Bushwick's Heaven Street Grand Opening; New Favorite Record Shop

fatigued and out of work with Marco and Laura

Thank HEAVEN STREET I decided to come out of my hermit coma for once or else I would not have stumbled upon my new favorite record store. Located just skips away from the Morgan Avenue stop on the L, Heaven Street record shop just had its grand opening tonight and everyone from musicians to writers and designers salivated over the free PBR and impressive inventory. "New York's only counter cultural record store!" proclaims the Facebook event page. The shop is curated by Cult of Youth's Sean Ragon and is often run under the friendly hands of my buddy and former Hospital Production shopman, Jim Siegel. Whatever you can trace in the two's musical paths is what you will find in the shelves of this store. It's no surprise that a store that's run by total angels (though I know OF Sean through mutual friends but I'm sure he's a sweetie too) makes DETAILED labels on almost every release in stock. Now that's service! Believe me, it was very hard to keep my wallet shut tonight, and when I found out they accepted Paypal payments upon purchasing Chronic Sick's "Cutest Band in Hardcore" e.p., I willingly kept my account open on the shop's laptop.

The store is open seven days a week (I believe) and is currently cash only - and Paypal, if you're nice and ask. It's located on 184 Noll Street, opens from 12-8 p.m., and all you have to do is walk left on Flushing and see a big ass window with a red wall and records behind it. They really like pizza. Jim loves waffles, pretzels, and cats. You will probably see me frequent the shop on the reg.

Super Bass Wednesday

the HBIC

and her pro nail lacquer

1. Nicki Minaj, a.k.a. the artist behind probably one of the top songs of 2011 (haters, keep on walking), is going to release a line of nail polish for OPI in early 2012. Each lacquer are actual swatches taken from all the glitter, costumes, and desserts that have played a part in the span of her career. Although that may not be accurate, I can confidentially assess that Nicki vigilantly oversaw the colors for the collection because they are SO Minaj. This article was passed down to me by a friend of mine via Facebook. I jokingly said that I will be camping out at the OPI counter in a Duane Reade around its launch - yet, the more I think about it, the more this may become reality.


My current obsession. Listen to this song at least 10 times a day; it's getting bad."



2. Total Abuse's Rusty curated a mix for Vice Italy that combines the world of your electronic dreams and nightmares thanks to bands like Yellow Tears (nightmare), Xeno and Oaklander (dream), Gatekeeper (nightmare, but some vampire underworld rave kind of nightmare), FFH, Countrepoison, Raspberry Bulbs - among others. Check it out if the occasional lacerating noise is pleasurable to you. I'm loving the epilogue transition from Vatican Shadow to Lil B.

Image sources: Rap-Up.com and Vice Italy.

Meanwhile in NYC... OK I fell into the trap of neglecting this blog for the 1,000,000 time, but can you blame me for getting swept up by everything this city is, contains, and conjures?

9_21. WEIRD NIGHT W/ DAWN OF HUMANS, PHARMAKON @ HOME SWEET HOME, NYC

PHARMAKON: was easy to photograph



DAWN OF HUMANS: fuck it, I got a video of their set to make up for this.



To my chagrin, meeting up with friends at Weird after gallery hopping in TriBeca was a challenge. Home Sweet Home, a bar/venue on Chrystie Street in which the most beautiful and most explicit of hell broke loose, was all fog and dismal lighting. Second, it's in the basement. So not only was my attempt to cell communicate one fat failure, but closing in towards the stage meant you couldn't see shit. Thankfully I've been to enough goth/darkwave club nights to fine-tune my capability of recognizing silhouettes in a smokey, dark basement and all was scarlet cherries and penciled-in eyebrows.

The night's bill was lacking in number, but the energy accumulation of Pharmakon and Dawn of Humans was on level to a four-band show. When it's past midnight and you're one of the surprising few who have to clock in at 9 a.m. in mere hours, all you really want is a happy meal show with a super-sized sensation. My friend Nick told me that Pharmakon, stage alias for Far Rockaway's Margaret Chardiet, was feeling very nervous about the performance tonight - but if anything, I was nervous about possibly being post-bewitched by her noise set!

The precedent atmosphere left an unusual playing field for Dawn of Humans, mostly because it was unusual to see someone monkey-scaling-the-ceiling-water-pipes action in the foreground of fog and strobe lights. I didn't whip out my camera fast enough to capture that, but I hope you can get my drift on how maddening this set was in the video posted above. I need someone from the show to confirm for me whether those are his real (purple) balls, or whether it's some rubber toy.

The show was not a usual one for Home Sweet Home's Weird Nights, which, in the past, has headline the label's rosters including Automelodi, Led Er Est, and Xeno and Oaklander. The inevitable finally happened during Dawn of Humans and the Weird disco ball on the low ceiling was knocked off and torn to pieces. I don't think there's any need to add words to that metaphorical gesture.