DJobit: Jess Marquis

Jess Marquis, who as DJ Jess founded Trash and was resident DJ at New York's Webster Hall, has died.

Three times winner of New York's The L Magazine Best DJ, there's a celebration of his life at Driven By Boredom:

I always told Jess how corny I thought he was. He was this drama kid turned nightlife icon who was so over the top about everything. I am so apathetic and Jess was the exact opposite and his love for burlesque and Morrissey made me roll my eyes. I blame him for the fact that I know all the lyrics to a dozen fucking Smiths songs. He was just so fucking silly and would make me take photo after photo of him and wouldn’t tell anyone he was probably 5 years older than they all thought he was. I gave him shit for all of it, but I would kill to care about anything as much as he did all of this shit.

Nicki Minaj and her old school: There's a twist

In the comments area on yesterday's post about Nicki Minaj's old school turning her down, Curious Iguana pointed out there's a statement from the school.

No television crews in school. That seems fair enough, right? A clear policy. Can't argue with a clear policy.

The idea of turning down a visit from a camera crew to a school of performing arts sounds a bit like telling Stephen Hawking to keep away from a science academy so as to not distract the pupils. But it's a rule.

Although, oddly, there's a lot of footage of things shot inside the school knocking about the web.

Another quick shake, and the New York schools administration admits it's not so much TV itself, but the type of TV:

“We do not allow reality TV to be filmed on school property,” Feinberg wrote in a statement. “For documentaries, any visit to a public school must be educational in nature and cannot intrude on instruction, and the decision about whether we can accommodate visits from celebrities is entirely up to the principal who manages the property.”

Reality TV. Not TV. Which, again, is fair enough - any sort of rule which stops the idea 'why don't we get the Duck Dynasty guys to deliver commencement' is a good thing. But you wonder if there's a clear definition of what the Department of Education considers reality, and if there's a subsection rule on what counts as scripted reality. Or if all these policies are just being thrown together on the fly.

But you know what? What we really need is something inarguable to explain what's gone on here.

Given this is America, perhaps we could find someone to deliver a 'because of terrorism' explanation, with which nobody can argue. Then we can all go home.

Mom quoted in the New York Daily News, can you rise to the occasion?

One mom said it was a particularly bad week.

“The school would definitely want her, but it was very last-minute, and protocol in public schools is no joke, especially with the Sept. 11 anniversary,” mom Ilene Sofferman told The News.

Of course. If Nicki Minaj had spoken to some kids about working in the entertainment industry, then the terrorists would have won.

Liam Gallagher is selling up

Trouser-magnate and former Beatles tribute star Liam Gallagher is selling his home on Central Park:

You can have your own little “oasis,” if you purchase Liam Gallagher’s two-bedroom, 2½-bathroom, 1,575-square-foot condo, which is on the market for $4 million.

The ’90s British rock star who started the band Oasis with his brother Noel is putting his 17th-floor unit at the Essex House at 160 Central Park on the market.

For someone who strutted about believing he was a reboot of John Lennon, you've got to admit that buying a flat on the skirt of Central Park does take a certain degree of guts.

The flat apparently has a 40-bottle wine cooler and maid and valet service. Man of the people.

LCD Soundsystem are playing in my transit system

James Murphy wants to bring a bit of music to city life. Specifically, New York City, and more specifically, he wants to upgrade the beep of subway gates into something more edifying:

What i propose to do is to create a series of 3 to 5 note sequences, all unique, one for each station in the subway system. These sequences will be part of an intersecting larger piece of music, which would run from station to station, and cross one another as, say, the 4, 5, 6 line (one musical piece) intersects with the L, N, R, Q and W (another musical piece) at Union Square. At each turnstile in Union Square, as you tap your new tap and ride card, a pleasant bell tone will sound, in one of a set of possible notes, all related to that station's note sequence. The effect would be that at the busiest times, like rush hour, what was once cacophony would now be music.

It won't stop the subway being a place of eye-darting fear and urine stenches, but it might just help.

On the other hand, you might arrive at your destination unable to get the subway music out of your head. That could be worse.

Much of New York tries to help out Yellow Dogs

After the murder of two members of Yellow Dogs and others earlier in the week, New York is rallying round. Brooklyn Vegan reports:

Monday (11/18) at Brooklyn Bowl there will be a "Special Memorial Evening / Fundraiser" featuring performances from Nada Surf, James Chance, Luke Temple, Dirty Fences, Kyp Malone (of TVotR), Helado Negro, Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), Iranian visual artist and activist Shirin Neshat and more; plus DJ sets from Paul Banks (Interpol), Jonathan Toubin, Sinkane, Vito & Druzzi (The Rapture), The Men and more.

Tickets ($15.00 - $30.00) for the benefit go on sale Saturday (11/16) at noon. 100% of the door will be going to the families of the deceased, the hospital bills of Sasan Sadeghpourosko who was wounded in the shooting, and then as well as the two surviving members of Yellow Dogs.

There doesn't seem to be a non-tickety way of donating if you want to help out but can't be in Brooklyn, but if we come across something we'll pass it on.

New York sells off vinyl

The New York Public Library is selling surplus vinyl records - things it has been given, but already has a decent copy of. It frees up space, raises funds to expand the collection.

They've got a tumblr with some of the merchandise on display.

Fox News see fundraiser; hear 'vote Obama'

If there's one thing we know about the Fox News Channel, they hate nothing more than something pretending to be impartial while actually being a political statement. They really, really hate that.

So it's perhaps no surprise to find Fox angrier than a child without a balloon over the NBC Sandy benefit. You or I might have seen it as a well-meaning attempt by some older pop acts to try and raise a few quid to help some people who are in quite a bad way.

But, no: It was little more than an Obama campaign advert:

"Good intention, raise some money for victims, but the timing is more than suspect," guest host Eric Bolling said. "Is this more political? Is this more, let's get this thing on TV before the election to help President Obama look more presidential? Or is it more to help out victims?"

"It does look like they're trying to squeeze it in," Steve Doocy agreed. He then noted that Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are avowed Obama supporters (they are also New Jersey musical icons, of course).

"Where are the conservative performers?" Doocy asked. "How's NBC going to control what people say?"

"Is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for Obama?" he later said darkly. "I don't know," Bolling said.

They even dragged up Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remarks during the New Orleans hurricane benefit to somehow explain why they believed an event that hadn't yet taken place was going to be a Democratic pep rally.

There's something almost sad that Fox is now so broken as a rational beast that their first thought when they hear people are raising money to help others is that this stands against everything they believe in.

The other sadness is that Sting, Springsteen and Billy Joel is about as (small c) conservative a line-up as you can possibly get; that trying to suggest Billy Joel is like some cross between Che Guevara and, uh, a bloke playing pianos is so ridiculous you can't help but laugh.

"People will see a man who used to be married to a supermodel, who has a personal stash of 160million dollars, singing a song in front of a picture of a washed-out New Jersey theme park and will be tricked into voting for healthcare."

Really, Fox? If you believe that, you're more in need of an appropriate adult than Britney Spears ever was.

If you don't, you're kinda of a disgrace for pushing that sort of shit on the television to the small-but-significant audience who see the word "news" on your screen and confuse that with "truth".

CBGB festival closed as former bassist 'stabs' replacement

While Bloc was falling apart in London, New York's highest-profile festival was also suffering a shutdown of its own. It appears that former member of Cro-Mags Harley Flanagan turned up at the band's set and, it's claimed, stabbed two people.

ABC news has some details:

Around 8:15 on Friday, EMS and police responded to New York City nightclub Webster Hall for a stabbing.

When EMS arrived, they found one of the victims had been slashed, and the other had been bitten.

Sources say that the two injured men were members of the band that was performing on Friday night. Both victims are expected to be okay.

There's been some, uh, creative work done on Flanagan's Wikipedia page, which currently claims he had set fire to a Philadelphia playground - a story about someone else pasted in with a find and replace on the name. It also has a summary of the events of last night, which I'm suspecting might fall short of Wikipedia's demands for accuracy and citation:

On July 6th 2012, he was arrested for stabbing and biting current members of The Stonecutters Social Club backstage at Webster Hall in NYC, protesting their "No Homers" admittance policy,while clearly allowing Homer Glubnick into the fold. He was then taken into custody by the NYPD. While being put into the back of the police officer's car he could be heard screaming, "I was the one who ate the foot off of the Jesus in St. Peter's Cathedral." It is not known whether the foot was recovered. Foot was allegedly from the Age of Quarrel, roughly 300 years before the ascent of Elizabeth I.

Hopefully that's made things clearer.

Taking Codeine again

Never mind the Stone Roses: the only triumphant homecoming of a band who split in the mid-90s this weekend that was worth the candle was Codeine's reunion. The New York Times was there:

“That last song was the last song that we wrote and, um, yeah, it sounds like some of the other ones too,” Stephen Immerwahr said after he sang Codeine’s “Median” at the Bell House on Friday night. It was, like the rest of Codeine’s set, adamantly slow, asymmetrical, morose and drastically dynamic; among its terse lyrics were “grim and pure, like me.”

The Codeine dates haven't been the focus of a circus; there are no acres of photos of drunk forty something pissing and waving their cocks around. The dates didn't attract Liam Gallagher back down to ground level.

And how did Codeine sound?

Oh, yes.

Memo to Liverpool: Don't build events round The Las

Every so often, there's an international jolly where a couple of Liverpool bands and a few "figures" from "the scene" cross over to New York to checks business plan boost cultural connections between the two cities.

There's one coming up, which has run into a snag: it had a gig by The Las at the heart of things, but now The Las have pulled out.

I'm not sure that placing Lee Mavers as the cornerstone of your plans is ever a good idea, is it?

They are putting on a brave face:

Today, a Sound City spokesman said: “We can confirm that The La’s will now not be performing.

“New York Sound City goes on though with Dutch Uncles and Paula and Karol performing and with a fantastic convention programme taking place at The Hudson Hotel."

I love Dutch Uncles, but I'm not sure they're quite the same draw. And, erm, aren't they from Stockport?

Record Shop Update: Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies closes

Grim news from New York, as long-standing fixture Bleecker Bobs has announced it's closing at the end of winter.

The space is needed to provide New York with a Starbucks - an understandable; for while most cities the size of New York have record shops on every corner, there's hardly anywhere left you can buy coffee.

The New York Times remembers the good days:

Bleecker Bob’s, which began as Village Oldies Records in 1968, on Bleecker Street, and moved to two other locations before ending up at No. 118, had many rock ’n’ roll moments. Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist, tended the register there occasionally, as did Frank Zappa, according to employees, who said both musicians were friends with Bob Plotnick, the store’s owner.

The same story notes the upcoming departure from the city of the Southpaw live venue.

Chelsea shutters

The Chelsea Hotel has closed its doors for what is either a renovation project, an attempt to break the hotel's unions, or some sort of confidence trick.

The New York Times popped down for the last night, and found an enthusiast:

“Where are all the punk kids? Maybe they don’t know,” said Ms. Ramona, an adrenaline-fueled, self-described “forever teenager” (in her early 30s) who had booked a room, hopped in her car and gunned it to New York City as soon as she heard the news. For a decade, Ms. Ramona has journeyed to the hotel several times a year, drawn by two of its famous guests from decades past. “Sid Vicious in caps, and Dee Dee Ramone,” she said. “If I could be anywhere tonight, this is the place to be.”

That might also explain where "the punk kids" are - somewhere other than a place that meant something to their grandparents, at a guess.

Record shop update: Birdel's to close

Last time, two years ago, when Joe Long tried to close New York record store Birdels, he wasn't allowed to. His customers made him keep open.

This time, though, he really has closed up for good.

On the down side, the city has lost what sounds like a brilliant music store. On the plus side, it sounds like Joe Long is really planning to enjoy his hard-earned retirement:

Mr. Long’s immediate plans include traveling far from New York, where he has lived since 1954: first to North Carolina, where he will visit family, then perhaps to Aruba or Ghana.

[via @PatrickTrojman]

Lady GaGa plays the Tony Britton role

No, no, she's not becoming a doctor and moving in with her son; it's the other Tony Britton role. "Are you familiar with the term... sleeping partner?" That one.

In other words, she's bought a share in a restaurant:

The 'Poker Face' hitmaker recently became a part-owner of Vince & Eddie's in Manhattan's Upper West Side, putting her money into the longstanding Italian-American eatery.

The report says she wants to keep her involvement low-key, which seems a bit out of character.

It's a smart move, though, as she can negotiate great deals with slaughterhouses when she buys the ingredients for dresses and entrees at the same time.

Chelsea for sale

The Chelsea Hotel is up for sale. How can you put a price on a place where, according to Wikipedia, The Fuse (UK) once stayed?

Lois Maffeo weekend: Strumpet

The tracks where you get to look at a sleeve are great, but let's thrill to the visuals, shall we? This is Lois playing live:


The man is David Carswell; this was Lois' first live performance in ages. 2008 in New York.

[Part of the Lois Maffeo weekend]

If loving Madonna is wrong, then lock up the whole world

Ex-fireman Robert Linhart is obsessed to the point of arrest with Madonna:

According to the BBC, retired fireman Robert Linhart was arrested on Tuesday while spray-painting messages on the pavement to the singer asking to meet her.

One read: "M, the universe brought us together in 1992 and again this year in Prague. Meet me please."

It would be puzzlingly heartwarming were it not for the massive icepick he was carrying with him in the car.

His defence appears to be "she's Madonna" - which didn't work for Robbie Williams and probably won't work here:

His lawyer, Cheryl Bader, defended his actions telling the New York Daily News: "There was no threatening conduct. My understanding is it's not a crime to adore Madonna. If it were, the court would be a lot more crowded."

Probably not very crowded; like glue-sniffing, there was a lot of it about in the 1980s but most people now view those minor infractions as one of the silly things you do before you grow up, surely?

Jack White doesn't much like his audience

Oh, poor Jack White. He wasn't happy with how cutting edge the Dead Weather audience were in New York:

"F- you, you hip motherf-ers!" White screamed at the audience, which included Liv Tyler, rock royalty Alexandra Richards, Shaun White and Mary-Kate Olsen. "Why don't you rock the f- out?! Maybe I should go grab those free drinks and shove them down your throats, you hip motherf-ers!"

Mary-Kate Olsen rolled her eyes at this, and you can see why: if you don't want to attract the modish, young Jack, stop straining to be so modish. If you don't want the pretty people of New York to crowd your gigs, drinking free drinks, don't put out free drinks and play Buffalo instead.

Your audience might be a mirror, you know.

But who knew the Olsen twins went out in singles, too?

Pete Doherty: Isn't enough we're destroying their coast without sending the US him as well

Pete Doherty had been rumoured to be schmooz-playing at party to launch Corduroy Magazine in New York.

The Department Of Homeland Security had other ideas, though, and didn't even let him into the country.

He was lucky they didn't use him to block the hole in the Gulf.

Sick City Sometimes: Bomb scare at The Buzzcocks gig

New York's quite a jumpy place at the moment, with every odd car getting a second look. And sometimes a controlled explosion.

Last night, terrorism-jumpiness met punk-revivalism as a Buzzcocks gig was locked down after a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera was spotted outside, possibly with gas canisters in the back.

It was alarming for fans at the gig for a while - there was a genuine fear that if people weren't allowed to leave for a couple of hours, The Buzzcocks would be forced to play some of their new songs - but eventually people were allowed to leave by a back door.