The column will be written by JoAnn Wypijewski (pictured left), whose sex column credentials include years of freelancing for Mother Jones, Legal Affairs and New Labor Forum...

Continue reading "The Nation's Sex Column" here.

Perhaps the editors of Entertainment Weekly have been too busy working on their not-well-received re-design. How else to explain the "Writers Gone Wild!" antics going on in last week's issue: the ever inane "The Shaw Report" declaring that "H" is in, "W" is five minutes ago, and "V" is out (your guess is as good as mine); the increasingly useless Diablo Cody inexplicably schilling for Universal's Land Of The Lost, without mentioning or even better communicating why we should care about what Diablo Cody has to say about a movie that's still a year away from release, on which she didn't work; but it is Margeaux Watson who has gone wildest, railing against Hollywood for casting Charlize Theron as Will Smith's love interest in Hancock, floating absurd notions such as "imagine how refreshing Hancock would have been if Theron's heroine had been played by a black actress." Having imagined it, it doesn't seem at all refreshing – seeing Will Smith act opposite his first Caucasian love interest, on the other hand, is quite refreshing...

Continue reading "Hating Margeaux Watson" here.

In the battle between beauty and the geek, chalk one up for the geek. They proved themselves to be the most dedicated at Tuesday’s Times Talk with Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan. The audience for the long ago sold-out discussion on The Dark Knight was comprised roughly equally of ComiCon-worthy nerds and well-dressed professional women and gays. However, with the exception of one comic-loving and intensely nervous girl, it was all male Batman diehards who lined up when the audience was invited to ask questions.

Continue reading "Geek Squad" here.