Passion Pit Show

Last night I saw Passion Pit perform at Prospect Park Bandshell. I got there around 7:15 as the first opener, Suckers, were finishing their set. Shortly after, Tokyo Police Club performed their generic brand of indie rock as I waited patiently for the headliners. Finally as night fell, the band took the stage. A heathy set, the band played the majority of both Manners, and its preceding EP, Chunk Of Change. The show was apparently the largest the band has yet to play (headlining that is) and you could feel the energy and excitement from the band as people tore it up to pop bangers "Little Secrets", "The Reeling", and Folds In Your Hands". At one point, frontman and founder Michael Angelakos told the audience how astounded he was at the band's lightning fast popularity. It's easy to think that the makers of such a seemingly calculated pop record could be smarmy, jaded assholes, but given Passion Pit's enthusiasm and manner, it is clearly not the case. Here is a high def recording of closer, and arguably the best song performed that night, "Sleepyhead".

Frank Black - "Kicked In The Taco"

Most of Frank Black's post Teenage Of The Year material is largely ignored. One of the most dismissed albums from this period is that album's follow-up, 1996's The Cult Of Ray. While not as explosive with bombastic creativity as it's two predecessors, The Cult Of Ray is a very good record and still holds up well as an example of high quality garage-based alternative rock. Here is one of the highlights of that album performed live.

RIP Michael Jackson 1958-2009: One Year Later

It's hard to believe a year has already gone by without the King Of Pop.Where were you when it happened?

I was at work at the record store. In the mid afternoon around 4 (NY time), my co-worker, Joe, was reading the online news mags and was hit with the painfully brief report that Michael Jackson had been hospitalized. The key phrase that shook us to the bone was that paramedics had arrived and he was "not breathing". "Oh my god", was all Joe could say. I quickly rushed to the computer to check other websites for any other info. For the next hour and a half, people would walk into the store giving us what they heard. Reports kept conflicting. First a report said he was dead, while another quickly defused that saying he was still critical. People began calling the record store for information on it as if we were the best news source because we sold his albums. Finally at a few minutes before 5:30, Joe got the call and gave me a thumbs down. At this point, we had already put on Thriller as maybe a way of giving his spirit strength to pull through, but it was no use.

After it was announced, we made a makeshift RIP sign using a copy of Bad (which we played next). People began coming into the store and buying his albums. Since our main source of income is used stock, we had lots of copies of just about every Michael Jackson release known to man. That night was karaoke night at a local bar in my town. I got my friends together and we gave a rather loving tribute to MJ, covering around 15 or so of his tunes. Other people in the bar began joining in to which we all finished with a rousing rendition of "We Are The World". I didn't have work for another two days, so when I returned on Sunday I couldn't believe what I was seeing, or should I say not seeing. Our store which had been overstocked with Michael Jackson records, CDs, tapes, etc. for years, was now bone dry. We had sold everything save for one used vinyl copy of Thriller which was now marked up to $30 (before his death we were selling it for $5 - we just had way too many copies to charge any more).

Some would complain that people thrive on tragedy and it takes someone's death for people to regain their interests in an artist's work. I don't look at it that way. I think we all loved Michael Jackson's music, but we had been doing just that for so long that it became such a normalzed part of our lives. It was in knowing now that he was no longer with us that we were again reminded about how much we loved him. I always feel that sharing memories bring people together, and Michael Jackson has been a part of just about everyone's memory. I am still very sad to see his life in the past tense, but I'm also glad that his music has experienced this rebirth, and that people now remember why he was so great. It was the way he made us feel.

Song Of The Day

Sitting in a sticky apartment all day, this is the only tune that's been on my mind.

Passion Pit Covers "Tonight, Tonight"

Levi's has a new online series where popular artists cover classic songs. Passion Pit have chosen The Smashing Pumpkins seminal 1996 single, "Tonight, Tonight". Let's listen shall we?