Grimes – Visions

1 Mar

The Montreal native, Claire Boucher, released her third LP as Grimes this year on the ever-growing, do-no-wrong British label 4AD.  Visions is Grimes’ most cohesive and impressive work to date and shows a limitless potential for the one-woman operation.  In an interview with, um, Interview Magazine, Boucher dubs her work “post-internet” as opposed to limiting her sound to a genre or genres.  “Post-internet” is a term that often pisses some [hipsters] off when they hear it assigned to something, much like the way the term “post-modern” (or even worse…”post-post-modern”) is like styrofoam rubbing against itself for me (does that sound make anybody else want to kill?); Boucher goes on to explain that  Continue reading

Third Annual Pizza & Beer Pairing at Chelsea’s Co. With Sixpoint Brewery

27 Feb

230 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

My ticket to this event was another Valentine’s Day gift to me this year (gurl done good!).  We arrived just as the event was starting at noon.  I didn’t take any pictures because I left my cell phone behind to charge, but to give you an idea of what Co. looks like…

That’s almost the entire restaurant right there with a bit of bench seating along the left wall not pictured.  The event, which ran from noon until 4pm, was extremely crowded at the beginning and so my girlfriend and I posted up on the bench and acted as hybrid consumers/coat-check station.  The pizza and beer was served buffet style: a quesadilla-sized slice and 4 0z. of beer served out of continuously refilled growlers.   Continue reading

New American Ruins

26 Feb

A few summers ago while in graduate school at the University at Buffalo, I was lucky enough to be accepted into a study abroad program that allowed me to spend an entire summer studying architecture in Barcelona, Spain. I took a course which comprehensively explored the evolution of the city in terms of its urban planning and architecture. It was a great class.  I came away from the course knowing more about Barcelona than I did about my hometown. I also came away with a slight sense of jealousy; I was jealous that Barcelona and other European cities had so much historical wealth inherent to there built environment compared to American cities. I was amazed when I visited Rome that I could stand next to the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, which stood next to a gothic cathedral, which was across from buildings constructed in the 21st century. So many periods of time existed within the same moment.

I left Barcelona and returned to Buffalo resigned to Continue reading

RIP Barney Rosset

25 Feb

Owner/publisher of Grove Press from 1951-1985 and founder of the Evergreen Review, Barney Rosset, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 89.

Rosset was a counter cultural icon and 1st Amendment revolutionary that was pegged as a peddler of smut in the 50’s and 60’s.  Rosset and Grove Press defended the publication of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch among other works, citing their literary/artistic merit.  Decades later, those three novels Continue reading

Sleigh Bells – Reign of Terror

24 Feb

Sleigh Bells’ Treats is an album that got played over and over again at my last apartment.  The first time that I heard the record, I couldn’t tell whether or not I liked it.  A mixture of hip hop, lo-fi, drumline and stadium rock seemed a bit too kitschy…plus, I was too busy focusing on losing at pool which Sleigh Bells unfortunately became a soundtrack for.  Then I heard the sample of Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That?” on “Rill Rill.”  I became just as hooked as all of my shilling friends (I listened to a lot of Maggot Brain in college).  Sleigh Bells has a sound that is all their own on Treats.

Aside: I actually missed seeing them live in Albany on a weekend in 2010 that some friends and I went to see Belle & Sebastian Continue reading

The Artist

22 Feb

With Oscar Fever running rampant, I thought I might try to see a few more of the movies up for nomination this year prior to the Academy Awards.  After buying my buddy Brad dinner a few weeks ago (yes, the same Brad that reviewed My Week With Marilyn), a movie man-date on his coin was mandated.  After getting home late from a long, shitty day at work, 100 minutes of escapism sounded just about perfect last night.

Neither of us had seen The Artist and we had both heard good things.  Here are some of the reviews that I heard: “It’s very good.”  “It was pretty good.”  “I thought it was really, really good.”  “It’s a silent movie.  But, it’s good.”  With such ‘good’ endorsements, I figured it had to at least be a ‘should see.’

The Artist, from director Michel Hazanavicius, covers the Continue reading

The Dish & the Spoon at reRun Theater

19 Feb

A quick snippet about reRun theater…

reRun Theater, located in Dumbo Brooklyn, NY, shows independent films in a single theater that seats about 60.  Said seats are reclaimed car seats…I hope you like upholstery.  There is a bar in the theater.  A bar!  A bar that serves gastropub fare including popcorn sopped in all kinds of interesting fat.  Amazing.  Conceivably, one could check out an indie flick, grab a hot dog and some duckfat popcorn and get shlocked simultaneously.  I kept myself in check Continue reading

Dr. Ironfist defeats Del Boy and What It Means For Boxing

19 Feb

Let me start by saying this is no way an endorsement of the rather classless things UK boxer Dereck Chisora did to Vitali Klitschko before their WBC Heavyweight Championship fight on Saturday.  First, at the weigh-in Chisora slapped Klitschko right across the face, which started a small tussle that really didn’t go anywhere because of Vitali’s completely ice cold murderer stoicism. Almost anyone caught up with what’s went on in the boxing world for the last four years or so seemed to indicate this meant Chisora had a deathwish.  If that wasn’t bad enough, as the match was approaching the opening bell, Chisora took the opportunity to get nose-to-nose with Vitali’s brother Wladimir (aka, #2 pound-for-pound  boxer in the world, and reigning IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Champion) and then be so kind as to spit water in his face.  This incident again was snuffed out by the eerie Ukrainian stoicism Wladimir responded with, but pushed the fight to must-see levels of interest.

Continue reading

10,000 Views

18 Feb

Yesterday, February 17th, The Self-Hating Hipster reached its first viewing milestone: the site now has over 10,000 total views. That may not seem like much to some, but considering that I started the site in late August 2011, it’s nothing to scoff at.  Our readership has grown exponentially over the past six months.  The average number of views per day for the first two months was a measly 13.  Our average number of views per day for the month of February is over ten times that!

More and more people are beginning to follow the website which Continue reading

John Talabot – ƒIN

15 Feb

The album title and the artist’s last name (despite “John” vs. “Jean”) had me assuming an early 2000’s Parisian house sound.  Barcelona’s John Talabot does incorporate elements of house in his debut, ƒIN, however it is far from sounding dated.  The musical chronology is intentionally skewed with track titles like “Destiny” (implying future), “When the Past Was Present” and “So Will Be Now…”  Talabot, like some of his other successful contemporary electronic genre-benders in Sepalcure and Gang Gang Dance, savvily blends deep house, world music, disco, funk, club and dub-steppy indie pop into one easy-to-swallow pill.

Talabot’s genre shape-shifting is polished with his attention to tracking so Continue reading