chess

My friend Curtis just passed along this amazing track from Petite Noir. Check the super great video below.

melissa presti does tu(n)esday!

Before I make my end-of-year lists, I have one final Tu(n)esday! Ten tracks that I'm currently obsessing over.

The first three need a little explaining...

I'm not a fan of "Sons of Anarchy," but this past week the show featured "Make it Rain" from Ed Sheeran and everyone went crazy for it. I'm here to break the bad news that it's a cover and belongs to Foy Vance. He and Ed are friends so I'm sure it's all good in the hood and you can have a guilt-free listen:

I was in London over Thanksgiving and had back-to-back nights of soul-satisfying British rock. It was semi-coincidental these bands were playing when I was there but I also kinda purposely made it coincide with my travel plans. Mallory Knox recently released their second album Asymmetry and their newest single "When Are We Waking Up?" makes a great intro to the band.

I also saw Lonely the Brave the following night in a tiny venue with 100 people and I've still not recovered - partly because they were beyond amazing and partly because the show was deafening. They opened with "Call of Horses" which is one of the lightest tracks on their debut rock album The Day's War and I nearly lost it...

The rest of my tracks are comprised of new discoveries like JP Cooper and Gates, some are new tracks from artists on the cusp of becoming breakout stars like James Bay and Coasts, and some are new tracks from some of my favorite 2014 discoveries like Aquilo, Kygo. The new #icanteven track from The Neighbourhood is just sick.

Stay tuned for my 2014 round-up...


-Melissa Presti

libby's top concerts of 2014!

Live show extraordinaire Libby Hostetler shares her fave concerts of the year!

I had to go back through the calendar year to see where to get started and there's no place like...


1.  Disclosure Live at Terminal 5/Disclosure DJ set at Webster Hall

So last MLK weekend I had a whirlwind couple of days where I first saw them DJ at Webster Hall and then got to see their live show.  Both were equally amazing (though I got home at 5:30 am for the DJ set, ugh).

2.  FKA Twigs at Webster Hall

I went into this show thinking okay, she's cool, I'm intrigued and I walked away wondering what in the sam hell I just saw!  Absolutely unreal...

3.  Kiesza at Santos Party House

I got to see her first NYC show ever and I'll quote someone on this - "it was glorious."

(I couldn't find any video of her show at Santos Party House - kinda cool?)

4.  Sam Smith at Hammerstein Ballroom

This angel went from playing the wee Mercury Lounge in August 2013 to selling out MSG for January 2015.  Here is where I felt he really was starting to feel comfortable.

6.  Catfish and The Bottlemen at Mercury Lounge

These boys!  They're going places....once they release their debut album here.  :(

7.  Royal Blood at Webster Hall

THESE GUYS.  Oooooooooooosh.

8.  James Blake at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Long story how I managed to get into this show but man, it was WORTH IT.

-Libby Hostetler

fantasy reading series no. 4

I'm also doing a poetry reading on Sunday, December 7th alongside Kim Rosenfield, Diana Hamilton, and Charity Coleman at Bowery Poetry Club. It's part of the Fantasy Reading Series.

Deets here.


Fantasy Reading Series No. 4
Sunday, 12/7 at 8:30pm
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, New York, New York 10012

queer south reading

I'm reading my poems from the excellent anthology The Queer South (Edited by Douglas Ray, Sibling Rivalry Press) Saturday night at the Bureau of General Services - Queer Division alongside Ray, Matthew Hittinger, Stephen S. Mills, Joseph Osmundson, Perry Brass, and Rangi McNeil.

Deets here.

The Queer South Reading
Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
208 West 13th St Room 210, New York, New York 10011
Saturday, 12/6 at 8:30pm

top singles of 2014

10.

BULLIT - Watermät

French producer Watermät's "Bullit" is a hopeful slice of Ibizia party cheese made with the contrast of frilly flutes and an elephant stomp horn. It was a dance hit this year worldwide but failed to make much dent in the slow-to-realize US (maybe in summer of 2015?).

9.

TWO WEEKS - FKA twigs

In her gorgeously accomplished debut single, FKA twigs' clipped phrasing gives way to dreamy sensuality.

8.

BLUE MOON - Beck

Beck's songs are usually much more mysterious than they seem. His swoony, folky tune with cryptic (literally) lyrics (Don't leave me on my own / So cut me down to size so I can fit inside) is a heartache despite a chorus which rides mostly in major key.

7.

BLANK SPACE / SHAKE IT OFF - Taylor Swift

Taylor's seamless foray into pure pop (which began with her last album, the uneven but mostly excellent Red) from wan country has been suiting her well. Her shameless self-depreciation is endearing in the witty, ambiguous lyrics and Max Martin sweet-candied production of "Blank Space" and the silly, geeky cheerleader anti-hater anthem "Shake It Off."

6.

DRUNK IN LOVE / ***FLAWLESS / PARTITION - Beyoncé

From the bevy of fresh, exciting singles from Bey's self-titled surprise album, how does one just pick one? The funny sizzler"Partition" (choice lyric: "He Monica Lewinskyed all on my gown"), the zooming background bleeps and bravado vocals in the striking "Flawless" both shine. If I hadn't worn "Drunk in Love" so much when the album (and its breathtaking, coinciding video clips) dropped in late '13(it was also ubiquitous most of '14), I'd probably rank it higher, but the track sure does soar not to mention that the word "surfboard" is now forever changed.

5.

GHOST (OLIVER NELSON REMIX) - Ella Henderson

Ella Henderson struggles with the past as she takes it to church with a heated vocal performance. Meanwhile Oliver Nelson strums things up with perky melodies and keyboards in his vibrant mix.

4.

WEST COAST - Lana Del Rey

Lana went to another level with this moody single wrapped up in warbly surf rock effects, bluesy guitar (a nod to The Beatles' "And I Love Her") and a killer tempo change. Dan Auerbach's atmospheric production is simply incredible.

3.

YOUNGER (KYGO REMIX) - Seinabo Sey

Kygo's hoppy trademark marimba stabs made Seinabo Sey's both celebratory and aching ode to aging all the more enveloping.

2.

LITTLE FANG - Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks

A freakish, melodic, oddball earworm with jangly, dense instrumentation and some amazing bass licks. I played this song so much this year and every time I hear it I notice something different.

1.

CAN'T DO WITHOUT YOU - Caribou

This driving, intimate track on obsessiveness and desperation builds and builds to an electro powerhouse breakdown. The song takes a sizable risk in its monotony but sometimes four words is all you need.

My Spotify playlist of the best music of 2014.

on 'gone girl' by rishiv khattar

David Fincher’s Gone Girl begins and ends with the same image of a girl’s head. In both cases there is a male voiceover proclaiming how difficult it is to understand the complex workings of this girl’s (every girl’s) mind. But the film in between those images isn’t interested in understanding that mind.

Gone Girl is less concerned with the images it trafficks in: Nick Dunne’s goofy vacant gaze (teased out through the film as either a sign of Nick’s guilt or Mr. Affleck’s inability to express his character) upon his wife Amy’s inscrutable face; than in building a case for a broad indictment, both silly and ambitious, of the institution of marriage.

If the film were more conscious of its casual misogynist imagery and reluctance to explore Amy’s motivations, it may not have so undermined its argument that marriage equally victimizes and entraps both its participants. Instead, the only insight this film delivers is that its central character, Amy (a chilly and severe Rosamund Pike that makes Ben Affleck’s blank emotional register appear friendly and expressive by comparison), is a sociopathic seductress not to be trusted or known. If this marriage is an archetype of all marriages and dynamics between the sexes, as the film intends, then this woman is typical of all women. Why strive for a nuanced understanding when, in the words of Nick’s twin sister (Carrie Coon): “everyone knows complicated is short for bitch?”

Sure, there is fun to be had in watching Amy’s character in the mold of a juicy femme fatale and in the wild turns of the plot from romance to revenge flick to gothic horror. But it is the basest of entertainments given a lofty guise by Fincher’s detached and icy compositions. This detachment perhaps explains the film’s reception. It allows for every fight between Nick and Amy to reverberate beyond its specifics to the relations between the sexes, for every plot deception to stand for the universal hiding and fakery in every marriage. It also allows the film to conveniently play as both a satire and a grave thriller; to masquerade trashy stereotypes about both women and men as symbolism and insights. When Nick tells Amy that all they did was “resent each other and cause each other pain,” she responds: “that’s marriage.” The messaging here is that the insane behavior of the characters on screen is holding a  twisted mirror to some inherent truth in all marriages.

With the right detachment, it’s easy to say that’s both inane and reductive and also easy to call it somewhat profound. There’s a parallel for our entertainment (the film is intensely watchable despite its problematic themes and characterizations) in the puerile and voyeuristic media watching and picking apart Nick and Amy’s marriage. Fincher spends a lot of time on these scenes both parodying talk show hosts and adding their views to the multiple perspectives in the film: Nick’s narrative, Amy’s narrative, Amy’s diary, the police’s narrative, Amy’s parent’s opinion. The film posits that people are essentially unknowable and  their guilt or innocence and the success of their relationships are socially determined by these many eyes. It’s unfortunate then that the film’s trajectory only serves to confirm the most crass and simplistic of these perspectives.


-Rishiv Khattar