these are not photographs

I have a ton of negatives that I need to scan. I used to be better about scanning and putting them online more regularly but have come to ignore the binders filled with negatives that are sitting under my desk.

Last night, I came across a roll that I really should have scanned ages ago. In March of 2002, I caught The Distillers play Knitting Factory (March 2, 2002) and a few days later, I saw Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs play the same venue (March 8, 2002). The latter show was a benefit for Bust Magazine and they gave out vibrators to everyone in their goodie bag.

Ten years later, I finally made the effort of putting these images online.

More pictures are available here and here.

And lots more music related film scans are here.

Photos of the Greedhead show at Knitting Factory on Friday, May 25th. More pictures are available on Flickr and Impose Magazine.

If you haven’t heard, founding member of Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch passed away. 

Since I grew up in New York during the 80s, the band has pretty much always been a part of my life thanks to Video Music Box (I was a city kid and didn’t get cable until I was 13). The above images were taken in 2006 where the band performed a long set as part of a benefit show. 

In high school, I happened to be walking with my mom along Broadway in the TriBeCa area one Saturday afternoon. My mom and I were walking north while MCA was headed south. I immediately recognized him and broke out into a wide grin and hit my mom to get her attention. He must have seen my reaction because he nodded at me and smiled, knowing that I knew who he was (and probably grateful that I didn’t make a scene or scream because face it, I was a teenage girl). After he had passed, I turned to my mom and asked her if she knew who that was. Of course her answer to that question was, “No.” When we went home, I pulled out my Licensed to Ill CD and showed her his photo on the back. Still no recognition and she just didn’t understand why I was so excited to see this man walking down the streets of New York. 

MCA, you’ll be dearly missed. Thank you for the music, performances and movies (from Oscilloscope Laboratories).

To my neighbors, I apologize for all the Beastie Boys albums you’ll be hearing for a while because this is a huge loss for me.

Additional photos from the Hiro Ballroom performance are in this set.

On Tuesday, April 10th, I was lucky enough to shoot Kraftwerk. Well, not really. I took photos of comics and musicians performing Kraftwerk covers. This was a treat for people like myself who were completely shut out of the 8 performances happening at MoMA for the next week.

A review and lots more photos can be found on Impose Magazine.

Last Friday night, I caught Katie Eastburn, The Curious Mystery, Hamish Kilgour, Leila Adu and The Hive Dwellers at Market Hotel, which was presented by Todd P. This was the first non-secret show at Market Hotel in two years. I can’t believe it’s been that long since I last went there. I believe the last concert I caught there was Mika Miko before they called it quits.

Anyway, it was a great bill. I had a lovely time. I would have had an even better time if people didn’t talk while the last two acts were playing. I don’t get why people go to a concert to not pay attention to the musicians performing. I found it rude and distracting as an audience member. Imagine how the bands must have felt!  I had enough when a woman screamed loudly at her friend while Calvin Fucking Johnson was singing without a microphone. I couldn’t control myself and let out a loud, “SHHH!” to shut her up. Then I got annoyed with everyone being pretty disrespectful and left before the band was done.

Enough of my ranting. Additional images are up on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Monday, I shot reclusive, outsider musician Jandek for Impose Magazine which occurred at Brooklyn, NY’s Vaudeville Park. Additional photos are here. A review of the rare performance is available on the Village Voice website here.

On Wednesday, March 21st, I attended the Million Hoodie March in Union Square which was held for Trayvon Martin. In late February, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman who believed he looked “suspicious.” Trayvon was visiting a family friend and went to the store to pick up candy and something to drink. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, which is why the rally called for protestors to wear hoodies of their own. Nearly a month later, George Zimmerman has yet to be charged with Martin’s death.

Thanks to the internet (and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook) the news of his death (and the public outcry) spread quickly.  There’s a hashtag for yesterday’s event which was #millionhoodiemarch. After about spending about an hour in Union Square, the marchers moved on to other parts of the city.

For additional photos, please visit the gallery on Impose Magazine.

For the past week, musicians, the media and music fans have descended upon Austin, TX for this year’s annual South by Southwest Festival (SXSW). Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. But luckily for me and other NYC area music fans who decided to stay put, a really solid bill happened last night at Music Hall of Williamsburg featuring Vancouver’s Nü Sensae, Brooklyn’s Talk Normal and EMA (nee Erika M. Anderson) who originally hails from South Dakota.

Above are photos I took from last night’s show which was shot for Impose Magazine. Pictures should get posted there at some point next week. But if you can’t wait until then, you can check out more on Flickr.

On Saturday, March 3rd, I attended two shows back-to-back in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The first featured a bill with Zulus, The Marsh Hens and a semi-secret headlining performance by The Men at Tommy’sTavern. I only was able to stick around for two or three songs from The Men before running across the street to cover Pop. 1280’s late night set at Saint Vitus.

It’s been a while since I last saw the band perform and the first since the release of their latest album,The Horror.

The above photos are from the show and more can be found here.

Over the weekend, I managed to attend four shows, three days in a row which is highly unusual for me these days. The first night, I caught The Spits and TV Ghost at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY.

The above gallery features The Spits & TV Ghost as they performed on Friday, March 2nd. I wish I took more photos of The Spits but I was up front where the crowd got a little too rowdy for me. I’m in my 30s now and ended up fleeing the area near the stage when a pit broke out. I bruise easily and still have a bump on my arm from the show. Pretty punk rock, I suppose.

More photos are available on Flickr.

I attended a late show on Glasslands Friday, February 17th featuring Kitten Berry Crunch, DJ Tantric and Tayisha Busay.

Kitten Berry Crunch debuted a new video and played a set. Frankly, they weren’t my cup of tea but there were plenty of people in the audience who enjoyed them. DJ Tantric played before and after band sets and I was impressed that he played slower versions of bounce songs before Tayisha Busay performed. On our way out, he played 90s R&B songs, which was, of course, awesome.

Tayisha Busay has been together for 5 years and are taking a break from recording and performing. I first discovered the Brooklyn band at Mean Red’s Crush Fest during CMJ back in 2010. The band showcased their catchy songs, fun dance moves and threw large amounts of confetti in the air. I left the show with a huge smile on my face (especially since I saw Big Freedia for the first time after their set) and vowed to catch them again. That happened two days later at House of Yes.

I’ll miss singing and dancing along during their live shows but I’m confident that Tessa, Ariel and Brandon will be back on stage very soon.

Above are live photos from Friday night’s Glasslands show and will be on Impose Magazine soon. I handed the band a disposable camera for Impose’s Shot by the Band feature to document their final show before their break. Those will be posted next week (I hope to get around to scanning the negatives at some point this weekend).

Oh, and more photos are available on Flickr.

As a person who equally enjoys comedy and music, I was excited to attend a show where a well-known comedian (who has also been a musician for many years) would perform his favorite songs in front of an audience. I ended up leaving the show delighted by the selection of songs and impressed that Fred Armisen served as his entire band (with the exception of keyboards).

Armisen performed a variety of songs (full, surprisingly long set list at the end of this post) on bass, drums and guitar.  He would play a specific part on an instrument and then fill the song, instrument by instrument using pedals and weaving these parts together. He’s performing these covers at Union Pool, a venue that may be a bit too small for this type of thing (for a sold out show, it felt particularly crowded). Fred seemed extremely cheerful, positive and profusely appreciative of the people who came to see him play his favorite songs.

I’ve posted a few of the images I took from last night’s show above and additional ones are available on Flickr. There’s one more show scheduled for Sunday, February 26th. I highly recommend going. Advance tickets are sold out but there will be a handful available at the door. Get there early to ensure you get in since I’m certain many people who attended the past two shows may want to go again for the final one.

Fred Armisen’s Playlist live: setlist from 2/12/12