RIFF MARKET

APT

This is the sorta-known meatpacking club-slash-bar with impeccable booking but overpriced drinks and a soundsystem too heavy on mids. Now their distinction includes first telling me that my drink bill was $25, then me opening up the tab just in case I or anybody I was with was in the mood to get their drink on, then APT inexplicably charging me $33 before I left. You better believe I left an angry note on the credit card printout! I should add that nobody I was with (a) got their drink on courtesy of me and (b) would ever say "get their drink on" except ironically or in the company of close friends.

33/100 RIFFS

The Silver Lining

Additionally devastating, I had come for Idjut Boys and by 3am they still hadn't made it to the booth. I didn't leave empty-handed though. DJ Spun, who does ps1 warmup programming, dropped one of the best songs I've heard all year, the kind that gets me both hands on head, completely catatonic, buying drinks on other people's tabs, etc: Escort's "Starlight." Disco nine-piece from Brooklyn, a bit fascist in its Philly International throwback, but I can tolerate that because (a) the hook's really great and (b) the band's so so so tight. They're playing PS1 live August 12, with Rub-N-Tug actually:

Escort: "Starlight" [found on bumrocks]

80/100 RIFFS

The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives

Two years ago this was my running with Adam Moerder along the Charles music. Adam and I were known to synch up our iPods such that we could run together to the same songs for the first fifteen minutes, then when "Diabolic Scheme" came on he could watch me collapse and have to carry me back to Winthrop House. It was a morale building exercise that I don't regret--as close as two men can get to having their menstrual cycles coincide. Just so everyone knows, Moerder is pronounced "murder."



I busted out T. Hives Saturday for some freeweights and the album still totally floors me. Everyone really forgot to take the Hives seriously, didn't they. I tried to capture that in my typically roundabout way, but what an abortion that turned out to be. Really I just remember all the stupid stupid stupid things people were saying about Tyrannosaurus Hives and I thought it was a challenge. Will we hear from the Hives again, I don't know, but in retrospect it bothers me that I contributed ever so slightly to this band being written off, even if my point boiled down to "these guys are being written off." Definitely better than Annie.

The Hives: "Diabolic Scheme"

75/100 RIFFS

Quick Shots

Falafel Star: 86 E 7th St. This place remains the best falafel house in East Village, particularly for the Babaganush/Falafel hybrid and the Lamb Schwarma. 89/100 RIFFS

Underdog East: 117 E 7th St. Clothes for dudes here, including actually stiff jeans that take forever to break in and locally-designed t-shirts that look like something is wrong with the collar but no, they were actually made that way. One of those really great boutique gigs where you want to buy everything except, no offense, the jeff caps. 74/100 RIFFS

Thunderbirds Are Now!: "The Veil Comes Down" || Why aren't people talking about this song? The chorus sounds like it's off Bleach! 70/100 RIFFS