This weekend it was my goal to catch a free music show every day. On Friday Deerhoof was playing in Prospect Park. I’d seen them play a few shows a few years ago in San Francisco, and they were mesmerizing live. They are one of the few bands I have happened to catch at a show (Voxtrot being another), that knowing nothing about them, totally blew me away. Most of my friends here in New York, however, had never heard of them, and for once I was able to feel cooler than them. Here is the video for Wrong Time Capsule:
It was like a million degrees out on Saturday. A bunch of bands I am not hip enough to have heard of were playing at the Siren Music festival in Coney Island starting in the afternoon. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my air-conditioned room to stand in the sun all day with a bunch of sweating hipsters. I did really want to see Steven Malkmus and the Jicks perform at the end of the night though. I hadn’t heard any of his new, solo stuff, but I’ve been obsessed with Pavement’s “Crooked Rain” album since I found it on the street six months ago. My friend and I got there just before he went on. The sun was still up, and I think for awhile the heat kept me from fully enjoying the music. As soon as the sun started going down I got more comfortable and I think Steven did too, because he really started rocking out. He played a couple of encores, but we left to hit the beach before he finished. I was still so hot and sweaty that I didn’t even mind that it was dark and I couldn’t see what sort of trash was floating in the water next to me. Apparently other people didn’t either. A number of hot men nearby stripped off their clothes and went skinny dipping in the ocean. None of them came over to say hi to us, so we went over to a couple of (fully clothed) men singing and playing the guitar next to us. They were quite good, and soon about 20 people had gathered around them, some singing, some playing the guitar, some just hanging out. One of the men seemed to know a lot of songs, but I was still pleasantly stunned when he broke out with “Venus” by the Bangles. I had to stop talking to the 19 year old Dominican boy who was hitting on me to listen.
Sunday it was still a million degrees out, but I managed to make it to Central Park where I passed out in the shade for a couple of hours until Santogold came on. Here is my favorite video of hers. Although the song is called L.E.S. Artistes, I think most of it was filmed in Bushwick.
