virgin my a$$

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).

click click click click click

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.

beastie boys

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.

random thoughts on a gloomy day

• 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.
  

virgin music festival schedule released

Saturday, Aug. 4

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.

hidden cameras

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."

is that a highschool auditorium?

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.

muckity muck doo doo

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.

pretty girls and bunnies in the dark

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.

a new old discovery... sounds confusing

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.

!!! - Must be the Moon

shit like this scares...

...the bejesus out of petrov

Arctic Monkeys dressed as clowns....

who's coming to a venue near you

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

new feature

Petrov Radio and Petrov TV

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.

despite a rabbit's fear of foxes....

Petrov's blog is developed around Firefox, therefore the use of Internet Explorer will result in a less than superior experience. You'll still get all you need and crave using IE, but Petrov's takes no blame when your experience is less than superior.

Petrov realized the unfortunate situation while performing another test in Internet Explorer. Petrov realizes many of his visitors use IE, but hey petrov is no html guru and blogger likes firefox. anywho, you continued patronage of "clap your hands for something new: the adventures of petrov cotton in washington, dc" is greatly appreciated.

long live open source!

gypsy punks

if petrov had known he would have been a healthy bunny again by tonight, he would have picked himself up some tickets for gogol bordello before they had sold out. oh well.... petrov saw them on their last visit to dc last summer (also at 9.30 club) where petrov and a good half of the 9.30 club floor found themselves dancing up a storm to the point there was literally no article of clothing that was not completely and utterly soaked through. getting a dc crowd to dance like that... is no small feat let petrov tell you....

GB recently played live earth and did a duet with Madonna... interesting combination? yes. interesting resulting song? yes. good? you be the judge. if you don't know gogol bordello.... this has little resemblance of the full band's size or craziness. anywho... if you have tickets for tonights show, lucky you, petrov will probably be test driving cars instead.

baby's first abduction...

a fun little pixar short.


Lifted - video powered by Metacafe

relax

well, relax is what petrov did this weekend. due to an unsaid illness, petrov went camping with his friends this weekend, but was not allowed to touch anything that was not clearly identified as "contaminated." because petrov felt fine, but remained slightly contagious, petrov made out like a bandit being waited on hand and foot. petrov appreciated this mightly. he will be sure to repay his servants-for-a-weekend with a special labor day trip.

and of course, relaxation being the lose tie-in for today's song by Mika, "Relax." Petrov still hasn't decided how to categorize this music in his little head. it reminds him deeply of Scissor Sisters, but isn't quite so crazy. petrov had never heard of Mika until after his performance at 9.30 club and proceeded the next day by more "m4m" missed connections from the show than even Pride could pull in. so petrov had to see what the hell was going on and he found himself an ambiguously gay high pitch singer. its been a month or more and petrov has still not decided whether it is worth investing in Mika's album "Life in Cartoon Motion." It will probably happen sooner than later as Spoon and Partrick Wolf have both found Mike worth the remixing.

well this is a musical blog

Petrov realized there hasn't be an entry dedicated purely to a song in awhile. Be at peace now because Petrov is now correcting such. as you may have caught on petrov is a busy little bunny hopping all around the country. This weekend he is headed to west virginia for a camping trip. woohoo!

today's entry is an ode to petrov's last camping adventure in Chincoteague. Today's song is "The Bad Penny" by RJD2. "all hail penny the prancing pony!".... yeah you don't get it... its ok, its just one of things that becomes way to humorous for only those involved in the original situation. anyway...despite petrov's silly camping shenanigans... the song is good and if someone out there would teach petrov to dj (PLEASE???) then he promises to make some funky beats like RJD2, assuming necessary talent follows.

fat autobots

Petrov is going to see transformers tomorrow night. he hopes the movie is as funny as this clip.... Doesn't Optimus Prime look hot in pearls?

stronger

Petrov has returned from sin city. what did he do? well he was obliged to sign a contract not to tell. however, petrov has returned and is unable to function requiring a sick day from his day job to be taken. however, petrov has realized one thing DC bars have not managed to do is create a decent club with go-go boys. this seems like a relatively simple task and a no brainer for increased sales... but it isn't here. why? petrov will have to take his future dj skillz and some hotties in white undies powdered up in baby powder and start making the big bucks.

so infected with something that probably came from the bottom of the hotel pool, petrov is under the guidance that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. though in this case, it may just make petrov a one-eyed pirate. here is the new kanye video with petrov's two favorite robot djs, 'stronger'.

haitus

petrov will be on vacation until next week without an internet connect, YAY! he believes the picture is telling of where he will be. perhaps petrov can retire when he makes his first $10million. anyway, petrov hopes you all had a good fourth of july

the last polyphonic spree entry, promise

a few days late, but here you can see the Polyphonic Spree in there new digs and their old choir like ones. Personally, petrov is a fan of the new digs, cuz their ain't nothing like 6 women doo-oping in all black military-ish outfits.

taint is not part of the anatomy (at least not tonight)

One thing DC is not at lack of is DJ’s or other musically-inclined-dj-fanboys with specially named nights. To name a few there is Blowoff, Taint, Infamy, Bliss, Sorted, Garutuchi, Crowd Control, Unbuckled...

Tonight at DC9 is the semi-regular gay-indie event that goes by the moniker Taint. The formerly once-a-month dj night at DC9 has moved to a more sporadic holiday-eve schedule, which is unfortunate as it a) occurs less often and b) brings out the masses like no other. Unlike many of the above and other “special night events,” Taint is one of the few alt.homo nights in washington with exceptions like blowoff and the take-over-a-straight-bar ‘guerilla queer bar.’

This in actually makes petrov very sad because petrov prefers these nights to the regular monotony of the usual gay bars (and corresponding music). Of course this creates the dilemna of would it still be so exciting if it was the regular? Petrov, doesn’t think so, but he also thinks not hearing 3 songs each of nelly, christina, madonna, fergie, and beyonce at one bar in one evening is a good thing.

Well your still reading, so petrov surmises your probably interested in what the kiddies at taint listen to. In their own words... “Taint is an alternative electro/indie rock dance/lounge night” for a crowd of “mostly queer boys and girls.” Petrov considered the music to be more of a mashup of 80s and indie music put in a nice little electro-pop casing. Tonight’s taint is being turned by DJ Rob Diaz who will be mixing up some of the above stated genres and a dash of punk and brit-pop thrown in for good measure. Also in the booth will be K La Rock, a member of the washington-based First Ladies DJ Collective. What is cool about the collective is that they are pushing what they refer to as the “vinyl ceiling” for equality of ladies on the dance floor. Always good to have a gal in the house.

The video selection usually not music videos, but instead films you are most likely to see at a gay-indie film festival, such as the over-the-top ‘The Raspberry Reich.’ Tonight three short Grant Guilliams films will be played between sets.

so you wanna be a dj?

Petrov wants to be a dj. However, due to his affinity towards electronics, mp3s, and small budget, he would prefer to be a digital dj.

well why the hell not?

because petrov has yet to find anyone in the dc metropolitan area willing to teach such lessons. how is this possible? petrov doesn't know, but he's sure someone does. please contact petrov if you have further information on this topic in the dc area.

lithium

petrov, as stated before, was not that familiar with polyphonic spree, until saturday night. with two albums in the petrov library, he found the newest album "a fragile army" to be just "ok". there is something about the album that has not given petrov that special feeling inside, maybe its that most of the songs seem over filled (such would be expected from a 20-person band) with excess rock 'white-noise'. yes petrov said rock white-noise, he has copyrighted that term.

in all actuality, petrov feels that the polyphonic spree is a live experience not paralleled in a stereo system. the spectacle that is the polyphonic spree, is a stage presence of lead singer, tim delaughter, five head shaking choir members who appear fully capable of being members of the Pipettes with a bleach job and a poka-dotted dress, a three piece horn section, a harp, flute, two percussionists, a keyboard, and the usual string section. when seeing them live, you can mentally grasp what the hell is going on that, you have no clue when listening to the album at home. however, petrov still recommends listening to the 9:30 Club show on the NPR website (see link above).

most notable is one hour and 15minutes into the set, the band covers nirvana's "lithium." if your too lazy to listen to the live version, which petrov believes to be superior to the recorded version listed below... you know what to do.

petrov will post pictures if/when AB forwards her pictures to petrov. it is certainly a sight to see.