in a limited number of shows, Vampire Weekend will be playing throughout February with a couple shows in January and March. DC is lucky enough to have them coming to DC for a show at the Rock and Roll Hotel (now only a hop skip and a jump) away from petrov's new abode. woohoo. There a fun little band that petrov suggests you all go see. They seem to lack something in petrov's eye in terms of sounds, it just seems just a little too barebones for his taste, but who is he to judge?
So petrov has become preoccupied as if late for various reasons including trips, excessive social activities that always compliment the holiday season, loss of a family member, etc... Now petrov has to go home and then after returning he has to move to his new house and then head out on a work trip. With that said it seems unlikely that the pace of posting is going to pick up in the next few weeks. Petrov actually really enjoys posting on here, but he also thinks the blog deserves more attention. In other words this bunny needs someone who would be willing to his or her two cents to this blog. So if you happen to be interested let petrov know, otherwise petrov hopes you all stick around until he can start posting more again. Two projects he has on the backburner are a playlist for the subwaystate blog and the ever popular and overdone "best of 2007".
So in conclusion petrov hopes you will accept his apologies for the limited posting that has taken place recently and often on the fly via a. iPod touch.
music blog what? petrov has had a less than thriller day. so what better way to feel better than to bitch!?!?!
there is nothing more fun in America than blaming someone else for your problems. unless you have been living in a blithering blackhole you should know that China is Congress' and "patriotic" American's favorite scapegoat.
Congress is itching to force a devaluation of the yuan and is also ready to slap something like a 25% tariff on all Chinese imports. (Nothing says thanks for giving us cheap products like making Americans pay 25% more for them.) If you want to put on tariffs because of environmental problems, fine, Petrov is all for the environment, but don't go through that shit around because your citizens can't belly up and pay 10 cents more for a product from a country that holds itself to a slightly higher (acceptable?) standard. Further, just because your citizens can't seem to keep their greedy paws out of the cookie jar (read as dumbf*cks that would rather buy their new $400 lcd 32" no name tv than put their money in an high interest savings account or god forbid a retirement fund).
Do you hate China because of their large trade surplus with the US? Do you hate China because they roofy your children with roofy-powdered toys? (Ok, maybe the later one is a fair call.... but still that "quality" issue has been going on for sometime now, Petrov doesn't see anyone not buying from china because they are concerned). Anyway, it pisses petrov off. He's an economist and feels these issues are better dealt in more constructive ways (teaching high schoolers to live on a budjet....not that god's word created the human race 4,000 years ago and evolution is just a "theory"). Get the idea?
Read this article if you would like to dispel some of your firmly held patriotic beliefs.
no, not ted turner. WMB Turner, the english impressionist from the early 19th century. Petrov saw the Turner, Whistler, and Monet exhibit in Toronto several years back and found himself in love with the unique take on atmospheric conditions these three artists took. The later two artists took much of their inspiration from Turner. So, making to see the Turner exhibit at the National Gallery before it closed in January was a high priority (and provided for a good date). The picture to the left is the "The Junction of the Thames and the Medway". This doesn't express its true beauty as the colors have been all dulled down, however, there was something about the ocean waves in the bottom right hand corner that petrov really enjoyed (not to mention the dark clouds rolling in. The big lesson petrov learned about Turner at the National Gallery was his preference for watercolors over oil painting (and their often use in the early stages of creating an oil painting).... clearly petrov is not an art-snob. The exhibit is only in town until January 6th, so you better get your little rabbit buns in gear, if you have any desire to see it.
On a side note, petrov usually does pretty good at avoiding tourists, but of course any national mall visit requires putting in your time. besides giving directions to several hopeless tourists, petrov's date had the fortune of being the central subject to at least one crazy tourist's picture in a series that should accurately be titled "panorama shots of the national gallery cafeteria". it will be a splendid piece, petrov assures you.
so it has been two or three months since petrov bought his ipod touch. To date this little piece of machinery has lived up to most of petrov's expectations. The main complaints are lack of wifi locations and the inability to play flash on websites, which can be a big issue in this modern era of web2.0. The number of websites that cater to the needs of iPhone and touch users is slowly growing and highlighted by recent improvements in the google homepage which now has buttons large enough for petrov's fat little paws to accurately hit. Blogger now has the ability to post from the touch, which is convenient for a quick post when stranded without something better to do. Unfortunately there is no copy and paste function so the posting of songs with a post is limited to the imeem website, where petrov is making his first attempt at mobile posting from the touch. So if you are keeping up you just found out your are the test pig for petrov's feasibility study of this posting format. Today song is by no means new, but seemed appropriate for the topic at hand. If you live in a hole petrov is referencing the newest iPod touch commercials which highlight the song. When petrov got the CSS cd, be definately did not pick up on this song as a favorite on the album, but in fact it is now certainly on of those. Is this the result of societal submission that is subconcious or is it that petrov was just a sloppy music listener? Petrov hopes of is just a sloppy mistake. Antwho petrov hopes this post comes out properly formatted.
Petrov feels gay....very gay.... a broadway review. Petrov, lesbians, pocket, etc.., attended Avenue Q on Friday night at the National Theatre. Prior to seeing the play petrov had the soundtrack. The soundtrack was quite good with several stand out songs including “If you were gay”, “the internet is for porn”, and “everyone is a little bit racist.” All songs that clearly from the title state conservative values and target audience equalling that of what Playbill considers there target audience as they clearly state in the back of the bill. Not to side track on this, but the WTF is up with their “average reader” profile. Is it meant to make you feel like high society simply because you read the damn pamphlet? Further does this feeling that you now feel like high society make you a more loyal reader (and broadway attendee)? Petrov found the snobbery of that quarter page profile quite repulsive, seeing that the damn thing couldn’t even provide basics for the play such as the song titles, but did quite fine at providing PLENTY of advertisements for my supposed average three figure income (household, a defining characteristic of this income was not highlighted).
Anyway, petrov doesn’t take this out on the play, but instead just Playbill, bastards. Moving along, play is clearly meant for a young adult audience (college to early 40s). Those on either side of this, just won’t get the humor. And unlike as the webpage says, any parent who takes their child to see puppets have sex, should probably not be getting the parent of the year award. And via the elderly couples sitting around us in the audience, the humor is not appreciated by that average 50-something three-figured income Playbill reader.
Petrov began to realize the depravity of his life when the Bad Idea Bears actually had reasonable suggestions for Princeton. Exemplary Bad Idea Bear suggestions included the importance of when spending on an (extremely) tight budget that you should buy a case of beer and not a six pack because its more cost effective. Helloooooo, Costco, my beer buying establishment of choice. Helloooooo, Safeway, my nearest store that sells those big bottles of Kettle One. Oh well, apparently sound economic advice from the bastard children of Chucky and a Care Bear, is a bad idea. Who knew?
Anyway, as usual, petrov’s reviews don’t really provide the critical explanations that are provided for you buy the likes of pitchfork or whatever your source for music/movie/theatre advice is. Instead he chooses the low road of highlighting the depravity of western society with a general yeah you should see (hear) that little play (song).
isn't it fun to suddenly discover there is a new album out by one of your favorite bands and you had no clue? well the situation petrov talks about is only second to that as this is technically a "live" album. Daft Punk has a album called "alive" out. petrov has blogged about daft punk several times, so he will keep this short, but BBC Radio 1 has a documentary about the band here. The album is from this past summer's tour and was recorded at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy. Petrov is still hoping they will come back this summer state-side.
on a side note petrov is disappointed to discover BBC podcasts are primarily limited to only computers with UK IP addresses. shite.
what's more exciting than spousal abuse, 60's music, and a dash of an indie favorite? petrov LOVES the remake of the 60s "controversial" song "He Hit Me" by Grizzly Bear on their new album 'Friend'. The song is dark, but retains that 60s "happy" sound and was written to advocate against spousal abuse. So very odd, but petrov likes it.
Petrov made the drive to upstate ny to avoid the horror that is the airport over a holiday. Along the way petrov had time to really get to know MIA's new cd "Kala". Prior to the trip petrov found the cd to be intriguing but lacking something that makes you want to get up and really dance. However, after a few listens and turning up the car bass, the cd is actually quite good and petrov started singing along. this is certainly a concert where you will want to be in the front section of the main floor of 9:30 Club. God willing, the DC audience will actually start dancing. However, should the audience perhaps be like Petrov was before this weekend and simply liked MIA, but lacked the connection to the groovibility of the music (yeah, that isn't really a word), where you stand wont' matter much. so for those of you lucky enough to get tickets to the sold out show, you can either start dancing in the opening song or you can learn that "goovibility" as the night progresses.
petrov must apologize profusely, its been almost a month since he has posted. where has the time flown these past few weeks? it seems like everyday is filled with something that has to be done. even today, its 12.30am and he is just now thinking oh yeah, what about that blog thing? well where to start on the past two weeks? let us summarize the topics that need to be covered (can you say "us" in the third person? you can say "they" but that doesn't refer to him and you, but instead someone else, petrov is tired, but he's pretty sure there is no way to refer to himself in the the third person and you, the reader, also in the third person in a simple way): (1) Beowulf, (2) Town Danceboutique, (3) New Pornographers, (4) M.I.A., (5) domestic partnerships, and (6) turducken. (1) well against petrov's own better judgment, he went and saw Beowulf in "digital 3-D," which requires the oh so fashionable 3-D glasses. let us first start with what is not told in the trailers.... beowulf fights grendel naked. 2/3rds of the reason petrov saw the movie was because the lesbians wanted to see Angelina naked in 3-d, but the movie ended up being very homoerotic around beowulf. granted he had his little girl tricks, but hey beowulf nearly taking a spear up his woo-ha, repeatedly, doesn't exactly scream "straight." (2) saturday night Town opened, the new gay dance club on 8th and Florida/U St. the music sucked the big one, petrov is glad he didn't go until 3am (doesn't close until 5am). further, though the bar closes before 3am, you are not permitted to be holding a drink after 3am, resulting in guys coming around taking your drink and throwing it in a garbage bucket....classy, real classy. (3)New Pornographers, petrov is still sad he missed the New Pornographers during his Africa trip.... here is the new video. the boy holding the girl's hand looks a little like TR Knight, no? maybe a little? (4)MIA is one week from this friday. she grew up in an Eleam family, as her father is considered the founder of the militant group. coincidentally (???) there have been several times her visa has been denied for the United States. let's hope she makes it to her DC tour date, cuz it is going to be splendiferous, regardless of political views. (5)the lesbians got domestic partner-cated last friday in what is mostly likely the fastest most random and filthy shot gun wedding petrov will ever experience. let's just say petrov had to sit and watch a 4year old blow spit bubbles at him and pretend it was semi-humorous as his mother sat their and sad "isn't that just the cutest thing???? he just isn't going to stop." i considered that a nice brain tumor was appropriate willed into the child's brain (too cruel? insert apologetic phrase here if you like children). (6) turkducken...... WTF? bless their hearts, but what the hell is the matter with southern people?
upon arrival back in DC from petrov's trip, petrov dropped his luggage off and headed over to the Red and Black on H St NE, to catch up with the crew. When the crew arrived, shortly after petrov's arrival, it was found the crew was much larger than usual. upon asking what the occasion was, he was told that The Velocet was playing, who have some connection to the crew. Sounded good to petrov.
Petrov has heard the velocet on several occasions, but wouldn't have been able to picked them out. So upstairs everyone went and the velocet came on. The band is a local NYC band, so the crowd didn't bedazzle the mind, but it was good as the room wasn't much larger than petrov's house (which is a small bunnyhole). Unfortunately petrov thinks the combination of a small, not crowded room did not accurately absorb enough sound for the volume, which was of issue as being simply too loud. but despite this petrov found the band to be well rehearsed and certainly capable of gaining momentum in the future. Petrov enjoyed the song Concertina the most.
petrov is back! yay. so petrov has a lot of music exploration to catch up on from over the last two months. among the things that have been in the news is the Nov. 6th release of "Heima" a documentary by Sigur Ros. The documentary chronicles the journey of the group through their native Iceland last summer playing a number of small venue (and often unannounced) concerts. The trailer (below) definitely has no problems cinematically, the pictures are beautiful, but word has it that entirety of the film lacks cohesion. Despite this, Petrov will still see it.
or whatever it is in french. FYI, petrov is writing on a french keyboard, but have it turned to english, meaning that he is basically typing blind, as the key he pushes has nothing to do with the letter on the keyboard. he never realized how good a typer he was until just now. :-)
anyway, petrov is in cote d'ivoire, if that had not already been gathered. its very interesting to be a homosexual here. there is certainly no flaunting it here, but unlike in DC police, the police here (aka soldiers with automatics) will probably not be sending the LGBT laison to the scene. instead it will probably just be jail time. petrov is sure the laws don't bode in his favour, and he even considered... hmmmm, what if they are monitoring his web activities? granted there has been nothing bad, but it woudlnt' take a rocket scientist to figure out his sexuality based on his interent happenings.
so despite the fact the gays can't marry in the US, its nice to know at least you never have to fear being who you are. so petrov guesses, for once its good to be an american (though canadian would be better). off to ghana now....
Petrov is writing tonight from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Unlike Dakar, Abidjan is a "modern" city. The city looks very beautiful, with the exception of the fact that it looks like all care for the city was abandoned about 10 years ago, which makes sense given its history. Suprisingly (to petrov) it is a much cleaner and developed city than Dakar. Dakar was like a gigantic construction site and trashpit all rolled into one. Roads are being built left and right in Dakar, but construction crews for such roads were not witnessed.
After 4 days of listening to french... petrov is sick of it. spanish is good, french is not. the language as spoken has absolutely nothing to do with how the words are written. petrov is unable to decipher anywords from the context of conversation, plus they are shifty with the keyboards moving keys all around. ugh. petrov had a song to give you, but his ipod is locked away in the hotel room safe, so recalling what the song was will have to be left for another day.
petrov is off to africa tomorrow morning for two weeks. he recently purchased a new ipod touch (with wifi) to entertain himself (and his old baby died a horrific death via a malfunctioned harddrive) and will be his only means of communication with the world with the exception of his cell phone. though this a work trip petrov plans on using his free time to make it as vactiony as possible, so he has no intentions of writing on this bad boy until he returns, unless utter boredom sets in dew to night curfews or the like, but the ipod will be filled with season 1 of queer as folk and sex and the city... so it will take awhile for boredom to set in. so until then, read someone else's blog :-)
Despite all evidence to the contrary, amy winehouse, was arrested in Norway for possession of the puff puff. luckily she was snagged in the kingdom of the vikings where the puff puff doesn't get you in too much trouble. seeing that both of the previous sentences provides basically no new knowledge for your eager-beaver brain that it didn't already know..... did you know that dublin was founded by the norwegians in 841AD? and the damn french are responsible for the current spelling because they were to lazy to actually call it Dub-linn. fancy day you can't learn something new.
in related news, winehouse's band, the Budos Band, previous mentioned on CYHFSN (here), just announced they are coming to the blackcat on December 15th. petrov loves the funkitude of their music. they are self described as playing a mix of "afrobeat, ethopian jazz and blues, and american funk and soul from the 1960s and 70s." quite the combination, no wonder they are hitting it with winehouse train(wreck).
fyi, petrov thinks the band deserves a seperate entry from winehouse, as he combined them before too, but it was just coincidence that petrov found out both pieces of news this week. so suck it, petrov is too lazy for two entries.
girrll, are you all frazzled out about that upcoming party? petrov has come to the easy conclusion of how to save an oodle of time when has a party. normally petrov sits down and builds a 4-6hour playlist of music, making sure there is a proper flow to the songs and that there is nothing too off the wall or party-killing thrown in there. there is lots of good music, but good music doesn't mean it is necessarily good party music. for this reason its important you are capable of making the distinction.
for the last six months or so petrov has been listening to the Liberation Dance Party (LDP) podcast, a podcast of the actual music played every friday night at DC9's, you guessed it, LDP. It seems to have that right mix of stuff everyone knows and the fun new stuff to keep things interesting.
Collect your podcast here and then don't tell anyone that is what your playing at your party... and *poof* you magically won't kill ur party with Fergie.
Petrov has yet to make it to LDP because it is a primarily straight event and getting a gay to go there with him is like trying to get a gay to watch football. This week Taint is co-hosting LDP for Reel Affirmations fundraiser, DC's LGBT film festival. YAY petrov can go.... well not quite. Petrov has to pack for Africa so he can leave bright an early Saturday morning for Dulles Airport, bleck. LDP/Taint are going to have cabaret and burlesque dancers and everything. Argh, it seems like whenever one leaves town, all the good shit rolls into town. Figures. See Taint's email below for more info on the your friday night dance groove.
/Liberation Cum Together This Friday! A Fundraiser You Won't Forget...
TAINT and Liberation Dance Party present a night of new music, new videos and more....
Join us this Friday, October 19th for a fundraiser for One In Ten's REEL AFFIRMATIONS Film Festival a very queer and special night with cabaret/burlesque performer, NYC's Erin Markey (11pm) and special guest performance by Rock&Roll (France) (12:30am)
do you pine for the day you could control every movement of Win Butler, lead singer of Arcade Fire? Do you wish he could perform magical tricks? lucky you. click here.
petrov has been in hotlanta since thursday and this week is not shaping up to be a good one, so petrov will provide you with the link to the Okkervil River concert at Rock and Roll Hotel from NPR's All Songs Considered.
petrov hopes everyone is enjoying the hot fall weather.
petrov was updating his ipod tonight to make room for an undisclosed tv show that Pocket got him addicted to as he rocked out to Justice. petrov then wondered whether he has mentioned Justice here. He has not. So here we go.
with a vague similarity to Daft Punk, this other Paris electro duo got their start when the submitted a song to a local paris college radio station for a remix contest. word has it they won and went on to become all the rage. since the good old days justice has remixed for the now-defunct Britney and surprise surprise, Daft Punk. Though not coming to DC-B'more, they will be making an appearance in Philly on Oct 21st. yet another show cut due to the Africa travel. See you next year Justice, see you next year New Pornographers.
petrov had an all out 4-day weekend. petrov feels like more energy is exerted on his social life than on his work life. the week will provide him the necessary time to recover from the weekend. the highlight of the weekend was seeing the X. he was in town running a conference and spent his day off with petrov. brunch was obtained from U St followed by an unexpected shopping spree in georgetown and finally finished off with watching "The Host". though korean and about a monster, it provided a mish-mash of a drama movie to a scary movie to a funny movie to a sad movie that muddled altogether to apparently win some number of awards abroad.
but the point to the story was that the X and petrov visited a cute little indie record store on M St. where the aforemnetion movie was purchased The Klaxons new album, "Myths of the Near Future." Upon listening to the first song, petrov immediately recognized the sound and when it finally came to him he said "Bloc Party." The Klaxons though easily categorized with Bloc Party have a slighty more genre bending nature to them. The second song's entrance could easily have come from any mainstream club, but quickly peals back to reveal melody you would be more apt to find at Taint (here). So far petrov likes the album, though several songs that are mediocre on the cd have been attested to being fabulous live according to the X.
who wants that sweater for christmas? The Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
petrov went with his "poo-bear" to see Rilo Kiley at 9.30club. the concert was great and petrov loves the suddle hints of country music that break through the songs. On one end there is "Silver Lining" and on the other there is "The Moneymaker". Further it amazing what you can do with a gold stage curtain, petrov usually enjoys the video backdrop, but for Rilo Kiley, the curtain seemed just perfect. for further detail on the show you can check out BYT (here). They took the effort to get close enough to the stage to see that Jenny Lewis was wearing hoochie shorts, which petrov couldn't see from the back. so much for a show Mr and Mrs Petrov could go to.
on a second note, petrov found out a few weeks ago that everyone has not yet seen Alanis' "My Humps" video. shame on you! obviously its a diss on Fergie (and rightly so) as the song turned out better and the video is well.... just watch. does anyone have an mp3 of the song? petrov can't find it :-(
despite all the positives that have recently been gained at petrov's day job, he found out this week that he his losing his corner office for a new office with only a view of SW and 395. its a little bit sad, but considering where petrov thought he was six months ago, he'll let this battle be fought another day, especially since he can talk hockey with his new officemate.
the blogosphere brought the Battles' song "tonto" to petrov a month or so ago, but something about watching the video again this evening made petrov feel it is noteworthy for here. the song is in this constant state of about to go into a full out hardcore rock song, but it remains subdued throughout. its certainly a song to jam to when chilling out at home playing cards with your friends. the video is quite well done, yet very simple. it reminds petrov a little of Bloc Party's stage lighting earlier this summer.
well this was quite the weekend for petrov. thursday was obviously the mountain goats and saturday night was Ra Ra Rasputin at the Velvet Lounge. Further, petrov used the great weather on sunday to journey out in his car where he proceeded to get fully acquainted with The White Stripes' "Icky Thump" album.
This was petrov's second Ra Ra Rasputin show (and he believed Ra Ra's third, maybe fourth, show total). Petrov was much impressed with the latest show. Ra Ra Rasputin is sort of a cross between The Rapture/Q and Not U/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The music has a funky jam nature to it, while the vocals at times have a very Rapture-esque nature to them. Overall the band has clearly been doing their homework as the sound is more congruent and much easier to bounce a little bit too. (The later was not a problem for many of the kids in the crowd.) For more on the band visit their myspace (here) where the videos don't do justice. See The Rapture video below for some related musical goodness.
Petrov had to take the small asian to BWI sunday afternoon. so petrov enjoyed the ride home listening to The White Stripes' new cd, which petrov has listened to on several occasions, but never had the chance to really really listen to (always just in the background at work on wretched little monitor speakers). but as u know, a bose soundsystem, 60mph, and a beautiful sunday afternoon gave petrov a chance to get down and dirty with the album. its the shite, if petrov does say so. its some good old rock music and petrov highly recommends getting the album if you haven't already. the only problem petrov has is that he didn't pick up on this cd back when he first heard it, but alas this is the way petrov's musical listening habits have developed. See below for The White Stripes - Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn. (the irish touch to this song is spectacular with a good bass system going)
The Rapture - Whoo Alright Yeah!
The White Stripes - Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn
petrov went with bizzy to see the mountain goats last night at blackcat. petrov is certainly familiar with the mountain goats, but has never really listened that close to them before. who knew, they are pretty good. for those not familiar, its just two guys from Carolina (petrov thinks). this vague recollection is substantiated only by the fact they have a song named "Cotton". and as we all know, petrov likes cotton. but this a side track... they are two guys from Carolina that just play a guitar and a bass. they actually got people shaking for a couple songs, and that is quite a feat for DC. you would think the young whipper-snappers that clusterf*ck blackcat, would be more into dancing, but alas its just a DC thing to stand there and not dance.
the festival season is over and petrov only made it the the less than stellar, but still fun Virgin Music Festival at Pimlico (b-more). Next year may be the year for a roadtrip (or short flight) to chicago to catch a larger more robust festival. petrov is jonesing for some daft punk, real bad.
Though its over... here is The Arcade Fire and The Hidden Cameras with interviews with Tim Kingsbury (AF) and Joel Glibb (HC), aka petrov's heartthrob. The video, via CBC Radio 3 (check link on side column) also includes the latest Hidden Cameras video, "Death of a Tune". in case you hadn't caught on, both bands are Canadian.... blessed is indie-rock-canada.
fall is fully upon us and petrov loves it. this fall/winter dc will get to experience a new (gei) club called Town, which will be located on the adjacent block to 9.30club. Petrov may have to make the move to the U St corridor, the home to DC's music scene to appreciate both these venues (and Nellies). Town is taking over this old partially rundown warehouse/factory that god only knows what was produced in it. the place will be two floors and have a lounge atmosphere on one. the pictures of the floor looks huge and will apparently be adopted to create a high quality sound system, step #1 in creating the perfect environment. step #2 will be appropriate music on said soundsystem. what the music will be, is yet to be determined, but petrov thinks it will likely entail what it is the kids are listening to these days.... think Rihana (spelling?), petrov doesn't know. all he knows is she is the chick in the britney spears VMA performance that is laughing at the stripper on her dinner table (appropriately so).
anyway, located within the same vicinity is another rundown building that was formerly the Wonderbread Hostess Bakery. anyway, when petrov makes his first million, he's going to buy it up and start a new club that will fall somewhere between 9.30club, Rock and Roll Hotel, and what petrov envisions this Town to look like. The exterior of the bakery will be kept intact, with the exception of the obvious need for better windows/doors etc... Petrov isn't sure if the place should be one floor or two, but there is a possibility of three (two on the left side and one on the right) -- see picture to the left via flickr member stgermh. This would give the abiltiy to have shows on the right side or smaller shows on the left and a full bar area. Petrov has business skills, but he'd rather leave that to someone like the redhead, while lesbian #1 will provide the sweet sound and lights, and lesbian #2 will promote, while the pocket will look pretty and consult on pop culture issues that petrov doesn't follow closely enough. Petrov would be in charge of booking bands, and have a board (said business partners) who will conjointly plan events. Obvious name for the place is Wonderbread, but should copyright issues get in the way... perhaps The Bakery. Petrov thinks the later is a bit bleh, but it might do. Certainly some homage to the building's former self will be required. If anyone out there wants to provide petrov's necessary cash flow for this project, make checks payable to Petrov Cotton LLC.
"The Salmon Dance" has sat in petrov's music collection for a several months now and was only heard for the first time yesterday. Now it has been played a few too many times. The beat is extremely catchy and the thought of the puff fish doing it is quite humorous. The only problem with the song is petrov doesn't like the slow down transition, it just doesn't fit right into the song, but hey you can't have everything can you?
Did you know salmon can swim from the US to Japan and back? Thanks Sammy the Salmon!
nobody ever said petrov was on top of his shite.... today's song was released on the album "I Created Disco" back in June. "The Girls"by Calvin Harris is a fun little song, granted not one petrov would blast in his car going down 17th St. Petrov acquired the cd today, but has only had the chance to hear this song and "Acceptable in the 80s". Are the 80s coming back? Petrov is afraid they might be. See here. This whole bit about fashion coming in cycles... Petrov doesn't believe in it, until men are wearing 3/4 length trousers with stockings and a colonial hat. Why in god's name would 80s fashion come back? is someone waiting to grow out their rattail? if show they should be shot on sight. petrov thinks it is more of a basic laziness of designers to actually come up with something new. the good news is Uggs were not part of the 80s.
To mix it up, there is even a Dragonette cover of the song (which petrov would play loud going down 17th St)
another video making its way through the video interwebs.... Hipster Olympics (via Poofygoo (here) -- love the name btw). Poofygoo was even kind enough to post the Monty Python's Twit of the Year Contest from which the Hipster Olypmics pays homage.
petrov personally loves the choice of the Bruce Willis album "the return of bruno". quite smashing indeed.
so petrov originally saw this at JR's one night.... he randomly ran into it again on the intertubes..... who can't love bea arthur? sally struthers.... that's still questionable, but big points for her here though.
oh girrrrrll.... no you didn't! ok maybe a little too gay, but the message is relayed none the less. petrov got to work this morning and he was informed by his 42yo co-worker that britney spears performed at the MTV VMA's last night. unfortunately petrov a) didn't know the VMAs were last night and b)didn't know britney had a musical career anymore. so petrov puddled back to his desk and began search the intertubes for this. and oh did this not disappoint the tragedy that has been the last year named "britney spears." petrov was most pleased to see that she still hasn't mastered the lipsync (or else MTV.com has shitty sound-video syncing on their videos). but the real question lies in why she lacked the onstage charisma that she used to have? she looked bored to death and lacked any real dance moves. (well hopefully the lack of dance moves is because she has been in rehab)
anyway....petrov expended a whole 5minutes on that subject.... time to move on. well how does petrov follow up on this subject for all you pop kiddies? ah yes another fine pop-like band with a brand new video that in fact reminds petrov of britney spears (isn't she pretty in the video?). The Shins!
tonight at 9.30club is The National with the Rosebuds opening up. Petrov is excited. he would also be equally happy seeing either band individually. which unfortunately, is not a common occurrence at 9.30club. the last time petrov remembers wanting to see an opening band as much as the main act was Smoosh at The Pipettes show at Blackcat. This won't be a jump around show for sure, so DCers prepare your crossed arm head nod perfected crowd mentality.
it would be petrov's guess that most blogs began when someone ended up having a very dull couple of months on hand. this was petrov's case, however, recently life has sped up a bit and now it seems like a constant battle trying to catch up in blogging.
last night petrov began the fall concert line up with the Editors at 9.30club. coming off a long weekend (both in days and tiredness) petrov made it with the lesbians to the show, but gave up part way through the encore and missed Ra Ra Riot. the lesbians were in love with the band and had nothing but praises for the superior performance live compared to recorded. Petrov, however, found Tom Smith ( lead singer) to have an amazing voice. There was nothing technically wrong with any of the music, but petrov just felt that the music lacked a diversity in sound required in keeping a less than die-hard fan engaged for the entire show. petrov thinks that another album or two will develop these kiddies into a formidable band.
the pipettes are coming back to dc! they played a quite crowded show at blackcat back a few months ago now, but this time they are doing it big at 9.30club. hopefully, unlike last time, the crowd will actually get into it. the pipettes have to much energy to be wasted on another dead dc audience. petrov is hoping for the best. They were just confirmed for October 10th.
those damn frenchies! actually petrov loves them (sorta) cuz they gots the tunes we all love that hit the dance floors . most recently petrov has fallen in love all over again over daft punk. a daft punk mix cd has made its way into petrov's new car and puts the premium audio system through its paces as he drives down the highway.
good news for petrov! Daft Punk is releasing a live cd of their June Paris show later this year (via NME). For a nice icing on the DP cake, expect a new video too for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".
petrov won't put you through another DP song, he may have already put too many DP entries into this blog.
The District's Awake Music Festival (DAM! Fest) announced some of the main performers appearing at this year's festival. Most notably... Cat Power. Petrov loves Cat Power, but he is sad that he will be in Africa on her night on stage at the 9.30 club. oh wells, petrov hopes ya'll enjoy the show though. (and no petrov doesn't get the video either).
not to be confused with from petrov's post "from alt.country to porn star" (here). Rilo Kiley has released a new video. petrov may be developing a mild crush on Jenny Lewis, just an fyi.
petrov has been very busy this week with the purchase of a new vehicle. sadly his car now has a better sound system than either sound system in his house. so to the car for new music!
anywho... here is a song for your listening pleasure. This is off Tunng's new cd "Bullets" which will be released Aug. 27th in the UK and Sept 25th in the US. Why can't they just release it everywhere at the same time? its not like its not the 21st century or anything. enjoy
Petrov has been a busy little beaver the past week. His car shopping has gone into full gear and has seemed to preoccupy any of his free time. However, last night Petrov thinks he found the car for him. So today it is off to the credit union and to await the lesbian's daddy's opinion on the car (he is a car dealer). If all goes as petrov would most like.... he'll have a new car by week's end.
This past weekend Petrov went to a lakehouse in western maryland where the redhead's high school friend and husband had a lakehouse for a couple weeks. said couple also had a weiner dog. petrov is no big fan of small dogs, but a weekend of watching a 7inch tall and 2ft long puppy run around as fast as he can make one turn.
As such, it seems appropriate to play "The Underdog" today. Spoon is coming at the end of October to Merriweather as opposed to previously planned 9.30 Club. A slight downgrade in venue. Anywho, that means petrov will probably not go, though the Africa trip will likely interfere with going even if Petrov wanted to. petrov has babbled enough for one day. Spoon - The Underdog
well, petrov is very excited about his fall concert line up. new porno, rilo kiley, editors, national.... going to be good. now the bad news, petrov is going to be gone for 1/2 of october to Africa to serve his country. yeah, not like that... just some fun work on shea butter, tropical fruit, and cotton. anywho, this means the new pornographers show may be a no-go for petrov. this makes petrov a sad bunny. aren't you sad for petrov too? awww, how sweet. here are some drag queens to make you happy.
as you know or may not now, lily allen was deported from the US after her visa was revoked (here). However, the man has not kept her down. lily has gone ahead and found a new and improved way tour. ok its not new, mildly Jessica Rabbit-on-tour-with the Gorillaz-esque.... but you get the general point below.
yes petrov had two songs selected for today's post. however, due to heavy drinking last night, petrov did not write his post. so here he is the next morning, unsure of what the second song was. DOH. anywho... the first song: Kaskade - Love Stoned (by his truly, Justin Timberlake).
petrov knows your judging but there is a reason to this madness. though the songs starts out a bit blah it picks up and carries a good beat after the first minute (and before the last). there is something about the fade in and fade out of this song that he doesn't like, it just seems way to standard for any song.
petrov will be honest, he has heard the original Love Stoned a limited number of times, so he's unsure of what the true base of this song is, but with the exception of the fade in and fade out the song keeps the vocals true and the mix builds off of what is inherently good about the song. There is no attempt to alter the beat, cuz we all knowz JT gotz da beat.
once petrov takes his memory medicine and remembers, he'll give you kiddies the second song he promised.
oh my goodness.... can petrov say that with it being in the third person or should it be "oh his goodness" or "oh petrov's goodness"??? petrov isn't sure. anywho... petrov found this quite hilarious.
petrov also promises to provide two fabulous songs in the next post, as petrov has tangented away from the normal musical goodness of late. however, one should prepare their subwoofer because nobody wants to hear these tracks on laptop speakers.
Petrov has long called what most americans call a "hat" a "toque". However, he had never really heard any canadians call it that either, but everyone from the region he grew up in did call it a "toque". Petrov never really understood it not having its own special name because a "hat" refers to anything that is designed to be put on your head and usually refer to a "top hat" though no one wears those so "baseball cap".
10Four designs (here) has finally offered up written proof that petrov is not crazy as apparently some portion of canadians due in fact call a "hat" a "toque". It is quite sad that many classic canadian icons such as the ones to the left remind petrov heavily of childhood.... well except gay marriage, health care, and oil. But Terry Fox and poppies make petrov smile just a teeny bit for the good old days.
jenny lewis-- fresh of her album with the Watson Twins--a.k.a. rilo kiley is set to release a new album and petrov is ready to see her at the end of september at the 9.30 club. for those who don't know.... jenny lewis and the watson twins serve up some nice alt.country that makes you think of big poof dresses and men in plaid shirts on a faux farm stage at the Grand Old Opery. Rilo Kiley, however, serves up some poppy rock shite. however, the new single off the forthcoming "Under the Blacklight" album is a bit more risque. The actors in the video are real porn stars who thought they were interviewing for a real porn... little did they know they would be rocking it with Rilo Kiley.
Colonel K Speaks wrote a little diddy on the downfall of DJing (here) due to "amateur night" at a various assortment of bars throughout DC. So petrov had not really thought about this topic before as he can only think of one instance where he has attended a music-focused bar and heard non-DJs "spinning" aka dropping songs with no djing skills required. Its probably safe to assume that one instance was out of petrov's normal circle of outings, but it was indeed quite a sad experience. Petrov remembers trying to dance...only to find himself having to stop every 4-6minutes and readjust for a new beat (the fading and fading out of two songs simultaneously does not count as mixing).
anywho, petrov could go on, but this is just reason #34 why you should find petrov someone to teach him how to dj.
Well.... Petrov made it to the Saturday half of the Virgin Music Festival up in Maryland.. and in petrov style he arrived with his mischievous crew at 3pm as apposed to the planned 2pm arrival for crazy-bitch-but-i-still-love-you Amy Winehouse. Damn the traffic and the idiots who get in accidents.
Anywho petrov did hear 3 songs while walking into the festival by AW, but unfortunately she sounded sober and on key... a slight disappointment in petrov's book. Petrov & Co. made their way to the far end of the grounds to catch Paolo Nutini who petrov enjoyed with mild enthusiasm. He made him bounce a little, but the heat kept that to a minimum. This was cut short by a desire to catch Felix da Housecat, which suprising turned out to be one of the best shows of the day for Petrov (see third picture). With the completion of Felix, petrov ran back across the grounds to catch Peter Bjorn and John, which rocked (see fourth picture). Petrov unfortunately missed their 9.30 club show, but apparently this show was far superior, so nothing lost there. whew.
This was followed up with running back to the Dance Tent to catch Danny Tengalia who also rocked. In summary of the day, it was quite surprising to see that the most rocking DJs were in the middle of the day and crowds were their thickest then also. Petrov would have expected the homosexuals to crawl out of the woodwork come darkness in the Dance Tent. This did not hold true. After rocking to Tengalia for half an hour, Petrov again rain across the grounds to catch LCD Soundsystem. LCDS rocked, but either they rocked double hard at 9.30club or Petrov is a music whore that doesn't sleep with the same band twice very often.
Before completing that set Petrov was required across the grounds at the Beastie Boys concert. (en route petrov was nearly hit by a number of corn tortillas being thrown in preparation for "extremely weird wrestling".... petrov was mildly interested for like 2 minutes with that and moved on. Petrov and the redhead worked their way threw the crowd after the beastie boys set had already began. petrov got as close as he needed to be as he placed himseld relatively close to the stage (see first picture) among one gi-normous crowd (see second picture) and between some very nice eye candy for between song entertainment.
This was followed up with some Sasha, which was a huge dissappointment. Petrov loves him some Sasha grooves, but Petrov just wasn't feeling it, even though he tried. Petrov and redhead then decided to move towards The Police, where upon getting out of the thumping range of Sander van Doorm, they high tailed it back to van Doorm. Finally Petrov collected his compatriots at modest mouse where two songs were endured which were a "meh" as would be suspected. Petrov never really got Modest Mouse after the first cd.
Sometime ago Roosh V., aka DC Bachelor, penned a hilarious and memorable post about his plan for a DC Puppy Rental Service as a way to meet women. Well, guess what? In surfing some NYC blogs this weekend, we came across Janeism, an upper Manhattan-based blogger, who has a report about a real dog rental service in NY that’s coming to DC. It’s called Flexpetz and you can rent a dog for a few hours to a number of days. Janeism writes: … now, in exchange for some cash, I can buy something close to that love and drop it off when I’m done. It’s puppy prostitution, in a sense. But like a lonely sailor in a new port, I might be tempted. Others commenting. Harlem Fur: the idea of leasing a pet strikes me as a bit strange.
Petrov's Virgin Music Festival round up from Saturday is coming.... its just puppy prostitution has side tracked him in the most profound way.
Petrov loves pie charts... he guesses that is an unfortunate side effect of having an economics degree. (don't get him started on graphs). Anywho, this seems to fit petrov to a "T". However, it is quite fair to say any video game name would do quite well in there.
if you need a handy little printout of the schedule to keep your ears as happy as can be.... here you go. petrov however warns you that your little mind may blow up when forced to choose between tv on the radio, sasha, and beastie boys.
on a side note, petrov has scored himself an $80 ticket for one day. ticketmaster fees be damned.
this whole virigin music festival has toyed with petrov's mind with on-again-off-again feelings about going. Overall there are some really good bands playing, however, when petrov looks at the schedule (see here) things start to look not so positive (see here). Well this morning petrov finally made it to the ticketmaster website to see further detail about tickets.
Petrov wonders who the hell could call this festival anything related to virgin when it requires everyone to bend over and take at least a $15 service charge (assuming you pick up at Will Call). On top of this another basically mandatory $4 to print your ticket out.... because you have to be damn crazy to go stand in line for your ticket at a music festival. and how does that pricing work? it costs money to do it yourself, but to require a legion of employees to scuddle through tickets looking for you last name is free? petrov may not be the brightest economist in town, but he's pretty sure there is no logic to this other than greedy profit. so he'll have to spend $19 just to get through the front gates to Virginfest... let the indecision continue (now with a Ticketmaster 19inch strap-on included).
ugh, petrov is not in the blog writing mood... he's very tired. but fortunately he does have a good song for you to listen to. Its by Bishop Allen, petrov has had the cd for a month or so, but it took until a couple days ago for petrov to start loving it.
coming from the last entry.... you may be asking yourself beastie boys? petrov had all but forgotten about these guys until a couple months ago when he heard their new album. let petrov be the first to tell you (if you haven't heard the new beastie boys yet), if your an old school beastie boys fan... you might be disappointed. petrov actually enjoys the new sounds quite a bit and its just all around more his style. its all been taken down a notch and lacks the signature vocals. it will be interesting to hear some of these songs once remixed. Check out "Off the Grid" below.
petrov really doesn't understand how they keep track of his listening habits on last.fm this week's top artist is Cirques du Soleil? really?
petrov has purchased tix for rilo kiley and editors.... the fall concert lineup is shaping up quite nicely
petrov remains heavily on the fence about Virginfest. to go or not to go? he feels its a necessary... but wishes the line up was a tad bit better.... petrov doesn't enjoy extremely large crowded areas. who will he see if he goes (on saturday). sasha or beastie boys or tv on the radio/lcd soundsystem???? they are all playing at the same time! petrov is leaning towards sasha but thinks his accomplices will choose beastie boys..... we shall see.
North Stage Noon-12:45 -- Fountains of Wayne 1:00-1:50 -- Cheap Trick 2:10-3:00 -- Amy Winehouse 3:25-4:20 -- Incubus 4:45-5:45 -- Ben Harper 6:15-7:35 -- Beastie Boys 8:05-9:50 -- The Police
South Stage 12:15-1:00 -- Fiction Plane 1:20-2:10 -- The Fratellis 2:35-3:35 -- Paolo Nutini 4:00-4:50 -- Peter Bjorn and John 5:30-6:30 -- LCD Soundsystem 7:15-8:15 -- TV on the Radio 8:45-10:00 -- Modest Mouse
Dance Tent Noon-12:50 -- Shout Out Out Out Out 1:00-1:50 -- Miguel Migs (Petalpusher) 2:00-2:50 -- Booka Shade 3:00-4:00 -- Felix Da Housecat 4:00-6:00 -- Danny Tenaglia 6:00-8:30 -- Sasha & John Digweed 8:30-10:00 -- Sander Van Doorn
Sunday, Aug. 5
North Stage Noon-12:50 -- CSS 1:10-2:00 -- Regina Spektor 2:25-3:15 -- Spoon 3:45-4:45 --Panic! At the Disco 5:15-6:15 -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs 6:45-8:00 -- Interpol 8:30-10:00 -- Smashing Pumpkins
South Stage 12:15-1:05 -- Aiden 1:30-2:25 -- Matisyahu 2:50-3:45 -- Explosions in the Sky 4:15-5:15 -- Bad Brains 5:45-6:45 -- Wu-Tang Clan 7:15-8:15 -- Velvet Revolver 8:45-10:00 -- 311
Dance Tent Noon-12:30 -- Dan Deacon 12:30-1:10 -- Girl Talk 1:10-3:10 -- Dieselboy & Andy C 3:10-4:25 -- James Zablela 4:35-5:50 -- Infected Mushroom 6:00-7:30 -- The Crystal Method (DJ set) 7:30-9:00 -- Deep Dish (Dubfire + Sharam) 9:10-10:00 -- M.I.A.
well this blog was destined for an entry on The Hidden Cameras..... that day has arrived. Petrov has a slight crush on Joel Gibbs and the band is his favorite in the whole wide world. The interesting thing is petrov's crush did not develop until he had the opportunity to have dinner with the band one night (now many moons ago). but that is neither here nor there. This video was brought to petrov's attention via Mr. Blur, not to be confused with Damon Albarn (lead singer of Blur). He found it via Blogotheque... which is a fun little site that petrov visits every now and then to get his fill of impromptu performances of many delightful bands.
so with no further-a-do... here are The Hidden Cameras walking along a canal in Paris singing "Boys of Melody."
tegan and sara (canadian twins) make petrov happy. it was petrov's first concert he attended alone. back in grad school petrov could find no one to go with him so he braved the cruel judgmental world of indie kids alone. its always interesting doing something you normally do in a group alone as it makes you realize that even if just standing by someone you know whether at a concert or in a movie it relieves a lot of the pressure one would otherwise have to present oneself in a certain manner as to say "yeah man... i'm cool with being here alone." the odd thing for petrov is that the places this is most evident is at places with large numbers of people and in the dark. the environment should be well suited for singularity as this creates the optimum level of anonymity. another example is at a club... your friend goes to buy you a drink and you stand there like you are nude and everyone is staring at you because there you are alone. fortunately petrov has learned to deal with this problem with heavy drinking.
with that side story..... here is "Back in your Head" by Tegan and Sara. and doesn't it look like they rented out a high school auditorium? petrov was for certain that the ghostly audience was going to break out in dance at some point during the song.... he was almost certain of it... but they did not.... so he can't blame you either for not enjoy the video as much as one would like.
Much like yesterday's song, Blonde Redhead's latest album "23" has been out since April. What's even worse is petrov didn't realize he had the song "The Dress" from a previous album "Misery is a Butterfly" (ear soothing pleasure below). Here's the deal kiddies.... don't be a music whore like Petrov or this is the crap that happens to you. The song is in line with the Bats for Lashes song from yesterday, however, it swerves towards depressing instead of borderline poppy. If you need to visual go to youtube and you'll find a well produced video for the song. petrov is fairly certain it was not sanctioned by blonde redhead... but it wouldn't be the first time he was wrong... would it? right?!?
Further more.... google is telling me that "swerves" is spelled like that.... it looks weird to petrov, therefore he does not take blame if it is spelled wrong.... the computer made petrov do it!! with this clearly being a sign that mental capacities have departed... petrov is off to his bunny's nest to rest peacefully.
Blonde Redhead will not be gracing DC with their musical delights.... but will be playing the Ram's Head Live (Baltimore) on August 8th.
today's song comes from an album yet to be released in the US (will come out July 31st), "Fur and Gold", but already out in the UK. as such Bat for Lashes is already playing the european festival circuit and is about to make their US tour debut starting (yesterday) in Hoboken, NJ... leave you to judge that as a way to kickoff your US career.... anyway, the song is fabulous... slightly eerie, but poppy and all caught in the music video that petrov enjoys tremendously.
petrov has quirky music listening habits. most music is gathered in large swaths... its never a song here and a song there. what then proceeds to happen is petrov gets caught up in one artist and works that music down to a fine precision. then several months later petrov discovers some song he never knew he had (due to aforementioned reasons). today's song is one of those petrov added the !!! album "Myth Takes" to iTunes in April. here it is the end of july..... enjoy.
Petrov is excited... after a lul in petrov-excitable bands coming to DC... there is a new list of bands petrov would love to get his greedy little paws on tickets for.
Petrov has therefore provided you with some samples of some of the bands coming to Washington over the next couple months that are worth checking out. This post is going to be a bit on the monstrous side... but there is lots to be heard.
Petrov has also provided a rating system out of 10 of how he thinks these shows will shape up on an overall satisfactory scale (note that petrov clearly wouldn't want to attend any of these if they weren't good). So on a scale of 0-5... 0 is an enjoyment from the back of the crowd with arms folded in appropriate DC stature and 5 is petrov is leading a mosh pit in the front row... granted none of these are mosh pit inducing bands... but you get the idea. don't you? petrov doesn't.... so just pretend like you do and it will make this a lot easier.
*First up is Editors with Ra Ra Riot at 9.30 Club - September 4th However, be sure to not confuse Ra Ra Riot with petrov's darlings of Ra Ra Rasputin.
**Second up is The National at 9.30 Club - September 5th and 6th what blog isn't complete without mention of The National? perhaps this accordance will put CYHfSN in the lime light.... petrov doubts that though.
***Third up is Rilo Kiley at 9.30 Club - September 26th and 27th petrov was having difficulty picking a song for rilo kiley.... for whatever reason, petrov has sentimental feelings associated with Jenny Lewis's voice. but that is neither here nor there. futhermore do not take The Frug as an condolence by petrov to EVER make a video with movie clips in it. petrov has heard they are not amazing in concert... but he still thinks this is questionable.
****Fourth up is The New Pornographers at 9.30 Club - October 27th
***Fifth up is Voxtrot at Blackcat - October 6th
*****Sixth up is Andrew Bird at Sonar (Baltimore) - September 29th
petrov radio has been with Clap Your Hands for Something New since the beginning (though not mentioned explicitly mentioned in the blog). If you haven't checked it out... it provides you with an on-demand streaming of all songs featured in CYHfSN.
petrov tv. petrov collects videos from both youtube and imeem, so unfortunately combining them all into a single tv channel is not possible. therefore you get the joy of two petrov tv's. one based on youtube and one based on imeem. petrov uses imeem due to higher quality video... unfortunately imeem doesn't provide the library depth of youtube...so alas youtube remains. petrov tv1 and petrov tv2 are also located along the bottom of CYHfSN.
Clap Your Hands for Something New, is a website designed to provide insight into new music for those looking to expand their musical horizons. Almost all music and video links were already publicly available on the internet. If you wish the links to media available via other websites to be removed from CYHfSN please email Petrov. Petrov advocates the purchase of drm-free music when possible (drm-ladeneed when not possible) through websites such as emusic and itunes (and hopefully more to come).
where to find petrov
06.09 - death cab for cutie - mwp
07.06 - dengue fever - blackat
where petrov would like to be
05.16 - devotchka - 9.30c
05.17 - blowoff - 9.30c
05.17 - the long blondes - r'n'r hotel
05.18 - bishop allen - blackcat
05.27 - eyedea & abilities - r'n'r hotel
06.04 - the field - r'n'r hotel
06.06 - rilo kiley - 9.30c
06.28 - datarock r'n'r hotel
06.28 - thievery corp, ladytron, tv on the radio - mwp
