Wing Finder

Zagat's reviews are great, but do they really know anything about buffalo wings? That publication can probably only comment on this delicacy when they're served at places which specialize in saffron risotto and fine wines.

The true wing connoisseur can refer to http://www.kluckr.com/, a website that lists 20,000+ places that serve chicken wings. In addition, each restaurant is rated in terms of heat and quality - among other key metrics for the food.

Bookmark it and start commenting once you consume - it's everyone's job to call out the best from the rest of the wing cooks out there!

Hot Hot Heat: 2 and out?

Their first two albums were excellent but their third was a turd.  Judging by these two samples, they're going to drop the ball on the next record, too?

http://www.spin.com/articles/new-music-hot-hot-heat

New stuff?

For purchase in the upcoming week?

The Lawrence Arms Buttsweat & Tears EP : click here for a google search that turned up 4 of the 5 songs on this record)

The Cribs Ignore the Ignorant : Johnny Marr from The Smiths just joined the group, which answers the question "How could they improve upon their last record?"

Moneen The World I Want to Leave Behind : They disappeared for a few years, but resurfaced from time at home in Canada with the album and this music video.

#1 Birthday present of this century

A magical medley of beers from around the world - a present from Serge for our 30th birthday and one we will chronicle our journey through.

Living the High Life

Not only is it delicious but it has a great design as well - wicked stylish

Purchases

Lots of new stuff obtained over the last couple of weeks. Will leave some thoughts on each as we listen to them:

New releases:

Pearl Jam Backspacer

Brand New Daisy

Thrice Beggars

Used stuff:

Guster Keep It Together

Mighty Mighty Bosstones Let's Face It

Gifts for Arrison:

TKA Greatest Hits

Teddy Pendergrass & Al Green Back to Back Hits

No Surprise

The new Pearl Jam record called Backspacer is fantastic.

"Humbug" indeed

We're on our fourth listen of The Arctic Monkeys' new album Humbug and still haven't been able to pin down a rating on it. As of today, it's stuck between "eh, just okay" and "totally sucks".

Unfortunately with each record this group releases they are moving further and further away from the sound that made them popular. This seems to be a common thread among British bands who rack up any serious accolades or Beatles comparisons on their first album. Perhaps in the recording process after that success they become frightened of making that same album twice, getting pigeon holed in one genre or maybe just are lost in the possibilities of what they can compose in the expensive studios their record company provides them.

In the end, Humbug will probably default to a "unimpressed and discarded" status because it has taken too much effort on this listeners' part to try to enjoy. Future records, unless they are something of higher quality, won't be getting any pesos from the NY Thruway.

...out with the old...

Since early spring there have been very few new releases of any substance. Sure Q-Tip, Mos Def and Maxwell had triumphant returns to the music scene, but rock hasn't dropped a single record on the scene almost since 2008.

Until we get out of this uncomfortably long dry spell, we've turned back the clock to discover these three remarkable gems, all of which we highly recommend you acquire:

Kings of Leon Because of the Times

Jawbreaker Dear You

James Brown The One and Only

Brand New, "Daisy"

Although Brand New isn't releasing their next record "Daisy" until September 22nd, you can get a copy of the album today - if you're okay with obtaining it illegally.

For those of us who are following the rules, two clips from the album are available on the web. Both tracks seem to follow the same dark patterns from their last album, but as Jesse (lead singer) explained during a Spin.com interview, the record's sound is still akin to some of the first songs the group wrote 10 years ago.

"At the Bottom" @ www.myspace.com/brandnew

"Bought a Bride" & "Gasoline" live in Detroit, MI @ youtube

Porkslap Pale Ale

It's one of those odd ball cans that's got a logo drawn by a talented 15 year old farm boy, an orange design that only a redneck could love and a position on the shelf that commands zero respect. Then you discover that the store owner specially ordered it because of it's positive reputation among cooks (most chefs on 'Hells Kitchen' drink beer post-service, not wine) and his buddies who tried it were fans, so it ends up in your bag and you join the fan club a couple hours later.

Unpredictable deliciousness!

Watermelon Beer

A great idea that ALMOST worked - we could detect the Water but not much Melon flavor. Overall a great packaging job by the brewers (21st Amendment Brewery in SFO) that includes a bulleted list of interesting reasons why the brewers feel that beer is better from cans than bottles.

Thanks to Leewood Beverage in White Plains for another opportunity to try new and interesting micro-brews!

All Points West, a.k.a. All Points Worst?

Anyone who decides to attend/participate an outdoor event should be prepared for certain challenges. Unfortunately the circumstances at All Points West on Sunday were challenging across more facets than we had expected, several of which could have been remedied by the organizers.

As folks marched off the local trains, we all learned that the Festival grounds were closed "indefinitely" without an explanation why (you could guess it was the weather or lightning) or when we'd get more information (maybe an hour was one staff person's guess). After talking to one or two more "staff" members (these were 15/20 year old kids, all short enough they didn't stand out in a crowd), the suggestions for further action was to check 101.9FM for the APW website for news. Since we don't have internet access on our phones and personal Walkman FM radios weren't on our list of "things to bring", our access to that "news" was cut off unless we stayed there on the bathroomless platform with the "staff". Lesson learned? Organizers need to have more knowledgeable, authoritative figures with megaphones and/or message boards for crowds to depend on for next steps.

We returned on the train an hour or so later and started off on the 20 minute walk to the grounds. At the entrance, we waited with feet submerged in deep, quicksand like mud for 25 minutes hoping to eventually enter and find some sort of adjusted lineup. Instead, all acts before 4pm were cancelled and the performers after continued as originally planned. But again, communication of that was missing - no explanation of the new lineup on each of the stage's large video screens, staff on the grounds were clueless and no updates via megaphones or other broadcast were given.

After that realization passed, it was finally time to try to enjoy the shows. Words fail to explain how deep, wet and widespread the mud in the park was and how filthy people allowed themselves to become in it. Comparisons to Woodstock in the 90's are not far off the mark - All Points West just had fewer days and a smaller space to compile the mess into. Plus, our mud wrestlers were not as original in their acts of stupidity.

In the end, we did enjoy the shows put on by The Black Keys and We Are Scientists but departed the venue before the two biggest acts (MGMT and Coldplay) took the stage. Darkness and fatigue reduced our ability to avoid large mud puddles and the danger of staying late meant fighting a transportation bottleneck out of the grounds and onto the train. It'll be All Points 'Anywherebutthisplace' for us next year.

All Points West: Weather Report

These same conditions are forecasted for Sunday night (photo from Sergio).

Thoughts for the Week

Report from Eddie: The new album from Our Lady Peace is lousy. Ironically, during my visit to Newbury Comics this weekend, I didn't buy it because I hadn't heard his review of the disc yet. Obviously we're communicating in some odd yet beautiful outer space medium.

Latest purchases: (1) Social Distortion: Bought because we did not own any previous albums. (2) Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band : Bought after seeing their surprisingly good opening performance for Wilco. (3) Morrissey: We waited for and finally found the Years of Refusal special CD/DVD Edition, complete with a [hilarious] Russell Brand interview of Moz.

Recommendations to Ed: He wanted a suggestion for which of The Futureheads' album to try, so we said to check out This Is Not The World from 2008. Probably best to buy it used though as many of the songs, despite how good they are, sound exactly alike. Check out the song "Walking Backwards" here and read about their progress on their recording-in-process here.

All Points West: The plan of attack

Download RAMMSTEINs Greatest Hits!

The difference between Norwegian Black Metal bands and Rammstein is that the folks from Norway have to put on a crazy act with dark and lights to make things interesting. Rammstein on the other hand just blazes through their nightmare inducing sounds with pure evil talent and no Halloween type fanfare.

Get a copy of their greatest hits CD at the site below and prepare to thrash.

http://4metal.blogspot.com/2009/07/rammstein-best-of.html

LifeWater + Alcohol? Tell me more.

The Walkmen: on Portugal

Pitchfork: So you guys just got back from Lisbon. Some cool beer festival?

Hamilton Leithauser (lead singer of The Walkmen): Super Bock! Super Bock Super Rock. We played in their, like, fútbol stadium.

Pitchfork: That was probably pretty sizeable, I would think.

HL: Yeah, it was pretty weird. We thought that somebody had made a clerical error, but they all wanted to see us.

Peter Bauer (of The Walkmen): And they were all like [in a Portuguese accent], "So, your record is smashing successful!"

HL: And then they said that the one we had to play-- they looked at the setlist-- they said, "Oh, so you have to play 'Dónde Está la Playa', because that's the radio hit." We're like, "Radio hit?!" [laughter].

PB: (laughs) Like, "What are you fucking talking about? What kind of weird, crazy world are we living in?"

This speaks volumes

Pearl Jam: New Track from their upcoming CD

Unsuprisingly this new song is awesome. Suprisingly, though the anti-mainstream, TicketMaster fighting band will be selling this CD at Target when it is released on September 20th. The track will also be featured on some of that retailer's ads which seems strange, but I guess the band is very loving and friendly since G. W. Bush left office.

You can listen to the song via their MySpace site @ http://www.myspace.com/tenclub or in the box below, and then can buy it @ https://www.pearljam.com/max .

Somewhere Eddie is crying tears of joy.

Wilco : Wappingers Falls Show Recap

"I think Frank Zappa once said, 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it doesn't accurately tell the whole story', or something like that...".

- Comment overheard from random concert goer

Apparently my recap of the show would be useless, so below are Sergio's photographs from Wilco's fantastic Saturday evening performance. Some highlights of the evening as well as the band's set-list can also be found HERE.

Our Concert Plans : I can't wait to buy 5$ Bud Lights

It's summertime and that means we'll be breaking the bank in order to attend as many outdoor concerts as possible. Here's the list of upcoming shows we'll be attending and links to the artists websites for those who are interested. Let the jealousy begin:

July 18th: Wilco @ Dutchess Stadium, Wappingers Falls, NY

(2009 Ballpark tour : http://smartley3.wilcoworld.net/shows/ballparks/wappingers-falls/ )

July 23rd: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ Pier 54

(http://riverrocksnyc.com/Pier54.html)

August 2nd: All Points West Festival @ Liberty State Park, NJ

(http://www.apwfestival.com/lineup/)