The Cause in New York I went to NYC on Saturday to see the Cause's first Village performance at Lion's Den. The band didn't let a couple of sound glitches and a broken guitar string stop them from putting on a great show. They have another NYC on February 20 at the Continental, in addition to several upcoming D.C. area gigs.

I enjoyed the quick trip to New York. Luckily for me, the club is just a couple of doors down from Peanut Butter & Co. and a short walk to Girl Props. I managed to find a couple of minutes to munch on a Nutella and crunchy peanut butter sandwich and buy some obnoxious plastic earrings. That's what I call a successful trip.

Photos from the show:








  ¶ 11:54 AM

  PostSecret Check out PostSecret. 3,000 blank postcards were mailed to DC residents who were invited to share a secret and return the card to the sender. The blog includes several of the replies and an address where you can mail your own secret.  ¶ 5:33 PM

  Yessssssss
I heart Black Cat's March line up. Highlights are:

Ambulance LTD on March 5

Visqueen on March 7

French Kicks on March 26
  ¶ 4:45 PM

  The post about nothing See what happens when I get cable. I get completely hypnotized by the dancing lights on my TV and end up doing absolutely nothing. Well, I've also done nothing lately because it's effin cold. I don't go outside unless I really, really have to do something. However, I did manage to make it out last night to hear some of indiesoc's set at Gate 54. I enjoyed it and was glad that NM dragged me out. Good job, indiesoc!

Have you entered this week's bluestate contest yet? Well, ya better go do it now.

Here's Joy Zipper's "Out of the Sun" video for your viewing and listening pleasure, courtesy of our friends at Filter. I can't decide if the video is funny or creepy. But I know that I like the song.

Joy Zipper's "Out of the Sun"--Windows 56kbs
Joy Zipper's "Out of the Sun"--Real 56kbs  ¶ 2:47 PM

  CD Giveaway
bluestate is giving away an autographed Futureheads CD. To enter, send an e-mail to bluestatedc@gmail.com with "Futureheads CD" in the subject line. All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, January 19.
  ¶ 3:35 PM

  Food and sparkly clothes
I got the chance to check out the Equinox Restaurant Week menu last night. Pretty yummy. Not spectacular, but definitely a good option if you're in the mood for fancy food in the Golden Triangle. After that, I headed over to the Scissor Sisters show. I arrived in the middle of DJ Sammy Jo's set. He spun some classic dance tunes and beat-matched like nobody's business. The Scissor Sisters put on quite the flamboyant show--lots of sparkly clothes on stage, including silver sequins suspenders. I felt satisfied with the show when they performed their cover of "Take Me Out" during the encore.
  ¶ 5:43 PM

  Plane
Chicago band, Plane, mixes experimental noise with the dance beats and synth you're used to hearing from nouveau new wave bands today. I like listening to their CD as a whole from start to finish, but I'm not sure if the individual tracks stand on their own. "Rope" is the strongest song on the band's new CD, Hello More. If you like this track, you can download the rest here.
  ¶ 1:11 AM

  It's really too early to think about the long weekend The MLK weekend always sneaks up on me. I rarely make plans to go out of town during those three days because I usually want time to relax and recover from the holidays. It's also cold and I don't like travelling when it's cold. However, I do have the urge to get out explore a new place. Who am I kidding? I just got cable with TiVo last weekend. I'm sure I'll spend the entire time laying on my couch catching up on all the episodes of Cash in the Attic, Daily Show and Project Runway that I recorded during the week. If I manage to pry myself away from the TV, I'll have some fun options for things to do this weekend. I'm looking forward to the Rockbot and Fivefour show at Velvet Lounge on Friday night. I saw Rockbot open for Full Minute of Mercury last November and really enjoyed their set. I've never seen Fivefour, but NM played a song of theirs at bluestate that I liked (and the band attended bluestate, so they must be super cool). Don't know anything about the other band playing with them, Rotoscope. They have plenty of mp3s on their site to get a sense of what to expect. They do a pretty decent cover of "Under the Milky Way"--sounds like what I would expect Cowboy Junkies to do with the song.

If I'm feeling extra energetic on Friday evening, I'll head to the opening of Art-O-Matic Top Ten at Fraser Bethesda. I'm very excited that Thomas Edwards' work will be there. School of Fish Pain was by far my favorite piece at Art-O-Matic. I hope it was one of the pieces the gallery chose for the show.

So that's Friday. It really is too early to go into details about Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I'll resist the urge to make plans for at least another day.

UPDATE: No Fivefour at Velvet Lounge on Friday (bummer)  ¶ 9:48 AM

  Yay! Thanks to all the bluestate attendees who stopped by Black Cat on Saturday night. We had a lot of fun and look forward to our next party. My set list (with a few mp3s) will be on the bluestate site Monday. Here's one pic. Click here for more.

  ¶ 3:55 PM

  Thursday night Sad Little Stars were a little sad last night at Black Cat, but mostly soothing and interesting. For two little people, they sure did layer a lot of instruments, vocals and beats. I bought their first CD, The Stars Below. I haven't listened to it the whole of it yet as I neglected to stick it in my backpack before I left for work today or put it on my iPod. So difficult to keep up with the new music I get these days. Bellflur packed the backstage with lots of loyal followers. The venue was a bit small for the thunderous sounds produced by the three guitars, bass, keyboard, drums and vocals. Most people seemed to enjoy themselves despite the not-quite-ideal acoustics. Here are a few pics from last night:


Sad Little Stars







Bellflur
  ¶ 10:47 AM

  The Cause at the Grog and Tankard The Cause put on an excellent show at the Grog and Tankard on Wednesday night. A fun time was had by all (as indicated in the pic below). And the band revealed their super cool new T-shirts. I'd suggest that you check them out this Saturday at DC9, but you'll be at bluestate, so that just wouldn't work out.







  ¶ 1:21 AM

  bluestate love Well, golly gee whiz! The bluestate DJs are just so excited about all the love we're getting from these super awesome bloggers, DCist and the Washington Post. We can't wait to spin our discs and watch all you cool kids shake yer butts.

Saturday, January 8. Doors at 9:30. No cover.  ¶ 3:33 PM

  Tonight The Cause will play at Grog and Tankard tonight. Cover is $6. Opening bands are: Lost Atoms and Marshall Plan. I don't know anything about the opening bands and wasn't able to find any info during my 30-second Google search. Please add a comment if you know anything about their music.

Note: here are the links to Lost Atoms and Marshall Plan  ¶ 1:01 PM

  Restaurant Week It's that time of the year again. From January 10 through the 16, the best restaurants in D.C. offer three-course, prix fixe menus for $20.05 (lunch) and $30.05 (dinner). This is a great opportunity to go to some of those restaurants you've heard great things about, but have been reluctant to try due to your fear of the bill. The one downside to Restaurant Week is that some of the high-brow establishments get a bit snooty with the riffraff (like myself) who come in for the deal. I had an unfortunate experience last year at DC Coast when I dined with a few co-workers. The waiter was perfectly nice to us until we ordered the Restaurant Week special. At that point he got a major attitude, refused to explain dishes to us and rarely graced us with his presence throughout the meal. While I've encountered similar responses at other restaurants, most have staff members who are quite charming and recognize Restaurant Week for the great PR opportunity that it is. Here are my top picks for places to dine next week: Coeur de Lion, Corduroy, Equinox, Mie N Yu, Ortanique, Palette, Restaurant Kolumbia and Vidalia.  ¶ 9:26 AM

  Back to normal No more using "I'll get to that after the holidays" as a rationalization for procrastinating on various projects. I will now jump right into that gallery article I've put off, that CD review that's past due and building up my stock of image transfer prints. Well, I'll jump into all of those tomorrow. I mean, it's Sunday. One more day of rest and then I'll really, really get started on everything . . .

I had a lovely week in Tampa visiting the family. Highlights included racing Indy-style Formula One race cars with my dad and uncle at Malibu Grand Prix, looking at manatees and stingrays near the power plant with my mom and brother and spending my last day in Florida at Clearwater Beach. Now that I'm back in town, I have to do stuff, like go to work. Yuck. But on the bright side, I also get to do super fun stuff, like see the Cause on Wednesday night at Grog and Tankard and DJ at bluestate on Saturday night at Black Cat.



View of sunset from Frenchy's Rockaway Grill



Another view from Frenchy's just after the sun dipped below the horizon



Stingrays near the power plant  ¶ 10:27 AM