Does Music 'Grow' Better in Sunlight or in Filth? (You Can't Go Home Again)

I'm starting to feel really old --

I spent last weekend in DC and walked by the old 9:30 Club (picture below). That whole side of F Street has been remodeled and it looks like none of the properties have been rented (go figure...). Somehow, I don't think you would have had the music or the scene that sprung up out of the 9:30 Club in a neighborhood that now has a McCormick & Schmick and Gordon Biersch.

The same sentiment hold for CBGB. Forgetting the rent debacle, would the club have survived on the Bowery given the high-end stores and restaurants that have opened up around it?

Given the sky-high rents in most major cities, it just seems like there is no going home again.

After moving from DC to NYC in the 90s, I was a regular at the Continental (Divide) and Coney Island High and was sad to see both club go. (There was a quote from Trigger on BrooklynVegan a few years ago: "I’m surrounded by McDonald’s and Starbucks and K-Mart and I’m paying that level rent."

What took the cake for me was that I was on St. Mark's Place earlier today and the former Mondo Kim's location is going to be a karaoke bar. I wasn't that big a fan of Kim's - good used CD selection, major attitude from the employees - but I suppose that a karaoke bar makes the transformation of St. Mark's Place complete.

I fully recognize that change is a continual thing that happens everywhere (and that I'm the one who is out of the step with the pace of change) but I have a hard time seeing how this change is for the better.

Willie Breeding Is Having a CD Release Party at Public Assembly on Jan. 2nd

Download: Willie Breeding - "Cheap Vodka Rain" (MP3)

Kentucky transplant Willie Breeding is releasing his first full length disc, Cheap Vodka Rain, early next year and the CD release show is January 2nd at Public Assembly in Williamsburg.

Willie released his debut EP, "Grey Skies", in 2006 which one reviewer described as "the Gram and Emmylou dynamics of the songs blow you away with the feeling and immediacy of it all." Willie has recently been touring with Marah and Christine Smith and Dave Peterson both play on Willie's new CD.

The Continental and Thomas Bryan Eaton are playing with Willie. Tickets are $5.00 and the music starts at 8:30PM.

Links:
Willie Breeding's MySpace Page

New Walter Lure (Heartbreakers/Waldos) CD Released on Nicotine Records

Waldos mainman and long-time foil/guitarist for Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, has released his first new disc in years. (I think the last Waldos disc was 1995's Rent Party CD).

Walter has been a long-time figure on the NY punk scene, having played with the original Heartbreakers, added his classic guitar sound to a number of Ramones discs and he also sang the final song (along with CJ Ramone) at the last night of the original incarnation of The Continental.

The new disc, Live In Berlin, was recorded in April '07 and here is the track list:

01 One Track Mind
02 Sorry
03 Never Get Away
04 Cry Baby
05 Get Off The Phone
06 Busted
07 Let Go
08 London Boys
09 Take a Chance
10 I Wanna Be Loved
11 Born To Lose
12 Chinese Rocks
13 Too Much Junkie Business
14 Do You Love Me?

The new disc is 10 Euros and is available via mail order from Nicotine Records. There is also a vinyl version of this release that is available on Italy's Tornado Ride Records.

Here is a live video of The Waldos recorded at Ace of Clubs last Spring:

Sin-e is Closing on April 2nd

It is sad to see another downtown club closing. Sin-e is near and dear to my heart as I did some promo for them when they first re-opened on Attorney Street. I have been reading some of the commentary since The Continental and CBGB closed and it seems a popular response is "it is just a club - new clubs are opening". I don't know...for me it isn't the same.

These weren't just clubs but these were places where memories were made. I clearly remember seeing Joey and Dee Dee at The Continental, more acts than I can remember at CBGB, hanging out at Sin-e and talking with Steve Wynn until an ungodly hour of the morning.

So -- to all the people I have met at Sin-e over the years, I wish you the best.

Sin-e is going out with some strong acts. The third to last night features the following bands:

9pm Miss Guy
10pm Pretty Boys
11pm Theo & the Skyscrapers -- former front woman of the Lunachicks
12pm Glass Hand

21+, $10 cover

advanced tickets on ticketweb