News

So I have news for both the Feelies and Speed the Plough today.

First of all, Should Be Gone is the Song of the Day today on my beloved NPR.

As I mentioned before, the Celebrate Brooklyn! show on July 23rd has been officially announced. It will be held in Prospect Park with Times New Viking and Real Estate opening. It's free, so if you're in the area, you should go.


Another show has also been announced for the day before Celebrate Brooklyn! at Daniel Street Club in Connecticut. I'm pretty excited for that one as well because Milford is a great little town. More information here.

An additional Maxwell's show has also been added on July 3rd. I will not be able to make this one because I'm celebrating the 4th of July with my boyfriend's family this year down the shore, but I'll definitely be there on the 1st and 2nd. You can get tickets for any of the Maxwell's shows here.

On to Speed the Plough news. So, as you may know from my previous entries, a new album will be released soon, and it's called Shine. I recently was able to listen in on a few songs from the new album and it sounds great! For more info on that you can check out the Speed the Plough Facebook and official website . You'll also see some picture I took of them last Sunday, like this one:


STP is also playing 2 shows in late July. The first is on July 29th, and Brenda's band Wild Carnation is playing as well. You can find out more about it here. The next day, another show is happening in Montclair at Tierney's too, details here.


So there's an awful lot to be excited about this summer.

Anyway, here's a picture of the Feelies with Tom Jones and author Jan McInerney. My dad was really excited. Hope to see you at the upcoming shows!

Culture Shock

So on April 16th I went to the "Last Great" Culture Shock festival at SUNY Purchase with a few of my girlfriends.

The campus of SUNY Purchase was pretty nice. Purchase is kind of in the middle of nowhere, so the campus was pretty green. A lot of the buildings were also designed awesomely, and overall the campus was lovely. Until we entered the Stood.

Since the weather was terribly nasty yesterday, the shows were relocated to the student center, which, as mentioned above, is widely known as the Stood. The Stood appears to be entirely student-run, and they did have a few very cool features such as old arcade games, two stages, murals painted by students, and a life-sized chess set. However, the Stood was pretty damn skeevy. It was not clean at all, the bathrooms were atrocious (not to mention the ceiling was leaking in the women's room), the murals and graffiti left nowhere for the eye to rest, and I kind of felt like I didn't want to touch anything there to be quite honest. Luckily, my dad said we could hang out in the green room and that provided us with someplace clean and quiet to sit down.

The first band I really paid attention to was Talk Normal. They were comprised of two ladies: one who sang while sitting up very straight on her drum set and one who played guitar and sang. They were a bit noisy (which I'm usually not a fan of), but I kind of really liked them anyway and plan on checking out their album(s?) soon.

Woods is actually a band that I've just started getting into, and I really enjoyed seeing them live. Although, they also could have done without the long jams in the middle of some of their songs. Otherwise, I really liked them. That was kind of predictable, though, because folky-indie-rock-ish music is usually right up my alley.

I've been listening to Real Estate for about a year and a half or so, so I was really looking forward to seeing them. They definitely didn't disappoint. They had a nice mellow energy, and I thought that their echoey and clean sound was surprisingly preserved in the Stood. The sound quality, though, also had to do with Andy, the Feelies' sound guy who handled Real Estate's sound as well that day. Anyway, Real Estate even dedicated a song to the Feelies "one of (their) favorite bands of all time." I was sooo excited about that. After Real Estate's set I even saw the bassist being a fanboy with Brenda, it was kind of adorable.

Next up was the curator himself, R. Steevie More. When I first saw him walking around, I thought he was just some eccentric old dude who liked to walk around with a globe on his head at music festivals. My friend Esha, though, pointed out that he had been announcing things, so we knew he must have been the curator. Anyways, my dad briefed me on who R. Steevie More actually was and what he's done musically before my friends and I watched his performance. It was hilarious, weird, and energetic. He sang songs about things like hamburgers, spinach, and not wanting to leave one's house. There were some points where he got really intense and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. Awesome.

Before I get to the Feelies' performance, I must say one thing: if you're at a show, don't sit on the stage while the bands are setting up. It's not cute. You not only get in the way, but you look obnoxious and disrespectful.

Anyways, I had expected the largest crowd for the Feelies because they were headlining that night, but what I didn't expect was for people to start moshing. I mean really, moshing to the Feelies? It happened, though. Not only that, people also stage-dived and crowd surfed. Bill actually told the audience to stop stage diving to no avail, but the real issue seemed to be people throwing stuff. Another word of advice on concert etiquette: don't throw shit, especially at the performers. Overall, though, I was able to dance with my friends while trying to maintain my footing in the crowd so it wound up being quite fun. The enthusiasm of the crowd was also really exciting to me (and my dad as well), even though more than one of the people that I had to fend off reeked of beer and/or rum, there seemed to be genuine fans in the crowd, as I found a lot of people singing along to the songs.

It wound up being one of the craziest nights I had in a while.

P.S. Sorry I don't have any pictures, I forgot my memory card for my camera >.<.

I Know it's Been a While...

and the new album, Here Before, will be coming out this coming Tuesday, but I probably won't be making a full post until next weekend. I've got a term paper and a bunch of other crap to work on for school (cause I'm actually involved at school now hah). I also want to be able to post a bunch of pictures from the Culture Shock festival at SUNY Purchase next weekend (the Feelies are headlining Saturday). So what I will leave you with until then is this:

Upcoming Shows (besides the one at SUNY which is only open to SUNY students and their guests):
5/13: The Bell House, Brooklyn, NYC. More info here.
5/14: The Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge. More info here.
6/17: World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA. More info here.
6/18: 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C. More info here.
7/23: Celebrate Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NYC (details for this event have not yet been officially released)
The Maxwell's shows are on again as for this year's 4th of July weekend as well, but most likely not on the 4th itself this time.

Also, a new Speed the Plough album is in the works. This is what the official facebook had to say about it:
"The new album will include Sunburst-era songs "Madeleine" and "(Love is) The Best Revenge," along with a cover of Lee Hazelwood's "Pour Man" and a slew of brand new tunes. With contributions from former Ploughsters Brenda Sauter and Rich Barnes, and introducing our new guitar-slinger and vocalist Ed Seifert."

Lastly, here are some links to different pages that you might want to "Like"/add:
The official Feelies Facebook (run by my mom and Bob Torsello)
My dad's Facebook
The official Speed the Plough Facebook

Longtime friend of the band Massimo De Vecchi also has a Feelies page that is endorsed by the band.

You can get the new album from places such as the Bar/None site, Amazon.com, iTunes, etc.

Ok so, 'til next week!

Guess What?!

The Feelies are going into the studio this Saturday and Sunday to start recording their new album!
I will be there probably Saturday night and maybe Sunday too to take pictures and hang out.

And here's an old picture of the Feelies playing the Peanut Gallery in Haledon!

This Past Week...

I put my first listing up on my new etsy shop for vintage clothing that I started with two of my friends, my boyfriend turned 21, aaaaand the Feelies played at Maxwell's all weekend.

Hah, anyways, I didn't go to the first show because my boyfriend's roommate also turned 21 and had a huge party.

The next day, I had to go into work early, and then pick up my friend Melissa and take the train over to Hoboken. We watched the soundcheck, and Melissa, who as an avid metalhead, may not have liked the Feelies, but she did!

We ate dinner, and then went and sat on the ground by the Hudson River in beautiful weather with my family. Around 9:30, the show started.

Yes, there were two (I think?) new songs that will be on the new album. I know there were five total, including covers I hadn't seen them play before. They were, as I have described before, very much in the same vein as the new songs that have already been played live. And it was really great to hear them completed after hearing the very minimal demos. It was a fun show and there wound up being three encores. Also, there was this Australian guy, who was actually named Guy, who started talking to me and one of my cousins. He said he was on a business trip in New York and got a call from a friend in Australia telling him about the show on Saturday, and he stayed in America a bit longer to see the Feelies. Then he mentioned that they should play in Australia, and I said that almost all of them have day jobs, and so the band can't tour all that much. But he seemed nice.

The 4th of July was REALLY insane though. My cousin, Michael, picked me up to take the train to Penn Station at noon in order to shoot a video for Speed the Plough. We met up with his parents and Marc, Dan and Ian at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Why? Cause there was this exhibit of pianos scattered around the city that anyone could play and it was ending on the 4th and my uncle wanted to play it while everyone else played acoustic instruments. Plus, it's pretty at the cathedral. If you want you can see one of the videos here.

Other than it being 95 FREAKIN' DEGREES, it was a nice time. After the shoot, Michael and I caught a PATH to Hoboken and met up with my brother and my friend Tubbs. We headed back to Maxwell's for the soundcheck and my boyfriend met us shortly after.

The street fair on Frank Sinatra drive, I must admit, was pretty lame. It was a little too controlled, and there weren't that many stalls when I went there around 7ish.

The show, again, was great. There weren't as many people as the night before though, but it seemed that the more dedicated fans came out for this show, so there was no shortage of enthusiasm. There wound up being four encores.

So as for the future of the Feelies, if you didn't see them this past weekend, you may be out of luck for a while. They will be focusing on recording their new album (which my dad still says will be called Stanley), but at least that's something to look forward to!

Also, sorry, I don't have pictures of the shows this year. I did take a few, but on an analog camera, so if they come out well, I'll scan them and post them.

What I Have to Say About the Demo Tracks...

So my dad played some demo tracks for my family and me with only guitar and drums. There were about 5 tracks that I had not heard before, and they, not surprisingly, sounded good. They are definitely in the same vein as the new songs that have been played live (listed in a previous post). The classic jangle is still there, but I think the guitar lines are maybe a teensy bit more complex than previous albums. The new demos seemed to be a logical progression, a bit different, but not so much that fans of the old stuff won't like it.

I am really exited for the Fourth of July Feelies shows this year. It's just an exciting time of year and I love Hoboken in the summer. I love how it's a sort-of tradition and how the Forucha's become something a lot bigger for my family than just a small barbeque and going to see fireworks. And when the new album is released eventually, it'll be even better.

I have some more news as well. Speed the Plough will be playing at The Living Room in New York City on June 26th at 10:00 PM and the performance will be recorded for the show "From The Living Room to The Loft” on XM radio. They will also be playing at The Cake Shop (which is actually just a few steps from The Living Room) on July 23rd. I may be taping one/both of these shows. So check these shows out too!

New Feelies Album Update

So told me that the Feelies went into pre-production for their new album today!

And I'd like to call attention to the cooking blog I started with my boyfriend. It's called Poor College Kids Cooking and it can be found here: http://poorcollegekidscooking.blogspot.com/

All of our recipes are vegetarian and awesome! :D

Speed the Plough Show and New Album

Speed the Plough released a new album called Swerve and it's pretty great. My dad even plays some percussion on it.
It's available on the iTunes store and CD Baby and I think a few other places in the internets. Check it out!



Also, as I said before, Speed the Plough is also playing a show at Maxwell's on May 26th and Brenda's band, Wild Carnation, will be there too. So come see my Uncle John, my Aunt Toni, my cousin Michael, and our friends Marc, Dan, and Ian Francia play!

New Feelies Album and Other Fun Stuff!

So if you guys haven't heard yet, the Feelies are definitely recording a new album. My dad says they have 6 or so songs, not all of which have been rehearsed enough to play live. He also said the album will be called "Stanley" or "Stanley is the Greatest Drummer in the World" (and yes, he was joking). Anyways, the Feelies are talking about starting to rehearse for the new album this June sometime.

I did go to the show in Connecticut in March and it was a lot of fun, and I'm quite jealous of those who got to go to the show in Philly yesterday. The will also be playing on July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at Maxwell's.

Anyway so the new songs that the Feelies have played live will be on the album, such as "Time is Right," "Bluer Skies," and my favorite, "Nobody Knows."

Also, please come out to see my aunt and uncle Toni and John Baumgartner, cousin Michael Baumgartner, and our family friends Marc, Dan, and Ian Francia play in a new incarnation of Speed the Plough at Maxwell's on May 26th I believe. Check the Maxwell's website in the future to be sure as the show is not listed there yet. It'll be fun!

So here's the Speed the Plough Website:
http://www.speedtheplough.com/

And some links to 2 of the new Feelies songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zghaziQzhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7pHGeQnA_A

My mom will also be updating www.stanleydemeski.com relatively soon, so check that for updates too!

Superyes!

My dad said this was taken at a rest stop at around 4 in the morning coming back from Boston. Andy Peters, the Feelies' sound man took it.

Feelies Promo Videos!

Today, I happened to be at home for the night. So my dad had this idea: I was to tape him practicing rudiments, "The Last Roundup", and "Tiger Lily" (a Luna song) in order to promote the Feelies' upcoming tour dates.

So here are the videos:

Overload

So about the last 3-4 posts, I had to write a blog in Russian for my Russian I class at the end of last semester.

Anyways, I started the new semester, and I'm taking Photography, American Poetry to 1940, Pursuits of English, Intro to Film, and Russian II.
So far, Photography is stressful, but rewarding, American Poetry is nice and relaxing, Russian's eh... I may not take it again, Intro to Film's pretty cool, and pursuits is the boring requirement for all English majors, but my professor's nice.

I'm so busy that it's been really hard to keep up with my friends, and I enjoy my down time so much more. Which was why the snow day we had today was so awesome.

So I've also found a religion. It's a form of paganism in which the female aspect is focused on. Goddess worship, basically. It's really loving and accepting and, unlike some of the world's most popular religions, which makes you feel like you're a sinful piece of shit, it supports self-love. Also, Goddess worship is extremely old, much older than Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Anyway our "services" are just little rituals twice a month (unless there's a holiday). Then we eat and chill and have fun. It just... feels right. :]

These next few months are going to be packed though: Valentine's Day, possibly seeing Vetiver, Wicked Faire, countless photography projects including going to the city, friends' birthdays, Easter at my boyfriend's grandparent's, my cousin's bridal shower and then wedding in which I'm a bridesmaid, possibly the Steampunk World's Fair, trips with my Goddess sisters, etc.

I've been thinking about posting a few recipes here because, at least among my family and friends, my peanut noodles and hummus are known for being the best around.

As for the Feelies, here are some tour dates for the spring!
March 19th: The Middle East - Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 20th: Daniel Street Club - Milford, Connecticut
April 17th: World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Also, I'm sure the usual shows at Maxwell's the start of summer will also take place.

Моя кошка и мои коты

Моя кошка зовут Луди. Она маленькая. Мои коты зовут Ифус и Донни. Ифус и Донни болшие. Они хорошие.

Моя гостиная

Моя любимая комната моя гостиная. Она светлая. Окнa большие. Стол старый и импортый. Кресло новое и неимпортое.

Моя семья

Моя семья музыканты. Моя бабушка не музыкантка. Мой брат и мой одец хорошые ударникы. я тоже ударника. Моя маты пианистка.

Русский Блог

Здравствуйте! Меня зовут Кэти Демески. Я студентка в Монтклар Штат Университете. Я живу в Халдоне.

All Tomorrow's Parties & the Bearsville Theater

This weekend, I was able to go as a guest to the first day of All Tomorrow's Parties in Monticello, New York. Of course, it just had to rain that day. When we got there, it was quite cold and nasty and we had to wander around for a bit and be directed to several different places in order to check in as guests. After we got settled, we walked into the venue (Kutsher's) which is a "resort." It was old, weird, smelly, labyrinthine and extremely creepy. It basically looked like the hotel in The Shining, but not as nice. In other words, it was a dump. Also, there was royal blue carpet on the wall in some places.

I was able to see a bit of the Drones', Suicide's, and Panda Bear's sets, but I only watched the Feelies' and Iron & Wine's performances in full. The Stardust Ballroom in Kutshers made the sound very rumble-y. This made the bass shake the room in such a way that you felt it, and it wasn't pleasant. That's why I only watched one song by Suicide and a few by Panda Bear. I put my lens cap down on a ledge during Suicide's set, and it vibrated off the ledge and I lost it: that's how bad the rumbling was. I must admit though, I don't actually like Suicide's music, but I figured I'd never get a chance to see them again and I kind of like the idea of them. So I went in fo their first song, and they made me laugh. Think about it: two old guys: one with Bozo the Clown hair wearing iridescent goggles and playing a heavily distorted synthesizer, and the other an even older man (I believe he's 70 or 71) yelling into a microphone. They actually made my brother angry. He kept saying, "That's not music!" But I think that's kind of the idea. I guess it was worth my lens cap to be able to say that I saw Suicide.

As for the Drones, they were ok. Panda Bear was good, but could have put on a more visually interesting show, but I guess seeing Black Moth Super Rainbow live has made me a bit jaded on this subject, because their shows are so visually stimulated, you kinda feel like you're high.

The Feelies (and, I assume, most of the bands that played earlier) were not allowed a soundcheck either. However, they sounded as good as possible in that place and played well (as always). They played the newly re-issued Crazy Rhythms in it's entirety and were able to get two encores in, probably because Crazy Rhythms is so short. I really wished that they had played the also newly re-issued The Good Earth, because I like it better, but it was easier for them to ply Crazy Rhythms because Bill didn't have to do as many guitar changes.

After the Feelies' set, my mom, brother, and I ate. The food was actually pretty good. We all had wraps and sesame noodles. Unfortunately, since the food was outside, it was quite uncomfortable to eat there.

We pretty much waited around until Iron and Wine came on. In between, we caught a half hour or so of Gimme Shelter, which I'd never seen before and has re-awakened my love for the Rolling Stones. We had to leave at 10:15, though, in order to make it to the performances we wanted to see.

My mom and brother went to see Eugene Mirman, played the landlord on Flight of the Conchords, and David Cross, who was on Arrested Development. They said Mirman was hilarious, and Cross was good, but not as good as Mirman. I'm glad my brother was able to enjoy something other than the Feelies, though. He was pretty angry at having to be at what amounted to a hipster convention. He kept saying how he hated being amongst the hipsters. For the record though, they kinda smelled. Like musty-unwashed-clothes-greasy-hair-cigarette-and-booze-ish.

Iron and Wine was amazing. I've never been so moved by live music, and I was so close. I could not stop smiling. Apparently, the dude who was there taking pictures for brooklynvegan.com noticed that. Hence, my picture wound up on the site in this entry. There was another guy there with a Hitler-Youth-ish haircut standing right in front of me taking pictures of me also, but I can't seem to find those online. Anyway, so I've loved Iron and Wine's music for years now, and it was just so beautiful, not to mention a relief from the very... harsh music that I had heard earlier. It was just Sam Beam with his acoustic guitar. Someone blew balloons with song suggestions on them too. Sam Beam talked to the audience a lot too. He got us all singing along to everything, and we even clapped the beat to an entire song without stopping. I've never seen that happen at a show. That set was sooooo worth staying at that creepy place a few extra hours for.

One last thought on that day, I'm VERY glad we didn't see the Jesus Lizard, it would've been exhausting and apparently they kept saying "Happy 9/11!" which I find to be... quite unpleasant.

The next day, we had a completely different experience. My mom, my brother, and I wandered around Woodstock for the day, which was really cool. We got to the Bearsville Theater in late afternoon. Let me tell you, this place is BEAUTIFUL. The interior is all hard wood and it smelled nice. There was a sizeable green room, with nice couches and a table, these crazy spiral staircases, and it was in the middle of this clearing with a fountain and stone benches. Albert Grossman's even buried there. Anyway, I pretty much hung out with my family and Cala, Glenn's daughter most of the time. We ate at this cute and nice Chinese restaurant called the Little Bear. Also, it was just so chill there. I wish all the places they played at were like the Bearsville Theater.

One highlight of the day was listening to Dave tell stories and stuff right before the show. He told us that where he works, he's supposed to greet customers, and sometimes he does it in a Cockney accent. He demonstrated and we were all laughing.

The show was also a lot better than the night before. They played their usual lineup, and had four encores. The crowd was good too, and there weren't really any skeevy people either.

Anyway, it was a great vacation. There should be a few more Feelies shows coming up in November too.

Pictures from ATP & Bearsville:

The Drones
The movie lineup for the day
The crowd for Suicide
The Feelies



I couldn't take a picture of Dave, cause he was blocked by an amp, but I got a picture of his and my dad's shadows.Iron and Wine
Where we ate dinner in Bearsville
Woodstock


Pretty lanterns at the Bearsville Theater

The stairs
Souncheck

The doorsAlbert Grossman's Grave

A Year After The Reunion

So the Feelies shows came and went and, again, they were amazing. On the first night, three of my friends came. One of them, Matt, was even at the sound check. The sound check itself ran a little late, but in the first hour or so, Glenn started playing "Billie Jean". Then Dave started singing in falsetto and playing his snare to the beat. It was absolutely hilarious and kind of made my day.



Anyway, so we ate at Maxwell's and my other friends, Dan and Liebold arrived. It was pretty packed that night, but we were able to get pretty good spots. As for the actual show, this year the Feelies started things out with some more mellow songs like "When Company Comes," and a cover of "Sunday Morning." New additions to the lineup included "Egyptian Reggae", "Moscow Nights", "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," and "Invitation" (although, as mentioned in a previous entry, they added that song on New Year's Eve). There was even one new song, "Bluer Skies" on which Brenda's husband, Rich Barnes of Wild Carnation, even played keyboard on it while sitting on the little crate that is used as a step to get to the stage at Maxwell's.

Friday night I went to the sound check with my dad because my mom and my brother were going to take the train after my mom got out of work. Anyway, Dave again started singing Michael Jackson when Andy the sound man told him he could sing into his mic if he wanted. So he sang "Thriller" and I felt the need to text Matt and inform him about it. I just chilled at Maxwell's for most of the afternoon, reading Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. The show was pretty much the same as the day before, except I was standing next to a particularly obnoxious tall drunk man who got more and more drunk as the night progressed. Regardless it was fun.

On the Fourth of July, I took the train to Hoboken with my mom and brother and it was pretty damn crowded especially for the Hawthorne train station. My dad had asked me earlier in the week if I would help Bill's nephew, Ben, film for his Feelies concert movie. Ben and his friend (Nick, I think?) had attatched a camera holder-thing to a pole and I was instructed to put the end of the pole in my pocket and film from a little farther away than I had been standing, using the screen on the camera to keep track of the shot. Ben also had all of the Feelies go into the dressing room alone and he filmed each of them for five minutes, not asking them any questions or anything. When Bill came out he said, "I feel violated."

The show, again, was great, but my mom, brother, cousin, and I had to leave a little early to catch the 12:55 train back to Hawthorne.

The band actually had quite a bit of interaction with the audience during these three shows. These are come of my favorite cheers from the crowd and things that the band said: "Haledon fucking rocks!"
"Percussion god!" (at Dave)
"Let Stanley sing!" (the guy who said this actually asked me if my dad would be offended if he said that.)
Brenda: "Thank you." Someone in the crowd, "No, thank you!"
Glen: "Hey watch your mouth, my kids are here."
Brenda: "Did you guys see the fireworks?" Someone in the crowd, "No I'd rather be here!"

One thing I kind of regret is that I didn't take too many pictures of the band, but I was more focused on enjoying the shows. Unfortunately, most of the ones I did take I accidentally deleted. I did take some interesting artsy pictures though.


To close this entry, I'd like to say that you guys should checkout my friend Matt's blog because he has an entry about the Feelies shows. Also, if you do read his entry, it refers to Dave as Dave "From the Band" Weckerman. There is a reason behind this. You see, every time Dave calls mine or my cousin's house, he says "Hi, this is Dave from the band." So my brother, cousin and I call him Dave From the Band.

So yeah, see you guys at All Tomorrow's Parties!