The Night’s Last Tomorrow is the third CD released by the frontman for Cemetery-and-Western band, Ninth House, and it is rich with both new material and mature, acoustic reinterpretations of songs, often featuring brave and innovative instrumentation to accompany Mark’s chocolaty vocals. Some have appeared on Sinnis’ two prior solo…
Tim Burton Exhibit @ The Museum of Modern Art
NEW YORK, NY—Surrealist and multi-media artist Tim Burton is the subject of a major exhibition at New York City’s MoMA that must be seen by everyone interested in pop culture. Attendance is overwhelming and it requires reservations well in advance. One of the first things one notices is the enormous…
Nitzer Ebb @ Gramercy Theater
NEW YORK, NY—A brisk and damp Friday night on Manhattan’s East 23rd Street saw a collection of die-hard industrial music fans gather outside the Gramercy Theater to worship one of the earliest and most eccentric pioneers in the style, the English band, Nitzer Ebb, on tour to promote their new…
Skinny Puppy @ Nokia Theater Times Square
NEW YORK, NY—The bizarre performance-art/industrial music project called Skinny Puppy, now in its third decade, continues to outdo itself in every measure from musical creativity to mind-boggling staging to ghastly offensiveness. The current tour, dubbed “In Solvent See” in honor of the economic crisis, touched down in the City at…
Franco Battiato @ Le Poisson Rouge
NEW YORK, NY—Franco Battiato, one of the greatest figures in modern music, is little known in the U.S, which is nothing short of an outrage. Perhaps it is partly his own fault because Battiato—who is in many ways the Italian equivalent to Peter Gabriel—rarely spends time touring. This performance in…
Social Distortion @ Starland Ballroom
SAYREVILLE, NJ—L.A. punk rockers Social Distortion, now entering their fourth decade, put on a magnificent performance in two sets at the Starland Ballroom—the New Jersey stop on a thus far month-long tour. When I had spoken to their frontman, Mike Ness, a few months ago, he had promised that Social…
Laibach @ The Fillmore At Irving Plaza
NEW YORK, NY—Laibach performed at the Fillmore, previously known as Irving Plaza, on the local stop of what one can only hope is their last-ever tour. Once an industrial music giant with such unique power and influence as to have actually hastened the break-up of the nation of Yugoslavia, Laibach…
Interview with Mike Ness: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
I phoned Mike Ness on the morning after the first night of his cross-country tour. Frontman for the three- decades-old, hardcore, punk band, Social Distortion, Ness has been recording and performing solo material since around the time of the 1999 Woodstock Festival, which is where I first saw him live.…
The National @ South Street Seaport
NEW YORK, NY—New York’s River to River Festival hosted up-and-comers The National on a drizzly Friday night to a huge crowd of clean-cut hipsters.
You can no longer consider yourself hip, nor the possessor of secret knowledge about a brilliant undiscovered band, when you hear them featured on National Public…
The Machine @ Starland Ballroom
SAYREVILLE NJ—Yahoo lists 12 Pink Floyd cover or “tribute” bands, including entries from L.A., Germany, Denmark, Canada and the U.K. New York’s own The Machine perform worldwide, but also quite regularly in our area, reviving the classic psychedelic sight and sound experience of this, one of the most beloved bands…
