Clock Hands Strangle

Clock Hands Strangle performing on Tuesday night at Pianos on Ludlow Street. There are great bands playing every night of the week in a city like New York. This band is from Melbourne Beach, FL and I met them when I saw them play on the beach back in September. They finally made it to New York this week as part of their tour across the country. They are a great group of guys and I love that they incorporate a trombone into a lot of their songs since I played trombone when I was very little.

I liked them so much that I went out to see them play two nights in a row. Full of energy, spark and youthful enthusiasm, they played to small but very engaged crowds at Mercury Lounge on Monday night and at Pianos on Tuesday.

I connected them with my good friend Geza X (I met him when I was 13!) and he mixed their brand new record, "Distaccati." Geza is a legendary Los Angeles-based producer who produced records for the Germs, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, the Weirdos and many other seminal punk bands. He also produced Meredith Brooks' 1997 hit single "Bitch".

"Bisognerebbe vivere fuori dalle passioni, oltre i sentimenti, nell'armonia che c'è nell'opera d'arte riuscita. In quell'ordine incantato. Dovremo riuscire ad amarci tanto da vivere fuori dal tempo, distaccati, distaccati..." -- from the film La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini.

I'm optimistic that CHS will be the next great band Geza has worked with.

Since I'm talking about music, a couple weeks back I mentioned Felicia Barton as someone I liked who is on the current season of American Idol. She caught a really lucky break today when Joanna Pacitti was disqualified and Felicia took her place among the top 36 contestants. Competition is really tough on a show like American Idol with some truly great performers, but I'm glad Felicia got another chance to show her stuff.

Completely unrelated Flight 1549 stuff here.