First things first: I’m back. I went away for a while and didn’t blog because I was feeding starving children in Africa (or some other lie that gives you a good opinion of me). Anyway, I’m finally getting off my butt and making a promise to myself to update Infinity Yeah more often. I’m starting by debuting a fancy new custom domain (www.infinityyeah.com) so update your RSS readers and bookmarks! If you don’t, you will still be redirected here, so no sweat. I’m also debuting a slew of new weekly features this week starting with Monday’s column: This Week’s Show. I go to a lot of shows (duh) here in NYC so every Monday I’ll blog my picks for the show that you really shouldn’t be missing this week. Even if I don’t attend a concert in a given week, I still have a good idea of which bands are in town and where they’re playing.
This week is a little bit of a toss up. Pavement played the Williamsburg Waterfront last night and they play Central Park’s SummerStage for like the rest of the week starting tomorrow, Tuesday. Tickets for the band’s reunion went on sale last August and sold out in about 5 minutes so hopefully you remember where you’ve kept your tickets for the past year (mine managed to remain safe through an apartment move so I’m golden). I guess I should be a little bit more excited for this show, but I really only listen to Pavement because too many friends keep on insisting how important they are. Pitchfork agrees with my mates as well: they recently named the band’s “Gold Soundz” as the toppest track of the 1990s. I’ll be at the show on Tuesday, but it would be more exciting if this truly were the reunion show. It was when they announced it, but since the tickets went on sale, Pavement has been touring almost nonstop everywhere but NYC. Honestly, seeing them at Coachella was probably enough for me. Might ditch them for the Wavves/The Babies show that snuck up on the Music Hall of Williamsburg calendar.
Speaking of Coachella, if you read my horrible recap, you’ll know that seeing Ra Ra Riot was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. This week, the band is playing 2 shows at Bowery Ballroom (Tuesday and Wednesday) and another 2 at Music Hall of Williamsburg (Thursday and Friday) in support of their new album The Orchard. I’ve been listening to the album for the past couple weeks and I think that it’s a great sophomore album that shows the natural evolution of a talented young band. It’s a more mature sound than they've expressed before and while I miss the bouncy playfulness that The Rhumb Line possessed, I’m anxious for Ra Ra Riot’s excellent live performance to give me a renewed enthusiasm for an album that should be the perfect soundtrack for the city’s slow descent into fall. Really can't wait to hear “Dying Is Fine” though!
UPDATE: While writing this post, I find out that my all-time favorite band Yeah Yeah Yeahs is playing an intimate anniversary gig on Wednesday night? In the forests of Brooklyn? Oh man…
Photo of Pavement courtesy of Gothamist.
Photo of Ra Ra Riot courtesy of BrooklynVegan.
Glad you're back!
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