The Fifth Annual PaperMag Nightlife Awards (yes, ChiChi lost, but who cares? Free bottle service!)

Amanda Lepore and Ladyfag present an award.

Mr. Mickey and Ladyfag.
Co-emcee and Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Michael Musto (he's much funnier in person than in his Voice column, which avoiding, for me, is practically a third part-time job).

The crew from Santos Party House, winning for the 87th year in a row.











The crowd up on the back of the sofa during The Drums' set.



Since ChiChi212 received a much-deserved People's Choice Nom for Best Nightlife Blog (it's one of those links over in the sidebar that you never look at, but includes the occasional item from me, like encounters with Ed Westwick that I would be too embarrassed to post here), I got a ticket to the show, which took place at the aptly-named M2 Ultralounge (formerly Mansion). It's quite large. This post is only a small, tantalizing slice of the freakishishness and various levels of fiercely bad taste on display, (two words: drag queens) but luckily retro-pop band The Drums (filling in for much-more-polished Ting Tings at the last minute) with their crew cuts and windbreakers looked like they ought to be hanging out at a malt shop somewhere in 1955, ended the night feeling less like the city's chrome-trimmed jungle and more like the vast wilds of Brooklyn; in other words, this Indichik felt right at home.

The recap over on the ChiChi212 site and the Papermag.com article have even more red-carpet photos, decadence and random celebrity sightings, including my editor Brittany getting all cute about presenter Taylor Hanson (yes, of those Hansons).

Mp3 - The Drums - Let's Go Surfing

If I ran the circus, it would look a lot like this

Photos from the cave of daring freaks and spectacular wonders, courtesy of testosterone-heavy email newsletter Thrillist party, Friday at Carnival. In the top photo are the beginnings of the balloon Elmo I had so generously mademe, complete with googly eyes (that kept popping off before he was finished). You could also win live goldfish by tossing ping pong balls in their bowls. The whole event was sponsored by Jolt Energy Mints and Canadian Club Whiskey, complimenting each other perfectly.

The cool kids

How often do you get to hear fiction writers read entire stories in one sitting? In my experience, almost never. But last night at NYU's Lillian Vernon House was different. Contributors to the past and current (shown above) issues of Epiphany defeated the Curse of the Fiction Reader (i.e., when you can only read three pages of a 12-page story, nobody knows what the hell you're talking about).

Editor Jeffrey Gustavson plays emcee.

Lara Tupper steams things up with "Ting!," a tale of hot encounters between cruise ship crew.

April Naoko Heck gets in our face with her non-confessional confessional poetry (note that's an index finger, not a middle!).

Your next chance to experience current Epiphany work will be Wednesday at 7, upstairs at Pianos, during the official issue release party. Rumor has it there will be people reading, but it will be business as usual, at only about 5 minutes each, so, alas, poets win again. But as always, we fiction writers have liquor to make up for that.

CMJ Saturday: Sini Anderson and The Roulettes at Bruar Falls

Bruar Falls' unofficial CMJ day show/BBQ (lovely in the garden during the five or so minutes it didn't rain) Saturday. Sini Anderson, formerly of feminist spoken word collective Sister Spit, is up to her old tricks with new friends. Violins literally play, whenever she speaks about her search for a place in the sun.

Portland transplants The Roulettes are back big (frontwoman Rebecca (Keith) Roulette is a poet and also co-hosts the Mixer Reading and Music Series). The four-piece are riot grrls for a less riotous age, their old-fashioned musical grammar taking us back to when groups like The Ronettes were tough and so, so pretty (it's no coincidence that The Roulettes covered Phil Spector), while underneath concealing comically voracious sexual appetites (case in point: "Hot Ticket," below). Disbelief St. and Red Wire Black Wire performed afterward, but no photos, alas (too many $3 Bloody Marys?)

Mp3 - The Roulettes - Hot Ticket

Chikpiks CMJ Day 4 Lightning Recap/Going Crazy Edition

So don't hate The xx for being the Official CMJ Buzz Band (TM), because they're all bunch of sweet, black-clad likely London lads (and birds. Do they still say "birds" in England? Did they ever?) I talked with Oliver and Romy before the show at the Apple Store, which was packed, predictably, with Steve Jobs' Nazi minions prohibiting any kind of photography whatsoever. But Brooklyn Vegan has a bunch of pics from their show at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday that are almost as good. They also play tonight at the Music Hall at 10:40 with School of Seven Bells, and later at Tribeca Grand.

Tonight Grooms play at 7:45 at Littlefield, a show I probably have no chance of making, and there's the Polyvinyl showcase at The Bell House, featuring Motel Motel, Cale Parks, and Japandroids, which is likely to be packed (what isn't likely to be packed?)

Also the Underwater People's showcase is tonight at the Delancey, where lo-fi pop bands Holiday Shores (is this band named after a retirement community in Coral Gables, or what?) and Real Estate are playing, and that I am going to try to catch (I didn't have the same luck with NME at the same venue last night, but that's a long story.)


And then will be heading to Spike Hill (yes, Spike Hill) at 11:10 for Sissy Wish, a Norwegian electro-pop princess whose voice is good for your soul, and whose single "Dwts" is probably #1 right now on the Norwegian music charts, because, what else would be?

Mp3 - Sissy Wish - Dwts

CMJ Wednesday: Broadcast and Atlas Sound at Music Hall of Williamsburg

My entire Wednesday night ended up devoted to this show, and it didn't disappoint for comprehensiveness or novelty. Though Atlas Sound (Deerhunter's Bradford Cox) seemed to be the draw, Broadcast was first on the bill. The English band (a boy-girl duo, now), behind them, projected choppy, vaguely creepy abstract film clips in time with the music, a result of their latest collaboration with graphic designer Julian House (The Focus Group), "Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age." Together it all resembles the soundtrack to a 1970s children's TV show -- from Neptune. The strange and talented songwriter behind Microcastle and the recently released Logos, Cox, when his acoustic guitar string broke halfway through, proved himself a wizard of patter, joking about CMJ coke parties and striking "sensitive" and "rock star" poses for the cameras. He remained upbeat, even when the show had gone way over schedule and the half the hall had walked out. Also, I, meanwhile, still have a bruise on each kneecap from falling down two stairs at the Music Hall. Believe me, it was a long night.

Mp3 - Broadcast and The Focus Group - The Be Colony

Mp3 - Atlas Sound - Criminals (Electronic)