This is a reminder for me, and for anyone else in the greater Manhattan area who digs live music:
Nada Surf, unfairly written off as one-hit wonders after the popular "Popular," a single that can't even touch their best stuff, is hitting one of my favorite venues, Bowery Ballroom, on February 17. I haven't heard their new one, Let Go, yet, but The Proximity Effect was the best album you never heard in 1998, and I'll be getting the new release come hell or high water.
Idlewild, whose new album, The Remote Part, has been relentlessly spinning my iPod's hard drive since my lovely fianc馥 bought it for me from amazon.co.uk, is playing Irving Plaza on March 6.
Lastly, Godspeed You Black Emperor! (yes, you rabid GYBE fans, I know they changed the placement of the exclamation point, but I don't remember to where, and right now I couldn't care less) will be unleashing some more of their apocalyptic ambient post-pop whatever back at the Bowery on April 1 & 2. They don't come around often, and if you've heard anything they've done before, you know it'll be quite an experience.
And wouldn't you know it, I almost forgot to mention that the Big D, Don McCloskey, is playing at the Sidewalk Cafe on February 13 at 8 PM. As Don himself puts it, "In this crazy mixed up world of war, poverty, death and destruction nothing feels better than having your bottom firmly and yet gently slapped by the sweet melodious fury of the man they call Big D." If you don't know who Don McCloskey is, you're clearly living a hollow shell of a life and have but this one chance at redemption. If you know who Don is and he owes you money, which is more than likely, here's an excellent opportunity to threaten him with a broken beer bottle.
Have a good week.
