Chikpiks (Halloween is overrated, who's with me? Edition)

In honor of the day, I bring you the 20 Worst Vampire Costumes, no doubt inspired by all of the quality vampire literature in bookstores these days. Since I couldn't find any Jane Austen/Mr. Darcy costumes on the webs, feel free to submit any you spot while you're out in the Halloween trenches tomorrow night.

Oh, and here are some scary Halloween events/parties, some of which I may actually appear at (no costume guaranteed).:


And at Mercury Lounge, featuring the insane live show of garage rockers Black Taxi (keeping ska alive in the best possible way), and awesome electro-glam duo Hank and Cupcakes, both of whom I've covered here:


Are you missing the Vivian Girls? Seems like they've fallen off from their previous 5 shows a week schedule since their sophomore album came out. Well here's your chance. I'm sure they'll be doing something scary.


SACRED BONES RECORDS HALLOWEEN

Wooden Ships
Vivian Girls
Crystal Stilts
Religious Knives

:: dj Keegan Cooke

| 171 LOMBARDY ST @ VARICK AVE |
171 Lombardy St @ Varick Ave | Greenpoint, Brooklyn
| 8pm | all ages | $12

| curated by Caleb Braaten |

And yeah, this is 20 bucks, but the description makes it sound pretty impressive. Plus, it's "secret." Yeah right.


The Last Masquerade

From the site: "Three vast spaces in the dark heart of Brooklyn have been re-imagined for
this all-night adventure. Over three dozen artists and performers will
infuse these forgotten structures with a pre-apocalyptic fairy-tale built
on music, mischief and a heavy dose of the unexpected."

260 Meserole St., Bushwick Brooklyn
and continues at two indoor loft spaces steps away...

7pm through 7am : Saturday October 31st.
$20 : Costumes will be rewarded : 21+
Arrive before 8:59pm and you pay only $10.

And for those who have far, far more endurance than I for looking at more bad vampire costumes:


Afterparty at Market Hotel

Starts at 1:30 a.m., immediately following the Mt Eerie/Liturgy show.

Djs include Veronica Vasicka (founding member of East Village Radio and electronic label Minimal Wave, lover of new wave, italo-disco, and house music) & Steve Summers (whose Back From The Future mix is below):

80% chance of smoke machine, $5 at the door (free for Mt Eerie/Liturgy showgoers).

Mp3 - Steve Summers - Back from the Future


And finally, Bobby "Boris" Pickett is sadly no longer playing in New York or anywhere else on earth, but the sole act of hearing "Monster Mash" once is enough to call my Halloween a success. So, via Audio Muffin, I present to you:

Mp3 - Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers - Monster Mash

May he rise as a zombie in peace.

What's the deal? Your weekly Publisher's Lunch deal snark

Publisher's Lunch says: Hannah Pittard's THE FATES WILL FIND THEIR WAY, about a girl who goes missing on Halloween and how her disappearance unexpectedly transforms the lives of those who knew her, in particular, the neighborhood boys, whose memories, curiosity, and teenage lust keep them searching for information, rumors, theories about her disappearance for the rest of their lives, revealing their stumbling paths to adulthood, their tragedies and devotions, and her relentless enduring significance to them and the possibilities of her fate, to Lee Boudreaux at Ecco, for publication in Winter 2011, by Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic (NA).

Indichik says: Enough with the missing-kid books already, okay? It isn't just that this sounds exactly like The Lovely Bones, which it does (and I swear I've already used this feature to talk about a previous ripoff of that book). But it's that the national "media" continuing to hyperventilate every extremely rare instance of this, causing perfectly reasonable parents to live in fear because they, ridiculously come to believe that this is some kind of epidemic. And I don't hold fiction writers above that standard, no matter how literary they claim to be. It's all a form of exploitation and pandering; like mysteries and thrillers, violence and death and grief ; people are (let's face it) sick and it's what they want to read about. I almost might remind you that traditionally, most successful novels featured children who didn't go missing. David Copperfield, anyone?

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)

Chikpiks CMJ Day 3 Edition

Damn you, College Music Journal. I don't have enough time to upload anything from last night's show before I have to start touting what's going on today. Sigh. So, but first:

On Chichi212, recap of Tuesday's New Zealand showcase at Red Bull Space, which featured Die Die Die, below.


The xx play at the Soho Apple store at 7 tonight, right after a photo shoot and interview with...me. It's free and I'm not aware that this is an official CMJ show, but of all the buzz bands in town right now, The xx are by far the buzziest, so it's a must-go.


Then, of course, if you're looking for some double-o soul, there's this:

Finnish band Rubik plays at 8 at the Arts and Crafts showcase at Union Pool. I missed out on them last night, but I have it on good authority that it was a huge, huge mistake.


Lastly, this has nothing to do with CMJ, but over at the Village Voice, Rob Harvilla has written a Pulitzer-worthy essay on how, despite what the mainstream publications tell you, "Brooklyn hipsterism," is not a movement, of any sort. In fact, it's hardly even a thing, like, at all. Thank you, Rob.

Mp3 - The xx - Basic Space

CMJ Tuesday: Sian Alice Group at The Knitting Factory

So in case you didn't know, The Knitting Factory is my new favorite Brooklyn venue (and not only because of its proximity to the G train, I promise), and seeing Sian Alice Group, a band freaky-hippie Brits with a flute, at The Social Registry showcase was a great way to chill out at the end of the night. Hell, even the bouncers, in contrast to wherever else I'd been, seemed jolly and rotund rather than enormous and threatening.

Mp3 - Sian Alice Group - Through Air Over Water